October 09, 2012
Allah Knows and I do not!
It so happens sometimes that you convince yourself into thinking you are not having high hopes concerning a matter. However, if you were really honest to yourself you would see that you were simply deceiving yourself. Because, when you do not get the thing you want you are upset and distraught. If your heart didn't long for the thing in the first place why would you be so upset?
That is, because, deep down inside you wanted it badly. But when you do not find it coming your way, you are frustrated.
Why am I saying all this? Why because I have been going through this in the last couple of days. At the beginning, I tell myself that I am not going to have high hopes this time as I have bitter experiences for doing so. Thus having this mindset I approach, and after things do not turn out as I want them to, I am miserable!
I ASK Allah to give me patience and I ask Him to make me accept His qadr, even though at the beginning it always seems a bit difficult with practice it is possible in sha Allah. For Allaah does not give a burden to anyone beyond their ability.
October 06, 2012
The myth that the Great Wall of China Can be seen from space originated in 1754
And despite the fact that space travel wasn’t even considered a possibility yet, everyone believed the myth. But then again, it isn’t too hard to believe if you don’t think about it too much; the Great Wall of China is an overwhelmingly large structure that doesn’t have a lot of problems standing out from the surrounding greenery.
It is 21,196 km long, and has been around since 7th century BC. The myth that the Wall’s magnificence can be seen from outer space is thought to have been created by the English antiquary William Stukekey in 1754. In a letter, Stuckeley wrote that, “This mightly wall of four score miles (Hadrian’s Wall) is only exceeded by the Chinese Wall, which makes a considerable figure upon the terrestrial globe and may be discerned at the moon.”
Through the years, many innocent fun-fact enthusiasts have uttered this myth with confidence. In fact, it even appeared in a 1932 Ripley’s Believe it or Not Strip. However, actual space exploration has confirmed that outer space isn’t the place to go if you want to see the Great Wall (my apologies to all the disappointed astronauts and aliens).
Source: http://www.omg-facts.com/Other/The-myth-that-the-Great-Wall-of-China-ca/53625?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=first
Lessons from the short story 'After a Shadow' -TS Arthur
I just finished reading this short story by TS Arthur ‘After a Shadow’. And something in it hit me, real hard! You see, even though the story is somewhat subtle, it is yet profound in addressing this thing we have inside of us all. The self-deluded,that we are, into thinking we are smart enough and we can do everything for ourselves, we do not need a supreme power to have any kind of authority over our lives.
Anyhow, the story commences by portraying a scene on a bright June morning involving a little boy and his parents. So what happens in the scene is, the boy Arty runs after his shadow, confused, as to what it was that didn’t seem to leave his company. The boy was terribly scared with this fact and asked his father to look at it. The father obviously laughed it away and told his baby boy that it was only his shadow and it was nothing significant, everyone had a shadow and it was a commonplace.
The father, Mr. Mayflower then narrates that the ‘shadow lesson’ was soon forgotten by the time he reached the store, and thought entered business with its usual ardour. One of his clerks, then, comes to him and tells him of a Mr. B, who wants to make a bill of a thousand dollars. And even this interruption disturbs Mr. Mayflower and he thinks to himself ‘what were a new customer and a bill of a thousand dollars to me at that moment of time? I saw tens of thousands in prospective!’
Now, let’s stop here for a bit. What do we get from this attitude of Mr. Mayflower? We get nothing better than an arrogant little trader whose destruction was to come sooner rather than later or to say it was just around the corner. Wait a little to see how Allah destroys people who are so full of themselves.So as Mr. B… didn’t have much success with Mr. Mayflower he turns to another company for sending off his goods. Mr. Mayflower’s clerk informs him about it and he arrogantly says let him have whatever he wants and that he should not mind if any other company sells their service to him. Later that day, Mr. Mayflower asks one of his clerks whether the goods were sold to that new customer from Arton. The clerk replied in the affirmative. Then Mr. Mayflower asks about the amount of bill that was made by the customer. To his amazement and shock, the clerk replies – ‘Seventeen hundred dollars!’ To this, Mr. Mayflower, distraught, says to his clerk that he thought the customer was to buy only to the amount of a thousand dollars. The clerk says, ‘you went so easy on him that I encouraged him to buy; and the bill ran up more heavily than I was aware until the footing gave exact figures.’ After all this drama, the father, Mr. Mayflower keeps on reprimanding himself to the fact that he didn’t learn the lesson from his son, in the morning. He then goes, I grow philosophic sometimes. Thought will, now and then, take up a passing incident, and extract the moral. But how little the wiser are we for moralizing! we look into the mirror of truth, and see ourselves--then turn away, and forget what manner of men we are. Better for us if it were not so; if we remembered the image that held our visionI suppose, I should stop here and let you do the thinking. For value judgment, I reckon, is an individual thing. Every person is different and perceives things in a unique way. So, if you could provide me with your own interpretation of the story, please do!
Anyhow, the story commences by portraying a scene on a bright June morning involving a little boy and his parents. So what happens in the scene is, the boy Arty runs after his shadow, confused, as to what it was that didn’t seem to leave his company. The boy was terribly scared with this fact and asked his father to look at it. The father obviously laughed it away and told his baby boy that it was only his shadow and it was nothing significant, everyone had a shadow and it was a commonplace.
The father, Mr. Mayflower then narrates that the ‘shadow lesson’ was soon forgotten by the time he reached the store, and thought entered business with its usual ardour. One of his clerks, then, comes to him and tells him of a Mr. B, who wants to make a bill of a thousand dollars. And even this interruption disturbs Mr. Mayflower and he thinks to himself ‘what were a new customer and a bill of a thousand dollars to me at that moment of time? I saw tens of thousands in prospective!’
Now, let’s stop here for a bit. What do we get from this attitude of Mr. Mayflower? We get nothing better than an arrogant little trader whose destruction was to come sooner rather than later or to say it was just around the corner. Wait a little to see how Allah destroys people who are so full of themselves.So as Mr. B… didn’t have much success with Mr. Mayflower he turns to another company for sending off his goods. Mr. Mayflower’s clerk informs him about it and he arrogantly says let him have whatever he wants and that he should not mind if any other company sells their service to him. Later that day, Mr. Mayflower asks one of his clerks whether the goods were sold to that new customer from Arton. The clerk replied in the affirmative. Then Mr. Mayflower asks about the amount of bill that was made by the customer. To his amazement and shock, the clerk replies – ‘Seventeen hundred dollars!’ To this, Mr. Mayflower, distraught, says to his clerk that he thought the customer was to buy only to the amount of a thousand dollars. The clerk says, ‘you went so easy on him that I encouraged him to buy; and the bill ran up more heavily than I was aware until the footing gave exact figures.’ After all this drama, the father, Mr. Mayflower keeps on reprimanding himself to the fact that he didn’t learn the lesson from his son, in the morning. He then goes, I grow philosophic sometimes. Thought will, now and then, take up a passing incident, and extract the moral. But how little the wiser are we for moralizing! we look into the mirror of truth, and see ourselves--then turn away, and forget what manner of men we are. Better for us if it were not so; if we remembered the image that held our visionI suppose, I should stop here and let you do the thinking. For value judgment, I reckon, is an individual thing. Every person is different and perceives things in a unique way. So, if you could provide me with your own interpretation of the story, please do!
September 17, 2012
Allaah is there, you just choose to believe or disbelieve in Him
It often occurs to me that the reality of this life, at the end of the day, is that there is nobody, who would really stay forever. Think about your loved ones, for example. Do you think they would be with you forever? You are a fool if you think so! They wouldn't. They would either expire or would just leave. This reminds us of an extremely important point which Allaah reiterates in the Qur'an, all the time. Yes, Allaah tells you that when there is no refuge, you'll get refuge under His shade. What does it teach us? It simply teaches us that no matter how smart and arrogant we have become we must rectify our heart and go back to Him before it is too late. Because you know my beloved, on the day of judgment your closest friend in this dunya will not be beside you to help you and take you out of your difficulty. He will be too busy with his own account and he will be too overwhelmed thinking how can he come out of this terrible situation. It is,truly,what I call a predicament. It is mentioned that a person will be ready to give the entire world in an attempt to avoid hellfire, but it will not be accepted from him. Allaah is now calling us to success, the door of repentance is open. However, if we are not taking this opportunity then we should really prepare for a grievous punishment.
July 30, 2012
Avoid overeating in Ramadan in sha Allah!
Assalamualaykum wa rahmatullaahi wb!!!!!!!!!!
:D
How are you doing everyone? How's your Ramadan been coming along in sha Allaah? Alhamdulillaah mine is okay. Gotta work a lot harder in sha Allah :*(
Anyway, I just thought I should remind you of the purpose of fasting. There are many but one of them is to fast. What do I mean? Yes, FAST!
What do we always do when we reach the sunset? We exhaust our stomach in iftar and in effect start dozing off in taraweeh salaah. Some scholar said there are two jihaad in Ramadan. One is when you fast in the day and the other is when you struggle to pray the night prayer. If we do not manage to win the former we'll definitely going to fail miserably in the latter.
