Madrasatu-l-Umm

Between Angels and Animals: The Rank You Choose

The creation of Allah falls into two broad categories: those without moral responsibility and those entrusted with it.

Animals live by instinct. They are not burdened with commands or prohibitions. They are not accountable as we are.

The angels, on the other hand, are pure obedience. They do not disobey Allah. They have no struggle with desire. Their existence is complete servitude.

Then there are humans and jinn.

We are given intellect, desire, and choice. We can rise. We can fall.

When a person disciplines his desires and increases in worship, sincerity, and taqwa, he ascends. Some scholars mention that a righteous human can surpass the angels, because he obeys despite having desires pulling him elsewhere.

But when a person abandons conscience and follows whims without restraint, he descends. Allah describes people who do not use their hearts, eyes, and ears for guidance as being like cattle, rather even further astray. The danger is not weakness. The danger is choosing heedlessness.

We are not angels.
We are not animals.
We choose our rank.

Every act of dhikr lifts you.
Every act of obedience elevates you.
Every resisted temptation raises you.

This Ramadan, make a change. Soar toward the ranks of the angels. Do not let your whims pull you down to the level of animals, or lower.

May Allah raise our ranks, purify our hearts, and keep us firm in servitude.

May Allah be with you.

Madrasatu-l-Umm

Pause and ask yourself: are you progressing or regressing? Have you already lost the momentum you began with, or are you still pushing forward?

If you started strong and now find yourself struggling to maintain even the bare minimum, then reflect deeply. It is a serious loss when your yesterday is better than your today in terms of worship. As narrated from Ali ibn Abi Talib, a true believer should not allow his spiritual state to decline. A slipping heart needs urgent revival.

But if you are growing, do not let that growth deceive you. Do not become impressed with yourself. You have barely scratched the surface compared to what the righteous predecessors accomplished, yet we all seek the same Jannah.

Remember the narration about a man from among Bani Isra’il who worshipped Allah for 500 years continuously. When he stood before Allah, he hoped to enter Paradise because of his deeds. But Allah commanded that he enter by His Mercy alone. The man, thinking his 500 years of worship entitled him to reward, was shown a lesson, the blessing of just one eye was placed on one side of the scale, and his 500 years of worship on the other, and the blessing outweighed his deeds. Only then did he realize that salvation is not by deeds alone, but by Allah’s Mercy.

And remember the warning of the Prophet ﷺ: among the things that destroy a person is being amazed with oneself and feeling inflated by one’s own actions.

So whether you feel ahead or behind, the answer is the same: humility.

Pray that Allah accepts the little you have done, however small it may seem. Pray that He places barakah in it. Pray that He protects your deeds from pride, from insincerity, and from being nullified.

May Allah not spoil our actions.

Madrasatu-l-Umm

1. You leave halal food for Allah. So you can surely leave haram for Him. Let this Ramadan trains your willpower.
2. Increase secret charity, silent dhikr, and private tears. The deeds nobody sees are the ones Allah raises.
3. Don’t Return the Same. The goal is not to finish Ramadan. The goal is to leave Ramadan better than you entered it.
4. Start identifying from the long list of deeds you are engaged in this blessed month, the ones you will retain and maintain after Ramadan passes.

Do not treat Ramadan as a temporary spiritual excitement. Treat it as a training ground.

Stockpile it not with seasonal actions, but with habits that will outlive the month.

Al-Umm Madrasah

Al-Mughirah ibn Shu‘bah was a man blessed with sharp wit and a mind as quick as lightning. He was known for his intelligence, the kind of person who could smell deceit from a distance. In fact, he often bragged that he had never been outsmarted in his life.

But once, just once, he admitted that someone got him.

He said, “I was only outsmarted once in my life. I had proposed to a lady and was planning to marry her. Then a young man came to me and said, *‘Don’t marry her. I once saw a man kiss her on the cheek and hug her.’*

So I withdrew my intention. I couldn’t bring myself to go ahead after hearing that.

Sometime later, I heard that the same young man had married the lady!

I called him and asked, ‘You! How could you marry her when you know what you told me about her?’

He smiled and said, *‘The man I saw kiss her was her father, and she was just a little girl at the time.’*

That day,” said Al-Mughirah, “I knew I had finally been outsmarted.”

Later in life, Al-Mughirah became the governor of Bahrain during the caliphate of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab. ‘Umar admired him deeply, for his intelligence, firmness, and political sharpness. But the people of Bahrain… well, they didn’t share the same sentiment.

He was strict, disciplined, and never one to be manipulated. They couldn’t stand it. So they plotted to have him removed.

A group of wealthy traders and influential figures came together and conspired. They raised 200,000 dirhams— a massive sum in those days; 1 Dirham then was equivalent to 60,000 naira — and handed it to one of their well-spoken leaders. His mission was to go to ‘Umar in Madinah and accuse Al-Mughirah of embezzling the money from the state treasury.

The man travelled, stood before ‘Umar, and with the best tone of false sincerity said, “O Leader of the Believers, I have a confession. Al-Mughīrah took 200,000 dirhams from the treasury and kept it for himself. I fear Allah will hold me accountable for being silent about it.”

‘Umar, startled, sent for Al-Mughirah.

When he arrived, ‘Umar said, “They say you took 200,000 dirhams from the treasury. Is this true?”

Al-Mughirah smiled, that confident, unbothered smile he was known for, and said, “No, O Leader of the Believers. He’s lying. I didn’t give him 200,000. I gave him 400,000!”

The accuser froze. His mouth fell open. He couldn’t say a word.

‘Umar raised an eyebrow, waiting.

The man finally stuttered, “By Allah, he’s right! I confess, it was all a lie. We only wanted you to remove him from office.”

‘Umar couldn’t help but laugh, and he kept Al-Mughirah right where he was.

— Madrasatu-l-Umm

On addiction..

Addiction is among the hardest things a person can fight. Normally, when you practice something gradually, you get better at it. But addiction works against this rule. The more you try to fight it, the stronger it becomes. It feeds on resistance. And this is where many people lose hope, so they think they are not strong enough, whereas the problem is not weakness but the nature of addiction itself.

Realizing this is the first step. It helps an addict stay alert, not letting his guard down or assuming he can quit all at once. The brain of an addict has been conditioned to a certain level of satisfaction that only comes from the object of addiction. It is like a starving stomach that keeps calling for food. The longer it stays hungry, the more intense the craving becomes, until resisting it feels almost impossible.

The solution is not to fight it violently, but to weaken it gently. Reduce it gradually. Each time you succeed in doing so, the brain adjusts slightly. While doing that, occupy yourself with istighfar and hold firmly to one or two acts of worship that come naturally to you. For some, that may be voluntary prayers. For others, fasting, constant adhkar, or regular sadaqah. The goal is to redirect your energy and emotion toward what purifies the soul.

Allah says:
وأقم الصلاة طرفي النهار وزلفا من الليل إن الحسنات يذهبن السيئات
“And establish prayer at the two ends of the day and in some hours of the night. Indeed, good deeds erase bad deeds.”

And the Prophet said:
وأتبع السيئة الحسنة تمحها
“Follow up a bad deed with a good one; it will erase it.”

When the brain becomes used to a reduced level of indulgence, reduce it further. Slowly, the control shifts from the addiction to you. In time, what was once a daily habit becomes a monthly one, then once in several months, until it nearly disappears.

If the person stays consistent on this path, while maintaining those righteous actions, within two or three years, he will find himself completely free, by the mercy of Allah.

_Madrasatu-l-Umm_

A friend of mine, a wonderful and lively brother who creates content online, once received a very handsome offer from an adult site to write and produce content for them. The pay was tempting, but he turned it down with grace, for obvious reasons.

Not long after, Allah opened a better door for him. He was blessed with a high-paying job, one that allowed him to meet his needs, care for his family, and still have enough left to save for Hajj that very year.

Another brother was shortlisted for the post-Covid relief support. He was just one click away from receiving seven hundred thousand naira, a huge blessing at the time. But when he realized it came with a 4% interest rate, he turned it down, even though he was in real need. Two years later, Allah replaced it with something far better, a job that paid him the same amount for less than ten hours of work weekly, a blessing he continues to enjoy to this day.

Sulaiman, too, gave up horses of rare beauty and noble kind because they distracted him from the remembrance of his Lord. In return, Allah blessed him with a swift wind that could travel the distance of a month in just a few hours, the same distance the horses will cover in a month.

And then there’s the story of Ibn Aqil, one of the great scholars of his time. He once found a pearl necklace tied with a red thread during Hajj. Not long after, a blind old man came searching for it, offering a hundred dinars to whoever would return it. Ibn Aqil gave the necklace back and refused to take any reward.

After Hajj, he travelled through Syria and stopped at a mosque in Aleppo, cold and hungry. The people there welcomed him warmly and, upon seeing his knowledge, asked him to lead them in prayer for Ramadan. At the end of the month, they told him their late imam had left behind a daughter, and they wished for him to marry her.

He accepted, and they lived together for a year. She gave birth to a son but soon fell ill. One day, as he looked at her, he noticed a necklace around her neck, the same pearls tied with the same red thread. He told her the story, and she wept, saying, “By Allah, you are the man. My father used to pray, O Allah, bless my daughter with a husband like the one who returned my necklace.”

Allah accepted his prayer. And when she passed away, Ibn Aqil inherited the necklace and her wealth, returning to Baghdad with a heart full of awe at Allah’s perfect justice and generosity.

When you leave something for Allah, you never truly lose it. What you give up returns to you in a purer, better, and more beautiful form.

So don’t ever think your sacrifices go unnoticed. Allah sees. Allah knows. And Allah rewards, in His own time, in His own way, with a sweetness that makes every moment of restraint worth it.

_Madrasatu-l-Umm_