One day Shaykh Saleem al Ashkabadi, gathered a group of his first year students in the Garden. He asked his students to collect some wood and a fire was lit.
The Shaykh said; " My son's the reason I have gathered you today is to hand out a prize to one of you who I believe is the most deserving, and has shown the greatest aptitude to learning." The Shaykh, then took out a beautifully engraved,
pocket watch, all the students looked on in anticipation, each hoping that he would be the recipient of this wonderful gift.
" You see my son's the problem is I have been unable to decide, who is the most astounding student amongst, you."; Upon saying those words, Shaykh Saleem al Ashkabadi, with a flick of the hand, threw the watch into the blazing fire.
" So I have, decided that which ever one of you is willing to fetch the watch from the fire, can have it as a gift from me." exclaimed the Shaykh.
The students looked on in bafflement, " Shaykh, has gone crazy!"; They whispered to each other, as they watched the smoke from the blazing fire rise into the air, accompanied by the crackling sounds of burning wood.
" So anyone willing to take up the challenge?;" Enquired Shaykh. " Any one?"
Finally an 11 year old Farid , raised his hand. " Okay "; said the Shaykh " If you can get the watch it is yours."
Young Farid, headed off towards the gardeners quarters, and after a few minutes, he returned, with a bucket of water in one hand and a gardening tool called a rake in the other. After putting out the flames of the fire, with the Water, he managed to get at the watch with the rake. whilst all the other students looked on sheepishly.
Shaykh Saleem was delighted; " Farid my son, congratulations"; he exclaimed excitedly.
He turned to the other students and said; " My sons , let this be a valuable lesson for you. In life you will face many challenges, do not allow the obstacles to overwhelm you which in this case was the raging fire , rather look for the solutions that will help you overcome the stumbling blocks in your road to success. As Farid has cleverly shown you, every problem no matter how difficult it seems, has a solution."
Written By Julaybib.
Something to Ponder.
In our lives we face many challenges, those of us who only see the obstacles, end up enduring countless years of misery , depression and failure. The ones who achieve success are those who when, faced with a problem always look for a solution,that can help them overcome what ever difficulties, they maybe facing. They keep their trust in Allah, in all their circumstances, and do not allow themselves to become the victims of despair and self pity.
May Allah grant us the Blessed gifts of sabr and Shukr Ameen.[/QUOTE]
A spiritual aspirant wrote about his enthusiasm reading the books written by Hakim al-Umma Hadhrat Mawlana Ashraf ‘Ali Thanawi (may Allah have mercy on him) day and night.
Hadhrat Hakim al-Umma replied,
“The percentage of time spend in daily recitations (wird) and good actions (a’mal) should be greater than that spend in reading the books.
Your enthusiasm in this reading is from the pleasure of the subjects discussed and not the love of remembrance (dhikr).”
"Seekers of this world are very numerous. Seekers of the hereafter are comparatively few. Seekers of the Lord of Truth (Almighty and Glorious is He), who are honest about their wish for Him, are the fewest of the few."
[Shaykh Abdal Qadir al Jilani (May Allah confer his mercy upon him); The Sublime Revelation, Tr. Muhtar Holland][/QUOTE]
"Allah's Generosity is connected to gratitude, and gratitude is linked to increase in His generosity. The generosity of Allah will not stop increasing unless the gratitude of the servant ceases."
The Imam of a Masjid, gave a speech on the power of prayer;
" My brothers! no matter what difficulties you are facing if you pray sincerely from the heart, Allah will relieve you of all your difficulties, and shower an abundance of blessings upon you."
The dynamic words of the Imam had a deep impact upon a local Farmer, " My problems are solved, all I need to do is offer more supplications, and to pray with sincerity and I will be blessed with success."
So the following spring the Farmer decided, that this year he would only, spend half his time ploughing the fields and tilling the land. The other half he would spend in prayers. " I am sure to have a greater harvest this year, my prayers will bring an abundance of blessings."; He said to himself.
