Iman Rollercoaster

Bismillah ir Rahman nir Raheem

Assalamalaikum

Introduction

Everyone experiences iman highs and lows, we are human. One day you feel on top of the world, you read quran, prayed all your prayers and Sunnah, had no issues with family members, and truly just felt like your iman was at the peak of the coaster. And there are other days when, you might have missed fajr, got into a little misunderstanding with your parents, and maybe your iman hit a little low. Our iman fluctauates, sometimes we are at highs and sometimes we are at lows, but we need to make sure that our iman is always increasing, inshallah.  We need to strive to get our old iman highs- our new lows and never dip too far down.

Part I: What exactly is Iman? 

• §  What is Iman to you?
• §  The word Iman by many people is translated simply into faith, believing in Islam, in Allah, and while this to a certain extent is true, its not the whole picture.
• §  Believing versus Iman. The translation belief does not do the word justice, Iman is belief but its different from belief in that it creates a commitment. Iman creates a commitment with our Creator, when you have Iman, you have made a commitment with Allah.
• §  Iman is letting your life change, it should change our lives. We abandon our old ways, we abandon the glitter and the grills, and the junk fed by our society, and instead we take shelter in Allah. When we have iman, we commit ourselves to change.
• §  Iman isn’t just claiming to believe, it is acting upon that belief. Anyone can “claim” to believe. What truly proves that, is when you see them changing right before your eyes.
• §  Another really good way to understand this concept is that we all display different kinds of Iman. Like, if we have a giant test, you can’t just go into the test unprepared and expect to ace it, you know? You have to have a certain iman, or commitment to preparing and then going into it. A person who wants to lose weight has to have iman in the sense that they can’t just go and eat like 5 Big Macs and still that they’re on a roll. So just like the dieter and the student, we as Muslims must have iman and commit to Allah’s commands, staying away from things that are forbidden, and developing a relationship with our creator.
• §  So now the issue at hand, we understand what iman is, and when push ourselves to commitment, the rollercoaster shoots off…

Part II: When Does it Occur?

• §  Iman highs usually occur differently for different people. During Ramadan it is evident that many muslims experience a iman high. People who never pray fajy are now praying fajr, people who never pray Sunnah are now praying Sunnah, people who don’t read the quran are now reading the quran. Ramadan is the ultimate time for a ramdan high.
• §  For me, finals and a lot of projects put together can be a little bit of a dip, hanging with the wrong crowd can be a dip, and not reading Quran regularly can be a dip too. And of course, if you’re not praying regularly, you’re dip is gonna get even dippy-er.
• §  A high even during Ramadan for me, is taraweeh. The night prayer is an awesome thing to take advantage of and can inshAllah stengthen your relationship with Allah.
• §  Some other things that can lead to iman high’s are when you give up something for the sake of allah, like your hair and start wearing hijab, that can give you an iman high. Praying Fajr I think is a big iman high. Hardships can sometimes be an iman high too but sometimes it can backfire and go the other way. Its all about the level of patience one is willing to show.
• §  Any other high or low experiences?

Part III: Tips on how to Constantly increase Iman

• §  Renew Shahada everyday. Even we say it in salah, sometimes that becomes a simple ritual, but spend a few seconds knowing what you’re saying, pondering over it.
• §  Do a lot of dhikr with thought.: “SubhanAllah wa bihamdi x100
• §  Dua for guidance
• §  Hang out with the right crowd
• §  Stock up on Good Deeds
• §  Seek forgiveness for your past sins…awesome dua: Humma anta rabbee la ilaha illa ant, khalaqtanee wa-ana AAabduk, wa-ana AAala AAahdika wawaAAdika mas-tataAAt, aAAoothu bika min sharri ma sanaAAt, aboo-o laka biniAAmatika AAalay, wa-aboo-o bithanbee, faghfir lee fa-innahu la yaghfiruth-thunooba illa ant.
• ‘O Allah, You are my Lord, none has the right to be worshipped except You, You created me and I am Your servant and I abide to Your covenant and promise as best I can, I take refuge in You from the evil of which I committed. I acknowledge Your favor upon me and I acknowledge my sin, so forgive me, for verily none can forgive sin except You.’
•  [Do youu know what the reward is for saying this supplication? The Prophet ﷺ has told us that, “If somebody recites it during the day with firm faith in it and dies on the same day before the evening, he will be from the people of Paradise and if somebody recites it at night with firm faith in it and dies before the morning he will be from the people of Paradise.”
• §  Reduce shamelessness from your life
• §  Respecting parents

