The hidden belief that can destroy your success

I noticed a trend amongst converts.  Before converting, many of them are climbing the corporate ladder.  After converting, it’s almost as if they think that if they continue to do that, they are not “as pious”.  In other words, get rid of wordly success so you can get afterlife success.

 

X     Be pious = afterlife success only

 

I don’t blame them.  Much of the reason why they adopt this concept is because many Muslims have this hidden limited belief and it carries over to the converts.

I was conducting a seminar this weekend where (on a side note) we discussed the same thing.  The sheikh in the room described that in Islam, the formula is actually this:

 

√    Be pious = afterlife + wordly success

 

The best believer is the one who is strong in their belief and puts it into action.  The best believer is not the one who sits at home and prays all day (although they would be rewarded for this) but the better one is the one who goes out and benefits society.

And that is what I have done.  Take a look how.

You’re so smart but sometimes you’re so dumb

Sometimes family members say to me, “You’re so smart but sometimes you’re so dumb!”  Well, part of that is because it doesn’t make sense for an educated person who looks like they have (or ‘had’) everything going for them just drop everything and embrace Islam - in their minds – to a religion that is ‘backwards’.  (Ok, the other part is because sometimes I just say dumb things :) ).

It all boils down to rethinking.

Mind sets, investigating and educating yourself.

Usually top experts are experts because they have a completely different mind set. 

• First, everyone thinks they are crazy.
• Then, some people attack them.
• Finally, people accept their ideas as the norm.

Just because ‘everyone’ does things one way, does that mean it’s the right way?

Smart people are smart because they step back and say, hmm, is this really the right way?  Let me educate myself and decide for myself.

What’s the difference between:

• a smart and dumb person?
• a poor and a rich person?
• a believer and a non-believer?

EDUCATION.

Then I got to thinking, if only people were educated on how sophisticated the Islamic system is, they wouldn’t think that I’m dumb in only this aspect of my life and smart in the rest.  If only they started to rethink like I did.  They would have it all. And that’s the whole point of Greeks Rethink.

Those who remember Allah (God) while standing, sitting and lying on their sides and think/ponder/reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth, then cry out, ‘Our Lord! You have not created this in vain.  Glory to You! Save us from the punishment of fire. (Quran 3: 191)

 

 

Vote for the best logo!

At first, all I was hearing was, “Where are all the Greek Muslims?” so I created Greeks Rethink to connect them.  Now, I’m hearing, “I’m a new Greek Muslim!  I wish I could have a Greek buddy to be there when I need support and have questions,” so with a new team on board, we are starting a support group.  This is the first of its kind.

But, we need your help.  We have ideas for a name and we even designed logos for them, so now we need you to vote for the best one!

 

 

p.s. I’d like to formally introduce the new team for this group.   They are awesome, ma sha Allah!  Please welcome:

• Adam Buckham-Christodoulou:  Manager
• Elena Pouliasi:  Team member
• Gerasimos Loukatos: Team member
• Nicole Bukham-Christodoulou:  Team member

Hajj days start this Tuesday

Most likely, Eid Al-Adha is going to fall on November 27, 2009.  That means the best 10 days of the year are from November 17-26.  If you are reading this now, most likely you are not going for Hajj this year but you still can get blessings by:

• Fasting
• Saying subhan Allah wal Alhamdulillah, wa La illah illah Allah wa Allahu akbar
• Doing extra voluntary deeds of prayer, charity, sacrifice an animal etc.
• Repentance
• Dhikr

In the coming days, I plan to write some more about Hajj, but for now, this is a nice video to get in the mood for 10 best days:

 

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Footnotes:

Hajj – pilgrimage to the first house of God built by Prophet Abraham and his son

Subhan Allah – glory be to God

Alhamdu liillah – all praise (and thanks) be to God

La illah illah Allah – there is no object worthy of worship except God

Allahu akbar – God is the greatest

Dhikr – remembrance of God

My fast track formula to understanding Quran like it’s your first language

Some Greeks have given me that uncomfortable look when I tell them I’m learning Arabic.  You know, the one that says ‘Ugh, you traitor, why don’t you just convert to Arabism* while you’re at it.’ 

Learning Arabic is in no way a threat to my Greek culture or any culture for that matter.  It’s actually quite the opposite – it’s enriching.  If we use that logic, is learning French, German or Spanish a threat? 

