Alhumdulillah by the grace of the Almighty its a new year ... Muharram Mubarak.
ALL WE NEED IS LOVE ...
One of the amazing parts of travelling ... is in fact your return.
Seeing your loved one's stand at the airport waiting for you... smiling ... subughanallah... its priceless.
I found it overwhelming... heart warming and one of life's understated pleasures ... Alhumdulillah for family. They LOVE you in spite of your faults and cherish you in spite of your weaknesses... it truly is a blessing.
Amongst the many benefits the journey of HAJJ teaches you ... is the realization that the gel that keeps people together is the LOVE they share.
Before marriage i was only one type of Love i was exposed to... the love of parents and siblings.
The Love of parents and the Love by parents are subtly different ...
A parents love for the child knows no bounds ... its a surreal feeling ... something which you only truly appreciate when you yourself are blessed with a child... but one which is not dependent on that blessing [ of having a child] because its a natural inclination to the parent... especially the mother ... that provides such joy that no words can truly describe. That feeling you get when your son wraps his hand around your finger ... or when he smiles with such purity ... the heart has no option but to skip a beat.
Love for your siblings is another natural feeling ... similar to the love of parents ... you don't really know why you love your brother but you do... its in the blood i suppose... and when you introduce your sister to a friend or colleague ... " that's my sister" ... is usually followed by a smile as broad as Table Mountain ...
And then theirs the Love for your wife ... or wives :-) ... the love spouses share is quite unique ... i cannot say i loved my spouse prior to marriage ... because i didnt really know her. We chose to limit contact until after the nikaah .. only discussing necessary things which would provide some comfort in our decision to get married. Thus I only got to know my wife after NIKAAH/ Marriage. I remember at the time of my nikaah ... as soon as i had uttered those precious words ... a feeling of tranquility gripped me ...a special feeling ... and at the time i had no idea what it was ... but it sure felt good. As they say ... knowledge is power and with knowledge comes perspective... i Always thank the Almighty for steering me away from the girlfriend boyfriend practice which has found favour in our community ... and looking back i find it rather peculiar that this practice is so popular and even more strange that our communities allow it to continue as if ISLAM allows it...
... Admittedly i did think of it ... and on one occasion i was nearly bitten by it ... never following through on it ... Some would say i chickened out ... i choose to think of it as devine intervention .,.
It is very easy to succumb to it ... especially when one is surrounded by it ... one naturally inclines to it ... thinking it to be the best practice ... 'just because everybody else is doing it ' ... but hindsight is a gift ... and i treasure the fact that i was steered away from it. Alhumdulillah.
So, having experienced the above, my mind was even more blown away by the fact that when one reads the below Ayaah ... you realise that Marriage is not just a means to an end if you know what i mean;-) ...
it is a responsibility ... a pleasure ... and a gift.
" 21. And of His signs is that He created for you mates from among yourselves, so that you may find tranquility in them; and HE places LOVE and MERCY between you. In this are signs for people who reflect."
In my limited understanding ... [ an this is not a tafsir] this ayah means that you don't have a choice to love or not to love your spouse ... Allah swt places that Love between the two of you naturally... it can be 1% or 50% ... the trick is to maintain that love and work at it... improve it.
How?
by elevating your love ... to an ibaadah.
NO. i dont mean you must worship your wife!!! BIDDAH! Astagfirullah ... NAY ...
One of the most fulfilling experiences in my recent journey to Makkah and Medinah ... was the fact that it provided the wife and i an opportunity to connect with each other on a whole other level. That connection and re-connection in the context of HAJJ makes one feel that the love between you and your spouse is elevated ... and somewhat spiritual.
AND with every visit to the Rhoda or every completed circuit of the tawaaf... the HAJJI feels the connection with his spouse getting stronger... you feel quite literally and figuratively closer to her ... Subughannallah ... it simply takes your breathe away.
I have never been to Paris or Barcelona ... but Makkah and Medinah certainly has to rank as one of the more romantic cities of the world... absolutely Amazing ... The motivation to go on HAJJ or journey to the holy lands ... should not be limited to my advice in this email ... but rather ... it should be seen as a one of the many benefits of undertaking this rather AWESOME journey... FOR HAJJ STARTS and ENDS at home ...
