TO SEEK SANCTUARY…………………FOUR THINGS TO ASK FOR!

Central mosque of Charleston on King street

 

TO SEEK SANCTUARY…………………FOUR THINGS TO ASK FOR!

Yesterday………….Allah made me take an exit that led me to Jumma prayers in Charleston.

As I approached the mosque of Central Charleston, I wondered if I would get a parking spot, as it was only 15 minutes to Salah time. I turned into the lane where the mosque stands, the doors to the narrow compound were wide open, and there right close to the main entrance a spot shimmered in the sun waiting for me to slide my car in and rush to the women’s entrance.

As the Khutbah began I realized why Allah had sent me here. As the Imam talked tears flowed from my eyes and from the woman sitting next to me. He was talking about the trials and tribulations facing us, but unlike most Imams and politicians he was not sitting judgment on the Muslims who were like children trapped in a burning house rushing to one door and then to the next to get out their respective prisons in their respective countries.

He was taking us back to our Rasool pbuh and his instructions on what to do in such circumstances whether you are in the burning house or outside.

One Imam had said to us earlier, if you have a problem of any kind go to the Quran and Sunnah and you will find a solution.

Sometimes we are so blinded by FOX News and others spewing out hatred and violence against the Muslims that we want Muslims to disappear from the face of America, which is what the enemies of Muslims desire. One woman told me that when a boy went on a shooting spree at the sandy Hook school she prayed that it would not be a Muslim. Fear is rampant and emotional abuse is pouring out of the silver screen of the TV and Internet.

Muslims are constantly being asked to sit judgment on other Muslims without having the authority to do so. They are being coerced not only to pass judgment in condemnation of the actions of others whom they neither know, nor associate with. They are being maligned if they do not judge someone without witnesses, proof, and jury for a crime that has been shown by a Muslim hating news media only.

Behavior of Muslims is being judged by what the news media outlets are spewing out most of who are owned and operated by those that have the ideology of hating Muslim.

Muslims in the west are bewildered what to do? Muslims are being asked to point fingers at each other and on the actions of those in faraway lands. Yet other than a photo shown on news medias that are overtly adversarial towards Muslims, there is no proof, no witnesses from the other side, no jury which is just and diverse, just opinions of talking heads calling Muslims to malign each other publicly without having the authority or position to do so.

This situation when you do not know truth from untruth is called “Fitna”

The Imam seemed to have read the hearts of people who are weary of being focally maligned by the western media and are being pressured to malign their fellow Muslims here and abroad and absorb the horrific acts of torture and injustice to their fellow Muslim in the world with a shrug of the shoulders.

He talked about Prophet Muhammad’s hadith and instructions about what each Muslim should do in these times of fitna as well as in times of ease.

He said………………. WE HAVE TO ASK ALLAH FOR REFUGE!

When Mariam AS was alone, suddenly a man appeared and approached her. She was shocked and asked for refuge from Allah………….It was Gabriel (AS) in the garb of a man who had come to bring her tidings of her son Jesus to be born. In complete helplessness and extreme vulnerability, Mariam AS invoked the refuge of Allah.

Rasool Allah pbuh said we should ask Allah for refuge in four things:

1. Jahdul Balaa: Extreme Calamity, severe catastrophe, overwhelming affliction, something that is so severe and you cannot remove it so much so that you may wish you were dead. Severe afflictions sometimes weaken the emaan and one asks “why me”. Let not any Muslim ask Allah to test him or her. Ask Allah for Affwa and Afeeya. The masnoon morning evening adkaars have this dua:           Here it is: DUA FOR AFFWA AND AFEEYAاللّهُـمَّ إِنِّـي أسْـأَلُـكَ العَـفْوَ وَالعـافِـيةَ في الدُّنْـيا وَالآخِـرَة، اللّهُـمَّ إِنِّـي أسْـأَلُـكَ العَـفْوَ وَالعـافِـيةَ في ديني وَدُنْـيايَ وَأهْـلي وَمالـي، اللّهُـمَّ اسْتُـرْ عـوْراتي وَآمِـنْ رَوْعاتـي، اللّهُـمَّ احْفَظْـني مِن بَـينِ يَدَيَّ وَمِن خَلْفـي وَعَن يَمـيني وَعَن شِمـالي وَمِن فَوْقـي وَأَعـوذُ بِعَظَمَـتِكَ أَن أُغْـتالَ مِن تَحْتـي .           TRANSLITERATION: “Allaahumma innee as’alukal-‘afwa wal-‘aafiyata fid-dunyaa wal’aakhirah, allaahumma innee as’alukal-‘afwa wal-‘aafiyata fee deenee wa dunyaaya wa ahlee wa maalee. Allaahumma astur ‘awraatee, wa ’aamin raw‘aatee. Allaahumma-ahfadhnee mim-bayni yadayya wa min khalfee, wa ‘an yameenee wa ‘an shimaalee, wa min fawqee, wa a‘oodhu bi‘adhamatika’an oughtaala min tahtee.”TRANSLATION:

   “Ô Allaah, I ask You for pardon and well-being in this life and the next. Ô Allaah, I ask You for pardon and well-being in my religious and worldly affairs, and my family and my wealth.              Ô Allaah, do not expose my defects and deficiencies and change my fears into peace and security. Ô Allaah, protect me from in front of me and from behind me, and from my right side and from my left side, and from above me, and I seek refuge in Your greatness that I be swallowed from beneath me.”

   Rasoolullaah (sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) never failed to say these prayers when eventering upon the evening or entering upon the morning.

   ONCE in the morning and evening (page 119)*

2. MISERY: Ask refuge from being thrown into the lowest dungeon of misery, ask for protection from anything that would bring deep and severe that unhappiness within you
3. BAD DESTINY: Ask refuge from Allah from a decree you do not like. Allah says that what he has decreed for you is good though you may not see it as such. Thus the dua…….

(My thoughts are that invoking Allah for protection from a bad destiny may change my perspective of it or He the All powerful may decide to change it, for He has power over all things. Depends on how sincere and how strong my dua is and if I am a muttaqi.)

4. FROM ENEMIES: This is self-evident. As one gets closer to Allah the enemies of Allah become our enemies and we are weak and thus we must invoke Allah to protect us from our enemies.

The Khutbah ended and he led the Jumma Salah to a stunned and grateful audience. In the Salah he recited the two surahs that are a balm for the soul: Surah Doha and Surah Inshirah.

It was as if Allah had instructed him that the hearts of his ebad are hurting with all the insults, abuse and violence being hurled at them and that He (Subhanak) wanted them to call on HIM in DUA………….

THE IMAM SAID TO RECITE DUA QUNOOT IN THE AM SALAH AS THE PROPHET DID THAT SOMETIMES:

HERE IT IS A DUA FROM SHEIKH ELAFASY:

DUA QUNOOT