Ramadhan desserts ( part 25)

Ramadhan desserts ( part 25)

ابو حنظلة محمد زهر

For the last parts of this desserts and reminders, Inshaallah we will discuss on two of my favourite verses in Ali Imran. There are many Hadith pertaining to these particular verses and one of them is below which was related by Aisyah ranha :

 ،.........' فَبَكَى حَتَّى رَأَيْتُ الدُّمُوعَ بَلَغَتِ الْأَرْضَ ، ثُمَّ أَتَاهُ بِلَالٌ بَعْدَمَا أَذَّنَ الْفَجْرُ ، رَآهُ يَبْكِي . قَالَ : لِمَ تَبْكِي يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ وَقَدْ غُفِرَ لَكَ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِنْ ذَنْبِكَ وَمَا تَأَخَّرَ ؟ قَالَ : " يَا بِلَالُ ، أَفَلَا أَكُونُ عَبْدًا شَكُورًا ، وَمَا لِي لَا أَبْكِي ، وَقَدْ نَزَلَتْ عَلَيَّ اللَّيْلَةَ " : إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ سورة آل عمران آية 190 ، إِلَى قَوْلِهِ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ سورة آل عمران آية 191 ، ثُمَّ قَالَ : " وَيْلٌ لِمَنْ قَرَأَهَا وَلَمْ يَتَفَكَّرْ فِيهَا "

'......then he (the prophet saw)cried till i saw the tears reached the earth/ floor and then came Bilal after making the fajr azan and saw him crying and said' why are you crying o prophet of Allah? verily Allah had forgiven your past and future sins'. He replied' o bilal, how I am not be a grateful servant? And why Iam not crying when tonight these verses are revealed-

إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ لَآيَاتٍ لِّأُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ

Most surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day there are signs for men who understand.

الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللَّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَٰذَا بَاطِلًا سُبْحَانَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ

Those who remember Allah standing and sitting and lying on their sides and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: Our Lord! Thou hast not created this in vain! Glory be to Thee; save us then from the chastisement of the fire

 (al Imran 190-191) and then he said' cursed are those who read them but do not ponder and think about what in it.'

What is in these 2 verses that made the prophet saw cried heavily? And to an extent that he said curse to those who read it but do not ponder upon it?

Inshaallah we will try extract some of the pearls from these 2 verses and may Allah swt gave us all the understanding ...

Sent from my iPhone

Ramadhan desserts ( part 24)

Ramadhan desserts ( part 24)
ابو حنظلة محمد زهري
But once these entities (sun, moon) does not follow their orbits, that is the time of qiyamah. So does the 'qiyamah' in the family will occur if every member transgress the limits ordained by Him. As the eclipse is the sign of Hour, the constant 'collision' of the moon and sun (husband & wife)is the sign of Hour!
SUN- is giving out light brightens the world and becomes the source of life biznillah. So does the father has the role to brightens the family with nur Islam and iman and become the source of growth and life. However we can't have day 24hrs as we need night for the continuity of life.
Moon- the moon obtained its light from the sun. So by right the husband are responsible for the light of Deen in his wife. The light from the moon is so pleasing and beautiful to the eye. Thats why the mother had a role to nurture her kids and she is pleasing and beautiful in nature to the family.
Stars- they are in fact suns, some may be brighter than the sun while others are not. So does the children, they have the potentials of the father in Deen , some may outshine him while others not. But even though they are present in the day, they are not seen due to the brightness of the sun, but once the sun goes, they will light up the sky beautifully with the moon. This also shows a special relationship between mother and her children. And stars are made for 1) beautification for the sky, so does the children are suppose to beautify the family. 2) guides for travelers, they will also be beacons and guide for the astray by becoming the beacons of hidayah.
And there are many more we can talk about this parable but Inshaallah this will serve as the appetizer for now.
May Allah swt make all fathers as the sun, brightening up their family with iman and Islam, beautify all mothers with the light and as the apple of the eye and all children to be the qurratun ain - beauty of the eye and beacon of guidance to others. Amin


