Jeewan Online

Video Link: I Am Not Racist, Some People Just Aren’t Good Enough.

Text Summary:
Allah says in the Qur’an that He created us in “nations and tribes so that we may know each other”. Sometimes we hear people say, that it’s ok to interact with certain groups of people UP TO A POINT. So it’s ok if you pray with some people, work with them etc but the line comes for example when it is time to get married. If you get married, you should get married to someone from your country, city, community…etc.

In the time of the prophet peace be upon him, his community was very diverse. Bilal, was a black man who gifted us with the Adhaan which is called all throughout the world today, Salman was a Persian…Allah did not create diversity so that we may isolate each other. Instead, diversity helps us grow in humility, learn from each other and to help us understand our interdependence and need for each other.

In the Prophet peace be upon him told us that an Arab is not better than a none Arab, a man is not better than a woman. In the sight of God, the best person is the one who is most God Conscious in their deeds and actions.

If we keep this in mind, we should realize that the only One Who will truly be able to know this is God. So this should remind us to walk with humility and NOT judge each other because it may be that someone whom we may look down upon may be better in the sight of God than we are.
An example of this, we know in the story related of a prostitute who climbed down a well and filled her shoe with water to save the life of a dehydrated dog. In doing so, God forgave all her shortcomings.

This should help us remember that we should be humble, ask God to forgive our shortcomings and try to increase the good that we do. And instead of using race, class, gender and all other sources of difference to divide us, let us remember that it is a sign of the Greatness of God and within it, are opportunities for growth, kindness and mercy. So let us do away with restrictions we put on our children when it comes to getting married outside their race or ethnicity or restricting women from being on the boards of mosques or their involvement in the community, or restricting youth to servile tasks instead of preparing them for leadership. We should look to those who keep trying to please God in their actions- not perfection because no one is perfect, but those who continue to try and improve themselves. God created us differently in order to keep balance in the world. Let us learn to value each other’s humanity as it was intended by God.

Video Link: Verily Each Soul Shall Taste of Death - Are You Ready?

Text Summary:
Ramadan, our noble guest has come and she is quickly departing our company. Soon, we will be at the end of this month. It should make us think about what other things in our life that will quickly approach. Regardless of faith or beliefs, one thing that we can all agree on, is that one day, we will all die. Allah reminds us in the Qur’an that “every soul shall taste of death”.

For some people, this can be very scary. Especially if all we see are the things of this life, this world and all it’s enjoyment, our understanding of death will be limited to thinking that everything is ending. However, our understanding in Islam is that this life is phase two of our lives and there are two other phases that follow. Sometimes because we cannot fathom this, we deny the possibility.

However if we think, of a baby in the womb of it’s mother, it’s entire universe is it’s mother’s womb. It feels safe in the darkness, in the warmth and close to it’s mother’s heart beat. Imagine telling that baby that if it waits to an appointed time that no one knows, and works hard, that it will be put into a brand new world, a greater world, with blue skies and rivers, trees, beautiful colours, flowers and food of all kinds…it’s greatness and wonder would be like nothing it can imagine. Just be patient, you might say to the baby. What would the baby think or feel? Our life in this world is a transition that is similar and though we may not be able to see it or feel it, this does not mean that the Hereafter does not exist.

So one day, we will face our death and our success in the Hereafter is dependent on how we live in this life. What have you and I put forward for a day that we will be called to account? We forget at times, that every single thing that we do, in public and private is recorded by the angels. So on that day, when we stand before God, what will your record display?

What did you do in public? What about the deeds you did in private when no one could see? Did you remember that God could see you? What was your intentions/motivations for doing what you did- was it to be seen? Pride? To gain some money or prestige? Or was it for God’s pleasure? These are things we MUST think about now because when we are visited by the Angel of Death, it will be too late.

Perhaps the time for reflection and consideration of what we things we need to change and improve in our characters is now. Or have we become fooled by the myth of, “I have the rest of my life ahead of me, I can do it later”? How long is the rest of your life? My life? Does anyone know? Since we do not know, then we need to take account now, before we have to give account for our actions.

May God bless us to remember this and cause us to review the way we are living our lives. May we work to do as many good deeds as possible to try and gain the Pleasure of God now while we have life to do so.

Video Link: What You See In Others IS A Reflection of Who YOU Are.

Text Summary:
A believer is a mirror to another believer.

Often, it is easy to look at others and see their mistakes, the issues, problems, the things that make us upset. So why would the prophet peace be upon him say this narration?

This is because, what you and I see and think about others, comes from what is in our own hearts and minds. The way we look at others is really a projection of that which is within us. This is one of the reasons why the prophet peace be upon him said that we are mirrors to each other. When we look, if all we see is negative, bleak, we see mistakes or flaws in others, it is because we have conditioned ourselves to see this and in fact have begun to internalize this way of thinking. Sometimes, it is because we feel negative about ourselves that we look down on others to try to feel good.

