The Eleventh Assembly, which is Friday, Six Days remaining from Sha`ban, 367 AH.

The Messenger of Allah (s) delivered a sermon to the people on the last Friday of Sha`ban. He praised and commended Allah, then said: O people! You are shaded by a month wherein there is a night that is better than one thousand months – and it is the month of Ramadan. Allah has obligated fasting it, and He has made voluntary prayer therein equivalent to seventy nights of voluntary prayers in other months. For those who pray voluntarily therein, He has given them goodness; like the reward of one who has performed a divinely mandated obligatory act. Whoever performs a divinely mandated obligatory act therein, it will be equivalent to one who performs seventy obligatory acts in other months. It is the month of patience, and whoever is patient, his reward is Paradise. It is the month of sympathy. It is a month in which Allah increases the sustenance of the believer. Whoever feeds a fasting believer therein, Allah will free his neck [from the Fire] and forgive his past sins. So, it was said to him: O Messenger of Allah! Not all of us are capable of feeding a fasting person. So, he said: Surely, Allah is generous. He will give this reward to those of you who are not capable of feeding a fasting person anything but watery milk, pure water, or small dates – and not capable of [feeding him] anything more than this. Whoever lightens things for his slaves therein, Allah will lighten his judgment. It is a month in which its beginning is mercy, its middle is forgiveness, and its end is acceptance [of prayers] and freedom from the Fire. There are four things therein that you are not needless of: two that you will please Allah by, and two you absolutely need. As for the two that you will please Allah by: they are the testimony that there is no god but Allah, and that I am the Messenger of Allah. As for the two that you absolutely need: you will ask Allah for your needs and for Paradise, and you will ask Allah therein for His forgiveness and His pardon from the Fire.

I wrote to Abi Muhammad al-Hasan b. `Ali b. Muhammad b. `Ali b. Musa b. Ja`far b. Muhammad b. `Ali b. al-Husayn b. `Ali b. Abi Talib (as): “Why did Allah obligate fasting?” So, he answered in his response: “So that the rich may feel hunger and give to the poor.”

