Assalam Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu!
May the peace, mercy and blessings of Allah swt be upon you! :)
Before anything else, Ramadan Mubarak!
May this Ramadan bring forth abundant blessings and goodness into your lives!
May Allah swt make this Ramadan a time when you get closer to Allah and His mercy and reach for success and contentment in this life and the Hereafter.
May He protect you against all harm and worries and ease all affairs for you, accept your good deeds and ease for you the path to Jannah al Firdous!
May Allah swt forgive all our sins, grant cure to the sick, provide comfort and solace for the broken hearts and establish justice for the oppressed. Ameen.
Alhamdullilah.
All Praise and Thanks belongs to Allah swt for allowing us to reach another Ramadan. This is in itself a sign that Allah swt loves you, He wants to forgive you and bestow upon you an abode where all your needs and demands will be fulfilled, where there is no room for negativity and sadness and where you will be allowed to meet and greet your Lord. Subhan Allah!
Through the entire course of this month, I will be publishing Ramadan Reminders - comprising 3 topics:
- Daily Islamic Reminders
- Verse of the Day
- Sunnah Challenge
I pray to Allah that it serves to be beneficial for you as it has been for me.
Starting with the Daily Reminder 1:
The first day of Ramadan is usually the most challenging in terms of trying to curb the hunger and thirst. Sometimes, the climate, working conditions, work load and even travelling gets the better of us. It becomes quite hard to control our emotions and continue with the fast while maintaining its sacredness.
At such times, we fail to utilise the fasting hours for ibadah, dhikr and Quran recitations and wait anxiously for the time of Iftar. Some of us would pass orders to kitchen as to what we anticipate for the first iftar meal of the month. :P
In this process, we become hasty and prepare a lot more food than what is actually required.
The entire objective of Ramadan is to instil patience and self-control and to increase the love for Allah and His deen in our hearts. This will not happen if we are in a hurry to eat to satisfy our taste and waste food which is totally against the purpose of this sacred month.
How do we expect to enjoy the benefits, the mercy and blessings of Allah if we fail to achieve the purpose of Ramadan?
Yes, it is the Sunnah of Rasulullah (saws) to hasten to break the fast as soon as the Maghrib adhaan has been called out or it is established that the sun has set. But this is with the intention that you have completed your fast for the sake of Allah and you’re nourishing yourself to worship Allah through the night. Not with the intention of filling your stomach to the full and satisfying the taste buds.
May Allah swt provide ease during the fasting hours and reward us abundantly for fulfilling this obligation towards Him. Ameen.
Verse of the Day:
Ramadan is the month of the Quran, undoubtedly. We are encouraged to increase the number of good deeds in this month, offer voluntary prayers and recite the Quran abundantly.
What I feel is understanding the Quran should be our focus than rushing to complete the Quran this month. Sure, for a recitation of a single letter, we’re rewarded with 10 good deeds and these 10 will be multiplied (only Allah knows by how many times) during this month.
But understanding the Quran brings forth a number of benefits. The most important according to me is applying the knowledge of the Quran in our daily lives.
It is an undeniable fact that certain times it becomes difficult to walk on the path of the knowledge of the Quran, the reason being the shaitan ofcourse. He is on a roll when we try to understand the Book of Allah and implement the knowledge in our lives.
But since this month is free of the evil one and his whisperings, we should utilise this opportunity in learning and understanding Allah’s Book, His guidelines and walk by this knowledge.
In sha Allah we will learn about one ayah every day from each juz, and hence complete all 30 juz by the end of Ramadan.
May Allah swt make it easy for us to understand His Book and walk on the path of knowledge. Ameen.
The ayah for the first day is from;
Juz: 1
Surah: Al Baqarah
Verse: 44
أَتَأْمُرُونَ النَّاسَ بِالْبِرِّ وَتَنسَوْنَ أَنفُسَكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ تَتْلُونَ الْكِتَابَ أَفَلاَ تَعْقِلُونَ
“Do you order righteousness of the people and forget yourselves while you recite the Scripture? Then will you not reason?”
You might have come across the English proverb, “Practice what you preach”. In a nut shell, this ayah is exactly the same.
When we learn something new, could be a hadith or a Sunnah or verse from the Quran, we’re expected to share this knowledge. But before we do that, we should be implementing that knowledge in our lives. We can’t be preaching good when we don’t practice any of it. It is not logical when an individual enjoins those around him to offer charity or be kind to others when he himself doesn’t follow it. This is plain hypocrisy and is unacceptable in Islam.
The above verse inquires all those who do not understand that they should enjoin righteousness on themselves first and do accordingly to be as an example, and then expect others to obey or follow them.
Experience has proved that words which are uttered only by the tongue, as simple statements, physically strike the ears and perish. But reasonable speech that arises from the soul and reality, settles in souls firmly and affects hearts deeply.
Sunnah Challenge 1
How often is it that we tell Bismillah or greet Salaam before we enter our homes?
Often we rush into a haste, fail to watch which foot we set in first, and run into our comfort zones forgetting some of the most important supplications before we enter.
Invoking Allah's name before entering our homes is not only a way to remember Allah or add rewards to our account, but it is also a way to protect our homes from the Shayateen!
Jabir bin Abdullah (ra) reported Allah's Messenger (SAW) as saying:
"If a person mentions the Name of Allah upon entering his house or eating, Satan says, addressing his followers: `You will find no where to spend the night and no dinner.' But if he enters without mentioning the Name of Allah, Satan says [To his followers]; 'You have found [A place] to spend the night in, and if he does not mention the Name of Allah at the time of eating, Satan says: `You have found [A place] to spend the night in as well as food."
(Sahih Muslim, Book 23, 5006)
Along with protection, by saying a Bismillah, entering our homes with a Salam could bring Rizq, protection and even open the doors of Jannah for us!!
The Prophet(SAW) said:
“There are three who are under the protection of Allah and if he lives, he will be provided for and it will be sufficient for him, and if he dies, Allah will enter him into Jannah: whoever enters his house and gives the salaam, whoever goes out to the masjid, and whoever leaves in the way of Allah.”
(Sunan Abi Dawud)
May Allah swt make it easy for us to implement the knowledge we gain, reward us and our families abundantly, bless us with peace and contentment and bestow on us the highest level of Jannah! Ameen.
Assalam Alaykum.
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