Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

Charity
Al-Nisa (The Women) - Chapter 4: Verse 114

"No good comes out of most of their secret talks, unless it be to encourage a good deed, charity, justice, or conciliation among people. To him who does this, seeking God's good pleasure, We shall soon grant him the highest of rewards."

Charity (sadaqah) is of five kinds, the first of which is charity with one's wealth, and the second with one's power and influence, which according to the authority of hadith from the Prophet (peace be upon him) consists of intercession for a good cause when it helps to save someone's life or relieve one from hardship. Third, charity may consist of the giving of counsel and good advice to someone in need of it. Fourth is the charity of the tongue. This is when words are used to bring peace between two feuding parties and reconcile them. The last of the five types of charity is charity with one's knowledge by one who is learned that leads to proliferation of good understanding and enlightenment.

Compiled From:
"The Middle Path of Moderation in Islam: The Qur'anic Principle of Wasatiyyah" - Hashim Kamali

From Issue: 852 [Read original issue]

Understanding The Prophet's Life

God's Control

Hudhayfah reports: 'When the Prophet wanted to sleep, he would say: "It is in Your name, my Lord, that I die and live". When he woke up from sleep, he would say: "Praise be to God Who has given us life after he has caused us to die, and to Him we all return." [Bukhari, Ibn Majah] [The Arabic wording of the first part is: "Bismik allahumma amutu wa ahya". The wording of the second part: "Al-hamd lillah alladhi ahyana ba da ma amatana wa ilayhi al-nushur".]

We note here that the Prophet (peace be upon him) compares sleep to death and waking up to coming back to life. This is a point the Prophet stressed many times. It is indeed accurate, because when we go to sleep, we lose consciousness of everything around us, in the same way a dead person is unconscious of what goes on next to him. Waking up is a return to activity and full control of one's senses.

This comparison is also stated in the Quran, when God says that He gathers people's souls when they die, but those who are not dead, He gathers their souls when they sleep. He then keeps with Him those who died and releases the others for a specified time. (39: 42) To acknowledge this, as the Prophet teaches us in this supplication, is to acknowledge God's control of our lives and that death is as near to us as the next time we go to sleep.

Compiled From:
"Al-Adab al-Mufrad with Full Commentary: A Perfect Code of Manners and Morality" - Adil Salahi

From Issue: 1051 [Read original issue]

Blindspot!

True Forgiveness

There is no doubt that forgiveness frees us. Forgiveness has the power to heal our bodies, our minds, and our spirits - our very lives. But we need to make sure we aren't forgiving just because we think it is the right thing to do or because we are giving in to pressure from others. And we need to make sure that we are not just using forgiveness as another form of denial.

True forgiveness occurs only when we allow ourselves to face the truth and to feel and release our emotions, including our anger, about what was done to us. It is completely premature to forgive if you haven't even acknowledged that you were harmed. When children are asked to forgive abusive parents without first experiencing their emotions and their personal pain, the forgiveness process becomes another weapon of silencing. The same is true of adults who rush to forgiveness. Many people have been brainwashed into submission by those who insist that they are "less than" if they don't forgive.

Many people think that forgiving someone who hurt them is the same as saying that what happened to them was okay or that it didn't hurt them. But forgiveness doesn't mean that what happened was okay. It simply means that we are no longer willing to allow that experience to adversely affect our lives. Ultimately, forgiveness is something we do for ourselves.

Compiled From:
"Healing Your Emotional Self" - Beverly Engel, pp. 113, 114

From Issue: 672 [Read original issue]