I sure learned from this.
There used to be three healthy and beautiful bushes in my backyard. In the Spring and Summer they were gorgeous with green glossy leaves, flowers, and red tips at the top. For many years they stood tall and thick, providing extra privacy from the next-door-neighbors. Recently, however, they…
This is what I don’t understand. When I talk about how important praying is.. and try to write articles reflecting the crucial importance of salat *refer to self entries* I get told that “hey, if they are not praying they may be doing something else equally important and you never know…” or when…
No matter what is thought of you, no matter what is said to you, no matter what is done to you, you are responsible for walking The Straight Path.
We live in a generation in which all of our conversations offline (in person) or online (“social” networking) are centered around satisfying our ego. For example, we have a tendency to talk negatively about someone else in every social setting. “I hate cops” … “The cashier at McDonalds is a beez” … “Why is she wearing that?” … “he’s a douchebag” … We have an inherent need to feed our ego by insulting others because we feel it defines our worth.
“Let not a people ridicule [another] people; perhaps they may be better than them; nor let women ridicule [other] women; perhaps they may be better than them” [49:11].
The people we talk about might be better than us but we don’t know it. We do not know.
At the same time, when someone texts us, we wait a while to respond and elude a “not caring” attitude to , perhaps subconsciously, feel superior. Or if no backbiting, we satisfy ourselves by making fun of the person we are directly talking to, sometimes excessively. Some relationships are only built on making fun of each other, and a lot of times, we do not realize when we cross the limits.
I’d also like to add that a lot of us have the want to get likes, shares, reblogs, retweets, in person appraisals, etc but we should always be careful not to let this get to our head. Once again learn to control or ego.
“If you are praised, then be careful not to let praise and self-admiration overcome you. Praise makes people content with their deeds so they do not worship or do good as much because they are happy with their situation.”
Once, the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) heard a man praising another, and he responded to him, “”May Allāh ’s Mercy be upon you! You have cut the neck of your friend.” [Bukhāri].
Don’t make it your main goal.
Social interaction has changed so much since the last decade, I believe for the worse. We should at least acknowledge within ourselves when we do this and then make it a point to change. Baby steps at a time.
Some advice for my friends and family!
— Prophet Mohammad (S) | Bukhari & Muslim (via simplymennah)
I suddenly, got a flashback of me completing umrah. Tears started to build up in my eyes. Oh man, how I wish to go back. If anyone of you has not gone through this life changing experience, please make it a point to go as soon as possible…InshAllah.
And when the mountains are removed
And you do not will except that Allah wills - Lord of the worlds.
When I read this surah, certain verses come out to me. The first line “When the sun is wrapped in darkness” instills a fear in my heart. I am scared of space and to imagine the death of the sun is scary in itself, not to mention fear of the One who is The Creator of the sun. The ayah that talks about the girl being buried alive comes out to me as well. This horrid practice has been ubiquitous for many generations across all nations. To read something so specific increases my imaan, for some reason. Thirdly, when God swears by the retreating stars. “I swear by the retreating stars”. *shivers*. This is GOD swearing. SubhanAllah. Do we even understand the gravity of this oath? I do not think we are capable of grasping the severity of this statement, no matter how much we say we are. This ayah is followed with “those that run [their courses], and disappear - “. Does this refer to the people who are sometimes practicing and sometimes not? Or does this refer to people who believe and then fall into state of disbelief? I’m not sure but the fact that God swears and then follows this statement right after is very scary. We should think about akhirah EVERY SINGLE DAY, if not multiple times in the day. We should not ONLY preoccupy ourselves with entertainment and laughter, instead, we should engage in contemplation of our purpose and our end.
”It will be, on the Day they see it, as though they had not remained [in the world] except for an afternoon or a morning thereof.” (79:46)
“No, you prefer the life of this world, while the hereafter is better and that which remains” (87: 16-17).
