Before We Die

يَعْلَمُونَ ظَاهِرًا مِّنَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَهُمْ عَنِ الْآخِرَةِ هُمْ غَافِلُونَ Surah ar-Rum, Verse 7

Ever so often our wandering minds get stuck at the thought of death. Sometimes, it is triggered by a demise of a loved one, other times by the constant bloodshed one sees happening in their surroundings, in the whole world wide, and sometimes out of pure desire to return to the asal, the reality from where we originated. As a Muslim, ideally, our lives should be so content and lived to the raza of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, that when the day to depart from this world comes, we are filled with joy and happiness, for it is the day to finally meet the Rabb of the universe, the Rabb of everything, the Rabb of our hearts. 

In pursuit of wanting a life that pleases Allah ta'ala, we are plagued by questions like 'what do I need to change?', 'where do I begin?', 'there is so much I have missed, how do I bring it all together?'. While I do wish and hope most of us have our faraidh (obligations) fulfilled, it is never too late to intend and make repudiation for our missed duties, bearing in mind that once we have made our effort, our sole trust and tawwaqul is on Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala: that He will accept it from us even though we were left behind due to our own shortcomings.

As Muslims we owe certain duties to ourselves, other creation, and the Creator Himself. I have tried to compile the list of all those faraidh to the best of my ability so that it may aid you and I in making up for them. Remember, when we intend to do something good, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala admires it. And in the course of fulfilling our obligations, if death finds us, let us hope that we will not be clueless, and that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala will forgive our shortcomings and indolence. You can take a print of this article or alternatively, if you can not memorize it all, just jot down a checklist. Fold it and keep it in your diary, put it up your notice board, paste is somewhere you can see it daily and remind yourself — just keep yourself aware that you are going to take a step to prepare for your death, your grave, your akhirah, and in sha Allah, your meeting with Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Let's get started. Bismillah.

Here's how I have printed

and pasted charts for my qadha prayers

in my diary, helps me keep track.

Qadhae umri

It is a practice whereby we make up for our missed salaah. To do this, calculate salaahs of each day, week, month, or year you have missed. Remember to only calculate the fard salaah as well as witr of ‘isha prayers. The period to calculate starts from the time of attaining puberty. If you are not sure of how many salaahs you have missed, make an estimate to the best of your memory. Make a chart in a notebook or an excel sheet or use online spreadsheets. Mark the salaah off when you pray it’s qadha. The best and most consistent way to go about it is offering qadha of one prayer at a time before each daily salaah. Then you can take print of this chart and mark the prayers off that you have offered. Make it easier for your younger ones by making them understand how important it is for us to fulfill our obligations.

Soaring through Malaysia: Part II: Langkawi Islands

Hi, guys. I am back at it again. If you haven’t already read my first post, well please do. I am going to take you through Langkawi in this one. It’s a beautiful archipelago of a hundred and four islands in the gorgeous Andaman Sea. It had been a while traveling back forth in the cities of Malaysia and we were stocked with all the fun we were having but then we thought… why not take it one notch up and travel all the way to some far off place. Our first option was Singapore and our second option was Langkawi. We chose the latter because we wanted to experience the solace of natural, scenic beauty, and not the hustle bustle of just another city. And so we did. Our next dilemma came in when we had to decide if we should take the car halfway, then board a ferry and travel through the waters. But then we wanted to cut short on our travel time so we instead booked a flight from Kuala Lumpur.

Soaring through Malaysia: Part I

Only four months into 2016, and my wanderlust has consumed me already and taken me to a good many places. The preceding January, after getting done with half my post graduation course, I boarded a flight to Malaysia—the country where my sister moved to after her wedding—for a long, long trip. Well, at the outset, I had planned on just a month, but I took a visa extension, and I stayed there two months barely shy of a week.

This was my first overseas tour where I was not accompanied by anyone. Oh, I can't begin to describe the kind of jitters it gave me to think I would have no one by my side. The thoughts of forgetting my passport back home, losing the tickets on port, misplacing my baggage—basically making any and every kind of blunder kept plunging my brains until I was sitting on my seat in the plane. I am going to have to break it to you that 'the crowd' on such flights corroborates that if you are a solo girl traveling, you will be looked at as if you don't belong there. Luckily, no one sat in my row. But the guy at the back, figured I was someone who belonged to the opposite gender so he banged on my seat a couple of times, called his janu (sweetheart), exchanged a few over-the-top romantic statements, then called his best bud, threw a couple of Punjabi slangs here and there, and resorted back to thwacking the back of my seat. I, in all my lady-like grace, wanted to avoid a scene so I took out my table, and sat with my head down. In a few minutes, a very stale, stingy smell was pushed in my nostrils, and I looked up to have this another awkward man, in the row ahead of mine, looking at me, grinning big exhibiting all his yellow teeth, terrorizing all the passengers with his greasy, oiled up hair. By this time, I had lost my temper but I went back to putting my head back on the table. We were in the air.

I once had a thousand desires, but in my one desire to know You, all else melted away.

Qur’an breaks hard hearts and heals broken hearts. ♥

Existence.

For in who's hand my life resides,
bloodless, benumbed, my soul pleads,
if there's a Being in heavens or above,
I crave to taste the existence within me.

Gallant you are,
cowardly I feel,
the agony not beyond the heart and soul,
I lust to allot with Thee.

For once there is nay gone I glare,
the present, the future are hollow to me,
shivers of daylight when fall on that dermis,
apperceive that you... are penetrating within.

I am enervated, I am exhausted,
I aviate away brisk,
I demand your omnipresence,
after myself to be me.

blasphemic, realistic, agonistic, dogmatist,
I yearn saying goodbye to this vanity dominating me,
lend your hand, oh Lord, to me.
I crave to taste your existence within me.

08.10.'09
0845 hrs.

© Aeesha S.