RAMADAN MUBARAK YA IBADALLAH!!!!

I couldn’t possibly say it more eloquently than Imam Zaid, may Allah, Subhana wa ta’ala, reward him for the beautiful reminder.

http://www.zaytuna.org/articleDetails.asp?articleID=102

Muslim Scholars Condemning Terrorism

I encourage all of you to go to this link and read these articles and then post them wherever you can. This is the exactly what the media does not want the rest of the world to see and learn from the Muslims.

http://www.mujahideenryder.net/2006/08/17/what-the-media-needs-to-show-muslim-scholars-condemning-terrorism/

Sacred Astronomy & Cesarean Moon Births

Just wanted to share these beautiful articles from the great minds at Zaytuna. Read and Reflect…

http://www.zaytuna.org/articleDetails.asp?articleID=100

http://www.zaytuna.org/sacredastronomy.asp

A Pope’s Holy War

“And by speaking of jihad without alluding to Christianity’s dark history of violence in the name of God—the Crusades, forced conversions, pogroms, the Inquisition—Benedict seemed to be denouncing Islam while failing to acknowledge that any religion, including his own, can be manipulated and perverted to evil ends. “It is very hard to construe the pope’s remarks in a benign way,” says William A. Graham, the dean of the Harvard Divinity School. “Historically, there is no more basis for arguing that Islam is irrational than there is for arguing the same about Christianity or Judaism. In all three you can find tremendous discussion about revelation and reason, and there are people in all three who have landed outside the rational. Islam has bloody borders right now, but Christianity has certainly been bloody, as has Judaism in its more extreme forms.””- Newsweek

You can read more of this article at the following link… 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14866559/site/newsweek/

However disheartening and ugly the Pope’s statements were, they have been made. Nothing we say or do will change that fact. Of course they were said on purpose and of course it is an outrage! The only thing we can control is our response to this situation. Are we as Muslims ever going to accept that not everyone out there loves us? That not everyone feels the same way about our beloved religion as we do? Maybe if we were to stop and think about the reasons why people speak this way about us, our religion, and our Beloved Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa salaam, we would see that we haven’t been doing much to help shine the light of Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa salaam, across the earth. The reason these things keep surfacing is because we keep responding in such negative and unwarranted ways. We are helping them to portray Islam in a negative and dispicable way. We, as Muslims, have an obligation to turn to the teachings of Allah, Subhana wa ta’ala, and His Messsenger, salallahu alayhi wa salaam, for guidance in these matters. We need to increase our knowledge, turn away from sin, make tawba, and be sure that we are following the religion the way the Beloved Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa salaam, intended us to.  If you do not have sound knowledge, steeped in the traditional teachings of this deen, if you can not trace what you have learned all the way back to the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa salaam, then leave it and seek out that which can. Make dua’h for our Ummah, make dua’h for the people of this world, and make dua’h for those non-Muslim leaders that they may be rightly guided.

I would like to leave you with a few of the inspired sayings of our Beloved Prophet, the Seal of all the Prophets, Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa salaam. The following were taken from The Content of Character collected by Shaykh Al-Amin Ali Mazrui, translated by Hamza Yusuf.

 The Messenger of God, salllallahu alayhi wa salaam, said, “The most virtuous behavior is to engage those who sever relations, to give to those who withhold from you, and to forgive those who wrong you.”    At-Tabarani

The Messenger of God, sallallahu alayhi wa salaam, said, “The majority of man’s sins emanate from his tongue.” At-Tabarani

 The Messenger of God, sallallahi alayhi wa salaam, said, “To acquire some useful knowledge is of greater merit than to perform a hundred devotional prayers voluntarily.”   Ibn Majah

The Messenger of God, sallallahu alayhi wa salaam, said, “Those who show mercy have God’s mercy shown to them. Have mercy on those here on earth, and the One there in Heaven will have mercy on you.”  Imam Ahmad

For anyone looking for right guidance and traditional Islamic knowledge please see the link below…

http://sunnipath.com/

Do you know Imam Bukhari?

Imam Bukhari is known as Amirul Mumineen fil Hadeeth (Leader of the Believers in Hadeeth).

