The Effects of Sin - Ibn Al Qayyim(RH)
1 – Being deprived of knowledge for knowledge is light that Allaah causes to reach the heart, and sin extinguishes that light. When al-Shaafa’i sat before Maalik and read to him, he admired him because of the intelligence, alertness and understanding that he saw in him. He said, “I think that Allaah has caused light to enter your heart, so do not extinguish it with the darkness of sin.”
2 – Being deprived of provision. In Musnad Ahmad it is narrated that Thawbaan said: “The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: ‘A man is deprived of provision because of the sins that he commits.’” (Narrated by Ibn Maajah, 4022, classed as hasan by al-Albaani in Saheeh Ibn Maajah).
3 – Sense of alienation that comes between a person and his Lord, and between him and other people. One of the salaf said: “If I disobey Allaah, I see that in the attitude of my riding beast and my wife.”
4 – Things become difficult for him, so that he does not turn his attention towards any matter but he finds the way blocked or he finds it difficult. By the same token, for the one who fears Allaah, things are made easy for him.
5 – The sinner will find darkness in his heart, which he will feel just as he feels the darkness of night. So this darkness affects his heart as the physical darkness affects his vision. For obedience is light and disobedience is darkness. The stronger the darkness grows, the greater becomes his confusion, until he falls into innovation, misguidance and other things that lead to doom, without even realizing, like a blind man who goes out in the darkness of the night, walking alone This darkness grows stronger until it covers the eyes, then it grows stronger until it covers the face, which appears dark and is seen by everyone. ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Abbaas said: “Good deeds make the face light, give light to the heart, and bring about ample provision, physical strength and love in people’s hearts. Bad deeds make the face dark, give darkness to the heart, and bring about physical weakness, a lack of provision and hatred in people’s hearts.”
6 – Deprivation of worship and obedience. If sin brought no punishment other than that it prevents a person from doing an act of worship which is the opposite of sin, and cuts off access to other acts of worship, that would be bad enough. So the sin cuts off a third way and a fourth way and so on, and because of the sin he is cut off from many acts of worship, each of which would have been better for him than this world and everything in it. So he is like a man who eats food that is bound to cause a lengthy sickness, and thus he is deprived of many other foods that are better than that. And Allaah is the One Whose help we seek.
7 – Sin breeds sin until it dominates a person and he cannot escape from it.
8 – Sin weakens a person’s willpower. It gradually strengthens his will to commit sin and weakens his will to repent until there is no will in his heart to repent at all… so he seeks forgiveness and expresses repentance, but it is merely words on the lips, like the repentance of the liars, whose hearts are still determined to commit sin and persist in it. This is one of the most serious diseases that are most likely to lead to doom.
9 – He will become desensitized and will no longer find sin abhorrent, so it will become his habit, and he will not be bothered if people see him committing the sin or talk about him.
For the leaders of immorality, this is the ultimate shamelessness in which they find great pleasure, such that they feel proud of their sin and will speak of it to people who do not know that they have done it, saying, “O so and so, I did such and such.” Such people cannot be helped and the path to repentance is blocked for them in most cases. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “All of my ummah will be fine except for those who commit sin openly, and that includes cases where Allaah conceals a person’s sin, but the following morning he exposes himself and says, ‘O So and so, I did such and such last night, so he shamelessly exposes himself when all night his Lord had concealed his sin.” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 5949; Muslim, 2744).
10 – When there are many sins they leave a mark on the heart of the person who commits them, so he becomes one of the negligent. As one of the salaf said, concerning the aayah –
“Nay! But on their hearts is the Raan (covering of sins and evil deeds) which they used to earn”
[al-Mutaffifeen 83:14 – interpretation of the meaning] – this means sin after sin.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Thursday, December 27, 2012
3 Bulls
There once lived three bulls, a white bull, a black bull, and a red bull. Looking for food, a lion watched them graze together and realized he could not contend with all three. So he went to the black and red bull and made a deal with them. He told them that he was very ferocious and powerful and that if they let him eat the white bull, he would leave them in peace. The black and red bull agreed, and the lion murdered and then ate the white bull.
Time passed and the lion became hungry again. He went to the red bull and argued that he was ferocious and powerful and that if he let him eat the black bull he would leave him in peace. The red bull agreed and the lion murdered and then ate the black bull.
As time passed and the lion became hungry, he visited the red bull again. As the red bull saw death in the lions eye, as the teeth dug deep into it's neck, it shouted, "Verily I was eaten the day the white bull was eaten!"
Time passed and the lion became hungry again. He went to the red bull and argued that he was ferocious and powerful and that if he let him eat the black bull he would leave him in peace. The red bull agreed and the lion murdered and then ate the black bull.
As time passed and the lion became hungry, he visited the red bull again. As the red bull saw death in the lions eye, as the teeth dug deep into it's neck, it shouted, "Verily I was eaten the day the white bull was eaten!"
Cell phone vs Quran
Ever wonder what would happen if we treated our Quran like we treat
our cell phone?
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we flipped through it several time a day?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
What if we used it when we travelled?
What if we used it in case of emergency?
This is something to make you go....hmm....where is my Quran?
Oh, and one more thing.
Unlike our cell phone, we don't have to worry about our Quran being
disconnected
Makes you stop and think 'where are my priorities? And no dropped calls!
our cell phone?
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we flipped through it several time a day?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
What if we used it when we travelled?
What if we used it in case of emergency?
This is something to make you go....hmm....where is my Quran?
Oh, and one more thing.
Unlike our cell phone, we don't have to worry about our Quran being
disconnected
Makes you stop and think 'where are my priorities? And no dropped calls!
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
10 Principles for Peace of Mind
1. Do Not Interfere In Others' Business Unless Asked.
Most of us create our own problems by interfering too often in others' affairs. We do so because somehow we have convinced ourselves that our way is the best way, our logic is the perfect logic and those who do not conform to our thinking must be criticized and steered to the right direction, our direction. This thinking denies the existence of individuality and consequently the existence of God.. God has created each one of us in a unique way. No two human beings can think or act in exactly the same way. All men or women act the way they do because God within them prompts them that way. Mind your own business and you will keep your peace.
2. Forgive And Forget:
This is the most powerful aid to peace of mind. We often develop ill feelings inside our heart for the person who insults us or harms us. We nurture grievances. This in turn results in loss of sleep, development of stomach ulcers, and high blood pressure. This insult or injury was done once, but nourishing of grievance goes on forever by constantly remembering it. Get over this bad habit. Life is too short to waste in such trifles. Forgive,20Forget, and march on. Love flourishes in giving and forgiving.
3. Do Not Crave For Recognition:
This world is full of selfish people. They seldom praise anybody without selfish motives. They may praise you today because you are in power, but no sooner than you are powerless, they will forget your achievement and will start finding faults in you. Why do you wish to kill yours lf in striving for their recognition? Their recognition is not worth the aggravation. Do your duties ethically and sincerely.
4. Do Not Be Jealous:
We all have experienced how jealousy can disturb our peace of mind. You know that you work harder than your colleagues in the office, but sometimes they get promotions; you do not. You started a business several years ago, but you are not as successful as your neighbor whose business is only one year old. There are several examples like these in everyday life. Should you be jealous? No. Remember everybody's life is shaped by his/her destiny, which has now become his/her reality. If you are destined to be rich, nothing in the world can stop you. If you are not so destined, no one can help you either. Nothing will be gained by blaming others for your misfortune. Jealousy will not get you anywhere; it will only take away your peace of mind.
5. Change Yourself According To The Environment:
If you try to change the environment single-handedly, the chances are you will fail. Instead, change yourself to suit your environment. As you do this, even the environment, which has been unfriendly to you, will mysteriously change and seem congenial and harmonious.
6. Endure What Cannot Be Cured:
This is the best way to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. Every day we face numerous inconveniences, ailments, irritations, and accidents that are beyond our control... If we cannot control them or change them, we must learn to put up with these things. We must learn to endure them cheerfully. Believe in yourself and you will gain in terms of patience, inner strength and will power.
7. Do Not Bite Off More Than You Can Chew:
This maxim needs to be remembered constantly. We often tend to take more responsibilities than we are capable of carrying out. This is done to satisfy our ego. Know your limitations. . Why take on additional loads that may create more worries? You cannot gain peace of mind by expanding your external activities. Reduce your material engagements and spend time in prayer, introspection and meditation. This will reduce those thoughts in your mind that make you restless. Uncluttered mind will produce greater peace of mind.
8. Meditate Regularly:
Meditation calms the mind and gets rid of disturbing thoughts. This is the highest state of peace of mind. Try and experience it yourself. If you meditate earnestly for half an hour everyday, your mind will tend to become peaceful during the remaining twenty-three and half-hours. Your mind will not be easily disturbed as it was before. You would benefit by gradually increasing the period of daily meditation. You may think that this will interfere with your daily work. On the contrary, this will increase your efficiency and you will be able to produce better results in less time.
9. Never Leave The Mind Vacant:
An empty mind is the devil's workshop. All evil actions start in the vacant mind. Keep your mind occupied in something positive, something worthwhile . Actively follow a hobby. Do something that holds your interest. You must decide what you value more: money or peace of mind. Your hobby, like social work or religious work, may not always earn you more money, but you will have a sense of fulfillment and achievement. Even when you are resting physically, occupy yourself in healthy reading or mental chanting of God's name.
10. Do Not Procrastinate And Never Regret:
Do not waste time in protracted wondering " Should I or shouldn't I?" Days, weeks, months, and years may be wasted in that futile mental debating. You can never plan enough because you can never anticipate all future happenings. Value your time and do the things that need to be done. It does not matter if you fail the first time. You can learn from your mistakes and succeed the next time. Sitting back and worrying will lead to nothing. Learn from your mistakes, but do not brood over the past. DO NOT REGRET. Whatever happened was destined to happen only that way. Why cry over spilled milk?
Most of us create our own problems by interfering too often in others' affairs. We do so because somehow we have convinced ourselves that our way is the best way, our logic is the perfect logic and those who do not conform to our thinking must be criticized and steered to the right direction, our direction. This thinking denies the existence of individuality and consequently the existence of God.. God has created each one of us in a unique way. No two human beings can think or act in exactly the same way. All men or women act the way they do because God within them prompts them that way. Mind your own business and you will keep your peace.
2. Forgive And Forget:
This is the most powerful aid to peace of mind. We often develop ill feelings inside our heart for the person who insults us or harms us. We nurture grievances. This in turn results in loss of sleep, development of stomach ulcers, and high blood pressure. This insult or injury was done once, but nourishing of grievance goes on forever by constantly remembering it. Get over this bad habit. Life is too short to waste in such trifles. Forgive,20Forget, and march on. Love flourishes in giving and forgiving.
3. Do Not Crave For Recognition:
This world is full of selfish people. They seldom praise anybody without selfish motives. They may praise you today because you are in power, but no sooner than you are powerless, they will forget your achievement and will start finding faults in you. Why do you wish to kill yours lf in striving for their recognition? Their recognition is not worth the aggravation. Do your duties ethically and sincerely.
