Those Who Want to Please Allah

All of us are weak and sinning. Even if we do not realize this, yet none of us is perfect and sinless. All we need to do is to keep our focus on the One who can forgive our sins for us and make us worthy of His limitless Mercy and Pleasure. To achieve this we need to be firmly grounded in all our deeds in the day to day life so that we keep getting reminders about our reality that we should be submissive to Him and conscious of Him always. 

• As we wake up in the morning we must make it a point to remember Allah by reciting the dua (Alhamdu lillahil ladhi ahyana ba'da ma amaatana wa ilayhin nushoor)  and also do what the Messenger (Pbuh) did when he started his day. We should try and start the morning with a smile, a dua and use miswak. After this we can do the other things like taking a bath, wearing proper clothes and most importantly Praying the Fajr prayer. 
• When we are ready to go out of the house we should know that we again have to remember Allah and recite a dua (bismillahi tawakkaltu alallaahi wala hawla wa la quwwata illa billah).
• When meeting someone again we greet him or her with salam which reminds us of Allah and gives us reward too. 
• When doing our work we should be sincere only because we know that Allah does not like cheaters and dishonest people. 
• When we return back home we greet the family and spend time with them. We look after their needs and help them out. All this is done because we believe in Allah and His Messenger (pbuh) has shown us that being kind and loving to one's family is the best of character.
• Family is our responsibility, so, we need to inculcate islamic values in them. We should teach them prayers and make them read and understand the Quran.
• Keeping track of what goes on around us is also a part of our beautiful religion. Islam teaches us to be an active member of the community and to take care of the relatives, neighbors and the society at large. Visiting the sick is a very noble thing to do. Being helpful and productive to the community is what a Muslim should strive for. 
• The housewives have a great and important responsibility to carry out. They are not meant to sit idle. They have to raise practicing, god fearing and productive Muslim children. They need to be in touch regularly with the authentic sources of knowledge; the Quran and Sunnah which will guide them to be excellent mothers and wives and also contribute to the welfare of the community. 
• There are small but very important things that remind us of Allah constantly and we can earn immense rewards too. When we hear the adhan we should reply to it and recite the dua after it and teach this to our children as well.
• After finishing our prayers we should sit for a while on the place of prayer and recite the after salah duas to gain extra reward and to please Allah so that we may enter Jannah by His Mercy.
• Sleeping early and not wasting time on useless and idle things is also a way to keep ourselves away from harmful things.
• Reciting duas before sleeping and reading surah al Mulk has great rewards for us.

A muslim is always on the lookout and hunt for different things that he can take over and stick to so as to earn Allah's Pleasure. He knows that he is a weak creature, the world has many distractions for him. He slips from the track and sometimes falls into sins, wastes his time, disobeys his Creator knowingly or unknowingly. All this awareness about his weakness should not suppress his desire to start anew. He can always turn to Allah at any point of time, except the time of death. He should keep in mind always that at this moment he is capable of realizing his mistake, what if he is unable to do so later in life! It is better to come back on track, the sooner the better, if we do really want to Please Our Creator! 

Always Remember...

SOME POINTS FOR US TO REMEMBER AS MUSLIMS

• TO PRAY THE MORNING PRAYER
• TO READ THE QURAN DAILY, EVEN IF A FEW LINES
• TO FAST IN RAMADAN 
• TO PAY YOUR ZAKAH
• TO GIVE IN CHARITY EVEN IF A SMALL SUM
• TO REMEMBER THE NEAR AND DEAR ONES WITH GOODNESS IN YOUR PRAYERS
• TO PERFORM HAJJ WITHOUT DELAY
• TO DO THE GOOD DEED IMMEDIATELY WHEN THERE IS A CHANCE
• TO READ SURAH AL MULK BEFORE SLEEPING
• TO DO SELF ANALYSIS FROM TIME TO TIME TO MAKE YOURSELF A BETTER PERSON
• TO ACCEPT YOUR FAULTS AND TRY TO GET RID OF THEM
• TO ASK FOR FORGIVENESS FROM ALLAH 

Some Useful Tips for Skin!

Long back I read a book named 'Fast Fixes and Simple Solutions by the editors of FD &A' at my cousins place when I went for vacation. I noted down some of the tips and tricks to apply and share. Hope you all find it useful.

1. Amaze your face with baking soda. Just toss some of it and oatmeal in your blender, then scrub away!                    
2. Erase brown spots on your face with lemons. Just cut a lemon in half and squeeze the juice into a bowl. With a cotton ball, swab some lemon juice onto your brown spots for 15-20 minutes thrice a day. Rinse your face after each session. Stick to this routine, and you should notice your brown spots fading within a month.
3. Brighten your complexion with salt! Mix equal parts salt and olive oil and gently massage your face and throat for 5 minutes. Then wash your face with your favorite cleanser and your skin will have a radiant, golden glow!
4. Put half a teaspoon of honey and half a cup of sliced cucumber in the blender and puree' until you get a fine mixture. Spread the mixture on your face and leave it there for about half an hour before rinsing. Your skin will look great! 
5. Spread some whole-egg mayonnaise on your face and leave it there for 20 minutes. Then wipe it off with cool water. This is good with dry skin. 
6. Apply a beaten egg-white on your face, as the egg-white dries your face will tighten. Especially the saggy area under your eyes. 
7. For treating baggy, puffy eyes you can use raw potato. Put a teaspoon of salt in a pint of hot water, soak some pads in them and place then over the puffy eyes. The salt water will wash away puffy eyes.
8. For great looking skin soak your face in a bowl of cold water. Drink lots of water for healthy skin and body. 

