The Big Book for Glowing with Ramadan All Year Long: Health Guide and Workbook

By Laila Q. Yamini

The Big Book for Glowing with Ramadan All Year Long is a combination health guide and workbook for use before, during, and after Ramadan.

It provides holistic health information in nine different areas that impact your health status and well-being. After each chapter are a set of questions to allow you to apply the information to develop

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lime Press LLC
• Release date: Mar 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781954304758

Laila Q. Yamini

Laila Q. Yamini, Certified Health Coach, is passionate about sharing information and providing support services to adults and children through her business, Life Balance Renewal, regarding healthy eating and living. She interacts with her clients through individual coaching, workshops, and classes aiding them in developing practical strategies to prevent disease and to help increase their energy, focus and productivity towards achieving their life's goals. Currently, she resides in Atlanta, Ga., and is the mother of four children and grandmother to eight. She is the author of two previous books, Glow with Ramadan All Year Long! and Get Your Glow On!

Book preview

Forward

When you sit at the table; Eat with your right hand. This is an Islamic saying that can be traced to the saying of Muhammad, The Prophet. This saying has various interpretations, one of which is, be conscious of what you put in your mouth.

I met Laila Qadira Yamini through MALI’s (Muslim American Logic Institute) Qur’anic Arabic learning program. As one of our dedicated students, I found her to be very conscientious about Islam and about healthy living which are embodied in her professional field and passion as a holistic health coach. I believe it is her Qur’anic studies combined with her conscientious attitude that has given birth to her writing that relates health and diet with this unique time of the year for Muslims, the fasting month of Ramadan. This is the time of the year that many within the Islamic communities become more aware of not only what they put in their mouth but what they put in their mind; and Laila Qadira makes it clear that the best food for the mind and for the body is the food designed by Allah, The Creator (SWT). This is the food which in its original state guarantees the best wellness plan. Hence, reading the Qur’an, following the life example of Prophet Muhammad (saw) and consuming whole foods (on all levels) throughout the year becomes the thematic message of Laila Qadira Yamini.

The hoped for result, insha’Allah is that readers of The Big Book for Glowing with Ramadan All Year Long will gain a healthy biology that is a prerequisite to a healthy and elevated spirituality. We pray that you enjoy your time in reading this interesting guide.

Salim Mu’min, Founder of M.A.L.I. [Muslim American Logic Institute]

Introduction

I am writing this intro right as Ramadan is coming around the corner, beckoning us to participate in the greatest time of the year for Muslims around the world. Sitting here in the first week of Shaban (the month preceding Ramadan), it’s exciting to think we will soon be in the throes of the Fast, but also overwhelming to think about what must be done to prepare. Mentally, physically and spiritually.

First, how do you get into the Ramadan frame of mind when LIFE full of its challenges and distractions has your mind filled with a zillion other things? Love feeling that spiritual high during Ramadan, right? But sometimes you have to wait until the Fast is almost half over to experience it. Also most people go into the Fast dehydrated (over 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated) and with long fasting hours and very high temperatures in some areas, they are likely to become more so.

In addition, what about high stress levels you often endure where it takes you a while to settle down when Ramadan begins to focus reading Quran or to feel really in tune when you’re making your salat? And the fasting itself may or may not be an issue for you, but what is a bigger issue is eating the right foods when you break the fast – and not overeating. And knowing what foods to eat for suhoor which are going to sustain you until sunset without feeling those gnawing pains of hunger at inadvertent times throughout the day.

The Big Book for Glowing with Ramadan All Year Long! gives ready answers to these challenges and many more! Be ready to digest the easy to read information and put it in action! Your body will thank you as you learn ways to improve your health and do things that make you feel good and full of life! Exercises with reflective questions are at the end of each chapter and will allow you to dig deeper as to what your heart is longing for and therefore be capable of stating clearer intentions and forming more focused duas when petitioning Allah throughout the Blessed Month.

As one reader put it, Your thought-provoking words, Quranic references, written exercises, recipes, templates, and gentle encouragement, are invigorating. There’s something here for everyone. Truly, The Big Book for Glowing with Ramadan All Year Long will not only prepare you for Ramadan, but will keep you sustained with good health habits during Ramadan and tell you how to keep all its benefits going and growing long after Ramadan is over!

Those who have read and completed the health guide and workbook in the Glow book series (Glow with Ramadan All Year Long and Get Your Glow On) have had amazing results during Ramadan and have been successful with maintaining good health habits afterwards. In fact, many readers believed that the books helped them to have their best Ramadan yet! I wish the same for you for this Ramadan!

Get started. Now!

Warm regards, your sister in deen and faith,

Laila Qadira Yamini

Table of Contents

Forward

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Cultivating a New Mindset for Ramadan & Beyond

