A lofty goal

A'salaamu alaikum ya'll. As you know (or should!) Ramadhan is fast approaching. This is the time for us to get our behinds in gear, so to speak, so we can make the most of this blessed month.

I was inspired by Sr. Tuttie on her blog Halilify. She's made a nifty Ramadhan Battle Plan; I downloaded it for free on her website. Now, I'll be honest, I'm not saying I'm going to fill it in (a little new-agey for me lol) but I did read through it and got some inspiration.

It started me thinking about how in life in general if we don't make plans we are just spinning our wheels. Imagine, if Allah did not decree salaat 5 times a day, how many times would we actually turn to our Creator in prayer? The answer is probably dismal.

I realized I have made NO progress in memorization since I had Aaminah. Three years, ya'll. Before that, it wasn't as if I was on the fast-track to becoming a hafiza. Here's my dirty little secret:

I know 4 surat. Fatiha, Ikhlas, Kauthar, and Asr. Yep that;s it. Subhanallah. Oh yeah, I have a myriad of reasons/excuses. Busy mom, sick, no time, I don't understand Arabic, I've had a stroke/I'm memory impaired. However, it boils down to this: I haven't tried.

That's it. Allah says in the Qur'an:

"Indeed we have made the Qur'an easy to understand and remember, then is there any that will remember?" (59:32)

This is a direct admonition from Allah. He is telling us, I have made this easy for you but will you even try? Most of us don't, let's be honest. We are content to lean on our excuses and recite the same surat every salaat. Don't even get me started on understanding the Qur'an; let's take baby steps, ok?

Sooooo with this in mind, I've decided to get serious about learning more Qur'an. Now I have to decide, do I want to concentrate on memorizing or also learning to read the Qur'an?

I think for now I'll work on memorization as my primary goal. I say this because the Prophet Muhammad saws and many of the sahaba were illiterate. They memorized the Qur'an but they did not read it nor did they write it. Allah does not say, I'll make learning Arabic a breeze so I've decided to just focus on what He did promise.

That I, too, can learn. :-) That's a promise I'm gonna rely on for sure.

So I asked my husband for advice on how to structure my learning. It goes against my personality to learn bits and pieces here and there; I want something that makes sense. So of course we discuss the juz or chapters/divisions of the Qur'an. I want to say, I'll learn Juz 30 but I don't wanna set myself up to fail.

I've decided to start at the end and work my way back. As we know, typically the shortest surat are at the end of the Qur'an; there is a sweetness in completing and conquering and I want to taste that. So I am going to start with An-Nas.

I would love to have some of you guys join me. Insha'Allah you are all past what I've managed but I am positive we all have more to learn. If we start now, hit our stride during Ramadhan, by that time it will be second nature and insha'Allah we'll keep it up.

I think the biggest disappointment of Ramadhan is when we make positive changes but they only last the month and then peter out. For example, who is EVER late for maghrib during Ramadhan? Ha! Nobody! We are all jostling for a drink, a date (the yummy halal kind!), some fruit to break our fast. So alhamdulillah after last year my family and I have kept to that. We pray maghrib on time.

ON TIME. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. And alhamdulillah we are better for it and insha'allah earning the pleasure of Allah.

So my goal, to restate: becoming serious about learning more Qur'an. I will NOT give myself a time limit or a specific goal other than to work on it everday.

Every.Day.Period.  No excuses, no "I'm tired" cause I'm sure if something really fun came up I'd find a way to do that.

Please made dua that Allah swt guides me and helps me in my goal. Please join me if you like and post updates here on my blog or on your own. I want us to inspire each other, sisters!!!

Oh and my house guest is gone. Of course I miss my friend but now it's back to business as usual. ma salaama!