Eid Al-Adha

Salam all :)

Alhumdulillah, we are now in the month of Zul-Hijjah. One of the sacred and blessed month in Islam. The month which all of us are encouraged to perform more good deeds especially in the first 10 nights of Zul-Hijjah.

Alhumdulillah, Eid Al-Adha is approaching and we have another chances in our life to meet another Eid Al-Adha. 3 more days to Eid. Eid Al-Adha is not just the day that there are sacrificing of animals and pilgrims performing Hajj at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, there are many important historical moments on these days that we should know. The sacrificing and performing Hajj are also the reminder for us to get closer or be more conciuos (Taqwa) as Prophet Ibrahim (AH) were tested during these days in the past.

Allah (SWT) has mentioned in the QurAn:

"And, when he (his son) was old enough to walk with him (Prophet Ibrahim), he (Prophet Ibrahim) said: "O my son! I have seen in a dream that I am slaughtering you (offering you in sacrifice to Allah). So look what you think!" He said: "O my father! Do that which you are commanded, Insha' Allah (if Allah wills), you shall find me of As-Sabirun (the patient)." As-Saffat : 102

Slaughtering his own son was the test from Allah (SWT) to test his Taqwa. Previously, there were another test to leave Hajar (RA) and his son at Makkah which at that time was a complete desert. As we can see, test after test, yet Prophet Ibrahim followed His command without any doubt. Along the way to slaughtering his own son, Shaitan tried to whisper him not to perform the slaughtering. Then Prophet Ibarahim threw stones to Shaitan. This has become one of the rituals in Hajj (Jamrah on 10th-13th Zul-Hijjah). Almost slaughtering his own son, Allah has revealed to him to slaughter animals instead of his own son. This practice has continued until now.

So, slaughtering in Eid Al-Adha should be done with the consciousness of Prophet Ibrahim's story to remind us. It should bring us closer to Allah as we become more Taqwa.

"Then, when they had both submitted themselves (to the Will of Allah), and he had laid him prostrate on his forehead (or on the side of his forehead for slaughtering);
We called out to him: "O Abraham!
You have fulfilled the dream!" Verily thus do We reward the Muhsinun (good-doers).
Verily, that indeed was a manifest trial.
And We ransomed him with a great sacrifice (i.e. كبش - a ram);
And We left for him (a goodly remembrance) among the later generations. " As-Saffat : 103-108

Eid Mubarak, Kullu A'min wa Antum Bi Khair

Wabillah Taufiq Wal Hidayah
Wssalam

Funny

Salam to all :)

Another reminder taken from somewhere unknown :), but i think it's a good one.

Funny

Funny how a $100 'looks' so big when taken to mosque, but so small when taken to the mall.

Funny how long it takes to pray Taraweeh for an hour, but how quickly a team plays 90 minutes for soccer.

Funny how long a couple of hours spent at the mosque seem, but how short they are when watching a movie.

Funny how people can't think of a doa to say when they pray, but don't have difficulty thinking of things to talk about to a friend.

Funny how people get thrilled when a football game goes into extra time, but complain when a khutbah is longer than regular time.

Funny how hard it is to read an ayat in the holy QurAn, but how easy it is to read 100 pages of a best selling novel.

Funny how people want to get a front seat at any game or concert, but scramble to sit in the back of a mosque.

Funny how hard it is for people to learn the simple shariah, well enough to tell others, but how simple it is for the same people to understand and repeat the gossip.

Funny how people believe what the newspaper mentions, but question what is written in the QurAn.

Funny how everyone wants to go to heaven provided they do not have to believe, think, say or do anything.

Funny how you can send a thousand jokes through email and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding Allah, people think twice about sharing.

Wssalam

The extreme level of contradiction, the place we live

Salam to All :)

Alhumdulillah that I have another chance to post something on my blog. InshaAllah I will keep istiqamah to continually post something regardless of how short or simple it is.

If we take a look at the world current situation, we will see there are so many contradictions in humans' conditions.

- There are rapid advancements in term of technology, yet more problems and issues are arised. (environmental issue, new diseases, ..., ...).

- There are rapid advancements in term of technology to improve our living condition, yet it turn our heart to be harder that we spend less time to help people in need around us.

- There are new technologies that help us to get things done faster, yet we have less time to improve our spiritual condition, knowledge and performing the Ibadah.

- There are so many rich and millionaire people who just dont know how they should spend their wealth, yet there are many people live with a dollar per day.

- There are so many Muslims nowadays, yet they have no influence to become the world leader.

