I came accross this story and decided to share so that we all can benefit.
It is reported that Ibrâhîm b. Adham (d162H) – Allâh have mercy on him – once passed through the market of Basrah. People gathered around him and asked:
O Abû Ishâq, Allâh the Exalted says in his Book. ‘Call on me, I will answer your prayers’, but we have been calling on Him for a long time and He does not answer our prayers. [Ibrâhîm] replied, “O people of Basrah, your hearts have died in respect to ten things:
First, you know Allâh but you do not give Him His rights;
Second, you have read Allâh’s Book but you do not act by it;
Third, you claim to love Allâh’s Messenger – Allâh’s peace and blessings be upon him – yet you abandon his Sunnah;
Fourth, you claim to be enemies to Shaytân but you conform to [his ways];
Fifth, you say you love Paradise yet you do not work for it;
Sixth, you say you fear The Fire yet you put yourselves closer to it [by sinning];
Seventh, you say death is true but you do not prepare for it;
Eighth, you busy yourselves with the faults of others and disregard your own;
Ninth, you consume the favors of your Lord but are not grateful for them; and
Tenth, you bury your dead but take no lesson from them.”
The most important thing we’ve learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set –
Or better still, just don’t install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we’ve been,
We’ve watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone’s place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they’re hypnotised by it,
Until they’re absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don’t climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink –
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK — HE ONLY SEES!
‘All right!’ you’ll cry. ‘All right!’ you’ll say,
‘But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!’
We’ll answer this by asking you,
‘What used the darling ones to do?
‘How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?’
Have you forgotten? Don’t you know?
We’ll say it very loud and slow:
THEY … USED … TO … READ! They’d READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching ’round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it’s Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There’s Mr. Rate and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They’ll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start — oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They’ll grow so keen
They’ll wonder what they’d ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.
We pray…every single day… at least five times a day…but what is prayer? If you could describe it…what would it be?
I came across the most amazing description of prayer that will make you want to jump and do sajdah right after you read it! Allah has blessed us with the obligation of prayer.
Sulaiman Nadwi said:
What is Salaah? It is the expression of devotedness by the created to his Creator with His whole being i.e., heart, tongue, feet and hands; it is the rememberance of the Most merciful and the Most Gracious; it is the thanksgiving for his limitless favors; it is the praise and adoration for the eternal beauty of His creation and acknowledgement of His Unity and Greatness; it is the communication of soul with the Beloved Lord; it is the complete obeisance by body and soul to the Master; it is the dedication of one’s internal feelings; it is the natural music of one’s heart-string; it is the tie of relationship between the Creator and the created and the latter’s strong bond of devotedness; it is the comfort for the agitated and uneasy mind; it is the solace for the restless soul; it is the remedy for the hopeless heart; it is the natural internal call of a receptive and sensitive mind; it is the purpose of life and the essence of existence.
Riding in the car the other day, with a few of my good friends, we got to talking about our state. Not the state of the world…not the state of our Ummah…but our personal states. Where are we Emaan wise? How should we get better?
I got to thinking about a principle (well I have decided its a principle) of life. It is what I like to call Stagnation brings Slide-ation. (This also has to do with what was spoken about >>here<< )
Whenever we are comfortable withourselves and stop trying to grow…stop trying to make it higher in emaan levels…in good deeds…we dont stay put. We begin to slide. Slide backwards that is. When we stop reading…stop learning….stop IMPLEMENTING new things….we lose focus and those deeds that we had down Oh-So-Well begin to fade and become strange to us.
When we stop trying to perfect our sunnah—our fard becomes weak.
When we stop trying to increase our knowledge—what we already know begins to fade.
When we stop trying to improve our Akhlaq—The small ammounts of good Akhlaq that we do have seem to vanish.
All in all…we have to constantly remember…STAGNATION BRINGS SLIDE-ATION.
Up until today, I didnt realize that we could really have a second life. A life in which we can get some of those not so great things we did in life replaced with something better.
We muslims CAN have a second life—as long as you work for it in this one…wa lillahil hamd!!!!
Ibn Al-Qayyim, rahimahullah, wrote concerning a hadeeth “This Hadeeth us one of the strongest proofs of the lofty status of knowledge and of the greatness of its fruits. The reward of knowledge continues to accrue for a man even after he dies, so long as people continue to benefit from the knowledge he imparted. Therefore, even after such a man dies, it is as if he continues to be alive….In fact, considering that others’ deeds come to an end when they die, it is as if he is being given a second life.”
[The hadeeth he was referring to is: "When a person dies his deeds are cut off from him except from three: perpetual charity; knowledge that continues to benefit; and a righteous son who supplicates for him" (Muslim #1631)]
There is a hadeeth, by the Prophet alayhis-salaam, which speaks of the believer. The Prophet says that the believer is like a bee. But the issue is how? How can we BE like BEES? why would we WANT to be like bees?
A bee does not work only for itself. A bee truely wants for its brother bee, what it wants for itself. When a bee goes to a flower, and finds that this flower is of use, it leaves a mark. This mark is placed their so other bees can stop searching for top quality flowers and go to the flower wish has already been deemed usable. The bee also, would beyond a doubt sacrafice itself for the betterment of the group. many times they go and sting, killing themselves, to protect the hive from any potential harm. These are something we should take from the bee. We should stop having the world revolve around ourselves and start caring about others. We should start wanting for our brothers and sisters what we want for ourselves.
A bee also, does things, whether or not someone is watching. The bee does it for himself. A bee will make honey whether or not someone is watching. A man conducted a study in which he built a building around the bees kingdom. this building was made of clear glass. The bees began to build their hive on this glass, and they never quit untill they had completely covered it. Why did they do this? because the do not like having their hive open for the world to see. This is another thing we should take from the bee. Take a moment and ask yourself…do you act the same when you are in private as you do when you are in public? Do you do more good deeds in public because you know people are watching? If so, take it from the bee, and become like the bee.
A bee is hardworking, and it is said that to produce honey it takes500,000trips back and forth to the flower. this is traveling the multitude of traveling the ENTIRE earth. Although the bee is hardworking, there are things which can slow this bee down. When a bee smells smoke, its production becomes very slow, even sometimes stopping. When a bee is near fire, it also becomes very slow. This is the same with the believer. There are times when we have a smokey cloud of sin which slows down our productiveness in obeying our rabb. just like the bee, the only way to get back on track, is to get away from this smokey cloud of sin.
Lastly, a bee is always around good things. When you go to a smelly trash can, filled with filth, around it you see flies. When you go to the sweetest smelling flower, you see bees. This is what we should be like as well. We should scurry away from sin, and go and join in the sweet smelling deeds which will make our akhira that much better.
Notes taken after a halaqa with Shaikh Isaam Rajab, Hafidhahullah.
The more I learn the more I realize I know not. The words “Allahu ta’ala Alam” gain so much meaning with each new peice of knowledge. Imagine with all that the world knows today…with all the technologies we have…yet we know nothing. We cant keep the rain from falling. We cant stop people from dying. We cant make time stop passing. We dont know how to do these things. We are nothing compared to the creator. The creator of the Heavens and the Earth.
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