Ramadan kills all the excuses we make for ourselves throughout the year, and allows us to soar to new heights of eman!

If someone said to you, “let’s go to the masjid every day,” you’d say “we can’t do it!” but, in Ramdan, you do it! If someone said “let’s play Qiyam al-Layl all night,” you’d say “we can’t do it!” but, in Ramdan, you do it! Subhanallah, in Ramdan, wishes and hopes and dreams can become reality!

But why does this happen? Is it because of the well-known hadith that when Ramadan arrives, the gates of Paradise open, the gates of Hell lock, and the devils are shackled? [Bukhari 3/31/123, Muslim 6⁄2361] Undoubtedly that’s part of it! But beyond that, we all raise our standards and transform things we should do into things we must do!

What are some common excuses that die gruesome deaths in Ramadan?

  • I can’t visit the masjid every day! (Taraweeh, anyone?)
  • I can’t pray long prayers regularly! (Taraweeh, anyone?)
  • Qiyam-al-Layl tires me out! (But you do it, for a whole month!)
  • Fasting Mondays and Thursdays is too hard! (But fasting one month straight isn’t?)
  • I can’t live without my coffee! (But you do, don’t you?)
  • I need [beer/alcohol/cigarettes/other haram goods or activities] to survive! (But you survived fine without them!)
  • I can’t control my anger! (In ramadan, you dont even argue!)
  • I don’t get much time to read Qur’an! (In Ramadan, your recite the full quran!)
  • I can’t wakeup for Fajr! (In Ramadan, not only do you pray Fajr on time, but you also wake up at the prime tahajjud time–the last third of the night!)
  • I can’t tell my friends about Islam! (Was it so hard to tell them about fasting?)
  • Post the many excuses you killed in comments!

Interestingly, anything you do consistently for about 21 days becomes a habit–and the effort you need to keep doing it drops dramatically!

So this Ramadan, purge yourself of some limiting excuses and enjoy the new heights of eman they can bring!

“Sure,” you might say, “but what about ‘Eid and beyond? How do I make sure I don’t backslide?”

If you do backslide, don’t beat yourself up–after all, everyone makes mistakes. Remember–you completed one month without giving in! There’s no reason why you can’t do it again! So refine your action plan, remember your goal, and start over. And make lots of du’a, because the help of Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) is always near!

May Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) give us all success in reaching the highest peaks of eman through Ramadan and beyond, ameen!

References

Muhammad Alshareef. Lecture. AlMaghrib. Rizq Management. University of Toronto, Toronto. June 2006.