بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
If you want to get closer to someone, what do you do? You find out what they like, be on their good terms and get to know them, right?
Of course, it’s the same thing with Allah SWT. In order to get closer to Allah, you need to know what He likes, what He wants from you and work towards that every single day until you meet Him in Jannatul Firdaus (The Highest Heaven). In sha Allah.
Sounds simple right?
So, what does it take to get closer to Him?
Not much, really. Let’s see.
1. Humble yourself, you are a slave
Allah hates arrogant people. You don’t want to be on Allah’s hate list when you’re trying to do just the opposite. 😉
So, be careful. Sometimes when we have everything we want and things are going great, we can easily forget the person who gave us all that we have – Allah. Therefore, we need to constantly seek for reminders and good advice (like this blog 😉 ) to help us regain our focus towards our true purpose in life – to be a humble slave of Allah.
So, let’s first of all strive to be a humble slave and repent if we feel that we have sometimes slipped into arrogance in our day-to-day affairs. 🙂
May Allah make us all his most humble slaves. Ameen.
2. Set a sincere intention
When setting an intention, you don’t necessarily know how you’re going to GET what you set out for. You just know you want it and therefore you set it in your heart and mind to go after it.
In Islam, our Prophet Muhammad SAW taught us that our intention is the sole determinant whether all our good deeds will be accepted by Allah. That can be really good or really bad.
If you are truly doing every single action in your life sincerely to gain Allah’s pleasure, then all your good deeds will be accepted. On the other hand, if you’re doing them as a show-off or to gain people’s approval, then it will be rejected by Allah.
I’ve always imagined our good deeds are like our bank accounts in the akhirah. When we do enough good deeds that are accepted by Allah, our akhirah bank accounts will be full. On the other hand, if we are not careful and all our actions are done for merely the approval of others, then we might find an empty bank account in the akhirah.
Isn’t it scary?
So, let’s be conscious and purposeful before doing any actions in our lives. Set the intention in your heart that you’re doing this solely for the pleasure of Allah SWT and no one else. You don’t have to say it out verbally because Allah knows what is in your heart. 🙂
3. Perfect your 5 daily prayers
If a doctor asks you to take your medicine accordingly, 2 pills in the morning and 2 pills at night, would you follow his prescriptions? 🙂
Salah is our daily spiritual ‘medication’. We have a disease called ‘forgetfulness’. We forget that we are slaves of Allah, we forget that we need Allah’s guidance to stay on the right path, we forget that without Allah we can never survive (not even be able to breathe).
We forget ALL the time.
Salah is our cure to our ‘forgetful’ disease. Allah prescribed it 5 times a day because in the span of a day, we can forget Allah many times. So, salah will constantly stop you from being distracted by your desires and this dunya and realign your purpose to the akhirah.
Of course, it is more effective when you understand every single word you say in your salah. You are internalising Allah’s words. Or else, it would just be a form of exercise. Stretch your back, bow to the floor and go back up. It does not mean anything to you.
But when you deeply understand Allah’s message to you, it will remind you to constantly abstain from sins and follow the right path.
So, this step is very crucial in getting you closer to Allah. Perfect your salah and you are already halfway there! 🙂
4. Perfect your fasting
This is just for Ramadan. If you want to get closer to Allah during Ramadan, you need to pay attention to your fasting. Are you abstaining yourself from everything that can nullify your fasting? Are your Ramadan days filled with good deeds and worthy actions?
Or are you facing the ‘coma’ fasting where you’re just sleeping all day? 😉 Do you think there’s a difference in the fasting reward of someone who sleeps all day and someone who fills their time with worthy good deeds? You bet!
Allah says He will personally give His fasting rewards to the people who fast. It is special. So, if you want to please Allah. Perfect your fasting. 🙂
5. Spend time with the Quran
Quran is like the love letters of Allah. Everything that He is trying to tell us is in those love letters. We need to read them often just as we would read our lover’s letters. Some people can stay up all night just to talk to their lovers, it doesn’t matter if it is face-to-face or through a text, they would do anything.
When you want to get closer to Allah, don’t you think you should be talking to Him? One of the best ways for you to start talking to Allah and Allah responding to you is through the Quran.
I’ve had many incidents where my questions and duas are answered through the verses of the Quran. It is the Quran’s miracle. Any questions you may have (even normal day-to-day situations that have nothing to do with religion), just turn to the Quran.
Don’t be surprised when you find the answer you’re looking for just by randomly turning the pages.
You can receive hidayah (guidance) from there. But only if you take the first step… 🙂
6. Treat your family kindly
Families in Islam are the most important institutions of society. Without strong and practicing Muslim families around the globe, our Muslim community will collapse. Inevitably, Islam will be weak. If we want to uphold Islam on a high status, we need to first build strong and happy Muslim families.
You can do your part by treating your family kindly and lovingly the best way you can. Start with the mundane things – helping your mom throw the trash, clean your home, respect your parents etc. The list is endless.
The Prophet said, “The BEST of you are the best to his family”. If you look at your family members – your siblings and parents, it means the best among you is the person who is most beneficial to everyone in the family.
For most of us, our families are our source of comfort Alhamdulillah. But for some, our families can bethe very reason for all the pain and heartache in our lives. If this is you, I pray Allah gives guidance to you and your family in sha Allah.
