Blessing of guidance

I wanted to share a reflection from some recent happenings around me - it’s a reminder to myself and to all my sisters in deen (and brothers too maybe). If you are practicing your deen, working for it, seeking its knowledge, raising you kids according to it, just trying even … then know that you have been chosen by Allah SWT for this guidance. We say in al fatiha every single salah ihdina sirat al mustaqeem – (oh Allah) guide us on the straight path, then if you are struggling for your deen - that is Him guiding you. Do not belittle it, do not take it for granted, do not ever stop trying and asking. If we become complacent of His blessings, He can take them away. Here is the thing about guidance, in whatever shape we have it – no matter how commonplace it seems; it is not. Just because so many people pray salah regularly as you do, does not take away from its significance. Just because so many women around you cover up the way they should, does not make it ordinary. Just because we have been practicing deen for many years doesn’t make it our property to treat however we like. We do these things day in and day out so it’s easy to forget the intention behind it, but we should spend a small part of everyday thanking Allah for it and also renewing our intentions.

A beautiful dua comes in the Qur’an رَبَّنَا لا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا وَهَبْ لَنَا مِنْ لَدُنْكَ رَحْمَةً إِنَّكَ اَنْتَ الْوَهَّابُ (Aal Imran :8) Our Lord! Let not our hearts deviate after you have guided us and grant us from yourself mercy. Indeed, you are the Bestower. It teaches us that guidance is a gift and that it can be taken away. Allah wants us to ask this for ourselves. He is our creator and knows how our hearts will deviate. This dua humbles us, because we acknowledge that we do not control/decide anything rather our affairs are in the hands of the Almighty. Allah did not create us to be ordinary and neither should we think our actions to be. Allah commands us to hold on to the “urwatul wuthqa” (most trusted handhold) or to hold tightly to His rope. This entails that when we practice the deen, we do so with passion and vigor – not with nonchalance because if you are hanging off a tall building, you will not be causal about how you hold that rope!

There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion. The right course has become clear from the wrong. So whoever disbelieves in Taghut and believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy handhold with no break in it. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing. (2:256)

Beware the peaking!

We all have grand goals (or should!) and we are furiously working towards those. These goals may be short or long term. Most often, however its the short-term goal we work most feverishly toward. These goals are the reasons for our everything. It could be a course we are studying for, a masjid we are helping build, a local project we are pioneering or "hajj" we are saving up for. With all our hard work and lots of dua and above all the will of Allah SWT - our goal is achieved. Its a beautiful moment indeed! And then....

And then Shaytan, who is burning up inside for we have met our objective, is ever ready for revenge. He comes to us almost immediately to instill in us pride and arrogance over our achievement. Suddenly, everybody else seem "less of a muslim". If we beat shaytan from planting this arrogance in us by remembering Allah - he turns to the people around us to make them envious and resentful. Aoozobillah he is a tireless enemy. He is also very strategic. If he cannot overcome us right away - he plays it slow. He makes us think we deserve a "break" - afterall we have been working so hard. A momentary pause is our right!  Shaytan keeps us busy with little things, which make us believe we are still doing "our part" whereas he has taken us away from greater good and busied us in the smaller deeds. He makes us forget zikr of Allah, and we start slacking. Slowly and without us even realizing, we would have abandoned much of the voluntary acts and we are even being tardy of the compulsory! Next thing we know, we are in a rut - wondering how we fell so deep and how to get out.

How do we get out? Right away, start with the daily duas to protect yourself from shaytan and to plead for Allah's help. Keep yourself pure with wudhu and be mindful of timely salah. Fight against the desires of your nafs, even in the smallest things and Allah will help you overcome bigger desires. Do istighfaar, as it is seeking forgiveness that eases all matters bi'iznillah.

But more importantly, beware the peaking!

I have usually noticed brothers and sisters slipping after they have done something extraordinary. Almost as if they have reached the peak of all good deeds. Perhaps, shaytan whispers to them that their job is done. Perhaps, the praise they received has deluded them.

