4. Watch what you eat

It is very important one eats right as what we eat will effect us day to day and many foods will make us feel lazy and lethargic which will effect our Ibadah (Worship). Therefore what we out into our stomachs everyday is extremely important.

5. Breakfast

We should always eat a good breakfast because it would give us the best start to the day. Rasulallah (Pbuh) used to have honey in some warm water when he woke up. This cleanses the stomach.

A while later a good breakfast to have would be oats and porridge as they slowly release energy and most other cereals have way too much sugar in them. Of one can have some yoghurt with honey and fruit. One can sweeten ones porridge with a little honey. One can also have brown wholegrain toast with boiled egg.

6. Lunch

Have a light but filling lunch because if our lunch is too heavy then we will certainly begin to feel lethargic later on in the afternoon so make sure you don't have a heavy lunch.It is best to avoid fried foods and too much carbohydrates at lunch as in too much rice, pasta or potato as these can make you very lethargic later on in the afternoon.

Stick to eating a healthy wholegrain bread sandwich with salmon, tuna, chicken with salad or soup with some brown bread. Whatever you eat make sure its not too heavy as this will make one very tired towards the middle to end of the afternoon and make one groggy after coming home from work especially after a long day.

7. Snacking

Avoid snacking on too many crisps, chocolates and biscuits. Rather replace with fruit with yoghurt or healthy snacks. Avoid too much coffee and tea throughout the day because ones body can get used to it and one would end up getting headaches and groggy if one doesn�t have tea or coffee. Stick to a cup or two of green tea as this is a very good source of antioxidants.

8. Evening meal

Rasulallah(Pbuh) recommended eating evening meal so one should have a good meal in the evenings but again not too heavy because the heavier the meal the more harder it will be too get up in the morning for Fajr and work.

Have a high protein meal with more fish and chicken and meat about twice a week. If one doesn�t eat meat then replace with tofu, Soya products and paneer in a healthy stir fry with vegetables.

Try not to have too much rice or too many chapatti�s. Always have as much fresh vegetables and salad as you can with your meals.

Best to eat between 6 to 7 and no later because one should eat no later than 4 hours before sleep.

9. Balanced diet

Have a good and balanced diet not eating too much of any particular thing. Have plenty of fruit and vegetables of different varieties as our body needs a variety of vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Don't rely on supplements rather take your vitamins and minerals naturally from healthy and fresh food.

10. Brain food

Almonds are a very good brain food as are oily fish which contain a lot of Omega 3 oils like Mackerel, sardines and salmon.

Also opt for a lot more wholegrain in your diet like whole grain bread, rice and pasta.

Seeds are also brilliant so get some mix seeds and put some in your porridge or on some yoghurt with honey every morning or as a desert or snack with honey. Have a lot of tomatoes as well which contain a lot of lycopene which is really good for your brain and for your skin.

11. Structure day

Structure your day properly and try to make a timetable or plan for yourself. You have to be determined and think to yourself "I cannot waste anymore time like this for death can come at any second and i need to make the best of my time".

Making the best use of time in our lives is crucial. The time we have now has to be spent as much as possible worshipping Allah or no doubt it will become a source of regret for us in the hereafter. Here is what you can do to make the best use of your free time:

12. Salah (prayers)

We should all be praying our Fard Salah everyday 5 times without fail. If there is a discrepancy in our Fard Salah then we should really sort our act out because this is very serious. Watch this short clip on the importance of Salah:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNDb41OH46A - - http://www.islamicbulletin.com/free_...mufti_taqi.pdf

So set yourself a target of how much one will recite and how much of its meanings will one read. A good way of doing it is read a chapter or half a chapter and then read its meanings. Or whatever one finds easiest.

14. Acquiring Islamic knowledge

There is so much to learn in Islam so get some good and reliable books on Islam that you would enjoy reading and learning about. It is always best to start from the basics and then build your way up. So get advice from those who are learned as to which books you should read and where you should start from.

