“
it is a heartBreaking sound, Amir Jan, the Wailing of a mother. I pray to Allah you Never hear it.
”
”
Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
“
Love Dogs
One night a man was crying,
Allah! Allah!
His lips grew sweet with the praising,
until a cynic said,
"So! I have heard you
calling out, but have you ever
gotten any response?"
The man had no answer to that.
He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.
He dreamed he saw Khidr, the guide of souls,
in a thick, green foliage.
"Why did you stop praising?"
"Because I've never heard anything back."
"This longing
you express is the return message."
The grief you cry out from
draws you toward union.
Your pure sadness
that wants help
is the secret cup.
Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.
That whining is the connection.
There are love dogs
no one knows the names of.
Give your life
to be one of them.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
In his mercy, He sent the storm itself to make us seek help. And then knowing that we’re likely to get the wrong answer, He gives us a multiple choice exam with only one option to choose from: the correct answer. The hardship itself is ease. By taking away all other hand-holds, all other multiple choice options, He has made the test simple.
It’s never easy to stand when the storm hits. And that’s exactly the point. By sending the wind, He brings us to our knees: the perfect position to pray
”
”
Yasmin Mogahed (Reclaim Your Heart: Personal Insights on Breaking Free from Life's Shackles)
“
But I want to pray to Allah. I want to be a Christian.
”
”
Yann Martel (Life of Pi)
“
I have some advice for the young generation who are wanting to become successful in life: become more grateful. Once you do that, Allah says, "If you are grateful, I will surely increase you (in everything)." If you're having a hard time in math, science, language and whatever else, become grateful to Allah and He will open doors for you. You'll even get better at basketball and become more athletic. I pray that Allah makes you grateful young people who are examples for others all over the world, ameen.
”
”
Nouman Ali Khan
“
God does not love you just because of who you are; He loves you because love is who He is. So never stop praying. Even when the pain is too much to bear, even when you have broken a thousand promises, even if all that comes out is a silent whisper that only God can hear. No matter what storms you are facing, no matter how bad you mess up, no matter how painful life becomes, the door to prayer is always open for you. After all, as Imam Ali said, “When the world pushes you to your knees, you’re in the perfect position to pray.
”
”
A. Helwa (Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam)
“
We sometimes fail to realise that when we pray to Allah we are in fact performing a great act of ibadah (worship). On the surface it might seem as if we are asking out of self-interest, but we are really proving the sincerity of our belief in the tauhid (Oneness) of Allah and our submission to the True God. Thus the Prophet pbuh said: "Supplication is itself the worship." (Reported by Abu Daud and al-Tirmizi, sahih.) If a servant prays the whole night to Allah, he therefore performs a great ibadah all night long.
”
”
Mohd. Asri Zainul Abidin (Islam in Malaysia: Perceptions & Facts)
“
I was pretty sure everyone was praying for different things. I wondered how Allah would sort it all out.
”
”
Nadia Hashimi (The Pearl That Broke Its Shell)
“
When you find yourself in one of those mystical/devotional frames of mind or in am emergency and you feel you want to pray, then pray. Don’t ever be ashamed to pray or feel prevented by thinking yourself unworthy in any way. Fact is whatever terrible thing you may have done, praying will always turn your energy around for the better.
Pray to whomever, whatever, and whenever you choose. Pray to the mountain, pray to the ancestors, pray to the Earth, pray to the Tao (but it won’t listen!), pray to the Great Mother, pray to Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, Jesus, Lakshmi, Siva, pray to the Great Spirit, it makes no difference. Praying is merely a device for realigning the mind, energy, and passion of your local self with the mind, energy and passion of your universal self. When you pray, you are praying to the god or goddess within you. This has an effect on your energy field, which in turn translates into a positive charge that makes something good happen.
”
”
Stephen Russell (Barefoot Doctor's Guide to the Tao: A Spiritual Handbook for the Urban Warrior)
“
Last night, I spoke to God.
I told Him my plans. He started to cry.
I thought I was great to move The Greatest to tears.
He said that He was crying only because
my plans were very different
than His plans for me.
”
”
Kamand Kojouri
“
I'm a spiritual person, she said. "I believe in Allah, you know, though I don't always call It 'Allah' and I pray the way I want to pray. Sometimes I just look out at the stars and this love-fear thing comes over me, you know? And sometimes I might sit in a Christian church listening to them talk about Isa with a book of Hafiz in my hands instead of the hymnal. And you know what, Yusef? Sometimes, every once in a while, I get out my old rug and I pray like Muhammad prayed. I never learned the shit in Arabic and my knees are uncovered, but if Allah has a problem with that then what kind of Allah do we believe in?
”
”
Michael Muhammad Knight
“
The Blessed Day
Try , when you pray Fajr to set in a humble manner and face the Qiblah for ten to fifteen minutes , remembering Allah a great deal and calling upon Him . Ask Allah for a good day m a blessed day , a happy day , a day of success and achievement with no calmaties , crises or problems , a day with bountiful provision , goodness and care . A day with no distress and worry - because from Allah one can ask for happiness and all that is good . If you sit like this and pray , this will by Allah's leave be guranteed to prepare you for a good , blessed and useful day .
”
”
عائض القرني
“
Allah gives us gifts, but then we come to love them as we should only love Him. We take those gifts and inject them into our hearts, until they take over. Soon we cannot live without them. Every waking moment is spent in contemplation of them, in submission and worship to them. The mind and the heart that was created by Allah, for Allah, becomes the property of someone or something else. And then the fear comes. The fear of loss begins to cripple us. The gift—that should have remained in our hands—takes over our heart, so the fear of losing it consumes us. Soon, what was once a gift becomes a weapon of torture and a prison of our own making. How can we be freed of this? At times, in His infinite mercy, Allah frees us…by taking it away.
As a result of it being taken, we turn to Allah wholeheartedly. In that desperation and need, we ask, we beg, we pray. Through the loss, we reach a level of sincerity and humility and dependence on Him which we would otherwise not reach—had it not been taken from us. Through the loss, our hearts turn entirely to face Him.
”
”
Yasmin Mogahed (Reclaim Your Heart: Personal Insights on Breaking Free from Life's Shackles)
“
I throw my makeshift jai-namaz, my prayer rug, on the floor and I get on my knees, lower my forehead to the ground, my tears soaking through the sheet. I bow to the west. Then I remember I haven’t prayed for over fifteen years. I have long forgotten the words. But it doesn’t matter, I will utter those few words I still remember: La illaha ila Allah, Muhammad u rasul ullah. There’s no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger. I see now that Baba was wrong, there’s a God, there always had been. I see Him here, in the eyes of the people in this [hospital] corridor of desperation. This is the real house of God, this is where those who have lost God will find Him, not the white masjid with its bright diamond lights, and towering minarets. There’s a God, there has to be, and now I will pray, I will pray that He forgive that I have neglected Him all of these years, forgive that I have betrayed, lied, and sinned with impunity only to turn to Him now in my hour of need, I pray that He is as merciful, benevolent, and gracious as His book says He is. [...] I hear a whimpering and realize it is mine, my lips are salty with the tears trickling down my face. I feel the eyes of everyone in this corridor on me and still I bow to the west. I pray. I pray that my sins have not caught up with me the way I'd always feared they would.
”
”
Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
“
There are no perfect human beings and even those who we pray such as Allah, Buddha, Jesus, Krishna among others, were not perfect.
