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Observing the Forgotten Month of Sha’ban | Webinar
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, "[Sha'ban] is a month to which people do not pay much attention, between Rajab and Ramadan. It is a month in which the deeds are taken up to the Lord of the worlds, and I like that my deeds be taken up when I am fasting.” (Sunan Al-Nisai)
The month of Ramadan is undoubtedly the most eagerly awaited time of the year for Muslims, and many of us have already begun our countdown. But as we prepare ourselves for the holiest time on the Islamic calendar, we often neglect the many blessings of the month leading up to it - Sha'ban.
Join Yaqeen Founder & President Sh. Omar Suleiman as he sheds light on the treasure that is the month of Sha'ban, its virtues, and practical ways to make the most of the next 30 days.
Our pre-Ramadan program is a great way to spend Sha'aban! Sign up here.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Sha'ban is already a month that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned is a forgotten month. And so the coronavirus sha'ban is going to be, you know, extremely forgotten. Obviously, you know, people will definitely not pay attention to this month with everything that's going on. As everyone is talking about, how are we going to plan for taraweeh? How are we going to plan for, you know, Ramadan? Are we going to have Eid indoors, outdoors? What's going to happen? People are already overlooking this blessed month that's right at our doorstep right now, and we need to make use of it. So to recap inshallah ta'ala, and then I'll get back into the full subject. The name sha'ban, just like all of the names in the calendar comes from one of two things. It's either weather or war. Everything in the calendar, if you go to my series on the 10 days of the hijjah, you'll find that I go through the namings of each month. Every single month is named after weather or war or both. And so when it comes to sha'ban, Al-Hafidh ibn Hajar rahimahullah ta'ala, he mentions one of two possibilities. He says that one of the reasons why it would be named sha'ban, because people would go out and they would carve out their wells to prepare their water supply for the month of Ramadan. The first Ramadan came in heat. It referred to the thirst of people. And so the month before was a chance to, and I don't want to use the word hoard because hoard is not a good word right now in particular, but to collect their water supply, prepare themselves inshallah ta'ala for the moment. So that's the first possibility that Al-Hafidh ibn Hajar rahimahullah ta'ala mentions. The second one, he says that, that people would rush to attack each other in the month of sha'ban. They would descend upon each other in the month of sha'ban in war. Why? Because sha'ban comes after the month of Rajab,
which is a month that all fighting was to cease. Rajab is the fourth of the sacred months. And because all fighting would cease in Rajab, all of the tribe were waiting for Rajab to end so they could pick their weapons up and they could attack one another again. So he says that that's the second possibility. And there's a third possibility that some of the scholars mentioned other than Al-Hafidh ibn Hajar rahimahullah. They say that sha'ban in the Arabic language refers to anything that is placed between two significant things. And so by virtue of the significance of the two things that's placed between people who cite of its importance. And so sha'ban being placed between Rajab and Ramadan is like a valley, a valley separates two plots of land, two significant pieces of land. So sha'ban gets lost in between Rajab and Ramadan. And certainly that has spiritual significance as well. From a historical perspective, sha'ban is also the month in which Ramadan was legislated. It was the second year after hijrah and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed shahru ramadan alabi unzila feehi al quran hudan lil nasi wa bayyinati minal huda wal surqan. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed that the month of Ramadan is the month in which guidance was revealed to the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And in fact of course the month of revelation to all of the prophets of the past. Before if you read surat al-baqarah, the verses of fasting were referring to ayyam al ma'dudat, to some specified days that were mandatory for the Muslims. And then once Ramadan came, those days became nawafil, they became voluntary days of fasting. So sha'ban is virtuous in that the second year after hijrah, the month of Ramadan was legislated in the month of sha'ban. And the second thing is that it's the same month in which the qibla was switched from Jerusalem to Mecca. And that had an important significance on the, or that was very significant
to the psyche of the Muslims that had just dealt with the hijrah, just dealt with the migration. And as they had left Mecca and longed for Mecca, including the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, Allah azawajal turned their faces towards Mecca in a way that allowed them to connect in a beautiful way. So these two things happened in the first sha'ban in the time of the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam with its spiritual significance. So what are some of its virtues? Number one, it's a month of fasting. And typically people lose sight of the fasting in this month, because again, we're thinking about Ramadan. Aisha radiallahu ta'ala anha, she says that the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam used to fast until one would say that he would never stop fasting. And then he would abandon fasting until one would say that he would never fast, meaning that, generally speaking, in the life of the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, he would fast these long periods of time, and he would think that he was never going to stop fasting. And then sometimes the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam would not fast any of the voluntary days or any days outside of the periods of fasting to where you thought he would never fast again. Then she says, radiallahu ta'ala anha, I never saw the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam fast an entire month outside of Ramadan. Okay. Fama ra'aytu rasoolallahi salallahu alayhi wa salam istakman as-siyamah shahrin illa Ramadan. I never saw him fast the entire 29 or 30 days of the month except for the month of Ramadan. Wama ra'aytu akthar as-siyaman minhu fee sha'ban. And I did not see him fast any month after Ramadan more than the month of Sha'ban. So again, Aisha says that the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam never fasted an entire month outside of Ramadan, but the month that he fasted most after Ramadan was Sha'ban. And the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam
specifically expressed a love for fasting that month. It was a mahabba. It was a desire that he had to fast that month. That's another narration in Surah An-Nasa'i that's also authentic. Aisha radiallahu anha says, kana ahabba shuhuri ila rasoolillahi salallahu alayhi wa salam an yasumahu sha'ban bal kana yasiluhu bi Ramadan. She said that the most beloved of months or the month in which the messenger of Allah loved to fast more than anything else was Sha'ban. Indeed, he used to join it to Ramadan. Now, used to join it to Ramadan here means it was as if. It was as if it was connected to Ramadan because of the amount of fasting that the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam would do in that month of Sha'ban. So it was as if it was connected to Ramadan as the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam continued from fasting the majority of the month of Sha'ban to fasting all of Ramadan. Now the question becomes, why? What is the wisdom? How much of Sha'ban should we fast? What are some other practices that we can take undertaking Sha'ban? And what are some things that relate to us specifically in this time in the coronavirus era as we're, you know, generally speaking, quarantined and not able to go out and do the things that we would typically do? So the first thing we take is from a question that the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam was asked directly about why he fasted Sha'ban so much. And understanding the why of Sha'ban helps us understand how we should structure our fasting accordingly. Usab ibn Zayd radiallahu ta'ala anhuma, he says that I asked the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, why is it that you fast more in Sha'ban than any other month? And this was, as the scholars say, a sluw of a ta'ajub. He was amazed, he was shocked. And what was implied in the question of Usab ibn Zayd was that you seem to
give this month so much importance, but you have never preached of its virtue. So this is really interesting. Usab ibn Zayd is noticing that the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam did not command the companions to fast Sha'ban and he did not preach specifically about the virtues of fasting Sha'ban. But in his practice, Usab ibn Zayd being the adopted son of the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, Zayd ibn Haritha, who of course after tabanni, after adoption in the sense of being named after the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, was prohibited, still was like the grandson to the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Usab ibn Zayd said, I've seen you and you're fasting this entire month it seems, but though you're practicing that, you're not preaching of its virtues to the companions. So why is it, Ya Rasulullah, that you seem to give this month so much importance? And he said salallahu alayhi wa sallam, ذلك شهر يغفل الناس عنه بين رجب ورمضان that this is a month that people neglect between Rajab and Ramadan. So this is a people, I'm sorry, this is a month that most people have become heedless of. People don't recognize the importance of this month because it's lost between Rajab and Ramadan and he said salallahu alayhi wa sallam وَهُوَ شَهْرٌ تُرْفَعُ فِيهِ الْأَعْمَالُ إِلَىٰ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ it is a month in which the actions are presented, the deeds are presented to the Lord of the world فَأُحِبُّ أَن يُرْفَعْ عَمَلِي وَأَنَا صَائِمٌ so I love that my actions would be presented to the Lord of the world while I am in a state of fasting. So this is a powerful hadith and it gives us two layers to really unpack about the gems of this month of Sha'ban, especially again forgotten you know the most forgotten Sha'ban of all time which might be the coronavirus Sha'ban, the month of Sha'ban in this era subhanAllah and how it's
it's completely being neglected as we think about what Ramadan is going to look like in these times so let's start with that concept. First and foremost it is a month that people are heedless of يُخَلُ النَّاسَ عَنْهُ people become heedless of it. What is the significance of that? The scholars mention that the times to compete for Allah's pleasure most are the times in which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is most forgotten. The times that the Muhsinin, people of excellence, seek to compete for Allah's pleasure to really stand out are the times that most people are neglectful of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his rights upon them and so that's when you compete for Allah's pleasure when everyone else is in ghaflah, when everyone else is in you know is heedless and so you know there are times when everyone is doing ibadah, everyone is doing acts of worship and then there are times when most people are not and so that's what makes for example the night prayer so special. Most people are sleeping and there you are standing up in front of your lord and saying ya Allah here I am presenting myself to you and so these are the times most people do everything but ibadah and so your ibadah, your worship in these times in particular shows that you really want the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So Ibn al-Jawli rahimahullah says that this is daleel ala hirsihi ala al-khayr this is the evidence of your insistence upon doing good that you want to stand out and do good when most people are not doing anything right and that's the best part of the year, that's the best part of the month and that's the best part of the day and that's the best part of the night to compete for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's mercy and this is something that we find throughout the day. For example the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned saddidu wa qaribu wa ghduh wa ruhu wa shay'un minad dulja. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said
to be moderate and sincere and strive for perfection but be gradual in our pursuit of Allah and he said salallahu alayhi wa sallam to focus on remembering Allah bil ghadwa wa al-rawha which is the morning between fajr and sunrise and then the evening between asr and maghrib wa shay'un minad dulja and then a small part of the last part of the night and the scholars mentioned that the ghadwa which is the very beginning of the day after fajr to sunrise is where most people are not doing anything right and so you distinguish yourself by remembering Allah between fajr and sunrise and then asr to maghrib most people are exhausted from the day and they have nothing to do and you know they're just kicked back and so that's the best time to remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the end of the day when people are tired exhausted and then that's where you choose to distinguish yourself by remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he also mentions that kanu yastihibboon ihyaa ma bayna al-isha'ayn bis salat wayaqooroon hiya sa'atin yughfaru nasu an ba'atillah that they used to love the companions of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to love particularly to give light to the time between the two isha's between the two isha's and they would say because this is an hour that most people are heedless of what are the two isha's the two isha's are maghrib and isha all right so one of the you learn something new you know one of the things that maghrib was called one of the names of maghrib was the minor isha okay so it was the smaller isha and so they would call them the two isha's maghrib and isha prayer as we know it and so the companions would love to remember Allah between maghrib and isha because most people would not at that time and they wanted to give life to that time this is also the case when it comes to places okay so the places in which Allah is least remembered the remembrance of him is most rewarded
and so that's why you find dua as-suq the supplication upon entering the marketplace right why is it so rewardable the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said whoever enters into the marketplace and says la ilaha illallah wahdahu la sharika lah lahul mulku wa la alhamd yuhyi wa yumeet wahuwa hayyun la yamoot biyadihi alkhayr wahuwa ala kulli shayin qadeer that whoever enters into the marketplace and makes this dua the dua as-suq the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned that Allah writes down for him one million hasanat and removes one million sayyiat and raises him one million darajat one million stations in jannah and builds him a palace in jannah why do you get so much ajib so much good deeds for remembering Allah in that way upon entering the marketplace because that's where people are least likely to remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala okay as people are entering into the marketplace and they're they're thinking about what they're going to buy they're they're seeing certain things and you choose to remember Allah at that time and so you distinguish yourself in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that's what makes it so special and so there are times of the day there are times of the week there are places that Allah is not remembered as much and that's where you say I'm going to be that one to rise to the occasion and to take advantage of this forgotten time or this forgotten place and to show Allah that I'm amongst the few that are competing for his pleasure when most people are actually neglectful of him subhanahu wa ta'ala. Ibn Rajab rahimullah he talks about this also some of the the gems of this he says that ibadah when people are in ghafla the worship that's done when people are generally heedless should be done as secretly as possible as possible should be done as privately as possible why because these are deeds of ihsan their deeds of excellence so they should be done with ihsan
as well they should be done with excellence as well and part of ihsan with the voluntary deeds is to actually hide them right to hide them and so he talked about this he said you know when a person is fasting uh you know one of the voluntary fasts don't don't make it a point to let people know that you're fasting a voluntary fast okay in fact you know if people offer you food when you're fasting a voluntary fast just politely uh you know decline but don't say you know it's because I'm fasting try your best to avoid letting people know about your voluntary fasts okay unless it's persistent like hey let's go to lunch why don't you want to go to lunch why don't you want to go to breakfast with me and people push push push and they might get offended by you not eating with them and then you make it known to them that this is a ibadah this is an act of worship but generally speaking it's better to say i'm not hungry or better to just you know to politely decline to say that you know i'm busy whatever it is not to lie but just to to not expose that voluntary deed that you're doing with allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on a day that most people are not there are exceptions to this right people could make it part of an effort right so you you say as a group of friends for example we're going to fast one monday one thursday uh the the middle three days of the month and as a way of encouraging people but generally speaking the rule is try to hide your private try to hide those deeds that people are neglectful of uh as much as you can do those deeds of ihsan with ihsan and part of ihsan is reserving them only for the sight of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala there are many different narrations of this uh saeed ibn jubeir narrated in sahih muslim that he uh said you know who amongst you saw that that shooting star last night and then he realized when he said it that people might have thought that he was praying qiyam alayh that he was praying the night prayer and he said that uh i i was not awake praying he
said but something stung me on the foot and that's why i was awake to see it and you find narrations about subhanah hiding his night prayer even from his spouse davud ibn abu hind who would fast for 40 years without telling his spouse he would take the food that she would prepare in the morning he donated in charity and then he'd come back at the time of maghrib and he would eat as if it's a regular meal but for him it was a flock okay so this is part of ihsan with those deeds of the fasting of shaaban don't tell the world that you're fasting these days of shaaban pick some days and fast inshallah and make it a means of connecting to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in a special way between you and him abdullah bin masood radiallahu ta'ala anhu he says if you wake up fasting uh wear perfume and look fresh to ward off any thoughts that you might be fasting okay don't let people know even in your posture right if you know you're exhausted you're wiping your eyes it's one o'clock and you know what's wrong i'm fasting you know why are you so tired this morning why are you so groggy well i was praying qiyam all night so you know that's why that's why i'm so tired right try to ward off those thoughts that people might expose your good deeds that are deeds of ihsan between you and allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and one of the gems allahu alim uh allah knows best uh but but it's it's it's very interesting and profound that all of the ahadith that are narrated about the prophets fasting in shaaban are by the people of his households so it's either his wives or his children or his grandchildren okay they're the only ones that narrate the siam the fasting of the prophets in shaaban so even the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam was not announcing this to the people in a way that would cause them to do so however we do find narrations of sahaba of companions because everything of the sunnah of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam is meant to be conveyed and meant to be acted upon and we find narrations of the companions and how they took seriously the fasting of shaaban uh you know what's narrated uh by luqloa radiallahu ta'ala anha about uh ammar ibn yasir radiallahu anhu uh may allah be pleased with him his parents yet to hey yeah he saw me shaaban kamaya to hey yeah we saw me ramadan she said that that ammar radiallahu ta'ala and he used to present himself he used to celebrate the fasting of shaaban the way that he would celebrate the fasting of ramadan meaning if you looked at how seriously he took the fasting of shaaban it was like a person that would be taking seriously the fasting of ramadan it's also the month of quran but particularly just like ramadan is the month where everyone's reading quran and shaaban is a month that people neglect shaaban was nicknamed by some of the pious predecessors as the month of the reciters why is it the month of the reciters because ramadan everyone else is reciting the quran most people if they recite any quran during the year it's going to be in the month of ramadan but shaaban is the time that the reciters prepare themselves for the recitation of ramadan right in one of two ways either they're leading the people okay so if you are a hafidh that leads in taraweeh which by the way is the most difficult job subhanallah in the world is to lead the people in taraweeh as a hafidh why because people will jump on every single mistake that you make juz amma people will be screaming from the back of the masjid we know that you know surat an-naba alhamdulillah but you know as a hafidh when you're reading when you're leading the people in salat al taraweeh it's very stressful and so you need to prepare yourself in shaaban refresh the whole quran and then the days of ramadan whatever
you're going to be reading in the salah you prepare yourself with that juz for that day right and so it's a month of reviewing the quran but for those who are distinguished with the recitation of the quran and so you find the narration from salama al kufi uh one of the tabi'een rahimahullah ta'ala indama ra'a qawmahu idha aqbara alayhim shahru shaaban tafarrahu liqira'atil quranil kareem faqal shahru shaaban shahru al qurra that he saw his people uh that when the month of shaaban uh approached them then they welcomed the month of shaaban tafarrahu liqira'atil quran they immediately allotted a portion of it to the recitation of the quran and so he said that shahru shaaban the month of shaaban of the quran the month of the reciters there's also a narration uh bar amr ibn qais radi allahu ta'ala anhu idha dakhala shahru shaaban aghlaqa hanuta wa tafarrahu liqira'atil quran that when the month of shaaban came upon him he closed his shutters shut his curtains and he uh freed himself to the recitation of the quran so what's something very practical to give you all as a goal inshallah ta'ala as you go into the month of shaaban for ramadan i want you to take the goal that you have for recitation of ramadan and do half of that goal in the month of shaaban again take the goal that you have for the month of ramadan and do half of it for the month of shaaban so if you're planning to recite the whole quran at least one khatm of the quran in ramadan then do half a khatm in shaaban okay do half of the recitation in shaaban okay so take that goal again do it from now because we're going into shaaban start right away cut the goal in half inshallah and then you never know by the way because when ramadan comes
when ramadan comes what might end up happening is that you would have connected yourself in a way that inshallah ta'ala you know how to uh you know how to actually push yourself to a greater level inshallah ta'ala uh with the uh month of ramadan okay uh another very famous saying uh ibn rajab rahimahullah he said that the pious predecessors used to say in the month of rajab you sow the seeds in the month of shaaban you irrigate them and in the month of ramadan you reap the harvest so rajab was the time that you plant the seeds shaaban is the time that you water them and then ramadan is where you finally reap the harvest and so if you missed out on don't miss out shaaban inshallah if you still need to plant your seeds it's okay plant your seeds inshallah ta'ala and irrigate them and get ready inshallah ta'ala for ramadan uh al-hafidh ibn rajab rahimahullah mentions another wisdom of the fasting of shaaban he said that one of the things that it does is that it takes away the hardship of fasting and leaves only the sweetness of it for the time of ramadan this is a beautiful saying okay it's practicing fasting so that your body can get adjusted so that you enter ramadan with energy and strength so that you're only tasting the sweetness of the fasting of ramadan that is probably the most profound thing subhanallah that you'll take from this because if you think about it the first few days of ramadan you're getting used to kicking your your habits you know you're if you're if you're a caffeine junkie like i am you know you're getting used to ditching your coffee or adjusting your coffee schedule uh whatever it is with your food with your drink your first few days are sluggish right but if you use shaaban to prepare with fasting what happens is that when the month of ramadan comes you can you can focus on reaping the rewards of the month of ramadan
without the physical tiredness that usually comes with the beginning of ramadan so ibn rajah rahim allah says that's one of the wisdoms as well of fasting the month of shaaban the other wisdom is what the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam mentioned which is when the deeds are presented to your lord you want to be in a state of fasting and this is true not just for the month of shaaban but this is true on a daily and a weekly basis as well the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam he said that um that the actions are presented to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on the day of monday and on the day of thursday so i love to be in a state of fasting when my deeds are presented to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so a person wants to be in a state of of uh of fasting on a weekly basis on mondays and thursdays one of the wisdoms is because the uh the actions are being presented to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam connected fasting to the state of the presentation of deeds and the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said that the most significant thing about this month of shaaban that this is the month in which the deeds are presented to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so i love that uh my deeds are presented to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala while i am in a state of fasting i love to be in a state of fasting when my deeds are presented to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so just like on a weekly basis where you'd want to fast mondays and thursdays and there's the weekly presentation of your deeds uh to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala likewise in the annual presentation of your deeds to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala which takes place in shaaban