Whether we like it or not, when we achieve something big - peoples eye are on us. They are looking for guidance and inspiration and although we never took that responsibility - it squarely fall upon our shoulders simply because we were given the opportunity to do something and with Allah's help we did it. So when we slack, either people will think its ok for them to slack or they will form a bad opinion about the deen - which are you willing to take upon yourself?

Beat the peak! Do not limit yourselves to one goal - you were created in the best manner and are capable of so much more. Just as you are nearing the end of one project, start thinking what you will do next. Start planning. Make dua to Allah SWT to never let you stop and never let any good deed of yours go to waste due to our own mistakes.

May Allah protect you and me from "peaking" - may we never think its enough till our last breath. Ameen

Salah

Salah - Its "the" pillar of our deen simply because its the only we got to do 5 times daily; simply because its the first thing we will be asked about by our Lord; simply because when the people of Jannah will ask people of jahannum what put you there - they will say we didn't pray. Allah has told us it prevents us from "fahsh" (immodest things) and to seek help from Salah. Allah has told us innumerable times to establish Salah. So its a biggie.
Seeing how important Salah is, its not unnatural that its a norm in today's society to label a person who prays 5 times a day as "religious". So here's the tricky part about salah, how many people do you know who pray regularly and have so for years, but nothing from their daily lives has changed, even one bit.  With the amount of people praying regularly, we shouldn't see as much "fahsh" in the society as we do, but we do. The problem is though we pray regularly, we dont understand its significance, we dont give its rightful rank, we dont believe it will change us.
People! as important as Salah is - it means nothing if you have not made a connection with Allah SWT in it. It is nothing, if you dont know what you are saying and who you are standing in front of. Its nothing if your day to day life is not changed from it. You cannot reap its many benefits unless you know what benefits to reap from it!
 If you pray, and i hope you do; but arent able to make the necessary changes in your life that you know you must - reassess the quality of your salah. Chances are there's something missing there. Dont ever think you pray "enough" or "well enough" - remember Iblees was elevated in ranks to that of angels and then became the accursed.
Our salah is in constant need of improvement, only and only then will we see an improvement in ourselves. Theres an old programming term GIGO - Garbage In Garbage Out. Apply that to your ibadah, the more ikhlas and effort that goes into the salah - the better the results. Consider why you rush your salah. What are the reasons you delay your salah or dont pay attention to tahara or the salah itself? eliminate those weeds, like your life depends on it - because it does!
The munafiq of Madina harbored a hate for Islam and Muslims, yet what was one act they diligently performed - Salah! Why? They knew if they didnt come to jama'a, people will know they are not true muslims. SubhanAllah! But what was wrong with their Salah? They were not sincere, as we arent now. Our salah can easily be compared to that of the munafiq because we drag ourselves to the prayer mat; but thats the extent our sincerity reaches.
Whether its hijab you are struggling with, gheebat, anger, tawakkul, discipline or even depression (not the medical kind) - all the solutions are in your Salah. Go back to the drawing board - no frills or fancy and take control of that next Salah that may be your last.
May Allah make me improve my Salah, may you benefit from my post. All good is from Allah and all evil and hurtful things are from my nafs.

