Fear God

     Welcome to a new smile of hope. Today’s lesson smile of hope is how we can find a way to fear and incorporate Allah the most gracious and compassionate in our relationship with one another. We all believe that to worship God in prayer and fasting is enough. There is a presence of God in the social context. We all need to take care of our relationship between Allah the most compassionate and each other. You know that God forgives us for our shortcomings, but he doesn’t forgive us for the people we hurt until we mend said issues.

  This story smile of hope is based in Syria, and it is about a man that was married to a woman. The Syrian man was very rich and was blessed with a great fortune as well as buildings and companies. However his wife started to notice that he was changing. She felt that he was hiding a secret which his wife started to feel. It came to light that he got married without her knowledge. The woman eventually finds out but remained quiet out of respect and dignity. She said “I will not let him know that I am aware of his marriage”. She therefore, remained good to her husband and continued performing her duties as wife (in a respectful way).

  The man eventually passed away, and as his will was being read and distributed between her and her children. She refused to inherit the money due to the presence of the other wife. She went to her children and said “that their father was married to another woman, and that they should give her share of wealth to her. Do you see the presence of God in family and social matters? To have faith and to worship Allah the most gracious and compassionate does not only mean to wear a (Hijab), or recite the Quran and to fast Ramadan is not the only way to worship Allah the most compassionate. But to be kind, fair and polite is a considered greatness in the eyes of Allah the most compassionate.

  This is story smile of hope is so beautiful because as the woman and her children sent the money to the other wife, her reply was shocking and heart-filling: she said “I don’t deserve this money because he divorced me a week ago. These two women are great and are a true blessing from God. Because now a day you will find that spouses and children fight over inheritances. But that’s not when you see a smile of hope. A smile of hope comes from sharing and opening up your heart to more meaningful things.                                                                                

                                                          smile of hope

From cleaning the floor to the top of success

     Welcome to a new episode of A Smile of Hope. Today’s smile of hope story is about a dear friend of mine his name is Dr.Mohamad. Dr.Mohamed’s smile of hope story and his greatness is primarily fuelled by his father. I always say that you should work and do something when you have spare time, even when you are on a break or a summer holiday. This smile of hope story begins when Dr.Mohamed was in middle school, his father is an owner of one the biggest printing presses in Alexandria, Egypt, and he printed out newspapers, gathered the news, and put all his energy and love into it.

  One day during summer he approached his son Dr.Mohamed, and said that he had no one that takes a salary during summer without putting in the work; the father stated “when you do the work, you will receive money for what you worked for, and what you will get is what you will spend”. So the father started to ponder about different areas and fields that his son could work in, so he thought and though, until he asked himself what is the first stage of a successful printing company. That’s when he said “you will go and sell newspapers on the street”. So Dr.Mohamed marched up and down the street selling these newspapers. As the days came to a close he went back to his father and gave him his earnings, this is when the father stated “this is how much you sold this how much you made”. The following year the father told him the fact that you sold newspaper last year, this year you will clean the floors of the printing press’s factory. So Dr. Mohamed did as his father asked and started to clean the floors. The after, since you cleansed the floors this year, You have now earned the right to work hand in hand with the editor to observe and learn about how the news is gathered, and to combine all the appropriate information.

  The following year, the father told his son you will now travel to England and work in a world famous printing press, to observe how all the information is gathered and combined. The following year he told his son that he will have to learning the ways of publication industries in depth. The following year he wanted his son to sit with the writers and learn from them the different and intricate ways of pen men ship    , as well as gathering the information and being able to have a clear summary of how it is gathered. After that he sent his son to one biggest universities in the world (imperial university) which is located in London, England.

This shows each and every one of us how vital it is to teach your children responsibility, and make sure that they keep moving and not remain stagnant. The moral of the smile of hope story is that if you keep moving and doing something and learning you will exceed all expectation. However if you stop and remain stagnant you find that all the beauty and wonders of life and the world will pass you by smile of hope.                                                                                                                                                                                            

Smile of hope

How people think

   Welcome to today’s episode of a smile of hope. Today’s smile of hope about how people think, people have different ways of thinking. I will tell you something now and you will laugh…you will laugh at yourself…and you will laugh at us because we all make that same mistake. But please when you laughing at yourself, say to yourself that you will never do this again. I will tell you some common things that people say and we all say them. I will give you a few examples and we can name today’s episode “Me and the others’!” What do we say about ourselves and about others?

