Allah Exists

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair and his beard cut as always. He started to have a good conversation with the barber who attended him. They talked about so many things on various subjects.
Suddenly, they touched the subject of God. The barber said: "Look man, I don't believe that God exists as you say so." "Why do you say that?"

Asked the client. Well, it's so easy; you just have to go out in the street to realize that God does not exist. Oh, tell me, if God existed, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. "I can't think of a God who permits all of these things." The client stopped for a moment thinking but he didn't want to respond so as to prevent an argument.

The barber finished his job and the client went out of the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with a long hair and beard (it seems that it had been a long time since he had his cut and he looked so untidy). Then the client again entered the barbershop and he said to the barber: know what? Barbers do not exist."

"How come they don't exist?" asked the barber. "Well I am here and I am a barber." "No!" - the client exclaimed. "They don't exist because if they did there would be no people with long hair and beard like that man who walks in the street."

"Ah, barbers do exist, what happens is that people do not come to me." "Exactly!"- Affirmed the client. "That's the point. God does exist, what happens is people don't go to Him and do not look for Him that's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

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)

Update - November 3rd, 2008

Salaam,

It's been a bit over 3 weeks now and people are still visiting the blog, and Insha'Allah, many are benefiting. Please continue to tell others to visit so that more people can read something that might be good for them...

Alhamdulillah I had the opportunity to go to a CAIR Banquet on Saturday, and Imam Zaid Shakir of the Zaytuna Institute was the keynote speaker. Yesterday he also came to our local Masjid and gave an inspirational speech there. After attending the event and listening to the speeches, I felt a renewed motivation to do something to benefit others, and encourage others to do the same, especially for those of us living in Western countries. We as Muslims living in the West have freedom, and an oppurtunity to do Da'wah to those around us. Sure, the misconceptions that have been spread taint our image, but we can still retain our identity as Muslims in the West and not be afraid to propogate our way of life.

And seeking and implementing knowledge is one of the most important things for us to do. If we have knowledge, we shouldn't just hide it and keep it for ourselves. And if we don't have knowledge, then we should make the effort to seek it. With books, and the Internet, and scholars and CD lectures, etc., knolwedge is so easy to access. All we have to do is make that effort, which isn't difficult at all. The fact that you're even on this page, reading this post, testifies to your desire to seek knowledge. And seeking knowledge is a process that lasts until we die....without knowledge, how can we implement Islam in our own daily lives, let alone do Da'wah to Muslims and non-Muslims around us?


Ibn Abbas narrated, the Messenger of Allah (saw) said:

"Any person who goes along a course seeking knowledge, Allah will make for him the path to Paradise easy because of it."

I Feel Clean for the First Time

Once a pious Muslim brother got a job in a restaurant. He took with himself a container for water so that he can use it for toilet purposes. So, everytime he goes to the toilet, he fills the container with water and takes it with him. One day, a Christian man who also works there saw him taking water and asked him about the reason for it. The Muslim brother told him that after releasing the dirty materials, we should clean that place and that cleanliness is a major part of Islam. The man said that why not use the toilet papers? The brother asked him that if such dirty thing touched his hands, would he use a toilet paper to wipe it off or use water? The man understood and said that he would use water. The next day, the Christian man brought a container for himself and used it during relieving himself. When he came out of the toilet, he was crying and tears were rolling down his cheeks. The Muslim brother asked him about why he is crying. The Christian man said that "For the first time in my life, I feel completely clean." Thereafter, he accepted Islam and became a devout Muslim.

Subhanallah! =)

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Muslims can do Dawah in many ways, and as we can see from this story, even by using the toilet! Our way of life is so beautiful that many aspects of it fascinate even non-Muslims. Unfortunately, the media and unfortunate events of the past and present stain Islam with a bad name. A religion that has such great and simple teachings and methods cannot be a religion of terrorism and violence. It's sad how our Islam is covered in misconceptions as it is...but that shouldn't deter us from continuing our efforts of Dawah. Dawah is not just passing out books and pamphlets, it could be just a simple smile and little gifts here and there. It could be wearing Hijab and modest Islamic clothing. It could be praying in front of people. Dawah doesn't even require us to initiate conversation. We could just continue doing what we would do normally as Muslims, and the questions will come when people notice and take interest. Let's try to display the beauty of Islam with our actions, and that will be powerful enough of a Dawah to make an impact, Insha'Allah! =)

Two Weeks Update

Assalamu 'Alaykum,

It's been 2 weeks now since I've started this blog, and Alhamdulillah there have been over 1,000 page loads, and 600 unique visitors (each time a person visits for the first time on a day), and about a quarter of those visitors came back to visit again. I hope that at least some people have benefited from at least something that was posted, Insha'Allah.

Please leave comments! For the past few days there hasn't been a single comment for any of the posts...please mention anything that you'd like to add about any of the posts, or just give some feedback. And please continue to visit and give me any suggestions for anything that you'd like me to put up or change.

There's quite a few of you who visit everyday or visit frequently, but on average only 30-50 people visit throughout the whole day. Please help me increase this number if you can, and please continue to visit...it takes just a minute or two and Insha'Allah you might read something that will greatly benefit you...

If anybody would like links to Qur'an downloads, or if you want me to put up some Qaris, please leave a comment with the name of the Qari and Surahs that you'd like. If there's anything else that you need, please mention it in a comment.

Jazak'Allah for visiting...here's a nice Hadith to start of your day =)


Nu`man bin Bashir (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (PBUH) said, "The likeness of the man who observes the limits prescribed by Allah and that of the man who transgresses them is like the people who get on board a ship after casting lots. Some of them are in its lower deck and some of them in its upper (deck). Those who are in its lower (deck), when they require water, go to the occupants of the upper deck, and say to them : `If we make a hole in the bottom of the ship, we shall not harm you.' If they (the occupants of the upper deck) leave them to carry out their design they all will be drowned. But if they do not let them go ahead (with their plan), all of them will remain safe." [Bukhari]

We learn from this Hadith that the consequences of committing acts which are forbidden in Islam are not confined only to those persons who commit them, but the whole society has to suffer for them. It is, therefore, essential that the people who are in the habit of committing sinful acts and violate Divine injunctions, should be checked to save the whole society from destruction. If this is not done, the entire society will have to face the Divine punishment.