By Ishola Haroon Balogun

Ramadan should  be a time to avoid being wasteful. Some Muslims are unable to distinguish between their needs and luxuries, hence they engage in wasteful spending. Some, at the end of each fasting day, pile-up varieties of food that they cannot consume thereby spending more on what they do not need. If you have more, remember the have-nots. The act of giving is ibadah, and no act of ibadah can be said to be too much.

Some sleep through the whole night with the alibi that they had a hectic day. Some even find it easy to compromise their sahur for more hours of sleep. Ramadan is a time we have to increase all our spiritual devotion, the day and night should be a beehive of spiritual activities. Like I said some few days ago, at the moment, if you visit some mosques during tarawih prayers, you will notice a drop.

We should rather step up activities because it will take another 12 circle of the moon before we witness another Ramadan. So, we need to maximise the period by using our time wisely and spending in the way of Allah. While some good-spirited individuals spend more money on feeding poor Muslims, some also sponsor Muslims to Umurah and Hajj. That is a great reward indeed.

Muslims should explore all avenues and opportunities of carrying out good deeds, while also realising that his priorities should be dictated by the desire to secure al-janah and be less concerned about mundane things.

The Muslim should apply himself to deepen his sense of following the practice of Holy Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W), in every aspect of his life, at all times and especially during the month of Ramadan. This requires seeking more knowledge about how to maximise the benefits of the month, its etiquette, assimilating the wisdom and goals of fasting, and facilitating the means that allow all the Muslims to benefit from their fasting and increase in their ibadah.

Prayer of the day
Allahuma arizuqni fihi tahatal-ashiheen, wa-shura’a fihi sadree, bihi nabatil mukhbitiheen, bi amanika Yaa amanal-khaahifeena. Amin.

“O Allah, on this day, grant me the obedience of the humble, expand my chest through the repentance of the humble, by Your security, O the shelter of the fearful.”
Amin.