When I do a sin, I question if I actually believe in Allah.

Allah tells Prophet Muhammad, “If you love Allah, follow me,  Allah will love you and forgive your sins”.

Then, if I do a sin knowingly, does that also mean that Allah does not love me at that moment and that I earned His anger.

I ask these questions, because it is something to ponder over.  This life is a one-time test and our time on this earth is very short. It is distasteful when the servant indulges in a sin and the heart does not shake. The sin the servant commits becomes so frequent, that he cannot even seek repentance sincerely. This is when you know that you lost connection with Allah. The connection with Allah is crucial. Without this, the servant heart is nothing but a black stone, diseased and unappealing.

Furthermore, when the servant is in the moments of committing sin, does he not believe in Allah? Does he not understand the consequences of what he has done. The judgment is serious business, and mankind is clueless on which deed will propel him to either Paradise or the Fire.

May Allah forgive us and make us amongst that seek his repentance sincerely. Ameen.

Was-salaam ‘Alaykum

May Allah bless the uploader for this video and the one who translated it for us:

There is no soul that will rise up, but to say: ‘O what I have regretted’… ‘O that I regret’ : When I stayed up late at night (only for enjoyment). ‘O that I regret’ : Of all the years I have wasted (enjoining entertainment). ‘O that I regret’ : Of all the hours and moments I spent (without remembering Allah). O What I regret about all those nights and days. ‘O that I regret’ : Of the friends (I chose), will be of no avail . ‘O that I regret’ : Of the partner I chose, will not be able to advocate (for me). ‘O that I regret’ : That my life is now over, and the time has passed. ‘O that I regret’ : That my writing will be revealed with sins. ‘O that I regret’ : On the day when I will be bare foot and naked in front of Allah. ‘O that I regret’ : As the youth carrying bad deeds and good deeds will be shown. Both the servant’s good deeds and bad deeds in front of Allah, Lord of the world. ‘O that I regret’ : The 30, 40, 50 or 60 years one lives and then meets Allah, Lord of the whole world. Ah, woe to me, In that I neglected my duties towards Allah. The night (my life) is over and my eyes never witnessed the joy of tears out of the fear of Allah. The night is over and my feet were not able to stand before Allah (in prayers). ‘O that I regret’ : How my life went on, with no good deeds to benefit from. ‘O that I regret’ : When the sun rises and the night is over, I was not able to tire myself kneeling to Allah in sujood. ‘O that I regret’ : The (fard) salah that I have neglected . ‘O that I regret’ : For the Zakat I never gave. ‘O that I regret’ : The day I ate during Ramdhaan. ‘O that I regret’ : Of all the sins I have committed. ‘O that I regret’ : Of all the sins I have to bear. ‘O that I regret’ : When the deed is revealed and it gets heavy, with only Allah to judge. ‘O that I regret’ : Would my grief bring me of any benefit?. ‘O that I regret’ : Would I be allowed to return to this world before dying. ‘O that I regret’ : How I didn’t express my gratitude to the favours given to me from Allah. ‘O that I regret’ : That I have not thanked Allah for turning away hatred and bad feelings. ‘O that I regret’ : How my tongue did not constantly praise Allah. ‘O that I regret’ : How my tongue never felt the joy of thanking Allah. ‘O that I regret’ : On the day the victors will be rewarded and the successful one will succeed. And I will arrive empty handed from my time spent in this world. ‘O that I regret’ : On the day when the righteous will be rewarded, and they will ascend to the exalted (Allah). And I will fail to look at them. ‘O that I regret’ : How I fell short in following in my duties towards Allah, although I was able (healthy) to do so.

- Sheikh Muhammad Mukhtar ash-Shinqitee (raheemaullah)

A motivational video mashaAllah.

“There isn’t a single du’aa of a mumin that will not be accepted”

Was-salaam ‘Alaykum

Barak Allahu feek.

Please pray for sincerity and acceptance in my actions.

May Allah reward the brothers and sisters who posted these videos for benefit.

Was-salaam ‘Alaykum

After reading my friend’s notes on a class attended, one point really struck me. It was the fact that when people reading a religious text such as the Qur’an, they read it with zero thought. Meaning, they never delve into what the passage in Qur’an is really saying. They spend so much time on critical analysis, spending countless hours of research, going on Spark Notes just to figure out what in the world was Shakespeare saying. However, when it comes to verses in the Qur’an, people just take it literally without anytime to ponder what the verse is actually talking about, what was taking place during the time this verse was revealed and is there more to the verse than the eye can see.

