ummtaalib

Juz Nine Hardships and Ease وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا فِي قَرْيَةٍ مِّن نَّبِيٍّ إِلَّا أَخَذْنَا أَهْلَهَا بِالْبَأْسَاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَضَّرَّعُونَ. ثُمَّ بَدَّلْنَا مَكَانَ السَّيِّئَةِ الْحَسَنَةَ حَتَّىٰ عَفَوا وَّقَالُوا قَدْ مَسَّ آبَاءَنَا الضَّرَّاءُ وَالسَّرَّاءُ فَأَخَذْنَاهُم بَغْتَةً وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ We did not send any prophet to a town, but We seized its people with hardship and suffering, so that they might humble themselves; then We transformed the affliction into ease of life, so that they thrived and said (to themselves), “Misfortune and hardship befell our forefathers as well”—whereupon We took them to task, all of a sudden, without their being aware (of what was coming). (Al-Aʿrāf, 7:94-95) This sūrah narrated stories of many Messengers whose nations refused to listen to them and were ultimately destroyed. Here is then a general statement about their behavior. The hardships and ease of life were created by Allāh as a way of shaking them out of their complacency with their ignorant ways. They are not accidents that just happen randomly, nor are they ultimately the result of just the local and apparent causes. There is a Divine plan behind everything that is happening in the world. People of wisdom can see the Hand of Allāh in their afflictions as well as their prosperity and use both to come closer to Him and to submit to Him. Others fail—even refuse—to see it that way and are destroyed. This is a very important reminder for developing the right outlook about the news of the day. Blind Imitation وَجَاوَزْنَا بِبَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ الْبَحْرَ فَأَتَوْا عَلَىٰ قَوْمٍ يَعْكُفُونَ عَلَىٰ أَصْنَامٍ لَّهُمْ ۚ قَالُوا يَا مُوسَى اجْعَل لَّنَا إِلَٰهًا كَمَا لَهُمْ آلِهَةٌ ۚ قَالَ إِنَّكُمْ قَوْمٌ تَجْهَلُونَ. إِنَّ هَٰؤُلَاءِ مُتَبَّرٌ مَّا هُمْ فِيهِ وَبَاطِلٌ مَّا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ We made the children of Isrā’īl cross the sea, then they came across a people sitting in devotion before their idols. They (the Israelites) said, “O Mūsā, make a god for us like they have gods.” He said, “You are really an ignorant people. What these people are engaged in is sure to be destroyed; and false is what they are doing.” (Al-Aʿrāf, 7:138-139) This is after the Israelites had been rescued from the Pharaoh’s oppression. Long years of slavery had taken their toll on their ways of thinking and this can be seen in the slavish mentality showcased here. Blind imitation of the other (as can be seen in the vast areas of the Muslim world today regarding the West) is a serious disease. We want the same objects of devotion, days of celebration, and pursuits and patterns of life as those who we think to be successful. Ibn ʿAṭiyyah says, the children of Israel perhaps were not proposing idol worship per se; they might have been rationalizing that the statue would help them visualize and thereby do their worship of God with more concentration. If true, it only shows that such rationalizations camouflaging a slavish mentality—so common today as a result of colonial experience—have a long history. Let us not forget that the children of Israel did end up doing calf worship after all. In any case the reply of Prophet Mūsā is so fitting and it can help rid us of this debilitating sickness. The Prophet and His True Followers الَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ الرَّسُولَ النَّبِيَّ الْأُمِّيَّ الَّذِي يَجِدُونَهُ مَكْتُوبًا عِندَهُمْ فِي التَّوْرَاةِ وَالْإِنجِيلِ يَأْمُرُهُم بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَاهُمْ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَيُحِلُّ لَهُمُ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَيُحَرِّمُ عَلَيْهِمُ الْخَبَائِثَ وَيَضَعُ عَنْهُمْ إِصْرَهُمْ وَالْأَغْلَالَ الَّتِي كَانَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ فَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا بِهِ وَعَزَّرُوهُ وَنَصَرُوهُ وَاتَّبَعُوا النُّورَ الَّذِي أُنزِلَ مَعَهُ ۙ أُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ Those who follow the Messenger, the Ummī (unlettered) prophet whom they find mentioned in their own (scriptures), in the Torah (law) and the Injīl (Gospel), and who bids them what is fair and forbids what is unfair, and makes lawful for them good things, and makes unlawful for them impure things, and relieves them of their burden, and of the shackles that were upon them. So, those who believe in him and support him, and help him and follow the light sent down with him, those are the ones who are successful. (Al- Aʿrāf, 7:157) This is a concise introduction to Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ and his message. He commands what is fair, just, and good. He forbids what is unfair, unjust, and evil. He declares permissible what is clean and pure. He declares impermissible what is unclean and unhealthy. He liberates humanity from the shackles that it had put upon itself—those of customs, traditions, superstitions and man-made laws. His is the most empowering and liberating message that leads to eternal success. This success is only for those who reject all the competing heroes and exemplars for the light of guidance brought by him. The Sabbath-Breakers وَاسْأَلْهُمْ عَنِ الْقَرْيَةِ الَّتِي كَانَتْ حَاضِرَةَ الْبَحْرِ إِذْ يَعْدُونَ فِي السَّبْتِ إِذْ تَأْتِيهِمْ حِيتَانُهُمْ يَوْمَ سَبْتِهِمْ شُرَّعًا وَيَوْمَ لَا يَسْبِتُونَ ۙ لَا تَأْتِيهِمْ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ نَبْلُوهُم بِمَا كَانُوا يَفْسُقُونَ Ask them about the town which stood by the sea, when they used to transgress in the matter of Sabbath, when their fish came to them openly on the Sabbath, and did not come when they did not have Sabbath. In this way, We put them to a test, because they used to act sinfully. (Al-Aʿrāf, 7:163) Muhammad Asad writes: “The story of the Sabbath-breakers (alluded to in several places in the Qur’ān) is a general illustration of the tendency, so often manifested by the children of Israel, to offend against their religious laws in pursuit of their passions or for the sake of worldly gain.” Unfortunately the description of the past of the children of Israel fits the present of much of the Muslim world with all sorts of economic justifications being offered for putting Allāh’s commands on the side. Those who put forward or accept such fancy justifications, sometimes in highly academic language, should realize that when economic gains result from breaking Allāh’s commands, then the situation is itself a punishment for our transgressions. And the proper thing to do is to throw away the balance sheets and turn to Allāh in repentance. Innate Sense of the Creator وَإِذْ أَخَذَ رَبُّكَ مِن بَنِي آدَمَ مِن ظُهُورِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَأَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ ۖ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ ۛ شَهِدْنَا ۛ أَن تَقُولُوا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ إِنَّا كُنَّا عَنْ هَٰذَا غَافِلِينَ (Recall) when your Lord brought forth their progeny from the loins of the children of Ādam, and made them testify about themselves (by asking them,) “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Of course, You are. We testify.” (We did so) lest you should say on the Day of Judgment, “ We were unaware of this.” (Al-Aʿrāf, 7:172) According to the Qur’ān, as explained further by several ahadith, all human beings who will be born until the Last Day had a prior existence when the witnessing referred to above took place. Our innate sense of our Creator and our obligation to worship and obey Him is a result of that event. That is why belief in a deity and acts of worship have been a common phenomenon in all human societies. Another hadith informs us that all human beings are born in the state of fiṭrah, which is in perfect harmony with Islam, and only later parents and environmental influences make them deviate from that path. The awareness may be obscured from our conscience and buried deeply under false ideas but it comes to the surface at extraordinary times. Thus at times of great calamities people of all persuasions suddenly remember God. The Prophet and the Knowledge of the Unseen قُل لَّا أَمْلِكُ لِنَفْسِي نَفْعًا وَلَا ضَرًّا إِلَّا مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ ۚ وَلَوْ كُنتُ أَعْلَمُ الْغَيْبَ لَاسْتَكْثَرْتُ مِنَ الْخَيْرِ وَمَا مَسَّنِيَ السُّوءُ ۚ إِنْ أَنَا إِلَّا نَذِيرٌ وَبَشِيرٌ لِّقَوْمٍ يُؤْمِنُونَ Say, “I have no power to bring a benefit or a harm to myself, except that which Allāh wills. If I had the knowledge of the Unseen, I would have accumulated a lot of good things, and no evil would have ever touched me. I am but a warner, and a herald of good news for a people who believe.” (Al-Aʿrāf, 7:188) Prophets receive communications from God and speak to the people for Him, but they are not God. Many people have difficulty in comprehending this distinction. Non-believers, including the mushrikeen of the pre-Islamic Jāhiliyyah said that if the Prophet did not have divine powers then he could not be the Prophet. Ignorant followers later claimed that he indeed had full knowledge of the unseen. This āyah sets the record straight. The Prophet is a human being, but he is appointed by Allāh to speak for Him to humanity. His knowledge of the unseen world exceeds that of other human beings, because it has been given to him by Allāh. But this is not the all encompassing knowledge of the unseen, which is held by no one except Allāh. Listening to the Qur’ān وَإِذَا قُرِئَ الْقُرْآنُ فَاسْتَمِعُوا لَهُ وَأَنصِتُوا لَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ When the Qur’ān is recited, hearken unto it, and listen in silence, so that you may be blessed. (Al-Aʿrāf 7:204) This is the proper etiquette regarding Qur’ānic recitation. The Qur’ān should command our attention and devotion unlike any other word, as this is the Word of Allāh. Disrespect here will deprive us of the mercy contained in it. Consequently a person should not recite it audibly at a place where people are busy in other activities and will not be able to listen to it attentively. Unfortunately in the media age this situation has become more common. Electronic devices make recitation easy but many a time the required attention is lacking. We should remember that the Qur’ānic recitation should never form the background sound for our activities. We should either listen to it with full attention or turn it off. For the same reason using it as a ring toner in mobile phones is an act of disrespect. When the Qur’ān is recited in tarāwīh, the spirit of this āyah requires that we listen to it and not leave in the middle without a good reason. Even worse would be to engage in socializing and ignore the recitation of the Qur’ān. Unfortunately these are becoming a common trend in our communities, and especially amongst the youth in the West.

wa'alaykumus salaam ww Haya Best to ask a mufti sahib. I wouldn't know if right or not

