Blessed Ramadhaan

May Almighty Allah give us all the opportunity to make the best of this Blessed Month, Inshaa-Allah.

May we be of those who are pardoned, those who have mercy showered upon us and those who receive the multitude of blessings from the Most Merciful Creator.

And may Allah Almighty accept all of our prayers and our efforts, Inshaa-Allah, Ameen!!!

Wishing you all the best

Everything could mean Nothing

Recently some events have happened to make me really reflect on life, its meaning and what it’s all supposed to be about. Last Sunday a young woman passed away after being in a week long coma. She had suffered from kidney problems for a while and her sister passed away some years previously in the same way. How does this have anything to do with me? Well, she married a family member of mine, a month ago!

So naturally this was extremely heart-breaking- a young woman who just got married is usually thought to have her whole life ahead of her. She probably didn’t even get to pack all her wedding gifts away and she was probably still getting used to the idea of being a wife. Three weeks of marriage and then she collapsed and went in to a coma. This had a deep effect on me, at first I thought it’s because of the romantic in me clinging on to the tragic love story (sounds very “A Walk to Remember, doesn’t it”?). But then I realised that it’s because it reminded me!

 

I was reminded in such a drastic and blatant way that everything in this life means nothing. Everything has to come to an end and all the things of this world are trivial when you consider our actual purpose for living.

There are millions of people who grapple with this very thing. What is our purpose for living? People spend years trying to figure this out. As Muslims we are fortunate, because Alhamdullillah (Praise be to Allah) we know the answer to this question, we’ve known it since we were little children, and although we constantly have to re-understand it, the fact is that we still know it. OUR PURPOSE ON THIS EARTH IS TO WORSHIP THE CREATOR, ALLAH ALMIGHTY!!!

 

It’s that’s simple really, our purpose is not to work, get rich, become famous or well known, and neither is it to get married. It’s not even to have children or do good work or whatever else we may think is important. No, all these other things is a means to the end, nothing more, and the end is our return to Allah, and that’s all there is to it!

Now we can become angry, we can wonder about the reasons behind things happening, we can believe that life is rather unfair and that bad things seem to happen to good people, and so on. But if we use this line of thinking then we surely do not understand the TRUE PURPOSE OF OUR LIVES.

While people mourn the loss of a young woman, and others around the world mourn the loss of their loved ones- we need to understand that those people have only gone through the transition that we all have to go through one day, it may be sooner or later, but our death is the only thing in the world that is certain. And who says that death is a bad thing anyway- Indeed if we love this transitory world then we will fear death and hate to leave the world. But then again, if we love this world then also we have not understood the true purpose of life.

If we understand the true purpose of life then we will easily understand that everything in this world means nothing. If we do not use the means to make a good end for ourselves, that is, if we do not direct everything in our lives towards Allah then truly everything in the world will mean nothing.

 

So as sad as it is and as much as we mourn, the lessons cannot be ignored. This young woman was given the gift of marriage before she passed away, but this gift was not meant to last forever, and now she has passed to a place that means everything and we just hope that all the gifts she had being given has helped her to have achieved a good status in the hereafter.

 

In the end of the day, the things we place so much emphasis on in this world will actually mean nothing in the hereafter. We are told that on the Day of Judgement our time on this Earth will seem like half a day, imagine that, all the worrying, the stress, the sleepless nights and constant obsessive thoughts about things, everything in this world will mean so little! If we do not use this world as a means to achieve a good end, then we will be of the losers, so instead of obsessing about anything at all in this world, perhaps we should start obsessing about the hereafter and what our position will be then!

 

May Almighty Allah guide us, grant us understanding, forgive us and help us!

And May Allah grant this young woman the highest stages of Paradise, Inshaa-Allah!

The good, the bad and the ugly…

 

I’ve always thought that people are all inherently good; that everyone, no matter how bad their actions may be, has the ability to change and become good. After all, it’s the actions that are bad right, not particularly the people. Sometimes I think that my understanding of the world is naïve, that I’m viewing things through rose coloured glasses so everything looks better than what it really is. I’d like to see myself as someone who is hopeful towards humanity, who can see the good in people when they themselves are unable to see it; who can hope that bad actions can be reformed and that people can turn towards good. I suppose this is why its difficult for me to accept people so blatantly harming others and not seeming to care at all, especially when these others are young children.

