An atoms weight of the Qur’an

As mothers or generally as busy women/ men, we feel guilty we hardly have time for Qur’an.

Honestly what matters is not the hours of Quran time, or Quran classes or alone times with the Quran..try from the little. The first steps in being consistent. Just Five minutes a day will change your life forever. You wont stop at 5. Make time for just five minutes every single day of your life with the intention to make it last till death, and watch how it organizes your life, adds more time in your day, more barakah in your tasks and brings home blessings from places you’d never imagine. Hold on to it. Dont leave it.

When we give our best in whatever situation we are in, it’s just enough. Nothing even the size of an atom goes lost with Allah swt and He mentions exactly this when talking about reciting the Quran in the following verse-

‘And, you are not [engaged] in any matter and do not recite any of the Qur’ān and you [people] do not do any deed except that We are witness over you when you are involved in it. And not absent from your Lord is any [part] of an atom’s weight1 within the earth or within the heaven or [anything] smaller than that or greater but that it is in a clear register.’ [10:61]

Do your best. Whatever little even. In your circumstances, whatever is the best of your capability to give the Quran its Haqq, give it. Nothing, even of an atoms weight, goes lost with Allah.

So the question is, are we even giving the Quran an atoms weight of time in our days?

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Fragrance of Jannah : Strong Reminder

Can a seeker of knowledge be denied the fragrance of Jannah??

Narrated Aby Hurairah RA,
The Prophet (ﷺ) said:
“If anyone acquires knowledge that should be sought seeking the Face of Allah, but he acquires it only to get some worldly advantage, he will not experience the arf, i.e. the fragrance, of Paradise.”

عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏  “مَنْ تَعَلَّمَ عِلْمًا مِمَّا يُبْتَغَى بِهِ وَجْهُ اللَّهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ لاَ يَتَعَلَّمُهُ إِلاَّ لِيُصِيبَ بِهِ عَرَضًا مِنَ الدُّنْيَا لَمْ يَجِدْ عَرْفَ الْجَنَّةِ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ“‏ ‏.‏ يَعْنِي رِيحَهَا ‏

[Sahih (Al-Albani)]

The Sweetest Loss of Memory

My mind is a constant movie reel. Thoughts running continuously of every single situation that did or did not happen, that would happen, of conversations and replies in my head, of plans and anxieties of the unknown future, of memories and pains or joys of the past, sometimes of posts and content I surfed online; sometimes even while reading a book, I’m thinking of something else subconsciously until I realize I haven’t focused at all in what I was reading, sometimes talking to Allah in my mind cooking on the run; a constant non stop reel that keeps running.

And when something is more important to me, then it’s a mesh of wires entangled in the head with the reel running but that particular thing also rolling in my head simultaneously. Phew! What a tiring mess if you imagine it! SubhanAllah the brain; you can never understand how it works..

This morning, I forced myself to not depend on any device or book to read the adhkar, and just read out of memory, internalizing the meaning, and testing myself in memory. And those few minutes of trying to remember the right words, the virtues, the no.of times to repeat, the beauty in the ways of praising Him, those few minutes were when I realized, that reel wasn’t running. I was actually so focused, I forgot the world; even in my subconscious mind.

And that, was the sweetest loss of memory.

In dhikr… you forget the world.

When the worries of the world pain you, dhikr is the sweetness on the tongue that lightens the mind.

When you focus on WHO Allah swt is, and HOW you love to praise Him, your mindset changes.

I cannot fathom how the Prophet’s SAW and his companions life would have been when they were consumed in proper dhikr all day!!

True dhikr; its sweeter than honey, soothing to the heart and soul and when you taste it, you don’t want to ever stop.

Visualize this: Imagine eating your favorite sweet or chocolate while surfing through your phone. Within no time, you’ve finished it without even realizing. You lose out on those precious moments of devouring it. That’s how dhikr has become. The words pour thru the mouth, while the mind is absorbed somewhere else, and we are done without tasting its actual sweetness. Let’s try to put the world away instead for a xuple of minutes, and savor those moments.

You’ve got to keep going

Only those people fail, who accept failure.

Use ALL circumstances to work for your dream and purpose in life.

