Takabbur (Arrogance) - A common Disease

With the name of Allah, the All Merciful, the Very Merciful...

The Prophet Muhammad(Peace be upon him) said in an authentic hadith,"Whosoever has an atoms weight of arrogance in his heart will not enter Jannah." One of the signs of arrogance is denying the truth. Denying the oneness of Allah is amongst the biggest signs of arrogance. Nowadays, many are so blinded by this world that they think that this world is everything but the thing that they don't realise is that a day will surely come where we will stand in front of the One who created us and we will be asked as to our actions. Allah says in Surah Yaseen,"Does not man see that We have created him from Nutfah (mixed male and female discharge semen drops).Yet behold! He (stand forth) as an open opponent."

The problem in society is that every one thinks they are better than every one else but in reality, this is far from the truth. We can never claim to be better than anyone else as we do not know our position infront of Allah. Allah will not at how 'good-looking' we are or how strong we are or how rich we are and surely, Allah doesn't look at your status amongst your fellow human being but Allah looks at your piety and good deeds. We see that nowadays it's a common problem that affects the youth mostly. Some people think that because we are driving the best cars, we naturally are better than anyone else. Stop! Think about it, will your car be able to outrun death or the punishment of Allah? Will your car save you on the Day of Qiyamah? Some people think, "I have big biceps, Iam better than everyone else!" But know my brother and sister, the prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said in a hadith,"The strong man is not the one is who is good at wrestling but strong man is he who controls himself in a fit of rage". It easier to knock some one out than to forgive someone, surely forgiveness is a very good attribute to have. You might be pushing 100kg in the gym but when it comes to Fajr prayer, are you able to lift that blanket that weighs less that 1kg off you? If you can't then that says everything. A strong person must have the abilty to fight his Nafs, he must be able to fight shaytaan, and he will only be able to do all this by seeking the help of Allah. We need to realise that we need Allah in everything. So why do we have to be arrogant when we are entirely dependent on Allah?

We can see from the examples of the Sahabas (may Allah be pleased with them) that they were the strongest men that walked upon the face of this world but yet they were always humble.We see some brothers and sometimes sisters too, they walk around as if they are mountains! Allah says in the Qur'an, "Do not walk on the earth in haughty style. You can neither tear the earth apart, nor can you match the mountains in height." So if a person cannot match this, how dare he walk with such arrogance? My brother and sisters arrogance is a sign of ignorance, because Allah looks not at how strong you are or how beautiful you are, or how rich you are; rather Allah looks at what is in your heart, Allah looks at your good deeds and your piety.

Arrogance is a disease my brothers and sisters, do we want Jannah or not? If yes then get rid of arrongance from your heart because a good Muslim is always humble no matter how strong, or how rich he is. He is always humble because he realises that his wealth, his strenghth will not help him when he will be in his grave, when the angels will ask him, "Who is your Lord? What is your religion? Who is the Prophet?" We think that these answers are easy now but know my brothers and sisters that if you didn't live your life in the obedience of Allah, you will not be able to answers these three questions. We must make dua that Allah protects us from this disease, because for sure it will destroy our herefafter. If we have one atoms weight of arrogance in our heart, we will not enter Jannah, a true believer realises that he is nothing but a creation that has been created from a drop of semen... is this really something to boast about?

I make dua that Allah makes these few words a means of guidance for all of us and I make dua that Allah protects us from arrongance. Ameen.

True Success - Nothing Comes Easy

With the name of ALLAH the All Merciful, the Very Merciful,

What is real success? How do you define real success? When the prophet Muhammad (PEACE BE UPON HIM) started his work of dawaah, his first message was, "Say there is no god but ALLAH and you shall succeed." My brothers and sisters this life is only for a few days and we must realise this fact as soon as possible. Why? Because ALLAH says in the Quran ,"Every soul shall taste death". We don't know when we will breathe our last breath,we are getting so invloved in the wordly matters that we are forgetting about our death, we hear people nowadays saying, "We have one life only so lets enjoy it!" but we should know the real purpose of this life which is to worship our lord ALLAH. If we want to be amongst those who will get the glad tidings of Jannah then the change has to come now. Obey your Lord and follow His commandss. Of course we can have our inspiration of being a doctor , lawyer etc but the real goal is to worship ALLAH.

