Alhamdullilah we have entered another year, for the month of Ramadan to grace us with its beauty. A time of opportunity, a time of solace and comfort, a time to close the door on our previous shortcomings and open a new door and be greeted with this month’s blessings.
I for one are very excited for it! If you read my previous blog post, you’ll know I was not in a great place last year physically and mentally and Ramadan fell right in the middle of it. I knew I wouldn’t be able to fast whilst being pregnant, but I didn’t bank on being as unwell as I was that I was unable to move through it. Thankfully my mum had come just prior to Ramadan starting and had stocked my freezer full of food that could have been either been fried or thrown into the oven which my husband did. We are also lucky to have great neighbours who knew of my predicament and would send fresh food over for iftar. You got to love that element of Ramadan! But as well of the food and god bless my husband for being such a trooper, I was unable to enjoy the blessings that came with it. It was a Ramadan we both had never experienced before and one we will always reflect back on.
I usually love going to the Taraweeh prayer, it was my yearly tradition with my dad and then my husband. I would plan some goals I would like to meet and would try to obtain them as you would but last year none of that happened. It was definitely a testing time as I didn’t feel the “buzz” of it all and tried so hard to be optimistic so that it wouldn’t kill that vibe for my husband but it was hard and he knew it.
So naturally this year being well and able, alhamdullilah, I can’t help but be really excited for it. To be able to enjoy it now as a family of three not that Zakariyya will remember any of it but just the fact that it is, feels great.
I am not going to lie, I am pretty anxious of how it will fare. Zakariyya decided to join us for Suhoor last night (not to Mama’s liking) and have his feed and then was awake from 7am. I was unable to sleep post Fajr and as such was like oh no how is this month going to go. In between looking after a 9 month old, the regular house chores, cooking iftar and in a week’s time, I will be returning back to work as my maternity leave comes to an end… how am I going to manage?
I will by the will of Allah and with the help of my husband, Insha’Allah. Ramadan is not a race to get endless number of aims fitted in that may not be practically achievable. It is something I think we have all tried to do at one point. Especially as a mother, it would not be practical at all. Burning myself out trying to fit so much in and as such not being able to fulfil my role of a mother or a wife which in itself is worship. We follow a religion which is so merciful, just the action of me feeding Zakariyya or changing his nappy with the right intention is worship. These are truly the blessings of our Deen. That is the power of this month, every little good deed is rewardable with that very reward multiplied.
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said “the most beloved of deeds to Allah are those that are most consistent, even if it is small”. We have it right there, from the very best of us of all telling us all that needs to be done.
Keep it consistent, keep it within your bounds so that is not only practical but also achievable. I have purposely written ‘within your bounds’ as we all have different capabilities.
If you read my birthday reflections post, you’ll have read that I aim to read the Quran at least 15 minutes for a day so that I build the consistency to read it daily post Ramadan. There will be days I will read a lot more but the minimum I have placed on myself is 15 minutes. The other aim I have is to go through two reads, one being part of a book club and the other purely for interest but both I am not stressed about how much I read during this month. There is no aim at all to finish the books but are there to fill time when its available.
Apart from my daily prayers, that’s my list. As you can see it isn’t extensive at all. It is purposely kept small so that it is achievable. There will be other things that I will do as and when if time permits but my priority is my reading of the Qur’an. To make this achievable, I have planned when it will happen. I know my day will be taken up with looking after Zakariyya and working once I start and then straight after into making iftars so I won’t really be able to fit anything in other than my prayers. I have planned my ibadat for 8pm as Zakariyya will be asleep and it’ll give me that time to pray taraweeh and read some quran and then head to bed because who knows when he will awake or how many times now that he’s teething badly. Planning my ibadaat and not leaving to it whenever I can will make all the difference as all mums can probably vouch that our time revolves around theirs.
And that’s it.
I pray you all have a wonderful Ramadan and are able to reap its rewards with all your dua’s answered. Ameen.
