when Ramadhan ends..

When Ramadhan ends, it marks the beginning of everything. All those hard works during Ramadhan will be put into test. This is a test for our 'taqwa'. To see if we had achieve our aim for fasting in the first place as stated in Surah Al-Baqarah (2:183).

"Isn't the Eid-Fitr a day for celebration? Why should we worry about this 'test' thingy?"

Yes, it's a celebration, a victory for us after being able to fast for a month, guarding our senses, speak good words, give a lot of 'sadaqah' and wake up at night for 'qiyam' and everything else..MashaAllah! May Allah accept it from us and you..'Taqabalallahu minna waminkum'

But, we don't know..we don't know if all those deeds are accepted by Allah.
Imagine this, Ramadhan is like the examination weeks in which during this time, everything that we do, revolve around the exam..
We ate while reading a book,
We slept with a book on our face,
We walked with our minds full with formulas or facts to remember,
We planned our time to maximise the amount of studying,
We reduced the time for playing around,
We studied till late at night..

The same goes for Ramadhan, rite?
We ate because we want to have the sahur or breaking our fast,
We slept because we want to be able to wake up for 'qiyam' and sahur,
We walked with our ears listening to the Qur'an recitation or memorising the 'surahs',
We planned for where we are going to break our fast or when we want to read the Qur'an,
We did good things, and avoid bad things,
We woke up late at night to worship Allah..
Everything that we did, we are trying to get the maximum benefit from Ramadhan..

And so, back to the exams analogy,
After the examination weeks are over..
We celebrated it like it's the best day ever!!
Like all our hard works are finally paid off to have this burden lifted off our shoulder..
When instead, we are not even sure if we will pass the exams and get good marks..
Until the results are released.

So, does that mean, after the exams are over we can just relax and forget about everything that we had learnt? [i know i did forget about lots of things i learnt during high school..=_= heh.scratch that.]
No, rite? cause some of the things that we had learnt will be applied later in our studies, at work and in our life. That's the purpose of learning.

Thus, with Ramadhan, everything that we had consistently did for a month, do we just want to forget about it after Ramadhan ends??? All those efforts...will be a waste if we just leave them like that.

Like I said before, we don't know if the 'ibadah' will be accepted by Allah. So, we have to continue to do what we did during Ramadhan to gain rewards even after the blessed month of Ramadhan. If I remember correctly, in one of the hadeeth, it says the best act of worships are those done consistently ('istiqamah').

You can also imagine Ramadhan as a training arena for us to prepare for the rest 11 months until Ramadhan next year, insyaAllah..Let us be like a caterpillar that will turn into a beautiful butterfly at the end of Ramadhan..yeay!

So, let us be steadfast in this religion and in our 'ibadah'. InshaAllah, everything I wrote is mainly a reminder for me, and it will be great if they can be a reminder for you too..^_^

ps: oh, btw..i'm still fasting today. Melbournians are celebrating the eid tomorrow..how lucky are we to get another day with Ramadhan..:) Happy Eid Mubarak!!