Apologies and Clearing Things Up!

The reality is that I've been disrespecting folks online a lot recently. However, general common sense is now something one needs to strive to understand coherently. A fallacious notion of the modern dilemma in the Western world of today is that every person has there own struggle so we must leave everybody to themselves. This to me, is wrong. Not that we should force people to engage with us, but any engagement should only bring positivity. Where's the compassion for each other? Why cannot we be in this as a group and overcome trials and tribulations that are set before us? Why must inexperienced individuals of a hands-on life need to be out through going through struggles that they believe they can overcome but are, in fact, worsening the situation? "Oh they will learn." Perhaps WE WILL indeed learn. But that is not how us humans have progressed intellectually for many previous centuries. Every person must face minor and major tribulations by themselves in order to be strengthen. But they must also engage to a certain limit to a certain group they are comfortable with to together overcome tests.

The reason I am sometimes harsh in my approach is because I've been there and I know what helped me get out of certain phases of profound ignorance. Now, I know that different techniques help different people, but the central idea or attempt of helping each other is the same, in the end. I promise you, when I attack materialistics who are dwelling in the media devil culture, I never do it out of hatred. Meaning, we pretend to feel satisfied, but in reality are forcing ourselves to just 'fit in' differently. We are never content, but by Allah, we can't always live life with no worries. If Islam itself does not make us fully content with ourselves, how can the blameworthy innovations of this world? It just doesn't make sense. Allah wants us to be content with what He gives us but not with what we put it.

Anyhooo, I believe everybody is going through a phase of profound ignorance, and we can only comment on what we have experienced to advise with love to those who don't know better.

"But bro, you think you know better than these people?! You think you're big?!"

No I don't think I am big, but umm... yeah and no, kinda. I've been through what they are going through, confusing phases, and have been examining my past self for years now and how I came about my problems and overcame issues related to my trials. We can always give naseeha as long one isnt rude or disrespectful when giving it or are always on somebody's case all the time.

Ya Allah! Khallisni min Nafsi!

Brainwashing: Them. Who is "Them"? | Part I

I want my friends to understand this: If I do not connect to you on certain levels and/or care to speak to you on certain topics, I will obviously not bring up such discussions with you. This does NOT mean that I think my judgement or understanding is superior to yours', with respect, I just don't really care to go bring it up with you unless you bring it up with me. That way, I know that we CAN perhaps connect somehow. That is just me.

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A few weeks ago, I heard a kid in my class ask a classmate, "Do you believe in God?" He responds, "I actually don't know. I feel like 'society' wants me to believe in God."

I'm thinking to myself... What?! This 'society' you speak of wants you to not believe in God, wants you to worship celebrities who are minions of the Devil who worship Satan like Miley Cyrus and the likes, and they want to advocate and fund the oppression of their own audience. Industrialized self-oppression! They brainwash the audience to believe that all they do to rebel from 'society' as well as to oppress themselves mentally, intellectually, and spiritually is benefitting them. This isn't what you call 'society', it's the modern Western world created with athiesm and devil culture as its primary basis. Delusional tosspots. However, there are in fact celebrities who do promote good, such as athletes. As far as I see it, they promote being healthy and being fit. I am not well aware of their lives off the court or field, but their life on them does influence the sensible audience positively atleast.

Many of the modern views influenced by the Western world are wreaked in atheism, excessive materialism, and narcissism. It is all a government-sponsored pacification. The athiest devil culture prepared for us in a gold platter. After all, it has become 'human nature' to these damned youths to feel this type of passion - to promote modern views which are imposed by the secular modernity-, and believe its rank in high in 'society'. With this being the modern disorder of this generation, all these youths, entertainers, and celebrities want is recognition for their uneducated movements and want others to believe they are rebelling because they are afflicted with 'unique' struggles - concerning religion and/or the common struggle - that none before them had - which is completely ignorant to think. The ones before us went through real, more intense, struggles, and at times, a lot more gruesome!

Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal radhi Allah anhu, despite being tortured, the people want rebelled on his behalf against the Mutazila theological imperialism. This led him to be executed because he was protecting the orthodox theology of the religion.

Imam Malik ibn Anas radi Allah anhu was tied to the back of a donkey, dragged in the streets of Madinah, and whipped over seventy times.

Habib Muhammad bin Salim bin Hafidh was told to not give anymore Da'wah, nevertheless, he continued to call to Allah and was later killed by the socialist government regime. He died a shaheed.

Emad Effat, the senior Egyptian Sunni Islamic cleric at al-Azhar Mosque, was assassinated by being shot through the heart during protest demonstrations in Cairo.

The great activist, Malcolm X, Qutb al-Bilad, Qutb al-Irshad, Qutb al-Aqtab El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was assasssinated by the NOI back in the 60's when they were very influential to the crowds.

Omar Mukhtar died by the hands of the Italians after being tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for leading a resistance to Italian colonization of Libya.

Other scholars who died fighting for Islam, Al-Buwayti, the student of Imam al-Shafi'i, Ibn 'Ammar al-Shahid was killed by the Qaramitah, Ibn Taymiyya, Abdul-Ghani al-Maqddisi was imprisoned and tortured, and many more famous scholars and activists of the past went through similar struggles.

Muslims downplaying the rank of the Prophet is more inappropriate and offensive than non-Muslims doing it. Muslims should be spiritually illuminated by the words and character of the Prophet through the presented explanation of the Qur'ānic Tafsīr, Sunnah, and Hadīth. Muslims should inspire to be inheritors of the Muhammadan wisdom, character, and beauty. Muslims who downplay the Prophet say things like, "Oh well he was just a human." Nope. He is as the poet says:

"Muhammad (Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam)is a man, but not like men;

He is an emerald, and others mere stone."

The Creed of Imām Al Haddād - The Creed of the Muslims

Knowing your creed (aqīdah) and studying it is FARD AYN, obligatory on every individual Muslim, to his best ability. We do not need to "reach a level" in order to learn it. We must be passionate to learn this. We learn it from the people of Ahl al-Dhikr, which literally means, "people of remembrance" but in this context it means, "the people of knowledge." We don't learn it from any other sources 99.99999% of the time such as the internet, we learn it directly from the people of knowledge who have an unbroken chain of transmission back to the Prophet and/or a rightly guided Imām. We must know this in order to be complete Muslims. We must at least read by ourselves a well known basic text on creed, without interpreting or discussing it with those with no chain of transmission on the text, the Creed of Imām at-Tahawi.

The following, written by Imām Al Haddād, is a basic understanding of the creed of the Sunni Muslims which is obligatory to know.

Enjoy!

The Creed of Imām Al Haddād, the great Hadrami scholar.

The Mosque of Imam al-Haddad

Imām al-Haddād said (may Allāh bring us benefit from him):

“Praise belongs to Allāh alone. May Allāh bless our master Muhammad, and his Family, and Companions, and grant them peace. We know, assent, believe, confess with certainty, and testify, that there is no god but Allāh, Alone without partner. He is a Mighty God, a Great King. There is no lord beside Him, and we worship none than He. He is Ancient and Pre-Existent, Eternal and Everlasting. His firstness has no beginning, neither has His lastness any end. He is Solitary, Self-Subsistent, neither begetting nor begotten, matchless, without partner or peer. There is nothing that resembles Him, yet He is the Hearer, the Seer. [42:11]

“And we confess that His holiness (Exalted in He!) renders Him beyond time and space, beyond resembling anything in existence, so that He cannot be encompassed by directions, nor be subject to contingent events. And that He is Established on His Throne in the manner which He has described, and in the sense which He has intended, in a Establishment befitting the might of His Majesty, and the exaltation of His glory and magnificence. And that He (Exalted is He!) is Near to everything in existence, being closer to man than his jugular vein. [50:16] He is Watchful and Seeing over all things. He is the Living, the Self-Subsistent, slumber overtakes Him not, nor sleep; [2:255] He is the Originator of the heavens and earth; when He decrees a thing He only says to it Be! And it is. [2:117] Allāh is Creator of all things, and He is Guardian over everything. [39:62]

“And that He (Exalted is He!) is over all things Powerful, and of all things Knower; His knowledge is all-embracing and He keeps count of all things. Not an atom’s weight in the earth or in the sky escapes your Lord. [10:61] He knows what goes down into the earth and that which comes forth from it, and what descends from heaven and what ascends into it. He is with you wherever you may be, and Allāh is Seer of what you do. [57:4] He knows the secret thought, and what is even more concealed. [20:7] He knows what is in the land and the sea. A leaf cannot fall but that He knows it, nor is there a grain amid the darkness of the earth, nor a wet or dry thing, but that it is recorded in a clear Book. [6:59]

“And that He (Exalted is He!) wills existent things, and directs events. And that nothing may exist, whether good or evil, beneficial or harmful, except by His decree and will. Whatever He wills is, whatever He does not, is not. Should all creatures unite to move or halt a single atom in the universe, in the absence of His will, they would be unable to do so.

“And that He (Exalted is He!) is Hearer, Seer, Speaker of a Speech that is pre-existent and does not resemble the speech of creatures. And that the Mighty Qur’an is His ancient speech, His Book which He sent down upon His Messenger and Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

“And that He (Glorious is He!) is Creator of all things and their Provider, Who disposes them as He wills; neither rival nor opponent is there in His realm. He gives to whomsoever He wills and withholds from whomsoever He wills. He is not questioned about His actions, rather they are questioned. [21:23]

“And that He (Exalted is He!) is Wise in His acts, Just in His decrees, so that no injustice or tyranny can be imaginable on His part, and that no one has any rights over Him. Should He (Glorious is He!) destroy all His creatures in the blink of an eye, He would be neither unjust or tyrannous to them, for they are His dominion and His slaves. He has the right to do as He pleases in His dominion, and your Lord is not a tyrant to His slaves. [41:46] He rewards His slaves for obeying Him out of grace and generosity, and punishes them when they rebel out of His wisdom and justice.

“And that to obey Him is an obligation binding upon His bondsmen, as was made clear through the speech of His messengers (upon them be peace). We believe in every Book sent down by Allāh, and in all of His messengers, His angels, and in destiny, whether good or bad.

“And we testify that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger, whom He sent to jinn and to mankind, to the Arabs and the non-Arabs, with guidance and the religion of truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all religion, though the polytheists be averse. [9:33] And that he delivered the Message, was faithful to his trust, advised the Nation, did away with grief, and strove for God’s sake as is His due, being truthful and trustworthy, supported by authentic proofs and norm-breaking miracles. And that Allāh has made it incumbent upon His bondsmen to believe , obey, and follow him, and that a man’s faith is not acceptable – even should he believe in Him – until he believes in Muhammad ﷺ and in everything that he brought and informed us of, whether of the affairs of this world or the next. This includes faith in the questioning of the dead by Munkar and Nakīr about religion, tawhīd and Prophethood, and in the bliss which is in the grave for those who were obedient, and the torment which it contains for the rebellions.

