Proof of A Muslim

In this century
Searching for a Muslim identity
Is difficult as it can be!
And that is a travesty.

A Muslim by name
Daring and all game
Following others without a damn
Leading a path to condemn

Where has our prestige go?
All we are willing to throw
Just to follow
Our desires and egos

The way we dress
Nothing Islamic we stressed
The way we talk
The sins we chalked

Blind imitation
Without any tinge of apprehension
Just for our satisfaction –
“Cross our fingers” we uttered without hesitation*

Imagine the expression we used
The words we choose
It should reflect the truth
To be a Muslim that is the proof

A Muslim not by name only
As he is not lonely
To the Ummah he belongs solely**
To Allah he abides boldly

Rasulullah (pbuh) has warned
As a Muslim – “a stranger cloak” we donned***
While persevering an Islamic identity
In this world of insanity

Then the proof of a Muslim
Is to love Allah from within
In words, actions and intention all in
Thus keeping away all the shaiyatin****

Difficult as it can be
A Muslim identity –
In this life, it’s a sanctuary
Thus maintain it with full dignity

Penned by Firdaus@Qalamuddin 17/09/2010

* Hadith - Bukhari and Muslim, Narrated Abu Sa'id, r.a. “The Prophet (SAAWS) said, "Surely, you will follow the ways of those nations who were before you, in everything as one arrow resembles another, (i.e. just like them), so much so that even if they entered a hole of a sand-lizard, you would enter it." They said, "O Allaah’s Messenger! Do you mean to say that we will follow the Jews and the Christians?" He (SAAWS) replied, "Whom else?" (By meaning the Jew and Christians)

Sahih Muslim Book 34 Hadith 6448: Abu Sa'id al-Khudri reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: You would tread the same path as was trodden by those before you inch by inch and step by step so much so that if they had entered into the hole of the lizard, you would follow them in this also. We said: Allah's Messenger, do you mean Jews and Christians (by your words)" those before you"? He said: Who else (than those two religious groups)?

** Noble Qur'an - Al-Imran 3:103 “And hold fast, all of you together, to the Rope of Allah (i.e. this Qur'an) and be not divided among yourselves, and remember Allah's Favour on you, for you were enemies one to another, but Allah joined your hearts together, so that, by Allah's Grace, you became brethren (in Islamic Faith) and you were on the brink of a pit of Fire, and Allah saved you from it. Thus Allah makes Allah's Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.,) clear to you, that you may be guided.”

*** Muslim (145) from Abu Hurayrah who said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Islam began as something strange and will revert to being strange as it began, so give glad tidings to the strangers.”

**** Noble Qur’an As-Saad 38:82–83 . (Iblis) said: "Then, by Thy power, I will put them all in the wrong -- "Except Thy Servants amongst them, sincere and purified (by Thy grace)."

Conversations with the Creator

Everyday
Five times a day
Or even more should you choose
An opportunity
Unsurpassed
To connect with our Creator
To worship
To repent
To request
To protest
A direct hotline
To unburden our worry-load
Oases of serenity
In the spiritual desert
Of today’s hustle-bustle
A means to take stock
A reminder that nothing stops life’s clock
Have you had your conversation with your Creator today?

ANONYMOUS

Dilemma Of A Friend

When a friend commits a sin
“Stop! – As advising him will create a scene”
As usual my mind was playing this hymn
When I was about to talk to him

For our common good
Speak out I should *
But the word seems to stuck at my throat
I was numbed I choked

Courage let me down
I looked at him and turned around
As I do not want to offend
Oh Allah, What is my defense?

I failed as a friend
This is a common trend
The good hidden by our own hand
When sin aplenty we didn’t dare comment

As a Muslim I failed
Not that the action will take me to jail
As I didn’t remind a friend in need
That a sin he did commit!

How and why I arrived at this stage?
A weak Iman still haunting my life’s page
I fear Allah’s rage **
For my impotence to gauge ***

I pray and hope to be strong
To be able to tell him what he did was wrong
This is the deed of a true friend indeed
Oh Allah, give me strength give me what I need

In this modern world religion is a private affair
We don’t talk we don’t share
The truth and good lay hidden
Weaken by our deeds – we forget to remind and pardon

As Muslim we are all brother
I keep telling myself I should be bother ****
But when a sin is committed in front of me
All I did was just watch and see!

