Light Upon Light Allahs Light, Amazing, Going From Darkness (Hardship) To Light (Ease)

One of the most amazing ayas unbeliveable I love this, Oh Allah place your Light upon us!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQfRF1MWvMI

Before you start reading this post I want you to hear these amazing ayas (the traslation is also with it)  which describes Allahs Noor, Light. Its simply unbelievable amazing....imagine Allahs Light? And imagine being guided to this Light? Think about when you go through a dark situation (hardship) and than you get to go through the ease, is it not a form of light?

 

One of the worst hardships a person can create for themselves is hob aldunya, love for this world. When you find yourself feeling sad because you dont have this or that , or you start to feel alone, or you start to feel bad for yourself than you know that you are falling for shytans worst traps. You are creating this hardship for yourself when you start to fall for the beauty of dunya. I fall for this sometimes, but I found that the best remedy is TRULY the remembrance of Alllah.

 

 

Verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest! Surat Al Rad Aya 28

 

 

SubhanAllah its seriouslly a feeling of darkness to light....but you see the sweetness is not going from light to light, the sweetness of the hardship or the ease is when you feel the bad and than you feel the good. And when you start to turn  your heart away from dunya and you turn to Allah looking for light you will find signs all around you. Open your heart, and  just go to youtube and randomly search a Quran recitior and you will probably find ayas directly realting to what you need(inshAllah), or go to radioquraan.com and you will probably find your favorite aya reciting, or go to your favorite muslim site, (for me its suhaib webbs virtual mosque) and you will find new articles on the homepage directly related to what you need. 

 

I found this one this time, humdAllah: and the following hadiths are was what I needed to hear:

Prophet said:

"“Satan threatens you with poverty, and commands you to evil, while God promises you forgiveness from Him and bounty.”

 

“Whoever makes the Hereafter his goal, Allah places abundance in his heart, and organizes his affairs, and the world comes to him despite its unwillingness. And whoever’s aim is worldly gain, Allah puts poverty before his eyes, and disorganizes his affairs, and nothing of this world comes to him, except what has been decreed for him.”

 

http://www.suhaibwebb.com/personaldvlpt/purification-heart/change-of-heart/

AlhumdAllah

 

 

 

Im All Over NJCU lol

So in alot of NJ City University  hallways (like 5) you will find a huge poster like lifesize poster of me .

You will also find me on the NJCU Youtube page, the NJCU App, and the Instgram page...

Although I don't really like the life size picture of me  ( when the Dean took the pic I did not expect this at all!) I hope it is a form of dawah and it proves a point: Muslim women are educated.

I show up in a NJCU YouTube video a couple of times

I dont like how my voice sounds nor was I prepared for this as I was told at that moment  lol but again I hope it serves as a greater purpose: to inspire other Muslim women and to show that Muslim women are educated and successful. Its a representation of our deen alhumdAllah

Ultimate Eid Celebration 2013 Coming Soon InshAllah!



Photo Credit: NHIEC Mosque

As December comes to an end I realize how much Muslims fall into the glitz and glam of the "holiday season". I have also fallen for this as I honestly enjoy seeing the lovely decorations, the gifts, etc. If Muslim adults are falling for this glitz and glam of the holiday season, imagine how the Muslim kids feel when they see their non-Muslim fellows talk about the awesome gifts they get or the awesome Christmas tree and then they compare it to the not so glitzy Eid. Although you may get angry when Muslims compare Eid to the Holiday season, you shouldnt....instead you should try to make Eid the ULTIMATE festival....let Eid live up to its name..
 

 Allah gave us the best Holiday: EID. What have we done to show appreciation of this holiday?
 

Its time for us to step up our EID. I had enough of hearing the "Oh I wish Eid was like Christmas".  Its true, you wont find the stores glowing with lights and lanterns for Eid in America, but we as a community are capable of creating this awesome Eid experience if we wanted to....I am ready to create the ultimate Eid celebration. And no it wont be an event that will only be fun for the kids! Its going to be appealing to all ages inshAllah, especially my age group (16-30) which seem to be losing the Eid spirit every time we get older.

 

You want this to happen? You want Eid to be the ULTIMATE EID CELEBRATION? Well then you gota do your part because you know what? Allah SWT says,

 

"Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves" Holy Quran

 

Through the ULTIMATE EID CELEBRATION:
 

We can bring back that Ultimate EID spirit the Prophet had

We can make this a unity event and bring the ummah together

We can exchange gifts to one another, Prophet said: "Give gifts and you will love one another."

