Salaamu Alaikum
Recently, I joined a facebook group called 'Greatest Quranic Recitations' and I have to say that it was probably the only group I've joined that actually benefited me somehow. And that is by leading me to some great Qurraa' that I had never heard before.
Insha Allah, I wanna share a couple of them, though I'm thinking that I should post them one by one in seperate posts and at different times so that it's not overkill and none are overlooked. Nahmean?
First round: Qari Tawfeeq bin Sa'eed Al-Suwaaigh
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Saturday, April 14, 2007
awwwesome swagger
salaamu alaikum
ultimate swagger? nothing close to that. game's got a long way to go. gotta be able to do things at will. but it's growing. should i check it? or let it be proportional to it's supposed requisite: skill, and make sure it stays on the court? is it necessary?
interesting what a haircut and new mindset for the game can do.
PS: i'll be put in my place soon. probably tuesday. haha.
ultimate swagger? nothing close to that. game's got a long way to go. gotta be able to do things at will. but it's growing. should i check it? or let it be proportional to it's supposed requisite: skill, and make sure it stays on the court? is it necessary?
interesting what a haircut and new mindset for the game can do.
PS: i'll be put in my place soon. probably tuesday. haha.
Monday, April 09, 2007
MIST 07'
Salaamu alaikum
What's it been now, a little more than a week after MIST 07 weekend? I intended on making this post earlier, but I couldn't really get around to it. This past week was super busy, and reason goes back to spring break, which I'll take a quick second to rant about. Spring break is stupid. I came into this semester strong, like every one and their mama's do also, with the firm intention of staying consistent and up to speed with my classes/assignments until the end. For me, that attitude usually lasts a couple days. But this time, I was ACTUALLY staying consistent with what I was doing...until spring break comes along. It destroyed all my desire to go back to school. I came back from spring break with a week of school before MIST weekend, and literally skipped more than half of my classes, still stuck in spring break mode. So that is probably why my last week was pretty crazy, cuz I had mad stuff to catch up on (back in school mode), foremost of which was a comp sci project that I spent 11+ straight hours on today, only to get an extension at the last moment, word to iboo...but anyways:
MIST is MIST. I competed in the tournament for two years. Last year, I couldn't compete, so instead I "volunteered", which was more like chilling on campus and being bored the whole weekend, and every couple hours, being sent on random assignments like moving art projects from one building to another (some projects are missing till this day)...but yeah, it wasn't the same. Competing, and volunteering? No way.
So this year, I brought a team. It wasn't for me, though during the competition I realized that it kinda made up for not being able to compete with at least having a team that was competing. Among the reasons was to get my community, ISB, involved in other activites besides its own. Its like they live and operate in a bubble, and a lot of the times, the lack of representation from one of the largest communities in MD at certain events or fundraisers is embarrassing to say the least.
But still, that wasn't the main reason I brought a team. But before I go into that, I'm going to mention my biggest challenge as a coach in the tournament and the weeks that led up to it. It was being patient.
I had a sick team. I picked guys that I knew had potential. But I see most of these kids every day at the masjid. I play ball with them, talk trash, get some back, etc. They consider me their peer, and I'm only like a year or two older than most of them, so I had to deal with them a certain way. I couldn't exactly scold them for not doing what they were supposed to be doing, or not coming to a meeting, or coming to me with a week left before the tournament with some completely garbage, effortless, project/piece that OBVIOUSLY wasn't even done by them, and I'd have to ask them if they were retarded and tell them they needed to go back and actually do something. There was one day where I was almost regretting trying to put a team together and just praying that they didn't embarrass themselves at the tournament. Frustration and Patience.
It was even worse once the weekend started. My license is still suspended, and it was suspended during the weekend too. You can only get so frustrated when you have control of the situation, but when you have no control over it, you've gotta leave everything in Allah's hands. I had to set up rides for 10 kids, make sure they were at the masjid for the rides, figure out how they were supposed to get the project they left back at home or the last minute supplies they needed in time, or how to fit them in the cars and make sure everybody had a ride and space and later how everybody was going to get home when I didn't have a car I could drive or a ride to get home myself. And then if the ride that was supposed to be there had an emergency and had to leave in the middle of the tourney, and I was responsible for getting all these kids back home safe, it was definitely a struggle.
I literally found myself talking to myself saying, "Alright Hammad, it's easy to be patient when nothings happening. Be patient now man, be patient."
And that was my theme for the weekend. Now I know how Iboo must of felt coaching us. I seriously needed to consciously make an effort to reply to the guys when I was being bombarded by questions left and right, the same questions, multiple times, one guy after the next, as if I didn't just answer the same question 50 times to every single other person on the team! Seriously, I was just repeating in my head, "Be patient ninja..." over and over and over. I told the guys that their theme for the weekend was HUMILITY (this had to do with us being the powerhouse basketball team that nobody could see :D), but mine was PATIENCE.
aH, it was good stuff.
And we did win basketball. First place? Yup. We played my former team, Taqwa, in the finals. And there couldn't have been a better possible championship game than the one that took place outside in the freezing cold at 3AM sunday morning in college park, Taqwa vs. Al-Rahmah. They recorded that joint in HD, and trust me, its a classic, and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy. It's funny because that's what guys at Al-Rahmah wanted the most, to play Taqwa in the finals and beat them. They had some type of rivalry going even before the tournament. They didn't know who half the people on Taqwa were, but they just knew that they had to beat the defending champs, and that's what they would talk about at least once every meeting when Basketball came up. "Taqwa thinks they're so nice". "I just wanna smash Taqwa in bball." etc. I would just laugh, cuz I knew what was going to happen by the end of the tournament. Taqwa and Al-Rahmah would be like this "ll".
And that's the main reason I wanted to bring a team, and this is what I told the guys at the end after the awards ceremony. I didn't bring them so that they could win an award in art, or poetry, or study some packets and gain knowledge on Qur'an, Seerah, Prophets, or CAIR, or even to win first place in basketball, because not everyone won something. Not everyone on our team got an award or a trophy. But what they all got, and I knew this to be true because I heard it from their own mouths, was that they got to spend a weekend with all these other Muslims from so many different areas and communities, and got to meet people they would have never even known were it not for MIST. And I reminded them that they told me themselves that they met all these cool new people, and that was the point. The building of brotherhood and ties between our community and its youth and other communities and their youth. These guys weren't too fond of Taqwa walking into the tournament, but by the end, at the award ceremony, they had one big joint Al-Rahmah/Taqwa table.
alHamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen.
And finally, the team smashed in the competitions, with mad top 5 standings and MIST national qualifications. The only regrets they had were the regrets that everybody has and had, those who are graduating highschool wished they had another year since this was their first and only, and those who aren't wished they had put a liiiiiittle bit more effort into their work, and bumped up from 4th or 5th place to 2nd or 1st. But one thing everyone got from the weekend was inspiration.
