A True Muslim's relationship with Allah: Imam Abu Ali al-Juzjani [RA]

Shaykh Abu Ali al-Juzjani [RA] who when asked about the distinguishing traits of the spiritual traveller (seeker of Allah's pleasure) said:

"Obedience to God is their sweetness; love of God is their companion; God is their need and He is their protector. Righteousness is their nature; with God is their commerce; upon Him they depend; with Him is their intimacy; and in Him is their confidence…The Quran is their speech, gratitude their ornament, the invocation of God their booty… Life is their place of alighting [on their journey], death is their way station; the grave is their citadel; and the Day of Judgment their feast day. [To stand] before God is their most ardent desire, in the shade of the Throne is their gathering place, in [the paradise of] Firdaws is their dwelling and the vision of God the object of their destiny."

From- 'The Stumblings of Those Aspiring'
By Imam Abu 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sulami Al-Naysaburi
Introduced and Translated by Kenneth L. Honerkamp

Donot stop Dhikrullah because of inability to concentrate in it

Donot stop Dhikrullah because of inability to concentrate in it:

 An issue that often times arises when we try to implement adding dhikr into our lives is that we start off excited and really feeling it. We start off feeling like a fish that has just been placed in water after struggling to breathe on land. But then, the feeling starts to fade and we start losing concentration and stop feeling our words. We start feeling that we are speaking empty words and then shaytaan (Satan) comes in telling us that since we are not able to concentrate and also don’t feel it, there is no point in doing it.

 The great scholar and sage, ibn Ataillah Iskandari [RA], says regarding this:
“Do not stop remembering God [Dhikrullah] just because your heart is not present. Forgetting Him completely is worse than being inattentive while you are mentioning him; perhaps He will elevate you from being inattentive to being attentive, and from being attentive to being fully present with Him, and from being fully present with Him to being fully absent from anything but Him; ‘and this is not difficult for God’ (Qur’an 35:17).”
 

List of 70 Major Sins -by Imam Dhahabi

List of 70 Major Sins

-from 'The Major Sins' (Al-Kaba’ir) by Imam Dhahabi [RA]

 

The Major Sins

1. Associating anything with Allah

2. Showing disrespect to parents

3. Murder

4. Practicing magic

5. Abandoning salah (ritual Prayer)

6. Not paying zakah

7. Not fasting during the month of Ramadan without excuse

8. Not performing Hajj, while being able to do so

9. Severing relations with relatives

10. Committing adultery

11. Committing sodomy

12. Dealing in riba (interest)

13. Wrongfully consuming the property of an orphan

14. Lying about Allah or His Messenger

15. Running away from the battlefield

16. Deceiving the people that one rules and being unjust to them

17. Being proud and arrogant

18. Bearing false witness

19. Drinking alcohol

20. Gambling

21. Falsely accusing chaste women (i.e. of committing fornication or adultery)

22. Stealing from the spoils of war

23. Stealing

24. Committing highway robbery

25. Making false oath

26. Committing oppression

27. Earning ill-gotten gain.

28. Consuming what is unlawful.

29. Committing suicide

30. Lying frequently

31. Judging unjustly

32. Giving and accepting a bribe

33. Imitating the opposite sex (in dress, behavior, and the like)

34. Allowing one’s wife, daughters, etc. to display their beauty to men or conduct illicit sexual relations

35. Marrying a divorced woman in order to make her lawful for her ex-husband to remarry her after he irrevocably divorced her

36. Not protecting oneself or one's clothes from being contaminated with urine or excrement.

37. Showing off

38. Learning knowledge of the religion for the sake of this world and withholding that knowledge (i.e., not teaching people)

39. Betraying a trust

40. Recounting favors

41. Denying Allah's Decree

42. Listening to people's private conversations

43. Carrying gossip

44. Swearing

45. Breaking contracts

46. Believing in fortune-tellers

47. Behaving badly towards one’s husband

48. Making statues

49. Lamenting, wailing, tearing the clothing, and doing other things of this sort when an affliction falls

50. Treating others wrongfully

51. Treating one’s wife, servant, the weak, and animals badly

52. Offending one's neighbor

53. Offending and abusing Muslims

54. Offending people and having an arrogant attitude toward them

55. Trailing one's garment in pride

56. Wearing silk and gold (this is for men only)

57. Running away from one’s master (this is for slaves)

58. Slaughtering an animal that has been dedicated to anyone other than Allah

59. To knowingly ascribe one's paternity to a man other than one's biological father

60. Arguing and disputing violently

61. Withholding excess water

62. Giving short weight or measure

63. Feeling secure from Allah's Plan

64. Offending pious people

65. Not praying in congregation but praying alone without an excuse

66. Persistently missing Friday Prayer without any excuse

67. Usurping the rights of the heir through bequests (to others)

68. Deceiving and plotting evil

69. Spying for the enemy of the Muslims against Muslim's interest

70. Cursing or insulting any of the Companions of the Prophet

Source: The Major Sins (Al-Kaba’ir) by Muhammad ibn `Uthman Adh-Dhahabi, rendered into English by Mohammad Moinuddin Siddiqui.

