The Direction……….

H

He has afflicted you from every direction

in order to pull you back to the Directionless.

Rumi

has afflicted you from every direction in order to pull you back to the DirecHe has afflicted you from every direction in order to pull you back to the Directionless. tionless.

The Cure For Your Heart Attack………..10:57

Dedicated to all my brothers and sisters who have suffered from a Heart Attack…………….

a letter……………….

Asalaam-o-alaikum my dear brother,

You have been in my thoughts and prayers ever since I heard of your near miss with a heart attack, I have read and re read your note updating us on your physical state. In between the lines the sadness, the sorrow, the resignation and fear of disability leak out with the pain and perseverance of being downed physically, and patched in between are rays of hope with supplications.

I have thought about writing a response and have had no words come to me till this morning as I sat down to review the tafseer of Surah Younus with Dr. Farhat Hashmi, and as I reached this ayah I felt, Allah Subhanwataala was putting words where I had none …………

يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلنَّاسُ قَدۡ جَآءَتۡكُم مَّوۡعِظَةٌ۬ مِّن رَّبِّڪُمۡ وَشِفَآءٌ۬ لِّمَا فِى ٱلصُّدُورِ وَهُدً۬ى وَرَحۡمَةٌ۬ لِّلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ (٥٧)

(O mankind! There hath come unto you an exhortation from your Lord, a balm for that which is in the breasts, a guidance and a mercy for believers. (10: 57)
and:
17.082
We send down (stage by stage) in the Qur’an that which is a healing and a mercy to those who believe: to the unjust it causes nothing but loss after loss.

As Dr. Farhat Hashmi explained, I was rooted to the  spot:
Tafseer:

A man came to RasoolAllah (pbuh) and he complained about his heart and said, “ I have pain in my heart” RasoolAllah responded “read (recite) Quran because Allah SWT says that this Quran is a cure for what is in the breast. (Your heart) “

In the chest resides the heart and it has lots of diseases both spiritual and physical. In The spiritual diseases include envy (hasad) riya, keena, badgumani, anger, badneeyati, arrogance, depression, sadness, sorrow, ujub, Bughuz, and many others.
Allah Subhanawataala has given the cure to Mankind at large and to the Momineen specifically

However, when do the words of God become a cure? This depends on if the cure is known and used, in the therapeutic manner that has been prescribed by Allah Subhanwataala and I paraphrase “for truly in Dhikr do ones heart finds rest”.

If the medicine that is going to cure an ailment sits on a counter and is not administered it does not work. Medicine only works when the medicine is taken at the correct time in the correct dose, and in the ideal frequency. Thus is the Quran it cannot be a cure if it sits unused in both the frequency and doses as prescribed by our Rasool (pbuh). If it remains in a bookshelf wrapped in a cover, it cannot work as a cure for our hearts.

The first step is to believe that Allah Subhanataala has given us the solution of every problem in dunya in the Quran. How does the Quran become a cure? It becomes a cure for our ailment when one honestly and sincerely begins to recite and review the Quran, the answers and solutions unravel as one reads, reviews and connects with yaqeen with Allah through His Subhanwataala’s words.

If psychologically one does not have yaqeen that Allah has sent this as a cure, it does not work. Neither does it work if one is insincere, and the ikhlaas between Allah and me is missing. The wall of cynicism, insincerity and arrogance in ones own abilities has to come down for the cure to be poured on us and instilled in us.

When we sit and read the Quran, the pain, the fear, the sorrow that is in our hearts and chest eases as Allah Subhanawataala’s words speak to us.
Only if we have approached Him and His words with sincerity with the true belief and yaqeen that He truly does what is best for us, and that He created us and wants us to turn to Him when in difficulty or in pain. It is only then that His words, and instructions become the cure.
As I listened to her tafseer  I reflected on my own experience and I share it with you:

My experience:
If one approaches the Quran in search for a cure, as a solution for pain both physical and psychological, and we place all our symptoms, pains, aches, disabilities, and agonies in front of Him and we recite His words in search…………..of solutions, He turns to us.

