Twenty Five Ways to Get the Most Out of Ramadhan

1. Fast Ramadhan with belief and truly seeking the reward of Allah the Most High so that He may forgive you your past sins.
2. Beware of breaking your fast during the days of Ramadhan without a valid Islamic excuse, for it is from the greatest of sins.
3. Pray Salat ut-Taraweeh and the night prayer during the nights of Ramadhan - especially on Layatul-Qadr - based on belief and truly seeking the reward of Allah, so that Allah may forgive youyour past sins.
4. Make sure that your food, your drink and your clothing are from halal means, in order that your actions be accepted, and your supplications answered. Beware of refraining from the halal while fasting and breakingyour fast with the haram.
5. Give food to some fasting people to gain a reward similar to theirs.
6. Perform your five prayers on time in congregation to gain the reward and Allah's protection.
7. Give a lot of charity for the best charity is that of Ramadhan.
8. Beware of spending your time without performing righteous deeds, for you will be responsible and reckoned for it and will be rewardedfor all you do during your time.
9. Perform `umrah in Ramadhan for `Umrah in Ramadhan is equal to Hajj.
10. Seek help for fasting during the day by eating the sahoor meal in the lastpart of the night before the appearance of Fajr.
11. Hasten breaking your fast after the sun has truly set in order to gain the love of Allah.
12. Perform ghusl before fajr if you need to purify yourself from the state of major impurity so that youare able to do acts of worship in a state of purityand cleanliness.
13. Seize the opportunity of being in Ramadhan and spend it with the good that has been revealed in it - by reciting the noble Qur'an and pondering and reflection of its meanings so that it be a proof for you with your Lord and anintercessor for you on the Day of Reckoning.
14. Preserve your tongue from lying, cursing, backbiting and slander for it decreases the reward of fasting.
15. Do not let fasting cause you cross your boundaries by getting upset due to the slightest of reasons. Rather, fating should be a cause of peacefulness and tranquility of your soul.
16. Upon completion of fasting, be in a state of taqwa of Allah the Most High, being aware of Allah watching you in secret andin public, in thankfulness for His favors, and steadfastness upon obedience of Allah by doing all what He has ordered and shunning all that He has prohibited.
17. Increase in remembrance of Allah, seeking of forgiveness, asking for Paradise and protection against the Fire,especially when fasting, while breaking the fast and during suhoor, for these actions are among greatest causes of attaining Allah's forgiveness.
18. Increase in supplication for yourself, your parents, your childrenand Muslims, for Allah has ordered making of supplications and has guaranteed acceptance.
19. Repent to Allah with a sincere repentance in all times by leaving sins, regretting those that you have done before and firmly deciding not to return to them in the future, for Allah accepts repentance of those who repent.
20. Fast six days of Shawwal, for whoever fasts Ramadhan and then follows it with six days of Shawwal, it is as if he fasts all the time.
21. Fast on the Day of `Arafah, the 9th of Dhul Hijjah, to attain success by being forgiven your sins ofthe last year and the coming year.
22. Fast on the day of `Aashuraa', the 10th of Muharram, along with the 9th, to attain success by being forgiven your sins ofthe past year.
23. Continue being in a state of iman and taqwa and perform righteous actions after the month of Ramadhan, until you die."And worship your Lord until there comes to you the certainty (i.e. death)". [Qur'an 15:99]
24. Ensure that you attain the positive effects of youracts of worship such as prayer, fasting, zakat and hajj, sincere repentance and leaving of customs that are in variance with the Sharee`ah.
25. Invoke a lot of salawatand salam upon the Messenger of Allah, may Allah's blessings and peacebe upon him, his Companions and all those who follow them until the Day of Judgment.
O Allah make us and all Muslims of those who fast and stand in prayer duringthe month of Ramadhan based on belief and truly seeking Your reward so that we are forgiven our past and future sins.
O Allah make us of those who fasted the month, attained full reward, witnessed Layatul-Qadr and attained success by permission of the Lord, Blessed and Most High.
O Allah, verily you are Forgiver, like to forgive, so forgive us.
O Lord, accept from us, verily you are the All-Hearing, all-Seeing, O Living, O Independent, O Owner of all majesty and honor./ - - - :-> Transtors: 1.http://free-translation.imtranslator.net/lowres.asp 2.http://translate.google.com/m?twu=1&hl=en&vi=m&sl=auto&tl=en

Ramadhan: the Month of Qur'an

Compare all this with our sad state, when we talk so much about establishing Islam, implementing the Qur'an, etc. and yet have such little contact with it, maybe not completing its recitation ever at all since childhood, or perhaps never! Hence we become unbalanced in our understanding of Islam, because there are ayat which we rarely or never hear or think about; we repeat only certain selected ayat over and over again; we lost the context of the verses, the overall flow, argument and balance of the Qur'an, all of which is beautiful & miraculous. Because of thisignorance we go astray from the Straight Path, split up into sects, lose the blessings of Allah...
"We took a covenant from those who said: we are Christians, but they forgot part of the message with which they had been reminded, so we ingrainedamongst them enmity andhatred until the Day of Judgment..." (Surah al-Ma'idah 5:14)
In Sahih Bukhari (6/521), there is an amazing piece of advice from the Prophet(may Allah bless him and grant him peace): "Recite the Qur'an as long as your hearts agree on it; if you disagree about it, stop reciting it (for the time being)." Studying the Qur'an should bring peopletogether!
In Surah al-Mu'minoon (23:53), there is mention of the people before us (in whose footsteps we wouldfollow), who broke up their Deen into sects (zuburan), each party rejoicing in what it had. One understanding of this, from the word zuburan meaning literally 'books', isthat each sect left the Book of Allah and concentrated solely on the books of its own sect, so"they split their deen up into books"!
The most twisted, ridiculous, shallow ideas, innovations and superstitions are propagated amongst Muslims when they are away from the Qur'an, because any little knowledge of the Qur'an would be enough to dispelthem.
Hence, O servant of Allah, leave aside secondary books and concentrate on studying the blessed Book of Allah in this blessed month (use a good translation/commentary if needed), for it is the sourceof all knowledge in other books, and keep away from wasting time, especially in futile discussions and argumentswhich lead nowhere, for that is a sure sign of being misguided, as the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, "Whenever a people went astray after they had been on guidance, they were given to argumentation (jadl)." (Ahmad, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah - Sahih al-Jami' al-Saghir, no. 5633)
Finally, remember that theMessenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) will complain to Allah on the Day of Judgment that his people neglected the Qur'an (Surah al-Furqan 25:30). Neglect of the Qur'an is of different levels, as Ibn al-Qayyim writes:
Not reciting or listening to it;
Not studying and understanding it;
Not conveying its message;
Not judging by it in personal and communal matters, at all levels of society;
Not believing in it.
All Praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds./ - - - :-> Transtors: 1.http://free-translation.imtranslator.net/lowres.asp 2.http://translate.google.com/m?twu=1&hl=en&vi=m&sl=auto&tl=en