The main problem of the Ummah! by Saeed Ramadhan

Dr. Saeed Ramadhan on the main problem of the Ummah!

 

Tariq Ramadhan quotes his father Dr. Saeed Ramadhan, (who was the special student and son-in-law of Hassan Al Banna shaheed, the founder of Ikhwan Al Muslimoon.) on the importance of spirituality...

 

 "A few months before returning to God, he said to me, with the depth of his sadness and a tearful glance: "Our problem is one of spirituality. If a man comes to speak to me about the reforms to be undertaken in the Muslim world, about political strategies and of great geo-strategic plans, my first question to him would be whether he performed the dawn prayer (al-fajr) in its proper time." He observed the agitation of each and everyone, including my own. He reminded me so much not to forget the essential, to be with God in order to know how to be with men. An entire life in struggle, the hair turned grey by time, and a reminder: "Power is not our objective: what have we to do with it? Our goal is love of the Creator, the fraternity and justice of Islam. This is our message to dictators." Late at night, in that famous room, he spoke and entreated. The link with God is the way, and spirituality is the light of the path. "

http://www.tariqramadan.com/4th-August-10-years.html

Supplication against Showing Off in Worship (riya’)

Supplication against Showing Off in Worship (riya’)

Bismillah

(The following supplication was mentioned by Shaikh Habib Umar DB) 

 Purification from showing off in acts of worship (riya’)

The Prophet salAllahu ‘alayhi was-salam said:

“Shirk (attributing partners to Allah) is harder to detect amongst you than the crawling of an ant but I will guide you to something which if you do it Allah will remove from you the lesser shirk and the greater shirk.”

He then taught them this du`a. What is meant by the greater shirk is worshiping gods alongside Allah and lesser shirk is riya’ or showing off in acts of worship, and this du`a is a protection from both types:

الَّلهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ أَنْ أُشْرِكَ بِكَ وأَنا أَعلَمُ وأَستَغفِرُكَ لما لا أَعلَمُ

Allahumma inni a`udhu bika an ushrika bika wa ana a`lamu wa astaghfiruka lima la a`lamu

“O Allah I seek refuge in You from knowingly associating partners with You, and I seek Your forgiveness for that which I do not know.”

(3 times in the morning and 3 times in the evening)

Please feel free to benefit and share with others.

Source:

http://abdulkarimyahya.com/hu-tazkiya-lessons-red-sulfur-and-the-greatest-elixir/supplication-against-showing-off-in-worship-riya/

-{This Dua is found in: Ahmad 4/403. See also Al-Albani, Sahihul-Jami' As-Saghir 3/233 and Sahihut-Targhib wat- Tarhib 1/19.}

One usually talks about things one loves-Maulana Yunus Patel

One usually talks about things one loves

-Maulana Yunus Patel [R.A] 

When a person talks about something EXCESSIVELY, then know that the love of that thing has entered his or her heart.

 

The one who talks excessively about fast cars, fashionable clothes, pretty women, handsome men, multi-storey buildings, palaces, gold, silver and wealth, then know that the love of these things has entered that heart.

 

There is no sin in earning and using wealth to provide for comfort and maintenance, to go for Haj and Umrah, and to contribute to charity, to the needy and poor. However, the love for material possessions must not enter the hearts.

 

The toilet is a necessity and some homes have beautiful toilets; some even have gold taps, etc. But what would you think of one who talks excessively about his toilet ? …Just like the toilet, the things of this world are necessities - we, therefore, don’t make

the material things of this world objects of worship.

 

The one who talks excessively about Deen, about the Love of Allah Ta’ala and His Beloved Rasool [SAWS], then know that their love has entered that heart.

 Of course, during business hours, the businessman will talk mainly about business with his clients and customers. The doctor will talk about medicine and health, and the fruit seller will call upon passers-by to purchase his fruit. All this ‘worldly’ talk related to one’s needs, with the correct intention and to the extent of necessity, causes no harm to the spiritual self.

