Ask not what they can do for you...

BismillahirRahmaniRahim
Assalaamu alaykum

I pray that you are well.

We had a beautiful khatm Qur'an on Friday at Masjid Al-Ittehad with young members of the community reciting the last juz 'Amma beautifully followed by du'a. MashaAllah. May Allah accept our worship and reward everyone very well for participating in this event every month. Ameen. InshaAllah, please continue to strive to read at least a juz a day of the Qur'an with your family. Our next khatm will be on Friday, March 19, 2010.

To continue with our sharing...

Muslims are selfless, grateful and worshipful, not selfish, greedy and indignant. A grateful, thankful servant of Allah obeys Him. Obedience to Allah benefits us in this life and the next life. Obedience to Allah takes you to Paradise by His Mercy.

"And when your Lord proclaimed, "If you are thankful, surely I will increase you, but if you are thankless My chastisement is surely terrible." Qur'an Ibrahim 14:7

We should not be lax with our responsibilities. Always on the look out on other people's need. Just like we try to instill a sense of responsibility in our children, we should have this in ourselves towards our Creator and other people--our parents, family, relatives, teachers, neighbors, friends, fellow Muslims and humankind.

We have a lot of work to do--we can't afford to waste time, but don't despair because Allah will make way for you to do all these if you are sincere. Pray as if you are going to die tomorrow and work as if you are going to live forever. We need to constantly reevaluate ourselves to make sure we are fulfilling our responsibilities and we are doing things in the manner that Allah wants us to do.

"...Help one another to piety and godfearing; do not help each other to sin and enmity. And fear God; surely God is terrible in retribution." Qur'an Al-Maidah 5:2

Everyone of us have rights in our dealings with one another that Allah grants us, but we should not be demanding our rights, rather we look at the other side for what they need and give, and be sincere and generous in your giving, and you will have the forgiveness and a tremendous reward from Al-Karim in this life and the next.

"Allah has promised those that believe, and do deeds of righteousness; they shall have; forgiveness and a mighty wage." Qur'an Al-Maidah 5:9

This is a good way of looking at our responsibilities. Based on a famous inaugural speech, ask not what your spouse, your parents, your children, your community, .... can do for you -- ask what you can do for them.

If each one of us take our responsibilities seriously and ask ourselves this before we start demanding our rights, the world will be a better place. We can't change people, but we can change ourselves and tawfiq is from Allah. So start with ourselves today and make du'a for Allah to guide everyone.

And Allah knows best.

May Allah guide us and grant us tawfiq in discharging our responsibilities excellently. Ameen.

Wassalaam