Muslims, it is now the mausem of Hajj, the most important journey and pilgrimage a Muslim can make. These days millions of people are arriving from all corners of the earth to visit the House of Allah. At this moment, millions are entering ihram or making their tawaf around the Ka'ba in one of the greatest acts of worship that mankind performs. They have all travelled for one reason only: to respond to the call of their Lord, with the intention of pleasing Him and placing themselves at His service, uttering aloud: "At Your service, O Allah, we are at Your service! And for those who make that journey there is purification and tremendous reward. The Prophet said:
"Whoever performs Hajj and avoids sexual relations and wrong deeds during Hajj, all his wrong deeds will be erased and he will be like the day his mother gave birth to him. We ask Allah to grant all those who have made the journey this year their reward and accept their Hajj.
Those who have not been able to go, or have not yet found the means, should not be discouraged for Allah rewards us according to our intentions, not just our deeds. And Allah has given the hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world who have not made the journey a substitute according to His generosity: the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah, which began on Monday.
As we have mentioned on occasion, not all times are equal before Allah. There are certain occasions that Allah chooses and makes special, multiplying the reward of all those who take advantage of them, and this is the case of these ten days.
That is indicated by Allah in the Qur'an when He swears an oath in these days. And when Allah swears by something in His Book He wants to emphasise its importance. Allah says:
"To the dawn. To the ten nights. To the odd and the even.
According to most mufassirun, the ten nights mentioned here refer to the first ten days of Dhul-Hiyya, while the 'even' refers to the tenth day, the day of sacrifice, and the 'odd' to the ninth day, the day of 'Arafat.
And this is also indicated by the Prophet in many hadiths. For example, in a hadith, he said:
"The most beloved time to Allah is the sacred months, the most beloved of the sacred months to Allah is Dhul-Hijjah, and the part of Dhul-Hijjah that He prefers is the first ten days.
And in another hadith, narrated by Ibn 'Abbas, the Prophet says:
"There are no days during which right action is more beloved to Allah than these days", i.e. the first ten days of Dhul-Hijjah. "Not even jihad in the way of Allah?" asked the Companions. "Not even jihad in the way of Allah," replied the Prophet, "unless someone goes out for jihad with his life and property, and then returns with neither (i.e. he has surrendered both in the way of Allah)."
Thus, what Allah loves most during these days, and therefore the best way to please Allah and gain maximum benefit, is to do abundant 'amal salih, right action. There are many forms of righteous action with which a person can occupy himself during these days because 'amal salih is a broad term that encompasses all acts of obedience to Allah, but there are certain actions upon which specific emphasis is placed.
The first of these is, of course, Hajj; many of its rites can only be performed during these ten days, such as being at 'Arafat. The reward of an accepted Hajj is so immense that it cannot be measured. The Prophet said:
"An accepted Hajj is better than the whole world and everything in it. The reward of an accepted Hajj is none other than the Garden.
The second is fasting. It is narrated that the Prophet used to fast during the first nine days of Dhul Hijjah with special emphasis on the ninth day, the day of 'Arafat.
It is narrated that Abu-ddarda said: "You should fast the ten days [of Dhul Hijja], fill them with dua and istighfar and give much sadaqa, for I heard your Prophet say: 'Woe to those who (forbid themselves) the good of these ten days. You should fast the ninth day in particular because there are more good things on that day than can be calculated."
It has also been narrated that he said about fasting on that day:
"I hope that [because of the fast] Allah will forgive the wrong deeds of the year that has just passed and the wrong deeds of the year that is about to begin".
The fast of the day of 'Arafat was a fast that the Messenger of Allah was never known to miss, so it is a muakkada sunna, a very prominent sunna.
The day of 'Arafat is undoubtedly one of the best days of the year. It is a day that each one of us should commemorate and celebrate because it is the day when Din was completed.
