Self-Improvement: Your Home is enough

     Assalamualaikum, readers (May the peace and mercy of Allah be upon you). In this entry of blog, I want to discuss about self-improvement and seclusion from the perspective of Islam. Even though I will write mostly on the benefits of being cloistered and in privacy; yet, Islam does not say that Muslims have to seclude their lives from the world. We also have to take part in the worldly matters like in business, education and dakwah (spreading Islamic teachings). What I mean when I talk about seclusion is about distancing ourselves from haram (forbidden) and syubhah (uncertain) matters, like I said, from the Islamic viewpoint.

     Sometimes, distancing ourselves from the world is not totally a bad option if the seclusion can bring more good than harm to us. In Islamic history, there were many cases reported showing that tons of new ideas, human progresses and knowledge developments took place while arduous Islamic scholars got imprisoned in cells and abandoned wells. There, they spent countless waking moments doing productive things in their lives which have been benefiting lives after theirs. Here is a short list of the people and their contributions to the human race:

•   Imam Ahmad Ibn Hambal - He was severely tortured and flogged and later became a great Imam of the Sunnah.
• Imam Ibn Taymiyah - He was imprisoned and when freed, became more accomplished.
•  Imam As-Sarakhsi – He was kept in an unused well where he produced 20 volumes of Islamic jurisprudence.  
• Imam Ibn Atheer – He was crippled. Yet with his ability, he wrote 2 famous books in the Science of Hadith
• Imam Ibn al-Jawzi - He was banished from Baghdad. Then he traveled and mastered 7 different recitations of the Quran. [mostly quoted from a book entitled “La Tahzan”]

     It is amazing how all those Imam names mentioned turned a lemon into a sweet, nice drink which later quenches thirsts of human beings for knowledge and guidance. MasyaAllah (Whatever Allah wills). These show there are no excuses for a person to fail in his/her life. So the choice is ours. From my point of view, failure is not an option!!! May Allah grant us more opportunities to learn knowledge, educate ourselves and spread it to the human race. InsyaAllah (With Allah’s Will).

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Faith: A Total Trust in Allah

     Assalamualaikum, readers (May the peace and mercy of Allah be upon you). Alhamdulillah (All praises be to Allah), I finished my doctoral exams that took place for 2 months long. I am not gonna lie about this matter. It was the longest 2 months ever in my life. I believe it shaped me in a positive way, in a way that I didn’t even realize it. During the struggle of preparing myself for the exam that caused me excruciating headaches, I really learned to be a better person from every angle that I could possibly see. I used to spend my countless waking hours doing something that I shouldn’t do. Fortunately now, I am more critical at how I spend my time.

     Honestly, I don’t feel really good right now about myself; even though I am finished with the exam. I feel I didn’t do well enough. The feeling of scary failure and not performing up to the bar still haunt me like my shadow. I guess the best thing I can do for now is, to have faith in Allah’s plan. I tried my best shot, I cut my sleep time, I spent crazy hours with “interesting” books (actually not that interesting, more like boring). Now, I have to wait for His plan. Whatever we do, how great we are, at last, we are just a mere servant of Him. Tawakkal Innallah (I put my total trust in Allah’s plan). May Allah grant us with more opportunities to better ourselves and strength in our hearts to face the turbulence in this chaotic world. InsyaAllah (With Allah’s will)

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“When two parties of you almost fell away, and Allah was their Protecting Friend. In Allah do believers put their trust (tawakkal).” ~ (Al-Quran: Al-E-Imran 3:122)

Happy Eid Mubarak : Boundless and Timeless Sacrifices

     Assalamualaikum, readers (May the peace and mercy of Allah be upon you). It is my solemnest honor to greet my Muslim brothers and sisters all around the globe Happy Eid Mubarak. Alhamdulillah (All praises be to Allah), He gives us another chance to experience this important religious event again this year. It is verily His mercy on us. By experiencing this festival of sacrifice, I hope we, Muslims, can reflect all the things we have done in our own lives and try to correct all the wrong things and mistakes we did intentionally and unintentionally. As humans, we are never free from making mistakes and being influenced by Satans (Syaitans). We are lucky because Allah tells us that He is Oft-Forgiving and will forgive all the sins we have made and will make. The proof of that can be seen in this translated verse from Al-Quran: 

Say, "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful."  ~ (Al-Quran: Az-Zumar 39:53)

