"Farewell to you the greatest month of God and the feast of the lovers of Truth. Farewell to you the most munificent companion among the times and the best month among the days and hours."

"Farewell to you the month in which the fulfillment of wishes has become near and the deeds are scattered in it. Farewell to you the associate whose status is great and whose loss is very excruciating and the hoped whose distance is painful. Farewell to you, how big is the number of those whom God freed in you and how happy is the one who observed your respect with you!"

That was part of supplication 45 of Sahifa Sajjadia of Imam Zain al-Abedin, the fourth infallible successor of the Prophet of Islam. This supplication is indeed recited for bidding farewell to the blessed month of Ramazan. We are going to discuss some parts of this supplication and the supplication 44 of this book which Imam Sajjad recited in the start of Ramazan.

Prayer and supplication is sometimes performed as requesting for something which the demander is lacking and needs. However, at times it is higher than this stage and it is a manifestation of love. The prayer which originates in a loving spirit is the highest type of prayer.

Although Imam Zain al-Abedin or Sajjad (AS) has two supplications for both the start and end of the blessed month of Ramazan, his supplication for bidding farewell to Ramazan is full of delicacies of divine teachings and love of the servant to the Creator. Imam Sajjad teaches us that prayer is not limited to mere acquisition of something and it doesn't substitute our human and rational duties. In the Islamic culture, prayer is the manifestation of love, consciousness toward the world and great needs of mankind and the best way of connection with the metaphysical power. Hence, the supplications of this Imam are replete with praising and gratitude to the Creator. They contain the loftiest topics of individual and social ethics. Imam Sajjad (Peace upon him), taking into consideration the requirements of the time, has bequeathed the pristine teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt to the posterior in the shape of prayer and supplication. In fact, this book stresses mankind's communication with himself, God and others.

The Sahifa Sajjadia includes the words of a perfect man in the form of prayer and speaking with his Beloved. It teaches the most beautiful divine teachings to the eagers of solitude with God. The fourth immaculate heir of the Prophet of Islam, Imam Sajjad (AS), both at the time of seeing the crescent of the blessed month of Ramazan and at the time of bidding farewell to this month, speaks with Ramazan zealously and lovingly. Surveying these supplications helps us understand what bounteous banquet has approached us with the advent of Ramazan and what we lose with its termination. Imam Sajjad (AS) addresses the month of Ramazan, saying, "God made you the key of a new month for a new work. I ask God, who is my Lord and your Lord, my Creator and your Creator, my Provider and your Provider and my Fashioner and your Fashioner, to make you the month of blessing and the age may not reduce its blessing."

Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) introduces the blessed month of Ramazan in supplication 44, "The month of fasting and the month of Islam, the month of cleanness and the month of purity, the month of night vigilance and the month of the Qur'an, the month in which guidance and manifest proofs have been sent down for people."

Human being can reach the divine perfection in this month as these conditions are not set at all times. That's why Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) gives instructions to the faithful, saying, "Help us in this month to go to our relatives with goodness; and cooperate with our neighbors with donation and spending; and expurgate our properties from the rights of people; and purify them with zakat; and reconcile with anyone who has parted from us; to be fair with he who has wronged us; and make peace with he who has been hostile to us unless the one with whom we have been enemy in Your way and for Your sake, as he is the enemy whom we will not befriend and is from the party which we will not be harmonious and consonant with."

The Imam says in other part of his dialogue with the month of Ramazan, "Greetings to you the munificent companion among times and the best month among days and hours of my life!"

According to the divine teachings every affair and deed of mankind is connected to its own time. That's why the faithful make the best use of their time and deem some junctures of time specifically important for their journey toward God. Some of the junctures in time are indeed golden times which can determine human fate. The blessed month of Ramazan is the best period of the year for this purpose. In another part of his supplication, Imam Sajjad (AS) says, "Farewell to you! How many calamities departed us because of you, and how many goodness and blessings rained on us in your shade."

Here the Imam, on one hand calls Ramazan as a deterrent of evils and, on the other hand, describes it as a spring cloud which is the source of the rain of mercy.

In the end of the blessed month of Ramazan, Imam Sajjad (AS) would recite supplication 45 sadly, "The month of Ramazan was with us and it deserved praise because it brought mercy with itself and was a very good companion for us. We reached many merits and bounties in its company and conversation. It was a friend which brought mercy, forgiveness and blessing with itself." The Prophet of Islam, also, said before the advent of Ramazan, "Indeed, the month of Allah has turned toward you with blessing, mercy and forgiveness."

Anyone who has been the companion of this month, he will receive its blessing, mercy and forgiveness. In view of this, farewell is for the one who has been in communion with this month and loved it. It is very difficult for human being to bid farewell to a bosom friend or a nice companion. Imam Sajjad (AS) continues, "Farewell to you while bidding farewell to you is not out of distress and leaving your fasting is not because of wariness. Farewell to you as you were demanded before coming and saddened us before departure."

The message of this greeting and farewell is that the blessed month of Ramazan is living and aware. It can be addressed and talked to.