Phobia

Witnessed an incident yesterday.
Felt like I had been teleported back to the racist 70s/80s.
Verses 3:118-120 came to mind, though heavy perhaps and not entirely applicable.. .

"... Rank hatred has already
Appeared from their mouths:
What their hearts conceal
Is far worse..."

"... When they are alone,
They bite off the very tips
Of their fingers at you
In their rage..."

(Source: Abdullah Yusuf Ali's rendition)

Dua Mubaarak

One of two Dua's/supplications I memorised last weekend (9-11 Muharram). Rough attempt at 'tashkeeling' and translating it...

1) Allahumma-qsim lanaa
2) min khashyatika maa ta7oolu bihi bainanaa wa baina ma3aaSiyika
3) wa min Taa3atika maa tubalighunaa bihi jannataka
4) wa mina-al-yaqeeni maa tuhowwinu bihi 3alaynaa maSaa'iba-ad-dunyaa.
5) Allahumma matti3naa bi-asmaa3inaa wa abSaarinaa wa quwwaatinaa maa a7yaytanaa
6) wa-j3alhu-l-waaritha minnaa
7) wa-j3al tha'ranaa 3alaa man Dhalamanaa
8) wa-nSurnaa 3alaa man 3aadaanaa
9) wa laa taj3al muSeebatanaa fee deeninaa
10) wa laa taj3al-id-dunyaa akbara hamminaa wa laa mablagha 3ilminaa
11) wa laa tusalliT 3alaynaa man laa yar7amunaa

1) O Allah, grant us
2) fear of You such what acts as a divider between us and us disobeying You,
3) and grant us obedience to You such what helps us reach Your Paradise,
4) and grant us certainty such what makes easy for us the challenges of this world.
5) O Allah make enjoyable (?) our lives by our hearing, sight and strength/health
6) and make it (our enjoyments/perceptions/strength?) a successor (?) for us (in the next life?)
7) and take revenge/retaliation for us on those who wrong us
8) and help us over those who take us as enemies
9) and do not make our calamity/trial/misfortune/disaster in our religion
10) and do not make this world the largest of our concerns nor the extent/limit of our knowledge
11) and do not put over us in authority those who will not show us mercy.

... Love this Du'a! :)>

Karbala. Heart.

This verse...

"Say (O Muhammad (saws)): 'Whoever is an enemy to Jibraaeel (let him die in his fury), for indeed he has brought it (this Qur'an) down to your heart by Allah's Permission, confirming what came before it and guidance and glad tidings for the believers..." (2:97, translation of the meaning of course!)

.... triggered something I heard recently in the third CD of 'The Hereafter' series by Imam Anwar al-Awlaki regarding one of the earlier persons who claimed to be a Prophet. The 'revelations' he received seemed to all revolve around food and so the people said to him (paraphrased) , 'we don't know whether the angel is talking to your heart or your stomach!'

The CD also contained a phenomenal clear-headed account (maa sha Allah!) of how the door to fitan/trials was broken after the death of Umar ibn al Khattab (ra) and the events that lead to Karbala. Cannot recommend it enough.

Principle

"The commands of the Shari'ah may not be changed just because we do not understand them. This is an unquestionable and widely acceptable principle.

Minor and major uncleanliness (Hadath Asghar and Hadath Akbar) fall in the same realm. These terms do not have clear understandable meanings. For example, Shari'ah tells us that breaking wind makes us unclean (i.e. our wudu is broken). In order to clean ourselves from this impurity, we are to wash our face, our arms to the elbows, feet up to the ankles and make masah of (wipe over) our head. We do not understand what possible relationship there may be between breaking wind and washing these body parts in order to purify ourselves, nor are we allowed to guess. But since the Shari'ah commands us to wash these body parts, we will continue to do so."

(Source: 'The Book of Purification - The Complete Islamic Rules and Guidelines of Cleanliness and Purification', by Sheikh M. Ibrahim Memon Madani)

Too much time with intellectuals.
My heart stops thinking.
Stupidity starts sounding smart.
Need to reconnect it to its roots.

The angels stretch forth their hands...

... Deliver your souls.

"walaqad ji'tumoonaa furaadaa
kamaa khalaqnaakum awwala marratin
wa taraktum maa khawwalnaakum
waraa'a dhuhoorikum..."

"And truly you have come unto Us alone
(without wealth, companions or anything else)
as We created you the first time.
You have left behind you
all that which We had bestowed on you..."

(Al-Qur'an, Surah al-An3aam, part of Verse 94)

I was in my garden last night.
Happened to look up at the sky.
Calming.
Difficult to see how small we are
always looking down charging ahead.

The one bathed by the angels

Sayyiduna Hanzala, raDhiyAllahu 3anhu, may Allah be pleased with Him.

"... When the call for the Battle of Uhud was announced, and the army was beginning to leave, he was having relations with his wife. In this state he heard the call for war, and heard the army leaving for the battlefield. He left everything at that moment and joined the army. He did not have a chance to do ghusl (bath). He was martyred in the battlefield. Because a shaheed (martyr) is not given ghusl, he too was not given a bath. Sayyidunaa Rasulullah sallAllahu 3alayhi wa sallam saw the angels bathing him. He made inquiries, and, on returning to Madinah Munawwarah, was informed by his wife of his condition..."

(Source: Shamaa-il Tirmidhi with commentary, published by Darul Ishaat)

Above story found in the chapter on the turban of Sayyidunaa Rasulullah sallAllahu 3alayhi wa sallam, in the commentary of the fifth Hadith, regarding the father of one of the narrators of the Hadith.

When observing someone wearing new clothes...

Lots of people wearing new clothes yesterday.
I should have capitalised.

(1) May you wear new clothes,
(2) live well,
(3) and die a martyr.

(1) ilbas jadeedan
(2) wa 3ish 7ameedan
(3) wa mot shaheedan

(Source: Reflections of Pearls,
by Imad Uddin and Abdur-Rahman Ibn Yusuf)