you want to be in a state of fasting as well on a daily basis by the way the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam mentioned uh the the uh or the presentation the reporting of the deeds uh after salatul fajr and after salatul asr and that's one of the wisdoms that the scholars mentioned of the athkar of the remembrances of the morning remembrance and the evening remembrance being after fajr and after asr is that that is the time of the day that the angels uh report the deeds back to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so again there's the daily reporting to allah and then there is the weekly reporting to allah and then there's the annual reporting to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so as the inventory of your deeds for the year is being presented to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you want to be in a state of fasting as the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam mentioned he also mentions that the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam would fast shaaban to make up some of the missed voluntary fasts throughout the year this is beautiful okay to make up some of the missed voluntary fasts throughout the year what is this referring to a person of ihsan a person of excellence does not just make up the obligatory deeds that they miss they also intend voluntary deeds and if they miss those voluntary deeds for any reason they try to make them up so i'll give you an example if you sleep through the night and you have the intention to pray qiyam ul layl praying qiyam ul layl is a is a voluntary deed it's a rewardable deed if you sleep through the night and you wake up at fajr the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said that allah will give you the entire reward of that qiyam and the sleep was a charity from allah now a person of ihsan though a person of excellence is not just going to say well you know what i got my qiyam and i got to sleep in peace what would the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam do if he missed the night prayer um salama radhi allahu anha says that he would make
it up between the uh between the sunrise and the dhuhr so the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam would pray those rak'ahs between sunrise and dhuhr to make up what he missed in the night so it's like you get double the reward at that point so with the voluntary fasts the things that the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam habitually would do in terms of qiyam or the days that he would fast regularly if he was traveling or if he was sick and he missed those days the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam had a record for himself that he wanted to make those days up as well he also did this by the way with uh with eretikaf uh the there was one ramadan where the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam spent the last 20 days in eretikaf because he had missed the prior year 10 days and so he added those 10 to the next year so this was the mindset of the messenger salallahu alayhi wasalam was to make up even the voluntary deeds so ibn al-qayyim rahimallah said that's one of the reasons why he fasted almost all of shaban because of that uh another reason he mentions he says ta'zeeman li ramadan as a means of glorifying ramadan the way that the sunnah is prayed before the fath so the best prayer is salat al-fajr for example and the best sunnah is the sunnah of fajr okay the sunnah of fajr the most beloved of the prayers is fajr the sunnah of fajr is the most beloved of the sunnahs and so just like you use the preparation of the sunnah to the fajr itself he says ta'zeeman li ramadan that one of the ways that ramadan is honored is that you honor the month before it in shaban and then uh as we already mentioned ibn al-qayyim rahimallah also restates uh that he liked to fast when his deeds were presented to allah which is also how he would fast mondays and thursdays uh there's also another wisdom that's given which is um that the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam was joining his wives who were
making up some of their obligatory missed fasts from the previous ramadan joining his wives for making up obligatory missed fasts from the previous ramadan so some of his wives missed some of the fasting of ramadan for whatever reason um you know that that they weren't able to fast in ramadan and they were making up those fasts in shaban and the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam as a means of joining them in that khair as a means of joining them in that good decided to uh fast voluntary fast uh with them so by the way this is a new term um uh solidarity fasting all right if your spouse uh was pregnant or was breastfeeding or for whatever reason missed a lot of days of ramadan if you can support her inshallah ta'ala by fasting with her then it's a it's a good means of khair for you it's a good means of good for you as well as helping her inshallah ta'ala get over uh the missed fast that she might have um as well so that's one of the reasons as well that's mentioned of the prophet uh salallahu alayhi wasalam and his fasting in shaban now hafidh bin rajab rahimallah uh he continues on this question of which is better the fasting of shaban or the fasting of muharram because the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said there is no month remember there's the practice of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam which is now established by those in his household that he did not fast any month after ramadan more than shaban but then there's a hadith a saying of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam which is also authentic that the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said there is no month in which fasting is more beloved to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala than uh the month of muharram shahrullah muharram the month of allah muharram okay so no month after ramadan in which fasting is more beloved to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala than the month of allah uh muharram and uh this causes some confusion because it's well if the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam fasted
more of shaban than uh muharram then what are we to take here so ibn rajab rahimallah he says that uh shaban as you know is still better to fast than muharram because it's like a sunan al-ratiba it's like the confirmed sunnahs the practice of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam so when the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam says something and he does something salallahu alayhi wasalam uh clearly the way that he understood his own words alayhi salatu wasalam and his own teachings will be manifested in his actions alayhi salatu wasalam and so he said that shaban is uh is is confirmed to be the month that the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam fasted the most after uh ramadan but it could be that what the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam meant was out of the sacred months out of the sacred months because the four sacred months are the qa'dah, dhul hijjah, muharram and rajab that out of the four sacred months muharram is the best month as a month whereas the 10 days of the hijjah okay i know i'm speaking too fast let me actually slow down it could be that the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam was saying that the best month to fast out of the four sacred months was muharram even though the best 10 days to fast out of the four months would be the first 10 days of the hijjah but as a month muharram is superior to the hijjah the qa'dah and rajab in terms of fasting the month of uh muharram so that's one way that the scholars reconciled the practice of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam of fasting the majority of sha'ban with his statement about the blessing of fasting in muharram another reconciliation is that the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam was saying that muharram is blessed as a month to fast because it is muharram whereas sha'ban it's not that the month itself is so virtuous it's that the month is so lost right it's lost between everything
