Faḍāʾil al-Ashhur al-Thalātha 1, record 50 of the digital edition

Translation

The elder and jurist, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn b. Mūsā b. Bābuwayh (ra) has informed us, saying that his father (rh) narrated to him among others, from Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā al-ʿAṭṭār, from Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā, from al-Ḥasan b. Maḥbūb, from Abī Ayyūb, from Abī’l-Ward, from Abī Jaʿfar al-Bāqir (as), who has narrated: “On the last Friday of Shaʿbān, the Messenger of Allāh (sawa) delivered a sermon wherein he praised Allāh and extolled Him. Then he said: “O’ people, a month is about to come over you in which there is a night greater than a thousand months. It is the month of Ramaḍān, and Allāh has made its fasts obligatory and made standing up for prayer during one of its nights—as a voluntary prayer—as if one were performing voluntary prayers for seventy nights in any of the other months. Allāh has also made for he who voluntarily does a good deed (in Ramaḍān) of those that involve charity and generosity a reward equivalent to that of fulfilling one of the obligations of Allāh (azwj). And whoever fulfills one of the obligations of Allāh in the month of Ramaḍān is as if he fulfilled seventy obligations in any other month. Ramaḍān is the month of patience, and Paradise is the reward of patience. Ramaḍān is the month of compassion, and the month in which Allāh increases the believers in sustenance. Whoever helps a fasting believer break his fast during the month of Ramaḍān earns with Allāh the reward of that as the freedom of his neck (from Perdition) and forgiveness for what has passed of his sins.” Some of the attendees of the Prophet’s sermon complained to him: “O’ Messenger of Allāh, not every one of us is capable of helping a fasting believer break their fast!,” so he replied: “Indeed, Allāh (taa) is innately Generous, so He will give this reward to he among you who is not able to do anything except give the fasting person a taste of milk or a drink of water with which to break their fast, if he is unable to do anything more than that. Allāh lightens the accounting of whoever lightens (the burden of) his servant. Ramaḍān is a month whose beginning is mercy, whose middle is forgiveness, and whose end is an answer (to prayers) and freedom from the Fire. There are four things in this month that you are not free of needing—two by which you will please Allāh (taa), and two that you personally are not free of needing. As for the two by which you will please Allāh (taa), they are the testimony that there is no deity besides Allāh and that I am the Messenger of Allāh. And as for the two that you are not free of needing, they are that you ask Allāh for Heaven and to fulfill your needs, and ask Him for salubrity and amnesty from Hell.”

Translation: Haseeb Hassan — published with the edition, reproduced verbatim.