Wise to Share

Back again after some gap since my last blogpost. Had been away on vacation, meeting people, doing things, understanding life and pondering over its events and changes. Life is never still. If it were so we would have destroyed ourselves with boredom and monotony. Changes, ups and downs, incidents, surprises, disappointments are all part of life. Afterall it is life...it should be lively, right? Travel has always been a great way to learn things. It lifts you up from one stationary position where similar things are happening almost each day and sets you free to explore the various possibilities in life. The journey is everything from exciting, adventurous, tiring, uncomfortable to relaxing, enlightening and educating. When you step out from your usual setting in life and enter into the world of journeying and traveling, you realize that you have a great deal to learn at your disposal. You find new scenarios, you meet people different than your own culture, you find differenc...

The Arabic word Sabr صبر implies many shades of meaning, which it is impossible to comprehend in one English word. It implies  1) patience in the sense of being thorough, not hasty; 2) patient perseverance, constancy, steadfastness, firmness of purpose;  3) sytematic as opposed to spasmodic or chance action;  4) a cheerful attitude of resignation and understanding in sorrow, defeat, or suffering, as opposed to murmuring or rebellion, but saved from mere passivity or listlessness, by the element of constancy or steadfastness.  (2:45 Commentary) An additional meaning implied in sabr is self-restraint. Haqqani defines in his tafseer as following Reason and restraining Fear, Anger and Desire. What can be a higher reward for patience, perseverance, self-restraint and constancy than that Allah should be with us? For this promise opens the door to every kind of spiritual well-being.  ...Patient perseverance is ...active striving in the way of Truth...

Say, "Call upon Allah or call upon the Most Merciful. Whichever [name] you call - to Him belong the best names." And do not recite [too] loudly in your prayer or [too] quietly but seek between that an [intermediate] way.  17-110 Quran Childhood, teenage years or youth are the most active days of learning for most of us. What we learn during these years is often remembered the whole life through. I remember that during these very years I happened to come across an attractive poster of the Beautiful Names and Attributes of Allah hung on the wall of our hallway. Walking past it, I used to stop and try to recite those names in Arabic. I knew very little Arabic back then so I struggled a bit and tried to pronounce each name and challenged myself to read the whole list till the end.  There are many names and attributes of Allah, the one and only God which we worship as Muslims in Islam. Some of His Names and Attributes are mentioned in the Quran at various places and other ...

Sometimes it seems that life has come to a dead-end. There's no way to go ahead or move back. But time never comes to a standstill though it may make you 'still' in shock. At such moments just pause and think hard. Think inside silently. Peek inside your heart. Ask yourself where you are standing. Ask yourself what you can do to come out of this frozen moment. ‪‎ Reflect‬ . Do you need to  ‪ change‬  anything in yourself? Do you need to seek  ‪ repentance‬ ? Do you need to be more  ‪ grateful‬  to God? Do you need to be more  ‪ humble‬ ? Do you need to be  ‪ simple‬ , less demanding? Do you need to decrease your  ‪ wants‬ ? Do you need to just look around and give a helping hand,  ‪ support‬ , compassion or your time to listen to another person? Do you need to shift your focus from this  ‪ world‬  to the  ‪ Hereafter‬ ? Do you need to come closer to  ‪‎ God‬  Almighty, to His Book & His Command...

Assalaamalaikum dear friends, today we had a session with Dr. Farhat Hashmi in our Madrasa in Jeddah. The topic was- what we learned from this Ramzan? I noted down a few points from her talk and the interactive session for my benefit and here I am sharing them with the hope that they will be of some benefit to my sisters as well. 1- An intelligent person is the one who plans in advance. One should think about the coming year's Ramzan beforehand and plan it to make it more and more fruitful in every aspect. 2- An intelligent person not only learns from his successful experiences rather from his failures and weaknesses as well. 3- Taqwa or God Consciousness lies in the heart. 4- Make a list of whatever you used to do during Ramzan and try to continue it afterwards too. 5- Try to figure out where you slipped and where you lagged behind and find out the reasons for the same. 6- Find out the obstacles that came in performing good deeds. Some reasons might be genuine while othe...

According to some people being religious is most important and in this venture they do not realize that religion has no meaning without kindness and humanity. At the other hand, many people claim that only being a good human being is enough and religion has nothing to do with anything. In both the above mentioned cases we can see the disbalance between spirituality and practicality, when in truth, religion is nothing but a beautiful balance of both. When anyone focuses only on religion and forgets what he/she needs to do for his/her fellow beings and doesn't care about their suffering or pain, then it is nothing but extremism and unrealistic approach to religion. The other approach focuses only on being a good human and serving the humanity, thus one completely disregards the need to recognize the importance of the One Who has Created us. We are not brainless naive creatures that we ponder on every iota of the worldly things and very conveniently forget the Creator Himse...

The teachings of Islam greatly emphasize Humility. Infact, what expelled the Satan from the Heavens was  that he refused to be humble and insisted on being proud and arrogant. And [mention] when We said to the angles, "Prostrate to Adam," and they prostrated, except for Iblees. He said, "Should I prostrate to one You created from clay?" 17:61 Quran  Islam is the religion of submissiveness to the Almighty God. This submissiveness entails humility and worship. The acknowlegment that we are mere servants of God and must worship the One Who deserves to be worshipped because He is the Creator of all, makes us feel humble and submissive.  When a slave understands his worth and origin of existence and his End then he feels humble in front of the One Who has created him. Not only does he realize that he was nothing and then came into being by the Will of the Almighty God but also that God is capable of taking him back any time in any state. When one pond...

