Ramadan Reflections: Day 23 Nafs Hack with Sami Shaban

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Nafs Hack: Evaluating Goals in Ramadan

Salaam wa alaikum! My name is Sami Shaban, and here’s my Nafs Hack.

Often times throughout the year, I find that I get caught up in the daily grind. Going from work to family to other really important things, but things that might not be on point for the goals that I’ve set out for myself.

I like to use Ramadan as a point of reflection—a spiritual checkpoint, where I get to look back at the past year and see where I may be hitting the ball out of the park or coming up short, or maybe even adding a goal that I didn’t even realize was there.

For me, I like to break down my goals into two major buckets—immediate short-term goals and legacy long-term goals.

As an example of an immediate goal, every Ramadan we host an iftar at our house where we pick a different project to support. We invite lots of people over, we talk about the cause, we get people interested in it, and then we move on from there. That helps support it for the short term.

But what I’m really concerned with is my legacy. What happens after I’m gone? Which of my deeds are going to continue to work for me afterwards?

And that’s where the long term legacy goals come in. For me, one of the big ones is working for the endowment and spreading awareness for Islamic Relief USA’s WAQF.

An endowment where people like you can set up a trust or set up some sort of accounting where the money that we put into it will continue to be invested and raise more money to help all of the projects well after we’re all gone. When we look back on our lives, we can say, ‘You know what not only did I support in the short term, I supported in the long term.’

That’s my Nafs Hack! Hope you enjoyed it. Salaam wa alaikum.