بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
Dear Friends
I pray that you are well.
Islam is what rectifies our worldly life and the next life. Allah created us with an upright predisposition and the teachings of Islam are in accordance with this disposition. Whoever follows the teachings of Islam has truly utilized the tremendous gift bestowed to human being. Whoever does not, is wretched, doomed and ugly. How can we have a lax attitude towards living Islam? Is not the power, wisdom and knowledge of the Creator sufficient to realize that judgment is not far away? What more signs do we need before we shape up?
You are the sign that points to our Lord. Allah says, "On the earth are signs for those of assured Faith. As also in your ownselves: Will you not then see?" Qur'an Adhdhariyat 51:20
"We indeed created Man in the fairest stature." Qur'an At-Tin 95:4. Our outer form is one of total nobility from the way we stand, we walk and we eat. Our inner reality sets apart from all of creation. We have a powerful intellect, a pure heart and a sound disposition. Our natural disposition, when not muddied by negative external influence, is inclined to realizing the reality of the world around us and to know the One who is the cause for all around us.
The whole universe revolves around us. "He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth. Then turned He to the heaven, and fashioned it as seven heavens. And He is knower of all things." Quran Al-Baqarah 2:29
We should not engage in matters if we know them to be harmful to us. This applies to acts that bring physical harm (such as smoking), social harms (such as violating the Islamic rules of gender interaction), and spiritual harms (such as filling our heads with useless television broadcasts). No creature in the entire animal kingdom willingly harms itself except the human being, who is ironically the most intelligent of them.
May Allah guide us and grant us tawfiq. Ameen. Please do not forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam
Showing posts with label gifts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gifts. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Why why?
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
I pray that you are well.
Our life here is only to worship Him. Part of the worship is to do what is commanded of us, no questions ask, no equivocation. No WHYs or BUTs because He is our Lord and we are His slaves. End of story.
Although our inquisitive nature want to know WHY, many things have no logical answer--we cannot use our brain to understand this. Some examples of this are obvious and easy to let go, e.g. why are we commanded to pray 3 raka'a for Maghrib and not 4? But some commands are more subtle and perhaps there is a good answer as to WHY but is it so important to know WHY? This is your test--Do you truly believe in Allah? If you truly believe you don't question, you take His word for it. Some things may be a good topic for discussions but these discussions typically leads to arguments and becomes counter-productive. Life is too short to be wasted in arguments.
If somebody give you a gift would you ask him why this gift, why are you giving me a gift? If you do this, it would be very poor manners. One thing to understand--Allah knows what is good for you and His commands are for your benefit--i.e. His commands are His gifts to you. It is bad manners to ask, in essence asking Allah "Why do you give me this gift and not a different gift?" "I don't like this gift", etc. You cannot pick and choose a gift. Instead you say thank you and enjoy it because it is from your caring and loving Lord. Although you may not see the benefits, it is for your own good nonetheless. It is wise for you to accept it and thank Him at the beginning. If this is an affliction, then you save yourself the suffering for however long it may be because one day you will say "Indeed I would not exchange that affliction for anything different," because by this time--perhaps 10 years down the road--you would have realized the full benefits of that "gift." So do what wise people do at the beginning which others do at the end and save you all the months, years of agonies and to benefit even more.
If you are still not convinced that you simply do what Allah commanded you to do, go on reading. Now what will happen if your friend who give you a gift found out that you don't like your gift and you throw it away? He/she won't give you another gift. You wouldn't want Allah to remove you from His favors? So to avoid this from happening, be grateful with whatever you have, whatever befalls you. if you truly believe in Allah, you must take His word for it and do what He tells you to do. When you take His word for it, your life becomes very simple and you will have more time to worship Him. SubhanAllah.
If you see anything that come in the way of you worshiping and coming closer to Him, you will have no problem avoiding or removing it from your path because you only have one Lord and He is all you need. If you are thankful to your Lord, He swear that He will give you more. Being thankful to your Lord is to use what He gives you for what they were created--they are means for you to worship Him not a means to disobey Him.
May Allah give us a sound understanding of His religion and increase us in all good. Ameen. Please don't forget me in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
Wassalaam
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
I pray that you are well.
Our life here is only to worship Him. Part of the worship is to do what is commanded of us, no questions ask, no equivocation. No WHYs or BUTs because He is our Lord and we are His slaves. End of story.
Although our inquisitive nature want to know WHY, many things have no logical answer--we cannot use our brain to understand this. Some examples of this are obvious and easy to let go, e.g. why are we commanded to pray 3 raka'a for Maghrib and not 4? But some commands are more subtle and perhaps there is a good answer as to WHY but is it so important to know WHY? This is your test--Do you truly believe in Allah? If you truly believe you don't question, you take His word for it. Some things may be a good topic for discussions but these discussions typically leads to arguments and becomes counter-productive. Life is too short to be wasted in arguments.
