Qur'an

The more you read it, the more you fall in love with it. - SH.

Greed.

If we knew what knowledge was, we would slow down the rate of its acquisition. - Shaykh I.

Imagine a superstore with a huge end-of-time sale on; everything is excellent quality but it's going quick. There's not exactly a price reduction, but there are special products in stock that aren't going to be in store for a long time again (and you wonder, perhaps ever?) and so you're there. And you want to get hold of as much as possible. You can't get a trolley, because in this store they are too expensive, and would take years of investment (and you could never be bothered with those long-term payments) - so you're pretty much trying to grab everything with your hands.

The store is the city of our teachers that I'm in, and the products are the classes and the books. A trolley is basically an expanded heart that can receive knowledge easily and implement it without difficulty, but I don't have one because that takes time and training (and I've put in neither). I'm basically on a shopping spree, trying to get my hands on everything. I don't care that the instruction manual is in a different language, or that I won't even know what to do with the product once I get home; I just want it. And I keep ringing up the manufacturers with a dozen questions, per product, because I'm a confused individual. Bizarrely, my arms are longer than they should be (i.e. not in proportion with my height! - this is a fact) but they're not long enough and I can't carry everything. So I seem to be leaving a trail of goods behind me, as I try to reach for the shinier stuff on the higher shelves.

It's not working.

Last year, sat in a class with Shaykh Atabek (may Allah preserve him and his loveliness), I asked him a (fairly random) question, and he asked me: "why do you want to know?" Surprised, I gave a slow shrug of the shoulders. He looked at me taken aback himself, and said: "you don't have to know everything, you know." And the whole class burst out laughing. But somewhere within me, I knew that the firasa of the teacher had hit a mark. And I recognise that now, more than ever.

It's just greed. Give me everything, and give it to me quick.

But indeed, "innama al-ilm bi- ta`allum" - verily, knowledge is only by active learning.

No doubt, knowledge is beautiful, and should be sought, but it needs to be with tranquility and patience.

Allah forgive.

Abu Bakr mentioned in previous scriptures

Your companion, i.e. the Messenger of Allah, peace & blessings of Allah be upon him, and the caliph, i.e. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him.

Alhamdulillah, it's well known that the beloved Messenger of Allah, peace & blessings be upon him, was mentioned in previous scriptures (quite centrally, in fact), but the fact that our master Abu Bakr al-Siddiq was mentioned also is absolutely new to me, and quite simply exquisite. Ma sha Allah.

relative fact 2.

You may have been born Muslim, but you can rememeber the dark days of kufr. (SI.)

The Real Medical Sufe!

I'm so excited, alhamdulillah. The real medical (more surgical) sufi has been found.

I was sat in an orthopaedic (bone stuff) clinic at the children's hospital yesterday, with far too many surgeons grilling me with mean anatomy questions that I had no clue about. Thankfully a nice one took pity on me, and saved me many a time. (I genuinely have forgotten basic Year 1 stuff, it seems!)

Anyway, putting aside the thrills of scary clinics, the nice surgeon told me something amazing!

There's a condition/injury in paediatric orthopaedics known as: the SUFE! (pronounced sufi!). As soon as he said: "and this is what we call a sufi" I was captivated! It stands for 'slipped upper femoral epiphysis'. 

It basically happens in the hip joint of kids. Their bones are obviously still growing, and particularly weak at the ends. It is when the top part of the 'ball' (called the epiphysis: where bones grow) slips off from the rest of the ball, in a backward and downward direction, and causes a lot pain. If undetected, and untreated, it will lead to a lot of bad stuff like abnormal growth.

However, hopefully the scary-but-full-of-excellent-banter surgeons will fix it with some screws and make everything okay, by the permission of Allah!

Matthews & Syriac

The sixth Beatitude (Matthew 5:8), in the Syriac language.

 

Ṭûḇayhôn l'aylên daḏkên b-lebbhôn: d-hennôn neḥzôn l'allāhâ.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sayyedi shaykh I (Allah preserve him) frequently mentions Syriac to us; as the language of the angels, as the language of revealed scriptures of ancient times, as a relative of the Aramaic and Arabic languages, etc. So finally curiosity won, and I did some googling, and it seems beautiful ma sha Allah. I have always liked the Sermon on the Mount (which Shaykh H recommended to us, indirectly!), so I especially like the above (Matthew 5:8).

If you go onto the wikipedia page here (indeed!), you can actually listen to the Lord's Prayer in Syriac; it's brilliant. Language - it's an amazing thing, subhan Allah. It contains and conveys so much, but it really is just a means. If in itself it is so beautiful, what must be the end!

Wa min Allahi tawfiq.

& success is from Allah alone.

1433 هـ

A year of good decisions, in sha Allah.

ASWJ

Sayyedina Imam Abu Hanifa (Allah have mercy upon him, his teachers, and his students) said:

"Sunna and Jama`a are defined by giving preference to the two shaykhs [Abu Bakr and `Umar], love of the two sons-in-law [`Uthman and `Ali] and [the permissibility of] wiping over leather socks [in ablution]."

(Narrated by Ibn Abd al-Barr in al-Intiqa` through several chains; by Sh GFH in his Sunna Notes.)

I love that. It's so beautiful! - and I think it is so expressive of Imam Abu Hanifa's personality and concerns, ma sha Allah. May Allah allow us to benefit from him, and make us of those who honour his blessed school.

hitting the floor, with love.

According to the Hanafi school, the 14 verses of prostration in the Qur'an, all have three common themes. The necessity to prostrate is only when the verses mention: 

1.      the fact that believers are those who prostrate
         (so we prostrate because we want to be of them) or
2.      the fact that unbelievers refuse to prostrate
         (so we prostrate because we do not want to be of them) or 
 3.     the fact that the prophets were of those who prostrated
         (and so we prostrate because we want to follow them).

A cool story Shaykh H told us: 

worshippers in al-Aqsa.

Imam Malik walks into his masjid, between the time of Asr (late-afternoon prayer) and Maghrib (sunset prayer). Due to the makruh time (disliked time to pray additional units, according to some) he does not read the two extra units of 'greeting the masjid', and instead sits down. A man besides him, who does not recognise the Imam, and does not know this is Imam Malik's masjid (!) says to him "get up and pray!" [i.e. the two extra units] - and so, Imam Malik stands up and reads the two units. Later, someone who had been watching him, asks the imam why he had done that (despite the disliked time). He replies:
"so I would not be of those who refused to prostrate."  

Subhan Allah. 

Shaykh H mentioned that most of us (i.e. me!) would most probably have gone into a long debate about why we shouldn't pray in that time, the fiqh rules, etc etc. But not Imam Malik - he hit the floor, with love.

relative fact 1.

90% of contact with others: you feed their egos, or they feed yours.

Sufi MS Word

Microsoft Word is behaving quite sufi-ly today, ma sha Allah.

I typed in: "...the Messenger of Allah, endless peace and blessings be upon him", and it wanted to correct the "be" to "are" - i.e. endless peace and blessings are upon him! - no doubt, ma sha Allah!

Clever, no?

untitled

I have no power save to knock at Thy door

And if I be turned away, at what door shall I knock?

In full abandon I put my trust in Thee,

Stretching out my hand to Thee, a pleading beggar.

Imam ash-Shafi`i.

Proportional understanding

"The understanding of Islam is broad in accordance to the breadth of the human heart. And the broadest hearts are of the first generation, and then those who came after, and then those after them. And what we mean by that - and it is important for us to understand- is that the broadest understanding of Islam ever was by the first generation. But as the human being's heart becomes more constricted, then Islam by its nature is constricted, directly proportional to that of the human heart."

Shaykh Ibrahim.

They say that the more you study, the more excuses you have for people - because you realise that  the religion is expansive; there is room for many people, with varying ideas, and different hearts. "And Religion is, and can be vast! - why? because Allah is The Vast." 

رَبِّ اشْرَحْ لِي صَدْرِي

O My Lord: expand for me my heart!

Syria 3.

.اللهم بارك لنا في شامنا، اللهم بارك لنا في يمننا

And may Allah make us of the نا .

G.F.H.

Shaykh Gibril F. Haddad (Allah long, long preserve him, and all those whom he loves) is one of those people, amongst the living, in whose name Allah has granted me strength, and in whose works He has placed an abundance of inspiration. I have never met him; rarely even seen videos or pictures of him. I merely 'know' of him through his books and articles - lights! I mention 'amongst the living' because that is rare for me; most of my heroes are long gone beyond the veil.

He truly has done so much, but it's a bit cheap coming from me, so I won't attempt to enumerate his efforts.

Anyway, here is a short but beautiful summary of his path to Islam: G.F. Haddad's Conversion.

May Allah (exalted and kind!) allow us to benefit from those He has drawn near to Him.

& May Allah (al-Fattah!) grant us the openings of those who know Him.

Write it down

You know when sometimes you're sat in a class, and the teacher says something that just goes way over your head - and you try to concentrate and attempt to understand, but it's completely beyond you, so instead you just 'zone out' for a few minutes.

Well, one of our teachers (online, and across an ocean) told us that at these moments you should still write the idea down, or at the very least the references. He made mention of the famous, mass-transmitted (mutawatir) hadith of the Messenger of Allah, salallahu alahyi wa salam:

"It may be that one carries understanding without being a person of understanding; it may be that one carries understanding to one who possesses more understanding than he."

Commenting on this narration, he mentioned that some of the scholars have said that the person he may be carrying this knowledge to could be his future self. Ma sha Allah.

There'll be a day - bi `ithnillah - when you know more, appreciate further, understand deeper... just keep at it. And write it all down!

Within words

Al-Habib Mohammad al-Saggaf graced us with his beautifully prophetic presence recently, alhamdulillah wa shukrlillah. He related to us, in his final parting words, about the keys to openings found within dhikr (remembrance) of Allah.

"La ilaha ilallah" – this is the key to the heart.

The heart is the realm of the Knowledge of Allah (ma’rifah).

"Allah" – this is the key to the soul.

The soul is the realm of the Love of Allah (mahhabbah).

"Hu" – this is the key to the secret (within the soul). The secret is the realm of Witnessing (mushahada).

How far we are!

What fills the heart

Teacher, master, and inspiration: Imam Nawawi (may Allah allow us to benefit from him) said:

"It occurred to me to study Medicine, so I bought the Qanun of Ibn Sina, whereupon darkness filled my heart and I was unable to work for several days. Then I came to my senses and sold the Qanun, after which light filled my heart."

May Allah (al-Mawla) protect our hearts.

journey

The teacher once struck up a metaphor for us, to teach us about true gratitude (I think)... a person is sent a beautiful horse by a benevolent giver. A person of a certain type would fall in love with the horse, and become infatuated with it, and see nothing beyond it. Another type of person would be caused to ponder upon the giver; his kindness and generosity. And then a third type would simply sit upon the horse, and ride unto the giver.

All the good (and 'bad') you have been given in this world is your gifted horse, the Giver is Allah.

Cat love

You wouldn't believe, but yes I am still missing Cyprus - which is incredible, but at the same time, not at all; its magic is addictive, its love unforgettable. I even miss the cats, sorely! I went there at best as someone who was afraid of cats, at worst as someone who disliked them - but there I fell in love with the sweetest, most beautiful and playful cats EVER.  They really are special, ma sha Allah. Mummy cat at the guesthouse was pregnant again we think; may she have  an easy birth and lots of good kids, in sha Allah.

One of the beautiful cats at Sheikh Nazim's dergah, having her afternoon snooze underneath the dining table.

The next day, the cool cat from above had found a much sunnier, comfier place to nap.

Teeny weeny kitten, literally the size of my hand - stole many hearts, but really wasn't interested in anyone at all.

The kittens at the guesthouse are the most beautiful cats I have ever seen; here they are feeding away.

He definitely knows he is beautiful.

Miss you guys!

Finally, apologies if you're not a cat person, and have had to suffer through this post.  Perhaps this will make up for it - a reminder for us all, from Sheikh Nazim's masjid:

Ameen.

Saucepan of water

Bismillah,

This cool Iranian/German dude (may Allah preserve him!), known to the Lefke folk as Mehmet, is an absolute delight. He works and lives at AbdulHadi's guesthouse, where my parents stayed. If you ever get yourself there, ask him to tell you a few stories - he'll have you in stitches, alhamdulillah.

Anyway - this is him holding a saucepan of water as we were heavy-heartedly leaving. My cousin thought he was being impatient to make himself a cup of tea(!) and jokingly questioned him. He said it was tradition to throw water behind leaving guests, in the hope that they would return soon. I was both elated and moved; I went and got a bottle of water - and filled up the saucepan completely, for good measure! He balanced it well, ma sha Allah.

Later we asked our driver Hajj Umar (if you ever meet him, behave!) about it - he said that when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was leaving Makkah after the conquest, the Muslims who stayed behind in Makkah, threw water behind him as he left, in the hope he would come back to them soon. And now this is a tradition they practise here in Lefke! Ma sha Allah!

The point of this post is that I am truly counting on the blessings of sidi Mehmet and his saucepan of water, in sha Allah.

Ya Ahad, ya Samad, salli ala Muhammad! - missing the sweet melodies of Lefke very much.

Secrets

Shaykh Nazim Adil al-Haqqani with his son, Shaykh Muhammad (Mehmet) Adil.

Ma sha Allah.

Lovesick for Lefke

Missing Cyprus, and its people very much indeed. May Allah long preserve Shaykh Nazim, his sons, daughters, and beautiful grandchildren. Special place, even more so special people.

Allahumma salli alaaa Muhammadin, wa alaaa aaaali Muhammadin wa sallim!

Worldwide Prayer Campaign

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah,

I hope everyone is well, and much healthier with not having to read my daily complaints.

Just a heads up about a beautiful initiative set up by some wonderful people, that I am still absolutely amazed by.

click here: prayer campaign 

It's basically created with the idea that the ummah is one body, as mentioned in hadith. We need to make sure that every nook and cranny upon the Earth is in our prayers, so that we can work to better our world with the remembrance of Allah. 

So, what to do: you pick ANY country from the 246 plus on the list, and you email them the country of your choice.  You can choose any country you want: perhaps where you live, where your heritage is from, a place you've always held dear, or a place you have never even thought about before, especially not in your prayers! It doesn't matter - it now becomes YOUR country; you then keep that country in your prayers, specifically. The aim is to get somebody praying for every country upon the Earth.

It is not armies and military interventions that change the world. It is not diplomacy and politics.

It is prayer, by the permission of Allah.

Please sign up.

Shaykh.

"...and by the stars you find your way."
- Qur’an, Surah Nahl. 16:16.

Zuhd

Image taken from: http://thefinalbrick.blogspot.com

Serious Socks

When I was a kid, my mum always told me: “don’t laugh too much, or you’ll end up crying.” True enough, any day where there had been an excess of giddiness and laughter, I’d end up crying by the evening. I really don’t know what about. A few years from there, and my teachers at madrassa warned me that excessive laughter hardens the heart. (Many years later I appreciated their words.) A couple of years on, and in fiqh you learn that one of the recommended times to do wudhu is after loud laugher.

Subhan Allah.

Our teacher Shaykh I reminds us time and again, this deen requires serious people. People like the 17 year old companion Harithah (may Allah be pleased with him & he with Allah), who at that beautifully tender age was able to truthfully proclaim: “I have divorced my soul from the dunya”.

Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani mentions in his autobiography, that when he would go out into the fields to play (as a 5 year old), he would hear a voice calling out to him: “you were not created for this!” – and being unable to comprehend this, he would run to seek comfort in his blessed mother Umm al-Khayr. A similar story one hears about Imam Nawawi, though I think he decided for himself that he wasn’t made for games and insisted on reading Qur’an instead! (Hero.) There are a few other examples in my head, but I can’t reference them so we will leave them be for now. But you see, there’s a theme going on here. These giants of the religion, that are so central to our tradition all these years later, were serious children, never mind serious adults.

 These are the people of success.

Need to pull up my socks.

Gentleness

Bismillah.

Something that has been bothering me for atleast a year is my absolute and complete lack of gentleness. Seriously, if you paid me to define the word I probably couldn’t. If it slapped me in the face (very ironically) I wouldn’t recognise it. I am the least gentle person I know. There are very many instances where my lack of gentleness creates issues to say the least, but I won’t mention them because Shaykh H said I have to keep my sins to myself.

“Allah is gentle and loves gentleness in all things.” [hadith]

That kind of puts a damper on things, and definitely should be a kick up the bum for myself.

I picked up a book on my sister’s shelf today: al-Fusul al-Ilmiyya wa’l-Usul al-Hikmiyya [Knowledge and Wisdom] written by the great Imam al-Haddad, may Allah have mercy on his soul. In it is a chapter on gentleness! – this surely I took as a reminder from my Lord (to persevere in this), because it has really been bugging me, particularly these past few days.

The Imam says: “Know that gentleness is required in all things. It is encouraged and approved by both Shari’a and reason. Things can be achieved through gentleness that cannot even remotely be done through severity and force. Gentleness is the attribute of the wise and the compassionate amongst those servants of Allah whom He has selected.”

I guess ultimately it comes down to adab. And I have none of that either.

Ajeeb Dua

may Allah accept.

My Lady, Khadija

Sat in the library, in the middle of the night, attempting to write a paper about depression and acupuncture (please go ahead and raise an eyebrow), meanwhile gobbling chocolate biscuits, the silence is impressive despite the constant electric buzz of the overhead lamps. Being very little motivated, and much otherwise distracted, here I am.

Something that has been with me for a while is the yearning to be with sayyeda Khadija. May Allah be pleased with her, fill her resting place with light and beauty, and keep her in the company of her blessed family! An embrace. An embrace from that beautiful lady who so encompassingly embraced her husband (endless peace upon him!) on that fateful night he descended from Hira. Just imagine. What an embrace. I could dream of it for ever ...

I imagine it would cure all griefs, remove all worries, calm all fears. I even imagine it'd mend a broken heart.

And my hope is for this world, not just the next. And why not? Surely she has a spirit that can fly through the seven heavens, and throughout the earth. But where is my spirit at? Below my passions, hopes, and preoccupations; below my desire for this world; below chocolate biscuits, and medical degrees. It's not that her spirit cannot visit me, but rather mine is unable to greet hers.

O Allah: do not make this world my main aim, nor the extent of my knowledge.
O Allah: grant us the company of those whom we seek.

Syria 2.

I came across something beautiful, heart-breaking, and motivational (yes, all in one).

Zayd ibn Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that the Messenger of Allah (endless peace and blessings upon him) said: "How blessed is Shaam!"  The companions (Allah be pleased with them, and they with He) around asked: "Why is that?" The Messenger (endless peace upon him) replied, "I see the angels of Allah the Most High spreading their wings over Shaam”.

[Narrated in Tirmidhi]

Allah take us.

Notebooks

Bismillah.

"Whoever lives out that which he knows, Allah will grant him what he does not know." - said the beloved of Allah, and our Master, the Prince of Firdaws, the Leader of Prophets, Muhammad, endless peace upon him, his family, his companions, and those that follow him.

My notebooks are filling up, and yet my limbs are quite still. I have written this year more than I should have, I feel. I have done very little. Yet there is so much more to learn, but still more to do. I really do need to be more proactive.

A while ago, in class with Shaykh I, we were discussing the idea of always bringing every wrong/fault upon the earth back to yourself. i.e. I am the root cause of every evil manifest upon the earth. I asked Shaykh that, having once acknowledged that, how do we practically apply that, yani - what do we do with that? He (may Allah increase and preserve him, and allow me to benefit from him) said: "be your knowledge."

I really need to stop being so lazy.

Procrastination is the enemy of completion.

love

I want to love like this.

Rabi'a

Brothers, my peace is in my aloneness.
My Beloved is alone with me there, always.
I have found nothing in all the worlds
That could match His love,
This love that harrows the sands of my desert.
If I come to die of desire
And my Beloved is still not satisfied,
I would live in eternal despair.

- Rabi’a al-Adawiyya

Appointing a just ruler is...

"Appointing a just ruler is an obligation

by Sacred Law, know, and not by a verdict based on reason.

However, it is not a pillar that must be believed in Islam

but do not deviate from his (the leader's) clear instruction.

Except in unbelief (kufr) whereupon you discard his pledge,

then Allah alone will protect us from his harm.

For (any act) other than this, his removal is not permitted,

nor is he discharged if one of his qualities disappears."

- Jawhara al-Tawhid [the Jewel of Divine Unity]

Imam Ibrahim Burhan al-Din al-Laqqani.

This is the aqeedah/belief text we recently finished studying with our teacher. The commentary we went through was very basic, and for the most part just covers the individual obligatory points of belief, though the above quotation is not from that section.

These verses, from the entire text, were probably the only ones difficult to swallow for myself. I like to think I'm all about peace, no matter what the cost (is that an oxy-moronic belief?).

So I asked my teacher, "how does this make sense?! what if you have a fasiq ruler who is unjust to his people, what is the point of keeping him as your leader?!" - and I spoke just as frantically as those "?!" suggest.
My teacher said it was because of the loss of Muslim blood; nothing is worth that. He didn't explain much further, but I just took that and ended up pondering over it for a long time after.

I am not against the Egyptian people's cause; it takes passion and courage and a great resource of faith, to do what they have done, and to continue despite opposition. But that's just it, at the beginning of this, the only opposition was the leader they were trying to rid themselves of. Now there seems to be two factions within the Egyptian people themselves... and we find ourselves watching a civil war on our television screens - and isn't our call for revolution an echoing of high-school corridors - "fight! fight!" ?

I don't know. But Muslim blood has been shed; human blood. And how are we to know whether those who were killed were willing to die for such a cause? And are those who killed willing to pay the price? Allah is with those who temper their passions, deny their lower selves. He is with those who patiently perservere. Indeed, He cares more for the Egyptians than we could possibly imagine. He cares for them more than their mothers.

May He grant them the victory they seek, in the best of manners.

Human voices

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea.

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown

Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

- T.S. Eliot.

Out of the comfort of the ocean of reliance and back into the minds of people and your own thoughts.

Human voices wake us, and it really is too much.

The poem I’ve quoted is absolutely epic. The protagonist (Prufrock) is this ridiculously socially inept man, whose paranoia and absolute lack of self-worth is endearing. He seeks refuge in his fantasies of swimming with mermaids because the idea of attempting to even converse with a real woman is so fearful. He is forever afraid of being mocked, laughed at, and above all misunderstood - “that is not what I meant at all” – he repeats.

Subhan Allah. We’re all struggling to be understood, but really there is no need.

قد كفاني علم ربي  

Sufficient for me is my Lord’s Knowledge [of my state].

The more I know...

The more I know of one, the less I want to know of the other. And even if I try my utmost to know of it, it becomes forbidden to me, and runs from me when I reluctantly walk towards it.

Perserverance? - ameen.

My Poverty is My Pride

People rarely take pleasure in their dependency. As a child and teenager, you are usually dependent upon your parents to feed, clothe and shelter you. If one day they decided to turn you out, you would be rather alone. Likewise, once you are at university, you are dependent on your degree to get you somewhere, and perhaps your student-loan to pay for that degree. If the university one day decided you weren’t good enough anymore, you would again be rather lost and alone. None of these dependencies are particularly pleasurable; but they are often a part of life and we tolerate them until we must, and give them up as soon as we can.

There is a dependency, and reliance, however, from which one can render great satisfaction. The total and absolute need of Allah: the realisation that you are nothing without Him, and with Him you are barely, but just about, something.

The people of spirituality translate “faqri fakhri” (my poverty and neediness is my honour and pride) not just in the literal sense, i.e. that to be (voluntarily) poor is an honourable state (which it is), but also that your neediness of Allah is your honour. It is the making of you. That’s why sujood (prostration) is the pinnacle and crux of your prayer; it is the absolute humbling of yourself before the One in whose need you will forever be. To prostrate yourself before anybody else would be humiliating, but before Allah it is beautiful, honourable. It is the one point in your day when you are living out your purpose in life. In that moment, you are saying to Allah: I need you. And not only that you need Him, but that you are glad you need Him, and thankful that you recognise that.

Our teacher recently told us, in the Realm of the Souls, when the entire creation was asked by Allah“Am I not your Lord?”, we all said “Bala!” (i.e. "of course!"). We were then commanded to prostrate; but only the believing souls did so. The unbelievers found that they could not prostrate. When the believing souls raised themselves and saw that some hadn’t been able to, they went down in a second prostration out of shukr and thanks to Allah, for having given them the ability and opportunity to prostrate. And that is one of the wisdoms in the two prostrations of prayer: the first is your fulfilling the command of Allah, the second is your thanks to Allah for allowing you to worship Him.

Because your need of Him, that is your honour.

Syria 1.

Soon in sha Allah.
I should probably remember that happiness cannot be found geographically, but rather spiritually.

Rising Above

Our teachers tell us of the angelic human beings whom we should aspire to be like, and the dangers of becoming of the animalistic kind. They remind us that this ephemeral life is merely a struggle between these two states. One is often left broken hearted thinking of those particular angels who have remained in prostration to their Lord since the beginning of time, and will continue to do so until the end of time... when they will come before their Creator downcast, and proclaim:

“O Allah: forgive us, for we did not worship You as you deserved.”

These are the beings we want to become. Absorbed for all of time in the worship of the Creator; the very purpose of life itself.

“I created mankind and jinn but to worship Me.” – Q.

How deficient are we. If I calculate the fraction of the day that I spend in the worship of God, in the seeking of God, in the way of God (or at the least, the awareness of God!) ...

Ibn Ata’illah al-Askandri so beautifully said: “If you want the door of hope opened for you then consider what comes to you from your Lord; but if you want the door of sadness opened for you then consider what goes to Him from you.”

We are inherently deficient. Mankind was named ‘insaan’ because of his ‘nisyaan’ (forgetfulness). It is our very nature to forget that which we owe to our Lord; His rights upon us, our time, our lives. It makes no sense to despair over one's nature.

But when will we (try to) rise above? – when will we rise to the Divine calling? – when will we be worthy to be mentioned in the court of the Divine Himself?

Alhamdulillah for skin.

I was talking to a lovely elderly patient today. He had a bazillion things wrong with him, but the only thing evident was his ridiculously severe case of psoriasis. He was pink all over, with skin just falling off.  He’s had psoriasis for 52 years!

I asked him to describe it for me - "at times it is itchy, tender, painful..." – he sounded like a bloke who doesn’t complain much, ma sha Allah, and said that it felt like he was pouring his heart out to me. He mentioned that sometimes he can go an entire year or two without any symptoms.

“And those years... those breaks... you’ve just got to be thankful for the mercy, you know? – small as it may be to somebody else.”

Made me want to weep a bit. May Allah grant him shifa.
May Allah make us grateful for health, in health.

Alhamdulillah.

A believer and his environment

"A true believer is not influenced by his environment,
 but rather he influences it."

[Habib Kathim al-Saqqaf]

Back to my hospital placement tomorrow, after the winter holidays. SubhanAllah, it is a thing difficult upon the self. The atmosphere is difficult to breathe in sometimes. An education system more based on highlighting how little you know, rather than how you can be benefited. The competitiveness, the ambition..

Comparatively.. sitting in class with our shuyookh, one can almost feel the touch of angels' wings as they surround us; almost see the light eminating from the words of the mouth of our teacher; the almost tangible diffusion of knowledge from teacher to student. If one could, one would stay there forever.

May Allah make all our institutions of knowledge and education enlightening, pure, and well-intended environments, and may He forever purify and increase our intentions. May we become of those righteous people who instead of being affected by the situations in which they find themselves, change those environments for the better.

One supposes that one of the purposes and intended benefits of sitting with masters of the sacred sciences and the knowers of Allah, is that they can teach you correct adab and perception in and of, non-Islamic environments. In sha Allah.

اللهم إني أعوذ بك من علم لا ينفع

O Allah: I seek refuge in You from knowledge that does not benefit.

Bismillah.

In the name of Allah, the most merciful, the most compassionate.

For the sake of barakah, we will start with the words of someone far greater than I:

To abandon all that He has fashioned

And hold in the palm of my hand

Certain proof that He loves me -

That is the name, and the aim, of my search.

[Rabi'a al-Adawiyyah]

May Allah grant us ma'rifah, and real knowledge of Him.

And may He draw us into the light.