Just like some people enrol in classical Greek language courses to study the Bible, many Muslims love to learn the classical Arabic language to study the Quran.  The Arabic Quran vs. the translated English version is the difference between the sea and a glass of water.  The Arabic Quran and the translated Greek version is the difference between the sea and a glass of dirty water. 

So, after years of searching, studying, stopping, getting frustrated, studying again, I discovered the best formula for new Muslims to save them years!  I call it the ‘Fast track formula to understanding Quran like it’s your first language’.

1. Learn the Arabic alphabet and how to read simple words.
2. Take a modern Arabic 101 class (ditch modern Arabic after this).
3. Take a Quranic Arabic beginner’s course (10 min. a day for one month).
4. Enrol in a Quranic Arabic program like Al-Huda Institute or similar.

This formula is guaranteed to save you years of struggling and frustration.  You can finish steps #1-3 in about a year and you’ll know around 50% of the words in the Quran!  Step #4 involves more work for 2-3 years but afterwards you will understand 100% of the Quran!  How amazing is that?

 

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* We actually laugh at people who make up ridiculous words like Arabism. 

Photo credit: Samir Malik

Note: For serious Arabic students, you may want to read this as well:  Now is the time to learn Arabic.

 

Being nude and un-modern

 

As you might know, it’s legal in Canada to walk on the street topless. And if you’ve ever been to Greece, you’ll know that going topless on the beach is “normal”.  I was becoming more disgusted by the minute just listening to a guest speaker on a radio show telling us how she goes nude on her property and that we should not be ashamed of our bodies. 

When asked why she does it, she replied that she was hot.

Yeah, right!  Oh, I’m hot today, so let me just parade around town nude.

What bothers me the most is that one person makes a ridiculous stand like this and everyone just follows the herd.  Most people might think, I wouldn’t do it and I’m kinda uncomfortable around someone who would but, hey, we’re living in the 21^st century.

I invite you to look at this in a different light.

Me, me, me (a.k.a. the ‘Western model’)

 The guest speaker was looking at it from the “Me, me, me,” point of view.  I’m hot, I’m not ashamed, I’m modern.  And the “Now, now, now,” point of view.  I want to do it now, so I will.  She’s probably saying some cliché like, it’s not my fault guys stare at me, that’s their problem! They should control themselves. 

We, we, we (a.k.a. the ‘Islamic model’)

Let’s look at it from the “We, we, we” perspective.  What’s best for us all ? For society in one year, five years, 10 and in 50 years?  Look at the trends of divorce rates, violence, killings, dysfunctional families, molestation, suicides, accidents due to drunk driving and promiscuity in the last 50 years.  Going up or down?  Of course, up.  Why is that? 

The family unit

As Muslims, we believe in foremost protecting the society before ourselves.  And the core unit to any society is the family.  If the family is protected, all of those societal ills mentioned above will be decline sharply.  That’s why at first, people look at Muslims and say, why do you dress modestly?  Why do you do this or that?  The answer most of the time (after saying it’s because it’s a command of God) is because it protects our country from societal ills. 

One person can ruin society

What happens when it’s the norm to see people nude out on the street?  Do you think that after 1, 5, 10 or 50 years, promiscuity and adultery will go up or down? Then divorce rates up or down?  Then dysfunctional children going up or down?  Then violence up or down?

One person on a radio show saying that she goes nude in public because she’s hot might seem like an innocent thing. Hey, freedom, right?  Modernization, right?

Or is it a domino effect that leads to increasing societal ills?

This whole burqa thing is getting out of control

 

Canada has now caught on to this virus of wiping away the ’freedom of religion’ card in the name of “we want to liberate you”.  We don’t know you, we don’t want to know you, in fact, we wish you were wiped off of the face of the earth, but we want to ‘liberate’ you. 

“The Muslim Canadian Congress called on the federal government to prohibit the two garments in order to prevent women from covering their faces in public – a practice the group said has no place in a society that supports gender equality.”  (Excerpt, The Canadian Press, Toronto)

Who the heck is The Muslim Canadian Congress?  The Canadian Muslim community certainly hasn’t heard of them.  And when I checked out their website, it was no surprise to me that they were “progressive Muslims” a.k.a. Muslims who have no scholarly knowledge about Islam who want to erradicate the rulings of Allah in order to “liberalize” Muslims. 

