Tag: seeking God’s help

Categories
Fasting New Muslims

Instagramadan 1: Finding the Love That We Need

The primary function of the month of Ramadan is to gain taqwa (God-consciousness); meaning to have a true and meaningful relationship with Allah (Exalted be He), to fill your heart with true meaningful love…

How could we gain this taqwa? What does fasting has truly to do with taqwa?

Why food and drink is prohibited during the daylight hours of Ramadan? Our hearts have finite capacity, so how could we empty them out of love of other things to fill them with real feelings? And what are they?

Watch the 1st episode of the series of Instagramadan series by Brother AbdelRahman Murphy and learn how to empty our hearts out of the things that stand in the way of having real relationship with Allah…

The Love That We Need

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Categories
Fasting New Muslims

Instagramadan 10: Know How Much He Loved You

Do you know how much the Prophet loved you? In the last verses of Surah Al-Tawbah, Allah describes the qualities of the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) relationship with us:

Now has come unto you a Messenger from amongst yourselves: it grieves him that you should perish: ardently anxious is he over you: to the Believers is he most kind and merciful. But if they turn away, Say: “Allah suffices me: there is no god but He: On Him is my trust,- He the Lord of the Throne (of Glory) Supreme!”  (At-Tawbah 9:128,129)

Three characteristics that highlight how much he loved us, asking us the question: do we do our best to love him in return? This month, let’s work on learning and loving the man who loved us so much (may peace and blessings be upon him).

Watch the 10th episode of the  series of Instagramadan series by Brother AbdelRahman Murphy and learn about the Prophet’s love for us…

Do You Know How Much He Loved You?

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Categories
Fasting New Muslims

New Muslims Filling Post-Ramadan Emptiness

Ramadan is over. The excitement of `Eid is over. You are a revert Muslim and maybe it was your first `Eid. There were times when you were not sure you were going to make it and even times when you were not sure of anything much at all. It was 30 days of extreme physical and mental tests, long nights of prayer and lonely hours (at least in my case) of a dry throat.

Ramadan

Remind yourself why you felt blessed during Ramadan and why you did it in the first place.

Now on completion you will never forget those 30 days; every year from now on will mean something more than you ever could have imagined. They will forever be embedded in your heart and mind as a testimony to your resolve and unshaking belief in the Shahadah, which you know beyond a doubt that you now firmly believe in.

And then in that joy comes the ‘crash’ – the sense of emptiness, of abyss. You climbed so high to achieve the long fasts and Tarawih of Ramadan and now everywhere you look is down. At the top, the climb seems nowhere near as bad as the descent. And if you are feeling like that, trust me I was the same in 2012 in China, knowing I would go back to Spain, which isn’t the most Muslim-friendly place. This thought then filled my heart with a little bit of dread and then the desperation set in.

What do I do now? What does Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) want from me? What do I do at iftar (not fasting)? How do I maintain that sense of community?

With the end of Ramadan, it was like my ‘Muslimness’ was draining away and no sense of scrambling would get it back. That sense of knowing Allah when refusing a cup of tea until the final bowel of Maghrib (sunset) because you’re a Muslim, or the near militant avoidance of the use of bad language or the refusal to listen to non-Muslim worship during Ramadan was gone. Even the wearing of the prayer hat (all Muslims in China wear it as part of their identity), at least not until next year.

And in that desperation, I did the only thing I could do. I turned to Allah (Exalted be He) once more. Not because I was a ‘good Muslim’ but because I didn’t know what else to do. I could not ask my family and within a short time the Muslims I had come to know in China were literally going to be on the other side of the world.

At this moment I knelt in my long prayer clothing with my hood up on my pink prayer mat and opened my ears wide. What did Allah need to say to me? It was my first Ramadan and it was all over. How could I fill the emptiness? The answers did not come all at once. One did but the others come later, some even during my second Ramadan.

First thing to remember is that you are not chasing a spiritual high but you are running after Allah, the One true God.

Any Muslim looking to emulate a spiritual high will be highly disappointed and will only be drunk in it. The ‘high’ is the blessing one gets for seeking Allah. The minute you stop seeking Him is the minute the food spoils and makes you sick. The blessing fades and turns abruptly into a nightmare because as writer Yasmin Mogahed says:

“You can only run in one direction. So you are either running to God, or you are running to something else…”

So with that in mind, how does one stay in the blessing of Ramadan?