During this month, when we take away the distractions from our life and we have time to reflect, a question to ask ourselves is- “What am I seeing when I look at others? And if everything I see is negative, when I look at people, I see their flaws and faults, then what does that say about me as an individual?”

Perhaps we need to spend more time reflecting on ourselves, on the things we need to work on to improve ourselves and instead of looking at peoples’ flaws and mistakes if we try to find the good in them, the redeeming qualities we may begin to notice a change in our own lives.

This lesson can be further extended to all people around us and to our societies. When we look around, what we see is another example of who we are as individuals. When you look around, do you see hope? a chance for change? opportunities for mercy and kindness? OR do you see darkness? a lack of hope? despair?

So if we go back to the narration, that “God will not change a condition of a people until they first change what is in their hearts”, it helps us to understand why- what we see is a reflection of what is within. It gives us an opportunity to ask ourselves, what it is we need to change from within? How do we mould our hearts so that the reflection that we see of ourselves in others and society is one of hope, beauty, mercy, kindness and optimism?

God is Beautiful and loves beauty and we hope that by extension what we see is a reflection of beauty from within ourselves. One of my friends said, it is like going on a treasure hunt when you look at others, you find the things that make them beautiful. Instead of seeing the mistakes, it is about making seventy excuses for someone and never judging others because we didn’t walk in their shoes.

As we work on improving our hearts and our connection with God, let us allow that beauty and peace pervade into what we see around us and in how we interact with others.

Video Link: It’s Not Really My Problem.

Text Summary:
In the Quran, Allah says, “You are the best of nations raised up for humanity”. What does this mean? Does this mean that, “I am the best” and we can walk around with our chests swelled up with pride looking down at others who are different than us? What does that verse mean?

In another verse, Allah describes those who follow this message as the ones who, “enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong”. It means that we are supposed to be a community that stands up for good in society, that initiates goodness and calls for justice for all people. It also means that we do not let injustice to silently pass us by, that we advocate for the poor and the marginalized and we reach our hands out in mercy to those who need help. When we look at what “best” means, and reflect on the life of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, we understand that it is about being ambassadors of mercy to our society; it is about service.

What should concern us is when we become apathetic. We get self-absorbed and sucked into our “9-5” reality, focusing on our jobs, our houses and cars and forget that it is our responsibility to go out into society and assist, advocate, speak up, share, challenge, build, co-construct….to become lights of goodness and beacons of hope to all those around us. We begin to think, situations are bad or unjust but it “does not concern me” so I won’t say anything.

In a narration of the prophet peace be upon him said, “If you see something wrong, correct it with your hands, if you can’t, then correct it with your tongues and if you can’t even do that, hate it with your hearts, but know that this is the weakest of faith”. This is why we have this responsibility, because we know that God is Just and Merciful and so we cannot be silent in the face of injustice or wrong-doing against ANY group of people. We cannot forget that we have a moral obligation and responsibility to all those around us and we will be held accountable by God if we don’t fulfill this.

Let us use this month for reflection and re-evaluation and to encourage each other to be those voices that call for what is good and just in our societies and speak out against injustices. Let us be among those who come with solutions and try to make our communities and countries a better place to be for all.

Video Link: Why Do the Same Issues Keep Coming Up In My Life?

Text Summary:
When we reflect on things that are occurring in our lives and challenges we may face, sometimes we may realize that there seems to be a pattern to problems that we face. Instead of going down the “why me?” route, we need to step back and explore what may causing it. Sometimes we see a pattern, something happens that leads to pain/anguish and turmoil and that pattern keeps repeating in our lives.

Although we may sit and pray for change, we must remember the principle, “God will not change the condition of a people unless they first change what is in their hearts”. When we stop and think about this, it should lead us to the question- “What do I need to change about myself, about the way I do things for my circumstances to change?”. If you are unemployed and sit all day and pray for food, it will not drop out of the sky. You also need to go out and work for it.

However asking this question is a fundamental first step to helping things improve in our lives. It is requires us to let go of our egos and critically reflect about how we can better ourselves. Do we have to change our belief systems, habits, patterns of thinking? Unless we do this, we set the stage up to see ourselves as victims of a circumstance. As having no control and this can lead us to a deep sense of sadness, grief and even depression.

We pray and ask for what we want and then we do our best.

We need to forget about the voices that tell us that we “can’t do it” or those that say we always mess up. Those voices will only lead us down a destructive path, one from which no good can come. This is not what Allah wants for us. Allah knows that you and I CAN change. He gave us the ability to do so and the opportunity to seek His guidance and help so that we will succeed- not fail. It is only when we do our best can we ask for Allah’s guidance and TRUST that the help will come at the right time and in the way that will be best for us.

