Preparing for Ramadan

The month of Ramadan is almost here, a month full of blessings, forgiveness and mercy. It’s a time of reflection and sacrifice, a time to endure hunger with patience, a time of cleansing both the body and mind. Those who understand the benefits of fasting in the month of Ramadan start to prepare from Sha’baan, and/or earlier.

Abu Bakr al-Balkhi said:

“The Month of Rajab is the Month for planting the seeds; the Month of Sha’baan is the month of watering the seeds and the month of Ramadhan is the month of reaping the fruits. [Lata’if al-Ma’arif fima li Mawasim al-Aam min al-Wadha’if]

It’s upon every Muslim to learn the significance of this month, and by doing so we will understand why the believer’s hearts yearn for this month. In order to reap the full benefits of this blessed month of Ramadan, we can start by preparing for it in 3 ways:

 1.  Make Dua:

Many of the salaf used to say the people of the past would supplicate for 6 months to Allah to allow them to reach the month of Ramadan.

The first thing we should all be doing is to make dua that we are among those who witness this Ramadan. Dua will help us get closer to Allah and it is said that the weapon of the believer is dua,  so may Allah allow us to reach this Ramadan, ameen.

 2.  Develop good habits:

There’s no denying that we are creatures of habit. We do things unconsciously and overtime we develop patterns and actions that are familiar and easy. But these habits are not always good for us, which is why it’s important to create positive changes by starting the discipline right now as this will make easier for us to maintain them during Ramadan and inshaa Allah thereafter.

How to create good habits:

• Develop self-discipline
• Add good habits into your daily routine
• Reflect on the habits (are you changing for the better or worse?)

 3.  Set Goals:

Setting goals goes hand in hand with developing good habits because you are more likely to reach goals if you have good habits. Research shows that we are more motivated when we set goals and reflect upon our progress. This makes having goals imperative, because we know how motivating it can feel to reach a significant goal.  Because we don’t know if we will be there for the next Ramadan again, we should really try to reap the full benefits of every Ramadan that Allah allows us to witness inshaa Allah. Keeping this in mind, I have included a simple one page goal setting printable that you can use to write your goals for Ramadan inshaa Allah.

غدا توفى النفوس ما كسبت … ويحصد الزارعون ما زرعوا

إن أحسنوا أحسنوا لأنفسهم … وإن أسؤا فبئس ما صنعوا

“Tomorrow the souls will be granted what they worked for, and the farmers will harvest what they planted. If they did good, then they did so for themselves, and if they did evil, then what terrible actions they have prepared.”

Poem: ”Lata’if al-Ma’arif fima li Mawasim al-Aam min al-Wadha’if” of Ibn Rajab, pages 209-210

Goals Setting for Ramadan Printable (link)

So, how are you preparing for Ramadan?

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