Madina Archives

Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board

Basics of Faith
Haniff
09/10/01 at 00:24:03
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Today, I am starting a new series on "Basics of Faith", which consists of 17 articles. Insha Allah, I hope to post one article a day. [center]Basics of Faith - 1 A religion for all mankind By Adil Salahi[/center] The religion of Islam has, perhaps, the strongest hold on the lives of its followers among all the religions of the world. Whatever a Muslim does, he or she must first make sure that it is not contrary to the teachings of Islam. If such a contradiction exists, then he or she must abandon the thing they want to do, in deference to the teachings of their religion. This applies to matters which are universally recognized to be within the religious domain as much as it applies to matters which most people believe to be of no concern to religion. This is due to the fact that Islam is not merely a relationship between man and God; it is also a code of living which organizes human life in such a way as to make the pleasure of God the goal for the achievement of which every Muslim must strive through every action he or she does. How does Islam achieve this, and how does it relate faith in God and the observation of religious teachings to matters which are purely materialistic are points on which we would like to shed some light through an attempt to understand the faith of Islam and the basics of the Islamic ideology. Islam is the religion we have received through the revelations vouchsafed from on high to Muhammad (peace be on him). If we attempt to make an outline of the religion of Islam we may say that Islam is constituted of faith which embodies the ideology and the basic principles from which Islamic laws are derived, and actions which implement the Islamic law, or Islamic constitution. This constitution is inseparable from the faith and the ideology. It is extremely important to understand that, according to Islam, there can be no split between faith and action, the ideology and the constitution. The one follows the other in the same way as cause produces effect, and as a certain premise gives a particular result. For this reason, action is firmly linked with faith in many verses of the Qur'an: "Man is a certain loser, save those who have faith and do righteous deeds." (103:2-3). "Give good tidings to those who believe and do good deeds that they shall reside in gardens beneath which rivers flow." (2: 25). "Be they men or women, those who embrace the faith and do what is right We shall surely grant a happier life; and We shall reward them according to their noblest actions." (16: 96). The Islamic faith is not different from the faith preached by all prophets to whom God has given revelations and entrusted with messages, starting with Adam and including, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Zachariah, John, and Jesus, with the line of prophethood reaching its final destination with the last of God's messengers, Muhammad, (peace be on him). The faith preached by all these messengers is the same. There can be no variation of what God considers acceptable to Him as a faith. All nations and all generations need to have the same basic principles of religion and faith: "In matters of faith, He has ordained for you that which He had enjoined upon Noah - and into which We gave you insight through revelations - as well as that which We had enjoined upon Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus: steadfastly uphold the true faith, and do not break up your unity therein." (42- 13). The basic requirements of the Divine faith, as preached by all God's messengers, and as it is universally agreed to be the faith of Islam, are as follows: Recognition of God, His noble names and attributes, and to believe in Him as the absolute Master of the universe. Such recognition helps to stimulate the noble motives within man so that man remains conscious of God in whatever situation he happens to be and whatever action he is doing. Recognition that there is a complete world which lies beyond our present one. Such a world includes good forces represented by the angels and forces of evil represented by Satan and his soldiers. Recognition of the books and scriptures God has revealed to the prophets over the ages, in order to define what is right, good and permissible on the one hand and what is false, evil and forbidden on the other. This helps us understand the method of life God has determined for man so that he may achieve a standard of material and moral well-being which he cannot achieve without it. Recognition of God's prophets and messengers whom He has chosen to be the leaders of mankind and their guides along the path of the truth. This helps us to follow in their footsteps and establish good and noble values and tradition for human life. Recognition of the Day of Resurrection when every human being is made to account for his or her actions in this life, and is rewarded accordingly. The reward is represented in admission to heaven for those who have won God's pleasure, or commitment to hell for those who have incurred His displeasure. This is, perhaps, the strongest motive for people to do good and to abandon what is evil. Recognition of God's power of fore-ordination and pre-destination which determines the system of the whole universe. This recognition imparts to the believer the strength to face up to any difficulties and hardships he or she may have to endure. It is clear, then, that the aim of the faith is to achieve nobility of action by human beings and to provide them with ideals which constantly elevate them to a higher standard of morality and to observe noble values more than religion which, indeed, controls one's feelings and sentiments. It is in order to help man to achieve such high standards of nobility and perfection that God has sent His messengers to different nations, throughout the ages, to preach to them His message and make plain to them the method which ensures their happiness in both this life and in the life to come. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 19 November 1999[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff (with double 'f')

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
09/11/01 at 00:37:10
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 2 The Islamic concept of God, the Supreme Being By Adil Salahi[/center] Formulating a truly Islamic concept of God, the Divine and Supreme Being, cannot be complete unless we are aware of all His basic attributes. Such knowledge will contribute to our knowledge of God. Some of His attributes relate only to Himself and His existence while others have some manifestation in some of His creation. Of the first type are such of the Divine attributes as God's being the One, the First, the Last Being, etc. When we describe God as being the First, our description means that His existence does   not start at any particular time. There was never a point of time when God came into being, which means that He did not exist prior to it. Similarly, when we say that God is the Last, we mean that His existence does not come to an end at any point in time. He is indeed eternal, and His existence is not preceded or followed by a void. God describes Himself in the Qur'an as follows: "Everything will surely perish except His face." (29: 88). The fact that He is the First and the Last means that He is the Creator of everything and that His knowledge is full and complete. We can deduce from various pronouncements of the Prophet that the first thing to be created in our world was water. Of the abstract creatures the first to be created was the pen. The Prophet says: "The first thing God created was the pen. He then ordered it to write and it wrote down everything that would take place until the Day of Judgment." There is, however no clear evidence that the first thing created was the human mind or the light of the Prophet, as some people maintain. It is worth noting that scientists of astronomy and geology agree with Muslim scholars that the universe came into being at a particular point in time and then developed afterward. Scientists, however, go on to estimate the age of the universe and the age of different planets and creatures. Islamic scholars do not involve themselves in such pursuits which may be scientifically exciting and important but have no considerable bearing on religious concepts or principles. Some people ask the question: "If God has created everything, who created God?" To this we reply that the question itself is not valid. As we have said yesterday, we cannot comprehend the nature of God. The Prophet says: "People will continue to ask questions until they say: God has created everything but who created God? Whoever finds such a thought perturbing him, let him say: I believe in God." Such a question need not cause us any difficulty. If we believe in God and that His attributes include perfection and creation we can find a satisfactory answer to our thoughts. If you put a book on your desk and leave the room, then you notice on re-entering the room that the book is in the drawer of that desk, you conclude that someone has moved the book and put it in that desk. At no time will you think that the book moved by itself. If, on the other hand, you go out of your room leaving a friend of yours sitting on a chair and when you come back you find your friend sitting on the floor, you do not conclude that someone came and lifted him from the chair and put him on the floor. You believe that he himself has moved. This is because You know that a book has no power to move by itself while a human being can easily move by himself from one place to another. If we stretch this point to other qualities of creatures we know that nothing in the universe has the quality of self-creation. Nothing comes into being by itself. Everything must have a creator. It is not difficult for us to conclude that the Creator of the universe is God. When we say that God is perfect, perfection means that He does not require any power outside Himself to give Him anything or to do anything for Him. As we have said earlier, God is One. This means that He is not composed of parts which may be separated. He has no partner to share His kingdom with Him, no one has an attribute similar to His, or can act and operate as He does. He alone can create from nothing, initiate and originate. "Say: He is God, the One and only God, the Eternal, the Absolute. He begot none, nor was He begotten, and there is none comparable to Him." (112: 1-4). He is in no need of anyone, while all His creation needs Him. When He describes Himself as having begotten none, this means that His existence is perfect. "Nor was He begotten," means that He did not originate from someone else, because this would have meant that there was a point in time when His existence started. This is unacceptable from the Islamic point of view. The first of His attributes which have manifestation in His creation is ability. He is the Able One who can do what He wills. The creation of the universe is indeed a manifestation of His great ability. His ability is indeed permanent, which means that He is able at any time to create or destroy anything and everything. We need only to contemplate various aspects of creation, and think about our life and the life of the universe around us and the great manifestations of God's power to realize that His ability knows no limit. Indeed such contemplation is bound to leave us speechless. Another attribute of God is His will. This means that He decides the different characteristics of His creation. He may will to make a certain woman tall or short, pretty or ugly, and He may cause her to live long or to die early, to have wide knowledge or to live in ignorance. He indeed can do with the universe whatever He desires and chooses. God is also described as All-Knowing, All-Aware. His knowledge includes the past, the present and the future. What is more is that His knowledge is not accidental. This means that there is nothing which God did not know and then came to know later. Similarly, God does not forget anything He knows. His knowledge is not related to time or place. Indeed, He knows the most minute detail of everything in the same way as He knows the whole of everything. All the perfection that is visible in the universe is simply evidence of His knowledge and perfect wisdom. The fact that God's knowledge is so complete is related to two of His attributes, namely, hearing and seeing. Indeed He sees all and hears all. In order to describe His power of hearing, Muslim scholars say that God hears the footsteps of a black ant as it walks on a fine smooth surface in the depth of a dark night. Nothing can confuse His hearing, and no language is incomprehensible to Him and no noise can drown any sound from His hearing. Similarly, God sees everything and every side of everything. When we say that God is able, has a will, and that He knows, hears and sees everything, these qualities necessitate another attribute of God, which is, life. Indeed, He is living. His life is perfect, not susceptible to any weakness or decline and cannot be terminated by death. Indeed, had He not been living He could not have created His creation. The Qur'an emphasizes this fact about God and describes Him in several places as the living Master who controls all. The  most prominent of God's attributes are those contained in the first Surah of the Qur'an, The Opening. In this Surah, God describes Himself as "Lord of all worlds, the Merciful, the Beneficent, King of the Day of Judgment." These attributes stress His power, His mercy which encompasses everything, and that to Him return everything in order to assign to every one the reward they deserve. Our concept of God is the total sum of His attributes. If we reflect on these attributes and keep in our mind the fact that He is present with us wherever we are and that He sees us whatever we do, then we are bound to keep to the line which will eventually win for us God's pleasure with what it entails of being admitted to heaven in the life to come. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 26 November 1999[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff (with double 'f')

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
09/12/01 at 02:18:55
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 3 Knowing God through His attributes By Adil Salahi[/center] Earlier we said that the best way to know God is to contemplate His creation in its both smallest and largest manifestations. The universe, large, wide, limitless and seemingly infinite, points to the same fact to which the smallest, indivisible particle of matter also points: that nothing in this universe is the result of a blind coincidence, that beyond all this creation the power of God, truly infinite, lies. We also stressed that to use one's intellect is a requirement Islam makes of every human being. The Ouran always stresses that there are numerous indicators throughout the universe for people who think, reflect, contemplate and use their intellect. All these signs point to the existence of God, the Creator of all. In order to explain its concept of God to human beings, Islam makes use of God's names and attributes. Several verses in the Qur'an describe God as having "the most goodly and gracious names." The Prophet says: "God has ninety-nine names. Whoever learns them and appreciates them fully will enter paradise. God is single and loves singleness." This is an authentic Hadith related by Al-Bukhari, Muslim and At-Tirmithi. The latter, however, adds the ninety-nine names in the text of this pronouncement of the Prophet. Of these ninety-nine names, only "Allah", or "God", is a proper noun which refers to the Divine Being who is holy and deserving of all praise and in whose existence there must be no doubt. The other names denote attributes such as "Al-Malik" or "The King", which signifies that He can do with His kingdom whatever He wills. When the Prophet says that he who learns these names and appreciates them fully enters paradise, it is only because such knowledge and appreciation are bound to influence that person's thinking, views, outlook, behavior and manners. He is bound to have that element of fear of God which motivates a person to all great and noble things. Only through good knowledge of all God's attributes one can have that element of fear of Him which all great men of faith have had throughout history. This sort of knowledge and appreciation distinguishes the pious believer from the rest of people. Great and pious believers were motivated to attain such sublime heights as they have done, only after they had acquired the right concept of God and kept it present in their minds. That concept can only be formed through the full knowledge of God's attributes. God's goodly names, which denote His perfect attributes, may be divided into several groups. There are, firstly, the names which refer to Him as the Supreme Being. They stress His oneness and His being the overall Lord who controls the universe. Examples of these names are: The One, The Single, The Truth, The First, The Last, etc. There is, secondly, a group of God's names which are relevant to His power of creation, such as, The Creator, The Originator, and The One Who Fashions, etc. Thirdly, there are names which stress the fact that He loves His creation and is kind to them. This group includes names such as, The Kindly, The Loving, The Forgiver, The Thankful, The Provider, The Bountiful, etc. This group, however, does not include three names, "Rabb", meaning Lord, "Rahman", meaning Compassionate or Beneficent, or "Raheem", meaning Merciful or Gracious. Fourthly, quite a large number of God's names may be grouped together as denoting His greatness and majesty. In this group we have names like, The Great, The Almighty, The Sublime, The