1- Remind yourself why you felt blessed during Ramadan and why you did it in the first place. In my case I did not do it because it was a pillar of Islam, but I did it to feel closer to Allah and to understand my path better. So I read the Qur’an more comprehensively, prayed more frequently, actively bought Islamic books on family life and marriage (seeing as it is the other half of the deen) to read in Ramadan and after it.

In other words I surrounded myself with things that would allow me to have a better relationship with Allah and the Ummah. In doing so, I received Allah’s blessing and actively felt blessed. If I had to give one piece of advice this post-Ramadan I would say: write down or talk to a brother or sister about your blessings and how you wish to walk in them in the coming year. This means, at least it did in my case, a brainstorming session (or two or three) with your best friends or family.

2- Reflect on Allah’s greatness every time you say “Allahu Akbar” and what He inspired you to achieve. I am not one to write things down but rather a person who ‘meditates’ on such things. Doing my quiet times on the bus (which were not actually quiet, given how crowded a place China is), I made it part of my worship.

In this worship, I processed what had happened to me doing Ramadan and was happening to me now, after `Eid. I asked friends of mine what they thought of ‘my Ramadan’, which was a rather revealing though a not too comfortable experience that told me a lot about myself and my relationship with Islam (my good and bad attitudes).

If you are a revert or even a born Muslim it is actually very worthwhile to ask a non-Muslim person you trust to give their honest opinion as they see things that Muslims may not always notice, given that they are themselves focusing on prayer and fasting themselves! Allah’s greatness can be reflected everywhere (unless it is strictly haram) and in every person (obviously to a varying degree) so don’t make the mistake of only asking the holiest person you meet!

3- Ask Allah what He wants you to do with your new found skills of post-Ramadan (in my case more patience and a greater awareness of poverty and physical hardship). I did a lot of du`aa’ following Ramadan and asked Allah about the things I had read, the people I had meet and the skills I had learned. I also went out and actively did something about it.

Du`aa’ is only the beginning and changes little if you do not act on it. Du`aa’ is participatory; it is not a monologue and involves interaction with Allah and subsequently other people, in order that Allah can show you how to make your pure heartfelt desires a reality. Think Action Plan, in blocks or a series of steps (I prefer not to have a timeframe as I lose motivation.)

4- Remember your brothers and sisters are exactly that and did not just adopt you doing Ramadan. Invest time in building and maintaining halal (permitted by Allah) relationships with them. Frequent halal shops, buying only what you need that day so you have to return the next one. Make time, not excuses, no matter how far the mosque is, (trust me all of mine are far) to get there on a daily basis. Actively look for opportunities to interact or offer your support to someone.

5- Continue to frequently consult the new websites from where you obtained Qur’anic insights to live a highly productive and spiritual Ramadan.

blessing of Ramadan

Keep up any one of the routines you established during Ramadan

6- Keep up any one of the routines you established during Ramadan – continuity is key. If you made it your goal in Ramadan 2012 to pray all five prayers no matter where you were or to pray at the mosque daily in Ramadan 2013, keep up the habit! If you found time during Ramadan to go the gym and work a full-time job, you will still have that time when after Ramadan. It might mean, as it did in my case, that you make it your business to know every mosque in the city or that you book appointments and work schedule (or even leisure activities) around prayer times but believe me, it is worth it. I just think of all the exercise and fat I burn cycling to the masjid and the less time I have to sit wasting time on my computer.

7- Ask Allah what you need to work on after Ramadan which you didn’t have time to perfect during Ramadan. In my first Ramadan the focus was more physical, given the shock my body had. The focus of my second one was consistent masjid attendance. I am sure the next thing I must work on is patience. In this year’s post-Ramadan I will, in sha’ Allah, be looking at what frustrates me and how I can avoid that feeling of frustration. In my case prayer is the number solution and actually my best non-Muslim friend gives me my prayer mat when I am annoyed! Attack what you need to work on from two angles, find out the source or the reason behind the need to change, develop and/or grow and facilitate the solution.

