“Beyond pretty photographs and bright facades there are bruised hearts that we seldom hear about” ~ Elif Shafak (Black Milk)
Photo of the day. Iphotography. Instagram: sidra_mushtaq
Al-Qayyum (The Eternal Executor of Affairs) is one of Allah’s attributes. Allah had eternally undertaken the affairs of His creation. This has been from His Throne to the surface and bottom or inner section and depth of each element within His creation. Allah had specified, for each manifestation, a specific time and a limited period. For each individual, He fashioned a unique body structure and destined, for him, a specified sustenance. ~ Commentary notes on The Hikam of Ibn’ Ata’Allah al-Iskandari
Sunset. Iphotography.
Instagram: sidra_mushtaq
“All things are in God’s hands. To God, no miracle is impossible. God can do anything, God will do anything, for anyone who believes and trusts in Him. The believer is the one who knows that behind all things there is Someone who knows exactly everything he is, thinks, and does, and who sees him completely even though He cannot be seen. The unbeliever is the one who thinks this is all rubbish, a fairytale told to fools by fools. The day will come when God will shake and admonish him; then he will be sad and moan, “I spoke evil and wandered in darkness. Everything was Him, and I denied Him”
Passage from the book: Light upon Light. Inspirations from Rumi by Andrew Harvey
Sunflower. Taken on the Iphone. No filters. Instagram: sidra_mushtaq
Everything that has a beginning has an end. That is a sign in this world. Everyone will abandon us in the end, but God and His Messenger will never abandon you. If you feel it’s bleak, know you have a Merciful Lord and a Prophet ﷺ who is concerned for you. ~ Shaykh Hamza Yusuf (via my friend Zaynab Salman)
‘Know that the world is God’s gift, and that He needs nothing in return, and that your worship and gratitude are part of His gift to you. And if you realise how much He gives, and how little you deserve, you will never stop praising Him. He is the infinitely lovable, the over-looker of faults; the Gifter of all beauty, so we are surrounded by a banquet!” ~ Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad
My friend, ‘The Conscious Muslim’ blogged a series recently on the 10 Companions of the Prophet ﷺ. I benefited from reading his posts, and wanted to share the links here so others can also benefit, inshaAllah ta’Ala.
For those of you who do not know, we run a monthly book club meeting at Rumi’s Cave in London. The Book Club aims to connect like-minded people who are passionate about reading. At times, we have a special guest, either a book author or scholar who joins us and shares some thoughts and reflections on a book they have either written, launched or are in the middle of reading. All very exciting stuff! This month, we are delighted to have Novid Shaid, a friend and the author of the newly released book:’The Hidden Ones’ join us. So if you happen to be around London, please do come along! (Follow Rumi’s Cave on twitter or Facebook to find out about all future events- they do a whole variety of awesome stuff on a regular basis so worth checking them out.)
To be content with a thing doesn’t mean you are personally happy with it. But it means that I am content with God, my Lord, who has ordained this for me. We can be content in happiness, and content in sadness. All the things that transpire in our lives are from God, He willed for it to be. Contentment is a type of submission, that I have no complaints against Him and I can do the best in the situation I am in, and I will seek to find the wisdom that God has in this. ~ Dr. Umar Faruq Abd’Allah (via my friend Zaynab Laher)
It’s that time of year again where Pilgrims from all around the world are setting off for the journey of a lifetime: the Hajj. All year round, the heart has this desire of wanting to visit and return back to the Holy Lands; but for some reason, during the Hajj season, that yearning becomes much stronger to visit and in particular to be around the Ka’aba. Well, that most certainly is the case for me as this is a feeling I have noticed within myself over the past few years. If there is one thing we can feel selfish about wanting in abundance is being able to visit the Holy Lands frequently! Then again, that’s just my personal opinion. Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad sums up this feeling of nostalgia beautifully which I have been reflecting on and wanted to share:
“The yearning for the Ka‘ba which sincere Muslims feel whenever they think of it is therefore not, in fact, a yearning for the building. In itself it is no less part of the created order than anything else in creation. The yearning is, instead, a fragment, a breath of the nostalgia for our point of origin, for that glorious time out of time when we were in our Maker’s presence”
..when we were in our Maker’s presence…
..when we were in our Maker’s presence…
I just get goosebumps reading that part…. the mind cannot comprehend what it must have been like, yet the soul knows what it felt like being in the presence of our Maker in that world…..
May we be invited again and again to the Holy Lands!
(Read the full article here)
In Ramadan, I had the opportunity of attending a couple of classes with our teacher Imam Muhammad Abdul Latif Finch’ in London, Alhumdulilah. Below are some points I was able to write down and thought I would share them here for others to benefit from inshaAllah ta’Ala.
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. All praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger Muhammad, mercy to the worlds.
- We get disappointed only because it’s job (being disappointed) is to show us who Allah is.
- Some people will be used for good, some for bad, but we all are used for whatever Allah wants.
- What is it that Allah wants? He wants to be known!
- You cannot praise what you do not know so how can you praise Allah if you do not know Him? Allah is the most Praiseworthy and we can only praise Him if we know Him.
- Everything in creation has limitations except Allah who is Unlimited. We only come to understand the limits by knowing the Unlimited.
- Every limitation is a door to Allah.
- What gives us endurance? It’s seeing Allah in all things.
- We believe everything is from Allah.
- Since we never know the full story (or see the full picture), we fall short of whatever happens to us, that is why we cannot make sense of things.
- The difficulty we face squeezes sincerity out of us.
- Believe in Him now, and experience Him later.
- When we ask Allah, we don’t ask Him like He is God! When we make Du’a, we don’t ask Him like He is God. We get frustrated and tired or limit what we are asking for. Ask Him because He is Allah. Allah is Allah!
- Mercy is Allah’s definitive nature.
- Allah changes us step by step (i.e when we grow up). If Allah can change our body, imagine how He can change our souls?
- We don’t fully understand the relationship between the Creator and creation; therefore we judge the situation with our limited understanding.
- We don’t understand things because we can never comprehend Allah.
- A flaw is an imperfection. Imperfection is in need of perfection. Allah is Perfect so Flawless.
- We don’t exist to be perfect.
- If you want to know your status, look at the state of mercy in your heart.
- When we make Du’a, it’s to get everything out of our system. Talk to Allah, He is your friend, He is there to support you.
- When we do sujood, we are putting our ideas, our limited understanding and ideas on the ground and submitting to Allah. He knows!
Please be aware that these are my notes where I have paraphrased the Imam thus they are not verbatim statements. Any mistakes, errors or misinterpretations of words are from me alone, so please do forgive and overlook my shortcomings. I pray these notes are of some benefit to the readers, insha-Allah ta’Ala.
Jaza ‘Llahu anna Sayyidina Muhammadan sallaAllahu alayhi wasalam ma huwa ahluhu
Jaza ‘Llahu anna Sayyidina Muhammadan sallaAllahu alayhi wasalam ma huwa ahluhu
Jaza ‘Llahu anna Sayyidina Muhammadan sallaAllahu alayhi wasalam ma huwa ahluhu
Subhana Rabbika Rabbi l’izzati amma yasifun, wa salamun ala l’mursalin, wal-humdulillahi Rabbi l’alamin.
Healing Hearts 
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