Ideas to change your life

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ وَإِن تُطِعْ أَكْثَرَ مَن فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ يُضِلُّوكَ عَن سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ Wa in tuṭiʿ akthara man fil-arḍi yuḍillūka ʿan sabīlillāh. If you obey most of those on earth, they can lead you away from the path of Allah. Sūrat al-Anʿām 6:116   There is an old story that appears in many clothes. In Idries Shah’s Sufi telling, Khidr warns that the waters of the world will change; one man stores clean water, but later drinks the changed water because he cannot bear being alone in his sanity. ( Internet Archive ) In Kahlil Gibran’s telling, a well is poisoned, the people call the sane king mad, and the king finally drinks from the same well so that the people may say he has recovered. ( Gutenberg Australia ) In Tawfiq al-Hakim’s Arabic play Nahr al-Junun , the river of madness divides a kingdom: almost everyone drinks from it, and the few who do not drink are declared mad by those who have. ( Hindawi ) The Persian proverb says it with simplicity: رفتم...

  بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ وَأَحْسِنُوا ۛ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ Wa aḥsinū, inna Allāha yuḥibbu al-muḥsinīn. “Do good. Indeed, Allah loves those who do good.” Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:195 There are teachings that come as long speeches. And there are teachings that come quietly. In a small object. In a gesture. In something so ordinary that only the awake heart understands it. In Tadhkirat al-Awliyāʾ , ʿAṭṭār mentions a beautiful telling about Rābiʿa. Rābiʿa sends Ḥasan three simple things. Wax. A needle. A hair. Nothing grand. Nothing costly. Indeed the friends of Allah often teach through small things, because small things enter the heart without noise. The wax says: Give light, even while you burn. The needle says: Keep working, but do not decorate yourself with the work. The hair says: Once these two lessons are learned, even a thousand years becomes light. The wax is the first lesson. A candle does not give light from a distance. It gives light by offering ...

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِى عَنِّى فَإِنِّى قَرِيبٌ ۖ  أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ ٱلدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ Wa idhā sa’alaka ‘ibādī ‘annī fa-innī qarīb; ujību da‘wata al-dā‘i idhā da‘ān. Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:186 — “And when My servants ask you about Me, indeed I am near. I respond to the call of the caller when he calls upon Me.” There are verses that console us. There are verses that awaken us. And there are verses that do both at once. This verse is one of them. Allah does not say, “Tell them I am near.” He says, “Indeed I am near.” The answer comes directly. The distance is removed. The servant asks. Allah answers. The caller calls. Allah responds. The door is not locked. The sky is not empty. The Lord is not absent. And yet, the Qurʾān does not teach us to treat du‘ā as a formula without a life around it. Du‘ā is not only words raised by the tongue. It is a whole human being standing before Allah. The tongue calls. But the heart also calls. The hands call. ...

  بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ    أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا۟ إِلَى ٱلطَّيْرِ فَوْقَهُمْ صَـٰٓفَّـٰتٍۢ وَيَقْبِضْنَ ۚ    مَا يُمْسِكُهُنَّ إِلَّا ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنُ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍۭ بَصِيرٌ A-wa lam yaraw ilā al-ṭayri fawqahum ṣāffātin wa yaqbiḍn; mā yumsikuhunna illā al-Raḥmān; innahu bikulli shay’in baṣīr. Sūrat al-Mulk 67:19 — “Have they not seen the birds above them, spreading and folding their wings? None holds them up except the Most Compassionate. Indeed, He is All-Seeing of everything.” It is possible to live beneath the sky and forget flight. It is possible to inhabit a world saturated with signs, yet become so habituated to surfaces that the sign no longer pierces us. We see birds above us, but no longer behold dependence. We see wings, but not mercy. We see motion, but not the unseen holding by which motion becomes possible. The Qurʾān does not merely ask us to notice birds. It asks us to recover sight. It asks us to understand that flight is nev...