4. Do Not Be Jealous:
We all have experienced how jealousy can disturb our peace of mind. You know that you work harder than your colleagues in the office, but sometimes they get promotions; you do not. You started a business several years ago, but you are not as successful as your neighbor whose business is only one year old. There are several examples like these in everyday life. Should you be jealous? No. Remember everybody's life is shaped by his/her destiny, which has now become his/her reality. If you are destined to be rich, nothing in the world can stop you. If you are not so destined, no one can help you either. Nothing will be gained by blaming others for your misfortune. Jealousy will not get you anywhere; it will only take away your peace of mind.
5. Change Yourself According To The Environment:
If you try to change the environment single-handedly, the chances are you will fail. Instead, change yourself to suit your environment. As you do this, even the environment, which has been unfriendly to you, will mysteriously change and seem congenial and harmonious.
6. Endure What Cannot Be Cured:
This is the best way to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. Every day we face numerous inconveniences, ailments, irritations, and accidents that are beyond our control... If we cannot control them or change them, we must learn to put up with these things. We must learn to endure them cheerfully. Believe in yourself and you will gain in terms of patience, inner strength and will power.
7. Do Not Bite Off More Than You Can Chew:
This maxim needs to be remembered constantly. We often tend to take more responsibilities than we are capable of carrying out. This is done to satisfy our ego. Know your limitations. . Why take on additional loads that may create more worries? You cannot gain peace of mind by expanding your external activities. Reduce your material engagements and spend time in prayer, introspection and meditation. This will reduce those thoughts in your mind that make you restless. Uncluttered mind will produce greater peace of mind.
8. Meditate Regularly:
Meditation calms the mind and gets rid of disturbing thoughts. This is the highest state of peace of mind. Try and experience it yourself. If you meditate earnestly for half an hour everyday, your mind will tend to become peaceful during the remaining twenty-three and half-hours. Your mind will not be easily disturbed as it was before. You would benefit by gradually increasing the period of daily meditation. You may think that this will interfere with your daily work. On the contrary, this will increase your efficiency and you will be able to produce better results in less time.
9. Never Leave The Mind Vacant:
An empty mind is the devil's workshop. All evil actions start in the vacant mind. Keep your mind occupied in something positive, something worthwhile . Actively follow a hobby. Do something that holds your interest. You must decide what you value more: money or peace of mind. Your hobby, like social work or religious work, may not always earn you more money, but you will have a sense of fulfillment and achievement. Even when you are resting physically, occupy yourself in healthy reading or mental chanting of God's name.
10. Do Not Procrastinate And Never Regret:
Do not waste time in protracted wondering " Should I or shouldn't I?" Days, weeks, months, and years may be wasted in that futile mental debating. You can never plan enough because you can never anticipate all future happenings. Value your time and do the things that need to be done. It does not matter if you fail the first time. You can learn from your mistakes and succeed the next time. Sitting back and worrying will lead to nothing. Learn from your mistakes, but do not brood over the past. DO NOT REGRET. Whatever happened was destined to happen only that way. Why cry over spilled milk?
60 Tips from the Quran
1. Respect and honour all human beings irrespective of their religion, colour, race, sex, language, status, property, birth, profession/job and so on [17/70]
2. Talk straight, to the point, without any ambiguity or deception [33/70]
3. Choose best words to speak and say them in the best possible way [17/53, 2/83]
4. Do not shout. Speak politely keeping your voice low. [31/19]
5. Always speak the truth. Shun words that are deceitful and ostentatious [22/30]
6. Do not confound truth with falsehood [2/42]
7. Say with your mouth what is in your heart [3/167]
8. Speak in a civilised manner in a language that is recognised by the society and is commonly used [4/5]
9. When you voice an opinion, be just, even if it is against a relative [6/152]
10. Do not be a bragging boaster [31/18]
11. Do not talk, listen or do anything vain [23/3, 28/55]
12. Do not participate in any paltry. If you pass near a futile play, then pass by with dignity [25/72]
13. Do not verge upon any immodesty or lewdness whether surreptitious or overt [6/151].
14. If, unintentionally, any misconduct occurs by you, then correct yourself expeditiously [3/134].
15. Do not be contemptuous or arrogant with people [31/18]
16. Do not walk haughtily or with conceit [17/37, 31/18]
17. Be moderate in thy pace [31/19]
18. Walk with humility and sedateness [25/63]
19. Keep your gazes lowered devoid of any lecherous leers and salacious stares [24/30-31, 40/19].
20. If you do not have complete knowledge about anything, better keep your mouth shut. You might think that speaking about something without full knowledge is a trivial matter. But it might have grave consequences [24/15-16]
21. When you hear something malicious about someone, keep a favourable view about him/her until you attain full knowledge about the matter. Consider others innocent until they are proven guilty with solid and truthful evidence [24/12-13]
22. Ascertain the truth of any news, lest you smite someone in ignorance and afterwards repent of what you did [49/6]
23. Do not follow blindly any information of which you have no direct knowledge. (Using your faculties of perception and conception) you must verify it for yourself. In the Court of your Lord, you will be held accountable for your hearing, sight, and the faculty of reasoning [17/36].
24. Never think that you have reached the final stage of knowledge and nobody knows more than yourself. Remember! Above everyone endowed with knowledge is another endowed with more knowledge [12/76]. Even the Prophet [p.b.u.h] was asked to keep praying, "O My sustainer! Advance me in knowledge." [20:114]
25. The believers are but a single Brotherhood. Live like members of one family, brothers and sisters unto one another [49/10].
26. Do not make mockery of others or ridicule others [49/11]
27. Do not defame others [49/11]
28. Do not insult others by nicknames [49/11]
29. Avoid suspicion and guesswork. Suspicion and guesswork might deplete your communal energy [49/12]
30. Spy not upon one another [49/12]
31. Do not backbite one another [49/12]
32. When you meet each other, offer good wishes and blessings for safety. One who conveys to you a message of safety and security and also when a courteous greeting is offered to you, meet it with a greeting still more courteous or (at least) of equal courtesy [4/86]
33. When you enter your own home or the home of somebody else, compliment the inmates [24/61]
34. Do not enter houses other than your own until you have sought permission; and then greet the inmates and wish them a life of blessing, purity and pleasure [24/27]
35. Treat kindly -Your parents-Relatives-The orphans-And those who have been left alone in the society [4/36]
36. Take care of -The needy,-The disabled-Those whose hard earned income is insufficient to meet their needs-And those whose businesses have stalled -And those who have lost their jobs. [4/36]
37. Treat kindly -Your related neighbours, and unrelated neighbours-Companions by your side in public gatherings, or public transportation. [4/36]
38. Be generous to the needy wayfarer, the homeless son of the street,and the one who reaches you in a destitute condition [4/36]
39. Be nice to people who work under your care. [4/36]
40. Do not follow up what you have given to others to afflict them with reminders of your generosity [2/262].
41. Do not expect a return for your good behaviour, not even thanks [76/9]
42. Cooperate with one another in good deeds and do not cooperate with others in evil and bad matters [5/2]
43. Do no try to impress people on account of self-proclaimed virtues [53/32]
44. You should enjoin right conduct on others but mend your own ways first. Actions speak louder than words. You must first practice good deeds yourself, then preach [2/44]
45. Correct yourself and your families first [before trying to correct others] [66/6]
46. Pardon gracefully if anyone among you who commits a bad deed out of ignorance, and then repents and amends [6/54, 3/134]
47. Divert and sublimate your anger and potentially virulent emotions to creative energy, and become a source of tranquillity and comfort to people [3/134]
48. Call people to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful exhortation. Reason with them most decently [16/125]
49. Leave to themselves those who do not give any importance to the Divine code and have adopted and consider it as mere play and amusement [6/70]
50. Sit not in the company of those who ridicule Divine Law unless they engage in some other conversation [4/140]
51. Do not be jealous of those who are blessed [4/54]
52. In your collective life, make rooms for others [58/11]
53. When invited to dine, Go at the appointed time. Do not arrive too early to wait for the preparation of meal or linger after eating to engage in bootless babble. Such things may cause inconvenience to the host [33/53]
54. Eat and drink [what is lawful] in moderation [7/31].
55. Do not squander your wealth senselessly [17/26]
56. Fulfil your promises and commitments [17/34]
57. Keep yourself clean, pure [9/108, 4/43, 5/6].
58. Dress-up in agreeable attire and adorn yourself with exquisite character from inside out [7/26]
59. Seek your provision only by fair endeavour [29/17, 2/188]
60. Do not devour the wealth and property of others unjustly, nor bribe the officials or the judges to deprive others of their possessions [2/188]
Monday, December 24, 2012
If Goals Make You Miserable Eliminate the Misery
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2012/12/14/if-goals-make-you-miserable-eliminate-the-misery/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thesimpledollar+%28The+Simple+Dollar%29
No human ever filled a vessel worse than the stomach
Author: Al-Haafidh Ibn Rajab al-Hanbalee
Source: Jaami' Al-'Uloom wal-Hikam, hadeeth no. 47
On the authority of Al-Miqdaam ibn Maadiy-Karib who said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah saying:
"No human ever filled a vessel worse than the stomach. Sufficient for any son of Aadam are some morsels to keep his back straight. But if it must be, then one third for his food, one third for his drink and one third for his breath." [Ahmad, At-Tirmidhee, An-Nasaa'ee, Ibn Maajah - hadeeth saheeh.]
1. Ibn Masaweh, a Muslim doctor, said after reading this hadeeth:
"If the people only used these words, they would avoid all diseases and maladies and the clinics and pharmacies would be idle."
2. Another doctor, Al-Harith ibn Kalada said:
"That which has killed mankind is the introduction of food on top of food before it has been digested."
3. As for spiritual benefits: humbleness of heart, strength of understanding, lessening of lower desires, lessening of personal opinions and anger, while overeating induces the opposites of all of those. Al-Hasan Al-Basree said:
"O, son of Adam, eat with one third of your stomach and drink with one third and leave one third of your stomach to breathe so that you may think."
4. Ibn Umar: A man said to Ibn Umar:
"Shouldn't I bring you some jawarish?" Ibn Umar said: "What is that?" He said: "Something which aids in digesting your food after you eat." Ibn Umar said: "I have not eaten to being full for four months. That is not because I am not able to do so, but I was with a group of people who were hungry more than they were full."
5. Not reaching your goals: Muhammad ibn Wasi said:
"Whoever eats little will understand and make others understand and will be clear and humble. Overeating weighs a person down and keeps him from much of what he wants [to accomplish]."
6. Al-Hasan Al-Basree:
"The test of Aadam, alayhis-salaam, was food and it is your test until Qiyama."
And, it used to be said:
"Whoever takes control of his stomach gets control of all good deeds."
And:
"Wisdom does not reside in a full stomach."
One day, Al-Hasan offered some food to his companion who said: "I have eaten until I am no longer able to eat." To which Al-Hasan said:
"SubhaanAllaah! Does a Muslim eat until he is no longer able to eat?"
