Happiness Is a Voyage, Not a Destination

We convince ourselves that life will be better once we are married, have a baby, then another.Then we get frustrated because our children are not old enough, and that all will be well when they are older. Then we are frustrated because they reach adolescence and we must deal with them. Surely we’ll be happier when they grow out of the teen years.We tell ourselves our life will be better when our spouse gets his/her act together, when we have a nicer car, when we can take a vacation, when we finally retire.

The truth is that there is no better time to be happy than right now.If not, then when?

Your life will always be full of challenges. It is better to admit as much and to decide to be happy in spite of it all. For the longest time, it seemed that life was about to start. Real life.But there was always some obstacle along the way, an ordeal to get through, some work to be finished, some time to be given, a bill to be paid. Then life would start. I finally came to understand that those obstacles were life. That point of view helped me see that there isn’t any road to happiness.

Happiness IS the road. So, enjoy every moment.

Stop waiting for school to end, for a return to school, to lose ten pounds, to gain ten pounds, for work to begin, to get married, for Friday evening, for Sunday morning, waiting for a new car, for your mortgage to be paid off, for spring, for summer, for fall, for winter, for the first or the fifteenth of the month, for your song to be played on the radio, to die, to be reborn… before deciding to be happy.

Happiness is a voyage, not a destination.

There is no better time to be happy than… NOW!

Live and enjoy the moment.

-Author unknown


Now, think and try to answer these questions:
1 – Name the 5 richest people in the world.
2 – Name the last 5 Miss Universe winners.
3 – Name the last 10 Nobel Prize winners.
4 – Name the last 10 winners of the Best Actor Oscar.

Can’t do it? Rather difficult, isn’t it?

Don’t worry, nobody remembers that.
Applause dies away!
Trophies gather dust!
Winners are soon forgotten.

Now answer these questions:

1 – Name 3 teachers who contributed to your education.
2 – Name 3 friends who helped you in your hour of need.
3 – Think of a few people who made you feel special.
4 – Name 5 people that you like to spend time with.

It’s more manageable? It’s easier, isn’t it?

The people who mean something to your life are not rated “the best”, don’t have the most money, haven’t won the greatest prizes… They are the ones who care about you; take care of you, those who, no matter what, stay close by.

Think about it for a moment. Life is very short! And you, in which list are you? Don’t know? Let me give you a hand.

You are not among the most “famous”, but among those to whom I remember to send this message…

Some times ago, at the Seattle Olympics, nine athletes, all mentally or physically challenged, were standing on the start line for the 100 m race. The gun fired and the race began. Not everyone was running, but everyone wanted to participate and win. They ran in threes, a boy tripped and fell, did a few somersaults and started crying. The other eight heard him crying. They slowed down and looked behind them. They stopped and came back… All of them…A girl with Down’s Syndrome sat down next to him, hugged him and asked, “Feeling better now?”Then, all nine walked shoulder to shoulder to the finish line.The whole crowd stood up and applauded. And the applause lasted a very long time…People who witnessed this still talk about it.

Why?

Because deep down inside us, we all know that the most important thing in life is much more than winning for ourselves. The most important thing in this life is to help others to win, even if it means slowing down and changing our own race.

May Allah grant you the serenity to accept what you cannot change, Courage to change what you can, and the wisdom to know the difference?

Compiled, edited and adapted by Khalid Latif

Courtesy: Yasser Maghsoudi [ymaghsoudi@yahoo.com]

A Wise Young Muslim Boy

Many years ago, during the time of the Tâbi'în (the generation of Muslims after the Sahâbah), Baghdâd was a great city of Islam. In fact, it was the capital of the Islamic Empire and, because of the great number of scholars who lived there, it was the center of Islamic knowledge.

One day, the ruler of Rome at the time sent an envoy to Baghdad with three challenges for the Muslims. When the messenger reached the city, he informed the khalîfah that he had three questions which he challenged the Muslims to answer.

The khalîfah gathered together all the scholars of the city and the Roman messenger climbed upon a high platform and said, "I have come with three questions. If you answer them, then I will leave with you a great amount of wealth which I have brought from the king of Rome." As for the questions, they were: "What was there before Allâh?" "In which direction does Allâh face?" "What is Allâh engaged in at this moment?"