All-Powerful, The All-Conquering, The Glorious, etc. Names which relate to God's knowledge can also be classified in another group in which we have names such as, The All-Knowing, The All-Hearing, The Wise, The All-Aware, Witness of All Things, etc. We also have a group of God's names that are relevant to His will and power and His control of all that takes place in the universe. In this group we have names like, The Able, The Protector, The King, The Owner of the Universe, The Avenger, The One Who Reckons Everything, etc. Other names which have not been mentioned in the Qur'an are derived from actions or qualities God has attributed to Himself in the Qur'an. Examples of such names are: The One Who Gives Dignity, The One Who humiliates, The One Who Answers Prayers, The Resurrector, The Initiator, The Re-Creator, The Giver, The Enricher, The Inheritor, The Everlasting, etc. This last group of God's names includes those names that are derived from reference to Him in the Qur'an. In this group we may include His two qualities of speaking and   having a will in addition to names like, The Light, The One Who Guides, The One Who Causes Benefit and Harm, etc. A quick glance at these groups of names is sufficient to make it clear that full knowledge of God's names is a very essential element in the formation of the true concept of God which is acceptable to Islam. Such a concept must visualize God as having all these attributes in their fullness and perfection. When we have such a concept of God we will feel that He is with us at every moment of our lives. That in itself is the greatest motivator for man to be good and to steer away from evil. After all, to win God's pleasure is the great objective to which every Muslim must strive. To win the pleasure of God, who has all these attributes, is not an easy matter; it requires great discipline which means that a Muslim must be always on his guard, always fearful of slipping and making an error. But, with his fear of God, a Muslim trusts to His mercy and compassion. He knows that God is forgiving. This means that He can forgive all sins. Indeed, He states so in the Qur'an. "Say: (Thus speaks God): 'All you servants of Mine who have transgressed against your own selves! Despair not of God's mercy, for God forgives all sins. Truly, He alone is much forgiving, merciful'." (39: 53) "God will never forgive the ascribing of Divinity to any being alongside Him. He will forgive whom He will all other sins." (4: 116) It is indeed through the right balance of fear of God and hope of His mercy that we can keep to the right path, steering away from the pitfalls, yet not despairing of God's mercy if we slip. The right concept of God makes it clear in our minds that God responds to us. He watches over us, He listens to our prayers and answers them. With Him we can have an active relationship which is both beneficial and very real. Every one of us goes through difficult periods in life. At a moment when the whole world seems to close on us, when despair looks us in the face, when calamities seem to follow one another, when our world seems to be pulled down over our heads, the true concept of God, if fully appreciated, opens for us a new world of hope, confidence and trust in His wisdom, power, justice, mercy and benevolence. God describes Himself as the One Who Answers Prayers. "Who is it that responds to a person in distress when he calls out to Him, and who removes the ill (that caused the distress), and who has made you inherit the earth? Could there be any Divine power besides God?" (27: 62) Knowing God's attributes and addressing Him with His attributes when we pray Him is a sure method that He will grant our prayers. Buraidah, a companion of the Prophet, reports: "The Prophet (peace be on him) heard a man saying in his prayers: 'My Lord, I appeal to you with the fact that I believe that You alone are God, and that there is no God other than You, the One, the Eternal, Who begot none, nor was He begotten, and with whom no one may be ever compared.' Having heard him, the Prophet said: 'By Him who holds my soul in His hand, this man has prayed God, invoking His greatest name by which He answers prayers and grants requests'." The notion of God's greatest name is very important. Many people, however, are under the impression that it is a name which is kept secret, and only revealed to certain persons who are most pious ajd devout. Some people believe that when a person learns this greatest name of God, he would be able to produce miracles. This is a misconception. Nothing of it is true. There are no secrets in the Islamic faith. And the greatest name of God is, according to the weightier opinion of scholars, a group of His attributes by which any human being stresses his or her humble submission to God and declares most emphatically God's Oneness and His domination of the whole universe. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 06 December 1999[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff (with 'f' squared)

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
09/13/01 at 09:35:26
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 4 Can we define the nature of God? By Adil Salahi[/center] We have spoken about using our intellect in order to know God. We have also spoken about knowing God through His attributes. We pointed out that using our intellect and a proper consideration of God's attributes are the two methods which can lead us to faith and the formulation of a sound concept of God, the Creator who controls the universe and everything that exists. Yet people who insist on rejecting religion or try, at best, to relegate it to a position of little importance, demand something more of us. They question us about the nature of God: what sort of being is He? And how does He exist? They assume the position of a person who throws a challenge. Unless we come up with an answer which they consider satisfactory then they are justified, or so they argue, to reject the idea of religion altogether. The fact that science has come to occupy a central position in our lives today tends to make people consider science as the final arbiter in all matters, whether they come within its sphere or not. Whatever answer we may give to such questions as have been stated earlier must be "scientific" in order to be acceptable. Such logic tends to make science a sort of an infallible deity. But science is far from infallible. The fact that there is no such thing as an absolute scientific truth confirms our view. What is universally accepted today as scientifically correct might have not been so accepted last year. It may even be proven wrong tomorrow. This is not unnatural for science. Many an assumption were accepted as absolutely correct and were then proven wrong as man's knowledge broadened. Besides, there are vast areas in our own existence which remain to scientists a closed book. Indeed, man's knowledge of himself is still very scanty. We do think; but how do we do that? What is involved in the process of thinking? How can we be absorbed in our thoughts that we are no longer aware of what takes place in front of us? And how do we sometimes think while keeping aware of what goes around us? How can some people intensify their process of thinking so that they can maintain two intellectual processes at the same time, as happens in simultaneous translation? We cannot give any satisfactory answer to any of these questions despite our remarkable scientific progress. Yet, no one claims that our failure to provide such answers is enough cause for us to negate the fact that we think. We walk, write and do physical exercises. But what is the nature of muscular action? Our will is not a material force. Indeed, all our characteristics are not material. But if one of us wants to lift his arm, his will causes his arm to move upward. How does this happen? What is the catalyst which makes man's will produce physical results? No one can as yet answer such questions. Nor do we know how our eyes transmit to our brains the pictures and images of what we see. How does our brain function? No one can answer such a question. Similar questions to which we still have no answer are numerous. What is the nature of pain, tiredness, sleep and light? Our inability to give satisfactory answers to such questions is by no means enough reason for us to say that they do not exist. It is highly doubtful whether any one wants to dispute their existence. This is because the fact that we may not be able to conceive of the nature of something is not a reason to deny its existence. If we accept this premise then we should have no problem in accepting that it is first and foremost applicable to God. That we cannot explain, or conceive of, the nature of God does not mean that He does not exist. Indeed He exists and is in full control of the universe. Our other examples, the existence of which is not a matter of dispute despite the fact that their natures remain incomprehensible to us, provide ample evidence which points to God's existence. We have only to look at the vast universe around us which stretches out in distance to limits far beyond our imagination. When distances between stars and planets are measured in thousands of millions of light years, such distances no longer represent to us anything which belongs to the realm of matter. Yet they are distances between two material objects. Indeed a light year is not something which is easily comprehensible. It represents a unit of measurement equal to six thousand billion miles or ten thousand billion kilometers. When we consider that there are over one hundred million galaxies in the universe and that the distance between one end of a galaxy and the other is not less than one hundred thousand light years, our minds stop thinking how vast the universe is. Can we logically assume that such a vast universe just happened to exist, by chance? When we consider that every creature on our small planet, the earth, is so complex as to testify to the greatness of its Maker, then the vast universe with all the creatures which inhabit it, simple and complex as they may be, could not have just happened without the rational will to determine their existence and to provide them with the conditions which are suitable for their survival. What man has discovered recently about the atom should be enough evidence for man to turn to God and admit that He alone controls the universe. Our discoveries, with their enormous effect on our lives, represent only very scanty knowledge about a fraction of the universe. We have nothing to suggest to us that what we discover in our own world applies to every thing else in the universe. Such a fine system as we have come to discover could not have come about by coincidence. Indeed, it must have been devised according to an elaborate plan of creation. When we acknowledge that the creation of the universe is made according to an elaborate plan, then we must acknowledge that such a plan could have been perfected only by God, the Wise, who knows every little detail of His creation. This is the logical conclusion that has been stated by Socrates and continued to be supported by a long line of philosophers, thinkers, scientists, literary figures and people of eminence in all walks of life. It is the belief of countless millions of ordinary people throughout the world in all generations. Yet there is even a more readily available evidence to prove God's existence and control of the universe. That evidence we find in human nature itself. This is sometimes called the "religious instinct", but it is simply a natural tendency which makes human beings keen to know their Creator and believe in Him. This tendency is present with every human being, man and woman, educated or not, Bedouin or urban. This tendency is often supported and strengthened by the fact that human beings have always addressed their prayers to God and they were answered. Man often enjoys the granting of his requests by God without there being any material reason for his wishes to be fulfilled. We only need to remember that sick people often recover as a result of prayers, and people enjoy abundance of provisions which come to them through no effort of theirs except prayers to God to grant them such affluence. There is indeed in the life of every one of us numerous incidents which can only be explained on the basis of God's direct response to what we request of Him. Besides, belief in God tends to improve the nature and characteristics of believers. They become less selfish, more generous, caring, loving and accommodating of other people's needs. They are ready to help even those with whom they have nothing in common. When you ask them the reason for their being so generous at heart, they will always tell you that they are motivated by their faith in God. Nonbelievers, on the other hand, have no such motivation to refine their nature. Hence, they often remain selfish, unwilling to sacrifice anything, looking after their own interests and pursuing their own pleasure. That sinks human life into a low depth from which it can be elevated only through faith. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 13 December 1999[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff (with double 'f')

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
09/14/01 at 10:52:06
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 5 Faith: Its significance and effects By Adil Salahi[/center] Over the last few days we have discussed the Islamic concept of God and clarified that concept through a discussion of God's attributes. Once this concept is clearly formulated, one must believe in God, attributing to Him all His qualities and characteristics. Faith presents the most complete relationship between man and God. If we accept that man is the noblest creature on earth, and that the quality of thinking is the one which gives man his unique status among God's creation we can say that man can best utilize his thinking and his reason by having faith in God. Indeed, to be a believer is to have the best quality a man may have. Faith is not merely a few words which a person repeats, nor is it the mere acceptance of certain principles. Faith is a complete concept which characterizes man's life and is manifest in every action a man does. The first change that happens to a person when he believes in God is that [color=red]he loves God and the Prophet more than he loves any one or anything else.[/color] His love should be clearly apparent in what he does and says. If he happens to love anyone or anything more than he loves God and the Prophet, then his faith is incomplete. The Qur'an teaches us: "If your fathers and your sons and your brothers and your spouses and your clan and the worldly goods which you have acquired, and the commerce of which you fear a decline, and the dwellings in which you take pleasure - if all these are dearer to you than God and His messenger and the struggle in His cause, then wait until God brings about the fulfillment of His command; and know that God does not grace the iniquitous folk with His guidance" (9: 24) Thus, everything in life: parents, children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, wealth, business and houses must take a secondary place in man's heart where the first place is given to God and the Prophet. The Prophet explains that faith cannot be complete without the true love of God, His messenger and the constitution He has revealed. The Prophet says: "Whoever has these three qualities must have tasted the sweetness of faith: that he loves God and His messenger more than anything else; that he loves whomever he loves for no other reason than to please God; and that he should hate to go back on his faith as much as he hates to be thrown in the fire." Many are the pronouncements of the Prophet which indicate that to love God and the Prophet more than anyone and anything else is the sign of real faith. Another manifestation of faith is the willingness to struggle hard, and to fight, if necessary, for the cause of God. Very often faith and struggle are linked together as an idea and its practical representation. A believer should not hesitate to fight for God's cause because such a struggle gives good and immediate results such as the liberation of people from oppression and putting an end to corruption. A man or a woman who has true faith in God certainly fears Him. Indeed no person who knows God truly and knows His greatness, might and power can think of God without having a feeling of fear lest he should incur His anger. To stand in awe of God is indeed the sign of a true believer: "Of all His servants, only such as are endowed with real knowledge stand in awe of God." (35: 28) The Prophet describes himself as the one who knows God best and who fears Him most. When a man truly believes in God, loves Him and struggles for His cause and has real fear of Him, then he will always stick to the path God has indicated. This means that he always tries to implement the constitution God has revealed. He does not acknowledge any authority to anyone who appoints himself as an intermediary between himself and God. Faith produces very significant social effects. Relations between believers are always the highest standard. They are based on love and deep affection for one another. A believer always tries hard to serve the community of the faithful as much as he can and works hard to relieve their distress. Indeed there is no human community where all individual members are more closely attached to one another than the community of believers. What is more is that a believer always tries to do what is good. Indeed, faith does not truly exist in man's heart without its being represented by good action. Believers are always described in the Qur'an as those who do righteous deeds. Negative faith is alien to the Islamic sense. Faith produces several definite results in those who make it their constitution. A person who has faith in God is free from any other authority. To believe in God means that one believes that He is the one who causes life and death and the one who protects or causes harm. Nothing is more harmful to mankind than oppression. Indeed oppression is the enemy of progress. Islam stands for the liberation of all mankind from all forms of tyranny. Faith also endows the believer with courage and keenness to achieve martyrdom for the cause of truth. A believer does not fear death because he believes that he dies at the moment when his life ends according to the will of God. Nor does a believer fear for his livelihood, because he believes that God provides sustenance for all His creation. Indeed through faith man is elevated to a much higher standard which he could not achieve without faith. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 20 December 1999[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff (with 2f)

