 أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم والحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على محمد وأهل بيته الطيبين الطاهرين اللهم صلى الله عليه وسلم محمد وآله محمد my dear brothers and sisters my dear viewers wherever you are I seize the opportunity of the start of the holy month of Ramadan to congratulate all of you on this wonderful occasion and I wish you the best and the fruitful, spiritual and joyous Ramadan The Almighty Allah سبحانه وتعالى has said in the holy Quran بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم شهر رمضان الذي أنزل فيه القرآن هدا للناس وبينات من الهدى والفرقان We are all have been in a situation where we are waiting for or are anticipating a very important person to arrive whether that person is a loved one or a long time friend or a very important person an executive or high ranking official We have been in a situation that we are waiting we were waiting and anticipating for that person We may differ in some aspect of a preparation but the common theme is the same We take our time in a preparing for that event We take our time in a planning for that event We make sure that at the moment of the arrival of that person we are ready we select our words carefully even our statements are carefully chosen We make sure that all the amenities and conditions are available We make sure that the scene is suitable for that event and for that meeting Eventually, we take stride in making sure that every aspect of this meeting comes fruitful and suitable so we can utilize it at its maximum Why? Because it's a great opportunity because it's a great moment and maybe it's not so great after all However, we do our best to make sure that we take advantage of every single minute of that event Why? Because it cannot be repeated That great moment is intolerance of being repeated again It's only once The opportunity can be easily missed Therefore, we plan ahead of time We spend hours and hours for planning and reviewing and editing our statements to make sure that this meeting turns to be successful because we cannot tolerate losing that opportunity We want to make sure that we benefit the maximum amount of benefit of that event When we look at the holy month of Ramadan we see that it has similar situation Ramadan, the holy month of Ramadan is an extraordinary opportunity that we cannot tolerate missing If we miss this year this is a great opportunity We never know whether we will have the chance next year to repeat this opportunity We don't know if next year I and you are alive and healthy and can perform our functions again Therefore, we should consider that this could be our last opportunity our last month of Ramadan in this life When we met with such kind of opportunity what should we do The Almighty Allah SWT has said that the most favorable month has arrived Therefore, you need to make sure that we take as much opportunity and maximize our opportunities as much as possible The Prophet says that you are faced with two important opportunities Number one, the valuable guest that is arriving upon you and second, that you have become a valuable guest arriving on the court of Allah SWT and other opportunities at one occasion First, a valuable guest in the name of month of Ramadan has arrived upon us Second, we have become as a valuable guest to the Almighty The Prophet SWT says سبحان الله ماذا يستقبلكم وماذا تستقبلون Do you know that Allah is awaiting for you and what you are awaiting for these are great opportunities that hardly anybody can recognize Then the Prophet SWT elaborate further At the advent of Ramadan he had this eloquent and a beautiful sermon where he says أقبل إليكم شهر الله بالبركة والرحمة والمخفرة Oh people The month, the most favorable month of Allah has arrived upon you with blessings, mercy and forgiveness شهر هو عند الله أفضل الشهور A month that in the view of the Almighty الله سبحانه وتعالى is considered to be the most favorable وأيامه أفضل الأيام and its daylights are the best daylights ولياليه أفضل الليالي and its nights are the best among all nights and days وساعاته أفضل الساعات even its hours its minutes are considered to be the best among all hours and moments Therefore, you need to take the opportunity Then the Prophet mentions this great effect of the Holy Ramadan where he says is in this month that you are considered to be the noble guests of the Almighty الله سبحانه وتعالى So we should treat ourselves as the noble guests arriving upon the court of the Almighty الله سبحانه وتعالى Now the months or calendars are too kind one is the solar calendar the solar year and the other one is the lunar calendar or the lunar year The importance of the solar calendar is very well known we know it by evidence and by experience we know at what time of the year winter arrives and at what time spring arrives and what time of the year summer and fall arrive these we experience through years the evidence has shown us what importance a solar calendar can bring therefore you see that the farmers, the peasants get ready for those moments they get ready to cultivate the land to prepare the land and plant the seeds well ahead of spring for example when the spring comes they plant the seeds and then they pollinate the trees they harvest the crops by time because experience have showed us at what particular date what season will start and what season will end the same