Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

Getting Rewarded
An-Nahl (The Bee) Chapter 16: Verse 35

"The worshippers of false gods say: ‘If Allah had so Willed, we should not have worshipped aught but Him, neither we nor our fathers, nor should we have prescribed prohibitions other than His.’ So did those who went before them. But are Messengers charged with aught but to preach the clear message?"

It is false to argue that we should have been compelled to follow guidance, because Allah gave us the freedom to choose belief and righteousness and equipped us with everything necessary for this purpose in accordance with His Divine Will, so that out of our own free will we could choose and abide by truth and virtue and then get our reward.

This leads us to two important results:

1) If Allah had guided aright all men and prevented them from doing any wrong or committing any sin, which Allah could easily have done, this would have transformed human beings into angels and rendered all their human responsibilities and obligations meaningless since these require freedom of choice and action.

2) When people try to absolve themselves of their obligations on the pretext that they are helpless in the face of Divine Will, they in fact reject the blessing with which Allah has honoured them – the blessing of free will. This is nothing short of rejecting the pattern fixed for human nature by the higher Will of Allah. In such a case man could not rightfully hope for any reward for following and obeying Him. None of these false assertions is supported by any factual evidence in life. And both the Quran and the Hadith explicitly and conclusively reject and repudiate them.

Compiled From:
"Freedom and Responsibility in Quranic Perspective" - Hasan Al-Anani, pp. 138-139

From Issue: 767 [Read original issue]

Understanding The Prophet's Life

Visiting Graves

Abdallah ibn Buraidah reported from his father that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "I had forbidden you to visit graves, but now you may visit them. It will remind you of the Hereafter." [Muslim, Ahmad]

Aishah also reported: "I asked: 'What should I say when I pass by a graveyard, O Messenger of Allah?' He replied, 'Say, "Peace be upon the believing men and women dwelling here. May Allah grant mercy to those who have preceded us and those who are to follow them. Certainly, Allah willing, we will join you"'." [Muslim]

Imam Malik and some Hanafi scholars, and, according to one report from Ahmad, most of the scholars hold it permissible for women to visit graves. This is based on the preceding hadith from 'Aishah, "What should I say to them, O Messenger of Allah when visiting graves?" Abdallah ibn Abi Mulaikah is also reported to have said, "Once 'Aishah returned after visiting the graveyard. I asked, 'O Mother of the Believers, where have you been?' She said: 'I went out to visit the grave of my brother Abd ar-Rahman.' I asked her: 'Didn't the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, prohibit visiting graves?' She said, 'Yes, he did forbid visiting graves during the early days, but later on he ordered us to visit them'." [Al-Hakim and Al-Baihaqi]

Anas reported: "The Prophet, peace be upon him, saw a woman crying by the grave of her son, and said to her, 'Fear Allah, and be patient.' She replied, 'What do you care about my tragedy?' When he went away, someone told her, 'Indeed, that was the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him.' The woman felt extremely sorry and she immediately went to the Prophet's house, where she did not find any guards. She called out: 'O Messenger of Allah! I did not recognize you.' The Prophet, peace be upon him, said, 'Verily patience is needed at the time of the first affliction'.'' [Bukhari and Muslim] This supports the argument in favour of the permissibility of women visiting graves, for the Prophet, peace be upon him, saw her at the grave and did not show his disapproval of it.

The purpose of visiting graves is to remember the Hereafter, which is something that both men and women need. Men are by no means more in need of this reminder than women.

Compiled From:
"Fiqh-us-Sunnah" - As-Sayyid Sabiq

From Issue: 816 [Read original issue]

Cool Tips!

Islamic Call

The propagation of Islam was the mission of all the prophets and messengers of Allah. There was never a prophet who was not a preacher and teacher. All of them preached the same message: 'Worship Allah, you have no other god but Him.' They all called to their people saying: 'I do not seek any reward from you for this work.'

There are five premises to the Islamic call, it has five approaches, and its results are also five.

The five premises

First: sincerity and truthfulness with Allah, and to seek His favour. Allah says: 'And, they were not enjoined aught but that they should worship God, sincere in their faith to Him alone.' (98:5)

The Prophet (peace be upon him) foretold that the first with whom the fire of hell will be lit are three; among them a scholar who acquired knowledge so that people would say he is learned.

Second: to practice what one preaches. Actually it is a scandal and disgrace that a person's actions contradict his words. Allah derides such people in His Quran: 'Do you bid other people to be pious, the while you forget your own selves - and yet you recite the divine writ? Will you not, then, use your reason?' (Qur'an 2:44)

Third: gentleness in presenting the message. Allah advised Musa and Haroon (peace be upon them both) to adopt this measure with Pharaoh, the greatest tyrant of his time: 'But speak unto him in a mild manner, so that he might bethink himself or [at least] be filled with apprehension.' (Qur'an 20:44)

And to Prophet Muhammad, He also cautioned: 'And it was by God's grace that thou [O Prophet] didst deal gently with thy followers; for if thou hadst been harsh and hard of heart, they would indeed have broken away from thee' (Qur'an 3:159).

Hence it was on this basis the Prophet, declared: 'Make matters easy and do not make them difficult. Give glad tidings and do not drive people away.'

Fourth: adopt a gradual approach to propagation. Do as Prophet Muhammad did in his mission by beginning with the most important matters; then follow them up in order of priority. This was clearly demonstrated in the advice he gave to Muadh (may Allah be pleased with him) before he sent him to Yemen. "You will come upon a People of the Book (Jews and Christians), the first thing you should invite them to is to bear witness that there is no God save Allah and that I am the Messenger of Allah. If they respond positively to this, then inform them that Allah had ordained for them five prayers each day and night.'

Fifth: address every people with what is suited for them and their needs. There is a special approach to the people of the cities and another approach to the villagers. Similarly, there is a special approach to the Bedouin. The intellectual has his position and the ignorant has his position. So too, there is a style for the argumentative and an entirely different one for the submissive. 'And whoever is granted wisdom has indeed been granted wealth abundant.'

[to be continued]

Compiled From:
"Thirty Lessons For Those Who Fast" - A'id Abdullah al-Qarnee

From Issue: 789 [Read original issue]