May Allah bless you all my dear readers in this most blessed month.
If any one of you has had the chance to attend the courses run by Al Kauthar institute you'll know why I recommend those who haven't to do so.
This is an email I received from the director Sheikh Tawfique Chowdhury which Ireally thought we could all benefit from.
Assalamualiakum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu,
I would like to take this opportunity to greet you, to congratulate you on the advent of blessed Ramadan, to make my sincere dua for you, to express my deepest friendship and love for you and my sincere care and support for you and your families. I make a sincere dua to Allah alone that He makes this month a means to ease your worries, that he replaces it with goodness and transforms your world into a Jannah in this life. May Allah give you what your heart desires and amaze you with His bounty and grace.
I wanted to share with you my answer to something that people ask every Ramadan, namely: How can I make this Ramadan special? The answer quite simply is: By developing good habits in this month.
We all have habits that we may not like or that which may not be liked by Allah. As a result of this, we feel its negative effect in our lives. By its nature, a habit is basically something ingrained and hardwired in our mind. The best way to get over it, is not to try to stop the habit straight away, rather by starting and working on a counter habit. If you want to lose some weight for example – don’t start by stopping to eat, rather start developing a habit of regular exercise and then slowly work on cutting down on the food. This is more effective, more lasting and will probably bring in the result you want. You see, it is difficult to overcome habits that are and have been long standing, but relatively easy to start new ones.
I wanted to share with you a process that I follow to work on starting a new habit that counters a bad habit that I have. It is the following 6 steps. These steps are essentially taken from the simple Islamic process of making repentance – firstly remembering the sin, regretting it by thinking about its implications, making a resolve to not repeat it, doing a good deed that will wipe out the sin, then surrounding yourself with ways of doing good and closing all doors to the bad and lastly being thankful to Allah for having guided you to the good and remembering that if you do the sin again, it is only going to be a new sin and not harm your previous repentance inshaAllah. In the context of habits, the steps are as follows:
1. Firstly, make yourself aware of that negative habit, when, where and how frequently do you happen to do it. How can you effectively make yourself aware of it? By telling others to spot it, by monitoring yourself as closely as possible, by jotting down every time that you remember that you did it. Example: Habit of missing the sunnah prayers.
2. Then, Ask yourself about what impact that habit has on yourself and on yours perception, personality and relationship with Allah. The more you focus on this, the more this becomes the lever of change. Example: Constantly missing the sunnah prayers makes a person a miser with his ibadah, not love the sunnah, legally removes his status as being just, removes the reward of having a new palace built for him/her in paradise daily – the more you focus on the problems of this bad habit, the more it will make you want to change it.
3. Next, focus on how willing and committed you are to making a change and on doing a counter habit. Think over the fence into the future – how it would be to not have the negative habit and to replace it with a positive one.
4. Then write a specific action that you will do to counter the habit and start the good habit. Be very specific and try to make it regular so that it actually becomes a habit. Remember – a habit is something that you do regularly! Example: specifically you will come to prayer 10mins early so you can do the sunnah prayer on time.
5. Next: Support yourself to develop that new good habit. How? Hang around good friends, put up reminders anywhere and everywhere, get your family and friends to support you by remind you about it.
6. Lastly: Reward yourself every time you do a good habit and don’t be too hard on yourself if you end up doing the bad habit here and there. Remember: Habit happens!
Remember that Allah loves those simple deeds that are done regularly rather than
the major ones done irregularly. I invite you to use the above to remove a
negative habit that you may have and then to develop a new good habit in this
month. I am also adding here the link to the Ramadan Checklist that I had made
last year to help you develop and stick to that good habit:
http://www.alkauthar.org/
Lastly my friends, if there is anything at all that I can do to help you or to make Ramadan more enjoyable for you and more successful for you, then please do not deny me the honour of aiding you in it. Please don’t hesitate to email me if you wish, or use the forums for any non-personal issues and questions that you may have: http://forums.alkauthar.org I hope to see you again sometime soon inshaAllah.
Wassalamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu
Tawfique Chowdhury
Director
Mercy Mission and AlKauthar Institute
Bismillah Rahmaan Raheem,
Salam alaykum Islam's teacher:
May you be in best state of health, happiness and strong in Iman - ameen.
Thank you teacher of Islam Jazakallah khair for sharin how to make the most of Ramadan!
Islam's teacher it has been l-o-n-g time since you haven't shared Islam with us!
Teacher, would you please tell the difference between Iman and Taqwah? Which of them is most important? How would I know how much Iman and Taqwah I have? And how to increase Taqwah and Iman? Where do I start from?
Teacher of Islam, would you write an article on Iman and Taqwah, before Ramadan ends, please?!
Thank you teacher Jazakallah khair
Big Ramadan Mubarak - in advance - to you and yours
Wassalam alaykum waRahmatullahi waBarakaatuhu, Islam's teacher
ARGcomment: I have admittedely been ignoring this blog for a long while! That is a very nice idea for an article, but I just can't make any promises about writting anything. I have so much to do!
Mau Allah bless this ramadan for you and all readers.
Posted by: palwasha | Thursday, 20 August 2009 at 20:48
Assalamu alykum Islam's teacher,
Ameen to all of your duas and I ask Allah may He bless this Ramadan for you and yours too!
Yes, teacher of Islam, I understand, it is difficult to write when you have to give lectures, work, and do many other things.
May Allah put barakah in your time, Islam's teacher!
Teacher of Islam, always make dua may Allah make it easy for me to understand and follow His deen, please, won't you?
Jazakallah khair our Islam's teacher, was salam alaykum waRahmatullahi waBarakaatuhu
Posted by: palwasha | Wednesday, 26 August 2009 at 00:42
Bismillah Rahmaan Raheem,
Salam alaykum Islam's teacher,
teacher I found one article on Iman by teacher Estes.
would share the link to that article (workbook for home workshop) on Iman:
http://islamnewsroom.com/news-mainmenu-28/114-home-workshop-guide.html?start=3
please teacher of Islam when you get time do write on Taqwah!
Thank you islam's teacher for all the lessons on Islam. Jazakallah khair!
May Allah accept all of your works as havin been done for His sake and may He put Barakah in your work!
was salam alaykum waRahmatullahi waBarakaatuhu, urs everprayin student
argcomment: i've been thinking about it since you asked
Posted by: palwasha | Wednesday, 09 September 2009 at 12:40