Juz Eight Slick Talk وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَا لِكُلِّ نَبِيٍّ عَدُوًّا شَيَاطِينَ الْإِنسِ وَالْجِنِّ يُوحِي بَعْضُهُمْ إِلَىٰ بَعْضٍ زُخْرُفَ الْقَوْلِ غُرُورًا ۚ وَلَوْ شَاءَ رَبُّكَ مَا فَعَلُوهُ ۖ فَذَرْهُمْ وَمَا يَفْتَرُونَ So it is that, for every prophet, We have set up enemies—the devils of mankind and jinn—who whisper unto one another flowery discourses in order to deceive-Had Allāh willed, they would have not done it. So, leave them alone with what they forge. (Al-Anʿām, 6:112) The key phrase here is “zukhraf al-qawl ghurūrā” which can be translated as “embellished speech or varnished falsehood by way of deception.” This is the slick talk that has been developed into perfection in the age of the media, sound bites, and spin doctors. These forces of deception will remain there; the task of the truth seeker is to be aware of their ways and not allow himself to be deceived by them. The next āyah tells us that it is really those who do not believe in the Hereafter that will be persuaded by them. It says: “and (they seduce one another) in order that the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter may incline to it.”A belief in the Hereafter that is alive and a concern for our accountability before the All-Knowing Allāh will protect us from their deceptions. The Majority Says … وَإِن تُطِعْ أَكْثَرَ مَن فِي الْأَرْضِ يُضِلُّوكَ عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ۚ إِن يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا الظَّنَّ وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَخْرُصُونَ If you obey the majority of those on earth, they will make you lose the way of Allāh. They follow nothing but whims, and they do nothing but make conjectures. (Al-Anʿām 6:116) This again emphasizes that matters of truth and falsehood cannot be decided through democracy or opinion polls. Further, the views of most people on fundamental questions of life are based on conjectures and speculation, not on certain knowledge, which can only come through revelation. Inward and Outward Sins وَذَرُوا ظَاهِرَ الْإِثْمِ وَبَاطِنَهُ ۚ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْسِبُونَ الْإِثْمَ سَيُجْزَوْنَ بِمَا كَانُوا يَقْتَرِفُونَ Forsake the outwardness of sin and the inwardness thereof. Lo! those who garner sin will be awarded that which they have earned. (Al-Anʿām 6:120) The outward sins are the content of our outward actions like telling lies, backbiting, failure to perform obligatory acts of worship, and failure to follow the commands of Allāh in all dealings and transactions. The inward sins are the thoughts, ideas and motives we hide in our heart like arrogance, malice, jealousy, and desire to show off. The Islamic discipline of fiqh deals with the first; that of tasawwuf (although it is greatly misunderstood these days) deals with the second. The āyah makes it clear that both are important; reforming both our actions and our motives and thoughts are equal obligations. Halal Slaughter وَلَا تَأْكُلُوا مِمَّا لَمْ يُذْكَرِ اسْمُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ وَإِنَّهُ لَفِسْقٌ Do not eat that (meat) over which the name of Allāh has not been pronounced. This is surely a sin. (Al-Anʿām 6:121) Taking a life, even that of an animal that has been created to feed us, is something that we cannot do on our own authority. That is why it is of utmost importance that we slaughter that animal by pronouncing the name of Allāh and only in the way prescribed by Him. When the pronouncement is left out intentionally, or done by someone who does not believe in Allāh in the first place, then that meat is not permissible for consumption. In this sūrah, which deals basically with the wrong beliefs of the mushrikeen of Makkah and is meant to explain and assert the truth of Islamic beliefs, it is interesting that the issue of ḥalāl and ḥarām meat has been discussed in no less than ten āyahs. This again makes it clear that this is not a secondary or peripheral issue. Hearts, Open and Constricted فَمَن يُرِدِ اللَّهُ أَن يَهْدِيَهُ يَشْرَحْ صَدْرَهُ لِلْإِسْلَامِ ۖ وَمَن يُرِدْ أَن يُضِلَّهُ يَجْعَلْ صَدْرَهُ ضَيِّقًا حَرَجًا كَأَنَّمَا يَصَّعَّدُ فِي السَّمَاءِ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ يَجْعَلُ اللَّهُ الرِّجْسَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ So, whomsoever Allāh wills to guide, He makes his heart wide open for Islam, and whomsoever He wills to let go astray, He makes his heart tight and constricted, (and he feels embracing Islam as difficult) as if he were climbing unto the skies. In this way, Allāh lays abomination on those who do not believe. (Al-Anʿām, 6:125) A hadith explains the signs of this wide opening of the breast: “Turning to the eternal abode, turning away from the abode of deception (this world), and preparation for death before it comes.” Such a person would accept the commands of Allāh with an open heart. There is much to ponder here for those Muslims who habitually show allergic reactions to different commands of the Sharīʿah. The roots of this behavior is the sickness of the heart mentioned here. At higher elevations atmospheric pressure is low, making breathing difficult. (That is why airplane cabins are pressurized). What a fitting illustration of the constriction of the breast. A Muslim’s Pledge قُلْ إِنَّ صَلَاتِي وَنُسُكِي وَمَحْيَايَ وَمَمَاتِي لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ. لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ ۖ وَبِذَٰلِكَ أُمِرْتُ وَأَنَا أَوَّلُ الْمُسْلِمِينَ Say, my worship and my sacrifice and my living and my dying are for Allāh, Lord of the Worlds. For Him there is no partner. And thus I have been commanded, and I am the first one to submit.” (Al-Anʿām 6:162-163) This is the definition of the Muslim—one who surrenders completely and as a result loves and hates; and lives and dies for the sake of Allāh. As the Qur’ān explains in several places, this was the call of all the previous prophets as well. Dress Code يَا بَنِي آدَمَ قَدْ أَنزَلْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ لِبَاسًا يُوَارِي سَوْآتِكُمْ وَرِيشًا ۖ وَلِبَاسُ التَّقْوَىٰ ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ مِنْ آيَاتِ اللَّهِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَذَّكَّرُونَ O Children of Adam! We have bestowed raiment upon you to cover your shame, as well as to be an adornment to you. But the raiment of righteousness,- that is the best. Such are among the Signs of Allāh, that they may receive admonition! (Al-Aʿrāf, 7:26) While all other animals have a skin that provides them protection against the elements, human beings don’t. Monkeys can live without clothing; human beings cannot. Why? It is not that our bodies did not develop our skin—so thin and fur free that it requires external covering for protection—because of some unexplained evolutionary accident. Rather, our Creator designed it this way so we will always need clothing. He also put in us the sense of shame that forces us to cover ourselves. At the same time, He provided us with the means and abilities for producing nice clothes. On the other hand, the first act of Satan was to cause Adam and Eve to expose themselves as explained in the āyahs preceding this one. The address here is to all humanity, emphasizing thereby the universal human need to cover ourselves properly. The Qur’ān then warns that Satan was not finished after his first attempt for the next āyah says: “Oh Children of Adam! Let not Satan seduce you in the same manner as he got your parents out of the Garden, stripping them of their raiment, to expose their shame.” Those who design, promote, and use the fashions— especially women’s fashions—that develop new ways of not covering the body are thus obedient servants of Satan, whether they realize it or not. Homosexuality وَلُوطًا إِذْ قَالَ لِقَوْمِهِ أَتَأْتُونَ الْفَاحِشَةَ مَا سَبَقَكُم بِهَا مِنْ أَحَدٍ مِّنَ الْعَالَمِينَ. إِنَّكُمْ لَتَأْتُونَ الرِّجَالَ شَهْوَةً مِّن دُونِ النِّسَاءِ ۚ بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌ مُّسْرِفُونَ And (remember) Lūṭ, when he said unto his people: “Do you commit abominations such as none in all the world has ever done before you? Verily, with lust you approach men instead of women. You are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds.” (Al-Aʿrāf, 7:80-81) The story of the people of Prophet Lūṭ (Lot) is mentioned in more than ten sūrahs in the Qur’ān. This is a story of crime, defiance, and punishment. Unprecedented crime, extremism in insisting on that crime, and exemplary punishment. Anyone who reads this narrative with an open mind can have not the slightest confusion about Islam’s attitude about homosexuality. The first thing the Qur’ān mentions is that homosexual practice was invented by the people to whom Prophet Lūṭ was sent as a messenger. The Qur’ānic word is al-fāḥishah, which means lewdness, shameful act, indecency. Fornication and adultery (zinā) are also mentioned as examples of fāḥishah in the Qur’ān. But here the definite article al is added to show the even more serious nature of this act. Homosexual act is not fāḥishah but al-fāḥishah. It is not just a shameful act but the shameful act, the lewdness, the abomination. Secondly in telling that no one before them committed this act, the Qur’ān uses the word min in addition to aḥadin. Without this, it would still mean that no one did it before you. But with min emphasis is added. In other words, no one whosoever ever did this act among all the creatures. This is an outright rejection of the claim that this tendency is an inborn and ingrained part of nature for which no person should be held accountable. Prophet Lūṭ accuses them of having invented this shameful act. And the Sodomites do not say that they are helpless because it is a call of nature. Rather they say, “You know very well what we want.” And that the Prophet would be added to the list of people who have been expelled from their city for objecting to their practices if he does not cease and desist from criticizing their way of life. They are the inventors of this perversion and fully committed to use of violence to defend it. This Qur’ānic account regarding the genesis of this perversion is attested to not only by the Bible and the Talmud but also by the terms used to describe this act in languages around the world. It is sodomy in English, sodomie and sodomiser (the doer) in French, sodomia and sodomizar in Spanish and sodomi in Norwegian. Sodomie in German and sodomia in Polish also refer to variant forms of sexual perversion. All point to the fact that it was invented in Sodom, which was the principle city of these people. In Arabic and languages influenced by it like Urdu the term used is liwatat or aml qaum lut, referring to the practice of the people of Prophet Lūṭ. Again it is pointing to the same date and place of invention. The date is about four thousand years ago. For thousands of years before that no one ever felt the urge for this perversion. Obviously if it was in human nature then some people in earlier times should also have expressed this inclination. The place is the area now submerged under the Dead Sea. This was a very prosperous and rich fertile land. Then the punishment came in the form of a huge earthquake and rain of brimstones and fires that turned their world upside down. The area then became the lowest point on the face of the earth, being about 1300 feet below sea level. It was submerged under the ocean and turned into a desolate place where little life exists. Its harsh environment permits neither fish or other sea animals nor aquatic plants. It was as the Qur’ān said: “And verily of that We have left a clear sign for people who have sense.” Sodomites committed other crimes as well like highway robbery and performing shameful acts in public as mentioned in one place in the Qur’ān9 But their biggest crime was homosexuality, which is mentioned repeatedly. And then there was defiance. When Prophet Lūṭ warned them about divine retribution, they challenged him to bring it. Their fate was thus sealed by their own demand. That was before the angels arrived at the scene. Their invasion of the house of Prophet Lūṭ for the explicit purpose of molesting the angels who appeared in the guise of beautiful young men was thus just the last nail in their coffin. It was not the primary reason for their punishment. Some people have tried to distort the Qur’ānic account by claiming that their crime was rape not homosexuality. Others have surmised that the problem was that they were targeting young children, otherwise it would be fine. The Qur’ān does not leave the slightest possibility of such interpretation. In the āyah quoted above it says: “Verily, with lust you approach men instead of women.” It is rijāl (men) not aṭfāl (children). It is for the act itself, without any mention of compulsion, that they are called as musrifūn (going beyond limits). Also significant is the role of Prophet Lūṭ’s wife. While in the entire town only one house was saved, that of Prophet Lūṭ, even in that house there was an exception. It was the wife of the Prophet, who was killed with the rest of the people. Her fate is mentioned repeatedly so it does not remain just a footnote to the story. Why was she punished? Not for committing homosexual acts but for betraying her husband. She betrayed the cause of her husband by being an active sympathizer with the people and therefore shared their fate. When the people invaded the house of Prophet Lūṭ, and he was at the point of despair, the people were blinded by the angels. We can see a figurative blindness in the people who try to make a case for approval of homosexuality in Islam. A most bizarre argument that has been forwarded by some of them is that the Qur’ān mentions the presence of young boys as servants in Paradise. Interestingly it is the same people who argue that the modern homosexual affair is between consenting adults and that they also agree that sex with young boys is wrong. Yet that is what comes to their lustful minds when they read the accounts of the servants in the Qur’ān. If they had maintained their sensibilities, they would have realized that this Qur’ānic account actually gives exactly the opposite message. In Paradise women will not be in the public places. They will be in the private space, where they will not face the attention of anyone except their husbands (“houris, cloistered in cool pavilions”). Young boys will be in all the public places, because those who enter Paradise will not look at them with any sexual desires. They will have nothing to worry as those who could look at them with desire will not be in Paradise at all. They will be in the exact opposite of Paradise, a small manifestation of which was given to the people of Prophet Lūṭ. Self-Righteousness وَمَا كَانَ جَوَابَ قَوْمِهِ إِلَّا أَن قَالُوا أَخْرِجُوهُم مِّن قَرْيَتِكُمْ ۖ إِنَّهُمْ أُنَاسٌ يَتَطَهَّرُونَ But his people’s only answer was this: “Expel them (Lūṭ and his followers) from your township! Verily, they are folk who make themselves out to be pure!” (Al-Aʿrāf, 7:82) The people of Prophet Lūṭ not only invented the heinous practice of homosexuality, they also fashioned a propaganda weapon for fighting those who would try to stop them. As quoted above they blamed Prophet Lūṭ and his associates of being self-righteous. We can hear the echoes of this blame even today. If someone dares to say that what someone else is saying or doing is wrong or un-Islamic, he will be immediately convicted of being self-righteous. And there is no sin greater than that. With this one word anyone can be stopped from pointing out any wrongs. Needless to say the term does not belong in the Islamic discourse. Muslims have had lots of debates in their history on the actions and words of each other. But you do not find the use of this word in these debates. The proper response to an accusation of wrongdoing is to show that the act in question is not wrong. But those using a counter accusation of self- righteousness are in effect saying: “How dare you accuse us of doing anything wrong.” Instead of answering the accusation, they aim at silencing it. So we should make it clear that the term is not acceptable in the Islamic discourse. In fact the entire institution of amr bil maʿrūf wa nahi ʿanil munkar, so central to Islam, can be disbanded if we continue to allow the use of this term.