you can say about the migrants who travel at certain season of the year at what part of the the planet to another part of the planet even the animals the birds understand the significance of the solar year the migrant birds they travel for long long distances from one part of the planet to another part of the planet due to changes in the climate all of these have been seen and sensed by experience we have noticed the importance of the solar year by its evidence and by our experience but what about the lunar year what about the lunar months and lunar calendar how can we recognize recognize its significance unfortunately physically we cannot tell the significance of the lunar year unless we are told by the divine revelation either it is narrated in the Holy Quran or by the narrations of the infallibles those two sources that tell us the importance for example of particular eaves and nights the importance of particular months for example we would have no clue what is the importance of the night of destiny is unless we read and recite the Holy Quran the Holy Quran would tell us the importance of the night of destiny the night of destiny the almighty Allah says the night of destiny is more valuable than 1,000 months or 30,000 nights we had no clue recognizing this if the almighty God has not revealed the secret when we look at the Islamic traditions and Islamic literature we see ample ample and abundance of these narrations that speak about the importance of those calendar those lunar calendar moments for example the night of destiny in the holy month or the eve of Mishaaban or the 27th of Rajab or the day of Arafa these narrations tell us the significance of those important days now how important they are we do not know except that we take it by faith from the infallibles they are the ones who tell us the exact amount of importance that we are experiencing therefore we should make sure that we do not lose those important night's we should not lose those opportunities because if we lose those opportunities we don't know how much and how many good things we will be losing for example a man come to Imam Al-Sadiq and tells him it is the month of Rajab and I want to compensate for that month what should I do to compensate for those days that have already passed what you have missed is so much that no one would know except the Almighty therefore our duty brothers and sisters in these holy days is to recognize the importance of the holy month sometimes we are totally oblivious we don't know whatsoever the importance of the month of Ramadan sometimes we have only a vague and general understanding like someone who has his own iPhone the very advanced iPhone and he only knows certain capability of this phone he just use it for calling friends and some texting but he doesn't use any of those applications he is not aware of those tremendous applications that are in the iPhone this is a great loss as well therefore we need to understand the value of the holy month of Ramadan the prophet peace be upon him says if the person the believer knows for sure what is the value of Ramadan he would wish that the value of Ramadan would be the duration of Ramadan would be for one year one whole year why because of so much importance and values that Ramadan has going back again to the first statement that we said we have to be prepared for this holy month sometimes our preparedness can be physical we should be ready physically for those great moments we should make sure that our bodies are fit for those days that we observe fasting we should make sure that we don't jeopardize our health ahead of Ramadan and make sure that we end up the 30 or 29 days of the entire month of the holy month of Ramadan and we should be spiritually ready for this great month in the same manner that when we get ready by cleansing ourselves and wearing the best attire when we meet very important person we also should make sure that our soul is cleansed from any odors from any pugnations odors of insincerity hypocrisy jealousy indecency these are the contaminations and stains that sit on our souls that we should make sure we get rid of them before the start الله سبحانه وتعالى has said if you want to see the full benefit of this great month then you should complete it and it's complete course just like the antibiotic course of medication that we take you should take the entire cycle of the antibiotic tablets in order for them to be beneficial the almighty Allah says والتكبر الله على ما هداكم in order to see the full potential of the holy month of Ramadan we should complete it's entire days I pray to the almighty that give us the ability and the guidance that we observe the fasting of this great month الله مني يسألك بسمك يا الله يا رحمان يا رحيم يا كريم يا مقيم يا عظيم يا غديم يا عليم يا حليم يا حكيم يا حكيم سبحانك سبحانك يا لا إلى ألغاث ألغاث خلصنا من النقار يا سيد السادات يا مجيب الدعوة يا رافع الدرجة يا ولي يا الحسنا يا غافر الخطيئة يا معطيئة المسألات يا غابلات توبات يا سامع الأصوات يا عالم الخفيات يا دافع البلياء سبحانك يا لا خلصنا من النقار يا خيرال وافرين يا خيرال فاتحين يا خيرال ناصرين يا خيرال حاكمين يا خيرال وازقين فارثين يا خيرال حامدين يا خيرال الذاكرين يا خيرال منزلين يا خيرال المحسنين سبحانك يا لا ألغاث خلصنا من النقار أنصرين يضعون حقا لأنواقي وإنراضة وإنحاء الأفطار وإنحاء مباشرة ويواطف ويواطف ويواطف ويواطف ويواطف ونجل جبرايل قد قد تخبرهم يا محمد الله قد