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Showing posts with label updates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label updates. Show all posts

Monday, November 17, 2008

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)

Sunday, November 16, 2008

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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If you liked this story, please do share it with others...

And if you liked this site, please share it with others also...

And please leave feedback and comments and ideas and suggestions and whatever else you want to say, Jazak'Allah! =)


Click here for previous story posts


Saturday, October 25, 2008

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.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Islamic blog to benefit people, Insha'Allah...

Assalamu Alaikum to all of you brothers and sisters and Jazak'Allah for visiting this blog...I created this blog with the intent of posting beneficial material, things that won't take much of your time to read but can have a very big impact....Insha'Allah I'll be posting short stories, Hadith, quotes, reminders, and anything else that I can share for our benefit...

Here's a little short story to start with:

Once there was a king who told some of his workers to dig a pond. Once the pond was dug, the king made an announcement to his people saying that one person from each household has to bring a glass of milk during the night and pour it into the pond. So, the pond should be full of milk by the morning. After receiving the order, everyone went home. One man prepared to take the milk during the night. He thought that since everyone will bring milk, he could just hide a glass of water and pour inside the pond. Because it will be dark at night, no one will notice. So he quickly went and poured the water in the pond and came back. In the morning, the king came to visit the pond and to his surprise the pond was only filled with water! What has happened is that everyone was thinking like the other man that "I don't have to put the milk, someone else will do it."

Dear friends, when it comes to help the Religion of Allah, do not think that others will take care of it. Rather, it starts from you, if you don't do it, no one else will do it. So, change yourself to the way of Allah to serve Him and that will make the difference.
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Since I just started, I don't have many ideas, so please help me out, and leave a comment with any suggestions and feedback. Jazak'Allah.