Tips on Making the Most of Ramadan: Part 2

Asalam Aleykom!

      Let's continue with Part 2 of "Tips on Making the Most of Ramadan."

4. Be around so7ba sal7a (Good company)

سُوۡرَةُ الکهف

وَٱصۡبِرۡ نَفۡسَكَ مَعَ ٱلَّذِينَ يَدۡعُونَ رَبَّہُم بِٱلۡغَدَوٰةِ وَٱلۡعَشِىِّ يُرِيدُونَ وَجۡهَهُ ۥ‌ۖ وَلَا تَعۡدُ عَيۡنَاكَ عَنۡہُمۡ تُرِيدُ زِينَةَ ٱلۡحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنۡيَا‌ۖ وَلَا تُطِعۡ مَنۡ أَغۡفَلۡنَا قَلۡبَهُ ۥ عَن ذِكۡرِنَا وَٱتَّبَعَ هَوَٮٰهُ وَكَانَ أَمۡرُهُ ۥ فُرُطً۬ا (٢٨)

“And keep yourself patient [by being] with those who call upon their Lord in the morning and the evening, seeking His countenance. And let not your eyes pass beyond them, desiring adornments of the worldly life, and do not obey one whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance and who follows his desire and whose affair is ever [in] neglect.”

5. Make the most of Qiyam: 

               - Have Suhoor

              - Ask Allah for anything! Beg as if you are a child who wants their parents consent on something.

               - Read Qur’an

               - Ask Allah for forgiveness

6.  There may be small bumps that will take you away from 3ibadat (practicing), so be cautious. These things may be TV shows or people that will stop you from doing good deeds. Lower your gaze to this dunya and focus on the bigger more important picture.

Use new duaas that you aren’t used to using and understand them so that you can recite them with more emotion and sincerity.

7.  Be careful of bigger bumps that may take you steps backward when you just started to move forward. Things that cause much bigger bumps include Al 3ojb (which was mentioned above).

When you start being proud of your accomplishments remember that Allah is the reason behind them. When you are blessed with a gift from Allah be thankful for the gift and don’t let it cause you to forget Who gave it to you. Always be in need of Allah, without Him we are nothing and be sincere with your actions.

8. Make the most of the last 10 days of Ramadan and await  laylit Al Qadr (The Night of Power).

9. Evaluate yourself through Ramadan and get rid of things that went wrong. To make up for the things that went wrong you can carry out zakat al fitr.

10. Husn zun bi Allah; expecting good from Allah or being optimistic towards Allah

"يَقُولُ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى: أَنَا عِنْدَ ظَنِّ عَبْدِي بِي، وَأَنَا مَعَهُ إِذَا ذَكَرَنِي، فَإِنْ ذَكَرَنِي فِي نَفْسِهِ، ذَكَرْتُهُ فِي نَفْسِي، وَإِنْ ذَكَرَنِي فِي مَلَإٍ، ذَكَرْتُهُ فِي مَلَإٍ خَيْرٌ مِنْهُمْ، وَإِنْ تَقَرَّبَ إِلَيَّ بِشِبْرٍ، تَقَرَّبْتُ إِلَيْهِ ذِرَاعًا، وَإِنْ تَقَرَّبَ إِلَيَّ ذِرَاعًا، تَقَرَّبْتُ إِلَيْهِ بَاعًا(1) وَإِنْ أَتَانِي يَمْشِي، أَتَيْتُهُ هَرْوَلَةً"

رواه البخاري (وكذلك مسلم والترمذي وابن ماجه)

Allah the Almighty said: 'I am as My servant thinks I am (1). I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assembly better than it. And if he draws near to Me an arm's length, I draw near to him a fathom's length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him at speed."

انا عند ظن عبدي بي فليظن عبدي بي ما شاء
 

And Allah knows best.

May Allah purify our hearts and guide us to the straight path.

Ramadan Kareem and Jazakom Allahu Khayra! 

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Tips on Making the Most of Ramadan: Part 1

                           Tips on Making the Most of Ramadan: Part 1

Asalam Aleykom w Rahmato Allahu w Barakato lovely people!    

         I just attended a very beneficial Ramadan preparation lecture. Allahuma Bale3’na Ramadan! We have beautiful and blessed days ahead of us insha’Allah and we must make the most of them. I would like to thank Miss Hoda for giving a lovely lecture and I would like to thank Brother Abdulrahman Maged for helping me out,  Jazakom Allahu Khayra!

                         The lecture started out with a couple of important reminders:

- It is important to note that Ramadan is not a destination rather it is a tool that we use to improve ourselves.

- The aya that orders us to fast:

سُوۡرَةُ البَقَرَة

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ كُتِبَ عَلَيۡڪُمُ ٱلصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبۡلِڪُمۡ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَّقُونَ (١٨٣)

Surah Al-Baqara

O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous  (183)

- What is Taqwa?

                 According to Ali Ibn Abi Talib, “Taqwa (God-consciousness) is to fear the Almighty; to act upon the revelation; to be content with little, and to prepare for the day of travel.”

- In order to improve ourselves we must get rid of the diseases in our hearts:

                The heart must be taken care of because; as Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said; "Beware, in the body there is a piece of flesh; if it is sound, the whole body is sound and if it is corrupt the whole body is corrupt, and hearken it is the heart." [Sahih Muslim]

              When the heart is sound, so are our actions which are based on our intentions; Ibn Al-Qayyim said, “When man’s love, knowledge and aspiration is directed in this worldly way, the heart becomes narrow and gloomy as it is distant from the source of its revival and life.”

