There are holes in the line where my friends stood in Jumma and now they are gone……………..
Right as we speak they are entering the Masjid el Haraam and as they lay eyes on the House of My Lord, they are stunned and speechless…………………….I close my eyes and I am with them, right beside them gazing at the House of our Lord, and I too am speechless………..
The doors of the Masjid el Haraam:courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53967601@N00/2335040068/
The dua for entering the Masjid
‘I take refuge with Allaah, The Supreme and with His Noble Face, and His eternal authority from the accursed devil. In the name of Allaah, and prayers and peace be upon the Messenger of Allaah.
O Allaah, open the gates of Your mercy for me.’
I close my eyes and I am there, I open my eyes and I pray that I will soon be there, Inshallah!
Can you imagine what going to the spa would be like without soap and all those herbal fragrances?
Well…………It is time to thank the Muslim inventors who taught it to the Crusaders because they could not stand their body odor.
Excerpted from The independant by Paul Vallely
via a friend FS from South Africa:
Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today. The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans who used it more as a pomade.
But it was the Muslim Arabs who combined vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil. One of the Crusaders’ most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not wash.
Temple hewn into the rock: Courtesy:http://www.flickr.com/photos/marceloruiz/2492794354/in/photostream/
A summary from the Tafseer from Dr. Farhat Hashmi
In the valley of the rocks approximately two thousand years before Christ, dwelled a most advanced nation.
The material advancement of this nation made these people content with who and where they were. Their sense of self-satisfaction lulled them into a state where they failed to examine their business practices. They were dishonest in their dealings in business. One in particular was in weights and measures.
When warned by their Prophet, a Warner from Allah Subhanawataala to stop the Dhulm (taking more than what is due to them) they laughed at him.
When his warnings started to take effect in some of the populace, the nations leaders became alarmed primarily because if the Prophets warnings took effect on the populace, the most serious consequence on the nation and its leaders would be that they would lose their current lifestyle.
Thus they tried to malign the message as well as the messenger i.e. the Prophet himself. When that failed in this strategy, they made fun of him and eventually demonized him. When all of this failed they threatened him with death and destruction of his followers.
End summary
This is where I must pause and reflect on my surroundings, and myself and the world brought to me on the wings of cyberspace.
What is happening all over the world? Muslims are being harassed, terrorized, invaded, tortured, evicted from their homes, muslim girls raped, and burned, and their homes are being bulldozed…………..listening to this and looking at the pictures and videos one loses heart.
It seems to me that when this surah was revealed in Mecca times were similar to current day, and the oppression and torture of Muslims by the powerful Quraish seemed insurmountable. Prophet Muhammad pbuh who was a gentle soul could feel the anguish of the handful of people who had accepted Islam and were being tortured for it. Allah Subhanawataala in this Surah is reassuring him by showing him vignettes of the past and sharing the outcome of disobedient nations.
Summary continues
It is in this milieu, (The situation in Mecca) that Allah Subhanawataala, rewinds time for him (pbuh) and shows him the outcome of some of the most powerful and most affluent nations when they obstinately remain disobedient.
They are eventually destroyed, and join the ranks of “the perished nations” as an example of” those who did not heed the Warner sent by Allah Subhanawataala”
End summary
My Take:
Being a Muslim in name does not bring the protection of Allah upon us, it is only when we are obedient to his commandments as brought by Prophet Muhammad pbuh confirming the message brought by the past Prophets, that we can be sincere in invoking His protection and mercy.
When an ideology recommends a change in lifestyle, the self-satisfaction of the individual especially if he or she is materially well off is threatened. Such an individual or nations resist change, any change that will change their comfort level, even if currently entails usurping the rights of the less fortunate or the innocent.
Sometimes a nation (like the nation in the valley of the rocks) gets drunk with power and challenges Allah Subhanawataala’s Might and Magnanimity by removing all vestiges of mention of His name or even sometimes ban His worship.
Elsewhere in the Quran Allah Subhanawataala says that he will replace the nation of disobedient people with those who are obedient and fearful of Him. In this Surah he gives a vivid history lesson to Prophet Muhammad pbuh and us of how that can happen.
This surah also alludes to the disobedient nations that perished due to a variety of reasons which included the misuse of their sexuality, misuse of their business practices and the deliberate and overt negation of what is right in the eyes of Allah and the deliberate and overt acceptance of What He Subhanawataala has forbidden us from.
Elsewhere in the Quran Allah Subhanwataala reassures us that the only things that he has forbidden us are those that are harmful to us. Sometimes at first pass those things that he has forbidden us seem okay but in the long reach of the arm of time and society they turn out to be devastatingly detrimental.
The literal meaning of sin is “missing the mark” Thus when one is trying to be righteous (which is the bull’s-eye) but one misses the bull’s-eye, that is sin.
Allah’s Messenger (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “Beware of sins which are treated as being minor, just like a people who encamp in the centre of a valley, so someone brings a stick of firewood and someone else brings a stick until they are, therefore, able to bake their bread. (I.e. many small sticks collected became important or significant enough that a fire could be lit) Likewise, sins which are treated as being minor, and for which the person is taken to account, will destroy him.” [Ahmad]
It is just as the noble companion Abdullah ibn Masood (radi Allahu anhu) said: “The believer sees his sins as if he were sitting beneath a mountain which he feared was about to fall upon him, whereas the wicked sees his sins like a man who finds a fly settle upon his nose, so he does this (the narrator brushed it away from his nose).”
The Muslim should realize the greatness of his Lord, the One free and far from all imperfections, and His tremendous Power and Might, and he should not think of the sin as being great or small! Rather he should think of it with regard to the One whom he is disobeying.
