Written By: Rasaq Jamiu Olamilekan
Planning is very keen to get the best out of something. And for you to have effective planning, you need to learn how to set goals to drive home your vision. Can we talk a little about Ramadan? I am not an Alfa, and I don't claim to be one. But, I am a goal-setter and goal-getter, and I believe, through my understanding and knowledge on how to set goals I can share some knowledge with you on how to get the best of this month. I'm not of the school of thought that all your time must be dedicated to Ramadan alone in this month, of course, God wants you to be doing something else. Can you spare some minutes? Okay, Good! Let's talk.
The month of Ramadan has started just like that, and if you don't know and learn how to manage your time, it will just go as it comes, turning out to be just like all other months. The month of Ramadan is special, and not like all others. And you must learn how to drive home the best of it. Planning is very effective, and time management is very essential this month.
You might have read somewhere in just some hours we began this month that, to get the best of this month, you must Sleep by 10pm, wake up by 3pm, pray, recite the Qur'an, have a personal supplication, and the likes to 4:30am, have your sahul till 5am, pray subuhi, and the likes and the likes, have nafilah by 11am, it goes on. Why I'm not saying that's wrong, of course, it's a perspective of someone, of which he senses that it is Good if you follow it. But, it might not be right here, the environment you are in will not allow you to follow all that, and God doesn't say you should be idle in anything else aside from praying in this month either. That's by the way, though. So, what I see as a practical way to get the best of this month.
My focus is not what time you should sleep or wake up, you can decide that yourself, but we were taught that the best time to pray is the third part of the night.
The best act this month is to read the Holy Qur'an, if possible, again and again. And that will be my focus of discussion. How can you complete a whole Qur'an or read more than one?
You already have some look-like goal in your mind that seems you will do this month, but you will be sock that you won't be able to do many of them. How many Qur'an do you want to read this month? 1? 2? 3? Well, that's not a goal until you tell me HOW to achieve that. What's your plan to read 1 or 2 Qur'an? Let me take you on a journey of calculation via goal setting.
The Qur'an is made up of 604 pages. So, let's do the calculation. If you are to complete 604 pages in 30 days, then you have to be reading 20 pages a day, of which you will read 21 pages in 4 days out of the 30.
Let's say it's 29 days (as you already know that Ramadan can be 29 or 30), so, if it is 29, you have to be reading 21 pages per day. With that, you will complete a Qur'an. It goes for 2 and more like that. I set the goal of reading 2 Qur'an in the month, which means I have to ready 42 or 44 pages a day. I am now at page 51, which means I can even read more than 2 if follow with this pace. That's how to set goals.
You said you will read 2 Qur'an this month? Tell me, how many pages you have read today. Can you see you read little or nothing because you don't have a benchmark of your action, of what you need to do to achieve the goal, that's why you don't put much energy into it. If you set the goal, you will be able to push yourself and tell yourself, - ah, I'm not doing as I said oh. You can only do better when you know what it requires of you to do, and you can only push yourself to do more when there is benchmark set up by yourself already to reach. Without a set goal, you will never know maybe you are doing less or more.
As you already know, it's not only Qur'an you should focus on this month. Doing good and helping others make your soul a beautiful one. Saying good and encouraging others makes you a better one. Let your words reflect that truly you are fasting. Let your character change this month. Choose good words and guide your eyes. If you don't have anywhere to go, sit down and be reading Qur'an or listening to something good. In all, try to maximize the best of this month.
Written By: Rasaq Jamiu Olamilekan