20 tips to becoming more "Islamic"

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Asalamalaikum,

Bismillah was salatu as salam ala Rasoolillah

There is no other face more pleasing than that of a humble sister returning to Islam. From beneath tender wisps of hair escaping their loosely wrapped hijabs, I see their hopefilled eyes. These eyes are soft from crying tears of repentance of a long heedless past. Their skin radiates that glow of newly invigorated iman, a reflection of their illuminated heart. With a voice that trembles from that lump in her throat, she asks: How can I become more.

They don't have words beyond these. But I understand what they mean. It happens in an instant almost, through a lecture, through a kind friend, through words overheard.A random verse of the Quran embeds itself in your heart and disperse into the whole essence of your body. It propells you forward. To light, to beauty and to happiness. And you just want more. You want it to increase, you want it to travel higher and further.

The soul is felt wanting, yearning and gravitating towards Allah azza wa jal. As I listened to a lecture about Jannah in one deep dark busy Sydney subway it seemed to burst open with luminance. I could feel Allah. I could almost touch his mercy, his love and his guidance just beaming down into that tunnel from the heavens.

Sisters never intend to be become "religious" or "pious" or "islamic". Though the world outside wants desperately to define practising muslims so. Many simply want more of that narcotic happy feeling that one obtains through listening to words of Allah. These blessed pearls blur out all the vices and woes of the dunya, they blot out the pains and melt away the worries. They give hope of new lives to come and I use that in the plural. I believe you attain two lives when you make the decision to turn to Allah, to accept the Quran and follow the footsteps of the blessed Prophet alayhis salam. One clean, happy, fulfilling life in this dunya and one honoured life after death, the life as an inhabitant of paradise. Inshallah.

I used the word Islamic in the title because in my own muslim circles that is how sisters are talked about when they return to the deen. Those sisters are referred to as Islamic who are devoted to Allah. I used to watch from afar those sisters and wondered how I could be like them for they looked so content and confident in talking about Islam.

Alhamdulilah Allah has enabled me to understand some techniques in becoming closer to Allah, although I have a long way to go in this road. I do not claim to be close to Allah at all, but rather closer than I was many years ago. I pray that Allah accepts my wanting to be closer him and pray that for you too. Ameen. 

Try all of these tips and tick them off as you go inshallah:

1) Reading Quran with translation and exegesis (Tafseer) 

2) Reading the Biography of the Prophet (Seerah) salalahu alayhi wasalam

3) Making Dua and Dhikr

4) Learning to pray Salah correctly with translation of the Arabic meanings

5) Learning why the Quran is a miraculous text in every field

     Ie. Scientific, linguistic, psychological, socio-political, historical, and the list goes on

6) Lectures on the topic of the Hereafter:

    Death

    The Grave

    The Day of Judgement

    Paradise

    Hellfire

7) Learning the etiquettes of humility (humbleness)

8) Learning about the End Times - Dajjal - the AntiChrist, Signs of the End Times and the Day of Judgement

9) Discovering the History of Islam - 1200 years of Islamic Rule across the Globe

10) Learning about the contributions scientific and technological at the time of the Khilafah

11) Enrolling in Shariah Courses, Knowledge Courses, Basics of Islam Courses, lectures by orators both Online or In Person at Local Events

12) Attending the Masjid - the Weekly lectures, Jumuah, Community Iftars, Charity events, Charity dinners, Cake Stalls, Princess Parties, Sports Days etc.

13) Memorising Quran as much as possible

14) Youtube Inspiration Videos:

  By Motivational Speakers

  Revert Stories

  Youtube Short Courses

  Islamic Youtube Movies

  Dawah Videos

15) Learn how to give Dawah - through courses, videos, 

16) Community Service - As part of organisations and in your own family and friends circle

17) Giving charity and helping the needy

18) Respecting your parents

19) Understanding how Politics, the Media and the Economic Structure affect how muslims are blamed for violence and terror

20) Learning humility (yes! again....this bit tends to get a bit rusty over time :) 

I pray that this brings some help to sisters wanting to experience the beauty of Islam. Ameen.

Allah Most High says in a Hadith Qudsi (record containing the words of God), “When my servant takes one step towards Me, I take ten steps towards him. When my servant comes walking towards me, I come running towards him.”



Umm Musk :)





*Image Source: smileysya.tumbler.com

A Gym in the Masjid!?

Asalamalaikum,

Traditional gyms traditionally mean sweat, stink and sleaze. Throughout the hard silver metal and black vinyl landscape there are images one can not escape. Images of jiggling, bouncing things at every unsuspecting corner. Everywhere you look there are round wobbling things doing what they do best - protuberate. Some are big, some are small, some young, some old, some through wrinkled skin, some covered in cellulite and others lean, mean and tight as buns.

There are some places we muslim women allow our husbands to go to. And there are many other places we do not give permission for. Gyms are one of these places.

Unbeknownst to the non-muslim world it is actually the husband in the muslim marriage who is the oppressed one. But that doesn't matter because no one will believe muslim men when they make that claim or be there to hear their cries. So we can continue to oppress them. Hence I stand firm in saying that I do not agree that it is acceptable for a brother to go to traditional gyms.

This is a contentious topic between my husband and myself.

My husband disagrees and believes there are certain types of gyms that men can attend provided they have reached a level of self-control.

I lean towards the opinion that if we have halal gyms, we should prefer those over regular gyms.

Islamic mens only gym like the one pioneered by some good brothers in South Western Sydney were a brilliant idea for possessive wives like myself. The budding new Islamic youth culture in my local community needed this halal social outlet back in 2008 when Sheikh Feiz created one of the first Islamic gyms inside Liverpools Global Islamic Youth Centre. Today there are many such halal gyms all over Sydney, the most well set being the UMA gym in Lakemba.

Call me insecure, call me oppressive, call me the overly obsessive, possessive wife It doesn't bother me. I call myself the "husband eye hog" - proudly. I disagree because I feel that pious, god fearing men shouldn't place themselves in such places where they can accidentally gawk. True disrespect of a woman is by gawking at her.

I put my argument very simply and spoke frankly.

Women are hot and their things are hot. It's a reality. We just have to accept it, get over it and tackle the situation as say it like it is. I am very vigilantly anti-jiggling things- even if it is an accident or a rare occasion. Most women are anti-jiggling "other woman" things. Muslim women however especially have a sharp eye (and tongue) against their husbands catching any sight of things- especially when this things are bending over, twerking, thumping and bouncing out of it's containing (and failing) lycra fabric all over gym equipment.

So we met halfway in this sense. I am comfortable with our agreement. It's important that in our marriages we discuss what bothers us and important too for our husbands to be let out of their prisons given parole conditions.

My husband put forward to me that he is truly honest with himself, he fears Allah (not me) and that he would never go somewhere that would put him in fitna or upset me. He said that he completely lowers his gaze, head down and glasses off and takes another pious Islamic brother with him. He says he goes straight into a tight corner where he can see no one and no one can see him. He attends a more sophisticated gym that charges triple the price of regular gyms so he can attend at 5am in the morning and other times when the venue is empty.

I am okay with this now but it took many debates for us to reach this consenses. Alhamdulilah for Islam and all of it's ahkam in preserving the muslim marriage. Ameen.

Image credit: restored2fitness.org