Body & Soul

Body and soul - thats what you have committed to Allah SWT. Its almost ridiculous to have to spell it out because He created both, so obviously! But it is not as obvious to us as it should be. Either is nothing without the other, nor will it ever accomplish anything on its own. With our body, we have to perform our salah, earn to sustain ourselves and our families, perform Hajj, seek knowledge and spread it, command good and forbid evil, etc If you do all this, to others it may seem you are very spiritual, very religious. People generally judge based on appearances and we can easily fall in the trap of assuming ourselves to be "religious".
After a while, the bodily ibadah becomes easy and almost habitual and if you dont assess yourself regularly, you can loose the spiritual connection altogether. If your bodily ibadah is not bringing about a change in your behavior, in your ikhlaq - know this, your soul is not it. If you lie/cheat and justify it too, if you abuse your authority (as a parent, husband, boss, teacher, etc), if you have jealousy in your heart for a brother in deen (except Ghibtah), find faults with others and not spend any time fixing your own, if you think you are more pious than others or someone is not worthy of hidaya, if your ego is so inflated that you cannot control your temper or bring yourself to apologize - know that Allah says about such people, that the Quran would be stuck in their throat not finding its way in their hearts. Only the soul of an ibadah makes it worth anything because it pushes you to better yourself and tells you if you've wronged yourself or someone.
Its something we must question ourselves about every day. Is our soul committed to Allah? When your soul is committed along with your body,  that noor emanates from you; from your smile, your speech, from your ikhlaq - just as it did from the Prophet SAW, and the sahabas (RA). Your soul tells you to do sabr when something goes awry, your soul keeps you from anger when something doesnt go your way, your soul keeps your ego in check, your soul reminds you it has to return to Allah. The bodily ibadah then serves to polish the soul and strengthen it. Then you can protect yourself from assuming you're better than someone else.
note to myself first!

State of your Iman

Alhamdolillah we are in the beautiful and merciful month of Ramadan, to which no parable exists! Also, this is a time we strive to do more good than we do in other months (partially cuz the shaytans are tied up!). For a lot of us, that means establishing salah SubhanAllah. Salah, prayer or namaz is a basic pillar of Islam and we only regulate it during Ramadan (if even that)?
What is a pillar? In this dunya, we see many buildings being constructed SubhanAllah - what is the purpose of a pillar? It is part of the foundation of any structure, without which you cannot build and if you somehow do manage to - the structure will not survive. So when one learned Salah was a basic "pillar" of Islam; one can well imagine the state of one's Iman (structure) if they havent established Salah. I will not go into details of why i keep saying established - thats Inshallah another post :))
Also think about this - for those of you who are feeling very smug that "i pray regularly, i'm good"... Salah is a pillar, meaning that you need to build a structure now that you got the pillars down. What would you say if you saw just pillars standing in the middle of nowhere? Would it be something like "What a great building/structure?" OR "Whats this about now? people leaving their work half-done"
So thats exactly what your iman looks like If you are practicing the 5 pillars but not using the strength of those pillars to further you iman - Half-done. Its time to look at what more you can do in the way of Allah, in the way of the deen of our beloved Prophet Muhammad SAW.
For those who dont pray (ps: praying a couple times a day or sometimes, is considered not praying); Wallahi the people of the deeper levels of hell fire will be asked, what did you do to end up here? They will say we were not among those who established salah. Allahu Akbar - May Allah help us to save ourselves from hellfire.

Mandatory Vs Voluntary

So, here's a situation: your teacher at school or boss at work has given you a project. This project will be used to determine your achievement level; may it be a grade or promotion. You have also been given the criteria you will judged on: one criterion is that which is mandatory, without which the project is invalid and the second criterion includes items which are not mandatory and these will give you "brownie points"; they may be the deciding factor between an A or A+.
You and a friend begin work on your individual projects. You are not too concerned about the criteria and randomly include all information relevant to the project you can get your hands on. Also you are a glitzy person, so you beautify your folder, use different technologies and add files upon files of info. To an onlooker, you are working ferociously and they tell you maybe you will be winner.
Your friend on the other hand, spent his time getting the mandatory criteria fulfilled. Once he was sure he had all the required elements down pat; he moved on to work on brownie points. Obviously, he had spent a big chunk of his time with the first part of the project so he isnt left with a lot of time for the second and time comes to submit.
The project is evaluated. Who do you think made it?
This is the situation of life, my friend. Allah has told you clearly the criteria you will be judged on. Until you fulfill your mandate, any effort is INVALID. So, if you're giving charity but not zakah, if you're helping your friends but not your relatives, if you're working honestly but are disobedient to your parents; if you are praying salatul tasbih every thursday but miss your fard prayers regularly; if you are staying up in the nights of Qadr but dont even pray Isha in your regular nights, if you are abstaining from food and drink during ramadan but do not asbtain from mixing freely with the opposite sex for "iftaars", if you pray but your aurah/satr is not covered properly... I'm afraid Allah SWT will deem your life a failed project.
Please my friends, lets focus on finding out what are the mandatory elements that will take us in to Jannah and without which all our other efforts may just be building castles in the air. Allah says again and again the Day of Judgement will be a day of regrets: those who did good, will wish they had done more and those who didnt do good, will wish they could go back if for a day so they can fulfill their fards!! But there will be no going back for anyone. THAT is eternity.

