My new Blog: http://amirprofile.blogspot.com
Last updated: Friday, April 14, 2006
BismillahiRahmaniRaheem. Alhamdu lillahi rabbil Aalameen.
http://amirprofile.blogspot.com
http://amirprofile.blogspot.com
In case if y'all didn't know... I got an awesome job in nor-cal (san francisco) alhamdulillah and
will be moving there (emeryville) saturday 12/3 inshAllah. AND,
i'm getting married dec 25th in charlotte NC inshAllah. Things are happening fast, make dua and forgive me if i have wronged any of y'all.
make lots of dua!!
"45. Nay, seek ((Allah)'s) help with patient perseverance and prayer: It is indeed hard, except to those who bring a lowly spirit,- 46. Who bear in mind the certainty that they are to meet their Lord, and that they are to return to Him. " -- (Quran 2:45-46)
http://www.maniacmuslim.com/Moon_Decision.html
That's a good laugh... HAHAHAHAHAHA
My sister sent it to me... good stuff
Ramadhan Mubarak.
It's Quran season, OH YEAH!!
Disbelief in God is a belief
http://www.guidancemedia.com/videod.php?s=2
Click on "Burdah Night - An Evening of Recitation and Praise"
The man u see crying is Habib Ali Al-Jifri ... a major yemeni alim.
:-)
smile. it's sadaqa.
sadaqa = "charity"... so the idea is that if you give somebody a smile that is in need of being smiled at (and everybody is in need of being smiled at), you have given charity. Beautiful concept if u think about it.
i've got a good reason to smile, will announce later inshAllah.
"34. Verily the knowledge of the Hour is with Allah (alone). It is He Who sends down rain, and He Who knows what is in the wombs. Nor does any one know what it is that he will earn on the morrow: Nor does any one know in what land he is to die. Verily with Allah is full knowledge and He is acquainted (with all things)." ( Surah Luqman Ayah 34: http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/quran/31.htm#34 )
You also never know what state u'll be in when you die. http://www.40hadith.com/40hadith_en.htm ( see hadith # 4 )
(i had more written here but i deleted it... why? ... cuz i wanted to :-P )
Check this out: http://q-rihla.blogspot.com/
Its from the madinah deen-intensive... seems like one sister took her laptop to the rihla and is blogging ... mashAllah, beautiful.
SubHanAllah... our deen is so beautiful, may Allah show the Americans the beauty of this deen. Ameen yaa Rabbul Alameen.
"45. Nay, seek ((Allah)'s) help with patient
perseverance and prayer: It is indeed hard, except to those who bring a lowly
spirit,- 46. Who bear in mind the certainty that they are to meet their Lord,
and that they are to return to Him. " -- (Quran 2:45-46)
http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/quran/2.htm#45
Beautiful Ayahs. Man, i'm just gonna have to buckle down, it aint easy, but it wasn't meant to be easy, "laqad khalaq nal insaana fi qabad" Surely man was made to work and toil.
The thing is that we ourselves have to be in a state of istiqaama before we can expect non muslims to accept this deen at our hands. Most Muslims aren't there. Allahuma ya muqalibal quloobi thabbit qalbi ala deenik. Oh Allah, Oh changer of hearts, make my heart steadfast on the deen. .... Imam Zaid told me to make that dua 100 times... I later found out its from a hadith (possibly slightly differently worded in different riwayaat)... but it's a good dua for everybody... just handle a tasbih in ur car.
I sent this email out to some brothers, thought i'd share (not that anybody reads my profile, haha, but JIC):
I was reading about sabr, and ran into this article, and I think it sums up shaykh hamza yusuf's situation VERY nicely, mashAllah (at least see the bold part):
here's the link where I got the following excerpt from: http://www.alinaam.org.za/library/char/sabr.htmThe most important Sabr expected of Muslims is the determination, endurance, fortitude, perseverance, steadfastness and constancy that the Muslims must demonstrate in fulfilling their duties of establishing Islam in their own lives, in their communities and in their societies with a vision to implement Islamic world order of peace, justice and security over the whole globe. This work -- which all believers are obligated to undertake firstly to establish a global community of believers and then to maintain it is a very perilous work beset with hardships, challenges and risks. It requires a lot of endurance, fortitude, tenacity and perseverance (Sabr). Practising Sabr In the Islamic work is the basic requirement of faith.
The Islamic work has two distinct stages that call for two kind of Sabr, each relative to a different stage of Islamic work.
3. The first stage of Islamic work is spreading the word of Islam, seeking commitment of people to the Islamic work and organizing and mobilizing those who respond positively to the Islamic Da'wah. This work continues until the majority of the people of a selected society have become workers of the Islamic movement resulting in the establishment of an Islamic state or kingdom of God.
As soon as a believer sincerely dedicates himself to and embarks upon an organized Islamic mission, tests and tribulations start in full force. The more dedicated and effective the efforts are, the harder the persecution is. The persecution starts with verbal abuse progressing to psychological, financial and physical abuse, imprisonment and sometimes leads up to attempts on one's life. Depending upon who is the object of Da'wah and where the Da'wah is being given, the perpetrators of the persecution can be people who call themselves Muslims or they can be non-Muslims. Some of the problems are even caused by those who are companions of the Islamic workers. It may be due to their lack of experience or vision, or due the gullibility or influence of negative propaganda of the people against the Islamic movement.
The negative reaction from non-Muslims is understandable and expected, but opposition from 'Muslims' is very discouraging, injurious and problematic. As soon as a believer stands up for Islam, people expect him to be perfect according to what they think Islam is about. The moment the worker differs in any respect from their viewpoint or the moment he makes a small mistake which every human being is prone to, all his selfless efforts and the high standard of his character are disregarded and forgotten. People overlook their own major sins but the Islamic worker's small error of judgement becomes the biggest concern in the world. Backbiting, baseless accusations and false stories start flying against the person all over without even his knowledge. His words are twisted, motives doubted, and even the best of the action flawed. The most popular accusations are usually: 'He is greedy for leadership or fame' or 'he thinks he is better than others' or 'he has caused disunity in the community'. But this is just the beginning, If the Islamic worker remains strong and continues his work with dedication, it becomes much more nasty.
The Sabr during this work, at the basic level which is the corollary of faith, is to continue to work steadfastly for the mission, enduring all the verbal, physical and financial abuse as well persecution, torture, oppression, imprisonment and loss of respect, wealth and property without retaliating, fighting back, and showing any weakness, reduction in efforts or giving up. Sabr at the level of Ihsaan is enduring the aforementioned abuse and persecution, while continuing to wish for the guidance and well being of the people with care and conviction, without slowing down in the missionary work and enthusiasm; without making any compromises whatsoever; and without hating the tormentors.
Muslims trash talk too stinkin' much. Especially on shuyukh. Why can't we be thankful to Allah that he gave us such amazing speakers from such different backgrounds (to be able to appeal to the diversity in this country)?
I love ustadh muhammad alshareef's story that he tells about Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal. He says that imam ahmed had the opinion that eating camel meat breaks the wudhu. And somebody asked him, what if a man makes wudhu in front of you, eats camel meat, and then leads prayer... would you pray behind him? And he got mad scholar/prophet style and said, "Don't you think i would pray behind Imam Malik?!" Then recited the verse about diversity, that Allah created people from different tribes and nations so that they may come together, and that this act of peacefully coming together is a way to glorify Allah. And he said that the person who truly understands this verse understands that it's really about people who have different mindsets coming together, and that their coming together is a glorification of Allah.
It's like if u networked a PC, Mac, and Linux machine -- it says a lot about the Network Admin... similarly by demonstrating the possibility of Muslims of diverse backgrounds coming together, it distinguishes the deen of Allah, and, by extension, glorifies Allah.
If ppl could understand this concept -- whether sufi, salafi, or "movement" -- this ummah can really go somewhere, but until then, even the "religious" people are going to be stuck in this rut.
Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani, aka "Gosh Pak" (as known to memons), said, "Oh people, prove your sincerity to the Quran by putting it into practice, not by arguing about it."
i'm listening to shaykh hamza's commentary on his shaykh's (murabit al haj)
fatwa on taqleed, i'm 1/3rd of the way thru it and its already blowing my mind.
subHanAllah! here's the fatwa:
http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/misc/mhfatwa.htm
and here's the cassette i'm listening to: http://www.alhambraproductions.com/shopping/index.php?id=135
see A257 at the bottom
I have it, let me know if u wanna listen to it w/ me or something.
http://www.madrasaprogram.com/audio/general/2005/truthful_speech.wma
subHanAllah, this is soooo good. MashAllah, shaykh hussain abdul sattar is so awesome!