Juz Seven The Tyranny of the Majority قُل لَّا يَسْتَوِي الْخَبِيثُ وَالطَّيِّبُ وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَكَ كَثْرَةُ الْخَبِيثِ ۚ فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ يَا أُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ Say, “The corrupt and the good are not equal, even though the abundance of (what is) corrupt may attract you. So, fear Allāh, O people of understanding, so that you may be successful.” (Al- Mā’idah, 5:100) The term khabīth applies to all forms of corrupt things, people, and ideas. When applied to things, the āyah means that a little wealth from ḥalāl sources is far better than a whole lot of it from ḥarām sources. Referring to this Sayyidnā Abū Hurayrah said, “One dirham from ḥalāl income that I give in charity is more beloved to me than a hundred thousand dirhams from ḥarām income.” ʿUmar ibn ʿAbdul ʿAzīz invoked this āyah when government revenue was reduced considerably after his economic reforms that eliminated unjust taxes. Some functionaries were concerned about the running of the government. Not he. His response: Fill your rule with justice just as it was filled with injustice before, and Allāh will take care of us. Today we witness wholesale violation of this message in the running of everything from small organizations to big governments. We think that a hundred bucks are better than one, regardless of how they were earned. The message is general and cautions us that in any situation we should not be swayed by numbers alone. This is the antidote to the tyranny of the majority and the claim to truth of the prevalent. We should never be the ones that go with the flow. We judge all things based on their own merit and not on their popularity or preponderance. Good is what Allāh declared to be good, no matter what the opinion polls say. Wrong is what He declared to be wrong, no matter how many pundits line up in its favor. Self Reform يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا عَلَيْكُمْ أَنفُسَكُمْ ۖ لَا يَضُرُّكُم مَّن ضَلَّ إِذَا اهْتَدَيْتُمْ ۚ إِلَى اللَّهِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ جَمِيعًا فَيُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ O you who believe, take care of your own selves. The one who has gone astray cannot harm you, if you are on the right path. To Allāh all of you have to return. Then He will tell you what you have been doing. (Al-Mā’idah, 5:105) Our first responsibility is to reform ourselves for we will stand accountable to Allāh for our own actions and inactions, not of others. Our normal conversations consist of criticizing others. This has a place in the proper scheme of things, when it is part of our conscious effort to promote good and prohibit evil and when it is guided by the Sharīʿah limits on such conversation. But when this becomes our sole occupation, to the exclusion of our self monitoring and accounting, there is a serious problem. This is not a negation of our responsibility to enjoin good and forbid evil. Rather it assures us that when we have done our job in promoting good, yet people do not listen, then we will not be responsible for their actions. Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab said: “When you have enjoined good and forbidden evil, and you are following the right path, then the going astray of a person despite your efforts will not harm you.” Denying Life after Death وَقَالُوا إِنْ هِيَ إِلَّا حَيَاتُنَا الدُّنْيَا وَمَا نَحْنُ بِمَبْعُوثِينَ. وَلَوْ تَرَىٰ إِذْ وُقِفُوا عَلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ ۚ قَالَ أَلَيْسَ هَٰذَا بِالْحَقِّ ۚ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ وَرَبِّنَا ۚ قَالَ فَذُوقُوا الْعَذَابَ بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَكْفُرُونَ They say, “There is nothing but this worldly life of ours, and we are not going to be raised again.” If only you could see when they will be made to stand before their Lord! He will say, “Is this not a reality?” They will say, “Of course, by our Lord, it is.” He will say, “Then, taste the punishment, for you used to disbelieve.” (Al-Anʿām 6:29-30) This was revealed in Makkah and documents the belief of the pagans regarding the Afterlife. The great intellectuals, scientists, professors, and authors of today who hold and promote this view are no better or different than the ignorant people of the pre-Islamic Jāhiliyyah society quoted here. All corruption arises from this basic premise that there is no life after this one. If this life is all there is to it, then might must be right because it works and moral principles are meaningless because they require you to give up immediate gratification and many a time go unrewarded in this world. The second āyah tells us that visualizing the utter shock of those who subscribe to this view when they come face to face with reality after death is the best answer to their philosophies. Limits on Interactions with the Non-Believers وَإِذَا رَأَيْتَ الَّذِينَ يَخُوضُونَ فِي آيَاتِنَا فَأَعْرِضْ عَنْهُمْ حَتَّىٰ يَخُوضُوا فِي حَدِيثٍ غَيْرِهِ ۚ وَإِمَّا يُنسِيَنَّكَ الشَّيْطَانُ فَلَا تَقْعُدْ بَعْدَ الذِّكْرَىٰ مَعَ الْقَوْمِ الظَّالِمِينَ When you see men engaged in vain discourse about Our signs, turn away from them unless they turn to a different theme. If Satan ever makes you forget, then after recollection, sit not in the company of those who do wrong. (Al-Anʿām, 6:68) This āyah sets the limits on interaction with the non- believers. If in any gathering, truth is ridiculed, blasphemy is perpetrated, or someone is making fun of Allāh and the Prophet, we must not sit in such company, watch or listen to such a program or participate in the chat. If we find ourselves in it, as soon as we realize it, we must show our disapproval by leaving. If this is isolationism then be it. We must isolate ourselves from evil environments for our own protection.

Ghusl of Janabah Q. Can one take a bath after Sehri, to be cleared from the state of Janaabat (requiring a Fardh Ghusal)? A.It is not advisable to unnecessarily delay the Fardh Ghusl. However if one is in the position that he wants to partake of Sehri before taking the Ghusl, it will be permissible. Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) had sometimes delayed the Fardh Ghusl till after Suhoor. (Fathul Mulhim, V: 5, P: 226, Darul Qalam) And Allah Knows Best Mufti Suhail Tarmahomed Fatwa Department Jamiatul Ulama (KZN) Council of Muslim Theologians

Some points below most should be well aware of, however just as a reminder we list below 30 important points about the performing of taraweeh 1) Taraweeh follows Esha. Taraweeh is not before Esha. In a Masjid wherein Esha Jamaat is not performed, it is not valid to perform Taraweeh. (Kabiri Pg 391) 2) If a person performed Taraweeh as an Imaam or follower, he cannot again perform Taraweeh as an Imaam although he may join as a follower (with Nafl intention) in another Masjid’s Taraweeh. (Kabiri Pg 389) 3) a. To read two Rakaats with one Salaam is best. b. To read four Rakaats with one Salaam is without objection. c. To read eight Rakaats with one Salaam is Makrooh (detested). d. But the reward for resting after every four Rakaats will not be obtained. e. However, to read more than eight Rakaats with one Salaam is against the best action and Makrooh-e-Tanzihi. (Kabiri) 4) A person who enters the Masjid when Taraweeh has started, one must perform the Fardh and Sunnat then join the Taraweeh etc. (Kabiri) 5) It is permissible to perform Fardh behind one Imaam and Taraweeh and Witr behind another. 6) If the Esha Salaat was not valid due to some reason (e.g. Imaam performed it without Wudhu), then the Esha and the Taraweeh has to be repeated, although the reason for invalidity did not exist in the Taraweeh. (Kabiri) 7) All of the following intentions are valid for Taraweeh: a. “Standing for night Salaat in Ramadhaan” b. “of Sunnat” c. “of the time of Salaat” d. “of the Imaam”. (Kinayah) 8.) If an Imaam is reading the second and the third section and the follower made the intention of following him in the first section, there is no problem. (Kinayah) 9) If any part of the Taraweeh was invalid or missed, then it is Makrooh to make its Qaza with Jamaat. 10) If one remembered after Witr, that a portion has been left out, this can be read in Jamaat. 11) If only 19 Rakaats were read, then two more should be read. There is no need to repeat the whole Taraweeh. 12) When repeating the two Rakaats (of those Rakaats which have been rendered invalid), the Quraan recited in those two invalid Rakaats should be repeated so that the Quraan is recited in a valid Salaat. 13) If the Imaam made 18 Rakaats and then started the Witr and then remembered that two Rakaats Taraweeh are left and makes Salaam after the second Rakaat of the Witr, it will not be counted as Taraweeh. 14) If the Imaam did not make Qa’da after the second Rakaat but did so after four Rakaats, then the later second Rakaats are counted as two of Taraweeh. 15) To read Taraweeh sitting without reason is valid, but half the reward will be received. 16) If the Imaam performed Taraweeh in a sitting position due to some reason then it is Mustahab (preferable) for the followers to stand and read. 17) To keep counting how many Rakaats have been performed is Makrooh. This is a sign of uneasiness. 18) To spend most of the night in Taraweeh is Mustahab (preferable). 19) To make one Khatam (read or listen) is Sunnat. The second Khatam is meritorious. The third Khatam is best, thus if in every Rakaat plus minus ten Aayats are read then easily one Khatam can be read and will not be difficult for the followers. 20) It is meritorious for a Hafez to return home and perform another twenty Rakaats so that he obtains the reward for two Khatams. 21) It is best to make one Khatam every ten days. 22) If the followers are so weak and disinterested, that they are not prepared to listen to the whole Quraan, with the result they discard Jamaat then read so much which pleases them or from Alam Tara. But in the above cases, they will be deprived of the reward of the Sunnat of Khatam. 23) If Aayats have been missed and whilst the Hafiz remembers those Aayats have been missed, then it is Mustahab (preferable) to read the missed Aayats and to repeat the proceeding ones. 24) It is Makrooh (detested) to leave out the small in between Surahs in Fardh Salaat but it is not Makrooh to do so in Taraweeh. 25) If the followers are weak or not energetic that they cannot bear lengthy Salaats, then after the Durood, Dua may be left out without any objection. Care should be taken not to leave out the Durood. 26) Do not read Thana when you join the Jamaat when the Imaam has started the Qiraat. 27) a. The Masbooq (one who has come late for Salaat) should not stand up quickly to complete his Salaat until he is sure and certain that the Imaam has ended his Salaat. (Muheet) b. Sometimes the Imaam may make a Salaam to be followed by Sajda Sahwa while the Masbooq stands up the Masbooq should immediately return and join the Imaam. 28) If a person hurriedly said Takbeer while standing straight and then rushed into Ruku and his back straightened before the Imaam raised his head from Ruku then the person has got the Rakaat even if he did not say one Tasbeeh. Otherwise not. If the person did not say the Takbeer while standing straight, but said it while going into Ruku, then his start is not valid. (Muheet) 29) If one says one Takbeer as Takbeer-e-Tahrima while standing and immediately goes into Ruku to join the Imaam, it is adequate (sufficient). 30) It is permissible to read Fardh Salaat under one Imaam and Taraweeh and Witr under another Imaam. (Kabiri) Above references (Fatawa Mehmoodia of My Ustaad Hazrat Moulana Mufti Mehmoodul Hasan Gangohi Vol 2 Pg 350 till 357) al-islam

Juz Six Basis for Cooperation ۘ وَتَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْبِرِّ وَالتَّقْوَىٰ ۖ وَلَا تَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ Help one another in furthering virtue and Allāh-consciousness, and do not help one another in furthering evil and aggression. (Al- Mā’idah, 5:2) This is a fundamental principle that governs all our cooperation with others. Cooperative arrangements result from calculations that it will be, as normally phrased, a win- win situation. But what does that exactly mean? It means that both the parties entering into a pact of cooperation will achieve their self interest. However for Muslims, considerations of virtue override all other considerations. Any enterprise, no matter how attractive on the basis of self interest, is a no-no if it leads to sin, evil, or aggression. Perfection of Religion ۚ الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًا Today, I have perfected your religion for you, and have completed My blessing upon you, and chosen Islam as Dīn (religion and a way of life) for you. (Al-Mā’idah, 5:3) This āyah was revealed at ʿArafāt in the afternoon of Friday, the 9th of Dhu ’l-Ḥijjah, 10 AH, eighty-one or eighty-two days before the death of the Prophet ﷺ. No legal injunction whatsoever was revealed after this. Here was the announcement that the sequence of revelations to the last of the prophets was now coming to an end. The deen, the system of beliefs and practices, was completed. It was perfected. People are free to accept or refuse to accept the message of the Qur’ān. But this categorical declaration does not leave any room for anyone to “improve” it or “reform” it. Additionally this āyah contains the last legal ordinances ever revealed to the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ. They deal with ḥalāl and ḥarām meat. This shows the importance of eating ḥalāl. Conflict of Interest: Justice in the Face of Enmity يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُونُوا قَوَّامِينَ لِلَّهِ شُهَدَاءَ بِالْقِسْطِ ۖ وَلَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَآنُ قَوْمٍ عَلَىٰ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا ۚ اعْدِلُوا هُوَ أَقْرَبُ لِلتَّقْوَىٰ ۖ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ O you who believe! Stand out firmly for Allāh, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to Piety: and fear Allāh. For Allāh is well-acquainted with all that you do. (Al-Mā’idah 5:8) This āyah deals with the other equally potent impediment to justice: hatred. It commands loudly and clearly that you cannot do injustice even when you are dealing with the enemy. The natural, uneducated, and uncivilized tendency is to treat the enemy as less than a human being; one who has no rights and deserves no justice or fairness. It was as true in the pre-Islamic tribal jahiliyyah (based on ignorance) society as it is today. See how Islam directly curbs it. It is a command to the believers, with a reminder that Allāh is watching you, that enmity of others cannot be used as an excuse for committing injustices against them. Friendship with Enemies of Islam يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا الَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا دِينَكُمْ هُزُوًا وَلَعِبًا مِّنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ وَالْكُفَّارَ أَوْلِيَاءَ ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ O you who have attained to faith! Do not take for your friends such as mock at your faith and make a jest of it—be they from among those who have been given the Book prior to you, or the disbelievers. But remain conscious of Allāh, if you are (truly) believers. (Al- Mā’idah, 5:57) This āyah is self explanatory and sets the limits on interfaith friendship. Yūsuf Ali writes: “It is not right that we should be in intimate association with those to whom religion is either a subject of mockery or at best is nothing but a plaything. They may be amused, or they may have other motives for encouraging you. But your association with them will sap the earnestness of your Faith, and make you cynical and insincere.”

Juz Five Fundamental Law of Business Dealings يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَأْكُلُوا أَمْوَالَكُم بَيْنَكُم بِالْبَاطِلِ إِلَّا أَن تَكُونَ تِجَارَةً عَن تَرَاضٍ مِّنكُمْ ۚ O you who believe, do not devour your wealth among yourselves by false means, unless it is trade conducted with your mutual consent. (An-Nisā’, 4:29) This is the fundamental law of Islam for all financial dealings. It declares all exploitation unlawful and stipulates two conditions for the acceptability of financial dealings. A) It should be a fair trade and B) it should be with free mutual consent. Trade includes sales, rentals, and employment of labor. It excludes interest transactions, since it is exchange of money for time and not for any valuable property. Deception and coercion also invalidate a transaction. All financial laws of Islam are governed by this fundamental law. Consent is so important that even charitable donations collected through pressure techniques are impermissible in Islam. Today most marketing aims at precisely the opposite goals, whereby exaggerating the virtues and hiding the defects are considered acceptable marketing practices. Worse, creative marketing makes a virtue of such deceptions, equating successful exploitation with smartness. It is a travesty that business schools in the Muslim world today teach the same “sciences” and feel good about spreading “education.” Unhealthy Rivalry: Feminism and More وَلَا تَتَمَنَّوْا مَا فَضَّلَ اللَّهُ بِهِ بَعْضَكُمْ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ ۚ لِّلرِّجَالِ نَصِيبٌ مِّمَّا اكْتَسَبُوا ۖ وَلِلنِّسَاءِ نَصِيبٌ مِّمَّا اكْتَسَبْنَ ۚ وَاسْأَلُوا اللَّهَ مِن فَضْلِهِ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمًا Do not covet something in which Allāh has made some of you superior to others. For men there is a share of what they earned, and for women, a share of what they earned. Pray to Allāh for His grace. Surely, Allāh is All-Aware of everything. (An-Nisā’, 4:32) This āyah was revealed in response to questions regarding disparity between men and women. Sayyidah Umm Salamah, the mother of believers, looking for an explanation, observed: “Men take part in battles and we do not. We do not take part in combat so we can become martyrs. Also our share in the inheritance is half theirs.” According to another report from ʿIkrimah some women said “We deeply desired that Allāh would let us participate in battles so we would get the same reward as men.” According to another report a woman was concerned that since women have half the share in inheritance and are given half the weight as witnesses in many cases, they would also get half the reward of men for all good deeds. Lest anyone influenced by feminist ideology jump into confusion here, women were not seeking equal rank in the family or tribal hierarchy; they were rather concerned about rewards in the Hereafter. They wanted to make sure they would get equal wages of piety for equal piety. And they were assured, here as well as at many other places in the Qur’ān, that the rewards for good or bad deeds are the same for men and women. While we are encouraged to compete with each other in performing good deeds, we should not get carried away with the idea of competition. Feminism is the result of taking competitiveness to extremes by seeking everything for women that applies to men. This is its foundation and this foundation is being demolished in no uncertain terms here. If men are superior in some respects (like physical strength) so be it. That is Allāh’s plan. If they are given the sole responsibility for earning a living for the family and therefore are given a bigger share in the inheritance in most circumstances, so be it. Their abilities are not the same. Their spheres are not the same. But within their sphere, ultimately everyone will get the rewards based on their own effort and ability. If they listen to this āyah, women will be content being women and will lead happy lives. But the message is not to be limited to its immediate context. It is general and applies to all unhealthy rivalry. We have not been created equal in our appearance, skin color, physical strength, talents, and abilities. We should not waste any time comparing ourselves with others and lamenting our disadvantages in any of these things. We submit to the Will of Allāh in everything that is beyond our control. But we try to do the best in areas where we have been given freedom of action. And we seek Allāh’s grace and mercy all the time. Most of the psychological problems in the world would go away if we followed this one gem of advice. Conflicts of Interest: Justice in the Face of Love يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُونُوا قَوَّامِينَ بِالْقِسْطِ شُهَدَاءَ لِلَّهِ وَلَوْ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَوِ الْوَالِدَيْنِ وَالْأَقْرَبِينَ ۚ إِن يَكُنْ غَنِيًّا أَوْ فَقِيرًا فَاللَّهُ أَوْلَىٰ بِهِمَا ۖ فَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا الْهَوَىٰ أَن تَعْدِلُوا ۚ وَإِن تَلْوُوا أَوْ تُعْرِضُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرًا O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allāh, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for Allāh can best protect both. Follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest you swerve, and if you distort (the truth) or decline to do justice, verily Allāh is well-acquainted with all that you do. (An-Nisā’ 4:135) Under normal circumstances many people can be just. But Islam commands its followers to be just even in the face of strong conflicting emotions. In dealing with other human beings, two major impediments to justice are love and hatred. This āyah teaches us to overcome the first impediment when we are dealing with our closest relatives or even ourselves. Here is the resolution from the Qur’ān of the perennial conflict between self-interest and justice. Be just, even if it is against your narrowly defined self-interest or that of those very close to you. Ignorant people think they are protecting their self-interest by being unjust to others. Their decision to be just or unjust may be based on a cold calculation of self-interest. But real faith in Allāh elevates one beyond that narrow-mindedness. This āyah reminds us that the real protector of interests of all people is Allāh and He will protect us when we follow His command to be just. The justice demanded by Islam permits no favoritism. The second impediment to justice is discussed in the next juz.

The Qur’an: A Great Source of Blessing The Qur’an: A Great Source of Blessing By Abu Muhammad Yusuf The Qur’an is indeed a great miracle and source of blessing. The month of Ramadhan, also known as the month of Quran, is a time that many Muslims rejuvenate their faith and take heed of the truth sent by Allah in the Qur’an unto mankind. Allah says; “This is the Book (the Quran), whereof there is no doubt, a guidance to those who are Al-Muttaqoon (the pious and righteous persons)” (Qu’an- Al-Baqarah, Verse 2) A true miracle, manifestation of excellence, beautiful composition, wonderful coherence, accuracy in narration in both past and future events...It can only be The Qur’an- The Word of Allah and The Final Testament to Humanity. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is reported to have said: “Certainly there is always a thing in which people take pride and that which is glory and pride for my Ummah is the Qur’an” (Hadith- Hiyah) Definitely words can never describe or even reveal the wisdom of this Great Book. It is the masterpiece of Allah Ta’ala Himself. The Qur'an is miraculous in a many aspects: It’s linguistic perfection and inimitability, its validation by recent historical, archaeological, and scientific discoveries, its prophecies and so on. The miracle of the Qur'an is eternal and many critics have embraced its message after carefully reading it. In fact the like of the Qur’an can never be matched. Allah Ta’ala Himself declares; “If mankind and the jinn were to gather together to produce the like of this Quran, they could never produce the like thereof, even if they backed up one another.” (Quran 17:88) In it is a solution and guidance for all of Humanity. Allah Ta’ala says; “This is the Book (the Quran), whereof there is no doubt, a guidance to those who are Al-Muttaqoon (the pious)”(Quran Al-Baqarah 2:2) Qur’an is the source of all greatness and honour. Life without the Quran is like vegetation without water. Quran is a source of true healing and mercy. Allah says: “And We send down of the Quran that which is a healing ..” (Quran Al-Isra’ 17:82) The Qur’an heals the heart and the soul. Whenever despair or anguish is inflicted on a person, his solace and comfort is surely found in the Qur’an. It is the guide for those at a loss, it is light in times of darkness. The Quran is a companion in solitude and isolation. The more it is recited, the sweeter it gets. It is the source of strength and truth. Allah says: "Verily, this Quran guides to that which is most just and right and gives glad tidings to the believers who work deeds of righteousness, that they shall have a great reward (Paradise)." (Quran’ Al-Isra 17:9) For this reason we see that many of the Pious Predecessors exerted themselves in the recitation of the Qur’an. Some would complete recitation of the whole Quran in three days. Others would recite it in seven or ten days as they realised its value. Sometime we are so engrossed in the pursuit of our material objectives that we neglect the recitation of this great source of blessing. In its recitation there will always be benefit whether we truly comprehend the meaning of it or not. An old man lived on a farm in the mountains with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Qur’an. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could. One day the grandson asked, "Papa, I try to read the Qur’an just like you but I don't understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Qur’an do?" The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, "Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water." The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, “You’ll have to move a little faster next time," and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, "I don't want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You're just not trying hard enough," and he went out the door to watch the boy try again. At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got back to the house. The boy again dipped the basket into the river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, "See Papa, it's useless!" So you think it is useless?" The old man said, "Look at the basket." The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and out. "Son, that's what happens when you read the Qur’an. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out. That is the work of Allah in our lives." Truly the benefits of reading the Qur’an are immense and in this month of Ramadhan we should make a firm decision to make the recitation of the Qur’an a essential part of our daily diet which will Insha –Allah pave our path to eternal happiness. May Allah Ta’ala guide us to recite, appreciate and understand the true wisdom of the Qur’an and may He bless our hearts with the true noor(light) of the Qu’an…Ameen EISLAM

