Leniency

Assalaamualaikum wr wb,

What many people don’t realize is that Islam isn’t so strict and uptight of a religion as some people like to portray. Back when the Prophet (s.a.w.) was still around, he taught us to act in moderation. There is no need for extremeness.

Here is an example of leniency practiced by a companion:

Al-Azraq bin Qais narrated that they were in the city of Al-Ahwaaz on the bank of a river which had dried up. Abu Barza Al-Aslami (radi Allahu anhu) came riding a horse and started offering Salat while he let his horse loose. The horse ran away, so Abu Barza interrupted his Salat and went after it till he caught it and brought it back. Then he offered his Salat again.

There was a man among them who was of the Khawarij (deviant sect who called themselves Muslims) who said: “Look at this old man! He left his Salat because of a horse.” On that Abu Barza came to them and said: “Since the time I left Allah’s Messenger (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam), nobody has admonished me; my house is very far from this place, and if I had carried on offering Salat and left my horse, I could not have reached my house till night.” Then Abu Barza (radi Allahu anhu) mentioned that he had been in the company of the Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) and that he had seen his leniency. [Sahih Bukhari]

From Daily Hadith

One of Many Wounded in Syria

Assalaamualaikum wr wb,

Please read and share this link:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/18/490461992/a-wounded-child-in-aleppo-silent-and-still-shocks-the-world?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news

I’m honestly speechless. The horrors faced by these human beings are simply unfathomable. No words can explain their situation and how they feel. My heart goes out to them. May God help them and help them quickly! I don’t know what else to say. I feel as if anything I say isn’t even worthy to explain their situation.

We must raise awareness about this. We must stop this madness! Look at how we are living (myself included) and look at how they are living! The unfairness is too great. I’m home at peace with the AC blasting on, well-fed, well-clothed, and whatnot and here they are living in the 21st century in a state that is too inhumane for me to put into words. May God help them! May we find a way to help them!

Situation in Syria

Assalaamualaikum wr wb,

We all know that the situation in Syria is quite serious so I’m not going to go too in depth to it, especially because there are countless videos and articles about it. However, I wish to bring to light some matters.

My followers are probably mostly Muslim but for those non-Muslim readers, I’d like to clarify that not all Syrian refugees are terrorists; not even the majority are terrorists. It’s just like one out of a million honestly. There is no reason to barricade them from entering our first world countries when their situation is so dire! These are fellow humans, my God! They are suffering immensely and to not allow them to have their God-given rights of protection and safety because of a few crazy people is simply inhumane.

I can’t believe the world is just sitting by and doing nothing, myself included. We should seriously re-evaluate ourselves. Yes, I know, there are always people suffering in the world. What can you, an average first-world citizen, do when you have so much that you are already responsible for? It’s honestly ridiculous that our societies are even functioning in this matter; we literally have no time for anything nowadays.

However, still, we must make time. The greatest among us and the greatest in history had busy lives as well. Yet they still made time and that is why they are honored today! I’m not saying we must change your entire lives and set up this ridiculous, unreasonable lifestyle of perfection, instead we must attempt, at least attempt, to help others, even if it’s just a little. I know it sounds corny and cliche but can you imagine if all of us first-world citizens did one simple thing to help out those who are suffering right now? This world would surely have been a different place! Is that not what they teach us in our early years of school? To share and care for others?

If we knew and understood how much these people suffer in their daily lives, the psychological and physical struggles, we would have reacted immediately in order to help them. However, it is truly kind of impossible to see how they feel unless we go to these places and experience it ourselves. But still, we should educate ourselves about their situations so we at least know what is going on.

I remember in class this kid raised his hand and said how he doesn’t want outsiders coming in to his country. I was super angry when he said that but I listened quietly. It was so hypocritical because he himself was an immigrant! *face palm* But then my teacher carefully replied that these people have nowhere else to go and they’re trying to flee such horrors so it would be unfair to them. Plus, all countries, mostly Western countries, started off with immigrants anyhow.

My point is that these are humans too and they’re living in such inhumane conditions. Not just the Syrians but the Darfurians and the Rohingya people and so many more. Let us do one simple thing to help them at least because surely we would not want to be in their positions!

We’ve Met Before

Assalaamualaikum wr wb,

I read this hadith and I just had to share it. By God, it’s so cute!

