History: a Way to See the Future

Allah in the Quraan orders us several times to consider history, learn it, and learn from it. "Say: walk in the land and find out what was the destiny of those before you ...," "Don't they walk in the land and find out what was the destiny of those before them ...," and "in their stories was a lesson for those who have intellect ..." are examples of these orders.


Things in this universe were not created haphazardly. They were created according to a law, Allah's law. They follow certain patterns and they conform to set laws. No one will dare to try to jump from the 50th floor because he knows for sure that he will end up falling dead on the ground. Gravity is a law. No one can ignore it and no one can avoid it. It applies whether we admit it or not. It applies whether we like it or not. It applies whether we experience it or not. It's a complete stupidity to disregard it.


The big mistake we are making is that we think those laws are only the physical laws. And what a mistake it is. It applies to all aspects of life. Here is a few attributes of Allah's law (a.k.a. Allah's Sunnah, way):

• It applies to all aspects of life. Allah says, "Verily, we have created everything with Qadar"


• It is consistent. Allah says, "... you will never find Allah's sunnah altered ..."


• It is something we can learn. Otherwise, the orders of Allah to walk in the land and learn about the experience of others will be invalid.
• Only the wise can see it. Allah says, "in their stories were a lesson for those who have intellect ..."

Let us learn history. Let us learn from history. Let us discuss it among one another and deduce lessons from it. "... tell stories for them to reflect." Ordered Allah in the Quraan.

The Psychology of Failure

I FAILED A LOT. I have come across so many people who have failed. I also sometimes succeed and witnessed so much success. One thing I learned from that is the mentality of someone who fails. I know how we think when we fail. I know how we feel when we fail. I can't claim to be scientific but I will mention some of the observations that I personally felt and witnessed from others.

• THOUGHT1: The first thought that comes to your mind when you fail is, "It is absolutely not my fault."

• THOUGHT2: Immediately after, you start thinking, "Whom should I blame?"

I liked a lot when Jim Collins said while describing level 5 leaders, leaders of the highest quality who can transform the organization from mediocrity to excellence. He said that when people fail they look out of the window while level 5 leaders look in the mirror. Instead of finding out what shortcomings I had that made me fail as level 5 leaders would do by looking in the mirror, I try to find out someone or something to blame. You will be amazed if I tell you that almost every one does that. Well, except the few level 5 I have seen in my life.
Allah in the Quraan mentioned this fact talking about some group that whenever something good happen to them they say it is from Allah, and whenever something bad happens to them they blame the Prophet (pbuh). Allah made it clear, "... whatever good that happens to you is from Allah and whatever bad is from your own self ..." [Surat al-nesa2]
Also, Allah said in Surat al-shura, "And whatever problems happen to you is because of what you hands possessed and He forgives a lot!" Along the same lines, Ibn Khozaimah, the famous scholar of Hadith said, "some people fear the sins of other while being fearless of their own sins."
So a recipe of failure is to keep thinking that way and you will always find someone to blame. However, you will never succeed. Looking in the mirror and blaming yourself for you own problems is THE RECIPE OF SUCCESS.
A very famous adage in my home country says, "Do not ask the doctor. Ask someone who got sick." Well, although that is completely wrong to find out what the cure is, it is absolutely right to know how it feels when you get sick.
This is an advice from someone who experienced failure and that is how it feels. So, leaaaarn!


to be continues

Did I repent? 2/4

Regret is the 1st condition. But it is not enough. You have to quit the sin. You have to stop the mistake. Tawbah (repentance) is linguistically to come back. We must quit what we are doing and come back to Allah, come back to his guidance, and come back to his straight path.

The Prophet once drew a straight line and drew diagonal lines besides it and he said, "that is the straight path and these are the paths, in the beginning of each is a devil calling people to it." He then recited a verse from Surah al-An3am, "Verily that is my path; it is straight thus follow it and follow not the paths for they take you away from His path ..."

Imagine you are traveling from one place to another and you took the wrong exit. You know that you took the wrong exit and you regret taking it. You know how to come back and you know that you must come back. Nevertheless, you continue deviating from your main path until you lose your destination completely. Let us not just regret, let us come back!