We can visit the Muslims in hospitals, shelters, etc and share our ultimate Eid with them

We can celebrate ALL THREE days of Eid

We can bring back that excitement you used to get weeks before Eid as a child

We can do pre-eid giving through fundraising for zakat al fitr

We can make a big deal of reciting the besttttt holiday song, TAKBIR AL Eid (How can we compare this to anything!? Allahs name is constantly repeated!) 

We can DO SO MUCH

Allah SWT describes as the best, but why have we not made our Eid the best for ourselves?
"You are the best of the nations raised up for (the benefit of) men; you enjoin what is right and forbid the wrong and believe in Allah" Holy Quran
 

ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS  input effort and have trust in Allah...!
This is a simple formula that works for anything good you attempt to do in this dunya inshAllah if Allah wills.

 

 

ARE YOU READY? For the "The Ultimate Eid Celebration"Coming to a Masjid near you in 2013 inshAllah....lets make this happen! Are you ready to take on the challenge?

 

(If we want this Ultimate Eid Experience actually happen, we must start planning from like NOW) inshAllah.

 

Lets make this event go viral.

Please SHARE
And if anyone is interested in helping contact me!!

Dawah At Its Finest, Real Stories From me

(Read to the end for the amazing stories and a very important suggestion)

 

 

AlhumdAllah today was my last day as an undergraduate student. I am looking back at my personal statement I wrote in 2010 upon applying for colleges and alhumdAllah I think my whole college career revolved around this goal which is almost a form of dawah.

“I seek to redefine the image of Muslim-American women, just as Barack Obama has redefined the image of African-Americans. I am concerned about the negative stereotypes people hold of Muslim women. I will take advantage of the freedom and great opportunities I have been given. I hope that my choice of attending university will present a positive counter image to the prevailing stereotypes.” 

 

 I worked with so many people on campus, but only one was Muslim. Although you can argue it gets hard at times with so much fitnah around you, at the same time you can only imagine how many dawah opportunities I had.

 

Tip 1: Make an Annoucment

Tell Non-Muslims When You Have To Go Make Salat, Everytime You GO!

 

 

One tip I must teach everyone who goes to college, or works around non-Muslims is to NEVER be shy to say I need to a place to pray!  I want to tell you about the AMAZING stories I have when it came to practicing Islam openly in my non-Muslim workplace.

I dont think its okay to make up all of your prayers when you go home from school or work, and so I always pray at school and work. Although I must say its not very easy to concentrate as you feel like you must get back to class or work, I think its better than going home and praying duhr, asr, maghrib and aisha all at once which makes you even more lazy. There is a reason why the prayers are spilt into differnt times and not all at once.

Anyways I asked my job if I can pray in any of the empty rooms we had and they did not hesitate to say yes. I was given the work room as my own place to go to pray when I needed to.

One thing I would always do is make an annoucment that I was going to make salat. I would allow all those around me to hear me whether its the super boss, or my work study co workers. It was never embarrassing and in the end it was one of the best forms of dawah I was able to make during my years at the two offices I worked in.

Here are the cute small stories I have

Me: I am going to pray

Co Workers (plural,multiple): Please pray for me!

I think I heard that statement over 3 times!

Me: I lost my prayer rug =/

Office boss, and like everyone else around me: starts looking for the rug

Two days later,

Boss: Did you find your prayer rug? Me: Yes! Thank you for caring!!!

They reallly cared about my prayer rug!!!!

Me: praying in the workroom

Student Worker : Walks in and quickly apologizes, and apologizes again when I finished

The following three stories all happend in the same week (my last week)

Studnent Worker: You know Huda, I really like how you will stop everything just to go pray. You can be in the middle of an event,work, or whatever but when its time for you to pray you go!

Student Worker (upon driving her home): The thing I like most about you and Muslims is your  how you are serious about making your prayers. Our Pastor tells us how we should try to take out 5minutes every day to make a prayer.

Me: *Makes wudu in front of coworkers and explains what I am doing*
Student Worker: *Upon walking from the bathroom* I love your commitment to your prayers.

Do I need to say anymore?

 

 

Tip 2: Dont Let him hug you, touch you, or shake your hand!!

 

One common thing you will find in the non-Muslim workplace is that its okay when a guy hugs a girl and vice versa. If you tell them from the begining I cant shake your hand, hug you or whatever you willllllll recive so much respect! Explain why and move on its not that hard...here are some stories

 

 

 Man: *Tries to shake my hand*

Non-Muslim Classmate: No, she cant shake your hand!

