For The Love Of My Life

Assalaamu alaykum,

I first met you when I was five years old. I don't remember how it was, because it is like you have always been here.

During the years we met every once in a while but we were like acquaintances, we had friendly terms but I never paid much attention to you those early years.
From time to time I looked for your presence, but that was all.

It was not until high school I sat down with you, at our school library, and finally begun to get to know you.
We spent hours there, and I grew to like your company and character, yet I viewed you as a friend.

Time passed again and one day I was going to the city and thought that you might just as well come with me. While we were sitting in the bus, my heart was bouncing and I felt I was about to burst into tears. I hardly did it to home and at home I understood how much I had missed to be with you and that I just could not deny it anymore.

It's ten years from that day now.

I have grown older and somewhat smarter I hope, and a lot has happened ever since. I constantly thank Allah for letting you into my life.

It's been a long road and sometimes rocky, sometimes the ride has been smooth and sometimes I have pushed the car uphill; but at the end of the day I praise Allah, for He subhanahu wa ta'ala could have never blessed me with anything better.

The excitement has since faded and my fierce nature tamed by time and life, and my living with you has turned prosaic so that it requires special effort to remember how it was before, but then again love changes by time as we all do...

And still today,

Islam,

you are the love of my life.

And still I bear witness..

Ashadu an laa ilaaha ilAllaah wa ashadu anna Muhammadan rasuulullah

May Allah let me live with you and die with you.

Don't forget your suhoor

Assalaamu alaykum,

I know that getting up earlier than fajr sometimes is so difficult and that food does not taste so good when you have just got out of the warm, soft nest called bed, but...

as it says in Sahih Bukhari in the Book of Fasting:


Volume 3, Book 31, Number 146:
Narrated Anas bin Malik:

The Prophet said, "Take Suhur as there is a blessing in it."


Volume 3, Book 31, Number 142:
Narrated 'Aisha:

Bilal used to pronounce the Adhan at night, so Allah's Apostle? said, "Carry on taking your meals (eat and drink) till Ibn Um Maktum pronounces the Adhan, for he does not pronounce it till it is dawn.


Volume 3, Book 31, Number 144:
Narrated Anas:

Zaid bin Thabit said, "We took the Suhur with the Prophet . Then he stood for the prayer." I asked, "What was the interval between the Suhur and the Adhan?" He replied, "The interval was sufficient to recite fifty verses of the Quran."

*~*~*~*~*Ramadaan Kareem*~*~*~*~*

Assalaamu alaykum,

Narrated Abu Huraira(radiallaahu anhu): The Prophet sallaAllahu alayhi wa sallam said:
"... whoever fasts during Ramadan out of sincere faith and hoping to attain Allah's rewards, then all his past sins will be forgiven." (Sahih Al-Bukhari)

This is the time of the year, if ever, to reach to our Rabb who has created for nothing but to worship Him alone. The time to make tawba and leave bad habits and renew our shahadas with acting upon it.

Whoever fasts Ramadan out of sincere faith, his past sins will be forgiven.

Let go of the fear

Assalaamu alaykum,

I wish I could share with you all what I realized last week while spending Jumu'ah with my son in the amusement park. It was one of those moments when something suddenly becomes clear and changes the way you view the world. At least for that very moment.

When I was enforced to ride the machine my son could not go alone to and was squishing the safety gear my knucles white, the thought hit me as my hijab flapped in the wind.
Let go of the fear.

My son was tense but enjoying the ride so I loosened my hand and let go of the safety gear and placed my arm around my son who was sitting next to me. He looked at me smiling and I felt sudden relaxation going through my body. And on that very moment the ride became enjoyable. Smooth and exciting.

That day I went to every possible gadget my son wanted to. MashaAllah I laughed, shared excitement and enjoyed.

In our lives we often stress about everything beforehand. We are afraid of failing, getting hurt, loosing. We do our best sometimes, and sometimes we cannot do even that because of the fear.
We prepare, stress, fear and worry so much, that in the end it wins us, and we cannot enjoy life.
We do not, after all, trust the safety gear of planning and doing our best and leaving it for Allah.