On the day of Qiyamah when ALLAH will ask us, "I gave you this life, what did you do with it?" "hat will be our answer? Well my brothers and sisters if we lived our life obeying ALLAH's rules and we followed the sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) then by ALLAH's mercy on us we will be given the glad tidings of Jannah, this is the real success - attaining Jannah. But unfortunatetly we see nowadays that we are forgetting where the real success lies and the beauty of this world has made us blind. In reality this world is nothing to compare to the beauty of the Paradise.

We should fight our nafs and fight shaytaan! We should know that nothing comes easy, we can't expect to get rewarded by just sitting down, we should work hard , go through trials in order to attain succes. We can see from the story of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and the Sahabas (May ALLAH be pleased with them) they went through a lot of trials. We can see from the story of the family of Yassir (May ALLAH be pleased with them) that they went through a lot and when the Prophet (Peace be upon him) saw the persecution that the family of Yassir (May ALLAH be pleased with them.)was going through he said to them" Be patient O family of Yassir! For you have an appointment in Jannah." The wife of Yassir , Summaiya(May ALLAH be please with her) was the first woman to die for the cause of ISLAM. People gave their life for this deen , they knew that this life is nothing compare to the life of the hereafter, they understood, that true success lies in the obedience of ALLAH and following the sunnah of the Prophet(Peace be upon him). Today we see that there are lot of facilities to learn about this beautiful deen of Islam, we should grab these opportunities and learn about Islam. Islam has come to us on a plate, we didnt have to shed blood for this deen.

My brothers and sisters know that one day we will meet our Lord, we need to prepare for our meeting with ALLAH. This life is a test, if we pass this test then Inshallah by ALLAH's mercy on us we will get the best reward which is Jannah. Indeed we will have to face trials in order to enter Jannah and by having full trust in ALLAH in times of difficulties and knowing that only ALLAH can help us is a great method to succeed. ALLAH says in the QURAN,"And surely Paradise- it is the goal" (an-Naziat 79:41 ), "Indeed the next abode-it is truly the life"(al-Ankabut 29:64). We see from the two verses that our goal should be attaining Jannah and that the real life is the life of the hereafter. ALLAH also testifies in Surah Asr,"By the time, Verily! Man is in loss, Except for those who believe(Islamic monotheism) and do righteous deeds, and recomend one another to the truth and recomend one another to patience".

My brother and sister we should realise that true success lies in the obedience of ALLAH and following the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). We should grab every small opportunity we get to do good deeds. Why? Because on the Day of Qiyamah only your good deeds will be able to help you, your family, your wealth and your status amongst mankind won't come to avail on this day - the day when there is no shelter and good deeds are your only helper. We need to ask ALLAH to guide on the path of Imaan and make us realise as soon as possible where true success lies .


May ALLAH guide all of us along the straight path and make us amongst the dwellers of Jannah.

AMEEN

Remember me in your duas

My Holiday Ibadat Chart

The following is a ibadat chart that we made to help you through the holidays. Insha Allah print it off, stick it on the wall and tick away! Try your best to tick all the boxes for a special prize... Jannah!

Good Night, Sleep Tight, Don't Let The Bed Bugs Bite...

Sleeping is very important! Many people young and old feel very tired and fatigued in their day to day activities and this is because they have not given their body enough sleep. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa salam has said, “Your body has a right upon you.” There is a huge amount of people who leave their houses in the morning feeling extremely frail and tired. Whenever they get to lean their head on an object, they visit the land of... nod.

There are many reasons for a lack of sleeping. Sometimes, people lie down but they toss and turn for hours and when they look at their phone, 3 hours have elapsed and they haven’t slept properly at all. Others can’t sleep at night because they are glued to their computers speaking to friends on MSN Messenger or Facebook. Some people are really busy with work from university or madressa and others are poor souls that suffer from insomnia unfortunately. However, there is a way to conquer all! Here are some tips to help you gain that beauty sleep.

