Ramadan Mubarak to you and your families! May Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) make this a most blessed and beneficial month for you all, and a source of taqwa and eman for the whole year, ameen!

Subhanallah, one of the companions of the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) even said, “We spend half the year making du’a for Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) to allow us to see another Ramdaaan, and we spend half the year making du’a for Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) to accept the Ramdaan that passed.”

In Surah Fatiha, Allah Almighty says:

Translation: Not of those who earned your anger, nor of those astray.

From this verse, scholars mention that we identify three levels of practice.

First, there are those who don’t know–they don’t know about Islam. They don’t know about the truth. Or they don’t know enough–for example, how to pay zakaah. These are the ones mentioned as gone astray (الضَّالِّينَ).

Ramadan kills all the excuses we make for ourselves throughout the year, and allows us to soar to new heights of eman!

If someone said to you, “let’s go to the masjid every day,” you’d say “we can’t do it!” but, in Ramdan, you do it! If someone said “let’s play Qiyam al-Layl all night,” you’d say “we can’t do it!” but, in Ramdan, you do it! Subhanallah, in Ramdan, wishes and hopes and dreams can become reality!

Madd (pronounced like “mud”), literally means “extension”. In recitation of the Qur’an (tajweed), madd is when you extend and stretch a vowel sound (aah, ooh, etc.).

There are two types of madd: fard (obligatory: you have to recite it) and mustahab (recommended: you should recite it). The general rule is that a madd inside a word is fard, while a madd that connects two words is mustahab.

For example, in Surah Baqarah, Allah says:

In many countries (mostly Western countries–America, Canada, Europe, etc.) our communities fight over the actual start date of Ramadan. This, itself, is not so bad–because, alhamdulillah, everyone backs up their opinion with a legitimate fiqh source (more on that in a second). However, the problem is that people in the same region fast on different days–sometimes, even two people in the same house fast on different days!

So how do we go about picking an appropriate date to start fasting?

For those who live in Western societies, fitnah abounds. From the moment you leave your house (or even before that), it bombards you from all sides, whether you’re a man or a woman. How can we lower our gaze under these distressing conditions?

The following tactics will benefit you inshallah if you apply them consistently.

1. Peripheral Vision: Fix your gaze on the ground a meter or two in front of you and see with your peripheral vision. You can safely see everything in front of you (so you won’t walk into other people–or telephone poles), and you can tell–without looking directly at things–if they are “safe” to look at or not.
2. Prepare in Advance: Before you go somewhere, spend a minute or so and think about the environment. Will you pass giant billboards or posters? What kind of people frequent the area? For example, if you walk to school in the winter, there are fewer things to worry about then in the summer. Similarly, the mall is usually far worse than an office.
3. Practise: Practise, practise, practise! Like all skills, the more you practise (and succeed), the easier it becomes in the future to do the same thing again. If you fail, don’t beat yourself up–revise your plan, and try again until you succeed.
4. Purify: If possible, purify your environment. For example, if you’re at home, throw out your TV, and install blockers on your computer (such as Firefox’s Adblock, which allows you to block any image on any website–useful for websites you frequent). Or, at the office, select landscapes and scenaries as your backgrounds and for decorations. Try Islamic calendars instead of regular calendars–they usually feature landscapes or masaajid instead of people.
5. Protect: Protect yourself from fitnah. If you know a certain route, a certain time, a certain place is trouble, avoid it. Safeguard your modesty.
6. Pray: Pray to Allah to help you–for surely, His help is the best help, and nothing happens without His will. Truly, He hears all those who call on Him for aid.

Another general tip is to increase your eman. You can try dhikr (subhanallah, alhamdulillah, Allahu akbar), or perhaps study Islam or study the Qur’an and find out more about our basic beliefs. (See the Related Entries section for more information.)

The following is some amazing nasiha adapted from an article by Dr. Aisha Hamdan (additional notes are italicized). Read it inshallah ta’ala and benefit from it. Props to The Muslimah Corner for finding it. You can find the original here.

The young and excited bride-and-groom-to-be, ecstatic about the upcoming wedding and marriage, and the joy that it will bring. Three to six months later, reality sets in, and both spouses realize that marriage is no easy task, but one that takes a great deal of effort and patience.

Another important gem we learn from the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) and the early generations is that power comes with conciseness.

During the time of the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم), he received a letter from a man named Musaylimah, who claimed prophethood as well, and wished to divide up the area. In response, the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) wrote:

“From Muhammad the Messenger of Allah to Musaylimah the liar. To proceed. Verily, the land belongs to Allah, and He inherits it to whom he wishes. And the outcome will always be for the believers.”

During the battle of Yarmuk, Az-Zubayr (رضي الله عنه) tried to incite the mujahideen to fight against the Romans. (You can read the entire incident here.)

From this incident, we learn some important leadership lessons:

1. When nobody steps up to the task, the leader must take the initiative to get the job done. Because, one way or another, the task must be completed.
2. Leaders also work in the trenches, when circumstances require it of them. They don’t sit back, delegate, and superwise, but rather, when called on, they jump in.  And when the companions built the first masjid in Medina, the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) laid bricks and spread cement with them.
3. Real leaders don’t hide. Unlike many leaders of countries today, real leaders from the best of generations did not hide, tucked away safe in their strongholds, while the battle waged. In fact, when ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه) became Khalifa, the other companions talked him out of fighting–otherwise, he would have been first at the front lines.

May Allah grant our ummah true leadership, as practiced by the best of examples before us, ameen!

What exactly is a hadith? It’s a saying of the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم). The Science of Hadith defines a hadeeth as “whatever is attributed to the Prophet, in terms of sayings, actions, approvals, and physical and character descriptions.” 1

Ahadith are an important part of Islam. They complement and the Qur’an, and provide us with numerous benefits and different types of information, including:

• Laws not directly stated in the Qur’an (eg. prohibition of visiting fortune-tellers)
• Details of things mentioned in the Qur’an (eg. how to make wudoo)
• A look into the lifetime of the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم)
• Tafseer (explaination) of the Quran (eg. the story of the People of the Ditch)

Some people deny ahadith, and say “we don’t need no hadiths! We can just use Qur’an!” In response, refer them to this verse: