Seven Ways to Practise Ramadan Values throughout the Year

Most people associate Ramadan with abstaining from consuming food and drink from sunrise to sunset. It is, after all, one of the five pillars of Islam and is a practise all Muslims of-age must observe, barring certain exceptions, during this holy month.

However, as one of the most important months in the Muslim calendar, Ramadan also encourages Muslims to do more than avoid eating and drinking during specific hours. Through the practise of fasting, this month encourages us to reflect upon ourselves and our faith; practise patience, self-discipline, and kindness; and strengthen our bonds with our fellow humankind.

Some of the ways we do this is by setting an intention (niat or nawaitu) to:

Attend tarawih
Recite the Quran.
Perform acts of charity, including Zakat Fitrah.
Do zikr and make dua.
Seek forgiveness.
Learn patience through the practise of fasting.

The lessons we learn and the values we put into practise during these thirty days are meant to remind and guide us in our conduct and faith beyond Ramadan. While it is not mandatory to fast throughout the rest of the year, nor will there be tarawih prayers, practising kindness, patience, forgiveness, doing charity and performing regular prayers are all good values we should continue practising throughout the year as these habits help us get more out of our daily lives.

Here are some things you can do to regularly practise the values of Ramadan beyond this sacred month.

Fasting for cleansing, health or weight loss
Besides sunnah fasting during a few special days of the Islamic calendar like puasa enam (six days of fasting during Syawal), the Day of Ashura, the Day of Arafah and fasting during the month of Shaban, fasting also has many health benefits such as:

Prophet Muhammad PBUH also performed voluntary fasting each month.

Instead of complete abstinence from food and drink, you can practise intermittent fasting (IF), especially if your focus is on improving your health. While there are several different techniques to fast intermittently, the most common practise is to fast for 16 hours and break for 8. Fasting hours can include sleeping time. Additionally, IF allows you to consume zero-calorie drinks like water, plain tea or coffee during fasting hoursⁱⁱ.

This makes practising IF especially easy for Muslims, and it is an effective way to control your food intake and shed some kilos. Just be mindful you do not overeat during non-fasting hours.

Practise Islamic spirituality in your daily routine
Gathering at your local mosque for nightly tarawih prayers may be over after Ramadan. However, there are other ways to incorporate faith-based practises in your day-to-day besides answering the regular call to prayer.

If you live near a mosque, consider praying there during other prayer times besides Friday prayers.
Pray as a family to form closer bonds with your parents and/or children. Living with housemates? Praying together is one way to get to know them better.
Make it a point to dua after every prayer and before going to sleep at night. There are several duas you can make throughout the day too. PRUIman on Pulse by Prudential has a collection of duas for various purposes including seeking forgiveness, visiting the sick, protection, travel, eating and many more.
You can zikr at any time of the day. Try it next time you’re stuck in traffic or even during your workouts.
Make time to recite the Quran daily. Accompany your readings with a good translation to build a better understanding of Islam.

Of course, in these COVID-19 times, be mindful of attending mass gatherings and prayers. Praying at home with your family is encouraged. If you have to attend a congregational prayer at the mosque, kindly observe the SOPs at all times.

A little bit of charity helps a lot
Zakat Fitrah is a mandatory charity that must be paid by all Muslims during Ramadan. If you have the means, practising charity throughout the year is a great way to assist those in need while doing good for your soul.

Don’t wait until a disaster strikes to practise charity. Instead, try giving small monthly donations to charitable bodies that need our assistance.
Instead of throwing away used items like clothes, furniture, books, electronics and so on, donate it. If you are unsure where to go, many neighbourhoods in Malaysia have charity collection bins for you to send your items to.
Try volunteering. It’s a good way to foster bonds with your community and see life from a different perspective.
They say charity begins at home. Help a friend, relative or neighbour if they are in a bind, generously tip your rider, or treat your neighbourhood or apartment guards to a meal every now and again.

Patience is truly a virtue
As human beings, we are often easy to anger, even more so if we are busy and something or someone unexpected disrupts our packed schedule. During Ramadan, we practise patience by abstaining from food and drink and checking our conduct. There is no reason why we can’t continue to do so during regular days.

If a situation angers you, take ten deep breaths before responding. This simple exercise calms you down and will help you see things from a different perspective.
Need more than ten breaths? Take a step back. A solution may even present itself by excusing yourself for an hour or even a day to understand what happened and why it angered you.
Consider letting it go. Sometimes ‘losing’ an argument or coming to a truce is better than destroying a relationship.

Seek forgiveness
Besides feeling anger, we also make mistakes on a spiritual and personal level. Instead of waiting for Eid to wish one another “Maaf Zahir dan Batin”, we should continue to seek forgiveness whenever we do wrong as it heals our souls and protects our relationships.

Seek spiritual forgiveness in your prayers and duas.
If you make a mistake, apologize and seek to fix your error as soon as possible.
Remember to apologise for the little things too, like bumping into someone, forgetting to call or accidentally interrupting a conversation. It builds empathy and helps you be more mindful.
It is absolutely ok to seek forgiveness from those younger than you, for example, for raising your voice at your children even if they did something in error.

Always be kind
Kindness is an important human quality that can make all the difference in the world and there are many simple acts of kindness we can put into practise daily.

Check in on your neighbours and loved ones.
Speak kindly to your subordinates. They will be more willing to help someone who is kind to them compared to someone who regularly pulls rank or puts them down.
Let the elderly, pregnant or differently abled go ahead of you in the queue.
Feed stray animals responsibly.

Good things come in moderation
Moderation is always a good idea, be it in food, exercising, spending, work, entertainment, and so on. Being able and not being able to do certain things during Ramadan teaches us that we can continue to function as long as we practise moderation.

Instead of going on a strict diet, be more mindful and moderate about your eating habits. Conversely, avoid overindulging by consuming decadent meals less frequently.
Exercise shorter hours regularly instead of pushing yourself to work out several hours at one go, possibly resulting in injury.
Monitor your spending habits to avoid overspending or incurring debt.
Mind your working hours and try to achieve a healthy work-life balance.

As Ramadan draws to a close, let’s continue these simple values and habits we have picked up and practised over these thirty days – after all, with all the various challenges we are facing today, the world could use a little more kindness and understanding. Let us help one another get the most out of life. May your last days of Ramadan be filled with peace and good blessings.

Salam and safe Adilfitri from PruBSN.

^{[i] “8 Health Benefits of Fasting, Backed by Science” in Healthline by Rachael Link on 30 July 2018, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/fasting-benefits}
^{[ii] “10 Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting” in Healthline by Kris Gunnars on 16 August 2016, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-health-benefits-of-intermittent-fasting}

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