the72sects

[the72sects]

Ramadaan Day 3: Traction

After yesterday's slump, I find myself slowly emerging from the lethargy and the mental clutter that slowed me down in recent months. Imposter syndrome was hitting quite hard as well, but seems to be subsiding now.

A reminder that Shaytaan gets more material to work with when we doubt ourselves, or fear certain outcomes. So it figures that before Ramadaan, what should have been a minor concern felt like a major one because of his whisperings. On day three, some of what I've been putting off for months, or even struggling with for months, is coming almost naturally.

Mental clutter is a collection of unresolved fears, doubts, and anger at past events. The fasting mind makes it easier to discern between that and a need for improved understanding and effort regarding what I want to achieve.

The traction I feel today will hopefully build into a meaningful momentum tomorrow, inshaAllah.

The only trick is to never give up.

[the72sects]

Ramadaan Day 2: Pause

After a late night on the first night of Ramadaan, my energy levels dipped during the day to a point of almost complete lethargy. But the late night was for a good reason. It was the first time that my home was decorated with a lanyard welcoming Ramadaan. An effort and initiative entirely of my daughter's accord. This brings hope of breaking the monotony of the legacy in which we were raised where life was suppressed and compliance was all that mattered.

Striking a balance between the two, living versus complying, grows ever more challenging but also fulfilling as she grows older and begins to connect with the depth of her being that I've frustratingly harped on for years now.

Nonetheless, it is Ramadaan, and unexpected positive shifts always occurred in this month, no matter how futile life appeared just before.

Connecting with those around us is neglected in our efforts to connect with the One who created us. I think this is an imbalance that robs us of both.

[the72sects]

Ramadaan Day 1: Exhale

Suddenly, without effort, life slows down. The mind calms, and focus becomes strained as I struggle to ease up from the demands that have pummelled my attention span for the longest time.

It seems like years since last Ramadaan, even though it was a year that flashed by. The moon sagas dwarfed even the struggles of Palestine in social discourse.

This Ummah is adrift. What do you have as a social anchor if your identity has been detached from your cultural roots that are steeped in Indo-Pak distortions, while your sense of belonging to a Muslim community has always felt uncomfortably distant?

Ramadaan has come. InshaAllah peace will accompany it.

[the72sects]

Assalamu Alaikum, My son who is very stubborn. He gets angry easily and misbehaves frequently. I need a Dua for him.

In dealing with anger or bad behaviour, we need to understand the reason for such behaviour so that we can respond effectively to the root cause.

By focusing on dua only without practical steps, we fall short of the advice in the hadith that teaches us to tie our camels and trust in Allah.

Making dua is the trusting in Allah part. The tying our camel part will be to understand the reason for anger.

Anger is a defense mechanism that we use to demand significance when we feel like we're not important or understood to those around us. We may not intend to treat someone as if they're insignificant, but that doesn't mean that our behaviour doesn't leave them feeling ignored or invisible.

Focus on trying to understand what emotional duress your son is struggling with and inshaAllah that will lead to answers that will explain his behaviour, and allow you to remedy the situation or circumstances that are driving him towards anger. It will also alleviate his need to get angry if he feels understood or seen.

[the72sects]

where do you get this information regarding using salt to cleans

Salt in itself is a therapeutic medium that can be used for relief without any dua or dhikr recited over it. Allah has created it with its own innate benefit because of its constitution and the effect it has on our bodies. There is an abundance of clinical evidence to support this.

I use salt with the added benefit of recitations from the Sunnah to improve its effectiveness or its benefit.

Ideally, just the recitation of the Quls and of istighfaar will be sufficient to cleanse one of the effects of hasad or sihr and its negative impacts on our physical state. However, it requires a level of conviction and sincerity that we're often incapable of when under duress. Hence the use of salt as a medium to improve our physical and mental state so that we may be able to connect with Allah with greater clarity after we experience physical relief from the discomforts and duress that was distracting us.

[the72sects]

I am always ill pls help me

Apologies for the delayed response. I haven't been receiving notifications from Tumblr for submissions to this blog.

Illness, unless directly related to a physical cause like a contracted virus or bacteria, is an indication of emotional and spiritual duress. If we find ourselves regularly struggling with our health, we need to consider what emotional duress is creating strain on our immune system, or other bodily functions.

The body is a signaling system for your soul. Its duress is an indication of an associated spiritual or emotional duress. Stress always precedes illness, and never the other way around. Just because we may become more visibly or consciously stressed after we feel ill doesn't mean that the stress that was normalised for us before that illness doesn't exist. Hence the importance of self-awareness and mindfulness.