”
”
Santosh Kalwar
“
Scared? Pray.
Over thinking? Pray.
Losing hope? Pray.
Worried? Pray.
Struggling? Pray.
Pray and trust in Allah!
”
”
Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips
“
إننا نربط أنفسنا - حين نصلي - بالقوة العظمى التي تهيمن على الكون، ونسألها ضارعين أن تمنحنا قبساً منها نستعين به على معاناة الحياة، بل إن الضراعة وحدها كفيلة بأن تزيد قوتنا ونشاطنا، ولن تجد احداً ضرع إلى الله مرة إلا عادت عليه هذه الضراعة بأحسن النتائج.
”
”
Alexis Karel
“
Satan puts three knots at the back of the head of any of you if he is asleep. On every knot he reads and exhales the following words, ‘The night is long, so stay asleep.’ When one wakes up and remembers Allah, one knot is undone; and when one performs ablution, the second knot is undone, and when one prays the third knot is undone and one gets up energetic with a good heart in the morning; otherwise one gets up lazy and with a mischievous heart.
”
”
Abu Huraira
“
Next I prayed to Allah, whose ears are deaf; then did I beseech his fallen twin, the Devil Hornprick, who sits upon his thorn of fire, gloating upon his constellations and counting his bloody seeds. In Baclava it is said Hornprick once caught a glimpse of the First Woman, as she sat singing to her snake in her chamber of sacred mud. Dazzled by her sight, the light of love and lust, he fell. He is still falling. For all eternity her breasts orbit his dreams.
”
”
Rikki Ducornet (Contemporary Surrealist Prose Volume 1)
“
Karena sesungguhnya cinta tidak pernah meminta untuk menanti. Ia mengambil kesempatan atau mempersilakan ... Ia adalah keberanian atau pengorbanan. Ya Allah, jadikan cinta ini cinta yang Engkau ridhai,jika dia memang bukan milik kita ... Melalui waktu, hapuslah ‘cinta dalam diam’ ini dengan memberi rasa yang lebih indah dan orang yang tepat biarkan ‘cinta dalam diam’ ini menjadi memori tersendiri dan sudut hati ini menjadi rahasia antara kita dengan Sang Pemilik hati.
”
”
Rizqiyyah Yasmin
“
Our daily prayer ought to be:
Please universe, help me
help myself
and help me show others
how to help themselves.
”
”
Kamand Kojouri
“
by man. Call yourself what you want. Pray to Jesus or Buddha or Allah or whoever. But God’s only name is Love, he used to say. The sky is our fresco. The stars, our angels, looking down.
”
”
Lisa Unger (The New Couple in 5B)
“
We want Allah to forgive us, yet we are not willing to forgive others.
Desire the same that you wish for your enemy,
Pray for those who harmed you with the same passion that you pray for yourself.
Be willing to open heaven’s door for your enemy.
The greatest compassion lies in forgiveness.
”
”
Zarina Bibi
“
When you really understand who you are, you will experience unalloyed happiness. Happiness that you only dreamed about, happiness in the Silence, when nothing is happening but you’re happy. Always happy, always at peace. All of the Gods that you have been praying to all your life, all of the Buddha’s you’ve taken refuge in, the Krishnas, the Kalmias, the Shivahs, the Christ, Allah, they’re all within you. You are that. There is only the one Self and you are That. Ponder this.
The knowledge of this brings you eternally infinite happiness instantly. When you begin to understand who you are, your Divine nature, that you are not the body, you’re not the mind, once you understand your Infinite nature, who you really are and there’s nothing else, you immediately become instantly happy. For happiness is your very nature. Happiness, the Self are synonymous. Consciousness, Absolute Reality, Pure Awareness, are all synonymous. There is only One. It has many names, but the One pervades all of space and time. And it is the only existence and you are That. There is no other existence. Awaken to this truth. You are the only One that does exist. And you are Consciousness.
”
”
Robert Adams (Silence of the Heart: Dialogues with Robert Adams)
“
1. Have faith in the one God, Allah, and Muhammad, His Prophet; 2. Pray five times a day; 3. Fast during the day for the entire ninth month of Ramadan; 4. Provide charity; 5. Make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime, if possible.
”
”
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now)
“
I have no doubt that your acceptance of Christ coincided with some very positive changes in your life. Perhaps you now love other people in a way that you never imagined possible. You may even experience feelings of bliss while praying. I do not wish to denigrate any of these experiences. I would point out, however, that billions of other human beings, in every time and place, have had similar experiences--but they had them while thinking about Krishna, or Allah, or the Buddha, while making art or music, or while contemplating the beauty of nature.
”
”
Sam Harris (Letter to a Christian Nation)
“
On September 16,1978, there was an eclipse of the moon in Riyadh. Late one afternoon it became visible: a dark shadow moving slowly across the face of the pale moon in the darkening blue sky. There was a frantic knocking on the door.When I opened it, our neighbor asked if we were safe. He said it was the Day of Judgment, when the Quran says the sun will rise from the west and the seas will flood, when all the dead will rise and Allah's angels will weigh our sins and virtue, expediting the good to Paradise and the bad to Hell. Though it was barely twilight, the muezzin suddenly called for prayer—not one mosque calling carefully after the other, as they usually did, but all the mosques clamoring all at once, all over the city. There was shouting across the neighborhood. When I looked outside I saw people praying in the street. Now more neighbors came knocking,asking us to pardon past misdeeds. They told us children to pray for them, because children's prayers are answered most. The gates of Hell yawned open before us. We were panicked.... but the next morning, the sun was safely in its usual place, fat and implacable, and the world wasn't ending after all.
”
”
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Infidel)
“
In the peaceful moments of night,
Whenever i remember you..!
At that moment,
Me beg to Allah Almighty
For your eternal happiness..!
I pray to Him,
All griefs, all tears and all sorrows,
In your fate,
Shift to mine..!
And,
All possible joys of mine,
Shift to yours..!
O Aysel Stay blessed and happy..!
”
”
zia
“
Perhaps you’ve read Tolstoy’s Hadji Mourat? Perhaps you’ve read The Cossacks? Perhaps you’ve read the story “A Prisoner in the Caucasus”? They were written by a Russian count. While Dostoyevsky was a Lithuanian. As long as the Tartars remain in existence, they will pray to Allah on behalf of Tolstoy.
”
”
Vasily Grossman (Life and Fate (Stalingrad, #2))
“
Even if you are not a religious person by nature or training—even if you are an out-and-out skeptic—prayer can help you much more than you believe, for it is a practical thing. What do I mean, practical? I mean that prayer fulfills these three very basic psychological needs which all people share, whether they believe in God or not: 1. Prayer helps us to put into words exactly what is troubling us. We saw in Chapter 4 that it is almost impossible to deal with a problem while it remains vague and nebulous. Praying, in a way, is very much like writing our problems down on paper. If we ask help for a problem—even from God—we must put it into words. 2. Prayer gives us a sense of sharing our burdens, of not being alone. Few of us are so strong that we can bear our heaviest burdens, our most agonizing troubles, all by ourselves. Sometimes our worries are of so ultimate a nature that we cannot discuss them even with our closest relatives or friends. Then prayer is the answer. Any psychiatrist will tell us that when we are pent-up and tense, and in an agony of spirit, it is therapeutically good to tell someone our troubles. When we can’t tell anyone else—we can always tell God. 3. Prayer puts into force an active principle of doing. It’s a first step toward action. I doubt if anyone can pray for some fulfillment, day after day, without benefiting from it—in other words, without taking some steps to bring it to pass. The world-famous scientist, Dr. Alexis Carrel, said: “Prayer is the most powerful form of energy one can generate.” So why not make use of it? Call it God or Allah or Spirit—why quarrel with definitions as long as the mysterious powers of nature take us in hand?
