The Best Manner of Seeking Forgiveness

Syed-ul-Istighfaar
اللهم أنت ربي لا إله إلا أنت ، خلقتني وأنا عبدك ، وأنا على عهدك ووعدك ما استطعت ، أعوذ بك من شر ما صنعت ، أبوء لك بنعمتك علي وأبوء لك بذنبي فاغفر لي ، فإنه لا يغفر الذنوب إلا أنت

"O Allah! You are my Rabb. There is no true god except You. You have created me, and I am Your slave, and I hold to Your Covenant as far as I can. I seek refuge in You from the evil of what I have done. I acknowledge the favors that You have bestowed upon me, and I confess my sins. Pardon me, for none but You has the power to pardon."

Hadith:"He who supplicates in these terms during the day with firm belief in it and dies on the same day (before the evening), he will be one of the dwellers of Jannah; and if anyone supplicates in these terms during the night with firm belief in it and dies before the morning, he will be one of the dwellers of Jannah" (Al-Bukhari)

"And seek the forgiveness of Allah. Certainly, Allah is Ever Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.'' (4:106)

No More Excuses!!

Perhaps some of you know that Sheikh Muhammad Alshareef came out with a DVD set called 'Time Traveler' where he teaches us how to make full use of our time and to even increase it. It's a great program. I got an e-mail from him today and I'll post part of it because I think we can learn from it.

Excuses (regarding worshiping Allah) are the habit of the people of Hellfire.
Allah tells us in the Quran:
67:10 They will further say: "Had we but listened or used our intelligence, we would not (now) be among the Companions of the Blazing Fire!"
Lesson: People who disobey Allah do not always flat out say 'no'. Instead, they make an excuse as to 'why' they can't worship Allah, for this reason or the other. Things like:
a. Eman hasn't entered my heart yet.

b. God is Merciful, and He doesn't need me to worship Him

c. If Allah shows me a personal sign, only then will I believe and follow Him

The bottom line is: No excuse - Worship Allah and do what Allah likes. That is our aim in life.
Implementation:
1. Ask yourself if there is some type of worship you feel you should be doing, but are not doing. Example: praying Sunnah prayers.

2. What is the excuse you give as to why you don't do it? Example: not enough time.

3. Today: just do it. Like, procrastinate procrastination and just do it!

4. At the end of the day, ask yourself, "So how did that feel?"

Tuesday March 16, in sha Allah, he's going to reveal the 2nd biggest excuse ever.

Guess what it is here!

Aminah Assilmi

Aminah Assilmi, a renowned scholar of Islam, passed away on March 5th in a car accident. I had the honor of meeting her when she had come to speak at our Musjid. I remember her being a tall, beautiful and very warm woman. People were standing in line to meet her. She gave me the longest hug :)
May Allah forgive her sins and admit her into Paradise. Ameen.
To Allah we belong, to Him we return.
I found some information on her which I think everyone should read. It's such an amazing and inspirational story. Read it here and here.

Quran Explorer

This is an excellent tool to listen to, and read the Quran. It has recitation of various Qaris (reciters) along with translations in different languages. It's available here.

Reward For Those Who Obey Allah And The Messenger (peace be upon him)

[وَمَن يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ فَأُوْلَـئِكَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِم مِّنَ النَّبِيِّينَ وَالصِّدِّيقِينَ وَالشُّهَدَآءِ وَالصَّـلِحِينَ وَحَسُنَ أُولَـئِكَ رَفِيقاً ]-Surah An-Nisa, Verse 69

Translation: And whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger, then they will be in the company of those on whom Allah has bestowed His grace, of the Prophets, the Siddiqin, the martyrs, and the righteous. And how excellent these companions are!
Reason Behind Revealing This Honorable Ayah/Verse
Ibn Jarir recorded that Sa`id bin Jubayr said, "An Ansari man came to the Messenger of Allah while feeling sad. The Prophet said to him, `Why do I see you sad' He said, `O Allah's Prophet! I was contemplating about something.' The Prophet said, `What is it' The Ansari said, `We come to you day and night, looking at your face and sitting by you. Tomorrow, you will be raised with the Prophets, and we will not be able to see you.' The Prophet did not say anything, but later Jibril came down to him with this Ayah,

[وَمَن يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ فَأُوْلَـئِكَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِم مِّنَ النَّبِيِّينَ]

(And whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger then they will be in the company of those on whom Allah has bestowed His grace, of the Prophets), and the Prophet sent the good news to the Ansari man.'' This Hadith was narrated in Mursal form from Masruq, `Ikrimah, `Amir Ash-Sha`bi, Qatadah and Ar-Rabi` bin Anas. This is the version with the best chain of narrators. Abu Bakr bin Marduwyah recorded it with a different chain from `A'ishah, who said; "A man came to the Prophet and said to him, `O Messenger of Allah! You are more beloved to me than myself, my family and children. Sometimes, when I am at home, I remember you, and I cannot wait until I come and look at you. When I contemplate about my death and your death, I know that you will be with the Prophets when you enter Paradise. I fear that I might not see you when I enter Paradise.' The Prophet did not answer him until the Ayah,

