Followers

July 7, 2011

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!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Masha'Allah, I love this! I really want to be prepared for Ramadan too, insha'Allah. This year I have the advantage of being back in Egypt, so I won't be the only one fasting this time haha. I'm hereby making my goal to finally read through the Qur'an in it's entirety, beithnillah. May Allah grant you success in your goals too this Ramadan, and remember me in your dua's! Ameen.

Banana Anne said...

Masha'Allah that you've made these goals, and Insha'Allah you'll succeed to the best of your ability. I unfortunately know only a few surahs, and I'm getting bored with only being able to say the same ones over and over again in salat (the ones I know are beautiful, of course, but I want to add something new to my prayers). My big goal is to try and memorize as much of Surah ar-Rahman, one of my favorite surahs, as possible this Ramadhan Insha'Allah; I know the first ten ayat, and Insha'Allah because the surah repeats itself so much it shouldn't be too difficult to learn.

Surah an-Nas is a great one to learn. Along with ar-Rahman, I also want to memorize a few of the shorter surahs in Juz 30 (specifically al-Masad, al-Kauthar, al-Ma'un, and at-Tin) Insha'Allah.

Umm Aaminah said...

Salaams sisters! So nice of ya'll to not make fun of me for saying "A loft goal". Seems I left off the "y". LOL

Alhamdulillah I fixed it before anyone else had the chance. :-) Umm Hamza I want to accomplish that goal as well; let's see how much we can actually do!!!!

Anne, insha'Allah you are successful, too. :-)

Umm Aaminah said...

Salaams sisters! So nice of ya'll to not make fun of me for saying "A loft goal". Seems I left off the "y". LOL

Alhamdulillah I fixed it before anyone else had the chance. :-) Umm Hamza I want to accomplish that goal as well; let's see how much we can actually do!!!!

Anne, insha'Allah you are successful, too. :-)

Um Dayo said...

www.understandquran.com My BEST friend when it comes to Qur'an learning. In fact, I love it so much that I am teaching it as a University Class at my masjid right now. Do it!!!

HijabiMommy said...

Insha'allah, you are successful in attaining your goals.

My goal for this year is to finish reading the translation. I started last year and got almost half way done and then just let things get in the way. Like you said, they're all just excuses.

May Allah help us all in the quest of getting to better know Him and His word. Ameen.

Aishah said...

Salams,
I only know six, Fatiha, the 4 Quls, and Al Kauthar. And I have only learned 2 of those since Saad was born(almost four years, eeek!).

I have just started to think about my plans for Ramadhan, thanks for the little extra push sis ;-) this is just what I need to help me focus a bit more.

Rene´s Bare Essentials said...

Sign me up!!! =)

I started making excuses when I got pregnant with Safiya (morning sickness, too tired etc) and unfortunately I still am making excuses (shes 10 1/2 months). I need to motivate myself to memorize more surahs, read quran more often etc. Therefore Id love to work with you and anyone else who would like to support and encourage one another!
Maybe we can all email one another our daily or weekly goals and update one another so that we stay motivated and on top of things!
Rene´

Adventurous Ammena said...

thanks for this sis... I dont know if you read my blog but I wrote a similar one about only having learnt one new surah since I got married nearly 2 years ago :( insha'Allah we can all push each other. I posted the last juz in a new page on my blog and Im determined to do some crossing out soon insha'Allah

Anonymous said...

Assalamu'alaikum!

I will def. join with you, Insha'Allah. I am struggling with the first few surahs at the beginning of Juz' Amma. Every day I tell myself I'm going to sit down and try to memorize and every day I come up with excuses with the help of Shaitaan. Insha'Allah, I will start to push myself and give those excuses a black eye :)

Umm Aaminah said...

Kaighla, I'll check out that website, insha'Allah!

HijabiMommy, yup know ALL about that! My first year of blogging I posted a VERY aggressive goals list, only to go back and re-prioritize midway through Ramadhan. Dang those kids! ;-)

Aishah, insha'allah we will succeed!

Rene, I think that's an awesome idea. Let me think... maybe I'll start up a fb page for it and do a post here? Then we can all get together to report on our progress or frustrations. :-)

Ammena, I love that part of your blog! I totally understand, too, about life getting in the way. Whether it's a new job or overseas travel ;-) or a bunch of kids to feed and oversee; we just have to get in gear!

Rene´s Bare Essentials said...

What a great idea! I think a lot of sisters would join and it would be great to have the support and encouragement =)
Btw, I belong to a group on Facebook iramadan and they do have ramadan buddies where we are teamed up with another sister if youd be interested in joining. Heres the link
https://www.facebook.com/groups/140297782658968

Umm Aaminah said...

Sabirah, deck 'em good!

Umm Mini said...

Salaam alaykum,

Insha'Allah it will work out with your plans. At least you have the intention to do so.

For me, I'm still doubting whether to fast or not, cause my due-date is in Ramadhan. I'm hoping to start and finish reading the translation of Qur'an.

Alhamdulillah I've learned a surah and some verses since the birth of my first, but also not as much as I would have wanted. Then I come up with the same excuses as you for not doing so. But your post inspired me. Insha'Allah I'll learn a new surah even before Ramadhan.

Good luck for you!

simy said...

Asalaamu-alaykum hun,

May Allah assist us all in our goals this Ramadhan and inshaAllah give us the ability to continue it throughout the year Aameen xx
I really want to join you guys! I’m planning on doing 3 surahs every week of Ramadhan that way I can memorise them well and also memorise the meaning, that’s me being realistic as I was originally thinking 1 a day from the last juzz (as they are shorter) but then I want my goals to be achievable.

I have to share this fab website with you guys. Ive been using it since I started tajweed and I love it! Make sure when you use a qari (reciter) that he is good for tajweed learners. What I mean is that not all qura are good for us beginners. The link I’m adding gives you the choice of 11 qura for every surah in the Quran AND it also has the Arabic and English text with it AND its free! As you can tell I love this webby. I’ve been using it like mad since my friend gave me the link! Try using Abdul bassit or khalil hussary, my ustada said they may be slower but will give you a better idea of how to pronounce the words. inshaAllah hope it helps you guys as much as it does me!

This link should take you right there:

http://www.quranexplorer.com/Quran/Default.aspx

Love to all my sisters
(getting all excited about Ramadhan now)

jzk for the awesome reminder sis xx
x
lov simy