Tazkiyyah

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.)

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!

We praise someone under two circumstances: for the excellent attributes they possess, or for the deeds they perform towards us, such that we feel gratitude towards them. [1]

The only one who deserves praise in all these levels is the Creator of excellence, the Perfect Being who showers us with abundant favors again and again!

Translation: All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds. [Surah Al-Fatiha, verse 2]

Last month before summer ends, we let the days go by or wrap up summer courses before it all starts over again! To get that degree, we consistently keep up with projects, homework, study for tests, etc. And sure enough, most of us accomplish this ‘goal’ within the time we aimed for.

But do we have similar goals for learning the deen? It might be something we admired–and perhaps desired–but never really worked for. It is not a shock to find most of us spent our youth and failed to reach any significant levels of acheivement with respect to our knowledge of Islam–which is supposed to be our way of life. Do we prepare to pass this life’s test even remotely at the same level as we do for our duniya education and goals? How regularly do we study the Qur’an or the Arabic language?

On the authority of Abu al-‘Abbas Sahl bin Sa’d al-Sa’idi (رضي الله عنه) who said:

A man came to the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) and said: “O Messenger of Allah, direct me to an act which if I do it, [will cause] Allah to love me and people to love me.” He (صلي الله عليه وسلم) answered: “Be indifferent to the world and Allah will love you; be indifferent to what people possess and they will love you.”

Learning Arabic? Trying to memorize the Qur’an? Then inshaAllah you’ll find this Yahoo Groups beneficial: Qur’anic Word of the Day.

Every day, the administrator sends out a word–Arabic and english–as well as references to two ayat in the Qur’an that contain the word (transliteration and translation). Very beneficial mashaAllah.

Also, for those new to Yahoo! Groups, they’re like public mailing lists. You can configure your settings so you receive an email daily, or a digest weekly, or no email (and you browse from the site). The QWOTD list contains archives, so you can check out digests dating back to January 2006.

The following is a beautiful little speech by Shaykh Abdullah Adhami, entitled “A Wife”. Read it inshallah ta’ala and benefit from it. Props to Beautiful Islam for the original.

By getting married you are not just getting a wife, you are getting your whole world. From now until the rest of your days your wife will be your partner, your companion, and your best friend.She will share your moments, your days, and your years. She will share your joys and sorrows, your successes and failures, your dreams and your fears. When you are ill, she will take the best care of you; when you need help, she will do all she can for you.When you have a secret, she will keep it. When you need advice, she will give you the best advice. She will always be with you: when you wake up in the morning the first thing your eyes will see will be hers; during the day, she will be with you, if for a moment she is not with you by her physical body, she will be thinking of you, praying for you with all her heart, mind, and soul; when you go to sleep at night, the last thing your eyes will see will be her; and when you are asleep you will still see her in your dreams. In short, she will be your whole world and you will be her whole world.The best description that I personally have ever read describing the closeness of the spouses to each other is the Qur’anic verse which says: “they are your garments and you are their garments” [Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 187]¹.

While FIFA World Cup blares over TV, reports on the radio, articles in the paper, we see our friends, our family, our co-workers, all of them glued to this new world.

Here are eleven reasons to unglue them (and yourself!) inshallah ta’ala:

1. I will be questioned on the Day of Judgement about how I squandered and wasted my time.
2. Who are those guys running around like headless chickens kicking that ball? Why should they matter to me?
3. I still need to memorize the Qur’an or learn how to pray properly, so why am I watching FIFA instead?
4. I veg on the couch and consume large quantities of junk food during matches–but imagine how much exercise I could get if I played soccer half that much!
5. There are better ways to make the best use of our limited time, like sitting with family, discussing with friends, going for a walk, learning something new and useful, etc.
6. It keeps me distracted from the bigger things in life — getting rid of injustice oppressers have instilled, spreading the message of Islam (especially in light of the 17 arrests in Canada), etc.
7. I can start a business or an exciting new da’wa project and get as much fun (and more benefit!) out of that!
8. The time I spend watching is preventing me from giving others their due rights–like my parents.
9. I could be watching something beneficial (and minus the partly-dressed women during commercial breaks) like Foundations of Islamic Studies instead!
10. Death can strike at any moment, would I want to die with a bag of chips in one hand and “viva Portgual!” on my lips?
11. It promotes nationalism. (Pop quiz: what did the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) say about nationalism?)

And this applies to time-management (or mis-mangement) in general, and not just World Cup specifically.