 

There are many ways that people harm others, but today I’m particularly talking about those people who sell drugs to innocent (or not so innocent anymore) school children. Drugs is becoming an even huger problem in our society. Recently we heard that children at our local schools are selling drugs and forcing other children to sell it as well. Now taking drugs is one evil thing on its own, but selling it is bad on another level completely. When you take it you are harming yourself, and of course those who love you. But how can anyone have the heart to sell drugs? Selling drugs harms so many people and it’s so completely selfish. I don’t know how dark and twisted people have to be to do this? Preying on young children, getting them addicted and then using them to sell the stuff… honestly this is pure evil!

 

But worse than the average street dealer is the ‘big guys’ in the industry. Those who manufacture the drugs and those who introduced drugs into society in the first place. These guys are in it only for the money and they are not stupid enough to ever take it, because they know the effects all too well. For these guys people’s lives seem to mean nothing and they obviously couldn’t care less who is being harmed. Their kind of “bad” is even worse because they use illusion to make their drugs look good and they portray the picture of innocence, blaming poor social conditions on drug abuse, to deflect from the reality.

 

It’s very sad when you see what drugs does to a person. No I stand to be corrected, very sad is an understatement, it’s tragic! People with so much intelligence and potential waste their lives because of drugs. Here in Johannesburg the streets are full (and I’m not exaggerating at all), of young people who once had their whole lives ahead of them, but now spend their days trying to get a little money from begging, or helping people park their cars or whatever they can do. And these are still better off than those who’ve turned to crime to support their addiction.

 

The thing that makes me the angriest however, is when people on drugs believe that they are “cool” to be taking it. Like it somehow gives them some kind of validation, and proves their strength. This façade that they are living in really gets to me, I feel like giving them a slap and telling them to wake up and face reality. This is because I know that someday they will realise that they were far from “cool” and unfortunately most times that realisation comes too late.

 

I feel hopeless sometimes- hopeless to make any long lasting or significant change. There’s so little I can do and so much I want to do. As a counsellor I think the hardest thing is facing the reality that there’s not much you can do if people don’t want to help themselves. I’ve had numerous occasions when I tried all I could to help someone, to no avail. Because in the end of the day we are all responsible for own lives, and we cannot change the thinking of anyone. In the end only Allah Almighty can help people to change!

 

This doesn’t mean I can’t wish for the best though, it doesn’t mean I can’t dream about a time when our youth will live up to their potential and stop wasting their lives and the precious talents that Allah Almighty has given them. It doesn’t mean I can’t feel saddened or that I should just stop caring. Like I said, I’ve always believed that people are inherently good, I’d like to stick to that belief and hold on to hope, because after all we are the best of Allah’s creation!

 

May Almighty Allah help everyone to stay away from the bad and ugly things and to seek the good, to find happiness and peace in the good and to spread the good instead of the bad!

 

Image from here

When Allah Almighty opens the way for you

Let me first begin by saying SubhanAllah, Allah Almighty is really generous and merciful and really knows what’s in everyone’s hearts and it is Allah who helps those who seek His help, and we just have to ask, and sometimes we don’t even have to ask or utter any words, but Allah gives us what is in our hearts, Glory be to Allah, Exalted is Allah and there can definitely not be any other Lord except the Creator and Knower of All Things, Allahu Akbar! (Allah is the Greatest)

A seemingly little thing happened today to remind me of Allah Almighty’s power and mercy. My mum and I were at the hospital waiting for my father who had to undergo an eye operation. While we were waiting the time for the Zuhr Prayer (mid-afternoon) set in. Since the time set out for the prayer is usually a couple of hours we decided that it would be best to wait because my father was in surgery and we needed to be there to see when they bring him out. We waited and waited, and of course as is the norm with such things we had no idea how much longer it would take and when we’d be able to leave to perform our prayers.

After a while of waiting we decided that we really needed to make a plan now and we began to feel edgy. My mother thought of going to the Doctor’s consulting rooms to ask them if they had a small place for us to pray, but as we were on our way there something made us stop to ask someone if there wasn’t a prayer room at the hospital. To our surprise she told us that there was a prayer room available and guess what it was right next door to the surgery my father was in! Alhamdullillah (Praise be to Allah) we had the chance to perform our prayers peacefully and comfortably with no hassles at all. Literally less than five minutes after we were done they wheeled my father out of surgery to the recovery room and we were right there to see that!