- There are many natural resources and wealth belong to Muslim, yet we still see other Muslims got killed without any support.

- There are many ways to access to Qitabullah Wa Sunnah (Hadith) and it's just one click to get new knowledge, yet it seem so hard for us to gain new knowledge, internalize it and practice it.

- There are so many good things we can engage in, yet we love to engage in something that are harmful, ambigious whether it's halal or haram just to satisfy our nafs.

- There are more history for us to learn from the past, yet we fall into the same mistakes like repeating cycle.

- There are ..., ..., ...

The list goes on.

"Evil (corruption, sins and disobedience) has appeared on land because of what the hands of men have earned (by oppresion and evil deeds) , that He (Allah) may make them taste a part of which they have done, in order they may return (by repenting to Allah) " Al-Rum : 41

From above ayah, a tafsir [1] explains the meaning of "that He (Allah) may make them taste a paort of which they have done". It means Allah will try them with the loss of wealth, souls and fruits as a test and as a punishment for what they have done.

[1] www.qtafsir.com

Many loss we have seen on the earth; earthquake, storm, tsunami, diseases. However, do we take it as lesson, seek forgiveness and try to improve our condition to overcome contradictions above? Dont wait until the day where we'll become part of the loss. We might be part of casualty and when that time comes, there will be no more chance for taubah.

Wabillah Taufiq wal Hidayah

Wssalam

The Basic Rulings of Shariah

Salam All :)

Another lesson from the Lecture by Imam Zaid Shakir is about basic rulings of Shariah. The 5 basic rulings in Shariah which are

- Wajib; compulsory to fulfill, engaging it leads to reward while negligence leads to punishment.

- Sunnah; encourage to fulfill, engaging it leads to reward while no punishment for negligence.

- Mubah; not compulsory to fulfill nor prohibited, as well as no reward nor punishment.

- Makrooh; encourage to avoid, avoiding leads to reward while no punishment for engaging it.

- Haram; compulsory to avoid, avoiding it leads to reward while engaging it leads to punishment.

An interesting point is brought up; one should try to improve our spirit and behavior to fulfill more sunnah and all wajib obligation. Of course we still can engage in the mubah or the makrooh. However, by engaging them, do we sacrifice our time for performing the sunnah? Shaitan conspires us to engage in the Haram. If he can't, he conspires us to engage in the Makrooh or the Mubah so that we spend less time in engaging the sunnah. This leads to missing of opportunities of getting more reward. Shaitan would be more than happy when all of us achieve less reward by keep influencing us to engage increasingly less in the Sunnah and more the Mubah and the Makrooh. May Allah (SWT) protect us and provide us Hidayah for us to engage more in the Sunnah.

Another interesting point, many current Fatwa have issued new rulings about smoking. Smoking is considered Haram due to its medical harm to the body. Look around at our Muslim brothers. Do you think it's time for us to do something?

Wabillah Taufiq Wal Hidayah

Wssalam

Following Madhhab or Qitabullah wa Sunnah?

Salam to All :)

Bismillah

After watching youtube lecture by Imam Zaid Shakir about the 4 Madhhab, I think it's useful for everyone to know about this issue. So, I will try to summarize what I've learned from watching that lecture. Maaf for any mistakes and please do feel free to tell me.

1. Madhhab are something like the refinement of following Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)'s Sunnah in order for us to follow it with more details and clarity. The parable of this is like when we want to watch the top of the mountain. If we watch it without any instruments, we still see the top of the mountain. However, with the binoculars we can see the top of the mountain in more details. In this example, binoculars is a tool for us to see clearer picture, same as Madhhab which is a tool for us to follow Prophet (PBUH)'s sunnah better.

2. Someone may ask, why we need a tool like madhhab. Well, if we look at the nature of the QurAn and Hadith, we will see that some parts are absolute certainty in meaning while some parts are not. The certain parts, of course there are no disputes. However, for the parts that there are rooms for interpetration, the different interpretations lead to different rulings. We have to understand that difference in interpretation is fine if it's based on valid reason. The nature of QurAn and Sunnah dictates that even if we follow those, there will be different of legal opinions.

Some of the example from the QurAn, "And divorced women should wait (for another mariage) for the period of "Salasata Quru' " . The word Salasata means 3 (feminine) is undisputable but the word Quru', there are different interpretations. Some said it means 3 mensturation periods, some said it means 3 periods of purity between 2 mensturation cycle. If you want to know more about this, watch part 5 of the youtube.

