Syed Ahmer

 Hazrat Abu Darda (may Allah be pleased with him), who was an exalted companion of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ ,  was sitting on the way . He said, “You are going for  Qisas  but let me tell you something. I have heard the Holy Prophet  ﷺ  say that if a person harms someone, and then the person who was harmed forgives him, then Allah Ta’ala will forgive the forgiver on the day he will need forgiveness most, that is, in the  Aakhirah  (Hereafter).”   The person was initially so angry that he wasn’t even prepared to take monetary compensation against his injury. But when he heard this he asked, “Did you hear the Holy Prophet  ﷺ  say this?” Hazrat Abu Darda RAA replied, “Yes I heard him say this with my own ears.” That person said, “if the Holy Prophet  ﷺ  said this, then I forgive this person without taking any monetary compensation.”

 As has been mentioned previously, the Noble Qur’an sets out principles, for example, pray  Salah , give  Zakah , but doesn’t always give details about how to, or how many. This information has come to us through the Hadith and Sunnah of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ . He was sent as a role model for Muslims as to how to apply principles of Shariah in real life. And that is why Allah Ta’ala has placed such premium on Muslims following the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad  ﷺ , that people who love Allah Ta’ala should follow the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ , and Allah Ta’ala will start loving them!   Dr Abdul Hai (may Allah bless him) has written in his book  Uswah Rasool Akram  that there are three broad categories of Sunnah. The first is  Sunan-e-Huda  ( سننِ ہدیٰ ). These are the practices related to following the commandments of Shariah, for example, how to pray  Salah . It is obligatory upon every Muslim to follow these Sunnah.

 FOLLOWING THE SUNNAH OF FORGIVENESS In the days of Hazrat Muawiyah (may Allah be pleased with him), two people fought with each other. During the fight one person’s tooth broke. He took the other person to Hazrat Muawiyah RAA and said, “the  Qisas  ( قصاص ) (retributive justice) for a tooth is a tooth, so please get me my  Qisas .”    Hazrat Muawiyah RAA replied, “You are correct but your tooth is broken anyway. Even if you break his tooth, you won’t get your broken tooth back. Why don’t you take  Diyya  ( دیت ) (monetary compensation) for your tooth and make peace with him?” That person insisted that he wanted the other person’s tooth to be broken. When he didn’t accept to give up his right for  Qisas  despite Hazrat Muawiyah trying to persuade him again, Hazrat Muawiyah RAA said, “Okay, lets go and break his tooth.”

 Muslims believe that Allah Ta’ala sent about 124,000 Prophets as His messengers to guide mankind. Hazrat Adam (peace be upon him) was the first of them, while Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was the last. Four of them were sent with Holy Books, namely, Prophets Dawood (David), Essa (Jesus), Musa (Moses) and Muhammad (peace be upon them).   In the Noble Qur’an Allah Ta’ala has quoted a question by the disbelievers of Makkah a few times that why were angels not sent as Prophets. How can a person who eats and has other natural needs like everyone else, be a Prophet of Allah? Allah Ta’ala has then answered the question that angels do not have natural human inclinations, needs and desires. How could they become a role model for human beings? Only a human being can be a role model for another human being.

 THE REWARD OF OBSERVING  SABR  (PATIENCE)   Allah Ta’ala tells us in the Noble Qur’an what the reward for those will be who do not take revenge and observe  Sabr (patience);   “…Certainly those who observe patience will be given their reward in full without measure.” (39:10)   It means that the reward for those who observe  Sabr  will be limitless.   It is narrated in a Hadith that if a person is in the habit of forgiving other people, Allah Ta’ala says that when he forgave My people, I am more deserving of forgiving him.

