Knowledge is not what is memorised.
Knowledge is what benefits.
- Imam Shafi’
(In other words, that which has results)

Knowledge is of two kinds: that which is absorbed and that which is heard. And that which is heard does not profit if it is not absorbed.
- Ali ibn abi Talib (radiAllah anhu)

Your loud voice is not proof of the depth of your knowledge, for an empty utensil makes more noise than a full one

Taken From The Value Of Knowledge

Its a bit long I know … but read it through!
And If you get a chance read the entire nasihah by Mufti Taqi Usmani

An Incident

A thought comes to mind regarding an event reported by one of our elders. A man was teaching ilm ul-fiqh to a student and he told the student, “I am giving you something, which has more value than gold, silver, pearls and jewels. Every mas’alah is very precious.” The student was very happy about this. When he finished his lesson he went home and his mother asked him to buy some vegetables. He went to the greengrocer and ordered the vegetables. The greengrocer charged him 50 pence. He said to the merchant, “I do not have 50 pence. Instead I have something that is more valuable than gold and silver. I shall explain to you a mas’alah. My teacher said that each mas’alah is so precious that it is more valuable than gold, silver, pearls and jewels.” The greengrocer was annoyed by this statement as he did not appreciate the value of ‘ilm. Therefore he told him in a harsh way, “Away with you! Go and give it to others. I need my 50 pence.” The student was dejected. He turned back to his teacher and told him. “You told me that each mas’alah is more valuable than gold, silver, pearls and jewels – yet it is not even worth 50 pence in the sight of the greengrocer.” The teacher told him, “My son! You went to the wrong place! I shall ask you to do something. Here is a precious stone, take it to the greengrocer and try to get your vegetables in exchange for this precious stone.”

The student went to the greengrocer and handed over the precious stone to him in exchange for the vegetables. The greengrocer declined his offer and said, “I need my 50 pence and not this small stone!”

The student went back to his teacher and narrated the incident to him. The teacher told him, “Now, my son, take the precious stone and go to the jeweller and offer it to him.” When he reached the jeweller, the latter was bewildered at the fact that this young boy was in possession of such a valuable stone. He looked at him from head to toe and asked him, “Where did you get this precious stone from? It seems as if you stole it from somewhere. A boy like you cannot possess such a valuable stone!” The boy explained to him, with difficulty, where he obtained it from and claimed his money.

Thereafter he went back to his teacher and told him what had happened. The teacher told him, “You went to the greengrocer. He does not know the value of a precious stone. How would you expect him to appreciate it? The greengrocer’s shop was not the place where a precious stone could be appreciated. Yes, a jeweller is an expert in his field. Hence he knows what is the price and value of this stone. He knows the reality of it.”

Therefore this ‘ilm that Allah has linked us to, in whatever way and form, we cannot expect the greengrocer, the rich, the worshipper of status to appreciate and honour it. Only those fortunate ones upon whom Allah has bestowed this art of recognizing its value can dignify this ‘ilm. In our present day, this art of recognizing its value is missing. Therefore, we do not appreciate ‘ilm, and not know it’s value. Those who were aware of its reality; that is of appreciating ‘ilm, used to say, ‘Radeena qismatal Jabbaar fi na lanaa ilmun walil juhhaali maalu.’ (We are pleased with what Allah has allotted for us. We have knowledge and the ignorant have wealth.) These were the people who valued ‘ilm. Even if the wealth of the whole world was placed at their feet, they did not give it any importance. They knew the value of ‘ilm. Allahu Akbar!

PS:- If you want the pw for protected posts just leave a comment anywhere. For those of you who know me the pw is my first two names together (dont forget the hh in the second name) no caps anywhere

WaAlaykumAssalam

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”

“Most human beings have an absolute and infinite capacity for taking things for granted”

Assalamualaykum;

Foreign people often ask me what Islam is like in the UK, in terms of dawah and living here.

