REACH OUT, MUSLIMS!
How to change the world, One thing at a time

REACH OUT, MUSLIMS!
Before anything or anyone,
Muslims!

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Reach out unto your own selves!
Take some time.
Make an effort.
And look deep into your mind,
And into the depths of your soul.

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Probe,
Search,
Ponder,
And ask:

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Who am I?
And then ask:

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What do I want?
What am I doing?
Where am I going?
What am I getting?

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And what price am I paying for it?

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What price?
In my body?
And in my mind?

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And in my soul and spirit?

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And in my wealth and property?
And in terms of my family and friends?

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In terms of all those I love,
And those who love me?

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What price?

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In terms of my overall well-being?
And the well being of those around me?
Those near and dear to me?

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And in terms of success and happiness?
Moral and material?
Worldly and spiritual?

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For me and my loved ones,
And for all the others in my life?

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What price am I paying?
What price, indeed?

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Then,
Muslims!
Ask yourselves:

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Is this what I really want from life?

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For me,
For my family?
And for my friends?

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For all those whom I love,
And for all those who love me?

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Is this what I really want from life?

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For my community and my society?
The community that nurtured me?
The community that is my home and shelter?

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And the society that shaped me and serves me?
And in whose institutions I am so deeply embedded?
For humanity of which I am an indivisible part?
And for the world in which I live and operate?

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Ask!
Dear Muslims,
Ask!

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Over and over:
Is this what life is all about?
Ask:
What is all this worth?

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Is this what my own life is worth?
Is this what my role in life is all about?
And is this what I really want from life?
Is this the most and the best that life can give me?
And what I can ask or receive from it?

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Ask!
Dear Muslims!
Am I selling myself short?
Could I do better?
Could I do more?
Could I walk a fuller, nobler walk?
A walk of greater reward for me,
Both in this world and the next?
On a path dearer to God and more fulfilling for me?
And of greater service to my fellow humans?

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Then,
Muslims!
Reach out to God!

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That is right,
Reach out to God!

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Reach out in fear and in awe,
Reach out in humility and in hope,
Reach out in love and in obedience.

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For,
God is merciful and compassionate,
Loving and generous,
Kind and forgiving.
Beyond bounds and imagination,
Beyond count and calculation.

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For, he is Rahman,
And he is Raheem.
Most loving and merciful,
And even more merciful and loving.

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But don’t forget,
God is also God of wrath and vengeance,
And of punishment and retribution.

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All this, Muslims, means one simple thing:

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Along with everything else you do,
Find time,
Find the energy,
And find the inclination and the urgency,
And find the spark in your heart,
And the drive in your mind,
To reach out to God’s word on earth.

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Reach out to Qur’an!
Muslims!
Al Qur’an!
The Book!
Unlike any other book in the world!
Or unlike anything else!

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Read the Qur’an! At least once a day.

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Even if it is just one Aayah a day.
An Aayah,
One little passage!

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For,

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When it comes to reading the Qur’an,
Even the individual letters count.

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It is not just soorahs and aayahs,
Not just passages and words,
But every single letter counts,
When it comes to reading the Qur’an,
And when Allah wants to measure out his bounty and reward.

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That is what the Prophet said.
Each letter in its own right.

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It is not Alif-Laam-Meem all together.
But Alif, he said, counts as a separate unit,

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And Laam, he said, counts as a separate unit,
And Meem, he said, counts as a separate unit.

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Aayah!

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A passage from the Qur’an!
A sentence, is it?
Or a clause?
Or a phrase?
Or even a letter or two?

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An aayah!

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A “verse” it certainly is not!

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Don’t call it a verse,
Dear Muslims!
It is not a verse,
It is an “aayah.”

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The Bible may contain verses,
The Qur’an does not!
The Qur’an contains aayaat.