RAMADHAN: WHAT TO DO BEFORE RAMADHAN

Assalamualaikum & good day,

It's been more than two months since I last mentioned about Ramadhan. Since Ramadhan is just around the corner, I know I need to make preparation to welcome it. Today, I'm sharing a summary of what I learnt after watching Ramadhan animation series made by Productive Muslim and short reading about Ramadhan.  I arranged the checklist according to time.

Table 1: Checklist on what to do before Ramadhan

TIME	ANIMATION	WHAT TO DO
Before fasting	7 Energize with Suhoor & Stay Positive	We have ~ 18 days to tune our body clock. Wake up at 5am, have breakfast. Take a short nap during lunch time (if you need one). Lastly, go to bed early.
When fasting	10 NOT a Month of Wrestling Matches	Increase sabr level. Search for Quran & hadith verses on the good tidings for being patient.
	11 Month of Worship NOT Sleep	Our body function differently when we fast. That’s why it’s highly recommended that we do voluntary fasting before Ramadhan, so that our body can adapt well in fasting state.
	14 Energize ourselves with Salah	Prior to Salah, we need to perform ablution. This surely can freshen our tired eyes. When we pray, our body moves and our mind are actively engaged {khusyuk}, thus making us feeling energized! A continuous learning process to control our mind to focus/ kusyuk during praying.
	16 No Good Deed is a Small Deed	Let’s start to do good deed and encourage others as well, so that we’re accustom to it.   Reminder of a hadith on this. Abu Huraira related that the Prophet said: Allah the Majestic and Exalted said: "Every deed of man will receive ten to 700 times reward, except Siyam (fasting), for it is for Me and I shall reward it (as I like). There are two occasions of joy for one who fasts: one when he breaks the fast and the other when he will meet his Lord" (Muslim).
Breaking fast	8 Don't Make Ramadan an Eating Contest	Food bazaar is so synonymous to Ramadhan (in Malaysia). We need to control our nafs when we’re there. How? Plan on what to buy and set limit on the total money that we will spend.
	9 Multiply Your Fasts by Feeding Others	Make a plan on days to cook/buy dish to share it with our neighbours. This hadith is enough to explain the beauty of this virtue. Zaid Ibn Khalid Juhni related that the Prophet said: He who provides for the breaking of the Siyam of another person earns the same merit as the one who was observing Siyam without diminishing in any way the reward of the latter (Tirmidhi).
Last 10 days	13 Worship NOT Shop in Last 10 Days	Aisha related that the Prophet said: Look for Lailat al-Qadr on an odd-numbered night during the last ten nights of Ramadan (Bukhari). So, if we drained our energy to shop, will we have the strength to stand for prayers at nights? Let’s do our shopping now :)

Hopefully, this Ramadhan will be the best Ramadhan to all of us. To end the post, let's pray that we'll remain consistent in our ibadah during Ramadhan.

Kind regards,

~Ida~