Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

Al-Noor (The Light)
Chapter 24: Verse 44

Passage of Time
"It is Allah Who alternates the Night and the Day: verily in these things is an instructive example for those who have vision!"

It behoves a believer to take personal lessons from the passage of days and nights. The passing of Time wears out the new, brings what is remote nearer, rolls up lifetimes, makes the young old, and annihilates the old.

In the course of each day, each hour, and each moment, innumerable events take place in life and in the cosmos. On Earth, a seed germinates, a plant flowers, a flower bears fruit, a fruit is plucked and a crop soon becomes dry stubble scattered by the winds. A foetus comes into being, a child is born, a baby grows into adolescence, a youth matures into adulthood, an adult ages into senility, and an old person dies away. In addition to these earthly phenomena, there are numerous changes taking place in the celestial sphere, unseen but no less potent.

During the course of these continual changes, we pass through states of ease and adversity, prosperity and poverty, health and sickness, happiness and sorrow, comfort and discomfort, fortune and misfortune. In all these there are signs for those who are intelligent, messages for those with an understanding heart, and lessons for those with vision.

Compiled From:
"Time In The Life of a Muslim" - Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, pp. 25, 26

Understanding The Prophet's Life

Easygoing

There is an ethical basis which all human beings share, and which Islam came to perfect. Islam did not come to strip people of their innate ethical awareness or overturn it. Rather, it came to confirm and strengthen it.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) once mentioned to his followers a covenant that the Arabs had concluded which had brought peace to their clans. He said that if he were ever invited to enter into such a treaty, he would do so. The treaty he spoke about had taken place before the advent of Islam. It was a treaty which brought the people together at the same table to affirm their rights and their human dignity, and which put an end to the endemic warfare that they had been suffering from and that was consuming their lives and wealth. Though the treaty took place before Islam, it was nevertheless in accordance with the innate moral sentiments that all human beings acknowledge. We all know that it is better to learn from one another and prosper. We all agree that hatred, conflict, and rancour are hated by God and condemned by mankind.

Clemency and flexibility in religious matters restore to people a healthy outlook, allowing them to live their faith in a way that is genuine and that accords with the nature that God has placed within them. It makes religion easy on the people, the way God intended it to be.

Once, a desert-dweller came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) complaining that Muadh prolonged the prayer too much. The Prophet (peace be upon him) asked the desert-dweller: "What do you say in prayer?"

He answered: "When I offer my tashahhud, I say: 'O Allah! I ask You for Paradise and seek refuge with You from the Fire.' As for me, I am not good at droning on the way you and Muadh do."

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to him: "It is basically these things that we drone on about." [Sunan Abu Dawud (22), and Musnad Ahmad (15333)]

We can see that the Prophet (peace be upon him) did not impose upon the man to memorize what was too difficult for him. He took into account the man's abilities. Maybe he was an old man, or had a weak memory, or was poorly brought up.

It is significant that the Prophet (peace be upon him) did not interrogate the desert-dweller about his intentions. No doubt, the word the desert-dweller used to describe the prayer of Muadh – and of the Prophet himself – was quite unflattering and could easily have been construed as an insult. The Prophet (peace be upon him) did not take offence. Instead, with his answer, he comforted the desert-dweller and reassured him that the simple words he was using in his prayers were essentially what Muadh was saying.

Clemency and an easygoing nature should be the spirit of our personal conduct and our social interactions. This attests to the truth that our innate, easygoing religious awareness is better than imposing difficulties in religion. It is also farther away from the dangers of pretentiousness, conceitedness, and showing-off.

Compiled From:
"An Easygoing Approach to Faith" - Salman al-Oadah

Blindspot!

Religion at a Man's Club

There have always been religious people who have sought to escape from the world, to lock themselves away in conditions that satisfied their need for 'purity' or peace. Muslims consider such detachment, or religious seclusion, to be a form of escapism; it can even be seen as a kind of insult towards the rest of human society that God has created and loved.

In Islam, individual salvation should not be sought away from society. Islam disapproves of monasticism. It encourages people to mix together, and desires collective actions and co-operation. Therefore, to a Muslim, friends are extremely important and good conduct when out amongst the general public is extremely important.

Incidentally, one of the things that female Muslims often find quite irritating is the tendency of male Muslims in certain societies to segregate themselves to an unnecessary and excessive extent - thereby encouraging that very atmosphere of 'religion at a man's club' that was disapproved of in monasticism.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, emphasized often that his way (sunnah) included marriage, and encouragement of family life and care and companionship for the female Muslims.

The sort of Muslim man who avoids and shuns all female company would do well to reflect on the enormous number of female persons (aunts, wives, cousins, children and friends) who surrounded the Prophet and cherished him.

Compiled From:
"Living Islam" - Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood, pp. 157, 158