The Post Ramadan Syndrome

Ramadan brings an annual tidal wave of optimism that sweeps everyone up with positive momentum and gives a spiritual boost for the year to come. The special quality of this holy month is that most Muslims reach a higher level of iman (faith) and ‘amal (deeds) during these blessed days than the rest of the year.

It takes resolve, sacrifice, commitment, patience, perseverance and oodles of hard work to shun the embedded evil and replace it with good, inside and outside one’s self. Ramadan also gives us an ambience and a productive environment that encourages collective and individual goodness to flourish.

Blessed With a Vision

We are tested time and again with blessings and adversities, even while trying to be consistent in doing good. The situations might differ, however the expected response remains the same…. enduring patience. It is through observing patience that one is blessed with a vision to perceive the hidden khair that gradually unfolds.

Stained

If I realise that my most precious and irreplaceable outfit has been stained, what would I do? I would try every possible method to remove the stain. Similarly sins are ugly stains that spoil our hearts and minds and what can be more precious for a true believer than a pure heart and a sound intellect. So how can we remove these invisible stains of sins from us? Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) gives us a simple solution in His Book, “Verily, the good deeds remove the evil deeds. That is a reminder for the mindful.” (Surah Hud:114)

Sinister Scheme

Adam’s the reason; I’ll infinitely burn,
Making sure you must take your turn,
The evil abode is where we’ll all dwell,
O son of Adam, I will take you to hell!

I’ve taken over you, from front and back,
Weak against me, firm faith you lack,
Though my trap was weak, still you fell,
O son of Adam, I will take you to hell!

He Loves Me

Surrounded by blinding brightness…all I could see was light everywhere…making me restless…soon it gradually began to fade…making everything around me visible.

Ah!…being surrounded by the shimmer and glitter of preciousness left me speechless and I thought, ‘I can live here happily ever after’.
A moment of joy and the brightness started to fade some more. Darkness was taking over rapidly…I could do nothing…’but the riches were still with me…I will always have them…they are mine to keep’, I tried comforting myself.
By now it was utterly dark…I frantically started running within the space that had earlier appeared to be so vast…it felt like the walls were closing in on me.