General
From Issue: 293 [Read full issue]
| Living the Quran |
Al-Hajj
(The Pilgrimage)
Al-Raazi has quoted the great mujahid and scholar Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak as interpreting, "strive as you ought to strive" as meaning, "Struggling against the soul and desires." The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "The true Mujahid is the one who strives against his own soul." The soul is not inherently evil. However, the soul has both propensities in it: it can turn toward good and it can turn toward evil. Hence, the individual has to work to extinguish or greatly weaken the evil propensities. This is a type of struggle, and, hence, it is a kind of jihad. In fact, there are various types of jihad. Unfortunately, many times people go to extremes by stressing one at the expense of others. For example, there are many in this world today who stress jihad against the disbelievers. At the same time, they fail to recognize the importance of jihad against any evil inclinations in the soul. On the other hand, some stress jihad against the soul and ignore, downplay or deny the validity of any other form of jihad. One of the greatest foundations that can assist one in striving against any evil desires or inclinations in his soul, or evil forces around him is having a noble and supreme purpose. That is, if one keeps in mind his goal in life, setting the goal in front of him, he will recognize those acts that veer him away from that goal. Source: |
| Understanding the Prophet's Life |
| Truthfulness: An Indispensable Attribute of Prophethood Authentic books of Tradition like Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Muslim, and Sunan Abu Dawud relate from Abd Allah Ibn Masud that God's Messenger said: "Always tell the truth, for this guides to absolute piety and piety leads to Paradise. Those who always tell and pursue the truth are recorded by God as truthful. Don't lie, for this guides to sinfulness and sinfulness leads to Hellfire. Those who always tell and pursue lies are recorded by God as liars." Truthfulness is an indispensable attribute of Prophethood. Truthfulness opens the door of happiness in both worlds. No one can taste true bliss while living in the darkness of lies and lying. Lying is "an assertion contrary to God's knowledge," a pillar of unbelief, and the most manifest sign of hypocrisy. The current prevalence of lying is destroying our security and morality, and contaminating the whole community (especially its political circles) like a contagious disease. Any structure based on lying must eventually perish due to its very nature. This hadith states that truthfulness leads to absolute piety, while lying leads to sinfulness. Birr, the Arabic word translated here as piety, encompasses every virtue, from sound thinking, truthfulness, and pure intention to honesty, decency, and good conduct. Its opposite, fujur (sinfulness), denotes every kind of deviation and evil, among them debauchery, indecency, and perversion. Source: |
| Blindspot |
Three ways to go astrayAccording to the Quran, men go astray in three ways.
A true Muslim should be free from these three ailments. Only someone who is a slave of none but God and a follower of none but His Messengers can be truly called a Muslim. A Muslim sincerely believers that the teaching of God and His Messenger is absolute truth, that whatever runs counter to it is false, and that it contains all that is good for man in this world and in the Hereafter. A Muslim who has complete faith in these truths will, at every step in his life, look only to God and the Messenger to guide him and submit to whatever they require. Such a person will never feel troubled in his heart about obeying God's commandments, or be concerned if members of his family or his society upbraid him, or if the entire world opposes him. In each case his response will be unequivocal: I am God's slave, not yours; I have faith in His Messenger, not in you. Source: |
