Saturday, September 12, 2009

18:13-14

"We shall tell you their story with truth. They were young men who had believed in their Lord, and We increased them in guidance.

And We strengthened their hearts, when they rose up and declared, "Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, we will not call upon any god beside Him, or then we had spoken an outrage."

18:10

"Do you think that the Companions of the Cave and the [Bearers of] the Inscription were a wonder among Our signs?"

footnote no. 563 from the Majestic Qur'an

In this surah, Allah gives us a few glimpses into the working of His wisdom in other than the ways usually regarded as being ordinary or natural. The surah abounds in events that are either supernatural by ordinary standards, apparently in opposition to sacred law, pertaining entirely to the Unseen, or in other unusual ways.

The inscription, al-Raqim, was said by the Follower [Ta'bi'i], Sa'id ibn Jubayr to be the stone tablet placed in front of the cave, upon which the story of the sleepers was inscribed. This was the interpretation chosen by the great Qur'anic commentator, al-Tabari. Other conflicting interpretations were given by various other authorities.

18:6

"It may be that you will torment your soul with grief for their sake, if they do not believe in this Message."

Friday, September 11, 2009

18:1

"Praise be to Allah who has sent down the Book to His servant and has not placed in it any crookedness." - first verse of Sura al-Kahf (the Cave) which is especially recommended to read on Fridays.

:)

My brother Asad completed his memorization of the Qur'an today!

Reminder: Imam Zaid Webcast This Sunday

Webcast Date: This Sunday, Sept. 13th, 3-4pm EST

As Salaamu Alaikum Dear Brothers and Sisters, and Ramadan Mubarak!

I'm reminding you to join our beloved Imam and scholar Imam Zaid Shakir, thisSunday, September 13th, at 3pm EST for the final lecture in MANA's free Ramadan audio webcast series.

Joining Imam Zaid to host this week's webcast will be another beloved and distinguished Muslim leader, my dear friend Imam Johari Abdul-Malik. Imam Johari is the Community Outreach Director for Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, VA, and a prominent MANA Diwan member.

I'm sure it will be an enlightening lecture and discussion, insha'Allah, so please try not to miss it! Instructions on how to access the webcast are given below.

We look forward to your participation and appreciate your support.

Your brother in Islam,

Imam Siraj Wahhaj

How to Participate in the Webcast Lectures

Via the Web:
Go directly to the webcast page on MANA's website.
Or, go to the MANA homepage at www.mana-net.org and click the "Attend Ramadan Webcast Lecture" button on the left.

Via Telephone:

Dial direct: 630-300-6276 and enter conference ID: 895932#
Or, use the Alternate number: 412-258-6249, conference ID:895932#

The web and telephone venues will be accessible at 2:45 PM.

Submit Your Questions

The live lecture will take place from 3-4pm EST, and will be approximately 60 minutes long followed by a question and answer period. Your questions can be submitted during the lecture by using the "question submission form" found on thewebcast page, or you can submit questions by email to mana@manaoffice.net, or by phone at 859-296-0206.

About Imam Zaid Shakir

Zaid Shakir is amongst the most respected and influential Islamic scholars in the West. As an American Muslim who came of age during the civil rights struggles, he has brought both sensitivity about race and poverty issues and scholarly discipline to his faith-based work.

Born in Berkeley, California, he accepted Islam in 1977 while serving in the United States Air Force. He obtained a BA with honors in International Relations at American University in Washington D.C. and later earned his MA in Political Science at Rutgers University. While at Rutgers, he led a successful campaign for disinvestment from South Africa, and co-founded a local Islamic center, Masjid al-Huda.

After a year of studying Arabic in Cairo, Egypt, he settled in New Haven, Connecticut and continued his community activism, co-founding Masjid al-Islam, the Tri-State Muslim Education Initiative, and the Connecticut Muslim Coordinating Committee. As Imam of Masjid al-Islam from 1988 to 1994 he spear-headed a community renewal and grassroots anti-drug effort, and also taught political science and Arabic at Southern Connecticut State University. He then left for Syria to pursue his studies in the traditional Islamic sciences.

