A Series of Unfortunate Events..
Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullah from Miami,
Recently I've heard a handful of some really unfortunate and devastating stories, however due to some promises I will not share these stories.
What I will do is reflect on them inshaAllah. Each of the narratives I have heard about these events, the individual involved did not directly do an action that lead to their predicament. Meaning, their present situation was not necessary a direct result of what they did nor a reflection of their character.
That makes it all the more harder to digest. Many a times we hear about things that happen to people, yet somewhere in our heart we relish in the fact that it did not happen to us, somehow patting ourselves on the back for not placing ourselves in such a situation where the event could present itself to us. However how do we console ourselves when we know that this too could happen to us at any moment in time...
SubhanAllah we all take many precautions before getting married or making any major decisions, however at times despite all that we do we have to know that our knowledge in the future is not complete and leave it up to Allah subhana wa ta ala. After all this, then how do we deal with these misfortunes that fall upon us and others? In the various stories I've heard, different individuals have reacted differently. One person completely seemed to break down, and lose almost all imaan, while the other remained unselfishly steadfast in her situation...
what made one act the way she did, and the other completely opposite? Allah hu alim...
but it does make me think that if, by some chance, I was placed in the situation would I have the imaan to be steadfast in the face of the adversity.
This reminds me of a dream that I am constantly having...I don't know how appropriate it is to put it up here but I shall inshaAllah...
I know I constantly hope and pray that I will die in a state of imaan with the shahadah on my lips and a smile on my face, praying that death does not seize me at a point in time when I am far from Allah subhana wa ta ala. At one point in my life I was constantly dreaming about death...in one of the dreams I recall that I was in Iraq sitting with Saddam Hussein ( I don't know why) he was polishing one of his porches (apparently he had one) when all of a sudden there were missiles hitting his compound...I started running down the street, trying to dodge each missile, up until the point I became tired, and closed my eyes, and started repeating the shahadah to myself, somehow anticipating death, at that moment the scene turned dark and I felt a pain and jolt in my chest and for an instance I thought that my soul had been lifted, and I felt this instantaneous pleasure, imagining that I had died in a state of imaan...
so often we think about how we'll die, or if we were in certain areas how we would react, but when it actually comes upon you, you realize how unplanned it really is...subhanALlah you become so powerless in the slightest of situations. It also goes to show that we so easily pass judgment on people without even thinking twice about their situations...when these situations hit close to home you realize how helpless people really are...
Please make dua for the individuals I have mentioned...or not really mentioned...
may Allah ta ala guide and protect us all, and help us remain steadfast on the path He laid out for usssssssss.......
ameeeeeeeeeen...
wassalamualaikum wa rahmatullah.
hi :)
assalamualaikum wa rahmatullah,
What a week....or two weeks rather...
Weddings are amazing on so many levels...
In short, it was a weekend of a lot of laughing, smiling, and crying :)
I love Mubeen's parents and her sisters, may Allah fill the void in their hearts...
after the nikkah i was kinda :( and my mom said the cutest thing mashaAllah, she was like 'koyee baath nahin aab meh tumhari subsay achi saheli banjoongy" :) (Don't worry now I'll become your best friend)... Yay for moms :)
Another more random point...
Its amazing how just being in certain people's company humbles you and reminds you of Allah...and when I mean company I mean mere presence...may Allah preserve these individuals...
wassalamualaikum wa rahmatullah
Graduation and things
Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullah...
One final is what keeps me from ending my undergraduate career...granted I will be back for graduate school here in the very same school, however there is something about four years of your life coming to an end that really causes you to re-evaluate ideals, ideas, relationships, everything...
SubhanAllah, just like that life flashes before our eyes. Moments of time that we thought would effect us forever, are easily forgotten, seconds of shame leave their mark on our hearts, and just like that they're gone.
This of course always, reminds me of the inevitable...death. These moments of time where I am caught in a place that I know will be of no benefit to me, I wonder if the angel of death will come to greet me and instead of returning to Allah in a state of joy if I will be ashamed of what I have accumulated...
then there are those moments, where in one breath you feel your heart more alive then ever, calling to Allah with every beat, and you know that there is nothing in the world that would stop you from reminiscing in knowing that you are one step closer to meeting your Lord..
SubhanAllah...a mere decision that was possibly made on a whim can affect something that you work your whole life towards...