Ramadhan: the Month of Qur'an

The first part of this is based on an extract from Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali's Lata'if al-Ma'arif (pp. 179-182), quoted by Fahd bin Sulaiman in Kayf Nastafeed min Ramadan (pp. 48-50).
Ramadan has a special relationship with the Qur'an, of course:
"The month of Ramadan isthe one in which the Qur'an was sent down, a guidance for mankind, clear proofs for the guidance, the Criterion; so whoever amongst you witnesses this month, let him fast it." (cf. Surah al-Baqarah 2:185)
The word 'so' (fa) in this ayah leads to the following paraphrase of one aspect of its meaning:
"Fast this month because itis the one in which the Qur'an was sent down."
Ibn 'Abbas narrates that"the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was the most generous person, and he would be at his most generous in Ramadan because Jibril would come to him every night and he would rehearse the Qur'an with him." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Eng. trans. 6/486)
This hadith contains recommendation of the following:
*. Studying the Qur'an in Ramadan;
*. Coming together for this purpose;
*. Checking (one's memory/knowledge of) the Qur'an with someonewho has preserved it better;
*. Increasing recitation of the Qur'an in Ramadan;
*. That the night time is thebest time to recite, whenother preoccupations decrease and it is easier to concentrate, as in Surah al-Muzzammil 73:6.
Further, Fatimah (may Allah be pleased with her) narrated from her father (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), who toldher that Jibril would rehearse the Qur'an with him (in Ramadan) once every year, and he did so twice in the year of his death. (Bukhari 6/485)
After mentioning the above aspects of the Sunnah, Ibn Rajab talks about the situation of the Salaf (the early Muslims) during Ramadan:
"... Some of the Salaf would complete reciting the whole Qur'an during the night prayer ofRamadan every 3 days, others every 7 days e.g. Qataadah, others in 10 days e.g. Abu Rajaa' al-Atardi. The Salaf would recite Qur'an in Ramadan in Prayer as well as outside it. Al-Aswad would finish the Qur'an every 2 nights in Ramadan; Ibrahim an-Nakh would do likewise in thelast 10 nights specifically, & every 3 nights during the rest of the month. Qataadah would regularlyfinish the Qur'an in 7 days, but in 3 days during Ramadan, when hewould study the Qur'an especially, and every night duringits last 10 days. Al-Zuhri would say when Ramadan began, 'It is recitation of the Qur'an and feeding of people.'
When Ramadan began, Imam Malik would cease narrating Hadith and sitting with the people of knowledge, and stick toreciting the Qur'an from its pages, while Sufyan al-Thawri would leave other acts of worship and stick to reciting the Qur'an. 'Aishah would recite fromthe pages of the Qur'an at the beginning of the day in Ramadan(i.e. after Dawn), until when the sun had risen, she would sleep. Zayd al-Yaami would bring copiesof the Qur'an when Ramadan began and gather his companions around him. ..."
Ibn Rajab later continues,
"The forbiddance of completing recitation of the Qur'an in less than 3 days applies to this being made a regular practice, but as for favoured times such as Ramadan, esp. the nights in which Laylat al-Qadr is sought, or favoured places such as Makkah for the visitor, it is recommended to increase reciting the Qur'an to avail the time and place. This is the view of Ahmad, Ishaq and other Imams, and the practice of others indicates this too."
The purpose here is not to discuss whether or not thelatter view is correct or not, since that is purely academic for most of us, aswe do not get anywhere near reciting the whole Qur'an in three days! However, the practice of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), his Companions, and those who followed their path, should be clear enough. As a further example, Bukhari (3/79) quotes from the noble Companion Zaid bin Thabitwho answered the question, "How much timewas there between the pre-dawn meal and the Dawn Prayer?" by saying,"Enough time to recite fiftyayat." Since the practice of the Arabs was to measure time in terms of everyday actions, this shows that the Sahabah were preoccupied with the Qur'an, especially in Ramadan./ - - - :-> Transtors: 1.http://free-translation.imtranslator.net/lowres.asp 2.http://translate.google.com/m?twu=1&hl=en&vi=m&sl=auto&tl=en