Tips for normal people:

• It is important that when you get into bed, you switch of your phone and all distractions that will take the tiredness away and make you active again.
• Have a comfy bed with a nice pillows. It always helps when you get that sinking feeling.
• Begin to read some zikr. Here are some ahadith about the sleeping of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa salam:

“Every night before Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa salam slept on his bed, he put together his hands (as in the dua’a) and blew on it and recited (the surahs of) Surah Ikhlas (Qul huwallahu ahad), Surah Falaq (Qul a'udhu birabbil falaq), and Surah Naas (Qui a'udhu birabbin naas) and wiped those parts of the body that he could (wherever the hand could reach). He began with the head, then the face and then the front part of his body. This was done thrice". (Shamail Tirmidhi)

"When Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa salam lay down on a bed, he recited, O Allah! In Your name do I live and die'.”(Shamail)

“Whomsoever recites Ayatul Kursi in the night before sleeping, Allah Ta’ala will protect him, his house and the neighbouring houses.” (Tafseer Mazhari)

• Just to sum up. A person should recite the Four Qul’s, Ayat ul Kursi, the last 2 verses of Surah Baqarah, recite the last three verses of Surah Hashr and whichever nice masnoon dua’as they can find in books such as Fortress of the Muslim, Aap ki pyaari duayein etc. They should recite this till sleep over comes them.
• The recital of Tasbeeh Fatimah 34 Allahu Akbar, 33 Subhan Allah, 33 Alhamdulillah prevents a person from awakening in a tired state.
• A person should place his right hand under his cheek and turn to his right side, facing Qiblah and should sleep.
• A person should keep his mind blank and not occupy himself with constant thoughts of what he may experience the coming day. He must keep his excitement in a jam jar!
• Like this a person should fall asleep with Allah’s Ta’ala names on his tongue and then should awaken in this manner.
• It is important to sleep early, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa salam would retire to his house immediately after Ishah and would not loiter around the streets. Many of us have a problem of returning to our houses. Some like to have a chat with the lads outside of the Masjid and then many of us tend to go for ‘walkies’ on the way home. This is not from the sunnat, we should go straight home and sleep to wake up fresh for Fajr.
• Switch of the computer and ignore friends.

Here are some tips specially for the people who find themselves stuck on MSN Messenger and Facebook at 4am:

• Delete your Facebook.
• Delete your MSN.
• If the above aren’t possible, then discipline yourself by giving yourself a time limit. Drill it into your own mind that you will be in bed by a certain time. Once this target has been made, stick to it.
• Occupy yourself with other things such as night time reading. Buy books like ‘The Sublime Conduct of Nabi salallahu alayhi wa salam’ or ‘Shamail Tirmidhi’ (which are both in English) and educate yourself about the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa salams blessed features.

Here are some tips for brothers and sisters who are busy with work from uni and madressa:

• Our respected Hazrat Maulana Ismail Sahib (DB) says, “Allah Ta’ala states in the Qur’an Himself that He has made the night a veil for people to sleep and the day a light for people to work in. If you switch the two around, you have gone against the cycle Allah Ta’ala has put in place and you will therefore suffer.” Thus a person should work in special allocated times during the day.
• Time management is very important. Make sure you are in bed early so that you can wake up early. There is a lot of barkat in the morning time after Fajr.

Here are some advices for those people who sleep till Zohar in the afternoon and then wake up with messy hair and feel really rubbish:

• Sleeping during the day is bad for health and causes humid ailments makes the colour pale, ails the spleen, softens the nerves, causes laziness and weakens desire except during in the summer time around noon. The worst type of sleep occurs in the early hours of the day and in the afternoon. Abdullah ibn Abbas radiallahu anhu once saw his son sleeping in the early hours of the morning and said to him, “Wake up! Do you sleep at the hour during which sustenance is being divided?!” (Tibb un Nabawi)

And finally, here is some advice for our beloved brothers and sisters who unfortunately suffer from insomnia. May Allah Ta’ala cure you all. Ameen:

• Those who suffer from insomnia should make dua’a that Allah Ta’ala removes this illness from them. Sometimes it can get very depressing and lonely but a person must utilise this time to do good if he really can’t sleep.
• Keep a happy persona. If a person considers himself as a lonely, depressed person; he will soon fall into sorrow and feel really upset when he is the only one awake in the house.
• Some affective methods of curing insomnia is by reciting Durud Sharif in abundance and picturing Madina in one’s mind.
• Tasbeeh and Zikr are very nice good.
• Sometimes thinking about those people who are close to the heart helps once lose anxiousness and feel at ease.
• Sometimes, reading a book tires one’s eyes out and helps putting one to sleep.
• Hot milk (without caffeine added in) warms the body. Also, a nice hot shower before sleep.
• Total darkness in the room is always nice and helps the eyes relax.
• Think of nothing! Look for the Jam Jar masala which has been narrated above.
• One should keep speaking to a companion whose company is nice and helps one feel relaxed. Thereafter, the eyes will get tired and want to depart to bed.
• Routine is very important! You must force yourself into bed by a set time every day. When a person who suffers from insomnia messes up his routine for just one day, it has lasting effects. Try getting members of your family or best friend to help you go to sleep.
• If problems persist, go to a good doctor.

One final tip for all:

• Good night, sleep tight but not so tight that you miss Fajr!

May Allah Ta’ala give us the ability to fulfil the rights of our body. Ameen.

TRUST and FAITH in ALLAH

With the name of ALLAH the All Merciful, the Very Mericful...

Having trust and faith in ALLAH at all times is very important. We can see from the stories of the Prophet peace be upon and the Sahabas (May ALLAH be pleased with them) that they had full trust in ALLAH, that is why ALLAH rewarded them with victories on the battle field. In the Battle of Badr, the Muslims were only 313 in numbers and they were poorly equipped; they were facing an army of 1000 men fully equipped but ALLAH rewarded the Muslims with victory. Why? Because the Muslims had full trust in ALLAH , they had the fear of onlyALLAH in their hearts and they had full trust that ALLAH would give them victory. This is because having trust in ALLAH is a SIGN OF IMAAN, which they undoubtedly had.

A true believer must always know that only ALLAH can help him, in times of distress we should seek ALLAH. Why? Because ALLAH is the Creator of this world and He has control over everything but we human beings would rather put trust in the creations rather that the Creator. ALLAH says in Surah Talaaq."And whosoever put his trust in ALLAH , then He will suffice him. Verily ALLAH will accomplish His purpose.Indeed ALLAH has set a measure for all things."

My brothers and sisters, we can see from this verse of the Quran that ALLAH is enough for us. We just need to put our trust in ALLAH. By doing this, we are showing that we have Imaan(faith). Thereafter, ALLAH is giving us the guarantee that He will suffice us, so why not put ur trust in your Creator and let him deal with your matters? Having trust in ALLAH is also an act of worship and what is our purpose in this life? ALLAH says in the Quran "I have created mankind and jinns only to worship Me". We see nowadays in the modern societiy that people are facing a lot of hardhsips but few of us are turning to the solver of all problems - ALLAH.

We should realise that our money, our contacts, our connections will not solve our problems or avail us, only the Creator of the heaven and earth will solves our problems. We see nowadays people say, ""e make dua but our dua are not getting accepted.", but my brothers and sisters ALLAH does not have problems accepting our duas, its the way we ask. When we ask dua we should have full trust and conviction that ALLAH will accept our duas.

There are various verses in the Quran where ALLAH tell us how close He is to his servants. Whenever the servants ask for Him, He (ALLAH) is willing to accept our duas, so why don't we ask ALLAH for help? We can see from the above verse of the Quran that ALLAH will suffice you. We need to understand that ALLAH is the solver of all of our problems, we need to work on our Imaan, we need to get closer to ALLAH! Indeed there are a lot of distractions going on nowadays but know my brothers and sisters that this life is only for a few days. We wish to be among the successful ones and who are the succesful ones? They are those people who have full faith and trust in ALLAH ,and they follow the rules of ALLAH. We need to turn back to ALLAH, and realise that true succes lies in the obedience of ALLAH.