Our hearts are in Allah’s hands. He can turn them one way or the other if he wishes, we just have to show him that we want to be guided, that we are trying. At the end of the day, analyze your dips or your highs, make sure your highs outweigh and outnumber dips. 

-Destination Jannah

Glass Half Full: Always Choosing Optimism

Bismillah ir Rahman nir Raheem

Whenever someone brings something up about Islam, they address as if it is a burden but everything we do is for a reason, and a good reason. Alhamdulillah most of us, or all of us were born Muslim but from the beginning most of us were taught rituals. We were told bam! Pray fives times a day, no eating or drinking in Ramadan, don’t talk to boys unless it’s a school project, and no pepperoni. We were taught many of the commandments, but Allah who asked us all of this, was completely out of the picture.

 So we were fed rituals- Ramadan would come around and its like okay UGH now this Islam thing is making me starve myself again. Because we were never taught to understand Allah, because we were not taught the why’s, we never loved doing these. We did not internalize that love to get up for Fajr at five thirty in the morning to talk to our Creator. We did not have that taqwa, that consciousness when all we were fed were this, this, this, Muslim, Islam, done.

 For this reason, many of us grew up seeing many of the aspects of Islam as a burden. 

However, when love for Allah comes into the picture, a whole new attitude appears and instead, all the little things that we are asked to do that to others seem burdernsome, become things we LOVE to do, things we LOVE to abandon, and our deen becomes the one thing that we LOVE about our lives. Allah already love us. Allah has already served us. We are the ones that should want and not just want but need His love. 

Some aspects of Islam that are seen to be burdensome are as follows: Hijab/ Modesty, Not being able to eat pork,  the prohibition on drinking, the prohibition on smoking, the prohibition on unlawful, non-marital relationships with the opposite sex, fasting, as well as praying five times a day. However, these commandments are all set with good reason and ultimately we do should submit our intellectual humility and understand that whatever Allah commands is to our best interest but some the reasons for these prohibitions are clear as day if we look around our society. 

"And it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not know" (2:216).

Hijab

Many people have a big problem with hijab. Why does Allah command us to cover ourselves, to dress modestly? But my question is, why does international culture command you to dress like a piece of meat, that everyone stares at? Alhamdulillah, Allah has blessed us with this command of modesty where we as Muslim women are looked at not for how our body is shaped, not how tight our shirts are or how much of our body is revealed but instead we are looked at the beauty within. Allah does not care about appearance, does not care about how short your shorts are or what you look like, it is what is within the hearts that Allah knows and cares about. It is taqwa that matters.

Pork

Pork is not only forbidden to Muslims but was forbidden to Jews and Christians but now since their scriptures have been cut here, pasted there, you can see some alterations, like some Christians don’t eat pork on this certain day, and Jews will stay away from meat or fast from meat on a specific day so alteration have been made later on. Its body is filthy, its way more fat than actual meat and nutrition-where does lard come from…pigs. Today, people tend to use every last piece of a pig, from its hooves to its intestines to its skin, liver, blood, yeah in China they make Black pudding, everything…but you know tapeworms start to originiate on its tissue, it leads to so many infections, basically its disgusting. 