Sent from my iPhone

plurality and singularity

وَقَوْمَ نُوحٍ لَّمَّا كَذَّبُوا الرُّسُلَ أَغْرَقْنَاهُمْ وَجَعَلْنَاهُمْ لِلنَّاسِ آيَةً وَأَعْتَدْنَا لِلظَّالِمِينَ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا

And the people of Nuh, when they rejected the apostles, We drowned them, and made them a sign for men, and We have prepared a painful punishment for the unjust;

Last week I got a little confused on the above ayat for Allah swt used plural instead of singular for the prophet nuh as. وَقَوْمَ نُوحٍ لَّمَّا كَذَّبُوا الرُّسُلَ

'..... The people of nuh .rejected the apostles'

Why rusul (prophets) and not rasul (prophet)?

After having some time to spare today alhamdulillah, I managed to look into some of the tafsir books such as tabary, zamakhshary and assamarqandy and some other books on this particular verse and I will like to share the beauty and latoif of this verse, particularly on why it is in plural and not singular wallahualam bissowab. I will try to summarize it into 2 main explanations as follows:

1) rejection of one of the prophets is like rejecting the whole or every prophets that were sent by Allah swt. This is because all of them were sent for the same message of tauhid and kalimah laa ila ha illallah. And every prophet testified the other prophets' testimony and trueness and message. 

2) the 2nd is close to my heart which is from assamarqandy 

.....لم يكن الا واحد وقت هذا الخطاب فيجوز ان .يذكر الجماعة و يراد به الواحد كما يذكر الواحد و يراد به الجماعة كقوله والعصر ان الانسان لفي خسر و انما أراد به الناس الا تري انه استثنى منه جماعة- السمرقندي 

That is in short, the prophets (rusul) in plural only refers to nuh as alone. And this is common as sometime plurality is used for singularity while singularity is used in another occasion for plurality. 

As in the verse al asr, ' al insan' the man is used for the meaning of men ' an-naas'...

So why the plurality. This is ilihtiram for the prophet nuh as. That is as a respect, honour, homage and esteem for this prophet who is also a ulul azmi.

prophet nuh as was the only one sent to his people for a very long time, making dakwah for a very long time, facing all the hardships every day. They stoned him, run away from him as though he was a plague or stuffed their ears with their fingers everytime he tried to invite them to Allah swt. His hardship, perserverance, patience was so great. Even his own wife and son rejected him. It is as though that he is doing work for not just 1 prophet but the work of prophets! 

Ala kulli Hal, the best understanding is when we combine both explanations as they complement each other, subhanallah.

Nb there are also other explanations but I think this 2 suffice Inshaallah 

والله أعلم

Sent from my iPhone

ramadhan desserts 14

Message flagged

Saturday, 4 August 2012, 14:50

Ramadhan desserts ( part 14)

ابو حنظلة محمد زهري

And this month is the best training session for standing infront of Allah and making doa to him asking for all the goodness and mercy.

If in this month we are not able to leave our beds for a short time, then it will be nearly impossible to do it in others than ramadhan. Get accustomed to be with Him. Get offline from the net and goes 'online' with our Creator.

In another verse, He mentioned the merit of this prayer

وَمِنَ اللَّيْلِ فَتَهَجَّدْ بِهِ نَافِلَةً لَّكَ عَسَىٰ أَن يَبْعَثَكَ رَبُّكَ مَقَامًا مَّحْمُودًا

And during a part of the night, pray Tahajjud beyond what is incumbent on you; maybe your Lord will raise you to a position of great glory.

And what great the glory will be if the glory is been mentioned & promised by the Almighty, owner of all glories.

And the prophet saw had mentioned : قيام الليل شرف المؤمن

Standing at night (for prayer) is the honour of a believer.

And this verse ends with وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ and they spend (benevolently) out of what We have given them

Not only a believer stands before him by praying and calling him at night, but he further reinforce these deeds with infaq fi sabillilah and charity. As we can see in many verses in the Quran usually Allah swt mentions the command of azzakah after assolah, they came hand in hand together. One deed is primarily between the servant and his Rab, while another is between a servant and another servant.