  One example is when someone makes a mistake…we call it stupidity or inexperience…But when we make mistakes…we say that all humans make mistakes!! If other people take a long time doing a job we say that they are lazy and has no authorities…but when we take a long time in that same job we say it’s because we are perfectionists and will not allow for any flaws! Am I right? If my colleague didn’t do what he was supposed to do we call him irresponsible and careless? But when we don’t do what we are supposed to do…we argue that it’s because we are overloaded with work and it’s so unfair! If my colleague takes a sick leave then he must be pretending to be sick, but when we are on sick leave it’s because I am really sick and really tired. If other people make a wrong decision...It’s because they are stupid and do not understand anything and does everything wrong…but when it comes to us making that some decision it’s because I am stressed and I am so wise to have made such a decision…if others talk with their boss in a decent and polite manner then it’s because they are trying to suck up to him, but if I do the same thing then it’s because I am very polite and decent. If other’s talk with their boss in an aggressive and rude way then we say he lacks manners and ethics but if I do the same thing…then I am just setting limits…

  Do you realize how we are dealing with others and how we are dealing with ourselves? If someone, other than me, does something he is not asked to do, then he must be acting just to show off that he is a hard worker, but if it’s me in that same place, then WOW, how wonderful am I…very positive, very caring about work. If my collogue steps out of his office for any reason then he must be doing thing to waste time and pretending that he has something else…but if it was me, then I must have done this because I am going to do other work elsewhere and coming back…

  What do you think about this? A lot of people do this; so many people behave in this way. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said “One always looks to a splinter into another person’s eye, while forgetting the branch that’s in their own eye!” this hadith means that people do not see their greatest flaws and look for the smallest flaws in other people. So you must be asking me what I am trying to say…well please search for your own mistakes rather than trying to find mistakes in others. Instead of saying that some people do not understand anything and they are bad…Can you rather talk about what you will do to become successful?

  Believe me as long as we are searching for other people’s mistakes…we forget about all our successes and at the same time we are not stopping them from becoming successful. We are the ones who are losing…if you concentrate on yourself…on your own mistakes and how you can fix them…about your own success and how you can achieve it…Believe me you will succeed and you will not stop others from succeeding. Only then…it will be a smile of hope.

Smile of hope

smile of hope

Smile of Hope

Get rid of bad habits with a smile of hope

   Welcome to a new smile of hope. Today a smile of hope is about “bad habits”. If you practice a bad habit and you can’t give it up. Do I have a method of a smile of hope to know how to give it up? Yes, I have a good innovation to help everyone to give up bad habits. Bad habits such as smoking, drugs, being irritable, driving carelessly, being huffish, being frown and any bad habits like bad morals, bad behaviors. Any bad behavior you accustom to. I will give you a model to know how to deal with these bad habits to give them up. I swear by Allah, fathers, mothers, young boys and girls this idea is wonderful.

  It’s not my own but I knew it from a friend who lives in “Shobrazangi” – a small village in Monofeya Governorate in Egypt. He told me that his son was seventeen – year old, he was very naughty. He had done a lot of mistakes and bad manners like smoking, stopping practice sports, he couldn’t run with his friends, he became meager and weak, he wake for a long time till daylight and gets up in the afternoon, he became rude with his mother and irritable. He had got too many bad habits.

  His father perplexed and didn’t know how to solve this problem. Thereon he remembered an old and wise man (one of his relatives) who lived in the village. Although my friend lives in Cairo with his son, he went to this man in the village and told him that his son is ill-mannered. Thereon the old man asked him to bring his son. So he told his son to go with him to the village but the boy refused “Obey me” his father said. Then they went to the old man. “We will go for a walk in the fields.” The old man said to the boy. The boy agreed and they went. While they were walking, the old man pointed to some grass and told him that they were harmful and asked him if he could pick them up. The boy picked them easily. After that they saw a bush and he asked the boy to dismount it because it annoyed them and the boy dismounted it easily too. Then they passed a large tree. “Can you dismount this large tree?” the old man asked. The boy dismounted and sweltered. After that they saw a larger tree. The boy dismounted it hardly. Finally they saw a palm tree, thereon the boy said, “No, I can’t, this is impossible, no way and no how”   “My dear son our habits are like seeds, you can control them easily when they are seeds, you can dismount a bush easily but if you delay they will turn into palm trees and you will be powerless and unable to change them.” The old man said.  

  My dear community, you can’t accustom bad habit through another bad habit but this happens when you have an idea or an image such ideas like “let’s smoke, let’s try drugs”. If this happens, you should challenge it. If you challenge it radically, you will give it up easily but if you challenge it eventually, it will be very difficult. When you have a bad idea, challenge it because if you didn’t it will become a mettle, then a will, then an action and finally it will became a habit you can’t change. If you challenged it at first as it was a bush, you could easily dismount it but now after it had grown up you can’t. Dear young boys and girls, we can change our habits while they are small like bushes. Please when you have a bad idea, challenge it. Control it otherwise it will control you. If it control you, you won’t be able to smile a smile of hope.  