NOW i want you to contemplate on the following... imagine sharing a meal with your wife ... and during your meal she passes her your cup ... and you search for the very spot on which she had moments earlier placed her lips on ... you drink from it knowing that you had read up and researched that our noble messenger SAW had in his interaction with his wives ... especially Ayesha R.A. drank from the very spot his wives drank ... ROMANTIC DON'T YOU THINK? ... This is just one manner in which our beloved messenger SAW maintained his love for his wives ... NOW imagine you did that ... in the very precincts where Rasoolullah SAW did it ... MIND blowing indeed.
Contemplate a bit further ... whilst walking the streets of Medinah in and around the gharaam ... you decide to walk faster ... so your wife tries to play catch up ... and passes you by... so you speed up and this cat an mouse adventure continues all the way from the Gharaam ... to the hotel room ... If we understood that ISLAM is a way of LIFE and that the seerah and sunnah are mechanisms which will take us closer to Allah SWT then one cannot help but get a glimpse of the Prophet SAW racing and playing with his esteemed spouse ... ISLAM is not merely a spiritual religion ... it is all encompassing ... BODY MIND and SOUL...
... subughanallah ... if that does not motivate one to go visit the holy precints of MAKKAH and MEDINAH then i am not sure what else would ...
reading it in a book and then going out trying to emulate the experience will leave one with goose bumps ... now imagine how one would feel if you implemented this practice in and around the holy lands of Makkah and Medinah... AWESOME!!!
What a feeling!!!
This feeling is not limited to married couples ... Alhumdulillah ... 6years ago ... i experienced it with my brother and my mother besides me. Standing on Arafaat with your elder brother knowing all he has done and still does for you ...it leaves ones mesmirised knowing that the prophet SAW shared an amazing brotherhood with his companions ... and walking with your mother between Mount Safah and Marwah ... leaves one embarrassed and in awe of her and what she has done for you... further ... one has to treasure and perhaps re evaluate your relationship with one's in laws and what they must have done for your wife and her siblings...
LOVE and LOVING these important persons will never be the same after you have been on this journey... and in the same breathe ... life cannot be the same.
now take all that i said above and transpose it on the following statement ... how much do you value the kaalimah: " laa illah ha illal laa muhamad durasoolullah"
what level of love does one have for it and for Islam? ... do we really feel the emotion when uttering it ?
As one of the Ulemah reminded us on our trip ... take one moment and imagine what life would be like without the Kaalimah in your life ... imagine for one minute that you are not a muslim... [ And All praise and Glory is unto Allah swt ]... Subughanallah ... the love we have for our prophet SAW ... and for the Our creator ... has to occupy the greater part of our overall Love we have to give ... what the journey does is it amplifies your connection to the kaalimah... and enhances its presences in your heart.
The trick is now to hold on to it ... nurture it ... and maintain it... an accepted hajj plays its part in assisting you in doing so.
Another thing i was reminded about on my travels... is that by loving your spouse or parent or friend ... simply for the sake of loving them is all good and well...
however ... if we love them for the sake of loving Allah swt ... then we elevate that love to a whole new level ... we elevate that love to an Ibaadah.
So if anyone is wanting to experience LOVE LIKE this then ... go ahead ... go for hajj ... and dont use the excuse that you not ready ... just do it!!! www.sahuchajjregistry.org.za
So this new year ... we should not short change ourselves ... love a little more ... love for the sake of loving Allah swt ... and you will feel the barakah in that love ... and dont be shy to tell your loved ones so... and if you think this can only be achieved if you have been on hajj... NO! ... it is something we can implement before, after and during
HAJJ ... HAJJ is just a reminder ... of what we already know ... and amplifies our
HAJJ ... HAJJ is just a reminder ... of what we already know ... and amplifies our
THINK AGAIN!!!
In the end... all we need is LOVE ... but then again what do i know AND ALLAH SWT KNOWS BEST!!!
Think... ponder ... reflect ...
PS: if i said anything that has offended anyone or incorrect .. then know it is from me and shaytaan doing ... and if anything is beneficial from this mail... then know it is from Allah swt.
PS2: NO hearts were broken in the making of this email. or so i think..lol:-)
PS3: It is the duty of every Muslim to perform the Hajj, at least once in their lifetime if he has the means to do so. Hajj is a fardh and should be performed as soon as the chance arises.
XBOX: fun fact: the average human being will eat about 60 000 tons of food in his/ her lifetime. that's the weight of about 6 elephants.
Peace. Love. and a bowl of cocoa pops... mm:-p