”
”
Dale Carnegie (How To Stop Worrying & Start Living)
“
In my early twenties, I was traveling through a small town in Turkey called Cappadocia, when the divine spark of faith reignited within me like lightning. All it took was my eyes to fall upon a woman who was drowned in her worship of God. I watched her pray in an old seventeenth-century animal barn, as if nothing in the world existed but her divine Lover. She did not robotically repeat words of prayer like a formula; rather, every word she uttered came with a silent “I love you, my beloved Lord.” Her words were like synchronized dancers swimming in unison in the ocean of love that poured out of her. She was the first person I had ever seen in my life that not only prayed but she herself became the prayer.
”
”
A. Helwa (Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam)
“
Jesus taught us that instead of beheading our enemies, we are to pray for our enemies, do good to them, and “turn to them the other cheek”when they mistreat us (Matthew 5:39). We don’t demand that unbelievers convert to Christ at the point of a sword. We appeal to unbelievers to accept God’s mercy and forgiveness through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). If they reject our gospel, we don’t slay them—we pray for them and love them. If Allah and Jehovah are the same God, why does Allah speak and act so differently from the God of the Bible?
”
”
Michael Youssef (Jesus, Jihad and Peace: What Bible Prophecy Says About World Events Today)
“
Right now, get down on your hands and knees and pray to God or Allah or Buddha or whoever if you are an unsophisticated investor.
”
”
James Altucher (The Choose Yourself Guide To Wealth)
“
Rest assured that no one has a special relationship with Allah (SWT). Whoever denies me is not my (follower). The appearance of the Relief (al-Faraj) depends solely upon Allah (SWT); therefore, those who propose a certain time for it are liars. As to the benefit of my existence in Occultation (Ghaibat), it is like the benefit of the sun behind clouds where the eyes do not see. Indeed, my existence is an amnesty for the people of the earth. Pray much to Allah (SWT) to hasten the Relief, for therein also lays the release from your sufferings.
”
”
Imam Mahdi
“
After Yūnus had prayed to Allah: لَّا إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا أَنتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ, There is no god but You, how perfect You are and I was amongst the wrong-doers.
”
”
Omar Suleiman (Allah Loves)
“
All suffering is worth it to follow Jesus. He is that amazing. I pray that I will meet you someday, my dear friend, so we can rejoice and praise God together for our joys and our sufferings.
”
”
Nabeel Qureshi (Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity)
“
Everybody knew that Allah had created the world; that he quickened each human embryo in the womb; and that he was the giver of rain. But these remained abstract beliefs. Arabs would sometimes pray to Allah in an emergency, but once the danger had passed they forgot all about him.23 Indeed, Allah seemed like an irresponsible, absentee father; after he had brought men and women into being, he took no interest in them and abandoned them to their fate.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time (Eminent Lives))
“
We do not pray, fast, or give charity because Allah needs it, but because our spirits need to be in the presence of the Divine light to blossom. We are seeds, we are infinite potential hidden in the garden of a body, waiting to awaken through the mercy of Allah’s light.
”
”
A. Helwa (Secrets of Divine Love Journal: Insightful Reflections that Inspire Hope and Revive Faith)
“
No Muslim, I felt certain, ever thought of Allah as his father. Since childhood, I had been told that the surest way to know about Allah was to pray five times a day and study and think on the Quran. Yet Dr. Santiago’s words came to me again. “Talk to God. Talk to Him as if He were your father.
”
”
Bilquis Sheikh (I Dared to Call Him Father: The Miraculous Story of a Muslim Woman's Encounter with God)
“
Ibn Mas‘ud said to his companions, ‘You fast and pray more than the Companions of Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) but they were better than you.’ They asked, ‘How so?’ He replied, ‘They were more abstinent of this world than you and more desirous of the Hereafter.’ [Abu Nu‘aym, vol. 1, p. 136]
”
”
ابن رجب الحنبلي (The Journey to Allah)
“
In the peaceful moments of night,
Whenever i remember you..!
At that moment,
Me beg to Allah Almighty
For your eternal happiness..!
I pray to Him,
All griefs, all tears and all sorrows,
In your fate,
Shifts to mine..!
And,
All possible joys of mine,
Shifts to yours..!
O Aysel..!
Stay blessed and happy..!
”
”
zia
“
Ibn Jarir recorded that Sa`id bin Jubayr said, "A man came to Ibn `Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, and said to him: `O Abu Al-`Abbas, Allah says, (And the heavens and the earth wept not for them, nor were they given respite) -- do the heavens and the earth weep for anybody' He, may Allah be pleased with him, said, `Yes, there is no one who does not have a gate in the heavens through which his provision comes down and his good deeds ascend. When the believer dies, that gate is closed; it misses him and weeps for him, and the place of prayer on earth where he used to pray and remember Allah also weeps for him.
”
”
Muhammad Saed Abdul-Rahman (Tafsir Ibn Kathir Part 25 of 30: Fussilat 047 To Al Jathiya 037)
“
An old story is told about Rabia of Basra, an eighth-century Sufi mystic who was seen running through the streets of her city one day carrying a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. When someone asked her what she was doing, she said she wanted to burn down the rewards of paradise with the torch and put out the fires of hell with the water, because both blocked the way to God. "O, Allah," Rabia prayed, "if I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell, and if I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise. But if I worship You for Your Own sake, grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty.
”
”
Barbara Brown Taylor (Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others)
“
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Jesus (Matthew 5:44) “Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know.” Qur’an 8:60
”
”
Robert Spencer (The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades))
“
1 SHA’BAN
Did you know that 6 month prior to Ramadan the Sahaba’s used to make du’a to Allah that He would let them reach Ramadan. After Ramadan they used to make du’a for 6 month that Allah would accept their fasting and good deeds.
Today is the first day of Sha’ban and Ramadan is not too far off. You might be wondering where the time has gone, and might feel a bit overwhelmed or even afraid of the long hours of fasting. You might also be asking yourself, “what have I done so far to prepare myself for this blessed month?”
Many times we focus too much on the aspect of planning our meals for this month, but Ramadan is not the month of cooking, it is the month when the Quran was sent down, a month of worship. So let’s put the menu planning on the side, and prioritize on how we can prepare our hearts for this glorious month.
Something you can start right now is to follow the Sahaba’s example and make that same du’a until we reach Ramadan.
“Allahumma Balighna Ramadan”
“Oh Allah let us reach Ramadan
”
”
Cristina Tarantino (Be Successful This Ramadan)
“
Muhammad vs. Jesus “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Jesus (Matthew 5:44) “Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know.” Qur’an 8:60
”
”
Robert Spencer (The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades))
“
It is not our prayer and worship of God that makes God love us; rather, it’s God’s unconditional love for us that results in our worship. We do not pray for the love of God, but from the love of God. God’s power inspires and allows us to pray, and it’s that same divine power that we are calling to in prayer. As Rumi says, “I am a mountain. You call, I echo.