Smile of hope

Thank you.

The person who hindered your advance and your ambition to succeed was died yesterday. Who is?

   Welcome in a new smile of hope. The smile of hope of today is about a company owner. Pay attention to this story. This man fixed a banner in the middle of the company in which it is written in bolt letters: "the person who hindered your advance and your ambition to succeed in the company was died yesterday condolences will be offered tomorrow". Do you hear such a story before? The company's owner is very intelligent. He left all the employees who supplicated Allah to bless the soul of the defunct, very eager to know the person who hindered their progress and success.

  The next day all the employees came, in full suit to prevent their condolences in the company and see their rude bad defunct fellow. They asked the manager where the person who hindered their progress was. He showed them the room where the corpse was and requested them to enter one by one to look over, reflect and contemplate. The employees understood nothing from what the manager wanted them to do. They stood in queue, entered one by one to look over the corpse. Each one who entered got out silent and faced covered. They continued like this till the last one and all got out silent and face covered; nobody talked to the other; they understood nothing. Who he knows what the shroud contains will have a gift.

  The shroud contained a mirror; near the mirror there was a piece of paper where it was written: "The only one who hinders your ambition, development and success is you". So every employee who entered opened the shroud, saw his face in the mirror and read the small paper.

  The president of the company wants to say to them that their faults, that the fact that they considered themselves as minor and does not want to become major, that they don't believe that the will succeed, that they don't want to exert efforts and that they do not want to be hardworking is the unique thing that hinders their progress, development and success.

  The idea of this smile of hope story is that you are the only one in the world to hinder your success and progress. Do you hear me, young men and women who are preparing now your examinations, you also fresh graduates, you fathers and mothers, you people who want to succeed in life? Your life will change when you change, when your look in the mirror change. Do you understand now the speech of our Lord Almighty when he say: "Allah does not change the condition of people until they change themselves". Change your look in the mirror, change yourself, life around you will change and then you will enjoy a smile of hope.

Smile of hope

Thank you.

Our Lord give us sustenance as you sustain bugath

    Welcome in a new smile of hope. The smile of hope today is about livelihood, sustenance. In these times all people are worry about their sustenance. I insist to draw on your faces a smile of hope. You will ask how I can give you a smile of hope in the middle of the economic crisis, the international recession, unemployment and all the current difficulties. I want to tell you that sustenance and livelihood is given; Allah will give you your needs for living; all what you have to do for that is exerting effort. Do not take sedative medicines, do not afraid from future, and just exert some effort. Living possibilities exist.

  I will tell you a story, a very interesting story. A Syrian, a very good man, used to say, when I met him, “Our Lord give me sustenance as you sustain the bugath (the crow’s nestling)”. You know what bugath is? When the crow’s egg hatches, the nestling crow is called bugath. When it grows, the bugath becomes crow. What is the problem of bugath sustenance? This is a sign of our lord. Crow’s color is black. When the crow’s egg hatches, it gives the nestling crow, the bugath, a white colored nestling, because it has no feather. Crow’s feather is black, but it’s inside flesh is white. I bring this information from Discovery TV channel, which shows stories from nature science. When the bugath comes to life, the crow does not recognize its nestling, because of its white color. The crow female refuses to feed its nestling, because it does not recognize it as such. The Provider Almighty sustains the bugath with small insects that are attracted to the nestling crow’s white color. The hatch is fed those small insects because its mother refuses to feed it. Its mean of living are provided to him by the Provider.

  You see the meaning of “Our Lord, give us sustenance as you sustain the bugath”. This small crow nestling remains fed by those small insects attracted to his white color, especially to feed it, for one or two weeks. Allah sends those insects especially to the feed the bugath until its feather grows and become clothed in black so that its mother begins to recognize it and proceeds to its feeding. For the first two weeks crow’s female refuses to feed its nestling. It is fed by the Provider Almighty. In fact Oh! Lord, provide us with sustenance as you do for bugath.

  There is very beautiful verse from Quran which the meaning is:”there is no creature on earth, but sustained by Allah Almighty”. You also Allah provides you with living means; do not fear for you sustenance. For you, People who go to their work exert some efforts and do not worry about your livelihood. For ladies who are worry about the sustenance of their children, do not fear about their livelihood, it is guaranteed with a little effort. Lord, provide us with sustenance as you do for bugath is a smile of hope.

Smile of hope

Thank you