Abdullah Rahim
 8. More attention to the quality of our prayers:
      We need to use the month of Ramadan to give special attention to the quality of our daily prayers. The key effect of the prayer is manifestation of one of the sentences that we read repeatedly during every prayer, that is, “Only you we worship and only you we seek help from”. Some of the points in this article on the following website can help here: How to Improve Our Daily Prayers.
   9. Reading the Qur’an while pondering upon the meanings (Tadabbur):
      Reading the Qur’an without pondering over its meanings is still helpful but is nowhere near the way that we are supposed to read the Qur’an.  There is no need and no obligation to read the Qur’an in haste aiming to finish it in the month of Ramadan. Reading the Qur’an should be in the form of dialogue, in that, we read the message of the Almighty and then we reflect on it with our ‘mind’ and ‘heart’ and where appropriate our ‘tongue’ (like praying for heaven when we read its description, seeking God’s mercy when we read the description of hell, thanking God when we read about His blessings, etc...)
  10. Talking to God:
      Every prayer and every narrated supplication is talking to the Almighty. While these are very rewarding, we should also develop the ability and the habit of talking to God on our own initiative as well. We should be able to talk with Him in private and to say whatever we would like to say to our Lord and Creator. We do not need to worry about what to say and how to say as He is the most merciful and kind and He loves us more than a parent loves his/her child. We do not need to think of a special way of doing this, we can simply open our heart and talk. We might find it difficult at the start but once we get used to it we will be able to enjoy it and see the benefit. Nothing replaces the happy and peaceful feeling of a servant of God who is shedding tears of joy while talking with his Lord where no one else can see him.
  11. Ponder over God’s names:
      There is a reason that God’s attributes are mentioned in the Qur’an. Pondering over these attributes and thinking about them and their effect on us have a great influence on our soul. Calling God and praying to Him by these names (like, for instance Baseer – All Seeing, Aleem – All Knowing, Hakeem – Wise, …) can help a lot in putting us on the right spiritual direction.
  12. Reminding oneself about death and making it a well-established fact in our heart:
      It is easy to ‘know’ that we will die someday and as Muslims, it is also easy to ‘know’ that there will be a hereafter (Akhira). What is difficult is to establish the concept in our heart in a way that it positively affects our relationship with our Lord, with others and with ourselves. If we remind ourselves as appropriate about death and Akhira and its implications, this might help with establishing the concept in our heart. The aim is not to be sad or disappointed, but to be motivated enough to prepare for what will certainly happen, which will also help us to have a happier life in this world.
  13. Do not go to extremes at the time of Iftaar:
      The point of fasting is not to postpone the amount of the food that we were supposed to eat only to have it all in one go during Iftaar (and perhaps adding even more to make it more pleasant!). Iftaar is for us to break our fast so that we do not fall in hardship. There is absolutely no problem with enjoying the food and having what we like to have. However, we need to make sure that we do not go to extremes. After all, how can we have a good pondering over the Qur’an and a good Tahajjud after the midnight and all the other things we want to do for our spirituality if we have filled our stomach with so much food that we can hardly move or stay awake?
  14. Take care of the tongue!
      We did discuss getting rid of bad habits and practices in point 4 above. The tongue of human being however, is such a naughty phenomenon that it deserves a special tip of its own. We will find that during the month of Ramadan, controlling our tongue will become very relevant in attaining Taqwa. We, of course need to talk with our family, colleagues and those around us, however, especially during the month of Ramadan, there is no harm if we also experience periods of silence to keep ourselves immune from the potential problems that our tongue might bring us. We are specially advised not to get involved in arguments in this month.    áTo be Countnuedâ