Every entitlement requires effort, and every result must pass through preliminaries. The mercy of Allah is all-encompassing and has embraced all things, and His compassion is gentle and has permeated all things; but it is not written for a servant for free, nor does it reach the denier and the doubter, so that the corrupter and the reformer are not equal, nor the doer of good and the evildoer.
Yet Allah's tender kindness and His warm compassion required that the servants be made abashed by the outpouring of mercy descending upon them from their Lord, Almighty; and that is only so that they may receive it as the earth receives the water of the sky, so that their hearts are revived and bring forth, as the earth brings forth every delightful kind.
Allah the Exalted said: “but My mercy embraces all things. Soon I shall appoint it for those who are Godwary and give the zakat and those who believe in Our signs” (Qurʾan 7:156).
Among the mercy that is written is what is secured through devotional Godwariness in the various affairs of life; among it is what is written for the one who spends in the way of Allah; and among it also is what is connected with faith. So those who have held fast to belonging to the pure Muhammadan Message are embraced by the mercy of Allah the Exalted without needing an effort other than the creed on which they have stood firm. Did not Allah the Exalted say about His Prophet: “We did not send you but as a mercy to all the nations” (Qurʾan 21:107)?
Among the manifestations of this mercy of Allah is that He made the month of Rajab al-Asabb (the one that pours forth) with mercy, in creation and in legislation.
From Imam al-Sadiq (a): The month of Rajab was named al-Asabb because mercy is poured upon my community in it, a pouring.
It is a great favor that Allah the Exalted has conferred, and a compassion evident in it, in heaping mercy upon His servants in this excellent month.
For pouring flows down from above to below, as rain drips onto the earth without effort or toil, as in the saying of Allah the Exalted: “We pour down plenteous water [from the sky]” (Qurʾan 80:25).
As opposed to the drawing out of water, for which a person expends effort and toil to extract it from the depths of the earth; so pouring is a facilitation of the descent of mercy upon the servants.
For this reason it has been reported from Imam Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq (a), in the supplication asking Allah the Exalted for provision, that it be in the manner of pouring, without effort and toil, in his saying (a):
(O Allah, provide for me from Your vast, lawful and wholesome bounty a provision that is ample, lawful and wholesome, sufficient for this world and the Hereafter, pouring upon pouring, pleasant and wholesome, without toil and without being beholden to any one of Your creatures, except as an abundance from Your vast bounty).
What astonishes minds in this Rajabi mercy poured upon the servants is that Allah the Exalted has designated places, prepared abodes and appointed houses in which He has allowed His Name to be celebrated, so that the servants merit the mercy of Allah because they have journeyed toward them and inclined to them, owing to the sanctity of the place in creation and legislation.
However, in the month of Rajab the pouring of mercy has been tied to time, and it is one of the months of the year. So can a servant leave this circle of time? Not at all; it is a month witnessed by every believer who breathes in it. And here is the other evidence of the greatness of Allah's mercy and the breadth of His compassion toward His servants.
This tender compassion is apt to shake off from our hearts the veils of heedlessness, remove from our limbs the traces of laziness and lift from our minds the curtains of ignorance, so that we thank the handiwork of Allah the Exalted by widening, as much as we can, the vessels that receive that poured-out mercy. Among what can be done in this virtuous month to obtain more of the flow of divine mercy is fasting part of it, performing its obligations and keeping up its devotional recitations.
Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
1444 AH
