Plant the seeds of success in this world But what grows is only in Allah’s control.

You are only responsible for planting that seed plant the seeds of success in this world But what grows is only in Allah’s control. 

Source of the article : http://islamicrays.tumblr.com/post/183650815262/the-messenger-of-allah-peace-and-blessings-be

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “If the Hour were established upon one of you while he has in his hand a sapling, then let him plant it.”

The world can be a scary, dark place sometimes. You might feel like people are out to get you because of who you are, or that people willfully misunderstand you because of the tone of your skin, your features, or what you wear on your head.

You will be afraid sometimes. In these moments of fear and doubt, you’ll wonder if it’s worth it to keep going. You’ll wonder if it’s worth it to dream, to plan, to capitalize on your potential. You’ll wonder if bending yourself toward the light is a futile endeavour.

And then a day will come and you’ll find yourself holding seeds of promise in your palms and wondering – should I plant these? Is there any point?

Plant them. Gently place them on the earth, cover them with the soil they need to grow, water them, and let the sun tug at them until they crack open and shoot out of the ground to reach toward the sky.

Plant them, even if the darkness tells you “there’s no hope, they’ll never grow.”

When you’ve planted your seeds, you might become impatient. You might visit the patch of earth daily, sprinkling it with water and waiting. But try as you may, you can’t coax the little seed to crack open and grow. You are not in control.

When we plant the seeds of success in this world, we always want to see the fruit of our labour right away. But what grows is only in Allah’s control. When He says, “Be,” then it is.

You are only responsible for planting that seed: a good word, a smile, a dollar in the donation box, a helping hand to someone in need. Plant them, liberally. Make it your life’s goal to be the farmer of good deeds.

But instead of standing around and waiting for them to grow, walk forward and keep planting. When you’re leaving a trail of planted good deeds, don’t look back expecting payment in return for what you’ve done.

You will only fully understand what your seeds have grown into on the day when you’re standing in front of your Lord, reading your book of deeds.

I pray that day, we will all be owners of groves that extend far beyond what the eye can see.

Asma Hussein

The Road to Maturity: On Dealing with Life’s Unsolvable Problems

Source of the article : http://hawramani.com/the-road-to-maturity-on-dealing-with-lifes-unsolvable-problems/

Every person’s life seems to contain problems that have no solution. Such problems can last for years, even decades. Among such problems are:

• Poverty: A person’s life may be denied many joys and contain many indignities brought about by poverty.
• Having a disabled child: An otherwise happy and wealthy couple may be force to worry and spend much of their time and energy in the care of a disabled child, without any hope of things getting much easier.
• Having to take care of an elderly parent: There are people who spend years as part-time nurses, having to take care of a parent that cannot take care of himself/herself. The person may not be able to afford professional care, so that despite their life’s various demands, this extra demand is placed on them, sometimes for many years or a decade.
• Illness: There are people who suffer from an illness that prevents them from enjoying the foods they like or the activities they enjoy. Some illness are uncurable and will put a damper on a person’s life for the rest of their lives.
• Family problems: A person may have nearly everything they want, but their life may be made extremely difficult due to abuse or neglect from a spouse, meanness from family members, or having a child that constantly gets into serious trouble.

There problems are unsolvable in the sense that there are generally no quick solutions to them. We desire to live in Paradise on earth, having a peaceful and easy life that is not marred by any serious issues. We wish to live in a light-hearted comedy rather than a tragedy.

But that desire for perfect peace will never come true in this life, because that is not the purpose of this life. Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari says:

So long as you are in this world, be not surprised at the existence of sorrows.

Ibn al-Qayyim says:

God, glory to Him, created His creation to worship Him, and that is their purpose, as He says: “I have not created jinn and humans except to worship Me” [Quran 51:56]. It is clear that the perfect servitude and worship that is required of humans cannot be achieved in the Home of Bliss [Paradise], but can only be achieved in the home of affliction and trials.

Ibn al-Jawzi says:

The worldly life has been created as a place of testing. The wise person should fully habituate himself to patience.

