>_<

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim....


often, when things don't turn out the way you wanted it to be, you start asking yourself why. (stare at the wall and blink twice). you knew that you planned it well, all set, and knew it is going to yield out right. when i was in taylors i used to get over-the-top emotional when it comes to exam results. they were usually acceptable, not too bad. but i always thought they were not compatible to my so-called enormous efforts. sometimes i just couldnt accept the fact that my results were slightly lower than some of my classmates. so i would call my parents and complained. and sometimes cried. i know, i was such a drama queen.

tahajjud, sunat prayers, sunat fasting, were only during the exam seasons. i thought if i performed all these additional prayers and ibadah, Allah would be pleased with me and He would give me the exam results i wanted. well, i am very very grateful that Allah was really patient with me back then. i usually get what i wanted, but i did not accept them wholeheartedly. but Allah knows best, He is the best planner and He knows His servants well. underlying the events happening in our lives are lessons for us to decipher and reason.

if i would have gotten what i wanted, i don't know where do i stand in His eyes...Ya Allah, forgive me Ya Allah..i was such an ungrateful piece of rot...

But verily thy Lord is full of grace to mankind: Yet most of them are ungrateful (27:73)

last night i checked out my exam results, which determined whether i could get in officially into med school and Alhamdulillah, i passed. this means i am returning to auckland next year. the results were not that great, but the MAIN POINT is, i got through. what i got was what He wills. i learnt to accept, because acceptance shows gratitude. and if i really mean it when i said, " i'm doing the exam because of Allah," i would not be whining like how i used to. i guess i should stop looking at the value of the results as what is stated on the result sheet. i should stop comparing my results with others. i should stop asking myself foolish questions. what i should do is start viewing my results as a sign of love from Him. i should start believing in Him to guide my life. i should start improvising myself in terms of my relationship with Allah.

So put thy trust in Allah. for thou art on (the path of) manifest Truth. (27:79)

Wallahu a'alam. =)

(congrats to aliaa,aida, aan and afiq too. you guys rock. heh)

Ittaqullah

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim...

Update:

i have been abandoning this blog for quite some time. and that doesnt give a good feeling. well, i was busy with some stuff..and i always had had something to write about but the timing is always not right. i am finally back in malaysia last saturday after a long and tiring flight. but i'm glad i'm home Alhamdulillahirabbil alamin =) and oh yeah, selamat hari raya aidil adha to everyone =) taqabballahu minna waminkum =)

	On the authority of Abu Dhar Jundub bin Junadah, and Muadh bin Jabal that the messenger of Allah said : "Fear Allah wherever you are, and follow up a bad deed with a good one and it will wipe it out, and behave well towards people." Tirmithi narrated the hadith and said it was fine, and in another version, said true and fine

The first phrase of this hadith is clearly significant although it is such a simple message. 'Fear Allah wherever you are' means (according to Mustafa Abdul Rahman) to remember and fear Him regardless of place and time, in any possible situation. Regardless of whether we are among others or by ourselves. two different places may have different environments (bi'ah). adaptation to different environments may be complicated as distinctive environment has its own societal make-up and norms. as a Muslim who understands, one should not be dissolved into the norms of the defined society (if it doesnt conform to the norms of Islam). this is difficult i know..

O ye that believe! Fear Allah, and believe in His Messenger, and He will bestow on you a double portion of His Mercy: He will provide for you a Light by which ye shall walk (straight in your path), and He will forgive you (your past): for Allah is Oft- Forgiving, Most Merciful. (57:28)

the right thing to do is to have pride in what the Prophet (pbuh) taught us. a wise thing to do is to show others the characteristics and the beauty of Islam, through our personality, clothings, speech and attitude. this is a jihad of the mind. while there are others who havent seen yet what Islam has to offer, WE the ones who 'understands' this religion by heart has the obligation to convey to them what is true.

nobody is without sins. in the following phrase, Rasulullah said 'Follow up a bad deed with a good one and it will wipe it out'. It simply means that our good deed could deplete our past sins.

And establish regular prayers at the two ends of the day and at the approaches of the night: For those things, that are good remove those that are evil: Be that the word of remembrance to those who remember (their Lord): (11:114)

Ibnu Mas'ud once said that praying five times a day could deplete the sins committed in between the prayer times.

Rasulullah also said that we should 'behave well towards other people'. So this part of the hadith is a bit disconnected to the rest of the hadith. The first two parts told us of fearing ALlah and countinuously do good deeds to wipe out the bad ones. what is the connection between the former two with the latter'? this hadith is trying to convey the message that taqwa towards Allah also includes doing good towards others. You see, taqwa, literally speaking, is holistic. implementing taqwa towards Allah also means imparting it into our actions. only ALlah knows if there is taqwa in you, nobody else can know it. while others may not know it, they can actually SEE IT through how you go about your life. and one of them is how you behave toward others.

Wallahu a'alam.

Tough Enough

Exam periods are tough times. Really.

Not because it is the period when the clever is differentiated from the genius.

Or the Acers from the Average.

They are really the time to distinguish between the hopeful and the hopeless.

