Waking Up In Jannah…

Dreams are short. Few fleeting moments and you wake up. Just like Life itself. You go through the ups and downs of life, joys and trials, smiles and tears – lots of surprisingly unprecedented moments – yet they never stay for too long. Life happens. Seasons of good and bad come and go; each leaving its trace in your life. Nothing is constant. You go through trials after trials, difficulties after difficulties, and are never exactly sure when they will end, when you will wake up from this bad dream.

The famous verse that many quote where the Lord of the heavens and the earth says:

“For indeed, with hardship [will be] ease.” (Qur’an 94:5)

“Indeed, with hardship [will be] ease.” (Qur’an 94:6)

Oh my sister, what is it you seek?

Oh my dear sister, what is it you truly seek?
What do you desperately yearn to possess by next week?

Oh my dear sister, what is it you truly seek?
Let’s discover it before all becomes bleak

Oh my dear sister, is it Honour that you truly seek?
Is that it when you are academically at the highest peak?

Is it truly Honour you feel when you get your bachelor’s certificate on the stage?
Or is that when you earn your first wage?

Do you need more and more degrees to get it all?
Aren’t the Masters and the P.H.D certificates enough on the wall?

Oh my dear sister, is it Honour that you truly seek?
By being born into a noble family and getting married into one which is unique?

Oh my dear sister, if it is the real Honour that you yearn for
Know that it is only being through the servant of Allah, as Islam tells us so

It is when you are seated with the Most Honorable in Paradise
This is when you will most appreciate it and fully realize

Oh my dear sister, is it Beauty that you truly seek?
By bombarding on layers of makeup and eyebrows tweak?

Is it the fancy clothes, white pearls and high heels that show your Beauty?
Aren’t you tired of competing for every man’s attention when you are off-duty?

In this dunya, do the see-through tops and tight jeans give you an edge in this race of ‘I am attractive than her’?
In the Jannah, you will have no rival and would be the most beautiful of all the hoor-ul-ayn got together!

Oh my dear sister, is it the real inner Peace and Harmony that you seek?
Does the blasting music through the headphones drown the feelings of unrest, as a technique?

Does the excessive social life and the late nights means you no longer have to find yourself anymore?
Even in a quiet room, you can’t shut down all the inner noise, when that’s all you want at the core!

Oh my dear sister, if Sukoon and Tranquility is what you are looking for
Flee back to Allah; prostrating with humility is how you will open the Serenity door!

 

Friday night sit at home and read quran?

‘Do you want me to sit at home and read Qur’an on a Friday night?’

Me: ‘Yes’

‘What? Are you mad? No way! I had a difficult week’

Me: ‘How was it difficult?’

‘I have been at work 8 hours a day, everyday. I have been taking care of the kids, cleaning the house and cooking food and taking care of your parents every day and I need a break’

‘What do you want to do?’

‘I want to relax. Chill out. Meet some friends. It’s all halal. I want to eat out tonight. My friends and I will wear proper hijaab. Its all sisters. I will lower my gaze from looking at women, but I need this time. Its all brothers. No free mixing. It will be my clocking out time. My own pick-me-up time. To get my energy back for the week ahead. To relax my head and body because I have to work/take care of the kids tomorrow’

Me: ‘When will be time between you and Allah happen?’

‘Tomorrow. The whole weekend is left. I promise. Tomorrow’

———————————————-

SubhanAllah…

Is this what happens on a Friday night? The weekend starts and there is a internal struggle within yourself?

A part of you – wants to remind yourself how little time you have left before you have to stand before Allah.. The Other part of you – is horrified to consider reciting Qur’an, or listening to an Islamic lecture on a Friday evening? Or doing anything remotely ‘Islamic’?

Who will win? Who has won? Just look at the last 4 weeks, not more – just 4 weeks, and decide who won these 4 times? Did you end up socialising with your friends, Facebooking and chatting on Whatsapp, OR, did you go to sleep early on Friday night so you could pray 2 rakats of Tahujjud before Fajr?

Tahujjud on a Saturday morning? Right! Reading an Islamic book on a Saturday evening? As if! Never! That’s not fun. Weekends are for fun.

Where are you going, my dear sister in Islam? Where are you going, my dear brother in Islam? Where are your priorities? When will you find time for Allah?

Please think about it. Only you and Allah knows. But His knowledge is enough as a Witness for or against us.

Modesty

Modesty in a woman is commendable. Inherent and natural/intuitive modesty in a man is even more of an amazing and admirable trait.

A house with both of them together becomes a blessed home.

Islam *As* Entertainment

When we have imaan (faith) in our hearts, then learning about Islam and gaining knowledge about the deen of Allah becomes something we look forward to. It becomes our *relaxing* time. Learning about the seerah of the prophet saw and the stories in the Qur’an becomes our *form of entertainment*.

When we have islam, but imaan has not entered our hearts, then praying salah (even 5 times a day!) and reading Qur’an once in a while feels like it’s enough. We believe in Allah and His messenger saw and we mostly stay away from the major sins, surely this is enough? Our learning becomes stagnant. Our tears stop flowing. We stop living and start existing. This is dangerous. No one can guarantee that imaan will always stay at a constant level. No one can claim that they have “high” imaan all the time. That they are safe.

Faith needs to be nourished. Regularly. Daily. The exact way the prophet saw and his companions used to. Take more interest in the deen. Learn fiqh of a simple topic. Learn Tajweed. Learn seerah. Talk about Allah with your family. With your spouse. With your children. At dinner table. When you are at the park. Randomly and casually. It doesn’t have to be like a formal learning class all the time.

