Two weeks ago, I was watching Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan's lecture on youtube on "His favourite du'a in the Quran'. I believe many including me, could relate to his story.
It was a very inspiring lecture, and covered two parts.
POWER OF DU'A
First, on the power of du'a.
How a simple du'a made by him entirely changed his life. He was very young when he fell in love with the Quran upon listening to a Sheikh's tafseer in a masjid. It was as if the Quran was talking to him. Yes, the Al Quran is interacting with us, but not many have this special relationship with the Quran ( note: I pray to Allah that I will be blessed with this gift too, Amin!) So he made a du'a to Allah to give him the ability to understand Allah's book and to be able to teach others. And here he is today , a very well repected Ustadh. I love to listen to his lectures from youtube. He's been blessed by Allah with good communication skills- eloquent and funny. Never have I found his khutbahs/lectures boring at all. He will keep you enthralled.
FAVOURITE DU'A IN THE QURAN
Second, he shared his favourite du'a and is now my favourite du'a :
"Our Lord! Bestow on us from our spouses and our offspring who will be the comfort (Literally: the coolness) of our eyes, and make us leaders for the righteous" - Surat Al-Furqān 25:74
Its so important to make this du'a in this modern world, because as we all know, fundamentals of the family are being destroyed; homes are broken, brothers not talking to each other. NAK said "Make this du'a so that if the world outside is a 'storm', make our home the refuge," not the other way round. This beautiful dua also asks Allah to protect our 'zuriat', meaning not just our kids but our lineage. Because, we will be answerable if our lineage goes astray by our actions. ( if we are the initiators of wrongdoings followed by our zuriat).
MY DU'A
I found this as the most useful advice someone has ever given to me. Most of the times, I'd always make du'a in my first language anyway.
Dua's are there in the Quran and we'd benefit most if we make supplication from the Quran. This entails reciting and understanding their meaning; not just 'reading/memorising' a du'a without a slightest clue of what you're invoking Allah for.
If Allah has yet to answer our prayers, NEVER lose hope, because Allah knows best. Allah has His plans and He is All Knowing. So just remember to PUSH - "Pray Until Something Happens" , (from a website I've read ages ago but can't remember which one now) Keep on praying, Insha Allah.
In this post I would like to share blessings from Allah which I am ever so grateful. Alhamdulillah!
Workhaholic
I used to work like a crazy person, it wasn't because I was a workaholic but because the job that I had was so demanding. I was like a zombie, all stressed up, you would rarely see a smile on my face. I was working weekends, coming home late at night, sometimes as late as 11 pm, if an overseas assignment is imminent. And that too is because my house was about an hour journey to the office. If home was nearer, I bet I'd never leave office. There was no rest day and work sort of ruled my life. Two years later, a new immediate boss saw the problem, that I was juggling the work of two persons, but damage has been done.
Being so absorbed in my work, I fell into the trap, work became my life. So when you let dunya rule you, you find yourself slowly transgressing, there seem to be no time to pray on time. Oh yes, I also fell victim to '2 in 1 solah', May Allah forgive me for my sins. What is' 2 in 1 solah' you may ask? Well, it's performing your Zuhr almost at the end of Zuhr, nearing Asr time. And performing Maghrib nearing the end of Maghrib, so that few minutes later you could perform Isyak. Killing two birds with one stone, one would say. The truth is, its lying to yourself, thinking that I have to do this because I need all my time to complete my work. So leaving your workstation from Level 26 to the 'surau' in T3 was taking too much time, I thought. It was just a few minutes of walking into the lift, pressing a few buttons, changing lifts, now what was so hard about that? Its not that I had to walk a thousand miles or crawl to pray. But it was hard for someone who puts dunya first. If you put dunya as your priority you will find that time is always running out as Allah will make you forever busy. Its a race against time where you will never win. A losing battle.
This was my life eight years ago. Wasn't I guilty, yes, whenever I was doing my '2 in 1 solah', deep down, I felt awful. My life was in a mess, my daughter was left to my mum and maid to take care of. By the time I reached home she's asleep and I was gone before she was up. I was lucky that my hubs was working a few thousand miles away, well, so I thought, but that is not a matter I would like to share here. This was my life for a few years.
I was beyond depressed. Oh yes, I was making the glamorous overseas trip, the jetsetter that became the envy of others. But there was this hole in my life. I couldn't continue life like this.
I was beyond depressed. Oh yes, I was making the glamorous overseas trip, the jetsetter that became the envy of others. But there was this hole in my life. I couldn't continue life like this.
Despite not being a very good Muslimah, nor wife, mother and daughter, I kept making my simple du'a, asking Allah, " Allah, please help me out of this mess, help me become better, Ya Allah". Allah did not asnwer my prayers immediately, He put me through a big test first. And Alhamdulillah, I made it through the test, a stronger me, but the reward that Allah gave for putting up with the trials. Masha Allah!
A new start
IN 2006, Allah gave me a new start. A new job for hubs allowed me to have a year of career break and eventually led to my resignation. My boss tried to lure me to defer my career break, promising a trip to Moscow. You don't get this kind of opportunity twice because my company did not have any operations there and no one turns down that kind of offer.But I had made my mind up. This is what I have been praying for, an opportunity to mend my life.
A new life, a new place to start over. We lived in Holland for eight months, this allowed me to feel what it was like being a stay at home mum. I struggled with housework (okay, I was a very manja child), mostly the cooking part, but apart from that, life was good.
From Holland we moved to Brunei. Two months after our move to Brunei, my one year career break was up. I had made up my mind, my letter of resignation was submitted without any regret. ( Post note : I did feel a little sad because I do owe my company for the wonderful experience and opportunities given). Everyone was happy for me except maybe my father. I could sense that he was dissapointed, as he thought that his daughter should not be confined at home. But I couldn't bring myself to talk about it with him, just made a silent prayer that one day he will understand. Even my father in law was apprehensive.
