“Let’s talk about hijab” – Megan Wyatt

I just read this post by sis Megan Wyatt on her fb page and I just HAD to save it up here! It’s just amazing, mashaAllah!! So many beautiful gems and reminders!! I hope this post really helps sisters out there to understand the hijab at a more deeper level inshaAllah! May Allah bless our hearts with the love for hijab  and His obedience and make it easy for us!!!

So, let’s talk about hijab. (groaning? Read on?)

First of all I have to say that this is a subject I feel I can understand from many different angles. I am a convert to Islam, which means choosing Islam and then to cover is against and so different from my entire childhood and upbringing. I was your typical American “girl next door” before I became Muslim, so changing how I dress, my social customs, etc was huge for me.To be really frank, I didn’t truly change for many years to come. I did the right things on the outside, but it took me a long time to be integrated as a person.

When I wore hijab, it was quite simply because I wanted to fit in, I wanted to

“A brother like that” – Eid Story

Shuaib received an automobile from his brother as an Eid present. On Eid day when Shuaib came out of his house, a street urchin was walking around the shiny new car, admiring it. “Is this your car, Uncle?” he asked. Shuaib nodded. “My brother gave it to me for Eid.” The boy was asto

“You mean your brother gave it to you and it didn’t cost you nothing? Boy, I wish…” He hesitated. Of course Shuaib knew what he was going to wish for. He was going to wish he had a brother like that. But what the lad said jarred Shuaib all the way down to his heels. “I wish,” the boy went on, “that I could be a brother like that.” Shuaiblooked at the boy in astonishment, then impulsively he added, “Would you like to take a ride in my automobile?” “Oh yes, I’d love that.”

Image source: Google

After a short ride, the boy turned and with his eyes aglow, said, “Uncle, would you mind driving in front of my house?” Shuaib smiled a little. He thought he knew what the lad wanted. He wanted to show his neighbors that he could ride home in a big automobile. But Shuaib was wrong again. “Will you stop where those two steps are?” the boy asked. He ran up the steps. Then in a little while Shuaib heard him coming back, but he was not coming fast. He was carrying his little crippled brother. He sat him down on the bottom step, then sort of squeezed up against him and pointed to the car.

“There it is, little brother, just like I told you upstairs. His brother gave it to him for Eid and it didn’t cost him a penny. And some day I’m gonna give you one just like it…then you can see for yourself all the pretty things in the Shop windows that I’ve been trying to tell you about.”

Shuaib got out and lifted the boy to the front seat of his car. The shining-eyed older brother climbed in beside him and the three of them began a memorable ride. That Eid, Shuaib learned what the RasulAllah (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) meant when he had said: “love for your brother what you love for yourself”.

WHAT ARE WE DOING

TO MAKE SOMEONE’S DAY

THIS EID?

Source: A brother like that!

Change of Heart

Dearest Heart

A letter apt for my dear heart! Originally published on suhaibwebb.com and written by Sister Umm Ibrahim. May Allah reward her with good.

Dearest Heart,

You are closer to me than my own two sides, a Divinely apportioned piece of my very existence, sometimes dark and sometimes alight. You’re with me everywhere I go, a fixed companion, running so deep that sometimes I don’t know where you end and I begin. You can be a seat of spiritual happiness for the one who possesses you; brimming with a light no other vessel can contain, seeing beyond seeing. And at other times – and in truth, that’s most of the time with me, dear Heart – you can be the very opposite. At those times, you are the hardest company for me to keep.

Bit by bit it started, all by my own doing: weaknesses and heedlessness, blind indulgence and conscious ignorance; brazenly sinning while turning a blind eye to the spiritual illnesses developing within. One sin after another I committed, until you became almost unrecognizable beneath the layers of darkness building up inside. And I kept committing sins even when the pleasure was gone, just because the habit was so deeply fixed. Even when the sweetness became bitter, and the initial charm of the deeds I was committing became stale and repugnant, I continued, seeking to dull the ever-growing pain inside without too much introspection. “A cup I drank to taste its pleasure, and then another to chase its pain.”

