Category Archives: International News
Posted on January 20th, 2014 · Filed under International News
Indeed, Allah was pleased with the believers when they gave their Baiy’ah [pledge] to you [O’ Muhammad] under the tree, he knew what was in their hearts, and He sent down As-Sakinah [calmness and tranquility] upon them, and He rewarded them with a near victory. (Qur’an 48: 18)
This verse explains the highest goal of the believers: achieving the pleasure of Allah. Allah’s was being pleased with you is the most precious thing that you have to gain. This verse mentions Allah’s pleasure for the first generation of Muslims. In other verses, He mentions forgiveness and pardon for them:
That Allah may forgive you your sins of the past and the future… (Qur ‘an 48: 2)
Allah has forgiven the Prophet, the Muhajiroon [Muslim emigrants who left their homes and came to Al-Madeenah] and the Ansaar [Muslims of Al-Madeenah]…
(Qur ‘an 9: 117)
May Allah forgive you [O’ Muhammad]? Why did you grant them leave? (Qur’an 9: 43)
Seeking Allah’s pleasure, the companions made a pledge under the tree to sacrifice their lives. Why? Through their martyrdom, the religion grew and spread.
Allah, the Exalted, knew that a high level of faith dwelt in their hearts. They toiled, sweated, starved, and were tortured, but the important thing to these noble hearts was that Allah was pleased with them.
They were separated from their families, their wealth, and their homes only to face harsh realities of desert travel to another land, but they cared only for Allah and His being pleased with them.
Was the reward of these defenders of Islam camels, goats, or money? Do you think that these things would have the effect of soothing their hearts? Never! What soothed their hearts was the pleasure of Allah, His forgiveness, and His eternal reward:
And their recompense shall be Paradise, and silken garments, because they were patient. Reclining therein on raised thrones, they will see there neither the excessive heat of the sun, nor the excessive hitter cold, [as in Paradise there is no sun and no moon]. And the shade thereof is close upon them, and the bunches of fruit thereof will hang low within their reach. And amongst them will be passed round vessels of silver and cups of crystal, C/ stal-clear; made of silver They will determine the measure thereof according to their wishes. (Qur ‘an 76: 12-16)
Posted on January 14th, 2014 · Filed under International News
[The following is the video and transcript of Shaykh Yasir Qadhi’s Lectures on sīrah. The transcript includes slight modifications for the sake of readability and clarity].
In our last halaqah, we began talking about the khasaa-is, or the specialties of our Prophet Muḥammad 
and we mentioned about 15 of them and the fact of the matter is that there are closer to 50 special things that only he was given and no other person was given. Today inshā’Allāh ta’ala we will continue talking about his characteristics and his appearances and his mannerisms. And as I told you last week, the purpose of this is to give you a little bit of a taster of the seerah. A little bit of a summary if you like, a bird’s eye view, so we get the summary of who exactly our Prophet was.
And we will begin today by talking about his physical appearance, how he used to look . And realize that it is the sunnah of Allāh, it is the custom of Allāh that Allāh 
sends prophets and messengers with the most perfect characteristics, inner and outer. And the reason He does so is so that mankind has no reason to reject this messenger. Every messenger has come with the most perfect characteristics, the most perfect mannerisms, and also perfect images as well. So the prophets, as a general rule, are all handsome in nature. And they all have beautiful characteristics. And as we know, the Prophet Yusuf 
was given half of all beauty. And some scholars say that half of all beauty means half of all beauty of mankind, and this is the majority opinion. But there is another opinion as well and I’m just mentioning this because to tell you that there is another opinion there, and that is some scholars say that when the Prophet said half of beauty, he actually meant half of his own beauty. This is one opinion as well. He actually meant that half of his own beauty, because according to this opinion, the Prophet Muḥammad is the most handsome and the mostJamaal of the entire creation, he has the greatest Jamaal of the whole creation. And so they say when he is saying he has been given nisfal husn, or half, (Shatrul Husn is the hadith) half of beauty, some scholars have interpreted this to mean half of his own ‘s beauty.
And we have many characteristics that have been described, the physical features of our Prophet . And some of the more beautiful ones are, for example, Ar-Rubayy’ bint Mu’awwidh one of the sahabbiyaat, when her son asked her, “What was the Prophet like?” this is later on, after he has passed away and she is now an old lady so people are coming to her eagerly, “Describe the Prophet .” And so all she could say, and this is reported in At-Tabaraani’s Kabeer and also Bukhāri’s book Al-Manaqib, all she could say was, “Oh my dear son, if you were to have seen him, you would have thought that the sun had risen up.” I don’t know how to describe it to you, if you were to have seen him you would have thought that the sun has now risen up, this is the rising sun. And it is amazing that Rubayy’i describes him as a sun, beautiful sun.