"To Delay Tawbah is a wrong action" -- Shaykh Hamza (Rights and Resp of marriage CD 11)
Which doesn't mean that u can't make tawbah up until ur death bed, but it means that once u recognize ur sin, u have to redress the wrong and ask Allah for fogiveness right away without delaying. You can't be like, "ok i'll make tawbah tomorrow"
Shaykh Hamza says in the beginning of Rights and Responsibilities of Marriage CD 10 that:
Sayyidina Ali ibn Abi talib said that:
The world is six things: it's something u eat, it's something u drink, it's something u wear, it's something u ride, it's something u smell, or it's something u marry. And look at each one of them. The highest thing u'll eat is the vomit of bees. The highest things u will drink is water and every animal drinks that. The highest thing u'll wear is silk and its the excretion of worms. The highest thing u'll smell is musk and it's the mucus of donkeys. The highest thing u'll ride is a horse and upon it men are killed. And the thing u'll derive pleasure from in ur marriage is the meeting place of where u urinate from.
This is the second time i'm listening to this series, i could have sworn he said after the Imam Ali quote, "and to top it all off, humans walk around all haughtily with feces stuck in between his two sides."
Then he gives commentary on the ayah in surah hadid about the farmer who gets all excited about the green plants, but then the plants become yellow (and when is it that it exactly became yellow, fuzzy logic), and then whither away. And this is how humans are, we're in our twenties now so its all good, then we'll get old before we know it, then become one with the soil again like the plants... Ibn Qayyim (rahimahullah) said: "O people who take pleasure in a life that will vanish, falling in love with a fading shadow is sheer stupidity" (got this quote from umar farukhi)
Mufti Abdul Rahman ibn Yusuf gave a lecture on the importance of knowledge and the people of knowledge on Saturday. I had been bumping around looking for an answer of the following that is not so inclusive that it allows in deviants such as those so-called-scholars who approve of Amina Wudud's deviancy, but not so exclusive that ulema of different backgrounds that are on quran/sunnah/ijma get their scholarship questioned, etc.
So I asked him to "Define what a 'scholar' is." He gave the following two criterion:
1. The person has studied full time for a few years
2. The years spent studying must have been under another scholar who has studied under another scholar (all the way up to the Prophet pbuh). This does not mean a Tariqa necessarily.
I think that's a really good assessment, with this general setup, indo-pak, egyptian, syrian, and even scholars from madinah university, al azhar, etc are included. However all those crazy progressives are thrown out because they don't have the lineage. I should also point out that Mufti AbdulRahman seemed to be giving a summary, this was not a comprehensive list.
This profile is actually somewhat organized, unlike the usual from-the-heart-smack-down-style of my profiles.
(nice concise subtitle, huh?)
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf (further) clarified his stance on tasawwuf. People have been calling him a sufi, but this is incorrect, he is not on any tariqa (sufi path of sulook with a salasilah, like dhikr-level building, etc).
Some quotes of shaykh hamza, these quotes are actually pretty close to what he said, and independent (ie not dependent on context) unless specified otherwise. All quotes from May 28-30, 2005:
"People who attack the people of tasawwuf do it with plenty of justification, the sufis are a mess, the fuqaha are a mess, the mutakalimeen are a mess, the whole ummah is a mess." ... "we are at the end of a 1400 year line" ... "just do the best you can." -- Shaykh Hamza
Which is consistent with Imam Zaid's quote from "Islamic Civilizations: Myth or Reality" recorded on 9/11/2003 from www.ibn.net where he says, "Not everything that says 'tasawwuf' on it is Islamically sound, and anybody who approaches tasawwuf that way is setting themself up for a lot of trouble. But there are many sound and beneficial practices that come out it."
So from that shaykh-hamza-quote I take that Shaykh Hamza acknowledges the fact that stuff has crept into tasawwuf over the last few hundred years that are incorrect and have no basis. In fact a sister in the Q/A asked soemthing about the naqshbandi tariqa, shaykh hamza knew about silent dhikr, he seemed to approve of it, but also mentioned about the indo-pak ulema that there have been introduced things into the religion in the past that literally have no basis whatsoever, and are in fact proven to be from hinduism. For example, he mentioned some practice of inhaling/exhaling rapidly and stuff, and getting some kind of spiritual benefit out of it -- clear cut bida (though he didn't use this word, but it is implied, the reason he didn't use the word was out of respect for indo-pak ulema, because he said taht there are a lot of good stuff that has come as well, so i don't want to start passing fatwas and overriding their ijtihad, but there is reason for concern).
Somebody asked about the benefits written in the 99 names of Allah books, such as read such and such X number of times and u get such and such benefit, and that benefit isn't indicated in any hadith of any level of authenticity. He said regarding this, "The only daleel I can give is the level of scholars. But the concern of it being bida is a valid concern." He also mentioned the wird of imam an-nawawi, and said that imam nawawi said about it that it is "tested" and that such and such benefits come from it -- so, ie, this idea of a scholar identifying a benefit from a certain set of adhkaar has authenticity because of the level of Imam Nawawi -- he wouldn't do something that is clear cut bida, or bida at all. So in the same sense, these benefits written in the "99 names of Allah" books, may have such foundation. This was actually my own understanding after the imam nawawi deen-intensive last December, but I didn't share it publicly on my "profile" (not that anybody really reads it, haha) because it was based on personal reasoning, but now i have confirmation in this understanding.
About Collective Dhikr, he said that the primary criteria is that it HAS to be with sakeenah (the arabic word for the urdu word, "sukoon," or in english: tranquility + peace + barakah (blessing from God)). He said that if they stand up while doing this group dhikr like in a "hadra," that's fine, but again it needs to be with sakeenah, and the movements cant be such that it becomes like a "dhikr rave party." (HAHAHAAH). He also said about individual dhikr that there is no reason for it to be out loud, Allah can hear you. He also said that ibn taymiyya (rahimahullah) has a fatwa prohibitting group dhikr altogether, and shaykh hamza said that, if you agree with that, then that's where u stand, its not a problem. Just don't attack others who are working with the opinion of another scholar who does deem it permissible.
My personal reflection and summation of what I got from this is as follows: Many times when we, common folk, have spare time, we'll spend it doing all kinds of retarded things like vain talk, watching TV, and what not. So many others who are/were better than us would do dhikr, and this dhikr would be done in a group. However this is differed upon in terms of permissibilty and/or optimal benefit. There were many scholars he mentioned who deemed it permissible. There are scholars, such as ibn taymiyyah (rahimahullah) who deem it prohibited. On the other hand, there are many scholars who deem it permissible but feel that silent dhikr has greater benefit -- such as indo-pak scholars commonly from the naqshbandi sufi tariqa. Shaykh Hamza encourages group dhikr given the above conditions (and possibly other conditions, look it up on sunnipath.com ) given our time/place. I get the feeling that this is in order to counter-act the effects of haraam music that is constantly clouding our minds, such as even the music playing in a gym or store. So an "in with the dhikr, out with the haraam music" approach.
I personally can testify to the effectiveness of collective dhikr based on personal experience. A few months ago i started on the naqshbandi tariqa with shaykh hussain abdul sattar, it took me 2-3 weeks to begin to obtain a desireable effect where the heart comes "alive" with dhikr (ie, where u can feel the heart making dhikr, u'll have to try it to believe it www.tasawwuf.org ). But then I got lazy and it faded quick. A few months later, at the Imam Nawawi Deen Intensive, shaykh muhammad ya'qubi led a collective dhikr (sitting down, not hadra), and included the Lateefa (or whatever its called), where the group says "yaa Lateefu, yaa Lateef" repetitively for a while, then the next day when I woke up, i felt my heart saying that, and I reached that same state as I did in the naqshbandi tariqa, but in just one night! So for what that's worth, that's been my experience.
Basically, as for collective dhikr, in the words of Omar Qureshi: "Don't knock till you try it." (Except that he was talking about something totally different, a honey recipe)... but the saying works here too.
On the way home from this deen intensive (or "sacred retreat"), the carpool brothers and I were discussing collective dhikr, at that point I think i was bent (slightly) against it, so then Ali pointed out how at like MSA conferences and what not brothers will shout "takbeer!" and everybody will shout "Allahu Akbar"... and he said, so isn't this collective dhikr? The dialog was very smooth, and Ali Malik totally "handled it" mashAllah. There was carpool consensus that this observation of Ali's was ilhaam (inspiration). And I still think that this is a good "assessment" (quotation marks are an inside joke). Which brings up a very good point: either the takbeer is collective dhikr, if so, then they shouldn't be attacking shadhilis (condescendingly calling them "sufis," with the intention to harm) and furthermore, it doesn't need to be shouted out, Allah can hear us. But if it is not meant to be dhikr, then they should either keep their mouths shut or say something more like "muslims akbar" because the takbeer is probably self praise. And possibly a plastic-superficial compensation for the lack of ihsaan in our ummah. Ouch. It's my profile and I could write what I want to :-P
Shaykh Hamza was very clear about this: adhkaar prescribed by the Prophet pbuh clearly take priority over adhkaar formulated by scholars. His recommendation was that if we just did salawaat on the prophet in addition to our obligatory prayers, this would suffice if we kept it up throughout our lives. He had said at the Imam Nawawi deen intensive that Shaykh Ibn Taymiyya (rahimahullah) has a fatwa prohibiting adhkaar formulated by scholars -- however this was a minority opinion, that was basically limited to him. He pointed this out with great respect, and he likes ibn taymiyya (rahimahullah), no question about that. He also said that many adhkaar prescribed by the Prophet pbuh are often there without order, so scholars created a "wird" that chained these adhkaar and adhkaar directly from the Quran together plus possibly their own words to make it flow based on their personal ijtihad. He recommended this too, and mentioned three awraad and recommend us to stick to those until we can handle more for sure. There are, i guess, other adhkaar that are straight from the ijtihad of scholars of tasawwuf, these are fine, but he said that the prophetic invocations (adhkaar) take priority obviously because they are from the Prophet pbuh himself. And by the way, a scholar coming up with a set of invocations is not reprehensible bida... its actually "bida hasana" (good bida, or technically not bida at all).
