The Ruling on Devoting Oneself to Worship in Ramadan

Question: Is it a recommended practice (sunnah) to devote oneself in Ramadan to righteous deeds and to turn away toward rest and worship?

Answer: The Muslim’s entire work is worship, and his obligatory duties, if his intention is sound, are all worship. Thus, worship is not merely prayer or fasting. Learning knowledge and teaching it, calling people to Allah, raising and caring for children, attending to the affairs of one’s family, being kind to the servants of Allah, exerting effort to help people, alleviating the distress of the afflicted and the worries of the anxious, benefiting people through any permissible action, and seeking lawful sustenance—all of this is worship of Allah the Exalted if the intention is sound.
The Muslim whom Allah enables to combine private and public acts of worship has attained great good. Likewise, performing the job assigned to him in Ramadan with sincerity and truthfulness is part of the worship for which he is rewarded.
As for the one who limits himself to private worship because he is unable to do otherwise, he is in a state of great good if he is sincere to Allah and truthful in his righteous work. Ramadan passed by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) twice while he was in a state of striving. The Battle of Badr al-Kubra took place on the seventeenth of Ramadan in the second year of the Hijrah, and the Conquest of Makkah took place in Ramadan in the eighth year of the Hijrah. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) traveled in Ramadan and broke his fast when he saw the hardship that had befallen the people.
The point is that the Muslim should strive in Ramadan in righteous deeds and not make the blessed month a time for idleness, sleep, heedlessness, and turning away.