Drinking

...Cirrhosis, liver disease, “beer belly”, fat, addiction, ruins the home, ruins relationships, ruins your brain, car accidents, innocent lives are killed, memory loss, many claim to do it for fun, but then they don’t even remember anything. If you need alcohol to have fun, you probably aren’t a fun person and are using that as a tool to you know get this alter side of you to make other convinced you are. 

Smoking

...A bajillion types of cancers, your teeth get stained, your lungs turn black and jiggly and gross, and the whole long list of other medical conditions and such but worse of all it’s a gateway to other things, its addicting and that makes everything worse. Not to mention you're making everyone around you smoke, second-handedly.  

Fasting

Not eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset is a huge deal to most people and is the cause of great freak-outs by Non-Muslims. However, fasting is a prescription from Allah subhana wa ta'ala and actually has much less to do with food than most of think. In fact, fasting is less about the food and more about purifying the soul. Ramadan, the month of fasting was sent to us, prescribed to us to cleanse our soul, to starve our soul from physical food so that we can fill it up with the ultimate soul food...the Quran. 

Dating

Many youth and young individuals have a big issue with the fact that dating is prohibited in Islam. They look only to the fairy-tale, rainbow, sun-shiny side of it where some perfect person comes and sweeps them off their feet. They get so caught up into the so called "happiness" of these young relationships but fail to realize the lasting effects of them. They don't see past the temporary smiles to the depression, to the anxiety, to those long sleepless nights. Dating is emotionally exhausting and usually ends up in tears, in fights, and sometime even long term depression. Alhamdulillah Allah has blessed us and has allowed us to enjoy the opposite gender, but through the relationship of a marriage, with actual commitment and has allowed us to find refuge, love, and mercy through that bond. 

Praying

Praying five times a day is another aspect of Islam that non-Muslims and Muslims alike see as a burden. What many people don't realize is that we need the reminder, we need the disassociation from this dunya five times a day. We need to step back and remember our creator and remember our purpose and remember our destination. Salah purifies us through out the day.  Salah is the first thing we will be asked about on the Day of Judgment. Salah is our connection to our Creator. Without these set times, would we really take out the time throughout the day to put out face on the ground? Think about it. 

“Say, “Not equal are the evil and the good, although the abundance of evil might impress you.” So fear Allah , O you of understanding, that you may be successful.” [5:100]

Allah loves us more than our own mother loves us, so the things he has told us to do are not to burden us but to help us; Islam is easy, it is people that make it hard.

-Mission Dawa

It is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Introduction:  First off, Ramadan Kareem!! For those who have not yet prepared for this upcoming month of mercy, if there was any time, most epic of the epic, best of the best, it’s gotta be this month, and so were here to get ourselves pumped, get the excitement going, because we never know, this Ramadan may just be our last so gotta make it the best, inshAllah!

Basics of Ramadan: There are just a few main points that need to be made about the upcoming month.

 1. Ramadan is the time where everything literally changes and even though we can’t see it, sometimes you can feel it, I think especially at layl a tul Qadr, the night of worship that comes in Ramadan, you can really really sense the transquility of it. Anyways, main thing is things CHANGE. In a lecture by Waleed Basyouni, he explained some of the things that do change. One of the biggest one, as we may all have heard some sort of version of this, that Allah subhana wa ta’ala leaves the gates of Jannah open. The Ramadan is the month of change-everything changes. The gates of Jannah become wide open. So many good deeds are done that lead to Jannah and there so many different acts of worship that can lead to the different gates of Jannah

