Talking Points:
* His, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, recitation of the Noble Qurʾān *The Prophet’s, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, continuous fasting (wiṣāl) and his prohibition of it
*His bathing between the two Ishāʾs in Ramaḍān
*Warning against not fasting in Ramaḍān
*With the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in standing in the nights of Ramaḍān *The Prophet’s fasting, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, while travelling
Talking Points:
*With the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in his iʿtikāf
*Waking up his family, may Allah bless him and grant him peace
* His supplication, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in Ramaḍān
*His, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, increasing in good deeds in Ramaḍān
Talking points:
*His ifṭār, may Allah bless him and grant him peace
*The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, establishing that the crescent moon has been sighted for Ramaḍān and Shawwāl
*His, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, hastening to break his fast and his hastening to pray *The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in his suḥūr and his abstaining *The time of his suḥūr, may Allah bless him and grant him peace
*His, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, intention to fast from the night before, before dawn *The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with his family in Ramaḍān
Talking points:
*The connection between the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and the blessed month of Ramaḍān
* The descent of the Noble Qurʾān in Ramaḍān
*The Prophet’s preparation, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, for Ramaḍān after being obligated to fast it and the elucidation of its virtue
*With the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, on the etiquettes of Ramaḍān
By Imam Muhammad Mutawali ash-Sha'rawi, may Allah have mercy on him.
This clip is taken from the first five minutes of the Imam's tafseer of Surat al-Baqarah 2:186.
At the 0:57 mark, the imam is comparing this verse, which is a response to the Companions asking the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, about Allah, with the verses that answer their questions about legal rulings. The latter verses always contain the word 'Say!', i.e. the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is commanded to tell them the answer, which creates s.ome distance between Allah and them. (Examples would include al-Baqarah 2:189 and al-Anfaal 8:1) In al-Baqarah 2:186, this is not the case.
An interesting take on current cutural and social happenings, from Scott Adams
In both this blog and my podcast, the victim mentality and how it is a large part of Cultural Marxism/Postmodernism has been discussed at quite some length, but in this video, Scott Adams explains how a victim mentality, or at least a feeling of helplessness, can be broken, and it comes down to realising that a lot of physical problems are actually psychological problems. In other words, maybe you are not doing something because you think that you can't do it, or you think that it is not physically possible.
Adams explains this by way of two fallacies:
1. History repeats itself.
This isn't true because it is impossible for all the variables and factors from one historic event to be reproduced in another. (History definitely has cycles, as Imam Ibn Khaldun brilliantly pointed out in his Muqaddimah, but again, the exact variables and factors are never reproduced.) Adams' point is that submitting to the notion that history repeats itself puts oneself in a mental prison, i.e. one believes that events will always and inevitably play out according to some pre-determined plot and therefore there is nothing you can do to better your situation. To be clear, I'm not talking about eschatology and what Allah has decreed to happen in His universe. Rather, this is about how we approach our own lives on a daily basis, which includes our worship, our families, our jobs and so on.
Do you carry around certain assumptions regarding any of the above? For example, do you assume (and take for granted) that knowledge can only be obtained from certain people from a certain location? Do you assume that children can only be "educated" if they go to a government school, because that's what everyone else has done for several generations? Do you assume that getting a job can only be done via sending out CVs and application forms and hoping for an interview? Even better, do you assume that earning a living can only be done by working for someone else, or having a 9-5 job?
2. The problem has to be the solution.
Adams uses the example of slavery in the United States, but there are several examples that probably most people can relate to. What if you have an abusive parent ( or other family member, colleague, employer etc.) and this individual has caused you a great deal of psychological trauma? Do they have to apologise to you and rectify themselves before you can better yourself? Absolutely not. You can treat and better yourself regardless of what they say or do. Don't waste your life away while blaming your childhood for your failures as an adult. I never forget the statement of Susan Forward in her book Toxic Parents: 'You are not responsible for what was done to you as a child. However, you are responsible for what you do about it as an adult.'
In a hadith qudsi, related by al-Bukhari and Muslim, Allah says, 'I am as My slave thinks of Me.' We have to have a good opinion of Allah and expect good things to happen, even if they don't appear as such from our limited, human perspective. We should also believe that we can meet the challenges that Allah sends our way, because Allah does not burden a soul more than it can bear.
May Allah grant us all the tawfiq to be optimistic and positive and not to fall prey to feelings of helplessness and victimhood.
The doors of the cinema and the theatre have been flung wide open to women, and thus it would be wise to opens the doors of the masjids to them. As for what has been related by our Lady ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, that had the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, seen what women had invented by way of their embellishments he would have forbidden them from the masjids, what she meant is that women conduct themselves modestly when they go to the masjids. May Allah forbid that she, may Allah be pleased with her, intended to forbid something that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had permitted. Whenever there is modesty and the means of temptation have been nullified, women going to the masjids brings about nothing but good; good for them and good for the society, good in this worldly life and good in the Hereafter.
