A short video by Nouman Ali Khan.

Facing opposition- silently?

Recently I have been in certain situations where I have been faced with the question as to what is more important; to practice one’s own beliefs in peace or to raise a voice whenever you see something being done the wrong way. Much to my disliking, I have come to the conclusion that on most occasions it is best to stay silent. The reasons for this are manifold, one of the most important reasons being that people will only listen to you when they have their minds open and most of the time people are not willing to hear a thing that goes against their preconceived notions or their interests(to be more precise).

However, contrary to the belief of most Pakistani Muslims, Islam is not JUST based on an individual’s beliefs and actions, but in fact Islam pays a lot of emphasis on community, relations and their significance. And this is so because Islam is not just a religion but it is a way of life. Furthermore, just like a person is defined by the company he/she keeps, similarly every society has inbuilt norms and the people living within the society are expected to comply with its norms. Here is where the problem sets in, if our society is doing something the wrong way, it doesn’t matter to people because it is something that everyone is doing, the question of right and wrong is put on a back foot. Our society is following traditions and cultures blindly.

Our people have “chosen” to live in ignorance and oblivion; they have taken laughter as not just the best remedy but rather as the only remedy. Everything is treated as a joke and everything is made a joke of. Shows are being produced such as “hum sab umeed se hain” which make fun of the things which our people should actually be crying about but somehow it is funny when our Prime Minister is handing out charity funds to fraudulent parties, when our cricket team is accused of match fixing or when the politicians and leaders are running this country to ruins. It is all so funny! It is funny when the poor are killing their own families because they don’t have money to feed them, it is funny when graves are being dug up and bodies are being sold for black magic and it is funny when our people are dying because they are slaughtering each other!

Our masses watch the news for hours and hours, then they have even longer intellectual discussions and debates on it and yet they fail to look for solutions; they fail to initiate a change. Our problems are many but the causes for such a chaos are few. The reason why we are in such a mess is because we are in denial, the people who can bring a change become too easily disheartened and flee away from taking responsibility, they hear about the bad conditions of the country and carry on with their daily routines and work, all the time hoping and trying to find avenues to escape to foreign countries. While the people in rural areas and down-trodden parts of the country are caught up in such a vicious cycle that many of them are not even aware of the ignorance that is surrounding them. There are such people who don’t know how to recite Quran, they believe in everything being told to them by peers and faqirs and they do grave worshipping believing that it would earn them heaven.

I’m willing to silently go about my business, to just mend my beliefs and work on myself but then if I happen to do something good today it will not be because of my own righteousness but because of Allah’s mercy. Allah has bestowed us with countless blessings, He has made us Muslims; if He has chosen the best for us, why then do we keep running towards the worst? However, having said that there is no doubt that my first most priority should be to keep myself away from all that is wrong and then try to speak up against it and if conditions allow then even put an end to the wrong being done. For verily it is a hadith that;

"When you see an evil act you have to stop it with your hand. If you can't, then at least speak out against it with your tongue. If you can't, then at least you have to hate it with all your heart. And this is the weakest of faith."- Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Number 79

One thing that is crucial to note in all of this, however, is that guidance comes only and only from Allah and our job is only to watch over ourselves and warn others against wrong.

“And [had you been present], you would see the sun when it rose, inclining away from their cave on the right, and when it set, passing away from them on the left, while they were [laying] within an open space thereof. That was from the signs of Allah. He whom Allah guides is the [rightly] guided, but he whom He leaves astray - never will you find for him a protecting guide.”- Surah Kahf, ayat 17

Since Allah has power over everything hence we should continuously turn to Him and pray to Him for the well-being of our country and the well-being of Muslims. We should also ALWAYS pray to Allah to bestow His mercy and blessings upon us and to give us guidance because we are in dire need of it!! May Allah guide us all! Ameen!

What a wonderful world by Dawud Wharnsby and Zain Bhika

BACKBITING

Backbiting is one of the major sins that almost all of our society, including myself, freely indulges in without realizing how grave a sin it is. Even though it is common sense for people to know that backbiting is wrong, not just from an Islamic perspective but even from a mere ethical perspective. And a funny thing you'll find is that the more a person loves backbiting, the more they get hurt when they find out if someone has said something about them behind their backs which they find displeasing. Despite the fact that this is highly ironic, a reason behind it might be that the more a person indulges in sins, the more they start caring about what other people will say about them rather than what Allah thinks of them.

So what is backbiting exactly? It is to mention something about your brother that he would dislike having mentioned about him. [Sahih Muslim (2589)] Al-Hasan al-Basrî said: “Backbiting has three manifestations, all of which are discussed in Allah’s Book. They are: backbiting, tale-telling, and slander. As for backbiting, it is to say about your brother something that is true about him. Tale-telling is to say something that you have heard about him. Slander is to say about him what is not true.”

