The Best Preparation for Ramadan

14/07/2011| IslamWeb

In view of the great importance of the days of Ramadan, it is incumbent on the faithful believers to prepare for them properly.

The believers should be ready for it, insistent on attaining the means of forgiveness, regardless of the sacrifice. The first step is to know the aims they would like to achieve in this season, which could be the aims referred to by the Noble Quran and the Messenger of Allah or personal spiritual goals. They include:

1. To be determined to obtain forgiveness by all the possible means.
2. To strive (against oneself) to achieve forgiveness by Taqwa (consciousness of Allah The Almighty).
3. To fulfill the covenant of the believers with Allah The Almighty, by being diligent in Ramadan.

In order to be determined to obtain forgiveness this year, one should resolve not to slacken to strive against himself and the whispers of the devil like every year. On the contrary, he should rely on Allah The Almighty, seek His aid, encourage himself with His power, and show his deprivation and need for Him.

One should be determined to achieve the means of forgiveness under all circumstances. If he proceeds towards Allah The Almighty with truthfulness and sincerity, He would grant him success, support him, strengthen him and provide for him the means that would help him overpower despair, deviation, evil inclinations and the whispers of the devil. This is because Allah The Almighty maintains, strengthens, defends and provides for him. Thus, Allah The Almighty supports him, and if Allah supports him, then, who could be against him?

The slave stands at the gate of Allah The Almighty, asking Him to provide for him, aid him, make things easy for him, guide him, bring him near to Him and help him perform righteous deeds and acts of worship, submissively imploring Him from the depths of his heart, and keeping in mind that he has neither strength nor power, nor competence to achieve any of this without his Lord. So, he should supplicate and praise Him, with sincerity and truthfulness, to grant him success.

The way to achieving forgiveness starts with repentance. The days of Ramadan should commence with believers who have repented to Allah The Almighty of their sins and misdeeds. Starting Ramadan without being purified from sins and misdeeds, or repenting to Allah The Almighty with sincere and true repentance, is the reason why they are not forgiven, nor emancipated from Hell in Ramadan. Their supplications, fasting, standing (at night in prayer) raised (to Allah The Almighty), with the result that they will come out of Ramadan just as they entered it. Rather, they will return to their old state of heedlessness, remoteness and abandonment of standing (at night in prayer), fasting, almsgiving, righteous deeds, Thikr (remembrance of Allah The Almighty) and recitation of the Quran. Whoever does not repent are the wrongdoers, as stated by Allah The Almighty when He Says (what means): {And whoever does not repent - then it is those who are the wrongdoers.} [Quran 49:11] How could the wrongdoers be forgiven, receive mercy, be emancipated from Hell, and have their deeds accepted by Allah? It is not from those that Allah the Almighty accepts the deeds, but as He Says (what means): {Indeed, Allah only accepts from the righteous [who fear Him].} [Quran 5:27]

Repentance is to show regret and decide not to return to what one used to do. Repentance is to give up the sin and ask people to forgive him for the injustices he committed against them before there comes a time when there would be neither a Dinar nor a Dirham – nothing except good and evil deeds: “thereupon they would take from his good deeds until when they are used up, it would be taken from their evil deeds and added to his, with the result that he would be thrown into Hell." [Muslim]

This is the reason why repentance is the most important thing with which one should start Ramadan, because whoever enters with repentance would come out also with repentance; if he enters Ramadan with the Quran, he would come out with the Quran; if he enters it with fasting, he would come out with fasting, and so on, bearing in mind that all these come after repentance.