Blog Archives
What is the ruling on raising these kind of banners?
Question to Shaykh Al-Faadil Abul-Abbaas Aadil Mansoor:
As-Salaamoe alaikoem wa-Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu o Esteemed Shaykh may Allaah Bless you..
What is the ruling on raising these kind of banners? And saying it is the Banner of Islam and the Banner of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم or saying it is the seal of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم which he used to seal his letters with, which he wrote to the Sahabah and Kuffaar?
Let’s Strive to be Islamic Writers
Source: blog.islamiconlineuniversity.com
By: Shifnas Bint Thamiem
Islam is a wonderful religion. It makes you stand out from the crowd in a special manner. From the way you consume water to the way you sleep, you are being taught to make every action different from everyone else. Yes, Islam even teaches you how to fulfill nature’s call. The way you smile, the way you eat, the way you walk, the way you gaze, the way you talk, the way you cry and many more actions you perform – all these have already been prescribed to be under certain rules and regulations. So the way you admire or give birth to any literature should also be performed under certain guidelines.
Spoken Word Poem: Age Of Ignorance (Video)
We are living in a time were most of mankind are in a state of lost may Allah guide us back to the right path ameen. This poem was written by brother Saefullah.
The Importance of Studying History According to Ibn Khaldun
Sources: http://lostislamichistory.com/ | http://shamela.ws/
Ibn Khaldun was a scholar of history, economics, sociology, and historiography. His summary of history and particularly its introduction, the Muqaddimah, is seen by many as the basis for modern historical philosophy.
“Know that the subject of history is a noble science that can be very beneficial only if it gives us a proper understanding of:
1- Previous nations’s morals and character
2- The stories of the Prophets
3- Government and politics
For whoever embarks on the study of history, they will end up in a beneficial imitation of the mindset of previous peoples in the subjects of religion and worldly matters.
This subject is dependent on studying numerous sources, understanding diverse subjects, having the best insight and analysis, and being able to verify the truth of sources as they can deviate and be filled with mistakes. Historical research must not be dependent on bare copying of all reports. It should instead be based on an understanding of local customs, politics, the nature of civilization, and the local conditions of where humans live. You must also be able to compare primary and secondary sources, as they can help you differentiate between the truth and falsehood, helping derive conclusions that are believable and honest.”
Translation by Firas Alkhateeb.
The opening page of a 15th century copy of the Qur’an from the Timurid Empire
Written in the Muhaqqaq script with gold lettering. The margins include commentary on the verses.
One of the oldest existing manuscripts of the Quran: the Sana’a Manuscript (IMAGE)
Source: http://lostislamichistory.com/
One of the oldest existing manuscripts of the Quran: the Sana’a Manuscript. Carbon dating has determined it was written before 671, which is just 40 years after the death of the Prophet ﷺ.
Whatever is Written for You Will Come to You
Source: OnIslam.net
For those of us living in the West, and especially for those of us who were not raised as Muslims, qadar(divine will or destiny) is a difficult topic to grapple with.
The Western world is based on the idea that we make our own destiny and that we should push to reach our goals no matter what it takes. And this attitude has led to some amazing advances and discoveries that benefit mankind greatly.
But, as Muslims, should we consider this attitude impetuous?
How should we understand the destiny Allah has ordained for us?
And how do we explain the fact that we have free will?
As Muslims, we know that whatever is written for us will unerringly come to us, whether it is fortune or calamity. But we also know that we must put forth the effort to try to reach our goals. Islam does not prohibit the Western “go get ‘em” attitude, it only tempers it with wisdom.
| More on Fate and Destiny in Islam
– Allah’s Plan for You and Me – Turn Your Lemons Into Lemonade – Do You Accept Destiny for Finding Peace? |
Destiny and Free Will
Some of the wisdom Islam affords us is in knowing that what comes to us would never have missed us and what misses us would never have reached us. And understanding that means we should not grieve for or exceed the limits set by Allah for something that is not meant for us.
So how do we understand free will if Allah has already ordained everything?
First, we have to understand that Allah is all aware. It is a grave mistake to try to apply our limitations to Allah, the Limitless. We have a linear understanding of time. We move along in time not seeing what will come next. But time, a part of the creation, does not apply to the creator – Allah.
Allah has created the future and understands intimately what it holds, just as He has created our past and present. Even though Allah knows and has ordained what will happen in the future, we still have free will in the present. We have the will to choose our good or bad intentions and actions whether or not they attain the intended result.
For us, not knowing what the future holds motivates us to act, to take advantage of our free will. For many of us, if we already knew what the future held, we would never use our free will to strive for anything. And our striving to do good is what we are rewarded for.
