# Reflections from Your Day #

I'll start with one from my day : )

Today I met a 30 year old gentleman whose wheel-chair bound for the past 10 years.

He makes his living from a disability grant and from sitting outside a supermarket and begging each day - and in doing so, makes ~ $70 a day.....(which is more than the average middle-incomed wage here).

Which made me realise - how many generous people there are out there (Alhamdulillah!), and also, that perhaps we are doing (many) of our beggars a disservice - by making them completely dependant upon hand-outs.

Its now made me think twice before handing out change to the many, many young and able-bodied beggars that stand at each of our street intersections......

Because, although I may be helping to feed them for a day.......am I not 'crippling' them for life?

Today I met a 67 year old diabetic hypertensive man who is an ex-cop. He hates getting colonoscopy done and gave me a gross picture of how he imagines colonoscopy to be. I told him that he needs to get it done though if he wants to not die from colorectal cancer.

Then during convo he told me how many of his friends have committed suicide. That got me interested. It was interesting to listen to few of his stories in next 5 minutes. Then he revealed that he also thought of committing suicide many times but whenever he does, he goes for hunting.

He is divorced, asked me if I was married and on my no told me to never get married if I want to maintain my sanity. I thanked him for his concern. And moved on to next patient.

Made me think how painful dunya is and how we delude ourselves into happiness.

format_quote Originally Posted by CosmicPathos

Made me think how painful dunya is and how we delude ourselves into happiness.

May it also make you think of how each person is going through different trials in life.......and its only those who realise that every situation that they face is a test from Allah, and that we are all going to return to our Creator to account for our deeds - who are the truly successful.

Insha Allah, may we all be of these people and may we never forget the fleeting nature of this dunya.

The aakhirah is our goal......irrespective of the obstacles we face along the way : )

JazakAllah khair for sharing!

Assalamu-alaikum,

This week I attended a lecture called 'Muslims, humour and the Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wasalam)' - by a 'prominent Professor of Contemporary islamic studies from Oxford University'.

I expected to hear about how much we should love our prophet (sallalahu alaihi wasalam), with references made to the sunnah method of dealing with this situation.

Instead I heard a 'new age' scholarly opinion, incredible excuses......and not a single mention of the great pain of having our beloved nabi (sallalahu alaihi wasalam) vilified.

Messages that included:

'We are on the defensive....thus we stick to rules - what is 'halaal' and what is 'haraam'.
This does not come from confidence, but when we are under threat.'

'We muslims are too serious. We need to learn to laugh more.
Islam is not about halaal and haraam, but about feeling good.'

'Beauty, sense of humour and the arts were part of rasullallah (sallahu alaihi wasalams) life and part of Islam.'

'We need to become part of the collective psychology of the society.....rather than creating new laws.'


I wanted to say something......but was too shy to do so : (
And by the time I mounted enough courage.......the question and answer session was over : (

And nobody even questioned his postion.

Why were so many nodding their heads in agreement?

Because of his title?
Or because they just did not know any better?

This week I learnt:
- Chose your speakers well.
- Educate yourself.....at least have a basic understanding of the topic, before allowing yourself to be fed someone elses distorted points of view.
- If you're shy.....you may miss the boat ;/

I've spoken to some Oxford educated Muslims and with all due respect to them they have a very modern liberal understanding of Islam.

One of them didn't appear to be practising.

One of them is a well known da'ee and said there's nothing wrong with not having a beard.

Some of them think they have a better understanding of Islaam than those who have studied Islaam for years.

Yes, Islaam is not all about Halal and Haraam. There is also the spiritual side but Halal and Haram play a large part in our day to day lives.

Some of these oxford educated speakers are very modernistic and Westernised in their thinking and therefore try to change Islaam to please their audience. They let their ego's get the better of them.

In the future, when you hear of a speaker who is Oxford educated be wary.

I know what you mean when you say, you wanted to say something but was too shy.

I've been in that situation but I wouldn't say I was shy to say something. I was actually more surprised and caught off guard.

When I was studying, one of my lecturers told the whole class that Muslims pray to the Ka'bah.

In that same lecture, he also said that he used to memorize the whole text book to help him pass his exams.

Anyway, since I was so surprised at what he said so I didn't have time to correct him straight away, however after the lecture I went up to him and corrected him.

He said, "Is that so? Oh, I didn't know that."

a hypertensive diabetic polycystic kidney disease patient with end stage renal failure, aca aneurysm in brain, depression (wonders where is family?).... you interview her and find out her daughters dont visit her cuz they are too bz socializing and "living their life." Its moments like these you begin to hate humanity.

