Ramadan Goals

I hope everyone is in the best of health and in an ever increasing state of iman. Alhumdulilah I have decided to start writing again, and thus the following. Ramadan is in about two weeks or less, so now its time to start fasting and to mentally prepare ourselves for the upcoming month of spiritual cleansing. Many people are holding halaqas and programs welcoming Ramadan, and its best to attend these events because it puts us in the Ramadan mode. We should set some goals that we want to achieve out of this Ramadan, so I will be the first to set my own and may Allah help me. The first one is, to fast not only from food but fast with my eyes, ears, tounge, hands, feet, and with my mind. Thats inshallah how I can get maximum benefit. I know that I waste time and I am aware that each second in this glorious month is precious, thus I will try to take advantage of my time. The last thing which I think we overlook is eating less. I tried this last year and I can tell you that eating less feels so awsome that you have to feel it to understand it. Also it is from the sunnah, and when iftar comes along we should tear everything in sight but continue to practice patience even then. The benifits are numerous, including that you will be able to pray taraweeh quite easily, you will more energy, and you will just feel overall good. Inshallah may Allah help me and all of us to become what we must to earn Allahs pleasure and jannah. The heart needs to beat...and so we stay alive. salaam

Back

I hope everyone is in the best of health and in the state of ever increasing iman. The last post was in May, thats quite a long time, but anyway I am back and hopefully if Allah wills then I can do my regular weekly posts. The summer has gone with the wind and school is up and running for some its the second week, like yours truly, however some are starting tomorrow. Inshallah I will be posting with different topics but for right now this is it. The heart needs to beat... and so we stay alive. salaam

Its Been To Long

I hope everyone is in the best of health and in the state of ever increasing iman. Salaam to all of my brothers and sisters. Much has happened in the month and a half, I started a new job in which i get paid every week with consistency, Alhumdulilah. Uhaul it is, too many rules but i get paid and thats all i care about. College is done and it was an odd semister, I am glad its over. The summer is in high gear and fitnah is in the air. Inshallah we will need to remedy that. I went to watch pirates yesterday and while the other 2 were excellent the third was such a horid disappointment. Even though one of the actress was gourgous, it still was a disappointment. You have to lower your gaze man. Anyway our masjid is complete and mashallah it looks beautiful, now what we need is people to pray in the masjid. I went almost all of last week and another brother so we have like 5 or 6 brothers coming regularly for maghrib and isha. I have been trying to make it for fajar but the i guess i need to try harder. I have been doing better with my quran schedule but i can do much better. Make dua for me people. The heart needs to beat...and so we stay alive.salaam

Seerah tu-Nabi (saw)

I hope everyone is in the best of health and in the state of ever increasing iman. This is the month of Rabi ul Awal and we know that that Prophet Muhammad (saw) was born in this month and darkness was filled with light. This month we should read the books of seerah and listen to lectures regarding the glorious life of our noble messenger. Its time to reevaluate ourselves, and reflect on how close our daily lives are to the sunnah of the Prophet (saw). We can not forget the struggles that the Prophet (saw) went through so that we can be sitting here claiming to be muslims, how can we forget the ephithets toward the Prophet (saw) from the Quraish, how can we forget Taif, and how can we overlook the long nights that he spent crying for us with his feet swelling. How can we forget that even on his deathbed he kept uttering "Umaathi, Umaathi". The reality is that we cant forget and if we do then we must come back and begin to reflect again and ponder and think about his message and the sacrifices he made.

Unfortunantly there are a group of Muslims who dont speak about the message and his sunnah and his life, yet they engage themselves in singing praise of the Prophet (saw)and although there is nothing wrong with that, they forget the essence of the seerah and it does nothing for us except that we enjoy listinging to the poetry and the beautiful voices. This is so dangerous that it leads to bid'ah and our messenger (saw)has said that "...the innovations lead to the hell fire". Inshallah lets pray for us and those brothers and sisters that Allah guides us to the straight path and gives is istiqamah and perseverance on the truth. The heart needs to beat....and so we stay alive.salaam (the picture is of the prophets masjid, i took it when i visited madinah)

