In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. May He send his great peace and blessings upon our messenger Muhammad (saw).
Success is a quality that every Muslim should strive for. Allah loves the person that when he intends to do something, he does it with ihsan (perfection) and achieves great results. A succesful Muslim is the one who is successful in his ibaada (worship to Allah), work, family, parenthood, his community and much more. Below are four tips that would hopefully be a good reminder to most Muslim brothers and sisters.
1.)Starting your day and ending your night with the remembrance of Allah.
It is important for a Muslim who wants to be successful in this world and the hereafter to constantly remember Allah in the night and the day. Remember Allah frequently makes the person earn a close relationship with his creator. Remebering Allah in the day and night is an advice that Allah (swt) gave to the prophet (saw) and the believers. In the translation of the meaning of the following veses (ayats), Allah describes the type of luxuries and rewards the believer would enjoy in Jannah, after reminding the believers about the huge reward, He then advices us to remember Him frequently “(11) And their (The believers) recompense shall be Paradise, and silken garments, because they were patient. (12) Reclining therein on raised thrones, they will see there neither the excessive heat of the sun, nor the excessive bitter cold, (as in Paradise there is no sun and no moon). (13) And the shade thereof is close upon them, and the bunches of fruit thereof will hang low within their reach. (14) And amongst them will be passed round vessels of silver and cups of crystal — (15) Crystal-clear, made of silver. They will determine the measure thereof (according to their wishes). (16) And they will be given to drink there of a cup (of wine) mixed with Zanjabîl (ginger). (17) A spring there, called Salsabîl. (18) And round about them will (serve) boys of everlasting youth. If you see them, you would think they are scattered pearls. (19) And when you look there (in Paradise), you will see a delight (that cannot be imagined), and a great dominion. (20) Their garments will be of fine green silk, and gold embroidery. They will be adorned with bracelets of silver, and their Lord will give them a pure drink. (21) (And it will be said to them): "Verily, this is a reward for you, and your endeavour has been accepted. (23) Therefore be patient (O Muhammad SAW) with constancy to the Command of your Lord (Allâh, by doing your duty to Him and by conveying His Message to mankind), and obey neither a sinner nor a disbeliever among them. " (22) Verily, It is We Who have sent down the Qur'ân to you (O Muhammad SAW) by stages.” After reading this beautiful description of paradise, every Muslim would have high aspirations to enter it. The description is so graphic that it puts excitement in the hearts of the believer who cannot wait to enter it. After the verse’s that describe the Paradase, Allah then advices us to remeber Him. “(24) And remember the Name of your Lord every morning and afternoon. (25) And during night, prostrate yourself to Him (i.e. the offering of Maghrib and 'Ishâ' prayers), and glorify Him a long night through (i.e. Tahajjud prayer) (26)” Notice how Allah links “remembering Him” after describing the paradise. For this reason, it is essential for whoever wishes to meet Allah and enter Jannah to remember Him frequently in the donya. Shiekh Ul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (May Allah have mercy on him) said: In this world there is a Paradise, whoever does not enter it will not enter the Paradise of the Hereafter (Ibn Al Qayyin, All Qaabil, p69). The paradise in this world that Shaykh Al Islam is describing is the world where the person feels at peace remembering Allah in this world, performing many actions and thanking Allah for His bounties. He further said “In this world, man finds in the remembrance of Allah, praising Him and worshipping Him, a delight that is incomparable to anything else." One of the important verses Muslims should practise reading is reciting Ayat Al Kursi in the morning and in the night. Ayatul Kursi is described by the Prophet (saw) as the most powerful ayah (verse) in the Quran. The Prophet (saw) promised that whoever recites ayatul Kursi, Allah will protect him/her from the plans of shaytan until sunset, and whoever reads ayatul kursi after Maghrib, then Allah will protect him/her from shaytan until dawn. A successful Muslim always has a noble vision and aspirations in his/her life, these aspirations with the correct intentions and methodology would make them an extraordinary believer in the sight of Allah. For this reason, it is very important for the