Allah tells us in the Quran:
{Whoever works righteousness — whether male or female — while he (or she) is a true believer (of Islamic Monotheism) verily, to him We will give a good life (in this world with respect, contentment and lawful provision), and We shall pay them certainly a reward in proportion to the best of what they used to do (i.e. Paradise in the Hereafter).} (16:97)
At the same time that we have free will to strive for the good in the future, we should not over step the limits set by Allah. If we are to strive to build an orphanage, we will be rewarded for our intention and efforts to do that righteous deed, even though the end result is from Allah.
But what if we steal money to build that orphanage?
It was the will of Allah that the orphanage would be built, with or without the stealing. What was the use in mixing bad intentions and deeds with good?
There is benefit in Western mentality of “get it done” but there is wisdom in leaving off the “at all costs”. This is where the Islamic attitude lies. It is a balance of knowing you can try your best to do your best while not exceeding the limits set by Allah because the result is already written.
In hindsight, we can see the truth of “what is written will come to you” in parts of our lives where the opposite has happened. That is to say we all have times in our lives where we worked toward something but did not attain the end result no matter what we did.
The Story of the Shrimp
As I look back through my life, I can find many examples. Like the time my husband and I invited a sister and her family over for dinner. The dish I was planning to make was my favorite from my Creole culture and it called for shrimp. I was hoping to share the delicacy with the sister and her family.
As I prepared for the meal I intended to serve, I made a list and went to the store. When I got to the cashier to pay for my selections, something very strange happened. As the cashier rang up all my items, she could not ring up the shrimp.
The cashier tried and tried and tried again to ring up the shrimp so that I could pay for it, but the register would not recognize the purchase. In fact, the computer recognized all other items but when the cashier tried to ring up the shrimp, the computer did not even recognize that anything was being done at all.
In the end, I had to put the shrimp back and quickly think of something else to make that didn’t require shrimp.
When I told the sister what I had planned to cook for her family and what had happened at the store, she informed me that she was deathly allergic to shrimp. I had no idea about her allergy, and looking back on the strange event, what happened made complete sense. I was never meant to cook that meal, to serve it to her, and she was never meant to be harmed by it. It was the will of Allah and nothing could have changed that.
Allah willing, I will still be rewarded for my intention and efforts in trying to make the meal that I loved for the sister and her family. But Allah had written that I would not serve that meal and nothing I could have done would have changed that, even if I had exceeded the limits set by Allah to obtain the shrimp.
What is meant for us will come to us. What is not meant for us will never come to us. And there is no error in what we have missed out on or what we have received. This is the will of Allah. But it is up to us to strive with good intentions obeying the limits set by Allah.
There is wisdom in taking a path between “fatalism” and “at all costs”.
The wisdom of Islam lies in the middle path.
The Islamic Heritage of Brazil
Source: http://iternchange.wordpress.com/
By: Hakeem Muhammad
Over $12 billion was spent on the preparation and construction of the World Cup despite the fact that 1 in 12 people in Brazil live on less than a dollar a day – these are people mired in poverty. To make matters worse, the construction that went into the World Cup resulted in the displacement and systemic eviction of many low-income Brazilians. These great injustices, where so much wealth is being poured into the financing of a mere frivolous sporting event without any regard for the economic plight of the poor, says much about the corrupt state of the world and the misplaced priorities of the elite. The Qu’ran informs us that wealth should not merely circulate among the wealth of society. M. Bugaje notes that:
Of all beliefs, ideologies and civilizations, Islam stands out distinct and unique in its resilience. No matter the damage it suffers, no matter the opposition and obstacles, no matter the length of time, it always reasserts itself. Islam has consistently and persistently stood on the side of the weak and the oppressed, checked the excesses of the corrupt and the strong and insisted on the establishment of justice, equity and fairness in human society. It has thus offered the weak and the oppressed the only real and lasting hope and the corrupt and the unjust the only real and unflinching check.
Islam once played a key role in motivating people to fight for social justice in Brazil 
against the abhorrent shackles of plantation slavery, and in the midst of modern forms of slavery it is time for Islam to reassert itself against social injustices. Before discussing the Islamic Heritage of Brazil, it is necessary to discuss the history of Islam in Africa. Uthman Dan Fodio was a prominent scholar and political leader who had firmly established Islam in Hausaland, and his army consisted of disciplined Islamic scholars, many of whom had committed the Qur’an to heart. However, in battles that were lost, captured soldiers would be sold off to Europeans through the transatlantic slave trade by the existing corrupt elite.
These followers of Uthman Dan Fodio would eventually end up in the Western Hemisphere (in Brazil, more precisely) and they would bring with them their religion: Islam. The Portuguese described the Muslims as “exceedingly spirited and resolute individuals” as well as “the most intellectual.” The Europeans would eventually learned that they tried to make the wrong people slaves. Two years before the death of Uthman Dan Fodio, his Hausa followers in the Western Hemisphere began their rebellion.
PASS THE KNOWLEDGE (LIGHT & LIFE) 