May ALLAH give us all the ability to keep faith and trust in Him alone. AMEEN

"When one of you loves his brother, he should tell him so..."

The following is an extract from the Jumm'ah Bayaan at London Metropolitan University:

And so we begin today. What I want to talk about today is love for one another because sometimes I see friction in the prayer room. Maybe this is because we think, “He doesn’t look like me, he isn’t doing things that I follow. Why does he do this? Why not like this?” And then these very same people may perhaps show bad characteristics towards one another. This truly creates really bad feelings towards one another. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa salam said,

“When one of you loves his brother, he should tell him so.”

He should tell him! He should not keep it inside that, “I am a big man! I am hard! I don’t want to tell anybody I love them as it may decrease from my manhood! I want to be macho! I don’t want to show any softness inside of me, this must be only directed towards my wife.” No, this is completely wrong! Bringing an aura of love is from the characteristics of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa salam! When he would see the Sahabah radiallahu anhum, he would show them huge amounts of compassion. Today my brothers and sisters, we have gone far away from this. We feel love is only dependant on those people whom we can share intimacy with and not those people who we are brothers with, and this is why the Muslim Ummat is suffering right now because we don’t understand that we should love one another.

Now how should we love one another? By smiling at one another, by passing the salaam to one another, by meeting one another with an embrace and by this love will increase as you will always remember a person who shows these characteristics towards you! Maybe a person continually sees another Muslim and he continually passes salaam, maybe one day they will actually sit and talk and create a great friendship with each other. This has happened in the past. And if we are to act upon the hadith we are discussing right now, then we should tell each other, “I love you for the sake of Allah Ta’ala.” This is also hugely beneficial and we really disregard it. Just by saying this statement, it can remove a lot of bitterness which we direct to other people.

Mujahid rahimahullah who was a very big scholar mentions that he met some of the companions of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa salam. And one sahabi tapped him from behind on his shoulder and said, “I love you for the sake of Allah Ta’ala!” and Mujahid said, “May the One for whom you love me, love you too.” And this Sahabi said, “Had I not heard the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa salam say, “when you love your brother you should tell him so” I would not have told you this.” And because of this Mujahid rahimahullah became happy and he too showed izhaar of his gratitude.

Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa salam said, “No two people love each other but the better of those people is the one who is more in his love for his friend.” For example, I love our brother Ilyas for the sake of Allah Ta’ala but he might love me more, this means he is better than me. This is what the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa salam showed to the people, a lot of love and mercy. It is mentioned by Hazrat Anas radiallahu anhu,

“The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa salam was the most beautiful of the people, the most generous of the people, the most courageous of the people.”

And there is a reason to this, once in Madina late at night the people heard a big sound. They got scared as they thought the enemies of Islam were preparing a surprise attack at night while they were not prepared. In a state of huge terror, they made their way to the sound to see what had happened. But when they arrived, they had found that Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa salam was already there on his horse with a sword in his hand! Subhanallah! What a sight this was to behold. He was prepared to take an entire army with by himself for his people! And he ushered them back to their homes telling them not to worry as he had checked the area! Allahu Akbar! How many of us have this type of aura around us that we give comfort to those people whom we socialise with? My brothers, rather than dispelling the worries of our brothers, we like to instil fear into them. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa salam was a person who called everyone towards him, he did not push anyone away. Hazrat Amr ibn al-Aas radiallahu anhu relates,

“The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa salam gave attention, spoke and showed love to the worst person of a nation so that, the person may feel he is being given special attention. He used to give me such attentions and spoke to me also in a manner that I began to feel that I was the best among the community.”

One hadith that I will speak of very quickly,

“When a person loves his brother for the sake of Allah Ta’ala and he says, “I love you for the sake of Allah Ta’ala.” Then Allah Ta’ala enters both of them into Jannah. The person who loves his brother for the sake of Allah Ta’ala, Allah Ta’ala elevates that persons rank.”

So you should tell your brothers that you love them for the sake of Allah Ta’ala. I’ll be the first to open up and drop the macho look! I love you all for the sake of Allah Ta’ala!