Ramadan is Ending...Now What? - Shaykh Aqeel Mahmood

Ramadan is Ending...Now What?

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared, and you will not die except as Muslims.

As for the rest — the best speech is the Book of Allah, and the best guide is the guide of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. And the worst of affairs are newly-invented matters. And every newly-invented matter is an innovation, and every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

Reflecting on This Ramadan

Once again, brothers and sisters, we have reached the end of another month of Ramadan. And it is incumbent upon us at this period of the month of Ramadan, when it is almost finished, to look back at this month and to ask ourselves: How well did I do? How many good deeds did I perform? And how many sins did I stay away from? It is incumbent upon every single one of us to review this month and to ask ourselves — could we have done more? And if so, why didn't we do more? What was it that stopped us from doing the extra deeds that we had the ability to do, yet we didn't do?

The month of Ramadan, brothers and sisters, is a blessing for those who witness it. And as we know, not everyone has the blessing of being able to witness this Ramadan. Family members, relatives, friends, neighbors, acquaintances — people we know — who were with us last Ramadan are not with us now. And likewise, brothers and sisters, it may be that this Ramadan is the last Ramadan that we experience. Maybe next year we won't be alive. And others will be saying about us how they remember us and how we spent Ramadan with them last year, but we're not with them anymore.

So looking back at this blessed month, brothers and sisters — what did we do? And why didn't we do more? It is within the capacity of every single one of us to have done more than we actually did. And there may be regrets. There may be regrets with regards to things that a person could have done in terms of good deeds that they never did. Regrets with regards to maybe sins that a person committed in this month — things which they're not proud of. Or just simply shortcomings; things that they could have done, but they didn't do.

What Held Us Back?

What were those reasons? Maybe being preoccupied with things that they didn't have to be preoccupied with stopped us from doing good deeds. Spending time on our phones, on social media. And one of those tricks of social media is that a person thinks he's going to spend a few minutes on his phone before he gets down to worshipping Allah and doing good deeds — reading Qur'an, or offering prayers, or doing something else. But he ends up spending so much time on his phone that maybe the majority of the night goes by. He feels tired, and he ends up delaying those things which matter and giving priority to those things which don't matter.

A person may also have spent time with friends who aren't good examples — maybe they weren't worshipping Allah and making the most of the month either, and so you were pulled in. Because as we know, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

A man is upon the religion of his close friend. (Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 4833; Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2378)

And we don't want to be from those on the Day of Judgment who say:

"Woe to me! If only I had not taken so-and-so as a friend." Feeling those regrets — because the individuals we spent time with and accompanied didn't actually benefit us.

One of the ways we can tell good friends from bad friends is that when we have good company, good associates, good friends — they encourage us and remind us to do good things. They remind us to do extra good deeds, to do positive things. And the sign of bad company is that they influence us in doing things which aren't good, and incline us towards committing sins.

So looking back, brothers and sisters — every single one of us had a different experience with the month of Ramadan. No two individuals are going to be exactly the same. We all had different responsibilities, different amounts of time we could commit to the worship of Allah — because of family, because of work, etc. And so we have to look and see: where did we go wrong? How could we have improved? What could we have done in this month that we didn't do, that could have improved this month so much more than it actually was?

These Last Nights Are Still Precious

Having said all this, brothers and sisters, we still have some nights of the month of Ramadan before us. The month of Ramadan isn't over. In fact, even Laylatul Qadr has the potential of being this very night — the night we are in this evening, the 29th. And many of us tend to slow down and try less after the 27th night. And of course, there are hadiths which talk about the virtues of the 27th night. But as we know, any of the odd nights of the last ten nights could be Laylatul Qadr.

By now, by the end of Ramadan, I'm sure every single one of us knows the virtues of Laylatul Qadr — being greater than a thousand months, 83 years. A person doing good deeds in this night is equivalent to a person doing good deeds for 83 years.

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, told us in a hadith — narrated by Ibn Khuzaymah in his Sahih, graded Hasan by Shaykh Al-Albani — he said:

Laylatul Qadr is on the 27th or the 29th. And verily the angels on that night are greater in number than the pebbles of gravel. (Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah, graded Hasan by Shaykh Al-Albani)

So in this hadith, brothers and sisters, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, explicitly mentions the 29th night of the month of Ramadan as potentially being Laylatul Qadr. The night of decree in this month could potentially be tonight. And the last thing we want to do is slow down and stop making that effort to do good deeds just because the 27th night has passed us by.

The Horse at the Finish Line

One of the scholars of the past, speaking about the end of the month of Ramadan, gave the example of a horse in a race. He said: when the horse sees the finish line, it goes faster — it doesn't slow down. It goes faster than it was going before. When we see the month of Ramadan finishing, we should try even harder, knowing the urgency of the situation, knowing that the extraordinary rewards of good deeds may not be available much longer because the month of Ramadan is almost over. We should be trying even harder, because once we reach the finish line, that's when we can rest — just like the horse that races to the finish line and then rests afterwards. The time for rest will come.

But these last couple of nights, brothers and sisters, are nights which — if we don't make the effort — we will feel that same regret after they have passed, just as we feel regret for the days already gone in this blessed month. Even if we started the month of Ramadan in the worst of ways — maybe our fasts were all over the place, maybe we weren't praying extra nawafil prayers, maybe we weren't reciting that much Qur'an — the wise person is the one who motivates himself, tries harder, and learns from those mistakes to ensure that the end of the month of Ramadan isn't going to be like the beginning.

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said in a hadith:

Actions are judged by their conclusions. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6607)

A person may begin his salah distracted, not focused, not paying much attention. But then by the end of the salah, he has full concentration — he is showing khushu', he is aware of his adhkar and his du'as. And when he gives salam, Allah rewards him because of the way he concluded his salah, forgiving him for how he started. And likewise with other acts of worship — likewise with the acts of worship in the month of Ramadan, brothers and sisters.

