What should you do to get maximum benefit out of Ramadhan? Here is a short list.
1. Intention (Niyah) and Resolve (Iradah)
The first thing is sincere intention and firm resolve. Intention creates awareness and consciousness as well as keeps them alive. If the consciousness is awake, it results in resolve, which in turn takes the shape of effort and toil. The Holy Prophet (may Allah bless and greet him) emphasised that the strength and weight of actions depends on ‘intention.’ Everyone would get only what he intends. In order to welcome Ramadhan, the first thing you have to do is to renew the feeling and understanding of its high status, its message, its purpose and the blessings it brings in its folds. Then, make ‘intention’ and ‘resolve’ that whatever you would do in this month, you would try to inculcate in yourself that high quality of piety that is the objective of fasting, and which can enable you to meet the demands of Deen and to accomplish the mission of Qur’an. Lastly, make a firm decision that devotion and regularity would be the hallmark of all your acts and efforts during the month of Ramadhan – obligatory acts and worship that Allah has enjoined, deeds that Allah’s Prophet has emphasized, and the effort that you would do additionally to make full use of the opportunity that Ramadhan holds. It would be extremely useful if you take out time in solitude, just about two hours, either before the start of Ramadhan or during its very first night. Consider yourself present in the court of Allah, glorify Him and invoke His blessings on the Prophet (may Allah bless and greet him) and repent on your sins and follies. Then, think about all the features of this month. Finally, make ‘intention’ and ‘resolve’ for utmost effort and complete devotion throughout the month, seek Allah’s help and guidance, and pray to Him to take you along the path that leads to Him!
2. Your bond with Qur’an
The second most important thing to do is to arrange for recitation and hearing of Qur’an, knowing its meaning and message and developing deeper understanding of it. To listen to the Qur’an, to go through it again and again, to try to understand it, and to develop a yearning to act upon it, is one of the many purposes of the month of Ramadhan. The least that we get from Tarawih (night prayers during Ramadhan) is that we go through the entire Qur’an in one month’s time. There is immense spiritual benefit in listening to the Qur’an as we stand before Allah. However due to lack of understanding of Arabic language, many people fall short of achieving the maximum benefit from this unique scheme of worship. This demands that you should pay some extra effort for this purpose. You should devote some time, i.e. additional to which you do for Tarawih, for reading a few passages of Qur’an with the meaning in your own language.
3. Avoiding disobedience to Allah
The third most important point is to make special efforts to avoid disobedience to Allah. The Arabic term for piety, i.e. Taqwah, in essence means “to avoid,” it is imperative to make special effort in this month to avoid disobedience. This does not mean that we should not try to avoid disobedience in other months, it means that Ramadhan creates a special environment in which it is easier, and hence more urgent, to avoid disobedience in every form. We should make some special effort to make most of the special environment of Ramadhan. It is not just the stomach that fasts; eyes, ears, tongue, hands and feet all should fast: Eye should not see, ear should not hear, tongue should not speak, and hands and feet should not do what Allah dislikes and from which He has stopped us.
4. Quest for Goodness
Special quest for goodness and virtues of all kinds is the fourth most important things to do in Ramadhan. This quest should acquire special features in the month of Ramadhan because it is this month in which a small virtue brings the reward of obligatory acts, and obligatory acts’ reward increase 70 times, or even more. This quest should continue regarding the acts of worship – such as trying to join in congregational prayers with the first call (Takbir e Tehrima) and regularity in supplementary prayers. But this quest should also be in the field of human relations – it is virtue to meet a Muslim brother smilingly, it is virtue to remove what may cause pain to him, it is virtue to quench his thirst. Normally people think that an obligatory and supplementary act of virtue is only about prayers. Yet, obligatory and recommended deeds are spread over the entire spectrum of life.
5. Night Prayers
Standing in prayers for long hours at night comes fifth in our list of priorities. Tarawih prayers during Ramadhan are meant for standing awake at night. Usually people hear Qur’an in Tarawih at the beginning of night. But another time for this begins after the first half or lies in the last one-third of the night. This is the time of dawn – the time that is best for seeking Allah’s forgiveness, as Qur’an tells. With little effort, you can attain the blessings and benefit of standing before Allah at night, and may be counted among “those who implore Allah’s forgiveness before daybreak.” It is quite easy. You already wake up for Suhoor (meals before starting the fast early in the morning). Wake up 20 minutes or half an hour earlier, make ablution, and offer two rakah prayers. If it is difficult to pray two rakah, then you can at least place your forehead on the ground before your Lord and plead with Him, weep and wail, seek forgiveness for your sins, request for all that is good along with perseverance in the path of truth. This can easily be done in five to ten minutes. Yet once you have tasted the pleasure of supplications at dawn, you will take out more and more time and will continue even after Ramadhan.
