Dear respected Shaykh, assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. What is the ruling of congratulating each other on the advent of the month of Ramadan? ما حكم ما حكم التهنئة بشهر رمضان؟
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته.
الأعضاء الكرام ! اكتمل اليوم نصاب استقبال الفتاوى.
وغدا إن شاء الله تعالى في تمام السادسة صباحا يتم استقبال الفتاوى الجديدة.
ويمكنكم البحث في قسم الفتوى عما تريد الجواب عنه أو الاتصال المباشر
على الشيخ أ.د خالد المصلح على هذا الرقم 00966505147004
من الساعة العاشرة صباحا إلى الواحدة ظهرا
بارك الله فيكم
إدارة موقع أ.د خالد المصلح
Dear respected Shaykh, assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. What is the ruling of congratulating each other on the advent of the month of Ramadan? ما حكم ما حكم التهنئة بشهر رمضان؟
الجواب
Praise be to Allah, and may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family and his companions. Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. As to what follows: In response to your question, we say: Congratulations are of different types. There are congratulations which are not really congratulations but are supplications for Allah to make a person reach Ramadan, and grant him the ability to fast and stand up in prayer in that month. There is no problem with this sort of congratulations. It has been transmitted in the hadith of Anas that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “O Allah bless us in Rajab and Sha’ban and make us reach Ramadan” [at-Tabarani in al-Awsat (3939)]. The chain of narrators in his hadith has been criticized but some scholars regarded it as authentic. The hadith is a proof for the validity of supplicating to Allah for Him to make a person reach Ramadan. Undoubtedly people desire to reach the month of Ramadan and the attain goodness in it. The second type of congratulations involves congratulations on the occasion of reaching the month of Ramadan before it starts. Certainly, this is not sensible, because the month of Ramadan would not have started and this is congratulating someone for a thing that has not yet happened and it is like congratulating a person for a child before the child is born. This congratulation is before its time because a person may reach Ramadan or he may not reach it. Congratulating people for the nearness of the start of Ramadan is a custom that has spread among people. This takes the ruling of the general permissible things, and maybe those who are congratulating people now are racing against time so that they may prepare for getting into Ramadan. There is no problem with this Inshaa Allah, and whether or not a person will reach Ramadan is up to Allah and not up to us.