Stories | frame of life

Simply be a Muslim

noreply@blogger.com (One Muslim) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:50:00 +0000

Having a muslim way of life seems deteriorates over time. A Muslim you probably know/ see is sometimes running just a life without a sign that he/she is a Muslim practicing his/her religion any longer. From their fashion, their words and the way they presenting theirself, they are simply just a human running their life like every other person around, so ordinary, so common and no uniqueness that outshine them from the whole crowd. Here is the part of interesting article anyway. When it comes to why should I embrace Islam, look at Muslim around, they are just like us. Oh ho ho yes they are (now). This is maybe hurt a Muslim much but, an inherited, a Muslim borned person always (certain, but this is large in number) see their religion like no value. They do their prayers just like on/off the button, they do care about their Muslim brothers but that is also just like on/off the button. I am here not going to yell about my frustration but I have found some interesting ways to keep myself ack on the line (theoretically and practically possible).

How about being a Muslim in a simple ways possible?. Everybody knows it hard to really schedule their time like praying on time etc. but these few things should help you do it in a simple way(s) possible.

First, I found out it hard for me to pray the first after the azan (summon/call to prayers). Don't know why but when in the middle of doing something, it is just hard for me to stop and pray. However I always manage to stop for a coffee berak, nap and anything else.Weird right? Maybe it is time for me to see prayers in much simple definition. Prayers is a 'rest'. Yes, now doing prayers is no burden at all, pray is a rest and most of us like to have rest. smile.

Second, donating some money. Yes, in Islam we already have Zakāh (pay 2.5% of my income once in a lunar year) plus another toll, tax, custom fees fix by the government but there is another more. Donation donation donation. Sounds like a Muslims is likely to lose his money for others right? No. Now I am implimenting one things, carrying coins to anywhere. When I am going outside my home, I am carrying those small coins (a dollar or less), 2-4 simple coins ready to be given away. If you do this, you may then realised that, it is hard for you to give away that coins because, nobody ask that coins from you anyway. Make it random, don't choose any person, just give away. To make it easier, donate your money for the mosque during friday prayers is the best solution. So do it. No need for huge bucks, 10 cents, 20, 50 or a buck from everybody could make a huge different.

Next, doing good to verybody. I am good (maybe) but my goodness doesn't benefit everybody around. I live my own life without any part of helpig others. No here is the solution, when you are at work, going for a coffee break? as your nearest colleague if he/she want to have a cup of coffee. You can do it man. Make an other cup of coffee for peers never give away your energy, never reduce your rank/job status. In addition, your colleague may probaly like you, you have a reason to be friendly and you will probably have a happy day at your job place.

To inspire you more, see the below video entitled 'Ali the Awfully friendly Muslim'. Nice video but that is your reason why you should sometimes choose your time and place to do your good deed.

Anything else? I think the above three things is the simplest thing everybody could without any obstacles do to be a better, friendlier, much helpful and a bit more religious. Now I know one thing, be a Muslim is much simpler than I myself could imagine. Sometimes, to not doing so is much harder so I choose to do this small little things, for others and for myself to be exact. Farewall and have a nice day. Thank you for your time reading this article and I am now doing one more simple thing ending this post, smiling. :-)

PS: You don't have to do a military Jihad/running 'I am A Muslim' strike to show that you are a Muslim, these small everyday good deeds are more than enough to show off that you are a Muslim (good nice Muslim).

I Am A Piece of Soul

noreply@blogger.com (One Muslim) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 07:51:00 +0000

Everyday, many times, almost in frequent, repeatedly, redundantly, I feel so tired. My body feel so weak, after a while of a long working hours, or in the middle of long attempt to achieve something (eg: student life and retarded study timetable), it is unavoidable to keep thinking of taking some break (release tension), have a coffee, doing something else which is completely different and less stress eg: watching television, listening to nice music on iPod, go playing to the beach or sleep for a whole day long. Most of the time I choose the last and very effective option, have a nap, wake up and drink a cup or two caffeine drink, and after that? Take a bath. Next? Listening to the radio, most of the time trying to follow the DJ’s every spoken word. Then? Sit and try to continue my previous work, be on my own line and pursue the dream again. Two hours later, thinking of playing and surfing the internet, so I do it.

So what has actually happens here? Have a big dream? Check! Know what to do to achieve that dream? Check! Have a time schedule, white paper and rules written to grab that dream? Check! However (this however best spelt with capital letter, to highlight the change of mood of this article but I don’t want to shout), most of the time, that lazy, feel sorry to the body make myself slow down a bit. And then where is the big dream I am pursuing before? Leave it or just lower standard a bit to suit my strength and my physical body limit. This is something unacceptable, if everybody follows the similar path like this, if everybody chooses the easy and safe path of life, no other unexpected great things and big discovery could be achieved in the near future. Following others and smile all day long is not what I am always dream off. I dream to do something huge; something ridiculous and something that always push me beyond my own limit.