The wife of Imran AS vowed to give a son dedicated to Allah SWT, and Allah the One who creates and fashions, made it to be a girl, Maryam AS; With His hikmah. Still, Hannah continued to seek the pleasure of Allah USING what circumstance she was put thru.

Sometimes we make plans; and our plans don’t go accordingly and we think perhaps Allah didn’t accept from us. But as long as we seek His pleasure purely, His acceptance is in the ways He paved for us. And our Iman is to take that path and strive for what we planned in the first place :’)

[Mention, O Muḥammad], when the wife of ʿImrān said, “My Lord, indeed I have pledged to You what is in my womb, consecrated [for Your service], so accept this from me. Indeed, You are the Hearing, the Knowing.”

But when she delivered her, she said, “My Lord, I have delivered a female.” And Allah was most knowing of what she delivered, and the male is not like the female. “And I have named her Mary, and I seek refuge for her in You and [for] her descendants from Satan, the expelled [from the mercy of Allah].”

So her Lord accepted her with good acceptance and caused her to grow in a good manner and put her in the care of Zechariah. Every time Zechariah entered upon her in the prayer chamber, he found with her provision. He said, “O Mary, from where is this [coming] to you?” She said, “It is from Allah. Indeed, Allah provides for whom He wills without account.”

[Surah Ali Emran, Verses 35 to 37]

كُنْ فَيَكُون

‘كُنْ فَيَكُون’

To Him, just a
“Be! And it is…”
To you;
Your powerful armour
To seize
That which you set your heart on.

When was the last time
You pleaded Him
To say “كُن”
For something you dearly desired?

Would Allah send a Destructive Wind?

In Tafseer class we learnt, when the word ريح for wind, is used in the singular form in the Qur’an, it means that wind which is destructive and brings harm. While, when it’s used in the Quran in its plural form, رياح, it refers to the type of wind that is beneficial.

SubhanAllah how much this tells us of Allah swt Himself, in His meticulous placing of words-
Both type of winds are definitely sent by Allah SWT;
Yet That which brings benefit and positive outputs is always more (plural) from Him than that which brings harm (singular form).

His blessings are innumerable compared to His withdrawing.

His trials are countable; yet favours unimaginable.

Let’s soak ourselves in the attitude of gratitude every single day, to be able to overlook the trials as being many, and instead face them with strength from Him..

The pause.

Sit back for a few more minutes. Its precious.

Don’t hurry up and fold the prayer mat, while subconsciously uttering your end-of-salah azkaar, and move on with life, when you can absorb some strength and some tranquility for the heart in those couple of minutes.

It takes hardly a miunte or two. But rejuvenates your soul for the day.

Say the adhkar consciously, think about them, count on your fingers while you think of your Lord and His mercy.

Sit there. Absorb the strength.

And then get up to face the world until your next prayer.

There is so much sukoon and peace in that pause AFTER prayer. Grab it!

One thing many don’t realise is that not only does Zikr help your soul, but also physically strengthens you.

This is very apparent of the hadeeth when the Prophet’s (صلّى الله عليه و سلّم) daughter complained to him of exhaustion through housework, he gave her the antidote in the following story-

It was narrated from ‘Ali [رضى الله عنه], “Fatimah [رضى الله عنها] complained about the pain caused to her hand by the mill, and some prisoners had been brought to the Prophet [صلّى الله عليه و سلّم], so she went but did not find him, but she met A’ishah and told her.

When the Prophet [صلّى الله عليه و سلّم] came, A’ishah told him about Fatimah coming to her. The Prophet came to us, and we had gone to bed. We started to get up, but the Prophet [صلّى الله عليه و سلّم] said: “Stay where you are.” Then he sat between us, until I could feel the coolness of his foot on my chest. Then he said:

“Shall I not teach you something better than what you asked for? When you go to your bed, magnify Allah thirty-four times, glorify Him thirty-three times and praise Him thirty-three times. That is better for you than a servant.””

[Sahih Al-Bukhari: 3502 and Muslim: 2727]

Sajdah

You could be suffering silently.
Or maybe you voiced out your suffering loudly in a crowd that heard you but didn’t listen. People love to know our issues, but help? They run away from.
No matter what, THAT is the world teaching you its reality.