”
”
A. Helwa
“
According to Imam al-Ghazali, there are four worldly and four spiritual tips to help a person perform tahajjud. The worldly tips are: •Avoid overeating, and over-drinking, which would lead to heavy sleep. •Avoid tiring the body during the day in what is not beneficial. •Take to the afternoon nap, which helps you pray at night. •Never commit sins during the day, which may prevent you from praying tahajjud. The spiritual tips are: •To purify your heart of any resentment against another Muslim. •To constantly have fear in your heart of your Lord and realise that your life is short. •To understand the benefit of tahajjud. •To love Allah, and have strong faith when you stand in prayer in the night, calling upon Allah.
”
”
Mohammed Faris (The Productive Muslim: Where Faith Meets Productivity)
“
Trip Advisor: Travel the World with Haiku [D]
Jerusalem, Israel
Jews pray motionless
and the Western Wall shakes.
It's all relative.
Capetown, South Africa
And the coloured girls say,
'We're not Africaans, we're English.'
In a total Africaans accent.
Bulls Bay, Jamaica
Weed, rum, guava jelly,
Reggae, Marley, Red Stripe beer,
O Baby, jerk that chicken.
Istanbul, Turkey
I asked my driver,
'Why do you believe in Allah?'
He answers: 'If not, He hit me!'
Cairo, Egypt
Cairo International Airport,
Porter drops my bags six times.
Descendents of the Pharaohs, my ass.
Santorini Island, Greece
Greeks are like the current,
They push you over and then
Try to suck you in.
Christiania, Denmark
One thousand drug dealers,
Five hundred thousand tourists.
Alway$ Chri$tma$ here.*
”
”
Beryl Dov
“
This book is dedicated to my parents, Ami and Abba. Your undying love for me, even when you feel I have sinned against you, is second only to God's love for His children. I pray you will one day realize His love is truly unconditional and that He has offered forgiveness to all. On that day, I pray that you would accept His redemption so we might be a family once again. I love you with all my heart.
”
”
Nabeel Qureshi (Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity)
“
The most enviable person in my estimation is a believer who is light of back (having little property), prays a great deal, makes good his worship of his Lord, Mighty and Magnificent, and makes do with little. The fingers of people do not point at him and he remains patient with this untill he meets Allah, Mighty and Magnificent; then, when death comes to him, his inheritance is paltry and his mourners are few.
”
”
Anonymous
“
Oh Allah, distance me from my sins just as You have distanced the east from the west. Oh Allah, purify me of my sins as a white robe is purified of filth. Oh Allah, cleanse me of my sins with snow, water, and ice.”10 Oh Allah, I lovingly await Your invitation to come visit You, both in this life and the next. I place my hope in Your mercy and place my trust in Your perfect timing. In Your generous names I pray, Ameen.
”
”
A. Helwa (Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam (Studying Qur'an & Hadith Book 2))
“
Radicals have value, at least; they can move the center. On a scale of 1 to 5, 3 is moderate, 1 and 5 the hardliners. But if a good radical takes it up to 9, then 5 becomes the new center. I already saw it working in the American Muslim community. For years women were neglected in mosques, denied entrance to the main prayer halls and relegated to poorly maintained balconies and basements. It was only after a handdful of Muslim feminists raised "lunatic fringe" demands like mixed-gender prayers with men and women standing together and even women imams giving sermons and leading men in prayer that major organizations such as ISNA and CAIR began to recognize the "moderate" concerns and deal with the issue of women in mosques.
I've taken part in the woman-led prayer movement, both as a writer and as a man who prays behind women, happy to be the extremist who makes moderate reform seem less threatening. Insha'Allah, what's extreme today will not be extreme tomorrow.
”
”
Michael Muhammad Knight (Journey to the End of Islam)
“
The very worst that could happen would be for Jayda to fall in love with a godless man whilst she was in London. If it were an Englishman he would most likely be an infidel and apostate, a kafir. As a stream of light rayed its column from the dome and shifted all other perspectives into shadow, Jamil squeezed his eyes shut away from the beam and prayed again that his sister could be guided to Allah; but the thought most acute to him at that moment was that such a temptation would appeal to her.
”
”
Johnny Leavesley
“
I have no doubt that your acceptance of Christ coincided with some very positive changes in your life. Perhaps you now love other people in a way that you never imagined possible. You may even experience feelings of bliss while praying. I don’t wish to denigrate any of these experiences. I would point out, however, that billions of other human beings, in every time and place, have had similar experiences - but they had them while thinking about Krishna, or Allah, or the Buddha, while making art or music, or while contemplating the beauty of Nature. There is no question that it is possible for people to have profoundly transformative experiences. And there is no question that it is possible for them to misinterpret these experiences, and to further delude themselves about the nature of reality. You are, of course, right to believe that there is more to life than simply understanding the structure and contents of the universe. But this does not make unjustified (and unjustifiable) claims about its structure and contents any more respectable.
”
”
Sam Harris
“
In Pakistan both branches [of the Ahmadis] fell to persecutions, sanction by the state in 1984 with General Zia Ul-Haq's Ordinance XX, which forbade Ahmadis of either branch from calling themselves Muslims, their religion Islam, or their temples mosques. Under penalty of law, they could not perform the call to pryaer, pray in the manner of Muslims, quote the Qur'an or hadith, greet each other with "as-salamu alaikum," or receite the shahadah... In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, it was illegal for some people to say, "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his Messenger.
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Michael Muhammad Knight (Journey to the End of Islam)
“
Slow down. The Taliban were religious, in the sense that in their opinion a being called Allah really designed and created the world and everything in it, including them. They were also a cultus in that they believed that you should pray five times a day, study the Koran, fast during Ramadan, give a tenth of your income to the poor and visit Mecca at least once in your lifetime. It is a matter of record that they had the ancient statues at Bamyan destroyed.
But Professor, who put up the statues? Buddhist monks, that's who. Possibly the monks were not religious, in the sense that they didn't believe in a designer-God but they were certainly part of a cultus and they had lots and lots of supernatural beliefs which you would think were Bad Things. So what you should have said is "Imagine no Taliban to blow up ancient statues. Imagine no ancient statues for the Taliban to blow up." This is absolutely emblematic of your confused attitude. When a religious organisation does something which annoys you, you take it for granted that it was Caused By Religion. But when a religious organisation does something which you quite like you don't think that "religion" had anything to do with it. You hardly spot that there was any religion involved at all.
”
”
Andrew Rilstone (Where Dawkins Went Wrong)
“
I want to make sure we understand in this reminder what duʿā’ is not? Duʿā’ is not placing an order at a restaurant. Duʿā’ is not placing an order for a product. When you place an order, you pay something and you get what you expected. You place an order for French fries; you’re not supposed to get a burger. You’re supposed to get French fries. When you place an order for a laptop, you’re not supposed to get a phone in the mail. You get what you ordered, and when you order something you obviously pay for it. You paid for it, so you’re expecting what you paid for. When you and I make duʿā’, we pay nothing. We pay nothing. When you pay nothing, then you have no expectations, you have no right to complain about what you get. You don’t get to say, ‘Hey! Wait, I asked for a hundred on my exam. I made duʿā’ last night. I still got a forty. What is this Allah? I placed the right order!’ You and I don’t get to do that. Allah is not here to serve you and me as customers. We’re used to customer service in this world. We are used to it so much that we think the way we are going to deal with Allah, is the same. Some of the young people today; unfortunately, their relationship with their parents has become like their parents are supposed to provide them customer service. ‘Mum, I asked you to buy me Grand Theft Auto! How come you didn’t get it yet?’, ‘I told you I’m going to do my homework!’ Like your homework is payment or something, right? Because we feel so entitled all the time, we bring this entitled attitude when we turn to Allah and we make duʿā’ to Him. ‘Yā Allāh, heal me.’ ‘Yā Allāh, get me a promotion.’ ‘Yā Allāh, do this for me or do that for me.’ And it doesn’t happen; and you’re like: ‘Forget this, I don’t need prayer. I even took the time out to pray and He didn’t give!
