Merits of the Month of Ramaḍān

Muḥammad b. ʿAlī (b.) Mājīlawayh رضي الله عنه narrated to us, saying that his paternal uncle, Muḥammad b. Abī’l-Qāsim narrated to him, saying that Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Qurashī narrated to him, saying that Abū’l-Rabīʿ narrated to him among others, saying that Jarīr narrated to him among others, from Layth b. Abī Salīm, from Mujāhid, who said that ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbbās has stated: “I heard the Messenger of Allāh صلى الله عليه وعلى آله saying: “The month of Ramaḍān is not like other months. Why should it not be as such when, during it, rewards are doubled, and it is the month of fasting, and of standing tall (for prayer), and of repentance and seeking forgiveness? And it is also the month to recite the Qurʾān, and the month in which the gates of the Paradisiacal realms are opened while the gates to the pits of Perdition are shut. It is the month in which the terms of life are recorded and sustenances distributed, and during it is the Night in which every matter of wisdom is differentiated, and the pilgrims to the sanctified House of Allāh are recorded. On this Night the angels descend, and the (Holy) Spirit—with the permission of their Lord—upon every fasting man and woman, to decide every matter of peace, until the breaking of dawn. Whoever is not forgiven in the month of Ramaḍān shall not be forgiven until the next. So hasten to the performance of righteous deeds now, while the door of repentance is open and supplications are due to receive answers, before you say to yourself: “Woe betide me for what I neglected in relation to Allāh, for I was among those who mocked.”