Islam's Green

Al Hidaayah Publications on line at last!

At last one of the great Sunni UK publishing houses / book stores goes on line,
Al Hidaayah.
They have a classic line up of authentic books and lectures for sale and have themselves published some excellent titles.
Fill your library here!
They also seem to have a few of my DVD's under that section for those who keep requesting where they can find such materials from!

Ramadan Karrem is here, alhamdulillah. How to make the most of it.

May Allah bless you all my dear readers in this most blessed month.

If any one of you has had the chance to attend the courses run by Al Kauthar institute you'll know why I recommend those who haven't to do so.
This is an email I received from the director Sheikh Tawfique Chowdhury which Ireally thought we could all benefit from.

Assalamualiakum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu,

I would like to take this opportunity to greet you, to congratulate you on the advent of blessed Ramadan, to make my sincere dua for you, to express my deepest friendship and love for you and my sincere care and support for you and your families. I make a sincere dua to Allah alone that He makes this month a means to ease your worries, that he replaces it with goodness and transforms your world into a Jannah in this life. May Allah give you what your heart desires and amaze you with His bounty and grace.

I wanted to share with you my answer to something that people ask every Ramadan, namely: How can I make this Ramadan special? The answer quite simply is: By developing good habits in this month.

We all have habits that we may not like or that which may not be liked by Allah. As a result of this, we feel its negative effect in our lives. By its nature, a habit is basically something ingrained and hardwired in our mind. The best way to get over it, is not to try to stop the habit straight away, rather by starting and working on a counter habit. If you want to lose some weight for example – don’t start by stopping to eat, rather start developing a habit of regular exercise and then slowly work on cutting down on the food. This is more effective, more lasting and will probably bring in the result you want. You see, it is difficult to overcome habits that are and have been long standing, but relatively easy to start new ones.

I wanted to share with you a process that I follow to work on starting a new habit that counters a bad habit that I have. It is the following 6 steps. These steps are essentially taken from the simple Islamic process of making repentance – firstly remembering the sin, regretting it by thinking about its implications, making a resolve to not repeat it, doing a good deed that will wipe out the sin, then surrounding yourself with ways of doing good and closing all doors to the bad and lastly being thankful to Allah for having guided you to the good and remembering that if you do the sin again, it is only going to be a new sin and not harm your previous repentance inshaAllah. In the context of habits, the steps are as follows:

1. Firstly, make yourself aware of that negative habit, when, where and how frequently do you happen to do it. How can you effectively make yourself aware of it? By telling others to spot it, by monitoring yourself as closely as possible, by jotting down every time that you remember that you did it. Example: Habit of missing the sunnah prayers.

2. Then, Ask yourself about what impact that habit has on yourself and on yours perception, personality and relationship with Allah. The more you focus on this, the more this becomes the lever of change. Example: Constantly missing the sunnah prayers makes a person a miser with his ibadah, not love the sunnah, legally removes his status as being just, removes the reward of having a new palace built for him/her in paradise daily – the more you focus on the problems of this bad habit, the more it will make you want to change it.

3. Next, focus on how willing and committed you are to making a change and on doing a counter habit. Think over the fence into the future – how it would be to not have the negative habit and to replace it with a positive one.

4. Then write a specific action that you will do to counter the habit and start the good habit. Be very specific and try to make it regular so that it actually becomes a habit. Remember – a habit is something that you do regularly! Example: specifically you will come to prayer 10mins early so you can do the sunnah prayer on time.

5. Next: Support yourself to develop that new good habit. How? Hang around good friends, put up reminders anywhere and everywhere, get your family and friends to support you by remind you about it.

6. Lastly: Reward yourself every time you do a good habit and don’t be too hard on yourself if you end up doing the bad habit here and there. Remember: Habit happens!

Remember that Allah loves those simple deeds that are done regularly rather than the major ones done irregularly. I invite you to use the above to remove a negative habit that you may have and then to develop a new good habit in this month. I am also adding here the link to the Ramadan Checklist that I had made last year to help you develop and stick to that good habit: http://www.alkauthar.org/downloads/Ramadanchecklist.pdf So make this Ramadan special by starting a new habit of making dhikr constantly; reciting surah ikhlas 30 times a day so you get the reward of reciting the whole Quran 10 times a day; helping one poor person with a daily meal; sponsoring an orphan; getting up for qiyamul layl in the last third of the night every night of Ramadan; making dua only for Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa salam etc. Whatever habit you work on, believe me, you will certainly find tremendous barakah and become truly beloved to Allah, if you focus on making it less adhoc and more regular and constant – a true good habit!