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
09/15/01 at 02:43:48
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 6 Islamic faith and the concept of predestination By Adil Salahi[/center] Muslims are often accused by others of being fatalists. Such phrases as Muslims commonly use in their conversation as, "God willing," or, "God will provide," are taken as evidence supporting this accusation. Those who accuse Muslims of fatalism do not always belong to the greater section of people whose knowledge of Islam is very scanty. Some of those who study Islam as outsiders can easily form such a misconception. Yet to repeat this accusation is to do Muslims a great injustice. Muslims certainly believe in fate and predestination. But their beliefs are greatly different from what is meant by fatalism. The basic principle in this connection is that God is the owner of the universe. It belongs to Him as His property in which no one else is a partner to Him. In other words, to God belongs sovereignty absolute. Sovereignty, however, is at His disposal; He can do with it whatever He chooses. Thus He can assign a share of it, in the measure He determines to whomever He pleases. He can also deprive anyone of anything as well as exalt or abase whomever He wills: He is the Lord of all things, good and bad, and He can do what He wills. All the natural phenomena which operate in the universe are but manifestations of His power. He can grant any of His servants limitless means of sustenance, subject to the control or supervision of no one, since He is the only Lord of the universe. God says in the Qur'an: "Say: Lord, Sovereign of all sovereignty, You bestow sovereignty on whom You will and take it away from whom You please; You exalt whomever You will and abase whomever You please. In Your hand lies all that is good; You have power over all things. You cause the night to pass into the day, and the day to pass into the night; You bring forth the living from the dead and the dead from the living. You give sustenance, beyond all reckoning to whom You will" (3: 26-27) God acts and determines His actions according to His own free will. No one can influence His choice and determination. But His actions are characterized by His own wisdom and compassion. If any person is privileged with something good he cannot be deprived of it except by God. "Whatever grace God opens up to man, none can withhold it; and whatever He withholds, none can henceforth release: for He alone is Almighty, truly wise." (35:2) Pre-destination is mentioned several times in the Qur'an. Taken together, these references indicate that predestination means the elaborate system God has set for the universe, and the natural laws and phenomena which He has set in operation so that cause and effect are dependent on each other. Al-Nawawi, a leading Islamic scholar, explains this concept on the basis that God determines all happenings long before time. Right at the beginning He knew that these events would happen at particular times known to Him and in particular shapes and forms. Thus, everything happens at the time and in the shape He determines. To believe in pre-destination is part of the Islamic faith. What it means is that God has created all natural laws, phenomena and systems and set them in operation, and that everything moves and acts within these laws, phenomena and systems. We read in the Qur'an: "And of Our sway over all that exists they have a sign in the night: We withdraw from it the light of day, and they are in darkness. And the sun: it turns in orbit of its own, that is laid down by the will of the Almighty, the All-Knowing; and in the moon, for which we have determined phases which it must traverse till it becomes like an old date stalk, dried up and curved. Neither may the sun overtake the moon, nor can the night outstrip the day, since all of them float through space." (36: 37-38) The Islamic concept of pre-destination includes no element of compulsion. Many a Muslim scholar has pointed out that to think that pre-destination means that God compels His servants to behave or act in the way He has pre-determined for them is a misconception. Pre-destination simply means that God has known all along everything that any servant of His would do at any particular time. In other words, predestination is synonymous with God's prior knowledge. Since knowledge does not mean exercising any influence on what one knows then God's prior knowledge of what will take place does not influence the will of His creation. If a father knows that his son is intelligent, hard working, studious and has mastered all his lessons, the father's knowledge has no effect on his son's success in the examination at the end of the school year.   Contrary to what many people think, to believe in predestination releases man's energy and prompts him to try to discover the natural laws so that man can utilize them in discharging his task of building the earth. With this belief he is better able to tap the resources of the Earth and benefit from them. [color=Red]Every time the faith of Islam was implemented as the constitution of a certain community, that community recorded remarkable progress in both the material and spiritual sides of life.[/color] This is because man's firm belief in pre-destination establishes a strong attachment between man and God which endows man with the qualities of dignity, courage and strength. This makes him work hard in order to carry out his duty and establish truth and justice. A person who believes in pre-destination is keenly aware that everything in the universe operates according to a superior wisdom. [color=Blue]Hence, such a person does not panic in a situation of distress, nor does he let his joy and happiness blind him when he is successful.[/color] This makes him a balanced, mature person who always aspires to a new horizon of dignity and prudence. Some people justify their sinful actions or their laziness as being the result of predestination. This is alien to the Islamic faith. A thief was brought to the second Caliph, Umar ibn Al-Khattab, who asked him why did he steal. The thief said: "God has pre-destined that." Umar ordered him to be flogged 30 lashes and ordered that his hand be chopped off. (Chopping off the hand of a thief is the normal punishment for robbery in a truly Islamic society which implements Islam as a whole and provides enough for every one to live on.) In answer to questions about the double punishment, Umar said: "His hand should be chopped off because of his stealing, and he should be flogged because of his fabrication of lies and attributing them to God." What is important from the Islamic point of view is to realize that one fate is negated by another. Thus, we say that the fate of hunger is negated by the fate of eating. This means that God has pre-determined that man feels hungry after the lapse of a few hours after his last meal. He is, then, pre-destined to feel hungry. But he is similarly pre-destined to relieve that feeling when he eats. The same applies to thirst and drinking, illness and treatment, laziness and activity. Umar ibn Al-Khattab once hurried away from a certain area when he learnt that there was an outbreak of plague there. His friend, Abu Ubaidah, another companion of the Prophet, questioned him saying: "Do you run away from what God has pre-destined?" Umar said: "Yes, indeed. I run away from God's fate to God's fate." What he meant was that he ran away from the fate of illness that results from exposure to infection to the fate of safety and health that results from taking precautions. He also gave his friend the analogy of a shepherd leaving a barren land to graze his cattle in a fertile land. By so doing the shepherd is moving from one fate to another. To believe in predestination is in no way contrary to the belief that man has a free will and can exercise his free choice. If this was not the case, that is, if man was not free to choose the path he wants to follow or to determine his actions, then it would have been unjust of God to hold him responsible for what he does. But God is the most just of judges. It is not conceivable that He should compel any person to do something and then hold him responsible for that over which he had no choice. The Islamic concept of man stresses that man has been endowed with the two tendencies of good and evil. He can enhance within himself whichever tendency he chooses. With his mind he can distinguish between right and false beliefs, good and evil actions, true and false statements. God has also given him the power to establish the truth, to do good deeds, to say what he believes to be true and abandon all evil. Hence, man must use this power in order to choose always what is good, right and true. It is indeed because of this quality and power with which man has been endowed that God brings him to account on the Day of Judgment and determines his final destiny on the basis of his deeds and actions. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 27 December 1999[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
09/16/01 at 02:26:43
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 7 The need for divine revelations By Adil Salahi[/center] In this series of articles about the fundamental principles of the Islamic faith we have pointed out that Muslims believe in all God's messengers and in their messages. They consider that these messages, in their pure, original forms did not differ with the Qur'an in the principles of faith. Differences between them were confined to legislative details which were designed differently in order to suit the stage of human development which the people receiving any particular message had reached. It was implicit in our discussion that the messages were not devised by the Prophets themselves, but were messages revealed by God. This raises a question about revelation: how it happens and the need for it. We also need to know why God has chosen this particular method for informing us of His legislation. When we speak of revelation we are talking about something that is different from inspiration and dreams. It is not an idea which flashes suddenly in someone's mind, who then develops it and works on it until it is perfected. This is something which may happen to any one, in any sphere of life. It is indeed responsible for many ideas with great significance for human life. We are rather talking about revelation in the religious sense of the word. This involves that a particular man is chosen by God to receive His message through the angel, who is normally Gabriel, and to convey this message which contains legislation affecting all aspects of human life to his people. As the messenger conveys his message he calls on people to believe in God and to implement the message he is preaching in their lives. This is logically possible if we believe in God's existence and that He is able to have His will done. Muslims do not stop unduly at the idea of revelation or question its possibility because they rely on their belief in God who can do whatever He pleases in whatever manner He chooses. Hence, selection of an individual and preparing him to receive a divine message is very easy for God. Moreover, Muslims believe that revelations have taken place because they have been informed of the fact by God Himself. Such information is one of the methods through which we acquire our unshakable knowledge. If we receive any information from God through His messenger we believe it as if we can sense it with all our senses. Revelation is also necessary to provide guidance for man. Without it we would have been confined to the material world around us and we would have remained ignorant of anything beyond it. A quick glance through any revealed book, even the distorted ones, is enough to show that there has always been a determined effort to widen man's concerns, elevate his ambitions, and raise for him a much wider existence and a happier future to work for. All this is done through revelation. There is no doubt that this could not have happened with man's evolution as those who look at human life in purely material terms want us to believe. Indeed, human life would have not been different at all from that of animals; the curse of this world would have been their ultimate curse: they would have had no relation with God, their Creator, and they would have sought to satisfy only their physical needs such as food and sex. Divine revelations set for man a high standard of morals which elevate human existence. We can, if we wish, have all sorts of theories about the origins and the basis of moral values. We can attribute them to whatever we like. The fact remains that unless moral values are based on a firm religious belief they remain shallow and are violated every time a man feels that they are not working in his favor. By nature, man loves himself, and is keen to achieve and obtain what is beneficial to him and to avoid any harm which may be caused to him.  This means that man does only those things which bring him either pleasure or gain. It does not require a great deal of thinking to prove that. Take the case of a man who passes by a charitable institution or an orphanage, looks in his pocket and finds that he has only 10 riyals which he has saved to buy his dinner. Consider if this man, knowing that he has nothing to eat at home and he has no money other than his SR 10, puts this very sum in the donations box, keen not to be noticed by anyone. How can we describe such a person? What motivates him to leave himself hungry that night when he cannot have any credit for his action, as no one has seen him putting the money in the box? Only a person who believes in God and in the Day of Judgment does that, because he knows that God has seen him and will reward him for his good action as no one else can reward. [color=Red]A believer will always do what is good, whether his action is acknowledged by other people or not, because he does not seek credit from human beings. His aim is to please God and to get his reward from Him alone.[/color] Similarly, a believer refrains from doing what is evil, whether he is alone, unseen by any fellow human being, or mixing with other people. A believer refrains from evil not because he fears to be involved in a scandal or to be caught violating the law of the land. He refrains from doing it because he fears God and does not like to come on the Day of Judgment carrying a burden of evil deeds. It is certainly this notion of resurrection and reckoning, reward and punishment which motivates believers to stick to the right path throughout their lives. If God is holding us to account for what we do in this life and will reward us, on the Day of Judgment, for our good deeds, and punish us for our misconduct then it is only logical that He should make known to us what things to do and what to avoid. Since He is the most just of judges, He has favored us with making known to us everything that brings us reward front Him as well as what may cause us to be punished by Him. This He has done through His messengers who received His revelations. Had He not done that and still held us to account, we would ask why He has not sent us a messenger to point us the way to savior. We would be able to claim that we would have followed His guidance if it was made known to us. By His grace, He has decided not to judge us according to His prior knowledge of what we will do in our lives; He is judging us only by what we actually do, after having given us His guidance. A question may be asked: why has not God guided all people to do only what is right and what is certain to admit them into heaven? Why has He given them the sexual urge and forbidden them adultery and promiscuity? Why has He given them the desire to accumulate wealth and confined them only to lawful means of earning money? Such a line of questioning is naive. It is akin to school children asking why does not the school master give them at the beginning of a school year the questions he is going to set for their examination. Needless to say, should school children be given the questions to be asked in the test right at the beginning, they would read only the answers to those questions. They would feel no need to work hard and absorb the set curriculum. The examination would then have no purpose whatsoever. Islam teaches us that this life is a test. As we go about it, we have to redeem ourselves. A good servant of God would thus be distinguished from the one who indulges in all sorts of sin. It would have certainly been easy for God to make us all obedient to Him. Angels do not violate His orders. He could have made us in the same mold. But then we would not be human beings who are given the ability to choose and freedom to exercise their choice. It is God's will to create us in this fashion and to test us. His will is done all the time as He wishes. What is more is that revelation carries its own proof within it. Unlike human legislation, divine legislation caters for human needs as they are, not as they may appear at any particular time, and within narrow circumstances which apply only to limited situations. Human law makers can only address themselves to what appears to them to be beneficial to society. God's legislation is based on His own knowledge of His creation and what is beneficial to them. His knowledge is perfect. This is the reason that God's legislation seems to be "ahead" of the time when it is enacted. An example is the elevation of women's status caused by Islamic legislation. In the Arabian society which was the first to be addressed by the Qur'an there were no social or political needs to elevate the status of women above what it was. Women were content to be treated as they were. There was no movement demanding any reform. There was no industrial revolution to create any economic needs for women to be "liberated" or to go out to work. In short, there was no need for any change. Yet Islam has elevated women from a position of abject subordination to a position of equality with men in every respect, allowing for biological and social functions of each sex to be reflected in their relative roles in the life of the society as a whole. It is caused by God who knows what is best for both man and woman and what fulfills both their lives, serving at the same time the needs of each individual and the needs of society. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 03 January 2000[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
