Monday, March 30, 2015

Lesson of the day 1376

Ayahs of the day:
And do not reject those who call on their Lord in the morning and the evening, seeking divine attention. You are not accountable for them in anything, and they are not accountable for you in anything, that you should reject them and so be among the unjust. [6: 52]

Hadith of the day:
In the evening, do not wait for the morning, and in the morning, do not wait for the evening. Take from your health for your weakness, and from your life for your death. [Bukhari]

Wise quote of the day:
The sign that one intimately knows Allah is that his heart is ever increasing in His remembrance. [Sahl bin Abdullah]

Guidance of the day:
One of the most important religious duties and best things with which a servant may seek to draw nearer to God, the Lord of the worlds, is carefully to keep away from the unlawful and the suspect, and seek the lawful and expend of it. He whose earnings are unlawful inevitably will be afflicted by outward and inward imperfections that will blemish his acts of obedience or even annul them.

Who ever reflects on this and observes it in himself and others will recognize the truth of it, unless he is being deceived and lured. One should avoid the unlawful to the utmost, guard oneself against it, and keep away from it in all its forms. [Counsels of Religion by Imam Haddad]

Food for thought:
Do not expect the world to look bright, if you habitually wear gray-brown glasses. The habit of looking on the bright side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a year. Of cheerfulness, or a good temper, the more it is spent, the more it remains.

Friday, March 27, 2015

Pearls of Wisdom 372

1. How strange is the one who knows the Hell Fire to be real and then sins knowingly.

2. How strange is the one who believes in Paradise yet spends his days in the world leisurely.

3. How strange is the one who considers God to be the Ultimate Reality and yet relies on others exclusively.

4. How strange is the one who knows Satan to be his enemy and yet listens to him obediently.

5. O' Son of Adam! Allah has nourishingly created you for Him alone, yet you so desire to belong to others.

6. The lover of God loves his times of solitude.

7. A slip of the tongue is far more hazardous than a slip of the foot.

8. If you are bent on committing that sin, then seek out that place which will keep God out.

9. To deem that Allah is with one every moment is the greatest expression of faith.

10. The scandal monger harms three people -- himself, his listener, and his target. [Othman radi Allah anhu]

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Lesson of the day 1375

Ayahs of the day:
Warn hereby those who fear they will be gathered to their Lord -- other than which they have no protector, and no intercessor -- that they may be conscientious. [6: 51]

Hadith of the day:
All of you are shepherds, each of you is responsible for his flock. [Bukhari]

Wise quote of the day:
The losses that you suffer on account of your silence can be easily compensated for, but the losses that arise out of excessive loose talk are difficult to requite. [Ali radi Allah anhu]

Guidance of the day:
It is incumbent upon the believer to love the people of goodness, religion, knowledge, and virtue, both the living and the dead. He should choose for companions the virtuous and righteous and avoid the evil and the corrupt.

He who is able to find no God-fearing, virtuous, benevolent believer to keep company with, then seclusion and solitude are better and nearer rectitude than to mix with evil, corrupt people. Associating with corrupt people is of immense harm and tremendous evil. It is fraught with perils and difficult trials, both immediate and future. Among these are acquiring their attributes unaware, watching them and and so coming to find comfort in their presence, inclining toward their evil states, easing the impact of sins on the heart, being led to imitating them and approving of their words and deeds.

The poet said,
Ask not about a man, but about his companions,
For one is bound to imitate one's companions. [Counsels of Religion by Imam al-Haddad]

Food for thought:
Deeds, not stones, are the true monuments of the great. If we have done any deed worthy of remembrance, that deed will be our monument. If not, no monument can preserve our memory.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Pearls of Wisdom 371

1. Wasted is the scholar who is not asked about what he knows.

2. Wasted is the wealth which is not used in good.

3. Wasted is the knowledge which is not acted upon.

4. Wasted is the goodly advice which is ignored.

5. Wasted is the Mus'haf (copy of the Qur'an) which is not recited from.

6. Wasted is the heart which is firmly planted in the mud of dunya.

7. Wasted is the life which has made no provision for the ultimate journey.

8. Put your hopes in no one except your Lord, have fear of nothing other than your sins.

9. The extent to which one understands the nature of dunya measures the degree of his detachment from it.

10. A slip of the tongue is far more hazardous than a slip of the foot. [Othman radi Allah anhu]

Friday, March 13, 2015

Meaningless goals....

Overtaking Cars

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings upon him) said: “He whose two days are equal, is a loser.” [Daiylami]

A farmer had a dog who used to sit by the roadside waiting for cars. As soon as one came he would run down the road, barking and trying to overtake it. One day a neighbor asked the farmer "Do you think your dog is ever going to overtake a car?" The farmer replied, "That is not what bothers me. What bothers me is what he would do if he ever did overtake one."