7. Allaah grants this world to those whom He loves and those He does not love but only grants hunger to those whom he loves.
8. Ash-Shaafi'ee said:
"I have not filled myself in sixteen years because filling oneself makes the body heavy, removes clear understanding, induces sleep and makes one weak for worship."
9. In Bukhaaree and Muslim:
"The believer eats with one stomach while the kafir eats with seven stomachs."
Meaning: The believer eats with the manners of Islam and in moderation, while the kafir eats based on desires and gluttony and so he eats with seven stomachs.
10. Also:
"Food for one is enough for two and food for two is enough for three and food for three is enough for four."
11. Also: From Aa'ishah:
"The family of Muhammad (sal-Allaahu 'alayhe wa sallam) never filled themselves with wheat bread three days in a row from the time he came to Madeenah until he passed away."
12. A Muslim should not merely follow his appetites. Allaah said:
"Then, they were followed by generations who neglected the prayer and followed their appetites. They will encounter a pit of fire except for those who repent..." [Maryam 59-60]
13. The best generations did not:
"The best generation is my generation, followed by the one after them then the one after them. Then will come a people who bear witness but are not asked to bear witness, who swear oaths but do not fulfill them and fatness will appear among them." [Bukhaaree and Muslim]
14. From Abee Barza that the Prophet (sal-Allaahu 'alayhe wa sallam) said:
"My greatest fear for you is the appetites of transgression with regard to your stomachs and your privates and the inclinations which lead astray." [Ahmad and others and its narrators are people of saheeh]
Source: Jaami' Al-'Uloom wal-Hikam, hadeeth no. 47
On the authority of Al-Miqdaam ibn Maadiy-Karib who said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah saying:
"No human ever filled a vessel worse than the stomach. Sufficient for any son of Aadam are some morsels to keep his back straight. But if it must be, then one third for his food, one third for his drink and one third for his breath." [Ahmad, At-Tirmidhee, An-Nasaa'ee, Ibn Maajah - hadeeth saheeh.]
1. Ibn Masaweh, a Muslim doctor, said after reading this hadeeth:
"If the people only used these words, they would avoid all diseases and maladies and the clinics and pharmacies would be idle."
2. Another doctor, Al-Harith ibn Kalada said:
"That which has killed mankind is the introduction of food on top of food before it has been digested."
3. As for spiritual benefits: humbleness of heart, strength of understanding, lessening of lower desires, lessening of personal opinions and anger, while overeating induces the opposites of all of those. Al-Hasan Al-Basree said:
"O, son of Adam, eat with one third of your stomach and drink with one third and leave one third of your stomach to breathe so that you may think."
4. Ibn Umar: A man said to Ibn Umar:
"Shouldn't I bring you some jawarish?" Ibn Umar said: "What is that?" He said: "Something which aids in digesting your food after you eat." Ibn Umar said: "I have not eaten to being full for four months. That is not because I am not able to do so, but I was with a group of people who were hungry more than they were full."
5. Not reaching your goals: Muhammad ibn Wasi said:
"Whoever eats little will understand and make others understand and will be clear and humble. Overeating weighs a person down and keeps him from much of what he wants [to accomplish]."
6. Al-Hasan Al-Basree:
"The test of Aadam, alayhis-salaam, was food and it is your test until Qiyama."
And, it used to be said:
"Whoever takes control of his stomach gets control of all good deeds."
And:
"Wisdom does not reside in a full stomach."
One day, Al-Hasan offered some food to his companion who said: "I have eaten until I am no longer able to eat." To which Al-Hasan said:
"SubhaanAllaah! Does a Muslim eat until he is no longer able to eat?"
7. Allaah grants this world to those whom He loves and those He does not love but only grants hunger to those whom he loves.
8. Ash-Shaafi'ee said:
"I have not filled myself in sixteen years because filling oneself makes the body heavy, removes clear understanding, induces sleep and makes one weak for worship."
9. In Bukhaaree and Muslim:
"The believer eats with one stomach while the kafir eats with seven stomachs."
Meaning: The believer eats with the manners of Islam and in moderation, while the kafir eats based on desires and gluttony and so he eats with seven stomachs.
10. Also:
"Food for one is enough for two and food for two is enough for three and food for three is enough for four."
11. Also: From Aa'ishah:
"The family of Muhammad (sal-Allaahu 'alayhe wa sallam) never filled themselves with wheat bread three days in a row from the time he came to Madeenah until he passed away."
12. A Muslim should not merely follow his appetites. Allaah said:
"Then, they were followed by generations who neglected the prayer and followed their appetites. They will encounter a pit of fire except for those who repent..." [Maryam 59-60]
13. The best generations did not:
"The best generation is my generation, followed by the one after them then the one after them. Then will come a people who bear witness but are not asked to bear witness, who swear oaths but do not fulfill them and fatness will appear among them." [Bukhaaree and Muslim]
14. From Abee Barza that the Prophet (sal-Allaahu 'alayhe wa sallam) said:
"My greatest fear for you is the appetites of transgression with regard to your stomachs and your privates and the inclinations which lead astray." [Ahmad and others and its narrators are people of saheeh]
Friday, November 9, 2012
8 Things Successful People Do
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/eight-things-remarkably-successful-people-do.html
Thursday, October 25, 2012
External Motivation Doesn’t Work
[Taken from the Simple Dollar]
Quite often, I’ve written about how my family has been a tremendous motivation for me.
My infant son was there at the moment I decided to get my financial house in order.
My daughter was there at the moment I decided to commit full-time to my writing.
My wife and children serve as a constant reminder of the things I want to change in my life.
The thing is, my family isn’t enough by themselves to provide adequate motivation for change in my life. They certainly help, don’t get me wrong, and they can often convince me to make a better choice in a given moment.
Lasting change, though, has to come from inside. If I’m not internally committed to doing something different, then it won’t happen.
I often look at motivation for change as being a lot like having a big rock at the top of a hill. My family might be enough to push that rock over the top and get it rolling down the hill, but the momentum of that rock comes from inside of me. It’s made up of my own desire for change.
If that’s the case, how do you make change happen in your life? I can’t comment on what motivates others, but I can certainly tell you what pushes me to make changes.
First, you’ve got to really tap into the problem. It isn’t enough to say that you want to lose weight or that you want to build up financial independence. You’ve got to understand why you’re not achieving those things right now and you’ve got to understand the dangers of staying on the current path.
The way to do that, at least through me, is studying the issues. If I stay on my current path, what will happen to me in a few years? What will my life look like if I don’t commit to change? Is that a future I want? Is that devastating future really worth the small pleasures of staying on the path I’m on?
Next, you’ve got to understand what the correct solution is. There are so many recipes out there for improving your wealth or losing weight or getting in shape. What’s the right one for your situation? Often, this involves digging into the core principles to see what is actually tried and true and really works for people.
Fad diets? No. “Millionaire by thirty” investment schemes? No. Spend the time to really understand what works.
Once you understand the solution, do everything you can to minimize the resistance to that solution. Throw out the food that doesn’t match what you should be eating. Pull money out of your checking account so it’s not so easily available for spending.
Then – and this is the most important part for me – put constant reminders everywhere of the reason you’re doing this. Put copies of your overdraft statement in your wallet. Put pictures of yourself at your fattest on the fridge. Put pictures of your heart exam on your candy stash. Put your student loan statement around your credit cards.
Your willpower makes all the difference, but you can take action to make the bar as low as possible. In the end, it’s up to you.
Quite often, I’ve written about how my family has been a tremendous motivation for me.
My infant son was there at the moment I decided to get my financial house in order.
My daughter was there at the moment I decided to commit full-time to my writing.
My wife and children serve as a constant reminder of the things I want to change in my life.
The thing is, my family isn’t enough by themselves to provide adequate motivation for change in my life. They certainly help, don’t get me wrong, and they can often convince me to make a better choice in a given moment.
Lasting change, though, has to come from inside. If I’m not internally committed to doing something different, then it won’t happen.
I often look at motivation for change as being a lot like having a big rock at the top of a hill. My family might be enough to push that rock over the top and get it rolling down the hill, but the momentum of that rock comes from inside of me. It’s made up of my own desire for change.
If that’s the case, how do you make change happen in your life? I can’t comment on what motivates others, but I can certainly tell you what pushes me to make changes.
First, you’ve got to really tap into the problem. It isn’t enough to say that you want to lose weight or that you want to build up financial independence. You’ve got to understand why you’re not achieving those things right now and you’ve got to understand the dangers of staying on the current path.
The way to do that, at least through me, is studying the issues. If I stay on my current path, what will happen to me in a few years? What will my life look like if I don’t commit to change? Is that a future I want? Is that devastating future really worth the small pleasures of staying on the path I’m on?
Next, you’ve got to understand what the correct solution is. There are so many recipes out there for improving your wealth or losing weight or getting in shape. What’s the right one for your situation? Often, this involves digging into the core principles to see what is actually tried and true and really works for people.
Fad diets? No. “Millionaire by thirty” investment schemes? No. Spend the time to really understand what works.
Once you understand the solution, do everything you can to minimize the resistance to that solution. Throw out the food that doesn’t match what you should be eating. Pull money out of your checking account so it’s not so easily available for spending.
Then – and this is the most important part for me – put constant reminders everywhere of the reason you’re doing this. Put copies of your overdraft statement in your wallet. Put pictures of yourself at your fattest on the fridge. Put pictures of your heart exam on your candy stash. Put your student loan statement around your credit cards.
Your willpower makes all the difference, but you can take action to make the bar as low as possible. In the end, it’s up to you.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
What’s the Reason?
[Taken from Simple Dollar]
As I mentioned several days ago, my uncle passed away. On Friday, I attended his funeral, where one of my uncle’s old friends spoke very eloquently.
After the service, I spoke to that friend of my uncle for a few moments. I thanked him for the words he had spoken and we reflected together for a bit. He left me with a brief statement that’s been floating in my mind for a while now: “Everyone and everything comes into your life for a reason.”
Why do you do the things you do? Why do you have the things that you have? Why do you spend time with the people that you spend time with? What are these things really bringing into your life?
If you can’t truly describe how those things bring a net positive into your life – or, in some cases, how your involvement is bringing about a net positive – then why are those things in your life?
It’s a good question to ask about everything in your life.
Usually, people apply it to the big things in their lives. Why do they have the job that they have? Why do they have the close relationships that they have?
I find it equally powerful to ask such questions about the little things. Why do I make the purchases that I make? Why do I have the professional acquaintances that I have? Why am I going to this particular social event?
Is there a real reason for any of these things?
When you start to ask real questions like this, you become something like a paleontologist, brushing away the unimportant things to reveal the true state of things buried underneath.
You start to reveal your true relationships – the ones that bring value for you and for the other person – and discard the ones that do not.
You start to use your money for purchases that are actually useful for you, and put aside the money that you might waste on purchases that aren’t useful.
It’s such a simple question. What’s the reason? The better your answer, the better off you are.
