Am I what you like?
Id bet that whilst you’re scrolling down this list of articles that you will be looking for something in particular. You may not even know or realise what you’re looking for until you find it. And you find it because you like it. People take interest in what they like and tend to deviate from what their not so interested in. its in our genes as humans to only want what we take an interest to.
A few examples would be picking only the best looking apples out of a crate of apples. Now even if in a situation like that lets say you pick the best apples, to shock you a little they may not be the best apples of that crate. “well yes they are because I will have picked the best apples” yes to your understanding they are the best apples in the crate but are they really?
First off your mind will have gone for what ever struck you as the best initially. Remember you’re in a situation where you just have to get say 6 apples and carry on with your shopping making sure they are the best of course. But what is really going on is your mind is telling you that the first few you lay your eyes on are the best ones as long as their not to bad. You carry on thinking that you’ve got the best apples because they fit in with your schedule it meant you got your shopping done on time and fitted in perfectly with your day because you didn’t waste that time looking for those perfect apples which would have took longer.
What do apples have to do with Islam
A lot in this article you see the example I just used with the apples can be applied to how you follow your religion. Which I must say if you do follow it like this (which I admit to being a culprit of in the past) then it is wrong and means your applying the religion where you like it and not applying where you feel it doesn’t best suit you.
Islam cannot be treated in this way, you yourself cannot be treated in this way. This is a way of life we follow as our religion. And even whilst writing this article I’m thinking about all the times I have been picky about what appeals to me and used those things when I wanted to use them missing out all the other stuff. Islam is perfection every single part of it should appeal to all of us as Muslims and even to non Muslims.
So what’s the cure for the apples we pick
The cure is simple as with all things all things are as simple as you see them if your mind portrays them to be difficult then most likely they will be difficult. But if you say to yourself I can actually do this or I like doing this or I don’t mind doing this. Where each and every time your justifying it to yourself that whatsoever you are doing is a good thing for you.
Try to open your mind to how it benefits you and helps you through your daily life. For example a good reward or me personally of reciting Qur’an would be that I can remember Allah (God) throughout the day as I started the say with his word. And all the other benefits of reciting Qur’an added onto that for which there is at least a few other posts needed to mention or discuss.
God has made man a greedy being, for doing something we always want something. Allah (God) knows this better than anything else ever could this is why we have had heaven created for us. Because Allah knows how he made us and that we always want something for something, the Jihad (struggle against ones self to please Allah (God)) is what we do by Allah’s ruling and heaven is what we get as a reward. Let this be your motivation.
The bad apples
People in most cases tend to use this in a backward notion. They will start doing something wrong or maybe have been doing something wrong for a long time say like, I’ve not been reciting the Qur’an as much as I should or even not at all for months on end and I will try to justify that with, “oh its because I’ve been so busy with my work or with fixing up the house or with problems I’ve had” the list goes on. This is the wrong way of justifying things to yourself as you’re telling yourself and especially your minds that what you’re doing is ok.
This means that you will continue doing this bad thing and never be able to break yourself out of it. You will have gotten so used to telling yourself that it’s ok, its ok, its ok that you will actually start to believe it to be fact and if you’ve then on top got the apple picking thing going on then we are in self help trouble. Avoid this at all costs inshallah
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