Juz Four Muslim Unity وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِحَبْلِ اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا وَلَا تَفَرَّقُوا ۚ وَاذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ كُنتُمْ أَعْدَاءً فَأَلَّفَ بَيْنَ قُلُوبِكُمْ فَأَصْبَحْتُم بِنِعْمَتِهِ إِخْوَانًا وَكُنتُمْ عَلَىٰ شَفَا حُفْرَةٍ مِّنَ النَّارِ فَأَنقَذَكُم مِّنْهَا ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ آيَاتِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ And hold fast, all together, unto the bond with Allāh, and do not draw apart from one another. And remember the blessings which Allāh has bestowed upon you: how, when you were enemies, He brought your hearts together, so that through His blessing you became brethren; and (how, when) you were on the brink of a fiery abyss, He saved you from it. This is how Allāh makes His signs clear to you, so that you may take the right path. (Āli ʿImrān, 3:103) Unity is a subject discussed often in Muslim circles. The problems caused by its absence at every level, from small local communities to the worldwide ummah, are too vivid to be ignored. Unfortunately we talk about unity the way we talk about the weather; something that is happening to us. We take no responsibility for it and thus assure that the sorry state of disunity will continue. This āyah should change that fatal attitude for it starts with two command verbs, a do and a don’t. Do hold fast together unto the bond with Allāh and do not cause divisions among yourself. The word used is ḥabl or rope. The metaphor is that of a lifeline thrown at us by Allāh. If we hold on to it we will be saved. It will keep us together as well as we will all be pulled by the same rope. This lifeline can never break. But we can choose to not hold on to it. This is the fundamental reason for all the disunity today. If we choose to attain unity on any other basis (e.g. nationalism, democracy, or economic goals) we will fail as has been witnessed in so many cases in recent history alone. Ultimately all of these appeal to interests that will collide at some point or another. The brotherhood that brought the tribes that had been at war with each other for centuries is mentioned as a blessing. Not only the Muhājirs of Makkah and Anṣārs of Madinah were brought together in an exemplary brotherhood, so were the tribes of Aws and Khazraj, the Madinan tribes whose last war lasted for 120 years and ended only a short time before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ to Madinah. But this blessing came when the new Muslim society had been taking steps that qualified it for receiving it. From the moment the Prophet ﷺ set his foot in Madinah he took steps to nurture brotherhood. Among the first hadith reported from that period is the famous one: “Spread salam, feed others, pray (nafl tahajjud ṣalāh) when the people are asleep, and you will enter the Paradise with ease.” Here interpersonal relations were put at the same level as acts of worship. Greeting everyone and not just those with whom we have good terms was emphasized. So was inviting people to break bread together. Such seemingly minor acts have big consequences in nurturing brotherly love and creating the environment which promotes unity and stifles the negative feelings that cause disunity. It is remarkable how the smallest things that can cause ill feelings were elaborated. For example it was prohibited that in the presence of a third person two people should start a whispering conversation among themselves. This would make him feel left out. Making fun of each other was strictly prohibited on moral grounds. Today we ignore all of these commands. Backbiting, suspicions, and slander are common. We are driven by personal interests and egos while running Islamic organizations. Then we complain that unity is not happening to us. Things will change only when we take personal responsibility for it. Charter of the Ummah: Enjoining Good كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ ۗ وَلَوْ آمَنَ أَهْلُ الْكِتَابِ لَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَّهُم ۚ مِّنْهُمُ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَأَكْثَرُهُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ You are the best ‘Ummah ever raised for (the good of ) mankind. You enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong and you believe in Allāh. (Āli ʿImrān, 3:110) Here, promoting good, truth, and justice and checking evil and injustice in the community and the world is declared as the defining mission for this ummah. This gives rise to that cherished (and much maligned in the secular world) institution of amr-bil-maʿrūf. In amr-bil-maʿrūf, the community of believers has a built- in self-correcting mechanism. Consider cruise control in an automobile. Once turned on, it keeps monitoring the car speed and pulling it towards the set point. It does not mean absence of tendency to deviate from the desired speed, only an effective mechanism for monitoring and countering it. What cruise control does for car speed, amr-bil-maʿrūf does for the direction of the society. This mechanism works at two levels. At one level it is the responsibility of every member of the society. When we see a wrong we should correct it. A very famous hadith declares it as an issue of faith. “Whoever amongst you sees an evil should change it with his hand. If he is unable to do that then with his tongue. If he is unable to do that, then with his heart, and that is the weakest level of Īmān.” So if a person does not even feel bad about an evil, he has no faith whatsoever. Similarly we are encouraged to promote good. One hadith promises that a person who persuades another one to do some good deed will get the same reward as the person he persuaded. At this level the responsibility of every member of the society is for his or her own sphere of influence: family, friends, colleagues, neighbors. When taken together these spheres would encompass the entire society. At a higher level this is a specialized task. A full time job for a qualified group to always monitor the direction of the society and fight deviations at a collective level. We must remember that the Islamic society is the only society with a declared mission of promoting good and forbidding evil. So this is also a unique institution that will not be looked at kindly by those who oppose this objective. Further, its definition of good and evil is not subject to the whims and desires of every generation or the perceived interests of a nation-state. They are permanent concepts as defined in its unalterable sources: Qur’ān and Sunnah. In a world of moral relativism these permanent values are the hope for the whole mankind. To keep these alive in the society we need the institution of amr-bil-maʿrūf. Anti-Islamic Propaganda لَتُبْلَوُنَّ فِي أَمْوَالِكُمْ وَأَنفُسِكُمْ وَلَتَسْمَعُنَّ مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ وَمِنَ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا أَذًى كَثِيرًا ۚ وَإِن تَصْبِرُوا وَتَتَّقُوا فَإِنَّ ذَٰلِكَ مِنْ عَزْمِ الْأُمُورِ You shall certainly be tried and tested in your possessions and in your persons; and you shall certainly hear much that will grieve you from those who received the Book before you and from those who worship many gods. But if you persevere patiently, and guard against evil, then that will be a determining factor in all affairs. (Āli ʿImrān, 3:186) Many of us get unnerved when the propaganda machine goes in the attack mode. While it is our job to respond to the allegations and portray the correct image, nevertheless it is not right to get panicky and start appeasing to “correct the image.” A Muslim must not be intimidated by false propaganda, no matter how ferocious. The Qur’ān mentions as a quality of the believers who love Allāh and are loved by Him that they strive in His path “fearing not the blame of any blamer.” It assures us that the propaganda will continue as part of our test. But it will not harm us if we persevere. Wisdom and Science Education الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللَّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَٰذَا بَاطِلًا سُبْحَانَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ Surely, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day, there are indeed Signs for men of wisdom. (Āli ʿImrān, 3:190) This āyah gives a totally revolutionary concept of wisdom. The truly wise person is one who looks at the universe and the phenomena taking place here, reflects on them, and sees the Hand of Allāh in all this. The observation of the creations leads him to the Creator. The more he reflects the more he remembers Allāh. It follows that the person who remains disinterested or a disbeliever in the Creator while looking at the universe is not a person of understanding or wisdom. He may have the most prestigious degrees, yet he remains an ignorant person in reality. This is the fundamental problem with the education of science today. It teaches that God is irrelevant to the running and study of the universe. This position itself is not scientific; it is not that science has discovered and proved that God is not there or is not running the universe. It is only a dogma that is forced on its students. In schools throughout the Muslim world this dogma is being spread in the name of science education, with devastating results. That is why Islamization of the entire curriculum is so important. Taqwā and Marital Bliss يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَاءً ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا O Mankind! Have taqwā of your Sustainer, who has created you out of one living entity, and out of it created its mate, and out of the two spread abroad a multitude of men and women. And have taqwā of Allāh, in whose name you demand (your rights) from one another, and fear (the violation of the rights of ) the ties of kinship. Surely, Allāh is watchful over you. (An-Nisā’, 4:1) This āyah should be familiar to anyone who has attended a Muslim wedding ceremony and listened to the khuṭbah of nikah. What is the relevance of this āyah to the marriage ceremony? Taqwā, as is usually imagined, involves visions of austere piety. In typical marriage ceremonies the atmosphere is as far away from any sense of taqwā as possible. Yet the short khuṭbah on this occasion heavily emphasizes taqwā. While the atmosphere in these ceremonies is a great misfortune, the question remains: What does taqwā have to do with success in married life? The short answer is, everything. Taqwā is the consciousness of Allāh and fear of displeasing Him. It applies to every aspect of our life, not just the acts of worship to which it is usually and erroneously restricted. And it is especially the taqwā in dealings which is the key to solving all marital problems. It is when problems arise—which is natural—that negative feelings of frustrations and anger are engendered, which lead to negative actions. Trouble starts in these moments of weakness. Taqwā in dealings—although not found easily even among otherwise religious people—is the key to maintaining a fair and balanced attitude exactly at these difficult times. A husband or wife conscious of their accountability to Allāh will not get carried away in their anger nor will they be ready to exploit the weakness of the other party. They will be kind and patient. They will be willing to make sacrifices and compromises when indicated by the situation. They will be forgiving. They will not be preoccupied with their rights but with their responsibilities in marriage. The Prophetic guidance on this matter is sufficient to solve marital problems and bring about true marital bliss. Taqwā will make it possible for the couple to listen to the Prophetic advice even in the heat of the moment and benefit from it.

Taking the Pill to keep Fasts in Ramadhaan Q. Is it permissible to take the medication like the pill (contraceptive) throughout the month of Ramadaan to avoid getting one's period in order to keep all the fasts as I feel bad missing these fasts? A.Though it is permissible, it is not best to do so. It could have side effects like tampering with one's cycle, etc. which leads to difficulties and problems in the future for Salaah, Umrah/Hajj etc. This is besides other long term medical harms. It is better that you allow your menstruation to continue as normal and make up for the missed fasts later on. Allah will reward you for your intention to keep all the fasts of Ramadaan and you will not miss out on any of the rewards Insha Allah. And Allah Knows Best Mufti Suhail Tarmahomed Fatwa Department Jamiatul Ulama (KZN) Council of Muslim Theologians

Juz Three Real Charity الَّذِينَ يُنفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ثُمَّ لَا يُتْبِعُونَ مَا أَنفَقُوا مَنًّا وَلَا أَذًى ۙ لَّهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ They who spend their wealth for the sake of Allāh and do not thereafter mar their spending by stressing their own benevolence and hurting (the feelings of the needy) shall have their reward with their Sustainer, and no fear need they have, and neither shall they grieve. (Al-Baqarah, 2:262) Here is the definition of real charity in Islam; it must be given solely for the sake of Allāh. It is easy to find the rich in all societies engaged in works of charity. They may do it to feel good, to advertise their generosity, to show their superiority over the receivers of their help, or just enjoy the praise it will bring. What is difficult is to give in charity to please Allāh alone without any of these incentives. The success of charitable fundraising methods that employ these incentives is sufficient proof of this fact. The Qur’ān is emphatic that such tainted charity will bring not reward but punishment in the Hereafter. It is a matter of great concern that despite that, such methods are finding widespread use in the Muslim community. Concern for Hearts Swerving رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا وَهَبْ لَنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ رَحْمَةً ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ الْوَهَّابُ O our Sustainer! Let not our hearts swerve from the Truth after You have guided us; and bestow upon us the gift of Your grace. Surely, You, and You alone, are the Grantor of bounties in abundance. (Āli ʿImrān, 3:8) As the previous āyah states, this is the dua of those who are firmly grounded in knowledge. They never become complacent with their īmān (faith), as they are fully aware that one’s īmān is one’s most precious treasure and needs to be carefully guarded. Further they know they cannot guarantee its protection themselves as their hearts can come under the influence of Satan or their own inclinations towards evil, so they must turn to Allāh to seek His help in doing so. Additionally they appeal to the gift of Allāh’s mercy in seeking this help as it is not a payment for their deeds. They beg for it, claiming no entitlement. Needless to say, it is unimaginable that anyone consciously making this duʿā will knowingly engage in such enterprises as may pose danger to his imān. Creation of Jesus إِنَّ مَثَلَ عِيسَىٰ عِندَ اللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ آدَمَ ۖ خَلَقَهُ مِن تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ قَالَ لَهُ كُن فَيَكُونُ Surely, the case of ʿĪsā ( Jesus), in the sight of Allāh, is like the case of Adam. He created him from dust, then He said to him, “Be”, and he came to be. (Āli ʿImrān, 3:59) This is the simple truth about the creation of human beings in general as well as that of Prophet Jesus. Evolution scientists rejected the first and have gone to complex and convoluted theories as an alternate explanation. Christians rejected the second and have gone to complex and unfathomable explanations about trinity and divinity of Prophet Jesus. To each we must ask: Based on what evidence do you reject the obvious, simple and straightforward explanation given here? Have you unearthed any facts—hard facts, not conjectures— that would show the impossibility of the assertion made here? The Interfaith Dialogue قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ تَعَالَوْا إِلَىٰ كَلِمَةٍ سَوَاءٍ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ أَلَّا نَعْبُدَ إِلَّا اللَّهَ وَلَا نُشْرِكَ بِهِ شَيْئًا وَلَا يَتَّخِذَ بَعْضُنَا بَعْضًا أَرْبَابًا مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ ۚ فَإِن تَوَلَّوْا فَقُولُوا اشْهَدُوا بِأَنَّا مُسْلِمُونَ Say, “O people of the Book, come to a word common between us and between you, that we worship none but Allāh, that we associate nothing with Him and that we shall not take human beings for our lords beside Allāh.” Then, should they turn back, say, “Bear witness that we are Muslims.” (Āli ʿImrān, 3:64) This sets both the basis and the tone of the interfaith dialogue that Islam called for fourteen centuries ago. It is good that some Christians and Jews are showing active interest in interfaith dialogue today. Muslims must take part in it while making sure it remains within the parameters established here.

wa'alaykumus salaam ww forget us not in du'a!

Answered by Ustadha Jameela Jafri Question: Asalamu alaikum. I have been unable to fast this Ramadan due to illness, which has left me depressed and confused. I have two related questions.What is Ramadan for someone who cannot keep fasts due to illness? And I don’t mean missing one fast but missing the whole of Ramadan. I have been told my illness is terminal (according to doctors I will never be able to fast again in my life and I am only 21 which kills me inside) Answer: Assalam alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh. Thank you for your questions. May Allah Most High give you well-being and health. Having a chronic illness is certainly difficult and it can affect one’s happiness and contentment with life in many ways. As Muslims, we believe that all conditions and states are from Allah Most High – health and sickness, wealth and poverty, fame and obscurity, etc. The Beloved Prophet ‘alay salatu wassalam said, “Wondrous are the affairs of the believer. His affairs are all good, and this is only the case for the believer. When something pleasing happens to him, he is thankful, and it is good for him. When something harmful happens to him, he is patient, and it is good for him” (Sahih al-Muslim). Knowing this helps us see chronic illnesses as a way to acquire patience and to accept the will of Allah Most High. Allah Most High tells us that He is Ever-Gentle with His servants (Quran 2:207). The trials and afflictions that we experience in this world are expressions of this gentleness, even when it is hard to understand why they are happening. We must consider that in His gentleness, Allah Most High is forgiving our sins, raising our ranks, and drawing us closer to Him by humbling us. In this great blessed month of Ramadan, our good deeds are multiplied and the opportunities to draw close to Allah Most High are magnified. The Prophet ‘alay salatu wassalam reminded us to be avid for that which will benefit us. In Ramadan, we are eager to pursue Allah’s pleasure through fasting, offering extra prayers, reciting Qur’an, and acting in the best possible way. However, the way in which we respond to Allah’s call to worship Him this month depends upon our personal situations and states. There are some people that cannot stand for long prayers in the evening, others who do not know how to recite the Qur’an in Arabic, others who cannot fast, and so on. All of these individuals receive the same reward as the one who is able to do them, based on their intention. The Prophet ‘alay salatu wassalam taught us that actions are by their intentions and every person will have what they intended (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih al-Muslim). An individual with a chronic illness who cannot fast achieves through their intention what they could not in action. This is important because Allah Most High does not impose difficulty upon us. He tells us, “The month of Ramadan is that in which was revealed the Qur’an, a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion. So whoever sights (the new moon of) the month, let him fast it; and whoever is ill or on a journey – then an equal number of other days. Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship” (2:185). It is from Allah’s mercy and generosity that the obligation of fasting has been lifted from those that are ill and experiencing sickness. Yet, the sick person is still rewarded for fasting because if he had been able to, he would have fasted. In this way, the Sharia takes into account situations that excuse one from fasting, and in fact obligate one not to fast. For example, women who are menstruating, elderly individuals, and – as the verse indicates – those that are ill or traveling, are all excused from fasting. A person who is chronically ill is obligated to look after his health; if fasting would harm him, then he is actually obligated to not fast. Such a person is actually rewarded for not fasting, because he is responding to the call of Allah in the most appropriate and correct manner for him. When the door to one act of worship is not facilitated, we turn towards the other opportunities that are available for us. There are many other things which you *can* do this month to draw closer to Allah Most High, such as reciting Qur’an, praying, going to the mosque, doing good works and so on. In addition to having the intention to fast if it were possible, take the means to help and assist those that are fasting. In this way, you continue to be connected to fasting and can even receive the reward of their fasts. For example, pray for the fasting Muslims, support a local iftar gathering by providing food, and donate charity to assist Muslims without sufficient food or water. Remember that this month is special and unique for everyone, whether that person is fasting or not. Stay motivated and set goals for yourself this month; the virtue of this blessed month does not dissipate whether or not you are fasting. Rather, the way that you can personally find fulfillment in this month is by doing those things that Allah Most High has blessed you with the capability to complete. Focus on those things and you will find through them a sense of satisfaction, connection to Allah, and gratitude for His immense blessings. May your Ramadan be full of benefit, barakah, and proximity to Allah Most High. Jameela Checked & Approved by Faraz Rabbani SeekersGuidance

