BEYOND BEAUTIFUL ICY WINTER : WHAT WE FAIL TO NOTICE.

Winter has by far mesmerized every single person I talk to in my place. Wherever I go, people would be commenting of the beauty of this white Russian ‘Narnia-look-like’ winter. I’m pretty unsure that this is all happening because all of us suddenly become appreciative of the season as this is our final year experiencing it. Or, because, it is just simply the most beautiful in comparison to the previous years before.

Winter, by personal preference, is the season that I have always fallen in love with. There are a lot of things winter could offer that other season couldn't. The excitement and jumpy feeling when you see the first falling snow, the cold breeze that smelled brisk, pleasantly cool and refreshing (even bathing twice a day seem redundant now!) and the calming and awing picturesque view  where heaps of snow beautifully pile up in between branches of trees, giving the look of something untouched and so pure and how looking at this reminds you of how magnificently great Allah as the creator of the World and definitely, as the creator of all is.

Definitely, these aren't the only thing that winter has to offer. Through science, we know that seasons occur due to the slanting of the Earth that is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degree as it revolves around the Sun. And being somewhere further away from home in the equator and somewhere high up nearing the northern pole, which is at the very present moment tilting away from the sun, permits us to encounter our current shorter days and longer nights. What’s not to love about this right? Dark black-pitched sky as early as 5.30 in the evening and only to see streaks of light of the sun till the next day at 9. Ура! What a blessing!  These means that :

a) we get to sleep EARLIER as the dark surroundings induce sleepiness way ahead than usual

b) wake up LATER as Fajar only starts to kick in somewhere around 8, and

c) the bona fide COMFORT that our duvet cover provides, shielding ourselves from the coldness of the air

are definitely blessings that no one person experiencing winter would ever disagree upon.

But, what we seem to fail to take note of, is how lucky we are to have these longer hours at night. Supposedly, these are the times for us to grab as much chances as we could to perform our night prayers.  Unlike other seasons when night prayers could only be performed directly in the middle of the night like 4 or 5 o’clock where waking up at these times is really an ‘iman’ challenger, winter offers a lighter solution. Having the same equal amount of beauty sleep of 6-7 hours per day,  awaken by 6.30 or even 7 o’clock in the morning is never too late for 2/4 rakaat of tahajjud. Therefore, if it’s on the weekdays,  why not if we just take 15-30 minutes of our time after waking up to get ready to class, to perform solat tahajjud or taubat or any other prayers or read the Holy Quran or recite zikir our heart and soul out. If it’s on the weekends, setting our alarm clock just like other days to school for our qiamulail wouldn’t cause anything else in jeopardy. Instead, we will have more time of our own to spend with the One who has created us and who has given us so many. To either ask for forgiveness for the things we wronged, or simply as a sign of gratitude, as a sign of being thankful. After striving for the worldly life so hardly in the day, doesn’t it seems fair and perfect to be striving equally hard for akhirat at night as well? For performing qiamulail is not only to establish اللهِ مِّنَ حَبْلٌ  and strengthen our faith and the growing iman inside of us, it also teaches us to fight against our nafs’, (against our desire to sleep, against laziness to get out of that comfortable warm cozy bed) but most of all, it teaches us how to be patient in performing ibadah. For this spiritual inner strength is important not only to get us through the calms and storms of life, but also for a bigger mission -  to keep us going in this path, in Islam, in da'wah, as a Muslim and as a caliph.

Allah in the Holy Quran in Surah Al-Muzammil (73:1-4) mentioned: 

O you who wraps himself (in garments),

Arise (to pray the night), except for a little,

Half of it – or subtract from it a little,

Or add to it, and recite the Quran with measured recitation.

Therefore, dear friends, dear brothers and sisters, let us all step outside of our duvet cover, outside of our comfort zone and seek for Him at times the rest of the World is sleeping, at times where no one else could see, at times where our attention towards Him is undivided. This is the season where neither sleep-deprivation nor being too tired are the reasons that halted us from our qiamulail. Let us not waste another winter season to pass, let us no longer fail to notice how fortunate and how blessed we are for this opportunity. As a reminder to myself too insyaAllah, let us all arise and warm our iman in this icy cold winter. For the World is only a stopover, for the heavens are our eternal future.

Thus,

Go forth, whether in light or heavy, and strive with your wealth and your lives in the cause of Allah. That is better for you, if you only knew. (At-Taubah,9: 41)