So, madhhab try to interprete these questionable sections which requires a lot of knowledge of Arabic literature, Arabic Grammar, Balaqhah etc. It is indeed difficult task and only Mujtahid can do. Not us. Hence, we need certain tools for us to understand Sunnah better without confusion due to wrong interpretation.

3. For the nature of madhhab, it's not just from one person (Imam shafi'i, Imam Malik, Imam Hambali, Imam Hanafi ) but there are more than 100 if not 1000 mujtahidun who agreed on each school of thought and there are persons in each generation to continue the narration until now. So, it's not just about one person where there might be room for errors. However, the madhhab is the collective work of more than 100 Mujtahidun who narrated from one generation to next generation till now.

4. Next question might arise, are there any other duties of current mujtahid other than narration and maintaining the correct narration? To answer that, we need to know the basics of laws and rulings. The first 2 basics are indeed QurAn and Sunnah, another 2 basics are Ijmah and Qiyas for certain issues that never stated in QurAn and Sunnah. The last 2 basics are the duty of every generation. For the example in current generation, to conclude the rulings on drugs or smoking. Ijmah is the collective work of mujtahid to discuss and come up with a conclusion of ruling. Qiyas is the derivation of rulings from existing rulings; such as alcoholic drink is haram (from QurAn), so the rulings of drugs are haram which both cases share the same reason of harming our body.

In conclusion, we should have a mindset that there is nothing wrong with having different opinion as long as it based on valid reason (correct methods of interpretation). 4 Madhhab is the collective work of more than 100 mujtahidun from generation to generation. It is acceptable for us to follow but we have to bear in mind that Madhhab is a tool for us to follow QurAn and Sunnah better. With this, in the end we still follow QurAn and Sunnah InshaAllah. InshaAllah we wont be considered as "taqlid" or follow someone blindly. As long as there are dalil (proof) to support our actions based on 4 Madhhab which are based on QurAn and Sunnah, inshaAllah we still be considered as not following someone blindly.

The youtube link for the lecture, "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxVjEYxAumc&feature=related"

May Allah guide all of us towards the right path.

Wabillah Taufiq wal Hidayah

Wassalamualikum Wrt Wbt

Is it considered safe when we have fulfilled pillars of Islam?

Salam to all :)

Alhumdulillah that I have a chance to continue to share part of the little knowledge that I have. Hope that it is useful and a strong reminder for everyone.

Let's pray and Do'a that we continuously receive the guidance from Allah until the day we leave this world.

As per the title above, what would be your answer? The reason I ask this is to remind all of us. It is mentioned in the QurAn

" On the day when the hypocrites - men and women - will say to believers: "Wait for us! Let us get something from your light.!" It will be said: "Go back to your rear! Then seek a light!" So a wall will be put up between them, with a gate therein. Inside it will be mercy and outside it will be torment.

The hypocrites will call the believers: "Were we not with you?" The believers will reply "Yes! But you led yourselves into temptations, you looked forward for our destruction; you doubted (in Faith) and were deceived by false desires, till the Command of Allah came to pass. And the chief deceiver (Shaitan) deceived you in respect of Allah." Al Hadid : 13-14

I would like to stress on the part that I underlined, a tafsir [1] explains even further that the hypocrites referred to in the ayah had actually performed solat, congregational prayer with fellow Mu'mins, fasted, given zakat and performed Hajj. BUT YET, they were not considered believers, worse still, not even muslim but HYPOCRITEs.

[1] http://www.qtafsir.com/

Let's look back upon ourselves, we perform solat everyday, fast every year and so on so forth. Are our conditions the same as what is mentioned in the QurAn? Nastagfirullah wa Nauzubillah. Let's us remind each other so that we are not considered to be a Munafiq.

Further explanation regarding the conditions of munafiq above;

"

*21 That is In spite of you claim to be Muslims, you never believed like true and ,sincere Muslims and remained suspended between belief and unbelief. You still had your interests attached to disbelief and the disbelievers and you never gave yourselves up wholly to Islam."

*22 Tarabbus (from which tarabbastum of the Text is derived) means to wait and tarry for an opportunity. When a person is unable to decide which of the two alternative ways he should choose but stands and waits to consider which way should be more favorable for him to follow, he is involved in tarabbus. The hypocrites, had adopted the same attitude during the critical time of the conflict between Islam and un-Islam. Neither were they siding with disbelief openly nor were spending their energy to support and help Islam with full conviction. They were sitting on the fence, waiting to set which party in the conflict became dominant, so that if it was Islam they may join it on the basis of their affimlation of the faith, and if it was unbelief they may side -with its supporters taking advantage of their neutral position in the conflict.