  RISALAH  (PROPHETHOOD) Allah Ta’ala says in the Noble Qur’an addressing Prophet Muhammad  ﷺ ;   “And you are surely on an excellent standard of character.” (68:4)   AND   “Say (O Prophet): “If you really love Allah, then follow me, and Allah shall love you and forgive you your sins”…” (3:31)

 Allah Ta’ala says in the Noble Qur’an; “…and those who control anger and forgive people. And Allah loves those who are good in their deeds,” (3:134)   The Noble Qur’an has praised people who control their anger and forgive others. It is correct that Shariah has granted the aggrieved party to take revenge to the extent that they have been hurt. However, one should think about that even if he takes revenge, what will he really get? Suppose someone slapped you once, and you slapped them back. What good did it do to you? However, if you forgive him with the intention that you are doing it to please Allah Ta’ala, then do you know what reward you will get?

  In the first verse, Allah Ta’ala has commanded Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to say; “ ہو الّٰلہ احد ”  ( The truth is: Allah is One ) . The   Arabic word ‘ Ahad ’ ( احد ) is normally translated as ‘One’ but also includes an additional sense which signifies that Allah is beyond composition, plurality and resemblance, which means that He is neither composed of any elements, nor does He have any partner, nor has He any resemblance to anything.  The verse “ الّٰلہ الصّمد ”  (Allah is besought of all, needing none)  signifies that all people depend on Him, but He does not need anyone.   The verse “ لم یلد ولم یولد ”  (He neither begot anyone, nor was He begotten)  means that Allah has no children, nor is He the child of anyone. The verse “ ولم یکن لہ کفوًا احد ”  ( And equal to Him has never been anyone)  means that there is no one in the entire universe, nor ever was, nor ever can be, who is similar to Allah, or equal in rank ...

 CONTROLLING ONE’S ANGER In a Hadith the Holy Prophet  ﷺ  said;   “Allah Ta’ala does not like any sip a person drinks more than the sip of his own anger (meaning suppressing his anger and not expressing it)”   It means that if a person is feeling really angry, is feeling out of control with rage, and there is a risk that he may hurt someone, then Allah Ta’ala greatly likes it if he suppresses his anger at such a time and does not act on it purely for the sake of pleasing Allah Ta’ala.

 (Just a reminder: I am no religious scholar. What I write in this series is almost completely drawn from three sources; the English translation of Ma’ariful Quran by Mufti Taqi Usmani DB (the 8-volume interpretation of the Noble Qur’an written in Urdu by Mufti Muhammad Shafi RE), published talks and books of Maulana Ashraf Ali of Thana Bhawan (RE), and published talks and books of Mufti Taqi Usmani DB. It is not to say that there aren’t many other great Islamic scholars of our and recent times, but for reasons of serendipity I ended up obtaining almost all of my knowledge of Deen (religion) from these three. May Allah Ta’ala forgive any unintended mistakes on my part, and reward them for their contribution of Islamic knowledge to generations of Muslims. Aameen)   TAUHEED (ONENESS OF ALLAH)   One of the best descriptions of Tauheed is found in Surah  Ikhlas  (The Unity), which is the 112 th   Surah (chapter) of the Noble Qur’an.   With the name of Al...

  AQA’ID  (BELIEFS) Three are core beliefs in Islam. These are;   TAUHEED  (ONENESS OF ALLAH) RISALAH  (PROPHETHOOD)  AA’KHIRAH  (LIFE HEREAFTER)   Each of these will be described in turn.

  We have moved very far away from the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ . The purpose of mentioning about all these Sunnah in this sitting is that may be if we keep reflecting on which of his Sunnah we follow and which we don’t, it will give us some motivation to start following his Sunnah more. This is something one has to practice. If one wants to practice this particular Sunnah, i.e. respond to bad behaviour with good behaviour, one has to learn to crush one’s innate impulses, and has to make strenuous effort. But if we truly want to follow the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ , then we have to swallow this bitter pill.

