of tolls and trolls

I'm proposing, and i hope you'll say 'yes'

Musa 'alaihissalam was a prophet with a very strong character, and Rasulullah compared the character of Umar ibn al khattab to that of Musa. You had to be strong if your people turned to worshipping a golden cow after seeing obvious miracles performed in front of them. He was physically strong (he accidentally killed a Copt just by pushing him)

But more importantly, he was very strong-willed.

When Allah told Musa to go and find al-Khidr, he said to his assistant

"I will not give up until i reach the meeting point of the two seas; or i will walk for years and years". (Al kahf:60)

He was so fired up about it, that he was willing to walk for YEARS AND YEARS. But obviously,  no one could walk non-stop for years.

"When they had passed on (some distance), Musa said to his attendant: "Bring us our early meal; truly we have suffered much fatigue at this journey of ours." (Al kahf: 62)

Being humans, we have some constraints put on us. We feel hungry, we need sleep, we have to rest a little bit, we have families to take care of, we need to work to sustain a living. No one was born with wings sprouting from their backs and light shining from their fingers.

But we should learn from the example of Musa. The initial mindset should be 'i'll walk for years and years', and not 'i'll walk if the road is smooth, there are R&Rs down the road, someone takes care of my business, etc...". One brother told us have a 'no worries' attitude to D&T.

"3 circles per week? No worries mate".

"I've never spoken on this topic before..but no worries mate, consider it done."

"You're asking me to write a book???? *puffs up cheeks and exhales slowly*...no worries mate, i'll give it a try".

If any opportunity of good comes to you, say 'yes' first. And then we'll talk about the constraints. You can't think straight and can't sleep if someone proposes marriage to you. But allah is proposing paradise to you,and a lot of people don't look like they want to say 'yes'.

Remember, you'll never know your limit if you never tried to reach it.

Before you build that mosque

Reading an obituary of the late nelson mandela, i was struck by this particular passage:

"Winnie, his second wife, whom he married in 1958, came to share his political cause, but from the first realised that 'he belongs to them', the public. This was a complaint of the children too, as mr Mandela himself confessed. He was, one told him, 'a father to all our people, but you have never had time to be a father to me."

This is a real risk for people who are serving a public cause.

So to all my brothers and sisters who are still 'missing by half' (yours truly included),

Choose and prepare and plan wisely,

Think well, because building the foundation blocks of a society is not an easy thing,

And its even more of a challenge because we must be fathers and mothers to all the ummah, in addition to becoming fathers and mothers to young khalids and umars, and little aishahs and nusaybahs.

success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm

A lot of the prophets were not 'successful' in the worldly sense.

Saleh: He was a prominent figure among his people. Before prophethood his people hoped that he would be a future leader, but when he called his people to Allah the ones who followed him were the weak ones. Today even celebrities want to join D&T.

Lut: Only one household believed in him, and that was his own family, minus his wife.

Nuh: He did da'wah for 950 years and according to narrations, less than 100 people followed him. That's an average of

9.5 years of da'wah per follower.

Imagine doing da'wah for 9 years, and only one person believes in you. Thank God Allah made me as me, and not as prophet Nuh. 

Musa: A whole nation (the children of Israel) followed him, but after they crossed the Red Sea his followers rebelled and refused to listen. 

So don't hope for results, hope for Allah's mercy and forgiveness. Because if He says 'i'll give you 1000 followers tomorrow!', you'll get 1000 followers tomorrow. 

Let's look at the da'wah of Rasulullah. He goes around Makkah for 13 years and only a few followed him. But then he met the people of Madinah, and the Aus and Khazraj couldn't wait to be his followers. 

There were some things that made the Ansar (Aus & Khazraj) more susceptible to Islam:

- They were neighbours with the Jews, therefore they were more familiar with prophethood, holy books and monotheistic religion. They heard about the coming of Rasulullah from these Jews.

- A short while before Hijrah, a battle happened between the Aus and Khazraj (the Battle of Bu'ath). A lot of their old people were killed and the young ones were left (the leader of Aus, Sa'ad bin Muadh, was in his early 30s). Old people give a lot of resistance to new teachings, as compared to the youth.

