September wrap-up

Bismillah.

As we wrap up the month of September, as a proud Malaysian, I wish to share this meaningful song Warisan (Legacy), commemorating Malaysia Day on September 16th and the country's 57th year of independence. Alhamdulillah.

It's always good to recollect our humble beginnings and count our blessings though Allah has cautioned us that we won't be able to count them.

"...And if you would count the blessings of Allah, 
you would not be able to count them."

We all know this verse very well. Perhaps now we should memorize where it is cited in the Quran. It's 14:34. By the way, do you still remember the other beautiful verse 3:26?

Yes, "Indeed in His Hand is all good." - Quran 3:26

Throughout our lives, surely there are many people who have done us good, both directly and indirectly, in a big or small way, regardless. It's impossible to enumerate and list their contributions. But our Lord is ever watching and nothing escapes His sight and knowledge. It is He who enriches us and enables us to do much good to ourselves and other people because in His Hand is all good.

Should I attempt to wrap all the gifts that He has given in this sweet September alone, it would fill up a football field and more. So Alhamdulillah wa shukrulillah and we say thanks to all the conduits through whom Allah has channeled His bounties to us.

Many happy returns - October, November, December and beyond.

Enjoy this meaningful song!




Demi cinta ini.
For the sake of this love.

: )

Chasing target | Reflecting the bygones

Bismillah.

Nothing but a midnite rambling, pardon me.

Nothing but a number of days, that's what we are.

Let's say our thanks whenever He invites us to a moment of nearness. Alhamdulillah. May He make us more taqarrub and humble each day.

I have just noticed something, that there is just 8 postings to go before reaching the 200 target set for the year. YaHu! For the record, I did reach the magic number last year, but some postings had been taken down. There's no need to mention why but generally speaking there is no need for us to give space to pretenders/liars. If you are 50 something and born a certain race with black eyes, why do you have to lie to people saying you are 30 something Caucasian with grey eyes. LOL. I guess Allah loves us so He sends weird characters to test us.

Yes, there's 8 postings to go before we hit the minimum target of 200 postings. So then I can put my feet up and seclude myself. No can't do.

Watched a video about Fatima al-Fihri yesterday, 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaLU8Ul5uHY

the speaker said, Fatima al-Fihri was an educated, pious and rich young woman. She didn't choose to put her feet up or go on a yacht, partying [LOL]. She was not like most girls these days who only care about looking good and feeling good. She had a vision. In her mind, she was busy thinking about her community and giving them what they didn't have at that time, using the wealth she inherited from her late father. Her action/decision, according to the speaker, was like an engine that spurred not only Muslim communities in the region but also non-Muslims in Europe. Because of her, Muhammad al-Idris could study at Al-Qarawiyyin and because of a remarkable graduate like Muhammad al-Idris who produced world maps, nations/countries like Spain and Portugal were able to venture out to other parts of the world using his maps during the Age of Discovery.

The inventor of zero/decimal numeral system using Arabic numerals was also a graduate of Al-Qarawiyyin. Great stuffs there, all thanks to a visionary and very generous young woman. What about us? Do we waste time, ours and that of other people with our nonsensical behavior? To quote a reader who sent me some words of encouragement: "Let's flush the negative."

The person who sent me this postcard as a new year greeting in Jan this year is about to leave for hajj. I love her for the sake of Allah. When some people heard the news that she was going for hajj, they said: "What? You're kidding me?" - just because this person is who she is outwardly. But I believe, Allah kids not His chosen servant. He looks at a person's heart, He guides and makes successful whomever He chooses.

Pray this friend of mine will be blessed with hajj mabrur. Am happy thinking there will be someone who would say a prayer for me at Arafah this year, InshaAllah.

May Allah make us a place of tajalli (a receptacle) of His great bounties. Ameen.

  

Choosy choosing friends

Bismillah.

Alhamdulillah wa shukrulillah, am grateful for the wonderful friends in my life who teach me in the ways which they themselves are unaware of. That's the beauty of having humble and beautiful hearted people around us.

Am very pleased to hear that some readers are benefiting from Dr Jasser Auda's book too. Alhamdulillah, "In His hand is all good." [Quran 3:26]

When some people write in, my heart grins big like down to the diaphragm LOL. Seriously, some people are so unassuming that they are not aware of how their state, just being themselves can elevate the people they interact with. May Allah bless you. You know who you are!

Ibn Ata'illah says:

"Do not befriend someone who does not elevate you with his state, or guide you to God with his speech. It could be that you are doing evil, yet you think you are doing good because you are comparing yourself to your friend who is worse than you."

So being choosy is good in this context.

I am blessed to know one respectable visitor to this humble space. I didn't know she is actually a Professor Dr. __ until recently, because she always and only refers to herself as Sister P. MashaAllah tabarakallah. 

Now compare this with those who elevate themselves by telling people they live in a certain posh neighborhood, when in truth they live somewhere else. The neighborhood is wealthy alright but their abode is probably the worst of the pack. We are not people who judge people from their homes but it goes to show that those who try to elevate themselves will be brought down, whereas those who are humble, Allah will lift them up.