Ka’ab ibn Malik describes him as a moon. Ka’ab ibn Malik, another famous companion, he said that whenever the Prophet was happy, his face would light up as if it was the full moon. And it is beautiful that the sahabah are describing the Prophet with what they know to be the most beautiful, and that is the sun and the moon. So we have one sahabiyyah, she’s saying he is like the sun shining. Another one is saying he is like the full moon. And one of my favorite introductions, to this whole topic, we’re not actually describing him yet, we’re simply saying how the sahabahcould not describe him. They couldn’t describe how handsome he was because it was too much for them. And my favorite tradition, wAllāhi it is a tradition; it almost makes you want to cry when you listen to this. And this is the beautiful tradition of ‘Amr ibn al Aas. ‘Amr ibn al Aas is this sahabi, who used to be of the leaders of the Quraysh who were against Islam. ‘Amr ibn al Aas is of the mala’, he’s of the noble men who rejected Islam. He’s like Abu Sufyaan, he’s like Khalid bin Waleed, this category of people who were noble enemies, they weren’t evil enemies. What I mean by this is you cannot compare them to Abu Lahab, to Abu Jahal, these are the vulgar enemies. There was a group of people, they opposed Islam, but they didn’t stoop to dirty tactics. And the amazing thing by the way, and we’ll talk about this later on, Allāh guided all of them to Islam and this shows that amongst the kufaar, there are two categories: those who have a good heart and because they had a good heart, Khalid ibn Waleed, Ikrimah the son of Abu Jahl, ‘Amr ibn al Aas, Abu Sufyaan, their hearts, they had a mount of good in them, they had nobility, but they opposed Islam and Allāh guided all of them to Islam because Allāh knew there was good in their hearts, whereas the others, they weren’t like this.
So ‘Amr ibn al Aas is of those who converted to Islam very late and he only had the opportunity to be a sahabi, basically for a few years, two years or so, or a little bit more than two. And later on in his life, and he lived a life of political career, he lived a life of grandeur and majesty, he became the wazeer of Muawiyyah, he lived a grand life. ‘Amr ibn al Aas later on would say that there was nothing that was sweeter to me, more beloved to me, than to stare at the face of the Prophet . Now I want you to pause here. This is not how a man talks usually, right? There was nothing more beloved to me than to stare at the face of another person…that is not how a man talks. But the beauty of the Prophet is so overpowering, his Jamaal, his noor is so great that ‘Amr ibn al Aas is saying there was nothing that I got more peace from, more serenity from, there was nothing sweeter than to simply look at the face of the Prophet . And he said, “And I could never get enough of looking at him.” I never got tired of looking at him. And yet, were you to ask me how he looked, I couldn’t describe him. Why? He said, “Because along with this desire to stare at him, there was also this awe, this reverence that I had, that couldn’t allow me to just stare directly at him. I’d have to lower my face.” In other words, there are two emotions, if you like, there’s two powers if you like, I don’t like being metaphysical, but there’s two types of types of powers emanating from the Prophet . The first of them, he’s attracting ‘Amr’s vision to him. And the second is that awe, that overpowering-ness that ‘Amr cannot stare directly. This is Rasul Allāh how can you stare at him? You have to sit with dignity. You have to sit with, what we call in Arabic, hayba and waqaar. You show a type of dignity in front of the Prophet . And therefore he’s saying even though I loved to stare, I couldn’t stare. And because of this I’m always battling between these two emotions. I really cannot do justice in describing the Prophet . It’s a beautiful hadith that shows us, and this is coming from somebody, he is a nobleman of the Quraysh and yet this is how humbled he was just by the appearance, just by theshakal if you like, just by the soorah of the prophet Muḥammad .
Posted on January 13th, 2014 · Filed under International News
The order that you may not be sad over matters that you fail to get…
(Qur’an 57: 23)
Adam said to Moosa (Moses) may peace be upon them, “Do you blame me for that which Allah had decreed upon me forty years before He created me.”
