Thursday 4 December 2008

Giving up things for the sake of Allaah

Bismillaah ir Rahmaan ir Raheem

There are many of us who may be reverts or those that were born to muslim parents but were not always practicing, that have had to give up certain things in life with the desire to obey Allaah and follow Islam completely. Changing our lifestyle and ways may have been hard on some, or thought that they would be hard, when in fact Allaah made it easy for us to give up these things for his sake.

I remember back to just before I embraced Islam, I had met two lovely sisters masha'Allaah, who helped me learn the prayer, how to make wudhu etc.. One day when one of the sisters was showing me how to make wudhu, she mentioned that in Islam the woman is not allowed to alter the shape of her eyebrows, alarm bells rung, I really couldn't believe what I was hearing, a multitude of thoughts run through my mind, 'what would I look like?' 'can I really do this?'..... this was a big thing for me, and I'm sure it was for others who were accustomed to regular plucking. I had plucked my eyebrows most of my teenage years, so was really worried I'd end up with big bushy eyebrows, anyway, the thought finally sunk in and I prepared myself, alhamdulillaah I didn't touch my eyebrows after what the sister had told me, and I just waited, and waited for these big things to grow, but subhanAllaah I was suprised that the regrowth wasn't as bad as I expected, and didn't make me look majorly different alhamdulillaah.

The same with music, even though I loved listening to it each day, it was not that big a problem to give it up for Allaah's sake, I sold my cd's (Allaahu a'lam if it was a good idea to sell/give them away, but I know I needed them gone) stopped watching mtv. My family were very surprised I had done this, but I think it showed them how serious I was.

So what things have been made easy for you to give up when you embraced/started to practice Islam? things which you may have first found hard, or perceived to be hard to give up?

6 comments:

Jamilah said...

Asalamu alaikum sister

I can relate to your post. As a revert I found it hard to give things up right away, but as my iman grew things became very easy, alahmdulilah. As I became ready to do something it just seemed so... right. Now I look back on those things that were so hard when I first accepted Islam and wonder what the big deal was :)

There are times when other reverts or born Muslims will say things like 'Allah meant for Islam to be easy, so we really don't have to worry about those things'. This always drives me crazy. Allah swt made things easy by giving us his mercy. By guiding us to straight path and by giving us the Quran and the Sunnah to live by. This dunya is full of temptations, but if you focus on Allah swt, they dissolve away.

Naimah said...

Wa alaykum assalam sister, Welcome.
I agree with what your saying, insha Allaah we should try our utmost best to abide by Allaah's laws, and keep away from what he has prohibited, the prohibitions are there for a reason.

بنت بيتر said...

LOL to stop plucking that was a hard one - I did it right away, and only faltered once alhumdullah but to watch how stupid I looked as they grew in - that is horrible!

There was something else I had to give up (hint hint cough cough)which I did for sake of Allah because now I had a huge reason..... but it was the hardest one for me!

Naimah said...

Masha'Allaah good on you sis for managing to give up what you had to for the sake of Allaah. How was it for you to stop celebrating christmas and the likes with your family? did your family give you a hard time, or were they cool about it?
alhamdulillaah I haven't had much a problem with that, it was hard in the sense that I knew they were all coming together at that specific time, and now I wasn't, but I just had to remind myself what the celebration is based on, and that I can get together with them at other times insha Allaah.
Masha'Allaah my family haven't given me a hard time about stopping christmas/b'days, they've just kind of let me get on with it, which alhamdulillaah has made it alot easier.

BintSabirah said...

This was a really good post masha'allah. Striving to be better is tough and I deal with that through remaining patient and keeping my trust and faith in Allah.

Naimah said...

Yes masha'Allaah definitely important to have patience and trust in Allaah, and know that those things he has prohibited us from are for a reason.