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.