Your parents stopped buying things for themselves years ago. Not because they couldn't afford it. But because every time they had extra money, they thought of you first. They wear the same clothes. Use the same phone. Eat simpler meals. While making sure you never felt like you went without. Most of us noticed too late. Some of us never noticed at all.
Sheikh Ibn Baz رحمه اللّٰه said: When I lost my sight as a child, I heard my aunt say to my mother, thinking I was asleep, "Poor Abdul Aziz, how will he get a job to support himself?".
- He later became the Grand Mufti of the Kingdom, Chairman of the Council of Senior Scholars, Chairman of the Islamic Jurisprudence Academy, and winner of the King Faisal Prize for Service to Islam
Ramadan confronts modern man with a terrifying possibility: that he is more than his cravings. And once he realizes this, he becomes dangerous, because he is no longer easily manipulated
Umar ibn Khattab رضي الله عنه said
“I am not worried about whether my dua will be responded to, but rather I am worried about whether I will be able to make dua or not.
So if I have been guided to make dua, then I know that the response will come with it.”
(Al-Awayishah p. 117)
She’s getting cooked but she’s right
If your sole purpose as a man is to get married and have children, you’ve been longhoused. You must marry and have children as a necessity, but your purpose as a man is so much greater than that. If that’s where your aspirations end, that’s fine - but it’s not virtuous or respectable to do the bare minimum expectation of you
there is something about the masculine soul that separates it from the feminine
this is also why most men while they may be men biologically are not masculine in essence
it is this
the masculine in its prime and most actualized is individualized, solitude, alone, sovereign - it must carry its own weight along with the weight of others
the feminine is collective and more of a flock spirit, communal
the masculine carries and the feminine seeks to be carried
thus the masculine to be actualized requires great endurance and capacity for hardship
it must fight for itself
to be a true man is to be born in the abyss and claw your way out to freedom
to be born in the prison of collective consciousness and climb your way out into the light of sovereignty
thus why the masculine is more rare
the divine masculine is more rare than the divine feminine
much more compressed and powerful, because power is a masculine expression
the divine feminine can be embodied by multiple, while the truest divine masculine can only be embodied by one at a time
it can only be actualized through fighting for itself
to have another fight for you, is to subtly be subjugated under their masculine presence
to carry your own weight and carry the world, is to be divine
This video was shot 15 years ago long before it went viral, long before people tried to add meanings to it.
A lone penguin, filmed in Antarctica, walking endlessly through the ice... No edits. No background story, No narration.
Just a penguin and time.
For years, no one knew why it was walking. where it was going, Or what it was thinking.
Some called it lost. Some called it depressed Some laughed at it.
But this clip survived for 15 years because it mirrors us.
Penguins can't fly like other birds.
On land, they look slow, awkward, out of place.
Yet they keep moving because stopping in the cold means death.
This penguin didn't have a map.
It didn't know how long the walk would be.
But it understood one thing: forward is the only direction.
Just like life: - When you don't know your destination
When everyone else seems ahead
When the environment feels cold, lonely, unforgiving You walk.
Not because you're confident, but because survival demands movement.
3 men face a tremendous trial
Loss of a job
Loss of wealth
Setback in career
Divorce
Bereavement
Anything along those lines
The first falls into despair and complains “oh Allah why would you do this to Me, what did I do to deserve this”
The second grits his teeth and bears the calamity with patience
The third is content and almost pleased with the calamity, as he sees in it, an opportunity to get closer to Allah.
Whether it be through:
- expiation of sins
- a means of him turning back to Allah after he forgot Allah
- a means of repentance
Either way
The first is sinful
The second is admirable
But the third… he is what we should all aim to be
Man United are 7th on the table. They've only won 2 of their last 5 games.
Log onto Twitter, and you'll see paragraphs and videos ranting about their performance.
Frankly, I find it strange...grown men spending hours watching and obsessing over the performance of millionaire footballers.
But it's not just football, is it?
It's the YouTube videos about entrepreneurs who "made it."
It's scrolling LinkedIn watching people celebrate funding rounds and product launches.
It's watching interviews with self-made millionaires, taking notes, feeling inspired... and then doing absolutely nothing with it.
We consume other people's success like it's our own.
We study their moves, analyze their strategies, and debate their decisions in the comments.
It feels productive, but it's not.
It's a distraction disguised as ambition.
Because watching someone else win is easier than risking your own failure.
It's safer to critique a millionaire's decision than to make one yourself.
It's more comfortable to analyze someone else's performance than to face your own lack of progress.