THE FIVE FACETS OF ISLAM Maulana Ashraf Ali of Thana Bhawan (may Allah bless him) used to say that there are five facets of Islam. These are; 1. AQA’ID (BELIEFS) 2. IBADAT (ACTS OF WORSHIP) 3. MA’AMLAT (FINACIAL TRANSACTIONS) 4. MA’ASHRAT (WAYS OF INTERACTING WITH PEOPLE) 5. AKHLAQ / TAZKIYAH (PURIFICATION OF MIND) Hazrat Thanvi further used to say that these days many Muslims believe, or at least act as if they believe, that only Aqa'id and Ibadaat are part of Deen (religion). People who are exceptionally religious also take care that their financial transactions follow the rules of Shariah. There are a few who go through Tazkiyah (purification of mind), but even among those chosen few many act as if Ma'ashrat (rules of how we relate to other people) is not part of Islam. Each of these facets will be described in detail in the following sections.

 WE SHOULD FOLLOW ALL THE SUNNAH Following Sunnah is not just following those Sunnah which are easy to practice. Rather, we should try to follow every Sunnah of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ . And the more human beings follow this particular Sunnah, the less there will be discord in our society. All the discord in our society is due to us not following the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ .  It was the practice of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ  to forgive people and let go of slights. Regardless of whatever bad things anyone said to him, he did not reply in kind. And the people who are  Waliullah  (friends) follow this same practice. May Allah Ta’ala grant some of us to us too through His blessing. Aameen

  On the other hand, there are new situations which did not exist in the days of Prophet Muhammad  ﷺ . For example, the treatments of blood transfusion or organ transplantation did not exist in those days. Therefore, there is no existing ruling in Qur’an and Hadith whether these are permissible or not. It is questions like these where it is permissible to use  Ijma’  (consensus) and  Qiyas/Ijtihad   (analogical reasoning) to find their answers though, as mentioned above, it can only be done by scholars who are formally trained in the knowledge of Islamic Jurisprudence to a very high level.

 This was such an injustice that a person is being excessively angry with a great  Waliullah  (friend of Allah) who has spent all his life in the service of Allah’s  Deen  (religion), and that too in front of so many people. But rather than responding to his harsh words with harsh words, Maulana Rafiuddin RAA not just apologized to him but also gifted the cow to him. This is a demonstration of practicing the Sunnah of “do not respond to bad behaviour with bad behaviour” in real life.

 THE STORY OF MAULANA RAFIUDDIN (May Allah bless him)   Maulana Rafiuddin sahib (may Allah bless him) was the administrator of  Darul   Uloom  Deoband. He was also a great Sufi. He owned a cow. One day when he was bringing his cow, some chore came up in the  Darul Uloom . He brought the cow to  Darul Uloom , tied it with a tree and went to his office.   A resident of Deoband came and started yelling about whose cow was tied in the courtyard of  Darul Uloom . People told him that it was the administrator’s cow. He started yelling that the administrator had made the  Darul Uloom  his personal cow pen, and that he was misusing  Darul Uloom  property by doing so. People gathered because of the noise he was making.    When Maulana Rafiuddin RAA heard the commotion, he came out to find out what was happening. People told him that this person was getting angry about why the administrator had tied his cow in the courtyar...

 CAN SHARIAH LAWS BE RE-DEFINED IN THE 21 ST  CENTURY? Now that we have understood the four sources of rulings in Shariah, lets return to the original question whether Shariah laws can be changed now as they were set nearly 1500 years ago.    The answer to the question above is that those laws of Shariah that have been clearly laid out in the two primary sources of rulings in Shariah i.e. Qur’an and Hadith, can never be changed till the end of time. For example, if lying, stealing, robbery, drinking alcohol, and eating certain kinds of meat, have been declared  Haraam  (unlawful) in Qur’an, they will always remain unlawful, and no Islamic scholar will ever have the authority to issue a decree declaring them Halal (permissible).

  I reflected a lot on whether to share the link to this podcast or not. It is very informative, going over the history of French colonisation of North African countries, how Muslims ended up in France in such numbers, their historical and contemporary living conditions, and the reactions of other Western leaders to France's definition of 'freedom of speech' which I learnt is not the same as in a number of other countries. There is one content warning I will give which is why I hesitated about sharing the link, even though it is publicly available on the internet. A contributor describes the two caricatures in words that Samuel Paty had shown in class, and the description of one of them can be very disturbing for a lot of people. I listened to it because I wanted to understand the full context of the current situation, but if you think you will find it too disturbing please do not listen to this podcast or at least skip that part. Eventually I did decide to share it because...

