Face or Feet? - Islamic Stories

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Once a Muslim scholar was flying to a country with an airplane. When
the time for salah came, he went to the bathroom to make wudhu
(ablution). Since,the bathrooms in airplanes are very small, he had to
open the door to lift up his foot to the sink. An air hostess cameto
him and told him not to wash his feet in the sink because they are
dirty. The scholar calmly asked the hostess "How many times do you
washyour face?" The hostess replied "Usually once or twice." Then the
scholar replied "I wash my feet five times a day for prayers.
Therefore, my feet are cleaner than your face."
The purpose of this storyis not to get a good laugh. However, it
teaches us how regular we should be about prayers.

Who goes first? - Islamic Stories

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Narrated Jabir bin 'Abdullah:
The Prophet collected every two martyrs of Uhud (in one grave) and
then he would ask,"Which of them knew the Quran more?" And if one of
them was pointed out for him as having more knowledge, he would put
him first in the Lahd.The Prophet said, "I will be a witness on these
onthe Day of Resurrection."Then he ordered them tobe buried with their
blood on their bodies and he did not have them washed.
Source: Sahih Bukhari Volume 2, Book 23, Number 436.
At the time of Rasulullah (SAW), people were honoured according to the
knowledge of Islam but sadly today, people are honoured according to
the knowledge of thismaterial world.
May Allah give us the ability to appreciate those who excel in the
knowledge of Islam.

While praying to Allah for a blessing, one must also ask Him for the moral values with which to appreciate it

