Dua Mubaarak

One of two Dua's/supplications I memorised last weekend (9-11 Muharram). Rough attempt at 'tashkeeling' and translating it...

1) Allahumma-qsim lanaa
2) min khashyatika maa ta7oolu bihi bainanaa wa baina ma3aaSiyika
3) wa min Taa3atika maa tubalighunaa bihi jannataka
4) wa mina-al-yaqeeni maa tuhowwinu bihi 3alaynaa maSaa'iba-ad-dunyaa.
5) Allahumma matti3naa bi-asmaa3inaa wa abSaarinaa wa quwwaatinaa maa a7yaytanaa
6) wa-j3alhu-l-waaritha minnaa
7) wa-j3al tha'ranaa 3alaa man Dhalamanaa
8) wa-nSurnaa 3alaa man 3aadaanaa
9) wa laa taj3al muSeebatanaa fee deeninaa
10) wa laa taj3al-id-dunyaa akbara hamminaa wa laa mablagha 3ilminaa
11) wa laa tusalliT 3alaynaa man laa yar7amunaa

1) O Allah, grant us
2) fear of You such what acts as a divider between us and us disobeying You,
3) and grant us obedience to You such what helps us reach Your Paradise,
4) and grant us certainty such what makes easy for us the challenges of this world.
5) O Allah make enjoyable (?) our lives by our hearing, sight and strength/health
6) and make it (our enjoyments/perceptions/strength?) a successor (?) for us (in the next life?)
7) and take revenge/retaliation for us on those who wrong us
8) and help us over those who take us as enemies
9) and do not make our calamity/trial/misfortune/disaster in our religion
10) and do not make this world the largest of our concerns nor the extent/limit of our knowledge
11) and do not put over us in authority those who will not show us mercy.

... Love this Du'a! :)>

Karbala. Heart.

This verse...

"Say (O Muhammad (saws)): 'Whoever is an enemy to Jibraaeel (let him die in his fury), for indeed he has brought it (this Qur'an) down to your heart by Allah's Permission, confirming what came before it and guidance and glad tidings for the believers..." (2:97, translation of the meaning of course!)

.... triggered something I heard recently in the third CD of 'The Hereafter' series by Imam Anwar al-Awlaki regarding one of the earlier persons who claimed to be a Prophet. The 'revelations' he received seemed to all revolve around food and so the people said to him (paraphrased) , 'we don't know whether the angel is talking to your heart or your stomach!'

The CD also contained a phenomenal clear-headed account (maa sha Allah!) of how the door to fitan/trials was broken after the death of Umar ibn al Khattab (ra) and the events that lead to Karbala. Cannot recommend it enough.

Principle

"The commands of the Shari'ah may not be changed just because we do not understand them. This is an unquestionable and widely acceptable principle.

Minor and major uncleanliness (Hadath Asghar and Hadath Akbar) fall in the same realm. These terms do not have clear understandable meanings. For example, Shari'ah tells us that breaking wind makes us unclean (i.e. our wudu is broken). In order to clean ourselves from this impurity, we are to wash our face, our arms to the elbows, feet up to the ankles and make masah of (wipe over) our head. We do not understand what possible relationship there may be between breaking wind and washing these body parts in order to purify ourselves, nor are we allowed to guess. But since the Shari'ah commands us to wash these body parts, we will continue to do so."

(Source: 'The Book of Purification - The Complete Islamic Rules and Guidelines of Cleanliness and Purification', by Sheikh M. Ibrahim Memon Madani)

Too much time with intellectuals.
My heart stops thinking.
Stupidity starts sounding smart.
Need to reconnect it to its roots.

The angels stretch forth their hands...

... Deliver your souls.

"walaqad ji'tumoonaa furaadaa
kamaa khalaqnaakum awwala marratin
wa taraktum maa khawwalnaakum
waraa'a dhuhoorikum..."

"And truly you have come unto Us alone
(without wealth, companions or anything else)
as We created you the first time.
You have left behind you
all that which We had bestowed on you..."

(Al-Qur'an, Surah al-An3aam, part of Verse 94)

I was in my garden last night.
Happened to look up at the sky.
Calming.
Difficult to see how small we are
always looking down charging ahead.

The one bathed by the angels

Sayyiduna Hanzala, raDhiyAllahu 3anhu, may Allah be pleased with Him.

