Work? Worship? Which way?

Work? Worship? Which way? 

During the month of Ramadan our limbs and organs are compulsorily excused from actions that are allowed in other months; eating, drinking and sexual relations with ones wife from dawn to dusk. However are our souls also engaged in this exercise?
A lot of emphasis is placed on the physical aspect without taking the spiritual aspects along.
In this article we hope to remind you of the many ways we can make the most of our Ramadan even while going about our Dunya activities.

What should our schedule look like during Ramadan? 
The nights of Ramadan are indeed very blessed and there is a huge reward for worship conducted in them.
We find an amazing example from our righteous predecessors on how they would divide their nights.
Al-Khatid al Baghdadi talks about what the scholars of the past would do in the nights of Ramadan,  he says,
"The scholars of the past used to divide their nights into 3 parts,  the first third of the night, they would use for the seeking of knowledge and its revision, the second third they would focus on the reading of the Quran and the last on Solah"
If we find this rather too cumbersome,  then this is not the only way to go about it.  A popular saying in Arabic goes thus,
"Even though you may not be able to attain the completion of something,  it doesn't mean that you don't go after its noblest parts"
So it's best that you at least get up early and spare ample time for Ibadah before the Predawn meal.

How about how we spend our days during Ramadan? 
One of the biggest mistakes we have made in the Ummah is that we have separated our worldly life from our religious life thus we allocate time for Dunya and then time for Deen.  We never put the two together.
Looking at the life of the righteous predecessors we find the complete opposite.

-A beautiful story from the people of the past is when Khalifah Abdul Malik ibn Marwan is on a journey with his 3 young children and understand that traveling with children is no easy task.  So as he is riding on his journey he gets a tid bit frustrated with the trouble his children are making,  then he decides to do something very smart.  He asks
-" Do you see that tree over there?
They reply,
-"Yes"
He then says,
-"I want to see which of you can say Subhanallah(Glory be to God)  the most before we get to that tree"
Then the kids start to compete with one another.  They get to the tree and the Khalifah points to another thing and says,
-"I want to see who can say Alhamdulillah(All praise and thanks be to God) the most before we get to that thing.
And once again the children start to compete with one another.
This goes on and on and so the journey was actually converted to an act of worship because Dhikrullah(the remembrance of Allah) was made in it all through.
Now imagine putting this same approach to our lives.

-A conversation between Abu Musa al Ashari and Muad ibn Jabal.
Muad ibn Jabal asked Abu Musa al Ashari,
-"How do you get your Ajr (reward)  from Allah?
Abu Musa responds,
-"I recite the Quran, I pray, I give Sadaqah"
And Abu Musa asks Muad the same question and he says,
-"I earn from my sleep just like you earn from your prayer"
How come?
We realize that your actions can all he converted to Ibadah (worship) just by giving it a righteous intention before doing it.
So I'm about to sleep and then make the intention that I want to sleep so that I may be energized to worship Allah better.
The wife cooking for the family may have the intention that I am feeding my family in order to make them strong and healthy for worship or she could be cleaning the house and make the intention that I am doing this because Allah loves cleanliness so I want to keep the house clean.
And imagine the amount of reward that is being accumulated!

-Another way to make the most of your Ramadan is to incorporate Dhikr(remembrance) of Allah as much as possible into your free moments.  We have from the Sunnah of the Prophet certain numbers connected to Dhikr.  So we have that saying Subhanallahi wa hamdhi a 100times gets one forgiven of all his past sins and many examples like this. The great benefit of this is that it gives the individual a goal at hand and amazingly there is no restriction to the mode of doing the Dhikr.  So one may split it and do it whenever and however one pleases.
 While you're driving,  rather than looking at what's going on in other cars, grab that moment and kick-start your Dhikr.
 This way you're not only living your day to day life,  you're also living the Dhikr of Allah.

- In the month of Ramadan also is the right of the Family and friends and we find an increase in acts of generosity during the blessed month of Ramadan.  We may get lots of invites to Iftar during this blessed month of course we may justify our need to go with ideas like; the food would be delicious, or I'm just trying to uphold the ties of kinship or it's going to be fun...

But what are the consequences of those Iftars?
 - If not all the time, a lot of the time,  your Ibadah will suffer as a result of the Iftar,  you might miss Maghreb in congregation,  you might waste time chit chatting while you could have been reciting the Quran...

 - Also when people invite us to Iftar,  they don't just hand out dates and milk,  they go all out to make lavish and elaborate meals.  After consuming so much,  you would most likely go the masjid heavy,  drowsy and probably even burping and disturbing the person praying next to you.

We must understand that going to these Iftars is not a bad thing but being disciplined with it, is a must.  We also cannot accept all the Iftar invitations, perhaps once a week or it's likes.

- The men also have an obligation to ensure that the women of their household are not left behind on their Ibadah during Ramadan by being overtly engaged in cooking and cleaning. The men are responsible for the iman of their families and so should try to reduce the workload on their women and sometimes even take them along to the masjid to pray.  They also deserve to feel the spirit of Ramadan!

-  Kids!  Yes,  kids also need to feel Ramadan!
 In the time of the Sohabah we find that raising a kid was a societal responsibility and not just a familiar one. The society would help to praise your child if he was doing something correct and reprimand him when he was wrong.  They didn't have standard educational systems but they would seize every opportunity to educate their young ones.
Let's make this Ramadan an educative one for our kids,  we may call them to recite the Quran with us,  pray the Solah with us,  encourage them to give more Sadaqah by taking them out to buy gifts for their cousins or neighbors.  This not only makes them feel the amazing spirit of Ramadan,  but it also increases the love in the home.

- We must understand that the human body goes through cycles,  so a body that starts Ramadan on a 'high' may still experience a 'low', the best way to ensure this does not affect the performance is to get a Ramadan buddy.  This person would pull you up and you, him,  when the lows arrive, keeping you at your best throughout Ramadan.

And finally,  we must remember that it is through our goals that our success can be measured,  so do not let Ramadan pass without you setting goals and striving to fulfill them.
May Allah make this easy for you and me and the entire Ummah. And may He accept our worship from us.

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