Islam

Bismillah walhamdolilah wasalatu wasalam ‘ala Rasool Allah

Asalamu ‘alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatahu,

First and foremost, Ramadan Kareem! May Allah azza wa jal give us all the opportunity to take advantage of this blessed month and to make it a means of us attaining His Paradise. Ameen.

Due to Ramadan, I’ve found myself to be quite busy. Nonetheless, I do apologize for not having written anything for the past few makes. Please forgive me for my shortcomings.

Bismillah walhamdolilah wasalatu wasalam ‘ala Rasool Allah

Asalamu ‘alaikum!

Continuing in our journey of understanding the 112th chapter of the Qur’an, Allah says:

اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ

Allah, the Self-Sufficient [Surah Ikhlas V.2]

Recall, the greatest name of the Lord of the heavens and the earth is Allah. This is the name that He has chosen to name Himself with, and it is the grand name to which all His other Names and Attributes are attributed to. This is seen in the saying of Allah:

Bismillah walhamdolilah wasalatu wasalam ‘ala Rasool Allah

Alhamdolilah. We started this initiative to bring people closer to their salat and by the grace of Allah azza wa jal the numbers are increasing and so are the results. May Allah continue to shower His Mercy into this project and make our hearts humble towards Him.

This week and inshallah for the coming weeks we will concentrate our efforts in attempting to understand the surahs we often recite in the salat (i.e mainly surahs from the 30th juz of the Qur’an). Allah azza wa jal, the Most Wise, the Most Knowledgeable knew that these would be the most memorized surahs and thus made them short and easy. However, SubhanAllah…within these small and shorter surahs there is so much benefit that we can derive from them…its just amazing!

Asalamu ‘alaikum,

Bismillah walhamdolilah wasalatu wasalam ‘ala Rasool Allah.

Rifa’ah ibn Rafi’ said: We were praying behind the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam and when he raised his head at the end of the rak’ah he said:

“Allah listens to him who praises Him”

Bismillah

In one of the most beautiful beginnings of the Qur’an, Allah ta’ala starts surah Saad with a powerful reminder. He says:

ص ۚ وَالْقُرْآنِ ذِي الذِّكْرِ

Saad. And by the Qur’an, full of dhikr! [Surah Saad, verse 1]

This ayah begins with a letter, which are known as: huroof muqatta’aat, the disjointed letters. There are many opinions as to what these letters mean, but the greatest and strongest opinion is that none but Allah ta’ala knows their meanings. But why do some surahs start with these letters, if no one knows the meaning? One reason is that it is for emphasis, and astonishment: here are letters from your own language, yet you cannot produce anything similar to it!

Bismillah wa’lhamdolilah wassalatu wassalam ‘ala Rasool Allah

For the most part, or at least from my personal experience, from childhood salat was always made to seem very rigid; one way of doing it, no variation, very systematic. And since we were never taught these variations, salat just ended up becoming a thoughtless set of actions, repeating the same things over and over again. However, as I grew older I realized that there is a lot of variation in salat, a lot that we can do to really build that relationship Allah throughout our salat.

Bismillah walhamdolilah was-salatu was-salam ‘ala Rasool Allah sallalahu alayhi wasalam

Continuing in our discussion of the oft-repeated words and phrases in our salat, this week inshallah we will focus on looking at: SubhanAllah

This is another word that is very common in the Muslim’s vocabulary. We all have heard the word, we all say it in our prayers daily (inshallah), yet how many of us truly understand its meaning?

Bismillah walhamdolilah wasalatu wasalam ‘ala Rasool Allah

Asalamu ‘alaikum,

There are certain words and phrases which we pronounce in our salat repeatedly, yet more than likely we do not know what they mean. This is the state of our salat these days…nothing more than actions of the limbs. O Muslims! Remember faith (eman) is belief in the heart, statements upon the tongue, and actions of the limbs. All three are required for a completeness of faith. Inshallah, we will look at some of the oft-repeated words and phrases in our salat and analyze them to give us a deeper understanding and a deeper connection with our Lord.

By dear brother and sisters in Islam, Asalamu ‘alaikum wa rahmatullah

In this blessed month of Ramadan, it is only beneficial to us to increase our worship of Allah azza wa jal. Surely, this month is full of blessings like no other. O Muslims! Take advantage of this month, because the reality is we don’t know if we will see another one.

Our beloved Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam has said:

“The prayer offered in congregation is twenty five times more superior to the prayer offered alone in one’s house or in a business center; because if one performs ablution and does it perfectly, and then proceeds to the mosque with the sole intention of prayer, then for each step which he takes towards the mosque, Allah upgrades him a degree in reward and crosses out one sin till he enters the mosque. When he enters the mosque he is considered in prayer as long as he is waiting for the prayer and the angels keep on asking for Allah’s forgiveness for him and they keep on saying: ‘O Allah! Be Merciful to him, O Allah! Forgive him’, as long as he keeps on sitting at his praying place and does not pass wind.” [Bukhari]

Bismillah.

As Muslims, the phrase “alhamdulillah” الحمد لله (all praise and thanks is for Allah) is an integral part of our deen; we are taught to say it from both the Qur’an and Sunnah. Linguistically, Hamd is from ha-meem-daal ( حمد or ح م د) and it is to mention the good attribute of a person, such an attribute that is the at the level of perfection. Hamd is based on mahabbah (love) and ta’dheem (greatness). Hamd is not a fake praise, meaning it is not done to please the person or with no significance, Hamd is always true. Hamd implies admiration, love and magnifying the praise of mahmood (one who is praised). Hamd is a sincere and true praise, that the mahmood (one who is praised) deserves. The one doing hamd is doing submission to the one being praise–out of humility. Hamd also includes sincere gratitude and mentioning the kamaal (best) traits of someone.When we say alhamdulillah, it implies exclusivity and entirety, meaning that praise is entirely and only for Allah. The ‘al’ (ال) before ‘hamd’ is called “istighraaq” in Arabic, and when “al” comes before this phrase its means that entire praise, all kinds of praise and all the time, hamd is due to Allah. The “li” (in lillah, meaning for Allah) implies limitation which is known as “ikhtisaas” in Arabic and it means that Allah is the only One who deserves the hamd.