The great assembly of people were silent. (Can you think of answers to these questions?) In the midst of these brilliant scholars and students of Islam was a man looking on with his young son. "O my dear father! I will answer him and silence him!" said the youth. So the boy sought the permission of the khalîfah to give the answers and he was given the permission to do so.

The Roman addressed the young Muslim and repeated his first question, "What was there before Allâh?"

The boy asked, "Do you know how to count?"

"Yes," said the man.

"Then count down from ten!" So the Roman counted down, "ten, nine, eight, ..." until he reached "one" and he stopped counting

"But what comes before 'one'?" asked the boy.

"There is nothing before one- that is it!" said the man.

"Well then, if there obviously is nothing before the arithmetic 'one', then how do you expect that there should be anything before the 'One' who is Absolute Truth, All-Eternal, Everlasting the First, the Last, the Manifest, the Hidden?"

Now the man was surprised by this direct answer which he could not dispute. So he asked, "Then tell me, in which direction is Allâh facing?"

"Bring a candle and light it," said the boy, "and tell me in which direction the flame is facing."

"But the flame is just light- it spreads in each of the four directions,

North, South, East and West. It does not face any one direction only," said the man in wonderment.

The boy cried, "Then if this physical light spreads in all four directions such that you cannot tell me which way it faces, then what do you expect of the Nûr-us-Samâwâti- wal-'Ard: Allâh - the Light of the Heavens and the Earth!? Light upon Light, Allâh faces all directions at all times."

The Roman was stupified and astounded that here was a young child answering his challenges in such a way that he could not argue against the proofs. So, he desperately wanted to try his final question. But before doing so, the boy said,

"Wait! You are the one who is asking the questions and I am the one who is giving the answer to these challenges. It is only fair that you should come down to where I am standing and that I should go up where you are right now, in order that the answers may be heard as clearly as the questions."

This seemed reasonable to the Roman, so he came down from where he was standing and the boy ascended the platform. Then the man repeated his final challenge, "Tell me, what is Allâh doing at this moment?"

The boy proudly answered, "At this moment, when Allâh found upon this high platform a liar and mocker of Islam, He caused him to descend and brought him low. And as for the one who believed in the Oneness of Allâh, He raised him up and established the Truth. Every day He exercises (universal) power (Surah 55 ar-Rahmân, Verse 29)."

The Roman had nothing to say except to leave and return back to his country, defeated. Meanwhile, this young boy grew up to become one of the most famous scholars of Islam. Allâh, the Exalted, blessed him with special wisdom and knowledge of the deen. His name was Abu Hanîfah (rahmatullâh 'alayhi- Allâh have mercy on him) and he is known today as Imâm-e-A'dham, the Great Imâm and scholar of Islam.

Adapted into English from "Manâqib Abî Hanîfah" written by Imâm Muwaffaq Ibn Ahmad al-Makki (d. 568 Hijri). Dar al - Kitâb al-'Arabiy, Beirut, 1981/1401H

Kindness surely pays back !!!

One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry.

He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, "How much do I owe you?"
"You don't owe me anything," she replied. "Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness." He said..... "Then I thank you from my heart."

Year's later that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room. Dressed in his doctor's gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to the case.

After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room. The woman feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all.

Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill.
She read these words..... "Paid in full with one glass of milk"
(Signed) Dr. Howard Kelly.

Tears of joy flooded her eyes as her happy heart prayed: "Thank You, God, that Your love has spread abroad through human hearts and hands."

Hasan al Basri and His Neighbour

Hasan al-Basri once fell sick. His neighbour, an unbeliever, came to pay him a visit.

"O Imam," he exclaimed, "I detect a bad smell." The Imam told him it was caused by illness, but the neighbour insisted: "That is not the odor of sickness. It is a lavatory smell. For the love of Allah, tell me what it is!"
He had not noticed that sewage was leaking from his house into that of the Imam.

When the neighbour pressed him, the Imam finally said: "For some months your drain has been seeping through to our side. I tried to fix it, but without success."

His neighbour asked why he had not told him before, but the venerable Imam said: "I might have offended you."

The unbeliever was so impressed by this ethical refinement that he was ennobled with True Faith, for he recognized the Imam's morality as a ray of Islam.

The King of My Throne

Fear engulfs me
Thoughts overwhelm me
Oh my lord
Who will be the king of my throne?

Will I be happy?
Will I have strength?
Oh my lord
When I find the king of my throne?

Will he be compassionate?
Will he be affectionate?
Oh my lord
That king of my throne

Will he respect you?
Will he keep his duty to you?
Oh my lord
That future king of my throne

Will he love you?
Will he guide me to you?
Oh my lord
I wish a pious king for my throne

Will he understand me?
Will he be considerate?
Oh my lord
A kind king for my throne

Please guide me
Please enlighten me
Oh my lord
To find a kind king for my throne

A soul who will love you
A soul who will always remember you
Oh my lord
I wish as the king of my throne

As questions cloud me
And answers deceive me
Oh my lord
I turn to you sincerely, to find a king for my throne

I sincerely love you
Want to always be with you
Oh my lord
I fear an impious king for my throne

It’s only you who could help me
It’s only you who could enlighten me
Oh my lord
Who would be the king of my throne?

Thoughts .....

Asalamualiukum Warahmatullahi Wabarakathu

Hope that everyone is keeping fine by Allah’s rahma. I enjoy blogging a lot, but couldn’t blog for a while because I was very busy and tired during the past 2-3 weeks. I had many thoughts and would have liked to share, but finding the time was a major problem with a tight schedule. I witnessed many internal crises in office and elsewhere, with bombs detonating at least once every week, Srilanka is turning out to be a very dangerous place to live in.

Each and every situation we face in life has its own lessons in store for us. It’s we who need to comprehend it and rectify our shortcomings in order to be better Muslims. Although life is transient, we mortals live as if we will live forever. We forget the commands of Allah SWT, miss our prayers every day and find excuses for doing so, visit the mosque only on Fridays and live our lives to please everyone but Allah, in anticipation of days in the future in which we can engage in ibadaat. When we are young we feel that we have years to come and it’s when old age settles in that we should increase our ibadat, youth is the time for merriment and joy, joking, fooling and idling, it’s not the time for ibadaat. The youth view there age as a license to engage in all evil practices and would just smile away when their mistakes are pointed out. This is the time to have fun, not the time to ponder over religion. But its only if we ponder over the sudden loss of lives during the blasts would we understand that death has no barriers, young or old, woman or man, when our time is due we will leave this world in our current state. We will never be given another chance, this is our only chance, and lets try to make the most out of it.

I would like to have kept out of this topic, as its prohibition in the context of Islam is well known. But the ignorance shown by our youth despite all warnings has made me write about it, at least a bare minimum, as I feel it would be useful in today’s context. We often hear stories of romeos and juliets of our times. Young men and women would do everything possible to win over the man/woman of their dreams. This might be fine with the kuffar, but we as Muslims should lead an exemplary and righteous life as guided by Islam. Does such “hanky panky” technique of winning over the one you claim to love last forever? Based on what do you admire the other person? Looks can be deceiving, so can be their apparent behavior. In a context where both parties behave in a manner to impress each other nothing would be evident, but its in the face of realities of life that one would understand the fleeting dreams in which one has been living in the past. Then it would be too late to turn back, also my dear sisters and brothers please ponder over the evils of this virus, it will engulf you and leave you in a state of moral bankruptcy because each and every moment you are engaged in it you will be disobeying your creator. Please try not to fall prey to this contagious virus, save your imaan and increase your worship of Allah swt, he is the source of all strength and for the one who places his trust in him he will suffice him.

“And He provides for him from (sources) he never could imagine. And if any one puts his trust in Allah, sufficient is (Allah) for him. For Allah will surely accomplish his purpose: verily, for all things has Allah appointed a due proportion.”

So my dear sisters and brothers, don’t fret and frown over the fleeting things in this life and employ unislamic ways of achieving them. We will only get what Allah has ordained for us and he is the provider, the sustainer, whatever he has ordained for us is best for us. May Allah SWT give all of us the strength to increase our IMAN and be better Muslims. Ameen.