As I scrolled down on the Wikipedia article, I read about all of his accomplishments, his fortune, his fame, his prestige, the love that people all over the world had for him…but I couldn’t stop thinking that, despite all of this so-called pleasure, all of his riches and his fame, his closest family and friend said that he could never find happiness. And so, I had found my khutbah topic. Michael Jackson’s death sent shockwaves across the internet, and as Muslims, we have a couple of options: we can sit and talk about him, trying to debunk whether he really was a Muslim, talking about him being in Dubai or Bahrain or Saudi Arabia, or we can hope and pray that he was and try to derive some lessons to actually yield a fruitful conversation. Thought about logically, the second choice seems way better.

We hear it all the time, it’s almost become a cliché in masjid circles and gatherings that “this world can never give you true happiness.” But really, if we sit and reflect on the life and death of our brother Michael, we see the reality of this statement, and how it came to fruition painfully in the life of this troubled man. Money was never an issue (until his last days, when he accrued a horrendous amount of debt), he could have had anything he wanted – he even bought himself a monkey named Bubbles. Yet he would still complain about how he never felt happy, how he was always in pain. Physical pain, maybe, but it was clear that he was in a sort of spiritual pain as well. In his life and his death, there is a huge lesson for us and our focus on this earth. Allah says in Surat Adh-Dhariyaat, “And I have not created jinn or mankid except to worship Me.” We must take the example of our brother Michael as a bitter, sour reminder, and re-focus our goals in life towards pleasing Allah. Everything in this life is temporary – our houses, our cars, our jobs, even our Neverland Ranches – but Allah is Everlasting, and so is the hereafter, so it only makes sense to focus our efforts in life towards that.

What are some ways that we can remind ourselves to do this?

First and foremost is to connect with our Creator, Allah, by reading His Noble Book – The Qur’an. Reading the Qur’an, the last couple of sections especially, will serve as really strong reminders for the hereafter. And here’s a tip I’ve found helpful: don’t read it like you’d read any other book. Read it like a manual to your life. Just like how we take our automobile manual to find out what’s wrong with our ride, we should take our Soul Manual to find out what’s wrong with our hearts.

Secondly is to spend time with the family. We should encourage each other to pray together, and if we can, have a halaqa at least once a week where we sit together and read Islamically oriented material as a group, and talk about how it applies to our lives. This will most definitely increase the blessings in the house, and will encourage everyone to focus on the hereafter as a team.

And lastly, but not least important, is to do work with the needy. Volunteer to do work with different groups, Muslim or non-Muslim, to help those less fortunate. Remind yourselves, as you’re helping them, that it’s by the grace of Allah that we are in the position that we’re in, so we should thank him and remind ourselves how temporary our station of comfort could be. One great group that does great things is MSA National with their Project Downtown efforts. Check it out in a city near you.

Any goodness from this article is from Allah, and any mistakes of from myself and Shaytan.

When I had started taking Islam more seriously couple of years back, someone taught me an important lesson:

“If all the tears collected of this Ummah were put together, we could offer clean water for millions. Don’t cry and die – cry and work, cry and pray, cry and succeed, for indeed the Gardens of Truth are for the predators and ones who use their tears as fuel to change. Heaven was not made for those who merely believe, but for those who work. So work and Allah (swt) knows best).”

Words of wisdom, I say.

Download audio file (reppin_Islam.mp3)

Hopefully everyone benefits, and any discussion, additions, comments, or criticism is readily accepted and appreciated, jazakum Allahu khayran.

13:24 long, given at Germantown Community Center in Germantown, Memphis, TN.

I figured the best way to motivate the kids to use their summer vacation in a productive, wholesome way would be to talk about jannah. But how? Should I just describe it to them, citing Qur’an and hadith as my sources? Should I use an analogy to compare jannah to something they already knew? I decided to do both.

During the school year, long weekends, breaks and vacations are like cold water to a thirsty person – they’re so amazing! Summer vacation is the big kahuna, the top of the top of all school vacations. It’s most students’ goal during the year, so getting to it is a big deal. I used that Friday, their last hour during their last day of school, to make an analogy that I hope hit home with them.

“Remember all of the days during this school year? Waking up at 7am to go to school, sitting through classes, having homework to do when you got home, and having to go bed early the next day to do it all over again. Remember studying for tests and taking them, only to find out that you have a test in a different subject the next week? Remember how hard you all worked this entire year?”

