Salah

Just a short reminder in regards to prayer (salah), how important it is, and how at times, we neglect it or become weak within it.

(The above picture is an example of devotion to keep to the commandments of Allah, and to perform Salat at the correct times to please Allah (swt)).

"Be ever mindful of prayers, and of praying in the most excellent way; and stand before God in devout obedience." [Qur'an 2:238]

"And be steadfast in prayer and regular in charity: And whatever good you send forth for your souls before you, you shall find it with Allah. for Allah sees Well all that you do." (Quran: 2:110)

On the authority of Abu Malik al-Harith bin 'Asim al-Ash'ari, radiyallahu 'anhu, who said: The Messenger of Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam, said:

"Purification is half of iman (faith). Saying 'Al-Hamdulillah' (Praise be to Allah) fills the scales.

Saying 'Subhanallah wa al-Hamdulillahi' (Exhalted be Allah and Praise be to Allah) fills the space between the heavens and the earth. Salah (prayer) is a light. Sadaqah (charity) is a proof.

Sabr (patience) is a shining glory.

The Qur'an is an argument either for you or against you. Everybody goes out in the morning and sell themselves, thereby setting themselves free or destroying themselves." (Sahih Muslim)

Narrated Abu Huraira: I heard Allah's Apostle saying, "If there was a river at the door of anyone of you and he took a bath in it five times a day would you notice any dirt on him?" They said, "Not a trace of dirt would be left." The Prophet added, "That is the example of the five prayers with which Allah wipes away (annuls) evil deeds." (Sahih Al Bukhari)

`Uthman ibn `Afan (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "If the time for a prescribed Salah comes, and a Muslim performs Wudu' properly (and then offers his Salah) with humility and bowing (to Allah), it will be an expiation for his past sins, so long as he has not committed a major sin; and this is applicable to all times." (Reported by Muslim)

Salat is a pillar of the religion (Islam). He who establishes it, establishes religion; and he who destroys it, destroys religion." [Tabrani]

CEI Monthly Saturday Outreach Programme

CEI Monthly Saturday Outreach Programme organised by the Crawley Educational Institute (CEI) at Friends House, Euston. Visit www.ceiuk.com for further details.

The first of these monthly sessions was held at the Education - Lecture theatre at Friends House on 7th Feb 2009. The Session lasted for 2hours and must have had over 600 people. Well given that these are gratuity events, the numbers were very high.

Feb Lectures:
-Glad Tidings of A Prophet - Shaykh Ibrahim Osi-Efa (Liverpool)
-The Covenant of the Prophets -Habib Ali al-Jifri (Tarim, Yemen)

CEI and myself was blessed to have Habib Ali al-Jifri, a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad (on Him be Blessings and Peace), to open this monthly Seerah Course, which will be taught by Shaykh Ibrahim Osi-Efa and various guest lecturers over the coming year.As much as it may at first be difficult to understand Shaykh Irahim Osi-Efa, you cannot say he is not emotionless!

March Lectures:
This is the 2nd lecture of the Seerah Course, which will be taught by Shaykh Ibrahim Osi-Efa and various guest lecturers over the coming year.

-The Early Years: The Nurturers -Shaykh Ibrahim Osi-Efa (Liverpool)
-The Preparation of a Prophet: Lessons for a Prophetic Community - Shaykh Jihad Brown (USA)

CEI was blessed to host Shaykh Jihad Hashim Brown for the monthly Seerah Course at Friends House. Shaykh Jihad is the deputy director of the Tabah Foundation (link below) which was founded by Habib Ali al-Jifri.

http://www.tabahfoundation.com/Together, they have successfully brought together a council of eminent scholars including Abdullah bin Bayyah, Ramadan al-Bouti and Habib Umar bin Hafidh to tackle international and global Muslim issues whilst reconnecting such 'Ulama with the Muslim community.

Shaykh Jihad, having studied and taught Islam in Damascus and Tarim, will bring much knowledge and blessing to this Seerah Course, insha'Allah.

The idea is that regular attendees (Insha’Allah I am one of these) will be able to complete a biographical study on the life of the Prophet Muhammad (on Him be Blessings and Peace) by way of two lectures, each lasting approximately 50 minutes. Light refreshments and an opportunity for informal questions and discussion will follow the lectures.

