My Allah

by Zohra Moosa

The noor of Allah surrounds us.
The love of Allah enfolds us.
The power of Allah protects us.
The presence of Allah watches over us.
Wherever we are Allah is and all is well.
Take this day to be thankful for the people you have in life . . .
Life isn’t measured by the mountains of gold you have . . .
But by the mountain of people that you hold close to your heart.

My heart is filled with pain

My heart is filled with pain
Did I lose the game again?
I try my best to be at my best
But Ya Allah deep down I feel the pain!

I sincerely want to love you all my life
Is it ok to feel the pain once in a while?
I never mean to be ungrateful to you
But at times I just can’t hold my self through

You have blessed my life with your divine love
Peace and contentment is paramount
But at times I feel I’m breaking apart
Please do forgive me if I sound far apart

In your remembrance my lonely heart finds its peace
At times I do not know why I feel so lonely and weak
I try my best to be focused and alive
But at times tears break me apart

I know that you watch over me from heavens above
Each tear, sadness, sorrow is part of my life
Only to you do I turn in my pain
Please help me see through these rainy days

They say after rain there will be sunshine
Each difficulty will be followed by ease
Why do some matters sound so difficult?
Forgive me my lord if I sound so weak

I pen my feelings down as a poem
Becoz I don’t want to hurt the ones who feel
So much love and compassion
Towards my soul that’s at unease

Although my heart feels bewildered
My soul so lost and forgone
It sincerely believes in your wisdom
Your plans and foresight so strong

Each difficulty will make me stronger
Stronger than what I was before
Each trial will be a term test
With reports from heavens above

Please forgive me when I whine out of pain
Please forgive me when tears flow down my cheeks
I never mean to complain against your divine decree
Its only because I’m a human so weak

As each night brings a new day
I know that you will alleviate my pain
Everything will have its end
My Allah is enough for me; my Allah is enough for me!

Dear Allah !

By Zainab Bint Abdur Rahman

Dear Allah, Here I am my Lord,
Standing before You, Praising You,
For the wonders and beauties of nature,
With its scenic charms and marvels;
The almost endless horizons in the sky,
And their far reaching expansions;
The ceaseless succession of day and night
The course of the sun,
The moon, and the great stars;
The world of animate and inanimate,
The continues process of evolution
Of man generation after generation.
And to all of these things,
With which I live,
And with which I immensely enjoy,
You are the Maker and You are the Maintainer.

Dear Allah, in this world,
You are the greatest force in action,
To keep everything in order.
In the beautiful nature,
You are the great artist,
Who creates the most charming
And most marvel pieces of art,
And produce everything
For a special purpose in life
The strongest force belongs to you
The greatest artist of all
And I myself believe in You
And deeply enlightened,
To recognize You,
As the Greatest, Oh Allah!

Dear Allah, it is You my Lord,
Who has made the night for me,
That I may rest therein,
And for the day to see.
Verily You are full of Grace,
And Bounty to your slaves,
You are Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim.
Yet most of us give no thanks,
Such its You my Lord,
The Khaliq of all things,
Lailahailaallah!!!
But I am so weak,
I am so sinful,
Dear Allah forgive me please,
Verily You are Ar-Rahim…

It is You who has made for me
The earth as the resting place
And the sky as my shelter,
And has given me shape,
And made my shape beautiful,
And has provided for me sustenance
Of things, good and pure.
Such it's You, Oh Allah,
The Loving, The Enricher.

Glory be to You, Oh Allah,
The Lord of the worlds!
The Sovereign Lord,
The Source of Peace,
The Guardian of Faith,
There is no God but You!
And I call upon you,
And I give you my sincere devotion,
All Praises be to You, Oh Allah,
The worthy to be worship.

Dear Allah, Here I am my Lord,
Prostrating before you, and fearing You.
Hoping for You to forgive my sins;
All of the wrong doings that I have done,
All of the transgressions that I have done,
All that is wrong because of my weakness

Dear Allah, my Lord,
You gave me enough sensibility,
To recognize my sins and shortcomings.
You gave me enough sensibility,
To know where to turn,
And to Whom should I turn to Guidance
And it is You!
Who is ever prepared to respond
To my sincere calls, and I seek aid.
You are so Gracious and Compassionate
That Your forgiveness, is In-compassing
And Your mercy, All-inclusive.

Dear Allah, my Lord,
When at times that I am down
And you send me trials
And I found myself sobbing,
You were still here to Guide me,
You never left me alone,
You are always with As-Sabirin
You are my rescuer
You are all for me
For you created me!

You gave me life with its purpose
You created me to serve that purpose
Then I can not escape the responsibility
I cannot deny my existence
Or ignore the vital role
That I have to play.
And when you charge me (with any responsibility)
You provide for me,
With all the required assistance
You endow unto me,
With intelligence and power
To choose my course of conduct
And I am strongly commanded by You
To exert my utmost to fully serve
The purpose of my existence.

To You, Oh Allah,
I pray, that I may fulfill
The purpose of life
And realize the goal of existence
Help me to learn,
The creative art of living.
And enjoy the good taste of life
According to Your Divine Guidance
The Divine Guidance that is from You
My life is a trust from You,
And I am Your trustee
Who should handle my trust
With honesty and skill
With mindfulness of You, Oh Allah!
And with consciousness..
Of responsibility to You, Dear Allah!

And in this life, my Dear Allah,
Is likened to a journey.
And I am a traveler,
Passing by the world.
And in this life journey
I am concerned
With only what is of use
For me in the Future Life
I should do all the good that I can
And make myself fully prepared
To move any minute to Eternity.
This is a chance provided for me
To make the best of it while I can
And its time to leave comes

And If You will, my Dear Allah!
I will live, according to your teachings
And I will make it a safe passage
To the Future Life of Eternity.
My life belongs to You
And there is no doubt,
I shall return unto You!, Oh Dear Allah!

You are High and Supreme,
And You are so near to Your slaves
Slaves who are pious and thoughtful.
You answer our prayers and You help us
You love people who love You,
You give me peace and happiness
You give me knowledge and success
You give me life and protection.
You welcome me,
When I want to be at peace
And you never reject me.
You thought me to be good
To do the right
And to keep away from wrong
Because you are good and loving
You recommend and accept
Only the good and right things.
The door of your mercy
Is always open wide to any
Those who sincerely seek,
We seek for Your support and protection.

Dear Allah, Here I am my Lord!
With my sob and with my tears
With my intimate love
And with my solemn prayers
Verily, all praise is due to You, Oh Allah!
We praise You, and we seek aid
We seek Your forgiveness
We seek refuge in You
From the evil in our souls
And sins in our deeds.
Glory be to You, Oh Allah!

And all praise.
I bear witness that
There is no God except You
We seek Your forgiveness
And we repent to You, sincerely
May Your blessings and peace
Be upon us, your slaves
And to the Noble Prophet Muhammad
And upon his family
His companion and all his followers
Until the Day of Judgement.

To My Sisters in God

Jhangeer Hanif

Superstitious! Coward! Old fashioned! are the words that still echoed in her head. Her face was soaked with warm drops that she had shed during the past couple of hours while she had prostrated herself before the Almighty time and again in this interval. She did not know how long she had been up collecting and presenting before Allah the broken pieces of her soft heart which was brutally hurt by the ruthless comments her friends made at the college this morning. She had always been kind to them but they would always pass low comments about her attire and for her fear and concern about the Hereafter. Her only crime was that she could not leave her head and chest uncovered like them and that she could not put on skin tight almost transparent garments. She had always found it hard to show interest in the topics they would discuss. She knew that modesty was her real asset and that inner-purification was the real objective of her life in this world. How could she go against the values that the Almighty had inculcated within herself? How could she undertake to do something that her conscience would vehemently disapprove of? Now at this moment of the dark night when she saw that she could not cope with the situation anymore, she resolved that she's had enough. She must quit going to the college and shut herself up from the rest of the world!

Such an event may take place in the life of many people with little change in the details of the scenario. But they are often led to arrive at the same decision because of the morbidly obnoxious treatment they have to receive for opting to live their lives according to the injunctions put forth by the Almighty. This is awfully ironic, that the world plays so insensitive a role to the sincere feelings of those people who wish to take all of them to the road that directly leads to eternal bliss. It is sad that those who must be respected and given an ear to hear soft words of good advice are mistreated and branded as inferior.

This writer does not have an iota of doubt in his mind that these circumstances are fair and just but his understanding of religion compels him to humbly present the complete picture before all his sisters in God so that they could know that 'quitting' is not what their Lord as well as this Ummah expects from them.

What they must realize is that the unbecoming behavior that their fellow human beings adopt towards their sincere feelings is nothing new and has been so since ages. When we peruse the Holy Qur'an or even study history we find that good souls always had to face hatred for showing unconditional love, hurling stones for offering the Garden of Paradise, and harsh comments for advancing words of wisdom and admonition. This however was their marvelous attribute that they never gave up and remained steadfast unless they either changed the world or sacrificed their lives for the sake of this holy mission. This quality is no doubt hard to imbibe and retain but very desirable for those who undertake to swim in the direction explored by their conscience instead of drifting along in the immoral current with other people. Further deliberation here reveals that while avoiding the circumstances resolves the crisis a person is currently facing for the time being, it allows a minor problem to eventually become a major one. To put it in other words, this attitude would surely permit the evil to entangle each and every person on the face of this earth till no one is left to proclaim the greatness of Allah. It is precisely for this reason that the Qur'an has urged us to assume the status of the exhorter as well as of the exhorted so that the good can flourish and the evil be put in check. The Qur'an thus reads:

Believing men and believing women are friends to each other. They enjoin what is good and forbid what is wrong. (9:71)

Another point that must be understood very clearly is about the nature of the test we are put through in this world. This life is not supposed to be a path adorned with roses that someone would have to tread until death overtakes them. The truth of the matter is that we have no choice but to prick our feet with thorns that have been scattered by the Almighty Himself on our way in the form of financial problems, natural calamities and humans themselves. We, therefore, must not suffer from the illusion that we will win entitlement to Paradise without being tested in this world. This idea has been expounded upon by the Qur'an in the following words:

Did you think that you would enter Paradise without Allah testing those of you who fought hard [in His cause] and remained steadfast? (3:142)

The implication being that when a believer undertakes to combat evil for the sake of Allah, he is not showered with rose petals. On the contrary, he has to face great difficulties and full-blown problems. But if he remains stoical and steadfast, he stands eligible to be blessed with everlasting life in the Garden of Paradise.

As far as the expectations of this Ummah are concerned, they must know that it wants them to become a role model for all women across the world. Everyone knows that there has been much hullabaloo over women's rights in the last couple of centuries and much of the blame was placed on the religion of Islam for violation thereof. Feminists clamorously put forward that Islam hampers the achievements that women can otherwise accomplish in every sphere of life. Although, it is a baseless allegation that the fanatics have placed on Islam in their struggle to renounce every religion that would endorse moral limits, many people have gone astray because what they see in practice also substantiates the veracity of the allegation. Innumerable articles have been written to refute the claims of the feminists. But this alone won't work. We must let the world see that a Muslim woman while observing all the injunctions of Islam can achieve astronomical targets that others would dare not to commence at all.

Obviously, this business necessitates that Muslim women be as daring as to challenge evil in its makeshift safe-haven and as bold as to overthrow all the absurdly fabricated claims of the feminists. They must be creative enough to introduce new chapters in the field of fine arts and as much intelligent as to make revolutionary discoveries in the field of science while keeping the Islamic attributes that make them unmatchable ornament.

Marriage – Is it an Illusion?

Sabirah was a well-mannered young lady. Her parents chose to name her as ‘Sabirah’ – the patient one, because they felt in this world of cause and effect there was much to endure. Although her family didn’t nurture her to be purely Islamic in all walks of her life the amount of intelligence Allah swt had bestowed upon her helped her to reach greater heights as a pious muslimah.

Sabirah was always diligent in her duties as any pious muslimah would be. She was very punctual in her prayers, offered non-obligatory prayers and fasts as well. Was kind towards both young and old; in other wards she depicted the portrait of an ideal young muslim lady.

As intelligent as she was, sabirah was successful in all walks of life. She excelled in her academics was very successful in her career, what more could anyone expect in their lives? Allah had gifted her with a lot of blessings; she thanked him day and night. As she reached adulthood despite all that she had achieved in her life she felt a deep sense of loneliness within. She felt the need of someone to share her life, to guide her on the right path, to love and cherish her for what she was.

By this time her parents had already felt the need and begun their pursuit in search of a suitable alliance for their pious, young and talented daughter. Sabirah was very keen to marry someone who was deeply religious and somewhat educated. But as days passed by things got harder, in a society such as the one Sabirah lived in wealth and pride took precedence over true piety and bashfulness. Many only sought behind big dowries, outer appearance and the like, some even demanded houses and lands in exchange of their well groomed sons, Sabirah remained steadfast, she wouldn’t marry such a crook who wasn’t even strong enough to stand on his own. Proposals came and they went nothing really worked out, Sabirah raised her hands in dua “Ya Allah, Marriage looks like an illusion for the truly pious, please make it easy upon me and my sisters in Islam who truly follow your path” she implored fervently.

Allah swt might or might answer the duas of many like Sabirah in this world, but surely if they remain patient and steadfast as Sabirah he will reward them for their patience and reward them with something better in this life or the hereafter. It is Allah my lord who has said “And certainly, we shall test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits, but give glad tidings to As-Sâbirin (the patient ones, etc.).”