Islam is the religion of peace, kindness, compassion, and care for our fellow brothers and sisters. Looking after the needy and deserving, and sacrificing our own benefit for the sake of others is the teaching of our deen. Fasting is for Allah and helping a fellow brother break his fast will bless us with unlimited rewards, and the most important prize – the pleasure of Allah!
I regretfully accept that my days and nights are not a sample of a balanced deen and dunya. I strongly believe that the Supreme King, Allah the Almighty, knows our strengths and weaknesses. Keeping these in mind our Lord has laid out the basic principles of spending our days in this life in order to salvage our afterlife.
A day will come when the world as we know it will come to an end. Almighty will order His special angel to blow the horn, the inhabitants of the earth and the Heaven will fall unconscious except those who are mercifully spared. The earth will be flattened, mountains will turn to dust, the sky will crack, the planets will disperse, and the graves overturned. Then the dead will be raised from their graves with their bodies restored to their physical state as the second horn is blown. Every man, woman, child, jinn, demon, wild animal, will be brought before our creator and He will justly deal with them on account of their good and evil deeds.
A miser is someone who hoards his money in an attempt to save it from being used up over basic necessities and comforts. Greed is deeply rooted in his conscience, abstaining him from spending it on the needy and deserving. Thanking his Provider or being grateful to Him for the worldly possessions doesn’t cross his mind, and he becomes obsessed with filling up his bank accounts.
In these COVID hit times, each and every one of us has been affected somehow and many are going through some rather testing times. Accepting all the challenges, difficulties, with a strong belief in Allah’s mercy, and plus, knowing in your heart that, indeed, the creators of the heaven and the earth is surely supporting us and has our back. Ultimately, every storm shall pass.
We should keep our eyes and ears open for signs of depression or anxiety in our circle of family and friends. We know that some people might be going through horrible situations in their life and are scared to share with others for their safety. Being of help to those in need will heal this world of the sorrows and darkness, turning it into a place of peace and harmony. Playing our role as a sensible fellow citizen might help in bringing positive impact to our communities.
Encouraging an environment of charity, and sharing with our fellow brothers and sisters is the Islamic way of living your life. Islam is a religion of balance, and disapproves means of extremity, praising such attributes of the citizens where they share from their wealth for helping the less privileged and the poor.
Allah doesn’t say that we let go of all the luxuries in order to succeed in the hereafter, rather to strike a balance in the society by sharing our prized possessions with the less privileged members. Sacrificing it all, while staying in isolation and carrying out our ibadah to seek Allah’s blessings is not favored in Islam. Rather, to keep things balanced, fulfilling our worldly duties while offering our religious obligations should be the norm. The gap between the rich and the poor is growing fast, as we are losing compassion, brotherhood, and empathy for our fellow brethren. The basic civil etiquette are disappearing from our moral value sets, taken over by ‘I can barely manage mine’ or ‘I worked too hard for this to give it away’ etc.
In Muslims, we witness that people belonging to a certain sect would consider in their hearts that the other person, of a different sect is not going to please Allah with any of his/her deeds. At extremes, even considering someone a non-believer, God forbid. We are all Muslims, and in no way can we put a stamp of a believer / non-believer as a result of the sect one belongs to.
Many Muslims cross the boundaries in their love for Muhammad ﷺ. For the man who would forgive the worst of his enemies. If he himself was so forgiving, then how can we murder and kill anyone in his name. Not in his name. Not in the name of the one who never took any revenge on anyone who wronged him. Muhammad’s ﷺ stature grows when we ignore and forgive those who malign his name.
Our Lord is the most merciful, He forgives even if a believer only thinks in his mind, embarrassed after committing a sin, repenting on his lack of control over himself, that he has crossed the boundaries set by Allah, gaining his displeasure. Only on one’s thought of repentance, our merciful Allah opens His doors of mercy and forgiveness, allowing the believer to be forgiven, blessing him with maghfirah.
