Content Soul

February, 2020

• 20 February

  Be Active Not Passive

  Imam al-Bukhārī’s  رحمه الله memory was amazing and he was renowned for it. Someone once asked him if there was any medicine available to obtain the kind of memory that he had for memorisation. People thought that perhaps Imam al-Bukhārī has the recipe for a secret potion that he drinks that helps him to memorise so much. Imam al-Bukhārī replied …
• 13 February

  Blinding Anger

  When a person is angry, there can be many underlying reasons. It could be due to deep-seated insecurities or it could also be due to arrogance. In fact, arrogance can arise from insecurity also. When a person is deeply insecure and consider themselves lowly, they cannot reveal that to the world although sometimes people see flashes of that insecurity. How …
• 6 February

  Projection of Guilt

  Projection of guilt is a famous term in psychology and is also a trait of hypocrisy. This is where a person is guilty of something and they try and deflect that guilt on to another person. They have no shame in doing so. They are the ones that are lying but they tell the innocent person that ‘You are lying’. …

January, 2020

• 30 January

  Verbal Judo

  Often when someone tells us that we are in the wrong, we react in anger and reject the advice and insist that we are right. We offer contorted arguments and reasons to prove ourselves to be true and innocent. For an onlooker, it can be truly embarrassing to hear our attempts to justify our behaviour, but we feel no shame. …
• 23 January

  Hope and Scope

  When we reflect on our character, conduct and behaviour we should realise that we may not be angels, but we are not absolutely worthless either. We are somewhere in-between. That gives us hope and scope for improvement and betterment. It makes us realise that we are far from perfect and there is a lot that we can improve on. When …
• 16 January

  Is Your Body Changing?

  The external teachings of religion should be matched by a reflective, inner spirituality because ultimately that is what all of the teachings of religion lead to. We are not who we are because of our bodies but because of our rūḥ. Allāh created the rūḥ first. It is the rūḥ that was breathed into the womb of the mother, it …
• 2 January

  Arguing over Inches of land

  Arguments and disputes over wealth are common. Siblings who grew up with each other argue over inches of land and fight over their dead parent’s inheritance. All love goes out of the window. That is how it can be even within families.  We go to tribunals and stand before judges. We stand in court to make claims against each other …

December, 2019

• 26 December

  Deep Roots

  In a hadīth, the Prophet ﷺ has described the munāfiq and the muʾmin with examples of trees. The muʾmin is similar to a tree with deep roots. It is tall-standing and firm. Even when it is buffeted by the strong winds of a hurricane, the most that happens to it is that it sways and bends with the wind. It does not snap or fall. When …
• 19 December

  The Colour of Allah

  One of the traits of hypocrisy is that a person tries to please the whole of creation but not Allāh. It is impossible to please everybody and tell everybody what they want to hear. This is because to do so will mean that there is lying and deception involved. Every time someone tells another person what they want to hear, …
• 12 December

  Nice Guys Finish Last

  Deception is a trait of hypocrisy.  For every single trait of hypocrisy, you will note that the opposite will be true for īmān and the believers. What is the opposite of deception? Innocence. A believer is innocent and trusting.  Rasūl Allāh ﷺ was innocent, believing and trusting. That is the character of a believer. The opposite is true of a munāfiq. A munāfiq does not …
• 5 December

  Reconciliation through Positivity

  Reconciliation does not happen if you keep on digging up old dirt. If you wish to resolve a dispute, you should not repeatedly go over what has happened before. You have to bury the past. In order to reconcile, forgive and forget, and to tolerate others you have to focus on the positives and overlook the negatives. This is what …

November, 2019

• 28 November

  Richest Man in the Cemetery

  Abū al-Dardāʾ رضى الله عنه used to say “We eat and drink and the rich eat and drink. We dress and the rich dress. The rich have excess wealth and they look at their excess wealth and we look at their excess wealth. But they will be questioned about it, and we will not.” These are real words of wisdom …
• 21 November

  Sunnah beyond Worship

  We should be endeavouring to follow in the footsteps of the Prophet ﷺ and follow him in every aspect of our lives. We should remember that his sunnah is not just in his worship. Sunnah is in our dealings with each other, in the softness of his words, his akhlāq, in the way he behaved with others, in the way he …
• 16 November

  Emulation

  The life of the Prophet ﷺ should be emulated not just celebrated.

October, 2019

• 24 October

  The Final Message

  What was the last verse of the Qur’an to be revealed? Many people believe it to be: On this day I have completed my blessing and favour to you and I am content with Islam  as a deen and religion for you [ Surah al-Māʾidah 5:3] However this was not the case.The last verse to be revealed is in Surah …

August, 2019

• 15 August

  Utter Devotion

  Allāh told the Prophet ﷺ at the beginning of Prophethood ‘Read by the name of your Lord.’ [Sūrat ul-ʿAlaq]. We look at this verse and think look how much the Qurʾān has emphasised learning and education. It is true. But, has the the Qurʾān focussed on, and emphasised, learning and education purely for the the sake of reading, or learning …
• 8 August

  Success and Wealth

  We think money will buy us everything – power, love, influence, recognition, peace, joy, happiness and so on. Money cannot necessarily buy these things. We think success is in wealth. We often say that he or she is ‘successful’ meaning that they are wealthy. If someone does well in business, they are considered successful. Hence, we equate wealth with success …
• 1 August

  Rise and Fall

  We want perfection in everything around us. We would all want the weather to be perfect, for example, but we have to learn that we have no control over it. When the weather is not the best, how do we react? If we accept, we may see beauty in what we accept. If not, there will be bad weather outside …

June, 2019

• 3 June

  Ramadan 2019 – Day 29: Decompression

  A sudden transition from the intense spirituality of Ramadan to a less devotional atmosphere can result in ‘spiritual bends’ (decompression)
• 2 June

  Ramadan 2019 – Day 28: Avoid Distraction

  Let not the fatigue of our month’s endeavours or the excitement of the pending Eid distract us from the last few blessed moments of Ramadan.