Belief In The Unseen

Reflections on the creation of Allah

2012-02-01T03:30:00.000-08:00

I found the following paragraph from the novel Tom Jones byHenri Fielding very compelling regarding reflections on the creation of Allah.I liked the eloquence of it so I am copying it here.

“…but there is one single act, forwhich the whole life of man is infinitely too short: what time can suffice forthe contemplation and worship of that glorious, immortal, and eternal Being,among the works of whose stupendous creation not only this globe, but eventhose numberless luminaries which we may here behold spangling all the sky,though they should many of them be suns lighting different systems of worlds,may possibly appear but as a few atoms opposed to the whole earth which weinhabit? Can a man who by divine meditations is admitted as it were into theconversation of this ineffable, incomprehensible Majesty, think days, or years,or ages, too long for the continuance of so ravishing an honour? Shall thetrifling amusements, the palling pleasures, the silly business of the world,roll away our hours too swiftly from us; and shall the pace of time seemsluggish to a mind exercised in studies so high, so important, and so glorious?As no time is sufficient, so no place is proper, for this great concern. Onwhat object can we cast our eyes which may not inspire us with ideas of hispower, of his wisdom, and of his goodness? It is not necessary that the risingsun should dart his fiery glories over the eastern horizon; nor that theboisterous winds should rush from their caverns, and shake the lofty forest;nor that the opening clouds should pour their deluges on the plains: it is notnecessary, I say, that any of these should proclaim his majesty: there is notan insect, not a vegetable, of so low an order in the creation as not to behonoured with bearing marks of the attributes of its great Creator; marks notonly of his power, but of his wisdom and goodness. Man alone, the king of thisglobe, the last and greatest work of the Supreme Being, below the sun; manalone hath basely dishonoured his own nature; and by dishonesty, cruelty,ingratitude, and treachery, hath called his Maker's goodness in question, bypuzzling us to account how a benevolent being should form so foolish and sovile an animal.”

In Quran, Allah exhorts human beings to reflect on Hiscreations, such as in the following verses of Sura Aal-Imran. The last elvenverses of Sura Aal Imran (03: 190- 200)are sunnah to recite upon waking up in the early morning for Tahajjud prayers.

[003:190] Verily, in the creationof the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, thereare indeed signs for men of understanding.

[003:191] Those who remember Allâh(always, and in prayers) standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides, andthink deeply about the creation of the heavens and the earth, (saying):"Our Lord! You have not created (all) this without purpose, glory to You!(Exalted are You above all that they associate with You as partners). Give ussalvation from the torment of the Fire.

Invocation of Prophet Ayub (peace be upon him)

2012-01-28T04:31:00.000-08:00

Various traditions mention the trial of Prophet Ayub (peacebe upon him) in details, but I would not refer to them as I am not sure how manyof these narrations are from the sahih hadith. However, it is sufficient tounderstand that Prophet Ayub (peace be upon him) faced a trial and was in greatdistress which related to a diseases and loss of wealth, so he made thefollowing invocation:

Anni, massaneeyal durru, wa anta arhamarraahimeen

Verily, distress has seized me, and You are the MostMerciful of all those who show mercy."

This invocation is mentioned in the following verses.

[021:083] And (remember) Ayyûb(Job), when he cried to his Lord: "Verily, distress has seized me, and Youare the Most Merciful of all those who show mercy."

[021:084] So We answered his call,and We removed the distress that was on him, and We restored his family to him(that he had lost) and the like thereof along with them as a mercy fromOurselves and a Reminder for all those who worship Us.

Many people believe that an invocation in Quran has to beginwith rabbana or rabbi (Our Lord or My Lord) thus are likely to ignore thisinvocation, in which Prophet Ayub doesn’t not even beseech removal of thedistress but mentions the distress and reminds Allah of His mercy.

What is blasphemous in Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses?

2012-01-25T09:04:00.000-08:00

I had written a post on the drama that continued on TV channels during past few days regarding Salman Rushdie’s attendance to Jaipur Literature Festival, butdeleted it later on because I felt that it had some generic remarks. I mentioned that heattacked Quran and Prophet (peace be upon him) but I did not know what theseverity of his attacks was.

I had also quoted the comment of Paul Brians who had writtennotes on Salman Rushdie’s the Satanic Verses. I am copying below the said quote:

Between its hostile critics whorefuse to read it and its supporters who fail to read it, The Satanic Versesmust be one of the most widely-unread best sellers in the history ofpublishing.

I decided that I will not be one of those hostile criticswho refuse to read the book, and to begin with I will not be hostile until I knowwhat offends me.

My conclusion after having read the book, which is freelyavailable on the Internet, is that those who Muslims who refuse to read it arebetter off, because they will save themselves from the anguish which Iexperienced, and their hostility will always be muffled with the dew ofignorance.

Today, I read a long article in support of Rushdie, and itturns out that the good author, who claims to be a fan of the controversial book, doesn’t even knowwhat Rushdie has written in the book and doubts whether the character Mahoundis actually reference to Prophet (peace be upon him). Such ignorance of Rushdie’ssupporters makes them wonder why Muslims are so offended by the book. Rushdieis anyway very hard to read, and it is impossible to understand his bookSatanic Verses unless you know the historical context of the Prophet (peace beupon him) and his companions. Most Muslims will fail to understandhis allusions, which always gets mixed up between fiction and polemic. Heresearched history of Islam well, and made best use of his foul mouth and dirtyimagination to portray it offensively. He is not respected among good writerseither, I forgot the name of a famous writer who called him ‘wretched’ and said‘he is not much of a writer.’ Even though his book Midnight Children wonseveral bookers, it is not referred as a good work of art among fine writers. Infact, in this book, he depicts a 10 year old child describing his mothersexually, which can only come from a sick mind. Many Hindus may not be aware ofthe derogatory references he has made to Hindu gods in Midnight Children and theSatanic Verses. Most Christians and Jews, will also not be aware that he cursesProphet Abraham (peace be upon him) in the book the Satanic Verses.

I will write in very brief what is offensive in the SatanicVerses. Contrary to what many Muslims might believe, the title the SatanicVerses doesn’t mean that Quran is inspired by Satan. In his Chapter Mahound,which is the main chapter on the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) he seemsto depict him as the messenger of God, but in one instance the character Messengeris carried away to contemplate a proposal of his pagan opponents to acceptintercession of three of their goddesses, and subsequently he is influenced bysatan to utter two verses as part of the Quranic revelation which acceptintercession of the three goddesses. Later on he realises his mistake, andrepudiates these verses. In this chapter, Rushdie has shown the moraldegradation of Makkah before Islamic monotheism, which is in contrast to the passionatesupport of the Prophet’s companions (may Allah be pleased with them) towardsthe strict monotheism. However, even with this acceptance of divinity of theQuranic message and integrity of the Prophet, he uses the name Mahound, whichis a derogatory word used for the Prophet (peace be upon him) by Medieval Europeanwriters, and has the word ‘hound’ in it which refers to a breed of dogs. The term was especially connected to theChristian belief that Muhammad was a god worshipped by Pagans, or that he was ademon who inspired a false religion. Rushdie refersto Kaaba as The House of Black Stone, knowing that Muslims refer to it as Houseof Allah, and, he refers to Cave Hera as The Mount Cone, perhaps to relate itwith con which means deception. He shows the Prophet (peace be upon him) losingconsciousness following drinking (he doesn’t mention drinking explicitly buthints to a hangover), and waking up naked, covered only by a sheet, in thebedroom of the wife of the pagan leader.

In a separate chapter he ridicules the Iranianrevolution, portrays the leaders of the Islamic revolution as villains. He has several characters with the nameAyesha, which may be accceptable as long as he does not refer to the Ayesha,the wife of the Prophet, (may Allah be pleased with her), the mother ofbelievers. But, this foul-mouthed-frog-eyed-born-to-bullshit-condemned-to-fearwriter doesn’t limit to using only the character’s name, but makes directreference to all the wives of the Prophet (may Allah be pleased with them), using their names, anduses foul words which I will be ashamed to repeat here, even to show his wickedness.

Thus, there is no doubt that this book is not a work of art,but a premeditated series of insults on Islam and its heroes, wrapped up ingibberish fiction which some call magical realism. He writes his historicalcommentary as he likes, making it a hatred mongering propaganda book, ratherthan serious fiction.

The only saving grace for the writer is that he has shown Islamicmonotheism as a force which is challenging the moral degradation of pre-IslamicArabs and this message of monotheism frightens the pagans:

At the recommendation of Abu Simbel,the rulers of Jahilia have added to their religious practices the temptingspices of profanity. The city has become famous for its licentiousness, as agambling den, a whorehouse, a place of bawdy songs and wild, loud music. On oneoccasion some members of the tribe of Shark went too far in their greed forpilgrim money. The gatekeepers at the House began demanding bribes from wearyvoyagers; four of them, piqued at receiving no more than a pittance, pushed twotravellers to their deaths down the great, steep flight of stairs. Thispractice backfired, discouraging return visits. . . Today, female pilgrims areoften kidnapped for ransom, or sold into concubinage. Gangs of young Sharkspatrol the city, keeping their own kind of law. It is said that Abu Simbelmeets secretly with the gangleaders and organizes them all. This is the worldinto which Mahound has brought his message: one one one, Amid suchmultiplicity, it sounds like a dangerous word.

It will be a shame to relate Rushdie’s work with art, butfor those who love to talk about freedom of an artist, I would like to mentionthat literature concerns about humanity, thus any literature that divideshumanity is only work of a dirty mind. An artist’s job is to highlight thesensibilities of different sections of the society, to help people understandthat if somebody is outraged, what makes him outraged, rather than being a reasonfor the outrage. A fiction writer has the opportunity to tell the story of anindividual, and delve into the deeper psyche and motives of human beings,rather than treating them ‘extremists’ or ‘loyalist.’ In Tom Jones, HenryFielding refers to a Horace’s rule which can be a good touchstone for writers,and the rule is: ‘what he fears he cannot make attractive with his touch heabandons’ (‘et quae: desperat tractata nitescere posse, relinquit’).

In a separate chapter, in the same novel, he refers to theintellectual who pretends to find pearls of wisdom by poking in the eyes andhearts of others. Fielding says:

Whether these philosophers be thesame with that surprising sect, who are honourably mentioned by the late Dr.Swift, as having, by the mere force of genius alone, without the leastassistance of any kind of learning, or even reading, discovered that profoundand invaluable secret that there is no God; or whether they are not rather thesame with those who some years since very much alarmed the world, by showingthat there were no such things as virtue or goodness really existing in humannature, and who deduced our best actions from pride, I will not here presume todetermine. In reality, I am inclined to suspect, that all these several findersof truth, are the very identical men who are by others called the finders ofgold*. The method used in both these searches after truth and after gold, beingindeed one and the same, viz., the searching, rummaging, and examining into anasty place; indeed, in the former instances, into the nastiest of all places,A BAD MIND.

Few will doubt in the history that Rushdie was a A BAD MIND.

*For those who are may not be aware with the phrase findersof gold, the phrase was used for people who used to clean latrines in Englandin the eighteenth century.

Atheism and other arguments against religion

2012-01-17T06:12:00.000-08:00

Religion has had different interpretationsover the ages, and in the modern times those who were not satisfied with theirreligious beliefs tried to get peace by rejecting existence of God. We call itatheism. There are different types of people who reject religion, and sometimesthey share the characteristics of one another. I will try to categorize thembelow:

Againstany organized religion: They will say, Yes there isa God, who controls my life. I am accountable to Him. I am thankful to Him, andprobably whatever religion anybody is practicing is leading to the same path,which is The God. In essence, these people are monotheists, because they willnot refer to My Gods, but My God. The moment you say My Gods, you are part of anorganized religion which has basis on polytheism. Even in such religions, youhave the choice of picking up one God whom you will call My God.

Nocommitments: These people worry the obligationsthat the religion will put on them, so they prefer to remain free. They might havea sense that they do not have a full control of their lives, but they prefer notto delve into this question. They might also argue that religion has always beencause of wars and destruction throughout history. In facts, no commitment isthe wild instinct in human beings. If men could live without committing throughmarriage, they would do so. If people could earn their livelihood without committingto a routine job, they would do so. But, in reality no commitment, along withindependence, brings insecurity and anarchy.

Thereis no God, Darwin told us how we became human beings: They have blind faith in science and believe that it to be thesolution of everything. While in reality, we human beings are driven byemotions. Science has certain cause and effect, for example, if you boil waterto this temperature, it will turn into steam. But, emotions have no guaranteedpatterns of cause and effect. You might try to please your wife, and she maystill be upset. Here comes the philosophy, psychology, and so much otherlearning, which will teach you the ‘laws’ of conversation, success, leadership,and what not. We live our lives for the goals which will give us emotionalsatisfaction, such as, taking care of the family, living in the community andfollowing customs and traditions which give us the sense of identity. We go towars for emotional reasons, and make peace for emotional reasons.

Scienceand nature is no our master: Science is our slave;we are not slave to science. We use science to make life comfortable for us, tocome up with the technologies so that we can talk convenient to our distantfriends and relatives, and to make the future more secure for us. The same waymoney is also our slave, we are not slave to money. We spend it and buy peace andhappiness. Can’t these people see that everything around us is serving us? Thestars, the moon, the sun, the bio-diversity, the environment, the clouds, thestreams, all are working in harmony as if ordered to serve us. We know howcalamitous it is when they break loose and shatter all our developments inmatter of hours. What did human beings do to earn this mastery? The only answercan be that someone, the Master of all science and nature, honored us this mastery, powered us with wisdom and knowledge to use it to their benefit.

Evolutionvs religion: I think there are several argumentsagainst it. Some people say, if the ancestors of human beings were monkeys,while do we still have monkeys around, those who did not even learn to cooktheir food yet. Some say, why did the nipples on the man’s body not vanish, likethe tail did, which are not in practical use. We still have mosquitoes in manyparts of the world, and perhaps men in those regions would love to havetails to protect themselves against mosquitoes. I would have loved to jump fromone tree to another and slap a tiger, like this one does. You can refer to this link on wikipedia, for a more systematic and scientific criticism of the theory of evolution.

Riseand fall of nations: If the only path before humanbeings was evolution and dominance, through history we have seen that therewere mighty empires like those of Romans, and developed civilizations like thatof Egyptians, and if evolution was the way of life, we would not see thesecivilizations vanishing. Who causes the destruction of civilizations? Today's mostpower nation doesn't have much of a history beyond 300 years, whilesome of the countries which had achieved significant cultural development thousands ofyears ago, such as India or China, are still struggling to be as part of thedeveloped world. Dominance is an instinct, but ‘survival of the fittest’ it nota law that will govern the world. If it were so, we would not have seen an endto colonialism, and we would see countries with nuclear power dictating termsto those who do not have this power.

Adaptabilityof animals: Some birds can swim while others can’t.Some animals can live in the snow, while others can’t. Is it possible to train ananimal to live in the snow, when he is not designed for it? Could human beingswho have lived in snowy areas for centuries live without warm clothes, likeanimals do? Why don’t they have hair on their faces, like a polar bear? Why didman not leave the unfriendly weather and terrain, such as extreme heat andsnow, and move to friendlier places, rather than trying to survive in suchhostile environment? A donkey and mare can produce a mule; can a lion andtigress produce a tigron?

Harmonyin chaos, method in the madness: The world is full of conflictinginterests that collide with one another. The conflict starts at home given thedifferent nature and inclinations of men and women. Nations,political parties, form of governance, distribution and demand of natural resources, economic ideologies, all clash with oneanother, but the world goes on. There must be some method in the madness. Ifyou look at a place where there are lots of wires, but they do not mix upcausing short circuits, you will say that someone has designed them craftily sothat all are functioning well. The same way with so many conflicts in theworld, life goes on, this means that someone designed this system wisely, andcontrols it very effectively.

Probabilitytheory: The rejecters of the religion also have ascientific explanation for the absurdity that exists in the world. Once I haddiscussion with an atheist, who was very well qualified in terms of worldlyeducation, and argued that there is no God. I said to him, ‘We need religion sothat we can be at peace. You are so qualified, and when you see someone whodoesn’t have even school education having earned millions and you, with so muchintelligence and qualification, work for a salary, how you would explain it toyourself? If you will hunt only for a scientific explanation, you will bemiserable. The only way you can be peaceful is that there is Someone whodetermined how each of us should get.’ He said, ‘There is probability theory. Aless education person has fewer chances, but there is still probability that hewill make a fortune.’

I showed him a video, which I am copyinghere. This video shows how some people were saved from death only by moments.These are the videotaped incidents, but there must be many more like this whichhappen every day. After having seeing the video, he said, ‘Probability theory.’After a few days something interesting happened. He was trying to get loanagainst his bonus from his company but they refused him. Then by mistake, thefinance department transferred money to his account, which was double of whathe was seeking as advance. They came to him saying it was a mistake and youshould transfer the money back. It was on 31^st December. He wentwith them and tried all the means, net-banking, ATM and visit to the branch,but could not transfer the money due to some technical problem. The day endedand the finance team realised it is better to pass on this amount as loanagainst his bonus, so they gave him a form to sign up accepting that he hasreceived the bonus. He was amused at the outcome, and said, ‘See, I ran afterthem for advance but they did not give. And, now I have double of that, with noeffort of mine to get it, and with every effort to return it back.’ I said,‘God wanted to give you this money.’ At that moment, he did not say,‘Probability theory.’ Probably, at heart, he was thankful to God.

The problem with probability theory is thatit will explain you the process, but not the cause. One person who was bornpoor becomes a millionaire is probable, but, why did he become millionaire andwhy did I not become one will not be answered by the probability theory.

Sciencecannot explain death: I am sure when destructionstrikes a person, for example, a serious injury to his child, he would not say,‘Probability theory.’ But would say, ‘God, please save him (or her).’ When aperson loses his father or mother, or even a child; how can he get peace, it isnot upon reflection of God’s plan and will. Whenever calamity strikes in anyculture or region, we all say such was God’s will.

Alimit and the One who determines the limit:

What is the probability that I who was bornas Indian will completely change my characteristics and look like a Chinese orEuropean? What is the probability that I can change my father and mother? Whatis the probability that I can change the date of my birth and date of my death?Ali ibn Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) once said, ‘You do not havecontrol over your birth, how can you claim a control on your life.’

I read the statement quoted above somemonths ago, so it might not have exact words, but such was the gist of it. Anotherstatement of Ali ibn Talib is: “Man comes from a drop of semen and leaves as apiece of dust. He doesn’t know when he came and he doesn’t know when he’sleaving, yet he goes around thinking he knows everything.”

The answer is that there is room for me toplay, to lose or gain my weight, to study what I like, or to change the skin ofmy colour like Michael Jackson did, but I am slave to the limits in which I amput. Michael Jackson was born with talent to sing, but he could not have becomeequally good philosopher, if he tried harder, or a film actor. He could adoptchildren from Africa, but he could not become a son of a white. And, he couldnot have changed the time of his death, which was just before a grand come-backthat he planned. We are at peace when we realise our limits, and we aremiserable when we believe that we CAN do everything. Even a hugely popular leadership theory of Strength Finder rejects the traditional wisdom of 'If you can dream it, you can do it' and concluded after detailed scientific research that we are born with some talents and we can only excel in those talents, but every one of us is not designed to do everything as effectively as some of us will do.

Allah says:

[054:049]Verily, We have created all thingsin proportion and measure.

Previous posts on atheism

Sub-quota reservation for Muslims under OBC, and the idea of a progressive Indian nation

2012-01-15T00:05:00.000-08:00

A few days back, I said to a friend,Imagine, what would India have been with so much racist hatred and prejudice againstdalit had Gandhi not been there to fight for their cause? My reaction wastriggered by thenews of a dalit girl who was gang raped in November 2011 and has been commaever since. Even today, despite so much sanctity by the constitution and legalsystem, and so much progress among dalits through the reservation system, hatecrimes are repeatedly committed against dalits. There are many reports on theInternet over crimes against dalits in India. You can also refer to this NationalGeographic report.

With such racist mind-set of the upper-class Hindus in India, it soundshypocritical when TV channels debate the racism against Indians in Australia, eventhough they did not reflect a social consciousness or prejudice, had it beenthere, other communities such as Chinese would have suffered as well. When Ivisited Brisbane a few months ago, I read a public board which read the historyof Lambing Flat riotsin 1861 against Chinese, which, I think, served two purposes: one, theyproudly say that we did not have racist riots for a long time, and two, theyremind people that unbridled hatred can lead to any disaster.

When I read history of Indian polity duringstudent days, one argument was strongly oft repeated that that the division ofconstituencies on the religious grounds led to the partition of India. Thus,the Indian constitution did not leave any provision for any religion basedreservation system. It was perhaps because of this accusation, which is echoedin the following statement of Sardar Patel that I copied fromSwapan Das Gupta’s blog Meddlingwith nationhood, that Muslims did not use their vote-power to demandreservations in jobs. Their best bet was to use their vote power to ensure securityby keeping the BJP out of power. The said statement of Sardar Patel is below:

"I once more appeal to you to forgetthe past…You have got what you wanted. You have got a separate state and,remember, you are the people who were responsible for it, and not those whoremain in Pakistan…What is it that you want now? In the majority Hinduprovinces you, the minorities, you led the agitation…Now again you tell me andask me to say for the purpose of securing the affection of the younger brotherI must agree to the same thing again, to divide the country again in thedivided part. For God's sake understand that we have also got somesense..."

I did not read much of Sardar Patel, butthis rhetoric has emphatic use of ‘you’ which clearly addresses Indian Muslims,an example of narrow mindedness of the first home minister to address Indiancitizens as ‘you’ and ‘we’ rather than talking about India as a nation; nowonder people say Congress is more communal than BJP. This statement itself accusesIndian Muslims of the partition of India, although the reality is that SardarPatel and Pundit Nehru did very little to avoid it, and were happy to get ridof Jinnah. It is a sentiment which has always been echoed and used againstMuslims in India, which shifts the focus from present state of affairs in Indiaand takes the debate into the past, which starts from invasion of MohammadGaznavi and ends with the partition of India.

Whatever the ideal of constitution might havebeen, and whatever the intellectual debate of merit might be, the reality wesee on the ground that the reservation system has done a great deal to upliftthe untouchables and give them their rights. Without these rights, whateverprogress India has achieved and might be proud to boast of the growing middle-classwould not have been possible.

The same way, why should there be paranoiafor the idea of reservation among Muslims when the Sachar committee report hasmade public that some sections of Muslims are worse off than dalits? You don’thave to give reservation to Muslims on the basis of religion, but if there arebackward classes and castes among them, why should not they benefit plausibly through sub-quotas within OBC.

If the policy makers in the congress andBJP fear that Muslims will be more difficult to control when they becomeprosperous, it is an erroneous idea. With economic prosperity education becomesmore pervasive, and naturally conservative ideas loosen their grip and peoplelook at the issues with open-mindedness. It is only when people are weak,deprived and in fear when they come together with stronger sense of community,and the mentality of ‘you’ and ‘us’ breed. A clear example of this can be thepopulation trend of Muslims, as most Muslims like to live in ghettos in Indiancities, primarily because of the fear of security during communal riots.

Internet video shows US marines urinating over dead bodies of Taliban

2012-01-14T05:59:00.000-08:00

A video on the internet shows US marinesurinating on the dead bodies of Taliban fighters. This is the behaviour of the armyof a so-called civilized nation, who dreams to become the police of the world.

Planned protests against Salaman Rushdie’s visit to Jaipur

2012-01-14T05:43:00.000-08:00

An article on Outlook India, And Now a Fatwa toJustify Protests Against Rushdie, criticises the view of the clerics whosaid that the Muslims have right to protest with the limits of the law. The articlequotes Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangimahal saying: "All Muslims, withoutflouting the law should oppose through every possible means, the visit of theperson who used insulting words against the prophet so that he cannot set hisfoot in this country where crores of Muslims live."

If this is a fatwa, this fatwa was issuedby the lawmakers of India when they gave Indian citizens right to express theiropinion through democratic means. It was a fair thing that Salman Rushdie wasnot disallowed from entering India because he holds a PIO card, and he haspreviously visited India on this basis, but it is also fair that if certainpeople want to protest his visit, there should not be any decry over it.Anyway, Indian leaders are in the habit of seeing black flags, burningeffigies, and slogan-chanting by mobs, why should Salman Rushdie be deprived ofthis experience of democracy.

Holy Mosque, Makkah - Scope for improvement

2012-01-14T05:38:00.000-08:00

Whenever I visit Makkah, I think of someideas which can be used to improve the services in the Holy Mosque. I do notwrite them down, and forget them later on. Now, I am writing down a few which Iremember and will add on in the future. I just hope they will reach theconcerned people someday.

Turning off lights during the day:

Lights during the day time: I noticed thatin many areas whether ample sunlight reaches during the day, keeping the lightson is wastage of electricity. The same way, sometimes fan are

Drinking water for kids during the day timein Ramadan:

During the Ramadan, there is no drinkingwater available inside the mosque. It becomes troublesome for parents whenyoung kids who did not reach the age of fasting are thirsty and desperatelyneed water.

Golf-carts as replacement of wheel chairs:

Instead of wheel chairs, golf-carts can beintroduced for saee and tawaf, in the specified area for wheel chairs, so thatit can reduce the congestion of wheel chairs which take more time and their metallicfoot-rests often injure the pilgrims.

If you have some ideas, please feel free towrite as a comment on this post.

Reminders of dhikr in Saudi Arabia

2012-01-12T00:09:00.000-08:00

Dhikr is the easiest ibadah, and one with very high rewards. Allah promises in Quran:

[002.152] Therefore remember Me (by praying, glorifying). I will remember you, and be grateful to Me (for My countless Favours on you) and never be ungrateful to Me.

In Saudi Arabia, you canfind certain words of remembrance written on public places, such as La ilahaillah, subhanaAllah, allah-o-akbar, salli alaa Muhammad, or astaghfar. Thereare boards erected by the government on roads and highways, some paintings onpublic places, some decorative structure on private buildings, stickers onpetrol pumps, cars, elevators and public places, and audio-prompts in grocerystores or medical stores which play when you open the door. One of thePakistani restaurants in my neighborhood has this sticker on their refrigerator‘dagaik intezar, amlaha bil astaghfar’ (One minute’s wait, Use it forastaghfar) I found it very relevant and amusing. Yesterday, I bought the samesticker and placed it on the trunk of my car. Hoping it will remind dhikr tosome people when they are waiting on a traffic light. I will get equal rewardsto what other people will do when reminded by this.

When holy animals become a nuisance

2012-01-11T05:56:00.000-08:00

Inone of the shocking cases of negligence in government hospitals in India,rats have nibbled an old patient suffering from paralysis. This time the storygot highlighted in the media, while there might be many more cases like thiswhich do not even get reports. This incident reminds me of another instancewhen a friend witnessed rats nibbling very young babies in an orphanage inAligarh.

Rats are rampant in India and most Hindusavoid killing rats because it is considered a sin for rats are associated withthe deity Ganesha. In some temples, like this one, rats are treatedwith great reverence. Mumbai municipality employs rat-catchersto eliminate rats. They have employed 44 rat-catchers in the entire city, andeach of them has to kill 30 rats. Rodenticide being adifficult job, the municipality relies on rat-killers who can barely make feedtheir families through this strange profession.

Acquittal of Muslims accused of terrorism

2012-01-05T02:28:00.000-08:00

In one of the remarkablejudgements in India, the twelve people accused of murder of Gujrat’s formerstate home minister Haren Pandya were acquitted by the High Court in Gujrat. Nineof the 12 convicts were awarded life imprisonment by the POTA court but thehigh court had acquitted them. Although CBI has moved tothe Supreme Court to challenge the acquittal, but the High Court’s decisionproved that the judges need to be to be influenced by the statement governmentand public sentiment, and if the inquiry in the case doesn’t prove the guilt,the case would be deemed baseless. The outlook India report on this link detailedhow the crime scene portrayed by the investigating agency could not have beenpossible.

In another judgement, two Indian Muslimswere accused by Ajmal Kassab for having provided him the maps of Mumbai to helphim launch the attacks on Mumbai. The court acquitted the co-accused Faheem Ansariand Sabauddin Shaikh on the grounds that the hand-drawn maps that Ajmal Kassabclaimed having received were not required as more sophisticated maps were availableon Google maps. Timesof India reported: Kasab had said that the duo supplied maps of Mumbai toLeT bosses. Thus, they gave logistical support to carry out the attack. But thejudge, punching a hole in the prosecution's argument, said better maps wereavailable on Google than the crude drawings Kasab claimed had been supplied byAnsari and Sabauddin.

I often argue that the judgementfrom the legal system boost the confidence of Muslims in the Indianinstitutions. In recent past, they have witnessed that there were arrestsrelated to acts of terror done by some Hindu groups, thus, dispelling theirfear that the police and investigating agencies purposefully try to frameMuslims only. Such fear gained ground when Muslims groups were accused for bombblasts in Malegaon, Makah Masjid in Hydrabad and Samjhota express, thoughMuslims question why a Muslim plant bombs to kill other Muslims would.

It is not just Egyptian cleric who criticise Facebook

2012-01-04T04:02:00.000-08:00

In early 2010, a cleric in Egypt criticisedusage of Facebook as a after astudy proved that one out of five divorces in Egypt were caused because ofthe affairs that started from Facebook. At that time, this opinion wasridiculed as one of the ignorant opinions by a hardliner.

After that, another study in the UK provedthat flirtation on Facebook was the reason behind one of three divorces. I readthis news some time back, but itwas published in TOI again. But, this time, no one criticised the firm ofbigotry because the analysis came from secularly learned people in the UK.

According to the said news report: MarkKeenan, managing director of Divorce-Online , said: "Facebook has becomethe primary method for communicating with friends for many people. Peoplecontact ex-partners and the messages start as innocent, but lead to trouble."If someone wants to have an affair or flirt with the opposite sex thenit's the easiest place to do it. People need to be careful what they put onFacebook as the courts are now seeing a lot more evidence being introduced frompeople's walls and posts in disputes over finances and children," he said.

Anotherreport published in TOI last November says: A Classmates Web site surveyrevealed that 39 percent of their users -- or 14.7 million people -- said theyused the site to look up an old love. So whether it's Google, MySpace, Facebookor Twitter, it's easy to let your fingers do the walking to locate old loves.The trend is so prominent, they have a name for digital daters who party in thepast: retrosexuals.

Poor clerics, when they voice an opinionwhich is against the popular emotions, they are branded hardliners. Its true,there are some clerics who would make your life difficult by declaring Al Baik andpacked milk to be ‘haraam’ but many times they might be talking somethingsensible, although they may not use the best words to say what they want tosay.

Saudi Arabia’s budget surplus, mashaAllah, in time of recession

2011-12-26T23:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the Arab News reports that Saudi Arabiaannounced a record SR690 billion ($184 billion) surplus budget on Monday andsaid it would continue its programs to achieve sustained and balanceddevelopment all over the country, giving top priority to education and manpowertraining. Here is the link to the full story.

While most countries around the world are feeling the pinch of recession, and budget deficit is an acceptable norm even for the countries that have positive growth, Saudi Arabia enjoys the remarkable budget surplus.

When I heard this news, I recited the verse ‘alladhi at’aama hum min juuin wa aamana hum min khauf’ (The one Who hasfed them against hunger, and has made them safe from fear. Quran 106:4) This verse is from Chapter Quraish. It relates to the peace restored in Makkah by Allah and assurance ofprovision for the people living in it. It is sanctity of the city that fighting is prohibited in it, and when Prophet (peace be upon him) entered victorious in the city, he gave amnesty to all.

Makkah has been sacred even before thetimes of Prophet (peace be upon him) and despite several conspiracies, such asthe one narrated in the Chapter Feel of Quran, the city has remained mostly peaceful, free fromany political upheavals. It was wisdom of Allah that when Islamic historywitnessed political tussles, the centre of politics was Baghdad after Caliph Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him), and later onDamascus was the capital of Umayyad Chaliphs, thus allowing Makkah and Madina to prosper peacefully as cities of religious learning.

It is Allah’s mercy because of whichthe land enjoys peace, while so many countries in the Middle-East have violentstruggle against regimes or change of power. The Saudi government has also continuouslyimproved the facilities for the pilgrims in the two holy cities.

I am copying below the Chapter Quraish ofQuran:

[106:001] (It is a great grace from Allâh)for the protection of the Quraish,

[106:002] (And with all those Allâh's graceand protections, We cause) the (Quraish) caravans to set forth safe in winter(to the south) and in summer (to the north without any fear),

[106:003] So let them worship (Allâh) theLord of this House (the Ka'bah in Makkah),

[106:004] (He) Who has fed them againsthunger, and has made them safe from fear.

The addiction of music

2011-12-22T02:30:00.001-08:00

A friend of mine told me about an Indiantune Kolavery-D which has got 26 million hit on the YouTube. I had not heard ofit so he wondered at my ignorance. I became curious and listened to the tune,and saved myself from liking it more by listening to it again.

But, to sin less, I listened to anothertune which is pseudo-spiritual by ArifLohar as part of Coke Studio. It’stitle is jugni ji. When I had listened to it first, I was deeply moved by themusic. It had amazing sufi music which was accompanied by some lyrics which arereally inspiring such as kalime bina ni mildhi thooi (no sanctuary except thekalima, i.e. There is no God, except God, and Muhammad is His messenger). Atthe same time, there were typical sufi lyrics which border towards shirk, suchas seeking help of a saint or talking about the court (darbaar) of a saint oreven of Prophet (peace be upon him), while there is only One King, and OneCourt. I would have listened to it again had not I realised its addictive power.In this video of this spiritual song, if you see the women you will realisewhat religion can become if there aren’t always obnoxious people who remind thebelievers of the fundamentals (Quran 22:41), and when spirituality is limitedto ‘talking to God.’ If spirituality is just forgetting oneself and reachingout to God, it can be anything, for example, in Dan Brown’s The Vinchy Codethere is mention of a sect of Christians, God knows real or fictional, whobelieve that they are closest to the God at the time of orgasm. What a wonderfulidea of spirituality it is!

Music is the opium for soul. It creates adifferent mood and world. This is why it is hard to stay away from. I spent 15years of my life habitually listening to music, but quit listening to it when Ibrought car which had JBL music system. Because, my time spent in the car with be either taken by dhikr,listening to Quran or music. When I listen to music, I am missing theopportunity for worship or learning. Not only this, when I start enjoying it, Iwill also watch music channels, and we know how decent music channels are thesedays.

Nancy Astor said, "One reason why Idon't drink is because I wish to know when I am having a good time." Thesame way if you plug in music, you would also not know when you are having goodtime, because you can either focus on the music, or on the people orenvironment close to you. I typed this post, and saved it to continue later,and found myself humming the jugni ji song I mentioned earlier and the music ofArif Lohar was buzzing in my head like a hammer. Just imagine if it can havethis effect in one listening, what a slave it will make me if I listen to itagain and again.

I think anything that can make a personaddicted to it is not good for health. No matter how much a person worships hisGod, he cannot get addicted to it, unless he starts doing it in some mysticalway, shaking his head to the tune of songs like jugni ji, and finding his soulin an imaginary darbaar of a saint.

The best worship is serving the mankind

2011-12-20T06:05:00.000-08:00

I have learnt many words of wisdom fromtaxi drivers. Once, a taxi driver said to me, ‘If I do not pray or fast, Iwronged Allah, and He will forgive me for that. But, if I wrong a person, Allahwill punish me for it.’

In Islam, above all worship is thegreatness of character and behaviour prevails. If a Muslim fails to behavewell, he has not learnt the essence of Islamic religion. How sad it is that wedo not set good example of behaviour in cultures where Muslims are in majority,and have to learn manners, etiquette, human rights and social welfare from other societies. I am copyingbelow some hadith which mention excellence of having good character andbehaviour, and the best worship being serving people.

Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet(Sallallahu 'Alaihi Wa Sallam) said, "The one who looks after a widow or apoor person is like a Mujahid (warrior) who fights for Allah's Cause, or likehim who performs prayers all the night and fasts all the day." [BukhariVol. 7 No. 265]

Abu Hurairah (radhiallâhu anhu) narrated that theProphet (sallallâhu ‘alayhi wasallam) said: “The most perfect believer in respectof faith is he who is best of them in manners.” (Abu Dawud 4665)

Abu Hurairah (radhiallâhu anhu) narrated that theProphet (sallallâhu ‘alayhi wasallam) said: “Among the Muslims the most perfect, asregards his faith, is the one whose character is excellent, and the best amongyou are those who treat their wives well.” (Tirmidhi 278, 628, 3264 and AbuDawud)

Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Amr Radi Allahu Anhu : A man asked the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam , "What Islamic traits are the best?" The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, "Feed the people, and greet those whom you know and those whom you do not know."Sahih Bukhari, Vol 8, Book 74, No. 253

I read a hadith but could not find itsreference to copy it here. According to this hadith, if a woman had severalhusbands in this world, in the Hereafter she will be the wife of the person whowas the best in character. Here the excellence doesn’t come in terms of beingthe best in worship, but being best in character.

Being good in Allah’s worship (prayers,reciting Quran, fasting etc.) doesn’t make a person automatically good in character.If such was the case, the Prophet (peace be upon him) would not mentioncharacter separately as he did in several hadith.

Recently I posted a video of a Muslim organization that has done very impressive workfor Muslims and non-Muslims in Assam and nearby districts. Their work not onlyinclude in teaching religion, but in health care, training in farming, trainingwomen for employment, and orphanages.

When Allah informed the angels about Hisintention to create man, He used the word ‘khalifa’ meaning the inheritor ofearth. (Al Baqara 2: 30) Man can only be good inheritor of earth, if he caresfor those who live on it, and, that way he can be true to the purpose of hiscreation. When I see people/ organizations like Markazul Maarif, the NGO whose workis highlighted in this said video, I feel that they have truly fulfilled theirmission of being a Muslim, who submitted his self, not just to worship Allah,but to serve His creation, because Allah does not seek any other service.

How do you know whether Allah accepted your Haj or not?

2011-12-18T22:50:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine wrote a post in which he remembered with bitterness when a friend of his declared that his Haj was not accepted by Allah because he worked in a bank those days. It reminded me an instance when a relative of mine, while on his way out from a mosque, was stopped by a gentleman who said, ‘Your prayer was not accepted. Your trouser (length) was below your ankles.’ My relative replied, ‘Did you hear a (divine) voice?’

One of my brother’s friends knows A R Rahman personally and hosts him whenever he visits Makkah. He told that A R Rahman is so pious that he sits in the mosque alone for hours, thanking Allah for all the blessing that has been showed on him. To take another example, a colleague told me that his relative, who worked in newspaper office in Jeddah, saw Lucky Ali visiting the office. He could not recognize him first, but soon after recognizing in him he sat down to chat with him. He asked Lucky Ali why he would not give up singing, as music is haram. Lucky Ali said, ‘We had no choice. We were born as part of the entertainment industry, and got in this business. You live in the holy land, so invoke Allah that He finds a better source of income for me.’ Hearing this, I could recall piety of Lucky Ali as some text on his first album cover was dedicated to Allah, which I saw in my teenage.

We can comment on what is right and wrong, what is halaal and haram, if it has been agreed upon by scholars, but we do not have an authority to comment whether good deeds are accepted by Allah or not, because only Allah knows it for sure. Allah mentions in several verses in Quran that no good deeds are wasted. Not only this, we learn from the hadith that even unbelievers get the rewards of good deeds in this world. How else can Allah be thankful, knowledgeable and just if He doesn’t repay a good deed with goodness? For example, He says:

[004:124] And whoever does righteous good deeds, male or female, and is a (true) believer [in the Oneness of Allâh (Muslim)], such will enter Paradise and not the least injustice, even to the size of a Naqîra (speck on the back of a date stone), will be done to them.

[004:173] So, as for those who believed (in the Oneness of Allâh – Islâmic Monotheism) and did deeds of righteousness, He will give them their (due) rewards – and more out of His bounty.

[055:060] Is there any reward for good other than good?

[099:007] So, whosoever does good equal to the weight of an atom (or a small ant) shall see it.

The only thing that can make a difference in the way the good deeds are received by Allah is the intention of the person while doing the deeds. If a person seeks worldly glory through his charity, he will get the glory, but another who seeks to please Allah through his charity may not get the glory, but will certainly get better rewards in the Hereafter. Similarly, a good word spoken out of humility and genuine warmth in heart will please Allah, but if it was spoken out of cunningness or sycophancy, it will get the results what were intended, i.e. pleasing a man.

I believe, if anyone can judge whether a worship was accepted or not, it can be the person himself. If he feels the satisfaction after the worship, he can be content that it was accepted. A scholar was asked, How will a person know whether Haj was accepted or not? He replied, ‘Only Allah knows whether Haj was accepted or not. But, we can say that if it brings any change in your character and habits, you can be assured that Allah accepted it, but instead of any change, you go on doing the things the same way as before, you cannot be sure whether it was accepted or not.’

I know from personal references, that there are some people from India and Pakistan who earn their livelihood from illegal means (not just unislamic, but illegal) and they would visit Makkah every few years, ‘to make their car zero meter’ as one of my relatives termed it. What good is Haj for them if they return to the same business, which is haram and despicable from all kinds of wisdom. There are some who make it a business to come to Makkah every year, and escape after performing Haj or Umra and work illegally or beg on streets. On the other hand, most of the Muslim government employees in India or Pakistan, who have earned their livelihood on halaal means, which is government salary, look up to their retirement when they get a major amount so that they can perform Haj with this income. If we go by statistics, this income has part interest which has accrued over years, and part of this income should be haram, but, Allah will look at their intentions and their situation, whether they had a choice or not, and He is certainly shakirun aleem (The thankful, and Knowledgeable)

As the topic mostly relates to Haj and foolish commentary of people, without much knowledge, I will relate another instance. One of my wife’s aunts said that a religious person told her that a woman’s Haj is only acceptable if she does it from her own income, which means if her husband paid for her Haj, it will be rejected. I rejected this notion as rubbish because a woman uses the income of her husband as her own in all spheres, not just Haj. If we go by this logic, even her food is haram if she did not earn it. I gave her a counter argument, ‘During the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him) most of the women did not work, and Muslim women around the world hardly worked till a few decades ago, this means that they could not perform Haj at all.’

As the topic goes on commentary of people without much knowledge, I would relate another instance. I sat in with my friends in India and one of my friend’s uncles came and sat among us. Some people, who grow beard as they age, feel compelled that they should give some advice in religion, even if they did not read much of religious text, so he gave one: ‘Jumaa prayer should only be performed in in a village if there are no proper roads and street lights.’ I replied, ‘During the times of the Prophet (peace be upon him) there were no roads and no street lights, so people could not offer Jumaa prayers at all, right?’

Works on promoting Islamic knowledge and social work

2011-12-15T02:04:00.000-08:00

This video is one of the excellent examples of great work that Muslim organizations have done in various parts of the world:

Declaring Muslims as kaafir at personal whim

2011-12-13T05:48:00.000-08:00

I think in the present world anyone who tells you that I belong to a certain sect of Muslims, you need to be careful of the person. There are so many sects, such as wahabi ( I don’t know if there are people who claim to be wahabis; it may be very well a sect and brand declared by others, like Muslim extremists, or moderate Taliban), barelwi, tablighi-jamaat, deobandi, salafi, ahl-e-hadith, and so on. Unfortunately, most of these are from Indian subcontinent. Being associated with a sect is different than being associated with an organization, who works for daawa or other charity works, because an organization focuses on its works, while a sect focuses on its ideology. The sects are very much like nations, where one hates another because of their ideology, and do not care for the common grounds among their people, be it the same language, colour, race, culture etc.

Sometimes followers of these sects are also very eager to declare followers of other sects as kaafir, which is a very strong allegation. Not only this, I heard a strong statement attributed to a so-called scholar that if a Muslim doubts such and such sects being kaafirs, that Muslim is a kaafir too. By the way, those sects alleged by the so-called scholar have the reputation of being one of the most purists, and they are apparently free from shirk and biddah.

As far as my limited knowledge is concerned, belief is based on six aspects, which are oneness of Allah, His messengers, His books, His angels, The day of Judgement and Allah’s Qadr. If anyone disbelieves in any of the six, than you can call it kufr. Besides, there is a hadith that if one prays five times a day we should not comment on his belief and leave his affair between him and Allah. In another hadith, prayers are the line between disbelief and belief. And, it is not praying which makes a person kafir, but rejecting it as a form of worship.

I would be fine if a group of scholars agree that certain sect or person has disbelieved for so and so reason. In that case, the opinion will be based on consensus of a group of scholars and it will be based on a specific case after a debate on the cause. But, it is a pity when an individual can give such fatwa for a group and his followers will accept it too.

Allah tells us to find common grounds between Muslims and people of the Book (Jews and Christians) and encourages us to invite them to Islamic monotheism on these grounds, such as Oneness of Allah, the message of Ibraheem and Musa, and so on. How can we Muslims, or followers of one sect among Muslims, invite others to truth when they nurture so much hate in their hearts. We have to open up our hearts before we expect others to listen.

I am copying some verses from Surah Aal-Imran in this regard:

[003:064] Say (O Muhammad [sal-Allâhu 'alayhi wa sallam]): "O people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians)! Come to a word that is just between us and you, that we worship none but Allâh (Alone), and that we associate no partners with Him, and that none of us shall take others as lords besides Allâh." Then, if they turn away, say: "Bear witness that we are Muslims."

[003:065] O people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians)! Why do you dispute about Ibrâhîm (Abraham), while the Taurât (Torah) and the Injîl (Gospel) were not revealed till after him? Have you then no sense?

[003:066] Verily, you are those who have disputed about that of which you have knowledge. Why do you then dispute concerning that of which you have no knowledge? It is Allâh Who knows, and you know not.

[003:067] Ibrâhîm (Abraham) was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was a true Muslim Hanîfa (Islâmic Monotheism – to worship none but Allâh Alone) and he was not of Al-Mushrikûn (See V.2:105).

The madness is to the extent that followers of some of these sects do not offer prayers behind the imams of Makkah and Madina when they visit the holy cities, and make their own congregational prayers within these holy mosques. Even in such holy places, where fighting is prohibited, their hearts are not free from hatred.

How strange it is that we cannot find common grounds among Muslims and talk about the differences and go on declaring one another kaafirs! Allah tells us that Ibraheem was not a Jew or a Christian but on True religion of monotheism. The same way our Prophet (peace be upon him) did not belong to any sect, not even Shia or Sunni, was on true Islamic monotheism.

Whenever anybody has to resort to a long argument to make a point, the argument is often distrustful. Because truth is simple, as Allah says in Quran 2:256 ‘Verily, the Right Path has become distinct from the wrong path.’ If someone has an objection to the belief of any of the imams in the two holy mosques, they should bring up it in a clear and concise argument. But, if they say we have a book of so many pages, which will prove this, it is best to stay away from such books.

Among several things which I commend of Saudi administration is that they have prevented the religion from corruption of such ideologies, by disallowing such literature and practice of Islam in public. The benefits of such censorship are far more than the limits of the same.

I am content by saying that I do not belong to any sect, but the one that believes in Quran and Sunnah, and we do not give it any name because the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his companions (may Allah be pleased with them) called themselves with any such name. They only called themselves Muslims.

Why doesn’t Allah give me what I ask for!

2011-12-07T00:41:00.000-08:00

In my post for istikhara and duaa I received several comments from people who invoke Allah for a particular thing and worry when they not find this duaa being answered. I respond to them that a duaa never goes waste and we are certain to get any of the following three results:

1) Allah gives us what we seek or something better
2) Allah wards off some evil that is decreed to us
3) We get rewards for it in the hereafter

If everyone gets what he asks for, there will be a complete chaos in the world, and this world will not be governed by the wisdom and justice of Allah, but the desire and fancies of men.

Yesterday, as I was listening to Quran I listened to the following verses regarding the birth of Maryam (peace be upon her) in Sura Aal-imraan and reflected on the first point. I am copying the verses below:

[003:035] (Remember) when the wife of 'Imrân said: "O my Lord! I have vowed to You what (the child that) is in my womb to be dedicated for Your services (free from all worldly work; to serve Your place of worship), so accept this from me. Verily, You are the All-Hearer, the All-Knowing."