”
”
Nouman Ali Khan (Revive Your Heart: Putting Life in Perspective)
“
Some people on bus seats shake at the shoulders,
Stoned Elvises trying to dance after the gig.
Some walk into the rain and look like they’re smiling,
Running mascara writes sad bitter letters on their faces.
Some drive their cars into lay-bys or park edges
And cradle the steering-wheel looking like headless drivers.
Some sink their open mouths into feather pillows
And tremble on the bed like beached dolphins.
Some people are bent as question marks when they weep
And some are straight as exclamation marks.
Some are soaking in emotional dew when they wake,
Salt street maps etched into their faces.
Some find rooms and fall to the floor as if praying to Allah.
Noiseless
Faces contorted in that silent scream that seems like laughter.
Why is there not a tissue-giver? A man who looks for tears,
Who makes the finest silk tissues and offers them for free?
It seems to me that around each corner, beneath each stone,
Are humans quietly looking for a place to cry on their own.
”
”
Lemn Sissay (Gold from the Stone: New and Selected Poems (Canons Book 70))
“
An old story is told about Rabia of Basra, an eighth-century Sufi mystic who was seen running through the streets of her city one day carrying a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. When someone asked her what she was doing, she said she wanted to burn down the rewards of paradise with the torch and put out the fires of hell with the water, because both blocked the way to God, 'O, Allah,' Rabia prayed, 'if I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell, and if I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise. But if I worship You for Your Own sake, grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty.'
In Christian tradition this comes under the heading of unconditional love, though it is usually understood as the kind of love God exercises toward humans instead of the other way around. Now, thanks to a Muslim mystic from Iraq, I have a new way of understanding what it means to love God unconditionally. Whenever I am tempted to act from fear of divine punishment or hope of divine reward, Rabia leans over from here religion into mine and empties a bucket of water on my head.
”
”
Barbara Brown Taylor (Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others)
“
Transportation from One Place to Another
Once whilst Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani (r.a) was delivering one of his spiritually enlightening lectures, a person by the name of Abul Mu’aali was present in this gathering. He was seated directly in front of the great Saint. During the course of the lecture, Abul Mu’aali found that he needed to answer the call of nature (relieve himself). He tried to suppress this need because he found it disrespectful to leave the gathering of al-Ghawth al-A’zam (r.a) He controlled the urge to the best of his ability, but when he could not do so any longer, he decided to leave. As he was about to stand, he saw the great Ghawth (r.a) walking down the first stair of the pulpit (Mimbar) onto the second stair. As the Saint came to the second stair, Abul Mu’aali saw an image of the great Saint on the mimbar. Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani (r.a) came down to him and threw his shawl over him.
As this happened, Abul Mu’aali found that he was no longer in the gathering, but rather in a valley with beautiful lush vegetation. It was beautified even more by a stream, which flowed through it. He immediately answered the call of nature, performed Wudhu and then prayed two Rakaats Salaah. As he completed the Salaah, Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani (r.a) pulled the shawl off him. When Abul Mu’aali looked, he found to his amazement that he was still in the gathering of the great Saint (r.a) and he had not even missed one word of the lecture of the great Saint. However, much later Abul Mu’aali discovered that he did not have his set of keys with him. He then remembered that when he was transported to the valley by Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani (r.a), he had hung his key ring on the branch of a tree beside the stream. Abul Mu’aali states that some time after this incident, he had the opportunity to go on a business expedition. During this journey, Abul Mu’aali reached a valley and rested there. He then noticed that the valley was the exact same place where the great Saint had transported him during his lecture. When he went beside the tree, he found that his missing keys were still hanging on the branch of the tree. Subhan-Allah! The business trip took fourteen days to complete. This miracle of al-Ghawth al-A’zam (r.a) shows that not only did he transport Abul Mu’aali spiritually, but also physically.
”
”
Hazrat Shaykh Sayyid Abdul Kadir Jilani
“
Although Saudi authorities promised after the September 11 attacks to revise textbooks that taught hatred against Jews and Christians, as late as 2006 Saudi texts still referred to Jews as “apes” and Christians as “swine.”27 And in April 2008 a British employment tribunal awarded 70,000 pounds ($115,000) to a teacher who had been fired from a Saudi-funded Islamic school for exposing that the school’s textbooks spoke of “the repugnant characteristics of the Jews” and asserted, “Those whom God has cursed and with whom he is angry, he has turned into monkeys and pigs. They worship Satan.”28 There is an endless parade of similar examples. In March 2004 Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris, speaking on official Palestinian Authority television, railed against “the Jews today taking revenge for their grandfathers and ancestors, the sons of apes and pigs.”29 And during the swine flu scare in May 2009, Sheikh Ahmad ‘Ali ‘Othman, the superintendent of da’wa [Islamic proselytizing] affairs at the Egyptian Ministry of Religious Endowments, declared that “all pigs are descended from the Jews whom Allah transformed into apes, swine and worshippers of Satan, and must therefore be slaughtered.” Othman based his argument on Koran 5:60, one of the Koran’s notorious “apes and pigs” passages.30 In his televised sermon denouncing the Jews regardless of their actions in Israel or elsewhere, Muhammad Hussein Ya’qoub also invoked this theme: “As for you Jews—the curse of Allah upon you. The curse of Allah upon you, whose ancestors were apes and pigs. . . . Allah, we pray that you transform them again, and make the Muslims rejoice again in seeing them as apes and pigs. You pigs of the earth! You pigs of the earth! You kill the Muslims with that cold pig [blood] of yours.”31 Jews as apes and pigs: it’s in the Koran, holy book of the religion of peace.
”
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Robert Spencer (The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran)
“
Don’t hope the world will change, but we have to be change. ..., Allah said He will not change people’s fate, until the people themselves make the change. If you want something and want to be something, don’t just dream and pray, but make it, change it, do it here. And now!” -148
”
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Ahmad Fuadi (Negeri 5 Menara)
“
I think I can explain her feeling,” Sakina said, patting Razia’s hand. “If it’s publicly known that Amina has wandered the city, her reputation will be ruined. We will never find a groom for her.We are praying for Allah’s blessing on her travels to Oudh. After that, we would humbly request your assistance in returning her to Bombay.
”
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Sujata Massey (The Widows of Malabar Hill (Perveen Mistry, #1))
“
If you have to think that hard about the last time you prayed to Allah, I don’t think you get to hate gay people on the basis of God.
”
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Adiba Jaigirdar (The Henna Wars)
“
Marriage has been one of your goals among others. Even as one by one all your friends found their companions, some of them became mothers, lived your dream, your tawakkal remained unshakeable. You prayed for Allah to increase their blessings and have been incredibly patient for your turn.