The months passed and soon the Harvesting season arrived. After the crop had been harvested, the Farmer upon seeing his scanty store, fell into despair. The crops of his friends and relatives had yielded double the harvest in comparison to him.
He went to the local Imam after relating the story, he complained; " I prayed and I prayed, and my prayers went unanswered, whilst my friends they never pray, they are not very religious, yet they get blessed with more, tell me where is the justice in that?" ; He demanded.
The Imam, replied; " My Brother, you only ploughed half your fields and now you show surprise that you have only yielded half the returns. If a man only puts half the effort in comparison to everyone else, then common sense dictates that he will only yield half of the success.
Your problem was Laziness, so you used prayers as an excuse,for avoiding your own responsibility of putting a whole hearted effort into your labor. Instead of praying for a greater harvest, you should have prayed to Allah to cure you of your laziness and give you the motivation to work hard .
Tell me is there anything more foolish, then a man who only puts 50% of the effort into a task, yet expects to achieve 100% of the success? A man only reaps what he sows."
Written by Julaybib.
Something to reflect.
Is this not the case with many of us, we do not put the necessary effort, into achieving our goals. Yet we look at others and complain; " Those people do not pray, yet they have been blessed with more." We remain oblivious to the fact, that others have been blessed with more because they have put in the necessary hard work to achieve success. Prayers without striving, are like a stove without fuel.
We pray for success, yet we neither put in the required effort to achieve that success, nor do we seek to overcome our defects such as laziness, that prevent us from achieving success. Instead when we inevitably fail, we then wallow in self pity, we feel sorry for our ourselves. And we bemoan our misfortune.
May Allah guide us All to that is good and protect us all from what is harmful Ameen.[/QUOTE]
In the grounds of the world renowned madrassah in Ashkabad, there stands an old Mango tree, and it has stood there majestically for as long as anyone can remember. During the summer months, Shaykh Saleem al Ashkabadi, often conducts lessons, beneath the shade of that old mango tree.
One evening Shaykh Saleem, after concluding a dars on hadith, said, to his students;" My sons when I enrolled at this Madrassah, as a 10 year old student, over 60 years ago, the principal of the Madrassah, was the great Hadith Scholar, Sufi Iqbal. He had a very unique way of teaching his students and on our very first day at the Madrassah, he took the six new students, out into the grounds, and pointed towards the freshly planted saplings of a mango tree, and he assigned each of us the task of looking after one of the saplings.
He said; " My sons look after these saplings ,and when you graduate, from this institution I will reveal a great secret to you concerning this."
' I was determined to find out what the great secret was, so I wholeheartedly cared for the little sapling that had been assigned to me. In my spare time I carried water from the well to quench its thirst. I would remove the weeds from its surroundings, I erected a small wooden barrier around it so that any stray animals such as goats did not feast on it before it even had a chance to grow.
' When our graduation, year arrived out of all the little saplings assigned to the students only mine remained and it had grown into a young adolescent tree. Whilst my fellow students, had lost interest in this task and allowed those little saplings to whither away and die, I had passionately stuck to this task.
On the day of graduation I approached Sufi Iqbal, and said; " Sir tell me the great secret, you promised to divulge all those years ago."
' Sufi Iqbal smiled and said; "Saleem, the secret is that the tree of patience bears the sweetest of fruit's."
I was disappointed I thought to myself," All that toiling and striving and this is the great secret".
Sufi Iqbal detecting my disappointment elaborated.; " I could have easily told you this, when you first enrolled here as a student, but hearing something and actually understanding it are two different things. You can tell an individual to exercise patience but the only person who gets to taste the fruits of patience is the one who remains steadfast, and keeps striving, no matter what difficulties he may encounter.
