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Reward of one who fasts during the month of Ramadan knowing its Greatness |
On page 96 of
Thawab al-A'mal wa 'Iqab al- A'mal, and also on page 48 of his book Al-Amali
(or pp. 29-32 of old editions), Shaikh Abu Ja'fer Muhammad ibn Ali ibn
al-Husain ibn Babawayh al-Qummi al-Saduq (306-381 A.H.) quotes Muhammad Ibn
Ibrahim al-Ma'athi saying that Ahmed ibn Jaylawayh al-Jurjani al- Muthakkar]
quotes Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Bilal quoting Abu Muhammad quoting Abu Abdullah
Muhammad ibn Kiram quoting Ahmed ibn Abdullah quoting Sufyan ibn 'Ayeenah
quoting Mu'awiya ibn Abu Ishaq quoting Sa'eed ibn Jubayr saying,
I asked Ibn Abbas once about the
reward of one who fasts during the month of Ramadan knowing its greatness. He
said: 'O Ibn Jubayr! Get ready to listen to what your ears have never heard
before, nor your heart has ever experienced, nor your soul has ever reckoned
regarding that about which you have inquired! What you are seeking is the
knowledge of the first generations and the last!
So I left him and
prepared myself to meet him again. I returned to him at early daybreak. Having
said the fajr prayers (together), I reminded him of the tradition which I had
sought, so he turned his face to me and said,
'Had you ever come
to know about your rewards during the month of Ramadan, you would surely have
thanked the Almighty a great deal more (than you usually do). When the first
night is over, Allah, the Almighty and the Exalted One, forgives the sins
committed by all members of my nation, the ones committed in secrecy and the
ones committed in public, and He elevates your status two thousand degrees and
builds you fifty towns in Paradise.
On the next day, He
rewards you for every step you take during that day with the rewards of one who
adored Him for a full year and the reward of one of His prophets, and He will
reward you as though you had performed the fast for a full year.
On the third day, the
Exalted and Dear One grants you a dome in Paradise for each hair on your body,
a dome of a white pearl on top of which are twelve thousand light houses and at
the bottom of which are twelve thousand houses in each one of which there are
one thousand beds and on each bed of which there is a nymph (huri) with large
lovely eyes, each served by one thousand servants the head-covering of each one
of them is better than this world and everything in it.
On the fifth day, He
builds you in Paradise a million cities in each one of which there are seventy
thousand houses, inside each one of which there are seventy thousand tables,
and on each table there are seventy thousand bowls, and in each bowl there are
sixty thousand types of food each one of which is different from the other.
On the sixth day, He
will grant you in the Abode of Peace a hundred thousand towns in each one of
which there are a hundred thousand rooms, in each room there are a hundred
thousand beds of gold the length of each is a thousand yards, and on each bed
is a hun wife with large lovely eyes whose hair has thirty thousand locks
braided with pearls and sapphires, and each lock is carried by a hundred
concubines.
On the seventh day,
the Almighty grants you in the Garden of Bliss the rewards of forty thousand
martyrs and forty thousand siddeeqs.
On the eighth day,
Allah Almighty grants you the rewards of the good deeds of sixty thousand
worshippers and sixty thousand ascetics.
On the ninth day,
Allah, the Exalted One, gives you what is equal to what He gives a thousand
scholars and a thousand devotees and a thousand warriors fighting for Allah in
a foreign land.
On the tenth day, He
gives you the fulfillment of seventy thousand of your worldly wishes and orders
the sun, the moon, the stars, the animals, the birds, the beasts, every rock
and every rain-drop, everything wet and everything dry, all fish in the oceans
and all leaves on the trees, to pray for your forgiveness.
On the eleventh day,
the Exalted and Mighty One grants you the rewards whereby He rewards one who
performs the pilgrimage and 'umra four times and one who performs the
pilgrimage with His prophets and the 'umra with every siddeeq or martyr.
On the twelfth day,
He takes upon Himself to replace your sins with good deeds, then He multiplies
your good deeds many times and gives you the rewards of each of your good deeds
a million times.
On the thirteenth
day, Allah Almighty grants you what He grants the devotees of Mecca and Medina
and bestows upon you an intercession for each and every stone and rain drop
between Mecca and Medina. On the
fourteenth day, He treats you as though you had met and followed in the
footsteps of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Solomon [peace be upon all
of them], and as though you had worshipped the Almighty Allah in the company of
His prophets for two hundred years.
On the fifteenth
day, He fulfills ten of your worldly wishes and those of the hereafter and
grants you what He granted Job (as), then He orders the angels who bear the
'Arsh to pray for your forgiveness and grants you on the Day of Resurrection
forty lights: ten on your right, ten on your left, ten before you and ten
behind you.
On the sixteenth
day, the Almighty grants you sixty outfits to wear as soon as you abandon your
grave and a she-camel to ride, and He will send a cloud to overshadow you to
protect you from the heat of that Day.
