I haven’t been very present in this blog for the past few weeks because of time constraints.  AlHamdullilah, the month of Ramadhan is going on and it is an unique opportunity for us to get a lot of rewards inshAllah. I don’t think and I don’t feel that I am caning it especially compared to other brothers, but I feel that there has been an improvement compared to the previous years and this is a crucial point for me. I know that the believers should compete with each other in the good deeds and the Sahabah used to do it, but my Nafsiyah at this moment in time doesn’t permit me to compete with other brothers.

What I mean by this is that because I was born and raised in a capitalist society, a society where career and personnal success are ranked as being the most important, I have always tended to compete for the sake of pride and perhaps even arrogance. Although now I despise those two sentiments and I need to fight them when they surge in my mind, they have been part of my personality for so long and I still live in an environment which encourages individuals to have pride and be arrogant, that I feel that my niyyah (intention) could get corrupted if I start to compete with other brothers in terms of reading the Qur’an, beautiful recitation, leading the salah in jamah, giving public speeches, going to taraweh, giving sadaqah etc.

What I do is that instead of doing too much but on a very irregular basis, I prefer to do less but on a regular basis and always improve in terms of quality and quantity the good deeds. For example, instead of praying the 5 salah in the masjid, but once every week or so, I prefer to stick to one salah (in my case ‘Isha as the reward of praying it in Jamah is equivalent to half the night in prayer) and do it every day. Another example, is that instead of reading the Qur’an for 5 hours straight once in a while, I prefer to read a small surah but on a regular basis, or give a lot of money for sadaqah once every few months, I prefer to give my change coins in my pocket on a more regular basis. Each time, I try to raise the bar and do a bit more. By the way, all of the actions I am talking about are sunnah/mandub actions (i.e. recommended), as the fard (i.e. compulsory) actions must be preformed regardless of whether you feel spiritual or not. There is no choice regarding the Fard actions, you just have to do them. So whether or not you feel your taqwa (or some others would say imaan) is low, you still have to pray the 5 fardh salah, even if it is not in the masjid, or you still need to carry the dawa with the objective of re-establishing Islam as a practical way of life even if you are not a scholar. Actually, there is a hadith that says that Allah(swt) prefers the small actions done on a regular basis rather than the big actions done occasionally, inshAllah a brother/sister will post the full hadith in the comments section.

Anyway, I always use as a benchmark for actions in life the lives of the Prophet (saw) and the Sahabah (ra) as I know that no one can be better than those. So although I am not competing with other brothers that I know personally, I still know where I need to go exactly by following those role models. Nevertheless, their company remains crucial in developing my nafsiyah and taqwa. Your taqwa will raise in the company of pious brothers (or sisters for the sisters) and not in the company of corrupt individuals. inshAllah, I hope that the readers will provide me with some insights into the above discussion.

Ramadhan Mubarak to all of you!