The beautiful thing about the course, is that the idea is to provide access to knowledge to a wider audience but also for a humanitarian cause to provide free hot food for homeless people too during the night, so it is important that those who are in need are invited to this event and donations are therefore most welcomed.

http://www.ceiuk.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15%3Acei-monthly-saturday-outreach-programme&catid=1%3Acurrentclasses&Itemid=4

Fiqh of Janazah & Spiritual Preparation

The Inevitable Event - The Fiqh of Janazah

This course was not for the faint hearted and not something that you would say was top priority learning on a Saturday Morning!

The course was organised by Utrujj and taught by Shaykh Hatham Tamim at SOAS. I was looking forward to the course as the topic of death has to be in our minds as much as life as we know it. The course was exceptional, however on such a topic one day was far to less to go through all the content, practical demo' and Q&As. It is a start and one must read on and understand InshaAllah.

I have not witnessed death in family or have close Friends passing away. Those that have passed away have been extensions to my families or friends parents that have passed away or I have have known for a short time. Seeing my parents from being active and healthy to being dependant on us especially in recent years has made me think about death much more, thus me attending the course. May Allah swt provide me the Ilm to understand and learn from this course. Ameen.

Contents

The course covered the following topics:

• What to do and say when someone is at the point of approaching death
• The Sunnah of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) regarding attitude towards death
• The importance of remembering death and preparing for it
• How to wash the body correctly (with practical demonstration)
• How to pray Janazah (funeral prayer)
• The rulings and etiquette's of burial
• Where to bury deceased Muslims
• The etiquette's of grieving
• The etiquette's of visiting the graves
• Common misconceptions surrounding the above topics

Each and every one of us will one day meet with our death.

There was much things on the course which due to the time cannot be expanded on right here. Some of my own Questions such as how long is it permissible to delay the funeral? does the maut (deceased) feel and hear when they die? What should one read pre-death? How should one prepare the mawt body for the burial? And who is permitted by Shariah to do this? What are the etiquette's of grieving and visiting the graves?

The course covered all the Questions and more, with a practical demonstration too on how to wash the body and cloth it in preparation for the burial.

There are some differences between Madhabs on certain specific issues too. One should not concern themselves with the differences as the Imams that the Madhabs have such Ilm one should not be in a position to comment.

The Light Of Guidance

The Light of Guidance - Fundumental of Faith 101 this was the first Al-Maghrb Insttitue course that I have attended on the recommendation from a good Akhi I met at another Institure, Tayyibun. It was in a way just like being at Uni' with the first 101 course!

I was very impressed with the structure of the course, timing and content coverage was impeccable (who said the UK Muslim Ummah cannot organise things, dispels the idea that their is a MST (Muslim Standard Time) well for this course only).

It was a 4.5 days course, split over two weekends near Earls Court, and had Alhamdullilah 500+ students taking part. As always with such events, the sisters outnumbered the Brothers, so Akhis, where are you....we need to win this battle of the sexes!

The course started around 9.50am and finished around 7.00pm so all in all was a long day. I went on my own for the first weekend and met some really nice Brothers there, and this was a crowd that was different than other courses I had been on. They had a real good ethos and balance about them, from all kind of backgrounds and nationalities (Sri Lankan, Brunei, Malaysian, Somalian, Afghanistan, India and from all around the UK... and oh yes the French contingent too! (Can't forget them on stage with their rather weird accents.lol).

The Al-Maghrib UK group was known as Qabeelat Al-Shams (Yes the Sun, for a nation that does not get much sun - how ironic). The Ameer (leader) of the Qabeelat was great as were all the volunteers, it was really like a family gathering. MashAllah.

The seminar was a great opportunity to grasp a greater understanding and fall in to depths of the awareness and knowledge about the crucial beliefs that form the skeleton of Islam, and to tie our hearts to these truths.

The LoG on Aqeedah Seminar covered in summary the following:

• Definition of Tawheed
• Importance of Tawheed
• Categories of Tawheed (history; differences of opinion regarding categorization schemes)
• Tawheed in Allah's Lordship (Ruboobiyyah): reality and definition
• Quranic Proofs of Ruboobiyyah
• Western Proofs for the Existence of God (Ontological, Cosmological, Kalam, etc.)
• Critique of Western Proofs; comparison w/ Islamic Proofs
• Atheism (arguments; refutation)
• Ruboobiyyah by itself is incomplete (proofs)
• Allah's Right to Be Worshipped (Uloohiyyah)
• Definition of Worship
• Meaning of Ilah; meaning of Kalimah
• Manifestations of Worship (Du'a, Sajdah, Tawwakul, Sabr, etc...)
• Deviations in Worship (Talismans, Magic, Astrology, etc...)
• Other concepts (Tabarruk; Tawassul; Shafa'aah; etc...)
• Shirk: definition; history; dangers; categories; causes
• Evidences used by Muslims who seek to justify Shirk
• Kufr and Nifaq: definition; dangers; categories; relationship with Shirk
• Manifestations of Major Kufr

It was truly an eye opener especially the key issues for me, was "Sihr" ("Black Magic") that is not so prominenent especially in the sub continent culture and is important to the see the tell tell signs.