Make learning the deen something that relaxes you. Excites you. Pleases you. Not a chore or just a responsibility. That is when we have both imaan *and* islam fully in our hearts.

(Inspired by a lecture by Br. Nouman Ali khan on ‘Maintaining Imaan’)

What differentiates us from younger selves?

What differentiates a boy from a man is his Gentleness and Kindness. He is gentle and kind when he could have used his strength. He suggests even though he could have commanded. He asks even though he could have just taken. He gives more than he thinks about taking. He respects her more than he demands his own.

That’s a man to keep. To aspire to be one. To be thankful for the one you have.

———–

What differentiates a girl from a woman is her Care and Sacrifice. She does more than he could ask. She gives all she has, even forgetting herself sometimes even though she doesn’t need to. She commits to improving everything around her, including herself, even though he is pleased with her.

That’s a woman to keep. To aspire to be one. To be thankful for the one you have.

When you feel upset/angry:

Take a break from communicating if need be,

but don’t break the communication in the relationship

Keep talking and keep loving!

Trust Allah’s love for you…

Our individual experiences in life teach us different things. Our individual tests are uniquely designed to draw closer to Allah in different ways. But I think, with every test and trial, difficulty and pitfall, Two things are always there, if only we are willing to see.

♡♡How Allah never disappoints us ♡♡

♡♡How Allah convinces us of His infinite Love ♡♡

Something I have seen in my life, time and time again, and have been disappointed even once is this: When you give up something for the sake of Allah, you are never left empty handed.

It could be something small. Giving up a bad habit…

Smoking… you tried to give up too many times to know any better…
Lying. It just happens without you even realising it…
Not staring at men/women. What’s the harm in just looking? You are not touching… Backbiting. Everyone does it so why should you be any different??

It could be something big. Giving up something so big that you can’t actually think you could.
A Haram relationship. You love him/her so much that spending another day without them chokes you…
Pornography. It has become a part of you…
Constantly disobeying your parents. You can’t stop yourself from replying back rudely every time…
Consuming riba or mortgage… you don’t know how will you manage to pay the bills if you leave this haraam job…

Yet, taking a small step is all you need. Then Allah makes the rest easy. Believe me. The pain you feel in giving up something is actually opening up the door to let the rush of imaan you will feel. One leaves and the other enters.

Allah never leaves us empty handed. We might realise it after months. Even years. That giving up that habit was the best thing that happened to us. Trust Him. Trust His love for you.

Post at home…

Surprise your spouse every once in a while. Write them a nice, loving letter and post it, even though you both live in the same house.

The element of surprise of getting it with their name in the post, the anticipation of opening and reading the letter, your handwriting – all of it is worth their smile.

If writing doesn’t come to you easily, buy and send a card instead. It’s the thought that counts!

We live in the times where nudity is considered being ‘real’, and modesty is something you learn, instead of being part of the natural disposition that every man was created with. The ‘modern’ materialistic society forgets that with every layer of clothes we take off, we lose a tiny part of our human selves.

Bearers of the Throne of Allah as Your Witnesses…

We supplicate to Allah, calling Him out with the most beautiful names that He has, asking Him to make things easier for us, to relieve our problems, to ease our hardship, to protect us against the evil traps of the satan.

Part of the etiquettes of making dua is to praise Allah, and thank Him for all the blessings He has bestowed upon each and every one of us. Often, as part of the dua, we acknowledge and bear witness that Allah is the only One God, worthy of all worship, and even recite the shahada in Arabic and in our cultural languages.

What’s amazing is the dua that the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to make to Allah.

Not only would he bear witness that Allah is One, but he would make the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth, Himself, a witness for the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)!

Listen to this, my dear brothers and sisters:

“O Allah, I have entered a new morning and call upon You and upon the bearers of Your Throne, upon Your angels and all creation to bear witness that surely You are Allah, there is none worthy of worship but You alone, You have no partners, and that Muhammad is Your slave and Your Messenger.”

(Hisnul Muslim. Reported by Al-Bukhari in Al-’Adab Al-Mufrad, An-Nasa’i in Amalul-Yawm wal-Laylah and Ibn As-Sunni. Nasa’i’s and Abu Dawud’s chains of transmissions are good (hasan), Ibn Baz, p.23)

Can you imagine that? You are making the King of the Kings, the Owner and Sustainer of all beings, the Ever-Lasting One, as your personal witness! You are making Allah, the one who created you, to bear witness that He created you and you will not worship anyone besides Him. It’s almost as if by making the One you are supplicating to, a Witness, to the supplication itself.

As if that is not astonishing by itself, prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in the same dua, used to make angels bear witness for him as well. And these angels are not just any angels that Allah has created, but rather these great angels are the ones responsible for bearing the Throne of Allah. SubhanAllah!

“From Jabir ibn ‘Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said: ‘I have been given permission to speak about one of the angels of Allah who carry the Throne. The distance between his ear-lobes and his shoulders is equivalent to a seven-hundred-year journey.’” [Abu Dawood].

Can you even imagine this? Surely, this is beyond our comprehension. An angel, a creation of Allah that has such magnificent shoulders is being a witness for you in front of Allah. How fantastic is that?!

“Those (angels) who bear the Throne (of Allah) and those around it glorify the praises of their Lord, and believe in Him, and ask forgiveness for those who believe (in the Oneness of Allah) (saying): ‘Our Lord! You comprehend all things in mercy and knowledge, so forgive those who repent and follow Your way, and save them from the torment of the blazing Fire!’” [40:7]