A little bit on Faith… معنى المؤمن من اسامي الله الحسنى

Posted on June 19, 2015 by Razan Masri

Faith: To have faith means to be certain. And to have faith, is to be protected and feel at ease when you feel fear. And you gain Faith when you are a believer seeking for it. And Faith comes from the Divine, since believing is knowing the existence of something more powerful than our being. Faith is to feel protected even when threatened, it is to feel tranquil in your heart in whatever situation you are in. And feeling both fear and Faith are both feelings of instincts that are a source of connection with the Divine. It is a feeling for a reason, a reason to differentiate situations. “From the 99 names of God in Islam”

المؤمن: الإيمان فى اللغة هو التصديق ، ويقال آمنه من الأمان ضد الخوف ، والله يعطى الأمان لمن استجار به واستعان ، الله المؤمن الذى وحد نفسه بقوله ( شهد الله أنه لا اله إلا هو ) ، وهو الذى يؤمن أولياءه من عذابه ، ويؤمن عباده من ظلمه ، هو خالق الطمأنينة فى القلوب ، أن الله خالق أسباب الخوف وأسباب الأمان جميعا وكونه تعالى مخوفا لا يمنع كونه مؤمنا ، كما أن كونه مذلا لا يمنع كونه معزا ، فكذلك هو المؤمن المخوف ، إن إسم ( المؤمن ) قد جاء منسوبا الى الله تبارك وتعالى فى القرآن مرة واحدة فى سورة الحشر فى قوله تعالى ( هو الله الذى لا اله إلا هو الملك القدوس السلام المؤمن المهيمن العزيز الجبار المتكبر سبحان الله عما يشركون ) سورة الحش

A message of Love; from what have inspired me the past week.

Posted on June 17, 2015 by Razan Masri

I was inspired to read a couple of beautiful statuses from Friends and Pages of people I follow on facebook. Words of love from people welcoming the Holly month of Ramadan, words of Love to remind us that Ramadan is not only about fasting from food, but also fasting from the self. It is about Forgiveness and about Love. It is about asking those you have been mistaken with in your life to forgive you, and being Thankful and grateful to those and for those who have been the light of love in your life.

So I am taking this chance, to thank my friends and thank the people who are worth following and reading their posts. Thank you for inspiring me to write this post, for reminding me to feel the need to ask for forgiveness and to send my gratitude, and for being contagious in wanting to share this post on my blog and my facebook wall.

To those, I have been mistaken with, or I have hurt, even if for very little, I am sorry. I might have done it on purpose and I might have no idea that I did hurt you at all. Either way I hope you can forgive me. Forgive me, if I have been wrong, or if I have caused any ache in your heart or life.

To those who have shown me the smallest sparks of love and to those who shower me with love, Thank you. I will InshAlla include you in my every day prayer during the month of Ramadan, and I will send my gratitude to God for bringing you to my life. I am grateful for the love you have given me. I am grateful to meet you, to know you and to receive love from you. I pray that I am also a ray of love in your life.

This is a message of love before the first day of the Holly month of Ramadan. It is a message I wish to share to express that this upcoming month, is a beautiful month, because it is an opportunity for all of us to reflect, to learn and to remember, that no matter how many times we trip, we get a new chance to try again. This is my chance to want to start a new page, a white page, where all I draw in the lives of those I stumble upon, hearts of love.

With love, have a wonderful month of Ramadan, wherever you are.

Why is Rumi the best poet in the US? And why am I a big fan of his?

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Razan Masri

I stumbled upon an article few weeks ago, only to finally read it today. And one part of the article; I never want to forget, so I decided to write about it, save it and share it.

From the BBC Culture Article: Why is Rumi the best poet in the US ?

“His combination of mystical richness and bold adaptation of poetic forms is the key to his popularity today.” Rumi uses 4 main innovations in his direct address to readers, that defined my understandings and connection to his ancient writings…

He uses the second person in his writing – Which to many of us, we feel personalized, as if he is talking to me, with me, directing me, so it is much easier to relate or imagine and therefore feel belonging.
His urge to teach – He writes in the form of giving, sending, with ultimate love and compassion, take this knowledge from me, take it for free, I just want to teach you, help you, and take care of you.
He uses everyday imagery – Which until today, after around 800 years we can still relate to. Whether he is referring to the ocean, skies, love, escape, nature, earth… we can relate to his images.
His celebration and optimists attainment to union – Who isn’t attracted to optimists? Who isn’t searching for union? He writes with assertiveness, which therefore comforts us “the readers” to one day, reach our own findings.

And what I enjoyed the most about all this, is relating myself to it. I have the tendency to write in the form of a second person. I believe in giving, learning and teaching, I use my inspiration from my everyday life and as an optimist myself, I am in search of Unity. And through my Rumi Readings, I find my answers and motivation.

So here is to Rumi… You have taught me so much about my own spiritual beliefs, the richness of my very own culture, you have inspired me, inspired many others before me, and you will keep inspiring many more like me. I truly hope I can help spread some of your wisdom through my writings.

What is Destiny? And how different is it from your Fate?

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Razan Masri

“Destiny doesn’t mean that your life has been strictly predetermined. Therefore, to leave everything to fate and to not actively contribute to the music of the universe is a sign of sheer ignorance. The music of the universe is all-pervading and it is composed on forty different levels. Your destiny is the level where you will play your tune. You might not change your instrument but how well to play is entirely in your hands.” Another great one by The Sufi mystic & Islamic scholar Jalal ad-Din Rumi – Rule#29 from the book 40 Rules of love by Elif Shafak – Read more below.

Two years ago, the following question occurred to me:

What is the difference between Destiny and Fate?

Why does everyone keep saying, this is your destiny, or this is just fate? what is the difference anyway? And if things are meant to be then what are we fighting for?

I kept searching for answers, asking people I love, people I felt are wise, people who I was interested to hear their input. I started to evaluate life, incidents, accidents, and concluding. After few month of living the question, answers starting coming to me. How? Serendipity filled my life. Coincidence, luck or call it Destiny or Fate started to take place. Things that were a little bit fortunate or unfortunate but at that specific time it all seemed to have a language of its own. Bumping into loved ones, bumping into long time acquaintance, getting into the most unimaginable accidents, and even meeting new people who end up changing my life.

Yes, all of the above happened to me within literally less than a month, I felt I can predict reasons, but then with time, it showed me different reasons, and so I realized that reasons either change according to time or they are simply always unpredictable even when they are predictable.

So i came down to the following conclusion: Fate; is what you have no control over; your parents, your siblings, your class mates, your kids, acquaintances, accidents, gifts, location etc… Destiny; is how you deal with them, where you take your relationship to, how you establish or sustain, how you act; positive or negative, how you feel; lucky or unlucky.

And Like Rumi puts it in the above quote: Fate is your instrument, it can not be changed for it is given to you, but how you play this instrument is your destiny, your choice, to use it or not to use it, to become a musician or to just frame it for display. To make beautiful memorable piece, or to make noisy and harsh piece. Your fate is what you have no choice over, your destiny is how you decide to act upon it.