[003:036] Then when she gave birth to her [child Maryam (Mary)], she said: "O my Lord! I have given birth to a female child," – and Allâh knew better what she brought forth, – "And the male is not like the female, and I have named her Maryam (Mary), and I seek refuge with You (Allâh) for her and for her offspring from Shaitân (Satan), the outcast."

[003:037] So, her Lord (Allâh) accepted her with goodly acceptance. He made her grow in a good manner and put her under the care of Zakariyyâ (Zechariah). Every time he entered Al-Mihrâb to (visit) her, he found her supplied with sustenance. He said: "O Maryam (Mary)! From where have you got this?" She said, "This is from Allâh." Verily, Allâh provides sustenance to whom He wills, without limit.

This is story of birth of Maryam (may Allah be pleased with her) who is ranked, according to hadith, as one of the two most pious women ever. The other woman is Asiya, the wife of Pharaoh to whom Musa (peace be upon him) took Allah’s message. We learn from the verses quoted above that the mother of Maryam invoked Allah to have a son so that she could dedicate it to the service of Allah. But, she had a girl, and she was disappointed because a girl has limited capabilities to serve God (in terms of being a leader of a group, bearing physical hardship, opposition of people, responsibilities of family etc.) So, she said: "O my Lord! I have given birth to a female child…"

Allah says: “..and Allâh knew better what she brought forth..” Allah knew the cause of her disappointment, but He also knew what is His plan. His plan was to give her a daughter who would be better than any ordinary son. This girl would receive provision from Allah even while she stays in her place of worship and doesn’t go out (3:37); she will be ranked as one of the two most pious women ever, and she will be mother of the Jesus, a messenger of Allah, and the miraculous birth of Jesus from her womb will be an eternal example of Allah’s creative power for the mankind.

Thus, the mother of Maryam did not get what she invoked Allah for, but got something better. Although she was disappointed in the beginning, but Allah only planned to bless her more. Even the most pious slaves of Allah do not always get what they invoke for, but the mercy of Allah is that it is certainly better than what they invoke for. The Prophet (peace be upon him) invoked Allah to die as a martyr but he died in his bed, which certainly had Allah’s wisdom in it.

The mother of Maryam sought a son for the service of God, and it was natural for her to be disappointed. We seek the worldly treasures and lament it when we do not get them.

To learn more on how Allah’s plans can be often cause of wonder and worry among His slaves because of their lack of knowledge, you can refer to the story of Khidr and Musa in Surah Kahf from this link.

Belief in Allah's promise for provision

2011-12-06T02:54:00.000-08:00

Allah promises that He will take care of all the provision of all creatures but we often tend to forget it. Allah says in Quran:

Hud 11:6 There is no moving creature on earth but its sustenance dependeth on Allah. He knoweth the time and place of its definite abode and its temporary deposit: All is in a clear Record.

I just reflected that if human beings have strong belief only on this, it can prevent so many vices, such as:

Crimes related to theft, cheating and bribery- If one is sure that he will get what Allah has decreed for him, he will not feel tempted to use dishonest means to earn money
Pursuing of work which truly satisfies – People will care whether they can utilize their talents, energies and ambitions better rather than where they get more money
No envy for the riches of others- Envy is the germ for many crimes. With this belief, many evil thoughts or actions will stop at their germination point
No hesitation in spending on other human beings and on charity – People hesitate to spend on others because they credit themselves for their income. If they truly believe it is Allah who provides for them, they will not hesitate in spending for Allah’s slaves
Not being stingy – Stingy people hurt themselves and those who depend on them. It is in fact a sin in Islam. If people trust Allah for the provision, they will not be stingy.
Not being proud, arrogant or extravagant – People will thank Allah and will be humble when they gain riches, rather than being arrogant which is likely when they attribute the success to themselves
Fearless- Money makes slave like nothing else. If people truly trust in their real master to provide for everything, they will be fearless and speak the truth when the issues are related to money loss.

Previous posts related to money:

The meaning of blessing

2011-12-04T00:01:00.000-08:00

I received a comment on one of my posts: What exactly is a 'blessing?' in Islam

As I wrote the answer to it, I realise that it can be a post as well, so I am copying it below:

Blessing in Islam means something gives more joy, benefit and pleasure with the mercy of Allah. A food might be ordinary, but it benefits us more, we find it delicious and we are saved from its harm when Allah blesses it for us. The same applies for any mercy of Allah, such as income, children, job and worship; these all good things become more enjoyable, rewarding and satisfying for us when Allah blesses us in them.

A duaa to be recited when in distress

2011-12-02T06:51:00.001-08:00

I have written several posts on astaghfar which are all categorised under this label. One of the best duaa for astaghfar is the duaa of Prophet Yunus which he invoked from the belly of the whale. He was sent as a messenger for a people, but when he did not see any change in them, he became angry and fled from the mission of Allah. He boarded on a ship but the sea faced a tempest and the boarders decided to draw a lot and throw one of the fellow passengers in the sea to save it from the calamity (37:139-144) because they feared that this tempest is because of one of the sinners. The lot came in favour of Prophet Yunus and they threw him in the sea, where a whale swallowed him, and he made this duaa from the darkness of the belly of the whale and sea in the night, and as a result Allah delivered him from this calamity as Allah says in the following verses.

[021:087] And (remember) Dhun-Nûn [Yûnus (Jonah)], when he went off in anger, and imagined that We shall not punish him (i.e. the calamities which had befallen him)! But he cried through the darkness (saying): "Lâ ilâhâ illâ Anta [none has the right to be worshipped but You (O Allâh)], Glorified (and Exalted) are You [above all that (evil) they associate with You]! Truly, I have been of the wrong doers."

[021:088] So, We answered his call, and delivered him from the distress. And thus We do deliver the believers (who believe in the Oneness of Allâh, abstain from evil and work righteousness).

The transliteration of this duaa is as follows:

La ila ha illa anta subhanaka inni kuntu minazzalimeen

"There is no god but thou: glory to thee: I was indeed wrong!"

As this is a verse of Quran, we also get rewards of 10 good deeds with each letter.

We learn from the above mentioned two verses the following:

1. It is in human nature to err. We tend to become angry, frustrated and disappointed. We should not expect of ourselves or any other human being to be perfect, far from sins. As the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: ‘All the sons of Adam are sinners and the best among the sinners are those who repent.’ (Ahmad and others)

2. It is Allah’s nature to forgive when His slaves turn to Him in true repentance. These verses not only narrate the story of Prophet Yunus (peace be upon him) but also set an example before other Muslims as what they should do when they are in distress, as Allah concludes the verse by saying ‘And thus We do deliver the believers’

According to a hadith, Allah always responds when a slave invokes him with these words ‘La ila ha illa anta subhanaka inni kuntu minazzalimeen’

I am copying excerpts form a long hadith in which Uthman-ibn-affan used to say this duaa and close his eyes, and he said: …The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, ‘Yes, that was the call of Jonah inside the fish: ‘There is no God but You, I was indeed wrong.’ No Muslim will make any supplication with this call about anything but Allah will accept from him. ‘

This hadith is narrated in Ahmad (1:170), At-tirmidhi 3505 and An Nasai and Amalil Yawm

Umar-bin-khattab’s letter to Nile river- A duaa as answer of every superstitious

2011-11-30T00:26:00.000-08:00

The main difference in superstition and monotheist belief is that certain rituals are considered to be solution of problem by superstitious people, while believer in one God believes that Allah has power above everything and if we invoke Him for help, we do not have to believe in any idiotic rituals, such as offering human or material sacrifice to God. Satan prompts superstition because it helps us remain satisfied with our ignorance and quells the tendency to question a practice. I was reading a short article on the second Caliph Umar-bin-khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) and found the incidence of his letter to Nile river interesting. I am copying the English version of the same incident, which I found on this link. I am copying the story below:

There was a time when Egypt was conquered by Muslim militaries, Caliph Umar Al-Khattab put Amru bin-Aas as the governor of that new Muslim territory. Amru Al-As was famous as a valiant commander and an efficient and wise administrator.

When Amru bin-Aas became the Governor of Egypt, there was news foretelling that the river of Nile soon would be dry, and hence, the Egyptians planned to do an ancient ceremony which was to sacrifice a girl for the river. They pushed Amru to do the ceremony but Amru insisted to not doing it as it opposed to Islam tradition.

Time flew by and the river truly dried up as was foretold. Since farming in Egypt really depended on the river, the Egyptians started to panic and moved to other new verdant land.

That situation forced Amru to write upon Caliph Umar in Medina for his opinion. Amru himself felt terrible on how to solve the problem. Then, Caliph Umar replied his answer in a letter.

When the letter was received by Amru, he noticed that the letter was not for him but instead for the Nile itself. Before he threw the letter into the drying Nile, he read the letter and it wrote:

“This letter is sent to the river of Nile by Umar, servant of Allah and Commander of the Believers. Oh river of Nile, if the water is flowed on your will, behold that we do not need it. But if it flows in the will of Allah, thus, we pray to Him to let flow the water in the river.”

After the letter was thrown into the river, the river was filled with water up to forty-eight feet deep in the same night. Since then, the pagan ceremony for the river has been disappeared.

Satanic promptings and toy cars

2011-11-17T02:03:00.000-08:00

It is one of the thoughts that occurred to me when I was half asleep or dreaming, but thankfully I was able to recover it when I woke up. It started with a thought that 80% of the noise in our minds is from satan, but we are not aware of it. I realise this because when I recite dhikr to thwart satan, certain blankness and order follows. After that I related the prompting of the satan with wounding up of toy cars. The toy cars these days are very sophisticated, there are ones without tires, on a PC or PlayStation, but I thought of those of ones in my childhood which had no battery and needed to be wound up with a key, or rolling them backwards again and again. After you would wound a car up using any of the two techniques you need to set them free and they would go rushing straight and bang in anything that comes in the way.

When satan starts its prompting, it is sounds very innocuous and natural thought process. It seem interesting musing. The satan doesn’t push us as without preparing us for the counter he wants, but prompts us as one would wound a toy car. If we spot satan’s interference at this stage, we can thwart him but we realise it when we are sat in a motion, which is heading towards a sin. It is true that Allah doesn’t hold us accountable for our thoughts and we have to be answerable only for our actions, but evil thinking often precedes evil actions. If we learn to put a check on evil thinking or prompting, which is winding up our desires and ambitions for this world, we can avoid a collision more often.

Allah says in Quran:

2:168 O MANKIND! Partake of what is lawful and good on earth, and follow not Satan's footsteps: for, verily, he is your open foe,

Effect of interactions with Islamic culture

2011-11-09T15:27:00.000-08:00

We Muslims are at times very conscious of our cultures, and sometimes a lot of Muslims even hesitate in saying salam to others. I am narrating a few incidences from non-Muslims who were impressed by the Muslim culture.

Once a former colleague of mine, who is a Hindu and used to visit Saudi Arabia often, said that he liked it a lot when in Saudi Arabia anybody enters in the lift he says ‘asslamu alaikum’ to the people who are present in the lift. He believed that it was such a pleasant way to greet the people whom one may not even know.

A friend of mine narrated an incident when was to talk to some of his colleagues through a telephonic conference call. He connected with a colleague who was in Pakistan and exchanged greetings with him as assslamu alaikum and wa alaikum salam. His boss also connected with another colleague, but did not realise so, and he was saying to the other colleague: ‘Isn’t it so nice the way these people greet each other?’

Today in London I met a former colleague who used to work in Dubai and travel a lot in several middle-eastern countries. He said that he misses the warmth that he found among the people in the middle-east and misses the call of adhaan. I was amused to hear a Hindu missing adhaan, but perhaps we underestimate the effect it creates. It reminds me of another former colleague in Saudi Arabia who shared a status update on facebook which he apparently wrote at the time of fajr adhaan expressing his despondency over something and concluded it with optimism and faith as he heard the call of prayers which indicated to him the nearness of God.

Reflections on the ancient Egypt

2011-11-09T15:08:00.000-08:00

I happened to visit Egypt last week where I saw the marvellous monuments Pyramids and the collection of art and mummies in the museum. The people in ancient Egypt were very advanced in terms of art and science as is evident from the technique of mummifying dead bodies and artefacts.

When I came out of the big pyramid of Giza, I remembered the following verse:

[003:006] He it is Who shapes you in the wombs as He wills. Lâ ilâha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He), the All-Mighty, the All-Wise.

The word ‘Haram’ in Arabic is used for both womb and Pyramids. The difference is that in the womb a life begins with a drop and gets the shape of a child, while in Pyramids a dead body is deposited with a false hope that it will be as rich and powerful in the hereafter as it was in this world.

I noticed from the mummies that they were short in height, the height of men being around 5 feet and they were dark skinned and with features of what we see among Negroes today. Ironically, today the Africans are believed to be lagging behind the western world in terms of development. It made me reflect that Allah gives power and resources to different nations, the Arabic word qaum will be more appropriate, and tests what they do with it. There is nothing like racial superiority of white over black, or vice versa, as we can see that one race was at its peak in one age and another has reached unprecedented advancement in the modern age. What is important is whether people fear the supremacy and justice of Allah when they reach advancement or they start inventing false gods. Allah mentions of several people in the history who were given unimaginable power:

[089:006] Saw you (O Muhammad [sal-Allâhu 'alayhi wa sallam]) not how your Lord dealt with 'aad (people)
[089:007] Of Iram (who were very tall) like (lofty) pillars,
[089:008] The like of which were not created in the land?
[089:009] And (with) Thamûd (people), who hewed out rocks in the valley (to make dwellings)?
[089:010] And (with) Fir'aun (Pharaoh) who had the stakes (to torture men by binding them to the stakes)?
[089:011] Who did transgress beyond bounds in the lands (in the disobedience of Allâh).
[089:012] And made therein much mischief.
[089:013] So, your Lord poured on them different kinds of severe torment.

Eid or Jumma Khutba in Arabic before non-Arabs

2011-11-06T02:53:00.000-08:00

While offering the Eid salah in London today, I noted something during the Khutba. When the worshippers are not Arabic speaking, the khutba is given in the language of the congregators, such as English or Urdu, and then the imam says the Khutba in Arabic, which is following the sunnah/tradition. During this Arabic khutba, the imam sits down in the middle, and before sitting down he says 'astaghfiru' which is a command from the imam to the congregators to seek forgiveness from Allah. When the congregrators are Arabs, they understand this command and they start saying 'astaghfirulla' i.e. seeking forgiveness from Allah, untill the imam stands up again to complete the khutba. But, when the congregators do not understand Arabic, they do not understand what it, astaghfiru, means, so they just remain silent as they were before.

When the salah was finished I waited till the imam was free and suggested to him that this part 'astaghfiru' (seek forgiveness) can be said to those present in English or Urdu (or any other launguage that people would understand) so that they can follow the command. This way it will be more meaningful.

The imam said that it was a good point and he will discuss it, although he was a bit reluctant that it would be against the standard practice, and people should not say anything when the imam is giving khutba. But, this part doesn't conflict it because people have to say astaghfar when the imam rests momentarily.

Haj Mubarak and Eid Adha Mubarak

2011-11-05T16:49:00.000-07:00

May Allah accept the Hajj of all pilgrims and reward all the people associated with the arrangement of Hajj.

And, Eid Adha mubarak to all..

The thrill of holding an ice cube

2011-11-02T07:28:00.000-07:00

I haven’t written a post on this blog since long and feel guilty about it. I had a few posts in mind but other things kept on demanding priority or attention.

When I was a teenager, I had a long debate with one of friends, which lasted several hours. Those days I used to take pride, one of the foolish prides of youth which make you feel ashamed when you age, that I cannot lose a debate, so I argued and argued. My friend Majid argued that children are the happiest lot in the world, teenagers aren’t. I said that children lament controls put on them by adults and they look forward to grow up as teenagers and adults so that they can enjoy more freedom. I especially used to hate teenagers who could bunk classes and take out processions on the street to protest against unemployment or rising prices. We schoolchildren in our green and white uniform could be spotted staring at the cinema posters and spanked the next day. As we come to acknowledge many things with age, I agree now that Majid was right, as he always is.

No one is happier than children. Perhaps animals and birds are, but they are always like that, but children grow up and carry the burden of philosophy and economy till the end of their lives. I find it wonderful to see children playing outside my house. One day my daughter needed my help to fetch a ball from the terrace, which they accidently threw and did know that the door to it which seemed to be locked wasn’t actually locked. I found a dozen balls there and brought with me as many as I could carry. I dropped them when I came drown, as we throw dirty clothes, and children ran with excitement and each one claimed a ball. They loved as if they found lost treasures.

Last week my daughter and her friends came to my house and demanded ice cubes. I was amused, and gave each of them an ice cube, with a warning that they should immediately disappear and not spatter water on the floor. They jumped with excitement, giggled and ran away holding ice. I remembered the line, ‘The man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.’ I could not imagine an adult feeling so excited just by holding ice in his hands. After a while, one of my neighbours’ daughters came and rang the bell. When I opened the door, she said, ‘Ice.’ As I turned to fetch for her, she said, ‘I need two.’

In short, there are plenty of blessing of Allah around us, we just make ourselves number to them.

Allah says in Quran:

[055:013] Then which of the Blessings of your Lord will you both (jinn and men) deny?

First ten Days of Dhul Hijjah: Days of Virtue And Righteous Deeds

2011-10-29T00:43:00.000-07:00

As Dhul Hijjah has started, I am recycling a post I had written some time back:

This is a very good article on the virtue of First 10 days of Dhul Hijja which are the 10 days preceding Eid and the Day of Arafah is the 9th day. You can read the full article on this link.

I am copying here two important hadith in this regard:

Ibn 'Abbas reports that the Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) said, "No good deeds done on other days are superior to those done on these days [meaning the ten days of Dhul-Hijjah]." The companions asked, "O Messenger of Allaah, not even jihad in the way of Allaah?" He said, "Not even jihad, except for the man who puts his life and wealth in danger [for Allaah's sake] and returns with neither of them."

[This is related by the group except Muslim and an-Nasa'i]

Abu Qatadah reported that the Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) said, "Fasting on the day of 'Arafah is an expiation for two years, the year preceding it and the year following it. Fasting the day of 'Ashurah is an expiation for the year preceding it."

[This is related by "the group," except for al-Bukhari and at-Tirmidhi]----

Shift of power in Libya- madness at both ends

2011-10-23T00:36:00.000-07:00

One more dictators from Arab countries has gone. Ghaddafi met the worst fate of all. Saddam Hussein was at least tried, and he got opportunity to stare in the eyes of death and say ‘la ilaha illaah’ before his death. Ben Ali was the smartest of all; he took as much treasure as he could and escaped to a safe heaven. Hosni Mubarak was also shrewd because he did not resort to violence to crush the putsch against him. There is merit in having good advisors among friends. I think Abdullah Saleh of Yemen is heeding to clever advisors, whom he provided hunting grounds, and he will shun power before another rocket hits him.

What is despicable is the madness in Libya on the part of the killers of Ghaddafi. They captured him alive, humiliated him and put him to death without a trial. They chanted Allah-o-akbar and thanked God in mosques. Does Allah allow putting unarmed and surrendering people to death? Can a militia which claims to be leading Jihad kill a man without trial? Not only this, they make a circus of his dead body and display it in a supermarket like a dead dinosaur. Doesn’t this treatment remind the demonic act of Hind who ate the liver of Hamza (may Allah be pleased with him) after he was killed? Allah says in Quran:

[009:006] And if anyone of the polytheists seeks your protection then grant him protection so that he may hear the Word of Allâh and then escort him to where he can be secure, that is because they are men who know not.

There is no doubt that Ghaddafi too was equally drunk with power as he ordered military offensive against thousands of peaceful protesters in Ben Ghazi.

I hope the end of struggle can teach a lesson to those who rule by force that the only Sovereign whose authority cannot be challenged or reduced is Allah; if a ruler fears Him, he has to fear none, and if someone doesn’t fear Him, then he meets ruin. I wrote several months ago that one certain advantage of democracy is that it makes the power struggle bloodless. History of every nation is full of examples of murders and revolts, which were at times led with genuine grievances and other times were mere power struggles. Democracy gives an alternative medium to fight, curse and blame, march and shout, but assassination is not the only way to remove a ruler from power. It is only wise to establish systems within sharia to question those in authority and even debate shift of power, if there is demand for it, because history is witness than no clan could hold absolute power over any nation for endless time.

An inspiring journey of a mosque

2011-10-18T05:48:00.000-07:00

This is an impressive story of a construction of a mosque in Canada. I am copying below the entire story as received in an email. Here is the CBS news link for the story.

Inuvik is an arctic town in Canada’s Northwest Territories with a population of about 3,500 people. It’s located right at the tip of North America facing the Arctic Ocean. With a polar climate and harsh living conditions, one wouldn't expect to find a town there, let alone a town with Muslims. But there is a Muslim community there and a growing one, too. So much so that the trailer that was being used as the mosque ran out of room and this community now needed a new Masjid.

Building a masjid in the Arctic, however, is far more complicated than it is anywhere else. The scarcity of skilled labour and material makes the cost of such a project skyrocket and this undertaking is simply impossible for a small community of a 100 people.Their situation is akin to that of the Muslims in Edmonton, who despite all odds managed to erect Canada’s first Masjid in 1938. With faith in God anything is possible. At a time like this, the Inuvik Muslims could have simply prayed for a masjid to be shipped over. And that’s exactly what they were about to get.

Enter, the Zubaidah Tallab Foundation.The Zubaidah Tallab Foundation is a charity based out of Manitoba. The remarkable individuals at this organization decided to give the Inuvikans a hand and took it upon themselves to ensure that the masjid got built.After evaluating the cost of locally building the masjid, they came up with a plan which at first sight would easily be dismissed as insanity. Build the masjid in Winnipeg and ship it 4,000 kilometres away to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories.

As insane as that may sound, this was the most economical way of getting the masjid built. Part of the masjid’s journey was going to be on roads (2400km) and part on water (1800 km).The goal was to get the mosque on to the last barge heading towards Inuvik for the season. Not only was this going to be a logistical nightmare but it was to be a race against time as well. With receding water levels in the Mackenzie River, the shipping company decided to push up the departure date by 3 weeks.

The 1,500 square-foot masjid was built in Winnipeg and started its journey on a semi-trailer.The over-sized trailer made its way through back roads and country highways, struggling to make it to the barge in time; it was delayed further by Labour Day celebrations and highway regulations. To complicate matters even more, the bridge across Reindeer Creek proved too narrow for the trailer. The driver had to remove the back wheels and a second truck was brought in to balance the back of the flatbed as the Masjid was moved carefully across bridge. But this wasn't the biggest scare. All hopes and dreams came close to being shattered when the masjid almost fell off the trailer into a creek near the Alberta border.

The organizers managed to request the shipping company to hold the barge for two extra days and perhaps by divine intervention, the barge was delayed further due to poor weather. With lots of prayer and a little bit of luck, the trailer managed to get to the barge just in time. The masjid was loaded on to the barge and set off for its journey towards the North Pole.

The barge arrived in Inuvik, on September 24th2010.After an excruciating 3-week journey, the little masjid arrived at its destination; all in one piece. (SUBHANALLAH).

The Inuvik Muslims gathered around the port to witness the historical event.They chanted prayers to praise and thank God as they waited. Some jumped around with joy while others were overwhelmed with gratitude and came to tears.

Numerous finishing touches needed to be added and it took about a month to get the mosque ready for use.Fathallah Fargat, a carpenter from St. Catherines, Ontario was inspired by the story and traveled all the way to Inuvik to help set up the masjid. He even helped build a 10-meter minaret to accompany the newly erected masjid.

The Midnight Sun Masjid, as it is now called, was inaugurated on November 10th 2010 to become North America’s northern most masjid.All in all, the entire project cost about $300,000.The Zaid Tallabah Foundation, which still has outstanding payments to make, is looking to raise another $21,000.

The Inuvik masjid is a stellar example of what can be accomplished by unity, hard work and faith in God. For those let down by the petty attacks on masjid around the West, this story should rejuvenate your spirit and give you hope.If people can manage to build a masjid in the Arctic, then building one anywhere else should be far from impossible.