Boss: *Tries to give me a high five*

Me: Sends an email explaining why I cant shake his hand or give him five

Next day Boss: *Air five!*

Co-Worker: Wow Huda you did great, and is about to air five me and then he stops

"I am so sorry I almost airfived you, but than I remembered you cant!"

Co Workers man and  women hug each other greet each other, than man co worker comes to me :

Verbally greeting only!

Tip 3: I tell them how I cant date, and I will get married instead...

Everyone dates in the non-Muslim environment, and thats okay, but for you, you must explain how you dont date and how you get married. Then the famous question of "Do your parents choose your husband"comes up and you get that awesome chance to explain how that is a cultural thing, and that is not apart of Islam.

Tip 4: BE KIND....no one is going to want to open dialogue with you if you are a rude person. And dont ever impose your beliefs on them, because you will see that they will come to you with all of the questions. I dont think a week passed in which I did not receive a question relative to Islam.

Tip 5: Be an ambassador of Islam...thats really all it is. REPRESENT !!! Easy as that...

And finally a tip I just learned upon my last day on campus (which I wish I learned A LONG time ago)

GIVE THE QURAN to people....after you have established a positive relationship with them.

I have a beautiful story for this tip:

Today I gave out the first Quran to  a Non-Muslim. He is one of my supervisors, and you wouldnt beleive his reaction...I did not expect that at all.

First of all I never gave him direct dawah  I like indirect dawah techniques such as being kind, showing that you are trustworthy person, doing a good job, etc. He would always ask me questions and he would always start dialgoues about differnt educational topics such as Palestine. I gave him an awesome lesson and resources for that.

Me: Hi, today is my last day at NJCU . I actually want to give you a book, it is realtive to the topics we spoke about such as history, and etc. Its the Holy Quran.

Him: WOW, thank you sooooo much Huda. This is great, I did not know that I am actually allowed to read this sacred text. I really appreciate this. This is a very nice gift.

Me: No probelm!! And than he starts talking about my great work ethics, and blabla

And than I go to the kitchen as I am leaving:

Him to other supervisor: "Look , Huda gave me the Quran!  Other supervisor: Wow!! Thats nice!

Me: *Sends message to mentor (VP of NJCU) saying I left a Quran on the desk because I know you liked to learn about my culture. I will never forget when you did not shake my hand the first time we meet! I learned sooo much from you!"

Mentor: "Huda, you have motiavted me to be a better person! I truly enjoyed meeting you. Thank you so much for the gift. I will read it to learn more about Islam."
 

 

I Graduated! AlhumdAllah

Through the Will of Allah, my efforts, my parents, and my trust in Allah I completed my last class for my undergraduate class. 

 

The coolest thing is that I completed my degree at the age 20 on December 20 =D

 

AlhumdAllah!!!
 

 Now its time to ask my reallllly kind former boss the Director of Admissions, alongside with my realllyyy kind mentor the Vice Presdient of Student Affairs if I can do some smallllll type of talk at graduation (dawah!).I would start off with some really nice hadith and then it would go something like this:

“I seek to redefine the image of Muslim-American women, just as Barack Obama has redefined the image of African-Americans. I am concerned about the negative stereotypes people hold of Muslim women. I will take advantage of the freedom and great opportunities I have been given. I hope that my choice of attending university will present a positive counter image to the prevailing stereotypes.”

As I look back at this personal statement I wrote in 2010 upon applying for colleges, I cant help but smile thinking to myself how my whole college career revolved around this goal. I think and I hope I have successfully attained this goal. At the same time I was also able to learn about others.
For multicultural week, my work-study office, the Office of Campus Life hosted a cypher. I walked in thinking oh okay ill go listen, but I found myself also participating. The stereotypes were totally shattered in that room when you had people of all cultures or religious backgrounds participates in this free style expression. This diverse environment NJCU provides is more than just a way in which the school markets itself. Diversity is not just a matter of having a bunch of people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds in the same place at the same time, but rather it is when you can get those people to respectfully exchange ideas and get along with one another.

And than inshAllah if I actually get to make this speech at graduation I can look back at this post  just like the post below: and say wow !!!

 

SubhanAllah I am looking back at this post  from August 2012 about how I was planning to graduate, wow that was fast!

 

This is one of my favorite pictures, and every time something successful happens I remember it.

Always remeber this aya when something successful happens to you! And be grateful to Allah, and dont give yourself to much credit.