These young men were the perfect help for Rasulullah, and there were also a lot of geographical advantages in Madinah. 

Allah gave help to His Messenger after a long period of unfruitful work. He gives help whenever He wants, wherever He wants, and however He wants. 

But we have to try our best. 

Prophet Nuh was turned down a lot of times, but he kept on trying night and day, in open and in secret.

Try our best, eventhough there are a lot of excuses and lies that we can tell ourselves.

"My work is too demanding"

"My family needs me all the time"

"I don't have money"

And so on.

The more i walk along this road, the more i am convinced that there is indeed a high price to pay for Jannah.

Conversations by the bookshelf

I didn't know that packing old books with your mum could be such an emotional event.

"I want to keep some of these books..they remind me of when you were little."

My whole past flashed by in a series of dusty tomes and yellowed pages.

There were the first-reader books, which i repeated over and over and over again until the pictures are familiar even until now...three little pigs with a wolf who huffs and puffs, red riding hood with a big bad grandma..

There were the disney storybooks, which came out with every new disney movie. Back then you watched them on videotapes, and you had to rewind the tapes to get back to the start, and they made this whirring sound especially if the tapes are old.

There was this encyclopedia which i brought to boarding school. On it was written 'mehmet ikmaludin bin ahmadun nordinie'. A friend of mine wrote that as a prank and taught it was very funny. I reported to the teacher and he got an earful. Now i find it funny too.

"There's a lot of books here..these are all investments on you, you know."

That's an important thing to note. Invest in books for your child.

"Yang ni simpan, bagi anak along baca" (keep these ones, give them to your children for them to read)

"Anak along baca english & arabic je" (my children read only english & arabic)

Lol. Just a few years ago i couldn't imagine that we'd touch on such topics.

How time flies.

When the whole world is squeezed to serve you

I received an amazing comment as a response to yesterday's post. Because its so amazing, i decided to turn it into a post for the benefit of all of us:

"there was one time, during jaulah in Indonesia, we met an ikhwan who is:
1. a governor of the province where we were jaulah-ing.
2. a father of ten kids of varying ages.
3. a husband.
4. a murabbi for a lot of circles (in Indonesia, it's normal for a murabbi to hold ten or more circles)
5. a mutarabbi himself.
6. a writer.

and a whole lot more.

When we asked him, how in the world did he manage to manage his time?

His answer: if you do D&T, you will get quality of time, masa yang berkah*, insyaAllah."

*time that is blessed

That is absolutely true. These people can do a lot of things because Allah blessed their time. It is as the Prophet said:

"Take care of (your duties with) Allah, Allah will take care of you".

When you squeeze every ounce of your energy and time to serve Allah, Allah will squeeze the world to serve you. 

New highways will be built to connect the ports inside your brain, until you can understand more than anyone else, faster than anyone else and understand them in ways no one thought about before.

You will be given inspiration to do things in new ways, combine two things at one go or do things in a simpler fashion.

You will be helped when all roads are blocked.

This is barakah, blessing. This is something that, unfortunately, we have forgotten in the present materialistic, calculative world.

Squeeze: The art of being in 5 places at 1 time

The Qur'an is fascinating. In a short sentence or even in one word it can convey a thousand meanings.

"Indeed, We have made it an Arabic Qur'an that you might understand." (Az Zukhruf:3)

I was initially puzzled by the verse above. We made the Qur'an in Arabic so that "you may understand"? That is logical in the beginning centuries of islam, when a majority of muslims were Arabs. But how can an arabic Qur'an be understood when the majority of muslims now are non-Arabs?

But the Qur'an is true every time, all the time.

Allah made the arabic language special. It is a very subtle language and beautiful to listen to as well. Arabic is a language where you can say a lot by saying a little, making it the best language in which to reveal the Qur'an. One word in Arabic can have many meanings, and all these meanings are true. That is why Arabic is used so 'you might understand', because if it was revealed in any other language people might have trouble understanding this religion fully.

we'll look at the meaning of ONE WORD used in The Book to understand the secrets of time management.

