Assalamu Alaykum...

As i see the sun setting indicating the end of Ramadhaan, i my heart feels constricted and tears flow from my eyes, bidding farewell to a month of abundant goodness! A strong feeling of remorse envelops me over the lost moments of the month in which i could have gained so much. On a much smaller scale you (well women) can compare the feeling to a situation where you are given the opportunity to shop at a very expensive store where your favourite items are on sale, with a time limit of say two hours during which whatever you manage to pick up is paid for...you're so busy looking at the the things that don't fit u or that are of no use to you, that when the time is up, you've only managed to pick up very little! You come home with much regret! Jannah is on sale in Ramadhaan!

But though Ramadhaan is over, we still have the precious moments of our life.

Let us not ruin our efforts in this month by behaving like birds that have been let out of a cage! Let us instead try our best to keep the momentum. My Shaykh Hazrat Maulana Yunus Patel Saahib (db) quotes a lovely parable. He says that the month of Ramadhaan was a means of panel-beating and polishing our dented and damaged hearts just as a car is taken to the panel-beater after an accident. Today our hearts have been returned to us in show-room condition, but we have to now test drive it to see how good the panel-beating was. And not only that, the driver will now be extra careful not to damage his good-as-new car again. Only a fool will go out and bash his car no purpose! So we have to drive our hearts carefully. Although we will face all types of tests; storms, rain, etc., we have ensure that we steer clear of of danger!

Every breath we take is a priceless opportunity to build our Aakhirah...

May we live such that the sunset of our lives brings about the most beautiful dawn. Ameen

Alhamdulillah we were fortunate to have the honourable presence of Hazrat Moulana Zulfiqar Ahmed Naqshbandi Saahib (db) during the last 10 days of Ramadhaan. I enjoyed his daily programs and learned much from it. InshaAllah over the next few posts I will write a summary of all the programs i attended.

The full bayaans can be heard on www.tasawwuf.org

Wassalam.