:D
How are you doing everyone? How's your Ramadan been coming along in sha Allaah? Alhamdulillaah mine is okay. Gotta work a lot harder in sha Allah :*(
Anyway, I just thought I should remind you of the purpose of fasting. There are many but one of them is to fast. What do I mean? Yes, FAST!
What do we always do when we reach the sunset? We exhaust our stomach in iftar and in effect start dozing off in taraweeh salaah. Some scholar said there are two jihaad in Ramadan. One is when you fast in the day and the other is when you struggle to pray the night prayer. If we do not manage to win the former we'll definitely going to fail miserably in the latter.
April 30, 2012
BPL! Please do not humiliate us no more!
BANGLADESH! In the month of March this year, our country had organized a t20 tournament under the name of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). Even though it came under the umbrella of entertainment it was done solely with the purpose of business. Thus, the amount of money wasted in the event was just insane!
On top of all that, we read in the newspapers that the overseas players as well as the local players who played in the tournament have not yet been given their total payment. How, on earth would they be able to establish credibility for a tournament such as this one if they do not even make the payment properly? such a disgrace!
Now, It might sound as if I'm a big fan of cricket, well not a big fan but a fan nonetheless. But I exclusively watch the games that involve Bangladesh in em. However, I'm not a fan of wasting money. The way Bangladesh Premier League started pleased many of us, now we have to really consider what have we gained from it? Did the pathetic situation of the country change?
There is no rule of law in the country and here we are wasting our money and time over foul play and overseas cricketers. The entire country is confused as to where they are headed in the future. The government is consistently failing to meet the needs of the people hence the effort to cover up its failure by feeding us BPL-like tournaments considering, of course, how cricket crazy a nation we are!
How funny it is to say that India started IPL therefore we also have to start BPL without considering what situation the majority of the people in Bangladesh are in. Pretty much the entire country goes hungry while in the capital millions of dollars are wasted only to serve a handful of the rich. Worse yet, local currency is going out with those hired overseas players only to increase the plight of the rural majority.
I'm in no way saying the game of cricket is haraam or something. But if this....is what you call a healthy alternative of an entertainment to stay away from falling into haraam then that's an irony.
It is an irony, you ignore your own people while prioritize others who were never your own. It is an irony, you say you hate India and yet take their way of life to be 'modern'. It is an irony, your tv channels are not shown on Indian channels and yet Hindi serials are your life and they are all you live for! It is an irony, you say you are 'Muslim' and yet enjoy seeing your 'Muslim' sisters as cheerleaders. Whats wrong with you oh people? Have you no sense of morality and judgment?
On top of all that, we read in the newspapers that the overseas players as well as the local players who played in the tournament have not yet been given their total payment. How, on earth would they be able to establish credibility for a tournament such as this one if they do not even make the payment properly? such a disgrace!
Now, It might sound as if I'm a big fan of cricket, well not a big fan but a fan nonetheless. But I exclusively watch the games that involve Bangladesh in em. However, I'm not a fan of wasting money. The way Bangladesh Premier League started pleased many of us, now we have to really consider what have we gained from it? Did the pathetic situation of the country change?
There is no rule of law in the country and here we are wasting our money and time over foul play and overseas cricketers. The entire country is confused as to where they are headed in the future. The government is consistently failing to meet the needs of the people hence the effort to cover up its failure by feeding us BPL-like tournaments considering, of course, how cricket crazy a nation we are!
How funny it is to say that India started IPL therefore we also have to start BPL without considering what situation the majority of the people in Bangladesh are in. Pretty much the entire country goes hungry while in the capital millions of dollars are wasted only to serve a handful of the rich. Worse yet, local currency is going out with those hired overseas players only to increase the plight of the rural majority.
I'm in no way saying the game of cricket is haraam or something. But if this....is what you call a healthy alternative of an entertainment to stay away from falling into haraam then that's an irony.
It is an irony, you ignore your own people while prioritize others who were never your own. It is an irony, you say you hate India and yet take their way of life to be 'modern'. It is an irony, your tv channels are not shown on Indian channels and yet Hindi serials are your life and they are all you live for! It is an irony, you say you are 'Muslim' and yet enjoy seeing your 'Muslim' sisters as cheerleaders. Whats wrong with you oh people? Have you no sense of morality and judgment?
April 19, 2012
Reminders....
Today is my birthday, 20th April. It's another reminder to myself that I'm one step closer to death subhan Allaah! I can't even start to imagine how many years have I wasted in my life, oh Allaah please forgive me for I was ignorant, ameen.
It truly amazes me when I think about the reality of a human being. Subhan Allaah the example of this life is like a droplet of water in the vast ocean. We live for a very small period in this world and then we start for our journey to the hereafter.