One day’s hunger, one day’s food

2011-10-18T05:34:00.001-07:00

We middle-class people probably do not know what hunger is. During one of my visits to India, I was travelling by road in a car. My daughter had not taken her lunch. We stopped at one place and took some snacks. I gave her snacks but she was not in the mood to have them. After a while she started crying, which was apparently because of hunger; I’ve never seen her persistently cry for anything. She would not say anything but only cry. I offered her snacks, but she wouldn’t have them. I consoled her that we would reach our destination, but she wouldn’t care. I was pained to see her cry, and waited eagerly for the next city so that we could stop at a restaurant and get her something to eat. In the meantime, I was invoking Allah to give her sabr. But, to my surprise, my invocations did not have any effect. I was wondering why would Allah not listen to my invocations, when I make them for my child, during a journey and with glorious names that He deserves, which are all reasons for acceptance of invocation as per ahadith. After a while, I reflected: My child is hungry and I can offer her snacks, and food after an hour or so; what about the parents whose children cry of hunger but they have nothing to offer to them? How painful a trial it must be for them. I remembered a poem which I had read in Hindi text book in my school. It was a story of a mother, a construction labourer, who mixes quicklime in water and gives it to her hungry, wailing child. I felt ashamed for my narrow mindedness. Interestingly, after this reflection, my daughter fell asleep and only woke up when we reached our destination, as if Allah just wanted me to have this reflection.

My wife narrated me an incidence which happened during our last visit to India, when we had stopped at a place and I went to purchase take-away dinner as restaurants were closing, while my wife waited in the car. It was 12:00 PM in the night. A chid to the car to beg. She had some snacks and asked if he wanted them. He took them and went to his family, which sat in a corner in this commercial area. Out of excitement, he declared what he had got. His elder brother got envious and snatched the packed from him. The young boy wouldn’t let go easily, he fought and yelled, but all in vain. The elder brother ate the snack, and left the young boy wailing. It may not be an incidence of hunger, but it is of what food can mean to have-nots.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) invoked Allah that he should get food for one day and go hungry on another, so that when he is hungry, he would invoke Allah for provision and when he is fed, he will thank Him for His mercy. I read this hadith, but could not find a reference to copy it here.

Our beloved Prophet (peace be upon him) was the best of human beings and he suffered hunger very often. It was not because Allah could not feed him, but because Allah wanted to leave an example of all kind of suffering that we will go through in the worldly life. We middle-class people get restless when we are out of electricity, petrol or milk for one day, that too because of some mismanagement, not because of lack of money. Going hungry because we do not have means to eat is too much for us. This is why we invoke Allah in the last two verses of Surah Baqrah: (2: 286) “…our Lord! Put not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. Pardon us and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us. You are our Maulâ (Patron, Supporter and Protector) and give us victory over the disbelieving people."

I am copying some of the hadith below:

Narrated 'Abis: I asked 'Aisha "Did the Prophet forbid eating the meat of sacrifices offered on 'Id-ul-Adha for more than three days" She said, "The Prophet did not do this except in the year when the people were hungry, so he wanted the rich to feed the poor. But later we used to store even a trotter of a sheep to eat it fifteen days later." She was asked, "What compelled you to do so?" She smiled and said, "The family of Muhammad did not eat to their satisfaction white bread with meat soup for three successive days till he met Allah." (Sahih Bukhari Book #65, Hadith #334)

Narrated 'Aisha : The Prophet died when we had satisfied our hunger with the two black things, i.e. dates and water. (Sahih Bukhari Book #65, Hadith #295)

Scary dreams of children

2011-10-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

As a Muslim, I believe in satan and evil eye, which many sound minded and educated people find very archaic beliefs. I also believe that the next big breakthrough in psychology will be when we will be able to establish presence of satan scientifically. When my daughter was young, I noticed always that when she was having a disturbed sleep my recital of dhikr, such as ayatul kursi and the last three chapters of Quran, soothed her and gave her a sound sleep. As she started going to school, she learnt some chapters of Quran and recites the last three chapters and ayatul kursi before sleep.

Now she is going to be six. Her mother informed me that recently she cries sometimes and when she is probed she says that she saw a scary dream and whenever she remembers it she is frightened and she wants to forget it. On some other occasion she said that she saw a dream that her mother has left her alone. She also agreed that part of her dream was because of some weird cartoon character and resolved not to see it again, which was a positive development.

Last week she was with me in car and started crying. The same moment we had to stop at a place and her mother asked her why she cried. She said it is the same dream that haunts her. I sat beside her and said, ‘Our Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) said that dreams are of two types: the dreams that make is feel good and giggle are from Allah, and we should share such dreams with others; but dreams that frighten us or make us cry are from satan, and we should not tell them to anyone and we should not worry about them at all because satan cannot cause any harm to us.’ I added, ‘Shayateen are actually a cowards. They do not have any power over us except for insinuation. They can only whisper to us and make us scared but cannot do us any harm. If they are brave, they should come and stand before us. Will any satan ever dare to stand before a man? Never. And, only a coward can try to scare children. Why should we be afraid of a coward, who doesn’t dare to stand before us and tries to scare children. When we recite dhikr, such as ayatul kursi, Allah punishes shayateen for trying to scare us. So, you should recite ayatul kursi, because this is the only weapon we have against them. And, when you feel too scared, invoke Allah to curse them and they will get a sound beating.’

This chat relieved my daughter and immediately she giggled and felt hungry. All what I told her was from hadith, but I did not have to quote hadith for her and tell her it in a simple language that she would understand.

Denial of provision being from Allah

2011-10-16T00:23:00.000-07:00

According to some hadith, Surah Al Waqia is the surah of provision (or ghina) and the Prophet (peace be upon him) advised his companions to learn this chapter and to teach it to the family members as well. Ghina means self-contentment; it is the word used instead of riches in Arabic, because rich can be miserable in some aspects, for example in huge debt, but ghani is not, even if he has fewer means. According to another hadith, the person who recites this chapter every night will not face poverty. I do not know whether these hadith are sahih or daeef (strong or weak) but I recite this chapter every night because reciting Quran is only good, as long as it not done in a complete innovative way which doesn’t have any basis in ahadith.

Last year, a relative of mine argued that Al Waqia cannot be chapter for provision because it doesn’t have any mention of provision in it. I did point out the mention of provision in this chapter. The reflection done on these verses did help me in putting together my thoughts related to provision, with references from Al Waqia. I have written several other posts related to provision which are categorized as ‘money’ on this blog.

We can deny that the income we generated through a job or business is not from Allah because we do not see Allah giving it to us, but we cannot deny that the basic provision that every human being needs, which is of water and crops comes from nature or providence, which is many times used as synonym for God. Allah reminds us of provision in the form of children, water, crops and energy in this chapter.

Provision as crops:

[056:063] Then tell Me about the seed that you sow in the ground.
[056:064] Is it you that make it grow, or are We the Grower?

Provision as water:

[056:068] Then tell Me about the water that you drink.
[056:069] Is it you who cause it from the rain clouds to come down, or are We the Causer of it to come down?

Provision as children:

[056:058] Then tell Me (about) the (human) semen that you emit.
[056:059] Is it you who create it (i.e. make this semen into a perfect human being), or are We the Creator?

Provision as energy:

[056:071] Then tell Me about the fire which you kindle.
[056:072] Is it you who made the tree thereof to grow, or are We the Grower?

We may say that these days we do not use woods or coal for energy, but we cannot deny that natural gas, gasoline, nuclear energy, hydroelectricity and solar energy are sourced from the wealth that Allah has given to human beings in terms of natural resources.

Allah asks us in the same chapter:

[056:082] And instead (of thanking Allâh) for the provision He gives you, you deny (Him by disbelief)!

There can be few blockheads who will insist that their provision is not from Allah, and most of the human beings will accept that their provision is from God, The provider of all, but they will only do so when they reflect deeply. We don’t insist in rejecting Allah as the provider but we nurture some notions which are contrary to this belief. When we believe that Mr so and so was got us a job, or, if I spend on my relatives my children will be poor, or, I have a job today but tomorrow I may not have any, or, that if I deserved to earn more than I got, or, that Mr so and so got so much out of luck or favours, although he did not deserve it, or, I missed such and such opportunity to get rich, all these are notions through which we subconsciously deny that Allah alone can and will give us provision. We must be thankful to the people who do favours to us, and we must do good and strive to earn halal and good provision, because Allah encourages us to do so, however, with a strong belief that we can only control our intention and efforts, we cannot control the results. Allah is Just, and He will surely help those who try harder to earn better provision with good intentions.

Before, creation of human beings as we see them today, Allah created the souls of all human beings He intended to give birth to. He made all these souls to testify that He is the provider, preserver and nurturer of all, which is the meaning of the word rabb. This is mentioned in a separate chapter, Al-Araaf. The commentary of Moulana Moududi on this verse is quoted at the end of this post.

[007:172] And (remember) when your Lord brought forth from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their seed (or from Adam's loin his offspring) and made them testify as to themselves (saying): "Am I not your Lord?" They said: "Yes! We testify," lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: "Verily, we have been unaware of this."

In Chapter, Waqia, Allah reminds us of this testament in the following verse.

[056:062] And indeed, you have already known the first form of creation (i.e. the creation of Adam), why then do you not remember (or take heed)?

This verse is interpreted by Moulana Moududi as creation of the foetus in the womb whom Allah nurtures. I feel it can also be interpreted as the instinctive guidance which is in the heart of all human beings, which is the retention of the promise made to One God (verse 7:172, quoted above), whom we often suppress because of our logic, ignorance and blind faith in traditions and rituals. This is the guidance that make us cry ‘God, Help me’ when we are in suffering, but we forget it when we are in ease. Moulana Moududi mentions that the event mentioned in this verse took place after the creation of Adam (peace be upon him). I am quoting below his commentary on the verse. However, the point is not when did the event took place, or whether the entire human race which gave testament to God were in the form of human beings as we see them today or as souls, devoid of body, who were given life for limited time, or anything else. My point here is that there is an inherent guidance in our souls which remind us that God alone is our nurturers, but we often stifle this guidance and do not strive to transform this guidance into unshakable belief.

The commentary of Moulana Moududi on Verse 7:172 is as follows:

134. This event, according to several traditions, took place at the time of the creation of Adam. Apart from the prostration of the angels before Adam and the proclamation that man would be God's vicegerent on earth, all the future progeny of Adam were gathered, and were endowed with both existence and consciousness in order to bear witness to God's lordship. The best interpretation of this event is found in a statement by, 'Ubayy b. Ka'b, who has probably given the substance of what he had heard from the Prophet (peace be on him):

God gathered all human beings, divided them into different groups, granted them human form and the faculty of speech, made them enter into a covenant, and then making them witnesses against themselves He asked them: 'Am I not your Lord?' They replied: 'Assuredly you are Our Lord.' Then God told them: 'I call upon the sky and the earth and your own progenitor, Adam, to be witness against you lest you should say on the Day of Judgement that you were ignorant of this. Know well that no one other than Me deserves to he worshipped and no one other than Me is your Lord. So do not ascribe any partner to Me. I shall send to you My Messengers who will remind you of this covenant which you made with Me. I shall send down to you My Books.' In reply all said: 'We witness that You are Our Lord and our Deity. We have no lord or deity other than You.' (Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 5, p. 135 - Ed.)

This event has also been interpreted by some commentators in a purely allegorical sense. They are of the opinion that the purpose of the Qur'an is merely to emphasize that the acceptance of God's lordship is innate in human nature. However, this was narrated in such a way as to suggest that the event did actually take place. We do not subscribe to this allegorical interpretation of the primordial covenant of man with God. For both the Qur'an and Hadith recount it not only as an actual happening, but also affirm that the covenant would be adduced as an argument against man on the Day of Judgement. There remains, therefore, no ground whatsoever to interpret the event in terms of mere allegory.

In our own view the event did take place. God caused all human beings whom He intended to create until the Last Day to come into existence. He endowed upon them life, consciousness and the faculty of speech, and brought home to them that there is no god or lord besides Him, and that Islam alone is the right way to serve Him.

If someone considers calling all human beings together in one assembly impossible, that shows, more than anything else the woeful paucity of his imagination. For if someone accepts that God has the power to create countless human beings in succession, there is no reason to suppose that He did not have the power to create them all at some given moment prior to the creation of the universe, or that He will be unable to resurrect them all at some given moment in the future. Again, it stands to reason that at a time when God wanted to designate man as His vicegerent on earth after endowing him with reason and understanding, He took from him an oath of allegiance. All this is so reasonable that the actual occurrence of the covenant should not cause any wonder. On the contrary, one should wonder if the event did not take place.

Arab News: Fear Inc. exposes the recession-proof Islamophobia industry

2011-10-10T07:09:00.002-07:00

This article on Arab News has very detailed learning on how organized several groups are to propagate Islamophobia. If only they would realize that they create more news about Islam and there are more people curious to learn more about Islam because of their propaganda. Many of the new Muslims begin with a negative attitude towards Islam, but when they read Quran they start believing that it is really the word of God. Not only this, many Muslims want to know the answers they are confronted with and in the process they understand their religion more deeply and have stronger conviction in their faith.

And say: The truth has come and falsehood has perished. Falsehood is always bound to perish!" Holy Quran (17:81)

The fall of economic systems, a writer saw it coming 35 years ago

2011-10-08T02:35:00.000-07:00

Even though American foreign policy has often been seen quixotic and their economic system needs overhauling, I believe the country has produced many intellectuals who questioned the society and American dream, and had the freedom to do the same. This is another story that due to fascination with heroism promoted through Hollywood and the dominance of business corporations in the media, which only serves as a tool to promote capitalism above everything else, these sane voices are lost in the glittery, melodious cacophony.

I was reading interview of William Gadis, writer of the National Book Award winning novel JR. In this interview, which was conducted in 1986, he discusses the theme of his novel JR, which he wrote in 1975. Thirty-five years ago he had questioned the ethics of the free-economy and capitalism which distorts the fundamental economic reality. It was later on in 90s when there was a wave of globalization through World Trade Organization, a plan for global economic dominance which led the western economies fall into their own trap, creating a world economic scenario when all the consumer markets were dominated by the cheap goods produced in Asia, turning the western countries in consumer markets, while the situation was opposite before globalization. Now, when there was recession in the world, most people questioned whether the banks were functioning fairly and how could their executives take bonuses of millions when millions of Americans were losing jobs. I am quoting some passages from the interview, which you can read on this link. In the following paragraph, he highlights the irony of stock value of the company against its performance. In fact, the forces behind rising prices of fuel, gold and commodities, and the value of currencies is not actual worth of the products, or their demand and supply balance, but their trading in the stock market.

“….I’d always been intrigued by the charade of the so-called free market, so-called free enterprise system, the stock market conceived of as what was called a “people’s capitalism” where you “owned a part of the company” and so forth. All of which is true; you own shares in a company, so you literally do own part of the assets. But if you own a hundred shares out of six or sixty or six hundred million, you’re not going to influence things very much. Also, the fact that people buy securities—the very word in this context is comic—not because they are excited by the product—often you don’t know what the company makes—but simply for profit: The stock looks good and you buy it. The moment it looks bad you sell it. What had actually happened in the company is not your concern. In many ways I thought . . . the childishness of all this. Because JR himself, which is why he is eleven years old, is motivated only by good-natured greed. JR was, in other words, to be a commentary on this free enterprise system running out of control. Looking around us now with a two-trillion-dollar federal deficit and billions of private debt and the banks, the farms, basic industry all in serious trouble, it seems to have been rather prophetic.”

Gaddis has also emphasized the difference of ignorance and stupidity. What is ironical in the present day world is that there is more knowledge but less wisdom. Gaddis has spoken about ‘corresponding loss of available intelligence in our own political establishment, especially as regards foreign policy and the economy—its collapse that is to say-‘ in 1986 and we have seen in past decade what tumults American foreign policy has led in the world in the past decade and what price the economic system has paid.

“After all, stupidity—and I don’t mean ignorance—is a central issue of our time. In my own case, going back to entropy, I’m most intrigued by its correlation as the loss of available energy in a closed system with stupidity as the corresponding loss of available intelligence in our own political establishment, especially as regards foreign policy and the economy—its collapse that is to say—where Wiener sees physics’ view of the world as it actually exists replaced by one as we observe it, a kind of one way communication.”

In the later paragraph, Gaddis has spoken about being the prisoner of its own myth. USA has been the prisoner of its myth that it has unshakable economic supremacy and unbeatable financial system.

“But I wanted them right, thinking if someone who is well-versed and familiar with the world of finance, with what goes on in the market and so forth, read JR . . . that even though it’s a quite improbable story, it is still possible. So that JR backs into the situation; he isn’t sure really what is happening. But in the beginning, what is very important, he is not viewed as one of these computer-wizard brilliant kids. He buys defaulted bond issues simply because they’re cheap—it says a thousand dollars up in the corner, but selling at seven cents on the dollar, he’s getting them for seventy dollars apiece. So it’s simple, cheerful greed. Then, when finally the corporation is thrown into bankruptcy, and they wipe out all of the stock, all the equities, he becomes the largest holder of preferred stock and takes control pretty much by default. This is not through his brilliance. But, of course, when he does end up with this textile mill, Eagle Mills, and reads in the paper about this brilliant financial person in New York who has taken over, he believes the myth that has been created around him. And, finally, by the end of the book, he is a prisoner of his own myth: he thinks that heis a brilliant financial operator. When it all collapses, he says, “Well, why do they blame me?”

In the following paragraph, Gaddis has mentions the religious zeal prevents people from empathising with the tragedy and loss other nations go through.

“And so, as McCandless says in the book, many of these people who feel that apocalypse is coming must make peace, not with God, but with Jesus, as the go-between, take Jesus as one’s savior so that when he does appear, and calls up the faithful, they all rise to heaven and are saved in this self-fulfilling prophecy. If a war did start in Africa or any place else with the nuclear bombs and so forth, they would feel, Ah! now the wrongdoers, the ones who did not accept Jesus, are going to get it, that we are going to be—of course they’re also going to be—incinerated.”

Sane voices have always been there, but the problem is that nobody cares to listen to them.

Music steals the rhythm of words

2011-10-06T03:03:00.000-07:00

Music is such an seemingly harmless culprit that it is very hard to argue against it. I have written in the past that it makes you addictive and you waste your precious time in listening to music, while in the same time you could have done dhikr and listened to something valuable, a lecture or a book. Not only this, it is hard to imagine a congregation of lewdness where music is not a party.

I just reflected that music not only steals your free time but it also competes against the rhythm of language and nature. Writers often talk about ‘inner ear’ which is the capacity to evaluate prose or poem on its flow, rhythm and texture. When we expose our senses to extremes, we lose the art of taking pleasure in subtleties.

Allah gave us ears to enjoy the music that comes with air, chirping of birds, rain, chatter of people and eloquence of a child. When we train our ears to harsh music from instruments, our ears become less sensitive other rhythms in life. Not only this, we also forget what rhythm of language is. Perhaps this is the reason that in the modern age, where music has become very prevalent, poetry is rarely appreciated. You can say any meaningless sentence and add music to it to make it work. In fact, the way lyrics are written is just opposite way of what it should be. The lyricists are given a tune and they are asked to write words which will fit the tune. Thus, the power of expression which is with words and the rhythm which is in poetry is already smothered. You can also see that music is competing with books. If people enjoy listening to songs from when they travel, they will not care to read books.

I used to be a music addict through my teenage and much part of adult life. Even now I listen to one or two songs once in several weeks. I experience that when I am away from it, I forget what pleasure it has. But, if I listen to a few songs over a couple of days, the addiction seems to return. The song will keep buzzing in my head and I cannot avoid humming the lyrics. Not only things, sometimes, out of nowhere, the songs of shirk, such as hymns for Hindu gods, keep buzzing in the head.

Maghrib prayer in Madina and discipline we must learn from prayers

2011-10-06T01:53:00.000-07:00

Some days ago a friend informed me about this video and said that he saluted the integrity of the imam that when he realized he was not with wudu, he had the courage to walk out of prayers, make wudu, and resume the prayers after that.

When my friend was discussing this video with me, I shared the opinion that Allah gave all kind of examples in the life of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) so that we can take lessons from them. Later on I found the following hadith which narrates that the Prophet (peace be upon himself) asked people asked people to wait after iqama was pronounced when he realized that he was in the state of junub. We are human being and we are likely make mistakes and forget things, but what makes us noble is that when we realize our mistakes, we bow before Allah and make efforts to correct them. Animals and birds do not have a sense of right or wrong, and satan persists in evil doing even though they realizes his mistakes.

Narrated Abu Huraira: Once iqama was pronounced and the people had straightened the rows, Allah's Apostle went forward (to lead the prayer) but he was Junub, so he said, "Remain in your places." And he went out, took a bath and returned with water trickling from his head. Then he led the prayer. ( Sahih Bukhari Book #11, Hadith #613)

This video also shows amazing discipline in the prayers that even if the imam is absent for some time, thousands of people waited patiently for him and remained in the same position. I often regret the fact that Muslims could not learn the discipline which Allah intended to teach them through prayers. The Prophet (peace be upon him) taught very actively to straighten the rows, which is a constant reminder of discipline. It sometime wish to capture the moment on video when the people are leaving the mosque in Makkah after compulsory prayers and there is call for the prayer of the dead, and the crowd stops immediately, turn their faces towards kaaba, and join the prayers. This change of movement of the big crowd barely takes 10 seconds. But, what is disappointing is that after the prayer again, the essence for discipline is forgotten. The same people barge in the buses holus bolus to reach the parking place before everyone else. They can’t wait patiently in a queue for their turn.

Narrated Anas bin Malik: The Prophet said, "Straighten your rows for I see you from behind my back." Anas added, "Everyone of us used to put his shoulder with the shoulder of his companion and his foot with the foot of his companion." (Sahih Bukhari Book #11, Hadith #692)

One form of discipline is to following the imam. The Prophet (peace be upon him) always advised us to following the imam. Thus, we follow the imam even when he makes a mistake and only remind him by saying ‘subhanallah.’ We do not say ‘you are wrong’ but praise Allah, because except for one mistake the imam has done, so many things he did had glory of Allah alone.

Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, "The imam is (appointed) to be followed. So do not differ from him, bow when he bows, and say, "Rabbana-lakal hamd" if he says "Sami'a-l-lahu Liman hamida"; and if he prostrates, prostrate (after him), and if he prays sitting, pray sitting all together, and straighten the rows for the prayer, as the straightening of the rows is amongst those things which make your prayer a correct and perfect one. (See Hadith No. 657). (Sahih Bukhari Book #11, Hadith #689)

According to a hadith, when we enter in the mosque and find congregational prayer has started, we should join it and do as the imam is doing. Some people do not join the prayer when the imam is in prostrating, but wait for him to get up to join the prayers.

How did the Prophet (peace be upon him) react to ignorant behavior

2011-10-05T06:47:00.000-07:00

Whenever the Prophet (peace be upon him) confronted any rude behavior, he did not lose his temper but judged the situation calmly. According to the following hadith, a bedouin came to the mosque and urinated in it. We learn from other narrations that he was not aware that the place was part of the mosque. The people who were present in the mosque wanted to stop and assault him because of his outrageous behavior. However, the Prophet (peace be upon him) stopped these people and let the bedouin finish urinating. After that he advised his companions to pour a bucketful of water at the place when the bedouin had urinated.

Narrated Anas bin Malik: A bedouin came and passed urine in one corner of the mosque. The people shouted at him but the Prophet stopped them till he finished urinating. The Prophet ordered them to spill a bucket of water over that place and they did so. (Sahih Bukhari Book #4, Hadith #221)

In another instance, a bedouin came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and ruffled him and pulled his cloak violently, but he was not only calm but also fulfilled the desire of the visitor by giving him a gift.

Narrated Anas bin Malik: Once I was walking with Allah's Apostle and he was wearing a Najram Burd with thick margin. A bedouin followed him and pulled his Burd so violently that I noticed the side of the shoulder of Allah's Apostle affected by the margin of the Burd because of that violent pull. The bedouin said, "O Muhammad! Give me some of Allah's wealth which is with you." Allah's Apostle turned and looked at him, and smiling, 'he ordered that he be given something. (Sahih Bukhari Book #72, Hadith #700)

In another instance, a bedouin came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and wanted to argue that the boy his wife had delivered was not his. The Prophet (peace be upon him) argued with him logically, without getting angry with his refusal to own his son.