From http://www.islamicstudies.info/tafheem.php

"

Let's reflect, sometimes it is so hard for us to contribute something in the cause of Allah, although we have the means. While in some cases to contribute in His causes means to help Muslim brothers from invader, yet it is difficult for us to contribute. By neglecting to help Muslim brother from being treated unjustly, isn't that the same as taking no side which is characters of Munafiq during the critical time? Compared to the underlined statement above, are there any differences?

Hope this is a strong reminder that it's not just about performing the 5 pillars of Islam. Islam is a way of life that leads to a peaceful world. Although the current world condition is far away from peaceful condition, it is still our duty to do our best regardless of result. Let us try harder to develop ourselves and bring back the principles of Islam.

"Has not the time come for the hearts of those who believe (in the Oneness of Allah - Islamic Monotheism) to be affected by Allah's Reminder (this Qur'an), and that which has been revealed of the truth, lest they become as those who received the Scripture [the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)] before (i.e. Jews and Christians), and the term was prolonged for them and so their hearts were hardened? And many of them were Fasiqun (the rebellious, the disobedient to Allah)." Al Hadid : 16

Wabillah Taufiq wal Hidayah

Wassalamualikum Wrt Wbt

Do we ever realize that the best miracle on the earth is beside us?

Salam to All

Bismillah

It has been a long time since my last post. I would say I've been busy with Dunia Life till the extent that I forget to share what I've read and learned. Astagfirullah. Such a sad thing and inshaAllah I will try harder to keep istiqamah on sharing whatever little knowledge I have.

Talking about Miracle or Mua'Jizat, many of us would think of Mu'Jizat of Prophet Musa (AH) or Prophet Esa (AH). Why? Maybe because of the fact that it was something so clear that we can visualize, something really extra-ordinary and hard to believe.

However, those were the Mu'Jizat that only applied to particular group of people at particular time. This means only Israelites who were with Prophet Musa (AH) could really experience this Mu'Jizat and the people after that can only just visualize. For prophet E'sa as well, only his nations at that time could experience his healing miracle.

For the last nation, we do have Mu'Jizat. Even better, it is always relevant until the end of the world. We always can feel and experience this miracle that we have, not like Mu'jizat of earlier prophets. The sad thing is not many people realize that. Even worse, we are really near to this miracle but yet we cannot feel or experience it. Sometimes we read it but yet we are not able to understand and internalize it. At this point of time, I hope you know what I'm talking about, the Greatest Mu'Jizat on the earth, the Holy QurAn.

Sometimes when u want to internalize something, you better know its background. So, to understand that the QurAn is the best Mu'jizat, maybe it's better to know some facts about the QurAn.

- At the time when QurAn was revealed, Arabic literature had reached its peak level. The language was written in high standard. However, the level of Arabic language in QurAn was even higher where it is mention in the QurAn that Allah (SWT) challenged all Quraish at that time just to come up with one short Surah. Yet, even they collectively tried to do it, they were not able to do it regardless of how fluent and master their Arabic literature was.

- Regardless of time, the QurAn is always true. So many facts that were stated in QurAn long time ago but sciences can just proof it recently.

- With the QurAn and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Jahiliyah society in Arabian peninsula was completely changed to become one of the leading society in the world in just only 23 years. Only 23 years.

There are many facts that show how miraculous the QurAn is. Due to my limited knowledge, I wont be able to continue the list but inshaAllah I will try to learn more and do it in the future.

The key point is do we ever realize it? After spending a lot of time reading it, do we even try harder to learn more about it? "QurAn is the Guidance from Allah, only for those who have Taqwa" (Al-Baqarah : 2). ONLY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE TAQWA. Have we reached the state where we feel QurAn is indeed a guidance for us?

A Shaik mentions that to appreciate the QurAn
- Firstly, read it with correct Tajwid
- Secondly, to understand it and internalize it
- Lastly, to make it alive by practicing it

So, brothers and sisters, let's us try harder to study the QurAn, understand it and practice it. Do not wait and say it is beyond our capability and it's only duty of scholar. We will be questioned in the Hereafter and we have to be accountable for our own action whether we have put effort to learn more about the QurAn, we can't keep rely on anybody. Don't let the QurAn be just a book for us but let try harder so that the QurAn becomes our reminder and guidance for the successful life in Akhirah.

"This is the book (Al-QurAn) whereof there is no doubt, a guidance to those who are Al-Muttaqun"

Wabillah Taufiq Wal Hidayah
Wssalamualikum Wrt Wbt