Asalamualikoum wa rahmatoAllahi wa barakatu.
I hope and pray everyone is doing well and is having a blessed Ramadan.
Indeed the month of Ramadan is blessed in multiple ways.
And it resembles the prayers that we perform daily in that Allah (swt) ordained daily prayers
on us so that we can dedicate a certain amount of time in our busy schedules to now devote
to Allah (swt) and turn back to him.
And we are instructed to do a number of things, which if done properly, can educate us how
to behave outside of the prayer as well.
So for instance, in our prayer we are instructed to keep our gaze in a particular place, we
are instructed not to speak except that what we are allowed to, we are instructed to keep
our tongue as moist with the remembrance of Allah (swt) so once we are done with the prayer
and we now return back to our normal activities we should also inculcate these qualities by
controlling our gaze, controlling our tongue, continuously remembering Allah (swt).
And this is a daily practice which helps us better ourselves.
The month of Ramadan is very similar except its on a more yearly basis.
That for eleven months we have a very normal, monotonous schedule and now we are asked to
get out of the normalcy of life and turn to Allah (swt) and there are many ways this can
benefit us particularly by adopting and inculcating certain qualities in this month that we can
maintain outside of the month of Ramadan.
We are ten days behind us, now the question comes, what can I do before the month slips
away from me?
And rightfully so so many people are rushing and hastening towards doing as much as they
can, increasing their worship, increasing their recitation of the Quran but I personally
feel for my own benefit, I try to maintain two qualities.
One is balance.
That yes, I want to make sure I increase my worship, I want to make sure that I increase
my recitation, I want to try to do as much good as possible but in the same breath it's
important for me to remind myself that let me not overburden myself to the point that
once the month is done I look back and I sigh with a sigh of relief, "oh finally the month
is done".
Rather it should be enjoyable, it should be something that I am able to manage, and hopefully
when the month comes to an end I can maintain these qualities outside of the month as well.
The second quality and trait that I personally would like to inculcate in these middle ten
days is balance and consistency.
Consistency is key.
"Istikamah" Because if I am able to do a small amount of 'amaal, actions, worship, then i
can do my best, my level best, to maintain those outside the month of Ramadan.
We learn from a number of authentic hadiths that the messenger of Allah (pbuh) said "'ahabo
al'amaali illAllahi 'adwamoha wa en qala" the most beloved actions in the sight of Allah
(swt) are those that are consistent although they are very minimal, even though they may
not seem a lot, but they are consistent.
So when i'm trying to meet my daily amount of Quranic recitation to complete the Quran
by the end of the month, let me not make it a burden.
Also when i'm trying to pray salah, and trying to pray tahajud, let me not make it a burden.
Yes i'm going to exert myself but not to the point where now I look back and say, "the
month of Ramadan is done I can now sigh with relief that its completed".
May Allah (swt) allow us to inculcate balance and consistency in our lives, ameen.
JazakoumAllah khayran wsalamualikoum wa rahmatollahi wa barakatu.