The 10 Best Days

Abu Qatadah reported that the Messenger of Allah said: "Fasting on the day of 'Arafah is an expiation for two years, the year preceding it and the year following it. Fasting the day of 'Ashurah is an expiation for the year preceding it."

Insha'Allah the day of 'Arafah this year will be Sunday.

Better to Give

A young man, a student in one of the universities, was one day taking a walk with a Professor, who was commonly called the student’s friend, from his kindness to those who waited on his instructions.

As they went along,they saw lying in the path a pair of old shoes, which they supposed to belong to a poor man who was employed in a field close by,and who had nearly finished his day’s work.

The student turned to the professor, saying: “Let us play the man a trick: we will hide his shoes, and conceal ourselves behind those bushes, and wait to see his perplexity when he cannot find them.”

“My young friend,” answered the professor, “we should never amuse ourselves at the expense of the poor. But you are rich, and may give yourself a much greater pleasure by means of this poor man. Put a coin in each shoe, and then we will hide ourselves and watch how this affects him.”

The student did so and they both placed themselves behind the bushes close by. The poor man soon finished his work, and came across the field to the path where he had left his coat and shoes.

While putting on his coat he slipped his foot into one of his shoes, but feeling something hard, he stooped down to feel what it was, and found the coin. Astonishment and wonder were seen upon his countenance. He gazed upon the coin, turned it around, and looked at it again and again.

He then looked around him on all sides, but no person was to be seen. He now put the money into his pocket, and proceeded to put on the other shoe; but his surprise was doubled on finding the other coin.

His feelings overcame him; he fell upon his knees, looked up to the heavens and uttered aloud a fervent thanksgiving in which he spoke of his wife who was sick and helpless, and his children without bread, whom this timely bounty, from some unknown hand,would save from perishing.

The student stood there deeply affected, and his eyes filled with tears. “Now,” said the professor, are you not much better pleased than if you had played your intended trick?”

The youth replied, “You have taught me a lesson which I will never forget. I feel now the truth of these words, which I never understood before: “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.”

Abdullah ibn Abbas (radi Allahu anhu) reported that the Prophet (sallAllahu alaiyhi wassallam) said that encouraging good, prohibiting evil, lifting the burden of the weak person and removing an offensive thing from a path are all acceptable prayers to Allah. - [Ibn Majah]

Halloween

Some people regard Halloween as the start of the holiday season. It's a season of happiness, relaxation, and fun. Some holidays are cultural or traditional holidays, while others may have religious significance. We as Muslims also have our own holidays. A month ago we celebrated Eid ul-Fitr, and you may also count the whole month of Ramadan as a holiday. And Insha'Allah in a bit over a month we'll also celebrate Eid ul-Adha.

Many Muslims live in Western countries, and sometimes we assimilate the Western lifestyle with our own. One aspect of the Western lifestyle (and a pretty signigicant aspect) are the holidays. There seems to be several holidays every month. There's always something going on, and sometimes we want to have a part of it. Of course, as Muslims we don't celebrate the specific holidays of other religions, but we want to get in on the fun of the traditional holidays, like Independance Day, Halloween, and Thanksgiving.

Today is Halloween, and there's many Muslim youth who are going to be Trick-or-Treating with their friends and dressing up in weird costumes. Forget about the origins of Halloween for now....but think, if Halloween didn't exist, and I told you that I'm going to dress up in an absurd costume and go door to door asking for candy, you'd probably think I'm crazy. But when lots of people do it and have been doing it for decades, it somehow becomes acceptable and isn't crazy anymore. People don't even care where Halloween came from, they just want to do it because everybody else is doing it and has been doing it as a tradition for years. Muslim children want to take part also, but apart from it not being a Muslim holiday, or from being some crazy, is it really something that they should do?

Personally, I think that if you want to dress up in a costume, do it in your room so that you don't look like a fool. If you want candy, go to the store and buy some. But some say it's just having fun, there's nothing wrong with it. But where did Halloween come from? I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't be such a popular holiday if some recent guy decided to dress up in a costume and go door to door for candy. It definitely has roots somewhere long ago, pagan (Mushrik) roots. I'm not going to copy and paste the entire story, but I would recommend you to read this article: http://islam.about.com/library/weekly/aa103098.htm

The point is, it's not a Muslim holiday, and it's not even a nuetral traditional holiday. It has origins from a Mushrik holiday, and even though that's not the intent with which it's celebrated anymore, Rasulullah (saw) warned us from imitating certain people...


It was narrated from Abu Saeed al-Khudri (ra) that the Prophet (saw) said: "You will certainly follow the ways of those who came before you hand span by hand span, cubit by cubit, to the extent that if they entered the hole of a lizard, you will enter it too." We said: "O Messenger of Allah, (do you mean) the Jews and the Christians?" He said: "Who else?" - [Bukhari and Muslim]


“Whoever imitates a people is from them.” - [Abu Dawud]

I'm not labeling anobody as a Kafir (even though this is the apparant meaning of this Hadith in relation to those who imitate the Kuffar), but at the very least this indicates that it is Haram to imitate the Kafir ways.



In the Qur'an, Allah warns us:

"When it is said unto them, 'Come to what Allah has revealed, come to the Messenger,' they say, 'Enough for us are the ways we found our fathers following.' What! Even though their fathers were void of knowledge and guidance?" - [Qur'an 5:104]



May Allah protect us from becoming victims of our own desires, from becoming victims of society and peer pressure, from becoming victims of those who we are not to follow, from losing our morals and ethics, from justifying our wrongs with oversimplified reasoning, and may Allah guide us to what pleases Him, and keep us on the path to His Mercy in this Dunya and the Akhirah.

Pearls of Wisdom - October 16th, 2008

"If you are aware of your humility, then you are arrogant." - Ibn Ata'Allah

I think this is a great quote. To feel that you even possess such a noble quality is a feeling of arrogance. We should let humility be a natural part of our demeanor, without even thinking about it. I'm sure many of us are humble, but whenever we do something humble, we get this good feeling we just did something that was humble. We shouldn't even have this feeling if we truly possess humility. May Allah make us amongst those who are truly humble.

Rasulullah (saw) said: Allah has revealed to me that you must be humble, so that no one oppresses another and boasts over another. [Abu Dawud]