“And that one should believe in the Resurrection after Death, the gathering of bodies and spirits to stand in the presence of Allāh the Exalted, and in the Reckoning; and that His slaves will be at that time in different states, some being called to account, some being exempted, while others shall enter the Garden without reckoning. One should believe in the Scales in which good and evil deeds will be weighed; and in the Sirat, which is a bridge stretched over the depths of Hell; and in the Pool [ hawd] of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the water of which is from the Garden, and from which the believers shall drink before entering the Garden. And in the Intercession of the Prophets, followed by the Truthful Saints [siddiqun], and then the ulema] and the other believers. And that the Greatest Intercession is the prerogative of Muhammad ﷺ. And that the people of tawhīd who have entered the Fire shall be taken out of it until not one person in whose heart there lies an atom’s weight of faith shall remain in it eternally. And that the people of polytheism and disbelief shall abide in the Fire eternally and for evermore, their suffering shall not be diminished; neither shall they be reprieved. [2:162] And that the believers shall abide in the Garden eternally without end , wherein no tiredness shall affect them, and from which they shall not be expelled. [15:48] And that the believers shall see their Lord with their eyes, in a way befitting His Majesty and the Holiness of His Perfection.

“And that the Companions of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ were virtuous, that their status was of various ranks, and that they were just, good, and trustworthy. Is not lawful to insult or denigrate any of them. And that the rightful successor [ khalīfah] to the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ was Abū Bakr al-Siddīq, followed by ‘Umar al-Fārūq, then ‘Uthmān al-Shahīd, then ‘Alī al-Murtadā, may Allāh be pleased with them and with all his other Companions, and with those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgement, and with us also, by Thy Mercy, O Most Merciful of the Merciful!”

Such is the rightly-guided creed, which conforms to be the Book and the Sunnah. No male or female Muslim should be ignorant of it. Without affirming it one’s faith is not sound. It is not a condition that every person should be able to articulate it fluently; rather, what counts is what lies in the heart.

Source: Miftāh al-Jannah [The Key to The Garden] of Habīb Ahmad Mashhūr bin Tā-Hā al-Haddād. Translated by Dr. Mostafa al-Badawi

The Dome on the Mosque of Imam al-Haddad

Imam Suhaib Webb on why "Follow the Qur'an and Sunnah" is an inaccurate and fallacious statement

Imam Suhaib Webb, graduate scholar of Al-Azhar University, says,

"Follow the Qur'an and Sunna" is not a correct statement since that would throw out qiyas, ijma, masalih al-mursala, mafhum al-mukhalafa, al-'Urf and a host of other Usul, for us (the Malikis) they are 16. A better statement, and the correct one, would be to say, "Follow the Usul of Islam." Since only 5% of all rulings come explicitly from the Qur'an and Sunna,we say to this statement as the Prophet (sa) said to the bedouin, "You have made something vaste very small."

My understanding of it:

This statement is not only inaccurate and fallacious for the adherents of the Maliki school of jurisprudence, but also those of the Hanafi, Shafi'i and Hanbali school as well. However, although it is a reflection of what is in the Qur'an and Sunnah, nonetheless, the statement itself is incorrect and misleading.

Use Your Head and Criticize!

Assalamu Alaykum,

Bismillah

It has come to my attention that people are assuming I am trying to give fatawa and trying to "teach" people which absolutely not true. It is not true that I am trying educate people on religious matters. I do not claim to have any authority, nor have I ever implied so. I have some thoughts that uplift me and motivate me to continue living life as was commanded by Allah and His Prophet. Indeed, there are articles on this blog that I copy/pasted with giving credit to the original author/writer. If I did not give credit, then it was from my own thoughts. If it was not from my own thoughts, it was transmitted to me personally by scholars' wisdom that allowed me to open doors of thinking and I have not mentioned them by name. 

The reasons why I share my own words instead of only sharing their words:

1. I am well aware and admit fallibility to my insights, as is certain for everyone else's insights, so I am more open to receiving criticism. In fact, I want people to comment and critique me for any blameworthy thoughts I may have. I want to connect with people and I want people to connect to me.

2. Since I have more respect towards the thoughts and spiritual insights of the scholars, I would be more cautious when sharing their teachings since I do not want people to criticize those who I respect dearly, simply by misinterpreting what they said.


As, Hazrat Pīr Qalandar Tabrizi says, "Mureeds, please to refrain." Perhaps I am the one needed of this weighty saying the most, perhaps those who I intended to be sincere critics should not always assume the worst.