Uzma Azmi
Ramadhan is approaching. Alhumdulillah for that. And we, as mothers, are already super excited at the thought of grabbing more and more rewards, but our excitement is accompanied by worry as well. The fear of not being able to extract most of the blessed month because of so many other chores, which we sometimes think are ‘distractions.’ And we feel these distractions come in the guise of children, husband, household duties, etc. which start filling us with guilt and negative vibes.
The disappointment further escalates when we see men reciting Qur’an and going for Taraweeh, or other women doing extra worship with ease as their children are old enough to take care of themselves, or young unmarried girls rushing to do ibadah. And then there is this regular whispering of shaytan, who continuously tries to make us a pessimist, making us jump on the wrong track by becoming hopeless.
Therefore it is essential to plan our Ramadan to keep our hopes alive. Always remember, if we fail to plan, we plan to fail. So mothers, let’s kickstart our motorcycles to ride the month of Ramadan with our super planning.
1) Analyse your heart and renew your intention for every act/deed you do. Purity and sincerity of intention (to seek Allah’s pleasure) will earn us multiple rewards in sha Allah.
2) Time management is a skill and to stick to it requires even more skill. Make a chart list down what you would want to finish each day or each week, depending on your schedule.
3) Pray as muchnawafil as possible
4) Keep your tongue moist with Dhikr
5) Revive a sunnah, like using miswak, showing compassion and mercy, smiling, helping others, doing other family members’ tasks. Do the small good things.
6) Trying to exceed in generosity by giving food/money/or needful things more than you do in the usual month.
7) Connecting to relatives either through phone calls or personal meetings.
8) Listening to Qur’an is also very rewarding, and it brings tranquillity to our hearts. You can listen to it while continuing with your household chores.
9) Visiting neighbours (both Muslims and non-Muslims), inviting them for small iftar gatherings, and giving flyers or booklets about Islam for the purpose of dawah to the non-Muslims.
10) Introduce and explain 2/3 names of Allah to your children and ask them to call Allah with His beautiful names.
11) Make sure not to spend much time cooking, and at the same time remind others that overeating will only destroy the purpose of fasts. The spiritual rejuvenation will be felt if we feed our souls and not our bodies.
12)Fix a day for narrating a life story of any sahabi to your children and engaging them in this healthy conversation to inculcate the love for the companions of our Prophet (pbuh).
13) Feeding stray animals.
14) Learn small duas and include them in the dua list after salah.
15) Try to avoid situations that enrage you, and if you sense that you are getting angry, then leave that place and start to channel your anger into something positive. Difficult it is undoubtedly, but with the high level of Allah’s consciousness, it becomes possible with ease. You can write the word ‘taqwa’ on a piece of paper and stick it on the wall to cast your eyes on it often as a reminder.
16) Read surahs with meaning so that you can introspect to get closer to Allah.
And last but not least, it is none other than Allah who has given us the responsibility of a wife and a mother, and when we play our roles intending to derive Allah’s pleasure, we are getting highly rewarded for that.
We should never think of our responsibilities as distractions; they are not keeping us away from worshipping our Creator; in fact, we are involved in worshipping Him when we are performing our duties.
Let us discard all the negativity and embrace ourselves with energy to celebrate this blessed month. The right approach is the first step towards achieving our goals.
May Allah make us reach Ramadan and extract the most of it.
Aameen
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