Advice for the Lethargy After Ramadan

Question:
May I have your permission, Shaykh Salih, to take these questions that have come to us? This questioner says: The blessed month of Ramadan has ended, and it is one of the great seasons of obedience in which people exert themselves to earn rewards. Many people complain of lethargy after Ramadan. This questioner, O Shaykh, asks for your advice and guidance to us in such a matter.

Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah. May the prayers and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah. Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, has made the seasons of goodness and their great rewards among the virtues of the Ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). They are a blessing for us and a mercy from Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He. If a person tightens his belt and strives in these seasons, that is good and a favor from Allah who has opened his heart and made it easy for him to increase in obedience and worship. A person should not be distressed if he sees lethargy and weakness in his resolve after the month of Ramadan. Rather, this is almost a matter of course, for he has exerted more effort and done more work than his self was accustomed to.
It is obligatory for the Muslim not to wrong himself or blame himself for this lethargy that has befallen him. Rather, he should call upon Allah to accept the deeds he presented in the month of Ramadan, for Allah does not accept except But this lethargy is an entry point for Satan to the human being. Satan may delude a person into thinking that he must continue with the same resolve his self had in Ramadan, and that his work will not be accepted unless it is like that. Or, if a person returns to some of his sins that he had left behind in Ramadan, Satan says to him: You have returned to the misguidance you were upon. All of this is from the deception of Satan, so let him beware of falling into these schemes. The Muslim knows that Ramadan is not like other months, for the work increases in it because the reward is multiplied. Likewise, our role model, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), used to do in the last ten nights what he did not do in other times. But the Muslim should make himself better than he was before Ramadan, and he should utilize Ramadan to establish some righteous deeds. Perhaps a man never read from the mushaf except in Ramadan; if he can maintain reading from the mushaf, even two days a week after Ramadan, it would be a great good for him. Yes.

The presenter:
May Allah bless you.