We want to escape this world with all of its little annoyances and worries and inconveniences so that we can enter a world of perfect peace. But this desire is mistaken and can never be attained in this world. Even if we unexpectedly acquire great wealth, leave behind all of our worries, move to a different country, buy an amazing house, and find a great spouse, the excitement of all of these will wear off in a few day, and we will feel as if we are back to square one. Problems will start to haunt us again out no nowhere. The perfect spouse may end up not being so perfect. We may engage in a seemingly profitable business enterprise that brings us great fear and worry, perhaps due to choosing the wrong business partner. If the wealth is enough to make us needless of any extra work or investment, we may dedicate ourselves to making art, or writing novels or poetry, only to experience discontent and grief as people ignore or criticize our works. Meanwhile, in our new social circle we may start to be judged for all kinds of things that we dislike to be judged for, and this may make us feel inferior.

While films and novels often tell us that we can live happily ever after once we solve our problems, get rich, or escape our past lives, reality will always prove this false. This world is a place of testing. There is no escaping God’s tests, and He knows better than anyone else exactly how to test you. Even if you are the ruler of the world, God can defeat all of your plans and place you in utter misery if He wishes. There is no escape from God. Regardless of where we run to, He will always be there first, ready with the next barrage of tests designed to build us into better and worthier people.

If you suffer from a problem of inconvenience and think “This is too stupid, I shouldn’t be having to deal with this type of nonsense!”, you have actually misunderstood the test. If something makes you feel discontented, impatient, angry or unthankful toward God, then that is exactly the type of test you should be going you through. A test that does not hit you right where it hurts is not a proper test. You have to best tested for all that you have, each test should reach deep into you and tempt you to anger and ungratefulness.

The Building of Character

Ibn al-Qayyim says:

When God tests you it is never to destroy you. When He removes something in your possession it is only in order to empty your hands for an even greater gift.

God does not take sadistic pleasure in seeing us suffer. The purpose of His tests is to show us our true natures, our weaknesses and our absolute dependence on His mercy, and these things prompt us to seek to improve ourselves. People who are never shown their faults and weaknesses fail to develop. If we are unaware that a problem exists, we have no incentive to seek a solution.

Mostafa Sadeq al-Rafi’i says:

When I looked into history I found a small number of individuals whose lives mirrored the life-cycle of a grain of wheat. They were torn from their roots, then crushed, then ground in mills, then kneaded with fists, then rolled out and baked in ovens at high temperatures… just so they could provide food for others.

The best people you meet are not people who have been spared life’s troubles. They are people who been crushed again and again by life’s troubles until they have reached a state of near-perfect acceptance and humility, so that they no longer reject God’s decrees nor do they desire to escape their lives. They know God is in charge, and that He can cure them from their distress any time He wants. They look to Him for help and seek refuge only in Him. The poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, who suffered for years from a painful illness and from loneliness and nostalgia, expresses this type of thinking in his famous 1962 poem Sabr Ayyub (The Patience of Job).

For You is praise, no matter how long the distress lasts,
And no matter how oppressive the pain becomes,
For You is praise, afflictions are bestowals,
And suffering is of Your bounty.
Did You not give me this darkness?
And did You not give me this dawn?
Does the ground then thank raindrops,
But get angry if the clouds do not find it?
For long months, this wound
Has been cutting my sides like a dagger.
The affliction does not calm at morning,
And nighttime does not bring death to wipe out the agony.
But if Job was to cry, he would cry,
“For You is Praise, for suffering is like drops of dew,
And wounds are presents from the Beloved,
The stacks of which I hug to my chest.
You presents are in my line of sight, they do not leave,
Your presents are accepted, bring them on!”
I hug my wounds and call out to visitors:
“Look here and be jealous,
For these are presents from my Beloved!”
And if the heat of my fever approaches fire,
I would imagine it a kiss from You fashioned from flame.
Beautiful is insomnia, as I watch over Your heaven
With my eyes, until the stars disappear
And until Your light touches the window of my home.
Beautiful is the night: The hooting of owls
And the sound of car horns from a distance
The sighs of patients, a mother retelling
Tales of her forefathers to her child.
The forests of a sleepless night; the clouds
As they veil the face of heaven
And uncover it from under the moon.
And if Job cried out, he would say:
“For You is praise, O One who hurls fate,
And O One Who, after that, decrees the cure!”

