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Issue: "105"
Section:
ID: "4"
SName: "General"
url: "general"
SOrder: "1"
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| \r\n QURAN \r\n \r\n |
Translation:
\r\n"You \r\n see their eyes overflow with tears because of what they \r\n have recognized of the truth."
\r\n[Al-Quran- \r\n Sura Al-Maidah 5:83]
\r\nTafseer:
\r\n Tears in the Eyes: Response to the \r\n Powerful Message
\r\n - \r\n
- While reciting and studying the \r\n Quran, let the response in your heart, to what you \r\n read, overflow through your eyes. These tears of joy or \r\n of fear should be your answer to the powerful message of \r\n the Quran. \r\n
- Only with an inattentive \r\n heart, or a dead heart, will the eyes remain dry. \r\n
Weeping: Sign of Real Encounter with \r\n the Quran
\r\n - \r\n
- The Quran emphasizes \r\n this participation of the eyes —not always out of fear, \r\n but mostly out of joy on finding the truth, on realizing \r\n His infinite mercy, on seeing God's promises being fulfilled: \r\n "They fall down upon their faces, weeping" (Al-Isra \r\n 17: 109). Often the Prophet, (peace be on him), his \r\n Companions, and those like them who had a real encounter \r\n with the Quran, would weep when they recited it. By embarking \r\n on a journey through Quran, we may also experience \r\n it, as the Quran came to everyone one of us. \r\n
- The Prophet (peace be \r\n on him) is reported to have said: "Surely the Quran \r\n has been sent down with sorrow. So when you read it, make \r\n yourself sorrowful" (Abu Ya'la, Abu Nu'aym). \r\n According to another Hadith: "Read the Quran and \r\n weep. If you do not weep spontaneously make yourself weep" \r\n (Ibn Majah). \r\n
A Reason to Cry: Realization of YOUR \r\n Responsibilities!
\r\n - \r\n
- Tears will not take long \r\n to well up and trickle down your cheeks once you reflect \r\n and think about what the Quran is saying, and that it \r\n is addressing YOU. You may make yourself cry, if you think \r\n of the heavy responsibilities, the warnings and the good \r\n tidings that the Quran brings to you. \r\n
[Compiled from "Way \r\n To The Quran" by Ustadh Khurram Murad. Also \r\n available online at http://www.youngmuslims.ca/online_library/] \r\n
\r\n | \r\n From \r\n the Lives of the Prophet (pbuh) & his Companions (R) \r\n \r\n |
Helping \r\n the Needy- Prophet's Far-sighted Approach \r\n
\r\n * Story \r\n of how the Prophet (pbuh) taught a person to earn his \r\n living *
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\r\n The story \r\n is told of man from among the Muslims of Madinah who came \r\n to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and asked for some nourishment. \r\n The Prophet (pbuh) never rejected any request for help. \r\n At the same time he did not like to encourage begging or \r\n dependence. He therefore asked the man, "Don't you \r\n have anything in your house?" "Yes," said \r\n the man. "A saddle blanket which we wear sometimes \r\n and which we spread on the floor sometimes, and a container \r\n from which we drink water."
\r\n "Bring \r\n them to me," said the Prophet (pbuh), who then took \r\n the items and asked some of his companions, "Who will \r\n buy these two articles?" "I will," said one \r\n man, "for one dirham." Another said, \r\n "I will take them for two dirhams." The \r\n Prophet (pbuh) sold the articles for two dirhams which \r\n he handed over to the man and said, "With one dirham, \r\n buy food for your family and with the other buy an axe and \r\n bring it to me."
\r\n The man \r\n returned with the axe. The Prophet (pbuh) split a log of \r\n wood with it and then instructed the man: "Go and gather \r\n firewood and I do not want to see you for fifteen days." \r\n This the man did and after two weeks had made a profit of \r\n ten dirhams. With some of the money he bought food \r\n and with some he bought clothes. The Prophet (peace be upon \r\n him) was pleased and said to him, "This is better than \r\n getting a bolt on your face on the Day of Resurrection." \r\n
\r\n This true \r\n story emphasizes that as an adult Muslim and in particular \r\n when you have a family, you have the obligation to work. \r\n You are required to use your initiative and whatever resources \r\n you may have, to earn a living. If you fail to do so \r\n you face the prospect of "getting a bolt on your face" \r\n or in other words of suffering some form of disgrace due \r\n to your inactivity and dependence on others.