 

http://hudawritess.blogspot.com/2012/08/class-of-dec-2012-inshallah-d.html 

 

Time to share this awesome picture for this awesome moment =D




"And my success (in my task) can only come from Allah"
-Holy Quran

How A Muslim Husband Treats his Wife, Dr. Islam ElFahymoui Notes

 

I am a little late but here are my notes from last Sundays class.

 Dr.Islam continued his lecture on the topic of marriage, he said:

 

 

Its not your job  your choose your roles in this life rather Allah chooses your roles.

 

The Prophet said:

"If a woman makes salat (prayer), fasts Ramadan, and obeys her husband she will enter all of the gates of Jannah"

 

Im sure you did not like it when I used the term  obey due to Western ideas, but the Western ideas are not working to secure marriages.

 

Your husband is your key to Paradise.

 

If you marry a man who believes in Allah and follows the religion, you can remind him accordingly to the Quran and Sunnah.

 

 

Tips on How A Muslim Man Should Treat His Wife (to be continued next Sunday)

 

1. Finical: In Islam it is a obligation for the man to provide his wife with food,shelter, clothes, costs of a child,  and any finances are all a responsibility of the husband.

 

Islam honors women:

Your husbands job or role is to spend on you, even if you are making money you get to keep that money for your own self and you dont have to spend it on anyone.

 

In the Prophets time there were woman who would come breastfeed orphan children, and etc. A man must support his wife so that she may breastfeed thier child. Breastfeeding is better than formula, the breast milk (scientific fact) changes as the baby grows. Allah provided you with this milk just to feed your child but instead you choose to give your child powder? This is Allahs gift to you. In the winter the milk is naturally warm and in the summer its naturally cool.

 

Husbands can support their wive through kindness during post birth.

 

 

When the woman is not home and out working her duties may not be taken care of, and in this case she should use her own money to manage her work at home.

 

Marry a man on your finical level or even higher.

 

2. Smile and Laugh (MY favorite =)

 

If you come home greet your wife with the greeting Asalaamu Alkaam.

 

A man should smile and laugh in his home.

 

Aisha was asked how was the prophet in the home? She responded: "he was the kindest of men, smiling, laughing all the time".

 

3. Kind Words

 

The Prophet said: The kind word is charity.

 

The Prophet said: A woman will remember every bad thing her husband did, but she wil not remember all of the good stuff he did. Dr.Islam started doing mocks of husband and wife arguments in which the wife reminds her husband of all the bad he did.

 

4. Small Frequent Random Kind Acts

 

 When the Prophets wife wanted to ride a camel he would have her step on him to get onto the camel

 

Small frequent acts of kindness are better than a large not so frequent act of kindness. For an example a man will spend over 6 thousand dollars to take his wife for a five day trip to Miami, as soon as they come back she soon forgets about this trip. Women appreciate daily acts of kindness. If you offered a women a rose every week vs a huge luxurious trip to Miami she would choose the rose every week.

 

The Prophet always used to kiss his wife before he went to the Masjid

 

 

To Be contunieeeed

My Weekends, Spirtual Uplift, We All Need To Recharge!

 

" Everyone is in need of spitrual uplifiting. The Masjid provides you with this spirtual uplifiting. Muslims are present in the Masjid to gain knowledge to protect themselves from the Shytan"

Iqraa Channel

 

 

 

Throughout the week my iman battery starts to run low, but than my weekend becomes my chance to reacharge. My weekend begins on the Muslims special day of AlJumaah, Friday. Although women do not have to attend Friday prayer, I make it a point not to miss the lovely Friday khutbah (lecture) which begins the lifiting of my spirt. On Saturday I try to attend MSA events, or any other type of lectures within the area, and on Sunday I make it a point not to miss my favorite spirtual uplift of the week which I always look foward to: the Dr.Islam ElFahymoui Guiding Light Series. If I was allowed to I would totally attend Fajr at the Mosque...you will see why within my next post which is about Fajr. Today I finally tried studying at the Masjid....it was awesome! My study buddies are angels !

 

I realized if it was not for this spirtual uplift I get every weekend falling into the haram would become so much easier. SubhanAllah, walhumdAllah. I encourage you all to spirtually renew yourselves whenever you can, and use the weekend as a form of preparation for the fitnah you face throughout the week!