”
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Sarah Mehmood (The White Pigeon)
“
I’m praying to Allah for complete blessings, ones that wouldn’t leave after knocking at my door.
”
”
Sarah Mehmood (The White Pigeon)
“
But as if her mind protested to her thoughts, she sighted the sky, the enormity reminding her of Allah’s magnificence. She had prayed for such a man at Tahajjud, in the last hour of Friday, at the time of rain and when they’d been for Umrah all those years back. She’d prayed for him with utmost sincerity without letting the wait tire her, especially in those special times when it was recommended to make dua. So how could she doubt Allah when He was finally granting her what she asked for from the past half a decade, or more?
”
”
Sarah Mehmood (The White Pigeon)
“
Just as love cannot be seen or truly known, but is undeniably felt, we can experience our Lord in places our mind could never travel or comprehend. Seek out these “placeless” places, where the unknown resides. Reflect upon the mysteries of life, travel into spaces with no familiar ground, venture into realms where worldly compasses fail to lead you, walk into the quantum world, where laws of science seemingly fail to work, and feel the vulnerability of your ignorance. Lean into the divinity that is hidden within everything. Break every wall of known knowledge; do not seek to know, seek to be in awe of the infinite nature of God. This is where you can experience your Lord; this is where you can be most aware that you will never know Allah as He truly is, and yet every moment of every day it is His breath that is mysteriously creating the life inside of you. My Lord, help me surrender all that I am, so that I can receive all that You seek to give me. Allah, help me to lay down the burden of doubt and to walk freely in faith, trusting that Your plans for me will always be greater than my greatest dreams. Allah, forgive me for the mistakes I have made and the mistakes I will make. My Lord, please remind me that Your goodness will always be greater than my faults, and that Your love will always be greater than my shame. Oh Allah, shine Your light upon me, so that my eyes can awaken to Your truth and so that my heart can be illuminated by the reflection of Your beauty. In Your sublime Names I pray, Ameen.
”
”
A. Helwa (Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam (Studying Qur'an & Hadith Book 2))
“
Jana needed this in her life. To move on. To have someone value her for who she was. To love and appreciate her, make her the center of his world in the way she was never able to be as the oldest of five sisters. She really hoped that BenAli turned out to be that man, for her sister’s sake.
But Elizza wasn’t sure where that would leave her. She longed, too. Longed for someone to truly see her—not her beauty or education or outspokenness or anything else, but to see her.
She would do what Allah (SWT) commanded, be her best Muslim self, but she silently prayed for a partner to help her along the journey. Maybe she needed to do something tangible to get there?
She woke up to pray tahajjud.
”
”
Hannah Matus (A Second Look)
“
God does not need us to pray for Him, therefore our prayer is not for God, but for the protection of our own souls (45:15). If every time we committed a sin we stopped praying, no one on this Earth would pray. It is human to sin, so the faithful are not those who are perfect, but those who return to God after they have gone astray. “Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again, come, come.”
RUMI The salat is not about achieving a specific outcome; rather, it is about stepping into the waterfall of Allah’s mercy, which has been and always will be pouring down upon us. We should never hold back from praying to God because we feel too imperfect, unworthy, or sinful, because although our honoring of God is limited by our fallible mortal nature, God’s mercy for us is endless and infinite. We
”
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A. Helwa (Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam (Studying Qur'an & Hadith Book 2))
“
When what you prayed for does not come true, know that Allah is protecting you. Allah brings to you what is best for you. Our minds cannot solve the equations of divine math, but we must trust in the answers that Allah has. Do not always depend on the intellect you can grasp, rely on Allah to have your back. Trust that when the time is right, Allah will bring to light what is best for you.
”
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A. Helwa (From Darkness Into Light (Studying Qur'an & Hadith Book 4))
“
He would always say I should approach my faith and my relationship with Allah on my own terms and doing it any other way would not be keeping true to myself. Then we started praying together. He even read the Qur’an.
”
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Stephen Markley (The Deluge)
“
On another occasion, Mohammed (s) said, "A person will die with many sins and he will wake up without sins on the day of judgment. He will ask Allah (S) with a great surprise about his sins, and Allah (S) will answer him, 'You left good children behind who prayed for you and that's how We have washed your sins.'" (Tirmazi)
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Javed Khan (Parenting in Islam: A book on child psychology from Islmaic Point of View)
“
Your messengers and prophets stood at this spot and prayed to you. There's a world of difference between my prayers and theirs.' He was pleading. 'I am no prophet to pray the way they do. I am an ordinary human being with very human failings. My desires and my aspirations are all very ordinary. No one must have stood here and wept for a woman—how lower can my position, my debasement be, that standing in this pristine and sacred place, I should beg and plead for a woman? But I have no control over my heart nor over my tears. It was not I who gave her a place in my emotions, in my heart—it was You who put her there. Why have You so filled my heart with love for her that even though I stand in Your presence, I miss her? Why have You made me so helpless that I have no power over my existence? I am that being who was created with all these failings. I am that being who has no guide but You. And that woman—she stands at every turn that my life takes, preventing me from making any move, going ahead. Either completely erase all thought of her from my heart, take away my love for her, or grant her to me. If I cannot have her, my entire life will be wasted mourning for her. If she should be mine then my tears will only be for You— grant that purity to my tears. Standing here, I beg you to grant me one of the pure and noble women—I ask for Imama Hashim. For my coming generations, I ask for that woman who cannot include anyone in her love and reverence for your Prophet (PBUH), who left all the ease and comforts of her life for the love of the Prophet. If ever I have done any good in my life,then in return I ask for Imama Hashim. If You wish, it is possible—even now. Please lift this misery from me! Make my life easy. Please release me from the anguish that has gripped me since the last eight years. O Allah, please have mercy on Salar Sikandar once again, for mercy is the highest of Your attributes.' Head bowed, he wept for a long time, standing at the very spot where he had seen himself in his dream—but Imama was not standing behind him now.
”
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Umera Ahmed ("Pir-E-Kamil," a novel by Umera Ahmed in English)
“
If a man is hardhearted and commits many wrong actions, thinking too much of physical pleasure and mixing with people who do not remember Allah, then he can hardly perform his prayers, and if he does pray he does so absent-mindedly and hurriedly.
”
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ابن قيم الجوزية (Patience and Gratitude)
“
tongue or Zikar (remembrance of Allah) of the heart. 9.Baz Gast, it means during Zikar ( remembrance of Allah), praying for the grant of Maqsad (goal ), willingness , knowledge and love of Allah. 10.Nighadast, it means not to reveal the condition and mysteries . 11.Yaddast, it means to be away from carelessness without endeavour and without work and to be busy in condition and mysteries and not to think about self-consciousness and selflessness and such status which will be available
”
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Mohammed Abdu lhafeez (Gulzar Auliya)
“
Real Fact about Angles:
Angels are material but ethereal (Latif), more ethereal than the gaseous phase of matter. They are Nurani( Luminous, Spiritual). They are alive. They have reason ( ). Evils peculiar to human beings do not exist of angles. They can take any shape. As gases turn into liquid and solid and take any shape when becoming solid, likewise angles can form beautiful shapes, Angles are not souls that have parted from the bodies of great men. Christians presume that the angles are such spirits. Unlike energy and power, they are not immaterial. Some ancient philosophers supposed so. all of them are called Malaika "Malak" (angel) means 'envoy, messenger' or 'power.' Angles were created before all other living creatures. Therefore, we were commanded to believe in them before believing in the heavenly books, which come before belief in prophets; and in the Holly Quran the names of these tenets of belief are given in thes succession.