Du'at have a heavy burden on their backs. We have to be active in da'wah, while excelling in whatever studies/jobs we're involved in, AND at the same time be good children/fathers/mothers/brothers/sisters/friends. AND try to save the world from global taghut-ism while being steady like a boss.

Which means we have to do DOUBLE the work of everyone else. So time management is absolutely crucial.

I know of one brother who handles at least 10 projects at work, has a family to take care of, has a blog, and managed to write a book. And I heard that in addition to bringing up children and circle-buddies, he also farms lobsters. 

"my man, you must be joking!"

No joke. And the secret to time management is simple. We just look at the meaning of a word used to describe time in the Qur'an.

العصر (Al 'Asr)

"I was expecting a ground-breaking theory, and you give me one word from the Qur'an" 

Aha, let's see how special this one word is.

'Asr doesn't necessarily mean time. 

 عصر - pressing, squeezing out, wringing; age, era, time; period; epoch; afternoon; afternoon prayer

To squeeze out. In surah an Naba' clouds are described as المعصرات, i.e "the squeezers" (of rain). The use of the term 'Asr to describe time is appropriate because time is always being squeezed, its always running out, that's why disbelieving people are in a state of loss.

That is the nature of time. It is squeezed. We can derive from this two simple steps to use time wisely:

1. SQUEEZE OUT bad/useless things, SQUEEZE IN good things

By promising to sell ourselves to Allah, we have understood that the enjoyment of this life is temporary and paradise is better and more everlasting. Forget about doing clearly bad things, we should even be cutting down on things that are permissible but are of no real benefit.

"From the (signs of) goodness of a person's Islam, he abandons what does not concern him" (Tirmidhi)

We sometimes hear people say 'i don't have time to study Islam' or 'i don't have time to read qur'an', but these same people can spend hours 'catching up with friends' on facebook (stalking) or defeating imaginary trolls and goblins. Du'at should have little or no idle time.

Allah created 24 hours to be enough for our needs. We just need to defeat our inner trolls and goblins and focus on doing things that can save us when we meet Allah.

2. SQUEEZE MORE out of your daily schedule

Be more efficient. Get more out of doing the same thing.

"I don't have time to exercise. I'm a desk potato at the office".

Here's a suggestion: Don't take the elevators. Walk up the stairs. Even better, run up the stairs! 

"I'm tough as bricks. And I also memorise the Qur'an. Hasta la vista iblis"

You can recite the ma'thurat while ironing clothes in the morning. You can download quran recitations and memorise qur'an while driving or taking the train. You can listen to recordings whilst being stuck in the traffic jam, rather than listen to random stuff on the radio.

"Give me a break can you? Only crazy and obsessed people can follow these punishing schedules. Rilek-rilek sudeh" (let me relax)

You have to be crazy and obsessed to change something as big as the whole world. Yes, the schedule of a du'at is tight and 'punishing'. But on the day of judgment, there's no bigger punishment for a person than the time he wasted on Earth.

Let's repeat that again: Squeeze Out, Squeeze In, Squeeze More.

Easy peasy lemon squeasy.

Great men throughout history practised these time management principles: they commit themselves fully to their causes, leaving little time for anything else. And they have razor-sharp precision and effiency in carrying out their actions.

Take charge and squeeze your time, otherwise it will squeeze you dry.

What if - green britannia

*If the muslims overtook france and reached britain, would we be reading english in arabic letters? *wink* ;)

Something to think about.

Fact:in the 8th century, muslim armies blitzed through spain and france until they reached Tours, 200+ kilometres from paris. At the battle of tours (732), muslims were winning when the tables turned. Some muslims within the army were more concerned with guarding the spoils of war, creating an opportunity for the Franks to counterattack. If they had won, my alma mater would probably be called 'al madrasah al- ittisadiyah london' instead of the london school of economics

in the not-too-distant future: exams

come join me for a dip

Isn't it nice to be in paradise?

