Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

Scripture and Prayer
Al-Araf (The Heights) Chapter 7: Verse 170

"As for those who hold fast to the Scriptures and attend regularly to their prayers, We shall not fail to reward those who enjoin the doing of what is right."

The very expression, "hold fast to the Scriptures", gives a vivid image that we can almost see and feel. It is the image of holding the book with strength and seriousness. This is how God likes His book to be approached, without rigidity or narrow-mindedness. Strength and seriousness are totally different from rigidity and narrow-mindedness. They are not opposed to ease, broad vision and compatibility with day-to-day life, but they are opposed to looseness, carelessness, and giving human practices precedence over God's law. Indeed, what people do must always be subject to God's law.

Holding fast with strength and seriousness to what God has revealed and attending regularly to prayers, which is here a reference to all aspects of worship, are the twin essential factors of the divine method that aims at setting human life on the right footing. The way this Quranic verse clearly links holding fast to the Scriptures with attending to worship is significant. It shows that implementing divine revelations in human life gives it the right basis, and that proper worship reforms human rights. Thus, the two operate in everyday life as well as in human hearts and set them both aright. This is further emphasized by the reference to doing right at the conclusion of the verse.

The plain fact is that all human life suffers as a result of abandoning these two essential factors of the divine method. When the revealed message is taken lightly, it has no effect on everyday life, and when worship is abandoned, people's hearts become prone to corruption. This leads to evading the law, as was the practice of the people of earlier Scriptures. The same applies to the followers of any Scripture when their hearts take worship lightly, and in consequence, their fear of God weakens.

The divine system is a complete whole, which establishes life on the basis of a divine writ, and reforms hearts through worship. Thus, hearts are healthy and human life is also wholesome. That is the divine method, which is abandoned in preference for another only by those who are bound to suffer misery in this world and punishment in the life to come.

Compiled From:
"In The Shade of The Quran" - Sayyid Qutb, Vol. 6. 254, 255

From Issue: 712 [Read original issue]

Understanding The Prophet's Life

Distinct Personality

The Muslim personality is a distinct one due to its unique code of behavior, as well as its manners and appearance. Our appearance, tastes, manners, and character reflect our personality. Our Master, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) directed his companions by saying, "You are on your way to meet your brothers, so put on a nice dress and fix your saddles (place where a rider sits on the back of an animal), so that you appear distinct among people as a mole (on a face). Allah likes neither roughness, nor rough manners." [Muslim] This Hadith indicates that the distinct look of Muslims in their beauty, their cleanliness, and their pleasant smell, coupled with excellent character, enhances their personality, just as a black mole enhances the beauty of an already nice face!

Once the Prophet said, "He will not enter Paradise who has a grain of arrogance in his heart." Upon hearing this a man asked, "(What about) a person who may like his dress to be nice and his shoes to be nice?" The Prophet (pbuh) replied, "Allah is beautiful and likes beauty. Arrogance is to deny the rights and look down upon people." [Abu Dawud, Ahmad & Al-Hakim]

Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah (Rahimahullah) said that beauty that Allah likes includes nice clothes! Hence it could be said that Allah likes all nice things. Therefore, a Muslim ought to be recognized by neat dress, cleanliness and graceful manners. Unfortunately, today many Muslims have lost sight of this distinction and commit errors that blemish their 'Muslim personality' that is meant to be unique in its gracefulness and perfection.

Compiled From:
"Islamic Manners"- Abdul Fattah Abu Ghudda

From Issue: 717 [Read original issue]

Blindspot!

Intangibles

The depression brought the world to the very borderline of understanding of the forces which are intangible and unseen. Through the ages which have passed, man has depended too much upon his physical senses, and has limited his knowledge to physical things, which he could see, touch, weigh, and measure.

We are now entering the most marvellous of all ages—an age which will teach us something of the intangible forces of the world about us. Perhaps we shall learn, as we pass through this age, that the “other self” is more powerful than the physical self we see when we look into a mirror.

Sometimes men speak lightly of the intangibles— the things which they cannot perceive through any of their five senses, and when we hear them, it should remind us that all of us are controlled by forces which are unseen and intangible.

The whole of mankind has not the power to cope with, nor to control the intangible force wrapped up in the rolling waves of the oceans. Man has not the capacity to understand the intangible force of gravity, which keeps this little earth suspended in midair, and keeps man from falling from it, much less the power to control that force. Man is entirely subservient to the intangible force which comes with a thunderstorm, and he is just as helpless in the presence of the intangible force of electricity— nay, he does not even know what electricity is, where it comes from, or what is its purpose!

Nor is this by any means the end of man’s ignorance in connection with things unseen and intangible. He does not understand the intangible force (and intelligence) wrapped up in the soil of the earth—the force which provides him with every morsel of food he eats, every article of clothing he wears, every dollar he carries in his pockets.

Compiled From:
"Think & Grow Rich" - Napoleon Hill, pp. 212, 213

From Issue: 788 [Read original issue]