Part 3 – Prayer, Repentance & Remembrance

In Part-1 we looked at the importance of Ramadan and how it achieved this status as a holy month. In addition we looked at how best to please Allah through certain voluntary prayers on top of our obligatory prayer.

In Part-2 we looked at the Qur’an and how best we can engage with it to please Allah and draw closer to Him.

In this third part we will look at prayer, repentance & remembrance – three easy and crucial ways we can aim to draw closer to Allah throughout our every day lives.

3.1 – Intention

قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ” إِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّةِ وَإِنَّمَا لاِمْرِئٍ مَا نَوَى

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, “Indeed actions are considered by intentions, and a person will get the reward according to his intention.” [Sahih]

Before all of our actions in life we should endeavour to make a clear intention for Allah, that we’re doing this action to please Him and to draw closer to Him as we know it is of the actions that He loves.

A lot of the time we go through life on auto-pilot. We go to sleep because we’re sleepy or because it is late. How often do we take a second, just a second, before sleeping to think “I want to wake up on-time for fajr, and then in the morning I want to be well rested so I can be my best self tomorrow”.

It may sound verbose when spelt out but in making our intention clear it helps us to clarify our thoughts and to make sure we’re focused; both on pleasing Allah and being our best selves.

This can be a simple fix, and may just require two seconds before an action to say “Bismillah” (I begin in the name of Allah). But often it’s two seconds that we forget to dedicate. To paraphrase one scholar “The problem facing muslims today isn’t that they have bad intentions, but that they have no intention!”.

During Ramadan we may find that we fast and pray because it has become routine, but let us make sure we make a clear intention to use our time well, to worship Allah and seek His pleasure at all times.

3.2 – Dua

وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِى عَنِّى فَإِنِّى قَرِيبٌ ۖ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ ٱلدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ ۖ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا۟ لِى وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا۟ بِى لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ ١٨٦

“When My servants ask you ˹O Prophet˺ about Me: I am truly near. I respond to one’s prayer when they call upon Me. So let them respond ˹with obedience˺ to Me and believe in Me, perhaps they will be guided ˹to the Right Way˺.” — Qur’an 2:186

When we remember Allah before a task, we remember that Allah is the all powerful, in control where we are not. In any endeavour we pray to Allah and ask Him for success.

رَبِّ اشْرَحْ لِي صَدْرِي وَيَسِّرْ لِي أَمْرِي وَاحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِّن لِّسَانِي يَفْقَهُوا قَوْلِي

My Lord, expand for me my breast [with assurance] And ease for me my task And untie the knot from my tongue That they may understand my speech. [20:25-28]

Even in the smallest of tasks He is helping us. To use a tiny example, in an act as simple as pouring a glass of water, one may still slip or accidentally spill some water they need to clean up. Even in something so simple Allah is helping us to carry out our daily tasks with ease.

وَإِن تَعُدُّوا۟ نِعْمَةَ ٱللَّهِ لَا تُحْصُوهَآ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَغَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ

“If you tried to count Allah’s blessings, you would never be able to number them. Surely Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” —Quran 16:18

When life is going well we make dua/prayer out of thankfulness that things are going well, there is always something we can be appreciative of.

حَسْبُنَا ٱللَّهُ وَنِعْمَ ٱلْوَكِيلُ ١٧٣

“Allah ˹alone˺ is sufficient ˹as an aid˺ for us and ˹He˺ is the best Protector.”— Quran 3:173

After thanking Allah and being grateful we should then ask Him for new openings and further successes in the future.

“رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ”

”rabbana atinafee addunya hasanatan wafee al-akhiratihasanatan waqina AAathaba annar”

“Our Lord! Grant us the good of this world and the Hereafter, and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.” — Quran 2:201

3.3 – Dhikr & Salawaat

قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ” الطُّهُورُ شَطْرُ الإِيمَانِ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ تَمْلأُ الْمِيزَانَ . وَسُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ تَمْلآنِ – أَوْ تَمْلأُ – مَا بَيْنَ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَالصَّلاَةُ نُورٌ وَالصَّدَقَةُ بُرْهَانٌ وَالصَّبْرُ ضِيَاءٌ وَالْقُرْآنُ حُجَّةٌ لَكَ أَوْ عَلَيْكَ

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “Cleanliness is half of faith. Saying ‘al-Hamdu Lillah (all praise and gratitude is for Allah alone)’ fills the scale, and saying ‘Subhan Allah wal-Hamdu Lillah (Glory be to Allah — and all praise and gratitude is for Allah alone)’ fills up what is between the heavens and the earth. Prayer is a light, and charity is proof and patience is illumination, and the Holy Qur’an is a proof on your behalf or against you.” [Sahih]

From this hadith we are reminded of the importance of charity, prayer and reading the Qur’an but we are also informed of the abundant blessings and reward for reciting the following:

• ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّٰهِ – Al-Ḥamdulillāh – All praise is due to Allah
• سبحان الله و الحمد لله – Subhan Allah walhamdulillah – Glory be to Allah, all praise and gratitude is for Allah alone

These are just two of many, many beautiful dua (prayers) and adhkar (litanies) we can recite, an excellent summary of a few more can be found here.

