Dear brother and sister

golnarm — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:47:21 GMT

Dear brother and sister

Salaam ‘Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatu

Dear brother and sister,

In the midst of crisis, you ask “Why believe in Allah anymore? Why be Muslim?”
The answer, my friend, is because I must.
Because if I tried not to, it wouldn’t work.
Because He is there, and I can’t escape it. Nor can you.
Because even the tiniest little insect plays a role and has a marvel inside of it. And it can’t be random. It is by design. How is it that your eyes would not work if just one little component were to go missing? How can that be random?

If the best car on the market today is by design, if the coolest tech gadget is by design, then why isn’t the bug, the dog, the flower, or you also by design? To say otherwise is ego. We are not the creators of all, while none is the creator of us.
Because the Big Bang is true and something, rather, Someone, put it in motion. It’s all too perfect, all too harmonious to just be random. Because there is someone who Created the Universe. It didn’t create itself. Someone caused the Bang. And if it wasn’t me or you, then it was Someone greater than us, Someone with the knowledge and power to do so. That is Allah.
Because the wind rustles through the leaves and makes a beauty smooth sound.

Because the mountains rise high and kiss the skies.

Because the desert is pure contemplation

Because the ocean is wild and blue.

Because the leaves are a green that make your heartache and give endless joy to your eyes

Because I have read his story, and it is clear that the Prophet Muhammad (aleyhi salatu wa salaam) was neither delusional nor a liar.
Because no Arab poet of any repute has ever been able to compose a Sura like it.

Because if Islam were a man made doctrine, we would not be obliged to do things that inconvenience us or cause us to restrain our desires and impulses. But we are not the One we answer to.
Because the Qur’an itself is the best rebuke of the terrorists. The Qur’an is the Way of Love, the Messenger is the Exemplar of Love (aleyhi salatu wa salaam), and if we choose, we can be the Inheritors of Love.
Because things happen that you can’t explain, that I can’t explain, that Stephen Hawking can’t explain. Because there are mysteries in the world, and this is direct evidence of the existence of the Unseen.
Because the Qur’an has so many answers to so many things, in one chapter alone.
Because it explains the human heart so precisely.
Because we are given so much.
Because I have seen randomness and it has never ended with such beauty and harmony as the universe around me.

You have children, look at them. Did you create such perfect miniature fingers? Did you design fetal development? You can’t make a flower our of thin air. You know that you and your husband were merely the earthly means for this child to come into being, but you were not the Creator. Just as you do not belong to your mother and father, they don’t belong to you. You all belong to Him, the Creator. He is the One to Whom your soul, your child’s soul, your mother’s soul responded when asked, “Who is Your Creator?”
I wouldn’t bother trying to convince you with “science,” other than what I have said already, which are merely the observations of someone who slept through science class.
But you inhabit one tiny corner of one small country of one small planet in one small solar system in one small galaxy in the boundlessness that is the Universe, whose distances and wonders you can not perceive. Proof enough that there are things greater than you.
Because Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and da Vinci gave so much beauty to the world, but they could not give us this…

Because badr happened

Because it makes sense.
And if you didn’t still believe, you wouldn’t have even bothered to ask the question, dear brother and sister.
Because the why is all around you. Because the why is inside of you.
Because the physical heart is a nine ounce piece of meat, but what your heart contains is unknowable, full of wonder and mystery, limitless, boundless, soaring.
Because the Allah Say in Qur’an :

إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلاَفِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ وَالْفُلْكِ الَّتِي تَجْرِي فِي الْبَحْرِ بِمَا يَنفَعُ النَّاسَ وَمَا أَنزَلَ اللّهُ مِنَ السَّمَاء مِن مَّاء فَأَحْيَا بِهِ الأرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا وَبَثَّ فِيهَا مِن كُلِّ دَآبَّةٍ وَتَصْرِيفِ الرِّيَاحِ وَالسَّحَابِ الْمُسَخِّرِ بَيْنَ السَّمَاء وَالأَرْضِ لآيَاتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يَعْقِلُونَ