You become optimistic once you come home and have a good sleep.

format_quote Originally Posted by Mustafa2012

I've spoken to some Oxford educated Muslims and with all due respect to them they have a very modern liberal understanding of Islam.

One of them didn't appear to be practising.

One of them is a well known da'ee and said there's nothing wrong with not having a beard.

Some of them think they have a better understanding of Islaam than those who have studied Islaam for years.

Yes, Islaam is not all about Halal and Haraam. There is also the spiritual side but Halal and Haram play a large part in our day to day lives.

Some of these oxford educated speakers are very modernistic and Westernised in their thinking and therefore try to change Islaam to please their audience. They let their ego's get the better of them.

In the future, when you hear of a speaker who is Oxford educated be wary.

JazakAllah khair for the advices, as I was not aware of this.

As you have mentioned, he also spoke of challenging our past scholars, on aspects such as music, etc.

Sadly, most of the audience was completely charmed......the ladies because 'hes cute'! and the rest, because they dont seem to know better.

May Allah guide us all towards beneficial knowledge, and protect us from all that is false and harmful to our imaans.
Ameen.

format_quote Originally Posted by Tyrion

Happiness in this world does exist you know...

ya if it means dopamine surge in substantia nigra, then sure.

format_quote Originally Posted by CosmicPathos

ya if it means dopamine surge in substantia nigra, then sure.

Feel the dopamine!

^^ its cute for a min or so but they need to discipline that child man!

Assalamu-alaikum,

This week, while chatting to a Christian collegue in her mid-60's, I noticed a book on Islam on her desk.

I was quite surprised, as she had never expressed any interest in this deen prior to this.

My immediate reaction was: SubhanAllah, Allah is sending guidance to her through this book.....and at this age - this is truly amazing!

I turned to leave, but something made me turn back, pick up the book and ask her more.

The first 'red flag' was the non-muslim authors name on the cover.
On further questioning, she began to tell me of a muslim man who had converted to Christianity (coming all the way from California), and had come to her church to distribute these books.

I began to thumb through the book.......only to find out that this was in fact an Islamophobic book, citing one distorted view after another.

My initial amazement turned to disappointment : (

I informed her that this book was completely islamophobic - to which she agreed, and seemed quite unphased by this.

Which made me realise the following:

- There is a reason for everything that happens in life......
It was Allahs decree that I turn around to look at the book - and insha Allah, I can provide her with His true message. Whether she choses to embrace this way of life or not, is up to her......but at least she will be able to decide based on the truth, and not the lies that she had been fed.

- There are MANY people amongst us, who are intent on trying to harm the image of Islam.
They will even spend their time and money writing and publishing books of hatred and blasphemy.
And will travel great distances to spread their fitnah.

- It also made me think of the recent reactions to the movie that insulted our beloved prophet (salalahu alaihi wasalam).
And how their manner of handling such issues, made no sense.......because there are SO many hurtful things being said about Islam and our prophet (sallalahu alaihi wasalam) via internet sites, forums, YT videos and books........
How do we decide on which ones to actively protest against?
Will we not be chasing our tails, in pursuit of each one?

Misconceptions can only be cleared by knowledge.

And it is OUR duty to get the word of Allah (subhanawataála) and His messenger (sallalahu alaihi wasalam) far and wide, by means of being living examples of our deen and dawah.

How much are we really doing in this regard?

Assalamu-alaikum,

This week I realised that there are many who are spending time and effort, trying to aid our brothers and sisters who are bearing immense trials around the world - by means of donations/ creating awareness/ physically providing aid, etc.

While this is good, subhanAllah, I wonder how much effort we are making in trying to reform ourselves first?

We wish to be part of the 'physical jihads' in this dunya.

Yet, one of the greatest jihads is that against OURSELVES.

How are we doing on this battle-field?

I found myself questioning this, when I lost my patience with my family this week.
They tend to have very different views on life from myself.....and often in my enthusiasm to get my point across, I think I tend to over-step the mark.

I have realised this in the past......with the resolution to handle all future situations differently.

And then, I let myself down again :''''(

How difficult is the battle of the self.....compared to the battles on the ground!

One where physical lives are destroyed......the other where our spiritual life is destroyed.

I think that while it is good to be concerned about the state of the world, its politics and injustices, etc.......its even more important to be concerned about the state of ourselves....

How can we win the physical wars, when spiritually we are losing? : (