What's it been now, a little more than a week after MIST 07 weekend? I intended on making this post earlier, but I couldn't really get around to it. This past week was super busy, and reason goes back to spring break, which I'll take a quick second to rant about. Spring break is stupid. I came into this semester strong, like every one and their mama's do also, with the firm intention of staying consistent and up to speed with my classes/assignments until the end. For me, that attitude usually lasts a couple days. But this time, I was ACTUALLY staying consistent with what I was doing...until spring break comes along. It destroyed all my desire to go back to school. I came back from spring break with a week of school before MIST weekend, and literally skipped more than half of my classes, still stuck in spring break mode. So that is probably why my last week was pretty crazy, cuz I had mad stuff to catch up on (back in school mode), foremost of which was a comp sci project that I spent 11+ straight hours on today, only to get an extension at the last moment, word to iboo...but anyways:
MIST is MIST. I competed in the tournament for two years. Last year, I couldn't compete, so instead I "volunteered", which was more like chilling on campus and being bored the whole weekend, and every couple hours, being sent on random assignments like moving art projects from one building to another (some projects are missing till this day)...but yeah, it wasn't the same. Competing, and volunteering? No way.
So this year, I brought a team. It wasn't for me, though during the competition I realized that it kinda made up for not being able to compete with at least having a team that was competing. Among the reasons was to get my community, ISB, involved in other activites besides its own. Its like they live and operate in a bubble, and a lot of the times, the lack of representation from one of the largest communities in MD at certain events or fundraisers is embarrassing to say the least.
But still, that wasn't the main reason I brought a team. But before I go into that, I'm going to mention my biggest challenge as a coach in the tournament and the weeks that led up to it. It was being patient.
I had a sick team. I picked guys that I knew had potential. But I see most of these kids every day at the masjid. I play ball with them, talk trash, get some back, etc. They consider me their peer, and I'm only like a year or two older than most of them, so I had to deal with them a certain way. I couldn't exactly scold them for not doing what they were supposed to be doing, or not coming to a meeting, or coming to me with a week left before the tournament with some completely garbage, effortless, project/piece that OBVIOUSLY wasn't even done by them, and I'd have to ask them if they were retarded and tell them they needed to go back and actually do something. There was one day where I was almost regretting trying to put a team together and just praying that they didn't embarrass themselves at the tournament. Frustration and Patience.
It was even worse once the weekend started. My license is still suspended, and it was suspended during the weekend too. You can only get so frustrated when you have control of the situation, but when you have no control over it, you've gotta leave everything in Allah's hands. I had to set up rides for 10 kids, make sure they were at the masjid for the rides, figure out how they were supposed to get the project they left back at home or the last minute supplies they needed in time, or how to fit them in the cars and make sure everybody had a ride and space and later how everybody was going to get home when I didn't have a car I could drive or a ride to get home myself. And then if the ride that was supposed to be there had an emergency and had to leave in the middle of the tourney, and I was responsible for getting all these kids back home safe, it was definitely a struggle.
I literally found myself talking to myself saying, "Alright Hammad, it's easy to be patient when nothings happening. Be patient now man, be patient."
And that was my theme for the weekend. Now I know how Iboo must of felt coaching us. I seriously needed to consciously make an effort to reply to the guys when I was being bombarded by questions left and right, the same questions, multiple times, one guy after the next, as if I didn't just answer the same question 50 times to every single other person on the team! Seriously, I was just repeating in my head, "Be patient ninja..." over and over and over. I told the guys that their theme for the weekend was HUMILITY (this had to do with us being the powerhouse basketball team that nobody could see :D), but mine was PATIENCE.
aH, it was good stuff.
And we did win basketball. First place? Yup. We played my former team, Taqwa, in the finals. And there couldn't have been a better possible championship game than the one that took place outside in the freezing cold at 3AM sunday morning in college park, Taqwa vs. Al-Rahmah. They recorded that joint in HD, and trust me, its a classic, and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy. It's funny because that's what guys at Al-Rahmah wanted the most, to play Taqwa in the finals and beat them. They had some type of rivalry going even before the tournament. They didn't know who half the people on Taqwa were, but they just knew that they had to beat the defending champs, and that's what they would talk about at least once every meeting when Basketball came up. "Taqwa thinks they're so nice". "I just wanna smash Taqwa in bball." etc. I would just laugh, cuz I knew what was going to happen by the end of the tournament. Taqwa and Al-Rahmah would be like this "ll".
And that's the main reason I wanted to bring a team, and this is what I told the guys at the end after the awards ceremony. I didn't bring them so that they could win an award in art, or poetry, or study some packets and gain knowledge on Qur'an, Seerah, Prophets, or CAIR, or even to win first place in basketball, because not everyone won something. Not everyone on our team got an award or a trophy. But what they all got, and I knew this to be true because I heard it from their own mouths, was that they got to spend a weekend with all these other Muslims from so many different areas and communities, and got to meet people they would have never even known were it not for MIST. And I reminded them that they told me themselves that they met all these cool new people, and that was the point. The building of brotherhood and ties between our community and its youth and other communities and their youth. These guys weren't too fond of Taqwa walking into the tournament, but by the end, at the award ceremony, they had one big joint Al-Rahmah/Taqwa table.
alHamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen.
And finally, the team smashed in the competitions, with mad top 5 standings and MIST national qualifications. The only regrets they had were the regrets that everybody has and had, those who are graduating highschool wished they had another year since this was their first and only, and those who aren't wished they had put a liiiiiittle bit more effort into their work, and bumped up from 4th or 5th place to 2nd or 1st. But one thing everyone got from the weekend was inspiration.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
wsup yall
Assalaamu alaikum
it's been a while since i posted here last. don't ask why because i couldn't give you a real good reason and i don't know myself. i don't really have a great update in store right now either, but let's not get hasty, right? baby steps...
old news:
i got through a pretty crazy fall semester (sick load + ramadan), which also happened to be my first at UMBC. transferring in from a community college, it was a pretty big change, mainly the difficulty in classes. let's just say i learned a couple things. but what is knowledge without implementation, right? ...hopefully we can answer that at the end of this semester, and it'll be a good answer.
new(er) news:
since i want to be a man of my word, i am bringing a MIST team from baltimore this year. cuz that is what i said i would do last year. so i'm doing it. there's a lot of things i can say about MIST, but i'll make it simple and say i learned a lot from being a part of it, whether it was the tournament itself, or the people i was around at the time. but either way, its a source of inspiration for many youth, and i think it's about time the kids from this area get something like that to draw from. so insha Allah, there shall be a team. and it will be called Al-Rahmah.
i just watched Pan's Labyrinth. it was sad. and weird.
smh.
thoughts:
maybe some other time. holler.
uno. dos. tres.
