Pieces Of Advice For You and Me

Allah says in the Holy Qur'an :

12. We bestowed (in the past) wisdom on Luqman: "Show (thy) gratitude to Allah." any who is (so) grateful does so to the profit of His own soul: but if any is ungrateful, Verily Allah is free of all wants, worthy of all praise.
13. Behold, Luqman said to His son by way of instruction: "O My son! join not In worship (others) with Allah. for false worship is indeed the highest wrong-doing."
14. And we have enjoined on man (to be good) to His parents: In travail upon travail did His mother bear him, and In years twain was His weaning: (hear the Command), "Show gratitude to me and to Thy parents: to me is (thy final) Goal.
15. "But if They strive to make Thee join In worship with me things of which Thou hast no knowledge, obey them not; yet bear them company In This life with justice (and consideration), and follow the way of those who turn to me (in love): In the end the return of you all is to me, and I will Tell you the truth (and meaning) of all that ye did."
16. "O My son!" (said Luqman), "If there be (but) the weight of a mustard-seed and it were (hidden) In a rock, or (anywhere) In the heavens or on earth, Allah will bring it forth: for Allah understands the finest mysteries, (and) is well-acquainted (with them).
17. "O My son! establish regular prayer, enjoin what is just, and forbid what is wrong: and bear with patient constancy whatever betide thee; for This is Firmness (of purpose) In (the conduct of) affairs.
18. "And swell not Thy cheek (for pride) at men, nor walk In insolence through the earth; for Allah loveth not any arrogant boaster.
19. "And be moderate In Thy pace, and lower Thy voice; for the harshest of sounds without doubt is the braying of the ass."

These are the advice given by Luqman al Hakim-the wise man whose name is mentioned in the Holy Qur’an. Personally, I think such advice is vital to be pondered upon not only for the sons or daughters, but even to the parents themselves. Be thankful if you parents do give the same advice like Luqman. Yet, even if they do not, the advice itself provides you such a potent and powerful message how to deal with them. Among the gist that you may find in the verse are :
1) Be grateful to Allah. By being grateful to your Creator, it’s actually benefiting yourself.
2) Do not associate Allah with others because it is biggest sin.
3) Be good to your parents since they have sacrificed a lot especially to your mother. As narrated in one of the hadiths of our beloved prophet Muhammad(Peace be upon him) :

A man came to the Prophet Muhammad and said;
“O Allah’s Apostle! Who is most entitled to be treated best by me? “
The Prophet said, “Your mother.”
The man further asked,”Who is next?”
The Prophet replied, “Your mother.”
The man asked for the fourth time, “Who is next?”
The prophet said, “Your father.”

4) Again, be grateful to Allah and also your parents. In fact, Allah is your final goal.
5)One must honor and serve one’s non believing parents and treat them with kindness, but in matters of belief and worship, one must follow in the footsteps of those who have made submission to God(One must refuse obedience to one’s parents if they ask one to set up copartners with God).
6) God will bring forth every single act performed by every single human being-even if that action is of the weight of a mustard seed, which is hidden in a rock or anywhere else in the heavens and the earth-and will recompense that act.
7) To establish prayer, To command good and forbid evil (require patience and steadfastness in the face of hardship).
8) Do not be wry faced with people, be gentle in speech and humble in gait (manner of walking). So that it would not resemble an arrogant booster.

The Story of A Man & A Barber

A man went to a Barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects when they eventually touched on the subject of Allah

The Barber said: I don’t believe that Allah Exists.
Why do you say that? Asked the customer.

Well, you just have to go out in the street & realize that Allah doesn’t exist. Tell me if Allah Exists, would there be so many sick people?
Would there be abandoned Children? If Allah existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine a loving Allah who would allow all of these things. The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start an argument.

The Barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and untrimmed beard, he looked dirty and unkempt.

The customer turned back and entered the barbershop again and said to the barber: You know what? Barbers do not exist. How can you say that? Asked the surprised Barber. I am here, and I am a Barber, & I just worked on you!

No! The customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beard, like that man outside.
Ah, But Barbers do exist! That’s what happens when people do not come to me.”
Exactly, affirmed the customer. “That’s the Point!
Allah, too, exists! That’s what happens when people do not go to HIM and don’t look to HIM for Help. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the World”.

