The Life of Muhammad Asad

MV: Muhammad Asad? Who is he? is he important? These are the questions many of you would ask if you read the title of the article. He is not one of so much of importance nor is he of much significance. But none of the less he is an interesting man and to some of you who seek the true meaning of the Quran it will be helpful to look at his work. He was born in a Jewish family but converted to Islam and he wrote the most understandable translation of the Quran. He used many words to give the reader the full depth of the meaning of the Quran.  This information was obtained from www.thetruecall.com

Muhammad Asad was born Leopold Weiss in July 1900 in the city of Lvov (German Lemberg), now in Poland, then part of the Austrian Empire. He was the descendant of a long line of rabbis, a line broken by his father, who became a barrister. Asad himself received a thorough religious education that would qualify him to keep alive the family’s rabbinical tradition. He had become proficient in Hebrew at an early age and was also familiar with Aramaic. He had studied the Old Testament in the original as well as the text and commentaries of the Talmud, the Mishna and Gemara, and he had delved into the intricacies of Biblical exegesis, the Targum.
His family moved to Vienna, where 14-year-old Weiss ran away from school and tried unsuccessfully to join the Austrian army to fight in the First World War. No sooner had he finally been officially drafted than the Austrian Empire collapsed, along with his dreams of military glory. After the war, he pursued philosophy and art history at the University of Vienna, but those studies failed to satisfy him and he abandoned them to seek fulfillment elsewhere. Vienna at that time was one of the most intellectually and culturally stimulating cities in Europe, a hothouse of burgeoning new perspectives on psychology, language and philosophy. Not just its academic institutions, but even its famous cafés reverberated with lively debate centered on psychoanalysis, logical positivism, linguistic analysis and semantics. This was the period when the distinctive voices of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler and Ludwig Wittgenstein filled the air and echoed round the world. Weiss had a ringside seat for these exciting discussions, and though he was impressed by the originality of those pioneering spirits, their major conclusions left him still unsatisfied.

Weiss left Vienna in 1920 and traveled in Central Europe, where he did “all manner of short-lived jobs” before arriving in Berlin. Here, luck and pluck led to a scoop that elevated him from a mere telephonist working for a wire service into a journalist: He reported the presence in Berlin of Maksim Gorky’s wife, who was on a secret mission to solicit aid from the West for Soviet Russia. At this stage, Weiss, like many of his generation, counted himself an agnostic, having drifted away from his Jewish moorings despite his religious studies. He left Europe for the Middle East in 1922 for what was supposed to be a short visit to an uncle in Jerusalem. There he came to know and like the Arabs and was struck by how Islam infused their everyday lives with existential meaning, spiritual strength and inner peace.

Weiss now became—at the remarkably young age of 22—a correspondent for the Frankfurter Zeitung, one of the most prestigious newspapers of Germany and Europe. As a journalist, he traveled extensively, mingled with ordinary people, held discussions with Muslim intellectuals, and met heads of state in Palestine, Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. During his travels and through his readings, Weiss’s interest in Islam increased as his understanding of its scripture, history and peoples grew. In part, curiosity propelled his explorations, but he also felt something darker—in his words, “a spiritual emptiness, a vague, cynical relativism born out of increasing hopelessness”—from which he needed to escape. He remained agnostic, unable to accept that God spoke to and guided humankind by revelation.

Back in Berlin from the Middle East a few years later, Weiss underwent an electrifying spiritual epiphany—reminiscent of the experience of some of the earliest Muslims—that changed his mind and his life. He described it in a striking passage that he wrote some 30 years later:
One day—it was in September 1926—Elsa and I found ourselves travelling in the Berlin subway. It was an upper-class compartment. My eye fell casually on a well-dressed man opposite me, apparently a well-to-do-businessman…. I thought idly how well the portly figure of this man fitted into the picture of prosperity which one encountered everywhere in Central Europe in those days: …Most of the people were now well dressed and well fed, and the man opposite me was therefore no exception. But when I looked at his face, I did not seem to be looking at a happy face. He appeared to be worried: and not merely worried but acutely unhappy, with eyes staring vacantly ahead and the corners of his mouth drawn in as if in pain—but not in bodily pain. Not wanting to be rude, I turned my eyes away and saw next to him a lady of some elegance. She also had a strangely unhappy expression on her face, as if contemplating or experiencing something that caused her pain…. And then I began to look around at all other faces in the compartment—faces belonging without exception to well-dressed, well-fed people: and in almost every one of them I could discern an expression of hidden suffering, so hidden that the owner of the face seemed to be quite unaware of it.