"... When the call for the Battle of Uhud was announced, and the army was beginning to leave, he was having relations with his wife. In this state he heard the call for war, and heard the army leaving for the battlefield. He left everything at that moment and joined the army. He did not have a chance to do ghusl (bath). He was martyred in the battlefield. Because a shaheed (martyr) is not given ghusl, he too was not given a bath. Sayyidunaa Rasulullah sallAllahu 3alayhi wa sallam saw the angels bathing him. He made inquiries, and, on returning to Madinah Munawwarah, was informed by his wife of his condition..."

(Source: Shamaa-il Tirmidhi with commentary, published by Darul Ishaat)

Above story found in the chapter on the turban of Sayyidunaa Rasulullah sallAllahu 3alayhi wa sallam, in the commentary of the fifth Hadith, regarding the father of one of the narrators of the Hadith.

When observing someone wearing new clothes...

Lots of people wearing new clothes yesterday.
I should have capitalised.

(1) May you wear new clothes,
(2) live well,
(3) and die a martyr.

(1) ilbas jadeedan
(2) wa 3ish 7ameedan
(3) wa mot shaheedan

(Source: Reflections of Pearls,
by Imad Uddin and Abdur-Rahman Ibn Yusuf)

Free (in my bubble)

"... I would like to close this talk of mine by encouraging you to give that, which belongs to Allah (3azza wa jalla), but He decided to put it in your hands.

To give some of it for the sake of assisting and freeing and helping your brothers behind bars..."

(Source: Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki's half-hour pre-recorded message that was not allowed to be aired at yesterday's cageprisoners event, see link below)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/23/islamist-preacher-council-address

Subn7aanallah. Good deeds - giving in charity in particular - is a funny business. I always hesitate and start thinking ifs and buts before I do. But I have never regretted or felt my wealth has decreased whenever I have. And yet I don't give freely? The story of the Companion Abdur-Rahman Ibn Awf (radhiyallahu 3anhu) is recommended reading.

My needs

"... When Umar, the commander of the believers, visited Sham, he asked his receivers, 'Where is my brother?' They said, 'Whom do you mean?' He answered, 'Abu Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah.' Abu Ubaydah came to Umar, who embraced him. Then Abu Ubaydah accompanied him to his house, wherein Umar found nothing of furniture. He found nothing other than his sword, shield and saddle. Umar asked him smiling, 'Do you not take for yourself (of furniture) what the people have taken for themselves?' Abu Ubaydah answered, 'O commander of the believers, this is enough for me, since what I have satisfies my needs.'..."

(Source: Men Around the Messenger)

رضي الله عنهما

Make a wish

"Umar ibn al-Khattaab was sitting with a group of his companions and he asked: 'Let each one make a wish!' Someone said: 'I wish that this house was filled with gold, which I would happily spend in God's path.' Umar asked the people again: 'Make a wish!' Someone else said, 'I wish that this house was filled with pearls, chrysolites, and with every kind of precious gem that I would most happily spend it in charity in God's path.' Umar asked again, 'Make a wish!' They replied: 'O Ameer ul-Mu'mineen, we truly do not know what to wish for!' Umar then said, 'I wish that this house was filled with men like Abu Ubaydah bin al-Jarraah.'"

"And there is no other than the blood of my heart for me to give
To wash humiliation off your sides, O Jerusalem"

Beautiful nasheed, 'sahmu al-ams' (yesterday's arrow), by Brother Abu Ali:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5lhIMOC4jE

Seeing defects within one's self

"Hazrat Umar (ra) prayed: 'May God show mercy on the man who points out mydefects to me'."

"... mix with people and know their faults... a believer is a mirror to anotherbeliever. He sees his defects from the defects from others."

(Source: (Translation of) Ihya Ulum-id-Din, Chapter on Good Conduct)

Seeing things for what they are

"A throne is only a bench covered with velvet."

(Source: London Underground poster, attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte)

My kind of guy.

My death, imminent. My grave, too small for benches and materials.

The Help of Allah (SWT)...

... arrives in unimaginable ways.

An example (related to the event of Badr):

"... They (the believers) saw them (the disbelievers) with their own eyes twice their number (although they were thrice their number)..."

(Mohsin Khan's translation/meaning of the Qur'an, part of Verse 3:13)

"... their firmness, zeal, and discipline won them divine aid. Enemy prisoners stated that the enemy ranks saw the Muslim force to be many times larger than it was."

(Footnote accompanying verse 3:13 of Yusuf Ali's translation/meaning of the Qur'an)

Add a forehead to those knees

"The greater reformer Martin Luther King is quoted as saying, 'I have so much to do today, I'll need to spend another hour on my knees.' To him, prayer was not a mechanical duty but rather a source of power in releasing and multiplying his energies."

('The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People')

"If you take a child and you throw the child up, there's a point where they go into this state of complete panic. And then when they come back to your arms they're laughing. THAT is Dunya. I guarantee you. That moment, that is your life. You came from God and you're going back to God. And there's just a moment where you're in complete state of panic. But just relax, you're in good hands. You're in good hands."

(Attributed to Hamza Yusuf by the person who sent it to me)

Good Conduct

"There are ten qualities of good conduct: not to break promise, to do justice, not to take revenge, to recognize evil as sin, not to raise excuse, to bear the harm of others, to restrain passion, to know one's own faults from seeing the faults of others, to come to everyone with smiling face and to talk with humility with others."

(Source: Attributed to Usuf bin Asbat in Ihya Ulum-id-Din, the Chapter of Good Conduct)

I score low. Much to rectify.

allahumma kamaa 7assanta khalqee fa 7assin khuluqee wa 7arrim wajhee 3alaa-an-naar.

Turn and Face

wa idhaa-altafata iltafata ma3an (jamee3an)

"When he addressed a person he turned his whole body towards that person.

(He did not only turn his face towards the person he addressed, as this is considered impolite, and sometimes it denotes pride. Sayyidana Rasulullah Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam faced the person he spoke to, with his chest and body...)..."

(Source: Shamaa-il Tirmidhi with commentary by Shaykhul Hadith Maulana Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhelwi)

A very difficult Sunnah to incorporate. Maybe it's just me. Try it for a day.

Fly the Flag

"... Distinction. The Prophet (SAWS) placed a good degree of emphasis throughout the Hadith on the Muslims being distinct in their dress and habits from other people in their community..."

"... This is for a sense of identity..."

"... People should be able to look at you and say, 'Wow, and that's a Muslim'..."

(Source: 'Shamail of Imam Tirmidhi (RA)' audio series by Shaykh Husain Abdul Sattar)

Taken from 8-14 minutes of the talk on the 'Hair of the Prophet (SAWS)'. But we're not just talking about hair here.

http://www.sacredlearning.org/classrooms/hadith/shamail_tirmidhi/index.htm

Preventing from the Remembrance of Allah

"And who are more unjust than those who forbid that Allah's Name be glorified and mentioned much in Allah's mosques..."

(Source: Part of Verse 2:114 quoted (in the wrong context I believe) in Arabic by a man in the Masjid today, annoyed and disturbed from his prayer by another who was praying loudly just a few metres away)

He was a nice guy. Just a bit annoyed and disturbed. He told me my phone was falling out of my pocket and indeed it was.

And I think to myself...

... what a wonderful world.

"So, when they forgot (the warning) with which they had been reminded, We opened for them the gates of every (pleasant) thing, until in the midst of their enjoyment in that which they were given, all of a sudden, We took them (in punishment), and lo! They were plunged into destruction with deep regrets and sorrows."

(Source: Meaning of the Noble Qur'an by Mohsin Khan, 6:44)

All praise and thanks are Allah's.

The Leader of a People is Their Servant

"Two friends, Abdullah and Abu Ali Rabati once started on a journey. Abdullah said to Rabati, 'You are my leader'. Rabati said to Abdullah, 'You are my leader'. [Eventually,] Abdullah was made leader of the two. Thereafter he carried his own luggage and the luggage of Rabati upon his back. One night there fell profuse rain. Abdullah held a blanket over his companion for the whole night. Whenever Rabati said 'Don't do it', Abdullah said 'Have you not selected me as your leader? So don't order me and don't do other than what I order you to do'. Rabati then said, 'I wished then that I were dead and that I did not say to him:You are my leader'."

(Source: Ihya Ulum-id-Din, Rules and Regulations of Journey)

Awesome awesome example.

The Meeting with Allah

"The Prophet (SAWS) said, 'Whoever loves the Meeting with Allah, Allah too loves the Meeting with him; and whoever hates the Meeting with Allah, Allah too hates the Meeting with him'."

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

"Lost indeed are they
Who treat it as a falsehood
That they must meet Allah -
Until on a sudden
The hour is on them,
And they say:
'Ah! woe
Unto us that we took
No thought of it'..."

(The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, 6:31)

The footnote accompanying the above verse is vivid, personifying a man's sins as ugly demons that he will carry on his back, and a man's good deeds as a strong patient mount that will carry him on its back.

Proof of God

"... Allah is so essential and so real it is difficult to miss that... One of the biggest evidence for the existence of Allah is the fact that the majority of the people (inhabitants) of this world believe in a supreme being... That in itself is an evidence..."

(Source: Aqidah Tahawiyah audio series, by Mufti Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf, Dars 3)

The existence of God is less discussed in the Qur'an than the Oneness of God. Something to think about.

If God is all-powerful...

Not that we should be thinking such questions but some people do/have and it needs to be addressed... If God is all-powerful, can He create an entity like Himself?

"... It's a useless argument... He would be created. Right? To create something like Him that doesn't have a beginning and doesn't have an end, that's going into a place we don't need to go..."

(Source: Aqidah Tahawiyah audio series, by Mufti Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf, Dars 3)

Being "all-powerful" is one attribute amongst other attributes.

Comfort Zones

Expand.

"In journey, a man's character is disclosed."

"Hazrat Bishar Hafi said, 'O learned men, if you would have gone out in journey, you would have been purified... In short, if a man remains confined in [his] house, his character and conduct are kept limited there and his bad character is not disclosed as no opportunity arises [for him] to see things opposed to his nature'."

(Source: Ihya Ulum-id-Din, Chapter of the Rules and Regulations of Journey)

Venture.

What are friends for.

"Hazrat Abu Darda used to sit by graves. Being asked the reason, he said: 'I sit with such people who remind me of the next world. If I go away from them, they do not backbite me.'"

(Source: Ihya Ulum-id-Din)

Rare.

Find excuses not faults

"Hazrat Ibnul Mubarak said, 'A believer searches for excuses and a hypocrite searches for faults'."

(Source: Ihya Ulum-id-Din, chapter of Love and Brotherhood)

Love and Hate

"By God, if I fast all days and pray all nights, spend all my wealth in the way of God without account and if I die on the day with no love for those who obey God and with no hatred for those who do not obey God, it will be of no use to me."

(Attributed to Abdullah ibn Omar (may God be pleased with him) in Ihya-Ulum-id-Din, the chapter of Love and Brotherhood)

Dodging the Haram

Turn away from the unlawful.
Face piety.

Step forward from the doubtful.
Approach piety.

God-fear within reach,
duck under the doubtlessly lawful,
that which clotheslines into the doubtful.

Spring up a final leap,
leaving all that is not for God,
landing in the company of the truthful.

Recommended Reading: Ihya Ulum-id-Din, Chapter of Halal and Haram

Self-admiration

allahummaj3alnee sagheeran fee 3aynee
waj3alnee kabeeran fee a3yuninnaasi

"O Allah, make me small in my own eyes,
and make me big in the eyes of others."

Above Du'a mentioned and explained in the seventh minute of this talk:
Ghazali Beginning of Guidance audio series by Mufti Abdur-Rahman Ibn Yusuf - Dars 28 - Calamities of the Heart, Envy, Ostentation

Your stomach is your foundation...

... base it on good spiritual nutrients.

"Hazrat Omar drank the milk of a camel intended for Zakat by mistake. He thrust his fingers into his throat and vomited it."

"The limbs of a man who eats lawful food become obedient to him and help him in doing good deeds." (and vice-versa)

(Source: Ihya Ulum-id-Din, Chapter of Halal and Haram (Lawful and Unlawful Things))

What goes around...

... can/may/will come around and hack you down.

A simple example to demonstrate a simple point:

"A man had a cow. He milked his cow everyday and sold milk after mixing water therein (fraudulently). One day there was a flood which drowned the cow. One of his sons said to him, 'The waters which you mixed with milk gathered together and washed away the cow...'"

(Source: Ihya Ulum-id-Din)

Do no evil.

Learn to Interpret

"... I never observed him [Mufti Azeez ur Rahman (RA)] rebutting anyone in their face... 'you did this wrong'. Rather, even when somebody had erred, he would say, 'No doubt you meant this...' In this way he would interpret, redress and present the correct version in such a way the listener would be in doubt as to his error but never forced into a confrontation or show down.

... redress the error in a positive and mild manner and keep your heart clean...

... Rasulullah (SAWS) said, 'Do not dispute with your brother...'"

(Source: 'Ashraf's Blessings of Marriage' by Hafiz Aslam Patel)

Very difficult. I put the quote forward as a goal for myself. Something I am far from having accomplished.

Be not like sheep

"... If a man takes food for helping his learning and action and God-fear, his food and drink are considered as divine service.

For that, he should not spend his time uselessly remaining busy like a lower being which roams from field to field in eating and drinking..."

(Source: Imam Ghazzali's Ihya Ulum-id-Din, The Book of Worldly Usages, Rules of Eating and Drinking)

The days, meals and opportunities are many. Life and death (in this world) once. Use wisely.

Fear

Bombs fall but not a tear.

My heart is diseased.

Bombs fall but we will not tear.

Ours is a great affair.