This Ramadan…be an orange! Say what? “The example of a believer, who recites the Qur’an and acts on it, is like an orange (utrujjah) which tastes nice and smells nice. And the example of the believer who does not recite the Qur’an but acts on it is like a date that tastes sweet but has no smell. And the example of the hypocrite who recites the Quran is like a sweet basil which smells good but tastes bitter.

We sometimes forget the vast importance of salaah in our lives. Successful are the believers. Who are these believers? They are those who offer their salaah with full khushoo, with full submissiveness to Allah, those who establish the salaah. Listen to the podcast for more details on how you can be among the believers!

One of the greatest gifts that Allah has blessed us with is the ability to make tawbah and istaghfar after committing sins continuously. He (سبحانه وتعالى) has taught our forefather Adam (عليه السلام) the words of repentance and He taught Rasoolullah (صلي الله عليه وسلم) a very special dua. The dua is called the sayyidul istaghfar, and it is one of the pearls from the Sunnah that we should know.

Khushoo is to be conscious of God, to have taqwa, to have fear of Allah. And so khushoo is something that comes from the heart, and if the heart is clean, then the salaah–and everything else–will be clean. There are many ways that one can go about gaining khusoo; a few of them a few are: prepare ahead of time by performing wudoo properly use miswak repeat the words of the adhaan make du’a between the adhaan and the iqaamah For more information, listen to the podcast below.

Use the following chart as a quick reference Type Description Can I recite from memory? Can I touch a mushaf? Comments Menstruation The periodic blood that flows as a discharge from womens body Ok according to stronger opinion. No There is another opinion that forbids reciting Qur’an during menstruation May read Qur’an that is printed with tafseer/ translation (given that the non-Qur’anic text is more than the Qur’anic text) May read Qur’an from the computer screen Janaba The state of a person after sexual discharge, whether it was due to intercourse, an erotic dream or anything else No No You can touch a mushaf (a copy of the Qur’an — more Arabic then anything else) if there’s something in between you and it, such as a cloth Minor Impurity The state of a person after wudoo is broken Yes No There is another opinion that allows touching a mushaf in this state There are differences of opinion in some of these issues.

Of Allah’s names, is Al-Haleem (الحليم). What does Al-Haleem mean? It’s a very very deep name—like all of Allah’s names, it’s very deep. It comes from the root hilm, and hilm means a wisdom and a forebearance that allows a person to control their anger. Hilm is an intelligence that, in our terms, allows someone to control their anger, even if their anger is justified. It allows you to, when you are justifiably angry, to control it and not manifest it.

We hear this phrase thrown around a lot these days–“ahlul sunnah wal jam’aah” (literally, “the people of the sunnah and the jam’ah/group”). But what does it really mean, and who are the people who are TRULY ahlul sunnah wal jam’aah? To find out the answer, we must ask those who defined those terms. Not your friendly neighborhood shaykh or imam; not your mom, your dad, your grandfather, or his grandfather; not even the tabi’oon, or the companions.

“I guarantee a house in Jannah (Paradise) for one who gives up arguing, even if he is in the right; and I guarantee a house in the middle of Jannah for one who abandons lying even when joking / for the sake of fun; and I guarantee a house in the highest part of Jannah for one who has good manners.” [Prophet Muhammad (صلي الله عليه وسلم) – reported by Imam Abu Dawud]

In our last post, we looked at one of the dhikars taught to us by Rasulullah (صلي الله عليه وسلم) We noted that by being smart, we can earn lots of hasanats much more quickly. The dhikhar was: Subhaan Allaah wa bi hamdih, ‘adada khalqihi, wa ridaa nafsihi, wazinata ‘arshihi, wa midaada kalimaatihi (Glory and praise be to Allaah, as much as the number of His creation, as much as pleases Him, as much as the weight of His Throne and as much as the ink of His words) [Shaheeh Muslim: Book 35, Number 6575] When I first heard this hadith, I just loved it.

Remember the story of the companion Umm Sulaym (رضي الله عنها), what an amazing thing about how a wife is with her husband. Her husband, Talha, was out working, and it so happened that day that their son, 10 years old, died. She had a decision to make: when he comes home should she tell him right away, or should she just bear it and make him happy first and then when he is comfortable and settled in, then tell him?