Do Not Despise The Sinners- Mufti Muhammad Taqi 'Uthmani

I first read this on MujahideenRyder's blog. I found it to be extremely beneficial, as it presented a way of looking at other people in a completely different way than I had ever thought about it before. InshaAllah it can be a benefit to all of us.

The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: “That person who taunts and ridicules his Muslim brother over a sin from which he has repented, will not die until he himself commits that same sin.” For example, you come to know that a certain person committed or was involved in a particular sin and you also know that this person has repented from it. To think low of him or to taunt or ridicule him because of that sin, by saying something like: “You are the one who was involved in certain evil actions”, is in itself a sin.

Through repentance a person has corrected his relationship with Allah Most High. Through repentance not only has the sin been forgiven, it has also been erased from his book of deeds! Allah Most High has erased it from his book of deeds but you, because of that sin, are thinking low of him and treating him with contempt. You are taunting and ridiculing him. This action is extremely despised by Allah Most High.

This is regarding a person whom you know has repented. If you don’t know whether he has repented or not, then there is always this possibility that he, being a mu’min (believer), has repented or will repent in the future. Therefore, if someone has committed a sin and you do not know whether he has repented or not, you still do not have the right to hold him in contempt. It is possible that he has repented. Remember! Abhorrence should be for the sin and not the sinner! Hatred should be for sins. Allah’s Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) did not teach us to despise those who sin.

On the other hand, the sinner is worthy of pity and compassion, for this distressed person has been overtaken by a sickness. If a person is overtaken by a physical sickness, do you abhor his sickness or the person who is sick? Does the sick person become the target of your hatred? Obviously, the sick person is not deserving of your hatred. Yes, despise his sickness. Concern yourself with removing his sickness, so make du’a. The sick person should not be the target of hatred. He should be pitied for the reason that this poor person is caught up in a difficulty.

If someone is a kafir (disbeliever) then despise his kufr (disbelief), do not despise him. Make du’a for him that Allah Most High grants him guidance. Amin. How much did the kuffar (disbelievers) not persecute the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace)? They shot at him with arrows, they pelted stones at him, and his body bled from various places, but the words that flowed from his mouth were the following: “O Allah! Grant my people guidance, for they do not know the reality” (of this din).

Take note that that he did not despise them because of their kufr, shirk(associating partners with Allah), oppression and transgressions. Rather, while expressing pity and affection, he made du’a for them that ‘O Allah! These people are ignorant. They are unaware of the reality; therefore they are treating me in this manner. O Allah! Grant them guidance’.

So when seeing someone involved in sin, have pity on him and make du’a for him and try to steer him away from sin. Advise and counsel him but do not think low of him. Perhaps Allah accepts his repentance and he surpasses you in the sight of Allah.

I have heard the following words of advice of Hakim al-Ummah Mawlana Ashraf ‘Ali Thanawi from my respected father, Mufti Muhammad Shafi’ and ‘Arif Billah Dr. Abdul Hayy ‘Arifi (may Allah have mercy on them): “I consider every current Muslim and every non Muslim, as far as the future is concerned to be superior to me.” “As far as the future is concerned” means that although the person is presently in the condition of kufr, maybe Allah Most High grants him the tawfiq(guidance) of repenting and he is freed from the burden of kufr. Thereafter, Allah Most High raises his status so high that he surpasses me!

“Every current Muslim” means that a person who is a Muslim, a person of iman(true faith), one whom Allah Most High has granted the wealth of iman. What do I know regarding his connection and status with Allah Most High? Every person’s relationship with Allah Most High is unique. How can we judge anyone? Therefore, I consider every Muslim to be superior to me.

In this statement of Hakim al-Ummah, “I consider every Muslim to be superior to me”, there is obviously no possibility of lies and deception, or that he just said it out of moral courtesy. He said it because he firmly believed it. Anyway, to think low of someone, even though it is due to his committing of sin, is not permissible.

This malady of regarding others with contempt is found mostly in people who have reformed and turned towards din (Islam). They were not concerned with dinpreviously but now have changed and became steadfast on salah and fasting. They have made their dressing and appearance in conformity with the Shari’ah. They have started frequenting the masjid. They have become regular in performingsalah with congregation.¹ Satan induces such a person with this thought that you are now on the straight path. These people who are involved in sin are ruined. The result of this thought is that he starts thinking low of them and treats them with contempt. He now starts criticizing them in a hurtful manner. This results in Satan involving such people in vanity, self-regard and pride. When a person suffers from self-regard and pride, all his good actions are destroyed.

When a person’s gaze falls on himself that he is pious and others are bad then he is caught up in vanity. Vanity causes all good actions to become worthless. Only that action is acceptable which is done with sincerity for Allah Most High alone. After performing the action the person makes shukr (gives thanks) unto Allah Most High that He granted me the tawfiq to perform this action (if He did not grant me the tawfiq, I would never have been able to carry out this action).