I like to say the UK is kind of set with Islam, we have many madaaris (boarding schools) Alhumdulillah, and as told previously many masaajid everywhere too.
But in terms of open dawah I think its a new beginning of yet, primarily because Islamic work in the UK started with its own first, dawah was to those who were muslims yet not so practising etc, most of the muslim’s here are from the subcontinents, though this is now rapidly changing.
When these people settled here they had come from harsh backgrounds, where they had to work all day and night in order to survive and came to the UK for work.
Many like my grandma, had never learnt how to read Arabic, so could not even recite Quran.

The first type of Islamic dawah i believe started with the Tableeghi Jamat, they helped make masjids and madaaris, Jamaa’ahs would come spend months in the UK in order to help teach Islam to those around.
Educated women would come to teach the sisters who could then in turn teach their children.

These types of communities were very close knit, muslims and non-muslims got along, and even helped each other out.
(My grandma once told me that, there was no such thing as private baths or toilets in the home, but once they moved here they made holes in the back yards, as muslims women would not go to public baths.)

Even though these people never set out to do open dawah to the non-muslims, they lived with them with the love and resepct taught in the Quran and the Sunnah, and to this day the older generation speak so highly of one another. Alhumdulillah.

But as times went on, things changed (as is the norm) … Many parts in the UK became densely populated by the muslimeen, all would move to these places so they had masjids and madaaris close by for their children.

The term of open dawah wasn’t really acknowledged, but come the past 10/15 years Alhumdulillah much has changed, the younger generation has grown up to realise the need for dawah, not only to non-muslims but Muslims once again also.
The realisation that even though so much is made available it is taken for granted, maybe not even utilised in the way it was originally meant to be.

Another barrier I believe is that the youth feel the elders approach etc are a little out dated, and in stead have turned away rather than creating their own solutions.
Alhumdulillah though now many great organisations have been formed who do great work in dawah, such as WAMY (World Assembly of Muslim Youth) and ISB (Islamic society of Britain) … these are only a few.

I feel though that due to the fact that the core of the muslims community were strengthened before dawah as a whole started, the communities here are well established and are able to cope when things get a little rough such as after 9/11 and 7/07.

This is just a short answer from my knowledge, based on where I live and the people I know.

WaAlaykumAssalam

The Prophet said: A Muslim male or female, remains subject to trials (in this world) in respect of self, children and property till he or she faces Allah , the Exalted, (on the Day of Judgment) in a state in which all his or her sins have been remitted.

Narrated by AbuHurayrah; Tirmidhi transmitted it. Hadith No.1567 of Mishkat al-Masabih.

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were Allah ’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If Allah allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us.

We would not be as strong as what we could have been.
We could never “fly”!

Eight Things to Learn

One time a scholar asked one of his students, “You have spent a long time with me, what have you learned?” He said I learned eight things:

First, I looked to the creation. Everyone has a loved one. When he goes to the grave, he leaves his loved one. Therefore, I made my loved one my good deeds; that way, they will be with me in the grave.

Second, I looked to the verse, “But as for him who feared to stand before his Lord and restrained his soul from lust,” therefore, I struggled against my desires so I could stay obeying Allah .

Third, I saw that if anyone has something with him that is worth something, he will protect it. Then I thought about the verse,”That which you have is wasted away; and that which is with Allah remains,” therefore, everything worth something with me I devoted to Him so it would be with Him for me.

Fourth, I saw the people seeking wealth, honor and positions and it was not worth anything to me. Then I thought about Allah ’s words, “Lo, the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the most aware of Allah , so I did my best to become aware of Allah in order to gain nobility in his sight.

Fifth, I saw the people being jealous towards each other and I looked at the verse, “We have apportioned among them their livelihood in the life of the world”, so I left jealousy.

Sixth, I saw the people having enmity and I thought about the verse, “Lo, the devil is an enemy for you, so take him as an enemy”, so I left enmity and I took the Satan as my only enemy.

Seventh, I saw them debasing themselves in search of sustenance and I thought about the verse, “And there is not a beast in the earth but the sustenance thereof depends on Allah ”, so I kept myself busy with my responsibilities toward Him and I left my property with Him.

Eighth, I found them relying on their business, buildings and health and I thought about the verse, “And whosoever puts his trust in Allah , He will suffice him”, therefore, I put my trust only on Allah .

If you want the Rainbow, you got to put up with the rain….