Abu Hurairah narrated from Allah’s Messenger (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) that he said: “People are like mines of gold and silver; those who were excellent in Jahiliya (during the days of ignorance) are excellent in Islam, when they have an understanding, and the souls are troops collected together and those who had a mutual familiarity amongst themselves in the store of prenatal existence would have affinity amongst them (in this world also) and those who opposed one of them, would be at variance with one another.” [Sahih Muslim]

Can you believe that those that you love now are loved by you because your souls loved one another before they were placed in your bodies, and the same for those you dislike? That’s just so beautiful. That is the beauty of Islam. Everything is meant to be and for good reason too. By Allah’s Will, we pass day by day without knowing what is to come yet Allah has already planned it all out for us. For surely Allah is the best of all planners!

There is a very interesting story about Salman al-Farisi (radi Allahu anhu) narrated from al-Harith bin Umaira:

“I once went to the marketplace in the city and I met some friends with whom I chatted a little. Somewhere within the range of my view, I noticed a man wearing an old worn garment, and he was sitting in front of his house, busy wielding a red leather belt. When he perceived that I noticed him, he looked at me, nodded his head, and he made a gesture with his hand, and he shouted, ‘O servant of Allah, wait in your place for me!’ I immediately stood up and I asked my friends, ‘Who is that man?’ They replied, ‘This is Salman!’ Meanwhile, the man went inside his house, and he came out shortly after that wearing a clean white robe, and he cheerfully hastened towards me, shook hands with me, and he then said to me, ‘How are you doing?’ I was in shock, and I said to him, ‘O servant of Allah, who are you? We have never met before this day, nor do we know each other! What do you want?’ Salman replied, ‘But of course! I swear by Him Who holds the destiny of my life that as soon as I saw you, my soul recognized your soul. Are you not al-Harith bin Umaira?’ I said in amazement, expecting him to explain himself, ‘Indeed I am!’ He continued, ‘I heard God’s Messenger (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) say, ‘Souls are loyal soldiers. Among them, those who recognize the sovereignty of Allah will know one another and live in harmony; while those that negate the sovereignty of Allah, will disagree and be indifferent towards one another.’” [Hilyat-ul Awliya wa Tabaqaat al-Asfiya by Imam Abu Naim al-Asfahani]

How beautiful!

I’ve had a somewhat similar experience. When I was younger, I always wondered how the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) looked like. I’ve seen Sayyids, or descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) but I felt as if the Prophet (s.a.w.) didn’t look like them (Not trying to degrade them or anything like that!) However, once I heard about Habib Ali al-Jifri, I was curious to see how he looked. I’ve never met him, although I wish I could, so I searched him up and right away I thought this is how the Prophet (s.a.w.) looks for sure. Years later, I found out that the deceased Shaykh Nazim Al-Haqqani met Habib Ali al-Jifri before and said that to him that he looks like the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.)! Isn’t that so weird? Shaykh Haqqani most likely has seen the Prophet (s.a.w.) in a dream or something and that’s why he said that, which means I was right about the Sayyid all those years ago. Maybe I’m a little off but I feel like it’s because I knew his soul or something and that’s why I recognized him, if that even makes sense lol. But I thought that was pretty cool.

-From Daily Hadith

Act of Kindness

An Imam of a Turkish mosque was kind enough to allow the feral cats of Turkey into the mosque during the cold winter. How cute! The Imam modestly even tried to dismiss his act of kindness but that didn’t stop this act from going viral. I think this is a beautiful lesson to learn. This is what the Prophet (s.a.w.) and other great people. They went out of their way to help others, be it human or animal or even jinns (yikes! lol) and they were modest about their actions.

Nowadays, people do commit acts of kindness but I feel like it is too deified all over social media. It’s as if they do it only to proudly show off to others that they are a good person. How silly! BTW: this Imam didn’t want to be on social media but it just so happened. Anyways, do these acts of goodness for yourself, not to show the world but your Lord!

Islam is all about kindness and caring:

“Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith.” (Muslim)

“Whoever is kind, Allah will be kind to him; therefore be kind to man on the earth. He who is in heaven will show mercy on you.”
(Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi)

“You will not enter paradise until you have faith; and you will not complete your faith till you love one another.”
(Muslim)

“You have two characters which God likes; gentleness and deliberation.”
(Muslim).