He guides our hands and minds to the solutions hidden in the pages of the Mushaf.
Something we may have read before with a closed heart and mind or as a literary interest rather than a spiritual act of seeking help, cure, and treatment, now transforms into a solution to our desperate search.

Suddenly the pages open to the words that seem like they were written for me. Words that are the cure for the pain in my heart, for my tired brain searching for solace, peace and comfort. I wonder how come I had read this ayah before and it had never registered as a solution of my continuing agony and my persistent ailment of huzn.

Being an allopathic physician we are taught to discount all spiritual aspects of treatment. The reason being that some charlatans have used it to dupe innocent people, who are in need of help for either a physical ailment that does not respond to regular medicine or an agony for which they have been told there is no cure. Thus we as physicians have used the either or paradigm and discarded the process as well as the source without really looking into the reasons.

Thus as I read the Quran knowing that all avenues of help and solace are closed and that I desperately need His help, for the pain is unremitting and there is no relief in sight, I am keenly aware that the only way the agony in my breast, of loss, loneliness and separation from my child, can ease, lies in His hands. I realize that I can only get to the cure through Him.

I also know that this time the act of opening the Quran is not like the hundred others in the past. This time it is a focused search till I find it, whether it comes with the first line or last………..

Thus it has been for me, at any time of the day or night.

One morning before work, I am in agony as I find myself standing in the computer room, and the Quran lying on my desk calls to me. I stand irresolute, immobile, frozen with grief near the computer seeing my son in my minds eye, smiling and vibrant with life and then he dissolves in front of my eyes and I cannot even recall an image.
I take a step and I open the cover and randomly open a section…….and read. From the depths of darkness He lowers a rope for me: ”every soul will taste death” and” and the believers who are tested will say: It is from him we come and to him we shall return:
002.155: Be sure we shall test you with something of fear and hunger, some loss in goods or lives or the fruits (of your toil), but give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere,
002.156 Who say, when afflicted with calamity: “To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return”:
002.157: They are those on whom (Descend) blessings from Allah, and Mercy, and they are the ones that receive guidance.

…………and yet at other times I want to find an ayah and I cannot find it .………. someone has told me about it in the passing that it brings relief, and I cannot find it……..it is only when I sit at a spiritual retreat studying the word of the Divine, thousands of miles away from home, that in an atmosphere charged with the words of Allah Subhanawataala, as I listen to Surah Zumar, that I suddenly come upon it.

I am in a room where the Surah is being recited, reviewed and explained, surrounded by pious women that His Subhanawataala’s words of solace,and forgiveness engulf my heart like a poultice of cure, bringing instant relief. The written words are blurred with my tears but now I can find them as they are engraved on my heart “la taknatu mer rahmatullah………..
039.053 Say: “O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

039.054: “Turn ye to our Lord (in repentance) and bow to His (Will), before the Penalty comes on you: after that ye shall not be helped.

What can I say………………. I have no advice for you. You have to seek the cure with your own efforts.  I write prescriptions for my patients every day for irreversible diseases of the brain and yet I have been searching for a medicine for my own heart in all the wrong places.

So to those ………who have had a heart attack and are struggling with the cardiac drugs know that you too will die one day and that day is fixed, and nothing you do will change it. All suffering before you do so and after you do so, depends entirely on how you conduct the days of your life (with respect to Allah Subhanawataala) after the heart attack.

I am honored that He, Subhanawataala has handed me The Cure to my pain, and yet it is I who must take the correct dose, at the correct time and with the correct frequency, for when I forget in the distractions of dunya, the agony of grief returns with a vengeance.

The Quran………the Divine word in my house, on my desk, needs to be in my heart constantly and consistently to bring me peace, love and purity.

May Allah Subhanwataala give you the cure for your heart and may you use it as instructed by RasoolAllah pbuh, and may it bring you relief, heart health and keep you on the path of Allah, who is The Giver and The Healer. Ameen

Please forgive me for my past mistakes and if I have said or done anything to offend you. Everything correct that I have said is from Allah Subhanawataala and anything wrong is from me and from the wasswassaas of Shaitaan on me and my Nafs. May Allah Subhanawataala forgive me and accept my efforts. I am deeply thankful for all He has given me.

