The first few days of Ramadan are tricky. Follow these counter-tricks to survive it.
1. If you want to keep your appetite high for sahuur, don’t eat to your fill during iftoor. The more iftoor you eat, ceteris paribus, the less sahuur will be appealing to your body, vice versa.
2. The best time to do an ‘ibaadah is when it comes to your mind that it’s time for it. Believe me time for each ‘ibaadah passes like a rocket! Procrastination switches off ‘ibaadah mode.
3. Read the Qur-aan only to understand better what you are reading, not to finish looking through. We don’t want: alamlamla-mlamalamalamaldanhdy (verse 1). Wa-kaana ahmaldnagncdmalma-alamal-kaaldndbjalldm (verse 2).
4. Do not sleep (re oju die) close to the time of iftoor. You may meet ‘omi isanwo’ alone in some households if you wake up late. It’s not ‘ika’ (being mean to you). It’s sustainable consumption that makes the other members of the household who are awake to finish it all.
5. Eat not too heavy not too light food for sahuur or eat a mixture of both. Eating the former only makes you offload all immediately after sahuur sleep. Eating the latter, well, you know by yourself because you are a witness over your body.
6. When you feel tired or exhausted, don’t lie down and press phone. Get a cold shower (not hot o) and take as long as your body demands, find a cool place to absorb some breeze without wiping the leftover moisture on your body and pack your ‘ibaadatic activities to where it’s cooler. You’ll be active for longer. It’s sunnah too.
7. Don’t underestimate making du’aa for things you want from Allaah at the time of breaking your fast. It is also a period between adhaan and iqoomah. Many people forget these du’aa fast-trackers. Others don’t care about them.
8. Attending tafseer sessions after ‘asr till iftoor has no match. No other ‘ibaadah between those two periods takes less effort and gets you distracted from the worldly affairs than it.
9. Wake people too, most people sleep close to sahuur (chai social media, omo ale nio o). Believe me, missing sahuur is a faster’s nightmare (e ma biinu eyin oni oyinbo). You may need your neighbour to not miss it some days.
10. If you are married and live with your spouse, be careful. O gbo, be ki ni….? Be careful so that you won’t be looking for fatwaa that exonerates you from the hun-hun that you did. Remember, we won’t know about it but when we want to search a related issue on Shaykh Google, it suggests what you asked Shaykh G to us also. Unfortunately, what you did is not what we are looking for.
Ramandan Kareem From Star Potter