     During this festival, we should also recall the history behind it. The festival is designated to commemorate the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Isma'il) as an act of obedience to Allah, before Allah intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead [quoted from Wikipedia]. This sacrifice was already hard as it sounds. Yet, the situation was even harder on Abraham because he left Ishmael in a desert since Ishmael was a baby (due to Allah’s revelation) and reunited with him when Allah demanded Abraham to sacrifice his son. This boundless sacrifice and unbreakable devotion to Allah is beyond  a capability of a human being. That’s why Abraham was named as one of the Ulul Azmi messengers (messengers who have a high unshakeable spirit, strong psychological mental, steadfast in his stands or views). From the event of Ishmael's abandonment, most of Hajj rituals and sites were erected and named. I hope everyone and I have a chance to visit Kaaba (Allah’s house) one day and I again hope that everyone set a goal to be an Allah’s guest.

     From my experience as a Muslim who studies in USA, it is sometimes really challenging for me to perform my religious rituals and obligations. They are also some Muslims who confess as Muslims but never act like ones and never perform the obligations like the salats. Even everyday life is often hard. Most of the times when I performed the salats and somebody stumbled into me, the person tended to stare and ask what I did. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind doing the explanations. But when they heard it was about Islam, many lost their interest and started condemning. Not many tried to understand or at least tried be polite.

     That’s one thing. Another thing is festivals like this one. Since the last five years, I always have to miss many religious festivals due to work, meeting, exams and presentations. Rarely can I get away from those, and this inevitable situation always leaves me sad and guilty. I feel sad because I don’t have a chance to experience the feeling that comes with the festivals and I feel guilty because I think I didn’t do my best to get away from worldly matters to celebrate and commemorate this festival of sacrifice. Anyhow, I am grateful because Eid Mubarak lasts for 3 days and at least I still have a chance to celebrate it personally and decently at home. May Allah grant us with more strength and religious devotion to carry His message to all His creations. InsyaAllah (With Allah’s Will). Wassalam.  

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“You should give preference to your brother's welfare over your personal needs. The Quran records the attitude of true Believers: But [they] give preference over themselves, even though poverty was their [own lot].”  ~[Al-Quran: Al-Hashr 59: 9.]

p/s: I personally take back any wrong statements and ideas in this or other post/s. I apologize for any wrong or harsh words used insensitively due to any difference in race, religion or language as long as I live and after I die.

Food for the Soul: La Tahzan (Don’t be Sad)

     Assalamualaikum, readers (May the peace and mercy of Allah be upon you). You may notice from my last post, I had been feeling down and upset about life. It seemed I had enough with life. So I tried to lift myself up. I heard a couple of nasyeeds and motivational English songs. They did lift me up for awhile. Then after some time, I needed more and more. So that was not the ultimate solution. I kept wandering in Youtube, searching for a better solution. Suddenly I remembered a phrase that my ustazah (female Islamic cleric) used to say to me. It was “La Tahzan” which means “Don’t be Sad” when I told her that I was struggling with life several months ago. I kept thinking about this phrase and I asked myself, “Why is this phrase so familiar? It must mean something.”

     After I spent some more time hearing a couple more nasyeeds and stuff, I remembered one of my friends back home once told me that there was this good book available in the market and the title is “La Tahzan/ Don’t be Sad”. So I said to myself, “I have to find this book no matter what. I don’t wanna miss on something good like this.” Then I started looking for the book in Malay and yeeesss, I got it!!! The problem was I had to order it from Malaysia and I had a feeling that the publisher didn’t really want to take that much effort sending it here to USA. 

     I didn’t give up there. “OK, why not I find it in English,” I mumbled. I heard the book is one of world’s best sellers. I gotta try. Yeahhhhh I got it and this time in English. I found it in Amazon.com. Alhamdulillah (All praises be to Allah). But wait, I didn’t know how good this book is. I wanted to know how well-written it is before i buy. I could not just decide from my friend's reviews. Quickly, I used the Google search bar and typed La Tahzan. A bunch of videos popped up from Youtube. Perfecttttt….!!! Now I could have a glance into the book without having to buy it first.