Shaykh Hamza also went through a lot of the duas that we should recite on a daily basis, mentioned multiple riwayah where needed due to slightly different wording. He explained the background wisdom of them, very good stuff. I wish I would have taken notes on that, i was actually very sleepy in that session and had forgotten my pen. But basically he mentioned duas like the dua when putting on clothes, getting in the car, etc. He said that we should also make the transportation dua (which is from the Quran directly) even when getting in an elevator as he saw one other scholar do.
Tasawwuf can basically be broken down into two separate (but linked) sciences from my understanding: "Tariqa" and "Tazkiya." Tariqa is a formulaic methodology to help a mureed to progress in his increase of dhikr, often this progression of dhikr will be tailored by the murshid to break diseases of the heart that are discovered through the "tazkiya" aspect of tasawwuf. Tazkiya basically is just the study of the diseases of the heart such as arrogance in religious matters, undue anger, undue jealousy, undue hatred, misdirected and/or disproportioned carnal appetites, etc.
Shaykh Hamza seems to be far more concerned with Tazkiya than with Tariqa, as for tariqa he mainly wants people to get with the everyday dhikrs prescribed by the prophet pbuh -- much like indo-pak ulema. He said that dhikr has a gradual effect, and that in New Mexico, at "dar al islam" there is a spout that drips water constantly, and the place the water drips is on a rock. He said that he saw the rock at one time, and there was a little "dip" where the drops landed, and every year he looks at it, and the dip gets deeper and deeper. This is like dhikr and our heart, these adhkaar have a penetrating effect over time if done consistently even if little-by-little.
As for the Tazkiya-Tariqa balance / tag-team, he recommends, the following, I read it one and one-third time (I think), and i liked it a lot -- VERY straight-edge: http://www.zaytuna.org/seasons/seasons1/Foundation%20Spirirual%20Path.pdf or docs/Foundation Spirirual Path.pdf
Shaykh Hamza said that he doesn't buy the whole idea of a teacher working magic for his students. He said that he always saw The Prophet pbuh "empowering" the sahabas to have them work hard for themselves, by themselves.
I think this is an EXCELLENT stance, and deals with the primary criticism of "sufism:" the whole idea of complete submission to a shaykh (or more specific terminology: a "Murshid"). One brother once told me that certain sufis have a saying that the relationship between a mureed and a murshid is like the relationship between a dead body and the one who handles it. So a TOTAL submission. This is dangerous. Especially in these fitna-ed out times. So shaykh Hamza's refutation of this technique is essential. And I'm sure he doesn't mean that a mureed shouldn't hand over leadership and trust to the murshid, but not to an extreme where there is self-loathing helplessness, as is common in some sufis that I have interacted with (not at zaytuna). And furthermore, shaykh hamza's stance makes plenty of sense just by the definition of the word "murshid" -- which is a "spiritual GUIDE" not a "spiritual i'll-worship-instead-of-you-and-therefore-increase-you-er... not that the latter is what it is, but it is AS IF that is what it is. So the murshid does just that, give the students guidlines as to what adhkaar to do at what stage of the progress -- that's all. Read "The reality of bayah in shariah:" http://www.islamictarbiyah.com/attarbiyah/612bayat.htm or http://www.alinaam.org.za/tasawwuf/bayat.htm
Also, Imam Zaid has been pushing "The Inaugeral Address of Abu Bakr As-Siddiq (ra)." In it Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra) says, "If i do good assist me, and IF I DO WRONG CORRECT ME" -- and he makes a point that there is no such thing as complete, total, submissive blind following. I am not completely sure if he was talking ONLY about politics, or this murshid/mureed business as well.
I ran a summary of this by mustafa umar, my "mentor," the bro that keeps me sane and balanced thru all this, and he thought it was excellent, and made dua that Allah clear shaykh hamza's name from the attacks that Muslims launched on Shaykh Hamza. Ameen, Yaa Rabbul 'Aalameen.
I had also mentioned some classified information about shaykh hamza to mustafa in order for him to help me reach a conclusion, but i choose not to mention it to others, and certainly not post it on The Web.
But at the end of the all this writing, remember, this is my interpretation of what his speech was, I think I have a good handle on it, but Allahu 'Aalam, i could be totally off. If you don't like what was mentioned here, it is my fault and a manifestation of my personal weaknesses. DO NOT use any of this to cause disunity, use it only to cause unity.
Shaykh Muhammad Ya'qubi mentioned this hadith (one of my top 3 favorite hadiths):
"... By Allah, other than Whom there is no god, verily one of you behaves like the people of Paradise until there is but an arm's length between him and it, and that which has been written over takes him and so he behaves like the people of Hell-fire and thus he enters it; and one of you behaves like the people of Hell-fire until there is but an arm's length between him and it, and that which has been written over takes him and so he behaves like the people of Paradise and thus he enters it."
And said that there was a woman who was 99 years old, non-muslim, she was explained about Islam, took shahada (proclaimation of faith, and thus became a muslim), then a few hours later went into coma, and died 3 days later. WHOAAAA, huh?
Shaykh Muhammad also said that he knows 3 priests, and mentioned the locations, one was in Atlanta, Georgia if I remember correctly, that told him that they were Muslims, but didn't want to proclaim it in order to keep their jobs. May Allah give them stregth and halaal income that is more than what they get now inshAllah.
Shaykh Hamza explained during his explanation of duas about why we have clothes. (he went off on a tangent when talking about the dua to put on clothes -- i love it when he goes off on tangents, some people cant stand it tho:
He said that all animals have clothes. Bears have fur and birds have feathers -- as an example. Humans and Pigs are the only creatures that don't really have clothes built-in. This is why pigs roll in mud -- a clothe-like cover (he didn't go into the philosphical implications of this further, but i know he could have if he wanted to)... and Humans are given clothes. By wearing clothes on our bodies, we dignify our bodies. Clothes are a tool of dignification (is that a word?). Similarly, this is why it is mustahab (sunnah) to cover the head -- because the topee (or kufee, or turban, or other head covering) is a way of dignifying the mind.
Deep, very deep indeed.
"May the best dawah win." -- Shaykh Hamza (a big smile on his and subsequently everybody elses faces)
MashAllah, i'm so happy to hear that kind of an attitude. I wish more people would see it as that, then muslims would be bickering less.
"Envy is a very underestimated vice" -- Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson at the "sacred retreat"
Its very true, in fact, as much as we don't like to admit it, but in the Muslim world we do have this, this is part of our hatred against the west... jealousy. However, if the west would stop raping, pillaging, killing, etc, I think muslims could learn to live with this jealousy ;-)
However I think shaykh hamza was also talking about everyday person-to-person jealousy as well.
(loose quotation): "It's almost as if arrogance is worse than the consumption of alcohol." -- Shaykh Hamza
This reminded me of how many indo-pak ulema, including my teacher, Hafiz Aslam, say that "its almost as if back-biting is worse than adultery."
Realistically both of these quotes are over-generalized and probably not true in terms of sin-weight. However, strategically speaking, they have truth in them. For example, if you back-bite person X, what are the chances that you will ask X for forgiveness before you die? However, if you commit adultery, this is between you and Allah, and making tawbah is much easier because of the inherent closeness to him, ur recurring awareness that he has always been watching you, and of course also because he is far more merciful than X.
Similarly, there is one hadith that says that the person who has even one spec of kibr will not be able to enter jannah on the day of judgement. (kibr = thinking that u're better than another in religious matters). There are different understandings of this hadith, one can be exactly what it says, its apparent meaning. Another, which makes more sense to me given the rest of the understanding of this deen that i have (as limited as it may be), that on the day of judgement if we demand to Allah that because of doing such and such good we DESERVE jannah, this will be arrogance, and we won't be able to enter. Allahu Alam. Either way, arrogance is a highly dangerous disease that can take a person RIGHT into hell, however alcohol is more of a hawa-related disease that somebody can make tawbah over and over again, and Allah can forgive over and over again inshAllah. Not to trivialize the consumption of alcohol in any way though.
