Post-Ramadan Advice
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How to Get Closer to Allah After Ramadan
April 27, 2023
Our past month was filled with worship, but now that Ramadan is over, what do we do? For many of us, maintaining the same level of worship on a daily basis is difficult, and we may fall into all-or-nothing thinking. If we can’t keep up with our Ramadan habits, what’s the point?
Find out from Dr. Tesneem Alkiek how you can practically keep up your spiritual momentum after Ramadan for long-term transformation.
Download the "Habits to Win: Here and Hereafter" Journal.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Assalamualaikum everyone. My name is Tasneem and I'm wishing you all and your family and friends a happy Eid. Now that Eid is done, a lot of us might be thinking, what next? We have all of this energy, we've just spent an entire month fasting and praying and reading Qur'an, and it almost feels like we have endless opportunities ahead of us to really build on this momentum. But what happens for most of us is that day after Eid, two days, three days, it's a week after Ramadan, and we slowly start to realize that we went from almost giving our entire 100 percent to maybe we're at five, ten percent of what we were doing. And sometimes this feeling becomes so overwhelming that, man, I can never be what I was, I can never be who I was in Ramadan. I can't fast all day, I can't pray all night, that's just not possible, that's just not manageable outside of Ramadan. And so we fall back into this all or nothing mode. We fall back into this idea that it's black and white. If I can't be exactly who I was in Ramadan, then really what's the point? And so just a week or two after Ramadan, we find ourselves really in the exact same state that we had entered Ramadan. But the point of Ramadan is never that you come out fasting all day and praying all night. In fact, you're not even allowed to do that even if you want it, you know, you want it to, that the Prophet peace be upon him actually discourages fasting back to back. So if that's not the point, if I didn't just spend Ramadan trying to prep myself to do something that I'm supposed to be doing throughout the entire year, what is the point? And this is really our opportunity to reflect on how Ramadan can be a transformative experience. And when I say transformative, I want you to be visionary. I want you to think not just this past Ramadan, not just last Ramadan, not just the next
Ramadan inshallah. I want you to start thinking about how Ramadan, every Ramadan, can be something that transforms your life. So let me give you an example. I want to ask you this question. I want you to think, to take some time, you know, after this video, as I'm going and talking through it, and I want you to think the following. Who do you want to be in 10 years? What do you look like? Who are you? Are you someone who's praying all night? Are you someone who is fasting every Monday and Thursday? Are you someone who's constantly giving in charity, going to the masjid, praying, congregation, fajr, isha together, spending time with family, breaking fast with family, all of these things that we used to do in Ramadan? Is that the person you want to be? Is that the person you want to be? I mean, we all want to be that person today, right? But realistically, is that the person you want to be in 10 years? And now I want you to work backwards. And I want you to think of Ramadan, each Ramadan, including this past Ramadan, as just an opportunity to start building that person in 10 years. And so when you think about what do I do after this Ramadan, I want you to think about one aspect, just one aspect of that person you're going to be in 10 years. So if that person, if I'm in 10 years, I think to myself, I want to be a person who always does istighfar, that I always seek forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and I do it a minimum of 100 times a day. That's just the practice that I wanted to start. Personally, that was actually my goal this past Ramadan, that of the many things that I wanted to do, I told myself, you know what, I want to say istighfar 100 times every single night. That's a practice I want to start. Because in 10 years, that's the person I want to be, that someone is constantly making istighfar. So I did that this Ramadan. You know what, I did a lot of things this Ramadan. I read Quran, I fasted, things that most of us did. But I know I'm not gonna be fasting
that much after Ramadan. I know I'm not gonna be praying tarawih every night. I know I'm not gonna be waking up that early in advance to pray tahajjud, to all these amazing things that I was doing. And so after Ramadan, I don't expect that of myself. But you know what I do expect? That I'm going to take that istighfar. That this Ramadan, that was my goal. That one little thing that takes me just a few minutes every night, that is what I am going to continue after Ramadan this year. And no matter how hard things get, no matter how much I want to go back to that Ramadan vibe, I'm going to push myself. A lot of nights I'm going to want to recreate that sensation. I'm gonna get up and pray, I'm going to fast, I'm going to do, you know, all the other things that I was doing Ramadan. But I'm not going to feel bad if I can't hold myself to that every single day. But you know what I'm going to hold myself to inshallah, is doing that istighfar every single day. And so when you think about Ramadan momentum, don't think of the 100% that you just gave Ramadan. Because those are special 100%, right? That's something that we push ourselves to seek Allah's forgiveness. And that it's a means, an opportunity to grow in the best of ways. But not an expectation that you're constantly going at 100% because that's not sustainable. And as one of my favorite ahadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him, goes, The best of actions, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, are not those that are massive, not the ones that we were just doing Ramadan, but those that are small, as long as they're consistent, especially if they're consistent. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la wants us to walk away from Ramadan doing something small and consistent. And so what I want you to think about is that 10-year goal. This Ramadan, for me, was istighfar. Next Ramadan, it's going to be something small and little. Last Ramadan, it was praying two rak'ahs of salatul duha every single day. You know what? I came, I stuck through with the duha. I stuck through with praying two rak'ahs