Scattered Thoughts

I hope everyone is in the best of health and in the state of ever increasing iman. The baseball season has started and the Yankees played a nice game today. But the main thing was that A-Rod is out of his shell. Yesterday or Saturday he hit a walk off grand slam in the bottom of the 9th. He finaly came through in the clucth. Mashallah. He hit a homer today as well, so i hope he continues this the whole year and into the playoffs.
Anyway I have been just empty in these past couple of weeks. So i turned to Salah again, and Subhanallah it filled me up to a certain degree. I went to the Masjid the other day for Zuhur and even though no nobody was their it was still very sprirtualy uplifting. I have to do that way more often. But the pressures of life and parents get to you, and the false success that we try our hardest to acheive are ever present. We spend our lives in the pursuit of material happiness and we forgot the day when we will meet allah, and we leave the life of this world in a state of confusion. May Allah protect us. Inshallah College is coming to a close next month and we all will be busy with exams and its kind, but after that its waking up in the late afternoons and sleeping after fajar for an entire 3 months. May Allah protect us. With the summer rapidly aproaching, I think we should set some goals. So let me start with myself.
First and foremost is to make a significant change in my Islamic knowledge and in my person. Next is to workout as much as I can and participate in my sports, like everyday. Third I want to save some money inshallah, for Umrah. Since coming back from Hajj I have had an urge just to go back as soon as possible. Mabye it will be possible, remember your brother in your duas, I really need them. I will probably come up with more but for now these will suffice. The heart needs to beat....and so we stay alive. salaam

Temptations

I hope everyone is in the best of health and in the state of ever increasing iman. Just coming out of my spring break, I spent it at my sisters house taking care of my four year old newphew, how exciting!! How many people wish they were me?? As we all heard that Pakistan is out of the world cup, that is the best news I have heard, most of my family is so nationlistic about Pakistan over cricket that its quite amusing. I like playing cricket more then watching it, you really have to be obsessed about it in order to sit and watch an eight hour match. So even though I couldnt care less about the world cup I told everyone how bad Pakistan was going to lose and that I have betrayed the country of my parents and now I side with India. The reactions I got should have been filmed and sent to Americas funniest home videos.

Anyway what has been on my mind that is of some importance is how to stay away from temptations. Temptations can vary from girls to biting your nails. Why is it that we are always surrounded by women who are so rich yet cant afford to cover themselves properly? That way guys are forced to look their way. Then the imfamous questions arises, "why dont you lower your gaze" let me answer it for all those people with that mentality. You cant walk around with your head in you shirt!! Promiscuously dressed women are everywhere, you cant lower your gaze from all of them. So what in the world are we (men) suppose to do? We cant get married because we have no money, our beloved sisters need to get married to rich handsome men, or it appears to be so. So the next imfamous question arises, "why dont u fast"? Again I will answer the question, fasting only diminishes the desire, as soon as you walk out of the house it starts to come at you like a speeding car or somthing. Fasting may work for a day or even two, but staying away from zina in our society has become nearly impossible. I know so many brothers who happen to be hufaaz commiting such henious deeds and actually showing off about it. So, again what do we do?? In the time of the Prophet (saw) they didnt have men and women showing off their bodies like today. Their was haya (modesty) even in the Kufar of that time. So, I humbly ask again, what do we do (by we i mean men and women)?????
The heart needs to beat....and so we stay alive.salaam

To Him is Our Return

I hope everyone is in the best of health and in the state of ever increasing iman. I came across very disturbing news today, in the Bronx NY a muslim family who lived in a 3 family home burned to death except for the dads. That in itself cluthches the heart with grief, but what is most surprising is that the 2 dads who survived the fire said on the janazah an ayah from the quran which is somthing to deeply reflect on, inshallah. "Be sure we shall test you, with something of fear, and hunger, some loss, in goods or lives or the fruits (of your toil), but give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere -- who say, when afflicted with calamity: 'To Allah we belong and to Him is our return." Subhanallah, they lost everything and yet they still remain patient and strong and their faith has grown. May Allah give us the ability to be steadfast when our test is given to us, we ask Allah to help us to be patient and thankful to him. Amen, the heart needs to beat....and so we stay alive.salaam