Here is one of the best books for learning about the basics of Islam including Tawheed, how to pray do Wudhu, Ghusl. It also contains stories of the Prophets and much more. It is written in a very easy to read language style and is a very enjoyable read where one will be better acquainted with the basics. It is available to download for free as an E book in a PDF file along with many other free E books to download on the basics of Islam and much more:

http://www.islamicbulletin.com/services/details.aspx?id=268 - "Whosoever does not make dua to Allah, He will be angry with Him." [Saheeh Jaami`as-Sagheer #2414]

17. Choose your friends carefully

Once you have built a close relationship with the Masjid you then you will have built a closer relationship with Allah. If your a brother then one will find good and pious brothers at the Masjid where one has the opportunity in meeting good and pious brothers who will benefit and help us towards the right path.

If your a sister then join a sisters circle, halaqa�s and sisters programmes as these are beneficial gatherings where you can learn knowledge and mix with and find good and pious sisters who you can befriend and a good friend will help you towards Jannah and encourage you in doing good deeds which will please Allah and the bad friend will have the opposite effect.

We should try to spend as much time as possible with pious, righteous and learned people and keep away from keeping bad friends and those who are loose in their talk and have a bad influence towards you. These people are not your real friends trust me.

The Prophet (saws) said, �The case of the good companion and the bad companion is like that of the seller of musk and the blower of the bellows (iron-smith). As for the seller of musk, he will either give you some of the musk, or you will purchase some from him, or at least you will come away having experienced its good smell. Whereas the blower of the bellows will either burn your clothing, or at least you will come away having experienced its repugnant smell.� [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

Remember: �All friends will be enemies of one another on that Day (Day of Judgment) except those of the virtuous.� (al-Qur�an 43:67)

One of the most important things we must do, which sadly many people neglect, is that we should avoid bad company. People we should avoid taking as friends those who speak too freely, who miss Salah, who do not dress modestly, who backbite, slander etc.

The company of such people is poison; just even sitting and talking with them will lead one to commit sins. Just as a person who sits for a long time with a perfume seller begins to smell nice, and a person who sits by a gutter cleaner begins to smell awful, similarly a person who spends time in the company of the wicked eventually gets affected badly by them.

Rather, we should seek out pious friends who fear Allah Ta�ala and who have the qualities of humility, charity, compassion, modesty and knowledge. If we sit with them we will always benefit and they will be a means for us to get closer to Allah Ta�ala!

21. Being the best towards others in character and manners

Many of us think that �a perfect Muslim� is simply one who is correct in the observance of the salaah (ritual Prayer), the fasting, the Zakaah (payment of a certain portion of one�s wealth to the poor), and the Hajj (pilgrimage to Makkah). This indeed is not the case.

If the ritual observances do not help the person to be humble, virtuous and truly God-fearing, then he or she is not a real Muslim. A Muslim should be good and just in dealing with others, no matter their religion, and take special care to keep away from all the shameful and sinful things Allah has forbidden.

One can never get close to Allah by being arrogant, full of pride and having a bad character and manners. Those who have humility and are humble and have good character and manners are the closest to Allah and Allah raises their ranks in the hereafter. The best person is the one who is best towards others.


22. Spend time with family and maintain ties between family and close relatives who are mahram

Don't forget to spend time with your family and close relatives as Islam emphasizes a lot about maintaining ties of kinship. If there is a dispute then be the first to try and resolve it or get an elder of the community or family involved to mediate matters and get advice from a learned scholar. The disputes should not be allowed to continue because of petty worldly matters and should be resolved straight away.

23. Keep away from non mahram and be-friending members of opposite sex

One should not be mixing with or spending time with any family or relatives that are non mahram and one should certainly not be alone with any of them as Shaythaan is always third party when a mahram and non mahram are together.

One should also not be mixing with those of the opposite sex because Allah tells us to keep away from anything that leads to adultery and be-friending a member of the opposite sex always starts off with something innocent and leads to haraam and major sin so totally avoid contact with the opposite gender for it is only for your own good. It is Shaythaan that deceives one into thinking that it is ok to befriend the opposite sex but the main aim of Shaythaan is to take us towards destruction and HELL!

So let us not listen to our enemy but abide by the commandments of Allah and know that he sees all that we do!