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There are innumerable blessings even in the lives of people living
under the most difficult conditions. However, most people, instead of
realizing these blessings,generally focus on deficiencies before all
else. They forget the existence of hundreds ofbeauties around them
and get saddened by those blessings they could not possess. They
consider themselves to be badly wronged and deprived of the best
things in the world. Theyspend almost all their lives pondering about
these missing things andthe grievance they experience. While
concentrating entirely on those, they remain unaware of the fact that
there are many blessingsaround them, which are created for them, at
every single moment.
Naturally everyone on earth would not be living under the exact same
circumstances. Someone may lack a blessing enjoyed by someone else.
One may be very healthy while another struggles against a disease. One
may be rich and anothermay be poor. In many aspects of life when the
blessings given are compared, they may be different from each other.
And in all these, there is much good and wisdom for everyone. But even
without considering such different circumstances, the blessings people
enjoy in general are so profuse that they should all rejoice at these
great blessings from Allah and be very happy.
Our Almighty Lord says that these blessings are innumerable, even just
in general terms:
If you tried to number Allah's blessings, you could never count them.
Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat an-Nahl, 18)
He has given you everything you have asked Him for. If you tried to
number Allah's blessings, you could never count them. Man isindeed
wrongdoing, ungrateful. (Surah Ibrahim, 34)
And there is a great secret created by Allah behind all these
blessings. If one cannot see the delights he enjoys; cannot appreciate
the favor of Allah over him and is inclined to think only about
deficiencies, then he can never be happy. That is because if Allah
gives him even more blessings, even if He bestows all those blessings
he grieves overnot having, in just the form he would like themto be,
that person will still – because of the moral values he possesses –
see only what he lacks, and instead of being happy with what he has,
will grieve for what he does not. Because what this person actually
missing is not the blessings he does not possess, but rather the
ability to appreciate the mercy, love and blessings of Allah. So long
as he fails to attain profound moralvalues in that regard, even if all
the blessings in the world are bestowed on him, he will still be
unable to rejoice in these blessing.
Furthermore, someone who knows how to appreciate the blessings;who
feels the love of Allah in every beauty he sees, great or small; and
who is filled with joy because of the love of Allah; will be very
happy even if he is lives under the worst conditions in the world. No
worldly joy can replace the happiness that person enjoys. The joy and
peace that such a personexperiences never ends. Even if he faces
hundreds of troubles and destitutions, he will still experience the
spiritual excitement of the presence of one single blessing until the
end of his life. He gives his thanks to Allah with love and passion
for He is the One Who has created that blessing for him. He will
experience the joy of feeling the love, infinite kindness, mercy,
friendship, closeness and protectionof Allah even in that single
blessing. Even under the most difficult circumstances, he enjoysthe
beauty of knowing that Allah is with him, that He is closer to him
than his own jugular vein, that He will be his closest friend and will
never withhold His Help from him for as long as he is sincere.
Thinking that the existence of only this spiritual delightconstitutes
one of the biggest blessings created for him in this world, he gives
his thanks to Allah as much as he possibly can, in themost sincere and
candid manner.
Therefore, it is not the blessings themselves or their number that
will make a person happy. It is living by the moral values with which
to appreciate them. Unless one attains these moral values, it is
literally impossible for him to be made happy, in the true sense of
the word, by the existence of blessings. That is the secret imparted
by Allah in the Qur'an with the words: "And when your Lord announced:
'If you are grateful, I will certainly give you increase, but if you
are ungrateful, My punishment is severe'." (Surah Ibrahim, 7) That
secret is giving thanks for the blessings and living by the moral
values with which to appreciate them. Or else someone without faith
may also rejoice at blessings. Or a nonsane person may also be pleased
when he is given a present, something to eat or something to wear. But
that joy is merely a physical reaction obtained without the use of
reason, stemming from the person having acquired a worldly gain. True
joy is one that is experienced through love of Allah, with reason and
the consciousness of faith. That is why, when a believer looks at his
life he must reflect on whether he truly experienced that joy through
the blessings heenjoyed. If a person only experiences the physical joy
in the face of blessings, that means there is a serious gap in his
life that needs to be made good as a matter of urgency. Because this
may mean not giving proper thanks to Allah, failing to properly
appreciate blessings or even ingratitude for them. (Allah knows the
truth.) And a person's unhappiness despite all the countless blessings
at his disposal, his constantly seing deficiencies throughout his life
and grieving overthem, may be a punishment from Allah for this
ingratitude. Allahreminds people of this inthe Qur'an:
Remember Me – I will remember you. Give thanks to Me and do not be
ungrateful . (Surat al-Baqara, 152)
... When We let a man taste mercy from Us he exults in it. But if
something bad strikes him for what he has done he is ungrateful.
(Surat ash-Shura, 48)
That is how We repaid them for their ingratitude. Are any but the
ungrateful repaid like this ? (Surah Saba', 17)
Curse man for his ingratitude! (Surah 'Abasa, 17)
Truly man is ungrateful to his Lord and indeed he bears witness to
that. (Surat Al-'Adiyat, 6-7)
You can ask forgiveness for them, or not ask forgiveness for them.
Even if you asked forgiveness for them seventy times, Allah still
would not forgive them. That is because they have rejected Allah and
His Messenger . Allah does not guide deviant people. (Surat
at-Tawba,80)
In fact, one can only eat so many meals a day; even if he wants to eat
more than 3-4 times a day, the body will not accept. Even if one has
hundreds of outfits and changes them all the time, one can still only
wear a certain amount of them in a day. If one had hundreds of homes
or cars, he can still only use one at a time. Even ifone could go
wherever one likes on holiday, onecan still only be in one place at a
time. Even if one never sleeps – whichis in itself impossible – one
can still only enjoy these blessings for 24 hours a day. Therefore,
the life of this world has not been created in sucha way that
happiness could be attained from worldly things themselves.
The joy in blessings that stems from love of Allah, on the other hand,
is a great blessing to be enjoyed forever under all conditions and at
every moment. And it is a huge privilege and a great blessing for a
person who attained such morality, to be able to see the signs of
Allah'slove wherever he looks. Because that is the source of a joy and
happiness that will never end. For that reason, rather than
concentrating on the presence or absence of ablessing, one should
rather reflect on whether or not he has managed to acquire this
understanding.

