Alhamdulillah (all praise is for Allah ta'ala), the All Merciful, the All Loving has brought us to the last month of the year. December, a beautiful cold month, especially here in Dubai that brings the best season to us; it feels like spring in this season rather than winter. We feel the beautiful breeze and blooming flowers at this time of the year

But then, December brings another thought in the hearts of NUI (Nur ul Ilm) students, and that is EXAMS. Every year, in this time of the year, students are working hard for the upcoming mid-year exams. This is the season of fast heartbeats, stressed minds and overwhelmed emotions. My advice today to all the students, especially the ones who are going through this stress of exams, is that the reason we joined this institute is to come closer to Allah ta'ala, to know Him and His beautiful deen (religion), and then to bring this beauty into our lives. So we must not forget our real purpose of studying here, and we should keep reminding ourselves of it. We should enjoy studying and learning, and most of all, we should thank Allah ta'ala that He chose us for this honourable gift. We should study for the sake of knowing and implementing, not for the sake of scoring good marks. If we correct our intentions, inshaAllah (if Allah ta'ala wills) the good marks will come as a bonus to us by the help of Allah ta'ala. As it is said:

“Success is not in the end of this path, but rather success is this path.”

Achieving a good position or score in the exam is not success for us, rather walking on this path of knowledge is the biggest success. Failing is not failing the exams; in fact failing is leaving this path. So let us not fail.

Few things which keep us going on this path of knowledge are:

1.Intentions: Our intention should be learning for the sake of Allah ta'ala alone, our goal should be Allah ta'ala alone and our struggle should be for Allah ta'ala alone. 

“A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.

2. Passion: We should have a zeal and passion to learn. We should try to absorb each and every word what we learn. We should love what we are doing.

“Passion is that power that will propel you to get out of bed each morning and push you to make your dreams come true.”

3. Working Hard: Islam encourages us to work hard for everything, Allah ta'ala says in the Quran,

وَالَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا ۚ وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَمَعَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ

“And as for those who strive hard in Our cause - We shall most certainly guide them onto Our paths, for, indeed, God is indeed with the doers of good.” (29:69)

We must work hard to execute our intentions into reality, as it is said:

“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”

4. Implementation: We should make sure that whatever we learn here, we implement it into our lives. Every ayah (verse) of the Quran we read, every hadith (prophetic narration) which goes through our eyes, and everything we learn of our shariah (Islamic code of law) should be applied practically into our lives.

 As the Prophet salallaho alaihe wasallam said:

القرأن حة لك او عليك

“Quran is a proof for you or against you.” (Sahih Muslim)

5. Reliance on Allah ta'ala: The last but not the least is, once we take all four initial steps, then we should put all our trust in Allah ta'ala. We should have this firm belief that Allah ta'ala will make us go through it, and we should also ask Allah ta'ala for acceptance.

Allah ta'ala says about His special people:

 إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُتَوَكِّلِينَ

“Indeed Allah loves the people who trust Him.” (3:159)

InshaAllah, Allah ta'ala will take us through these exams with success. However, we must not forget that there is another exam which we all are striving for, and that is the exam of our lives, exam of every breath we take and every action we do. This is the exam which Allah ta'ala is taking from us at every moment of our lives, and He wants us to be prepared for that. The result day will be very soon. The moment we leave this exam room, which is this world, we will be told of our results. We must work the hardest for this exam, because if we do not perform in the exams of our academy, we might still get another chance; but for the exam of this life, we get only one chance. We live once and we die once, so we must make sure that we carry out all the five points mentioned above in order to get us through the exam of life. We must rectify our intentions, we must have passion that we want to please our Creator, we must work hard for that, and we must implement His commands in our lives; and in the end we must have trust in Him alone.

قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

Say (on My Behalf): ‘O servants of Mine who have transgressed against their own selves! Do not despair not of Allah’s mercy. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins - for, verily, He alone is the Most forgiving, the Very Merciful!’(39:53)

I planted a little seed of intention in my heart

I engraved His name in the end and in the start

I watered it with passion and zeal to make it grow

To love my Beloved and let His name glow

I worked hard to nurture it and spent nights and days

I could see, leading to Him many paths and many ways

I embraced those paths and I walked on that way

The road to Him was my journey everyday

I put my trust in Him alone to make strong my soul.

As He was my intention, my passion, my path and my goal.

I held on to these secrets and He told me to be sure

That my seed will bring fruits, so sweet and so pure! 

May Allah ta'ala accept these exams and every test of our lives, and make them easy for us and give us strength, wisdom and courage to go through them. Ameen.

May Allah ta'ala accept us all,

Nadia Sadiq

Always in the service of Nur ul Ilm Academy

Monday, Dec 7th, 2015 Safar 25, 1437 H