Say Al hamdulilah before sleeping

I was given by dear sister Alisha the al hamdulilah tag which I’m thankful for because it made me review and think about the subject deeply. When I was thinking what to write many ideas came to mind for it is such a wide subject, who can count the blessing of Allah SWT? Some of them we don’t even know about.

I’m always surprised how some people manage to say thank you to others if they helped them but not thank Allah SWT. Maybe to them is just a polite courtesy they have to say in a civilized society but the real meaning to be thankful is lost on them.

I remember when I finished my master’s thesis after long years of going from place to place, reading tens of articles and countless hours of working on the computer and reading it to the degree in the end I couldn’t even look at anymore yet I couldn’t give it to the library without adding to it, in the right middle part of the first pages, “Al Hamdulilah”, here it is:

How could I not? I probably would have lost my mind if I wasn’t given patience, guidance, and sometimes miraculous opportunities. The library workers exclaimed happily when they saw it: “You are the first one to write in Arabic on this page since a long time” *raises eye brow*. There are many other more important issues I was helped by Allah SWT that I’m extremely thankful for but that was a memorable one.

For some reason, even if I had a bad day when I go to bed there is an overwhelming sense of calmness and gratitude for what I have been given so right before I sleep, I have to say: Alhamdulilah.

“Write at least 10 things you are thankful for. Then pass it on to at least 2 people!”

I tag dear sisters:  Hikari and  Joud

Even these are a bit short I intended it to be that way because I wanted to summarize the ideas that contain so much emotion and memories. I’m thankful that (read this for every one):

1) Allah SWT kept my brother alive after he was shot by a car thief.
2) I have a loving family that cares about each other and fear and obey Him.
3) I had great opportunities to learn and increase my occupational experiences.
4) I have ability to learn and think on my own for without my thoughts it would have been unbearable.
5) I have my health and even though I may get sick sometimes I regain it quickly.
6) I have been given the ability to be patient to endure the obstacles and tests in my path.
7) I’m taken care of since I was born and never needed anything in terms of security, shelter or love.
8/) Allah SWT made nature and His creations so beautiful and a source of endless ideas and progress.
9) Even though I have met bad people who wanted to hurt me they were unable to.
10) I was brought up as a Muslim and that I’m still guided on the true path.

 

هُوَ الْحَيُّ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ فَادْعُوهُ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

40:65 (Y. Ali) He is the Living (One): There is no god but He: Call upon Him, giving Him sincere devotion. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds!

A mate of the mind

glitter-graphics.com

One of the beautiful things about a certain type of human camaraderie is that it transcends the physical realm. You can be hundreds of miles apart yet you still feel the other person is present with you in mind and thought. It even transcends time for you can feel a connection with others across history. There is a sense of understanding that is embedded in the way you think. You feel you know the person even if you have never met them personally. It is more than about sharing hobbies and having fun with them but rather a much deeper shared of thought patterns that I at least can say I haven’t found many people, a mate of the mind. An example of that: an idea that might pop in your minds without words or a comprehension of a shared idea even if you are from different centuries.

It is a very special relationship for the lucky ones out there who are able to find it.

Always on the mind

How to become a Zombie

What is left for us people in order to carry on living?

If you think about it, nothing really because the more advanced we become the more we destroy ourselves even in the simplest way possible.

What does a human need to live and carry on with life?

Food for the body, the brain, and the spirit

What has been done to the food?

It is hard to find food today that is not contaminated one way or another: whether with vegetables, grains and fruits full of pesticides, water that has chemical wastes, fish that feed on garbage and toxic waste dumped into the water by none other than first world countries, cows with a mad disease and chickens with flu, and other livestock crammed on top of each other pumped full of antibiotics and hormones. There is barely anything good to eat left and if you find some it will be way too expensive for most people of the world to buy it.

Food for the brain is lacking these days with what they try to fill the minds of mass populations. Go to your cable TV and count how many channels are really useful of the hundreds there. How much time people waste watching things that really don’t offer anything to the mind and makes neurons die by the second of boredom.

And even the food for the spirit in faith has been targeted. If you are a religious person you are made fun of no matter your religion and called a fanatic.

So really what is left? The air?

That is even polluted!

By our hands we have become zombies because we have diseased bodies and empty brains and spirits.

Change is not a choice anymore but a must.

Just something to think about.

Some things don’t change

When I was about 8 I went to live in my village for about a year and a half. There I noticed there are some social edicts that differ from the ones I’m used to in the city. As I visited my village sparingly across the years these social behaviors remained unchanged even though the external view of the village changed, it even grew to be a town.

One of these behaviors that always stood out and was clear to any observer was how young men and women met within the limits of the social atmosphere and the norms present. In the city young people usually go to a café or the movies but in a village there is no such thing so instead you see separate groups of women and men just standing in the streets with little interaction or strolling in the main street of the village up and down all afternoon. Some might find this odd but people got married that way where a young man would tell his family about a girl he saw and the usual family meetings go on from there.

I was reminded of this phenomenon the other day when I went to an exhibition in the suburbs where most people who come from villages live and I saw the same behavior still exists. People still strolling in the streets and my siblings and I were stuck behind these two girls walking ever so slowly on the sidewalk that we had to circumvent. Even though there are movie theaters and cafes but some things are carried from the previous places because they are not about the location rather an embedded norm.