Striving to be better outside Ramadan

I love the month of Ramadan. And who wouldn’t for all the calm, peace and serenity it brings with it.

I especially look forward to the month for personal development and goal setting purposes. With the devils locked away, I always find it easier to start or break a habit. But the challenge is continuing to be better outside Ramadan, the rest 11 months of the year. That takes a lot of commitment and hard work. However, with a little planning, focus and a lot of dua, it‘s doable. InshaAllah!

Here’s a list of things I prepared after listening to 11th hour Ramadan Podcast. Working on these things consistently and steadily can help you stay on top of your game, from one Ramadan to next. Bi-itnillah!.

Work on your connection with Allah:

The whole month of Ramadan is about building a connection with Allah. The long qiyaam and sujood, spending extended moments with pondering over Quran, remembering Allah through zikar. However, the essence of connection with Him is in knowing Him. And what better way to know than through His beautiful names and attributes and through His book the Qur’an. Which brings me to the next point….

Build your relationship with the Quran:

Qur’an isn’t just something to be read for rewards or something just be opened annually in Ramadan. It’s a life manual teaching us how to pass through this life till we reach our final destination. If you want to live a life of peace and serenity, it’s crucial to have some sort of relationship with the Qur’an. One of the things you can do to build and maintain that connection with Qur’an is to have a set time each day which you should and can dedicate to Qur’an. You can find more tips here on how to incorporate more Qur’an time in your life.

Acquire good company:

The importance of having good friends and company can’t be emphasised enough! The people you hang out with have a huge impact on how you think as well as what you do.

The Prophet ﷺ in a famous Hadith said:

The example of a good companion (who sits with you) in comparison with a bad one, is like that of the musk seller and the blacksmith’s bellows (or furnace); from the first you would either buy musk or enjoy its good smell while the bellows would either burn your clothes or your house, or you get a bad nasty smell thereof.

Sahih al-Bukhari 2101

Hence choose your friends and company very wisely.

Eliminate as many sins and bad habits from your life:

There’s a famous parable of putting your good deeds in a leaking bucket. You are doing everything in your capacity to be better person. Yet you still backbite, you still lie and swear… these sins and others wipe away good deeds. So be very wary and work on eliminating them.

Use your time well:

Time is a blessing which we will be accountable for. The Prophet ﷺ advised us to:

Take advantage of five before five: your youth before your old age, your health before your illness, your riches before your poverty, your free time before your work, and your life before your death.

Narrated by Ibn Abbas, reported by Al Hakim

There are many in their graves wanting to come back so they can get a chance to do more good. InshaAllah we are not amongst those.

Seek knowledge:

Knowledge helps us doing what Allah likes and avoiding what He dislikes. Hence, actively seeking and acquiring knowledge helps us in getting closer to Him.

Write everything down:

Write down all the things you want to become and achieve. Writing is a cognitive excercise which not only makes things firm in your memory, but also makes a consistency between your actions and your words.

Make dua:

Make sincere dua to Allah to keep you firm and steady on His path for nothing is possible without His help.

Be consistent:

The Prophet ﷺ said:

The most beloved deed to Allah is the most regular and constant even if it were little.”

Sahih al-Bukhari 6464

Start off with little things, things which you can do easily on daily basis. Become firm in the habit of those things and build up from there.

Some things which you can and should do daily:

• 5 daily prayers: If you are struggling to maintain salah, start with praying fard prayer and then move on to praying sunnah
• Daily morning and evening azkaar
• Daily portion of the Quran
• Making dua and showing gratefulness to Allah
• Remaining in wudu
• Reciting Surah Mulk before sleeping

In the end, this life is all about doing what Allah made us to do which is:

وَمَا خَلَقۡتُ الۡجِنَّ وَالۡاِنۡسَ اِلَّا لِيَعۡبُدُوۡنِ‏

And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.

Qur’an [Adh-Dhariyat:56]

May our whole life be spent in doing what pleases only Him. Ameen

Here is a planner which can help you remind and accomplish the daily minimum goals we discussed above. The FREE printable version can be found HERE.

Not letting that accursed Ibless beat us that easy 😉

Featured image by chiplanay from Pixabay