Let us say Taqwa is the name Islam gives to how much you love and fear God. 

And how mindful you are of his presence every moment and with regard to every aspect of your life.

That means if you have Taqwa, you love and fear God all the time. And you are mindful of his presence all the time and with regard to everything you do. 

For such people, life becomes both a joy and a responsibility. 

Life becomes a keenly felt responsibility, because you want to do everything right -- as right as you can possibly make it.

Life also becomes a joy because you are, at the same time, keenly aware of the power, presence, love, mercy and support of God every moment of your life, and with regard to every thing you do in life.

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We all know God Almighty does everything. And no one else does or can really do anything. 

Teachers are nothing but means that Allah uses to educate us.

When he wants to, he can take a most uneducated human on earth -- call him The Unlettered Man if you will -- and use him to educate the whole world. As he did with Sayyidina Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam!

Parents are nothing but a way to create human life on earth. 

If God Almighty were to wish, he can make a baby without a father, as he did with Jesus, Alaihis Salam, or a full-grown man without either a father or a mother, the way he did with Adam, Alaihis Salam.

Transportation, vehicles, animals, machines, are all nothing but means to carry objects, human or otherwise, from Point A to Point B.

Were God to wish, he could transport a man from the middle of the desert in Makkah, around 7th Century, and whisk him off to Jerusalem, miles and miles and miles away, and from there all the way up into space, beyond Moon, Mars and the Galaxies, to the heavens beyond, and back, all before the night is out and before the cock crows.

Was that precisely not what God Almighty did with Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, during Israa' and Mi'raj?

How well do we know that doctors and medicines are nothing but merely means to healing!

Should God Almighty please, he can make a fountain of water gush out from under your feet, and make that water a cure for all your ailments as he did with Ayyub, Alaihis Salalam.

And yet, how little we seem to care!

And how little we seem to believe!

Qaleelalan Ma Tu'minoon!

And how sad and pitiable are our ways and attitudes as humans beings!

Yaa Hasratan Alal Ibaad!

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People fall in love with all kinds of things. But the one love they miss out on is the love of Allah.

How many people realize that the best one to fall in love with is Allah himself, and not that or this part or aspect of his creation?

But when you fall in love with Allah, you also fall in love with everything and everyone associated with him, including all of Allah’s kingdom and creation.

When you fall in love with Allah, then all you see is Allah. And all you hear is Allah calling you.

Thereafter, every temptation becomes a triviality and every adversity fades to insignificance.

You then live in a world in which the only actor is Allah and in which you can readily and clearly see Allah's hand behind everything that happens – to you as well as to everything around you.

And, if fact, you see nothing but Allah.

What a wonderful world such a world is!

And what a new life and what a glorious new meaning in such a world the following words assume: Fa’alam Annahu Laa Ilaaha Illallah!

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(Dr. Pasha)

"To love and to hate is part of human nature.

As a result, all of us love and hate something or someone. And we do that in one form or another and at one point of our life or another.

Those who are driven entirely by their own base needs and emotions, they love and hate for narrow personal and selfish reasons.

But those that are blessed and favored by God, they love and hate for broader and more enlightened reasons.

They love and hate for the sake of God.

That means they use their basic human emotions of love and hate as an instrument of loving God and serving all of humanity and all of God's creation.

As a result, they love all – and hate none. For, love is their dominant emotion.

But when they see God’s laws being disrespected, and when they see God’s most basic commandments being violated, and when they see all kinds of atrocities and injustices being perpetrated on their fellow human beings, or on God’s broader creation in any form or fashion, they often tend to react not only in sorrow and pain, but also in anger and with indignation.

But theirs is a righteous wrath.

And it is not unlike God’s own wrath and indignation when he beholds humans violating his laws and commandments on earth: knowingly, willfully and persistently.

And when he sees human beings commit all kinds of blatant wrongs and oppressions against one another – something the Qur’an repeatedly refers to as Zulm, a term that sadly is not a part of English vocabulary.

So, the wrath of these good people against Zulm, in that context, is a reflection on earth of divine displeasure in Heaven.

And those who do not feel this righteous wrath and indignation, at any time and with regard to any issue, are often the ones whose hearts have gone dead.

They are people who have not allowed themselves to rise above the lowest level of human existence.

In fact, they are like animals, if not worse, as the Qur’an puts it.

They proceed from the narrowest focus and motives of personal greed, ambition and selfishness.

But what the good people in their state of righteous wrath and divinely inspired indignation do not do is take the law of the land – any law of any land – in their own hands as it were.

Nor do they use their righteous rage to perpetrate any atrocity or terrible deed of their own (Zulm) on the guilty.

But instead they set about systematically working to wipe out all injustices from the face of the earth.

And they do so by embarking upon a totally focused mission of inviting humanity to God and to his Book, the Qur’an, and to his prophet, Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.

And they do that using the best and the finest possible means and methods of human communication and outreach ever devised.

Such blessed individuals are God’s reflection on earth. They are God’s elect.

And they are God’s chosen and favored people in every age and place. " (Dr. Pasha)


“The most blessed month of Ramadan is designed to completely reshape human life and character. During the blessed month of Ramadan, our habits of eating, drinking, sleeping, conjugal intimacy, all undergo profound transformation.

After day-long deprivation of food, drink and sex, Ramadan imposes upon the Believers long hours of night prayers, chants, meditations and Qur’an reading. Lying and cheating, quarrelling and fighting, gossip and backbiting, always anathema to Islam, are now treated as absolute abominations.

And this goes on day after day and night after night for one whole month.

And for all of this time, the only one who really monitors your thought, speech and behaviour closely is you and your God. No one else does or can. A more comprehensive or rigorous regime for the complete reshaping of the human body, mind, soul and spirit is hard to imagine.

It would be hardly surprising if at the end of the month of Ramadan a human being emerges with a completely new and vigorous attitude to life and its challenges – and with a brand new character to successfully deal with them.

There is no better system on earth for creating character or for reforming and redirecting human life. And that is exactly what the Qur’an says Siyaam or Fasting came into this world to do: To teach us Taqwa, the highest form of character, rooted in the fear and love of God and in the love and service of humanity. To make new human beings out of us.

Taqwa-based character, when fully and properly formed, makes it possible for human beings to do their duty, and to do the right thing, at all times and in all situations, regardless of whether they are in a public place or in the privacy of their home.

It teaches human beings how to hold themselves accountable before God, and before their own conscience right here in this world, for their actions as well as for the outcomes and consequences they intended or expected from their actions.

Because their character has now been perfectly recalibrated and their spirit has now been fully charged and reinvigorated by the month-long physical, mental and spiritual drill of Ramadan during which God himself presided over their character training and over their physical and spiritual rejuvenation and remaking.” (Dr. Pasha)