His full name was Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Ismaeel bin Ibraheem bin Bardizbah. 
He was born after Jummah prayer on the 13th of Shawwal in 194H inn the city of Bukhaara which is now in the country of Uzbekistan.    (Mukadamah Fathul Bari)

There have been few households in history in which the father and child were Scholars of hadeeth. Imam Bukhari was fortunate to be born in one such household. His father was not only knowledgeable in hadeeth, but also a very successful business man. At the time of his death he said, "In my entire wealth there is not a single dirham of haram and nor is there a single dirham acquired from anything which I had doubt in (about whether it was haram or not)."            (Mukadamah Fathul Bari)

Imam Bukhari's father died while he was still a child. This meant that he grew up an orphan. Though at a disadvantage, this did not stop him from becoming one of the greatest scholars of hadeeth of all times, if not the greatest, as his mother spent all the money they had inherited on her child's education.

His mother, like his father, was pious, God fearing and very close to Allah, ta'ala. It is reported Imam Bukhari lost his eyesight in early childhood and the doctors at the time were unable to cure him. His mother didn't lose hope and constantly prayed to Allah. ta'ala. She was reported as saying that "I cried so much that I thought my kidneys would burst." One night she saw the Prophet Ibraheem, alayhi salaam, in her dream saying to her, "Because of your constant supplication, Allah, ta'ala, has returned the eyesight of your child." She immediatley went to her child Muhammad bin Ismaeel and found that his eyesight had been restored.     (Mukadamah Fathul Bari)

TAKBEER!!!
In the early days of his education, Imam Bukhari relates, "As a child I would attend the circles of the jurists of Marw and I was too shy to greet them with salaam." Once one of the teachers asked, "How may hadeeth have you written today?" I replied, "two" those that were present began to laugh. A sheikh from amongst them said, "Do not laugh at him as it is possible one day he will laugh at you."
In spite of inheriting a lot of money and being a very successful businessman, he spent every penny on hadeeth to the extent that once he was forced to sell his clothes. It is related that once Imam Bukhari didn't attend the hadeeth circles for many days. His colleagues, shocked at his absence, went to visit him, they found him in his house virtually naked, only wearing pajamas. He had sold his clothes for the sake of hadeeth, his companions collected money and purchased clothes for him.
His Teachers: Imam Bukhari make extensive journeys for the acquisition of hadeeth thus studied under hundreds of sheikhs. He himself says, "I wrote hadeeth from more than 1000 sheikhs." (Tarikh Baghdad) (Too many to list!)
His Students: Imam Bukhari had thousands of students, sometimes twenty thousand at a time would attend his circles.             (Tarikh Baghdad)
A few that became masters are listed:
1) Muslim bin al Hajjaj (Imam Muslim)
2) Abu Isaa Muhammad bin Isaa (Imam Tirmidhi)
3) Abu Abdur Rahman Ahmad bin Shuaib an Nasai (Imam Nasai)
4) Abu Hatim ar Razi
5) Abu Zurah ar Razi
6) Abu Bakr bin Kuzaimah
7) Imam Darami

On the compilation of Sahih Al Bukhari, Imam Bukhari related, "I would not put a hadeeth in my book until I prayed 2 rakaat salaatul istikhaarah. (Mukadamah)
The Imam collected over 600,000 hadeeth from which he selected 9,062 to put in his book.

This was taken from the book Imam Bukhari, His Life & Works by Maulana Ahmad Ali.

Next Time You Feel Discouraged…

The next time you start to feel discouraged, like things are hard for the Muslims today, read a story about our beautiful and noble Sahaba – any of them – just pick one!!! I recently came across a story about Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, in the book, Jesus Christ, The Son of Mary and His Most Blessed Mother by Al-Habib Ali Al-Jafri (Translation & Notes by Gibril Fouad Haddad). The following is an excerpt about Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, if you can read this without it touching your soul in a profound way…like Shaykh Hamza Yusuf says, "you better ask Allah to give you a heart, because you don't have one!"

May Allah, Subhana wa ta'ala, bless us with pure hearts, may He lead us to take as our examples and role models all of our Beloved Prophets, our Noble Sahaba, and all of the enlightened and knowledgeable shaykhs that He, subhana wa ta'ala, has Blessed this Earth with, Amin.