Allah says:

O you who have believed, seek help through patience and prayer. Indeed, Allah is with the patient. (Al-Baqarah 2:153)

In your post-Ramadan, there will be times where you don’t feel spiritual at all. You might even feel fed-up and irritable, having slipped up and lost your newly created habits, be it gym attendance, masjid attendance, reduction in the number of swear words you allow to pass your lips etc. Pray about it, commit the issue to Allah. Make yourself accountable to a Muslim of the same sex (i.e. not your wife or husband though they should know you are doing it and who with), not to revel in it but to genuinely seek Allah’s Will on the matter. Ask him/her to commit to doing du`aa’ for you too and be patient and steadfast.

Lastly, remember if you forget to take prescribed medicine it normally says on the instruction leaflet, not to take a double dose but rather resume the medicine again as soon as you remember or as soon as you can. This is what I encourage you to do when and if you should slip up. Commit to prayer, be patient with yourself and as soon as you can resume your normal ‘Ramadan’ behavior. For this is now you, not the man or woman before Ramadan but the one after!

So with these tips, prepare yourself to have a different but equally enriching post-Ramadan experience until the next one, in sha’ Allah.

_________________________

Source: productivemuslim.com.

This article was written by Kai Ibrahim, a British revert who observed Ramadan on his own in Spain and Poland in 2013, and in Spain and China 2012, in the hope to inspire and encourage reverts and other Muslims to keep up the spirituality post-Ramadan until the next one. He also hopes that the article will encourage Muslim families to adopt a revert Muslim now that Ramadan is over and keep them smiling into the next one!

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Categories
Ethics & Values New Muslims

Make the Shift: Instill the Real Habits, Weed out the Guilty

sunrise and sunset

The beginning of a dramatically new habit comes with the burden of overcoming existing mental and physical programming.

Ever attend the talk on maintaining your Ramadan momentum? Seems to be everywhere at the end of Ramadan, but in my experience few, if any, are impacted because Ramadan time is treated as a time of binge worship rather than an occasion for strategic habit development. I believe our speaking capital is better invested in teaching habits of worship that are practically integrated in the life of the typical Muslim.

By doing so, Ramadan stops acting as a time of crash-and-burn binge worship and turns into a framework for building habits that should be at the core of every Muslim’s daily life. The first habit we look to develop is teaching the reader one method that has been successful in developing the ability to wake at 4 am daily – this is how I did it, but it’s not the only way to get the job done.

Real Goals vs. Guilty Goals

At the heart of every Muslim’s life priorities should be an aspiration to place in the highest level of Paradise. You’ll know the strength of that conviction by the conscious strategies you create to get there, and the active steps you take to making those strategies successful. You’ll likely fail many times, but oftentimes the intent and effort is just as important as attaining the goal itself. This is a ‘real goal’.

In contrast, when one says, “I should change”, but no real effort takes place, either in planning or doing, it’s what I like to call a ‘guilty goal’. Guilty goals are not true goals – they’re simply lip service placeholders in our minds, that allow us to acknowledge the virtue of some action while simultaneously making us feel guilty because, either we don’t really want to do them (lip service), or we don’t see a viable path forward to complete them.

For example, when asked, “Do you want to memorize the Qur’an?” in a lecture, all hands shoot up. Who wouldn’t want to? But were we to ask, “Who has a one-, two-, five-, or ten- year plan to get it done,” the number of raised hands would disappear faster than a palatable dish at an iftar (meal to break the fast).

Daily Habits

They are bridge from ‘guilty’ to ‘real’ goals. I’m often asked about my eating and training strategies because of the shape I maintain, especially since I’m not a fitness professional, but a 9–to-5 software engineer with a wife and three kids. The most important strategy for getting into shape is the same as for waking at 4 a.m. – it’s hardwiring neural pathways in your brain that converts new, frequent actions into lifelong habits.

Once those habits are firmly established, it becomes difficult to leave aside performing those habits. If you’d like to test it out, see how you feel when you don’t brush your teeth in the morning. Beyond avoiding close quarters in conversation and the gross feeling in your mouth, your subconscious mind will continually bang away at the walls of your mind letting you know something is wrong. There is so much negative reinforcement, you can’t help but go back and brush your teeth (at least, I hope so).

What if the pain of leaving a good action was more than the pleasure of leaving it? What if your mind rebelled and compelled you to go back and perform the action? Now you have a good habit established. We’ll discuss how to go about doing this, using the 4 a.m. wake-up as our example.

