Crush That Pride & Arrogance

Indeed you ought to realise that a good man is he who is good in God’s sight in the mansion of eternity; and that is something unknown to man, postponed to the End.

Your belief that you are better than others is sheer ignorance.
Rather you ought not to look at anyone without considering that he is better than you and superior to you.

Thus if you see a child, you say, “This person has never sinned against God, but I have sinned, and so he is better than me”

And if you see an older person, you say, “This man was a servant of God before me, and is certainly better than me”

And if he is a scholar, you say “This man has been given what I have not been given and reached what I did not reach, and knows what I am ignorant of; then how shall I be like him?”;

And if he is ignorant, you say, “This man has sinned against God in ignorance, and I have sinned against Him knowingly, so God’s case against me is stronger, and I do not know what end He will give to me and what end to him”,

If he is an infidel, you say “I do not know; perhaps he will become a Muslim and his life will end in doing good, and because of his acceptance of Islam something of his sins will be taken away, as a hair is taken from dough; but as for me, God is our refuge [or God grant that it does not happen] perhaps God will lead me astray so that tomorrow he will be among those brought near to God and I shall be among the punished”

Imam Ghazzali (rahimullah alay) Bidayatul Hidayah

SubhanAllah I found this to be such a gem of wisdom! The words are put so beautifully!!
Had a bombshell of news drop on me last night, a real test of emaan subhanAllah.

Duas Requested Its Youm Arafah Tomorrow!

Ma’assalam

Kids Nasheed

Assalamualaykum

My brother showed me this nasheed, unforunately my arabic isn’t too great to be able to understand it! InshaAllah will ask someones help on that.

Here it is regardless:

Ooooh … Yummy!!

Assalamualaykum

Update: Added lolly cake recipe look right *all heads turn*

Today I decided that considering this blog is about me and my thoughts (no matter how crazy they maybe). For the next few days Im taking a break from being a teacher.

I love teaching, but its the end of term and I have 10 days off before I start again, so I’m going to delve into my other “loves” (although I do have an amusing post on what happened in the childrens party on Friday, but will post later :) )

My other greatest love is cooking and baking, and as eid is around the corner, I’m going to do lots of it!
As I like teaching what I share, why not what I bake, quite unfortunately I can’t physically give to everyone, so i’m gonna share my recipes.

Previously people have accused me of being stingy with my recipes and not sharing *ahem ahem*, but that isn’t the fact, sharing is caring, but my baking isn’t as tech savvy as my teaching, meaning that I don’t have recipes typed up, they are all written and typing up takes times, as I have to usually figure out the method, cos all I have is ingredients listed!

I will list only my tried and tested ones inshaAllah. Ones that the peeps in my family like (and thats some standard trust me!)

So look out for the recipes under the Pages link to the right, I will post them as soon as I get a chance inshaAllah (right now I have to make dough for my own lot :D )

Duas Requested

Ma’assalam

just did a spell check and I havn’t spelt recipe wrong anywhere (wow!)

Pheelin Philly …

Am I Who You Think I Am?

Or

Am I Who They Think I Am? 

or

Am I Who I Think I Am?

Do I Even Know Who I Am? 

Now THAT Is The Question! 

Where Have I Been?!?

Assalamualaykum

Someone recently mentioned to me the works of Imam Ghazzali and how they were going to try and translate them. So I thought let me dig out my books by Imam Ghazzali.

I’d purchased these books in my madrassah years after our bukhari ustad always used to quote from Imam Ghazzali’s Ihya, and I fell in love with his style of naseehah and wisdom, at that time I had this love of collecting every book the ustaads/ustadhas mentioned (notice how I say “collect” not “read”).

The intention was always “I’ll read it when I get time” but as is with life If you don’t make time you ain’t ever gonna have time!!

So I finally dug through my books and found my bidayatul hidayah - Begininngs of guidance by Imam Ghazzali (RH) and Ihya Uloom Uddin.

I opened the Bidayah and thought “Maaan where have I been?!?!”, That is one amazing book, subhanAllah!!

I had the intention of blogging every bit that I found beneficial, but considering that would end up being the entire book, I’ll stick with what really struck me inshaAllah. So there you are getting a heads up on whats to come on the blog for Allah knows how long :)

Although If I do disappear for sometime (will try not to) it will most likely be because I have my head stuck in a book! Or a dictionary brushing up on my arabic!

My heartfelt JazakumAllah Khair to all the people who I have met in life that have helped me increase my eman.  Those whom through Allah has shown me the way to truly work for His deen. I pray that Allah continues to increase us all in eman and grant us all peers who will help us  in this world and the hereafter. I pray that Allah grants us all Jannah so that we may be together in the hereafter. Ameen.

Verily the best of friendships are those that are made for the sake of Allah , as their bond continues past the barrier of this world into the hereafter.

Duas Requested

Ma’assalam 

Beauty Beyond Words Blog

Assalamualaykum

InshaAllah I’m going to post the Shamaa’il of Imam Tirmidhi with commentry by Sh Zakariyya (RH) on the following blog:

Beauty Beyond Words 

This is already available on the net, but I wanted to organise it in a more accessible format, inshaAllah.

The beauty of these hadeeths is amazing, they were some of the best moments of studying.

I pray you also find them beneficial.

