My Ramadan

My inspiration came from quite a few sources but initially from these two books Ameen's Ramadan Diary and Ramadan Booster I bought these for my younger sister and picked them up in passing  this triggered my research further and I came across articles  on www. Iloveallah.com and www.productiveramadan.com. Ramadan has always been a month I enjoyed and from a early age I recognised that it was an important month with many rewards I wanted to establish how I could go about achieving the most out of it.

 “O you who believe! Observing As-Saum (the fasting) is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become Al-Muttaqun (the pious).” (2:183)

I can honestly say that this Ramadan has been the best Ramadan ever for me in terms of my personal effort and spiritual connection with Allah swt and the more importantly my realisation of the blessings bestowed upon me and the lack of gratitude I have shown to Allah swt. I mean don’t get me wrong I have always since the age of 11-12 maybe even a little earlier fasted during Ramadan and as I got older in the last few years I’ve tried to pray my 5 salah (not as often as i liked) more so during Ramadan but somehow I have easily got distracted, even taraweeh id try but fail miserably to keep up using tiredness from fasting all day as an excuse, and sometimes I’d do what I could due to my parents insistence, but this year Alhamdulillah I felt such a connection to every act of ibadah i did, it was just amazing.

I decided early on that I wanted to make this Ramadan different inshallah,  I really wanted to improve myself and my relationship with Allah swt so i started planning; I started out with writing a diary of what I wanted to achieve, following that I commenced my plan of action by starting to fast in the month of Sha'ban, I started doing more dhikr, recitation of Quran and more importantly praying to Allah swt to help me achieve a good an fruitful Ramadan. 

Alhamdulillah, all praise is to Allah swt he helped me and I was able to do just as I wished I started Ramadan on such a high I was overjoyed that it had finally started when so many people around me where dreading the long days, I was looking forward to the getting up at Suhur and the long days of fasting, I  prayed my 5 salah every day (Except a couple that i had to do Qada) I did an abundance of dhikr at every opportunity during the day, I did regular Istigfars, I read tarweeh every day, I got up early for tahajjud every day, I  read the Quran after most my salah, I also had two weeks off work at the end of Ramadan which was a miracle in itself due my colleagues with children being on term time and others being on pre-booked holidays,  therefore it is usually impossible to have time off in the summer, so I was so grateful to Allah swt for allowing me to have this time to spend in his remembrance  and to try and seek Laylat ul qadr in the last ten days. I spent so much time reading about Islam and really focusing on my ibadah, I even got the opportunity to attend a tafsir of surah alaq which was absolutely amazing , I attended a short lecture course on Ramadan and its benefits/blessings.

All I can say is the whole month was so uplifting for me I feel like it has really strengthened my Iman and I pray that Allah swt has accepted all I was able to do, and that which every muslim did in this month to please him, I pray that Allah gives us all the ability to continue in the good habits we learned in Ramadan and that we have another opportunity to partake once again in such a blessed month. Ameen