قد خلت من قبلكم سنن فسيروا في الارض فانظروا كيف كان عاقبة المكذبين

قَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ سُنَنٌ فَسِيرُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَٱنظُرُوا۟ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَـٰقِبَةُ ٱلْمُكَذِّبِينَ

Qualities of Believers: The Keys to Eternal Success

Surat Al-Imran ends with reminding us of qualities needed to be successful, as a type of continuation from the first page of Surat Al-Baqara. In fact, the entire Surah is filled with reminders about the qualities needed to be successful and in alignment with Surat Al-Baqara, taqwa, to be mindful of God or to adopt a God-centered lifestyle, is mentioned often throughout Surat Al-Imran. 

Additional qualities to nurture and embody our faith mentioned throughout these verses include:

*Patience
*Sincerity
*Devotion to Allah through extended worship
*Love for Allah and following the Prophet (peace be upon him) 
*Spending from what we love and being charitable and generous
*Dying in a state of full submission to Allah
*Unity and cultivating strong ties of brotherhood and sisterhood
*Racing to and seeking forgiveness, particularly before dawn, which is known to be a blessed time
*Control their anger and pardon others
*Grateful
*Rely on Allah alone and seek His aid
*Humble
*Those who show ihsan - moral and spiritual excellence

One may observe such a list of qualities and ponder about how to 'do it all' - and this is the beauty of faith, it can be nurtured like a seed, with sincerity, love for God through knowing Him and acknowledging His endless blessings, as well as with time, patience, effort, a faith support network, and asking God for His support and aid. Just like any goal we hope to achieve, these #lifegoals can be achieved through God’s grace.

In a world that pushes us to only seek external indicators of success through career, status, wealth, etc., God reminds us of the eternal indicators of success which are largely based on an internal process of tazkiya or purification and moral elevation. By strengthening our relationship with God, we can embody these qualities which enable us to actualize our purpose, find peace, success and contentment in this world, as well as in an eternal heaven. 

Which of these qualities would you like to nurture today? We can choose to focus on 1 or 2 at a time and keep nurturing them until we believe we can move on to the next one, while maintaining the qualities we have endeavoured to develop and remembering that we are not perfect human beings - that there will be shortcomings, and that is where the racing to and seeking forgiveness often comes in. We understand this is an ongoing journey of walking to God, with love, and with all of our humanness, and all of our hopes to be among those who can embody the qualities of eternal success in sha Allah. May we be among them, Ameen.

#Ramadanreflections
#Eternalsuccess
#qualitiesofbelievers
#ihsan #taqwa #sabr #love #lifegoals #success

#QuranWeeklyDose
#AllahLoves

In the second session of Quran Weekly Dose,  Brother Mohannad touched on the importance of ihsan to achieve Allah's SWT love. 

Ihsan is a mindset
Ihsan is like an operating system.
It should encompass all aspects of our lives.

How do I aim for ihsan?
I look at the stories of the Prophets AS. 
I read about their struggles,
 I read about their human fallibilities and I recognise their strengths. 
They are my ultimate role models.

I know with full certainty that Allah SWT loves His Prophets AS; 
Allah SWT never left them without His help and His support.
Their stories are relevant in the time I live now and will be relevant till the end of days.

May we continue to strive for excellence in everything we do 
May Allah SWT love us for trying
Aamiin.

Wa iyyak.
Maa shaa Allaah 
JazakAllahu khayr for your gracious comments.
I enjoy listening to the sessions.
Alhamdulillah. 

Refleksi: Ali 'Imran 3:137