What makes me upset about this whole ‘burqa’ issue is that’s it’s just all media propoganda.  I wish we would all just cut through the junk and say what’s really going on.  If a government is going to make a law that prohibits something, don’t they need substatial evidence? Hmm, let’s see.

• How many authentic Islamic scholars did they interview to find out if the niqab is actually a religious tenant or cultural practice?
• How many authentic niqabis did they interview to find out if they were forced to wear the niqab or do it because they believe it’s a religious practice?
• How many cases of ‘oppression due to forced niqab’ do they have recorded in the courts?

Hmm, let’s see….. none, none and …… (surprise) none.

And that’s not all.  The media is doing an excellent job of taking false statements and spreading them.   Do you really want to know what the majority of the global Muslim community thinks about this issue?  Here it goes:

First of all, who the heck wears a burqa?!  No one, except for some women in Afghanistan.  That garment is part of their culture, not ours.  Religiously, the term is niqab, meaning face veil.  It is part of the religion of Islam.  Yes, I will say it again.  It is part of the religion of Islam.  It is not a cultural practice.  How do I know this?  The wives of Prophet Muhammad all wore it.  All authentic Islamic scholars will give you substantial evidence that it is a religious practice.  Is it compulsory for every women to wear it?  The majority of the scholars will say (based on proof that is outside of the scope of this article) that it is permissible to wear it but not compulsory.

What will average Muslims tell you about the niqab?  They will say that the hijab is compulsory but the niqab is not and they do not prefer the niqab for themselves.  However, they wholeheartedly understand the proofs that it is permissible in Islam to wear and those who choose to wear it have the “freedom of religion” to do so. 

It is very, very rare to find niqabis who are forced to wear it.  All the niqabis I’ve met wear it because they want to and because they believe it’s a religious practice and they do it out of their own free will.  All of them feel liberated by doing it.   These people are your average citizens who are peaceful and caring neighbours, who care about the betterment of their children, their society and their country.   They just happen to wear an extra piece of  1′x1′ of fabric around their face.

So, again, Canadian government, French government, why in the world are you oppressing our sisters?

Note:  Update

CAIR-CAN publishes an official press release on the issue of the Canadian ban of the niqab:

Statement by Canadian Islamic Scholars and Mainstream Muslim Organizations Reaffirms Freedom of Religious Expression
http://www.caircan.ca/itn_more.php?id=3056_0_2_0_C

Understand the Quran in 4 minutes

The Quran is not like any other book ever published. For one, it’s the most memorized book on the planet! And two, it’s the only book on the planet without mistakes or editions. Those who are trained in the Arabic language and the tafsir (exegesis) can witness the miraculous nature of the Quran.

But, if you are a novice like me, you might think its formatting or how it switches topics in an apparently random way is a little bizarre. Well, for us novice readers, here’s a breakdown of it in five easy steps:

1. The Quran as a whole

The Quran is a book of answers to life. It comprises of 114 chapters. It speaks about your relationship with God, with yourself and with mankind. It is broken up into two parts:

• information (ex. stories of the past, science, people etc.)
• rulings

2. Index

The second and longest chapter, AlBaqarah, acts as an index for the Quran because it speaks about every main topic in the Quran but in a brief manner. If you study this chapter in depth, you will get a great foundational understanding of the Quran.

3. Table of Contents

The first chapter, AlFatihah, is like the table of contents of the Quran. It only has seven verses and each verse mentions a main theme across the Quran:

• Acknowledging God
• Attributes of God
• Worshiping God
• Guidance
• People who obeyed
• People who disobeyed despite having knowledge
• People who disobeyed but didn’t have knowledge

4. Key phrase

The chapter, AlFatihah, has a verse that is the key phrase you would google to get the jist of the Quran.

ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ  

Guide us to the straight path.

The most prominent theme across the Quran is based on this verse because at the end of the day, it’s God who decides if you will enter paradise or hell, not you.

5. Keyword

When you get right down to it, you can summarise the entire Quran in one word: guidance. If you google this into the Quran, you will pinpoint your exact target.

It’s unfortunate though because people are always looking for the magic answers to life, wealth and happiness, and some even pay big bucks to find it. If they only knew it’s all in the Quran.

