The Prophet sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam once came upon his companion named Thawban (radi Allahu anhu) and noticed that he looked sad so he said to him, “O Thawban, what has changed your appearance?” Thawban replied, “O Messenger of Allah, I do not have any sickness or any pain except that I feel discomfort when I do not see you, so I seclude myself completely until I meet you. Then I remembered the hereafter and and was afraid that I would not see you there. I know that you will be with the Prophets, and if I enter Jannah, I will be in a level lower than yours. But if I do not enter Jannah, then I will never see you again.”
“And whoever obey Allah and the Messenger, then they will be in the company of those on whom Allah has bestowed His Grace, of the Prophets, the truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous. And how excellent these companions are!” (4:69)
-Narrated by Ibn ‘Asaakir, Authenticated by Shaykh Albani.
“They were under two of our righteous servants.” (66:12)
Some scholars of tafseer state that the passive form is used to show that although these two women were honored in the Dunya with being the wives of Prophets, in the aakhirah this not will not save them from the punishment of the Fire. They will not be given any special treatment in the aakhirah because of the status they held in the Dunya. Their righteous husbands will not be able to save them because they disobeyed Allah. Their status will not avail them in the least, because in the hereafter, we are only judged by our deeds. So it will be said to them both, enter the Fire, just like it will be said to every other dweller of the Fire.
Imam Qurtubi says,
The Most High sets this parable as a clarification and warning that no one will benefit from family or lineage when they are separated by the Deen. Lut and Nuh cannot protect their wives, even with the honor that Allah bestowed upon them (Prophethood and Islam), they will not be saved from the punishment of Allah.
Tafseer Qurtubi 201/18
In our society today we see how the status and family of a person can protect them for receiving retribution for the crimes they commit. The people are deluded by their fame and fortune, so they are not brought to account, they are preferred over regular people and given things that most do not have. In this life, they may be able to get away with their wrongdoings because money can buy a way out, but in the aakhirah - where the currency is good deeds - their wealth and family will not help them in any way and they will not be preferred over anyone else because of their status. This is a lesson and reminder for us all: in the hereafter we will only be judged according to our deeds, so look to your deeds and see what you have prepared.
We ask Allah to save us from the punishment and humiliation of the Fire.
His Hands are stretched and the angel waits …for you to repent! Turn back to At-Tawwaab: the One who consistently accepts repentance AND doesn’t tire of accepting it AND accepts repentence each time His slave repents.
Abu Musa Al-Ash`ari (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam said: “Allah, the Exalted, will continue to stretch out His Hand in the night so that the sinners of the day may repent, and continue to stretch His Hand in the daytime so that the sinners of the night may repent, until the sun rises from the west”. [Muslim]
Abu Umamah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam said, “The angel of the left raises [and holds] his pen for six hours from the Muslim servant of Allah who has wronged or committed a mistake. So if he regrets and seeks Allah’s forgiveness from it he returns it back, and if that is not the case then it is written as one.” [Mu'jam al Kabeer, Hasan according to Albani]
The following is a message from brother Ahmed ibn Ambroise; a Muslim based in Haiti. JazakAllah khair to brother Tariq, President of SOAS Islamic Society, for sharing it with us.
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Ya Ikhwani! We are in need of your assistance. Our country has been hit by an act of nature that has left our people with countless deaths, homeless, without water, food, blood and medication.
All of our hospitals have crumbled, we have piles of people in the streets dead. Some people have had to have their limbs removed without aesthetics. Makeshift hospitals are being made with tents but there are not enough doctors or medication for the amount of injured.
The smell of dead bodies has risen in the entire city, the people have become desperate of the situation.
I received this in an email and since I benefited from it, I wanted to share it with others:
Advice from Shaykh Hasan Abdul-Wahhab Al Banna
As I entered the masjid for our class with our Shaykh Hasan Abdul-Wahhaab Marzouq Al-Banaa, may Allah preserve him, I saw him praying. After I offered my prayer of greeting the masjid, I greeted the Shaykh, and kissed his head. We talked about how each of us spent our Eid and the conditions of our families. After this the Shaykh began to drink his tea, which was prepared for him. I asked the Shaykh, how does one become a strong student, treading the path of seeking knowledge?
In the beginning of surah Yaseen, Allah ta’ala says:
تَنْزِيلَ الْعَزِيزِ الرَّحِيمِ
(This Qur’an) is a revelation from the All-Mighty, the Especially Merciful. (36:5)
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala begins this surah with an oath on the Qur’an that is Hakeem, and then declaring the Prophethood and guidance of the Prophet Muhammad sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam.
Allah ta’ala describes this Book as Tanzeel, a revelation. Tanzeel is not just one that is sent down, but tanzeel is gradual revelation that is sent down according to its need.
A short translation [edited for readability] from Sharh Riyaad as-Saliheen by Shaykh ibn Uthaymeen rahimahullah:
Abu Hurayrah may Allah be pleased with him reported that the Prophet sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam said,“Allah makes the way to Jannah easy for him who treads the path in search of knowledge.” [Saheeh Muslim]
The first meaning of path is a path that one walks on, such as when people leave their home to any location to gain knowledge. The specific destination does not restrict the meaning. Thus, the meaning includes a person traveling to a masjid, school, university, or any other location where knowledge is being dispensed. This meaning also includes a student of knowledge traveling from his city to another city to seek knowledge as the first meaning includes anyone literally ‘treading’ a path (stepping the steps on a path) towards knowledge.
In the West, we do not have many options to learn directly from scholars and students of knowledge for long periods of time but alhamdulillah Shaykh Jamaal has been teaching classes online (live video + audio) and onsite in California for more than a year. He teaches various classes on the Qur’an, hadith, fiqh and Arabic.
Winter semester for his courses will start January 10th until March 17th 2010 inshaAllah and registration at the website www.jamaalzarabozo.com is available now.
Two new courses are being offered this session. One is Beginning Sciences of Hadith. This will be similar to Beginning Usool al-Fiqh in that the topic will be covered at a general level with more intensive courses to follow in the future, Allah willing. A second new course is Contemporary Fiqh Topics: Abortion, Birth Control and Organ Transplants. Perhaps the title is self-explanatory. Organ transplants, though, will only be covered if “time permits.”
To see a full listing of courses, please visit: www.jamaalzarabozo.com.
Below is an edited transcription of his first class on “Principles of Tafsir”, before teaching students these principles, shaykh Jamaal discussed how we should approach the Book of Allah. A book of this same title is also available by him.
Principles of Tafseer
First Principle: How to Approach the Qur’an
The principles that we will be talking about are not the kind of things that are commonly mentioned in the classical books of Tafsir. The main goal here is to understand the meaning of the Quraan—and in doing so one will find that these principles will be of extreme importance.
May Allah ta’ala have mercy upon our scholars and teachers, Ameen.
Many of us ask around about who we should listen to and gain knowledge from. For those of us who don’t know Arabic, we do not have the link to the scholars because all of their material is in Arabic, unless otherwise translated.
However, there is one shaykh–one of two that I could think of–that studied from these great scholars AND he has a massive collection of resources in the English Language.
