Know that with every beat of your heart, (it) itself remembers and glorifies Allah.

Souce: http://thelightedpath.tumblr.com/

On your way towards an attitude of sacrifice

- by Abdul Wahid, taken from Intellect Bulletin, Vol-2/Issue-10/October 2013

It is quite easy to talk about the spirit of sacrifice when discussing Eid-ul-Adha. But it is not quite simple to implement it in one's daily life. As the age-old adage says, it is easier said than done. However, much as it is NOT easy, it is definitely not impossible either. So how do you embark upon the journey towards implementing the spirit of sacrifice in your daily life? Here are some handy tips you can use:

a) Be positive
Yes, it is easier to talk about sacrifice than actually giving the sacrifice when the time comes, but never let this belief deter you in your objective. You may consider yourself as a weak person, but you can always derive your strength from your faith.

b) Make loads of duas
Prayer is the best source of strength. Ask Allah's (S.W.T) help at all times. Make loads of invocations and in shaa Allah, He (S.W.T) will make things easier for you.

c) Try and try again
You may falter - not once, but many times. However, don't let that get to you. Maybe you could not do what was right in one situation - learn from it and move on.

d) Keep the end goal in mind
If at any time you start getting this feeling of: "why do I always have to give the sacrifice?", remind yourself that it is Shaytaan trying to mislead you. Emphasize to yourself that you are doing this for Allah's (S.W.T) pleasure and your ultimate goal - Paradise.

e) Beware of publicising your sacrifices
Showing off good deeds always lessen the amount of blessing you get for them. Whatever sacrifices you make for Allah (S.W.T), keep them to yourself rather than glorifying yourself in public or feeling excessively proud. Again, remind yourself of your ultimate goal whenever you feel the urge to talk about all that you have done.

Allah-o-Akbar!

Allah-o-Akbar!

In every azaan,

In every namaz,

While slaughtering our animals,

Allah-o-Akbar!

But is it in our lives?

Do we remember that He is Greater than our problems,

Greater than our worries,

Greater than our sorrows,

Greater than all that there is?

Allah-o-Akbar!

Truly I have been neglectful!

Allah-o-Akbar!

That Great Deity chose us to be,

He chose us as His servants,

He chose us for Islam,

He gave us life,

and here I stand and sin,

Allah-o-Akbar!

today I repent to the One Who is the Greatest,

today I repent to the One Whose Mercy supersedes all my hideous deeds,

today I repent to my Lord, the Almighty,

today I repent for I have not lived the way I should have indeed.

Everything good herein is from Allah Ta'ala and all faults are my own.

An excerpt from: "Reflecting on Exams"

In recent weeks, millions of teenagers and young adults have been receiving exam results, from GCSEs to university degrees. It is that time of year when the mystery and uncertainty of the harvest of their efforts will abruptly come to an end, with the opening of an innocent envelope. Some will tear into that envelope, like ripping off a bandage. Some will not bear to open it. There will be tears, there will be delight, there will be disappointment, there will be relief, there will anger, there will be gratitude and ingratitude. No doubt, all of us have been through this or something similar, and for those that reflect, as Believers sensitive to Signs around them ought to, this is an important reminder, and a mercy from Allah. Why? It is because this entire life is an exam. And there are no retakes.

Allah and His messenger (SallAllahu ‘alayhi wasallam) left no doubt in our minds, that the primary purpose of this life is that of an examination, from your first breath to your last.

“Exalted is He who holds all control in His hands; who has power over all things; who created death and life to test you [people] and reveal which of you does best––He is the Mighty, the Forgiving.”[1]

“We have adorned the earth with attractive things so that We may test people to find out which of them do best, but We shall reduce all this to barren dust.”[2]

The exams and tests that we experience during our lives, are miniature versions of the real test we are going through right now, and the emotions we feel when we open that envelope, are mild reminders of the intense joy, delight, relief, regret and sorrow (may Allah protect us), that people will feel on the Day of Judgement, where the Final Results will be given.

“Anyone who is given his Record in his right hand will say, ‘Here is my Record, read it. I knew I would meet my Reckoning,’ and so he will have a pleasant life in a lofty Garden, with clustered fruit within his reach. It will be said, ‘Eat and drink to your heart’s content as a reward for what you have done in days gone by.’ 