Belief in angles has to be as follows: angels are creatures of Allahu Talal (God). They are not His Partners, nor are they His daughters as disbelievers and polytheists suppose.
They Obey His Commands (God's Commands) and never commit sins or disobey the commands. They are neither male or Female. They are do not get married. They do not have children. They have life; that is, they are alive.
When Allah (the God) announced the He was going to create human beings, angels asked, "Ya Rabbi! (Oh God) Are You going to create creatures who will corrupt the world and shed blood?" Such questions, called Dhella, from angles do not changes the fact the they are innocent.
Of all creatures, angels are the most plentiful. No one but Allah (the God) knows their number. There is no empty space in the skies where angels do not worship. Every place in the skies is occupied by angels in Ruku (blowing during Namaz) " a kind of worship or pray" or in the Sujda (Prostrating) " a kind of worship or pray to God". In the skies, on the earth, in grass, on stars, in every living and lifeless creature, in every rain-drop, plant leaf, atom molecule, in every reaction, motion, in everything, angels have duties. They carry out Allahu Tala's (the God) commands everywhere.
They are intermediaries between Allahu tala (The God) and creatures. Some of them are the commanders of other angels. Some of them brought messages to Prophets among human beings. Some angels bring good thoughts, called "Ilham" (inspiration), to the human heart. Some others are unaware of all human beings and creatures and have lost consciousness upon feeling Allah Tala's (The God) beauty.
Each of theses angels stays in a certain place and connot leave its place. Some angels have two wings and some have four or more.
Angels belonging in Paradise stay in Paradise. Their superior is Ridwan. Angels of Hell, Zabanis carry out in Hell what they are commanded. The fire of Hell does not harm them, as the sea is not harmful to fish. There are nineteen leading Zabanis. Their chief Is Malik.
For each human being, there are four angels who record all their good and bad acts. Two of them come at night and the other two come during the day. They are called Kiram Katibin or angels or Hafaza. There is another scholarly report stating that the on one’s right side is superior to the one on the left and records the good deeds. The one on the left writes down the evil deeds. There are angels who will torment disbelievers and disobedient Muslims in their graves, and angels who will ask questions in graves. The questioning angles are called Munkar and Nakir. Angels who will question Muslims are also Called mubashshir and Bashir.
At the first sound of the “Sur”, all angels except the Hamalat al-Arsh and the four archangel’s will be annihilated. Then the Hamalat al-Arsh and then the four archangels will be annihilated.
At the second sound all angels will be annihilated after all the living creatures, as they were created before all.
”
”
Walid S
“
Einige Leute gedenken Allah beim Essen, während andere beim Beten an das Essen denken. Beide essen und beten, sind aber so weit entfernt voneinander, wie es die Himmel von der Erde sind.
Some people remember Allah when they are eating while some people think about food when they are praying. Both eat and pray, but they are as far apart from each other as the heavens are from the earth.
”
”
الحبيب عمر بن حفيظ - Habib Umar bin Hafiz
“
The Christian faith is the only true religion from the only true God. All other religions, philosophies, and worldviews lead to hell. Thus Paul does not pray to Allah or Buddha, or any other god, but he is praying to one who is different from, greater than, and hostile to Allan and Buddha, and all other gods. His idea of God is definite and exclusive. He does not pray to a generic deity, and there is no such thing as a generic deity. Rather, he prays to him who has a specific relationship with Jesus Christ, and who has a specific relationship with believers through Jesus Christ.
”
”
Vincent Cheung (Commentary On Ephesians)
“
Turgay makes another face and shakes his head. ‘You see my antenna?’ He points to a little growth of skin next to his right ear. ‘This my antenna to God. No pray, no Allah. Allah. Just this. God understands. He knows that Turgay is good man even if he drink beer. I drink because I sad inside.’ I try to figure out Turgay’s politics. ‘Is there a problem in the east of Turkey?’ I ask. ‘What east?’ ‘With the Kurdish people?’ ‘What Kurdish people? What Jewish people. What Greek, what Turkish people? What Christian, what Muslim? Everyone same. Government in Ankara must understand. Fuck. Only Allah up there for all.’ Fuck, I thought to myself: ‘In a strange way, Turgay is a Sufi.’ the
”
”
Saeed Akhtar Mirza (Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother)
“
The Prophet said that when a person performs Salat, he actually comes nearer to Allah and talks to Him. If you look at how you pray five times a day, you will have a barometer in your hand to find out how much you love Allah. Once
”
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Khurram Murad (In The Early Hours: Reflections on Spiritual and Self Development)
“
Islam means “submission.”1 The faith teaches that Muslims must submit to the will of Allah2 and prepare themselves for the final judgment in order to be able to enter paradise.3 Muslims believe that Allah revealed his will through Sharia, which literally means “path” but is generally translated as “Islamic law.”4 Unlike the traditional Western legal system, which is limited to basic civil and criminal elements, Sharia covers everything from religious rituals and private hygiene to principles of conducting business, criminal punishments, and more. Sharia prescribes, for example, how many times a Muslim must pray, how husbands should treat their wives, and what punishments are to be given for different crimes. It mandates flogging for consuming alcohol,5 stoning adulterers to death,6 cutting off a thief’s limbs,7 and executing apostates and blasphemers.8 Many Muslims around the world do not adhere to the jihadist ideology of terrorists. Most Muslims are moderate, peaceful people who, while following their religious traditions and rituals—attending mosques for worship, fasting, witnessing to others—reasonably coexist with followers of other religions. They do not impose their beliefs on others. They have non-Muslim friends, neighbors, and coworkers with whom they socialize on a daily basis. To these Muslims, Islam is a religion of peace. A small but increasingly significant segment of Muslims (some estimate its size as between 10 and 20 percent),9 however, believe in the supremacy of Islam and Sharia law over any other religion or law and feel obligated to force such beliefs on everybody. This
”
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Jay Sekulow (Unholy Alliance: The Agenda Iran, Russia, and Jihadists Share for Conquering the World)
“
cried out to Allah faithfully five times a day, every day, but he never answered even one prayer. I prayed for food, and we were hungry. I prayed for peace, and the war became more violent. Gamila and I were both fourteen. We often talked about what life was like outside our broken, violent country. I dreamed of a world without death and war where people were not killed for what they believed. Freedom and democracy, once the hope of my nation, had been forgotten in the years of civil war.
”
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Samaa Habib (Face to Face with Jesus: A Former Muslim's Extraordinary Journey to Heaven and Encounter with the God of Love)
“
My mind flicked back to my prayers to Allah. I prayed to him five times a day and still received no answer. Yet I remembered that I had prayed once to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—the God of Christians—and He had answered me. So when the pastor said, “Jesus is the Answer,” that caught my attention and rang in my heart as true. I’m a Muslim, but I can still receive prayer, I thought. Why not? I was searching for answers. Would the Christian God be able to make the war end? Could He bring peace?
