The Fisherman

An investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The investment banker complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The fisherman replied, “Only a little while.”

The investment banker then asked, “Why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?”

The fisherman said, “With this I have more than enough to support my family’s needs.”

The investment banker then asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening and spend time with my family, I have a full and busy life.”

The investment banker scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to a big town and eventually to the the city where you will run your ever-expanding enterprise.”

The fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”

To which the investment banker replied, “15 to 20 years.”

“But what then?” asked the fisherman.

The investment banker laughed and said that’s the best part. “When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”

“Millions?…Then what?”

The investment banker said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings and spend time with your family.”

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Possessing more in this life does not bring happiness, but being content with whatever you already possess is what causes happiness.

The 10 Best Days

Abu Qatadah reported that the Messenger of Allah said: "Fasting on the day of 'Arafah is an expiation for two years, the year preceding it and the year following it. Fasting the day of 'Ashurah is an expiation for the year preceding it."

Insha'Allah the day of 'Arafah this year will be Sunday.

Worshipping Allah in Every Moment

Assalamu 'Alaykum,


Jazak'Allah Khayr to those who spread this link around, as I've seen an increase in traffic due to e-mails. It doesn't really matter to me how many visitors there are, but it's nice to know that when people find something interesting and beneficial, they choose to share it. I hope that this page has been beneficial up till now, at least to some small degree, Insha'Allah, and will continue to be.

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Just something for us all to think about, but how much of our lives do we spend doing 'Ibadah and remembering Allah? If we break it down statistically, projecting that a Muslim will live for about 60 years, let's see what the outcome is. Consider that the person started praying at the age of 10, and prayed consistently for the remaining 50 years of his life. Estimating that it takes him 1.5 hours to complete his 5 daily Salah (taking his time, praying with sincerity), he spends around 10 hours a week, or 45 hours a month in performing Salah. Over the course of 1 year that adds up 540 hours, or 27,000 hours total throughout his life. That amounts to just slightly over 3 years of life spent on praying Salah. So what happened to all the other years? Did they just go to waste?

They do go to waste if we don't live those years in accordance to Qur'an and Sunnah. But, we can make every single moment of our lives count as 'Ibadah. In addition to Salah, we can make it a goal to recite Qur'an for a certain duration every single day. We can convert all that time that we spend sleeping (imagine, we spend about 1/3 of our lives sleeping!) into 'Ibadah by following the Sunnah of sleeping. Thinking further, we also spend several hours a week eating. Simply saying the duas for eating and saying Alhamdulillah can covert the act of eating into 'Ibadah. And what about all those hours spent in the bathroom? There's also duas for entering and coming out of the bathroom. So all that covers a large portion of our day...sleeping, eating, bathrooming, but there's still more left to our day. All of us have school, work, and/or other responsibilities. Simply by saying 'Bismillah' before we start any action turns that action into 'Ibadah. What about driving or sitting in the car? Put on Qur'an or listen to an Islamic lecture and convert all that time in the car into time well spent. You're sitting in the car anyways, so you might as well use the time in a good way.

We should also try to learn and implement the Sunnah into our daily lives as much as possible. If we have time, we should do things such as reading Surah Yaseen every morning. Let's make an effort to learn as many Masnoon duas as we can and apply them at the right times. And whenever we can, let's spend a moment remembering Allah, because it's something that can be done in the simplest of forms. For example:

سُبْحَانَ اللّهِ وَ بِحَمْدِهِ ، سُبْحَانَ اللّهِ الْعَظِيمِ

SubhanAllahi wa biHamdihi, SubhanAllahil adheem

(Glory be to Allah, and Praise, Glory be to Allah, the Supreme)

Muhammad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) said: "Two words are light on the tongue, weigh heavily in the balance, they are loved by the Most Merciful One" [Bukhari and Muslim]

We are lucky to be Muslims, as Islam is truly an amazing and complete way of life. Nobody knows when their time to die is, so as long as we wake up each morning, let's try to make the most of that day count as 'Ibadah. And always remember, every single action that we do should be done for the pleasure of Allah. May Allah make this life easy for us all, and grant us peace in Jannah forever in the Akhirah. Aameen.


(If I made any mistakes in the writing above, please correct me, and if you have any additions for the betterment of the post, please mention it in a comment, Jazak'Allah)

Pearls of Life

The cheerful little girl with bouncy golden curls was almost five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them, a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box. "Oh please, Mommy. Can I have them? Please, Mommy, please?"


Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl's upturned face. "A dollar ninety-five. If you really want them, I'll think of some extra chores for you and in no time you can save enough money to buy them for yourself. Your birthday's only a week away and you might get another crisp dollar bill from Grandma."


