Ramadan 2013: What I learned: Part 1

Bismillaah

In 15 minutes, Im going to tell about how my Ramadan was for the first few days.

This is what I learned

Fasting: its not all about eating iftar. Sure the first few days your focus is on satisfying your belly, but after a while the food is not that exciting anymore and you want a more spiritual feeling happening in your prayers

Qiyaam: Qiyaamul is not supposed to be diffcult, you know the way they do it the mosque. No, its better to sleep after Isha, immediately and then wake an hour before fajr to pray. That way your not sleeping throughout the day cuz you stayed up praying.

The Quran: its an integral part of this blessed month. You need to read it. Take advantage, shaytaan isnt there to distract you and you can get more done in this month thatn any other month. Trust me.

Breaking your fast: Have you ever ate so much you couldnt walk, except the walk of a pregnant woman.. And then almost cry from the pain of it. The trick is not to eat you entire meal at one time. I learned that if you break your fast with a date and water and then immediately pray maghrib and then continue eating a little bit that is  better for your stomach. But even then after maghrib dont eat the entire meal, take a break and go pray the sunnah. And after that dont eat the entire left over from your meal, eat a little and then do the nawafil prayers. 

Do not glorify Iftar: I realized that when we break our fast, we make the mistak of us finally eating the goal of our entire day. But when you do that, after your done eating you say..ok.. now whats next...But thats not what we should do. We should see the opportunity to eat as a means for us to have more energy to engage in more worship during the night, and not to make it the ultimate goal of your fast.Then when you make your goal to have a closer more intimate connection with Allah you nights and days have meaning and your fasts have meaning to. So do not make the eating the goal but rather the means.