Narrated Abu Huraira: A bedouin came to Allah's Apostle and said, "My wife has delivered a black boy, and I suspect that he is not my child." Allah's Apostle said to him, "Have you got camels?" The bedouin said, "Yes." The Prophet said, "What color are they?" The bedouin said, "They are red." The Prophet said, "Are any of them Grey?" He said, "There are Grey ones among them." The Prophet said, "Whence do you think this color came to them?" The bedouin said, "O Allah's Apostle! It resulted from hereditary disposition." The Prophet said, "And this (i.e., your child) has inherited his color from his ancestors." The Prophet did not allow him to deny his paternity of the child. (Sahih Bukhari Book #92, Hadith #417)

Making efforts to fulfil the rights of slaves of Allah

2011-10-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

We have limited energy and resources, thus, we need to be constantly aware as to how can we use them in the best manner to please Allah. When we have to make a choice between two good deeds, we have to see which of the deeds is urged more in Quran and Sunnah. For example, one of my friends experienced difficulty when he felt mercy to feed the cats outside his house but his neighbours did not like the cats as some of them scared the children. He felt guilty when the cats would run behind him, seeking food; but was also conscious of not doing something that his neighbours would abhor. He then reflected that the rights of the neighbours come as priority in Islam, while Allah takes the responsibility of feeding all the creatures. Thus, we worried only about the neighbours and ignored the cats.

I listened to the lectures of one of the sheikh who taunted on some people who live in Makkah for years as expatriates and do not visit their family back home. They are proud of performing so many Umrah and Hajj, while their family need their presence in their home countries. The sheikh said that Allah did not command to perform multiple Hajj or Umrah, but He did command to fulfil the rights of the family, thus a person should give that responsibility a priority, rather than being smug about the seemingly great worship of Haj and Umrah. If a man sacrifices opportunity for Haj and Umra because he has to take care of slaves of Allah, will Allah, who is the most just, not to reward him in greater measure for his sacrifice?

Islamic education or mosques

2011-09-27T03:33:00.000-07:00

If a question arises whether Muslims should invest more in building mosques or in Islamic education, we need to look at the example of the Prophet (peace be upon him) because Allah made him the best example for us to follow.

[033:021] Indeed in the Messenger of Allâh (Muhammad [sal-Allâhu 'alayhi wa sallam]) you have a good example to follow, for him who hopes for (the Meeting with) Allâh and the Last Day, and remembers Allâh much.

When the Prophet (peace be upon him) was first inspired by divine revelations, the first thing he did was to share the message he had been taught by Jibraeel (peace be upon him) that there is only One God, Allah, and he, Mohammed, is His messenger. He shared this knowledge with his trusted people and then extended it to more people in Makkah. He did not begin with the idea of building a mosque, but started to bring up people who will worship Allah, whether they have a mosque available or not. Thus, the first mosque which was built by Muslims was in Quba, when the Prophet (peace be upon him) had migrated to Madina, which was in 622, 12 years after the Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) was given the revelation of Oneness of God and final word and way of life from God.

In general, Muslims are very eager to build and decorate mosques because building a mosque is relatively easier task than bringing up generations of Muslims who would live their lives according to the Islam. Several decades ago, the visionary poet Iqbal said:

Masjid to bana di shab bhar mein eeman ki hararat walon ne

Man apna purana paapi hai, barson se namazi ban na saka

Translation:

Those, who had the zeal of belief, constructed the mosque in a night

My heart is a long time sinner; in years, I could not be of those who pray

Considering bank interest to be halaal

2011-09-21T05:06:00.000-07:00

During my recent visit to India, I had three instances when I was arguing to a Muslim that even the bank interest is prohibited in Islam. Some years ago two of my Haji guests argued passionately that the interest from the bank is not haraam because you are not exploiting a poor person. They say that Islam prohibits usury because it used to be a system through which a rich man would exploit the misery of a poor man, thus, a Muslim should not lend money on interest. However, a bank is not giving loan to a poor man, it is giving you interest because it is making money from your deposits, which is why it is not haraam.

I argue that the money the bank is paying to its customers in the form of interests is earned from interest. The bank gives the customer lower interest on the deposits and takes higher interests on the loans. This is how it makes money. As far as exploitation of the poor is concerned, let me cite an example and we can see whether the banking system of loans exploits someone in misery or not. Let us imagine that a man took loan and mortgaged his home to the bank. He had a wife and young children. The man invested the amount in business and before he could earn it back, he died. Do you think the bank will have mercy on the widow and orphans and spare them the house? No way. The bank will throw them out of the house to take its money back. A relative of mine gave a right example that the bank even takes the money back from intestines. Thus, how can we say that this system doesn’t exploit anyone. Not only this, in India, some banks started a practice of hiring hooligans to beat up the people who were not paying back loan instalments. This practice was stopped by the interference of legal machinery.

This is one such sin for which Allah mentions in Quran that there will be war from Allah and His Messenger on the sinners. Can we afford to take such a sin lightly?

002.278] O you who believe! Be afraid of Allâh and give up what remains (due to you) from Ribâ (from now onward), if you are (really) believers.
[002.279] And if you do not do it, then take a notice of war from Allâh and His Messenger but if you repent, you shall have your capital sums. Deal not unjustly (by asking more than your capital sums), and you shall not be dealt with unjustly (by receiving less than your capital sums).

PS: Some of my friends had a concern that they have to invest in insurance policies to save income tax and this way they can save some money on monthly basis while it is spent otherwise. In this case, they can keep the originally invested amount, and they should give away the amount earned to someone needy. They will not get the rewards of charity for this donation, but might get duaa from the person who was helped.

It doesn’t matter what triggers conversion to Islam

2011-08-10T05:30:00.000-07:00

Belief can follow a deeper study of Islam or even an impulse. The moment someone says that he believed in Oneness of God and Mohammad being the messenger of God, he is a Muslim. The uncle of the Prophet Hamza (may Allah be pleased with him) embraced Islam when was outraged by the abuse of Abu Jahl to the Prophet (peace be upon him)

Hamza converted to Islam due after some actions of Amr ibn Hishām, known for his hostility against the Muslims. Hamza, Muhammad's uncle, had returned to the city of Mecca after a hunting trip in the desert. Upon returning, he soon learned that Abu Jahl (an avowed enemy of Islam) had heaped abuse and insults upon Muhammad, who had not responded and walked away from where he had sat in the Haram. Outraged, Hamza dashed to the Kaaba, where Abu Jahl sat with other leaders of Mecca, and began to beat him with his bow while shouting "Are you going to insult him now, now that I am of his religion and vouch for what he vouches for? Hit me if you can!" As the companions of Abu Jahl approached Hamza in an attempt to assault him, Abu Jahl feebily cried out from the ground "Leave Abu Umarah, for indeed I insulted his nephew deeply." And he cowered at the feet of Hamza, while his friends could not meet Hamza's eyes. As he departed, he kicked sand back at the men, leaving all shocked at what Hamza had just said, none more so than Hamza himself. After that incident, Hamza declared Islam, and made a covenant to help Muhammad and to die in the cause of Islam.

The mismatch of Islam and Muslims today

2011-08-08T05:52:00.001-07:00

There are more ways in which Islam is different than other religions than emphasis on absolute monotheism. Islamic system defines rights of the people to be within the domain of religion and lays the foundation of entire legal systems through which people can know what are the rights of their families and society. Quran and hadith outlines the rights of wives, orphans, parents, inheritance, neighbours, travellers, prisoners of wars, business transactions and partnerships, seller and buyer, ruler and ruled and so on. The mismatch is that in most Muslims societies the talk of right is seldom encouraged. Among Muslims of India and Pakistan, most daughters do not get inheritance from their father’s property, on the contrary the dowry system makes daughters unwelcome and creates excessive burden on parents who have multiple daughters and little source of income. When people go to Makkah and want to drink zamzam or sit in a bus, they do not think about rights of others who have been there before, thus wait patiently in a queue, but want to push their way through. Most Muslim men might remember their right to have up to four wives, but do not know what are the rights of wives. It doesn’t seem strange when some men marry multiple women in different countries, thus depriving them of their rights, or spending their entire life with one wife, while supporting another with just financial assistance. In most Middle-East countries expatriate workers and women do not get the freedom or fairness which Islam ensures to women and employees.

The only way Muslims can become good example of ummat-ul-wasat is by recognizing and respecting the rights of others. When we set good example of right of neighbours, I cannot imagine if Muslim neighbourhoods can be called dirty or hostile. If Muslim societies realise that by using unethical means or business or promoting corruption, they are depriving other people of their rights to get a fair deal, they will set good examples of business ethics.

Why do some Saudis hate expatriates?

2011-08-08T04:33:00.000-07:00

Arab News has published article of Mazen Al-Sudairy titled ‘Why do some Saudis hate expatriates?’ This article was originally published in Al-Riyadh and it has drawn lots of crticism on Arab News website because most of the readers are expatriates. It is not a news for any expatriate, however, to see such attitudes in print in kind of strange. The writer has very shallow understanding as he goes on comparing the expatriates in UK, USA or any other Western country and argues how the expatriates in those countries are working hard to contribute to the development of the country. The argument is fundamentally flawed because most Western countries attract qualified immigrants and offer them all the opportunities, as well as equality before law, to reach their potential. But, in Saudi Arabia people are classified according to their professions, most of which are bogus, and enterprenuership is not encouraged at all which is the first step for individual or national development. Why should an expatriate work hard when he knows that when he finds another employer to give him deserving renumeration, his current employer will not allow him to change jobs. Thus, the entire mindset becomes negative and all he cares is to keep his present job and deliver on it so well that his input will be valued, because without professional committment to the work, he will be fired. Not only this, he also lives with irony that he has to work hard while many other workers can survive by being late or working lazily because they are locals and the company can be in trouble if it fires them. There are lots of funny stories, I do not intend to relate them all, but I cannot help but write one in which a company hired a Saudi to sit on the reception desk and the actual receptionist, an expatriate, was sent in the backroom. This guy used to receive calls in the backroom, while as a showpiece the Saudi employee sat at the reception.

I intended to write this post from the religious perspective because it is Ramdan and this blog is about belief in the unseen. I hope somebody will understand the religious arguement because apparently mosques are always full of people praying five times a day in Saudi Arabia. I have two arguements:

1. Allah mentions in several verses in Quran that He provides for all the creatures. Allah says in Quran: [Hud 11:6 There is no moving creature on earth but its sustenance dependeth on Allah. He knoweth the time and place of its definite abode and its temporary deposit: All is in a clear Record.]

Thus, if you hate somebody because he is getting provision (rizq) in your land, you actually hate the decision of Allah to provide His slaves the rizq as He wishes. When you threaten somebody to take away his rizq, you actually believe that you have power to do so, while no man has power to restrict or provide rizq to another. We can only become a source, and it is better if we become source of somebody getting rizq, rather than somebody losing his rizq. It will anyway be Allah’s decision to provide or constrain any slave’s rizq, but He will reward or punish us because of our intention and efforts.

2. According to a hadith, thankfullness to Allah is not complete unless one is thankfull to His slaves. Thus, if the contribution of expatriates as cleaners, engineerings, drivers, plumbers, electricians, hair dressers, labourers in building roads, bridges and tall building, grocery stores and cafeteria owners, tenants etc ignored and they are only though to be a trouble, it is thanklessness. The Prophet (sas) said: "Inna ashkaru an-naasi lillahi tabaaraka wa ta'aala ashkaruhum lin-naasi."

"The most grateful people to Allah Blessed and High are the most thankful of them to others." Ahmad

"Laa yashkuru Allaha man laa yashkuru an-naasi."
"Those who do not thank people do not thank Allah." Abu Daud & others

Previously on thankfulness

Saudi Arabia donates SR. 225 million to African countries to help fight draught

2011-08-01T04:14:00.000-07:00

It is an commendable effort that Saudi government has donated SR 225 million in aid to Horn of Africa countries that have been hit by massive draught. As Allah created man to be khalifa on the earth, the responsibility of slaves of Allah is to help other human beings wherever they are in need, in all forms possible. Allah’s deen cannot be limited to his ritual worship alone, but is to extend service to His creation, which can be real show of thankfulness on the part of the slave and test of the belief that the bounties are from Allah mean to be spent on the slaves of Allah.

Allah says in Quran:

(36:47) And when they are told, "spend ye of (the bounties) with which Allah has provided you," the Unbelievers say to those who believe: "Shall we then feed those whom, if Allah had so willed, He would have fed, (Himself)?- Ye are in nothing but manifest error."

(2:177) True piety does not consist in turning your faces towards the east or the west - but truly pious is he who believes in God, and the Last Day; and the angels, and revelation, and the prophets; and spends his substance - however much he himself may cherish - it - upon his near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and the beggars, and for the freeing of human beings from bondage; and is constant in prayer, and renders the purifying dues; and [truly pious are] they who keep their promises whenever they promise, and are patient in misfortune and hardship and in time of peril: it is they that have proved themselves true, and it is they, they who are conscious of God.

In the light of above verses, I strongly believe that the oil wealth given to Muslim countries must be used to provide food wherever people die of hunger.

This link has the news in detail

Both Adam (peace be upon him) and Iblis failed, so what is the difference?

2011-08-01T03:45:00.000-07:00

When Allah created Adam (peace be upon him) and commanded the angels and all other creatures who were present to prostrate before Adam, Iblis, who was the leader of a revolting party of jinn, refused to obey Allah. His excuse what that he being superior to Adam must not be asked to prostrate before an inferior creature. Allah says in Quran:

And (remember) when We said to the angels: "Prostrate yourselves to Adam." They prostrated themselves except Iblîs (Satan). He said: "Shall I prostrate myself to one whom You created from clay?"

Iblîs (Satan) said: "See this one whom You have honoured above me, if You give me respite (keep me alive) to the Day of Resurrection, I will surely seize and mislead his offspring (by sending them astray) all but a few!"
(17:61-62)

After this, Adam and his wife were permission to live in Paradise and were prohibited to eat from a certain tree. However, Iblish enticed them to eat from it, thus disobey Allah. In this case, Adam too failed as he was asked not to eat from the tree but could not adhere to this command. Allah says in Quran:

And We said: "O Adam! Dwell you and your wife in Paradise and eat both of you freely with pleasure and delight, of things therein as wherever you will, but come not near this tree or you both will be of the Zâlimûn (wrong doers)."

Then the Shaitân (Satan) made them slip therefrom (Paradise), and got them out from that in which they were. We said: "Get you down, all, with enmity between yourselves. On earth will be a dwelling place for you and an enjoyment for a time."

Then Adam received from his Lord Words. And his Lord pardoned him (accepted his repentance). Verily, He is the One Who forgives (accepts repentance), the Most Merciful. [2.35-37]

What is the difference in the way the two failed? Adam in the first place accepted the command of Allah. He did not ask why he is being deprived from a certain tree and what is the secret of the tree or how can he be harmed from that tree. He and his wife accepted the gift of paradise and promised to obey to the command. However, satan, Iblis, prompted them to break this command and they did. When Adam wronged, he felt guilty and sought forgiveness for his sin. He did not persist in the sin. As is the nature of his Creator, who showers mercy to those who repent, he was taught words to seek forgiveness and was asked to adopt earth as a dwelling place, which was not punishment but a place destined and a ‘short enjoyment.’

Contrary to the attitude of Adam, Iblis persisted in his rebellion. He did not accept the command of his Creator as it was given to him. He did not feel ashamed or guilt, and even argued that he was justified in his rebellion. Not only this, he persisted in proving that man is an inferior creation and can break the command of his Lord with slight prompting. He sought to persist in this deception until the day of the judgement which was given to him by Allah:

Iblîs (Satan) said: "See this one whom You have honoured above me, if You give me respite (keep me alive) to the Day of Resurrection, I will surely seize and mislead his offspring (by sending them astray) all but a few!"
(17:62)

And, what did Allah give to mankind as a counter balance to the whispering? The first thing was to make man aware about the traps of satan. As, Allah says:

O mankind! Eat of that which is lawful and good on the earth, and follow not the footsteps of Shaitân (Satan). Verily, he is to you an open enemy.

He [Shaitân (Satan)] commands you only what is evil and Fahshâ (sinful), and that you should say against Allâh what you know not.

[2.168-169]

Satan makes us forget what lawful blessings are already available to us and increase our desire and greed for what is prohibited. The second counter balance from Allah is His unlimited forgiveness. He forgives all sins when a slave sincerely repents it. See, how wonderful is the balance of Allah. Satan makes so many efforts to make a person fall in sin again and again, and the man seeks forgiveness once and becomes close to Allah once again as he was before. Allah says in Quran:

Satan threatens you with the prospect of poverty and bids you to be niggardly, whereas God promises you His forgiveness and bounty; and God is infinite, all-knowing,
(Al-Baqarah 2.268)

Previous posts on forgiveness

Previous posts on satan:

New Muslims are growing in UK

2011-07-21T02:47:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is interesting to read the perspective of a new Muslim about Islam because they often include very simple and logical thinking behind it. This news item on Independent newspaper of UK has detailed how there are more conversions to Islam in the country. The news article has also included perspectives of some new Muslims and they have interesting perspective on Islam and transition of life to submission to the Last Message.

The story of a British actress who converted to Islam is also fascinating. It can be read on this link

I was talking to a Christian and told him that the core belief of Islam is about oneness of God. He said, ‘Yes, God is one, but we also believe that he has three manifestations, or three images as you might call it.’ I asked, ‘But, why would God have three manifestations or images, if he can do everything by Himself?’ He did not have an answer to it.

The following video of Yusuf Estes also tells the story of his conversion to Islam. He starts by telling how he found the belief of trinity to be illogical. He is an impressive speaker, we need more trained speakers like him, who talk on a serious issue without losing their sense of humour. They are in multiple parts. I have seen it on TV and it is a must see for someone interested in Islamic message.

Islamic monotheism is reject of any intermediary between man and God

2011-07-12T02:12:00.000-07:00

Tawheed or Islamic monotheism is not just belief in Allah as the sovereign, supreme authority, creator and preserver of the universe, but also rejection of any god or man who claims to intercede between man and God. Even satan doesn’t reject the authority of Allah as Supremely Powerful and deserving to worship. As per Islamic teaching, satan doesn’t call people to worship himself, as is the case in the beliefs of some other religions, but they tries to deviate people from the worship of Allah alone and reject His commands. Allah has put a basic guidance in the human heart because of which even the disbelievers cannot reject existence of a supreme power who is above everything, above all wants and destructions. But, they think such supreme God is so powerful that they need intermediaries to connect with Him. It makes sense in worldly parameters because one can hardly imagine approaching a worldly king without an intermediary. But, the King of earths and heavens can be approached directly. This is not only an alternative route, but this is the only course that the King demands to be followed. When we seek intermediaries, we offend Him because we insult His power to know all and help anyone who calls upon Him.

Allah mentions in the following verses that the polytheists of Makkah used to say that they worship the idols so that they can get close to Allah. Ironically, even today some people who visit the graves of saints claim that Allah is the supremely powerful but the saint can help forward their request to Allah.

[039:003] Surely, the religion (i.e. the worship and the obedience) is for Allâh only. And those who take Auliyâ' (protectors, helpers, lords, gods) besides Him (say): "We worship them only that they may bring us near to Allâh." Verily, Allâh will judge between them concerning that wherein they differ. Truly, Allâh guides not him who is a liar, and a disbeliever.

[010:018] And they worship besides Allâh things that harm them not, nor profit them, and they say: "These are our intercessors with Allâh." Say: "Do you inform Allâh of that which He knows not in the heavens and on the earth?" Glorified and Exalted is He above all that which they associate as partners (with Him)!

Creation of the Prophet (peace be upon him) from light, true or false?

2011-07-12T00:56:00.001-07:00

The love for the Prophet (peace be upon him) is expected from all Muslims, however, some sections of Muslims take it to such extend that they start saying the things which are contrary to the Quran and Sunnah. I heard many elderly people in India speaking passionately that the Prophet (peace be upon him) was created from light and Allah created the universe only for the Prophet (peace be upon him). Such beliefs spread because people pass on learning to one another without verifying it themselves. I saw an excellent website today which has a collection of very useful articles and fatwas. These articles refute that the hadith used to refer such beliefs are not sahih, and the opinion of scholars is that these beliefs are wrong. You can read them in details on the following links:

Creation of the universe for the Prophet (peace be upon him)?

Creation of the Prophet (peace be upon him) from light?

Practicality and flexibility in Islam

2011-07-12T00:29:00.000-07:00

We learn from the following hadith that the Prophet (peace be upon him) had advised people leading prayers to keep the prayers short so that the weak and busy people can pray peacefully.

Narrated 'Umar bin Al-Khattab: Narrated Abu Mas'ud Al-Ansari: Once a man said to Allah's Apostle "O Allah's Apostle! I may not attend the (compulsory congregational) prayer because so and so (the Imam) prolongs the prayer when he leads us for it. The narrator added: "I never saw the Prophet more furious in giving advice than he was on that day. The Prophet said, "O people! Some of you make others dislike good deeds (the prayers). So whoever leads the people in prayer should shorten it because among them there are the sick the weak and the needy (having some jobs to do)." Shahih Bukhari (1:03:090)

The same way, we are advised that when food is served, we should eat first and then offer prayers. This is also likely to bring more patience and focus in the prayers.

As it happens in many things we love, we are likely to indulge in too much that we forget the convenience of others. If such an advice had not been there from the Prophet (peace be upon him), people who are passionate about religion would go on prolonging the Quran’s recitation hoping that they are getting more rewards and also the people who are praying behind them. However, the Prophet (peace be upon him) advised the method of congregational prayers to suit all the people, while Muslims can make their voluntary prayers as long as they want, provided they do not deprive themselves of rest. There are various hadith in this regard; I am quoting a few here.

Anas said, "The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, entered the mosque and there was a rope hanging between two pillars. He asked, 'What is this rope?' They replied, 'The rope belongs to Zaynab. When she is tired, she hangs on to it.' The Prophet said, 'No ¬ remove it. You should pray as long as you have the energy for it. When you are tired, you should sit down.'" [Agreed upon]

'A'isha reported that that once the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, came when a woman was with her. He asked, "Who is this?" She replied, "So-and-so," and told him about the amount she prayed. He said, "Stop! You must only do what you are able. By Allah, Allah does not grow weary [of giving rewards] as you grow weary, and the deen He likes best is the one in which there is constancy." [Agreed upon]

We have been given the convenience to shorten the prayers while travelling and postpone fasting when sick or travelling. The shortening of the prayer was initially during the times of war, and when there was time of peace, people asked the Prophet (peace be upon him) about shortening of the prayer during travel when there is no war. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "It is a gift from Allah which he has bestowed upon you; so you should accept it" (Muslim).

Other posts on similar topic

Further reading on moderation in worship

When you do not know what to do, recite durood

2011-06-30T04:36:00.000-07:00

I went to a colleague and found him very tense. I asked him, ‘You are going on vacation, why are you sad? You should be happy.’ He said, ‘I have too much work to finish before I go on vacation, I don’t what to do?’ He repeated his plight, as we often do when we are too oppressed. When he said for the second time, I don’t know what to do,’ I replied, ‘Recite durood.’ He did not say a word after that and got busy with work. His lips got busy with dhikr.

I did not realise the simplicity and preciseness of my response when I said it. But, what an amazing solution it is when you do not know what to do! You become busy with durood, and Allah is sending peace and blessing on you and forgiving your sins. When I have seemingly tough time and I am indulged in dhikr, I ask myself, How can it be a bad time when I am busy in remembering Allah. It can only be a good time.

Previously on durood

Durood- a duaa that is spontaneously answered

Virtue of sending Peace and Blessings on the Prophet (durood)

When law comes between husband and wife

2011-06-30T04:28:00.000-07:00

Islam is simplicity. It makes marriage such a simple affair that you just need witnesses and the agreement of the man and woman to get married. Yes, there are some conditions, such as a man cannot marry two sisters at the same time, or a man cannot marry a polytheist woman, and a woman cannot marry a non-believer. These conditions are to ensure that the most important relation people forge is free from noise of difference in religious beliefs and envy of close relations among women.

Allah says in Quran:

(2:223) Your wives are as a tilth unto you; so approach your tilth when or how ye will; but do some good act for your souls beforehand; and fear Allah. And know that ye are to meet Him (in the Hereafter), and give (these) good tidings to those who believe.

Sometimes I wonder what a pity it is that some of the religious people from other religions deprive themselves from the best of the blessing in this world. Why would God create a blessing and bar you from it?

