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The Sermon of the Prophet at the End of Sha‘ban

Salman al-Farisi said: The Messenger of God gave us a sermon on the last day of Sha‘ban, in which he said,

“O Humanity! A blessed and great month is indeed upon you, a month in which lies a night which is greater than a thousand months. God made its fast obligatory and prayer during the night supererogatory. Whoever draws near in it (Ramadan) by means of a single act of goodness it is as if he has performed an obligatory act in other than it and whoever performs a single obligatory act in it, it is as if he has perform seventy obligatory deeds in other than it.
It is the month of patience and the reward for patience is Paradise. It is the month of beneficence and the month in which the provision of the believer undergoes increase. Whoever breaks the fast of one who observes it will have his sins forgiven and his neck emancipated from the Hell-fire, and he will receive the like of his (the one fasting) reward without his (the one fasting) reward being affected in the least.”

They asked, “O Messenger of God, not all of us find that with which we can break the fast of the one who observes it!”

He replied, “God will grant this reward to whoever breaks the fast of the one who observes it albeit with a single date, a single gulp of water or watered down milk. It is a month whose beginning is mercy, whose middle part is forgiveness and whose end is emancipation from the Hell-fire. God has forgiven whoever lightens the burden of his servant therein and has emancipated him from the Hell-fire.
Seek to increase four acts therein; two acts by which you will please your Lord and two acts that you are in dire need of. As for the two acts by which you will please your Lord they are bearing witness that ‘there is no deity but God’ and to seek His forgiveness. As for the two acts that you are in dire need of they are that you ask Him for Paradise and that you take refuge in Him from the Hell-fire. And whoever quenches the thirst of one who observes the fast, God will quench his thirst with a drink from my basin by which he will never thirst thereafter.”

--This was related by Ibn Khuzaimah in his ‘sahih’ and al-Baihaqi in ‘the Branches of Faith.’