Lastly my friends, if there is anything at all that I can do to help you or to make Ramadan more enjoyable for you and more successful for you, then please do not deny me the honour of aiding you in it. Please don’t hesitate to email me if you wish, or use the forums for any non-personal issues and questions that you may have: http://forums.alkauthar.org I hope to see you again sometime soon inshaAllah.

Wassalamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu

Tawfique Chowdhury

Director

Mercy Mission and AlKauthar Institute

The Day my Daughter Died: Iraq, Caliphate, Jihad and Terrorism.

I was her really, the way it happens in dreams sometimes; you jump from body to body. Before I was her I was me and I was trying to get into school, at my age, and my son was there thinking he might get back into education too. If dad can do it so can I, but this was a strange land! They spoke to me in English during the interview, but the signs were in Hindi, or was it Bengali? I wanted to understand what those squiggles meant, and I looked and stared as if looking and staring might make them magically form into something that made sense, like English, but they didn't. I will understand, I thought to myself. And what were those men saying? They were running and talking and I looked and stared. Maybe the rhythm of their run and body language would translate it all for me, but it didn't. It was the beginning of the feeling of loss and confusion. How easy life is when you can understand, how hard when you are in a place where you have to live, by choice or not, where everything is different. How kind a host that provides you with the information you need when you arrive, in a language you can understand.

It was some time after then that I became my daughter. My hair is all a-tatters, my face dirty and my dress torn. My mother had gone to her apartment in town. I was missing her and wanted, needed, to see her., and so I decided I would find her. How simple the minds of little children, how naive, how dangerous for them. So I set off down the street. Not a normal street mind you, although it was once, and not a normal place, although it was once. This was a street of devastation, full of rubble from destroyed and collapsed buildings and wreaked cars. I stopped under a large piece of rubble at a cross roads. It was dark. Dark meant curfew. Curfew meant danger. I knew it. Death came with curfew. I looked back, and the refuge from where I had come was just over the roundabout down the street, but down the street had taken me time of climbing and scrambling and I realised also that I had no idea where my mum's apartment was. I had a bright blue plastic "magic wand" in my hand and looked at the round foam ball at the top and if it might signal me how to get there, but it just looked wet and ripped. I didn't even bring the mobile phone. Then I was scared and worried. I sat on the rubble and looked ahead, and there was a boy with a gun. He must have been twelve or thirteen, twice my age. I froze. Maybe if I didn't move at all he might not notice me, but he was staring right at me. I could see him squint, he was only yards away, maybe it was going to work. Then he pointed his gun right at me and moved towards me. His arm shot forward and stiffened as if he was about to shoot, but then a sort of look of relief came across his face, like "it's only a little girl" and he put down the gun. I mean actually put it down on the rubble next to me. I looked at the gun and he picked it up again, but his arm was hanging down by his side.

"Will you take me home?" I asked

And as he took my hand he was as if he was my brother, and he told me about his father, who had left for Jordon. He left in tears. He could not stay here in Iraq, there was no peace, not even to say his prayers. He could not bear to be away from his prayers, and he needed to be in place where he could go to the mosque and pray. Here you could not even do that. He would be back for them. And as we talked like magic we were soon back at the round about, and I began to feel safe. We stepped out onto the road, and then there was a man beside me in a tattered and dirty white jelabiyya.

It was then they came, a whole convey of them, in a whole collection of cars. Some green jeeps and black and white saloons. It was the police, the government, with the occupiers. We ran the three of us. The man held my hand.

I could see the eyes of police and soldiers. Eyes of evil intent. It was curfew, anyone found out after curfew were like rats, or worse. Death was their fate, or worse. We ran and cars accelerated towards us, tipping as they carved round the roundabout. Men with guns, jumping out of cars before they had even stopped.

Now I became the man in the jelabiyya. I was too slow, too tiered. I was pulling the little girl along. We ran between the cars as men jumped out. I wanted to run faster. We were past them, but only just, and then the firing began. I couldn't hear anything, there was just the fear, the desperation to get away. Then I had the girl in my arms, I had picked her up but she became limp and heavy. Before I had not even felt her weight, but now I knew she was dead. Dead in my arms. My daughter, dead in my arms. I loved her although I never knew her before this instant, but we were family still. Our mother was daily fear and our father nightly curfew. I wanted to put her down and check, see how, where she had been shot, to make sure she was dead, but I knew. It was no use. She was too heavy. I dropped her and was running faster. The soldiers were kneeling down, taking aim. I dived to the ground taking the boy with me. I was in the dirt and dust and we'd be safe here for a moment more.

Now there were others firing at the soldiers, police and Americans. They had forgotten about us now. Their attention was on the attackers. We crawled on our belies towards the shelter of the ruins and rubble. I could see a sniper from the resistance. Normally I would hate them. Not today. His face fixed to the scope. He was aiming for the Americans, for their necks. I knew he would hit his target, and I was glad, glad that the bringers of death and misery to my life would die, yes I was glad.

The phone rang and I wake up to "Sue from the surgery."

I tumble out of bed, reeling from sleep and my mind numb from the dream. I sit on the stairs, my head in my hands. I am still the man in the dusty, dirty torn jelabiya, and as I walk down the stairs, tears begin to well up in my eyes.

Right now my daughter is dead, my daughter is dying, my daughter is about to die.

As I sit taking in the banality of my life compared to suffering of the world, my head reels with self reproach as I think about my dream. I reflect on myself conceit and lack of compassion and empathy as I recall the trauma of not understanding. How easy to say about those who have come here to England for whatever reason, "You must learn English!" I've been a Muslim for twenty years and I still don't understand Arabic properly!

And I think about the suffering, my dead daughter. She is my daughter. We are connected, the people of iman, connected in a way that is beyond even the ties of blood. They claim this is a fantasy, some sort of fake kinship. Say what you like. Prattle away in your ignorance! Those who live it and taste it know the truth of it, and your words make no difference.

Then I remember Allah. He, the Mighty, Forgiving and Wise. I ask Him to help the helpless, to relieve the suffering of the sufferers, and tears flow for my daughter again. "Could you not stop all of this Allah? Is it not easy for you?" But I know that He has a noble purpose, a plan, that the life is a test, and test means nothing without all this, and that "all this" is our doing, our choice, the cruelty of humans upon humans, who have left the perfect guidance of our Creator to follow our whims and fancies.

I think about my daughter, lost in my dream, a dream, but still so real. I remember her innocence, her sweetness, and I can understand! Allah wants her back. Of course He does, why should He not! She is hers, we all belong to Him. And I smile, a smile that spreads through my body.

I look up and see a book on the table. The gold letters twinkling in the morning sunlight, as if they are smiling at me, inviting me: "Come, take my hand!" So I walk over and pick up the Quran. I look at the pages and see in the mass of them a small oval opening, like some eye to a greater truth, so carefully I put the edge of my finger to that eye, and I open.

"Allah has purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs is the garden of paradise. They fight in His cause and slay and are slain: A promise binding on Him in truth, through the Tawrah and the Gospel and the Quran, and who is more faithful to his promise than Allah? Then rejoice in the bargain which you have made. That is the supreme achievement.

Those that turn in repentance, that worship Him and praise Him and travel in His path, that bow down and prostrate themselves in prayer; that enjoin good and forbid evil; and observe the limits set by Allah. So proclaim the glad tidings to the believers."

At Tawbah 111-112

How can one who sees and feels this suffering be quiet and still? Yet where is the avenue for action? If we have abandoned jihad, if the kings and presidents and armies and nations who are equipped with the material means to fight a legitimate war do not do so, some of those who feel and care and are tormented by this suffering, who live the reality of my dream every day, will use any means, even the illegitimate ones. This is because the nature of the human being cannot tolerate injustice and oppression for long. Often the response to injustice is itself unjust.

The Prophet and his companions suffered oppression, injustice, torture and deprivation in Mecca, and Allah ordered them with patience. They were prohibited from a violent response. Perhaps part of the reason for that is the response in these circumstances cannot by its nature be a measured one. They could have conceivably taken swords, arrows or daggers and randomly started attacking people in the markets or setting themselves alight and running into people's houses, but this never was the way of Islam. Suicide bombing is just that, suicide, and when it is combined with the murder of civilians it is just that, murder. There is simply no precedent and justification for it, but that does not mean that we can or should ever close our eyes to the why. There are reasons why people do such things, and unless we remove the causes we will never cure the disease. One of the differences between the Muslims in Mecca and our situation today is that in Mecca there was no means for a measured, legitimate response. Today there is. The Muslim nations have armies, weapons, and material recourses. We have the means to respond to those occupying Muslim lands, but then they are not really Muslim lands anymore, they are "sovereign nation states". Thus we are divided, and ruled.

