End of the Year: An Opportunity for Self-Accounting.
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The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and from the badness of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can mislead, and whomsoever He leaves astray, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family and his Companions and those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment).
As for what follows: Every merchant reviews his business records at the end of the financial year to see what he gained, what he lost, what profit he missed, and whether it can be compensated or not. And we, at the end of this year, the year 1417, ask Allah the Exalted to conclude it for us with good, to pardon us for what we fell short of in our obligations, and to forgive us for what we violated of the forbidden. O my brothers: It is obligatory for a person to look at his past year and see what he did. Did he perform the obligatory acts as they should be, or did he fall short? Did he avoid the forbidden and stay away from it, or did he fall into it? If he has been negligent in his obligations, he must make up for them as long as he is in the time of respite. Let him think: Did he complete his ritual purity? Did he complete his prayer? Did he complete his fasting? Did he complete his zakah? Did he complete his Hajj? Let him look into that. Perhaps a person has some fasting of Ramadan remaining. He says: The time is ahead of me, so I can delay it until there remains from the month of Sha'ban the number of days I owe. And there is nothing wrong with that. But the utmost firmness is for a person to hasten to make up the fasting he owes, because he does not know what may befall him. Perhaps he will be struck by an illness that prevents him from fasting. Or perhaps he will die and it will not be made up on his behalf. So let him look, and likewise let him look into his wealth.
As for what follows: Every merchant reviews his business records at the end of the financial year to see what he gained, what he lost, what profit he missed, and whether it can be compensated or not. And we, at the end of this year, the year 1417, ask Allah the Exalted to conclude it for us with good, to pardon us for what we fell short of in our obligations, and to forgive us for what we violated of the forbidden. O my brothers: It is obligatory for a person to look at his past year and see what he did. Did he perform the obligatory acts as they should be, or did he fall short? Did he avoid the forbidden and stay away from it, or did he fall into it? If he has been negligent in his obligations, he must make up for them as long as he is in the time of respite. Let him think: Did he complete his ritual purity? Did he complete his prayer? Did he complete his fasting? Did he complete his zakah? Did he complete his Hajj? Let him look into that. Perhaps a person has some fasting of Ramadan remaining. He says: The time is ahead of me, so I can delay it until there remains from the month of Sha'ban the number of days I owe. And there is nothing wrong with that. But the utmost firmness is for a person to hasten to make up the fasting he owes, because he does not know what may befall him. Perhaps he will be struck by an illness that prevents him from fasting. Or perhaps he will die and it will not be made up on his behalf. So let him look, and likewise let him look into his wealth.