But anyone who is given his Record in his left hand will say, ‘If only I had never been given any Record and knew nothing of my Reckoning. How I wish death had been the end of me. My wealth has been no use to me, and my power has vanished.’ ‘Take him, put a collar on him, lead him to burn in the blazing Fire, and [bind him] in a chain seventy metres long.” [3]

These ayaat do not require much explanation. We probably all know how it feels when you get a good result; how you want to share it, show your loved ones. Likewise we probably all know how it feels to fail an exam or test in this life; how we try to hide it, and even wish we never received it. But can you imagine failing an exam so badly that you wish you were destroyed? This is why these tests and exams are a blessing for those that reflect. Looking backwards now from results day, the whole concept of examination and testing itself can also be used to draw many important reflections from.

The transformation

I have been around students (and therefore exams) for most of my life, and whenever we enter or even draw close to ‘exam season’, I am absolutely amazed at the ability of the student to completely turn his or her life upside-down. Not just students but many of us can relate, whether it be a project deadline at work, or a particular important task to be done at home. The entire daily routine changes, everything revolving around getting the work done. We sleep less, if at all, and if we do we dream about our work. No socializing. No TV. No Facebook. No going out. We might even forget to eat between cans of energy drink. What’s most amazing, perhaps, is that all of this happens, for something we probably don’t even like!

The lesson that immediately comes to mind when we consider this, is that if I can transform my entire daily routine for something like an exam, which may determine what job I get or what university I go to, then I can—no, I must—also transform my life for the real exam, which will determine where I remain for eternity. And that’s a hell of a long time. Therefore a successful person is one who is aware of (and continually reminding others of) the nature of this life, and the need to work towards the Final Result. Making small changes in one’s routine, such as waking up early to pray the night prayer, or praying in a masjid, can have a monumental effect on one’s final grade.

The purpose of exams

Another fruit of reflection is harvested when we look to the spirit of exams. The main objectives of an examination, arguably, can be summarized as: (i) to drive you to do better as a student; (ii) to prove yourself as worthy of being in that institution or receiving the honor of that qualification; and (iii) to distinguish between better and worse students—to sort the men from the boys, so to speak. And it is no surprise then, that Allah says:

“Alif Lam Mim. Do people think they will be left alone after saying ‘We believe’ without being put to the test? We tested those who went before them: God will certainly mark out which ones are truthful and which are lying.”[5]

Just like we do not expect any student worth his salt to assume that he deserves to belong to a high-ranking university without earning it, we similarly must not expect that the gates of Paradise will beckon our names, just because we say, “we believe”, without going through some kind of effort to walk the walk. Rather we must strive and struggle, to manifest our sincerity and submission to Allah, and commitment to His lofty Cause. Of course, Allah already knows what is in the hearts of His servants better than they do, but He loves to see them worship Him and obey Him, and struggle to distinguish themselves in servitude to Him. If we do not spend effort and focus on our servitude to Allah, then we have no right of assuming that He will grant us Paradise through His Mercy.

As for the third objective of exams, the amount and quality of the servitude we each strive for, leads to what Allah has so eloquently stated:

“When that which is coming arrives, no one will be able to deny it has come, bringing low and raising high. When the earth is shaken violently and the mountains are ground to powder and turn to scattered dust, then you will be sorted into three classes.  Those on the Right––what people they are! Those on the Left––what people they are! And those in front––ahead indeed! For these will be the ones brought nearest to God in Gardens of Bliss: many from the past and a few from later generations. On couches of well-woven cloth they will sit facing each other; everlasting youths will go round among them with glasses, flagons, and cups of a pure drink that causes no headache or intoxication; [there will be] any fruit they choose; the meat of any bird they like; and beautiful companions like hidden pearls: a reward for what they used to do. They will hear no idle or sinful talk there, only clean and wholesome speech.”

“Those on the Right, what people they are! They will dwell amid thornless lote trees and clustered acacia with spreading shade, constantly flowing water, abundant fruits, unfailing, unforbidden, with incomparable companions. We have specially created––virgin, loving, of matching age–– for those on the Right, many from the past and many from later generations.”

“But those on the Left, what people they are! They will dwell amid scorching wind and scalding water in the shadow of black smoke, neither cool nor refreshing. Before, they overindulged in luxury and persisted in great sin, always saying, ‘What? When we are dead and have become dust and bones, shall we then be raised up? And our earliest forefathers too?’ Say [Prophet], ‘The earliest and latest generations will all be gathered on a predetermined Day and you who have gone astray and denied the truth will eat from the bitter tree of Zaqqum, filling your bellies with it, and drink scalding water, lapping it like thirsty camels.’ This will be their welcome on the Day of Judgement.”[6]

The Merciful Examiner

Allah, out of His unimaginable Mercy, has made a few key differences between the exams we subject each other to, and the test of this life. Firstly, exams in schools and universities are often criticized for not providing a faithful enough representation of the quality of a student. Many may have studied long and hard, only for a small percentage of their revised subjects to make an appearance on the exam (and often in my case, the one topic I would tactfully—and unsuccessfully—try and avoid revising). The sincere servant can rest assured, that every iota of effort he or she spends towards the test of this life, will be securely recorded, and even multiplied!