On the seventeenth
day, the Almighty Allah says: 'I have forgiven them and their parents and
exempted them from having to undergo the hardships of the Day of Resurrection.'
On the eighteenth
day, the Praised and Exalted One orders Gabriel, Michael and Israfil as well as
the angels who bear the 'Arsh and all archangels to seek forgiveness for the
nation of Muhammad (pbuh) till the next year, and He will also grant you on the
Day of Resurrection whatever rewards He grants to those who participated in the
Battle of Badr].
On the nineteenth
day, all angels in the heavens and on earth will have already sought permission
of their Lord to visit your graves and to bring you every day a present and a
drink [as long as you remain in the barzakh]. So, if you complete your fast for
twenty full days, the Almighty Allah sends you seventy thousand angels to
protect you from every accursed devil, and He will have granted you for each day
of your fast your rewards as though you fasted a hundred years, and He will set
a ditch between you and hell and grant you the rewards of all those who recited
the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms and the Holy Qur'an, and will write for you
for each feather on Gabriel the reward of a full year and will grant you the
rewards of those who glorify Him at the 'Arsh and Kursi and will marry you to a
thousand nymphs for each of the verses of the Qur'an.
On the twenty-first
day, the Almighty expands your grave a thousand parasangs and lifts the
darkness and loneliness of your graves and makes your graves look like the
graves of the martyrs and your faces like the face of Joseph son of Jacob (as).
On the twenty second
day, the Almighty dispatches the angel of death as He dispatches him to His
prophets to remove your worldly worries and the torment of the hereafter.
On the twenty third
day, you will pass on the Straight Path in the company of the prophets, the
first to follow the prophets, and the martyrs, as if you had fed each orphan
and clothed everyone who needed to be clothed.
On the twenty-fourth
day, you will not leave this life before each one of you sees the place
reserved for him or her in Paradise and is given the rewards of a thousand sick
and a thousand who go back to their creed and will grant you the rewards of one
who freed a thousand captives from the descendants of Ishmael (as).
On the twenty-fifth
day, Allah will have built you under His 'Arsh a thousand green domes on top of
each one of which is a tent of light. The Almighty and Exalted One will then
say: 'O followers of Muhammad! I am your Lord and you are My servants! Enjoy
the shade of My 'Arsh in these domes and eat and drink with enjoyment, for
there will be no fear on you, nor will you grieve. O nation of Muhammad! By My
Dignity and Greatness! I shall dispatch you to Paradise in a way which will
amaze the first generations and the last, and I shall crown each one of you
with a thousand light crowns, and I shall provide for each one of you a she camel
whose reins are made of light, and in it are a thousand gold rings, in each is
an angel looking after it, in the hand of each angel is a light rod so that he
may enter Paradise without a reckoning.' And
On the twenty sixth
day, Allah will look at you with compassion and will forgive all your sins
except those of shedding innocent blood or robbing people's wealth, and He will
grant you every day a thousand barriers against backbiting, lying and
slandering.
On the
twenty-seventh day, He will consider you as though you had aided every
believing man and woman and clothed seventy thousand naked persons and equipped
a thousand soldiers to camp in a foreign land to defend Islam, and as if you
have recited every book Allah has revealed to His prophets. On the twenty-eighth day, Allah will
have built you in Paradise a hundred thousand light cities and granted you in
the garden of bliss a hundred thousand silver mansions and a hundred thousand
cities in each one of which there are a thousand rooms, and granted you in the
garden of greatness a hundred thousand pulpits of musk inside each one of which
there is a thousand saffron houses in each one of which there are a thousand
beds of pearls and sapphires and on each bed a wife of the huns with large
lovely eyes. So if you complete your fast till the twenty ninth day, the
Almighty Allah will grant you a million quarters, inside each quarter is a
white dome underneath which is a white camphor bed on which there are a
thousand mattresses of green silk on each one of which there is a hun decorated
with seventy thousand ornaments and crowned with eighty thousand locks each one
of which is decorated with diamonds and sapphires. So if you finish thirty
complete days of fast, the Almighty will have granted you for each day the
rewards of a thousand martyrs and a thousand foremost believers in His
Prophets, and He will have assigned for you the rewards of fifty years of
adoration, and He will have decreed a clearance for you from hell and a passage
on the Straight Path and a security against the torment. One of the gates of
Paradise is called al-Rayyan, and it shall never be opened before the Day of
Resurrection. It will be opened for those among the nation of Muhammad (pbuh)
who performed the fast. Ridwan, custodian of Paradise, will call out saying: 'O
followers of Muhammad! Come to the al-Rayyan gate!' So he will let my nation
enter Paradise through that gate. Therefore, if one is not forgiven during the
month of Ramadan, in which month can he be forgiven? There is neither will nor
strength except from Allah; Allah suffices us, and what a great Helper He is!
This
lengthy tradition is also recorded on pp. 183-185, Vol. 8, of Bihar al-Anwar.