Juz Two The Middle Nation وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًا لِّتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَيَكُونَ الرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيدًا And thus have We willed you to be a community of the middle way, so that (with your lives) you might bear witness to the truth before all mankind, and that the Apostle might bear witness to it before you. (Al-Baqarah 2:143) Ummatan Waṣaṭan can be translated as the middle nation, the best nation, and an Ummah justly balanced. The phrase captures the essence of Islam, which is to shun all excesses. At other places (e.g. Al-Mā’idah 5:12) the Qur’ān refers to the path it shows as sawā as-sabīl. Abdullah Yūsuf Ali explains: “The Arabic word sawā signifies smoothness as opposed to roughness; symmetry as opposed to want of plan; equality or proportion as opposed to want of design; rectitude as opposed to crookedness; a mean as opposed to extremes; and fitness for the object held in view as opposed to faultiness.” This āyah charters the Ummah to be a force against extremism. Extremism is a product of ignorance. Given two extreme points on a straight line, anyone can point out where the middle point lies. But a person who cannot see the entire line will also miss the middle point. He may be sitting on an extreme edge, yet congratulate himself for being in the middle. Our own instruments of observation and intellect, wonderful as they are, are simply not up to the task of finding the perfectly balanced course in the complex, ever-changing, multidimensional maze, which is the real life. Yet we know that we do need to find it. Our physical well-being requires that we eat a well balanced diet and follow the course of moderation. Our economic, social, and spiritual well-being similarly demands finding the balanced approach and the moderate course in all these spheres. Our total well-being requires finding the path of moderation for our entire life. Hence this charter. It says that the middle path is the one shown by the Messenger ﷺ to us so we can show it to the rest of humanity. Paths that deviate from it deviate toward extremism of one form or another—even though they may be slickly packaged as being paths of moderation. The Prophet’s Role, Our Responsibilities كَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا فِيكُمْ رَسُولًا مِّنكُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْكُمْ آيَاتِنَا وَيُزَكِّيكُمْ وَيُعَلِّمُكُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَيُعَلِّمُكُم مَّا لَمْ تَكُونُوا تَعْلَمُونَ As also We have sent in your midst a messenger from among you, who recites to you Our revelations, and purifies you, and teaches you the Book and the wisdom, and teaches you what you did not know. (Al-Baqarah, 2:151) See the repeated reference to “you.” This āyah describes the assignments of the Prophet ﷺ regarding us. That automatically fixes our responsibilities regarding each one of these tasks. It was his job to teach; it remains our job to learn. It is our job to learn the recitation of the Qur’ān as he taught, to get purified, to learn the Book and wisdom, and learn whatever he came to teach us. For each discipline, there are unbroken chains of teachers going back to the Prophet ﷺ from whom we can learn. The Qur’ān teachers, sufi masters, scholars, Hadith experts, and jurists are all there as are the books they have produced for our education. This message is repeated in An-Nisā’ 3:164 where it begins by saying that “Allāh has surely conferred favor on the believers” by sending the Messenger ﷺ with these tasks. We need to ask ourselves whether we are showing gratefulness for this favor. When Calamity Strikes الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَتْهُم مُّصِيبَةٌ قَالُوا إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ Who, when a suffering visits them, say, “ Verily, unto Allāh do we belong and, verily, unto Him we shall return.” (Al-Baqarah, 2:156) While most of us may know these words and use them at the death of someone, their true significance escapes many. The preceding and subsequent āyahs give glad tidings to those who say these words at the time of any calamity declaring, “Those are the ones upon whom there are blessings from their Lord, and mercy as well; and those are the ones who are on the right path.” According to a hadith these blessed words are a special gift of Allāh for this Ummah. That is why we do not find even previous prophets using them. Their use should not be limited to the occasion of death. According to a hadith, everything that hurts a believer is the suffering mentioned here. Every instance of discomfort is an occasion for saying these words and getting the reward for being patient. The Prophet ﷺ showed by example that the scope of usage of these words extends to small things as well: a thorn prick, an insect bite, a lamp running out of oil, a shoe lace breaking. Finally we must say these words with full consciousness that everything indeed belongs to Allāh and must return to Him. When we lose a person or a thing, they have simply gone back to the One to whom they belonged. This consciousness will help us face any loss with dignity. Guidance and its Prerequisites لَّيْسَ الْبِرَّ أَن تُوَلُّوا وُجُوهَكُمْ قِبَلَ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ وَلَٰكِنَّ الْبِرَّ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالْكِتَابِ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ وَآتَى الْمَالَ عَلَىٰ حُبِّهِ ذَوِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَالْيَتَامَىٰ وَالْمَسَاكِينَ وَابْنَ السَّبِيلِ وَالسَّائِلِينَ وَفِي الرِّقَابِ وَأَقَامَ الصَّلَاةَ وَآتَى الزَّكَاةَ وَالْمُوفُونَ بِعَهْدِهِمْ إِذَا عَاهَدُوا ۖ وَالصَّابِرِينَ فِي الْبَأْسَاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ وَحِينَ الْبَأْسِ ۗ أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُتَّقُونَ True piety does not consist merely in turning your faces towards the east or the west—but truly pious is he who believes in Allāh and the Last Day and the angels and the Book and the Prophets, and gives wealth, despite (his) love for it, to relatives, orphans, the helpless, the wayfarer, and to those who ask, and for the freeing of human beings from bondage and observes the Ṣalāh (prayers) and pays Zakāh; and (truly pious are) they who keep their promises whenever they make a promise, and are patient in misfortune and hardship and in time of peril. Such are the people of truth, the Allāh-fearing.” (Al-Baqarah, 2:177) Turning our face toward the Kaʿbah is a requirement in offering ṣalāh. Earlier āyahs in this sūrah detailed the commandments regarding this requirement. Here the issue is being put in proper perspective. The external forms of the prescribed acts of worship are important, but they should not distract us from focusing on the essence of piety which is described here. While paying attention to the external forms of worship, we should never lose sight of the attributes in this āyah. Other people have gone to two extremes in this matter. Some discarded the forms altogether. Others gave them so much weight, they lost the essence. The middle path of Islam requires that we avoid both extremes. Spouses: The Metaphor of Garments هُنَّ لِبَاسٌ لَّكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ لِبَاسٌ لَّهُن They are (like) a garment for you and you are (like) a garment for them. (Al-Baqarah 2:187) The first thing this āyah tells us is that both husbands and wives equally need each other. Each one needs the other just as they need their garments. Realizing this mutual dependency will mold attitudes which are exactly opposite of the attitudes generated by a notion of independence, which is so prevalent today and has been so disastrous. Further, the metaphor of garment defines the nature of relationship between spouses. It implies intimacy, comfort, covering, and protection. Our garments provide physical protection from the elements; the protection spouses provide is also spiritual and moral. The ideal husband and wife will help protect each other from sins. Wine and Gambling يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ ۖ قُلْ فِيهِمَا إِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ وَمَنَافِعُ لِلنَّاسِ وَإِثْمُهُمَا أَكْبَرُ مِن نَّفْعِهِمَا They ask you about intoxicants and gambling. Say, “In both there is great sin, and some benefit for people. But the evil which they cause is greater than the benefit which they bring.” (Al-Baqarah, 2:219) It is one of the Prophet’s ﷺ great miracles that he made an entire people kick their deeply rooted drinking habit in a short period of time. He turned the Arabian Peninsula and subsequently every Muslim land into a dry land. This is one of the earlier āyahs that started this unprecedented revolution. It just declared that the harms of wine far outweighed its benefits, without any discussion of its legal ruling. Then, the āyah that prohibited drinking around the time of the five daily ṣalāhs was revealed. Finally, a total prohibition of wine was declared. The Qur’ānic messages were amplified by the Prophetic statements and actions. He said: “Allāh has cursed wine, its drinker, its server, its seller, its buyer, its presser, the one for whom it is pressed, the one who carries it, and the one to whom it is carried.” When a total prohibition was proclaimed the Prophet ﷺ said: “Verily Allāh, the Exalted, has forbidden wine. So who hears this verse and he has anything of it with him, he should neither drink it nor sell it.” And this hadith goes on to report that after this, “The people then brought whatever they had of it with them and spilled it on the streets of Madinah.” The miraculous eradication of drinking with all its evils demands reflection. How was it done? This is how: Minds were prepared, commands were issued for restricting and then totally prohibiting all use of and trade in alcohol, and punishments were declared and strictly enforced for violators. It was all based on īmān, firm faith in Allāh and His promise of rewards and punishments, and sincere submission to His commands. The overwhelming majority stopped drinking upon hearing the command. A few people failed to do so and were brought into line through strict enforcement of Sharīʿah punishments. Education and enforcement is the winning mix of strategies for the eradication of all social evils. Today social evils proliferate because both are absent. Rights of Women وَلَهُنَّ مِثْلُ الَّذِي عَلَيْهِنَّ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ ۚ وَلِلرِّجَالِ عَلَيْهِنَّ دَرَجَةٌ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ And women shall have rights, similar to the rights against them, according to what is equitable. But men have a degree (of advantage) over them. And Allāh is Exalted in Power, Wise. (Al-Baqarah, 2:228) This is the foundation over which the entire structure of spousal relations is built by Islam. In one word that basis is equity, not equality. There are societies today that for centuries refused to consider women as human beings or to give them any rights. Now they have gone to one extreme from the other. Islam has nothing to do with such extremism. When women had no rights in the world, it made the above declaration. That remains its Command today and forever. Similar rights, not same rights. Equity, not a blind equality. Both men and women are equal in their humanity, in their accountability before Allāh, in their responsibility to perform their assigned tasks and be judged based on their performance. But their assigned tasks are not the same. They have been given different capabilities by their Creator and their tasks are based on those capabilities. This differentiation is not an error that needs to be corrected. It is the only basis for building a healthy and prosperous society. Islam liberates a woman from the modern tyranny of having to become a man in order to have a sense of self worth and achievement. If Muslims had done their job, they would be asking for universal rights for women as given by Islam and generally ignored in the world today. Based on our dismal performance, and the current discourse on the subject, that would be quite a revolutionary—and liberating—act. Islam’s universal declaration of women’s rights would include the following: Men and women have been given dignity by their Creator, but forces of immorality and darkness attack it in many ways. A prevalent form of this attack on women is pornography. Pornography is an affront to the respect and honor of women and produces an atmosphere where other crimes against them become possible. In many countries it has become an “industry” and they are exporting this filth to all parts of the world. Newer technologies, especially the Internet have become mediums of choice for the purveyors of filth, posing a serious threat to morality everywhere. Pornography must be condemned and all trade in porn banned universally in the same way that dangerous drugs are banned. Prostitution must be recognized as a despicable act of exploitation of women. No one who condones it can be taken seriously in their claims to respect women’s rights. It is the responsibility of the husband to provide for the family. Islam has freed the woman from this responsibility so she can take care of the home. All efforts to snatch this freedom and economic security from the women and forcing them out of the home into the labor force must be resisted. Homemaking is a very honorable job and a serious responsibility; it is the foundation on which healthy societies can be built. The societies that disrespect homemaking lose the homemakers and end up with broken homes as can easily be witnessed in many parts of the world. It should be recognized that the trend to belittle the task of homemaking is anti-family and anti-society and must be curbed. It is a Muslim woman’s right to dress modestly, wear hijab, and refuse to be put on display. This right must be accepted universally and any effort to restrict this right must be recognized for what it is: religious discrimination and/or persecution. There is only one legitimate form of the family, that created by the union between a man and woman as provided in all revealed religions. Any other form is not only immoral; it poses a serious threat to humanity. Families should be protected from outside intrusion, especially intrusion by governments as much as possible. This also includes intrusion in the name of help. For resolution of family disputes, Islam suggests a three phase procedure. A) Resolve the conflict within the home. B) Resolve it within the family by involving elders from the families of husband and wife. C) As a last resort resolve it through courts of law. Generosity in Dealings ۚ وَلَا تَنسَوُا الْفَضْلَ بَيْنَكُمْ And do not forget magnanimity towards one another. (Al-Baqarah 2:237) If we listened to this teaching, it would bring out a revolutionary change in our family and social relations. Healthy relationships require a healthy dose of generosity. When giving to others, we should be willing to give more than their due. When receiving, we should be willing to take less. It is also significant that this has been mentioned during a discussion of divorce when anger and resentment would be at a high level. If a person can be generous even at that time, they can certainly be expected to be generous at other occasions. In that environment difficulties would be resolved amicably. If a people have that attitude, divorce would be uncommon among them, and a bitter divorce would be unheard of. Today divorce attorneys work on an exactly opposite platform. They say, forget generosity. Get as much as you can from the other person. The more money you get the happier you would be. This false promise has filled the most affluent societies with walking wounded, people who appear to be doing fine, but are living with deep wounds in their souls. Unfortunately Muslims are also following in their footsteps, and are reaping the bitter harvest of broken homes and ruined lives.

