Monday, September 14, 2009

Ramadhan Reflections 14


Enter in among my devotees and enter my garden
Quran 89:29-30

Hassan 's reflection:
Nice surah. We will be tested both with difficult tasks as well as with honor and gifts. When we get gifts we need to give back to others, wherever we can, not being greedy for more. Our souls will be in rest and relaxation, pleased with ourselves and Allah pleased with us. It fits in nicely with the spirit of Ramadan. To me this also implies that we need to stick with the Muslims. Even though we do not agree with everyone on everything, especially say political things, there is no room for ostracizing some Muslims because they belong to a different political party or say they are not real Muslims. We should stick together as a group, all Muslims, all Allah’s devotees together, in order to attain success. It doesn’t matter if they are Umno, Pas, PKR or DAP, stick together with all Allah’s devotees, not splitting the Muslims apart, but keeping us together so we can enter the garden.

Suriya's reflection

The phrase that comes after this as Hassan pointed out is Radhiyatun Marhdiyyah.The whole sentence would read

27> "O (thou) soul in (complete) rest and satisfaction!

28> "Come back thou to thy Lord well pleased (thyself) and well-pleasing unto Him!

29> "Enter thou then among my Devotees!

30> "Yea enter thou my Heaven"!

For me, this means in order for me to enter into my Lord's domain in the hereafter, my vibrations have to match that of the domain. The only way my vibrations will match is if I have already brought them up to this level, the level at which I will experience even now on earth, peace and , to be well pleased with myself which means at peace with myself and at peace with my Lord. This is what I have said on countless occasions, that my Lord Allah does not wrong us, and that we wrong ourselves by not doing the activities that qualifies us for this domain.

It is quite easy to mistake self righteousness and a holier than thou state for this state of being well please with one's self , only the self righteous holier than thou person has a sour expression on his face and his presence does not bring those around him/her the peace and God consciousness the soul at peace would. In fact any feeling that has the slightest connotation of vanity and pride would eradicate this peaceful state required to be nafsul mutmainnah !

Perhaps if we make it to this Domain , as Hassan said , we would be surprised who we find there amongst the people we once knew. I suspect that that those beings who make it into the Domain would recognise among the people they knew on earth who they will meet there. They recognise it because when they meet with certain people the joy in their hearts and the peace they feel within them increase as does their God consciousness and loftiness in thought and deed! Look out for these people . Some of them may not even call themselves Muslims yet !


"And Allah taught you what you did not know" Quran 2:151

Hassan's reflection

We are so lucky to have the prophet to guide us and show us the way. If we remember Allah, Allah will remember us. We need to be grateful to Allah. We need to seek help with patience and perseverance and prayer. Imagine without the Prophet, how difficult our life would be. I would be Christian; the Malays would be Hindu, who knows what the Arabs would be. We were given the Prophet so now we know the truth. At any time Allah could have changed the path of history and we would not have been taught this beautiful religion. Instead we are taught every day, in every way, in means we could not imagine. If only we as parents, bosses, teachers, friends, colleagues or neighbors could teach as effectively or in as many different methodologies as Allah teaches us!

Suriya's reflection

This phrase comes from this verse in the Quran:

Even as We have sent unto you a messenger from among you, who reciteth unto you Our revelations and causeth you to grow, and teacheth you the Scripture and wisdom, and teacheth you that which ye knew not. (QS. 2:151)

A list member from another list sent an article that pointed out the role of Hutu Muslims in protecting Tutsi Christians during an ugly racial genocide of Hutu Christians on Tutsi Christians. At this time , the Hutu Muslims who were a minority protected Tutsi's regardless of religion and race. They protected because the Quran teaches them DO NOT KILL ! So Allah , via the Quran teaches us and in teaching us , causes us to GROW IN SPIRIT. In this day and age, it is thus sad that there are people who call themselves Muslims and go about doing Muslim rituals and things and yet do not learn what has been taught or , learning it , misunderstand it and develop sour holier than thou, I am better than you attitutudes, seeking revenge , not being able to forgive ! The Muslims in Rwanda were a marginalised group , yet they protected those who marginalised them . It resulted in a huge wave of conversion to Islam after the massacre was over ! I believe, only the Muslims who have cleansed their hearts through their tears of repentence , who seek to understand what Allah teaches with all sincerity , who cry upon their Lord day and night in all earnestness and who walk on this earth softly and humbly who are the ones who will understand what Allah teaches, via the Quran , via analogies , via the hidden messages in our dreams and in the things that happen to us on a day to day basis and as we reflect on our lives not to regret the bad that happened to us but to reflect on how we reacted to what happened which then gives us a chance to learn from it and better ourselves in the future. The prophet SAW said a Muslim will not step into a biawak ( monitor lizard) hole twice . THis means he/ she learns from mistakes made and does not repeat them. My Lord Allah, make me not blind to what you teach me and make me not heedless of what you teach me ! Amin!

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