Memorizing the Qur'an

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Last night at the Troy masjid there was a celebration, for a brother have finished memorizing the whole quran. So there was a little gathering after salatul isha. This brother apparently has been working full time and finished memorizing the whole Quran in about one and a half years or so, inspite of having other responsibilities such as taking care of parents, wife etc. Then Imam Djafer (who happens to be such a wonderful wonderful man and one of my favorite person in this community being a teacher, guide, guardian) mentioned that there's another brother who is going to college full-time and is down with 25 juz. MashaAllah! Being an engineering major in a private college and then devoting free time to the knowledge of this deen is not something seen very often these days. There are numerous sayings of the prophet (saw) that mention the merits of memorizing the Quran. Like one hadith goes like: On the Day of Judgment, Allah (swt) will tell us to recite and elevate our position in the heaven and the last verse that we recite our place thats where we stop. I know - thinking of elevating in heaven is too much when we can't even think of passing the test of the grave - let alone being promoted to the higher heaven. But inshaAllah! we all can try and try our best to seek His(swt) pleasure and mercy. The story on memorizing Quran that impressed me the most is that of a friend's mother, who memorized the whole quran during her pregnancy while she was going to college and also had a household with five kids and a husband to take care of! So, she finished the quran memorization in approximately nine months. Now that's dedication! It shows us how careful she has been with using her time - MashaAllah. May Allah (swt) give that tawfiq and dedication to more men and women. Ameen! So, this tells us that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala surely assists and rewards those who intends to do something for His and His pleasure alone.

Another story in addition to be above. This kid was going to regular school and at that time he was in 6th Grade. He was also a part-time Hifz school (quran memorizing school) student, then one day his mother took him away from school and admitted him to the hifz school full-time. She knew there would be hardship and it won't be easy to catch up with the class and that he might fall back - but she was determined to make her son memorize the book of Allah (swt). Not only the mother did want it - the son also wanted to do that out of his own will. Thats really unusual for a kid of 6th grade to have such feeling. MashaAllah! ANyways, the kid finished memorizing the quran in two years and when he returned back to regular school, his class mates were two years ahead of him. He started off in grade 6 and within a year of his school time he was doing so well that he was given double promotion. Not only that eventually, he graduated high school ahead of his class and with distinct honors! Subhanallah! This is how Allah (swt) helps you when you do something for His cause. This just shows us how Allah (swt) can assist a person if the true intention is there and if we are willing to take one step towards Him. If we sincerely with our pure intention take one step towards Him, He (swt) will facilitate other doors for us and open such doors that we never ever expected. Its very important we keep asking ourselves every once in a while - why are we doing this? What do i want to get out of it? Who am i trying to please? Am i doing it for the sake of Allah (swt)? We need to check our intention... and inshaAllah He (swt) will assist us.

How many of us today actually devote our time to such noble acts as memorizing the quran or taking leave to learn about deen? We do not even think it's important. Sadly, we all have been so materialized that we hardly think of our profit and loss account in terms of the long-term goal. Moreover, in some countries the educational system has been made such that, people who does the worst in the standardized examinations, they are the ones who go to learn islamic history. Students with good grades go for med school, engineering school and we even look down on people when we hear that so and so person is studying Islamic History. Subhanallah! Look at the history and a little glimpse will make us realize that great scholars in Islam such a Imam Ghazali, Ibn Sina and you name it - they were the best of the students in their time. Their teachers realized their potential and directed them to the study of deen. Islam flourished not becasue of the mollahs who thinks women are not to drive cars and women needs to stay home and take care of the household - thats the only work of women. No! Islam flourished becasue over the centuries and over a period of 14 centuries it has produced the best and the best of the physicians, mathematicians, philosophers, poets who were so attached to their spiritual aspect as well. Unfortunately, these days, we have become more short-term goal oriented, where we cannot think beyond this world and are happy as long as we have a car, a house, a job and some money in the checking account (not to mention the credit cards and the bills due). Why are we all in this state inspite of having the QUran and Sunnah as our guidance? We can't blame the west! That's just wrong to hold this society and its global influence responsible for our weak soul. We have forgotten how to feed our soul - rather we engage in feeding and satisfying our sight and mind. As our prophet (pbuh) said, as the day of judgement comes nearer, the sun will rise from the west! A lot of scholars say that this means that as the Day of Judgment comes nearer, transmission of knowledge would be from the west to the east rather than what has been the usual practice in history. Isn't current situation of the world telling us exactly that? Going to the conference last weekend made me comprehend this matter - as so many young people went to the conference to learn about their deen and gain sacred knowledge from the scholars instead of just spending their spring break weekend going for some tracking or skiing lesson or going for some movies or the disney land - to HAVE SOME FUN! I'm not against all those activities - we all do need to have some relaxing time, but i guess we also need to prioritize our objective as to what really counts and what should count? Are we going to taste death in a state of peace and iman or we are too attached to this dunya to even think of death? Are we preparing ourselves and looking forward to meet our beloved - Allah (swt) ? Do we think about these issues at all? We are so far from what we should be as muslims - we need to work on our inner beings first before taking care of anything else. But khair inshaAllah, Allah Himself is in charge of spreading His own deen and as we disappoint Him in fulfilling our duty to serve Him, He(swt) will raise another nation that can do that job. May Allah (swt) guide us all and save us from the hardships of this dunya and the akhira. -Ameen

Yeah... its time to get ready to head out for work...!

