#ramadanathome

story time:

i was in the masjid praying taraweeh (socially distanced) when the musalla of the woman to my right caught my eye. in that moment, from that angle, i felt as though i was sitting in the haram facing the rawdah, in the exact spot i would usually be breaking my fast in. i was transported spiritually and i felt a peace of heart that i haven’t known for a long time. this is how ramadan is supposed to feel.

after ending the salah with salam, i turned to her and asked her where she had gotten her musalla from since it was so beautiful. she wasn’t sure but i told her that looking at it makes me feel like im in madinah. then we went on our merry ways finishing off the rest of the taraweeh.

as i turned my head to the left to read the last salaam of my witr, a bit of fabric caught my eye. i looked up confused and was met with the woman trying to hurry away. i called out to her, “oh, no! wait! i didn’t want your musalla, just to let you know that it’s beautiful.” yet she insisted i keep it.

this is the spirit of Nabi ﷺ that lives on in every one of us; magnifying this spirit is what ramadan is all about.

now, every time i pray on my new musalla, i don’t only feel like i’m in madinah, i feel the love of Nabi ﷺ thanks to the beautiful gesture of this kind woman.

alhumdulillah!

you made a mistake. you knew it was wrong, but you didn’t control your nafs. something inside you whispered it was wrong but you ignored that little voice. you’ve committed a sin. what now?

قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

say, "o My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. indeed, Allah forgives all sins. indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful." {sura zumar: aya 53}

our Lord ﷻ is most Forgiving, so fret not! all one has to do in order to seek Allah’s ﷻ mercy and forgiveness is tawbah.

what is tawbah?

tawbah literally means to return back, because by repenting we are essentially turning back to Allah ﷻ after turning away from Him ﷻ whilst choosing to sin.

how does one perform tawbah?

it has been reported that abu bakr ‏رضي الله تعالى عنه narrated that the Prophet ﷺ: “there is no one who commits a sin, then purifies himself and stands in salah and offers two raka’at and seeks forgiveness, except that Allah ﷻ will forgive him.”

tawbah consists of the salah and dua. 2 rak’ah nafl with the intention of tawbah followed by a sincere dua asking Allah ﷻ to forgive you and keep you in His ﷻ mercy is all you really need

there are three main requirements:

stopping the sin- you can’t ask for forgiveness for something that you are still involved in. cut the sin off from its core so you make be more firm in your repentance

sincere repentance-that guilty feeling you feel that won’t let you go? that’s a blessing. feeling remorse means Allah ﷻ wants to forgive you, all you have to do is reach out

a firm intention to never, ever commit that sin again- even if you’ve promised yourself this a hundred times, DO IT AGAIN! believe in yourself and ask Allah for His help in keeping your promise. deep down, we should believe that we won’t ever do anything to displease Allah ﷻ ever again

also, if the sin you want to repent from involved someone else’s rights, you must seek their forgiveness first. for example, if you stole from someone, you need to return the item before you can ask Allah ﷻ for forgiveness, otherwise you’re still oppressing your brother, and how can Allah ﷻ forgive the one that oppressed His ﷻ servants? however, if the sin was such that revealing it to the person now would cause them harm, conceal the sin and make abundant dua for your brother. for example, if two brothers backbite a third in complete privacy, it may be best not to reveal this to the third brother, especially if it will hurt him. rather, we can make sincere dua that Allah ﷻ places forgiveness in his heart for us and that Allah ﷻ also forgives our brother just as we want him to forgive us.

this is the most complete manner of tawbah that i know of. this is required when committing a major sin, like leaving salah on purpose or listening to music.

i pray this suffices the interested party.

every ramadan has many important lessons to teach us individually, but this year we’ve all learnt some collective lessons. here are the three that i feel deserve to be the most preserved and internalized:

Allah ﷻ does not reside in the masjid nor in the haram, but He ﷻ is with the believer

a major reason why we feel absolute euphoria when visiting the kaba is because it’s the first time in a long time that our sole focus is our relationship with Allah ﷻ. we pray, read His ﷻ quran, and make every dua that finds its way to our heart.

but Allah ﷻ isn’t only in the haram, nor is He ﷻ confines to the masjid. the reason we feel closer to Him ﷻ in these places is because entering them is the only time we attempt to put aside all of our worldly worries to focus on building a connection to Allah ﷻ. this ramadan, we learnt that Allah ﷻ is as much in our homes as He ﷻ is the masjid. in fact, He ﷻ is wherever we may be when we call upon Him ﷻ.

life becomes blissful when we adopt a mentality of, “Allah ﷻ has planned it out best for me”

much of our day to day stress comes from planning out the future and get rattled when things don’t go according to plan. some of us had travel plans. others were supposed to be getting married. some even lost their jobs or a loved one.

so much has happened in these last few months, but ramadan was our opportunity to reconcile all of our worldly plans with Allah ﷻ perfect predestination. internalizing the thought that, “had it happens the way i had wanted, i would have suffered or lost out on something better” or even better, “i got this because it’s the absolute best for me” is the key to unlocking a more content life. suddenly, stress melts away and tawakul in Allah’s ﷻ perfect plan replaces it.

the best deeds are those that are performed in difficulty

regardless of how much of an impact the worlds current state has had on your individual life, we can all agree that a great burden has taken hold of humanity. the healthy are now sick, the financially self-sufficient are now struggling, and the most social of men and women are trapped in their homes without any gatherings to attend.

this calls for gratitude for whatever state we may be in, and seizing every opportunity because well never know when our condition might change. however, it also teaches us the value of deeds that are performed in spite of adversity. the charity you give when you don’t know where your next meal is coming from. the salah you pray when your feeling sleepy. fasting at a time when everyone else is emphasizing the need to stay hydrated. we might overlook these obstacles, but Allah ﷻ doesn’t. He ﷻ sees and values and appreciates and records.

