Guides to a better life

POINTS ON HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE

Personality:
1. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
2. Don't have negative thoughts of things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment
3. Don't over do; keep your limits
4. Don't take yourself so seriously; no one else does
5. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip
6. Dream more while you are awake
7. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need..
8. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner of his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your  present happiness.
9. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
10. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present
11. No one is in charge of your happiness except you
12. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn.
Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
13. Smile and laugh more
14. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Carilah pasangan sendiri....

Bukan mustahil, kita sering mendapatkan kesulitan dalam memilih pasangan hidup. Karena kita meminta hal-hal yg sesuai dengan keinginan kita sendiri. Pada saat perkawinan sangat jauh dari pikiran kita, dan kita masih sangat menikmati hidup sendiri sehingga kita berpikir tidak perlu ada yang namanya Perkawinan. Tetapi ketika kita mulai serius memikirkan Masalah Perkawinan, mulailah pikiran kita merancang gambaran tentang pasangan yang bagaimana yang kita inginkan.

Kita pasti membayangkan pasangan hidup idaman, kulitnya harus begini, rambutnya harus begitu. Pada saat itu kita tidak tahu bahwa Tuhanlah yang akan mengaturnya. Kita pasti berpikir keinginan kita akan membuat kita bahagia.
Ternyata yang terjadi tidak lah demikian. Banyak yang mendapatkan jauh dari apa yang mereka bayangkan sebelumnya. Yang ingin disampaikan disini bahwa seseorang tidak bisa menjamin perkawinan itu bahagia dari apa yang ia bayangkan.

Cinta sejati daripada seorang isteri...

Saya ada mau share satu cerita...Cerita on base true story kalau saya tidak silap lah...Cerita ini saya telah dicritakan oleh cikgu saya time saya darjah 4 kalau saya tidak silap...Hehehe... 

Begini cerita dia...Jeng...jeng...Jeng...

Ada sepasang suami isteri yang sudah lama berkahwin...Slama ini mereka hidup bahagia dan saling mencintai antara satu sama yang lain sehinggalah sampai satu ketika yang mana terdapat perubahan sikap pada si suami. Mungkin ini disebabkan oleh stress kerja, busy, and so on. Setiap kali pulang, suami ni marah2, bad mood dan ada saja tidak kena dengan dia ni...Si isteri ni pun berasa sangat pelik melihat gelagat dan sikap suaminya yang tiba-tiba berubah. Sangat terguris hati dia tapi dia tetap tabah dan bersabar dengan suaminya. Sampailah satu masa yang mana pada waktu pagi si suami memanggil isterinya yang masih mencuci pakaian pegi ke meja makan sebab si suami ada mau cakap. Bila si isteri tiba di meja, dia ternampak ada sekeping kertas putih dan pen. Suaminya duduk bertentangan dengannya dengan raut wajah yang kurang menyenangkan. Si suami pun suruh si isteri duduk dan menerangkan tujuan dia memanggil isterinya. Berikut adalah percakapan si suami terhadap isterinya...

LOVE

Love comes in many colors, giving a sky to all its emotions. From happy 
moments to tearful thoughts, love conquers all. It is one emotion that shines in 
all eyes for all ages.
True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about but few have seen.

Love is the master key which opens the gates of happiness.
Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.
Love makes everything lovely.

Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
Love is friendship caught on fire.
True love will never fade unless it was all a lie.
Love teaches even asses to dance.

Listen

O my God,
Your love as gone before me,
And it has grown with me,
And it is an abyss whose depths I cannot fathom…
(St. Therese of Lisieux)

LISTEN! GOD IS SPEAKING TO YOU

(Here are variety of scripture texts that speak of God’s love. In each is a blank space for your name.

After quieting yourself and turning your attention to God, begin to pray one of these verses softly, aloud if possible, inserting your name in the blank space.

Hear God say the words to you personally. Receive the love that God is giving you.)