\r\n The story \r\n also points to the most effective method of offering aid \r\n and support to someone. If you provide handouts to people \r\n who are well, able-bodied, and have some resources, however \r\n small, you would not in fact be offering effective help \r\n to that person. You may help to meet an immediate pressing \r\n need, but it will only be a one-off, short term remedy. \r\n You will in fact be encouraging dependence and the lack \r\n of self-respect and esteem in the person you wish to help. \r\n
\r\n By his simple, \r\n practical and far-sighted approach, the noble Prophet (pbuh) \r\n showed how people can be made to help themselves and \r\n how they can be motivated to seek long-term solutions to \r\n meet their basic needs. "Charity is not Halal (permissible) \r\n for the rich or the able-bodied," emphasized the Prophet \r\n (peace be upon him).
\r\n [Taken from "Islam- \r\n The Natural Way" by Abdul Wahid Hamid, pg. \r\n 56-57]
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\r\n | \r\n Reflections \r\n on Tazkiya and Self-Development \r\n \r\n |
Willpower \r\n (Irada), not Desires, is needed! \r\n
\r\n Following \r\n is one the prerequisites of Tazkiya (Self-development): \r\n
\r\n 4- Sustaining \r\n Willpower (Irada) :
\r\n To \r\n achieve the ultimate goal in life requires a sustained \r\n determination to do so, a willpower that is forever responsive \r\n and strong. In Quranic terminology this is called irada. \r\n Irada is basic to all our efforts. Without willing \r\n to do something you cannot do anything. Irada \r\n is the key to our self and character-development \r\n
\r\n Irada \r\n is very different from \r\n desire. You always hear people reflecting upon unfulfilled \r\n aspirations. One of the main reasons why aspirations and \r\n dreams remain unfulfilled is that they are no more than \r\n desires which faded to assume the status of irada. \r\n
\r\n The \r\n Quran explains that one of the basic weaknesses in human \r\n nature which prevents our self-development is the weakness \r\n of will. While narrating the story of Adam, Allah \r\n informs: "And, indeed, long ago We made Our covenant \r\n with Adam; but he forgot and We found no firmness of purpose \r\n in him." [Ta Ha 20:115] \r\n
\r\n Irada \r\n to change you life requires \r\n strength and consistency and is indeed the antithesis \r\n of doubt or hesitation. Once your irada is \r\n firmly in place, then you must have no doubts and you \r\n must not hesitate.
\r\n Now, \r\n what purpose should irada serve? The Quran, in 17:19, \r\n makes it clear that this will power must be a firm resolve \r\n to seek the pleasure of Allah because this is the part \r\n of the bargain that you must deliver. \r\n
\r\n To be continued \r\n in the next issue....
\r\n [Taken from "In \r\n the Early Hours" by Ustadh Khurram \r\n Murad (Rahimahullah), edited by Riza Mohammed. \r\n Now also available at http://www.youngmuslims.ca/online_library/default.asp] \r\n
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\r\n
\r\n | \r\n 15 \r\n Points on the Wisdom of Prohibition of Alcohol \r\n \r\n |
Following is a list \r\n of reasons and wisdom behind the prohibition of drinking \r\n alcohol in Islam:
\r\n 10- \r\n Muslims believe that the prophets of God did not taste alcoholic \r\n beverages and that alcohol was prohibited in the original \r\n scriptures of the divinely revealed religions. \r\n
\r\n 11- Alcoholic \r\n beverages have some benefits, but sin and harm resulting \r\n from their consumption are far greater than their benefits, \r\n as Allah says in the Quran, "They will ask you \r\n concerning alcoholic beverages and gambling. Say (to them): \r\n In each of them their lies serious vice, as well as \r\n some benefits for mankind; yet their sin is greater than \r\n their usefulness" (Sura Al-Baqara 2: 219). \r\n
\r\n 12- Alcohol \r\n brings God's (Allah's) curse down on those who drink it, \r\n as well as on those who plant or cultivate its raw materials, \r\n produce, sell or deal with it, and those who participate \r\n in drinking parties, a warning which was given to us \r\n in a Hadith by the Prophet (peace be upon him). \r\n
\r\n To be continued \r\n in the next issue....
\r\n [Compiled from "The \r\n Adolescent Life" by Dr. Ahmad Sakr] \r\n
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ID: "15"
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