Road to Jannah

Wishing all of you a very happy Ramadan

P.S. – Don’t forget to check out our jannah.org/ramadan page or our forum for Ramadan: http://jannah.org/madina/index.php?board=55.0

Keys to Happiness

Happiness is the only goal on earth that all people without exception are seeking to attain. Believers and unbelievers alike seek to be happy, but each party is using different methods. However, only believers can achieve genuine happiness, and all forms of happiness attained through other than belief in Allah the Almighty are mere illusions.The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him ) is reported to have said ,”How amazing is the affair of the believer. Everything is good for him – and that is for no one but the believer: If good times come his way, he is thankful and that is good for him, and if hardship comes his way, he is patient and that is good for him.” (Authenticated by Al-Albani)

The following are tips for the attainment of happiness as offered by Sheikh `A’id Al-Qarni:

1. Know that if you do not live within the scope of today, your thoughts will be scattered, your affairs will become confused, and your anxiety will increase. These realities are explained in the following hadith:

“When you are in the evening, do not expect to see the morning, and when you are in the morning, do not expect to see the evening.”(Al- Bukhari)

2. Forget the past and all that it contained. Being absorbed in things that are past and gone is sheer lunacy.

3. Do not be preoccupied with the future because the future is in the world of the Unseen; do not let it bother you until it comes.

4. Do not be shaken by criticism; instead, be firm. Be sure that in proportion to your worth, the level of people’s criticism rises. Also, make good use of criticism in discovering your shortcomings and faults, and let it drive you toward self-improvement.

5. Have certain faith in Allah the Almighty and perform good deeds; these are the ingredients that makeup a good and happy life.

6. If you desire peace, tranquility, and comfort, you can find it all in the remembrance of Allah the Almighty.

7. You should know with certainty that everything that happens occurs in accordance with divine decree.

8. Do not expect gratitude from anyone.

9. Train yourself to be prepared for the worst eventuality.

10. Perhaps what has happened is in your best interest, even though you may not comprehend how that can be so.

11. Everything that is decreed for the believer is best for him.

12. Enumerate the blessings of Allah the Almighty and be thankful for them.

13. You are better off than many others.

14. Relief comes from one hour to the next. Indeed, with each difficulty there is relief.

15. In both times of hardship and ease, one should turn to supplication and prayer, either patiently contented or thankful.

16. Calamities should strengthen your heart and reshape your outlook in a positive way.

17. Do not let trivialities be the cause of your destruction.

18. Always remember that your Lord is Oft-Forgiving.

19. Assume an easy-going attitude and avoid anger.

20. Life is bread, water, and shade; so do not be perturbed by a lack of any other material thing.

(And in the heaven is your providence and that which you are promised.) (Adh-Dhariyat 51: 22)

21. Most evil that is supposed to happen never occurs.

22. Look at those who have more afflictions and be grateful that you have less.

23. Bear in mind the fact that Allah the Almighty loves those who endure trials with steadfastness, so seek to be one of them.

24. Constantly repeat those supplications that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) taught us to say during times of hardship.

25. Work hard at something that is productive, and cast off idleness.

26. Do not spread rumors and do not listen to them. If you hear a rumor inadvertently, do not believe it.

27. Know that your malice and your striving to seek revenge are much more harmful to your health than they are to your antagonist.

28. The hardships that befall you atone for your sins, if you show patience.
*
This article has been taken with some modifications from the author’s book “Do Not Be Sad”.
By Sheikh `A’id Abdullah Al-Qarni.

Salams blog-reading-ppl (yes all 3 of you!),

Someone just reminded me that ppl actually read my blog and that I didn’t post anything this Friday. I figured the special july 4th post would count and, well…for the other two of you, I couldn’t think of anything to write about! Now I’m just tired, I think I’ll take a little break from consistently blogging every week and we’ll see where it goes from here eh?

I think I may have spent a little too much time writing this year instead of trying to get a life and stuff, so let me try to do that pre/post Ramadanish…In the meanwhile please check out the archives, there is a lot of good content if you want to explore

Take care iA!

Salam peeps who read this blog…  I don’t really have anything of benefit to contribute this week. Just some random thoughts (rants)… so get ready…1..2…breathe…

On the topic of being a somewhat well-known and vocal person in the community leading some ppl to think I’m “judging them”…  I’d like to just say, here and now, forever on record, that I don’t judge any person. You could wear hijab/ not wear hijab, have a boyfriend, study basket-weaving, turn atheist, jump off a bridge, dye your hair purple and let me be honest, I don’t really care. I really don’t. AND I don’t think I’m better than you.

Every person has their own choices in their life, they have their own circumstances and their own tests. I’m not you and you are not me. I can’t say what my own choices would be, because I’m busy with my own unique set of circumstances, choices and tests.  Really, I have enough problems and issues, things I’m working on and projects and whatever, than to get involved with other people’s lives and “judge them”. Who am I going to be responsible for on the Day of J? Me. Whose actions am I worried about and responsible for? Mine and no one else’s. Who’s going to have to cross the Sirat? Me and I’ll be alone. I have my own relationship with Allah and my own sins that I thank Him every day for veiling.

I do care about the Ummah and I do see things wrong with it and things that we and other people are doing. I point these things out here on the blog or in person as social observance or as someone who writes articles bringing up various issues. Do you get what I’m saying? It’s not about “you”. There’s a huge difference between writing about actions, what’s going on in the community, trends and problems, guides and rants, reminders and admonitions; and actually judging a specific person. (Which is something better left to the Divine realm.)  So the next time you think “OMG she’s judging me, she thinks she’s better than me” just repeat “She really doesn’t care that much.” K. Thanks.

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This week some people launched an event called “Draw Muhammad Day”. Now how evil are these people really. Imagine if someone launched an event called “Call an African American a Ni**** Day” or “Eat meat in front of a HIndu Day” or “Urinate on a statue of Jesus and Mary Day” or “Show Pornography to a Jewish baby Day”. Pretty despicable huh? But all in the name of “free speech and freedom”. Apparently this event’s supporters are letting everyone know it’s OK to offend Muslim sensibilities in the guise of “freedom” which is really – hate.

Well whatever, there are tons of Islam haters out there. Now the problem here is actually the Muslim response to this. Muslims just get all emotional and offended over things like this instead of responding in a strategic or civilized way. And NO, “blocking facebook for 10 days” is not strategic or of any benefit. Neither is deactivating facebook for a day which does absolutely nothing.

We’ve seen it with Salman Rushdie, with the Dutch cartoons and now this. Again, we are always reacting to the negative instead of ignoring this event and doing positive things to promote acceptance and respect of Islam. If every Muslim ignored this event as “a bunch of crazies” NO ONE and I mean no one would have heard of it. Instead they went all crazy creating groups on Facebook, making profiles, trying to organize wayward ‘boycotts’ of deactivating, etc etc. Result? Straight to the top of CNN’s top stories. “Muslims going crazy again because they are offended”. You know what image comes to peoples minds? Wild-eyed, dark haired crazy mozlims brandishing swords against freedom. Now let me ask you, who’s image is this? It’s not theirs. It’s ours – because that’s the image we put out.

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A Muslim-American woman won the Miss USA contest. The media has been going crazy writing about how it’s an AYRAB AMERICAN MOZLIM that won. Can’t figure out what they’re so amazed about. And then I wonder why they’re making such a point of it. Proud that the US can exploit and sexualize Muslim women as part of the FREEDOMS that the rest of the so-called-world envies eh? Uh huh.

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I listened to two Khutbahs this week on “the importance of obeying your parents”. Now I’m all for obeying the parents but we’ve been listening to this kind of stuff on repeat, for YEARS (yeah I know they were trying to drum it into us) But you know what’s totally missing? All the Khutbahs on parents oppressing their children. Which is sooo common.

What oppression you ask? Forcing them to dress a certain way, talk a certain language, meet their academic/career expectations, their behavior expectations, their “Islamic” expectations, to marry a certain person, have their life a certain way and etc. and so on. And where has it led us?? A totally messed up youth that drink, take drugs, party, have relationships, have sex,  and etc. and so on. And no, it isn’t because they “don’t obey their parents”. That’s actually a symptom and not the root! We have way more complex problems that are never addressed. And never addressed to parents. When are they/we gonna wake up? I’d like to write an open letter to parents one day as a blog maybe. Anonymously so I don’t get killed I think

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Lastly, I heard about how a few aunties and uncles I know are working really hard matching up this 19 year old girl I know from another city. She’s pretty, very white, thin, very quiet, and outwardly “religious”.  She’s had proposals since she was 12 (serious) and all the guys in her community like her. And I do mean ALL the guys. (She’s the “perfect girl” archetype if you’ve read my other blog posts. The one all guys like because they “think” she’s perfect.)  So anyway, yes, apparently all the girls approaching old age spinsters here that aren’t so “perfect” can just fend for themselves. I mean seriously. Out of all the people in the world that need help trying to find someone, she ain’t it!! (I actually hope they succeed because while she’s around she’s a fitnah to most of the guys. They all fall in love and get rejected and what not and they get messed up and end up marrying their cousins/girls from back home and don’t bother to consider anyone else around her.)

On the web we have new releases from all the Muslim orgs on stuff like ‘finding the right match’ or ‘getting married to the right person’. Pretty generic type lectures that are so blah, blah, blah. Another generic rinse, repeat cycle that never addresses our real problems. In the meantime, really trying to help sisters get married and addressing why they aren’t getting married is ignored.

How long are ppl going to deny that this is a problem in our Ummah. Everyone seems to shrug it off and say ‘Oh well everyone marries someone’ so why worry about it. And then they don’t bother to see the 50% divorce rate, the sisters that marry non-Muslims, rampant (and I’m going to say rampant) Zina among the youth, and all the marriages of ppl marrying the completely wrong person for them. Seems like we can’t figure out new school Halal ways of finding someone for marriage living in the west. And all these other problems are resulting. So far the only person I know that has ever addressed this issue in any real way is Imam Zaid in his article on chivalry.

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Well then…an interesting week… signing off and a Jumah Mubarak and bebzi  to y’all for readin’. Ws.