April 29, 2020

The Death of Bollywood Superstar Irrfan Khan and Our reaction

The news of Irrfan Khan's death came as a shock to a lot of us. It is interesting that while we get upset about the passing of someone we like we somehow forget the reality of our own mortality. We can very easily talk about other people's death, but we don't want to think about death of our own body (the soul does not die). And one of the primary reasons why we don't want to think about death is because we all have heard about the torments of grave. Whether we decide to think about death or not, death will come in its own time and things will happen exactly as our beloved the truthful Rasulullaah (s) has narrated to us.

One of the best science fiction writers of all times Isaac Asimov was once asked in an interview what will happen to you when you die? He answered: "Nothing. Nothing will happen to me when I die. I will just turn into dust." It is as one prominent late scholar said that all this knowledge and fame didn't make this person any better than the illiterate Arab Beduyin 1400 years ago. And Allaah says in the Qur'an that these people will say on the day of judgment that we did not have any intellect.


Being Muslims do we want to end up like the person who has to say that he does not have any intellect? We all have the advantage of mind to think yet we just do not use it the way we are supposed to. Why does our knowledge of the punishments and trials of the grave do not make us any different from these disbelievers? It is only natural as we rarely if at all think about death.

Ramadan in Lockdown (Day-4 & Day-5)

Here's what usually happens to us at the beginning of Ramadan. We get this spritual high and do more than required only to tire ourselves out not realizing the month has just started. Trust me this is what I've been feeling in the last couple of days. So I thought I should put my thoughts to this post and think through the problems in sha Allaah.

How can we get out of this situation?

First of all, let's just relax. Let's not try to complete the Qur'an in one sitting. Read one page after each salaah. Doing otherwise would only make it a chore and we do not want that at any cost.

Also you'll see that you're not feeling anything in your heart when you're praying even after leaving sins. I think this is just natural. It takes time. Repentance, I believe, will help our hearts to open up more in sha Allaah. It is said that Prophet (s) would do istighfar more than 100 times a day. SubhanAllaah if the prophet(s) did that we should be doing that 1000 times a day at the least surely! Well practically we can't but we can surely follow the sunnah in sha Allaah by reciting the bare minimum 100 times only.


I think the best way to soften one's is to constantly remind oneself of the destroyer of pleasures, the death. The prophet (s) said: "Death is true." If you think about death more and dunya less, you would see that your heart has changed. It will have less and less attraction to the dunya and all the pleasures that it has to offer. We shy away from the topic of death because it makes us feel uncomfortable. But is there any more true than death? Does anybody ever claim that they will not die?


Although we hate to think about death, doing so can bring numerous benefits to the life of the Muslim. He will realize that he will one day die and will have to answer Allaah for his evil deeds. Hence, he will automatically repent from his sins and seek refuge from the punishments of the grave.


In this topic, I highly recommend the life in Barzakh series by Sheikh Yasir Qadhi. The series will be easily found in the playlist of YQ's YouTube channel in sha Allaah. Another one to recommend is Imam Awlaki's Hereafter Series ( I ABSOLUTELY do not support his views on jihaad, by the way).




April 27, 2020

Ramadan in Lockdown (Day-3)

Assalamualaykum everyone!

It just realized that I have been sharing too much of my personal accomplishments in my previous entries. I know it's fine to share the good you're doing if you want to encourage or motivate others to do the same, but again doing so in some way or the other runs you the risk of showing off. Hence, I decided that I would be making my journals a bit more general from now in sha Allaah. Let's get started then, shall we?


Day-3 (1:52pm)

I don't know how you have started your day today, but from tomorrow you can do one thing right after you wake up in sha Allaah. Recite the du'a for waking up:



الْحَمْدُ للهِ الَّذِي أَحْيَانَا بَعْدَ مَا أَمَاتَنَا وَإِلَيْهِ النُّشُورُ
Alhamdu lillahil-ladhi 'ahyana ba'da ma 'amatana wa'ilayhin-nushur

Praise is to Allah Who gives us life after He has caused us to die and to Him is the return.
Bukhari 11/113; Muslim 4/2083


This way you'll start your day on the right foot in sha Allaah. DO this consistantly until it becomes second nature.


If we weren't in a lockdown I would have asked you to invest in a Hisnul Muslim booklet. Since I can't do that I am giving you the link to an online version


You will in it find authentic du'a and dhikr from the Qur'an in pretty much most situations in sha Allah.

April 26, 2020

Ramadan in Lockdown (Day-2)

Review of Day-1

Alhamdulillaah the first day of fasting went well. Felt really good and humbled before breaking my fast. The credit goes completely to Allaah, of course. I realized that our gifts are in alignment with what we do, if that makes sense. Say if I fasted but didn't invest my time on the Qur'an and dhikr, would I have felt the exactly the same? Of course not! If we do not treasure our sacrifice for Allaah, we can't practically expect anything out of it. As simple as that.

