Faith is dynamic

i's coming to after namaz from an adjacent block and found my friend - an MS computer science student at FAST - was coming out of mosque. i stopped and joined him on his way to his home. He talked about his transformation into a pious person. "I never imagined going to mosque for prayers few years back! It wasn't just possible to imagine. Now, here i'm." SubhanAllah! "But sometimes it happens," he continued, "that you cannot concentrate in namaz. You're indulged in studies and during prayer, you're reminded of going back to work. We've to strike a balance between both worlds - this world & deeds of the next. You see, Hazrat Umar (r.a.) said that faith doesn't remain constant and fixed. It has its own highs and lows. Sometimes you're up, sometimes down. May this struggle never end. There's a prayer in Qur'an, probably in Surah Al-e-Imran, in which we pray God not to take back guidance once it has entered our hearts. I make this prayer everytime i say my prayers. May this noor never be taken back from us..." Aameen...

I said to him, "So this means we shouldn't get despair and hopeless." Exactly! That's the whole point," he replied. This was a lesson that came at the right for me. I forgot of this! I started to despair that my condition cannot change and be as same as it was couple of years back... Hope has been revived in my heart of transformation and consistency in eemaan... InshaAllah

3 Ways to do Tazkiya (Self-Purification) Today

Here are simple, 3 straight ways* of attaining self-purification (in hierarchy) which is perhaps the greatest aim of human beings on earth, and you cannot ignore any of it:

1. Qur'an

2. Reading and acting upon the life of Prophet Muhammad (his seerah)

3. Attaching oneself to the company of truthful, pious people.

* I learnt it from an Islamic scholar based in Lahore on 21 April '10.