ALLAH DOES EXIST…
This is one of the best explanations of why Allah allows pain and suffering that we have seen..Nevertheless, we know that everything that is happening has a wisdom behind it..It is beyond our reach to comprehend that, yet He knows what best for His creation..

Sinful or Sinless ?

To err is human, to forgive is divine. Isn’t it right? In Islam, we believe that nobody is exempted from doing anything which is disliked by our Creator. That is why, we are called human. Even the word human in Arabic is derived from the word Nisyan which means forgetful. Indeed, we are forgetful as we commit mistakes though we have been reminded by our Creator countless times before. Nevertheless, He is always there to forgive us and full with mercy to listen to our prayers without even whining about that! masyaAllah..

I wonder how other religions view this. As far I am concerned, our conception of sin is different than those of the Christians’ conception. Maybe it is worth here to take a glimpse of the Christianity’s conception of sin and how Islam views this.
In Christianity, one of the major doctrines in their teaching is the concept of the original sin. A belief which says that, all human beings are considered sinful as they have inherited the sin of Adam when he had broken the law of God and ate the forbidden fruit. Moreover, it says that the requirement of the justice of God is that, a price must be paid for every sin. As stated in Hebrews 9:22

“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission”

The sin of Adam could never be cleansed except through a price of blood which later falls on Jesus. In fact, it is stressed that the blood that washes away sin that was inherited from Adam must be pure and uncontaminated. Hence, Jesus meets this requirement and thus he died on the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of men, ritualized as Baptism through which Christians are ‘born again’ into the world but this time free of sin. Several questions or I would say considerations might be worth to be posed here:
1) Why are the infants, humanity before Jesus, and others who have not heard about Christianity held accountable for a sin they never committed, nor have knowledge about how to remit themselves from it?
2) Why did not God come and free humanity from sin at the time of Adam so that the righteous people would not be accountable for his sin?
3) Let say if a couple who have already been baptized, have son or daughter.Then,what about the child? Still inherit the original sin?
4) If a child is claimed to be sinful by the Christian, then will he/she goes to heaven or hell the moment he/she dies after his/her birth?
5) Ezekiel 18:20 says that:“The soul that sinneth, it shall die.The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”
6) Jeremiah 31:29-30 says that: “In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.”

What about Islam?. What does it say about this concept of sin?. In a simple manner, there is no such concept of hereditary of sin in Islam. In fact, a sin cannot be inherited by the progeny as Allah has made it clear that an individual would be accountable for his own deed and such responsibility cannot be put on the shoulders of others. It is mentioned clearly in the Qur’an as Allah says :

“Say: "Shall I seek for (my) Cherisher other than Allah, when He is the Cherisher of all things (That exist)? Every soul draws the meed of its acts on none but itself: no bearer of burdens can bear of burdens can bear the burden of another. Your goal in the end is towards Allah. He will tell you the truth of the things wherein ye disputed."

(Al-An’am 6:164)

In another verse Allah says:

“Who receiveth guidance, receiveth it for His own benefit: who goeth astray doth so to His own loss: no bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another: nor would we visit with Our wrath until we had sent an apostle (to give warning).”

(Al-Israa’17:15)

As a matter of fact, Allah does not need any physical sacrifice in order to forgive sins. What more to the child as they were born in a state of purity, clean from any sin as mentioned in a Hadith of Rasulullah:
“Every child is born in a state of fitrah (purity). Then it is his parents to make him a Jew, a Christian or a Magian’”

In fact, even Islam itself is called Din al-Fitrah whereby God created man with one religion i.e. with the full knowledge and awareness of the fact that there is only One God to Whom they owe their fealty and worship. Islam disagrees with the belief in the Origin of Sins since every child is born sinless. In fact, they are clean so much so that they are like a piece of white cloth. Islam would not accept the belief that Jesus had died on the cross and sacrificed his blood to wash the inherited sins of all men as it shows how unjust and merciless God is. What more, punishing a man for the sins of others would be on the height of injustice. As for Muslim, we know that Allah is not only just, but also forgiving and merciful. Allah says,

“ Say: "O My servants who have transgressed against their souls! despair not of the Mercy of Allah. for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.”