else and because it's lost between everything else that makes it more blessed to that makes it more blessed to fast okay so that's one of the ways that these scholars reconciled it that the month of muharram as a month is more virtuous the month of sha'ban as a month is better to fast because of its preceding ramadan and some of the reasons that i already had mentioned um and ibn hajjah rahimallah he commented on the on this as well and he reconciled he said because of the hadith of aisha it shows that sha'ban is the month that is the best month of fasting after ramadan another note inshallah ta'ala and then i'll go to particularly fasting the second half of sha'ban and fasting the last day uh or two of sha'ban and then the 15th of sha'ban which is always a fun question uh for us to get get to inshallah ta'ala something very beautiful that al hafidh ibn rajab rahimallah mentions he says that the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam fasted more than any other prophets the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam fasted more than any other prophet including dawud alayhi salam including dawud alayhi salam now why is that significant the prophet salallahu alayhi salam mentioned that dawud alayhi salam would fast one day and break his fast the next so dawud alayhi salam would fast half the days of the year ibn rajab rahimallah said if you were to take the amount of days that the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam fasted in the year then it would come out to more than half of the days of the year okay if you were to take the cumulative days of the year that the prophet salallahu alayhi salam fasted it would certainly surpass half of the year that that dawud alayhi salam would
fast as well okay so this is something that's just a beautiful note about the messenger of allah salallahu alayhi wasalam that it's not just sha'ba that he was fasting but really a beautiful practice of the prophet salallahu alayhi salam a habit of the prophet salallahu alayhi salam to fast the majority of the year if you took it all together now there's one thing to talk about from the fiqh here inshallah then we'll go to the 15th of sha'ba there's one hadith that mentions that it's impermissible for the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam for bait fasting the second half or discouraged strongly fasting the second half of sha'ba so that would mean after the 15th of sha'ba now that hadith is not as authentic but there is an authentic hadith where the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said do not proceed ramadan with one or two days of sha'ba in fasting so don't ask the last day or two meaning the 29th or the 30th or the 28th and the 29th of sha'ba as you go into ramadan now this hadith has to be reconciled with another hadith where the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam asked imran ibn hussein radiallahu ta'ala anhu he asked him did you fast any of the end of this month of sha'ba and surah are the days when the moon is hiding so it refers to the last day or two of sha'ba so in one hadith the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is saying do not fast the last day or two of sha'ba in another hadith the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is asking imran ibn hussein radiallahu ta'ala anhu did you fast the last day or two of sha'ba and when he said no the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said to fast for two days instead of one once you've completed the fast of ramadan and this is in sahih muslim
what's the reconciliation the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam did not want people whose habit is not to fast sha'ba okay or not to fast in general mondays and thursdays or whatever days to start practicing their fasting in the end of sha'ba okay so this prohibition of fasting the last day or two of sha'ba or in general the dislike that some of the scholars have based on another narration which isn't as authentic of fasting the second half of sha'ba refers to the person who starts to fast in the second half of sha'ba not a person who already had the habit of fasting before the second of half of sha'ba came in so if you're fasting mondays and thursdays if you're fasting the middle three days if whatever it is that's different okay and that's not only uh uh excused from the prohibition or the dislike but it's actually beloved as we know from the practice of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam himself in regards to the way that he would fast continuously throughout the month of sha'ba to the point that aisha radiallahu anha said it was as if he was connecting sha'ba to ramadan so this is a prohibition of a person or a dislike of a person trying to suddenly start to practice for ramadan just a few days before so start fasting sha'ban now in the beginning inshallah or pick up the habit of a few days in the beginning inshallah and you're excused from this the second part of this is uh the prohibition that the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam had on yom shak the day of doubt which is that a person um fasts the last day of sha'ban just in case it might be ramadan and the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam wanted a break uh between he always wanted a break between the sunnah and the fard right so the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam did not want people to connect the sunnah and the fard as one and that's one of the uh reasons for the prohibition
here it also completely takes away from the blessing of welcoming the ahillah of ramadan okay welcoming the hilal of ramadan and uh treating it as its own separate event so again the prohibition is that a person would wait until the end of the month of sha'ban to start to fast for one of two reasons either because then just a few days before ramadan they want to get ready for ramadan or because they you know it's the day of doubt and it just connects to uh ramadan within the last day or two um of uh of sha'ban and also some of the scholars mentioned that the strong prohibition on yom shak on the day of doubt is that that would basically always render ramadan 30 or 31 days right so it's it's also a mashaqa it's a hardship on the ummah that the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam did not want to place on us that always fast the last day of sha'ban just in case it might be actually a day of ramadan instead of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam wanted things to be simple and easy for us and that we don't connect ourselves to that hardship so with all of that being said um if you've tuned me out until this point inshallah fast as much as you can in this month prepare yourself by reading half of the quran that you want to read in ramadan and again the half by the way just to be clear is my recommendation i'm not saying it's sunnah to read exactly half but prepare yourself with the quran for ramadan inshallah and now the 15th of sha'ban okay the 15th of sha'ban what is the virtue of this night uh where there's a narration you know from ibn abbas and who frequently quoted that he calls it laylat al-bara the day that we are freed from the hellfire a very weak opinion by the way attributed to ikrama where he's ikrama rahimullah that he said that it's laylat al-qadr that's very weak because as we know that's in the last two nights of ramadan but what is it about this night of the
15th of sha'ban and how do we observe it the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said an authentic narration the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that allah looks at his creation on the night of the 15th of sha'ban and allah forgives the entirety of his creation allah forgives everyone okay allah forgives the entirety of his creation except for a mushrik someone who associates a partner with him okay or someone who has whose heart is consumed with enmity so someone who's holding a grudge another narration which mentions someone who murders someone okay so a murderer and this is obviously the consequence of of great shahna of great hatred in the heart enmity in the heart of a person that he would actually take the life of someone else so again on that night allah looks at the entirety of his creation and he forgives everyone that does not associate a partner with him that does not carry enmity towards their brother or sister strong hatred and spite towards the brother or sister or a murderer on that night now of course a murderer can be forgiven if they seek forgiveness from allah but this is just allah's beautiful uh general amnesty that he's given uh on this night okay of the 15th of sha'ban this is beautiful for many reasons and also it has a direct call to action for us the first thing is that if the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that this is the month that the actions are presented to allah and this is the particular
night that allah looks at those deeds and allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgives all of them he cleans your record as you go into ramadan okay he cleans your record as you go into ramadan so you're granted this amnesty now approach ramadan without the burden of your sins but with the longing of your creator longing for allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because your lord is so merciful that in this month before halfway through sha'ban he looks at the creation and he forgives the entire creation so long as there's no shirk or shahna or qatil okay um so no polytheism or enmity or murder all right so what's the call to action here you know if you're trying to prepare yourself for ramadan there's the preparation with the recitation of the quran there's the preparation with the fasting but what about preparing the heart nothing consumes the hearts and distracts it from allah subhanahu wa ta'ala like a grudge okay shahna is when you have an obsession with someone okay you hate someone so much that your heart is consumed by the enmity and this is directly connected by the way to the other form of uh of presenting the deeds which is that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said every monday and thursday when the deeds are presented to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allah forgives the people except for two brothers or sisters that are quarreling and allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says leave these two until they solve their grudge leave these two until they remove their grudge and so this is the annual night that allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would look at the creation allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would forgive everyone without shirk or shahna or uh or or
this is the time to really really think deeply is that grudge worth me missing out on this incredible reward right do i really want my deeds to not be presented to allah and to be amongst those people who are not forgiven by allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on that night is my hatred of that person worth me sacrificing the love of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so seek forgiveness from people if you've hurt someone suck it up remove your ego call them seek forgiveness okay remove that grudge ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to forgive the one that hurt you as much as you can do not keep anything in your heart of hatred or a grudge or envy because that will directly stand in the way of you receiving the reward of this blessed night of the 15th of shaban so that hadith is authentic and just like you're preparing your tongue with qira'ah you're with the recitation of quran you're preparing your body with fasting you're preparing your soul with the remembrance of allah you prepare your heart by removing that grudge inshallah removing that hatred that you have of of your brother or your sister inshallah so that you can clear the way for the quran to consume your heart in ramadan and for allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be the full focus of your thoughts and attention during the month of ramadan and beyond now how do we mark this night is there a special practice to mark this night fasting the 15th of shaaban is established not just because or not even if it's not because of fasting the 15th of shaaban as the 15th of shaaban fasting the 15th of every month uh the 13 14th and 15th of every month is sunnah okay so fasting the 13 14th and 15th which are ayam al-beer the white days because the moon is fullest the 13 14th and 15
uh the bright days fast those days anyway so yes by all means it is sunnah to fast the 15th of shaaban as part of the understanding of that hadith of the prophet how else do we mark this night you'll read the books of a shafi of ibn taymiyyah of ibn rajab ibn salah as-soyulti so many other scholars who wrote about the general observance of this night so obviously if it's a night that allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has marked as a night that he forgives the entirety of his creation so long as they uh so long as they uh do not have shirk polytheism or shahna or enmity or qatr or murder standing in the way then obviously you want to be up praying qiyam al-layl uh reciting the quran remembering allah subhanahu wa ta'ala however you don't find any hadith that talk about specific ibadah okay to talk about specific acts of worship just the general idea that this is a night that is to be observed how you observe it observe it the way that you'd observe any other night but obviously with the knowledge of that beautiful time that allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will forgive us for all of our sins on that night so yes by all means a night of prayer a night of recitation a night of remembrance um but you know a lot of the the things that come in like they had an 11th century uh bid'ah which was known as salat al-alfiyah uh to recite a thousand qur'as or to pray this many rak'ahs or you'll find a lot of things that get passed around to recite on laylat ad-dara' just avoid that and just wake up pray read fast the day inshallah ta'ala because that's something that's established and again more than anything else prepare your heart by removing the grudges from it may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow our hearts to be saleen to be free of those things free of those flaws free of that hatred free of those impurities as we approach uh the month of