EXERCISE 1

Chapter 2 – Ramadan Presents a Unique Opportunity

EXERCISE 2

Chapter 3 – Assessing Where You are Now

EXERCISE 3

Chapter 4 – Envisioning a More Empowered You

EXERCISE 4

Chapter 5 – Creating Clearer Intentions for More Powerful Results

EXERCISE 5

Chapter 6 – Water, the Phenomenal Fluid

EXERCISE 6

Chapter 7 – Air, the Bountiful Breath

EXERCISE 7

Chapter 8 - Food, the Vital Substances

EXERCISE 8

Chapter 9 – Exercise Means Movement

EXERCISE 9

Chapter 10 – Your Body’s Right to Rest and Sleep

EXERCISE 10

Chapter 11 - Re-create and Nourish Your Intellect

EXERCISE 11

Chapter 12 - Work with Purpose and Fulfillment

EXERCISE 12

Chapter 13 - Maintain Positive Wholesome Relationships

EXERCISE 13

Chapter 14 - Strengthen Your Soul‘s Connection

EXERCISE 14

Chapter 15 – Keeping It Going Until Next Ramadan

EXERCISE 15

Endnotes

Suggested Resources

About The Author

Chapter 1 - Cultivating a New Mindset for Ramadan & Beyond

We have indeed made our human creation from the best of molds. Al-Quran 95:4

A few weeks or even a couple months before the start of a new Ramadan season, do you ever feel not only eager, but restless for it to begin? Your soul is crying out. You’ve gone through many struggles and scrapes during the year and now you’re anxiously anticipating day by day the moment you enter the Blessed Month of the Fast. For more than likely it is then that you feel most like a real Muslim, living and worshipping in a real Muslim community. Why? Because Ramadan, like no other time brings you into better alignment within yourself and with millions of other believers. All striving to make five daily prayers on schedule, to read Qur’an every day, to do numerous charitable acts and of course to seek the ultimate achievement commanded during this month – to sacrifice for Allah’s Pleasure by abstaining from food, drink (and lawful) sex during daylight hours.

For an entire month there’s a wonderful vibration of positivity humming in Muslim communities throughout the world. And there’s a level of unity within the ummat quite unlike any other time during the year. For it’s an unprecedented time, when we get the opportunity to come closest to our Creator (like when the earth’s orbit comes closest to the sun) and we get to experience that fiery heat of purification and cleansing which comes only through fasting & restraining ourselves for the Pleasure of Allah. This special connection and closeness to our Lord engulfs us with breathtaking humility, piety and obedience to His Command. And we begin developing a glow from within that radiates beauty, peace and serenity – making us feel vibrantly alive – at one with Our Creator and His creation!

Then come the Eid festivities and celebration! With it, the joy and exhilaration of having completed the rigorous demands of Ramadan and the deep satisfaction that we have done our best to please our Lord. For a while we’re able to maintain the high spirits and discipline that are the immediate residuals of the Fast. And we may even sustain a few weeks consistency in reading Qur’an, in making prayers on time and eating in smaller amounts, but usually once again our busy, busy lives start getting in the way and we settle into automatic routines, thereby, reverting to many of our old habits and personal challenges.

With the same mindset and habits, the same types of stressful and challenging situations previously experienced start cropping up throughout the year. Then, we’re back to where we were – until we go into the next Ramadan. We need to break this cycle of attaining highs during the Fast that lapse into lows a few weeks or months later. This yo-yoing back and forth from year to year stunts our personal growth and invariably the growth and productivity of our communities.

Following this guide will help you optimize your Ramadan so that you enter the next Ramadan on a much higher level than you started the year before – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. As a result, the benefits you receive from the Fast will prove more sustaining in the days, weeks and months beyond its completion. You will become more active, energized and productive than ever; capable of contributing more to your families, your communities and the world around you.

We have indeed made our human creation from the best of molds. Holy Quran 95:4

You were created to be the best. Khalifah f’il Ard. Caretaker of the Earth!

Therefore, you are the best!

You are excellent. You are great. You are powerful!

Uncover your greatness! Reflect!

On yourself. Your strengths, your challenges.

In order to do better and be better!

So you can further develop the natural excellence within you!

EXERCISE 1

Cultivating a New Mindset for Ramadan & Beyond

Reflection Questions

1. What are some of the challenging situations this past year you’ve experienced leading up to Ramadan?

2. Are you satisfied with the way you handled these challenges? If not, why not?

3. Have any of these challenges repeatedly occurred in previous years? Do you see a pattern?

4. How can you approach these challenges differently so you get different results --starting this Ramadan?

Remember:

in·san·i·ty

/inˈsanədē/

noun

doing the exact same thing over and over again, expecting things to change.

Be committed to doing things differently this year.

Starting in Ramadan and continuing thereafter!

BE THE

CHANGE

YOU WANT

TO SEE IN

THE WORLD

Chapter 2 – Ramadan Presents a Unique Opportunity

Behold thy Lord said to the angels: I will create

a vicegerent (khalifah) on earth . . .

Al-Quran 2:30

What is the purpose of Ramadan? We all know the obvious answer – to fast for the Pleasure of Allah. Surely Allah created mankind for His worship alone. And, one of the highest and most revered forms of worship is in His Command to fast during this Holy Month of the Islamic calendar. No one is exempt unless sick, mentally incompetent or on a journey. Truly Ramadan is an exceptional time in the lives of Muslims; therefore to participate in this phenomenal event, a time of extraordinary rewards and blessings, requires that we exert our best efforts.

Making preparations at least a few weeks or even a couple months before the new moon for Ramadan is sighted is wise. This means taking time out for reflection, planning and conditioning yourself not only with practice fasts, but through realigning your actions, and even your thoughts, so that you enter Ramadan with a focused momentum, a softened heart and a laser determination. Not only so you can more easily submit to the requisites of the Fast, but so you will be empowered to get the highest benefit from your fasting experience.

Let’s reflect for a moment on what it means to Fast for the Pleasure of Allah. What is Allah really saying? Truly Allah receives nothing by His human creatures fasting or doing anything else for His Pleasure. Because He is One, Eternal and Absolute and He has no need for one iota of anything for His