between salatul fajr and salatul dhuhr, the time frame that we have to pray what is called salatul duha. I stuck through with that. And now every day, alhamdulillah, that was the one thing I said to myself, I'm going to push myself. I don't care how tough things get. I don't have any excuses. I'm not telling myself I have to pray all that at night. I'm just going to pray two rak'ahs. It takes me two minutes, not even. I'm going to do that, and I'm going to do it consistently. You know what? I made it to this Ramadan, and that's what I'm still doing. And this Ramadan, I'm going to add something else. Next Ramadan, I'm going to add something else, so small. But do you see where we're going here? Do you see what happens when you follow the advice of the Prophet, peace be upon him, when you follow what Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la loves, the small and consistent? Because if you're doing it time in and time out, if you're doing this Ramadan after Ramadan, and you get to that person that you want to be in 10 years, you have become a transformed individual. You have become that ideal that someone can't just wake up. You can't just do that after Ramadan. You can't just finish one Ramadan and become that really what is ultimately that vision that you have as a superstar of yourself. It takes time and practice. It takes small and consistent actions, and it takes building one habit at a time. And so that's what I want you to think about this Ramadan. I want you to think, number one, who do you want to be? What does that look like? And now I want you to think, what did you do this Ramadan that you can carry on? What's that one thing, that one small thing you did every single day that you don't usually do? And how can you carry that out? How can you continue that after Ramadan? What is that going to look like? Is that going to be, you know, preparing food for someone else? Is it going to be, I'm going to fast one day a month? Is it going to be, you know, I prayed Salat al-Witr, I prayed, you know, two rak'ahs after Isha? What is that one small thing that you were doing in Ramadan that you don't usually do that you can now create a habit out of? And if there was nothing that you
found that was small and manageable and consistent, you think to yourself, well everything I was doing was massive. I was praying 20 rak'ahs a night. I was reading 20 pages of Quran every single day. And that none of that is manageable? I want you to use the 10% rule. So if you are reading Quran every single day, you were doing 20 pages, that was what you were pushing yourself, you really had that Ramadan energy. I want you to take 10% of that. And I want you to think, I can read two pages of Quran every single day. If I was able to read 20 pages and push myself, that was my 100%, then maybe I can carry on the habit that I want to start is two pages. Some of you might think that's still too much. Cut it back down even more. What do you, what can you do that's manageable? What can you do that's consistent? Don't think about anybody else. Think about yourself. What does that look like? And go from there. And if you think to yourself, that's way too little, I can do so much more, don't do it. Start with two pages a day. And you know what? Once you create a habit and you've really found yourself in this rhythm, two pages every single day, and you carry on for another month or two after Ramadan, then you push yourself. Bump it up to four, bump it up to five, and continue to build on that habit. But what you need to know, what you want to keep in mind is by next Ramadan, those two pages, I don't care if there were some days that I had 20 pages, I don't care if there were some days that I read 100, you want to make sure you maintain that minimum of two pages. It's all about the small actions that are consistent. Think about who you want to be this Ramadan. Think about who you want to be 10 years from now. And once you start to think about it in this way, this gradual momentum, it gives you so much energy, it gives you so much excitement that, you know what? Ramadan isn't about being, you know, all or nothing. It's not black and white. I'm going to just continue on this small habit. I'm going to make dua to Allah that He forgives any of my shortcomings, that He has accepted our Ramadan, and all of that.
But this is what I'm going to do. And ya Allah, this is my niyyah, this is my intention for you, that this is who I want to be in 10 years from now. And you know what? If Allah takes our lives before even next Ramadan, before that 10 year, before that visionary person that comes up, Allah accepts us for our intentions. And that's the beauty of our religion. Does it matter if you didn't get there, if that's what your intent was? If you set those habits, you put them in place, and you said to Allah, you made this promise to Allah that you want to change, that you want Ramadan, you make dua, ya Allah, accept my Ramadan, and allow this small means of me just reading two pages a day, of me just continuing with 100 sikhfar every single day, of me continuing this very small act, to be a sign of your acceptance, and to be a means of me transforming 10 years from now for your pleasure. And if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala takes our lives before then, then we make dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, accept our intention, and reward us and resurrect us as that visionary person that we have in mind. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept all of our Ramadans, and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us all the strength and the commitment to continue small and consistent habits.
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