You sit at a fundraiser and you are presented with people in distress. You need them as much, if not more, than they need you. The prophet Mohammad (PBUH) taught us this concept that the only goodness that comes to our lives is a result of some good that we do for someone else.
Dr. Omar Suleiman (Instagram)
Open hearts and minds
God will open the hearts of whomever He wants to guide to Islam, but He will tighten the chest of one whom He has led astray, as though he was climbing high up into the sky. Thus, God places wickedness on those who do not accept the faith.
Qur’an 6:125
One whose chest (heart and mind) is left open for Islam (submission to His will) shall receive light from God. Woe to those whose hearts have become like stone against the remembrance of God. They are clearly in error.
Qur’an 39:22
A believer’s affair
Wondrous is the affair of a believer, as there is good for him in every matter; this is not so for anyone but a believer. If he experiences pleasure, he thanks God and it is good for him. If he experiences harm, he shows patience and it is good for him.
Hadith, Sahih Muslim (2999)
Turn the page
Life is like a book. Some chapters are sad, some are happy, and some are exciting, but if you never turn the page, you will never know what the next chapter has in store for you.
Izuudon (Goodreads)
Stay true to yourself
Stay true to yourself. Do your own thing and don’t worry about what people say. It might not make sense to them but that’s okay. Don’t expect everyone to understand you. They don’t have to. It’s between you and the Almighty. So keep going!
Mufti Ismail Menk (Twitter)
An orderly universe
I’m not an atheist, and I do not think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but does not know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvellously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations.
Albert Einstein
But what I see as I write is that I am lucky to be alive and so are you. We live on a planet that is all but perfect for our kind of life: not too warm and not too cold, basking in kindly sunshine, softly watered; a gently spinning green and gold harvest festival of a planet… what are the odds of a planet picked at random would have these complaisant properties?
Richard Dawkins
Dependencies and attachments
Don’t depend too much on anyone in this world because even your own shadow leaves you when you are in darkness.
Ibn Taymiyyah
Reflect within yourself
I think we must consider the fact that God tells us to ponder within ourselves, and by doing so we may conclude that if there is no God, then we could not have any subjective conscious experience — in other words, by denying God, we deny ourselves!
“Do they not reflect within themselves?” Qur’an 30:8
The Divine Reality by Hamza Tzortzis
Trust in God’s plan
Al-Ghazali says a believer who accepts the decree of God has no need to worry since everything God decrees is good for the believer, even in hardship. It is like taking refuge in pain (anxiety) fearing some other pain which may not even occur. Rather, trust in God’s plan.
Justin Parrott (Twitter)
Be kind to your parents
Your Lord has decreed that you must not worship anything other than Him and that you must be kind to your parents. If either or both of your parents should become advanced in age, do not express to them words which show your slightest disappointment. Never yell at them but always speak to them with kindness.
Be humble and merciful towards them and say, “Lord, have mercy upon them as they cherished me in my childhood.”
Qur’an 17:23-24
Serve God, and associate nothing with Him. Be kind to parents, and the near kinsman, and to orphans, and to the needy, and to the neighbour who is of kin, and to the neighbour who is a stranger, and to the companion at your side, and to the traveller, and to that your right hands own. Surely God loves not the proud and boastful.
Qur’an 4:36
