The virtue of Ramadan

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Salman al-Farisi (may Allah be pleased with him) that on the last day of Sha'ban the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) delivered a sermon to us, in which he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O people, a most blessed and great month has cast its shade over you. In it is a night that is better than a thousand months. Allah Almighty has made fasting in this month obligatory, and has made standing (in worship) in its nights voluntary (a meritorious act). Whoever performs any good deed in this month voluntarily will be like one who performed an obligatory act in other months, and whoever performs an obligatory act in it will be like one who performed seventy obligatory acts in other months. It is the month of patience, and the reward of patience is Paradise. It is the month of consoling and mutual sympathy, and it is the month in which the provision of the believer is blessed and increased. Whoever provides a fasting person with food to break his fast in it will have (the reward of) freeing a slave, and forgiveness of his sins." The Companions said: O Messenger of Allah, not every one of us has the means to provide a fasting person with food to break his fast. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Allah Almighty grants this reward even to the one who gives a fasting person his iftar with a sip of diluted milk, a single date or a sip of water. And whoever feeds a fasting person to his fill, his sins will be forgiven, and Allah Almighty will give him a drink from my Pond (al-Kawthar) after which he will never feel thirst until he enters Paradise; and he will also receive a reward equal to that of the fasting person, without the fasting person's own reward being diminished in the least. It is the month whose first part is mercy, whose middle part is forgiveness, and whose last part is freedom from the Fire of Hell. And whoever lightens the work of his slave (or subordinate) in this month, Allah Almighty will free him from Hell."
Explanation: The contents of this blessed hadith are of great importance in the chapter on the virtues of Ramadan, and they encourage the believer towards good deeds.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: "This is the month of Ramadan, which has come to you. In it the gates of the sky are opened, the gates of Hell are closed, and the devils are bound in chains. So whoever reaches the month of Ramadan and still is not forgiven, then when will he be forgiven after that?"
This hadith is da'if (weak) with respect to its chain.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) that when the month of Ramadan drew near, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "'Subhan Allah' (Glory be to Allah)! What a great thing you are welcoming! Or, what is it that is coming to welcome you?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said these words three times. At this Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) asked: O Messenger of Allah, has some new revelation come down? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No." He said: Is an enemy approaching? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No." He asked again: Then what is it? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, Allah Almighty forgives all the people of the qiblah on the very first night of the month of Ramadan." Meanwhile he (peace and blessings be upon him) looked at a man sitting in front of him who was shaking his head (in amazement) and saying: 'Bakhin bakhin' (Excellent, excellent! How wonderful!). So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked him: "Perhaps your chest is feeling tight at this?" He said: No, rather the hypocrites came to my mind. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The hypocrite is in reality a disbeliever, and the disbeliever has no share in this forgiveness."
Imam Ibn Khuzaymah recorded it and said: If this report is sound, (note that) I do not know about Khalaf and Amr bin Hamzah al-Qaysi either reliability or criticism.
The hadith of Sayyiduna Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) is found among the first hadith on the mention of the Prophets (peace and blessings be upon them).

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "My Ummah has been given five special qualities in the month of Ramadan that were not given to any Ummah before them: (first,) the smell of the mouth of the fasting person is purer with Allah Almighty than the fragrance of musk; the angels keep praying for their forgiveness until they break their fast; Allah Almighty adorns His Paradise every day and then says: 'Soon My fasting servants will cast off the hardships and troubles of the world and come to you'; in this month the rebellious devils are shackled, so they cannot reach the evils which they used to reach in other months; and on the last night of Ramadan these fasting people are forgiven." It was said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), is that the Night of Decree (Laylat al-Qadr)? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No; rather the rule is that when the worker completes his work, he is given his full wage."
This chain is da'if (weak).

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that he heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say, when the crescent of the month of Ramadan appeared: "If the servants knew what (blessings and virtues) lie hidden in Ramadan, my Ummah would wish that the whole year were Ramadan." At this a man from the tribe of Khuza'ah said: O Messenger of Allah, tell us its details. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, Paradise is adorned for Ramadan from the beginning of the year to its end, until, when the first day of Ramadan comes, a wind blows from beneath the Throne which strikes the leaves of the trees of Paradise. Seeing this (sight and hearing its sound), the wide-eyed maidens (al-hur al-'in) say: 'O our Lord, make for us, from among Your servants in this noble month, husbands by whom our eyes are cooled and whose eyes are cooled by us.' So every servant who fasts Ramadan is married to a wife from among the wide-eyed maidens, who is in a tent made of a single hollow pearl, as Allah Almighty has described them: 'Maidens secluded in pavilions' [Surah al-Rahman: 72]. Upon each of these women there will be seventy garments, the colour of each different from the other; she will be given seventy kinds of perfume, the scent of each different from the other; each of them will have seventy couches of red ruby inlaid with pearls; upon each couch there will be seventy beds whose linings are of thick silk brocade, and above those seventy beds seventy raised cushions. For the service of each woman there will be a thousand maidservants and a thousand servants; each servant will hold a golden bowl containing a different kind of food, in whose last morsel he will find a pleasure that he did not find in the first. And her husband will likewise be given (such honours) upon a couch of red ruby, upon which he will have two golden bracelets inlaid with red ruby. All these rewards are in return for each day of Ramadan, besides the good deeds that he performed (in this month)."
I (Ibn Hajar) say: Jarir bin Ayyub is alone in narrating this hadith, and he is a very weak narrator.
Imam Ibn Khuzaymah recorded it in his Sahih and said: If this report is proven sound (then well and good), for there is some unease in my heart about Jarir bin Ayyub. It appears that Imam Ibn Khuzaymah was lenient in (including) this hadith because it belongs to the chapter of encouragement and virtues.
Also, Ibn Mas'ud here does not refer to the famous Companion from Hudhayl (Abdullah bin Mas'ud), but to another Companion from Ghifar.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah and Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that these two eminent Companions said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) delivered a long sermon to us, which also contained this blessed statement: "Whoever fasts Ramadan and keeps himself from backbiting, tale-carrying, lying and indulging in vain and false talk, and restrains his tongue from every idle word except the remembrance of Allah Almighty, and guards his hearing, his sight and all his limbs from what Allah Almighty has forbidden and from harming the Muslims, will attain such a special nearness in the court of Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, that (in Paradise) his knee will be touching the knee of Ibrahim, the Intimate Friend of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)."
According to the critical imams, this hadith is mawdu' (fabricated).