• §  Each gate of jannah is dedicated for some kind of good deed (ar Rayyan for those who fast, middle gate for those who are good to parents, another gate for those who offer salah) In Ramadan, all 8 gates are completely, widely opened, welcoming every Muslim to take the opportunity to come closer to Allah.
• §  It is the change with the gates of Hell too, gates of hell are closed, so many people will be freed, so many people will be forgiven. In every single night, Allah will free certain individuals from the hell-fire. (SubhanAllah!)
• §  Don’t just aim for your name being mentioned once, try our best so that Allah can say our name every night, promising us safety from the hell fire. We want all of our names to be mentioned by Allah, that “so-and-so peson will be saved from the hell-fire”
• §  It is the month of change-even the heads of Shaiateen are chained in this month. The Shaitan is locked up so you know in the 11 months through the year, if we do something bad, we can be like oh man, the shaitan fed this into me, or the shaitan made me do it, well this month, that is one you! You, yourself are the one that did the bad deed, and this thing I find the most scary because you discover your true self in this month and sometimes its not pretty which is really scary. 
• §  Major changes occur in the universes during this month. Millions and billions of angels come down to Earth, these angels ask for your forgiveness, they say Ameen to your dua’s and they will pray for the acceptance of your deeds.
• §  Even on Earth, there is a lot of change. Allah, out of his wisdom, has put certain major incidents to fall in the month of Ramadan. It was not just coincident-it happened for a reason. So many great things happened in Ramadan. In the month of Ramadan, Prophet Musa moved his people to the Promised land. During the month of Ramadan, Allah revealed the books to Musa, Isa, and Ibrahim. And forsure the Quran. And the Quran has changed, reshaped the history of humanity. Major changes have taken place in this month.
• §  And most importantly, this month of change, changes people hearts. You’ll see people go in to Ramadan one way, and after Ramadan its like they are a completely different person, like you know they wear hijab or something, they’ve stopped cursing, they don’t listen to music, etc etc and when that sort of change comes about with the right intention, that’s like of like an indicator that that Ramadan was spent well because Ramadan should change all of us in some form whether its inside or something on the outside.

2. Fasting-much more than food. It is a *spiritual cleansing. For so long, we have seen it as a ritual, the first thing when someone thinking fasting is oh yeah, we can’t eat form sunrise to sunset and I had been like this too, but this year I have realized that it is so so so much more. ** If Allah wanted fasting to be all about food, that’s the way it could have been described but instead Ramadan is described in the Quran as the month of Quran, because what is the biggest event that took place- the Quran was revealed so we physically fast from food, water, intimate relationships, so that we can fill our SOUL, our inside, that is starving to have a relationship with Allah, and **so in this month we stay away from physical food to fill our soul with spiritual food which is the Quran.

3. In this month, Allah takes away the halal to enable us that we can stay away from the haram the rest of the year. Staying away from the halal is hard for us cause they are near to us so in this month so if we can stay away from the halal in Ramadan, we can definitely stay away from the haram in the rest of the 11 months.

4. Major purpose in Ramadan is to get closer to Allah, to attain taqwa, to strengthen that spiritual connection, spend a lot of time by yourself, getting to know Allah through the Quran, seeking beneficial knowledge, making tons and tons of Dua.

5. Since the whole purpose of Ramadan is to attain taqwa, we’re gonna talk a little bit about this. The word taqwa actually comes from a world that literally means to shield. The word taqwa itself means being conscious of Allah, fearing Allah but loving him and being in awe of Him.

§  And the word actually comes from a word meaning to shield so in Ramadan, when we try to attain taqwa, you build a shield for yourself, and when you build a shield what is the purpose of that shield? Its to protect yourself right, save yourself from harm? This is a whole different take on things.

§  Normally people enter Ramadan with this desire to do more good, im gonna do good and pray more, and give sadaqa, and this and that, its all about doing more, but less about getting rid of the bad. But Allah teaches us in the Quran that just as good deeds can wipe out bad deeds, bad deeds can also wipe out good deeds, so if youre doing good deeds and still doing haram, then at the end of the day you’re left with nothing right? Positive 1 and negative one make 0, so nothing is left. And Shaykh Omar Suleiman put this so awesomely, He said if you have a cup of water with holes on the bottom, and you keep trying to put water in there, similar to us trying to fill ourselves with good deeds while not eliminating the bad, at the end of the day all the water is gonna pour out of those holes and you have nothing left. He also gave the analogy of you having a thobe, in our case lets say you have an abaya right, a white one and it has a giant purple stain on in, that’s how many of our hearts are, we have so many mistakes so many impurities and then when we get so caught up in doing good deeds, all we are doing is accessorizing that abaya, we are adding sequins to it and glitter and lace and blah blah but the giant purple stain is still there, right? So our priority while still trying to attain good deeds should also be purifying our hearts.

