Ramadan Reflections: Day 8 Nafs Hack with Mariama Badjie

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Nafs Hack: Do it with Ihsan

Assalamu alaikum! My name is Mariama Badjie, and I’m here with today’s Nafs Hack.

When I was a freshman in high school, in my AP world history class, my teacher called on me and he asked me, do you think the Roman empire would have been what it was if Julius Caesar never existed? And I said no, Julius Caesar was amazing or infamous—however you want to look at it. But what he did wasn’t irreplaceable.

I stopped and I said, well, maybe, maybe if he didn’t do what he did, someone else would’ve. And he said exactly. This is a concept in history. It’s a concept in ethics. If you don’t do it, someone else will.

So for us in Ramadan, this is two fold a lesson that we’ve got. First, if you don’t do it, someone else will. That means if you’ve been given the opportunity to serve Allah in this deen and the ummah, in whatever capacity, put your absolute best foot forward, and do it with ihsan.

Because you’re not the only person in the world who can do this job. If you don’t do this, someone else will. And the second is don’t overwhelm yourself, and just do what you can do to your best capacity.

There’s no point in doing seven things if you’re not doing any of them well. Just take your time, and be easy on yourself. So your hack for Ramadan and for today: Number one, do everything you do with ihsan, even if it’s just a few things. Number two, don’t overwhelm yourself. Just do those few things with ihsan, and insha’Allah it will have a greater benefit than if you were doing 14 things and your head was falling off because you were too stressed.

Enjoy your Ramadan! Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu.