Tag: Allah

Eagle soaring – adoration in the sky

I was reading this ayah tonight and it hit me that every Eagle I have every admired soaring, every humming bird vertically poised by super-speed wing beat, every bird I have ever loved to watch…this is why I love watching them. For they too are adoring the One, the Beautiful, the Perfect. Peace be with you all, assalamu alaikum

24:41

 
Transliteration

Alam tara anna Allaha yusabbihulahu man fee assamawati wal-ardiwattayru saffatin kullun qadAAalima salatahu watasbeehahu wallahuAAaleemun bima yafAAaloon

 
Yusuf Ali Interpretation

Seest thou not that it is Allah Whose praises all beings in the heavens and on earth do celebrate, and the birds (of the air) with wings outspread? Each one knows its own (mode of) prayer and praise. And Allah knows well all that they do.

Quran: Surat 24, An-Nur (The Light), ayah 41
 
 
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Insignificance

One of the greatrest blessings of tribulation is that it forces one to end self-reliance and instead rely on God. This is another of the meanings of that profound verse in the Quran…repeated twice…in surah 97, which is aptly titled ‘inshirah’ a word that can be translated as ‘the expanding of the chest’ meaning increasing one’s understanding or realization. The verse is
‘inna ma al usri yusra…/ inna ma al usri yusra…’
Meaning ‘ verily, with hardship, is ease / verily, with hardship is ease’

– I have translated to the best of my ability as I am on the road. I believe it is right though God willing. But please forgive any errors.

So Ibn Ata’allah, a great Islamic scholar advised us to ‘bury oneself in the soil of insignificance, and then like the seed, to be brought to fruition’

So I pray, ‘O my Lord, empty myself of me and fill me with Thee’
– ameen

Peace be with you all and may whatever hardship you go through bring you also to the One and to peace.
Assalamu alaikum

Too good not to share…

I’ve been meaning and wanting to write for a while, but excessive travel, work and then sickness has meant many things were delayed. But just coming across this true story, so beautifully shared, it touched my heart and I had to pass it on. Do read please
Love to all and may we not be blind to the love and mercy surrounding us always

The article below is from http://www.suhaibwebb.com and is called The Puppy. Click here to be taken to original source

The Puppy
Maryam Amirebrahimi | October 5, 2012 5:00 am

Originally Published in October 2009. Pulished at http://www.suhaibwebb.com and copyrighted to the same, in accord with their copyright policy found here, so there is no blame on me on the day of judgement for reposting this.

We had just finished dinner. A group of us American girls who were studying in Egypt had decided we would eat at a local restaurant and when we finished, we had twenty Egyptian pounds leftover from the pool of cash we had put together. Figuring out what to do with the money, one of the sisters suggested, “There’s that boy who sleeps outside that one grocery store! You know, he’s got that puppy! And whenever he’s with that puppy, he’s like the happiest kid in the world.”

I realized whom she was talking about. There was a teenage boy who slept on the grass across the street from the grocery store. There was no trace of family, money, or anything—just a boy and a stray puppy who kept him company. “Let’s give the money to him!” the sister exclaimed. With purpose, our group began to head over.

From the restaurant, it took us about twenty minutes to get to the location of the boy. But he was nowhere to be seen. His puppy, however, was there…and he was thirsty. The puppy had in his paws a closed water bottle that he unsuccessfully attempted to open. Imagine the torment of feeling intensely thirsty, staring at water in paw’s length, and not being able to access it despite immense struggles and efforts. Realizing his dilemma, we quickly opened the bottle of water we had and began to pour it out for the puppy. The puppy came immediately, drinking the water in huge gulps, and not stopping for some time. Finally, relieved, the puppy eventually ran off to play.

We did not find the boy that night. As we walked back to our apartments I began contemplating the situation. We had walked about twenty minutes in search of a specific boy. We could not find him, and instead we found a puppy in extreme thirst, making great efforts to access water. Allah, The All Wise, had written for us to have extra money, helped us remember the boy in that moment, given us the strength, ability and time to take the twenty minute walk to find the boy, and instead, guided us to a puppy who needed our help to drink water. Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala (exalted is He) had written for us, a group of foreigners from across the world, to have been in that place, in that moment of time, simply to help a puppy quench its thirst.

What about you, dear worshiper of God, who is struggling to please Him, stumbling upon blocks of heedlessness and difficulties? What about you who are trying to keep it together, find a job, get married, do well in school, deal with domestic issues at home or societal pressures all around? Dear believer who struggles to make your prayers, complete your fasts, lower your gaze and preserve your chastity—if that is the mercy that Allah, The Ever Merciful, has written for a small puppy, that He would subjugate human beings to simply help quench the thirst of a creature amongst His Creation…then what about the Mercy of Allah `azza wa jall on you, His struggling worshipper?

“Therefore flee unto Allah…” (Qur’an 51:50)

Peace be with you,

You sister.

PS – Sendie, my thoughts and prayers have been with you though I haven’t been able to reply yet. Allah help you and us all. Thank you so much for all you shared with me, I am honored and reach out to you with many hugs

Several realms of gratitude

Alhamdulillah, alhmadulillah, alhamdulillah, Subhahanallahi wabihamdihi, la ilaha illallah!

Now half this beautiful blessing of a month has flown by. How swiftly it goes. These precious hours, each more gracious than the one past, oh they come to us one after the other and leave us breathless. They raise us higher and higher as we go closer and closer to the divine. This training of the body, opens up vistas of the mind and soul, cleans the heart and purifies the ego. Oh, what a wise blessing this obligatory fast is. Praise be to God, praise be to God, praise be to God, there is no God but God and God is the most pure, sublime, worthy of all praise, to whom is due all thanks.

 

Everynight now, after a long day of heat, we are blessed with a sip of cool water to drink…and as the prophet (Allah bless and elevate him) said;

ذَهَبَ الظَّمَأُ وَابْتَلَّتِ الْعُرُوقُ وَثَبَتَ الأَجْرُ إِنْ شَاءَ اللهُ

Dhahab az zamaa’u wab tallatil urooqu wa thabat al-ajru Insha-Allah

The thirst has vanished, the veins have been wetted and the reward is established – Insha-Allah. [Abu Dawud]

indeed, the veins are refreshed by this. But oh, so many in the world are in an involuntary fast, and have no means of breaking it. Water is such a precious precious gift. Such a miracle. How easily we waste it. A few days ago I was hurrying to a meeting, having parked my car along a residential street. This was in the middle of a hot day and mashaAllah I was feeling the blessing of water, being thirsty with the fast. I noticed a water-sprinkler in full swing on someone’s lawn. It is a silly time to water one’s lawn, as in the mid-day heat, the water evaporates sooner than it can be absorbed and therefore it is not good etiquette to water one’s lawn at this time, rather it is better to water the garden/lawn early in the day or in the evening. So I was thinking of all this at the back of my mind while hurrying, and then forgot all about it. But it was very sad, for an hour and a half later, returning after the meeting…I saw the same sprinkler still working. This was very sad indeed! What a waste of a precious resource and so many in the world suffer so without water to drink. God forgive us all for the way we squander the resources of this precious earth. Now writing this out, I get to thinking about this wisdom I learned back home on what time is best to water the garden. It was always done either early after dawn or just before sunset. Since my home country is poor, it was always done by a person who doubtless did not want to toil in the hot sun watering the garden, so there was more than one benefit. I wonder though, had my country been rich and there was an automatic water sprinkling system…would the ancient wisdom of ‘do not waste’ have prevailed?

 

God knows best the condition of the human and our weaknesses. And indeed we are forgetful creatures. I know there is a thousand things I do that are wasteful now, that I did not do before when I had less. So Allah forgive me for my countless sins and mistakes and forgetfulnesses. Indeed, our real sin is that we forget. Even the great prophet Moses (may God bless and elevate him) forgot as is mentioned in the beautiful and profound story of his encounter with Khidr-

قَالَ لَا تُؤَاخِذْنِي بِمَا نَسِيتُ وَلَا تُرْهِقْنِي مِنْ أَمْرِي عُسْرًا
Sahih International translation

[Moses] said, “Do not blame me for what I forgot and do not cover me in my matter with difficulty.” (Quran 18:73).

 
But look at the etiquette of Moses (peace be upon him) who stated his deficiency and asked for leniency with dignity and sincerity. This is a lesson to us. There is no way we will not be forgetful, there is no way we will not sin. Indeed if that were the case, we would be angels or we would be in heaven! So do not despair of the loving kind protection of your Lord and that you have someone, always there, for you to turn back to. Indeed the beauty of the sin, if I may call it that, is that it brings us back to our Lord. And that we all need. So there is a wisdom in everything created. And God alone is the only true reality.
 
Remember His name…you inhale and exhale it with every breadth, your heart beats to the rhythm of Allah, of expansion and constriction…this is your Lord, everywhere Manifest and everywhere Hidden. Glory to Allah, the most Beautiful, the most Majestic, the One, Everlasting.
 
I began this post really to document the great blessing of water and also to acnowledge with humble thanks, the ‘lovely blog’ award that my beautiful sister, Rosa Noor, bestowed upon me sometime ago. I was trully bowled over by it and super happy 🙂 MashaAllahu ta’ala! And I praise and thank my gracious Lord that this blog began so many months ago, has been able to reach out in such a way to my larger family. As we Muslims believe, if there is any good in it, it comes from God and God alone. InshaAllah, I will soon be able to aknowledge the award as it should be and complete the post. But now it is late and there is much to do and learn these precious Ramadan nights so please Sr. Noor (what a lovely name you have!), forgive me for the delay. Please do check out her amazing blog, ‘Greetings from England’.    MashaAllah such an active blog and here I am scarcely able to pen an entry in a fortnight! 🙂 Truly, God distributes His blessing in the best way.
 
To end, today was a blessed day of being on the water kayaking (one of my favourite things to do)…and since I began with water here’s a picture of a favourite lake where I was blessed to kayak with my God daughter when she was here (how I miss her). Do make du’a for her and all the children in the world who suffer and bear so much. Allah, help us all!
 
 
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As promised and some reflections

Assalamu alaikum, peace be unto you,

I promised sometime ago to share some photos from Sydney, so I’ll attach them here. Since I went to Sydney mashaAllahu ta’la I’ve traveled through Colombo, Singapore, Tokyo and Minneapolis. Some of these places I only stayed in an airport and others I had time to visit a bit. But it is a great blessing to travel and see the differences in this massive earth. To be in airports and observe the great multitude of variation among peoples. To see the pious next to the ignorant next to the forgetful next to those obsessed with worry and care. It is a great blessing to stop in these places to pray and touch your forhead to the ground and hope that the earth will bear witness for you that you did so, on that day we must all face. It is a great blessing to know that it is Allah that is upholding this amazing world. To travel way above the earth, to be with the clouds, to race the rising sun as you traverse oceans and cross time-zones, to wonder at the might and completeness of Allah’s creation and plan. To recognize that I am just an insignificant jot, a mere instance in the passage of time. And yet, Allah loves me so much, He has given me intellect and sight and sound and travel and more than this, has given me my faith. That Allah has given me time and so much of reading and the wonder of knowing oneself and learnign of oneself. To think this is true for so many thousands of people, millions and billions of people, existing now and who have existed and who will exist inshaAllah. So Allah gives each of us a universer of care, and yet we are insignificant jots on this great plane of existence. Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, the One, beyond time and place, beyond gender, beyond our human comprehension, the First and the Last and the Everlasting. Praise be to God, my Lord, and thanks and thanks and thanks be to God and God alone. God, please send your grace and salutation upon Muhammed, your beloved and my beloved, the last of the Messengers and a mercy to mankind.

Sunset from Mosque window in Colombo
Pelican in Colombo suburb, and the tower with satellites were not there a few years ago
Sunrise in Colombo
Sunrise in Colombo on a foggy morning...those brief few moments you can look at the sun!
From Australian National Museum, look at the diversity of skeletons
Skeletons of Marsupials, again from Australian National Museum
Frangipani! what a beautiful name for such a beautiful flower...Thanks to God!
Lotus flower 🙂 Praise to God
Ibis roosting on tree tops, Chinese garden in Sydney
The moon gate from the Chinese garden in Sydney...highlighting water and trees, praise be to God who created our appreciation for beauty and art in architecture
Look at this beautiful old man, walking slowly at the back of a procession marching for International Women's Day in downtown Sydney, asking for equal rights for women. A noble sight indeed and one I found deeply humbling
A young student in an old building, reading on the stairs of 'the strand' ( I think) which was a Victorian era construction, built to honor Queen Victoria. How then Allah knew the day the building went up, that this student would be sitting there a century or more later, reading, and I would be passing by, traveling all the way from Canada, to take this picture, later to post it up on the www, and you my dear reader viewing it now. Subhahanallah! Glory be to God!
When leaving Vancouver...a place I spent many years of my life below me. How the view changes when we are far above, so I glorify my Lord, who is the subtle and near ('Latif', an attribute of Allah in the Muslim theology) and the Great and Overarching, Manifest ('Zahir' another attribute of God in the Muslim theology)

Tawakkul… trusting in Allah

Alhamdulillah I came across this excellent article and wanted to share it. It talks about reliance upon Allah. I especially loved this quote.