Translated by: Jamal Zarabozo

“The key is to get to know people and trust them to be who they are. Instead, we trust people to be who we want them to be- and when they’re not, we cry.”

“Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried for only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives.”

“I’ve learned that no matter how good a friend someone is, they’re going to hurt you every once in awhile and you must forgive them for that.”

“Strength of character means the ability to overcome resentment against others, to hide hurt feelings, and to forgive quickly.”

Assalamualaykum

1 - Some shopping advice:
If you are to go home ware shopping at any of the following stores.
a) IKEA
b) B&Q
C) Costco
I strongly advise with a health label warning! That ensure you NEVER go to all three in one day. Or else you will be on the receiving end of the migraine of the century!

2- Deal with things when they come to you first, especially emotional things. If you bury them away, they’ll slowly but surely rear their ugly heads and bite you when you don’t want it.

3- The best way to forget something is to confront it … don’t try and forget it. If you come across it or it cross’s your mind … don’t think oh no, think okay whatever its a part of life. The more we try to forget unfortunately the more we remember.

4- Never do anything in fits of anger. And never react to a situation firstly in anger. Well as we all know, it only ends up in regret after anyway! Although some people are a little too proud to admit that they even got angry … but oh well!

5- A random analogy hit me (this happens quite often, the drilling’s of my beloved English teacher )
Emotional pain and physical pain: Its kind of like, when we break a bone, it hurts like craaazy, but after a bit, it gets numbed, and once its plastered it hurts, but you get kinda used to it. Once its healed its good to go, but that same bone is now weakened and is more susceptible to be broken again and time to time will still hurt.
In the same way emotional pain, it kills at first, then gets numb. But it leaves the heart weakened, and in the same way as you try to keep a previously broken bone from breaking again, you try to keep the heart from being hurt again, but in the end Allah is the lord of our bones and hearts
( I know a pretty thick analogy … but I’m suffering from the case of random thought 1!)

6- Ever think some people just don’t ever seem to care about anything or anyone around them? You think these people actually do not care or are they just so screwed up they don’t know how to deal with people?

Ok I think I’ll stop here for now … Just some random thoughts from your average Jane, living in the average town, in an average country

Dua’s Requested

WaAlaykumAssalam

Jealousy is simply and clearly the fear that you do not have value. Jealousy scans for evidence to prove the point - that others will be preferred and rewarded more than you. There is only one alternative - self-value. If you cannot love yourself, you will not believe that you are loved. You will always think it’s a mistake or luck. Take your eyes off others and turn the scanner within. Find the seeds of your jealousy, clear the old voices and experiences. Put all the energy into building your personal and emotional security. Then you will be the one others envy, and you can remember the pain and reach out to them.

“Men are respectable only as they respect”

“I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”

Assalamualaykum WaRahmatuAllah

Respect is something we all try to have, It starts from within us and then extends out.
First comes self respect … then respect for the people and things around you.

Respect truly is one of the things that when sown is reaped. Respect brings about harmony in differences. But unfortunately quite often this is not the case, in many a situations, respect is either one sided, or not given at all.

But what causes this total lack of respect?

Allah has created us all with a sense of ghira, which is basically self respect, this stops us from doing wrong. Then He also taught us the necessity of respecting each other, and that utmost He is the one who gives and takes respect.

Allah is the embodiment of respect.
Allah being our creator still respects “us” … even though in comparison to our lord we are nothing. Allah still respects us. How?

Think about it … even though Allah has mapped out our destiny (Taqdeer), Allah still gave us free will … respecting that us as humans need this.
Then Allah granted us His mercy and forgiveness, knowing that we are insaan (humans) and we forget and commit sins, Allah granted us that much respect and honour that He would forgive us for the sins we commit and not hold us accountable for our mistakes.
Our Lords mercy upon us is His respect for us, Did we not have this where would we be?

Allah has always commanded that we live amongst ourselves with respect for each other, Islam teaches to have respect for ones brother, ones wealth, ones belongings, It teaches us to respect everything and everyone around us down to the small insects that travel the ground (Remember the story of Sulaymaan and The Ants)

But we as Muslims seem to have forgotten this great aspect of our religion. Instead of respecting differences what seems to come about are more quarrels and fights.
We have all been made individually different, unique, no-body will ever 100% hold the same opinion or thoughts as anybody else.

