Change 2.0

بِسْــــــــــــــــــمِ اﷲِالرَّحْمَنِ اارَّحِيم

In the name of Allah Most Compassionate, Most Merciful

[Credit]

Assalamualaikum wrh :)

So if the first step was to realise our purpose of existence, what are the following steps?

Second step: Find friends who can help you with your change.

This is probably one of the most crucial step. You need help for your change! Find that friend whom you know can help. If you don't already know any of your friends who can, try making new ones. Go down to the musollah one day and just mingle around. These folks, they're very friendly. They get excited when they see someone new joining them down at the musollah, which just means someone's joining them in search for one common goal; Allah's blessings :)

I know some people are shy shy cat liddat to go up to some stranger and out of the blue want to get close to them. But these kinds of people are extraordinary I tell you. They're like an entirely different breed of humans! I barely know their background and their life stories but once we've been introduced, every time we meet, they'd get all excited and friendly and hug hug. LIKE AWWW.

Sweetest kinds of bonds. Bonds because of Allah. Ukhuwwah fillah :DDDDDDD

You really need them, to answer questions you might have, to clear any doubts that might come, to give that boost when your spirits are down. Simply to be your friend in search for Him. Although it is definitely very convenient to have all your questions answered by kind Cik Gugel but nothing beats face-to-face talk about Allah. No kidding.

So don't wait for someone to invite you to Allah. Make the first move. And in sha Allah He will ease everything else :)

[But this by no means imply that you should leave your old friends. New friends are silver, but old friends are golden. Or so the old saying goes. Heh]

Third step: Do what has been made compulsory to you

And here I shall only stress on one, SOLAT. Whatever you do, never leave you solat.

It was narrated from Abu Hurayrah r.a that the Prophet s.a.w said:
"The first thing among their deeds for which the people will be brought to account on the Day of
Resurrection will be PRAYER" [Narrated by Abu Dawood: 864].

So regardless how much you try covering your aurah, or try to give to charity, the first thing questioned will still be your prayers.

Try to pray on time.

"Hadith narrated by Abdullah ibn Masood r.a. "I asked Rasulullah s.a.w: 'What deed is most beloved by Allah?' He said 'To offer each prayer as soon as it is due' 'Then what?' 'Treating one's parents with mercy and respect' 'Then what?' 'Jihad (strunggling/fighting) for the sake of Allah'. Abdullah ibn Mas’ud added, ‘The Prophet s.a.w narrated to me these things, and if I had asked more, he would have told me more.’” [Sahih Al-Bukhari]

So you see? To pray as soon as it is due is even more highly ranked than to do Jihad, which we all know is a very noble act and one who dies during Jihad will in sha Allah be granted Jannah. Yet, to pray as soon as it is due is even more important than that!

And most of all, try to be khusyuk. I'm still struggling with this one, but one good tip is to imagine that it is our last solat, and to imagine our corpse lying in front of us, wrapped up in white cloth. Death is just around the corner.

[Credit]

Oh, try to pray in Jamaah too, as often as you can. Because only then you will see that Islam is all about Jamaah, all about uniting, and you will feel the strength of Islam during prayers. You will feel the pride of being a Muslim, biiznillah

Why is it important to pray? Because once we do what Allah loves most, in sha Allah we'll be given the strength to proceed with our next transitions :)

Fourth step: Own, read, practise & love the Quran (Translation)
Honestly, nothing acts as the best antidote for me whenever my spirit or iman is in bad shape. It will always be a verse of the Quran. Open it. Learn it. Make bookmarks on the verses that really moved you, so you can refer back to it whenever your Iman dropped. Try youtube-ing Nouman Ali Khan on QuranWeekly. His tafseer really moves me, and it will make us appreciate the words of Allah even more, as there's so much more than on the surface.

I can frankly say that my Quran is my best friend. One look at it can already lift my spirits up, alhamdulillah.

Do you know why? Because the Quran is merely a collection of love letters from your Lord, who loves you very much :)

'Then do you remember Me; I will remember you....' [Quran 2:152] (one of my favourite ayats :)

This is my favourite from Nouman Ali Khan's Quran Weekly, may this help us appreciate the Quran even more in sha Allah :)

Okay the post is getting much longer than I expected mehehe. There shall be Change 3.0 then I guess. Hold your breaths for it! So sorry, and thank you for reading this humble post (:

Allahualam