Spend some time today to think about that question. Think about the big things in your life and ask yourself what the reason is that you have it in your life. Then look at some of the smaller things with the same question in mind. Realize that not having a good answer to the question is a useful thing, because it tells you that you might want to consider some different choices in your life.
As I mentioned several days ago, my uncle passed away. On Friday, I attended his funeral, where one of my uncle’s old friends spoke very eloquently.
After the service, I spoke to that friend of my uncle for a few moments. I thanked him for the words he had spoken and we reflected together for a bit. He left me with a brief statement that’s been floating in my mind for a while now: “Everyone and everything comes into your life for a reason.”
Why do you do the things you do? Why do you have the things that you have? Why do you spend time with the people that you spend time with? What are these things really bringing into your life?
If you can’t truly describe how those things bring a net positive into your life – or, in some cases, how your involvement is bringing about a net positive – then why are those things in your life?
It’s a good question to ask about everything in your life.
Usually, people apply it to the big things in their lives. Why do they have the job that they have? Why do they have the close relationships that they have?
I find it equally powerful to ask such questions about the little things. Why do I make the purchases that I make? Why do I have the professional acquaintances that I have? Why am I going to this particular social event?
Is there a real reason for any of these things?
When you start to ask real questions like this, you become something like a paleontologist, brushing away the unimportant things to reveal the true state of things buried underneath.
You start to reveal your true relationships – the ones that bring value for you and for the other person – and discard the ones that do not.
You start to use your money for purchases that are actually useful for you, and put aside the money that you might waste on purchases that aren’t useful.
It’s such a simple question. What’s the reason? The better your answer, the better off you are.
Spend some time today to think about that question. Think about the big things in your life and ask yourself what the reason is that you have it in your life. Then look at some of the smaller things with the same question in mind. Realize that not having a good answer to the question is a useful thing, because it tells you that you might want to consider some different choices in your life.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Being Under Satan's Yoke
By : Anonymous
(This article is a little abstract in nature but it illustrates the points quite well )
Satan called a worldwide convention In his opening address to his evil servants, he said,
"We can't keep the Muslims from going to Mosque. We can't keep them from reading the Quran and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship experience with Allah. If they gain that connection with Allah, our power over them is broken.
So let them go to the mosques, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that relationship with Allah.
This is what I want you to do, servants. Distract them from gaining hold of their creator and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"
"How shall we do this?" shouted his servants.
"Keep them busy in the nonessentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6 - 7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon, their home will offer no escape from the pressures of work!"
"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive, to keep the TV, VCR CDs and their PCs going constantly in their homes. And see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-Islamic music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Allah."
"Fill the coffee table with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogues, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and emotional offering of free products, services, and false hopes. Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines so the husbands will believe that external beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. Ha! That will fragment those families quickly!"
"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted, and unprepared for the coming week. Don't let them go out in nature to reflect on God's wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead.
Keep them busy, busy, busy!! And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions."
"Go ahead, let them be involved in soul winning. But crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Allah. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause. It will work! It will work!
It was quite a convention. And the evil servants went eagerly to their assignments causing Muslims everywhere to get busy, busy, busy and to rush here and there.
I guess the question is: has the devil been successful at his scheme?
You be the judge! Friends, this message was sent to me by someone who cares and thought I could share it with you. Please take heed of the message it brings:
B - Being
U - Under
S - Satan's
Y - Yoke
Did you find this whole thing 'funny'? Then please read on the 'funnier' part...
It's Funny how simple it is for people to trash Allah(swt) and then wonder why the world's going to hell.
Funny how we believe what the zionist controlled or other media reports say, but question about the sayings of the Qur'an.
Funny how we get glued on to the TV screens to hear all the details of the Lewinsky testimony but feel drowsy while khutba's are being read in the mosques.
Funny how we strive for being in the front rows of a concert but are contended to be in the last rows during the Friday prayers.
Funny how someone can say "I believe in Allah" but still follow Satan.
Funny how you can send a thousand 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Allah(swt), people think twice about sharing.
Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but the public discussion of Islam is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Funny how someone can be so fired up for Islam on Friday, but be an invisible Muslim the rest of the week.
Funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not sent it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it to them.
Funny how I can be more worried about what other people think of me than what Allah thinks of me.
Funny how Muslims are confident of their entry into heaven even though they don't tend to believe, think, say, or do anything the Qur'an says.
Are you still amused?
(This article is a little abstract in nature but it illustrates the points quite well )
Satan called a worldwide convention In his opening address to his evil servants, he said,
"We can't keep the Muslims from going to Mosque. We can't keep them from reading the Quran and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship experience with Allah. If they gain that connection with Allah, our power over them is broken.
So let them go to the mosques, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that relationship with Allah.
This is what I want you to do, servants. Distract them from gaining hold of their creator and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"
"How shall we do this?" shouted his servants.
"Keep them busy in the nonessentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6 - 7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon, their home will offer no escape from the pressures of work!"
"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive, to keep the TV, VCR CDs and their PCs going constantly in their homes. And see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-Islamic music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Allah."
"Fill the coffee table with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogues, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and emotional offering of free products, services, and false hopes. Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines so the husbands will believe that external beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. Ha! That will fragment those families quickly!"
"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted, and unprepared for the coming week. Don't let them go out in nature to reflect on God's wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead.
Keep them busy, busy, busy!! And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions."
"Go ahead, let them be involved in soul winning. But crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Allah. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause. It will work! It will work!
It was quite a convention. And the evil servants went eagerly to their assignments causing Muslims everywhere to get busy, busy, busy and to rush here and there.
I guess the question is: has the devil been successful at his scheme?
You be the judge! Friends, this message was sent to me by someone who cares and thought I could share it with you. Please take heed of the message it brings:
B - Being
U - Under
S - Satan's
Y - Yoke
Did you find this whole thing 'funny'? Then please read on the 'funnier' part...
It's Funny how simple it is for people to trash Allah(swt) and then wonder why the world's going to hell.
Funny how we believe what the zionist controlled or other media reports say, but question about the sayings of the Qur'an.
Funny how we get glued on to the TV screens to hear all the details of the Lewinsky testimony but feel drowsy while khutba's are being read in the mosques.
Funny how we strive for being in the front rows of a concert but are contended to be in the last rows during the Friday prayers.
Funny how someone can say "I believe in Allah" but still follow Satan.
Funny how you can send a thousand 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Allah(swt), people think twice about sharing.
Funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but the public discussion of Islam is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Funny how someone can be so fired up for Islam on Friday, but be an invisible Muslim the rest of the week.
Funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not sent it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it to them.
Funny how I can be more worried about what other people think of me than what Allah thinks of me.
Funny how Muslims are confident of their entry into heaven even though they don't tend to believe, think, say, or do anything the Qur'an says.
Are you still amused?
Saturday, October 6, 2012
3 Pieces of Advice for the One who Pray
KNOW THAT ALLAH PAYS ATTENTION TO YOUR PRAYER
“Allah (SWT) faces the servant during prayer as long as he does not turn away.” “… If he turns away, Allah (SWT) turns away from him.” (Abu Dawud)
‘Turn away’ means:
1) Turning away in heart, which means getting distracted and thinking of other things, and
2) Turning away with sight, looking up or left and right.
KNOW THAT ALLAH RESPONDS TO YOUR PRAYER
“And your Lord says, ‘Call upon Me; I will respond to you” (Qur’an, 40:60)
Quoted in Muslim: Allah (SWT) has said: “I have divided the prayer between Myself and My servant, into two halves, and My servant shall have what he has asked for. When the servant says, “[All] praise is [due] to Allah , Lord of the worlds,” Allah says, “My servant has praised Me.” (more..)
DON’T LIE IN YOUR PRAYER
We start our prayer by saying Allahu Akbar which means Allah is greater than. We say it multiple times in the prayer.
Question: Allah is greater than what?
Answer: Allah is greater than anything else
Within the prayer nothing is more important than Allah - no Dunya, no job, no money, no other thought, nothing.
If we say Allhu Akbar and then start thinking about something else then we are essentially lying in the prayer. We uttered Allahu Akbar but we did not mean it.
Allah (SWT) will then ask an angel to draw a curtain between Him & the person who came to meet with him but is now busy thinking about something else but Him.
“Allah (SWT) faces the servant during prayer as long as he does not turn away.” “… If he turns away, Allah (SWT) turns away from him.” (Abu Dawud)
‘Turn away’ means:
1) Turning away in heart, which means getting distracted and thinking of other things, and
2) Turning away with sight, looking up or left and right.
KNOW THAT ALLAH RESPONDS TO YOUR PRAYER
“And your Lord says, ‘Call upon Me; I will respond to you” (Qur’an, 40:60)
Quoted in Muslim: Allah (SWT) has said: “I have divided the prayer between Myself and My servant, into two halves, and My servant shall have what he has asked for. When the servant says, “[All] praise is [due] to Allah , Lord of the worlds,” Allah says, “My servant has praised Me.” (more..)
DON’T LIE IN YOUR PRAYER
We start our prayer by saying Allahu Akbar which means Allah is greater than. We say it multiple times in the prayer.
Question: Allah is greater than what?
Answer: Allah is greater than anything else
Within the prayer nothing is more important than Allah - no Dunya, no job, no money, no other thought, nothing.
If we say Allhu Akbar and then start thinking about something else then we are essentially lying in the prayer. We uttered Allahu Akbar but we did not mean it.
Allah (SWT) will then ask an angel to draw a curtain between Him & the person who came to meet with him but is now busy thinking about something else but Him.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
The Angel of Death
It was early in the morning at four, When death knocked upon a bedroom door.
Who is there? The sleeping one cried. I'm Malkul Maut, let me inside.
At once, the man began to shiver, As one sweating in deadly fever,
He shouted to his sleeping wife, Don't let him take away my life.
Please go away, O Angel of Death! Leave me alone; I'm not ready yet.
My parents and family on me depends, Give me a chance, O please prepense!
The angel knocked again and again, Friend! I'll take your life without a pain,
Tis your soul Allah requires, I come not with my own desires..
Bewildered, the man began to cry, O Angel I'm so afraid to die,
I'll give you gold and be your slave, Don't send me to the unlit grave.
Let me in, O Friend! The Angel said, Open the door; get up from your bed,
If you do not allow me in, I will walk through it, like a Jinn.
The man held a gun in his hand, Ready to defy the Angel's stand..
I'll point my gun, towards your head, You dare come in; I'll shoot you dead.
By now the Angel was in the room, Saying, O Friend! Prepare for you doom.
Foolish man, Angels never die, Put down your gun and do not sigh.
Why are you afraid! Tell me O man, To die according to Allah's plan?
Come smile at me, do not be grim, Be Happy, to return to Him.
O Angel! I bow my head in shame; I had no time to take Allah's Name.
From morning till dusk, I made my wealth, Not even caring for my own health.
Allah's command I never obeyed, Nor five times a day I ever prayed.
Ramadan came and a Ramadan went, But I had no time to repent.