“…The impression was so strong that I mentioned it to Elsa; and she too began to look around with the careful eyes of a painter accustomed to study human features. Then she turned to me, astonished, and said: ‘You are right. They all look as though they were suffering torments of hell…. I wonder, do they know themselves what is going on in them?’

Muhammad Asad

His story

“I knew that they did not—for otherwise they could not go on wasting their lives as they did, without any faith in binding truths, without any goal beyond the desire to raise their own ’standard of living,’ without any hopes other than having more material amenities, more gadgets, and perhaps more power….

“When we returned home, I happened to glance at my desk on which lay open a copy of the Koran I had been reading earlier. Mechanically, I picked the book up to put it away, but just as I was about to close it, my eyes fell on the open page before me, and I read:

You are obsessed by greed for more and more
Until you go down to your graves.
Nay, but you will come to know!
And once again: Nay, but you will come to know!
Nay, if you but knew it with the knowledge of certainty,
You would indeed see the hell you are in.
In time, indeed, you shall see it with the eye of certainty:
And on that Day you will be asked what you have done with the boon of life.

“For a moment I was speechless. I think that the book shook in my hands. Then I handed it to Elsa. ‘Read this. Is it not an answer to what we saw in the subway?’ “It was an answer so decisive that all doubt was suddenly at an end. I knew now, beyond any doubt, that it was a God-inspired book I was holding in my hand: for although it had been placed before man over thirteen centuries ago, it clearly anticipated something that could have become true only in this complicated, mechanized, phantom-ridden age of ours.

“At all times people had known greed: but at no time before had greed outgrown a mere eagerness to acquire things and become an obsession that blurred the sight of everything else: an irresistible craving to get, to do, to contrive more and more—more today than yesterday, and more tomorrow than today: …and that hunger, that insatiable hunger for ever new goals gnawing at man’s soul: Nay, if you but knew it you would see the hell you are in….
“This, I saw, was not the mere human wisdom of a man of a distant past in distant Arabia. However wise he may have been, such a man could not by himself have foreseen the torment so peculiar to this twentieth century. Out of the Koran spoke a voice greater than the voice of Muhammad….” Thus it was that Weiss became a muslim. He converted in Berlin before the head of the city’s small Muslim community and took the names Muhammad, to honor the Prophet, and Asad—meaning “lion”—as a reminder of his given name. He took other decisive steps: He broke with his father over his conversion, he married Elsa, who also converted, he abruptly left his newspaper job, and he set off on pilgrimage to Makkah.

The psychological and emotional dimensions of Asad’s migration were even more important than the physical ones. Asad regarded Islam not as a religion in the conventional, or western, sense but as a way of life for all times. In Islam he had found a religious system and a practical guide for everyday living that were harmoniously balanced. “Islam appears to me like a perfect work of architecture. All its parts are harmoniously conceived to complement and support each other; nothing is superfluous and nothing lacking; and the result is a structure of absolute balance and solid composure.”

Nine days after his first sight of Makkah, Asad’s life changed momentously yet again. Elsa died suddenly, and she was buried in a simple pilgrim’s cemetery. He stayed on in the holy city and, after a chance encounter with Prince Faysal in the Grand Mosque’s library, accepted an invitation to meet with his father, the legendary King ‘Abd al-’Aziz Al Sa’ud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia. This invitation soon led to almost daily audiences with the king, who quickly came to appreciate Asad’s knowledge, spiritual depth and keen mind.

