Sunday 21 July 2013

The Quran calls YOU ! Stop the Worry and Live Properly ! Part 1


In my years of experience in doing da'wah (calling people back to true religion of God), in many occasions, I met with people  and we will discuss and talk about religion, in particular. The Quran urges Muslim to SHARE their way of life with people who are nearest to them. The word here is SHARE. Sharing is something we do with all sincerity without expecting any returns. Zero expectation. So in these SHARING sessions I had the opportunity to talk with people from all walks of life. It also gave me an opportunity to understand their point of views. 

Personally, after reading the Quran, I became extremely TOLERANT of other people's paradigms. Truly. The Quran, if read as it should be read, with understanding, will make you a very tolerant person. You can be tolerant but at the same time politely hold on to your grounds.

I cant remember any incident that I argue vehemently with people of other religions. It is an amazing thing that during these SHARING sessions, never once I lost my temper nor did I argue for the sake of winning arguments. Nevertheless, I can see that people from all walks of life, they are also searching for the truth. This search for the truth is a normal quest for anyone. It urges them to ask question(s) ? It is their inborn nature. Some ask correct questions but demanded wrong answers. Some ask wrong questions and never bothered to evaluate all the answers given.  

I used to tell people that all of  us  have something of God, inside of us. That is what the Quran termed as Ruh in Arabic. This Ruh or soul as the Westerner calls it, is what that causes all of us to be alive. That substance is our very consciousness and it is pure. When a person commits sin(s), what they are actually doing is that, they are being unjust to themselves. The more sin(s) that are being committed, the more tormented the soul or Ruh within a person becomes. It  makes you very uncomfortable. You can pretend that everything is good. The truth that  is deep within your heart, is that,  there is no peace. This PEACE in the inner  self  is what humans crave for and we just don't know how to obtain it. 

The summary of the Quran is that there are three things that are very important in a person's life. These three things need to be sorted out first. They are ;

1. Good deeds that needs to be done in other words ORDER from GOD that needs to be obeyed.

2. Bad deeds that needs to be abstained from in other words PROHIBITIONS that needs to be abstained.

3. Life decree that needs to be accepted in other words GOD'S TEST that needs to be endured.



In your personal life, you need to take a look at the whole spectrum of your life and look into the question of righteousness. Are there any good deeds that your are doing CONSISTENTLY ? What are these goods deeds ? Why must we do good deeds ? Why is it so important ? It is the way we manage our spiritual selves. The physical world has many laws. Gravity. Magnetism. Thermal. Hydro. The list goes on and on. Within the physical world if we do not follow the physical laws, we will be in trouble. Simple analogy is the traffic light. If RED means stop, we must stop. That is the system we follow because it is good for traffic users to obey traffic rules for benefit of all users. In the spiritual world, these same laws operates. Since you have something of God in your inner self, as a person, if you are not expose to negative elements, it is natural that you are drawn to do good things. Doing good things are nourishment for your soul. The more your spiritual self receives these nourishments in terms of good things that you are doing, the stronger your inner self becomes. Your inner self  is just like a tree. How do you keep a tree healthy ? By giving it good nourishments through various fertilisers. Good cultivated soil. Exposure to sunlight. Water. But these things wont reach the tree if the tree itself doesn't have a mechanism to receive all these good things. So what is the answer ? The tree can only be nourished if it has strong ROOTS.  Doing good deeds  for human are actually like giving your inner self strong roots to receive blessings from GOD either in this world or in the hereafter. First thing in your life, you must be foremost in doing good deeds. To do good deeds, what will be your persuasion ? Your persuasion must come from principles that you upheld ? These are the good standards in life. Standards in life are actually made of GOOD WORDS. GOOD VALUES. We must stand on these good words in order to do good things in life and maintain doing it. The Quran mentioned this in Surah (Chapter) 14 (Ibrahim) ayah (verse) no 24 ; 

Have you not considered how Allah sets forth a parable of a good word (being) like a good tree, whose root is firm and whose branches are in heaven,

People who governs their very lives in being foremost doing good deeds, develop strong spiritual roots. They  develop very strong inner selves. That gives them confidence. Lots of peace in their inner selves as there are zero guilty feeling. The point here is that what drives that conviction to do good things. It comes from a principle centred lifestyle  that are based on GOODS WORDS as their life's standards. They develop GOOD VALUE SYSTEMS. So in analysing your life no matter what is your age, there must be good deeds that needs to be done. The very best of good deeds is to obey ALL of God's  commandments. You must surround yourself with good people in order to do good things. If you hang around with bad company, you will not get good vibes from them. To serve the old, helpless, wayfarer and sickly are some of the things that you can do. It breaks your ego when you serve others and it gives you a feeling of  fulfilment and inner peace. You feel GOOD when you DO GOOD !

Further, we must look at all the sins that we are committing. All of these bad deeds will give the very opposite effects on a person's life. Naturally bad deeds comes from bad values, bad principles and bad words which we are exposed to. People don't naturally do bad deeds just like that. They did it after being exposed to it for a very long time. We normally resist bad deeds. After sometime, we get used to it and started doing it  once resistant towards bad deed  is broken. The first time you commit a bad deed, normally you will feel very bad about it. After some time when you keep on doing it, than it becomes a habit that will be very difficult to break free from. The Quran also mentioned about this in the same surah (Chapter) 14 - Ibrahim ayah (verse) no 26 - 

  
And the parable of an evil word is as an evil tree pulled up from the earth's surface; it has no stability.


Finally, once we have done what God wants us to do (good deeds) and abstain from what He forbids, only then we are able to endure life challenges that comes in our way. Normally, bad things do happen to good people. When bad things happen to good people, that is actually a good thing. They will be humbled. They will realised that there is no power except for God. At times, good things do happen to bad people. When good things happen to bad people, that is very bad indeed because that is God's way of telling them GOOD BYE ! 

Mankind in general have this tendency of wanting good things happening to them. When bad things happen, they will be asking God to give them relieve soonest. Once relieve is given, they forget everything and go back committing all these bad deeds all over again. 

If you are reading this BLOG, than - The Quran calls YOU ! 

Stop the Worry and Live Properly !

Surah Fussilat (Expounded) - Chapter 41 - ayats (verses) 49 to 51


 Man is never tired of praying for good, and if evil touch him, then he is despairing, hopeless.

And if We make him taste mercy from Us after distress that has touched him, he would most certainly say: This is of me, and I do not think the hour will come to pass, and if I am sent back to my Lord, I shall have with Him sure good; but We will most certainly inform those who disbelieved of what they did, and We will most certainly make them taste of hard chastisement.

And when We show favor to man, he turns aside and withdraws himself; and when evil touches him, he makes lengthy supplications.




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