[وَمَن يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ فَأُوْلَـئِكَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِم مِّنَ النَّبِيِّينَ وَالصِّدِّيقِينَ وَالشُّهَدَآءِ وَالصَّـلِحِينَ وَحَسُنَ أُولَـئِكَ رَفِيقاً ]

(And whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger, then they will be in the company of those on whom Allah has bestowed His grace, of the Prophets, the true believers, the martyrs, and the righteous. And how excellent these companions are!) was revealed to him.'
**This is taken from Tafsir Ibn Kathir**

Time Management Techniques

I recently attended a webinar on time management by Muhammad Alshareef. I learned a lot from it. I'm posting the notes I took. One thing that I implemented was staying up after Fajr and let me tell you it gives you so much more time during the day! I highly recommend going to bed early and then staying up after Fajr! He has a CD set called Time Traveler which you can purchase. He also has a blog which you can follow.

"Journey's End: Preparing for Resurrection"
~ How to ensure every day brings you closer to Allah's Paradise
By Muhammad Alshareef
1. Aim higher
2. Get things off your mind. Whatever you need to do, write it down so you don’t have it on your mind.
3. Write things down in places where you come across them often.
4. Pray Fajr at the Musjid. ‘O Allah, bless my Ummah in the mornings’-Hadith. There’s barakah when you stay up after Fajr. You start doing that and you’ll get half your life back.
5. Oxygenate your blood. Walk etc. You become more alert.
6. Make sure you know when your next break is so that you don’t get distracted by anything else.
7. Delete distractions e.g. chats, games on cell phones/computers. (Indulge in distractions during your break time).
8. Never multi-task.
9. Start the day with important things.
10. Get a mentor or life coach. Have someone hold you accountable for things. Someone who you’d be embarrassed to admit to that you didn’t follow through with what you had planned.
11. Life is like a piece of ice in your hand. You are automatically at loss. You can take advantage of that ice while you have it because in a few hours it ice will melt (and you will be dead). Rasool Allah (saw) said we should be like travelers. What we are doing in this life is not the destination; it’s just a stop.
Steps to master time
1. Niyyah. Make niyyah/intention to master time. If you want to have an excellent life; it will not happen on its own.
2. Make dua to Allah. Your minutes and hours are who you are.
Some statistics on how much time we spend on different things in life.
1. 27 years spent sleeping.
2. 10.5 years spent at work
3. 10 years watching TV.
4. About 6 years on internet.
5. 4 years standing in line.
6. 3 years driving.
7. 3 years in bathroom for men (since they read). Women spend 6 months though.
Here’s getting back 10 years:
1. Make your work your life mission. That gives you 10 years right there.
2. No TV. That’s more 10 years. So total 20 now.
3. Stay awake after Fajr. 10 more years saved. 30 now.
Top 5 tips for saving time
1. Clean the junk in your brain. Put things down on paper.
2. Focus on what’s more important in life and delete the junk.
3. Big dreams require delegation. You can’t do everything on your own. Teamwork is important.
4. You can’t get anywhere in life without knowing where you’re going.
5. Ehsaan/excellence is never accidental. You make niyyah to master time and then you do it.

Addictive Recitation of Surah An-Naba!

Check this out! (Sorry, tried to embed; it just wasn't working!)

Good News For Those Who've Lost A Loved One.

I can't imagine the pain someone might feel at the death of a loved one. However, when you hear Ahadeeth such as the one below it gives you hope and consolation knowing that your pain will bring you joy many times stronger than your grief.

Volume 8, Book 76, Number 432:
Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Apostle said, "Allah says, 'I have nothing to give but Paradise as a reward to my believer slave, who, if I cause his dear friend (or relative) to die, remains patient (and hopes for Allah's Reward)."

Support The Unjust And The Victim Of Injustice

Imam Ahmad recorded that Anas bin Malik said that the Messenger of Allah said,

«انْصُرْ أَخَاكَ ظَالِمًا أَوْ مَظْلُومًا»

(Support your brother whether he was unjust or the victim of injustice.) He was asked, "O Messenger of Allah! We know about helping him when he suffers injustice, so what about helping him when he commits injustice'' He said,

«تَحْجُزُهُ وَتَمْنَعُهُ مِنَ الظُّلْمِ فَذَاكَ نَصْرُه»

(Prevent and stop him from committing injustice, and this represents giving support to him.)

O You Who Believe

While reading the tafsir/explanation of Surah Al-Ma'idah in Tafsir ibn Kathir, I came across this.
"Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that a man came to `Abdullah bin Mas`ud and said to him, "Advise me.'' He said, "When you hear Allah's statement,

[يَـأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ]

(O you who believe!) then pay full attention, for it is a righteous matter that He is ordaining or an evil thing that He is forbidding.''"
So the reminder for today....pay attention when Allah says, "O You Who Believe".

First One!

Assalam alikum wa rehmatAllah!
I'd been thinking about getting a blog and posting good religious information that I come across. I've finally created one! I'm excited since this blog will provide me with motivation to study Islam more so I can regularly post things.
I'll try and update as often as I can inshallah and I hope people find it beneficial.