Ad-Duha.. A meaningful Khutbah, beautiful Iftar and wonderful Ramadhan

It was the last Friday of Ramadhan, the day starts off at Masjid Zetland, eating sahur there... and then went home and went to Anatomy prac~ (fell asleep 3/4 of it..)

So the Khutbah starts...
The 1st was about Syukur~ Sykur Illah.

I was so tired, so I kinda dozed off a little bit at the beginning of the Khutbah. I thought it was just a normal khutbah about syukur... until the khatib recited a verse;

وَأَمَّا بِنِعْمَةِ رَبِّكَ فَحَدِّثْ
(And proclaim the grace of your Lord)

I heard that verse before... hey... its surah Ad-Duha.. the final verse. This is one of my favorite verse, I liked it since I heard one of my friend reciting it very beautifully in prayers when I was in form 4. It's also one of the first surah I've memorized besides the common surah (well... I guess this can be considered common too...)

Anyway... the khatib explained how this Surah related to syukur. I first read about the tafsir of this Surah in form 5, alone in the night... and I cried because it is so beautiful...

*the following was reffered to Tafsir Ibn Khatir (www.qtafsir.com)

وَالضُّحَى - وَالَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَى - مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَى
1.By the forenoon.) (2. By the night when it darkens.) (3. Your Lord has neither forsaken you nor hates you.)

This surah was revealed to Muhammad saw after the revelation from Allah swt has "halted" for a quite long period of time, and Muhammad became sad since he hasn't heard anything from Allah swt. Then a woman came and said, `O Muhammad! I think that your devil has finally left you.' and the idolators said 'His Lord has abandoned him and hates him'. So Allah revealed this surah to Muhammad saw to tell him, Allah has neither forsaken you nor hates you.

Imagine how our beloved Muhammad saw felt when these verses came down to him... to calm him, to tell him that Allah swt is always there, and has never abandoned Muhammad saw. Same goes with us, no matter how hard or how cruel life can be, and we felt lonely or empty... know that; (3. Your Lord has neither forsaken you nor hates you)

That was the one part I understood in form 5 until the khutbah, I never really fully understood the later part of the surah. The khatib explained well to me that the later part is about Shukur.

أَلَمْ يَجِدْكَ يَتِيماً فَآوَى - وَوَجَدَكَ ضَآلاًّ فَهَدَى - وَوَجَدَكَ عَآئِلاً فَأَغْنَى

(6. Did He not find you an orphan and gave you a refuge) (7. And He found you unaware and guided you) (8. And He found you poor and made you rich)

These verses really relate a lot to me.. and I'm sure to most of us too. (6. Did He not find you an orphan and gave you refuge), in terms of Muhammad saw, he was an orphan as we all know, but Allah swt always gave Muhammad saw protection, eg. Abdul Mutalib after Aminah died, then followed by Abu Talib, then after he died, and kuffars started to attack the muslims, Allah swt will's it that Hijrah happen and gave Madinah as a refuge for Muhammad saw and the muslims.

Me, my dad passed away when I was 14 years old, and my family situations has been kinda rough since then, espacially financially... but, now that I look at this verse, I realized that despite losing a father, Allah swt gave me refuge without me noticing it, eg. he wills it for me to enter hostel in form 4, which really allows me to survive without having a lot of money, as well as a platform for me to strive during my days at SMART. So indeed... he found me an orphan, and gave me refuge. Alhamdulillah, thank you Allah.


(7. And He found you unaware and guided you), this verse relates to the fact that Allah swt sent down guidance to Muhammad saw throughout his phrophethood, which guided him and the rest of the human being towards the straight path. Me, I was once living in "dark ages", I was reallyastrayed from the right path, I didnt even perform the basic compulsary ibadah. I was really unaware of how "kufr" I was... Now as I look to the past, little by litte, starting from when I entered hostel, the guidance came from Allah swt... slowly guiding me back into the straight path... The most amazing fact is, I never actually prayed to be guided, but still, His guidance came for this lowly servants of His... not everyone is as lucky as I am to still be guided even though I was really bad... indeed, he found me unaware, and guided me. Alhamdulillah.

