Only for Allah

I have posted this once before somewhere, but today i thought of this again and felt like telling yall this story one more time. 

Suomennos tulee jonain päivänä :D

Nowdays many people seem to forget what is really important. They think of property, matter in general, money, their looks and such things. Serving Allah (subhanahuwata'ala) is rarely the first thing in people's minds. It scares me to see that around me every day. So I searched for this story that I heard once a long time ago.

There was a pious man among the Banu Israel who always remained busy in the worship of Allah. A group of people came to him and told him that a tribe living nearby worshiped a tree. The news upset him, and with an axe on his shoulder he went to cut down that tree.

On the way, Satan met him in the form of an old man and asked him where he was going. He said he was going to cut a particular tree. Satan said, "You have nothing to be concerned with this tree, you better mind your worship and do not give it up for the sake of something that does not concern you." "This is also worship," retorted the worshiper.

Then Satan tried to prevent him from cutting the tree, and there followed a fight between the two, in which the worshiper overpowered the Satan. Finding himself completely helpless, Satan begged to be excused, and when the worshiper released him, he again said, "Allah has not made the cutting of this tree obligatory on you. You do not lose anything if you do not cut it. If its cutting were necessary, Allah could have got it done through one of his many Prophets."

The worshiper insisted on cutting the tree. There was again a fight between the two and again the worshiper overpowered the Satan. "Well listen," said Satan, "I propose a settlement that will be to your advantage." The worshipper agreed, and Satan said, "You are a poor man, a mere burden on this earth. If you stay away from this act, I will pay you three gold coins everyday. You will daily find them lying under your pillow. By this money you can fulfill your own needs, can oblige your relative, help the needy, and do so many other virtuous things. Cutting the tree will be only one virtue, which will ultimately be of no use because the people will grow another tree." 

This proposal appealed to the worshiper, and he accepted it. He found the money on two successive days, but on the third day there was nothing. He got enraged, picked up his axe and went to cut the tree. Satan as an old man again met him on the way and asked him where he was going. "To cut the tree," shouted the worshiper. "I will not let you do it," said Satan.

A fight took place between the two again but this time Satan had the upper hand and overpowered the worshiper.The latter was surprised at his own defeat, and asked the former the cause of his success. Satan replied, "At first, your anger was purely for earning the pleasure of Allah, and therefore Almighty Allah helped you to overpower me, but now it has been partly for the sake of the gold coins and therefore you lost."


Source: From the book "Ihyaa-ul Uloom Ud Deen" by Imam Ghazzali (ra)

Allahs perfect creations

I can't believe this: this is my second post already because ants got me thinking.. :O . They've attacked my house once again..

Dh has kept two kinds of candy (with paper wraps) on a shelf near our back door. A little over a week ago the ant attack started.. They came to the kitchen mostly, but I saw a few going to the direction of the candy.. I didn't think they'd really do anything there.. Those were hard bon bons, not some soft or sticky ones.. And the paper wraps were tight..

Well, yesterday dh's brother took one candy and there was ants inside it :O . Alhamdulilah he saw it before he put it in his mouth.. I wanted to check the rest of the candies, but had no time yesterday..So today I did.. I couldn's believe what I saw :O SubhanaAllah there was ants all over the candies, but they had been eating only of one from each kind :O . There was more than one kilo candy and all the ants chose to go and eat from the same two pieces! They kept the rest clean! And those were not the first ones on the top, but under almost everything..

You can't see it much from the black candy, but on the white one it shows how they dig a hole in it.

Think how Allah has made the ants! They clearly tell each other where is food.. They find their way between a bunch of candy to eat from the same one.. They find their way home and have their own highways.. through my living room but anyway..

It's so amazing how everything works in this world.. No human inventions come even near the perfection of Allah's creations! If you think of human body for example. How perfectly everything works, how everything is taken care of.. No engineer could ever invent anything like that!


He it is who has created for you all that is on earth, and has applied His design to the heavens and fashioned them into seven heavens; and He alone has full knowledge of everything.
Quran 2:29

Only for Allah

Today many people seem to forget what is really important. They think of property, matter in general, money, their looks and such things. Serving Allah (subhanahuwata'ala) is rarely the first thing in people's minds. It scares me to see that around me every day. So I searched for this story that I heard once a long time ago.





