IN THE BLESSINGS OF FASTING
Friday Sermon by Dr Mahmud Abul-Huda Al Husaini
The Great Ommiad Mosque, 21\9\2007

Thanks to the Exalted Allah who bestows on us the favor of Islam, and guides us by our Master, Muhammad (PBUH).
Thanks to the Exalted Allah who honors us with the season of goodness and blessings, the month of Ramadan, and guides us to fast it and perform the night prayer in it. So praise and favor are due to Him.
I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone with no partner, the True, the Manifest, and to Him belongs the dominion. I witness that Muhammad is the Servant and Messenger, the chosen and the most intimate servant of Allah, sent by Him as mercy to all mankind.
Allahum…, make Your blessings and peace be upon our Master, Muhammad, Your Servant and Messenger, the illiterate Prophet, and upon his family and companions.
Oh Servants of Allah, I recommend you and myself to be pious, so be pious and fear Allah truly as if He saw you, and provide yourself with deeds that satisfy Him in this world for your second world.
" O ye who believe fear Allah, and (always) say a word directed to the Right, that He may make your conduct whole and sound and forgive you your sins: he that obeys Allah and His Messenger, has already attained the highest Achievement" (Al Ahzab, vs. 70-71).
Allah be pleased with all the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (PBUH), and his good chaste family and whoever follows him and continues doing good deeds till Doomsday.
As is mentioned in the sound Hadith from the Beloved, Al Mustafa (PBUH), he said:
"He who observes fasting during the month of Ramadan with faith while seeking its reward from Allah, will have his past sins forgiven."
What a great favor it is when the month of Ramadan ends bringing about with it forgiveness of all the sins of the faster, so that he becomes sinless as if he were newly born.
How much we need such a season in which souls become purified, hearts become good, and spirits soar high fluttering with faith. Consequently, the believer is born anew and becomes as if he were a new creature, hating all contradiction and disobedience to the Exalted Allah after he has had too many sins, and becomes accustomed to every obedience and acceptance of the law of Allah.
This Hadith sets two reasons of forgiveness for us:
1Sublimity of faith.
2-Seeking reward in the Hereafter.
Since these two reasons are the causes of man's forgiveness of his sins, I'd like to remind myself and my brethren briefly of them.
1-Sublimity of Faith:
-It is to fast Ramadan and abstain from the lust of mouth and sex, in addition to desisting self-frivolity, heart-maladies. It is to be characterized by good manners, and leave off bad ones. It is to be patient in the day, and be qualified by the ethics of fasting and oblige oneself to have the qualities of the people of Islam in the month of Ramadan.
-As for the believer's faith, the source of his obedience should not be a mere custom nor a desire to be seen by people or be praised by them, but the impetus of his faith should be his belief in the Great Holy Qur'an, and his trust in whatever the Honored Prophet (PBUH) told us about, so his heart becomes attached to the truth of the unseen.
Certainly, this is the way of the people of faith. They have more confidence in the unseen that the Exalted Allah told us about than their trust in the tangible that their hands touch.
Hasn't the Honest and Trustful (PBUH) told us that in Paradise there is a door called 'Ar Rayyan', through which the fasting believers will enter, and nobody else will be allowed to enter after them, and that after they enter, this door will be closed?
Hasn't he (PBUH) told us that the faster has two joys: one when he breaks his fasting, and another when he meets his Lord?
Something invisible is awaiting the faster, namely, Paradise that will open its door specifically for him. Most importantly, the meeting of his Lord is awaiting him. When the faster knows about the good news from the Honest and Truthful (PBUH), he clings to this invisible and becomes fond of it more than the tangible delicacies and luxury he enjoys in this world. Thus he believer fasts Ramadan with faith because his heart reacts with the invisible.
Oh, Ummat Muhammad (PBUH)…, how urgent we need the reaction of our hearts to the invisible…!
Have not the adversities and ordeals that befallen us been caused by our degrading ourselves from the state of clinging to the invisible, and after we began to sanctify the tangible?
Therefore, if we want to guarantee receiving this great reward bestowed on us by the Compassionate, the Benefactor, Glorified and Exalted is He, the reward of being forgiven all our past sins we committed in our life, we have to fast Ramadan with faith. Consequently, our hearts become more attached to the invisible, especially to the promise that the Exalted Allah has pledged to the fasters.

2-Seeking reward in the Hereafter:
This statement is derived from accountancy, i.e., seeking reward. The one who seeks reward has to be patient and ask this reward only from the Exalted Allah. On the other hand, the one who buys this life disregarding the principles of his religion, and the one who is capable of dissimulation and he boasts of his worship before people, does not know the meaning of seeking reward with Allah.
Seeking reward in the Hereafter means waiting for the reward of the Exalted Allah: "Fasting is for Me, and I, alone, reward it". It is to keep seeking the Hereafter reward secretly. One should not let the others know about his intention, and even if somebody knows about it, he should not care about that, nor should he make his heart incline to the others' praise or seek it.
How urgently we need seeking the hereafter reward while we pray…!
How urgently we need seeking the hereafter reward while we give charity…!
How urgently we need seeking the hereafter reward while we sponsor the orphans…!
How urgently we need seeking the hereafter reward while we take care of the poor…!
Formerly, the good believer used to put charity at the door of the poor, knock at the door, and then run away, so that the poor would not know who gave him the charity, and would not have the feeling of inferiority, and so that the rich would not oblige the poor with his favor.
They sought the reward of the Exalted Allah alone, so their hearts were not inclined to other than Him.
Once, a Bedouin went to the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) and gave him the pledge of allegiance, then he shared in Jihad (fighting for the cause of Allah). In the end of the day, booty was brought to the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) to distribute it among the Muslims. When the Bedouin was called to take his share, he said to the Messenger of Allah (PBUH):
"Oh Messenger of Allah, I did not give you pledge for that. Instead, I pledge you so that I might be stricken by an arrow that would enter from this place, here and go out from there".
The Messenger of Allah said to him:
"If you are true with Allah, Allah will be true with you".
Thus the Bedouin refused to take the booty. On the second day, the Bedouin was brought to the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) dead with an arrow that entered, and went out from the same places he pointed out to the previous day. He had won the testimony of the Messenger of Allah when the latter said:
"He has been true with Allah, so Allah has been true with him".
Oh Ummah of the Beloved, Al Mustafa (PBUH), how much we need these two things while we are passing through the month of chastening and purification!
How much we need faith!
How much we need seeking the hereafter reward!
Beware of asking for the reward while you believe that you deserve it. Seek reward from the Allah as He is the Most Generous, the most Compassionate and Benefactor, and feel that you are destitute before Him, that you need Him urgently. He wants you to ask Him to show your poverty and great need to Him.
Peace be upon the poet who said:
I am at your doors cajoling you
The best of my states is my certainty of Your favor
I never cajole but at Your doors.
Allāhum…, guide us to You favorably, and make us from those who listen to wisdom and follow the best of it.
I say my words and ask Allah's forgiveness.