Therefore, do not treat anyone with contempt. Do not think low of any non-Muslim or any sinner.

It is mentioned in a hadith that when seeing a person afflicted with any sickness, recite the following du’a:

اَلْحَمْدُ للهِ الَّذِىْ عَافَانِىْ مِمَّا ابْتَلاَكَ بِه وَ فَضَّلَنِىْ عَلَى كَثِيْرٍ مِّمَّنْ خَلَقَ تِفْضِيْلاً

All praises are due unto Allah, who has granted me safety from that which he has afflicted you with, and granted me well-being over many of the creation. (Al-Hisn al-Hasin, p.349)

It is sunnah to recite this du’a when seeing an afflicted person. The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) taught us this (Note: it should be recited softly lest the afflicted person is offended).

Shaykh Dr. Abdul Hayy ‘Arifi (may Allah have mercy on him) used to say: “Whenever I pass by a hospital, then, praises be to Allah, I always recite thisdu’a.” He would also make du’a that Allah grants the sick good health.

One of my teachers used to say that Allah’s Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) taught us to recite this du’a when seeing a sick person, but I also recite it when seeing someone involved in sin. Sometimes when walking on the road I see people lined up at the cinema houses purchasing tickets. I recite thisdu’a on seeing them. Then I make shukr unto Allah Most High that He has saved me from this sin.

The reason for reciting this du’a when seeing a person involved in sin is that just as a physically sick person is worthy of pity, so is the sinner worthy of pity and sympathy, for he is also caught up in a predicament. Also, make du’a for him that: “O Allah! Remove this difficulty from him.”

It should be known that those who are presently involved in sin and you consider them low and worthy of contempt may later on receive the tawfiq of repentance and surpass you! So for what reason are you boasting? If you have been granted the tawfiq of abstaining from sin then make shukr unto Allah Most High. If they haven’t as yet received the tawfiq, then make du’a for them that Allah Most High grants them guidance and grants them relief from their afflictions. Amin.

Anyway, despise kufr, despise sin and transgression, but do not despise the person. In fact, you should treat him with love and kindness. When you speak to him, speak with softness and affection. Speak with feeling and love so that it may have a good effect on him. This was always the method of all our pious elders.

I heard this story of Hadrat Junayd al-Baghdadi (may Allah have mercy on him) from my respected father Mufti Muhammad Shafi’ (may Allah have mercy on him). While passing a certain place, Hadrat Junayd saw a person hanging from the gallows, whose hands and one leg was amputated. He inquired from the people regarding this person. The people informed him that this person was a habitual thief. His hand was cut when he was caught the first time. His leg was cut when caught the second time. Now on the third occasion he has been hanged. Hadrat Junayd went forward and kissed the dead man’s foot. People said to him: “This man was such a big and habitual thief, and you kissed his feet?” He replied: “Although he had committed such a big crime and sin for which he has been punished, but he had a wonderful quality in him, and that is steadfastness (istiqamah). Although he used this quality in a wrong way, however, he remained steadfast on the manner of his chosen occupation. His hand was amputated but he never left his choice. His leg was amputated yet he remained steadfast on theft. His other hand was amputated and still he did not give up his occupation. He remained steadfast on theft until finally his life has been taken. It is now apparent that he had the quality of steadfastness in him and I kissed his foot because of this quality.” May Allah Most High grant us this quality in our worship and obedience unto Him. Amin.

Anyway, the pious servants of Allah do not despise people but despise the evils perpetrated by them. They (the pious) go to the extent of saying that if an evil person has any good qualities in him then those good qualities should be striven for! Concern yourself with trying to remove the bad qualities in a person by speaking to him with love and affection. Speak only to him and do not speak to others about him.

It is mentioned in a hadith: “A believer (mu’min) is a mirror to another believer” (Abu Dawud). If a person has a spot on his face and stands in front of a mirror, the mirror will reflect that spot on his face. The mirror is showing him his defects. In the same way, a believer is also a mirror to another believer. When a believer sees another with a defect, he should inform him with love and affection that you have this certain weakness in you, remove it.

It is just like when a person has a worm or any insect crawling on him, then out of concern you inform him that there is an insect crawling on him, so remove it. Similarly, if a Muslim brother has a dini defect in him, then with love and affection, inform him that he has this defect in him, because a believer is a mirror to another believer.

Mawlana Ashraf ‘Ali Thanawi says that this hadith teaches us that when you see a fault in another person, then inform only that person of this fault, do not tell it to others. The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) compared a believer to a mirror. The mirror only exposes the spot on the face to the person standing in front of it and not to others. Thus, the duty of a believer is to inform the person involved that he has a certain weakness in him and not to inform others of his weakness. If a person also tells others then it implies that he has acted upon his own evil desires and this will not be an act of din anymore. If he only informs and advises the afflicted person with love and concern, then this is what iman(true faith) and brotherhood demands. But to despise or think low of him is not permissible under any circumstance.

