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From Issue: 413 [Read full issue]

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Living the Quran

Yunus (Jonah)
Chapter 10: Verse 12

Good and Bad Times
"And (such is a man that) when an affliction (difficulty) befalls him, he cries out to Us, reclining and sitting and standing. But no sooner than We have removed his affliction, he carries on as if he had never cried out to Us to remove his affliction. Thus this is the way the misdeeds of the transgressors are made fair-seeming to them."

The prolonged and severe famine which had virtually destroyed the people of Makkah, had ended just a little before the revelation of this verse. The famine was so acute that at one stage Abu Sufyan had approached the Prophet, peace be upon him, with a request to ask Allah to deliver them from this hardship. However, no sooner had the famine ended and heavy rains brought about a rich harvest and prosperity than the Makkans reverted to their old evil habits and to their hostile machinations against Islam.

Many Muslim youth crowd into the Masjid before exams, imploring Allah to give them good grades. But as soon as the exams are over and the marks are out, they go back to their old ways of missing their prayers and disobeying Allah in many ways. Similarly others turn to Allah only when they are faced with calamities, like family conflicts, financial and career stress, divorce, death of the loved ones...etc. But as soon as Allah solves their problems they return to their old ways.

We should worship Allah in our bad AND good times. During our bad times we should ask for His help and in our good times we should thank Him for His blessings. Those who worship Allah only during their bad times are termed as 'transgressors' in this verse.

Compiled From:
"Towards Understanding the Quran", by S. Abul Ala Maududi, vol. IV

Understanding the Prophet's Life
It is Our Business

How many of us have looked to our brothers and sisters in Islam and have seen them straying from the path of Allah, and have turned our faces away? How many of us have seen our brothers erring and said to ourselves, it is none of my business? Well, it is our business for the Prophet (peace be upon him) has made it our business. In the hadith related by Tamim ad-Dari, the Prophet said, "The religion is nasiha." The people asked, "To whom?" The Prophet replied, "To Allah and to His Book and to His Messenger and to the leaders of the Muslims and the common folk." [Collected by Bukhari, Muslim]

How is Nasiha given to Allah?

  • By establishing His worship by offering the obligatory deeds with perfection.
  • By believing in Him; negating partners from Him; not denying any of His qualities; describing Him with all the qualities of beauty and perfection; and declaring Him to be far removed from faults and qualities of imperfection.
  • By establishing His obedience and turning away from His disobedience.
  • By loving and hating for His sake; befriending and making allegiance to those who obey Him and taking as enemies those who disobey Him; and turning toward what He loves and distancing oneself from displeasing Him.
  • By appreciating His blessings, bounties and thanking Him for them by obeying Him out of love and drawing closer to Him through the heart.
  • By calling to all of the above, teaching it and being sincere in it for His sake.

[to be continued in the coming issues]

Compiled From:
"Directions to Giving Naseehah" - Kamil Mufti, Al Jumuah Magazine

Blindspot

Bughd (Hatred)

In itself, hatred is not necessarily negative. It is commendable to hate corruption, evil, disbelief, murder, lewdness, and anything else that God has exposed as despicable. The Prophet never disliked things because of their essences, but because of what they manifested.

Hatred or strong dislike of a person for no legitimate reason is the disease of bughd. The Prophet once said to his Companions, “Do you want to see a man of Paradise?” A man then passed by and the Prophet said, “That man is one of the people of Paradise.” So a Companion of the Prophet decided to learn what it was about this man that earned him such a commendation from the Messenger of God. He spent time with this man and observed him closely. He noticed that he did not perform the Night Prayer Vigil (Tahajjud) or anything extraordinary. He appeared to be an average man of Madinah. The Companion finally told the man what the Prophet had said about him and asked if he did anything special. And the man replied, “The only thing that I can think of, other than what everybody else does, is that I make sure that I never sleep with any rancor in my heart towards another.” That was his secret.

The cure for hatred is straightforward. One should pray for the person toward whom he feels hatred, make specific supplications mentioning this person by name, asking God to give this person good things in this life and the next. When one does this with sincerity, hearts mend. If one truly wants to purify his or her heart and root out disease, there must be total sincerity and conviction that these cures are effective.

Compiled From:
"Purification of Heart" - Hamza Yusuf

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