"When life knocks you down to your knees, you're in the perfect position to pray."

At first, owing to the condition of Karachi and also of Pakistan, I thought I would write an article titled “We have done this to ourselves”, and in it I would highlight where we have gone wrong and how we can make an attempt to fix our crime. But the thing is that what is happening in Karachi is greater for myself or for any particular individual to comprehend to the fullest. But never the less I do know a few reasons why this is happening to us, one of them being ignorance and know that ignorance is never a bliss, never was and never will be.

One relative recently said that “hum pehle behis thay aur ab baybas hogaye hain”, and that made a lot of sense but I think that even though this is true in itself, what is also true that the reason we are “bebas” now IS because we were “behis pehle”. When we had the time to make the right decisions, we made the wrong ones. The politicians, the political parties and the people who rule us are not foreigners, they ARE Pakistanis; they ARE from amongst US, no matter what we may choose to call them, we still can’t deny this fact. And it is one sign of the Day of Judgment that the people who rule over a people will be of their caliber.

So if we are ruled by these people, who couldn’t care less about the blood being spilled in the streets and cities of Pakistan; then what is our state, what is our status and how are our morals? Our morals are defined by the morals that our rulers have.

Recently, after the media showed the images of the firing on the police officers, the blast in Peshawar and reports about the missing people in Pakistan, then Rehman Malik made a statement that the media is wrongly guiding the Pakistani public. Yes, these people expect us to be blind, to not see what is happening in our own country, in our own streets, in our own neighborhoods and what is happening to our own people!!!

But are they wrong in expecting that from us? Haven’t we done that for long enough to be expected to do just the same yet again? We have all been living our lives in our self constructed bubbles; not having an idea about, or rather “deliberately” not having an idea about, the condition of our people and I’m not just talking about Pakistanis here but I’m also talking about Muslims around the world. Palestine would have been an appropriate example but even that is a far-fetched one in our case, do we even care about the Muslims being killed in Kashmir? Apparently our government does care but only as long as it is promised to get Kashmir. But here’s the catch, the majority of the Kashmiris don’t even want to be joined with us, they instead want independence. But have we ever rose our voice to defend the rights of these Kashmiris; our neighbors, our brothers? Have we ever asked for their independence?

Maybe what you’re thinking right now is that our own condition isn’t of the like that we have any time to worry about others and that’s true but this wasn’t always the case. Furthermore, corruption, vice, fraud and all things wrong ARE common in our public. My aunt (khala) recently said that if I was a non-Muslim and if I didn’t know what Islam was actually about, I would have hated it, owing it to the image that Muslims have created of it. All kinds of corruption are common in our land, the land that was named “the ISLAMIC republic of PAKISTAN.” Pakistan meaning “the land of the pure”; there probably couldn’t have had been anything more ironic, both in the literal and figurative sense.

But despite ALL of this, I would still want to believe that there is hope, not because I am an optimist or because I have faith in our rulers but only because I have faith in God. I know that we deserve what we are going through right now, maybe not all of us, but at least most of us, however even THEN the Mercy of Allah is never limited. We need to change ourselves first, on an individual level then change the people around us (i.e. the people close to us) and we should, all the while, pray to Allah for forgiveness and for Him to make this land ACTUALLY the land of the pure and to bestow us with peace and harmony. This is the month of Ramadan, make as much duaa (supplication) as you possibly can, especially in the odd nights that have started from tonight, for Pakistan and its well-being and for our well-being, our protection and for the protection of our faith.

WE have put ourselves in this position but even now we can be saved because even though we are down on our knees, we are still in the perfect position to pray and to ask for forgiveness. Each and every single one of us needs to ask for forgiveness for any and all the limits that we have transgressed. May Allah see some good in us, when we can no longer see any..

JazakAllah.

Video Broadcast

Assalam-o-Alaikum,

This is a link of a video of Shaykh AbdulNasir Jangda and he breaks down the words we recite in namaz in order for us to In shaa Allah better understand what we are reciting in namaz. He gives very practical advice and it is a very nice lecture, so please do check it out:

Video Broadcast

Where tarawih was supposed to be this spiritual cleanser, it has been reduced to nothing but a ritual.

