Maximizing on Laylat ul Qadr

 

Laylatul Qadr is more than 1000 months.

1hr = 120 months

1 minute = 2 months

1 second = 22 hours (more than a day)

Make even eating and sipping water for Allah

Pray congregational Isha and every Jama3a prayer thereafter with imam (equals whole night of qiyam)

Pray Isha and fajr at the mosque (equals whole night of qiyam)

Do qiyam all night !

(that’s 3 nights worth in 1 night times 1000 months !)

Make dua for the ummah to receive so much more reward than just for yourself.

Pass this on and make a days reward each time 1 person saves a second !!

Day 1: Review and Renew

Assalamu Alaikum,

Jazakum Allahu Khairan for following us these 30 days in preparation for the blessed month of Ramadan. Our beloved guest has almost arrived. Before our guest comes, today’s tip is to sit for a few moments and review each previous tip briefly, and once again renew our intentions. Even if this is the first time you are looking at the countdown, these tips can still be used as your crunch-time inspiration insha Allah. Please forward and facebook today’s post far and wide, and get the reward of everyone who benefits from even a single tip insha Allah. This list has been compiled for your convenience from each day:

Day 30: Make a list of your goals, make dua to Allah for each one, and renew your intentions for every action in your day.

Day 29: Get rid of internal friction by building the habits you want for Ramadan early on, purifying your nafs each day.

Day 28: Reconnect to the Quran. If you have been distant, start with at least 20 min. a day, and take a lesson from it each day.

Day 27: If your reliance is on Allah, you don’t lose hope when a downfall occurs. Stop relying on yourself and rely on Him for an illuminated beginning and end.

Day 26: Add just 2 rakahs more than what you usually pray after Isha, and habituate yourself on Qiyam al-Layl. Make dua just 30 min. before Fajr as well.

Day 25: Pass over dunya swiftly, taking only what you need from it and continuing on. Eat moderately at iftar focusing on  your worship afterwards instead of your food.

Day 24: Increase your love of the Prophet (saw) by regularly reading and reflecting on his seerah, by making salawat (peace and blessings) on him and his family, and by following the guidance he came with, imagining how we would act if he was present and among us (saw).

Day 23: Make dua during the preferred times, and as much as possible while never despairing in the answer from Allah.

Day 22: Reconnect and maintain your family ties and Allah (swt) will bless your rizq and prolong your life.

Day 21: Identify your favorite types of worship and start doing them more often. Realize that different contexts in life make different acts of worship more beloved and/or rewarded so find the worships of your context and embrace them.

Day 20: Strive for concentration in prayer by having presence of the heart, witnessing of the mind, stillness of the body, and humility expressed in your limbs.

Day 19: Have true tawakkul by leaving the consequences  and results up to Allah with full trust in His perfect plan, while focusing instead on your immediate responsibilities and choices that He did grant you some control over.

Day 2: Taking Initiative to Give Back

By: Muslema Purmul

“And whoever volunteers good – then indeed, Allah is appreciative and Knowing.”

I was really inspired this Sha’baan because I found out that a wonderful Muslim couple I know took initiative in a beautiful way to raise money for the dire situation in Somalia. They had a fundraising dinner in their home which they invited their acquaintances to. Fifteen people came masha Allah. They cooked for the group themselves and sold each dinner plate for £ 20.00, and they also had an auction. One of the touching things the wife had mentioned was that they couldn’t keep hearing about the situation on the news and wait for somebody else to do something. They had planned on attending and helping with the larger community fundraising dinners if and when they occurred, but they felt they could do more in the meantime rather than simply waiting. In fact, she had discussed this in her halaqah and every sister was supposed to host a small fundraising in their home too! Imagine if 6 couples each were able to host 15 people, over a hundred people would be included in a single effort to raise funds and awareness for an important cause, without making a single flyer! This particular couple raised £420 on the day and a couple of hundred since masha Allah!

With so many organizations serving the community, sometimes Muslims have become lax on themselves, forgetting that in their own personal lives there are so many opportunities to volunteer good, to initiate, and give back.

Day 3: This Ramadan I Will…

This Ramadan, I will …

A personal plan for the month of Ramadan – By Guest Contributor Wael Hamza taken with his express permission for this site, originally posted on: http://www.mastarbiya.org/resources/lighthouse/episode_2/ramadanschedule.pdf

A very important set of questions  comes to my mind every time I hear the hadith of the Prophet (pbuh) in which he said, “The month of Ramadan has come to you, a blessed month …” Were the several months of Ramadan I went through in my life blessed months? What kind of blessings did they bring to my life and how did they do so?” The more important and more relevant question is, “How can I make this upcoming month of Ramadan a blessed month for me and for those around me?” I know that the Prophet said that Allah sets some people free from the hellfire in every single night in Ramadan. Was I set free at any of these numerous nights I went through in the past Ramadans? Am I going to be chosen to be set  free in one of the nights of this upcoming Ramadan? I know that there is a night in the last ten days called the night of Al-Qadr that is better than a thousand months. Again, I ask myself, “Did I ever worship Allah in this night and gain the tremendous reward mentioned by Allah and his Messenger?” Trying to answer these questions, I realized that Allah does not choose people randomly for these blessings. I am sure He does not set people free based on their gender, race, or wealth. I am of the belief that the great night of Al-Qadr is a gift Allah gives to some people who show some effort during the month and probably throughout the year. The most important question is how can I make myself subject to all these blessings? How can I make this upcoming Ramadan a real change in my life? In the article, I am sharing with you my personal plan in getting the maximum out of this upcoming Ramadan for it may be the last Ramadan I ever experience.