(8. And he found you poor and made you rich). this is not really related to money. Muhammad saw said;

"Wealth is not determined by abundance of possessions, but wealth is the richness of the soul" narrated from Abu Hurairah. Sahih.

According to Ibn Khatir, `you were poor having dependents', so Allah made you wealthy and independent of all others besides Allah swt. As I said before, financially Allah swt has really helped me and even now blessing me with this scholarship. But, most important of all, is that with Allah swt guidance, I can feel that my soul is richer then what it used to be, compared to when I didn't care about Islam. Alhamdulillah.

And so the khatib concluded this sura with the final verse;

وَأَمَّا بِنِعْمَةِ رَبِّكَ فَحَدِّثْ
(And proclaim the grace of your Lord.)

With all the blessings and bouties Allah swt has given us, we should spread it, we should tell others about it, share it with people. We should not keep it to ourselves. That is the sign of being Shukur according to this verse. However, spread it without being proud or riya'. Muhammad saw said that a proud man is those who belittles others and denied the truth. That's why in accordance with being Shukur for all the blessings in my life, I've decided to share this (to those who have a lot of free time to read this...). Wallahu'alam.

UNSW Big Iftar.

I went home after Khutbah at 2.00pm, and supposed to be back at UNSW by 3.00pm to help prepare the big iftar. Did some stuff at at 2.50pm decided to lie down for a while. Then, I blacked out because of the tiredness and woke up at 3.30pm.... aaaaa.........??? That time, I was so lazy and sleepy that I decided to just skip being helpers.... but, Alhamdulillah, Allah swt helped me against my lazyness, and I went to UNSW.

I was so glad that I went, the preparation was very tiring, handling the Iftar was extremely exhausiting... but when you see muslims from all races together, combined with good food, and wonderful environments, it was worth it. The night was filled with the beauty of brotherhood in Islam... MasyaAllah... this is one of the blessings of Allah swt to muslims.

Pictures of the iftar:
http://picasaweb.google.com/isocunswau/AnnualIftar2009#

By the end of the iftar, after tarawikh... it finally struck to me...

This is the last night of Ramadhan...

The prophet saw and his companions cried when Ramadhan almost left them...It's the 29th night, and my heart really feels heavy that time. I really wasted a lot of this Ramadhan by not making the most of it. And now the month of blessings will leave me... I pray I will not be among those who gained nothing from Ramadhan...

This is my first Ramadhan in Australia, and certainly was a very wonderful one. Many things happen when I review my Ramadhan that I'm grateful off. My assignments that I did last minute and I thought I really blew it up, turns up great~ My trip to newcastle during the holidays was really meaningful especially during their Iftar at masjid~ and also during this Ramadhan, I get to meet many new brothers not just from Malaysia, which really.. makes me feel great~

Despite the me that didn't pull off 100% efforts in Ramadhan, the blessings still come. Alhamdulillah

And now Ramadhan will end...


Many people are preparing for eid... feeling happy and all...

Its not bad to feel happy for eid, we are actually told by the phrophet to be happy on it, to celebrate it!! of course within the guidelines of Islam. (beware of getting close to maksiat my brothers & sisters, the temptations is very high high on eid)



But, I woke up this morning... the last day of Ramadhan... feeling really2 weird... will I be able to once again feel the blessings during Ramadhan next year?







What I'm feeling now...


Let's leave the joy of eid for tommorow...

Let's make the most of Ramadhan today~



Berkata Wathilah, Aku bertemu Rasulullah s.a.w pada hari raya dan aku katakan pada baginda "taqabballahu minna wa minka", baginda menjawab : Ya, taqabbalallahu minna wa minka"

May Allah swt accpets the deeds (in Ramadhan) of you and me.