RAMADAN DAY 4: HURRY UP SHAYKH!Every year in ramadan, el papaíto (ok i never really call

RAMADAN DAY 4: HURRY UP SHAYKH!Every year in ramadan, el papaíto (ok i never really call my dad that) will take us to the same masjid for tarawih. In the area I live in, there are approximately 4 big masjids, and many little ones. Out of all these mosques, we always go to this very one. Now I hated performing tarawih there. Everything is perfect about this masjid- air conditioned, beautiful interior, fluffy carpeting, awesome jemaah. Except for one thing, in every rakaat the imam will recite an incredibly long surah. As we all know, the longer the surah = the longer you’ll have to stand. If you know me personally i bet you’d realize how (1) impatient i can be and (2) how i am very easily distracted. Let’s be honest, I don’t understand Arabic that well, so having to stand for 8 long rakaats while not knowing what the lala you’re following can be stressful & tiresome. Oh & for the record, dad will tell us to do 20 rakaats in the 10 last days of Ramadan, imagine that. Sometimes I’d just do 8 rakaats, then sit at the back reading quran until dad finishes his 20. I hope you don’t get the wrong idea of me though. I love the Quran. But I’d rather be reading the translation rather than spending a long time standing & not knowing what i’m listening to.Oh dear, I feel like an awful Muslim saying this.One day I asked ayah, why can’t the imam read short surahs? I mean, he’s the imam. We all know he can memorize the Quran and all even if he didn’t show it. I also felt like the imam was being inconsiderate. He is there to service the community. If he wanted to service himself, he can just do that at home. My dad later explained to me that the reason he liked that masjid was because they would recite one juzu’ each day in every tarawih prayer. So since there are 30 juzu’ and 30 days, we will manage to finish the whole Quran by the end of Ramadan. Dad also mentioned that even if we didn’t manage to khatam (finish) the Quran that month (which is like an annual & compulsory thing for me & my family), attending tarawih prayers at that masjid can make up to it.Ayah’s clarification made sense. However, I still needed to figure out a way to be completely present in my solah so I can give my creator that “undivided attention”. How do I focus and even if I do get distracted, how to i renavigate? To answer this, it is crucial to identify the root of the problem: (a) I don’t understand a word (b) I haven’t got much of the Quran memorized.I realized that even if i don’t understand the Quran, if I had a few surahs memorized at least I can follow the imam by heart. Naturally once we have something memorized, we will also want to delve into the meaning, what’s it about. I also learnt that one way to stay focused is by being fully aware of what you’re doing, what you are listening to, what you are saying & what you are looking at. Ibn Abbas once said ‘you will gain nothing from your prayer except what you focus on’ [Madaarij As-Salikeen].So this year, to make sure my mind stays in place during tarawih, I decided to give myself an assignment. A little homework.Since me and my family still go to the same masjid for tarawih, I already know the drill. So it’s easy for me to keep in track of what I have to study before going for tarawih later that night. Today is the fourth of ramadan so the imam is most likely to read juzu’ 4 in tarawih tonight. If I can’t memorize the whole thing, then it is enough to just read the translation & look up a video from youtube of a (legit) Shaykh discussing that particular juzu’ beforehand. I have been doing this for a while and alhamdulillah, it works! Although at times i still get drifted away, but small progress is still progress, right?This routine does not only get me excited for tarawih every night, but it’s also a motivating exercise which inspires me to really learn the Quran. I kinda doubt I’d get myself to do the same any other months. Anyway I know that many local masjids are incorporating this 1 day 1 juz’ thing so keep a lookout. I pray that Allah will increase us in knowledge and that on the day of resurrection, the Quran will testify for us. Biithnillahi Taala“Successful indeed are the believers. Those who offer their Salah (prayers) with all solemnity and full submissiveness” [Surah Al-Mu’minun 23: 1–2)May peace be upon you xp.s: I usually post at night after coming back from tarawih but later today i’ll be travelling South so I may not have Wi-Fi, hence the early entry. Writing this while waiting for Fajr haha. Ok there’s the adhan. Bye! -- source link

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