 

 

Taqwa-Piety

The Conditions of Tawheed

Source: I Love Allah (fb)

Tawheed is the mother of all obligations. Without it, you cannot be a Muslim and all of your good deeds are ineffective. It is vital for one to understand the pillars and conditions of Tawheed in order to ensure that he/she is a real Muslim. Failure to fulfil any condition or pillar of Tawheed will nullify a person’s Eemaan and Islam, and hence will either be a Mushrik or Murtad (apostate). The conditions of Tawheed are as follows:

1. Al-’Ilm – Knowledge

Allah (swt) says in the Qur’aan: “So know that Laa ilaaha ill-Allah (none has the right to be worshipped but Allah)…” (EMQ Muhammad, 47: 19)

If you testify that there is no ilaah worthy of worship and obedience, you must also know and understand all of Allah’s (swt) attributes and functions or you will become Mushrik.

We are obliged to study, learn and know about Allah (swt); what He likes and dislikes, loves and hates, His names and attributes etc.

You can only testify that which you have knowledge about. Therefore, if someone claims to be a witness, and he is asked about what he has seen, and replies: “I’m not sure”, this person is completely daft as he testifies to something which he has no knowledge of. Similar to this person is the one who testifies the Kalimah, yet he does not understand what it means.

Allah (swt) says: “This (Qur’aan) is a Message for mankind (and a clear proof against them), in order that they may be warned thereby, and that they may know that He is the only One Ilaah (God – Allah) – (none has the right to be worshipped but Allah), and that men of understanding may take heed.” (EMQ Ibraaheem, 14: 52)

2.        Al-Yaqeen – Certainty

Knowledge is not enough, as many kuffaar know about Islam but they do not believe in it nor do they have certainty about it. Allah says: “Only those are the believers who have believed in Allah and His Messenger, and afterwarddoubt not but strive with their wealth and their lives for the cause of Allah…” (EMQ Hujaraat, 49: 15), and the Messenger Muhammad (saw) said: “Whoever testifies that there is no god worthy of worship and obedience but Allah and that I am the Messenger of Allah, without any doubt he will enter Jannah.” (Saheeh Muslim)

3.        3. Al-Qubool – Acceptance

After having knowledge and certainty, you MUST accept. Some people may believe, have knowledge, and have certainty, but may not accept, as it may be too difficult for him or he may not accept out of his own personal desires. Allah (swt) says: “Truly, when it was said to them: ‘Laa ilaaha ill-Allah (none has the right to be worshipped but Allah)’ they puffed themselves up with pride (i.e. denied it).” (EMQ as-Saaffaat, 37: 35)

4.        4. Al-Inqiyaad – Submission

Allah (swt) says: “But nay, by your Lord, they can have no Eemaan, until they make you (Muhammad [saw]) judge in all disputes between them, and find in themselves no resistance against your decisions, and accept (them) with full submission.” (EMQ an-Nisaa’, 4: 65)

Allah (swt) describes those who do not submit to Him as disbelievers, and swears to this by Himself. Having knowledge, certainty and acceptance is not enough; you must also have submission with no haraj (discontent). You must submit to Allah, and all His names and attributes. Allah (swt) also says: “There is no compulsion in the religion. Verily, the right path has become distinct from the wrong path. Whoever disbelieves in Taaghout and believes in Allah, then he has grasped the most trustworthy handhold that will never break (i.e. he will have submission). And Allah is All-Hearer, All-Knower.” (EMQ al-Baqarah, 2: 256)

5.        As-Sidq – Believing

Allah says: “When the hypocrites come to you (saw), they say: ‘We bear witness that you are indeed the Messenger of Allah.’ Allah knows that you are indeed His Messenger and Allah bears witness that the hypocrites are liars indeed.” (EMQ al-Munaafiqoon, 63: 1)

Allah testifies that the Munaafiqoon are liars as they claim to be Muslims but they do not believe. Thus, believing is a condition of Tawheed

6.        6. Al-Ikhlaas – sincerity

Allah says: “And they were commanded not, but that they should sincerely (with Ikhlaas) worship Allah, and worship none but Him Alone (abstaining from ascribing partners to Him), and perform As-Salaat and give Zakaat: and that is the right religion.” (EMQ al-Bayyinah, 98: 5)The Messenger Muhammad (saw) said: “The one who says ‘there is none worthy of worship but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah’ seeking sincerelyto see the face of Allah, Allah will forbid him from Hell-fire.” (Al-Bukhaari and Muslim

7. Al-Mahabbah – love

After having knowledge, certainty, acceptance, submission, belief and sincerity; you must also love those whom Allah (swt) tells you to love, and hate those whom He tells you to hate.

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