  QI YAS/ IJTIHAD  (ANALOGICAL REASONING) When Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was sending Hazrat Ma’az bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) as the governor of Yemen, he asked him, “how will you settle disputes between people?” He replied, “through the guidance in the Noble Qur’an”. The Holy Prophet  ﷺ  asked, “What if you don’t find the guidance in Qur’an?” He replied, “then I will try to find the answer in your Sunnah.” The Holy Prophet  ﷺ  asked, “and if you don’t find the answer in both?” He replied, “then I will try to find the answer through  Ijtihad  (reasoning) without any carelessness.” Upon hearing this answer the Holy Prophet  ﷺ  expressed his approval.   What needs to be remembered though is that this  Qiyas  or  Ijtihad  will only be valid if performed by a person who is properly trained and suitably qualified in the knowledge and practice of Islamic Jurisprudence. Otherwise, it will be aki...

 THE STORY OF Dr ABDUL HAI RAA   One day Dr Abdul Hai (may Allah bless him) was sitting with his spiritual mentees. Suddenly a person came who appeared to be a relative of his, and started abusing him angrily. In a very disrespectful manner, he said every swear word one could think of. Hazrat just kept apologizing and saying sorry to him in reply. Eventually he calmed down.    Afterwards Hazrat Dr sahib RAA said, “someone had misinformed him creating a misunderstanding, and that is why he was being so angry. If I wished I could have answered him back, but I tried to calm him down because he is my relative, and relatives have rights too.” It is easy to break off relationships, but the teaching of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ  is to maintain relationships. This is an example of how to practice this teaching of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ  in real life that when someone hurts you or causes you harm, then do not reply by hurting them back. Rather treat them with kindn...

 Even though it is a really difficult and emotionally draining topic to read about and write on, there are two specific reasons I decided to write about it. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard a parent say something like this, “But he (or she as the case may be) was our neighbour, he was our family friend, I had to go to my job, the day care/child care was so expensive, I trusted him…” It is so important to remember that it is only the people who we trust, who have the opportunity to betray us. And we need to be extremely careful about who we trust with the most prized of our possessions, our children. Once a friend told me that they had reached an arrangement with a taxi driver to pick and drop their 4-year old child from and to his kindy. I asked them how well they knew this person. They said they trusted him completely. I asked them that if I asked them to send me $5,000 in cash, would they be comfortable sending it by hand with that person? They said No. That is what w...

French President Mr. Macron recently said that Muslims should not get upset over caricatures of Muhammad (peace be upon him) being hung from government buildings in France, and should not stop buying French products. However, when I did a little Google search I found out that; - When President Erdogan of Turkey recently criticized Mr. Macron and questioned his mental health, he got so upset that he recalled the French Ambassador to Turkey back to France. < https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/25/europe/erdogan-macron-france-muslims-intl/index.html > - When President Bolsonaro of Brazil made some (clearly inappropriate) comments about Mr. Macron’s wife, he got so upset that he said, ““I think Brazilian women will probably be ashamed to read that from their president. I think that Brazilians, … will probably be ashamed to see this behaviour … I hope that they will very soon have a president who behaves in the right way. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/26/macron-rebukes-bolso...

  IJMA’   (اجماع)   ) CONSENSUS) It has been narrated in a Hadith that Prophet Muhammad  ﷺ  said ;   “Allah Ta’ala will not gather my Ummah (community) on misguidedness.”    This Hadith is quoted as being the basis of  Ijma’  (consensus) being the third level of evidence for Shariah’s rulings. As has been narrated above, the Noble Qur’an was not written down as a book in its current form during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). During Hazrat Usman’s (may Allah be pleased with him) reign the whole of Muslim  Ummah  agreed on the  Mus-haf Usmani  (Usmani manuscript) being the only authentic way of writing the Noble Qur’an from that time onwards, and all other copies in which the words of Qur’an were written slightly differently, were destroyed. This ruling was adopted through  Ijma’ .

