Reminders
32 / 83
How to Observe the 15th Night of Sha'ban | Daily Reminders
Sh. Omar Suleiman discusses the virtues and blessings of the month of Sha’ban, specifically during the 15th night.
Related
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Bismillahir rahmanir rahim. As-salatu wa s-salamu ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. So today we put out a short graphic, an illustration, of a hadith that's narrated in Ibn Hibban Ibn Majah where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that when half of Sha'ban has passed, Allah looks out at his creation and he forgives everyone except for one who is a mushrik, who is an idolater, or a mushahin, who holds maliciousness in their heart. And it stirred an interesting debate. Now, obviously, if you just click the link in that illustration which goes to the full infographic, then you'll see the way that we spoke about Sha'ban as a whole. And the fact that the vast majority of the narrations about the 15th of Sha'ban are in fact weak or fabricated even. And if you go through the infographic to the actual lecture, the webinar that we held two weeks ago at the beginning of this month of Sha'ban, then you would see a full explanation of those things in accordance with the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the way that the scholars of the Sunnah have understood this concept, understood the month of Sha'ban as a whole and what virtues the month of Sha'ban has. And then particularly, what, if any, virtues are there that are associated with the 15th night of Sha'ban. And if it is a special night, if it's a night to be observed, are there any special practices or special acts of worship to be observed? So first and foremost, just an advice, and I don't say this in a condescending way. I love and I appreciate the people that feel protective of this beautiful din of ours and do not want to permit any innovation and are afraid of innovation. That's a noble thing, and so I'm not trying to be condescending here. I want to reward all of you who care so deeply about the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to preserve its practice.
But just an advice is not to be hasty in declaring something fabricated because you don't know it or you found a hadith that sounds similar to it and you went to sunnah.com and that says mawduh or that says fabricated or an Islam QA link or any type of QA link in fact, which could be addressing a different concept or could be addressing a different hadith narration or it might actually be a legitimate difference of opinion amongst our scholars. But just don't be quick to dismiss a hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam or to say this is fabricated, this is weak because that's not appropriate. And again, I know it comes from a noble place, so I'm not saying that in a way of putting anyone down but in a way of appreciating the sentiment but at the same time, just be very careful to not be hasty with something like that before you type in a comment or something of those sorts. The second thing is that there's a difference between saying that the night might have some virtue to it and there are particular acts, specific acts that are legislated for that night. So let's break that down a little bit. One of the things about the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is it's remarkably consistent and that's something that I love about our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and I love that you can find the connection between the various acts of worship, the various ibadat in the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So if you went through the full webinar and if you go through the infographic, the notes, you'll find that the way the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam described the month of Sha'ban as a whole is very similar to how the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam described the days of Monday and Thursday and then within, so that's midweek, Monday and Thursday are spaced out in the week and then within the day, the time after Fajr and the time after Asr, which are, you know, if you think about Monday and Thursday, they correlate to Fajr and Asr in the day.
Sha'ban is the month between Rajab and Ramadan, right? And that's why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said it's a forgotten month and people overlook it and he also said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that it is a month in which the deeds are presented to Allah. So we talked about this concept that the deeds are presented to Allah on a daily basis, in the morning at Fajr time and then Asr in the afternoon. They're presented to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on a weekly basis on Monday and Thursday and then Sha'ban as a month as a whole, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said the deeds are presented to Allah annually in the month of Sha'ban just as we go into Ramadan. Now that hadith where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that Allah looks out at his creation and forgives everyone except for a person who is a mushrik or a mushahad, someone who is an idolater or holds maliciousness, malice in their hearts. There's another hadith that is so consistent with that hadith that I want you to just listen to it. So this hadith is from Abu Huraira radiyaAllahu ta'ala. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, تُفْتَحُ أَبْوَابُ الْجَنَّةِ يَوْمِ الْإِثْنَينِ وَيَوْمِ الْخَمِيصِ The gates of paradise are opened on the day of Monday and the day of Thursday. فَيَغْفِرُ لِكُلِّ عَبْدٍ لَا يُشْرِكُ بِاللَّهِ شَيْئًا إِلَّا رَجُلًا كَانَتْ بَيْنَهُ وَبَيْنَ أَخِيهِ شَحْنًا فَيُقَالُ أَنظِرُ هَذَيْنِ حَتَّى يَصْطَرِحَ So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that the gates of paradise are opened every Monday and Thursday. And Allah forgives every single person, every one of his creation except for someone who associates a partner with him. So again, مشرك which is similar to the hadith of Shaban. And someone, كانت بينه وبين أخيه شحنًا Someone that holds deep hatred in their heart for their brother.
So two people who hold spite, maliciousness, hatred between each other. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, أَنظِرُ هَذَيْنِ حَتَّى يَصْطَرِحَ Leave these two until they reconcile. Subhanallah, this hadith is consistent with the hadith about Shaban, of how the deeds are presented to Allah and what that correlates to in terms of what's expected of us in order to gain the reward. Literally to the words, شِرْكَ and شَحْنَا Okay, idolatry and شَحْنَا which is spite, hatred, maliciousness. And I'm gonna get to شَحْنَا in a moment insha'Allah, what that means and what we can do with it. So it's very consistent. Now, what does this mean in terms of observing the night? First of all, observing the 15th day of Shaban in fasting is sunnah, not because it's the 15th of Shaban but because it's the 15th of the month. So the 13th, 14th and 15th of every Islamic month should be observed in fasting to achieve that sunnah. So that's number one. Number two, every single night is special. Because the ability to connect to Allah every night, as I tell people on the last 10 nights of Ramadan, don't wait until the odd nights, don't wait till the 27th night to push yourself. Every night is a chance to repent, every night is a chance to connect to Allah and His glory and His majesty as He offers that opportunity every single night, في كل ليلة. So whether it's ليلة القدر or not, you might be forgiven on that night because you had a sincere moment of connection to your creator and your Lord that particular night. So every single night is an opportunity to do something to connect to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And when it comes to this night in particular, there is nothing authentic about a particular practice, a particular prayer, a particular way of observing this night in terms of the worship.
However, some of the scholars mentioned just by the collection of the narrations, even if the vast majority of them are fabricated and weak, that there's enough there to say that in general a person should spend the night in worship and in the way that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam would worship on a regular basis. So in qiyam, in Quran, and things of that sort. So that is there, that's what Al-Hafidh ibn Rajab rahim Allah said, and I relied primarily on Ibn Rajab rahim Allah ta'ala in the collection of the entire webinar when we spoke about the virtues of sha'ban and how to sort things out. So there's no room for innovative practice, but there is precedent that we find from the imams of the sunnah that in general that a person should try to, you know, honor Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, honor the acts of worship that are already established in the sunnah on that night. But here's what I want to get to as far as the very particular thing that we can work on, insha'Allah ta'ala. The greatest act of worship that one can do in this night, Monday and Thursday, 15th of Sha'ban, in general when the deeds are presented to Allah, is to remove shahnat, because the same word is used twice. Shahnat in the Arabic language includes al-baghdha, al-adawa, enmity, grudges, al-hiqt, right, which is a very strong grudge. But the thing about shahnat, which is consistent when you read the way that the scholars spoke about it, it's a hatred that consumes your heart. It consumes your heart so much that you don't have the ability to focus on your Creator because of how severe your hatred is for one of his creation. You are so obsessed in your hatred of someone else, in that grudge that you have with someone else,
that you can't move on. It's stuck with you, it's consuming you, it's overwhelming you. And so you're not finding the ability to connect to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the way that you should. And that's significant because when Isa alayhi salam comes, when Jesus peace be upon him returns, you know what the hadith say, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned? We know that Isa alayhi salam abolishes shirk. He abolishes idolatry or shirk, any type of associating a partner with Allah. But he also abolishes, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned, ash-shahna, that there would be no more hatred on earth when Jesus peace be upon him, Isa alayhi salam returns to this earth. So he establishes the purity of the worship of Allah, and he establishes the purifying of the hearts towards one another, or rather Allah does through him, right? That we no longer hold that type of hatred towards one another, and that has deep ramifications across the entire world when Isa alayhi salam is present. So shahna is a deep hatred that consumes the heart. Let's seriously think deeply about how we can make sure, because on this night, even if you go to sleep and do nothing, which according to many of the scholars, that is what it is, right? It's just another night. But just like Monday, Thursday, these are presented to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But at least I really need to think, if I've been waiting to make peace with someone, if I've been waiting to remove something from my heart, now is the time. Now is the time to say, you know what, I'm not going to hate that person anymore. I'm going to let it go so that I can focus on Allah, alright? Ramadan is coming up, and what a mercy that before the greatest month, and this is the last thing I'll mention, which is consistency. Again, the consistency of the prophetic tradition is so beautiful. Thursday comes before the greatest day of Friday, right? Thursday comes before the greatest day of Friday. In some hadith, by the way, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam singled out tu'radu al-amal yawm al-khamis, that these are presented to Allah on Thursday.
If a person fasts that day, or let's say doesn't fast that day, but they focus on removing the grudges that are in their hearts on Thursday, that clears their heart to do right by the special day of Friday, okay? Think of Sha'ban like a Thursday, alright? Sha'ban is a Thursday. You have an opportunity to clear your heart, to prepare your heart, so that it can only long for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, can only long for the Creator, and be focused on Allah, and not anything else or anyone else when Ramadan comes around. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to live to see Ramadan. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept our deeds in Sha'ban and Ramadan, and always. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala purify our hearts, purify our hearts, so that they can be connected only to Him, so that they can be full of His love, so that they can be dedicated solely to longing for His pleasure, and that Ramadan can be the operationalizing, the activation of that love and that longing of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us, and forgive our brothers and sisters, who have harmed us. Forgive us for the harm that we may have done to our brothers and sisters, knowingly or unknowingly. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us, give us the capacity to forgive others, and give others the capacity to forgive us. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us a people that stand up in the night, and long for His pleasure, and His forgiveness, every single night. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow our days to be in service to Him, by serving His creation. May Allah make us amongst those, الذين يقومون الليل Those that spend the night in prayer, وينفقون في النهار And those that spend in charity during the day, and that anchor themselves in prayer throughout, and in the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala throughout.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to have the best Ramadan of our lives this year. Allahumma ameen. Jazakum Allah khayran to you all. Check out the full infographic, and if you have the patience to watch the full lecture on the virtues of Shaddam, then please do insha'Allah ta'ala. The link is there in the infographic as well. And tomorrow night, we'll be continuing our webinar series. So last week we did community, this week we'll be doing yaqeen and family insha'Allah ta'ala. Talking about family, tension in the home, domestic violence obviously is an issue, but how to foster a healthy environment in the home that is infused with all the right things, with deen, with good conversation, advice for parents, advice for siblings, advice from mental health perspective, advice from an Islamic perspective on how to maintain that sakinah in the home, that tranquility in the home. So tune in tomorrow insha'Allah ta'ala at 8pm Central Time at webinar.yaqeeninstitute.org. Jazakum Allah khayran to you all. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Welcome back!
Bookmark content
Download resources easily
Manage your donations
Track your spiritual growth
1 items
1 items
1 items
25 items
50 items
9 items