The train had started moving ahead slowly, Those who had come to see her off came near her window to say goodbye to her. She too waved her hand and looked back from the moving train to have a final look at everyone. She could see him standing a bit far from eveyone else. He did not say goodbye to her but she could sense the wish in his eyes. For the first time in her life she could feel as if she is leaving a part of her heart behind. Literally some piece seemed missing in her heart. She could not know if it was love. She had seen him attending to his ailing father. They had barely talked to each other. Sometimes she could only catch him looking at her but could only see him lost somewhere else. He seemed too dutiful and serious. There was no affair and no confessions.Something was being planned by God to happen later. She always felt strange when he was around; hesitant and shy. They never had a proper conversation or eye contact to read each other's heart and mind. What i...

Many years ago, I was on my way to a friend's house on a cycle rickshaw. The rickshaw was cycling fast through a broad road with houses and other buildings on one side and a park and dumpster on the other side. I was sitting and enjoying the scene of green plants and the blue skies that were in my view. Suddenly my vision struck on the dumpster on the way and in a matter of seconds we were ahead of it. But what I saw near the dumpster or big trash bin is still fresh in my memory. There lay a broken god. It was dumped there by some "devotee" who thought that now his god was no more worth keeping in the house. The statue of that god was quite big and it was dumped in the trash. It was lying there on its face and it had a broken shoulder and arm. I reached my friend's place and had a good time there but I could not get this scene out of my mind. I was reminded of the story of Abraham or Ibrahim, the Prophet of Allah (May peace be upon him) who was the son a idol ma...

And tell the believing women  to reduce [some] of their vision and  guard their private parts and  not expose their adornment except that which [necessarily] appears thereof and  to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests and  not expose their adornment except to their husbands,  their fathers,  their husbands' fathers,  their sons,  their husbands' sons,  their brothers,  their brothers' sons,  their sisters' sons,  their women,  that which their right hands possess,  or those male attendants having no physical desire,  or children w ho are not yet aware of the private aspects of women.  And let them not stamp their feet to make known what they conceal of their adornment.  And turn to Allah in repentance, all of you, O believers, that you might succeed. Surah An Noor Sign 31  Quran 

All of us, at some point (rather many points) in life  do things wrongly, make mistakes, indulge in sin and fall short of our duties. This might be due to our ignorance, immaturity, callousness or forgetfulness. The important thing is that we regard ourselves as beings who are errant and not divine. We must not get stuck on the thought that we can not be wrong and that it was justified if ever we did something wrong either to ourselves or others. Sometimes it's neither. We are neither wronging our own souls nor hurting anyone but it is much bigger than that. The sin is greater if it is against the One Whom we believe as our Creator, Provider and Sustainer; God, the Almighty. But if we take a closer look all the sins that we do against self, others or the disobedience to God affect only us in the end. The effect of sins and wrongdoing never lets you stay in peace if you have even a speck of understanding left in you. The only thing that can bring you peace in this r...

Dear readers, I am blogging after a long gap today!  The past few months went quite eventful, thus busy. But I missed talking like this to you all. Life is never too smooth or steady. There are ups and downs and sometimes the jerks! But in any case, it offers you tremendous opportunities to learn new things, to reflect and to brush and polish yourself up.  The past few months got me engaged in several things. I learnt to be more patient, more thoughtful and more kind. All this is learnt only when life throws at you something that is challenging for you and at the start you feel that you will find it quite difficult to go through.  Things that keep you going smoothly throughout each phase are patience, restraint, unconditional love and kindness. When you put your ego behind you find love all around.  It was not all that easy for me to be honest. I have a habit of preparing myself mentally when I come to know about some situation which seems dif...

Excerpt from Everyday Islam: An Easy and Peaceful Way of Life -  Reading Quran and Contemplation: We spend most of our time earning our livelihood. Little do we realize that all that is with us is from Allah and all that we enjoy is nothing but Allah’s blessing. We must take some time out to read the book that Allah (SWT) sent to our last Prophet (peace by upon him) and try to comprehend what Allah has ordered us to do in His Book. We must try to acquire more and more knowledg e of our religion and not remain ignorant and unmindful of Allah’s (SWT) commands. The book of Allah (SWT) is a guide for those who fear Allah and want to take the straight path. This book has some rights on us as Muslims. We must read it with attention, listen to it when it is being recited in prayers or otherwise, try to know it’s meaning and understand it and most importantly apply its teachings in our daily life. When our love for Allah (SWT) and His Messenger (SAW) surpasses all ...

After some gap, I am back with something profound. Something on which all of us must ponder every now and then. It is none other than death. Just recently a relative of mine has passed away. I was attached to her and felt very deeply about her. She was a beautiful person and a patient soul.  When those whom we are really close to, leave us and go away for ever, we tend to feel about the loss, the void and the reality of life even more deeply.  The matters of unseen are always a mystery. They take our imagination to destinations unknown. The time we mostly think about the roads untravelled is the time of someone's death. When a person living among us healthy and active suddenly leaves behind an eerie void that initially becomes uneasy to accept, we come to think of the place where he or she has gone to. Our imagination becomes quite foggy as well as limited. We can only feel that he or she is missing and can not actually make out his/her actual state at the moment...

Everyone and everything around us compliment someone or something else. We all are part of a larger whole. If you look at relationships they do not mean anything if there is no one to compliment at the other end. Marriages are examples of two persons living together in harmony (ahem...) with all their differences and similarities (Oh really!). Let us look at what the Quran says about this relationship: O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah , through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer. Al Quran Surah An Nisa Sign 1 We also find this heart warming sign about spouses: And of His signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates that you may find tranquillity in them; and He placed between you affection and mercy. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought. Al Quran Surah Ar Rum Sign 21...