Category Archive

SubhanAllah, can you imagine what a woman Khadijah (ra) was?  How blessed she was to be married to RasulAllah (saws)?  And how lucky he was to have such a woman to support and believe in him?

O Allah, exalt Muhammad and the family of Muhammad as You have exalted Ibrahim and the family of Ibrahim.  You are the Praised and the Glorious!  And bless Muhammad and the family of Muhammad as You have blessed Ibrahim and the family of Ibrahim.  You are the Praised, the Glorious!

Practical Tips in Preparation for Ramadan (from soundvision with added links by moi)

Ramadan is an event that occurs in the life of the faithful, as individuals and as an Ummah, once a year. It is intended by Allah to help us to recharge our spiritual batteries and thus prepare us for the great mission of realizing His will on earth. Therefore, in order to benefit from Ramadan, we may do well to prepare for it by opening our hearts and minds to embrace it. Let me offer a few tips:

1. We should empower ourselves by learning as much as we can about the precise laws as well as the benefits of fasting. Fiqh of Fasting Hanafi, Basics of Fasting – Shafi’i, Maliki book on Fasting, Fiqh us Sunnah on Fasting, general

2. We should ensure that we gain true benefits from our fasting, let us make sure to realize the spirit of fasting: this can only be done by abstaining, not only from food, drink, and sex, but also by strictly restraining our minds, hearts as well as our eyes, ears, hands, tongue, and so on. Inner Dimensions of Fasting by Imam al Ghazali

3.We must embrace the spirit of fasting as stressed in Hadith: to be charitable and compassionate as much as we can. The Concept of Charity in Islam, Muslim Character by Muhammad Ghazali

4. We should strengthen our relationship with the Qur’an; for Ramadan is the month of the Qur’an. Way to the Qur’an, Ulum al Qur’an

5. We should engage in dhikr and condition ourselves to make it second nature. My page of dhikr resources

6. Last but not least, we should build up our community through acts of charity and compassion and extending help to those in need as much as we can. Agenda to Change our Condition

Let us pray that we come out of Ramadan with our faith recharged, gaining strength in our faith and commitment and relationship with Allah.
 

Squeaky has a new nickname…talkative little monster. 

So I got up to pray isha as per the plan.  Afterwards, I decided to sleep out on the couch, so as to not wake AbuS sneaking back into the bedroom – the door is quite loud and squeaky.  In the past, this has worked out just fine.  Squeaky spends 5 or 10 minutes doing her kneading thing on my stomach, and then she’ll curl up on the top of the couch and we’ll both sleep.

Oh no, not last night.  Last night, she decided she must talk to me…all night.  And if I tried to ignore her and sleep, she walked over to the bedroom door and meowed for AbuS.  So I’d have to get up, pick her up, stumble back to the couch and commence the whole process all over again – kneading, kitty snuggles in to sleep, I make my bedtime dhikr, kitty gets restless and starts to meow, I ignore, she goes to make noise to wake up AbuS, I go to get her…you get the picture.  Talkative little monster *shakes fist at cat*

 Don’t let that innocent little look fool you.  Inside is a devious monster bent on depriving her mommy of sleep

I was awake when fajr came, so I prayed it in the beginning of it’s time for the first time since last Ramadan and decided the heck with it, I’m going to the bedroom.  She meowed at the door a bit, although thankfully not loud enough to wake AbuS, and then went off to do whatever it is she usually does when we’re sleeping.

On the bright side, I made a lot of dhikr last night.  Alhamdulilah

Narrated ‘Ali bin Abi Talib (ra): Fatima (ra) came to the Prophet (saws) asking for a servant. He said, “May I inform you of something better than that? When you go to bed, recite “Subhan Allah’ thirty three times, ‘Alhamdulillah’ thirty three times, and ‘Allahu Akbar’ thirty four times. ‘All added, ‘I have never failed to recite it ever since.” Somebody asked, “Even on the night of the battle of Siffin?” He said, “No, even on the night of the battle of Siffin.”  (Bukhari)

Sorry to go MIA.  I’ll respond to comments soon inshaAllah.

Happy 1430/2009!  As always, I make resolutions, but perhas this year, I can actually keep them?

Dunya:

• Walk every week day during my lunch hour, if even for 15 minutes
• Do ab exercises everyday
• Lift weights 3 times a week
• Only spend $20 on eating out each month
• Learn Caribbean and Vietnamese cooking
• Show Squeaky in the HHP category at a TICA cat show.

