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[2:152] You shall remember Me, that I may remember you, and be thankful to Me; do not be unappreciative.
Then, when the final days of Ramadan come, let us strive to keep hold of the ways in which we strengthened our submission in this month. Hang onto the gains we made and the growth we achieved. We entered Ramadan at one level. We used the month to glorify, praise and commemorate God and thus gradually raised ourselves up. As we exit the month, God willing, we are standing at a higher level. We now can choose to move forward maintaining this new level of submission, or we can allow ourselves to be pulled backwards to the previous level. Let’s choose to consolidate our gains and keep moving forward.
[15:98-99] You shall sing the praises of your Lord, and be with the prostrators. And worship your Lord, in order to attain certainty.
[33:41-42] O you who believe, you shall remember GOD frequently. You shall glorify Him day and night.
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My brothers and sisters, every year we prepare for Ramadan. A whole month to fast from dawn to sunset. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. During the fast, we don’t eat or drink, nor have sex during the day time hours. We refrain from bad habits and bad thoughts. And this is the point I would like to make. This Ramadan—work on: no bad habits, no bad thoughts.
[17:38] All bad behavior is condemned by your Lord.
Brothers and sisters, I know we all do our best at these things. But I’m asking all of us this Ramadan, let’s focus more on getting rid of bad habits and bad thoughts. We are all pretty much aware of the physical aspect of what it does for our body, such as cleansing of body, giving organs a rest, rebuilding of cells and tissue and so on. God does excuse us from fasting if one physically can’t do it (2:184).
So this Ramadan, let’s focus more on spiritual growth, like being God conscious as a goal throughout the month, reading through the whole Quran maybe more than once this month, more charity and good deeds, responding with good words, breaking bad habits like smoking, losing your temper, yelling at spouses, children and friends. Tone it down. Just anything that’s not healthy to our soul, let’s give it up. Find good thoughts. Let’s focus on perfect, one hundred percent (I know we can’t be perfect, but let’s try) good behavior. More reverence of God, more meditation. Let’s really reach for the heaven, past the stars and moon. Our souls can grow by leaps and bounds, so let’s really focus on growing our souls. Let’s try to be perfect this Ramadan. The physical body will submit. This is a gift of remembrance.
God-consciousness is our goal this Ramadan.
[3:102] O you who believe, you shall observe GOD as He should be observed, and do not die except as Submitters.
[2:152] You shall remember Me, that I may remember you, and be thankful to Me; do not be unappreciative.
Sura 97 Destiny
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful [97:1-5] We revealed it in the Night of Destiny. How awesome is the Night of Destiny! The Night of Destiny is better than a thousand months. The angels and the Spirit descend therein, by their Lord's leave, to carry out every command. Peaceful it is until the advent of the dawn.
[from Submitters Perspective, June 2015]
The religious practices instituted by God, such as fasting in the lunar month of Ramadan, are not ordeals but rather great opportunities for us to develop our souls. They are blessings from God. If we can practice our religious duties the way we are supposed to, we get many benefits. Furthermore, these practices allow us to be more conscious of God in our lives.
Many people concentrate on the things they lack and get upset about what they do not have compared to others. If we want to be happier, we should count our blessings and think about all the things God has already given us. We should remember and reflect on the following verse of the Quran: [16:18] If you count GOD's blessings, you cannot possibly encompass them. GOD is Forgiver, Most Merciful.
[14:34] And He gives you all kinds of things that you implore Him for. If you count GOD's blessings, you can never encompass them. Indeed, the human being is transgressing, unappreciative.
We should try our best to count our blessings, even though we cannot encompass them all. We have so much to be thankful for if we just think about them and remind ourselves! How about reflecting on our bodies and the infinite variety of things God created for us? We should remember God’s blessings in the good times as well as when we go through the times of tests. We should not be unappreciative and heedless.
A wise person once said : “We don’t need more to be thankful for; we just need to be more thankful.” How true! Furthermore, if we appreciate God’s blessings and thank God for them, He rewards us with more. This is God’s
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