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Cool Dawah Website:
“Some people reject God because they can find no evidence for Him which satisfies both their hearts and minds simultaneously. Then there are others who accept God on the basis of emotional or irrational reasons which satisfy their hearts, but leave their minds unsure. These two groups of people have never found a satisfying answer to the question of their relationship with God. Then there are yet others who have found the correct path which God intended for us: to accept Him and His message to us using our minds first and foremost, and the heart follows easily and naturally as a consequence. Instead of searching for the answer, there are also some people who chose to simply brush the question aside and ignore it unfortunately. This is the easy way out of what appears to be a very difficult, mysterious question which may seem to have no final solution. Most of these people are unaware of a very powerful message which completely and unequivocally establishes the correct path to God. This message squares with both the mind and the heart, and it has no equal since it comes to us straight from God Himself.
To Muslim Hip Hoppers and Entertainers by Suhaib Webb
To Muslim Hip Hoppers and Entertainers
Asalamu alaykum, When the Prophet [sa] saw Umar reading some passages from the Torah he said, “If Mosa was alive today, he would have no choice but to follow me.” What would he say to our Muslim entertainers who jump up and down and seek, intended or unintended, to impose the lens of culture as a means to interpret and understand religion? While the Torah still held some drops of revelation, the words and acts of men don’t.
A few years ago Dr. Tariq Ramadan encouraged a moratorium on Islamic penal codes. I’m calling for a moratorium on Islamic entertainment. Let’s encourage our dear brothers and sisters to take a year off, learn the religion, learn tajwid, getting an ijaza in one of the 7 ways of reading, master a book in every major science; and participate in one of their local Islamic Centers dawa programs. If one is already doing this, or done it, then do it again.
Perhaps one would say that this applies to all Muslims? No doubt, learning here is of greater importance because our artists are trying to shape a discourse. This discourse must be based on knowledge and submission. I would encourage Muslims to avoid these superstars, inviting them to events, paying them big sums of cash and treating them with such pageantry. SDW know to others as “Eminem.”
Shaykh Abdullah bin Jibreen [ra] (1352h-1430h)
Innā lillāhi wa innā ilayhi rāji‘ūn.
“May Allah jalla wa ‘alā have mercy upon the Shaykh, illuminate his grave and grant him the best of Paradise, amīn. And so another giant is taken and another barrier between ourselves and the anger of our Lord has fallen. To Allah we complain alone of our weakness and sins.”
Recounting Memories of Ibn Jibreen – Navaid Aziz
“At that time I was playing with the baby, and I couldn’t help but to just put her down and contemplate the great loss the ummah had just faced.”
Sh. Salman al ‘awdah said about him: “Indeed the illustrious scholar Ibn Jibreen was from the greatest scholars of Saudi Arabia, and the most enthusiastic of them in giving da’wah, and from those that had the greatest of effects. He was extremely humble, truly sincere, and vast in knowledge. I never saw him get upset, nor ever try to put himself above others. He used to kiss the heads of his students, and would outright refuse to have anyone kiss his head…”
Shaykh Haytham al-Haddād [english] video talking about Sh. Ibn Jibreen
Shaykh Yasir Qadhi: “Truly with the death of the Shaykh we have lost the last of the great giants of our era…and Allah does not remove knowledge from the chests of men, but rather through the death of scholars.” Read the rest of this entry »
7 Lessons From the Death of Michael Jackson
Your Life is a Box. The Messenger of Allah (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) once drew a dot in the sand, and lines radiating out from it; he said (paraphrased), “this is the human, and their plans/desires.” To live forever, to amass huge wealth, to do this or that thing in their life … he (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) then drew a box that cut through those lines, and he said (paraphrased): “This is a human’s life.” No matter what you intend, your goals, your dreams, your hopes, when Allah pulls the plug, He pulls the plug.
Read the rest at IlmFruits
5 Steps to Taking off your Hijab
One of the bests posts I’ve seen on the subject, ma sha Allah.
from DEENDRIVEN.com
It seems like there are some people who are just thinking about taking off their hijab. No one has created a step-by-step approach for it. Here you go.
1) Stop thinking it’s a big deal. It’s bad, but not that bad. There are people who drink, you know! Let this idea simmer.
2) Stop thinking about what others would say or think. You aren’t suppose to do good deeds for other people’s sake, it’s suppose to be for Allah.
3) *Critical step* Find and stick to friends who have already took off their hijab. They will give you their stories, why they did it and how it makes sense. Look how cool and trendy they are! They’ll be the ones who will provide you support after you take it off.
4) If you stopped wearing it, you are going to feel a little nervous. You need to be armed with some replies. Here are some commonly quoted reasons;
- “My husband/in-laws wanted me to, it’s part of being a good wife to listen to what they say”
- “You don’t understand, it’s tough to wear it at my workplace”
- “There is a difference of opinion”
- “There are girls who wear hijab and do bad things”
- If anyone tries to get to preachy, tell them they don’t know what’s in your heart and they can’t judge you. It makes you feel real good.
5) Even after you take off your hijab, your heart will tell you to go back and you will doubt what you just did. Try to kill these feelings and thoughts. It will be too embarassing to start wearing the hijab again. Its like publically saying you made a mistake. What will people say ?
Al-Mu’tasim and the Amazing Dream of Imam Ahmad bin Hanbalرحمه الله
flickr
The strength of his faith in Allah and the steadfastness on his understanding of the Deen were tested when under Khalifah al-Mu’tasim, a Fitnah or a kind of ‘inquisition court’ was created to deal with people among whom were many acknowledged scholars who would not profess the doctrine of “the creation of the Qur’an”. Imam ibn Hanbal too, suffered as a result when he was arrested and brought in chains before the court. But he patiently submitted to corporal punishment and imprisonment and resolutely refused to deviate from his beliefs. His trial, and the Ummah’s for that matter, were to come to an end on the hands of the Khalifah al-Mutawakkil who did not believe in the doctrine of ‘the creation of the Qur’an’. From then onwards the Imam was accorded honour befitting his greatness. His steadfastness helped preserve the correct Islamic belief regarding the Book of Allah. His fame spread far and wide. His learning, piety and unswerving faithfulness to traditions gathered the Ummah and its scholars around his understanding and teachings. He died in Baghdad in the year 855 CE (241 AH). (Al-Jumu’ah Magazine)
Sulaymaan said, ‘He was then carried to the prison and the people departed, so I departed with them. Then when the next day arrived the people came (to the door of al-Mu’tasim) so I came with them and stood in front of the chair. Then al-Mu’tasim appeared and sat on the chair and said, ‘Bring Ahmad ibn Hanbal.’ So he was brought and when he stood in front of him al-Mu’tasim said to him,
‘How were you in your cell during the night, 0 son of Hanbal?’ He said, “In goodness, and all praises are due to Allaah.” Al-Mu‘tasim said, ‘0 Ahmad, I saw a dream yesterday.’ He said, “And what did you see, 0 Ameerul-Mu’mineen?” He said, ‘I saw in my dream as if there were two lions approaching me and they desired to tear me apart. And then two angels appeared and repelled them from me. They gave me a hook and said to me, ‘This written (piece) is the dream that Ahmad ibn Hanbal saw in his cell.’ So what is it that you saw, 0 son of Hanbal?’ Read the rest of this entry »
The Key To Paradise
No matter how many lectures you attend…
No matter how many khutbas you listen to…
No matter how many advanced islamic sciences you study…
It comes down to one thing.
Illustrious Personalities: Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal
Enlightening Interview on Tawhid (Islamic Monotheism) with Dr. Ja`far Sheikh Idris
Question: You have talked about degeneration of Muslim society. Now how about regeneration of Muslim society — how can Tawhid help us regenerate Muslim society and bring our intellectual tradition alive?
Dr. Ja`far Sheikh Idris: As I said earlier I think the first thing we have to do is to invite people to Tawhid again. I think we also have to make it relevant to the ideologies that are prevailing in the world today. It seems to me that we Muslim intellectuals have a very big role to play. From my contacts with some Western intellectuals I think that it is only we, the Muslim intellectuals, who can invite people to religion again. Many other theologians who belong to other religions, many of them, I think they are very sincere people but the problem is that the religion, or the kind of concept of God that they have cannot be at all accepted by someone whose mind is shaped by science, or someone who demands, who looks for evidence, for reasoning. Man y people as a function of their religions, I mean they are very intellectual people, but it’s because of their religion they have to say that there is no contact between reason and religion, or that we have to keep science and religion apart. They say religion, but, in fact, they should have said Christianity or Judaism or Buddhism, or whatever, because we Muslims don’t think so, we do not agree with this separation of religion from science. We can argue even with the atheist, with the m materialist, because, again I discover, that the kind of God that they reject is not the . . .
Z.S.: The kind of God of Islam?
J.S.I.: The God whom we believe in.
Read the rest of the interview here
On Michael Jackson and Muslims
2 posts put some much needed clarity in the chaos of the recent news.
(reading time 3 seconds) Sh. Suhaib Webb: http://www.suhaibwebb.com/blog/general/was-mj-a-muslim/
(Reading time 5 min): Sh. Abu Esa Niamatullah http://alternativeentertainment.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/dealing-with-skeletons-in-the-closet-%E2%80%93-beat-it/
“Its effect is vastly under-estimated which is why many Muslims simply cannot understand why their fellow brothers and sisters are making such a big deal of an artist as talented and masterful as Michael Jackson”
“I feel that Muslim scholars deal with the topic of music very poorly. Many of them simply (and rather fortunately!) cannot appreciate the hold music can have over the hearts of its victims.”
