In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
Dear Friends
I pray that you are well.
We all believe in the One God and we believe that Prophet Muhammad, Allah bless him and grant him peace, is His Messenger. This is our faith (Iman).
But what is the state of our faith?
How many times during the day do we think about Allah, the Hereafter, and the two angels that are recording all of our deeds? How strong is our faith on destiny? Do we say: "Why is this happening (to me)?" or do we take it as a test from Allah and try our best to change/overcome the situation? What is the state of our faith with Allah’s Book? Do we just have the faith or do we care to develop our relationship with it by studying and practicing it? How do you live your life? What is the quality of your prayers, fasts, zakat/charity, manners, morals, dealings, etc? Are you trying to put into practice as much as possible what the Prophet had brought for this Ummah? Are you trying to follow his examples? Or are we all too busy with our daily routine or too afraid to practice this religion to the fullest?
Allah alerts us with His oath by time.
وَالْعَصْرِ ﴿١﴾ إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَفِي خُسْرٍ ﴿٢﴾ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ ﴿٣[Qur'an Al-Asr 103:1]
By time, (1) Indeed, mankind is in loss, (2) Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience. (3)
Imam Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said, "If nothing of the Qur'an was revealed to people except this surah it would have sufficed them."
It has been narrated that the companions of the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, would not part company until one of them recited this surah to the other.
Majority of mankind are in loss because they don't use their time wisely.
Time is our capital and our life is a transaction. Time will outstrip us because our life in this world is temporary and each moment that pass by is a moment closer to the end of our life in this world.
Each of us has a capital which we must use to make a profit. If we fail to do so we lose our capital--this is a clear loss. If we don't understand what time represents, then we cannot profit from it. If we understand the significance of time, our attitude to life would be very different. We would struggle to make sure every moment of our time is spent in a way that will give us maximum profit in the next life. Wherever we are with Allah, there is a closer rank and higher station, so we don't stop striving. We should not be satisfied with the minimum. However pure our prayer is, for example, there is always a purer prayer that we can aimed for. "I just need to scrape in into Paradise" should not be in our vocabulary and should not be attitude.
So lay out a plan of action to reach a higher rank. We will still be rewarded for our plans even if we are not able to execute our plans in the entirety. For example, if you have laid a plan to memorize the entire Qu'ran, and follow through, even if you die before you memorized the entire Qur'an, inshaAllah the All Merciful, the All Generous, the All Loving, will reward you as if you have memorized the entire Qur'an.
Patience is a key to all these. Patience in doing the righteous deeds; patience in avoiding the prohibitions/sins; patience to put up with the difficulties and unexpected things in life. Putting up with difficulties without complaining and without losing hope is of the highest ranks of patience and has a tremendous reward.
We need each other to remind us to be patient. We have to work as a team and advise each other to obey Allah and His Messenger, Allah bless him and grant him peace, in every aspect of our lives. Each of us has this responsibility as part and parcel of doing righteous deeds and perfecting ourselves to reach that high "profitable" rank with Allah. The surah emphasizes this social responsibility as well as the urgency of time and the need to do good as many good deeds as we can. Iman, righteous deeds and patience are necessary conditions for success in this life and the next.
The good deeds in Islam are the truths of Islam. Enjoining to truth includes putting up with things we don't like. So the single most important good deed is to enjoin people to patience because patience is what people need the most when enjoining people to the truth and when striving oneself to nearness to Allah.
Where will we find the truth? In the Qur’an and in the Sunnah of the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace. But if we are not able to even understand the Qur’an, then how are we going to counsel others to the truth effectively? If we ourselves are not doing what the Qur'an and Sunnah tell us, how are we going to be effective in counseling others to do righteous deeds and to patience?
So, first, your prayers must be in place. Otherwise, nothing is going to work for you. Prayer is an important pillar in Islam, i.e. if this pillar is weak, your Islam is wobbly and will eventually collapse, because it is so easy for Shaytan to steal your Iman). Losing one's Iman is one's ultimate loss because if he remains in this state until he dies, there is no more hope for Paradise for him and he will abide in the Hellfire forever.
Therefore, put the time to learn how to pray properly, both outwardly and inwardly, including understand what you are saying and reciting in prayer. This is your best investment of your time. Someone whose prayer is proper speaks a lot about the person.
Prayer is supposed to transform you to become a better human being--a better parent, child, spouse, brother/sister, neighbor, friend, student/teacher, leader, and so on. You can pray 5 times a day, year after year, but you (and people around you) won't see any change because you didn't do it correctly.
Each day we should strive to better our prayer and this can only be done through having the right knowledge and implementation of that knowledge. No matter how long/how much we have prayed, there is always a better prayer. Strive to make the current prayer better than the one before. If you are praying the same way as you have been for the past 20 years, or if you don't rush to prayer, or if you still find prayer more of a burden than a comfort to you, or if you are rushing to finish your prayer, you are not truly appreciating the gift of prayer and therefore, you won't feel the benefit of your prayer.
May Allah guide us on the straight path and grant us patience and tawfiq. Ameen.
Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam
Recommended Reads
Advising Others
Intimate Gift
No comments:
Post a Comment