Refresh yourself II

Yet another shambolic display by Liverpool yesterday. Thankfully I turned down the opportunity to see the game at the Emirates Stadium. The seat was amongst the Arsenal supporters and it would not have been a happy place! I have to stop being so bothered. Way back in September after defeat by Chelsea I spoke about giving up on the Premiership and yet my support has remained strong. What is the point now? 14 points behind Man Utd, there isn't a chance in hell of recovering that kind of deficit. Perhaps I should try supporting Chelsea again!

I did attend my friends wedding on Saturday. In fact it was the first of my uni mates to get married after myself, more than two years ago! Finally, I can meet up with someone who is also hitched. Since getting married I've only been able to meet up with my friend’s maybe 2-3 times a year, and there are some friends I haven't seen for over a year. Hopefully when they get married we can meet up more.

I also purchased a new digital camera from Jessops on Saturday. The Panasonic DMC-FX07 for only £187.26. The reason I'm typing about this is because Jessops were actually selling it for £269.99. They price matched the camera with the cheapest price I could find online and then cut a further 10% off the price. I thought I'd mention it so if you want/need to get a camera go to Jessops, I thought the deal was very impressive. Having said all that, I’m disappointed with the quality of the photos when the optical zoom is used, so may now try to exchange it for another camera, hopefully they'll let me do that as well!

Moving on to today's topic and now that Ramadan has finished a familiar pattern has returned. I spoke in the past about the need to refresh yourself and how in Islam there is constant recycling process which allows one to increase their faith and get closer to God, but what about the gaps in-between? Often what happens is that many people - and I include myself and others I know - become very religious in the months of Ramadan and Muharrum and sometimes Zilhajj, but then fall back into their usual ways afterwards. In the 'Refresh Yourself' blog I spoke of how although Islam blesses us with these opportunities, it is also important to make sure we continue to develop our faith outside of these months.

During Ramadan this year, I attended lectures by Hassanain Rajabali for two weeks, had Quran sessions on four occasions with the family, where we translated and explained certain surahs, and also performed the main requirements of the month, namely to fast, pray and abstain from forbidden acts during the month. Others I know also engaged in religious acts and increased thier knowledge and hopefully we all increased our faith that little bit more. So how have things gone since Ramadan finished?

To be honest, in a word, abysmal! It's coming up to three weeks since Eid and apart from my daily prayers (which I perform regardless) I haven't done anything to continue the development of my faith. People close to me have also gone down the same path. Our faith is apparently on pause! One week has been spent in Pakistan, but for the rest of the time, I've been guilty of sheer laziness.

It's the same old story, during Ramadan/Muharrum I feel refreshed, my faith increases and I'm determined to continue after the month finishes but it just remains a set of noble intentions. As predictable as the day is short, these changes simply don't happen. I settle back into the old routine. By typing about it, I'm hoping I maybe able to re-inspire myself and others to carry on what we started in Ramadan.

A good starting point is the Quran. The wealth of knowledge in there is immense and Ayatollahs and Professors of Islam are continuing to learn new information from it. During Ramadan as a family, we would all study certain surahs and then provide a translation and explanation of the surah to the rest of the family. I thought it worked really well, we all learned as a group and everyone was involved. I have to restart that again. It doesn’t help that Jughead and Scottish Dentist have moved to Scotland as they were active participants in the process, but I've heard certain other friends are moving nearby (not from my friend, but from others, he seems too busy to stay in touch anymore - thinly-veiled criticism or what!) so maybe I can involve them.

Besides that I need to re-start my morning prayers on time. At the moment it's easy because the time for morning prayers is after I wake up for work, but when that changes after winter, I have to start getting up. I managed to do so whilst I was a student for 2 consecutive years but ever since I started work I've been extremely poor at doing so.

Prayer is THE most important aspect of Islam. It is a daily opportunity to refresh yourself. If you take say 5 mins per prayer per day, it will only take up 25mins a day. I've never understood why people have such a difficult time praying regularly on a daily basis. Even if you don't understand the prayer, just the act of prayer is a good deed itself, obviously it's better to understand what is said, but that can be developed afterwards. It should be treated as a habit, something that just has to be done. Once the habit is developed it can be nurtured into more by understanding the prayer and gaining more from it.

For those people who don't pray, there can be no excuse; no-one can come up with any excuse. At the risk of sounding preachy and holier than thou, (sorry MTL), there cannot be any reason not to pray. We all have to pray, it's as simple as that. It's not a difficult act; it's a beneficial and merciful act, we are fortunate to have such a system. We are able to pray to God 3 times a day and ask him for help, why is it so difficult for some people? I may sound too simplistic, but when it comes to prayers, it is very simple so there is a need to be simplistic. We all HAVE to pray, end of story!

Hopefully by typing this blog, I can find the necessary inspiration to continue my faith building. The Holy Prophet has asked us to constantly seek knowledge and the Quran is an amazing source for that. Besides the Quran, there are numerous books which explore Islam in great detail which can also help develop knowledge and faith. All it requires are small adjustments here and there. I'm not trying to advocate a system whereby we all become reclusive overtly religious people who just indulge in prayer all day long! It just needs small changes. 25 mins for prayer is not asking for much. An hour a week reading the Quran is not difficult. It's all about motivation and I'm hoping this blog will provide the necessary motivation for me and maybe others.

It's about setting small targets. For me, inshallah, I will set aside one hour per week to read a surah of the Quran, translate it and understand it. On top of that I hope to restart the family Quran sessions and then take it from there. For those who don't pray on a regular basis, perhaps try setting a target - don't miss a prayer for one week, then two weeks etc and see how you get on. Inshallah God will help us to achieve these targets, after all, we are trying to get closer to him and he states "When My servants ask thee concerning Me, I am indeed close (to them) I listen to the prayer of every suppliant when he calleth on Me..." (Surah 2, Verse 186).

I know this blog has ended up sounds a bit preachy, but I guess with what I ended up typing about it was unavoidable. Please leave your comments on how to improve ourselves outside the holy months and how to strive to increase our faith. Hopefully this blog will be useful to me and I can continue to improve and not just continue down the same old path of self-indulgence and no substance!

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?