{Quick Reflections 21} Reading; Words or Meanings?!

Let us start with several questions. Try to stop after each question and give approximate answers.
How many books have you read during the past year? How many pages was each? How many sentences was each page? How many words was each sentence? Finally how many meanings or lessons did each word convey?
Now let us reverse the process! How many meanings or lessons have you learnt from your readings during the past year? Moreover, what percentage of these lessons have you applied in your life? Even further, how many of these did you teach others?

Now let us move to a few stories. Our Beloved’s (SAWS) companions (RA) were said to learn the Qur’an over several years. Why did it take them so long?
During the Prophet’s (SAWS) life even the disbelievers were moved and affected by “words” of the Qur’an. On the other hand nowadays even Muslims are not moved by the same “words”. Why is that?
Sheikh Sha’rawy (RAA) once said that knowledge is a Divine trust. It is a blessing initially given to all. If the servant continuously, persistently and sincerely applies that knowledge to his life and at the same time honestly and keenly spreads that knowledge to others, Allah (SWT) will bestow upon him unlimited smooth flow of knowledge.
Amr Khaled once said that it was tough for him initially to read religious books. In order to come out from his readings and be able to say 10 sentences he had to read a 100. Later on with his persistence on teaching others all that he learns he came to remember a 100 percent of his readings thus increasing his efficiency from 10 to 100%!

Our former scholars used to say that all knowledge is a calamity over their seekers except that which is practically applied by them.

What are we discussing here? Three main integrated issues; meanings of words, application of these meanings to our lives and spreading knowledge.

Now let us go through each one separately.

Words and their meanings; this is really interesting but sad! In our age repetition of words out of their true scope and excessive flow of information in addition to twisting of meanings to serve certain goals has led to a crisis the whole world is going through. Words have lost their true authentic meanings. With that loss values were lost. Twisted meanings of words are used to acquire materialistic gains. Meanings which are supposed to be a spiritual value are now subject for trade and business.
All the above occurrences can explain why we do not react to Qura’n (words and meanings) as even the disbelievers used to do hundreds of years ago. Isn’t it about time we stopped at every word and every meaning and thought about what that entails, how we interact with it and how it affects our lives?
Words like ‘love’, ‘friendship’ and ‘sincerity’ have completely lost their true values. Languages constituted of words and meanings are live and vibrant creatures that reflect the nature of human beings. Loosing true meanings of words means loosing our humanity.

The above principle automatically leads to the following question. How have we used words and their meanings practically in our lives? Are we really implementing or applying the true meanings of the words and values we learn to our lives? Or do we just read, read and read then throw all this behind our backs or just memorize it in our brains without truly applying them practically. It is the practical practice of meanings that keeps these meanings alive and preserves the meanings of words.
To give an example of how this can be done, I know of someone who spent 3 years reading one book; Kholok al-Muslim by Sheikh al-Ghazaly. When asked why, he said I could not move from one chapter to another without implementing the meanings of what I am reading to my life and it was not an easy task!
This is not a call for reading less but rather for meditating, understanding and applying much more.

Finally this leads to another question. What have we done in order to ensure that meanings are communicated and understood by others? In addition to practically implementing them have we taught all that to our surrounding community? How eager are we to teach others what we know? Zakat of money is 2.5% but zakat of knowledge is 100%!

One should not wait until he is asked or consulted to convey his knowledge, but seek to proactively teach it. A carrier of any knowledge should look and search for students or learners and not wait until he is looked for and found by other knowledge seekers. This way Allah with His Generosity will make knowledge seek him and ease for him the process of acquiring it.

Please read the first half of this article again.
Happy reading, happy meanings :-)

{Quick Reflections 14} The Bucket!

I am sure most if not all of us have done the following "experiment".
Bring a bucket that has a little hole in its bottom. Put it in a dry bathtub under the faucet. Open the faucet to fill the bucket. The little hole at the bottom of the bucket will allow some unintended escape of water from the bucket. There will be a latent time during which the bucket becomes full with to its brim with water. That latent period in which no water will flow out from the top of the bucket after it becomes totally full will depend on two things. First is the speed of flow of water from the faucet into the bucket and second is the size of the hole in the bottom of the bucket. The more intense the flow into the bucket the faster you will get it full and ready to pour. The wider the unintended hole the slower you will get it full inspite of the fast input from above. What will flow out of the bucket is excalty what was flowing into it from the faucet. If the input was water then the output is water and if the input is liquid black tar then the output is liquid black tar and if the input is a mix then the output is a mix of both. On the other hand if the input was very slow such that it was steadly drained out through the unintended hole in the bottom of the bucket you will never fill the bucket and hence will never have an output that flows from the top of the bucket and into the bathtub.
Now that is all very basic and any child knows that!

