#100HappyDays

The most beautiful present by you to yourself is making yourself especial and feeling happy. Rely on that, you are the reason behind make others happy since your birth then why not for yourself? Remember? Your first uttering made your parents happy. Your first day at school, first prayer, graduation ceremony, first day of marriage, first day of motherhood what more happiness you want to cherish? But aside from these you have some other moments in your daily life which makes you happy secretly. Sometimes with in gathering or sometimes all alone you feel joyous having those moments around. Definition of happiness differs from each other. But seeing someone’s happiness and revealing yourself within a part of it make you even happier. It really sounds great when your happiness makes others happy, helps them to find theirs and inspires them to be happy by pulling themselves up from stress and gloominess. It seems countless blessings from Almighty that you are not only the reason behind your happiness but you are an inspiration to someone else who is striving to live a better life.

Showing happiness doesn’t mean you are showing off but it shows how simple things can makes you smile. Being a happy person it doesn’t need to be rich. It only needs to be firm and an open mind which is always ready to appreciate good things. Your happiness can be an album where you can keep your good memories and cherish them through your life. Yes, it also requires patience and courage. Because many of us started to seek happiness but left it half baked. We showed lack of times as the main reason but we forget that we smiled a minute ago for some motives. Why not capturing those moments? Is it too tough to spend a minute for a shot? No, absolutely not. Therefore, patience and courage is all we need to be happy and stay blessed as well.

Think deep and positive but don’t think too much. It will collapse your mind and halt something from happening. Think before act and play. Before showing your happiness think what could make others happy rather disappointed. What could make someone think about their own happiness not their sadness and inability. Share something which will give others plain happiness and inspiration. Share your happiness which will make someone zealous not jealous! Don’t ever think about incentives of sharing your happiness rather think how you and your act could put significance to some others life. How you can be a secret teacher to someone who is learning to seek happiness even if it is not notable.

Thus, from today my challenge of #100happydays started. I found some sisters who are sharing their happy moments. Their views of seeing happiness inspires me a lot. Although life shows them thousands of traumas, trials and exhausting day outs but yet, they are strong enough showing to life one single reason of happiness to stay alive and blissful. Life turns them down into wounds but they are pulling themselves up showing happiness that heals. Pick a motivation for the challenge. Act upon wisdom and don’t mislay the opportunity of sharing your views of happiness. Inspire others and seek single happy moment to make 100 people smile a day. Remember, good deed never spoils it is a charity which remains evergreen if even if we breathe our last. 

Sneak Preview into Best of the Best

Empowered Muslimah

Way Back from The Kingdom of Isolation

What is life? Wake up in the morning. Say “hello!” to your mirror. Split up on the earth.  Times goes by then switch off the light, go to bed and have a nice dream? So, this is what we call life, wake up, sleep tight, wake up, sleep tight. And then what happen that day if we are not waking up anymore? Life’s end! This is how we nowadays define our life. The very precious one if once flew away it’s gone for forever.  But what’s the meaning behind this? Do we ever think deep why we are here standing on earth still alive and saying good-bye to others? Next, it could be ours. So, what is the point of our being here? Why we cry and later let other people cry over us? End of the day it seems we are all ALONE. Then what is the point of living at all? That’s a very good question. Let’s think about it.

No, no, totally not. This is absolutely useless. Why do we have to think about it? These are really not fit with us. I got brain, you got brain, and there are so other things we should care. After all, we have limits and what is the point to keep pushing these silly thoughts into our head? This is life, come on you have to live to the end. So, what were you supposed to doing? Oh, yes let’s go back to work. Life is on. And this is how we get back to our nonsense from reality. We think this is life, but do we know, this is not life. This is Ice.