24. Keep away from sin by fearing Allah and remembering death can come ANY second!

We constantly get distracted in our daily lives as to our purpose in this life and why we are here. That is why we should constantly remember death as death is the destroyer of all pleasures and brings us back to reality that we are mortals and that our time here is only very temporary and can end at ANY second. Read more here about death the destroyer of pleasures:

http://www.lutonmuslims.co.uk/destroyer.htm - http://www.lutonmuslims.co.uk/destroyer.htm

We should always fear Allah and know that he is watching our every move and that at ANY moment death can overcome us like it did for these three people:

Please watch these three very short clips which will certainly shock us into realising that one second we may be normal and smiling and getting on with things and the next second overcome by death!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHhX4roeEco - - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYGR5iIbn9o


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU3VMuEAxY0 -
Remember we only have one pair of parents and they will not be with us for long or many of us may have already lost or both parents. So make the best use of the time you have with your parents because when they are gone then all we will have left is regret forever!

Please watch this short clip - Appreciate your mother or you will regret it forever!- This will make you cry!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4NwYrlqkcY - �Shaytaan has overtaken them. So he has made them forget the remembrance of Allah. They are the party of Shaytaan�� [Surah al-Mujadilah (58): 19] But as soon as we remember, we should strive to leave that which distracted us from the remembrance of Allah and His Commands as the Qur�an commands us, �If Shaytaan causes you to forget, then do not sit after the remembrance in the company of the wrong-doers.� [Surah al-An'am (6): 68]

So the one who wants to do some good deed should carry out his action with determination and resolve. Resolve means not wasting time and not delaying things. He should forget about the idea of having plenty of time because the one who has been warned (of the punishment of Allah) should not be assured.

What you miss, you cannot make up for it. The reason for every shortcoming or inclination of evil is the belief that there is plenty of time and a lot of hope, because man keeps thinking of giving up evil and turning towards good, but delays. No doubt, whoever thinks that he has the whole day ahead of him will take his time, and whoever has the hope that he will still be there in the morning will do very little during the night, but the one who thinks of death as imminent will strive harder.

You need to discipline yourself otherwise you will waste huge amounts of time which you will never get back and who knows when death will come for life is so uncertain and we need to prepare before preparations are made for our funerals!

The Prophet (Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam) used to make a du�a:

اللّهُمَّ إنِّي أعُوذُبِكَ مِن العَجزِ وَ الكَسلٍ

Transliteration: Allahumma inniy a�oothubika min al-ajzi wal-kasli
Translation: O Allah, I seek refuge in you from incapability and laziness.


29. Make good use of your youth before it�s over!

Make the best use of your youth until it is over because you will never be able to get it back. The youth is the best time for worship and getting closer to Allah so let us make the best of this time that we have and not waste it otherwise we will regret it FOREVER!

Download this very beneficial PDF file called: "A message to the youth"

http://www.kalamullah.com/Books/A_Message_To_Every_Youth.pdf - "Take advantage of five matters before five other matters: your youth before you become old; and your health before you fall sick; and your richness before you become poor; and your free time before you become busy; and your life before your death."

[Musnad Imam Ahmad]

30. Self evaluation on a daily basis

Self-evaluation means to assess where you are in life, set goals for the future, and think of what you can do to get there.

The process of self-evaluation makes one pro-active in directing one's life in order to achieve the goals one sets for themself. Unless we take the initiative our lives will be shaped by circumstances.

This is a brilliant tool for us to self evaluate ourselves just like people keep logs or diaries to remind them of things so that we can evaluate and improve ourselves on a daily basis.

This "Daily Ibadah (worship) check" chart is perfect for you to evaluate worship on a daily basis so as to make improvements from there. You can download it and make print outs. Each chart represents one week:

My Daily Ibadah (worship) check

http://www.islamicity.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=15945 - http://www.islamicity.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=15945


Implement this new routine into our lives NOW for tomorrow may never come!

So let us put all of this into our daily routine so that everyday can be a rewarding day for us. Let us spend our youth pleasing Allah and being close to him and not waste our youth for we will never get it back and if we waste it then surely we will regret it FOREVER and by then it would have been too late!

May Allah guide us towards the straight path and make us the best of the good doers and the biggest benefactors of Islam! Ameen

Here are two very beneficial threads:

Please listen these very beneficial talks: