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.

__________________________________________________________________

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."

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.

The Boy who Loved Eating Sweets

There once was a boy who loved eating sweets. He always asked for sweets from his father. His father was a poor man. He could not always afford sweets for his son. But the little boy did not understand this, and demanded sweets all the time.

The boy's father thought hard about how to stop the child asking for so many sweets. There was a very holy man living nearby at that time. The boy's father had an idea. He decided to take the boy to the great man who might be able to persuade the child to stop asking for sweets all the time.

The boy and his father went along to the great man. The father said to him, "O great saint, could you ask my son to stop asking for sweets which I cannot afford?" The great man was in difficulty, because he liked sweets himself. How could he ask the boy to give up asking for sweets? The holy man told the father to bring his son back after one month.

During that month, the holy man gave up eating sweets, and when the boy and his father returned after a month, the holy man said to the boy "My dear child, will you stop asking for sweets which your father cannot afford to give you?"

From then on, the boy stopped asking for sweets.

The boy's father asked the saint, "Why did you not ask my son to give up asking for sweets when we came to you a month ago?" The saint replied, "How could I ask a boy to give up sweets when I loved sweets myself. In the last month I gave up eating sweets."

A person's example is much more powerful than just his words. When we ask someone to do something, we must do it ourselves also. We should not ask others to do what we do not do ourselves.

ALWAYS MAKE SURE THAT YOUR ACTIONS AND YOUR WORDS ARE THE SAME!

Hadith of the Day - October 20th, 2008

Anas (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: There were two brothers in the days of the Prophet (PBUH). One of them used to attend the Prophet's circle (to acquire knowledge) and the other used to earn their living). Once the latter complained to the Prophet (PBUH) against the former (for not earning his living). He (PBUH) replied, "Perhaps you are being provided because of him". [Tirmidhi]

Commentary: This Hadith evidently shows that it is permissible and desirable to devote oneself or make someone else to devote himself for religious knowledge. Such students of religious knowledge should not be considered a burden. Similarly, one should also not ignore those students and scholars who are devoted to such knowledge because Allah makes their help a means of increasing the donor's sources of subsistence.