When remembrance (dhikr) of Allah is connected with the aspect of His mercy and compassion, that quality of mercy begins to manifest within one’s own character – it gains a real, living presence and the heart expands with it’s growth. One’s thinking, words, actions, and all one’s relationships within families, communities, and in the wider world begins to display this mercy…
We enter Ramadan as broken people, loaded with our sins. We should leave Ramadan as whole, complete Muslims, better than we started the month….
Allah says: “When my servants ask you concerning Me, I am indeed near, I listen to the prayer of every suppliant when he calls on Me. Let them also, with a will, listen to My call, and believe in Me: so that they may walk in the right way….” [Sura Al Baqara 2:186]
OG Badr lessons
One night before battling the Crusaders, Salahuddin walked among the tents of his troops. Some were filled with laughter, music and merriment. Others were hushed with prayer, dhikr and contemplation. “From these will come the Victory for Islam,” he remarked, “and from those will come our destruction.” ….
Deliberately or naively, cultural imperialism turns people from the colonies into mirror-images of their masters: They become little brown Englishmen, and little brown Europeans. They pose no threat to the status quo, in fact they help to keep things as they are. They reinforce the false notion of superiority of one human being over another, one cultural system over others…
The most important relationship we have, after worshipping Allah alone, is our lifelong love and courtesy to our parents…
Your race, genealogy, your wealth, your social status do not make you superior to any other human being. Your degrees: Ph.D. and M.D. do not upgrade you if they do not provide you with a higher degree of humanism. If they do not make you a better person, they are simply tools for the exploitation of other human beings. Islam knocked down the slave master, dragged him into dirt and elevated the slave to the status of a commander…
