Divine Favours: 'Count your Blessings'

Fabi-‘ayyi ‘aalaaa-‘i Rabbikumaa tukazzibaan?

“So which of the favours of your Lord will you deny?”

(Ar-Rahman: Chapter 55)

This verse of Surah Ar-Rahman is mentioned 31 times in order to properly inform the believers that they should never forget that all these blessings come from our Creator and from no one else and that He has reserved such blessings also in the hereafter (Aakhirat). Indeed, all the needs of a living being are made ​​available to him (by Allah). Allah (swt) says:

 

“We (Allah) have made ​​the day for livelihood.” (78: 12)

See a living example starting with ourselves.

Once we wake up, we have to face many routines. First we need to breathe in clean air. Do we immediately think that it is one of favours we have been given?  We are healthy – another favour of Allah, the Most Glorious – we have no difficulty to do so because our respiratory system works perfectly.

As soon as we open our eyes, we see near and far images. Is this not a great favour of Allah? When we think, even for a minute, that there are at this moment, thousands of people who are blind! Did you know that the centre of the sight is found in the rear brain occupying few cubic centimetres?

Parenting: Spirituality and Science

Children are the best Gifts Almighty Allah bestows upon the parents. And good parenting is an Islamic virtue. Inculcating good habits and etiquettes in them and nurturing their inherent creative instincts are a huge responsibility and parents are accountable to the Lord Almighty for the same. In an age that offers too many ‘value’ systems and life styles, temptations and diversions are trying to take over the attention of today’s children. In this context, parenting has to go beyond the command/control/authority approach that parents usually deploy and be flexible enough to take account of the evolving realities: the growing reasoning power of children, their intelligence and age. The pride of being a practicing Muslim has to be demonstrated as a living reality to our children on an everyday basis. If the Islamic way is presented to our children with practical example and persuasion characterized by a relationship of trust and friendship, love and mutual respect, it will win over their hearts and minds.  

In his Friday Sermon of July 06, 2012, Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius threw new light on the subject of parenting. Drawing upon recent scientific experiments and new knowledge available on the developmental biology of the human brain, the Khalifatullah underscores the critical importance of early years of a child’s life experiences in the eventual development of his/her emotional stability, personality traits and intelligence level.

Read the Extracts from the Friday Sermon: 

“The regimented way many raise their children is not appropriate to modern life and, more particularly, to life in the countries we now live in. At an early stage, regimentation is a  powerful method to activate good habits and the performances of regular activities such as prayer and reading of the Holy Quran. But as the reasoning of children develops, we must as parents also begin to change our approach to reflect their intelligence and the life of the child.

Particularly in the western world, there are many distractions and temptations fighting for the attention of our children. These, together with the fact that we are inclined to serve our natural desires (some might say naturally inclined to evil), mean that we are in danger of losing our children if we rely totally on obedience to our commands. Unless we build up a relationship of trust and friendship with our children as well as authority through mutual respect and love, we have little hope of retaining our children given the strength of the worldly distraction they are exposed to (TV being a prime example).