It is necessary for us as an Ummah to learn to respect one another in all situations.

In our dealings with another we must remember not everyone sees eye to eye all the time.
In times of argument, respect that others have a different argument, and even if you are right, have some self respect be the better one and leave the argument.
At times of disappointment in some one remember everyone makes mistakes, and if Allah can forgive us day in day out, who are we to hold grudges and judge.

If we embodied the respect that Islam teaches us in all our dealings and in our day to day life, we truly would be a more successful ummah
Take heed from the time of the Prophet Muhammad (saw), that was a society carved upon respect, were they not the greatest of people? Were they not the best of the Ummah?

WaAlaykumAssalam WaRahmatuAllah

Assalamualaykum;
I recently just found this poem again, I wrote it when I was in Secondary school (HS).

You are a child;
Maybe only a few months old;
One day you cannot feel the presence of your mother anymore.
Nor can you hear her soothing voice or the comfort of her arms.

You are taken into the arms of a stranger;
A stranger of whom you have no idea:
All you long and cry for are your mothers arms:
The arms full of solace and comfort;
All you want is a mothers presence.

You grow up in the house of stranger;
Try as you may, but never truly fitting in;
The days go by, slowly one after the other,
But all you long for are the arms and the presence of a mother.

You grow older and travel through life,
Passing people day in day out,
But all you long for is the presence of a mother.

Tears roll down your cheeks at graduation;
At your marriage;
At the birth of your first child;
Wishing only one thing;
For the presence of a mother, to share her blessing.

As without a mothers presence life is never whole.
A Big part seems to always be amiss.
The longing for the comfort a mother brings.

M’assalam

Assalamualaykum

“No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness, and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure “

Every so often I conduct Q&A sessions with my girls (Not MY girls, but the girls that I teach )
I love these sessions, they can ask some of the most intriguing and at times the silliest and funniest questions.
They’re an inquisitive bunch and at times I think their brains work a little too over drive in thinking, but you gotta love em!

So a few examples of yesterday Q&A:-

Q: Apa if Allah is the first person in the world who made him? (Asked in all honesty)
A: I proceed to explain to the dear 7 year old, how as humans its kind of hard for us to comprehend something not being created.
(The poor kid still had the most confused expression, and all I could placate with was that as you grow older Insha’Allah you’ll understand)
Ever tried explaining such things to kids?

Q: Apa, exactly what time and what date did Muhammad (S) Parents die
A: Well Amina died on the way back from Yathrib as we know, when Muhmmad (S) was 6 and Abdullah died before He was born.
Student: NO APA!! I meant EXACTLY what time was it 1 o’clock 2 o’clock?

Q: Apa, How could Allah make the sun, if he touched it he would blow up? (Asked with the utmost concern)
A: Allah is bigger and stronger than the sun, and Allah is not like us he can not feel things like we do.
Q: So that means Allahs bigger than the earth?
A: Yes
Student: WOW APA that’s sooo cool!!

Q: Apa is Allah 2D or 3D?
A: I’ll let you know in Jannah Insha’Allah when we get to see him, for now I haven’t ever seen Him so I really don’t know.

Q: Apa why did Allah not give people in the stone-age clothes to wear?
A: Because the people of that time hadn’t advanced so much, they used to wear animals skins to cover themselves.
(I was truely at a loss to exactly what I should answer)lol

Q: Apa what does the soul look like?
A: I have not an idea I’ve never seen it.
Q: So how do you know we have one, because we can feel our hearts we know they are there.
A: We believe because Allah says so, In the same way as we believe that Allah is there, even though we don’t see him. Our soul is our life, like when you’re sleeping you aren’t moving or anything but you are still alive, in the same way your soul is alive.
Student: wow!

Q: How did Allah create all the millions of colours in the world?//
A: Through his greatness, Allah is beautiful so he makes beautiful colours.

SubhanAllah these kids are amazing! At times they ask some of the deepest questions!

