When times are hard, and you’ve fallen down…

When times are hard, when your spirit is low, when you've been knocked
to your knees, or maybe just one knee… use that moment of humility to
praise Allah, the Most Glorious. Then find something in your life to
be grateful for.
Maybe you are grateful for your children, or your good health, or the
plentiful food on your table, or having good clean drinking water that
doesn't give you diseases, or a friend who makes youlaugh, or the fact
that Allah has blessed you with Islam when so many are wandering in
darkness anddespair. Or even just sitting on the grass feelingthe
breeze, or a cat that sits in your lap and purrs… Find the many
blessings in your life, the hidden sources of happiness, and stand up,
and thank Allah.
Move forward with your head up, keeping your focus on Allah's gifts to
you, and your gratitude. Step, step, step with a grateful heart, and
that's how it's done.

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Resilience is Contagious

"Resilience is contagious." – Amy Estrada. Sure, life comes along now
and then and blows you off your feet. That's alright. What matters is
that you get back up.
You don't have to have theanswers. You don't have tobe superman or
superwoman. When the thundercloud opens up, who among us can stop the
rain? When the hurricane blows, who can stay on his feet? No one.
When the storm passes, stand up. Dust yourself off,take stock, and
move forward in the name of Allah. If the storm has disoriented you
and you don't see the way forward,look to the Quran. "And if there
should come to you guidance from Me – then whoever follows Myguidance
will neither go astray [in the world] nor suffer [in the Hereafter]."
(Quran, Surat TaHa, 20:123). The Quran is a mighty book. Never
underestimate it. If you cannot speak Arabic and find the English
translations unwieldy, get one of the modern translations that are
easierto read, like those by UmmMuhammad, or Thomas Cleary.
When you get knocked down and then stand up tall, with strength,
others see it, and it rallies them. Your spouse sees it, your children
see it, your friendssee it, and of course Allah sees it. Don't think
of it as showing off. Not at all. Think of it as brotherhood and
sisterhood, all of us helping each other, giving each other strength,
being good shepherds to our flocks.
Superman is no hero, he's impervious to bullets! Realheroes get hurt,
they get down on themselves sometimes, they're imperfect, they
struggle topay the bills and raise theirchildren, they struggle to be
become stronger in their faith, but they struggle! They don't give up.
That's inspiring, and it's contagious, and maybe sometimes it will be
someone else inspiring you, and maybe sometimes it will be you,
getting up after the hurricane, showing us all how it's done.

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Signs of Allah in Our Tongues

Have you ever wondered about your tongue? It is one of the wonderful
creations of Allah. Allah Ta'ala gave each of us onetongue. But this
one tongue is able to taste thousands of different types of food and
drinks. If our taste buds on the tongue were to become inactive, we
would not know the difference between an orange or a stone.
Moreover, like finger print,everyone has a different tongue print.
Relative to its size, tongueis also the strongest muscle in the human
body. And it is the only muscle which is connected to only one side.
The tongue is so strong that it can create a pressure on the roof of
the mouth equivalent to the weight of two double decker busses!
The strongest muscle of our body, the tongue, has been created by
Allah for us to glorify Him. Trully, with the help of this tongue, we
are able to recite the Glorious Quran and talk about Allah's
Greatness. Let us not spoilthe tongue by backbiting, slandering and
lying.

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Signs of Allah in Solar System

The earth rotates on its axis at one thousand miles an hour; if it
turned at one hundred miles an hour, our days and nights would be ten
times as long as now, and the hot sun would then burn up our
vegetation during each long day, while in the long night any surviving
sprout would freeze.
Again, the sun, source of our life, has a surface temperature of
12,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and our earth is, just far enough away so
that this 'eternal fire" warms us just enough and not too much! If the
sun gave off only one-half its present radiation, we would freeze, and
if it gave half as much more, we would roast.
The slant of the earth, tilted at an angle of 23 degrees, gives us our
seasons; if it had not beenso tilted, vapours from the ocean would
move north and south, piling upfor us continents of ice. If our moon
was, say, only 50 thousand miles away instead of its actual distance,
our tides would be so enormous that twice a day all continents would
be submerged; even the mountains would soon be eroded away.
If the crust of the earth had been only ten feet thicker, there would
be nooxygen without which animal life must die. Had the ocean been a
few feetdeeper, carbon dioxide and oxygen would have been absorbed and
no vegetable life could exist. Or if our atmosphere had been thinner,
some of the meteors, now burned in space by the million everyday would
be striking all parts of the earth, startingfires everywhere.
Because of these, and hostof other examples, there is not one chance
in millions that life on our planet is an accident.

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