Mu`adh b. Jabal visited the Messenger of Allah (s) weeping. He greeted him with the salaam and he responded with the salaam. Then, he said: Why are you crying, O Mu`adh? So, he said: O Messenger of Allah! At the door, there is a youth who has a good physique, a clean complexion, and a good appearance. He is weeping over his youthhood as a bereaved mother weeps over her child, and he wants to visit you. So, the Prophet (s) said: Let the youth enter, O Mu`adh. So, he let him enter, and he greeted him with the salaam and he responded with the salaam. Then, he said: What is causing you to cry, O youth? He said: How can I not cry when I have committed sins that Allah would send me to the Fire of Hell for just one of them? He will not see me except that He will take me and never forgive me. So, the Messenger of Allah (s) said: Have you associated any partners with Allah? He said: I seek refuge in Allah that I should associate any partners with my Lord. He said: Did you kill a soul that Allah has prohibited you from killing? He said: No. So, the Prophet (s) said: May Allah forgive your sins, even if they are like large mountains. So, the youth said: Surely, they are greater than large mountains. So, the Prophet (s) said: May Allah forgive your sins, even if they are like the seven Earths, their oceans, their grains of sand, their trees, and whatever is in them. He said: Surely, they are greater than the seven Earths, their oceans, their grains of sand, their trees, and whatever is in them. So, the Prophet (s) said: May Allah forgive your sins, even if they are like the seven heavens and its stars, even if they are like the Throne and the Seat. He said: They are greater than that. He said: So, the Prophet (s) looked at him angrily, then said: Beware, O youth. What is greater, your sins or your Lord? So, the youth fell on his face, saying: May my Lord be glorified! There is nothing greater than my Lord. My Lord is greater, O Prophet of Allah, than every great thing. So, the Prophet (s) said: Can anyone other than the great Lord forgive a great sin?! The youth said: No, by Allah, O Messenger of Allah. Then, the youth went silent. So, the Prophet (s) said to him: Woe to you, O youth! Will you inform me of one of your sins? He said: Of course, I will inform you. I was a grave robber for seven years. I would exhume the dead and take off their shrouds. A young woman from the girls of the Ansar had died. When she was carried to her grave and buried, her family left, and night came. I came to her grave, exhumed her, and took from her shrouds. I left her alone at the edge of her grave. Time passed, and Satan came to me, and he began to make her more pleasing to me, saying: "Did you see her stomach and her whiteness? Did you see her hips?" He did not stop saying this to me until I returned to her. I could not control myself, until I had intercourse with her and left her in her place. Then, I heard a voice from behind me, saying: "O youth! Beware of the debts of the Day of Religion; the day you and I will be raised. You left me naked on the frontiers of death, emptied me from my grave, took my shrouds, and left me in a state of impurity until my Judgment. Woe to your youthhood from the Fire." So, I do not think that I will ever smell the scent of Paradise. What do you see for me, O Messenger of Allah? So, the Prophet (s) said: Get away from me, O wretched one! Surely, I fear that I will get burned by your fire. How near you are to the Fire, how near you are to the Fire! He (s) did not stop speaking to him and pointing to him until he left his presence and went to Medina, picked up some things from it, and went to one of its mountains to worship therein; wearing a cloak made of hair. He bound his hands together to his neck and called: O Lord! This is your servant, Bahlul, and I am bound before You. O Lord! You are the one that knows me and my errors. O my Master, O Lord! I have become regretful, and I have come repentant to Your Prophet, but he sent me away and increased my fear. So, I ask You by Your name, Your majesty, and the greatness of Your power, to not diminish my hope, my Master; and to not invalidate my supplication, and to not deprive me of Your mercy. He did not stop saying this for forty days and nights. The lions and the beasts would weep for him. When forty days and nights had passed, he raised his hands to the sky and said: O Allah! What will you do regarding my need? Have you accepted my supplication and forgiven my mistake? If so, then send a revelation to Your Prophet. But, if You will not answer my supplication nor forgive my mistake, then I want my punishment; so, bring a fire that will burn me or a punishment in this world that will destroy me. Deliver me from the furor of the Day of Resurrection. So, Allah revealed to His Prophet (s): "As for those who perform indecency" - meaning, fornication - "or wrong themselves" - meaning, commit a sin greater than fornication, grave robbing, and stealing shrouds - "remember Allah and seek forgiveness for their sins" - meaning, those who fear Allah and quickly repent - "who can forgive sins except Allah?" (3:135). He said: "My servant came to you repentant, O Muhammad, and you sent him away. So, where would he go, who should he seek, and who should he seek forgiveness for his sin besides Me?" Then, He said: "[and those] who do not persist in what they have done once they become cognizant." (3:135) - meaning, they no longer commit fornication, nor exhume graves, nor steal shrouds - "their reward is with their Lord - gardens beneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide eternally - excellent is the reward of the doers of good" (3:136). When this verse was revealed to the Messenger of Allah (s), he came out reciting it and smiling. So, he said to his companions: Who will direct me to that repentant youth? So, Mu`adh said: O Messenger of Allah! We were told that he was in such-and-such place. So, the Messenger of Allah (s) went with his companions until they ended up at that mountain; and they climbed it in search of the youth. They found the youth standing between two rocks with his hands bound to his neck. His face was blackened, and his eyelashes had fallen from weeping. He was saying: “O my Master! You have perfected my form, and made my form beautiful, so what will You do with me? Will You burn me in the Fire, or will You settle me in Your proximity? O Allah! You have bestowed me with much goodness, and You have blessed me; so, what will be my end – will You dress me in Paradise, or have me driven by the Fire? O Allah! My mistake is greater than the heavens, the Earth, Your widespread Seat and Your great Throne. So, will You forgive my mistake, or will You scandalize me with it on the Day of Resurrection?” He did not stop saying this, weeping and covering his head with dust. The lions surrounded him, and the birds lined up above him, weeping at his weeping. So, the Messenger of Allah (s) came close, took his hands off his neck, and cleaned the dust off his head, and said: O Bahlul! Be happy, for Allah has freed you from the Fire. Then, he (s) said to his companions: This is how you redress your sins, just as Bahlul redressed them. Then, he recited what Allah revealed to him, and gave him glad tidings of Paradise.

The Messenger of Allah (s) said to `Ali b. Abi Talib (as): O `Ali! You are to me as Habatullah was to Adam, and as Sam was to Nuh, and as Ishaq was to Ibrahim, and as Harun was to Musa, and as Sham`un was to `Isa, except that there is no prophet after me. O `Ali! You are my deputy and my vicegerent, so whoever denies your deputyship and your vicegerency is not from me and I am not from him; and I will be his adversary on the Day of Resurrection. O `Ali! You are the best of my Nation in virtue, the foremost of them in affability, the most knowledgeable of them, the most forbearing of them, the boldest of them in heart, and the most generous of them with your hands. O `Ali! You are the Imam and the emir after me. You are the patron and the vizier after me. You are an equal master of my Nation. O `Ali! You are the divider of Paradise and the Fire. By your love, the righteous will be known from the indecent, and the evil will be distinguishable from the elect, and the believer from the disbeliever.