09/17/01 at 01:48:23
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 8 Believing in all prophets By Adil Salahi[/center] Every Muslim must believe in messengers sent by God, making no distinction between them. This means that to a Muslim all the prophets, sent by God as His messengers, have preached the same message and called for the same faith: to believe in God as the only deity in the universe who has created all and is the Lord of all. They also called on mankind to believe in the Day of Judgment, when all human beings and jinn will stand in front of God who will hold them answerable for all they have done on Earth during each one's lifetime. It is clear, then, that the messages of all prophets were basically the same. They differed only in legislative details, while in matters of faith they were consistently similar. It is perhaps important to define the terms prophet and messenger. A prophet is a person chosen by God to advocate the faith of the oneness of God. He receives revelations from God in the normal way, through the angel God has assigned to perform this task. A prophet realizes that the knowledge he thus receives is accurate and comes directly from God. A messenger, on the other hand, is a prophet who has been given a special message, like those contained in one of the books God has revealed, i.e. the Torah, the Psalms, the Gospel and the Qur'an. A message contains legislation for believers to follow, and implement. Thus every messenger is a prophet, but he is chosen to convey a message. A prophet who is not given a message of his own preaches the message of an earlier messenger, as in the case of the Israelite prophets who continued to preach the message of Moses. Twenty-five of God's prophets and messengers are mentioned by name in the Qur'an. There are others whom God has chosen not to mention to us. He has indicated, however, that every community or nation has been sent a messenger or a warner to make God's message known to them. This fits well with the overall Islamic concept of the role of the prophets and the provision of divine guidance to all people. This guidance could not have been provided so effectively in any other way. God has chosen the method of sending prophets and messengers because, aware of all things as He is, He knows that this is the method which is most suitable to guide man to the right path. Eighteen of the 25 messengers and prophets mentioned in the Qur'an are grouped in the following verses, though not in chronological order: "Such was the argument with which We furnished Abraham against his people. We do raise by degrees whom We will. Your Lord is truly wise, all-knowing. We gave him Isaac and Jacob; and We guided each of them as We had guided Noah aforetime. Out of his offspring, (We bestowed Prophethood upon) David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses and Aaron: for thus do We reward those who do good; and Zacharia, John, Jesus and Elias: every one of was of the righteous; and Ishmael, Elisha, Jonah and Lot. Every one of them did We favor above other people." (6: 83-86) The other seven are mentioned in different verses in the Qur'an. They are: Adam, Hood, Salih, Shuaib, Idris (or Enoch), Thulkifl and Muhammad. Muslims hold all these prophets and messengers in the highest esteem and feel indebted to them for having conveyed God's message to mankind. In the Islamic sense, a messenger is a human being who is sent normally to his community in the first instance. The fact that he is human cannot be over stressed. He eats and drinks, walks about in the streets, earns his living, gets married and begets children and he is generally subject to everything that may happen to any person. He may be ill at one time, healthy at another; he may feel strong one day, weak on another; he enjoys happy things and is pained by whatever is painful. He lives for a certain period of time and then he dies. God, however, has granted His messengers immunity from anything which causes other people to dislike their company. Moreover, no messenger can conduct any of the affairs of the universe, or can cause harm or benefit to others, or influence God's decisions or share God's hidden knowledge, except within the limits of what God grants to him as a special favor. Indeed, no prophet can have control over his own affairs or cause himself any good or harm, except with God's permission. Besides, all messengers were men. God has never sent a messenger to human beings who was an angel or a woman. Having said that, I must emphasize that all prophets are God's chosen people. They set the example for all mankind in every virtue: honesty, sincerity, truthfulness, devotion, purity of conduct, and freedom of all sins, grave or small. Some of them are mentioned in the Qur'an as having received special favors from God. Some were carefully educated and highly exalted. However, all of them are equal in having attained the zenith of spiritual exaltation and maintained a pure relationship with God. They are immune from sin. Hence, they set the example for the rest of mankind. Some prophets have been distinguished for exceptional merit. They are described in the Qur'an as having an abundance of strength and resolve. Those who come into this category are Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (peace be on them all). However, we should remember that this distinction does not belittle the rest of God's messengers. It simply emphasizes that those five were called upon to show extra strength and resolve. This is perhaps because each of them faced a much tougher task than the rest of God's messengers. The most distinguished of God's messengers is certainly Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). He is indeed the final Prophet who brought the line of prophethood to its completion. This, however, must not be taken as justification for any disrespect to any one of God's messengers. They must always be viewed with the highest degree of respect as people chosen by God Himself to be the teachers of mankind. Their work was complementary to one another. Prophet Muhammad compares his position in the line of prophethood to that of a final brick in a fine structure. "I and the prophets before me may be compared to a building built by a man who has made every effort to make his building perfect, with the exception of a single brick. Everyone who went into that house wonders at its perfection, except for that missing brick. I am that. With me the line of prophethood is made complete." All this goes to show that as Muslims we believe in all prophets, without distinction. Indeed, the Qur'an is emphatic in its requirement of its followers that they should believe in all prophets. None is excluded. Anyone who says that he believes in some prophets and excludes others is considered to be a non-believer. "Those who deny God and His messengers, endeavoring to make a distinction between God and His messengers, and who say, 'We believe in some and we deny others,' and want to pursue a path in between, are disbelievers indeed: for the disbelievers We have prepared a shameful suffering. But those who believe in God and His messengers and make no distinction between any of them, God will grant them, in time, their full reward." (4: 150-152) The same idea is further emphasized in another verse: "The Messenger, and the believers with him, believe in what has been bestowed on him from on high by his Lord. They all believe in God, His angels, His revelations, His messengers, making no distinction between any of His messengers; and they say: 'We have heard and we pay heed. Grant us Your forgiveness, our Lord. To You we shall all return'." (2: 285) [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 17 January 2000[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff

Re: Basics of Faith
Shiyam1976
09/18/01 at 00:01:12
Aalame Barzaq ( Life inside the Grave) Upon the authority of al-Bara’ ibn ‘Aazib who said: We went out with the the Prophet (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) to a burial of a man from the Ansar (original inhabitants of Madina) until we arrived at the grave, and he still had not been placed in the slot of the grave. Then the Messenger of Allah (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) sat down and we sat around him. You would have thought that birds were upon our heads from our silence, and in the hand of the Messenger of Allah (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) was a stick which he was poking the ground with. [Then he started looking at the sky and looking at the earth and looking up down three times]. Then he said to us: “Ask Allah for refuge from the torment of the grave”, he repeated this command two or three times. [Then he said O Allah I seek refuge in you from the torment of the grave][three times]. Then he said: “Verily, the believing servant, when leaving this life and journeying to the hereafter angels will descend upon him, their faces will be white as if they were suns, they will have with them a shroud (kafan) from the shroud of Paradise), and an embalmment (HanouT) from the embalmments of heaven. Then, they will sit within eye-shot of him. How Angels treats a Mumin( Believer’s Soul) Then the angel of death (peace be upon him) will come and sit at his head and will say “O you virtuous soul; come out to a forgiveness and a pleasure from your Lord “. So it will come out as a drop comes out of the mouth of a jug (with ease), then he will take it, not leaving it in his hand for longer that a blink of an eye until they (he and the other angels) have placed it in that shroud and that embalmment. And there will emanate from it a smell like that of the most sweet smelling musk on the face of the earth. Then they shall ascend with it, and they shall not pass with it by any group of angels but they will say: What is this good and sweet-smelling soul?. Then they shall say to them (he is) “such” the son of “such” choosing the best of the names he used to be called in this life. Until they reach the lowest sky, then they shall ask permission to enter, and they shall be granted entry, until they end at the seventh heaven sky, then Allah, exalted and high, shall say: “write the book of my servant in ‘illiyeen (1) [And what will expalin to you what Illiyeen is ‘illiyeen, there is a register fully inscribed to which bear witness those nearest to Allah (see 83:18)], and his book will be written in ‘illiyeen, and the shall be said “return him to the earth, for [I promised them] I have created them from it, and into it I shall return them, and from it I shall extract (resurrect) them a second time (20:55)”. So [he is returned to earth and] his soul is returned to his body [he said and he will hear the footsteps of his friends who buried him when they leave him]. Then two [severe] angels shall come and [terrify him and] sit him up next to them and shall ask him: “Who is your Lord?”. He shall reply “My Lord is Allah”. Then they shall ask him: “What is your religion?”. He shall answer them: “My religion is Islam”. Then they shall ask him “Who is this man who was sent among you?”. He will reply “He is the Messenger of Allah Then they shall ask him “What have you done?”. He shall reply: “I read the book of Allah, then I believed in it and accepted it”. [The angel will terrify him and ask him “who is your Lord?”, “what is your religion?” “who is your prophet?”, and this will be the last trial on earth for the believer, it is then when Allah says : “Allah will establish in strength those who believe with the word that stands firm in this world”, so he will answer my Lord is Allah, my religion is Islam and my Prophet is Mohammad salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam. Then a caller will call from the sky: “My slave has spoken the truth, so spread out for him from the heaven, and clothe him from the heaven, and open a door for him from the heaven (within his grave)”, so it’s goodness and its smell will come unto him, then his grave will be expanded for him as far as he can see. Then a man will come to him. His face will be handsome, and his clothes will be handsome, and his smell will be sweet. Then he shall say unto him: I bring you glad tidings of that which will make you happy [Rejoice with a pleasure of Allah and delights that endure]. This is the day that you were promised (46:16). Then he will say [and may Allah give you glad tiding] “who are you?, for your face is the face of someone who comes with good news”. He shall reply: “I am your good deeds, [by Allah, I did not know of you but that you were quick to the obedience of Allah and slow to His disobedience, so may Allah reward you good]”. Then he shall say: “My Lord bring the hour so that I might return to my family and my wealth” [it will be said to him “be tranquil”]. How Angels will treat a Fasiq(Sinner’s Soul) He (Mohammed, salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: { And the disbelieving [transgressor/wicked] servant}, if he is leaving this life and journeying to the hereafter then angels will descend upon him, their faces will be black, they have with them a coarse woolen fabric (sackcloth)[ made of fire]. Then they will sit within eye-shot of him. Then the angel of death will come and sit at his head and will say “O you wicked soul; come out to a anger from your Lord and a fury (from Him)”. So it will be distributed (spread out) throughout his body, then it will be ripped away as a skewer/spit is ripped out of damp cotton [and in its way out it will tear and cut the nerves and blood vessels] [and then he will be cursed by all the angels between the earth and the sky and by all the angels in the sky, and the gates of heaven are closed. There is no gate in the heaven but its people supplicate that the wicked soul shall not be ascended to their side], then he will take it (the soul), not leaving it in his hand for longer than a blink of an eye until they have placed it in that sackcloth. And there will emanate from it a stench like that of the most evil smelling corpse on the face of the earth. Then they shall ascend with it, and they shall not pass with it by a group of angels but they will say: What is this wicked soul?. Then they shall say to them (he is) “such” the son of “such” choosing the most hated of the names he used to be called in this life. Until they reach the lowest heaven(sky), then they shall ask permission to enter, and they shall not be granted entry. Then the Messenger of Allah (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) recited “The doors of the sky are not opened to them, nor shall they enter heaven until the camel passes through the eye of the needle” (7:40). Then Allah, exalted and high, shall say: “write the book of my servant in Sijjeen (2)(83:7) in the lowest earth”. [Then will be said “return my slave to the earth, for I promised them I have created them from it, and into it I shall return them, and from it I shall extract (resurrect) them a second time (20:55)”]. Then his soul shall be taken away [from the sky] with a mighty hurl [until it is cast into his body]. Then he (the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) read: “and those who associate partners with Allah, They are as one who falls from the sky then is snatched by the birds or is cast by the wind into a very low place (22:31)”. Then his soul will be returned into his body, [he (the prophet) said : verily he will hear the footsteps of his friends who buried him when they leave him]. Then two harsh severe and fearsome angels shall come and [terrify him and] sit him up and shall ask him: “Who is your Lord?”. He shall reply “Huh?, Huh (this is an expression of sorrow), I don’t know”. Then they shall ask him: “What is your religion?”. He shall answer them: “Huh?, Huh?, I don’t know”. Then they shall ask him “Who is this man who was sent among you?”. He will reply “Huh?, Huh?, I don’t know [I heard people saying that!]”. He (the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said “And then will be said to him don’t ever know and don’t ever recite!”]. Then a caller will call from the sky: “My slave has spoken falsely, so spread out for him from the hell fire, and open a door for him from the hell fire (within his grave)”, so its heat and hot wind will come unto him, then his grave will be contracted upon him until his limbs are caught up among one another. Then a man will come to him. His face will be ugly, and his clothes will be ugly, and his smell will be vile. Then he shall say unto him: I bring you tidings of that which will harm you. This is the day that you were promised (70:44). Then he will say [and you, may Allah give you bad tiding] “who are you?, for your face is the face of someone who comes with evil”. He shall reply: “I am your evil deeds [by Allah, I did not know of you but that you were quick to the disobedience of Allah and slow to His obedience, so may Allah reward you bad, and then will be assigned to him a blind, deaf and mute person who holds in his hand a hammer, if a mountain is hit with it, it would disintegrate, and he will beat him with it until he becomes dust, and then Allah will render him to his initial form, and he will beat him again, and he (the wicked) will cry of sorrow and pain a cry that will be heard by all creatures except humans and jinn, and a door of hell will be opened unto him within his grave and will spread out for him sheets of hell fire]”. Then he shall say: “My Lord do not bring the hour”. This hadith is narrated by Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, at-Tayalisi, and al-Hakim who said it is according to the standards of Bukhari and Muslim. This text is the text of Ahmad, all text between brackets is from the other narrators and other narrations of Ahmad. Notes (1)      ‘illiyin: comes from the root word of ‘uluww which means highness. It is a place in the (highest) seventh sky where the souls of the believers are gathered (Ibn ‘Abbas), it also carries the meaning of a very high and wide place (Ibn Kathir). (2)      Sijjin: comes from the root word of sijn which means narrowness. It is a place in the (lowest) seventh earth where the souls of the unbelievers are gathered (Ibn ‘Abbas), it also carries the meaning of a very low and narrow (Ibn Kathir). Reading the previous hadith one may think that the punishment of the grave is reserved only for those who did not believe in Allah or associated with him someone else in worship, lordship, creation or in his names and attributes. It is not the case! the following authentic hadith tells us more! so let us read it carefully Ibn Abbas (Radiya Allahu ‘anhuma) says that the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, once, while passing by two graves, remarked : The inmates of these two graves are being tortured not for any serious sins, but in fact they are serious sins. One of them used to carry tales [gosseping] (nameemah) and the other used not to yastatir Wassalaam

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
09/18/01 at 01:23:01
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 9 To believe in what we cannot perceive By Adil Salahi[/center] Over the last few days I have tackled some of the basic principles of the Islamic faith. I have outlined the Islamic concept of God, the Supreme Being, who has created the universe and everything in it, pointing out His attributes and the qualities which we should associate with Him. I also tackled the concept of fate and pre-destination, relating it to the idea of compulsion and choice in human life. I attempted to dispel the misconception that predestination means that man has no choice over what he does in this life. This, in turn, relates to the fundamental concept of resurrection after death, reckoning and judgment, reward and punishment, heaven and hell. However, I have delayed the discussion of these points for a while, intending to discuss them over the next few days. I also discussed the Islamic view of the sacred books and scriptures, other than the Qur'an, and I explained that Muslims believe in the messages God had vouchsafed to earlier nations and believe in all prophets and messengers. Continuing with the subject of Islamic beliefs I shall try to explain what the Muslims mean when they say that they believe in ghaib, or that which they cannot actually perceive. The Qur'an starts with a short Surah entitled Al-Fatihah, or "The Opening". This is followed by the longest Surah, carrying the title, Al-Baqarah, or "The Cow", which starts with classifying mankind into three groups: believers, nonbelievers and hypocrites. The Surah outlines in four short verses the main characteristics of the believers, and follows them with two verses describing the nonbelievers before it gives a long passage describing the hypocrites. What is important to us here is the fact that the first quality of the believers who are described here as God-fearing is that they believe in ghaib. This should be enough to emphasize the importance of the concept of ghaib and believing in it in the Islamic faith. This article aims at explaining this, starting with an attempt to define what is meant by believing in ghaib. The Qur'an divides all existence into two worlds: the world of ghaib and the world of shahadah. One of God's attributes, which occurs frequently in the Qur'an, is that He knows both worlds in their minutest details. The word, "shahadah", means that which is witnessed. This is not confined to what is seen only. It also includes everything which is tangible, or perceived with any of our senses in such a way as to make us absolutely certain of its existence. The world of ghaib, on the other hand, includes all that exists beyond the world of shahadah. In other words, it is the world which includes things which we feel to exist but cannot make certain of their existence with merely using our ordinary senses. Most translators of the Qur'an render the term ghaib as, "the unseen". When they render the first verse of the Surah, Al-Baqarah, which includes the first description of the believers, they describe the believers or the God-fearing as those who believe "in the unseen". Such a translation is highly inadequate. Much of what belongs to the world of shahadah may not be seen. We believe that somebody is in the room next door to us, despite the fact that we do not see him. Our belief may be based on the fact that we overhear sounds which indicate to us the presence of that person. We believe in the existence of pain although we do not see it. Nobody has ever seen tiredness although no one denies its existence. Hence, to confine the world of ghaib to that which is unseen is to render too narrowly a meaning which is intended to be very broad. Mr. Muhammad Asad who has produced one of the latest translations of the Qur'an tried to overcome the inadequacy of this rendering by using the phrase, "that which lies beyond the reach of human perception", for the Arabic term ghaib. Apart from the difficulties which attend using such a long phrase to substitute a single Arabic term, Mr Asad's effort, commendable as it is, goes a little too far in explaining the meaning of the term. Among what belongs to the realm of ghaib there are certain things which we feel to exist, although we may be unable to define their nature. One prime example is the spirit. No one denies the existence of the human spirit. Indeed, we "feel" that there is something within us without which we cannot live and to which we refer by the term, "spirit". There is no denial that we do not know the true nature of the human spirit. Yet, we cannot state that its existence is beyond the reach of human perception. Perhaps the sense of the word ghaib is best rendered as "the metaphysical world". However, we have to deprive the English term of its philosophical overtones, acquired over the ages. Needless to say, to believe in what belongs to the realm of shahadah, or the physical and tangible world, is something common to all people. Even animals sense its existence. Hence, no one can claim any distinction for believing in it since such a belief is part of primary knowledge. Those who believe in the metaphysical world, however, believe in what they do not see. Their grounds for so believing is their acceptance of what they have been told. This is indeed the mark of the God-fearing, and for this reason God has made it their first characteristic. How can we believe in ghaib or the metaphysical when God has not given us the senses with which to perceive it? The late Sheikh Ali At-Tantawi, a leading contemporary scholar, explains this in his scholarly work, The Islamic Faith: A General Introduction, (to be published shortly in English). It is useful to quote his answer to our question: "Had we been left to our own devices relying only on our senses and reason, we would have remained ignorant of the metaphysical world. By God's wisdom and grace, however, we have not been left totally unable to conceive it. God has told us what we need to know of the metaphysical world. Whatever we are told does not come from within us, but from without. It is nothing like an informed guess, a spiritual inspiration, a thought flashing in our minds, or a logical deduction. Human ability has nothing to do with it. It comes from without man in one of three methods: God may give this information to man by inspiration, or in a dream, or in some other form over which man has no control whatsoever, and which he cannot achieve through his efforts. He would then perceive of what he has been given and express it. A person may hear a voice of someone whom he does not see but he understands exactly what he has been told. More commonly, God may send one of His noble creatures who obey Him in whatever He bids them, whose nature is unknown to us, the angels, to a human being whom God has chosen. The angel would then communicate God's message to that person and give him God's command to convey this message to mankind. These are the three methods which cannot admit of a fourth: 'It is not for any human being to be spoken to directly by God except through inspiration, or from beyond a screen, or that He may send a messenger to reveal to him, by His permission, what He wills.' (42:51) What is mentioned in the Qur'an relating to the realm of the metaphysical, or imperceptible, or ghaib, must be accepted without doubt by every Muslim.  He who does not believe in it does not belong to Islam. If something related to this world is mentioned in the Prophet's traditions or the Sunnah, it must also be firmly held by the believers. Those who reject it, however, are not considered unbelievers; they are considered to be disobedient. The matters which we are told about in the Qur'an and the Sunnah as belonging to the realm of metaphysical or imperceptible and constitute a requirement of faith, (i.e. we are non-Muslim if we reject them), are: the angels, the jinn, the earlier scriptures and prophets, the Day of Judgment, the reckoning on that day, reward and punishment after it, predestination as well as whatever the Qur'an states about the creation of the heavens and the Earth, and the creation of man and whatever else is included in the Qur'an. Sheikh Ali At-Tantawi divides the realm of ghaib, or the metaphysical, into three sub-divisions, to all of which the same title applies: That which was witnessed by other people, though we did not witness it ourselves. An example of this is the story of Joseph which God has termed as ghaib because Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his people did not witness, hear or see its events. The children of Jacob, i.e. Joseph and his brothers, lived through it and witnessed all its events. That which mankind did not witness, although they could have done had they been living in earlier times. In this division we include all that took place on earth prior to human existence, what happened to creatures that lived on Earth before man, the information about the creation of Adam and the beginning of human existence. None of this man knew except through revelations. That which cannot be perceived by human senses, or judged by the human mind, or cannot be conceived with human imagination. In this division we include God's own attributes, His creation which He has chosen not to make known to us, such as the angels, the jinn and Satans, the events which will take place on the Day of Judgment and what follows it of reckoning, reward and punishment. We have to believe in all this if our claim to be Muslims is not to be called into question. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 24 January 2000[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
09/19/01 at 03:18:19
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 10 Believing in angels By Adil Salahi[/center] When we enumerate the essential beliefs of Muslims we find that believing in the angels is of paramount importance after believing in God Himself. The angels are mentioned in several verses in the Qur'an, a fact which necessitates that no Muslim can deny their existence. Needless to say, what the Qur'an states must be firmly held as fact by all Muslims. Whoever denies anything that is mentioned in the Qur'an takes himself outside the religion of Islam. We will explain here the qualities of the angels as given in the Qur'an and by the Prophet so that the Islamic concept of the angels is clearly formulated. From what God tells us in the Qur'an we know that the angels were created before the creation of man. God has told them of His intention to create man: "When your Lord said to the angels, 'I am placing on Earth a vicegerent.' They replied, 'Will you place on it such as would spread corruption and shed blood, whereas we celebrate Your praises and extol Your holiness'?" (2: 30) This verse indicates that the purpose of their creation is to comply with God's orders whatever He bids them to do. Indeed, they cannot disobey Him. The Qur'an states: "They do not disobey God whatever He bids them, and they do whatever they are bid." (66: 6) The angels live in heaven. This is indicated by the fact that they "come down" to earth when they receive God's orders to do so. The Prophet asked Gabriel: "What prevents you from visiting us more often?" The answer was not given by Gabriel himself, but was given in the following Qur'anic verse which was revealed later: "We come down only when your Lord commands us to do so." (19: 64) It seems that man has a higher status than the angels. This is apparent from what we are told in the Qur'an about Adam being taught all names before the angels were asked about them. When they indicated their ignorance they were ordered to prostrate themselves to Adam as a sign of salute: "He taught Adam the names of all things and then turned to the angels and said, 'Give Me the names of these things if you are truthful.' They said, 'Glory be to You, we only know what You have taught us, and You are All-Knowing, Wise.' He said, 'Adam! Tell them their names.' And when he told them their names, He (i.e. God) said, 'Have I not said to you that I know the secrets of what is in the heavens and the Earth and what you reveal and conceal?' We then said to the angels, 'Prostrate yourselves before Adam,' They all prostrated themselves except Iblis who refused, showed impertinence and was one of the disbelievers'." (2: 31-34) Moreover, the angels' obedience to God is part of their nature. They do not have to resist any temptation to disobey Him. There is no conflict within them between what they desire and what God tells them to do. Their natural desire is to obey God. Hence any human being who succeeds in keeping to the right path, complying with God's orders as best as he or she can, resisting all temptations to disobey Him seems to be better than the angels. Angels may also take different shapes, and acquire sometimes a physical form, or perhaps appear like human beings. We are told in the Qur'an that Mary was given the news that she was to beget a son by an angel who "appeared to her like a perfect human being." (19: 17) The same happened with Abraham's guests who were angels in the form of human beings. Angels also have grades and classes. The only physical description that occurs in the Qur'an of the angels is that they have wings which vary in number: some of them have two wings, others have three and some have four. Some may even have more than that. Different angels are given different tasks. We know that Gabriel is the one who carries God's revelations to His messengers. He is described in the Qur'an as being honest and being obeyed by other angels. We know that a certain angel whose name is not given in the Qur'an or in the statements made by the Prophet is assigned the task of causing death to mankind by separating their spirits from their bodies. A number of angels carry God's Throne. Some angels have the task of serving the inhabitants of heaven and attending to their wishes. Others inflict God's punishment on those who are assigned to hell. Some angels take people forward on the Day of Judgment in order to attend the reckoning of their deeds and some testify for or against human beings on the Day of Judgment. We are told in the Qur'an that angels attend the battles the believers fight. In the first major battle fought by the Prophet against the non-believers, that is, the Battle of Badr, the angels actually took part in the fighting in support of the Muslims. In later battles, their task was confined to encouragement and stiffening the position of the Muslims without actually fighting. Their task in relation to the believers also includes that they pray for the believers, ask God's forgiveness for them and implore God to save them from sin. They also attend the morning prayers with the believers. Angels do not marry or procreate, and they cannot be classified as male and female. These are the main qualities of the angels, as related in the Qur'an. The traditions of the Prophet speak of the angels in greater detail, but they are largely confined to what we have already outlined. Whatever information has been given in the Qur'an must be accepted without question, whether it relates to angels or any one else. As we have said earlier, to believe in the angels is one of the essentials of the Islamic faith: "The Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him by his Lord, and so do the believers. Each one of them believes in God, His angels, His Books, and His Messengers."(2: 285) When we believe in the angels we can feel God's greatness to be more real. We remember their limitless number and that they are always available to carry out God's commands whatever they are. They seem to be endowed with great powers which enable them to carry out their tasks. The angels are God's soldiers, who maintain a standard of absolute discipline. When we think of this we are bound to feel awe in our hearts. But we need only to remember that the angels pray for the believers and ask God's forgiveness for them. This is bound to make us feel God's mercy as we should feel it: great, limitless, ever present. When we think of the angels we are much more reluctant to fall in sin. We know that they record whatever we do and say. Hence, we do not want witnesses to testify to our misdeeds. On the other hand, when we are in a battle, fighting for the cause of Islam, we are willing to fight harder, and to show our courage because we know that the angels are supporting us, by God's order. When we think of the angels, we always feel that we want to be like them, always obedient, always running away from sin. This is bound to elevate us, and to help us maintain a high standard of morality and a keen interest in doing good. In short, believing in the angels is of immense help to us in our efforts to do as God wants us to do. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 31 January 2000[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
09/20/01 at 01:23:40
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 11 God's revealed messages By Adil Salahi[/center] The need for divine revelations is derived, in the Islamic sense, from the fact that man, as God's chosen creature, has been entrusted with the task of building the Earth. Since man cannot, on his own, know all the elements and forces that affect his life on Earth, and since his mind and his knowledge have been confined to the limits which he needs in order to fulfill his task, then he needs to be guided on how to discharge his responsibility. He needs to be told which things are useful to him and which are not. It should be pointed out to him which practices to adopt and which to leave out. Unless he receives such guidance, then he can rightly complain that he has not been well equipped for his task. It is not in God's nature to assign tasks to His creation without equipping them fully for their assignments. Man and his task are no exceptions. Prophets and revelations must be viewed in this context. God has sent a succession of prophets and messengers to guide mankind along the road which enables him to realize the purpose of his existence. He gave these prophets and messengers divine revelations which contained His guidance. With such guidance available to all, no excuse remains for anyone to go astray. Those who stray do so at their own peril. They do not only suffer the consequences of their own errors when they choose the wrong way, but they also risk God's punishment in the hereafter. Indeed, His punishment is most severe to those who deliberately violate His law and go against His guidance. In the Qur'an, God tells us the names of twenty-five of His messengers and prophets. He also says that there were others about whom He has chosen not to tell us. Obviously, their history is of no relevance to the fulfillment of the task He has assigned to us. Otherwise, He would have told us about them. Of those who are mentioned in the Qur'an, some accounts are given, varying in length and detail. It is abundantly clear, however, from these accounts that all the prophets preached the same faith. All called on people to believe in the oneness of God and in the Day of Judgment. At no time did God send a prophet or a messenger with a message which did not have this basic belief in the oneness of God as its central concept. Indeed, it cannot be visualized that God would accept from any community any faith which contradicts this basic principle. Differences between these messages were confined to detailed legislation. These differences were made necessary by the degree of development man has achieved every time a new message was given. The messages were contained in divine revelations which were vouchsafed to different prophets. Some prophets did receive revelations contained in books while others were given the task of reviving previous messages and endorsing them. Of the books revealed to earlier prophets, the Qur'an makes specific mention of the Torah, or the Old Testament, the Bible, or the New Testament, the Psalms which were revealed to Prophet David as well as the Scriptures given to Abraham. It goes without saying that the Qur'an is the last of the divine books to be revealed, and as such, contains the final message from God to man. To believe in all these books and revelations is an essential requirement of every Muslim, if he wants to follow the example of our Prophet, Muhammad (peace be upon Him). If one does not believe in all these books then his faith, as a Muslim, is deficient. In order to be a true Muslim, a person must believe "in God, His angels, books, messengers, the Day of Judgment, as well as pre-destination." God tells us in the Qur'an that the Torah, or the Old Testament, revealed to Moses, contains guidance which enlightens peoples' hearts, and He praises it in the following terms: "We have certainly given Moses and Aaron the criterion (to distinguish between right and wrong) and a light and an admonition for the God-fearing." (21: 48) It is, however, commonly agreed that the Torah which was revealed to Moses (peace be upon Him) is no longer in existence. The one which we have today has been written by several writers in different times. It has been subject to distortion. The late scholar, Muhammad Fareed Wagdi says: "One tangible evidence of such distortion is the fact that the version of the Torah recognized by the Christians is different from the version recognized by the Jews." The Qur'an states that such distortion has taken place and puts the blame on the Jews for distorting the word of God: "Do you, then, hope that they (referring to the Jews) will accept your message when some of them used to listen to the word of God then, having well understood it, they used to pervert it wittingly?" Hence, only a portion of the Torah, as revealed by God, remains today in the hands of the Jews. Perhaps the most important evidence of the distortion that has crept into the Torah is the fact that it speaks of God in impudent terms which are totally lacking in respect and propriety. Thus, we read in Genesis that the Lord was sad and felt sorry that He has made man. It cannot be said of God that He was sad or that He regretted doing something. How can that be, when He knows everything long before its occurrence. Another example of this distortion are the accusations that are made against different prophets. Thus we read that Abraham was guilty of lying, Lot committed incest with his two daughters, Aaron called on the Israelites to worship the calf, David committed adultery, and Solomon worshipped idols in order to please his wife. All these accusations are false fabrications which must be utterly dismissed by every Muslim without a moment's hesitation. All prophets were people of great integrity, observed the highest standard of moral conduct and set a fine example for their followers in the correct observance of God's laws. The revelations vouchsafed to Jesus (peace be on Him), contained in the Bible, is again the word of God, given as guidance to mankind. It has been, however, subject to distortion as well. What we have today of the Bible are the four gospels which were selected to be the standard gospels. There were some seventy gospels at the time when the choice was made. These gospels, however, are more or less biographies of Jesus (peace be upon Him). They carry the names of their authors. Christians admit that the Christian faith of today upholds the views of St. Paul to the exclusion of those of Jesus' disciples. A copy of the gospel of Barnabas was found in the library of a French prince in Paris. This gospel differs from the other four considerably, in matters of faith. While it is certainly not recognized by Christians, we cannot dismiss lightly the fact that it has survived or its differences with the other four gospels. The Qur'an is, as said earlier, God's final book revealed to man. It contains the total sum of God's commandments and endorses the basic principles contained in earlier revelations, such as the Old and New Testaments. It states the fundamentals of true faith which is acceptable to God, confirming all that is true in earlier revelations and outlining the distortion that has crept into them. God has guaranteed the preservation of the Qur'an intact, in its original and only form, for the rest of time. Thus, the Qur'an remains forever the source of divine guidance which points out to man the way to earn the pleasure of God and to be admitted into heaven on the Day of Judgment. It cannot be envisaged that science will ever establish any fact which contradicts the Qur'an. The universe is created by God and the Qur'an is His word. God's word and work can never be at variance. Since God wants His word to spread and to be well understood by people, studied and memorized by His servants, He has made the Qur'an easy to understand, implement and remember. We, therefore, find that a large number of Muslim men, women, and children memorize it from cover to cover without great difficulty. Indeed, this is not confined to Arabs, who speak the language of the Qur'an; we find people who memorize the whole of the Qur'an among all nationalities, while they cannot speak a sentence of Arabic. Finally, since the Qur'an is the last divine message, and since it has been guaranteed by God to be preserved intact, then it is our only source of guidance for the fulfillment of our task as heirs of the Earth who are charged with building it. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 07 February 2000[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
09/22/01 at 02:49:20
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 12 God's other creatures By Adil Salahi[/center] God tells us in the Qur'an that He has created other beings whom we are unable to see in their original form. These are the jinn. There is nothing strange in our inability to see the jinn, since there are numerous things which we cannot see, such as the angels, ultra violet and infra red rays of light, the electric current, sound waves and frequency. While believing in the jinn is not one of the essentials of faith like believing in the angels, the fact that they have been mentioned in the Qur'an makes believing in their existence obligatory for every Muslim. To deny their existence is to deny a part of the Qur'an. As such, it is the same as denying Islam as a whole. Muslims believe that the Qur'an is revealed by God. This applies to every word and verse in it. Hence, we cannot accept parts of it and reject other parts. We either believe in the Qur'an as a whole, accepting that every word of it is revealed from on high to the Prophet who has conveyed it to us as it has been revealed to him, without any change or distortion, or else, we do not believe in the Qur'an. It is useless for any one to say: "I believe in everything that is in the Qur'an except for this or that idea." No matter how secondary such an idea may be, any person who says that has denied the Qur'an as a whole, and as such, has denied Islam. Hence, our belief that the jinn exist is derived from the fact that they are mentioned in the Qur'an. What the Qur'an tells us about the jinn is that they have been created from fire. That does not mean that they remain in their original form, and that they are fire which burns whatever it comes in contact with. It is highly probable that they were transformed into some other nature in the same way as human beings were transformed from their original form of clay into what they are now. There is no limit to what God can do with His creation, transforming them from one form to another, and raising a full human being from a cell fertilized with a minute sperm. We need only to look at the origins of certain aspects of God's creation in order to understand this fully. A small seed which is planted inside the Earth shoots up and becomes a tree with flowers, leaves and fruit. We are also told that they can see us while we do not see them. Again, this is not difficult to imagine because God can give any of His creatures powers which He does not give to others. Moreover, they were created before the creation of man. All this is mentioned in the Qur'an, which also specifies that the jinn are also required to believe God, in the same way as we are. They will be held to account on the Day of Judgment, when they will be either rewarded or punished, according to their deeds, in the same way as this applies to mankind. God states in the Qur'an: "I have created the jinn and men only to worship Me." (51: 56) He also says: "The word of your Lord shall be fulfilled: 'I will fill the pit of Hell with both jinn and men'." (111: 119) Since they are required to believe in God, and are held to account, it follows that they receive messages. We are told in the Qur'an that Muhammad's message has been conveyed to them, as was the message of Moses. The Qur'an tells us: "We sent to you, (Muhammad) a band of jinn who, when they came and listened to the Qur'an, said to each other, 'Hearken!' As soon as it was ended they betook themselves to their people and gave them warning. 'Our people,' they said, 'we have just been listening to a scripture revealed since the time of Moses, confirming previous scriptures and guiding to the truth and to a straight path. Our people, answer the call of God's summoner and believe in him. He will forgive you your sins and deliver you from a woeful punishment. Those that give no heed to God's summoner shall not escape His judgment on this Earth, nor shall any one protect them besides Him. They are in gross error." (46: 29-32) Obviously, since they are given this assignment and are held to account, it follows that some of them are believers and some are not. In the Surah entitled, "The Jinn", the Qur'an quotes them as saying: "Some of us are righteous, while others are not; we follow divergent ways." (72: 11) They are also quoted as saying: "Some of us are Muslims and some are wrongdoers. Those that embrace Islam pursue the right path; but those that do wrong shall become the fuel of Hell." (72: 13-15) God has also challenged them to invent anything similar to the Qur'an, in the same way as He challenged mankind. The challenge still stands. Contrary to people's misconceptions, the jinn are not privy to God's knowledge. They have no knowledge of what God has chosen to keep to Himself, i.e. ghaib, which we have explained in an earlier article. We also know that God had made them subservient to Solomon, and charged them with doing whatever he bid them. The unbelievers among the jinn are Satans whose ancient father was Iblis. Although some people claim that Iblis was originally an angel, the Qur'an states that he was one of the jinn. Moreover, angels do not disobey God, while Iblis did. He is also stated to have been created from fire, as the jinn are. Satan is man's enemy number one. He was the one who caused Adam, the father of all mankind, to fall from heaven. Satan continues to work as hard as he can to prevent Adam's offspring from returning to heaven, by seducing them and tempting them to indulge in sin. Those who listen to Satan are rebuked in the Qur'an for listening to their fiercest enemy. From the Qur'anic text we also deduce that Satan procreates and has offspring who, like him, try to seduce people into following their own bidding in preference to God's command. God has given Satan the ability to tempt and seduce us, but He has given him no overwhelming power against us which we cannot repel. Nor did He give him the ability to cause us any benefit or any harm. All he is given is the ability to scheme against us. His scheming is described in the Qur'an as "weak." Satan's work is to whisper to men, tempt them and present to them as desirable things that are harmful to them. His program is a purely evil one. He encourages discord and indecency. His first weapon against Adam and Eve was to tempt them out of their clothes. Nudity, revealing clothes and temptation remain Satan's most effective weapons. We are warned against this, and warned that we must not listen to Satan's disciples as they try to raise doubts in our minds and occupy us with futile arguments which benefit us nothing. The Qur'an also makes it clear that hard as Satan tries to persuade us to abandon the values of Islam, and much as he schemes against us to do so, he will let his followers down when matters come to a head. We read in the Qur'an: "When Satan has ordered man to disbelieve and man has done his bidding, he says to him: 'I here and now disown you. I fear God, the Lord of all the worlds'." (59: 16) There is no doubt that the most effective weapon we can use against Satan is to remain always conscious of God and to fear Him. Once this is present in our minds, Satan can have little to do with us. We must also remember that Satan has assistants from among men. They are those who continue to call us to abandon the principles and values of Islam, encourage us to remove the idea of sin from our minds and indulge in promiscuous pleasure. Nothing is more devastating of the fabric of any nation than wanton promiscuity. Nothing can serve Satan's purpose as effectively as that. Fear of God, on the other hand, is, the effective answer. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 14 February 2000[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
09/28/01 at 00:30:53
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 13 Death and the life to come By Adil Salahi[/center] Death is bound to come. This is a fact which no one doubts or questions. People may have relatively long or short lives but they cannot last forever. Their lives are always terminated by death. This fact should make all people mindful of death, and prepare for it. Yet people's attitudes differ considerably with regard to death. There are those who live for the present. They think that yesterday which has just departed belongs to the ancient past, and that tomorrow which is knocking on the door is still too far away and that it will never come. Hence, they are aware only of the present moment. Another kind of people take the attitude which is associated with the Persian poet, Umar Al-Khayyam, who acknowledges that death is a certainty but life is too short to be spent in anything other than love, pleasure and drunkenness. A third type of people mention death very often and emphasize that life is short, but they are rarely concerned with what comes after death. For them, death is the end of everything. There are finally those people who look at death as a beginning. To them, it is no more than a period of deep sleep after which people awake to start a new life which is everlasting, and characterized by either perpetual pleasure and happiness or perpetual misery and suffering. What distinguishes this last group of people from the other three, who perhaps form the majority of people, is that those who believe in a second life are   believers. It is their faith which tells them that this life cannot be the end of everything. After all, there are so many crimes in this life which go unpunished. There is so much injustice which remains uncorrected, imbalance going ever on the increase. This state of affairs, if it is to be final, is unworthy of God, the Most Just of judges. Hence, the belief in resurrection and the Day of Judgment, which comes second in importance only to the belief in God Himself. There is nothing peculiar about believing in a second life which comes after death. We have only to look at man's life to recognize that it is divided into stages. For us, life begins when conception takes place. Imagine the foetus living in the womb, with its head over its legs, pressed into something which looks like a ball. Had the foetus in this state been able to think, it would have thought that the whole world does not go beyond the limited space of its mother's tummy. If it had a choice, it would not have left that place. It would have considered birth as an end of life, as it had known it, when it is in fact a beginning and a transfer into a much greater world which is our present world. Similarly, when we die, death is nothing more than a transfer from this narrow world of ours to a much greater world, and from our present, temporary life to a new life that is permanent and everlasting. It is part of human nature to think that death is still too far away. We may attend a funeral and yet think that what has happened to the deceased person will not happen to us, or at least will not happen for a very long time. We pass by a cemetery and think that our own trip to it is far from due. The believers, however, are different because they always remember that they are going to die and they always prepare themselves for death. This preparation takes the form of seeking God's forgiveness and turning to Him in repentance. Every morning and every evening a believer questions himself about what he has done in his day. He praises God for the good things that he has done, and seeks His forgiveness for his errors. He remembers that he will be resurrected to face the reckoning. He fears the suffering in the life to come, and nurtures the hope of God's forgiveness and reward. He is patient when he meets with adversity and he is thankful when he is happy. He prays regularly and does good for no reason except seeking God's reward. A Muslim is always mindful of the Day of Judgment. As stated earlier, belief in the Day of Judgment comes only second in importance to the belief in God. Faith in God is rarely mentioned in the Qur'an without being followed immediately by stressing also the importance of believing in the Day of Judgment. This is due to the profound effect such a belief leaves on man's conduct and behavior. It transforms this life into a test the outcome of which is of paramount importance to man. We have only to watch closely a true believer to realize how his life is affected by his belief in the Day of Judgment. If something forbidden tempts him, he will immediately think of the suffering of the Day of Judgment should he yield to temptation. The temptation is thus countered by the prospect of suffering much greater pain. That helps the believer to resist the temptation. On the other hand, if he is called upon to perform a difficult task, he hastens to do it, despite its difficulty, hoping to be rewarded for it by God on the Day of Judgment. He knows that God rewards generously everything that is done for His sake. Thus the two parallel lines of fear and hope operate on man for his own ultimate benefit. The outcome is good for the person himself, for his family and for his community. People always ask: When is the Day of Judgment? The Qur'an states clearly that the answer is known only to God. No creature has been given this information. It also states that it comes all of a sudden and that it is very near. It is indeed bound to come "in a glance, or even sooner." We are told in the Qur'an that it is preceded by certain events which are very strange. One of these is that a walking animal is raised from the Earth which speaks to people. Although we cannot conceive how this can happen, yet it is true, since it is mentioned in the Qur'an. God has chosen not to give us any more details about this animal and its description. Therefore, we accept it without involving ourselves into any argument about its description. Such an argument is inevitably futile. The Prophet has indicated in various traditions some of the things that take place close to the Hour which signals the Day of Judgment. Some of these are that knowledge becomes scarce, ignorance widespread, social vices, such as drunkenness and adultery, become common, men become few while the number of women increases, honesty becomes scarce and social standards are turned upside down. All these are followed by the emergence of someone described as the Cunning Deceiver who is overpowering, and who turns people away from faith. He is followed by the second coming of Jesus Christ who endorses the message of Muhammad, the last of all Prophets. From the Qur'anic verses which mention the Hour that signals the Day of Judgment we deduce that it starts with a great earthquake, unlike anything that people had ever experienced. Presumably, and God knows best, this happens when human life is still going on. All people are terrified, panic stricken, and at a total loss. Everyone is so bewildered that loving, caring mothers are no longer aware of their young babies. Pregnant women abort because of fear and all people seem to be drunk. The Qur'an, however, states that "they are not drunk, but God's scourge is much too severe." (22: 1) These events precede the Day of Judgment. We will continue with this topic, God willing. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 21 February 2000[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
09/29/01 at 03:12:35
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 14 Coming back to life By Adil Salahi[/center] Yesterday we carried an article entitled, "Death and the Life to Come," in which we outlined people's different attitudes toward death and singled out the attitude of Muslims in particular and those who believe in God generally. To such people, death is not the end of life, it is rather the beginning of a new stage of life. We mentioned that believers find nothing extraordinary in the idea of resurrection and a second life. If some people find it difficult to understand how a person is brought back to life when his body has perished and is no longer traceable, they need only to think of the origins from which human beings are brought into existence: the microscopic cell of the female fertilized by a minute sperm of the male. If God could create intelligent and able human beings from such a minute origin, He can easily recreate the same person from the elements that remain after his death. We also made it clear that, in the Islamic concept, it is inconsistent with God's justice, which is absolute and very real, that injustice which abounds in our world should remain uncorrected. We also spoke about the profound effect on man's conduct and behavior which results from believing in the Day of Judgment. We referred to the signs which, we are told, signal the approach of the end of human life on this earth, prior to the Day of Judgment. On the Day of Judgment all human beings who would have ever lived on this planet of ours will be resurrected at the same time. Each will come alive in the same condition he or she was in at the time of their death. As they are resurrected, people would believe that they remained unconscious only for a short period, a matter of a few hours. For this reason, we are taught to pray God to make our end a good one. Since people tend to think that they have been awoken after a few hours of sleep, they will argue with each other. Those who lived devoid of faith assert that no more than an hour or so had passed since they lost consciousness. The believers, on the other hand, tell them they have been dead all along until the Day of Resurrection has arrived. This is made clear inverse 56 of Surah 30. Most people think that they are still in this life. However, they find themselves in a very difficult situation. All bonds between them are severed. If any one sees his closest friend, he does not care to ask about him and how he is. Nobody cares for anyone other than himself. Indeed, people run away from their closest relatives: their brothers, sisters, mother, father and even their spouses and children. Every one is prepared to sacrifice all one's relatives in order to save oneself, if such a sacrifice would only be accepted. They are left in this state, scrambling over one another, for a length of time known only to God. Then they are gathered together in one place. All human beings, beginning with Adam right down to the last human being who breathed on Earth, those who died in their beds, drowned in the sea, or killed in a plane crash, and those who were eaten by animals or cannibals or were cremated before their remains were scattered in the air from an aeroplane. All of them are brought back to life by the One who created them the first time. They are gathered together in one place along with God's other creatures such as the jinn, Satans and beasts. They all respond to God's call when He calls them to come forward. The unbelievers declare that the day is an extremely difficult one. God then issues His orders and hell is made to be seen by all people from a distance. He then questions mankind and asks them: "Children of Adam, did I not charge you never to worship Satan, your sworn enemy, but to worship Me alone? Surely that was the right path. Yet he has led many of you astray. Had you no sense? This is the hell with which you have been threatened." (36: 60-63) Another order from God results in a division of mankind. The wicked are separated from the believers. Every one is known by his or her actions in life. And every single one of the wicked wishes that he or she had not been a human being. Each one would say: "Would that I were dust!" (78: 40) In hell, the unbelievers are grouped together with those whom they worshiped and to whom they ascribed divinity. Thus, all false gods, be they of the jinn, Satans, statues or symbols, find themselves together with the gods of the Romans, the Greek, the Egyptians and the unbelievers of the Arabs. Both those false gods and those who worshiped them will realize that they are useless and powerless. God tells the unbelievers to seek the help of their gods, the partners they alleged to have influence with Him, but these false gods do not respond to the appeals of their worshipers. The common people who followed the bidding of their leaders and rulers try to seek their help. They say to them: "We were your followers. Can you spare us any portion of God's vengeance?" (14: 21) They declare that they are ujable to do anything for their followers, or even for themselves. They disassociate themselves from those who followed them and tell them they were responsible for their own actions. Thus, all stand humble, subdued. No power, no leadership, no vainglory. Every one who was worshiped, or followed, or exercised any influence on others declares that he can do nothing for those who believed in him. Satan himself admits his ties to those who believed him. However, he puts all the blame on them, acknowledging his weakness in the first life as well as in the second. He declares that he had no power over any one, apart from persuasion and seduction. He could not do them any good or cause them any harm: "When Our judgment has come to pass, Satan will say to them: 'True was the promise which God made you. I too made you a promise, but did not keep it. Yet I had no power over you. I called on you, and you answered me. Do not now blame me, but blame yourselves. I cannot help you, nor can you help me. I never shared your belief that I was God's equal." (14: 22) Such, then, are the stages which all people would experience when they are resurrected, until the un-believers are separated from those who believe. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 28 February 2000[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
09/29/01 at 23:18:05
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 15 The reckoning: A complete process By Adil Salahi[/center] We discussed yesterday what indications precede the Day of Judgment, that is, the end of life on Earth and the resurrection of all mankind. We mentioned that all people who had lived on Earth are gathered together in one place where they await the reckoning of what they had done in life. Today we go on to discuss the reckoning itself and how people are faced with their actions. On that eventful day, everyone is faced with all his actions. Scales are put up and actions are weighed. We do not know exactly the sort of scale employed for weighing up people's actions. What we know is that it is good for the purpose, absolutely fair and every aspect of the actions considered is to be weighed. Nothing is lost sight of, not even if it was as small as a pepper grain or a particle of dust, or even as small as an electron moving round an atom, or whatever can be smaller than that. All actions are accurately evaluated. All the circumstances which obtained at the time when every deed was made are taken into consideration, as well as the intentions, the motives and the sincerity of the person concerned. If any action is judged to be good, it is put in the scale on the side of good deeds. If, on the other hand, an apparently good action was colored by hypocritical motives or insincerity, it is put in the scale on the side of bad deeds. The reckoning is, in effect, an absolutely fair trial where people benefit only by their good deeds which they have done in their lives and by God's forgiveness and mercy. No wealth, prestige or position can be of any avail to anyone except the money one spends in God's cause and the position and prestige one uses, in this life, to further God's cause or to abide strictly by God's laws. Everyone stands alone. No one can benefit any other person in any way except for those who are allowed to intercede with God on behalf of others, with God's permission. Intercession there is different from what it is in our world. Here, some people are able to influence a ruler's decision, making use of their friendship with the ruler or their prestige and position in society. The ruler sometimes shows kindness in such cases, not because he is convinced that the accused deserves to be treated with kindness, but because it serves the interests of the ruler to appear to be kind. In the hereafter, the situation is different. When God wants, out of His grace, to forgive someone, and to give another a position of honor, He makes the latter the apparent cause for His forgiveness of the former. He allows the latter to intercede with Him and He accepts his intercession. We have also to emphasize a basic difference between the trial of the hereafter and our court trials which are supervised by human judges. Human beings can only judge according to the evidence brought before them. Such evidence may be incomplete. They cannot be absolutely certain of the motivation behind the crime. In many cases, they cannot be fully aware of all the circumstances that led to it or the background of the criminal and the victim. The trial of the hereafter, on the other hand, is administered by God, the Lord of the universe, and the most just of judges. It is a trial of absolute justice. The evidence is given by the prophets who make their testimony before God. The angels who record our good and bad deeds produce their documentary evidence. Besides, the sinners themselves make full confessions after their own body organs testify against them. God tells us in the Qur'an that on the Day of Reckoning the records are opened and the prophets are brought forward. Every nation is judged according to its law, in the presence of its prophet. We have already referred to the documents in which all our deeds and actions are recorded by the two angels who accompany every one of us. These documents remain sealed and are kept secret. If we turn to God in repentance and ask Him to forgive us the sins we have committed, and if our repentance is sincere, such sins are erased from these documents. Otherwise, they remain recorded until the Day of Reckoning when they are publicized. Sheikh Ali At-Tantawi, a leading contemporary scholar on whose works we have drawn largely in the preparation of these articles on the principles of the Islamic faith, compares these documents and records to the results of school examinations which are kept secret by the examiners who are the only people to know which students have passed and which have failed, until the final results are declared. If we follow the same analogy, the student who has failed his exams feels his failure weighing down heavily on him when he meets his friends and his family. In the hereafter, his failure is known to all mankind. What a scandal! Failure at school examination may lose the student a year, while failure in the examination of the hereafter leads to hell and condemns the failing person to eternal misery. The documents are publicized and each person is given his own record to read for himself. The person whose record shows that his good deeds, recorded by the right angel, are greater than the bad deeds, recorded by the left angel, is given his record in his right hand, which is a sign that he will receive "an easy reckoning". He is, then, overwhelmed with joy. Like a student who has passed his exams with remarkable results, he wants every one to read his record. He invites all people around to read and declares to them that he fully believed that he would be facing this day and this reckoning. If a person is given his record in his left hand, he realizes that his bad deeds, recorded by the left-hand angel, heavily outweighed his good ones. He is then certain of his miserable end and laments for himself. When he reads his record, he finds every single deed he made accurately recorded to the finest detail. He knows then that he has wronged himself and that no wrong was done to him by God, who is just to everyone. When those who denied God and rejected the prophets and their messages are questioned about their deeds, they resort to outright denial and swear to their innocence in front of God. They think that they are before just another human judge who can only give his judgment according to apparent evidence. Little do they realize that they are standing before the Lord of the universe who knows every secret of every person. God holds their tongues and orders their own organs, which they employed in committing their sins, to testify. Their hands and legs testify truthfully against them. God tells us in the Qur'an: "This day We shall seal their mouths. Their hands will speak to us, and their very feet will testify to their misdeeds." (36: 65) When their guilt is so proven, they take issue with their own body organs: "They say to their skins, 'Why have you spoken so against us?' Their skins will reply: 'God, who gives speech to all things, has made us speak'." (41: 21) Thus nothing that was made in secret or in complete privacy is overlooked. How can it be when the witnesses are always with the sinner? Can any person hide away from his own skin, hand and leg? Thus the reckoning is made, and the results are given. We will continue tomorrow, God willing, with what follows the reckoning on the Day of Judgment. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 06 March 2000[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
10/01/01 at 07:53:07
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 16 What comes after the Judgment By Adil Salahi[/center] We have already mentioned that belief in the Day of Judgment and the accountability of all mankind to God for whatever they do, or omit to do, in this life is central to Islamic faith. We have said that this accountability gives our life on Earth a sense of completeness which it cannot otherwise acquire. We explained yestrday that every one will face a total and comprehensive reckoning. Those who are given their books in their right hands find that the reckoning is an easy one. Others find it very hard and testing. When the reckoning is over, all mankind are divided into three groups: those who were in this life foremost in faith and good works, always drawing close to God, those who are described as the people of the right side, and, finally, the people of the left side. The firs two groups are admitted into heaven. We shall discuss the Islamic concept of heaven tomorrow, God willing. The third group is thrown in hell. All three groups shall pass over a narrow line stretching high over the fire of hell. Those who have done good in this life will pass over it as speedily as their good deeds enable them to do, and will cross it safely. Those who have, according to the Qur'anic expression, "wronged themselves", will fall off that line into the fire of hell. Many people tend to think that hell is a fire similar to the one we know, but much fiercer. The two are similar in kind but can hardly be comparable in intensity. However, if we study the Qur'anic description of hell very closely, we soon discover that the fire of hell is of a different kind altogether. Had it been of the same kind as the fire we know, it would have burnt everything to ashes. According to the Qur'anic description, however, there are trees, water and shade in hell, but these are instruments of punishment which multiply the suffering rather than reduce it. Our fire burns anyone who is caught in it, and he soon dies and no longer feels the pain. The fire of hell is a continuous suffering for its inhabitants, who, as the Qur'an says, "shall have no end put to their lives so that they could die, nor shall their suffering be lightened for them." (35: 36) Their skins are not burnt out completely; rather, they are cooked. Every time they are fully cooked, new skins are substituted for them to start the suffering anew. The people in hell remain alive: they think, remember and quarrel. They eat and drink of its unwholesome and filthy food and water, which neither satisfy hunger nor quench thirst. The people who deserve to be punished as a result of the reckoning of their deeds are taken in groups to hell. Hell itself is furious with them because of their rejection of God's message and their turning their backs on their prophets whom God had sent to them. The guards of hell are totally amazed at their stupidity and stubbornness which have led them to persevere in their erroneous ways. They question them about the messengers God sent them and they admit that they received warnings about the Day of Judgment and the eventual outcome of disbelief, but they gave little heed to them and denied the truth of their messages. Now that they have received their punishment, they admit that they have gone into life with their minds, eyes and ears deliberately shut. Had they thought for themselves and been responsive to the signs God has placed everywhere in the world around them, they would have recognized God, believed in Him and followed His messengers. As it is, however, they have followed the way which leads to hell: "They say: 'Had we but listened, or used our reason, we would not now be among those who are destined for the blazing flame. Thus they come to realize their sins'." (67: 10-11) From the descriptions of hell in the Qur'an we can compare it to a prison which has seven doors. Each door is allotted a certain portion of the sufferers. All the doors are locked and secured with great sliding bolts. Its inhabitants are thrown in a narrow space of it, chained one to the other. We have to look at this life of ours as a test. God has given us this span of time to prove ourselves. He has equipped us with reason and with our free will. However, some of us choose to follow the way which leads to hell. When they arrive in it they try to come out again. They make all sorts of promises that if they can only have a second chance they will believe in God and all that He requires of them. They treat the whole affair as if it was a school examination. When a student fails, he has a chance to re-sit the exam and pass. Little do they realize that those who depart from this life do not come back to it, and those who enter hell are not allowed out again. When they realize that the test is over and that the result is confirmed, they plead with the guards of hell, in the same way as a prisoner tries to persuade the prison guards to turn a blind eye when he tries to escape. The guards of hell, however, can avail them nothing. In the Qur'an God says: "Those who are in the fire will say to the keepers of hell, 'Pray to your Lord that He may lighten this suffering of ours, though it be for one day only.' But the keepers of hell will ask them, 'Is it not true that God's messengers came to you with all evidence of the truth?' They answer, 'Yes, indeed.' And the keepers of hell will say to them, 'Pray for yourselves, then. For the prayer of those who do not believe in God can lead to nothing but delusion'." (40: 49-50) In their despair, they appeal to Malik, the chief of the angels who guard hell. They ask him to pray God to destroy them. He gives a decisive answer, and tells them that they are abiding in hell for a very long time. They try to offer a ransom for themselves, but the Qur'an states that if any of them would offer twice the wealth of the Earth, it would not be accepted. Their conversation is nothing but a quarrel between them. Those who were subjugated and weak in this life tried to put the blame on their masters for the end they have achieved. Their former masters deny any responsibility for their fate. They tell them very frankly that they were responsible for their own action and that they have earned their just reward. Such quarreling continues and it only adds to their suffering. The Qur'an tells us that those who are admitted into heaven can see the suffering of those who are in hell. It is also mentioned that the two sides are able to speak to one another. "The people of heaven will call out to those in the fire: 'Now we have found that what our Lord promised us has come true, have you, too, found that what your Lord promised you has also come true?' They will answer, 'Yes!' Whereupon from their midst a voice will loudly proclaim, 'God's curse is the due result of the evildoers'." (7: 44) "And the inmates of the fire will call out to the people of Paradise: 'Pour some water upon us, or some of the sustenance of Paradise which God has provided for you.' They will reply: 'God has denied them to those who have rejected the truth'." (7: 50) Such is the fate of the evildoers. Tomorrow, God willing, we will discuss the opposite destiny, enjoyed by the believers who do good in this life. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 13 March 2000[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff

Re: Basics of Faith
Haniff
10/01/01 at 23:32:51
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh [center]Basics of Faith - 17 Heaven and the concept of reward By Adil Salahi[/center] Heaven is the reward God gives to those who, in this present life of ours, believe in Him and conduct their lives in accordance with the constitution He has revealed to Muhammad (peace be upon him) and embodied in the Qur'an. It must be clear that no one is admitted into heaven on the basis of his position or occupation in life. The factors which decide a person's place in the Hereafter, are his belief in God and his obedience to Him. Good action is not sufficient by itself to admit anyone to heaven. It must be coupled with faith. On the other hand, if people claim to believe in God and that no force on Earth can shake their belief, this in itself is not sufficient to admit them into heaven, unless their actions give credit to their claims. Hence, the believer who is admitted to heaven must be a person who initiates goodness, exerts strenuous efforts to further the call of Islam and utilizes his time, money and all his abilities for that Purpose. He thus earns his place in the ranks of the true advocates of Islam. If a person cannot rise to that status, he or she must, as a minimum, resist evil and all its temptations. He or she must persevere even if they are subjected to great suffering because of their faith. These are the two lines of action which earn believers their places in heaven. There is no other way to achieve that reward in the hereafter. God describes heaven in the Qur'an as a place which "has been prepared for the God-fearing." The God-fearing are further described as the people who spend of their money, for God's cause, in both conditions of ease and hardship, control their anger, forgive others. They are the ones who, if they happen to commit a sin, remember God, repent and pray for forgiveness. There are several grades in heaven and people are admitted into each grade according to the grade of distinction they achieve in combining purity of faith with a high moral standard, sound behavior and sincere worship. Heaven and all its grades are described at length in the Qur'an. All the accounts which describe heaven are given in terms of beauty and luxury and happiness which are known to us in this life. We are told, for example, that heaven is a place "underneath which rivers flow"; its inhabitants have gold bracelets and pearls for jewelry; their clothes are made of silk. Rivers of milk, honey and unintoxicating wine run through heaven. Its women have very beautiful eyes. Young men are always at hand to serve its residents. We have to emphasize here that all these descriptions are drawn on what we know of luxury and easy life so that we may understand what happiness we can have in heaven. What is certain is that the rivers of heaven are unlike the rivers of the earth, that the milk, honey and wine there are unlike what we know in our world, that its maids with beautiful eyes are unlike our human women and the same applies to its young men. We would like to emphasize, however, that our imagination cannot depict a true picture of heaven because we cannot relate it to any thing we know. Scholars and commentators on the Qur'an who have tried to describe heaven have not been able to have a sound basis for their descriptions. Their efforts may have been an interesting academic exercise, but they cannot provide anything which may be taken as true. All they have managed to do was to relate God's justice and reward to human justice and reward. This is utterly confusing. It is better and safer to say that the Qur'anic accounts give us a feeling of the happiness of heaven, although we cannot visualize or appreciate it fully. In this connection, we may refer to the commonly mistaken notion of the role of heavenly maids with the beautiful eyes who serve the inhabitants of heaven. People tend to think that the heaven dwellers will have sexual enjoyment with these maids. They forget that the function of the sexual desire is to ensure the survival of the human race. There is no need for this function in the hereafter. Hence, there is no need for sex. Thus, any discussion of sexuality in heaven is irrelevant. What we can safely say is that those heavenly maids have a function which contributes to the happiness and enjoyment of the residents of heaven. We believe everything mentioned in the Qur'an to be absolutely true, without giving the Qur'anic texts any narrow meaning on the basis of our experience in this life. According to the Qur'anic descriptions of heaven, its inhabitants meet with their own people and friends. No ill-feeling whatsoever is harbored by anyone toward another. They recline on luxurious couches, served by young boys and given their food on gold plates. They can go wherever they wish in heaven which is a vast place, the width of which is equal to the length of the Earth and the sky above us. They say nothing but good and they remember their time on Earth and their experience in this life. They also remember what sort of arguments they had in this life with those who tried to dissuade them from following God's guidance. Their life in heaven is one of perfect ease and happiness. They are congratulated by the angels on their achievement and they are given of everything anyone would desire and enjoy. Before we conclude our discussion of the Islamic concept of the Day of Judgment and its punishment and reward, we have to mention a third group of people who stand in a place in between heaven and hell. These are people whose good deeds have not been enough to admit them into heaven, while their bad deeds were not of the nature which deserves punishment in hell. They stand in their position where they can see heaven, hope to be admitted into it and speak to its inhabitants. They can also see hell, dread its punishment and speak to its people. When they look at the people of heaven they greet them with a greeting of peace, and when their eyes are turned toward hell they pray to God to spare them its suffering. In hell, they see some people who achieved positions of power on Earth and were followed by the masses and whole nations were subservient to them. They question them: "What use was all that huge following for you? How far did your power benefit you?" They realize that nothing any one can have in this world will benefit him an atom weight in the hereafter unless he believes in God and keeps to the right path. When anyone dies, he is resurrected alone, without any friend or ally. He stands in front of God, deprived of all his power, denied by all his friends except for his faith and good actions. This group of people are eventually forgiven their sins and admitted into heaven by God's grace. Thus we come to the conclusion of this series of articles on the basics of the Islamic faith. [i]"Islam in Perspective" - Arab News - 20 March 2000[/i] Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh Haniff

Re: Basics of Faith
dolunay
10/02/01 at 16:16:42
wassalam Do you have islamic articles in turkish, german, hungarian or bosnain languages?wassalam sorry to breaking your post messages sorts...
Individual posts do not necessarily reflect the views of Jannah.org, Islam, or all Muslims. All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the poster and may not be used without consent of the author. The rest © Jannah.Org