If you are tested, instead of thinking “This shouldn’t be happening to me!”, consider it an opportunity to practice patience and a call to improve yourself. We never grow if we constantly turn our backs on our problems. Growth happens when we accept that this is exactly what we should be going through, this is God’s decree for us. If God wants, He can remove our difficulty in an instant. If we feel impatient and discontented, this is a clear sign that we are not close enough to God, that we are rejecting Him. We are, in effect, telling Him “We dislike this thing that You are doing to us O God and reject Your decree for us, we know better than You what should be happening to us, and this is not it.” You will meet many religious people who are stuck in this way of thinking. Their life’s difficulties, failures and missed opportunities are present in their minds and they blame God for not providing them with a better lot.

That is the state of a spiritually stagnant person. As for the best of the believers, they walk with God through life. They know He is in charge. They know that life’s difficulties are reminders from God that they should not put their trust in this world and that they should not expect to achieve perfect peace in it. Perfect peace is only achievable in the afterlife. Abdullah, son of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, asked his father one day:

"O Father, when will we ever achieve rest?"

His father looked him in the eye and said:

"With the first step we take into Paradise."

Rather than feeling discontented with life’s unsolvable problems, accept them and tell yourself that this is the fate that has been decreed for you. If you wish for a better fate, if you wish God to raise your status and remove the various indignities you suffer in life, ask Him to raise your status. Only He can help you. Ibn al-Qayyim says:

Whoever among the workers wishes to know his status in the eye of the King, then let him look at what jobs He gives him and with what He busies him.

If you want to have a better lot in life, if you want your life to be more meaningful and to contain fewer problems, then ask yourself whether you deserve it, whether you deserve to be given special treatment over the millions of people who are equally suffering. In reality, you want God to treat you as if you are special. Do you deserve such treatment? If you constantly turn your back on Him, if you only do the minimum He asks of you, if you never take refuge in Him and do not consider Him in charge, then you are giving Him no reason to treat you specially. If you want a higher status in life, become the type of person who deserves a higher status in life. Do your best to stay close to Him. You should ask Him for these five things in every prayer you pray (during prostration) (I have written my favorite Arabic prayer words that I say for these purposes):

• To forgive your sins. Allahumma innaka affuwwun tuhibbul afwa faafu anni (O God, you are the Most Forgiving, and You love forgiveness, so forgive me.)
• To guide you and increase your knowledge and wisdom. Allahumma zidni ilman wahdini li aqraba min haza rushdan (O God, increase me in knowledge and guide me to a better state of maturity than what I currently possibly)
• To support you: Allahummanasurni wa anta khairun nasireen (O God, support me, and You are the best of supporters.)
• To bless your time and works: Allahumma baarik fi aamali wa awqati (O God, bless my works and my times/moments.)
• To make things easy for you: Allahumma yasir li amree (O God, make the matters of my life easy for me.)

As Muslims, the best source of guidance we have is the Quran. Always remember the saying of the famous Pakistani poet and scholar Muhammad Iqbal:

Of the things that had a profound effect on my life is an advice I heard from my father: "My son, read the Quran as if it was sent down specifically to you."

Make the Quran your guide in life and treat as if it was sent down to you this very moment. The Quran is not meant to be a reference that we leave on the shelf. It is meant to be a guide that is present with us through life. When you suffer difficulty and discontent, always go back to the Quran and it will teach you a new lesson every time if you persevere in reading it.

Difficulties are part of the design of our universe. If we want to mature and to be raised in status, instead of rejecting God’s decrees, we must accept them, embrace them and seek refuge and support only in Him. Only He can make things easy for us, help us mature, make our lives more meaningful and raise our status. And rather than expecting to achieve perfect peace in this life, we should accept its nature (that there can be no perfect peace in it), and we should instead put our hopes for our final rest in the afterlife.

The life of this world will never live up to our expectations. We always think if only we get this or that we will be so happy! But as soon we get there, we start to feel like we are back to square one. Life’s problems continue to haunt us. And there is no escape. There are elderly people who, having always rejected God’s decrees, continue to express anger at life for throwing problems and undignities in their faces. Do not be like them. Accept the nature of this world. If you want your life to be more meaningful, if you want your difficulties to raise you rather than degrade you, ask God to raise your status, and do what is necessary to please Him and convince Him that you deserve a better lot in life.

