Discovering Ourselves.

I found myself smiling during my isha Salah (namaz) a while ago. I instantly blamed it on Satan and thought "Booya Shaitan! Do all the tricks you want till today, You are getting chained up tomorrow for good! "

Allah's Messenger  said, "Ramadan, a blessed month, has come to you during which Allah has made it obligatory for you to fast. In it the gates of Heaven are opened, the gates of al-Jahim are locked, and the rebellious devils are chained..."                           -Hadith al Tirmidhi #1962

This is what I love the absolute most among the countless blessings of Ramadan. I usually blame every shortcoming on Satan and hardly ever bring my nafs to blame. In Ramadan, when we know Satans are chained and all that we do is a result of our own nafs/desires/heart's wishes or whatever anyone might want to call it. 

This is the time when one gets to identify their real self. We might not like what we find ourselves to really be, its easy to forgive ourselves when we have shaitan to blame all the time but it gets hard to accept that this evil could come from within ourselves too. BUT that is the point of it, we get to identify the wrong in us and have the perfect opportunity to get rid of it in these 30 Blessed days and be prepared to fight the devil with a super clean heart when this month comes to an end and (sadly) Satans are unchained.

I hope I wont be finding myself smiling over worldly thoughts while standing in Salah before Allah during the next 30 days.. but if I do, I would be very lucky to have realized its source, being my heart, and try to improve on it. For if we never know a fault and its cause we can never fix it. One cant expect to randomly keep on adding spices if the food doesn't seem to taste right, its only going to get worse. I cant expect to get khushu in my namaz if I keep on reciting duas for protection from Satan when he isn't the source of the problem. It is only going to distress me more due to its ineffectiveness. Be a little more mindful of your actions in Ramadan and analyse yourself. Not only do we get to know ourselves better this way but have more ease in identifying the traps of shaitan, which we find ourselves falling into, during days other than Ramadan.

So I cant wait to get in touch with the real me again in a few hours inshaAllah, with no whispering into my mind by the shayateen! :D  I hope we all make the best use of all the blessings of Ramadan and find ourselves much closer to Allah by the end of it :) Amen.