Be happy Folks! Ramadan is on its way! With only a few days left it is pretty urgent to start with preparations. We want this month to be so perfect, because it’s a once in a year opportunity and we don’t want to mess it up, right? No, please!
You might be thinking now, Arwa… aren’t you a little bit late with this post? I would tell you, I hope you didn’t need me to realize it earlier that you should start with preparations. So I hope that you all have already giving Ramadan some thought. That would have been the best thing (not judging!). But it’s true. I’m a little late with this post because I was a little late with the preps for the holy month. Whatever the reason was, we still got time and I’d like to share with you which preps I want to make, or I think is important to make. It’s also a good thing that Ramadan starts on monday insha’Allah, since it’s a good post to hang under the tag #MondayMotivation. So here are hopefully some motivational thoughts for you to start Ramadan in a good and blessed way.
1. Make up your yet to fast days.
If you haven’t fast al the days you should have fast of last years Ramadan then it is really important that you use the few of days ahead of us until Ramadan to fast them. Think good and think hard: are you sure you have fasted all your missed days? And if you’re not sure, fast those upcoming days, sweetheart because in my philosophy it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Whoever has failed to fast Ramadan, or has broken the fast during it, for a legitimate excuse such as sickness, travel or menses, he’s required to make up the days that he did not fast. Allah, Subhannaho wa ta3ala, says:
And whoever is ill or on a journey, the same number (of days which one did not observe fasts) must be made up from other days. {2:185}
2. Make a Quran planning.
It is mustahab (loved and/or appreciated) to complete the Quran during Ramadan. There are many hadiths which back this up. One of them is narrated by Al-Bukhari:
Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be please with him) said: Jibreel used to review the Quran with the Prophet (peace be upon him) once every year, and he reviewed it with him twice in the year in which he passed away.
The Quran has an average of 604 pages, depends on the design of every Quran, and how old the version is. But most Qurans these days have 604 pages. If you want to complete the Quran during Ramadan than you have to make a planning for 30 days (or 29 days, but lest go for 30 days). 604 : 30 = 20,133~ So you’ll have to read 20 pages every days. Now you might think this is easily done – and I’m not saying that it isn’t – but once you skip one day, you’re looking at 40 pages to be on track again. Thát is not easy, especially if Arabic is not your mother tongue or you Fusha (Classical Arabic) is not great. So try to read every day 20 pages to make it easy for yourself.
You can also prefer to plan your number in a way that you read more during the last ten days of Ramadan. Many people maximize their last ten days of Ramadan. They do that with prayers, dua’s, charities and also with reading the Quran. It’s Sunnah, the Prophet, peace be upon him, used to exert himself in devotion during the last ten nights to a greater extent than at any other time (Muslim). The reason for this is because of Lailatul Qadr (the Night of Power). This night is described in the Quran as, “better than a thousand months” {97:3}. Any action done on this night such as reciting the Quran, remembering Allah, actions of charity… anything is better than acting for one thousand months which do not contain the night of Qadr. So planning to read more during those last ten days is an excellent idea. But you need to be sure that you’ll be able to keep up, because reading more during the last days, means that you can read less during the first three weeks. If you can’t keep up with your planning during the last ten days, then you’ll most likely fail your planning, since the most pages were planned on the last days. So be sure!
3. Make sure you have enough dates in-house.
No joke, this is super important. Not only is it recommended to break your fast on dates, it is recommended to do so by 3, 5 or 7 (and so on) dates.
It was narrated by Ahmed that the prophet Muhammed (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Break your fast by eating dates, if not, do it by water as it is purifying.
Also, it is narrated by Abu Ya’la:
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to like to break his fast by eating three dates or something that had not been touched by fire.
But this is a weak hadith, so it has not been proven.
However, some scholars say that it is mustahab (loved and/or appreciated) to make everything odd-numbered.
Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzaan (may Allah reward him) was asked:
Should making things odd-numbered be done with regard to all permissible things, such as drinking coffee and the like, or is it only with regard to things concerning which a text has been narrated (hadith)?
The Shaykh’s answer may be summed up as follows:
All words and deeds should be made odd-numbered. This is the Sunnah.
Shaykh Abd al-Kareem al-Khudayr (may Allah reward him) was asked:
Will we be rewarded for making things odd-numbered as an act of devotion when eating, drinking and so on?
He replied:
Yes, we will be rewarded for doing that as an act of devotion. So if a person eats dates, he should eat one, or three or seven, an odd number, because Allah loves that which is odd-numbered.
And last but not least, it was narrated by Abd ar-Razzaaq from Ma‘mar, from Ayyoob, from Ibn Sireen, from Abu Hurayrah, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Verily Allah is One and loves that which is odd-numbered.
So to come back to the dates… breaking your fast with 3, 5 or 7 dates is a good thing which we should all take seriously. Now, if we do the math, we’ll know that there are 30 days in Ramadan (or 29, but let’s go with 30 for now). 30 x 3 = is 90 dates. 90 days per person in your household. Our household has 8 persons. Well, 90 x 8 = 720 dates! That is if we go with the smallest number. And that’s if we only go with dates during Iftar. What I didn’t tell you yet is that the best of suhoor is eating dates since the Prophet (S) said (narrated by Sahih):
How excellent are dates as the believer’s Suhoor
So don’t run out on dates in Ramadan! Very important.
4. Decorate!
I see it as a huge responsibility for every Muslim, especially the Muslims who live in a western country to decorate their homes during Ramadan. Let people know that we’ve got something to celebrate and share the happiness and the blessings of this month with them. I think it is important to make clear that we also have events that are as important as theirs if we wan t to create a bond of understanding and mutual respect.
Also, many kids grow up and see everything get glitterly and glammerly during their feasts and celebrations. We owe it to them to make sure they also see this happen with the feasts that we desperately want them to give a cozy place in their hearts.
Besides, isn’t so much nicer and appealing to wake up for suhur when your living room looks something like this:
5. Get rid of your bad habits.
Whether it’s drinking too much coffee, smoking cigarettes or maybe other things that you do. Try to get rid of them before the month Ramadan starts. We tend to think: ”These are the last days that I’m able to do this or that, or to have this or that… No dude! You ain’t dead yet. And Ramadan doesn’t last forever. And why not start with the good intention to stop your bad habits through this month? You see where I’m coming from?
Plan it in a way that two weeks before Ramadan, you already stopped and can live without it. That way you’ll start Ramadan in a much better state of mind because you won’t be thinking of those bad habits during the first week, all day long so you can focus on what really matters: worshipping Allah, reflecting on yourself and create a better self.
May Allah grant us strength and patience to be able to endure this Ramadan and to make it the best Ramadan we’ve ever had. May Allah accept all our prayers and our good deeds. May He bless us and grant us enough time to experience more Ramadans to come.
Don’t forget to pray for our Muslim brothers and sisters in Palestine, Jemen, Egypt and all around the world who are suffering from war violence. Pray for all the innocent around the world. May Allah accept our prayers.
What do you think is important for the month Ramadan? And how did you prepare for it?
Until next time,
Arwa Shahin