What if I do not plan?

You may ask, what if I don’t plan for this month? The answer lies in the following few lines. One should understanding that the month of Ramadan is a month of preparation for the whole year. It is a strong boost to our level of Iman that will help us move throughout the rest of the year. Missing Ramadan one year is as if we missed preparation for this whole year. Missing many Ramadans is as if we missed a portion of our life. Missing Ramadan throughout our life is as if we missed our whole life. The Prophet (pbuh) was once climbing his three-step minbar, the place he used to stand on to give speech, where he said Amin each time he climbs a step. When asked by his companions about why he said so, he mentioned that Jibril came to him and made three supplications and asked him to say Amin, confirming and joining him in these supplications. One of these three supplications was “May Allah humiliate he who reaches Ramadan and did not get his sins forgiven.”

What is so special about Ramadan?

In the month of Ramadan, one can make all sorts of acts of worship and obedience to Allah (swt). Fasting is a very beloved deed to Allah and a sign of sincere intention. The nights of Ramadan are full of mercy and blessings for those who live them. Ramadan is the month of the Qur’an where extra attention should be paid to the Qur’an. The Messenger used to be more charitable in the month of Ramadan than any other times. It is a real opportunity that we have to utilize and I ask Allah to help us. If all of us do the same and try to get the best out of this month, we as a community of believers will show our obedience to Allah (swt) for He may bestow His mercy upon us, our families, our society, and the whole world.

This Ramadan, I will …

Before the month starts

1. I will count my time by minutes, not hours or days for the time in Ramadan is so valuable.

2. I will make sure I go over this plan enough before Ramadan and have the strong determination to implement it.

3. I will keep thinking of Ramadan from now. I will long for it and I will keep asking Allah to enable me to reach it, “O Allah, allow me to live until Ramadan. O Allah, grant me in it fasting and Salah and accept them from me.”

Day 4: Ask God for Your Needs

By Jamaal Diwan

 

Ibn ʿAṭā said:

“Appeal to no one but Him to relieve you of a pressing need that He Himself has brought upon you. For how can someone else remove what He has imposed? And how can he who is unable to free himself of a pressing need free someone else of one?”[1]

How can you appeal to other than Him when He is the one that controls all affairs? And to whom shall we seek aid if He is not in our aid? If He is in our aid can there be anything that can prevent Him from his magnanimous giving? Indeed, there cannot be.

Then we should know that He is the source of all things, He is the One. So we must learn  submit ourselves to the acceptance of His divine wisdom, as Moses learned with Khiḍr. In doing so we will turn to Him with full attention and intention. He will become our qiblah before anything else. In doing so we acknowledge or weakness and our inability and seek strength and ability through the All-Powerful, the One who is capable of all things.

It is said that one day a poor man went out seeking some rich people in order to ask them for charity. He came upon a rich man who was raising his hands towards the sky in supplication so he asked, “From whom is he asking?” He was told, “From his Lord.” So the poor man said, “He is my Lord and his Lord. So why do I not ask Him as he asks Him?!”

As these wisdoms have reminded us throughout, it is now and in Ramadan that we should renew our relationship with God. We should look to see what our qiblah really is. Are we seeking Him first and foremost in everything that we do? If we are then He will bestow light upon us through His infinite bounty, and we will be guided by it. If not, then we will continue to stumble through the darkness of the absence of recognizing His presence in our lives.

May God enlighten us with the infinite light of His beauty and magnificence.

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[1] Translation from jannah.org

Day 5: Reflection and Contemplation

One of the forgotten acts of worship that carries much reward! Not to be confused with letting our minds wander anywhere and without deliberate focus and purpose.

Day 6: But what if…

By AbdelRahman Mussa

Salamu alaykom wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

A dear brother and good friend emailed me a very good question. I thought I’d share it to spread the benefit. May Allah reward him:

“It’s extremely difficult to detach oneself from dunya whilst seeking aakhirah, unless you have strong imaan, which is difficult to attain.

Can it be that if one makes a decision solely for aakhira without having strong imaan, that they burn themselves out and thus ruining the decision they had made, therefore making matters even worse than before.

i.e should one act on a whim which is for dunya but not haram, then try to overcome it, because its difficult to know if you have overcome it beforehand?

…hope i made sense…”

So there are a few question or assumptions in this question, lets tackle them one by one:

Is it difficult to detach oneself from dunya ?

It’s as difficult as you make it. That’s not a cop-out answer by the way.

You see, some people will make the decision that it WOULD be nice to detach from dunya without having actually made the decision TO detach. But they kid themselves that they did make that decision and then they wonder why they still have difficulties.

