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Ramadan is the (month) in which the Quran was sent down, as a guide to mankind and a clear guidance and criterion (so that mankind will

distinguish fromright and wrong)

Surah Baqarah

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“When Allah introduces us to the month of Ramadan, the first thing we are told about is the Quran. The month of the Quran. We tend to think of it as the month of fasting, but fasting is mentioned much much later.” -- Ustaadh Nouman Ali Khan

The month of Quran. The month to get connected with the words from your Lord, your Beloved, your Master.

Every Muslim around the world - practicing or not-so-prac-ticing, is awaiting Ramadan. Excited, anxious, happy, about a perfect thirty days. The iftaars with family and masjid hop-ping taraweeh prayers.

But wait. Do you really need Shaytaan to be locked up in order for you to start praying the five prayers? Do you really need fasting to restrain your tongue? Do you need suhoor and taraweeh in order to do your extra nafl prayers and qi-yam-al-layl?

Do you really need to wait until Ramadan to dust off the Quran?

Because you actually might not get Ramadan. You don’t know if it is actually written for you or not. So don’t wait.

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“We are all one unit. The word, anfusihim, means both ‘each other’ and ‘themselves’.” - Sheik Kamal El Mekki

So if we are all one unit, one ummah, we need to make much more dua for each other. And don’t just make general duas - go all in. This is the month, these are the times, with all of you awake late into the night, what are you doing on netflix? Last third of the night, that time before fajr, after taraweeh, when you’re just chillin, that’s when Allah is waiting for you to ask Him.

Be selfish in your asking of Him, He loves it. That’s why you were given desires, that’s why there are beautiful things in the world - so you can ask Allah for them. So ask for that spouse, ask for that game, ask for the looks, the intelligence, the graduate school, the car, the house, the wardrobe. Ask for specific things. Get all of your needs out of the way and then really think.

Think specifically about your friends, the one who aren’t into Islam, the one’s who are somewhat lost, the one’s who are struggling to pray, the one’s who wander aimlessly. Have you asked for their guidance? What about the people you hate - the one’s who have done you wrong, the one’s who have badmouthed you, have you asked for their guidance? What about the family members who have no idea what imaan means?

What about your convert friends who are sneaking food for suhoor, begging for their parents guidance, knowing their own parents may be dragged to the hellfire, suffering through so much alone that even after they found the beauty

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of Islam, they haven’t exactly found solace. Have you asked for their solace?

There’s more than enough dua to go around, you don’t need to save duas. So while you’re waiting for the day to go by, for iftaar to come, or after suhoor as you wait to pray fajr, close your eyes and make dua. Sitting down on the train, walking to work, waiting for taraweeh, whenever, wherever, Allah is closer to you than your jugular vein. What are you waiting for?

a loveletter to

the Creatorof love

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and if you Should Count the favorS of allah, you Could not enumeratethemSurah an-nahl

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“Fasting requires that we rediscover all that is alive around us, and reconcile ourselves with our environment.” -- Dr. Tariq Ramadan

Although fasting teaches us obvious things like the real feel-ing of the families that don’t have food or water, there is something deeper we sometimes forget.

We forget not only that we are blessed with food and water, but we forget that these were the privileges God bestowed on us every single day. We did nothing to deserve three meals a day. And these blessings aren’t limited to just water and food. Try going without your AC/fan, without internet, without public transportation and having to rely on your own two feet, without electricity even. We forget the luxuries we were granted because Allah could have easily placed us elsewhere.

And to take it up a notch, these luxuries have been a test for us and majority of us fail this test. We forget to be grateful. Tests with hardship is easy to see, the test of ease and com-fort is harder to realize.

Our feet may be hurting from the taraweeh, but perhaps it wouldn’t be if we had practiced qiyam-al-layl more regularly.

Perhaps if we thanked Allah the way He deserved it, maybe then we would be of the grateful ones. The ones He smiles at.

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“When something is on a person’s mind, and this person deeply and sincerely thinks about this something, then everything around him will guide him towards that something, will remind him of that something.”