Jazaakallaahu khayran for this excellent and comprehensive advice...please note I changed the title to indicate the nature of the post. Requesting your du'a

Qur'an Reflections Al-Balagh E-Journel is sending out reflections from selected verses from the taraweeh recitation for each night with lessons for our lives today. [Ramadhaan 1435 June/July 2014] Juz One Taʿwwudh أَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطانِ الرَّجِيمِ "I seek protection from Allāh against the accursed Satan." We always begin our recitation of the Qur’ān by saying these words. This is not an āyah of the Qur’ān but the Qur’ān commanded us to seek this protection in the following āyah: فَإِذَا قَرَأْتَ الْقُرْآنَ فَاسْتَعِذْ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ Now whenever you read this Qur’ān, seek refuge with Allāh from Satan, the accursed. (An-Naḥl 16:98) The first step in any successful communication is to make sure the communication link is solid and all external interference is eliminated. In receiving the communication from on High, the external interference that we have to be most concerned with is that of the whisperings and persuasions of our hidden enemy—the Satan. As the next āyah in Sūrah an-Naḥl makes clear, the way to protect ourselves from satanic influences is by entrusting our affairs to Allāh. (“He (Satan) is such that he has no authority over those who believe and place trust in their Lord,” An-Naḥl16:99) It is those who rely on their own powers, physical as well as intellectual, who become easy prey to the machinations of the Satan. Anyone who begins his interaction with the Qur’ān by seeking Allāh’s help has put himself in the right state of mind for benefiting from Allāh’s Words—provided this is a conscious and sincere act. He has established a secure communication link so he can begin to listen to the Words of Allāh as he reads or hears them. Bismillāh بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ In the name of Allāh the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. We begin every significant act by invoking the name of Allāh and remembering His mercy and kindness. It is a measure of the extraordinary importance of the right beginning that the very first revelation began with this command: “Read in the name of your Sustainer.” It was not just a command to read— as expropriated later by those who would use it to provide Islamic sanction for secular pursuits—but a command to read in the name of Allāh. Beginning in the name of Allāh helps filter out acts and intentions that are disapproved by Him. It makes us conscious that Allāh is watching so we do not take wrong turns after starting. It assures us of Allāh’s help in completing it successfully. Pagans in Arabia, as elsewhere, used to begin any task in the name of their idols. In the secular “enlightened” West many a time people begin important projects by saying “knock on wood.” This is how people ward off evils in the old and new worlds of superstition. In contrast a Muslim seeks guidance, help, and support from none other than Allāh— the Merciful Lord of the worlds. His day is filled with the calls of Bismillāh. It is Bismillāh before taking a shower, before putting on clothes, before eating, before getting on his ride, before starting his work, before starting a meeting, before signing an important paper, before taking a baby step, before taking a gigantic leap. And he can feel the blessings—the strength, the confidence, the peace of mind—this invocation brings throughout his days and nights. Sūrah al-Fātiḥah This sūrah is an extraordinary petition taught by the One to whom the petition is to be made. While ṣalāh is the most important act of worship in a Muslim’s life, Sūrah al-Fātiḥah is the most important part of ṣalāh. It is recited in every rakʿah (unit) of every ṣalāh. This sūrah deals with the fundamental questions of life. Where are we coming from? Where are we going? What is the purpose of life? These are the issues that humanity has been grappling with throughout its history. In seven short āyahs this sūrah answers these questions. This entire universe, and others that may be out there, are created by Allāh Most High, Who is the Sustainer of them all. He is the Benevolent and Merciful God. He alone deserves all the praise for all the goodness in the world and all thanks for all the blessings and favors that we have received and continue to receive throughout our lives. He is also the Master of the Day of Judgment when all the wrongs will be punished and right actions will be rewarded. It follows then that our greatest concern should be to know right from wrong and have both the willingness and ability to follow the former and avoid the latter. This is the Straight Path that leads one straight to eternal success. The petition is that He shows us the Straight Path and makes it easy for us to follow it. The Straight Path is not a theoretical construct. It is not defined by some nice principles or commandments which sound good as decoration pieces but cannot be put into practice. It refers to a road well travelled by real people who lived on this earth. They are referred to as blessed people here and fall into four categories as explained in an āyah in Sūrah al-Nisā’: “Those who obey Allāh and the Messenger are with those whom Allāh has blessed, namely, the prophets, the Ṣiddīqīn (those who never deviated from the truth), the Shuhadā’ (martyrs) and the righteous. And how goodly a company are these!” Followers of the Straight Path have company. And what a great company it is! Further, those who deviate from it are condemned in no uncertain terms as being either willful rejecters of Divine guidance or being careless about it. The point of this condemnation is to distance ourselves from them and their ways for our own protection. While Sūrah al-Fātiḥah encapsulates the essence of ṣalāh, this āyah encapsulates the essence of al-Fātiḥah: إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ You alone do we worship, and from You alone do we seek succor. (Al-Fātiḥah 1:4) This āyah is the affirmation of tawḥīd as both an article of faith as well as an overriding principle in total control of our actual life. The word ʿIbādah, translated here as worship for lack of a better word, implies establishing an absolute master-slave relationship, which includes unquestioning obedience, total submission, and devotional acts like bowing and prostration. Pagans do worship idols by bowing and prostrating before them and treating them as gods. Others worship wealth, power, or celebrity in a figurative sense; they put them in the driver’s seat in their life. This āyah is a bold and loud rejection of all of these acts of worship meant for anyone except Allāh. It is also a reminder that we should not start serving other gods even without realizing it. The second part of this āyah is a corollary of the first part, but it needs an explanation. In our daily life we do offer and receive help from others. The Qur’ān itself mentions this help at many places. For example, it says: “Help each other in righteousness and piety, and do not help each other in sin and aggression.” thus regulating it by making righteousness or lack thereof as the basis for offering or withdrawing it. It praises the believers who help the Prophet ﷺ: “So, those who believe in him and support him, and help him and follow the light sent down with him,—those are the ones who are successful.” It reports that Prophet ʿĪsā (Jesus) asked his companions for help: “Who will be my helpers in Allāh’s cause?” Obviously this help is not negated here; it is offered and sought under the system of cause and effect, which itself has been created by Allāh for the normal running of this universe. What is negated (“We do not seek help from anyone except Allāh”) is the help from other beings (e.g. saints and dead men) that is thought to transcend the system of cause and effect. Also negated is any help that is supposed to work independent of—or worse in defiance of—the Will of Allāh. Allāh can help through means that we could not have imagined—even bypassing the system of cause and effect. And He also helps through the normal system of cause and effect. For every need we seek help from Him, and even when we call on other people for assistance we fully realize that they are not independent agents for providing that assistance. Lastly we seek Allāh’s help in performing the worship we promised in the first part. As a Ṣūfī master suggested, if one is finding it difficult to stay away from sins and to perform acts of worship, then reciting this āyah profusely will help greatly. Guidance and its Prerequisites ذَٰلِكَ الْكِتَابُ لَا رَيْبَ ۛ فِيهِ ۛ هُدًى لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ That is the Book, wherein is no doubt, a guidance to the God-fearing. (Al-Baqarah 2:2) We asked for guidance in Sūrah al-Fātiḥah. The response is immediate. The entire Qur’ān provides that guidance. It is here. Further, guidance requires certain knowledge. And this is the Book that contains certain knowledge and absolute truth. There is absolutely no room for doubt here. If someone entertains doubts about this Book, the problem is with them—not with the Book. Right at the start we are being warned to shed our preconceived ways of discovering truth. With the proliferation and predominance of the secular and secularizing curriculum in the educational institutions throughout the world, this assumes even greater importance for us today. As Sayyid Naquib al-Attas writes: “(In rationalism) doubt is elevated as an epistemological method by means of which the rationalist and the secularist believe that truth is arrived at. But there is no proof that it is doubt and not something else other than doubt that enables one to arrive at truth. The arrival at truth is in reality the result of guidance, not of doubt.” But there are prerequisites for benefitting from this guidance. These are mentioned here and in the next two āyahs. If we are sincere in seeking guidance, then we must also be serious in satisfying the prerequisites. The first prerequisite is that the seeker must be a person of taqwā (translated here as “God-fearing”). If taqwā is the end result of guidance, how can it be its prerequisite? It is because taqwā is both an attitude and a state. The attitude is the prerequisite. The state is the result of a lifelong struggle. Ibn Abi ‘d-Dunyā notes, “The beginning of taqwā is the right intention.” It is the intention to follow Allāh’s command, to leave out whatever He forbids and carryout whatever He mandates. It is the intention to seek knowledge to translate it into action. It is a result of internalization of the knowledge that Allāh is the greatest so no one else can distract us from listening to Him and obeying Him. Only those with this attitude will be able to benefit from the guidance. The resulting state was described by someone in a letter of advice to Abdullāh ibn az-Zubayr: “The people of taqwā are known by these signs: Patience in the face of hardships, contentment with the Will of Allāh, gratitude to Allāh for all the good things in life and humble submission to His commands.” الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ وَيُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ Who believe in (the existence of and the knowledge given by Allāh about) that which is beyond the reach of human perception, and are constant in prayer, and spend on others out of what We provide for them as sustenance. (Al-Baqarah 2:3) The visible spectrum is only a small fraction of the total reality. Everything beyond that is al-ghayb. While science, of necessity, deals only with the perceptible world, scientism insists that that is all there is to it. The successful guidance seeker is the one who is not blinded by this loud but false assertion. He is fully aware that the fundamental questions of life—about the existence of God and the purpose of creation, the life after death, the existence of spiritual forces, and so forth cannot be answered by science. He seeks them in revelation and finds them in the Qur’ān and its explanation in the Hadith. Since seeking guidance is not just an academic exercise, the true seeker has these two other qualities that encompass practical application of the guidance in all areas of life. He is always ready to follow the guidance, whether the demands are made on his body (e.g. ṣalāh) or his possessions (e.g. spending in the path of Allāh). وَالَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَا أُنزِلَ مِن قَبْلِكَ وَبِالْآخِرَةِ هُمْ يُوقِنُونَ And who believe in what has been revealed to you and what was revealed before you; and who are certain of the Hereafter. (Al- Baqarah 2:4) It is obvious that the Qur’ān will provide guidance to those who believe in it. But why the requirement of belief in the previous scriptures? It is so because we must believe in the historic continuity of the revealed guidance. The coming of Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ was not an historic anomaly but the culmination of a long chain of Prophets (124,000 in all according to a famous report), all of whom came with the same message. This is a fundamental point in Islam’s worldview. Humanity did not start its journey on this earth in the darkness of ignorance; it started it in full light of Divine guidance. By succumbing to temptations, human beings periodically deviated from that path and chose darkness over light. Spiritually and morally we have not been evolving, but rather deviating, and then being called back to the Straight Path by the Messengers of Allāh. We believe in them all, not to seek guidance from the previous scriptures or prophets (because according to the Divine plan they were not preserved), but to affirm our conviction about the system of guidance whose last manifestation is the coming of Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ. With this worldview it is easy to see every new philosophy of life not as a mark of evolutionary progress but as another deviation, another failure, another move to darkness. This āyah also implies the finality of Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, since it does not mention any upcoming prophets. This is in contrast to āyah 3:81, which says that the followers of the previous prophets were told about the coming of Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ and asked to pledge that they would accept him as the Prophet and support him. Congregational Prayer وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ وَارْكَعُوا مَعَ الرَّاكِعِينَ And be steadfast in Ṣalāh (prayer), and pay Zakāh, and bow down with those who bow down. (Al-Baqarah 2:43) The bowing mentioned here refers to the position in ṣalāh called rukūʿ. Of course what we are being required to do is to perform the entire ṣalāh, and not just rukūʿ, in congregation. This congregational ṣalāh is highly desirable; according to the majority of the jurists it is an emphasized sunnah. This applies to the five daily ṣalāhs and ṣalāh of Jumuʿah and ʿEīds, as they are all mandatory. It does not extend to the nafl ṣalāhs, which should be offered individually. Through this arrangement a balance is struck between public and private worship. By extension we can also understand the balance between individual and collective rights and responsibilities prescribed by Islam. Our accountability before Allāh will be on an individual basis. But we live and worship in a community. Sūrah al-Fātiḥah, the essential part of every ṣalāh, uses the plural form; It is we not I seeking the Straight Path. It follows that we will be travelling on it together. The four pillars of Islam, ṣalāh, zakāh, fasting, and ḥajj are all collective acts. All were ordained (zakāh, fasting, and ḥajj) or given final shape (ṣalāh) in Madinah where Muslims could live in a community. Even when travelling, for whatever reason, we are asked to choose an amīr so the travel will be an organized one. Both the individual and the group are controlled by the Sharīʿah, which makes sure we avoid all excesses in their interaction. The West has gone from the extremes of collectivism and totalitarianism to the extremes of individualism. It is important to remember that the middle course of Islam avoids both extremes.

Memorable Ramadan by Shaykh-al-Hadeeth Shaykh Muhammad Saleem Dhorat Sahib Hafizahullah Make this Ramadan a memorable one. Make it a Ramadan you will remember for the rest of your life. Make it such that, Insha'Allah, in Jannah you will say it was this Ramadan in which Allah Taala made you his wali, and from when your life changed forever. To make this Ramadan a memorable one you must follow the following five advices: 1. Abstain from sins. Don’t even think about sinning in the month of Ramadan. 2. Stay away from gatherings and mixing with people. Many sins take place when mixing with people, e.g. backbiting, slandering, wasting time etc. 3. Safeguard your eyes by only looking at what is permitted. 4. Safeguard your ears by only listening to what is permitted. 5. Safeguard your tongue by only speaking when it is absolutely necessary.

Few Common Mistakes to Avoid in Ramadan Without any doubt, Ramadan is one of the Holiest months in Islamic year. It is the month where Muslims change their regular routine, turn towards prayers seeking of forgiveness, and seek the blessings and mercy of Allah Almighty for the rest of the year. In the month of Ramadan, the goal of a Muslim is to make the best use of the month and seek as much blessings and mercy as possible and refrain from all such activities that spoil the fast and somehow make a Muslim lose all the reward and blessings, which he or she had earned. Prophet Muhammad (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasalaam) said: “When the month of Ramadan starts, the gates of the heaven are opened and the gates of Hell are closed and the devils are chained.” (Bukhari) From this hadith of the Prophet (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasalaam), it is clear that in Ramadan there is no Satan, therefore, the element of luring towards evil is missing, thus, the chances of doing and being good increase. Therefore, if there is something that bad occurs from a Muslim, it is his or her personal doing. Therefore, it is imperative that during Ramadan a Muslim refrains from all such acts that are not worthy of fasting and are mistakes that should not be committed during the fast. Avoid Anger: The first thing that a Muslim needs to avoid during Ramadan is anger. It is the root cause of all the evils and the outcome of it is never good. When angry the judgment of a person gets clouded and he or she is not able to see clearly, and in such unclear situation a person commits mistakes that for which a person has to feel ashamed or repent upon later on. Moreover, one of the essences of fasting in Ramadan is that it teaches a Muslim to be patient and humble, which are the virtues which when present cause the vice of anger to flee. Therefore, it is more than imperative that a Muslim resorts towards patience and tolerance instead of getting angry during Ramadan. This anger leads to hurting other people emotionally, which definitely is not a good deed and should be avoided during Ramadan. Also, when you feel like getting angry, remember Holy Prophet Muhammad’s (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasalaam) advice of seeking refuge from Allah. The Prophet Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasalaam said: I know a word which, if only he would say it, this (anger) would leave him. If he said, “A’oothu billaahi min al-shaytaan (I seek refuge with Allah from the Shaitan),”, this [anger] would leave him.’” (Reported by al-Bukhaari, al-Fath, 6/377). Sleeping All The Day: Each and every moment of Ramadan is precious and a Muslim must make full use of it by praising and praying to Allah Almighty in the maximum time possible. Although the sleep at night and a little nap in the afternoon is necessary for the health of the body, however, staying awake all night long and sleeping throughout the day is never a good ploy. In order to avoid the hunger and thirst that develops during the day, Muslims try staying awake during the night so that they could sleep through the day. This is wrong and against what fasting teaches us. The thirst and hunger during fast helps us understand what the less fortunate people go through, therefore, if one does not feel all that, then the essence of Ramadan is lost. Hence, it is imperative that a Muslim keeps fast whilst keeping the regular routine intact and continuous. Fasting Without Prayer: This usually happens in cases when Muslims stay awake during night and spend all day sleeping. Besides praying in fast, the prayers themselves are mandatory upon a Muslim and fasting or no fast, a Muslim is supposed to offer them regularly. Therefore, a day without prayers in normal circumstances is not complete, let alone the day of Ramadan. In Ramadan a Muslim is supposed to indulge in excessive prayers and seek forgiveness and blessings from Allah Almighty by offering regular prayers, therefore, if one does not do so and only remains hungry and thirsty throughout the day, then perhaps he is not keeping the fast in the way it deserves to be kept. Therefore, a Muslim must make sure that regular fast is accompanied with the mandatory prayers and Taraweeh Salaat at night to keep fast with true essence. Not Taking Care Of Speech: Another objective of fasting in Ramadan is to teach a person self control. In a fast, a person is supposed to control his or her desires and urges. Besides these urges and desires, a Muslim is also to control the way he or she is to behave and speak with others. In this regard, one needs to take care of any kind of vulgar speech. Whether its in terms of profane, derogatory or vulgar speech or in the form of backbiting and slandering, a Muslim is to refrain from them all in order to better be able to incorporate the spirit of Islam in his or her personality. Prophet Muhammad (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasalaam) says: “Fasting is a shield, so the one who fasts should avoid obscene speech and ignorant behavior. If someone abuses him or starts to fight with him, he should reply by saying: I am fasting, I am fasting.” (Bukhari) Therefore, a Muslim to observe fast as a shield and refrain from all such sorts of speech that provoke anger or caused derogation of the other person. Conclusion: In a nutshell, the emphasis or focus of a Muslim during Ramadan should be on gathering as much blessings as possible. In addition, one must take care of the things to do and things to avoid in Ramadan. Therefore, it is imperative that one refrains from any such deeds that spoil the blessings gained and is against the essence and spirit of fasting. Islaaminfo

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Long-Term Illness that Prevents Fasting Question: I was wondering if you could clarify the following matter regarding fasts. I am currently on medication, I have been taking it since I can remember. I take it twice a day and since it is very strong,I have to drink at least 8 glasses of water per day. Most probably I will always be eating it all my life, as I already have been doing so. With regards to this problem, what do I do in compensating for my fasts, since I cannot fast? Please can you give me specific recommendations? Answer: Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah, I pray this finds you in the best of health and states. Please consult a reliable local scholar and physician to determine if there is any way to still fast despite your condition, such as by adjusting the medication dosage or times you have to take it, switching to another effective medication, seeking alternative modes of therapy, etc. Also, see if you are able to make up the fasts when the days are shorter, and then still take your medication and requisite water before and after the fast. If none of this is possible, then you would be considered someone with a chronic illness not expected to recover. The ruling for such a person is that if unable to fast, then for each missed day he must give fidya, i.e., roughly 2.2kg of wheat or its monetary equivalent to the poor. However, if at some point you get better and are able to fast, then you would have to make up all those days (even the days for which you paid the fidya). [ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar] SeekersGuidance

Taken from Here (Originally answered on the SeekersGuidance Ramadan Course Forum)

When are we exempt from fasting? <QUESTION> Due to the illness of diabetes, I missed many fasts. Do I have to make qadha now or a kaffara is necessary? <ANSWER> In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful, It is a well-established principle of Shariah that, it is permissible not to fast or break an already kept fast due to reasons that are beyond one’s control, such as travelling, illness, pregnancy, breastfeeding, etc, although a traveller may not enter into a fast, but it will not be permissible for him to break an already kept fast. (See: Radd al-Muhtar, 2/421) Allah Most High says: “(Fasting) for a fixed number of days; but if any of you is ill or on a journey, the prescribed number (should be made up) from days later.” (al-Baqarah, 184) Regarding illness, the great Hanafi jurist, Imam al-Haskafi (Allah have mercy on him) states in the chapter of “excuses that permit not to fast” in his excellent work Durr al-Mukhtar: “(It is permissible not to fast) for an individual who is ill and fears that his/her illness will increase, or a healthy person who fears that he will become ill due to fasting.” (Radd al-Muhtar ala al-Durr al-Mukhtar, 2/422) Thus, there is no sin for not fasting or breaking a fast that was already kept due to illness such as diabetes in your case. The compensation will be (as mentioned in the verse of the Qur’an quoted earlier) making up for the fast on another day (qadha) when you are reasonably able to do so. And Allah Knows Best [Mufti] Muhammad ibn Adam Darul Iftaa Leicester , UK

Fasts and Internal Examination Fasting Woman And A Check-Up With The Gynaecologist

Which group are you from? Spiritually, in this world and well as the next, there will always only be three kinds of people; The very good ones, the very bad ones and those in between. In Surah Waqiáh Allah Taála categorizes the population of the hereafter as follows: (1) The forerunners (As-Sabiqoon)- the elite. (2) The people of the right (As-habul Yameen)- the moderate ones. (3) And the people of the left (As-habush shimaal)- the evil people. And in Surah Fatir (ayah:32), Allah Taála groups the inhabitants of the world in three as well: (1) The sinners (2) The Moderate group (3) And those who are foremost in doing good. The three groups in Ramadhan The famous hadith in which Rasulullah (sallallahu álaihi wasallam) is reported to have introduced Ramadhan to the Sahabah (radiyallahu ánhum) states that he also said: “…it (Ramadhan) is a month whose first part (first 10 days) are a mercy, the second part (second 10 days) brings forgiveness and the last part (last 10 days) guarantees emancipation from the fire” Shaykhul Hadith, Moulana Muhammad Zakariyya (rahimahullah) has explained this to be referring to three categories of people. 1. From all the people who witness Ramadhan there are some who are extremely pious, for them the mercy of Allah starts showering down from the first night of Ramadhan. 2. The second type are those who are not as pious as the previous ones. They have a mixture of deeds, good and bad too, although their burden of sins are not too heavy. These people engage in worship the first 10 days of Ramadhan and by the 11th of Ramadhan they become eligible for complete forgiveness. 3. The last group are the very sinful ones. Those who have far less good than bad in their account. Almighty Allah through his grace frees them too from Jahannam (Hell) by the time they reach the final stretch of the blessed month. Another three Some Scholars have drawn attention to another type of grouping in Ramadhan; 1. Those who are already spiritually charged and await this month in earnest. They use this as an opportunity to progress further in spirituality during Ramadhan. These ones maximize their benefit from this month. 2. Those who are aware of the auspiciousness of the month and prepare themselves to honour its sanctity as much as possible. They shun the sins that they usually engage in during the other eleven months of the year and even try to increase their ‘ibadat in Ramadhan. However, once the month departs, they revert to those wrongs! It’s as if they braced themselves for this month only & then release the “hand-break” once the crescent of Shawwal is sighted. This is the middle group and unfortunately the majority. 3. Those to whom Ramadhan makes no difference! They show no regard to it whatsoever and persist in the wrongs that they are so accustomed to. These are the deprived ones! They are the real losers! Which team we belong to is really up to us! May Allah Ta’ala protect us all and inspire us to accept this auspicious month with open arms, and to maximize our benefit therefrom. Ameen. Source