Are you a Muslim?

Are you a Muslim?
By Sister Hoda Elkassem

"You say you are a Muslim,
when people ask to what faith do you belong,
You refuse to eat pork when offered,
for you know it is truly wrong.

In your younger years,
some of you weren't even taught the Fateha,
while others had parents who would make you pray everyday,
Yet now, it seems as though very few of you are willing to make time for even one

prayer a week, let alone five times a day.

But none of you have time right?
After all you only have 24 hours in a single day,
And it's definitely too much to ask to take 5 minutes out of that time to worship ALLAH & pray.
You also never seem to have time to read the Holy Al-Qur`an, not even before you go to bed,
And very seldom do you, in your private time, recite Surahs in your head.

Each year though, when Ramadan comes,
you go from sunrise to sunset with not a single meal,
And you brag to your non-Muslim friends of how loving you are;
for you tell them you are doing this to see how the poor feel.

You tell them that fasting gives you patience & teaches you to appreciate,
Your friends then become amazed by how religious you are, & think you are so kind & great.
But Ramadan finishes & then comes the Eid,
Which always seems to be followed by bursts of awful greed.

For even though you try to hide it, & desperately try not to show,
You are hoping you get gifts from every single person that you know.
You seem to forget about Zakat,& giving & all the beautiful lessons of Ramadan,
And somehow everything you had learned during that past sacred month,

within a day is simply gone.
Then for the next 11 months you return to your old ways,
Where you remind yourself of ALLAH's Greatness perhaps once every few days.
And at times you even forget about ALLAH completely,
and all the good that HE has Done,

Yet you still seem to refer to yourself as a Muslim when asked by anyone.
So what your name is Noormah, Zaiton, Aishah, Joe, Mohamad, Ismail or Zul,
That doesn't mean you are a true Muslim, since you are not doing all that you can.
You know all the religions of this world are different;
you know we are not all the same,

So you must stop acting like everyone else in this world,
& stop being a Muslim only by name.
To be a Muslim, you must always long to be better,
by seeking knowledge & wanting to learn,

You must do, & not just say;

for being a Muslim is a title you must strive to earn.
Stop saying that you are a Muslim, & start acting like one instead,
Otherwise you'll regret it dearly on the Day of Judgment,
when you are brought back from the dead.

For we all know, in order to one day go to Heaven,

we must successfully pass ALLAH's test,
So why would you intentionally try & fail,

knowing that if you are good
now your outcome will be in fact the best?

For that reason, if you start now & do all the things that ALLAH Asks us to do,
The next time someone asks you what you are, you can say 'A Muslim'
& your statement will be true."

Subhanallah!
I am still learning...

source : just click