Did I repent? 1/4

It is really important to know how to repent. It is even more important to repent. In this post and several others to come I will share with you what I know about this. This is by no means an authentic understanding yet I learned that from my teachers, my books, and the personal experience of someone who sins a lot and repents a lot.

The very first thing that you have to examine is your feeling. Do you feel regretful about what you have done? If given the chance to go back in time and face the same choice, would you do the same sin again? When you remember your mistakes and sins, do you wish you have not done them?
Or, you are proud of what you have done? You share this with others and you no problem with that? The Prophet (PBUH) described repentance with one word: "regret." The first step to repentance and the first condition of an accepted one is this feeling: regret.

A Treasure of Paradise

PARADISE IS FULL OF JOY. We will never be able to comprehend what Allah prepared for his servants there. "... in it is what an eye never saw, what an ear never heard, and what never came to a any human's mind." The Prophet said in one of his Hadith. Therefore, Allah describes it in the Quraan and the Prophet describes it in the Hadith with things that we understand. Properties, trees, palaces, soil, pebbles, couches, beds, fruits, fountains, rivers, gold trays, gold cups, and silver bracelets are examples of such a description.
But what really amazes me is when Allah relates things we do in this life with certain types of pleasure in Paradise (I will have a separate blog for that). I would like you to think of a place full of pearls, palaces, gold and silver and suddenly someone (in this place) is telling you that he found a treasure. What kind of treasure it will be? "Everything is so valuable. It must be something really worthy." You will tell yourself. Here is one of these treasures. "Do you want me to tell you about a treasure from the treasures of Paradise?" The prophet asked Abu Hurairah, one of his great companions. "To say la hawla wa la qowata illa bellah. (There is neither might nor power but with Allah)." The prophet answered. I though, "How is that a treasure? Why is it a treasure? What does this word bring to one's life to make him able to get such a treasure?"
I came across a beautiful saying of Ibn Al-Qaiyem, one of the great scholars of Islam in his best of a kind book, Madarij Assalikeen, in which is described our deen as two things, 1) obedience and 2) seeking Allah's help (3ebadah and isti3anah). Here is how I describe it in a few points

1. Our purpose in this life is to obey Allah and live according to the guidance he sent us. (Obedience - 3ebadah)
2. It is not always easy to do so.
3. Our ability, power, and might is so limited.
4. If we rely on it, we might fail.
5. If we move from our might to Allah's might (isti3anah - seeking help)
6. He will support us and help us.
7. We will succeed and achieve.
8. We will be able to do things we never dreamed of doing.
9. The more we are obedient (3ibadah), the more support we get (isti3anah). The more support, the more obedience, and so forth.
10. We go to Paradise and guess what is waiting for you there? A treasure!

Now I understood clearly why the core of our deen, the core of our prayer, and the core of the Quraan is this beautiful verse that we repeat at least 17 times a day "إياك نعبد وإياك نستعين" "It is you whom we worship and it is you whom we seek help."

Let us keep saying it "la hawla wa la qowata illa bellah."

The first thing humanity learned

We know from the Quraan that Allah taught Adam, the first human being, so many things. However, he probably learned that before coming down to the earth. The very first thing he learned when he descended on earth is how to repent. Allah, our creator, knows that we are weak and we will be doing mistakes. Therefore how to repent was a basic knowledge that we needed to learn. Imagine yourself in place of Adam being alone on this earth, not even with his wife since she descended in a different place, knowing that you made a mistake by disobeying Allah and eating from the forbidden tree, and having no clue what to do to get out of this. I think it wasn't that fact that Adam lost his place in paradise. I believe it wasn't the loss of the joy and pleasure he had there. It was mainly, from my perspective, the regret that Adam knew that he is no longer the obedient servant of his lord. Allah told him explicitly, "You disobeyed Me." Adam has no one to ask, no one to seek an advice from, and not a wife to give him comfort. In the middle of this confusion, and after learning the lesson Allah wanted us to learn, Allah showed him how to come back. That is, how to repent. While in the deep feeling for regret, Allah taught him a few words and when he learned them and said them, Allah was pleased to accept him back as an obedient, repented servant.
We must learn how to repent. We must learn how to come back. We must teach our brothers and sisters how to do that. Yet more important than learning how to repent is to repent! More important than to teach people how to repent is to help them to repent. May Allah make us from those who always repent to Him and get accepted!
Amin

To be continued ...

