Given its context, one of the most resonating lessons on empathy can be found in To Kill a Mockingbird, when Atticus says to his daughter, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

After I turned 40, every Ramadan I try to “sit” with the Prophet and consider things from his point of view – peace and blessings be upon him and his family. During all those days and nights, when he walked alone and retreated to the Cave of Hira to sit above the valley looking upon his family home below, what were his thoughts for them, their future and his. What were his hopes, aspirations, dreams, and plans?

For me, in this phase of my life, as I try to navigate my work with Sanad Trust Foundation and my life with my family — it is the Prophet Muhammad’s introspection, his retreat to nature, and his planning that I find most meaningful.

It is what allows me to see in my children and my students at Sanad Prep, a universe of potential. They are each a star in the cosmic sense, capable of doing more than we imagine even for our own selves. This is what we must plan for. 

And there is no better time to plan than Ramadan — it is a window into a universe of possibilities. A secret unveiled to the Prophet on a blessed Ramadan night 1400 years ago. A secret that showed there was no time like now. And that beyond this world of effort there is a Creator that responds beyond a capacity we can understand.

This is the month to contemplate the hopes and dreams we have for our family, our work, and our outcomes. Let’s look up at Ramadan’s night skies and then at our lives.

Then, let’s plan on the canvas of this month’s limitless possibilities, knowing that Allah is able to have our lives — as well as the people and work connected to them — shine as bright as He permits and form the magnificent constellations He designs for them. Let us walk, retreat, reflect, and plan like the Prophet (peace be upon him) did — deeply and meaningfully.

May Allah make this a month of praying and planning…of divine guidance and limitless response from Allah…of correcting course and aiming for the stars. Be a man (or woman) with a plan.

– Rehan