The call for the Muslims to be united under one Caliph, and to be governed by the Shariah is not the invention of Islamists. It is and always has been the position of orthodoxy. It is also common sense, and God's guidance is always the sensible way, even if we don't always seem to see it. When we abandon jihad, we are open to destruction, and legitimate, effective jihad, depends on some degree of unity and cohesion in the Muslim nation. Most of us want to live in peace and get on with lives and let others do the same, but the fact is that there are always those who's hatred, greed or perceived need drives them to deprive others of what they have. Every nation has armies, not necessarily out of desire for war, although for some that might well be the case, but rather because the consistent lessons of human history have taught us that even if we do not desire war there are others who do. If you are militarily too weak, you are always open to the potential of attack from those who are stronger. Jihad is thus the strength of the Muslim ummah, when it is abandoned the ummah is open and exposed.

This is exactly what the Prophet stated when he prophesied that: "Soon the nations will gather together to take from you in the same way you invite others to share in a feast."

"Is this because we are few in numbers?"

"No, you will many like the foam on the sea, but you will be like the rubbish that is carried by the flood. And Allah will take the fear of you from the hearts of your enemies and into your hearts he cast wahn."

"What is wahan oh Messenger of Allah?"

"Love of life and fear of death."

The noble religion of Islam has prevented the killing of women, children, the old, and from desecrating the churches and synagogues. In Islam you fight the fighters, soldier against soldier, armies against armies. But what happens when the soldiers do not fight? When they stand by and watch tyranny, or even worse they are themselves the vehicle of it? Then who will fight jihad? If those who can fight legitimately refuse, those who can only fight illegitimately will rise.

Jihad is not terrorism, but terrorism is a result of abandoning jihad.

Salvation in Kochi

In mid May (how time flies) I made a short trip to India to attend and speak at an exhibition there organised by Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen. Now I must admit that I was rather concerned about the mujahideen part, and was beginning to think that I had inadvertently accepted an invitation from some extremist entity, or perhaps they were a throw back to days of resistance to the British Empire! When I arrived after a thirteen hour flight at Kochiairport and was met by the brothers there it was one of the first questions I asked on the forty five minute drive from the airport to the hotel Abad Plazain the the town centre. I was reassured with a laugh. The term was meant in the broadest sense, and that they worked with the full co-operation of the Indian government. When the organisation was established in 1950 they had to fight a sea of ignorance, mostly with in the Muslim community. Apart from the call to worship Allah alone, and to abandon the shirk of grave and saint worship, they had to combat the prevalent attitude that women should not be educated. In fact according to "Imams" of that time, they did not even allow women to read the Quran! They spearheaded the education of Muslims in Kerela, which now has one of the most educated Muslim populations in India.

Kochi is the commercial hub of the state of Kerela, but not the capital. That honour goes to Thiruvananthapuram. Kerela itself is pitched as a tourist destination, and certainly if tropical humidity and palm trees is your thing, this might be the place to go, not that I had the time or energy to explore much. The exhibition itself was was very similar in concept and layout to the Peace exhibition in Chenia and Bombay, however the emphasis here was on the lectures. Also staying in hotel was Hussein Ye and two brothers from a dawa centre in Bahrain which whom I spent most of my time.

The exhibition was massive and very well attended. On Sunday the queue to get into it was two and a half kilometers long! My two llectures where not so well attended. One was on the Seerah of the Prophet and the other on Dawa.

There were occasional moments of confusion as I was shuttled back and forth to the hotel, but on Saturday we had some time free whilst waiting for my lecture, so we took the car for a quick drive round the city. Our driver was a Christian named, and decided that he would take us to a local Catholic shrine. When I told him that I used to be Catholic he became some what subdued. He told the brothers with me that he had no idea, but it was the start of some conversations that took place as we drove back and forth from the hotel to the exhibition. He asked a very intelligent question: "What is faith?" I was momentarily taken aback by this, and was not expecting it in the least, but was in fact delighted by it, because it allowed me to get to the very heart of the discussion straight away.

This is of course a very important matter that many people involved in discussions about different religions, and indeed with atheists ignore. You see what Jude (the driver) and I understood by faith was something quite different. I explained that for a Muslim, for someone who was Muslim by conviction rather than fate of birth, faith meant believing something quite believable with proof. That there is a Creator, and God is One and Unique, is entirely rational and believable. That the Quran is word of God and that Mohammed is the Prophet is also something that can be established through some objective evidences. Through this we can have faith that is truth. Jude's understanding of faith was somewhat different. It meant to believe in something completely without question, or doubt. That was fine, I responded, but how do you know your faith is true, what criterion or means do you use to know that your faith is right and another wrong? The discussion went back and forth through translation, and became quite animated. Jude could only keep affirming his faith, and I just kept going back to the point, but how did he know?

We we soon arrived at the hotel and he had to go, but Ahmed Shaz, the translator between us, phoned me later in the hotel room saying that Jude wanted to talk to me and he was going to convert me back to Catholicism!

Well, we met in the hotel lobby that evening and had a long discussion. It emerged that he and his wife had been trying for a child for many years and then one day he prayed to Jesus and then his wife conceived. This is what his faith was based upon. Well of course I said that that was fantastic, but the problem here was what did it really prove, because a Muslim or Hindu might, and in fact do claim exactly the same type of experience. So who is right?

Then I explained about the Oneness of Allah. Why this and this alone had to be the basis of faith. That faith should be reasoned this way, and how the idea that Jesus is God contradicts this basis by asking one to believe an impossibility, that something is Eternal and mortal, finite and infinite, needy and sufficient both at the same time.

Well he didn't take shahada, but we certainly left on good terms, and he admitted that he had a lot to think about!

 

Really scary Americans!

Just keep watching this until the end.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gtwKRM1fOFY

The Cursed Generation

I found the article below under the title of "The cursed generation."

It is amazing how much we are still rooted in our past, despite the elightenment and the industrial revolution and the pretence of democracy, we still seem to live in a version of feudalism. Certainly the great land owners and feudal lords have had their powers whilted away, but it has only become possible through decreasing dependance on agriculture. There was a time when most people in the West were serfs. A serf was in everything but name a slave, tied to the land and his or her fuedal Lord. Their life was spent working and indeed fighting on behalf of the feudal Lord.  The land could never produce enough to free them selves from the dept to the Lord, and indeed in time of trouble he was the only recourse they had. Thus they became more and more indepted and tied to the master. The indusrial revolution saw serfdome replaced by something perhaps even more permicious, the mill and factory worker. For them the company owner became the new, master. The wages they earned was often not enough to pay for accomadation and food, and an increasing dept cycle enslaved them to the factory. This method of control is of course still going on in third world sweat shop facories. Perhpas we thought that we had escaped such control. It seems not. These days a knew variation of the feudal Lord has taken over. The Bank!

All praise is due to Allah who has warned us and kept us away from riba and all its derivatives, and from dept and its snares. May He guide us to a live a life within our means, and upon gratitiude to Him, the Exhailted.

read these verses if you like:

"Those who eat Riba (usury) will not stand (on the Day of Resurrection) except like the standing of a person beaten by Shaitan (Satan) leading him to insanity. That is because they say: "Trading is only like Riba (usury)," whereas Allah has permitted trading and forbidden Riba (usury). So whosoever receives an admonition from his Lord and stops eating Riba (usury) shall not be punished for the past; his case is for Allah (to judge); but whoever returns [to Riba (usury)], such are the dwellers of the Fire - they will abide therein.

Allah will deprive usury of all blessing, but will give increase for deeds of charity: For He loveth not creatures ungrateful and wicked."  Quran 2:275-6

Worse off than ever before

By Naomi Caine

June 10 2008

With our fast cars, handheld computers and digital television sets, it's easy to feel better off than the previous generation. But there's more to prosperity than electrical goods - and in many ways today's 30 and 40-somethings are worse off than their parents.

A quick glance at house prices helps you understand why. Property values have soared by 171% over the past 10 years. The average house now costs £191,556, up from £70,696 a decade ago. It's a lot of money on any measure, but especially when you consider that wages have not kept pace, rising an average of 50% over 10 years.

High price for family homes
High house prices put the squeeze on family finances. The typical house now costs more than six times the typical salary, according to figures from the Halifax. If you look back a generation, the average property was worth about 2.8 times the average earnings.

If you earn below the average income, it's a struggle. More than 70% of towns are unaffordable to key sector workers. First-time buyers are also finding it hard to get onto the housing ladder. The average house is now beyond the financial reach of a first-time buyer in 466 out of 483 towns in the UK. No wonder the number of first-time buyers fell to about 300,000 in 2007 - the lowest level since 1980 and a 44% drop on 2002's figure of 532,000.

