Al Jannah

Salams everyone,

                So last Thursday I went to a Amr Khaled lecture and I jotted down some notes that I would like to share with you. 

                                                             Al Jannah

                

                 Every word that is said in front of us has some sort of file stored in our brain. In those files are images of those words. It is important for us to remember that our real home is Al Jannah (heaven). This world that we live in is like a transitional flight that should inshAllah (God willing) lead us to Jannah. Close your eyes and let’s start creating an image of Al Jannah.

               

                Imagine that elhamduAllah (Thanks be to Allah) we all passed the test and that we have all been accepted in to Jannah; we passed judgment and now we are on our way to Jannah. Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) will knock on the door of Jannah, and an angel will tell him that Allah instructed that angel not to open the door to anyone but the Prophet of Allah (PBUH). The door is now open, and there will be angels standing in rows waiting for us to enter. Imagine the All Mighty Allah calling us “Ahl Al Jannah” (People of Jannah)! Imagine seeing the Prophets, the companions, and all the great women that we hear stories about!

                There are four important things to know about Jannah:

1.       You won’t ever get sick

2.       You will stay 33 forever

3.       You’re eternal; you will never die

4.       You will always be happy never sad, you won’t know what the meaning of sadness is

So now we just walked in to Jannah, and we are all amazed. People will be in awe saying things like; “SubhannAllah” and “Allahu Akbar.” Now imagine Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) showing you your home, telling you that you are his neighbor. You will get to see his palace and the Kowthar River.

You wanna know what your palace is going to be like??? Get this, your palace and the walls are going to be made of gold and silver bricks. The cement holding the bricks together is musk. There are going to be pearls growing in your own garden. You get your own river. And your ceiling is Allah’s (SWT) throne!

Does anyone besides me have goose bumps yet?

Al Jannah is a place where everything you wish for gets granted. In the market place there will be pictures of breathtaking places and if you and your spouse like one of the pictures and wish to go there, you are automatically taken to that place. Al Jannah is a place where all women and men are perfect. A place where everyone will be smiling and no person will talk about the other. Every week one will be more beautiful than the week before it.

It is also a place where you will never be bored; while in this world only few things make us happy in heaven there are millions. Among those things is seeing Allah (SWT). Nothing can compare to that feeling. You will get to see Allah (SWT) and talk him. HE will tell you that he is content with you, He will ask you if you are content with Al Jannah. He will also ask what you wish for and after you give Him your list of everything that you can think of and everything that you want, He will tell you wishes that haven’t even crossed your mind and grant you those wishes because you forgot to mention them. SubhannaAllah.

Now let’s get back to this world.  Amr Khaled said that in this world you spend so much time working and saving up to buy a house that you can afford and with the house you get the key as a present. But in Jannah all you can afford is the key and you get a palace along with that key. Also, to get one meter in Jannah all you have to do is pray two raq3as, compare that to how much you have to pay to get a meter of a house in this world.

Let us use this world as a means to enter Jannah. Without losing foresight of the reason of our existence, let us make this world a better place. Let our good deeds in this world be the reason we enter Jannah.

I really want to go to Jannah… who is with me??? =)

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My "Why? "

                                                             By: Anonymous

 “Man in the early times was naked, and as his intellect evolved he started wearing clothes. What I am today and what I’m wearing represents the highest level of thought and civilization that man has achieved and is not regressive. It is the removal of clothes again that is regressive and back to ancient times.” – Tawakel Karmen,

Tawakel Karmen is a female Yemeni journalist. She is also the first Arab woman and the youngest person to be awarded a Nobel peace prize. On top of all of that she is also a hijabi and an inspirational figure.

The quote presented above was Karmen’s response to some journalists who asked about her hijab and how it may “not suit her level of intellect”.

            I can begin discussing my own hijab experiences from two angles. I could begin writing about the struggles that come along with wearing hijab in the West, feeling different in high school, and of clinging on to this piece of cloth for a sense of identity, or I can write about my experiences with hijab in Egypt. Ironically, all my hijab-related experiences made more sense to me in the West than they do now in Egypt. It was clear to me why I was covering myself and who I was doing it for and it was easy to reply to anyone who thought to ask me. The answer was simple, “I’m wearing this because I’m muslim.”

“Why? Why are you covering yourself?” “You can still be a good Muslim without wearing a hijab.” “When will you take it off for us?” “But you look so pretty with your hair down” “You’re still so young” “Allah will understand”

These are all comments that have been made by some of closest Egyptian friends and I have spent long periods of time pondering their answers.

I can’t count the number of times I have been asked the question “why?” in Egypt. It is a good question, one that does need to be answered sincerely. The frequency with which it is asked has brought me moments of doubt and confusion.

But I tell myself that the answers this question are still clear and to make them even clearer, I will bring in a few very good points made by Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan (a Muslim scholar).

One must, first and foremost, acknowledge that hijab does have countless numbers of social and personal benefits, and it does a lot to honor women (including warming up our heads in this freezing weather) but these benefits will not be argued. Instead of debating all these positive outcomes of hijab Ali Khan argues that a higher purpose exists; one that doesn’t involve explaining “logical reasons”. Once a person believes that the Quran is the word of the Divine, any orders from Allah should be obeyed. This is not to say that one should not question things, questions are an essential in life. However, one should trust that ultimately Allah knows best.

Nouman Ali Khan gives the prophet Ibrahim (PBUH) as a beautiful example to support this point. Allah asks the prophet Ibrahim (PBUH) for several requests. He asked the prophet (PBUH) to leave his family in the desert; obviously a difficult demand. Prophet Ibrahim (PBUH) did not react by saying, “You know, I love everything about Islam, except this whole leaving my family in the desert thing”. He never asked Allah for the reasoning behind the demand, or doubted its significance, or even called it “oppressive”. Allah asked, and the prophet obeyed. Then Allah made another request and asked him to jump into a fire, he never said “You know, I love everything about Islam except this whole burning myself alive thing.” Finally, Allah asked the Prophet to put a knife to his son’s throat. Prophet Ibrahim did not say “Well, I love Islam but I also love my son,” the Prophet trusted Allah entirely and without doubt. Of course, in the end, the prophet never had to do this to his son and this is why we have Eid, but you get the point.  Whenever Allah asked the prophet to give himself up or surrender, Ibrahim (PBUH) surrendered. There is a much bigger purpose to Allah’s requests than just benefits and logical reasoning; and that is surrender. We must surrender ourselves wholly to Allah.

I’m not arguing that we should follow blindly, never question anything, and just quietly obey. I’m just answering my Why?, my why I wear a hijab. People are right, I do not necessarily need to be wearing a hijab to be a good Muslim, and my wearing a hijab does not mean I am a good Muslim. However, in the end, I made this choice because I would rather surrender to Allah than to a consumerist society where my looks determine what kind of person I am, or even my “intellect”. I will admit that sometimes I lose sight of what is important in life, I forget where my attention needs to be located, and I spend too much time doing and thinking about useless things. Yet, I am thankful I have a hijab on my head that serves as a reminder and a protector. 

I’d like to end this with a sentence I once read in a children’s book about the prophet Ibrahim’s (PBUH) life: “The moral of the story is that faith in Allah is the only thing that can save a believer in this world and the world to come”.