  We should reflect on how much we are following this Sunnah today. How much we feel like taking revenge from someone if they have hurt us or harmed us in some way? How many efforts do we make to hurt them back, if only verbally? If we reflect upon it, we will realize that today one of the major causes of disharmony and discord in our society is that we have stopped following this Sunnah of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ . Our attitude today is that if this person has hurt me, I will hurt him. If he has abused me, I will abuse him. If he gave me a gift on my marriage, I will give him a gift of exactly the same amount. If he hadn’t given me a gift on my marriage, I won’t give him a gift on his marriage. It means all our relationships today are based on reciprocating what someone else has done to us. On the other hand, the Holy Prophet  ﷺ  said,   “Silah Rehmi (fulfilling rights of one’s relatives) is not that one gives back what one receives. Silah Rehmi is that even if the...

  DOING GOOD TO THOSE WHO HARM US In the Holy Qur'an Allah Ta'ala says; “…and those who control anger and forgive people. And Allah loves those who do good.” (3:134) In the interpretation of this verse, wise elders have described three stages of moral character of a true Muslim. At the first stage, even if someone hurts them or causes them harm, they do not take revenge. In the second stage, they not only do not take revenge, they also forgive them in that they even forget that this person caused them harm. In the third and the highest stage, they go one step higher and do good to the person who had harmed them, and this was the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ . I must admit that in my personal life, it is one of those Sunnah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ which I have found most challenging to follow. May Allah Ta'ala forgive me. Aameen

 DOING GOOD TO THOSE WHO DO US HARM   This is a great Sunnah of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ . Today we have limited following Sunnah to our external appearance, for example, we should keep a beard, and bring our external appearance in line with that of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ . These are all great Sunnah, and the person who denies their importance does not know what following Sunnah actually means. But truly following Sunnah is not limited to external appearance only. The way the Holy Prophet  ﷺ conducted his relationships, interactions with people, and  Ma’amlat  (financial transactions), also forms a very important part of the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ . Just like we attach importance to following the Sunnah mentioned above, we should pay even greater attention to following this Sunnah that we do not cause harm in revenge to the person who has harmed us in some way. Rather we should do good to the person who has harmed us. We should reflect on how much ...

 Some people try to cast doubt on the authenticity of  Ahadith  (plural of Hadith) saying that these were not written down till nearly 100-150 years after Prophet Muhammad  ﷺ  passed away. They may not be aware of two things. Firstly, the Arabs had a strong oral tradition. It was a norm for them to, for example, memorize and recite the whole genealogy of not just themselves and their family, but also their horses. Even an average person knew hundreds of pieces of poetry by heart. Secondly, if someone has seen how a Hadith is recited, they would know that the person reciting it says which teacher they learnt it from, which teacher their teacher learnt it from, and this way its reporting is traced right back to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Any hadith that cannot be traced like this to the Holy Prophet  ﷺ  is not considered authentic.

  This is the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ . Even though Allah Ta’ala has permitted in Shariah that if someone has caused you harm in some way, then you are permitted to cause them equal harm. For example, if someone has slapped you, then you can slap them back as hard as they slapped you, but no harder. However, it is one thing having permission to do something under Shariah, it is entirely another being the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ . He never took revenge from anyone for his own person.

THE HOLY PROPHET’S ( ﷺ ) MOST IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTES The reason Imam Bukhari (may Allah Ta’ala be pleased with him) has quoted this Hadith here is to highlight which attributes of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ  were prophesied in previous Holy books and thus are his most important attributes. These attributes are that he is not sharp-tongued, he is not short-tempered, and if someone does anything bad to him, he does not respond with bad behaviour.

 There is also an argument against mandatory reporting of historical abuse. The argument is that some victims may be willing to seek help, but may not be willing or ready to go through the whole process of reporting it to Police, and then going through the nightmarish process of going through a court case in which they have to reveal every intimate detail of the abuse in front of many strangers, in addition to the defence lawyer putting their whole life under a microscope in order to find any dirt to discredit their testimony. If such victims knew that the health professionals would be bound to inform the authorities if they disclose their history of abuse, it might discourage some of them from seeking help in the first place.