“Why is the girl next to me moving so much?”, “Ah! The wind finally blew!”, “Ouch! Was that even a mosquito?!”; these are few of the many thoughts that cross my mind while I stand trying to concentrate on the words being recited in the tarawih. It is (I am assuming) already clear that this effort of mine is a complete and utter lack of failure on my part, since all I can make of the words being recited is somewhat the like of the topic that I have chosen. I understand one word and then I am lost, then another word passes me by that I know of and then I am blank again and soon tarawih becomes this interesting jigsaw puzzle that I am vigorously trying to solve but I never end up solving it because I don’t have all the missing pieces!

Where tarawih was supposed to be this spiritual cleanser, it has been reduced to nothing but a ritual. We blank out the minute imam finishes reciting fatiha and then words make sense to us when he says Allah-o-Akbar till he finishes saying fatiha again. But why is our condition so?

Our condition is so; firstly because we don’t know Quranic Arabic. And if you’re thinking “Wait! We do have the translations”, then please think again because no amount of translations can make us understand the Quran the way we can if we were to know Arabic. Secondly try reading Iqbal’s or Faiz’s poetry in English; you really think it will have the same effect and the same richness that it has in urdu? No; translations take away all the flavor from the text because in the original text the words that our chosen have an impact and the way they are placed in a sentence has an impact but in a translation all that is left is the gist of the matter.

Now I’ll be going off the topic for a while but In shaa Allah only to highlight the importance of what’s being discussed here. How many of us have a particular taste in music? We all do, right? Some people like jazz, some like rock, some like hip-hop etc. etc., but how did we end up developing these tastes? (Don’t get me wrong here; this example is being used only to clarify the point, NOT to publicize music because we are not supposed to listen to music.) Did we just wake up one day with a thought that I am supposed to like rock so I will like rock music? No, but the fact of the matter is that we grew up listening to music; we listened to numerous artists and bands before we developed this taste. It took a whole lot of fine-tuning and exposure to get us to the taste that we have developed now. But think about it this way, how much exposure have we had to the Quran, its meaning and its significance? If something like music can require so much effort then imagine how much effort were we supposed to put in to understand the Quran.

Furthermore what is it that you like about a song? Probably the musical instruments being used in it and the voice of the singer but what else makes you enjoy listening to it? Don’t the lyrics of the song have an impact, doesn’t it matter how “relatable” the song is for you and the flow in which the lyrics are being said? It does have a huge impact, imagine if someone was just to say “I love the way you lie”, you’d probably think that that person needed some mental help, at the very least, but Eminem and Rihanna came up with a song about it and it was a super hit! Why was it so? It was so because of the way the words were placed, with the way they created a flow in it and other things like that. (Not an expert of music here.) But do you think we ever see or feel the flow of the words of the Quran? No because we have limited ourselves to translations and if you are one who feels the flow in a translation then congratulations because apparently you are one of a kind.

But coming back to the point, aren’t we literally like THE people of “FEEL”? (If there is such a thing that is) We choose the careers we “feel” we are good at and will enjoy, we do what we “feel” like doing, we say what we “feel” like saying, we eat what we “feel” like eating, so on and so forth but then why have we separated the feel factor from Quran? When a huge part of the Quran IS the way it impacts our hearts. If Quran was “just” a message of doing good and staying away from bad and having faith then do you honestly think that it would have made people like Hazrat Umar (R.A.) accept Islam after hearing just a few aayaat? Do you know that there were amongst the kufaar people whose eyes swelled up with tears from the beauty of Quran when they used to hear it being recited?  

These are things we need to think about and hence In shaa Allah bring about the necessary changes in our lives and actions but I started by talking about tarawih so I’ll end by talking about tarawih. There are two practical steps with which we can make our tarawih more than just a ritual; the first step is an immediate step and the second one is somewhat of a long term one. The first step is that before going to tarawih we can read the translation of the chapter/s of Quran that will be recited in the tarawih that day. (This step is more of what we call “jugarh lagana” in urdu but it will help nonetheless In shaa Allah.) However the second step is to get started in learning Arabic so that you can enjoy the Quran, understand what it means and FEEL what it says.