"..And therein is whatever the souls desire and [what] delights the eyes, and you will abide therein eternally." (43:71)

Allah promised fresh flowing streams, and rivers of milk, and honey, and wine.

These were refreshing drinks for Arabs who lived in the desert.

What if Qur'an came down during our time? In paradise there's everything that souls desire, so it is possible to have 

A whole river made out of CoolBlog *imagine swimming in milk tea, with 'pearls' floating around..and if you feel like it, you could munch on the pearls..sambil berenang kunyah bebola*

 

A river made out of iced milo.

A river made out of 'carrot susu'! *gasp* *swoon*

look at me mom! Tak sia-sia pergi usrah lepas penat kerja*

 *It wasn't for nothing that I went for usrah after a hard day's work

But this special reward is reserved for a special group of people.
  
"Is the description of Paradise, which the righteous (muttaquun) are promised, wherein are rivers of water unaltered, rivers of milk the taste of which never changes, rivers of wine delicious to those who drink, and rivers of purified honey, in which they will have from all [kinds of] fruits and forgiveness from their Lord, like [that of] those who abide eternally in the Fire and are given to drink scalding water that will sever their intestines?" (Muhammad: 15)

It is only for the muttaqeen (the people of taqwa), and they are indeed the rarest of the rare. Try and find their characteristics in the Qur'an, and try and emulate those characteristics.

Having a CoolBlog stream is awesome, but drinking CoolBlog with the likes of Rasulullah, Abu Bakr, Umar and their righteous followers is definitely awesome-r.

R.O.N- Really? Oh Nooooo!

Twinkle twinkle little star

Why did Allah open the surah of Al Buruj by swearing upon 'the skies that have stars/constellations'?



I don't know, and i have been wondering about it for some time. The rest of the surah does not touch upon astronomy. In fact, the surah tells the story of a group of believers who lived under a tyrannical king. This king gave them an ultimatum: Renounce islam, or jump into a fiery pit and die.

Imagine the terror they must have felt. In a hadeeth, Rasulullah told us of these people, and one of them was a mother carrying a baby. The mother must have been heartbroken, imagine throwing your own child into a blazing pit! But by the will of Allah, the baby spoke and told the mother that she was on the Truth. So she jumped in.

These believers were steadfast in the face of overwhelming force, and Allah honoured them. Their story will be recited until the Day of Judgment.

So back to those stars. What could they have in common with these believers?

Just think about it.

Fact #1: Stars were used since ancient times to navigate. Even today, navies and sailors are trained to read stars in case electronic equipments fail.

Fact #2: What we see is only light from the stars. Some of that light took millions and millions of years to reach Earth. So if you look at a star, you're seeing that star as it was 1 million years ago. The star might not even exist anymore.

Now do you understand why true believers are stars?

Like stars, the believers of the past navigate the believers of today. We gain strength from their firmness, we can face any hardship because we know they faced even worse trials.

And like stars, the light from these believers took a long time to reach us. And they no longer exist physically. But their spirit lives on, and their light continues to spark the flames of iman in the heart of every mu'min.
 

And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision, (Ali Imran: 169)
 
Some stars might be very far-off, they might be alone in an unknown galaxy. They continuously shine even though they don't know where their light will reach or who will benefit from it.

The believers in surah Buruj might be called 'failures' in the worldly sense. They did not establish an islamic state. They did not defeat the king's army. All of them were burned alive.

But we do not measure success and failure according to worldly standards. In the end, Allah preserved their message of tauheed, praised their steadfastness and mentioned them in the Qur'an as guidance for the ummah of Muhammad. Being in the New York Times' headlines is awesome enough. Imagine being in the Qur'an, which never goes out of fashion.

So brothers and sisters, carry on your da'wah, struggle and persevere even though you feel like everything is going wrong.

Because someone, somewhere in a galaxy far far away might be needing that light.

Your senses are lying, and allah is telling the truth

Allah is all-knowing, and He knows the best situation to place each and everyone of us.

