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Ramadan Reflections: Day 27 Nafs Hack with Suhaib Webb
Nafs Hack: Discipline Your Nafs Salaam alaikum wa rahmutallah. My name is Suhaib, and this is my Nafs Hack. You know in order to discipline the nafs, you’ve got to take away something that it likes—something it finds value in. One of the scholars said the nafs is like an infant. If you just let it breastfeed, it will continue. But if you ween it, you will discipline it. So here’s something that I do that I would encourage you to think about doing, and that is any day that you miss fajr or any of the prayers—but fajr particularly—don’t post anything on social media. Your nafs will go crazy.…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 23 Nafs Hack with Sami Shaban
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…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 22 Nafs Hack with Sana Mahmood
Nafs Hack: Zhikr in Your Daily Routine Assalamu alaikum. My name is Sana Mahmood, and for my Nafs Hack, I’m going to be talking about how to bring zhikr into your daily routine. We live in a fast paced society, and it can get really tough to slow down and remember Allah (SWT), especially in times when we’re not praying. So, while I’m commuting or if I’m cooking, while I’m doing some of these mindless tasks, I like to do my zhikr. As I do my zhikr, I am able to really reflect upon my day. I’m able to reflect about my nafs, the state of my heart. In those…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 20 Nafs Hack with Preacher Moss
Nafs Hack: Be Kind Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatalahu wa barakatu. My name is Preacher Moss, and I’m here with my Ramadan Nafs Hack. So, the moral of this story that I’m about to tell you is be nice to people during Ramadan and especially outside of Ramadan. My reflection is this: Years ago, I was a young Muslim, and I was struggling with Ramadan. I basically took my shahada two weeks before Ramadan came. There I was man—going through Ramadan, starving, waiting in line. The people weren’t bringing the food fast enough. I got really upset, and I stormed out because they didn’t know I was fasting. I remember I…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 18 Nafs Hack with Nurideen from Leftist
Nafs Hack: Being Thankful for Everything Salaam, Shalom, Peace. This is Nurideen from Leftist, and this is your Nafs Hack for today. Okay, so one of the things that I do is, when I pray, I make sure to thank Allah (SWT) for everything that I have and everything that He didn’t give me. I think we usually pray and thank Allah (SWT) for the things that we have, but we don’t thank Him for the things that He didn’t give us. Those things in particular might have been something that was negative for us. Since Allah (SWT) is almighty, and He has the power, He knows what we don’t…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 17 Nafs Hack with Ain’t Afraid
Nafs Hack: Give What You Have Assalam alaikum! It’s Ain’t Afraid here with your Nafs Hack for today. Growing up, our mother kept us around the masjid. She wanted to teach us our religion. She wanted to instill Islamic values within us, like charity, even though we were a poor family. I remember when we were younger and we used to go to Muslim gatherings in the masjid, and the imam or the organizers would ask the community for donations. It was a tradition for us to go to our mother so she’d give us something to give in the basket—whether it be .50 or $1. She later told us…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 15 Nafs Hack with Sharif Aly
Nafs Hack: Holding Your Tongue Assalamu alaikum! This is Sharif Aly, and this is your Nafs Hack for today. Alhamdulillah, it’s such a blessing that we’re able to to experience this month of Ramadan together. One of the things that I’m constantly reminded of in Ramadan amidst the amount of worship that we do is that we cannot forget that Ramadan goes beyond abstaining from food and drink, beyond these areas of worship, but also in how we conduct ourselves in our behaviors. I know it’s easier said than done, but protecting our tongue and what we say, like stopping ourselves from gossiping or backbiting, is also a key part…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 13 Nafs Hack with Nancy Khalil
Nafs Hack: Mandatory Vs. Optional When I was in college, I worked with a team to organize logistics for a very large Muslim college students’ retreat that was taking place in Boston. It was the first of its kind. I spent months organizing with my team, and a few weeks before we were supposed to go on the retreat, the option for me to go to Hajj emerged. I struggled. I didn’t want to let the committee down. I didn’t want to let the retreat down. I wanted to go on it with my friends, but Hajj is a really big deal. So, I talked through it with a friend,…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 12 Nafs Hack with David Hawa
Nafs Hack: Increasing Your Giving Assalamu alaikum! This is your brother, David, with Islamic Relief USA with today’s Ramadan Reflection, Nafs Hack edition. This month, we have increased our worship and ibadath, we increased our salah, we increased praying, we increased our fasting, we increased our sadaqah, our charity that we’ve been giving. Now, some of us will ask, how do we, if we give throughout the year and we kind of live almost paycheck-to-paycheck, how do we give extra during the month of Ramadan? Well, this is a little hack that I’ve done for myself to increase my giving during the month of Ramadan. What I’ve done is calculate…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 11 Nafs Hack with Waleed Gabr
Nafs Hack: Smiling Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu. Ramadan Mubarak to you and your family. My name is Waleed Gabr. I work with Islamic Relief, and my Nafs Hack is smiling. A lot of times, we interact with people and don’t realize the power of a smile. Many times, I come across a lot of people in the work that we do, which is such a blessing and so uplifting, and we actually don’t realize how powerful a smile is. Some people always ask me, ‘Why are you smiling?’ And I just reply back to them and say, ‘What is there to worry about?’ Alhamdullilah, Allah (SWT) has blessed…
