Ways of The Prophet (S.A.W)

THE EXCELLENCE OF FASTING

Hadrat Salman al-Ears told of ALLAAH’s Messenger saying in a sermon which he delivered to them on the last day of Shaban. ‘A great month, a blessed month, a month containing a night which is better than a thousand months has approached you people. ALLAAH has appointed the observance of fasting during it as an obligatory duty, and the passing of its night in prayer as a voluntary practice. If some one draws near to ALLAAH during it with some good act he will be like one who fulfils an obligatory duty, in any other month, and he who fulfils a duty in it will be like one who fulfils seventy obligatory duties in any other month. It is the month of sharing with others, and a month in which the believer’s provision is increased. If some one gives one who has been fasting, something with which to break his fast it will provide forgiveness of his sins and save him from hell, and he will have a reward equal to his without his reward being diminished in any respect. Some of them remarked to ALLAAH’s Messenger that they did not all have the means to give one who had been fasting something with which to break his fast, and he replied, “ALLAAH gives this reward to him who gives one who has been fasting some milk mixed with water, or a date, or a drink of water with which to break his fast, and any one who gives a full meal to one who has been fasting will be given a drink from my tank by ALLAAH and will not feel thirsty till he enters paradise. It is a month whose beginning is mercy, whose middle is forgiveness, and whose end is freedom from hell. If any one makes things easy for his slave during it, ALLAAH will forgive him and free him from hell. [Mishkat, Mariful Hadis]