May Allah Most High grant us the understanding and the guidance to practice on this. Amin.

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1. Obviously this is not always the case. There are those among the reformed who are not like this. Also, there are those who have always been regular on their din but suffer from this malady. The respected author is saying that this malady is mostly found in such people, but not always. (Translator) ↩

Source: http://deoband.org/2009/10/general/guidance/do-not-despise-the-sinners/

Tips On Memorising Qur'an

As promised, here's a post dedicated to tips on memorising Qur'an. It is by far an a comprehensive list. In fact, this list has little worth seeing as I'm only gonna be listing things that help me when I try and memorise. But nonetheless, maybe someone else will be able to benefit from it.. (and I'll get some of the reward... x70 because it's Ramadan :) - LOL just kidding).

• Pick a specific time every day to just sit down with the Qur'an and try to memorise. For a fixed time as well (I'd say ideally an hour, but you might be able to do more or less). Recently, when I went to India, I found that the first night I was having a lot of trouble sleeping. I woke up at Fajr, and then just stayed up. So I went and picked up the Qur'an from the shelf, and sat at my musallah (I think I sat for more than an hour the first day, I was feeling quite eager :)). I did this for about 3 days, and managed to memorise Surah al-Qiyamah (I'd already memorised some ayaat before I had got there). For some, that may seem like a long time, but for me it was a pretty big achievement. I found that in each hour, I managed to commit to memory around 7 verses. Alhamdulillah, I found memorising that way to be extremely beneficial, it's unfortunate that I never kept it up after that. If you do stay up after Fajr to memorise, why not just stay seated on your musallah until the time for Salatul-Duha? That was my intention in India, but I didn't know the correct time or fiqh of praying it (I had, and still have, never prayed it before - in my defence, I had no access to any books or the Internet to figure it out, although I'm sure I still could have made more of an effort to have prayed it...).
• Load your iPod (or whatever MP3 device you inevitably have :)) with what you're trying to memorise. Personally, I like editing that specific track on my laptop before, so I can just get it to repeat a few verses at a time, and then when I've learnt it, I'll make it repeat over the next few verses (it's easy to do on iTunes, right-click, Get Info..., Options, Start/Stop Time - it's a bid fiddly).
• Listen to several qurraa'. Be it on YouTube or on your iPod again. I always find that that particularly helps with pronunciation, and it's nice to hear different styles at once - it helps you to develop your own style.
• When you've commited a portion to memory, recite it in your salah. This is a good way to make sure you don't forget anything. When I'm trying to memorise something, I'm constantly reciting it to myself throughout the day. And I mean constaaaantlyyyyy. The wajib length of recitation of a surah after al-Faatiha in salaah is the equivalent of 3 short verses (hence the allowance for reciting ayat al-Kursi, which is longer than, for example, surah al-Kawthar, which is only 3 verses long).
• Even after you've committed some ayaat to memory and moved on, make sure to refer back to what you've learnt every now and then. It's really easy to miss out some of the finer details, like holding down that shadda, stopping at that hamza, elongating that mudda, etc.
• Finally, make du'a to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to aide you. I must admit that this isn't something I remember to do all the time, but as the hadith goes, "prayer is the weapon of the believer", and how can we expect to be able to memorise the book of Allah wa ta'ala without requesting His help. This is definitely something I need to remember and do more often also.

A lot of these pointers I got myself from this article: http://muslimmatters.org/2009/10/27/13-steps-to-memorize-the-quran-by-yasir-qadhi/. There are a few extras there which will undoubtedly be helpful, so I highly recommend checking out that link, even before reading this post (hmm, maybe I should have put it at the beginning... well, I'm too lazy to cut and paste so it can just stay where it is).

There are a few websites I sometimes use also when trying to memorise Qur'an. The websites can all be found on my Islamic Link page, but here they are anyway:

• www.quranbrowser.org
• www.searchtruth.com
• www.mounthira.com
• www.tanzil.info

Like I said before, this is by far a comprehensive list. Who am I to give pointers, I'm too ashamed to say how little of the Qur'an I know by memory. Nonetheless, maybe something I've written will be of benefit for you, and that in turn will also be of benefit to me. InshaAllah.

Ramadan Mubarak

It's official. My local masjid and the musallah I go to both declared Ramadan started last night. Alhamdulillah. No conflict there! I have some family on the other side of London who are starting tonight, but besides that, as far as I know, most started last night. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make this Ramadan easy on all of us, enable us to stay focused in our Islam and 'ibadah, and forgive every Muslim that has lived, lives, and will live until Yawm al-Qiyamah.

Ramadan Mubarak.

