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How to Spend your Summer Vacation

Yasir Qadhi

category: Islamic Identity

source: Muslimmatters.org

reads: 20082

... continued from Page 2

Number two:  Ibrahim has guts for the sake of Islam.  Not for the sake of being cool, but for the sake of his Lord.  It doesn’t matter what people say, he has a mission on this earth, and that mission is to worship Allah, and nobody is going to get in the way of that mission.

Number three:  When the going gets tough, the Muslim turns to Allah.  When it gets tough, you don’t just go into a shell and you don’t pretend that you are not a Muslim and you don’t just ignore everything.  You return to Allah (subhanahu wata’ala) and you make du’a to Allah.

Number four:  You act wisely.  When Ibrahim ('alayhi salaam) was cornered and when he was put on that inquisition and trial, he managed to stump all of the adults.  A Muslim kid is an intelligent kid.  A Muslim kid is a smart kid.  Ibrahim as a kid is able to stump all of the adults.  That is what you call a visionary and that is what you call an intellectual.  Once again, he is not wasting his time, but he is thinking and he is contemplating.  Every one of us has a brain.  What makes an intellectual an intellectual?  It is simply the same reason why the bodybuilder becomes a bodybuilder.  Every day he goes to the gym, and every day he works out.  What is going to happen?  He is going to get a body.  Well, then what is going to happen when you use the brain that Allah has given you?  When you use it to think, to contemplate, to educate yourself, that is what Ibrahim did.  He will develop a brain.

A Muslim kid is a smart kid, and therefore, I’ll say it as bluntly as I can:  a Muslim kid pays attention to his secular studies along with his religious studies.  A Muslim kid gets straight A’s in school because he is a Muslim kid.  A Muslim kid is going to hit the books even if it is chemistry or physics or whatever it is.  He is going to hit the books because he knows that every bit of knowledge is beneficial for him.  The Muslim kid is an intelligent kid.

The last point that we are going to mention here – and again, so much can be derived, but time is of the essence here – is:  A Muslim child understands that he never has the right to answer back to his parents, and he never has the right to be rude to his parents.  Sure, if you don’t like something, then speak in a good manner and in an intellectual manner like Ibrahim did:  "My dear father, why are you doing this?"  There is a way, and nobody is saying that you have to be silent.  If you don’t like something, try to negotiate with politeness and with manners.  Never under any circumstance can you be rude to your mother and father.

These are simply some of the lessons that we derive from the story of the prophet Ibrahim as a young teenager.  We pray that Allah (subhanahu wata’ala) makes us of those who understand these beautiful lessons and morals and makes us of those who follow in the footsteps of the prophet Ibrahim ('alayhi salaam).

Second Part: Making the most of your summer vacation

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, and my younger brothers and sisters in Islam in particular, one of the most interesting miracles that Allah has given all of mankind is that of time.  Time is a miracle and a creation of Allah.  Allah created time, and it is something that none of us truly understands.  Einstein became famous because he tried to just understand what exactly is time.  What exactly does time do?  Just by scratching the surface and talking a little bit about time, he became world famous.

We are never going to fully understand what time is.  We are never going to fully understand how it is that all of us sitting here have the exact same amount of time per hour, per minute, per day.  Some of us utilize it and others don’t.  Realize that time is so amazing that Allah gives oaths by time and swears by time.  What does it mean to swear?  When Allah swears, what this means is that Allah gives a qasm in Arabic.  You know when somebody says, "You’re lying," and then you say, "Wallahi (I swear by Allah) I am telling the truth," this is what we mean by swearing and by giving an oath.

We as Muslims can only swear using the Name of Allah, and we are not allowed to put anything else in, but Allah is allowed to use His creation to swear and to give oaths by.  When He uses something of the creation, it shows that this aspect of the creation is amazing and miraculous.  Our Lord sometimes swears by the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam).  Our Lord sometimes swears by the creation of the heavens and earth, and in many verses, our Lord swears by time.  Not just once but many times.  W’al-fajr (the time of fajr), w’al-dhuha (the time of the sun rising up), w’al-asr (the time of the forenoon), w’al-shamsi wa’l-dhuhaha, w’al-layli idha yaghshaaha, w’al-nahaari idha tajalla.  Allah is swearing by all the time.

What this means is that time is a beautiful, amazing miracle that Allah has given.  One of the things about time that we all know is that we only get to spend it once.  We can’t go back and redo.  We have it and we spend it and that’s it.  The wise person understands this point and utilizes his or her time for that which is beneficial becausetime will only come to you once.

Now we are at the beginning of the summer months here when you have two and a half long months ahead of you, and you don’t know what you are going to do with that time.  My dear young brothers and sisters in Islam, the wise child and the one who wants to follow in the footsteps of Ibrahim ('alayhi salaam) will take advantage of that time.

Believe you me, as you grow older and older, you will have less and less time.  As responsibilities grow and as your education grows and as you get married and have your own children, do you think that you are going to have more time or less time?  Right now Allah has given you a solid amount of time with nothing to do.  Your parents are taking care of you.  Your mother cooks your dishes for you and does your laundry for you.  How long do you think you are going to have all of this time just to kill?  And look how we even call it 'killing time.’  Killing is not good, even if you do it to time.

Look at how much time Allah has given you.  You have the summer months ahead of you.  How are you going to take advantage of that?  I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t be spending time having fun and going to play and playing computer games.  No, I’m not telling you that.  Mortal Kombat is not haram – alhamdulillah it is halal.  Buttoo much of halal does become problematic.  Candy is halal and chocolates are halal.  What would happen if you ate chocolate all day and all night?  Do you think that would be healthy for you?

Of course, it is halal to play computer games, but let’s get real here.  Grand Theft Auto is not going to teach you how to be a good person, and you know that.  You know that even if your dad has no idea what the game is.  You know that it’s not going to teach you how to be a good Muslim and how to be a good human.  Also, I mean come on let’s get real here as well – we all know that it’s cool to download the ways out of Call of Duty, but we as Muslims have a real call of duty and that call of duty is to answer Allah (subhanahu wata’ala).

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