Everything to Gain

I open to you like a door
on a spring morning.
Your voice is a sun song.
Your words are water and earth.
I hold your heart like a newborn.
I hang on
because I have everything to gain.

Wael Abdelgawad
3-27-2011

Lead Into Gold

Allah, giver of peace:
Your love has transformed me
like an alchemist’s dream
of lead into gold.
I was old, bent under the weight
of years of confusion,
but now I stand straight, far-seeing,
light on my feet and gleaming,
golden like a lion’s pelt,
a sunrise in my eyes.

- Wael Abdelgawad

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who has failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of ONE DAY, ask a daily wage labourer who has kids to feed.
To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the bride who is waiting to meet her groom.
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who has missed the train.
To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who has avoided an accident.
To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time…. and remember that time waits for no one……

Yesterday is history…..
Tomorrow a mystery……
Today is a gift. That is why it is called the Present.

- Anonymous author

Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: “Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, said: ‘The son of Adam displeases Me by abusing Dahr (Time), whereas I am Dahr, since in My hand are the day and the night.’” - Al-Bukhari, Book 27

This is Dr. Bilal Philips‘s “Fast” cure for depression.

Do a complete focused fast on Mondays and Thursdays, and do the following:

1) Get up and read from the Quran in Arabic and English – “Inna fee Khalqis samaawati wal Ard” (Surat Aali Imraan, 3:191-end) and crying.

2) Make a focused wudu’ and pray Tahajjud, followed by:

3) a very light Suhoor (brown bread, olives and extra virgin olive oil + 2 table spoons full of canned tuna or one egg) followed by:

4) a day of focused sunnah and Fard prayers.

5) Utilize throughout the day any of the Prophetic du’aas requesting ease like:

“Allahumma laa sahla illaa maa ja’altahu sahlaa, wa anta taj’alus sa’ba in shi’ta sahlaa.”

(O Allah, nothing is easy except what you make easy, and You can make what is difficult easy if You wish)

As well as the other du’aas for depression like: Allaahumma rahmataka arjoo falaa takilnee ilaa nafsee tarfata ‘ayn. wa aslih lee sha’nee kullah. Laa ilaaha illaa Ant. (O Allah, it is Your mercy that I hope for, so don’t leave me in charge of my affairs even for the blinking of an eye. And rectify all of my affairs for me. Nothing has the right to be worshipped except You). – See Hisnul Muslim – the Muslim Fortress – for more.

6) Then break the fast with 3 dates and a glass of water and pray Maghrib;

7) Have a light Iftaar followed by a focused Ishaa prayer.

The depression should begin to lift, if not go altogether from the very first day of the Fast cure. It will work if you do it believing with all your heart, strongly that this Prophetic formula WORKS and the degree to which it does work depends on how seriously you take it and apply it.

Grape vineyards in the San Joaquin Valley

By Wael Abdelgawad | IslamicSunrays.com

Every Saturday I drive from Fresno, in the geographical center of California, across the western side of the San Joaquin Valley and up into the mountains, to Casa de Fruta. It is such beautiful country, SubhanAllah. The San Joaquin Valley is a part of California’s great Central Valley, a vast agricultural breadbasket that runs 450 miles (720 km) from north to south.

Right now in March, the fields are on fire with orange poppies and yellow mustard flowers. The almond trees have been blossoming for a month, and the white petals fall to the ground like rain. On my way home, I sometimes pull over and park under the almond trees. I have a snack, listen to the radio, then get out and practice martial arts moves beneath the trees. When the irrigation pumps are running I use the water to wash my face or perform wudu’.

The grapes are just coming up – the slender stems are like the idea of a grape vine. Corn, cotton and lettuce are newly planted, and birds with long white necks flock to the fields. The fields are full of huge herds of white sheep and black cows, and our unique local cows with a large white stripe down the middle.

The green grass sweeps up into the mountains, where it becomes forest and finally snow.

The years-long drought is over. The San Luis Reservoir is setting a new high water mark. It is normally full of islands, but now they have all disappeared as the water is a solid sheet of deep blue from one side to the other, with fingers of water stretching into surrounding valleys. I’ve never seen it so high. The Eastside Bypass, which is a flood control channel and is normally dry as dust, is running with water.

The San Joaquin River is running to the Pacific Ocean for the first time in decades. In coming years the Chinook salmon may return to the river, Insha’Allah. This is a type of fish that swims upriver from the sea. There has not been a Chinook run on the San Joaquin River since the 1940′s.

The skies in this part of the Valley are huge, with vast expanses of clouds sweeping the sky like ships. Late in the day, the sky is a giant palette of blue, yellow, orange and red.

