Oh Ramadan...

Oh Ramadan, your days went by so fast,  

And most of them have already passed. 

Your time has almost come to an end,  

I can only hope my days fasting were well spent.  

Oh Ramadan, I am not ready to say goodbye,  

I want to cling to your presence as these last hours are passing me by,  

Because there is definitely a fear,  

That this time around next year, maybe... I won`t be here? 

Oh Ramadan, I don`t want you to leave.  

There are still so many good deeds left for me to achieve,  

And after your blessed presence has gone,  

There is still so much work left to be done.  

Oh Ramadan, promise next year we will meet? 

I will do my best! Will do more good deeds! 

Maybe next time I will take head,  

And stop my wrongdoings that I seem bound to repeat. 

Oh Ramadan, you will be missed, again and again,  

As it feels like I am seeing off a dear friend... 

But before you step out of the door,  

I`ld like to ask you for something, just one thing more... 

Oh Ramadan, intercede for me on that Final Day.  

With the days I fasted and the nights I prayed.  

So out of His Mercy I can be forgiven,  

So out of His Mercy I can be saved...  

A Glimpse of Tawheed

You can not learn to rely on God alone by standing safely on the shore under a sunny sky. 

You only learn by being thrown in a stormy ocean with no swimming skills, no life vest and no boat nearby to pull you out off the water. 

'Cause only then, when you cannot depend on your own skills or material means or people to save you, you truly realize your salvation is through God only. 

'Cause He is the true life vest and through Him alone you can truly be rescued. 

Only then will you experience a glimpse of Tawheed.

Ever toiling...

Sometimes our hearts feel heavy.

We carry a burden of sorrow and distress in our hearts.

A heavy weight tries to crush our lungs and we find it hard to breathe.

Worries seem to cloud our vision as tears well up in our eyes.

Sometimes our hearts feel so heavy, the weight breaks us and we fall down on our path through life.

When we find the courage to stand up, we stumble and fall again. And again.

We seem to trip over every rock or bump in the road.

At those times it’s hard to feel close to Allah and to connect with Him in our prayers.

We feel like we’re the only ones who have ever experienced such a trial and don’t know how to keep carrying this massive weight on our shoulders.

At such times we seem to forget that Allah is in fact the Only One who can lift that burden from our hearts and remove the load we carry.

One day I felt like the load I was carrying for some time became unbearable.

My heart felt heavy and my soul tormented by the worries I felt.

I couldn’t seem to find anything that could relieve my heart from this crushing weight.

Until…

I remembered a verse in the Qur’an.

A verse I read in a book some months before.

A verse that had inspired me, but that I did not fully understand until this moment.

I didn’t remember the chapter or number of the verse in the Qur’an, so I looked for the book in which I was sure it was mentioned.

But was it mentioned in the beginning, the middle or the end? I had no clue.

Hoping to find the soothing words of Allah, most Exalted is He, I opend the book at random.

Soubhan’Allah.

I opened the book and found the title of that chapter in which I knew I would find that specific verse I was looking for.

I turned one page and there it was. The comforting words of my Lord.

“Oh mankind! Verily you are ever toiling on towards your Lord – painfully toiling – but you shall meet Him.” (Qur’an 84:6)

Tears sprung into my eyes as I felt the heavy load being lifted from my chest.

As the understanding of this beautiful verse dawned on me,  Allah replaced my sorrow with strength to help me carry the burden, I thought I had to carry alone.

He loosened the chain around my tormented soul.

All praise is due to Allah.

As humans we are always stumbling on our path through life.

We break, we stumble, we fall.

We are ever toiling.

Our path through life isn’t made easy.

There are rocks and bumps in the road.

Our path is sometimes covered in darkness.

But…

We are not wandering this path alone. Allah is Al-Wali. Our Companion.

We are not completely covered in darkness. Allah is An-Noer. Our Light, that guides the way.

Allah recognises our pain, our suffering, our stumbling and our falling, ‘cause he tells us in the Qur’an that we are ‘ever toiling’. Painfully toiling.

And to ease our pain, our suffering, to soften the stumbling and falling, he reminds us of our destination: Allah, himself.

In these words lies the most comforting thought: we might suffer, we might stumble and we might fall on our path through life. But Ar-Rafi, the One who raises us, will lift us up. But if we persevere, we shall meet Him.

And in the meeting with Our Lord is truly found comfort.  

Awakening (Poem)

I was caught in a cave,

Covered in darkness,

Nothing more than a slave,

Of my whims and desires.

I was locked in a cage,

Hurt and alone,

I was stuck for an age,

Where I didn't belong.

One moment, one day,

Light broke through,

And it lit the way.

A new world came in view.

I unchained my soul,

Unlocked my prison.

I found the Truth as a whole,

By which I was risen.

I stepped into the Light,

And fell to my knees,

For such Power and Might,

That had given me the keys.

Unchained and freed,

Alive and awake,

I had found the True Creed,

I could never forsake.

The Gift of Guidance (Poem)

The most precious gift I ever received,

was not something I could touch or see,

For the first time I wasn't deceived,

For my chained soul this gift was a Key.

This gift I could only feel,

Deep within my heart.

For this gift could heal,

Every hurt from my very start.

Cured with His Grace,

Strengthened by His Call,

There wouldn't be a hardship I was unable to face,

No stumble could again make me fall.

Guidance is it's name,

And with Gods Path before me,

The Road would never be the same,

Unchained by this Key,

My soul was finally set free.