‏ربنا ‏زدنا علما

first thing’s first, it happens. beating yourself up now won’t change what’s already been done (or hasn’t been).

secondly, know that Allah ﷻ is the most forgiving, so if He ﷻ wants, He ﷻ can choose to overlook all the mistakes you’ve made and turn them into good deeds, so never👏🏻loose👏🏻hope

now, the most important thing is that you still have time. ramadan isn’t over yet. let’s work on making the absolute most of whatever’s left.

wrote down your goals- this will make them more tangible and once you place them somewhere visible, it’ll serve as a reminder of what you ought to be doing. be realistic about how big you make your benchmarks, but don’t completely dismiss your ability to give it your all once you get down to it (inshaAllah ﷻ)

make a plan- so, you know you want to recite the entire qu’ran this month, and you don’t have a full 30 days to do it anymore? that’s ok, plan out how much you can recite daily in order to complete your goal. similarly, have an approach for each individual goal so you’re not left wondering how to achieve them.

hold yourself accountable- this varies widely for different people. some like to use a chart or app to ensure they stay on track whilst others need a buddy to check in with. some need a variety of methods. figure out what works best for you and then commit to not letting yourself slide anytime you fail to complete an intended task

time is everything- as stated in sura asr, man is at a loss with time. it’s truly the one thing we can never get back. try to keep this in mind for the rest of the month, so that as soon as you feel you’re about to waste time on an app or doing something unnecessary, you snap yourself out of it. there are only 720 hours in ramadan, and out of that, you need time to eat, sleep, and use the bathroom. after that, every hour counts and we can’t afford to waste even one.

lastly, turn to Allah ﷻ for help- make dua to Allah ﷻ to help you make the most of this ramadan and keep firm faith in your ability to do so. if you have hope in Allah ﷻ’s mercy, He ﷻ will definitely take care of you.

a major element of ramadan is the nightly prayer known as taraweeh and many of us are accustomed to praying together in the masjid. however, this year, with the masaajid closed and no one to lead us at home, we’re on our own. you may find it difficult, but here are some tips to (hopefully) help:

staying motivated:

one of the most difficult parts about praying alone is finding the drive to actually get started. there are two major ways to combat this:

holding yourself accountable- if you know that you’re going to have to report back about whether or not you prayed taraweeh, you’re more likely to pray them. either have a taraweeh buddy who you text/call once you’re done (or even as you complete 2 rakaat) or choose a family member to pray alongside you. alternatively, you can be your own enforcer by keeping a log of how much you prayed that you review daily.

rewarding yourself once you’ve completed your goal- this may sound childish, but there was a reason our parents would treat us when we did well as kids: it works! set a particular personal reward for yourself that will drive you to complete your prayers. it doesn’t have to be something positive like getting to eat ice cream (although that’s certainly motivating me right now🤤). in fact, you can go the negative route, like no screen time until i have prayed all of my salah. this is a great way to get rid of distractions as well.

which bring us to our next point,

focus and concentration:

a major difficulty in praying for so long is remaining attentive throughout. we want to not only be concerned by quantity, but also the quality of our salah. get rid of distractions like your cell phone and laptop. focus on the meaning of what you’re saying. and take your time. there’s really no way to concentrate on the salah when you’re trying to set a world record for fastest qaari.

it’s not a competition:

it’s not a quran competition to see if you can recite all of surah baqara. if the only surahs you know are the last ten of the 30th juz, that’s perfectly perfect. in fact, those are some of the most profound and beautiful surahs of the quran. it hurts my heart to know that some people look down on reciting surah ikhlaas in salah just because of its length. surah ikhlaas is one of the most beautiful surahs in the quran.

Aisha ‏رضي الله تعالى عنها narrarares that:

The Prophet ﷺ sent (an army unit) under the command of a man who used to lead his companions in the prayers and would finish his recitation with ( Sura Ikhlaas): 'Say (O Muhammad): "He is Allah, the One." ' (112.1) When they returned (from the battle), they mentioned that to the Prophet ﷺ. He ﷺ said (to them), "Ask him why he does so." They asked him and he said, "I do so because it mentions the qualities of arRahman and I love to recite it (in my prayer)." The Prophet ﷺ; said (to them), "Tell him that Allah ﷻ loves him" {Sahil Al-Bukhari: Volume 9: Book 93: Hadith 472}

similarly, many of the smaller surahs have a beautiful meaning, and if we were to understand and ponder over the meaning, we would never underestimate their value.

converse with Allah ﷻ

remember, this time is precious and this is a chance for you to build up your relationship with Allah ﷻ in a way that you won’t be able to do for the rest of the year. regardless of how many rakaat you pray, it’s imperative to rectify one’s intention consistently.

thirty days have come and gone, and now it’s time to move on...

‏قال الحبيب ﷺ" وَإِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُ بِالْخَوَاتِيمِ ‏"‏‏

our Beloved Prophet ﷺ has said, “verily, (the rewards of) the deeds are decided by the last actions (deeds)"

on this final day of ramadan let us strive to end of ramadan on the best possible note. let’s use this extra time to accomplish those ‏أعمال we wished to do but didn’t.

if you’re feeling down about not having had the best ramadan this year, remember that the success of any ramadan is judged by the change that remains in the servant even after it has gone. so if you were able to eradicate even one bad habit, or you established one good habit, then know that you’ve reaped the fruit of ramadan

i pray that Allah ﷻ accepts all of our fasting, our prayers, our duas, our zakaat, our sadaqah, and all our good deeds, despite how incomplete and lacking in sincerity they were