Wednesday, March 19, 2003

ok, here's something a little more useful. This is from my email subscription to MeccaOne (check out their website; it's so awesome, masha'Allah. They're based here in the Bay, and they've been putting a lot of work and effort into educating people).

WHEN YOU WAKE UP...

When you wake up in the morning do not expect to see the evening - live as though today is all that you have. Yesterday has passed with its good and evil, while tomorrow has not yet arrived. Your life's span is but one day, as if you were born in it and will die at the end of it. With this attitude, you will not be caught between an obsession over the past, with all its anxieties, and the hopes of the future, with all its uncertainty. For today only should you expend energies, concerns, and efforts. In this day you should pray with a wakeful heart, recite the Qur'an with understanding, and remember Allah with sincerity. In this day you should be balanced in your affairs, satisfied with your allotted portion, concerned with your appearance and health.

Organize the hours of this day, so that you make years out of minutes and months out of seconds. Seek forgiveness from your Lord, remember Him, prepare for the final parting from this world, and live today happily and at peace. Be content with your sustenance, your wife, your children, your work, your house and your station in life.

"So hold that which I have given you and be of the grateful" (Surah Al-A'raf - Ayah 144). Live today free from sorrow, bother, anger, jealousy, and malice.

You must engrave onto your heart one phrase: Today is my only day. If you have eaten warm, fresh bread today, then what does yesterday's dry, rotten bread and tomorrow's anticipated bread matter?

If you are truthful with yourself and have a firm, solid resolve, you will undoubtedly convince yourself of the following: Today is my last day to live. When you attain this attitude, you will profit from every moment of your day, by developing your personality expanding your abilities, and purifying your deeds.