Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Lesson of the day 1394

Ayahs of the day:
Can one who was dead but whom We revived and gave light whereby to walk among humanity be like one in the darknesses from which there is no emerging? Thus are the doings of the atheists made to seem pleasing to them. [6: 122]

Hadith of the day:
Part of the excellence of a person's Islam is in leaving alone what does not concern him. [Tirmidhi]

Wise quote of the day:
The source of every obedience, vigilance, and virtue is dissatisfaction with one's self. The source of every disobedience, indifference and passion is satisfaction with one's self. [Ibn Ata illah]

Guidance of the day:
Love of God is one of the most noble and elevated stations. He who is sincere in loving God the Exalted is driven thereby to prefer Him above all else, move with determination along the road of His proximity and good pleasure, strive in earnest in His obedience, do his utmost in His service, and forsake everything likely to distract him from His remembrance and proper behavior toward Him.

To love God the Exalted is for the servant to feel inclination in his heart, attachment, and passion for that holiest and loftiest of presences, extreme awareness of its sanctity and transcendence, together with extreme reverence of awe, free from any thoughts of comparability or illusions of limitation, for God is too Exalted. One of the best proofs that one loves God is to follow with excellence the Messenger of God -- may God's blessings and peace be upon him. [Counsels of Religion by Imam al-Haddad]

Food for thought:
When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality. We pay when old for the the excesses of youth. We end up as we deserve. In old age we must put up with the face, the friends, the health, and the children we have earned. A comfortable old age is the reward of a well spent youth.

Friday, February 12, 2016

Pearls of Wisdom 388

1. A saint is not one never fails, it is the one who gets up and goes every time he fails.

2. God comforts us, not just to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.

3. It is where one spends their money that shows where their heart lies.

4. It's not the place that makes the person, but the person that makes the place honorable.

5. Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.

6. Never look down on someone unless you are helping them up.

7. The biggest mistake you can make is to assume to always be right.

8. Worry is like a rocking chair -- gives you something to do but doesn't get you anywhere.

9. One who wants to leave foot prints in the sands of time must wear work boots.

10. Be like the farmer who faithfully plants in the spring who reaps a harvest in the autumn.

Saturday, February 06, 2016

Lessons on the seasons of life....

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. In order to teach he sent them each on a quest,to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away. The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the fourth in the fall.

When they all went and came back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.
The first son said "the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted".
The second son said "it was covered with green buds and full of promise".
The third son disagreed; he said "it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful".
The fourth son disagreed with all of them; he said "it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment".

The father then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the life of the tree. He told them that we cannot judge a tree, or a person, or anything by only one season -- the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.

If we give up when it's winter, we will miss the promise of our spring, the beauty of our summer, fulfillment of our fall. We shouldn't let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest.

We shouldn't judge life by one difficult season. We need to persevere through the difficult patches -- and better times are sure to come sooner or later

Monday, February 01, 2016

Lesson of the day 1393

Ayahs of the day:
And do not partake of anything over which the name of God has not been invoked, for that would be immoral. And the devils will surely inspire their friends to contend with you; and if you were to obey them, you would be idolaters. [6: 121]

Hadith of the day:
Be in the world as though a stranger or a passerby. [Bukhari]

Wise quote of the day:
Allah's generosity is connected to gratitude, and gratitude is linked to increase in His generosity. The generosity of Allah will not stop increasing unless the gratitude of the servant ceases. [Ali radi Allah anhu]

Guidance of the day:
Reliance upon God is one of the most noble stations of the people of certitude and one of certitude's most invaluable consequences. The essence of reliance is certainty that all matters are in God's hand, in His fist, that none other than He can cause either harm or benefit, or give or withhold. The heart must be easy; confident in God's promise and His guarantee, so that it neither trembles nor becomes agitated when stricken by hardships or problems, neither is it to seek refuge and assistance with other than God the Exalted when afflicted by difficulties and worries. Were one ever to seek any of this with a created being, it should never be inwardly, but only outwardly, and according to the dictates of Divine law.

It is not a condition of reliance to abandon worldly means. On the contrary, one may very well join reliance with making use of secondary causes, so long as one relies on God, not on these causes. The sign of sincerity is that one does not depend on them so as to feel at peace when they are available, but anxious and agitated when they are absent and muddled. A servant may well have no worldly means, yet not be reliant. This is when he is attached to them, attentive to created beings, and desirous of what is in their possession. [Counsels of Religion by Imam al-Haddad]

Food for thought:
Faith means not worrying. He who has faith has an inward reservoir of courage, hope, confidence, calmness, and assuring trust that all will come out well, even though outwardly it might not be seen that way. Faith is courage, it is creative. In  faith there is enough light for those who want to believe. Faith is passionate intuition.