Sirat-Ul-Mustaqeem

Anesthesia

2009-10-21T09:04:00.000-07:00

I gave away my telescope
Tis better to live without imagination.
Who knows what the future holds?
Not my mind, not your soul.
Yet they venture into unknown territories
The funny thing is
Trust you put in the Unseen
Chasing that secret being
The reality is
Morbid muse creeps up on you...
Holds you by your collar,
Suffocates you
The funny thing is
You respond with a weak smile
You learn to numb your senses
Indifferent to your being
Floating away into the unseen
Realm of make-believe love
Invented lies
Beneath crusty haggard sorrows.
You scrape up a sugar-sweet verse
And devour it.
Only to find out
The anesthesia wears off…
It disappears, too soon.

Some nice pictures i saw at another blog...

2009-08-05T12:27:00.000-07:00

Let us race...race for paradise!

2009-07-23T12:45:00.000-07:00

From Bukhari:

Narrated Uqba bin Amir:
Allah's Apostle offered the funeral prayers of the martyrs of Uhud eight years after (their death), as if bidding farewell to the living and the dead, then he ascended the pulpit and said, "I am your predecessor before you, and I am a witness on you, and your promised place to meet me will be Al-Haud (i.e. the Tank) (on the Day of Resurrection), and I am (now) looking at it from this place of mine. I am not afraid that you will worship others besides Allah, but I am afraid that worldly life will tempt you and cause you to compete with each other for it."

What are we competing for nowadays? Better universities(but not really better education), better houses, better spouses, better everything else other than faith...Do you see anyone around you run to the masjid for prayer so that he gets there before others? Do you see anyone take the initiative in saying salaam before the other person? Does anyone run to give charity when a beggar asks?

Why don't we race for that ultimate golden prize...

May Allah SWT guide all of us and forgive our sins, grant us entry into the highest paradise without having to go through the torture in the grave, the torture on the day of Judgment and the hardships of the Sirat....ameen...

Negative feelings hurt our faith...

2009-07-23T12:28:00.000-07:00

From Bukhari:

Narrated Anas:
The Prophet said, "None of you will have faith till he wishes for his (Muslim) brother what he likes for himself."

Jealousy and envy are harmful negative feelings...same is the case with "Pride"...

Abdullaah Ibn Mas’ood (RA) who related that Allah’s Messenger (SAW) said:
“Whoever has an atoms worth of kibr (pride) in his heart will not enter Paradise.”

SubhanAllah Allah SWT has given us a religion where we are made to love each other and take out all bad feelings against one another...Let us create a society of loving Muslims...Let us not harm our faith...

Intentions...

2009-07-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

Our deeds are judged according to our intentions...

I never quite understood what that meant until the other day i came across a story of one of the Sahabas(R.A) who 'revised' his intention before doing something...
That means we are allowed to think over what we are about to do and formulate a good reason for it inside our heads to please Allah SWT. Any and every action of our daily lives can earn us good deeds that way (and Allah knows how much the Muslims of today need good deeds)...for example, you want to go swimming, wait a second and think, formulate an intention..."i'll go for swimming...so that I can have a healthy long life...so that I can spend that life in Allah's cause, so that I am able to do my religious duties properly"...
Of course, this doesn't apply for obviously wrong things like watching television leisurely...or chatting for hours over useless topics...

I think it could help gather more good deeds...but of course Allah SWT Himself knows best.

The contrasting balances

2009-07-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

The balance between living this life and working for the next one
The balance between hoping for mercy and fear of punishment...
The balance between physical self and the spiritual self...
The balance between what we have and what we wish for...

The contrasting balances we try to juggle through...

This life is a Maze game

2009-07-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

Compare this life to a maze...a real-life puzzle with twists and bends, and each player is given a limited amount of time to go through it....the ones who haven't entered it yet are sitting, waiting in anticipation...the ones who're done with it are sitting on the other end, some victorious and happy, and some on the other hand, seem like they would give anything to Somehow get back into the maze so that they could do it right the second time...their guilt, their lament is never-ending...
And here we are, you and I, in the game, at the moment, wasting our limited amount of time given to us, getting distracted by the things in the maze...
So let's not.
All that lies beyond the spectrum of human vision seems...well, quite scary. This world, this life, is all such an illusion...
Think of it this way, at any given moment in time, the world of dead people is Way bigger than the world of people alive...They are in misery, they are screaming, they are warning us...and yet we are heedless...we think we're the only creatures who exist, we have all the rights....we rule this world...we are supreme...
How heedless are we...?

IQ and Understanding Islam (In reply to Eusha)

2009-07-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

I don't know if it's alright for us to judge the IQ of the beloved companions of the Prophet PBUH...
But I do believe, Islam is simplicity. And simple people understand it best. When Islam came to Makkah, the ones who questioned the religion and its authenticity were the ones who thought themselves wise. Wise enough to question the Prophet Muhammad SAW...
I once tried to comprehend the Hindus' view of death and afterlife...they have created such complicated fiction stories out of a simple concept that it'll leave the wisest people completely astonished, confused and baffled. Islam doesn't do that. It speaks to people clearly so that they comprehend the message. Some comprehend more than others, but nevertheless, they can comprehend.
Understanding and comprehension are things hard to understand themselves. You always think you understand something, but there are always days that come when you think, "Oh I understand it better Now!" To me, that's one of the mysteries of Quran. But like Allah says, out of the huge amount of knowledge, He's given mankind only little of it.
And it all makes sense, who knows if we'd ever be able to Understand everything He'd tell us. I for one to this day, imagine where Hell exactly is located. Sometimes it's few levels above the universe...sometimes...it's the blackhole...sometimes...I don't know. I'm sure even if I knew, I wouldn't understand...
No use of knowledge without understanding. All the scientists, the biologists, even little children know that, all the trees come out of more or less, the same thing, that is, Soil. And yet all the fruits taste different. How does that happen....Who makes it happen....
People of understanding know...and understand...

Decisions should be made by the true Decision-Maker

2009-07-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

Allah the Almighty says in Quran:

Surah 33, verse 36,

"It is not fitting for a believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by God and His Messenger, to have any option about their decision: if anyone disobeys God and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong path."

I sometimes wish we didn't have brains to think and decide. I wish we could just be slaves of Allah, like we are meant to be. I wish we could talk to Him on a daily basis...and hear Him reply to them too...so that He could decide on all our matters personally...and then there would be no silly conflicts amongst us...truly He is capable of doing anything and everything...so He could do that...
They say it's wrong to wish...but I don't think it's wrong to wish to not do wrong in this world.
But, where would be the challenge in that...we took this challenge up ourselves...subhanAllah.

I noticed a man today...

2009-07-13T13:46:00.000-07:00

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

I noticed a man today, walking by in the hospital. If I saw him, or someone like him, in my younger years, I would've noticed the quality of his clothes, reflecting his wealth...I would've noticed his shaved face and thought he was handsome. I would've noticed his new cell phone and thought he was up-to-date. Initially today, I noticed all the same things about this man...A young doctor in his late twenties, looking very stylish as he walked across the hall. But instead of noticing those things with admiration, something instead my head kept pointing out the worldliness of his disposition. His clothes, reflecting the western ideas of modernism; his cell phone, reflecting the amount of money he spends on himself; his hair and face didn't strike as handsome anymore either.
For those who like sticking to old proverbs like, "don't judge a book by it's cover" can stick to it. However, the cover is the one thing you will notice the most about any book. I think a majority of public would...and there's a reason why.