From Umar ibn Al-Khattab from the Prophet (PBUH) who said:

“If only you relied on Allah a true reliance, He would provide sustenance for you just as He does the birds: They fly out in the morning empty and return in the afternoon with full stomachs.”

(Ahmad, An-Nasaa’I, Ibn Majah, Al-Hakim and At-Tirmidhi who said: “Hassan sahih”)

It is the time when the people of perseverance are rewarded and quitters quit.

Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, “Whoever says (upon leaving his house):

بسم الله توكلت على الله ولا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله

‘Bismillah, tawakkaltu ‘alallah, wa la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah

(I begin in the Name of Allah; I trust in Allah; there is no altering of conditions but by the Power of Allah),’ it will be said to him: ‘You are guided, defended and protected.’ The devil will go far away from him.”

(Abu Dawud, At-Tirmidhi and An-Nasa‘i)

It is the key to tell between the people of iman, patience and tawakkal from the people of doubt, complaint and regret.

So dear brothers and sisters, dont despair and never lose hope..

Tough times never last, but tough people do..

(This is a recent post from http://baitussyifa.wordpress.com/)

Ya Allah...please please...

Let me stay.

Allow me to do this right. I want to do this right.

Ya Allah...

Please listen to my prayers...

Ya Allah...

Please don't forsake me...

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Hadith 1

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.....

It is narrated on the authority of Amirul Mu'minin, Abu Hafs 'Umar bin al-Khattab, radiyallahu 'anhu, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam, say:

"Actions are (judged) by motives (niyyah), so each man will have what he intended. Thus, he whose migration (hijrah) was to Allah and His Messenger, his migration is to Allah and His Messenger; but he whose migration was for some worldly thing he might gain, or for a wife he might marry, his migration is to that for which he migrated." (Bukhari & Muslim)

Every deed is initiated by intention (niat). Sometimes, what we do may not reflect waht our intentions are. But the Only One who Knows is of course Allah. The AlMighty Judge. For example, two persons going to perform Hajj may look like they are executing one of the Five Pillars of Islam. However, one of them may have other intentions, like he may want to shop for souvenirs more than he wanted to perform ibadah towards Allah. And in contrast, the other person wished to perform Hajj with the intention of elevating his Iman. And according to the hadith above, they both will be granted what they wished for.

During the time of Hijrah, there was this man who wanted to migrate to Madinah because he wished to marry a woman. Whereas the others who were embarking the exodus, they had the intention of liberating Islam from oppression in Makkah. Well, Rasulullah said, the man and the rest of the pack will get what they wished for and they will be repaid by Allah according to their respective intentions.

However, speaking of purity of intentions, the most divine and highly deed emanates from a heart full of aspiration towards strengthening the iman towards Allah Taala. the deed is not necessarily ibadah, it could be anything that we do everyday. eat, sleep, drink, walk...as long as they were being credited towards Allah, because of ALlah. what was being executed from right purposes, will retain a good status. however, if the deed emanated from a bad intention, thus the deed is indeed bad. although it may appear good.

And be ye not like those who forgot Allah. and He made them forget their own souls! Such are the rebellious transgressors! (59:19)

Dan janganlah kamu menjadi seperti orang-orang yang telah melupakan (perintah-perintah) Allah, lalu Allah menjadikan mereka melupakan (amal-amal yang baik untuk menyelamatkan) diri mereka. Mereka itulah orang-orang yang fasik - derhaka.(59:19)

Imam Nawawi classified our deeds into 3 parts.

1. the deed was being performed on the grounds of fearing Allah. This kind of deed is called the Deed of Servants (Ibadah Hamba)

2. the deed was being performed on the grounds of attaining rewards and Jannah from Allah. this kind of deed is called the Deed of Merchants (Ibadah Saudagar)

3. the deed was being performed on the grounds of executing his obligations as a fearful servant of Allah, to justify his gratitude towards Allah and always feel cautious if his deed was not being accepted by Allah because of his carelessness or oblivioussness. This deed is called the Deed of the Liberated (Ibadah yang Merdeka).

The categories of deeds above are all rightful intentions.

Thus when Aishah Radiallahuanha asked Rasulullah, why was he so insistent in performing ibadah every night, without fail until his feet were sore and bruised, although he was guaranteed Jannah in the end. Now, we can understand why Rasulullah answered "I just wanted to prove my gratitude towards ALlah,"

................................................................................................................................................................

The conclusion here is, know your intentions. know your priorities. get them right. if you plant the right seed, the flower will come out right, healthy and beautiful. nothing can go wrong because you started right. you will end up at the rightful path, InsyaALlah.

Wallahu a'lam..

ar-Rijal and an-Nisa

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim...

This is an interesting preach by Khalid Yassin regarding the obligations of us ar-Rijal and an-Nisa...=)

i particularly like the part when he said that Muslim women are the Flowers of Islam...hehe..makes me smile..=)

Himmah 'Aaliah 2

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim....