So that's why we have been told to be choosy and choose those whose "state" elevate us. By state, Dr Jasser Auda in his book A Journey to God, defines as "a Sufi expression for the spiritual influence that people have on one's spirituality."

May Allah keep us in good company, always. Ameen.

I spotted these two gentlemen chatting away
at Kowloon Mosque in Hong Kong.
I walked past them but quickly turned back to snap their photo because
the aura of their friendship was something worth capturing.

Sunrise in the beginning | Sunrise in the end

Bismillah.

When I read this aphorism by Ibn Ata'illah, I immediately thought of Fatima al-Fihri.

Ibn Ata says:

"A sign of success in the end comes from relating a matter to God in the beginning. If there is no sunrise in the beginning, there is no sunrise in the end."

Fatima al-Fihri, was the first and the only woman ever who founded both a mosque and a university - the University of Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco which came into existence a very long time ago in the 9th century. It's therefore, the world's oldest university. Later in the 14th century, the university housed, what was to be the world's oldest library where one could find Muwatta of Imam Malik on gazzele parchment.  

It's big time sunrise in the end for the efforts Fatima undertook. Why? Because there was glorious sunrise in the beginning when she embarked on her project.

Her father Muhammad bin Abdullah al-Fihri was a wealthy businessman from whom she and her sister Mariam had inherited plenty. Following the death of her husband, brother and father, Fatima, a well educated woman herself, decided to use her inheritance as waqaf, not simply any small waqaf project but an everlasting amal jariah for the sake of her father and her community - a mosque that subsequently evolved into a leading university.

She might not have had the technical know-how, yet she decided to be involved in the construction process. She chose to be a hands-on benefactor. As an educated and pious woman it was clear for her that a mosque should be built on the foundations of taqwa so she took that literally. It was reported that Fatima observed fasting throughout the construction of the mosque which took two years to complete.

Fatima was a woman of great distinction who left a remarkable legacy. The mosque and the University of Qarawiyyin is still running and is alma mater for great scholars such as Muhammad al-Fasi, Ibn Khaldun and Ibn al-Arabi.

Fatima al-Fihri, was without a doubt, a selfless woman with great vision. It was sunrise in the beginning and because of her, millions of people have seen sunny days through the years, and we are talking about 1000 over years.   

Reference:
http://stage1.whyislam.org/social-values-in-islam/fatima-al-fihri-founder-of-worlds-very-first-university/   

****
"Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
It's not warm when she's away..."

To do Fez via Paris would be awesome, InshaAllah.

On work and rewards

Bismillah.

It's beautiful. Allah is the Master Craft behind all beautiful objects such as this. Though beauty is unique in the eyes of the beholder.

Excuse this rambling. As I turn 44, I think all I need is just another three handbags. Yeah right! LOL.

Yes anyone can have it. I could have it soon, by God's Will, but a friend has made me realize that if I delivered something meaningful for the world, then carrying this piece would be so much sweeter as a reward. We need buddies around us to knock some sense in our head.

Better work hard now because technically speaking we won't have the same physical and mental energy 10 or 20 years from now. This life is about hard work and leaving behind something great.

May Allah bless our age with good lasting deeds. May Allah give us plenty in our hands yet keep Him always in the heart. May we rejoice in His bounties before we go underground. 

And let's consider this:

"The journey to God in this life is much shorter than the journey to Him in the afterlife."
- Dr Jasser Auda

So let's take advantage of this present life. Take benefit of 5 before 5.

Jumaah mubarrak!

Nothing but a number of days

Bismillah.

A part of me is gone.
A part of me is gone.

O Allah, may I live a long...life full...of blessings. Ameen.

- Eza @ Ms. Quintillion

"But I cannot and will not 
let a part of me be gone 
without giving something, 
even if it be one good sentence."
- CEO Exa Publishing

Spy | Unauthorized agent

Bismillah.

"And do not spy..." - Quran 49:12

Shaykh Ibn Atha'illah as-Sakandari says:
'A person who learns of people's secrets and does not have heavenly mercy on them, brings upon himself a great danger and disaster.'

And Dr. Jasser Auda says:

[This is the 5th posting in which I am quoting from his book, pardon me.]

Firstly: 'One should not feel that he is authorized by God to act as a judge or have any illusion that he is on a great mission to establish justice based on the secrets he came to know.' So people, refrain from becoming an unauthorized agent.

Secondly, one must have heavenly mercy. 'A person who does not have mercy on people after learning about their faults, risks falling into tyranny, arrogance, conceit, envy and suspicion. All these traits are dangerous and destructive and are punishable both in this world and the world to come.'

'The original situation is: do not spy...Otherwise, he will be journeying backward not forward to God.'

Reference: 
A Journey to God - Reflections on the Hikam of Ibn Ata'illah by Dr Jasser Auda/Awakening Publications.

p/s 
Ahah! Someone hired a spy and threatened to reveal my private pix! Allah knows best! In God, I trust. In God I seek refuge and from Him I ask for forgiveness. 
Unauthorized agents are themselves subject to Allah's reckoning. Yet they have the nerve to say: 'I know everything. You think I didn't know this and that...'  They rely on their spy/bomoh who could be giving inaccurate info, still they feel good thinking they "know everything" LOL