Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakhatu,
I pray this reaches you in the best of Iman and health.

So the month of Ramadan is upon us once again! And what an opportunity we have been given to take advantage of. Not only are all our good deeds rewarded an unbelievably large number of times, but we also have the chance of having all our sins forgiven.

This is supported in the Hadith, when the Archangel Gabriel (AS) came to the Prophet (PBUH) and said ‘May his nose be rubbed in the dust, one who enters Ramadan and does not have all his sins forgiven’ to which the Prophet (PBUH) replied ‘Ameen’ (Tirmidi. abridged).

I have been told repeatedly, that the best plan of action to gain the most reward and inshAllah have all your sins forgiven is to first identify your shortcomings so that you can put extra effort into improving those areas of your life. This in my opinion is the aim of YMUK, not just to improve the shortcomings of ourselves as individuals, but also as an organisation and ultimately of society as a whole.

So for me YMUK provides the perfect vehicle for us to fulfil the true potential of Ramadan, allowing us not only to gain immense reward and forgiveness for our sins, but also make an improvement for the rest of our society.

However we decide to go about the month of Ramadan, let us ensure we do not forget the basic values of our religion which can easily happen when one spends all their time focusing on grand schemes. As well as this, let us increase the mercy we show to others, for inshAllah we will then be shown greater mercy by our Creator.

So with that I would like to wish you all a belated Ramadan Mubarak and I pray we can all use this month to earn the mercy and the pleasure of our Lord and Creator, for without that we surely are of the losers.

Wa Salaam,

Zeshan Rasul
Brother’s incharge
on behalf of The Young Muslims UK