Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

Cycle of Life
Al-Rum (The Byzantines) - Chapter 30 : Verse 19 (partial)

"He it is who brings forth the living out of that which is dead, and brings forth the dead out of that which is alive, and gives life to the earth after it has been lifeless. Likewise shall you be raised to life."

It is a continuous cycle that never stops for a moment of the night or day at any place on earth, in space, or the depths of the sea. At every moment this great miracle occurs, but we remain heedless of it because of our long familiarity with it. Not a moment passes by without a life coming out of a dead thing, or a living being dying: a small bud shoots out of a seed or splits a stone to come into a life; or conversely a branch or a tree withers away. Still in the heap of dying plants and trees a seed or a stone is ready to start the life cycle again, and out of that heap gases spread into the air or provide nourishment to the soil that becomes fertile. At every moment life starts in a foetus, a bird or an animal. A corpse buried in the earth becomes part of the soil and gives it vapours and gases that make new life matter and nourishment for plants, which in turn provide food for man and animal. A similar cycle takes place in the depths of the sea and in limitless space. It is an awesome, fascinating cycle if we would only contemplate it with insight, guided by the light of the Quran.

Likewise we shall be raised to life. It is all an ordinary, simple matter, familiar in the universe, ocurring at every moment of the night and day and in all places.

Compiled From:
"In the Shade of the Quran" - Sayyid Qutb, Vol. 13, pp. 369, 370

Understanding The Prophet's Life

Imagination

When you imagine something, an image from the studio of your mind is brought to life on the stage of your inner vision.

When you imagine someone greedily sucking on a sour lemon, his face all puckered up, your salivary glands become active. This is a physical reaction to a stimulus coming directly from your mind. Likewise, if you imagine beautiful and provocative sights, they will produce effects on your body as if you were looking at those things. When you talk to someone on the phone you never met, your mind automatically constructs an image of that person based on the timbre of their voice. When you imagine a loved one you miss very much, your mind might wander to that far-off place where they are, so you will fancy yourself sitting and talking with the one you love, oblivious to everything that is around you.

Think about what Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Have you considered if there was a river at the door of your house that you bathed in five times a day, would any dirt remain on you?" His Companions concurred that no dirt would remain. Then he said: "The five daily prayers are the same. Allah wipes away our sins with them." [Bukhari, Muslim]

Can you read this without imagining yourself going out your front door and finding a river crossing your path? If this never happened to you before, then let it happen now. The time that you have for yourself is precious. You do not have to spend it all sitting in the cage of your circumstances, as if your mind was a prisoner behind the iron bars of the moment at hand.

When you read in the Qur’an about the delights of Paradise and the punishment of Hell, does no image come to mind? What then moves us, when we read these verses, to turn to Allah in remembrance and devotion, when nothing in the Hereafter resembles the things of this world except in name?

Every change in life requires imagining it first. Imagination is the secret means that transports us to our goals. It enables the mind to absorb the stresses of life and conceive of a better future, empowering us to surmount our obstacles and solve our problems.

You must first imagine the circumstances that you want for yourself and society. Then you must take an appropriate course of action. Your goals are essentially what you imagine your future to be. Our dreams and aspirations have their origins in our imaginings. The imagination works upon the heart and the mind.

If you come to the point when you cannot imagine a world any different than the one that surrounds you, then your life will become tiresome indeed. All progress starts with the imagination. It is the only way to reach beyond the closed doors of the future.

Compiled From:
"Imagine" - Salman al-Oadah

Blindspot!

Liberation

All Revelation reached the Prophet, peace be upon him, in the course of his earthly experience, with the exception of the verses that establish the fundamental pillars of faith (al-iman) and the duty of prayer (as-salat). The Prophet was raised to heaven to receive the teachings that were to become the foundation of Islamic worship and ritual, al-aqidah and al-ibadat, which require that believers should accept their form as well as their substance. Unlike the field of social affairs (al-muamalat), which calls for the creative mediation of people's intellect and intelligence, human rationality here submits, in the name of faith and as an act of humility, to the order imposed by Revelation: God has prescribed requirements and norms that the mind must hear and implement and the heart must love. Raised to receive the injunction of ritual prayer, the Prophet and his experience reveal what prayer must in essence be: a reminder of and an elevation toward the Most High, five times a day, in order to detach from oneself, from the world, and from illusions. The prayer enables us to liberate our consciousness from the contingencies of space and time, and fully comprehend the meaning of life.

Compiled From:
"In The Footsteps of The Prophet" - Tariq Ramadan, pp. 73, 74