Khushu' in Salah: III

One very important thing we must ensure prior to starting our salah is to observe proper covering. Not only is this an etiquette for standing in front your Lord, it will also serve to increase your Khushu' Inshallah. Prior to starting we must see if our clothing covers our satr and how easy it is to move in. The actions of the salah are not new to us, neither are salah timings a surprise; hence we must ensure that we are appropriately dressed. Imagine standing in front your boss at work, or someone respected and fidgeting with your clothes? You would never. Just think - we are presenting ourselves in front of THE Boss.
Another thing is to give each act of the salah its due haq- what that means is; when you go in ruku', say the tasbeeh slowly and properly. You hands must be on your knees, your head must be aligned with your back; this position must be fully observed before moving on to the next act. Then, when you stand in qauma; thats where you say Sami Allahu liman hamidah - it must look like you have stood up striaght and not like you rushed from your ruku to your sujood.
Between your sujood, ensure you sit back up properly. As the prophet saw said, till each bone is back in its place. Most of us dont even sit half way up, just go back down for our second sajdah. Kindly observe the rules of jalsa. Like so, give each act its due haq! Inshallah this will serve to better or increase your Khushu' in Salah

Khushu' in Salah: Wudu

Salah begins with wudu; hence to attain khushu in salah, we need to attain khushu in wudu. Here are some fard (obligatory)and mustahhab (preferred) elements of wudu.

Obligatory:
1) Niyyah to make wudu
2) Wash your face inclusive of rinsing you mouth and cleaning out your nose - once
3) Wash  your arms -once
4) Masah over your head inclusive of cleaning your ears
5) Wash your feet - once
6) Do it in this order only


Preferred:
1) Do miswak before wudu
2) Wash your hands uptil your wrists thrice
3) Repeat act 2,3 and 5 thrice
4) Rinse your mouth with your right hand and clean out your nose with your left hand

Say Bismillah (just that, not bismillahir rahmanir raheem) before beginning the wudu. This is obligatory in the view of some scholars while others consider it preferred.

We all probably do all of it anyway, but knowing is important, so if the need arises we can perform just the obligatory; for eg if there is a shortage of water, if you are in a public place where you cant be elaborate, etc  Also while we are performing preferred acts consciously and for the sake of Allah's pleasure and in the footsteps of our beloved prophet saw, i feel we most certainly renew our imaan.

Khushu' in Salah: II

For almost every action in salah, there are alternate adhkar that we can read. We usually keep reading the ones we were taught as kids. Take the time to add another dua to your vocabulary and Inshallah it will renew your  khushu'. For eg do you read Subhanak Allahumma wabihamdika when you begin ur salah? Do you know there atleast 2 other adhkar you can read here? Check Azkare- Masnoona or Hisnul Muslim for lovely adhkar we can learn Inshallah.

Stay in Touch

Hazrat Omar RA is reported to have said, one who doesnt read the quran even one day, it is as if he has abandoned the quran all together. We learn that we must stay in touch with this glorious book. A good way to go through the quran is to recite it in your Salah. During your sunnahs and nawafil, you can read off the quran directly. Just keep a little table next to your musallah to rest the mus-haf.
However, i must add, do read the tafseer/translation after salah

Memorizing a new Surah

Ever found it challenging to memorize a new surah? Here's a tip. Learn one or two ayahs and then repeat them in your prayer after Surah Al Fatiha. After repeating it in your 5 daily salahs, you would surely have them memorized by the end of the day. Now its time to  move on to the next 2 ayahs and so on and so forth. JazakAllah for reading and happy learning!