But please understand that like a lot of others, I am also a work in progress. Ramadans had come and gone. But I had barely made any progress. This time it's feeling different because I made a simple change in my lifestyle. Sometimes all it takes is a little adjustment in your lifestyle. There are, of course, a lot of other things I need to work on. Nonetheless, the process of self-development has started alhamdulillaah.


Day-2 [4:00pm]

- Prayed fajr+recited the morning dhikr+some Qur'an

- Completed dhuhr prayer

- Had to attend a teleconference with my team [work related]


ACTION Plan for the remainder of the day:

- Recite Qur'an some more

- Play with my daughter Aisha

- Spend some time with my parents

- Spend some time with my wife


UPDATE..............


STATUS after Day-2

- Recite Quran- Check

- Play with the daughter- Check

- Spend time with the wife- Check

- Spend time with parents- Uncheck



It's always a great idea to get your status and action plans in writing like this. You can either follow the format above or make your own. It does not matter as long as you can see your progress.



May this Ramadan change us all, ameen!

April 25, 2020

Ramadan in Lockdown (Day-1)

A DIFFERENT RAMADAN and OUR REACTION

Ramadan has finally reached us alhamdulillah. Due to Covid19 spread, we are in lockdown now and it's likely we'd remain so the entire month. This means we cannot join tarawih and daily congregation in the masjid. Now we have a couple of choices. we can keep lamenting over that fact or do the best we still can. While it's unfortunate that we cannot do what we could have done in normal circumstances, we still have to accept that it was completely Allaah's will and there must be some good in it.

Unfortunately, it seems some people are more 'frustrated' about missing out on the outer aspect of Ramadan such as preparing grand iftar and suhoor. Let us understand that this virus has changed things in a lot of other ways too. It has kept us away from our friends, hangout in the fast-food corners, and even it kept us from going to work. It is essential, hence, that we understand the situation and thank Allaah for keep providing for us. Let us think about the hungry first before thinking about making big iftar items.


WHY DO WE NEED to REDISCOVER OURSELVES?

It is human nature that one cannot remain the same their entire life. A person who is righteous today can become a disbeliever in a year. I mean God forbid but it's possible. Our imaan (faith) is always fluctuating. And the level of our imaan is determined by what we feed our soul. In other words, We are what we do. Time and again qur'an and hadith have told us to focus on our modesty and also to not look at forbidden things. Why? because again we are also what we see. Game of Thrones and Spartacus aren't helping us getting closer to our creator. Hence, we need to monitor our hearts for the sake of who created it to begin with. Allaah gave us Qur'an to heal our hearts and yet we seek other foul ways to taint it. Think about it!


WHY IT'S DIFFICULT TO FOCUS DURING PRAYER AND RECITING QUR'AN

You will find the answer in the previous section. Why will it not be difficult to focus when all we have fed our hearts is the filth? Qur'an does not share its place.


WAYS TO CHANGE THINGS FOR THE BETTER

ACTION PLAN [DAY-1]

1. Memorize some part of the Qur'an or revise the memorize portion

2. Pray on time

3. Recite the dhikr after prayer

4. If you crave movies or tv shows, watch a documentary or a beneficial lecture

5. If you are tempted to commit any kind of haraam, just remind yourself that you're fasting.

6. Most importantly, recite the Qur'an as much as you can


April 23, 2020

Resuming my blog...finally

I haven't been writing on here for quite a while now. This 'quite a while' has been six years to be precise. Can you believe that? Je ne suis ecris beaucoup ( I am not writing a lot). My blogger's block seems to be neverending. It is frustrating considering the fact that I was once a full-time staff writer of a national English language daily here in Bangladesh. This block is partly responsible for my laziness to put my mind to this certain activity. What I am really active and gung-ho about is watching movies (also very trashy ones at that). Thankfully, I have come to realize that I need to completely quit TV viewing. Once and for all. There is hard evidence that TV is a perfect recipe for killing productivity.


However, giving up a habit is easier said that done. It needs strength of character and will of iron. And the reason for doing so will also have to be valid. As long as I am concerned, it's so valid that I don't even want to think it twice. All I need to do is focus on writing and reading more. And at the end of the day, this is what I do best.

What can I write about going forward? Well, I can write about my language learning adventures on Duolingo for one. What do you say? Would you be interested in that? Let me know. Or I can also write about my predicament of being confused about what to write. Maybe? But don't worry since I have returned from this long hiatus, ideas will eventually flow in sha Allaah :)

Although I must say this Covid19 lockdown has been boring and at the same time overstrung, it's been a blessing in disguise in that it has gotten me back into writing.


Let's just pray my posts are regular from now on rather than sporadic.