whispermelies:

My dear Muslim revert brothers and sisters,

I feel a bit guilty for even attaching ‘revert’ or ‘convert’ to your name. You are Muslims. No words attached. Muslims. Period.

I cannot even begin to fathom how difficult it must be: leaving everything you’ve known for the sake of Allah. Family, friends, and only you know what else you’ve sacrificed for His sake. Those of us who were born into Muslim families have had to face barely nothing when it comes to what you’ve gone through. Being born into a Muslim family is different than researching, choosing, and accepting Islam. Most of the people born into Islam take it for granted. You are the real winners. You aren’t the ones feeling proud for being ‘born’ Muslim and looking down upon those who are new to accepting the faith. And I don’t want to pretend like it doesn’t happen. Sometimes those of us who have been Muslim our whole life do look down upon those who are ‘new’ to Islam. (As if we are better than you just because we’ve ‘been Muslim longer.’

I apologize. I apologize on my behalf and the behalf of the rest of the Muslim Ummah. 1,400 years and we still cannot overcome our personal prejudices. We still feel as if we are ‘something’ because of our lineage, ancestry, and families. I know nothing. I have been taking Islam for granted my whole life. I know barely anything about Islam and what it means to be Muslim. (I’m sure you’ve read the Quran and understood it way more than I have..) I can barely pray my prayers on time. Honestly, if I hadn’t been born into Islam, only Allah knows if I would have been knowledgable enough to accept it. But you are. Allah has showedyou the right way over billions of others. Allah has guided you. Allah has chosen you. If that doesn’t make you feel special, then I don’t know what will. You are special. You are our brothers and sisters in Islam, and you deserve a thousand apologies if we make you feel any different. There are no racial, cultural, or gender boundaries when it comes to the brotherhood and sisterhood of Muslims. The bond of Islam is stronger than even the bond of blood. 

Wish for your brother what you wish for yourself.

I am writing this to tell you that it will all be okay. It’s okay if you don’t understand everything about Islam yet. (I’ve barely even attempted to try and learn about Islam, and I’ve been Muslim for 19 years..) It’s okay if you can’t pronounce the Quran in a perfect manner; it’s okay if you’re Hijaab isn’t pinned on perfectly. It’s okay. Allah is the knower of what is in the hearts, and only He can judge you. The only one you need to please is Him. So ignore everyone who brings you down. You know that mean anon message on your blog claiming that you’re not a ‘real’ Muslim because you’re Hijaab isn’t on the proper way? Ignore it. That man who gives you a dirty look because of your tattoos every time you go to pray Jumaah? Ignore it. You are struggling; you are trying. Things come slowly. Things take time. It is not my job, or anyone else’s for that matter, to degrade and condescend your struggles and hurdles.No one on earth is a perfect Muslim. And the only way that one can judge and bring others down is if his/her affairs are in perfection with what Allah has asked, and there can never be a perfect human being.

Of course it is the responsibility of any Muslim to correct his brother or sister when he sees them doing something wrong; but it is not our responsibility to judge. Especially not those new to the religion. You are Muslims just like anyone else. It doesn’t matter if you’ve only been Muslim for a few years, a few hours, or even a few minutes. Once you have accepted Islam, it is my duty as a fellow Muslim to protect you and your honor. So in addition to my apology, I want you to know that I, and the rest of the billions of Muslims, are your brothers and sisters. We have your back. We are here for you. Yes, we may not always agree on everything, but the fact that you are Muslim, now makes us one. You are a part of me, and I, a part of you.

White, black, yellow, red. Asian, Arab, Caucasian, African, Indian. These mean nothing. They are merely words used to fuel the racist fire. There is no racism in Islam; there is no prejudice in Islam. We swear allegiance to only One. We uphold ourselves to only One. Allah. And that connects us in ways that no nationality, culture, race, or tribe can. 

I am sorry. I am sorry for not always accepting you. I am sorry for those who don’t always accept you. You have your own struggles and your own trials and tests to go through. I can only help you; I am in no position to judge. I myself fall a million miles short of ever becoming an ‘ideal’ Muslim. So I beg you to help me when I fall short of doing my duties as a Muslim, and in return I promise to try my best and help you when you may need help in anything. 

We are united by Islam, and that is a bond that nothing and no one can break. 

May we be brothers and sisters working to stay together for His sake, so that He make keep us together in the gardens of Paradise as well.

You are loved for the sake of Allah.

Don’t ever forget it. 