May Allah help all of us in implementing what we learn and may we all find avenues through which we can learn Arabic and In shaa Allah better understand the Quran. In fact if anyone would want to learn Arabic online then here is a link for it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h-Tss7e1iM&feature=related

This link is basically just part one of all the classes that have been put up on youtube, the instructor is awesome and the classes are for free. However he tackles everything extensively which is amazing cause it is most effective that way but that also means that the course will be long. However this is just one option, there are many other ways to learn Arabic, find the one that suits you the best. 

For Ramadan Prep

Assalam-o-Alaikum,

Ramadan is just around the corner,

So if anyone is interested in learning how to prepare for ramadan then you could either go to this link and listen to the lectures given by some of the most amazing scholars, including Wisam Sharieff, Nouman Ali Khan and AbdulNasir Jangda, from here:

http://ramadanprep.ummahnow.org/recordings/

Or you could go to this link, this is a lecture given by Shaykh Kamaludin:

http://www.islamicspirituality.org/lectures/ramadan

There are many other lectures available online regarding how to prepare ourselves for Ramadan, but the general theme of all these lectures is that don't start eating too much in Ramadan because eating too much actually makes us lazy and makes it difficult for us to worship properly. Furthermore, we should increase all our good deeds and actions in Ramadan. Also pray that the effects of Ramadan last all year round and not just through out Ramadan.

However, do listen to at least a few good lectures and if possible then make a Ramadan resolution and actually strive to make some changes in your lives in accordance with Islam. Pray that Allah makes this Ramadan and all the other Ramadans that follow it, a source of Allah's mercy on us and a source of our maghfira In shaa Allah.

JazakAllah.

Why is it so hard to act upon what we know?

This is one of the biggest problems that I have had myself. Somehow it is easier to listen to dars and Islamic lectures, read up on Islamic articles and even pass them on to others but it seems so much harder to implement those same things into our own lives.

I guess one of the reasons for this is that our intention before listening to a good lecture or talk isn’t to immediately adopt all the good things, that we learn, into our lives but rather our intention is just to listen to something good. This might also be a result of the way we are taught in schools, many a times we are expected to learn so many facts and figures that we cannot apply practically but that we only have to store in our heads e.g. dates of events in history, to quote just one example. We are so used to the idea of hoarding up knowledge, consciously or subconsciously, that we forget that knowledge is actually just a “tool” for “application”.

If we don’t apply what we learn practically then it is as good as not having that knowledge in the first place. There is a narration that a young boy used to go to Hazrat Aisha (R.A.) to learn hadith from her, so she taught him a few the first day. And then the next day he came back to her to learn more, she asked him that have you implemented all the ahadith I told you yesterday and he said no. To that she replied that then why are you increasing God’s arguments against you. Meaning that Allah has given us knowledge for us to benefit from it and the more knowledge we have, the more it should show in our actions and deeds but if we have knowledge and we don’t act upon it then Allah is going to ask us with regards to it.

So the first thing we need to do is that we should make the niyyat of changing our lifestyles and actions in accordance to whatever good we read or hear and we should pray that Allah makes us do “amal” on the knowledge that we already possess. What else is there which stops us from benefitting from all the good that we hear and read? One other reason can be that the hereafter seems very, very far away to most of us, however, for the sahaba the hereafter was right in front of them. And so we procrastinate in doing good deeds because for us there is always so much time, which is obviously never true because time is passing away by the second and it just passed away even while I wrote that.

One more thing is that people have reduced Islam to just a set of rules and instructions, all they want to know is whether this is haraam or that is halal, they don’t care about nafli ibadah or extra rewards, they just want to do the bare minimum. However, sometimes very little actions earn us great rewards for example; in jama’at one should say aameen after the imam has recited fatiha and if the person’s aameen coincides with the aameen of the angels then all his past sins are forgiven. (I believe this is mostly for men but it can probably apply for women too, e.g. during tarawih and eid namaz etc.)

We also need to realize that we NEED extra rewards, we need all that we can get. If you’re a student then you’ll see to what extent some people go just in order to obtain a few extra marks but when it comes to Islam, they only want to do the faraiz. Imagine the sahaba who were actually guaranteed jannah STILL didn’t leave out on any good deeds they could get a hand on. And our own Prophet (S.A.W.) used to pray so much that his legs would swell and when he would be asked as to why he is doing so much when Allah has already forgiven all his sins, he would say “Should I not be a grateful servant then?”

One other reason people don’t act upon knowledge is that some people have TOO MUCH rajah or hope in Allah, in fact there are some people who don’t even do the faraiz but they say that since they have such a “good” heart hence on that basis they’ll enter jannah! They are not even doing the bare minimum and yet they have the guts to say something like that! And although there is absolutely no doubt that Allah is Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem but remember that Allah is “oft-forgiving” and “very Merciful”, not “all-forgiving” neither “entirely Merciful”. Meaning that one cannot disobey the very commandments of Allah and then be so blindly arrogant that they can even claim that they’ll enter jannah when Allah Himself has said that, “Enter Islam completely.” Meaning you can’t just do a few good things and leave out the rest especially the faraiz and think that you’ve gotten the ticket to heaven. Allah has made it very easy for us to enter jannah, no doubt about that, but it requires complete obedience and submission from our side.

May Allah accept every effort from our part even if our niyyat wasn't "entirely" to please Him and may Allah correct our niyyat and help us act on whatever good we learn. Aameen. 

At-Tahiyyat - the origin.

What is the dividing line between muslims and non-muslims? Salah. But is that all there is to it? No; it has been said by the Prophet (S.A.W.) that Salah is the Mairaj of a Momin. However, for how many of us is that even true? We pray salah like we breathe; without thinking and without concentration. But WHY is it that we are so heedless with regards to our salah? The answer may vary from person to person but generally it’s either because we lack that level of imaan needed for us to attain khushoo or that we lack the understanding of what salah actually is.

For right now, let’s just focus on the second part that is the understanding of what salah actually is; its importance and uniqueness. We pray salah as an act of obedience to Allah and to remember Him, that is the purpose of salah. But sometimes, to have a deeper understanding of its purpose, we need to have a deeper understanding of its origin; it was “gifted” to the Prophet (S.A.W.) during his mairaj. It is a gift, it is a blessing and not just that but there is a part of salah which is the actual part of the conversation that took place between Allah and the Prophet (S.A.W.).

So what is this special part of the salah which gives a whole new meaning to the statement that “Salah is the Mairaj of a Momin”? It is the at-tahiyyaat that we recite in namaz. During the mairaj, Hazrat Jibrael (A.S) was assisting Prophet (S.A.W.) with his journey but when they reached the seventh sky, Hazrat Jibrael (A.S) refused to accompany him beyond that point as he said that he’ll get burnt if he went any further so then Prophet (S.A.W.) went on his own. And when the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) reached the place that we don’t know of and met Allah Subhan-o-Ta’ala he sent his greetings upon Allah which forms our first part of the attahiyaat: Attahiyat-tu lilLah, wassalawato, wathtayyabatu which means “Greetings to thee, O Allah, and prayers and all good things.”

Then Allah answered his greetings by saying: Assalam-u Alayka ayyuhan nabiyu wa rahma-tul-lahy wa barakatu-hu which means “Peace be upon you, O Prophet, the mercy and the blessing of God be upon you.” And this forms the second part of our attahiyaat. Here notice that Allah sends peace, mercy and blessings only upon Prophet (S.A.W.) and Prophet (S.A.W.) could have just graciously accepted it but he had so much love for his ummah that he did not want to exclude us from the mercy of Allah so he included: Assalam-u alayna wa ‘ala ‘ibadillah-his swaliheen which means “Peace be upon us, and upon the righteous people of God.” 

And when Hazrat Jibrael heard this conversation between Allah and His messenger from wherever he was, he bore witness to it by saying: Ashhadu Allah ilaha illalLah wa ashhadu- unna Muhammad-an ‘abdu-hu wa rasool-lu hu which means: “We witness that there is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His slave and His Prophet.”

SubhanAllah! This one small part of the salah captures such an immense incident in itself with all its beauty. So I think if we even started concentrating on just our attahiyaat while praying then In shaa Allah our salah will be a whole lot better. Of course, we should always make an effort to be attentive throughout the salah and this can act as a stepping stone for us in attaining concentration and khushoo in namaz.

Alhamdulilah I'm a Muslim