Ya Ayyuhal Walad........ [ Oh My Dear Son ]

 Oh My Dear Son,

You ask Papa what do we do next? We are now beyond 'Puasa Enam'

Well, my dear son,

At you relative young age, you still have long to go. If you continue the fervour you did the last 10 days of Ramadan, you will end sooner than later a 'burnt out' chap.

I advise to 'DE-ESCALATE' ie if for example you are doing, like Papa, the al-Ghazali's weekly wirid in a day, say at 500x each quantum, de-escalate to say a hundred time each, or 200 each , over the whole day.

Maintain your obligatory prayers as before and try to at least do it once a day at our local mosque, say, Magrib, Isya' or Subuh

Try to maintain contact with the mosque as it is not for prayers, it serve as your contact and centre to ILM.

In short, my dear son, choose whatever wirid you like, spread it out over day but start with CASH early in the morning, well before Subuh prayer, if you are a wee bit lazy, give a longer post Subuh wirid.       Add a wee bit of daily quran, this is best!!                                                                                                   If you guys want to be permanently head damaged like Papa  at your age[ phd}, go to my library and start reading Hamka's Tafsir al-Azhar, 2 to 3 pages a day.

Whatever you do, the accent is ISTIQAMAH.                                                                                             Berdikit dikit dulu, but amplify the volume with the coming years.

At Papa's age , and people Papa's age, when the 'house is already saying goodbye, goodbye,... and the grave is welcoming' , we have no choice but to 'ESCALATE'

I would still do my al-Ghazali wirid full: the weekly plan complete in one day, no longer to be coubted as you go by the minutes and hours.

Still wake up say one hour or one hour and a half before Subuh, and inter-sperse the tahajud prayers  and tasbih prayer with the wirid, probably covering half of the wirid before Subuh, and the rest between breakfast time and lunch, at every nooks and corners available during Papa's morning hours at the hospital.. No more need to count, just go by feeling and time.

THe rest of the day, I have the other favourite such as Nabi Yunus's doa and wirid; some favourite asma al-husna....and the greatest zikr of all :

" La ila Ha illa hu wahdahu Laashari kala' lahul mulku wala hul hamdu wahuwa ala kulli shai in qadir "

etc etc etc..........tengok keadaan. Papa could easily do a thousand in the pool at KGNS.

Mixing the profane and the sublime , so to speak. You will find you will like the profane [ the exercise ] because you got addicted to the sublime [ the wirid  ]

The Haj people mostly recite just this at the field of Arafah during their Wukuf time.

There is a well known hadith which alluded to this wirid being 'the tress and beautiful plants that you plant in heaven.

" ....your estate in Jannah is a vast open plain, stretches far beyond the horizon. A cool place. This wirid will be the trees that you plant for your garden in Jannah...", or some thing to that effect. I could not recall the hadith exactly, but off the cuff , it alludes to that/

Please do check the authenticity of the hadith. Papa  has wild imagination oftentimes. I read to much during your age. 

At school in KB in the 60's, papa used to cycle from Jalan Teliput into down town KB to visit Carnegie Library,  to read philosophical works of Scopenhaur, Jung, Freud., of which Papa that time could not comprehend a thing Even read the works of evangelicals like Dr Norman Vincent Peale..

Then after having my morning fill, cycle back to prepare for afternoon school session at the world famous Sultan Ismail College. Papa probably was in form 2 or form 3, then. at MCKK, I was introduced to Bertrand Russel.

In later life graduated to al-Ghazali, Abdal Qadir al-Jilani, etc and etc.  & not forgetting Hamka's Tafsir al-Azhar.

So now , all those years of  'junks' are just creeping out!!

Enjoy. your life to the fullest my son, but, always, always, always, the BILLAH & LILLAH, must be there in the background and foreground.

LIFE IS FRAGILE,  at all ages, even at your ages!