6. Zikr (Remembering Allah) and Dua (supplication)
The sixth important thing to be observed in Ramadhan is Zikr and supplication. Zikr and supplication should be observed at all times in our life. What is Zikr? Fulfilling any thing that Allah likes – whether it is done through heart or tongue or limbs. In this sense, fasting is Zikr; staying hungry and thirsty for the sake of Allah is Zikr. Recitation of Qur’an, especially in prayers, is a very high form of Zikr. In Ramadhan, mere verbal Zikr, i.e. just repeating some specific words and supplications, is also quite beneficial. It is a supplementary act of virtue but its reward is that of obligatory acts. This keeps us away from slackness and focused on attaining the blessings of Ramadhan.
Supplication is a form of Zikr. Supplication is one’s admission of being poor and weak. That we should consider ourselves poor and weak in front of Allah alone is the essence of our obedience to Him. In Ramadhan, there are special moments for acceptance of our supplications. Iftar (meals to break the fast in the evening) time is one such moment – in which Allah’s mercy is ready to envelop us.
7. The Blessed Night and Etikaf
To arrange for search and welcome of the Blessed Night (Lailat-ul Qadr) is the seventh important thing to do in Ramadhan. It is this night that Qur’an was revealed. This night is better than thousands of months – with regard to its value and greatness, with regard to the task carried out in it, with regard to the bounties and rewards that are distributed, and could be won, in it. A person who stays awake during this night for prayers and supplication has been given the glad tidings of forgiveness from all his sins. Like any other night, there comes a time in this night too when supplications are accepted and whatever is asked for, in terms of goodness in this life and the Hereafter, is granted. Conversely, there can be no bigger misery than remaining devoid of goodness in spite of the descent of this blessed night.
8. Spending in Allah’s Way
The eighth important thing to do in Ramadhan is to spend generously in Allah’s Way. Spending in Allah’s Way is the greatest act after the obligatory prayers. It consists of spending everything bestowed by Allah, including time and energies of body and soul, but most of all, spending wealth. It is because wealth is the most cherished and liked of the world. And it is the love of the world that is the cause of all weaknesses. Promising 700 times more reward for every grain and coin spend in His way, Allah has said that He could grant even more if He so wills.
9. Service to Humanity
Service to humanity is the ninth item in our list to be given special attention during the month of Ramadhan. The Holy Prophet (may Allah bless and greet him) has described the month of Ramadhan as the month of brotherhood and fellow-feeling. This month is meant for showing sympathy and grief-sharing with human beings like us, brothers and sisters all. Make sure in this month to serve your brothers and sisters, feed the hungry, and fulfil the needs of the helpless, give from your wealth the share that is due to the one who asks as well as the one who is destitute but does not beg out of the sense of modesty.
10. Call to the Qur’an
The tenth item in the priority list for Ramadhan is calling towards Qur’an and goodness.
Ramadhan has got its status and dignity because of the Qur’an. Would not Ramadhan, the month of Qur’anic revelation, be the best to convey the message of Qur’an to all people, create awareness in them about the teachings of Qur’an , invite them to the Qur’anic mission, and enable them to rise up to the task of upholding the trust of Qur’an . There can be two approaches to do this. First, frame a ‘things to do in Ramadhan’, plan the duty of calling to Allah, talk on Qur’anic mission and mobilizing for serving the cause of Islam. Invite people to Iftar, and take out some time to talk with them. In your interaction with people, start your talk with reference to Ramadhan and take it to the need of fulfilling the mission of Qur’an . Second, note down a few names from among the list of your relatives and visitors. Take it upon yourself that with continuous and warm contact with them during the month of Ramadhan, you would prepare them to work for the objective of Qur’an .
[Excerpted by Arshad Shaikh from the English translation of Khurram Murad’s “Hum Ramadhan Kis Tarah Guzarey”]