How to Establish Daily Habits

When you begin any new activity, be it waking at 4 a.m. or turning your health around, you’re both attempting to establish many new habits while breaking away from other established habits. That’s a tall order, and it’s why most people fail to change – it’s too much too soon.

It’s the same reason why almost no one maintains their Ramadan momentum, and why they crash and burn come `Eid day. The following strategy outlines how I bring about change in my daily habits with the 4 a.m. wake-up as the example.

1- What’s in It for Me? (Find Your Motivation)

Before changing your habits, you need one or more compelling reasons to change. In the case of waking at 4 a.m., one habit I wanted to establish was praying at least 2 rak`ahs of Qiyam Al-Layl (Night Vigil Prayer) every night. I chose 4 a.m. because when the winter months hit, I would still be within a half-hour time frame before Fajr, so no matter what time of year I was in, I could perform it.

But this isn’t the only reason I wanted to establish this habit. By waking early, I could also better prepare myself for the day, spend more time on other acts of worship (more dhikr, memorizing Qur’an), more learning (preparing for certifications related to my job), getting more work done (I could get more done in an hour in the morning than during normal office hours), and if my wife woke with me, spend quality time with her while the kids slept, and we would both be bright and fresh during that time.

Sure, there are some days when I oversleep and wake up at 6:30 a.m., and there are days when I wake up and just want to stand in the shower and veg out for more time since I have more time. It’s all fine because I have that time for myself to do just that.

For me, waking at 4 a.m. is the foundation for success in all other areas of life. In particular, during the brief periods of time I consistently performed Qiyam Al-Layl, I found my du`a’s (supplications) often answered with overnight delivery. All-in-all, this habit means a lot to me, and I believe very strongly in the benefit of establishing this habit and maintaining it for life.

a clock, time management

When you begin any new activity, be it waking at 4 a.m. or turning your health around, you’re both attempting to establish many new habits while breaking away from other established habits.

2- Anticipate the Unintended Consequences of the Habit

Changing oneself isn’t simply a matter of deciding you’ll act differently and then doing so. A number of areas of life should be addressed:

Relationships: If I wake and sleep earlier, what effects will that have on my family’s routine? If this causes me to go to the office earlier, how will that affect my team’s established routine? If you see the potential for conflict, you should speak with the affected parties and ensure they understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. If they anticipate problems, work out those problems to the satisfaction of both yourself and the other person.

Energy Levels: Your own energy levels will be impacted by this change. On a daily basis, you’ll wake and want to go right back to sleep. If you stay awake, you may find performance deteriorates due to mind fog. I dealt with this by taking an energy drink first thing in the morning upon waking. I’m now at a point where I wake early without an alarm clock and don’t need the energy drink immediately.

Daily Schedule: When my day started and ended later, I spent more time relaxing in the evenings because rest was all I wanted after a long day at work. By flipping my hours around, I was working on all those ‘important’ priorities first thing daily, but I was no longer taking the time to relax and have fun. It was leading to a different type of mental burnout, and I didn’t anticipate that. If there are important activities in your life coming later in the day, make sure to find other times in your schedule to handle them.

3- Persevere through Initial Launch, Occasional Failure

The beginning of a dramatically new habit comes with the burden of overcoming existing mental and physical programming. If the change is too dramatic, then you’ll likely last anywhere between one day and one week before crashing.

To preserve through the initial launch, the change should be a challenge without being overpowering. If you’re already waking at 8am, then you would start at 7am in your first week, not 4 am. Your focus during this time is not Qiyam Al-Layl, studying, working out, or anything else.

The goal is simple: wake up and stay up. If you want to take a long shower, walk around the neighborhood, or veg out on Facebook, go for it. If you woke at 7 a.m. and stayed up all day, congratulations, you succeeded.

The last point cannot be overstated enough. The goal is simply waking and staying up, no more. Even if you sleep late, it doesn’t matter – your goal is consistently waking up at the same time and staying up. The next week, you’ll move to 6 a.m., the week after 5 a.m., and the week after that, you can push to 4 a.m. If one hour increments are too much for you, wake earlier in half-hour increments. If even that becomes too much, aim for 15 minute increments.

Once you’ve established the habit, you’ll find that your wake up time may fluctuate. Sometimes I wake at 3 a.m. and can’t fall back asleep, and other times I wake at 4:30 a.m. to 5 a.m. This range is acceptable for me, based on my own goals. If I were to wake up at 6am and beyond, I would consider that ‘oversleeping’.