It could have been me!

Every day in the news we hear about a disaster. Yesterday it was this horrible gunfire in Virginia. So many had died. Apart from that being a criminal act, these things happen. It happened before, it is happening now, and it will happen in the future. My thought here is not about this inhumane practices. Rather, it is about those who died. It could have been me! It could have been you! It could have been anyone. Death is so close to everyone of us. We just think that we will live forever. If it not a gunshot, it is an accident. If not, it is a disease.

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) once drew a box and drew a line coming out of this box. He then said that this is the man and that is his predestined time surrounding him (the box). And the line that goes out of the box is his hope to live. Suddenly this line will reach the box and he will die. As Muslims, we should not really worry about when or how we are going to die. It is not even important. It is really the status on which our soul will leave to its creator.
"يا أيها اللذين آمنوا اتقوا الله ولا تموتن إلا وأنتم مسلمون"

How to see Allah's favors

I have not seen so much water before. It was pouring water on us this past Sunday. Back in 1999 when I had a big accident on the Taconic State Parkway, I thought that was a lot of water. But this one is a first of kind in my life. I was in my bed while the local channel showed how people are suffering from a flooded basements, cars half covered by water, or stuff floating in ground floor apartments. I used to get so upset when I see some water coming into my basement after a long day of rain. I still do. But I realized that I have a second and a third floor to live it. I realized that I can easily remove the water using a vacuum machine. I realized that I have electricity, heat, and water. I realized that my car is just a little wet from the rain. All that where others in very neighboring cities have to be moved to shelters until the emergency crews get the water out of their houses and restore electricity. Only then they can go back to their homes, and they will have to live a couple of weeks cleaning and drying what is remaining from their stuff. I realized that the best way to see Allah's blessings on us is to look at others who would hope to be in our place. Every one is abundantly blessed. It is we who fail to see these blessings. "وكان الإنسان كفورا"

The Devil Abandons His Followers

On a nice Saturday morning when Moaz and I woke up early, we had a nice time reviewing Quraan. He helped me to review Surat Sad, while I helped him to review Surat Al-Hashr. In both Suras, there were mentions for the story of the Shaitan, the devil. In Sad, the story of creating Adam was briefly mentioned during which the Devil made an oath that he will lead humans astray. And verily he is working so hard to achieve his goal. Allah Ta3ala promised that he will fill the Hellfire with the Devil and those who follow him. When they all get in, the devil is going to give his famous speech abandoning his followers telling them simply: "it is all your fault." When we moved to Surat Al-Hashr, Moaz recited a verse that echoes the same meaning: the Devil leads people astray and then abandon them.

We seek refuge by Allah from the whisper of the devil and his plots, Amin!

You might wonder whether Moaz and I do this every Saturday. The answer is absolutely 'no.' He woke up so early today only because he is very excited to go to his first soccer practice.

[sigh]Kids!!!!!!!

Salah is so important

Salah is so important in a Muslim's life.

It is one of the five pillars of Islam
When the prophet (PBUH) was asked to describe Islam, he chose five things to describe Islam with. The first and the foremost, of course, is Shahada: bearing witness that there is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger. The second this was 'establishing Salah.' The prophet also said that Islam, this comprehensive way of life was built on top of five, these are the five pillars of Islam. The second thing was Salah.

It is the first deed that we will be asked about at the Day of Judgment
"The first thing the person will be asked about from his deeds is Salah"
"What admitted you to the Hellfire?" The people of Paradise is asking people of the Hell. "We have not been with those who do Salah ..." They responded

It is the last advice of the prophet before he died

"Salah and what your hands have possessed"

It is what distinguish the believers
"The difference between us and them is Salah" said the Prophet.

To be continued and edited