Every soul shall taste death

Death is on my mind these days! How can it not be?? The massacre in Syria and Palestine, the recent plane crash in Pakistan just weeks after 135 brave soldiers were buried under snow and just generally death seems to be around me, so I've got death on my mind. I have been thinking about my state when my time comes. I recently read about a brother who has been through a major surgery and as soon as he came to; he said his shahadah and kept repeating it through semi-consciousness all while he was still in the ICU. I read about a sister, who was in the throws of death - screaming with pain and passing out due to its intensity but as soon as the doctor came she asked for her hijab. I read about a sister, who bore extreme pain of chemotherapy for months on end but never gave up hope. I recently found out my paternal grandfather (who passed away when i was 4) never gave up prayers even right after he had  been operated on for a tumor. My uncle is in a coma right now, doctors say his brain is too damaged to ever fully recover but our hope is in someone greater than medical science. One time my aunt saw his arm moving, when she removed his covers he had his fist made like he was in tashahud. He was never known to miss his prayers.
I read how Prophet Ibrahim AS made dua for himself to be remembered by people in a good way. Allah not only fulfilled his dua but made his acts a legacy for all Muslims to follow - SubhanAllah. So I pray death comes to me in the best state of my Iman, I pray when it comes I have the Kalimah on my lips and when Allah takes me; He is pleased with me. I am still thinking about how Id like to be remembered - I hope as someone who made a difference. May Allah give me the guidance to be of use to His creation and may He accept.

The Beauty of Quran

Yesterday, my friend spoke about ayah 102 of Surah Aal Imran.

O you who believe! Fear Allâh (by doing all that He has ordered and by abstaining from all that He has forbidden) as He should be feared. [Obey Him, be thankful to Him, and remember Him always], and die not except in a state of Islâm (as Muslims) with complete submission to Allâh

She discussed its tafseer in brief and how it had impacted her life. I was aware of the tafseer because i had studied the ayah many time before and atleast once in detail. But the beauty of the verse struck me this time. I was reminded of the wonder of the Quran, that it reveals new treasures each time its read. SubhanAllah! Now I'm not linguist, nor a literary expert but even I could appreciate the beauty of this address. The  start and end of the ayah is such a contrast, exactly opposite (Iman and Kufr) to one another; and in the middle is the key to staying with Iman. This reminds me of another ayah from Surah Qamar:

And We have indeed made the Qur'an easy to understand and remember: then is there any that will receive admonition? 

The Quran is filled with such beauty, if only we were to take the time out to ponder.Everyday can provide us wondrous moments like these but we rush through; forgetting how this day can be ibadah for us. May Allah give me and you more intellect to ponder upon His greatness! Ameen

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.