For a car to take off from a standstill and commence moving, it has to be in the first gear. However, the car cannot remain in the first gear, as in this gear, the car requires the most fuel and moves the slowest. Hence, as the car gains speed, the driver progresses through the gears. Finally, when the car is in the fifth or sixth gear, it can easily sustain a high speed while using very little fuel. Nevertheless, in order to sustain this speed and cover large distances rapidly, it will be necessary for the driver to maintain his acceleration by keeping his foot on the pedal.

In the month of Ramadhaan, Muslims exerted themselves in fasting, reciting the Quraan Majeed, engaging in zikr, crying in du‘aa, performing salaah and other righteous actions. In this way, with the help of Allah Ta‘ala, we managed to gain some speed and make some progress. Now that Ramadhaan is over, the concern is for us to sustain this progress.

Just as the driver keeps his foot on the pedal to maintain his movement, we need to keep our feet on the musallas and continue exerting ourselves. We need to remain dedicated and punctual on our good actions, and should not allow ourselves to retrogress.

When the driver leaves the accelerator, the car immediately begins to slow down, until it eventually comes to a complete stop. Then, if the car is on an incline, it may even begin to move backwards! Likewise, if we cease to recite the Quraan Majeed daily and abandon all the other good practices that we commenced, we will gradually lose our ‘speed’ and our progress will decline. Finally – Allah Ta‘ala forbid! – we may reach a point where we cease to move at all. At that point, due to the ‘incline’ of the wrongs and evils of our environment, we may even begin to retrogress and slide back into the evil habits and sins that we abandoned in Ramadhaan.

In essence, we must try our best to continue with our Tahajjud Salaah, du‘aa, daily Quraan recitation and zikr, etc. If we do so, then with the help of Allah Ta‘ala, we will increase our speed and will progress even more. However, the moment we leave the accelerator, we begin to lose progress.

May Allah Ta‘ala bless us all with steadfastness and swift progress, aameen.