 

 

"Seek forgiveness of your Lord and repent to Him"

Holy Quran Surat Hud Aya 3

 

 

Heres a great article which explains what I mean alongside with tips:

 

http://productivemuslim.com/re-charging-your-battery-how-to-deal-with-imaan-dips/

I highly recommend the first tip which is to take notes during any lectures you attend. If it wasnt for my notebook and typing my notes on my blog I would never remeber the awesome stuff I learn.

 

May Allah allow every Muslim to enjoy the benefit of attending the Masjid inshAllah.

I Dreamed About Makkah, Kabaah, SO Beautiful!

 

I had the bestttttt dream ever recently. I dont remember all details but I cant forget the LOVELY image I had of the valleys of makkah.

I think I was on some group trip and than from far I kind of saw the Kabah in like beautiful valleys. I begged someone to take me closer, and than I was so close, but I did not get there....may this be a sign that I will be visiting this beautiful spiritually site soon. I think one contributing reason why I probably had such a lovely dream is because of the duaas I made before I sleep.

Your Money Doubles When You Donate Your Money

 

 

Around 3 years ago I volunteered for a Islamic Relief Building Egypt fundraising event and Mustfah Hosny was the special guest speaker and his speech still impacts how I donate!
 

"If you give, He will double it"

 

I wrote this statement last year after attending a very inspiring Moustfah Hosny, Islamic Relief event. He really changed the way I think of donating, and he gave the crowd an inspiring true story about a very poor man who had almost nothing, but he still made sure he gave from his earnings monthly.

 

Every time I donate and I get it back LITERALLY double the amount or in something so much better I think of Mustfah Hosnys speech and all the ayas about how Allah will repay you when you donate, and imagine the repayment you get for the afterlife? 

 

I think it was Dr. Islam Elfahymoui, he said, invest in Allahs bank. You will never lose.

 

I see the results of donating instantly...like I will donate on Saturday and some type of rizk comes to me on Sunday. What a beautiful feeling!

 

I have some stories ,but theres stories are never ending.

 

Around last month I dont know what I donated but a couple of days later I received an email about being a Scholarship recipient for the next Al Maghrib class which is about Patience and tafsir Surat Yusuf. I cant wait for this class I will write notes because thats apart of the agreement to accepting the scholarship.

 

 On Saturday I finally paid a pledge I had made a while back but never forgot about. It was always on my mind, but I dont have a credit card to pay online. The next day (Sunday) I got a call for an interview about a job in my dream field (Higher Education Administration). When I applied for this job in October I didnt think I would get a call. Also I just realized that while I was writing my previous post "Allah is the Best of Planners" I was thinking about working and what school I will go to but than I thought to myself Allah is the Best of Planners. InshAllah if Allah thinks this job will be good for me he will make it easy for me.

HumdAllah!

Graduate School, Allah Is The Best of Planners

18days left until graduation!InshAllah
 

I think its cool to have this blog because I can look back and see how far I got with my dreams...

In May I wrote the following silly but serious  post 

http://hudawritess.blogspot.com/2012/05/funny.html

 

In the end Allah is the best of planners, inshalalh I hope to graduate this Fall
 

SubhanAllah , I noticed I came up with a plan of taking 7 classes but Allah made it easy on me and His plan for me was much better. I was able to take a NYU Arabic Test and I received 8 credits. I remember I didnt want to go to the test because I thought I would be tired since it was during the first week of Ramadan. Instead of taking 7 classes I only had to take 5 alhumdAllah. Now I am graduating and planning for graduate school, but again "Allah is the Best of Planners".

 

You just put in your efforts towards your dream, have trust in Allah,

make salat istghakra and proceed!

 

Heres one of my essays for graduate school, I think it would be cool if I saved this post for another like 10 years and come back to it to see if I ever achieved my career goal, inshAllah if Allah wills!

I often think about why I set the position, “University Dean” as my ultimate career goal. This goal is motivated by my belief and observations that Muslim and Middle Eastern women are underrepresented in this career field. During my years of college, I came to the conclusion that I have never seen a covered Muslim or Middle Eastern woman working as a dean, admissions counselor, or any other administrative position in neither of the largely Middle Eastern populated schools I have attended.  I believe this lack of Muslim and Middle Eastern women in the field of higher education presents a challenge to students who are looking for role models they can relate to, seek advice from , or seek help to overcome different challenges they face as an underrepresented group. Among my goals is to serve as a role model for young for this growing demographic population in the United States. We need to diversify the professional ranks of higher education.