believer to protect himself with Zikr and Quran from the evil plans of shaytan. Shaytan knows that by performing these noble visions it would allow the person to perform many actions that pleases Allah and this makes him/her earn a high status with Him, Shaytan will strive to plan to attack the person and make him/her slip from achieving their goals. Shaytan's method would be many, some of them can be tricking the believer after achieving a task by making the person forget to remember to thank Allah for it, or to attribute the success to his/herself alone, another method he would do is to advice a believer to perform an action with the wrong methodology or wrong intentions. This will make him happy as he knows that maybe his/her action would not be accepted by Allah if these two conditions are not met (Correct intentions and methedology). Allah says in the Quran, "And if an evil whisper from Shaytan tries to turn you away (from doing good), then seek refuge in Allah. Verily, He is the Hearing, the Knowing.) (41:34-36)"
2.) Taking your responsibilities as “important” and how this brings better results:
There is an interesting fictional story about a Fox and a rabbit. One morning, a fox that was prowling the fields, came upon a rabbit that was hiding in the crops. As soon as the rabbit saw the fox it took off and began to run across the field. The Fox began to chase after the rabbit who by his speed managed to get very close behind him. After a long time of running and a few attempts of trying to catch the rabbit, the fox gave up and stopped running. A farmer who saw the chase began to laugh and assumed that the Rabbit is better than the Fox because he ran much faster. He was surprised how a large animal like a fox couldn't catch a small animal like a Rabbit (even though the fox is probably faster). The fox turned around to him and said “You understand not. I ran for a meal, and he ran for his life.” Although this story is false, the lessons we can take from it are very true. No doubt, the life of a rabbit means much more to the rabbit than what a meal means to the fox. Because life is more important, this has caused the rabbit to put more energy, speed and efforts to run faster, likewise because the meal is not that important, this has caused the fox to not put all of his strength and energy which lead him to give up. Likewise if you see your religion as important, you would put all your sacrifice, energy and hard work for the sake of establishing it, pleasing Allah and serving people, by taking it as important this will bring better results and success.
3.) Importance of doing actions for the sake of Allah
Although we as Muslims have probably heard many reminders about sincerity and the grave danger of showing off, I think what is important for the Muslims to ask themselves are "Is doing something for the sake of people really worth it?", “What are the benefits of doing actions for the sake of people compared to doing it for the sake of Allah?”. There is much difference’s and I would like to give an example to illustrate it. Let us say that there is a brother who wishes to do a favour for another brother, let us say this favour was something small such as to driving his friend home. After dropping him home, the brother might be grateful to him and say "thank you" to him. This might make the brother happy but at this point he has two choices; either he makes his intentions of the action for the sake of pleasing his friend or for the sake of pleasing Allah. If he takes the first option, then the most he would get is probably a thank you, however after a few hours the brother would forget about this favour his friend done for him and in a few weeks it would probably completely come out of his mind. However,if the brother decides to take the second option and makes his intention for the sake of Allah, then he knows that Allah (unlike humans) would never forget about the actions of the believers and the reward with Him is much greater than what anybody can give, and Allah will not let his deeds go to waste. Not only would Allah reward the person, He will also aid him because He promised to help those who help others. “ Allah will aid a servant [of His] so long as the servant aids his brother” [Prophet Muhammad (saw) - Sahih Muslim]. It could be that action that allows Allah to have mercy on him and forgive his past actions, increase him in guidance and give him a stronger relationship with him. And if he is happy that his brother is happy then this is also a noble thing that if he thanks Allah for, then that could be good intentions too. For that reason, the successful Muslim should never underestimate small actions done with sincerity and know that the bigger benefit is by doing an action for Allah.
4.) Co-operation
Ibn Khaldun, a 13th century scholar, intellectual, historian, philosophizer and one of the greatest Muslims figures in our history enlightened us with his book on human civilization - The Muqqiddimah. What is interesting in his book is the way he explained to us how human being's have been created with the need of becoming dependent on each other, and how without co-operation and dependency on others our survival as mankind is in risk. He explains how society and economy only works and becomes successful through the contribution of each individuals and group solidarity (Group feeling - Assibiya). This model should be taken by every Muslim when he/she works in a team. Each team member’s contribution will eventually bring the success of the whole group. The prophet (saw) mentioned how this ummah is like one body. Each one of us is like an organ that functions independently yet plays a big part in the body. The body is nothing without the organs, so the success of a body depends on the work of the organs. The successful Muslim is the one that tries to make the body healthy and protect it from any harm and diseases. One way the successful Muslim can do this is to constantly check on his/her team members with aims to try to know and understand them, this will help the person understand different people’s circumstances and it will help aid them when needed. This is similar to when we go to check –up for our bodies to the doctors, we hope that we can keep our bodies operating and keeping them healthy. We would not know how to solve a problem if we didn’t know we had one in the first place, for that reasons checking up on people and our bodies are important. There are many diseases tha can harms and destroy the team (Body). One type of dangerous disease that destroys the body is back-biting, gossiping and slander which the believers should fear never to come near. Never under-estimate the power and evil of the tongue for sometimes it could be worse than killing hundreds of people. This might sound strange but the proofs for this is are many, one example is war. When we look at some of the reasons why many innocent people have been killed by others, they were not just done by random attacks from other nations, but rather mostly because of the tongues of other people who convinced the killers that the people they are killing are evil and deserve to be tortured. Their tongue has caused lies to be spread about them and enter hatred for them in the people's heart. An example of this is propaganda (Developed by the tongue), it is one of the most powerful tools that have been successful in making thousands of people hate thousands of other people for so many years without verifying if the statements are true - this has influenced many people's mind and have caused a lot of corruption and mischief in our world. Another bad implication that the evil tongue of some people has caused is the fact that many people commit kufr and shirk across the world. This has probably all started by one person misusing his/her tongue and made up lie's about Allah, some say Allah is a statue, Allah is a moon, Allah is a sun, Allah is jesus - Subhannaaho Wa Taa'la Ama Yoshrikoon (Glorify Be to Him on what they attribute to Him), because of that many people have been astray. Although these are extreme example’s it shows us how influential the tongue is, and how it could be misused. Within a team, the members should avoid using their tongue to backbite or slander others as this can break the group feeling and bring very little results to the success of the organisation. The successful Muslim should always remember to use their tongue for the sake of spreading good, remembering Allah, advising people with sincerely and teaching the people khair. One of the aims of the successful Muslim is his vision to defeat the party of shaytan who strive every day and try to be productive to mislead people. The successful Muslim is the one that tries to put more energy, time and productivity to do the opposite and bring people to the right path.
May Allah make us all successful Muslims; The one who enters Jannah through the success of his actions in the donya. This is the real ultimate success and these are the real winners of this world.
"Successful indeed are the believers". Holy Qur'aan.
Islam, spirituality and the environment.
Roehampton University People and Planet Society present an evening of discussion looking at how religious and spiritual ideas can inform the contemporary environmental movement and our personal relationship with our environment. Our panellists will bring Christian, Islamic and Jewish perspectives on the environment and there will be the opportunity for questions and a general discussion. Light refreshments provided.
Chair
GINNY JORDAN,
Assistant Chaplin, Digby Stuart Collage
Panellists;
ISLAM AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Omar Hajaj, Roehampton University Islamic Society,
JUDAISM AND SOCIAL ECOLOGY
Dr Eric Jacobsen, Lecturer Jewish Studies,
ENVIRONMENTAL THEOLOGY
Sarah Boss, Senior Lecturer, Theology and Religious Studies
Chair
GINNY JORDAN,
Assistant Chaplin, Digby Stuart Collage
Panellists;
ISLAM AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Omar Hajaj, Roehampton University Islamic Society,
JUDAISM AND SOCIAL ECOLOGY
Dr Eric Jacobsen, Lecturer Jewish Studies,
ENVIRONMENTAL THEOLOGY
Sarah Boss, Senior Lecturer, Theology and Religious Studies
Thursday, February 10 2011 · 5:00pm - 6:30pm
Senior Common Room, Southlands College
In the name of God, the most merciful, the most beneficent, All praise is to the lord of mankind, and May he send peace and blessings upon his messenger.I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped except God, alone without no partners, and I bear witness that Muhammad is his slave and messenger
"I would like to thank the organisers of this event, and also thank you for taking your time to attend this discussion. In today’s time, there seems to be not much people that are concerned in matters and topics such as these, so for you to be here shows that you are a caring and open minded person.
The topic of environment is something that is very important to us. The environment to us reminds us of the signs of the creator and we see the environment as the creation of God. The believers walk around the land and identify His signs through the creation. They are amazed by the greatness and beauty of the sky, the planets, mountains and the great oceans. For them they are amazed when they ponder, think and reflect about the environment. They start to glorify and praise God when they look at a clear dark sky and see hundreds of stars, or when they see how the mountain holds the earth and makes it steady, even how the sky is raised above us without any pillars.
God has created man and placed them in this earth with a responsibility, we are those who are assigned to look after his creation.
In order for us to fulfil this task, God has been more than fair with us and gave us many blessings. God taught us knowledge, Muslims believe in a verse in the quran which translates to state “we have taught man, that which he did not know”
We also believe in a verse that translates to states, “indeed we have created man in the best form”. Indeed God did give us good organs, eye sight, tongue and ears to hear.
He has also given us his creation for us to survive. He has created animals which we use for many things. Some of them we use for farming and agriculture, some of them we use for food, some are for transport and many more. We have clothes and furniture that is made from animals, we have drinks and oils that come from the bellies of animals. All those are gifts from God.
With the blessing of knowledge, God gave us the ability to learn and develop. Look around you and see the successful inventions that man has made. The cars, planes, technology all of those are blessings that God has made us able to achieve through the gift of knowledge he gave us.
I am really grateful and amazed everytime I go on a plane, for many of us we don’t really think about it as it is old news for us. But remember when there was a time where we used to travel to different countries on foot, sometimes we use horses that go around 30 miles/h, and even that they cannot travel this distance for a long time... then we made ships such as the coal ship that goes around depending on the weight of passengers, cargo and energy we put in. Today we have cars that goes 100 miles/hour, trains that go around 300 miles and planes that can go around 700m/ph All of these are blessings that we have achieved by the permission of God.
The environment or the creation reminds us that God is our sustainer and we are dependent on him for everything we do. We cannot even breathe without God. To breathe, we need oxygen, oxygen comes from the tree, and trees are from the environment which is created by God.
The verse that comes straight after the verse we just quoted – “indeed, we have created man in the best form” indicates man’s high status. However, the verse that comes after it will say something else. “And then we reduced him to the lowest of the low”. This is because, amongst some people are some who did not fulfil their responsibility given by God as “man”. They rejected his signs and they transgressed in this world. Some people of mankind are responsible for destroying some creations of God, have spread corruption and mischief. Some of mankind’s behaviour has acted worse than any other creatures of God. The verse after then translates “Except those who believe and do righteous deeds. Then they shall have a reward without end (paradise).” This verse tells us here that the only solution for us to be amongst the best of the form, the best of creatures is if we believe in God and do righteous deeds according to them.
Some people do good actions such as trying to help out the environment but they do not believe in God. I pray for these people for God to guide them to belief. This is because what is the point of your motives, your intentions that you are striving to do such things yet you are not identifying that this creation is from God.
Who are we giving our worship too?
To believe and do good actions is worship to God. Every human worships, it is in all of our nature, but is all humans worshiping God? Some people worship other besides God and sets all their actions for that sake, some people worship money, some worship drugs, some worship women, they may sacrifice and devout to such things the same way believers to do God.
My question is though, who is the most worthy one to worship in this world. What is the difference between worshipping God and worshipping something else? Should we worship a man? But what can this man do to me? Can this man send me some water from the sky? Can he bring me back to life after I die, can he make the sun rise from a different direction. Or what if we decide to worship statues and stones? What can that statue do? Can it hear us when we pray to it, does it answer our prayers? Rather the believer will say “Indeed I am very blessed and happy that I give all my thanks and worship to the one lord of the Universe. I gave thanks to him for all the blessings and I hope that my work in this life is for him.”
Some people may ask what is the point of giving thanks to God? I would like to ask the audience a question. Let us say that I am a very kind and generous person, there is someone that I spend a lot of money on, all his clothes he wears is from my money, all the food he eats is from my money, the house he lives in is paid by me. I spent on his education, on his luxuries and everything else. Although I do not want any benefit from this person, in return what he does is curse me, mock me, tell all the people he knows that all of this is not from me and sometimes pretends I do not even exist. Who would agree that the actions and behaviour of this man is very arrogant and wrong? Who thinks that this person’s is right? I am sure none of you will think that.
Of course Almighty God is way above any comparison, but is it not true that we deserve to give Him thanks as the minimum for what He gave us.
God says to us in the last book he revealed in a verse that translates “Whoever works righteousness – whether male or female – while he is a true believer. Verily, to him we will give a good life (i.e in this world with respect, contentment and lawful provision), and We shall pay them certainly a reward in proportion to the best of what they used to do (i.e. Paradise in the hereafter).
What better deal do we have here, God promises us that if we work righteous, then he will give us a good life in this world and plus a huge reward in paradise.
God also promises us that if we give thanks to Him then he will increase what He gave us with more blessings, and if we reject them then we could be liable for punishment.
I also mentioned that you will get good in this world and good in the hereafter. Some people believe that it is only this world that exists. No, in fact it is this world that reminds us that we will once go, that we cannot stay here forever. We humans are like the plant that grows from the ground, the plant grows and comes out from it a flower, the flower opens and blossoms and shows its beauty and colour, it then becomes dry and the leaves then falls off. It then becomes dust and disappears with the wind. This is like us we were once a cell, we then developed into a feasus, then a baby, then a grown man, then we go to an old age and become dust in the end. This world also follows a similar pattern, everything inside it will vanish one day.
God says in the holy Quran in a verse which translates as “And Allah (which means God in Arabic) has brought you out from the wombs of your mothers while you know nothing. And he gave you hearing, sight, and hearts that you might give thanks”.
Likewise a similar verse translates “And Allah has created you and then he will cause you to die; and of you there are some who are sent back to senility (i.e old age), so that they know nothing after having known much. Truly! Allah is All-knowing, All-powerful.”
Even in the bees, we find a sign for us. God says in the Quran, in a verse which translates as “And your Lord inspired the bees, saying: “Take you habitations in the mountains and in the trees and in what they erect.” “Then, eat of all fruits, and follow the ways of your Lord made easy for you” “There comes forth from their bellies, a drink of varying colour wherein is healing for men. Verily, in this is indeed a sign for a people who think”.
Look how amazing the signs of the bees are. They are inspired by God, they follow the ways that the lord has made easy for them, by obeying him a great fortune came from it. We benefit from Honey, which God describes here as “healing for men.” This is something that recent medics have confirmed and listed the much more benefits of honey. And notice how it mentions of “varying colours”. You get honey of different types, different tastes and different colour – some are dark, some are light.
What about humans – we have humans that are of different colours, different tastes and types. And we too also came from the wombs of our mothers, same as the honey that came from the wombs of the bees.
We ask Allmighty God to guide every sincere righteous person here, We Ask him to make us from the people of paradise and to save us from the punishment of the fire.
Anything correct I have said is from the blessings and guidance of God, anything incorrect is from the influence of my own soul and from the whispers of the shaytan.
Subhanaka Allahuma wa bihmik , ashado Al La ila ila inta, astikforokeh wa atoobo aleyk. Glorfy be to you, O God, I bear witness that there is no God but you, I ask for your forgiveness and repentance.
Brothers and sisters of mankind thank you for listening to my speech.
Question:
Why are there so many crises in the environment? Earthquakes etc.
The fact that we have earthquakes is one of the signs of reaching the end of time. The final prophet (pbuh) said "The Hour will not happen until knowledge is taken out, time passes quickly, earthquakes increase in number, tribulations appear, and al-Harj increases in number." It was said, "What is al-Harj, O prophet of God?" He said, "Killing, Killing."
Another reason for this is when humans go far away from God, they create enormous mischief and deviation. Then God sometimes sends punishment in the earth to remind people to come back. To remind people that He has power over all things and to save them from transgressing in this earth.
Also a large amount of today’s corruption is from what our own hands have committed. The extreme materialism we have adopted that caused us to waste enormous amount of things. Or the amount of resources we waste, is it not us who creating pollution? Is it not us who became greedy and hungry for resources in the expense of killing others and making them starve and suffer?
God also promises that he would not send a punishment into a place until He sends His warnings.
The Quran says:
"When We decide to destroy a town, We (first) send a definite order (to obey Allah and be righteous) to those among them who are given the good things of this life. Then, they transgress therein, and thus the word (of torment) is justified against (them). Then we destroy it with complete destruction." (17:16)
And God knows best."