Ideally we’re able to recite these while sitting, facing the qibla, in a state of purity (wudu), but we can also recite them quietly while going about our regular routine.

Carrying a little tasbeeh (rosary beads), this sort of remembrance (dhikr) is the perfect activity for when walking through nature or commuting to work. Something to keep our heart and minds engaged while our feet wander the earth.

For those of us that may be sick or bed-bound and struggling to recite Qur’an at length we can do ourselves a great service and read dhikr in bed, to ourselves.

Saying “ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّٰهِ – Al-Ḥamdulillāh – All praise is due to Allah” is a great form of dhikr and every time we say it we should be thankful to Allah for something in our lives.

وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكُمْ لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ ۖ

“˹remember˺ when your Lord proclaimed: If you are grateful, I will certainly give you more.” — Quran 14:7

What does it mean that Allah will increase you? In the clearest sense it means that when we are grateful, Allah rewards our gratitude by giving us more. It also reflects a psychological reality, that even if we’re in the exact same situation if we’re grateful for what we have we will feel like we have more. Even having the exact same provisions we will now feel rich.

3.4 – Tawbah, Repentance.

Even through the efforts we employ to better ourselves — it’s inevitable that at some point we may still slip or just let ourselves downs.

قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ” وَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ لَوْ لَمْ تُذْنِبُوا لَذَهَبَ اللَّهُ بِكُمْ وَلَجَاءَ بِقَوْمٍ يُذْنِبُونَ فَيَسْتَغْفِرُونَ اللَّهَ فَيَغْفِرُ لَهُمْ “

The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) told us: “If you did not sin, Allah would replace you with a people that would sin and they would seek forgiveness from Allah and He would forgive them” [Sahih]

The limits of Islam, the halal and the haram are there to guide us. Guiding us to what is good for our soul and keeping us away from what is bad. In the short term it might not always seem that way, but we can see long term the halal actions are those things that nourish and bring light to our souls and the haram actions are those that debase us and leave us unfulfilled, unsatisfied and feeling broken.

Of course we aim to avoid sinning, but sometimes we do; and Allah tells us that our repentance (tawbah) is accepted:

قُلْ يَـٰعِبَادِىَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا۟ عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا۟ مِن رَّحْمَةِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ ٱلذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا ۚ إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلْغَفُورُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ ٥٣

“O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.” — Qur’an 39:53

It’s one thing to slip but Allah tells us how to slip correctly! Ensuring that insha’Allah we don’t harm ourselves further. Allah gives us a framework for repentance:

1. Stop the sin
2. Affirm that you will not return to it
3. Seek forgiveness from Allah for having committed the sin

Without getting into too many of the details, if the sin involved someone else then it’s important to also reach out to them and make amends where possible (and sensible).

It’s natural to make mistakes. We see in the Qur’an that even the prophets sometimes made mistakes (although it’s important to differentiate this from sin). We see that Yunus after he was swallowed by the Whale called out to Allah:

“There is no deity except You; exalted are You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers.”

“أَن لَّآ إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّآ أَنتَ سُبْحَـٰنَكَ إِنِّى كُنتُ مِنَ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ” — Qur’an 21:87

Even one of the prophets admitted he had made a mistake and sought repentance in turning back to Allah. To help us overcome our own mistakes and shortcomings with respect to Allah, scholars recommend doing istighar (seeking repentance) 99 times a day. That may sound like a lot but repentance simply requires saying “astaghfirullah” / “أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللّٰهَ ” / “I seek forgiveness from Allah”.

It’s important to note that repentance (tawbah) shouldn’t be an exercise in excessive guilt but rather cleaning of the heart. Instead of dwelling for hours on our mistakes — we should learn from them, repent and then seek forgiveness for any general shortcomings while striving to be better.

We may have deep regrets in life or even just small things we wish we had done better but sometimes through doing a wrong deed and subsequent repentance — that repentance may allow us to draw closer to Allah. Through talking to Him, beseeching Him, seeking forgiveness from Him we may overall become more cognisant of Him and better reminded of our purpose. This becomes a uniquely positive process, even though this repentance stemmed from something negative.

Next time we will look at the remaining actions we can perform throughout Ramadan:

• 1 – Prayer – Ishraq, Tahajjud & Taraweeh
• 2 – Reading and memorising the Qur’an
• 3 – Dua, tawbah, dhikr, salawaat & clear intentions (Prayer, Repentance, Remembrance of Allah and His Messenger & making a clear intention before all actions)
• 4 – Serving others, being patient and striving to improve our character
• 5 – Striving to learn more about the Deen
• 6 – (bonus) – fulfilling our Fard (obligatory actions) e.g: fasting, prayers & zakat (charity