14 Gifts to Those Who Fast

At this stage I cannot find a better gift or greater masterpiece than to present to those who fast gifts from the Prophet of guidance sallallahu `alaihi wa sallam. They are those practical hadiths that have been mentioned in connection with rewards and blessings. Behold! They are the hadiths that lead to the doors of happiness and the paths ofgoodness in this world andthe Hereafter.
O you who fast! Record these hadiths and implement them:
1. The Prophet sallallahu `alaihi wa sallam said: "Whoever says at daybreak: 'There is no God save Allah alone, He has nopartner, to Him belongs the dominion and the praise and He has power over all things;'... ten good deeds will be written for him, ten misdeeds will be erased, and he will be elevated ten levels. He willbe protected from Satan until evening, and if he says it in the evening, he would have the same rewards until morning." (Ahmad, Abu Daud, Ibn Majah - sahih).
2. The Prophet sallallahu `alaihi wa sallam also said: "Whoever says in the morning or in the evening:'O Allah! You are my Lord. There is no God beside You. You created me and I am Your slave and I have taken a covenant to You and promised You what I am able to do. I seek refuge with You from the evil of what I have done, I acknowledge Your favour upon me and I acknowledge my sin. Forgive me because none forgives sins except You.' Ifa servant died during the day or night after having said this prayer, he will enter Paradise." (Ahmad, Abu Daud, Al Nisa'e, Ibn Majah, Ibn Hibban, Al Hakim - sahih; Al Bukhari transmits another version of this hadith).
3. Again the Prophet sallallahu `alaihi wa sallamsaid: "Whoever says at morning or evening: 'Gloryand praise be Allah the Great' one hundred times, no one will come forward on the Day of Judgement with better than he; except if someone said thesame as him and added to it." (Muslim, Ahmad, Abu Daud, Al Tirmidhi).
4. "Whoever said: 'Glory and praise be to Allah the Great', a date tree will be planted for him in the Paradise." (Al Tirmidhi, Ibn Hibban, Al Hakim - sahih).
5. "Whoever says: "Glory and praise be to Allah" onehundred times in a single day his sins would be erased even if they were like the waves of the sea." (Bukhari and Muslim).
6. "Whoever implements ten verses of the Quran will not be included among the negligent. Whoever implements one hundred verses will be considered among the obedient. And, whoever implements one thousand verses will be among he extremely rich." (Abu Daud,Ibn Hibban - sahih).
7. "Whoever says in the evening: 'In the name of Allah with whose name there can be no harm in the earth or in the heavensand He is the Hearer the Knower,' three times, he will not be afflicted with a sudden calamity before morning. And whoever says it in the morning three times will not be afflicted with a sudden calamity before evening." (Abu Daud, Ibn Hibban, Al Hakim - sahih).
8. "Whoever says: 'I seek refuge with the perfect words of Allah from the evil that He created' three times in the evening will not be harmed by the bite of a serpent during that night." (Al Tirmidhi, Ibn Hibban, Al Hakim - sahih).
9. "Whoever says upon leaving his house: 'In the name of Allah, I trust in Allah, there is no movement and no power except with Allah', it would be said to him: 'Youhave been contented and you took precaution,' and Satan will turn away from him." (Al Tirmidhi, Abu Daud, Ibn Hibban, Ibn al Sunni - sahih).
10. "Whoever says when he hears the caller to prayer: 'And I bear witnessthat there is no God save Allah, He is alone and has no partner and I bear witness that Muhammad isHis servant and messenger. I am pleased with Allah as Lord, Muhammad as Prophet and Islam as religion,' all his sins will be forgiven." (Muslim and the other five).
11. "Whoever recites the Surah al Ikhlas ten times, Allah will build for him a house in the Paradise." (Ahmad - sahih).
12. "Whoever recites the Surah al Kahf on a Friday, alight will be created for him until the next Friday." (Al Hakim and Al Bayhaqi -sahih).
13. "Whoever recites Aayat al-Kursi (the Verse ofthe Throne) after every compulsory prayer will notbe forbidden entrance to Paradise." (Ibn Hibban and Al Nisa'e - sahih).
14. "Whoever recites Surah al Ikhlas it is as if he read one-third of the Quran." (Ahmad, Al Nisa'e, Al Tirmidhi - sahih).
This bouquet from Muhammad sallallahu `alaihi wa sallam we grantto all those who fast.
O Allah! Help us to remember You, thank You and worship You in the best way. Ameen./ - - - :-> Transtors: 1.http://free-translation.imtranslator.net/lowres.asp 2.http://translate.google.com/m?twu=1&hl=en&vi=m&sl=auto&tl=en