(sp?)
it's been a while since i posted here last. don't ask why because i couldn't give you a real good reason and i don't know myself. i don't really have a great update in store right now either, but let's not get hasty, right? baby steps...
old news:
i got through a pretty crazy fall semester (sick load + ramadan), which also happened to be my first at UMBC. transferring in from a community college, it was a pretty big change, mainly the difficulty in classes. let's just say i learned a couple things. but what is knowledge without implementation, right? ...hopefully we can answer that at the end of this semester, and it'll be a good answer.
new(er) news:
since i want to be a man of my word, i am bringing a MIST team from baltimore this year. cuz that is what i said i would do last year. so i'm doing it. there's a lot of things i can say about MIST, but i'll make it simple and say i learned a lot from being a part of it, whether it was the tournament itself, or the people i was around at the time. but either way, its a source of inspiration for many youth, and i think it's about time the kids from this area get something like that to draw from. so insha Allah, there shall be a team. and it will be called Al-Rahmah.
i just watched Pan's Labyrinth. it was sad. and weird.
smh.
thoughts:
maybe some other time. holler.
uno. dos. tres.
(sp?)
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
sdrawkcab epyt i
found this joint off of somebody's post on islamica:
If honor be your clothing, the suit will last a lifetime; but if clothing be your honor, it will soon be worn threadbare. The well-dressed man is he whose clothes you never notice.
If honor be your clothing, the suit will last a lifetime; but if clothing be your honor, it will soon be worn threadbare. The well-dressed man is he whose clothes you never notice.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Quran -- Surat AshShura (Verses 1-16) -- sheikh Fahd Al-Kandari
| From taraweeh prayer (Ramdan 1427H/2006), a recitation by sheikh Fahd Al-Kandari of the first 16 verses of Sûrat Ash-Shûra (The Consultation) (Surah 42 of the Holy Qur'an). There is an English translation of the meaning of the verses of Sûrat Ash-Shûra (Al-Fatihah is not translated) BTW, i've been going on a google video hopping spree. | |
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
word up son.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6094846957551566977&q=quran&hl=en
there's another one guys. 2 raka'as of taraweeh it seems like.
there's another one guys. 2 raka'as of taraweeh it seems like.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Monday, September 25, 2006
UPDATE part 2.
salaamu alaikum
thanks for the feedback, i made sure to exclude any and all such suggestions from my considerations. so after brief contemplation, i've decided to keep the hair for a little longer, that is the rest of ramadan (cuz the hair looks gangsta under a kufi and even more so under an imamah - i'm guessing though since i haven't tried that second one yet) and possibly the rest of this semester. reason? well, i kinda like my new nickname on the basketball court at school and other places and i want it to set in before i change my look.
i've only been called by this name twice however, once on the basketball court and once by a fellow muslim at a janazah i recently attended........
which reminds me, inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'oon. just this past friday, i got the news that a brother i've known for so many years passed away in a motorcycle crash, who we would play basketball with on the REGULAR, in fact i had just played basketball with him the VERY DAY before he got in the accident. and it was crazy how we would be chilling and talking and he would tell us how he loved his bike and how he could get from bmore to columbia in like 5 minutes flat and everyone would say, "one slip on that thing, and its over man." and we would laugh and just be like, "yeah. when you gotta go you gotta go." the janazah brought out so many old heads who i used to see back in the day when i was so young just chilling on the courts watching the older dudes play. and i met his father for the first time, and it was crazy how father and son both had that same smile. his father was smiling the entire time at the janazah, the burial, and every time he would greet somebody who came up to him and hugged him. and i heard a brother greet him before me and say exactly what i was thinking, that Saif was always smiling just like his father, and his dad was like, he's probably smiling right now.
may Allah reunite all of us in Jannatul Firdaus, ameen.
thanks for the feedback, i made sure to exclude any and all such suggestions from my considerations. so after brief contemplation, i've decided to keep the hair for a little longer, that is the rest of ramadan (cuz the hair looks gangsta under a kufi and even more so under an imamah - i'm guessing though since i haven't tried that second one yet) and possibly the rest of this semester. reason? well, i kinda like my new nickname on the basketball court at school and other places and i want it to set in before i change my look.
i've only been called by this name twice however, once on the basketball court and once by a fellow muslim at a janazah i recently attended........
which reminds me, inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'oon. just this past friday, i got the news that a brother i've known for so many years passed away in a motorcycle crash, who we would play basketball with on the REGULAR, in fact i had just played basketball with him the VERY DAY before he got in the accident. and it was crazy how we would be chilling and talking and he would tell us how he loved his bike and how he could get from bmore to columbia in like 5 minutes flat and everyone would say, "one slip on that thing, and its over man." and we would laugh and just be like, "yeah. when you gotta go you gotta go." the janazah brought out so many old heads who i used to see back in the day when i was so young just chilling on the courts watching the older dudes play. and i met his father for the first time, and it was crazy how father and son both had that same smile. his father was smiling the entire time at the janazah, the burial, and every time he would greet somebody who came up to him and hugged him. and i heard a brother greet him before me and say exactly what i was thinking, that Saif was always smiling just like his father, and his dad was like, he's probably smiling right now.
may Allah reunite all of us in Jannatul Firdaus, ameen.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
UPDATE (sike)
salaamu alaikum
a couple people have told me that i should update. prepare to be disappointed, guys.
- ramadan is in like 2 days or something, and i'm really not ready for taraweeh. last year and the year before, when it came down to about this time, i took out a day and did like a crash course review, but this year i don't have the time.
- i've been thinking about cutting my hair. not just trimming it, but cutting that joint off. note that i've been growing it out since hajj so it's got pretty long. its so big that only 2 of the numerous kufis i have fit me now without stopping the blood circulation to my brain. feedback is welcome. but not required.
PS: i don't really care.
a couple people have told me that i should update. prepare to be disappointed, guys.
- ramadan is in like 2 days or something, and i'm really not ready for taraweeh. last year and the year before, when it came down to about this time, i took out a day and did like a crash course review, but this year i don't have the time.
- i've been thinking about cutting my hair. not just trimming it, but cutting that joint off. note that i've been growing it out since hajj so it's got pretty long. its so big that only 2 of the numerous kufis i have fit me now without stopping the blood circulation to my brain. feedback is welcome. but not required.
PS: i don't really care.