Ramadan Goals

I don't know how many people already do this (you might do it without the formality of sitting yourself down and thinking about it), but I think it would be a good idea to set some goals for this holy month. Attainable and realistic goals, but goals that will still push us a little... and that we'll try to surpass. These goals could be a number of things, such as:

• re-memorising some surahs (the real plural is suwar, as I learnt from Dr. Abu Ameena Bilal Philips, so I'll use that from now on) that you may have forgotten.
• learning a certain number of shorter suwar if you dont't already know a lot (the number you pick totally depends on the amount of free time you have, but be a little ambitious).
• if you already know quite a few of the shorter suwar, try memorising the entire juz' 'amma.
• learn some longer suwar, or segments, who's rewards have been specifically mentioned in the ahadith of our Rasool sall-Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam, such as the first 5 and last 3 verses of Surah Baqarah (there are numerous ahadith discussing the virtues of various ayaat of this surah) , the first 10 verses of Surah Kahf (protection from ad-Dajjal), Surah Ya-Seen (a surah to recite when somebody is near to death), Surah ar-Rahman (has got to be the most YouTube'd surah), Surah Mulk (which will intercede for one on Yawm al-Qiyamah if they have memorised it), and so many others.
• waking up to stand and pray tahajjud as much as one can.
• praying Salatul-Tasbih as much as one can (inshaAllah I'll try to write a post about the method and benefits of Salatul-Tasbih).
• learning a new (prophetic) du'a a day.
• praying all of your sunnah and nafl salaah.
• increasing other superogatory salaah, eg. praying 2 rak'ah when entering the masjid (Tahhiyatul-Masjid), or praying 2 rak'ah after making wudu (Tahhiyatul-Wudu).
• trying to stay in a constant state of wudu, (even going to sleep with wudu).

These goals don't have to be limited to 'ibadah (although this is where most of our focus should be). We can seek the pleasure of Allah 'azza wa jal in so many other ways, from helping our mothers prepare suhoor and iftaar (this one's for girls AND boys :)), to just simply practing a bit of sabr in this month of jihad when the people around us run short on theirs. Even just keeping the TV off would be beneficial, think of the blessed minutes that we would be able to reclaim and spend in worship, rather than sitting glued to a (religiously questionable) box (inshaAllah one day maybe I'll write a long-winded post about how I feel about TV). This list is by far exhaustive, but I just wanted to throw a few ideas out there. I know some of the ones I wrote are a bit ambitious, and I know that I won't be able to do most of them, but I just thought of a list that would be suitable for people of different capabilities.

The goals I have made for myself are to complete memorising Surah ar-Rahman (I'm about 30ish ayaat through), and inshaAllah I want to try and memorise Surah Mulk also. That second one I think is a bit ambitious, but inshAllah if I make the effort Allah tabaraka wa ta'ala will make it easy for me, as He will for all of us if we make the effort. There is a hadith qudsi (the words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but unlike the Qur'an in that they are expressed in the words of our Rasool sall-Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam rather than being the direct words of Allah 'azza wa jal) where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us "Take one step towards me, I will take ten steps towards you. Walk towards me, I will run towards you." SubhanAllah. Knowing this, any goal would seem a lot easier. InshaAllah I intend to write a post in the coming days with some tips that have personally made it easier for me to memorise Qur'an. InshaAllah, it'll be beneficial for you as well.

As a last point, I just wanted to include a hadith on the performance of Tahhiyatul-Wudu. It is recorded in Bukhari and Muslim that Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah radiAllahu ta'ala 'anhu related that the Messenger of Allah sall-Allahu 'alayhi was-sallam said to Sayyiduna Bilal ibn Rabaah al-Habashi, "Tell me from which of your acts you are most hopeful (the act with which you hope to receive the most reward from Allah 'azza wa jal) since your acceptance of Islam, because I heard the sounds of the steps of your shoes in front of me in paradise." Sayyiduna Bilal radiAllah ta'ala 'anhu replied, "I do not consider any act more hopeful than whenever I make wudu at any time of day or night, I offer salah for as long as was destined for me to offer." SubhanAllah, the wording of course is not an exact translation, but nonetheless I hope I was able to somewhat convey the beauty of the hadith.

