He Gives Life & Causes Death

Dear sisters,

I hope you're all in good health and imaan.

I had a lovely day and am off to bed after posting this. I thank Allah (swt) for His continuous guidance, for giving me hope, strength and imaan and for giving me so many beautiful memories to collect. I also thank Him that I am still here, although I do find life quite difficult at times.

We never know, if we're going to be here tomorrow. Our heart can stop beating at any second...only Allah (swt) knows the time.

"Indeed, to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth; He gives life and causes death. And you have not besides Allah any protector or any helper."

[Qur'an 9:116]

And insha'Allah we will die with a content heart and soul full of imaan.

There is a dua, which if you make it your last speech before going to sleep and you die that night, you’ll die on faith...:

Narrated Al-Bara ‘bin ‘Azib:

The Prophet said to me, “Whenever you go to bed perform ablution like that for the prayer, lie on your right side and say, “Allahumma aslamtu wajhi ilaika, wa fauwadtu amri ilaika, wa alja’tu Zahri ilaika raghbatan wa rahbatan ilaika. La Malja’ wa la manja minka illa ilaika. Allahumma amantu bikitabika-l-ladhi anzalta wa bina-biyika-l ladhi arsalta."

 (O Allah! I surrender to You and entrust all my affairs to You and depend upon You for Your Blessings both with hope and fear of You. There is no fleeing from You, and there is no place of protection and safety except with You O Allah! I believe in Your Book (the Qur’an) which You have revealed and in Your Prophet (Muhammad) whom You have sent). Then if you die on that very night, you will die with faith (i.e. or the religion of Islam).

Let the aforesaid words be your last utterance (before sleep). ”I repeated it before the Prophet and when I reached “Allahumma amantu bikitabika-l-ladhi anzalta (O Allah I believe in Your Book which You have revealed).” I said, “Wa-rasulika (and your Apostle).” The Prophet said, “No, (but say): ‘Wanabiyika-l-ladhi arsalta (Your Prophet whom You have sent), instead.”

Take care sisters and brothers and I wish you a beautiful day tomorrow, insha'Allah <3

Another Morning & Intuition

Good morning dear ones.

I want to thank all of you, who are so kind commenting on my posts! It means very much to me and I continuously enjoy reading your comments!!

And I thank Allah (swt) for being able to experience another day - and beautiful morning - of this life:

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي أَقَالَنَا يَوْمَنَا هَذَا وَلَمْ يُهْلِكْنَا بِذُنُوبِنَا 

All praise be to Allah who has forgiven us today and not destroyed us due to our sin

I had a lovely night's sleep and got up early to go to lessons at university. I knew I had a long day ahead of me: Lessons from 8-11AM, three hours break (to study, buy groceries, go to the library) and lessons from 2-5PM and then off to an appointment after school!

I didn't think about not attending the first three lessons, but right when I stepped out of my front door, I remembered that I forgot a bottle of water and when I went inside again, I thought to myself that I'd better stay home! Then I could study, write emails to friends whom I have neglected a bit for some time, go to the library, buy groceries and then go to school around 1PM.

So now I'm sitting here with a cup of green tea and am looking forward to start my day anew :-)

Sometimes I find it hard to know, if the voice inside you (call it intuition) is coming from a good- or bad place. Do you always know if you're being guided from a good- or bad place?

I believe that it is Allah (swt) who sometimes makes us change our minds in the last minute and by doing so, He is actually saving us from something (i.a.). This might have been the case today for me. Or perhaps He wanted me to prioritate differently today, than my "routine"-attitude was making me do. Allahu Alim.

Sometimes I have experienced that I was going to do something, which I'd convinced myself to be good for me. I experienced that recently! And in planning this, nothing worked out smoothly! And on my way to the place, even after looking at a map, I couldn't find it without lots of struggle!

In this case I should definitely have listened to that inner voice/feeling telling me that what I was on my way to, wasn't going to be good for me!

And then again we might all know the story of how a man struggled to go to his Fajr prayer in the mosque, because Shaitaan made him fall repeatedly...! (Read it here). But although it was a struggle for him to get there, it was good for him to attend the prayer!...

Perhaps there's a difference here though, because we need to perform salah and that can never be bad for us!... So if you have a bad feeling concerning salah, it might well be Shaitaan whispering in your ear!

And again: probably the world is not at all black and white - neither in this matter of the inner voice/feeling! :)

If you have some thoughts on this subject, you're very welcome to share them and perhaps also about how you navigate, when it comes to your inner voice/feeling (intuition) :)

Take care all of you and may you have a wonderful day!

Duaa, a Fisherman & Birds Singing

أَصْبَـحْـنا وَأَصْبَـحْ المُـلكُ للهِ رَبِّ العـالَمـين ، اللّهُـمَّ إِنِّـي أسْـأَلُـكَ خَـيْرَ هـذا الـيَوْم ، فَـتْحَهُ ، وَنَصْـرَهُ ، وَنـورَهُ وَبَـرَكَتَـهُ ، وَهُـداهُ ، وَأَعـوذُ بِـكَ مِـنْ شَـرِّ ما فـيهِ وَشَـرِّ ما بَعْـدَه

The morning has come to me and the whole universe belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, O Allah, I ask of you the good of the day, it's success and aid and it's nur (celestial light) and barakaat (blessings) and seek hidayah (guidance) and seek refuge from the evil in it (this day) and from the evil of that which is to come later.

Hisn from Abu Dawood

Good morning dear sisters!

I hope you're all doing well. I've been up since 5am because I had to bring my stepdaughter to school, who then stayed home anyway, 'cause she wasn't feeling too good. So then I got lots of time to prepare a good breakfast for my family and at 9am I'm going to do the laundry and clean the house. But before all that I wanted to share the duaa above and also the picture of the man (leaning forward) in the little boat. The photo was taken by me in 2005 on the Greek island Symi, where I was on vacation with my parents and little sister. I think that vacation was one of the best ones ever. We have always gone on vacation to places, which were not too crowded by tourists. And Symi was just such a unique, beautiful tiny island. This man in the boat was there every morning around 6am catching fish :) What a life. I'd love to live on an island far away from big cities, cars etc. Everything was so peaceful! Insha'Allah, some day :)

Have a beautiful day all of you and perhaps you too enjoy the beautiful song of the birds below. Allah's (swt) creations are truly magnificent.