Balasan surat untuk Lailatul-Qadar

28 Ramadan 1430

Assalamualaikum wbt

My dearest friend Aisya

MasyaAllah Aisya! I’ve been missing you so much. I was really hoping to hear from you and now that I’ve got you letter Alhamdulillah. Allah always knows best. How I wish I could be there with you like in the old days. But of course Allah always has a better plan for us. I think through these times we both have ‘grown up’ and learnt a lot about ourselves, our responsibilities towards Allah and others, and to act on those responsibilities. Ramadan has really made room for us to reflect (muhasabah), to improve and to sustain ourselves (istiqamah). We’ll pick up on the slackness, laziness, ignorance, arrogance, stubbornness or anything that we had been lacking towards Allah in our daily life. For example, this Ramadan has made me improve on my solah time and time management. I would sleep early at night so that I can wake up for qiam and then sahoor and then perform the earliest subuh prayer ever than before! After that I would avoid going back to sleep (although I did relapse sometimes J). I would use these times to read the Quran, zikr and to study. Remember to put your intention for all of those because of Allah, because if you do, that actually counts as an ‘IBADAH. SubhanAllah. How easy is that to gain rewards from Allah? Even ABC is not as easy sometimes J. And also by putting our intention because of Allah, we’ll learn to put meaning into what we’re doing because we don’t want to show slackness in front of Allah. We will also be cautious in what we’re doing since if we intend to do something because of Allah it wouldn’t be something that Allah disapproves of, like going to a movie, spending HOURS shopping etc. And with the studying, for me after subuh is the best time to study. Now I’m using my time wisely because otherwise I would usually oversleep after subuh. I became more alert while studying and I felt more productive by the end of the day. I felt that I have gained or achieved something whereas if I sleep in and wake up in the afternoon, I felt tired, regretful for having lost the time and also worthless because others were probably steps ahead of me and had done something useful with their time. What have I got? Headache! This Ramadan has also taught me to MAXIMISE myself. Especially in terms of hoping to gain rewards from Allah. It’s like having a massive sale in the malls during holidays, where everyone would exert themselves trying to get most out of it, for time is limited! Hmm, I’m not sure if that was a good analogy for it hehe. Just bear with me Aisya J. But I think you got my point (putting aside that bad habit of spending during shopping sale and just take the morals from the story!). Ramadan is very limited and it only comes around once a year. After it finishes, we have to wait another year for it to come back, then we will regret not making full use of it. Therefore Aisya, let us exert ourselves to get most of what is left of Ramadan, for we will be longing for Ramadan to come and visit us again next year, insyaAllah if Allah wills. I think you actually know what you can do to maximise yourself during Ramadan. I think you were just looking for some encouragement. We need that from each other. As I’m writing this, I am feeling encouraged by you, seeing how you are trying to improve yourself, reminds me to do the same for myself and for that, jazakillah khairan khathira Aisya. May you find some encouragement from my letter although the best encouragements ever, I think comes from Allah’s promises and the Prophet’s (saw) messages of the rewards from Allah.

Your best friend
Khadijah

(ps: I posted something on my blog on ‘4 quick guides (from Q&S) on Lailatul-Qadr’. Hopefully you’ll find them useful)