Ibadah

_{Image credit: Wikipedia}

Ramadan ended. (May Allah accept all our prayer, fasting, du’a, and good deeds during this blessed month — ameen!) How should we, as Muslims, act now?

We graduated from the school of Ramadan; can life simply return to normal?

Our scholars mention a few points about this:

• Allah says, in surah Baqarah, that Ramadan was prescribed on us in the hope that we gain taqwa. Did we achieve that goal of the school of Ramadan? Or did we simply fast because of our parents, our friends, our spouse, or our culture?
• The continuation of our deeds shows the acceptance of our deeds (even if we continue them at a smaller scale than during Ramadan).
• We live life for a purpose, not haphazardly; just like we create dunya goals (get a degree, get a job, get a spouse, get a house, etc.) we must create deen goals, and work towards improving ourselves. Ramadan puts us through an obligatory one-month “boot camp” of self-improvement every year.

Did you pass the test of Ramadan? Did you benefit from Ramadan? The litmus test is: are you better after Ramadan than you were before Ramadan?

بِسْمِ اللَّـهِ الرَّحْمَـٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

This is the continuation of the series, that focuses on implementing sunnah in our lives.

Here is the sunnah items, we will be focusing on in this week:

Click here to show evidences/reference links

Sunnah’s of Eating:

• Pronounce the Tasmiya (Bismilla) [Bukhari :: Book 7 :: Volume 65 :: Hadith 288]
• If you forget to say Bismillah, before starting, say this supplication. [At-Tirmidhee 5/506]
• Eat with the right hand
• Eat from what is infront of you
• If some food drops, clean it and then eat it [Muslim :: Book 23 : Hadith 5044]
• Eat with three fingers [Muslim :: Book 23 : Hadith 5040]
• Eat together [Dawud :: Book 27 : Hadith 3755]
• Not finding faults in food [Muslim :: Book 23 : Hadith 5121]

After Eating:

Here is the sunnah items, we will be focusing on in this week:

Making Dua:

• Raise your hands
• Glorify and praise Allah, in the beginning and at the end
• Send salutations on Prophet (May Allah Peace and Blessing be on him) in the beginning and at the end
• Cry while making dua

Adhaan:

• Respond to it (see the first dua here)
• Make salutation on the prophet (May Allah Peace and Blessing be on him)
• Make dua (last one on this page)

Breakfast:

Muslims, living in the Muslim Countries, generally tend to have limited exposure to Fiqh and its rulings. There is usually one dominant madhab and that’s all people know about. Rarely, if ever, people are exposed to other madahibs. However, the situation for many of us living in west, like Canada, is quite different.

Because of the diversity of muslims, from various countries, cultures and backgrounds, we are exposed to many madhabs. We find many different opinions on a given issue. We see people praying little differently in mosque. When Ramadhan comes, the whole moon sighting debate starts and not to mention the zabiha meat issues.

Bismillah walhamdolilah wasalatu wassalam ‘ala rasool Allah

Continuing in the ten ways to achieve the love of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, here are the last five points as per ibn al-Qayyim rahimuhallauh:

Sixth, observing Allaah’s kindness, goodness and bounties, both hidden and open.

It is to be aware of the vast amounts of Mercy Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has engulfed His slaves with. It is to recognize and accept the blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and to show thanks for it. As Allah says: “Then which of the Blessings of your Lord will you both (jinns and men) deny?” [Surah Rehman V.13]

Bismillah walhamdolilah wassalatu wassalam ‘ala rasool Allah

Umer radhiAllah anhu used to say:

“If Allah strikes me with calamity I will thank Allah for four things: 1) that the test was not in my deen 2) the calamity could have been worse 3) it is an expiation for my sins 4) any loss after losing the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam is nothing”

The greatest man that lived after the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam and Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radhiAllah anhu, Umer ibn al-Khattab radhiAllah anhu. What a man! SubhanAllah. We thank Allah for giving us such amazing examples of people to emulate and look up to. Alhamdolilah!

Imagine this. You are speeding on the road. The police officer catches you, pulls you over and gives you a speeding ticket.  What would your reaction be, next time you are driving especially driving through the same road. You would naturally slow down! Or you are stealing from your prayer (i.e. racing through it), you glance over and it seems like your friends might be looking at you. Your reaction…. In these and in countless other situations, we refrain from doing bad because we fear that we might be caught or someone might be looking at us. Most of the times, we are not even full 100% sure and yet we change our behavior.  But how about Allah, the ever watchful, who we know with certainty is always watching us. How much are we aware of Him? Lets look at some examples:

Eid Mubarak! As the sahaba would tell each other: May Allah accept our good deeds and your good deeds (from Ramadan). Ameen!

Ramadan is still fresh in your mind; the long days of fasting, the pain in your legs and back from taraweeh, and most of all, that biting regret that you didn’t do enough.

Would you like to make the next Ramadan even better? With only five minutes worth of effort?! Try this out: create a new document (by hand or computer, whatever you like) called “Ramadan Retrospective.” List out the following:

Ramadan is coming to a close. Like the last half-kilometer of a 10km race, the finish-line is in sight. This is the time to pull out all the stops and to sprint, flat-out. This is the time when Laylatul-Qadar, the night where deeds are multiplied by more than one thousand, hides.

Bismillah.

This is a guest post by an author who compiled a wide number of resources related to fasting, reciting Qur’an, and sincerity of intention. This is a great resource of ahadith and ayaat related to fasting. May Allah grant them a great reward (ameen!) and forgive any mistakes I have made in re-formatting it and linking all the sources to their citations.