(Az Zumar :39:53)

Allahu A’lam(Allah knows best)..

A Memorable Jum’ah With The Grand Mufti Of Bosnia & Herzegovina

I never thought that today’s Jum’ah( Friday prayer) would be a little bit different than usual. In fact, I was so surprised the moment the mosque authority announced that we would be having Sheikh Mustafa Ceric as our khatib for the prayer though I was aware of his presence in this country through one of the blogs that I had surfed earlier. It is definitely a very unique experience to have this Mufti which is coming all away from the Balkan region. He made an opening gambit by reciting verses of the Qur’an as to relate to the sermon and then touched on the issue of the state of the Muslim Ummah. With crisp English, he then pointed out that Muslims in our contemporary days are not really practising the fundamentals, of which Islam is based upon. In a simple manner, he was trying to convey that Muslims do have the fundamentals which are all inherent In Islam, yet what we are lacking is the application i.e. the questions of whether do we practice what we preach?. There are 4 fundamentals of Islam as pointed out by Sheikh Mustapha i.e. :
1)Fundamental of Knowledge
-As exemplifies in Surah Al-‘Alaq
“1. Proclaim! (or read!) In the name of Thy Lord and Cherisher, who created-
2. Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed Blood”
- This revelation made it clear that Allah asked men to seek
knowledge as the main priority over the other.
2) Fundamental of Morality
-absence of morality made it possible to the prevalent of business without ethics, politics without principle, society without family and many others.
3) Fundamental of Brotherhood
- Muslims love each other but they do not respect each other
4) Fundamental of Inclusiveness
- Inclusive in a sense that it is of past, present and future

It might sound simple for all of us here. Nonetheless, how much do you think the fundamentals are reflected in our life as a Muslim? Only Allah knows. He sum up with reiterating his hope that Muslims would be aware of their responsibility of practicing all the fundamentals of Islam in which if it is not, it would lead the decline of Muslims as what had been happening in the past. Now, the question remains. Do we practice what we preach?.

An Evening With Professor Paul Morris

Yesterday, I had a short yet a wonderful moment with Professor Paul Morris, a renowned scholar in the field of contemporary world religions and also the Director of Religious Studies, Victoria University Of wellington. He came all away from the kiwi land to Malaysia for the purpose of Islamic Studies in which he is interested with. Due to his tight schedule, Our University managed to get him landed on our beautiful campus and we later had a short public talk with him. Honestly, I’ve never heard his name before, but because of this program I don’t think I would forget him!. At first, he was asked to talk about the contribution of religion to peace making and conflict resolution, yet due to time constraint he only touched a bit on that part while enlightening us about Islam in New Zealand and how this particular country trying to adapt its position and relation with regard to Islam especially after September 11 incident. I was so astonished when he said, it used to be that the numbers of Muslims there were only 200, but then after September 11 it has increased so much so that they are now around 40,000 in number which is equivalent to 1%. He made his point clear that evening when he mentioned that he and his team are working hard for the establishment of CSIMC (Centre for Studies of Islam & Muslim Culture) here in New Zealand which is expected to be launched in 2010. MasyaAllah, It is a very pleasant thing to hear such news.

The room had been getting even warmer when he expresses his views in which he stated that when people are caught up in a religious war, then the solution should also be sought in religion namely a religious engagement. What he was trying to deduce is that, people in our times need to be religious peace makers and not a secular one. I cannot resist myself than to agree most with him when he said that. He added that, there is something beyond conflict and religion has as indispensable and unique role in conflict resolution. Just look at how different religious traditions have been talking about peace resolutions though they might come with different visionary of it. Not to forget, he is also critical of those who claim that all conflicts in the world are because of religion. For him, religion has such a significant role as to cope with two ideologies that are dominating the modern society namely the global capitalism and sciences (as in the case of neo dominion philosophy and survival of the fittest notion). Prof Morris ended the session with some Q&A and left us with an ‘enlightenment’ state =) of being aware of the significant of being a religious peace makers. In fact, I see him as one. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind, and this is true if we reflect the condition of our world today. Indeed, our Creator has given us a choice to change our condition as stated in Qur'an 13:11

“Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change it themselves (with their own souls). but when (once) Allah willeth a people's punishment, there can be no turning it back, nor will They find, besides him, any to protect.”