However, when a government starts barring people from the blessing, it becomes a curious affair. I have a colleague who got married nearly two months ago. His wife is in his home country and he cannot get her to come to Saudi Arabia because his profession in Iqama is of labour. A labour doesn’t deserve a wife, and if he has one, he should live without her in Saudi Arabia. This will ensure more peace in his life and that of his wife. And, they two will be better Muslims. This is what such regulations seem to imply. Islam doesn’t put a condition of profession to keep a wife, so why should the law in a Muslim country make this affair complicated.

I read a news story in the Arab News yesterday that the government has introduced new laws to regulate marriages of Saudis. It was anyway a harrowing experience for a Saudi, especially women, to marry a non-Saudi. The new regulation says that they will have less difficulty in marrying a GCC national, but if they chose to marry someone outside GCC, the matter will go to so many committees that either you give up the hope or be prepared to prove your love and commitment to the person by waiting for years and years with the hope that one day you will be married. How terrible that people should be made to wait for marriage by the government! That too, when the country wishes to set an example of governance based on Shariah.

A friend of mine told me a story of his friend who waited for eight years to marry a woman he loved because their family members in India would not allow the marriage because of caste differences. Somehow he was able to marry the girl after showing the patience for eight years which alone can take him to jannah. When family members do this, we say it is ignorance, but when law does this, what should we call it. But, Alhamdulillah, I am proud of Islam because it makes the affairs simple. It’s a different story if Islamic laws are enforced or not in a country.

What to do when you have sinned

2011-06-22T07:20:00.000-07:00

The doors for repentance are always open until death:

Allah says:

[003:135] And those who, when they have committed Fâhishah (great sins as illegal sexual intercourse) or wronged themselves with evil, remember Allâh and ask forgiveness for their sins; – and none can forgive sins but Allâh – and do not persist in what (wrong) they have done, while they know.

Allah forgives even repeated sins:

Islam is based on optimism and positive thinking. Sometimes when a Muslim has sinned, he feels so guilty that he doesn’t have any hope on his forgiveness. The guilt is sign of strong faith (eeman) but not having hope in forgiveness is lack of knowledge. There is no sin which Allah will not forgive when we seek repentance with a true heart. He doesn’t need a sacrifice from us, He just wants us to feel it from heart that whatever we did was wrong, and it should not be repeated. However, it doesn’t mean that when the sinner repeats the sin, he will not be forgiven again. There is limit to the mercy of human beings, but Allah’s mercy has no limits. Allah forgives sins even after the sinner repeats his sins. However, the chances are very high that a sinner who seeks repentance for his sins would eventually give up sins, rather than the one who does not. It is like someone who likes to take a shower whenever he becomes dirty, as compared to the one who defers it until he comes very dirty. The person who frequently takes shower will hate dirt more, while the person who defers it will get used to it, and will not feel bad about it. Repentance cleans up conscience the way a shower cleans up the body. We learn from hadith that when we make wudu and pray five times a day, Allah forgives the sins committed between these times. If a person is conscious of the sins, and he reflects back at each time of the prayer on his small and big sins, he would surely have a stronger taqwa and he would hate even small sins.

‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, “There is no Muslim man who attends a prescribed prayer and does wudu’ for it well and is humble in it and in its bowing, without that being expiation for the sins before it as long as he did not commit any major sin. This will always apply.” [Muslim]

Another hadith, which relates to cleansing of soul through five times of the day is mentioned below: Abu Hurayra said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, ‘What do you think would happen if there was a river by someone’s door in which he washed five times every day? Do you think that any dirt would remain on him?’ They said, ‘Not a scrap of dirt would remain on him.’ He said, ‘That is a metaphor of the five prayers by which Allah wipes out wrong actions.’” [Agreed upon]

I am copying below hadith Qudsi in this context of repeated sins: On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (PBUH), from among the things he reports from his Lord (mighty and sublime be He), is that he said:

A servant [of Allah's] committed a sin and said: O Allah, forgive me my sin. And He (glorified and exalted be He) said: My servant has committed a sin and has known that he has a Lord who forgives sins and punishes for them. Then he sinned again and said: O Lord, forgive me my sin. And He (glorified and exalted be He) said: My servant has committed a sin and has known that he has a Lord who forgives sins and punishes for them. Then he sinned again and said: O Lord, forgive me my sin. And He (glorified and exalted be He) said: My servant has committed a sin and has known that he has a Lord who forgives sins and punishes for sins. Do what you wish, for I have forgiven you.

It was related by Muslim (also by al-Bukhari).

Allah loves that people fear their sins and hate the punishment of the same:

Sometimes a sinner feels so bad about himself that He doesn’t have any hope in the mercy of Allah. He feels that Allah will not forgive his sins. These are promptings of shaytan who wants to make him so guilt that after a while he will start ignoring the guilt out of self-defence. The following hadith mentions that Allah forgives even the biggest of the sinners. His forgiveness is the Hereafter. If the sinner has violated anybody’s right in this world, he might have to go through the punishment as per the worldly courts.

On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said that the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said: A man sinned greatly against himself, and when death came to him he charged his sons, saying: When I have died, burn me, then crush me and scatter [my ashes] into the sea, for, by Allah, if my Lord takes possession of me, He will punish me in a manner in which He has punished no one [else]. So they did that to him. Then He said to the earth: Produce what you have taken-and there he was! And He said to him: What induced you to do what you did? He said: Being afraid of You, O my Lord (or he said: Being frightened of You) and because of that He forgave him.

It was related by Muslim (also by al-Bukhari, an-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah).

What to do when you have sinned?

Ibn Mas'ud reported that a man received a kiss from a woman and went to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and told him about it. Allah sent down, "Establish the prayer at the two ends of the day and in the first part of the night. Good actions eradicate bad actions." (11:114) The man said, "Messenger of Allah, is this for me?" He said, "It is for every single one of my community." [Agreed upon]

I read in Hisnul-Muslim book that if a person has sinned, he should pray two rakah prayers and make this duaa’ Astagh firullah allazi la ilaha illa huwa al hayyul qayyum wa atoobu ilaihi (‘I seek Allaah’s forgiveness, besides whom, none has the right to be worshipped except He, The Ever Living, The Self-Subsisting and Supporter of all, and I turn to Him in repentance.’)

The book quotes: Allaah would forgive him even if he was one who fled during the advance of an army.

This book has only references from sahih hadith, so I trust this duaa is also from Sahih hadith, but at present I could not find the reference to it.

The following verse from Quran is also a beautiful duaa to seek forgiveness:

[007:023] They said: "Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves. If You forgive us not, and bestow not upon us Your Mercy, we shall certainly be of the losers."

Astaghfirulla is anyway the best duaa, and I have written several posts on it before. One should continue to recite astaghfirullah for blessing, mercy, favours and provision.

Previous posts on seeking forgiveness

The common man dies of poverty in India, while the gods enjoy riches

2011-06-13T23:41:00.000-07:00

A beggar died outside Ajmer shrine with Rs. 2 lakh (approximately 5000 dollars) in his pocket. When police searched for his relatives, nearly half a dozen beggars to claim his body but no one could give a proof of the identity. Most people told that the beggar had come to Ajmer 3 years ago, and had no friends.

Probably someone will come up with an idea of a beggar bank outside shrines in India and Pakistan and these banks can offer deposits of black money, like Swiss banks. One can imagine that if a beggar outside the shrine is so rich, how much money will be pouring in the shrine where they demand the visitors to be generous. One of my friends visited the Ajmer shrine and bowed his head in front of the grave of Khwaja, and a person from the caretakers held his head down asking him to donate more money. He somehow escaped from his grip. They have a deg ceremony in which they cook food in a deg, a gigantic cooking pot, and distribute it among poor. Before the cook the food, devotes throw money and jewellery in the empty pot out of generosity. Someone told me that there are women acting as agents around the deg who throw their jewellery and thus prompting the by standing women to throw theirs, leaving their husbands poor.

I have a conjecture, and I am very confident of its truth. If all the wealth donated by devotees in the religious places, including temples and Muslims shrines of saints in India, was to be collected and distributed among the poor, no person in India will sleep hungry. There are so many temples in India which have statues of gods made of pure gold. Why does God need gold? After you craft him in gold, you need to put security personnel and camera to protect the golden god. How ironical? Baba Ramdev, who is a yoga guru and leading a campaign against corruption, just made his assets public and they were only 1100 crores (enough money to feed 30,000 families for 10 years given the cheap cost of food in India). It is a national shame that such black money is deposited in religious institutions and foreign banks, while thousands of farmers commit suicide every years due to debts or crop failure.

Reflection of children on Allah

2011-06-04T01:52:00.000-07:00

Some months ago I was I was driving with my family when we stopped at a traffic signal. As usual there were several beggars who went knocking from car to car. My five year old daughter asked, ‘Why did Allah create poor people?’ This question was to the point and very specific. I replied, ‘He created poor people so that he can test their patience and thankfulness in tough times. He created rich people so that he can test whether the rich help the poor or not.’

Yesterday, she asked, ‘Why do we offer five times prayers?’ I replied, ‘Because, Allah created us only to worship him. This is why we worship him.’ Her mother replied, ‘So that we can talk to Allah five times in a day, and ask him for what we need.’ My daughter said, ‘If I tell Allah ‘I love you’ will it not be sufficient. Why should I offer five times prayers.’ Her mother replied it more appropriately. She said, ‘If baba tell you I love you, but when you ask him to go out so that you can have fun, he says, ‘Sorry, I am busy,’ will you accept it? If we say to someone I love you, we also have to put efforts to prove that we really love the person. This is why merely saying I love you to Allah is not enough.’

Here is an impressive Saudi woman talking

2011-06-03T23:26:00.000-07:00

When I read news about Manal Al-Sharif’s arrest for driving a car as a protest against the ban on women to drive in Saudi Arabia I did not pay much attention. But, now in this news I saw her observations on the plight of maids who are in prison even after completing their jail term because they could not settle their debts or did not have money to pay for their air tickets to back home. These are not mere sympathetic observations, but a report on specific cases citing how much money they need, which is a small amount in most cases. Recently I read news of a Saudi getting aid of half a million as blood money to spare him from beheading as a punishment for murdering his maid. This kind of show of generosity is not rare on part of Saudis, however, it will be real good example if their generosity can give freedom to these maids as well.

When ignorant become champions of sharia

2011-06-02T02:41:00.000-07:00

A colleague of mine shared news that he read on Yahoo regarding a Muslim girl who was stoned to death in Ukraine. The perpetrators, who are three youth and now missing, seem to have claimed that it was a punishment as per Shariaa law for participating in a beauty contest. It is tragic when such frenzied people become champions of shariah and try to pass out punishments on their own. It is not unique to Muslims, such crimes happens wherever ignorance dominates, but the sad thing is that when Muslims do it they support their crime and claim that it is sanctioned in sharia. Is shariah kind of lose law and gives everyone a right to punish whoever he thinks to be guilty of a crime? No. Sharia is not a guideline, it is body of law to decide matters in courts and it evolves, with approval from religious scholars, according to the needs of the society. I showed my colleague two news stories from today’s Times of India related to honour killing and both were cases of Hindus. There are estimated more than 1000 honour killings in India every year, and most of them are among Hindus. The difference is that when Hindus do it out of ignorance, they do not cite Geeta or Ramayana as a justification of what they did, not do they make Hinduism a victim because of their acts.

The same mentality is behind the groups that train people for terrorist strikes. In Pakistan, there have been 300 bomb blasts this year, and they have become so common that death of two or five people in a blast is not even news. These people are also becoming champions of shariah and quote Quran for their acts. They create fasaad in the name of jihad because if people go on killing one another at their whims, how can there be an order and peace in the society? Quran warns in strict terms not to spread corruption on earth (fasaad).

During the times of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and the rightly guided caliphs the cases were heard in courts and the punishment was based on the evidence against the indicted person. For a case of adultery, there have to be four witnesses to prove the guilt. Not only this, in the absence of an evidence, even a husband cannot accuse his wife of being immoral and can be punished by the court if he does do. On a certain occasion, the Caliph `Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) witnessed a man and a woman committing adultery, so he assembled the people around him and said : "How should the Caliph of the Muslims act when he witnesses the sin of adultery being committed ?" Ali ben Abu Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) replied : "There must be four witnesses to the sin of adultery and if he cannot present these witnesses and he accuses the man and woman of adultery, he must be punished for the sin of slander without sufficient evidence, as any other person would be punished in a similar situation".`Ali ben Abu Talib then recited the following Quranic verse: "And those who launch a charge against chaste women and produce not four witnesses (to support their allegations), - flog them with eighty stripes; and reject their evidence ever after ; for such men are wicked transgressors"

When a mob killed the third Caliph Uthman ibn Affan, the subsequent Caliph Ali ibn Talib (may Allah be pleased with them) refused to punish the perpetrators merely on accusations and demanded proofs against them. If the killers of a rightly guided caliph, who was also son-in-law of the Prophet (peace be upon him) cannot be punished without proof, how can people take law in their hands for crimes that affect them personally? The deadly division of sunni and shia started in the years following this incident because fanatics formed parties between us and them, and carried out assassinations and attacks. Both the killers and the killed were Muslims and they claimed to do so because in the true spirit of Islam. If people do not resort to law and courts, this is where vengeance leads to.

This link has useful information regarding Islamic law

A command of Allah that is commonly ignored – writing down financial agreements and transactions

2011-06-01T02:08:00.000-07:00

Allah tells us to put in writing all trade transactions, as well as the borrowing and lending we do, and also to appoint a witness to the same. It is logical and wise thing to do. I know in some cases when people pass away without a written record of their financial matters and their family members go through a tough time because of lack of information.

In the Indian cultural context, trust in the person is extremely important and when you insist on writing it down while lending money, you suggest that you do not trust the person. To suggest writing it down when you lend money to a friend or a relative is akin to insult him, it is even worse when you say that there have to be two witnesses to this transaction. However, we must follow the orders of Quran. I think an easy solution can be that these days an email is sent to the person who borrowed the money and it is also copied to two people who would acts as a witness. I have ignored this command always for lending, but now I am thinking of doing this and also copying the verse of Quran in it so that we promote teaching of Quran.

I am copying the verse below:

[002.282] O you who believe! When you contract a debt for a fixed period, write it down. Let a scribe write it down in justice between you. Let not the scribe refuse to write as Allâh has taught him, so let him write. Let him (the debtor) who incurs the liability dictate, and he must fear Allâh, his Lord, and diminish not anything of what he owes. But if the debtor is of poor understanding, or weak, or is unable to dictate for himself, then let his guardian dictate in justice. And get two witnesses out of your own men. And if there are not two men (available), then a man and two women, such as you agree for witnesses, so that if one of them (two women) errs, the other can remind her. And the witnesses should not refuse when they are called (for evidence). You should not become weary to write it (your contract), whether it be small or big, for its fixed term, that is more just with Allâh; more solid as evidence, and more convenient to prevent doubts among yourselves, except when it is a present trade which you carry out on the spot among yourselves, then there is no sin on you if you do not write it down. But take witnesses whenever you make a commercial contract. Let neither scribe nor witness suffer any harm, but if you do (such harm), it would be wickedness in you. So be afraid of Allâh; and Allâh teaches you. And Allâh is All-Knower of everything.

King Abdullah’s posters and Kalima Tayyaba

2011-05-28T06:25:00.000-07:00

Some time back the ring tones of Quran’s verses were in fashion. Then scholars in Saudi Arabia declared them haraam (impermissible) on the basis that a person can answer the phone while the verse is not complete and an incomplete verse of Quran may mean something else.

These days posters of King Abdullah are everywhere in Saudi Arabia. You cannot travel two kilometres in the city without seeing a gigantic poster of the King. It is true he has been a benevolent King and most of the Saudis love him for his generous concessions. At the same time, I see that these posters have a design issue. In most of these posters, the kalmia taiiyaba i.e. La ilaha illah muhamaddur rasoolullah (There is no God, but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah) is written in the background of the King’s photo. In fact, it is part of the Saudi flag, but it is not shown fully in the posters. I will not get into whether portraits of popular leaders in public places should be promoted or not according to Islamic tenets, however, if the image of the King hides part of the kalmia taiiyaba, the remaining text may not give the right meaning of the fundamental tenet of Islam. I cannot imagine In USA someone would publish posters of any President while the country’s motto ‘In God we trust’ is hidden partly by the photo of the President. It looks like some printing companies tried to make fast money on the euphoria over King’s good health, and printed these posters without any guideline from the Ministry of Information. No company will accept if their logo is not printed according to their guidelines, so why should the Ministry accept if the national flag and fundamental tenet of Islam is not printed properly.

Tongue, tyre and remembrance of Allah

2011-05-26T00:42:00.000-07:00

Tongue is like a tyre when used for remembrance of Allah (dhikr), at first you put minor efforts and then it goes on rolling without much effort. If you busy yourself in dhikr, you will realise that even when you became busy with some other tasks, the tongue continues to remember Allah.

What can be better honour than being remembered by Allah? He says in Quran: so remember me, and I shall remember you; and be grateful unto me, and deny me not. (Al-Baqara 2:152) Allah says, in a hadith Qudsi."Those that remember Me in their heart, I remember them in My heart; and those that remember Me in a gathering (i.e. that make mention of Me), I remember them (i.e. make mention of them) in a gathering better than theirs."

Abu Sa`id Al-Khudri and Abu Huraira reported that the Prophet, peace by upon him, said, "When any group of men remember Allah, angels surround them and mercy covers them, tranquillity descends upon them, and Allah mentions them to those who are with Him." Narrated by Muslim, Tirmidhi, Ahmad, Ibn Majah, and Bayhaqi.

Dhikr is the easiest for of worship. When a man complained, "The laws of Islam are too heavy for me, so tell me something that I can easily follow," the Prophet told him, "Let your tongue be always busy with the remembrance of Allah." [Narrated by Ahmad with two sound chains, also Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah through other chains, and Ibn Hibban who declared it sahih as well as al-Hakim.]

This link has more information on dhikr

Enforcement of rule of law, what developing countries must learn from the West

2011-05-16T23:41:00.000-07:00

Most of the times when people in developing nations look at the development in the Western countries, they only think of the scientific and infrastructure development that these countries have achieved. However, there is much more than the scientific and infrastructure development. In my view, what is more impressive is the enforcement of the law and the efficiency of the law enforcement machinery. As a Muslim, I am more impressed by rule-of-law enforcement than by scientific or infrastructure related development because the first is for human values while the later is for convenience. There are many impressive cases of rule-of-law enforcement in the western countries, but I want to cite only a few examples.

Wikileak’s editor-in-chief Julian Assange led his crusade against governmental censorship on information and became sort of most wanted man by USA administration and also by some other governments that feared their dirty secrets being revealed by such enthusiasts of freedom of press. He surrendered before police in UK and is now out on bail, with a pending hearing for his extradition to Sweden for a case of sexual assault against him. Even if he is extradited, the case in Sweden against him is not about the release of US diplomatic cables. If he was caught in any developing country, the country would have taken money from several rich countries that hated him and conducted extra-judicial killing on their behalf.

Mohammad Haneef, an Indian national, was wrongfully accused of aiding terrorists and was arrested in Brisbane, Australia in 2 July 2007 and was detained for 25 days by Australian authorities. His visa was refused and he had to leave the country. It is believed that the Australian Prime Minister himself was against allowing him an entry in the country. I am quoting the wikilink text as is because it is very succinct and descriptive: Final vindication for Haneef came when the cancellation of his visa was overturned by the Federal Court on 21 August 2007, with the decision being reiterated by the full bench of the court on 21 December 2007, resulting in Haneef having his Australian visa returned. In December 2010, Haneef returned to Australia to seek damages for loss of income, interruption of his professional work, and emotional distress. He was awarded compensation from the Australian government. The amount of compensation awarded was not disclosed, but was described by sources as "substantial". Isn’t it impressive that the country’s court not only ensures justice but also compensates the person for the loss of income and emotional stress?

What prompted me to write this post is the recent arrest of IMF chief and denial of bail to him in a sexual assault case. I am copying this text from the Times of India report which is to the point: “The maid, who has not been named by the police, said she had entered the spacious Sofitel hotel suite thinking it was unoccupied when Strauss-Kahn sprang on her naked from the bathroom, ran after her and dragged her into his bedroom before assaulting her. He then dragged her into the bathroom where he forced himself on her again before she broke free, the maid told the police. New York Police alleged that following the assault in the Manhattan hotel, Strauss-Kahn quickly headed off to New York airport to board a Paris-bound flight but left his cellphone behind. The IMF chief called the hotel from the airport, inquiring about the phone, and this helped police track him to the first class section of the Paris-bound flight.” This man wanted to leave the country immediately after the crime, but was tracked by the police and arrested and denied bail. A person with such a reputation and connection, can walk free of any crime in most developing countries. The first thing the police administration would do is to try to persuade the victim to withdraw the case in return of handsome cash. And it works most of the times.

An eye for an eye punishment and crimes against women

2011-05-14T23:57:00.000-07:00

An adage goes that an eye for an eye will make the world blind. The other way of looking at it can be that an eye for an eye will teach the lesson to the arrogant how valuable the eyes of the weak are. Iran has delayed the punishment in a case when a man blinded a woman by throwing acid on her. Arab News reports: A court sentenced Majid Mohavedi in 2008 to be blinded in both eyes for taking away the sight of Ameneh Bahrami by pouring acid in her face after she spurned his offers of marriage.’

As expected, there was international criticism for the punishment and Amnesty International urged Iranian authorities to stop the punishment from being carried out.

This punishment sounds horrific but more horrible is the disfigured face of the woman and pain of living as a blind person because she chose to refuse a man to marry him. It is not just about the punishment for a crime, but about curbing a social phenomenon so that women do not have fear when they chose to refuse to marry the men they do not like, because in most cases the cause of the acid throwing is refusal from the victim to marry the man.

Criminals must have fear of law and they will only fear when they know the consequences of their crime. According to Sharia, a criminal can be punished with equal retribution, unless the victim decides to forgive the criminal, in which case whatever punishment the legal bodies decide will be applicable, which is mostly a few years jail. The punishment for rape and armed robbery is death. These punishments are seldom carried out which is why the number of crime in the developing countries is horrifying. Hindustan Times report: ‘The number of rapes a day has increased nearly 700 per cent since 1971 — when such cases were first recorded by NCRB. It has grown from seven cases a day to 53.’ In another report of the law commission of India, there were 174 recorded cases of acid throwing on women in India in the year 2000. According to this Wikipedia link Pakistan and Bangladesh are in among the top nations in terms of number of acid throwing cases. According to this report, In 2007, there were 8093 cases recorded of dowry deaths in India, besides there were 3000 suicides related to dowry extortion. If some of the criminals were to be punished with an eye-for-an-eye principal, the budding criminals will tremble to think of their punishment.

It is ironical that western governments are concerned about the crime against women but also abhor the punishment suited for a crime which is not only inhuman and horrific but also tends to become a social phenomenon. The crime of dowry related murders, acid throwing, rape, honour killing, and female foeticide are all crimes against women and they tend to be driven by a social psyche that women must submit to the supremacy of men. I not only wish that Iran carries out punishment, but also wish that other countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh also follow the example of punishing the criminals with equal heartlessness so that they fear law more than anything in the world.

Osama denied involvement 9/11 attacks, and the massive US defence budget

2011-05-10T01:33:00.000-07:00

This blog post has published the full text of an interview with Osama Bin Laden which was conducted in 2011. Global research writes in the editorial note that the authenticity of the interview is confirmed. This is the full editorial note of Global Research:

“We bring to the attention of our readers the following text of Osama bin Laden's interview with Ummat, a Pakistani daily, published in Karachi on September 28, 2001. It was translated into English by the BBC World Monitoring Service and made public on September 29, 2001.

The authenticity of this interview, which is available in recognized electronic news archives, is confirmed.

Osama bin Laden categorically denies his involvement in the 9/11 attacks.

Bin Laden's statements in this interview are markedly different from those made in the alleged Osama video tapes.

In this interview, Osama expresses his views regarding the loss of life on 9/11. He also makes statements as to who, in his opinion, might be the likely perpetrator of the September 11 attacks.

This is an important text which has not been brought to the attention of Western public opinion.