Monday morning after the EZ

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

The messages conveyed by the speakers at the EZ 2005 was not just mind blowing but very reflective and very stirring! It was truly an awakening experience and that makes me kind of sad when i realize that my contribution in this deen to serve Allah (swt) has been zero or probably negative. It made me realize that I'm not doing enough to my true potential and probably i'm even unaware where my potential lies. I'm feeling so sad thinking about that; the words from Shyakh Husain Abdul Sattar's sessions are still echoing in my mind as to how negligent i have so long been to my relationship with Allah (swt). Fatima (RA) in her life of 29 years earned jannah in the hereafter & was told by Allah (swt) - the lord of the universe, to be one of the four women in creation who have attained perfection! Subhanallah! Its one to be told by your peers that you have attained perfection. Then its another thing that your elders and your teachers tell you that. But it was the lord of the whole wide world and what exists in this universe - Who said that she (RA) have attained perfection! Can you imagine?

Hearing their stories and reflecting on their lives, full of struggle in this dunya yet their heart- full of taqwa and iman, can only do two things - bring tears in my eyes and an ache in my heart. The ache so deep and significant and it arises as we compare ourselves and our achievement in earning nearness to our Lord; it arises becasue no matter how much we strive and how much we plead we can never attain that level of perfection. We have wronged our soul enough and we are so grounded in this dunya that we do not even think about the grave, let alone the day of judgement and the consequences to follow. We are so much drowned in the luxury of this dunya that hearing about the hearafter doesn't have any impact on our heart - and within minutes of discussion we are at ease to get back to our laughng and joking, thinking that "oh! the day of judgement is far and not to be thought about in this dunya. Or may be - we are too young to think about it.We have enough time to repent; we are syill young to devote ourselves to the path of Allah, we'll do that when the right time comes; at young age we should act like young people and have fun". The sahabas used to cry profusely in fear of the next world and just thinking about it they would shiver - and they are the ones who were the most perfect in this deen and indeed Allah(swt) is pleased with them and they are will Allah (swt)! And look at us- what are we doing? How many times do we think of the punishments that are awaiting in the grave? How many times during the day do we seek refuge from the punishment of grave, from the hellfire, from the fitnah of this life and death, and from the fitnah of Dajjal? How many times do we even think about our Lord and His bounties in our life and are grateful for His provision?
No matter how much good deeds we have in our account it will and will definitely fall short on that day. Its time we become God conscious even though we know how very merciful He is and how Forgiving our Lord is. The message of Islam will never be weak and it will reach each and every corner of this world and every single household as promised by Allah (swt) Himself - as He Himself promised that and mentioned that His deen will be taken care of. If we are afraid that Islam is getting a bad image and that its under attack - we are so very wrong! Its the muslims who are in that positions as their words and actions are not in coherence. We do not need to worry about taking this message to the whole world - what we rather need to worry about is whether Allah (swt) would choose us to be among those who would be blessed to represent His deen.

May Allah (swt) give us the chance to be among those who He loves and not of those who earns His wrath. May He (azza wa jal) forgive our misdeeds and accept out isteghfar. May He(swt) make us of those whose hearts are soft and God fearing and may He guide us all so we are able to make the most of our remaining days of this temporary staying in this world and earn His Mercy on the Day of Judgement - Ameen!

Good Friday & EZone conference

Although I get this urge to sign-in and add entry at times when i go through the extreme swings of my mood, i end up coming and actually adding an entry when I do tend to stabilize myself from being extremely happy or satisfied with a situation. Sometimes a part of me have wanted to come when things bothers me and makes me very upset , but i ended up not talking about it or try to pretend that everything around us is perfect!

Almost everyone left work early today and i happen to be one of the three left in this floor (i'm leaving in approximately 12 minutes though)! Its good friday - the friday before the Easter, and that happens to be the reason for people leaving early for home. Taking that into consideration i get the advantage to leave an hour early as well! But hey! I have a reason too! I'm heading out for the greyhound bus station to catch a bus with my buddy Dian- so that we can attend the MSA East Zone conference 2005 in NYC. Yaaaeeee!!!

So, i'll update my blog once i return and settle down inshaAllah! Gotta go now... masalaama=)

Weekends Over =(

The weekend passes by so quickly=( When sunday evening comes you end up asking urself - O its over? Back to school/work tomorrow? No!!! So, i had fun in my own way - reading articles and watching movies like Hannibal and Red Dragon. I just love the performance of Anthony Hopkins! Every role he plays, specially in the Dr. Lecter's role, he's so unique, stylish, and charismatic and this character suits him so much! I can't think of anybody who could be this brilliant as Hannibal Lecter. Even though he's the cannibal in the character, you cannot hate him even for the split of a second and you just got to admire him and never get enough of his dialouges!