“Verily those who are al-Muttaqoon [the pious], when an evil thought comes to them from Shaytan, they remember [Allah], and [indeed] they then see [aright].” (7: 201)
He (God) will say, “How many years did you stay on the earth?” They will say: “We stayed a day or part of a day….” (23:112-113)
Did you then think that We had created you in jest (without any purpose), and that you would not be returned to Us (in the Hereafter)? So, God is exalted, the True King. None has the right to be worshipped but Him… (23:115-116)
In comparing this world with the Hereafter, the Prophet Muhammad
said: “The value of this world compared to that of the Hereafter is like what your finger brings from the sea when you put it in and then take it out.” (Muslim)
He Who created death and life to test which of you is best in action. He is the Almighty, the Ever-Forgiving. (Surat al-Mulk, 2)
A few nights ago, I found myself at a masjid I’d never been to before. It was a new community filled with unfamiliar faces. And as we stood for Taraweh, I soon realized I had made a rookie mistake, a mistake everyone but me knew not to make: I was standing next to “The Burping Uncle.” “The Burping Uncle” is a Ramadan legend in pretty much every community. In larger communities, this honorific title is often shared by a team of uncles. These are the guys who like to use Taraweh prayers as a post-iftari gas-relieving exhibition. These are the guys who hear that the Prophet said, “the breath of a fasting person is sweeter to God than the fragrance of musk,” and think, “Oh, wow. God loves it when I burp.”
In our tradition, we take great pride in our story-telling. We share stories about Adam and Abraham. We tell stories about Muhammad and his companions. We even read stories about our scholars and the great teachers of our history. And from amongst these stories, there is one about a great scholar named Ruwaim who would often sit with his young son. Like any father, this man would try to share what he knew about the world with his son. He would try to tell him those things that he thought would benefit him and help him succeed in his life. He would try to advise him and support him in a way only a father could. And on one occasion, this loving father shared a very special advice with his son, an advice that we still find remembered today: “Oh my son, make your deeds salt and your manners flour.”
The simplicity of the advice was what made it so special, but, at the same time, it was what made it so forgettable. Build your base with good manners before you begin sprinkling on good deeds. During Ramadan, we often find ourselves so focused on our good deeds, so focused on the salts and the sugars of the world, that we forget the flour. We forget what it is that we should perfect first before we move onto to other things. That night at the masjid, I couldn’t concentrate during my prayers. The sound was distracting. The smell was abhorrent. And quite frankly, having someone standing right beside me burping over 15 times—I lost count after 15—was simply disgusting.
Looking back, maybe it was a cultural thing. Maybe it was a medical thing. Maybe it was simply someone unaware of what they were doing, someone totally blind to their taking away another person’s opportunity to engage their Creator during their prayer. And for me, that’s the scary part. It’s that we often don’t even realize what we’re doing. We don’t even understand how we’re affecting those around us. We don’t even recognize who it is we’re wronging.
Abu Darda (RA) reported that Rasulullah ﷺ said, “Nothing is weightier on the Scale of Deeds than one’s good manners.” (Al-Bukhari)
During this month, we rush to our masjids, but do we stop to think who we cut off in the parking lot? We spend our nights praying, but do we stop to think who we lied to during the day? We focus so much on our deeds, but do we stop, even once, to reflect on the state of our manners? For most of us, the answer is no. We don’t. We forget to. We’re so busy with the other things that we look over our manners. We forget that doing good doesn’t equate to being good. Being good is something deeper, something more personal. It’s something that begins with our manners, how we treat those around us.
Ramadan isn’t supposed to be easy. It isn’t supposed to just be about praying more and eating less. It’s supposed to be about bettering yourself, about growing as an individual. And that begins at the most basic level. That begins with adding in the flour before worrying about the salt. As we approach these last few days, reassess where you are not only in your worship but where you are in your manners. Have you become more patient? Have you become more polite? Have you learned how to be more respectful and talk to people with kindness? If we’re not working on these things, we’re missing out on what Ramadan is supposed to be about, because we all know what our deen teaches us: Our deeds are important but so is our demeanor.
“A believer with good characters and manners will get the same reward as one who spends his days fasting and his nights praying.”