The Hajj was already FARD on me, But I would not part with my money.
All charities I did ignore, Taking usury more and more.
Sometimes I sipped my favorite wine, With flirting women I sat to dine...
O Angel! I appeal to you, Spare my life for a year or two.
The Laws of Quran I will obey, I'll begin my SALAT this very day.
My Fast and Hajj, I will complete, And keep away from self-conceit.
I will refrain from usury, And give all my wealth to charity,
Wine and wenches I will detest, Allah's oneness I will attest.
We Angels do what Allah demands, We cannot go against His commands..
Death is ordained for everyone, Father, mother, daughter or son.
I'm afraid this moment is your last, Now be reminded, of your past,
Do understand your dreadful fears, But it is now too late for your tears.
You lived in this world, two score and more, Never did to you, your people adore.
Your parents, you did not obey, Hungry beggars, you turned away.
Your two ill-gotten, female offspring, In nightclubs, for livelihood they sing.
Instead of making many more Muslims, You made your children non-Muslims?
You did ignore the Mua'dhin Adhaan, Nor did you read the Holy Quran.
Breaking promises all your life, Backbiting friends, and causing strife.
From hoarded goods, great profits you made, And for your poor workers, you underpaid.
Horses and cars were your leisure, Moneymaking was your pleasure.
You ate vitamins and grew more fat, With the very sick, you never sat.
A pint of blood you never gave, Which could a little baby save?
O Human, you have done enough wrong, You bought good properties for a song.
When the farmers appealed to you, You did not have mercy, tis true.
Paradise for you? I cannot tell, Undoubtedly you will dwell in hell.
There is no time for you to repent, I'll take your soul for which I am sent.
The ending however, is very sad, Eventually the man became mad
With a cry, he jumped out of bed, And suddenly, he fell down dead.
O Reader! Take moral from here, You never know, your end may be near.
Change your living and make amends For heaven, on your deeds depends.
if this poem inspires you, It can help someone too.
At least take sometime, and do not ban And send it to as many people as you can.
This poem may change many lives, And Allah may have for you a great surprise.
Who is there? The sleeping one cried. I'm Malkul Maut, let me inside.
At once, the man began to shiver, As one sweating in deadly fever,
He shouted to his sleeping wife, Don't let him take away my life.
Please go away, O Angel of Death! Leave me alone; I'm not ready yet.
My parents and family on me depends, Give me a chance, O please prepense!
The angel knocked again and again, Friend! I'll take your life without a pain,
Tis your soul Allah requires, I come not with my own desires..
Bewildered, the man began to cry, O Angel I'm so afraid to die,
I'll give you gold and be your slave, Don't send me to the unlit grave.
Let me in, O Friend! The Angel said, Open the door; get up from your bed,
If you do not allow me in, I will walk through it, like a Jinn.
The man held a gun in his hand, Ready to defy the Angel's stand..
I'll point my gun, towards your head, You dare come in; I'll shoot you dead.
By now the Angel was in the room, Saying, O Friend! Prepare for you doom.
Foolish man, Angels never die, Put down your gun and do not sigh.
Why are you afraid! Tell me O man, To die according to Allah's plan?
Come smile at me, do not be grim, Be Happy, to return to Him.
O Angel! I bow my head in shame; I had no time to take Allah's Name.
From morning till dusk, I made my wealth, Not even caring for my own health.
Allah's command I never obeyed, Nor five times a day I ever prayed.
Ramadan came and a Ramadan went, But I had no time to repent.
The Hajj was already FARD on me, But I would not part with my money.
All charities I did ignore, Taking usury more and more.
Sometimes I sipped my favorite wine, With flirting women I sat to dine...
O Angel! I appeal to you, Spare my life for a year or two.
The Laws of Quran I will obey, I'll begin my SALAT this very day.
My Fast and Hajj, I will complete, And keep away from self-conceit.
I will refrain from usury, And give all my wealth to charity,
Wine and wenches I will detest, Allah's oneness I will attest.
We Angels do what Allah demands, We cannot go against His commands..
Death is ordained for everyone, Father, mother, daughter or son.
I'm afraid this moment is your last, Now be reminded, of your past,
Do understand your dreadful fears, But it is now too late for your tears.
You lived in this world, two score and more, Never did to you, your people adore.
Your parents, you did not obey, Hungry beggars, you turned away.
Your two ill-gotten, female offspring, In nightclubs, for livelihood they sing.
Instead of making many more Muslims, You made your children non-Muslims?
You did ignore the Mua'dhin Adhaan, Nor did you read the Holy Quran.
Breaking promises all your life, Backbiting friends, and causing strife.
From hoarded goods, great profits you made, And for your poor workers, you underpaid.
Horses and cars were your leisure, Moneymaking was your pleasure.
You ate vitamins and grew more fat, With the very sick, you never sat.
A pint of blood you never gave, Which could a little baby save?
O Human, you have done enough wrong, You bought good properties for a song.
When the farmers appealed to you, You did not have mercy, tis true.
Paradise for you? I cannot tell, Undoubtedly you will dwell in hell.
There is no time for you to repent, I'll take your soul for which I am sent.
The ending however, is very sad, Eventually the man became mad
With a cry, he jumped out of bed, And suddenly, he fell down dead.
O Reader! Take moral from here, You never know, your end may be near.
Change your living and make amends For heaven, on your deeds depends.
if this poem inspires you, It can help someone too.
At least take sometime, and do not ban And send it to as many people as you can.
This poem may change many lives, And Allah may have for you a great surprise.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Ideas For Studying Quran At Mosque Like A Pro
Ideas For Studying Quran At Mosque Like A Pro
Monday, 12 September 2011
In the name of God, compassionate, merciful بسم الله الرحمن الرحيمِ | Peace be with you السلام عليكم
When you're 7 years old and sat on the floor of a shed-like building adopted for the madrasa, you do slip into an unanswerable thought of an unquenched mind. "Why is after-school mosque so boring? How come school, that's longer and more far away, is really fun and you get to play?
But the only happy time is on Fridays when Ustadh gives us a reward for leaving."
I didn't hate mosque teaching. Mosques are the go-between steps from our first education with our parents, to being raised by state schools. But I had justified my dislike of an institution that used chalkboards for data storage, and public Qur'an recitals as disciplinary action. I resigned from madrasa aged 9.
Studying the Qur'an to this day still excites me. It's exciting in the way a theme park is. Our mosques in Britain have kept the tradition of traditions yet a majority of them lack the basic attitude required to invite new minds: enthusiasm.
When iPads and retina scans are the paper and ink of our state schools, I desperately want to see more resources being used in mosques. And I believe it begins with a more creative approach to presenting the Qur'an. Whether the student is aged 5 or 40.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said,
"The deen (lifestyle) of Islam is very easy and whoever overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in that way. So follow a middle course (in worship), but try to be near to perfection and receive the good tidings that you will be rewarded; and gain strength by worshipping in the mornings, and some part of the night." (Bukhari)
Idea: Use Qur'an apps and create posters
I memorise Qur'an quite basically using the mushaf, the text book copy, and study it using contemporary technologies - whatever is available to me, computers, mp3s and apps. Nothing beats holding the book itself though.
What you need to make Qur'an learning awesomely fun
Coloured markers, pencils, highlighters, stationery, crayons
Binders, flash cards, poster paper, tabbed project books, hifdh log book
White boards, illustrated Arabic alphabet guides, sticky notes, zipped folders
MP3 player, Qur'an CDs, simple Qur'an translations, audio recorder
A computer, Microsoft Office software, USBs
Idea: An illustrated Qur'an
For the message to penetrate a young heart so it's permanent, the person has to be constantly engaged with it. Breaking down chapters into mind-maps and posters to hang on the mosque wall makes a school-like environment of visual learning.
After a reading and memorising session more hands-on activity needs to take place. Computer tests, Qur'an board games, connective "trump" cards to jog a child's memory are what my parents and I already use (we're a bunch of teachers).
Using active tools is for kinesthetic learning and it's a predominant learning style (especially in boys) so unless the Qur'an reader has a groupie to sit and regularly recite to, the words will jumble around without implementation in real life.
On MUSLIMNESS we interviewed the 'Reading With Meaning' photographer who recreated each Qur'an ayat using Lego. That's innovative learning and it enhances the message.
Read {20 Time Management Tips For Muslims}
Idea: Keep tabs on your Qur'an
Both students and teachers have to find the Qur'an contents captivating in a similar style. It's not enough that the teacher is spiritually in love with the Holy book - how does this love transcend to a mind in order to broaden his or her thinking?
A simple investment in 'Dhikr Notes helps the student mark out similar themes, goals to achieve, and duas or verses to learn. Larger post-it notes can be used as book marks and do underline areas for improvement. Teachers can list strengths and weaknesses in a planner for the child to show parents. Simple reports are already in use throughout mosques and with a little expansion, a high quality table format using a PC can be sent home periodically to say, "your child's done all this, masha'Allah!"
Never, ever, ever write in your Qur'an with a pen! Encourage your students and yourself to make notes in the blank margin of a translation in pencil. A notebook should be used as a homework planner, to jot important references and to take down tafsir. If you've taken a break from Qur'an reading in a state of wudhu, get a translation and read up on the prophets' stories - Surah Yusuf, the romance between Musa `alayhisalam and his wife Safura, the difficulties of Prophet Ayoub `alayhisalam, and qualities of Heaven, life after death, halal food and environmental practices. It's all there in that Glorious Book. You just need to find and remember it.
And to achieve this, we invest in colour, marker pens and a whole lotta drawing.
Idea: Organise your Qur'an
I got a hold of an A6 sized binder made specifically for flash cards (note cards, revision cads, whatever you want to call them). It's about 15 cm in length, is slightly larger than a travel size Qur'an and is perfect for older students who are memorising the holy book.
Qur'an hifdh memorisation traditionally begins with a qualified teacher who has ijaza. He or she must ensure the students use the same large print copy of the Qur'an, are recapping each verse daily without break and are engaged with the text, using appropriate creative methods.
After I've memorised a few verses I like to get them checked by my teachers. I repeat them to everyone I know, and I will record my recitation to keep a log of mistakes and corrections. I will also copy out the Arabic to understand how the words are connected what each letter means. For children, a hifdh log book is a fantastic idea, available from Learning Roots. *Review to follow.
I take my travel size Qur'an (10cm) to weddings, on trips and public transport
Eventually, when the memorisation and applciation of higher level tajweed and translation is complete, you want to condense it down. It needs to be in a "documented file" in your brain so reading the Arabic text alone, you're able to give a talk on a chapter or a theme and create entertaining powerpoint presentations to show children the content.
For myself, flash cards are the peak of learning as I use just one card to bullet point the entire history, context, message and Arabic linguistics of one chapter - mostly those shorter chapters in the 30th 'juz, volume of the Qur'an.
Surah al-Maun for example is a 7 versed chapter in the 30th 'juz, related to charity. It compares the believers who worship God through physical prayer only to appear pious, with those who are real tight (mean) with their generosity towards orphans and the needy.