Moving to Brunei was a very good decision but I wasn't ready with the challenges of housework. I couldn't cope with the demands of being a housewife, it was harder than I thought. My respect goes to my mum and all the mums in this world who could do this with a breeze.
Also, maybe it was just my imagination, but I felt people tend to look at you differently the minute you reveal you're a stay at home mum. The immigration officers, customer service personnel would have this certain kind of look, or raise an eyebrow when you fill in the occupation section with 'housewife' or they'd go ooohh. And it didin't help that the housewives with a twist, ie those who are housewives but have a business on the side, working from home, doing a part time degree, you know what I mean, looked down on you. One 'housewife with a twist' who didn't even know me enough even had a cheek to ask, "don't you feel that you're just wasting your time, not doing anything?" She was taking courses on stock market, her friend was pursuing a degree part time. I was tempted to reply " been there, done that, got a degree, done the career thing now need to grapple with being a housewife " but of course there is no point in doing that.
I didn't miss the blitz of my jetsetting career life and most certainly did not miss at all being like a canned sardine in the LRT. But having people look down on you, with their condescending tone sure wasn't good for my ego. I missed this feeling of 'sense of achievement'. There was this missing piece in my life, but I couldn't put a finger on it.
A year of settling in Brunei, I started mixing with a group of wonderful people, who were always reminding of goodness, providing guidance towards taking the right path. They were a group of ladies whom had left their career and were focused on bringing their best to raise their kids and looking after their family. May Allah bless them. I joined this small usrah circle, and later a tadarrus group organised by the Malaysian community in Ramadhan.
The Quran that was left sitting on the shelf was cleared off its dust.
It was the start of my Hijrah. The Quran does soften your heart as it did mine. I was determined to make sure that this will be my hijrah, that I will try to make sure what I practised this Ramadhan will continue. Let this Ramadhan be the tarbiyah, I promised myself. Good deeds in Ramadhan used to be just for Ramadhan.
A new life, a new place to start over. We lived in Holland for eight months, this allowed me to feel what it was like being a stay at home mum. I struggled with housework (okay, I was a very manja child), mostly the cooking part, but apart from that, life was good.
From Holland we moved to Brunei. Two months after our move to Brunei, my one year career break was up. I had made up my mind, my letter of resignation was submitted without any regret. ( Post note : I did feel a little sad because I do owe my company for the wonderful experience and opportunities given). Everyone was happy for me except maybe my father. I could sense that he was dissapointed, as he thought that his daughter should not be confined at home. But I couldn't bring myself to talk about it with him, just made a silent prayer that one day he will understand. Even my father in law was apprehensive.
Moving to Brunei was a very good decision but I wasn't ready with the challenges of housework. I couldn't cope with the demands of being a housewife, it was harder than I thought. My respect goes to my mum and all the mums in this world who could do this with a breeze.
Also, maybe it was just my imagination, but I felt people tend to look at you differently the minute you reveal you're a stay at home mum. The immigration officers, customer service personnel would have this certain kind of look, or raise an eyebrow when you fill in the occupation section with 'housewife' or they'd go ooohh. And it didin't help that the housewives with a twist, ie those who are housewives but have a business on the side, working from home, doing a part time degree, you know what I mean, looked down on you. One 'housewife with a twist' who didn't even know me enough even had a cheek to ask, "don't you feel that you're just wasting your time, not doing anything?" She was taking courses on stock market, her friend was pursuing a degree part time. I was tempted to reply " been there, done that, got a degree, done the career thing now need to grapple with being a housewife " but of course there is no point in doing that.
I didn't miss the blitz of my jetsetting career life and most certainly did not miss at all being like a canned sardine in the LRT. But having people look down on you, with their condescending tone sure wasn't good for my ego. I missed this feeling of 'sense of achievement'. There was this missing piece in my life, but I couldn't put a finger on it.
A year of settling in Brunei, I started mixing with a group of wonderful people, who were always reminding of goodness, providing guidance towards taking the right path. They were a group of ladies whom had left their career and were focused on bringing their best to raise their kids and looking after their family. May Allah bless them. I joined this small usrah circle, and later a tadarrus group organised by the Malaysian community in Ramadhan.
The Quran that was left sitting on the shelf was cleared off its dust.
Hijrah
Ramadhan 2010 had such a profound effect on me.It was the start of my Hijrah. The Quran does soften your heart as it did mine. I was determined to make sure that this will be my hijrah, that I will try to make sure what I practised this Ramadhan will continue. Let this Ramadhan be the tarbiyah, I promised myself. Good deeds in Ramadhan used to be just for Ramadhan.
I realised that I was gradually changing. The way I dress changed, the way I think, the way I voiced my opinions (I can be very sarcastic at times). Alhamdulillah, I was slowly back on track. The missing piece was putting Allah first in all my affairs.
And the reward I mentioned earlier on is the rizqi that Allah has blessed upon my family in this land of peace, Brunei. Allah also gave me time. Yes, time! Time to spend with my family, with friends, time for myself.
And the reward I mentioned earlier on is the rizqi that Allah has blessed upon my family in this land of peace, Brunei. Allah also gave me time. Yes, time! Time to spend with my family, with friends, time for myself.
I realised that if you make time to do your solah on time, you will find that time is on your side. Have dunya in your hands and akhirah in your heart.( ok, am a big fan of Maher Zain, this is from one of his songs from his new album -Guide Me All The Way).
You will find your life changing towards betterment, Insha Allah!
You will find your life changing towards betterment, Insha Allah!
If you want to listen to Nouman's Ali Khan story that will certainly inspire you to, here it is:
