The clear truth

Once Bayazid Bustami (a renowned pious individual) was going ona
journey when a Christian accompanied him along. When it was time for
mid-day meal, Bayazid suggested to hiscompanion that he should go to
the village at hand and have food. The Christian said, "No, Bayazid
you are a godly person. Pray to God that He may furnish the food
here."
Bayazid offered two units of Nawafil in prayer and begged of Allah,
"My Lord! This manwants to test my religion. Please, protect its good
name so that I may not be put to shame. Kindly arrange for our food."
He had hardly finished his prayer when a person appeared with four
loaves of bread and some curry. Both of them ate to their fill and
resumed their journey.
In the evening the Christian companion said that he would arrange for
the supper. He also reaised his handsin prayers and at once appeared a
man with eight loaves of bread and double quantity of curry. Bayazid
was wonder-struck and asked him what he had prayed for. The Christian
replied that first he should be converted to Islam and then he
woulddisclose the detail of the prayer. At this, Bayazid converted him
to Islam.
The companion related that he had prayed like this: "O Lord! If Islam
is a true religion and you are kind to Bayazid, provide us with the
double quantity of food that we had at midday. So the response to my
prayer is obvious."

Islamic Stories,- Easy way to change ourselves

Easy way to change ourselves
-
There was a king long time ago and he had a vast kingdom. Though he
had tremendous amount of wealth, but he didn't have peace of heart. So
he decided to be a good Muslim. He heard that there is a very pious
man who stays in a jungle and thatmany people go to visit him for
advice. The king decided to visit him for some advice also. When he
got there, he asked the pious man "How can I become pious like you?"
The pious man replied that remember death 40 times a day for 40 days.
The king thought that it was very easy and he thanked him and left for
his palace. He remembered death 40 times a day for 40 days but no
change came to his life. He was same as before.
The king became angry and called that pious man to his court. The king
told him that he is nothing but a liar and that he should be killed
before he fools other people. It was decided that he will be
beheadedthe next day. But the Pious man had a request. He asked if he
could become the king for a day. He promised that after getting the
command, he will not kill the previous king or do any harm to him. So,
the king agreed and made the pious man the king for a day. As soon as
the pious man became the king, he went to the market and saw a man
selling peanuts. He told the soldiers to catch that man and bring him
to the palace. So, the peanut sales man was brought to the court. The
pious man told the peanut sales man that hewill be killed tomorrow.
The peanut sales man became frightened and dropped all his peanuts. He
started crying and asked what he did. But the pious man said that he
will be killed tomorrow and locked upin jail for today.
Now, as the peanut salesman knew that he is going to die, he forgot
about everything else and started asking forgiveness from Allah. He
started praying and doing excessive dhikir (remembrance of Allah). The
Pious man ordered that the most beautiful prostitute in the city
should be brought and placed in the jail with peanut sales man. She
was brought and she asked the man to commit adultery with her. Now the
pious man brought the previous king and told him to watch. The peanut
sales man started yelling at the woman to get away because he is going
to die tomorrow and this evil deed will surely cause him problems
withAllah.
Then the pious man asked the previous king if he understood what is
going on. The Pious manexplained that when youreally know that you
willdie, then you will surely stay away from all evil deeds and engage
yourself into the worship of Allah. So, remembering death once
properly would be enough to change the life of a human being.
Ofcourse, the peanut sales man was released afterwards.

Live the Moment – It’s All You Have

Try to appreciate the present moment and truly live it, rather than
using it up by feeling guilty about the past, or fretting about the
future.Regret for the past is a waste of spirit, and worrying about
the future is pointless.
Hanan Bilal, a communityactivist and motivator from Florida, asks,
"Whenwill we stop living in the past and longing for our future? All
we really have is this moment. The question is what are we going to do
right now? Our time is now!"
The Past
That's not to say that contemplation of past and future is verboten.
The Quran tells stories of the past in order to educate us. The
Messenger of Allah (sws) told us many stories of past Prophets and the
Bani Israa'il, for the samereason. We study world history, we study
the seerah of our Prophet and the lives of the Sahabah, because it
inspires and informs.
I taught a martial arts class several hours ago and I'm still
reviewing it in my mind, examining what I could do better next time.
That's part of the learning process for me.
I have a sweet young daughter named Salma and I often think about my
time with her, something funny that shesaid, or the small gifts that
she likes to make forme. Yesterday she made me a card that says "I
love Baba." A few days ago we had a poetry reading at our local Muslim
community center, and in between readings our host told jokes. For
some reason Salma positioned herself in the front row, and every time
our host told ajoke I heard Salma laughing loudly, even though I'm
sure she did not understand the jokes ("do vegetarians eat animal
crackers?"). Crazy kid, ha ha. So yeah, I think about past moments.
But I'm not stuck in the past. I think about those moments because
they educate meor make me smile, so they become a part of mypresent
and future.
On the other hand, I occasionally think about my former marriage, and
those are usually not good thoughts, because Itend to dwell on the
mistakes I made, and I feel sadness or guilt. I've already
contemplated deeply on that period in my life, and I've learned my
lessons. I don't need to keep returning there in my mind, punishing
myself. If I did, then I would indeed be stuck inthe past, unable to
move forward. That is the kind of pointless regret that weighs people
down andburdens their spirits.
The Future
We plan for the future byhaving goals, getting an education, working
hard,saving money, always learning and improving ourselves. We plan
for our aakhirah by dedicating ourselves to Allah, worshiping, giving
our money to the poor and orphans, and humbling ourselves. We build
our futures step by step. But it's not productive to sit around biting
our nails and thinking, "What if I fail my exam, oh, when will I get
married, what's going to happen if I lose my job, how will I pay
mybills…" You make yourselfsick and it doesn't help.
Don't worry, plan . There'sa huge difference! Then acknowledge that
you don't control the future. That's Allah's province. Trust in Him,
let him be your guide, find your security in Him.
The security of the dunyais false security. Sufferingis the lot of all
Adam's children, in one way or another, and death comes when we're
ready or not. The security of Allah is real and transcends this world.
The Moment
This moment is all we have, my friend. The past is gone, and the
future never comes, because when we get there, we're still in the
present.
If you take this moment to breathe deeply and say, "SubhanAllah wa
bihamdihi" – glory to Allah and all praise to Him – and then thank
Allah for the blessings in your life, or sit down andplay a game with
your child, go for a walk in thesunshine, maybe take a few nature
photos, call an old friend, write your spouse a love note, read a
verse from the Quran and contemplate it – thenyou have lived! You have
turned that moment into a precious gem, something to smile aboutand
feel good about.
Let's live the moment, be conscious of it, feel it, and give Allah the
credit, and in doing so let's turn the moment into a circle of
sunshine and barakah.
P.S. Isn't that the most amazing photo above? I absolutely love it. I
want to roll around in that grass, bathe in that river, call the
adhaan to the sky, and build a small house among those
trees.SubhanAllah.

In a season of consumerist madness, let’s be grateful

At this time of year the stores are pushing their sales at us.
Advertising is everywhere. There if a frenzy to buy, buy, buy. Let's
realize that this is not a spiritual way of life.It's not an
appropriate lifestyle for someone who is dedicated to God. The
consumerist madnessis a deception. There's nojoy or peace attached to
it. It's a shallow illusion.
Look at what society has done to itself in the nameof consumerism. A
day of thanks (Thanksgiving) has become the prelude to "Black Friday",
the biggest shopping day of the year. It used to be that Black Friday
did not begin until Friday morning, out of respect for Thanksgiving.
Then the starting gun was moved to midnight, and now it has crept into
Thursday evening. Nothing is sacred.
The Prophet 'Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus the son of Mary), peace be upon
him, has been turned into a marketing strategy. His purported birthday
has become a month of shopping insanity, presided over by a mythical
sub-deity named Santa. People go into debt, they fight over sale
goods… no mention is made of faith.
We Muslims fall prey to the same consumerist lifestyle. Sometimes the
holy month of Ramadan becomes a month of shopping, sleeping and binge
eating, astaghfirullah.
Let us – Christians, Muslims, Jews and all people of God – not follow
this path. Let's hew to a way of sacrifice,zakat (purification),
sadaqah (charity), zuhd (giving up material luxury). We don't have to
be monks, but we must focus on the things that matter: faith and
family.
There are movements that advocate a simple living, back-to-nature,
low-impact lifestyle. In Islam this is called zuhd , which could be
translated as detachmentor asceticism. Zuhd is a choice that a person
makes to give up the hunger for material possessions and transgressive
carnal experiences, and live a simple lifestyle dedicatedto God.
That's what we need.
The faith in our hearts is more important than the brand name of the
clothes we wear. Where our feet carry us – to someplace good or bad –
is more important than the cost of our shoes. Thesincerity in our
hearts is more important than anygift. May Allah help us to see what
is important in life.
The Enjoyment of Delusion
There's a powerful verse from the Bible, Proverbs 30:8-9:
Give me neither poverty nor riches,
grant me only my share of bread to eat,
for fear that surrounded by plenty, I should fall away
and say, "Yahweh – who is Yahweh?"
or else in destitution, take to stealing
and profane the name of my God.
(Yahweh is an ancient Hebrew name for God).
If you visit the shopping malls at Christmastime, and read the news
stories of people lining up from the night before and huddling in
sleeping bags in order to buy the latest gadgets, then trampling each
other in the rush; if you turn on the TV to the usual Christmas
comedies and "Frosty the Snowman" cartoons, you see that God has been
forgotten, and has even become taboo. It's not politically correct to
speak of God. Just watch what we broadcast, be hypnotizedby our
Christmas elevatormusic, buy and forget…
Allah says about this:
"Know that the life of thisworld is but amusement and diversion and
adornment and boasting to one another and competition in increase of
wealth and children – like the example of a rainwhose [resulting]
plant growth pleases the tillers;then it dries and you see it turned
yellow; then it becomes debris. And in the Hereafter is severe
punishment and forgiveness from Allah and approval. And what is the
worldly life except the enjoyment of delusion." – Quran, Surat
Al-Hadeed, 57:20
This theme is struck repeatedly in the Quran. The amusement and
adornment of the dunya is an illusion that dries upand crumbles like a
corn stalk, and becomes dust. It is empty, the enjoyment of delusion .
Wow. That phrase, "enjoyment of delusion", makes me think of a madman
alone in a room,tied in a straight jacket, engaged in a pleasant
delusion playing only in his mind.
I know people who have a bedroom devoted to allthe junk that they have
bought but do not use. They never enter that room and the door is kept
locked. Isn't that a kind of mental illness?
Gratitude
How do we resist the onslaught of the season? How do we remember Allah?
The greatest tool in our toolbox is gratitude. By looking at what
we've been blessed with, our hearts become content. Socrates commented
thatcontentment is natural wealth, while luxury is artificial poverty.
Contentment does not mean complacency or passivity; it refers to a
state of awareness of ourblessings, and gratitude for the smallest to
the greatest provisions – the tiniest cells in our bodies,to the grand
earth itself.
Let's become aware of what we have: the food on our plates, our
ability to see and hear, the love and health of our families, sanity,
intelligence, knowledge… these thingsare huge. When we openour eyes
and start to see, then we become content and happy, and we see how
meaningless are things are like big-screenTVs, the latest smartphone,
or another new dress.
Let's remember Allah the Eternal, and think of our aakhirah
(hereafter). While others are are hungering for more, let's be
grateful for what we have, and give.
Our local Muslim community center here inFresno participates in
feeding the poor at soup kitchens; and is currently organizing a
winter blanket and coat drive for the homeless. I encourage every
Muslim community to do something similar. Get Muslim adults and
children involved in the process of giving, whether to needy Muslims
or non-Muslims.
It's liberating to ignore the sales and seasonal hype. When we abandon
the idea of acquiring goods, and instead focus on giving, we dump the
whole propaganda machine on its head. We change everything. Whilethe
frantic buying of "stuff" makes us forget Allah, gratitude brings us
back to Him. That's why Allah brings together gratitude and
remembrance of Allah:
"So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me and do notdeny Me."
- Quran, Surat Al-Baqarah, 2:152
Being grateful to Allah means that our hearts become filled with love
for Him; our bodies are obedient to Him; our tongues praise Him; we
receive His favors with humility; we thank Him for everything we have
received; and we use what He has given us for good. We could never
repay Allah. The least we can do is thank him.
By being grateful and separating ourselves from the consumerist
craziness, we set an example of how to live without avarice. We free
our spirits, remove a burden from our backs, and shine a light for
ourselves and others.