RAMADĀN PREPARATION SERIES PART 4

RAMADĀN PREPARATION SERIES

PART 4: The Special Guest

The regard shown towards a thing will be in proportion to its importance and preciousness. 

If for example, a person is hosting some occasion, then proportionate to the occasion will be the preparation.

Preparations are made two or four days in advance for certain occasions, eight days prior preparations are made for certain other occasions, weeks before for another, and even months before for certain others. 

Assume for instance a great personality, like the President of your country, has scheduled a trip to your city and is expected to arrive. The city will consequently undergo extensive renovation, beautification, and ornamentation along with much other preparation for the reception of the President who is on tour. Thus, preparation will be made for an individual’s reception proportionate to how prominent and worthy of reverence he is.

The month of Ramadān is a great bounty of ALLĀH ﷻ. How much are we preparing our souls and mind to receive the special guest from ALLĀH (ﷺ) which will soon be upon us? How much are we preparing our homes, our children, and our relatives to receive the master of all months, the best of all months, the month in which gifts constantly pour forth from the ocean of divine generosity?

In the same respectable manner, we prepare to meet a special guest, to get the best of Ramadān, one needs to prepare well and put a plan before Ramadān knocks on the door without being ready to receive it. There is a need for extensive renovation, beautification, and ornamentation of our ways and behaviors. 

It is almost the month of the year, and the actual loser is the one who witnesses Ramadān without being forgiven in it as narrated from the Prophet (ﷺ).

Contemplate Your Qur'ān Recitation!:

We are surrounded by the wonders of ALLĀH’s creation and are witnesses to the everyday miracles of life on this planet. It is no surprise, therefore, that contemplation is a much-emphasized theme in the Qur'an. Although the benefits of reciting the Qur’ān are numerous, the Qur’ān was not meant just for recitation, it was a blessing bestowed upon us in other to reflect, ponder, give thought, reason, and consider. ALLĀH encourages us to frequently engage in this type of contemplation:

كِتَـٰبٌ أَنزَلۡنَـٰهُ إِلَیۡكَ مُبَـٰرَكࣱ لِّیَدَّبَّرُوۤا۟ ءَایَـٰتِهِۦ وَلِیَتَذَكَّرَ أُو۟لُوا۟ ٱلۡأَلۡبَـٰبِ

[This is] a blessed Book which WE have revealed to you, [O Prophet], that they might contemplate upon its verses and that those of understanding would be reminded. [Qur'an 38:29]

Contemplation of the Qur’an means contemplation of its meanings, purposes, and rulings, not just recitation, despite its great reward. While explaining the importance of contemplation, Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allāh have mercy on him, said:

“In short, there is nothing more beneficial for the heart than reading the Qur’ān and with contemplation and reflection. The Qur’ān encompasses all the levels of the travelers, the conditions of the workers, and stations of those possessing knowledge. It is the Qur’an that generates love, desire, fear, hope, repentance, reliance, pleasure, entrustment, gratitude, patience, and the rest of the different states that are life to the heart and perfection of it. Likewise, it repels all the rebuked characteristics. If people only knew the great value of reciting the Qur’ān with reflection, then they would devote themselves to it above anything else.” [Miftāh Daar as-Sa'ādah, page 204 ] 

When we can't comprehend the Qur'ān in Arabic, for us to be guided by the Qur’ān we need to understand what we recite by reading the translation and tafsir. This will help us reflect on what we have recited. By thinking about what we have learned and how we can implement this, is to realize the true purpose of the Qur’ān, use it as guidance, and apply it to our daily life.

May ALLĀH (ﷺ) make it easy for us and help us reflect and understand the Qur'ān, and make it a means of attaining higher status in this world and the hereafter, Aamīn. 

#Prepare4Ramadaan #RamadanMubarak #IslamicReminders

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