Ar-rahman, Ar-Rahim, Al-Karim

As far as I can remember, not once have I copied from somewhere else and pasted it on my blog. But it seems that this one is worth sharing so I wrote back the contents of a talk given by Maulana Tariq Jameel. I don’t really know if anyone ever reads from this blog anymore but I won’t lose a penny if I share this. So, for those who do read it I assure you it’ll be worth your while.

Listen to the words of The Qur’an. These are not my words; it is the prose of The Qur’an. “فاين تذهبون؟  (Where are you going?)”.

There is such love in these words. It’s like when a mother becomes helpless or dejected due to her child going astray and she asks him, “What are you doing, O my beloved son?”  The words are “what are you doing?” but there is such pain of motherhood which is hidden inside these words or when a father becomes helpless or dejected and says, “What are you doing, O my beloved son?” there is such compassion of the father in these words because he knows what his son is doing will cause him harm in the future. At that point he becomes helpless and says, “What are you doing, O my beloved son?” “Where are you going?”

So, we can narrate the words but not the depth of the emotion which comes with it. That has no translation. There is no translation of emotions, instead they are felt. Due to Arabic not being our mother tongue, we don’t understand when Allah speaks to us and the intensity of His love that comes with it when he says: “يا ايهالانسان (O mankind)”. Not just for the Muslims but the love which Allah expresses to the 7 billion inhabitants of this world when he says, : “يا ايهالانسان (O mankind)” It is almost like Allah has come upon the earth and goes to each individual shaking him and saying, “What are you doing?” “يا ايها الانسان ماغرك بربك الكريم (O My creation, I am your Lord, why have you left Me?”

It’s normal in the west for children to abandon their parents but in our areas it is less. When it does happen the parents say “Why are you going?” the pain which is hidden in that ‘why’, “Where are you going?” the pain hidden in that sentence, “What are you doing?” the pain hidden in those words, that is of a mother and father. If we use this analogy with Allah, all the while understanding that Allah’s love is infinite and then try to understand the verse, “يا ايها الانسان ماغرك بربك الكريم (O My creation, I am your Lord, why have you left Me? Who has deceived you?” I am your Lord, I am your Lord. Who has deceived you? Why have you left Me? “الذى خلقك فسواك فعدلك (I created you, proportioned you, and balanced you)”

Look at your appearance in the mirror and see how I have created you. Can I wrong you? A mother does not wrong her child even though she is just a medium for the baby before the baby is delivered, yet Allah have created you with His hands, can he wrong you?

If Allah stops you from something then there is some wisdom behind it and if Allah tells you to do something then there is benefit in it for you. Allah says, “فاين تذهبون؟  (Where are you going?)”. By leaving Allah can one find shelter anywhere else? Allah says, “ففروا الى الله (Come towards Me)”.

Walk The Talk or Just Talk, talk and talk?

How powerful words are. Perfectly said words could change the whole world with a blink of an eye. Words could change the way someone think, it could hurt someone’s feelings, and it could cheer someone up. How fascinating is it that just by arranging certain number of alphabets could have such significant impact on human’s lives.  And by mistyping or accidentally switching between just two alphabets from its supposed place could bring a whole different meaning.

The ability to talk itself is a blessing let alone the skills to voice out speeches or words of wisdom to inspire others. The right choice of adjectives, the accurate use of idioms or proverbs or the wide-yet-understandable vocabularies all plays a role in changing minds and perceptions, providing inspirations and motivations and affecting feelings and emotions. You don’t have to be a devout worshipper yet people might think you’re a pious preacher, you don’t have to be a leader you already have a legion of followers, you don’t have to start a fight your enemy will surrender much earlier. All of this just because of words.

Undeniably though, words could also do the exact opposite. Wrong choice of words, especially usually during the heat of the moment even if no harm was meant could break a heart more than a knife could cut it into pieces. Normal words if misinterpreted may also lead to calamity. We will never know what will be our last words or how people interpret them. So, why spread bad words, why spread lies, why insult, why hurt others, why talk behind others back? Wouldn’t it be better if people start talking to each other rather than talking about each other? Try making what comes out of our mouth beneficial for us and others so that one day when we die people will say, “What that person said changed my life”.

However, we are only responsible for what we say not what others understand. So despite all the words we’ve said, all those long speeches we gave and all those entries we post on our blogs, does it really picture our true selves? The advices we give to others do we ourselves follow them? Talking might be easy and giving a meaningful talk or speech might be hard but what’s harder is actually walking the talk. So, are we walking our talk or just talk and talk and talk?

Keep Calm and Control Your Emotions

When I was a kid, I once watched a TV drama which I can’t remember the title of that drama now. It was about a robot that had feelings, emotions, sense of humour and sensitivity. Of course that story was fictional because unlike humans, robots don’t have feelings.

Yes, feelings. Emotions as in sense of humour, sense of pain, tears of joy and so on. Some people may act like they don’t care if people make fun of them, tease them or hurt them emotionally. But when the threshold has been reached, even the quietest of people could explode louder than a volcano.

Because that’s what human are. We were born with emotions. It’s part of our nature to react to certain stimulus. To cry when we’re sad, to get angry when we’re mad, to laugh when we’re happy.  If the stimulus isn’t strong enough, we have the capability to keep our emotions to ourselves. When we’re in a normal state of emotions, it’s easy to be giving advices to others. Try telling the poor to be grateful, or telling a son, who just lost his father, not to cry, or telling someone not to be angry when they’re being laughed at.  So, unless we’ve been through what others have then we have no right to judge or blame them. Look at ourselves in the mirror and stop pointing fingers.

Numbers of reported suicide is increasing by day. The cause: depression, frustration, lost of hope, all are emotionally related. It’s all because we weren’t trained to face such kind of tests or problems. We’re drowned in an easy life such that even the slightest of problems could make us feel like we just fell from a 100-storey building. We have a weak heart to bear those problems. The inability to accept what has been written for us millions of years before we were born is what’s causing these mental depressions. We can try, we can plan but we can never escape from what has been planned for us.

Emotions are the difference between us and animals. But there’s also another difference between us and animals: the ability to think. To think the results of our actions before we react to certain stimulus. To think before making any decisions when we’re angry or making promises when we’re happy or any kind of actions that will make us look like a fool. A strong person is someone who can control his emotions in time of tests.  It’s easy to cry when we’re sad, to shout out someone when we’re angry and to blame everything on fate and destiny.

The ability to control one’s emotions is a good measure of how strong he is. Not expressing our emotions doesn’t make us less human. It just makes us less dependent. Plus, showing our emotions to others frequently means showing our own weaknesses to them. How many people would want to be friends with a high-tempered or an annoyingly-sensitive person? How can people place their trust on us if we ourselves are incapable of controlling our own emotions?