 

Taken from- 'Hedayatus Saalikeen'

The Virtues of Surat Al-Baqarah-Tafsir Ibn Kathir

The Virtues of Surat Al-Baqarah [From Tafsir Ibn Kathir] In Musnad Ahmad, Sahih Muslim, At-Tirmidhi and An-Nasa'i, it is recorded that Abu Hurayrah said that the Prophet said, (Do not turn your houses into graves. Verily, Shaytan does not enter the house where Surat Al-Baqarah is recited.) At-Tirmidhi said, "Hasan Sahih. Also, `Abdullah bin Mas`ud said, "Shaytan flees from the house where Surat Al-Baqarah is heard.''  This Hadith was collected by An-Nasa'i in Al-Yawm wal-Laylah, and Al-Hakim recorded it in his Mustadrak, and then said that its chain of narration is authentic. In his Musnad, Ad-Darimi recorded that Ibn Mas`ud said, "Shaytan departs the house where Surat Al-Baqarah is being recited, and as he leaves, he passes gas.''   Ad-Darimi also recorded that Ash-Sha`bi said that `Abdullah bin Mas`ud said, "Whoever recites ten Ayat from Surat Al-Baqarah in a night, then Shaytan will not enter his house that night. (These ten Ayat are) four from the beginning, Ayat Al-Kursi (255), the following two Ayat (256-257) and the last three Ayat.'' In another narration, Ibn Mas`ud said, "Then Shaytan will not come near him or his family, nor will he be touched by anything that he dislikes. Also, if these Ayat were to be recited over a senile person, they would wake him up.'' Further, Sahl bin Sa`d said that the Messenger of Allah said, (Everything has a hump (or, high peek), and Al-Baqarah is the high peek of the Qur'an. Whoever recites Al-Baqarah at night in his house, then Shaytan will not enter that house for three nights. Whoever recites it during a day in his house, then Shaytan will not enter that house for three days.) This Hadith was collected by Abu Al-Qasim At-Tabarani, Abu Hatim Ibn Hibban in his Sahih and Ibn Marduwyah. At-Tirmidhi, An-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah recorded that Abu Hurayrah said, "The Messenger of Allah sent an expedition force comprising of many men and asked each about what they memorized of the Qur'an. The Prophet came to one of the youngest men among them and asked him, `What have you memorized (of the Qur'an) young man' He said, `I memorized such and such Surahs and also Al-Baqarah.' The Prophet said, `You memorized Surat Al-Baqarah' He said, `Yes.' The Prophet said, `Then you are their commander.' One of the noted men (or chiefs) commented, `By Allah! I did not learn Surat Al-Baqarah, for fear that I would not be able to implement it. The Messenger of Allah said, (Learn Al-Qur'an and recite it, for the example of whoever learns the Qur'an, recites it and adheres to it, is the example of a bag that is full of musk whose scent fills the air. The example of whoever learns the Qur'an and then sleeps (i.e. lazy) while the Qur'an is in his memory, is the example of a bag that has musk, but is closed tight.) This is the wording collected by At-Tirmidhi, who said that this Hadith is Hasan. In another narration, At-Tirmidhi recorded this same Hadith in a Mursal manner, so Allah knows best. Also, Al-Bukhari recorded that Usayd bin Hudayr said that he was once reciting Surat Al-Baqarah while his horse was tied next to him. The horse started to make some noise. When Usayd stopped reciting, the horse stopped moving about. When he resumed reading, the horse started moving about again. When he stopped reciting, the horse stopped moving, and when he resumed reading, the horse started to move again. Meanwhile, his son Yahya was close to the horse, and he feared that the horse might step on him. When he moved his son back, he looked up to the sky and saw a cloud radiating with light that looked like lamps. In the morning, he went to the Prophet and told him what had happened and then said, "O Messenger of Allah! My son Yahya was close to the horse and I feared that she might step on him. When I attended to him and raised my head to the sky, I saw a cloud with lights like lamps. So I went, but I couldn't see it.'' The Prophet said, "Do you know what that was'' He said, "No.'' The Prophet said, (They were the angels, they came close hearing your voice (reciting Surat Al-Baqarah), and if you had kept reading, the people would have been able to see the angels when the morning came, and the angels would not be hidden from their eyes.) This is the narration reported by Imam Abu Ubayd Al-Qasim bin Salam in his book Fada'il Al-Qur'an.