Friday, July 14, 2006
woohoo
salaamu alaikum
yeaaaah, so today was funny. i had to give a lil khutbah at the darul taqwa summer camp right, so i looked up the hadith on the seven types of people that will be shaded on the day of judgement and decided to explain it and stuff. so i got up there, explained the seven types, and then sat down closing the first khutbah, and realized while i was sitting that i had nothing else to say. i didn't even think about what i was going to talk about for the second part. i had said everything i wanted to in the first part. greaaaat.
clock was ticking tho, so i got up, and started saying random things, and then tried to re summarize the hadith, and forgot it. so i stood up there for at least 10 seconds trying to figure out what the 3rd type was and i just couldn't, wouldn't come in my mind, and this is after i just gave a whole talk about this hadith. i was laughing at myself, (inside of course) and i'm sure the kids were too. and the older guys, and girls... haha, whatever. so i just said i forgot the rest and closed up with some more random stuff. i don't even remember it.
lesson: if you're not bringing notes, at least make sure you know the hadith well enough by heart.
then i came back to bmore and had all-you-can-eat crabs at loafers. heh, what a looser.
walaikum assalaam
yeaaaah, so today was funny. i had to give a lil khutbah at the darul taqwa summer camp right, so i looked up the hadith on the seven types of people that will be shaded on the day of judgement and decided to explain it and stuff. so i got up there, explained the seven types, and then sat down closing the first khutbah, and realized while i was sitting that i had nothing else to say. i didn't even think about what i was going to talk about for the second part. i had said everything i wanted to in the first part. greaaaat.
clock was ticking tho, so i got up, and started saying random things, and then tried to re summarize the hadith, and forgot it. so i stood up there for at least 10 seconds trying to figure out what the 3rd type was and i just couldn't, wouldn't come in my mind, and this is after i just gave a whole talk about this hadith. i was laughing at myself, (inside of course) and i'm sure the kids were too. and the older guys, and girls... haha, whatever. so i just said i forgot the rest and closed up with some more random stuff. i don't even remember it.
lesson: if you're not bringing notes, at least make sure you know the hadith well enough by heart.
then i came back to bmore and had all-you-can-eat crabs at loafers. heh, what a looser.
walaikum assalaam
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
"khutbah time" cont.
assalaamu alaikum
anyways, after the prayer i left the place. btw, the place is actually a car dealership with a musallah in the back. my teacher is the imam there, and i don't know if he owns or works at the dealership, but he's definitely in charge or whatever. i went to his house once for class (yes all the way to VA, 70 miles) and then dinner, and then we went to the dealership to check out the cars and pray and stuff, and we ended up playing cricket in the backroom. i came to find out those guys play cricket from maghrib to isha every single day at the dealership. chill job. anyways, that trip deserves a post in its own.
anyways, after the prayer i left the place. btw, the place is actually a car dealership with a musallah in the back. my teacher is the imam there, and i don't know if he owns or works at the dealership, but he's definitely in charge or whatever. i went to his house once for class (yes all the way to VA, 70 miles) and then dinner, and then we went to the dealership to check out the cars and pray and stuff, and we ended up playing cricket in the backroom. i came to find out those guys play cricket from maghrib to isha every single day at the dealership. chill job. anyways, that trip deserves a post in its own.
so i left the place, got stuck in traffic on the way back, was starving, so i stopped by pizzaroma, told a friend to meet me up there. met some heads from the area over there, chilled and left.
fast forward an hour or two, and we're running around trying to look for a showing of pirates of the caribbean that is NOT sold out. everywhere we went, it was sold out. EXCEPT, security square mall, right next to my house, and you KNOW how bad a place sucks if every real theater is sold out, but this place wasn't even half full. either way, i gotta go see it again, cuz i didn't see the ending. i had no idea how long that movie was going on for, and when there was 5 minutes left in the movie, i thought there was at LEAST 30 minutes left, so i looked down at the time and was like, ohhh snap, cuz maghrib time was almost over. so i went outside the theaters, prayed, and by the time i got back in, the movie was over. so i haven't seen the ending.
then i came home, ready for a basketball all nighter as is usual on fridays. but as soon as i walked into the house, i was getting a lecture on how my phone never rings and i don't tell anybody where i'm going or where i am the entire day, and how nobody knew if i was even alive. which perplexed me because every friday, i'm out the entire day and don't come home till like 2:30 AM and nobody worries, and then i was made to realize that i had gone to VIRGINIA in the morning, and never reported back AFTER THAT, which i totally forgot about by the way, but that is why my parents were so pissed.
so i ended up NOT being able to play ball, and went to the gym and just watched, assuring everybody that i could play after 12AM because at that time, technically, the "you're not gonna play basketball TODAY" rule would expire. by the time 12 o clock rolled in though, i still had no shoes and half the people left and i didn't even feel like playing forreal. so that was my half-eventful friday.
alhamdulillahi Rabbil Aalameen.
PS: I DON'T KNOW WHY THE FONT IS ACTING WEIRD. first it was black and pretty much invisible, so i had to take paragraph by paragraph and make it a different color. friggin blogger.com...
khutbah time
assalaamu alaikum
yeaaaaaa, so before it becomes too late (not that it's not super late already) to make this post and i forget all about it, i will. earlier last week my teacher calls me up and leaves me a message saying that it's important and i should call him back. so i do, and it turns out he's in buffalo and won't make it back in time for jumuah, and i gotta go to manassas, VA and lead. woohoo. lesson: never call back when things are important...sike? sike sike.
anyways, i prepared the joint on friday after fajr. it was very simple, just enough to get through. here it is:
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, He who has humbled and broke the stiff necks of tyrants from before us with Death, who has reminded us by sending to the grave those who wished immortality, sending them from the greatest of palaces to the lowliest of graves, that none of us is exempt from this fate of death.
yeaaaaaa, so before it becomes too late (not that it's not super late already) to make this post and i forget all about it, i will. earlier last week my teacher calls me up and leaves me a message saying that it's important and i should call him back. so i do, and it turns out he's in buffalo and won't make it back in time for jumuah, and i gotta go to manassas, VA and lead. woohoo. lesson: never call back when things are important...sike? sike sike.
anyways, i prepared the joint on friday after fajr. it was very simple, just enough to get through. here it is:
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, He who has humbled and broke the stiff necks of tyrants from before us with Death, who has reminded us by sending to the grave those who wished immortality, sending them from the greatest of palaces to the lowliest of graves, that none of us is exempt from this fate of death.
“Every soul shall taste death.”
However, today, it seems that we have no problem listening to hours upon hours of discussion on politics, or hours and hours of vain talk full of gossip and hate that show us how different we are from one another, yet we can’t bare a few minutes worth of talking about how similar we are, because every single one of us is going to experience death. And we hate it to the point that if somebody reminds us of it, we begin to complain, and tell the person to talk about something else.
Allah SWT says in the Quran: “Say: (As for) the death from which you flee, that will surely overtake you, then you shall be sent back to the Knower of the unseen and the seen, and He will inform you of that which you did.”
And the Prophet SAW encouraged us to remember death. He said, “Frequently remember the destroyer of all desires.” Why? The entire reason for this type of remembrance is NOT so that we leave everything and sit in our rooms and think about how we are going to die, but it is to take away the love and attachment of our hearts to this world so that we can make preparations for the Afterlife. We still have jobs, school, family, and lives, but we won’t allow these things to take us away from the remembrance of Allah. What is this life besides play and amusement? Someone who is heedless of death will only indulge in worldly desires, because he feels he will live forever. He knows he will die. Because statistics show that on average, people end up dying. But he doesn’t REALLY know. He has the information in his brain that he could die any second, whether it be in a car accident, sickness, or he simply drop to the ground as his heart stops beating, but he doesn’t REALLY know. And few of us do, because we do not remember death.