After memorisation, a study period of tafsir, interprepation and explanation, all I need are two keywords to bring forward the whole chapter in my mind.
1. Ya du`u = (يَدُعُّ) a verb that comes from the root da`a (دَعَّ) and means to "repel, repulse, thrust, push back and drive away with violence".
2. Ya Huddu = (يَحُضُّ) another verb, is from the root word hadda (حَضَّ) meaning to "encourage, urge, pull, inspire."
Ya huddu: encourage, is mentioned in verse 3 and is the exact opposite of ya du`u in verse 2: repel. For me, these two words represent the core of the chapter which is why I focused on them.
I wrote these two verses out, highlighting the two keywords and connecting them with their meanings. Surah Maun is in my head but I can recall some of the detailed meaning from beginning to end using one flash card.
Now that's exciting.
Monday, 12 September 2011
In the name of God, compassionate, merciful بسم الله الرحمن الرحيمِ | Peace be with you السلام عليكم
When you're 7 years old and sat on the floor of a shed-like building adopted for the madrasa, you do slip into an unanswerable thought of an unquenched mind. "Why is after-school mosque so boring? How come school, that's longer and more far away, is really fun and you get to play?
But the only happy time is on Fridays when Ustadh gives us a reward for leaving."
I didn't hate mosque teaching. Mosques are the go-between steps from our first education with our parents, to being raised by state schools. But I had justified my dislike of an institution that used chalkboards for data storage, and public Qur'an recitals as disciplinary action. I resigned from madrasa aged 9.
Studying the Qur'an to this day still excites me. It's exciting in the way a theme park is. Our mosques in Britain have kept the tradition of traditions yet a majority of them lack the basic attitude required to invite new minds: enthusiasm.
When iPads and retina scans are the paper and ink of our state schools, I desperately want to see more resources being used in mosques. And I believe it begins with a more creative approach to presenting the Qur'an. Whether the student is aged 5 or 40.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said,
"The deen (lifestyle) of Islam is very easy and whoever overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in that way. So follow a middle course (in worship), but try to be near to perfection and receive the good tidings that you will be rewarded; and gain strength by worshipping in the mornings, and some part of the night." (Bukhari)
Idea: Use Qur'an apps and create posters
I memorise Qur'an quite basically using the mushaf, the text book copy, and study it using contemporary technologies - whatever is available to me, computers, mp3s and apps. Nothing beats holding the book itself though.
What you need to make Qur'an learning awesomely fun
Coloured markers, pencils, highlighters, stationery, crayons
Binders, flash cards, poster paper, tabbed project books, hifdh log book
White boards, illustrated Arabic alphabet guides, sticky notes, zipped folders
MP3 player, Qur'an CDs, simple Qur'an translations, audio recorder
A computer, Microsoft Office software, USBs
Idea: An illustrated Qur'an
For the message to penetrate a young heart so it's permanent, the person has to be constantly engaged with it. Breaking down chapters into mind-maps and posters to hang on the mosque wall makes a school-like environment of visual learning.
After a reading and memorising session more hands-on activity needs to take place. Computer tests, Qur'an board games, connective "trump" cards to jog a child's memory are what my parents and I already use (we're a bunch of teachers).
Using active tools is for kinesthetic learning and it's a predominant learning style (especially in boys) so unless the Qur'an reader has a groupie to sit and regularly recite to, the words will jumble around without implementation in real life.
On MUSLIMNESS we interviewed the 'Reading With Meaning' photographer who recreated each Qur'an ayat using Lego. That's innovative learning and it enhances the message.
Read {20 Time Management Tips For Muslims}
Idea: Keep tabs on your Qur'an
Both students and teachers have to find the Qur'an contents captivating in a similar style. It's not enough that the teacher is spiritually in love with the Holy book - how does this love transcend to a mind in order to broaden his or her thinking?
A simple investment in 'Dhikr Notes helps the student mark out similar themes, goals to achieve, and duas or verses to learn. Larger post-it notes can be used as book marks and do underline areas for improvement. Teachers can list strengths and weaknesses in a planner for the child to show parents. Simple reports are already in use throughout mosques and with a little expansion, a high quality table format using a PC can be sent home periodically to say, "your child's done all this, masha'Allah!"
Never, ever, ever write in your Qur'an with a pen! Encourage your students and yourself to make notes in the blank margin of a translation in pencil. A notebook should be used as a homework planner, to jot important references and to take down tafsir. If you've taken a break from Qur'an reading in a state of wudhu, get a translation and read up on the prophets' stories - Surah Yusuf, the romance between Musa `alayhisalam and his wife Safura, the difficulties of Prophet Ayoub `alayhisalam, and qualities of Heaven, life after death, halal food and environmental practices. It's all there in that Glorious Book. You just need to find and remember it.
And to achieve this, we invest in colour, marker pens and a whole lotta drawing.
Idea: Organise your Qur'an
I got a hold of an A6 sized binder made specifically for flash cards (note cards, revision cads, whatever you want to call them). It's about 15 cm in length, is slightly larger than a travel size Qur'an and is perfect for older students who are memorising the holy book.
Qur'an hifdh memorisation traditionally begins with a qualified teacher who has ijaza. He or she must ensure the students use the same large print copy of the Qur'an, are recapping each verse daily without break and are engaged with the text, using appropriate creative methods.
After I've memorised a few verses I like to get them checked by my teachers. I repeat them to everyone I know, and I will record my recitation to keep a log of mistakes and corrections. I will also copy out the Arabic to understand how the words are connected what each letter means. For children, a hifdh log book is a fantastic idea, available from Learning Roots. *Review to follow.
I take my travel size Qur'an (10cm) to weddings, on trips and public transport
Eventually, when the memorisation and applciation of higher level tajweed and translation is complete, you want to condense it down. It needs to be in a "documented file" in your brain so reading the Arabic text alone, you're able to give a talk on a chapter or a theme and create entertaining powerpoint presentations to show children the content.
For myself, flash cards are the peak of learning as I use just one card to bullet point the entire history, context, message and Arabic linguistics of one chapter - mostly those shorter chapters in the 30th 'juz, volume of the Qur'an.
Surah al-Maun for example is a 7 versed chapter in the 30th 'juz, related to charity. It compares the believers who worship God through physical prayer only to appear pious, with those who are real tight (mean) with their generosity towards orphans and the needy.
After memorisation, a study period of tafsir, interprepation and explanation, all I need are two keywords to bring forward the whole chapter in my mind.
1. Ya du`u = (يَدُعُّ) a verb that comes from the root da`a (دَعَّ) and means to "repel, repulse, thrust, push back and drive away with violence".
2. Ya Huddu = (يَحُضُّ) another verb, is from the root word hadda (حَضَّ) meaning to "encourage, urge, pull, inspire."
Ya huddu: encourage, is mentioned in verse 3 and is the exact opposite of ya du`u in verse 2: repel. For me, these two words represent the core of the chapter which is why I focused on them.
I wrote these two verses out, highlighting the two keywords and connecting them with their meanings. Surah Maun is in my head but I can recall some of the detailed meaning from beginning to end using one flash card.
Now that's exciting.
7 Attributes that Matter
[Taken from Simple Dollar]
A while back, I sat down to make a list of the attributes of the people I consider to be great people. I could give you a long list of them, from Theodore Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi to my dad, but the point isn’t so much the list of people but the attributes of those people.
The people I admire are usually people who made something great from auspicious backgrounds or stepped up to the plate during challenging moments or were able to find incredible success in different areas. Some of them were rich and others were poor. Many of them paired traits I admired with traits that I didn’t (like Steve Jobs).
I was trying to figure out what made each of them great. In each case, the list was somewhat different. I would try to think of several traits that would make one person great, then find myself making a different list for another person.
When I was doing this, I found myself looking for patterns. I found no two people had all of the same traits, but I began to find lots of overlap between people. I’d see some of the same traits popping up over and over again.
Eventually, I began to realize that there were seven traits that kept showing up again and again in the people I admired the most. None of them had all of these traits, but they were shared so often among the people I considered that I began to see them as seven attributes that really matter. If you have these attributes inside of you or, even more importantly, are willing to work to improve yourself in these areas, I think you’ll find a path to whatever your dreams may hold.
Lately, these seven traits have become something of a self-improvement checklist of mine. I hope they do for you, too.
Self-Belief
Self-belief simply means that you believe you can accomplish things. When you see a difficult task before you, do you start convincing yourself that you can’t do it or do you start looking for a way to make it happen? Self-belief is, of course, the latter.
Without self-belief, it becomes very hard to take on large challenges in your life. Instead, you’ll avoid the challenges, seeking easier paths which won’t be particularly rewarding.
How can you build self-belief? The easiest way is to show yourself that you can do it. Start challenging yourself with personal projects that aren’t easy (but that are actually achievable). Can you walk 2,000 miles this year? Can you write a novel before the end of March? Set that plan down and focus all your energy on making it happen. The more you achieve, the more your self-belief will grow.
Humility
Of course, it’s easy for self-belief to turn into arrogance, which is a dangerous trait to have. You can easily begin to believe that you are the secret sauce that makes things happen and that you make the world go around.
Sorry, it’s not true.
Humility simply means that you understand that the world doesn’t begin and end with you. Virtually everything in your life is a collaboration. As I type this post, I’m relying on software from Microsoft and Apple and several open source projects. The ideas that flow through my head came through countless sources. The inspiration for this post was other people. I know that I am merely a small part of the reason for the success of this site or this article, and without those tools and things created by others, I wouldn’t be here and there would be no Simple Dollar.
A good way to practice humility is to think about how many people had to be involved to bring you the things you take for granted. Start with the device you’re reading this on. Who made it? Who wrote the software that runs on it? All of those people deserve some credit for making what you’re doing right now happen. You’re actually just a very tiny part of that exchange.
Self-Reliance
Let’s turn this rock over again and look at another facet: self-reliance. Self-reliance simply means that you’re able to come up with solutions to problems with as little direct outside help as possible. A self-reliant person is willing and able to fix their own toilet, grow their own food, and figure out what they’re supposed to do next.
Self-reliance combines well with self-belief. Self-belief means you think you can do anything. Self-reliance means you’re able to start coming up with methods to actually do it without someone guiding you.
How do you improve self-reliance? Start taking on tasks that you think might be difficult. Yes, you might mess them up. Yes, that’s okay. The key is that you’re trying to do things on your own and, more often than not, you’re succeeding at them. Self-reliance becomes something of a snowball rolling down the mountain, where you start to tie achieved tasks together and before you know it, you’re planning large projects on the fly.
Love of Learning
A key part of one’s ability to succeed in any area is knowledge acquisition. Do you know what’s going on in that area? Do you know the people involved? Do you have a thorough base of knowledge upon which you can interact with other people driven to succeed?
Obviously, one can acquire knowledge without enjoying the process, but a love of learning certainly makes the process easier. If you love learning, then the thought of tackling something new in order to understand it in depth sounds exciting. You can’t wait to get started!
