Ramadan During Lockdown

This year, since everyone is at home during the pandemic, as before this lockdown happened, we muslims were keeping ourselves busy by attending gatherings, arranging gatherings, attending lectures, etc. However, the questions we ask ourselves is how have we spent our time? Did we learn anything useful? These questions will be answered in this post, as I am going to discuss how I spent my time, things that I have missed during Ramadan, things I did not miss, and things I have discovered about myself.

I spend my Ramadan, reflecting on myself, doing religious acts, such as reading Quran and praying salatul Layl, and doing a3mal in Layalatul Qadir. I have listened to   lectures online, on Usama Attar's tafsir on Suratul Mulk, about how to control ourselves, how we are created by Allah, freewill, etc. What I have learned so far, is that our actions have consequences. We have a choice on whether to obey Allah or disobey Allah. If we make good choices, we will go to Janah inshallah, if we make bad choices, such as hanging out with people who tempt you to do haram actions, such as smoking, drugs, alcohol, stealing, bullying,  disrespecting your parents, not wearing your hijab in the right way, behaving inappropriately with non-mahrams, etc, will result in going to jahanam, adubillah. Therefore, we need to think carefully of our actions and make good choices, by choosing your friends wisely, praying daily, respecting your parents, wearing your hijab in the right way, and behaving appropriately with non-mahrams.
I also spent my time with my family by watching a Kuwaiti series called 'Janat Hali', which I will talk in more detail in my next blog post inshallah. I also spent by reading Dua Iftitah.

The things that I missed during Ramadan is seeing my sister Khamael, and her daughter Zahra over Iftar, and attending lectures in centres. I do not miss gatherings,  as I mentioned in my previous post, large gatherings can be stressful. I prefer staying at home during Ramadan, and performing religious acts, and spending time with my family.

The things that I have discovered about myself, is that when I was listening to Usama Attar's lectures, during salah, sometimes my mind tends to wander, so I discovered that before salah, we can do istighfar, to keep ourselves focused.

Next blog post: Janat Hali Series Review

Fasting

Fasting is the English word for 'sawum'. It's very imnportant to all muslims especially in Ramadan.
Fasting is not just not eating or drinking but  also our parts of our body must observe sawum.
Our eyes, ears and all other parts of our body. Here are a list of things that  invalidate the fast if done on purpose

1. Eating and drinking 
2. Saying false things to Allah, Prophet (s) or with the successors of the Holy Prophet(s). 
3. Making dust reach one's throat. 
4. Immersing one's head completely in water. 
5. Vomiting 

Wajib Fasts

1. Fast during the month of Ramadan of course 
2. Qaza fasts for the month of Ramadan 
3. Kaffara fasts 
4. Fast is broken or left out deliberately

Mustahab Fasts
On  all days of Rajab, Shaban or any possible month  to fast even it it's only a day or a week.

Haram Fasts

1. Eid-ul-Fitr
2. Eid-ul-Adha
3. Fasting during illness
4. Fasting when travelling before salatul Dhuhr. 

Makruh Fasts
It is Makruh to fast in Ashura.

A person is allowed to break his fast that is Mustahab if it is not Qaza before Salatul Dhuhr.

Ramadan

Ramadan is the nineth month of the Islamic calendar. It's also the holy month that we fast in, read quran and dua and other things too. We always do a Ramadan table every year so we can do good deeds and erase the bad ones that we did. Some people just do good deeds but then after Ramadan and in Eid they start making trouble and ruining everything. We wouldn't want to do that. Here are the list of things that we should  
do or not do that most of us have in our Ramadan table: 

1. Always fast starting from dawn till sunset.
   
2. Be polite to others, especially to family and friends. 
3. Behave yourselves, don't cause so much trouble especially if you're a troublemaker. 
4. Control your anger. 
5. Be honest, don't tell lies 
6. Don't backbite about anyone. 
7. Read one jusu quran each day. 
8. Do wudhoo before going to sleep 
9. Pray on time
10. Learn stuff about Islam 
11. Don't watch or listen to anything that is Haram. 
12. Pray salatul Layl before going to sleep. 
13. Read duas 
14. Use your spare time properly 
15. Don't watch too much tv or spend more than two hours on the computer.