Is it possible that someone can have information but not understand that information within its context? Can someone know 2+2 is 4 but not why 2 +2 is 4. When learning this basic math equation we are told first 2+2 is 4 is a true statement so we accept that 2 + 2 is actually 4, then we are taught why. It is explained to us in many different ways until we understand it and can prove it or explain it to someone else. When learning, we often sum things up for simplicity to get the result, but if we had to explain what we think we know to be true to someone else, would we really be able to help that person come to the same result? With simple math equations like 2+2 = 4 probably, but with life's more complex scenarios, we understand what we understand from our life experiences that are unique to our very own circumstances. And often we tell others if you haven't been through what I've been through you couldn't possibly understand. I often say that being able to help someone draw the same conclusion to your understanding is what defines whether or not someone is a good teacher. Teachers know their material. But whether or not they have a deep understanding of that material, in order to break it down for someone else is truly the determining factor in whether or not that person can truly teach someone and get their material across. It is the same with guidance. Allah SWT knows all, and We are students of knowledge. But in order to understand the knowledge in front of us, it has to be broken down by the one who's knowledge surpasses all knowledge. Just as a teacher guides his students learning path to bring them to the proper conclusion, Allah SWT is the only one who can guide our understanding based off of our unquie life experiences in order for us draw the right conclusions.
We need to understand everything in context, the bigger meaningful picture that only comes from guidance There is a difference between having knowledge and seeking guidance. Someone can know something and it makes them believe they are better than someone else. If they had guidance then they wouldn't become arrogant with knowledge, they would understand that Allah SWT has entrusted them with understanding and it would humble them and soften their hearts towards people. Knowledge with out guidance is like someone studying about the rights of their family but neglecting their family rights of their family in order to study. We know but do we apply? Applying knowledge within its proper context would need guided understanding and where would this type contextual understanding come from expect by Allah SWT guiding us to a deeper understanding of what we think we already know. Life experiences are unique to individuals and everyone has a unique journey but we all are trying to reach one destination Just like life experiences are unique to each individual, only Allah SWT can guide our understanding because he made us and wrote our life experiences. He knows what we have been or are going though and what would make sense to us individually. Only he can guide our learning in order for us to draw the proper conclusions. This is why we have to seek Allah SWT guidance if we truly wish to gain proper understanding and the true meaning of things. Guided learning by Allah SWT will help us make the most out of this worldly life while investing in the hereafter. Guidance is the most valuable gift Allah SWT can give someone When someone asks sincerely for Guidance, whether or not they believe, Allah SWT guides that person, but guidance is something that comes in stages and is something we have to keep asking Allah for. He only guides us when we ask. When we are going through things in life and we need him and we always need him, when we ask him for help and to guide us, only Allah SWT knows what we really need. Even We, ourselves may ask for things that only he knows would cause us harm, so this is just another example as to why we need to rely and realize how desperately we need his guidance. Please visit my Islamic Gems page, as we are currently reviewing Surah Al Fatitah, via Bayyinah Institute and the Guidance we are constantly seeking. Guidance is never something that is obtained. We ask Allah a minimum of five times a day for his guidance. No one ever just has it, it is something we have to constantly beg Allah for every day.
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Allah doesn't change the condition of a people unless they strive to change the condition of themselves.
What I woke up thinking when I realized I slept through fajr for the 2nd time. I remember listening to a lecture about Ramadan and the brother saying it was better for someone to do what is required of them other than trying to earn extra reward at night by staying up in the masjid for night prayers but than missing fajr because they were up in the masjid for night prayers. I try & do so much. I really do. I feel like Allah has blessed me with a husband & a family & that there are different file tabs of my life. Muslim, Wife, Mother, Student, until my husband is balling House maintainer, & although its not really last but also a women who has to maintain her womanly-ness aka beauty ect leader role model blah blah blah that I find that every hour of each day is accounted for. I literally have a schedule for my schedule. But life happens & maybe dinner & bed time are later than what I have on my schedule or maybe I am tired & skip out in my nightly work out or me time. And not to mention when I decide to take on extras like leadership committees or masjid organizations. I literally try to give 100% at everything I do, when I do it, because these are responsibility I believe Allah has blessed me with & I just have to find & maintain their balance. But that's just it; its about discipline & balance & remembering Allah comes first & foremost. There was a time I'd make salaat as soon as I heard my phone going off, because if I waited for my husband or the sisters I was with I wasn't sure it get done before I was distracted by the kids or something else I was doing. I would literally drop everything I was doing to pray & life was better than. I'd simply ask Allah for the hours to seem longer in the day so I wouldn't feel rushed to do everything & it really seemed like that they were, especially when I take classes too. I think the key to success is realizing when you are slipping, analyzing why & fixing it. So Alhumdulilah, I am aware, but I encourage myself first & you, to look at ourselves & fix us & get back on track, the right track before its too late & we form bad habits so to speak. The right track is with Allah. Success is only with him. There is nothing we can do on our own & without his blessing so to speak; so let us remember who & what is truly important & do our best to maintain that mindset & lifestyle. Allah expects from us to do what we can, not as a cop-out, but as a challenge to see who is true when they say لا اله الا الله La iilaha il laa law & who is really going to be mindful & striving to the height of their ability for the pleasure of Allah but in all actuality because Allah does not need us but we need him for the security or in hopes of securing our hereafter. Ameen. As salaamu aliakum & welcome. As my 2 little ones nap & I think about the future I can't help but think about the past. But most importantly being mindful that I must be in the present as well. Many of times, I find myself striving to better myself for my lord, for my family, my husband & ultimately myself, but it is always "What can I do today for a better tomorrow?" But, I realized that I'm not enjoying this moment, right here, right now. And that's being ungrateful. So, I asked Allah to put gratitude in my heart and remembrance of his blessings, as well as the lessons he has given me.
