Thursday, December 31, 2015

Pearls of Wisdom 386

1. Act in accordance with what you know for what you do not know to be unveiled to you. [Imam al Ghazali]

2. Your knowledge should improve your heart and purge your ego. [Imam al Ghazali]

3. Whenever you interact with people, deal with them as you would wish yourself to be dealt with them, for a Believer's faith is incomplete until he wants for other people what he wants for himself. [Imam al Ghazali]

4. Not a day or night passes for any person without his death during it being a possibility [Imam al Ghazali]

5. Occupy yourself with inspecting your heart, discerning the features of your personality, giving worldly attachments a wide berth, purging yourself of ugly traits, and you would occupy yourself in adoring God the Exalted, worshipping Him and acquiring good qualities. [Imam al Ghazali]

6. If one is not satisfied with what suffices him, no abundance will ever enrich him. [Omar radi Allah anhu]

7. This world is an abode of tests. The object of life is not to avoid or deny its tests and trials, rather to successfully pass them. [Imam Zaid Shakir]

8. Many think that tests from God are always signs of His wrath. As Muslims, we believe that the trials afflicting us can be signs of His love. [Imam Zaid Shakir]

9. Human suffering is real. However, human perseverance and human dignity are just as real. They allow us to nobly endure the trials of this world. [Imam Zaid Shakir]

10. How bad can any suffering in this world be if it opens the door to unimaginable, eternal good in the life hereafter. [Imam Zaid Shakir]

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Intermittent fasts....

A wonderful TEDx talk at the link below which outlines the latest research that, yet again, confirms the sunnah of our dear Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and discusses how to maintain good physical, mental and emotional health.

We know firsthand, as Muslims, the spiritual upliftment we experience through fasting -- since we connect with the Creator and the best of the creation (peace and blessings upon him):

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/12/11/neuroscientist-shows-what-fasting-does-to-your-brain-why-big-pharma-wont-study-it/

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Lesson of the day 1391

Ayahs of the day:
Were you to obey most of those on earth, they would divert you from the way of God; for they follow only conjecture, and they are only guessing. Your Lord knows best who strays from the way of God, and knows best who is guided. [6: 116,117]

Hadith of the day:
Keep your evil away from the people and that will be a charitable act from your self upon your self. [Muslim]

Wise quote of the day:
Someone who seeks to travel the path of Allah should begin with a sound repentance from all sins. [Ibn al Haddad]

Guidance of the day:
Detachment of the world is one of the best saving things and worthy devotions. The essence of detachment is for the love and desire for this world to depart from the heart of the servant and it becomes so insignificant in his eyes that for it to withdraw and leave in scarcity becomes more pleasing to him and preferable than for it to come to him and make him affluent.

He who loves the world, desires it in his heart, and strives to amass it with the intention of enjoying its pleasures is one who loves the world and in whom there is no detachment at all.

He who inclines toward the world and desires it, not to enjoy but to enjoy it in benevolent and devotional pursuits is doing good if his behavior tallies with his intention. However, he is not safe from danger.

He who desires and pursues the world, but is unable to acquire it, remaining poor and destitute, he is a poor man, not a renunciate. If he is patient and contented in his poverty, he will have great merit and reward.

As for he who takes a large share of the world and enjoys its pleasures freely, then claims he neither desires nor loves it in his heart, he is presumptuous self deceiver. His claim is groundless and he cannot pretend to be following the example of any of the rightly-guided leaders and virtuous scholars, neither among the ancient nor the latecomers. [Counsels of Religion by Imam al-Haddad]

Food for thought:
What counts in a making a happy marriage is not so much as how compatible you are, but how you deal with your incompatibility. A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person. The difficulty with a marriage i

Saturday, December 05, 2015

Honesty -- the best policy

~A Muslim Does not Cheat {A Bus Driver’s Test}~

The Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “He who cheats others is not one of us.” [Muslim]

Commentary: Several years ago a Muslim moved to London. He regularly took the bus to the Masjid in the downtown area. Some weeks after he arrived, he had taken the same bus. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him too much change, a twopence extra.

As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, “You better give it back. It would be wrong to keep it.” Then he thought, “Oh, forget it, it's only a tuppence! Who would worry about this little amount? The bus company already charges too much; they’ll never miss it. Accept it as a gift from Allah.”

When his stop came, the Muslim paused momentarily at the door, then he handed the twopence back to the driver and said, “Here, you gave me too much change.” The (non-Muslim) driver replied, “I’ve been thinking lately of going to worship at your Mosque. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change.”

When the man stepped off the bus his knees were weak and he had to grab the nearest light pole for support. He looked up to the heavens and cried, “Oh Allah, I almost sold You and Islam for two pennies!”

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf – Muhammad the Honest :http://www.halaltube.com/hamza-yusuf-muhammad-the-honest