Considered Ramadan Thoughts

As we write this, the hours of Ramadan tick by and it’s almost gone, for another year. Yet, do we know that we will see next year’s Ramadan? There are no guarantees are there?

I was sat with a friend during the retreat of the last ten days of Ramadan in the masjid. On the last day, we were silent for a few moments, and then we both began to look at the clock; as the seconds ticked by. Checking our watches, we found out that there was only a minute left of Ramadan. He said let’s make the most of it and we recited the Chapter of Purity (112) three times to get the reward of one Quran recited. Then when the fast was over, he looked at me in the eyes and said, "It’s over, Ramadan is over." This really shocked me that the time was now over and I felt that I had not taken advantage of the time. Did I use the time well? This thought plagued me like snake running under my skin. I wanted to go back and start the month again and do more than what I did. Once the time has gone that is it, it's not coming back.


Sins

We were thinking about adding another note about Ramadan, but all it would be is a repeat of what we have said before. That was until we began to ponder something that Sheikh Yahya Rhodus quoted from a scholar, about sins in Ramadan. The scholar had said that one of the possible reasons for sins was that the footsteps of satan were still there and the person was following these footsteps as he was accustomed.During Ramadan any sins that are committed are not the fault of the satan, but the fault of the Self/Naafs. This can be scary, that a person’s sins are all his fault, yet if he is accustomed to committing sins then he continues.

His self needs to break this chain, but can he? Now that the excuse of blaming satan for our sins is gone, who else do we blame? We have been given a great opportunity to break this cycle, to break this habit and to start a new habit, a good habit. It’s a great chance to free yourself from being in a place and doing something sinful.

It is one of the most difficult things to free yourself from sins at first, but later this becomes easy; changing the bad habit into a good habit.The Nafs is the greatest enemy of man and in this month you can learn more about the self than any other month in the year. All its faults are clear and it’s scary to see all these faults; but now you know what is coming from your self and what is coming from satan. So prepare yourself for when satan comes back!


Today


Today may be the last day of Ramadan and like last minute Eid shopping, we need to strike a bargain. How about you give one pound and you'll get ten pounds back, sounds like a good deal to me! There is a divine narration that states, "Spend, son of Adam and you will be spend upon." This is not a bet, this is not a secret, this is known by all. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) will repay us better than we could imagine. We are not saying to make things difficult for yourselves, no, just give out the money that is spare and not needed for food and other essential needs. Then again a smile is charity and it’s very cheap!

Please make a supplication for this lost soul and inshallah, I'll try to make the most of this Ramadan before it’s over. Tomorrow could be the last day of Ramadan for 2008 and after that, it is not coming back!