Preparation for the Sweet Days of Ramadan

Bismillah hir Rahman nir Raheem.
As-salaamu 'alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu...

I pray you're all in the best of health and imaan, deeply emersed in remembrance of Allah 'azza wa jal and making the very most of every moment of your time.I added a section on the right in which I'm counting down the days to Ramadan. You may be wondering, "Why on earth is she counting the days 'till Ramadan already?" Well, to be entirely honest I made a mistake. I should have started counting a few months ago. Some of the salaf radiAllahu 'anhum used to make du'a for a full six months before Ramadan that Allah subhaanahu wa ta 'aala allow them to make the very most of the upcoming Ramadan, and they'd make du'a for six months after Ramadan that He accept the 'ibaadat they did during the previous Ramadan. Such should be our attitude, as we are in far greater need of the barakah that blessed month brings than they were.

Shaykh Husain Abdul Sattar (db) said in one of his talks that the fayd of Ramadan actually begins two months before Ramadan itself. SubhaanAllah, this is an amazing thing to take advantage of.

[Stuff editted out. The rest is about the importance of preparing yourself for Ramadan. The following is a description of how it's like before Ramadan....]

It's like this... you know when it's really, really windy out and you're trying to walk against the wind? Especially for sisters, this can be really hard coz of all our periphery garments that catch the wind and slow us down. So imagine you're late for class and you're trying to speed walk towards it, but the wind is blowing insanely hard against your body causing you to walk in an almost ruku' position, grimacing against the sand and dirt being whipped into your face. It's hard... and you're moving slower than you'd like to, but at least you're getting somewhere. You're going to stumble a little bit, but insha'Allah you're bound to make some progress. Such is the nature of hard work. Now imagine that all of a sudden the wind stops blowing, and then starts up from behind you, pushing you forward. That's Ramadan.

When the wind's blowing against you, you're still trying your hardest to make progress towards your classroom and step by painful step you inch closer. As soon as the wind blows with you, you're now able to run... practically fly to class because your body was already so used to working in that direction. So subhaanAllah it's the same way as our time before Ramadan, except much more profound and your destination is faaar more rewarding than sitting before your professor in a big, poorly lit lecture hall.

Before Ramadan you should be training yourself *hard*... working on removing those bad habits (talking less, eating less, sleeping less) and increasing in good works (reading Qur'an more, waking up for tahajjud, increasing in dhikrullah.) It's really hard, because you have the wind of your nafs, shaytaan and dunyaa to fight against, and they're powerful warriors. But you know that at the end of this wind tunnel will come Ramadan, when all of a sudden everything you're doing becomes far easier.... you talk less coz you're tired, you eat less coz you're fasting, you sleep less coz you wake up for suhur (tahajjud : ), you read more Qur'an because you have all this free time which appeared out of no where (yes, eating takes up a lot of precious time) and you find your heart deeply engaged in remembrance of your Beloved, morning, afternoon and evening. It's no longer a struggle. Durng the year you have to keep checking yourself- "Oh, oops, I'm not doing dhikr," and then start up again. But during Ramadan barakah will be showering upon you, your heart will yearn for that connection and shaytaan won't be there to blast your mind with thoughts of anything ghayrullah.

So subhaanAllah, we have a gift! We have an unbelievable gift approaching us, and its benefit has already begun to seep into our lives. Tap into the barakah that's beginning to trickle from the blessed month of Ramadan, and start making changes now. The more changes you make now, the easier it'll be to dive head first into Ramadan. Don't be like I was last year... realizing on the first of Ramadan that the time has begun and then starting my struggle... only to realize that it's Eid ul Fitr and I've made no progress. Take advantage now. Take this time now to make the changes you didn't have the tawfiq to make before. Begin to fight against that bitter wind so that the moment the sun sets on the 30th of Sha'ban and Ramadan dawns upon you, you can bask in its light, soak up its sweet spiritual fragrances and run to your Lord, Who has been waiting for you....

May Allah subhaanahu wa ta 'aala grant us the tawfiq to make the changes we've been dying to make, to drop the habits we've been pining to drop and to taste the nearness we've been yearning to taste for all these years. May He allow us to benefit from this upcoming Ramadan far more than we ever have from previous Ramadans. May He make this time a means through which we draw near to Him greatly, so that when the sweet days of Ramadan begin we can drown ourselves in remembrance of and love for our Creator. Ameen.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Please do take a moment to hear one or more of the following lectures -if not now, then later- in order to prepare yourself for these sweet and blessed approaching days.

Hazrat Maulana Zulfiqar Ahmad (db) -Urdu
Physical and Spiritual Benefits of Ramadan
Hazrat Zulfiqar's lecture series during I'tikaf in Zambia

Mufti Taqi Usmani (db) -Urdu
Ramadan: How to Make the Most of it

Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed (db)-English
The Purpose of Ramadan

Shaykh Husain Abdul Sattar (db) -English
Preparing for Ramadan - The Month of Sha'ban
The Path to Ramadan - Limited Days of Ramadan
The Path to Ramadan - Purification
The Path to Ramadan - Prayer
The Path to Ramadan - Fasting
Taking Advantage of Ramadan
Making the most of Ramadan