Then what to do? How can I achieve my dream and at the same time feel like doing it right? Have a huge dream, huge effort could lead to a day to day miserable life. Working so hard could reduce my health level, could makes me feel much lazier than I supposed to, that if something goes wrong in the middle of the journey, the probability to quit is bigger (I already saw few of my team mates just quit their dream because of that so big never-ending tired and stress). Actually, in this modern world, big dreams always fail people, maybe we can have 100 people that have that big dream, but how many who actually chase their dream though? One? One and a half? So many remedy, so many counselors out there readily waiting for you, but there is ego, the other thing here, great people don’t like to appear weak. So what to do? I have a solution here. Ask the Almighty God; ask you your purpose of life…

1. God want me (us) to know/praise him forever.

This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed my favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your Religion. (Maidah 5:3)

2. God want us to pursue the dream (for the world, in the world) like we will never die. There is no penalty match, no last seconds, no time to slow down,no shortage of time at all. You have your plenty of time to complete your dream here in the world. So keep on working. But remember, God did not tell you your time of death, so if you really want to pursue your dream, don't waste your time, do it now before you die.

3. God want us to lead a proper life. No cheating in everything. No bullying, no everything out of God’s rule. (Many Muslims fail to follow this part of life essential).

We have not created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in vain (so that people should think themselves at liberty to act each according to his own desires and inclinations). (Sad 38:27)

4. God want us to know our own self. Here is the rationale for this ‘A Piece of Soul’ came out. A human is a piece of soul. An abstract, I don’t know how to explain but If we dig into the very deep, we will know that we have a separate soul from the physical body. We are the soul using physical body to run this life. We love our body, many things and pleasure we can feel with this small little body. But if you can deepen your understanding very well, you will know that your body is just a tool, to put everything into an action. A body is just a tool like a doll with a battery installed inside. The strong battery will make a doll stronger, and that’s similar entity here to our own self. If we have strong soul, we can achieve strong result. If we, the soul, willing to archive more, we can use/force our own body to drive the desired result. Stress? Tired? It is just a normal thing for a tool/physical body to feel that way, but we are the soul, not a physical body, so we can actually surpass that tired and any other excuses related to physical body to achieve the true dream. So why in the world we are acting like we love our body dozen times more than our own soul? If you want to know who are you, and what you really are, here is my word; ‘Soul is me and my body is just a tool,’ as simple as that. A small scratch should never stop you, a broken leg should never stop you, and a paralyzed body should never stop you, because you yourself are not just that weak limited physical body, you are that soul, a big strong scratch-less soul. Still feel tired? That feeling is just nothing at all. A piece of soul never feels tired. So keep on working. I am ending this paragraph but if you still blur/cannot understand my words - about this soul thing of you, just remember; you already live and made a promise to praise Him/be His servant before you was born, you die only after you have no soul, your body deteriorates but not your soul, and your Islam is preserve in your soul, not your body. So, you are? = that unseen soul.

5. Right the very end, God wants us to protect and grab every possible/near impossible/out of mind dream in the world. Sounds impossible? He is always with you (of course can’t be seen with you primitive tool-eyes), have an eye on you, evaluating your workload and struggle, waiting to reward your dream when the exact time comes (When He feels like you deserve it). This is why the common ‘Work only for God’ appears to be true.

My Parents Wisdom

noreply@blogger.com (One Muslim) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:10:00 +0000

I am here having sort of rebellious feeling towards somebody (which shall not be named). In the mean angry time, I managed myself just to cool down like, hence my feedback action is none better than just necessary. However, it was not mine, it was not me in the first place taught myself to be so nice. Should be somebody else who show me all of those values? That is it, all are comes from the words of my parents. That was my parents who told me years before to do this and that this in the first place. This is the knowledge (possessed with patience) which would leads to the good character for all, you and me.

Narrated Abu- Huraira: Allah's Apostle said, "No child is born except on Al-Fitra (Islam) and then his parents make him Jewish, Christian or Magian, as an animal produces a perfect young animal: do you see any part of its body amputated?" [Sahih Bukhari]

01. My parents told me to show love and full devotion/worship towards Allah and His will, to Prophets as His messenger, read the Qur’an, care for parents, to be good for the family and be friends with the community. No doubt this line is just clear, simple but takes a lifetime of practice.