“On that Day, people will come forward in separate groups to be shown their deeds: whoever has done an atom’s-weight of good will see it, but whoever has done an atom’s-weight of evil will see that.”[9]

Another significant difference related to this is that there is no uncertainty when it comes to what is expected of us. Unlike a school or university exam, we already know the questions. And we already know the answers. All we have to do is bother to put the effort in. We know that we will be asked in our graves,  ‘Who is your Lord? What is your Religion? Who is your Prophet?’ And we know that the way to answer these questions correctly, is to live a life of being pleased with Allah as our Lord, with Islam as our way, and with Muhammad (SallAllahu ‘alayhi wasallam) as our Messenger and primary role model.

The intelligent and the heedless

When asked to pay lip service, each and every one of us will probably agree that this life is a test, and the most important test we will ever face. However, actions speak louder than words. The intelligent person has no choice but to try his or her best to strive and struggle to get the highest mark possible, and to encourage others to do the same. They will not be satisfied with doing the bare minimum, but rather they will try continually to do better and better as they travel through this life. After all, if the pass mark for an exam is 50%, you don’t answer only half of the questions; you try your absolute best, to answer each and every question to the best of your ability, because you know that you will invariably make mistakes along the way, and you want to aim higher than just the threshold. Likewise the servant is not satisfied by doing the bare minimal obligations in his or her relationship with Allah and His creation, but at least wishes to excel past the pass/fail boundary.

That is the intelligent person, though. As for the heedless person (may Allah protect us), he is preoccupied with the relatively trivial smaller tests and trials, whilst ignoring the main test of life. As he reduces the quality of his servitude to Allah when he is revising for exams, instead of increasing it, and he lets his relationship with Allah suffer, I can’t help but imagine the analogy of a final year undergraduate student, throughout the revision season before the biggest exams of his career, occupied by playing Angry Birds.

Link: http://www.islam21c.com/islamic-thought/reflecting-on-exams/

Journey into Islam

This is an excerpt from an article I recently read about Mohammad Asad Platz, who was a German and reverted to Islam. He had been studying Islam for sometime but this particular incident was the turning point of his life:

"One day—it was in September 1926—Elsa and I found ourselves travelling in the Berlin subway. It was an upper-class compartment. My eye fell casually on a well-dressed man opposite me, apparently a well-to-do-businessman.... I thought idly how well the portly figure of this man fitted into the picture of prosperity which one encountered everywhere in Central Europe in those days: ...Most of the people were now well dressed and well fed, and the man opposite me was therefore no exception. But when I looked at his face, I did not seem to be looking at a happy face. He appeared to be worried: and not merely worried but acutely unhappy, with eyes staring vacantly ahead and the corners of his mouth drawn in as if in pain—but not in bodily pain. Not wanting to be rude, I turned my eyes away and saw next to him a lady of some elegance. She also had a strangely unhappy expression on her face, as if contemplating or experiencing something that caused her pain.... And then I began to look around at all other faces in the compartment—faces belonging without exception to well-dressed, well-fed people: and in almost every one of them I could discern an expression of hidden suffering, so hidden that the owner of the face seemed to be quite unaware of it.

"...The impression was so strong that I mentioned it to Elsa; and she too began to look around with the careful eyes of a painter accustomed to study human features. Then she turned to me, astonished, and said: 'You are right. They all look as though they were suffering torments of hell.... I wonder, do they know themselves what is going on in them?'

"I knew that they did not—for otherwise they could not go on wasting their lives as they did, without any faith in binding truths, without any goal beyond the desire to raise their own 'standard of living,' without any hopes other than having more material amenities, more gadgets, and perhaps more power….

"When we returned home, I happened to glance at my desk on which lay open a copy of the Koran I had been reading earlier. Mechanically, I picked the book up to put it away, but just as I was about to close it, my eyes fell on the open page before me, and I read:

You are obsessed by greed for more and more

Until you go down to your graves.

Nay, but you will come to know!

And once again: Nay, but you will come to know!

Nay, if you but knew it with the knowledge of certainty,

You would indeed see the hell you are in.

In time, indeed, you shall see it with the eye of certainty:

And on that Day you will be asked what you have done with the boon of life.