We cannot predict the future or control it. No matter how fine our safety gear is, no matter how well we planned and how well we prepared, we will anyway fail, face trials, disappointments and sorrow. The ride is not foreseeable.
It is all written before the ride even begins, as Narrated Anas bin Malik:

The Prophet said, "Allah puts an angel in charge of the uterus and the angel says, 'O Lord, (it is) semen! O Lord, (it is now ) a clot! O Lord, (it is now) a piece of flesh.'
And then, if Allah wishes to complete its creation, the angel asks,

'O Lord, (will it be) a male or a female?
A wretched (an evil doer) or a blessed (doer of good)?
How much will his provisions be?
What will his age be?'
So all that is written while the creature is still in the mother's womb."

(Sahih Bukhari: Volume 8, Book 77, Number 594)

What we can choose to do, is to let go of the fear. Leave it's miserable face looking at all the fun we have riding without it, putting our trust to Allah after we have done all we can for narrated Imran ibn Husayn:

The Apostle of Allah (sallaAllahu alayhi wa sallam) said: Seventy thousand people of my Ummah would be admitted into Paradise without rendering any account.

They (the companions) said: Who would be those (fortunate persons)? He (the Prophet) said: Those who do not cauterise and practise charm, but repose trust in their Lord,

(Sahih Muslim: Book 1, Number 0422).

Because whatever is waiting for us in the future will happen, no matter did we fear it or not. And most of the time, the safety gear works just fine.

Let go of the fear. Enjoy the ride.

Let's not waste it this year.

As-salaamu alaykum

InshaAllah Ramadan is just behind the corner.
The month that we Muslims welcome with big goals and excitement, with the spirit to
"make most of it this year",
"to reap the benefits of Ramadan"...,
"to make this Ramadan a true month of ibadah",
"to make it different his year"....

...Just to give farewells month later with regret we did not do what we intended,
that we failed to truly learn the blessings of the holy month and that it was just another Ramadan that passed by, and yes, we fasted and attended Taraweeh few times but that was it...

I ask from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that this year He would make my Ramadan and Your Ramadan succesful. Du'a is the key to success, why not in this case as well.

Also, Ramadan is so close, that it is now time to sweep the dust, declutter, make the surroundings favorable for the Holy Month to come, and to make the surroundings as perfect as possible; to run now the errands we can, and do menu plans (not so that you could eat more! But to be able to not to focus on food that much) and think how to make the affairs of this dunya as smooth as possible so that would not prevent us from concentrating on the Ibaadah!

I know most of us have work, children, home to take care of and an endless list of alike, that we cannot deal with in advance, but preparing the things we can beforehand usually makes things smoother.

And then to plan further... My loving advice (based on "been there, done that") is to set your Ramadan goals according to your present practise.

If you set a goal to read the whole Qur'aan during Ramadan and have not managed to do that the past eight Ramadans even you intended to, you are most likely not going to do it this year either (I am not saying this to put you down, the opposite).

If you struggle with the five salawaat, and set a goal to make all Sunnah prayers and Taraweeh every night, what do you think is going to happen?
Again, I am not saying this to put you down, but because I have seen these goals putting sisters down and making them feel so bad each and every Ramadan.

So let's set realistic goals this Ramadan ok?
Goals we can, with the help of Allah, reach and gain reward for. As an opposite for the gigantic goals we try to reach for the first three days of Ramadan and as we see we are failing, leave them and feel bad.

If you are struggling with your prayers, focus on that.
To make them on time and with sincerity and concentration.
Put your alarm on at the prayer time and do your best to do them in time. We are going to be asked for the obligatory prayers first before optional ones, and they should be our main priority.

If you are not giving enough time to your family, focus on that.
If you are the main chef, include your family to cooking, make Taraweeh prayer every once in a while at home, or if you have a satellite (and busy naughty kids who stop you from standing long in prayer) sit with your family to see Taraweeh from different countries.
Sit with your family and talk abour Ramadan; you can even now collect bunch of hadith to talk about.

And if you wish to do good for others, see the needy around you. Many countries may not have beggars on the street or poor people to give for them so that they can break their fast too, longer than ours, but in each and every country there sure is someone who would appreciate a random (or frequent) act of kindness.

