NOORIE K KHAN

AL-IHSAAN INSTITUTE

“Indeed, those who say, ‘Our Lord is Allah!’ and then remain steadfast, the angels descend upon them (saying), ‘Do not fear, nor be grieved! Receive the good news of the paradise, which you have been promised.” (Qur’an 41:30)

Ramadan is a month in which we upgrade ourselves. We spend the month challenging our normal ability to worship. We amaze ourselves by doing acts of

‘ibādah (worship) that we never thought we could ordinarily do. When Ramaḍan ends, we have greats plans to carry on these actions throughout the year and meet the next Ramadan ready and prepared.

The reality: Ramadan has passed and now it’s back to the daily grind. Many of the acts of

‘ibādah that consumed so much of your time have fallen off and are replaced by things of much lesser benefit. Television, music, hours of scrolling through social media…. The

Fajr salāh (morning prayer before sunrise) becomes difficult once again, and daily Qur’an time is unheard of. Ramadan slowly becomes a distant memory. Soon, it will be as though it didn’t even happen. If this is what you’re facing, you’re not alone. This is the conundrum that many of us encounter.

The solution? Whatever you do, don’t break your stride. The Prophet Muhammed said in a

ḥadīth recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, “Whoever fasts the month of: Ramadan and then follows it with six days of fasting in the month of Shawwal, it will be as if he had fasted the entire year.” Aside from a year’s reward of fasting, a little-known benefit of observing this sunnah, is that we are encouraged to continue our actions after Ramadan. Unbeknownst to many, the Prophet is sharing the secret of being steadfast: build a habit by following up on your actions. If you can manage to be consistent on some small portion of your

‘ibādah outside of the holy month, this is the mark of a truly successful Ramadan.

But this is easier said than done, right? Very much like our New Years resolutions, we keep it up for a few weeks, if at all, and then we forget all about it. The problem here is that despite all the advice we receive on these topics, we never formulate a clear plan on how to implement this advice. And of course, failing to plan is planning to fail. So, here is a clear system of action going forward:

Step 1: List all of the acts of worship you were able to achieve during the month of Ramadan. Choose the easiest or most important ‘ibādah you believe you can maintain. Don’t worry about the others, you can implement them later on in shaa Allah.

Step 2: Choose a lighter version of that act that you can implement daily, in the same time and manner that you did during Ramadan. It should, of course, exceed what you normally do on a regular day of the year.

Here are some suggestions:

Go from fasting every day to fasting on Mondays and Thursdays. If that is unachievable then try fasting on ayyāmul bīḍ. (This refers to the 13th, 14th, and 15th of the lunar months. This was recommended by the Prophet in ṣaḥīḥ aḥādĪth)

If you were reading some portion of the Qur’an every