Ramadan Mubarak!

Salaams all,

Sorry I've been a little behind on my posting, but Alhamdulillah I held out until the first day of Ramadan!  I started doing my internship in internal medicine at a hospital outside of Baltimore, and I'm really enjoying being back in the world of clinical medicine.  Research was certainly a great experience last year and it will inshallah help me throughout my career, but it's nice to come back to why I decided to go to medical school to begin with.  Residency is busy, but enjoyable, and luckily there are a ton of muslims at my program (as well as muslim attendings) so we are able to get together for jummah prayers every week in the hospital.  It's also nice to have other muslims around you fasting during Ramadan so that you get the feeling of community even while at work.

We all know the basic tenets of fasting, and what Ramadan is all about, so I'm not going to go into that in any detail.  But one of the things I think is useful during this month is to increase your piety in some way in the hopes that you will continue to do this during the year.  From a practical standpoint, I like to set some form of a goal during the month.  And that goal might be different for each person depending on their level.  Whether it's praying all 5 prayers on time, or attending every taraweeh for all 20 rakahs, or memorizing a surah (or more than one), or reading a certain amount of quran each day, etc.  Or perhaps its not doing something you would normally do.  It's easier to form these sorts of habits during Ramadan because your hunger will give you a bodily reminder of why you are doing what you are doing.

And finally, here is a hadith which really brings home how special fasting is in Allah's eyes:

Abu Huraira related that the Prophet said: Allah the Majestic and Exalted said: "Every deed of man will receive ten to 700 times reward, except Siyam (fasting), for it is for Me and I shall reward it (as I like). There are two occasions of joy for one who fasts: one when he breaks the fast and the other when he will meet his Lord" (Muslim).

May Allah bless all our deeds during this holy month and accept our fasts.  Ramadan Mubarak!

--Zain