Hujjatul Islam Ustad Syed Jawad Naqvi
(Principal Jamia Orwatul Wuthqa – Lahore)
Delivered at: Masjid Baitul ul Ateeq
Lahore – Pakistan
Friday Sermon – 21st April, 2023
Sermon 1 & 2 : Imam Sajjad (a) dua for bidding farewell to month of Ramadan
I invite you all, myself and emphasize you to acquire Taqwa in your lives and make your lives in accordance with Taqwa. Allah has ordained religion for guidance and Taqwa has been established for protection of religion. Allah has made treasures, sources for acquisition of Taqwa where it springs out. Man can acquire this power of Taqwa from these sources to protect all his worldly life dimensions and hereafter through these. One of these treasures of Taqwa is the Blessed Month of Ramadan and in this month is descend of Quran which is the independent source of Taqwa. Then another specific thing for Ramadan is Fasting whose purpose is also to acquire Taqwa. This opportunity which Allah has granted specifically for believers and repeated it every year after man reaches puberty. Man has availed multiple blessed Month of Ramadan and in these month apart from Fasting, Quran, Nights of Destiny there are many other opportunities given by Allah which the Holy Prophet (s) has mentioned in this sermon of Shabaniya. Similarly the Ahlulbayt (a) have also expressed this for believers.
Today is the last day of this opportunity and final moments of this blessed month. When this month passes and reaches its last moments, Imam Sajjad (a) has a seerah as well as Dua on how he would express the realities of month. If we keep these two sources for the month of Ramadan; one is the Sermon of Prophet on the advent of Ramadan and the Dua of farewell to Ramadan of Imam Sajjad (a) then these become a comprehensive Tafsir of this month and to understand its realities man needs a significant time of his life.
In Sahifa e Sajjadia this is Dua no 45 which Imam starts like this
Imam makes us attentive towards the bounties of guidance given to us by Allah. He says, O Allah! You have no attraction towards getting compensation when granting bounties to your servants. O Allah! One who gives and does not regret after giving. O Allah ! who gives rewards to his servants much more than their deeds! Your favor are not against our worthiness but it starts from your essence. And you’re forgiving us is your grace and not our rights. And if you do not forgive us instead punish us then this would be your justice and not unfair dealing because we deserve this. Your judgements are all goodness and not at all evil. When you grant you do not show off or obligates your servants. When you do not grant someone then this is not oppression. The one who gratifies you, you gratifies him even though you have given your servants the Taufeeq of gratification but still you thank him in return. When someone praises you, you reward the person even though you have educated him to praise. You veil one whom you could have disgraced but still you veiled him. You could have stopped your bounties from anyone whom you desire but still your generosity granted him. Both of these one to be disgraced and one to be deprived you granted them.
O my Allah! You have kept your actions not on the basis of the deeds of your bondsmen but instead you have kept this on your grace and nobility (karam). You have kept the basis of your authority on pardoning. You have power over everything but you start with pardon. You deal with forbearance with those who disobey you. The one who has intended for oppression and made it a practice, you do not immediatley catch him but give time so that he can refrain from oppression. You give time every moment so that at some instance he can regret , feel ashamed and stop from oppression. You do not haste in bringing your wrath even though we disobey you, so that those who are going to get destroyed due to their acts they also get saved. Your style is to give that much opportunity to every disobedient to turn towards him. The must cruel person as well you give that much time and opportunity that he can become attentive at some instance and confesses his shortfalls and does not gets destroyed. Despite of this the Hujjat gets accomplished on him still you do not catch him and this is your pardon and you are Kareem. The Kareem do not haste in bringing wrath and punishment even if the bondsmen are highly disobedient so that they return back to him due to your compassion.