Among the knowledge of the Unseen, which is only with Allah, is the hour of the trumpet being blown. The day of judgement. However, know that for each and every one of us, the Akhirah, starts as soon as we die. And the topic of death and the journey through the different stages are so long and detailed that it would take days to try and relate everything that has been revealed to us by Allah and his messanger and collected by the scholars of the past. So we will talk about death itself.
Imam Ghazali talks about death in his section of Ihya Ulum-ul-Din and says, Know that there is no terror, calamity or torment except that of the pains of death alone, that would be enough to render a person’s life miserable and would it impossible for him to live in happiness.
Take for example a man who is enjoying himself at a party, with the finest luxuries and delights, but he knows and is expecting someone to come in later that night and kill him, he would not be able to enjoy his party. Yet with every breath, the Angel of Death draws nearer to us, and the pains of death come closer, but we pay this no mind.
We all know of the flimsy excuse as to why our brother is not practicing. Because I’m still young. InshaAllah when I get older, I will start praying. Or the notion that when I’m about to die, all I gotta say is the kalima, and I go straight to paradise. It’s in the hadith, right? The Prophet (SAW) said: Advise the dying person to say, (There is nothing worthy of worship except Allah) because a dying Muslim who recites this will be saved from Hell. So a person can do whatever they want in their life and then right when they are about to die, say the shahadah? That is completely false. A person will die with their life on their mind and on their tongue.
There are so many accounts of people lying ready to die, having entire conversations, singing their favorite songs, asking about loved ones, but when told to recite the kalima, their throats lock up and their voices are stopped at their throats, and they simply cannot say it. Right now, anybody can say the shahadah by their lips but not really mean it, but over there, you won’t be able to even say it with your lips unless it was constantly on your tongue.
Just a couple weeks ago, an Imam was giving a talk to some youth, and he told a story about how he was going to the masjid for Salah, and he was in his car making dhikr, and while he was driving around the curve, a drunk driver came and hit him in a head on collision. And at that second, when he could do nothing to control his thoughts, when everything was just instinct and he had no chance to prepare what he would say, he said, SubhanAllah, I think I’m about to die. And he said the shahadah, and he COULD, because it was on his lips constantly. His tongue was wet with the dhikr of Allah constantly; it was like he was training himself; you know how fighters do, they train so hard so that when it comes down to the punch, its all reflex. Its not fake. Its natural and smooth. Because they have been practicing. The same way we cannot expect to be able to have Allah on our lips upon our death if we have music in our ears all day long, or useless talking, backbiting, gossiping, slandering, all these stories playing in our minds all the time. We need to start practicing. Make dhikr. May Allah make us from those who keep their tongues wet with His remembrance.
And do not think that death can come easy, for the Prophet SAW himself used to say, “Oh Allah, Lessen for Muhammad the agonies of death!” The Prophet, upon his time of death had a vessel of water nearby him, where he would dip his hands and rub his face and say, “Oh Allah, alleviate for me the agonies of death!” An then Fatima would say, “How great is my sorrow at your sorrow, father!” But he said, “There shall be no more sorrow for your father after this day’. If the prophet SAW himself sought refuge from the pains of death, and he was the purest of the pure, imagine us who’s souls are foul with the muck and grime of sin.
Umar RA said once, “O Ka’b, Speak to us of death!’ Certainly O Commander of the Faithful, Death is as a thorny twig made to enter the stomach of a man, so that each thorn becomes attached to an artery. Then a powerful man pulls at it, and it takes what it takes, and leaves what it leaves.’
Such are the agonies of death, and we ask Allah to ease the pain of Death for us and make us from those for whom death is a gift from Allah.
Allah SWT says, Oh you who believe, Fear Allah the way he should be feared. And do not die except in the state of Islam.
And Taqwa, which is translated as fear, is more than just fear. It is a balance between both fear and hope. And the Prophet SAW warns us about the fire and the punishment of Allah, as well as gives us hope by giving us the glad tidings of Paradise.
Narrated Ibn Mas'ud: Verily the Messenger of Allah said: The last to enter Paradise would be a man who would walk once, stumble once and be burnt by the Fire once. Then when he passes beyond it, he will turn to it and say: Blessed is He Who has saved me from thee. Allah has given me something He has not given to any one of those in earlier or later times.
Then a tree would be raised for him and he will say: O my Lord! Bring me near this tree so that I may take shelter in its shade and drink of its water. Allah, the Exalted and Great, would say: O son of Adam, if I grant you this, you will ask Me for something else. He would say: No, my Lord. And he would promise Him that he would not ask for anything else. His Lord would excuse him because He sees what he cannot help desiring; so He would bring him bear it, and he would take shelter in its shade and drink of its water. Afterwards a tree more beautiful than the first would be raised before him and he would say: O my Lord! Bring me near this tree in order that I may drink of its water and take shelter in its shade and I shall not ask Thee for anything else. He (Allah) would say: O son of Adam, if I bring you near it you may ask me for something else. He would promise Him that he would not ask for anything else. His Lord will excuse him because He sees something he cannot help desiring. So He would bring him near it and he would enjoy its shade and drink its water.
Then a tree would be raised for him at the gate of Paradise, more beautiful than the first two. He would say: O my Lord! Bring me near this (tree) so that I may enjoy its shade and drink from its water. I shall not ask Thee for anything else. He (Allah) would say: O son of Adam! Did you not promise Me that you would not ask Me for anything else? He would say: Yes my Lord, but I shall not ask Thee for anything else. His Lord would excuse him for He sees something the temptation of which he could not resist.
He (Allah) would bring him near it, and when He brings him near it he would hear the voices of the inhabitants of the Paradise. He would say: O my Lord! Admit me to it. He (Allah) would say: O son of Adam, what will bring an end to your requests to Me? Will it please you if I give you the whole world and a similar one with it? He will say: O my Lord! Art Thou mocking at me, though Thou art the Lord of the worlds?
Ibn Mas'ud laughed and asked (the hearers): Why don't you ask me what I am laughing at. They (then) said: Why do you laugh? He said: It is in this way that the Messenger of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) laughed. They (the companions of the Holy Prophet) asked: Why do you laugh, Messenger of Allah? He said: On account of the laugh of the Lord of the universe, when he (the desirer of Paradise) said: Art Thou mocking at me though Thou art the Lord of the worlds? He would say: I am not mocking at you, but I have the power to do whatever I wish.
[Sahih Muslim, Vol. 1, #359, 361]
==========================================================
and then i gave the Arabic khutbah. that was the Bayan in english.