Fiqh of Ramadan

This post is for myself just as much as anybody else. Probably more so. I just wanted to make a bit of a point about getting our priorities right for this month. Inevitabley, the same issues will arise this year as did last year, and the year before, and the many years before that. Before we all start our Moonsighting Wars, our intense 8 rak'ah vs. 20 rak'ah debates, and the obligation of praying jumu'a on 'eid, we need to take a moment to really think about how we spend our time this month. This isn't a month of fiqh. This is the month of the Qur'an. The month of 'ibadah. The month of drawing closer and seeking the forgiveness of Allahu subhanahu wa ta'ala. In Mishkat al-Masabih (a popular collection of hadith in the subcontinent, original compiled by the Persian Shafi'i scholar al-Baghawi and then revised and improved by at-Tabrizi), a hadith is recorded that states "and it (Ramadan) is such a month, the first ten days are the days of mercy, the middle ten days are the days of forgiveness, and the last ten days are the days in which many are emancipated from the fire of Jahannam". I say all this (once again, primarily to myself) so that we don't get distracted from seeking the bounty and favours of Allah 'azza wa jal by discussing and arguing about these matters, which although may be relevant, are not the purpose of this month. Rather than wasting our time worrying about how others are incorrectly performing their acts of worship, I'm gonna be a bit selfish here and say to instead focus on how we perform our acts of worship. Wouldn't our time be better utilised by learning the meanings of the ayaat of the Qur'an, so that we can concentrate and focus better in our salah? These are all important matters, but we can leave them for the other 11 months of the year that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has blessed us with, and just try to utilise this gift from Allah wa ta'ala in the way that it was intended. And besides, these matters of fiqh are not for us laymen to argue over. These are matters to be left to the fuqaha and the mujtahidoon. Let our shuyookh worry about these matters, for we are not obliged to debate about them. Let us instead worry about asking Allah 'azza wa jal for forgiveness from our sins, the sins of our family, and the sins of every believer that has lived, that lives, and that will live until Yawm al-Qiyamah.

I just want to reiterate one final time that this post is for myself before anybody else, because I am definitely guilty of indulging in some of the acts that I have mentioned above before.

(P.S. Considering all of the readers that I know about of my blog are girls, I don't know how much this post will appeal to you. I've noticed that it's mainly guys that love getting embroiled in such issues. Forgive me if it was a waste of your time).

(P.S.S. The title was meant to be funny, considering my No-Fiqh rule from the last post. Maybe I should stop assuming that my readers don't get my jokes...).

My Ramadan Ideas

InshaAllah, we have all been blessed by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to witness another Ramadan. I just wanted to write a post detailing how I intend to utilise my blog in this blessed month.

Alhamdulillah, last year I had a very beneficial Ramadan. I had the whole month free, and did the most 'ibadah and dhikr of Allah 'azza wa jal than I had ever done before in my life. I also felt that I had developed a stronger connection with the Qur'an. Unfortunately, I won't have as much free time this year, but nonetheless I do not intend to let this holy month that Allah 'azza wa jal has granted us to pass by without trying to gain from its numerous rewards. I'm going to be taking a course over the first two weekends of Ramadan called Journey Through The Qur'an (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=138985349447775). The course sounds really good and inshaAllah will be very beneficial. The following weekend I also intend to attend an iftaar event at my university that will also have a few talks. Besides that, I guess I'll just load up my iPod for work time, and try and spend as much of my evenings and weekends in my local musallah.

OK, as for my blog... My initial thought was that I should abstain from it for the whole of Ramadan. My thinking was that I shouldn't be wasting any precious minutes updating it (perhaps this was also an excuse to be lazy :)). And then I thought again... who am I kidding? I'm gonna end up wasting time somewhere anyway, so why not try and be a little productive and use my blog as a means for 'ibadah. As i have learnt from Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam, any deed with the right intention can be considered 'ibadah (the example he gave was that even if you had a sip of water, so as to replenish yourself so that you could carry on standing in salaah, or help keep you strong so that you can carry on doing the work of Allah tabaraka wa ta'ala, this will be considered an act of ibadah). I had some good ideas about some beneficial posts I could do throughout the month i.e. I was thinking of posting an ayaat of Qur'an a day that would be easy to memorise, along with translation and meaning. And then I remembered... I'm lazy. I don't wanna intend to do something like that and then start slacking. Especially in Ramadan. Imagine having such an intention and then not fulfilling it. So what I will do is post little reminders, tips, ahadith, and ayaat whenever I can. No promises as to how often. And no fiqh... well I'll try not to. Forgive me if I do, I do love studying fiqh, so I may slip up. I hope I won't post anything that I'm not qualified to, all I will really be doing is posting things I'd have heard or read, so nothing from my own thinking. If it seems that I'm over-stepping the boundaries, I implore you to please let me know. InshaAllah, I hope I'll be able to produce some posts that will be beneficial for both myself and for you(and by you, I mean the 5 readers I know about... (no more lying or deluding myself, it's Ramadan time!)).

OK, so that's the formalities out of the way. I love this time of year, more than any other. Alhamdulillah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has truly showered his blessings upon us if we are able to witness another Ramadan, and inshaAllah we won't disrgard this favour of Allah and take it for granted.

(P.S. I'll still throw in a couple random 'secular' posts to keep the humour going :)).

What A Dream That Turned Out To Be...