…He also said to some of his Companions one day: "What will you do when a dish is brought to you in the morning and another dish in the evening?" That is: what will you do when you start eating twice in the same day? For some of our liege-lords the Companions might have spent three days without eating , yet they took up their swords and fought in the way of God.  Yet they prayed at night and fasted by day, learned and taught and called people to God! They owned hearts that had become completely disconnected from material concerns in the sense of followership. They remained connected to material concerns only in the sense of worshipping their Lord.  They treated such concerns purely as ways and means, without any attachment to them.

As a result, one of them saw no harm in facing an entire army alone. It should come as no surprise that Ja'far ibn Abi Talib took up the flag in his right hand, then his right hand was cut off, but his soul did not allow him to let the flag go down because his heart had lifted up the flag well before his hand! The flag was in his heart. So the left hand took it up, then the left hand was cut off, then he carried it up with his two limbs, then he fell on the ground but the flag never fell from him. On his body there were over eighty cuts from sword-blows, spears, and arrows. All these cuts were in the front of his body for he had been facing the enemy at all times and never thought of fleeing. Stranger yet is that when water was presented to him so that he could relieve his thirst in the throes of death, lips parched, completely exhausted, he said: "I am fasting."

These are the attributes with which God granted then victory. " I am fasting." They said: "In such a time, on such a day? Break your fast today and you will fast again tomorrow!" He replied: "I long to break my fast in Paradise." Such was his state. Then he gave up the spirit [in Mu'ta, Jordan], and the Beloved Elect, sallahu alayhi wa salaam, was sitting in the presence of his Companions [in Madina] when he described the entire battle in detail. After this, he,sallahi alayhi wa salaam, rose his head and said: "Wa 'alayk as-Salam, wa-rahmatullah, wa-barakatuh, O Ja'far!" The Companions expressed surprise, whereupon he said: "That was Ja'far, the angels carried his spirit to Paradise and he refused to enter it until he first greeted me!"…

The Value of Time

"The Value of Time" by Shaykh 'Abd Al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah. I highly recommend this book! This first paragraph is referring to Surah 35:37.
    

Hence, He, the most Glorified, has made the blessing of a long life a reason for one to reflect and ponder, and has made one's life as proof against him, as He has made messengers and warners proofs and witnesses over him as well. Ibn Kathir said in his tafsir [exegesis} of this noble verse: "It means: Did you not live in this life and have such long life spans that had you been of those who benefit from signs and who follow the truth you would have done so in your lives?" Qatada said: "Know that the length of one's life is a proof against him, so we seek refuge in Allah from being mocked and blamed due to our long lives."

Al-Bukhari narrated in his Sahih on the authority of Abu Hurayra that the Prophet, salallahu alaiyhi wa salaam, said, "Allah will not accept the excuse of any person whose instant of death Allah had delayed till he is sixty years of age."  Imam Ahmad narrated in his Musnad on the authority of Abu Hurayra that the Prophet, salallahu alaiyhi wa salaam, said: "Whomsoever Allah grants a life span of sixty years, then He will not accept any excuses from him relating to the shortness of his life."  meaning that Allah has removed any excuses he might cite and he will have no possible excuses, for Allah had granted him such a long lifetime.
Sisters, if we reflect on this issue, we will find that we waste far too much time throughout our day and throughout our lives. We also generally take our good health for granted – think of all the sisters who have passed away before us or those of us who are in ailing health now, what do you think these sisters would do with one more day? It is a sin for us to take for granted the Blessings of our Lord! In this same book it says…

Truthful indeed is Allah, as He says, "But if you count the blessings of Allah, never will you be able to number them, man is indeed most unjust and most ungrateful." (14:34)

May Allah give all of us the wisdom to use our time on this earth the way He intended, may He grant all of us a healthy and long life to do good deeds, may He fogive our sins, keep us all on the straight path, may He help us all to take full advantage of our time in this life, and may He grant us a place in eternal paradise, Amin.

Prayer Beads – Bida or Not?

This particular subject has recently been the topic of many heated discussions in my area. It is a volatile subject, unfortunately. I think that if people were to reflect on the intention of its use and the reason behind the Prayer beads, they would realize that it is a noble thing. If one is attaining to closeness with Allah, subhana wa ta'ala, where is the wrong in this? If we Muslims were not in such a hurry to judge one another, whereby we seem to be measuring our Islam by the people around us, maybe we would be able to look at these issues of difference and be more objective and understanding.