Currently I am a NASPA Undergraduate Fellow and this is a program which was designed is to increase the number of historically disenfranchised and underrepresented professionals in student affairs and or higher education. My mentor is Dr. John Melendez and he is currently the Vice President of Student Affairs at New Jersey City University. During my first meeting with my mentor I told him about my goal of becoming the first Muslim/Middle Eastern women Dean based on the conclusion I have made and the challenges I have found. He said I make a good point and he presented me with the example of New Jersey City University. NJCU is a Hispanic serving institute, and because of this the administration consists of professionals of  Hispanic background including my mentor, and the former President of the University.

My insight to the higher education career field began through my participation in the Hudson County Community College High School Leap Program. The main aim of the program is to give students the opportunity to accelerate the time it takes to earn an associate’s degree. While I was accelerating the time to earn my associates degree which took me one year after graduating high school, I was also building my track towards my career goal. I started to meet and connect with multiple administrators on campus who taught me more about the field of higher education administration.

My connections with various professionals on campus lead me to my first job experience in the Higher Education field as a Student Ambassador. I really enjoyed the rewarding feeling this career gave me as I assisted students in their track towards attaining a college degree. During this job I came to the conclusion that most of the Middle Eastern and Muslim students would come to me first when they had any questions because they had this feeling of comfort as we both come from the same cultural background and spoke a similar language as they would greet and speak with me in my second language Arabic. At that point I realized the importance of having a diversified administration. I also realized that this underrepresented racial and religious group needs a representative in this field to help them face the various challenges that arise when one attends college, especially because a lot of these women are first-generation college students.

 

 

Rush To Allah, The Few Motivated

Jumaah lecture:

Heres what the sheikh said today, I actually took notes I dont know if that is discouraged but I want to take notes every Friday because if I dont go home and blog what I learned about I most likely will forget.

"Sometimes you only need a few who are motivated to work (volunteer) for the sake of Allah.

Omar Ibn Alkhatb said he fears a time when the mutqaan (God conscious) people are lazy and the fasqun (do bad) people are active.

Look at our own time, the bars are open late and people are willing to stay up until 3 am to party, but you can find people who can get up at 3 am to pray....

When the Muslim civilization was at its high point (look into our history during the time of the caliphs) you will see that this was the result of the efforts of a few very dedicated men

 (the sahaba, the caliphs).

Do the best you can so Allah can reward you like the sahaba.

One of the worst tricks of the shytan is bringing laziness upon us.

Being lazy is a state of mind but if you leave it, laziness can reach your heart.

If you are lazy slowly you will miss your prayers, not want to make dawaah, etc.

I want to point out two ayas that both have the same theme word which is telling you to hurry, rush!:  Surat Al Jumaah Aya 9: Fasaaw, hasten

O you who believe! when the call is made for prayer on Friday, then hasten to the remembrance of Allah and leave off trading; that is better for you, if you know.

Surat Al Hadid Aya 21: Sabiqoo, Race

 The aya is about Paradise and the people with light and then they will be told to enter Jannah....actually one tip when the recitor recites the aya, "janaat tarjee min tahthum al anhar, which means gardens beneth which rivers flow imagine a lovely calm river flowing under your feet ....

 Listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FWQk40UW24

Race toward forgiveness from your Lord and a Garden whose width is like the width of the heavens and earth, prepared for those who believed in Allah and His messengers. That is the bounty of Allah which He gives to whom He wills, and Allah is the possessor of great bounty.

You rush to school, work, etc because they are important but we lost this rush in our deen, religion. Show Allah that you are rushing to Him.  This helps you not to be lazy, for an example if you rush to salat you wont miss the salat. Allah likes people who are alive and they have energy.

The sunnah teaches us small techniques for energy.

Fajr Probelms, Look For Allahs Messages To You

 

 

 

 

 If you have problems waking up for Fajr or you know someone who cant wake up share this video. I translated the part about Fajr...like always Mustfah Hosny hits you in the heart.

 

Personal Reflection:

SubhanAllah just like Yaqoot I feel like Allah wanted me to watch this specific lecture, on this specific topic becaue I needed to hear exctally what Yaqoot heard.

