Saif Morad – Ramadan The Time For Stretch Goals
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AI: Transcript ©
Assalamu alaikum wa Rahmatullahi
wabarakatuhu my dear brothers and sisters. May Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala bless us with the best
in this world and the next.
In today's video, we're gonna be talking about
how we can stretch ourselves during Ramadan
and make this Ramadan the best one yet.
Ramadan is just around the corner,
and this one seems to be like no
other we've seen in our lifetime. As the
way things stand currently, it seems like we
will not be attending iftar parties. There's not
going to be tarawih in the masjid.
No matter how many things change, no matter
how the situation of the world changes, Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is always there.
He is the constant in our lives. He
is
the ever living, the one who takes care
of everything.
And let's not forget that this situation that
we're in is because of our own deeds,
is because of what we as human beings
have done. So it is the perfect opportunity
to turn back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
to renew our relationship with him, to strengthen
our bond with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and
make this the best Ramadan ever.
So how do we make this the best
Ramadan
ever? By having a plan and having stretch
goals.
Let's quickly take a look at the example
of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam when it
came to Ramadan.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam used to prepare
for Ramadan beforehand.
He used to fast most of Sha'aban. And
then when Ramadan came, the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam took his Ibadah, his worship to a
different level. The prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam was
the most generous of people
but the most generous he used to be
was in Ramadan.
The prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam, the Quran was
in his heart. He used to review the
Quran constantly but in Ramadan
his relationship with the Quran was taken to
another level. In the Ramadan there was a
meeting of the best that used to take
place.
The best human
and the best of angels. The prophet salallahu
alaihi wasallam in Jibreel alaihi wasallam they used
to review the Quran
every single Ramadan
and during his last Ramadan they reviewed the
Quran twice. The prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam
used to pray
every single night 11 raka.
Yet in Ramadan
we can't even imagine how his qiyamul lay,
not in the terms of the number of
units
but the quality of his qiyam how it
changed.
And let's not even talk about the last
10 days of Ramadan.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam used to
elevate his Ibadah to a completely
different level. And when Ramadan was done, the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam used to go
back to that same high level that he
had before Ramadan.
So we see in these examples how the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
increased his ibadah, he stretched himself during Ramadan
and we as Muslims we also stretch ourselves
during Ramadan.
And how can we not
improve and stretch ourselves during the month of
Ramadan when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given
us so many reasons to do so? The
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, when the
first night of Ramadan comes the gates of
heavens are open
and not a single gate is closed.
And the gates of * are closed and
not a single gate is open. The devils
are chained
and a caller will call, oh you who
want to do good come forth.
And all you who want to do evil
stop.
And Allah
sets people free from * every single night
of Ramadan.
So let's take a look at what's happening
during Ramadan.
The devils are chained up. The gates of
Jannah are open, the gates of * are
closed.
We're being called to do good and Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala frees people from the hellfire
every single night.
Good deeds are multiplied during the month of
Ramadan.
Ramadan is like no other month.
It is the perfect opportunity
for us to strive and improve ourselves. The
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that whoever fast
the month of Ramadan
believing in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and expecting
the reward from him then all his previous
sins will be forgiven.
He also said that whoever establishes the night
prayer during Ramadan
believing in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala expecting the
reward from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then all
their previous sins are forgiven. And in this
month comes a night that is greater than
a 1000 months.
The prophet said,
whoever stands up during the night of Qadr
worshiping
Allah believing in him, expecting the reward from
Allah
then all their previous sins are forgiven. And
if this wasn't enough to motivate us to
make the Musa Al Rahman
then there's a stern warning for the one
who doesn't do so. The Prophet Sallallahu alaihi
wasallam ascended the mimbar and said
Ameen,
Ameen,
Ameen.
The Sahaba radiAllahu anhu asked him that O
Messenger of Allah why did you do that?
He said, Jibreel alaihis salaam came to me
and he said,
may Allah rub his nose indeed thus.
Meaning may this person be devoid of good.
That person who Ramadan comes and his sins
are not forgiven.
In Ramadan, every door is calling us to
do good. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala uses rewards
and punishment to motivate us. And the whole
reason that fasting was legislated is so that
we would become the people of Taqwa. So
we will become more God conscious.
We will become more mindful of Allah
And Taqwa is to do that which Allah
told us to do and stay away from
sin.
Giving up food and drink is the easy
part. The difficult part is to stay away
from sin. And many of us, we enter
Ramadan
and we do stretch ourselves, we try to
do our best. But then when Ramadan ends,
we go back to the exact same level
we were before without any improvement.
Can we truly say we obtained taqwa during
Ramadan?
That we were better after Ramadan than we
were before it? This year we're gonna be
different.
We're gonna have a plan. We're gonna have
stretch goals, spiritual goals, taqwa goals
that we're gonna continue
after Ramadan.
So in Ramadan we stretch ourselves. We do
our best but then when Ramadan is finished
we're not going to be able to continue
with that momentum.
It's only natural for us to regress
but when we snap back, we snap back
to a level that was better
than when we started Ramadan.
We still continue in our pursuit of taqwa.
So let's look at an example of a
spiritual goal.
Ideally you want to have at least between
1 to 3 spiritual goals and we can't
do it all. So we need to focus
and we need to focus on certain things
that is going to bring us closer to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and at the same time we try to
do as much good deeds as we can
especially
reading the Quran
and the remembrance of Allah
So let's look at an example of a
goal that we can try to implement this
Ramadan.
One thing that most of us want to
accomplish but we struggle with is to establish
Qiyamul Layl. So the first step is to
know where we are currently.
What is my current situation Qiyamul Layl?
Do I perform it regularly? Am I struggling
to establish it? Do I have no relationship
with Qayam and Layne?
The second step
is to know where you want to be
a year from now. So 12 months from
now,
what kind of relationship do we want with
Qiyam al Layne? Step 3 is to identify
where we want to be after Ramadan
and step 4 is to stretch ourselves doing
Ramadan
every 10 days.
So for example if I have a goal
of establishing 4 rakah of qiyam and layl
every single night a year from now and
my current situation is that I have no
relationship with qiyam except once in a while
here and there and after Ramadan I would
like to be consistent in
So in Ramadan for example the first 10
days I wanna pray 2 rakah,
the next 10 days I move it up
to 4
and the last 10 days I take it
up to another level and I try to
establish
6 rakah
And now when Ramadan is finished that doesn't
mean that my relationship with Qayam is done.
But perhaps
I start off with just waking up 15
minutes before fajr praying my wutr and making
dua
And once this is consistent
then I try to improve that
and add 2 raka'ah
until I get to my yearly goal
which is to establish 4 raka'ah of qiyamalayl.
And this is just an example
and everyone has different goals and things that
they wanna achieve based on their situation and
circumstances.
So today's exercise
is
think of your Ramadan.
What goals would you like to continue on
after Ramadan?
And ideally you want to pick between 1
to 3. And also think of other things
that you can do during Ramadan to make
the most out of Ramadan.
Especially read in the Quran and the dhikr
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and ask yourselves questions. How would I feel
if I achieve this goal? How would my
relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala improve if
I were to continue with this after Ramadan?
How would it change and improve my life?
And how would I feel if I didn't
do this?
And in the next video insha Allah which
should be released on Tuesday,
we will go over the blueprint
of how to implement and achieve these goals
insha Allah.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to
reach the month of Ramadan and make this
Ramadan the best Ramadan ever
and may he remove this virus from the
face of the earth.
Until next time, Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi
wabarakatuhu