"He is the one who created death and life to test you, which of you is best in deeds. And He is the Mighty, the Most Forgiving" (al mulk: 2)

That we're living in these trying times is from His wisdom. Our potential for good deeds is maximised by living in the 21st century. If we lived in the time of the prophet, we might not stand the heat, the poverty, the temptations and suffering inflicted on us. We might have been (nauzubillah) his enemies, instead of his followers.

A lot of things are beyond our control. We did not ask to be born in an era when disbelief and godlessness are in charge of our political institutions, financial institutions and social institutions. We did not ask to be in an era when every attempt to bring people to the truth is brutally suppressed from the outside, and given sharp lashings from within.

But allah is all Mighty, and these crises are opportunities for us to shine, to act with the 'best of deeds'. Great villains bring forth great heroes. We can admire the steadfastness of musa because he stood up to fir'aun, the greatest tyrant of that age. If spiderman had fought against 'mat rempits' instead of a maniacal scientist with 4 mechanical arms, he would be just another regular cop with a fancy suit. We cannot say 'if only this didn't happen..'. Things happened. Fullstop.

What is required from us is to respond with the best of deeds. To follow the book of allah and the sunnah of his messenger and call people to them. And struggle to uphold them in every aspect of society, because only then can we solve our various problems.

The promise of allah will come true even if everything around us tells us otherwise.

Let's revise the awesome story of Musa. He and the children of israel were being pursued by fir'aun and his army. Imagine you being there. Firaun is chasing after you..you keep glancing back, afraid that they're catching up soon..you hurry along the route..

When all of a sudden you reach the sea. There's no possible way forward, just a vast expanse of blue.

Close behind was an army. In front was only sea. His followers were losing their minds.

"So when the two groups saw each other, the people of musa said 'most surely we will be overtaken'" (ash shuaraa: 61)

Your eyes are telling you that there's no hope. Your ears are telling you that there's no hope. Every single sign is pointing towards imminent doom.

But musa stood firm like a rock. "He said 'by no means; surely my Lord is with me. He will show me the way'"(ash shuaraa 62)

He held firm to the promise that allah gave him when he first received prophethood:  "He said: we will strengthen your arm with your brother, and We will give you both authority, so that they shall not reach you; with our signs, you two and those who follow you will be uppermost" (al qasas: 35)

Then the most unlikely thing happened. The sea split, giving them safe passage while drowning fir'aun and his men.

Fast forward to : today.

The media is giving us little hope. The disbelievers are ganging up and putting their whole resources into use. The muslims are in great doubt, and some of them outdo some of the disbelievers in criticism.

We should be firm and say 'our lord is with us, he will show us the way'.

The truth will prevail, and the law of allah will reign supreme.

'And certainly We wrote in the Zabur (psalms) after the reminder that (as for) the land, My righteous servants shall inherit it' (al anbiya': 105)

Do the best of our deeds. If we could click and share, do that. If we could write, do so. If we could raise our hands and pray, awesome. If we could not raise our hands, pray in our hearts. If we could do more, do so.

the pharaoh still exists, only he's no longer in government

Throughout history, the clash between truth and falsehood has been played out countless times, in every imaginable time and every imaginable place. 

The people of truth call out to one true God, they speak in different tongues and have different colours but their actions are the same. 

And the people of falsehood will do everything in their power to supress the truth.

Let's look at one of these episodes, the epic clash between Musa and Fir'aun.

Musa was facing immense pressure. Whatever he did, whatever signs he showed, Fir'aun and his people would not believe. Everything that Musa tried was automatically pushed off the shelf.

But when good came to them, they said, "This is ours." And if a bad [condition] struck them, they saw an evil omen in Moses and those with him. Unquestionably, their fortune is with Allah , but most of them do not know. (Al A'raf: 131)

It was 'damned if you do, damned if you don't'. If something good happened, they would give credit to themselves. And if something bad happened, they blame it on Musa. They just wouldn't believe, they just wouldn't lower their pride and arrogance.