Akhira

• Complete the 40 grand and keep on going inshaAllah
• Never leave a salat without doing x amount of dhikr
• Learn a new ayah every week
• Leave ____ sin (sorry, that one’s private)

As always, inshaAllah inshaAllah inshaAllah.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://uk.youtube.com/v/YZJT5hJsFUM" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Check it at 4 minutes, 30 seconds.

I’m making our kitty a dhikr kitty.  She sits on my lap and I whisper the dhikr in hear ears.

 This book is awesome.  Seriously, seriously awesome.  It’s not something you can sit down and read in large chunks.  I’m going to read a paragraph each night and then just reflect as I fall asleep inshaAllah.  Awesomeness to the nth degree, mashaAllah.

How often do we just sit and think about Allah (swt)?  How much of our day is devoted solely to Allah (swt)?   How much of our day is taken up by the mundanities of the dunya?   Get up, get dressed, go to work, go to the gym, come home, eat dinner, veg in front of the TV or computer.  Make all your salat on time if you’re lucky.  Time for dhikr or reading Qur’an?  Phffft!  Go to bed, get up and start it all over again.

an excerpt with some questions for reflection in purple: 

God alone, and none other, is the true Deity, the Necessary Existent, who is Creator, Producer, Fashioner, Provider, Giver of life and death, and Wise Disposer (Think about each of these names.  What do they mean in relation to you, to the world, to creation, to life itself?); who has perfected everything He has created, and excelled in everything which He has made; who directs all things with ultimate precision, and has determined everything He has decreed (Think about your life.  Every action you’ve taken.  Everything, good and bad, that has happened to you.  How is each thing the best possibility for you?). He alone is the true God, Pre-existent and Eternal, worthy of inward and external worship (What are inward and external worship?  Which of these do you do each day?  What more could you do?), exalted above all blemish, who possesses the most exalted attributes and the most beautiful names. His are might and majesty; none shares in His essence, attributes or actions.  There is no other God than He.

Anyone else have any other questions to spark reflection on this passage?

That’s about all I have to say today.  Alhamdulilah.  Yes we did.  It’s been a long time since I’ve cried tears of joy.

Also, I think I’m going to name my cat Hope.

Alhamdulilah!

to the tune of whiste while you work from Snow White:

Just dhikr while you work (la il-la-ha il Al-Lah*)
Put on that grin and start right in
to dhikr loud and long
Just move your tongue and lips (la il-la-ha il Al-Lah)
Just do your best and take a rest
and praise Allah right now.

*the whistle that went here in the original has 7 consonants.  La ilaha il Allah has 7 consonants.  Kapeesh?

Ah yes, corny, corny, I hear the groans.  But here me out.  My La TV campaign has lost it’s umph.  I try to focus on doing something else, but I get bored easily, and inevitably end up plopped on the couch in front of the tube.

So I need new things to occupy myself with:

1. Taking courses at Sunnipath.  Just got off the phone with the husband, and he’s actually encouraging me to take Ramadan and You course that starts this weekend.  Alhamdulilah.  Usually, I’ll mention I want to take a course, he looks at it and says it costs too much.  Alhamdulilah, this time he actually realizes how good it will be for me and that it’s worth the $$.  inshaAllah I’ll sign up when I get home tonight

2. Ok, this actually explains the post title and corny song, dhikr while you work.  The goal is constant dhikr in all (ok most) actions. 

Salman Farsee (ra) said, “If a person remembers Allah in times of peace, pleasure and prosperity, then whenever he is in trouble and difficulty, the angels, being familiar with his voice, recognize him in his helplessness and intercede before Almighty Allah (for his forgiveness); but, if one who does not remember Allah in his time of pleasure and happens to pray for help at the time of difficulty, the angels find his voice to be quite unfamiliar and therefore do not intercede for him.” (source)

To further that goal, I’ve taken up cross stitching.  Um, yeah, and that relates to dhikr how?  See, when one is stitching, each stitch is the perfect opportunity for a praise of Allah (swt).  If you’re doing a project that uses 2000 stitches, there are 2000 opportunities to praise Allah (swt).  Instead of counting your dhikr on beads, you’re counting them in your stitches.  And, when you’re done with the project, it will be full of barakah. 

Since I haven’t stitched since I was a child, I’m currently working on an uber easy Allah pattern in kufic.  I’m about a third of the way done, and when I finish, I’ll post a picture inshaAllah.

I figure that during Ramadan, I can lay out a schedule.  Come home, read Qur’an for x minutes, listen to a lecture for x minutes, then stitch and make dhikr until iftar.  After dinner, read an islamic book with the husband, then force him to read to me to practice his english.  Chock full of time for Allah (swt).  No time for tv.   inshaAllah.

Visual Dhikr highlights some of the artists that will be showing their work at Islam Expo 2008.  Go check it out and visit their websites.

The muslim art I have hanging on my walls is calligraphy, but I can definately see putting something like this up.  It’s a depiction of the haraam, the kaba in the middle, people doing tawaf around it and the outer rings making salat.  So simple, yet I’m deeply intrieged.

 Ya Waduud!  Oh Loving One!

The familiar calligraphy lines still draw the eye and lead one to contemplate the Divine.

‘The pursuit of knowledge is bitter at first but at the end it is sweeter than honey’

Again, different from what I’m used to, but so captivating.  Seriously, I’m in love.

Obama Name Games Painful to Muslims

NPR covers some Pennsylvanian Muslims’ reaction to the whole muslim as a schmere re: Obama flap.

On a tangent, is anyone else sick of the “Islam is the religion of peace” bit?  It seems to me that this phrase emerged post 9-11, when the american muslim community was in shock and didn’t know how to respond to the increased, often negative attention their faith was given.  But here we are, several years later, and this phrase seems contrived and stale to me.  Shouldn’t we have had time to come up with something a little more descriptive, a little more accurate?  Islam is an increadibly complex religion, and this simplistic phrase doesn’t do it justice.

Islamophoboes have ceased on the phrase, and now everytime a muslim somewhere does something stupid and violent, they’ll be on their message boards crowing “look at this fine member of the religion of peace©.”  If I ever chose to engage these people (and my more recent response has been to steer clear of places where these kinds of statements are bandied about), my response is usually as such:

Islam is not a religion of peace.  It is a religion of balance that seeks peace.  Islam is the middle path.  We are not to vere off towards any extreme.  We are to be neither pacifists nor aggressors.  Islam allows for warfare, but it places strict guidlelines on it’s warriors.  Terrorism happens when muslims do not follow these rules.  They are not acting in accordance with the religion.  If they were, these incidents would not happen.

It saddens me that Islam is reduced to violent acts of those who have strayed off the middle path.  It saddens me because Islam is so much more than that.  Islam has had a profound impact on my life and my relationship with God.  For me, it’s all about the Rememberance of God.  Islam has given me the means and the encouragement to bring God into my everyday life, to thank Him, to praise Him, to worship Him in every act I do.  It’s not about killing people.  It’s about God.

Alhamdulilah, I had been wanting to watch this for quite some time, but just managed to stumble upon it today.   Well, at least episodes one and three anyways.

I watched episode one this evening, and my overall impression was favorable.  The best part was around the 45 minute mark where a recition of al Fatiha brought a non practicing muslim to tears, which got me all choked up.

I was happy to see that there was a lot of dhikr in the program, although I felt that the leaders could have explained the role of sufism in Islam better.   I don’t know if it was just the parts that were selected for the program, but it would have been nice to hear an explanation of Islam as both a set of rules (like the participant Aisha is focused on) and striving to know Allah (swt).  I wonder if the leaders talk with Aisha about bidah hasana.  It’s not simply enough to say, oh we know the Prophet (saws) didn’t do dhikr like this, and we don’t care, nah nah nah nah nah.  No, explain how the science of tasawwuf developed alongside oher islamic sciences, and how it fits into the framework of traditional islam.

I’m also interested in finding out more about the hosts of the Retreat.  What’s their tariqa?  Who are they  affiliated with?  Who were their teachers? 

And finally, I’ve added Alqueria de Rosales as a place I must visit.   Despite being the granddaughter of dairy farmers, I’ve never felt an attraction to farm life.  But after seeing this video, I can’t help but wonder how my relationship with Allah (swt) would be if I removed myself from the distractions of the modern world and could live in a community devoted to Allah (swt), even if it was on a farm.  I guess at the present, I should do my best to create that atmosphere in my very own home, right here in the frozen metropolitan northwoods of Minne-snow-da.  inshaAllah.

Al-Lateef, One of Allah’s Beautiful Names

From His beautiful and excellent Names is the Ever-Discreetly Gentle (al-Lateef).  He is the One Who is so Discreet in His Actions that He discerns the hidden and secret, and what the hearts are filled with. He also perceives what is in the lands, of enclosed grains and seeds. He is Ever-Gentle with His devoted slaves and makes things easy for them and keeps them away from difficulties. He makes the path to His Pleasure and Generosity easy for them. He protects them from every and means that may lead to His anger. This is through means that they may perceive as well as means that they do not perceive. He also decrees matters for them that they dislike in order for them to be granted what they love. He is Gentle with them with respect to their own souls as He guides them to His beautiful ways and His noble creations. He is Gentle with them with respect to matters that are external to them with every goodness and righteousness. The name Al-Lat.eef is close in its meaning to Al-Khabeer (the Well-Acquainted with all things), Al-Ra`oof (the Clement) and Al-Kareem (the Generous).

From the New York Times:

Dr. Morgan, who tested the method in research studies, said he was inspired by a story, reported by an anthropologist that, he suspects, is apocryphal. It involves Tibetan monks who reportedly ran 300 miles in 30 hours, an average pace of six minutes a mile. Their mental trick was to fixate on a distant object, like a mountain peak, and put their breathing in synchrony with their locomotion. Every time a foot hit the ground they would also repeat a mantra.

So Dr. Morgan and his colleagues instructed runners to say “down” to themselves every time a foot went down. They were also to choose an object and stare at it while running on a treadmill and to breathe in sync with their steps. The result, Dr. Morgan said, was that the runners using the monks’ strategy had a statistically significant increase in endurance, doing much better than members of a control group who ran in their usual way.

la…ilaha…il…Allah…la…ilaha…il…Allah…

Sub…han..Al..lah…Sub…han..Al..lah…

I’ve been brainstorming names for my future fish (still haven’t gotten him yet, dur), no thanks to my blog readers (if I have any, lol).  My goal is to come up with a name that encourages remembrance of Allah (swt).  Here’s what I got so far

• Sabr (I’m leaning heavily towards this one right now.  I need all the reminders to be patient that I can get)
• Shukr (I’m thinking about saving this one for our future cat, inshaAllah.   If you have to say here Shukr Shukr Shukr to get your cat to come, couldn’t that remind you to be thankful to God?)
• Salaam
• Latif (Since listening to the Latifiyya, I can’t get Ya Latif out of my head)
• Nur

Notice a pattern?  It’s so hard to choose, so I guess I’ll just get a fish and 4 cats

I covet the misbaha at Uns.  I *heart* them all, but in particular, I looove this one, this one, and this one.   As an anniversary gift, the husband has promised to get me one, to which I went, huzzah!  But now, I’m having second thoughts.  I mean, do I really need to spend $100 on prayer beads, or should I put that money towards my debts instead?  Honestly, should I even be getting things like this when I have debts to worry about.  Probably not. 

Instead, I gave my old misbaha a (not so) extreme makeover.  It wasn’t really all that bad.  It was just that the color of the tassels wasn’t my favorite and the string was a bit too long, so that the beads kept slipping away from my fingers as I tried to make dhikr.

So, I took a trip to the local craft store, bought some new string, dug the superglue out of the drawer and went to work.  I’m quite pleased with the results.  I may have made the string a bit too short so that it’s kind of tough to work through the top beads, but once my fingers get out, they move through my fingers much easier then before.

Guess I won’t be getting new prayer beads anytime soon.  Maybe for my next anniversary instead.  Now I can tell the husband that he can get me a cat as a present instead, bwahaha!

Before:

 

After

Anas ibn Malik reported that the Messenger of Allah said, “When you come upon the meadows of the Garden, graze in them.” He was asked, “What are the meadows of the Garden?” “Circles of dhikr.” he replied. (at-Tirmidhi)

Want to know my favorite part of Ramadan? No, well, too bad I’m telling you anyways so tough cookies. It’s not the auntie food, taraweeh or the increased time spent at the masjid. Nope, it’s the takbir. That hour before eid prayer spent praising Allah (swt) and sending blessings on the Prophet (saws) and the ummah is the closest I feel to the Divine all year. Can’t wait for it to come.

Text of the takbir.

What do you do after salat? Usually, I make my salaams to my recording angels (kiraman katibeen) and pop up right away to go about my dunya business. My husband, on the other hand, usually remains seated and makes dhikr and dua. He’s been nagging me for awhile to try it, and subhanAllah, I didn’t know what I was missing. Think about it, if you sit an extra 5 minutes after each prayer in remembrance and praise of God, that’s an extra 25 minutes each day you spend in worship.

If you have trouble concentrating in salat, this is a chance to refocus on God and worship in the way that helps you connect best. Heck, it could even help if you’ve apt to rush through salat so that you can get to the other stuff on your mind. Rather than having those nagging thoughts about dunya at the back of your mind urging you to hurry up, you know that you have a set amount of time after the salat to dedicate to God. So, there’s no sense in rushing the salat if you will be sitting afterwards in dhikr and dua.

Why not pick a dua and commit to making it after every prayer? Make it a part of your routine.

Yesterday, I ran along a nature path by my house. There are trees on either side, growing up, shading the path, creating a tunnel of soft green shade. There was something almost mystical about it that tugged at my heart as I trotted underneath the crown of leaves.

Then, today, I stumbled upon this – the green prayer. SubhanAllah, imagine that! inshaAllah I’ll try it in the future. I already try to listen to the Qur’an once a week while on a run. Now, I can pause my music for a bit and remember Allah (swt).

Remembrance of God is a living method of perpetual prayer. It is not necessary to lock yourself away from the world, rather the world of God’s creations is an arena of meditation that serves to remind us of Him at every turn. He is the creator of all.

One of the best methods of cultivating remembrance of God (dhikr) is to associate His Name with the colour green. Green is the traditional colour of the Holy Prophet Muhammad – may Allah be pleased with him and grant him peace. In the practise of remembrance we can connect this colour – the colour of nature – with the gentle, internal invocation of the Creator.

1. Establish the invocation of the Divine Name (Allah) in your heart. Allah… Allah… Allah…
2. Go for a walk every day. Maintain the invocation in the heart as you walk.
3. Associate the invocation with the colour green. Associate it with the green foliage of trees and grass and the green of nature as you go for your daily walk.

Eventually, the colour green will remind you of the Divine Name. Whenever you encounter the colour green your heart will automatically begin to cry out “Allah! Allah! Allah! Allah!…”

The Dhikr is a prayer of nature. It celebrates nature as the creation of Allah. When you are strolling through a park, when walking in a forest or enjoying the peace of a garden, the verdant vegetation of nature will remind you of God.

This is one of the best ways to practise Dhikr (remembrance). Establish Dhikr as the best of habits. Establish Dhikr as the habit of your heart. Whenever you see the colour green have your heart return to God.

And all the [beauty of] many hues which He has created for you on earth: in this, behold, there is a message for people who [are willing to] take it to heart! (Quran 16:13)

Not the path by my house, but a pretty forest path never the less. inshaAllah I’ll bring a camera on a run sometime and take a picture

When I was little, I was secretly jealous of my catholic friends’ rosaries. I guess Lutherans have rosaries too, and the ELCA apparently even has some prayers suggested for it, but it was never something that was part of my family’s faith tradition, or even the traditions of the churches we went to. I can’t really tell from the postings I’ve found, but it would seem that at least the ELCA rosary is a relatively new thing, which may explain why I never saw it in church.

When I began my spiritual journey in college, one of the first things I did was go out and buy a book on prayer beads that came with a string of 108 sandelwood beads. I flipped through the book and eagerly held the beads in my hand…and nothing. I didn’t know what to say. The catholic rosary held no appeal to me. Nor did the buddhist mala. I had nearly lusted after beads my entire life, and when I had them in my hand, nothing.

Now when I pick up one of my sets of prayer beads and let them slide through my fingers, my tongue knows what to do:

This website has some excellent articles on dhikr that I refer to constantly. Unfortunately, geocities gives their sites limited bandwith, so if it doesn’t load, try again later. It’s well worth it.

For more indepth explanation of dhikr from a traditional sunni perspective, visit this page at sunnah.org.

Dhikr of Allah is the most excellent act of Allah’s servants and is stressed over a hundred times in the Holy Qur’an. It is the most praiseworthy work to earn Allah’s pleasure, the most effective weapon to overcome the enemy, and the most deserving of deeds in reward. It is the flag of Islam, the polish of hearts, the essence of the science of faith, the immunization against hypocrisy, the head of worship, and the key of all success.There are no restrictions on the modality, frequency, or timing of dhikr whatsoever. The restrictions on modality pertain to certain specific obligatory acts which are not the issue here, such as Salat. The Shari`a is clear and everyone knows what they have to do. Indeed, the Prophet said that the People of Paradise will only regret one thing: not having made enough dhikr in the world! Are not those who are making up reasons to discourage others from making dhikr afraid of Allah in
this tremendous matter?

Allah says in His holy Book: “O Believers, make abundant mention of ALLAH!” (33:41) And He mentions of His servants “Those who remember their Lord standing, and sitting, and lying on their sides” (3:191), in other words at all times of the day and night. He said (3:190-191): “The creation of heaven and arth and the changes of night and day are signs for people who have wisdom: — consider who is described as having wisdom — Those who remember (and recite and call) Allah standing up, sitting, and lying on their sides.” `A’isha said, as narrated by Muslim, that the Prophet mentioned/remembered Allah at all times of the day and night.

The Prophet said: “If your hearts were always in the state that they are in during dhikr, the angels would come to see you to the point that they would greet you in the middle of the road.” Muslim narrated it. Imam Nawawi in his Sharh sahih muslim commented on this hadith saying: “This kind of sight is shown to someone who persists in meditation (muraqaba), reflection (fikr), and anticipation (iqbal) of the next world.”