A Little Story

On this Eid ul Fitr, we gathered our little cousins and reminded them about the in-numerous Blessings of Allah upon us all. When they were asked to mention their favourite blessings they gave the cutest and such thoughtful replies!
The first one said: Pomegranate!
a slightly older boy said: My life.
one of them added: Horses!
And a little girl said: my mama papa.
My favourite however was: Chips! (seriously.)

 After that we asked them to bring some of their Eidi money and give it as sadaqah(charity) for those little kids who lack many blessings which we enjoy. Their willingness and generosity was so uplifting, mashaAllah.

Last minute charity box, washed over by rain. Excuse our uncreativeness.

One incident was worth mentioning, so much so that it brought me back to my blog after months. :)

A cousin's wife told us later, when she got the message about this sadaqah activity she asked her sons, aged 8 and 6, how much would they like to give. The older one had spent all his Eidi and had only 300Rs left but he said he will give 100 out of it and the younger one said he will give 50Rs. So his mom asked him "why so little?"

His reply?
"Don't we give 10Rs to the beggars who come to our house? Isn't 50Rs a lot then?"
That right there is what our kids silently learn from us.
You can 'talk' to them about the virtues of charity all you want but nothing will teach them better than your example.

She said then she told them about how Allah will give them so much more, both in this life AND the next if they give for His sake but it's their choice, they can give as much as they wish.
-I really liked how she let them decide at the end and didn't impose her opinion upon them.

Now comes the best part:
When they came over to give their share of sadaqah a family friend came to their place and gave 1000Rs Eidi for each one of them. As they got back home their mother informed them by saying "didn't I tell you Allah will increase for you if you give for His sake?"
And boy, were they overjoyed!
The older one couldn't initially believe it while the younger one said "I wish I had given 50Rs more as well"
:)
That right there is their ain-ul-yaqeen.

I have no doubt that they will grow up to be 'givers' for the sake of Allah in sha Allah.

P.S: It's this tiny initiative we took and look at the wonderful results it had. The cousin who came up with this idea wasn't even there when most of this took place. She might have no idea about the sadqah e jariya she will reap by merely suggesting we do this. How easy it is to gain reward in our deen. It's like Allah WANTS us to get more and more.
So don't belittle any idea or any deed. Be sincere, take the initiative and leave the rest to Allah. :)

Discovering Ourselves.

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.