Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Deep Heat

No its nothing deep, it just the brand name of the medicinal spray that rests on my shoulder and neck at the moment. A searing pain grew while i slept and when i woke up i put on deep heat to fight the quite monster. Its good enough actually, Deep Heat smells bad ass. Infact so strong, that my fart smells like a decent jasmine air freshner when compared (yes, its been tested).

Anyways, I lead Maghrib Salah last night ... again. Not that I am flying proud about it, but its good and I like to do that. However a part of me doesnt.

Its a great thing actually. What bothers me is am I worthy of it?

A position like such demands certain characteristics and qualities, clearly hard for me to have them. At that moment in the mosque, its just three people and 2 of them push you coz either you have a beard or they are not confident enough or maybe they know that they themselves are not worthy.

Leading the prayers is actually very honorable, and not that I dont want to do it again, its just the thought that "SHOULD I be doing it", scrapes within the walls of my mind.

On the other hand, its a wierd sensation as well, coz as you order, a group of people who dont even know you (and after the prayers you may never see them again) do exactly as you tell them to do. Its Powerful. But only powerful enough for one to do what the ALMIGHTY wants them to. Me, I am just a connector, an integral one at that.

However, even if its a great thing, its not very. Many of us think that if we pray 5 times a day and fast regular, then we are pious. We are not.

Salah is imperative to a muslim, its obligatory, only because man is forgetful. Salah is just a daily reminder to oneself about Allah. Its been enforced so that we do not forget our Lord the way we usually do. Hence Salah is not piety, its just the first step. Therefore, for those who dont pray, they are no where close to what iman really is (and yes they should start) and those who do, there is more to come.

Like Iqbal said .. SITAARON SAY AAGAY JAHAN, AUR BHEE HAIN
ABHEE ISHQ KAY IMTAHAN, AUR BHEE HAIN
(line1 - there are more places, even after the stars)
(line2 - there are more tests of love, even after this)


Quote of the day - Sometimes the most unimportant of all people tell you things that the most important of all people could never say.. well .. they couldnt, coz you are important to them.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

yes indeed. the qualities of an imam are very different from those that we, the "muslims" possess(note the qoutes), the place that those good people hold in the sight of Allah is very far from where we stand but our actual test is to atleast be able to reach a place somewhere close to it. the only way we can get there is by trying..


"What bothers me is am I worthy of it?"
a muslim, one who has atleast made an effort to get closer to Allah, is worthy of every chance that is given to him to increase his love for the Almighty and to increase his sawab. you lead the prayers. did you do anything different from what you usually do when you stand for prayers? you ask forgiveness...you ask for mercy...you praise the Almighty...you thank the Almighty...you ask for others...you send blessings on the holy Prophet(SAW)...but dont you do that in all your prayers?..while leading a congregation think not of yourself as a replacement of the imam(that is what we are not worthy of because we know there's a difference between us and an imam)...consider yourself lucky because along with the sawab that you get for your prayer you also get sawab for leading the others in their prayers...like i said...its a chance...to increase your sawab...this is the chance that we are lucky enough to be given...like the Almighty say: move a step closer towards Me and I will come runnig towards you! :)

Anonymous said...

Anonymous..there is no replacement of words to the comment u have given to this post of Luda..keep appreciating..u might be a source of changing ppl

Anonymous said...

jazakallah comicsans...but i haven't said anything different from what you probably would have said to luda...if your wondering why i'm saying this, it is because luda suspected me to be you when i posted a comment to his previous post...i have recently started to make an effort towards improving my deen...please do pray for me...Allah Hafiz!! :)

Anonymous said...

“Verily, those who say: "Our Lord is Allah(Alone),” and then they stand firm, on them the angels will descend (at the time of their death)(saying):”Fear not,nor grieve! But receive the glad tidings of Paradise which you have been promised!” (Fussilat,30)

“And He it is Who accepts repentance from His slaves, and forgives sins,and He knows what you do.” (Ash-Shura,25)

“ALLAH IS SUFFICIENT FOR US AND THE BEST OF THOSE ON WHOM TO DEPEND”

Dayaan Swiftheart W said...

You don't have to feel guilty about leading a prayer LuDa, think of it as an honour.

About Salah being obligatory, I want to know more about that because I'm not what most people call the perfect muslim.

Dayaan.nrc

Unknown said...

Whoa ..
To be honest, you were the last person I ever thought would reply to my post. I am impressed, although still in awe.

And thanks to the ladies and you for the honor part.

Perfect muslims can be counted on fingers, So right now you need'nt worry about that.

About Salah, well its the first most imperative thing a person who calls himself a muslim, should be doing.

every1 knows about the 5 pillars of islam ...
Shahadah - the kalma, you read to become a muslim
Salah - the prayers (i will come back to that)
Zakat - Charity, Alms once a year
Swam - Fast
Hajj - Pilgrimage, if a person is able to afford it.

The reason they are called the pillars is because they are the foundation to a Muslim. The building of a muslim stands on this. Now u can see hajj is a semi-option so the rest become an obligatory implication as there are only 4 left. Even if one of them is not followed right, the building of a Muslim does not stand.

This is a somewhat logical explanation to the importance of Salah + the explanation I gave in the post about the reminder of ALLAH part.

If you are interested in the Hadaith, and the Quranic aayahs I shall come back to you after my exams, as I'll need to do some lil research.