Muhammad ﷺ
We’ve spent days fasting and nights praying, but now it’s time to work on those other things, those things that we often forget. It’s time to work on our manners. It’s time to address how it is we treat each other. One day, our lives will be placed on scales and it’ll be our manners that’ll weigh the heaviest. The question is: Will they weigh for you or against you?
(Source: heyitsmoses)
We’re on our 19th day of Ramadan. By now, everything is starting to feel normal. Going without food, going without water, all these things no longer feel so foreign. To skip a meal or to decline a drink now feels like just another part of our day. Fasting isn’t so hard anymore. It’s not some new task we’ve just started to take on; it’s something we’ve been doing for a while now. It’s something that we’re used to.
Many of us approached this Ramadan with the mindset that it would be different than the rest of the year. We thought that we would use this time to not only go without food and water but to build our character, to right our wrongs. We wanted to not only reflect on our lives but make them better. For us, Ramadan was supposed to be a time where we would visit our masjids more often, engage our texts more often—a time where we could finally be that person we knew we were capable of being. It was supposed to be a time for change.
And it was—better said, it is. As we control our hunger and thirst, we find it easier to discipline our other desires. We are becoming better in our honesty, stronger in our chastity, and more aware in our modesty. As we go through this month, we find ourselves making the sacrifices and putting forth the efforts that we promised we would. We find ourselves getting better.
But nearly twenty days in, it’s also beginning to become habitual. We get up. We visit the masjid. We pray. We donate. We volunteer. We do all the things that make Ramadan what it is. But, twenty days in, these days are starting to not feel like a deviation from the norm anymore. They’re starting to become routine. Getting up at 3 am to eat a meal before sunrise and begin the day with morning prayers is no longer difficult. We’ve done it for weeks now. It’s normal.
And it’s that normalcy that we should look out for. During those first few nights, getting out of bed at 3 am to not only eat but to pray and to reflect was difficult. But we did it because we remembered it was necessary. We remembered that this was what our deen demanded, what our God prescribed. But for us now, it’s easy. And with that, we’ve began to forget the struggle. We find ourselves forgetting why we feel more attached to the Quran this month, why we see tears rolling down faces during taraweh, why we go without food and water everyday. We don’t do these things because the moon decided to appear 20 nights ago. We do them because Ramadan is more than just a time of year or a month on a calendar. We do them because Ramadan is an opportunity—one that we are starting to forget.
Nearly two thirds of the way through, take a step away from your Ramadan. Think about what it was that got you here. What was it that excited you about Ramadan? What was it that you wanted to change about yourself during Ramadan? What was it that you prayed for during that first day of fasting? Think about what Ramadan meant for you before it became about iftar parties and taraweh khatiras. Think about what what Ramadan meant for you before it became normal.
As we enter the home-stretch, take this opportunity to remember why it is you got up this morning, why it is you’re going without food and water. If the reasoning behind our worship and our practices is simply the name of a month, something’s wrong. Because, down, we all have a reason or at least an explanation for why we go through this experience year after year. We just need to remember it. Refocus yourself as you move through this month, because every day Ramadan comes one step closer to ending. Everyday, we lose one more opportunity to make this Ramadan a meaningful Ramadan. Take advantage of it while it lasts.
I swear by the token of time, most assuredly man is in a state of loss—except for those who have faith, do good deeds, and enjoin each other to truth and patience.
Quran 103:1-3
Hello! My name is Faizan. It is pronounced (Fiz-ahn). I have created this blog because it marks a different period of my life. I am a Muslim and always will be inshAllah. I enjoy watching anime, astronomy, running, eating, and most importantly, Islam. I work as an Electrical Engineer, but probably could have done cooking or architecture. I have a lady friend who is the oreo to my filling :D and can't ask for anyone better! Therefore all ladies, If you girls have a question or comment about Islam or politics, feel free to message me, and I will *publically* respond. Unless it’s a dua request (then I won’t respond but I will make dua for you inshAllah). But when it comes to the personal questions about my education, career, and life in general, I don’t feel comfortable engaging in a conversation. This is my attempt to become a better Muslim and a good husband to my girl in future inshAllah!
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