Instituut voor Islamitische
Studies en Publicaties

A Spiritual Note

Edition 174 - Oktober 17, 2008 - Shawwaal 17, 1429

Assalamu alaikum (Peace be upon you).

Poem

I knelt to pray but not for long,
I had too much to do.
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills would soon be due.

So I knelt and said a hurried prayer,
And jumped up off my knees.
My religious duty was now done
My soul could rest at ease.

All day long I had no time
To spread a word of cheer.
No time to speak of Allah to friends,
They'd laugh at me I'd fear.

No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry,
No time to give to souls in need
But at last the time, the time to die.

I went before the Lord,
I came, I stood with downcast eyes.
For in His hands God held a book;
It was the book of life.

God looked into His book and said
"Your name I cannot find.
I once was going to write it down...
But never found the time!"

The Quran teaches us the right attitude to life, among others, in 2:201-202:

"But there are some people who say, Our Lord, give us in the world. And for such there is no portion in the Hereafter.
And there are some among them who say: Our Lord, grant us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and save us from the chastisement of the Fire.
For those there is a portion on account of what they have earned. And Allah is Swift in reckoning."

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A Spiritual Note will be sent out every Jumu'ah day to remind us all of the beautiful teachings of Islam and to inspire us to fulfill our obligations to Allah and to one another.

You can visit the Spiritual Note archive at www.ivisep.org/magazines.htm

Quranic quotations in the Notes are from the English translation of the Holy Quran by Maulana Muhammad Ali, which you can read at http://www.muslim.org/english-quran/index.htm (with footnotes) and http://aaiil.org/text/hq/trans/ma_list.shtml (without footnotes).