Ideal Muslim Mother

Assalamalikum,

Just a thought I wanted to share.

Alhamdulillah this ramadan I've met so many inspirational people mashallah.May Allah SWT bless them all.

To begin with,I met a lady whose oldest son has been writing tafsir of the holy quran.She gave me his tafsir of Surah Taha.Her oldest kid is 30 years old and newly married.He's a computer science engineer mashallah.Yet he finds the time at night to write the tafsir of the holy quran.He also makes sincere dua to Allah SWT to accept it and to get people to read from it.So his mom volunteered to pass the books around in the masjid mashallah.

She has 2 other sons.Her youngest son is a hafiz mashallah.She moved to NY from Sri Lanka 25 years ago.She's been living in NJ since the last 12 years mashallah.She told me her older boys could not attend islamic school.They studied at public school.
She seemed so old and tired cos of Ramadan but mashallah everytime the Imam recited a surah during the taraweeh, she would turn to me and ask,"Do you know what surah is that?".And then she would tell me the name of the surah.

On our first meeting, she asked me if I had children.I told her I did not have any kids yet cos I've been married only for an year.She then went on to advise me to raise my kids the right way cos there's so much fitnah around.She was like the mother's lap is the first school for children.She also advised me to make the best use of my time as I don't go to school or work or have children.

May Allah SWT bless her for she's been such a source of inspiration to me.

After the short conversation we had in between taraweeh prayers,I learnt a very important thing that we as muslims need to learn.In those 15 minutes, she made dawah to me.SubhanAllah.She spoke very softly.But with a lot of confidence mashallah.And she made me feel like I could do this too.I could also talk to people about our deen and how to improve our practicing of the deen.

Another important thing I realized is the way you approach people.mashAllah she was saying salamalikum to almost everyone there and she would personally walk up to them and inquire about them.If she didn't see someone at the taraweeh prayers the next day, she would approach them and talk to them in a concerned manner mashallah.She has beautiful manners mashallah which made her very approachable to people.And because of her care in her speech and her concern for them, she could very smoothly talk to them about improving ourself in our deen mashallah.

May Allah SWT guide us all and help us in making dawah.

This isn't a thought by the way its actually a short story :~ Sorry.

Assalamalikum

Ramadan

Assalamaalikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu,

A very happy Eid to all .....Eid Mubarak.

I've been so busy during the last few days with ramadan and eid alhamdulillah.I've been busy with ibadat as well as with cooking alhamdulillah and I've improved so much alhamdulillah.I haven't been much of a cook since I started cooking an year ago soon after I got married and moved to NJ.Recently, I read a real life story about a newly married lady like myself who wasn't that great a cook.But alhamdulillah she learnt to cook quite well.She had a little secret behind her success.Her secret recipe was to recite Surah Ikhlas as well as glorify Allah SWT while cooking.I've been trying that too and alhamdulillah I've noticed (my hubbby too) that I've improved considerably.SubhanAllah and alhamdulillah.

I cooked yummy Hyderabadi haleem as well as chicken biryani a couple of times.If anyone feels like having either of those, you're invited ;)

Besides all that cooking, alhamdulillah I tried my best to do extra ibadat especially during the last ten days of ramadan.We spent a major part of the night in the masjid alhamdulillah.The imam is Egyptian and has a beautiful recitation subhanAllah.He utilises the technique where he repeats the ayah/verses that talk about death,life after death/akhirah,the grave,day of judgement as well as heaven and hell.He does that with so much emotion that you imagine if aooozobillah/God forbid you were to die that very day and had no time to repent...no time to seek forgiveness from Allah SWT for missing prayers,listening to haram stuff,doing gheebah,showing off and so much more.Astagfirullah.He really made us cry alhamdulillah.I felt my heart was so cold astagfirullah that I wouldn't react with any emotion after listening to a verse from the Holy Quran.So alhamdulillah that felt so good and I pray to Allah SWT to accept our tawbah.

I pray Allah SWT guide us to jannah.
I pray He accepts our siyaam,qiyaam,salah and sadaqa.
I pray He forgives our shortcomings and faults.
I pray to our rabb that He keep us steadfast on our deen.
I pray that He help us increase our taqwa/piety and iman/faith.

Assalamalikum
Please remember me in your duas.

Dua

Assalamalikum,

اللَّهُمَّ بِعِلْمِكَ الْغَيْبَ وَقُدْرَتِكَ عَلَى الْخَلْقِ أَحْيِنِي مَا عَلِمْتَ الْحَيَاةَ خَيْرًا لِي وَتَوَفَّنِي إِذَا عَلِمْتَ الْوَفَاةَ خَيْرًا لِي وَأَسْأَلُكَ خَشْيَتَكَ فِي الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ وَكَلِمَةَ الْإِخْلَاصِ فِي الرِّضَا وَالْغَضَبِ وَأَسْأَلُكَ نَعِيمًا لَا يَنْفَدُ وَقُرَّةَ عَيْنٍ لَا تَنْقَطِعُ وَأَسْأَلُكَ الرِّضَاءَ بِالْقَضَاءِ وَبَرْدَ الْعَيْشِ بَعْدَ الْمَوْتِ وَلَذَّةَ النَّظَرِ إِلَى وَجْهِكَ وَالشَّوْقَ إِلَى لِقَائِكَ وَأَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ ضَرَّاءَ مُضِرَّةٍ وَفِتْنَةٍ مُضِلَّةٍ اللَّهُمَّ زَيِّنَّا بِزِينَةِ الْإِيمَانِ وَاجْعَلْنَا هُدَاةً مُهْتَدِينَ

O God! Because of Your knowledge of the unseen and because of Your power over Your creation, grant me with life till the time You think that living is best for me and take me away from this world when You think that taking me away is best for me. O God! I seek humility from You in public and in private and in happiness and in sorrow want You to guide me to the truth and request You with what is between affluence and poverty and ask from You a favour that will never end and the coolness of the eye which will never cease. I seek from You the strength to be content on Your decisions and seek the blessings of life after death and the fervour to meet You and the bliss to see You such that I neither remain in the calamity that is burdensome nor trials which may mislead me. O God! Grant us the embellishment of faith and make us such that we are rightly guided and are able to guide others as well.

Source : http://uiforum.uaeforum.org/archive/index.php?t-7459.html

Ameen

Please remember me and my family in your duas.

Assalamalikum

Assalamalikum

Assalamalikum,

I'm so happy to have started this whole blogging thing.I've been considering this for a long time now.But alhamdulillah for the first time my niyyah is pure.I'm praying to Allah SWT to accept this blog as a small step of mine to acquire ilm and to try to spread it around.I pray humbly and sincerely to my rabb to accept my efforts.

I pray to Allah SWT to guide me for every second of my life.
I pray to Allah SWT to forgive all my sins.
I pray to Allah SWT to free me of hypocrisy,showing off,jealousy,materialism and laziness.
I pray to Allah SWT to guide me and to guide my family and friends through me so I get double the ajr inshallah.
I pray to Allah SWT to help me achieve my goals inshallah.

I humbly request you to please remember me in your duas.

I love all my brothers and sisters for Allah SWT's sake and pray that only good befalls them all.
I also pray that Allah SWT accept everyone's duas and fulfil all our needs inshallah.

Assalamalikum

Minhaj ul Qasideen 1

Minhaj ul Qasideen

Assalamalikum,

Alhamdulilah I've been feeling so happy since I've started listening to the part on Book of Knowledge by Imam Jawziyyah,explained beautifully by Dr.Farhat Hashmi.The first part is titled, " Knowledge,its benefits and related things".
I'll summarize the talk in the following points.

1.The pursuit of gaining knowledge is a form of ibadah and every act of ibadah earns ajr or reward from Allah SWT.

2.According to Imam Ahmad, there's nothing comparable to knowledge.No amount of money or anything can be compared to knowledge.However, it is necessary to have the right intention behind acquiring knowledge.We must intend to remove ignorance or jahaalat from ourselves as well as from the people around us.

3.Knowledge is life and light.Ignorance is darkness and death.

4.Allah SWT will raise the people to different degrees according to their faith/eman and knowledge/ilm.The one with higher eman or ilm will be raised a degree higher than the one with a lower eman or ilm.

5.True knowledge is one through which we recognize our Lord.This recognition should lead us to fear Allah SWT and his anger.The ilm we acquire must create within us the feelings that prevent us from doing anything that displeases Allah SWT.

6.The sign of Allah's mercy on His slave is the understanding of our deen/religion.

7.Never dwell in self pity.If you've acquired knowledge or are a student, do not suffer from a lack of confidence.Do not look up towards a rich person and suffer from low self esteem or feel inferior to him.

8.Its a blessing from Allah SWT to acquire knowlegde.If you do not have ilm, you do not have anything because everything you earn for this duniya/world, everything materialistic will be left in this world after you die.You cannot carry anything to your akhirah.

9.When an aaalim acquires ilm, he'll begin to fear Allah SWT.He will learn to treat humans as well as animals kindly.