This is unrelated to the deen intensive:
SubHanAllah, since when did we Muslims change our colors? Our colors used to be White and Green. Now they're Black and Red!
White and Green: The color of purity and the color of life. I always like to say that a white suite and tie is more sunnah than a black shalwaar khameez (generally speaking).
The prophet pbuh used to wear white, his favorite color was green. Islam used to be about excellence and beauty, and the beautiful masjids around the world are evidence of that fact.
Now Muslims are obsessed with black and red: Black is the color of shaytaan (like how he puts a black spot on our hearts when we sin, or how the hell-fire is actually black, several examples). And red is the color of blood, its the color of killing. What happened?!?! they're the EXACT opposite colors. I mean look at a freakin color wheel, black is the opposite of white, no need for explanation. But look at green and red, they're totally opposites, u mix them and get brown (which means opposite). SubHanAllah, we're truely a messed up ummah, may Allah guide us. And the worst thing is is that we THINK we're all that, we'll constantly quote the ayah about being the best people raised up in humanity, but not finish the ayah about "khair"... ie, that the condition to being the best people is that we do good to others, we feed the poor, take care of the oppressed (not rant and rave about the oppressed, but actually help them)... i'll stop, a'udhubillah, what went wrong?
And this is at the essence of why shaykh hamza's been pushing tasawwuf so hard lately -- we need muslims to concentrate on themselves instead of each other. I'll write more about this in a future profile.
This is the first profile entry i'm writing (a couple days later) since i came back from Rumi Bookstore "Sacred Retreat: invocations of the heart"
SubHanAllah, that was an excellent experience. I still say the Imam Nawawi one was better in terms of amount of benefit, but this one was awesome too. The scholars there were Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Shaykh Muhammad Al-Ya'qubi. Imam Zaid Shakir and Imam Tahir Anwar were also there, but only for the one-night "smilng way conference." Imam Zaid gave an AWESOMPTIOUS speech, as usual. Imam Tahir was more of a host, one excellent host, mashAllah, but he actually did the quran recitation in the beginning cuz qari bellaha couldn't make it, it was AWESOME, omg, mashAllah, indo-pak scholarship all the way baby, yeah!!! Basically the first day was saturday, started around at 1PM, sunday all day w/ the "smiling way conference" at night, and monday till about 2PMish. I carpooled w/ some EXCELLENT EXCELLENT brothers, mashAllah, the prophet pbuh said to keep the company of those better than you, and mashAllah, all 4 of my carpooler-buddies were better than me. This profile was more of a summary, the learned subject matter profiles are above.
Traditional Islam is to the Hanbali Madhab (salafi-style) as legacy software is to beta-version software
That's a little "contention" of my own, doesn't flow as well as shaykh abdal hakim murad, but there's still depth in it. I think the challenge of scholars in our generation and those to come will be to consolidate the two approaches. On the one hand you've got the "baby thrown out with the bath water" and on the other hand u've got "fungus-y water that's killing the baby."
FYI: legacy software just means software that is outdated but still functional. Like if somebody had Windows 98 running on their computer -- sure it works, but can be better.
listening to free sample course from sunnipath: http://academy.sunnipath.com/mod/resource/view.php?id=1733 Explanation of ibn abi jamra's commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari. I've never heard this scholar before ( Shaykh Walead Mohammed ), but he sounds SUPER HARDCORE COOL already. Good stuff, listen to it. It's better for u than TV inshallah.
Scholars are so cool, mashAllah, hafizahumullah. The Best of All Creations, The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said that the scholars are the inheritors of the prophets. So where does that put the people who attack the scholars?
"Abu Dharr relates that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace)
said: ‘Attending a session of knowledge
is better than praying a thousand raka’s prayer,*
visiting a thousand sick people,
attending a thousand funeral prayers.’
Someone said: ‘O messenger of Allah,
Is it better than reading the Qur’an?’
He (Allah bless him and give him peace) said:
‘Does reading the Qur’an benefit without knowledge?’"
Very nice... I heard Hafiz Aslam tell me this, then a couple days later or so I heard it on sunnipath.com, in Shaykh Nuh's commentary on Imam Ghazzali's (rahimahullah) iHya uloom ud-din. I don't have riwayah on this, if anybody else does, send me an email: sonyplaystation AT excite dot com
But even if that's not a hadith, the fact that Imam Ghazzali (rahimahullah) mentions it in his iHya, shows the significance of knowledge.
* Hafiz Aslam Patel also told me that those 1000 rakats are from the nafl prayers. Obviously you can't just sit down w/ some scholars for a session of knowledge then have the license to skip the next 1000 rakats' worth of fardh (obligatory) prayers... needless to say, but hey, we live in ignorant times.
16. Suffering from truth decay? Brush up on your Qur'an.
This is hardcore: http://members.tripod.com/maseeh1/advices7/id76.htm
Got it from Melissa's profile... good stuff. It's like Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad's contentions but w/ simple english.
"The neo-cons versus the theo-cons" -- shaykh hamza
HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA... doesn't have much depth, but it certainly is funny.
Shaykh Muhammad Al-Ya'qubi gave khutbah last friday, and I just can't shake his words from my mind/heart... mashAllah:
My respected father, who was a great wali (and scholar) used to give speeches, and he would just have to say "ittakillah" (fear God, be mindful of Him), the tears of the people would start to flow. There were no need for these long speeches as there are now. What has happened? the Quran is the Quran! the Hadith are the Hadith! the Ulema are the Ulema! What has changed?!........................ Your hearts have changed.
(and the uncle/brother sitting next to me got teary eyed at this point, took off his glasses and gave his eyes a little wippity wipe.)
(.... then later on ...)
One of the great Gnostics said, "What good is this material world if you do not have Allah? And if you have Allah, what difference does it make if you have the material world?"
(and when he says "gnostics" he means scholar of tasawwuf... and when he says "have Allah" he obviously doesn't mean literally, that would be shirk, he means have attained the pleasure of Allah)
(... at I think an earlier point in the khutbah, he said THAT ...)
You have halaal and haraam (permissible and the impermissible), lets say that the major good deeds on a scale is 0, and the worst bad deed (shirk) is at 100. At around 50 it is gray area. If you are at 0, shaytan will not take you straight to 100, rather he will take you step by step towards the gray area then to the minor sins then to the major sins. And the fact of the matter is that you have to constantly be improving on this scale, because if you are not improving then you are certainly getting worse -- this is because nothing remains the same, everything is constantly changing, and if you are not changing for the better, then you are changing for the worse, THERE IS NO CONSTANT STEADINESS.
(... don't take any of this as quotation, its paraphrasing)
I got to use Ustadh Muhammad AlShareef's "smack then candy" dawah technique. This is where the dai'i reprimand's the person he is guiding very firmly, then some time later cheers them up, it works like a charm on children.
So my nephew (cuz' son) was being a bad boy -- not eating when his mom told him to and had a 'tude. So I told him about the hell fire and that if you don't listen and be nice to ur mom, Allah will throw u in there. Scared him straight, he ate his food. Then when I was on my computer he came to me, and I showed him a cartoon (that I had downloaded off of kazaa back in the day)... i only showed him a minute's worth or so, but it was the emotional comfort that got to him.
Then my dad was taking him home and in the car he asked him:
"Do you like Rahil better or Abdul Razzak?" (two of his little cousin friends)
And he said "Haji mamoo" (me! family calls me Haji, mamoo means "maternal uncle")
HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAH... I wasn't even an option, HAHAHAA, MASHALLAH may Allah guide him, hafizahullah. So this means that he took in the lesson of respecting the parent.
http://store.yahoo.com/islamicbookstore-com/a4436.html <-- "Fiqh of dawah" by ust muhammad al shareef, i give it a 7.5 on a scale of 10... and I don't mean a C, a 5 is avg on my scale / review.
After hearing attacks on shaykh hamza, and getting to the bottom of them, i realized at one point that either he made a mistake and realized it or there were gross misunderstandings. So i went to Omar Qureshi (hafizahullah), the brother who initially introduced me to shaykh hamza yusuf lectures, and told him how I felt and he said:
"Yeah just thank Allah that he let you benefit from shaykh hamza lectures." -- Omar Qureshi (hafizahullah)
And I haven't been able to get this sentence of his out of my mind, it is just so true, Alhamdulillah, i've learned so much from him. I don't know exactly what shaykh hamza was thinking at the MSA West conference that turned many bros off from him, but all I know is that I had to take the last van pool that day to Berkeley and missed his lecture, Allahu Alam, maybe Allah was shielding me from that side of shaykh hamza, i dunno. And btw, isha DOES become makroo after the first third of the night, his lecture was at 9PM in winter, but still... k, whatever. Alhamdulillah.