I know this may seem like a small thing, but we were so grateful to Allah for showering His mercy on us and making things easy. Things could have happened differently- we could have waited and waited and not got a chance to perform the zuhr prayer, or we could have been half way looking for a place to pray when my dad came out…anything could have happened differently, but it didn’t because Allah Almighty wished to give us ease and open the way for us, Indeed all I can say is SubhanAllah (Glory be to Allah)!

 

It reminds me that everyday all we have to do before we leave our homes is ask Allah Almighty to give us ease and help us with all our affairs, and then even little things get sorted out, or big things become little things, and everything runs smoothly. All this is not our doing, we have no power and if we forget that we need Allah Almighty every second of every single day then everything can become very, very difficult.

There was something else I was thankful for today, and that was that I live in a country where there is freedom to practice religion, where a general hospital can set aside a special room for Muslims to pray. There are many places where this will not happen, so I guess that despite all the problems this country has, there are still good things about it and we have to be thankful for that!

So yeah, truly Allah Almighty can open the way for us in both big and small things, but we have to turn to Allah, Exalted is He and we have to ask and moreover we have to have faith and conviction that we will be listened to and we will be helped, and then Inshaa-Allah the way will be clear and things will be easy and even when it’s not easy, the difficulties will become easier to bear, because Allah Almighty does not forsake the ones who turn to him and in fact Allah Almighty says in the Glorious Quraan that if you come to me walking, I will come running, and something to the effect that if you take one step towards me, I will take ten steps towards you.

What more could we ask for? What more do we need? Indeed Allah Almighty is sufficient for us and sufficient for all of our needs! May Allah guide us and make us of those who are always grateful, Inshaa-Allah!

 

Image from here

Sometimes you wonder…

 

Sometimes you wonder what the purpose of doing things is. Take blogging for instance, I started doing this because I wanted to be able to share my “voice” and experiences as a Muslim woman. I was tired of people speaking on behalf of me and thought that maybe, just maybe I could manage to positively influence someone and make them understand the truth about things. But sometimes, I wonder if my writing even makes a difference or if I’m just wasting my time. I guess these thoughts are normal, human beings are prone to self-doubt at times, aren’t we?

 

And then of course at times like those we need reminders. Reminders that it’s the small things that count and that you don’t have to do big things to make a difference. Reminders that it’s not who listens to you that matters, but the fact that you’ve taken the effort to ‘speak’. Reminders that all of your actions are being recorded and that the One Creator sees and knows all you do.

 

Recently I got my reminder about blogging through a post written by a new blogger, an intelligent and talented young women (Masha’Allah- you can read her post here). In her very first blog post she speaks not only about our purpose on this earth but also about making use of our abilities to do good and basically to be better than what we think we can be. So although I’ve read many things similar to this before, this post somehow stayed with me, renewing my vigour and purpose for blogging, reminding me that an intention to do things to earn the pleasure of Allah is something that is important and it needs to be carried through with until Allah wills differently. It also reminded me that while we all start out full of enthusiasm and energy, we somehow tend to lose that along the way, but we should constantly renew our enthusiasm and energy, just like we constantly need to renew our enthusiasm for many things in life. It’s not difficult to renew your energy when you believe that what you are doing is for a good cause, but all this needs to be reminded to us, because being the weak human beings that we are, we tend to forget or overlook our purpose many times along the path.  I guess this reminder came at the right time and in the right manner, and you never know whose words will inspire you.

 

There are many other amazing women whose words have influenced me in different ways. Now that I think of it actually on a weekly, if not daily basis when I click on the various blogs I follow I’m almost certain to find some uplifting words, words that motivate me, and words that teach me something new about different people, different places and the way the world works in general.

 

I guess that positive words written will always linger on and even if it impacts on someone for a short while, the point is that if these words were not written then there would be no impact at all, and no impact or no influence is worse than even the smallest positive impact or influence.

 

Sometimes you wonder; I guess that’s a given in this life, but I am thankful that I manage to get my reminders and my answers whenever I do wonder, and I guess Allah Almighty has different ways of getting messages through to us, and Allah Almighty uses different people for this purpose.

 

May Allah guide us all and inspire us to always write words that will be a means of positivity!