Day 25: The Value of Seclusion - Ihtikaf | Ramadan Strong
Sometimes our Ramadans can get hectic, but let's not forget the most important value of this month, taking the time to connect with our Lord.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Assalamualaikum dear fellow believers, my name is Nerideen Knight. I am a research fellow at Yaqeen Institute and inshallah to Allah I'm here to remind you about these just a few reminders for Ramadan concerning these last few days. Now some of us get off to a great start and then we falter somewhere in the middle, then we get back on our feet at the end. Some of us get on to a poor start and then we just keep getting better and better and all kinds of variations. Unless you're one of the fortunate few that Allah subhana wa ta'ala has blessed in this way, you've probably had some rough spots this Ramadan. But here it is, your last chance to make it better, to have an impact for Ramadan, for this Ramadan to bring you nearer to Allah subhana wa ta'ala, for this Ramadan to be a means of becoming a better person, a better Muslim, a better practitioner of Islam. So I wanted to talk in particular about isolation. This is not something that I think we really talk about in our community as something positive, but we know that in the last 10 days of Ramadan, these are the best days to take some time to yourself or your Lord, whether in the masjid or at home, and to spend extra time praying, extra time reading the Quran, extra time doing dhikr. Anything that you can to really try and get nearer to Allah subhana wa ta'ala and again become a better practitioner of this faith.
So I want to read you some words from Sheikh Shankhori, may Allah have mercy on him. And he said, and this is from a poem actually from Imam al-Hamidi, he said, the meeting of people will never give you anything but gibberish of useless gossip. So diminish your meeting of people, save to take knowledge or improve your condition. May Allah have mercy on both of those. Now, of course, this isn't an absolute truth. He's not saying that every kind of meeting with people is going to just result in gibberish or gossip. But we know that that can often happen that when we're in a conversation, we start joking, we start talking about other people, we may do it by mistake. And in Ramadan is one of those times where we try to be a little more cautious about what we say what we do. Taking time to isolate yourself to be away from people for some period of time gives you time to reflect, it gives you time to do those extra good deeds. It gives you time to plan for your future. What are you going to take from Ramadan that you want to move forward and how are you going to better in your relationships? How are you going to be better in your own self care? How are you going to be better with your prayer in whatever way that you need to be better, maybe more concentration, maybe praying on time, maybe praying all of your prayers instead of just some. So this is the time. Now I want to give you some practical tips because you may be thinking, well, I don't have time to spend time overnight in the masjid or I don't have time to or I don't have the ability to isolate myself. I live in a house with a lot of family members. Well, let me give you a scenario.
If you are a mom and a wife, ask your husband to give you whatever period of time you deem necessary just to focus on Allah subhana wa ta'ala without the kids, without him. And just ask him for that time. So you guys can either do an exchange where you ask him, hey, can you give me an hour distraction free, keep the kids busy or longer than that? And you can do the same for him. And it's really crucial because even though we want inshallah ta'ala that every part of our life be connected with Allah subhana wa ta'ala and inshallah we can work our way to that. It's difficult. Allah subhana wa ta'ala tells us that our family can be a trial for us. And so we have to be able to reset sometimes to remember that, to be able to be alone and remember that our kids are a blessing from Allah subhana wa ta'ala, that we should be thanking Allah for our kids, that we should raise our kids to know Allah, to love Allah and in a way that is pleasing to Allah subhana wa ta'ala. If you live in a big family, if you are a daughter, of course everyone's, every woman is someone's daughter. But if you live in a house with your siblings and your parents, let them know, hey, from this time to this time I'm going to just be praying, doing dhikr, reading, reflecting, whatever it is. Please don't come in my room. Maybe if you want to put a do not disturb sign on. Or even if you go outside, alhamdulillah Ramadan is going to be in May, you can even go to the park and take some time for yourself to reflect on Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Remember that there are different ways to worship Allah subhana wa ta'ala, right? You can reflect on the great blessings of Allah subhana wa ta'ala. You can give shukr, you can thank Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
You can show Allah subhana wa ta'ala that you love him through gratitude, through making dua, through doing dhikr as I believe we already mentioned, through doing extra prayers. So, isolation is just one way to take that time, carve it out just for you and Allah subhana wa ta'ala to not be distracted by the kids, not be distracted by your husband if you're married, not be distracted by your parents, not be distracted by your siblings. And focus on Allah subhana wa ta'ala. These last 10 days are so crucial and we don't get them back. Ramadan only comes once a year. And we all know sometimes things happen in Ramadan, the first 10 days, the second 10 days, things can get difficult. But hopefully in these last 10 days, then Allah subhana wa ta'ala will open a way for you to draw near to him. And one way to do that is to carve out that time whether you go to the masjid or you stay in your home to focus on Allah subhana wa ta'ala and nothing else. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. I pray that the rest of your Ramadan is even better than it has been thus far and I pray that you have a blessed Eid.
Welcome back!
Bookmark content
Download resources easily
Manage your donations
Track your spiritual growth
1 items
1 items
1 items
25 items
50 items
9 items