Asad spent some six years in the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, where he studied Arabic, the Qur’an, the hadith—the traditions of the Prophet—and Islamic history. Those studies led him to “the firm conviction that Islam, as a spiritual and social phenomenon, is still, in spite of all the drawbacks caused by the deficiencies of the Muslims, by far the greatest driving force mankind has ever experienced.” From that time and until the end of his life, his interest was “centered around the problem of its regeneration.” His academic knowledge of classical Arabic—made easier by familiarity with Hebrew and Aramaic, sister Semitic languages—was further enhanced by his wide travels and his contacts in Arabia with Bedouins. To study Muslim communities and cultures further east, Asad left Arabia for India in 1932. There he met the celebrated poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal, the spiritual progenitor of Pakistan. Iqbal persuaded Asad to stay on “to help elucidate the intellectual premises of the future Islamic state….”

Asad soon won Iqbal’s admiration, and public acclaim, with the publication of a perceptive monograph on the challenges facing modern Muslims. But his freedom was curtailed when the Second World War broke out in 1939. Ironically, though he had refused a German passport after the annexation of Austria in 1938 and insisted on retaining his Austrian citizenship, the British imprisoned him on the second day of the war as an “enemy alien,” and did not release him till 1945. Asad was the only Muslim among the 3000-odd Europeans interned in India, the large majority of whom were Nazi sympathizers.

Asad moved to Pakistan after its creation in 1947 and was charged by its government with formulating ideological foundations for the new state. Later he was transferred to the Pakistan Foreign Ministry to head its Middle East Division, where he endeavoured to strengthen Pakistan’s ties to other Muslim countries. He capped his diplomatic career by serving as Pakistan’s Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Nations—a position he resigned in 1952 to write his autobiography, The Road to Mecca.

After writing this book, he left New York in 1955 and finally settled in Spain. He did not cease to write. At 80, after 17 years of effort, he completed the work that had been his life’s dream, and for which he felt all his life till then had been an apprenticeship: a translation and exegesis, or tafsir, of the Qur’an in English. He continued to serve Islam till his death in Spain on February 23, 1992.

With his death passed a journalist, traveler, social critic, linguist, thinker, reformer, diplomat, political theorist and translator, a scholar dedicated to the service of God and humankind, and to leading a righteous life.

But death will not be the final chapter in Asad’s close relationship with the Muslims: His luminous works remain a living testimony to his great, enduring love affair with Islam.

By Ismail Ibrahim Nawwab

Islamic Aspects on Food and Drink

MV: This post is one of the few we have on Food and Drink in Islam. Food is a big part of Halal and Haram. It is important and ethical to know what food give you sin and what food do not. Plain and simple if you stay away form the Haram food, you will stay away from the Hell fire.

Food and drink affect our health, growth, and state of mind. Islam has given regulations about our food and drink. Islam aims to establish a healthy and moral society. It allows all wholesome and pure things to be taken as food and drink.

The Quran says:

“O Mankind, eat the lawful and good things from what is in the Earth and do not follow the foot steps of the devil. Surely, he is you open enemy.” (2:168)

It follow from this that Islam has forbidden only what is impure and harmful. Lawful things are called Halal and forbidden things are called Haram in Shariah (Islamic Law).

Islam forbids eating the following:

• Dead animals (i.e. those which died naturally);
• Animals slain without invoking Allah’s name;
• Animals strangled to death;
• Pigs;
• Carnivorous animals;
• Animals devoured by wild beasts.

Islam also forbids the eating of the blood of an animal (2:173; 5:3; 6:145; 16:115). Islam teaches respect and consideration for the life and welfare of animals. It is one of the many favours of Allah that he has created animals for mankind to eat by.His permission, provided we slaughter then in the way He has commanded. Islamic law requires and animal to be slaughtered by a sharp knife penetrating the inner part of animal’s neck, ensuring it dies quickly and allowing the maximum drainage of blood. Allah’s name must be mentioned at the time of the slaughter.

The meat and by-products of animals not slain in this way are Haram. Efforts should be made to obtain Halal meat from Muslim butcher. If their are Muslim butchers nearby, then  the “Kosher” meat of the Jewish people is regarded as Halal for Muslims.

There are now plenty of Muslim butchers in most of the European countries, USA, Canada, and New Zealand. In case of doubt, Muslims can eat vegetarian food (without alcoholic ingredients).