Today I was finishing up a final paper and rushing to hand it in before the deadline...as I ran out of my apartment i dawned my glasses, a big old jilbab, and a hijab hardly pinned...i imagined the journey would be short, directly to the middle eastern and islamic studies department and then back before anyone caught hold of me...lo and behold I ran into a handful of acquaintances on the street. They looked at me and smiled as I rushed past them, knowing that this is not a state that I wanted them to see me in...yet I had no expectations for these meetings before leaving my apartment, it was simply by qadr that i ran into them in the street...
my failure to adequately plan the amount of time to properly put in my contacts, iron a decent jilbab, and pin my hijab securely resulted in presenting myself to individuals in a state i would call unfit...
it really makes me think, could death greet me in this same way?
something to think about..
wassalamualaikum wa rahmatullah
Obituary for Umm Ibrahim by Shaykh Muhammad
OBITUARY FOR AL-HAJJAH FARIZAH RABBAT UMM IBRAHIM AL-YAQOUBI AL-HASANI
BY SHAYKH MUHAMMAD AL-YAQOUBI AL-HASANI
GRIEF AND SORROW
UPON THE LOSS OF MY HEART
My Dear Brothers and Sisters, Relatives, Friends, Students and Supporters throughout the world:
As-Salamu `Alaykum Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barakatuh
“Indeed, we belong to Allah, and to Him we must surely return!”
With grief and sorrow, I share with you the tragic loss of my beloved wife, my companion, and the love of my heart Al-Hajjah Farizah Aal Rabbat, Known as Umm Ibrahim, Rahimaha Allah, who is also the mother of my three children (Aisha, Ibrahim and Ismael).
Allah chose her out of this world to enter al-Jannah on the very birthday of His Beloved Prophet Rasulullah (Sallalahu ‘alayhi wasallam) through the door of martyrs. I do not object to His Will: we belong to Him and our return is to Him; whatever He takes is indubitably His, and whatever He gives is undoubtedly His.
She left this world on Monday 12th of Rabi’ Al-Awwal, 1427 (corresponding to April 10th 2006), around 5:00 pm in a car accident while she was driving from our home outside Damascus heading to the city to visit her family and attend a Mawlid party. At the same time, I was leading a Mawlid feast in the city. She died at 37 years of age, and was approximately five months pregnant with a baby boy who was not saved in the accident. Just a few hours before the accident we had agreed to name him Shareef.
With her in the car, she had our three children, Aisha, Ibrahim and Ismael who are 8, 6, and 5 years old respectively; and her maid Nour. By the Bounty of the Most Generous they survived the accident but were all injured at various levels. They are still in the hospital being treated. Please continue to make Du`aa for them.
On Sunday night, (the night of 12th of Rabi’ Al-Awwal), we had a blessed Mawlid Gathering in our home. Monday, the day she died, we had brunch together with the kids and I told her I wanted to take her and the kids in August to al-Madina al-Munawwara, where she can deliver her baby. She was extremely happy and took my word that I will name the boy Shareef.
I left home at 1:30 pm on Monday for a Dars and a Mawlid in the city of Damascus. At 5:15 pm I received the news of the accident and immediately headed to the hospital, only to find out that she had given her last breaths. Later on, the rescuers told us that when they reached her she was alive moving her lips (presumably with shahada, and dhikr) but could not make it to the hospital.
As an English teacher, Umm Ibrahim worked in a neighboring school teaching the first three grades, a job she had for the past three years and she always considered it an important mission; it fulfilled her ambitions. She liked to improve herself through reading and training, through which she acquired many skills in recent years, including NLP and Homeopathy. She loved social activities and had a strong personality. She was an excellent housewife and a great cook.
But most of all, what distinguished Umm Ibrahim, and the reason for which I had chosen her as a wife, was her righteousness, persistence in ‘Ibadah, and her sincerity to the Deen. For instance, in the last few months of her life, she used to pray 100 rak’as of Salah everyday. She recited Surat al-Baqara everyday, oftentimes with Surat al-An’am. Qiyam al-Layl decorated her nights, and was something she would hardly miss.
She always had new ideas to promote Da`wah and attract people to the true way of Islam. She devoted her life to her family and to students of sacred knowledge. After prayer and recitation of al-Qur’an, nothing was dearer to her than serving the students, cooking for them, and taking care of their needs.