ALLAAH (SWT) teaches us through His words in the Qur'aan to give very simple examples and similitudes when He (SWT) explains to us the most complex aspects of human nature through diverse and beautiful parabels in the Noble Qur'aan. Consequently one learns how to present one's ideas or thoughts to others such there would be greater understanding between all different peoples and each other.

The above given example of the bucket is a very simplified yet accurate example or similitude to people's diverse roles in life accroding to what they choose for themselves.

The bucket here is an example of one's mind and heart.
What is coming out of the faucet is what you are feeding your mind and heart with.
The little unintended hole at the bottom is forgetfulness and sins.
The bathtub in which the bucket is placed in is the surrounding community.

Accordingly if you continuously feed your heart and mind with useful knowledge and rememberance of ALLAAH, after a period of time you will reach a stage where they are fully saturated with such knowledge and rememberance. If you continue feeding them you will eventually reach a stage will you will start overflowing and hence benefiting your surrounding community with the knowledge you acquired with time. The faster and more persistently you feed or fill your mind and heart the more you will pour into the surrounding community and maybe flood the whole area.
However we have to put in mind 2 important factors. The first is the forgetfulness and sins. The less you have of these the more you will be able to contain the input and hence be able to give to others and viceversa.
The second thing is that there is a latency period during which you are filling and saturating your mind and heart during which there is no production or overflow that would benefit the surrounding. This period is very crucial and dangerous. Many people give up during the latency period and end up neither being fully saturated themselves nor benefiting the surrounding. That period might range from 5-25 years depending on how fast is the knowledge flowing in and the size of the hole (amount of sins and forgetfulness one does) through which one loses his input.

On the other hand if you feed the mind and heart with selfishness and greed or any sinful input you will end up being saturated with them and eventually negatively influencing your surrounding community with them.

Finally if the input is very modest and is nearly equal to the loss though the little hole in the bottom you will end up neither being saturated with anything nor affecting your surrounding community.

To the first category belong the creative sceintists and sincere scholars who are few.
To the second category belong the evil arrogant people in the world.
To the third category belong the majority of people on earth who are born and die without having a role to play that affects their community.

May we all be from the first category and may we all raise our children to be amongst them.

{Quick Reflections 8} The Inner Why

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).

{Quick Reflections 6}The Why! 2

Some very religious people might question the importance of answering the "why" and claim that you have to obey without asking questions. They claim that you have to learn as much as you can but without asking for the reason and wisdom behind every fact there is and every order you are given.
Well, these very religious people are very mistaken. I will ask them one question; do you claim that you are better than Prophet Musa (AS)? Are you stronger than and mightier in your faith than one of the "Prophets with determination" (uly al-"azm min ar-rusul)? Of course the answer is no.
The innate human nature that genuinly seeks the Truth always looks for answers and explanations and does not take things for granted. An example of a pure Truth seeker and someone with the deepest of faith and strongest of will who does not take things for granted is Prophet Musa (AS). We all know his story with al-Khidr (AS) that is mentioned in surat al-Kahf, which is so important that we try to recite it every Friday. Here is the initial part of it.


"M ‍ûsa (Moses) said to him, "Shall I closely follow you on condition that you teach me of what you have been taught, right mindedness?* Said he "Surely you will never be able to (endure) with me patiently.* And how should you (endure) patiently what you have not encompassed in your cognizance?* He said, "You will find me, in case Allah (so) decides, patient; and I will not disobey you in any command (of yours)" (TMQ, 18:66-69).



Notice the underlined ayah 68. Innate pure human nature refuses to accept and be patient with something it does not understand the reason and wisdom behind it. The very well determined and deeply faithed Prophet Musa (AS) later in the story could not keep up with his promise of not asking "why" thrice!!



On the other hand if the answer to the "why" is known one attains the strongest of determination and deepest of faith. It is not just knowledge that is taken for granted that makes one a strong believer. It is the realization of the wisdom behind everything contained in that knowledge that deepens one's faith and enables one to be more steadfast. And that is why reverts to Islaam from other faiths (who came to deeply understand what Islaam is about ) are usually stronger and more giving Muslims than those born into Islaam (who take Islaam for granted).


And as Friedrich Nietzsche says "He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How".

May ALLAAH grant us wisdom.