Shabaan Quest

BismIllah wa as salaamu alaikum wa Rahmat Allah wa Barakatuh.

Subhaan Allah wa bihamdihi, subhaana Rabbi al atheem! Without even making a plan, Shabaan has started as a month of improvements and I feel so blessed. Masha'Allah, hubby said he planned to do the fast of Dawud for this month, which is fasting on alternate days. I caught that ball and ran with it, LOL. He planned to start on Saturday, I started the Thursday before. Things have come up to disrupt his schedule, but for me...all praise is for Allah - The Facilitator, The One Who Makes Things Possible - I am rolling along. We got the children on the bandwagon and they all fasted last Monday masha'Allah. The 3 year old made it until 5 minutes or so after fajr prayer and then announced urgently that she was "fursty." However, the rest made it through the heat and humidity to an 8:30 p.m. maghrib masha'Allah. Now my 5 year old wants to do Mondays and Thursdays, so we fasted together on Thursday. Masha'Allah, how beautiful it is to get up and eat suhoor with your child/children and then all pray together. There is serious congestion in the bathroom for toothbrushing, but aside from that, it's all good.

Now, I am a person who has struggled with the loss of ibadah since marrying and having children. After 36 years of living alone, and establishing my own routines and ibadah schedule since being blessed with the knowledge of Islam, I always feel at a loss. I know that I reap rewards for caring for my family, but the spirit isn't nourished well. The closer I am to Allah - the more time I have to commune through prayer, Quran, and learning - the better control I have over myself and the better I can model and apply Islam to the various aspects of our life. Anyone with chilren knows, it's all about modeling and making connections with everyday occurences that makes Islam a reality for them. So, when I take the children to the masjid for their Quran class, I sit with the Arabic and the English Qurans and I read. I managed to read a juz on Wednesday, then most of another juz on Thursday masha'Allah. I'm setting a goal of 4 juz per week bi ithn Allah. Then, if that wasn't wonderful enough, I opened up a big bag of Islamic books sitting in our basement that have been left with us, and discovered a treasure chest, wa al hamdu l'Illah! I thought it was all the same books we have, but when I looked I found The Book of Knowledge - Volume 1, An Explanation of the Aspects of the Days of Ignorance, 40 Hadith Regarding the Madhab of the Salaf, The Obligation of Acting Upon the Sunnah of the Messenger, Protection Against the Plots of Shaytaan (I will explain the critical importance of this one in another post, insha'Allah), and more. So, I had a read-fest!

This morning, I got up for suhoor and prayed 11 rakaat for tahajjud and then...as I was searching for an online Quran program so I could continue reading, I saw my link for 80 percent words
and KNEW. It all clicked and I went on there and did the first three units, masha'Allah. It is something I know will be beneficial and I can do it easily in a short period of time per day insha'Allah. Bi ithn Allah, throughout this month I hope to finish the program and review until I have those words clear in my mind. I feel energized, full of momentum, and focused. I've decided that the most important thing I can do, rather than plot and plan out schedules that life won't let me stick to, is seize the moment. So in my limited Latin, I say to you all: Carpe Diem!