Concerning this last saying, the Prophet (bpuh) said: Read more ›
Posted on January 12th, 2014 · Filed under International News
Verily, we have created man in toil. (Qur’an 90: 4)
Imam Ahmad was asked, “When is there rest?” He answered, “When you put your foot in Paradise you will find rest.” Read more ›
Posted on January 11th, 2014 · Filed under International News
One day I gathered twelve different commentaries of the Qur’an: At-Tabari, Ibn Katheer, Al-Baghawi, AZ-Zamakhshari, Al-Qurtubi, AZ-Zilaal, As-Shinquiti, Ar-Raazi, Fath ul-Qadeer, Al-Khaazin, Abu Mas’ood, and Al-Qaasimi (some in this list are the names of the authors while others are the names of the actual books). I had intended to read every day the commentary of one verse of the Qur’an from each of these books. I planned to read the explanation of the daily verse from the first book, then the second, and so on, until I had completed them all. I tried this for a while but I quickly felt bored and exhausted. It is true that I was enthusiastic, but I had been too hasty in planning and in choosing a proper method of study. Read more ›
Posted on January 9th, 2014 · Filed under International News
In the year 1400 Hijri, I participated in a campaign to propagate Islam, close to the border of Yemen. I temporarily left the camp we were staying in, intending to go with one of my professors to Abha. On the way back I was upset because he was driving his car at a very high speed. I pleaded with him to slow down, but it seemed that this only had the effect of goading him on to go faster. It was raining that night, yet he continued to drive recklessly. We ended up in a valley that was filling with water. At first the water reached a level only slightly above our tires. As we reached the middle of the valley, though, the situation got worse as water started to flow into our vehicle. We left the car and with much difficulty we managed to reach the edge of the valley. We were stuck there all night without food, drink, and more importantly, because we were wet, without blankets. We were contented and thankful for our situation though, because when the flood had overwhelmed us we had expected to die. And so we were thankful just to be alive. In the early morning somebody came and took us to safety. I am reminded by this incident of a story that took place in World War II. An American ship was hit by a missile and as a result began to sink. The captain was stranded for thirteen days with only water and bread to nourish him. He was later asked whether there was a moral that he took away with him from his experience. He said, “Something important that I took away with me from this experience is that if a person is healthy and has bread and water, he has the whole world with him.” Read more ›
Posted on January 7th, 2014 · Filed under International News, MYF Latest News, MYF News, MYF Projects, UK News
Do not be sad, for sadness will weaken your determination and the quality of your worship. One of the offshoots of depression is that it often causes one to be pessimistic, to find blame in everyone, including — and we seek refuge in Allah – Allah Himself.
Do not be sad, for sadness, grief, and anxiety are the roots of mental problems, the sources of stress.
Do not be sad, for you have with you the Qur’an, supplication, remembrance, and prayer. You can lighten the load of your anxiety by giving others, doing well, and being productive.
Do not be sad, and do not surrender to sadness by taking the easy path of idleness and inactivity, but pray, glorify your Lord, read, write, work, visit relatives and friends, and reflect. Read more ›
Posted on January 7th, 2014 · Filed under International News
Pain is not always a negative force and it is not something that you should always hate. At times a person benefits when he feels pain.
You might remember that, at times when you felt a lot of pain, you sincerely supplicated and remembered Allah. When he is studying, the student often feels the pangs of heavy burden, sometimes perhaps the burden of monotony, yet he eventually leaves this stage of life a scholar. He felt burdened with pain at the beginning but he shined at the end. The aches and pangs of passion, the poverty and the scorn of others, the frustration and anger at injustices these all cause the poet to write flowing and captivating verses. This is because he himself feels pain in his heart, in his nerves, and in his blood, and as a result, he is able to infuse the same emotions, via his work, into the hearts of others. How many painful experiences did the best writers have to undergo, experiences that inspired brilliant works, works that posterity continues to enjoy and benefit from today. Read more ›
Posted on January 5th, 2014 · Filed under International News
It is not uncommon to see laborers who are so poor that whatever they earn on any given day is spent on that same day. Yet many of them are happy, peaceful, with strong hearts and tranquil souls. This is because they are too busy to think about yesterday or tomorrow. Their life-style has given them an appreciation of today since they have not been afforded the opportunity of thinking about anything else. Read more ›
Posted on January 1st, 2014 · Filed under International News
Waiting eagerly for the call to prayer, arriving at the mosque before the commencement of prayer, bearing no personal grudges against others, leaving alone other people’s private affairs, being content with the basic necessities of life, studying the Qur’an and the Sunnah, feeling concern for the pains of other Muslims, and being charitable with one’s wealth – these are all qualities of a righteous person. Read more ›
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