"For a moment I was speechless. I think that the book shook in my hands. Then I handed it to Elsa. 'Read this. Is it not an answer to what we saw in the subway?'

"It was an answer so decisive that all doubt was suddenly at an end. I knew now, beyond any doubt, that it was a God-inspired book I was holding in my hand: for although it had been placed before man over thirteen centuries ago, it clearly anticipated something that could have become true only in this complicated, mechanized, phantom-ridden age of ours."

Source:http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200201/berlin.to.makkah-muhammad.asad.s.journey.into.islam.htm

A mere reflection?

*There are a few things that I have always hated in people; one of them is pride. I absolutely despise proud people because I believe that nobody deserves to be proud as no one’s perfect and only Allah Ta’ala’s perfect.*

On my first day of university, I became friends with a girl (lets name her Rashida) in the point (university bus) who happens to be one of my closest friends at the moment. Then through different courses and events, I also became friends with other wonderful people. One day as Rashida and I sat together, we started talking about different friends of ours and our predispositions about them. So Rashida laughed and asked, “Should I tell you what I initially thought about you?” and I told her to go ahead. I am always interested in such conversations; actually I’m interested in almost all conversations. She told me that when she initially saw me, she thought I was proud. I burst out laughing because I have always loathed proud people and how could I possibly be proud when that is something I hate in people?

Being thoroughly entertained with Rashida’s remark, I shared this incident with around 5-6 friends of mine and to my surprise 3-4 of them said that they felt the same way when they first saw me. Suddenly, Rashida’s remark didn’t seem so funny anymore and I got extremely confused as to what was happening. How could it be that people saw something in me which I hated so much myself? Anyway, with much discomfort and without further probing into the matter, I let go of this comment, disregarding it as a nasty coincidence, up until recently.

Recently, as I was wondering how to kill time while sitting in one of my classes, I think it was the class of Productions and Operations Management, one of my dearest friends started telling us about the things she had heard in a recent Islamic lecture she attended. (The fact that we were not studying in class and were discussing Islamic matters instead, does not mean that this is the right thing to do. In fact, the right thing to do is to fulfill all our obligations; which means that I should have been listening to my teacher and scribbling down important notes fervently, but I am just a Muslim who isn’t perfect and needs to correct many things in myself.) She said that the speaker told them that many times when we judge people or notice something in other people it is because that very same thing is present within our own selves. She highlighted this through a petty example so that no one took it personally, she said, that usually if you notice the people who are always catching other peoples’ mistakes in a language are usually those people whose own skills at the language are not so impeccable.

I thought that this theory was really cool. Alongside, we were also studying in some detail the use of projective techniques in a course of Methods in Business Research. In simple terms, these techniques allow a person to describe his/her own personality while describing someone or something else. You would have thought that I must have made the connection by now, but I am not so good at catching my own flaws. Therefore, it took me some time to realize that this was exactly why many people had thought that I was proud since the only reason I could notice it in other people was because I was a victim of it myself. I wasn’t sure what to do about this problem as I knew that I have nothing to be proud of and that all the blessings that I have are only due to Allah Ta’ala’s Mercy and Kindness.

So I decided to eliminate pride by not judging people anymore. And yet again, just like I was unaware about the seeds of pride in my heart, I was also unaware that I judged people. But then I started noticing; I noticed that I would sometimes hear some people talk about Islam and I would feel that their words didn’t slip down their tongues and that their words were devoid of all actions. But this time I did not sit down to pity them, instead I felt sorry for my own self; because this judgment was not a judgment at all, instead it was a mere reflection. It takes absolutely no effort to like Islamic posts on facebook or get into religious debates with people but it takes all the effort in the world to correct one’s own actions. I sat down thinking about all the posts I have ever liked or all the good things I have ever said and compared it to my actions and the contrast was simply nauseating.

Therefore, the next time you look at someone and make a judgment, stop and reflect as to whether the same is true for yourself or not. We are quick to point fingers at others, while the truth is that nobody’s perfect and we’re all just struggling in one way or another. Cut other people some slack and give them the benefit of doubt. Judge yourselves if you must because that is the only kind of judging that will benefit us and the people around us. Next time you look at someone else, know that you are in fact just staring at your own self, so see the good in them and ignore their faults. Maybe just this one act of ours might be enough to invoke Allah Ta’ala’s Mercy upon us.

Anything good herein is from Allah Ta’ala and all the faults are of my own.

25 years in Makkah... and no Hajj!

Sheikh Abdul Majid narrates a beautiful story