Assalamalikum

Minhaj ul Qasideen

Assalamalikum,

Alhamdulilah I've very recently started the free online course Minhajul Qasideen on Al huda institute.Alhamdulillah I'm so happy and thankful to Allah SWT for guiding me to learn something new this ramadan.The course takes you through the book by Imam Al Jawziyyah titled Minhajul Qasideen.Its divided into different books such as the book of knowledge, book of purification and so on.

Before starting the online course with Dr.Farhat Hashmi, I would never have thought I would appreciate having a teacher for teaching something from a book.I might have preferred reading the book myself.However, after listening to the few lectures by the teacher, I have changed my mind.mashAllah her soothing voice and her manner of teaching makes it a totally different experience.She gives examples as well as quotes from the hadith and from the 4 scholars of fiqh.

http://farhathashmi.com/dn/BookClub/MinhajulQasideen/tabid/630/Default.aspx

May Allah SWT guide us all and help us to worhip Him as He desires.

Assalamalikum

Not perfection but ihsan

Assalamalikum,

I've been watching the video for day 4 by Shaykh Muhammad Al Shareef on my ramadan wheel journal.The topic for today was perfection.According to the shaykh, we should not aim for perfection.As we all know, only Allah SWT is capable of perfection and is the most perfect.And for a human being to attain perfection, he should have lowest standards because perfection is impossible to attain.There are people who say they NEVER want to commit a sin and they ALWAYS want to do qiyam ul layl and so on.Basically, they want to be perfect in their ibadat.However, Shaykh Al Shareef considers this to be a flaw.The reason for the same is that someone aiming to be perfect aim for small things where they feel they're in control and can achieve perfection.They keep everything tiny so they can feel they're in control.They want to keep things small so they can be perfect.Hence, they cannot proceed in life.

QUESTION : What do we aim for then ?

As muslims we must aim for "Ihsan".The best translation according to the shaykh is excellence.We must strive for excellence in our relationships be it with our husband, in business,house and all.Above all, we must aim for ihsan in our worship or ibadaat of Allah SWT.
Imam Shafi (RAA) wrote a book and asked his to student to review it.The students went through the book and made some corrections.They brought it back to the Imam.Imam Shafi told them to take the book back and do more corrections.The students took the book back and found some more mistakes.They made some more corrections.They brought back the back to Imam Shafi ( RAA) who asked them to check it again.The students told him they checked it again and there aren't any more mistakes or corrections to be made.Imam Shafi ( RAA) understood the following ayah from the Holy Qur'an
Will they not ponder the Qur'an? If it had been from other than Allah, they would have found many inconsistencies in it. (Surat an-Nisa: 82)

And we must understand this too.We are children of Adam ( AWS) who ate from the forbidden tree.And when they realized their mistake they made the following dua.
"Rabbana zalamna anfusana, wa in lam taghfir lana wa tarhamna la-nakunanna minal-khaasirin."
"Our Lord! we have been unjust to ourselves, and if Thou forgive us not, and have (not) mercy on us, we shall certainly be of the losers." (7:23)

We must learn from the example that we're human beings and are capable of making mistakes.We must also learn to repent as soon as we realize we've made a mistake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-HDXNN-k6o&feature=related#

May Allah SWT help us acheive steadfastness in our ibadat and forgive our shortcomings.

Assalamalikum

Heart wheel journal

Assalamalikum,

Have you heard of the heartwheel journal ??Its an online journal to help us improve our ibadaat and focus on the ibadat.The online jounal can be found at the websitehttp://www.heartwheeljournal.com/.Its a 30 day program for the month of ramadan.You start off with a hadith a day and a verse of the Holy Quran.It has a salah planner to help you increase khushoo' in salah.It also helps you track activities like daily sadaqah as well as dhikr.I think in all the journal helps you acheive constancy in our ibadat by allotting small chunks of our time to different aspects of ibadat and self purification.

Starting day 3,there's a daily video by the creator of the program Shaykh Muhammad Al Shareef.The first part of the series of videos can be found on youtube- Day 3 - Fasting Makes Me Stronger! (Heart Wheel Journal) by Muhammad Al Shareef.The link is as follows

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujVl0qu3AJU&feature=PlayList&p=A5550C6B7A16ECF4&index=0

Abu Hurayra reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "The deen is easy. Anyone who makes the deen too hard on himself will find it becomes too much for him. So aim for what is right, follow a middle path, accept the good news of the reward for right action, and seek help [to reach your goal by being constant in worshipping] in the morning, evening and some of the night."[al-Bukhari]

May Allah SWT help us reap the full benefits of ramadan inshallah.

Assalamaalikum