Subhanalli wa bihamdihi, subhanallil Adheem
Monday, July 10, 2006
long time coming
Anonymous said...
what do we do with this pass? this rush of eman that comes into us? we USE it to bring something into our lives that wasn't there before. take it gradually, but take a sunnah and make it a habit. look at how many of the prophet SAW's sunnah we neglect and are basically nonexistent in our lives! can you imagine living just ONE day doing everything the Prophet SAW did? incorporating all of his practices in a day, into our day? what is wrong with us that we adhere to the sunnah after salah only because the scholars say that if you leave a sunnah mu'akkadah, you are sinning. why can't we adhere to these things because the PROPHET SAW DID THEM, and we want to emulate him??
so back to the topic. we've gotta take steps forward. we can't stay in the endless loop of nonproductivity. we gotta take one thing, and start doing it. take that rush, and use it to start fasting. use it to start making dhikr after fajr, every fajr, everyday. use it to start praying all of your sunnah, every prayer, every day. step by step. and in the beginning, we're going to enjoy it. heh, and this is reminding me of that quote i posted up a while ago, because once you start doing it, you're going to hit the opposite curve, the low end, the dip, the iman "low". Shaytan is going to try and stop you, by hitting you in places you didn't see coming. make you focus more on this stuff than your fardh, or beat you in a couple battles and simply depress you, and this is where Allah will be testing you:
=================================
heh, i actually wanted to make this post a while ago, it just never happened until now. Ya Allah, make us from those who put into practice the things they hear and say. and make us resolute on this deen. Ameen.
Allahumma A'innee bi thikrika wa shukrika wa husni ibadatika. Ameen.
walaikum assalaam
wow.. assalamu alaikum,walaikum assalaam
im at the point in my life where everything is going up & down. somedays i am so enthusiastic about islam, but other days im just plain neglectful. these posts and other muslim bros/sis, writings really allow me to come back to myself. but how do maintain a strong imaan without fading off and on??
first of all, i gotta say something. and to do so, i'm gonna paraphrase what one of the speakers said at the ISNA regional conference in DC a couple months ago. it's interesting to note that while the other muscles in the body all go through (insert name of process that muscles go through and use up energy etc - biology major my foot) the tongue is the only muscle that does not go through this. so while you can only do so many sets of curls until you're muscles get tired, you're tongue doesn't have to worry about that, so it can talk and talk and talk and never get tired. this is the way Allah SWT has created us, and it's almost a neat way of telling us that, "talk is cheap!"
and by the way anonymous, i thought about replying as another comment, but i started thinking and decided that this warranted a post of its own, so yeah, i am kinda singling you out (which doesn't matter cuz you're anonymous :D). but anyways, the reason i mentioned what i did above is to say that obviously, talk is cheap, and your words only take life through action. so basically i can give advice, but it's only the same advice that i have to give to myself, cuz i go through the same thing, and everybody else does too.and it's really crazy sometimes how Allah sends people to remind us even if they don't know they're doing the reminding.
the thing is, everybody goes through this same thing that you're talking about. the Prophet SAW himself has mentioned that Iman will increase and decrease. i remember IBOO posted something about this, so i went and dug it up:
Muhammed al Shareef once said that the iman is not a static thing, it is something which goes up and down constantly and the trick is to not allow the lowest valley, of your iman line graph if you will, to get lower than any other previous point your iman has been at. In other words your iman never gets as low as its previous lowest point, and therefore in the long run will ultimately always go up.so iman is going to go up and down. some days you will feel the sweetness, and some days you won't. both curves are equally important though. they say it takes 23 days to make or break a habit. ramadan is an entire month of spiritual high where we can make and break habits. the same way, there really is no benefit for us to listen to talks and lectures, or read articles, or attend a halaqah or an event if we're just savoring the "feeling" or the EmanRush (TM) that comes afterwards but then do nothing with it. that's like getting a free summer pass to your local gym but you never go to start working out. or getting that free 20oz coke bottle top but never taking it in and getting that free coke. ya'll see where i'm going?
what do we do with this pass? this rush of eman that comes into us? we USE it to bring something into our lives that wasn't there before. take it gradually, but take a sunnah and make it a habit. look at how many of the prophet SAW's sunnah we neglect and are basically nonexistent in our lives! can you imagine living just ONE day doing everything the Prophet SAW did? incorporating all of his practices in a day, into our day? what is wrong with us that we adhere to the sunnah after salah only because the scholars say that if you leave a sunnah mu'akkadah, you are sinning. why can't we adhere to these things because the PROPHET SAW DID THEM, and we want to emulate him??
so back to the topic. we've gotta take steps forward. we can't stay in the endless loop of nonproductivity. we gotta take one thing, and start doing it. take that rush, and use it to start fasting. use it to start making dhikr after fajr, every fajr, everyday. use it to start praying all of your sunnah, every prayer, every day. step by step. and in the beginning, we're going to enjoy it. heh, and this is reminding me of that quote i posted up a while ago, because once you start doing it, you're going to hit the opposite curve, the low end, the dip, the iman "low". Shaytan is going to try and stop you, by hitting you in places you didn't see coming. make you focus more on this stuff than your fardh, or beat you in a couple battles and simply depress you, and this is where Allah will be testing you:
"and so we would pray and taste the sweetness of prayer and iman until Allah decided to test us. and he took away that sweetness to determine whether we were worshipping Him or the sweetness. and that was the struggle, to pray with the same type of resolve, dedication, concentration, even when we didn't exactly 'feel' like it. and so Allah tested us and when we passed this test, he returned that sweetness to us."but this is where we have to pass the test. when our iman is "low". stick to it. these things are our lifelines, each one an extra rope thrown into the water for us to hold on to. we gotta hold on to em though.
~ severely paraphrased. this was actually the same dude who i was talking about earlier, ISNA DC, "talk is cheap"? ya'll remember don't you? don't know his name.
=================================
heh, i actually wanted to make this post a while ago, it just never happened until now. Ya Allah, make us from those who put into practice the things they hear and say. and make us resolute on this deen. Ameen.
Allahumma A'innee bi thikrika wa shukrika wa husni ibadatika. Ameen.
walaikum assalaam
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
92 degrees outside
assalaamu alaikum
so my fam and i have been in in the midst of a battle of temperatures. here is the situation. it is summer time, and naturally, the weather is getting hotter and hotter. as most people would, my family turns on the air conditioning, and like the house very cool. but me, i'm warm blooded or something. i prefer summer over winter all year long. i'll get cold quick, but i'm usually the guy that says, "what? its not hot out here!" when people start complaining about the heat. i would rather be hot than cold. i think usually, its the other way around for people, well desis at least. which is weird, cuz isn't pakistan hot as a mess?
but anyways, that's why when i'm in the house alone, or when the air conditioning is on blast and it's like a freezer in the house, i'll go and turn the AC off, or set it to like 85 degrees, open up all the windows, and have fans running throughout for circulation. that's the ideal setting for me; fresh, real summer air, fans running. i love it. then my sister will come home and start complaining about how hot it is, and will turn the AC on and set it down to like 65 degrees, ready to have icicles form on our ceiling and what not, so i'll just wait till they walk out the room and turn the AC back off. it's like that constantly. when its confrontation time, i'll just bust out the "i'm saving us energy AND money, BUDDY!" argument. they can't say much to that, and near the end, i'll quickly throw in the, "what would you do if we didn't have AC, huh?"
and no it's not cruel, cuz during the winter, they use the same argument to leave the house below freezing, while i defrost my hoodies over a fire in my room.