Few things I had taken note from the course was amongst many:

- If one wears a "Tabeez" (pocket chain round the necks with the so called Words of Allah written on in it, in order that it protect them from the Shaytan, it is better avoid having such things with you as this may be a sign of shirk without one knowing it, and also it may in fact do you more harm then good. There was incidents that the Shaykh had witnessed himself and showed in his Seminar too, where in opening the Tabeez, he found the names of the Shayateen written in them, and this broought a sigh of 500 odd people in the hall, which said it all.

-Breaking down Tawheed into 3 constituent parts: (1) "Ruboobiyyah" - The One Lord (2) "Ismu wa Sifa" (Names and Attributes of Allah) and (3) "Uloohiyyah" - the right to be worshipped. All three must be present to have Tawheed.

- To understand the principles of Tawheed is to understand and bring you closer to the Devine Lord and how Allah (swt) would want to be worshipped. This may help one to undertand the pitfalls of entering into "Shirk" (to associate another object with Allah).

-Intercession specific to the Prophet صل الله عليه و سلم:
Every single prophet was guaranteed one dua

• Nuh عليه السلام- used his for the flood.
• Musa عليه السلام- used his to seal the heart of Pharaoh
• Suleiman عليه السلام- Asked for a kingdom the likes of which nobody had, and would ever have.
• The Prophet صل الله عليه و سلم- Saved it for the Ummah for the Day of Judgement. This shows us the mercy of the prophet صل الله عليه و سلم.

Other information from the Al-Maghrib course guide:

Aqeedah is linguistically derived from the term 'aqadah' - a verb which means "to hold fast to" or "to establish". Our 'aqeedah is the pillar by which our deen stands firm, the fertile land from which all of our actions blossom, and it is the foundation from which all other Islamic sciences grow. '

According to our scholars, 'aqeedah is the firm creed and beliefs that one's heart is fixed upon without any wavering or doubt.

Are we certain about these beliefs to which our hearts should be tied? How well do we know the fundamental tenets of Islam, relating to our eman in Allah (swt), in the prophets, the books, the angels, the Last day and Qadr [fate]? Imam Abu Haneefah, rahimahullah, called his work on 'aqeedah "al-Fiqh al-Akbar" (The Greater Understanding), while he referred to shari'ah as simply, "the understanding of science".

"...Knowledge is the discerning proof of what is right and what is wrong, and it is the positive force that will help you surmount the trials of comfort, as well as those of hardships. Knowledge is your most powerful sword against your enemy, and finally, it is your most dignifying raiment in the company of your close companions." -- Mu'aadh ibn Jabal, radi' Allaahu 'anhu

This is one of many seminars on Fundamentals of Faith from Al-Maghrib Inst. with others and the series, 201, 301, 401, and Comparative Religion.

There were some memorable events:

-Shaykh (who is from Texas, USA), tells us a story of him going into a corner shop in the country to top up him mobile phone, as he asks the women on the counter, "...can I top up my Oxygen?"

-The 'Paper Bag" shirk blow up! - Where we had written Shirk and Kufr on each side of the paper bag and then in kind of perfect harmony we blow and burst. This was a good end to a long 4.5 days.

-Chinese Fortune Cookies - where each person had to eat the cookies and make sure that they do not peep into the fortune script, as a sign we can abstain from listening or reading predictions for the future from sources inc. horoscopes etc.

-French contingent with their 100 per cent perfection in their transmission of their answers in the group exercise with the analogy of the TV in the bath tub, synonymous to having a manual i.e. the Qur'an and Sunnah and not following it with disastrous consequences.

-The food was great - day one was kebabs, and then it got better, with biryani and chicken. There was coffee and tea throughout the day in the break out rooms just keep us awake in the afternoon, though the Ameer saw to that in any case if anyone was nodding off.

Plus you had Islam Channel recording the whole seminar, so watch this space, this seminar is coming on a TV near you (try to have a look out for me - doh!).