And they said, "No matter what sign you bring us with which to bewitch us, we will not be believers in you." (Al A'raf: 132)

Truth will always meet with animosity. This is how Allah tests the believers. But if the believers are patient,

And We caused the people who had been oppressed to inherit the eastern regions of the land and the western ones, which We had blessed. And the good word of your Lord was fulfilled for the Children of Israel because of what they had patiently endured. And We destroyed [all] that Pharaoh and his people were producing and what they had been building. (Al A'raf: 137)

Make du'a for our brothers.

if you like it, you'll find a way to do it

I dare you to read this and not cry

I was reading a short story on the train. I finished half of it, and put it away to continue reading later.

"serdang..please mind your step"

then i browsed through my phone. somehow i was so engrossed in that, and didn't notice that the train had stopped at my station. 

I looked up..

Shoot! How long had the train stopped?

I picked up my bags and ran.

*teeetteetteet*
*wooshh*

and the door shut in my face.

Oh well, might as well finish off the story i was reading. It's a beautiful story, and because its so beautiful i'll give you a glimpse of it.

**********************************************************************************
This is a true story, and it happened in the time of at-tabi'een. A man by the name of Abu Abdul Rahman was finally returning home after 28 years in the frontline, fighting to spread islam. Imagine the excitement he must have felt, finally returning home to his wife after 28 years. And in those days there was no skype, no whatsapp, no facebook. 

That's a huge enough sacrifice to make for the sake of islam, 

And in addition : when he left her to go out and fight, they were newly married.

Now he's finally coming home.

He opened his door..

To find that a young man was in the house.

They wrestled each other, they shoved and pushed until they were both thrown out of the house and the neighbours came to see what the commotion was all about. 'Why is this old man doing, trespassing into this house?' They grabbed the old man to stop the fighting and so he wouldn't escape.

Abu Abdul Rahman protested: "O people, let me go! This young man trespassed onto my wife! By Allah, if i had my spear with me, i would have destroyed him!"

The young man also bawled, "Let me go! By Allah, i saw with my own eyes, that man intruded into my house with his weapons!.. This is proof that he intended evil, he really intends evil!"

The people became confused. They knew that this was the house of the young man. What was the old man talking about? Is he really the man who left for jihad a quarter of a century ago? Is he 'Puruq', also known as Abu Abdul Rahman?

Then a woman came out from the house. She knew who this man was.

"Yes, that is Puruq. This is Puruq, O Rabi'ah!"

The young man in the house was none other than Abu Abdul Rahman's son. When he left for the frontier, his son was still in the womb. Now he had grown up to become a fine young man. All this while, throughout the 28 years, his wife stayed loyal to him while bringing up their son, educating him in the faith and sending him to learn with the best scholars of the time.

Who was this son?

He was Rabi'ah ar-Rayi bin Abu Abdul Rahman. He was one of the ulama' and fuqaha' of his generation and also one of the teachers of Imam Malik bin Anas, the founder of the Maliki madhhab. And what produced this great man?

A great wife and a great mother.

This story is so awesome, the word 'awesome' echoes in your mind. (AWESOME..AWEsome..Awesome..awesome..some..me..)

And their blood, sweat and tears in the path of allah still manage to touch hearts and make tears flow long after they have left the earth.

**********************************************************************************

So another 'train incident' ended up producing blessed fruits, because if i had gone out at my original stop, i wouldn't have finished the book.

There's a very powerful lesson in the story about bringing up excellent children. It doesn't begin with which kindergarten you send them to, or which milk formula you feed them with.

It begins with choosing an excellent mother for them.

And since there's not yet a Ms. Author as of today,

I'm not in a position yet to talk about that. maybe later. (I'll stop there before you ask me 'how much later?')

Fullstop.

And because i love all you readers out there,

I'm giving you a gift.

click here to receive your gift.

I want you to download it and print it out. I want you to read it, and feel the warmth and sincerity in this story, and understand its implications.

