What is a Mahram in Islam?
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Any man with whom a woman has a relationship (of blood or fosterage) that precludes marriage, is considered a Mahram to her.
Women who a man is mahram to, include his mother, grandmother, daughter, granddaughter, sister, aunt, grandaunt, niece, grandniece, his father's wife, his wife's daughter, his mother-in-law, his foster mother (the one who nursed him), foster sisters, and any foster relatives that are similar to the above mentioned blood relatives as the Prophet (SAW) said, "What is forbidden by reason of kindship is forbidden by reason of suckling." (Al-Bukhari)
Men are considered Mahram to these women because Allah (SWT) mentioned them in the Holy Qur'an: "And marry not women whom your fathers married, except what has already passed; indeed it was shameful and most hateful, and an evil way. Forbidden to you (for marriage) are: your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your father's sisters, your mother's sisters, your brother's daughters, your sister's daughters, your foster mother who gave you suck, your foster milk suckling sisters, your wives' mothers, your step-daughters under your guardianship, born of your wives to whom you have go in - but there is no sin on you if you have not gone in them (to marry their daughters), - the wives of your sons who (spring) from your own loins, and two sisters in wedlock at the same time, except for what has already passed; verily, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." (An-Nisa 4:22-23)
All the man's female relatives mentioned in these two verses are considered he is considered Mahram to, because it is unlawful (haram) for him to marry them, except the wife's sister mentioned last, who he is not a Mahram to, because he can marry her if he divorces her sister, or if she dies. Reciprocally, if a woman is a Mahram to a man, such as her brother, her father, her uncle, etc. then he is a Mahram to her. All other relatives he can not be a mahram to and as they fall under the category of strangers to him, except one's wife or husband who are allowed
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Istikharah
Istikharah
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Asalaamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatahu
Here is the correct way to do Istikharah.....
This should help you brother Aziz_morocco and others
Hadith - al-Tirmidhi # 2151. [Classed as saheeh by al-Haakim, 1/699, and al-Dhahabi agreed with him. It was classed as hasan by al-Haafiz ibn Hajar in Fath al-Baari, 11/184]
The happiness of the son of Adam depends on his being content with what Allah has decreed for him, and the misery of the son of Adam results from his failure to pray istikharah, and the misery of the son of Adam results from in his discontent with what Allah has decreed for him.
To make the prayer of Istikharah (say: iss-teh-KHAR-uh), one should pray two non-fard (non-obligatory) rakat (units) of prayer, even if they are of the regular sunnah prayers or a prayer for entering the mosque, and so on, during any time of the day or night.
One should recite in them whatever one wishes of the Qur'an, after reciting al-Fatihah. Then one should praise Allah and invoke blessings upon the Prophet, peace be upon him.
"Allahumma inni astakhiruka bi'ilmika. wa astaqdiruka bi-qudratika, wa as'aluka min fadlika al-azimfa-innaka taqdiru wala aqdiru, wa ta'lamu wala a ' lamu, wa anta 'allamu-l-ghuyub.
Allahumma, in kunta ta' lamu anna hadhaI-amra khairun lifi dini wa ma'ashi wa aqibati amri (or 'ajili amri wa'ajilihi) f aqdirhu li wa yas-sirhu li thumma barik li fihi, wa in kunta ta'llamu anna hadha-l-amra sharrun lifi dini wa ma'ashi wa-aqibati amri (orfi'ajili amri wa ajilihi) fasrifhu anni was-rifni'anhu.
Wa aqdir li al-khaira haithu kana thumma ardini bihi"
(O Allah ! I ask guidance from Your knowledge, and Power from Your Might and I ask for Your great blessings. You are capable and I am not. You know and I do not and You know the unseen. O Allah! If You know that this thing is good for my din and my subsistence and for my Hereafter - (or say, If it is better for my present and later needs) - then ordain it for me and make it easy for me to obtain, and then bless me in it. If You know that this thing is harmful to me in my din and subsistence and in the Hereafter--(or say, If it is worse for my present and later needs)--then keep it away from me, and keep me away from it. And ordain for me whatever is good for me, and make me satisfied with it)."'
The Prophet, may peace be upon him, added that then the person should mention his need."
There is nothing authentic concerning anything specific that is to be recited in the prayer nor is there any authentic report concerning how many times one should repeat it.
An-Nawawi holds that "after making istikharah, a person must do what he is wholeheartedly inclined to do and feels good about doing and should not insist on doing what he had desired to do before making the istikharah. And if his feelings change, he should leave what he had intended to do, for otherwise he is not leaving the choice to Allah, and would not be honest in seeking aid from Allah's power and knowledge. Sincerity in seeking Allah's choice, means that one should completely abandon what one desired oneself."
wasalam
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Asalaamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatahu
Here is the correct way to do Istikharah.....
This should help you brother Aziz_morocco and others
Hadith - al-Tirmidhi # 2151. [Classed as saheeh by al-Haakim, 1/699, and al-Dhahabi agreed with him. It was classed as hasan by al-Haafiz ibn Hajar in Fath al-Baari, 11/184]
The happiness of the son of Adam depends on his being content with what Allah has decreed for him, and the misery of the son of Adam results from his failure to pray istikharah, and the misery of the son of Adam results from in his discontent with what Allah has decreed for him.
To make the prayer of Istikharah (say: iss-teh-KHAR-uh), one should pray two non-fard (non-obligatory) rakat (units) of prayer, even if they are of the regular sunnah prayers or a prayer for entering the mosque, and so on, during any time of the day or night.
One should recite in them whatever one wishes of the Qur'an, after reciting al-Fatihah. Then one should praise Allah and invoke blessings upon the Prophet, peace be upon him.
"Allahumma inni astakhiruka bi'ilmika. wa astaqdiruka bi-qudratika, wa as'aluka min fadlika al-azimfa-innaka taqdiru wala aqdiru, wa ta'lamu wala a ' lamu, wa anta 'allamu-l-ghuyub.
Allahumma, in kunta ta' lamu anna hadhaI-amra khairun lifi dini wa ma'ashi wa aqibati amri (or 'ajili amri wa'ajilihi) f aqdirhu li wa yas-sirhu li thumma barik li fihi, wa in kunta ta'llamu anna hadha-l-amra sharrun lifi dini wa ma'ashi wa-aqibati amri (orfi'ajili amri wa ajilihi) fasrifhu anni was-rifni'anhu.
Wa aqdir li al-khaira haithu kana thumma ardini bihi"
(O Allah ! I ask guidance from Your knowledge, and Power from Your Might and I ask for Your great blessings. You are capable and I am not. You know and I do not and You know the unseen. O Allah! If You know that this thing is good for my din and my subsistence and for my Hereafter - (or say, If it is better for my present and later needs) - then ordain it for me and make it easy for me to obtain, and then bless me in it. If You know that this thing is harmful to me in my din and subsistence and in the Hereafter--(or say, If it is worse for my present and later needs)--then keep it away from me, and keep me away from it. And ordain for me whatever is good for me, and make me satisfied with it)."'
The Prophet, may peace be upon him, added that then the person should mention his need."
There is nothing authentic concerning anything specific that is to be recited in the prayer nor is there any authentic report concerning how many times one should repeat it.
An-Nawawi holds that "after making istikharah, a person must do what he is wholeheartedly inclined to do and feels good about doing and should not insist on doing what he had desired to do before making the istikharah. And if his feelings change, he should leave what he had intended to do, for otherwise he is not leaving the choice to Allah, and would not be honest in seeking aid from Allah's power and knowledge. Sincerity in seeking Allah's choice, means that one should completely abandon what one desired oneself."
wasalam
The Quest for Love & Mercy
Marriage: The Quest for Love & Mercy
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As-salaamu'Alaykum wa'Rahmatullaahi wa'Barakatuh,
This thread will be comprehensive in relation to marriage. It is taken from 'The Quest of Love and Mercy" by Muhammad al-Jibaly. It is very simple and an excellent read, more importantly it is according to the Qur'aan and Sunnah. I will update consistently and should be completed soon, Insha'Allaah.
It will provide advice for the qualities to look for in a spouse, issue of courting, things to avoid, the marriage contract, the Wali, the Mahr (dowry) and the Walimah. I know it does not include matters relating to intimacy; such information is more suitable in the private brother/sister areas.
Importantly, please remember this website is not a matrimonial website rather this should provide us all with answers to questions in relation to marriage. If you are seeking marriage it is advisable to talk with your family, good (emphasis) friends and/or the Imam at the Masjid.
I will also include an advice from Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzaan (in relation to marriage) at the end and a few beneficial question and answers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As-salaamu'Alaykum wa'Rahmatullaahi wa'Barakatuh,
This thread will be comprehensive in relation to marriage. It is taken from 'The Quest of Love and Mercy" by Muhammad al-Jibaly. It is very simple and an excellent read, more importantly it is according to the Qur'aan and Sunnah. I will update consistently and should be completed soon, Insha'Allaah.
It will provide advice for the qualities to look for in a spouse, issue of courting, things to avoid, the marriage contract, the Wali, the Mahr (dowry) and the Walimah. I know it does not include matters relating to intimacy; such information is more suitable in the private brother/sister areas.
Importantly, please remember this website is not a matrimonial website rather this should provide us all with answers to questions in relation to marriage. If you are seeking marriage it is advisable to talk with your family, good (emphasis) friends and/or the Imam at the Masjid.
I will also include an advice from Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzaan (in relation to marriage) at the end and a few beneficial question and answers.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Is the Satanic Verses Story True?.Is the Satanic Verses Story True?
Is the Satanic Verses Story True?.Is the Satanic Verses Story True?
by Shaykh Gibril F. Haddad
1. Ibn Sa`d (d. 230) in his al-Tabaqat al-Kubra (reprint Beirut: Dar Sadir), vol. 1 said:
[p. 205] Muhammad ibn `Umar(*) narrated to us:
(1) Yunus ibn Muhammad ibn Fadala al-Zafari narrated to me: From his father who said:
(2) From Kathir ibn Zayd: From al-Muttalib ibn `Abd Allâh ibn Hantab who said:-
[(*) Muhammad ibn `Umar al-Waqidi (d. 207), Ahmad ibn Hanbal said of him: "He is a liar." Al-Bukhari and Abu Hatim al-Razi said: "Discarded." Ibn `Adi said: "His narrations are not retained, and their bane comes from him." Ibn al-Madini said: "He forges hadiths." Al-Dhahabi said: "Consensus has settled over his debility." Mizan al-I`tidal (3:662-666 #7993).]
