In urdu there’s a famous saying, “mujhko ‘aina dhika diya” the rough translation being “they showed me the mirror.” This phrase means in essence that the mirror was turned to you, so you could see your own fallacies instead of jus everybody elses.

When you look around you, you see the fallacies and problems within the Muslim Ummah. We all see them and are always talking about just what these problems are and how to solve them. For now, I’m trying to quell my frustrations with other Muslims. Partly because when I look at my own self, (By Allah’s Grace) my reason uncovers traces of these same problems that exists within me, that are either expressed when triggered by a certain spark or have the potential to manifest themselves into something permanent in my behavior and thinking. I don’t look for the faults in others, but I do notice them because I’m familiar with them… in myself. Really it’s hard sometimes to change others, because you know you’re still a work in progress, and your past sometimes still haunts you. But there really is no ultimate level we can reach, perfection is impossible…and we aren’t asked to be perfect, just to try to get as high as we can and when we fall, to get up and climb even harder. And we will fall, it’s almost guaranteed, but that’s why theirs that rope of Allah to hold on to.

“O you who believe, beware of Allah as is befitting Him and die not except in a state of submission. And hold tight to the rope of Allah all of you and do not divide yourselves. And remember the generosity of Allah upon you when you were enemies and He joined between your hearts and so you became – by His grace – brothers. And you were on the brink of a pit of fire and He saved you from it. Thus, Allah explains His signs to you that perhaps you become guided.” (Qur’an 3:102-103)

And yes we do have a duty to tell as many people to hold on to that rope as possible and to help them hold it, even if we ourselves have a light grip. Because we are believers and we are all auliyah (protectors, friends) of each other. InshaAllah someone will be there to help you strengthen your grip as well. And really we are so blessed, but at the same time don’t realize how close we are to the edge of true belief. Often times we walk very close to the edge of true belief, the other side being a big fall (disbelief) and we think that we are safe. We don’t know how many times we cross over the line and by His mercy are able to cross back over, for the most part unscathed. So many things we take for granted and place little value on. Many of us take a thing like waking up for fajr very lightly, I know I used to. I would think if you don’t wake up, “whatever it is okay, sleep is an excuse.” But salaah is a duty; however the ability to perform that duty is also a right that can be taken away. We don’t understand this too well because that’s not always true of things in the material sense. In this dunya we have rights that can be taken away, but those rights are not always obligatory to do. It is obligatory for our body to breathe oxygen, and someone (Allah) gave us the right to breathe the oxygen. If it is taken away, then we simply die. Allah can take that away from us, the ability to make salaah. To know that you are being denied that opportunity for the blessing is scary, and that there is a severe punishment for it. And it’s due to something of our own doing, because Allah is Just and Merciful. He is not going to strip you of your rights if you committed no crime that you haven’t repented for. Allah is sufficient in our affairs. The more we struggle in the right direction the more some things will become easier for us. At the same time, there will be things that will become difficult and we WILL fail sometimes. But don’t despair because this is too a blessing from Allah if we have patience and steadfastness.

Allah knows best. May Allah give us all the hikma to know what’s right and wrong, to patience and steadfastness to bear our trials and stick to the straight path, to have Taqwa of Allah and to increase us in our Imaan, and let us die not except in the state of Islam. May Allah strengthen our hearts to love Him and His Messenger Muhammad, peace be upon him. Ameen.