There was a pious man among the Banu Israel who always remained busy in the worship of Allah. A group of people came to him and told him that a tribe living nearby worshiper a tree. The news upset him, and with an axe on his shoulder he went to cut down that tree.

On the way, Satan met him in the form of an old man and asked him where he was going. He said he was going to cut a particular tree. Satan said, "You have nothing to be concerned with this tree, you better mind your worship and do not give it up for the sake of something that does not concern you." "This is also worship," retorted the worshiper.

Then Satan tried to prevent him from cutting the tree, and there followed a fight between the two, in which the worshiper overpowered the Satan. Finding himself completely helpless, Satan begged to be excused, and when the worshiper released him, he again said, "Allah has not made the cutting of this tree obligatory on you. You do not lose anything if you do not cut it. If its cutting were necessary, Allah could have got it done through one of his many Prophets."

The worshiper insisted on cutting the tree. There was again a fight between the two and again the worshiper overpowered the Satan. "Well listen," said Satan, "I propose a settlement that will be to your advantage." The worshipper agreed, and Satan said, "You are a poor man, a mere burden on this earth. If you stay away from this act, I will pay you three gold coins everyday. You will daily find them lying under your pillow. By this money you can fulfill your own needs, can oblige your relative, help the needy, and do so many other virtuous things. Cutting the tree will be only one virtue, which will ultimately be of no use because the people will grow another tree."

This proposal appealed to the worshiper, and he accepted it. He found the money on two successive days, but on the third day there was nothing. He got enraged, picked up his axe and went to cut the tree. Satan as an old man again met him on the way and asked him where he was going. "To cut the tree," shouted the worshiper. "I will not let you do it," said Satan.

A fight took place between the two again but this time Satan had the upper hand and overpowered the worshiper. The latter was surprised at his own defeat, and asked the former the cause of his success. Satan replied, "At first, your anger was purely for earning the pleasure of Allah, and therefore Almighty Allah helped you to overpower me, but now it has been partly for the sake of the gold coins and therefore you lost."


Source: From the book "Ihyaa-ul Uloom Ud Deen" by Imam Ghazzali (ra)

The ant

Something happened today that got me thinking. Again. It's becoming a habit maybe; seems like i think a lot lately. I hope it's a good thing InshaAllah.




There has always been many sugar ant nests near the house and garden, and some of them come inside the houses too. I have had a battle with them every spring.This year it hasn't been a big problem alhamdulilah, but sometimes I find a couple of ants in the laundry room, shower room or kitchen.. I have no idea from where they've come or where's their nest, so I have just got rid of the ones that I've seen. I try not to kill them but they have no business to my dinner table..


There's area next to the wall near my laundry room door where the rain doesn't reach and I have put some flower seeds there. Today I went to put some water to those flowers and I saw plenty of ants around one border stone there. I lifted the stone up and saw thousands of ants and their tunnels. I moved all the border stones and found more and more ants. They had a nest under each stone. It's clear that the ants that come in my house are from these nests. Now I'm thinking if I should leave them and just take care of the ones that come inside the house, or should I get rid of the nests. That might keep the ants away from my home for a long time.





I wanted to look up some hadith about killing ants. SubhanaAllah I didn't think what deeper meaning I would find! Sisters, read the hadiths that I found. I don't need to tell you what they mean; it's obvious. Not about ants after all, but about human beings and how we generalize and judge. Us Muslims face that often, especially us who live in the west. Now I'll let the hadiths speak for themselves.


Sahih Muslim: Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: An ant had bitten a Prophet (one amongst the earlier Prophets) and he ordered that the colony of the ants should be burnt. And Allah revealed to him:" Because of an ant's bite you have burnt a community from amongst the communities which sings My glory." (Book #026, Hadith #5567)

Sahih Bukhari: Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Apostle said, "Once while a prophet amongst the prophets was taking a rest underneath a tree, an ant bit him. He, therefore, ordered that his luggage be taken away from underneath that tree and then ordered that the dwelling place of the antsshould be set on fire. Allah sent him a revelation:-- "Wouldn't it have been sufficient to burn a single ant? (that bit you): (See Page 162, chapter No. 153). (Book #54, Hadith #536 )