The month of Mercy

Allah has many attributes. His attributes are mentioned in Doa of Joashan Al-kabir which is in the book Mafatih Al-jinan. One of  His attributes is the attribute of mercifulness. He is merciful. Almost all chapters of the holy Quran starts with this phrase:

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم

Two attributes of Allah are mentioned in it,

Al-Rahman and Al-Rahim. Both are derived from the root of mercy. But what is the difference between them? According to the Narrations the first attribute which is Al-Rahman means the merciful that has the general mercy. His general mercy includes all beings and even the tiniest beings are benefited from His mercy or even those who are infidels and do not believe in Him as God, are included. But the second attribute which is

Al-Rahim means that He is merciful specifically and this mercy includes some cases. It is narrated from Imam Sadiq peace be upon him that he said:

“Allah is the Lord of everything; He is Rahman to all of His creations and Rahim to the believers specifically.”

The month of Ramadan is an opportunity that Allah has put as His specific mercy, the month that due to the mercy of Allah the Thawab and rewards of worships are doubled many times and the breathings and sleeping are counted as glorification of Allah and worship.

There is a very hopeful Narration that shows the vastness of the mercy of Allah in this month, the Narration states:

In every night of the month of Ramadan at the time of Iftar(the time of breaking the fast) Allah forgives seventy thousands of thousands(millions) persons and makes them free from the fire of hell, the individuals who were deserved to be entered in it, and when the last night of the month of Ramadan comes Allah forgives the sinful persons as much as He has made free throughout this month.

Allah described the Prophet of Islam in chapter Anbiya verse 107:

وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِّلْعَالَمِينَ

“We have not sent you (prophet Muhammad) except as a mercy to all the worlds.”

There is a Narration from this very merciful Prophet of Islam about the month of Ramadan in which he said:

“May Allah discard and reject the one who passes the month of Ramadan and is not forgiven by Allah”

The great Islamic scholar Mirza Javad Maleki Tabrizi said about this Narration:

This (superficial) curse due to the Prophet’s position as the mercy to all the worlds is a great good tiding that shows the vastness and generality of the mercy of Allah in this month.

Another sigh for the mercy of Allah in this holy month is that the devils are chained in this month.

But here is an important question. The question is that according to this feature of the month of Ramadan the devils cannot deviate mankind but still we see that the sins are committed in this month, so what does that chaining mean?

Here are some answers and possibilities about the meaning of the Narration. The first is that the reason of this chaining is fasting, and the devils are chained as much as our fasting is complete. The second answer is that all of the devils are not chained in this month because according to some Narrations such devils are described of “Marid” which literally means “turbulent” but the ordinary devils are still working and deviating mankind, but there is a third answer that is so important. This answer reminds us that the only thing that can deviate us is not devil, but also Al-Nafs Al-Ammarah or the selfish desires are still there and they has their own temptations.

Another sight of the mercy of Allah is that in this month the doors of the heaven are opened and the doors of the fire of the Hell are closed.

But here is a very important point and that is mentioned by the holy Prophet of Islam, he said:

O people, the doors of the heaven are opened, ask Allah not to close them. The doors of the fire (of the hell) are closed, ask Allah not to open it, and the devils are tied, request Allah not to assign them on you.so another answer for the above question is that the devils are chained, but sometimes our own deeds make them released, even our deeds in the previous months can release them, because it is an undeniable fact that our good and bad deeds have effects, some effects are material and appear in this material world, some effects will appear after our death, and some effects are spiritual and appear in this world, for instance we might have a good deed that its effect is that we have the Tawfiq and opportunity to be benefited from a divine teacher and conversely we might commit a sin and as the result and effect of that, we are deprived from some blessings of Allah, like having the eagerness of reciting supplications and being reluctant to spiritual matters or little by little reach to a state that God-forbid even might sneer at the spiritual matters and deny Allah, as the holy Quran explicitly declared in chapter Rum verse 10:

ثُمَّ كَانَ عَاقِبَةَ الَّذِينَ أَسَاؤُوا السُّوأَى أَن كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَكَانُوا بِهَا يَسْتَهْزِئُون

“Evil was the end of the harmdoers, because they belied the verses of Allah and mocked at them.”