There is no time of the year more awe-inspiring than Ramadan. For Muslims, it is the prime time for change, and a time of increased spiritual exercise and connection with Allah. From listening to the Quran, lengthy standing for prayers at night, avoiding junk foods and reducing usage of social media, this month does alter our routines and transform our habits. What a change indeed. We should cherish the blessed month and try to make use of the perfect time to break and make habits. Are you ready to take that step to transform your bad habits into good ones? Here are 8 tips that we hope will serve as a useful reminder to always strive to be better towards the path to Allah!
1. Set your intentions and identify habits you want to make
Anything that we want to achieve always requires focus and intent. During the fasting month, we make resolutions and tell ourselves, this Ramadan will be different. And the first step is for us to know our intentions, acknowledge habits that we want to change and set a specific goal. This is the time when the Shaitan are chained, barakah descends and we actually have a lot of time to be inspired to do good!
During this month, there are already some habits built into it such as fasting, listening to Quran and encouragement to make dhikrs. Here are some simple goals for daily actions of ibadah we can do during Ramadan, which you can also continue once the month ends:
- Read a portion of Quran, its translation and tafsir a day
- Read one hadith a day
- Perform a particular dhikr every day in the morning
- Give sadaqah (charitable act)
- Study an Islamic Science (e.g. Fiqh) through classes, talks, etc.
- Listen to a favourite scholar or Islamic podcasts (e.g. Nouman Ali Khan) while on the go
