Welcome back to a sister’s Ramadan. I’m your host naima b robert and i’m honored that you’ve joined me today. This show is all about answering one Central question, how can we as muslim women use this time in ramadan to grow and heal. I would like to explore with you how we can renew and replenish our iman and our spirits throughout this blessed month. The purpose of this show is to share a set of skills that are essential for personal growth and healing and also the ways in which we can best practice them through the rituals of ramadan. Inshallah.
It will offer you a perspective that will be beneficial long after the month has passed. In today’s episode we will be looking at the power of dua and the importance of setting healthy boundaries.
There is no doubt, that many of us may be experiencing aspects of our lives. That are new that are different that are unfamiliar and usually the impact of big changes big disruption to our normal routine is fear anxiety stress general lack of certainty. Which can lead to its own set of issues and because we know that this life. This world that we live in is a place of test and examination that things are constantly changing moving disrupting this means that Anxiety stress fear are a natural part of our experience as human beings.
Now abu hurairah reported that allah’s messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam said,
The believer does not allow himself to be stung twice from the same hole. So my question to you, is this is there anything in your life right now anything that you’re doing anything that you’re exposing yourself to that is bringing on increased levels of fear anxiety or stress. Because if there is which for many of us is the case. I’m going to invite you now to examine those things, and ask yourself if i’m truly preserving my sense of peace my eman.
Will i put my attention towards this thing. Will i focus my energies on this thing and it could be anything. It could be social media. It could be the news. It
Could be a particularly toxic family member. It could be your own negative thoughts. Whatever they are i’m going to invite you this ramadan to examine them and make a decision to safeguard your own peace of mind.
Moving on to the aspect of ramadan that i would like us to focus on in this particular episode and that is dua. Because the cure for the fear the Anxiety the stress is dua. The comfort that we seek the sukina the peace of mind that we are all wishing and hoping for can be found with allah And a beautiful reminder of this is.
When allah says and when my servants ask you concerning me then answer them i am indeed near to them i respond to the supplications of the supplicant when he calls on me. Subhanallah.
So on the one hand we have this life of fears and anxieties and things that we can’t control and the other hand we have a lord who assures us. That when we call out to him he hears and he responds,
Ibn al qayyim said: dua is of the most beneficial cures and is the enemy of all diseases. It fights them and cures them and prevents their occurrence And causes them to be raised up or reduced after its occurrence it is the weapon of the believer.
So my dear sister i ask you this. At those moments when you are feeling low. When you are gripped by fear or uncertainty or anxiety and you worry About the future or the present or the past. How many times do you remember the dua, and the ease and the solace and the comfort that is in the dua.
I hope this is a reminder for you any time those feelings of fear anxiety come up to turn to allah and remember his promise. That he hears the supplication of the supplicant and he responds. Again another amazing reminder of the fact that although we are simply one in a billion other human beings you know in our own way nothing special. While that is true we are also special to allah in that he hears us he sees us he knows us and he is almighty and all aware and able to respond to every single one of us.
In terms of personal skills my sister the big takeaway i want you to take from this episode. Is setting healthy boundaries a lot of the time when we are going through life on a day to day we allow a lot of things into our mind space. As i said it could be the news it could be social media it could be friends or family that have a negative influence on us. Setting healthy boundaries means setting up a wall of love around your head and your heart.
Your emotional mental and spiritual health is your responsibility. You are the one who must guard your mental state. Your emotional state and your spiritual state at all costs now this doesn’t mean that you go around upsetting people.
That you go around you know making enemies or having fights with people and sort of pushing them away. Doesn’t mean that but what it means is that you take active steps to protect your space emotionally mentally and spiritually. Because at the end of the day the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam advised us to:
Take benefit of five before five your youth before your old age your health. Before your sickness your wealth before your poverty. Your free time before you are preoccupied and your life before your death. Subhanallah.
He also told us that there are two blessings which many people lose. They are health and free time for doing good. Now i ask you my dear sister look at These five are they not wasted and frittered away by not having a protective boundary around them. Look at your time look at your health look at your wealth.
If you don’t set up boundaries to protect those things, and treat them as the amanats that they are then they will always be intruded on Your time will be wasted, in ways that are not beneficial your wealth will be frittered away on extravagant useless things your health will be wasted by you not actually taking care of it and taking ownership of it..
So today’s big takeaway is setting up those healthy boundaries and i would like to invite every one of you to ask yourself. What am i allowing what am i allowing into my space. That is not benefiting me in any way and don’t be afraid to start saying i’m not going to allow that into my space anymore. Now many of you may have an issue with toxic friends or family members negative people people who have a negative negative effect on you.
Your iman your emotional well-being your mental health even and i know that many sisters struggle with being able to set healthy boundaries and you may be thinking to yourself. Since the name of this sounds great but you don’t know my auntie so and so you don’t know my cousin, and my invitation to you is to start with the understanding for yourself that.
My mental health is important my spiritual state is important my emotional well-being has value start there because many of us don’t make boundaries. Because we don’t think that those things are important or we think it’s someone else’s job to look after us and to make sure that we’re okay. But my dear sister as a slave of allah you will answer for those five things to allah.
You will answer for your health you will answer for your wealth you will answer for your time you will answer for how you live this life and so it’s your responsibility to protect those things. So you have the right answers to give. So start with the understanding that you matter. And that your personal state matters and then start dealing with the people jazakallah khairan for joining me for this episode subhanallah if you’ve benefited from
Anything that i’ve said alhamdulillah
Please do give us your comments tell us what you think and share this with friends and family don’t forget to use the hashtag sistersramadan and tag iman channel and me your sister naima b robert.
See you in the next episode when we will be discussing the importance of istighfar and the power of letting go.