Fish and vegetables are lawful in Islam. All kinds  of intoxicating (alcoholic) drinks such as beer, wine, and spirits are prohibited. Alcoholic drinks are not at all conductive to a healthy society,

The Quran says:

“O you who believe, intoxicants and gambling, idols, and divining arrows are filthy tricks of Satan; avoid them so that you may prosper. Satan wants to incite enmity and hatred among you but means of wine and gambling and prevent you from remembering. Allah from Salah. So will you not give them up?” (5:90-91)

Drinking alcohol causes serious social problems in society. It leads to many vices and sins. Islam aims to root out al evils to ensure that society remains healthy and peaceful. Islam also forbids the taking of drugs except for medical purposes.

Muslims should begin meals by reciting

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim (In the name of Allah the most merciful, the most kind),

and finish by reciting the dua:

Alhamdu lillahil ladhi at amana wa saqana wa jaalana minal muslimin. (All praise is for Allah who gave us to eat and to drink and made us Muslims).

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) asked us to eat with the right hand and to wash our hands before and after our meals. It is better not to eat so much so as to fill the stomach. The Prophet (PBUH) also asked us not to drink water and other soft drinks in one go; rather, we should pause while drinking and it is better to have three pauses.

The Islamic system of life has very beneficial regulations. We should try to follow these rules as best as we can. we should not find excuses to avoid Islamic laws and regulations, rather we must make serious efforts to follow Allah’s command.

This information is from the book Islam Beliefs and Teachings by Ghulam Sarwar

How to Perform Salat-ul-Janaza

MV: Alright…I am sure (I hope) all of us know how to perform the five daily prayers..well..it should not end just there.  God forbid someone die in your family or friend circle but if that happens then it is mandatory in many circumstances to preform, Salaatul Janaza. And you should know how to preform the prayer as its our duty to learn as a Muslim to know how pray Janaza. And that goes for me too, because I am still in the process of learning the prayer in Islamic class, but I am sure this post will help me along with other people, InshAllah learn it. Now praying Salaatul Janaza can get confusing as its read a little bit different for different type of people but inshAllah if you try then Allah (SWT) will help.

How to pray

You should make the niyyat, “I make the niyyat for the prayer of this janaza for Allah, duaa for this deceased, behind this imam.” Now the Imam and muqtadee should raise their hands to their ears and fold their hands underneath the navel as usual whilst saying Allahu Akbar and read Sana, a slight difference is that after wa ta’ala jadduka one must read wa jalla sanauka wa laailaha gairuk. Then without raising the hands, say Allahu Akbar and read duroode Ibraheem; then without raising the hands, say Allahu Akbar and read the duaa. The Imam must say all the takbeer aloud whereas the muqtadee must say it slowly, the rest of the azkar (supplications) are to be read slowly by the Imam and Muqtadee. After the duaa, say Allahu Akbar and now drop the hands and then turn the head both sides for salaam.

Sana:

Glory be to You Oh Allah, and praise be to You, and blessed is Your name, and exalted is Your Majesty, and there is none to be served besides You.

Duroode Ibraheemi:

O Allah! shower Your mercy upon Muhammad and the followers of Muhammad , as You showered Your mercy upon Ibrahim and the followers of Ibrahim. Behold, Your are Praiseworthy, Glorious.

Oh Allah! Shower Your blessing upon Muhammad , and the followers of Muhammad as You showered Your blessings upon Ibrahim and the followers of Ibrahim. Behold, You are Praiseworthy, Glorious.

Duaa for an adult man or woman:

Oh Allah! Forgive those of us that are alive and those of us that are dead; those of us that are present and those of us who are absent; those of us who are young and those of us who are adults; our males and our females. Oh Allah! Whomsoever You keep alive, let him live as a follower of Islam and whomsoever You cause to die, let him die a Believer.

Duaa for a boy:

Oh! Allah, make him (this child) a source for our salvation and make him a source of reward and treasure for us and make him an intercessor for us and one whose intercession is accepted.

Duaa for a girl:

Oh! Allah, make her (this child) a source for our salvation and make her a source of reward and treasure for us and make her an intercessor for us and one whose intercession is accepted.

