Is there any advice on making the most of the nights of Ramadan and not wasting them in sins?

The questioner : He says:The questioner : Your Eminence, there are important points for which I would like to receive advice and guidance from you. This year, the nights in Ramadan are long and the days are short and cold. It is expected that the night will be wasted by many, both old and young. As for the elderly men and women, serials and movies are waiting for them; if the night is long, they are long, and they are varied with love and passion. As for the youth, it is the open fields, the enclosures, the satellite dishes, and playing bridge and cards. I ask your Eminence to elaborate on the answer, perhaps Allah will benefit His servants through you?

The Shaykh : The answer to this question is that the reality of this question is painful. It is painful for a person to spend his life in such matters, whether in Ramadan or outside of it. I say: if a person lost even a single dirham of his money, he would cry over it and search for it. If a single dirham were lost in his accounts due to an error, he would go and repeat the calculation again and again until he knew where that dirham was. Is that not so? There is no doubt, because this is the reality for many people, or most of them. These poor people waste hours of their lives; a single moment of their life is better than the entire world. If a person does not spend that moment in the obedience of Allah, it is an irreparable loss. Money can be compensated; a person can trade and profit, or a wealthy relative may die and he may inherit from him. But life is never compensated. If a moment of it passes, it distances you from this world and brings you closer to the Hereafter. What indicates to you that life is more precious than all money is that Allah said in His Book: This is the person who spent his life with this wealth, asking Allah to let him return so that he might do good with this wealth. But how is that possible? Allah the Exalted said: meaning: you will not return. Then He, Mighty and Majestic, affirmed that it is a word of truth: Allah is the Greatest. A person says it even if he does not hear it; perhaps the one next to him does not hear him, but he is the one saying it. That is why the sentence is nominal; He did not say: "It is a word that he says." He said: certainly. But it will not benefit them until when? And they cannot return to this world. These people who spend their time in these matters, in the question, are the greatest of people in loss and the most severe in it, and I seek refuge in Allah. This is outside of Ramadan, so what about in Ramadan? Where a moment is a gamble and its times are pearls, and a person does not know if he will reach his next year or not. How many people welcomed the year but did not reach its end? How many people reached its beginning but did not reach its end? And how many people reached it in its entirety but did not benefit from it at all, because they spent it in disobedience? Allah is the Greatest. It is said of the righteous predecessors: they ask Allah for six months to reach Ramadan, and when it comes, they ask Allah for six months to accept their Ramadan. Yet these people are negligent in this month with this negligence, and I seek refuge in Allah. The old men and old women spend their nights in serials and idle talk, and sometimes in forbidden talk. I am not saying this as a generalization for all old men and old women; rather, among the old men and old women, praise be to Allah, are those who spend the night in prostration and standing for their Lord in Ramadan and outside of it. But people are now afflicted with a trial that has entered their homes, and no one can escape it except whom Allah wills to guide. So my advice to my brothers is: to fear Allah the Exalted in this month, and to turn to worship. I am of the opinion that a group who devote themselves to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, for a full month in His worship—fasting during the day, standing in prayer at night, giving charity, reciting the Qur'an, and remembering Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He—I believe they will find upbringing, and that this will affect their hearts until they are upright upon the command of Allah. Fear Allah, fear Allah, O my brothers. I advise myself before you, and I advise you as well: to seize this great opportunity. Yes.