Words Of Wisdom From Behind Bars ~

[tawbah]

The Diamond of Iman
Part 13 by Babar Ahmad
2005-01-16


The Diamond of Iman

Allah says in the (Quran 12:5): “Indeed Satan is to man a clear enemy.”

If someone was to ask you to write down the name of your most precious possession, what would you write? Your body? Your car? Your family? Your jewellery? Your house? Your hair? Your job? Your money? Your clothes? The reality is that all of these will not benefit you in the Hereafter and nor will you take them with you into your grave. However, there is one possession of yours, that not only will benefit you in this life, the grave and the Hereafter, but if you were to put it on one side of a scale, it would outweigh every other possession that you have or could ever wish for. That one possession is your Iman.

Iman is what Musa (AS) had so Allah parted the sea for him and saved his people. Iman is what Dawud (AS) had when he slew Jalut. Iman is what Isa (AS) had when he asked Allah to send down for his people a tablespread from the sky which thousands of them ate from twice a day. And Iman is what the Messenger of Allah (SAWS) possessed, which made him and his Companions the leaders of the world at their time.

How do you protect your possessions from theft, evil, harm, damage? How do you protect your possessions from those who seek to take them from you? You would surely exert your utmost effort to protect your possessions with your life. Yet how do you protect your Iman, which is the most precious possession that you have?

Imagine that your Iman is like a huge, precious, priceless diamond. How would you protect this diamond from thieves, criminals and enemies? How would financial institutions and museums etc. protect such an expensive diamond? They would place the diamond in a locked metal box secured by an unpickable padlock. The box would be inside a locked, sturdy compartment surrounded by strengthened iron members. The compartment would be situated inside a fire-proof safe with a multiple lever locking mechanism. To get to the safe one would have to enter a vault reinforced with concrete-cladded walls and a sophisticated alarm system. Outside the vault would be invisible infra-red beams linked to an automatic CCTV camera surveillance circuit. And so on with increasing levels of security and protection, to make it as difficult as possible for a thief to penetrate the cordon.

Similarly, consider your Iman in place of this diamond. The metal box is your salah and the padlock is wudu. The sturdy compartment represents Allah’s commandments and the iron members are the various obligations that He has ordained upon you. The safe represents the Sunnah of the Messenger (SAWS) and the multiple levers of the locking mechanism are the different actions of the Sunnah such as the Sunnah salah, morning and evening supplications, duas throughout the day, etc. The vault takes the place of optional (nafl) supererogatory deeds such as tahajjud night prayers, sadaqah (charity), extra remembrance duas etc. and the alarm system is there to maintain regularity of these deeds. And so on with the outer layers representing higher and higher types, quantities and qualities of good deeds.

Shaytan is your biggest enemy. He is trying every hour of the day to destroy your Iman and make you renounce your faith. However, he knows that he cannot reach your Diamond of Iman instantly: he has to penetrate several layers of protection and security before he can reach that precious jewel. He patiently awaits a lapse in security that occurs when you fail to perform a regular deed which comprises a layer of your protection. Whenever you commit a sin, it is an indication of Shaytan’s success in penetrating your cordon. The size and severity of the sin represents the seriousness of the breach.

The more layers of protection you have and the stronger those layers are, the less likely Shaytan is to make a hole in your security cordon and approach your Iman. If you have allowed him to affect your salah, so that you are either not performing it five times a day, or you are delaying it past its time, or you are rushing it, then it is a sign of great danger that you are extremely close to the point between Iman (faith) and Kufr (disbelief).

Your Iman is the most valuable thing that you possess. No human being or jinn or any power in the world can snatch this away from you without your consent and your permission. The worldly powers can take away your freedom of movement, your money, your family, your house, and the limbs of your body. But they can never take away your Iman if you do not allow them to.

Build your Iman. Build it, strengthen it, and reinforce it. And once you have built it, protect it and maintain it. Every security system requires maintenance. If you fail to regularly keep your protection cordon in optimum condition, you will leave it open to attacks by your avowed enemy, the Shaytan. And if he succeeds in snatching away your Iman, don’t blame him. Blame yourself.

 

[tawbah]

I've read this before somewhere. What is the website, sister?

wa alaykum as Salaam wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh

Words Of Wisdom Link

 

[tawbah]

Part 14 - The Horse and the Well

There is an Eastern fable about a farmer who lived once upon a time in a faraway land. This farmer had a strong horse which would plough the fields for him and pull his loads. In the midst of his farmland, there was an unused well. A deep, dark, dry, unused well. Since there was no benefit from the well, the farmer refused to maintain it and repair its boundary walls. One day, the horse fell into the well. Since it was a strong horse, it survived the fall without breaking any bones: it only had a few scratches and bruises. Soon thereafter, the horse tried to get out of the well: it jumped, turned around in circles and tried to climb up the sides but it was no use. Then it started to neigh and whine loudly from the bottom of the deep, dark hole.

Eventually, the farmer arrived at the well and became distraught when he saw what had happened. Unsure as to how he could pull out this huge, heavy horse, he called his neighbours for assistance. The neighbours gathered at the well but they could not devise a plan to rescue the horse. Therefore, the farmer had a simple idea. He said, “Let us bury the horse in the well by filling it up. If it fell into the well, it is a stupid horse and no good to me anyway. This way I will solve two problems at once: the problem of the horse and the problem of the unused well. Furthermore, if we bury it quickly it will die swiftly and not feel as much pain.”

It seemed a workable plan, so they began to shovel dirt into the well. When the first mounds of dirt landed on the horse, it began to neigh, trying to get the crowd to stop burying it. Upon hearing its screams, they started to shovel even faster, thinking that the horse was in pain so they could silence it quicker. When the horse realised that its cries were in vain and falling on deaf ears, it had an idea. It stopped neighing, leading the shovellers to believe that it was dead. The shovelling slowed down and mounds of dirt were thrown into the well. However, instead of remaining still and allowing itself to be buried alive by the dirt, the horse shrugged off the dirt from itself and then trampled it underneath its hooves. It continued to do this with each successive mound of dirt that was thrown onto it and slowly began to rise higher and higher up the well until it eventually jumped out of the well, much to the astonishment of the onlookers.

O prisoner, do you find yourself at the bottom of a deep, dark hole? Do you find that there seems to be no way out and that your cries for help fall upon deaf ears? As if that is not enough, do you find that more and more dirt is being thrown upon you? Financial problems? Lies and allegations? ‘Friends’ and family abandoning or disowning? Miserable food and conditions? Sickness? Loneliness? Boredom? What are you going to do about it?

Are you just going to sit there and let each successive pile of dirt overcome you until it buries you alive and destroys you? Or are you going to do as the horse did: be positive, realise that you are on your own and shrug off any dirt that is thrown onto you then trample it beneath your feet until that very dirt becomes a means for your salvation?

But never be confused as to what the hole is and what the dirt is. Prison is not the hole, but the dirt. The hole is your sins and estrangement from Allah (SWT). Prison is the dirt that will either enable you to cleanse your sins and return to Allah, thereby saving you. Or it is the dirt that will eventually bury you alive and destroy you. What you do with the dirt is your choice. The horse made the right choice. The question is, will you?
By British Political Prisoner Babar Ahmad MX5383, HMP Woodhill, UK

 

[tawbah]

As far as what is on the website that was the last part ^ - There maybe upcoming parts , Allaah knows best. If there is and anyone comes across them - please do post them up inshaAllaah as i may not be here to do it.

Was-Salaamu `alaykum