We have highlighted key sections of this interview. It is our hope that the text of this interview, published barely a week before the onset of the war on Afghanistan, will contribute to a better understanding of the history of Al Qaeda, the role of Osama bin Laden and the tragic events of September 11, 2001. ”

In this interview, Osama denied any involvement in 9/11 and also said that killing of women and children is against Islamic practice. He says, ‘nor do I consider the killing of innocent women, children, and other humans as an appreciable act. Islam strictly forbids causing harm to innocent women, children, and other people. Such a practice is forbidden ever in the course of a battle.’ He also made it clear that he was against the US system, not against the US people, ‘Whoever committed the act of 11 September are not the friends of the American people. I have already said that we are against the American system, not against its people, whereas in these attacks, the common American people have been killed.’ An interesting point is brought up in this interview is that during the cold war era the intelligence agencies in the US got huge funding from the government, but after the collapse of USSR their funding was squeezed and they were going out of job. So they created another enemy which had to be pursued and defeated. In this interview Osama mentioned the US government’s sanction of 40 billion dollars for the intelligence networks.

I have tried to do some analysis. The annual defence budget of US as per wikipedia list was 687 billion dollars in 2010. Not only this, the defence budget of US is more than defence budget the top-20 countries that come after US including all the so called giants. What a nation and what a wealth!

As per the World Food Program site, every year 1-3 million children die only because of hunger. The food is cheaper in the countries where children die out of hunger and I make a calculation that these children can get food for 5 dollars per day. This means one child needs 1825 dollars a year to survive. If USA was to donate only 10% of its defence budget to the hungry children, 3.7 million children will have food for one year and we can assume no child will die of hunger on earth. The motto of US is ‘In God we trust.’ Does God command ignoring the hunger on the face of earth and bombing countries to kill hundreds of thousands in the pursuit of elusive enemies?

Interesting debate on Niqab between two Muslim women

2011-05-09T04:54:00.000-07:00

This short video from CNN has a very interesting debate between Mona Elthawwy who believes that niqab should be banned in all the countries and MuslimMatters blogger, Hebah Ahmed, on the issue of niqab. MashaAllah, Heba Ahmed argues very succinctly and passionately on the subject. Inna batilaa kaana zahooka (Indeed, Falsehood has ever perished.) [Qur'an 17:81]

This link has the transcript of the debate as well.

Learning Quranic Arabic

2011-05-09T01:47:00.000-07:00

When I started taking lessons in Quranic Arabic two and half years ago, I did not know that learning Quranic Arabic was so easy. My teacher, who is a businessman and teaches only to please Allah, used to emphasise that the aim of his lectures was that his students learn sufficient Arabic to appreciate Quran in its language. He always made clear that he was not an expert in the language himself, but has taken some efforts to read certain books and prepare easy notes for the students. A lot of students came and left these free classes, but Alhamdulillah some of them have continued. I believe that learning Quran is a very deeper study but we will never be able to appreciate the flavour of the language, unless we know the language. Dr. Asrar Ahmed said in a lecture, ‘We should learn at least sufficient Arabic to appreciate Quran in Arabic, because without knowing the language, we can understand the Quran but cannot be inspired by it.’ It is true; we truly find the verses inspiring when we understanding their meaning without going through the filter of translated meaning.

I read a question on a Muslim forum relating to Quran which I was able to answer only because of knowledge of Arabic. (I am copying the question and my answer below. There were other two questions in the same topic which I answered, but they were not relating to the subject of Quranic Arabic.)

Question: What does “seven earths” as implied in verse 12 surah at-Talaq actually mean?

Answer: The verse doesn't say seven earths, it says seven heavens and earth the 'like the same.’ It doesn't use plural noun for earth and some translators have taken the implied meaning of 'like the same' as 'seven' in number. I think if this implied meaning was to be taken, the noun for earth should have been plural. I am copying below two translations of the verse which do not take the 'like the same' as 'seven' in numbers. It can mean equally beautiful, useful, complex or whatever.

65:12 (Asad) God is He who has created seven heavens, and, like them, [the many aspects] of the earth. Through all of them flows down from on high, unceasingly, His [creative] will, so that you might come to know that God has the power to will anything, and that God encompasses all things with His knowledge.

65:12 (Picktall) Allah it is who hath created seven heavens, and of the earth the like thereof. The commandment cometh down among them slowly, that ye may know that Allah is Able to do all things, and that Allah surroundeth all things in knowledge.

Good and bad dreams

2011-05-07T06:46:00.000-07:00

As we learn from the Islamic literature, dream are of mainly of two types:

1. Good dreams: These are the dreams that we feel good about. They are clear and we can easily remember them. We do not necessarily remember the entire sequence, but we do have an idea of what we primarily saw in the dream. These dreams are from Allah. We should share these dreams with the people we love. Sometimes, what we see in the dream also comes true in future. These dreams are premonitions and good news from Allah.

2. Bad dreams: The dreams that disturb, shock, irritate or frustrate us are from Satan. The protection from such dreams is reciting ayatul kursi before sleeping and to sleep on the side while the right hand side will be on the lower side. The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to keep his right hand below his face. We do not need to share these disturbing dreams with anyone because satan cannot harm us more, other than frustrating us through such dreams.

I remember reading somewhere that there was a third classification of the dreams as well which were not strong enough to be classified as good or bad dreams. I could not find a reference to this point. These dreams might be mostly related to the thoughts or feelings that is on our subconscious and bothering us.

The following links have good reference of hadith related to dreams:

http://muttaqun.com/dreams.html

http://www.witness-pioneer.org/vil/hadeeth/riyad/04/chap130.htm

Narrated Abu Qatada: The Prophet said, "A good dream that comes true is from Allah, and a bad dream is from Satan, so if anyone of you sees a bad dream, he should seek refuge with Allah from Satan and should spit on the left, for the bad dream will not harm him." Hadith -Sahih Bukhari, Volume 9, Book 87, Number 115:

Abu Sa`id Al-Khudri (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: I heard the Prophet (PBUH) saying, "When one of you sees a dream that he likes, then it is from Allah. He should praise Allah for it and relate it to (others).''

Another narration adds: Messenger of Allah(PBUH) said, "He should not report it except to those whom he loves. And if he sees one which he dislikes, then it is from the Satan. He should seek refuge in Allah against its evil and should not mention it to anyone. Then it will not harm him.''

[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

Bring for me the soil of India so that they can put it on my dead body when I die

2011-05-05T18:47:00.000-07:00

Somebody read my blog and asked if I was a writer. I said I am only a blogger and do not nurture the ambition to become a writer. I do not write about political issues, except when I feel compelled to do so. I have experienced that there are two issues that move me deeply, one is ‘corruption’ and another is ‘relations of India and Pakistan.’ I have written several posts on these issues. I have written posts on corruption on this blog and another blog ‘Never a day without a line’ which can be read on this link. I feel that these two issues are integrally related to the future of Indian nation. If India ever has to become a super power in the world, it can never become one while not succeeding in both these issues. These issues are like pestering wounds which will continue to be the litmus test for the integrity and tolerance of people and institutions in India. This is why once again I sit down to write a post on one of these issues at 3:00 AM because I heard many interesting conversations at a dinner invitation where many Indians (Muslims) and Pakistanis were present. The topics of conversation and my stream of thoughts touched several core ideas, so I want to write them in groups.

Bring for me the soil of India so that they can put it on my dead body when I die

The father of the host was a man in 70s who was very passionate about India and deeply critical of Pakistan, and all Indian Muslims present in at the party shared his love and critical views. He was of Indian origin and had lived in UK for several decades but visited India twice a year. He said, ‘There is no place in the world like Bharat Mata (Mother India). You get all kind of climate there, all types of food there, you meet the most innocent as well as the most crooked man there, and life is so colourful in India. When I go there, people treat me like a king.’ He narrated stories of his hunting expeditions and also told us that he had built a mausoleum in India from an architect of his choice and wrote a will that his dead body should be sent to India. He also showed the photographs of the mausoleum to people present. (I do not support mausoleum, but I am mentioning it for the theme of post).

To his criticism about Pakistanis I said, ‘We are the same people. Drawing a political line doesn’t change the mindset of the people.’ He said, ‘Why, Iranians are different, although they are close to Pakistan.’ I said, ‘Iranians have different culture and history. A man’s character and value system is determined by the culture, climate, language, food and traditions. We (Pakistanis and Indians) have the same roots and we share the same virtues and evils, although someone may be more virtuous or evil than another. Both Indians and Pakistanis elect corrupt politicians to power even with the knowledge of their history of corruption. This fact alone is enough to tell the world about our value system.’

After dinner another guest who was in 50s started chatting with me. He was from Pakistan and said that the old man from UK was his father’s cousin. He narrated an incident related to his father who died several years ago. In the last years of his father, his cousin visited him from UK and asked, ‘I am going to India and will return after few weeks. Do you want anything from India?’ His cousin said, ‘Yes. I want something from India. Bring for me some soil of India so that it can be put on my dead body when they bury me here.’ The old man remembered this incident and said, ‘Yes, and I did take soil from India for him.’ This story reminded me of the coupled from the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar who was arrested by British troops and was jailed in Rangoon where he died. The couplet can be translated as follows:

How unfortunate is Zafar, for his burial

That he could not get two yard of land, near his beloved

You can take a man out of country, but you cannot take the country out of him.

The love for my motherland is my birth right

When MF Hussein gave up his Indian nationality, he commented that you can take the man out of country, but you cannot take country out of him. Most people do not know the difference between patriotism and nationalism. Patriotism is the instinctive love for the homeland, nobody can teach this to you and nobody can take it away from you. Nationalism is the zealous support for an idea which is created and given shape and colour by some politician and a constitution. This idea of nationalism can divide two groups of people who do not have any difference among them, except that they are citizens of two different nations, for example, South Korea and North Korea, the split of Germany after the world war, and the partition of India after independence. The people across international borders hardly have any differences, they breathe the same air, drink the same water, speak the same language and share the same traditions, but they have to die for the hostility of two countries.

The love for mother tongue, native food, friends, culture and homeland are part of this unforgettable identity because one loves them in youth, when he is free from pretentions and reasons. I have seen people arguing that one language is better than the other, and some people are pained when their children do not speak their mother tongue. The love for homeland or patriotism is also the love imbibed in the childhood. No one can take this right away, because only God decides where a person will be born and is going to spend his childhood. A man can choose his adult life, but has no control where he is going to spend his childhood.

It is shameful if an Indian Muslim is asked to prove his love for India and he is looked at progeny of the foreigners who occupied India.

The modern India, who created it

You can hear many Hindu fanatics saying to Muslims, ‘We gave you Pakistan, and you have no right here. Go to Pakistan.’ I received a comment on my blog a few days ago which I did not publish, in which the writer used abusive language and said, ‘Do you think you can fool us? (by writing posts of Hindu Muslim unity.) You (Indian Muslims) will have to pay a price for what your ancestors did.’

It is not a new story to me. I have heard these stories directly and indirectly. I did not lose any dear one in communal riots, but I did hear some fanatics talking in an extremely abusive manner about Islam and Muslims. One time I was a in a bus, and I must have been 14 or 15 year old when a co-passenger started chatting with me. After a while he asked my name, and I said ‘Anis Khan’. He asked again and I repeated my name. This man stopped chatting the same moment, turned his face away and did not say a word. On another incidence, I sat on a railway station waiting for a train, and a policeman was telling a group of people how detestable Muslims and Islam are. This was 20 years ago when we did not have the so called propaganda of Islamic terrorism. Babri Masjid issue was the highlight in those days. There are several instances, but there is no point in narrating them all. My point is that when Muslims came to India as invaders, some of them did plunder and go back, but those who settled in Delhi, they made this country their home. It was during Mughal rule when the modern India as we know it was created, which extended from present day Pakistan to present day Bangladesh. Was there a country called India before Muslim invaders came? Mourya Empire is known to most expansive empire before Mughals and it existed in 322–185 BCE. After that there was Sunga dynasty which was in present day Bihar and Bengal, Kharvela empire which was in Centre and south of present day India, Kushan empire which was in present day Pakistan and Afganistan, Satwahanna, Gupta and Chola empires which were in present day south India. You look at the map of India on the wiki page for History of India during different empires and you would see that the present day Hindustan or Modern India as we call it was created during the Mughal rule. Muslims made this country their home and developed the culture and language here. On the contrary, British Empire made India a colony and plundered its wealth and killed the Indians who asked them to leave India. Sadly, some of the fanatic Hindus wants to take the revenge of Muhammad Gori or Ahmed Shah Abdali but feel euphoric when British prince gets married. Will they talk of taking revenge with Britons as well?

Indian Muslim's antagonism with Pakistanis

Most of the educated Indian Muslims I have met have some kind of allergy towards Pakistanis. I try to analyse what is the cause behind it. One of the reasons is that Pakistani’s look at Indian Muslims as cowards who are persecuted in their country, who have an identity crisis and who are a pathetic lot. The Indian Muslims who are critical of Pakistan can list down dozens of problems with Pakistan as a nation. However, if Allah has given us independent judgement, we should look at the things objectively. I am fine if one says that there are problems in India, but Pakistan is worse. But to say that there are no issues in India and Pakistan is a hell, is an idiotic statement which shows that the so called educated person doesn’t have an independent judgement. In India, there is 37% people below poverty line, there are thousands of farmers committing suicide every year, hundreds of thousands of female foetus being aborted every year causing alarming ratio of women to men in some states, one of the highest rate of rapes and crime against women in the world, and one of the highest rate of corruption and human right violations in the world. No doubt, the state of affairs is worse in Pakistan, but why should Indians compare themselves against Pakistan, why not against US, UK, Japan or China. Indian Muslims should not be ashamed or afraid of asking genuine questions such as why there is no action against Modi, why there are no Muslims in RAW, why Muslims are not allowed to own or rent a property in some of the neighbourhoods by the so called society-management of the property, and why isn’t there open dialogue against human rights violations against Indian Muslims. USA is euphoric in the past few days because their special forces claim to have killed their number one enemy, but there are Americans who are asking tough questions such as: Why did you bury him in the sea? Why don’t you release the pictures of Osama’s dead body? Is it morally right to celebrate death of somebody? Did US forces violate law or human rights by killing unarmed Osama bin Laden? Nobody questions the loyalty of these people for the American nation because America gives them freedom to expression their opinion, even if it is against the state of America or a conspiracy theory against 9/11. How many Indian Muslims will dare to ask such questions if India was to kill Dawood Ibrahim? After Mumbai attacks, A.R. Antuley asked for a CBI probe in the killing of Hemant Karkarey. These comments shook Indian nation and the entire media went criticising him for his comments. Digvijay Singh supported Antuley and until now he is not forgiven and even now you can read comments on Times of India calling him a traitor. Arundhati Roy, who is a woman but has more guts than millions of Indians, sympathised with the Kashmiri cause and had to face hostility from all corners and some made calls to prosecute her for sedition. She is a writer of International fame, so India did not want to create negative PR by prosecuting her, but had she been an ordinary Indian, she would have faced a different reality. If an American or Briton can question the legality or morality of wars in Afghanistan or Iraq, why shouldn’t an Indian be allowed to express his or her opinions regarding the legality or morality of military control in Kashmir?

So, to sum it up, Indian Muslims have a tough challenge because they have to balance the two things, they have fight for the integrity of India, but at the same time raise the tough questions without fearing whether it will raise questions on their loyalty to India. You can take the man out of country, but you cannot take the country out of men. Indian Muslims live on the soil of India, and when they die, they get buried in the soil of India. So they do not have to prove their love to anyone, but to themselves, by sincerely raising the issues that matter for the nation.

More disclosures against Modi but no action against him

2011-05-05T09:55:00.000-07:00

It is good to see that some sensible journalism does prevail in India. Outlook India has published an article revealing the details of the high level meeting at Narendra Modi's house at midnight when he asked the police officers to allow Hindus to vent anger against Muslims. But SIT is not taking any action on it. Here is the link to the article. Not only that Narendra Modi is a chief minister but even named by some as potential candidate for the Prime Minister of India's post. Long live India's dream of secularism.

Answer to questions of non-Muslims regarding Quran’s order to kill disbelievers

2011-05-05T02:20:00.000-07:00

I read a comment of a person on a Muslim forum where he wanted to know how he should answer the questions of non-Muslims that Quran orders Muslims to kill disbelievers. I posted a response to this and I think it should be a blog post too. I am copying it below:

When you come across people who have questions on Islam, be careful that some of them might be so given to the propaganda that they will only frustrate you, no matter how logically you try to answer them. With these people, it is better to answer them and leave the discussion because you cannot win an argument with a person who is not willing to listen. Most likely the people who come to accuse Islam on any forum are not those who are curious to know the truth, but the ones who have an agenda in their heart and they want to spread it. Those who are curious will find tonnes of free material to read on Islam. There also independent resources on Islam such as Wikipedia or BBC page on Islam. Besides, you can refer the following link to these people which is a book from Dr. Zakir Naik titled Answer to Non-Muslim’s Common Questions about Islam.

Now coming to your question about Quran’s command to kill disbelievers, in these verses, when there is order to fight, it was the order to the Prophet (peace be upon him) to fight the disbelievers of Makkah who had persecuted him and driven him out of Makkah only because he chose to worship Allah alone. Their antagonism was only because of Islamic monotheism so they are addressed as disbeliever which is a more comprehensive term rather than Makkan or something else, because in Makkans there were people who supported the Prophet (peace be upon him) too. Thus, these verses apply when there is a war going on between Muslims and disbelievers, and the war is for the sake of Allah’s glory alone, which means that Muslims are fighting to restore their right to worship Allah alone and live life according to Islam. It is not a command to any Muslim to go out and shoot the first disbeliever he sees. If you read in the verses I have copied below, the fight is ordered to restore peace and end turmoil. Indiscriminate killing doesn’t restore peace; it only creates further fitnah (turmoil) In addition, even the state of war has to be for the reasons made clear by Allah which is to restore the right to worship Allah alone, to fight back in response to persecution and to end oppression. It cannot be a war for political gains, nationalism, material gains, democracy or kingdom. Allah uses the word disbelievers because a war to restore the right to worship Allah alone can only be a war between belief and disbelief. Allah commands Muslims to fight and kill in such a war because you do not go to fight with intentions to kiss the enemy’s forehead. Either you fight and get killed or you kill. There is no third alternative in a war.

Quran clearly forbids killing innocents. Not only this, there are significant rights of neighbours in Islam where no distinction is made between a Muslim and non-Muslim. Even during a war, the Prophet (peace be upon him) strongly advised not to kill women, children and religious people. He also forbade cutting down trees or setting houses on fire. He forbade killing people who surrendered.

You can refer these people to the BBC's link on Jihad which has very useful information. They should trust the source because it is BBC, not an Islamic website.

I am posting below the translation and explanation of Moulana Moududi of the verses related to Jihad in Surah Baqara:

Translation of Quranic verses:

(2:190) And fight in the way of Allah with those who fight against you200 but do not commit aggression because Allah does not like aggressors.201

(2:191) Fight against them wherever they confront you in combat and drive them out from where they drove you out. Though killing is bad. persecution is worse than killing202 Do not fight against them near the Masjid Haram unless they attack you there.

(2:192) And if they attack you first (even in that sacred area), strike them (without any hesitation); this is the due punishment for such disbelievers. If, however, they desist from fighting (you should also do likewise), and know that Allah is Forgiving and Merciful203 .

(2:193) Go on fighting with them till there is no more a state of tribulation and Allah's way is established instead.204 Then if they desist from it, there should be no more hostility except against those who had been guilty of cruelty and brutality.205

Commentary on the verses by Moulana Moududi:

200. The believers are asked to fight those who hindered their efforts in the cause of God, and acted with hostility towards them merely because they sought to fashion human life according to the revealed guidance of God. Earlier, when they were weak and scattered, the Muslims were asked merely to preach and be patient with the wrongful repression meted out to them by their opponents. However, now that a small city state had been established in Madina they were commanded for the first time to unsheathe their swords against those who had resorted to armed hostility against their movement of reform. It was some time after this injunction that the Battle of Badr took place, to be followed by several other battles.

201. The believers are told that material interests should not be the motivation for their fighting, that they should not take up arms against those who were not in opposition to the true faith, that they should not resort to unscrupulous methods or to the indiscriminate killing and pillage which characterized the wars of the pre-Islamic era, the Age of Ignorance. The excesses alluded to in this verse are acts such as taking up arms against women and children, the old and the injured, mutilation of the dead bodies of the enemy, uncalled-for devastation through the destruction of fields and livestock, and other similar acts of injustice and brutality. In the Hadith all these acts have been prohibited. The real intent of the verse is to stress that force should be used only when its use is unavoidable, and only to the extent that is absolutely necessary.

202. Here the word fitnah is used in the sense of 'persecution'. It refers to a situation whereby either a person or a group is subjected to harassment and intimidation for having accepted, as true, a set of ideas contrary to those currently held, and for striving to effect reforms in the existing order of society by preaching what is good and condemning what is wrong. Such a situation must be changed, if need be, by the force of arms.

Bloodshed is bad, but when one group of people imposes its ideology and forcibly prevents others from accepting the truth, then it becomes guilty of an even more serious crime. In such circumstances, it is perfectly legitimate to remove that oppressive group by the force of arms.

203. God, in whom the believers have faith, is forgiving and ready to pardon even the worst criminals and sinners after they have renounced their arrogant defiance towards Him. It is suggested that this attribute of God should be reflected in the behaviour of the believers as well. As the saying goes: 'Mould your morals according to the attributes of God.' Hence, Whenever the believers have to resort to armed conflict, they should do so not for the sake of quenching their thirst for vengeance but in the cause of God's religion. Their conflict with any group should last only as long as that group resists the cause of God. As soon as it gives up this resistance hostility should cease.

204. Here the term fitnah is used in a different sense from the one in which it was used above (see verse 191). It is evident from the context that fitnah refers here to the state of affairs wherein the object of obedience is someone other than God. Hence the purpose of a believer's fighting is that this fitnah should cease and obedience should be consecrated to God alone.

An investigation of the usages of the word din (which occurs in this verse) reveals that the core of its meaning is obedience. In its technical usage, the word refers to that system of life which arises as a result of a person recognizing someone as his Lord and Sovereign and committing himself to following his commands and ordinances. This explanation of the word din makes it quite clear that when some human beings establish their godhead and absolute dominance over others, this state of affairs is one of fitnah. Islam seeks to put an end to this and replace it by a state of affairs in which people live in obedience to the laws of God alone.

205. What is meant here by 'desisting' is not the abandonment of unbelief and polytheism on the part of the unbelievers but rather their desistance from active hostility to the religion enjoined by God. The unbeliever, the polytheist, the atheist, has each been, empowered to hold on to his beliefs and to worship who and whatever he wishes. In order to deliver these people from their error, Muslims are required to counsel them and tell them where their good lies. But Muslims ought not to try to achieve this purpose by resorting to force. At the same time, these misguided people have no right to either enforce the false laws of their own contriving instead of the laws of God or to drive the people of God to bondage of others than God. In order to put an end to this fitnah, both persuasion and force be used, whenever and to the extent to which each of the two is needed, and a true believer will not rest until the unbelievers give up this fitnah.

The statement that hostility is meant only against wrong-doers seems to imply that when the true system of life replaces the false one, ordinary people should be granted a general amnesty. At the same time, however, it would be justifiable to punish those who exceeded all limits in their hostility to the Truth, at the time when they held the reins of power. Yet in dealing with such people, it becomes the true believers, after they have one final victory, to adopt a general attitude of forgiveness and tolerance towards the vanquished rather than subject them to revenge for the wrongs they committed in the past. Those criminals whose records were exceptionally bad could, however, be punished. The Prophet (peace be on him), availed himself of this permission in respect of some notorious enemies whose hostility had exceeded all limits, even though pardon and forgiveness behoved none more than him. Thus 'Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'avt and Nadr b. Harith from among the captives of the Battle of Badr were put to death and when a general amnesty, was proclaimed after the conquest of Makka four out of seventeen persons were executed. (See Ibn Hisham, vol. 1, p. 644 and vol. 2, pp. 409 ff. - Ed.) These acts were based on the permission to put to the sword those who have been conspicuously ruthless in their hostility to Islam and the Muslims.