Don’t look to me, dearest brother and sister. Don’t look to all the things you’ve looked to. You search too much and the answers are all around you in plain sight. Turn off the computer and the television, go outside. Leave the iPod and the Gameboy at home. Take no magazine or book with you, other than al Qur’an. Drive to the nearest forest, ocean, desert, or nature reserve. Take your time and drink it all in. Breathe in and say, “I exist.” Scan the endless sky, or peer at the minute and mysterious universe of the forest’s insects and reaffirm, “He Exists. He Is One, and He is my Lord. There is nothing worthy of worship but Him. He is the Eternal, Self-Subsisting, who begets not nor is He begotten. He is Limitless, and is the fount of all Mercy, Compassion, and Love. He is the Creator of Wonder, and the Bestowed of Life. He is Omniscient and Omnipotent. He is closer to me than my jugular vein, yet He can not be encompassed within anything in this Universe.”
When a breeze blows, turn to it and let it dance across your face.
Do this, repeatedly and yaqin, certainty, will re-establish itself. Because, dear brother and sister, your problem is not that you doubt him, your problem is that you doubt yourself. You ask why, but I believe your real question is, “How can I renew my faith in Him and my place in this deen when I am so tired and worn out, when everything that is wrong in the world has taken priority in my mind?” Your problem is that you are stumbling, when there is a light right next to you for :

اللَّهُ نُورُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ

“Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth.” (an Nur, 35)

Have you not heard that faith wavers, that it increases and decreases? The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), the best teacher and advisor, said, “Faith wears out in the heart of any one of you just as clothes wear out, so ask Allah to renew the faith in your hearts.”
This is the way of the world. It is time for you to refresh and recharge. It is time for you to spring clean your heart and your mind. Time to clear away the clutter and distractions that have so dragged you down. Time to take the whisperers to task, to turn away from them, to stop giving in so easily. It is time for your khalwa (being alone), brother and sister. Time for you to retreat from the world around you, so that you might gain the strength to walk through it.
Everything that happens to you is a gift, even the trials and tribulations. Your child has had some health issues. But this is a gift because it is teaching you patience, and the Messenger of Allah (aleyhi salatu wa salaam) said that “Patience is illumination.” And I’m not mouthing platitudes, because I have been there, waiting outside the ICU for news.
This too, shall pass, my brother and sister in Islam. This precipice you walk over is a test and a tribulation, and it’s painful and awkward, but you are being illuminated. Recognize it for what it is. You were chosen for this — to be illuminated! Hold fast to the Rope of Islam. Reach out and grasp your husband’s hand, my hand, any Muslim’s hand and hold on tight. We will pull you up in the embrace of brother and brotherhood, I promise. We will not let you go. I will not let you go. Not without a fight.
When he was tried, the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and give him peace) said this prayer:

O Lord, I seek refuge in You from weakness and laziness,
Cowardliness and feebleness;
I seek refuge in You from the trials of life and death,
And seek refuge in You from punishment of the grave.

Try prayer. Plead with Him, talk to Him, invoke Him in your own language, the primal language of your heart. In Surat an Nur, aya 31 He Says:

تُوبُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا أَيُّهَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ

“Turn towards Allah, O believers, every one of you, so that you may be successful.”
Sheikh Nazim Mangera says that it is a good sign when you are concerned about your leaving the prayer or your seemingly diminishing faith because it shows that you care. He says, “If a sick person doesn’t realize that she is sick, the doctor will never be able to cure her. So realizing that there is a spiritual sickness is a sign that your faith is strong.”
He Is, my dearest brother and sister. He Is.
He Is.
The Qur’an Is His Word.
Sayiduna Muhammad ibn Abdullah is His Final Messenger.
This Deen is His.
He is Allah. He is ar Rahman, ar Rahim — the Boundlessly Merciful, the Ever Compassionate. He is your Rabbil ‘Alamin — your Cherisher and Sustainer. The Lord of all the worlds. He is Maliki Yawm id Diyn. The Master of the Day of Judgment.
It is Him Who we serve and whose help we seek. It is He Who will Show us the Straight Path we are stumbling towards. The way of Grace, not the way of those who go astray or who earn wrath.
Let this pitiful letter be that which pushes the door open for you, ya Allah ya Allah ya Allah ya Rahman. Faraz Rabbani:

Humanity was in darkness and bewilderment, and Allah sent us light in the form of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) , the Qur’an, (peace and blessings be upon him), and the guidance of Islam they represent. To illuminate our lives, and to dispel the darknesses of distress, we must turn to the light Allah has sent, by returning to the way and example of the Messenger; to the Qur’an by recitation and reflection; and to the guidance of the Shariah in faith, practice, and spirituality.
And Allah alone gives success.

Allah alone gives success, my brother and sister. In all things! In all things. He is al Fattah, the Opener.

رَبَّنَا افْتَحْ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَ قَوْمِنَا بِالْحَقِّ وَأَنتَ خَيْرُ الْفَاتِحِينَ

Our Lord! decide between us and our people with truth; and Thou art the best of deciders.
al ‘Araf, 89

Go outside with your Qur’an in hand, and find your Opening.
Drink in this Good News from your Messenger (may God bless him and give him peace):

I am as my servant thinks of Me, and I am with him when he remembers Me. If he mentions Me in Himself I mention him in Myself. If he mentions Me in a gathering, I mention him in a better gathering. If he comes near Me one hand-span (shibran) I come near him one cubit (dhira’an). If he comes near Me one cubit I come near him an arm’s length (ba’an). If he comes to Me walking, I come to him running.

He Mentions you when you mention Him. You, this little person in this litte spot of the Universe, mentioned by Him, the Creator of it, the Limitless.

Go to Him walking, my precious brother and sister in Islam, and He will come to you running. Running! Running! Can you imagine? Running!
Ya Karim!
May Allah have Mercy on you, and on me, and may He Guide you, and me, and all who are sincere and open to Him. May He send peace and blessings upon His Messenger, Sayiduna Muhammad, and his family and companions. Al Fatiha. (the opening)

friday prayer

golnarm — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:20:18 GMT

friday prayer

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيم

friday prayer

The Prophet Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) described the tremendous status of Friday:

"The best day on which the sun rises is Friday. On this day Adam was created, on this day he entered paradise and on this day he was expelled from it. On this day the Hour (of judgment) will be established. Friday contains an hour during which no Muslim slave (of Allah) prays asking Allah for a good thing except that Allah will grant it to him." (Collected by At-Tirmidhi and others)

The word Friday (jumuah) in Arabic comes from a root word that means, "to gather, bring together or congregate". One of the special characteristics of Friday is the congregational sermon (khutbah) and prayer. The sermon is a great blessing indeed; it provides teaching for the ignorant and reminding for the forgetful. For most Muslims, the Friday Prayer is the primary connection to the mosque and by extension the Muslim community. For this reason it is critical that both the khateeb (preacher or orator) and the congregant understand the guidance Islam has provided regarding the etiquettes and rulings of the Friday Prayer.

The first person to conduct the Friday Prayer was none other than our beloved Prophet Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). He used the Friday Prayer to teach and exhort his noble companions, and to strengthen their relationship with Allah. We must strive to learn from this example.

Allah the exalted has mentioned the Jumu'ah prayer in the Quran in the following verse:

يا أيها الذين امنوا إذا نودي للصلاة من يوم الجمعة فاسعوا إلى ذكر الله وذروا البيع ذلكم خير لكم إن كنتم تعلمون،
"O you who have believed! When [the adhan] is called for the prayer on the day of Jumu'ah [Friday], then proceed to the remembrance of Allah and leave off trade. That is better for you, if you only knew." (62:9)

how YOU prepare to this great day..................

your sis

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Dear brother and sister