But let’s come to the gist of the matter; if it is actually so clear that backbiting is something wrong, that it causes rifts between relationships, that it hurts people and that it is also a MAJOR sin (Gunah-he-kabirah), then why do people still do not abstain from it? So what are the reasons which lead us to backbite and how can we stop ourselves:

• A person will intentionally backbite if he/she has a weak faith because if a person is conscious of the fact that Allah is Ever-Present, All-Aware and All-Knowing then they will never do something that they know is displeasing to Allah. Furthermore, having faith also means valuing the creations of Allah and not judging other people because only Allah knows what's in the hearts of men, and if we truly believe in that then we will not even think of backbiting. 

• Also, when people talk a lot then they ultimately end up running short of good topics and hence turn to talking about other people and even if they initially start by talking about something good about someone they still usually end up by talking about bad qualities of people. Hence we need to find better activities then just talking, secondly we need to talk less and lastly even if and when we do talk, make it a habit that you don't talk about other people.

• Also realize that backbiting is never a solution to any problem, in fact it is a HUGE cause of problems, if you find something annoying about someone then either go up to them and let them know about it or ignore and move on because it can be very well so that if you find something annoying about someone then that same person also finds something annoying about you!

• Realize that nobody is perfect, in fact Perfection is a trait of Allah and so you have no reason to criticize other people, because if they have their faults then that's only human and you never know whether the sins that you criticize them for are the sins that they've already repented for. According to Al-Hasan, and as reported in At-Tirmidhee and other collections in marfoo' form (i.e. that the Prophet said): "Whosoever condemns his brother for a sin (he committed) that he repented from, will not die until he has committed it (i.e. the same sin) himself."

• Also if you want that Allah is not harsh in judging you then you should never be harsh in judging other people as well. Imam al-Ghazali stated, "The hypocrite looks for faults, the believer looks for excuses." 

I hope these are enough solutions to make all of us stay away from this nasty sin. Please realize that backbiting is NOT a minor sin but it is a MAJOR sin and that we should always make a conscious effort to stay away from it and we should also seek refuge in Allah from it. May Allah guide us all and give us the will and determination to stay from vain desires and sins. Aameen! 

Great Islamic Quotes

reference: http://islamic-quotes.tumblr.com/

Reason?

Since lately, I can’t seem to get my head around a topic that I want to write about and I think one of the reasons for that is that I feel like I’m just trying to find the answers to so many things myself that I feel like I have nothing to give away. And yet I continue to write, probably just to ease the turmoil that is silently growing in my head.

One of the things that has been bothering me is when I see people moving about in their lives just satisfied with the way things are, with the way they are, satisfied with what has already been decided for them and with not questioning as to what is the reality of their purpose. They are just so content with the way things are in their lives and the sad part is that they don’t realize that their contentment is only confined to the bubble that they live in, beyond and out of it, they have no idea as to what contentment really is and how to achieve it.

Maybe it is as much our fault as it is theirs’, the picture of Islam that people get is that of restrictions, compulsion and extremism. When frankly speaking, I don’t even believe there is anything known as “extremism” in Islam, you’re either a Muslim or a non-Muslim, because “a Muslim does not have a sliding scale”. This is a quote which was used in a movie called “traitor” and it is a line which couldn’t have made more sense. Any discrepancies that are so often associated with Islam are either bidat, or they are a making of hypocrites or of some anti-Islamic individuals, but to associate discrepancies with Islam is like calling milk black. (This is not a simile, but I thought it made sense.) Islam is refined, it is pure and it is the word of God for crying out loud!

And yet we, humans so boldly challenge it. We call the religion backwards, we call it strict and we forget that Allah Ta’ala Himself says in the following ayat, that He only wants to make things easy for us;

"Allah desires ease for you; He does not desire difficulty for you" (Surat al-Baqara, part of ayat 185).

We challenge Allah’s commandments with the voice of our intellect. Yet we forget Him, Who gave us intellect in the first place! Allah gave us intellect, He gave us reason, He gave us wisdom but not so that we could question Him and stay in ignorance but so that we could use it to understand Islam. The people with the greatest of intellects were the people with the greatest of faiths, take the example of Hazrat Ali (R.A.), Imam Shafi’i, Ibn Taymiyah, so on and so forth.

To sum things up, I guess what we all need to do is to understand Islam before we accept irrational and “extremist” judgments made about it. Islam is not just about restrictions; it is far from that, in fact ONLY 3% of the ENTIRE Quran consists of commandments regarding the halal and haraam. Do not be content with not knowing, and do not be content till you have made an effort to find out what the truth is. Our intellect was not given to us in vain, be grateful for it and use it to understand Islam and its teachings for there is no doubt in the fact that Islam and reason are certainly allies.

“And We have certainly made the Qur'an easy for remembrance, so is there any who will remember?”

(Surah Qamar, ayat 17)

What Allah wants for you?