Grab The Opportunity To Meet The King

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Maybe you don't think about it but if you have the opportunity to meet with the King of Saudi Arabia or the Sultan of Brunei or the Queen of England or even the King of Malaysia, wouldn't you grab the opportunity to meet them? If you are invited to their palaces today, you would quickly hop on the next flight. You would not let your boss say NO to giving you a few days off work. In fact, your boss might very well offered more days than you have asked or he might offered it to you the moment he heard about the royal invitation! If you are going to school, you would work around your school work to make sure you get to meet with this king. Everybody around you are excited about this, not just you. Why? You all will have a similar answer. And it boils down to because they are kings! Who wouldn't want to meet a king!

Yes, we know about kings a lot. We can see them with our eyes or at least picture them in our minds, what they look like, the splendor of their palaces and the glamor of their royal lives. We have been exposed to these details from little. Remember all those many "happily ever after" bedtime stories and movies? Each culture has its own version of Cinderella, Snow White, Aladdin and princess Jasmine, and now we have Shrek and princess Fiona. So no wonder we are fascinated by kings, palaces, princes and princesses. And when this opportunity to meet with a king comes, you naturally run for it. You want to know more and perhaps to experience the glamor of being around a king.

I remember when Shaykh Mishari Rashid Al-Afasy, the well known Qur'an reciter came to town, may Allah preserve and protect him, some people came from far away to the masjid to get a closer look at a member of a royal family. You could hear the whispers and the fascination about this. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un.

But how about the King of kings? Many don't know Him. They didn't learn about Him or they don't want to learn about Him. Those who know something about Him, many don't care to meet with Him. When He invited them to come to Him, they don't go. They are too busy and some refused the invitation. They ignore the call to prayer, they don't pray, they don't make dhikr of Allah, they don't read Qur'an. These are opportunities that have passed them by to be with the King of kings and they cannot bring them back. Don't be among these people. If nothing else, the King of kings has far more to offer than all these kings combined have to offer. He is the Creator of everything, including those kings, their palaces, their bodyguards and all their glamorous royal lives.

Now, when you open that facebook with no intention to worship Allah, close it. Otherwise, you will miss the opportunity to be with the King of kings. If you miss this opportunity enough times, you are at risk of losing it forever. You are at risk of not getting invited ever again. Remember, Allah can seal the hearts from His Light and make evil seemingly good for the wrongdoers. May Allah protect us from this. May Allah guide us to His Light. Ameen.

Facebook has become a very serious social issue. You don't need to read much about it because that is in itself a distraction from doing dhikr of Allah but suffice with your own common sense, experience or hearing about it to turn you away from using facebook to socialize, play games and answer quizzes, in short, to entertain and to pass time.

In a recent survey conducted by an international firm TNS, Japanese users had the least number of friends, averaging 29. Chinese consumers have an average of 68 friends in their networks. Malaysians have the most number of friends on social networking websites like facebook, average 233 friends in their social network. They also spend the most hours per week on such sites, average nine hours weekly. This is quite embarrassing for me, as a Malaysian and as a Muslim, to know this and to tell you this but it need to be told.

So, if you are spending such amount of time or more on facebook and other social network sites, you need to cut down by whole lot, so you can help yourself come closer to the King of kings, and be a good example to the non-Muslims around you. We want to rank high in technology and using technology to spread and teach the message of Islam, not using technology to waste our time.

وَٱلۡعَصۡرِ (١) إِنَّ ٱلۡإِنسَـٰنَ لَفِى خُسۡرٍ (٢) إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَعَمِلُواْ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ وَتَوَاصَوۡاْ بِٱلۡحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوۡاْ بِٱلصَّبۡرِ (٣

"By Al-'Asr (the time). Verily, man is in loss, except those who believe (in Islamic Monotheism) and do righteous good deeds, and recommend one another to the truth (i.e. order one another to perform all kinds of good deeds (Al-Ma'ruf) which Allah has ordained, and abstain from all kinds of sins and evil deeds (Al-Munkar) which Allah has forbidden), and recommend one another to patience (for the sufferings, harms, and injuries which one may encounter in Allah's Cause during preaching His religion of Islamic Monotheism or Jihad)." Qur'an al-'Asr 103

Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam