Encouragement From 'Laa Tahzan'

I don't plan on writing two blogs a day, but the babies fell asleep, the house is quiet, I don't have facebook to waste my time on anymore... so why not? Plus, I'm inspired. After re-reading my first post, I'm hoping my writing skills will improve in the process of writing these blogs... because MAN that was poorly written. But anyway, I wanted to list a few chapters and highlights from al-Qari's 'Laa Tahzan' which are helping me in my journey to finding contentment within my home, abandoning my emotional need to be in the world.

So, now I'm going to list some quotes, and the chapters of the book in which they're found.

Repel Boredom with Work

"Being inactive means being negligent of ones duties.Idleness is an expert thief and your mind is a victim.Therefore get up now and say a prayer, read a book, study, write, organize your library, fix something in your house, or benefit others so that you can put an end to your inactivity.I say this only bcs I sincerely wish for your betterment.Destroy boredom by working. If you apply this simple precept alone, you will have travelled at least 50% of the wy towards happiness.Look at the farmers, carpenters, and the bread-maker, and observe how, when they are working, they recite words as melodious as the singing of birds, bcs they are content."

Enough for you is your Home

The words 'isolation' and 'seclusion' have special meanings in our religion: to stay away from evil and its perpetrators, and to keep those who are foolish at a distance. When you seclude yourself from evil in this manner, you will have an opportunity to think, to reflect, and to graze in the meadows of enlightenment...I advise you to fortify yourself to your purpose and isolate yourself in your room, except when you leave it to speak well or to do well. Hold your tongue from backbiting, free your heart from anxiety, and preserve your ears from profanity. (BTW: al-Qushayree said in his own dissertation on the topic of isolation, that the one who seeks seclusion should feel that he is doing so in order to protect people from HIS evil, and not the opposite. This is to breed a modest opinion of ones self)

Isolation and its positive Effects

When alone, one does nothing for show or ostentation, since none but Allah sees him, and since none but Allah hears him. Al-Qadi `Ali ibn `Abdul `Aziz al-Jurjani said: "I never tasted the sweetness of life until

I became a companion of home and book,There is nothing more honorable than knowledge, so I seek in no other an associate,

Truly, the only degradation is in mixing with people, Therefore leave them and live nobly and stately."

Ibn Faris said "When distress is such that my heart becomes constricted, I say that perhaps one day will bring with it some aid, my comrade is my cat and my soul's companions are my books, and the object of my love is my night-lantern."

Your Best Companion is a Book

Al-Jaahiz, a centuries old Arab writer, advised that reading of good books can repel anxiety:

“The book is a companion that does not praise you and does not entice you to evil. It is a friend that does not bore you, and it is a neighbor that causes you no harm. It is an acquaintance that desires not to extract from you favors through flattery, and it does not deceive you with duplicity and lies.

When you are poring through the pages of a book, your senses are stimulated and your intellect sharpens... Through reading the biographies of others, you gain an appreciation of common people while learning the ways of kings. It can even be said that you sometimes learn from the pages of a book in a month, what you do not learn from the tongues of men in a century"