Quixotic ideas in section of Indians calling for an attack Pakistan

2011-05-04T05:37:00.000-07:00

Adventures of an intelligent man are most devastating than of a fool because he can imagine bigger dramas to entertain himself. Many jingoist Indians, mostly champions of Hindutva, see the war in Afghanistan and the so called killing of Osama, and say, ‘Wow, if America can do it, why we can’t go and attack Pakistan? Why can’t we enter Pakistan to kill Dawood Ibraheem? I am not a sympathiser of Pakistan, not against adventurism, but the absurdity in these quixotic ideas make me think twice about the intelligence level of these people. Funny enough, even TV channels debate this option. Do we realise what price US had to pay to fight the war in Afghanistan? Do we have those millions of dollars to spend every day for a decade and sacrifice thousands of soldiers just to teach Pakistan a lesson? US gives Pakistan 1.5 billion dollars every years to keep this country as an ally in the so called war on terror. The adventurism expressed by such section is part of the reason why Pakistan needs to harbour people like Dawood Ibraheem because they know they cannot win a direct war with India, so they continue to be a nuisance through a proxy war, what India calls State Sponsored Terrorism. US and other nations have reached so much development that they can afford to play with imperialist ambitions and create an unstable world so that they can get richer by selling more arms and propaganda news. India is far away from playing such direct wars, that too with an enemy with nuclear power. I believe the only sane strategic direction for both countries will be through peace. They both need to change their approach and build trust. It is clear that the adventurism doesn’t help anyone, except politicians. I don’t think the establishment and intelligence agencies will even wish peace because they go out of business in peace. But, I do hope that one day people of India and Pakistan will become so knowledgeable that they will say to the politicians ‘Stop bullshitting.’ That day the control will loosen from ISI or Hindutva brigade and progress will be made towards sustainable peace. If only our people will look at the history of world wars and the way the countries who fought in the world war became allies for economic development. Japan did not harbour grudge against the nuclear bombs by USA but worked hard to capture the market of USA for their products. If European Union can bring different people speaking variety of languages together, why can’t such cooperation exist because India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Global Realm- An impressive blog that tells untold stories

2011-05-03T05:32:00.000-07:00

This is a real good blog. It had articles from journalists around the world. It is really very enlightening. It highlights the stories and viewpoints that the popular journalism ignores purposefully.

One article on current war in Libya in this blog has shown images of British operatives who were caught by Basra Police trying to detonate explosives in public places. Another article on the US economy analyses that economic scene is worst than what is portrayed.

The link for the blog is here

Osama Bin Laden killed, and distrust in America

2011-05-03T01:04:00.000-07:00

Whenever I receive any email containing Muslim conspiracy theories, I check the facts and many times when the facts are against the theories, I inform the sender about it. I have written many posts as well to answer the conspiracy theories which I group as Fake Emails. But this theory seems to have developed too fast.

Barak Obama declared with a sad face that America has killed their number one enemy Osama Bin Laden. If America says something we have to believe it. When Bush administration said that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, the world believed it. One of my colleagues said, ‘Who knows what truth is and what is a lie!’ I said, ‘Wait for some time, truth will surely surface.’ Inna baatila kaana zahooqa. Falsehood is bound to perish. [Qur'an 17:81]

There are many strange facts about this story, the strangest is the burial in the sea. I did not know if one could be buried in water, I had only imagined people drowning in water. It reminded me the character Mrs. Moore in the novel A Passage to India who was buried in the water because she died in a sea voyage. I think US administration was better off by saying ‘his body was donated to the fish.’

The lead first emerged in last August and it took the combined armed force and intelligence of USA and Pakistan eight months to nail down that lead. They were sure that Bin Laden was hiding in the house a month ago, and they waited for a month to start the operation. They claim to have shot Bin Laden in his head, but had to do ‘fire fighting’ to recover his body. What caused the fire? There were three or four people who could barely fight against trained forces. After that they were quick to bury the dead body of Osama Bin Laden in the sea, as per Islamic rites. They did not wait to do DNA testing, although they did DNA testing on Saddam Hussein after catching him alive to be sure that he was the man they sought. I do not know what became of the dead bodies of the other people who died in the same raid. There was news of a US helicopter crash in the same area which was not mentioned in the main media. The image of the dead body that surfaced the same day was enough to spread doubts. Times of India published this image first with a comment, ‘Is this Osama’s dead body?’ I remember the man had grey beard. Was he getting hair colour to paint his beard black (which is discouraged in Islam, unless it is any other colour than black) in the hideout? How concerned he was about grooming? But he did not colour it when he was training men in Pakistan and did not have any issue in supply of hair colour? The image shows his hair to be all black? Well you could say that he had grey beard and black hair, or he painted them? The funniest thing is to see are the three images posted on Arab News on this link. You can see that the jaw of living and dead Osama is perfectly in the same shape. The same number of teeth, exactly. Even the angle of the head is in the same shape. His facial muscles around the nose are also the same. He did not become weak in all these years of sickness. I knew that USA army helicopters have video cameras and they shoot an operation live, were there any video footage shared? Could they not gas the entire compound to make the inhabitants unconscious, the way USSR gassed the cinema theatre was taken over by Chechen terrorists. Did US forces not have enough weapons, tricks and training to capture an unarmed old man alive? In this one million dollar mansion, did Bin-Laden not think of creating a tunnel which will save him in case of any attack? Are these all coincidences? Well so many coincidences are sure indication of a conspiracy? In a movie a hero is chased by corporate mafia and in frustration he shouts ‘I hate coincidences.’ This is what you feel when logic is refuted by saying ‘It can be a mere coincidence.’

Benazir Bhutto, the late Prime Minister of Pakistan, had claimed in November 2, 2007 in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV channel that Osama Bin Laden was dead. You can read the story on this link. She was assassinated on 27 December 2007, less than two months after she made this revelation. Was this a coincidence too? I hate coincidences. I am not a knowledgeable person, but intuitively I think Osama Bin Laden died several years ago. It is hard to believe that two nations try to hunt down a man and cannot find him. But, the story of his being alive served as a reason to continue the war on terror so this story was hidden from the media. There are still more men to be hunted down, so that war of the century will go on.

Allah knows the truth. But there are two major events in US under two different Presidents, 9/11 and killing of Osama, both these events are laden with conspiracy theories. Does it mean that USA is not transparent enough? It surely means that people do not trust America because this country is capable of producing fake proofs to attack a nation and the world sees that it was a lie.

Want to read more interesting blogs on this conspiracy theory, here you go:

Nerdtek

Terror & the Osama bin Laden assassination

Post-Mortem in Abbottabad

SKEPTICISM: The Agendas Behind the Bin Laden News Event

A Volcano of Lies

Castro: The Assassination of Osama Bin Laden

Post script: I want to write down my thoughts as they evolved because this post might continue to be read and spread confusion. My skepticism was raised with the image of dead Osama which was clearly a Photoshop work. I do not know yet, who worked on this image and who released it within few hours on the Internet. As I had written in the beginning of the post that truth will surely surface. It seems part of the story is getting clear after US officials went on changing their account of the events day after another. The most dirty of the accounts have been that Osama tried to hide behind his wife which was replaced later on with the details that the woman tried to shield him. I believe Osama was killed as US claimed, but he was captured alive and then executed. There was hardly any resistance on the part of the old man, and one report claims that he was executed before his 12 year old daughter. Hafiz Saeed and Syed Ali Shah Geelani have called for the funeral prayers for Osama, which I believe they would not do unless they got confirmed news from their friends in Pakistan that the news is true. One can conclude that US did not want to capture Osama alive and try him while risking future terror attacks or plane hijacks to rescue captured Osama. In addition, I doubt if they had sufficient proof to relate his involvement in 9/11 because as per several reports, I did not confirm it, FBI website of Most Wanted doesn't mention Osama wanted for 9/11 and they said they do not have proofs. Besides, if he was tried a whole lot of filth of US association with Afghan groups might surface. The burial in the sea still sounds strange. They could have easily found any island where no man visits to bury him. No one would take a ship and go to an unknown island to pay homage to this man. If they have killed him, they must have pictures too, and it makes sense not to release photos because it will spread further controversies and vows of revenge.

There is no doubt that the legacy of Osama to the Islamic world was not a positive one. The series of attacks on the innocents that started after 9/11 has not been the way Muslims fought their enemies. There can never be any justification for the killing of an innocent in the name of protecting Islam because the Prophet (peace be upon him) clearly forbade it. We can just hope that sense will prevail now and true Islamic message will become stronger.

Important learning regading prayers (salaah)

2011-04-28T04:58:00.000-07:00

There is no limit to the depth of learning one can have on Islam. Gustav Flaubert wrote in a letter, 'What a scholar a man will be if he can learn six book well!' I wonder what a scholar a man would be if he can learn just one book very well, which is Quran.

I was scanning a book Fiqh Course-1 which is compiled by Sameh Strauch. It is about basic concepts of Islam, such as prayers, taharra and janaiz. I had two very important learning regarding prayers which I did not know until today. I am writing them below.

1. The tashahhud that I had learnt from childhood seems to be wrong by one letter which makes the second person pronoun use for the Prophet (peace be upon him). I, and as far as I know most Muslims from India and Pakistan, say it like this: attahiyatu lillahi wa salawatu wa tayyibatu assalamu alaika ayyuha nabbiyyu (it continues further, I do not need to write it fully as the point is only in this text)

When we say here asslamu alaika, here ka is a second person pronoun which is for the person who is present in front of you. The writer reports quoting reference of Bukhari, Muslim and Ibn Abi Shaibah that after the Prophet (peace be upon him) died, instead of asslamu alaika, the Companion of the Prophet (may Allah be pleased with them all) used to say: as-salamu alaan nabiyy which means peace be upon Prophet. They had stopped using the 'ka' pronoun because it was only to be used when the Prophet was alive. The writer also quotes Ibn Hajar in the same reference and another reference that Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) taught tashahhud in prayers as 'Peace be upon the Prophet' as-salamu ala nabiyy

2. I had learnt earlier that if someone missed prayers due to forgetfulness, he could offer then when he remembers it. The same also applies when one misses the prayers because he was asleep. No doubt, these have to be exceptional cases, not a daily habit. The writer of the book mentions with reference of Tirmidhi and Nassai the following hadith of Ibn Masood (may Allah be pleased with him): "The pagans kept the Prophet (peace be upon him) from praying four prayers during the Battle of the Clans (ditch), until part of the night had passed, as Allah willed. Then he (Prophet) ordered Bilal (may Allah be pleased with him) to call the adhaan, then made the iqamah and they prayed dhur, then he made the iqamah and they prayed asr, then he made the iqamah and they prayed maghrib, then he made the iqamah and they prayed 'ishaa.'

We learn from this hadith that if exceptional circumstances prevented a Muslim from praying in time, he can offer the missed prayers together.

It is well-known that the prayer of dhuhr and asr, as well as maghrib and isha, can be combined together during the travel time, that is a stay in a place which is less than 18 days. The combining of prayers is not only permissible, but also preferable as the Prophet (peace be upon him) said it was a gift of Allah. However, I read in Arab News some years back, that the Prophet (peace be upon him) combined prayers when he was not travelling. So, if one could not offer the prayers in time due to some reason, it is permissible to offer it in combination with another prayer, as I have mentioned above, i.e. dhuhr and asr together, and maghrib and isha together.

Sachin, Sai Baba, and a country that loves gods

2011-04-27T00:06:00.000-07:00

Satya Sai Baba died after being critically ill for weeks. After his death only few claimed that he was a God and he will come back. Most did not have courage to attribute divinity to him because he was critically ill before his death, but they sympathised with him for the humanitarian work which he had done. I had written a post when Sai Baba was ill with a title ‘God is ill,’ and I did not feel any urge to write another on this subject because I had made my point that God cannot be temporary and He cannot die, He doesn’t depend on anything but everything else depends on Him, alone. If He ever comes to earth to spread love, He does injustice to the people who never met him in his life. He has wireless connection straight to the heart and all you need to do is to remember him and He will know it. As Allah says in Quran: ‘so remember Me, and I shall remember you; and be grateful unto Me, and deny Me not.’ (2:152)

I read the news story with interest that Taslima Nasrin retweeted some comments about Satya Sai Baba which ridiculed him. The news story claimed that she advised Sachin not to pray for Sai Baba, as if she feared that Sachin’s prayers will bring Sai Baba back to life again for another twenty years. Sachin prayed to his God, which could be very well singular One god as they call bhagwan without reference to any specific god, for well being of Satya Sai Baba. Many Indians are angry with Taslima Nasrin now because she directed her comments towards two Gods, Sai Baba and Sachin, although it’s wrong to call retweets as her comments and Times of India is notorious with dubious headlines. Muslims anyway did not like her and hurled bouquet at her when she went to Hydrabad because of her Islamophobia. This time Hindus also disliked her for her retweets on two gods.

Indian people are prone to make gods very quickly. They even go beyond humans in finding gods, trusting the mantra of kana kan mein bhagwan there is god in every atom. Those who become powerful start feeling the spirit of Aham Brahamasmi (I am God) and they find devotees to worship them. I think wherever people lack education, they rely on human Gods, such as people who never tasted democracy have godlike reverence for their dictators, or it is made to appear so. In Saudi Arabia King Abdullah was called as King of Humanity for long in the media before he urged people not to say so and said, ‘Allah is the King of humanity.’ In India, Sachin is God of cricket, Sai Baba is God of spirituality, Anna Hazare is God of mass movement, Sonia Gandhi is God, or goddess, or Congress, Mayawati is God, or goddess, of Dalits, and so on. The corrupt system doesn’t allow many people to come up who do not have some taint to claim divine status. When they are close to claim incarnation, some scandal appears in their name which makes their devotees ashamed of their faith and trust. This is the age of video-cameras so the scandals are even hard to deny. In the southern India, people make temples of film stars even when the star is are alive with high cholesterol and blood sugar.

Muslims in the Indian sub-continent have not been less culprit of giving sufi saints divine status and intercessors between man and God. If Quran had not warned them against shirk, they could have done more, but in a way sufi shrine are hardly different than any temple because you go there to seek blessing of someone who was a man.

When Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) died, most Muslims were in a shock. Umar ibn Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) was enraged when people said that the Prophet of Allah has died and he said: "By Allah, he is not dead but has gone to his Lord as Musa ibn Imran went and remained hidden from his people for forty days. Musa returned after it was said that he had died. By Allah, the Messenger of Allah will come back and he will cut off the hands and legs of those who claim his death." In this tense moment, Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), who was to become the first Caliph of Islam, came before people and said: "To proceed, if anyone amongst you used to worship Muhammad, then Muhammad has passed away, but if (anyone of) you used to worship Allah, then Allah is Alive and shall never die. Allah said, "And Muhammad is but a messenger; the messengers have come before him; if then he dies or is killed will you turn back upon your heels? And whoever turns back upon his heels, he will by no means do harm to Allah in the least and Allah will reward the grateful." (3.144)

Link to previous post on this subjec t

The Prophet (peace be upon him) did not fear the poverty among Muslims but wealth in them

2011-04-24T00:29:00.000-07:00

Narrated 'Amr bin 'Auf: (an ally of the tribe of Bani 'Amir bin Lu'ai and one of those who had witnessed the battle of Badr with Allah's Apostle) Allah's Apostle sent Abu 'Ubaida bin AlJarrah to Bahrain to collect the Jizya tax. Allah's Apostle had concluded a peace treaty with the people of Bahrain and appointed Al 'Ala bin Al-Hadrami as their chief; Abu Ubaida arrived from Bahrain with the money. The Ansar heard of Abu 'Ubaida's arrival which coincided with the Fajr (morning) prayer led by Allah's Apostle. When the Prophet finished the prayer, they came to him. Allah's Apostle smiled when he saw them and said, "I think you have heard of the arrival of Abu 'Ubaida and that he has brought something." They replied, "Yes, O Allah's Apostle! " He said, "Have the good news, and hope for what will please you. By Allah, I am not afraid that you will become poor, but I am afraid that worldly wealth will be given to you in abundance as it was given to those (nations) before you, and you will start competing each other for it as the previous nations competed for it, and then it will divert you (from good) as it diverted them." ' (Sahih Bukhari Volume 8, Book 76, Number 433:)

Narrated Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri: Allah's Apostle said, "The thing I am afraid of most for your sake, is the worldly blessings which Allah will bring forth to you." It was said, "What are the blessings of this world?" The Prophet said, "The pleasures of the world." A man said, "Can the good bring forth evil?" The Prophet kept quiet for a while till we thought that he was being inspired divinely. Then he started removing the sweat from his forehead and said," Where is the questioner?" That man said, "I (am present)." Abu Sa'id added: We thanked the man when the result (of his question) was such. The Prophet said, "Good never brings forth but good. This wealth (of the world) is (like) green and sweet (fruit), and all the vegetation which grows on the bank of a stream either kills or nearly kills the animal that eats too much of it, except the animal that eats the Khadira (a kind of vegetation). Such an animal eats till its stomach is full and then it faces the sun and starts ruminating and then it passes out dung and urine and goes to eat again. This worldly wealth is (like) sweet (fruit), and if a person earns it (the wealth) in a legal way and spends it properly, then it is an excellent helper, and whoever earns it in an illegal way, he will be like the one who eats but is never satisfied." (Sahih Bukhari Volume 8, Book 76, Number 435)

These hadith has following wisdom:

‘if a person earns it (the wealth) in a legal way and spends it properly, then it is an excellent helper’- It is said that money is a good slave but a very poor master. If we focus on using the money we have in the best manner, we enjoy it. But when allow ourselves to be used by the money i.e. to care for money alone in life, we lose our peace of mind.
‘he will be like the one who eats but is never satisfied’- When we are greedy and selfish in the matters of money, we do not get satisfaction from it. We extend our needs and we constantly try to earn more because there is always someone who is making more money than us. It is said that rich is a person who needs less. Henry David Thoreau said, “That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.”

‘I am afraid that worldly wealth will be given to you in abundance as it was given to those (nations) before you, and you will start competing each other for it as the previous nations competed for it, and then it will divert you (from good) as it diverted them’- Wealth also brings fitna with it. There is one sunnah duaa which we should recite before salaam in the prayers and it is to seek from the evil of wealth and poverty, because in both cases a man is likely to become selfish. Wealth makes a person proud and less sympathetic with the poor. On the other hand, a poor person who is too busy earning a livelihood and doesn’t have access to several entertainment and indulgences which come as a part of trials of wealth.

Daniel Streich Who banned minarets in Switzerland converted to Islam !!!

2011-04-23T07:15:00.000-07:00

This email seems to be true that Daniel Streich who propagated against minarets in Switzerland has converted to Islam. This link suggested that he converted to Islam and kept it a secret for two years. The same news story also has quotation of his party members which seem to be supporting the news.

This news story also has further details and references to the Swiss media about the truth in the story.

He is quoted to have said: "Islam offers me logical answers to important life questions, which, in the end, I never found in Christianity,"

The following YouTube videos also related to the same story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5slyTbmK…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGpydvd4T…

This link has list of important people who converted to Islam.

A Church decorated with bones of Muslims- another conspiracy theory?

2011-04-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

I have previously written posts about the conspiracy theories that go round in emails. I received another such email today which claimed that a church in Czech republic is made from bones of Muslims. I tried to search Wikipedia for this and there was no such reference on the page for this church. The Church is believed to have been built between 1200 and 1400 and I am never heard of any genocide of Muslims in those terrorises. Muslims receive such emails and forward them without verifying the truth in them. I am giving the link below at wiki Islam which has several conspiracy theories listed that are popular among Muslims.

Besides, one email goes round with images of a grave and a claim that it is the photograph of the grave of Prophet (peace be upon him), while in reality is the mausoleum of Moulana Rumi, in Turkey. You can check more about this mausoleum on this link.

Wiki link for the Church of bones

List of Muslim Conspiracy theories on WikiIslam

Apostasy and its Classification in Yusuf Al-Qardawi's View

2011-04-18T02:12:00.001-07:00

This article has very detailed analysis of apostasy and views of Yusuf Al-Qardawi on the subject. It can be read on this link

The case of starving sisters and rights of neighbours

2011-04-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

The Qaseem region in Saudi Arabia is known as a stronghold of religious conservatives. In addition to several stories of religious conservatism, many complain that satellite dishes are not allowed by most residential building owners. One person told me that in that area if a Muslim man is absent from obligatory prayers for two times, his neighbours will visit his home to check if he is alright. This practice is very annoying for those who do not pray or believe that praying at home is alright.

If you look from a different perspective, five time prayers is an excellent way to keep in touch with your neighbours. If the neighbours are concerned about one another’s health, it is a healthy sign, not an intrusion. In Islam the rights of neighbours are so high that a person well verse in religion cannot ignore them. The following hadith has the essence of the importance of right of neighbours in Islam. I have mentioned below a link that has more hadith on rights of neighbours

Ibn `Umar and `Aishah (May Allah be pleased with them) reported: Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "Jibril kept recommending treating neighbours with kindness until I thought he would assign a share of inheritance".

[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

I reflected on this when I was watching TV yesterday that covered a news story of two sisters in Delhi who had been very educated but became mentally ill. They withdrew from the society after their father’s death and had not means to feed themselves. Their neighbours did not care what may be wrong with them. Anyway people in metros, especially in Delhi are very cold hearted because there are many examples when people do not assist a dying person to reach hospital and in one case a woman’s body was run over by several car in a busy road as nobody cared to stop. In this case of two sisters, they had borrowed some food items from a neighbourhood store and when they could not pay the bills, the store owner stopped lending them more food. After seven months of alienation, their neighbours reported to the police that something is wrong here and the police had to force open the door and found two starving, mentally ill sisters. One of them died the same day due to starvation.

It also reminded me about Islamic practice that every woman should have a male guardian. This practice is enforced by law in Saudi Arabia and many believe it subjugates women. If the male guardian of these women, their brother, was held accountable for their situation, they have probably not be starving.

I can also related the burqa or niqab with the same story. I do not believe niqab is obligatory and I have written a post on it. However, niqab does give women their privacy they need. If a women wears a niqab and goes begging, nobody can know who she is. It is extremely important for women because most women who are seen respectable from their neighbours cannot dare to go begging, even if they do not have anything to feed themselves of their children.

Link for Further reading on rights of neighbours in Islam

Healing power in Quran

2011-04-13T01:31:00.000-07:00

Like spiritual healing, bodily healing also rests with Allah. Besides, seeking the cure from the practice. We learn from the following verses that it is Allah who cures all diseases:

"Who has created me, and it is He Who guides me.

"And it is He Who feeds me and gives me to drink.

"And when I am ill, it is He Who cures me.

[Al Shu'araa 026:78-80]

There are many verses in Quran which mention that there is healing in Quran. These verses are as follows:

O mankind! There has come to you a good advice from your Lord (i.e. the Qur'ân, enjoining all that is good and forbidding all that is evil), and a healing for that (disease of ignorance, doubt, hypocrisy and differences) which is in your breasts, – a guidance and a mercy (explaining lawful and unlawful things) for the believers. [Yoonus 10:57]

“And We send down from the Quran that which is a healing and a mercy to those who believe...” (Al Israa 17:82)

...Say: "It is for those who believe, a guide and a healing... (Fusilaat 41:44]

There is healing in the first chapter of Quran. You can refer the following links for more details. There is also healing in the last three chapters of Quran. When retiring to his bed every night, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) would hold his palms together, blow into them, recite the last three chapters of the Qur'an and then wipe his entire body as much as possible with his hands, beginning with the head and face and then all parts of the body, he would do this three times." [Saheeh al-Bukhaaree and Muslim]

Aisha said “when someone fell ill from the Prophet’s family he did ‘nafath’ on them (to blow three times over them reciting the two chapters of seeking refuge -Soorah al-Falaq and Soorah Naas). When he himself fell ill, the illness which lead to his death I would (similarly) do ‘nafath’ on him and would wipe him with his own hands for it was more blessed than my hands. [Saheeh Muslim]

The Prophet used to seek refuge from the jinn as well as from the evil eye until Surah al Falaq and An Naas were revealed. Afterwhich he would recite these two for those purposes. [Tirmidhi 1984]

There is also healing in the last four verses of Surah Mu’minun, as we learn from the following hadith:

Ibn Masud recited (Surah al Muminun from verse 115 to 118) in the ear of an afflicted person and the man was cured. The Prophet said, 'What did you recite in his ear?'. Ibn Masud told him, and the Prophet said, 'By He in Whose hand lie smy soul, Were a believing man to recite it over a mountain, it would have melted'.
[Fath al Qadir 3/502]

For further reading

Islam religion

The Quran is a cure