ترسله لك ونسألك لك أن تنسى المرسة التي تجدك المرسة وحرية في تحديدها تنسى المرسة ونعطيك شيء أكثر يمكنك وكوك وكوك وكوك تستخدم عندما تستخدم هذا you will seek a protection from the Almighty And he gave him this beautiful du'a called du'a al-Jawsh and al-Kabir That consists of 100 segments In each segment there are 10 names of Gods 10 attributes of the Almighty The segment number 55 include 11 names So the total of the beautiful names and attributes of God are 1100 And it starts like this بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم اللهم إني أسألك بسمك يا الله يا رحمن يا رحيم يا كريم يا مقيم يا عظيم يا قديم يا عليم يا حليم يا حكيم سبحانك يا لا إله إلا أنت الغوث الغوث خلصنا من النار يا رب We will try our best to translate some of its beautiful vocabulary In the first segment it starts with اللهم اللهم is similar to يا الله oh God That Arabs use at the beginning of each statement Then the word says إني أسألك بسمك يا الله I ask you, I ask thy, I ask thee by thy name When you look carefully You see that the supplications And the words of prayers of أهل البيت عليهم السلام Always use an intermediary A vehicle, a means between us and the Lord We never say that we beg you or your divine existence Rather we beg the name of God Because he himself has told us how to start the prayers When we say بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم In the name of God We use the name of God as an intercession As a vehicle, as a means that take us closer to the Almighty When you look at the tradition of أهل البيت عليهم السلام You see always the inputs They bring an intermediary between us and the Lord Sometimes it is the name of the Lord اللهم إني أسألك بسمك by your name Sometimes the attributes of the Lord For example When he starts the eloquent dua of كميل He says I beg you, I call you upon the mercy that has engulfed everything I beg you by your power that has overpowered everything So we always bring something as an intermediary To seek that intercession That gets us closer to the Allah Sometimes we use other valuable entities Like the infallibles Like the Prophet peace be upon him The Almighty Allah says Those people who have committed sins And incurred injustice against themselves When they seek repentance They go to the Prophet peace be upon him And they ask repentance from the Prophet When the Prophet peace be upon him Repent and ask forgiveness for them Then God will forgive them As the ayah says So this is the first segment The theme of the second segment Is that we seek help and assistance from the Almighty Where it says يا غافر الخطيات يا معطي المسألات يا قابل التوبات يا سامع الأصوات يا عالم الخفيات يا دافع البليات We stop at this beautiful world يا غافر الخطيات The one who forgives the sins When we incur injustice And wrongdoing against some people Maybe you do it once They forgive you Maybe you do it twice They forgive you Maybe you do it three, four, five times Until a point that they will abandon you Even our parents Even those that are very close to us Our loved ones If we do wrongdoings to them Multiple times at one point They abandon us They will become unforgiven The fact that the only entity That can be forgiven And no matter how many sins we do It's the Almighty Allah سبحانه وتعالى No matter how piles of sins we commit Still the Almighty has this beautiful attribute يا غافر الخطيات He will wash away all our sins Not only that He will even change those sins If we seek repentance And forgiveness from God He will change those sins Into good things Into reward As Allah سبحانه وتعالى Says إلا من تابا وآمن وعمل صالحا فأولئك يبدلوا الله سيئاتهم حسنات God will change those wrongdoings Into good things Into rewards Provided that we seek Genuine repentance The third segment brothers and sisters About seeking superiority Attaining honor and dignity Where it says يا خير الغافرين يا خير الفاتحين يا خير الناصرين يا خير الحاكمين The best out of the forgivers The best out of the victorious The best out of the judges The best out of the bread winners Here it tells us how you need to attain To the highest level of things You do not leave yourself only Subsided to simple things If you enroll in a class You better be the best in the class If you are a judge You want to be the fairest judge If you are a doctor You want to be the best doctor This is how the Almighty has told us This is how we need to be As he says in one ayah In the words of متقين He says واجعلنا للمتقين إماما Make us the best out of متقين The leader of the متقين Meaning that you become The best of your class Or الإمام علي ابن أبي طالب عليه السلام Says واجعلني من أحسن عبيدك نصيبا عندك وأقربهم منزلة الميك Make me among the best The closest of people Oh people Surely loyalty And truthfulness are twins I do not know a better shield Against the assaults of sin Than it One who realizes the reality Of return to the next world Never betrays We are in a period When most of the people regard betrayal as wisdom In these days The ignorance call it excellence of cunning What is the matter with them Allah may destroy them One who has been through thickened thin Of life Finds the excuses to be preventing him From orders and prohibitions of Allah But he regards them despite capability To succumb to them And follows the commands of Allah One who has no restraints of religion Seizes the opportunity And accepts the excuses For not following the commands of Allah