Perhaps discrimination against Islam will end when people spend half the time they research on academic papers to figuring what the Qur’an really says, rather than what appears to be said.

Just food for thought.

Was-salaam ‘Alaykum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQRZocj0CL8e

Strengthening one’s memory (Kamal el-Mekki)

Two types of memory we store in the brain:

-        Short term

-        Long term

We are focusing on long-term memory in this lecture

Short term memory- temporary, we do not need to keep it for long

Déjà vu- you see something for a short period, and we see it again

-        Usually the things you see goes to short term memory, but sometimes it can go in the long term memory by mistake

What is the golden age of memory?

-        It is until 23

True knowledge is in the head not just in notes

Importance in memorization:

-        It is always difficult in the beginning

-        It starts to come naturally

Take knowledge bit by bit, it will come. Do not overwhelm yourself

Which scholars had superb memory?

-        Bukhari

-        Shaf’i

Imam Malik wanted to seek knowledge, he went to the shaykh and got 13 hadeeth wrote them down. So he asked for more, the shaykh said go home and memorize. Imam Malik said he already memorized it.

Even Imam Bukhari used to write things down.

How to improve memory:

-        Having ikhlas (doing it purely for Allah), so you can benefit from it, not so people praise you

-        Some people do it to get praise to motivate them, and if they do not get praised then they feel depressed

-        Make du’aa to help you understand His religion

-        Combine du’aa with the water of zam-zam, drinking the water of zam-zam for whatever you drink it for

Stay away from sins, the early Muslims and scholars used to tell their students to stay away from sins.

e.g. Imam Shafi’ee and Waki’ee

Knowledge is light from Allah, and He will not give light to the sinner

How many times have we heard a hadeeth we forget the name of the sahabi? Why is it so easy to forget?

-        We need to put effort

-        Put good effort in memorization and learning

-        Choosing good times (Fajr, at night, mid-day, depends on the person)

The physical position helps a person in their memorization

-        It helps to be in a good physical position (varies for a person)

Keep one print or one copy for what you memorize

Do not stop because you will lose momentum

The Prophet said the Qur’an will escape from you like the camel. Why did he compare to a camel? Because the camel by nature is an unruly animal, so it would not mind moving away from you.

When you memorize something, you repeat and you review.

Imam az-Zuhri when he memorized, he used to go back to his servant-girl and used to repeat it to her.

You act upon the hadeeth.

If you memorize the du’aa and you do not use it, you will forget it.

If you learn about the contemporary scholars memorizing books, they review them.

Why is it when you memorize the Qur’an, you are able to memorize other things quickly?

-        Probably because the Qur’an helps in memorization

Hippocampus-part of the brain that plays a role for long term memory

There was a famous story of a faqeeh who repeated over and over. A woman said why are you repeating it over and over, even I memorized her. He tested it, she knew. Then he asked a few days later, she forgot. So he said he was repeating constantly to remember it.

When you see a newscaster read from a paper, they repeat numerous times so it flows properly (this is helpful for speech).

ONE OF THE BEST WAYS FOR YOU TO LEARN, IT IS TO TEACH OTHERS

Ali used to compare knowledge to money. He said knowledge is better than money. Knowledge protects you, while you guard the money. Knowledge increases with dispersing, while money increases.

The more you teach knowledge; you start to contemplate over it.

The Prophet said cupping (hijamah) helps your memory.

Honey also improves memory. Has sugar molecule and can enter the blood within 7 minutes and it helps the brain.

This is was a beautiful video I saw online. It was posted by khalifahklothing and may Allah reward his/her/their work greatly.

But such a beautiful story. If you have facebook accounts try sharing the video inshaAllah on your page. Who knows, maybe a Christian may click your video and become interested in Islam. This is the world of Allah and He guides whomsoever He wills.

Barak Allahu feekum

Was-salaam ‘Alaykum

As Salamu ‘Alaykum

I know it becomes tough to give up our favorite shows such as “The Office”, “How I Met Your Mother”, etc. It is a long process to cut those shows out our lives. So slowly we have to replace those TV series with beneficial lectures and documentaries.

I found this series on The Purification of the Heart by Abu Abdus-Salam. It is a fantastic series. Better than any episode of “The Office”. Why? Because it talks about how we can cleanse our heart, come closer to Allah and what traps of shaytan we have to avoid.

I advise brothers and sisters to check these videos out. May Allah give us numerous blessings as we continue to come closer to Him. Ameen.

