The Power of Patience

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]

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.

Fashioning Hijab

Assalamualaikum Wr Wb,

It's been a long time since I last updated this blog. I've changed my blogskin! :)

Anyways, I wanna share my happiness with you readers! ...Tomorrow will be my last paper for O Levels! Alhamdulillah, so far, I've went through the journey smoothly. And I really hope that the results & outcome will be as smooth. Smoother, Insya Allah. :)

Actually, my main reason for blogging today is to talk about HIJAB. From what I observed, HIJAB, or the way Muslimahs put on their hijab, has become a major issue. It's like, a trending topic worldwide! Hence, after googling for some useful notes, I decided to blog about this, giving MY OWN OPINION. But before that, I want to highlight that I may not be 100% accurate with the facts I'm gonna post here. You readers know better & may have a different perception on this issue. This is MY OPINION. That's all. I hope that it won't harm anyone, teehee! :)

Hijab: My say on today's trend.

The main problem nowadays is PEOPLE ARE TEMPTED TO THE LATEST HIJAB TRENDS.

They simply know that its a MUST for them (Muslimahs) to cover their aurah with hijab but MAYBE, they forgot the main purpose of putting them on. Hence, they are influenced by the trendy types of hijabs posted online, on facebook, or by looking at the beautiful ladies at the shopping malls/work/school etc.

Furthermore, there all a lot (too many) blogshops selling modern hijabs on facebook/blogs. So, as ladies (conquered by Nafs), we are easily attracted to beautiful things. Even I got the urge to try them sometimes, but I'll try to control. Haha!

Some of them put on their hijab just for the sake of covering their hair. Their neck, arms and chest are left uncovered. Some even wear a sleeveless shirt or T-shirt together with their hijab. Then, whats the purpose of putting on the hijab in the first place?

Let's now refer to Surah An-Nur from the Qur'an, verses 30 and 31 :

''And Say to the believing women to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and protect their private parts (from illegal sexual acts) and not to show off their adornment except only that which is apparent (like both eyes for necessity to see the way, or outer palms of hands or one eye or dress like veil, gloves, head-cover, apron), and to draw their veils all over Juyubihinna (i.e. their bodies, faces, necks and bossoms) and not to reveal their adornment except to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husband's fathers, or their sons, or their husband's sons, or their brothers or their brother's sons, or their sister's sons, or their (Muslim women) (i.e. sisters in Islam), or the (female) slaves whom their right hands possess, or old male servants who lack vigour, or small children who have no sense of feminine sex. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And all of you beg Allah to forgive you all, O believers, that you may be successful.''

Source: http://www.shariahprogram.ca/islam-qa-women/hijab-face.shtml

Another factor is, with styled hijab, they tend to tie their hair higher, such that it will form a big bun behind. Hence, when the hijab is put on, a big bun will be VERY VISIBLE at the back of their head. At first, I thought that this kind of style is fine. Cos for me, its just the matter of we, ladies, trying to tie our hair so that it wont go messy inside our hijab. But, a few months back, I found these.........and they freaked me out.............

عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ صِنْفَانِ مِنْ أَهْلِ النَّارِ لَمْ أَرَهُمَا قَوْمٌ مَعَهُمْ سِيَاطٌ كَأَذْنَابِ الْبَقَرِ يَضْرِبُونَ بِهَا النَّاسَ وَنِسَاءٌ كَاسِيَاتٌ عَارِيَاتٌ مُمِيلَاتٌ مَائِلَاتٌ رُءُوسُهُنَّ كَأَسْنِمَةِ الْبُخْتِ الْمَائِلَةِ لَا يَدْخُلْنَ الْجَنَّةَ وَلَا يَجِدْنَ رِيحَهَا وَإِنَّ رِيحَهَا لَيُوجَدُ مِنْ مَسِيرَةِ كَذَا وَكَذَا

Daripada Abu Hurairah r.a, beliau meriwayatkan bahawa Rasulullah SAW telah bersabda :

"Dua golongan yang termasuk dari kalangan ahli neraka yang tak pernah aku lihat iaitu yang pertama: Mereka yang memegang cemeti seperti ekor lembu (bentuk cemeti itu seperti ekor lembu yang berbulu-bulu dan berambut-rambut) dan mereka memukul manusia dengan cemeti tersebut."

Source: http://aishahtur.blogspot.com/2010/04/bonggol-unta.html

Dari mafhum hadith:

"Ada dua golongan dari penduduk neraka yang belum pernah aku lihat: (1) Satu kaum yang memiliki cemeti seperti ekor lembu untuk memukul manusia, dan (2) para wanita yg berpakaian tetapi telanjang, berlenggang-lenggok, kepala mereka seperti ekor unta yg bergoyang-goyang. Wanita seperti itu tidak akan masuk syurga, dan tidak akan mencium baunya, sedangkan baunya dapat tercium selama perjalanan sekian & sekian."

(Hadith riwayat Imam Muslim)

Source: Google image search "Hadits tentang bonggol unta"

The "high bun" is also referred as "bonggol unta". In Malaysia, there's even a hijab fashion called "tudung bonggol".

I am totally shocked after reading the hadith. This is nothing to play with. We can't play around with fashion when there's a specific hadith going against it. :(

My last point is...... creating a new fashion that makes us the same as 1other culture's style.

If you happened to search on 'shawl tutorials' on youtube, you will find a lot of creative ways on fashioning your hijab. And one of them is almost similar to the picture above. You know who she is? She is a nun. What is a nun? A nun is a woman who has taken vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation. So, basically, nuns are not Muslim. They come from another religion. And here we are, fashioning and covering ourselves with a style that is similar to theirs. :(

Rasulullah shallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam bersabda :

مَنْ تَشَبَّهَ بِقَوْمٍ فَهُوَ مِنْهُمْ

“Barangsiapa yang menyerupai suatu kaum, maka ia termasuk golongan mereka”.

Source: http://abul-jauzaa.blogspot.com/2011/01/takhrij-hadits-barangsiapa-yang.html

This is getting into a more and more serious matter, isn't it? Hmm.

All these are my views. Don't feel offended by what I wrote. If you have other useful stuffs to share, please do so! I would much appreciate it.

Lastly, I would like to end my post with another verse from the Qur'an, Surah Al-Ahzab verse 59:

Ayat ini membahas tentang kewajiban menutup tubuh:

"Wahai Nabi! Katakanlah kepada istri-istrimu, anak-anak perempuanmu dan istri-istri orang mukmin, Hendaklah mereka menutupkan jilbabnya keseluruh tubuh mereka. Yang demikian itu agar mereka lebih mudah untuk dikenali, sehingga mereka tidak di ganggu."

Source: http://buletinmitsal.wordpress.com/perspektif/hijab-dalam-al-quran-dan-hadis-1/

Allahu A'lam, Wassalam. :)