I began by establishing an image, something that’s important to me when I give khutbah. I try not to speak in a vacuum – that is, without a context. I always try to start it off and bring it home with something they can relate to.”

“Think about how long you’ve waited, the entire year, for this day: May 15th, the last day of school. In less than an hour, you will walk out of those doors and be free boys and girls for the entire summer. Almost all of the school rules that you had to follow and things you had to do to get ready for school will not matter anymore. Your time will belong to you, and you can do whatever you want.”

Next, I tried to butter them up in terms of getting them excited about leaving school. I tried to evoke a distinct feeling of euphoric happiness, the kind that makes you smile to the point where you can’t not smile, even if you consciously attempt to hold it in. Many of the kids’ eyes lit up, smiles were spread wide across their cheeks.

“But, something I know you all hate is that summer vacation eventually does end, and you eventually have to go back to school. It stinks, but it’s how life is. Wouldn’t it be amazing if there were a place where vacation would never end? Where you never had to do chores, go to school and take tests, do homework, clean the dishes, even go to the bathroom?!”

Spark their curiosity – check. My next step was to describe things to them that seemed unreal. Never having to do chores, or even go to the toilet? What kind of place would that be?

“In jannah, you’ll never have to do any of those things! In jannah, we can eat whatever we want, we stay up however late we want, we can hang out whenever we want, we can do whatever we want! In jannah, we’ll all be looking GQ and supermodelish, and we’ll all be happy as can be, insha Allah! But the most important gift of all is that we get to meet Allah [swt]. We get to meet the Lord who created us, the One who we do all of the things we do for! We pray to Him, we’re nice to people for Him, we stay away from bad things for Him…we finally get to meet Him insha Allah!”

Completing the analogy is an important step. Connecting their happiness in summer vacation with jannah would, hopefully, make them want jannah more than they wanted their vacation all year long. To tie it all together with a sentimental bow, the inspirational emotional call towards goodness:

“Now, you might be thinking to yourself: why is this big white dude talking to us about summer vacation and jannah?? Well, the reason I came here from Chicago to talk to you about this is because I want to remind you guys, and remind myself, how awesome it’ll be if we’ll all be there together. Just like you guys all worked hard this school year with homework and tests, we need to work hard to be good Muslims so that we can get the ultimate vacation, a vacation in jannah. Insha Allah, I’m excited for all of us to be there, but in order to get there, we need to work hard. So, this summer, remind yourself that you need do lots of good deeds. They don’t have to be huge, even! Just keep doing them. Maybe read one hadith a day with your parents, or start praying with your mom or dad all of the five prayers during the day. Pick some good deeds, and try to do them as much as possible, and insha Allah we’ll all be on our way to jannah!”

Closing off with action items, especially with youth, is important. Too often before I’ve spoken in the abstract without giving tangible advices. Now, I try to accompany at least one major action item at the end of every talk or khutbah for people to do. I try to make it attainable and realistic, but still challenging.

Insha Allah my khutbah will have had an effect on the kids. I ask you to make du’aa that they’re motivated to become better, and that I am motivated to attain the same goal of jannah that I enticed them with. Hopefully anyone reading this post found some motivation and khayr as well! If you have any comments, suggestions, or stories yourself, please do share below in the comments section.

Alhamdulilah, Mehreen and I have been accepted to the IlmSummit program, run by AlMaghrib Institute, this summer. We’ll be, insha Allah, staying in a hotel for 14+ days with other students and the scholars, having daily seminars and classes on a variety of topics insha Allah.

The goal of this program is to be semi-exclusive so that the community of the accepted students will support them financially, in an effort to have them come back and spread the knowledge they’ve gained, whether it be in a youth halaqah, giving khutbah, etc.

As an online community, Mehreen and I try to write beneficial articles that support Islam here in the US, as well as anywhere in the world. We’d love for you to gain some major good deeds by supporting us financially in our venture to go and gain some knowledge, so that we may spread it through our blog, among other avenues, to people who will benefit from our studies insha Allah.

We’re having other sponsors insha Allah, so the total price for us has been drastically lowered alhamdulilah.

You’ll see, to the right of your screen, the widget for ChipIn, a secure, online donation application that is linked directly to a paypal account owned by us. We will be able to take those funds and apply them to our expenses in going to IlmSummit insha Allah.