“I have loved you …… with an everlasting love, so I am constant in my affection for you.” (Jer. 31:3)

“I am holding you by the right hand, ……, I tell you. ‘Do not be afraid, I will help you.’” (Is. 41:13)

“……, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” (Jer. 1:5)

“I have called you by name, …… and you are mine.” (Is. 43:1)

“Does a woman forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the son of her womb? Yet even if these forget, I will never forget you,……” (Is.49:15)

“As the Father has loved me, so I have you, ……” (Jn. 15:9)

“You are precious in my eyes, ……, you are honoured and I love you.” (Is.43:4)

“See, ……, I have branded you on the palm of my hands.” (Is.49:16)

“I am with you to save you, ……” (Jer. 30:11)

“You do not choose Me, ……, no, I choose you.” (Jn. 15:16)

“Come to Me, all you …… that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you …… rest.” (Mt. 11:28)

“Take my yoke upon you, ……, and learn from Me: for I am gentle and humble of heart, …… and you will find rest for your souls.” (Mt. 11:29)

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me, and let the one …… who believes in Me drink. Now, He said this about the Spirit, which believers in Him were to receive.” (Jn. 7:37-39)


RESPONE
(When you have listened to God telling you His love for you through the words of scripture and pondered over the great love of God to you and your heart is overflowing with gratitude and love for God, you will want to respond to God by telling Him how much you love Him too.

You can do so either using the words that overflow from your heart or use the following)

O my God, how can I thank you for your great love for me?
I love you with all my heart, and want to love You more and more.
Fill my heart with love of You.
I believe in Your love for me.
I hope and place all my trust in You.
You are so good! Help me to be a better person and to be more like You.
I surrender myself to You. Make me more and more like You.
Since You want me to love my neighbor, fill my heart with love for my neighbor.
Help me to be meek and gentle like Jesus.
Make me compassionate as You, Father.

We want God to change our circumstances but God use Circumstances to change us

How often do we pray and ask God to change us to be a better person in our life? Everyday? Day and night? I guess so... But do we ever ask and pray to God like this "God, give us not what we want but what you know we need" and "If this is your will, then let your will be done and not us"?

To share with all of you, I used to pray and ask God to transform me or to change me to be a holy men, to be a pure children of God, the one who will follow God's Commandment fully and commit no sin anymore. But the more I pray in this way, the more worst I be... Today, the weekly wisdom open up my mind that the way I used to pray is not correct and it is not according to God's way. Praise be to God! Alleluia for starting this day, I will pray and thanks to God for what He has done into my life... Alleluia!!! Be the light that shine for all so that they will praise your Heavenly Father. Amen.

Confident People Do Not Get Confused

I found by chance this article the other day:

Prophet Muhammad’s Promise to Christians

The document is not a modern human rights treaty but even thought it was penned in 628 A.D. it clearly protects the right to property, freedom of religion, freedom of work, and security of the person, says Muqtedar Khan.

Muslims and Christians together constitute over fifty percent of the world and if they lived in peace, we will be half way to world peace. One small step that we can take towards fostering Muslim-Christian harmony is to tell and retell positive stories and abstain from mutual demonization.

In this article I propose to remind both Muslims and Christians about a promise that Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) made to Christians. The knowledge of this promise can have enormous impact on Muslim conduct towards Christians. Muslims generally respect the precedent of their Prophet and try to practice it in their lives.


In 628 AD, a delegation from St. Catherine’s Monastery came to Prophet Muhammed and requested his protection. He responded by granting them a charter of rights, which I reproduce below in its entirety. St. Catherine’s Monastery is located at the foot of Mt. Sinai and is the world’s oldest monastery. It possesses a huge collection of Christian manuscripts, second only to the Vatican, and is a world heritage site. It also boasts the oldest collection of Christian icons. It is a treasure house of Christian history that has remained safe for 1400 years under Muslim protection.


The Promise to St. Catherine:

"This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.
Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by God! I hold out against anything that displeases them.
No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses.
Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.
No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.
No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world)."

The first and the final sentence of the charter are critical. They make the promise eternal and universal. Muhammed asserts that Muslims are with Christians near and far straight away rejecting any future attempts to limit the promise to St. Catherine alone. By ordering Muslims to obey it until the Day of Judgment the charter again undermines any future attempts to revoke the privileges. These rights are inalienable. Muhammed declared Christians, all of them, as his allies and he equated ill treatment of Christians with violating God’s covenant.

A remarkable aspect of the charter is that it imposes no conditions on Christians for enjoying its privileges. It is enough that they are Christians. They are not required to alter their beliefs, they do not have to make any payments and they do not have any obligations. This is a charter of rights without any duties!

The document is not a modern human rights treaty but even thought it was penned in 628 A.D. it clearly protects the right to property, freedom of religion, freedom of work, and security of the person.

I know most readers, must be thinking so what? Well the answer is simple. Those who seek to foster discord among Muslims and Christians focus on issues that divide and emphasize areas of conflict. But when resources such as Muhammad’s promise to Christians are invoked and highlighted it builds bridges. It inspires Muslims to rise above communal intolerance and engenders good will in Christians who might be nursing fear of Islam or Muslims.

When I look at Islamic sources, I find in them unprecedented examples of religious tolerance and inclusiveness. They make me want to become a better person. I think the capacity to seek good and do good inheres in all of us. When we subdue this predisposition towards the good, we deny our fundamental humanity. In this holiday season, I hope all of us can find time to look for something positive and worthy of appreciation in the values, cultures and histories of other peoples.

Dr. Muqtedar Khan is Director of Islamic Studies at the University of Delaware and a fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.

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Now, when that delegation from St Catherine's monastery came to meet with Prophet Mohamad (pbuh), I suppose it's fair to assume that they spoke Arabic to one another. And when they were conversing, surely the word 'God' must have come up. As in "May God Be With You" and such like. What word did the Prophet (pbuh) use for 'God' I wonder? And what did the St Catherinians use in return? For monotheists like them, was there a 'your God' and 'my God' type of situation, or did they understand that they were both talking about the same One?



While some idiots are mourning over the 'loss' of the word 'Allah' and therefore basically telling the world that they are people easily confused by nomenclature, and others are predicting riots over what is basically a 'copyright' issue, let me define what I think a confident Muslim should be:


1. A confident Muslim is unfazed by the issue of God's name. God speaks to all of humankind in the Quran and never said that only Muslims could call him by the name Allah.


2. A confident Muslim has 99 names to choose from to describe that One God. My favourites are Ar-Rahman (The All-Compassionate) and Ar-Rahim (The All-Merciful).


3. A confident Muslim never gets confused over which is his/her religion and which is other people's. For instance, a confident Muslim knows exactly what the first chapter of the Quran is. And it's not the Lord's Prayer.


4. A confident Muslim will not walk into a church, hear a liturgy in Malay or Arabic where they use the word 'Allah' and then think that he or she is in a mosque. A confident Muslim knows the difference.


5. A confident Muslim is generous, inclusive and doesn't think that his or her brethren is made exclusive through the use of a single language. The confident Muslim is well aware that in the Middle East, all services of ANY religion are in Arabic because that's what they all speak.


6. A confident Muslim knows the basis of his/her faith are the five pillars of Islam and will not be shaken just because other people call God by the same name.


7. A Muslim believes in only One God. Therefore it makes sense that other people should call God by the same name because there is no other God.


ART THOU NOT aware that it is God whose limit less glory all [creatures] that are in the heavens and on earth extol, even the birds as they spread out their wings? Each [of them] knows indeed how to pray unto Him and to glorify Him; and God has full knowledge of all that they do:(Surah Nour, Verse 41) (Asad)


So I would ask those people demonstrating against the Court decision, have you no pride? Are you saying you're easily confused?

And before anyone says I have no qualifications to say these things, read what Dr Asri Zainal Abidin (who does have qualifications no matter what JAIS says) has written about this very subject here.

And here's something interesting. In 2007, the Majlis Agama Negeri Perlis, which is a large majlis filled with people very learned in Islamic religious knowledge, discussed the question of the use of 'Allah' by non-Muslims. Their unanimous decision? They issued a fatwa to say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with non-Muslims using the word at all.(This was told to me by Dr. Asri but I cannot find the fatwa anywhere online because all the religious departments' websites are so useless.)

Are we now going to excommunicate the whole of Perlis?

Taken from http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com