Pearls of Heaven.

Bismillah

A while back I went to visit a jewelry shop with some relatives. I have never really been one for gold and jewels but this place was, to say the least, BEAUTIFUL! As we gaped and marveled at the intricate designs and huge diamonds set around stones of all colours I messaged a friend "Not a jewelry person but I'm in love with this place". Well, soon the pretty dream was over when we asked for the prices and realized we couldn't afford half the stuff lying there.

Next week, I was sitting in our little tafseer session, which a senior from our faculty conducts in our class room twice a week. She was talking about the story of Adam and Eve, of Paradise, our actual home..our Jannah. she was saying..

"Paradise, where the rocks and pebbles on the ground are pearls and jewels, that's our home"

And I couldn't help but smile to myself, thinking of our trip the past week. The jewels and pearls we chase after all our lives, the diamonds girls display on their fingers so happily like a trophy, all of it is just the dust of Paradise. It comes in a verse of the Quran:

(They will be) on Thrones encrusted (with gold and precious stones),                (56:15) 

Imangine! When the seat you sit on is woven with gold and precious stones, what of the garments and jewelry?
We know from a Hadith:

 Abu Hurairah said that the Messenger of Allah (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) said,

"There is not a tree in Paradise, except that its trunk is made of gold." [Sahih al-Jami]

 And yet another: 

 Anas ibn Malik said that Allah's Apostle (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) said,

"I entered Paradise and found myself by a river, by its edges were tents of pearls. Then I tapped with my hands where the water was running, and there was then a beautiful smell of Musk. I asked, 'What is this O Gabriel?' He said, 'This is Kawthar (river in Paradise) which Allah has given to you.'" [Sahih al-Jami] 

 The narrations about the description of Paradise are innumerable. A place where the finest pearls line water banks, the dust is Rubies and Sapphires and houses are made of silver and gold. Yet,  how silly we are..how very silly that we choose to chase after that one diamond, that house bigger than ours and a neighborhood more exclusive and elite than the current. SubhanAllah. We prefer giving up an eternity of bliss and novelty unmatched by any of this world, just to get that which is before our eyes.  We want perfection in this life and perfection in the next, Whereas Allah Says:

Or do you think that you will enter Paradise while such [trial] has not yet come to you as came to those who passed on before you? They were touched by poverty and hardship and were shaken until [even their] messenger and those who believed with him said,"When is the help of Allah ?" Unquestionably, the help of Allah is near. (2:214)

It's a struggle either way, whether for the finite pleasure of this world or infinite pleasure of the Hereafter. Wouldn't it be only wise and sensible if we worked for the everlasting? the unmatched? the one where the beauty of the new bracelet, blinging with  diamonds, isn't overshadowed by the money that just left your wallet. Islam doesn't ask us to let go of the dunia, it asks us to balance it. To compromise for the smaller stones rather than distressing our families. To be content with what we have and strive for the best of the Hereafter, not the best and branded of this world.

Ah! Easier said than done, no? May Allah give us the Taqwa that enables the doing be as easy..not just easy but pleasurable. To let go of the vain pleasures of this world for the Pleasure of Allah. Ameen :)

"Truly! The Muttaqun (pious and righteous persons ) will be amidst Gardens and water-springs (Paradise)." (15:45)

Converse. Ask. Engage.

Bismillah
Aqulo qauli haza wastaghfirullah, lee walakum

"And how can you have patience about a thing which you know not?" ~18:68 -The Nobel Quran.

Don't let doubts eat away at your faith and relations.
Converse. Ask. Engage.
Don't try to be super humans. Remember this statement was directed to Musa A.S. If a prophet couldn't be at rest, not knowing the truth behind the matter, how can we expect our already corrupted minds to be at ease knowing only 'some' of the matter. We have all experienced how Satan and our desires love to come up and help us build the rest of it in our minds. If you know the matter really means something to you and could be affecting you, go on and try talking to the people concerned in all honesty and sincerity.

BUT if it doesn't really concern you, yet you find yourself being impatient over it, try taking the high road to beautifying your eeman.

 "Part of the excellence of a man's Islam is that he leaves what does not concern him." -Hadith (Al-Muwatta)

Of Rituals and Words...

Bismillah

We recently started studying the fiqh of taharah (law of cleanliness). As every Muslim would be, or should be, aware that cleanliness is given a lot of importance in Islam. So much so that our Beloved Rasulullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wassallam said:

Purity (Cleanliness) is half of faith.. (Sahih al-Muslim)

Every possible aspect of the topic is covered by Quranic verses and authentic narrations of Ahadith. There are even masnoon supplications for entering and leaving the toilet. Now, many of us might have memorized these as kids and might even be reciting them but mostly without giving it much thought.
The supplication for leaving the toilet is "ghufranak'' meaning "Your Forgiveness (O Allah)". When we came across this, our teacher said:

"now what did you do SO bad in the bathroom that you are asking forgiveness for it?"

And for a moment, I was really like 'oh yea...'
Then she explained;
When you relieve yourself and you purify your physical self, you feel good. A Momin would always want his inner self i.e his soul, his heart to be pure too. So when he is physically pure, he prays to Allah to cleanse him of his sins too. Beautiful, isn't it?
Also, as so much stress is laid upon cleanliness in Islam, one must try their best to clean any impurity or filth upon them when they go to the toilet but even after trying our utmost, sometimes we might not be aware but some impurity might still remain on our body or clothes. So, one asks Allah's forgiveness for such shortcomings.