sha'aban may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala prepare our hearts uh for the month of ramadan by conditioning them properly um in the month of sha'aban allahumma ameen inshallah ta'ala i'll go ahead and i'll just take a few questions inshallah um if i can and uh then i'll let you all go so zakum wa khayran and again i apologize for the beginning and one more thing um this this next few wednesdays so tonight we had our webinar alhamdulillah the next few wednesdays we're going to have a few special webinars uh inshallah ta'ala uh so next week we have a webinar um on yaqeen and your community and uh that will include uh our dear brother dr al-taf hussain um who is the vice president of yaqeen uh uh sister tasneem who uh runs the curriculum units the expanded learning inshallah ta'ala and and others inshallah to talk about how yaqeen can be used as a resource for your community and also give some general tips and advice on how to function as a community in the wake of the coronavirus era obviously in this pandemic that we're facing right now so it's very beneficial inshallah especially for institutions communities that are trying to function how do you think about fostering the important community solidarity dealing with fundraising dealing with um all of the the issues that have come our way how do you maintain programming in your community inshallah ta'ala so please do inshallah ta'ala um uh attend next wednesday for that program uh then the wednesday after that so at the same time inshallah we'll have a program on yaqeen and family where we'll have a group of speakers inshallah ta'ala talking about how yaqeen can be used by parents so to uh to maintain the home in these times and it's not just going to be yaqeen resources but we'll also have some experts talk about inshallah ta'ala how
to maintain tranquility and religion and programming in the home inshallah ta'ala as we go through this and then finally the week after that we will have yaqeen and you where we'll talk about how a person can maintain their own regimen inshallah ta'ala uh throughout the day as we're going through this pandemic and then the week after that will be the week before ramadan inshallah and we'll have a pre-ramadan uh uh webinar inshallah ramadan prep uh webinar inshallah ta'ala and so what i just want you to do is to mark every wednesday inshallah ta'ala uh for the next four weeks at this time at 9 p at 9 p.m eastern time inshallah 8 p.m central uh and tune in inshallah ta'ala i'll be joining every week inshallah along with with many uh wonderful guests with the night ta'ala from yaqeen and also some experts not in yaqeen inshallah to do uh to do that to prepare us inshallah ta'ala going forward so again that's going to be next wednesday and of course i'll be logging in every night inshallah ta'ala uh to do the reflection the nightly reflection on facebook live at uh at the same time with the exception of wednesday so wednesday is the only night that i won't be doing the facebook live reflection because i'll uh be here with you inshallah for the webinar other than that please do inshallah ta'ala uh join us um for that uh now questions firstly regarding removal of grudges from the heart what if that person is holding you back from trying to be a good muslim so when it comes to a removal of the grudge from the heart sometimes there are circumstances that make it impossible to actually establish a relationship um once again but there are a few things to keep in mind here number one this doesn't excuse oppression so we don't burden the oppressed by telling the oppressed that you have to uh reach out to your
oppressor okay so someone's actually been wronged the mother is a different case okay the oppressed is a different case uh what this is talking about is two people that quarreled and they remove that that argument they remove that barrier they remove that grudge and that hatred that's been put between them in the process of that so that's the first thing the second thing is that even in that situation if the hadith is referring to you this refers to removal of grudges between brothers and sisters and friends this doesn't mean that you have to be best friends okay it doesn't mean that you have to uh now call them every day it doesn't mean that you have to establish a very involved relationship but at least you remove uh the the harm that's been done uh and the barrier that's between you at this point the third thing is that if you open the door to someone else but they don't they're not ready to uh to establish that relationship or to move on at least leave the door open from your end let that person know that the door is open from your end okay so if they don't forgive you if they don't want to move on they want to keep it going then that's fine but you let them know at least from your end the door is open and the grudges removed from your heart also by the way uh you can sign up for the pre-ramadan program in shaa allah ta'ala in the link in the comments as now i come could you clarify the bad that the worship we should do and we should refrain from so again the idea of worship here is prayer recitation of quran remembrance the only worship that i would say that you should refrain from are the very specific types of innovative actions that have been attributed to the night of the 15th of shabbat so wake up and pray qiyam as you would pray qiyam on every other night while recognizing the significance of the night wake up and read quran while recognizing the significance of the night fast the day while recognizing it's a sunnah to pass the 13 14th and 15th day in shaa allah ta'ala i'll take one more
question in shaa allah ta'ala then i'll go ahead and i will uh i'll uh end this i want to do it but the masjid is closed what do i do uh this was the khutba that i gave last friday by the way about a niyat al-sadiq about the blessing of having a truthful intention make the niya from now still that you want to do eratiqah in all likelihood we might we probably won't have that opportunity but let that niyat be there so what do you do then if the opportunity does not present itself to you when the last two nights of ramadan come what you do is you engage in acts of remembrance and worship at home insha'allah so you use the same amount of the night in your home that you would have used in the masjid to remember allah subhana wa ta'ala and to worship him with sincerity and that is your way of proving to allah subhana wa ta'ala that your intention was sincere to do those acts of worship may allah subhana wa ta'ala accept them from you and i may allah subhana wa ta'ala forgive us all remove anything from our hearts that that stands in the way of his forgiveness remove anything from our deeds that stands in the way of his forgiveness may allah subhana allah allow us to observe the month of shaban in a way that prepares us for ramadan may allah subhana allah allow us to live to see ramadan may allah subhana protect us in these times allow us to have uh full uh trust in him and gain the full reward of this while being minimally harmed with everything that's happening around us may allah subhana lift this trial uh from us soon allahumma ameen jazakumullahu khayran insha'allah ta'ala i'll see you tomorrow on facebook live and next week for the webinar
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