If you ever had a crush on someone or fell in love with someone you’ll know this feeling of how everything around you reminds you of that person. This is probably most rel-evant in people recently engaged and whenever the birds chirp it’ll remind them of something or when a certain food comes in front of them they’ll think of that something. It’s also relevant in people who go through heartbreak - every sweater, every scent, will remind you of that person.

Notice during Ramadan, at least the first few days of Rama-dan, how obsessed we seem to be with changing ourselves and becoming religious and finishing the Quran and listen-ing to lectures and praying prayers on time and well. If we were constantly thinking about the Akhira and Qi-yamat we’d also see everything around us as a guide or it reminds us to be religious.

Think about when you get on a new religious vibe - Imaan Rush - everything in school will remind you of Islam, and the second you go home you’ll remember to pray and read Quran and not listen to music but rather lectures or some-thing productive instead.

If we fall in love with Allah, we will always remember Him.

9engaged to the akhira

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theenemy of ramadan

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“The most oppressive type of slavery is being a slave to your own nafs as opposed to Allah. True freedom is freedom from your nafs. Allah did not say the purpose of Ramadan is to understand what the poor people feel like, though that is a benefit. Our purpose is to attain taqwa (consciousness of Allah).” - Sr. Yasmin Mogahed

There are two barriers we have that prevent us from being good – the external enemy and the internal enemy.

The external enemy is Shaytan, who made a promise when he was being exiled that he’d attack us in every direction and try to take us off the path. This is Shaytan’s mission. The in-ternal enemy (often ignored) is our nafs, the inner inclination to do something not pleasing to Allah. The two are often confused.

The Prophet (pbuh) said when Ramadan comes, the gates of Paradise are opened, the gates of Hell are closed, and one of these enemies is cut off (Shaytan is chained). Now only one of the enemies is left – our own nafs, our own self. This is the answer to why during Ramadan we don’t become a perfect worshipper – the nafs is still there. Whatever sin you can’t let go off, that’s your own self. Shaytaan wasn’t there to convince you to do it.

Ramadan is our opportunity to TRAIN the nafs. Bend it, make it fall for Islam, make it want to do things that Allah loves.

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“He’s just a Ramadan muslim. They’re fake muslims who are only religious during Ramadan”

Ramadan is the month when Shaytaan is locked up. We sin because of our nafs (our own desires and “inner demon”). Now these so-called “hypocrites” or “fake-muslims”, sober up for Ramadan. They do less sins as before, they clean up their language, they stop partying and drinking.

They stop it because they want to - they choose to - and they understand that this month isn’t about their life - it’s about Allah. It’s about changing yourself or trying the best you can. And I think if they can sober up for this month - that’s who they truly are. Without Shaytaan - that is who they are - “Good muslims”.

So don’t say that it’s ironic that these people party all year round and openly do haraam and then turn good for Ramadan.

It’s not ironic. It’s called love. They love Allah so much that they give up their usual habits for this special month. Sure - they shouldn’t be doing the haraam they usually do - but they’re trying. Who are you to judge them?

And on that note: we are all “Ramadan Muslims”. None of us are as obsessed with worship outside of Ramadan, the way we are inside of Ramadan. The point is to stay this way. Live life like Ramadan and end it like Eid.

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thiS iS the time. and thiS time it’S

different

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thiS iS who you really are. thiS iS who you Can Be.

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“There’s a battle going on inside you in Ramadan, and for 30 days Allah gives you the power to win.” -- Ustaadh Nouman Ali Khan

We all become extra religious during Ramadan. We all make resolutions and do them. We all pray and it seems so easy to be praying on time and praying slowly and to pray the extra rakats. We tend to stay away from haram things, even that which is haram for our ears and our eyes. We read Quran regularly and pray qiyaam regularly.

But this month isn’t the month we are on our best behav-ior - it’s the month that can show us what we really can be - what version of us is really a possibility because if you im-plement something this month, something small, anything really, know that it is also doable for the other 11 months.

Allah helps us out this month - but He’s ready to help us all the other days too. If only we ask and if only we try.