Al-Mu’tasim and the Amazing Dream of Imam Ahmad bin Hanbalرحمه الله

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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?’

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

A khatirah given by Dr. Waleed Basyouni after Fajr in Clear Lake Islamic Center (June 13, 09)

Image by Swamibu via Flickr

Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal

Along time ago, a pious man who used to live with his wife in a border town passed away. His wife was pregnant. So she thought that a border town was not going to be a good place for her child to grow up. After all they only lived that far because her husband’s job was to protect the border along with the Muslim soldiers that were stationed there for that purpose. She moved to Baghdad the capital of the Islamic state (khilafah) at the time. Soon after she moved, she gave birth to a boy. She named him Ahmad. The mother wanted her son to become a scholar so from a very early age she enrolled him in the “kuttaab”–the equivalent of today’s elementary school. There Ahmad learned reading, writing, arithmetic and Quran. He was very brilliant and became the first in his class, so they moved him to a more reputable schooling system which was called “al Diwan.” This new school was under the direct supervision of the caliph himself. As you may all know now, the boy was Ahmad Ibn Hanbal. Imam Ahmad said that he started studying the sciences of religion at the age of 15. He learned under several scholars at that age. He learned under the two most famous students of Imam Abu Hanifa (rahimahu Allah): Imam Abu Yusuf and Imam Muhammad Ibn al Hasan al Shaybani. Imam Ahmad was not content to only know what the other scholars said and their fatwas, he wanted to learn what they had learned. So he started studying the hadith of the Prophet (salla Allahu alayhee wa sallam).

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.”

First accredited Islamic college planned for US

• ‘Muslim Georgetown’ aims to rival Yale for Islamic studies
• Non-believers and women welcome, imam says

The first accredited Islamic college in the US is being planned by an influential Muslim body hoping to produce “a generation of indigenised scholars”.The management committee from the Zaytuna Institute, which is dedicated to classical Muslim scholarship, last week recommended launching Zaytuna College in autumn 2010. The board of trustees is expected to vote on it later this month.

The college would be open to men, women, Muslims and non-Muslims, and would be on a level comparable to the best religious seminaries and higher education institutions in the US, the brochure says.

BEAUTIFUL! Surah Al Jinn – Idrees Akbar [HD!]

Here she comes: Saudi’s Miss Beautiful Morals

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) – Sukaina al-Zayer is an unlikely beauty queen hopeful. She covers her face and body in black robes and an Islamic veil, so no one can tell what she looks like. She also admits she’s a little on the plump side.But at Saudi Arabia’s only beauty pageant, the judges don’t care about a perfect figure or face. What they’re looking for in the quest for “Miss Beautiful Morals” is the contestant who shows the most devotion and respect for her parents.

“The idea of the pageant is to measure the contestants’ commitment to Islamic morals… It’s an alternative to the calls for decadence in the other beauty contests that only take into account a woman’s body and looks,” said pageant founder Khadra al-Mubarak.

“The winner won’t necessarily be pretty,” she added. “We care about the beauty of the soul and the morals.”

So after the pageant opens Saturday, the nearly 200 contestants will spend the next 10 weeks attending classes and being quizzed on themes including “Discovering your inner strength,” “The making of leaders” and “Mom, paradise is at your feet”—a saying attributed to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad to underline that respect for parents is among the faith’s most important tenets.

Pageant hopefuls will also spend a day at a country house with their mothers, where they will be observed by female judges and graded on how they interact with their mothers, al-Mubarak said. Since the pageant is not televised and no men are involved, contestants can take off the veils and black figure-hiding abayas they always wear in public.

Mothers Day Everyday

﴿وَاخْفِضْ لَهُمَا جَنَاحَ الذُّلِّ مِنَ الرَّحْمَةِ﴾

﴿وَقُل رَّبِّ ارْحَمْهُمَا كَمَا رَبَّيَانِى صَغِيرًا﴾

{”And lower unto them[Parents] the wing of submission and humility through mercy, and say: “My Lord! Bestow on them[Parents] Your Mercy as they did bring me up when I was small.”} 17:24

From Abu Eesa’s Blog

I marvel at the delicious irony of life sometimes.

I prepared a 30-hour series on the “Rights of the Parents” over the period of a whole year, with hundreds and hundreds of pages of commentary, with one key objective: to get all the Muslims to realise the value and importance of their Parents and then to seek Allah’s forgiveness for our inevitable shortcomings when that fact suddenly dawns.

Yet the video below will establish this fact in indescribable fashion and in only a few minutes. It just goes to show that all you need to convey this most fundamental message is sincerity, six minutes and a camera. May Allah reward all of those involved in producing and promoting this piece of work.

By the way, when you’ve stopped crying, recognise your guilt and now do something about it. May Allah give us all the tawfiq to do that which He commands us to.

From the Comments Section:

Question: I would love to be able to hug my mum but I think we would both feel so awkward about it.
How to overcome this?

A Christian Minister’s Conversion to Islam Dr. Jerald Dirks

Dr. Dirks is a former minister (deacon) of the United Methodist Church. He holds a Master’s degree in Divinity from Harvard University and a Doctorate in Psychology from the University of Denver. He is on TheDeenShow this week to share his story on Why he accept Islam(Submission to one God ALone in peace)
To view part 2 visit
http://www.thedeenshow.com/show.php