HADITH/SUNNAH   Allah Ta’ala says in the Noble Qur’an;   “He does not speak out of (his own) desire.   It is but revelation revealed (to him).     (53:3-4)   In Islamic terminology the word ‘Hadith’ (literal meaning talk or discourse) refers to the words of Prophet Muhammad  ﷺ . The related word ‘Sunnah’ refers to the traditions and practices of Prophet Muhammad  ﷺ .    Qur’an is like a constitution which lays down principles. Hadith teaches us how these principles should be applied in real life. For example, the command to pray Salah appears more than 60 times in Qur’an but it is not mentioned anywhere how to pray it, or specifically at what times to pray it. That has all been demonstrated through the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet   ﷺ .  

  “And God will not recall him to Himself until he straightens this misguided nation in that they say ‘There is no God but Allah’.” “and through this kalimah of Tauheed (oneness of Allah) He will open their blind eyes, and will open their deaf ears, and those hearts which are covered in wraps will open through this kalimah.”   These attributes are still present in Torah with almost these same words.

  “In New Zealand, it is not mandatory to report partner and child abuse.” This is a direct quote from the NZ Ministry of Health website.  In a number of jurisdictions around the world reporting suspected child abuse, and in fact even historical child abuse if the abuser is still alive, is mandatory for health professionals. The rationale for such mandatory reporting is that these abusers often do not abuse just one child. There might be a number of other children who might be at risk. It is the same rationale behind the mandatory reporting of historical abuse if the abuser is still alive. The victim we are seeing may have become an adult now, but who knows how many other children might still be at risk being abused by this perpetrator.   

 After having these standard copies of the Holy Qur’an prepared Sayyidna Uthman RAA had all copies held by individual  Sahabah  (companions of Prophet Muhammad  ﷺ )  burnt so that all copies of the Qur’an hence forthwith will be identical. After this achievement by Hazrat Uthman RAA, the whole Ummah reached a consensus ( Ijma’ ) on the rule that from then on it became impermissible to write the text of the Noble Qur’an using any method other than the  Mus-haf Uthmani  (Uthmani manuscript). It is a miracle of the preservation of the Holy Qur’an that today, regardless of whether a person obtains a copy of the Holy Qur’an in Asia, Africa or Europe, they would be almost completely identical, the only  difference being presence or absence of  اعراب  (punctuations to denote vowel sounds) which are always there in copies of the Holy Qur’an published in non-Arabic speaking countries but not necessarily in Arabic speaking countries . This preserv...

  The other shocking reply I almost always get is that hardly any of these victims have gone to the Police. When I ask why, a very common answer is, “there is no point because nothing is going to happen.” According to a NZ Ministry of Justice report from last year, of all the sexual violence cases (63 % against people aged 17 or younger) reported to the Police between 2014-2019, only 11 % resulted in a conviction, which means nearly 90 % didn’t. These figures would hardly encourage a victim to go the Police and go through the harrowing experience a sexual assault victim has to go through in pursuing such a case. If you combine the figure above with the much greater proportion of victims who do NOT go to the Police, it means majority of child abuse in NZ goes unpunished and there are almost no adverse consequences for committing such heinous crimes.

 Further on, Allah Ta’ala has described the characteristics of that Prophet;  “Neither will he speak harshly, nor will he have a harsh temperament.”   “And he won’t be one to make noise in the Bazar.”   “And he won’t respond to bad behaviour with bad behaviour.”   “Rather, he will be forgiving and will let go of things.”

 PRESERVATION OF THE NOBLE QUR’AN Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said;   “This Qur’an has been revealed covering seven versions (Huruf). So from out of these, recite in a way that is easy on you.”    According to scholars, the variations found in different readings of the Holy Qur’an are of seven types, for example, differences in nouns and verbs, etc. Until such time that Muslims knew that the Holy Qur’an had been revealed incorporating seven  Huruf  (versions), no harm was done by the difference. However, when Islam spread far and beyond the borders of Arabia, some people started insisting that their and their teacher’s version was correct and every other version was wrong.    When this danger was brought to the attention of the third guided Caliph Hazrat Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him), he solicited the help of notable Muslim scholars of the time and ordered for a set of master copies to be prepared with the following characteristi...