We, every single human being are living in our own kingdom of isolation. Something dark always delights us with the sparkle of false enjoyment in this filthy earth. Unfortunately that dirt’s are seemingly like very lucrative to our eyes. Becoming materialistic and loses our insights day by day. Every time when we amazed by the sparkling beauty of shocking enjoyment, in fact that every single moment we are stepping behind from reality. The real world of struggle for our true identity is getting concealed by our idiocy. And we are being pledged into the trap of ace. This wily trap is the so called life we are running to and fro. The more we are running the more we are losing the chances of recalling our very Oath we taken to our Lord. This trap detached us from our Lord and His warmth. Our false world becomes colder and thus we become the King and Queen of our kingdom of isolation. Why isolation? We are hemmed in with dazzling people here. We are not alone! Yes, we are because we are not caring about the existence of our Lord and let other things be taken care of. And when we die they left us. So, who is with us now? Is this our Lord? No, we refused His words, we deny His calls. All the way we ignored Him now how come we expect His acquaintance from end to end of the final journey? When nobody is there in the other world taken care of us, this is how we are living our life all alone in this world. This living on is not life. This is Ice.

I was once living a lofty life. Whenever I stand before mirror, I feel like this grace, this face is not that perfect. What if, I was so flawless? I was so ambitious to change anything I like. I had friends like bee. All the time I found myself praised in public. I thought I am totally fitted in my shoes. But my home was the only place I found myself living like an alien. Therefore, this very own place of mine becomes unexpected every time I entered. Every time my mother tried to let me learn something be practical and practice Islam, I found it reasonable sometime and avoided the facts I cannot accept. This living in between acceptance and rejection made me totally insecure.  I felt like bound into a cage. And someday I am going to be free left behind all these hitches let alone with my mother! How indecent my feelings were! The person who is always protects me and be there for me; I just ponder over leave her with fillip. That was the way I living my life. The beauty of kith and kin with true blood was veiled under my idiocy. Why I was so ignorant that time. Why the beauty and warmth of practicing Islam was out of my sight? I was not blind but I lost my true sight because I eventually craved myself into that wily trap full of darkness. That false world was so real and so cool to me that I become the captive of ace. I was in Ice.

But one day I wake up, and I heard a name. That name was written in letters of gold on the page of glorious Islamic history. I do not know why? But that name was so touched by my heart. I started to know her. I was so drowned while knowing her. And the day I ended with her history I stand in front of the conscience mirror and tried to reflect myself on her. I nose-dived and I started crying. The only thing I found, we are namesake and not a single thing I could be matched with her. That day for the first time I felt a shackle of ignorance was cut a little by twisting my feet. I was so unable to free from this screwing. I started realizing the world I knew so long is so phony. I thought all the people who are cared will always be there for me, will show me the light in darkness. But I found most of them were falsifying around me and little by little unveiling their true face made me lonesome. I wonder who they were, that I was so inured with. And why only one woman in the earth has all my foolish guts through all these days. She is my mother, and she was always on my doorstep knocking endlessly but I was pretended not to hear. How dare I was to think to let her all alone and step open-air with my idiocy! I knelt down and felt like worn-out. I realized that all those days I was snubbed the blessings of my Lord. I was mistaken to know my fem. The only person who is shadowed me after my father passed away. I thought I was the Queen and lined my little world. But when I recognized this is not the world where I should belong. It is the coop I created by dipping down into the wily trap of ace. But all on sudden there comes a woman by the grace of Almighty Allah from 1400 years ago who helped me to realize that I was the fool; I was the Queen of my kingdom of isolation. But my end should not be like this. I have to wake up and make my mother proud. I have to please my Lord before I start my eternity. And I must break the Ice.

That woman was the slave and I am the one who is living my life so delicate. That woman was the first to shed her blood for the sake of Allah and I am the one who was so ignorant to know her Lord. That woman was the blessed first one among the sahaba’s to receive the glad tidings of Jannah and I am the one who is blindly craving the pitfall of Jahannum. There is difference in between us like heaven and earth. But somehow Allah blessed me with His mercy and that woman was becoming my inspiration. She was my favorite thing to diverge myself into the world of patience, steadfastness and hope. She and her life taught me to see the blessings, mercy and forgiveness of Almighty Allah. And she was the one who let me learn about my most favorite thing in this world, my Rasul (Sallillahu Alayhe Wa’ Sallam).  She was the one who is the reason behind my change and let me know my Deen Islam. This beautiful rebellious woman let happen a revolution of change in my heart. I just only know her name, her life but I never get to know how she was. I am eagerly waiting for that day when I will be able to meet her. I want her to hold close so tight and let her know how I feel when I came to knew about her. How she drowned me into my heart where my integrity was hidden under my ignorance. I had been living with a cloud above my head. I was trapped in my cave and was lonely for so long. I was hidden all my hopes and dreams away and it was seems like I cannot move on. Then She was the sun, shining overhead by the grace of my Lord.  I cleared a little space in my heart to let Her in and found a way back to the real world where I should belong as a slave of Allah (Subhanahu wa’ Ta’ala). She was the one who let me hold the mallet and hit the Ice.

Yes, I am talking about the woman who is a role model for the Muslimah along with Khadija (R), Ayesha (R), Fatima (R), and others. She is the first who let start writing the glorious plea of Islam with the ink of her blood. The first martyrdom in Islam was happened by shedding her blood. I am talking about Sumaiya (R) who is the woman from 1400 years ago still an inspiration for 21^st centuries Muslimah and on. May Allah (SWT) grant me the chance to meet with her in Jannah InshaaAllah. And this is me, way back to the real world with Her inspiration, from the Kingdom of Isolation.

Hope

I never saw someone who goes pear-shaped and after having a long break or not lifts up the spoon full of life to taste it again whether it is bitter any longer or turns into sweetness. That means when life pulls you down, no matter what, you have to stand strong. You have to fight. Never forget, that you are in a race of survival. Your happiness, your sadness, your success and your failure are the mates here. You cannot keep good kith and kin just with success and happiness. The other part of your life can be flipped any moment and you may see the hardest part of your life in your palm looking at you. Once you see you cannot ignore them. There is so much to learn. Every step you count in your life shows expected results along with not desired one. Once it happened you cannot alter. The truth of your life is concealed in a nice folded paper. You reveal, you except. And always keep this in mind that very truth means something very real for you which you cannot deny. You may plan according your own but it will show outcomes according to your Lords. And surely that plan is the best for all of us. So, hope is the thing we need most in our life to revive faith. It is an essential spice which you have to mix it up with your plans and actions. Sometime it becomes bitter what you do not want to taste but sometimes it may be the priceless one you want to taste it again and again. But remember life always not seems alike. It needs different flavors of ups and downs to help you grow up.

Pray makes one as confident as they were never before.  A big prays for hope is all you need. I am not telling for strength. I am telling for hope that all we need. Cause strength is the key but hope is the twist without which the success will never be unlocked. We may feel that we are alone but there is always Someone unseen who is watching us, hearing us and guiding us. That someone never leaves us for a single moment. Without Him we are nothing. In life most of the time we lose hope and miss the biggest chance that was before us within a distance for our warm welcome. But just because we lost our mind we were unable to reach there and let not smiled the last one. The great thing remains undone.

Past will always be the past no matter how joyful it was. But we often forget that we are our own very architect of our future. Our lord provides us every single material we need to build our future but hidden. There is the test. We cannot grab those materials every now and then as our wish. We have to earn it. We have to earn the best is offered by struggling through the pathway. Without His mercy and benevolence not we single one can reach to the highest peak of our success. So, every time we lose, it is because there may somewhere a little gap still existing in between our faith and action. To me I named it Hope Gap. A little bit of hopelessness is like an engraver. It craved a little gap unknowingly. And let it bigger day-by-day. Where there is ditch it is no longer in good base. Similarly the gap inside our faith loosens our ties of actions. Thus it leads us to taste the bitterness of letdown in life. But, is this the end?

No, there is still something called Second Chances. One must be very careful when they pick that triumph and let not happen that slip-up again. Cause if that is then they may no longer take as mistaken. Because a second chance always let us amends but if we miss the mark it will be taken as Sin. Sin engraved us into the pitfall of Hell. So, without His forgiveness and mercy it is not possible for us to be hopeful to revive our faith again. Never lose hope. There is an option named Repent. Click it and start anew and upgrade our Imaan from time to time. If we find ourselves lost, do not worry. In every believer Allah restores sweetness of Imaan deep inside our heart as backup. All we need is to re-install and play ROAD_RUSH (keep going)………….:D

The Most Merciful is always ready to forgive....are you ready to ask forgiveness??

