Ramadhaan Greetings

I wish you all the best for the blessed month of Ramadhaan. we are fortunate that we are alive to once again have the opportunity to experience this beautiful month.

May Almighty Allah give us the good of this month and help us to be among those who receive maximum benefit. Inshaa-Allah may this Ramadhaan help us to attain closeness to Allah as we have never experienced before, may Allah shower His blessings, mercy and forgiveness upon us and may Allah help us to maintain the true spirit of Islam even after this beloved month passes.

Finally, may Allah accept all of our duaas Inshaa-Allah Ameen!

Have a beautiful month filled with peace and blessings!

My Ramadhaan of Sharing

It’s only a few days after the Blessed month of Ramadhaan has left us, and I have to admit that I really miss it. The peace and serenity, the heightened spirituality of people around you, the sound of the Glorious Quraan, the moderation in eating, drinking and sleeping. Things can just never be the same out of Ramadhaan, no matter what we do. But, nonetheless, we have to be thankful for everything and if we didn’t have this special month and all months were the same then we would never know the difference. Ramadhaan might be over, but Alhamdullillah (Praise be to Allah) the lessons that we have learnt in Ramadhaan can stay with us forever.

This Ramadhaan I found myself having to share, but the sharing that I had to do was very different from what you would expect to share in Ramadhaan. See, my grandmother came to stay with us in the first week of Ramadhaan, and so I found myself having to share, not my food, or money, but my time and space. This type of sharing is something that I think I have taken for granted. I mean, it’s easy to give someone some of your food, or to give them some of your money, but having to give up your comforts and share your space with someone and having to spend time seeing that someone else has all that they need  is a bit of a different story.

So it was that I found that the things I usually take for granted, suddenly appeared to me as real gifts. Whereas usually I am at liberty to spend my time as I want to, now I found that I had to make special time to do the things that I wanted to do. And whereas before my granny arrived, my space was my own, now I had to be mindful of her needs as well. For instance, before using the bathroom I had to make sure that my grandmother didn’t need to use it, and instead of staying up late and reading or doing whatever I usually do, I had to make sure that the lights were out early because being an old lady, my granny had to sleep early. I found that nothing was my own anymore, the prayer mat I usually perform my salaah on was given to my granny so that she could perform her salaah, even my hairbrush was now being shared with my grandmother since she had forgotten to bring her own one with. I have to admit that initially I found it strange to have to share everything , but after a while something strange happened, it didn’t matter anymore, I just stopped caring, Alhamdullillah!

One day we heard the story of a man who hit his son when his son said to him that he would bring “his pillow” for the father. The father hit the son because he told him that nothing in this world belongs to us. This is such an important lesson and Alhamdullillah that I was given a chance to learn it.  The things that I had believed to be mine was actually not mine at all, it had only being given to me through the will of Allah Almighty, and now Allah wanted someone else to make use of it as well, and I had to be thankful for that, because at least Allah had not taken it away from me completely, and besides this was only going to be a temporary situation.

So in addition to this Ramadhaan teaching me how to share, it also taught me how to be grateful for all the comforts and all the ease that I usually have in my life. Also, the price of having to share was a small one to pay when we consider the blessings you get for having guests over and taking care of old people.

So yes, Ramadhaan may be over for this year, but I truly hope that these important lessons I’ve learnt will never leave me. Inshaa Allah.

PS: I apologise for the long dealy, but Inshaa Allah I hope to be starting with my Great Women in Islam posts again very soon.

Image from: http://laughingsquid.com/sharing-is-caring-hd-dvd-hex-code-t-shirt/

That Ramadhaan Feeling

Although I am very happy that it’s the Blessed month of Ramadhaan, I have to admit that things don’t seem all that right this year. Usually there is a particular “feel” in the month of Ramadhaan. You just feel like its extra special and you somehow feel different inside. This year has got me wondering because that extra special feeling I usually have seems to be amiss somehow. The days still seem special, the nights still peaceful, the moments spent in recitation of the Glorious Quraan or praying salaah still seem more meaningful, just like every year, then why do things still seem so different? And then it hit me...

