Fulfilling your dreams and transcending this material world

Lately I haven’t been able to write…

Although I have been asked repeatedly by a reader to get back to writing asap ;-) I just couldn’t because I was overcome by emotions which if expressed, would tell a lot more about my private life than I was willing to say.

However, I am no longer concerned about saying a little bit more than I had originally intended to… I realize that this blog allows a much needed catharsis to take place. It  helps me organize the happy turmoil in my soul. When I write, I am never detached, I’m either deeply troubled, giggling or laughing out loud when I'm about to crack up a joke!

For this specific post, let’s say that the words were gushing from a feeling of overwhelming, tear-jerking, gratitude! You know how you can have a dream very unlikely to happen and that you kind of got used to the idea that it never would happen. Well, guess what my friends? I had such a dream,  and it’s just about to be fulfilled, praise be to God Almighty.

Don’t try to guess what it is for you will exhaust yourself without finding out what it is ... “No, my hubby and I aren’t reproductively challenged (God forbid) and about to have a baby...”, “No, no it’s not that we’re going to Mecca either… that Alhamdulillah, has already been planned”. If you really want to know, you’ll have to start working harder to become my BFF, best friend forever ;-)

More seriously, when I add the imminent (insh.) fulfillment of my dream to various other strong positive changes in my life, I cannot but come to the conclusion that it’s all related to the fact that I joined the path of Istighfar and Salat ala Nabi. For me, no need to do the math here, all these positive changes originate from this. Since the Burda, and Qasidah Muhammadiya have been read several times in my house things have happened…. I don’t believe in the Qasidah Burda per se (it’s not magic!) but I believe that if you put in motion a process of expressing the love you have for the Prophet, through outward manifestations such as qasida recitation and salawats, if you are blessed with the chance to organize a Mawlid in your home, if you start focusing on the love so much that the longing would make you gladly welcome death…Nur, Light, will undoubtedly come.

I won’t lie to you and tell you that the struggle to keep the spirit of this Love strong and alive every day is easy, for most of the time I’m alone. Some days are easier than others but sometimes Dunya gets the upper hand and so I get frantic because I feel heedless, I feel WE are heedless. But regularly, God in his Mercy sends me sisters and brothers to help me feel I am not alone in my quest for Truth and so I pick up my weakened resolve and hit for the top of the mountain... once again :-)
I cannot fathom going back...How could I ever stand to go back, when now the reality of angels has become palpable and that I feel connected to those people for whom the Prophet is still alive?
I also cannot go back because I have had this strong, growing feeling that there are no limits to the Horizon, that the Faqir standing in front of his Lord can achieve anything and anything can happen to him, if it be God's will. Discovering this was incredibly liberating, I feel like I’ve been set free. I know I have already spoken about this, in one of my older posts but kindly indulge me for I would like to expand on this.

Take the time to reflect on this. Take a step back and think for your whole world can change the day you realize (profoundly) that : God willing there is nothing you cannot achieve with the power of your soul.Shaykh Hamza Yusuf in his lecture “BE GREAT PEOPLE” quotes “Take care of your soul, perfect it, give it virtuous qualities because it is by the soul that you are a human being, not by your body.” You can therefore, rise above that body, reach out for your dreams and for that glorious future of yours. It can be either that of a person of great patience, that of a nurturer, that of  leader of a nation, that of a scholar, that of a student of sacred knowledge, that of a loving parent, the possibilities are endless.

Here is a very short extract of a lecture of Hamza Yusuf that has been very important to me in this regards. I must say that I will never look at Shaykh Umar Farruq Abdallah in the same way anymore... Here is a man who applies what he believes in... May God increase him and give him Jennat El Firdows.
 

 

 

Let me share another inspiring story on how having certainty can change the course of things. This story happened to one of my sister's closest friends.

Mona and her  younger brother were studying abroad, the least we can say is that they had a hard time, their life wasn't easy. Muna was a med'school student and her younger brother was studying to become an engineer. One day, the boy had what seemed to be a sore throat and was asked by the doctors to run some tests. He complied and his older sister went to the lab the next day, to pick up the results. When she opened the envelope, she saw:  "Malignant..." We all know what "malignant" refers to :   The cancer, The C word,  etc…

When Mona read the results, instead of falling apart and despairing, the chronically stressed & overwhelmed med'school student said "And I know from Allah which ye know not" (which is what the prophet Jacob (RA) the very resilient, used to say, verse 86 of Sura 12, Quran) and prayed to God that these results be false, with the certainty that even though this diagnosis was from the most preeminent lab in the country, Allah's decree could make it all come to nothing.

She announced the news to her parents who flew with their son to France, where they were asked to run more tests..... The end of the story is that after undergoing various tests, the boy turned out not to have cancer! Alhamdulillah.

I ask all the people who read this, to raise their hands, now, in this moment to make Dua3 for this sister and her family and that they be blessed with good health and even stronger Iman.

(Continuation.)

Being certain that with Allah’s Mercy there is nothing you cannot achieve & relying only on Almighty Allah  is what will actually make you achieve your dreams.

If you arm yourself with certainty and reliance on God the Most Merciful and the Most Compassionate, and quit relying on your spouse, your network, the community or even your own strength and skills (because these are all things by nature limited), you will gradually see your mental barriers falling down, crumbling down.

One day, you will realize that you have left behind you a lot of the petty things of human life that were the foundation of your self-imposed servitude & that you are now reaching out for something that has no limit:  Allah’s Mercy.
And when he sets his Mercy on you… that day, if the odds were against you, if the Djins & the people of this world united to stand in your way, you would get what you had aimed for, because He has decreed it!

So rejoice my friend, you can be the dirtiest, ugliest, poorest forsaken soul on this earth if God blesses you with certainty and tawfiq the limit is the sky! J or more accurately there is no limit!

However, the problem is that if you don’t achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself, you can no longer blame it on the context (your age, your wild progeny, your parents, your neighbor, the heat, the President, the opposition…) if it doesn’t happen it’s just that you didn’t want it hard enough so you didn’t try enough or simply…. that you did try hard but that Allah Subhanahou Wataala hasn’t allowed it because he has something so much better in store for you J

For instance, I know that if I set my mind to it, I can be a Hafiza, a Fikiha, regardless of my age and my french secular educational background...but do I really want it? Of course, I love the idea but do I want it enough to put up with a little bit of hard work?

I have no doubt at all that God willing, if I put a good intention in it and work, one day there will be an opening (see what Hamza Yusuf says about this in the "Be great people" lecture)

 

 

Finally guys, after experiencing what I just told you about,  do you know what the real mind boggling discovery was? Now that I'm achieving plenty of my earthly projects,  surprisingly they don’t seem that important anymore in comparison to the bliss I felt when I was still out there, working hard on my projects and hoping for God’s Mercy.. I'm more and more aware that : the true bliss or blessing lies not in the achievement but in the prayer and longing that preceed it..

 

Wassalamu Aleykum