My perspective has been that a love of knowledge is often a snowball effect. If you start off just picking one topic you really want to understand and focus on learning more about that topic, you often tend to slowly spread into other topics. Eventually, learning itself becomes a joyful journey.
Adaptability
Situations change. Opportunities appear and disappear. One day you find yourself in a scientific research field, another you find yourself being a writer on financial topics (not that I’m speaking from experience or anything…).
Some people are able to roll with the punches. If the problems and the situations change, then they change their tactics to go along with it. Others just lock down in uncertain and changing situations.
The more adaptable you are to change, the more likely you are to succeed at whatever life throws at you.
Adaptability, of course, draws on self-reliance, but they differ in one key aspect: adaptability sometimes causes you to inherently rely on others. Self-reliance, in a way, is just a key tool for adaptability.
How do you build adaptability? The key is to watch your own behavior. When a situation changes, do you respond by retreating into your shell? If you do, make a very focused effort to come out of that shell and just deal with the new situation. The more you do it, the easier it becomes.
Passion
By passion, I mean that whatever it is that you choose to be doing, you get swept away in it. It consumes your thoughts. It brings you incredible joy when you’re doing it, particularly when you see improvement at it.
When you wake up in the morning, you’re raring to get started on that thing you’re passionate about. When you go to bed, it fills your thoughts until you go to sleep.
Some people are prone to passion. Others are more withdrawn. Yet, time and time again, when I witness someone doing something great, passion is at work.
How can you build passion? The key, really, is just letting go of a sense that you shouldn’t dive in deep. So often, I see people afraid to be passionate because of the cultural constraints around them. They don’t want to be a “nerd.” So often, though, the people who do amazing things are nerds. Their passion drives them to do something special. Let go. Be a nerd.
Detail-Oriented Focus
When you work, do you find yourself focusing hard on the project at hand? Do you often notice details that other people miss? Do you want the details to be right when you care about a project? Can you get so involved with a project that wild horses can barely drag you away?
A person who can answer “yes” to those questions has detail-oriented focus. They have the ability to take something they’re working on and make it great.
Detail-oriented focus can be built by training one’s attention span. Start by eliminating all distractions when you’re working on a project. When you find yourself daydreaming, take a break and do something else for a while, then go back into focus mode. The more you practice this, the better you’ll get at focusing. You’ll eventually be able to reach what I call “the zone,” where time just seems to slip away as I focus on a project.
These seven traits pop up in some combination in every great person that I know. They’ll lead you to success, too.
A while back, I sat down to make a list of the attributes of the people I consider to be great people. I could give you a long list of them, from Theodore Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi to my dad, but the point isn’t so much the list of people but the attributes of those people.
The people I admire are usually people who made something great from auspicious backgrounds or stepped up to the plate during challenging moments or were able to find incredible success in different areas. Some of them were rich and others were poor. Many of them paired traits I admired with traits that I didn’t (like Steve Jobs).
I was trying to figure out what made each of them great. In each case, the list was somewhat different. I would try to think of several traits that would make one person great, then find myself making a different list for another person.
When I was doing this, I found myself looking for patterns. I found no two people had all of the same traits, but I began to find lots of overlap between people. I’d see some of the same traits popping up over and over again.
Eventually, I began to realize that there were seven traits that kept showing up again and again in the people I admired the most. None of them had all of these traits, but they were shared so often among the people I considered that I began to see them as seven attributes that really matter. If you have these attributes inside of you or, even more importantly, are willing to work to improve yourself in these areas, I think you’ll find a path to whatever your dreams may hold.
Lately, these seven traits have become something of a self-improvement checklist of mine. I hope they do for you, too.
Self-Belief
Self-belief simply means that you believe you can accomplish things. When you see a difficult task before you, do you start convincing yourself that you can’t do it or do you start looking for a way to make it happen? Self-belief is, of course, the latter.
Without self-belief, it becomes very hard to take on large challenges in your life. Instead, you’ll avoid the challenges, seeking easier paths which won’t be particularly rewarding.
How can you build self-belief? The easiest way is to show yourself that you can do it. Start challenging yourself with personal projects that aren’t easy (but that are actually achievable). Can you walk 2,000 miles this year? Can you write a novel before the end of March? Set that plan down and focus all your energy on making it happen. The more you achieve, the more your self-belief will grow.
Humility
Of course, it’s easy for self-belief to turn into arrogance, which is a dangerous trait to have. You can easily begin to believe that you are the secret sauce that makes things happen and that you make the world go around.
Sorry, it’s not true.
Humility simply means that you understand that the world doesn’t begin and end with you. Virtually everything in your life is a collaboration. As I type this post, I’m relying on software from Microsoft and Apple and several open source projects. The ideas that flow through my head came through countless sources. The inspiration for this post was other people. I know that I am merely a small part of the reason for the success of this site or this article, and without those tools and things created by others, I wouldn’t be here and there would be no Simple Dollar.
A good way to practice humility is to think about how many people had to be involved to bring you the things you take for granted. Start with the device you’re reading this on. Who made it? Who wrote the software that runs on it? All of those people deserve some credit for making what you’re doing right now happen. You’re actually just a very tiny part of that exchange.
Self-Reliance
Let’s turn this rock over again and look at another facet: self-reliance. Self-reliance simply means that you’re able to come up with solutions to problems with as little direct outside help as possible. A self-reliant person is willing and able to fix their own toilet, grow their own food, and figure out what they’re supposed to do next.
Self-reliance combines well with self-belief. Self-belief means you think you can do anything. Self-reliance means you’re able to start coming up with methods to actually do it without someone guiding you.
How do you improve self-reliance? Start taking on tasks that you think might be difficult. Yes, you might mess them up. Yes, that’s okay. The key is that you’re trying to do things on your own and, more often than not, you’re succeeding at them. Self-reliance becomes something of a snowball rolling down the mountain, where you start to tie achieved tasks together and before you know it, you’re planning large projects on the fly.
Love of Learning
A key part of one’s ability to succeed in any area is knowledge acquisition. Do you know what’s going on in that area? Do you know the people involved? Do you have a thorough base of knowledge upon which you can interact with other people driven to succeed?
Obviously, one can acquire knowledge without enjoying the process, but a love of learning certainly makes the process easier. If you love learning, then the thought of tackling something new in order to understand it in depth sounds exciting. You can’t wait to get started!
My perspective has been that a love of knowledge is often a snowball effect. If you start off just picking one topic you really want to understand and focus on learning more about that topic, you often tend to slowly spread into other topics. Eventually, learning itself becomes a joyful journey.
Adaptability
Situations change. Opportunities appear and disappear. One day you find yourself in a scientific research field, another you find yourself being a writer on financial topics (not that I’m speaking from experience or anything…).
Some people are able to roll with the punches. If the problems and the situations change, then they change their tactics to go along with it. Others just lock down in uncertain and changing situations.
The more adaptable you are to change, the more likely you are to succeed at whatever life throws at you.
Adaptability, of course, draws on self-reliance, but they differ in one key aspect: adaptability sometimes causes you to inherently rely on others. Self-reliance, in a way, is just a key tool for adaptability.
How do you build adaptability? The key is to watch your own behavior. When a situation changes, do you respond by retreating into your shell? If you do, make a very focused effort to come out of that shell and just deal with the new situation. The more you do it, the easier it becomes.
Passion
By passion, I mean that whatever it is that you choose to be doing, you get swept away in it. It consumes your thoughts. It brings you incredible joy when you’re doing it, particularly when you see improvement at it.
When you wake up in the morning, you’re raring to get started on that thing you’re passionate about. When you go to bed, it fills your thoughts until you go to sleep.
Some people are prone to passion. Others are more withdrawn. Yet, time and time again, when I witness someone doing something great, passion is at work.
How can you build passion? The key, really, is just letting go of a sense that you shouldn’t dive in deep. So often, I see people afraid to be passionate because of the cultural constraints around them. They don’t want to be a “nerd.” So often, though, the people who do amazing things are nerds. Their passion drives them to do something special. Let go. Be a nerd.
Detail-Oriented Focus
When you work, do you find yourself focusing hard on the project at hand? Do you often notice details that other people miss? Do you want the details to be right when you care about a project? Can you get so involved with a project that wild horses can barely drag you away?
A person who can answer “yes” to those questions has detail-oriented focus. They have the ability to take something they’re working on and make it great.
Detail-oriented focus can be built by training one’s attention span. Start by eliminating all distractions when you’re working on a project. When you find yourself daydreaming, take a break and do something else for a while, then go back into focus mode. The more you practice this, the better you’ll get at focusing. You’ll eventually be able to reach what I call “the zone,” where time just seems to slip away as I focus on a project.
These seven traits pop up in some combination in every great person that I know. They’ll lead you to success, too.
More Valuable than Money or Possessions
[Taken from the Simple Dollar]
There was a time about eight years ago when I woke up thinking about the possessions I had and the money I was earning. I was a collector of stuff and I was immensely proud of the money I was earning. Not only did I want lots of stuff for my own enjoyment, I also wanted to flaunt it to a certain extent.
Over time, though, I began to realize that something was missing in my life. There were things that I wanted in my life that were drifting farther and farther away from me.
I wanted the freedom to write for a living because I deeply enjoy the written word.
I wanted a strong relationship with my wife.
I wanted a strong relationship with my children and to raise them into a self-reliant and curiosity-filled adulthood.
I wanted time to read and enjoy books – not to collect them, but to read and enjoy them.
I wanted to build a close circle of friends that would stick with me through thick and thin (as I would stick with them).
My life was focused heavily on my income and possessions, but it really felt empty after a while.
Eventually, after I realized that I really needed to turn my financial situation around, I began to really focus on the things above as the center of my life. Each of them – along with another focus or two that I’ve added since then – pushes me to build a great life that I enjoy without spending money.
Writing only requires a computer and trips to the library to do research.
A relationship with my wife requires just time and attention, as does a relationship with my children.
Reading just requires time, along with those aforementioned trips to the library.
A close circle of friends mostly just requires time and attention.
Better health (a newer focus) requires time to exercise and attention to the foods I eat.
There’s no significant money being spent on any of these things, yet they fill up the vast majority of my time and attention. These are the components of a life that I’m happy leading.
For me, a major key to financial success was simply taking stock of my life and figuring out what I wanted most from it. When you’re not doing that, it’s easy to get distracted by the constant hum of consumerism that fills life in the United States, from the advertisements to the product placement within programs, from the social influences to the pressure to be seen as affluent.
Take some time to step back and ask yourself what’s genuinely important to you. What really matters in your life? Step back from the things you invest your time, money, and energy into and focus instead on maximizing those things that matter most to you.
You might find that financial success comes easier than you think.
Over time, though, I began to realize that something was missing in my life. There were things that I wanted in my life that were drifting farther and farther away from me.
I wanted the freedom to write for a living because I deeply enjoy the written word.
I wanted a strong relationship with my wife.
I wanted a strong relationship with my children and to raise them into a self-reliant and curiosity-filled adulthood.
I wanted time to read and enjoy books – not to collect them, but to read and enjoy them.