So brothers and sisters, we need to park our egos at the door and instead of thinking of “this is the way I do it…” and instead seriously ask ourselves what we need to change in ourselves and then begin to make those changes. At that point, we need to be patient and depend on God and know that with God’s help- success is near.

Video Link: Should I Be Interacting With People Who Aren’t Muslim?

Text Summary:
When we reflect on the way the prophet peace be upon him lived his life in his society. Like us, his society was filled with many people of all different backgrounds, religions, cultures, ages…in essence it was a diverse society. Yet, whenever he called to his people or tried to do good in his society, he always called to all his people, “ya qawmi”- “Oh my people” and never, “Oh you who believe in my message”. His approach was universal and transparent, his message was one of mercy and based on his love for all his people.

In fact, it was well known that many people, whether they were Muslim or not, including many leaders would go to him for help to resolve their disputes. Others would take their money to him and ask him to help keep it for them. This was because they knew he was trustworthy and honest. He didn’t only favour Muslims, he was honest with all people. Yet today, we have some people who believe that they cannot interact with others outside their faith, OR still others who won’t engage with others who hold different opinions within our faith. If the prophet peace be upon him was the best example, where do we find these practices?

As we interact with those around us, we need to ask ourselves, are we being just, compassionate, merciful to all people? Are we favouring some and not others? Who are we assisting, if we are calling to people are we speaking with one common message (not one for some people and another for others)? Are we being ambassadors of mercy or are we isolating others? Are we open and caring or are we being judgemental?

Whatever we do, we must keep the interest of our community and society. By community, I do not mean only those who look like us, who believe the same thing, who come from the same place…our community are those who live with and around us. We keep the spirit of the prophet peace be upon him and honour his example by remembering that we have a responsibility to interact with all people, to share with them, to assist and to work together for the common good of all in our societies.

Video Link: Why Does Islam Seem So Hard and Boring A Lot of the Time?

Text Summary:
We work with people in different organizations, mosques, different areas of society. Sadly, many times we try to impose our understanding of Islam on those around us. We don’t stop to consider that there are different ways that people understand this faith, that there isn’t only one way to understand it and the importance of distinguishing the requirements of our faith versus cultural practices that we may have inherited from our ancestors.

As someone who was not born into a Muslim family, I often encountered very well-meaning people who would try to tell me that I had to change my name to a more “Muslim” one. However, upon closer readings of the prophetic traditions, it became clear that the prophet peace be upon him, only instructed people to change their name if it did not have a good meaning. Because my name has a good meaning, I never changed it.

How is this relevant in Ramadan? Well, as we interact with others, one of the things we need to consider is do we make things easy for people or do we make it difficult? The prophet peace be upon him always encouraged us to give news of good tidings and not news that would inspire fear, make things easy and do not make things difficult. Many places and times we go and we see people looking sad/solemn and this is not in a moment of reflection, it is generally their disposition, as if it smiling and laughing is a sign of spiritual inferiority. Other times, we hear people throwing around the word- HARAM everywhere. We would swear everything was unlawful and Islam was only a religion of laws.

However, if we spend time reflecting on our behaviour- what kind of individual would we notice? The type who makes things easy for others, the way the prophet peace be upon him lived? Or would we be the one who would make life difficult for others.

The prophet peace be upon him encouraged us that if we were confronted with two choices, to take the easier one. He smiled, he played with children, they climbed on his back during prayer, he raced with his wife. He was human in his interaction with others and embraced life. He lived Islam and that is why his wife, Ayesha (may God be pleased with her) said that he was the Quran walking. (he lived and embodied the Quran).

Furthermore, during Ramadan we may find ourselves in futile arguments about how much taraweeh we should pray, or other things- many of which are sunnah. We forget though, that Ukhuwa- brother/sisterhood is fard and so we should not be sacrificing something that is fard for something that is sunnah.

This Ramadan, let us try to make things easy for our brothers and sisters, let us make excuses instead of passing judgement, let us embrace the life that we have been given and become sources of joy, happiness and light to those around us.

Video Link: Of Course I Care About Others… Sort Of

Text Summary:
Our guest who has honoured us is beginning to get ready to depart. Who knows if they will live to see her to the end of her time?

In a narration of the prophet peace be upon him, it says, “None of you truly believes, unless they love for their brother/sister what they love for themselves”. So what are the things that we love for ourselves? What are the things we feel that we can’t do without or the things that are priorities for us in our lives? When we think about this, then the next thing we need to think about is- Do we do this for our brothers and sisters in humanity?