The list is endless and these actions are really easy to do inshaAllah..

And what it comes to those goals, if you want to do more, but are not very good at keeping your goals... make them small.

Make a goal to read five minutes of the Qur'aan daily. Or three. Or even just one. Anything you know you can keep inshaAllah.
To make one Taraweeh each week.
Small goals that they do remind you of Allah and they serve the purpose, but still small enough to be met.

And if you are in fairly good shape allready and can do the marathon, but still need assistance, you can run with The Heart Wheel Journal or make your own goals. I would be happy to hear about your way to make the best of the Ramadan.

Let's not waste it this year.

Shaytaan in front of you

Assalaamu alaykum

There was a time when I was very much against having TV in our home.
I viewed (and still do) it as time-eater and source of fitna, as by opening it, fitnah would run into our home. Honestly speaking, if there was a movie or episode of our favorite drama that would fit Islamic standards, how entertaining would we find it?

And still, we do have TV at home.

As years went by, I noticed I did not spend that much time front of the TV anymore.
I had found a nice way to interact with my sisters in Islam real time, no matter was I dressed up or coming from shower, was I feeding a baby or eating noodle soup.
I had internet.
A nice way to find answers and learn new things.

I had discussion forums, fatwa sites, free online books, e-mail, instant messengers, ebay.
How nice and beneficial!
And now, blogging!

You know, as the technology develops, so does shaytaan.
Besides the benefits, I believe that internet is the biggest time-eater maybe ever. It offers social fast food in form of MSN and discussion boards.
It creates us a false feeling of anonymousity that seems to drop the level of our intelligence.
It causes addiction that steals mothers and fathers from children and wives and husbands from spouses, children from parents.

It seems to make communication easier, but in my honest opinion, it makes it shallow in many ways.
Information is there, yes, but aside runs endless line of rubbish.
Sisterhood is there, yes, but within internet communication there lies danger of misunderstanding and swords of words that would have never been said face to face.

I challenge you all to take time and see how much you spend on the internet this week.
If possible time also what do you do on the internet.
Was there something you could have done instead of sitting in front of your computer?
Which benefit did the time bring you spent online?

Love you all for the sake of Allah,

RandonMuslima

`O son of Adam, I was ill but you did not visit Me.'

Assalaamu alaykum,

I believe that Allah created us to serve Him subhanahu wa ta'ala, and I believe that the servitude has different forms we easily neglect and fail to see. I know I missed so many opportunities through the years my world was yet to embrace the change. Don't let it take so long.

Abu Hurairah reported: The Messenger of Allah (sallaAllahu alayhi wa sallam) said, "Verily, Allah, the Exalted, and Glorious will say on the Day of Resurrection:

`O son of Adam, I was ill but you did not visit Me.'

He would say: `O my Rubb, how could I visit you and You are the Rubb of the worlds?'

Thereupon He would say: `Did you not know that such and such a slave of Mine was ill but you did not visit him? Did you not realize that if you had visited him (you would have known that I was aware of your visit to him, for which I would reward you) you would have found Me with him?

O son of Adam, I asked food from you but you did not feed Me.'

He would submit: `My Rubb, how could I feed You and You are the Rubb of the worlds?'

He would say: `Did you not know that such and such a slave of Mine asked you for food but you did not feed him? Did you not realize that if you had fed him, you would certainly have found (its reward) with Me?

O son of Adam, I asked water from you but you did not give it to Me.'

He would say: `My Rubb, how could I give You (water) and You are the Rubb of the worlds?'

Thereupon He would say: `Such and such a slave of Mine asked you for water to drink but you did not give it to him. Did you not realize that if you had given him to drink you would have found (its reward) with Me?'''
[Muslim].

How many opportunities we miss to walk towards Allah? How many chances to perform such simple actions that would withhold such countless blessings we refuse to see and act upon?

We do not always fancy to do things for each other, or do not feel the bonds of sisterhood tight enough; we may get annoyed and frustrated with each other and sometimes feel to escape as far from this ummah as possible. I pray that on these moments we would remember the hadith qudsi above, and turn to each other and meet each other and our needs for the sake of our Creator.