02. They emphasized me to remember the short and easy Pillars of Faith and Pillars of Islam as well. These two pillars are the basis, both important for every Muslim like me in checking and re-checking my “Imaan” and my “Islam”. Its self evaluation everybody could handle.

03. They encouraged me to remember few short Qur’anic verse.

04. Love and do the will of God without doubt and without many excuses.

05. Leave what that has been described by God to avoid.

06. Do not just pray alone, find a friend and do pray together.

07. Dua and recite some “Al Mathurat” whichever I feel to do so.

08. Believe in parents and remember their good advice. And always try to seek their blessings in every move/decision.

09. Serve Allah by the concept of “Fardh”, knowledge, with emphasize on both Fardhu Ain (individual obligation/responsibility) and my responsibility for Fardhu Kifayah (community/social responsibility).

10. Family-sharing session, which is beneficial for me to share something, advised, reminded, suggested and be warned, for my actions which are sometimes my beloved ones would do the evaluation better than me.

11. Be concerned, remember to do the final self evaluation for all of my actions; and it must be done on the daily basis. Regularly just before the bedtime. Hope my actions are all good and would bring harm to nobody.

Such a good words, my parents has somehow done their religious responsibility on me. Hope so I could be much wiser when I remember all of these words and hope so when I have a family, I could also do the same; pass on those words down deeper into my child’s heart. Their wisdom is some kind of worth to remember. Thus I am here sharing with you.

No Compulsion in Religion

noreply@blogger.com (One Muslim) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:45:00 +0000

Last few days, I read the article from a blog condemning Islam as the religion which says no compulsion in religion but force their believers to do this and that. After a while, I feel I want to clear the things up based on my own understanding.

The person used to be cited so many verse in Qur'an and by cruel describe all the means from his opinion and some referred to the very anti-islam idol. But I am thinking of, why he said like that? No doubt Qur'an is first written in Arabic so till the end of the day, its better to be that way. However, since we are living in different continents, Qur'an has been translated by various people with different languages. Thus this sometimes can give a slight dissimiliarities and tend to sometimes slipped somebody out from the exact meaning written in the Qur'an. Also, ,most of the times, people like us tend to reach the meaning of every words just in a small closed scoop, which is contrast with the best approach been told; by expanding our mind and see the words in Qur'an as a bigger place.

Al-Baqarah: 256...

Let there be no compulsion In religion: Truth stands out Clear from Error: whoever Rejects Evil and believes In Allah hath grasped The most trustworthy Handhold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth And knoweth all things.

So is it real no compulsion? No force? for me its YES!. No compulsion for each and every of you to believe/ not believing in Islam. Thats it, no compulsion for you non-muslim in the first place to accept and believe in Islam and all system in Islam. You have the words of God, you have a total freedom in chosing what religion you exactly want to believe with. Thats true but please don't misunderstood with the situation when you are in the religion, after you says shahadah, you are then a Muslim (which is common like in other religion, after you embrace that religion, you are automatically then bound to all of its rules of conduct). You can't just want to be in Islam but be an other Muslim following your on desire. Its not correct and if you do that you are not following the God, but you are following your own self. You are not following the religion of God, you are following the religion of yours.

So free to choose a religion but if we extend further, the Lord use the other verse for Muslim to help others see the truth, show others the evidence of true religion and the means inside. In doing that, we Muslim as a servent however have no right in forcing others to believe or far than that forcing others to embrace Islam as their religion.

If their spurning is hard on thy mind, yet if thou wert able to seek a tunnel in the ground or a ladder to the skies and bring them a sign,- (what good?). If it were Allah.s will, He could gather them together unto true guidance: so be not thou amongst those who are swayed by ignorance (and impatience)! (Al An'am: 35)

See? If Allah want to apply the force in religion, then there is no need the hard way in teaching others about Islam, there is no need for prophets, no need for us to spread the words of Islam. Thats simple, Allah want us as a human embrace Islam by our own will, after we are exposed to the truth, see the so many evidence of the truth, we are expected to use our own ability to see, think and accept the truth.

If it had been thy Lord's will, they would all have believed,- all who are on earth! wilt thou then compel mankind, against their will, to believe! (Yunus: 99)

Even all creatures (except satan) are willingly turn their head down towards the first human, Prophet Adam, accepting our ability to think better with our mind and follow the pure feeling of heart chosing what is good from what is bad. Thus it is our own duty now to be able to choose, as we are all have both what it takes to do that. Embrace Islam 100% by your own will and He is everytime welcoming.