Envy yes or no?

We all are different in some aspect or the other. No body, even the twin siblings are alike. What others possess are things which either they have got by birth or they have worked for it. Some other things they have got is purely due to the fact that it was meant for them. When people envy others for their assets which are purely natural they are being very unrealistic. Nobody has chosen to be fair or beautiful. It is simply that they are born like that. All humans are different in looks, physique and temperaments naturally. Why should one envy things that were neither in their control nor in our control to have them. 

Other things like the material things also are distributed by God to different people differently. Some rich are generous, others are miserly and still others grow even more greedy day by day.

Whenever we find that someone has something that we like and wish to have it we should first wish good for him or her. We should pray for that person that he or she has blessings in that. When we have this kind of attitude the little spark of envy is cooled down and now we have some peace of mind to think ahead. We can now see what is that makes us wish it to be ours. Are we not better in many other ways? If not, then we should pray to God to bestow us the goodness that we have seen with the other person. Somethings are not in our control but some other can be achieved by working in that direction. We must have a positive mindset in that. We must not envy, rather be realistic and see what we can do about it. If someone's knowledge makes us feel so we can acquire knowledge for our own benefit and not in competition with someone. Envy is a negative emotion. We must not let it enter our hearts otherwise it can ruin all the peace inside. We should know ourselves well so that we can see our own strengths and weaknesses. We all can not be on the same platform and situation. What we can do others might not be able to do. What others can do we might not be able to do it howsoever we might try, because this is something innate. 

Therefore, envying has no solution for the one who is wishing for some good that he sees in another. WE SHOULD NOT ENVY ANYONE FOR ANYTHING THAT HE OR SHE HAS. 

Make-believe World

    

Humans have not grown up. They are not mature. They have not yet used their full potential. We can see how technology has shot up. How we started from wired phone sets and now we have not just wire-less but even switch-less phone and other gadgets that work just by touch. This is not all. Technology is going further day by day. No stopping. Each new day some or the other upgrade in versions and applications is presented to the buyers. What amazes me is that eventually everything leads humans more toward a false, make-believe world and not much growth in his mentality and nobility! 
We all know what kind of games, applications and add-ons are available for the users. You are not growing out of the world of fake characters, feelings and accomplishments. Your kids are not learning values from you directly. This is so because even you are busy smashing fruits, throwing trash and eggs and building a farm; of course this is all unreal. You do nothing to gain points outside of it. In fact, we all are losing on this! Collecting so many gold coins, running frantically to save oneself from those ugly beasts and what not. 
Man doesn't want to grow up. He doesn't want to take responsibilities. He wants fun. He wants to live in an imaginary world of fantasy and fun, victory and accomplishments, strength and points, skills and intelligence and all that makes him believe falsely that he is in charge. He gets the feeling that he is smart, intelligent and able. All this is not so in real life. Those who live in a make-believe world are escaping from the realities of life. They are turning a deaf ear to the call of duty. 
Make-believe world is made by man himself to keep himself away from realities. He does not want to own responsibilities and just wants to be innocent and ignorant of the fact that he is answerable for his actions.
The kind of movies, cartoons and ads that we come across, the kind of children's story books and novels that are there all are examples of how we are dwelling in a fake, false and fantasy world.
The fact that we like all that, engage in all that, waste our time, energies and intellect on that is proof enough that we have turned a blind eye to the reality of life. The fact of life is that there is some Supreme power that has Created this World for a Purpose. The fact that we are here not for enjoyment, fun or frolic rather for a limited time period as a test. The fact that we will be rewarded immensely for our efforts, our intentions and our actions if they are done sincerely in line with the Truth. The rewards we will get are far far more pleasurable, enjoyable, lovely and breathtakingly beautiful than those which we have created in our movies and paintings. We can not imagine the work of the Creator because of our limited capacities. 
Those who deny the Presence of a Supreme Power are ignorant of their own being and existence. Those who remain as if they do not know while they are aware and believe in the Power of God are deceiving themselves. Man has himself made false things and is happy in there. He has created that which has no proof of existence and he endorses it like anything, but, he is not ready to believe in the Unseen. He is not ready to believe in the Power that is present all around as the clear signs. He is not moved by the miracles of birth, death, rain, vegetation, night and day but he is impressed by the way sci-fi movies baffle the viewers!
Make-believe world is made by man himself and it is made to distract him from the reality which is out there, because if he ponders on that then it will 'make him believe' the existence of The All Powerful God.