The committing of sin removes eemaan and fear of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) from the heart. Each sin leaves a black dot upon the heart, killing it a little bit. When the heart is covered in black, a seal is then put on it and the door of guidance is shut on it. The sins, which are ignored, neither repented for nor erased by the doing of good deeds, cause their doer’s destruction.
Clouds can bring rain, or devastation. Here is a Hadith illustrating the responses to changes in nature if one has knowledge of the Quran, and awareness that His (Subhanawtaala) bounties (rain) can be a blessing or a disaster (The winds that came with clouds and destroyed the disobedient nation):
HADITH
Sahih Al Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 54, Number 428:
Narrated Ata:
‘Aisha said If the Prophet saw a cloud In the sky, he would walk to and fro in agitation, go out and come in, and the color of his face would change, and if it rained, he would feel relaxed.” So ‘Aisha knew that state of his.
So the Prophet (pbuh) said, I don’t know (am afraid), it may be similar to what happened to some people referred to in the Holy Quran in the following Verse:
-- “Then when they saw it as a dense cloud coming towards their valleys, they said, ‘This is a cloud bringing us rain!’ Nay, but, it is that (torment) which you were asking to be hastened a wind wherein is severe torment.” (46.24)
The letter from Him:courtesy of:http://www.flickr.com/photos/estherase/152531067/
Have you ever received a letter from a loved one who cares about you?
In it he tells you he loves you that he will take care of you forever, that everything in the past is forgotten because of the words of apology that I had uttered in my last conversation with him.
He promises that this exile will soon be over and I will be able to return to the comfort, security and beauty of His home, where I will lack no comfort, where extreme luxury will not be synonymous with hedonism, where I will not tire nor become bored with the beauty of the environs. He promises to be there for me and that I will have no illness nor physical discomfort and he will gather me in his arms and soothe all the pain and sadness away……………forever
I am sitting in the computer room and out of this electronic apparatus come His soulful words soothing me, rejuvenating me, promising me a vision of my future, comforting me, holding my hand in His and showing me the beauty of The Gardens, warning me from the fire, giving me examples of the mistakes people make, with graphic stories of the past, reminding me of the promise of one of His creatures Iblis to wreck vengeance on the children of my father.
As the words fade and sink into the recesses of my heart and brain, I am bemused into a state of tranquility and I wonder where have I been all these years.
An image rises in my brain of my great Aunt sitting on the bed reciting the Quran, the most peaceful expression on her face, stopping to talk to me with a smile and then carrying on as if she was in the middle of a page-turner thriller and that she could not wait to find out what happens next.
I now understand her absorption. At that time I thought she recited the Quran out of duty and because she was old and had no other interests. Little did I know that she also was reading her personal letter from Him and could not wait to get back to it and that the mundane activities of daily life were merely an interruption to this love missive from her Lord.
I no longer question why the message He gives me with his words springing out of the Musaf are just for me, and that someone else finds his own personal message in those very words.
I am no longer surprised that His message of love and warning to behave myself while I am here and to warn me of the pitfalls and my enemy are for time immemorial and for every one of His creatures………….for even I at different stages of my life have gone back to find His words to give me a guide map and have been able to do so.
It is His miracle and He has mesmerized me with His words and with the vision and goal He has shown me.
Will I be able to reach it in the time I have left?
Inspired by the recitation of Surah Hijr by Sheikh Al Afasy ayahs 26-52
I am on the island riding my bike along the path between trees and along lagoons. Along the way I come across the magnificence of Allah’s creations………………..All in tasbeeh!
Beauty in wrinkles in a youthful Southern flower
I stop to adjust my bike and enjoy the cool of the lagoon and I feel I am being watched and there lazily eyeing me from the middle of the lagoon is an Alligator:
I move on and the sun catches the orange of the fall berries and hold them for me to take a picture:
Cascading berrries in the afternoon sun
Meanwhile Allah Subhanawataala lights the yellow flowers with the sun and I feel it is spring instead of fall.
As I turn off towards the beach Allah Subhanawataala sprinkles the surface of the ocean with diamonds to adorn the little boat :
Subhanallah! Alhamdollillah! La illaha ilallah wa Allah O Akbar!
Allah Subhanawataala taught our beloved Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him, many things about the science of nature, the sun, the moon, the stars and the twelve month calendar which is all in the Quran.
Below is a beautiful hadith illustrating obedience to Allah by His creation, punctuality,and the Final Day, explained by Prophet Muhammad so that even a child could understand it:
“Do you know where the sun goes (at the time of sunset)?” I replied, “Allah and His Apostle know better.” He said, “It goes (i.e. travels) till it prostrates Itself underneath the Throne and takes the permission to rise again, and it is permitted and then (a time will come when) it will be about to prostrate itself but its prostration will not be accepted, and it will ask permission to go on its course but it will not be permitted, but it will be ordered to return whence it has come and so it will rise in the west. And that is the interpretation of the Statement of Allah:
“And the sun Runs its fixed course For a term (decreed). that is The Decree of (Allah) The Exalted in Might, The All-Knowing.” (36.38)
Masjid Quds in Capetown, South Africa :
Photo taken from behind the engraved glass balustrade on the balcony of the womens prayer mezzanine, looking down at the men's prayer section.
A truly beautiful Masjed with truly good people in it. My Bhabi's father took Shahada there.
I move on and the sun catches the orange of the fall berries and hold them for me to take a picture:
As I turn off towards the beach Allah Subhanawataala sprinkles the surface of the ocean with diamonds to adorn the little boat :
Subhanallah! Alhamdollillah! La illaha ilallah wa Allah O Akbar!
