Hope everyone had a great Eid! I actually did, for the first time. (I usually don’t enjoy Eid-ul-Adha because of smells and blood and dirty work) We had a nice mehndi/henna session for the girls and a family get together sitting around a fire on a cold wintry night…cousins and all, good times. alhamdulillah =)

I am in possession of my Surah Yusuf notes again so inshaAllah will be continuing the Surah Yusuf tafseer posts. When I don’t procrastinate.

my lame attempt at making an eid card with Paint :P

Have a wonderful day and eat lots of yum stuff! May Allah accept all our little, insignificant  sacrifices, ameen.

My thoughts drift off to far off fantastical  places – an island in the middle of the black star strewn sky, a forest underground, a plane flying me to a familiar middle of nowhere – then I am back home to reality.
I glance at the clock behind me, it is late. How long have I been dreaming? How much time has been pushed aside like garbage without a second thought? Do I even care?
My mind is in the kitchen now. In the chocolate cake that is yet to be created. It will be dark moist and melt in my mouth. It will make me wish I could eat as much as I wanted.

It is time to sleep now, wondering what to eat before fajr salah, for tomorrow is the day of Arafah… A day of fasting to have our sins of the past year and the coming year forgiven. I now know what I want forgiven the most – all those times I spent displeasing my Lord and all the times I could have uttered a tasbeeh to tip the scale of deeds in my favor rather than saying nothing and thinking useless or sinful thoughts.

Did you know that the first 10 days of Dhul-Hijjah are even more special than the last 10 days of Ramadan?? I did not. Until yesterday…watch this video by Shaykh Yasir Qadhi and find out how you can gain many many rewards in these few days! I am gonna try to fast…and do extra dhikr…and read more Qur’an..inshaAllah in these days. Remember you can’t fast on the 10th day as that is the day of Eid! :)

So I leave you with this.

I wonder what the reaction of the Muslim world will be to this. Personally, I’m a bit apprehensive about this…even though they say they will not portray the Prophet (sallAllahu alayhi wasallam), I’m still afraid of how they will portray some incidents in his life, or his wives, etc.

Check out these links for more info:

Gulf News

The Guardian

Assalamu Alaykum
Today is a happpy day =) My wordpress is working again yay. No more yucky email posts which do nothing to motivate me to write. I hope this lasts. InshaAllah.

So the past few days I have been listening to some new nasheeds by Zain Bhikha…from his new album The Beginning 1415. I really love this one:

That was his turning point in life. What was yours? Really made me think…mine wasn’t as dramatic or emotional but it was a wonderful time in my life, the point where you realize what your reason for living is..what is your ultimate goal.

The other nasheeds are alright…most of them are his old ones redone – they don’t really appeal to me. I do like another one called Who I Am, it has a different feel to it.

Have a great day, everyone!

No matter how low you feel, no matter how much your thoughts and feelings are leading you further into the deepest wells of depression, you know deep down inside that this won’t last and you smile…because you see the breathtaking shapes of fleeting white clouds in the blue blue sky, because you see the deep calming hues of green all around you, because you see the happy shades of pink scattered among the green, because you hear the bubbly laughter of a small child, because you sense the ephemeral scent of something you can’t place but you know you have smelled it before and it evokes happy memories, because you see someone smiling a beautiful smile back at you.

You realize that there will always be something to smile about.

At the end of the 10th juz [Surah Tawbah: 92], Allah talks about the Sahabas who wanted to go for the battle of Tabuk but didn’t have rides…they turned away with tears streaming down their faces because they were so desperate to go for the pleasure of Allah.

Allah said they get the same reward as the ones who actually went.

We can apply this to ourselves today, in any situation. Everything depends on our intention…if we are willing and eager to do something for Allah but for some reason that thing is not in our control and we are not able to, we will inshaAllah still get the reward. Then there are so many of us to whom Allah gives all the opportunities, the time, the energy, the facilities…but we just sit back and laze around, not willing to do it. If we do it, it is either unwillingly or for our own motives.

Or sometimes we are so unsure of our intentions…we need to make a special dua to Allah: ya Allah help us to purify our intentions for every deed, ameen!