As you read this please remember to keep me in your prayers

Your sister in Islam

Have your ever been prohibited from praying?

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

If you can pray when you want and where you want then pray two Rakaat of shukraana and think of the people in this picture:

In Ramadan: Palestinian men being stopped by Israeli soldiers from Praying at the Al Aqsa mosque

This was reported by the Boston Globe in its pictures on :Ramadan around the world:

Allah SWT may place us right next to the one of the holiest mosque in the world and even then we may not be able to pray in it.

It is by His (SWT) permission that good things happen and it is with His (SWT) permission that harm comes to us, but dua is the strongest weapon of the believer to keep harm at bay and to invoke Him (SWT) for the good things and for the ability and the honor to pray in the three holy mosques of this world ( The Haraam at the Kaaba, Masjid e Nabvi and Al Aqsa mosque)

What we pray for ourselves, remember also to pray for the Ummah.

Have you ever been prohibited from praying?

THE POWER SURGE FOR A MUSLIM

Masjid e Nabvi, women's entrance

Link up with Allah Almighty. Don’t miss your prayers under any circumstances. You need the power surge:

“Pray standing up; if not possible, then sitting down; and if you don’t have the strength even for that, then pray lying down.” [Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, Hadith narrated by 'Imran, r.a.  in Bukhari's Sahih, Abu Dawud's Sunan and Ahmad ibn Hanbal's Musnad.]

WHAT TO DO ON FRIDAYS?

THE SUNNAH’S OF FRIDAY:

1. Bathing on the day of Jumuah: It is narrated on the authority of Ibn ‘Umar that he said the Messenger of Allah said: “If one of you comes to Jumuah, let him have a bath.” [Agreed upon: 1951 & 977] Check below on how to take ghusl)
2. Going early to Jumuah prayer: It is narrated on the authority of Abu Hurayra  that he said the Messenger of Allah said: “When Friday comes, at each door of the mosque there are angels who write down the first ones to come to the mosque. The one who comes early is like who sacrificed a camel, then those who come after him are like one who sacrificed a cow, then one who sacrificed a horned ram, then one who sacrificed a chicken, then like one who offered an egg. Then when the imaam sits down they close their books and come to listen to the sermon.” [Agreed upon: 929 & 1964]
3. Seeking the hour of having one’s prayer answered on Jumuah day: It is narrated on the authority of Abu Hurayrah that the day of Jumuah was mentioned and the Messenger of Allah said: “On this day there is a time when no Muslim stands and prays, asking Allah for something, but Allah will grant him it” – and he gestured with his hands to indicate how short that time is. [Agreed upon: 935 & 1969]
   

GHUSL/BATHING/TAKING A SHOWER:

1. Ablution before Ghusl: ‘Aishah, radiallahu ‘anha narrates that the Prophet of Allah, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa salam: “Used to, if he wishes to wash from janaabah (complete impurity), began by washing his hands, then would do ablution as he would for salah, then he would enter his fingers into the water, and would touch the roots of his hair with it, then would pour (water) over his head with his palms, and then would let water cover his entire body” [al-Bukhari: 248]
2. Tashahhud after ablution: ‘Umar bin al-Khattaab, radiallahu ‘anh said: The Messenger of Allah, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa salam said: “None of you perfects his ablution, then says: Ashhadu al-Laa ilaha illa Allah, wa anna Muhammadan ‘abduhu warasooluh, except that the eight gates of paradise open for him, and for him is to enter it from wherever he wants” [Muslim: 553]

ON MY KNEES……………….

I am listening to the tafseer of Surah Al Anaam, I think Allah Subhanawataala sent it to our Prophet Peace and blessings be upon him, especially for me. At every turn of the sentence there is a nuance of encouragement, a message of warning and a message of change that speaks to me.

It takes me to the times when the surah is revealed. The Quraish of Mecca are strong, wealthy and rich in knowledge, trade and male children. They are happy with their evolved lifestyle of many Gods, even though they had started out with only one God along with Abraham (AS).

I am stunned with the realization that what happened to them is happening to us. Somewhere in our hijra from our home countries in search of a better life for our children, seeking a challenge to our intellectual abilities to help save the world in the fields of medicine and engineering, we lost the purpose of living, and our true endpoint in our destination became hazy.

Most of all, on stepping into the race to get ahead where the coin of success was arrogance, stepping on the weak and an “in your face” attitude, we trained our self for the race with the will and perfection of true competitors. We had the right tools just the wrong destination.

As we continued in the race, there came a fork in the road, we forgot in the heat of competition where we were supposed to turn. We avoided the less traveled path of the Siraat-e Mustaqeem and took the fork in the road that everyone else seemed to be taking.

Instead of using our assets only to glorify Him (SWT) and help His (SWT) creation, we stepped on them like a runner stepping on the flowers and insects that lay in his path.

The goal of Allah SWT is to pick the truly humble abd, who has submitted all and everything of his outer and inner being to Him (SWT) for the inner most gardens of Jannah.

Thus while we were running in an unknown direction heedlessly, He (SWT) was watching patiently, waiting for us to turn back to Him (SWT) in repentance and onto the less traveled Siraat-e – Mustaqeem. He was going to test the runners with strife and evaluate the level of humility before He (SWT) chose them for the inner most gardens of Jannat ul Firdous

True humility comes when one is stripped layer by layer of all of ones accoutrements that may be leading to arrogance, worldly ambition, greed and heedlessness. The last few characteristics mentioned may stem from wealth, education, healthy children, an aristocratic ancestry, a syed ancestry, and a blind heedlessness to the guidance of the Quran.

This level of insensitivity and superficial nod to the Quran may stem either from immersion in other things leaving no time to reflect on the word of God, or a supercilious attitude of “knowing it all” and intellectualizing and marginalizing the various excerpts of the Quran in which Allah (SWT) demands absolute and complete humility from His (SWT) true abd.

How could this happen to us?

Most of us who are in a race to “better ourselves” either for ourselves or to bring a better future for our children we fool ourselves into thinking that all this money that we are amassing in gold jewelry, in demonstration of beautifully decorated homes, in gorgeous spouses and perfect children with perfect grade point averages, landing a good well paying job are really just our dedication to our children and isn’t that what Islam is all about?

Meanwhile we look down upon those who are lesser off than us, wonder why this black person cant get a job and quit asking for help or why other peoples children don’t excel…………..Somewhere in this thinking process when we cross the line then the long leash given to us is yanked by Allah and we are hobbled till we come to our knees.

we either lose our wealth and have to beg and borrow like the black person we despised, or our child or spouse is afflicted with an untreatable illness, or our child leaves the fold of Islam and flagrantly flaunts the fact, and or……. dies.

All these are ways that Allah SWT hobbles the arrogant, the greedy, the heedless and sometimes even the virtuous to test their sincerity in their slave hood to Allah (SWT).

Each one of us will have an affliction of some sort, either in us or in our spouses or children. No person and I repeat with certainty No person who yearns for Jannah will escape this test.

It is my certain belief that the path to Jannah has to be traversed on our knees and our foreheads, in rukus, tashahuds, and sajdahs………so why am I still standing?

All I can feel now, is regret, repentence and …………more Istighfaar, so Help Me God!

 

Look at your innermost self, do you have any regrets…………..?

APNI ZINDAGI PER GHOUR KAREIN!

This one is for the Urdu speaking readers, sent to me by a friend

NAMAZ JO HUM PER FERZ KER DI GAI HAI

Fajer: Bister Mein
Zoher: Naukeri Mein
Aser: Chaye Mein
Maghrib: Raste Mein
Esha: TV mein
Juma: Sonay Mein
Eid: Bazaron Mein
*Sirf*
Namaz-e-Janaza: Time Per

Na Darud na Quran Yeh Kaise hein Muselmaan
Phir Kehtay ho kiyon nahi hai Allah Meherbaan

HOW TO HELP YOURSELF?2:45

The Ayah on how to get help.

