As-Salaamu alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh dear Sister Musafira. InshaAllah, please teach me how to do this. I struggle with the paradigm of dunya ways versus the "said" to be Islamic way for women, as I am a convert to Islam for 35 years, married four times and afraid to go it alone at the age 58. I have found that being married to converts, it has not been the expected life of Islam that I seek and read about, therefore, I understand your statement intellectually but not practically. I am now wanting to live a simple lifestyle of Naqshbandiyya but only have the 'Sufilive' connection to Maulana Sh. Muhammad Nazim al Haqqani and absolutely love him and am trying to follow his advise, inshaAllah, although falling very short. I enjoy your blog so very much. May Allah continue to Bless you and your family and May HE, Almighty, give you all that you endeavor to do. Ameen. Your Sister, Tasneem
Wa alaykum salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh :) I hope you are well.
Firstly, I don't think I can teach you anything, as you have been Muslim much longer than I, ma sha Allah! (may Allah grant us beautiful endings upon this beautiful religion!) - but perhaps I can clarify what I meant:
I suppose what I should have added to my original post is: "...of the greatest of women was Khadijah and she was married to the best of men (the Prophet), and yet of the greatest of women was Asiyah and she was married to the worst of men (the Pharaoh)"
- i.e. what does one's marital status REALLY mean? if the purpose of life is to obey God, to journey towards Him, and to seek His love and proximity - then one's marital status has little more to do with it than anything else. At the end of the day, every situation we are placed in affects our reality, in this life and the next. Of course this does include being married, having children, etc. but it also includes things like how one spends one's time, the conversations one has, the thoughts in one's mind, the food one eats, the places one goes, and so on. And the strange thing is, great people have probably made better intentions for their meals than what many of us make for the apparently 'big' things in our lives. Nothing (even it appears insignificant) is futile, no time is wasted: it all affects who we are and where we are going.
And in the end, in our graves, all the pretences we built up disappear, and all that remains is ourselves. And the potential was always within ourselves: to be great. Allah gave each of us the potential to know Him (and there is nothing to greater to be achieved!) As our master Ali said: "you consider yourself to be an insignificant thing, but immersed within YOU is the entire universe." It just depends on whether we realise this potential or not.
And that's why we're taught to attach our aspirations and desires onto He alone who remains, when all else perishes.
So I suppose the practical application of this is: let's get busy! I do think marriage is a most beautiful sunnah, and I hope I am blessed with children one day, but these things are almost besides the point often. We can get to Him, as we are in this moment.
May Allah grant us the tawfiq to act on what we have been taught, and to continue our journeys onto Him in all our crazy ways, but always in light of the blessed prophetic sunnah!
:)
Ameen to your beautiful prayers, thank you. May Allah bless you with more!
As-Salaamu alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh dear Sister Musafira. InshaAllah, please teach me how to do this. I struggle with the paradigm of dunya ways versus the "said" to be Islamic way for women, as I am a convert to Islam for 35 years, married four times and afraid to go it alone at the age 58. I have found that being married to converts, it has not been the expected life of Islam that I seek and read about, therefore, I understand your statement intellectually but not practically. I am now wanting to live a simple lifestyle of Naqshbandiyya but only have the 'Sufilive' connection to Maulana Sh. Muhammad Nazim al Haqqani and absolutely love him and am trying to follow his advise, inshaAllah, although falling very short.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your blog so very much. May Allah continue to Bless you and your family and May HE, Almighty, give you all that you endeavor to do. Ameen.
Your Sister,
Tasneem
Bismillah.
ReplyDeleteWa alaykum salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh :) I hope you are well.
Firstly, I don't think I can teach you anything, as you have been Muslim much longer than I, ma sha Allah! (may Allah grant us beautiful endings upon this beautiful religion!) - but perhaps I can clarify what I meant:
I suppose what I should have added to my original post is: "...of the greatest of women was Khadijah and she was married to the best of men (the Prophet), and yet of the greatest of women was Asiyah and she was married to the worst of men (the Pharaoh)"
- i.e. what does one's marital status REALLY mean? if the purpose of life is to obey God, to journey towards Him, and to seek His love and proximity - then one's marital status has little more to do with it than anything else. At the end of the day, every situation we are placed in affects our reality, in this life and the next. Of course this does include being married, having children, etc. but it also includes things like how one spends one's time, the conversations one has, the thoughts in one's mind, the food one eats, the places one goes, and so on. And the strange thing is, great people have probably made better intentions for their meals than what many of us make for the apparently 'big' things in our lives. Nothing (even it appears insignificant) is futile, no time is wasted: it all affects who we are and where we are going.
And in the end, in our graves, all the pretences we built up disappear, and all that remains is ourselves. And the potential was always within ourselves: to be great. Allah gave each of us the potential to know Him (and there is nothing to greater to be achieved!) As our master Ali said: "you consider yourself to be an insignificant thing, but immersed within YOU is the entire universe." It just depends on whether we realise this potential or not.
And that's why we're taught to attach our aspirations and desires onto He alone who remains, when all else perishes.
So I suppose the practical application of this is: let's get busy! I do think marriage is a most beautiful sunnah, and I hope I am blessed with children one day, but these things are almost besides the point often. We can get to Him, as we are in this moment.
May Allah grant us the tawfiq to act on what we have been taught, and to continue our journeys onto Him in all our crazy ways, but always in light of the blessed prophetic sunnah!
:)
Ameen to your beautiful prayers, thank you. May Allah bless you with more!
your sister,
musafira.
p.s. I'm awfully sorry if I've made things worse!