Sum Mnn

63 - the darknesses of the land and the sea I like that both these verses are so similar and 63rd in their surahs. I like that in all these verses, in these darknesses, there's a sincere call to Allah, light upon light, without any associates. Most clearly it relates to the prayer of Prophet Yunus pbuh, which is also the dua that removes all hardship according to the following hadith:

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, 'The supplication of my brother Dhun Nun (Yunus, peace be upon him), who called on Allah while in the whale’s belly: ‘There is no deity but You. Glory be to You! Verily, I have been among the wrongdoers’ (Quran 21:87) – no Muslim person says it, for any situ

A decade into the his mission in Makkah, the Prophet ﷺ lost his uncle and his wife and without the protection of his uncle, he faced horrible abuse by the disbelievers. He ﷺ left to find refuge in Taif, where he was subjected to even more abuse, insulted by the city's leaders and then pelted with stones by the people. Bleeding and aching from the stones, he found shelter under some trees and called out to Allah. A prayer as immense in its beauty as his heart was in sorrow.

To You, my Lord, I complain of my weakness, lack of support and the humiliation I am made to receive. Most Compassionate and Merciful! You are the Lord of the weak, and you are my Lord. To whom do You leave me? To a dis

Recently, I came across a picture of Newton's first law of motion/ the law of inertia. 'If a body is at rest or moving at a constant speed in a straight line, it will remain at rest or keep moving in a straight line at constant speed unless it is acted upon by a force.' It reminded me of this ayah and how we are all born on the fitrah and would be on the straight path if not for all the forces that influence our direction. The other ayah I remembered later was in Surah Al-Araf, where satan says he will lead others away from the straight path, perhaps a path of ingratitude. Thought it was interesting and a reminder to be grateful and to ask to be guided to the straight path.

I saw the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen today! And my mind kept going to this verse in Surah ar Rahman. I can't describe it at all but majestic would be the word.. I was completely awestruck and I thought about what it would be like to see the face of Dhul Jalaali wal Ikram.. how much awe we will be in on that day

Just noticed a similarity between Ayatul Kursi and the last 3 verses of Surah al Jinn (26-28): '(He is the) Knower of the Unseen. So He does not let anyone know the Unseen created by Him, except a messenger whom He chooses (to inform through revelation), and then He appoints (angels as) watching guards before him and behind him, (so that devils may not tamper with the divine revelation,) so that He knows that they (angels) have conveyed the messages of their Lord. And He has encompassed all that is with them, and has comprehensive knowledge of every thing by numbers.' This is after in verse 19: And that when the Servant [i.e., Prophet] of Allah stood up supplicating Him, they almost bec

We all have different strengths and different weaknesses. Something that is a great trial for one person may not mean anything to another. Every trial exposes a weakness and you are forced to acknowledge a problem within yourself in order to work to solve it. A bit like those test runs done in labs to identify weaknesses in a product. So, in a trial, you can either identify your weakness and try to overcome it or you can try to put the responsibility elsewhere. That reminds me of Prophet Yunus (pbuh). Every time I hear or read his dua, I am reminded of the time I felt most hopeless, like there is nothing and no one that can get me out other than Allah. And Allah the Most Merciful did event

I was watching a video on core beliefs, basically beliefs that get ingrained in our unconscious mind, and therefore set us up for the rest of our lives. The video had 2 examples, one child learned to fear her environment because of a fearful mother. The other child grew up with his mother telling him every night that anything is possible and there are no limits to what he can achieve. It reminded me of Surah Luqman. There are many lessons that are given to his son, the first of which is to not associate anything with Allah swt. Though what Allah says first about Luqman himself is that Allah swt blessed him with wisdom, which goes hand in hand with gratitude. I felt maybe this is the most

This is one of my favourite lines: وَٱللَّهُ غَالِبٌ عَلَىٰٓ أَمْرِهِۦ 'Allah is predominant over His affair.' There's so much plotting and scheming that goes on in Surah Yusuf, that you would wonder how someone could endure that. Going through so much trauma. How could you find peace in a world after you've seen what people, even your own blood, are capable of? There's a solace in the story of Yusuf pbuh, that it is only permitted by Allah's Will and His Will ultimately prevails. On the other hand, there's a constant reminder of redemption, no matter how far we or others stray, there's a path to return. One sincere call away.

'And in no way did We create the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them both, playing; In no way did We create them both except with The Truth; but most of them do not know.' In this world, we witness many opposites: there is light and dark, joy and sorrow, hope and despair, order and chaos, good and evil, truth and falsehood. Without knowing one, we can't know the other. The better we know one, the more precisely we know the other, by the attributes of what it isn't as much as what it is. He taught Adam (pbuh) the names of all things. Allah gave us the ability to recognize patterns and classify things as one or the other. He did not create the heavens and earth in play. He cr

'Why then have you taken as 'protectors' those who cannot even benefit or protect themselves.' Sometimes, we put our trust and our hope in people or things other than Allah, often unknowingly. If at any time we notice our trust and hope misplaced or lost, we should remember the creation of Allah. The countless stars, the endless sky, galaxies and galaxies, the mountains towering through clouds, the oceans filled with more than we can imagine, even little snowflakes, no two of which are alike.. recall all of these to the front of our minds, and ask ourselves if there's anyone or anything else worthy of our trust, hope and most of all, our worship.

There's an ayah in Surah ar-Rahman: 'Is the reward for goodness anything but goodness?' The word used is ihsan for 'goodness' or 'excellence'. I thought it was a beautiful and encouraging ayah, to do good so that you will be rewarded with good. Recently, I've started to see it in another way too. All of Surah ar Rahman is about Allah's excellence and the excellence of His creation and bounties. Throughout we're pointed to signs of His mercy and ihsan. We're encouraged to see Him in His signs and favours all around us. Then Allah asks, 'Is the reward for excellence anything but excellence?' Ihsan means excellence, but in practice ihsan also means to worship Allah as if you can see Him.

There's so much I want to say about this ayah, 29:41. The depth of the analogy has truly blown my mind. To start with the fact that spiders that build webs are nearly blind despite having 8 eyes, leaving them to rely on tactile perception. Many times in the Quran, the disbelivers and arrogant are described as being blind. It is their arrogance that blinds them to the Truth. So this blindness necessitates that they build intricate webs to survive, to feel in control of their surrounding. The first step of the web building process is based on pure chance, the spider has no idea whether the string will attach to something or not, relying completely on the wind to carry it to some attachment

A few days ago, I was listening to Surah An-Najm with the translation. It was a very gripping recitation and it flowed so beautifully. The verse 'He is the One who makes you laugh and weep' followed by verses of our creation and recreation, followed then by examples of previous nations that were destroyed (Aad, Thamud, nation of Prophet Noah (pbuh) and Prophet Lut (pbuh)). Then mention of the approaching day having approached. Then the most powerful delivery of the verses, 'Then at this statement do you wonder? And you laugh and you do not weep'. These verses had me so amazed, I immediately wondered if this is one of those verses where you have to prostrate while reciting because I felt an u