“Those in whose hearts is no mercy for others will not attain the mercy of Allah.”
(Bukhari and Muslim)

This is what our Prophet (s.a.w.) preached and you’ve probably heard this reiterated all your life but these lessons are only repeated so you may learn from them!

British Muslim Family Refused Entry to America

Assalaamualaikum wr wb,

Two British Muslim families were rejected entry to the US to come to Disneyland for the holidays. For what? No reason was given by the American government. But I can easily come to some deductions…

The kids of these two families planned this for months and convinced their parents to allow them to go and finally the parents succumbed to their wishes. They drew pictures and scribbled in their diaries about Mickey Mouse. But little did they know that the Big Bad US Government was going to ruin their innocent dreams. This is simply heartbreaking.

The US government refused to speak about the matter and it seems they completely disregarded what happened. The two families paid $13,000 for this trip and it’s nonrefundable so that money ain’t coming back into their pockets. America obviously doesn’t know that money doesn’t grow from trees. Oh wait, how would they know that? They don’t even have trees anymore! Besides, the rich American government bosses were obviously born with money. $13,000 is nothing for them.

It wasn’t even as if these people were terrorists or had associations with terrorists at all. They passed security fine, I mean, why wouldn’t they? It was just two families with KIDS. But wait, once a Moslem, always a terrorist, ain’t that right?! It won’t matter if you’re a 4 year old Muslim, you’re still capable of causing mass shootings and bombings, right? My God, people wake up. This is actually the mindset of SO many nowadays.

Hmmm…. Sounds a little fishy that this is nowhere on the news. I wonder why? But wait if these same Moslems do something bad, then they’re obviously going to be in the media over and over and over again right?  Not to mention that there were more than 20 other cases of British Muslims not allowed entry to America. You know what the funny thing is? These were ALL Muslims. Yeah it’s not so funny actually.

Wow, bravo America! I really see that “religious freedom” clear as daylight! So much for the Founding Fathers. They must be rolling in their graves.

This is craziness. This is scary. Act now before it happens to you. Spread the message of love and not hatred because that is what true Muslims are taught from birth. I know I was.

When the world looks like it’s collapsing right in front of the eyes, who do you turn to? My God…

I apologize for my sarcasm guys but I can’t with this.

San Bernardino Shooting – Inconvenient Details Glossed Over by Corporate Press

Assalaamualaikum wr wb,

I think that what you hear in the news and learn in history textbooks and such is not always the truth. There is always much bias going on and witnesses don’t always say exactly what happen in certain situations.

In the San Bernardino shootings, hate me if I say this, but I doubt that a newly married couple with an infant at home would actually willingly commit a mass shooting when they obviously know that there will be fatal consequences. Especially if the husband had a very high level job that probably allowed them to have satisfaction in life. I mean it sounds a bit odd, don’t you think? Maybe I’m just going crazy but I think it should be thought over. A mom wouldn’t put her child at so much risk like that unless she was completely crazy. While people may claim that maybe she was, then why would the husband go along with it too?

The other thing is when this first happened, I saw that witnesses claimed that it was three heavily built, armed men who escaped out of the building when this occurred. The next day, these same articles were literally deleted and I could not find them again and no one ever mentioned it. So I think that’s a little fishy as well.

Don’t believe everything you hear.

Source: San Bernardino Shooting – Inconvenient Details Glossed Over by Corporate Press

Oppressed Muslim Women

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This is what I hear more often than I would like:

“Those Muslim women are oppressed by their men. They are not allowed to go anywhere alone. They’re always covered head to toe.”

“Those Muslim women are beaten by their husbands and forced to wear hijab.”

“Those Muslim women are forced to share their husband with 10 other wives while they raise 145 sand chillun’.”

And so on… They’re endless honestly.

Well, if you ardently pity us so much so that you know all these struggles we face, then why not be kind to us? LOL

There is so much to say about our “oh-so-horrible” lives, then why not help us? Instead, why do you spit on us, curse us, scream at us? Oh wait, the newest form of insult, skip us in lines because we’re apparently invisible (since we wear only black clothes and you can’t see us. We just blend in with the background, right?).

