SHYING AWAY FROM THE TRUTH.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

"Verily, Allah is not ashamed to set forth a parable even of a mosquito or so much more when it is bigger (or less when it is smaller) than it. ..."
                                                                                                      Surat Al Baqarah: 26.

The tafseer of the above mentioned verse of The Holy Quran is very vast and several lessons have been derived from it. But one of those lessons struck me more than the rest, probably because it is the one I mostly try to avoid. When it was here, in the Words of Allah, giving His own example, it was too strong a lesson to overlook.

                                   NEVER SHY AWAY FROM THE TRUTH.
                     NEVER BE ASHAMED OF SAYING THAT WHICH IS RIGHT.


Previously, I thought Godly Attributes were not for humans to aim for. Until I came across Imam Al-Ghazali's book '99 Names of Allah'. In it he briefly describes the characteristics associated with each of Allah's 99 Blessed Names and how we can adopt some of those characteristics in our limited human capacities. 


Shying away from mentioning the truth is something I find myself doing ever so often. There are innumerable excuses I could list for different occasions where I couldn't muster up the courage to say the truth, which I knew of. From the little I have learnt from my usatazas, I do know that my no.1 excuse has always been completely invalid i.e "They will not accept it".  Why most of us fall in falsehood is because of our ignorance, if some of us have been given the blessing of knowledge it is our duty, not an option, to convey it regardless of its acceptance or rejection. My perception of their reactions is only but a display of shallowness of my faith. If an unbelieving man who set out with a naked sword to end the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him)  ended up having good deeds equal to the number of stars in the sky, because someone dared to stop him midway to inform him of the truth. How can you and I, expect any less of a fellow believing Muslim? When we were astray and Allah sent along the learned to help us out of it.

In fact, my shying away from the truth always has to do with what I fear to be their reaction towards me, rather than what I have said.


What I think will happen if I advise my friends against backbiting.

What I fear will happen.


What  really might happen.






What I sadly end up doing. (No more inshaAllah.)




P.S I'm far from good myself. I was feeling guilty for not sharing anything from what I have been learning these past few weeks. May Allah Help us all in becoming the true reflections of His Commands and Attributes. Amen :)




Discovering Ourselves.

Thursday, July 19, 2012



I found myself smiling during my isha Salah (namaz) a while ago. I instantly blamed it on Satan and thought "Booya Shaitan! Do all the tricks you want till today, You are getting chained up tomorrow for good! "

Allah's Messenger  said, "Ramadan, a blessed month, has come to you during which Allah has made it obligatory for you to fast. In it the gates of Heaven are opened, the gates of al-Jahim are locked, and the rebellious devils are chained..."                           -Hadith al Tirmidhi #1962

This is what I love the absolute most among the countless blessings of Ramadan. I usually blame every shortcoming on Satan and hardly ever bring my nafs to blame. In Ramadan, when we know Satans are chained and all that we do is a result of our own nafs/desires/heart's wishes or whatever anyone might want to call it. 
This is the time when one gets to identify their real self. We might not like what we find ourselves to really be, its easy to forgive ourselves when we have shaitan to blame all the time but it gets hard to accept that this evil could come from within ourselves too. BUT that is the point of it, we get to identify the wrong in us and have the perfect opportunity to get rid of it in these 30 Blessed days and be prepared to fight the devil with a super clean heart when this month comes to an end and (sadly) Satans are unchained.

I hope I wont be finding myself smiling over worldly thoughts while standing in Salah before Allah during the next 30 days.. but if I do, I would be very lucky to have realized its source, being my heart, and try to improve on it. For if we never know a fault and its cause we can never fix it. One cant expect to randomly keep on adding spices if the food doesn't seem to taste right, its only going to get worse. I cant expect to get khushu in my namaz if I keep on reciting duas for protection from Satan when he isn't the source of the problem. It is only going to distress me more due to its ineffectiveness. Be a little more mindful of your actions in Ramadan and analyse yourself. Not only do we get to know ourselves better this way but have more ease in identifying the traps of shaitan, which we find ourselves falling into, during days other than Ramadan.

So I cant wait to get in touch with the real me again in a few hours inshaAllah, with no whispering into my mind by the shayateen! :D  I hope we all make the best use of all the blessings of Ramadan and find ourselves much closer to Allah by the end of it :) Amen.



Mattar Pulao Anyone?

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

As soon as my mother opened the door to let me in, as i got back home from school, after greeting her with salam my first question was "It smells weird, did you cook biryani?" She replied telling me that it was 'mattar pulao', this came as a little disappointment but no worries, I was stuffed after having a hotdog sandwich in school.

Mama said she had intended to give some of the rice to the maids but they never showed up so she was hoping the kids from the 'kachi abaadi' nearby would show up in the street for something and she would give it to them instead. Just as we finished discussing the whole rice issue, we heard some kids in the street and my mama quite literally 'leapt at the opportunity' and called them in. As the two little brothers were leaving, with the rice in one hand and trash bags in the other, I saw the two most adorable little girls walking by our gate. The little boys called to them and told them to come get food too. I couldn't get over their smiles and surprise for several minutes after they left.

I still had not really processed the lesson i was to derive from this experience. I went upstairs to my room. The curtains had been pulled back to let in the rays of the scarce winter sun. Through the window I saw the two little boys, sitting by the side of the drainage canal, amidst the garbage they looked like they were having the time of their lives and there couldn't have been a better place to rest and a better meal to eat.
Seeing this I remembered my reply, after being told that mattar pulao was cooked, had been "I really don't get why people even cook that?(I like meat)."
I felt ashamed of my ingratitude, yet thankful that God had given me a buzzer so quickly to help me identify the feeling and try getting rid of it (Inshallah).


Absorbed in a serious discussion over lunch. ^_^
That's as good as my phone's 5MP camera can get.