Friday 12 August 2011

DARS-E-QURAN: LESSON 1

being Rabb is one of Allah's greatest quality which means that He takes care of all the needs of all His creation at all times and places. accepting Allah as your lord in the true spirit means that you love, fear, hold hope and have faith/trust in noone as much as you have in Allah and that should be evident not only by your words, but also by your heart and reflected in your actions. When a moment comes where you have to choose between the word/command of Allah and your personal will choice or that of a loved one, you should opt for Allah for He deserves your full commitment and submission. we have no idea of how merciful Allah has been to us, not only has He blessed us in terms of worldly blessings but by sending Prophet Muhammad (SAW), He gave us the opportunity to get to know Him, know His likes and dislikes and the path that would lead us to Him. He has been unfair to no one for He gave His realization to all ruuhs(spirits) in Aalim-e-arwaah where He asked,'Am i not your Rabb?" and we all replied in the positive. All people have thus been given the capacity to recognize their Allah, Allah has instilled this need, desire and drive in us to seek the truth, He gives us opportunities to reach out to Him, turn back to Him, by putting us through times good and rough. The decision to do so, is only left to us, whether we choose to reach out to Him or go further astray. He is most fair and we are most cruel for we ourselves call disaster upon ourselves by going against His commands. His knowledge exceeds past, present, future and the boundaries of this world and beyond. That is why when we dont understand why some things happen to us the way they do, He knows that in the greater scheme of things, its the best for us. An apparent loss may be a hidden benefit for us but due to our short sightedness we fail to see the wisdom in His ways. He is Rahman and Raheem, Rahman meaning His quality of being giving and blessing everyone in this world, irrespective of His religion and Raheem meaning His quality of being merciful forever and ever which is specified for muslims only. in surah-e-fatiha, there is a very important point where we pray that lead us onto the right path. what does that WE mean? and why WE has been used there?Allah is so merciful that He Himself has taught us how to pray to Him. knowing our weaknesses, He has been so kind that He has guided us how to pray to Him. By using WE instead of me here, He has added all muslims together, the weak ones with the strong ones, the stumbling ones with the strong footed ones, joining us with the jamaat of the sahabah, shohadah and saleheen. Us, the weak, non practising, always stumbling, non persistent ones have been blessed by this dua that unites us with the group of highly pious muslims.

Quran is not a book to be read once. it is the word of Allah. Kalam-e-elahi, literally the very words of Allah, His personal quotes and statements and He has been so kind that He blessed us with so many of them. He could've jsut sent a single quote and that too wouldve been sufficient to test our faith in Him but He was so generous that He sent this beautiful book to guide us in every walk and step of life, yet we dont take guidance from it.  many of us dont even bother to read it except for the one time where we employ a qari sahab to teach us to read it. many read it for sawab for we have known since forever that we get 10 naikis for reciting one word of the quran. some read it for wazaif, to get success in their worldly affairs such as job, marriage, etc. these are undoubtedly the many benefits of reciting the quran, but quran is meant for much more than that. we keep saying quran is a complete code of life yet we harldy take guidance from it for our daily life. Be it the role of a mother, father, daughter, son, sister, neighbour, employer, trader, son-in-law, Quran guides us in all relations and situations but we have restricted islam to ibadat only, neglecting the practising of it in our daily dealings. we hold grudges, indulge in backbiting, lie, cheat, take unfair advantage of our age, position, etc and then seek inner peace!
one major propaganda on the media these days is that aalims on the media are challenging the importance of hadith and sunnah of the prophet(SAW). many of the debates start and end at the point that has so and so matter been mentioned in the quran and if they say it hasnt, then they dont bother referring to hadith to counter check when infact at numerous places in the quran, Allah has asked believers to follow the way of the prophet (SAW) to reach Allah for who introduced us to Allah in the first place?it was prophet(SAW)! we did not individually receive revelations or got introduced to Allah all by ourselves. it was prophet(SAW) who took us out of darkness and gave us the sense to know our Allah. then how can we sideline him(SAW) and become experts on the quran and its message? it is only the status of the prophet(SAW) alone to give us the true understanding of the quran for only he(SAW) knew the meaning as was intended by Allah. in arabic, one word can have a 100 meanings, then who is to specify which word means what? if we take it upon ourselves or leave it to the so-called ullma, they can play around with the meanings of the quran, leading us all to utter misguidance. it has been mentioned in the quran to be beware of those who will sell away fatwas for a few pennies.
we are aware that Allah has taken it upon Himself to secure the quran until the end of this world, now that does not mean only the words of the quran will be secure but its meaning, as was intended by Allah and told by the prophet(SAW) will also be taken care of, for if the meaning is left to be interpreted by anyone who desires, million interpretations can come causing confusion and conflict.
whatever it is that you need, ask for it from Allah, dont be shy in asking for the smallest of things, for He likes it when his men ask from Him as that means that they realize their true status, that being mans inability to call upon any benefit or harm upon him without the will of Allah, his helplessness and powerlessness before His mightiness and powerlessness. that is why when you feel that you need guidance to take up the path of Allah or you need perseverance to keep you from going weak every now and then, ask for it.ask for guidance, ask for strong-footed faith, tell Him i am weak, whatever little i am able to do is also Your giving, for without You willing for me to do it, i wouldnt have been able to do it. You blessed me so i could pray to You, You gave me the taufeeq to remember You and now i ask for the strength to keep me on the right path for i am very weak and fear that i might go astray.

self-opinion is a disease when it comes to religion and this disease is very widespread today. people dont bother to open the quran and refer to the hadith and very casually comment on the commands of Allah giving their own interpretation. we often hear people saying, 'i dont think we have to observe pardah like this or i dont believe that interest is haram or that there are boundaries of interaction with non-muslims!? noone bothers to seek the right answer for everyone already has has or her own right answer and noone wants to know what Allah or his prophet(SAW) has to say about it.

taqwa means a relation so strong and precious that you fear doing anything to damage it. it not just plain fear that you may have of a principal or boss, one without any love or compassion but it is that kind of fear that you have when you dont want to hurt or disappoint someone you truly love. you feel that my Allah is so kind to me, He loves me so much, blesses me so much and only asks of me to live according to His rules, enjoy everything within His set limits and what do i do?i go off and break His rules and He still continues to bless me, How can i damage my relation with my so loving and forgiving Allah?

a man once came to prophet(SAW) and accpeted islam. he asked the prophet(SAW) have all my sins been forgiven? the prophet(SAW) replied ,yes. the man turned to leave and then came back and asked, was my Allah watching me when i was committing all those sins? the prophet (SAW) said, yes. the man, overwhelmed by shame, dropped dead that very moment!
every moment before death is an opportunity to repent and the moment of death may be right now!

people who make new amendments and inventions in the religion are worse than non-muslims for they at least declare themselves to be non-muslims unlike those who claim to be muslims yet distort the true picture of the faith.

hudallil muttaqeen 

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