If somebody give you a gift would you ask him why this gift, why are you giving me a gift? If you do this, it would be very poor manners. One thing to understand--Allah knows what is good for you and His commands are for your benefit--i.e. His commands are His gifts to you. It is bad manners to ask, in essence asking Allah "Why do you give me this gift and not a different gift?" "I don't like this gift", etc. You cannot pick and choose a gift. Instead you say thank you and enjoy it because it is from your caring and loving Lord. Although you may not see the benefits, it is for your own good nonetheless. It is wise for you to accept it and thank Him at the beginning. If this is an affliction, then you save yourself the suffering for however long it may be because one day you will say "Indeed I would not exchange that affliction for anything different," because by this time--perhaps 10 years down the road--you would have realized the full benefits of that "gift." So do what wise people do at the beginning which others do at the end and save you all the months, years of agonies and to benefit even more.
If you are still not convinced that you simply do what Allah commanded you to do, go on reading. Now what will happen if your friend who give you a gift found out that you don't like your gift and you throw it away? He/she won't give you another gift. You wouldn't want Allah to remove you from His favors? So to avoid this from happening, be grateful with whatever you have, whatever befalls you. if you truly believe in Allah, you must take His word for it and do what He tells you to do. When you take His word for it, your life becomes very simple and you will have more time to worship Him. SubhanAllah.
If you see anything that come in the way of you worshiping and coming closer to Him, you will have no problem avoiding or removing it from your path because you only have one Lord and He is all you need. If you are thankful to your Lord, He swear that He will give you more. Being thankful to your Lord is to use what He gives you for what they were created--they are means for you to worship Him not a means to disobey Him.
May Allah give us a sound understanding of His religion and increase us in all good. Ameen. Please don't forget me in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
Wassalaam
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Be good to thy neighbors
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
I pray that you are well.
Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser--in fees, expenses, and waste of time ... Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.
--Abraham Lincoln.
This is one of the American ideals--don't fight with your neighbors--that the America's forefathers taught us. But we already have this built in in Islam except do we all practice it?
The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "Jibril alayhissalaam kept enjoining on me the rights of the neighbor until I thought that he would give him a share in the inheritance." We should honor and take extreme care of our neighbors. It is reported that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, Allah be well pleased with him, said: "If a man is praised by his neighbor, relatives and companions, then do not doubt his righteousness.
When you are nice to your neighbors, they will become your ally--they don't feel you are strange anymore, and it makes your life much easier. One of the ways to break the ice and one of the best ways to win their hearts is to send your neighbors gifts once in a while, even if it is something small. Your neighbors will be easy with other Muslims and perhaps they will defend us, Muslims, when we are under attack. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, gave gifts to the new Muslims after the Battle of Hunayn to soften their hearts. There is something about gifts that melt people's heart.
My neighbors are one example. When we first moved here about 3 years ago, I delivered gifts to all my neighbors. They had looked at me very strange at one time--my kids and I were the Muslims around. They were surprised with the gifts but I told them it is my Islamic tradition. Thereafter, once a month or so, I would bake banana bread and when I was not too busy and had more time, I would bake oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and had my children delivered them to my neighbors, typically on Friday and they were told it was our "holy" day. For my neighbor facing my kitchen, except in a few instances, I would send my neighbor what I cooked because I knew they could taste the food from the aroma coming out of the chimney.
My family is the only Muslim family in the neighborhood but I could count on my neighbors to help me if I need them inshaAllah. Whenever I traveled, my adjacent neighbors took their own initiative to watch over my house and made sure that my gardener did his job and one of my neighbors would turn off my sprinklers during rainy season. When I was abroad for almost a year, my next door neighbor was especially helpful. When my electricity bills were unprecedentedly high, more than what it was when we were living in the house, I knew something was not right. My neighbor, as busy as she was with her family and business travels, between her husband and her, resolved the issue for me. Among other things, they discovered the AC was on and some windows were opened! One of my neighbors had emailed me about a fire that broke out at a nearby marine base and she advised me to run the AC to circulate the air in the house. One of my Muslim friends who had keys to my house and to my automobiles did that for me but inadvertently forgot to close the windows and turn off the AC and so the high utility bills! When I needed something from my client's file while I was abroad, my neighbor spent hours searching for the documents, scanned and emailed them to me (this was a huge favor she did for me), but she did not mind this at all. My neighbors are always welcomed to knock at my door at any time, and they did so every so often to say hello, and they too would not mind us knocking at their doors at any time and sometimes I did, to borrow tools but often the man of their houses would voluntarily do the work that I needed to borrow the tool for. During the Southern California fires in the first year we live here, my neighbors who did not leave the area would check up on us every day and night to make sure we were alright and if we need anything.
