Asslam Aleykum Warahmatullahy Wabarakatuh
Hello everyone!Ramadhan Mubarak!
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| Photo by me! woop!woop!Is that a legit sunset or what! :) |
I’m busy. I really am. It’s my last semester and I have four
courses to survive through. Three of which are quite bulky. Organized college
students usually have one or two courses left to finish up with in their last
semester, at least the ones I know. But you know me, I’m unique. A part of me
feels like this semester is simply like any other. I’ve been through the crazy
courses, sleepless nights and buckets of tears before; I guess it simply being the
last semester scares me, and it causes me to heap on it some extra
pressure. Pressure that I figure could be somewhat unnecessary, but oh well,
here we are. And so I believe you can understand my lackadaisical drive to post
on here. It’s not that I’m ignoring my blog, but you guys know the drill.
However today, I felt a duty to post. A duty to myself, and a duty as a Muslim
girl who is going through something that if shared, I believe could help
someone out there. Besides, posts like these are why I started to blog in the
first place. Posts like these are what I wanted to read. But no one was
writing such, so here I am.
I was apprehensive at the onset of Ramadhan; kind of fidgety
and absolutely anxious. Not because I’m scared of fasting, not at all. I
remember when I first fasted my full Ramadhan, as in 29 days of legit fasting.
I believe I was either six or seven and it was my first Ramadhan ever. I went
to my mom and let her know that I wanted to fast… for the whole month. What
parents usually do is they train you with half day fasting so that when it
becomes mandatory upon you as a Muslim child to fast (usually when puberty kicks
in), it is much easier for one to do so. But not me, I beat my mom to it. I was
seven years old and I made up my mind to fast the entire month. Even when my
mom would tell me it was ok for me to break my fast if I was too hungry or thirsty,
I would completely decline the suggestion. So believe me when I say fasting in
Ramadhan was not my reason for being anxious.
I had been thinking about life alot.I have been
thinking about life a lot . I thought about my past two Ramadhans and
how I was so far from where I was intending to be as a conscious Muslim girl. Contrary
to popular belief, Ramadhan is not about the food. I know…big shocker! But it
is true. Ramadhan is about spiritual nourishment, it is about spiritual and
individual growth and it is about strengthening our connection and relationship
with Allah (sw). Its focus is on the human soul. Where’s your soul at? That's the big question.
Essentially,
Ramadhan is a kind of stop sign for you to evaluate your life and see whether
you have been following Allah (sw’s) commands to living a successful and
productive life, the way Allah (sw), The Most Loving wants us to live. And if not, find your way back to Allah (sw). As I
perused over the pages of my life, I realized that I was way worse than I had anticipated. The
scholars of Islam say that one way to know whether your Ramadhan has been
accepted is that you continue with the good deeds that you adopted during
Ramadhan, even after Ramadhan is over. More importantly, that the bad deeds or
bad habits that Allah (sw) doesn’t like for us, the bad deeds that we chose to
leave behind in the holy month of Ramadhan, we stayed away from those even
after Ramadhan was over.
However for me, I had gone back to those bad habits and had
even adopted worse habits compared to the ones I had before. Now, I’ve always been
conscious of the fact that I’m a Muslim. Alhamdulillah, I developed an interest
for Islam from quite an early age, taking note of the fact that I don’t hail
from a super religious background. I didn’t even attend Islamic school but
Alhamdulillah Allah (sw) provided for me abundantly. That being said, when I decided
to break the rules, I knew I was doing something bad, I knew Allah (sw) was
displeased with that action, but even then I still did it. Talk about peer
pressure and all that jazz but at the end of the day I knew that the problem
was with me and with my relationship with Allah (sw).
I was distant
from Him (sw) and a trick that shaytaan (the devil) uses when we sin or make mistakes
is that he whispers into our souls that we should avoid Allah (sw). And so
avoid anything Islamic, anything that reminds us of Allah (sw), because when we
remember Him, we are reminded of our disobedience towards Him. It’s kind of
like a Parent – child relationship, when a child makes a mistake, they do
everything they can to hide that mistake or avoid the parents because they
acknowledge that they did something wrong and there will be consequences.
Which is where I was at; I was looking at my soul and asking
myself, ‘how in the world did I get here?’ And I thought to myself, if I was to
die today, I would not want to meet Allah (sw) with such a soul. I look at my
life, my amazing life, and I acknowledge that I don’t deserve any of it. I don’t
deserve to be this awesome (lol, vain much?) but Allah (sw) is extremely Merciful and
extremely giving and extremely loving that even when we disobey Him and we turn
away from Him, He still loves us and He still wants us to be close to Him.
So as I sat there, I realized that it was time to change,
like legit. This life where every Ramadhan is a slap in the face reminding me
of what an ungrateful servant I am, of what a failure of a Muslim I am, is not
a life that I want to live. The reason why I was apprehensive about Ramadhan is
because I was afraid of changing. I’ve tried changing before and I failed, so
why even bother when I’m simply going to fail again, I thought. I was afraid of
giving up the things that I am so attached to but deep down I know bring me no
value because they are displeasing to the one I love, Allah (sw).And I was also
afraid because I thought, what if
Ramadhan doesn’t change me? What if I fail once again…and you guys all know my
relationship with failure. We simply don’t click!
But then I realized that Ramadhan is simply a wakeup call, a
stop sign, a mercy from Allah (sw). Ultimately, I am responsible for the
changes I want to see in myself. Being a Muslim is a life long journey full of
ups and downs. Every day is a day to be Muslim not just during Ramadhan. What’s
more profound to me is that you have to want it that bad, because it’s hard. That
devil hating-Creator loving mentality isn’t something you simply wake up with,
rather it is something that you have to strive and work hard for. You have to
put in the effort, the blood and the tears, the same way you put effort into
something that you love. And I guess that’s why I’m somewhat scared. What if I can’t
do it? But I’m not one to let fear stop me.
I love Islam, but words have to manifest into actions. And i understand that, so if
you love Islam too, then I ask you to look to your soul and turn back to Allah
(sw).Verily, to Allah (sw) we belong and to Him we shall return. I’m ready to
put in the work and I understand that it is going to be hard and I’ll probably
fall plenty of times. But Allah (sw) says in the Qur’an that when My servant
asks about me tell them I am near. I’m here for you, He (sw) says.And what could be more awesome than having the Lord of the Worlds by your side? So you’re
not alone, I’m not alone, we aren’t alone. And So I’d rather spend my days
trying to get on deen than continue living a lie. Because until when will we
lie to ourselves? Until when will we decided to turn back to Allah (sw) and be Muslim?