'Any disaster that strikes you is through what your own hands have earned' (Surat Ash-Shura: 30)

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There is an important characteristic of the lower self of a man.
When something good befalls on one; when he receives goodness and
kindness from the people around him; when things go the way he wants
them to go, in a way that would cheer him up and make him happy; he
feels rather complacent. He believes that the beautiful things going
on around him and the benevolence he receives are taking their sources
from him. He thinks the reason why things go well for him and why
course of events go the way he hoped them to go, is because he strives
a lot and because he is a good person who makesa great effort in many
subjects and because he acts reasonable and precautious. In other
words, he is of the idea that he had earned all the good things
befalling on him to the smallest detail.
However when the sameperson faces things that he doesn't want to face;
when goodness and benevolence is not anymore offered to him by people
around him; when things do not give the results he wants them to give;
when the blessings in his life lessen and some difficulties and
troubles arise; he would not think that "all those, again to the
smallest detail, befall on him because he earned themall himself". On
the contrary, he believes that he did not deserve any of those things
happening to him, he feels hard done-by and wronged. He even
thinksthat all these things befall on him because hehas been too good
towards everyone and thus he lives in the psychology of a person"being
wronged".
Most of the time, a person living through these things would not stop
to think: "Could there be something wrong with me? Could it be that I
have some wrong beliefs and a wrong point of view? Dothe things that
befall on me have something to do with such wrong beliefs I have or
with mymorality? Would the goodness and beauties in my life be any
different if I acted somehow different? Could it be that I have been
experiencing all these because I earned them due to the flaws I have
in my morality?"
Had he been thinking like this even for a very short time; and instead
of looking for the problem in other details,had he sincerely censured
himself; he would have realized the truth which in fact is very
evident.
Allah revealed in the Qur'an that: "Any disasterthat strikes you is
through what your own hands have earned" (Surat Ash-Shura: 30)
This verse gives a personthe true point of view with which he could
evaluate the things he is experiencing in a correctand sound manner.
In another verse Allah informs us that; "Those who do good will have
the best and more" (Surah Yunus: 26). Whena person keeps his heart
pure and sincere; when he looks at every event in his life by
searching the approval of Allah; as long as he thinks by the morality
of the Qur'an and approach people only through this point of view
stemming from the Qur'an; Allah would definitely "increase the
beauties in such a person's life".
If he is harboring any evil in himself, if he doesnot think purely by
the Qur'an and if he is adding a little bit of the moral values of
ignorance in his approach, if he evaluates the incidents taking place
not by the Qur'an but by the rules and value judgments of the
ignorance, it is natural for the things that befall on him and the
things he experiences to be just like that. Whatever he manifests
spiritually would somehow reflect on his life.
It is very important not to forget this truth, which has been very
explicitly revealed in the Qur'an. Man is very prone to think
continuously well of himself; he adopts a wrong point of view by
thinking that he earned all the good things that befall on them but
that he never deserved (Allahis beyond such claims) the troubles he
experiences. To think on these verses of the Qur'an is in fact
sufficient for him to see that these suggestions ofhis lower self are
not true.
Allah is All-Compassionate and Most Merciful. His Mercy extends to all
things. Allah is the One Who loves His servants infinitely, Who
continuously bestows goodness and beauty onthem through concealedand
overt means. Every moment of a person's life is full of thousands of
details in which he can see the love of Allah. And Allah is the Owner
ofthe Infinite Justice. Allah shows His Mercy even ona person who has
committed the worst evils on earth and showshim the ways to salvation.
Allah creates new means every moment for man and inspires his
conscience what is right for him, to abstain from doing wrong, feel
remorse anddesist.
One should see this infinite perfection in Allah's Character and
submit himself to His Justice. If one has some adequacies in his life,
heshould search for the solution of this in his own morality. He
shouldintend to love Allah evenmore; to live by the morality Allah
commandsmore fastidiously; to erase even the smallest evil thoughts
from his heart; to look into every incident through the Qur'anic point
of view; and to live all his life with the accuracy Allah demands.
Then, by the leave of Allah- as Allah promised- all the goods he had
done, would be recompensed with even betters both in this world and in
the Hereafter.
Anyone who acts rightly,male or female, being a mumin, We will give
them a good life and Wewill recompense them according to the best of
what they did. (Surat An-Nahl:97)