Many people in life behave like that dog who is pursuing meaningless goals.

Each dawn is a new beginning. Let each day dawn on a resolve to make it better in any one tiny way: Determine which useless or wrong deed you are going to give up today or which additional good deed you are going to do today to draw closer to Allah Most High.

(Daily Hadith)

Monday, March 09, 2015

Lesson of the day 1374

Ayahs of the day:
Say, "The unwholesome and the wholesome are not equal, even if the abundance of the unwholesome may delight you. So be conscious of God, those of you with understanding, so that you may thrive. [5: 100]

Hadith of the day:
Anyone who shows the way to something good has the same reward as the person who does it. [Muslim]

Wise quote of the day:
Disputes that escalate to high levels can often only be defused if one of the parties lays down its arms and  surrenders, preferring family harmony and the pleasure of God Most High over personal grudges. [Hamza Karam Ali]

Guidance of the day:
The essence of companionship is sincere love and unblemished affection. When this is in God and for God, its reward is immense:

When a person loves another, becomes his friend and companion for his love of God and obedience to Him, this is love in God the Exalted.

If he loves and befriends him because he helps him uphold his religion and obey his Lord, he loves him in God.

Love and keep company with God-fearing people, people of knowledge, and those of God's virtuous servants who are detached from this world, who are His protege among believers. For a man shall be with whom he loves in this life and the next. Keeping company with God-fearing and virtuous people draws one nearer to God. This is praiseworthy, benevolent companionship -- it is for God and in God, the rewards of which are immense, and the importance in religion and rank of which is high. [Counsels of Religion by Imam al-Haddad]

Food for thought:
The mind is like a stomach, it is not how much you put into it that counts, but how much it digests. The defects of the mind, like those of the face, grow worse as we grow old. Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order. Life is not a static thing. The only people who do not change their minds are incompetents in asylums, who can't, and those in cemeteries.

Friday, March 06, 2015

Pearls of Wisdom 370

1. Sometimes darknesses come over that He may make you aware of the value of His blessings upon you.

2. He who does not know the value of graces/blessings when they are present knows their value when they are absent.

3. Do not deem His giving to be slow; but rather, deem your approaching to be slow.

4. That part of your life that has gone is irreplaceable, and that which has arrived is priceless.

5. You have not loved anything without being its slave, but He does not want you to be someone else's slave.

6. Your obedience does not benefit Him, and your disobedience does not harm Him. It is only for your own good that He commanded the one and prohibited the other.

7. His sublimity is not increased when someone draws near to Him, and His sublimity is not decreased when someone draws away from Him.

8. When Divine inspirations come upon you, they demolish your habits; "Surely the kings, when they enter a town, ruin it."

9. That which hearts find in the way of worries and sadnesses is due to that which prevents their having inner vision.

10. Beneficial knowledge is the one whose ray of light expands in the mind and uncovers the veil over the heart. [Ibn Ata'Allah]

Monday, March 02, 2015

Satan is the third....

Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing upon him) said: “Whenever a non-mahram man and woman meet in seclusion, Satan definitely is the third one joining them.” [Tirmidhi]

What this hadith means is that Satan arouses their passions and incites them to commit evil. Prevention is better than cure. Fornication and adultery rip to shreds the psychological health of society. Since the family is the building block of society, for a society to be healthy, it must have healthy families that constitute it. To prevent any situation arising which might harm the family unit, Islam nips the source of problems in the bud. A person is responsible not only for himself or herself but for the spiritual, emotional, psychological and physical well being of their children as much as it is in their control. From their children will arise many more generations. Keeping this in mind we have to do our best to provide as healthy a moral environment as we can so we are not held responsible for the destruction of future generations.

“If the breakdown of the family and female security is to be averted, only two strategies are available: firstly, members of society may be conditioned to believe that sexuality is from the devil, and should inspire feelings of guilt and distaste; or secondly, sexuality may be accepted as the loving expression of a natural human need, in which case the sexes must be separated, within reason, to avoid the risk of the temptation of weak souls and hence their unchastity.”

“Historically, the first of these two choices has been that of Christianity, while Islam has opted for the second. The modern Western attitude, in which there is both an obsession with sexuality and a casual mingling of men and women, and which has resulted in massive promiscuity (and hence infidelity, divorce, abortion and disease) does not represent an ethically coherent system.” [The Seventy-Seven Branches of Faith, translator’s note, The Quilliam Press]

(Daily Hadith)