Ghufranak.One word, so much to it. Yet we go on fasting months, offering prayers, uttering azkaar not giving any thought to the wisdom behind these rituals. Islam is a Way of Life. It's not just empty rituals and words. Every Sunnah has wisdom behind it; Rasulullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wassallam didn't just sleep on his right side because he felt like it, he didn't prefer drinking water in three sips because that was convenient for him. Everything he did was inspired by the One Whose Knowledge is infinite. Our religion is a beautiful ocean of knowledge, one that you can never claim to have fully explored but every stone of it upturns to reveal the most amazing and astonishing pearls of wisdom.
I must warn you though; once you dive in, it's beauty will not let you climb out.

May Allah allow us to learn and MOST IMPORTANTLY act upon His Deen. Ameen :)

High on Happiness.

I'm high on happiness right now, Alhamdolillah.
So happy.
You know that feeling when you go to a party and cant relate with anyone or any topic there?
We have all been there at least once, whether it's the Welcome Party at a new school or meet-up of your mom's friends at your place.
But then, there are parties and gatherings with your friends, your own friends that you somehow fail to relate to.
And then there are gatherings with strangers and yet you can connect with each one of them.

I went to one such gathering this week. I don't usually go anywhere without any acquaintance but I REALLY wanted to attend this conference last week, which none of my friends were going for. So, I thought, lets brave up for once and go for it. Anyway, all we had to do was sit there quietly and listen to the speakers' talks.

Or that's what I had thought.

It was Amazing. We were the family Islam tells us to be. We weren't just relating, we were connected. The chorus of salam, doubling in our chairs while laughing, silently wiping away tears and (my favourite) Calling out Takbeer together. Allaho Akbar!
The energy was amazing and to know all this was only and only for the sake of Allah's Religion and for the love of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Nothing connects you better than that. Nothing can truly connect souls other than that.

Sitting with a friend today, after another such inspiring conference, while everyone began to leave with smiles on their faces and hopefully hearts charged with eeman, I almost swooned with pleasure. All this youth, out to seek the truth. To seek that which leads us to the pleasure of Allah. All these people like me and you, sharing the same gaols. All these blessed hearts, chosen by Allah to come here together for His Sake. And how blessed is one to be in such a company?

To have learned scholars and true slaves of God amidst you. To be addressed by them as a sister. If that made me so happy, I wonder how would be the happiness of those whom the Propeht Muhammad (PBUH) addresses as his Ummatis! SubhanAllah.
We have a long way to get there but it doesn't seem so difficult when you know you have so many companions with you on this journey.

                           So blessed is Allah , the best of creators.

                                                                                                              - Al-Quran 23:14

 

 

 

LESSON # 42.

Alhamdolillah, we are four months into our Taleem ul Quran Course now and it couldn't have passed any quicker. Three years, that seemed so long when I was registering for the course, have started seeming so short now. Especially since we completed Surah Al-Baqarah last week. The longest surah of the Quran, we had went over it's tafseer already and I coudn't hep but feel at loss for all the classes I had missed, all it's ehkamaat that I had faied to implement and all that I might have forgotten already.

So there I was, sitting and thinking about how I could improve on these mistakes, when we did our, yet another, beautiful tafseer lesson, today. I thought how lucky I was to be still sitting here and being blessed with the oppertunity to listen to Allah's beautiful Words again. Ahamdolillah. I realized how dreadful it would be to lose this, as my ustaza says "Use it or lose it!" and there are far better people than me out there, who could get so much more out of these than me.

So, here are some of the lessons we derived from the 9 verses(23-32 A'al-Imran) Today.

"...those who were given a portion of the Scripture...then a party of them  turns away.." (3:23)

• It is not necessary that one who has knowledge will be acting upon it too.

Even though these people of The Book had knowledge from their books, that what they were being called towards was the truth, they turned away from it. It is important to evaluate ourselves, are we acting upon the little knowledge, that we do have, of the deen? Are we at least trying to act upon it? or we turn away like they did?

.."O Allah , Owner of Sovereignty, You give sovereignty to whom You will and You take sovereignty away from whom You will." ...(3:26)

• The real owner of all power and status is Allah. To seek it from any means other than Him is foolishness. 

We slack in our religious duties because we are too busy chasing after worldly gains. We forget that Allah is the One Who Owns the world, too. How silly are we, displeasing Him to seek that which belongs to Him?

..You honor whom You will and You humble whom You will...(3:26)

Being hesitant in acting 'religious' because that would humble us in the eyes of people. Hanging with the 'cool crowd' because that would make us cool. We have it al wrong. He is the source of all Honour and Glory. It is only Allah that we should seek for these things and His is the only path that can actually lead us to them.

Say, [O Muhammad], "If you should love Allah , then follow me, [so] Allah will love you and forgive you..." (3:31)

We claim to love every other meal that we eat and new dress that we buy but is it truy love? Love, according to scholars, is the emotion that brings you so close to the object of love, that everything except it, the beloved, perishes. All that matters is the pleasure of the beloved. Allah Says that His pleasure can be sought by following the footsteps of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. A measure of our love, our true love, for Allah is how much are we trying to follow the  Sunnah of The Holy Prophet.
ALSO, Allah Says that He will Love us if we do that. So if we want to know how much Allah Loves us, we can find out by checking how much of the sunnah do we follow.
One wonders why not just follow Allah's Commands? Because among all of Allah's creation Prophet Muhammad  (صلى الله عليه و سلم) was blessed with the Title of Habeeb Ullah (The Beloved of Allah). So to be His beloveds we must be like the one who was THE Beloved.
A plus point for all of us who cant help but wish for instant worldly benefits too: 

The Prophet said, "If Allah loves a person.... then he is granted the pleasure of the people on the earth."

Following every command of Allah is such a Win win for both this world and the hereafter. May Allah make us all realize that and may we follow more and more of His commands to attain His Love. Ameen. :)

SHYING AWAY FROM THE TRUTH.

"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.

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.