O Allah! You are that Kareem lord who has opened the doors of your servitude withing which is the door of forgiveness which you have named it as repentance and is always kept open and never closes anytime. You never closes the door of pardoning on any servant of yours. Then you have guided him as well through your revelation so that no one gets misguided. You have said in your book “”Repent toward God with unswerving repentance! It may be that your Lord”. If you are misguided and have distanced from your Lord, then that Lord is waiting for you with open doors. It is like mother who never closes the door towards the most disobedient son, so if the mother waits so much then he is our creator and Lord. The Lord never leaves his Abd on his own despite of extreme disobedience. He always opens the doors and there is always possibility of return. And your lord is waiting for you. But do sincere repentance and not show off or acting. He will acquit of all your small and big evil. He will place you in Jannah where the streams of mercy flow. The Prophet would be prestigious on this verse that Allah will not ashame those who have faith on Prophet. You can see what all is being done by Ummah but Allah will not allow his Prophet to be ashamed. Instead the light of Prophet and his Ummah would be walking in front and right of him. And they will be supplicating to Allah to perfect this light and forgive us as you possess power over everything. What is now left on you who are distanced from your Lord? You disobeyed, he pardoned. You distanced; he opened the doors of repentance. Then to get you back he gave you the shadow of Prophet. At times when man distances from home, people wait, and might be the child is insane and stubborn, might not realize, so the family sends someone to get him back. Allah sent his prophet to bring the people back to the doors of mercy. Imam Sajjad is getting us back towards the mercy of Allah. It is the end of Ramadan, and if you have not returned then still there is time to return.
O Allah! You are the one who has taught your servants on how to earn profit in your bondage. O my bondsmen listen that if anyone does one goodness, I will return ten times, but if you do evil then punishment would be once. O my Lord you have mentioned that if I take one step in your way, then it is like the person who has done Infaq of one grain in the way of Allah. From one grain, seven saplings come out and then 100 from each. Allah returns 700 against one, and then Allah can even make it twice. Now you can see what arrangement and trade deal Allah has made.
O Allah ! who is the one who gives loan to Allah for the sake of Allah? Then Allah returns that multiple times and you have promised in various verses of Quran. You have guided us through unseen through these words of yours and made attraction towards our servants. If you would not have revealed this secret they would have never understood and heard this. You have said remember me and I will remember you. Gratify me , do not deny me. And if you gratify me then I will give you more and if you do Kufr then my wrath is severe. You call me I will reply. The one who turns their face from the worship of Allah then their destiny is hell. This calling as well you consider as worship. When your servant calls you , you count this as worship. And abandoning Dua is considered as arrogance by you and promised hell for such persons. Now these servant, who remember, gratify you has been arranged by you. They call you against your actions, they testify so that you can allot them more and there is salvation in this only for them. If some servant tells some other servant all these ways of salvation , worship, bondsmen then he will praise that other servant for guiding, but my Lord you have taught us all this. You gave us life, Aql, remembrance and Taufeeq of thanks, for this there is your praise. To the extent your praise can be done , we do it the same way. O my Lord ! who with his grace made them deserving for praising. You have kept your servants in bounties and grace. O Allah ! you have instilled your bounties in us, and has guided us with your favor of religion and the path on which you are pleased made us tread on it easily. You have taught us the path of your proximity and gave insight on that. You have given us all bounties but the extract of all the bounties you have combined together into one bounty that is Blessed Month of Ramadan. The month which excels over all months, era, days and time. And the month in which you descended the Quran and made this month exclusively for this month. You have made this month for the descend of Noor. In this month you enhance the faith multiple times. And one more grace of yours in this month is that you made fasting obligatory on us. You have made worship attractive towards us in this month. The most esteemed virtue of this month is Laylatul Qadr and you made it excel over 1000 months which means 83 years of life. If Allah brings his servant close to him for 83 years and this night comes to us how many times after puberty? If you calculate how many times you have received as per your age now. And every night is 83 years. This means growth of 83 years and Allah gave us several times. We can see what all Allah has given us in Blessed Month of Ramadan and see what all we have wasted in this month. O my Lord ! you gave preference to us over all Ummah and made us exclusively for this month.
The same is being expressed by Imam Sadiq (a) that Allah has selected the Ummah of Prophet for this privilege. The disciples asked then why Quran says that fasting was ordained to Ummah before as well. Imam (a) replied that Fasting was there for them, but Blessed Month of Ramadan was not for them and these fasting were not in Ramadan. This specialty is only for the Ummah of Prophet. Due to this Ramadan you have selected us over other religions.
We have fasted during the days of Ramadan and with your help remained awakened as night. And whatever you ordained us for Fasting and worship we made us the means for your achieving your proximity. You are the one who will give rewards for this. O My Lord ! this month has acquired a status amongst of being praised and it has given us company which was prestigious for us. We have earned the biggest benefit in universe in this month.