§  Its really really easy to do goods, anyone can do good deeds, but its getting rid of bad ones that really shows how much you love Allah.

Tips:

• ·      Eating less for iftar,
• ·      staying away from oily foods,
• ·      waking up for suhoor,
• ·      increasing number of sunnah prayers or at least pray them if you normally don’t,
• ·      stay away from sources that waste time (big one),
• ·      distant yourself from people so you can spend more time with yourself,
• ·      when you come to the masjid don’t waste your time chatting it up, go read Quran, you have 11 months to do all of that, hanging out etc, so focus on yourself this month.
• ·      Set a minimum Quran reading time for yourself like minimum of 20 minutes a day or something, and read it in Arabic but then make sure you’re understanding what you’re reading too.
• ·      Accomplish one of your goals after Fajr, it’s a productive time!
• ·      Try to not miss taraweeh prayer, and prepare a little before hand if you don’t speak Arabic.
• ·      DO not stuff yourself at iftar
• ·      Iftar time is best time for dua so make tons of dua
• ·      make a dua list at home
• ·      make a list of goals

For those who wanna keep a track of everything there doing,  here are some resources to stay on track:

>www.heartwheeljournal.com

>http://www.iloveallaah.com/ramadan/Ramadan_checklist.pdf

>http://blog.iloveallaah.com/2010/06/ramadan-resources/

Weren't you THAT guy/girl?

 “Weren’t you THAT guy/girl”

The person who dates

The person who drinks and smokes

The person with the tight clothes and booty shorts

The person with the attitude

The person that doesn't listen to her parents

The person that curses

The person that no one wants to be

"THAT PERSON"

...but you know something that we always forget is that this person could change.

This girl could have the aspirations of being the next Khadija, Fatimah, Asiya, and Aisha.

What is set today may not be set tomorrow,

Although you may think you are so far down, you can always get back up.

There is always hope, especially with the will of Allah.

Anyone can change

1.       ANYONE CAN CHANGE, YOURE NEVER TOO FAR GONE TO CHANGE. 

·         Allah’s mercy is unlimited, there is no limit. Imagine if you stole some money from someone, they will always remember that and it will affect your relationship. But Allah is willing to forgive us, over and over, with a clean slate. You can be the proclaimed “worst person on this earth” and Allah will forgive you. Allah does not shut his mercy on any one, we are the ones that shut Allah out. Look at the children of Israel, they killed the prophets yet Allah kept sending them more. They were saved from Pharaoh, disbelieved, and Allah still sent his mercy.  Allah is MOST GRACIOUS, MOST MERCIFUL.

"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." [39:53]

"O son of Adam, as long as you call upon Me and put your hope in Me, I have forgiven you for what you have done and I do not mind. O son of Adam, if your sins were to reach the clouds of the sky and then you would seek My forgiveness, I would forgive you. O son of Adam, if you were to come to Me with sins that are close to filling the earth and then you would meet Me without ascribing any partners with Me, I would certainly bring to you forgiveness close to filling it." [Hadith Qudsi]

·         Elements of change:

o   The time to change is now, we are not guaranteed a second of your life.

§  There was a man who kept promising that he would become a good Muslim and start obeying Allah when he got older. That he would be a pious Muslim, read Quran, and do everything that he should be doing at that point of his life. BUT WHO guaranteed that he would live the next day? No one know the land or time they will die in.