     From the first two videos, I felt kind of OK, not that great but not bad either. Why not try another one. My hand swiftly moved the mouse and I clicked the third video. This one was different. The video maker really brought the essence of the book combined with great background layouts. You know what? When I finished watching the third one, I felt so mesmerized and so impressed with the message. I was so ashamed because I didn’t know how silly I was to give up on Allah’s boundless mercy. I kept watching that video several more times. Trust me, it was extremely good. Good job Dr. Aaidh ibn Abdullah Al-Qarni!!! May Allah bless you with more ideas and more knowledge to write even more. After that, I went straight to the Amazon.com website that I opened and clicked “Buy Now”.

     To those who feel lost and experience like a weight of the world is on their shoulders, I would suggest you to buy this book and crack it. We can read Harry Potter series, Eclipse: New Moon etc. and spend countless hours talking nonsense with friends. Yet we find it hard to read Al-Quran and books written based on Al-Quran that can help us develop our personality in a healthy way. This is what we call a long-term good investment. InsyaAllah (With Allah’s will), we can develop our lives in a manner that is thought by Islam and, most importantly, in the way that Allah pleases. La Tahzan, verily Allah's mercy is unbounded!!!

If you are in Malaysia (Malay version) and you want to buy it. Buy here

If you are in USA (English version) and you want to buy it. Buy here

Example videos from Youtube (Malay) . Video 1. Video 2. Video3.

Family ≠ Education: Split personality

     Assalamualaikum, readers (May the peace and mercy of Allah be upon you). This morning I talked to my friend about family, life and things other than education (since lately it has been all about education and school. I am starting to morph into the nerdiest college geek ever). To be honest, it is refreshing and entertaining to talk about something new and livelier than school. Arrgghh… I wish I can spend more time with my friends and family back home. I really miss the times when I didn’t have to worry about the future, especially my future. The times when I just needed to wake up in the morning, go to school, come back home, play with my friends in the afternoon, eat dinner with family and go to bed without any worry whatsoever. Yeah, those were the good times. As we grow older, more responsibilities are on our shoulders. Like it or not, we have to shoulder and make the best out of them.

     Frankly speaking, we spend countless hours working on worldly matters and sometimes we got too carried away with life. This kind of mirage often makes us forget and less sensitive about what the most important things are. As a Muslim, I believe I should put my religion, family and education first. I am probably doing OK at school which makes me truly preoccupied to a point I don’t balance my life the way it should be. No wonder most of the times I feel something is missing in me. I need to balance daily life.

     A couple of days ago, my roommate asked me, “When did you leave for school this morning?” and I simply answered him, “Probably at 8 this morning”. He stopped for awhile and I thought our conversation ended there. Then he asked again, “And you just got back now? At 10 pm?” and I answered without hesitation, “Yeah, what is the problem, dude?”Obviously, I was wrong. He stopped for awhile just now because he was astonished that I spent almost all my waking hours at school. He realized I had been spending all time I had at school doing research for the last several months. He didn’t say much after that but I knew he wanted to say more; but he couldn’t care more because it was my life he talked about. He might not realize how much the questions he asked affected me from the inside.

     On that night, it was hard for me to fall asleep compared to the other nights after crazy days. I usually fell asleep in less than 5 minutes after I climbed into my bed. A lot of thoughts came across my mind. Two major matters conquered me – family and how much longer it’s going to take for me to finish school. You probably don’t get why I had a hard time about this. Let me enlighten you about my education history. I started to go to boarding schools when I was 12 years. Since then I have been spending more than 80% of my life at school educating my mind and polishing my brain. It sometimes feels extremely personal when I think about this matter, especially when I think about how much love I miss at home.

     Some may consider me lucky to come this far. Some may consider me brilliant to further my studies to this level. Some may consider me strong to go to USA to pursue knowledge when I can just get it in Malaysia. Some may consider me brave to be outspoken when the stake is high. In reality inside of me, I feel sad instead of lucky, silly instead of brilliant, weak instead of strong and tired instead of brave. I am sad because I am far from home. I am silly because I cannot understand what I am feeling right now. I am weak because all I do is facing life not facing my family. I am tired because life is always crazy. Yes, I have a split personality in me. Oh God, save me from these feelings.

 

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Road Less Traveled…

    Assalamualaikum, readers (May the peace and mercy of Allah be with you). Alhamdulillah (All praises be to Allah). I just finished the second phase of my doctoral qualifying exam. Yet I still have another phase coming soon on Nov 22^nd and that will be the last one. Right now I am so jaded with struggles and sleep time rations that I put myself into for the last several months. While the exam seems to be a past thing to me, my life is not getting any easier. Believe me, it is not. Last week I went and met with my super-strict advisor. Guess what? He started doing something that he’s really good at. He lectured me for solid half an hour. He put me to shame when all the things he nagged are right about me. Yeah, life is hard. It never cuts you any slacks. It has no mercy on you. I wish I can bury my head in sand just get away from shame.