No matter what, you’ll truly and only find that solace in whispering your troubles out from the bottom of your heart when you place your forehead in the bare ground.

Take your time there.

Whisper it all out until you feel that burden lift from you.

And rise.

With all hope and renewed energy to face the world again.
Just leave it all to Him. And He will take care in a manner you never imagined.

A whiff of the forest lane

Is it possible
To capture
The scent
Of a memory
Into a bottle?
A whiff of the forest lane
After a drizzle on the crisp earth

To encapsulate the silence; of love
When the babies are sound asleep
at the lullaby of the forest’s birds
While the scattered sunlight tickles the vision
Filtering thru the trees

The thrill of the sight
When the deers lurk into the woods
Swiftly escaping the sound of the prey
Rustling thru the leaves

Rather..
Is it possible
To seize a moment at dusk
Stop the seconds of the hourglass
To revel the painted sky
And to fully grasp
That moment your heart sensed free
You’re continuously moving
But your mind persists at that scenery

While the rays shone thru thick clouds
“The light is always there”, he tells me
‘It’s the clouds that bring shade’
That stillness in the painting ahead
That urges me to snatch the second hand
While it hustles by.

The eyes; struggle a war
To close shut and save it into the heart?
Or to stay open and devour for as long as it lasts?

Alas! I close them
And try hard to listen to my heart
But it doesn’t speak; only absorb
Yet silently sings a familiar song

Of a new sunshine, of a renewed look
Of a renewed vision; born from amidst the ruins
This time to be able to see again
Her lost thoughts; her lost connections
Her lost reflections
Now rise; tho differently
Strongly; from the
Shackles of the shadows she’d been thru

Every breath I take
I now devour
I capture it into my soul
Energised by its freshness

All this while I wish I knew
You cannot capture the scene smell or scent
But you can
Its essence, in your heart

Alas that’s why
Our greatest joy
Is promised to be
In mankinds long lost love
For gardens beneath which rivers flow
Fruits and drinks, an eternal home..

Of Serenity;
What we naturally incline to
Perhaps lost
In the fetters of this world..

Alas I’m just…
A soul;
Yearning for it’s long lost abode.

Under the Starlit Sky

Picture Taken after fajr and sunrise in Muzdalifah, before leaving back to Mina; more than half the crowd left back already.

‘Enjoy’, my father in law told me.

Physically exhausted from our stay in Arafah, although we were quite ecstatic and energetic due to the rain; we were cold and shivering and tired, and that’s how we got off the bus in Muzdalifah. Only to be told to find a spot over a blank plain expanse filled with stones to sleep for the night. While I found our spot, and began setting the place for prayer and sleep, quite amazed at how am I going to lie down here in front of everyone, “enjoy!”, he told me.

Men, women, wealthy or poor, children, aged; no matter who it was, all had to sleep on a blanket of stones (whatever bed sheets we managed to take in our backpacks were soaked from the Arafah flood).

No roof above us, no bed underneath us. No walls besides us. Just the plain vast land surrounded by mountains afar.

And we slept.

Under the beautiful starlit sky.

Actually it was such a good sleep! Even my husband admits to that. Maybe we were that exhausted.

I look back to that day and remember the words of my father in law. Enjoy; Every moment of Hajj.

It struck a little chord in me; enjoy? But yeah! Isn’t it such a beautiful feeling to endure all that pain and struggle only and solely to seek the pleasure and acceptance of our Lord? When you seek Him in all your life’s struggles, they become purposeful and meaningful.

And so, enjoy every phase of life, it meant. Even the testing times when the sun shone hard, enjoy seeking Allah. Or when the rain sank deep and still you sought your creator, enjoy looking for Him in every phase of your life; whether you’re physically, mentally, spiritually sinking low or floating high.

Rejoice in every kind of moment by seeking Allah’s love and and life’s going to be as beautiful as that sleep on a stoney surface of the plain vast open ground. And add to that a beautiful starlit sky 😉

Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said: “Strange are the ways of a believer for there is good in every affair of his and this is not the case with anyone else except in the case of a believer for if he has an occasion to feel delight, he thanks (God), thus there is a good for him in it, and if he gets into trouble and shows resignation (and endures it patiently), there is a good for him in it.” [Muslim]