12 Ahkam of Janazah

1) Some people pray while wearing shoes and many people pray Janzah while standing on the shoes. If one prays wearing the shoes then it is necessary that the shoes and the earth underneath be pure and if one stands on the shoes then it is necessary that the shoes be pure.
2) There is more ihtiyat (care) that one does not pray while standing on the shoes. Stand on the earth, if you want you can stand upon your handkerchief.
3) It is necessary for the body of the deceased to be present; the janzah of the absent is not permissible
4) It is mustahab that the Imam stand in front of the chest of the deceased.
5) Several janzah maybe prayed at the same time; there is the option of putting the deceased in a row so that the chest of all is in front of the imam or in a line so that ones’ head is in line with the other’s feet and the others’ feet is in line with the others’ head. Wa ala hazal qayas (and presume the rest on this)
6) It is better to make three saf (rows) as it is mentioned in the Hadith that, “Whosevers’ salatul janzah was read by three saf, they will be forgiven.”
7) If there are, for example, seven people, then one should become the Imam, three people should stand in the first saf, two in the second saf, and one in the last saf (Guniyah)
8 ) In Janzah, the last saf is the best out of all the saf. [Durre Mukhtar]
9) Masbooq, one who missed some takbeer, should say the rest of his takbeer after the Imam says salaam, and he should say only the takbeer without the supplicatoins if he fears that people while start to give shoulder to the janzah before he finishes all the supplications. [Durre Mukhtar]
10) One can join the janzah even after the fourth takbber until the Imam has not said salaam. After the salaam of the Imam, he should say Allahu Akbar thrice (Duree Mukhtar) and say salaam.
11) The duaa for a boy or girl will be read for whoever died in a condition of madness in which they were born in or madness which occurred before puberty and lasted until death.
12) There is Gusul, Kafan, and Janzah for the child of a muslim whose akhtar (most) body had come out otherwise the child will be bathed, covered in sheet, and buried without gusul, kafan and salah. Akthar (most), from the head, means from the head to the chest; so there is no janzah for the child who was born crying from the head but passed away before the chest came out, and from the feet, akthar means from the feet to the back. A child born alive or dead will be given a name and on the day of Qayamat the child will be resurrected. (Durre Mukhtar, Raddul Muhtar)

The Order of Going with the Janzah Procession

1) It is an act of ibadat to give shoulder to a janazah
2) It is sunnat to give shoulder to all four legs ten steps each in such a manner that one shoulders the top head-right first, bottom leg-right second, then top head-left third, and then bottom-leg left last making a total of forty steps. It is in a Hadith Shareef that, “Whoever took the Janzah forty steps, his forty large sins will be forgiven.” It is also in a Hadith Shareef that, “Whoever shoulders all four legs, Allah will give him permanent magfirat (forgiveness).” [Alamgeeri]
3) There is no harm if one person holds a small child in his arms and people hold the deceased one after the other. [Alamgeeri]
4) It is not permissible nor allowed for ladies to go with the Janzah. [Bahare Shariat]
5) One should not return without praying the Janzah if he is with the Janzah, and he may return after the prayer with the permission of the awliyae mayyat and there is no need for permission after the burial. [Alamgeeri]
6) A husband may shoulder his wife’s janazah, lower it into the grave, and see the face. He may not give his wife gusul or touch her without anything between the body. The wife may give her husband gusul. [Bahare Shariat]

Source

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Appreciation

MV: Today is the great day for Americans in which we celebrate the man who helped win freedom for African Americans, Martin Luther King Jr. But this freedom should be great for Muslims all over the world, as Islam=Freedom. Now for those who have studied American history you should well know that most of the slaves that were imported to America were at first Muslims and then they were forced to convert to another religion by there masters. So in truth Martin Luther King Jr. ancestor could have been a Muslim.  Heres some cool information about that:

Multiple Trajectories of Islam in Africa
Islam had already spread into northern Africa by the mid-seventh century A.D., only a few decades after the Prophet Muhammad moved with his followers from Mecca to Medina on the neighboring Arabian Peninsula (622 A.D./1 A.H.). The Arab conquest of Spain and the push of Arab armies as far as the Indus River culminated in an empire that stretched over three continents, a mere hundred years after the Prophet’s death. Between the eighth and ninth centuries, Arab traders and travelers, then African clerics, began to spread the religion along the eastern coast of Africa and to the western and central Sudan (literally, “Land of Black people”), stimulating the development of urban communities. Given its negotiated, practical approach to different cultural situations, it is perhaps more appropriate to consider Islam in Africa in terms of its multiple histories rather then as a unified movement.

Source

MV: Other then Martin Luther King Jr, another great African Freedom supporter was Malcolm X who in fact was a Muslim himself! He thought the teaching of Elijah Muhammad and this is what he had to say:

“I am and always will be a Muslim. My religion is Islam.”

“I am not a racist in any form whatsoever. I don’t believe in any form of discrimination or segregation. I believe in Islam. I am a Muslim and there is nothing wrong with being a Muslim, nothing wrong with the religion of Islam. It just teaches us to believe in Allah as the God. Those of you who are Christian probably believe in the same God, because I think you believe in the God Who created the universe. That’s the One we believe in, the One Who created universe–the only difference being you call Him God and we call Him Allah. The Jews call Him Jehovah. If you could understand Hebrew, you would probably call Him Jehovah too. If you could understand Arabic, you would probably call Him Allah….”

- Malcolm X

MV: One great thing we should look at is Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a Dream Speech” which he wrote before he was Assassinated!

MV: And I’ll also throw in a short interview with Malcolm X about how great Islam is.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Malcolm X

Fasting the Day of Ashura

Hey Selam! You remember that post about the Day of ‘Arafah? Well Ive got good news for you folks…theres another day of a great day to fast coming up! The day of Ashura is a day or 3 (9,10 and 11 Muharram) in which is optional but if we do then our sins are forgiven from all of last year! So dont miss out on t onhis occasion which according to Christians comes the day after Christmas (26,27 and 28)! So why miss out on this day especially if you live in the US and are in winter vacation as Magrib is at only around 4:30! And thats not all…! Allah (SWT) comes down every night for the last third of the night and all way to the 7th heaven! Now if you make a wish then it there should be a 100% of it coming true! So be sure to try inshAllah!

A satellite view of Sinai and the Red Sea. Ashura commemorates the day that Allah saved the Children of Israel from Pharaoh.

Fasting on Muharram 10, known as the Day of Ashura expiates for the sins of the past year. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) arrived in Madinah in 622 CE, he found that the Jews there fasted on Muharram 10 and asked them the reason for their fasting on this day. They said, “This is a blessed day. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “We are closer to Musa than you are.” He fasted on that day and commanded Muslims to fast on this day. (Al-Bukhari) The following year, Allah commanded the Muslims to fast the month of Ramadan, and the fasting of Ashura became optional. It is also reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) intended to fast on the ninth and tenth. Ibn `Abbas reported: The Messenger of Allah fasted on the day of Ashura and ordered the people to fast on it. The people said, “O Messenger of Allah, it is a day that the Jews and Christians honor.” The Prophet said, “When the following year comes, Allah willing, we shall fast on the ninth.” The death of the Prophet came before the following year. (Muslim and Abu Dawud) Thus, according to scholars, you may choose to fast Ashura on three days (ninth, tenth, and eleventh); two days (ninth and tenth); or one day only (the tenth). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Fasting the day of Ashura (is of great merits), I hope that Allah will accept it as an expiation for (the sins committed in) the previous year.” (Muslim) But this expiation of minor sins comes only if you avoid major sins. It is a big mistake to rely on fasting a single day to “wipe your slate clean.” If you neglect your daily Prayers or the fast of Ramadan, or if you backbite, lie, commit adultery or other major sins, fasting on Ashura alone will not atone for your sins. The great scholar Ibn Al-Qayyim Al-Jawziyya (b. 691 AH/1292 CE) wrote: This misguided person does not know that fasting in Ramadan and praying five times a day are much more important than fasting on the Day of Arafah and the Day of Ashura, and that they expiate for the sins between one Ramadan and the next, or between one Friday and the next, so long as one avoids major sins. But they cannot expiate for minor sins unless one also avoids major sins; when the two things are put together, they have the strength to expiate for minor sins. Among those deceived people may be one who thinks that his good deeds are more than his sins, because he does not pay attention to his bad deeds or check on his sins, but if he does a good deed he remembers it and relies on it. This is like the one who seeks Allah’s forgiveness with his tongue (that is, by words only), and glorifies Allah by saying “subhan Allah” one hundred times a day, then he backbites about the Muslims and slanders their honor, and speaks all day long about things that are not pleasing to Allah. This person is always thinking about the virtues of his saying “subhan Allah” and saying “la ilaha illa Allah” but he pays no attention to what has been reported concerning those who backbite, tell lies, and slander others, or commit other sins of the tongue. They are completely deceived. (Al-Mawsu`ah Al-Fiqhiyyah, part 31, Ghuroor) You may hear of some customs associated with `Ashura’ such as cooking and eating certain foods on that day, wearing kohl or henna, or even merrymaking. Others consider this a day of mourning and wailing in honor of the Prophet’s grandson Al-Husayn, who was killed in battle on that day. The scholar Ibn Taymiyah (b. 661 AH/1263 CE) stated that all of these are bid`ahs (reprehensible innovations) that should be avoided. Take advantage of this opportunity to bring yourself closer to Allah on Ashura by fasting and praying for forgiveness. Source

Barbie in a Burka

MV: This is great! Modest barbie dolls…lets see them sing, Im a barbie doll now! But Fox News in the other hand have a little misunderstanding…

Britain’s biggest Barbie fan Angela Ellis said of the show: “Bring it on Burka Barbie, I think this is a great idea.”

The 35 year old from Cheshire who has a collection of more than 250 dolls — added: “I think this is really important for girls, wherever they are from they should have the opportunity to play with a Barbie that they feel represents them.”

Eid(Al-Adha) Mubarrak!!

MV: The Muslim Voice wishes all of you Muslims a happy Eid-Al-Adha Mubarrak!! InshAllah this Eid will be your best!! But be sure not to eat to much meat, only eat to make your stomach full 1/3 and make sure you dont skip eid namaaz for black friday!!! Ustakfurullah!!

Muslims Worldwide Celebrate Holy Festival Eid al-Adha

MV: Eid Mubaraak Khair! As eid to confirmed to begin Tomorrow for the US, I have added a post to represent eid for tomorrow InshAllah.

 

 

Muslims Worldwide Celebrate Holy Festival Eid al-Adha World | November 26, 2009, Thursday  Bulgaria: Muslims Worldwide Celebrate Holy Festival Eid al-Adha  The Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, is considered to be the Fifth Pillar of Islam.  Muslims believe that to undertake the Hajj is a moral obligation, and every able-bodied believer is required to attend the pilgrimage at least one in their lifetime.  The Hajj is fixed in time to the Islamic lunar calendar, occurring from the 7th to the 13th day of Dhu al-Hijjah, the twelfth month.  Ihram is the name given to the special state in which Muslims live whilst on the pilgrimage. This involves observing cleansing rituals to enable one to enter a sacred state of mind and body.  The Hajj is deeply associated with the life of the 7th century Islamic prophet Muhammad, but the ritual of pilgrimage to Mecca is considered by Muslims to stretch back thousands of years to the time of Ibrahim (Abraham).  The four days of pilgrimage are devoted to prescribed rituals that all adherents should observe. On the first day, They begin with Tawaf, walking seven times round the Kaaba (Ka’bah) – the cube-like Black Stone in the centre of the Great Mosque, Islam’s holiest shrine – in an anti-clockwise direction.  They also run seven times along a passageway in the Great Mosque, commemorating the search for water by Hajar, wife of the Prophet Abraham.  On the second day, pilgrims visit the sacred Mount Arafat, to pray and meditate, and to collect stones in preparation for the stoning ceremony at the three walls called Jumarat in the nearby city of Mina.  Finally, they shave their heads, perform a ritual animal sacrifice, and celebrate the global festival of Eid al-Adha.  The Hajj is the largest annual pilgrim gathering in the world. In 2009, it is estimated that about two million pilgrims have made the journey to Mecca. This is despite the fear of the spread of swine flu, which has led the Saudi authorities to put in place additional precautionary measures.  The pressing numbers of the faithful have caused problems in the past. In 2006, the simple dropping of a personal bag led to the deaths of 364 people in the resulting crush. Structural alterations to the holy sites have led to a greater measure of safety for the participating faithful.  The Editorial Team of Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) would like to wish all Muslims, both in Bulgaria and around the world, a joyous and holy celebration of Eid al-Adha, or Kurban Bairam, as it is known in Bulgaria, which begins on Friday.

Source

MV: On top of that, President Obama wishes an Eid Mubarrak to everyone once again.

Washington DC: November 26, 2009. (PCP) Michelle and I would like to send our best wishes to all those performing Hajj this year, and to Muslims in America and around the world who are celebrating Eid-ul-Adha. The rituals of Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha both serve as reminders of the shared Abrahamic roots of three of the world’s major religions.

During Hajj, the world’s largest and most diverse gathering, three million Muslims from all walks of life – including thousands of American Muslims – will stand in prayer on Mount Arafat. The following day, Muslims around the world will celebrate Eid-ul-Adha and distribute food to the less fortunate to commemorate Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son out of obedience to God.

This year, I am pleased that the Department of Health and Human Services has partnered with the Saudi Health Ministry to prevent and limit the spread of H1N1 during Hajj. Cooperating on combating H1N1 is one of the ways we are implementing my administration’s commitment to partnership in areas of mutual interest.

On behalf of the American people, we would like to extend our greetings during this Hajj season – Eid Mubarak.

Source

 

What are those Muslims doing over this Thanksgiving holiday?

MV: Uhffff…yes! School is over….for 4 days atleast, thank Allah! But seriously what do we Muslims have to look forward for the following days? Well…Tomorrow is a special day for both Americans and Muslims. For Americans there’s Thanksgiving which is a day Americans celebrate to be thankful, so Alhumdoillah this is a nice day for Muslims as well, as we can be thankful to Allah (STW)…but on top of that, that same day us Muslims fast on (optional but helpful) as its the 10th day of Zil-Hajj and fasting that day gets the same reward as fasting for 2 years…!! So whos having turkey for Iftari?

 

This Thanksgiving holiday coincides this year with part of the annual Hajj (Pilgrimage) that Muslims participate in.

The Hajj is the annual pilgrimage that all Muslims are required to perform once in their lifetime, if able. The Hajj is a journey that takes place in Saudi Arabia. The pilgrims performing Hajj go to the city of Mecca and sometimes travel through Medina or Jeddah. The Hajj is performed from the 7th to the 13th days of the month Dhu Al-Hijjah in the Islamic Calendar year.  This is the 12th month of this lunar calendar. A series of rituals are performed during the Hajj.

Interestingly this year 2009, one of those rituals, the Day of ‘Arafah, seems to be coinciding with Thanksgiving Day. On the Day of ‘Arafah, the 9th day of the Dhu al-Hijjah, Muslims who are on Hajj spend the day praying on the plain of ‘Arafah. Those who are not able to make the Hajj traditionally spend their day of ‘Arafah fasting. This is not an obligatory fast. The fast for Muslims lasts from the first obligatory prayer of the day (Fajr) to the evening prayer (Mahgrib). This is about an hour and a half before the sunrises to sunset. This fast is done in preparation for the three festive days that follow the Hajj. These days are called ‘Eid al-Adha. These days are most celebratory for the Muslim, like Christmas and Easter would be for the Christian or Yom Kippur for the Jew.

There are many benefits to the Muslim fast on the day of ‘Arafah.  ”Fasting on the day of ‘Arafah absolves the sins for two years: the previous year and the coming year, and fasting on ‘ashûra, (the tenth day of Muharram) atones for the sins of previous years.” [ Reported by all except al-Bukhârî and Tirmidhî] A prayer traditionally offered on this day is :”‘None has the right to be worshipped except God, alone, without partner. To Him belongs all praise and sovereignty and He is over all things omnipotent.’

While others are spending their day eating and filling their stomachs, many Muslims will be fasting and seeking to purify themselves. So, when you see Muslims fasting on Thanksgiving this year, do not be alarmed, you know why.

Amazing, Soothing, and Powerful Quran Recitation By Shaikh Muhammad AL Luhaidan

MV: Amazing…just like the title says…just take a few mins out of your time and watch this and it will seriously change your heart, like it did for me; And make sure you watch the video!

Thanks to Hannan Sayed for finding the video!

MashAllah!