PREPARING FOR THE MONTH OF RAMADAN
The Holy month of Ramadan - a special month that our hearts yearn for - is almost here and many of us around the world are joyously anticipating its arrival.
But here’s the question: What have you prepared?
Just as we prepare for many circumstances in life, it’s also essential to prepare for the blessed month of Ramadan. And that means more than tidying up our homes or organizing our schedules—it’s about nurturing our hearts too. The key is finding a balance between preparing our external home (body and house), and our internal home (the heart).
In this blog post, I’m going to share some tips to prepare both our internal and external homes for Ramadan.
If you’d like to watch me prep for Ramadan, you can click here.
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PREPPING YOUR INTERNAL HOME
When preparing for the month of Ramadan, many of us forget to prepare our internal home (the heart) while focusing on our external home (the body and/or the house).
We forget that much more than our external home, the holy month of Ramadan seeks to cleanse and purify our internal home - our heart.
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Here’s a beautiful reminder from the Prophet SAW:
“Listen carefully, there is a lump of flesh in the body. If it is set right and made good, the entire body becomes good and healthy; but if it becomes diseased, the entire body becomes diseased. Remember well: it is the Heart.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 52)
Hence, it’s necessary to pay attention to our hearts when preparing for Ramadan, and here are 5 tips to do just that!
1. Set intentions
As always, intentions matter a lot and it’s important to have the right ones since actions are judged by intentions in islam.
Set your intentions right - that you’re going to fast and try to reconnect with Allah SWT during the holy month of Ramadan; and you expect rewards from none other than Him.
While setting your intentions, ask yourself these questions:
‘What if this is my last Ramadan?’
‘What can I do in 24 hours to make this Ramadan special?’
These questions will help you reflect and hopefully guide you to make decisions to make the most of the holy month.
An easy way to keep yourself in check is to set your phone wallpaper with a beneficial reminder! For example, one that says - ‘what if this is my last Ramadan?’ for the whole month of Ramadan and even beyond.
You can download some free Ramadan-focused wallpapers here
2. Make up missed fasts / Engage in sunnah fasts
For one reason or the other, you might have missed fasts from last Ramadan. If you haven’t already done that, this is the opportunity you have to complete it. And if you have completed your fasts from last year and don’t have any to make up, then it’s a great opportunity to gain some bonus points and try to fast on Mondays and Thursdays following the Sunnah of the Prophet SAW.
These fasts are like a “Ramadan Sampler” and can get your mind, body and heart ready to embrace the month ahead.
3. Spend time with the Qur’an
As we know, Ramadan is the month of the Qur’an - the month in which the blessed book of Allah was revealed to our beloved Prophet Muhammad SAW. This is why people all around the world make plans to read the entire Qur’an during this month one or multiple times.
We want to make sure that the Quran doesn’t just sit on our tongue during the month, but actually enters our heart - as the source of comfort, encouragement, and inspiration it is meant to be for us.
If your Quran has been sitting on the shelf collecting dust all year (many of us fall into this), it’s time to get reconnected to it, so we can slowly build that habit up. Make it a goal to spend more time with the Qur’an, letting its words resonate with your heart as you prepare for the beautiful and blessed month ahead.
4. Create a list of duaas
Sometimes, you have so much on your mind and heart to share with your Lord, but the words just don’t come out. You find yourself sitting there, feeling blank, unsure of how to express what’s inside. For moments like these, having a list of duaas come in handy. They not only help you remember what you want to ask for, but also make it easy to say in a coherent way.
I want you to remember, however, that Allah sees your heart. The tears you shed and the desires at the depth of your heart - Allah knows them.
As humans, I know that sometimes we don’t get satisfied when we haven’t asked Allah for what we want with words, and that’s why creating a list of Ramadan duaas even before the holy month begins is always a good idea.
Remember to include duaas for your family, friends, the ummah at large and the oppressed such as our brothers and sisters in Gaza.
If you’d like to watch a video as you prepare for Ramadan, I can also recommend this video from last year by Dr. Haifaa Younis.
PREPARING YOUR EXTERNAL HOME
While preparing the internal home (heart) is necessary, it’s also important to prepare your external home for the holy month of Ramadan. Remember that we are often affected and influenced by our environment.
Here are tips to prepare your external home for the blessed month of Ramadan.
1. Create a Ramadan plan
Ask yourself an important question - ‘what do you want to achieve this Ramadan and what do you need to do to achieve it?’
The answers to these questions will guide you in making a Ramadan plan. You can use a Ramadan journal/planner, or you can just scribble your goals and intended habits down in a book that you love writing in.
Just make sure that you don’t overwhelm yourself and you set realistic goals with consideration for your individual situation.
2. Meal planning
Yes, we fast during Ramadan and avoid eating from sunrise to sunset, but the holy month is not ALL about food. Instead of spending so much time deciding what to have for suhoor and iftar and buy during grocery shopping, you can save yourself the time and energy by making a meal plan before the month arrives.
Create a meal plan with easy meal ideas for ramadan and write out a weekly meal planner. You can also list out the groceries you need to make these meals and notes that you may need to remember.
When we’re hungry, we often start thinking about food and what we want to eat, and then before you know it you find yourself spending hours and hours scrolling through different recipes and food videos! (*ahem* speaking from experience here). This is where meal planning comes in handy! You already know what you’re having for Iftar each day, so there’s less likelihood for a wandering mind.
And now with all the time you’ve saved, you can spend that extra time performing acts of worship. It’s a win-win!
3. Declutter your space
Decluttering your space can not only bring you reward, but also make it easier and quicker to keep things clean and organized during Ramadan.
Often, we hold on to things in our homes that we no longer use because they hold sentimental value. But when we choose to give some of these items to charity, it opens the door to earning even greater rewards from Allah, inshaAllah.
Declutter your space in preparation for the holy month to remind yourself that letting go for the sake of Allah is an act of worship.
4. Organize a ramadan corner
A Ramadan corner in your home is a place that’s dedicated to your acts of worship during the holy month. For example, you pray salah there, recite your Qur’an, journal, do dhikr and maybe even listen to islamic lectures.
It doesn’t have to be fancy or big, it can just be a small corner in your room where you have your prayer mat, Qur’an and Qur’an stand, dhikr counter, and some other things you may need.
May Allah make it easy and spare our lives until Ramadan and beyond.
with love and duaas,
Ghena.