Allâh's Messenger - Allâh bless and greet him - saw rejection coming from his people, so he sat in isolation, wishing to himself: Would that nothing is revealed to me that would drive them away from me. Thereafter Allâh's Messenger - Allâh bless and greet him - approached his people again and made overtures to them, and they responded to him. One day he sat with them in one of the usual public gatherings around the Ka`ba and he recited to them "By the Star when it setteth" (Sura 53, al-Najm). When he reached the words:
19. Have ye thought upon Al Lat and Al Uzza?
20. And Manat, the third, the other?
the devil interjected two phrases (kalimatayn) upon his tongue:
"Those are the elevated cranes: truly their intercession is dearly hoped!"
Allâh's Messenger spoke these two phrases then went on to finish the entire Sura, then he prostrated and all those in attendance prostrated. Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira took a handful of earth and [applying it to his forehead] prostrated on it, for he was an aged old man who could not prostrate. It is also said that Abu Uhayha Sa`id ibn al-`As was the one who did this.... and some say both did it.
They [the Quraysh] were elated at what Allâh's Messenger - Allâh bless and greet him - had spoken, saying: "We definitely know that Allâh gives life and gives death as well as creates and sustains, but these our gods intercede for us before Him, so if you give them their share, we are with you." This statement of theirs bore heavily on the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - and he withdrew to his house. When evening came, Gibril came to him and rehearsed the Sura with him, whereupon Gibril said: "Did I bring you those two phrases (al-kalimatayn)?" Allâh's Messenger said: "Have I said on Allâh's part something He never said?" Whereupon Allâh revealed to him [p. 206] the verse: {And they indeed strove hard to beguile thee (Muhammad) away from that wherewith We have inspired thee, that thou shouldst invent other than it against Us; and then would they have accepted thee as a friend.} (17:73)
2. Imam al-Baghawi (d. 510) said in his commentary of the Qur'ân entitled Lubab al-Ta'wil fi Ma`alim al-Tanzil (Dar al-Fikr ed. vol. 3) concerning the story of the cranes (qissat al-gharaaneeq):
[p. 293] Ibn `Abbas, Muhammad ibn Ka`b al-Qurazi and others of the commentators of Qur'ân said that when the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - saw the turning away of his people from him and it bore heavily on him to see the distance grow between them and what he brought them on Allâh's part, he desired in his soul (tamanna fi nafsihi) that there come from Allâh something that would bridge the gap between him and his people, for he was deeply concerned that they should have faith. As he was in a gathering of the Quraysh one day, Allâh revealed Sura al-Najm (53), whereupon Allâh's Messenger - Allâh bless and greet him -- began to recite it, until he reached His saying:
19. Have ye thought upon Al Lat and Al Uzza?
20. And Manat, the third, the other?
whereupon the devil interjected upon his tongue (alqa al-shaytan `ala lisanihi) in connection with that of which he spoke to himself and was hoping for:
"Those are the elevated cranes: truly their intercession is dearly hoped!"
When the Quraysh heard this, they rejoiced greatly. Allâh's Messenger proceeded with his recitation until the end of the Sura, at which point he prostrated, and the Muslims prostrated with him as well as all those of the pagans that were in the mosque. There remained no-one in the mosque, neither believer nor non-believer, except he prostrated, but for al-Walid ibn al-Mughira and Abu Uhayha Sa`id ibn al-`As who took a handful of earth and applied it to their foreheads, prostrating on it, for they were aged old men who could not prostrate. Then the Quraysh dispersed in elation at the way they had heard their gods mentioned, saying: "Muhammad has mentioned our gods in the best way possible." They also said: "We definitely know that Allâh gives life and gives death as well as creates and sustains, but these our gods intercede for us before Him, so if Muhammad gives them their share, we are with him." When evening came, Gibril came to Allâh's Messenger - Allâh bless and greet him - and said: "O Muhammad! What have you done? You have recited to the people something which I never brought you from Allâh Exalted and Almighty." Hearing this, the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - was deeply grieved and feared much from Allâh . So Allâh revealed to him the following verse in which he consoled him , as He was ever merciful towards him:
{Never sent We a messenger or a Prophet before thee but when He recited (the message) Satan proposed (opposition) in respect of that which he recited thereof. But Allâh abolisheth that which Satan proposeth. Then Allâh establisheth His revelations. Allâh is Knower, Wise} (22:52)
Meanwhile those of the Prophet's Companions who were in Abyssynia heard the news of the prostration of the Quraysh and the rumor that the Quraysh and the Meccans had accepted Islam, so most of them returned to their kindred. But when they neared Mecca the news reached them that what they had heard of the Islam of the Meccans was false. So no-one actually entered Mecca except under protection or stealthily. When the above verse was revealed, the Quraysh said: "Muhammad regrets his words about the status of our gods before Allâh and has now changed them." The two phrases that the devil had interjected upon the tongue of Allâh's Messenger - Allâh bless and greet him - by then were in the mouth of every idolater, and their hostility increased in intensity against those who had accepted Islam.
3. Al-Tabari (d. 310) said in his commentary entitled Jami` al-Bayan fi Tafsir al-Qur'ân (30 vols.) Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1405/1985, reprint of the Bulaq 1322-1330/1904-1911 ed. vol. 17:
[p. 186] The sayings concerning the interpretation of the verse:
{Never sent We a messenger or a Prophet before thee but when He recited (the message) Satan proposed (opposition) in respect of that which he recited thereof. But Allâh abolisheth that which Satan proposeth. Then Allâh establisheth His revelations. Allâh is Knower, Wise} (22:52):
It was said that the reason for which this verse was revealed upon the Messenger of Allâh - Allâh bless and greet him - is that the devil had interjected upon the Prophet's tongue - Allâh bless and greet him - during some of his recitation of the Qur'ân as it had been revealed to him by Allâh, something which Allâh had not revealed. Then this bore heavily on Allâh's Messenger - Allâh bless and greet him - who became despondent, whereupon Allâh Almighty comforted him by revealing to him the above....
[Then al-Tabari proceeds to narrate reports to that effect, all of them weak, but the collective weight of which suggests authenticity as stated by Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari (see below).]
[p. 190] The gist of the interpretation of the verse is: "We never sent before you any Messenger nor Prophet except that, when he uttered Allâh's Book in recitation, or discoursed and spoke, the devil interjected something into what he uttered of Allâh's Book in recitation or into his discourse and speech, {But Allâh abolishes that which the devil interjects}, i.e. He removes whatever suggestion the devil interjects upon the Prophet's tongue and nullifies it."
[Al-Tabari goes on to state that the verses that follow make explicit the fact that the reason for this incident was to test the belief of those who harbored a disease in their hearts and increase the belief of those who were rightly-guided - and this test continues until our time:
22:53 {That He may make that which the devil proposeth a temptation for those in whose hearts is a disease, and those whose hearts are hardened. Lo! the evil-doers are in open schism.}
22:54 {And that those who have been given knowledge may know that it is the truth from thy Lord, so that they may believe therein and their hearts may submit humbly unto Him. Lo! Allâh verily is guiding those who believe unto a right path.}
22:55 {And those who disbelieve will not cease to be in doubt thereof until the Hour come upon them unawares, or there come unto them the doom of a disastrous day.}
22:56 {The Sovereignty on that day will be Allâh's. He will judge between them. Then those who believed and did good works will be in Gardens of Delight,}
22:57 {While those who disbelieved and denied Our revelations, for them will be a shameful doom.}]
4. Al-Jassas (d. 370), Ahkam al-Qur'ân (5 vols.), ed. Muhammad al-Sadiq Qamhawi (Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-`Arabi, 1405/1985) 5:83-84: Concerning the verse:
{Never sent We a messenger or a Prophet before thee but when He recited (the message) Satan proposed (opposition) in respect of that which he recited thereof. But Allâh abolisheth that which Satan proposeth. Then Allâh establisheth His revelations. Allâh is Knower, Wise} (22:52):
It was narrated from Ibn `Abbas, Sa`id ibn Jubayr, al-Dahhak, Muhammad ibn Ka`b, and Muhammad ibn Qays that the circumstance of revelation fof this verse was that when the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him recited {Have ye thought upon Al Lat and Al Uzza? And Manat, the third, the other?} (53:19-20), the devil interjected (alqa) into his recitation: "Those are the elevated cranes: truly their intercession is dearly hoped!"
There is difference of opinion over the meaning of "the devil interjected." Some said that when the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - recited this sura and mentioned in it the idols, the pagans knew that he would vilify them and so one of them said, at the time the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - reached the words {Have ye thought upon} etc. "Those are," etc. in full presence of the multitude of the Quraysh in the holy Mosque. At that time the generality of the pagans who were far back said: "Muhammad just praised our divinities!" and they conjectured that this was part of his recitation. Thereafter, Allâh declared this claim of theirs false, and showed that the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - never recited it in the first place, but that it was only recited by one of the pagans. Allâh named that person "Satan" because he was one of the devils of humankind... "shaytan" being a name for every obdurate rebel among jinn and humankind. It was also said that it is possible that he was one of the devils of the jinn.
5. Al-Tha`alibi's (d. 876) al-Jawahir al-Hisan fi Tafsir al-Qur'ân (4 vols.), Beirut: Mu'assasa al-A`lami li al-Matbu`at, 1970?, Reprint of the original 1323/1905 Algerian edition, 3:84:
Al-Qadi `Iyad said [in al-Shifa]: "Suffice it for you that this narration was not documented by any of the scholars of sound hadith, nor have any of the trustworthy narrators related it with a healthy, uninterrupted chain. The only ones to be interested in it are the type of commentators and historians who are interested in every strange matter, blindly compiling from the books everything their hands fall upon, whether it is sound or feeble." Qadi Abu Bakr told the truth.
6. Abu al-Su`ud's (d. 951) Irshad al-`Aql al-Salim ila Mazaya al-Qur'ân al-Karim (9 vols.), Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-`Arabi, 6:113:
Concerning the verse:
{Never sent We a messenger or a Prophet before thee but when He recited (the message) Satan proposed (opposition) in respect of that which he recited thereof. But Allâh abolisheth that which Satan proposeth. Then Allâh establisheth His revelations. Allâh is Knower, Wise} (22:52):
It was said that he [the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him] hoped, because of his yearning that his people should have faith, that there be revealed to him something that would bring them nearer to him, and he persisted in this until he was among them and Sura al-Najm was revealed; whereupon he began to recite it, and when he reached {And Manat, the third, the other}, the devil whispered to him with the result that his tongue tripped in inattention and he said "Those are the elevated cranes: truly their intercession is dearly hoped!" Whereupon the pagans rejoiced and joined him in prostration when he prostrated at the end of the Sura, and there remained none in the Mosque - whether believer or pagan - except they all prostrated. After this, Gibril - upon him peace - warned him of the mistake, then Allâh the Exalted rebuked him with this verse. This account is rejected by the scholars of verification.
7. Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari, 1959 ed. vol. 8:
[p. 439] All the paths of this hadith are either weak or cut off, except for that of Sa`id ibn Jubayr... However, the profusion of the chains show that the story has a basis, furthermore, there are two other "mursal" chains whose narrators are those of Bukhari and Muslim. The first one is that narrated by al-Tabari through Yunus ibn Yazid from Ibn Shihab [al-Zuhri]: "Abu Bakr ibn `Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith ibn Hisham narrated to me," etc. The second is what al-Tabari also narrated through al-Mu`tamir ibn Sulayman and Hammad ibn Salama from Dawud ibn Abi Hind from Abu al-`Aliya.... Contrary to what Abu Bakr ibn al-`Arabi and al-Qadi `Iyad have claimed whereby the story has no basis at all.... When the paths of a hadith are many and distinct, it shows that the report has a basis.... So, as I said, there are three sound but 'mursal' chains for it, among them what meets the criteria of the two Sahihs but for the fact that they are 'mursal'. These constitute proof for both those that accept 'mursal' reports as proofs and those that do not, due to the mutual strengthening of the chains.
This said, it is required to interpret the incident and address what appears to be reprehensible, namely the statement "the devil interjected upon the Prophet's tongue - Allâh bless and greet him - the words 'Those are the elevated cranes: truly their intercession is dearly hoped.'" Such a thing is precluded from being accepted in literal terms for it is impossible for the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - to add something to the Qur'ân that does not belong to it whether deliberately (`amdan) or erroneously (sahwan). ...
[p. 440] Al-Qadi `Iyad did well when he said: "It is possible the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - was mentioning the belief of the pagans by way of derision, noting that at that time it was permitted to speak in the midst of prayer. To this position leaned Ibn al-Baqillani. It was also said that when he reached the words {Have ye thought upon Al Lat and Al Uzza? And Manat, the third, the other?} the pagans feared lest he would add something to mock their gods, so they hastened to interject and jeer so as to cover up what was coming next, as was their habit stated in the verse {Those who disbelieve say: Heed not this Quran, and drown the hearing of it; haply ye may conquer} (41:26). This act on their part was attributed to the devil as it was he that inspired it to them. Or, what was meant by the devil was the devil of humankind.... It was also said that the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him used to recite the Qur'ân slowly, so that the devil lay in wait for one of the pauses and uttered the words in question with the same timbre of voice. Those that were near him heard it as if coming from the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - and attributed it to him. This is the best of all interpretations."
Ibn al-`Arabi also approved of the latter interpretation, saying: "This verse [{Never sent We a messenger or a Prophet before thee but when He recited (the message) Satan proposed (opposition) in respect of his amaniyya (="that which he recited thereof")} (22:52)] is an explicit proof-text, in our school, to the innocence of the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - of what was imputed to him. The meaning of 'amaniyya' in the verse being: 'recitation'. Allâh Almighty therefore informed us in this verse that His way with His Messengers is that when they say something, Satan adds something to it on his part. This is an explicit proof-text that it is Satan that conveys this statement inside the Prophet's words - Allâh bless and greet him - and it is not the latter that says it. A precedent for this view was given by al-Tabari, in keeping with his high erudition, vast learning, and perspicuous analysis, and he declared it the correct interpretation, and settled on it."
There are two recent booklets from the late Nasir Albani's printing house, al-Maktab al-Islami out of Beirut, on the topic:
1- Nasb al-Majaniq li-Nasf Qissat al-Gharaniq ("The Hoisting of Catapults for the Destruction of the Story of the Cranes") by M. Nasir al-Albani, 3rd ed. 1996.
2- Al-Gharaniq: Qissatun Dakhilatun `ala al-Sirati al-Nabawiyya ("The Cranes: A Story Interpolated into the Prophetic Sira") by Albani's student Salih Ahmad al-Shami, 1st ed. 1998.
The first work argues for the invalidity of the story from the viewpoint of isnad, a weak argument as shown in the preceding discussion.
The second work argues for the invalidity of the story from the viewpoint of chronology, a strong and conclusive argument from the face of it, making the following points:
- Surat al-Najm (in which the disputed verses were purported to belong) was revealed in one whole in the tenth year of the Hijra.
- The First Hijra to Abyssinia took place in the fifth year, between Rajab and Shawwal.
- How then could the revelation of Surat al-Najm and the subsequent events - prompting the rumors of mass conversion in Mecca - that all took place in the tenth year, be a cause for the return of the Abyssinian Emigrants in the fifth?
- The true reason for the return of the Muslims from the first Abyssinian Emigration was alienation and difficult conditions as spoken by Asma' bint `Umays in the narration of al-Bukhari in his Sahih: "Asma' bint `Umays went in to see Hafsa the wife of Rasulullah Sallallahu `alayhi wa Alihi wa Sallam, and she was one of those who had emigrated to the Negus. Whereupon `Umar came in to see Hafsa while Asma' was with her. He asked who she was and Hafsa told him. `Umar said: She is the Abyssinian? The one from accross the sea? Asma' said yes. `Umar said: We all [emigrants to Madina] made Hijra before you all [emigrants to Abyssinia], so we are more entitled to the Messenger of Allâh than you - Allâh bless and greet him. She became angry and said: Not at all, by Allâh! You were with the Messenger of Allâh - Allâh bless and greet him - at a time he fed your hungry ones and admonished your ignorant ones, while we were in the abode of alienation and detestation (dar al-bu`ada' wa al-bughada') in Abyssinia, all for the sake of Allâh and for the sake of Rasulullah! And, by Allâh, I shall not eat one morsel of food nor drink one drop of water until I mention what you said to Rasulullah! And how much did we suffer, and how we lived in fear! But I shall mention this to the Prophet! etc."
- All the above does not preclude the fact that the Meccan unbelievers did prostrate upon hearing Sura al-Najm exactly as it was revealed, due to its majesty and the fear caused in them by the invocation of punishment pronounced towards its end. One needs only to imagine them gathered together with the Muslims before the Ka`ba as the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - himself recited this newly-revealed Sura to them from beginning to end. Similar examples are the reactions of the unbelievers at the invocations of punishment they heard from the believers. For example, `Utba ibn Rabi`a's reaction when he heard the verse {If they turn away, tell them I have warned you of a destruction similar to that of `Ad and Thamud} (Fussilat 13). Upon hearing this `Utba placed his hand on the mouth of the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - so that the threat of punishment would be averted. And when Khubayb ibn `Adi pronounced a similar threat, Abu Sufyan lied down on the ground together with his son Mu`awiya to deflect its harm.
Al-Shami also makes note of the book "Hadha al-Habib" by the late Abu Bakr al-Jaza'iri in which the author advocates the position that the story did take place and that the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - was in fact mislead. This is the same man who used to sit in the Haram of Madina attacking the Awliya and Sufis, and who wrote that the father and mother of the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - are in Hellfire. He was refuted among others by the two Moroccan authors of the book Wa`izun Ghayru Mutta`iz ("A Heedless Admonisher").
The late al-Sayyid `Abd Allâh Siraj al-Din al-Halabi (died this March 2002 rahimatullah) also has a long, extremely detailed treatment of the story of the cranes in his masterful book Hady al-Qur'ân al-Karim ila al-Hujjati wal-Burhan, 2nd edition, 1994, p. 155-182. He too concludes that it is a forgery.
Wa Allâhu ta`ala a`lam. Blessings and salutations of Allâh on the Prophet, his Family, and all his Companions. Praise belongs to Allâh, Lord of the Worlds.
by Shaykh Gibril F. Haddad
1. Ibn Sa`d (d. 230) in his al-Tabaqat al-Kubra (reprint Beirut: Dar Sadir), vol. 1 said:
[p. 205] Muhammad ibn `Umar(*) narrated to us:
(1) Yunus ibn Muhammad ibn Fadala al-Zafari narrated to me: From his father who said:
(2) From Kathir ibn Zayd: From al-Muttalib ibn `Abd Allâh ibn Hantab who said:-
[(*) Muhammad ibn `Umar al-Waqidi (d. 207), Ahmad ibn Hanbal said of him: "He is a liar." Al-Bukhari and Abu Hatim al-Razi said: "Discarded." Ibn `Adi said: "His narrations are not retained, and their bane comes from him." Ibn al-Madini said: "He forges hadiths." Al-Dhahabi said: "Consensus has settled over his debility." Mizan al-I`tidal (3:662-666 #7993).]
Allâh's Messenger - Allâh bless and greet him - saw rejection coming from his people, so he sat in isolation, wishing to himself: Would that nothing is revealed to me that would drive them away from me. Thereafter Allâh's Messenger - Allâh bless and greet him - approached his people again and made overtures to them, and they responded to him. One day he sat with them in one of the usual public gatherings around the Ka`ba and he recited to them "By the Star when it setteth" (Sura 53, al-Najm). When he reached the words:
19. Have ye thought upon Al Lat and Al Uzza?
20. And Manat, the third, the other?
the devil interjected two phrases (kalimatayn) upon his tongue:
"Those are the elevated cranes: truly their intercession is dearly hoped!"
Allâh's Messenger spoke these two phrases then went on to finish the entire Sura, then he prostrated and all those in attendance prostrated. Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira took a handful of earth and [applying it to his forehead] prostrated on it, for he was an aged old man who could not prostrate. It is also said that Abu Uhayha Sa`id ibn al-`As was the one who did this.... and some say both did it.
They [the Quraysh] were elated at what Allâh's Messenger - Allâh bless and greet him - had spoken, saying: "We definitely know that Allâh gives life and gives death as well as creates and sustains, but these our gods intercede for us before Him, so if you give them their share, we are with you." This statement of theirs bore heavily on the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - and he withdrew to his house. When evening came, Gibril came to him and rehearsed the Sura with him, whereupon Gibril said: "Did I bring you those two phrases (al-kalimatayn)?" Allâh's Messenger said: "Have I said on Allâh's part something He never said?" Whereupon Allâh revealed to him [p. 206] the verse: {And they indeed strove hard to beguile thee (Muhammad) away from that wherewith We have inspired thee, that thou shouldst invent other than it against Us; and then would they have accepted thee as a friend.} (17:73)
2. Imam al-Baghawi (d. 510) said in his commentary of the Qur'ân entitled Lubab al-Ta'wil fi Ma`alim al-Tanzil (Dar al-Fikr ed. vol. 3) concerning the story of the cranes (qissat al-gharaaneeq):
[p. 293] Ibn `Abbas, Muhammad ibn Ka`b al-Qurazi and others of the commentators of Qur'ân said that when the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - saw the turning away of his people from him and it bore heavily on him to see the distance grow between them and what he brought them on Allâh's part, he desired in his soul (tamanna fi nafsihi) that there come from Allâh something that would bridge the gap between him and his people, for he was deeply concerned that they should have faith. As he was in a gathering of the Quraysh one day, Allâh revealed Sura al-Najm (53), whereupon Allâh's Messenger - Allâh bless and greet him -- began to recite it, until he reached His saying:
19. Have ye thought upon Al Lat and Al Uzza?
20. And Manat, the third, the other?
whereupon the devil interjected upon his tongue (alqa al-shaytan `ala lisanihi) in connection with that of which he spoke to himself and was hoping for:
"Those are the elevated cranes: truly their intercession is dearly hoped!"
