Picture this. A man joins the army. He is then inducted and put into an intensive and gruelling training programme. He develops his stamina, trains very hard, and becomes a disciplined member of his unit who the commander can rely upon.
What would you expect from this soldier once his training is complete? Would you expect him to be a liability to his unit? Would you expect him to lose his stamina due to laziness? Would you expect him to eschew his responsibility to defend his country?
I think not. And if he did any of these, he would either get himself killed, or get kicked out of the army.
Now let us apply this analogy to ourselves. We’ve just finished our annual training regime. That’s what Ramadan is, a month to train our mind, body and soul – so that for the rest of the 11 months we might be able to live as practicing and productive Muslims.
But is that what happens in reality? Look around you. Just pop into the Masjid on the very next day after Ramadan and Eid. Where have all the Muslims gone? It is as though the ‘Ramadan Muslims’ have gone back into hibernation, or have switched back to their alternate mode, aka ‘Friday Muslims’. They’ll be back in the Masjid, sure, but only for Jumu’ah.
If this is the result of a whole months training, do you think we deserve to call ourselves rightful members of the Muslim community? Do you think we become assets or liabilities for the community?
Now if we’re to apply this model of becoming unproductive post training, to our workplace or any other institution we might be part of, would we last there very long? I think not.
Our beloved Prophet once said that human activity followed a trajectory with a peak, and then a normalised level and that this normalised level represented our true state of being. It’s easy to reach a peak of activity during the hype of Ramadan, but once that has past and it’s just you back to your own normal lives, look at the extent to which we are living by the guidance of Allah and His messenger, for this is the true you. This is the true us. Compare this true us as we are during the rest of the year, with who we were during Ramadan. That’s basically how far off we are from how good we can be.
Allah has favoured us by gifting us the blessed month of Ramadan. But this will be the last for some of us. And there is no guarantee whatsoever that any of us will live to see the next one.
If we were told that the most important exam of our life was going to happen anytime between today and next year, when would we prepare for this exam? Would we assume that it’s probably next year and not revise, or would we get revising straight away so that we are always prepared in case the exam came sooner than expected?
We all know what the wise thing to do would be. So without wasting anymore time, let us make ourselves a plan, set some goals, and get practicing what we trained for – to be productive and inspiring Muslims who are assets to the community. If we can do that, we will feel a difference in our lives, and our people will love us. And so will Allah.
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