Very beneficial InshAllah:
http://www.madrasaprogram.com/audio/general/2005/guarding_tongue.wma
"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you on the day of judgement" -- Shaykh Muhammad Al-Ya'qubi (One of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Shaykh Hussain Abdul Sattar's teacher)
Imam Nawawi used to often say about the tongue, "Jismuhu saghir, wa jurmuhu kabeer" ~= "small in size, huge in transgressions"
"Jihad in the Modern World" -> "Islamic Law and Change" -- Abdul Hakim Jackson
http://www.zaytuna.org/seasons/seasons1/Jihad%20in%20Modern%20World.pdf
Starting at the very bottom of page 4, read that section about the dynamics of Islamic law -- very good stuff. The English is thick, but i think u could handle it. I get a rush when reading Technical or Islamic jargon, good stuff.
Never mind the "King of the Hill" part of my little "King of the Hill" profile below... at a certain point the show went corrupt. I think the first season or two were good like described below, then the themes get corrupt and dirty, like the rest of TV nowadays.
Don't watch TV.
But if you do, make it "King of the Hill" ... perhaps the only decent and moral show on TV (more or less):
They don't teach rebellion to parents and elders.
They teach belief in God -- but not the trinity and/or christianity (and I can't blame them).
They don't seem to have a hidden gay-agenda (like many other TV shows nowadays), in fact I think its anti-gay.
Hank Hill (father of the family) is still horrified if he hears anything having to do with his niece and pre-marital marital relations.
Bobby is freakin' cool and hilarious, AND naive, shy, innocent and obedient to his parents (unlike Bart Simpson from The Simpson's who is a shameless rebel).
Good stuff, hard to believe FOX is putting it on -- i guess they have to attract the parts of this country that haven't gotten "OC-ed out." But again, you'd be better off reading the Quran than spending time watching TV.
The Quran is good for you, you will never regret the time spent with it, and there are never any corporate advertisements. You are woken up to the billboards of Allah, not the billboards of the greedy capitalists.
By "billboards of Allah" I mean, the trees, the sun, the moon, your eyes, feet, hands, soul, mind, heart, the honey you eat, the water you drink, the roses you smell... etc, etc, etc,... and the soil that you will soon be buried in.
It's kind of like when a child learns how to read and a WHOLE new world is opened to him, all the sudden children's books are more than random pictures with recurring faces -- there are stories to be told -- there is communication between the author and the child's mind. And the one that wakes this child up to the world of reading is a teacher. Similarly, the soul needs to be woken up, the signs of Allah need to be "read," but this reading is done with the soul not the just the eyes. The one who wakes one up to the world of dhikr-ullah (remembrance of God) is none other than the Generous Book of Allah: the Quran.
"He is dead who does not feel the Qur’an move in his hands." -- Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad
For example, from Surah Waqi'a:
68. See ye the water which ye drink?
69. Do ye bring it down (in rain) from the cloud or do We?
70. Were it Our Will, We could make it salt (and unpalatable): then why do ye not give thanks?
71. See ye the Fire which ye kindle?
72. Is it ye who grow the tree which feeds the fire, or do We grow it?
73. We have made it a memorial (of Our handiwork), and an article of comfort and convenience for the denizens of deserts.
74. Then celebrate with praises the name of thy Lord, the Supreme!
75. Furthermore I call to witness the setting of the Stars,-(AHM: Shaykh hamza translates as "And I swear by the where I have placed those stars")
76. And that is indeed a mighty adjuration (AHM: oath) if ye but knew,-
77. That this is indeed a qur'an Most Honourable,
-- imperfect translation of the Quran (Surah Waqiah... 56:68-77 )
The translation soooo doesn't do it justice.
FYI... AHM = me
Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad is just sooo hardcore awesome -- his contentions are poetry for the intellectual with a limited attention span (like me ;-) )
12. If God is not within, there is nothing to be within; if He is not without, we are without Him. -- Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad
The first part means that if you do not believe and worship God, then your heart will always have a certain emptiness -- no matter how much materialism you try to jam in there, there will always be that unpatchable hole.
The second part means that without shariah (Islamic law), you do not have the help of Allah.
He sums up the three dimentions of Islam in this one contention -- "Iman" (belief, mentally), "Islam" (outward practice), and "Ihsan" (worship with beautiful excellence).... good stuff.
"Money makes the world turn" -- Gary Coleman in an advertisement about check cashing or something.
A'udhubillah! Allah makes the world turn! These people (at least) in our society worship money, and its statements like this that make it clear.
Somebody will say, "noooooooo it's physics that makes the world turn"... well then who set it in all in motion for the first time? Allah. NASA did some research saying that if the Earth were just TILTED in a certain way, we'd all burn to death. And we've got all these layers in the atmosphere that are literally constantly shielding us from meteorite showers. Who put those layers there? "What other favors of your Lord will you deny?" (Surah RaHman http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/quran/55.htm )
... I could just go on and on about this. The Quran has much discourse about this, you should read the Quran, really, it's good for you!
Pepto-Bismol may cure heart-burn. The Quran cures AND prevents everything-burn.
SubHanAllah!
One way to detect jealousy in your heart is if you feel hatred against somebody but don't have a desire for that hatred to end.
I got that from "Dear Beloved Son" and a Shaykh Zulfiqaar article on www.tasawwuf.org ... and btw, for those who don't know what "tasawwuf" or "sufism" are, this is a sample. It is the study of the various diseases of the heart, their detection, prevention, their cures.
Omar Bustami asked me to put his name on my profile so that he could check out who is searching for him using my handy dandy site counter... which I use to track page load activity, visitor's bio data, etc.
Thanks for visiting my "Profile" by the way, I now have your IP address, location (down to city), operating system, web browser that u are using now, what link referred you to my page (so if you used google, i know what you searched for such that my page came up), and some more interesting information.
Don't believe me? check out my website stats, I've made them public now:
http://my.statcounter.com/project/standard/stats.php?project_id=589956&guest=1
The Internet can be a scary place, we live in a dajjali (alt spelling: dhajjali, dhajali) world.
Surah Kahf:
46. Wealth and sons (AHM: children) are allurements (AHM: Embellishments) of the life of this world: But the things that endure, good deeds, are best in the sight of thy Lord, as rewards, and best as (the foundation for) hopes.
47. One Day We shall remove the mountains, and thou wilt see the earth as a level stretch, and We shall gather them, all together, nor shall We leave out any one of them.
48. And they will be marshalled before thy Lord in ranks, (with the announcement), "Now have ye come to Us (bare) as We created you first: aye, ye thought We shall not fulfil the appointment made to you to meet (Us)!":
49. And the Book (of Deeds) will be placed (before you); and thou wilt see the sinful in great terror because of what is (recorded) therein; they will say, "Ah! woe to us! what a Book is this! It leaves out nothing small or great, but takes account thereof!" They will find all that they did, placed before them: And not one will thy Lord treat with injustice.
-- Allah (God)
http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/quran/18.htm (english translation, text)
[Khaled Qahtani has broken down in tears a couple times by this time in his Arabic recitation: http://quran.islamway.com/qahtani/018.mp3 (somewhere in the middle)]
Or you could go directly to the ayah recited by Abdul Basset (RaHimahullah), though it aint as good as khaled qahtani:
http://islamicity.com/mosque/arabicscript/Ayat/18/ra101_18-46.ram
SubHanAllah, these are my favorite Ayahs. Shaykh Hamza says that whenever you ask his father, who is a Shakespearean scholar, what his favorite play is, he'll always name the one that he is currently reading. That's the way the Quran is, whichever ayah you are contemplating and thinking about, will be your favorite ayah (at that time). Which is pretty amazing, Shakespeare could do that with his plays, and Allah doesn't hat with his ayahs, and of course The Quran maintains this legacy for the last 1400 years and will do so till the end of time, and sounds far better even to the person who doesn't understand arabic, etc, etc, etc... but i'm just sayin' this is a very beautiful fact about the Quran, whatever part u are reading becomes ur favorite, until you read the next part. "What other favors of your Lord will you deny?"
SubHanAllah, I really feel like i'm doing an in justice by quoting part of it, the Quranic narrative is just so beautiful, Allah will change the subjects around exactly at the right time, and we'll be left contemplating why he switched it, we'll learn stuff from there, etc, etc, etc. But I don't want to quote 108 or so Ayahs in my profile. But basically the next Ayah was going to be about how shaytan didn't bow down, you really should read it.
(AHM = Amir Hussain Memon = me)
Surah Yusuf:
1. Alif Laam Raa These are the symbols (or Verses) of the perspicuous Book.
2. We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur'an, in order that ye may learn wisdom.
3. We do relate unto thee the most beautiful of stories, in that We reveal to thee this (portion of the) Qur'an: before this, thou too was among those who knew it not.
4. Behold! Joseph said to his father: "O my father! I did see eleven stars and the sun and the moon: I saw them prostrate themselves to me!"
5. Said (the father): "My (dear) little son! relate not thy vision to thy brothers, lest they concoct a plot against thee: for Satan is to man an avowed enemy!
6. "Thus will thy Lord choose thee and teach thee the interpretation of stories (and events) and perfect His favour to thee and to the posterity of Jacob - even as He perfected it to thy fathers Abraham and Isaac aforetime! for Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom."
7. Verily in Joseph and his brethren are signs (or symbols) for seekers (after Truth).
"Dhikr and Ghafla are diametrically opposed." -- Brother Usama Cannon translating Shaykh Salek bin Siddina
Dhikr means rememberence (of Allah).
Ghafla means heedlessness, just in general. Ghafla is the disease that afflicted our father Adam (pbuh) when he took from the forbidden tree. He was in a state of heedlessness, forgetfulness of Allah.
So like if ur heart is making dhikr of Allah, then you will not be in a state of heedlessness, but as soon as your heart stops making dhikr of Allah, you automatically, necessarily, definitely, immediately, without any choice, fall into heedlessness and are completely open to falling into sin.
Looking at it in another way, in order to fight heedlessness, constantly remember Allah, "standing, sitting, and reclining on your side" (surah al imran, ayah 189 or something).
So, subHanAllah, forgetting Allah, is like turning off your firewall. Any virus or hacker (shaytan, or you nafs) is completely given the freedom to attack you.
May Allah protect us from Ghaflah. Ameen yaa rabbil alameen.
Shaykh Abdal Qadir al Jilani says:
Whenever someone is content to accept the divine decree, that person can enjoy
rest and relaxation. Whenever someone is not content with it…his experience of
misery and trouble can only be prolonged, and he will still obtain nothing from
this world except that which has been allotted to him.
[Sufficient Provision for Seekers of the Path of Truth, Tr. Muhtar Holland]
I've said this before, and I'll say it again: I have never read a quote of Abdul Qadir Jilani that didn't blow me away. This statement STILL holds.
"If the athiestic western scientists and their worshippers find any of these teachings to be nonconformant to their 'research and findings', it is of no significance or concern to us. The 'everchanging nature' of their own theories is proof enough of the flimsiness and uncertainty of their teachings, which are nothing but conjectural pastimes as far as we are concerned. The mocking, jeering and sneering of such people should be discarded with the contempt it deserves....."
HAHAAHAHAH i like that... straight up "qul ya ayuhal kaafiroon"... its in the intro of an article i'm reading... which article u ask? i'll let u google that
buddy. I think there was a grammatical error at one part (two words were
switched around), so if u wanna google it, just google the first line or so.
(also, change single quote to double).
HAHAAHAHAHA this is awesome, my sister emailed it to me, and found it somewhere on The Internet, very nice, very nice:
-------------------------- beginning of quotation --------------------------
by Br Tushar Imdad-ul-Haque Bhuiya
I came to eat dinner in my halls of residence one day last year when two sisters
started laughing at me; I had some food stuck in my beard. They went on to
innocently and honestly mock my beard saying it was messy, unnatural and
unhygienic. Little did they know the rage that I felt as a result of this and I
channeled this rage by unleashing my anger through my pen and out came this
poem.
I performed this poem in the Leicester University/DMU Islamic Societies and Eid
Celebration and it was received with much laughter and acclaim - Alhamdulillah.
Due to popular demand and many requests I have decided to type my poem up and
email it to my friends in Islam. Let me remind you all not to be offended as
this is no fatwa or religious statement - just a funny poem that spontaneously
was produced as a result of my unfortunate experience...
Tushar (12th March 2001)
"Glorified be He who beautifies women with long locks
of hair
And Men with long beards
There is beauty in the beard
Aye, there is beauty in the beard!
When the lion roars all the animals submit
For the lion is the king of the jungle
The lion with its glorious mane
And a Muslim man grows his mane in pride
Showing the rest of humanity that he is to be respected
Can one imagine a lion without its mane?
Nay, thou canst not!
Then imagine a man without his beard
Woe to worldly women who mock the beards so!
Desiring husbands with clean shaven faces
Woe to women who mock the Prophets Sunnah
In the name of hygiene, neatness and smooth texture
Indeed the women of this world cannot like the beard
But she who wants Paradise adores the beard!
A beard is a gift given to man
Something only he can grow; a woman never can!
When he ponders, he gently strokes it;
When he eats, it stores food;
When he is with kids, they play with it adoringly;
When he is with his wife, she fondles it lovingly;
When the enemy see it, fear is struck in their hearts!
Ah! there is indeed beauty in the beard!
All the Prophets had beards - yes they did!
Muhammad had a beard - so big! so big!
All the companions had beards - o yes! o yes!
All the sages had beards - I know! I know!
All the wise have beards - tis true! tis true!
All the pious have beards - you see! you see!
All the Muslims have beards!? - if only! if only!
Who did not have beards? The kafirun!
Who had clean shaven faces? The kafirun!
Who grew their moustaches? The kafirun!
"And what did our Prophet order?" I here you ask
He ordered us to lengthen the beard and trim the moustache!
Lengthen the beard and trim the moustache!
What greater reason that this can there be
The fact that our Prophet told us to see
That we make ourselves appear to the world
As full bearded men with honour untold
O Muslim brother! Why do you desire to look like a woman
When your blessed facial hair is the differece between you and the opposite
gender?
O poor Muslim brother! Why do you imitate the kafir
Instead of following the Prophet of Islam?
O silly Muslim sister! Why are you so blind?
Infatuated with Bollywood actors who have no mind!
O wretched sister! Are you not scared of your choice?
You would rather have a feminine monkey instead of an exalted manly ape!
So indeed I love my beard
And adore the curls and tangles
Which no oil, gel or superglue can ever straighten
My glorious long, curly, messy, fluffy beard!
The playhouse for kids;
The envy of Malaysian people
And the beloved of Allah!
I maybe rejected by worldly women because of this hair on my face
But who care! For my Mum loves it and she puts all such sisters to disgrace!
Be patient Muslim brothers, who shun the trendy look for a Prophetic pose
Paradise with the wide eyed Houris is our final abode!!!!!"
------------------------------- end of quotation ----------------------------
Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam is THE MAN!!!! OMG, he's awesome
http://www.sunnipath.com/resources/Questions/qa00003154.aspx
That's about indo-paki scholarship. I've bee promoting this Q/A page, cuz I think he nails it right on! I printed it out and showed it to Hafiz Aslam Patel (my teacher), and he loved it too! and the funny thing is that he knew almost ALL of the scholars mentioned there. His dad (raHmatullah alayh) took bayah with one of the scholars mentioned on there (Shaykh-al-Hadith Muhammad Zakariyya al-Kandahlawi (raHmatullah alayh)). He was telling me how he knows each scholar on there. And then he's like, who wrote this article, looks at the top of the page, and is like, I know him too. haha, alhamdulillah... he's like at Mufti Muhammad's mosque/madrasa the place is PACKED at the time of Fajr.
And as for the scholars mentioned on there that have passed away, he was telling me HOW they passed away... one of them made dua that he could pass away in sajdah in masjid-ul-haram, Makkah... and sure enough he did.
Another scholar sat down, put a pillow on the wall, and called his two sons and had them sit next to him and said, ok start reciting surah yaseen, they did, he told them to stretch his legs out, and he passed away. (Hafiz Aslam knows his two sons, and if I remember correctly, they were his teachers).
Another scholar arrived to Heathrow, UK airport, unannounced, and there were helicopters and the whole deal welcoming and guarding him -- JUST OUT OF NO WHERE!
When he got to the part about Arabic, he mentioned one other scholar (that I think is also mentioned there), he's like there were some Arabs that saw him and were like, yeah he's just a miskeen or whatever, in arabic, and he busted out his Arabic that was far more hardcore than the arabs themselves... BOOM! (not to say anything bad about Arabs or scholars, there are some that are like wayyy up there, like shaykh muhammad ya'qubi). He's like, it's kinda like basketball, if there's a bunch of black guys on the court, and a white guy shows up, people are like, i don't want whitey, white men can't jump, haha.... but little do they know, he could be different. Similarly the stereo type for desi ulema has become that they are weak, but not necessarily true.
He told me that his dad (raHmatullaha alayh) was reading a book of another major scholar mentioned on that page, and as soon as he closed it, he got news of his son being born, and named his son after that scholar (so hafiz aslam's brother is named after that one scholar)... can't remember which scholar it was tho.
There were many other stories, I can't remember them tho.
