True Believer, Feelings of Others, Sunnah - An Integral Source of Shariah
Issue 234 » August 8, 2003 - Jumada-al-Thani 10, 1424
General
| Living the Quran |
Al-Ma'idah
(The Table) A strong faith unveils itself in strong hardships. The believer is not one who performs the ordained religious duties superficially and avoids what is forbidden only, but he is one whose faith is absolute, with no objection whatsoever arising in his heart and no obsession dwelling in his soul. The more hardships he faces, the more his faith grows and the more his submission strengthens. He could pray and not see a trace of an answer to his prayers, yet he does not change because he knows that he is owned by One who deals with him in whatever way He chooses. For if an objection was to arise in his heart, he then forsakes the role of the slave and takes on the role of a protester such as that of Iblees (the devil). The Prophets were subjected to hardships. A believer sees in Yahya, son of Zakariyya, a fine example. He was killed by a tyrant who confronted him, yet He, who made him a prophet, did not intervene nor defend him. Similarly all the tyranny that befell the prophets and the believers was not held back from them. If one goes to think that Divinity cannot answer for them then one is an unbeliever. However if one believes that Divinity can answer for them but chooses not to, and that God can make the believers go hungry while infidels are full and inflict the believers with sickness and grant the infidels health, then one is only left with submission to the Owner even when tormented or scorched. Jacob cried for eighty years when Joseph son of Jacob (peace be upon him) was gone, he never gave up; all he said when his other son was gone too is “May God bring all of them back to me”. Moses (peace be upon him) prayed against Pharaoh, who killed children and crucified magicians and cut their hands, for 40 years before he was answered. In such submission the intensity of one’s strong faith is manifested not in mere rak`at (bowings in prayer). So many of those who glorify Qadar were afflicted with tribulations and this did not increase them except in submission and pleasure (with their Lord), and there lies an explanation of the meaning of His words, "Allah is pleased with them". Al-Hasan Al-Basree said: people are the same in health but when hardship befalls they show distinction. Source: |
| Understanding the Prophet's Life |
Feelings of Others Bukhari relates on the authority of Thabit ibn Dhahhak, who was one of those who took the famous oath of allegiance under the Tree, that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: "... if somebody curses a believer then his sin will be as if he had murdered him; and whoever accuses a believer of kufr (deliberate disbelief), then it is as if he had killed him." A number of basic manners and primary obligations in Islam stem from this very principle of refraining from injuring the feelings of others. Keeping one's tongue from slander and detraction, that is, from inventing faults about a person or simply telling the truth about another's faults, is equally important. These two are major public sins, and undermine the whole society. Bukhari relates from Human who reports Hudhaifa as saying: "I heard the Prophet saying that a detractor (one who carries true tales with an evil intention of poisoning relations) will not enter Paradise." Source: |
| Cool Concepts! |
Sunnah - An integral source of Shariah In today’s day and age, it is not rare to find a Muslim (or one who claims to be one), who might accept the Quran as a source of divine guidance, yet have doubts about the status of the Sunnah. And it is this confusion that leads these people away from the Quranic message, itself. For, we have to realize that a text can only come alive when someone lives by that text, to its fullest with the proper understanding of it. Now since this text (the Quran) is of divine origin, who better to exemplify its message than the bearer of the message himself. The Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him) was not a mere postman who delivered the message and disappeared. Acting under divine guidance, he not only delivered the message but launched a movement. He changed man and society; founded a community, established a state; and spent every moment of his Prophethood in guiding, directing and leading his followers. His life example of living by God’s guidance, consisting of whatever he did or said or approved, is the Sunnah. The authority of the Sunnah is firmly rooted in the Quran and in the historically continuous consensus of the Muslim Ummah. The explicit statements in the Quran in this respect are many.
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