Category: LIFESTYLE

Ramadan is here and the countdown has officially begun. Thinking about the early morning suhoor, family iftars, and bonding with our faith excites Muslims across the globe. 

My mission for every year is to make sure my Ramadan is better than my last. Seeing the growth from each Ramadan year-by-year shows how significantly closer I am to Allah (swt) – even saying it, gives me the chills. Every year, we should compile a list of goals for Ramadan because it can help keep you grounded and center your objectives. Here is how to make the most out of your Ramadan: 

Work on Time Management

This may sound cliche, but we all know everyone has been through those moments where you sit back and say what you want the upcoming Ramadan to be like, but little by little, your end-goal starts drifting away.

The first step is always making plans that you know you will have the time for, or that you will make time for. Small goals, big goals, anything! Writing an itinerary of your daily life can help keep your priorities for the day in check. Making lists is psychologically proven to keep you organized and more grounded!

Building a Stronger Deen 

Find a way to incorporate prayer in your everyday life leading up to Ramadan. For instance, reading an extra prayer, everyday, ultimately gets you more into a routine of reading five times a day. 

Try to make more duas! Duas, otherwise known as prayers, are our safe haven in times of need, but we should find a way to make that our means of communication between us and Allah (swt) happen on a daily basis. 

Start becoming accustomed to using a tasbih (prayer beads), throughout Ramadan before and after your prayer, so the repetition becomes muscle memory for you.

Taking Time out Daily to Read the Qur’an

Read the Qur’an, every single day! Create the goal of finishing an entire Qur’an, during the month – the reaping of the benefits become endless!

Being busy during the Holy Month, it is one of the biggest challenges, but be consistent! By being consistent, you are more likely drawn to reading a little, every single day – plan and organize how you want to do this.

By implementing the Qur’an more on a daily basis, rid yourself of distractions! We occasionally find ourselves filling our free time up with watching TV, listening to music, going on social media, etc. – use this time for reading the Qur’an!

Give Charity, in Some Way, Every Single Day

Ramadan is a month of giving – offering a hand with housework, donating to your local mosque, giving zakat after prayer, are all means of giving charity.

One of my personal targets, every Ramadan, is always volunteering at any local drive that gives packaged meals to the less fortunate, and with this pandemic, a lot of mosques are resorting to donating food to the less fortunate in a safe way. 

Real Purification of Intentions

Last, but not least – go into this month with pure intentions. Real intentions are what is valued the most during this month which is why we should not think of this month as an obligation – it is, instead, an opportunity.

Opening your heart during this Holy Month  is what will make the most out of any Ramadan you are blessed to take partake in. 

Giving your all to Allah (swt) and the people surrounding you is what will allow you to achieve the benefits of a blessed month. 

Our hearts should be engulfed every single Ramadan because of the opportunity we are given, to be closer to our Lord. Every year that we participate in this blessed month, we are greeted with another chance and we should take this opportunity and make the most of it.

Ramadan is just as much a period of spiritual growth as it is cultural significance. Muslims across the Ummah engage with their faith through fasting, abstinence from sin, Qu’ran recitation, and other practices while the scents of sambusas, pakoras, and other regional Muslim dishes linger long after the last iftaar meal. 

However, this month-long timeframe of individual introspection and communal care tends to be performed in solitude by Muslim converts, who often lack the community at home to sustain their well-being until Eid ul-Fitr. I conversed with Anna and Nabigal-Nayagam, Sinhalese and Tamil Muslim converts, respectively, in an effort to examine how the Ummah as a whole can make sure that converts aren’t left out during Ramadan.

For Anna, this year will mark her first Ramadan since converting to Islam in July of 2019. “I wish I could celebrate [iftaar] with friends or family, or celebrate [Eid] in a larger community.” she recollects. 

Convert Muslims arguably experience as much Islamophobia from the outside world as they do from the home, and because of this, my first tip in making sure that converts aren’t left out for Ramadan is simply lending a hand. 

From bringing converts home so that they can enjoy a traditional iftaar meal to inviting converts to masjid services so that they can connect more with their local Muslim community, there are numerous easy ways to ensure that the converts in your life know that they’re not alone. 

“I think new converts like myself have a lot of questions and confusion about Ramadan when observing it for the first time,” Anna stated. “The lack of feeling like we belong to any one community – Muslim or non-Muslim – makes it hard. There is always the fear of judgment from born Muslims, although most are very welcoming.”

Nabi mentioned that he’s “not a huge mosque-goer, because [he’s trans],” which he mentions is surely self-explanatory. What he believes to be a significant disadvantage during his conversion process, however, is essentially the shaming of converts during Ramadan for not being Muslim enough. 

“Converts are often expected to dive headfirst into fasting with no prior experience, while born Muslims were often eased into it from childhood. Many of us also don’t have a sense of community and support from born Muslims, and we frequently are ostracized from the very tight-knit circles we find at the masjid,” Nabi stated.