Slmz everyone :D****I no this is quite a long article but try to read it all…its rly gud alHamdulillah..and defo wrth ur while!!
We have entered the last ten nights of this blessed month of Ramadan, the holiest nights of the year, the nights singled out by Allah (swt) as nights during which He will save people from the Hellfire.
About this time, many of us will have been struck by Ramadan fatigue.The initial excitement and enthusiasm of the first few days will have disappeared. Almost three weeks of fasting and night prayers will have taken its toll with the resulting weariness and exhaustion plain to see.
At such a time, it is all too easy to become complacent and stroll through the last ten days without exerting much effort foolishly believing that we have done enough. Hence, the ultimate reward for those Believers who strive their utmost in worshipping Allah during this last third of the month.
For those of us who are at this stage of near-exhaustion with lethargy impeding our ibaadah, we must ask ourselves one question: are we truly slaves of Allah? If so, this is the time to prove it. A slave has no choice but to obey his master when he is called upon. Irrespective of how hard he has worked or how fatigued he is, when the master calls, the slave answers. We hear and we obey. No ifs, no buts, no maybes.
These are the most blessed nights of the year, the nights which could determine our aakhirah. In ten days time, the shayateen will be unchained and like a pack of starved dogs, they will unleash themselves upon the Believers with wildness and fury, attempting to capitalize on us dropping our guard.
This will be a real test for us and an indication of how much we truly benefited from Ramadan. Let us take full advantage and build up our fortifications against this inevitable assault. This is not the time to rest – if we find it difficult to serve our Lord during this time, what hope have we got outside of Ramadan.
This could be our last Ramadan, our last chance to benefit from a night better than a thousand months. No matter how tired we feel after work, no matter how much we wish to sleep for a few more hours, let us keep in our minds the aakhirah, salvation from the burning Hellfire and entry to the eternal Gardens of Paradise.
Let us spend these final nights engaged in standing in prayer, reciting Qur’an, making dhikr, weeping for Allah’s forgiveness, making dua for ourselves, our families and the entire ummah, assisting our brothers and sisters in need.
And when your legs begin to shake and your feet begin to swell, when your mouth dries up from its remembrance of Allah, when you struggle to rise to your feet again for that one extra rakaah seeking the mercy of Allah, try and remember the beautiful words of Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal who, when asked by a student “when is rest?”, replied, “when your foot enters Paradise.” Paradise : the eternal abode of the Believers where they can rest in the greatest comfort and luxury forever.