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.