Mortgage slaves
Soaring house prices equal big mortgages. So people in their 30s and 40s are slaves to their home loan. And that makes them slaves to their jobs. But the job market has changed over the past 25 years. Unemployment is thankfully low at below 800,000, a drop of 125,000 over the past year.

But we don't enjoy the same occupational certainty as our parents, many of whom took a job for life. Nowadays we work on the edge, where short-term contracts, freelancing and part-time work are the norm. The lack of job certainty makes us financially precarious. It also means that many of us must forgo the comfort of sick pay, holiday pay and maternity benefits.

Few final salary schemes
We can't even look forward to a decent pension when we retire. Our parents are probably the last generation to enjoy the gold standard of pensions - a final salary scheme. Only about a third of final salary schemes are now open to new members, a figure that is expected to decline. So, our pension won't be linked to our earnings and underwritten by our employers. No, we will have to rely on the stock market to fund our old age.

That's if we bother saving into a pension. More than half of adults don't contribute to any kind of pension, according to the Prudential 2008 Retirement Savings Report. People who choose to save, have halved their contributions over the past 12 months to an average of £144.57 a month.

Inflation issues
If that were not bad enough, it's getting harder to make ends meet because prices are rising. The government's official rate of inflation jumped to 3% in April and is expected to stay above the target of 2% for at least the next two years.

The driving forces behind the rising inflation rate are higher energy and food costs. Wholesale gas prices, for example, have more than doubled since the middle of 2007, prompting the big energy companies to announce gas and electricity price hikes at the beginning of the year. Then there's food. World agricultural prices rose by more than 40% in the year to January 2008. Over the past 12 months, average prices for bread, biscuits and cereals have shot up 8.5%, an all-time record.

Higher taxes
Bigger tax bills don't help. The typical council tax bill, for example, has risen more than 90% over the past decade. In fact, total tax receipts have almost doubled over the past ten years from £289 billion in 2006-07, when Labour came to power, to £520 billion in the last tax year. The increase in the tax take means that families on average paid £5,600 more in tax in real terms in 2007-8 compared with 1996-7, according to figures from the Institute of Fiscal Studies.

What's our solution to our financial problems? We borrow money to make ends meet. So, we take out a bigger mortgage to unlock some of the equity in our home. We run an overdraft, arrange a personal loan or spend on a credit card. We even turn to our parents for help. More than 10 million adult children have "sapped" their parents' savings, according to a report from Scottish Widows. The average amount given by parents to their offspring is £12,300, causing a total savings sap of £55 billion.

Debt mountain
It all adds up to the biggest debt mountain on record. It also adds up to a whole lot of trouble for the next generation. If we have big debts but little or no savings, what's left for our children? How can we give them a financial leg up if we are already on our knees? And they might need our help.

We have lived through an economic boom. But the storm clouds are gathering. The credit crunch dragged growth down to 0.4% in the first three months of the year, the slowest pace for three years, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. The annual growth rate is now about 2.5%, compared with 2.8% in the last three months of 2007.

Official Treasury forecasts suggest the economy will grow by between 1.75% and 2.25% this year. But its predictions are more optimistic than those of most economists. The Bank of England predicts annual growth could drop to as low as 1% over the next two years.

It could get very bloody if house prices continue to fall and unemployment starts to rise.

No legacy worth having
It's not much of a legacy is it? It seems our children will pay the price for our debt-fuelled consumer spending spree. But if they won't inherit any wealth from their cash-strapped parents, at least they might inherit a more responsible attitude to money. Let's hope so, for all our sakes.

Shahada

by Fatima Barkatulla

www.muslimmotherhood.blogspot.com

Brother ARG I have to tell you about this because I've learnt many da'wah points of wisdom from you and other Du'at:

The message of the Prophet reaches another heart:

Ma sha Allah a few weeks ago in Birmingham I had the opportunity by the grace of Allah to take a sister's Shahadah. It was the first time somebody repeated the Shahadah after me and so I found it very moving as I had been making du'a that Allah would give me that chance. It went something like this (I've called her 'D'):