Let’s just say, mind you- in an imaginary situation, that Muslim women are oppressed. Well, you’re not really being good humans by treating us like dogs. Oops, my bad, your dogs are treated better.

Your brains really don’t seem to function all too well because your logic makes no sense whatsoever. It must be the drunken state you’re always in from hearing the anti-Muslim media all day.

So let me just clear this up, lads. Muslim women are NOT oppressed. We choose to wear hijab. It is our right. We are NOT forced to do anything. Yes, sure there are some backward societies in some places, but that is NOT Islam that teaches people to treat their women like that, it is patriarchy. So, please do not assume so easily.

WW3

Assalaamualaikum wr wb,

So… It seems like WW3 can potentially occur because of all this chaos that’s going on. I just wanted to make some things clear.

Firstly, Muslims are not terrorists. Nor are all terrorists Muslim. I don’t know how many times I have to say this but this is true. Like it’s that simple.

Second, Muslims do not have to publicly condemn ISIS or apologize for their actions. I used to think I had to do that. But no, we did NOTHING wrong. Why do we have to prove our innocence when we were innocent from the beginning.

I understand that some Muslims from around the world are joining ISIS but it’s only because of ISIS propaganda online. And also because these Muslims feel marginalized by society. You know what? I don’t blame them for feeling marginalized either. I do too, especially nowadays what with everything that’s going on. So instead of continuing to marginalize Muslims, please love everyone because ISIS’ major weapon is this hate. Our only antidote is love.

Fighting a war won’t do anything but cause more innocent deaths and please, with all your power, I beg of you, do NOT let another war occur. It is NOT worth it. What do I know? I haven’t even lived through a war. But I’ve read so many books on accounts of war. I’ve researched so many genocides during wars. I’ve learned so many things in school about wars. So yes, I may not have been through one but I think I’ve got an inkling.

Third, you have to realize that USA, Saudi Arabia, and Israel funded ISIS. That’s how it got so large and powerful in the first place. They did this only for their own selfish motives and now it’s turning against them. Ironic, huh? Well, don’t go blaming Muslims or whatever. It wasn’t us, I assure you.

Also, ISIS is not just crazy terrorists, it’s also the poor Syrians who had no other source of protection from the government or from US. Yeah, that’s right, us. We did not help the Syrians when they needed us the most. We turned our backs on them and called it on another Middle Eastern problem that was too far away and too large to handle. Well now the problem has worsened. The Syrians sought protection and ISIS provided it, they had no other choice.

So now these desperate Syrians are still trying to escape. Escape danger and war and deaths. They’re trying to come to our countries for refuge. But another problem has arose. The Paris attacks this November has caused many leaders to not accept refugees. Sign petitions, do whatever you can to change this. They need us. They are not terrorists.You can’t be bias and not take them in because you think they’re all terrorists. That’s cruel. These are people who are living in inhumane conditions. It is our duty as a part of mankind to help them! We must!

Let’s prevent a war from occurring by spreading love!

 

“All About That Bass”

Assalaamualaikum wr wb,

The other day, my sister said “It’s all about that bass”. I was like “Shut up. Do you even know what you’re saying?” And she’s like “Well, it’s not my fault. Everyone sings it. Even my teacher knows it.”

This seems to be a constant occurrence in our society. Little kids following the example of their elders, whether it’s older siblings or whatever, but their elders don’t seem to be on the right path either. -_-

I didn’t know what this song was lol so I searched it up. It’s about a lady singing about how it doesn’t matter if you’re fat if you have a nice body… Ok? What is that even supposed to mean? That if you’re skinny, you’re ugly? Not to mention, it uses bad language and just bad morals in general.

Kids nowadays constantly listen to these songs without even putting into thought what they really mean and what they end up making you think and changing your morals gradually without you even noticing. After hearing this song, I bet a self-conscious, low-esteem girl will feel as if her body is not “good enough” according to the song. What even? Everyone is beautiful- in their own way. There is no need to conform to what society wants of you.

But my main point is don’t let mainstream songs and TV shows brainwash your minds and your morals. Usually, they don’t even teach anything good. It damages your heart, it’s not good for your soul. So if you know a younger, pure soul, let them stay pure and keep them away from these corrupt things and permit them to learn and make their own set of morals, not what society dictates.