Alhamdulillah

Since Thanksgiving and Eid al-Adha basically overlap this year, I've been pondering quite a bit over both of them. I realized, just now in fact, how similar Eid al-Adha is to Thanksgiving. Ibrahim, peace be upon him, was asked to sacrifice his beloved son as a sign of devotion to ALLAH (swt). As difficult as this was (I can't imagine being asked to kill your own child), Ibrahim chose to obey ALLAH, knowing that ALLAH knew best. When ALLAH saw that Ibrahim was obedient and strong enough in his iman to give up his precious son, He told Ibrahim that he didn't have to sacrifice his son and sent an animal in his place for slaughter. To commemorate this event, and to thank ALLAH for His Great Mercy to Ibrahim, we Muslims celebrate Eid. Eid al-Adha can be seen as one big Thanksgiving Day to ALLAH for everything He does for us. In honor of Eid al-Adha and Thanksgiving, I would like to give a brief list of things I am thankful for:

-my family
-my friends
-my educational opportunities at my awesome college
-the food that I have and the fact that I have never gone hungry
-my clothes
-my electronics
-my good health
-animals
-the Muslim chaplain at my college, who has helped me so much with increasing my Islamic knowledge
-the community at my masjid, who make me so proud to be a part of this ummah and serve as great examples of Muslims in America
-the human body and its amazing systems
-sleep
-my beloved deen of Islam

For all these things and everything else in the world, I thank ALLAH. Thank You so much, ALLAH, for everything You do for me and the world. Please help me remain faithful in You forever, and please keep me on Sirat al-Mustaqeem, and let my body, heart and soul never stop praising You. AMEEN!

Eid Mubarak everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving! <3