D had been told that she could attend the tarbiyah programme to get to know more about Muslims, so she was sitting in the tarbiyah programme hall and had been observing us teaching salaah, wudhu and recitation of Suratul Fatiha with Tajweed. Then after my talk I was walking past her when it looked like she wanted to say something. So I went over to her and asked her if all was OK.
"How are you finding it?"
"Good...yeah....er...I just wanted to ask you what a person has to do to become a Muslim."
"Oh." I said, "you think you might like to?"
"Well, I don't really know how to do anything and I don't know if I could do it all..."
"Well you know, it takes time and slowly slowly you learn more everyday and do more. You can't be expected to do everything all at once or know everything all at once. Look at us....even we are still learning." I said. She nodded. "So look, do you believe that there is only One God and He alone deserves to be worshipped?"
"Yeah" she said...she had been reading and learning and she was definitely sure about that one.
"OK, and do you know about the Prophet Muhammad?"
"Well, I've read about him"
"OK, so are you convinced that he was a Prophet of God. The last messenger?
"Yes."
"You accept that?" I was getting excited by now!
"Yes."
"Then you are already a Muslim. You just need to declare it so that you acknowledge it to God and to us Muslims. That's the Shahadah, you're testifying that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah, the One and Only God and that Muhammad is the messenger of God." She nodded sweetly. "So, D, are you ready? You don't have to do it on the microphone or anything."
A pause.
"The most important thing now is to declare what you believe. So that you'll be counted as a Believer. Because we don't know what could happen to any one of us when we walk out of this place tonight. May Allah protect us but we don't know when death will come."
She looked down, nodding and then raised her head and said "Yeah. I'm ready."
Then I sat down next to her. Some sisters had figured out something big was going on and had begun to congregate around us. Some sat next to her.
"Could you explain what I have to say first."
"Yeah. You say Ash hadu Allaa ilaaha illallah. Wa Ash hadu anna muhammadan rasoolullah. Which means, I bear witness or I testify that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah. And I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. OK?" She nodded. "What was your religion before this?" I asked.
"Nothing" she said. I'd asked her, to make sure that if she had been a Christian, that she definitely believed that Jesus was a Prophet and not the son of God. Sometimes Christians find that concept hard to let go of, but in her case it wasn't an issue.
"OK so repeat after me. We'll say it in Arabic and then in English."
Then she repeated the Shahadah after me in Arabic. In the middle of it I couldn't stop the tears flowing and had to stop for a moment to gather myself. I found it so moving at that moment to feel that the message of the Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) had indeed reached so far, over the world and that we, in the middle of Rum (Rome as the Arab's called Europe at that time) were sitting here taking a persons declaration of faith in the message that that kind shepherd, the orphan who became the leader and liberator of Arabia had come with (sallallahu 'alaihi wa sallam) How truly momentous each and every Shahadah is. It reminds me of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam at his farewell pilgrimage when he was so careful to ask the people gathered at Arafah "Have I conveyed the message?" And they replied in unison "Yes!" And he said to Allah "Oh Allah bear witness!"

And in this Hadeeth: One day when the Prophet returned from a journey and went to Fatima’s house, Fatima welcomed him and kissed his face, his mouth and his eyes and wept. “Why do you cry?” the Prophet asked. “I see you, O Rasul Allah,” she said, “Your colour is pale and sallow and your clothes have become worn and shabby.” “O Fatima,” the Prophet replied tenderly, “don’t cry for Allah has sent your father with a mission which He would cause to affect every house on the face of the earth whether it be in towns, villages or tents (in the desert) bringing either glory or humiliation until this mission is fulfilled just as night (inevitably) comes.”

How I wished I could tell the Prophet how far his message had come! "Yes! Oh Prophet of Allah...you indeed conveyed the message! The whole world testifies!"

Then she completed repeating the Shahadah after me in Arabic and then in English. By now a large crowd of sisters had gathered around us. All silently observing this miracle. The miracle of Hidaayah or guidance. How Allah turns a person towards Him and guides them and makes them into our Sisters and Brothers in Islam. The sisters embraced her and called out Takbeers. One sister who had embraced Islam just a few months earlier said to her "You've made the right decision sister. You won't regret it!"
I encouraged the sisters not to allow this to be the end of their love and enthusiasm for this sister. That is was our responsibility to open up our homes, to really make this sister a member of our families.

Some responsible sisters took on the role of being mentor to her and exchanged email addresses and phone numbers. We emphasised Salah to her (even just doing the actions and reciting some basic things like Subhan Allah, Alhamdulillah and Allahu Akbar during salah until she learns it properly and keeping away from Major sins....insha Allah over time, by keeping to Salah she will become stronger and do more and more.

I felt like it was the best day of my life so far and when I got home I did Sajdah of Thanks to Allah.

