Monthly Archives: February 2014

The amazing story of Robert Davila

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In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

I’ve formed a habit of listening to Islamic lectures on YouTube while working in the office and I came across the story of Robert Davila a few days ago. It is one of the most amazing stories I’ve heard, it brought tears to my eyes and made my day at the same time.

There are so many lessons to be learnt in this story and I hope to reflect on these In Sha Allah. For now, I just had to share it and no doubt I will be discussing it with as many people as possible over the next few days.

Puts the phrase “God works in mysterious ways’ into real perspective.

I pray that Allah have mercy on brother Robert, that He eases his pain and allows us to meet with him one day. May Allah reward those who have contributed to this great story and particular, Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan for being such an inspiration and sharing this story with the world.

SubhanAllah!

Filling empty containers…

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In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Today’s Jumuah sermon was a continuation of Dr Mohamad Abdalla’s lecture on the importance of time management. The entire lecture series has been absolutely inspiring and has captivated the Jumuah audience over the last 4 weeks. 

The issue of Time Management is something I am passionate about and I was blown away by the 1st lecture in the series a few weeks ago. Since then, the audience has grown in number with many attending Jumuah at Kuraby just to hear Dr Abdalla speak. 

In his talk today, Dr Abdalla mentioned a letter of advice from Imam Ibn Al-Jawzi to his son on the issue of Time. The story caught my attention so I noted a few details and looked it up this evening. This is what it read:

“Know, dear son,
that days are but hours,
and hours are but breaths,
and every soul is a container,
hence let not any breath pass without any benefit,
such as on the Day of Judgment you find an empty container and feel regret!
Be aware of every hour and how it passes,
and only spend it in the best possible way;
do not neglect yourself,
but render it accustomed to the noblest and best of actions,
and send to your grave that which will please you when you arrive to it.”

As a Muslim, I’ve heard this advice many times before but I found this particular line very intriguing… “let not any breath pass without any benefit, such as on the Day of Judgement you find an empty container and feel regret”. The idea of an ’empty’ container got me thinking. 

We place so much emphasis on either doing whats right or whats wrong that we forget about the time we’re not doing anything at all. How many containers do we leave empty each day? 

Perhaps by focussing solely on the good and the bad, we overlook the amount of time we waste each day. The fact that with each hour, we have the choice of filling these containers with good deeds, bad deeds or no deeds at all really puts things in to perspective.  Despite all the good we try to accomplish with every hour, I don’t like the idea of having too many empty containers. 

What are we doing with our spare time? 

Never Miss Fajr… there’s an app for that!

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In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

A few weeks back I found myself struggling to maintain a healthy routine and as a result, had difficulty waking up for Fajr Salaah. It’s usually as easy as simply getting to bed earlier but with a heavy workload, shorter nights and the backlog of office work, it wasn’t that simple. 

I woke up one morning to the sound of the Adhan and realised it was coming from my wife’s phone so I leaned over to turn it down and found myself answering Islamic Trivia instead of just hitting the snooze button. Half asleep, I answered 3 correct answers and the Adhan turned off, I must have been really dazed because I didn’t think twice about answering the questions despite not knowing what I was doing at the time. Nevertheless, the brain stimulation seemed to work and I was able to easily get out of bed to pray Fajr. 

Later that day my wife shared this amazing app with me… ‘Never miss Fajr’. It’s a simple, yet ingenious idea that hasn’t failed me since I started using it a few weeks back. A simple interface allowing you to select your Adhan times based on your location, your preferred reciter and your choice of ‘Trivia’ or ‘Shake’ to turn the Adhan off. 

I found the trivia option works best to get my mind working and is a good recap of some general Islamic knowledge. There’s no snooze button, volume control or any shortcuts once the Adhan begins so the app is geared to get your attention to the screen and keeps your mind at work until you work through the trivia questions. The ‘Shake to Wake’ option is fun but in my experience, less effective. 

The Salaah time calculation is very accurate and locates you right down to your suburb which is very convenient. It also allows you an alarm delay if the set times are different to your local Salaah timetable. 

One tip though, keep your phone volume at about 70% to make sure the Adhan is loud enough to wake you up but not the kids.

The phone is usually a distraction from Salaah, perhaps apps like these can give our mobile devices a more spiritual purpose in our lives. What does your phone do for you? Mine gets me up for Fajr every morning 😉

The App is FREE and available on iOS and Android. More info available here.

 

“He who offers the dawn (Fajr) prayers will come under the Protection of Allah. – Muslim 

A gift from the Almighty… a sacred trust!

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In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

By the grace of Allah, we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl over the weekend. Despite being a 2nd child and having to wait almost 9 months for her, nothing can prepare you for the excitement, nervousness and emotions of child birth. 

Alhamdulillah it went well and after a few (long) hours, we were holding our little baby girl. Occassions like these are filled with emotions and bring back so many memories. It’s almost as if you can feel the chemical reactions in your body and if you’re not careful, you’ll feel some of the liquids drip down your cheeks 😉

In the months and weeks leading up to the birth, I took an interest in all things baby related and began doing some reading to recap on some of the information I had learnt with our first child. After various articles, google searches and lectures on the topic, there was one statement that caught my attention and resonated over time… that Children are a sacred trust from the Almighty entrusted unto parents. 

We were intrigued with the simplicity yet profoundness of this statement which also made naming her very easy… Amaanah! Sacred Trust or Entrusted in English. I hope that her name will always serve as a reminder to us that she is indeed an Amaanah from Allah. 

Perhaps this is the inspiartion I’ve been seeking. 

A new chapter In Sha Allah.