              We must us the Qur’an to fix our hearts; "O mankind! There has come to you an instruction (Quran) from your Lord, a cure for whatever (disease) is in your hearts, a guidance and a blessing for the true believers."  [Yunus - 10:57]

سُوۡرَةُ یُونس

يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ قَدۡ جَآءَتۡكُم مَّوۡعِظَةٌ۬ مِّن رَّبِّڪُمۡ وَشِفَآءٌ۬ لِّمَا فِى ٱلصُّدُورِ وَهُدً۬ى وَرَحۡمَةٌ۬ لِّلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ (٥٧)

                                             Tools to Change the Heart

1.     Search your heart with sidk (sincerity):

Look for the flaws such as;

1.           Riya2; doing things to show off in other words not for Allah but for people to complement you

2.     Love of worldly things

3.    7asad; Jinxing or being envious of what others have.

4.     Soo2 el zun; being pessimistic towards or questioning; others, Allah, life, etc. When you feel pessimism towards something say:

اللهم لاَ خَيْرَ إلا خَيْرُكَ وَلاَ طَيْرَ إلا طَيْرُكَ وَلاَ إِلَهَ غَيْرُكَ ) .

5.     I7tikar el zonoob; belittling the sins that you are guilty of

6.     Al 3ojb; being pleased with oneself and actions that one becomes conceited. Ibn Qayim had a saying which basically means that if you feel that you reached a point where you perfected your faith and you have no flaws then you are in big trouble.

The things mentioned above are only a couple of the diseases of the heart. If you want help in overcoming the diseases of the heart, you can watch Moez Masoud’s show; “Thawra 3ala El Nafs.”

The diseases of the heart take are considered as cancer of the soul. They take away thawab and stop you from doing good deeds. Your heart becomes weak heart which makes its immunity weak and the smallest fitna can ruin you heart. So Ask Allah for a pure heart.

Abu Bakr (RA) asked Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) what a good duaa would be to say in prayer and the Prophet (PBUH) said:

اللهم إني ظلمت نفسي ظلماً كثيراً، و لا يغفر الذنوب إلا أنت. فاغفر لي مغفرة من عندك و ارحمني إنك أنت الغفور الرحيم.

2.  Decide your goal. What goals do you want to accomplish during Ramadan?

3.  Fix the heart:

   -Don't belittle the smallest sin.

-             Talk to Allah and tell Him everything.

-             Get rid of debt; for example if you owe people money pay them back. If you gossiped about someones ask for their forgiveness or make duaa for them or spend in charity so that Allah forgives you.

-             Forgive

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You and YOUR Actions...That's it

  

                                      By: Mariam Ghanem

Let me begin by warning you; that this is a rant. Lately I’ve noticed that people of my own religion are insulting me. Comments like, “All hijabis are [explicit], so what difference does it make if I wear hijab or not?” or “I’m a better Muslim than most of the hijabis I know;” are very degrading.

There are so many things wrong with those comments. Before I go any further, let me apologize if my comments come off as offensive that is honestly the last thing I want to do. The first reason that those comments bother me is the generalization. There are about 8 billion people on this planet, many of which are probably hijabis. Those comments insult billions of sisters. No matter how many friends you have on Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr, do you mean to tell me that you know a billion people? Just because you meet a couple of hijabi sisters who are not fulfilling your idea of Islamic decorum does not mean that ALL hijabis are the same. In the society we live in these days, everyone is struggling for “individualism” and “independence.” What’s interesting is that many of the people throwing these comments are advocating such ideologies as independence, yet they are completely contradicting them with their ignorant comments. We are all completely different from one another so there really is no point in creating such stereotypes.

            This brings me to my next point. As Muslims, we are constantly explaining to the outside world that you must not look to Muslims to learn Islam, rather you should look to Islam to learn Islam. Read the Qur’an and the Seerah, we tell our non-Muslim friends, and learn what Islam is really about. Because of this blind stereotype that is being placed on hijabis, we are doing the exact same thing as people who claim that “terrorism” is synonymous to “Islam”. We are forgetting the basic Islamic teachings because shaytan (Satin) is doing his job and leading us astray. Hijab is clearly stated in the Qur’an:

“And tell the believing women to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which [necessarily] appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests.” 24:31 Qur’an

         Yet some sisters use the actions of others as an excuse to ignore what is written in the Qur’an. On the Day of Judgment, you stand alone. You have no one and nothing to speak for you but your actions. So, on the Day of Judgment, that hijabi girl that you claim “isn’t Muslim enough”, will not be there to stand as an excuse for why you chose not to wear hijab. You cannot call on her actions to justify why you chose not to abide by something clearly stated in the Qur’an. You see, in the life we are living now, it does not matter what everyone else is doing because at the end of the day, you are not being tested based on the choices of others.

       Your life is your test. Your choices are your answers. So do not waste your time judging others because you don’t know what is really going on with them. Allah is the only one who has a right to judge, for He is perfection. You are not perfect, and I am certainly not perfect, therefore how dare we judge others for their mistakes when we make so many?

  

"On the Day a man will flee from his brother, And his mother and his father, And his wife and his children, For every man, that Day, will be a matter adequate for him." 80:34-37 Qur'an

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