Download | Freebies

noreply@blogger.com (One Muslim) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:52:00 +0000

This blog need more setup and glad here it is now growing little by little. My decision on creating Stories makes me wondering and searching for stuff about my own religion, Islam, even more than I ever (maybe none) done it before.

With my capability of unlimited download bandwith, as end user its easy for me to get something just by googling. However, thats the end? Realisisng I can do more than just be as an end of end user, I create this other page in my blog, just sharing the pearl that I get from the internet. Mostly, I am just giving the link to the external download sources. Just make yourself comfortable and feel free to download all of the freebies below:

001 | The Opening

noreply@blogger.com (One Muslim) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:51:00 +0000

Al Fatiha means The Opening. The first chapter of the Qur'an. The Opening of the Qur'an is Al Fatiha. The Opening of the Qur'an is more than just a simple key, the opening of the Qur'an is the opening of mouth of the readers and manifesting the every words to life by sound. Recitation alone is just not enough, everyone can do that. The need here is, we have to open our hearts and minds, and let Allah pour everything into our heart what He wants us to understand from the Qur'an. Freely open up your heart and let Allah guide you.

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful; When we begin The Opening, we begin the Qur'an, we begin with Bismillah, we begin accepting Allah as our source, we begin accepting Allah as the one and only Creator. No change in this. So, we begin by calling for Allah and He turns towards us. In this case, our calling should be soothing and pleasing to Allah, should be filled with love to Allah. We calling Him, by his name the One who is Most Gracious, Most Merciful. This is the adab, we calling for Allah with love, respect and honour and no doubt accepting Him as our Creator.

Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds; All praise is for Allah. Its worth it as He is our Creator, without his blessings, we would not be here. All praise for Allah as giving us the chance to read the Qur'an, the ultimate source of knowledge from the creation of Adam and till the end of the world.

All praise for Allah the Lord of the world. Its is the world of us as human being, also there is other world of spirit, of animals on earth, of creatures underwater, of planets, of galaxies, of Angels, of Jins, of Heaven, of Hell, and the world of unknown that only Allah knows. May Allah treat us all with compassion and mercy.

Most Gracious, Most Merciful; Attributes of Allah, so that Allah covers us with His love, with his compassion and mercy and saves us from His Wrath.

Master of the Day of Judgment; Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, is the Master of the Day of Judgement. Religion in the world is the personal matter, we could see somebody praying, we could see somebody reciting Qur'an, but only Allah knows whats real in their hearts. Therefore, there will be the Day of Judgement, and Allah is the Master of that day. Obviously we could never escape.

Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek; There is only one god of the worlds, Allah. Hence we should serve for Allah, we should ask and seek help only from Allah. There is no other, Allah is for everything we should seek from.

Show us the straight way; We are so lost, may Allah guide us the straight path. The path to live a life where our action is good, the actions which is good for the sake of Allah. The path which is true, the path to mustaqeem. Siraat ul Mustaqeem is the path to rise, the path that has value in the presence of Allah, the path that makes us the guardians of Islaam.

We do not want to follow the path of those on whom there is the wrath of Allah, neither the path of those who have gone astray.

Abu Hurayrah reported that the Messenger of Allah said thrice: Whoso prays without reading therein the Mother of the Qur’an, it is defective (three times he repeated) and incomplete. It was said to Abu Hurayrah: We remain behind the Imam. He said: Read it within yourself, because I heard the Messenger of Allah….

Mishkat Tr. Fazlul Karim, Vol. 3, Hadith No. 222. with reference to Bukhari.

Allah created the heavens and the earth in 6 days. Then Allah rose over the Throne. So we take our 7 day week from this reference. Al Fatiha is not just the 11 opening of the Quraan, but it is the opening or start of creation of the heavens and the earth in 6 days, and the 7th day is the day of Allah's Istawa rising over the Heavens.

Revelation | archieve

noreply@blogger.com (One Muslim) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:12:00 +0000

Day by day, Muslim around the world read the Qur'an, and even kids are taught so well in pronouncing the words in qur'an. I also knew the history about the struggle and effort done by the past person in compiling the qur'an. Its no effort of ordinary people, and its no words of poets we are familiar with. However its true that I am exactly did not know the qur'an very well. I am an ordinary muslim, and am I too ordinary that brings me to always re-read the qur'an but still did never understand the meaning behind? I am no arabic language scholar and so I have clear reason why I read the qur'an but still did not get it deeply. But Is this true? Or I am exactly just leave those effort to understand only to imams, other muslims who much clever than me?