In between the commercial times i was reading articles and this new book(which is so so good:) ). Came across several hadiths & traditions of the Prophet (saw) that i just have to share. The following are some sayings of Rasulallah (saw) that has been read over and over - yet when we come across them in books or articles they always bring such enlightenment and freshness to the heart as if are being read for the first time...

1. In relation to faith and morality:
"The man who has these three habits is a hypocrite even if he observes fast, offers prayers, performs umra (pilgrimage), and calls himself a Muslim: when he talks he speaks untruth, when he makes a promise he does not keep it, and when he is given something in trust, he commits dishonesty." -( Muslim ).

2. Poor man on the Day of Judgement:
Who is poor ? One day the Prophet asked his dear companions whether they knew who was poor. They answered that poor was one who had no dirham or dinar (money)' He said:
"In my Ummah, the poor is that man who would appear on the Day of the Judgment before Allah; he had offered prayer; he had paid Zakat ;he had observed fast; but he would have abused somebody, he would have falsely accused some one; he would have unauthorizedly taken some one else's property; he would have murdered some one; would have hit some body. All his virtues would be given to his victims. If his Virtues are finished before his wicked deeds are finished, then the errors and sins of the victims would be given to him and he would be thrown into the Hell.'' (Muslim)
Such a man is really poor. His condition is like that trader who has goods worth one thousand rupees but he is a debtor for two thousand rupees. How can such a man be called rich ? Source: http://www.islamfortoday.com/character.htm

3."Charity (sadaqah) is due upon every joint of a person on every day that the sun rises. Administering justice between two people is an act of charity; and to help a man concerning his riding beast by helping him on to it or lifting his luggage on to it is an act of charity; a good word is charity; and every step which you take to prayer is charity; and removing that which is harmful from the road is charity." (reported by Abû Hurayrah (radiyAllâhu 'anhu) )
----------------------------------

"They were youths, yet mature youths, their eyes fresh and free of evil, their feet refrained from approaching falsehood and futility. They sacrificed and expended themselves in worship and in withholding themselves from sleep. They sold their souls which were to pass away for souls which would never die. Allâh saw them in the latter part of the night, bending their backs, reciting the Qur'ân. Whenever one of them came to an Ayah mentioning Paradise, he would weep, longing for it. Whenever he came upon an Ayah mentioning the fire he would groan out of fear, as if the Hell-fire were directly in front of him. The earth devoured their knees their hands and their foreheads. They joined exhaustion in the night with exhaustion in the day. Their colour becoming yellowed and their bodies emaciated through standing long in prayer and frequent fasting – whilst they regarded their own actions to be negligible before Allâh. They fulfilled their covenant with Allâh and attained Allâh's promise." - Jamarah Khutabil 'Arab (2/475) of Ahmad Zakiyy Safwat.

May Allah (swt) help us become one of them and let us all hasten to resemble them inshaAllah.... Ameen!

Thank you Allah...

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Sometimes i just wonder about the way my life and my values in life have changed at different stages of my existence. Today when I'm almost quater of a century on this earth, and being thousands of miles away from home & family, as i reflect on yesterday, I realize that I'm glad and grateful to Allah (swt) for each and every single thing that He(swt) has blessed me with - my parents, family, friends, and most important of all for this deen (AL-Islam: which of-course is complete and "the way of life")! Therefore, I strive to be the best in every role that i have to play and be at my best behavior and at my best level in all that i do.

I love my parents so very much - when i think of the mercy and love they have always had on me, it only brings tear in my eyes, out of joy and gratefulness to Allah(swt). The other day i learned (which i thought interesting and reflective enough to share) that of the three main reasons mahabba (love) arises, one of them is "when someone does good to you and when they sacrifice for you." How can we count and even keep track of the good that our parents have done for us and the sacrifice they have done just so that they can provide the very best to us? Not easy and can't even pay back a millimeter of the khair they have done to us! Even today when we are grown ups they worry about your welfare and all they want for you is "khair" - we keep thinking its not hard. Well, I don't know! As i don't see kids( i recall myself being one of those) sacrifising even the weekend gateaway with friends for their parents (so that they may spend time with parents for the sake of Allah (swt)) .

As it is, being away from them is not easy and its something i had to get used to. I hope i can be forgiven for all the wrongs i have done to them and for all my ignorance. I thank Allah (swt) for providing me with such wonderful parents - who are simply the best in the whole wide world. Theres so much to learn from them - yet we think they are backdated and we try to teach them! May Allah (swt) forgive us for our shortcomings! Thank you Allah (swt) for blessing me with your deen (al-Islam) and the best parents in this world:) May You grant them a long healthy life with strong iman and may You increase their love for You, the Prophet Muhammad (saw), his companions and his family.