By Bisma Mukhtar
Our sahaba always struggled to increase the number of Muslims and to spread out a religion that lead to a path of peace and purity. They dedicated their whole lives for the sake of Islam and succeeded in making it the most powerful and influential religion back then. Due to their effort, the barakah of Islam had spread and brought together everyone who experienced the most beautiful virtues of love and brotherhood.
But the question arises….. What about now?
We have everything that our ancestors had…we have advanced so much in every field of life…made a lot possible…
We have the Quran, the same teachings…then what has let us down?
Although Muslims are more in number today, yet their essence is less.
One of the reasons for this is the lack of honesty and dedication. We just pick out a few things that we find easy enough to follow and assume as if we have accomplished a lot. We just change the rules according to our own convenience and find different reasons to follow religion in our own way. In fact, in a way, we just create our own religion. We change our physical appearance that would label us as a Muslim but neglect all other important aspects like amaal (actions) and akhlaq (behaviour) etc. We are just like the hypocrites. We have embraced Islam and it’s principles but when our lifestyle and preferences are challenged, we fail in Islam. The difference between a true Muslim and a hypocrite is that a true Muslim knows when he is wrong and tries to resist doing sins but a hypocrite adopts an unacceptable lifestyle and insists on following it, despite having the sense of right and wrong.
I am not blaming anyone. I am not being judgmental. I am no one to find fault in others when I myself yet have a lot to improve upon. I am merely trying to bring everyone’s attention to this grave matter. Islam, our religion that was supposed to be our way of life, has become anything but that. We have found ways and excuses to go around the rules created by Allah and whats worse, is that we have drafted a convenient routine for ourselves, based on these rules, which we continue to follow day in day out, deceiving ourselves into believing that we are abiding by the rules set by Allah.
A simple example that I can quote is of wudhu, one of the most basic things that a Muslim has to do. Most of us might not even be aware of the proper way to conduct it. Our involvement in these wordly matters has blinded us and made us believe that we everything else is insignificant.
One of the cures for this is to make zikr. Zikr (remembrance of Allah) is very important for all of us. Zikr is one of the most important part of a persons life. Without it, our life is useless and without a sense of direction. It is an act which should be performed in abundance as it has great sawaab (reward) and significance. By making zikr we establish a peace of mind and soul. Allah helps us in getting liberated from our worldly problems which aids us in relieving our personal stresses. Zikr aids in strengthening our faith and helpsshape our lives by the grace and guidance of the Almighty.
Today, Muslims are facing a lot of issues due to the negligence of zikr. We seek refuge in worldly things and end up developing anxiety and stress. We find life useless although we have got everything in terms of money, a good job, family etc but what is lacking is the peace of mind!
ZIkr is a state of both tongue and heart. While remembering Allah from the tongue, one must not forget that their heart should be equally involved. While it is not always possible that the heart may be completely involved at all times, one must indulge in the exercise of trying to direct our heart towards Allah whilst indulging in Zikr. After all, this is how habits develop as well: by practicing over and over again.
At the end I would just like to say that we should make sunnah and zikr our goals in every matter of our life and we should start struggling to achieve that. Making even the intention will help us a lot. The higher the goal, the more we achieve. We should also stop feeling that we are not benefiting by performing zikr but should have faith in Allah as this is how we can be prosperous in this world and the here after Insha’Allah! These little changes can make us the leaders of this world and dominate this world by love and brotherhood as it used to be in the past and make this earth a better place to live in, In shaa Allah!
