Saif Morad – Ramadan Stretch Goals Blueprint

Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi

wa barakatuhum my dear brothers and sisters. May

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless us with the

best in this world and the next. In

the previous video, we talked about stretch goals

during the month of Ramallah. And in this

video, we're gonna be talking about the blueprint

of implementing

and achieving these goals by the will of

Allah

Having goals is great. It gives us direction.

But it is the system that actually makes

us progress towards these goals. And do I

need to have a plan? Do I need

to have these goals in order to truly

benefit from Ramadan? The answer is no. But

if you are like me and the vast

majority,

then having a plan and having these goals

will Insha'Allah take Ramadan to a completely different

level. And one of the best things that

we can do is work on ourselves, work

on our spirituality, work on our relationship with

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Because the more taqwa

we attain, the more mindful of Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala we become, the more we understand

our deen and how it relates to not

only our relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala

but our relationship with other people as well

when it comes to our work, our families,

our relatives.

We will see other areas in our lives

improve

automatically.

We will approach our work with Ihsaam.

We'll try to do the best that we

can because we expect the reward from Allah

Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and we know that he's

watching us. So step 1 is

what do you want?

I hope you've decided on what you want

to accomplish this Ramadan. What 1 to 3

goals are you gonna focus on that will

bring you closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?

And remember,

we want to continue

these actions even after Ramadan. In Ramadan, we're

gonna stretch ourselves and do as much as

we can. But once Ramadan is done and

we snap back, we're still gonna continue with

these goals. And Ramadan is the perfect opportunity

to stretch ourselves. There is so much motivation

involved for us to do good and stay

away from bad. Example for spiritual goals are

charity,

Quran, qiyam, helping people,

bettering our salah, reflecting over the Quran and

other things that we can do.

So once we've decided on 1 to 3

goals that we want to implement during Ramadan

and continue even after Ramadan.

So as an example, we're going to look

at.

Step number 2 in the blueprint is

to know your reason for accomplishing this goal.

Have a big enough reason why you want

to accomplish this goal. Ask yourselves questions.

How is my life going to change if

I were to be able to establish Qiyamul

Lay? Look for references that's going to increase

your motivation. For example, the Hadith of the

Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in which he said

that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala descends every night

in a way that is befitting for his

majesty to the lowest heaven when the last

third of the night remains. And he says,

who will call upon me

that I may answer him? Who will ask

of me that I may give him? Who

will seek my forgiveness that I may forgive

him? So we want to work on these

things for the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa

Ta'ala and we need to have a big

enough reason that's gonna keep motivating

us to push towards this goal. Step number

3 is

to have a concrete plan.

So going back to the example of Qiyam

and Layl, after Ramadan, I want to be

waking up 15 minutes before Salat Al Fajr

and praying my wutr and making Dua.

So in Ramadan, the first 10 days, for

example, I want to be praying 2 raka'ah

of Qiyam every single night. Then the next

10 days I take it up another level

to 4 raka'ah

and in the last 10 nights of Ramadan

I strive and I try to pray 6

raka'af Qiyam and lay with Dua and once

Ramadan is finished I continue.

I don't give up on this goal, but

now I continue from step 1, which is

to wake up 15 minutes before Fajr, pray

my wutr, and make dua to Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala. And we need to build habits

in order to accomplish these goals, and it's

best to keep it simple. Don't focus on

the entire task, but just focus on the

beginning of the task. So in order to

build this habit, we're gonna focus on the

what,

the when,

and the where for each of these goals.

So for example in regards to our goal

of qiyamul layl, every night at 4 AM

I will wake up and I will perform

wudu. If we have a Quran related goal,

then it can be every day after salatul

Dhuhr, I will open the musaf.

So we want to focus on the beginning

action that would lead to the execution of

the task because if you wake up and

make udu, are you gonna go back to

sleep? Chances are you're gonna go and perform

qayamalah, you're gonna make dua to Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala. And we want to write all

this down. And step 4 is to execute

and evaluate.

Having a goal is great. Writing it down

on paper is even better. But if we

fail to execute, then we're never gonna achieve

the goal. So we want to execute from

day 1 and keep track of our progress.

And we keep it simple, keep it very

very simple. For example, on a calendar

with the date, just tick yes. So three

things that will help us inshallah execute.

Number 1 is to remind ourselves why we

wanna do this. How our lives will change

if we were to accomplish this, how much

more baraka would it bring in our lives.

Number 2 is to have an accountability

partner. We tell somebody about our goals, for

example a family member, a sibling, our spouse,

a friend and they hold us accountable to

these goals. That if they see a slacking,

they remind us that, hey, didn't you have

these goals that you wanted to do? So

we find somebody that's gonna hold us accountable.

At the same time, we try to be

somebody's accountability partner as well. And number 3,

to have a reward system. Of course, we

expect the reward from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala

and we will see the improvements in our

lives. In addition to that, we also want

to have something that we can look forward

to. Something I want to buy, perhaps something

I want to do. And I hold off

on that until the end of Ramadan. I

track my progress every single day doing Ramadan.

And if I achieve 85 percent because it

is natural for some days for us to

not be able to accomplish what we set

out to do. And that's fine. We need

to take it easy on ourselves.

So if we get 85%

or higher, then I'm entitled to that gift,

then I'm entitled to doing that thing that

I want to do. And we want to

evaluate

our progress.

So we track our progress every single day

and we keep it very simple. Let's put

the date and yes or no whether or

not we did the task that we were

set to do and on the days that

we fail to execute,

we need to find out the reason why,

especially if we miss 2 days in a

row. What's the reason I'm not being able

to establish? Am I sleeping too late? Am

I eating too much before going to bed?

If I'm in bed, am I spending too

much time on the phone? We need to

find out the reason why we are being

prevented from establishing Be'ah. And many times it

can be a sin because in order to

get close to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,

it has to be done in obedience to

him. And sins can block us from getting

close to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So if

there's a sin that we're doing something that

we saw, something that we heard, something that

we said, even we might have spoken bad

about somebody that can prevent us from achieving

our goal. So we identify

what is the reason we're unable to accomplish

this task

and then we fix it. And lastly, step

number 5,

we need to ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

We need to believe that this goal is

achievable,

that we can continue even after Ramadan and

accomplish it during Ramadan. And we consistently and

constantly ask Allah

to make it easy for us, to make

this action beloved to us, to make it

easy for us to go and execute. And

we believe with certainty that Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala will make us reach that goal. So

today's exercise is to make your plan in

regards to each goal.

Step 1, what do we want?

Step 2, why do we want it? We

need to have a big enough reason to

motivate us.

Step number 3, make an actual plan and

keep it simple

because complexity is the enemy of execution.

So if we keep things simple, then we'll

go out and execute. Number 4, we need

to actually go out and take action

and evaluate our progress.

And if things are not working, we need

to find out the reason why it's not

working. And number 5, to ask Allah and

believe with certainty that he's going to give

us that which we want. May Allah

allow us to reach the month of Ramadan

and make this the best Ramadan ever and

may he forgive our sins

and make us amongst those who we freeze

from the hellfire.

Until next

time.