After weeks and weeks of toiling, waging a war scathed with battle scars (a paper cut in my first week), I was ecstatic when it had seemed I had won the battle. When I posted last week about my dream coming true, and having been able to put 50 files into my folder at once, I thought that it would be a once in a lifetime achievement. A memorable event. Never to be seen again on the face of this Earth. And now... I can't seem to stop putting the damn things all in at once! ('damn' isn't a bad word in England... (that's for my overseas readers..)). I mean, now I'm just starting to get sick of it. There's no enjoyment in it anymore. No sense of fulfillment. It's started to make me thing that maybe I had slightly over reacted with my celebrations last week... Oh dear, that thought is tantalisingly close to turning my whole world upside down and making me re-evaluate my priorities and focuses in life. So let's just forget about it...

WOHOOOOOO! I got another 50 in at once! For like the 10th time!! I'm awesome :).

A Dream Come True

I've been working here for about 3 and a half weeks now, and for about the last 2 and a half weeks I'd set a goal for myself. It's one of those goals that realistically you know you can't achieve, but you still try for it anyway. And alhamdulillah, I did it :). But before I jump straight in there, let me give you a little background..

One of my jobs here as a 'Vacation Engineering Student' (which they didn't tell me actually meant 'Glorified Admin Assistant') is to update their old system. I get big folders filled with about 500 sheets of paper, I take out the papers, I re-write the dates on some of them where the stamps have faded, I then scan the pages, then come back to my desk, put them back in the folder, re-name them on the computer, and then upload them on to a server that's all the way in New Jersey (I'm in London) whilst punching in the details of each individual sheet as I upload them. I do the whole thing in groups of 50 pages (2 successive sets of 25 for the scanner). Sometimes I have to do other little annoying things with the pages, like make sure their the right size, etc. So anyway, when I come back to my desk, I'm there with about 50 pieces of paper (that all date to around 1995) that I need to put back into that big fat folder. And here's that goal I set myself. I've tried it about (quick calculation...) 30ish times, and I managed it yesterday. Here it is...

I managed to put all the pages back in one go!!! Wohoooooo!

I mean, do you know how tediously long it is having to put the pages back in little groups. The holes on the side never line up properly, 'cos of the different paper sizes and other peoples' dodgy hole punching. So I end up putting them back in about 10 at a time, sometimes even individually! But subhanAllah, min fadli Rabbi, I got all 50 in in one go yesterday :). Not only that, but I managed it again today. Allahu akbar. What a feeling that was... You see, your job doesn't always have to be boring. You just have to make the most of these little things. And some people said I'd go crazy doing that for 9 weeks... ha!

On a side note, I'd like to add that I now have (un)official sponsorship for my blog. Yep, that's right :). My company now pays me to update my blog. How awesome is that? I haven't got round to informing them about that yet, though...

A Revelation (not THE...)

I don't exactly remember how this moment of genius came to me, but I know it happened at some point within the last academic year. This post will mainly appeal to those readers with origins from the subcontinent and other close by areas (ie. all you pakis, darkies, and banglas - in geographical order (BTW don't think I'm racist, it's OK, I'm one of them:))), so I apologise if you can't relate to it, but it's pretty interesting nonetheless. So over here in England, well in London anyway (I gotta stop assuming that London is representative of the whole of England, it really isn't... the rest of the country pretty much sucks), when we just start school as little cute Muslims and Muslimahs, we normally start learning the Qur'an too. We normally go after school, or during the weekends, to the local masjid, a madrassa, or (as in my case) one of the kids' house where an imam (we'd call him molvi sahib) would come and teach us. Maybe I'll write about that in detail in another post, but that isn't really what this one is about (I actually learnt from a woman, but that's besides). So anyway, now that I'm older and wiser (and went from adorable to ahem dashingly handsome), I've come across a lot more books and other copies of the Qur'an besides those that we (Asians) have at home. It didn't hit me at first, but over time I think it just came to me. And I'm sorry to say it. I'm sorry to have to be the one to break it to you. But we've (Asians) been duped. We've been duped hard. OK so it's bad enough that when people ask us if we know Arabic we have to settle with saying that we can only read it (and I sheepishly say I can write it, too) and don't know what we're actually saying. But here's the newsflash: WE CAN'T EVEN READ IT. WE CAN'T READ ARABIC. All those copies of the Qur'an you have at home... they're not in Arabic! They're in URDU!! That's right, Urdu. Urdu Urdu Urdu. Think about it.. Remember those concurrent Urdu classes you took (which I never payed attention in, so I can't even do anything with that language), you ever wondered why the writing looked exactly the same? That's because it's the same script! OK, so they are very similar. Urdu contains all the same letters, with about 6 more I think (like I said, I'm no expert). But still, when we learnt how to read it, we were told all the Urdu names for the vowels. We weren't told that this is a fatha or that's a dumma. It was this is a pesh and that's a zabar. Even in terms of pronounciation, unless we learnt at the masjid or with a real imam (I didn't), we most of the time were given Urdu pronounciations. So 'ayn was just a norm alif sound, and dhaal was a za sound. I mean, talk about lazy! Like in Arabic, normally the vowels are ommitted in Urdu sentences. And it's normally written a lot more curly and flowery (which I think makes it a lot more confusing... BTW I've realised I use brackets wayy too much). I think things are changing these days, although I don't have any kids I can check that with, but it seems in general a lot of things like that are changing for the better now... AFTER my generation. Typical. Seriously though, go and pick up a Qur'an now. A Qur'an printed from an Arab country, and I guarantee you that at some points you'll just stop and errr for a few seconds. And I've got another one for you. Pick up a copy that has a transliteration in it. Go to surah 93, ad-Duha. How is it spelt? How is it spelt?? It says az-Zuha right!!! I KNOWWW! How messed up is that? I mean, ok, if you pronounce dhaal with a za it's forgivable, it's accpeted. But the emphatic daad (or duaad as we were taught) being pronounce as a za. Come onnn, that just ain't happening. That's not cool. You can't have us pronouncing it so obviously incorrect, that just defeats the whole purpose.