Last year Ramadhaan I was honoured to have spent the last ten days of the month in the best place on earth, the Blessed City of Madinah. Nothing can compare to those ten days, and my years of special Ramadhaan’s seem bleak in comparison. The late night Taraweeh prayers with the most beautiful Quraanic recitation still lingers in my mind. The search for a small space in the extra full Masjid Nabawi so that you can perform your prayers, standing squashed up amidst a huge crowd of women and not knowing if my space to put my head down is still going to be there when I need to prostrate, or whether another woman would have found her way in. The scrambling for a glass of zam-zam water to break the fast at the time of Iftaar. The scores of people, leisurely enjoying the serenity of the entire place. The families sitting together eating their final morning meal before they begin their fast, while others are immersed in prayer. The early morning sounds of Quraan being recited from the Masjid Nabawi as Qiyaam-ul-Layl (late night/early morning voluntary prayers) is being performed. The continuous hustle and bustle, shops open till late, people completely at leisure, food and water being handed out as you walk on the streets. Every single person doing the same thing, every single person seeking blessings from Allah Almighty. The completely packed city, with more people than you’ll ever see together at the same place, at the same time (except of course for the amount of people in Makkah in Ramadhaan which exceeds the scores of people in Madinah and if you had to consider Hajj time which is much fuller). This was Ramadhaan in Madinah, how can I ever have that old time extra special feeling again, after experiencing something so amazing.

As I sit here in South Africa this Ramadhaan I am extremely thankful for my experience last year, and I am glad that during this Blessed month people around me seem to be trying so much harder to be better people and better Muslims, but my heart still longs for Madinah, and the longing  of the heart is something that is not in our control. Last year this time I was there, in the Blessed City, this year I will pray that the light, peace and happiness that I experienced there, can be experienced by all of us, over and over again. It’s true, you don’t have to be in Makkah or Madinah to receive blessings,  you can connect with your Lord, even from the corner of your room, in your house, anywhere in the world, even in South Africa. The connection is definitely much more vivid there, but it’s Ramadhaan, a month I like to regard as a month of gifts, a month of opportunity. There are opportunities to receive blessings, to be granted forgiveness , and for the acceptance of prayers, but most of all, there are extra opportunities to connect with Allah and find the Ultimate Truth.

It is the last few days of Ramadhaan, these nights are the most blessed as I’m sure you all already know, if you can remember me in your prayers, then please do so. Let us take the opportunities we have right now; we have no idea where we’ll be next year.

Image from: http://navedz.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/picture-perfect-friendship-across-nations/

Making the best of the month of Ramadhaan

It comes once a year, and it always seems to pass so quickly. Yes, we are now in the second ten days of the month of Ramadhaan already and it seems that time is just passing too quickly. Before we know it this Blessed month will be over, and we will all be involved in Eid Celebrations. Some of us may be wondering whether we’ve made the best of the month or if we just ended up wasting very precious time. Besides the obvious ways to make the best of the month of Ramadhaan, like Fasting, reading Quraan Sharief and performing all our Salaah, there are other ways to make the best of this Holy month.

So, how can we do this?

Well, I was just thinking that the second ten days of Ramadhaan are the days of forgiveness and surely we are all hoping and praying for the Almighty Allah to forgive us, I mean, what would we do if Allah (SWT) was not so willing to forgive us, we would certainly be doomed. This made me reflect though, and I started thinking about how willing people are to forgive each other. Why does it seem like it’s so difficult for us to forgive someone who has done something to us. Yes, it hurts when someone does something to you, but if we depend on Allah’s mercy and forgiveness, and if Allah The Greatest forgives us even though we continuously transgress, then why can’t we be the better person and forgive others.

The only thing stopping us from forgiving and letting go is our own egos and pride. When we believe that we have a right to feel the way we do, then it becomes very difficult to forgive others. So let’s try to gain more blessings from this wonderful month by forgiving those that we have grudges against. Let us remember that if Allah Almighty can forgive us so very easily, when we do all sorts of wrong, who are we to believe that we can’t forgive others? Let’s make an earnest effort to let go of all the negative feelings we have towards others, because this too is in the spirit of Ramadhaan, and indeed this is how Muslims should be all of the time.

May Allah (SWT) forgive us all for all of our sins, known and unknown, those committed intentionally and those done unintentionally, those committed in the light of day and in the dark of night, and even those sins which we do not recognise and consider to be sins! May Allah have mercy on us all, and make it easy for us to forgive others!