The sins I didn’t stop
As I fear losing a friend losing a job
Oh Allah please forgive my weakness
As I fill my days with this sadness

This is a the dilemma of a friend
When wrong we tried to fend
In Islam this is the message send
As stopping a friend from a sin is just grand*****

Penned by Qalamuddin Dated 02/01/2011

* Abu Sa'id al-Khudri said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, 'Whoever of you sees something wrong should change it with his hand; if he cannot, then with his tongue; if he cannot, then with his heart, and that is the weakest form of belief.'" [Muslim]

** Al-Quran 7:165 “We rescued those who forbidden the evil and seized those who did wrong with a harsh punishment because they were deviators.”

*** What is Halal is clear and what is Haram is clear. Midway between them are things which people do not know whether they are Halal or Haram. He who keeps away from them will protect his religion and will be saved. He who aproaches them is very near to Haram, like a shepherd wandering his flock near Hima (protected grazing land), who could soon enter the forbidden area, and Allah's protected area is what He has declared forbidden

**** Al-Quran 9:71 “The believers, men and women, are friends of one another. They command what is right and forbid what is wrong.”

***** An-Nu'man ibn Bashir reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "The metaphor of someone who stops at the limits of Allah and someone who transgresses them is that of some people who draw lots on a boat. Some of them get the upper deck and some of them the lower. When those in the lower deck want to get water, they have to pass by those above them. Then they say, 'If we were to make a hole in our deck, we would not have to bother those above us.' If they were to let them do what they wanted, all of them would perish. If they seize hold of their hands and stop them, they will be saved and all of them will be saved." [al-Bukhari]

Dilemma Of A Friend

When a friend commits a sin
“Stop! – As advising him will create a scene”
As usual my mind was playing this hymn
When I was about to talk to him

For our common good
Speak out I should *
But the word seems to stuck at my throat
I was numbed I choked

Courage let me down
I looked at him and turned around
As I do not want to offend
Oh Allah, What is my defense?

I failed as a friend
This is a common trend
The good hidden by our own hand
When sin aplenty we didn’t dare comment

As a Muslim I failed
Not that the action will take me to jail
As I didn’t remind a friend in need
That a sin he did commit!

How and why I arrived at this stage?
A weak Iman still haunting my life’s page
I fear Allah’s rage **
For my impotence to gauge ***

I pray and hope to be strong
To be able to tell him what he did was wrong
This is the deed of a true friend indeed
Oh Allah, give me strength give me what I need

In this modern world religion is a private affair
We don’t talk we don’t share
The truth and good lay hidden
Weaken by our deeds – we forget to remind and pardon

As Muslim we are all brother
I keep telling myself I should be bother ****
But when a sin is committed in front of me
All I did was just watch and see!

The sins I didn’t stop
As I fear losing a friend losing a job
Oh Allah please forgive my weakness
As I fill my days with this sadness

This is a the dilemma of a friend
When wrong we tried to fend
In Islam this is the message send
As stopping a friend from a sin is just grand*****

Penned by Qalamuddin Dated 02/01/2011

* Abu Sa'id al-Khudri said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, 'Whoever of you sees something wrong should change it with his hand; if he cannot, then with his tongue; if he cannot, then with his heart, and that is the weakest form of belief.'" [Muslim]

** Al-Quran 7:165 “We rescued those who forbidden the evil and seized those who did wrong with a harsh punishment because they were deviators.”

*** What is Halal is clear and what is Haram is clear. Midway between them are things which people do not know whether they are Halal or Haram. He who keeps away from them will protect his religion and will be saved. He who aproaches them is very near to Haram, like a shepherd wandering his flock near Hima (protected grazing land), who could soon enter the forbidden area, and Allah's protected area is what He has declared forbidden

**** Al-Quran 9:71 “The believers, men and women, are friends of one another. They command what is right and forbid what is wrong.”

***** An-Nu'man ibn Bashir reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "The metaphor of someone who stops at the limits of Allah and someone who transgresses them is that of some people who draw lots on a boat. Some of them get the upper deck and some of them the lower. When those in the lower deck want to get water, they have to pass by those above them. Then they say, 'If we were to make a hole in our deck, we would not have to bother those above us.' If they were to let them do what they wanted, all of them would perish. If they seize hold of their hands and stop them, they will be saved and all of them will be saved." [al-Bukhari]