Ramadan Checker Day 27

Self Check(1) : The best of deeds are the consistent, even if they be little.

اسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته 

Hello guys! our daily Ramadan Checker's quickly coming to an end, as the month bids us farewell, we hope it leaves with us life changing benefits and habits, those that trail us through to, not just the next Ramadan should we be decreed to be part of it, but to the very end, and when the next one does come, in sha Allah, the blessings mount on. Ameen. 

وعن عبد الله بن عمرو بن العاص رضي الله عنهما قال‏:‏ قال لي رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم‏:‏ يا عبد الله ، لا تكن مثل فلان، كان يقوم الليل فترك قيام الليل ‏!‏‏"‏ ‏(‏‏(‏متفق عليه‏)‏‏)‏ ‏.‏

'Abdullah bin 'Amr bin Al-'as (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to me, "O 'Abdullah! Do not be like so-and-so; he used to get up at night for optional prayer but abandoned it later." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

Reference :

Sunnah.com reference : Book 2, Hadith 12

Arabic/English book reference : Book 2, Hadith 692

In the above Hadith, Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم cautions Abdullah رضي الله عنه on abandoning deeuds he'd taken a habit to, like the man in the narration. 

In another Hadith, Our mother Aisha رضي الله عنها narrates :

Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Do good deeds properly, sincerely and moderately and know that your deeds will not make you enter Paradise, and that the most beloved deed to Allah is the most regular and constant even if it were little."

حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ الْعَزِيزِ بْنُ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ، حَدَّثَنَا سُلَيْمَانُ، عَنْ مُوسَى بْنِ عُقْبَةَ، عَنْ أَبِي سَلَمَةَ بْنِ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ، عَنْ عَائِشَةَ، أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ ‏ "‏ سَدِّدُوا وَقَارِبُوا، وَاعْلَمُوا أَنْ لَنْ يُدْخِلَ أَحَدَكُمْ عَمَلُهُ الْجَنَّةَ، وَأَنَّ أَحَبَّ الأَعْمَالِ أَدْوَمُهَا إِلَى اللَّهِ، وَإِنْ قَلَّ ‏"‏

Reference : Sahih al-Bukhari 6464

In-book reference : Book 81, Hadith 53

  

According to scholarly teachings, consistent deeds are the anchoring we need to keep leveled when we encounter a storm.

Being in the habit of dhikr, we are able to bring Allah's remembrance as our first clutch when we find ourselves in turbulence. And in the times of ease we do not differ in His praise and worship. But remain faithful. 

In the words of a Noble scholar(paraphrased):

"The dhikr must enter from the tongue and take root in the heart, what good is it to remember Allah's name by tongue after the prayer, we get right up and walk away and we forget Allah?

 We are supposed to continually invoke Allah, recognize Him, be conscious & mindful of Allah, as we go through the world, as we encounter turbulence in the world, as we have our ups and our downs, whether we're in salah or in between salah, we're supposed to do everything with the remembrance of Allah in all of our actions and inactions. The dhikr with the tongue is just a muqadimah, an introduction, a practice to get us into the routine of our hearts and minds being automatically programmed to be conscious and aware of Allah عز وجل, and with those, our limbs become subservient. 

 One of the biggest spiritual crimes of the believer, male or female is that they forget the One who never forgets them, we forget Allah SWT. So one of the instruments, one of the ways that Allah SWT out of His fadl, rahmah, His generosity, aids us, is that He helps us and gives us crutches to remember Him, to remind us of our bounties that He has given us. We tend to be concrete creatures, that's why idolatry was a big problem, we tend to be materialistic people, we tend to p trefer concrete things that we can see,So Allah in His infinite wisdom allows us to think about the blessings that we have in front of us, draw our minds to them (in reality are innumerable, even one blessing contains a microcosm of blessings that blows your mind). And if that's the case with the material blessing, what is the case of the Rabb of the blessing?If our environment and cosmos is full of material blessings like a car, a house, children and family, and immaterial, like oxygen and proper temperature and proper balance of food, and then spiritual blessings like iman and hidaya and the Qur'an and we cannot count them,we express gratitude, these blessing give us a sense of peace, stability, then how is it with the Lord of our blessings? Allah tells us where and how to anchor ourselves when we find ourselves in fear, anxiety, instability, in stormy moments, uprooted & tossed from east to west, and we are disrupted from things that anchor us and confused...how do we anchor ourselves spiritually when we can't physically anchor ourselves? It is through the dhikr of Allah SWT. By remembering Allah first by reminding ourselves of the ni'mah of Allah عز وجل. 

Al-Baqarah 2:231

 وَلَا تَتَّخِذُوٓاْ ءَايَٰتِ ٱللَّهِ هُزُوًاۚ وَٱذْكُرُوا۟ نِعْمَتَ ٱللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ وَمَآ أَنزَلَ عَلَيْكُم مِّنَ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ وَٱلْحِكْمَةِ يَعِظُكُم بِهِۦۚ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عَلِيمٌ 

And do not take the verses of Allah in jest. And remember the favor of Allah upon you and what has been revealed to you of the Book and wisdom by which He instructs you. And fear Allah and know that Allah is Knowing of all things.

Righteous actions are born from the remembrance and exaltation of Allah, it is in the seeking of His pleasure, fear of His displeasure and hope in His mercy that the believer exerts himself, he does the good Allah's commanded him and flees from what He's prohibited him from. 

Nana Aisha has said that Rasulullah would remember Allah at all times, this wasn't only in tasbeeh and tahmeed but also in the way he'd speak to people, honor them, serve them, the way he'd stand in prayer all night, the actions he'd do before retiring to bed and the words he'd say as he would wake. 

Dhikr enters through the mouth and takes root in the heart, this is where the pillars of taqwã are staked. 

So, here's a reminder, to hold on to even if just one of the habits Ramadan's rented us, to not let it go with the month, and really invest in it, for all we know, that little deed we think is inconsequential may be the very thing to cause our relationship with our Lord to blossom, and good deeds do tend to snowball into even bigger, greater good. 

May Allah help us in remembering Him, in words, actions and thoughts. 

اللهم أعني على ذكرك و شكرك و حسن عبادتك 

For Verily, in the remembrance of Allah are hearts reassured. 

(whatever have i have said of error is from me, and i seek Allah's pardon in it, and all that is good is from Allah and the teachings of His Rasul and Nabi, upon whom be many praises and abundant peace.) 

مع سلام!