Assalamu alaikum,
I recommend looking for Ramadan specials, like lecture series.
Here is my personal Ramadan and islamic education plan for this month. What I don't finish is still worthwhile to complete afterward. I do not have a job at the moment, so I realize it's not possible for evvveryone to do the same plan. I will continue the job hunt insh'Allah. Perhaps my circumstances will change and this plan will have to be updated.
1. Wake up, suhoor, fajr prayer.
2. Short walk outside.
3. Heart Wheel Journal - you can find it with a quick google search and on youtube the author has short videos to go with each day. Each day has 3 pages. The first one gives you some things to think about, the second is a prayer planner, and the third is a planner for the next day and a reflection on the current day. What is the heart wheel? It's visual representation of you current islamic performance compared to how you believe you can do it. The areas are fasting, salah, dhikr chunks, chastity, night prayer, upright character, avoiding distractions, and daily sadaqa. There is also a chart to track your concentration in salat. Aim: stay on point and make this my best Ramadan EVER, sustainable improvement with salat.
4. Understandquran.com - they have a special offer for Ramadan. $10 for the short course. What is it? It's a program for learning the arabic through what is used in salat and daily recitations. After completing the course, I should be able to read the Qur'an and understand about half of the words in it. The idea is that you are already familiar with the short surah and common phrases and you just need to learn the meaning. In my case I am not familiar with all of these things, so there will be a fair amount of memorization involved. Do one chapter every 1-3 days, depending on how much is unfamiliar. Aim: learn arabic, understand Qur'an more directly, increase focus in salat.
5. Module 1 of the Quranic Studies on this website: http://www.mubashirnazir.org/Courses/Quran/QS001-00-Quranenglish.htm The textbook also is made up of passages from the Qur'an and a variety of exercises, including some for personality development. Do one chapter every day or two. Aim: understand Qur'an, implement more of it, I will be ready to register for Module 2.
6. Nap two sleep cycles. One sleep cycle is 90 minutes, so 3 hours total. This is not to avoid hunger, it is to keep myself fresh because most likely I will have less than 6 hours sleep in the night and after too many days on 6 hours sleep and in the past this resulted in starting to miss suhoor AND fajr prayer. Without enough sleep I don't remember why my alarm is set because my brain is not in control yet. If I wait until later for a nap it makes staying up later too easy (bad idea). Get up around noon to be fully awake for the next prayer.
7. Dhuhr prayer
8. Clean, organize, online job applications
9. Asr prayer
10. Review the morning's work, do any necessary tasks, take a short walk, and prepare iftar.
11. At iftar break fast with dates and water then maghrib prayer.
12. Have good dinner, take fluids, do something fun until isha.
13. Isha prayer.
14. Go to sleep before 10:45pm
I would like to fit in reading from Enjoy Your Life by Dr. Muhamman Abd al-Rahman Al-Arifi. It's about interacting with people, "as deduced by a study of the prophet's life."
I would also like to do some small islamic cross-stitching. I can use it as an exercise in dhikr and then use them as eid gifts.
Nora
Thursday, July 19, 2012
my pre-ramadan classes update
Assalamu alaikum,
I could finish the New Muslim Academy classes today, but they have not finished the discussion board activities. I intend to follow through all the activities. There are supposed to be a couple more classes, insh'Allah they will offer those before I have to leave them behind for other educational things.
Understandquran.com is no longer free, so I haven't been doing the short course. They have a Ramadan special of $10 for access to the short course. They need the memberships in order to pay for the development of new courses. There is more about that on their website. Insha'Allah I fill follow through the short course during Ramadan.
I found another source of free lessons for new muslims. There are no videos and no discussions. Currently it is a series of articles at 4 levels (currently 106 lessons total), each with a quiz. Register to have your grades tracked. I'm going to wait a while before sharing it until I am more sure they are a good place to learn from.
Nora
I could finish the New Muslim Academy classes today, but they have not finished the discussion board activities. I intend to follow through all the activities. There are supposed to be a couple more classes, insh'Allah they will offer those before I have to leave them behind for other educational things.
Understandquran.com is no longer free, so I haven't been doing the short course. They have a Ramadan special of $10 for access to the short course. They need the memberships in order to pay for the development of new courses. There is more about that on their website. Insha'Allah I fill follow through the short course during Ramadan.
I found another source of free lessons for new muslims. There are no videos and no discussions. Currently it is a series of articles at 4 levels (currently 106 lessons total), each with a quiz. Register to have your grades tracked. I'm going to wait a while before sharing it until I am more sure they are a good place to learn from.
Nora
Ramadan, sleep habits, a smoothie, and a lecture
Assalamu alaikum!
Ramadan Mubarak!
Friday is the first day of Ramadan 2012, insh'Allah.
Fajr around 4:30 am.
Maghrib around 8:30.
That's 16 hours fasting at the beginning of the month and closer to 15 hours towards the end as dawn and dusk get closer together. I'm not worried about it.
Isha around 10 pm. In effect, that means less than 6.5 hours to sleep. Unless I do the extra night prayers, then it is less. I've had bad sleep habits and it has caught up with me. This makes it an especially tough time to have sleep periods broken up.
There are blessings in suhoor and I don't want to miss any this year, so I'm concerned about waking up in time. It is a good month to practice being up in time for fajr prayers. It takes about a month to build a habit and this is a habit that needs to continue, not end when Ramadan does. I need to wake up for suhoor so I am fully awake for fajr.
I have trouble eating so early in the morning, so I'm trying to drink instead. Smoothies.
Here is my first one:
1 scoop casein powder, chocolate supreme flavor
1 tablespoon natural peanut butter
1 cup milk
1/2 bananna
1 tsp flax seed oil
Casein is a form of protein that is slow digesting and flax seed oil helps you feel full longer, too. We'll see.
Some people try to sleep all day and be up at night so they can eat and not feel hungry. They cheat themselves out of the full benefits of the month. Some people gorge at iftar, which does not fit the spirit of the month either. Then they gain weight and wonder why. For more on this topic, I recommend a lecture such as Eating Habits in Ramadan by Kamal El-Mekki. Try searching for it on youtube.
Nora
Ramadan Mubarak!
Friday is the first day of Ramadan 2012, insh'Allah.
Fajr around 4:30 am.
Maghrib around 8:30.
That's 16 hours fasting at the beginning of the month and closer to 15 hours towards the end as dawn and dusk get closer together. I'm not worried about it.
Isha around 10 pm. In effect, that means less than 6.5 hours to sleep. Unless I do the extra night prayers, then it is less. I've had bad sleep habits and it has caught up with me. This makes it an especially tough time to have sleep periods broken up.
There are blessings in suhoor and I don't want to miss any this year, so I'm concerned about waking up in time. It is a good month to practice being up in time for fajr prayers. It takes about a month to build a habit and this is a habit that needs to continue, not end when Ramadan does. I need to wake up for suhoor so I am fully awake for fajr.
I have trouble eating so early in the morning, so I'm trying to drink instead. Smoothies.
Here is my first one:
1 scoop casein powder, chocolate supreme flavor
1 tablespoon natural peanut butter
1 cup milk
1/2 bananna
1 tsp flax seed oil
Casein is a form of protein that is slow digesting and flax seed oil helps you feel full longer, too. We'll see.
Some people try to sleep all day and be up at night so they can eat and not feel hungry. They cheat themselves out of the full benefits of the month. Some people gorge at iftar, which does not fit the spirit of the month either. Then they gain weight and wonder why. For more on this topic, I recommend a lecture such as Eating Habits in Ramadan by Kamal El-Mekki. Try searching for it on youtube.
Nora
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