The Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) asked Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) for His protection from shirk. So why do we act like we know we’ll die Muslim? Remember, this is the Prophet of Allah. He spoke to Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) without any barrier. He received revelation directly from Allah (سبحانه وتعالى). He is the best of creation. So seek protection in Allah from shirk, the unforgivable sin that destroys good deeds. The Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) taught us the following du’a:

All people on Earth seek happiness–whether it’s through wealth, or love, or piety. Few realize that perfect happiness does not exist in the dunya. When you think about it, you’ll find that hardship and pain exist with moments of great happiness. For example, you ate your favourite meal after a long time, but you feel over-full and you become tired and lazy. Or, you enjoy a wonderful hike through the woods, minus the insect bites and that bee that flew into your ear.

Never label. Human beings are not two-dimensional that you can slap a label onto them and classify them. One of the best ways to destroy ties between people, groups, and organizations is to label them. Even if they deserve it, don’t do it. When you find yourself applying a label to someone, ask yourself: Will this action please Allah (سبحانه وتعالى)? When you find others who label, back away. You don’t want to involve yourself with people like that.

In one of the battles in the time of the Khulafa Rashideen, the Muslim armies attacked a fort behind a trench. With a trench, defenses spread thin: 500 people need to guard all points of the trench. So in any given area, you have only a few guards. How did the Muslims succeed? They find the one lazy guy–if the trench is eight feet deep and six feet across, they find the location two feet deep and one foot across–and focus the entire army towards that one location, all the hundreds or thousands of mujahideen.

If you have an idea, execute it, even if it won’t turn out perfect. Ihsaan is not perfection, it’s excellence. Strive your best, but tolerate mistakes as well. Only Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) is perfect. Don’t be like the shopkeeper who keeps the door to his shop closed all the time in order to keep it clean. No customers enter. If you’re always closed and looking for perfection, you’ll shut down.

Surah Fatiha contains almost all the Arabic letters that the English language lacks: ‘Ayn (ع), Saad (ص), Daad (ض), Taw (ط), Qaf (ق), and 7a (ح). Once you learn to pronounce these letters correctly, you practice them 17 times a day, every day, in every state of mind. Bi ithnillah, once you learn them, practice, and you will master them quickly.

If you know your tajweed (Qur’anic rules of beautifying recitation) but feel a bit rusty or need to review them, this website explains it very well. The website helps more if you already know tajweed but need a refresher. It’s very difficult to learn tajweed without a real, human teacher. May Allah accept our reading of the Qur’an as ‘ibadah. Ameen.

Learn all about the etiquettes and adab of du’a here. Highlights include: Make du’a at times of trouble and of joy. Repeat the du’a three times Make du’a in a moderately low voice And remember, with du’a, three things can occur: Allah can accept your du’a! Alhamdullilah. Allah will save it for you until the akhira. Allah will avert evil from you. In any case, you benefit.

One way to learn Arabic is to memorize the Qur’an with a word-by-word translation. emuslim.com provides such a tool. Once you memorize a few (approximately 20-30) verses, you’ll find that other verses become decipherable, and familiar words leap at you everywhere you turn. I recommend this method to everyone–for some, it’s the only way to memorize Qur’an. Related Links: emuslim English word-for-word translation

Islamic-Knowledge.com’s Lessons in Arabic Language website provides an online self-paced course for people to learn Arabic, in Arabic. It follows the famous three Medina Arabic books page by page, and displays translations and transliterations for every word used. Unlike other online courses, this course teaches entirely in Arabic (minus the transliteration), similar to the way they teach Arabic at Al-Medina university. Although more difficult to learn than an English course, it forces the reader to think in Arabic, an advantage not offered by many other courses.