”
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Samaa Habib (Face to Face with Jesus: A Former Muslim's Extraordinary Journey to Heaven and Encounter with the God of Love)
“
Now, nowhere does one find these kind of semantics more confounding and stupefying than when one picks up some peculiar heading in a newspaper which talks about “the Islamic Nation.” Islam is NOT a nation. It has never been a nation. Look it up in a dictionary. You can have Islamic “nations” with State-Churches. In these cases, the nation (or country) is the State (political), and the church is Islam (a religion). So if you taught in the schools anything that Moslems believe, you would be “joining Church and State.” All Islamic nations are Church-States. But if you pray or read the Bible, you wouldn’t be joining anything to anything.
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Peter S. Ruckman (Will The Real "ALLAH" Please Stand Up?)
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You’ve been tested.’ He advised me to try and ‘forgive and pardon, and this way seek to become beloved by God’ without my forgiveness being tied to the one who wronged me. ‘This is the Divine remedy,’ he emphasised, ‘remind your ego when it resists. Don’t you love for God to forgive you on the day, too?’
Reflecting on what the Shaykh said, his advice undid a knot in my heart and I resolved to work on my forgiveness purely for the sake of God. The Shaykh also recommended: ‘Be careful about what you pray for in the future.’ He promised to pray for me personally, asking God to send me a Muslim husband who would value and cherish me for who I am. Insha’ Allah!
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Kristiane Backer (From MTV to Mecca: How Islam Inspired My Life)
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So heaven with its seventy-two virgins sounded attractive. Every night my father would pray to God, ‘O Allah, please make war between Muslims and infidels so I can die in your service and be a martyr.
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Malala Yousafzai (I am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban)
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Though Christians in the West typically associate the name Allah with Islam, it was, in fact, Christian in origin. Arab Muslims borrowed the name from Arab Christians who had been praying to Allah for centuries before Muhammad was born.
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David Garrison (A Wind in the House of Islam: How God is drawing Muslims around the world to faith in Jesus Christ)
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The most enviable person in my estimation is a believer who is light of back (having little property), prays a great deal, makes good his worship of his Lord, Mighty and Magnificent, and makes do with little. The fingers of people do not point at him and he remains patient with this untill he meets Allah, Mighty and Magnificent; then, when death comes to him, his inheritance is paltry and his mourners are few.
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ibn Rajab al Hanbali
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In the peaceful moments of night,
Whenever i remember you..!
At that moment,
Me beg to Allah Almighty
For your eternal happiness..!
I pray to Him,
All griefs, all tears and all sorrows,
In your fate,
Shift to mine..!
And,
All possible joys of mine,
Shift to yours..!
Stay blessed and happy..!
”
”
zia
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A Muslim does what he sets out to do. He does not give up at the first hurdle, nor the last. Determination should be a quality that is imbued within everything we do. When we pray to Allah subhanahu wa taʿala we should pray with determination; when we set out to complete a task, it should be done in an efficient manner.
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Nabeel Azeez (40 Hadith on Masculinity: How to be a Good Man)
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Don't Despair - Victory Is Near
***
O' God, show me the way
So that I could tell
Those who pray to one God,
Those who follow their prophet
Those who recite their Holy Book
But neither people nor leaders
In their lives
Act on that as its context
Kashmiris breathe
In the tyranny of democratic beasts
Palestinians live
In the occupation of Zionists
And cruel occupiers
For decades and decades
Alas, the Muslim world
And United Nations
Stayed: Dumb, Deaf, and Blind
Except for issuing words of condemnation
On the unjust, oppressive rapes,
And killing practices and deeds
The Muslim States and rulers
And the Armed Forces are unique and brave,
Only for murdering their people
And damaging unity and resources
To stay in power
Such rulers destroyed Iraq, Libya,
Afghanistan, Yemen, and Iran
Spending trillions of wealth
The Muslim States fought wars
In the interests of those who preach
Justice, equality, honesty, harmony,
And peace, never learn themselves.
How they can apply justice
For Palestinians and Kashmiris?
Otherwise, peace was a destiny
And the destination of the Muslim State
And entire humanity
In such a scenario as Kashmir,
And Palestine will be bearing cruelty
Unjust, oppression, and bloodshed
We belong to Allah
And to Him, we shall return
Oh, Palestine, oh, Kashmir
Do not despair
Victory is near.
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Ehsan Sehgal
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empathy and mercy. These principles will help us to live a more productive and fulfilling life, and reduce many of the problems we deal with. 2. When planning your day, take note of the Salah times and block them out as not flexible time. There is no compromise on the issue of Salah for a Muslim. It is our fundamental duty to Allah and we need to give it priority over everything else, including meals and rest. Salah comes first, and once we establish praying all five Salah on time as a daily habit, it becomes easier to organize
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Abu Muawiyah Ismail Kamdar (Getting the Barakah: An Islamic Guide to Time Management)
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Allah will bring you someone better than him, I have complete trust in The One I pray to. A mother’s prayers will not go empty, our Lord is Kind.
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Sarah Mehmood (The White Pigeon)
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When nights became darker and silence grew intense, Saika found refuge in speaking to Allah. She’d become more steadfast in establishing Tahajjud, the prayers performed in the last third of night when Allah was in the lowest heaven. It was a time when the dreamers prayed fervently for the Lord of their dreams to turn them into reality.
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Sarah Mehmood (The White Pigeon)
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He is Ar-Rauf, Compassionate towards His slaves, who consoles the broken-hearted.
How then can I allow my doubts to get the better of me? And so, I will continue to pray, I will pray till my hardships end, or I end, and either way, I’ll be victorious. My living and my dying are for Allah, fighting in His way against the battalions that shake my faith.
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Sarah Mehmood (The White Pigeon)
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It was only after some years when I realized that my pain was psychological and that I was holding on to it because I was addicted to it that it went away. It was only when I started praying and not thinking of myself that it went away. When I gave myself to Allah.
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Karan Mahajan (The Association of Small Bombs)
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We are called to pray like rain, to pour our spirits into the soil of humility as we plant our heads in prostration upon the ground of faith. In prayer, we water the earth of our existence with the cleansing, pure water of God’s own words.
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A. Helwa (Secrets of Divine Love Journal: Insightful Reflections that Inspire Hope and Revive Faith)
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Turn in the Old Testament to the book of Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39.” Birjandi then proceeded to walk them through a series of prophecies he said was widely known as the War of Gog and Magog. They revealed an apocalyptic showdown against Israel and the Jewish people that would be led by a nation called Magog. “There are quite a few clues that make it clear the nation referred to as Magog is modern-day Russia,” Birjandi said, “including the writings of Flavius Josephus, a Roman historian. But what’s critical for us to understand is Ezekiel 38:5. What is the first country mentioned that will form an alliance against Israel?” “Persia,” Ibrahim said. “Exactly,” Birjandi confirmed. “The ancient prophecies speak of a Russian-Iranian alliance sometime in the future. To many scholars, this has seemed very odd, given that for most of the last several thousand years, the Russians and we Iranians have never had such an alliance. Indeed, the leaders of these countries have hated each other. Until 1943, the Russians occupied parts of northern Iran. Under Khomeini, we prayed for Allah to bring judgment upon the heathen, godless, atheist Communists in the Kremlin. But then what happened? We suffered through eight years of the war with Iraq. We had lots of oil money but desperately needed new weapons. The Soviet Union imploded,
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Joel C. Rosenberg (Damascus Countdown)