O devotees of the Prophet! It is a great blessing of Allah that He has allowed us to reach the month of Ramadan once again. The virtues of this blessed month are innumerable! It is a month in which good deeds can be accumulated as Allah has made the reward of a voluntary (nafl) act equivalent to an obligatory (farḍ) act, and the reward of an obligatory act is increased seventy-fold. The transgressing devils are imprisoned, and the doors of Paradise are opened. The advantages this month brings are that people develop the mindset to perform good deeds, they become inclined towards offering salah, and masjids become vibrant. O devotees of the Prophet! We do offer salah, but the question is, do we offer it correctly? Do we know the importance of salah? In today’s weekly ijtimāꜤ, we will hear about the importance and excellence of salah, the benefits of offering salah, and the consequences of missing it.

A grave with flames

The renowned spiritual guide and leader of Ahl al-Sunnah, Maulana Ilyās ꜤAṭṭār al-Qādirī mentions the following admonitory account on page 20 of his booklet entitled ‘Kafan Choron Kay Inkishafat’:

Someone’s sister passed away. After her burial, her brother realised that a bag containing money had fallen in the grave. Therefore, he returned to his sister’s grave. Having dug up her grave to take out the bag, he saw that fire was blazing in the grave. Quickly filling the grave with soil however he could, he went to his mother in a state of grief and asked: “Beloved mother! How were my sister’s actions?”

“Son, why do you ask?”, she replied.

He answered, “I saw a blazing fire in my sister’s grave!”