For seven years in Syria, and briefly in Morocco, he immersed himself in an intense study of Arabic, Islamic law, Quranic studies, and spirituality with some of the top Muslim scholars of our age. In 2001, he graduated from Syria's prestigious Abu Noor University and returned to Connecticut, serving again as the Imam of Masjid al-Islam, and writing and speaking frequently on a host of issues. That same year, his translation from Arabic into English of The Heirs of the Prophets was published by Starlatch Press.

In 2003, he moved to Hayward, California to serve as a scholar-in-residence and lecturer at Zaytuna Institute, where he now teaches courses on Arabic, Islamic law, history, and Islamic spirituality. In 2005, Zaytuna Institute published Scattered Pictures, an anthology of diverse essays penned by Zaid Shakir.

He is a frequent speaker at local and national Muslim events and has emerged as one of the nation's top Islamic scholars and a voice of conscience for American Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

from an email from MANA (Muslim Alliance in North America):

17:110

Say: "Call upon Allah or call upon the All-Merciful; by whatever name you call upon Him, to Him belong the most beautiful Names."

17:101-2

"And We gave to Moses nine clear signs. So ask the Children of Israel how he came to them, then Pharoah said to him, "I think, O Moses, that you are bewitched."

Moses replied: "You know full well that none but the Lord of the heavens and the earth has sent these down as evidence, and [for my part], O Pharoah, I think you are doomed!"

17:78

"Establish the Prayer at the sun's decline until the darkness of the night; and the Qur'an of dawn, for the Qur'an of dawn is witnessed."

footnote no. 556 from the Majestic Qur'an:

To establish the prayer is to perform the ritual prayer regularly at the time it is due, completing all its parts in the most excellent manner. The ritual prayer, being one of the five pillars of Islam, allows of no complacency, neglectfulness, or distraction. The time from when the sun beings to decline till when the night grows dark includes four obligatory prayers: midday, afternoon, sunset, and night. The Qur'an makes special mention of the dawn prayer which is the prayer where the recitation of the Qur'an is most prolonged, hence its name: the Qur'an of dawn. At that time the angels of the night have not ascended yet and the angels of the coming day have descended; both witness the prayer and testify to this before Allah.

17:71-72

"On the Day when We shall call all people with their leaders; those who will be given their records in their right hands, they will read them, and they will not suffer the least injustice.

But he who is blind in this world will [also] be blind in the Hereafter, and farther astray."

17:70

"We have honored the children of Adam"

17:65

"Over My [true] servants you [the Devil] shall have no power. Your Lord is sufficient as Guardian."

17:53

"And tell My servants that they should speak only the best of words."

17:25-30

"Your Lord knows best what is in yourselves. If you are virtuous, He is ever Forgiving to those who always turn to Him.

And give to the kinsman his due, and to the destitute and the wayfarer, and do not be a wasteful squanderer.

For the wasteful are the Devil's brothers; and the Devil is ever ungrateful to his Lord.

But if you turn away from them [the needy], waiting for your Lord's mercy that you are expecting, then [at least] speak to them a kind word.

Do not tie your hand to your neck [being being miserly] nor stretch it without any restraint [by being extravagant] for then you will remain reproached and denuded.

Your Lord liberally provides whom He will, and withholds [from whom He will]. He is ever Aware, Seeing of His servants."

Thursday, September 10, 2009

17:23-24

"Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him, and that you show kindness to your two parents. If either or both of them attain old age with you, [show no sign of impatience, and] do not [even] say "fie!" to them nor rebuke them, but speak kind words to them.

And lower unto them of mercy the wing of humility and say: "Lord, be merciful to them both, just as they cared for me when I was small."

17:13-15

"...and We shall bring forth for him on the Day of Resurrection a book he shall find wide open.

[It will be said to him]: "Read your book! You are sufficient this day as reckoner against yourself."

He who is rightly guided, it is for himself; and he who goes astray, it is to his own detriment. No soul can bear another's burden. Nor do We punish until We have sent a messenger."