We find that sometimes when we think about this question, we begin to hear the voice of doubt and fear telling us, “if you do this, you will lose something that is important to you”. “If you give to someone else, you will be depriving yourself of something important”.

Ramadan is helping us to see in a very practical way that many things we think that we cannot do without, we actually can. This should help us tremendously when we think of applying the above narration in our lives. Furthermore, it should remind us that when we go without, when we sacrifice something – time, wealth, material goods- to give to our brothers and sisters in faith we will be rewarded for it by God.

In the context of this narration, “our brothers and sisters” are not only those who share our faith, but they are our brothers and sisters in humanity. So when we know of and/or see those who are in need, we should remember that we have a duty to help and assist.

That also translates into the way we would want to live, in justice, free of fear, being able to meet the basic needs of ourselves and our families, to live in freedom. If we want these things for ourselves, then we should work for it for others as well. Especially in our communities, this should further translate to making sure we try to make our doors and facilities accessible to all people. We should not only make it accessible to those who look like us, act like us, who share the same lifestyle that we do.

This Ramadan, let us try to apply this ethic in our lives- and to think of our brothers and sisters across many parts of the world who are living in fear, in poverty, in famine and through all kinds of disaster; in our own cities and towns- those who are in need. This Ramadan, let us do something about it!

Video Link: Does God Make Mistakes?

Text Summary:
Could God make a mistake? Have you ever considered that? We know that God is Perfect and so by extension does not make mistakes. Sometimes we forget that there is a reason why we exist in the world. As we deal with our own humanity, at times we think- “I am not good at this”, or “my appearance isn’t good”. At other times, we bring ourselves down and allow others to tear us down and make us not feel good about ourselves. These are the moments when we forget that God IS perfect and since He does NOT make mistakes, I am a perfect part of His plan.

Instead of bringing ourselves down, we should be asking- what are the gifts that I bring- what are my assets? How can I use them to help myself, my family and my community? My gifts were given to me for a reason- I have a responsibility to use them, not allow short-sighted people doubt my worth.

Sometimes we take the gifts we have, and we mis-use them and we know that because we hear that internal voice telling us; we do things that go against God’s guidance. At times we ignore that voice which leads to our own detriment in the end. Other times, we take those gifts and use them for our personal benefit and end it there. Forgetting that those gifts were given to us as a blessing and we have a responsibility to help those around us and to try and make the world a better place.

Whatever good that we can do, we use it to help ourselves and then others. We don’t use it just to gain money or just to say we are the “best”. Although “ihsaan” is from our legacy- doing things to the best of our ability, we do this not to boast, but to be of service to others, to be merciful to God’s creation and to improve our relationship with Allah.

This Ramadan, let us reflect on our gifts and many blessings and try to find ways to not only help ourselves but our community.

Video Link: Why Does God Let These Things Happen to Me?

Text Summary:
As life goes on for many of us and we face difficult trials, we arrive to the question, “Why Me?”. I am trying to do what I can, I work very hard, I do my best- so why are these things happening to me?

It is important for us to remember that Allah reminds us that this life for us, is a “test” and sometimes, some things will be good and other times it will be difficult. If we look at the one, peace be upon him, we call, “Uswatun Hasana” the most perfect example- quite frankly- his life was not always easy. Yet, he did the most to make Allah pleased with him. Many tmes he suffered and struggled because of the harm met out to him by those who hated his message and those who wanted to extinguish the light of Islam. People fought him, they attacked him, they tried to bring doubt on his character and they tried to kill him. So if this was God’s messenger and things were difficult for him, who are we?

Even when we are doing good things, when we are trying to do the right thing that does not mean things will be easy for us. Sometimes we see people suffering and we may think or say that God is punishing them because they are not good Muslims or good people. How do you know that? We will all face tests in life and during those tests we will see our inner resolve, our true character and our reliance on God. Whenever things are difficult or a test happens in our life, it is for our best and greatest good. We know that God will not give us a test greater than we can bear due to God’s Justice and Mercy.

When we obey God, we are doing so because we need to because God’s wisdom surpasses our own and we find safety, solace and freedom in following that. We do not follow God’s will in order for things to be easy for us because then we are placing a condition on our obedience to God.

So when we are faced with tests and difficulties, instead of sitting and feeling sorry for ourselves, becoming filled with worry or despair, we need to ask ourselves some serious questions: What in my own actions would have caused this to happen? What do I need to change about me to improve my relationship with God and God’s creation? Where within myself, will I find the strength I need to overcome this? That constant sense of reflection, and turning to God is where we will find our strength. That inner talk that reminds us that with God’s help- I CAN get through this and will not become a victim to my circumstance.

So this Ramadan let us internalize the reality that no matter what comes to us, we can deal with it, that it is for our best and greatest good and we can become better individuals by learning through it.