Jazakum Allahu khayran for anything you can give, even $1 is valuable in the sight of Allah when supporting stuff like this! We really appreciate any help you can give, and especially appreciate your du’aa. Thanks, guys and gals!

Most people have seen the Halal Mix Tape Vol. 1 video that was a hit at ISNA a few years back, and is still growing in popularity all over Islamic websites. If you haven’t seen it yet, here it is:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you pay attention to their testimonial section, you see that they seem to be using using a Mac Pro for their video production. This, as a lifelong Apple computer fan and part-time Apple Store employee, obviously made me a bigger fan of their productions.

There are two things that I like about these guys. The first is that they’re using their technical and creative knowledge for their enjoyment, as well as for the benefit of the ummah. The second is that they don’t have to cross any boundaries of general Islamic akhlaaq to make things funny. Beside their humor, they show real creative intelligence, masha Allah, a rare commodity in Muslim entertainment.  Big ups, to our brothers, masha Allah.

Recently, as I was surfing the net I saw a link to one of their newer videos, Sunnah Back – now featured in HD!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

However, when you got your sandwich and took off the wrapper, you saw something quite different: a sloppy, squashed up burger that looked nothing like what you had seen on the commercial. What happened to the perfectly square shaped cheese and the beautiful round slice of tomato?!

Take a look at these fast food items advertised on TV versus their “real” counterparts. Enjoy!

1. McDonald’s Sausage Breakfast Burrito

vs.

2. Wendy’s Southwest Taco Salad

3. KFC Famous Bowl

vs.

4.  McDonald’s Big Mac

vs.

5. Burger King Whopper

vs.

6. McDonald’s Filet O Fish Sandwich

vs.

Yum!

In Surah Baqarah, the hypocrites are often described as liars. And in quite scary hadith, the Prophet [saw] was asked, “Can a believer be a coward?” The Prophet responded, “Yes.” He was then asked, “Can a believer be a miser?” He replied, “Yes.” Then finally, he was asked, “Can a believer be a liar?” The Prophet answered, “No.”

So, it’s clear that lying is a very serious offense in Islam. But even while we know it’s haraam, we all sometimes tend to tell a few white (and not so white) lies here and there. So what are ways we can eliminate lying from our lives completely? I would like to hear your suggestions, advice, stories, and thoughts.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“It was amazing, he turned around, sat on his bum and sort of looked at me with (a look) like, put me out of my misery,” Tree told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “I yelled out for a bottle of water. I unscrewed the bottle, tipped it up on his lips and he just took it naturally.

“He kept reaching for the bottle, almost like a baby.”

The team called animal welfare officers to pick up the koala Sunday, the day after deadly firestorms swept southern Victoria state.

“I love nature, and I’ve handled koalas before. They’re not the friendliest things, but I wanted to help him,” Tree said.

Crikey, it’s hot! Drink up, little budday!

If you search David Tree’s name on Google, you’ll find numerous news articles showing the subsequent awards he’s won as a recognition of his compassion towards Sam (the koala he saved). On the other hand, if you search “Michael Vick” on Google, chances are you’ll see a plethora of articles denouncing the dog-fighting he used to run on his property. After reading this story one morning, I couldn’t help but contemplate how Allah created us with a natural inclination towards doing goodness, almost as if mankind naturally has an inherent sense of conscious that serves as a self-evident proof of God’s existence, lordship, and right to be worshiped. Subhan Allah. It’s so interestingly beautiful how Allah created each human being with a natural feeling of sympathy and compassion towards creatures that are helpless, to a certain extent.

Then, in a moment of minor epiphany, I thought to myself, “if we feel so compassionate and sympathetic and are willing to help creatures we feel are helpless, what’s the magnitude of Allah’s compassion, sympathy, and willingness to help us as humanity?” Subhan Allah, we feel we’re a compassionate race, but we pale in comparison to Allah. Keep this in mind whenever you see someone do a pleasant deed, like help an elderly citizen carry something heavy, or hold the door open for someone – this mercy and compassion we have is a minuscule fraction of the love and mercy that Allah has for us.

Oh, by the way, Sam is in an animal rehabilitation center in Australia, safe from any more suffering insha Allah. She suffered some 3rd degree burns (ouch!) on her paws, injuries that should take a few months to heal completely.