It saddens me each time I look at my bookshelf. It's not inhabited with books - storybooks. I left them all back home, weight issues. If not, I sure would've brought them along. They're my best companion. I love to at times just flip back and catch up on the lines I favor. I can't do that now. But! You just wait Iowa bookshelf, I'm gonna overload you alright!
The poem book is a good buy - a good start I hope.
Anyway, we had iftar (buka puasa) at the other girls' apartment last night. While waiting for iftar, we were chitchatting in Khadijah and Aqilah's room. Then I saw Fatonah bringing out a book and I immediately jumped out and said nak! Boy it's hell of a book. Mother would love it, no kidding. The kind of book that'll make you travel in this life and thereafter - mother's kind of book.
By the by, as I ran my index finger through the contents, I saw True Love. Perfect.
To Farrah Ashiela, Nur Shuhadah and Norliyana Alia especially, with love.
Title: Don't be Sad
Author: 'Aaidh ibn Abdullah al-Qarni
Translated by: Faisal ibn Muhammad Shafeeq
True Love
To find happiness, you must be from those who love Allah. The most prosperous person is the one whose mission in life is to achieve the love of Allah, a love that Allah refers to in this verse:
Allah will bring a people whom He will love and they will love Him...
- Qur'an 5: 54
Say [O' Muhammad to mankind]: 'If you [really] love Allah then follow me [i.e. accept Islamic Monotheism, follow the Qur'an and the Sunnah], Allah will love you and forgive you of your sins.
- Qur'an 3: 31
The Prophet (pbuh) announced for all to know a superior merit of 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) - a merit that was like a crown upon his head: the Prophet (Blessings and Peace be upon him described him as a man,
"Who loved Allah and His Messenger, and whom Allah and His Messenger loved."
One of the Prophet's Companions loved the following chapter of the Qur'an:
Say [O' Muhammad]: 'He is Allah, [the] One.'
- Qur'an 112: 1
He would repeat it in each unit of the prayer, and he would constantly read it at other times as well to give solace to his heart and spirit. The Prophet (pbuh) said to him:
"Your love for it is what has made you to enter Paradise."
I found the following lines in a biography of a Muslim scholar:
"If love of the roaming one for Sulma
And Laila, takes away one's mind and one's faculty of reasoning,
Then what do you suppose will be the case for he
Whose heart throbs for the higher world."
And [both] the Jews and the Christians say: 'We are the children of Allah and His loved ones.' Say: 'Why then does He punish you for your sins?'
- Qur'an 5: 18
The story of Majnoon's love for Laila is well known. His extreme love for her killed him; whereas for Qaroon (Korah) it was the love of wealth; and for Fir'aun (Pharoah) it was the love of position and power. On the other hand, there is Hamza, Ja'afar, and Hanzala (may Allah be pleased with them), who all died for their love of Allah and His Messenger. Vast is the distance that separates these three noble Companions in their love - and those believers who are like them - from the rest.
