Some Common Doubts and Misconceptions Affiliated with the Merits of the Month of Ramaḍān and Their Clarification
*Doubt/Misconception 01: Whoever Dies during Ramaḍān Will Enter Paradise without Any Reckoning*
Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUthaymīn (رحمه الله) was asked: "Does the Messenger’s (ﷺ) statement: 'When Ramaḍān comes, the gates of Jannah are opened, the gates to the Fire are closed, and the Shayāṭīn are shackled' mean: whoever dies during Ramaḍān will enter Paradise without any reckoning? We hope for some clarification from you in this matter, and may Allāh reward you."
The Shaykh (رحمه الله) stated the following:
The affair is not like that; rather, this means that the gates of paradise are opened as a form of encouragement for the workers [i.e. those who are diligent in doing good deeds], in order to make it easy for them to enter into Paradise, and the gates of the Fire are closed for the people of īmān in order to abstain from sins, so that they will not approach these gates. It does not mean that whoever dies in Ramaḍān will enter Paradise without reckoning. The only ones who will enter Paradise without reckoning are those who execute what is binding upon them from righteous actions and possess the characteristics that the Messenger (ﷺ) has described them with when he said: "They are those who do not request ruqyá [performed on them], cauterisation, nor do they rely on omens, but rather, they rely upon their Lord."
● [Majmū‘ Fatāwá wā Rasāʾil al-ʿUthaymīn, vol. 20, pg. 76]