§  “…And no soul perceives what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul perceives in what land it will die. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.” 31:34

o   Ramadan is the best time

§  Ramadan is the best to change, alhumduiallah with shaitan being locked up and with Allah’s mercy being ever so great, All focus is on you (:  

2.       HOW TO CHANGE

·         Acceptance for the need of change,

o   Knowing that you need to change, knowing that you have a problem is the beginning to change. When someone goes to rehab, it is because they have identified that they have a problem, people do not go to rehab to find out they have a problem, they go to fix their problem; and we have all seen people that are forced to go to rehab, the problem never gets fixed. We must realize that we need to change in order to change.   

·         Niyah and Dua

o   The prophet said, “Actions are only by intention, and every man shall only have what he intended.”

o   Dua is the weapon of the believer and with the help of Allah, anything is possible.

·          Make the environment for change

o    While we are fasting we do not sit at McDonalds or Burger King all day, right? Because it is not the environment for a fasting person.  So if you are trying to decrease your use of curse words, why would you hang around people who cuss all the time? If you are trying to fix your relationship with your parents, why would you chill at your friend’s house when you know that they scream at their parent 24/7? Is that an environment that will help you change?  Your environment has a huge impact on how effective your change will be.

·         Make the intuitive

o   Write it down, make chart of all the things you want to change and your goals, inshallah. If they are in a place where you can see them almost every day, you are more likely to complete them.

o   Look at this study:  http://sidsavara.com/personal-productivity/why-3-of-harvard-mbas-make-ten-times-as-much-as-the-other-97-combined

·         Things to watch out for when you want to change:

o   Stay humble.

o   Everything is for the sake of Allah

o   Say, "Indeed, my prayer, my rites of sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds.” -6:162

o   Try not to turn things from your past that were halal, haram.

o   Do not delete everyone from your life just because they are from your past; maybe you can reduce your time with them, and maybe your change will influence them to change. Again, you never know the state of a believer.

o   Accumulating a little bit of knowledge does not mean you are not capable of handing out fatwas and throwing at people what is haram and what is halal,and even worse, condemning them to hell. If you are doing something everyone KNOWS is wrong like drinking, it is our obligation to give them advice, but remember advice if not making them feel dumb. 

o   In the Quran it says:  “And they did not become divided until after knowledge had come to them - out of jealous animosity between themselves. And if not for a word that preceded from your Lord [postponing the penalty] until a specified time, it would have been concluded between them. And indeed, those who were granted inheritance of the Scripture after them are, concerning it, in disquieting doubt.”  42:14

3.       REACTIONS TO CHANGE  

·         Problems with our reactions

o   The sincerity of someone’s change is always questioned.

§  Your sincerity of change is only with Allah, NO ONE ON THIS EARTH has a right to judge if this person is being real or fake, no one.  Only Allah knows what is in your heart BUT most don’t take heed of this; when people start to change, all of a sudden people start questioning their sincerity and talking about them even more, who does she think she is? This is the primary question.  If you don’t even know the state of yourself, how are you going

o   All you can remember is what they used to be

§  When someone changes, people become fixated on who that person used to be. They cannot see how a party girl now wears the hijab or how a guy who smoked every night, now spends many nights at the masjid.

·         Solutions to our reactions

o   Truly, we do not know the state of ourselves so how can we try and judge the state of others; It is easier said than done but we have to worry about ourselves, you are accountable for your own deeds on the day of judgment. On the day of Judgment, Allah is not going to ask you what that person or this person did, Allah is going to ask what you did?

o   Because this whole thing is rooted off of people trying to do Allah’s job and believing that they have a say-so,  we think we are in charge but every day, who do we submit to?  Who is in charge? Allah and Allah only.

o   Also, if you are hard on people, Allah will be hard on you. We need to show people our mercy, so that Allah will show his mercy on us, inshallah.

Thank you very much for reading, anything good is from Allah

Jazak to the max!

Razz and Jazz :P  

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