[the72sects]

ANON: prayer for facing set back

Setbacks vary in nature. Therefore, we must respond with a solution that is related to the setback itself, otherwise we may apply the incorrect solution for our problem. The most universal prayer in this regard that I can think of is to make a lot of istighfaar because that eases our trials and difficulties. 

May Allah make it easy for all of us. Aameen. 

[the72sects]

A strained relationship with Allah often prompts me towards despondency in ever achieving a wholesome life, and a peaceful akhira.

The cause of that strain is always due to my distracted state at being impacted by the behaviour of others towards me.

Fighting the nature that Allah has created within me is the source of much self-judgment and duress. It is only when I remind myself that Allah loves those who err and return to him for forgiveness and guidance that I find solace in His mercy, leaving the whisperer abandoned in his attempts to create distance between me and Allah's mercy.

In a community where the mainstream focus is on Allah's conditional mercy and his unconditional wrath, solitude is not only needed for a deep breath, but is essential to a composed mind.

The human need for appreciation and significance, which is core to our sense of peace, is the root of much anguish. Striking a balance between needing it and not having it, versus behaving badly in its absence while struggling to rise above my demons, I pray, is the very struggle that Allah loves in my efforts to reach Him in a favourable state.

The struggle continues.

[the72sects]

Photo credit : Adobe Stock https://www.instagram.com/p/CFLxcXrDpXM/?igshid=d98x8jv0sxpy

[the72sects]

Tired of being lazy but too lazy to do anything about it? Discussion on Radio Islam with Hafiz Shakir Bhayat and Zaid Ismail. [LISTEN]

[the72sects]

I need dua acidity & body weakness

Assalaamu alaykum...

Acidity and body weakness are both caused by our belief that we're not good enough despite our best efforts towards pleasing others. We begin to question ourselves instead of recognising why they're not ready to receive or embrace our efforts towards them.

Recite the following often, and inshaAllah it will strengthen you.

[the72sects]

Dua for relief from poverty, worries, debt, burdens, and illness. May Allah accept our dua. Aameen.

[the72sects]

When you see Muslims behaving badly, don't judge Islam, judge the community that raised them.

Zaid Ismail

[the72sects]

Faith is not found in rituals

The common and disturbing trend among Muslims is the emphasis on ritualistic compliance. We bash each other into schools of thought, scholarly debates, and rants about religiosity or excessive piety. Appearances and titles hold more sway than the truth, and alliances are formed on cultural lines more than it is on understanding or common purpose.

The current craze around Ertugrul confirms our desperation for an identity that extends beyond the ritual practices of being a Muslim, and rather to be able to embrace our Muslim-ness more holistically. Islam, in most parts of the world, is a bolt-on to our lives. It is practiced alongside our daily pursuit to earn a living or change the world, with only rituals intruding in the routine from time to time.

Faith cannot be found through rituals. Rituals connect you with the present moment and open a door to the spiritual. But the spiritual can be reached without the ritual. However, if that ritual is focused on compliance with a man-made expectation, faith will hold no part in it. Worse still, if it is done out of fear for the repercussion of non-compliance, then the benefit will elude you. 

Benefit is not the same as reward. To experience the benefit of an act we must understand and appreciate the value that the act offers. To achieve the reward, we only need to know what is required to comply with the fulfilment of the act because by definition, the reward will be earned. But to experience the benefit, we must focus on the purpose, and the purpose of religious rituals is to strengthen our bond with the divine, not to merely comply with its will. 

Establishing the ritual without understanding is what leads to cultish behaviour. The same cultish behaviour that we witness between sects and religions who aggressively defend their interpretation or implementation of the rituals but refuse to consider the often common principles of faith. 

Unity does not come from uniformity. Unity is a result of common purpose and mutual respect. 

[the72sects]

If you cannot fast this Ramadan, if you cannot go to the masjid for tarawih, if you’ve been so overwhelmed that the month has crept up and you don’t feel like you’re at all prepared, remember:

Ramadan is the month of mercy anyway. Ramadan is the month of forgiveness anyway. Ramadan is the month of acceptance and rewards and prayers answered anyway.

Instead of feeling guilty and angry over your inability to fast and spend this month in the masjid or your lack of preparation, find creative ways to reconnect with your Creator.

Your taking care of your health, your taking care of others, your duaa, your Quran, your dhikr, your charity, your doing the laundry and going to work and taking care of the kids and supporting your parents and studying for exams- all of them, all of them, are acts of worship magnified in this month by your intention.

If you feel the door has shut for you and the month hasn’t even begun, remember, “Allah will not close a door to His slave out of wisdom, except that He opens two doors for him out of mercy.” Ibn al-Qayyim

Allahuma, we are not ready, our hearts are hard and our vices many, but You are All Forgiving, All Loving and All Answering and all is easy for You- so make us successful anyway! Bring us close to You anyway! Be pleased with us, forgive us, answer us and enter us and every one of our loved ones into the highest Paradise without reckoning anyway! Ameen!

Ramadan Mubarak Fam!

Via Ustadha Maryam Amir

[the72sects]

How Muslim Schools Fail Us

I removed my daughter from a Muslim school this year. I removed her from the madrasah as well. As a single father, I have a lot on my plate already, so why would I deliberately complicate things even further?

Our local Muslim school has been plagued with issues in recent years. Like so many community endeavours of this kind, it started out with hope and commitment to deliver the clichéd aspiration of world class everything. The parents bought in and contributed as best as they were allowed to, and everyone was hopeful that it would only go from strength to strength in the years to come. Unfortunately, it was quite the opposite.

Mismanagement and an egotistical board of governors meant that decisions of a strategic nature were not strategic, but instead self-serving. As in so many community initiatives, like building mosques to serve the Ummah, after the moneys of the working class are collected, the biggest donors that complete the project wrest away control of the running of the institutions to establish their authority in lieu of their generous donations.

But was it really that generous if the aim was simply to establish themselves as owners of what is essentially a trust of the community? In this case, as I'm sure it is in many cases sadly enough, that arrogance resulted in a total blockade of any meaningful engagement with the parents to the point of totally rejecting any requests to establish a consultative forum for parents to have input in the affairs of the school.

Experienced educators left in droves each year, and were systematically replaced with educators that were easier for the board to control, rather than for their skills or experience. Nepotism is the order of the day, and the arrogance of the board grew with each victory of denying the rights of the parents, until they eventually saw fit to expel the students of any parents that raised concerns about the declining standards of education and the total lack of transparency in the handling of the trust funds for the institution. All without due process I might add.

Unsurprisingly, the inept principal chose to completely ignore me when I visited their offices this morning to confirm my decision to remove my daughter from their school. Instead, they chose to process the administration of my daughter's exit from the school with my daughter who is only 14 years old, and opted not to ask me for my reasons for removing her when she declined to answer their questions.

Living in a non-Muslim country means that recourse in such situations is limited to the secular courts. Muslim leadership is opportunistic at best, and totally absent when tough stances need to be taken against maladministration of Islamic institutions. After all, how can the ulema speak out against the same businessmen that fund their lifestyle?

Segregation of duties is unheard of in such institutions because it all comes down to who has the most political influence, and has nothing to do with who is most competent. For this reason you will see conscientious objectors being evicted from their jobs and replaced by lackeys who are thrilled at the opportunity of being able to serve such masters in exchange for the title of principal or head of such and such department.

We wonder why the Ummah is failing dismally at establishing itself as a beacon of morality or ethics, or why we have failing relationships and abusive spouses? No need to wonder. Look around you and see how much abuse of authority and trust you tolerate in your efforts to appease the wealthy businessmen that abuse the coffers of the community around you. Look at how the conscientious objectors, the ones that dare to speak out against unethical and unprofessional practices are treated and the throngs of despicable title worshippers that stand in line waiting to take their place when the morally corrupt trustees of such institutions replace them because they would rather be surrounded by lapdogs than sincere contributors towards the upliftment of the Ummah.

So why exactly did I remove my daughter from such an institution? I removed her because such behaviour was growing to be normalised in her young impressionable mind. I removed her because I needed her to understand that such unethical behaviour was unacceptable for Muslims. I removed her because it was the only feasible option for an ordinary member of the community who has no political influence or recourse of any sort to object to, and hopefully change the unacceptable practices at an Islamic institution. I removed her because unfortunately this is the only form of protest that is available to me with my limited resources, in a country where religious institutions have been a law into themselves forever. I recall such abuse of power by the trustees in the mosque in the neighbourhood where I grew up and I see the same abuse now, decades later. And I realise that our condition is worsening because those with resources and authority are more inclined to protect their own interests than they are to sacrifice their comforts for the upliftment of the Ummah, except of course when such upliftment comes with the recognition of the masses.

I wonder then, if we take such comfort and celebration from our contributions to such noble causes by putting in such concerted efforts to be seen for our contributions now, what are we really investing in our standing in the hereafter?

May Allah save us from ourselves, and save others from us. Aameen.

[the72sects]

We can't expect to raise children that are attached to the rope of Allah if we constantly use the same rope to beat them into submission.

Zaid Ismail