 After reciting this verse of the Noble Qur’an, Hazrat Abdullah bin Amr bin al-Aas (may Allah be pleased with him), recited the following verses from the Torah; “He will come as a deliverer for the illiterate  (امی) ”. The Arabs of the time were called ‘illiterate’ because they did not have a tradition of reading and writing.    “And you are my subject and my Messenger” .   “and I have named you Mutawakkal (someone who places his trust entirely in Allah Ta’ala).”

 I ask every such patient whether their parents knew, and if they knew, whether they did anything about it. It is shocking how many times patients have told me that they told their parent(s)/families but they didn’t do anything because; they didn’t believe them, were scared of the abuser, didn’t want to upset the abuser because they were getting some benefit from the abuser, or just did not want to rock the boat. One patient told me that when she went to the Police, her whole extended family boycotted her because ‘she’ had brought shame to the family. Ironically this same patient’s uncle rang us to express his anger why we hadn’t ‘fixed’ his niece in 15 days. I so felt like asking him where he was when she was being abused for the last 15 years.

 THE NOBLE QUR’AN Muslims believe that the Noble Qur’an was revealed by God to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) over a period of 23 years, and that it is God’s words. The Arabs at the time prided themselves on their memories. Theirs was not a writing culture. That is why even though Prophet Muhammad  ﷺ  had told his companions the exact sequence of the different verses, and there were numerous companions including the Prophet himself who had memorized the Qur’an, it was not fully written down as a book during his lifetime.    During the reign of the first rightly guided Caliph Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) when about seventy  Huffaaz (people who memorise the whole Qur’an) died in a single  battle, he realized the importance and started the process of conserving the Noble Qur’an in a written form.

  ‘Being sent as a witness’ means that Allah Ta’ala says that on the Day of  Qiyamah , the Holy Prophet  ﷺ   will bear witness that  after the message of  Tauheed  (Oneness of Allah) was delivered to this  Ummah  (Muslim community), who acted on this message and who didn’t.   ‘Bing a bearer of good news’ means that the Holy Prophet  ﷺ  will give people the good news of going to  Jannah (paradise).   ‘Being a warner’ means that he will warn people about going to  Jahannam  (hell).   

  There are some experiences one can never get used to, regardless of how many times one has gone through that experience. Listening to a patient describing their harrowing story of being abused in childhood is one such experience I have never gotten used to despite being in the business of listening to such stories for just under three decades now. I still feel as if someone has taken my heart into their hands and is squeezing and crushing it. More than once I have become tearful when listening to these stories. As a human being how can one not be affected when someone tells you that their father and brothers repeatedly abused them for over a decade, or in another case they offered themselves for being abused because they wanted to protect their younger sibling from the same trauma? I had read somewhere that alligators can eat their children but had not read anywhere that they rape them too. It seems like human beings can be far more cruel than the most vicious of animals.

 (From now on I will put the text of the slides in capital letters to make it easier to follow)   Sometimes people ask the question , “As the Qur’an is nearly 1500 years old, surely the rulings about for example alcohol and pork and other matters can be changed now, considering how much societal attitudes have changed about many matters since then?” To understand the answer to this question, one has to understand the four source of commandments in Shariah which are listed below in descending order of authority.   THE 4 SOURCES OF RULINGS IN SHARIAH    QUR’AN HADITH IJMA ’ (CONSENSUS) QIYAS  (ANALOGY)

 A Sahabi once asked Hazrat Abdullah ibn Amr bin Al-Aas RAA, “You have read the Torah. Please tell us the attributes of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ  which are mentioned in the Torah.” Hazrat Abdullah bin Amr bin Al-Aas RAA replied, “I swear by Allah, there are some attributes of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ  mentioned in the Torah which are also mentioned in the Noble Qur’an.” And then he recited the following verse of the Noble Qur’an;   “ O prophet, We have sent you as a witness and as a bearer of good news and a warner,…(33:45)

  THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE HOLY PROPHET   ﷺ   DESCRIBED IN TORAH   Hazrat Abdullah ibn Amr bin Al-Aas (may Allah Ta’ala be pleased with him) was one of the famous companions of the Holy Prophet  ﷺ . He was one of those  Sahabah  who was well known for how much  Ibadah  (acts of worship) he performed. He has also narrated a number of  Ahadith  from the Holy Prophet  ﷺ . One of his special characteristics was that he had also gained knowledge of Torah, Zaboor and Injil.

 LOVING ALLAH’S CREATIONS IS LOVING ALLAH TA’ALA A person can develop this habit only if they love people primarily because they are Allah Ta’ala’s creations. Hazrat Dr Abdul Hai (may Allah bless him) used to say that even if a person wants to love Allah Ta’ala, how can they truly love Allah Ta’ala? They have never seen Allah Ta’ala, they cannot truly comprehend Allah Ta’ala, nor can they truly imagine Him. Allah Ta'ala says, if you really love Me, then love My creations and treat them well. Only then you will get a glimpse of Allah Ta’ala’s love. This is not a small matter.

When a person has hundreds of demands on his time, someone is asking him a religious question, someone is describing his difficulties, someone is making another demand, only then it is possible to appreciate how difficult it is to follow this Sunnah in one’s daily life.    Then there are some people who, once they start talking, never stop. While listening to such people, not moving away until that person finishes is a very difficult task. But the Holy Prophet  ﷺ  who lived only for 23 more years after he was granted Prophethood, had to perform  Jihad , had to perform  Tableegh  (preaching), how to teach his  Sahabah  about  Deen , who was sent for betterment of the whole world, even despite all of these demands on his time, if an old woman stopped him on the way, he did not turn his away from her until he had satisfied her fully.

Every time we have made these presentations, sooner or later someone always asks the question "why?" For example, Why is alcohol forbidden?" Why has pork been declared  Haraam  (unlawful in Shariah)?" etc. Learning from the first workshop, we put this slide up really early on, that we can tell people WHAT Islam says, but we cannot always tell them WHY. I will use the two verses of the Holy Qur’an below as an example to illustrate why.   The first verse in which alcohol and gambling were prohibited, clearly states that these lead to malice and enmity between people, and prevent them from the remembrance of Allah. It is implied that these are some of the reasons why indulging in these acts may have been forbidden. In the second verse however, Allah Ta’ala simply says that the disbelievers say that sale (business) and  Riba  (interest) are the same, but Allah has permitted sale but has declared  Riba   Haraam . The verse does not give any reason as to WHY...

 ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT SUNNAH TO FOLLOW Even though the Holy Prophet’s ( ﷺ ) every Sunnah is lovable, but there is one particular Sunnah which has been reported in Tirmidhi Sharif which seems to be the most difficult to follow, even though it was his usual habit. It has been narrated that when someone was talking to the Holy Prophet  ﷺ ,  he never turned his face away from that person until he turned away first, and never cut him off while he was still talking.

The quote below is attributed to George Bernard Shaw though it is not certain whether Shaw actually said it or not. Some friends may find it offensive but I use it for a specific reason. When I first made a presentation about Islam somewhere, a number if people, many of them Muslims, asked me that you have talked about Islam teaching its followers honesty, integrity, truthfulness, being just to everyone, never earning Haraam income, and yet we see many Muslims doing all of those things. How do you explain that? I replied that what Islam teaches, and what Muslims do, can unfortunately sometimes be two different things. This presentation is focused on what Islam teaches. There is a continuum of how completely individual Muslims follow these teachings, some observing them more closely than others. Similarly, I make a distinction between "Muslim-majority countries" and "Islamic countries". These days, in my flawed opinion at least, I am not sure which Muslim-majority co...