When the Quraysh heard this, they rejoiced greatly. Allâh's Messenger proceeded with his recitation until the end of the Sura, at which point he prostrated, and the Muslims prostrated with him as well as all those of the pagans that were in the mosque. There remained no-one in the mosque, neither believer nor non-believer, except he prostrated, but for al-Walid ibn al-Mughira and Abu Uhayha Sa`id ibn al-`As who took a handful of earth and applied it to their foreheads, prostrating on it, for they were aged old men who could not prostrate. Then the Quraysh dispersed in elation at the way they had heard their gods mentioned, saying: "Muhammad has mentioned our gods in the best way possible." They also said: "We definitely know that Allâh gives life and gives death as well as creates and sustains, but these our gods intercede for us before Him, so if Muhammad gives them their share, we are with him." When evening came, Gibril came to Allâh's Messenger - Allâh bless and greet him - and said: "O Muhammad! What have you done? You have recited to the people something which I never brought you from Allâh Exalted and Almighty." Hearing this, the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - was deeply grieved and feared much from Allâh . So Allâh revealed to him the following verse in which he consoled him , as He was ever merciful towards him:
{Never sent We a messenger or a Prophet before thee but when He recited (the message) Satan proposed (opposition) in respect of that which he recited thereof. But Allâh abolisheth that which Satan proposeth. Then Allâh establisheth His revelations. Allâh is Knower, Wise} (22:52)
Meanwhile those of the Prophet's Companions who were in Abyssynia heard the news of the prostration of the Quraysh and the rumor that the Quraysh and the Meccans had accepted Islam, so most of them returned to their kindred. But when they neared Mecca the news reached them that what they had heard of the Islam of the Meccans was false. So no-one actually entered Mecca except under protection or stealthily. When the above verse was revealed, the Quraysh said: "Muhammad regrets his words about the status of our gods before Allâh and has now changed them." The two phrases that the devil had interjected upon the tongue of Allâh's Messenger - Allâh bless and greet him - by then were in the mouth of every idolater, and their hostility increased in intensity against those who had accepted Islam.
3. Al-Tabari (d. 310) said in his commentary entitled Jami` al-Bayan fi Tafsir al-Qur'ân (30 vols.) Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1405/1985, reprint of the Bulaq 1322-1330/1904-1911 ed. vol. 17:
[p. 186] The sayings concerning the interpretation of the verse:
{Never sent We a messenger or a Prophet before thee but when He recited (the message) Satan proposed (opposition) in respect of that which he recited thereof. But Allâh abolisheth that which Satan proposeth. Then Allâh establisheth His revelations. Allâh is Knower, Wise} (22:52):
It was said that the reason for which this verse was revealed upon the Messenger of Allâh - Allâh bless and greet him - is that the devil had interjected upon the Prophet's tongue - Allâh bless and greet him - during some of his recitation of the Qur'ân as it had been revealed to him by Allâh, something which Allâh had not revealed. Then this bore heavily on Allâh's Messenger - Allâh bless and greet him - who became despondent, whereupon Allâh Almighty comforted him by revealing to him the above....
[Then al-Tabari proceeds to narrate reports to that effect, all of them weak, but the collective weight of which suggests authenticity as stated by Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari (see below).]
[p. 190] The gist of the interpretation of the verse is: "We never sent before you any Messenger nor Prophet except that, when he uttered Allâh's Book in recitation, or discoursed and spoke, the devil interjected something into what he uttered of Allâh's Book in recitation or into his discourse and speech, {But Allâh abolishes that which the devil interjects}, i.e. He removes whatever suggestion the devil interjects upon the Prophet's tongue and nullifies it."
[Al-Tabari goes on to state that the verses that follow make explicit the fact that the reason for this incident was to test the belief of those who harbored a disease in their hearts and increase the belief of those who were rightly-guided - and this test continues until our time:
22:53 {That He may make that which the devil proposeth a temptation for those in whose hearts is a disease, and those whose hearts are hardened. Lo! the evil-doers are in open schism.}
22:54 {And that those who have been given knowledge may know that it is the truth from thy Lord, so that they may believe therein and their hearts may submit humbly unto Him. Lo! Allâh verily is guiding those who believe unto a right path.}
22:55 {And those who disbelieve will not cease to be in doubt thereof until the Hour come upon them unawares, or there come unto them the doom of a disastrous day.}
22:56 {The Sovereignty on that day will be Allâh's. He will judge between them. Then those who believed and did good works will be in Gardens of Delight,}
22:57 {While those who disbelieved and denied Our revelations, for them will be a shameful doom.}]
4. Al-Jassas (d. 370), Ahkam al-Qur'ân (5 vols.), ed. Muhammad al-Sadiq Qamhawi (Beirut: Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-`Arabi, 1405/1985) 5:83-84: Concerning the verse:
{Never sent We a messenger or a Prophet before thee but when He recited (the message) Satan proposed (opposition) in respect of that which he recited thereof. But Allâh abolisheth that which Satan proposeth. Then Allâh establisheth His revelations. Allâh is Knower, Wise} (22:52):
It was narrated from Ibn `Abbas, Sa`id ibn Jubayr, al-Dahhak, Muhammad ibn Ka`b, and Muhammad ibn Qays that the circumstance of revelation fof this verse was that when the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him recited {Have ye thought upon Al Lat and Al Uzza? And Manat, the third, the other?} (53:19-20), the devil interjected (alqa) into his recitation: "Those are the elevated cranes: truly their intercession is dearly hoped!"
There is difference of opinion over the meaning of "the devil interjected." Some said that when the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - recited this sura and mentioned in it the idols, the pagans knew that he would vilify them and so one of them said, at the time the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - reached the words {Have ye thought upon} etc. "Those are," etc. in full presence of the multitude of the Quraysh in the holy Mosque. At that time the generality of the pagans who were far back said: "Muhammad just praised our divinities!" and they conjectured that this was part of his recitation. Thereafter, Allâh declared this claim of theirs false, and showed that the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - never recited it in the first place, but that it was only recited by one of the pagans. Allâh named that person "Satan" because he was one of the devils of humankind... "shaytan" being a name for every obdurate rebel among jinn and humankind. It was also said that it is possible that he was one of the devils of the jinn.
5. Al-Tha`alibi's (d. 876) al-Jawahir al-Hisan fi Tafsir al-Qur'ân (4 vols.), Beirut: Mu'assasa al-A`lami li al-Matbu`at, 1970?, Reprint of the original 1323/1905 Algerian edition, 3:84:
Al-Qadi `Iyad said [in al-Shifa]: "Suffice it for you that this narration was not documented by any of the scholars of sound hadith, nor have any of the trustworthy narrators related it with a healthy, uninterrupted chain. The only ones to be interested in it are the type of commentators and historians who are interested in every strange matter, blindly compiling from the books everything their hands fall upon, whether it is sound or feeble." Qadi Abu Bakr told the truth.
6. Abu al-Su`ud's (d. 951) Irshad al-`Aql al-Salim ila Mazaya al-Qur'ân al-Karim (9 vols.), Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-`Arabi, 6:113:
Concerning the verse:
{Never sent We a messenger or a Prophet before thee but when He recited (the message) Satan proposed (opposition) in respect of that which he recited thereof. But Allâh abolisheth that which Satan proposeth. Then Allâh establisheth His revelations. Allâh is Knower, Wise} (22:52):
It was said that he [the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him] hoped, because of his yearning that his people should have faith, that there be revealed to him something that would bring them nearer to him, and he persisted in this until he was among them and Sura al-Najm was revealed; whereupon he began to recite it, and when he reached {And Manat, the third, the other}, the devil whispered to him with the result that his tongue tripped in inattention and he said "Those are the elevated cranes: truly their intercession is dearly hoped!" Whereupon the pagans rejoiced and joined him in prostration when he prostrated at the end of the Sura, and there remained none in the Mosque - whether believer or pagan - except they all prostrated. After this, Gibril - upon him peace - warned him of the mistake, then Allâh the Exalted rebuked him with this verse. This account is rejected by the scholars of verification.
7. Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari, 1959 ed. vol. 8:
[p. 439] All the paths of this hadith are either weak or cut off, except for that of Sa`id ibn Jubayr... However, the profusion of the chains show that the story has a basis, furthermore, there are two other "mursal" chains whose narrators are those of Bukhari and Muslim. The first one is that narrated by al-Tabari through Yunus ibn Yazid from Ibn Shihab [al-Zuhri]: "Abu Bakr ibn `Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith ibn Hisham narrated to me," etc. The second is what al-Tabari also narrated through al-Mu`tamir ibn Sulayman and Hammad ibn Salama from Dawud ibn Abi Hind from Abu al-`Aliya.... Contrary to what Abu Bakr ibn al-`Arabi and al-Qadi `Iyad have claimed whereby the story has no basis at all.... When the paths of a hadith are many and distinct, it shows that the report has a basis.... So, as I said, there are three sound but 'mursal' chains for it, among them what meets the criteria of the two Sahihs but for the fact that they are 'mursal'. These constitute proof for both those that accept 'mursal' reports as proofs and those that do not, due to the mutual strengthening of the chains.
This said, it is required to interpret the incident and address what appears to be reprehensible, namely the statement "the devil interjected upon the Prophet's tongue - Allâh bless and greet him - the words 'Those are the elevated cranes: truly their intercession is dearly hoped.'" Such a thing is precluded from being accepted in literal terms for it is impossible for the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - to add something to the Qur'ân that does not belong to it whether deliberately (`amdan) or erroneously (sahwan). ...
[p. 440] Al-Qadi `Iyad did well when he said: "It is possible the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - was mentioning the belief of the pagans by way of derision, noting that at that time it was permitted to speak in the midst of prayer. To this position leaned Ibn al-Baqillani. It was also said that when he reached the words {Have ye thought upon Al Lat and Al Uzza? And Manat, the third, the other?} the pagans feared lest he would add something to mock their gods, so they hastened to interject and jeer so as to cover up what was coming next, as was their habit stated in the verse {Those who disbelieve say: Heed not this Quran, and drown the hearing of it; haply ye may conquer} (41:26). This act on their part was attributed to the devil as it was he that inspired it to them. Or, what was meant by the devil was the devil of humankind.... It was also said that the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him used to recite the Qur'ân slowly, so that the devil lay in wait for one of the pauses and uttered the words in question with the same timbre of voice. Those that were near him heard it as if coming from the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - and attributed it to him. This is the best of all interpretations."
Ibn al-`Arabi also approved of the latter interpretation, saying: "This verse [{Never sent We a messenger or a Prophet before thee but when He recited (the message) Satan proposed (opposition) in respect of his amaniyya (="that which he recited thereof")} (22:52)] is an explicit proof-text, in our school, to the innocence of the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - of what was imputed to him. The meaning of 'amaniyya' in the verse being: 'recitation'. Allâh Almighty therefore informed us in this verse that His way with His Messengers is that when they say something, Satan adds something to it on his part. This is an explicit proof-text that it is Satan that conveys this statement inside the Prophet's words - Allâh bless and greet him - and it is not the latter that says it. A precedent for this view was given by al-Tabari, in keeping with his high erudition, vast learning, and perspicuous analysis, and he declared it the correct interpretation, and settled on it."
There are two recent booklets from the late Nasir Albani's printing house, al-Maktab al-Islami out of Beirut, on the topic:
1- Nasb al-Majaniq li-Nasf Qissat al-Gharaniq ("The Hoisting of Catapults for the Destruction of the Story of the Cranes") by M. Nasir al-Albani, 3rd ed. 1996.
2- Al-Gharaniq: Qissatun Dakhilatun `ala al-Sirati al-Nabawiyya ("The Cranes: A Story Interpolated into the Prophetic Sira") by Albani's student Salih Ahmad al-Shami, 1st ed. 1998.
The first work argues for the invalidity of the story from the viewpoint of isnad, a weak argument as shown in the preceding discussion.
The second work argues for the invalidity of the story from the viewpoint of chronology, a strong and conclusive argument from the face of it, making the following points:
- Surat al-Najm (in which the disputed verses were purported to belong) was revealed in one whole in the tenth year of the Hijra.
- The First Hijra to Abyssinia took place in the fifth year, between Rajab and Shawwal.
- How then could the revelation of Surat al-Najm and the subsequent events - prompting the rumors of mass conversion in Mecca - that all took place in the tenth year, be a cause for the return of the Abyssinian Emigrants in the fifth?
- The true reason for the return of the Muslims from the first Abyssinian Emigration was alienation and difficult conditions as spoken by Asma' bint `Umays in the narration of al-Bukhari in his Sahih: "Asma' bint `Umays went in to see Hafsa the wife of Rasulullah Sallallahu `alayhi wa Alihi wa Sallam, and she was one of those who had emigrated to the Negus. Whereupon `Umar came in to see Hafsa while Asma' was with her. He asked who she was and Hafsa told him. `Umar said: She is the Abyssinian? The one from accross the sea? Asma' said yes. `Umar said: We all [emigrants to Madina] made Hijra before you all [emigrants to Abyssinia], so we are more entitled to the Messenger of Allâh than you - Allâh bless and greet him. She became angry and said: Not at all, by Allâh! You were with the Messenger of Allâh - Allâh bless and greet him - at a time he fed your hungry ones and admonished your ignorant ones, while we were in the abode of alienation and detestation (dar al-bu`ada' wa al-bughada') in Abyssinia, all for the sake of Allâh and for the sake of Rasulullah! And, by Allâh, I shall not eat one morsel of food nor drink one drop of water until I mention what you said to Rasulullah! And how much did we suffer, and how we lived in fear! But I shall mention this to the Prophet! etc."
- All the above does not preclude the fact that the Meccan unbelievers did prostrate upon hearing Sura al-Najm exactly as it was revealed, due to its majesty and the fear caused in them by the invocation of punishment pronounced towards its end. One needs only to imagine them gathered together with the Muslims before the Ka`ba as the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - himself recited this newly-revealed Sura to them from beginning to end. Similar examples are the reactions of the unbelievers at the invocations of punishment they heard from the believers. For example, `Utba ibn Rabi`a's reaction when he heard the verse {If they turn away, tell them I have warned you of a destruction similar to that of `Ad and Thamud} (Fussilat 13). Upon hearing this `Utba placed his hand on the mouth of the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - so that the threat of punishment would be averted. And when Khubayb ibn `Adi pronounced a similar threat, Abu Sufyan lied down on the ground together with his son Mu`awiya to deflect its harm.
Al-Shami also makes note of the book "Hadha al-Habib" by the late Abu Bakr al-Jaza'iri in which the author advocates the position that the story did take place and that the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - was in fact mislead. This is the same man who used to sit in the Haram of Madina attacking the Awliya and Sufis, and who wrote that the father and mother of the Prophet - Allâh bless and greet him - are in Hellfire. He was refuted among others by the two Moroccan authors of the book Wa`izun Ghayru Mutta`iz ("A Heedless Admonisher").
The late al-Sayyid `Abd Allâh Siraj al-Din al-Halabi (died this March 2002 rahimatullah) also has a long, extremely detailed treatment of the story of the cranes in his masterful book Hady al-Qur'ân al-Karim ila al-Hujjati wal-Burhan, 2nd edition, 1994, p. 155-182. He too concludes that it is a forgery.
Wa Allâhu ta`ala a`lam. Blessings and salutations of Allâh on the Prophet, his Family, and all his Companions. Praise belongs to Allâh, Lord of the Worlds.
Prophetic Guidance Regarding the Excellence of Reciting the Qur'an
Prophetic Guidance Regarding the Excellence of Reciting the Qur'an
by Imam Nawawi
Translated by Ustadha Ayesha Bewley
From Imam Nawawi's Gardens of the Righteous
180. On the Excellence of reciting the Qur'an
991. Abu Umama said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, 'Recite the Qur'an. It will appear on the Day of Rising as an intercessor for its people.'" [Muslim]
992. an-Nawwas ibn Sam'an said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, 'On the Day of Rising the Qur'an will be brought with the people who used to act by it in this world, preceded by Surat al-Baqara (2) and Ali 'Imran (3), arguing on behalf of those who knew them.'" [Muslim]
993. 'Uthman reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "The best of you is the one who learns the Qur'an and teaches it." [al-Bukhari]
994. 'A'isha reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Someone who recites the Qur'an and is fluent in it, is with the noble pious angels. Someone who recites the Qur'an and stammers in it has two rewards as it is difficult for him." [Agreed upon]
995. Abu Musa al-Ash'ari reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "The metaphor of a believer who recites the Qur'an is that of a citron - its scent is fragrant and its taste is good. The metaphor of a believer who does not recite the Qur'an is that of a date - it has no scent but its taste is sweet. The metaphor of a hypocrite who recites the Qur'an is that of basil - its scent is fragrant but its taste is bitter. The metaphor of a hypocrite who does not recite the Qur'an is that of colocynth - it has no scent and its taste is bitter." [Agreed upon]
996. 'Umar ibn al-Khattab reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "By this Book Allah elevates some people and abases others." [Muslim]
997. Ibn 'Umar reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "You can only have envy for two things: for a man to whom Allah has given the Qur'an and he gets up and recites it throughout the night, and for a man to whom Allah has given wealth and he spends it throughout the night and the day." [Agreed upon]
998. Al-Bara' ibn 'Azib said, "A man was reciting Surat al-Kahf (18) and he had a horse with him tethered by two ropes. Then a cloud came over him and began to draw near and his horse began to shy away from it. In the morning he went to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and mentioned that to him and he said, 'That was the Sakina which descended on account of the Qur'an.'" [Agreed upon]
999. Ibn Mas'ud reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Whoever recites a letter of the Book of Allah earns a good deed, and each good deed is worth ten like it. I do not say that 'Alif-lam-mim' is one letter, but that alif is a letter, lam is a letter, mim is a letter." [at-Tirmidhi]
1000. Ibn 'Abbas stated that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "A person who has nothing of the Qur'an inside him is like a ruined house." [at-Tirmidhi]
1001. 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "It will be said to those who know the Qur'an, 'Recite and ascend. Recite slowly as you did in the world below. Your station will be at the last verse you recite.'" [Abu Dawud and at-Tirmidhi]
by Imam Nawawi
Translated by Ustadha Ayesha Bewley
From Imam Nawawi's Gardens of the Righteous
180. On the Excellence of reciting the Qur'an
991. Abu Umama said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, 'Recite the Qur'an. It will appear on the Day of Rising as an intercessor for its people.'" [Muslim]
992. an-Nawwas ibn Sam'an said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, 'On the Day of Rising the Qur'an will be brought with the people who used to act by it in this world, preceded by Surat al-Baqara (2) and Ali 'Imran (3), arguing on behalf of those who knew them.'" [Muslim]
993. 'Uthman reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "The best of you is the one who learns the Qur'an and teaches it." [al-Bukhari]
994. 'A'isha reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Someone who recites the Qur'an and is fluent in it, is with the noble pious angels. Someone who recites the Qur'an and stammers in it has two rewards as it is difficult for him." [Agreed upon]
995. Abu Musa al-Ash'ari reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "The metaphor of a believer who recites the Qur'an is that of a citron - its scent is fragrant and its taste is good. The metaphor of a believer who does not recite the Qur'an is that of a date - it has no scent but its taste is sweet. The metaphor of a hypocrite who recites the Qur'an is that of basil - its scent is fragrant but its taste is bitter. The metaphor of a hypocrite who does not recite the Qur'an is that of colocynth - it has no scent and its taste is bitter." [Agreed upon]
996. 'Umar ibn al-Khattab reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "By this Book Allah elevates some people and abases others." [Muslim]
997. Ibn 'Umar reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "You can only have envy for two things: for a man to whom Allah has given the Qur'an and he gets up and recites it throughout the night, and for a man to whom Allah has given wealth and he spends it throughout the night and the day." [Agreed upon]
998. Al-Bara' ibn 'Azib said, "A man was reciting Surat al-Kahf (18) and he had a horse with him tethered by two ropes. Then a cloud came over him and began to draw near and his horse began to shy away from it. In the morning he went to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and mentioned that to him and he said, 'That was the Sakina which descended on account of the Qur'an.'" [Agreed upon]
999. Ibn Mas'ud reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Whoever recites a letter of the Book of Allah earns a good deed, and each good deed is worth ten like it. I do not say that 'Alif-lam-mim' is one letter, but that alif is a letter, lam is a letter, mim is a letter." [at-Tirmidhi]
1000. Ibn 'Abbas stated that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "A person who has nothing of the Qur'an inside him is like a ruined house." [at-Tirmidhi]
1001. 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "It will be said to those who know the Qur'an, 'Recite and ascend. Recite slowly as you did in the world below. Your station will be at the last verse you recite.'" [Abu Dawud and at-Tirmidhi]
A Blind Woman Sees The Light
A Blind Woman Sees The Light
Disclaimer: This convert story has been published on ChallengeYourSoul.com as is, without being edited. It may promote views & ideas not supported by ChallengeYourSoul.com and/or which are not Islamically correct.
The name I am called by my Christian parents is Bobbie Evans, but the name I am known by in the Muslim community is Khadija Evans. This is the story of how my husband and I came to embrace Islam.
I can remember standing in the kitchen of the house I lived in when I was just seven or eight years old and looking towards the door that went outside. I prayed to a god whom I wasn’t sure existed and I begged Him to show himself to me if He was really there. Nothing happened.
I can remember being nine or ten years old and writing a letter to God and hiding it in the heat register in my bedroom, thinking God, if He existed, would come and retrieve it and answer my prayers. But the next day, the letter was still there.
I had always had a hard time accepting the existence of God, and of understanding the beliefs taught in Christian churches. Even though my parents weren’t very religious, and rarely went to church, they thought it was best that my two brothers and I go. We were allowed to choose our religion when we very young. I think I was about six or seven, and my brothers were one and two years older then I. I chose a Methodist church for no other reason then it was a few blocks away from our house, and my brothers chose a Lutheran church because it was also close, and I hadn’t chosen it.
I went to the church until I was thirteen years old. I was baptized and confirmed there when I was 11. I went along with the baptism and confirmation because all children who were 11 received confirmation, and if they hadn’t already been baptized, that was done at the same time. Even then I knew that doubts about God and Christian teachings were things best kept to myself.
When I was 13 my family moved to another town with no churches within walking distance, and my parents weren’t eager to get up early and drive us kids to church, and so our religious training stopped until I was 15 and my mom suddenly found religion. She began attending an Assembly of God church, occasionally dragging my dad along. I went willingly. I had already begun a search for God that wouldn’t end until I was 42 years old. I remember being “born again”. Caught up in the fervor of the hell and damnation that the minister preached at the Assembly of God church. I became “high on religion” thinking I had finally found “Him.” Little did I know, but the high would be short lived, as I again began to have doubts and unanswered questions. When I was 17 I met the daughter of an assistant Baptist minister and began going to their church. I had been sexually abused by my dad from the time I was at least six years old and I told the assistant minister about it. He arranged with my parents to let me live with him and his family in a type of “private foster care.” My dad paid him $100 a week. My parents also attended the church for a brief time, until the minister announced on the pulpit that my dad was a child molester. Before that though, my mom, dad and I were each baptized at the church.
One day after spending the day with my parents I returned to my foster home only to find the house empty. Cleaned out. Not a stick of furniture. We found out that the minister had been caught embezzling from the church and he and his family had left town in a hurry. I returned to my parents home and the abuse.
As a result of that incident what little faith I had in God was totally lost and I became an atheist. For the next 25 years I would fluctuate between believing, wanting to believe, and Agnosticism, and Atheism.
When I was twenty-six, I went to three months of Rights of Initiation for Catholic Adults and then was baptized and confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church. I had been allowed to by-pass the full year of classes because I hadn’t called the church to inquire about converting until three months before the Easter Vigil Mass when confirmation for adults was held.
I had entered the Catholic religion with the same philosophy that I had once heard Alcoholics Anonymous has, “Bring your body, your mind will follow.” I didn’t really believe in God, or in the core teachings of the Catholic Church, but I wanted so badly to believe in a power higher then myself, that I went faithfully to mass seven days a week, hoping that somehow I would start to believe. But after several months, I began to realize that it wasn’t going to happen, and my mass attendance became a once a week thing, then once a month, until when I was thirteen and met the man who today is my husband and who wasn’t Catholic, I stopped attending mass altogether.
I had never told anyone, before my husband, that I didn’t believe in God. I don’t think he took me seriously at first. I don’t think he had ever known an Atheist.
My husband is 29 years older then me. We’ve had a wonderful marriage for these last 10 years. When we first met, I still desperately wanted to believe, and kept making him promise me that “When you get to Heaven” he would ask God to give me the strength to believe, and he if at all possible, he would give me a sign, one that I couldn’t chalk up to my imagination, so I would know there really was a god. He always promised me he would. We were living in rural Alabama when I was 32 years old. I developed ulcerations on both corneas and when they healed, I was legally blind. Because of damage from infection that had been done to the tissue that donated corneas would have to adhere to, I couldn’t find an eye surgeon who believed that transplanted corneas wouldn’t be rejected.
I was still searching for God. I was searching for hope of something better then what this world had to offer. Some kind of evidence of the chance for existence after death. Some way to achieve it. I listened to Christian programs on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, even though I couldn’t find any ministers on the station who’s opinion I trusted. I watched anyway, hoping that one would say something that would click in my mind, and I would finally know, that “Yes, there really is a god.” None of them ever said anything that caused that connection to happen, though many said things that confused me even more.
During the first 10 years after I became legally blind, I tried attending different churches, Baptist again, Assembly of God again, non-Denominational, Church of God, Mormon, and even studied up on Wicca. But I always lost interest after just a few months. Things the religions taught just didn’t add up. There were just too many things left to faith. Things that had no proof other then one’s faith. I couldn’t believe something when the only proof were some words in a book that in large part didn’t make sense.
I remember one night when I was about 35 years old, lying in bed and praying to God, whom I still wasn’t sure existed, and asking Him that if He did exist to lead me to someone who could help me to believe. But I found no one.
At age 36 I acquired a braille Bible and started reading it, once again hoping to find proof of God’s existence. But with the Bible being so hard to understand, with so much of it not really being explainable, I lost interest after reading just a few of its books.
At about that time, though still wanting to find God, I gave up my search. I had become completely disillusioned with religion.
On September 11, 2001 I was sitting at my computer. It was before 9 a.m. and as usual the television, which was sitting to my right, was turned on for background noise. I heard the sound that is made to notify viewers of an important news announcement. I stopped and turned towards the TV. A reporter began talking and one of the towers of the World Trade Center showed in the background. He said an accident had happened. A small plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center. I’m legally blind, but I could see well enough to know that it wasn’t a small plane that had hit the tower. The hole was massive. And I didn’t think it was possible to accidentally hit something so big.
As I watched, another plane flew into the other tower. I couldn’t see the plane itself, it was too small for me to see, but I saw the fireball that exploded away from the building.
I jumped up and ran into the bedroom and told my husband to hurry and get up because terrorists were flying planes into the World Trade Center buildings! He immediately got out of bed and came in to the living room and sat in his recliner and began to watch. It was about 9 a.m.
As time went by it was announced that a plane had been flown into the Pentagon and another hijacked plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. I wondered when it would end? And what in the world was going on??? The reporter said it looked like “debris” was falling from the building. My husband said it was people jumping. Something he has never been able to forget. I was grateful that my vision was to bad for me to be able to make out what even looked like “debris”. “The reporter said a part of the first tower had fallen away from the building. He spoke in a kind of hesitant voice. Now I wonder if he was unsure of what he was seeing. Because we later found out that a part of the building hadn’t fallen away. The building had completely collapsed.
A female reporter was crying and a male reporter hugged her. I was crying too. And my husband hugged me.
For weeks afterward I would start crying for no apparent reason. I’d be riding on the bus and have to turn my head towards the window and pretend I was looking out so that others wouldn’t see the tears escaping my eyes.
When we were in a restaurant, I’d have to use my napkin to dab the tears welling up in my eyes before the other diners noticed and wondered if I was some kind of a nut.
I was Christian then and I cared. And I was devastated. I couldn’t understand how a religion could promote such violence, as the media was saying Islam did. It made no sense to me. So I decided to find out for myself. One way or another I wanted to know the truth. Because of my partial blindness I was limited to information from the internet. Finding braille books about Islam in braille or ink print that was large enough for me to read was impossible. I was able to use a computer because I had magnification software installed so I could enlarge the font on the screen to a size that I could read.
I did searches and I began to read about Islam. I went to web sites that taught the basics of Islam, and I joined Muslim women’s e-groups where I was able to ask and get answers that I confirmed through further research.
I’ve always been a sceptic. It’s always been hard for me to believe something that I didn’t understand. I was never one to believe something simply because someone said it was so. I had to know it in my mind as well as in my heart.
While studying Islam I learned that the god Muslims worship is the same god as that of Christians and Jews. The god of Abraham and Moses. I found that Islam doesn’t promote or condone hatred of non-Muslims, nor does it condone the killing of innocent people.
By studying Islam I found the answers that the media wasn’t telling us and I came to know that Islam is the True Religion. I read a lot of convincing evidence, but the things that proved to me that there is a god, and that Islam is the True Religion and that that the Qur’an is the Word of God, were those in the Qur’an itself. The things that are of a scientific nature. Things that have only been discovered by scientists in the last 100 years. The only one who could have known those things 1400 years ago was God.
For example, One day I was at a web site that was about some of the scientific proofs in the Qur’an. One of the verses in the Qur’an tells about the death of our own solar system. Al-Rahman 37-38
“When the sky is torn apart, so it was (like) a red rose like ointment. Then which of the favors of your lord will you deny?” There was a link that went to the NASA web site. When I clicked the link I had no idea what was going to be on the next page, but what I saw took my breath away. Tears came to my eyes. I knew - if I had had any doubts left - I knew at the moment, that Islam was the True Religion of God.
The page the link took me to showed what looked like a rose. It was the “Cat’s Eye Nebula.” Which was an exploding star 3000 light years away. It had been photographed with the Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists say that it is the same fate that awaits our own solar system. Muslims refer to it as the “Rose Nebula.” It had been described in the Qur’an 1400 years ago. People back then had no way of knowing about it. Only God could have known.
After accepting in my mind as well as in my heart that Islam is the True Religion, I knew that I was already a Muslim and the only thing left was to profess my faith.
I looked in an internet directory for mosques in my community. I called the one in the next town and told the person who answered the phone that I wanted to convert to Islam, and asked him when I could make my Shahada. He told me to be there at 4 p.m. on Saturday when the imam would also be there. I told him that I ride the bus everywhere and it wouldn’t be running late enough for me to be able to get back home and so could I come earlier? He said not to worry, someone would give me a ride home. I arrived as scheduled, and as God had scheduled, so began my new life. I have since come to realize that on that day, the greatest event of my life occurred. I had always thought that the most wonderful thing to ever happen to me was the day that I married my husband. But I now know it wasn’t. The most important day of my life was the day I made my Shahada and accepted Islam as the way of life God intended me to live. It was the day I acknowledged that Islam is the way to salvation, to Heaven, and I made a choice to practice it.
I can’t say my husband was thrilled by my reverting to Islam. He believed what the media was saying about Muslims and the religion. He didn’t like it that I went to the mosque several evenings a week and left him home alone to be bored. One night after he was finished complaining about me going again I sat down a few feet away from him and I calmly told him, “I will never ask you to practice a religion you don’t believe in. I love you too much to try and force that on you. But I do want you to learn about Islam so that you will at least understand what it is I believe.” I then stood up and went into the bedroom and finished dressing to go to the mosque. I kissed him goodbye and I left.
When I returned home I found his whole attitude had changed. He was bright and cheerful. That night, before going to bed, he began to learn about Islam.
My husband began going to the mosque with me. While I studied with the sisters, he would talk with a brother and ask him questions. At home he read things on the internet, and books that he had borrowed from the mosque. We would discuss different things he was learning, and I would point things out to him.
When the day came and he told me about how some aspect of Islam was to be practiced, in a “know it all” tone of voice, as if it were a fact, something that I myself didn’t know, I asked him to tell me “How do you know that??” and he replied, “Because it’s in the Qur’an!” I was stunned! He believed! He knew that Islam was True! If it was in the Qur’an, as far as he was concerned it was true! Thirty-six days after I publicly professed my faith in God and His messenger, prophet Muhammad, my husband professed his. We had an Islamic marriage ceremony the same evening. I cried when my husband made his Shahada. I knew we would be in Eternity together!
A month before, a brother had asked me what I thought the chances of my husband converting were. I told him, “Zero.” I said, “I can’t imagine someone so dramatically changing their beliefs after having believed something else for 70 years. But 14 days before his 71st birthday he embraced Islam as his religion and his way of life. In the Muslim community we have found another family. We have found friendship, love and acceptance that was taught in the Christian religions we practiced at different points in my life, but that we felt never actually existed among most of the members of the churches we went to.
Many of the Muslims in our area are immigrants, but we have found no intolerance of Americans whether they are Muslim or not. We were both welcomed into the family of Islam the very first time each of us went to the mosque. We’ve always felt welcome and accepted.
Since embracing Islam We have found direction and purpose for our lives. We have found the meaning for our existence. We have come to realize that we really are here only for a short time and that what comes afterwards is far better then the fleeting pleasures that this world has to offer us.
I have found a sense of security concerning life after death that I had never known before. We have both come to see the problems that we once saw as being major as actually being opportunities to grow. We thank God for what we do have, as well for what we don’t. Today we are Muslim. We still care about 9/11. I still cry when I think a little too much about the events of that day. My husband still remembers the people jumping from the buildings. We wish all we could say about that day was where we had been when we heard that the WTC had been attacked. But we did see it happen, and it was the most devastating thing to ever happen in our lives. But from tragedy came victory. From death has come the knowledge that we will have life after our death. And it will be spent together.
Sura 3 - Aal-E-Imran [The Family of Imran] Verse 138-138:
138. هَذَا بَيَانٌ لِلنَّاسِ وَهُدًى وَمَوْعِظَةٌ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ
Sura 3 - Aal-E-Imran [The Family of Imran] Verse 138-138:
138. Here is a plain statement to men, a guidance and instruction to those who fear Allah!
Disclaimer: This convert story has been published on ChallengeYourSoul.com as is, without being edited. It may promote views & ideas not supported by ChallengeYourSoul.com and/or which are not Islamically correct.
The name I am called by my Christian parents is Bobbie Evans, but the name I am known by in the Muslim community is Khadija Evans. This is the story of how my husband and I came to embrace Islam.
I can remember standing in the kitchen of the house I lived in when I was just seven or eight years old and looking towards the door that went outside. I prayed to a god whom I wasn’t sure existed and I begged Him to show himself to me if He was really there. Nothing happened.
I can remember being nine or ten years old and writing a letter to God and hiding it in the heat register in my bedroom, thinking God, if He existed, would come and retrieve it and answer my prayers. But the next day, the letter was still there.
I had always had a hard time accepting the existence of God, and of understanding the beliefs taught in Christian churches. Even though my parents weren’t very religious, and rarely went to church, they thought it was best that my two brothers and I go. We were allowed to choose our religion when we very young. I think I was about six or seven, and my brothers were one and two years older then I. I chose a Methodist church for no other reason then it was a few blocks away from our house, and my brothers chose a Lutheran church because it was also close, and I hadn’t chosen it.
I went to the church until I was thirteen years old. I was baptized and confirmed there when I was 11. I went along with the baptism and confirmation because all children who were 11 received confirmation, and if they hadn’t already been baptized, that was done at the same time. Even then I knew that doubts about God and Christian teachings were things best kept to myself.
When I was 13 my family moved to another town with no churches within walking distance, and my parents weren’t eager to get up early and drive us kids to church, and so our religious training stopped until I was 15 and my mom suddenly found religion. She began attending an Assembly of God church, occasionally dragging my dad along. I went willingly. I had already begun a search for God that wouldn’t end until I was 42 years old. I remember being “born again”. Caught up in the fervor of the hell and damnation that the minister preached at the Assembly of God church. I became “high on religion” thinking I had finally found “Him.” Little did I know, but the high would be short lived, as I again began to have doubts and unanswered questions. When I was 17 I met the daughter of an assistant Baptist minister and began going to their church. I had been sexually abused by my dad from the time I was at least six years old and I told the assistant minister about it. He arranged with my parents to let me live with him and his family in a type of “private foster care.” My dad paid him $100 a week. My parents also attended the church for a brief time, until the minister announced on the pulpit that my dad was a child molester. Before that though, my mom, dad and I were each baptized at the church.
One day after spending the day with my parents I returned to my foster home only to find the house empty. Cleaned out. Not a stick of furniture. We found out that the minister had been caught embezzling from the church and he and his family had left town in a hurry. I returned to my parents home and the abuse.
As a result of that incident what little faith I had in God was totally lost and I became an atheist. For the next 25 years I would fluctuate between believing, wanting to believe, and Agnosticism, and Atheism.
When I was twenty-six, I went to three months of Rights of Initiation for Catholic Adults and then was baptized and confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church. I had been allowed to by-pass the full year of classes because I hadn’t called the church to inquire about converting until three months before the Easter Vigil Mass when confirmation for adults was held.
I had entered the Catholic religion with the same philosophy that I had once heard Alcoholics Anonymous has, “Bring your body, your mind will follow.” I didn’t really believe in God, or in the core teachings of the Catholic Church, but I wanted so badly to believe in a power higher then myself, that I went faithfully to mass seven days a week, hoping that somehow I would start to believe. But after several months, I began to realize that it wasn’t going to happen, and my mass attendance became a once a week thing, then once a month, until when I was thirteen and met the man who today is my husband and who wasn’t Catholic, I stopped attending mass altogether.
I had never told anyone, before my husband, that I didn’t believe in God. I don’t think he took me seriously at first. I don’t think he had ever known an Atheist.
My husband is 29 years older then me. We’ve had a wonderful marriage for these last 10 years. When we first met, I still desperately wanted to believe, and kept making him promise me that “When you get to Heaven” he would ask God to give me the strength to believe, and he if at all possible, he would give me a sign, one that I couldn’t chalk up to my imagination, so I would know there really was a god. He always promised me he would. We were living in rural Alabama when I was 32 years old. I developed ulcerations on both corneas and when they healed, I was legally blind. Because of damage from infection that had been done to the tissue that donated corneas would have to adhere to, I couldn’t find an eye surgeon who believed that transplanted corneas wouldn’t be rejected.
I was still searching for God. I was searching for hope of something better then what this world had to offer. Some kind of evidence of the chance for existence after death. Some way to achieve it. I listened to Christian programs on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, even though I couldn’t find any ministers on the station who’s opinion I trusted. I watched anyway, hoping that one would say something that would click in my mind, and I would finally know, that “Yes, there really is a god.” None of them ever said anything that caused that connection to happen, though many said things that confused me even more.
During the first 10 years after I became legally blind, I tried attending different churches, Baptist again, Assembly of God again, non-Denominational, Church of God, Mormon, and even studied up on Wicca. But I always lost interest after just a few months. Things the religions taught just didn’t add up. There were just too many things left to faith. Things that had no proof other then one’s faith. I couldn’t believe something when the only proof were some words in a book that in large part didn’t make sense.
I remember one night when I was about 35 years old, lying in bed and praying to God, whom I still wasn’t sure existed, and asking Him that if He did exist to lead me to someone who could help me to believe. But I found no one.
At age 36 I acquired a braille Bible and started reading it, once again hoping to find proof of God’s existence. But with the Bible being so hard to understand, with so much of it not really being explainable, I lost interest after reading just a few of its books.
At about that time, though still wanting to find God, I gave up my search. I had become completely disillusioned with religion.
On September 11, 2001 I was sitting at my computer. It was before 9 a.m. and as usual the television, which was sitting to my right, was turned on for background noise. I heard the sound that is made to notify viewers of an important news announcement. I stopped and turned towards the TV. A reporter began talking and one of the towers of the World Trade Center showed in the background. He said an accident had happened. A small plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center. I’m legally blind, but I could see well enough to know that it wasn’t a small plane that had hit the tower. The hole was massive. And I didn’t think it was possible to accidentally hit something so big.
As I watched, another plane flew into the other tower. I couldn’t see the plane itself, it was too small for me to see, but I saw the fireball that exploded away from the building.
I jumped up and ran into the bedroom and told my husband to hurry and get up because terrorists were flying planes into the World Trade Center buildings! He immediately got out of bed and came in to the living room and sat in his recliner and began to watch. It was about 9 a.m.
As time went by it was announced that a plane had been flown into the Pentagon and another hijacked plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. I wondered when it would end? And what in the world was going on??? The reporter said it looked like “debris” was falling from the building. My husband said it was people jumping. Something he has never been able to forget. I was grateful that my vision was to bad for me to be able to make out what even looked like “debris”. “The reporter said a part of the first tower had fallen away from the building. He spoke in a kind of hesitant voice. Now I wonder if he was unsure of what he was seeing. Because we later found out that a part of the building hadn’t fallen away. The building had completely collapsed.
A female reporter was crying and a male reporter hugged her. I was crying too. And my husband hugged me.
For weeks afterward I would start crying for no apparent reason. I’d be riding on the bus and have to turn my head towards the window and pretend I was looking out so that others wouldn’t see the tears escaping my eyes.
When we were in a restaurant, I’d have to use my napkin to dab the tears welling up in my eyes before the other diners noticed and wondered if I was some kind of a nut.
I was Christian then and I cared. And I was devastated. I couldn’t understand how a religion could promote such violence, as the media was saying Islam did. It made no sense to me. So I decided to find out for myself. One way or another I wanted to know the truth. Because of my partial blindness I was limited to information from the internet. Finding braille books about Islam in braille or ink print that was large enough for me to read was impossible. I was able to use a computer because I had magnification software installed so I could enlarge the font on the screen to a size that I could read.
I did searches and I began to read about Islam. I went to web sites that taught the basics of Islam, and I joined Muslim women’s e-groups where I was able to ask and get answers that I confirmed through further research.
I’ve always been a sceptic. It’s always been hard for me to believe something that I didn’t understand. I was never one to believe something simply because someone said it was so. I had to know it in my mind as well as in my heart.
While studying Islam I learned that the god Muslims worship is the same god as that of Christians and Jews. The god of Abraham and Moses. I found that Islam doesn’t promote or condone hatred of non-Muslims, nor does it condone the killing of innocent people.
By studying Islam I found the answers that the media wasn’t telling us and I came to know that Islam is the True Religion. I read a lot of convincing evidence, but the things that proved to me that there is a god, and that Islam is the True Religion and that that the Qur’an is the Word of God, were those in the Qur’an itself. The things that are of a scientific nature. Things that have only been discovered by scientists in the last 100 years. The only one who could have known those things 1400 years ago was God.
For example, One day I was at a web site that was about some of the scientific proofs in the Qur’an. One of the verses in the Qur’an tells about the death of our own solar system. Al-Rahman 37-38
“When the sky is torn apart, so it was (like) a red rose like ointment. Then which of the favors of your lord will you deny?” There was a link that went to the NASA web site. When I clicked the link I had no idea what was going to be on the next page, but what I saw took my breath away. Tears came to my eyes. I knew - if I had had any doubts left - I knew at the moment, that Islam was the True Religion of God.
The page the link took me to showed what looked like a rose. It was the “Cat’s Eye Nebula.” Which was an exploding star 3000 light years away. It had been photographed with the Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists say that it is the same fate that awaits our own solar system. Muslims refer to it as the “Rose Nebula.” It had been described in the Qur’an 1400 years ago. People back then had no way of knowing about it. Only God could have known.
After accepting in my mind as well as in my heart that Islam is the True Religion, I knew that I was already a Muslim and the only thing left was to profess my faith.
I looked in an internet directory for mosques in my community. I called the one in the next town and told the person who answered the phone that I wanted to convert to Islam, and asked him when I could make my Shahada. He told me to be there at 4 p.m. on Saturday when the imam would also be there. I told him that I ride the bus everywhere and it wouldn’t be running late enough for me to be able to get back home and so could I come earlier? He said not to worry, someone would give me a ride home. I arrived as scheduled, and as God had scheduled, so began my new life. I have since come to realize that on that day, the greatest event of my life occurred. I had always thought that the most wonderful thing to ever happen to me was the day that I married my husband. But I now know it wasn’t. The most important day of my life was the day I made my Shahada and accepted Islam as the way of life God intended me to live. It was the day I acknowledged that Islam is the way to salvation, to Heaven, and I made a choice to practice it.
I can’t say my husband was thrilled by my reverting to Islam. He believed what the media was saying about Muslims and the religion. He didn’t like it that I went to the mosque several evenings a week and left him home alone to be bored. One night after he was finished complaining about me going again I sat down a few feet away from him and I calmly told him, “I will never ask you to practice a religion you don’t believe in. I love you too much to try and force that on you. But I do want you to learn about Islam so that you will at least understand what it is I believe.” I then stood up and went into the bedroom and finished dressing to go to the mosque. I kissed him goodbye and I left.
When I returned home I found his whole attitude had changed. He was bright and cheerful. That night, before going to bed, he began to learn about Islam.
My husband began going to the mosque with me. While I studied with the sisters, he would talk with a brother and ask him questions. At home he read things on the internet, and books that he had borrowed from the mosque. We would discuss different things he was learning, and I would point things out to him.
When the day came and he told me about how some aspect of Islam was to be practiced, in a “know it all” tone of voice, as if it were a fact, something that I myself didn’t know, I asked him to tell me “How do you know that??” and he replied, “Because it’s in the Qur’an!” I was stunned! He believed! He knew that Islam was True! If it was in the Qur’an, as far as he was concerned it was true! Thirty-six days after I publicly professed my faith in God and His messenger, prophet Muhammad, my husband professed his. We had an Islamic marriage ceremony the same evening. I cried when my husband made his Shahada. I knew we would be in Eternity together!
A month before, a brother had asked me what I thought the chances of my husband converting were. I told him, “Zero.” I said, “I can’t imagine someone so dramatically changing their beliefs after having believed something else for 70 years. But 14 days before his 71st birthday he embraced Islam as his religion and his way of life. In the Muslim community we have found another family. We have found friendship, love and acceptance that was taught in the Christian religions we practiced at different points in my life, but that we felt never actually existed among most of the members of the churches we went to.
Many of the Muslims in our area are immigrants, but we have found no intolerance of Americans whether they are Muslim or not. We were both welcomed into the family of Islam the very first time each of us went to the mosque. We’ve always felt welcome and accepted.
Since embracing Islam We have found direction and purpose for our lives. We have found the meaning for our existence. We have come to realize that we really are here only for a short time and that what comes afterwards is far better then the fleeting pleasures that this world has to offer us.
I have found a sense of security concerning life after death that I had never known before. We have both come to see the problems that we once saw as being major as actually being opportunities to grow. We thank God for what we do have, as well for what we don’t. Today we are Muslim. We still care about 9/11. I still cry when I think a little too much about the events of that day. My husband still remembers the people jumping from the buildings. We wish all we could say about that day was where we had been when we heard that the WTC had been attacked. But we did see it happen, and it was the most devastating thing to ever happen in our lives. But from tragedy came victory. From death has come the knowledge that we will have life after our death. And it will be spent together.
Sura 3 - Aal-E-Imran [The Family of Imran] Verse 138-138:
138. هَذَا بَيَانٌ لِلنَّاسِ وَهُدًى وَمَوْعِظَةٌ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ
Sura 3 - Aal-E-Imran [The Family of Imran] Verse 138-138:
138. Here is a plain statement to men, a guidance and instruction to those who fear Allah!
THE PRINCIPLES OF FAITH"
A Primer to the code of the Islamic creed and conduct of the Muslim
Syed Masrur
Verily all praises is for Allah, we praise Him and seek His aid and ask for His forgiveness, and we seek refuge with Allah from the evils of ourselves and our evil actions. Whom Allah chooses to guide, none can mislead him and whom He chooses to mislead, none that can guide him. And I bear witness that none has the right to be worship except Allah Alone, having no partners, and I bear witness that Muhammad (sallallaahu ‘ alayhi ‘wa sallam (peace and blessings upon him) (saw)) is His slave and His Messenger.
Sura 4 - An-Nisa [Women] Verse 1-1:
1. يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَاءً وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالأرْحَامَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا
Sura 4 - An-Nisa [Women] Verse 1-1:
1. O mankind! reverence your Guardian-Lord, who created you from a single person, created, of like nature, His mate, and from them twain scattered (like seeds) countless men and women;- reverence Allah, through whom ye demand your mutual (rights), and (reverence) the wombs (That bore you): for Allah ever watches over you.
Sura 3 - Aal-E-Imran [The Family of Imran] Verse 102-102:
102. يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ
Sura 3 - Aal-E-Imran [The Family of Imran] Verse 102-102:
102. O ye who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared, and die not except in a state of Islam.
Sura 33 - Al-Ahzab [The Clans, the Coalition, the Combined Forces] Verse 70-71:
70. يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلا سَدِيدًا
71. يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَمَنْ يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا
Sura 33 - Al-Ahzab [The Clans, the Coalition, the Combined Forces] Verse 70-71:
70. O ye who believe! Fear Allah, and (always) say a word directed to the Right:
71. That He may make your conduct whole and sound and forgive you your sins: He that obeys Allah and His Messenger, has already attained the highest achievement.
As for what follows: Verily the most truthful speech is the word of Allah, the best guidance in the guidance of Muhammad (saw), the worst of affairs are the novelties and every novelty is an innovation, every innovation is going astray and every going astray is in the Fire (of Hell). I ask Allah to guide us to that which is proper – verily He is the one having authority over that and having power to do so.
Syed Masrur
Verily all praises is for Allah, we praise Him and seek His aid and ask for His forgiveness, and we seek refuge with Allah from the evils of ourselves and our evil actions. Whom Allah chooses to guide, none can mislead him and whom He chooses to mislead, none that can guide him. And I bear witness that none has the right to be worship except Allah Alone, having no partners, and I bear witness that Muhammad (sallallaahu ‘ alayhi ‘wa sallam (peace and blessings upon him) (saw)) is His slave and His Messenger.
Sura 4 - An-Nisa [Women] Verse 1-1:
1. يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ نَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَاءً وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالأرْحَامَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا
Sura 4 - An-Nisa [Women] Verse 1-1:
1. O mankind! reverence your Guardian-Lord, who created you from a single person, created, of like nature, His mate, and from them twain scattered (like seeds) countless men and women;- reverence Allah, through whom ye demand your mutual (rights), and (reverence) the wombs (That bore you): for Allah ever watches over you.
Sura 3 - Aal-E-Imran [The Family of Imran] Verse 102-102:
102. يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ
Sura 3 - Aal-E-Imran [The Family of Imran] Verse 102-102:
102. O ye who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared, and die not except in a state of Islam.
Sura 33 - Al-Ahzab [The Clans, the Coalition, the Combined Forces] Verse 70-71:
70. يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلا سَدِيدًا
71. يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَمَنْ يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا
Sura 33 - Al-Ahzab [The Clans, the Coalition, the Combined Forces] Verse 70-71:
70. O ye who believe! Fear Allah, and (always) say a word directed to the Right:
71. That He may make your conduct whole and sound and forgive you your sins: He that obeys Allah and His Messenger, has already attained the highest achievement.
As for what follows: Verily the most truthful speech is the word of Allah, the best guidance in the guidance of Muhammad (saw), the worst of affairs are the novelties and every novelty is an innovation, every innovation is going astray and every going astray is in the Fire (of Hell). I ask Allah to guide us to that which is proper – verily He is the one having authority over that and having power to do so.
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