The world is amazing. Never think that beauty is gone from the world. Open your eyes and look at the majesty around you. All this was not created in vain. It is a miracle, a blessing, and a sign pointing to the Most Merciful God.

SubhanAllah, glory to Allah The Provider, The Creator, The One.

By Wael Abdelgawad | IslamicSunrays.com

Matthew Arnold, the English poet, wrote:

“Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.”

In this poem, Arnold envisioned the world as a place of darkness, conflict and confusion, with no light to show the way out. To him the beauty of the world was just an illusion, a dream; and the reality of life was one of struggle and pain.

Indeed, the world seems to become a more dangerous and hopeless every day. The news is filled with dire stories about war and starvation, the inexorable destruction of the natural environment, pollution of the oceans, terrorism, and crime. Most recently we have been reading about the “Arab Spring”, in which the people of several nations have risen up against their dictators. As inspiring as these events are, in the midst lie acts of horrific cruelty. In Libya it is rumored that 100 officers who refused to order soldiers to fire on protesters, were burned alive. La hawla wa la quwwata il-laa billah. How horrendous.

Wouldn’t a sane person be afraid of such a world? Wouldn’t an intelligent person be consumed with anxiety, and wouldn’t a very intelligent person be plunged into despair?

The thing about fear, anxiety and despair is that they flourish in spiritual darkness, just as some species of mushrooms can only grow in the dark. They might be represented by the image of a monster hiding in the corner of a dark room.

What do you do when you’re afraid there’s a monster in the closet, or creeping quietly toward you? You turn on the light.

The Light is Allah

For us, the light is Allah, and the Quran through which He communicates with us. Our guiding light is the natural bond we have with Allah, and our instinctive yearning to know our Creator. Let’s cherish that bond and strengthen it, and it will fill us with light.

Allah’s light is our salvation from fear of the unknown; fear of failure; fear of loss and pain; fear of poverty, illness and injury; fear of enemies who want to hurt us; fear of strange things; fear of death.

“Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp, the lamp is within glass, the glass as if it were a pearly [white] star lit from [the oil of] a blessed olive tree, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil would almost glow even if untouched by fire. Light upon light. Allah guides to His light whom He wills. And Allah presents examples for the people, and Allah is Knowing of all things.” - Quran, Surat An-Nur, 24:35

An Illuminating Lamp

And what about the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him)?

Allah says in the Quran, Surat Al-Ahzab, 33:45-46,

“O Prophet, indeed We have sent you as a witness and a bringer of good tidings and a warner, And one who invites to Allah, by His permission, and an illuminating lamp.”

The Messenger too is a source of light. He is an illuminating lamp, which is what you hold up so you can see the way ahead. His Sunnah gives us a brilliant path to walk. It shows us the way past all the evils that lurk in the darkness, including the evils of racism, nationalism, anger, selfishness, dishonesty, hypocrisy, and greed.

I’m not saying that all we must do is read the Quran and pray, and those dire problems that I mentioned earlier will evaporate. Not at all.

But the solutions to those problems lie within the Quran if we look. The Quran is the light that shows us the way out out of the gloom that we have created for ourselves, and example of the Messenger (peace be upon him) is a beacon that lights the way forward.

Light in Our Hearts

The verse I quoted above, from Surat an-Nur, mentions the example or similitude of Allah’s light. The Sahabi (companion of the Prophet) Ubayy ibn Ka`b said, ‘The similitude of His light [takes place in] the Muslim’s heart.’ [Ibn Kathir, 3:464]  Faith, dhikr, love of Allah and compassion toward all creatures, cause that light to grow in our hearts, until it spreads and appears on our faces, our hands, in our eyes, on our tongues, and even in our homes. As Allah says, “Or is one who was dead, and whom We gave life and made for him a light by which to walk among people, like one who is in a darkness from which he cannot emerge?” [6:122]

Other people can sense this light, and some will be guided by it, while others reject it. Those who reject it might even be angered by it, because it represents a refutation of a lifestyle based on narrow material concerns.

Ibn `Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “When the Messenger of Allah got up to pray at night, he would say:

(O Allah, to You be praise, You are the Sustainer of heaven and earth and whoever is in them. To You be praise, You are the Light of the heavens and the earth and whoever is in them.)

When life starts to feel like a burden, and your vision contracts so that all you see is darkness, don’t give up. Don’t despair. Remember that there is a light to show you the way. The light is Allah. His light is expressed through the Quran and through His Messenger. Turn to it, and it will grow in your heart and bring you peace. It will give you strength and joy, and will transform you and all those around you.