Please read the following articles on this subject:

Are Prayer Beads an Innovation? (Q&A on Sunnipath.com)

http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=815&CATE=3

The Concept of Bid'a in the Islamic Shari'a (By Sheikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller)

http://masud.co.uk/ISLAM/nuh/bida.htm

Why Muslims Follow Madhhabs

The work of the mujtahid Imams of Sacred Law, those who deduce shari‘a rulings from Qur’an and hadith, has been the object of my research for some years now, during which I have sometimes heard the question: "Who needs the Imams of Sacred Law when we have the Qur’an and hadith? Why can’t we take our Islam from the word of Allah and His Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace), which are divinely protected from error, instead of taking it from the madhhabs or "schools of jurisprudence" of the mujtahid Imams such as Abu Hanifa, Malik, Shafi‘i, and Ahmad, which are not?"

It cannot be hidden from any of you how urgent this issue is, or that many of the disagreements we see and hear in our mosques these days are due to lack of knowledge of fiqh or "Islamic jurisprudence" and its relation to Islam as a whole. Now, perhaps more than ever before, it is time for us to get back to basics and ask ourselves how we understand and carry out the commands of Allah.

http://masud.co.uk/ISLAM/nuh/madhhabstlk.htm

Concentration In Salat

Most of us get distracted and bring lots of worldly thoughts and problems into our mind when performing Salat. It is said then when a person performs Salat they should imagine the things below.

Insha-Allah this will make us all more conscious and enable us to perform our Salat with more concentration.

I M A G I N E

The Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) has said that whilst you are praying: Imagine that all the prophets are on your right side, all the angels on your left, heaven in front of you, hell below you, the angel of death at your back and Allah (S.W.T.) watching over you.

Imagine how revered a prophet is, that an entire chapter of the Holy Quran may be dedicated to him, imagine their position in heaven right now.

Imagine 124,000 of them all lined up on your right side whilst you are praying. How then can you be distracted?

Imagine the sacredness of an angel. Every human being has been allocated two of them for accounting of his deeds. Every cloud moves because Allah (S.W.T) has ordered an angel to that function.

Imagine the light from which each one of them was created, and all of them (much more than 6 billion) assembled on your left side listening to you praying.How then can you be distracted?

Imagine hell!
In a Hadith-al-Qudsi, Allah says that hell will have seven levels with fires, which eat each other! In each level, there are valleys of fire, cities of fire, castles of fire, houses of fire, rooms of fire, wells of fire, serpents of fire, oceans of black poison containing thousands of scorpions of fire, each one in turn having seventy thousand tails of fire. In reality, hellish fire is much hotter than earthly fire, and hell is unimaginably much worse this description.

Imagine heaven!
In Hadith-al-Qudsi, Allah says that heaven will have eight gates with thousands of gardens, thousands of cities of pearls, thousands of palaces of Ruby, thousands of rooms of gold, thousands of tables and of plates of jewels, thousands of kinds of food, thousands of thrones of red gold around each of which thousands of rivers will flow with life water and pure honey. On top of each palace, there will be thousands of gifts from the Merciful, which have not been seen by any eye, heard by any ear and are beyond our imagination.

It has been said that in spite of all this pleasure, if the residents of heaven were shown the punishment of someone who did wrong for just one hour on earth, they would scream out with fear. And in spite of all their discomfort, if the residents of hell were shown the reward of someone who did good for only one hour on earth, they would forget they are in hell!

Now imagine this hell beneath you and the open doors of heaven in front of you whilst you are praying. How then can you be distracted?

Imagine the angel of death behind you, the angel that appears as a beautiful person at the deathbed of one who is favoured by Allah and as fierce creature that pulls the soul out as if it were a cloth being dragged amongst sharp thorns for one who is disfavoured. Imagine this angel just at your back whilst praying. How then can you be distracted if you are not even sure that this might be your last prayer?

And finally imagine the Creator of all that has been mentioned in the previous paragraphs, one who has created an almost infinite universe of which earth is only a very tiny insignificant bit, and more insignificant are we who live in it. How then can you be distracted if the Lord of existence is watching above you whilst you are offering prayers to Him?