• Islam and Depression: A Survival Guide
• God has not abandoned you: Regaining your sense of purpose when life feels spiritually empty, lonely and meaningless

 Posted In Essays | Featured

 Tagged Ahmad ibn Hanbal | Badr Shakir al-Sayyab | dua (supplication) | Ibn al-Jawzi | Ibn al-Qayyim | Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari | Islam and hardship | Mostafa Sadeq al-Rafi'i | Muhammad Iqbal | spiritual growth | The Quran

DESTINY FATE IN ISLAM IN NUTSHELL

DESTINY FATE IN ISLAM IN NUTSHELL

Tawakkul means putting in one’s best efforts—leaving no stone unturned, and then putting one’s trust in Allah and not in one’s own efforts or availability of the means one has, because whatever the outcome, it comes about only with the approval and decree of Allah and not otherwise. It is reported that one day Prophet Muhammad (SAW) noticed a Bedouin leaving his camel without tying it and he asked the Bedouin, “Why don’t you tie down your camel?” The Bedouin answered, “I put my trust in Allah.” The Prophet then said, “Tie your camel first, then put your trust in Allah.” 

To work and to strive is within the ability and the limits of man..whether the striving is accepted or not, or whether the desired result is achieved or not is entirely in the Blessed Hands of the Lord Most Majestic Who Created Alone!.

understanding about the matter of FATE & Destiny,Qadar and Qadaa , Destiny and Decree in ISLAM

understanding about the matter of destiny
I must emphasize the fact that as a Muslim, you MUST believe in Qadr (destiny). Even if you don’t yet fully understand it, accept it for now. It is one of the articles of faith in Islam and cannot be discarded.
http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/10948?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook/limits-of-human-free-will/

Tawakkul means putting in one’s best efforts—leaving no stone unturned, and then putting one’s trust in Allah and not in one’s own efforts or availability of the means one has, because whatever the outcome, it comes about only with the approval and decree of Allah and not otherwise. It is reported that one day Prophet Muhammad (SAW) noticed a Bedouin leaving his camel without tying it and he asked the Bedouin, “Why don’t you tie down your camel?” The Bedouin answered, “I put my trust in Allah.” The Prophet then said, “Tie your camel first, then put your trust in Allah.” 

To work and to strive is within the ability and the limits of man..whether the striving is accepted or not, or whether the desired result is achieved or not is entirely in the Blessed Hands of the Lord Most Majestic Who Created Alone!.

We are not like robots that have no choice in our actions.  Everything happens by the will of God but at the same time we have a free will to choose our choices and this is why we are accountable for our actions.
From the outset, we should point out that this is an issue in which the world’s greatest minds have applied themselves, and on account of which many people have lost their way.  The Prophet’s Companions did not speak about questions of free will and determinism.  They did not need to, because their faith was so strong and left no room for the types of doubts to take root which instigate this line of thinking

God directs commands and prohibitions at us makes sense only if we are free to comply.  Otherwise, we would be commanded to do that which is outside of our capacity, since our compliance or non-compliance would be predetermined.  Therefore, it makes no sense to make demands of entities that have no ability to comply with those commands.

If people were not free in their choices, their argument against God – that they had no guidance – would not become invalid after God sent the messengers, since if they were compelled in their actions, it would make no difference whether or not they received guidance. 

Finally, we have practical, a priori knowledge that we carry out actions by our own will and choice.  We decide what to do and what to abstain from, without any sense of being compelled in our decisions.  This applies to even the smallest of willful actions, like sitting and standing, entering our homes and departing, as well as more substantial decisions like marriage and divorce or deciding to relocate to another city.  This is why we feel it most acutely if someone else tries to force us to do something we do not want to do.  And this is also why God does not hold us legally accountable for what we do under compulsion. 

This hadith was originally narrated by Ibn-i-Abbas: “One day I was riding behind the Prophet (SA). He commanded: ‘Son! Let me tell you a few words (to memorize). Respect Allah, that is, take care to stay away from what is forbidden. Consider that you will find Him facing you.’ He went on to say ‘Whenever you want anything, ask for it from Allah. Whenever you need help, ask for it from Allah.

Even if all creatures were to combine there forces in unison, desiring to offer you some kind of advantage or benefit, they will not be able to grant you anything more than what Allah has prescribed for you. Also, even if all the creatures were to combine forces to harm you, they would not be able to do any more than what Allah has approved for you. Everything has been written, and all the pages have been completed and the ink is long dry.’”