Stay strong and just do your best. 🙂 No matter what your family situation currently is, you can always choose to be kind even when they choose not to. So, be that kind, loving and supportive family member, okay! 🙂
7. Abstain from sins as much as you can
Abstaining from sins means you are consciously and constantly putting in effort to please Allah above your own desires. It is HARD. I know. When you really want to listen to dozens of luring and trashy music, you abstain from it instead. When you want to talk back to your parents, you abstain from it again. These things are hard. That’s why you get rewarded abundantly for it.
Ramadan is the perfect time for you to practice letting go of your sinful habits one by one because with the hunger that we get from fasting, it can slightly diminish our normal appetite for the familiar sinful habits that we do outside of Ramadan. So, this makes it easier for us to replace our bad habits with good ones. 🙂
List out all the bad habits and the good habits that you want to replace it with. You can use the planner kit that I’ve prepared for you down below!
8. Increase mundane good deeds
Have you ever wondered why people are racing to give each other food for Iftar and racing to do charities and all the good deeds during Ramadan?
Well, it’s because of this hadith…
The Messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, “Ramadan has come to you. (It is) a month of blessing, in which Allah covers you with blessing, for He sends down Mercy, decreases sins and answers prayers. In it, Allah looks at your competition (in good deeds), and boasts about you to His angels. So show Allah goodness from yourselves, for the unfortunate one is he who is deprived in (this month) of the mercy of Allah, the Mighty, the Exalted.” – [Tabarani]
Ramadan is the month of blessing where all the rewards for your good deeds are multiplied. The best part is, you don’t have to do good deeds that are so big or out of your reach, you can just focus on the little things that can make a big difference for the people around you.
For example, help your mum cook for iftar, help your siblings with their homework and help your dad wash the car etc. Mundane things that can lessen your family’s burden has big rewards.
Again, the BEST of you are the best to your family, remember? So, before you go outside and try to save the world, it’s better to focus on what your family really needs. Sometimes they might not show that they need your help, but when you do, they’ll really love it. In shaAllah.
Try it! 🙂
9. Do the nawafil (Sunnah ibadah)
There are many nawafil ibadahs you can opt for during Ramadan.
Here are a few:
- Pray Taraweeh. This is a special prayer only done in Ramadan. You can do 8 rakaats (4 sets of 2 rakaats).
- Pray Tahajjud. 2 rakaats in the middle of the night.
- Pray Witr. 1 or 3 rakaats as a closing to all your prayers for the day.
10. Be consistent – istiqamah (even after Ramadan)
Since Ramadan is like a training period, the whole point of you training yourself to cultivate good deeds during Ramadan is for you to continue those good deeds naturally after Ramadan.
You don’t have to feel like you need to change your ways after Ramadan, instead you naturally continue Ramadan’s normal routine to become your permanent everyday life activity.
As you increase your good deeds with each passing Ramadan, your level of iman and capacity to do bigger good deeds will increase exponentially in sha Allah. 🙂
You’ll become a whole different person each year! 🙂
Make dua Allah gives you the strength to consistently continue doing all the good deeds outside of Ramadan too.
Remember that the smallest good deeds can have the biggest reward in Allah’s eyes. Allah does not look at how big your good deeds are but how sincere you are in doing them. 🙂
11. Make dua for family and friends
It is assured that whatever duas you make for others, you will get them too. So, don’t be afraid to make as many duas for your family and friends because you are getting 2 in 1. 🙂 Your family and friends get it, and you’ll get it too. Everyone gets it!
Before knowing this, I used to lack making dua for others. There are so many duas that I have not made for myself let alone for others. But now that I know this, I’ve become more aware of what others might need and so I make dua for them because I know I’ll get the dua as well in sha Allah. 🙂
12. Give charity
One of the best deeds to do during Ramadan is to give charity. It doesn’t matter if it’s in terms of your money, time or other resources. Whatever Allah has given you, share it with others MORE during Ramadan.
Even if it’s just giving dates for iftar.
“Whoever helps to break the fast of a fasting person (giving food), he will have the same reward as him without decreasing anything from the reward of the fasting person.” – [Tirmidhi]
Practice doing extra during Ramadan and then strive to maintain the same level of giving outside of Ramadan until it becomes part of your identity.
13. Repent day and night
When we want to be on good terms with someone, we do as they say right? Allah is telling us that He loves those who repent sincerely to Him. It purifies our hearts and removes all our sins.
Ramadan is the only time of the month where Allah pours down His immense love and mercy like no other. So, if you have ANY sins no matter how major or unforgivable they may seem, this month is the best time for you to permanently erase all those bad deeds from your record.
14. Go all out during Laylatul-Qadr (The Night of Power)
The night of Laylatul-Qadr is said to be found in the odd nights of the last 10 days of Ramadan.
And Allah has concealed this night so that no one exactly knows which night Laylatul-Qadr will fall on. There’s a big reason for this. If we knew which night it would be, we would’ve just focused on that night and neglect all the other nights in Ramadan.
I think I would, haha.
So, Allah really wants those who have consistently done their good deeds and night prayers throughout Ramadan prior to that night to be able to naturally find that night of power when it comes.
When you find it, make your night prayers, dua as much as you can and repent as sincerely as you can.
May Allah give us all the privilege of meeting this powerful night. Insha Allah. Ameen 🙂
Conclusion
Ramadan is like a training ground for us to increase our good deeds, erase our sins and get closer to Allah as much as we can because it is a special month of endless blessings and mercy.
Whatever good you’d like to do, this is the perfect time to do it.
Any good from this article is from Allah and any evil is from the shaytaan and me. May Allah forgive our shortcomings in practicing His deen.
Wa billahi tawfeeq wa hidayah
(All successes come from Allah and His guidance).
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