I just want to add that Allah always address you according to your own needs, but you have to look for those messages, those signs....my favorite quote:

“Good reminders usually hit you in the heart as if they were meant for you, as if Allah-God just sent you a private message to awaken your heart”

 

Heres the lecture along with my bootleged transltation

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs8_9VzkQxA&feature=player_detailpage#t=181s

 

I want to tell you a true story my friend told me about a man named yaqoot. Yaqoot is not my friend, but he is a friend of one of my close friends. My friend told me that Yaqoots parents didnt pray or encourage Yaqoot to pray. Yaqoot just as you are here today in this lecture, and you heard words from Allah, Allah places words on the tongue of the person to send good messages. Yaqoot went to a lecture in which the speaker was talking about praying Salat Al Fajr in the Mosque. It is as if Yaqoots heart was taken away and he felt as if Allah was talking to him, to make a positive change in him. So he took a decision and he told his friends "Please, wake me up for fajr". This story was in the late 80s when there was no cell phones, so if my friend wanted to wake me up he would have to call my house phone or come to my house and knock on my door. It would be considered rude to call the house phone at 5am. Yaqoot lived on the first floor, so he decided to place his mattress near the wall close to the window. He tied a rope to one of his wrists and he placed this rope outside of the window.  And he tied a fanous lantern to the rope so the wind wouldnt move the rope. And my friend (mustfah hosny) Ahmed told me we used to go to Yaqoots house and we would pull the rope and Yaqoot would wake up for fajr. He would get up and go make wudu, and he would place a pillow under his comfotore in case his parents came to see if he was sleeping, because his parents would punish him if they heard that he went to pray salat al fajr in the masjid. Yaqoot would go and pray fajr and when he would come back home and he would remove the pillow and go back to sleep. He was taken away. His heart was taken away with Allah, subhanwatalaa. When he felt that Allah was addressing him with these words from the speaker....

 

 

 

How To Get Married: Islam Elfahmyoui Notes

So right when I was about to write this post alongside my home work, the ayas that were discussed in the lecture about marriage were being recited on my favorite site, radioquraan.com (visit if you still have not!!)  The ayas are ones you are probably familiar with from Surat Al Nur

http://quran.com/24

So todays lecture was about a Muslims "favorite" topic,

"How to get married"

Favorite quote:

"Look at the man you are interested in with a critical but not lustful eye"

Dr. Islam ElFahymoui

At the end of the lecture, you are hoping you learn how to get married...

but you dont get that answer...

Heres what you get from this lecture

(which will become the topic for the upcoming Islam El Fahymoui Sunday lecture).

Islam El Fahymoui said:

When you get married you can quell those desires which lead to the diseases of the heart we spoke about for the past couple of months.

If you want to give up this dunya (your heart) you will not complete this until you get married.

When you calm down and you are not concerned with getting married you can attain a higher level of eman and put more focus towards your eman.

The companions didnt see marriage only as a protection from sin but they saw it as a virtue.

Problems of this community

1. Young adults are to hasty in seeking marriage

 In Islam there is a concept called "Rushud". Rushud means maturity, ability to think and act responsibly, responsibility, and knowing the consequences of your decision.

It is not the same as puberty, and with rushud there is no universal age. You cant say all youth reach rushud at this age..no. It is not upto the Islamic scholars to decide when is rushud but rather that society.

Ibn Alqayim: Whatever the benefit is to the people of the time that is the shariah (law, life style)

Everyone knows about the hadith:

Prophet:  “O young people! Whoever among you can marry, should marry, because it helps him  lower his gaze and guard his modesty, and whoever is not able to marry, should fast, as fasting diminishes his desires.

When the Prophet said this he means when you achive "Rushud" get married.

The Prophet tells you if you cant get married, than try fasting.

Did you try fasting?

WalyastaAAfifi

 But let them who find not [the means for] marriage abstain [from sexual relations] until Allah enriches them from His bounty. 

Holy Quran 24:33 Surat Al Noor

When you fast you are depriving your body of energy.

If you fast and guard your eyes you will have patience inshAllah.

There should be no social intermingling for no reasons.

Always ask yourself is there a reason for me to talk to him?

Avoid speaking to him if you can.

Interacting for knowledge and business or even advice is okay as long as there is no problem.

If you work with a man avoid engaging them emotionally. Avoid khulwa (being alone with him because no matter who you are the shytan is always the 3rd present). Do not joke with each other.

Look at the man you are interested in with a critical but not lustful eye. It is important for you to like how he looks, his looks must be pleasing to you.



2. Lack of Facilitation

The elders  have to facilitate marriage in the community.

 The aya about marriage says walnikahan

This implies that other people are helping you get married.

Suzy Ismail

(This is a point I brought up this issue of tawkal in action in one of my posts! Remember?)

I wrote Islam a question based on this post and inshAllah he will address it in next weeks lecture.

 http://hudawritess.blogspot.com/2012/05/marriage-efforts-approaching-him.html

There is a difference between tawkal and tawkul.