The point of this agonisingly long and brackets-filled post: Oi! Asians! Go learn your whole Arabic alphabet again, 'cos we don't know it! We don't even know the Urdu one.. we're missing about 6 letters :P.

(InshaAllah at some point I'll include a post on commonly mispronounced letters, although don't expect me to provide all the tajweed rules, I ain't that good...yet............................. inshaAllah :)).

Raisins and Grapes

I don't know why, but I just felt this urge to write a post about raisins. They've been good to me these past few weeks, maybe it's just time that I returned the favour. Did you know that raisins are a natural source of fibre? (source: my little green box of ASDA raisins). Also, they should be stored in a cool dry place. They can be hazardous to young children too as they can choke from them! They're also quite bouncy. I dropped one earlier and it took me ages to find it, missed out on the 5 second rule. Then I dropped another (not on purpose) and caught it just in time. Alhamdulillah :). Also, the word 'raisin' in French means grape. Odd, ay? (Well, I think it does... maybe a member of my French fanbase can clarify that for me). I like grapes, too. It's a shame that they're so expensive. I think the Arabic word for grapes is hur. I'm basing that on that whole thing about how some feminists and orientalists re-interpret the verses in the Qur'an about wide-eyed maidens in Jannah (I don't wanna debate about that, it's written in the book of Allah 'azza wa jal, end of) actually talking about white grapes (fools). I might be wrong there though, maybe by Arab readers can verify that one for me. How are my German readers doing? I don't want you guys to feel left out. Here's a little homework for you, how do you say grapes and raisins in Deustch? 3 years of studying the language and I never learnt two of the most important words. Shameful, I know. In fact, my Chinese readers have that same piece of homework. You have 'til Friday.

It's a great feeling being so widely followed (and self-deluded)...

UPDATE:

Oh my God. Oh. My. God. I just had one of those life-changing moments. This is up there with when I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X and my whole life changed. When I first started school. When I took my first step. This is just... out of this world.

So here I am, sitting in my office, and I get a call from one of my avid followers (no idea HOW she got my personal number. She said she works for a security consultancy, that's probably how..) and she told me about how she just read this post. And oh my God. Are you read for it? Are you ready? 'Cos I wasn't..

OK

Here goes..

Raisins ARE grapes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH MY GOD!

I know right!! Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.

Alhamdulillah. I mean, raisins are dried grapes??? Who would have thought it? SubhanAllah, even when that scrumptious grape dries up, it still tastes so good! SubhanAllaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Mann, I still can't register it. Wow....

Although, I guess it does kinda explain the picture on the box. I thought those those raisins looked more like grapes... (it explains why they were green too!).

A Beautiful Du'a

I remember listening to a lecture quite a while back, I think it was by Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki (before all the unwarranted controversies- I hope my blog doesn't get blacklisted for mentioning his name...), where he mentioned a du'a that Sayyiduna 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (radiAllahu ta'aala 'anhu) used to make. After some research, I managed to dig it up. From what I gather, the du'a actually comes from a hadith of Rasoolullah (sall-Allahu `alayhi wa sallaam) recorded in Muslim. My thanks to all those on the particular thread on an AlMaghrib forum where I lifted it from...

روى مسلم في صحيحه عن زيد بن أرقم أن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم كان يقول
(اللهم إني أعوذ بك من علم لا ينفع ومن قلب لا يخشع ومن نفس لا تشبع ومن دعوة لا يستجاب لها

Allahumma innee 'audhoobika min 'ilmi-llaa yanfa', wa min qalbi-llaa yakhsha', wa min nafsi-llaa tashba', wa min da'wati-llaa yustajaabu lahaa. (Muslim)

O Allah! I seek refuge in you from a knowledge which does not benefit, and from a heart which does not tremble, and from a nafs (ego) which is not content (sated), and from a supplication which is not accepted.