The Journey to Allah

 

 

For those of us who are castrated by the lack of adequate Arabic, we'll have to keep relying on translators to bring us ilm in a language we can understand. We are fortunate to have a vast range of materials available to us in the English language, some of which is so badly translated that it might as well have stayed in Arabic, or is so verbose that one needs a dictionary at hand to make head or tail of it, but on the other hand we have the likes of Abu Rumaysah who's translations of some of the works of ibn Rajab al Hanbali strike a nice balance between academic propriety, the poetic and comprehensible. There is whole series published by Daar us Sunnah, but I am referring here to a most valuable treaties called "The Journey to Allah".

The book begins with four hadith that bear somewhat the same meaning, and the rest of the treatise could be looked at as an explanation of those invaluable words of guidance from the Prophet saws.

The hadith reminds us of what ibn Rajab calls "the great principle", and the first five chapters of the book deal with "the great principle" and how to understand and apply it. "The great principle" is that our deeds are not enough to save us from hell fire or attain paradise. What is of upmost importance is our humility and seeking forgiveness of Allah and our being grateful to Him. So this is the path that we should tread on our journey to Him, the exalted. The deeds that are most beloved to Allah are those done continuously, even if they are few, and we should be steadfast, balanced and through moderation we will reach our goal.

Bukhari records on the authority of Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet saws said "This religion is easy, none makes it hard upon himself except that it overwhelms him; therefore be firm, steadfast, and balanced; upon which have glad tidings! Seek help in this by journeying to Allah at the beginning of the day, at the end of the day, and portion of the latter part of the night."

This is a hadith that needs to be expounded from every minbar and talked about in every gathering, because the destructive effects of the madness that is sold by some as deen these days is in danger of consuming us all!

The book was a personal timely reminder for myself at a time when my exertions in travelling a dawa had begun to take a server toll on me, and I was feeling very "burnt out". The danger at this stage is that one can easily abandon the good that one was upon, where as the solution lies in adopting a balance approach from the outset.

The final chapters talk about the excellence of drawing close to Allah and the types of reaching Him, in this life and the next, with a warning of those things that can destroy our deeds and leave us in poverty on the inevitable day we meet our Lord.

This is a book to be read and re-read, remembered and acted upon. A veritable treasure in a mere 70 pages!

Palestinain Film Festival

Not that I'll have time to go, but it looks great.

http://www.palestinefilm.org/2008/

Go, encourage others to go, because if Ken is out and Boris in because we didn't bother to vote I'm not sure we'll be having many more of these!

Also check this out and tell me what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqbQWxHIn4

I found it very emotional. Stragely enough a brother sent it to me as proof of Islamophobia, which we can't deny yet I saw it more as a hope for justice and truth!

Us and Them

 

I've just decided to start reading the Hobbit. I had a go a while back whilst in my late teens when I was ploughing my way through books and trying to read all the classics, but I never got beyond the first page. I'm not sure why, because it is indeed delightful.

I'm not really sure I have time to read such books, and I probably shouldn't. Rather I should engage myself in some more profound activity. Perhaps that's why I've put the book down and opened my laptop and decided to pen some words about a thought that came to me whilst reading about the dwarves and Gandolf coming for tea sitting down and having a merry time. Bilbo is asking if they will all stay for supper, and I'm thinking "It's time to pray asr!"

And there is it! No, not beginning a new paragraph with "and", but there it is: them and us. The Kaffir, the Muslim, the difference. You see it's clear that Hobbits are very hospitable creatures, which indeed is a noble trait that Tolkien attributes to his imaginary creatures, but so were the pagan Arabs, ever hospitable indeed, in fact legendarily hospitable. In fact you will find virtually every nation and group of people has some worthy characteristic or another, but this is difference between the believer and the infidel; prayer. Not just the occasional prayer, mind you, like those who cry out only in times of trouble but regular like clockwork five times a day, just a part of my normal everyday life because it is the centre of my life prayer. It the type of prayer that breaks up every part of the day and directs it toward the Mighty King of all creation, and imbibes the love and worship and fear of Him in one's life. It's the type of prayer that makes life centred around Him, since knowing Him is the very purpose of existence, and the one who knows Him understands that our willing servitude, our praising and asking Him is beloved to Him, and through that we become His beloved and His "awliya".

Now if we Muslims hate adventure like Hobbits hate it because it disturbs the regularity of their suppers, we would be like that because it disrupts our prayers, and regular reading of the Quran and attending the masjid, because as a Hobbits joy is in food and ease ours is in prayer and worship. This is the gulf between them and us. A gulf about what we love and why, what we do and why.