so my fam and i have been in in the midst of a battle of temperatures. here is the situation. it is summer time, and naturally, the weather is getting hotter and hotter. as most people would, my family turns on the air conditioning, and like the house very cool. but me, i'm warm blooded or something. i prefer summer over winter all year long. i'll get cold quick, but i'm usually the guy that says, "what? its not hot out here!" when people start complaining about the heat. i would rather be hot than cold. i think usually, its the other way around for people, well desis at least. which is weird, cuz isn't pakistan hot as a mess?
but anyways, that's why when i'm in the house alone, or when the air conditioning is on blast and it's like a freezer in the house, i'll go and turn the AC off, or set it to like 85 degrees, open up all the windows, and have fans running throughout for circulation. that's the ideal setting for me; fresh, real summer air, fans running. i love it. then my sister will come home and start complaining about how hot it is, and will turn the AC on and set it down to like 65 degrees, ready to have icicles form on our ceiling and what not, so i'll just wait till they walk out the room and turn the AC back off. it's like that constantly. when its confrontation time, i'll just bust out the "i'm saving us energy AND money, BUDDY!" argument. they can't say much to that, and near the end, i'll quickly throw in the, "what would you do if we didn't have AC, huh?"
and no it's not cruel, cuz during the winter, they use the same argument to leave the house below freezing, while i defrost my hoodies over a fire in my room.
Monday, June 26, 2006
random thoughts from the weekend
assalaamu alaikum
and i mean random:
it was a tiring camp. but a good tiring. a "cleanse the soul with mud, rain, sweat, basketball, and lack of sleep" tiring. there were times when we had the choice to go back to our cabins and sleep for 2 hours, but each time, we ended up playing basketball, either in the dead heat, or the rain.
we also played square of death. in the process of tackling somebody, my finger got cut somehow. now i'm not usually somebody who cares about getting cut up, cuz usually i just leave them and don't even think about washing them up, much less putting a bandaid on em. but this cut HURT man, and it was on an area where it wouldn't close up and the blood wasn't clotting. i guess cuz my finger kept opening it up every time it moved. so i'm trying hard to bear the pain while still playing. next play, i almost get rocked and the dude rips like a whole layer off of my shirt. aH ala thalik. i used the strip of cloth to wrap up my finger and the cut, n keep the dirt out and stuff, and kept on playing. i felt like i was in the movies, getting stabbed and tearing off a piece of his shirt to wrap the wound. on a smaller scale of course. but still. oh yeah. :coolguy:
one of the things that hit me in one of the talks and i mentioned later on during the closing reflections session was how each and every one of us has been chosen to be muslims. and every time we pray, we were chosen for that prayer, and seperated from the millions of people who do not know what prayer is. when we wake up for fajr, we've been chosen while so many people are still sleeping. when we decide to do dhikr or read quran, so many other people are completely neglectful. there is so much to be thankful for, and so much to work on.
Allah swt has a plan for each and every one of us. every single situation we are put in, we have been placed there for a reason. everybody we meet, say salaams to, just make eye contact with has been placed there at that certain time for a reason, maybe as a test for us, or us a test for them, or maybe as an oppurtunity for us to make a potential lasting impression. just one smile can do so much. and i know this because there were people at that camp that made lasting impressions on me without them even knowing. just by doing something as simple as smiling.
during one of the talks, the question was raised as to how many people have a regular halaqah they attend. a lot of people raised their hand. i wasn't one of them. so i need a halaqah.
didn't i say this was gonna be random?
the best thing about these camps is the brotherhood thats built. [i just decided to erase some of the entry just cuz...]
what hit me the hardest during those 3 days was on the last day, when we sat in a circle and after each of us shared our reflections about the camp, the brother who went last said that he hopes that he can be with these same brothers under Allah's shade on the day when there is no shade but his. and i began to picture myself on that day, so utterly terrified and confused, only to find solace in the shining faces of these brothers that were here with me in this circle so close, smiling. words can't begin to describe the humbling feeling of being with such good people, and having them make duah for the group, which happened to include me at the time.
so we wrote letters to ourselves that were gonna be sent to us in a years time. first thing i wrote was, hey, you might be dead by the time this things comes back to you. we were supposed to give ourselves advice, but i ended up writing about the state of mind i was in at the time, what plans and goals i had made coming out from the camp, and overall, the things that have been on my mind and what not, so that i could guage my progress or lack of progress. see what had changed, or if anything had changed at all.
by the way, i'm getting kinda sleepy.
a couple months back i made a post about a poem that i had been inspired to write. with that rock picture? remember? well i do. anyways, i started writing it during a 3 hour long psychology class session, then left it alone for a couple months, and finally finished it sometime last week. well, i read that poem at MAS. aH, it went real well. i tried reading it again when i got back, and stuttered so much that i was surprised i even got past the first couple paragraphs at the camp without getting stuck. clutch performances, zindabad.
Ya Rabbi, lakal hamdu kama yambaghi lijalali wajhika wa adheemi sultanik.
oh, and i'm still sore.
and i mean random:
it was a tiring camp. but a good tiring. a "cleanse the soul with mud, rain, sweat, basketball, and lack of sleep" tiring. there were times when we had the choice to go back to our cabins and sleep for 2 hours, but each time, we ended up playing basketball, either in the dead heat, or the rain.
we also played square of death. in the process of tackling somebody, my finger got cut somehow. now i'm not usually somebody who cares about getting cut up, cuz usually i just leave them and don't even think about washing them up, much less putting a bandaid on em. but this cut HURT man, and it was on an area where it wouldn't close up and the blood wasn't clotting. i guess cuz my finger kept opening it up every time it moved. so i'm trying hard to bear the pain while still playing. next play, i almost get rocked and the dude rips like a whole layer off of my shirt. aH ala thalik. i used the strip of cloth to wrap up my finger and the cut, n keep the dirt out and stuff, and kept on playing. i felt like i was in the movies, getting stabbed and tearing off a piece of his shirt to wrap the wound. on a smaller scale of course. but still. oh yeah. :coolguy:
one of the things that hit me in one of the talks and i mentioned later on during the closing reflections session was how each and every one of us has been chosen to be muslims. and every time we pray, we were chosen for that prayer, and seperated from the millions of people who do not know what prayer is. when we wake up for fajr, we've been chosen while so many people are still sleeping. when we decide to do dhikr or read quran, so many other people are completely neglectful. there is so much to be thankful for, and so much to work on.
