slip-sliding away…..

No…it’s not what you think. This isn’t some green mission (though I do recycle…and you should, too 😉 )

Many years ago, a bit of inspiration pushed me to develop what became the Ramadaan Early Bird series. It was a series of structured activities to help us prepare for Ramadaan by working – in a very personal yet gradual way – on different areas of spirituality.

Alhamdullilah – the series seemed to have gotten a fairly wide bit of exposure, with ProductiveMuslim and AboutIslam both using it.

This year, I’ve had the opportunity to adapt it for AccidentalMuslims.com – a South African platform (born out of a podcast) that showcases Muslim leadership in different fields, and encourages the audience to live with purpose.

Each day, we’ll be sending out 2 daily graphics (see below). The second is the personal development bit, where the reader is asked to take some time out of the day (or night) and work through the day’s task

It’s not a ‘checklist’-type thing. There are plenty of those around, and they definitely encourage good deeds….but personally, that style just doesn’t resonate with me because it seems to push quantity – a ‘to-do list’ – over depth.

Instead, the focus with this particular programme is to take a deep, brutally honest look at a particular spiritual area of your life (there are 4 in total), analyse weaknesses you may have – and their root causes – and then develop your own personal plan to improve…not instantly, but over the 11 months after Ramadaan…you know – when ‘normal life’ resumes, and spirituality usually dips again.

It’s private. It’s gradual. And it’s aimed at getting you to work on at least one aspect of your spiritual life – starting now (while there’s spiritual momentum), then stretching into the 11 months until next Ramadaan.

If you’d like to participate in the programme, visit the start page here. You can get each day’s task from the Facebook page (linked in each topic page).

The annual visitor returns…

Many of us have heard the analogy of this ‘annual visitor’ coming around – i.e. Ramadaan. But for those of us in South Africa, that annual visitor – many years – is also the ever-popular, awesomely positive Mufti Ismail Menk :).

He’ll be posting his daily series on his YouTube channel here.

Day 1’s episode is below:

And of course, you can find all his other stuff on MuslimCentral here.

What’s happening near you?

If you’re following any particular Ramadaan series – either near you, or elsewhere – post a link here to let us know what you’re benefiting from.

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