'Majority of individuals behave exactly the way your classmates did when they were given this task, after a while they gave up, and you are the only student whose careful gardening and perseverance managed to nurture a sapling into a tree. In life if you tell a man in distress to make dua, he will do it for a few days. And when he sees no obvious results he gives up and starts to despair. In every aspect of life, whether it is to do with worship or studying, and earning a livelihood. The one who achieves success is the one who keeps toiling and has perseverance, the man who manages to nurture his worship, and his hopes, and dreams, from a sapling into a tree will taste the sweetest of fruits."
Written by Julaybib.
Something to reflect.
Often our dreams, or hopes and aspirations are never accomplished. Our Prayers and supplications, go unanswered because we never allowed them to grow and bear fruit. We want many things, for both our Dhuniyah and Akhirah.
Yet we show neither steadfastness, nor resolve when trying to accomplish them . We look for excuses to give up and quit before we even get started. We find it easier to complain about our bad luck and misfortune. Yet if truth be told it is our own negative attitudes and lack of fortitude, that is usually behind our failures.
May Allah bless us all abundantly with the blessed gifts of sabr and Shukr, especially a hypocrite and sinner like me ameen.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=UmmeGibrel;]Dua to recite at times of distress and sadness:
O Allah, I am the slave of Your slaves. My fate is in Your Hands. Your Judgement upon me is assured. Justice upon me is Your Command. I ask You by every Name You have taken for Yourself, revealed in Your Book, taught any one of Your creation or taken unto Yourself in the realm of the unknown, to make the Qur'an the spring of my heart, and the light of my breast, the banisher of my sadness and the reliever of my despondency. Ameen.
After the Zikr Majlis of Shaykh Saleem al Ashkabadi, a businessman, complained
to the shaykh he said; " Sir I am wealthy, I live a jet setting, corporate lifestyle that most people could only dream of, I could be in New york, negotiating a contract one day, in paris the next. Yet I feel no sense of contentment. So how does a person achieve contentment.?"
" Through Gratitude",
" Yes but how does one acquire gratitude?"
" By appreciatting the blessings that you have."
" How does one aquire the ability, to appreciate these blessings."
" My son reflect on each and everything Allah has blessed you with, whether those things are minor or major, every breath you take, is a blessing for their are others struck with illness, who cannot even breathe without the assistant of machines. Every morsel of food you eat is a blessing for their are numerous who go hungry,and others who have to live on a restricted diet, due to health reasons., whatsmore their are many people whose bodies are no longer able to digest food, they survive on a liquid diet, and receive nutrition through drips,.
If one develops the attitude of reflecting on each and every aspect of his body alone. He will realise how many bounties have been bestowed upon him. The ability to run, walk, sit, lie down. The ability to taste, to hear and smell. The ability to see with his eyesight all the wonders of the world.
Once you develop the habit of deeply reflecting on each and every bounty of Allah. you will develop a sense of gratitude. and once you become grateful, for all that you have. your heart will feel content."
Written By Julaybib.
Something to reflect.
We speak of gratitude, yet we rarely reflect on the blessings that we have.. We only look at the those things we do not have and become deppressed. We compare our lifestyles with others and we feel deprived,and become despondent.
Happy is the man,. who is content and grateful for the Bounties of Allah.
May Allah bless us all with the wonderful gifts of Sabr and Shukr ameen.[/QUOTE]
Despair got stuck at the obstacle.
Hope searched for another Path.
Despair lost its way in the dark
Hope was guided by the Moonlight.
Despair feared to go further.
Hope soared the greatest of heights
Despair spoke; I cant carry on anymore.
Hope said, Keep striving,.
Despair moaned; the journeys too hard i might as well quit.
Hope laughed; I never think of quitting, not even a bit.
Despair begged, please I need to rest.
Hope shouted not before you tried your best.
Despair complained this is a difficult Quest.
Hope thought it was only a minor test.
Despair cried until the tears rolled down its chest.
Hope kept trying with renewed Zest.
Despair sat and waited for Sympathy
Hope reached its Goal, his arms raised in victory.
By Julaybib.
Here is the original.
Doubt & Faith
Doubt sees the obstacles
Faith sees the way.