In this case, I consciously attempt to discern what may have caused the problem (in one instance, I worked out late in the evening and then slept late), and make sure to focus myself on not repeating the mistake, or if I repeat the mistake, setting up other means of waking (like my alarm). The key is that occasional failure is ok (and expected), just determine that a failure doesn’t mean the end of the habit, it’s just a part of our human imperfection, and strive again to maintain better consistency.

Another point to keep in mind, sometimes I intentionally ‘fail’, meaning, I realize I’ve awakened too many early mornings in a row while sleeping an average of 5 hours. When this occurs, I allow myself a recovery day (usually on a Saturday or Sunday) to knock out until 9 a.m. (that’s just my time, others may have their own).

Exceptions

I know many of you are excited to get started and running on this, but there are some exceptions such as if you’re:

Pregnant or within 2 years of delivering a baby: Your schedule and hormones are far too upside down. Focus on a healthy delivery, and don’t try to force a sleep schedule with a new baby. In fact, set your expectations and don’t guilt yourself over not being able to achieve more during this time unless you have an awesome spouse who will help out and give you your own time.

You work the graveyard shift; you probably hit Qiyam every night, but really, the point is that you don’t wake up simply to get up and get ready for work. Use the techniques outlined above to wake up 2 hours earlier to get other types of work done.

People with medical sleep disorders: Seek the help of a competent professional. Let them know what you want to do and see how they can help you get it done.

Wrap Up

Becoming a consistent early-morning person isn’t about being a super duper tajweed (rules of Qur’anic recitation) master sheikh floating on a magic carpet. It’s all about focusing on the goal, keeping it simple, making conscious, gradual improvements, and moving forward until you hit the target.

Don’t worry about the days you fail, just keep trying until you get to enjoy the sweetness of front loading your day with all the most important things in your life. The gradual success that comes from it will snowball into this amazing feeling of accomplishment and happiness that honestly can’t be put into words.

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Source: muslimmatters

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Categories
Articles of Faith New Muslims

8 Tips to Stay Connected to the Qur’an After Ramadan

As the days of Ramadan leave us, we get a feeling of emptiness. Many of us may have achieved a great deal this month whilst others may have been disappointed in how they spent their blessed Ramadan days. But, how could we stay connected to its good deeds, particularly our relationship with the Qur’an, after Ramadan?

The passing of Ramadan so quickly usually leaves the hearts of Muslims around the world saddened. But, what is it that truly saddens us? Is it the end of the iftar (breaking the fast meal) party invites? The rumbling belly at lunchtime? Or perhaps something much more important and frightening? The fear of not being able to maintain as much `ibadah and concentration on the faith as in the month that has passed, and the distractions of life that overwhelm us soon after `Eid?

Whilst this is the case, like in any battle, the soldiers must prepare themselves to win. Our battle in this instance is to maintain a relationship with the Qur’an and continue to build on whatever we have accomplished this Ramadan. Even if it was not as productive as you would have liked, to learn from the mistakes in Ramadan and kick start a solid relationship with the Qur’an in the coming months is equally as important.

`Abdullah ibn Mas`ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said:

“The house in which the Qur’an is not recited is like a derelict (forsaken) house that has no one to maintain it.” (Al-Musannaf)

Never let your home become forsaken; so long as you have breath in your lungs, you are able to stay connected , hold tight to the Qur’an and its teachings. There are no excuses.

We all take time to ensure we smell nice, look good and eat well. So, give your soul as well the food it requires by nourishing it with the Qur’an, and never neglect it. Our bodies are finite entities, so feed the soul that will hold you up when your body is no longer strong. Feed the soul to keep your heart awake.

Here are 8 tips to help you start, develop and maintain a strong relationship with the book of Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) even after Ramadan in sha’ Allah:

1- Treat every month as if it’s Ramadan

While the blessed days have passed, this does not mean our mentality should change. We make time in this month because we are aware of the blessings and importance of spending time in ibadah. However, this does not mean the time outside of Ramadan should be wasted.

This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah. (Al-Baqarah 2:2)

This verse applies to everyday; Ramadan is a special time to spend with the Qur’an, get truly connected to it,  but that does not mean we should neglect it outside of this month.