Allah swt has a plan for each and every one of us. every single situation we are put in, we have been placed there for a reason. everybody we meet, say salaams to, just make eye contact with has been placed there at that certain time for a reason, maybe as a test for us, or us a test for them, or maybe as an oppurtunity for us to make a potential lasting impression. just one smile can do so much. and i know this because there were people at that camp that made lasting impressions on me without them even knowing. just by doing something as simple as smiling.
during one of the talks, the question was raised as to how many people have a regular halaqah they attend. a lot of people raised their hand. i wasn't one of them. so i need a halaqah.
didn't i say this was gonna be random?
the best thing about these camps is the brotherhood thats built. [i just decided to erase some of the entry just cuz...]
what hit me the hardest during those 3 days was on the last day, when we sat in a circle and after each of us shared our reflections about the camp, the brother who went last said that he hopes that he can be with these same brothers under Allah's shade on the day when there is no shade but his. and i began to picture myself on that day, so utterly terrified and confused, only to find solace in the shining faces of these brothers that were here with me in this circle so close, smiling. words can't begin to describe the humbling feeling of being with such good people, and having them make duah for the group, which happened to include me at the time.
so we wrote letters to ourselves that were gonna be sent to us in a years time. first thing i wrote was, hey, you might be dead by the time this things comes back to you. we were supposed to give ourselves advice, but i ended up writing about the state of mind i was in at the time, what plans and goals i had made coming out from the camp, and overall, the things that have been on my mind and what not, so that i could guage my progress or lack of progress. see what had changed, or if anything had changed at all.
by the way, i'm getting kinda sleepy.
a couple months back i made a post about a poem that i had been inspired to write. with that rock picture? remember? well i do. anyways, i started writing it during a 3 hour long psychology class session, then left it alone for a couple months, and finally finished it sometime last week. well, i read that poem at MAS. aH, it went real well. i tried reading it again when i got back, and stuttered so much that i was surprised i even got past the first couple paragraphs at the camp without getting stuck. clutch performances, zindabad.
Ya Rabbi, lakal hamdu kama yambaghi lijalali wajhika wa adheemi sultanik.
oh, and i'm still sore.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
foremost to myself
assalaamu alaikum
we've all heard the stories of the prophets and heard of their miracles. and we think that surely, if we were present when Musa AS split the red sea or Eesa AS cured the sick and brought dead back to life by Allah's will, we would have no doubt as to who our creator was, and we would be complete and utterly perfect believers. wouldn't it be cool and so strengthening to witness one of those miracles? and so we neglect the greatest miracle of all, namely the Quran, that is right under our noses. and sometimes i think, we are the last nation. but say for instance, IF there was going to be a nation after us, or perhaps on the DOJ when everything is told, those who came before us would probably be dumbfounded as to how we could have neglected such a clear and obvious sign and miracle such as the Quran, the same thing we say and think about them when they killed the cow.
how could they be so stupid?
now although we have a tendency to follow others footsteps, right into the holes they crawl into and get stuck in, some of us claim that we try and learn from others mistakes. well i do, at least. so i have to be careful to not develop an attitude that prides itself on not falling into the same holes that everybody around me, my friends and peers, have fallen into, and continuously and repeatedly fall into. and so i remind myself, that every person has their own test. and where one person has failed, and i have succeeded, does not mean anything. that might have been easy for me and hard for him. and i look at myself now and see a hundred different things that i fail at everyday and others have no problem with.
its like when people say, "i can't marry somebody from back home, because they haven't faced the same struggle as i. they've lived around muslims their whole life, they haven't been exposed to the trials of the west, etc" this always bothers me, because Allah clearly says in the Quran, do you think you will be left alone saying you believe and not be tested? the people before you were tested until their foundations were shaken and they were left saying, when comes the help of Allah? sure, maybe you have been through certain things that other person hasn't, but you can bet your nikes that that person has been through a hundred things you have never experienced also.
the same way, our parents came here and aH, they established the deen. they built masajid, and now schools, and now institutions are being set up everywhere throughout the west. that was their job and their test. we can't just retake their test, because the answers are already on the sheet. we can't just keep on building masjids and schools. its our job to take it another step forward. and we have to figure it out and pass this test on our own. because its YOUR test. and MY test. in the end the judgement is for Allah. he tests whom he loves, but its not my job to figure out whether he loves me or you more.
we've all heard the stories of the prophets and heard of their miracles. and we think that surely, if we were present when Musa AS split the red sea or Eesa AS cured the sick and brought dead back to life by Allah's will, we would have no doubt as to who our creator was, and we would be complete and utterly perfect believers. wouldn't it be cool and so strengthening to witness one of those miracles? and so we neglect the greatest miracle of all, namely the Quran, that is right under our noses. and sometimes i think, we are the last nation. but say for instance, IF there was going to be a nation after us, or perhaps on the DOJ when everything is told, those who came before us would probably be dumbfounded as to how we could have neglected such a clear and obvious sign and miracle such as the Quran, the same thing we say and think about them when they killed the cow.
how could they be so stupid?
now although we have a tendency to follow others footsteps, right into the holes they crawl into and get stuck in, some of us claim that we try and learn from others mistakes. well i do, at least. so i have to be careful to not develop an attitude that prides itself on not falling into the same holes that everybody around me, my friends and peers, have fallen into, and continuously and repeatedly fall into. and so i remind myself, that every person has their own test. and where one person has failed, and i have succeeded, does not mean anything. that might have been easy for me and hard for him. and i look at myself now and see a hundred different things that i fail at everyday and others have no problem with.
its like when people say, "i can't marry somebody from back home, because they haven't faced the same struggle as i. they've lived around muslims their whole life, they haven't been exposed to the trials of the west, etc" this always bothers me, because Allah clearly says in the Quran, do you think you will be left alone saying you believe and not be tested? the people before you were tested until their foundations were shaken and they were left saying, when comes the help of Allah? sure, maybe you have been through certain things that other person hasn't, but you can bet your nikes that that person has been through a hundred things you have never experienced also.
the same way, our parents came here and aH, they established the deen. they built masajid, and now schools, and now institutions are being set up everywhere throughout the west. that was their job and their test. we can't just retake their test, because the answers are already on the sheet. we can't just keep on building masjids and schools. its our job to take it another step forward. and we have to figure it out and pass this test on our own. because its YOUR test. and MY test. in the end the judgement is for Allah. he tests whom he loves, but its not my job to figure out whether he loves me or you more.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
paraphrased
"and so we would pray and taste the sweetness of prayer and iman until Allah decided to test us. and he took away that sweetness to determine whether we were worshipping Him or the sweetness. and that was the struggle, to pray with the same type of resolve, dedication, concentration, even when we didn't exactly 'feel' like it. and so Allah tested us and when we passed this test, he returned that sweetness to us."
Thursday, May 11, 2006
word
salaamu alaikum
i took a break from studying for this math test and decided to eat breakfast. omlet and roti. don't know exactly how, but from that, i ended up on the comp. not to mention the plate that committed suicide by jumping from a great height and is now shattered all over the kitchen floor which i am now going to clean up.
anyways, my new favorite website.
Gangsta
i took a break from studying for this math test and decided to eat breakfast. omlet and roti. don't know exactly how, but from that, i ended up on the comp. not to mention the plate that committed suicide by jumping from a great height and is now shattered all over the kitchen floor which i am now going to clean up.
anyways, my new favorite website.
Gangsta
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