The true life is in the hereafter, which has a beginning but no end. We all will meet at a place where the angels will slaughter death in the shape of a ram. From that point onwards, there will be no death. It is either eternal doom in the hellfire or eternal bliss in Paradise.
How, then, could we be so heedless of the reality?
Who will not die? Everyone of us shall die. There are no two opinions about the matter, even the atheists have imaan in the reality of death. Will you stil not prepare for it?
There is this famous story related to the topic. It's a story in the time of Muslim Caliph Harun ar Rasheed. He was looking for the biggest fool in the kingdom and decided that he would give a stick to that person as a reward. Anyway, the person named as the biggest fool was someone by the name of Bahlul.
Some years passed, the caliph was on his death bed. Bahlul arrived with his stick and asked the caliph as to where is he headed. The caliph said I'm going to the other life. So Bahlul said, "Oh Caliph. what have you prepared for it?" The caliph in reply said,"Nothing." Then Bahlul said, "Oh Amirul Mu'minin, when will you come back?" The caliph said, " Ya Bahlul, no one comes back from that world." Bahlul then said, "Oh Amirul Mu'minin, you take preparations for years into going for expeditions with your huge army which usually last for a day or two and now you are saying you'll go to the other world without any preparations?" Then Bahlul said something which should be written in the letters of gold. He said, "Ya Amirul Mu'minin, you are the biggest fool I have ever seen and you are most worthy of this stick so here you go take it from me!"
Truly, it is a story of great wisdom subhan Allaah. What have we prepared for the next life? We would not need to build huge mansion, wealth or a big army for that matter, we would just need to have righteous good deeds (in e.g. Salaah, zakah)and a proper belief. Do we have that? If not, then how will we save ourselves from the torment of Allaah?
One of the reasons for an evil end and then punishment in the grave is having a corrupt belief. So let us now in sha Allaah rectify our belief for the better.
On the 13th and 14th of this month I'd attended the course entitled 'The Final Rites' by Ustadh Bilal Ismail. Subhan Allaah it was a beautiful reminder of the reality of death. How we all will pass away one day and the way our shrouds will be washed, prayed over and finally buried. We all know this in our minds for a fact but we still runaway from it as we human beings are forgetful creatures like our Father Adam (as).
It truly amazes me when I think about the reality of a human being. Subhan Allaah the example of this life is like a droplet of water in the vast ocean. We live for a very small period in this world and then we start for our journey to the hereafter.
The true life is in the hereafter, which has a beginning but no end. We all will meet at a place where the angels will slaughter death in the shape of a ram. From that point onwards, there will be no death. It is either eternal doom in the hellfire or eternal bliss in Paradise.
How, then, could we be so heedless of the reality?
Who will not die? Everyone of us shall die. There are no two opinions about the matter, even the atheists have imaan in the reality of death. Will you stil not prepare for it?
There is this famous story related to the topic. It's a story in the time of Muslim Caliph Harun ar Rasheed. He was looking for the biggest fool in the kingdom and decided that he would give a stick to that person as a reward. Anyway, the person named as the biggest fool was someone by the name of Bahlul.
Some years passed, the caliph was on his death bed. Bahlul arrived with his stick and asked the caliph as to where is he headed. The caliph said I'm going to the other life. So Bahlul said, "Oh Caliph. what have you prepared for it?" The caliph in reply said,"Nothing." Then Bahlul said, "Oh Amirul Mu'minin, when will you come back?" The caliph said, " Ya Bahlul, no one comes back from that world." Bahlul then said, "Oh Amirul Mu'minin, you take preparations for years into going for expeditions with your huge army which usually last for a day or two and now you are saying you'll go to the other world without any preparations?" Then Bahlul said something which should be written in the letters of gold. He said, "Ya Amirul Mu'minin, you are the biggest fool I have ever seen and you are most worthy of this stick so here you go take it from me!"
Truly, it is a story of great wisdom subhan Allaah. What have we prepared for the next life? We would not need to build huge mansion, wealth or a big army for that matter, we would just need to have righteous good deeds (in e.g. Salaah, zakah)and a proper belief. Do we have that? If not, then how will we save ourselves from the torment of Allaah?
One of the reasons for an evil end and then punishment in the grave is having a corrupt belief. So let us now in sha Allaah rectify our belief for the better.
On the 13th and 14th of this month I'd attended the course entitled 'The Final Rites' by Ustadh Bilal Ismail. Subhan Allaah it was a beautiful reminder of the reality of death. How we all will pass away one day and the way our shrouds will be washed, prayed over and finally buried. We all know this in our minds for a fact but we still runaway from it as we human beings are forgetful creatures like our Father Adam (as).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)