As soon as Aisha got home, she emptied her penny bank and counted out 17 pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores and she went to the neighbour and asked Aunty Jamshed if she could pick dandelions for ten cents. On her birthday, Grandma did give her another new dollar bill and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace. Aisha loved her new pearls.


They made her feel dressed up and grown up. She wore them everywhere, Sunday Madrassa classes, Kindergarten, even to bed. The only time she took them off was when she went swimming or had a bubble bath. Mother said if they got wet, they might turn her neck green.


Aisha had a very loving daddy and every night when she was ready for bed, he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story from the Quraan. One night as he finished the story, he asked Aisha , "Do you love me?"


"Oh yes, daddy. You know that I love you." "Then give me your pearls." "Oh, daddy, not my pearls. But you can have Princess, the white horse from my collection, the one with the pink tail. Remember, daddy? The one you gave me. She's my very favourite." "That's okay, Aisha, daddy loves you. Allah-hafez." And he brushed her cheek with a kiss.


About a week later, after the story time, Aisha's daddy asked again, "Do you love me?" "Daddy, you know I love you." "Then give me your pearls." "Oh Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have my baby doll. The brand new one I got for my birthday. She is beautiful and you can have the yellow blanket that matches her sleeper. "That's okay. Sleep well. May Allah bless you & protect you, Aisha. Daddy loves you." And as always, he brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss.


A few nights later when her daddy came in, Aisha was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed. As he came close, he noticed her chin was trembling and one silent tear rolled down her cheek. "What is it, Aisha? What's the matter?" Aisha didn't say anything but lifted her little hand up to her daddy. And when she opened it, there was her little pearl necklace. With a little quiver, she finally said, "Here, daddy, this is for you." With tears gathering in his own eyes, Aisha's daddy reached out with one hand to take the cheap necklace, and with the other hand he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case with a strand of genuine pearls and gave them to Aisha.


He had them all the time. He was just waiting for her to give up the cheap stuff so he could give her the genuine treasure.



So it is with our Allah Almighty. He is waiting for us to give up the cheap things in our lives so that he can give us beautiful treasures.

Isn't Allah great? Are you holding onto things that Allah wants you to let go of?

Are you holding on to harmful or unnecessary partners, relationships, habits and activities that you have come so attached to that it seems impossible to let go? Sometimes it is so hard to see what is in the other hand but do believe this one thing ...

.....Allah will never take away something without giving you something better in its place.

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Hadith of the Day - November 9th, 2008

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "Follow the Right Path of Faith strictly, and be steadfast; and keep in mind that none of you can achieve salvation through his (good) actions.'' Someone asked, "Not even you, O Messenger of Allah?'' He (PBUH) said, "Not even me, unless Allah grants me His Mercy and Grace".

Commentary: This Hadith tells us that although the importance of Faith and its practice is beyond any shadow of doubt, because this is the only way to attain His Favours and Blessings, but one should not entirely depend upon practice only because any shortcoming (which one does not even know) can ruin a good deed. It is, therefore, essential that we also pray that our good deeds are accepted by Allah and that He grants us His Infinite Mercy and sincerity because even the greatest noble deed is invalid without it.

A Lesson from Disabled People

Once, a visitor was being shown around a leper colony in India. The colony was built to provide a shelter for those people who were poor and had various physical disabilities. At noon a gong (a metal disk that produces a sound when hit with a hammer) sounded to gather the inhabitants for the midday meal. People came from all parts of the compound to the dining hall. Suddenly, everyone started laughing at seeing two young men, one riding on the other’s back, pretending to be a horse and a rider. They were having lots of fun. As the visitor watched, he was told that the man who carried his friend was blind, and the man being carried was lame (who couldn’t walk). The one who couldn’t see used his feet; the one who couldn’t walk used his eyes. Together they helped each other and reached their destination.

Let us use each other’s strengths to make up for the weaknesses of others. Our strength is in unity, not in division.

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A Cup of Water

A famous Sheikh once visited the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, and when he entered his presence the caliph asked him if he wanted anything. The Sheikh said that he only desired a simple cup of water.


When the cup of water was given to the sheikh he asked the Caliph, "what would you give if no water was available to you and you are forced to trade for this one cup of water?"


Harun al-Rashid replied, "I most certainly would give at the very least half of my kingdom."


The Sheikh then said, "and what would you give if you were not able to release the waste of that water from your body unless you traded something for it?"


The Caliph said, "I would certainly give the other half of my kingdom."


The Sheikh smiled and told the Caliph, "It is God that controls both these things, so what is the worth of all your kingdom if it can be so easily traded for a simple cup of water?"