This is a hadith that every believer should keep like a mirror in their heart. They should act in this way, they should work in this way and end their life in this way. With the mercy and help of Almighty Allah may they be safe and sound from the difficulties of the world and the hereafter.

In this hadith, it is stated that a servant of Allah should arrange all of their behavior and actions in the knowledge that everything is always in the hands of Allah Almighty and subject to His divine acceptance.

When a servant of Allah reaches the complete understanding that Allah is the one and only owner of everything, they are then able to comprehend that whatever position a person finds themselves in they are nothing more than helpless humans with only limited powers.

Therefore, they can rely neither on their name nor their possessions, nor their children. They then know that everything occurs with the help of Allah Almighty and this increases one’s knowledge, devotion, love and resignation. Then a person stops expecting anything from created beings. They know that all the difficulties will come to an end if they are patience, and at the end of every trouble there is ease, relief and comfort.

Source of the article ::https://majesticislam.wordpress.com/page/7/

Now reading this hadith, it may seem as if you have no choice in how things turn out. You might think you have no free will and that Allah has already planned out everything you’re going to do and that’s the end of the story.

Not so fast.

There are four parts to believing in Destiny in Islam.

Allah’s Knowledge: Basically, this is accepting that Allah knows EVERYTHING. He knows what has happened and what has not happened. He knows what would have happened if something did not happen. Nothing, absolutely NOTHING, escapes His knowledge. Get it? Got it? Good.

The Writing: This means that everything in existence, all actions, speech, events, EVERYTHING, was recorded in the Preserved Tablet (Lawhil Mahfuz). This is confirmed in the Quran where Allah states:  “Do you not know that Allah knows what is in the heaven and earth? Indeed, that is in a Record. Indeed that, for Allah, is easy.” Chapter 22, verse 70.

Allah’s Creation: Accepting that Allah has created all things. This includes physical things like humans and animals, as well as non-tangible things like our actions and world events.

Allah’s Will: Accepting that nothing happens outside of Allah’s will. If Allah does not will for something to happen, then it will never take place. And if Allah wills for something to happen, then with absolute certainty, it will happen.

Qadar and Qadaa Destiny and Decree

When we use the the word Qadaa in this sense, we are talking about Allah’s decree. Your birth, your death, natural disasters, accidents, and things like this are all part of Allah’s decree. They are things that no one has any control over.

You have some control over your Qadar. You can choose to believe in Islam or not. You can choose to go to work or not. You can choose to run through the streets naked as a jaybird.

Qadar are the things that happen in all of our lives, both big and small. When you get up in the morning, pray, brush your teeth, eat breakfast and then head out for work, these are all part of your Qadar.

“Qadaa” means “decree” or “order.” A similar word is Qadiyy, which is a Judge.

When we use the the word Qadaa in this sense, we are talking about Allah’s decree. Your birth, your death, natural disasters, accidents, and things like this are all part of Allah’s decree. They are things that no one has any control over.

You have some control over your Qadar. You can choose to believe in Islam or not. You can choose to go to work or not. You can choose to run through the streets naked as a jaybird.

Or not.

But you have no control over Allah’s decree. You may choose to work, but you cannot choose to be wealthy. Your wealth is part of Allah’s decree.

You may choose to live a healthy lifestyle, but you cannot choose to always be healthy. If so, then no one would ever get sick! Sickness and health are part of Allah’s decree.

If you decide to work hard and live healthy, then you are living out what was written for you in the Preserved Tablet. And if such habits lead to more money and health, then that is Allah’s decree.

Likewise, if the stock market crashes and you lose all of your wealth, or if you are suddenly diagnosed with a serious illness, that is all part of Allah’s decree which you have no control over.

Abdullah then makes the decision, with his own free will, to change his life around and become a more dutiful slave of Allah.

we have free will and are not being treated unjustly by Allah.
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) has said that the dua can alter Qadar. So some things that happen on a daily basis can be changed by dua.

Things like sickness, accidents, and other tragedies can be averted through dua.

I hope this helps you understand, Inshallah. Qadar and Qadaa are very deep subjects and you should not spend too much time fretting over them. Just put your trust in Allah and make dua to Him constantly, and follow the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as best as you can.

And Allah knows best.

Abu Ibrahim

says:

August 30, 2012 at 2:45 pm

Source Of The Article: http://islamiclearningmaterials.com/destiny-islam-revisited/