And then act upon it, and be serious in making ourselves complete muslim individuals so we can then bring up a whole generation of Rabi'ahs. 

the essential 6th Sense

It's all good, even when its not

The train arrived at the platform. An electronic board gave its destination: Klang.

"Nice, the one after this must be heading to seremban"

Then the next one came. There's something about these new trains, maybe its the air conditioning, maybe its the comfortable seats, or maybe its the (now reduced) political propaganda, they just make you want to doze off the moment you sit down.

Im too embarrassed to set off a wake-up alarm in the train, so i hold on to a simple philosophy: allah will wake you up when its time.

As soon as i woke up,i went out to see...that i had arrived in batu tiga. (My actual train was supposed to go to serdang, but arriving in batu tiga meant that i took the train to port klang instead. So i had to ride a train back to KL and take another train heading to serdang)

Husnuszhan (making good assumptions) about why that happened:

- there was a serial killer weaving a butcher's knife in the actual train, so i was spared his madness.

- a man forgot to wear deodorant on the actual train, and i was spared his, err, lack of fragrance.

- my rizq (provisions) of food for the day happened to be in Kl sentral

Nevertheless, i now know how to blog on the train.yay! So everything really is good for the believer.

Energizer Da'ie

I wanted to write something for people coming 'back for good, but this post was so comprehensive that i felt that any further elaboration would be redundant.

Working life can be very tempting and seem very harmless, like a cute energizer bunny.

But don't trust the cuteness of energizer bunnies. They Keep Going at all costs, they never tire out and if you follow their rhythm you and your heart will die a slow, agonizing death. And worse of all, you don't even realize your gradual death because the Energizer Bunny is keeping you drugged on Promotions, Increments, That New House and That Nice Car.

So let Rasulullah SAW and Mu'az ibn Jabal radhiyallahu'anhu teach us 

"How to Stay Sane and Awesome"

*****************************************************

From Mu'az ibn Jabal ra, he said "i said 'O Rasulullah, tell me about a deed that will enter me into Paradise, and keep me far from Hell.'

He (SAW) said "you have asked about a great thing, and verily it is easy for those whom Allah makes it easy. Worship Allah, and do not make anything as partners with Him. And uphold solah, and give zakah, and fast in Ramadan, and perform Hajj."

And then he (SAW) said, "Do you want me to show you the doors of good? Fasting is a shield, and sadaqah will extinguish sins like water extinguishes fire, and the solah of a man in the middle of the night." And then he recited: "They arise from their beds..until he reaches what they used to do" (Surah As Sajdah:16-17) 

And then he (SAW) said, "Do you want me to tell you the head of the matter, and its pillars, and its highest peak?" I said, "Yes, O Rasulullah". "The head of the matter is islam, its pillars are solah, and its highest peak is jihad."

And then he (SAW) said, "Do you want me to tell you about the essential prerequisite to all that?" I said "Yes, O Rasulullah". Therefore he held his tongue and said "Guard this". I said "O prophet of Allah, and we are going to be taken (to account) for what we speak with it?" He (SAW) said, "May your mother be bereaved of you! And what would make men fall prostrate on their faces-or on their noses- in Hell, except the harvest of their tongues" (Tirmidhi)

The recipe is simple enough

1) guard the 5 basic obligations of islam

2) Persist in performing nawafil (amalan sunat)

3) the base of the matter is islam, its pillar is solah and its highest peak is jihad. Uphold prayers (and this means praying solah on time and at the masjid) because in addition to maintaining your connection to Allah, it will train you to struggle,to give your all-out. Like muharikah advised, attend usrah even if you don't feel like you gained anything. 

4) Guard your tongue. 

Simple to say, difficult to practise.

There is one race that an Energizer bunny cannot win, and that is a race with an Energizer da'ie. Because

الفكر لا يحد، واللسان لا يصمت، والجوارح لا تسكن. فان لم تشغلها بالعظاءم، شغلك الصغاءر

"The thought cannot be limited, and the tongue cannot stay quiet, and the body cannot stay still. Therefore if you do not occupy it with great things, small things have occupied you" - Abdul Wahhab 'Azzam