“A man who has lost all memory of his children, of his occupation, and could barely eat and drink was able to remember not only actions of prayer but verses that were in another language.It was only after spending time with my patient that felt like I was missing something. I was missing that sense of peace and tranquility my patient, even through suffering felt. I wanted that sense of belonging and a part of something that he felt, even with no one around him. I then went to tend to my patient, I was feeding him and as I looked in his eyes I just realized, he was brought to me for a reason and the only thing stopping me from accepting was fear…. not fear in the sense of something bad, but fear of accepting something good, and thinking that I was not worthy like this man….”

Read more: 

Such a beautiful conversion story, very touching and a must read :) 

may Allah grant Cassie, her patient and her brother the highest level of Jannah. Ameen.

“The Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) shook a dry branch of a tree briskly so that all the leaves of the branch fell off. Thereupon, the Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) observed: ‘The sins of those who say prayers drop off as the leaves of this dry branch fell off.’ Then the Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) recited this Ayat of the Qur’an: ‘Establish worship at the two ends of the day and in some watches of the night. Lo! Good deeds annul ill deeds. This is a reminder for the mindful.’” [11:114]

Commentary: The Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam), in his capacity as the best teacher mankind has seen, used a striking simile with a visual aid to impress upon the Sahabah how the Salat purifies a person of their sins.

The leaves of a dry branch fall off easily. He took one and shook it vigorously. It quickly shed its leaves. Having shown this, the Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) told the Sahabah that the prayer causes sins to drop off a person in the same way that the leaves dropped off the dry branch. Having provided them with the incentive for Salat, he then recited the Ayat in which Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) tells us to establish prayer. Good deeds, such as Salat, annul the evil deeds that we accrue over the day.

~Muhammad Rizwan Ali

For more hadith of the day, join this facebook group! 100% satisfaction guaranteed ;) 

39. Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that: The Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wasallam) said: “He whom Allah intends good, He makes him to suffer from some affliction”. [Al-Bukhari]

Commentary: Troubles of this world like grief, calamity, disease, poverty, loss of life and property, etc., have a benign aspect for a Muslim in the sense that on account of them he turns towards Allah and begs mercy and compassion from Him because of which his sins are forgiven. Thus, in these troubles there is a blessing for him in the Hereafter.

37. Abu Sa`id and Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wasallam) said: “Never a believer is stricken with a discomfort, an illness, an anxiety, a grief or mental worry or even the pricking of a thorn but Allah will expiate his sins on account of his patience”. [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

Commentary: This Hadith mentions the special Grace and Mercy of Allah for the Muslims. It relates how Allah turns the hardships and troubles suffered by a Muslim into a means of expiation for his sins. But this is only possible if the believer exercises patience. However, if he starts wailing instead of showing patience then beside suffering hardships, he would be deprived of the reward which lies in bearing them patiently. Thus, he shall have to take the burden of additional sins also.

~Muhammad Rizwan Ali

For more hadith of the day, join this facebook group! 100% satisfaction guaranteed ;) 

All Praise is Due to Allah for all of our blessings, particularly our sense of Hearing.

In our darkest moments, we turned to Allah. At your weakest point, we held on to His rope for strength. When we were trapped by things we couldn’t control, our trust in Him carried us through and made us a way out. But imagine that you never knew how to turn to Allah. Imagine you didn’t know He was Al Qawee (the Most Strong) or Al Wali (the Trustee).  Imagine if the most important relationship that exists—the one between man and his Creator—was compromised because you didn’t have access to who He really is and what He wanted from you. Imagine the loneliness of living your whole life without ever really knowing Him.

There are a group of Muslims who live this Reality and most of us have no idea the severity of their plight. Deaf Muslims do not have access to the language to know their own Creator. The hearing that you and I take for granted provides us with the language to ask life’s most pressing questions, and to receive life’s most crucial answers. It is a gift that you don’t truly understand, until you see someone without it. And none of us have any guarantee that our own gift of hearing—or that of our children and family—cannot also be taken. God says, “If you give thanks (shukr) I will give you more (of My Blessings), but if you are thankless, verily! My Punishment is indeed severe.” [14:7]

  Because we have been chosen to have this gift, it is upon us—a duty—for us to show shukr (thankfulness) for it. If we do that, we will be given more of God’s blessings. But unlike hamd which can be praise and gratitude shown only by the heart, the word shukr is a type of gratitude that should appear in action. And what better way to thank Allah for this gift of hearing than to help someone who doesn’t have it? You and I can never give a deaf person back their hearing. But today we have an opportunity to help give back an even greater gift: knowledge of God.

