بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ
It's Sunday, and it's the last day of term break :(
School will be as usual for the next 6 weeks... before we settle down for study break and finally, THE EXAMS! Am I supposed to be feeling excited or otherwise? Hmm lol.
Anyways, spent my Saturday (yesterday) productively, Alhamdulillah. Attended a talk by Sheikh Daood Butt at Masjid Ar-Raudhah on 'adversity' and 'women in Islam'. Met quite a number of sisters whom I've not met for quite some time...also a lot of sisters from NYP. :)
I didn't really expect the crowd to be sooo overwhelming but I'm happy to say that most of them are youths, just like me. I hope more youth will attend these kind of majlis 'ilm in the future, Insya Allah. :')
Now let me share some useful points given by Sheikh Daood Butt.
The most conspicuous one was on patience, in my personal opinion. I feel that most of the nation here are lacking of patience, including me. Hence, it is really a good topic to start off.
Patience: It is something needed to develop our lives. Allah SWT emphasizes on patience in the Al-Qur'an. With patience and taqwa, InsyaAllah He will grant you success.
This can be related to the story of our Prophet, Yusuf 'Alaihissalaam. He was tested several times since young. His own siblings did not like him. Then, when he was thrown and found from the well, he became a slave. Later, because of some incident, he was brought to jail for years.
Yet, he remained calm and stayed patient throughout. He believes that, if he put trust to Allah SWT, something good will happen. True enough! After the sorrows he went through, he was elected as the minister of agriculture.
You see, from being a slave, to the jail and finally becoming a minister. Subhaanallah, nothing is impossible when you have the patience and taqwa. Lastly, he was reunited back to his family. Such a blissful ending.
(Refer to the story of Nabi Yusuf 'Alaihissalaam for a precised story.)
Apart from that, always take failures as blessings. I'm sure all of us have encountered failures, at least once. A simple example: Failing your test. How should you react?
Instead of emo-ing and isolating yourself, or feeling discouraged, why not you take it as a lesson. Learn your lesson and start bucking up. Without you realising, it is actually a blessing because that failure made you realise on your mistakes.
".و اصبروا إن الله مع الصابرين..."
“…and be patient. Indeed, Allah is with the patient.”
[Al-Anfal 8:46]
[Al-Anfal 8:46]
Sheikh Daood Butt also shared some tips on attaining patience when you face trials:
1) Think of good rewards that will come in the future
2) Expecting and hoping for the time of ease
3) By thinking of Allah SWT's blessings that we already have (Relatable to Prophet Ayub 'Alaihissalaam's story)
4) Think of previous things where Allah SWT blessed us after hardship.
Above all, be reminded that THE REAL TEST is: How are we going to PASS in the hereafter?
Not your exams, your image, your driving license etc (applies to me especially).
Sometimes we tend to think too much of our worldly desires till we forgot to read the Al-Qur'an. :(
If you're facing difficulties, turn to Allah SWT and make DU'A. Whatever addiction you are facing, you can overcome it by consistently turning to Him, Insya Allah. :)
I'll end this post with a hadith:
"No one can be given a better and more abundant gift than patience."
Allahu a'lam.