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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| a gift for you |
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| timbuktu |
| 05/11/04 at 12:47:44 |
| [slm] In this day and age, when the Ummah is under attack whether its members are living in muslim-majority areas or not, when muslims can be picked up and not heard of for years, when there is torture and rape and humiliation and even murder when under arrest, what is it that I can give you? make duas! I do that already. I will tell you a dua (an ayah of the Quran) which you can pray when you are really, really caught up and have no hope. 1. First a story I read when I was young: There was this traveller (perhaps a merchant) who arrived in a town and hired a transporter to take him with his luggage to another town. The luggage was loaded on to a donkey, and the two set off. After a long time, ourtraveller says in hsi narration that he felt uneasy as the way did not seem familiar (he had been there earlier). His unease grew but when he asked the tarnsporter, he was reassured by the statement that there was a shorter route by which they were travelling. After sometime though, his unease returned and he sensed a growing roughness in his companion. On turning a corner they reached a spot where there were human skulls and bones, which now confirmed his worst fears. The transporter now took out his sword and asked him to get down from the donkey and be ready to die. The traveller pleaded with him to spare his life and to take all the goods he had. The dacoit laughed and said this was already his, and he cannot take the risk of sparing a life, as the authorities may be informed and that wouldn't do. When all pleadings fell on deaf ears, the merchant asked to be allowed to pray two final nawafil before meeting Allah (swt). That was granted with an admonition to hurry up. The narrator says he was so frightened he was shaking in the prayers which he started but could not remember anything except this ayah, which he kept repeating and repeating with tears rolling down his eyes. Then he heard the sound of a horse approaching fast, and then a sharp sound as if someone has been hit and is dying, and then the horse going away very fast. He said the salam, and turned to see the dacoit dead, and someone riding away very fast. He ran and stopped the rider and pleaded with him to tell who he was and how come he came to his rescue. The rider said that this prayer was heard in the skies, and this angel (the rider) was asked to go help the merchant. 2. Now a second true story from my mother: In 1947, at the time of independence or partition, anti-muslim riots erupted in Northern India. Delhi was also affected. My mother's maternal uncle had a big house, and now many muslims sent their families over for protection, as their own localities were not safe. Then for some nights the Hindus and Sikhs would be heard approaching. They would come near with clubs and kirpans and even guns, but would retreat after making threatening noises. One day, a Hindu approached my mother's mamoon (maternal uncle) and asked him "where does this white-robed army appear on your house's rooftop during the night. During the day we see nobody, and we plan to attack your house, but at night when we approach your house we see this army with weapons we haven't seen before, and we have to retreat. The women and children in the house had been instructed by my mother's mamoon to recite this ayah all night. 3. Now a third story, also true. It is of my brother: Karachi became a dangerous place, with kidnappings, dacoity, murder, everything. My brother's office is in the City Centre, and as evening fell everyone use to rush back as transport would not be available, and it would become deserted and dangerous. One evening, my brother closed his office and came out on the street. As he was walking towards the bus stop, he heard a motorcycle. He turned back and saw two young men on it, one waving a revolver. My brother saw that the place was deserted, and there was a streetlight a distance ahead. He increased his pace to reach it, but the motorcycle's sound indicated it was getting real close. Then my brother remembered this ayah, and started reciting it. He had only said a few words when he heard the motorsycle's sound receding. he turned to see the motorcycle going back. Now the ayah and meanings of the translation: [size=5] Ãóãøóä íõÌöíÈõ ÇáúãõÖúØóÑøó ÅöÐóÇ ÏóÚóÇåõ æóíóßúÔöÝõ ÇáÓøõæÁó æóíóÌúÚóáõßõãú ÎõáóÝóÇÁ ÇáúÃóÑúÖö ÃóÅöáóåñ ãøóÚó Çááøóåö ÞóáöíáðÇ ãøóÇ ÊóÐóßøóÑõæäó [/size] Surah 27 - an-Naml: ayah 62 62. Is not He (better than your gods) Who responds to the distressed one, when he calls Him, and Who removes the evil, and makes you inheritors of the earth, generations after generations. Is there any ilah (god) with Allah? Little is that you remember! Memorise this, I hope you never are in a position like this, but if you are pray this ayah, and tell others. |
| 05/11/04 at 21:47:27 |
| timbuktu |
| Re: a gift for you |
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| al-ajnabia |
| 05/11/04 at 21:21:45 |
| [slm] when I was sitting in the assitant to the dean of students office, being acused of nothing and threatened with expulsion for it, and I sat there with my pictures and documents in my favor and I knew that they wouldnt be heard, some of the thoughts that I had were of that constuction. I kept thinking about the judgement of this man I was facing and comparing it to the judgment of Allah and how he does respond to the weak with good for them and He is not preditory towards them nor does he take advantage of them like this. I knew of this man as somone who had once had faith in our ways, but had turned away from us and bacame a monster towards us because he didnt get the woman he wanted, and she would have been very bad for him, but to this day he targets our people if we seek education, so I was thinking the last thing I wanted to be was someone like him. I knew I had been lead into this headache by our ways and I told him this and he looked like somone who had pooven his view about us, but he hadnt. So I didnt know what to do, I had been in a growing habit of sitting on the masjid steps on the mens side, so I went and did this. I was sort of at a loss, I had tried to meet some women from the masjid before, but it hadnt clicked, some people werent trustworthy and I want sure about others, so I was scared, but somehow leaving would feel like not trusting allah, so I sat there until I was chilled through and I lost my voice and a sister I didnt know but who seemed normal came ad brought me into the kitchen and fed me. It was such a delema, I knew there were good sisters there, but there was a wall around them, and I always seemd to be in a bad light I couldnt escape, and the bad sisters are dangerous, one has even sent bad word of me overseas already, so I know one country alteast I pry shouldnt attemtp to go to. But the one who got to me first this time was alright. and even though another showed up who chided my hosteses in arabic that the masjid isnt a resturant when she saw them feeding me which prompted me to tell the two helpful sisters that I have studdied arabic for four years and they might want to tell her to watch what she says in front of me, yet somehow this time the ballance was better. I may be splitting things up, causing a rift, but it can be seen as diverting as many as I can from a bad company, well, I'm rambling, but that dua works for sure, it can extract the real from the grips of the misguiding in time to help the helpless. Its the kind of thing to remember when for some reason you find the need to persevere in the face of a daunting challange, like your university is crooked and the masjid fronts drug traffic and massad, it just takes having faith in Allah and his strength, and commitment to keep being one of his own, and the powere of true beliefe in a true believer no matter who is running thier show, because seroiusly real muslims can turn from any wrong doing in less than a heartbeat and never go back to it, which is why we dont tend to get into pasts, but no one can understand islam but a real muslim because somethings only make sense to people woh do them. I'm still rambling but that dua works, though they all do really. |
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