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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

{Quick Reflections 8} The Inner Why

Posted by Badeea at 10:10 AM
Want to, Have to or Used to?!

Putting aside all bad deeds and focusing only on the good deeds I used to look around for people doing good deeds. I was eager to learn from them as ALLAAH (SWT) says, "wafee zalik falyatanafas al-mutanafisoon". As usual after knowing what they are doing and how came the why, the inner why?
So anyone doing any good deed must be doing it for one of 3 main reasons;
1. To please people and to gain their praise which is a form of shirk (ryaa'). It could even be for the sake of feeling fulfilled and to satisfy one's ego ("ujb). This is the most common and prevelant intention amongst all people of the world of all religions and beliefs that drives people to do good deeds. That intention leads its owner to be the first dweller of hell.
2. To fool people and make them think he is a Muslim while actually he hates Islaam which is hypocrasy (nifaaq). That intentions leads its owner to the lowest part of hell.
3. To obey ALLAAH which is the only truthful and sincere intention.
May we all be of those who do good deeds for the pure sake of ALLAAH.

Now those doing the good deeds for the sake of ALLAAH (which includes gaining His contentment, aspiring for heaven and fear from hell) will be doing it for one of 3 main reasons;
1. Out of habit, so one is used to doing that good deed. It is a passive process in which one has been doing a certain deed for some time and has become used to doing it and does not perform it with much attention and effort.
2. Out of self-discipline, so one has to do that good deed as one is forcing himself to start or even continue doing a certain good deed. It is an active process and it certainly needs a lot of attention and effort and thus it is of a much greater caliber than the previous one. It is usually difficult and involves a struggle.
3. Out of pure love and passion to ALLAAH, so one wants to do that good deed. This is a very active process that involves a lot of attention and effort but at the same time is so sweet and desirable. Now this is the best reason one can have behind a good deed one is doing.

Now have we evaluated oursleves and made sure that our motive and the why behind our good deeds, every single one of them, is just for the sake of ALLAAH and not because i want to satisfy my ego or gain people's praise? And after doing so have we categorized ourselves and defined the exact catergory we belong to? Did i ask myself before and after doing any good deed, why did i do it? Did i do it because I am used to, have to or want to do it?

May we all be amongst those who want to do good deeds for the pure sake of ALLAAH out of pure love and passion for Him (AWJ).

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2009 THEME: Islam in the West and Our Children (Discussion & Resources regularly updated)

There is increasing concern that second and third generation Muslims in the West are mostly no longer Muslims so they actually end up adding to the Christian or Atheist population of the West, albeit racially from a non-Western origin. Accordingly, the ratios mentioned in the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU) would be correct in regards to race or ethnicity but not necessarily to religion.

It is a grave danger facing our children and grand children from a real life stand point as statistically only 1/5 of the second generation stay really Muslims when they grow up and are independent and almost non from the third generation are Muslims. And that is why the Western authorities are still permitting the immigration of Muslims inspite of the figures provided in the above video. They know that on the long term the descendants of Muslims in the West leave Islam because their parents raised them up with an Eastern mentality in a Western society instead of an Islamic mentality that encompasses all cultures.

You can see more about that by Jeffrey Lang; an ex-atheist American Mathematics University Professor who reverted to Islam in 1982. He has also written 3 books that I highly recommend; "Struggling to Surrender", "Even Angels Ask" and "Losing my Religion; A Call for Help".
Now I will leave you to enjoy 2 short excerpts from one of his lectures followed by links to his most important full presentation regarding our children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmqN75NI0xg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT1KGyxBXC0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMANKaX8khw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgivQJKtQME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga2rIUWcPPs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYb2v3Yx1LY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhMN_TZavW0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHeM0H0EMAw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD-YefJH9x0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2eVOKjOqHE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBQp7aZjxjc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4_xxQVGU44

Here is a solution that is yet to be implemented.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geRM4AlFBOU&NR=1

Raising children here is not an easy task ofcourse but if we do it the right way they will be true Muslims in shaa Allaah who are "Informed Muslims" rather than "Muslims by inheritance" like their counterparts in the East. Hopefully they will then be a much better generation than ours.

Quickly, I do believe that the best 4 authors (for example, there are many others but these are my favorite) who could guide us through this difficult process are Yahiya Emerick, Jeffrey Lang, Jamal Badawi and Dalia Mogahed.

Here are some links for future reference and for an ongoing learning process that I have started collecting slowly.
Please spread the below information to all your Muslim contacts in the West.

Jeffrey Lang:
http://meccacentric.com/jeffrey_lang.html I highly recommend the lecture titled "The Purpose of Life". It has true meanings that I have not come across in any Arabic literature.

Yahiya Emerick:
Articles:
http://www.islamicedfoundation.com/articles/articles.htm
http://www.islamfortoday.com/yahiyaemerick.htm I highly recommend reading and spreading the last article in this link by the name of "The Confusion of the Scholars"
Books:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_adv_b/?search-alias=stripbooks&unfiltered=1&field-keywords=&field-author=Yahiya+Emerick&field-title=&field-isbn=&field-publisher=&node=&url=&field-feature_browse-bin=&field-binding_browse-bin=&field-subject=&field-language=&field-dateop=&field-datemod=&field-dateyear=&sort=relevancerank&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=29&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=8 There are only 14 books, about half for adults and the other half for kids. The extra are just repetitions.

Jamal Badawi:
Many products including books, articles and lectures mostly for adults. You can find them by searching his name online. My favorite is;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMfWURGcvBI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HXGRYaUy6g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyMD_tE6U68
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AixgiXpAFTY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WUgbgLgMXM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3VLRoQ3qUw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5UvvkCDrm4

Dalia Mogahed: (Obama's adviser)
Has one book so far but has a great potential. "Who Speaks for Islam".
You can watch her debate with Irshad Manji (an openly Lesbian Canadian Muslim who is distorting the picture of Islam in the name of "Progressive Islam")http://fora.tv/2008/07/01/Irshad_Manji_and_Dalia_Mogahed_-_Who_Speaks_for_Islam

Finally here is a website for a store that sells lots of Islamic products including Islamic cartoon DVDs in English and Arabic for kids.
http://www.astrolabe.com/category/17/Cartoons_and_KidVid.html?sid=ceb7c5cf8de15b8f1cb92ad29e183a44
 

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