This post is from a friend's blog. A friend from UNSW, Australia (First Year Medical student). This should be a continuation of the previous post about himmah 'aaliyah. the himmah that was portrayed by the brothers in UNSW puts ME to shame. this is the himmah that we want among our brothers and sisters in Islam. (Jazakallah khair eyh for allowing me to plagiarise lol).

http://damediccrow.blogspot.com/

"Assalammualaikum wbt

This week... is a holiday for the faculty of medicine @ unsw... but I cant really go anywhere this whole week... why? bcoz there's....

Click poster to find out more

I dont really know how I got involved in this, I was like sleeping in the UNSW musolla after Asar prayer... then Huzaifah came to me and asked me if I'm free... and suddenly I'm at the meeting... and Sabir (the president of ISOC - Islamic Society on Campus) told me; "get all the Malaysians that I see 8 out of 10 hours I'm at uni everyday to get involved.." and he put me on the food commitee..

Well, time passed by... we have meetings every week.. the one thing that we really have shortage is ironically manpower... ironic because... there's a lot of muslims on campus... there's like 500 from Saudi's and Malaysian I think easily surpasses 200++, not to mention from Pakistan, India, and other muslims countries...

Yeah, people's been busy with uni life and all...

But, there was this one meeting where one of the brother has test the hour after that, but he still went to the meeting... and participate well... even though he has test the next hour... MasyaAllah... even for me I've been making a lot of excuses to myself to avoid doing some jobs or stuffs... I'm really far left behind them in terms of jihad... and I thought I have it...

Trying to organize an event this big where trying to spread da'wah to especially to the non-muslims is very very hard... its really sad yet inspiring seeing the brothers and sisters really struggling hard to get this done... they have to skip classes, go all around uni to meet people, call up people, photocopying, pasting posters... and many more... at times I wonder... how can they still have the spirit to do this? If I were them... I'd probably given up...

It was because of this that I felt... its wrong for me to leave them alone... as a muslims whom Allah has opened my eyes to witness them.. how could I pretended nothing happened?

Anyway, they sacrificed a lot of their time to do this... in fact 3 of the commitee members are doing medicine 3rd and 4th year!! There's law student, petroleum, business, econs... you name it man.. almost all faculty has a representatives...so if I say I'm too busy that I cannot help them?? yeah right... Alhamdulillah, most of the time Allah swt get rid of all the excuses and helped carry my lazy self from the bed to help them...

Ali, one of the brothers said to me "the best thing of getting involve in IAW, is you get to meet new friends..."

Well said brother...

All the brothers in the IAW commitee, if I weren't here, I would not even know them!! (even though one of the brothers is actually a 4th year med student). MasyaAllah, all of them are very good muslims, they are not afraid, nor care-free or even lazy to propagate Islam.

"Let's go to a CBS (Campus Bible Studies) meeting, and tell them to learn about Islam and come to IAW" , "yeah, I'll do it!" a brother said without any hesitation. if it was Me... going into a christian club and saying come to islamic event... ???

"let's put out a poster stating Jesus was (actually is..) a Muslim!" <-- and we really did print out this posters... if it were me, i wouldn't even dare... These are some of the normal conversation you hear from them... showing how they are really serious to spread Islam... and how far behind I am... someone told me... "islam akan naik kembali dari Nusantara..." hmmm..... Anyway... I'm really really grateful that Allah swt fated for me to be involved in this... this is just another blessings from Him, for me to learn more about Islam from the international brothers... there's a lot I can learn from them~!! and hopefully someday I'll be able to become someone as inspiring as them...

Today.. the last day of preparation, we went postering and chalking almost the whole uni so that on monday the people will only see UNSW... and today I was again impressed by the spirits of the brothers and sisters... totally totally impressed... I was at many time saying... "cmon man that's enough..." but they're like keep on going... I still have a lot to learn~ Anyway, it was really tiring for all of us... but what came to my mind is... it would definitely be easier if there were a lot of people helping... like I said earlier... we're really short on manpower... but Alhamdulillah, we've done our target after working from 10.00am to 4.00pm.. some of them even stayed longer since there's more work to do...

Hopefully next year, we'll have more people helping out with the next IAW... and hopefully by then me myself will not be saying "owh I'm busy with assignments/projects/exams/other programs etc..." Bcoz there's brothers out there that's doing someting very good and is very near to us and really really hoping to get some help from us... I overheard a brother's conversation..

"If we can't even get this done, forget about Palestine man..." <-- he's actually referring about the Friday's prayers problem at UNSW, but I just think its also relevant here, if I cant even help this brother who's so close to me, why am I even dreaming of helping Palestine?


And we wonder how come Palestine is still not free... bcoz no one will really helped them unless they're there in Palestine (generally speaking... no offense), some do.. yeah


So that's its for preparation, Alhamdulillah for all the stuffs that Allah's enabled us to do... and hopefully it will be a very successfull week, hopefully people will come to our events, hopefully we get to see some people converting to Islam.. InsyaAllah...

I myself been really lazy with the preparations, hopefully Allah will forgive me for that... and hopefully I gained a lot from this"

Hopefully this post could have some input to our himmah insyaAllah....

Wallahu a'alam