Today is a full day on the Seerah Of Muhammad (S) … Should be an interesting time

Duas Requested

WaAlaykumAssalam Wa RahmatuAllah

One who represents any stage of the truth must try to embody it with honesty, trustworthiness, consciousness of duty, a high degree of perception, awareness of circumstances, far-sightedness, and absolute chastity. People who hold high office but lack one or more of these virtues must be seen as having one or more serious defects. This is a clear misfortune for those who follow them.

My dear even in emaan we have our highs and lows, so that we can appreciate the highs and learn from them. We have the lows so that we can appreciate the highs and put into action what we have learnt in the highs.

Assalamualaykum;

Have you ever just been sitting, I don’t Know surfing the net, reading, or doing some-thing that you’re content with, something that’s keeping your mind off all the little tid bits that are usually flying around in your head. And then BHAM, something hits you … kills your mood and sends you in frenzy again.

SubhanAllah that happened to me today, well I should say right now.
Here I was checking out Hadithuna and random blog jumping to kill some time before zuhur salah (yeah I know I could use my time a little more appropriately, but my heads fried from working on the children’s seerah), anyway back to the point. I was blog jumping and some-thing somewhere on hadithuna hit me; it kind of opened an already salted wound (you don’t really expect me to tell you exactly what now do you).

It caused me to think though … that often in life we get a few bams in our faces, they usually are good reminders to get back on track or maybe to make you focus at the things at hand.
So this time I was like ok … what am I missing and where am I going wrong?

Looking back the last few years haven’t exactly been easy, due to a different array of things.
They’ve been years of trials, mistakes and learning, but khair Insha’Allah , we learn from our experiences and aspire to become better

As of late though, I’ve been a little dazed, not being able to put my thoughts straight and concentration levels have dropped way below zero along with the patience levels!
Trying to pin point exactly why and when this happened was difficult, but I could roughly point to an event or should I say a series of events that occurred.

First it was the end of term teaching … Ya Allah …the thought brings back shivers.
My approach to teaching makhtab (children’s madrassah) is slightly different from that of most of the madrassahs around me. I prefer to have a one on one relationship with students, and open environment, not of stoned silence but of learning and understanding for each other. I take the syllabus and usually twist it to make it slightly more inetresting to learn and I aim to befriend my pupils rather than be the “teacher”, and of course this isn’t without its ups and downs … the usual walking over etc.
My students are a bunch of humorous little kids full of stories and crazy quack ideas.
But come end of term time when they’ve learnt quite allot and it comes to putting it to the test on paper or by practical examination … they seem to test my patience to levels beyond any meter!
It’s at these times that I think … why I can’t just take the age old approach of the strict makhtab teacher with a stick!
Along with this there was chaos in my personal life … So the mixture of it all took its entire toll on me, causing me to want to totally shut down.
My love for teaching seemed to have apparated somewhere and also my zeal for dawah and being upbeat all the time.

It seemed everything and everyone was getting to me.

Until one day I sat down … and had a conversation with Allah , This I got to say is quite a relaxing method. I recommend it to all, Its kind of like blogging but how I tend to keep my personal life out of blogging; its easier and you know for a fact that some-one is listening (Allah ) … You can either talk it out or write it out.

So I sat and thought … things which you already know seem to take on a different meaning when you actually think about them and realise their true meanings.

The ayaat of the Quraan ” We do not burden any soul but to what they can bear” and “Allah is enough for us and in him do we trust”
These ayaats are used everyday but the reality is how much do we truly believe in them?

My lesson that I gained was that we can be good at combating single battles one at a time and keeping our eman strong and keeping a positive outlook.

But is our emaan strong enough to survive a war, where you’re being bombarded left right and centre?

We are all on a learning journey; we are equipped with emaan and ilm. They are not 2 separate categories but rather joint, we have the emaan that we are blessed with instilled within us and ilm is the manual to have this emaan work most efficiently for us.

Reliance solely upon one or the other won’t get us too far.

Insha’Allah I make dua to Allah that we can all attain the highest levels of emaan, and that may He embody in me all that I am required to become an honest and true role model. Ameen

In need of constant duas

WaAlaykumAssalam