I filled you with all manners of worldly things, but the aching and emptiness would not abate. Somehow, I deluded myself into thinking that the wounds would heal by these methods, and that the inner damage – self-inflicted – would somehow come to be repaired on its own. And I forced myself not to care. I lost something so precious when I lost you, dear Heart, beneath the darkness of sins and the choking hold of worldly attachments. I was a tightly closed shell whose pearl had somehow slipped away.
I found myself with pain running so deep, habits so ingrained, a path so steep before me… and heart-less, in the truest meaning of that word. It was hard for me to see a way to turn back.  But it’s there: I’ve found it, and it’s time.

---

Dearest Heart,

I’ve come to realize my absolute need for Allah (swt), down to my very core, and to see where I’ve gone wrong. How foolish to think that a spiritual vessel like you would be satisfied with less than His remembrance. You have taught me the truth of my existence: that without connection to Him, without the happiness of knowing Him and being true to Him, one will feel a painful emptiness, a sorrow, that cannot be filled with anything else.

I’m ready to strip away empty promises and convoluted excuses. I want to walk on this path upright, penitent, aware of my faults but constantly seeking a way back to Him. I need you with me dear Heart, and I pray it’s not too late. I’ll try my best to heal your wounds, and scrub away to your polished core, by His permission, through worship, His remembrance, and His aid. The path ahead is not an easy one and I know I’ll make mistakes, but I hope you’ll keep my company as we travel this road, the road of repentance, together. I will do right by you, God-willing, and you in turn, I pray, will help me reach His nearness.

Sincerely,

Me

Niyaah (Intentions)

Have you ever come across a point in your life when you started doing things solely for the sake of Allah but at some point may be due to over enthusiasm or other reasons, you suddenly forget the whole purpose and start doing things for worldy reasons? Audhubillah!

Scary isnt it? You know its wrong, but Satan doesnt leave any oppurtunity to lead you astray, to make you do things for bad/sad reasons; For example, you do something just so you can be praised by the world, to be “known”,Astaghfirullah! May Allah protect us from doing anything other than for his sake, and may Allah help us keep our intentions right and for his sake alone!

Niyaah(Intentions) is a very very important part of the actions that we do. One must always remember that no matter what the world says or does, what counts is whats in our heart, because other than us only Allah knows why we are truely doing what we are doing.

It is narrated on the authority of Amirul Mu’minin, Abu Hafs ‘Umar bin al-Khattab, radiyallahu ‘anhu, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam, say:

“Actions are (judged) by motives (niyyah), so each man will have what he intended. ….” (Al-Bukhari & Muslim)

(Please do click here, for the complete hadith and a better understanding.)

It really scares me when I find my intentions changing and I realise I’m starting to do things for wrong reasons, when I begin to get sucked into the glitters of this temporary world. What if Shaytaan(Satan) is successful, and I fall to his evil whisperings, Audhubillah!! 😦 I guess the best things to be done at such times is take a step back ; seek forgiveness and refuge in Allah(SWT), who is always willing to help as long as we are asking for the right thing, revive our faith, do things that draw us more closer to Allah, like offer more prayers and with more concentration and of’course read the quran! Pray to Allah to help us in keeping our intentions right and constantly remind ourselves that we want to do this ONLY for His sake! 

Al-Imam Ahmad said: Before you do anything, check your intention (niyyah) – ask yourself before performing an action: “Is it for the sake of Allah?”

But there might also be times when even though we are doing something right, purely with good intentions and to please Allah alone, people around us tend to think bad of us and may say that we are doing such-and-such a thing because we just want to show- off or like to be praised. In these moments, it is necessary for us to keep our cool, since we and our lord,The most Merciful, knows what’s in our heart, there’s no need for us to be afraid of the world, or try to explain ourselves to the world. Afterall, at the end, isnt it Allah who is going to reward us? Then why do we care what the world thinks of our good action? Is it really important that everyone sees it the way we do? No, We all have our own perspective of looking at things and we all are imperfect in our owns way. So at that times when we think we are being judged for the wrong reasons let us seek refuge in Allah.. Smile.. Forgive (for the sake of Allah) and keep going! 🙂

Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullah! 🙂

P.S. With Allah’s will, Coincidently, today my “Islamic Quote for the day” widget displays –

Whoever desires to purify his heart, then let him prefer Allah to his desires.

-(Ibn al-Qayyim)