The Night of Powerby Abu Eesa Niamatullah

http://ilmcast.com/night-of-power-39.htm

it is beautiful…and not too long (40 minutes) so take some time out and watch it!

I think Arabic characters are not appearing in my posts as I have to send through email and the Arabic doesn’t show up for some reason :( So I hope I can continue with the tafseer of Surah Yusuf without needing the Arabic verses. I could I guess but it won’t be as effective.

Anyway here goes.
Continuation of Story of Yusuf…

Some background about Yusuf (alayis salaam) and his family:
He lived in Canaan with his father Yaqub (alayhis salaam) who was also a Prophet, his mother Raheel, and 11 brothers. Yaqub (alayhis salaam) had four wives, (I think this is taken from Israeliyyat/Biblical narrations) and their names were Liya (Raheel’s sister), Zulfa, Balha and Raheel. Yusuf (alayhis salaam) had only one full brother who was BinYamin (Benjamin), and the other 10 brothers were from different mothers. They were: Yahuda (Judah), Rubeel (Reuben), Shumoon (Simeon), Lavi (Levi), Zebulun, Yashjur (Isacher), Daan (Dan), Naphtali, Jaad, Aasher, and these 10 were all older than him, while BinYamin was younger.
[Sorry, not sure about the spellings of all their names!]
Yaqub (alayhis salaam) had another name that we are all familiar with: "Israel". And due to this, the generations that sprung from him were known as "Bani Israel" (sons of Israel): the twelve tribes from his twelve sons.

Yaqub (alayhis salaam) had a special place in his heart for Yusuf (alayhis salaam) and because of this special love he had for him, his other sons were extremely jealous of Yusuf (alayhis salaam).

The story begins with Yusuf (alayhis salaam) going to his father Yaqub (alayhis salaam) to speak to him. He said: "Oh my father! Indeed I have seen (in a dream) eleven stars, and the sun and the moon; I saw them prostrating to me." (verse 4)

We see that Yusuf (alayhis salaam) trusted his father enough to tell him his dream and ask for advice.

Yaqub (alayhis salaam) replied to his beloved son: "O my son, do not relate your vision to your brothers or they will contrive against you a plan, Indeed, Satan, to man, is a manifest enemy." (verse 5)

This shows the great wisdom of Yaqub (alayhis salaam). Firstly he warns his son not to narrate his dream to his brothers who are already jealous of him, and secondly, he does not specifically attribute their bad feelings to them, rather he directs them towards Shaytan. He does not say, Oh your brothers are evil, they might do something to you. He knew that Shaytan could use the dream to make the brothers more jealous of Yusuf (alayhis salaam)

(There is a lot to learn about dreams in this story as well, but I will write a separate post on it inshaAllah.)

The Prophet (sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam) narrated: "Seek to protect your granted wishes by hiding (them) because everyone who is bestowed with blessings is envied." [Ibn Abi-Al Hadid vol.1, pg.316]

Envy is the first trait of Shaytan and he traps man through this. As the Prophet (sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam) also said that we should beware of envy as envy destroys good deeds in the same way fire eats up wood.

Yaqub (alayhis salaam) had an indication from Yusuf’s (alayhis salaam) dream that he would also be appointed as Allah’s Prophet, and he told him : "And thus will your Lord choose you and teach you the interpretation of narratives and complete His favor upon you and upon the family of Jacob, as He completed it upon your fathers before, Abraham and Isaac. Indeed, your Lord is Knowing and Wise." (verse 6)

Certainly were there in Joseph and his brothers signs for those who ask (verse 7)
Through this verse, we realize that there is certain assimilation between the stories of Yusuf (alayhis salaam) and the Prophet (sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam). As this Surah was revealed in Makkah, Allah told the Makkans (the ones who ask) that there are signs for them in this story. There were 11 tribes in Makkah opposing the Prophet (sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam), just as Yusuf (alayhis salaam) was opposed by his brothers. The Makkans were also clearly jealous of the Prophet (sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam)

to be continued, inshaAllah :)