Eid Mubarak - Guest Post

Guest Post by Shazia Awan-Qureshi

Assalamo alaikum

I just want to make this short post for the blog:

A belated Eid Mubarak to everyone. It has been a real pleasure this month to read about fasting experiences and insights from all over the world and it was touching to learn some non-Muslims were also participating in the fasting. When you get so much bad press, you begin to feel all non-Muslims view Islam negatively but I have seen from this blog that this is not the case.

I read in a book once that Ramadan is a time to carry out an annual service on yourself, much as you do on your car, and try to make yourself roadworthy for another year and that the aim is to reach the next Ramadan (if you live that long by Allah's Grace) in slightly better spiritual shape than the previous one. This helped me a lot because I fell in the category of people who think they can change everything about themselves overnight. Of course when this did not happen I would become disheartened and give up. I finally realised its a lot of small changes that happen gradually over a long time and its OK to make mistakes along the way as long as you keep trying to change for the better.

Businesses improve by doing a SWOT (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities and threats) analysis. We should do one on ourselves and last year I found a great tool at www.soundvision.com: a personal evaluation form. You can find it at this link:

http://www.soundvision.com/Info/development/plan/think.asp

If anyone would like a copy of a more detailed version I created for a Ramadan halaqa, please let me know and I can forward a copy via the blog moderator.

May Allah shower His Blessings and Mercy Upon you all. Amin.