Some reverts, for example, will sacrifice everything – cold turkey – without any ‘side effects’ what-so-ever. Others will make the decision that it would be nice, then act like they’ve made THE decision – they burn out as the brother described it.

There are a few ways in which people try to detach from dunya:

• Theory 1: leaving it physically, so they go to monasteries or caves and they ‘meditate’.

• This isn’t really detaching from dunya. It’s removing oneself from it.
• It’s escaping the stimulus of dunya.
• When they return, guess what ? Same old dunya ! AND Same old person !

• Theory 2: staying with it physically but

Day 7: Getting into the Habit of Giving

 

Every Muslim home should have its own charity box that gets emptied and donated regularly for different charitable causes.

 

(Apologies for the delay)

Day 8: Thankfulness

By Jamaal Diwan

 

Ibn ʿAṭā said:

“Whoever is not thankful for graces runs the risk of losing them; and whoever is thankful, fetters them with their own cords.”[1]

This wisdom is based on the statement of God in the Quran:

 

“And when your Lord proclaimed, ‘If you are grateful, I will surely increase you; but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe.’”[2]

In this verse and in the wisdom we are presented with one of the greatest laws of this life: when you are thankful, God gives you more. When you are not, He does not. In this regard it is very important that we constantly work and seek to development a grateful view on our existence. This is in fact an act of belief and a cornerstone in the Muslim’s daily relationship with his or her Creator.

 

It is a simple concept but often very difficult to implement. This is especially true for those of us that come from cultures where we have been blessed with so much but at the same time it is common for people to complain about everything. We have to fight this and learn to be content with what we have and appreciate it. We cannot achieve happiness if we do not learn to appreciate the things that we have, especially the “little” things.

 

This Ramadan let us try and cultivate the habit of being thankful. Two things that we can do are:

-          Specify a few minutes each day to just think about all that we have been given and thank God for it.

-          Before we start eating we should pause and reflect about the food that we are eating and where it came from and how much God has given us. This simple practice, which is commanded from us in the Quran,[3] can make a huge difference in our lives as it pushes us to be people of gratitude.

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[1] Translation from jannah.org

[2] Quran 14: 7.

[3] Quran 80: 24-32.

Day 9: Ramadan Resolutions

By: Abdel Rahman Mussa

9 days to go !

Does it feel like 21 days since we started posting on this blog ? What happened to the last 3 weeks ?

Why do we think that when Ramadan comes we will have all the time in the world?! It’s the same world my dear brothers and sisters. The speed with which the last 3 weeks just passed will be exactly the same speed with which the first three weeks of Ramadan will pass.

Exactly the same. Maybe quicker, even.

This article isn’t intended to be a guilt trip, nor should it be taken that way. It’s an objective assessment of where you are and where you are not.

This blog is intended to warm you up. To get you doing before hand, so lets review:

• Quran
• Fasting
• Strengthening the family ties
• Manners
• Zuhd
• Qiyam
• Dhikr
• Self accountability
• Patience
• Khushu’

All of these topics have been touched upon and more, so now…

Have you fasted Monday or Thursday and how many times ? Have you contacted family ? How have your manners been ? Quran, did you increase the amount you read ?

and so on… really take account.

The prophet (pbuh) taught us that Abu Bakr’s faith outweighs the faith of the whole ummah. He (pbuh) describes him as not beating us by actions alone, but rather that something stabilized in his heart (faith).

Any yet, in the famous incident where the prophet asks, after fajr, if any of the sahabah had helped a needy person, visited someone that was ill, helped an orphan… he kept asking. No one but Abu Bakr (raa) raised his hand… and he did so for every question !

The sahabah bettered one another in their race to Allah through their hearts. They supersede us because of their hearts. And we rank, and out rank, one another as per the purity of our hearts.

And most importantly, what’s in our hearts manifests into action. This is the only way that Abu Bakr (raa) was able to so blatantly out do all the sahabah in the example above.

What does it take to have a healthy heart ?

In verse 44 of surat al Naml the Queen of Sheeba says the same thing that the Prophet Mussa (pbuh) says in verse 16 of Surat Al Qasas:

“My Lord, I have transgressed against myself”

Would you hurt someone that you truly loved ? Impossible – unless it was a mistake or you didn’t realize what you were doing ! Right ?

The Prophet Mussa kills a man – accidentally. The queen of Sheba didn’t know better, but the second she saw the miracle, she realised.

They felt sorry for themselves – the way a parent feels guilty when they find out that they were unwittingly harming their child whilst thinking they were strengthening him or her. The parent adores his/her child.

How is it that we end up not loving, but instead loathing or despising ourselves ?

Well, for most people as they grow up, they are reprimanded whenever they DO something bad or naughty and they are praised whenever they DO something that is good.

Whilst there might not be anything wrong with that as a child, as you grow, you need to shed that programming. Approval comes from within.

Most people walk around disapproving of themselves, seeking approval from others – either through positive or negative attention seeking. They look for dunya to make them feel happy, not realising that they hold the key and the lock themselves.