The best ‘Ibadah’ is the one accepted by Allah (swt).This is the ‘Ibadah performed with sincerity, devotion and concentration. The Almighty Allah does not care about the quantity but the quality. Any action of the worshiper performed with sincerity is an accepted one . Here the question can be rephrased as, how can we perform pure ‘Ibadah, an ‘Ibadah sincerely for the Almighty Allah? The first thing you can do for your ‘Ibadah during Ramadan is to not eat too much. Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali (RA said that the Almighty Allah wants us to reduce the consumption of food during Ramadan. And if you ask me, the ultimate Bid’ah in the Ummah is to prepare special food for the holy month of Ramadan. This has nothing do with the Qur’an and the sunnah. Most of the things we prepare are either too oily or too sweet, both of which are not healthy. With all this special food spread in front of us we end up eating more than usual which goes against the very spirit of Ramadan. ‘Isa (as) is reported to have advised his disciples against eating too much in the following words: “Don’t eat too much because if you eat too much, you will drink too much; if you drink too much, you will sleep too much; if you sleep too much, you will lose too much.” We end up wasting our Ramadan between eating, sleeping, and our trips to the washroom because of excessive food intake. Where is the time to worship? Prophet Muhammad (saw) said: “Make sure to have your suhoor meal, for suhoor is blessed.” He (saw) neither mentioned that there must be a variety of food during suhoor or at the time of breaking of the fast. If it was virtuous, he (saw) would certainly have mentioned it. Let the food be light on the stomach, quick to make and something that would get digested easily. Do not waste time on cooking. Prove by your actions before Almighty Allah that we are sincere, vigilant, and take time out to make dhikr, dua, and to recite holy Quran.
Our talk is decorated but our actions are bereft of all the decoration. Let us wake up and place our hearts and time in the right place, let us be real worshipers of the Amighty Allah!
In the Muslim world, there is this urge to complete with the recitation of the entire hoy Quran, but this makes no difference to the reader who reads it without understanding the meaning. What is better, to recite a single chapter, complete with the meaning and the tafseer or reciting the whole book? What better month than Ramadan to know about Allah (swt), to recite the holy Quran with Tafseer, to read the Ahadeeth of the Prophet (saw) with their meaning? Do we want to make the supplications that come straight from the heart or from our lips? Do we want just two units of Salaah accepted by the Almighty and focus all our energies to attain that? Do we care about a single sajdah purely for Almighty without any random thoughts about cooking, husband, kids and the other trivial issues in life? This is pure ‘Ibadah, the one that is most beloved to Almighty Allah. Have we ever pondered about jannah and jahannam? Let us be practical. We only talk the talk but we do not walk the walk. We need to follow it up with actions. The reality of our life is that we live like hypocrites and liars. Our talk is decorated but our actions are bereft of all the decoration. Let us wake up and place our hearts and time in the right place, let us be real worshipers of the Amighty Allah!
