Friday Nasiha 11th May 2007

Living the Quran

Al-Anfal (The Spoils of War) Chapter 8: Verse 27 Betraying the Trust "O ye that believe! betray not the trust of Allah and the Messenger, nor misappropriate knowingly things entrusted to you." To abandon the duties God has assigned to the Muslim community is a betrayal of God and His Messenger. The basic issue in the Islamic faith is that of attributing Godhead purely and solely to God alone, following only what has been conveyed to us by His Messenger, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). This basic issue also entails that God's Messenger is the only source to convey what God wants of human beings, and this means that they must follow all his orders and directives. As this includes both conviction and action, the Muslim community, which has declared its belief in God, is warned against abandoning this whole issue. To do so is equal to betraying God and His Messenger. Believers are also warned against betraying the trust they have accepted when they pledged their loyalty to God's Messenger and declared their acceptance of islam. Islam means submission to God. This is not merely a verbal statement, but a complete code of living that must be implemented, even though such implementation faces numerous obstacles and difficulties. It is a code that aims to build human life on the basis of the declaration that there is no deity other than God. The usurpers who tyrannize people and claim sovereignty for themselves must be taken to task. Right and justice must be maintained for all people. Human life must be built entirely on the basis of the divine constitution. All these are aspects of the trust God has placed in the Muslim community. Those who do not fulfil their trust actually betray their pledges to God and His Messenger. Source: "In The Shade of The Quran" - Sayyid Qutb, pp. 113,114

Understanding the Prophet's Life

Stimulating the Intelligence Throughout his mission the Prophet, peace be upon him, sought his Companion's advice, encouraging them to express their opinions and paying them careful attention. Furthermore, the Prophet had evolved a genuine teaching method through which he allowed the Muslims to develop their critical faculties, express their talents, and mature in his presence. He would often ask questions on various subjects and give the answers only after his Companions had thought by themselves and expressed different conjectures. Sometimes, more subtly, he would utter a judgment in a paradoxical form, thereby prompting his listeners to consider the matter more deeply. For example, he once said: "A strong man is not a man who overcomes his enemy!" The Companions mulled this over among themselves, then asked him: "Then who is a strong man?" The Prophet surprised his audience and led them to a deeper understanding of the question with his answer: "A strong man is a man who controls himself when he is angry!" He would sometimes speak figuratively: "Wealth does not lie in the riches you possess!" After the Companions pondered this, Muhammad would elaborate: "True wealth is the wealth of the soul." On occasion the Prophet's statement appeared to contradict common sense or ethics: "Help your brother, whether he is just or unjust!" The Companions could not but wonder about the nature of the help they were to give an unjust brother: how could that be? The Prophet, inverting the perspective, would add: "Prevent him [the unjust brother] from acting unjustly, such is the way for you to help him!" Both by asking questions and by formulating paradoxical or seemingly contradictory statements, the Prophet stimulated his Companions' critical sense and their ability to go beyond mere blind obedience or mechanical mind-destroying imitation. This method developed the intellectual capacities necessary for consultations to be effective. By stimulating their intelligence and giving them opportunities to speak, he exercised a type of leadership that made it possible for his Companions to learn to assert themselves and take initiative. Source: "In the Footsteps of the Prophet" - Tariq Ramadan, pp. 102,103

Blindspot!

Miserliness and Meanness of the Heart Free yourself from miserliness and meanness of the heart. The more humble and polite you are, the more strongly will you believe that everything belongs to Allah and that whatever you give now shall be returned in the form of a much greater reward. The more you believe that if you were to stop charity it would come to haunt you, the easier will it be for you to be magnanimous. The more your heart is filled with the Greatness of Allah, the more generous your heart will become. The greater your ability to negate ego, status, arrogance, vanity, wealth, and the more you feel that you have not discharged your responsibilities to the full - the happier you will become. Give away your wealth today, give it away readily, sacrifice your self-esteem, cleanse yourself of the love of this world and Allah will expand your heart. He shall make you so benevolent that you will have made yourself deserving of the Paradise whose expanse will embrace the heavens and the earth. Compiled From: "Dying and Living for Allah" - Khurram Murad, pp. 52, 53