You know the routine. Your body goes into shock the first day of Ramadan.All of a sudden, one morning you wake up before the time for Fajr Prayer, devour your food up until the last second before the time for FajrPrayer comes in, pray your Fajr Prayer, and then, before anyone can say �Ramadan mubarak,� you�re back under your warm covers, dreaming about iftar. When you wake back up later that morning and go about your day, your body is in shock. It has no idea why all of a sudden you won�t quench your thirst. Or why you won�t grab that candy bar�you know, the one with the layers of chocolate, then caramel, then peanuts, then more chocolate, and yes, a wafer somewhere in-between. Your mouth waters, you are salivating uncontrollably, and yet you know you can�t eat because it�s Ramadanand you�re fasting!

That�s right, somehow you forgot to warn your body that for the next month you�d be experiencing a special routine of praying, fasting, reading the Qur�an, being more generous, and exercising self-restraint. News flash: Ramadan is but a few days away and we all need to start getting ready! So take this as a friendly reminder and begin to set aside Monday and Thursday, in the tradition of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), to keep fast. We are reminded by the Prophet�s wife`A�ishah that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) �used to fast for so long that we thought he would never stop fasting, and he would go without fasting for so long that we thought he would never fast again. I never saw the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, fast for a complete month except for Ramadan, and I never saw him do more fasting in any one month than he did in Sha`ban� (Muwatta of Imam Malik, Book 18, Number 18.22.56).
It is beneficial to begin with a reminder about the significance of Ramadan from the Qur�an itself. Allah tells us in the Qur�an: [the month of Ramadan in which the Qur�an was revealed, a guidance for mankind and clear proofs for the guidance of the Criterion between right and wrong. So whosoever of you sights the crescent for the month of Ramadan, he must fast that month] (Al-Baqarah 2:185). Based on this verse alone, we learn that

1. The Qur�an was revealed in the month of Ramadan.
2. The Qur�an is a guidance for mankind.
3. It provides clear proofs for the guidance of the criterion between right and wrong.
4. Once the crescent for the month of Ramadan is sighted, we have to fast that month.

Among the countless blessings associated with Ramadan,one that should not escape us is the fact that Ramadan is the month in which the Qur�an was revealed. This beautiful book of guidance is ours, so let us strive this coming Ramadan to draw closer to Allah by increasing our reading of the Qur�an and increasing our voluntary prayers. This month is blessed because of the countless opportunities we have to mention the name of Allah. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stated that �no people gather in a house from the houses of Allah, reciting the Book of Allah and studying it amongst themselves, except that tranquility descends upon them, mercy envelops them, the angels surround them, and Allah mentions them to those that are with Him� (Sahih Muslim).Reading the Qur�an

Think back to this past year, all the way back to last Ramadan. What has been your relationship with the Qur�an? How often were you reading the Qur�an? What efforts did you make to memorize portions of the Qur�an? What specific surahs or verses had an impact on you this past year? Take some time to write down your responses to these questions as you prepare for Ramadan. Be frank with yourself because the responses are known only to you and Allah. Let your responses also be a checkpoint of some sort so that you can compare them with this Ramadan. Ramadan presents to all of us an opportunity to develop a personal routine as a result of efforts of maximizing self-restraint and enhancing self-development.
Why exactly is it important that we spend time reading the Qur�an? First, in Ramadan the mood around us is very advantageous for reading and reflection. Throughout the year, we might read on our own, sometimes in a rush, sometimes heedlessly. In Ramadan people are trying to complete reading the entire Qur�an in one month. In addition, abstaining from food and drink helps us to suppress our lowly desires in pursuit of higher level, intellectual and spiritual desires such that we can actually reflect upon the meaning of the verses we are reading from the Qur�an. That reflection is intended to help us to internalize the teachings of the Qur�an to the degree that all aspects of our lives are aligned with those teachings.
Second, reading the Qur�an consistently in one month also helps us to establish a routine that we can use throughout the year, which has direct and practical implications on our daily lives. Think about routine activities such as eating and drinking or speaking and sleeping. It is possible to imagine that in a state of hunger and thirst, one might be prone to be cranky or end up feeling a little impatient with people. But both Qur�anic teachings and the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) direct us to focus on higher-level benefits of fasting.
One of the benefits that the Qur�an tells us of is that fasting helps us to strengthen our consciousness of Allah, and without that state of consciousness we could be prone to human error. But combining physical self-restraint with reading and internalizing the teachings of the Qur�an allows us to attain ultimate consciousness of Allah. Our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) teaches us that �fasting is not merely abstaining from eating and drinking. Rather, it is also abstaining from ignorant and indecent speech. So if anyone abuses or behaves ignorantly with you, then say: I am fasting, I am fasting� (Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah and Al-Hakim, who authenticated it).
Finally, reading the Qur�an helps us to reinforce and review passages that we might have already memorized or passages that we are attempting to memorize. It is ascertained that during each Ramadan, the angel Jibreel used to review the Qur�an with Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). And in the last Ramadan that the Prophet observed, we know that Jibreel reviewed the Qur�an twice. There is a clear emphasis being placed on repetition and review as a source of reinforcing the retention of the Qur�an. Develop a system to record what passages you are reading, which ones you are reviewing, and which ones you are memorizing. In sha� Allah, by the end of Ramadan you will have a solid account of how well you performed!