Christian and Jewish organizations have been successful at creating religious sign language to help their deaf member. It is time that we give deaf Muslims the same opportunities to access their own religion. The Global Deaf Muslim (GDM), a nonprofit organization established in 2005, is working on creating a language, thus far absent, that will allow deaf Muslims access to understand and relate to God through 2 projects:

1) Quran in American Sign Language Project – The Prophet (pbuh) has said: “The most superior among you are those who learn Qu’ran and teach it.” (Bukhari  6/546)  The majority of Deaf Muslims in the world are illiterate and lack a knowledge to read Quran without an aid. GDM aims to deliver the powerful meaning of the Quran via video sign language. The fundraising goal for this project is $214,000.

2) Social service funds – to provide various accommodations for families in need. We need to raise money for these projects, and most of all, we need to raise awareness. Please donate generously and spread the word to your friends and family, who like you and I have been blessed with the gift of hearing.

Help give a Muslim access to the One who created us all from nothing.

Donate Here: http://www.globaldeafmuslim.org/donate/quran-in-asl-project/

For more information about the projects of the GDM see: http://www.globaldeafmuslim.org/projects/ 

arrrrsh:

I haven’t always been practising, in fact there was a time when I had no interest in Islam whatsoever. I never had any desire to wear hijab. Throughout high school I went through a lot, hung out with the wrong people, made a lot of mistakes, and did things that no one should do. Towards the end of high school is when I hit rock bottom. My grandfather passed away, and my cousin died in a car accident. I realized life is too short to take for granted.

After graduating from high school, I started to turn back to islam. The one thing I could never face was hijab. I was always scared that I would lose myself. That my outgoing, bubbly personality would be masked by hijab. I was afraid of what I would become if I put it on, afraid of what people would say, or think.

A few months ago I was having a discussion with my friend (who happens to be a very practising christian). We were just generally discussing the similarities and differences between Christianity and Islam, when her younger brother came in. He started asking me if I had ever thought about Christianity, to which I replied I’m perfectly content with my religion. He pushed on anyways, asking me “So you pray 5 times a day, and fast?” I responded with a “yes, I follow my religion, and I believe in everything my religion teaches.” He asked, “Isn’t hijab part of your religion?” “yes” I responded.

and his answer to that comment completely stumped me, he said “So you believe in everything about your religion, and you follow it completely? And if hijab is part of your religion, why don’t you wear it?”

I had no reply. I sat there in silence pondering his question, why don’t I wear hijab? If I claim to be a practising muslim, if I claim to follow my religion, and love Allah then why don’t I wear hijab?

This past Ramadan was all about soul searching. I made sincere du’a for Allah to guide me, to soften my heart, and to help me turn to Him. I don’t know what exactly caused me to wear hijab, it’s something words can’t explain. It was simply a feeling. A feeling of complete peace and tranquility; It felt right.

I realize now that I was completely right - I did lose myself when I started wearing hijab. I lost myself in the best way possible because hijab has only made me a better, stronger version of myself. I am a force to be reckoned with. I am my own person. I am not what anyone expects of me, I am only what Allah commands me to be: A modest, strong, intelligent, humble muslim woman.

Peace be upon you all.

(via arrrrsh-deactivated20111125)

Once, an atheist teacher said to his disciples, “only what you see really exists. They answered, ‘yes.’ You notice the tablet, the pen, the notebook and the chair? All of them are visible and touchable, aren’t they?’ ‘Yes,’ They replied. Then he said, do you see God? They replied, no. hence, God doesn’t exist. The students were perplexed, because they believed in the existence of Allah by heart. Meanwhile, Allah disclosed the falsehood of these teachers at the hands of one of his disciples. A student after having permission asked, do you understand what the teacher has said, they said, yes. Ok, do you see the teacher now? Yes, they replied. Does the teacher havea mind? ‘Yes,’ they answered. ‘Do you see his mind?’ They said, ‘No,’ he said, following the teacher method i.e., “Only what we see does exist.” Our teacher has no mind because it is invisible. Then, all students laughed and the teacher was amazed and never mentioned that again. The following is also another useful discourse: you assume that Allah exists depending totally on the law of casual influence which states that every thing made or created should have a maker or a creator. Likewise, the textile leads to the weaver,the painting leads to the painter, and the statue leads to the sculptor. Following the same law the universe leads to the Omnipotent God. We, then,believe in this Creator, but we might follow the same law and ask, who creates the Creator? Who created Allah Whom you talked about? Does your evidenceand the law of casual influence not lead to such a result? To refute this false assumption, we can say that it is incorrect analogy, this is because you first acknowledge that Allah is the Creator then you ask about the creator of Allah. How can you adopt Him as a creator and created at the same time. 

