Hannah’s Daily Note

Final 10 Days of Ramadan: What to Do If You’re Feeling Behind

As we enter the final 10 days of Ramadan, you’re no doubt being bombarded with messages about increasing your worship, scheduling your charitable giving, and spending your nights in prayer.

For many, this is a natural spiritual step-up in a month that has seen them get closer to Allah in these ways.

But for some who perhaps haven’t managed to keep on top of their Ramadan goals; who have just managed to scrape by with fasting, going into the final 10 days of Ramadan might just trigger the point of giving up. The pressure to ‘up your game’ can feel too much and, rather than being motivating, can feel paralysing.

That’s certainly how I used to feel. I would long to get my period at some point in the last third of Ramadan, just to have a break from the nagging feeling I needed to ‘do more’. I would feel exhausted – not by my busy acts of worship but from the guilt I felt that nothing I did was good enough or measured up to what I ‘should’ be doing.

And so today I’m reaching out with this message, just in case you’re at that tipping point of giving up…

I want to ask, what would it feel like to learn from Allah’s mercy and to apply self-compassion over the next 10 days?

What would it feel like to write down a list of what you have accomplished so far – no matter how apparently ‘small’ – and to reflect on how Allah will acknowledge and reward your efforts?

And how would it feel to see the next 10 days not as a time to add more in, but to secure even one of the changes or tweaks you have made so far this Ramadan?

I’ll give you an example. In those years where I struggled to connect with Ramadan, I would fast and (sometimes) pray. But everything else would carry on as normal. So, when I began my journey back to a deeper connection, I added one small thing: instead of sitting in front of the TV before, during and after breaking my fast, I would pause or mute it 5 minutes before the Athan. In those 5 minutes I would sit in silence and feel gratitude for the meal I was about to eat. That’s it – just a 5 minute tweak.

It sounds small, but in fact what this did was signal to myself that I wanted change. I wasn’t ready for grand changes, but I knew I wanted to step onto a path back to a more intimate relationship with Allah.

So whatever you might feel you haven’t done this Ramadan, trust me, there is something small but deeply significant that you can take into the next 10 days, InshaAllah. You just need to stop beating yourself up for long enough to discover what it is.