Take care of You too

So here's the Question: Can a doctor treat other patients while he himself is sick?

Answer: Yes, depending on the severity of the illness and its type. if he is still able to meet and prescribe medications to patients, it would be good, but it would be unwise of him to ignore his own medications while giving prescription to others.

why is this important?
This doctor is like you and I, giving advice to others, while we ourselves are in need.
Though its beautiful to help others to practice the Deen and become better, it would be quite unwise of us to be doing so while neglecting our ownselves. 
so how about this, each time we are about to give advice to others- Let us pause for a moment and ask ourselves, "Am I doing this already?", if no, "do I intend to start doing it now?". because once we let out words, we must back them up with actions in order not to fall into the pit of hypocrisy.

We do not have to be perfect to call others to the Deen, but we have to be sincere, and we have to strive with our own selves, and help ourselves as well. may Allaah increase us all in understanding, sincerity and steadfastness. Aameen

Bonus: here's this Du'a as my gift to you :) {Translation: O Allah assist me in remembering you, and thanking you, and worshiping you in the best of manners.}

To Love With All Imperfections

From the love of a mother, unconditional

We have so much more to learn

Without limitation, she gives a love

That doesn’t even have to be earned

Through every pitfall and stumbling block,

The child meets on his way,

She’s right there to pick him up

With her generous warm embrace

Oh how we often imagine

If we could ever for her efforts pay

But we cannot, its impossible

We would try needless to say

To love with all imperfections

Through the faults and all mistakes

To still find the courage to hold on

Not caring what’s at stake

Let the mother teach you this kind of love

Where does it come from you may ask?

It is only a clear epitome, of what we have all been tasked

If we could love a lot like mothers do

A beautiful kind of love

A love so true, immeasurable

In a bit I’ll explain to you

When her child does wrong or begins to stray

The first thing that comes to her mind,

Is “what if this continues? What can I say?

What if more and more unwinds?”

It’s certainly not the best of ways

For it leads to eternal doom

If only they would understand, certainly,

For adjustments there’s much room

So she scolds him out of love though

At the risk of having him think,

“I’d rather be elsewhere, than right here,

I could leave her without a blink”

And how so many times, we’ve lost count

Of how disappointed she would be

But even when the world would turn away

Right beside him she would stay

He turns his back too, one too many times

And when he’s pushed back home

She accepts him ever so lovingly

As though he never left her alone

She never stops praying for his safety

There’s no dua without the mention of his name

She doesn’t mind, it never crosses her mind

That perhaps he isn’t doing the same

And even when he would think “oh she doesn’t care”

Everyone is right here but she’s not

Perhaps she had everyone be there, just for him

And at the background she would squat

You see, it doesn’t matter to her if he knows or not

All the sacrifices that she makes

All that brings her smiles are the joy she sees,

On his happy glowing face

Enough as a source of satisfaction for her is to see him on the right way

Her only plight is to make sure that upon that way he stays

The best she could get, the best he could have; success all the way

Just so she could meet him again, smiling on the last day

But how about us, how is our love so different?

 Its because we seek convenience, its always the intent

As soon as we sight a mistake,

In seconds we reconsider, “am i really going to stay?”

Our love for others isn’t strong enough

Atleast not as much as for ourselves

For with all the faults with which we are packed up

We are still big fans of ourselves

And if we truly did love, a lot like the mother

Then all we would want is the best for each other

That suffices to keep us patient each time,

We see a fault, or with however big the crime

If the child was crippled, disabled or ill

That wouldn’t change anything, his mother would love him still

And its true the love of a mother is beyond compare

But for a definition of true love, that's an example right there

For it is only true love that has the ability

To see beyond every imperfection, fault and disability

Its only true love that can be selfless, unconditional

It’s the one that never ends, it’s the one that is eternal.

Annihilate the Pride

The heart does not become pure, until it is completely devoid of pride. We have heard the statement of the prophet (salAllaahu alayhi wa Sallam) that "a person who has an atom's weight of pride in his heart will not enter paradise" [sahih Muslim]. And we understand this because; only a heart that is pure would be accepted on that day, and also, because pride itself alters the very essence of Imaan. This then makes it very important for us to eliminate pride from our hearts down to the last atom’s weight. It means we need to be extremely cautious of letting it creep into our hearts to gain accommodation. And we need to go extra miles to seek that which keeps us far away from pride, humility and adopt it. This is what we really need.

So but first we need to understand what in entails. Is it the desire to be well-dressed and beautiful? No. Is it wanting to remain neat and well-kept always, and stay away from that which is filthy? Why certainly not. When the prophet (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam) was asked, he said “[Kibr (pride) is the rejection of truth (Batrul-Haqq) and condescension of others (wa ghaamtun-naas).” [sahih Muslim]. It is the feeling that one is better or superior to his fellow brother, and that which makes you reject the truth when it comes to you.  

So what is the first step that we need to take in eliminating pride from our hearts? It is recognizing the need to get rid of it and that which leads us to it. Accepting that it exists and there’s a possibility of having ourselves infected by it and understanding the importance of this. A patient cannot seek treatment for a disease if he/she believes that he/she is immune to that disease. Or worse still, they cannot seek medication if they don’t even know they have been infected by the disease and they neither perceive any symptoms nor are aware of its lethal implication. So also, we can only help ourselves to get rid of pride by first recognizing the need and importance of doing so. If we establish this in our subconscious we would find ourselves constantly reviewing our actions, our thoughts and intentions. Why am I doing this? Or why am I not doing this? Is it out of pride? Is this pride I perceive in my heart?

A typical example may be how we receive correction. It seems easier to accept correction when it is coming from someone older, or our teachers, or someone generally more knowledgeable. But when a younger person corrects us, or when someone who seems lower in status, or someone who does even more wrong than we do comes to us with the truth, do we accept it readily? Or do we hesitate? Why?

Another example may be how we respond to bad treatment from people. When your boss at work speaks to you in a disliked manner, it may be easier to tolerate it because you perceive he is above you. You excuse his behavior. But when the clerk, or the chauffeur, or anyone you perceive as lower than you in status does the same, do you excuse him or her as well?. Why?

There shouldn’t be any difference. When truth is presented to us, we accept it regardless of who it is coming from or even how it is presented. And also, when we have people being disrespectful to us, we excuse their behavior regardless of who they are. This is how we can expel pride from our hearts. We don’t have laid down expectations of how we should be treated by others, and we do not compare ourselves to others feeling superior or inferior.
Surely, the scales of Allah are different from the scales of the people, and Allah gauges people differently; according to our level of taqwa and righteousness. It is when we compare ourselves to others that we make way for pride to creep in to our hearts. Each person has their unique value known only to Allaah. 


The second step to understand that everything that we have is from Allah and will return to Allah. Everything of knowledge, status, wealth and all that has the potential to make us feel proud was given to us by Allah and so we do not claim ownership of them. we also remember that any of these can be taken away from us at any time. 

The third step is to go extra mile to make sure pride doesn't exist in our hearts. After recognizing the need to remove pride and the existence of the chances of possessing it, it becomes imperative for us to make effort to keep away from pride. In others words to make sure we remain humble always. Allaah gives us a therapy for this in the Quran, He says “and the servants of (Allah) Most Gracious are those who walk on earth in humility and when the ignorant address them they say “peace” (Al-Furqaan, Ayah 63). And here Allah does not say the ignorant boss, or the ignorant leader only, He just says the ignorant; whoever it may be.

So out of humility you don’t even tell yourself that you don’t deserve the way the ignorant person has addressed you, but rather you reciprocate this manner of speech with mild and gentle words of peace. You excuse their behavior, and you do not get upset, because we are all slaves of Allah, and He is the only one to whom all praise and respect is due, not me, not you. so if a certain individual or group of people do not recognize you are the king of your community or prominent public figure and hence, do not treat you as such you tell yourself, Alhamdulillaah, I am only a slave of Allah and He is the only one to whom all praise is due.

Another way to go extra miles in eliminating pride is to exchange greetings. This is not just when it is easy, when you are on good terms with a person or when the person greets you. But rather, to always extend the greeting even when you’re the first one doing it all the time and when the person scarcely ever replies. Even when the person has wronged you in some way and has not apologized. Greet the young and the old, the weak and the strong, the rich and the poor, everyone you can, stranger or known. This is one effective cure for pride.

Yet another step to take is to always be polite. The popular three words we have been taught since childhood is what I’ll refer to again. Please, I’m sorry and thank you; Courtesy, humility and gratitude. And again, not just when it easy to say them, or when you know you have to, but even when it seems like it is not even required. When the recipients do not even expect them and it seems to make no difference at all. It actually makes a huge difference; it expels pride from your heart!

So this means, for example, if an employee of yours does the work he/she is supposed to do (the work you pay him/her to do), you still thank them for their effort, you still say please to them out of courtesy, and you still apologize if you wrong them unknowingly. This would not reduce anything from you but would rather increase you in honor and humility.

And it may seem like a lot, but with conscious effort and sincerity, Allah would make it easy. And we can walk on the earth in humility, with our thoughts and actions devoid of pride, so we can attain the beautiful virtue of possessing the pure hearts for the sake of Allah.