My Ramadhan Gift for Kak Shahariah

In the name of Allah Most Compassionate and Most Merciful

I was so touched when Kak Shahariah made a plea with us in a particular WhatsApp group chat to share the knowledge from a class we were going to attend. She is at home recuperating after a major surgery so she would have to miss the class. The class was to be held in Kak Mashita's beautiful home in Shah Alam, which she organises on a monthly basis. (May Allah shower her with blessings for her generosity and effort). And the teacher is none other than our beloved Dato' Dr. Fatma Az-Zahra.

Picture taken from Kak Mashita's Facebook without her permission ;-p

My vision is very limited now due to cataracts that developed from over-wxposure to UV light since working on the farm. But I thought I had better make full use of whatever vision I have left for only good things; I have learnt that misusing what Allah Azza wa Jalla has blessed us with is known as kufur ni'mat and I vouch to avoid that na'uzubillah.

So this is it. Kak Shahariah, in a nutshell, this is what I got from the class:

The Quran and the Knowledge is our Nur in dunya and it will ascertain our standing (darjat) in Akhirah.

Allah swt berfirman (sorry I didn't get the surah) "Aku angkat darjat tinggi orang yang beriman dan berilmu."

We often plan in advance our trips overseas, but fail to plan for our trip to the Akhirah.

Preparing for the coming Ramadhan

The doa' which we read during Ramadhan which contains the kalimah " 'afuw" - it is a big difference with "ghafur". In the former, all our sins are forgiven and forgotten, completely deleted from our Book. Whereas "ghafur" means we have already taubat but we will still be questioned about the solah that we may have missed before.

We need to pasang all our niat now before Ramadhan starts because we don't know if we can even live till then. 

1. MUHASABAH 

Sit down and write all the vice we may still be committing, weaknesses and sins. Make a conscious intention to ris of these. Hisab ourselvelves before Allah does it. If we don't survive till Ramadhan, we will at least get the pahala for sincerely wanting to improve ourselves.

Review our habluminAllah and hablumminnas. If you have stopped talking to someone over an argument, patch the relationship. Do not be arrogant and stubborn. Maaf-maafan should be done now too, not just before the Eid.  

2. MURAKABAH

Believing and living by "I don't see Allah but He sees me." and "I don't hear Alla but He hears me. Doing something or saying something wrong then takut dengan manusia, it's wrong.  We should akut dengan Allah. If we are afraid of what people might say towards our behaviou, it shows our aqidah is longgar, and that we are not true believers.

This is related to the tafsir of the surah that we were about to do - Surah Al-Maa'uun which Allah swt forbids us to ill-treat orphans and encourages us to feed the hungry. Akhlak, good deeds and habluminannas come before ibadah and silaturrahim is of extreme importance.

3. MUJAHADAH 

 Start fasting in Syaaban, this is the month Rasulullah SAW did most of his sunat fasting.Increase and escalate all other amalan too lite taubah and sadaqah.

4. MUTABA'AH

Follow-up on all our deeds after Ramadha. Do the puasa 6 and the puasa sunat on Mondays and Thursdays as well as on the 13th, 14th and 15th of each hijrah month. 

Hope you benefit from this dear Kak Shahariah and all myr Car Pool Gang sisters, and may Allah ease your difficulties. Love you all very much.