In a previous era, there lived a mass murderer. Yes, a mass murderer who did not kill one, two, or even ten people. No, he had killed ninety-nine. I have no idea how this man managed to escape revenge; perhaps, he was so ruthless that none would ever dare approach him, or perhaps he kept in hiding. The important fact here though is that he was guilty of ninety-nine murders. One day, the idea of repentance crossed his mind, so he decided to ask the most knowledgeable scholar in the world.

People pointed him in the direction of a monk in a monastery who would never leave his prayer mat, spending all his time praying to Allah and weeping.

The man visited the monk, stood in front of him and asked, “I have killed ninety-nine souls. Could I still repent?”

How could this monk, who I think if he were to have killed an ant mistakenly would have spent the rest of his life weeping, respond to a person who had murdered ninety-nine people with his bare hands? The monk was furious. It was as if the man standing in front of him was the embodiment of the ninety-nine corpses! He yelled, “There is no repentance for you! There is no repentance for you!”

It should come as no surprise that such a response would be given by a monk who lacked knowledge and made emotional decisions. When the murderer heard this response he was enraged. Being the callous person he was, he grabbed a knife and repeatedly stabbed the monk, cutting him into pieces, then stormed out of the monastery. After some time, he thought about repentance once again.

He esquired about the most knowledgeable person he could ask, and the people referred him to a scholar. When he visited the scholar, he found him to be sedate and god-fearing.

The murderer came forward and asked, “I have killed a hundred people. Could I still repent?” The scholar instantly replied, “SubhaanAllah! What could prevent you from repenting?” What a wonderful response! Who could prevent a person from repentance? The Lord is in the heavens and there is no power on earth that can prevent a person from repenting to Him submissively.

This scholar, who had made his statement based on knowledge and upon Allah’s Law as opposed to his whims and emotions, said to the man, “However, you are in an evil land.” Strange! How did he know that? He gathered this by knowing the magnitude of the man's crime and the absence of anyone to forbid him.

He realized that murder and oppression had become a norm in that city, so much so that nobody had any concern for the plight of the oppressed. 

He said, “You are in an evil land.” Meaning, you must leave here and go to such-and-such a land where there are people worshiping Allah and join them in worshiping Him. The man set out for that land but died before reaching it. The angels of mercy and those of punishment descended to take his soul. The angels of mercy argued that he had been on his way to repenting and returning to Allah. The angels of wrath argued that he had not done any good in his entire life. Therefore, Allah sent an angel in the form of a man to settle their dispute. He judged that the distance between the two cities be measured, and that the man be judged according to whichever of the two he had been closer to. Allah inspired the city of mercy to be closer and the city of disobedience to be farther. It was thus discovered that he had been closer to the city of virtue. The angels of mercy therefore took the man's soul.

Why not to share beautiful stories of Islam?

A young man once travelled to Germany for studies and
took up residence in a flat. There was a young German man
living in the flat opposite him. They didn’t have any connection
with each other except that they were neighbours. Once, the
German neighbour travelled unexpectedly. A paperboy would
deliver a newspaper everyday and leave it at his doorstep. The
young man noticed the newspapers piling up and asked one of
the other neighbours to find out if the neighbour had travelled.
He picked all the newspapers up and placed them in a secure
place. He would collect a new newspaper everyday and add it to
the collection.
When his neighbour returned after a couple of months, he
greeted him and gave him all the newspapers. He said, “I thought
that perhaps you were following a news story or participating in
a competition and I didn’t want you to miss out on it.” 

The neighbour was surprised at this and said, “Would you
like to be paid for your services?”
He said, “No. Our religion orders us to be good to our neighbours
and since you are my neighbour, I must benevolent you.”
The person continued to be gracious to his neighbour until he
finally embraced Islam.

This, by Allah, is the real joy of life, to feel that you worship
Allah by every little thing you do, even the manners with which
you deal with others. How often is it that people are turned
away from Islam due to the bad treatment they receive at the
hand of some Muslims; one oppresses his employee, another deceives
his customer and another annoys his neighbour? Let us
make a fresh start with them.

Story collected from the book Enjoy Your Life by Dr. Muhammad 'Adb Al-Rahaman Al-'Arifi