What Changed Your Life

What changed your life?

A lot of things in this life can bring about change in a person, but the most influencing thing is love. It could be love for money, power or success. It could be the love you have for another human being for example your parents, your partner, your child. It could be love for your Allah and Rasool.
Tiny seeds sprout into trees, like wise tiny things we can deem insignificant can bring about a momentous change in others. This quote by Mother Teresa "Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, and kindness in your smile. Because one of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody." Says it simply in a few words how significant even the smallest act of kindness can be.
Here are some life changing facts that having witnessed or read about, I can say have brought about magnanimous change in people who have gone through them or who have seen them.
The most important kind of love a person can and should feel is love for one's God. They should be in tune with it. It should be a part of them as hair, nails or teeth. This hadith says it very concisely
"O Lord, grant me your love, grant me that I love those who love you; grant me, that I might do the deeds that win your love. Make your love dearer to me than the love of myself, my family and wealth." (Tirmidhi)
And a certain things happen that could make Love for Allah Your focal point, It could be the death of a loved one, or a big shock from someone close or it just might gradually grow in your heart and mind till its so steeped in that you wouldn’t know where it started from. A lot of things can make you appreciate Allah and in turn bring about your direction towards your faith. "Allah loves you just as you love him for His sake." [Muslim].
The other kinds of love are for human beings, The Prophet has said "You will not believe as long as you do not love one another." - Sahih Muslim, Hadith 19. This love speaks of love for your parents, it can make you an infinitely better person if you love and listen to your parents.
"None of you truly believes (in Allah and in His religion) until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself".
This story relates how parental love can also affect children
An old man was sitting in the courtyard of his house along with his son who had received a high education. Suddenly a crow perched on a wall of the house. The father asked the son: What is this? The son replied: It is a crow. After a little while the father again asked the son: What is this? The son said: It is a crow. After a few minutes the father asked his son the third time: What is this? The son said: Father, I have just now told you that this is a crow. After a little while the old father again asked his son the fourth time: what is this? By this time some statement of irritation was felt in the son’s tone when he rebuffed his father: Father! It is a crow, a crow. A little after the father again asked his son: What is this? This time the son replied to his father with a vein of temper. Father: You are always repeating the same question; although I have told you so many times that it is a crow. Are you not able to understand this?
The father went to his room and came back with an old diary. Opening a page he asked his son to read what was written. What the son read were the following words written in the diary:
‘Today my little son was sitting with me in the courtyard, when a crow came there. My son asked me twenty-five times what it was and I told him twenty-five times that it was a crow and I did not at all feel irritated. I rather felt affection for my innocent child.’
The father then explained to his son the difference between a father’s and a son’s attitude. While you were a little child you asked me this question twenty-five times and I felt no irritation in replying to the question twenty-five times and when today I asked you the same question only five times, you felt irritated, annoyed and impatient with me.
The other and more selfish kind of love is love for money, success, beauty and honour.
This type of love can bring a negative change and alter their thoughts making a human selfish. It can cause you to look down on others who are not as beautiful, successful and groomed as you are or it can even make you say and do things which harden your heart and hurt the person in front of you.
This hadith is Allah's way of shedding light on this kind of love.
"Renounce the world and Allah will love you, and renounce what people possess and people will love you." a fine Hadith related by Ibn Majah.
But in some cases I have seen one particularly of the institutes Depilex Smile Again Foundation which helps women who have lost that beauty, honour and brings about success stories in their lives.
Love has changed me too. Love for my Allah, my children, my husband and my family. It has mellowed me as an individual, brought about profound faith that whatever
Allah decreed for us is actually better for us, for He is All-Wise and All-Knowing.
Allah says: "...and it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not know." (Surah Baqarah: 216) and a deep down belief in the fact that
" And if life has been difficult, worries surround you and calamities after calamities befall you, hear the good news from the Prophet (Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi WA Sallam): "Trials will continue to befall the believing man and woman, with regard to themselves, their children and their wealth, until they meet Allah with no sin on them." (Tirmidhi-- saheeh by al-Albaani).
Amen