The night before she died, she prepared food for my guests as we were having a feast in our home on the occasion of 12th of Rabi’ Al-Awwal, the anniversary of the Birth of the Beloved of Allah. Six days earlier, on Tuesday 6th Rabi’ Al-Awwal, she cooked for 150 guests, insisting she did not want to order the food. She used to prepare the most delicious food at our weekly Dhikr session for 50 people. One week before she died, she said, when I was trying to convince her to order food, “I find cooking for the students light and easy, and I don’t want to be deprived from its rewards, I know what they like, and the food brought from the market is fatty for them”. Such was her amazing dedication.
Moreover, she liked Jabr al-Khawatir, so at Eid times, she used to prepare bags full of sweets and gifts to hand over to kids in poor neighborhoods. She used to make Eid parties for the foreign students and organize special programs for their children.
Some 3000 people attended her funeral, which took place on Tuesday after Zuhr prayer at Jami` al-Badr in Damascus. Three years ago, upon a visit to Bab al-Sagheer cemetery, where my ancestors are buried, she said to me, “When I die, bury me in the graves of your family, I want to be with Ahl al-Bayt”
By the Grace of Allah, she was buried bearing a grandson of the Beloved Messenger of Allah, in the grave of my mother, Al-Sayyida Ameenah Mansoor al-Jaza’iry al-Hasani, who passed away also in the month of April in 1996, just a few months before myself and Umm Ibrahim got married. Umm Ibrahim had met my mother one week before my mother died. Her grave is only a few meters away from the daughter of Imam al-Husain, Sayyidah Fatima al-Sughra.
I am happy with her now, and I was happy with her before she died, as she was happy with me. In the past few weeks before she died, she told her mother and a few friends over the phone, even the morning of her death, how much she was happy in her marriage; According to a Prophetic statement when a woman dies while her husband is happy with her she will enter al-Jannah. I have seen several signs that she will be in al-Jannah. Obviously, the servants of the Ahl al-Bayt will be in al-Jannah, let alone the wives or mothers of Ahl al-Bayt.
Many outstanding personalities and scholars spoke during the three-day sessions of condolences held on her behalf. They included: Sayyid al-Fatih al-Kittani, Shaykh Dr. Sa`eed Ramadan al-Bouti; Shaykh Kurayyim Rajih, Shaykh Dr. `Abd al-Latif Farfoor, Shaykh Abdullah Rabih, Shaykh Abdul Aziz al-Khateeb, Shaykh Abul Hasan al-Kurdi, Shaykh Ahmad Ramadan, Shaykh Na’im al-‘Araqsoosi, Shaykh Sariyah al-Rifa’i, and many others.
Last but not least, I would like to offer my deepest thanks and gratitude to all the scholars, the friends, and the students, male and female, in Syria and throughout the world, who supported me and my children and Umm Ibrahim’s family in this difficult time in any form. Nothing is enough to thank the many thousands of brothers and sisters in Damascus and around the globe who stood with us during this trial.
I beg you to continue your Du`aa for the full recovery of the children. Make Du`aa especially that Allah help the three children cope with the loss of their mother, and that the shock, when they learn the news, may easily be absorbed. Make Du’aa for her parents, as the tragic loss is indeed difficult for them. And please do continue to make special Du`aa for Umm Ibrahim that Allah grant her Mercy and Forgiveness and reward her with Jannatul Firdaws.
I end with the following dreams. A Syrian sister saw Umm Ibrahim coming into a room, filled with light. Umm Ibrahim said to her, “Don’t worry about me; I am in the best state”. A brother by the name Zahir saw her calling Imam Abul Hasan al-Shadhiliy, which shows the blessings in the attachment to our great shadhili silsila, as she was part of it, took tariqa over a year ago. Another sister saw on the same morning she died, that a righteous woman passed away in Damascus, during the day, she learned of the death of Umm Ibrahim.
Yes, indeed Umm Ibrahim did not survive the accident but in fact she did survive in my heart and I am sure she will survive in the hearts of those who love her.
May Allah grant her the highest ranks in al-Jannah and the company of my Grandfather, our Master, the best of creation, the Beloved Messenger of Allah, Salla Allahu ‘alayhi wasallam.
May Allah give her her book in her right hand and let her enter Jannah without reckoning.
May He make her grave a garden from the Gardens of Paradise.
May Allah reward all brothers and sisters, and shaykhs and ‘Ulama, and everyone who made Du’a for her and for me and for the children in the best way.
May Allah protect them and their families, their parents and their children and allow us all to meet in Jannatul Firdaws in the company of the Elect and the Beloved of Allah, Rasulullah Salla Allahu ‘alayhi wasallam.
Allahumma Ameen.
The Unworthy servant of the people pf Allah,
Muhammad.