Doubt sees the darkest night
Faith sees the day.
Doubt dreads to take a step
Faith soars on high.
Doubt questions who believes?'
Faith answers, I.
The World is three days:
As for yesterday, it has vanished,
along with all that was in it.
As for tomorrow, you may never see it.
As for today, it is yours, so work in it.
A famous saint and scholar from the pious Sultan Ibrahim Ibn Adham (RA) was once asked by his students about the verse were Allah mentions:
"Call on Me, I will answer your prayer"
(40:60)
And they asked:
'we supplicate (pray) but we are not answered.'
His reply was:
You know Allah, yet you do not obey Him.
You recite the Quran, yet you do not act according to it.
You know shaitân, yet you have agreed with him.
You proclaim that you love the messenger of Allah, yet you abandon his sunnah.
You proclaim your long for paradise, yet you do not act to gain it.
You proclaim your fear the fire, yet you do not prevent yourselves from sins.
You say: 'indeed death is true', yet you have not prepared for it.
You busy yourselves with finding the faults with others, yet you do not look at your own faults.
You eat that which Allah has provided for you, yet you do not thank him.
You bury your dead, yet you do not take a lesson from it.
May Allah Give us the Tawfiq to act on what we learn,with true sincerity Ameen.[/QUOTE]
somethings i said in a recent meeting with locals and ulema after the isis dewsbury affair
"as a community we over focus on foreign affairs ,every wedding ,social gathering,people will start talking about world affairs as if they are a president of a country.everyone has a solution to the whole worlds problems and an opinion.it is arguable that our over focus on that which is really outside our remit has led to the problems we have now in the u.k.
syria/palestine sadly has led us in the u.k to become palestinianized in our own country ,the uk.
because we always seem to show our concern lies elsewhere,not the u.k or our own street.
i also mentioned that over 40 charities are under investigation for links to terrorism,that is why many recent terror arrests are to do with this matter.
it is upto our ulema to readdress the balance and o be practical and brave enough to say what ive just said.
we need to adapt and develop ourselves and our local communities,its ludicrous that someone from yorkshire goes to syria for whatever ,when he could be tackling local drug dealers,"rape gangs",and all manner of more immediate and manageable concerns.
the individual himself has to develop spiritually,intellectually and be brave enough to evade a guilt laden atmosphere by way too many charities and speeches which imbalance our priorities
all of the above i stated in a public meeting in dewsbury..i also stated just because someone is an alim it does not mean he is qualified to advize and give talks on terrorism.the community likes to take advice from 2 people..a man in a suit and tie..and an alim..
in these times a certain different type of individual is required..a man of experience in that field of terrorism.
infact im taking a brave and risky stance just by posting this.
and i have the utmost respect for our ulema .
You mention some good points brother. I however do slightly disagree with you. We must act locally think globally. Priorities are local but we must co-ordinate globally. Also instead of focusing on charities that do work in Palestine/Syria I would think that we have a bigger problem with the chanda that goes to the indopak. I can't think of a bigger tragedy than the humanitarian crisis in Syria in my lifetime and the UK Muslim community has helped the Syrians a great deal. We must also not lose touch with the Muslim lands, the lands of our forefathers in the indopak as this will help us in many ways and make us more of an assett to British society. You have raised an interesting topic which has been touched on by umar farooq abdullah, abdul hakim murad etc. I however do not agree with them in the sense of they almost want us to just focus locally with total disregard for the greater muslim ummah and the suffering, poverty etc that is prevailent in those lands. I think one of the beuties of our great religion is that as a Muslim I can go almost anywhere in the world and there will be a sense of brotherhood and belonging. This is what burns our enemies and they want to cut those bridges that unite us all.
“Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can - there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.”
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
“When you are grateful fear disappears and abundance appears”
“Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of
loving.”“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
“Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.”
“Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation."[/QUOTE]
This cannot be undone and I am sure it will be greatly appreciated.
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