Duas Requested

Ma’assalam

Needle Of Realisation

Today when at the dentist, the practitioner makes a habit of not showing me the needle he’s about to poke in my mouth usually, but today I decided to open my eyes, and boy was I struck with fear.It reminded me of the ayah of the Quran:

“If only the unbelievers knew [about] when they will not be able to ward off the fire from their faces, nor from their backs, and [that] they will not be helped. No, but it will come to them suddenly and confound them. And they will not be able to avert it, nor will they be given respite.”
[al Anbiya, 21: 39-40]  

If we knew what the fire of hell was would we still be so unmindful, the mind is fine with what it does not know, but the fear of pain makes it immediately aware.

One part of our emaan is emaan bil ghayb (faith in the unseen), even with such vivid descriptions given by Allah , many choose to remain ignorant.

Will we be of those whose minds will wake up when its too late?

Oh Allah protect us from ignorance of matters in this world and the hereafter, instill in us a constant awareness of our aim in this world, accept from us what little we do in your path, and save us from the punishment of the hereafter. Ameen Ya Rabbal Aalameen.

Duas Requested
(The Hanafi Fiqh  is fully updated, and InshaAllah slowly, slowly I’m going to attemp the Shafa’i Womens fiqh, any questions  : seedsofrealisation[@]googlemail.com

Ma’assalam

Great Words Of Wisdom

Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (Allah have mercy on him) said,

“Beneficial knowledge is [knowledge] that increases your fear of God Most High, improves your ability to discern the faults of your ego, makes you more cognizant of how to worship your Lord, reduces your desire for this world, increases your longing for the next world, and opens your spiritual insight to the disastrous defects of your actions so you can avoid them.

It discloses to you the plots and delusions of the Devil and how he misleads the scholars who have gone astray until he exposes them to the hatred and anger of God Most High, for they have used religion to purchase this world, taken knowledge as a means to gain the wealth of sultans, to consume the wealth of religious endowments, the poor, and the needy, and turned their energies throughout the day to the acquisition of prestige and high standing in the hearts of people, which forces them to show off their good deeds, to argue, and to be quarrelsome and ostentatious when they speak.”

[Imam Ghazali, Bidayat al-Hidaya]

A New Take On Reproduction & Harassment Of The Muslim Male

A New Take On Reproduction

I’m pretty sure most people have gathered by now that most of my class’ don’t tend to follow normal class protocols.

So today whilst teaching the girls, one student mentioned how her budgie had laid two eggs. She then went on to explain how they had two budgies, then they got married, started kissing and now they going to have babies.

Another student then says:
Student: “Well thats like humans!”
Me: “huh??!!”
Student: “Yeah, humans get married, kiss and thats how they have babies”

The world from the eyes of a 7 year old :-D
What did I say, absolutely nothing, I am not about to explain the birds and the bees to a seven year old, although they seem to know a lot more than they already should :O

Now on to the second part:

Harassment Of The Muslim Male In The Work Place.

Yes its an actual reality folks; as the following story relates:

“Females (non-muslims) at work were discussing beards and how they can be “uncomfortable”, so one points at me and says look at ******** beard it looks so soft almost as though I could get a massage from it. Then another female goes so far as to stroke the beard!”

Now if this isn’t harassment what is? If a male was to go up and touch the face of a woman, he would be penalized without a doubt. Yes the boss did ask if the female in question had “pulled” the beard, but being a Muslim with Akhlaaq, he chose not to get the female in trouble.

Just a light hearted story (its true though!); take the time to smile
:) Its good for the heart and soul (:

Duas Requested

Ma’assalam

The Hidden Celebrity …

At times I feel like a famous celebrity, people stare and kids point, old ladies give disapproving looks. and why’s that?
Am I a famous celebrity face? Or is my face just irresistable to look at?
Quite the opposite actually.
Its cos they can’t see my face :-D

(A reflection from todays shopping trip to highly non-muslim populated place )

Been going through eman reformation for the past few days.
Whats that? Well quite simply its bringing eman back up when you’ve been on a low, yup it happens, but you learn something new each time, and each time you feel stronger an all.

My students recently were discussing how i’m not like “other” ustadhas, some comments were funny, some slightly worrying and some heart wrenchingly sweet. Ive taken alot of flak for my teaching methods, being completely open with my students about everything, most “apas” would shout at children for discussing movies and music in madrassah, understandbly its not a place to discuss it but shouting at them isn’t going to make them understand the “haramness” of it. I instead discuss with them, pointing out the haram factors etc, and boy have I watched my fair share of kids movies (fast forward usually works best), why? I love these kids, I treat them like I would my own, I see in them potential to become great leaders of the muslim ummah, and they arn’t just “kids” they’re little people, they have thoughts and feelings, and telling them to be quiet, sit and pray, isn’t the way to go, to encourage them from such an impressionable age to question to interact and use their brains, is more important. They at times have better understanding of matters than adults do.

Especially now being in the 3rd year of teaching, I’m seeing my little buds grow into beautful flowers and every nasty comment from people andall the flak I get for my “biddah” in teaching, its worth it :) and will continue being so inshaAllah.

Apart form that Im InshaAllah going to be uploading the Womens Fiqh Class handouts on to the blog (check to the right under pages). Until I can find a medium to teach the class’ (buy a new laptop!), I’ll leave my handouts there, any questions you know where I’m at, leave a comment or email Duas Requested