This assumption can also be refuted in the following manner: How can you imagine that the Creator is subject to human laws. The casual influence is a human law and does not apply but to human beings. Also, time and place on earth differ from time and place outside. Thus, the Creator can never be described in terms of time or place nor their laws. More than that, Allah has created such laws, therefore, it is incredible to describe Allah by the laws created by Him. 

Aristotle mentioned the sequence of these causes by saying, the chair is made from wood, wood from a tree, a tree from a seed, and a seed is cultivated by a teller. Then, he was obliged to say that this sequential causes in the course of endless time must lead to the necessity of the Creator, so isAllah. 

lbn Arabi when answering this question “who created Allah?” He said, “It is an incredible question since Allah Himself is a source of evidence. Allah is a supreme Being transcendently beyond all creatures qualities, just as light is a proof for the day-time and not the opposite.

It’s been 12 years since I married my Muslim husband and the road has truly been long and winding, but happy. At the time we got married I was Catholic and had no intention of converting to Islam.

My new husband was very understanding and only asked that I at least try to read an English translation of the Quran from time to time. I agreed. We soon moved to Kuwait as the U.S. economy was so weak at that time and it was impossible to earn a good living.

The minute I stepped off the plane I was thrust into a whole new world that was full of Islam, Muslims, cultural traditions and a whole new way of thinking. To say that I was shaken to my very core, in blind terror, is an understatement. All I wanted to do was to jump right back on that plane and fly away from this strange new World.

Yet through it all, my Muslim husband was by my side every step of the way. When I found that his mother’s cooking was too spicy, he made sure that other food choices were available, including American gourmet items like McDonald’s and Pizza Hut.

When I was homesick for my family in the US, he stayed up with me all night consoling me and offering to take me “home”. Through every happy moment, every illness and on the days when I was so sad I could barely summon a smile, my Muslim husband has been right there holding my hand.

My husband turned into my teacher as he taught me all about Islam, fasting and the Islamic prayer.

He is my best friend, confidant, and the father of my children. He equally shares in changing dirty diapers, spill patrol and nipping temper tantrums in the bud. Nothing fazes him, not even kids throwing up on his brand new shirt or his having to wash the dishes when I am too tired to move.

It’s unfortunate that Muslim husbands, especially, get such a bad rap in the Western media. Quite often Muslim husbands are portrayed as control freaks who force their wives to wear “Islamic garb”.

The reality is that both Muslim husbands and wives often choose to follow an Islamic code of dress because it is ordained in the Quran and Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad. It is not an issue of force or a war of wills.

God Almighty says in the Quran what means:

“Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: That will make for greater purity for them: And God is well acquainted with all that they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty. That they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof.”(Quran 24:30)

For me, personally, I came to Kuwait wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans. I wore what I choose and neither my Muslim husband nor his Muslim family said anything to me.

However, my husband did continue to ask me to read the Quran. His gentle, and sometimes nagging, reminders paid off. I finally started reading the Quran and my hunger for more and more Islamic knowledge grew.

I searched and scoured until I found the truth I had always been looking for within the pages of the Quran. I made the decision to become a Muslim and I went shopping for my first hijab all by myself.

My husband turned into my teacher as he taught me all about Islam, fasting and the Islamic prayer. When I made mistakes or faltered, he did not scold me but increased his own efforts in teaching me everything properly.

His patience was remarkable as my own grew thin. I wanted to know a lot about Islam and it was just not something that happened overnight. But it did happen.

Islam has brought a sense of calm to my very being and a serene atmosphere to my home as well as my marriage. Since I became a Muslim I have noticed that I am less stressed or worried about the future.

I have a lot more patience and do not get as flustered as I used to with the little nuances of daily living. Through the Quran and Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad I have learned what this life really is all about and strive every day to engage in good deeds that will open the door to the next World to come.

Sumayyah Meehan reverted to Islam almost 11 years ago. She is a Waynesburg College graduate with a BA in criminal justice. She is working on an Islamic children’s book. She resides in Kuwait with her husband and three children.