I wanted to build a close circle of friends that would stick with me through thick and thin (as I would stick with them).
My life was focused heavily on my income and possessions, but it really felt empty after a while.
Eventually, after I realized that I really needed to turn my financial situation around, I began to really focus on the things above as the center of my life. Each of them – along with another focus or two that I’ve added since then – pushes me to build a great life that I enjoy without spending money.
Writing only requires a computer and trips to the library to do research.
A relationship with my wife requires just time and attention, as does a relationship with my children.
Reading just requires time, along with those aforementioned trips to the library.
A close circle of friends mostly just requires time and attention.
Better health (a newer focus) requires time to exercise and attention to the foods I eat.
There’s no significant money being spent on any of these things, yet they fill up the vast majority of my time and attention. These are the components of a life that I’m happy leading.
For me, a major key to financial success was simply taking stock of my life and figuring out what I wanted most from it. When you’re not doing that, it’s easy to get distracted by the constant hum of consumerism that fills life in the United States, from the advertisements to the product placement within programs, from the social influences to the pressure to be seen as affluent.
Take some time to step back and ask yourself what’s genuinely important to you. What really matters in your life? Step back from the things you invest your time, money, and energy into and focus instead on maximizing those things that matter most to you.
You might find that financial success comes easier than you think.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Are you ready to change?
[Taken from Simple Dollar]
When I first entered college, I was not mentally prepared for it. I didn’t have adequate study skills, nor did I have the focus or patience to do the work that needed to be done to really succeed. My first two and a half years of college were spent simply focusing on doing the minimum I needed to do to keep my scholarships.
At about the end of my fifth semester or so, I woke up. I went from struggling to stay in school to making the dean’s list while majoring in two hard sciences. I couldn’t completely undo the performance of my first three years in school, but I certainly left college on a completely different trajectory than when I entered it.
When I was mentally ready for it, I was completely able to take control of my education and career trajectory.
Later on, I spent myself into a pretty deep financial hole. We had a mountain of credit card and other consumer debt. Throughout 2004 and 2005, we just kept spending and spending, digging the hole deeper and deeper.
When our first child arrived on the scene, my perspective began to change on a lot of things in my life. I began to realize that I was not only responsible for my own path, but for the path of this tiny child. I turned the ship around, and today Sarah and I own a home and are completely debt free.
When I was mentally ready for it, I was completely able to take control of my finances.
Sometimes, we’re not mentally ready for the things we need to do in our lives.
I see it all the time in people around me. There are people who are just not ready to go through the hard steps needed to correct their finances or get on a different career path. They’re more interested in maximizing their enjoyment of this very moment and they just assume tomorrow will figure itself out.
I see it in myself. There are personal challenges I’d love to take on, but I often feel like I just don’t quite have it in me to make a success out of those things.
If you’re not fully on board with the changes you want to make, you’ll find it very difficult to make those changes.
So, what can you do? You’re aware of a change that needs to be made, but you’re just not quite on board with it. What’s next?
For me, introspection works better than anything. I’ve found that, time and time again, I’ve reached breakthroughs in my life by constantly looking at my life and asking myself what I want out of it and what I need to do to get there.
When I’m not ready to achieve something, the answers aren’t there yet. The key is to keep asking. Keep thinking about it. Keep reading. Keep translating that reading into the reality of your own life.
The first step is recognizing that a change needs to happen.
The second step is digging into your life and really understanding what’s wrong and what needs to be fixed.
After that, the journey can go in a lot of different directions. Different things work well for different people as long as you have that foundation of understanding what needs changed and you’re truly committed to it. Without that foundation, changing your life is next to impossible.
When I first entered college, I was not mentally prepared for it. I didn’t have adequate study skills, nor did I have the focus or patience to do the work that needed to be done to really succeed. My first two and a half years of college were spent simply focusing on doing the minimum I needed to do to keep my scholarships.
At about the end of my fifth semester or so, I woke up. I went from struggling to stay in school to making the dean’s list while majoring in two hard sciences. I couldn’t completely undo the performance of my first three years in school, but I certainly left college on a completely different trajectory than when I entered it.
When I was mentally ready for it, I was completely able to take control of my education and career trajectory.
Later on, I spent myself into a pretty deep financial hole. We had a mountain of credit card and other consumer debt. Throughout 2004 and 2005, we just kept spending and spending, digging the hole deeper and deeper.
When our first child arrived on the scene, my perspective began to change on a lot of things in my life. I began to realize that I was not only responsible for my own path, but for the path of this tiny child. I turned the ship around, and today Sarah and I own a home and are completely debt free.
When I was mentally ready for it, I was completely able to take control of my finances.
Sometimes, we’re not mentally ready for the things we need to do in our lives.
I see it all the time in people around me. There are people who are just not ready to go through the hard steps needed to correct their finances or get on a different career path. They’re more interested in maximizing their enjoyment of this very moment and they just assume tomorrow will figure itself out.
I see it in myself. There are personal challenges I’d love to take on, but I often feel like I just don’t quite have it in me to make a success out of those things.
If you’re not fully on board with the changes you want to make, you’ll find it very difficult to make those changes.
So, what can you do? You’re aware of a change that needs to be made, but you’re just not quite on board with it. What’s next?
For me, introspection works better than anything. I’ve found that, time and time again, I’ve reached breakthroughs in my life by constantly looking at my life and asking myself what I want out of it and what I need to do to get there.
When I’m not ready to achieve something, the answers aren’t there yet. The key is to keep asking. Keep thinking about it. Keep reading. Keep translating that reading into the reality of your own life.
The first step is recognizing that a change needs to happen.
The second step is digging into your life and really understanding what’s wrong and what needs to be fixed.
After that, the journey can go in a lot of different directions. Different things work well for different people as long as you have that foundation of understanding what needs changed and you’re truly committed to it. Without that foundation, changing your life is next to impossible.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Our Enemy Is Resistance, and We Shall Defeat It
[Taken from Simple Dollar]
When I get up in the morning, I know that I should exercise, but I often really don’t want to do it. I usually have a checklist of other things I need to do, so I’ll use that as an excuse. Some days, I’ll find some minor physical reason not to do it (“I have a tiny blister on my toe” or “I think I have a cold coming on” or “My knee hurts”). Other days, I’ll not even think about it. The easiest path often seems to be the one that doesn’t involve exercise.
Resistance.
When I was trying to get my financial life in order, my entire social network was full of cues to spend money. The television programs I watched depicted affluent and interesting people who just happened to have things that were compelling to me in some way. I felt like my family expected me to buy nice gifts and treat them to meals when they came to visit. The easiest path seemed to be the one that involved spending more money.
Resistance.
When I’m trying to adopt any life change, there are always a lot of reasons not to do it. Usually, it’s much easier to just keep doing things the way I’m doing things. It’s comfortable. I understand it. I know it’s not going to hurt to stick with the status quo, at least not in the short term. My family hints that this change might not be the best idea.
Resistance.
Our enemy is resistance, and we shall defeat it.
Here are our weapons in this battle.
Forge a new path of least resistance. Fighting to overcome the munchies? Toss all of the unhealthy munchies out of your home (take them to a food pantry, for example). That way, the easiest path to getting your snack fix involves eating something healthy. Fighting to exercise more? Reserve a parking spot as far from your workplace as possible, or put your jogging shoes right in front of your door so that you have to actively move them to avoid them.
Use some motivation. Why are you really making this change? Hold that motivator front and center. For a long time, I kept my credit cards wrapped in a photograph of my children. I’ve started using a picture of me at my heaviest (although that’s about fifty pounds heavier than I am now) in several places to encourage exercise.
Make simple milestones. There’s a reason so many of my friends have found success with the “Couch to 5k” running program. It sets up simple little milestones that can easily be achieved, but they’re still enough to fill you with accomplishment each step of the way. If you’re working towards something new, set up little milestones for yourself.
Track your progress – but not too much. Tracking your financial situation too frequently will give you a false sense of failing because of the short-term impact of bills and the like. Similarly, tracking your weight too frequently will give you a false sense of failure because of short-term weight fluctuations. Check it once a month and be proud of what you’ve achieved. Make that checking day important – mark it on your calendar and give it some psychological weight, so that you’re looking forward to it throughout the month.
Use social pressure. Find someone to share in your goal, either face-to-face or on the internet. Share your progress extensively and cheer the successes of the others involved in the goal. A community of people all striving toward the same individual goals can be a very powerful method for minimizing resistance to change.
These are your tools. Use them wisely.
When I get up in the morning, I know that I should exercise, but I often really don’t want to do it. I usually have a checklist of other things I need to do, so I’ll use that as an excuse. Some days, I’ll find some minor physical reason not to do it (“I have a tiny blister on my toe” or “I think I have a cold coming on” or “My knee hurts”). Other days, I’ll not even think about it. The easiest path often seems to be the one that doesn’t involve exercise.
Resistance.
When I was trying to get my financial life in order, my entire social network was full of cues to spend money. The television programs I watched depicted affluent and interesting people who just happened to have things that were compelling to me in some way. I felt like my family expected me to buy nice gifts and treat them to meals when they came to visit. The easiest path seemed to be the one that involved spending more money.
Resistance.
When I’m trying to adopt any life change, there are always a lot of reasons not to do it. Usually, it’s much easier to just keep doing things the way I’m doing things. It’s comfortable. I understand it. I know it’s not going to hurt to stick with the status quo, at least not in the short term. My family hints that this change might not be the best idea.
Resistance.
Our enemy is resistance, and we shall defeat it.
Here are our weapons in this battle.
Forge a new path of least resistance. Fighting to overcome the munchies? Toss all of the unhealthy munchies out of your home (take them to a food pantry, for example). That way, the easiest path to getting your snack fix involves eating something healthy. Fighting to exercise more? Reserve a parking spot as far from your workplace as possible, or put your jogging shoes right in front of your door so that you have to actively move them to avoid them.
Use some motivation. Why are you really making this change? Hold that motivator front and center. For a long time, I kept my credit cards wrapped in a photograph of my children. I’ve started using a picture of me at my heaviest (although that’s about fifty pounds heavier than I am now) in several places to encourage exercise.
Make simple milestones. There’s a reason so many of my friends have found success with the “Couch to 5k” running program. It sets up simple little milestones that can easily be achieved, but they’re still enough to fill you with accomplishment each step of the way. If you’re working towards something new, set up little milestones for yourself.
Track your progress – but not too much. Tracking your financial situation too frequently will give you a false sense of failing because of the short-term impact of bills and the like. Similarly, tracking your weight too frequently will give you a false sense of failure because of short-term weight fluctuations. Check it once a month and be proud of what you’ve achieved. Make that checking day important – mark it on your calendar and give it some psychological weight, so that you’re looking forward to it throughout the month.
Use social pressure. Find someone to share in your goal, either face-to-face or on the internet. Share your progress extensively and cheer the successes of the others involved in the goal. A community of people all striving toward the same individual goals can be a very powerful method for minimizing resistance to change.
These are your tools. Use them wisely.
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