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A humble, submissive, meek compliant slave is the nearest of all slaves to Allah The Almighty, because he is a slave of Allah The Almighty, not a slave to his desires. Fasting is the greatest means to break the destructive desires of the soul, and repel its errors and transgressions, and restore it to its tranquility, submissiveness, humbleness and humiliation to Allah The Almighty, especially if one follows those manners to which we have referred. Such a soul would be the swiftest to return to Allah The Almighty, and the dearest to Him. By doing so, it would give up its arrogance, conceit, narcissism, power, property, and so on, and submit to the power, strength, aid and mercy of Allah.
The people of faith should learn about themselves in order to fulfill their covenant with Allah The Almighty, by striving (against themselves) in Ramadan. That has been our state for many years. When one came out of Ramadan, he grieves for what he missed, and feels his sins and misdeeds were not forgiven for him, that the burdens and yokes of his mistakes were not alleviated from him. This is why most people say, "Next Ramadan, I will be better. I will try to begin from the first day. I will be ready. I will do my fasting and standing (in prayer) perfectly. I will make up for the missed I‘tikaaf. I will get ready, Allah willing, for forgiveness and emancipation from Hell." Then, he would come (to Ramadan) after having prepared himself in Sha‘baan, given the state of the believers in Sha‘baan, having striven against himself, getting accustomed to realizing the means of forgiveness in Ramadan, and taking his provision for Ramadan.
Now that Ramadan has come, it is time to fulfill your covenant with Allah The Almighty. The covenant that you made to improve yourself, to do your best to attain this forgiveness; that you will give up diversion, play, laziness, lethargy, lassitude, weakness of determination and stillness of ambition in which you are now. By doing so, one would turn to do more and more, and strive against himself, the whispers of the devil and his own inclination, in order to be fit for the forgiveness of Allah The Almighty. Thus, he shows Allah The Almighty that he has made up for what he indulged in earlier, and fulfilled this covenant, even if it should be at the expense of his own self, property, body, time, effort and comfort. That is because the forgiveness (he will attain) is higher, more glorious, and more exalted, and whatever he sacrifices to attain it is of no value at all in comparison with it.
It is time for the people to fulfill what they have enjoined upon themselves, to start to do what makes Allah The Almighty pleased with them, accept their repentance, and send down His mercy upon them. Why should you not get ready for that? Should you not prepare your time and effort to attain that or do you see that this beginning of yours portends the same end you already had?
You may take a lesson from the past to learn, receive admonition, and come to learn that the believers should be cautious in this world, because they know well that they are about to leave for Allah The Almighty, and at any moment, they may be in the presence of their Lord The Almighty. Of course, they do not like to meet Allah The Almighty in the same deplorable state in which they are now. For this reason, they enter Ramadan this time with strong determination and insistence not to have its blessings escape them from the first day, nor to be negligent at any moment, but rather to spend their days and nights waiting for the Mercy of Allah The Almighty, and working for the forgiveness of Allah The Almighty. As Ramadan has come upon them, it is time to fulfill their debt that is due on them.
They have pledged to show Allah The Almighty the best of their deeds, in terms of repentance, righteous deeds, standing (at night in prayer), fasting, remembrance (of Allah) and recitation of the Quran; and get rid of whatever they have suffered of apathy and distancing themselves from their Lord, and deprivation of His favors, bounty and nearness.