I think we all have desires & Allah has given us those desires but we must be able to see and understand which ones are being exploited as a tool for shaytan & which ones we can focus in on & use to gain blessing from our lord. I think its easy, if we read Quran daily & ask Allah to guide us. But shaytan comes for those who are striving, & we must be mindful.that in this life, shaytan is enemy #1. The most important thing to remember is to be mindful of our wants & our desires, and to ask ourselves why do we desire these thing? Is it going to bring us closer to Allah & help us to remember him, or will it distract us? I think my biggest pitfall in this journey is being steadfast until I get the thing I desire & than 2-3 months later forgetting about Allah's mercy & blessings & forgetting to be grateful. I have asked him to make me from the people who when they are blessed, remember him more instead of those who have to go through trials & tribulations to remember their lord. But whether or not I am one of these two people, surely being one or the other is a blessing from Allah in it of itself. My point is, being mindful for what we have today, right now, & finding a way to balance what we want within the guidelines of Islam is something we must struggle to do. No success comes without hard work & part of the success is putting in that hard work. not only will we appreciate something we had to struggle for, but we will also grow into a better version of ourselves. So may Allah guide us All & make us from the people who are most grateful. Ameen. We as Muslims should implement all the qualities that we would want Allah to implement with us on the Day of Judgment.
First we have to know Allah Know Our Book Know his commandments Know what he wants and understand who we are, nothing dirt, a spec in this world here to worship Allah and seek his pleasure, period. And be grateful for whatever life he allows us to live. Once we have that mindset We won't get upset Get angery Get depressed Ask why me Feel wronged Because we know our religion We know our Lord And are at peace with whatever happens because we trust Allah and only seek his pleasure. And Allah doesn't want anything bad or wrong from us, everything he has for us is to protect us Make our lives easy And content This was open on my phone as a PDF. Thought it was pretty cool. Click here to download PDF File.
Click here to Listen to Shaykh Abdul Nasir Jangda talk at Drexel about Duaa. I'm currently taking an Economics class where they are breaking down how interest affects everything. My husband and I are interested in purchasing our first home, but we know riba is haram. In America everything has some sort of interest, even just regular banking. We try our best to avoid it, and thats all we can do. Alhumdulilah, with duaa and patience, I started searching the web for Islamic Banks in hopes to avoid all this Riba. Ma sha Allah, I came across Guidance Residential, and a few others in an about.com article titled "Where to find Islamic Mortgage"
If you watch the video they do a good job at breaking down the difference. One thing I would like to highlight is that with an Islamic Mortgage approach, your payments lessen as time goes on. Whereas in a traditional American Mortgage, you may start off paying a certain rate and then it gets higher like with an adjustable rate mortgage, [and no it doesn't matter if you pay more in the beginning] Also you have to pay off the interest on the loan BEFORE you can actually start paying for the house! Example, you get a mortgage for 100,000 dollars. The 100,000 is called the principle, or loan amount. The rate of interest grows, and your property value either increase or decrease. If it decreases you could end up paying 3 times in a 30yr mortgage, than the house is actually worth. In the event it increase, you could end up paying off your whole mortgage ;) but with the increase of foreclosures purchasing a home this way is proof in it of itself that Riba is wrong, just many real life scenarios that are proofs for those whole believe. Equation for traditional mortgage P = ( r * A ) / ( 1 - (1+r)-N) Where, P = Payment Amount A = Loan Amount r= Rate of Interest (compounded) N = Number of Payments Rate of Interest Compounded is, If Monthly, r = i / 1200 and N = n * 12 If Quarterly, r = i / 400 and N = n * 4 If Half yearly, r = i / 200 and N = n * 2 If Yearly, r = i / 100 and N = n For me, this was a home run. I found out that my school Community College of Philadelphia had in their library, for FREE, a language resource that taught you the basics of communication, male and female in a simple step by step, visual learning experience. I also found out that this same tool is also available for free to those who do not attend CCP, through the Free Library of Philadelphia! Just follow this link Click here, scroll down to languages > Click on Mango Languages > Now you will have access to many of their languages, but as of 7/15/2014 Arabic is still underway. You can simply shoot them a email regarding Arabic not being available via the mobile app and they will add your contact information to their database and inform you as soon as it is up and running. As for now, I simply enjoy unlimited access via my labtop.
