GEAR UP FOR RAMADAN!!!

                     Assalamualiakum wa rahmatulllahi wa barakatuhu

First thing to do is awaken our hearts....we know we can't save ourselves from hell fire if we ransom the whole world....this material world has no value infront of Allah...what Allah wants from us is His servitude that we worship Him by totally submitting and humbling ourselves to our Rabb.

Narrated Abu Huraira(r.a): The Messenger of Allah (saw) said:"... whoever fasts during Ramadan out of sincere faith and hoping to attain Allah's rewards, then all his past sins will be forgiven." (Imam Bukhari).

There are 3 things included in this hadith 1- Action which is fasting 2- Conditions that is with Iman and seekin reward 3- And reward and promise of forgiveness of previous sins.

So first we should have faith that we're keeping the fast in obedience to Allah following His hukm. We should consider fasting ibadah/worship and not adat/habbit,, we are fasting to please Allah

We come to know from this ayah that one fasts to attain taqwa.....whats taqwa ? Its to fulfill the commands of Allah and to stay away from the prohibitions out of love and honour of Allah. Taqwa saves the person from sinning and following ones desires and fulfill ones obligations and duties. So the month of Ramadan is a chance to cleanse our hearts from all evil and fill it up with taqwa, we need to gear up from now to benefit the most from this month and achieve the purpose of bringing goodness in our hearts and purify our souls.

lets see now what actions we can do to gear up for Ramadan from now

1-Voluntary fasts- If we fast from this month of shaban then this will bring perseverance and self control we'll be able to discipline ourselves from now itself...the prophet Sallahu aliahi wasalam use to observe fast in the month of shaban.

 Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) said: "The Messenger (p.b.u.h.) used to fast until we thought he would never break his fast, and not fast until we thought he would never fast. I never saw the Messenger of Allah fasting for an entire month except in Ramadan, and I never saw him fast more than he did in Sha'ban." (Bukhari and Muslim).

2- Reciting the Quran - we should recite and ponder on the verses of the quran and seek closeness to Allah while we're fasting.When one gets spiritual elevation from abstaining from the halal worldly routine and devoting time to the Quran achieves the benefit of Ramadan.we get spiritual training in this month by boosting our Iman and taqwa. 

3-Praying voluntary prayers-we know the that the prophet sallallahu alihi wasalm use to do a lot of qiyam in ramadan so in order to do those long qiyams we need to prepare and strengthen our bodies from now. 

4-Making dua- Seek help from Allah for every good action you intend to do this Ramadan and not waste time while getting the spirit of Ramadan and keep away all the hinderances that are caused when it comes to perfection (ahsan) in ibadah.

5-Sincere repentance- Start from now with repentence remember your sins and seek forgiveness. Welcome ramadan with tauba..only then we can on focus bringing the goodness in ourselves this month.

6-Give in charity- while we're fasting we should feel for our other poor muslim brothers and our loving and caring should increase by ramadan.The prophet(saw) use to be more generous in ramadan.

7-Controllin the tongue-we should control our tongues from useless talks.

 Abu Huraira related that the Prophet said: If a person does not avoid false talk and false conduct during Siyam, then Allah does not care if he abstains from food and drink (Bukhari, Muslim).

 we can also adopt taqwa by pondering on Allah's bounty and favours on us use our tongues to be grateful to Him by doing zikr and mentioning His bounty.

(132)  وَاتَّقُوا الَّذِي أَمَدَّكُم بِمَا تَعْلَمُون (133)  أَمَدَّكُم بِأَنْعَامٍ وَبَنِينَ                     (134)  وَجَنَّاتٍ وَعُيُونٍ  (135)  إِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ عَذَابَ يَوْمٍ عَظِيم          

132. " And be in awe of Him Who has succoured you with what you know."
133. " He has succoured you with cattle and Children,"
134. " And gardens and springs."
135. "Verily I fear for you the chastisement of a Great Day."

8-Improving your character and habbits- we should start by being good to our parents first, we should bring ahsan in worshipping Allah and then ahsan towards people by forgiving them for their flaws. we should read the seerah of the prophets and their companions and see how well wishing and loving they were.One of the social benefit of fasting is that it brings love for justice and equality.

9-Moderation in eating- we should focus more on ibadah while fasting, from the spirtual benefits of fasting is that it accustoms one to patience, it teaches self restraint and helps one practise it and it places the gift of piety in the soul and cultivates it. A human being is made of four things heart, soul/nafs..filled with desires, mind and body, we have to work on our heart and mind its provision is quran and hadith.

10-Implementing sunnah in daily life-we should change our lifestyles and implement on the sunnah of the prophet. He had the best character and He is the best example to follow, we should adopt the habbits of our Nabi and bring a change in our lives.