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Evil are those people who do not know Allaah except in Ramadan

Question

Salamu Aleikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatu and Ramadhan Kareem i hope Allah makes ur siyam easy and accepted and opens the doors of Jannah for u I need ur advice on something plz ,today is the first day of Ramadhan and i was going for fajr and im 16 and just love being in the first row apparently the mosque was packed (we use to pray with just 2 rows )turns out i ended up in the 2nd row(i dont even feel the blessings of the salah smetimes wen i dont pray in the 1st row) we prayed with like 8 row im really pissed and i keep on thinking who are these people that just come to the mossque only in ramadhan wats the ruling on them just praying in congregational on ramadhan only and wats the ruling on my frustrations

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and messenger.

May Allaah reward you generously for your eagerness to carry out righteous deeds and your racing towards goodness; may Allaah add even more to your righteousness, piety, and uprightness.

Attending the congregational prayers in the mosque is a religious obligation for Muslim men. It is impermissible to miss the congregational prayers in the mosque without a Sharee‘ah-acceptable excuse. Please, refer to Fataawa 82264 and 82538 concerning this point. Even if we adopted the opinion of many scholars that it is not obligatory, anyone who misses the congregational prayer still misses great reward.

We also find it strange that people attend the congregational prayers in the mosque during the month of Ramadan and are lax in attending them on other months of the year. It was said to Bishr Al-Haafi  may  Allaah  have  mercy  upon  himSome people carry out extra acts of worship and strive [in doing good deeds] only in Ramadan.” On that he said, “How bad are those people who do not know Allaah except in the month of Ramadan!

Heedlessness is one of the main reasons for that phenomenon. When the heart is dominated with heedlessness, the person is distracted from carrying out good deeds and the desire to perform acts of obedience [to Allaah] fades away. This is why Allaah, The Exalted, says (what means): {And be not like those who forgot Allaah, so He made them forget themselves. Those are the defiantly disobedient.}[Quran 59:19]

At the same time, it is not odd that people tend to show [exceptional] eagerness to carry out acts of worship and good deeds in Ramadan, given the fact that it is a blessed month in which the hearts become rather attentive and mindful of their Lord and those who are obedient become even more obedient. Ibn ‘Abbaas  may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  him said, “The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, was the most generous of all people, and he was most generous in Ramadan when Jibreel (Gabriel)  may  Allaah  exalt  his  mention met him. Jibreel  may  Allaah  exalt  his  mention used to meet him every night during Ramadan to revise the Quran with him. The Messenger of Allaah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, was more generous in giving charity than the blowing wind.” [Al-Bukhari]

Dear brother, feeling sad for Muslims being [spiritually] inattentive nowadays and failing to attend the congregational prayers in the mosque outside of Ramadan as they do in Ramadan is a sign of your goodness. However, you should beware of such a feeling having [negative] consequences, such as it causing you to be reluctant to attend the mosques and congregations.

We implore Allaah to guide Muslims back to the straight path; one of our duties towards our fellow Muslims is to supplicate Allaah for them.

Allaah Knows best.

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