The master told him one day to plant wheat. The slave took the opportunity and went and collected seeds of barley and planted them instead. As the season drew near, the master was enraged to see that after all this work and time, the slave had planted the wrong seed. In his thrashing rage, he scolded the slave saying, “Why did you do this?”

The righteous slave said, “I had hoped that the barley seeds would come out as wheat.”

The master said, “How can you plant barley seeds and expect it to come out as wheat?”

The slave stopped and said quietly, “How can you disobey Allah and expect for His bounteous mercy? How can you openly challenge his deen and hope for Jannah.”

The master was stunned and silent. He understood. “You have taught me something today that I had never realized. You are free for the sake of Allah.”

(from http://navedz.wordpress.com/)

Submit therefore before the will of God; be grateful in well-being and endure adversity with fortitude that His light may radiate within your being.

- Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani

“Verily, those who are the pious, when an evil thought comes to them from Satan, they remember (Allah), and (indeed) they then see (aright).” (Surah Al A‘raf 7:201)

Whoever calls himself to account in this world will have easier reckoning on the Day of Resurrection and whoever does not call himself to account in this world will have a difficult reckoning in the Hereafter.

Beware of falling into sins, for keeping away from sins is easier than seeking for forgiveness.

Days of this world are few and you do not know when you will die. Ask yourself about what you have done in the previous year and ask yourself about what you have provided for the coming year. ‘Umar (RA) said: “Call yourselves to reckoning before you are called to reckoning.”

Make a resolution right from the beginning of this year that you will observe your five obligatory prayers in the mosques in congregation. Make a pledge to yourself that you will seek for useful knowledge and spread it. Endeavor to guard your tongue against lie, gossip and immoral talk.

Fear Allah in all that you eat and drink. Abstain from all forbidden things. Be kind to your parents and to your kith and kin. Do well to all people and free your heart from jealousy and hatred. Beware of bad thing about others. Promote good and forbid evil.

Carry out your obligations towards your spouses and children in the best possible way and guard your eyes from looking at forbidden things. How beautiful it will be if this New Year is made a positive turning point in the lives of world communities where women properly cover themselves according to the injunctions of Allah and in following the Sunnah of His Messenger.

- by Imam Al-Madinah Al-Munawarrah ‘Abdul Muhsin Ibn Muhammad al-Qasim from the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah, on 4 Muharram, 1424 (March 7, 2003)

Till the hand of God removed you from her and brought you into this world. Then she was most happy, feeding you forgetting her own hunger, clothing you even if she herself had no clothes, giving you milk and water not caring for her own thirst, keeping you in the shade, even if she had to suffer from the heat of the sun, giving you every comfort with her own hardships; lulling you to sleep while keeping herself awake.

- Source unknown.

Building a relationship takes work. It is an ordeal and struggle because two people are giving birth to this new entity, and labor pains hurt.

Build your relationships out of love and hold them together with a sense of humor.

Here are five ways God wants to use the problems in your life:

1. God uses problems to DIRECT you.
Sometimes God must light a fire under you to get you moving. Problems often point us in a new direction and motivate us to change. Is God trying to get your attention? “Sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change our ways.”

2. God uses problems to INSPECT you.
People are like tea bags…if you want to know what’s inside them, just drop them into hot ever water! Has God tested your faith with a problem What do problems reveal about
you? “When you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience.”

3. God uses problems to CORRECT you.
Some lessons we learn only through pain and failure. It’s likely that as a child your parents told you not to touch a hot stove…. But you probably learned by being burned. Sometimes we only learn the value of something… health, money, a relationship. .. by losing it. “It was the best thing that could have happened to me, for it taught me to pay attention to your laws.”

4. God uses problems to PROTECT you.
A problem can be a blessing in disguise if it prevents you from being harmed by something more serious. Last year a friend was fired for refusing to do something unethical that his boss had asked him to do. His unemployment was a problem – but it saved him from being convicted and sent to prison a year later when management’s actions were eventually discovered. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good…

5. God uses problems to PERFECT you.
Problems, when responded to correctly, are character builders. God is far more interested in your character than your comfort. Your relationship to God and your character are the only two things you’re going to take with you into eternity. “We can rejoice when we run into problems…they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady.”

Here’s the point:

God is at work in your life – even when you do not recognize it or understand it.

But it’s much easier and profitable when you cooperate with Him.

Like wise you must detest sins and those who persist in committing them, and abhor them for the sake of God; this being a duty of all Muslims.

[Al-Haddad, The Book of Assistance]

Forgiveness is the economy of the heart, it saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits. When you forgive, you in no way change the past, but you do sure change the future.

You are permitted to remain silent if you know with certainty that if you enjoin good or forbid evil your words will neither be listened to nor accepted, or there will ensue obvious harm either to yourself or your property.

This is when enjoining and forbidden change from being an obligation into being a tremendous virtue which indicates that the one who does them loves God and prefers Him to all else. And if you come to know that an evil will increase if forbidden, or that the harm will involve other Muslims in addition to yourself, then the silence is better and, in some cases, obligatory.

[Al-Haddad, The Book of Assistance]