But I must admit, I look forward to being able to study via their app! Hope this is helpful for many. I am excited and enjoy Mango Languages very much, and hope you will too! Spending time and making memories is a very important factor in my household. I don't get alot of time, or as much as I would like to have with my children, so when I do have time with them I always try and be mindful to do something that is educational, but fun, and when I see an opportunity to teach them about Islam I take it!
I've always been in search for some sort of organized Islamic early childhood teaching tool. And Alhumdulilah, I've found it! Islamic School Resources has a lot of Free information, and lesson plans to guide those of you who may have been looking for something education and Islamic. After watching Putting Life into Perspective and honestly for quite a while now, I've been wanting to dedicate some time to learning the Arabic Language for Quranic purposes mainly and if I could make small talk here and there that would be a plus too! But in all reality, we all know Quran is not Quran if it is not in Arabic. I mean yes we have the ability to translate it into the transliteration in what ever our native language is, but to truly appreciate and really read and understand Quran, Allah's words, we all have to learn Arabic.
In the Past, I remember really catching on to the letters very quickly and found myself being able to recognize and even pronounce words in the Quran after watching Saqib Hussain's YouTube channel. His format was easy to follow and most importantly not only was I able to learn at my own pace, but it was FREE! I have linked his channel to his name or you can simply click here to view all of his videos. Please feel free to comment and share any resource you may have that others could benefit from! Its very important to understand our role in society. First and foremost, we lead by example. How do we know what our role is in this Ummah and in society? We read Quran. We listen to the tafseer, the explanations of Quran. Quran is the speech of Allah. Everything we need to know about how to live our lives is in Quran and the sunnah of the Prophet PBUH. We learn how to apply the teachings of the Quran to our lives by listening to the seerah of the Prophet PBUH. Salaat Just like anyone with any type of important role goes for refresher courses, performing our 5 daily prayers consciously, and not just going through the motions, is very important because not only is it refreshing and reinforcing our Iman, but most importantly it is our relationship with Allah SWT. Learn arabic so that you can recite Quran during salaat. Become familiar with its surahs, and spread the message. The Quran has 4 rights on you. 1. you must read it and believe in it. 2. You must reflect on it meaning 3. You must apply it to oneself 4. And you must share it with others. A lot of the times as women we can be so wrapped up in things: family life, work, school, children schooling, household chores, community involvement, sister events, ect,ect, that salaat becomes just another thing added to the list of things to do. And what happens when you have a long list of things to do? Somethings don't get done. There just wasn't enough time in a day. We over-scheduled. It will just have to wait. But once we start changing our prospective and we put Allah first and schedule of daily lives around the schedule Allah SWT has already given us, then alot of the day to day stresses, will become less stressful, things that seemed not to be going our way, seem to be going our way, and life in itself because just a little bit more bearable. Forgetting About Allah Alot of the time what we don't realize is when things start falling out of place, when you just feel like nothing is going right, when the clothes don't get washed, or the sauce for the food just didn't turn out the right way, when it's just one thing on top of another, its really Allah trying to bring us back to him. Allah wants us to call on him, Allah wants us to remember him. Allah is the creator and maintainer of all situations. So whatever situation you are dealing with, big or small, Allah is the master of that situation, so to find the solution, we have to consult the master. Sometimes Allah will allow certain things to happen, so that you will come back to him. This is why it is important to always remember Allah in everything we do. And I'm not just talking about lip service. The intention has to be there, the sincerity has to be present. Its good that we make remembering Allah through morning and evening duaas and dhikr of Allah apart of our daily routine, but what happens when we are just saying it, and we are not conscious anymore of what we are saying, simply because we say it so much? The effect that it is suppose to have isn't there anymore. It isn't the same, we aren't feeding our nuffs, our duaa's and dhikrs are just empty words vs. the fulfilling, life changing words Allah SWT intended for them to be. So seek and remember Allah always. When we put our trust in creation, we are bound to be left disappointed, but when we put our trust and hopes in Allah, we are bound to find true happiness. |
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