Bismillah

I entitle this post, “The Republic of Satan” because we as Muslims do not really understand who Shaytan or Iblis is. We just think of him as a whisperer who causes us to do evil and that is it. When people give Islamic lectures, very rarely do we understand the scheme of Shaytan.

Firstly, know that every evil that happens on this earth is because of Shaytan. Think of Shaytan literally as a government. He assigns the shayateen to certain objectives to destroy mankind and take them away from Allah. He makes it his goal to deceive the believers and add fear into their heart with delusions. The Shaytan has two options for the believers, either to take him away from Allah or to scare him with the reality of the unseen by manipulating his thoughts to be weary of him, and not to have trust in Allah. There is no third option for the Shaytan. He wants to destroy you completely. It is a pleasure for him to make you go astray.

Him along with his governmental shayateen body feel excitement when they see the Muslims committing shirk, killing people unjustly, lying, cheating, going into interest (riba), working in haram profession, shaving the beard, not wearing hijab, listening to haram music and so on. This is their very goal in life. They want us to see pornography so that they can take over us when we are weak and add whispers upon whispers until we leave our five daily prayers.

Look at the leaders of the world. No, I am not talking about the presidential leaders of the world. I am talking about the new leaders of this generation. The 17 year old pop sensations. The 22 year old hockey MVP. Every sport stars, athletes and celebrities are our new leaders. They are the ones that influence the youth left, right and center. Yet, we do not look at these events that happen around our world very closely. While the whole world is in turmoil, we focus on the lives of people who will be in the lowest depth of hellfire if they do not come back to Allah. Are the people of the hellfire really our role models? Are they really the ones we want to be like?

I want all of us to take a little time to reflect on how all this mess around the world happened and is happening. Who is really causing all of us to fall into errors? Who is constantly making us go on pornographic sites, celebrity sites and such. Who is behind all of this. It is Shaytan and his helpers. This is their soul goal. Nothing else.

This is why it is important to understand the reality of Shaytan. He is not the only jinn behind all this corruption. Rather, he has his own governing body. The Shaytan, he has his  own followers that he assigns to the believers. . The shayateen can travel one place to another within seconds. They can easily deceive the men and women.

We, as Muslims are in a new generation of Islam. We do not have power. The power has been lost because we forgot to abide by the rules of Allah. Killing the innocent is not from legislation of Allah. The Muslims are the sole people that bring harmony on the earth by being in constant worship of Allah and in His remembrance. The Muslims gained power in the past because they had trust in Allah, they understood the reality of the hereafter. We are in disastrous times where a Muslim has to constantly tell people suicide is wrong, killing the innocent is wrong, etc, etc. All of this is true. When the non-Muslims look at Muslims, they should be thought of as people who are generous, just, kind and most of all, those who strive to be amongst the worshipers of Allah.

Furthermore, the Muslims have to protect themselves from selling their faith. When the Prophet commanded us to not shake hands with the opposite gender. Strive to not do it. Make du’aa to Allah that He makes this religion easy for you to love and implement. When Allah commands us not to go into interest. Strive to protect yourselves from this. And know, Shaytan wants you to be in conflict between Allah and him, the accursed one. The shaytan wants to deceive you slowly and slowly. He loves it when you are questioning if you should pray in the public place when people may stare at you, even though the time of prayer is running out. This is his ultimate pleasure.

This is a verse for us to ponder over and inshaAllah, if Allah wishes and believes there will be benefit, I will try to analyze and go more in depth with this beautiful ayah (in the future) in Surah al-Baqarah, 2:208:

• O you who have believed, enter into Islam completely [and
  perfectly] and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Indeed, he
  is to you a clear enemy.

Allah also says in 13:11 of the Quran:

• “Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.”

Just because the shaytan has followers to deceive us, does not mean we cannot overcome them. There needs to be an increase in understanding who Allah is and learn to place our trust in Allah. As Muslims, we have to train ourselves to be strong against desires, delusions and the whispers of Shaytan. Allah will make our situations easy when we show Him that we are sincere believers and are willing to be on His side. Know, Allah does not need us, but we need Allah. However, if you desire to be with Allah, He will desire to be with you. As Allah says, if you come to Him walking, He will run towards you. And what really is greater honor than that.

May Allah protect us from the evil of shaytan and his followers. May Allah not make us fear the shaytan and may He, the Most High make us amongst the strong believers who have no fear except for Him.

Was-salaamu ‘Alaykum