Maybe we fell short. Maybe we were complacent. Maybe we thought we had lots of time — "it's just the beginning of Ramadan, it's just the first few days, there's plenty of time." But now we're witnessing the end of the month. And there should be a sense of urgency. Because there are only a couple of days left. But all is not lost. The wise one is the one who makes the most of the time he has. He doesn't just give up thinking, "Most of the days of Ramadan have been wasted, so there's no point trying in the last couple of days." A person tries even harder, understanding his shortcomings in the majority of the month.

This is why the scholars of the past would say: khayrun min hamasatil bidāyah — that having the best type of conclusion to acts of worship and perfecting one's acts of worship towards the end is better than the zeal a person has at the beginning of those acts of worship. When a person has zeal at the beginning of an act of worship, that zeal may die down. It is better that a person perfects the endings of those acts of worship, that he concludes in the best possible way.

And there are so many examples the scholars give of this — of people who committed sins but then repented from them. The brothers of Yusuf, peace be upon him. We know the sins they committed, the mistakes they made when they tried to kill Yusuf, throwing him into the well, causing him harm. But we know that at the end of the story, they sought the forgiveness of Yusuf and their father, asking Allah to forgive them. And Allah forgave them. That is how their story ended. That is the ending and conclusion of their actions in that surah.

And likewise, brothers and sisters, with regards to our own actions — we want to be in that category of individuals who tried even harder, so that at the very least, we will have no regrets about not having done enough good deeds.

I say this and ask Allah for forgiveness for me and for you. Indeed, He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

After Ramadan — What Now?

Brothers and sisters, we were talking about regrets we may have from the days of Ramadan that have passed — not having done enough good deeds even though we were fully capable. Salawat that we missed, extra Qur'an we could have read instead of wasting time on things that weren't important, not increasing in our adhkar. Maybe our fasts were not as good as they could have been because of sins we committed. Maybe some of us didn't even fast some days without any valid excuse or reason. A person may have these regrets.

But what's important, as we mentioned, is how we end the month of Ramadan. And one of the things that is important for us to remember is how we are going to behave after the month of Ramadan has finished.

Recognising Our True Capacity

If we were to reflect, brothers and sisters — although maybe we didn't make as much effort as we could have — let's reflect on how much Qur'an we did recite and compare that to how much we used to recite before Ramadan began. For most of us, it is so much more. We recited so much more Qur'an. We offered so much more nawafil optional prayers. We did so much more adhkar than we normally do outside of Ramadan. We fasted every single day of the month — 29 or 30 days, by the permission of Allah, insha'Allah — whereas outside of Ramadan, maybe we're lucky to fast a few days each month.

Look at all these good deeds we were able to do. What lesson can we learn from this? We can learn, brothers and sisters, that we have the capacity, the ability, and the power — by Allah's permission — to do so much more than we normally do. And so after the month of Ramadan finishes, we have to ask ourselves not whether or not we're going to carry on doing good deeds, but how much we're going to carry on doing those good deeds. What good deeds are we going to continue?

No one should expect — and we shouldn't expect ourselves — to do the same amount of good deeds outside of Ramadan as we did inside it. We would only be disappointed, because the month of Ramadan is uniquely blessed. But what we can do is reflect on those deeds that we found easier to do in Ramadan and try to take some of them and continue them outside of it.

Consistency Is Key

And what matters most isn't how many good deeds we do after Ramadan has finished, but what we can be consistent in doing. This is why the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, told us:

The most beloved deeds to Allah are the most consistent ones, even if they are small. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6465; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 783)

It's not about how much you do. It's about remaining consistent with regards to your acts of worship. Maybe some of us are hoping to recite a few pages a day outside of Ramadan. But even if a person recites one page every single day after Ramadan — whereas before Ramadan he wasn't reciting anything — how huge of an accomplishment could that be? If a person never fasted before Ramadan, he just wasn't in the habit of fasting — if he fasted Mondays and Thursdays or both days after Ramadan, how many more good deeds could he accumulate in this following year until the next Ramadan?

So brothers and sisters, being consistent, knowing that we are capable — Allah has given us the ability to do good deeds more than we even could have expected — and trying to continue those good deeds outside of the month of Ramadan is something we need to think about seriously.

The Six Days of Shawwal

Finally, brothers and sisters — from those good deeds, and this is something we can use as a launch pad to increasing in good deeds after the month of Ramadan — is the six days of Shawwal. Fasting six days of the month of Shawwal, whenever we are able to do them and in whatever order — six days in a row or six days from any of the days of the month of Shawwal. This is something which was from the Sunnah of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

Whoever fasts the month of Ramadan and then follows it with six days of fasting in Shawwal, it is as if he has fasted for the whole year. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1164)

Look at the reward, brothers and sisters — just for fasting six days after the month of Ramadan in the month of Shawwal.

Closing Advice and Du'a

So brothers and sisters, let us not slow down in these last few nights that remain in this blessed month — because tonight might potentially be Laylatul Qadr. And let us not decrease enormously in our good deeds after the month of Ramadan finishes. Let us try to continue some of the good deeds and good habits we developed in Ramadan after Ramadan ends, and let us try to be consistent in them.

We ask Allah that He gives us the ability to witness Laylatul Qadr in this blessed month of Ramadan. And we ask Allah that He accepts all of our Siyam, our Qiyam, and our recitation of the Qur'an in this blessed month. And that Allah gives us the ability and the strength to continue some of the good deeds and good habits that we began in the month of Ramadan after the month of Ramadan.