In these blessed days of Rajab, we are supposed to focus on the spiritual build up for Ramadan.
You should aim to develop the following 7 spiritually productive activities into habits so that you can hopefully continue benefiting from them throughout your life.
1) Do Sunnah Prayers
Over the years I have learnt there’s only one way of getting yourself to pray these Sunnah prayers constantly: Get into the habit of praying them!
They’ll soon become part and parcel of your prayer, which in turn will feel incomplete without performing these acts.
2) Remembrance of Allah After Prayer
It’s easy to rush out after prayer due to our busy lives, though if we are honest, how long does it take to recite the supplications after prayer? The Answer: 5-7 minutes!
If you’re not sure what I’m referring to, you may find the supplications at MakeDua.com. Nowadays you’ll find pocket notebooks/or phone applications with these supplications.
Get into the habit of reciting them daily after each prayer to enrich your worship experience.
3) Morning/Evening Remembrance of Allah
There exists a beautiful set of du`aa/remembrances from the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) which he used to say before sunrise and after sunset.
They are true stress relievers and energy boosters which never fail to make my days and evenings feel blessed. [You can find the du`aas at MakeDua.com]
4) Night Prayer
During Ramadan, we have the wonderful Taraweeh prayers to attend. However, outside of Ramadan there are many opportunities to still obtain the reward of the night prayer.
If you’re new to night prayer or you don’t pray it constantly during the year, make sure you try to attend prayers each and every night in congregation at the mosque (particularly brothers), and give yourself a ‘no-excuse’ policy.
Develop a habit of praying Tahajjud and continuing to pray them for an entire 30 days; this will set you on better footing to continue with the Night Prayer for the rest of the year inshaAllah.
5) Duha Prayer
Here’s a productive Muslim’s top secret to a productive day: 2 rak’ahs known as the Duha prayer which you may pray at anytime after sunrise till before the sun reaches its zenith (around 30 minutes before Dhuhr).
The reward of this prayer is similar to giving charity on behalf of every bone in your body, and the energy and buzz you feel during the day is amazing.
6) Supplications Before You Sleep
You’ve just had a long day and you’re super tired. You climb into bed and you want to hit the sack… but wait!
Before you do, can you give yourself just 10 more minutes to recite the supplications before sleeping? That’s all.
Try them and find yourself experiencing the most beautiful sleep ever and wake up for Fajr easily.
7) Reciting Qur’an Everyday
Notice: I said here recite one hour of Qur’an each day and not one juz’ or one surah. The amount of Qur’an you read is not as important as the quality of your understanding.
If you spend one hour reciting one verse but understand it fully, that’s more important and beneficial then reciting lots of Quran at break-neck speed yet not understanding a word.
So there you go, 7 spiritually productive habits you can develop throughout the year starting from TODAY!
Republished with kind permission from Productive Muslims.com