Ibn Ata’illah stated:

“Relieve yourself of worry after you have planned, do not concern yourself with what Allah has undertaken on your behalf”.

Indeed this is not easy to attain to. But the one with real faith knows its a cinch!

وَنُيَسِّرُكَ لِلْيُسْرَىٰ
And We will make it easy for thee (to follow) the simple (Path). (Quran 87:8)

What makes it hard I think is not knowing Allah well enough to trust Him completely. And that is easily fixed by spending more time with Him, i.e., with taqwa (God consciousness) and then Allah grows nearer and nearer. We are truly blessed to have in our tradition, the certainty from God that ‘He loves to be asked’ and ‘loves to be called upon’. Subhahanallah! Key word – LOVES to be asked. Allah subhahana wa’ta’ala what a great source of help just waiting to be asked.

I must go now, the article is here. Well worth the read mashaAllah. Taken from Imam Suhaib Webb’s site http://www.suhaibwebb.com/personaldvlpt/worship/dua/tawakkul-trust-in-allah/

I’ll add a favourite song along these lines. Powerful lyrics – ‘I only ask of God’

Assaalamu alaikum warahamtullah, I pray you are all well and safe, and Allah have mercy upon us all and help us all help each other in these testing times.

ar-Rahman!

MashaAllah just completed this for a dear Auntie… who looked after me through many years of study. Not knowing much English, she’d say ‘eat eat’ as she served a hot plate of food for me when I got home from school/work. Never a requirement, just being generous. Now she is abroad and hopefully she will like this. May it will get to her safe inshaAllah!
How much there is to learn from those giving souls around us. Somehow this gets me to thinking about the immense generosity of our Creator…and indeed all good qualities we have are but a poor reflection of the divine. For example how much an act of pure generosity the creation of flowers is! I can never have my fill of contemplating the beauties of this world, flowers, birds…Subhahanallah the sheer range of colour, texture, shape, fragrance is mind-blowing. And this too by the limits set upon our senses by which we understand them. So God is ar-Rahman. The compassionate, also meaning loving, kind, eternally merciful, nurturing. Taken from the root word ‘r-h-m’ which means ‘womb’, symbolizing all the love, protection, nurturing, care and cherishing that sacred place we all sojourned in holds. Subhahanallah! Glory be to God!
This painting is a pretty poor capturing for all the above. In all truth it can hardly be called anything close to that. But mashaAllah it is done finally (months after doing the background, did the foreground tonight…I think the background was literally done about a year ago?!) and thought to post a picture up here. InshaAllah you will like it.

Allah Kareem! (God is the Generous or God is most generous)

Peace be to all

One to one

Here is a very recent poem, speaking of an old truth; The beauty of unity and the march of time. Something I easily forget amidst busy days and the usual frustrations. What a gift it is to be ordered to pray five times a day, forced to be peaceful mashaAllah :). God forgive my forgetfulness

One to one
I sit before you
My Maker
Created to Creator
this bond
Oh, when I acknowledge it
I am the eagle that has soared beyond the heavens
I am the water circumambulating the earth
I am every particle of dust in a comet’s tail
I am home.
This moment I glimpse eternity
acknowledging, one to one
My Creator to Thee
I am hurtling through time.

***

Copyright February 2011. JoyManifest’s Blog. F R Zahir

‘O Muslim, your honour lies in humility before Allah and your strength lies in weakness before Allah’

I listened to this beautiful talk by Sh Yasir Qadhi today. Alhamdulillah, it is a beautiful call to faith in the kindness, compassion, beauty and love of our Creator. We often and easily forget that Allah has told us He loves it when we ask of Him. What bounty that is, that our Creator, the only Creator that exists, is one of Love. Real love, that is watching out for those loved…not one to make us and forget us. And then what sadness, deep deep sadness contemplating the individual who has forgotten Allah and then Allah has in turn forgotten him/her (it is important to understand that the forgetting begins with the creation and never the Creator)
It has been a difficult time in my life the past few days and listening to this helped me very much. Therefore I thought I would share it, in case it helps you too :).
But you know what is most profound, in this time of many burdens coming at the same time, all it has done is renewed my faith, washed my heart clean of dirt and reminded me of what is important. We are all here to try to be better people, to try and elevate our souls to that highest level, that highest level that is the reflection of the divine. To polish our souls so we like mirrors, reflect the light of Allah subhahana ta’ala. Some of us are given children to teach us this, some parents who are elderly and need us, others the sick to look after, yet others personal difficulty. And so pushed to go to the source of all love, and that too the pushing a very act of love. And then when nudged in to coming close to Allah, when we feel the incredible strength of that closeness with our Lord, what strength and comfort that is! How phenomenal the qualities of Allah are in their perfection. Allahu akber, I say that with deep love.

The title of this post is from the closing comments of the talk… it is so true, our real honour lies in humility before the One who bestows honour and our real strength comes when we acknowledge our weakness before our Creator. Is this not the quality we see in deeply spiritual people, great scholars, priests, rabbis, monks… that they are all so devoid of self and only a reflection of all that is from God.

May God make us all deserving of His grace and teach us to be better.

Allah ar Rahman

I haven’t been able to write much lately due to an immense amount of work deadlines and other things going on. But this is a sadness and inshaallah I hope to do better. Alhamdulillah we have greeted the second Eid now passed and there was much to write about that, specifically with respect to a beautiful interfaith event I had the blessing of attending. Initiated by a dear friend, a Rabbi and carried out in a mosque with Muslim, Christian and Jewish brothers and sisters…all sharing and learning from the example of the great prophet Abraham (God bless and salute him). Alhamdulillah a beautiful event indeed.

Specifically we learned about how much Abraham must have loved (or must love) God, and what complete trust he had in the mercy of Allah that he could be ready to offer his son in sacrifice, not for a moment blinking from that immense trust that God is good. And how gloriously Allah rewarded him, terming him in the Quran ‘the friend of Allah’. Subhahanallah! what an immense title.

Here is a song I’ve been listening to today, sung in the sufi style, it speaks of this love of Allah.. this complete love for Allah. Ar Rahman, Ar Raheem. The source of all mercy, compassion, kindness, love. The true love.

Music : Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Singer: Rashid Khan
Lyrics : Niranjan Iyengar

Allah hi rahem, Maula hi rahem – 8
God is merciful, God is kind

Kaise ishq se sajh gayi raahein
Your love has adorned my path
Jab se dekhi hai teri nigaahein ya khuda
Since the day I felt your benign gaze oh God,
Main to tera ho gaya
I have become yours
Kaise ishq se sajh gayi raahein
Your love has adorned my path
Jab se dekhi hai teri nigaahein ya khuda
Since the day I felt your benign gaze oh God,
Main to tera ho gaya
I have become yours
Tu jo karam pharmaye, adam insaan ho jaaye
When you bestow your grace, we become non-entities

Mastana ho ke, deewana ho ke tujhe pal mein paa jaaye
Intoxicated (with your love) we become one with you
Saans-e-fiza mein tu hai, rooh-e-bayan mein tu hai
You’re in every breath, in every soul
Har ibtidaa mein, har inteha mein, har ek nazar-e-zabaan tu hai
You’re in every beginning and every end, in every gaze and word spoken
Allah hi rahem, maula hi rahem ..

O har zarre mein tu hai chupa
You can be seen in everything
Phir doondhe kyun tera pataa
Then why do we search for you
Tu hai dhoop mein, tu hai saaye mein
You’re in the warmth and in the cool shade
Apne mein hai, tu paraye mein
You’re in loved ones and in strangers
Allah, allah ..

Mere rom rom ki ek adaa
You’re in every part of me
Tu ishq mera, ae mere khuda
You are my love, my God
Har saans mein hai bas teri dua
Every breath I take is a gift from you
Tu ishq mera, ae mere khuda
You are my love, my God
Tujhe paane se badkar kuch bhi nahin
There’s nothing greater than receiving your love
Tujhe dekhte hi dil bole yahi
When I see you my heart sings…..
Allah, allah ..

Kaise ishq se sajh gayi raahein
Your love has adorned my path
Jab se dekhi hai teri nigaahein ya khuda
Since the day I felt your benign gaze oh God,
Main to tera ho gaya
I have become yours

Tu jo karam pharmaye, adam insaan ho jaaye
When you bestow your grace, we become non-entities
Mastana ho ke, deewana ho ke tujhe pal mein paa jaaye
Intoxicated (with your love) we become one with you
Saans-e-fiza mein tu hai, rooh-e-bayan mein tu hai
You’re in every breath, in every soul
Har ibtidaa mein, har inteha mein, har ek nazar-e-zabaan tu hai
You’re in every beginning and every end, in every gaze and word spoken

Allah hi rahem, Maula hi rahem ..
God is merciful, God is kind

It’s from the movie ‘My name is Khan’ (if you haven’t seen it, you must inshaallah :))…and isn’t it so telling that the lyrics are by actually penned by a Hindu and song sung by a Muslim. MashaAllah!