Category Archives: ayat

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The Paradox of Life

You can close your eyes to things you do not want to see, but you can’t close your heart to things you do not want to feel…

It’s ironic…when you’re a kid you can’t wait to grow up, and when you’re grown up, you wish you were a kid again. How is it that life seems to throw increasingly painful moments at you? Why is it that the more happiness and joy you expect from your supposedly independent and autonomous life, the more disappointed you become? And when can you sit back and relax without forging a fake smile on your face?

Oh wait…

“Did ye think that you would enter Heaven without Allah testing those of you who strive hard and remained steadfast?” (3: 142)

Just kidding 🙂

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Lessons of the Day

Ayahs of the Day:
By the scattering of winds, and those that bear burdens, and those that blow gently, and those that apportion their action, what you are promised is true; and judgment will come to pass.  By the sky, with its orbits, you are involved in a contradictory doctrine by which the deluded are deceived.  Doomed are those who conjecture, those who wallow in emotion distracted.  [1 to 11]

Hadith of the Day:
Do not do evil to those who do evil to you, but you deal with them with forgiveness and kindness.  [Bukhari]

Wise Quote of the Day:
There are two evils, having which, an abundance of good works is seldom profitable——–discontent with God’s decree and wronging God’s servants.  [Shaykh Abu Hasan al-Shadhili]

Guidance of the Day:
If each of us lives up to our highest ideals, we will be giving the best teaching there is.  The most powerful teachings that I have received have come through my ignoring what people say and observing what they do.  Words are the last and most superfluous elements of teaching.  Real change comes only through example.
If we want to get another person——or the world——to do something, we must do it first.
If we want people around us not to fight, we must be peaceful ourselves.   If we want our kids to clean up their room, we must be willing to keep our own room clean.  And if we want the government to not make radioactive nuclear reactors, we cannot afford to radiate poisonous waves of angry emotional reaction.  [Cohen,  The Dragon Doesn’t Live Here Anymore]

Food for Thought:
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.  It has been shown that most of what we worry about never comes to be.  And no problem is solved by worrying about it.  So take care of what the world needs now: love, sweet love. Taking care of what needs doing now leaves little time for fear and worry.
When you purify your hearts just as you purify your raiment, union with God will follow. If you sincerely seek union with God, then seek Him inside your hearts and leave the world alone. [Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani]

[Source: “Lessons of the Day” by Mrs. Iffath Hasan]
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Until We Finally Meet…inshaa’Allah

Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (SAWS) said: “Hardships continue to befall a believing man and woman in their body, family, and property, until they meet Allah burdened with no sins.” [Tirmidhi]

“O you who believe! seek assistance through patience and prayer; surely Allah is with the patient.” (2:153)

*…wAllahu ma’as-saabireen*

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I complain to the Creator and not the creation…

Following in Ya’qub (AS)’s footsteps, when he said: “I only complain of my distraction and anguish to Allah, and I know from Allah that which ye know not.” (Surah Yusuf, 12:86)

There are some things in life that just don’t need explaining. But other times, you feel left alone in the dark without slightest hint of hope. There is an ‘un’written code of ethics, of morals, that must come into play when a tragedy occurs. There is a norm that is followed, not only from custom and tradition, but from common sense and sensibility.

That code has been grossly violated.

For those that actually know me and have seen past my guise of alleged anonymity, you might know that something happened to me a few weeks ago that would normally evoke the natural, human, sympathetic reaction by others – family, friends, and the like.

Or so I thought.

How silly of me to assume humanity in others. I begin to question the origins of the word “human” – for there are some who rear their ugly and inhumane visages in the face of calamity. Those that pretend camaraderie in the light but practice hypocrisy in the dark. Those that claim to be family through so-called blood ties but sever them through their malicious actions.

These words are not unbefittingly harsh or maligningly satiric in the slightest. They are a mere glimpse of the raw and unhealed wound that lies beneath the shoddy bandage, temporarily and hastily placed in the midst of all the emotion and hurt.

This could be a general message to anyone or a specific one to somebody. Either way, it doesn’t matter. As expected, the ticking of the clock has ensured the damage to be complete, as if the glass bottle were welded shut forevermore, the message contained inside of it never to be held or read.

What do the lowly complaints of this amatullah matter in the grand scheme of life? I walk but mere footprints on the sands of time…waiting only to be erased from this ephemeral existence…