     Since I kind of have a lot on my plate, I have to start re-planning my next moves soon. I guess I have to make some minor and major changes to meet a better goal in this ever-changing world. I always believe that life is a moving target and we have to be sensitive with the upcoming changes and future demands to be top players, unless you just want to be a passenger in your own life that you deserve. My advice is, start living life worth living. Yes, life needs an active participation from you. Everyone knows, you get what you work for. Don’t be like fools who think that everything has been predestined and they just need to wait. When they realize it, it is too late for them to make their moves.

    If you learn about great people in history, you’ll realize all of them took active actions in conquering problems that life threw at them. They stood tall during good and bad times. They weathered freezing storms and scorching heat just because they saw a ray of hope and wanted to grab it. Challenges are not problems. Instead, they are stepping stones for them to reach a higher ground, a better success. Great people consider challenges as walls that separate between the ones who want to succeed and the ones who are just not brave enough to face life.

      In other words, success doesn’t come free. It comes with a price tag. It’s sometimes cheap and sometimes priceless. So it is us who put the price on it. It costs us time devotion, monied sacrifices and unbearable bitterness. How much of those does it cost for a great one? Nobody knows; but you can invest how much you are willing to risk. Many say weird stuff like these - “I see some people who don’t have to do much to become successful” or “I am not that lucky like those guys. They are blessed with generous fortune.” They sound familiar right. I know they do. Trust me, those successful guys secretly risk opportunities and work hard in a way we don't realize it. When a great story is being written, lazy guys just say “what a lucky guy” to the person who makes it happen. Is it fair? I do believe no such things as instant-noodle solutions in life. Every progress is a sum of decades of sweats.  

     When asked about a recipe of becoming successful, most of successful people tell their stories of hardship and failure. That’s normal. They don’t really tell us successes they earn over the years because they are just too obvious. When listening to the shameful failures and unbearable hardship, people who think that success comes in an easy way quickly change their mindsets and become, like they always are, lazy cowards. They don’t really have what it takes to become successful guys and work as hard. That’s why the road traveled by successful people is the road less traveled by many. It is thorny and it has never been easy. InsyaAllah, may Allah grant us strength and opportunities to become one of the successful guys.

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"The successful man will profit from his mistakes 

and try again in a different way." ~Dale Carnegie~

By Time: We Are In Loss…

     Assalamualaikum readers (May the peace and mercy of Allah be with you). Without us realizing, time has been passing us by fast. I feel like it was yesterday I stepped in the year of 2010 and today it is already in November. Yes time moves really fast without us realizing that it is leaving us. It is actually a sign of the end of time as being reported in these translated hadiths:

Narrated Abu Huraira (R.A) that The Prophet (P.B.U.H) said, “Time will pass rapidly, good deeds will decrease, miserliness will be thrown (in the hearts of the people) afflictions will appear and there will be much ‘Al-Harj.” They said, “O Allah’s Apostle! What is “Al-Harj?” He said, “Killing! Killing!” [Bukhari; Vol.8, Hadith 63]

Narrated Anas ibn Malik (R.A) Allah’s Messenger (P.B.U.H) said, “The last hour will not come before time contracts, a year being like a month, a month like a week, a week like a day, a day like an hour, and an hour like the kindling of a fire.” [Tirmidhi]

      As Muslims, we have to pay a particular attention on this specific matter because Allah swears about time in the Al-Quran in Surah Al-Asr (Passage of The Time) which can be translated as below:
 

“By Al-'Asr (the time). Verily! Man is in loss. Except those who believe and do righteous good deeds, and recommend one another to the truth and recommend one another to patience.”  ~ (Quran, 103, 1-3)

     Since time passes us by fast, we have to make it count. Yes, every second counts. Islam advises us to better ourselves. So to make time counts, we can earn some benefits from it by improving ourselves little by little. It doesn’t have to be much but make sure every day we make some simple, better changes in life. Insyaallah (Allah’s Will), we can make a difference in our own life and lives around us.

     I guess I have to start cracking my book and doing my work because, like I said, time passes us by fast.  Let's preach and do what we preach.Wassalam.

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