A Nation of People…

While this may be a little long, it is definitely worth the read, and serves as an amazing, touching reminder.

It’s from “The Lives of Man” by Imam al Haddad (which I highly recommend).

Wahb ibn Munabbih, may God show him His Mercy, said: When Moses, upon whom be peace, read the Tablets, he found mentioned in them the merits of the nation of Muhammad, may blessings and peace be upon him, and he said: “O Lord! Which is this mercy-given nation that I find in the Tablets?” God answered: “It is the nation of Ahmad, whose people are content with whatever little provision I give them, and I am content with whatever little good works they do. I make each one of them enter the Garden by his testimony that laa ilaaha ilAllah.”

And then Moses said: “I find in the Tablets a nation of people who shall be resurrected and assembled on the Day of Rising with their faces like full moons. Let them be my nation!” But God replied: “They are the nation of Ahmad; I shall gather them resurrected on the Day of Rising, when their foreheads and limbs shall be blazing white from the effect of their wudu-ablutions and their prostrations.”

True Love Comes with Knowledge

Taken from the SunniPath Blog:

Bismillah.

In the class, Women and Men Around the Messenger, Ustadha Noura described the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wasalam) as a man with the greatest love for His Ummah.

The Prophet (sallahu alayhi wasalaam) said (as reported in Sahih Muslim):

“The metaphor of me and you is that of a man who lights a fire and the grasshoppers and moths begin to fall into it and he chases them away from it. I pull you by your belts back from the Fire while you are doing your best to slip from my hand.”

Isn’t it true that bugs are attracted by light? Even if one moth sees another fly into a light and die, the moth is still attracted to the light. We may think that the moth is not an intelligent creature and therefore cannot think about consequences of its actions, but we would all agree that humans at least possess some degree of intelligence. However, we read about the dangers of the dunya and we know about the torment of the Hellfire. We know about the punishment of the grave, we know that we will be held accountable for our actions. Yet, aren’t we just like those insects and moths? We know but do not take heed and do not act. We are attracted by temporal happiness. We run towards that which is not good for us.

Yet, there was a man (sallahu alayhi wasalam) who knew the truth and tried to save us from the things that do not benefit us. His speech was a revelation from the Creator who was bestowing upon us His Mercy. This man- Muhammad (may peace and blessings be upon him)- was not selfish and would weep for His Ummah. He was trying to prevent us all from heading towards the fire. The Prophet (sallahu alayhi wasalam) is that man who has been trying to save us while we have been resisting. We should love him- and loving him entails knowing him.

One cannot truly love someone unless one knows them. And we can only know the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wasalam) by learning about him. He (sallahu alayhi wasalam) is a man whose enemies attested to his truthfulness and honor. He is a man who people loved and adored- and people to this day still do. He (sallahu alayhi wasalam) is the man who Allah sent as a mercy to the worlds.

“Say:If you love Allah, then follow me, Allah will love you and forgive you your faults, and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful”. (3:31)

Who am I?

When once asked by a journalist to introduce himself, Imam Shaheed Hasan Al-Banna said:

I am a traveller seeking the truth,

a human searching for the meaning of humanity

and a citizen seeking dignity, freedom, stability and welfare under the shade of Islam. 

I am a free man who is aware of the purpose of his existence and who proclaims:

“Truly, my prayer and my sacrifice, my living and my dying are all for Allah,

the Lord of the worlds; no partner has He. 

This, am I commanded and I am of those who submit to His Will.” 

This is who I am.   Who are you?

 

 

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this one might make you cry (Multazim Par)

My Urdu is admittedly not the best so when my sister and I were listening to Junaid Jamshed, a Pakistani nasheed artist and heard his song Multazim Par (it is actually a poem written by Mufti Taqi Usmani), I had a bit of trouble understanding parts of it. But the parts I did understand and the parts my sister explained were so striking that I wanted to know in full what the artist was trying to say. Anyhow, as we know, songs are poems so I will post the translation of the beautiful nasheed here (Thanks Usma):

O my Lord, I come to Your door as a beggar
In complete indigence, bringing only my humility and shame.
A beggar who has neither a joli nor a begging-bowl
A beggar slain by his desires and cravings.

Having squandered the treasure of Deen and intellect
at the hands of the ego;
Having sacrificed contentment of heart at the altar of lust and pleasure
Losing my wealth in the quick-sand of heedlessness and sin
I have come to seek refuge under the covering of your Kaaba.
Through the stains of sin the heart’s world is suffering
Aspirations are weak, the will broken and hope is dead.

From whence should I find the strength to express the heart truly?
For in this snare have I passed every moment of my life
In short, having been burnt at the stake of my own ill-deeds
In abject poverty due to the evil of my state

To you have I brought my ill-stricken fate
Empty-handed of any deed befitting your House.
This House of yours, which is your court of Love and Grace O Lord
Tis wholly Light and the repository of all Lights O Lord

Being completely ignorant of the manners of your Doorstep
A beggar knowing not how to beg
My tongue fails to convey my heart’s feeling
O Lord, have mercy on this wordless speech!

These eyes are dry, O Lord, knowing not how to weep
Festering spots in the heart that can’t be cleansed out.
O my Lord I have come to your door as a beggar
wholly indigent, in abject humility and full of shame.

Humility

Taken from the SunniPath blog (student submitted):

Sheikh Al-Hasan Al-Basri, one of our eminent pious predecessors, once said, “Humility is to leave your home and not to meet ANY Muslim except that you believe him to be better than you.” (In other words, true humility is to believe that everyone is better than oneself.) According to Sheikh Abdul-Karim, this includes non-Muslims as well, since they have the possibility of embracing Islam while we have the possibility of turning apostate before we die (May Allah protect us).