Islam should be seen more as pointing towards Allah than merely a religion with Allah in it.
Obsevation – Islam
Filling the Emptiness of Our Forms
We are today just like our original forms, hollow sounding clay. Our shapes may have more or less pleasing appearances, but upon interrogation, and we must be interrogated, the tapping of self-questioning returns from the surface only empty echoes of who and what we wish to truly be. We are a farce created by our own minds, we can be nothing more and always less.More +
Observation – Do Not Judge Too Strongly
Hearts and what they do are for Allah alone.
For us, we are left with only the shells and husks of actions and appearances, which are too often fragile and empty…
The scholar of hadith (Prophetic statements, actions and approvals) Shaykh Abu Isa Muhammad Al Tirmithi (may Allah have mercy upon him) recorded:
‘Muhammad bin Sirin narrated from Abu Hurayrah – and I think he (narrated it from the Prophet) who said,
Love your beloved moderately, perhaps he becomes hated to you someday. And hate whom you hate moderately, perhaps he becomes your beloved someday.’
(‘Jami Al Tirmithi‘, number 1997, graded ‘hasan‘/ good. Translation from Darussalam accessed at www.sunnah.com on 20 April 2016)
Effort every day – faith and repentance
The Muslim must learn beyond mere lip service that s/he is only nourishing, safeguarding, wasting or destroying the Life s/he could never have acquired by her own efforts; Allah t’ala says, ‘Oh mankind! A similitude has been coined, so listen to it (carefully): Verily! Those on whom you call besides Allah, cannot create a fly, even though they combine together for the purpose. And if the fly snatched away a thing from them, they would have no power to release it from the fly. So weak are (both) the seeker and the sought.’ [Qur’an 22:73]
Converting/ Reverting: thoughts and fun with semantics
I used to want to be called a ‘revert’ not a ‘convert’ to Islam, but stop the press, it is at last conclusive, I am actually a convert. I think the reasoning on this minor issue of semantics is probably widespread; I am unaware of another genuine argument beyond the one I am about to mention albeit weakly. Our beloved Prophet (SAW) told us in more than one hadīth about the fitrah that each person is born upon. One version goes, ‘Every child is born in a state of fitrah, and then his parents make him into a Jew, a Christian or a Magian.’ [Agreed upon] The word fitrah can be translated as ‘natural disposition’ or ‘natural instinct’; upon this understanding one can take fitrah to be in some sense a kind of innate characteristic.
The Answers are in the Whole
Some people seem to think that Islam produces social justice and that we may take the lessons of this part of the religion and work them out in society. But this is a skewed vision and will ultimately lead to exasperation, despair, it may even lead to a shaking of faith. Why so? No single part of Islam can stand on its own, each being a piece of a larger puzzle, the bricks of a house supporting one another. We may, from segments, discern a shape, a texture and even the edges of that segment , glossing an idea of the bigger picture. But the whole vision in all its glory emerges as something unique from its parts, something solid, self-supporting, a framework within which to act, to live, to experience.
A Plea, a Prayer
Our Lord is He Whose Mercy remains un-enumerated by man or jinn (another type of unseen created being). He has made us a mutual mercy one to the other, in blood, in marriage, in friendship and in love. The prophets and messengers were the best of people and Muhammad (sall Allahu alayhi wa sallam) was the best of them. The helpers of these blessed heralds were the next best among men and jinn and the Companions of Al Amin (the Trustworthy, another ‘nickname’/ title for Muhammad sall Allahu alayhi wa sallam) were the best of them. And today we number one upon the other, folded wave upon wave as a great sea scattered variously across the world. But when the body that seems so expanse and so whole has a heart that is broken and self-consuming, where goeth the soul?
Elegy for the Nation: Rise and Fall
History teaches many things. Prominently, we might say that it teaches us that nations rise and fall. When nations fall, the prime cause, if indeed causes do exist in these realms, is not external conquest but internal corruption. We may object saying that we clearly see nations conquered by other nations, so surely this is ‘proof positive’ that nations do fall due to external conquest. I would respond that it is due to the very nature of internal corruption that external conquest becomes possible. This is of course a generalisation, but I think it one worth clinging to.