Ramadan is a blessed month and it would be sad, if a fasting person would miss out its blessing throughout the month because of major mistakes.
We have pointed out some of them in this article:
1) To eat until sunrise.
Some muslims believe that the fast is from sunrise (shuruq) till sunset (maghrib). This is false, and it invalidates the fast, and it compulsory to compensate each day done so. You should stop eating suhoor some minutes before fajr begins, and break the fast when you are sure that the time for maghrib has entered.
2) To break the fast before maghrib in the belief of it has broken because of you have started bleeding.
Dear brother and sister, you wudu’ is invalidated by bleeding, but it doesn’t break your fast! However if a muslim woman experience her monthly period or postnatal bleeding then this would invalidate her fast.
3) To have too high ambitions, get overwhelmed by them and end up doing nothing.
Allah loves continuous actions, so you might consider doing small acts and then adding up each day instead of dreaming so high that you can’t even take more than a few steps to achieve your goals. Instead of planning to recite 3 whole Qur’ans, 100 raka’ah prayers and so on, what about reciting 10 pages of Qur’an each day and pray 4 raka’at prayer each day? You can always add more each day as you get into a healthy routine you can stick to.
4) Too eat too much food for iftar. This is makruh to do so by many scholars and one of the bad consequences is that you become sleepy and lazy after eating so much. Have a proper meal for iftar and you can save a snack for after Tarawih prayer, and a little snack for suhoor instead of eating all at once for iftar.
5) To sleep throughout most of the day. It is a poor habit to sleep too much, but it is especially too sad if the only good action you do during all day is being in a state of fasting. To fast is a great blessing, and if you can resist eating food and drinking water throughout the entire day, then you must realise that you have to strength to get up and do the obligatory prayers as well. Yes YOU can do, but you need to believe it yourself first as your thoughts have control over your body. Always remember that Allah doesn’t burden a soul with more than it can carry, and this goes for all the obligatory and Sunnah actions in our Deen as well.
6) To forget the new muslims while having a cosy time with your family everyday. Ramadan is a month where many families finally get to eat together in their busy schedule, but unfortunately we forget that many new muslims are having iftar all alone while we are having a feast each night. If you know some new muslims, try to invite them over at your place or invite them out for iftar in a halal restaurant if you don’t feel like inviting them into your home if you live in a big family.
7) To forget the poor while indulging in goods yourself. Many people buy everything in bulk in Ramadan because it is assumed that you need to make a variety of delicious dishes for iftar. This is a good custom if you invite neighbors over for iftar or share the food with others. Sadly it is observed in many homes that too much food is prepared and get wasted, while so many people in Syria, Palestine, Yemen and so many other places are dying of hunger. We have been giving so many blessings and we should share these blessings by donating money for the sake of Allah to our Muslim brother and sisters in our own society and worldwide.
