welcoming winter.....with a smile

 

Snow, hot chocolate, wooly blankets, knitting, coughs and colds, short days and long nights, these are just some words that remind us of winter. Winter, for most of us, is not our favorite season because of the cold weather and early sunset. But while many of us are shivering and complaining of this weather and darkness, our past predecessors rejoiced at the coming of winter.


Imam al-Hasan al-Basri (rahimahullah) said, “The best season to a believer is the winter, its nights are long for those who wish to pray, and its days are short for those who wish to fast.”

Winter is the season of the believer because it is so easy to do good deeds. Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) has made this a great mercy for us; we can fast these short days without any decrease in the reward and we have a huge gap between Isha and Fajr to pray some night prayers.

Umar (radi Allahu anhu) said, “Winter is booty for the devout worshipers.”

So take advantage of these short days and long nights!

Also now that we are in winter, we may need an extra push to keep renewing our wudu because of the cold weather. Here are some benefits of wudu to motivate yourself to keep up this sunnah, even though you’re freezing cold:

1) Expiation of sins

:: “He who performs the Wudu perfectly (i.e., according to Sunnah), his sins will depart from his body, even from under his nails.” [Muslim]

:: He who performs Wudu like this, his previous sins will be forgiven and his Salat and walking to the mosque will be considered as supererogatory act of worship.” [Muslim].

:: “When a Muslim, or a believer, washes his face (in the course of Wudu), every sin which he committed with his eyes, will be washed away from his face with water, or with the last drop of water; when he washes his hands, every sin which is committed by his hands will be effaced from his hands with the water, or with the last drop of water; and when he washes his feet, every sin his feet committed will be washed away with the water, or with the last drop of water; until he finally emerges cleansed of all his sins.” [Muslim]

this information has been taken from here:
http://muslimmatters.org/2010/11/14/sunday-open-thread-why-winter-is-the-season-of-the-believer/