17:9

"This Qur'an does guide to that which is most upright, and gives good tidings to the believers who do good work that theirs will be a great reward."

Ramadan Advice - Where is Your Heart? by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

thanks to Mikael Pittam for the link!

17:1

"Transcendent is He Who carried His slave by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose surroundings We have blessed, that We might show him some of Our signs, for He is the Hearer, the Seer."

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

16:125

"Call to the path of your Lord with wisdom and kindly exhortation, and reason with them in the most courteous manner. For your Lord knows best those who have strayed from His path, and He knows best who are rightly-guided."

16:119

"Then surely your Lord-to those who commit evil in ignorance and afterwards repent and amend-surely your Lord for them thereafter is Forgiving, Compassionate."

16:111

"On the day that every soul shall come arguing on its own behalf; and every soul shall be paid in full for what it did, and they shall not be wronged."

16:95

"What is with you will waste away, and what is with Allah will endure. And We shall give those who are patient their reward according to the best of what they used to do."

16:90

"Allah enjoins justice and excellence [in all things] and charity to kinsmen, and forbids indecency, wickedness and oppression. He admonishes you so that you may take heed."

16:44

"With clear signs and writings; and We have sent down to you [O Muhammad] the Reminder [the Qur'an] that you may explain to the people what was sent to them, that they may reflect."

16:18

"And if you would count the favors of Allah you will never be able to number them. Allah is Forgiving, Compassionate."

15:49-50

"Tell My servants that I am the Forgiving, the Compassionate.

And that My torment is indeed the painful torment."

15:9

"We have, indeed, sent down the Remembrance, and We shall preserve it."

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Ramadan Lessons: Generosity by Imam Zaid

New post by Imam Zaid continuing from lessons drawn out by Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali in his Lataif al-Ma'arif about generosity especially in the context of Ramadan.

Here's a quote from the end:

One of the poets praised the generosity of one of the noblemen in words that are only fitting for the Messenger of Allah, peace upon him:
He became so accustomed to opening his hands in charity to such and extent…
that were he to order his fingers to close, clinging to something, they would not obey him.
You see his face lit up when you come to him asking…
as if you are giving to him what you are asking of him.
He is an ocean [of giving] from any direction you approach him…
his depth is goodness and generosity is his shore.
If he had nothing in his hand other than his very soul…
he would give that away so let one asking of him be mindful of Allah.

Read the full post here

Shaykh Abdallah Adhami | “Active Asceticism” | MCR, 87.8FM, London

Muslim Community Radio is in its 12th year of broadcasting to East London, one of the largest Muslim communities in the UK, and online to the world.

Monday, September 7, 2009

14:24-27

"Have you not seen how Allah gave an example? A good word is as a good tree whose root is firm and its branches are in heaven,

footnote no. 497

The good word is La ilaha illa'Llah and the Qur'an. The tree of faith, firmly planted in the believer's heart, has it branches in heaven, which is the spiritual world of lights. It yields its produce of illuminations, knowledge, and virtue every while, for the heart connected to the higher worlds is ever receiving the influx of Divine gifts.

25. It gives it produce every while, by leave of its Lord. Allah gives examples to people that they may remember.

25. And the likeness of an evil word is that of an evil tree, torn out of the earth, lacking stability.

footnote 498:

The evil word is every utterance or thought based on disbelief or corruption. It can have no firm roots, since it can be but illusion, it is therefore easily uprooted, subject to be blown away by the wind.

26. Allah confirms those who believe with the firm utterance in the present life and in the Hereafter. Allah leads the unjust astray and Allah does what He will.

footnote 499:

The firm utterance is La ilaha illa'Llah, it gives believers stability and peace in this world and safety in the hereafter.

-pg. 258-9 of The Majestic Qur'an: An English Rendition of its Meanings

14:22

"And when the matter has been decided, the Devil will say: "Allah gave you a promise of truth; I too promised, but I failed you. I had no authority over you except to call you, but you listened to me. So do not blame me, but blame yourselves. I cannot help you nor can you help me."