Ramadhani?

Hidup adalah perjalanan yang bermula dari Tuhan, menuju Tuhan

Life is a journey; from Allah, to Allah

and in this journey towards God,

there will be maaaaaaany obstacles that may lead us astray from the right path

what are the obstacles?

right, syaitan and our own nafs

so, in order for us to be able to go through those obstacles safely, what do we need?

we need something that we can use to protect us, right?

and that's what we call, shield

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let us pause for a moment and ponder upon this Quranic verse;

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ ﴿١٨٣﴾

"Wahai orang-orang yang beriman! Kamu diwajibkan berpuasa sebagaimana diwajibkan atas orang-orang yang dahulu daripada kamu, supaya kamu bertaqwa."

[Al-Baqarah : 183]

fasting is made obligatory = so that/hopefully you get Taqwa

do you know that Taqwa comes from the word, وقاية

which means, prevention, or shield?

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okay, so back to our discussion,

in our journey to God,

we needed shield to protect us against all those obstacles that may lead us astray, right?

the syaitan and nafs

and in the previous Quranic verse, Allah mentioned that fasting is made obligatory upon us, so that we may gain Taqwa (shield)

so, there you go!

that's where we can get that protection from!

fasting is the tool for us to gain that shield

okay, hold on,

Taqwa is a shield,

but what does Taqwa really mean?

okay for that one, I would really suggest that you watch this video to understand what is Taqwa and how does fasting & Ramadhan enable us attain it?

https://youtu.be/xY8UC0OiYuw

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after you watch that video and understand about the importance of Taqwa,

you might want to plan on how to achieve Taqwa right?

I mean in practical ways

If so, let's determine what makes a person considered successful or the other way around.

Do you realize that when we picture/describe someone who is successful or not, we'll be describing his/her habits?

because you are determined by what you repeatedly do,

for instance, when a person is described as a very patient person, he must be someone who repeatedly/always has the tolerance of provocation without responding in annoyance/anger, right?

and the things that you repeatedly do, is called habit

and habit is what builds the character of a person

so, that's what you need to work on!

habits

but, then, I would suggest you to watch this video to understand how habit works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPn3UOt1lxw

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So, in order for us to attain Taqwa, this Ramadhan, I would suggest that we do this 3 things ;

1- make sure you have & follow your daily time table (just do a rough one, schedule activities in between prayer times)

2- commit on building 1 good crucial habit that is needed for you to attain Taqwa

3- commit on undo-ing 1 bad habit that will ruin your plan to achieve Taqwa

Side note :

• habit is build by doing the same thing, everyday for a period of time without breaking the chain (some said that the minimum period for a habit to be established is 21 day = 3 weeks, some said that its' 30 days)
• always consider our own stamina while building/undo-ing any habit. If you have never done it before/or for a long time, please please, start small & realistic. How can you sprint if you don't have the stamina?
• focus on 1 habit or more for each task of building and undo-ing habit. you can add 1 or 2 habit, if you ayou already have the stamina, depends on your capability.

REMEMBER, we want this shield to last until after Ramadhan, so plan accordingly, okay?

Do not rush by doing like 10 habits etc