At the women’s afternoon meeting today we reviewed this ayah with Farhat Hashmi’s tafseer. When I got into the car to go back to work, I turned on Mokhtar Magroubi’s CD on “the inner dimensions of salah” and the first words I heard were this ayah.
It also is the ayah that I repeated to myself in English many many times after Tariq died and found solace in Allah’s promise in it. Though I was neither well versed in the ramifications of the tafseer, not had I paid much attention to the second part of the ayah. Patience and Prayer was my mantra when the clouds of desperate grief would begin to gather.
I am grateful to Allah SWT that he threw me a lifeline in my storm of grief and that I am coherent enough to share a succinct explanation of this ayah as I understand it now, after some more review. I have read different sources and distilled it down to the basic essentials, though to best understand its relationshsip to the preceding and suceeding ayahs should also be examined. However here I only present Surah 2:45:

Quran: 2.045: Three translations in English, none capturing the heart of the essence of the ayah. The tafseer and explanations that follow are from Farhat Hashmi and Sheikh Mokhtar Magroubi.

YUSUFALI: Nay, seek (Allah’s) help with patient perseverance and prayer: It is indeed hard, except to those who bring a lowly spirit.

PICKTHAL: Seek help in patience and prayer; and truly it is hard save for the humble-minded

SHAKIR: And seek assistance through patience and prayer, and most surely it is a hard thing except for the humble ones.

The method outlined in this ayah for people like me who are laden with grief and other challenges is as follows:
The first step is:
To help yourself!
How?
With Allah’s help!
How?
Through patience & prayer

What are the prerequisites for the kind of prayer that will support patience and help me?

It is the prayer of the khashieen i.e. the people with ‘Khushu’ which is translated by the above three authors in English as pertaining to humility, lowly spirit, & humble minded, none of which really define the essential essence of the word ‘khushu’

Khushu is something on which reams of literature is available, it is easy to read about but elusive to practice.
Farhat Hashmi defines’ Khushu’ in the tafseer of this ayah as:
“Inner peace leading to outer peace”
How to step into khushu?
Step one: Prepare the ambience to step into it, with a mindset of shutting out all else, taking care of all emergencies, eating enough so that you don’t think of food, but not enough to make you sleepy, turning off all electronic devices, pretending that you are suspended in the third dimension where you have no access to any one except Allah.

Step two: Perform a beautiful wudu with external silence starting with ‘Bismillah’ and ending with Ashadu an La illaha illal lah………put on blinders over your eyes (look down), don’t talk and focus on your upcoming dialogue with Allah (SWT), while proceeding to the musallah.

Step three:
When you enter into salaat, i.e. when you say “Allah o Akbar” you are negating and demoting all others to a lesser importance verbally and in your heart and mind.
When you say Allah O Akbar, you are seeking sanctuary into Allah’s presence, thus all else has to be left behind, mental, physical and emotional, and all other doors to the heart are to be closed behind us leaving us alone in the sanctuary with Allah SWT

An Example:
We enter into khushu with himaat (focus) the example given by Sheikh Magroubi is that of a group of students taking an examination. No matter what the disturbance, their attention is not deviated from their examination paper. Their aim is to do the best on their examination in the time allotted to them. Their ultimate goal is to pass the examination with flying colors and get their degree to step into the real world.
We have a similar goal to step into the Hereafter if we want to pass our test in this world with flying colors we have to focus. An essential part of that test is our intensity of focus while connecting with our Lord, while we are on this earth.

What if we dont have khushu when we seek prayer?

The last option given in the ayah is the option of those who do not have khushu…….for them Allah SWT states that the prayer is very large, heavy (kabeera) and difficult.
What I understand is that if the prayer is not in Khushu then it is like something large (kabeera) weighing you down, instead of something light and beautiful lifting you up.

Prayer is practice for standing in front of our Lord and khushu is doing it with pleasure, the correct etiquette, dress and demeanor.

It is best to practice Standing in front of Allah in this world as we will be standing in front of him on the Day of Judgment. It is best to learn the protocol now than to appear gauche, uncouth and disrespectful on the Day of Judgment when we stand before Him for a very important interview. (Farhat Hashmi).

In the final analysis, we must help ourselves by asking for help from Allah through patience and prayer and to perform that prayer with Khushu, otherwise that prayer will be like a very large and heavy weight on us and difficult and thus will not benefit us in our primary goal of seeking His (SWT) help.

My personal take is that ‘khushu’ does not come all the time and every time. One has to persevere patiently in prayer and focus with the intense desire for khushu and then you are lifted.

Like a lock with a combination code, all the right actions have to be lined up for the door to swing open to give entry to the sanctuary of Allah wherein lies HELP.

May Allah forgive me for any mistakes that I may have made in understanding or presenting the explanation of this ayah.

THE SHAWL

The mornings are cool even for the South. Fajr time finds the shawl awaiting me by my bedside to drape me as I move towards doing wudu. I remove it reluctantly as I wake up my sleepy eyes with a splash of cool water. After successfully completing the wudu and getting into the mindset for fajr salaat and dhikr, I wrap the shawl around me and head for my musallah. It drapes around me protectively, never leaving me as I go into sujood and rise. In the cold, it emanates warmth and as the morning sun spreads its warmth, it gently slides off my shoulders for Ishraaq.
The shawl: my companion on my travels up north. It stretches over the comforter as a cover to provide additional warmth in the 22-degree weather.
Returning south to walk on the beach in December, it accompanies me shielding me from the cold winds. How many secrets, how many supplications, and how many soliloquy’s has it silently witnessed. How many miles and to how many places we have traveled together. Its gentle softness always reminding me of the warmth and affection of the giver.

A TRAVELERS PRAYER

It is the end of juma prayer and we are all leaving the masjid. Everyone to go home and I for a nine-hour road trip up north.
My friend turns to me and says “please make dua for my family and my daughter, a traveler’s prayer is always accepted”. I am dropped off at the car place where they are putting a new tire on my car, which has had an air leak.
I am on the road northbound. The first hour and half of my journey is uneventful, I fill the car with the beautiful qiraat of Mishary Al Afasy as he recites the last juz of the Quran, the road folds, and time passes uneventfully. I notice a light come on in the dash “you have a flat tire”. I pull up to the nearest gas station and look at the tires they seem okay. I go in for help and there is no one to help. An older man looks at the tires and reassures me that I can drive to the next town sixty miles away without difficulty.
I get back on I 95, and stop at the next gas station and there is no one to help. One of the women at the counter takes pity on me and sends a young man who checks the tires and confirms the air is a little bit low in all the tires. Low but not very low.
I am now on I-95, travelling north and the cape of night has fallen. It is pitch darkness with few trucks and cars on the road. I have almost forgotten that the flat tire light is still on.
I feel the car is slowing down, I am perplexed, and I give it gas. It makes no difference it is slowly stopping, the engine is running, and I just cannot accelerate. The shoulder is narrow and beside it is a grassy dip, I carefully come to a halt…………..
I make a fervent prayer from the depth of my heart “ O Allah please do not leave me here in the darkness miles from nowhere, please please please…………as I retrieve my car assistance card and call, the man at the other end is sympathetic but lets me know the wait for help is 90 minutes.
He asks me what happened. As I am explaining I am perplexed also, I say let me put it in gear and see if it will go…………..and to my astonishment the car begins to move as if nothing had ever happened. I am stunned and deeply thankful. I am reminded that:
Allah Subhana wa taala never turns away the prayer of:
A mother,
A traveler and
The Oppressed…………..

Thank you my friend for reminding me.

addendum: For the actual supplications for travellers:

check out Dont leave home without it: A travellers prayer