Planning for the holy month of Ramadan involves several areas, which I will try to group in here for people to get the most of Ramadan, not miss a chance to get closer to Allah, and end the month feeling reborn. Don’t deceive yourself into getting involved in friends’ planning for night outings in entertainment spots.     Few hours are left before the month of blessings and salvation commences. Ramadan is two or three days away and pre-hand preparations would be of great help for you and your planned program for the month. Planning for the holy month involves several areas, which I will try to group in here for people to get the most of Ramadan, not miss a chance to get closer to Allah, and end the month feeling reborn. Spiritual Tips and worshipping matters – Decide on the nearest mosque to your house where you know there would be a good reciter of the Quran, and arrange among your friends or family members to pray daily Qeyam there and get the biggest reward possible inshaAllah. – Decide on some book that would enrich your Islamic knowledge and set your intention to finish it during Ramadan- let it be the biography of the Prophet (pbuh), a book about Islamic Jurisprudence or Quran Exegesis. Make this your reading project that you will try hard to commit to during the holy month. – If you have any daunting social duties or burdening work load, try to get that done ahead of Ramadan to have more chance for worshiping and spiritual activities during the holy month. – Get a quality version of Audio Quran to listen to whether in your car, in your mp3s player if you don’t drive, or play it in the house. – Try to involve others in your planning, it will help you commit more and encourage others to employ every bit of their capacity to make the best of the month. – If you do not pray Sunnah that regularly, start doing so, and make it a habit. – Also if you dont engage in Dhikr (Rememberance of Allah) that regularly, doing the morning and night recitation, start doing so and also turn it into a habit, one that would last after Ramadan, adn brings Baraka (Blessings) to the whole of your day. – And do not forget to ask Allah to help you achieve the noble objectives of the month and earn their reward in this life and the hereafter. – Set your neyya clear: to please only God and attain His Supreme Mercy. Social Tips – Social gatherings are good and highly advisable in Ramadan, just make sure they don’t override the core duty befalling you during the holy month. So do arrange for family get-togethers during Ramadan, but don’t plan to have much of them, and make sure they take place within a context that’s befitting Ramadan and the noble mission you’re entitled to fulfill, i.e. attaining God’s satisfaction and thus eternal salvation. You can have family gatherings that do not involve any violation of your Ramadan program. And you can actually use such gatherings to maximize the reward. – For example having family Iftar that would be followed with congregational prayer would be highly plausible, in terms of its immense reward as well as asserting the social bond which we hugely lack in our modern times. Don’t deceive yourself into getting involved in Ramadan social gatherings and friends’ planning that involve night outings in entertainment spots. This would be simply detrimental to any effort you’re poised for in Ramadan. And you better clarify that among your social circle from now and before Ramadan starts. Make it clear that you shall be specially busy during Ramadan in Ibadat-related activities, so those who’re willing to join in would plan them ahead with you, and those who do not have the intention, thankfully save you their nagging throughout Ramadan; pressuring you to join them. – Ramadan is probably this upcoming Sunday or Monday, so start calling up people in your close social circle, even if you won’t be able to make all the calls before Ramadan. Personal greetings would be highly appreciated than generic and group greetings which make people feel simply “ignored”. Walk the extra mile and do the greetings yourself. Facebook tagging and text messaging are not suitable for such special events. And do not forget to set your Neyya (intention) clear: that such task seeks only the pleasure of Allah. – Revive many stalled family ties, seize the chance in Ramadan. Cutting ties with your relative is one of the most grievous sins in Islam, which encourages and teaches strengthening family ties no matter how far tension takes people. – Jot down your charity plan and the organizations you intend to donate to. Do not wait till Ramadan to start preparing for that. And if you know of an area where Muslim families don’t have the basic resources to meet their needs, take the initiative and mobilize efforts to provide support for them. So you better get this done before Ramadan, remember you’ve got a lot to do and have other duties to uphold. – Decide to feed one Muslim everyday, at least provide food for an Iftar meal, and think of possible recipients of such aid, whether your house maid, some street people in your area, a nearby shopkeeper, a security man and so on and so forth… – Think of sending aid to Somalia, as much as your financial capacity allows for. – Health Tips Similarly, Ramadan is time for health rehabilitation and reconsidering our imbalanced food diets, hopefully a time for giving up many bad nutrition habits that render our physical bodies heavy and weak, leaving our spiritual selves equally feeble and ailing. However, introducing some healthy additions to our daily nutrition and food diets involves pre-hand preparation to warm up your body to commit to them during Ramadan. You may consider some of the following suggestions, and you shall not only feel the great change, but after a few days you’ll find it hard to fall back to how you used to be… – Firstly I advice every Muslim who suffers a certain illness to consult his/her doctor and ask him whether fasting would have any negative impact on his/her health. And whatever the doctor decides it should be respected and strictly implemented. Muslims are entrusted with their health and well-being, and fasting shouldn’t be detrimental to such precious endowment. – Second health tips; I advise you to start following a diet that’s close if not similar to Ramadan program, where we eat just two meals on a particular interval of time, to get the physical body adapt to the 30-day long program. So may be you should start avoiding between meals snacks and lessen your food quantities to ready your stomach for Ramadan’s day-schedule. – Also you might need to squeeze the size of your meal a little bit and start avoiding excessive eating, otherwise you will suffer big deal during Ramadan. – In case you haven’t been following a balanced nutrition diet, start introducing to your meals foods that are rich in proteins and carbohydrates. – Watch your daily intake of vitamins, they’re well-need for a fasting body. Make sure you get at least a fruit a day, and a bowl of salad comprising of an assortment of vegetables, particularly green ones. – Drink plenty of water and make it a systemized habit. – During the evening hours, specifically before Maghrib prayer, consider a 30 minute jogging session. If you can get yourself stick to that during Ramadan, if your health allows for that, you will end Ramadan in a fully rejuvenated state: perfectly fit, looking and feeling good about yourself.. – Resist food indulgence temptations, you don’t have much of a chance for that during Ramadan, so you better adapt from now. – Over and above, if you’re a smoker, Ramadan is your chance to quit. May Allah grant you and your loved ones the blessings and the reward of the month. Amen Maha Youssuf maha@muslimtribune.org Posted on: July 28, 2011