Imagine every month to be like Ramadan and try to put as much passion into developing your relationship with the Qur’an as you can. The truth is, any day could be our last and therefore we should optimize our time spent in reading and pondering over the book that was sent as a guidance for us.

2- No excuses to get Connected!

We procrastinate with excuses as to why we cannot regularly recite and ponder over the Qur’an.

You might ‘lack time’ – but you are reading this which means you have time to surf the net! Cut out idle activities or wake up 15 minutes earlier.

You feel bad because ‘you don’t understand’ what you read – find a Qur’an teacher, read translations and tafseer (exegesis of Qur’an) or start learning Arabic.

You may think ‘you’ll do it on the weekend’ – give yourself the reality check of life. You may not have tomorrow so do what you need to today!

Sadly, it may just be a case of “I don’t know why, I just can’t get in the habit”. In order to make a habit, you must strive. The climb up the mountain is never easy but if you stop midway you will never reach the top. Small steps are better than no steps.

3- Have a monthly goal

At the beginning of each month, set a target for yourself. Do you want to complete the entire Qur’an or focus on particular surahs?

Is there a portion you want to successfully memorize? Or perhaps you want to focus on your recitation rather than a particular quantity?

Whatever the case may be, having an idea in mind about what your goal is will help keep you focused to achieve it in sha ’Allah. This is a personal goal for you, your abilities and what you are in need of to boost your iman. Write it down in your diary, phone or wall – keep it around you before your eyes so you always remember what the goal is.

4- Set a time for Qur’an

We can set as many goals as we like, but without being prepared or planning the journey to that destination, it can be extremely difficult.

On a weekly basis, work out when you will have the time to read the Qur’an and associated activities that you are focusing on. Are you able to have a set time? It is great if you can but if not, do not panic. Use whatever time you have to do as much as you can.

5- Catch up on what you’ve missed

Some days may be busier than others and you may not be able to read whatever portion you had planned for.

Hold yourself accountable for this and ensure to catch up with what you have missed on top of the planned activities for the next day. This is important in ensuring you have a regular habit in place that you try to maintain to attain the goals you have made for that month.

Even better, create a post-Ramadan Qur’an group with your friends to help you stay motivated and connected to the Qur’an even when you feel your enthusiasm dipping.

6- Focus on understanding

As well as reciting the Qur’an, make time to read the translation and tafseer. This could be by reading them on your own, or by attending classes at a local masjid or institute.

This is really an important part of developing an understanding of the Qur’an; many of us fall out of the habit of reading the Qur’an and stay connected to it because we fail to understand what it is that we are reading. Allah (Exalted be He) says that the Qur’an is “a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion. (Al-Baqarah 2:184)

We should not miss out on obtaining this guidance because we do not understand the language. Make it a goal to learn Arabic, however in the meantime, utilize the translated works available to understand, absorb and implement the message of the Qur’an in your daily life.

7- Implement what you learn

The stories in the Qur’an are full of lessons. Take time to ponder over them and ask yourself how you can implement what you have learned into your life?

The Qur’an highlights for us the imperfections we have, whilst giving us the ideas on how to change for the best. Listening to the Qur’an can be healing and soothing, however the fundamental reason for the verses to be revealed is to guide a person to the straight path. Whatever portion you read, ask yourself how you can change your life based on it.

Keep a journal with the points you have learned and how you will work towards developing a personality complementary to the Qur’an. Remember the hadith of `A’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her):

“The character of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was the Qur’an.” (Abu Dawud)

8- Make du`aa’

Lastly, but by no means least – always ask Allah to help you in your quest to understand His words. We are unable to achieve anything without Allah granting us the ability to do so. The beauty of this is that Allah can help us achieve that which everyone else thinks we are unable to do.

Never let the words or actions of others put you down; whatever your goals are concerning the Qur’an, getting connected to it and understanding it, put your trust in Allah (Exalted be He) that He will make it possible.

Whatever rocks, boulders or mountains come in your way, never forget that Allah knows your soul can handle the struggle. Break down whatever blocks that try to prevent you from grasping the Qur’an by always turning to Allah and asking Him to make the Qur’an the light of your life and heart!

Share with us your tips on maintaining a close relationship with the Qur’an post-Ramadan. What do you do to stay connected to it?

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Source: productivemuslim.com. – By Aishah Iqbal

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