O My Lord ! your nobility is that you gave us the Blessed Month of Ramadan in whose company we remained. We did whatever we could and now the time for farewell has come and this Taufeeq is departing from us. The time is finished, the 30 days have passed and the count is over which you kept. Now we are here and this bounty of Ramadan is departing from us.
My Allah forgive us our shortfalls in the last moment of this month. Now also till sunset the time is there, and there is still enough time for Allah to forgive your slaves. For you one moment is enough to forgive. Today is last Friday as well. If we have not yet awakened, we have not repented, then make our hearts tender at this moment. Remove hardness of our heart now and give us the opportunity for unswerving repentance.
SECOND SERMON
We are in the last moments of Ramadan and the way Allah has given us the bounty of Ramadan and has also given us guides like Ahlulbayt (a). If someone has Quran, Ramadan and Ahlulbayt (a) he is secure and possesses Taqwa. We have entered the month of Ramadan with the sermon of Prophet (s). We welcomed Ramadan on 2nd day of Ramdan with the sermon of Prophet. And now towards the end of Month of Ramadan we are bidding farewell to Ramadan and we can see what greatness had come and its gone. We should listen Ramadan from Ahlulbayt (a).
Imam Sajjad continues to say.
O my Lord ! we are bidding farewell to Ramadan in a way as if some near and dear one is leaving us. O Lord ! we are highly aggrieved with its separation and we are feeling loneliness from its departure. How will we spend other days without this companion who was so close to me. How can I live my life and spend my other days without this companion? And one whose desperation is becoming the basis of loneliness and solitude for us, now we have to protect the sanctity of the rights which this month has given us. We have to fulfill the covenant of Ramadan, deliver its rights and protect the sanctity of Ramadan.
Now Imam is bidding farewell to Ramadan
Peace be upon you, O greatest month of God! O festival of His friends!
Peace be upon you, O most noble of accompanying times! O best of months in days and hours!
Peace be upon you, month in which expectations come near and good works are scattered about!
Peace be upon you, comrade who is great in worth when found and who torments through absence when lost, anticipated friend whose parting gives pain!
Peace be upon you, familiar who brought comfort in coming, thus making happy, who left loneliness in going, thus giving anguish!
Peace be upon you, neighbour in whom hearts became tender and sins became few!
Peace be upon you, helper who aided against Satan, companion who made easy the paths of good-doing!
Peace be upon you – How many became freedmen of God within you! How happy those who observed the respect due to you!
Peace be upon you – How many the sins thou erased! We are full of sins, and not worthy that you can become our companion. But you came to purify us from our Lord. How many the kinds of faults thou covered over! You did not allow us to be disgraced.
Peace be upon you – How drawn out wert thou for the criminals! The criminals were thinking why this month was not passing. They were finding your thirty days were very hear. But How awesome were you in the hearts of the faithful! You came with such small time and how fast you are departing.
Peace be upon you, month with which no days compete!
Peace be upon you, month which is peace in all affairs!
Peace be upon you, thou whose companionship is not disliked, but your friendly mixing is not blamed!
Peace be upon you, just as thou hast entered upon us with blessings and cleansed us of the defilement of offenses!
Peace be upon you – you are not bid farewell in annoyance nor is your fasting left in weariness!
Peace be upon you, object of seeking before thy time, object of sorrow before thy passing!
Peace be upon you – How much evil was turned away from us through you!
How much good flowed upon us because of you!
Peace be upon you and upon the Night of Decree which is better than a thousand months!
Peace be upon you – How much we craved you yesterday! How intensely we shall yearn for you tomorrow!
Peace be upon you and upon thy bounty which has now been made unlawful to us and upon thy blessings gone by which have now been stripped away from us!
O God, we are the people of this month. Through it Thou hast ennobled us and given us success because of your kindness, while the wretched are ignorant of its time. Made unlawful to them is its bounty because of their wretchedness.
Thou art the patron of the knowledge of it by which Thou hast preferred us, and its prescribed practices to which Thou hast guided us. We have undertaken, through your giving success, its fasting and its standing in prayer, but with shortcomings, and we have performed little of much.
O God, so to Thee belongs praise, in admission of evil doing and confession of negligence,
and to Thee belongs remorse firmly knitted in our hearts and seeking of pardon sincerely uttered by our tongues. Reward us, in spite of the neglect that befell us in this month,
with a reward through which we may reach the bounty desired from it and win the varieties of its craved stores!
Make incumbent upon us your pardon for our falling short of your right in this month
and make our lives which lie before us reach the coming month of Ramadan!
Once Thou hast made us reach it, help us perform the worship of which Thou art worthy,
cause us to undertake the obedience which Thou deservest, and grant us righteous works
that we may fulfil your right in these two months of the months of time.
O God, as for the small and large sins which we have committed in this our month, the misdeeds into which we have fallen, and the offenses which we have earned purposefully or in forgetfulness, wronging ourselves thereby or violating the respect due to others, bless Muhammad and his Household, cover us over with your covering, pardon us through your pardoning, place us not before the eyes of the gloaters because of that, stretch not toward us the tongues of the defamers, and employ us in that which will alleviate and expiate
whatever Thou disapprovest from us within it through your clemency which does not run out,
and your bounty which does not diminish!
O God, bless Muhammad and his Household, redress our being afflicted by our month, bless us in this day of our Eid and our fast-breaking, make it one of the best of days that have passed over us, the greatest in attracting your pardon, and the most effacing toward sins,
and forgive us our sins, both the concealed and the public!
O God, with the passing of this month make us pass forth from our offenses, with its departure make us depart from our evil deeds, and appoint us thereby among its most privileged people, the most plentiful of them in portion, and the fullest of them in share!
O God, when any person observes this month as it should be observed, safeguards its inviolability as it should be safeguarded, attends to its bounds as they should be attended to,
fears its misdeeds as they should be feared, or seeks nearness to Thee with any act of nearness-seeking which makes incumbent upon him your good pleasure and bends toward him your mercy, give to us the like [of that] from your wealth and bestow it upon us in multiples through your bounty, for your bounty does not diminish, your treasuries do not decrease but overflow, the mines of your beneficence are not exhausted,
and your bestowal is the bestowal full of delight!
O God, bless Muhammad and his Household and write for us the like of the wages of him who fasted in it or worshipped Thee within it until the Day of Resurrection!
O God, we repent to Thee in our day of fast-breaking, which Thou hast appointed
for the faithful a festival and a joy and for the people of your creed a time of assembly and gathering, from every misdeed we did, ill work we sent ahead, or evil thought we secretly conceived, the repentance of one who does not harbour a return to sin and who afterwards will not go back to offense, an unswerving repentance rid of doubt and wavering.
So accept it from us, be pleased with us, and fix us within it!
O God, provide us with fear of the threatened punishment and yearning for the promised reward, so that we may find the pleasure of that for which we supplicate Thee and the sorrow of that from which we seek sanctuary in Thee!
And place us with Thee among the repenters, those upon whom Thou hast made your love obligatory and from whom Thou hast accepted the return to obeying Thee! O Most Just of the just!
O God, show forbearance toward our fathers and our mothers and all the people of our religion, those who have gone and those who will pass by, until the Day of Resurrection!
O God, bless our prophet Muhammad and his Household, as Thou hast blessed your angels brought nigh, bless him and his Household, as Thou hast blessed your prophets sent out,
bless him and his Household, as Thou hast blessed your righteous servants – and better than that, O Lord of the worlds! – a blessing whose benediction will reach us, whose benefit will attain to us, and through which our supplication may be granted! Thou art the most generous of those who are beseeched, the most sufficient of those in whom confidence is had, the most bestowing of those from whom bounty is asked, and Thou art powerful over everything!
This was the blessed supplication which was like a Eulogy from Imam Sajjad (a). It is like a funeral leaving home. This happens only when we have Maarifat. He says those who have found Ramadan hard then may Allah rectify our hearts. If we have found the farewell of Ramadan hard then retain this feeling. May Allah accept the deeds of believers in this month. Pardon the shortfalls of this month. Grant us life till next year so that we can compensate it for next year, the way our Imam Sajjad has mentioned. Forgive all our sins and our parents, our teachers. The believers who have passed away grant them mercy.