Here I am, sitting, looking towards one dream that is hard to archieve. I want to be able to 'understand the koran' verse by verse, sura by sura. Its such a waste effort done by the past intellects or scholars if majority of my fellow muslim did not understand the koran. Its such a waste for me myself if I die without understand the Koran. Qur'an is the words of God that been promised its validity till the day of judgement, thus its worth it to spare the time.

The Qur'an revealed to Prophet Muhammad from 610-632 AC. The first five verses revealed are: (1) Read in the name of your Lord, Who created. (2) Created man out of a clot that clings (in the womb). (3) Read and your Lord is the Most Bountiful. (4) Who taught by the pen. (5) Taught man that which he knew not.

I name this as Revelation, hence here you can expect 144 items post published and all the links could be found below as an arhieve list:

001 | The Opening (...143 archieves yet to go)

Disclaimer:

Although my reference is the words of God,

although my references are valid,

I am no perfect.

I beg an apology if there are errors found

in my way of processing those sacret words,

or any mislead understanding on the way down.

Prophet Muhammad’s Last Sermon

noreply@blogger.com (One Muslim) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 19:54:00 +0000

(This Sermon was Delivered on the Ninth Day of Dhul Hijjah 10 A.H. in the Uranah Valley of Mount Arafat )

O People, lend me an attentive ear, for I don’t know whether, after this year, I shall ever be amongst you again. Therefore listen to what I am saying to you carefully and take these words to those who could not be present here today.

O People, just as you regard this month, this day, this city as Sacred, so regard the life and property of every Muslim as a sacred trust. Return the goods entrusted to you to their rightful owners. Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you. Remember that you will indeed meet your lord, and that He will indeed reckon your deeds. Allah has forbidden you to take usury (interest), therefore all interest obligation shall henceforth be waived...

Beware of Satan, for your safety of your religion. He has lost all hope that he will ever be able to lead you astray in big things, so beware of following him in small things.

O People, it is true that you have certain rights with regard to your women, but they also have right over you. If they abide by your right then to them belongs the right to be fed and clothed in kindness. Do treat your women well and be kind to them for they are your partners and comitted helpers. And it is your right that they do not make friends with any one of whom you do not approve, as well as never to commit adultery.

O People, listen to me in earnest, worship Allah, say your five daily prayers (salah), fast during the month of Ramadhan, and give your wealth in zakat. Perform hajj if you can afford to. You know that every Muslim is the brother of another Muslim. You are all equal. Nobody has superiority over other except by piety and good action.

Remember, one day you will appear before Allah and answer for your deeds. So beware, do not stray from the path of righteousness after I am gone.

O People, no prophet or apostle will come after me and no new faith will be born. Reason well, therefore, O People, and understand my words which I convey to you. I leave behind me two things, the Qur’an and my example, the Sunnah and if you follow these you will never go astray.

All those who listen to me shall pass on my words to others and those to others again; and may the last ones understand my words better than those who listen to me directly. Be my witness O Allah that I have conveyed your message to your people.

about

noreply@blogger.com (One Muslim) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 18:20:00 +0000

As Salam Alaykum and thank you for your time, stopping by and reading a few articles (not yet forsure).

Here you are at Stories... the frame of life. Simply to say I dedicated myself for this blog inking about my thought and sharing my soul, my feelings and all my energy towards reaching closer to my reigion, Islam. Have you all imagine having a bookshelf with a collection of hadith, Koran and Tajweed and other Islamic or Muslim based reference in your room. Walking passed by it everytime and leaving those 'precious' things untouched and unseen? Yes, I do.

But lately I feel the emptiness from my own inner self. I do go for the beach, watching lots of movies and try to download so many songs that I called all of that as the 'standard pleisure', however I realized that the cure isn't there. By the time of searching, I accidentally touched these few books and from that moment I knew something, thats the word of god I am missing.

I am authoring this blog as my way in learning and sharing the words of god and also making sure that I am always have time for Islam and not again been far (too far) left behind. Hmm.. you are a non-muslim? Don't worry, I am personally a person who live in a mix religios community, I respect all brothers and sisters including various people from various religion.

Feb 09 - The Stories begin with my lone expedition, Revelation of 144 sura in Qur'an. I don't ever know when I could complete this but I am now leaving few footprints on the ground. Its a humble start.

Mar 14 - I found out there are few layout glitch on stories. This blog looks so fine with GC (I am using this browser; Google Chrome), but a bit messy on FF and IE. Since I am no guru when it comes to play with html code... thus, I deeply beg an apology for bad eye-poking experience (visually) for users outside GC.

Here is the Last Sermon by Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) that inspired me to blog the Stories. Farewell everybody, may god bless you. More social details about me? click here.

..OneMuslim