Quick notes on Ramadan

Auto-generated transcript:As-salamu alaykum. I did a detailed lecture on that which I have sent to all of you. It came on the group chat and all that. So, when you have time, watch that. But briefly, there are three things that I want you to keep in mind. Three critical parameters. Ramadan, inshallah, will start maybe on Saturday or Sunday, meaning we will have Talawee either on Friday or Saturday. And so we are quite close to that, couple of days. So, three things in mind. First and foremost, make your goals for Ramadan. What do you want to achieve with Ramadan? What additional Quran do you want to read? What else do you want to read? In terms of say, Qayam-ul-Layl, Tahajjud, how much do you want to pray? In terms of charity, how much do you want to give? Whatever your goals, right? So, what are your goals for Ramadan? Now, it's very important to start with the goals because unless we have goals, then we don't know how we are progressing. So, start with goals for Ramadan. One goal which I suggest is make it your goal to say that you will finish one dhawar of the Quran in Ramadan. You will read the Quran from page 1 to page 600, from the beginning to the end, from Surat al-Fatiha to Surat al-Nas in Ramadan. Now, what that means, so which comes to the second part, then make a timetable. So, once you have a goal, I'll use this as an example, you must do this for whatever goals you have. So, once you have a goal, then make a timetable with metrics, measurements. So, say my goal is to read one complete khatmah of the Quran, one complete recitation of the entire Quran, in the whole month. Now, what that means is if you take a Usmani Musaf, which is what we usually use in the Farsi, the Nastaliq one, which is the Pakistani one, I don't know how many lines to the page, but in the Usmani Musaf, one juz, one sipara is about 20 pages, so that's the number of lines to the page. So, if you take a Usmani Musaf, which is the number of lines to the page, then you have to read the whole Quran. So, if you take a Usmani Musaf, one juz, one sipara is about 20 pages, 20-25 pages. So, every day you must read 20 pages. So, break it down further. 20 pages a day, one way of doing that is to read 5 pages after every salaah. So, you end up reading 25 pages, which is good because in case the month of Ramadan is 29 days, then you would have enough time to finish the whole khatam. Otherwise, if you are reading only 20 pages, then you will be stuck with, at the end you will have one sipara left because you would have read only 29, 30th only. So, to finish the 30, read 25 pages a day, which is 5 pages after every salaah. So, if you read 5 pages, it doesn't take too long. It takes maybe 20 minutes, 25 days. It obviously depends on how fluently you read, but anyway, try that. So, make this into a framework for yourself. The first thing is to set a goal. Secondly, to have a timetable and within the timetable to have metrics, measurement. Third thing and very, very important is to get rid of all distractions during this month. Biggest distraction of course is social media. So, get rid of, just unsubscribe from all the groups, unsubscribe from whatever else you do, Facebook, this, that, except if you are using it for some official purpose, some college related stuff, if you have to see it, see it. But other than that, stay out of all that. Quite simply because otherwise you won't have time. If you have this thing beeping and then of course turn notifications off, right? Because if you have that phone beeping all the time, there is no way that you are going to read any qur'an or anything. You will not be able to do it. The important thing in this timetable thing is if you decide to read 5 pages a day, 5 pages after every salaah, you must read 5 pages. Because if you miss even one, the next one becomes 10 pages, right? You can't do it. If you miss two, then it's 15 pages to finish for the day. So, it's very important to stick to the schedule, make sure that you finish that part at that time. That's the easiest way. If you skip one or miss it for whatever reason, then it will just pile up and then you end up with so much that you can't do it and you might give up or even if you don't give up, you will still not be able to make your goal of reading one full juz of quran, right? So, make sure you get rid of all the distractions. Believe me, there is nothing that will be lost if you do that. Any emergency, somebody will find you. So, there's not, there's inshallah, may Allah keep us safe from emergencies. Other than that, it's okay. Some message comes and goes, makes no difference, right? And so, three things. Goal, timetable with metrics and stay away from all distractions. Your classes, all of this must come around this, depending on what classes you have and so on and so forth. Adjust it in such a way that you can manage, right? If you wake up, I suggest you do that, which is wake up one hour before the time for fudges starts. Then read, pray tahajjud and make lot of dua to Allah SWT. That's the time for the acceptance of dua. Whatever you want, ask Allah SWT, ask for the Ummah of Muhammad SAW, ask for all of us and then