It is transmitted in the tafsir of Ibn Kazir that a Jewish man said to 'Umar bin Al-Khattab: "O leader of the believers! There is an ayat in your Book which you recite. And if it had been revealed to us, we would have taken that day (on which it was revealed) as a day of celebration." "What ayat is it?" asked Umar. The Jew replied:
"Today I have completed your practice of worship, I have completed My blessing upon you," so 'Umar said: "By Allah, I know when and where this verse was revealed to the Messenger of Allah. It was on the afternoon of the Day of 'Arafat on a Friday, and both are days that we celebrate.
And the third type of action that is specified in these days is dhikr. Allah says:
"And they invoke/mention the name of Allah on certain days'. Many of the mufassirun interpret these "known days" to refer to the ten days of the beginning of Dhul-Hijjah. Although all forms of dhikr are encouraged during these days, certain dhikrs are particularly emphasised. In a hadith narrated by Ibn 'Umar, the Prophet said:
"There are no days during which righteous deeds better or more beloved to Allah than these ten days, so do much tahlil (la ilaha illa Allah), takbir (Allah akbar) and tahmid (alhamdulillah) during them." It has been narrated that many of the Sahabah, including Ibn 'Umar and Abu Hurayra, used to say takbir during the ten days, wherever they were. In fact, al-Bukhari mentions that during these ten days, Ibn 'Umar used to say takbeer aloud when he went out to the market and that others would repeat it after him. And Ishaq narrates that many of the 'ulama among the tabi'in used to combine the three types of dhikr mentioned above.
We ask Allah to give us the success to fill these days with dhikr, fasting and any other kind of righteous deeds. And we ask Him to enable us to derive the maximum possible benefit from them.
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Muslims, next Wednesday will be the day of Eid al-Adha, the day of sacrifice, so called because it commemorates the day when Allah tested his khalil Ibrahim by ordering him to sacrifice his son and he fully submitted and would have done so but for the fact that Allah substituted a ram in the place of his son. Allah relates the story in surat As-saaffaat:
"He said, 'I am going to my Lord; He will be my guide. Lord, grant me a child of right action!' And we gave him the glad tidings of a child who would have good judgment. And when he was old enough to accompany him in his tasks, he said to him: 'My son, I have seen in a dream that I sacrificed you. Consider what you think. He said: Father, do as I command you and, Allah willing, you will find in my car of patients. And when they had both accepted it with submission, he laid him face down. We shouted to him: Ibrahim! you have confirmed the vision you had. This is truly how we reward those who do good. This is indeed the clear proof. And we rescued him by putting a magnificent offering in his place.
There are two actions that are emphasised by the sunnas on that day (in other words, actions that the Prophet always did and never abandoned, although they were never made obligatory on his community), and they are indicated by the Words of Allah in surat al-Kawzar:
"So pray to your Lord and offer sacrifices".
The first of these is the Eid prayer. The prayer takes exactly the same form as the Eid prayer at Eid al-Fitr, but this time the sunna is to refrain from eating before the prayer and to come to the musalla fasting.
The second is slaughtering, which is a strong sunnah for all those who can afford it, and that means that the money they would use to buy it will not be needed by them or their families during the course of the following year. If someone is convinced that his family will have enough sustenance, then he should buy a healthy and flawless animal to sacrifice, the best being a ram according to the Maliki madhab and a camel according to the Shafi'i. This sacrifice must be performed after the prayer and until maghrib on the third day, and the reward for it is immense. Aisha narrated that the Prophet said:
"The son of Adam does no better deed on the Day of Sacrifice than to make a sacrifice. The sacrificed animal will come on the Day of Arising with its horns, hooves and skin (all bearing witness on his behalf). And the shed blood will find acceptance before Allah before it touches the ground. So sacrifice with good grace.
If you have the means, there is nothing better you can spend your money on that day. We ask Allah to make this Eid a day of recognition of His blessings, celebration and union. And we ask Him to accept our prayer and our sacrifice, and to accept the Hajj of all those who have made the journey to His house this year.
