A Word on the Month of Rajab: What Is Established of Its Virtue and What Is Not

The Shaykh : All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own selves and from the evil of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides, no one can mislead, and whoever He misleads, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger. Allah sent him with guidance and the religion of truth, so he conveyed the message, fulfilled the trust, advised the community, and struggled in the cause of Allah with true struggle. May Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him, upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment.
As for what follows:
This is the fortieth of the monthly gatherings, which take place on the night of the third Sunday of every month. This night is the night of the twenty-first Sunday of the month of Rajab, 1417. I praise Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) for facilitating such gatherings, and I ask Him (Blessed and Exalted is He) to reward us all. I give good news to the brothers who attend these gatherings that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: and that the gatherings of dhikr are the gardens of Paradise. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) also said: . I praise Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) for making such gatherings easy, and I ask Him (the Exalted) to make them beneficial and blessed gatherings.
We speak of it only briefly, namely that we are now in the month of Rajab. Rajab is one of the four sacred months. The four sacred months are: Dhu al-Qa’dah, Dhu al-Hijjah, Muharram, and Rajab, as Allah the Exalted said: There are reports of prayers, fasting, and dhikr for this month, but they are all weak. They do not establish a legal proof, nor do they establish a Sunnah. If that is the case, it is not permissible—and if that is established, it is not permissible—for a person to say: “This is a sacred month, so I will increase my prayers in it, or increase my dhikr, or increase my fasting, or the like.” Why is it not permissible?
Because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) reached this month, did he not? Did he increase in it over other months? No. If he did not increase in it over other months, it is not our right to say: “It is a sacred month in which we increase over other months,” because we are followers, not innovators. If a person were to follow his own taste or his own opinion in what he does to draw near to Allah, he would be without a religion, because he would only be following his own desires. And Allah the Exalted said: So it is incumbent upon us not to single out the month of Rajab except with what Allah and His Messenger singled it out with: that it is a sacred month in which avoiding forbidden things is emphasized, and that fighting with disbelievers is not lawful in it, because it is a sacred month. There is no fighting in the sacred months unless they start the fighting, or if it is a chain of fighting that extends into the sacred month. Also, we are now in the latter half of the month of Rajab, approaching the month of Sha’ban. Does the month of Sha’ban have a distinction over other months? The answer is: Yes, it has a distinction over other months in fasting only. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) used to fast a lot in it, until he would fast the whole of it or all but a little of it. So increasing fasting in Sha’ban is from the Sunnah, but in Rajab it is not.