You cant just sit down and not do anything and have trust in Allah. Like the person who thinks oh I will make duaa and Allah will send me a husband.

Just like Mariam who had to shake the tree, we have to do our part. Or just like the hadith about where the Prophet addressed the man to tie his camel and than make tawkul (trust in Allah).

Take the steps and than have trust in Allah.

What steps are you taking for marriage?

Adam and Huwa was the first relationship on earth and it was a marriage.

And than she spoke on about her center which facilities an environment for marriage. They want to do something similar at ICPC.

Than there was Q and A I didnt take notes, but one answer really stood out to me:

A sister asked:

"What do you think of sisters beautifying themselves so they can attract a man for  marriage?

Suzy answered, but than Dr.Islam asked if he can answer from a mans perspective. What a beautiful answer he said,

"Sisters without anything you are already beautiful. Your beauty shines through your modesty. To a man you are already beautiful just because of your presences (and than he looks to the men side and he says im sure they know what I mean).

Sometimes Islam Elfahymoui takes you into the minds of men its so cool lol , I need to write down these things!

As you can see as I mentioned in the beginning, you do not get an exact "formula" on how to get married from this lecture, but inshAllah they are working towards achieving some solution, that is what thier conclusion was headed towards.



He is Allah, Listen With Your Heart ,Its Been A While, Duaa In the Middle of Salat, Ramadan Missin You

 Aya Journal 2:

 

I want to start off with the ayas before I get to the story of how I heard these ayas 

Take your heart on a journey,
 
Surat Al Hashr 59:22-24

Full surah http://quran.com/59 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq9TPix_qnk&feature=player_detailpage#t=73s

 

Imagine a sheikh with a teary, emotional beautiful voice, pausing and repeating the aya:

Huwa Allah, Huwa Allah, Huwa Allah

He is Allah , He is Allah, He is Allah....
 

SubhanAllah ( What does subhanAllah mean exctally? )

 http://www.islamicity.com/articles/Articles.asp?ref=SW0809-3687

Subhan’Allah (سبحان الله)

“Glory to God.” This phrase is often used when praising God or exclaiming awe at His attributes, bounties, or creation.

 

Subhanahu wa ta`ala (سبحانه و تعالى)

“May He be glorified and exalted.” An expression commonly used after the name of God, Allah, is mentioned. It is a way of glorifying Allah.

 

He is Allah , other than whom there is no deity, Knower of the unseen and the witnessed. He is the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.

 

He is Allah , other than whom there is no deity, the Sovereign, the Pure, the Perfection, the Bestower of Faith, the Overseer, the Exalted in Might, the Compeller, the Superior. Exalted is Allah above  whatever they associate with Him.

 

He is Allah , the Creator, the Inventor, the Fashioner; to Him belong the best names. Whatever is in the heavens and earth is exalting Him. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.

Jumaah:

In the mosque I attended for jumah the shiekh was a guest, and his voice was amazing, because you can partially hear his tears. During the salat as we prepared for sujud he suprised us with a emotional duaa for Syria and Gaza....thats when you get your heart ready for an emotional crying outburst and its one of the...no wait...it is the best feeling ever. Nothing compares to the feeling of al-nafs al mutmaah- the reassured,peaceful soul even if you get it for that one salat...you heard tears across the room everyones eyes was watery after salat. It reminded me of those Ramadan witr duaas....oh how I miss those outbursts of tears. At that moment you feel that calming feeling you are supposed to have when you truly focus on remembering Allah.

 

For Salaat Isha I went to pray at my mosque and the same sheikh from jumaah who made was there again and again the tears. I shared the ayas he recited in the beginning of the post...
 

Words are never sufficient enough to explain this feeling you get when you heart is present during the recitatation of the Quran...
  

In these ayas Allah is describing to us who He is as these ayas have some of His names,
 

Also as you will read in the last aya,  Whatever is in the heavens and earth is exalting Him

 

SubhanAllah imagine EVERYTHING on Earth and in the Heavens is saying SubhanAllah...!! When the sheikh finished this aya..all I can think to myself is SubhanAllah...I think this is the term I like to use to express this moving indescrible feeling I get when I think of Him...
 

Even trying to describe the word subhanAllah is hard!! SubhanAllah

I cant really write much to explain what I felt today....but Ima leave you with this:

Huwa Allah, Huwa Allah, Huwa Allah:
He is Allah , He is Allah, He is Allah

SubhanAllah:  The Exalted One who is praised and glorified extensively.