Ramadan Prep 2021

The time is here sooner than I imagined it to be! Sha’ban is upon us and my mind is traveling towards Ramadan with high hopes and dreams. This year is already off to an interesting start and I am clinging on until the spiritual retreat of the blessed month. May Allah ﷻ allow us to experience it. Ameen.

It will be another non-fasting Ramadan for me this year. The first time, I found myself over compensating for my inability to do so and I anchored myself with plenty of goals which I thought were good enough. If I only knew! My unwarranted guilty conscious made me forget my chronic illness and the anchor turned out to be much heavier than I thought. Soon I was drowning with unfinished tasks which dug a deeper hole into my self worth.

Long story short, here I am with a much healthier mind filled with acceptance of my thyroid disease and gratitude for the gift of ease. Alhumdulillah for not having to fast during illnesses!

My focus this month is to make realistic goals that give room for flexibility should a day prove itself to be devoid of energy while pushing myself to make my spirituality the top most priority. Whether it means cutting down on TV watching or spreading all blog tasks even further, I want to consciously remind myself to discipline my nafs and turn towards Allah ﷻ. The nafs is overloaded with pleasures of this world and it needs constant reminders to not chase pit stops but keep the gaze on the final destination. Fasting is a constant reminder of that with its rumbling stomach but since nothing physically will be changing in my personal life, I will be relying heavily on the spiritual blessings that come as a gift for all believers during this month. That is a challenge but what is this world but that?

As always, I work with three categories that I also guide you through in the Ramadan Planning guide for this year: Quran, Learn & Grow. After planning my goals, I turn towards my ring binder and jot down everything on the Spiritual Goals and Review which guides me to choose a motivational quote, make the correct intentions and end it all with dua.

1. Qur’an

Ramadan is month of the Qur’an so this category can not be overlooked. I want to spend plenty of time working through my Quran recitation goals…. aaaand catching up on my last year ones. Although I hit the ground the running with the tafseer of Surah Baqarah last year, I found myself dwindling from it after the month was over. Slowly my time spent on it became less and less and before I know it, it completely disappeared from my daily tasks.

So this year, I’d like to start where I left off insha’Allah with only Tafseer Ibn Katheer (rh) and The Clear Quran as my trusty companions. I will be trying something new with this Focus Timer by Intelligent Change which offers a 30-minute focused time on the task of choice. I imagine myself flipping it over and spending the half hour dedicated to the tafseer insha’Allah.

2. Learn

This year, I am starting a new journey with the Shama’il of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ with this stunning collection by Imam Ghazali Institute. In addition to the book, I thought it would be lovely to spend the days listening to its accompanying playlist on YouTube which can also serve as a passive act should my energy be wanting that day. The goal is to fill the days with goodness and this should fill the ticket insha’Allah!

3. Grow

This is where I am beginning to feel a little hesitancy since the above tasks already seem heavy enough. The last thing I want is to fatigue my body which will result in less and less energy as days progress. However, I am not giving up this easily and decided to go through my own program of Surah Sajdah Memorization and perhaps, by the end of the month, I would have memorized it insha’Allah. It had been waiting for my attention and I think this is an ideal time to do so.

Should that fail, then I have other dhikr backups to keep my tongue busy with and that will be alright for me.

That is it for my plans for this Ramadan, insha’Allah! Although they seem simple, I feel that their intensity can be adjusted daily depending on my health. I talk further about my plans with a little show & tell and “My Ramadan Plan 2021” printable in this YouTube video: