Islam has been termed by Allah as the Deen, meaning that its not just a religion, it is a way of life. In effect, it means that you can literally “live Islam” if you embrace it completely. Humans today, especially Muslims, suffer from a disease I call compartmentalization of religion.

For a lot of Muslims, Islam has become a “mode” which they can switch to whenever they like and switch out of whenever it does not suit them. Does this comply with the definition of Islam being a Deen? If you, as a Muslim, believe that Islam is a way of life, then you have to accept it completely. It is important to mention the very meanings of Islam. Islam means to submit/surrender your will to Allah and attain peace from doing so. This means that your first priority is following the commands of Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him) rather than following your own whims and desires.

Please reassess your concept of Islam, ask yourself if you have compartmentalized Islam? If yes, what is it that you cannot accept fully, what is that stops you from embracing it completely? As most of the Muslims are born so because of their parents being Muslim, they don’t really care much about Islam. It is something which they have inherited, not something we have made an effort to learn. The Qur’an points out unbelievers who used to follow “the religion of their forefathers”. Most of the Muslims do the same today.

As a Muslim, we should be different from unbelievers. Ask yourself, what is it that makes you different? Please note that I am not insinuating that any Muslim is an unbeliever, rather I am stressing the point that Muslims should be different. We should be different because we do not let our desires to overshadow our religious duties. We should depend only on Allah. This does not mean that if someone helps us, we should not thank them. One of the most prominent indicators of a good Muslim is that he/she is very humble.

We have to strive for everything in this life, Islam is no exception. This is the model created by Allah, the Almighty. We have to put in effort and work hard to achieve true success. As Muslims we have the dual duty of keeping ourselves on the Straight Path, and giving the message of Islam to others.

May Allah Enable Us to Embrace Islam Completely.

I come from Pakistan, a country where religion and culture have been amalgamated to the extent that many of the Muslims do not know what constitutes religion and what is it that forms a part of the culture. It is extremely important to distinguish between the two and set priorities. Why? Simply because Allah will judge us based upon our religion not our culture. Our cultural norms and values should remain within the limits and constraints set by religion. Sadly, it is not the case anymore. I am sure that people from other Muslim countries have encountered this as well.

If you do anything which is against cultural norms, people will scold you, ridicule and mock you. People who are susceptible to opinions of other people get caught in such a scenario. They think that following cultural norms and values, even those which are not recommended by religion is fine. The root of this thinking lies in the weakness of the concept of Tau’heed. Most of the people think that if they will not follow customs and norms which are dictated by the culture, they will lose respect and dignity in the society. It is so strange that such people do forbidden things to please other people. It does not occur to them that it is more important to please Allah, as He is the Master of the Day of Judgement. He is the one who will hold us accountable for what we do in our lives. Think about it, do you want to please Allah or people. This is a matter of prioritizing things in your life.

As the distinction between religion and culture is not clear to most of the people, this confusion is passed on to the subsequent generations. For example, people spend huge sums of money on marriages. They do this to establish respect and dignity in the society. They think that by doing so, their status will be elevated in the society. Subhan’Allah. Allah had made clear 1400 years back that the true measure of ones status is their taqwa (piety). It has nothing to do with what people think about that person. In fact, all of us know that every Prophet (peace be on all of them) was opposed vehemently by their people and many of them were murdered. Who has the most respect and dignity among the whole of mankind. It is undoubtedly all the great Prophets who carried out the mission ordained by Allah.

Islam is a way of life. A way of life that was revealed to the last and final messenger, Muhammad (peace be upon him). A Deen which is complete. True respect and dignity and in fact everything that is good is from Allah and everything that is bad is the doing of our own souls. As Allah says in the Qur’an

Whatever benefit comes to you (O man!), it is from Allah, and whatever misfortune befalls you, it is from yourself, and We have sent you (O Prophet!), to mankind as a messenger; and Allah is sufficient as a witness. (Al-Nisa, 4:79)

Also,

O ye who believe! Whoso of you becometh a renegade from his religion, (know that in his stead) Allah will bring a people whom He loveth and who love Him, humble toward believers, stern toward disbelievers, striving in the way of Allah, and fearing not the blame of any blamer. Such is the grace of Allah which He giveth unto whom He will. Allah is All-Embracing, All-Knowing. (Al-Maeda, 5:54)

May Allah Guide Us All to the Straight Path.

We come into this world with celebrations around us. Smiles, cheers, happiness spread all around the family, friends and relatives. As we grow up and come of age, we start understanding that death is a “feature” that is built-in to the “human machine”. As we have definitely more sources of knowledge and news available these days, which enables us to be more aware of what is happenning in the world. At the same time, it means that we hear about people dying in a natural disaster, an accident, a murder, serial killing etc. Such incidents have become so common in the news that we tend to ignore them. By ignoring I mean, we do not take them as seriously as we should as all of them serve as reminders for us.

As we grow up, our circle of friends grows. Getting married extends the circle of acquaintances even further. As we get to know more people, the probability that someone among them would die increases. This means that as we get older, we are reminded more frequently about death. The increase in frequency should make us think, but lets ask ourselves, how many of us think about death? How frequently?

Allah says in the Qur’an in Surah Al’Waqiya, Chapter 56, Verse 60

“We have ordained death among you and We are not to be overcome”

For more related verses from the Qur’an, please check out this video.

No one in this world can deny death. Everyone of us will perish. Take those reminders seriously and seek forgiveness from Allah and pray that He may guide you to the Straight Path.

Dhikr, the remembrance of Allah, has been emphasized several times in the Qur’an.

“So when you have performed your devotions, then laud Allah as you lauded your fathers, rather a greater lauding. But there are some people who say, Our Lord! give us in the world, and they shall have no resting place. And there are some among them who say: Our Lord! grant us good in this world and good in the hereafter, and save us from the chastisement of the fire. They shall have (their) portion of what they have earned, and Allah is swift in reckoning.” (Chapter 2, Verse 200-202)

Subhan’Allah (Glory Be to Allah), the only one worthy of being worshipped and remembered. At another place Allah says in the Qur’an

“Those only are believers whose hearts become full of fear when Allah is mentioned, and when His communications are recited to them they increase them in faith, and in their Lord do they trust.” (Chapter 8, Verse 2)

There are numerous other verses praising the ones who remember Allah. While Salah (prayer) is a form of praising Allah, how should we praise Allah in addition to Salah? There are lots of narrations in the Hadeeth that mention authentic ways of remembering Allah and praising Him.

Fortress of the Muslim is a compilation of authentic supplications and invocations for remebering Allah. Please download it from the link below and use it. Insha’Allah you will benefit greatly from it.

Download Fortress of the Muslim

May Allah Guide Us All to the Right Path.

As most of you know already that I come from Pakistan. I came to United States in the year 2006 as a student. I have been thinking about my experience here in the United States. As I was raised in Pakistan, it is natural for me to have a natural liking and association with my homeland. During my first visit, I felt quite sad leaving my country, but I knew that I was going for a good purpose.

There are so many things that we do in our lives which remind us of the Hereafter if we ponder. For example, when we take exams, if we have no preparation, we obviously would perform bad and then feel guilty about it. Everyone has encountered similar situations in life. I think this is a reminder from Allah about the Ultimate Exam on the Day of Judgement.

If you think deeply, we are essentially travelers in this world. As we get attached to and love our homeland because we have been raised there, in the exact same manner, we love to live in this world. When we leave our respective homelands, we feel sad and down because we are very attached to it. In a similar fashion, as we live through our lives, the association with the Duniya (world) becomes stronger. We tend to get more involved in the Duniya, even after knowing that we are all just mere travelers and all of us would have to leave this world one day.

The point I want to highlight is that we should ask ourselves this question. Given that death is a fact, do we want to be happy or sad when we leave this world? All of us, who have left their homeland know the feeling I am talking about. Amplify that feeling, make it more intense in the context of leaving this Duniya. Would not you wish to leave this world happily?

If you do, then strive for the Deen, the religion of Islam, do what Allah has ordered to do and abstain from what He has forbidden. There are great benefits in leaving your homeland for a good purpose. It makes you think about your life as a whole.

May Allah Guide Us All to the Right Path

Salah (prayer) is a Fard (obligatory) act and one should strive to make it perfect. The scale for perfection is ofcourse the Salah of Rasulullah (peace be upon him). Being a Sunni who practices the Hanafi madhab I would like to refer to you some sources which talk about Salah in detail with authentic narrations from the Qur’an and Hadeeth.

It is important to first understand why one should follow an imam among the four imams. Moreover, it is also imperative to understand why one should follow only ONE imam. This along with how to perform Wudu (ablution) and Salah properly are described at the link given below.

Sifatus Salat: The Method of Salat in the Light of Authentic Ahadith

May Allah guide us all to the Right Path

Both fear and hope play a fundamental role in our lives. None of us can deny the reality of death. Everyone one us will perish, Subhan’Allah (Glory be to Allah). Sometimes when we are involved in a serious accident, or a close call, a severe disease etc., death stares us in our faces. That is the closest we get to fearing death. Otherwise we remain totally unaware of it as if we would live in this world forever. The fear of death and the awareness that all of us would be held accountable for our deeds on the Day of Judgement ought to guide us to the Straight Path. Fearing death in the right sense is actually fearing God, because God has decreed death for all of us.

On the other hand, a lot of us fear other people more than God. There are plenty of things that we do in our lives just to please people. Either we boast off or because of fear of people talking about us we do things in a certain way. This is wrong kind of fear. We should ask ourselves, whom do we fear more? God or people?

Hope drives all of us in both normal and difficult situations. It helps us to move on and stay determined. However, hoping without action is not only wrong but foolish. It is absurd to do no preparation for an exam and then hope to get good marks. Why don’t we apply the same principle when it comes to our lives? It would definitely be extremely foolish to not prepare for the Day of Judgement and hope for Paradise.

Granted, that God is the most merciful and the most forgiving, but remember that He is also the most Just. So strive hard to seek the truth and continually seek forgiveness. Most of all, evaluate yourself. Check whether you have the right balance of fear and hope.

Allah says in the Chapter 2 of Qur’an

“ And thus We have made you a medium (just) nation that you may be the bearers of witness to the people and (that) the Messenger may be a bearer of witness to you; and We did not make that which you would have to be the qiblah but that We might distinguish him who follows the Messenger from him who turns back upon his heels, and this was surely hard except for those whom Allah has guided aright; and Allah was not going to make your faith to be fruitless; most surely Allah is Affectionate, Merciful to the people.”

Do justice to yourselves.

Notice that Chapter 2 has 286 verses and Allah is talking about “medium” in exactly the 286/2 = 143rd verse. Subhan’Allah (Glory Be to Allah)

May Allah guide us all to the Straight Path.