Reminds me of "The Hadith of Abu Darda" in "The Heirs of the Prophets" -- Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali (intro and translation by none other than Imam Zaid Shakir (hafizahullah)):
A man came to Abu Darda' while he was in Damascus. Abu Darda' asked him, "What has brought you here, my brother?" He replied, "A hadith which you relate from the Prophet (pbuh)." Abu Darda asked, "Have you come for some worldly need?" He replied, "No." "Have you come for business?" He replied, "No." "You have come only to seek this hadith?" He said, "Yes." Abu Darda' then said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) say: 'Whoever travels a path seeking sacred knowledge, Allah will place him on a path leading to Paradise. The angels lower their wings for the student of sacred knowledge, pleased with what he is doing. The creatures in the heavens and earth seek forgiveness for the student of sacred knowledge, even the fish in the water. The superiority of the religious scholar over the devout worshipper is like the superiority of the full moon over the other heavenly bodies. The religious scholars are the heirs of the prophets. The prophets leave no money as a bequest, rather they leave knowledge. Whoever seizes it has taken a bountiful share.'" (Imam Ahmed, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, and Ibn Majah relate this in their compilations.)
... that's taken DIRECTLY from "The Heirs of the Prophets." The whole book is a commentary on this one hadith.
“The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, though there is good in both. Be avid for that which benefits you. Rely on Allah and do not deem yourself incapable…”[Muslim 4816, Ibn Majah 76, Ahmad 8436]
Imam Nawawi (Allah have mercy on him) explained that the strength in this hadith refers to, “One’s determination and ability in matters of the next life.” [Sharh Sahih Muslim]
http://www.sunnipath.com/resources/Questions/qa00001252.aspx
WHEEEEEEEEEEEW!!!!!!! OMG, what a relief, i wish i would have read this a 0.75 year ago. I had read an article (from an news magazine that shall remain unnamed possibly due to my personal asabiyya to UCI)... that said that "strong believer" means physically strong. In another words, according to them, if there are two believers of more or less equal status spiritually, the physically stronger one is better -- act-o-facto -- so ie, the level of Jannah is DIRECTLY affected by their muscle mass. But they're wrong according to Imam An-Nawawi (Rahimahullah). I got SOOOOOOO depressed, omg, you have no idea. And of course they only quoted the first sentence. I've always been the chubby slow poke all my life as long as I could remember, so after reading that hadith and the article it was in... i went on a diet, started exercising, and failed as usual, dang i felt so bad. Then I started feeling so inferior to other brothers that were as healthy as normal 20 year olds, and I'd be like, dang, so i'm at a disadvantage now, and will be in the here-after as well. And its funny cuz I know that some brothers would be looking down upon me for that reason (I could tell), boy do they have something comming, HAHAHAAHAH, inshAllah Jannah for them too. Its funny how people interpret their deen through their desires, if u are physically stronger than the average moe, u'll like that superficial interpretation a lot better. May Allah grant us all Paradise with ease on the day of judgement.
Imam An-Nawawi is SOOOOOOOOOO the man, OMG, I wish somebody would translate his Commentary (Sharh) on Sahih Muslim already (preferably shaykh nuh, he's super cool when it comes to translations)... its sposed to be the size of like two encyclopedia collections.
OH YEAH! I'm feelin' these ayahs now inshAllah (Surah Abas - 80):
38. Some faces that Day will be beaming,
39. Laughing, rejoicing.
That and surah duhah... "Your Lord has not forsaken you"... i'd cry but my little sis is next to me, dun wanna be sissier than the sis... mashAllah.
And the funny thing about all of this is that, Hafiz Aslam and my mom told me that right off the bat, and for some reason I gave more credit to my peers (a form of rebellion probably)... subhanAllah, shaytaan really waylaid me that time: got me depressed AND made rebellion look appealing. Alhamdulillah I don't think i went into kufr by loosing hope in Allah though (and yes that is kufr AT LEAST according to Mowlana Ashraf Ali Thanwi (Rahimahullah)... and of course you can't judge anybody else by this measurement... ie u can't say "that guy looks like he lost hope in Allah, KAFIR!!").
This was a revealing profile, oh well, IA u'll benefit.
The Wird of Imam An-Nawawi!!!
Imam Nawawi said that this wird of his is "tested" ... hardcore, i kno, i kno.
http://www.dhikr.org/nawawi_wird/index.php
Wird = singular of Awraad = a set of dhikrs that scholars have come up with which includes parts of the Quran, hadith, and other words to chain them together, etc, based on their own
ijtihad.
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf explained it at the Imam Nawawi Deen Intensive in December 2004 (so then why am I just writing about it now 3.5 months later, haha, i dunno) -- I wish I could remember all that he said.
He gave a BEAUTIFUL analogy by telling a story about a bee and a wasp (he pulled it from some poetry or something), that explains very nicely the situation Muslims are in now:
He said that a wasp saw a bee hive and how nice it looked and how everybody was like, sweeeeeet! So he's like "pshhh, i could make that too." So he set out to make it and sure enough he made it, and it looked more or less like the bee's hive. Then the bee looked at the hive, flew around it, and what not, then looked inside, and he's like "yeah, that's a nice hive, but where's the honey?" ... shaykh hamza tells the story a lot better, haha.
isn't that tite?!?! And this is why shaykh hamza has been pushing tasawwuf (sufism) so much -- we've got a lot of fiqh and stuff, and external Muslims, but the internal Ruh needs to be developed. We look at ancient Islamic civilizations and the beautiful mosques they built, but we need to ask ourselves -- what was the internal state of the people who built them? And the answer is that they were in a state of iHsan (to worship Allalh as if you see him, or at least know that he sees you... it comes from the root word "ha sa na," which means beautiful... so its like if you build something very well, and sombody says, "oh what a beautiful job you did") -- and the early scholars established a full on field of Islamic endeavor, called "tasawwuf", to elevate people's ruh, to put them in a state of iHsan. This is comparable to institutionalized field of endeavor associated with Iman -- I'lm ul kalaam; or the institutionalized field of endeavor associated with "Islam" (external practice of the deen) -- "Shariah". See Hadith Jibril: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/002.sbt.html#001.002.047
... sooo this is where things like "Wirds" come from -- scholars who attained a mastery in all three of the above fields, including tasawwuf, came up with this. And subhanAllah, I used to arrogantly kick and scream bida' when my granny used to read her "panj surah" -- but it was legit all along.
Shaykh Hamza also explained bida' -- which is basically contained here:
http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/nuh/bida.htm ... shaykh nuh wrote this, and I know people have their reservations about him, BUT I think this is pretty legit.
SubhanAllah!
I was telling my teacher -- Hafiz Aslam Patel -- that shaykh muhammad ya'qubi said,
"I dare any one of you to say 'astaghfirullah' (Oh God, forgive me) 10,000 times a day and to continue committing sins" (ie, you won't be ABLE to sin if you establish a habbit of saying astaghfirullah 10,000 times a day)
and Hafiz Aslam's like, "yeah, and Abu Huraira (ra)* used to say 'astaghfirullah 12,000 times a day... and was part of ahle-suffah (a very poor tribe that used to do a lot of dhikr -- this is where the word 'sufi' probably comes from)"
* Abu Huraira (ra) was the sahaba that narrarted the largest number of hadith -- he would literally almost die of hunger at times because he was so busy in serving the deen of Allah and not have time to eat or earn a living.
Shaykh Abdal Qadir al Jilani says:
O my people! Prove the sincerity of your respect for the Qur'an by putting its teachings into practice, not by arguing about it.
[The Sublime Revelation, Tr. Muhtar Holland]
Wow, that is so needed nowadays, mashAllah. I have never heard anything about Abdul Qadir Jilani that didn't blow me away.
"when you find yourself worrying more about others than yourself (which will happen from time to time), know that you are messed up." -- Brother Mustafa Umar (my "mentor") (He is a student of sacred knowledge now in egypt, make dua for him)
For some reason, whenever I'm stuck in a spiritual rut (is that a word?), i'll hear the medicine from several places, and it won't register until Mustafa says it to me -- then, i'll reflect back and think, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah...
SubhanAllah, its so true, it is so easy to go off track. Shaykh Hussain Abdul Sattar says that every human has many abilities, and the trick is to use them properly... and one excellent ability we have is the ability to criticize, and the proper way to use that ability is to criticize oneself instead of others.
And its just so easy to get caught up in trying to figure out if such and such scholar/public figure is a "corrupt scholar" or not -- i mean its permissible to some extent because such and such scholar is a public figure, and there is a natural love that develops between a scholar and a student (or virtual student), and when we hear the faults of this scholar, and that he is "corrupt" we wanna get to the bottom of it -- and there is just soooooooooo much confusion behind all of these things, we forget that, hey! I missed fajr 4 times last week! or that I disobeyed my parents, or displeased them, or that as much as I try not to admit it and as vigiliently as my nafs tries to erase it from my memory: I told a lie this weak, or bent the truth. A'udhu billah; astaghfirullah. I mean it would definitely be nice to have a role-model scholar, but lets face it, am I living up to even the most basic knowledge? praying all five prayers on time, not missing any of the sunnahs, reading more Quran, adding on the mon/thurs fasts, adding on tahajjuds, etc, etc, etc.... subhanAllah.
