Wednesday, September 06, 2006

LESSON OF THE DAY 625

Ayahs of the Day:
And mention Idris in the Book, for he was a man of truth, a prophet, and We raised him to a high position. Those were some of the prophets whom God graced, from the descendents of Adam, and from those We carried along with Noah, and from the offspring of Abraham and Ishmael, from among those We guided and chose. Whenever the signs of the Benevolent One were related to them, they would fall down, prostrate and weeping. [19: 56,57,58]

Hadith of the Day:
Moderation in spending is half of (one's) sustenance, friendliness toward people is half of (one's) intelligence, and asking good questions is half of (one's) knowledge. [Bayhaqi]

Wise Quote of the Day:
Grant favor and be considerate of your enemy, because you will thus gain either one or the other of the two kinds of victories; one, rising above your enemy; the other, reducing the intensity of his enmity. [Ali radi Allah anhu]

Guidance of the Day:
You can plan for a hundred years, but you don't know what will happen in the next moment. Just as the human predicament transcends all the boundaries of time and place, the eternal facts of life revolve around problems of living that every person must face,the meaning of life and the inevitability of death.

There are, ofcourse, psychologies and there are psychologies. And then there is the perennial psychology, the one that addresses the ultimate questions of life. This ultimate psychology stems from a different mode of knowing than does ordinary psychology; it requires an inner knowing. From such a sense of inner certainty flows faith. "Faith in Allah is an inoculation against the diseases of the world." It is in dealing with these "diseases of the world" -- with greed, lust, anger, jealousy, self-pity, and all the other roots of heaviness of heart -- that the perennial psychology is distinct from ordinary psychology. This is a psychology that begins where modern psychology end; that deals with the largest issues of life rather than smallest.

Islam asks us to gain knowledge. To have knowledge of Allah it is necessary to have knowledge of our selves. If we truly know ourselves, then we will know Allah. If Allah allows us to know Him, we might know ourselves. We are not something that just happened; each of us is a miracle. This power that brought us here will remove us from here. If we understood this, we would not take ourselves for granted. In this universe that Allah has created, we are His supreme miracle. If we walk through this life totally unconscious, half-asleep, then how can we thank Him? [When you hear hoofbeats think of a zebra by Shems Friedlander]

Food for Thought:
What we do today, right now, will have an accumulated effect on all our tomorrows. People who give freely to others get back more than they give.

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