From this we can also derive the important of both habluminnal and hablumminnas, Connection with Allah and the connection with people. Our relationship to both our Rab and other mankind should be strong as this is the emphasis shown by the prophet saw.

On a finer detailed note, the exact translation will be 'out of what we gave them, the spend in infaq' and not 'they spend in infaq out of what we gave them'. Hmm what's the difference. No difference except that Allah mentioned first that he is the one who gave the rizk before mentioning the infaq. This emphasis is to remind us that the rizk is from Him and we are spending on what is what originally not ours. So why be calculative on what we give?

والله أعلم

RAMADHAN DESSERTS (PART7)

Ramadhan dessert (part 7)

أبو حنظلة محمد زهري

اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ

Guide us on the right path.

And then on the next verse is the doa for hidayah. We asking Allah swt to constantly guide us and keep us in the straight path, that is Islam- alquran and sunnah. All mankind is in need of guidance from Allah swt day and night. Even if he already a believer there is no guarantee that he will die as a believer. Therefore Allah swt has reminded the believers many times in the Quran on this matter 

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنتُم مُّسْلِمُونَ

O you who believe! be careful of (your duty to) Allah with the care which is due to Him, and do not die unless you are Muslims.

In this verse Allah swt address not the non Muslims but specifically to the ones who had already believed not to die unless in the state of iman! Iman is so precious that it has to be constantly guarded and keep in constant watch. The syaithan 24/7 is trying to snatch it and he had trained our evil desires (nafs)to make us go away from iman. 

 

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا آمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَالْكِتَابِ الَّذِي نَزَّلَ عَلَىٰ رَسُولِهِ وَالْكِتَابِ الَّذِي أَنزَلَ مِن قَبْلُ وَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِاللَّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ ضَلَالًا بَعِيدًا

O you who believe! believe in Allah and His Apostle and the Book which He has revealed to His Apostle and the Book which He revealed before; and whoever disbelieves in Allah and His angels and His apostles and the last day, he indeed strays off into a remote error.

In this verse Allah swt has commanded the mukmin (believer)  to believe.- why command the believers to believe when they are already a believer? This for us to ponder on this verse.

In addition as a side note, when everytime we heard or read the verse with the call to the muslims (يا أيها الذين اامنوا) - 'o you who believe', we  who called ourselves muslims Must stop and ponder and prepare ourselves for the next message as the Lord of the worlds is calling us and informing us on an important message. And

Without doubt the message after it is of great importance.Wa lillahi  Masalil ala- just like a king just called you to inform you for something , do we just take his call for granted or put all our ears ready to hear what he is going to convey. 

 There are people who do good deeds but on the last days of his life, he commits sins and die in it. May Allah set save us. And the last deeds is the utmost importance in a person's life. And nobody knows when his life will ends. 

إِنَّ اللَّهَ عِندَهُ عِلْمُ السَّاعَةِ وَيُنَزِّلُ الْغَيْثَ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِي الْأَرْحَامِ وَمَا تَدْرِي نَفْسٌ مَّاذَا تَكْسِبُ غَدًا وَمَا تَدْرِي نَفْسٌ بِأَيِّ أَرْضٍ تَمُوتُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ

Surely Allah is He with Whom is the knowledge of the hour, and He sends down the rain and He knows what is in the wombs; and no one knows what he shall earn on the morrow; and no one knows in what land he shall die; surely Allah is Knowing, Aware.

May Allah swt grant us all husnul khotimah and die with the kalimah syahahdah as our last words. Amin

We can understand that this surah also taught us the correct method of making doa. Firstly we make praise and make syukr to Him, and understanding His greatness and His mercy, with conscience of the hereafter and the day of judgement, with the correct ibadah that has been taught by the Prophet saw and tawakkul sole reliance to Him, then it is the time for us to ask Him swt what we want. And what is better than asking to be in constant guidance by Him so that we can get hayatan toyyibah in this world and Jannah in the hereafter.

والله أعلم

Sent from my iPhone