read your first five pages of quran at that time. If you have more time, read more but at least five pages. So, that five is done. Then after fudges, zohar, asr, baghre, bisha, you are finished with your 25 pages for the day. Alright? Then what you do is, before you sleep, keep a small notepad with you. Keep a small notepad next to your bed and a pen. Before you go to sleep, note down in that. Did you go to sleep? Did you go to sleep? Keep a note in that. Keep a note in that. Keep a note in that. And then, if you don't do that, if anything is left, don't go to sleep. One thing I want to keep on emphasizing is, don't let it pile up. Because once it piles up, then it's a losing game. That's why, if you go to sleep, it's a losing game because you see that it's a losing game. is don't let it pile up. Because once it piles up, then it's a losing game. It becomes very difficult. Another thing to do in Ramadan is to make sure that we do a lot of Zikr of Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala. So Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar, la ilaha illallah, la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. And then Duru Sharif, Salat and Salam on Rasul All of the Astaghfirullah, all of these things, as much as possible, try to do these at least 100 times every day. So 100 times Astaghfirullah, 100 times Subhanallah, 100 times Alhamdulillah, and so on. Among the Askar, very, very important and very beneficial is Subhanallahi wa bihamdihi, Subhanallahil Azeem. Just two words, Subhanallahi wa bihamdihi, Subhanallahil Azeem. In the Hadith, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, it is light on the tongue and heavy on the mizan, on the scales when we meet Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Just these two words, Subhanallahi wa bihamdihi, Subhanallahil Azeem. We know these words, they're just a matter of if you bring it to, join the two together. So Subhanallahi wa bihamdihi, Subhanallahil Azeem. Light on the tongue and very heavy on the scales of good deeds, InshaAllah. Also, Subhanallahi wa Alhamdulillahi wa la ilaha illallahu Allahu Akbar. So you are combining these four. Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah, la ilaha illallah, Allahu Akbar. Subhanallahi wa Alhamdulillahi wa la ilaha illallah, Allahu Akbar. This is another dhikr, so do 100 times that. Astaghfirullahil Azeem. You can just say Astaghfirullahil Azeem or you can say Astaghfirullahil Azeem wa atub ilayh. Astaghfirullahil Azeem, la ilaha illallah, huwa l-hayyu l-qayyum wa atub ilayh. Any of this, short, long. Astaghfirullahil Azeem. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam himself used to say that I say Astaghfirullah, I seek forgiveness of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala at least 70 times a day. In other places he said I seek forgiveness of Allah at least 100 times a day. So obviously we have to do much more, but do at least 100 times. Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah. At least 100 times. One of the many benefits of istighfar, which is Astaghfirullah, is the hadith in Imam Mustafa Ibn Ahmad. Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, the one who frequently seeks forgiveness, the one who frequently makes istighfar, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala will solve his problems for him. So if you have any problems in your life, what must you do? Make a lot of istighfar, Allah will solve the problem for you. And then Allah will provide that person, the man or the woman, from sources they cannot imagine. Right? Imagine that. Such a beautiful benefit of istighfarullah. So Allah will provide us from sources that we cannot imagine, which means you'll be delighted, you'll be surprised. MashaAllah SubhanAllah, from this person, I never thought this person was my friend, he's helping me. I never thought I'll get something from you, but it's happening to me. So this is the, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala wants to also delight you while helping you. So Allah will solve their problem, and Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala will help them from sources they could not even imagine. This is the benefit of istighfar, of astaghfirullah. Alright? So try to do as much istighfar as possible. This hadith is also supported by the Ayat of the Quran in Surah Al-Talaq, where Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala said, wa mai yattaqillaha ya ja'allahu makhraja wa yardukhu min haytu la yahtaseen. Allah said the one who has taqwa, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala will solve his difficulties and solve his problems for him, will extract him from his difficulties, and will provide them from sources that they cannot imagine. What is the essence of taqwa? It is just taqwa. Taqwa is to be conscious of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala in our lives, and to lead our lives in a way that pleases Allah. So everything we say or do, all our transactions, all our actions and speech, relationships, all this must be in a way that pleases Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. So, and before we say or do anything,