SubhanAllah, I really love this du'a. InshaAllah the next time you make du'a, and if you remember to include this one, don't forget to give me a shoutout right after :). It's only fair...

An Apology

I have a feeling I'm gonna end up writing quite a few posts like this. Maybe I should make a label for it, so you can find them all on the side. OK well, once again, I apologise. It's been a week since my last blog post, and I myself hate it when bloggers don't post at least every couple of days, so I know exactly what you're feeling! Really, I do. My excuses won't be good enough, but what it comes down to is basically a combination of me being really busy AND being reeeeally lazy. I've had a busy week, I actually do work at work now (who would have thought...), and my evenings these days are pretty occupied. Until 'ishaa time over here in London gets a bit earlier (not including Ramadan and those 10.30 taraweehs...), I imagine my evening will be quite busy for a while yet. Also, last weekend we had a whole bunch of people come to our house, so Saturday was full of cleaning (while my sister was off gallivanting in an aquarium, my life is so hard...) and Sunday was full of entertaining... and then more cleaning. Also, my mum seems to have caught some sort of Cleaning Bug and is saying how next weekend I have to stay home and clean the attic... (let's just make du'a that she doesn't make me mow the back garden). So you see, I do have a couple of valid excuses, but I know it's not good enough. I had time here and there where I could have fit in a post, and I chose to be lazy instead. I'm getting there though, I mean, my last absence lasted about a month.. so if you do the calculations (I can't be bothered but here's a guess) it looks like I'll be writing hourly before the end of the year!

Yeah, right...

Working 9-5 (well, 8.30-6, but you can't make a song out of that.. ...no music of course)

Words cannot describe how bored I actually am. Oh my God. No one, in the history of mankind, has ever been as bored as I am right now. Oh. My. God. The most boring day of my life ever. In fact, the most boring day of ANYBODY'S life ever. Alhamdulillah.

I sit here at work, as I have done for the past 7 hours or so (in which time I could have flown to India... that's how I gain a relative grasp of long hours, by comparing them to flight journeys. I find that it makes for better complaining...), and all that I'm honestly achieving (and I've thought deep and hard about this) is WASTING MY LIFE. Ahhhh, I mean, OK. I'm getting paid. Alhamdulillah. It'll look good on my CV. Alhamdulillah. But all of that will only matter if I make it out of this place and don't DIE OF BOREDOM.

OK OK, maybe I'm slightly over exaggerating. But only slightly. A really small slightly. I just spend the whole day, sitting in this little depressing cubicle, and doing nothing. I mean, sometimes to spice things up I'll throw in a little bit of work in between all the nothing, but it never lasts too long. I get work, I do the work, then there's no work. And I sit. Eat raisins. Spend hours sneaking around online with a little tiny browser on my screen so no one can see. And try and not go to the bathroom. That's my average day. That's how it's been for 2 weeks, and that's how it'll be for another 7... eurgh.

My office has pretty much cleared up now, no longer need to worry about sneaking online. But I think I'll go pray now. Alhamdulillah for masah on khuffain.

P.S. It's lonely being the only beard in the office...

Driving Test

InshaAllah this weekend I intend to write a longer post about my trip to Marrakech, and I'll try and upload a couple of pictures too. I had an amazing time, and should have plenty to ramble about. It all depends though on whether I pass my driving test on Friday and what mood that puts me in. So please make the following du'a for me:

"Ya Allah, please allow me to get bored this weekend from reading ramblings about Marrakech on that at-taalib blog website because the writer felt motivated to write a long-winded post because he was still on a high from passing his driving test"

Whaa? I remember reading somewhere (I need to start making a note of where) that the more specific you make your du'a the more chance of acceptance :P.

InshaAllah I'm starting to feel a bit more confident about my test. I would have felt better taking the test a month ago when I had been taking lessons more regularly, rather than now when I have only had 5 hours worth of lessons in the past month due to my 2 excursions into foreign lands (2 of those were hours were only in the past 2 days). But inshaAllah, if it's written then that of course won't matter. I just want to get it out of the way really, it's become a time-consuming hindrance weighing down on my shoulders. And it costs my mum waay too much. Oh and if I pass, it'll mean I've passed my first time and so I'd have done one better than my dad and [insert large number that I can't count to] better than my sister. InshaAllah :).

Back to du'a. On a more beneficial note, on the authority of my University iSoc's du'a sheet that they give out at exam time, I can relate that "when making du'a for yourself, also make du'a for your friends by name, for every time that you make du'a for another - an angel will say Ameen for you too".

SubhanAllah.

(Notice how I said "on the authority of" and "relate that". See what I did there? See how I made a joke there by structuring the sentence in such a way that should be familiar to Muslims. Funny, right? :D).