"I don't believe there is a single Saalih (righteous person, a spiritual state in Islam), on the face of the planet that does not pray tahajjud (habitually)" -- Shaykh Nuh Ha Meem Keller
I hate glitter.
I think it is because when i was little, and would sit in the car with my sisters and fe-cuz's they would have glitter paki clothes. I would inevitibly get some on me, and would try to rub it off -- and it would only slightly come off. Then i'd rub more, and more and more... and finally when i'd think it's completely off. I'd look at it from another angle, and there would still be a piece of crap glitter pixel, rub rub rub some more. THEEEN when it would come off, i'd look at my other hand, and DANG IT!!! it 's all glittery now cuz of all of that rubbing.... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
my sister wanted me to put at least one dunya-profile entry up that showed my goofy side.... i have a strong goofy side, but only when at home... it doesn't come out in writing or elsewhere.
I finally got it!! I was debating whether this "contention" of mine is true...
"The concept of an intellectual fad is an intellectual fad"
... well it needs to be modified...
"The concept of an intellectual fad in Islam is an intellectual fad"... ie...
"There are no intellectual fads in Islam" (but this one isn't as clever)
"Islamic Movement" people love to pass off much of fiqh al ibadat (and much other fiqh) as "Intellectual Fads" so that traditional Islamic scholarship is invalidated and they are thus given the license to do and say whatever they want as long as they shout loud enough -- ouch, harsh, oh well. But this is just a phase Muslims are going through in their transition from nationalistic movements to "Islamic movement" to traditional Islam IA. Everybody who is ahead of them, is a "sell-out" and/or a "corrupt scholar" according to them. naudhubillah.
So... there can be, and are intellectual fads outside of Islam, and the philosophy departments of universities are FILLED with them. Every nut-head atheist professor has his own "ism" -- "freudism", "capitalism", "communism", "democracy-ism", "feminism" ... you name it -- and all of these are man-made ideologies that in one way or another contradict Islam, and will fade away with time.
And of course all of these have some truth in them -- but only that which fits with islam. For example:
"fruedism" -- this is actually more complicated than most ppl think. But one thing it inspired is extensive dream research (i think) -- and what was discovered is that humans are constantly hitting the "delete" button when dreaming. So all the useless information, "like where did u park 10 days ago at school?" gets deleted. But what also gets deleted is what is not consistent with our self-image. And the "nafs" has a lot to do with this it adds and deletes from your self-image to fit a certain type of person, and the nafs will always have a tendency to remove your bad deeds/habits and glorify your good ones.
"The nafs is constantly painting a picture in which we, ourselves, are the hero" (Shaykh Nuh Ha Meem Keller)*
"Everybody has the ability to critique, but most people use it to criticize others, and we should use this ability to criticize ourselves" (Shaykh Hussain Abdul Sattar) *
And guys are more susceptible to arrogance than girls -- but girls' nafses have other stregths (problems). This is actually a very valuable piece of information for those interested in tasawwuf (islamic psychology ('internal fiqh')). -- the idea that most of this addition/subtraction of our self image is done in dreams.
"capitalism" -- free enterprise is good, in fact businesses where products are created are encouraged in Islam. However, just the way pure capitalism has limitations in the west (for example anti-monopoly laws), the Islamic economical system too has its restrictions -- the most important restriction being a complete prohibition of interest.
"communism" -- communism has always been known to everybody as "the idea that is good in theory but horrible in practice." Islam has had things that it has in common with communism as well, for example Hazrat Umar (ra) had set up a welfare system for EVERY citizen in the Islamic State -- sounds commie -- but this welfare was a bare minimum so that everybody can survive without having to beg. You really can't call it a communism -- but it has a flavor of it. Communism is like garlic -- you put too much and it makes the whole dish stink, but if you put just enough and it makes the mouth water.
"democracy-ism" -- Dr. Israr Ahmed outlines a "khilafah" for pakistan -- and this is basically an Islamicized democracy -- go to aswatalislam.net , go to lectures, go to israr ahmed, and search "khilafah"
"feminism" -- I truly believe, in all sincerity that Islam liberates women. Feminists realize that women are horribly abused in this culture by turning them into objects, but they have no solution so they're running amuck. Giving women the "freedom to take off their clothes" is not freedom -- and feminists understand this.
"liberal-ism" and "conservative-ism" -- people don't realize how liberal islam is -- seriously! Sure there are things that are not compromise-able, but even these can be PRETTY liberal. For example, the women-dress-code is to cover everything except the face (difference of opinion), hands, and feet -- very "conservative," BUT this is only when she leaves the home. When she is in front of other Muslim women alone, the she only has to cover from the belly-button to the knees... ie she doesn't even have to cover her chest -- VERY "liberal." And this is agreed upon by hanafi and shafi'i jurists. And this is just regarding the rulings themselves, but as for the methodologies for deriving these rulings, there is MUCH freedom (liberal), BUT the scholar has to meet the requisite knowledge, so not just anybody can string hadiths and ayahs together and pass a fatwa (conservative, though not to be confused with the 'clergy' system -- most fatawa are not legally binding). The prophet pbuh encouraged shyness, "Every People has a characteristc and the characteristic of my ummah is shyness"* (conservative). But on the other hand, there is a strong idea of making excuses for other muslims -- so not just giving them the benefit of the doubt when excuses are presented, but making excuses SO THAT we can give them the benefit of the doubt, this is called "husn-a-dhan" -- this type of thinking is very similar to "liberal-ism". and I could go on and on.
... and the list of isms, too, can go on.
* all quotations are loose.
"Allah does not take away the knowledge, by
taking it away from (the hearts of) the people, but takes it away by the death
of the religious learned men till when none of the (religious learned men)
remains, people will take as their leaders ignorant persons who when consulted
will give their verdict without knowledge. So they will go astray and will lead
the people astray."
-- Rahmatulil 'Aalameen, The Last Prophet pbuh
So true, So true.
and btw, these "religious learned men" are the traditional Islamic scholars (Ulema) of course.
"Islamism is the Frankenstein of Frankistan." -- Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad
Contentions: http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/contentions8.htm
I think some/most ppl don't understand what this means... so i'll break it down:
the "ism" part of "Islamism" is referring to the trivialized version of Islam that is all too common in traditional Muslim cultures. So Islam becomes just another "ism" or "intellectual fad" or just another religion. Or an Interest, one aunty once told me that I should find a wife that "has the same interest as me" and is "Intereseted in Islam" -- so to her Islam was simply an interest, not a complete way of life (Islam), a perception switch (Iman), a different state of being (Ihsan).
Frakenstein = a monstrosity. a creation of man that he proudly mucks about about. a freak of nature. very similar to cancer -- something ugly, dark, and painful that has come about due to the artificialness of modern society.
Frankistan = x-istan = any muslim country.
So what it is saying is that this watered down flavor of Islam is "the pastard* child" of modern-day Muslims in Muslim countries that have lost the true completeness of their deen.
So why not just say it that way? because it takes an intellectual western muslim to understand it -- and that is shaykh abdal hakim murad's target audience. Every prophet was sent with the tongue of his people so that he can properly deliver the message to them. And it makes sense for scholars, being the inheritors of the prophets, to also be put in this setting by Allah.
Another thing that should be taken from this analysis, is that in order for a western muslim, like myself to be able to understand and elaborate on this contention, I had to thoroughly be able to understand where the author was coming from. So similarly, in order for somebody to understand some parts of the Quran, they have to thoroughly understand the life and times of the person the quran was given to (pbuh). Hence the desperate need for western muslims to pursue scholarship in Islam. (See my next profile (above)).
* misspelling on purpose, even though it would be used in the academic sense, still, i don't feel cool w/ saying that word, y'know.
http://www.zamzamacademy.com/
mufti abdul rahman ibn yusuf
"Al-Alim ul Santa Barbara" ... good stuff
Who would have thought one of the best scholars in the country would be located in Santa Barbara, CA... next to UCSB (the party school)
I actually met him last saturday night (feb 26 2005). Listen to his lecture on necessity of knowledge under "lectures"
Ralph would click there too, as you could see, he's pointing to it.
I know this web page is ghetto... you don't have to inform me of that fact. HOWEVER if u have a nice .CSS file give it to me... i'll plop that bad boy in.
The kinda stuff i'll put on here:
well i know that not many ppl view profiles... but i know i do... it's another distraction i've found when i'm trying to not do my hw. actually i know a few others do for sure cause:
Contact info:
email: ahmemon@cox.net
AIM: carrreragt3
your visitor number =
- 100
cause i preset it to 100 mwouhuhaaa (sadistic, evil laugh)
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