Ramadan is gone… what to do now?

It feels like just the other day we have started fasting and now the great month is over! I am missing Ramadan. Allah swt makes everything easier in Ramadan. Everything becomes so special during Ramadan. We feel more motivated to perform act of worship in order to please our Lord. Shayateen are chained up and the doors of jannah are open. Apparently Jannah gets decorated again in order to celebrate this sacred month. Mosques are packed with Muslims. Families get busy with iftar parties. Children are also willing to fast, asking their parents to wake them up for sehri. Even the Muslims who don’t pray their obligatory five prayers throughout the year try to fast and do their best in this holy month. To sum it up, almost everybody is in Ramadan Mode!

As a mother of two very young children, I was a bit worried before the start of Ramadan. I was wondering whether I will be able to fast, pray taraweeh and tahajjud and so on. Alhamdulillah Allah swt helped me to do as much as possible but I wish I could have done more. I think after Ramadan everybody feels like that. Our predecessors, the companions of our beloved prophet saw used to prepare six months before Ramadan so that they can do a lot during Ramadan. Unfortunately I didn’t do that much preparation and that’s why I regret not doing enough. I don’t know whether I will be given the opportunity to witness the next Ramadan. One of my very close friends was diagnosed with cancer during Ramadan 2007 and she passed away in February 2008. She was around my age. We tend to think that death is not going to come to us now as we are young! We are deluded by our own nafs and the Shaytan, thinking we have got plenty of time to waste!

Let us try our best to carry on acting upon the good deeds we have tried to do in Ramadan even if it’s the minimum we can do. In Ramadan we try to pray quite a lot of supererogatory (nawafil) prayers on top of obligatory one. We need to try to maintain that salah mode even if it means to do only two rakah as nafl salah. Allah swt loves the actions which are small but done on a regular basis. He is so Merciful and Generous to us that He has given us the wonderful opportunity to get the reward of fasting the WHOLE YEAR by just doing Ramadan fast and the fasting of only six days in Shawal! Shawal is here now so let us fast six days in this month Insha-Allah.

Our companions used to ask Allah swt for six months after Ramadan to accept their deeds done in Ramadan and they used to prepare for the next Ramadan the rest of the year by asking Allah swt to grant them the tawfiq to witness the next Ramadan. Let us follow them and do our best to be close to our Lord, Allah swt.

Ramadan is the month of training. It is the month of the Qur’an. Through fasting in Ramadan we are supposed to gain Taqwa (God-consciousness i.e. Fear and Love of Allah swt). Muslims try to recite the whole of the Qur’an in this month but unfortunately we tend to leave the Qur’an on the top shelf gathering dust rest of the year! The Qur’an is given to us for everyday of our life. This is the manual we need to refer back to on a regular basis in order to live our life as good Muslims. Our prophet saw and his companions followed the Qur’an on a day to day basis. They used to remind each other to read, recite and reflect on this great Book. They knew how vital Qur’an is to please Allah swt and reach jannah. Let us try to study the Qur’an on a regular basis and try to act upon the Qur’an. Our children will never understand and love their faith if we as parents don’t follow the Qur’an. We need to lead by example!

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