Musings of a Servant of Allah
Verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest. (13:28)Archive for Paradisial reality
Eid Mubarak! (or Selamat Aidilfitri)
Umm Atiyah (ra) reported: “The Messenger of Allah (saw) commanded us to bring out on Eid-al-Fitr and Eid-al-Adha, young women, hijab-observing adult women and the menstruating women. The menstruating women stayed out of actual Salaat but participated in good deeds and Duaa (supplication). I (Umm Atiyah) said to the Holy Prophet (saw): Oh! Messenger of Allah, one does not have an outer garment. He replied: Let her sister cover her with her garment.” (Muslim)
Eid Mubarak, dear reader! Or Selamat Aidilfitri/Hari Raya 
Words, once cannot encapsulate the radiant joy which this blessed day brings. May Allah protect you and your loved ones, always.
My family and I have the absolute privilege of living 10 minutes away from the masjid….so here’s a snapshot of this morning:
Ahmad: Wake up! Eid prayer starts at 6:45 am.
Me: Uuuuugh.
Household: *General commotion, sounds of last-minute ironing, showering, “Have you fed the cats??”, “Did Mak (mum) already leave for the masjid??”, all against the soothing backdrop of takbeeratul Eid wafting from the radio*
Radio: *live broadcast from the nearby masjid* Allahuakbar!
Boys: Oh no! It’s started! *Ahmad and Abdul Hadi dash off*
Muhummed: Funny how slow it takes to button your clothes when you’re late.
Me: Murphy’s Law.
Muhummed: Where are my socks? Ah. Got it. Ok let’s go.
Me and Muhummed: *Shut the door and start jogging to the masjid*.
Muhummed: So what’s the ruling on running to the masjid?
Me: Well it’s best not to, just to maintain dignity…
Muhummed: Ok. Well they’re still on the first ra’kaat, so that’s a good sign.
Both of us: *We maintain the brisk pace, the sound of the imam’s beautiful recitation grows louder as we draw closer…and the sight of worshippers overflowing from the masjid and into the street tugs unbearably at our heartstrings*
Me: *getting emotional* Ok, maybe you should say goodbye to dignity just for now so you can make it to the prayer on time!
Muhummed: Ok! Bye!
It is absolutely breathtaking, seeing rows and rows of worshippers bowing in unison.
It’s a reflection, once again, of the paradisial reality. Angels scattered throughout the heavens worship Allah throughout their lifespans, so when we mortal humans put the world behind and raise our hands in prayer, we embrace our angelic natures. By the same token, when we recklessly succumb to baser desires, we sink to the level of unthinking animals.
Eid is all about celebrating our angelic natures. For an entire month, during daylight hours, we successfully abstained from all those things which mark our creatureness – the need for food, water, and the act of procreation. By effectively suspending our creatureness, we better orient ourselves towards God, every soul’s true north.
May Allah accept our fasts and bless us with the opportunity to greet the next Ramadan.
*
And when the prayer ends, everybody gets up, and order dissolves into chaos. Ha, another reflection. The trick is to maintain that inner tranquility one feels inside prayer, outside prayer. The state of ‘eternal prostration’ which the realised Sufi attains.
The mad hunt for friends and family begins.
This is part of the fun of Eid at the masjid. Navigating through the throngs of people, prams and police officers. lol.
It’s always great, bumping into old friends from highschool, my previous university, my current university…reminds me of how connected we all really are, despite our different directions in life. We all worship the same God.
On accountability
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, for blessing me with another day of life on this Earth. May He bless me with the privilege of being one of His beloved slaves. Imagine that – Allah turning to the angels in the heavens, and telling them that He loves me. There is no greater honour. O Allah, let me be worthy of your love.
I spoke to my mother once, during one of my darker moods, and asked her this: “What’s the point anyway? Of all this? We’re all going to die anyhow.”
She smiled at me and said in her quiet, unassuming way, “Well…this is a very susah (difficult) state to get to, but the point is to want to reach Allah. And that is very beautiful.”
Yet again, she has the answer.
*
‘Rabb’ is by far one of the most poorly translated words in the Arabic language. It’s loosely translated as ‘Lord’, so ‘Rabb-el-alamin’ would mean ‘Lord of the World’….but the word has far more depth to that.
Rabb means Creator, Sustainer, one who raises us in degrees…one who is concerned for our well-being. He loves us more than we love ourselves.
Shaykh Nuh says that the one who sees reality for what it truly is, will measure his or her actions against the yardstick of eternity. Will this bring me closer to or further away from Allah?
Hence the title of this post. It’s all about accountability.
I want to live my life according to two cardinal rules:
1) Giving Allah His due
2) Giving everyone else (including myself) their due.
Easier said than done, no? Giving Allah His due means performing all my obligatory and recommended acts of worship with the intention of seeking His Countenance. Giving everyone else their due means acknowledging the rights of others upon me – including my own body parts. Muslims believe that on the Day of Judgement, our own body parts will speak against us, if we had sinned with them in this life.
It makes sense. Everything is on loan. Our bodies, souls, families, talents, wealth…..it’s all a test to see who will do good.
That which is on earth we have made but as a glittering show for the earth, in order that We may test them – as to which of them are best in conduct. [Chapter 18, verse 7]
Life, to me anyway, wouldn’t make sense any other way. Without an Afterlife and A Fair Judge…. too many souls are abandoned to the vagaries of fate. And life is cruel. There is far too much injustice and bloodshed on this Earth for this life to simply be it.
God will not wrong us in the least.
*
Shaykh Naeem has this fascinating concepts of many things in this world being reflections of the paradisial reality. How does one define reality, to begin with? Let’s check good ol’ Wikipedia:
Reality, in everyday usage, means “the state of things as they actually exist.” The term reality, in its widest sense, includes everything that is, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible. Reality in this sense may include both being and nothingness, whereas existence is often restricted to being (compare with nature).
So Muslims believe that this life is a temporary reality, whereas the afterlife is the eternal reality. The real reality, if you may. With that in mind, Allah, in His mercy, has ‘dropped hints’, so to speak. Clues that point to our Eternal Home.
Look at the ritual of Hajj, for example. Totally strange, at surface glance. Leaving the world behind, wearing simple garments, men shave their heads, and everyone circumambulates around this big black box (Kaa’ba) in the middle of the desert.
What I didn’t realise til very recently was the fact that 70,000 angles circumambulate around an equivalent black box (Baytul Makmur), in the heavens, every day, until the Day of Judgement.
Spine-tingling, isn’t it? We were all made for eternity. This world is just a pit stop. A tantalising, alluring pit stop for some…..and absolute hell hole for others. Personally, the former is far more useful as far as saving our souls is concerned! The more attached you are to this world, the easier it is to find God irrelevant. The more hardship you face, the easier it is to fall to your knees and beseech His help.
May Allah keep us steadfast and on the straight path.