These are my neighbors who Allah blessed me with and I hope yours are as nice too, if not nicer, inshaAllah. If they are estranged to you, start the tradition if you have not already. Keep giving (if nothing else, make a point to smile and greet them and genuinely ask them them how they are doing when you pass them) even if they did not reciprocate.
Who are our neighbors--some say it encompasses 40 homes on each side of your home or 8 city blocks--but for sure the ones adjacent to your house you should have good and close relationship with. Don't be a stranger to them. Our neighbors are an integral part of our lives as Muslims, and by being good to them and showing your presence, you are in fact spreading the message of Islam.
May Allah bless you with good neighbors. Ameen. Please do not forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
Wassalaam
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
I pray that you are well.
Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser--in fees, expenses, and waste of time ... Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.
--Abraham Lincoln.
This is one of the American ideals--don't fight with your neighbors--that the America's forefathers taught us. But we already have this built in in Islam except do we all practice it?
The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "Jibril alayhissalaam kept enjoining on me the rights of the neighbor until I thought that he would give him a share in the inheritance." We should honor and take extreme care of our neighbors. It is reported that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, Allah be well pleased with him, said: "If a man is praised by his neighbor, relatives and companions, then do not doubt his righteousness.
When you are nice to your neighbors, they will become your ally--they don't feel you are strange anymore, and it makes your life much easier. One of the ways to break the ice and one of the best ways to win their hearts is to send your neighbors gifts once in a while, even if it is something small. Your neighbors will be easy with other Muslims and perhaps they will defend us, Muslims, when we are under attack. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, gave gifts to the new Muslims after the Battle of Hunayn to soften their hearts. There is something about gifts that melt people's heart.
My neighbors are one example. When we first moved here about 3 years ago, I delivered gifts to all my neighbors. They had looked at me very strange at one time--my kids and I were the Muslims around. They were surprised with the gifts but I told them it is my Islamic tradition. Thereafter, once a month or so, I would bake banana bread and when I was not too busy and had more time, I would bake oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and had my children delivered them to my neighbors, typically on Friday and they were told it was our "holy" day. For my neighbor facing my kitchen, except in a few instances, I would send my neighbor what I cooked because I knew they could taste the food from the aroma coming out of the chimney.
My family is the only Muslim family in the neighborhood but I could count on my neighbors to help me if I need them inshaAllah. Whenever I traveled, my adjacent neighbors took their own initiative to watch over my house and made sure that my gardener did his job and one of my neighbors would turn off my sprinklers during rainy season. When I was abroad for almost a year, my next door neighbor was especially helpful. When my electricity bills were unprecedentedly high, more than what it was when we were living in the house, I knew something was not right. My neighbor, as busy as she was with her family and business travels, between her husband and her, resolved the issue for me. Among other things, they discovered the AC was on and some windows were opened! One of my neighbors had emailed me about a fire that broke out at a nearby marine base and she advised me to run the AC to circulate the air in the house. One of my Muslim friends who had keys to my house and to my automobiles did that for me but inadvertently forgot to close the windows and turn off the AC and so the high utility bills! When I needed something from my client's file while I was abroad, my neighbor spent hours searching for the documents, scanned and emailed them to me (this was a huge favor she did for me), but she did not mind this at all. My neighbors are always welcomed to knock at my door at any time, and they did so every so often to say hello, and they too would not mind us knocking at their doors at any time and sometimes I did, to borrow tools but often the man of their houses would voluntarily do the work that I needed to borrow the tool for. During the Southern California fires in the first year we live here, my neighbors who did not leave the area would check up on us every day and night to make sure we were alright and if we need anything.
These are my neighbors who Allah blessed me with and I hope yours are as nice too, if not nicer, inshaAllah. If they are estranged to you, start the tradition if you have not already. Keep giving (if nothing else, make a point to smile and greet them and genuinely ask them them how they are doing when you pass them) even if they did not reciprocate.
Who are our neighbors--some say it encompasses 40 homes on each side of your home or 8 city blocks--but for sure the ones adjacent to your house you should have good and close relationship with. Don't be a stranger to them. Our neighbors are an integral part of our lives as Muslims, and by being good to them and showing your presence, you are in fact spreading the message of Islam.
May Allah bless you with good neighbors. Ameen. Please do not forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
Wassalaam
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)