Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

Deification
Al-Ankabut (The Spider) Chapter 29: Verse 17 (partial)

"You worship only idols instead of God, and thus you invent a mere falsehood. Surely those that you worship instead of God do not have power to provide for you ..."

The pronoun used in the verse and translated as those is the pronoun used for living beings. So this shows that, as in all the polytheistic societies, the idols or statues usually represented some beings whom people respected and then exalted and deified, such as angels, the jinns, Prophets, heroes, or statesmen. The Prophet Abraham (upon him be peace) meant both those beings represented by idols and the idols themselves. Later generations began to forget the beings whose statues were made for deification, and rather came to deify and worship the statues themselves. However, besides some beings, people would personify many powers or things, such as spirits and "forces of nature," and attribute God's power or acts to many false deities or adopt many deities, to each of which they would assign a Divine act or power. We should note that paganism or idolworship has not ceased. It continues in many explicit or implicit forms.

Compiled From:
"The Quran: Annotated Interpretation in Modern English" - Ali Unal, pp. 823, 824

Understanding The Prophet's Life

Beyond Reasonable Doubt

Anyone, be it the individual or the state, accusing a person of an offence must prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. The burden of proof lies on the plaintiff, a principle which is based on the following hadith:

The burden of proof is on him who makes the claim, whereas the oath [denying the charge] is on him who denies. [Bayhaqi]

The plaintiff, in other words, may ask the court to put the defendant on oath if the latter denies the claim. If the claimant is required to prove his allegation, then it would follow that until such proof is forthcoming, the defendant is presumed to be innocent. This is also upheld in another hadith which provides:

If men were to be granted what they claim, some will claim the lives and properties of others. The burden of proof is on the claimant, and an oath is incumbent on him who denies. [Muslim]

Compiled From:
"Shariah Law - An Introduction" - Mohammad Hashim Kamali, pp. 182

Blindspot!

Intimacy and Commitment

With roughly 7 trillion cells working in concert, your body is an extraordinary thing that should be respected, not a merry-go-round on which everyone gets a ride. It doesn't make sense to share the most intimate parts of yourselves until you are fully committed to each other. Intimacy without commitment is like getting something for nothing; it goes against a basic principle. What is a committed relationship? A marriage is the best form I know. With a marriage, you get a legal document, a public celebration, a ring, a recognized union, and a deep promise to love each other through health and sickness.

What about a high school relationship where you're truly in love? Does that count as committed? Not really. There is no legal agreement, no celebration over your union, no shared rent payment. You aren't doing the dishes, cleaning the laundry, or paying the bills together. You break up, move, go to college, start liking someone else, and so on.

Everyone disagrees with what the terms hooking up or friends with benefits really mean, but basically they are nothing more than no-strings-attached s e x ual encounters of some type. In reality, it's just a way to use each other's bodies for pleasures without any expections or commitment - fast, easy and unfulfilling.

Compiled From:
"The 6 Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make" - Sean Covey, p. 210