I decided to switch off to blogger.  http://50pricelesspearls.blogspot.com/

Islamic Mini-Course by Shaikh Muhammad Abdulrahman

Iman: Part 2

The Pillars of Iman are 6: 1^ST Pillar 

            أن تؤمن بالله،  Belief in Allah.The conditions for belief in Allah are:

• Belief in the existence of Allah. And this is proven by :

The  fitrah. Allah created us with the natural disposition of belief in Him as their creator

- We use our intellect to know that Allah exists. We see his creations and understand his greatness

- We know that Allah exists through his revelation. All of the revealed books state the existence of Allah.

And finally we know Allah exists through experience. For example, we hear those who are distressed supplicate to Allah and Allah answers their prayers.Allah (swt) says in the qur’an: إِذْ تَسْتَغِيثُونَ رَبَّكُمْ فَاسْتَجَابَ لَكُمْ  (Anfal (8):9)“When you sought aid and deliverance from your Lord and He responded to you.” 

• Belief in Allah’s  Lordship that he alone is The Lord and has now share in Lordship. (Tawheed al Rububiyah)

• Belief in Allah’s sole right to be worshiped (Tawheed al Uloohiyah)

• And to belive in all the names and attributes of Allah. We only know 99 of Allah’s names and attributes, and these area the ones that are told to use through the Qur’an and the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (saw). BUT there are more.

2^nd Pillar:            وملائكته  Belief in the Angles 

The conditions for belief in the Angles are the following: 

• To belive that they are created by Allah

• To belive in their existence.(some say that they are just souls,  and don’t have a true form therefore they do not exist)

• To belive specifically in those who are known such as Jibreel. We don’t know their numbers,  but we know that they are very, very, VERY vast in number. More than we can even understand! This following kinda says it  all.

From Anas radiyallahu ‘anhu, concerning the night-journy and ascension (mi’raaj) of the Prophet (saw), that the “Much Frequented House” (al Batytul-Ma’moor) was shown to the Prophet (saw), and that seventy thousand angles pray in it everyday, and then when they leave, they never return to it, but another group arrives everyday (Collected by Al-Bukhaaree) 

• To belive of whatever has been described to us of their attribute. Ex: Prophet Muhammad (Saw) told us that he saw Gabriel with 600 wings and it was filling the horizon. But Allah also gave him the ability to change into the form of a man by his will.

• To belive in the duties that we know of which they carry out by the command of Allah the most high. EX: we know that the angle that is guardian of hell fire is Malik

Allah (swt) says in the qur’an:وَنَادَوْا يَا مَالِكُ لِيَقْضِ عَلَيْنَا رَبُّكَ43:77    They will cry: “O Malik! would that thy Lord put an end to us!” He will say, “Nay, but ye shall abide!”

This a surprising true story I heard from a friend

She was ridding a private bus home from the university in Saudi.  Her stop was the last stop so she patiently waited to be dropped off. She watched as all her classmates were dropped off at their homes. Before she knew it, she was the  only one left on the bus besides the bus driver. She saw the familiar stop she would always be dropped off at, but the bus driver just drove past her stop. Fear crept into her heart, not knowing what would unfold. Keep in mind that in Saudi, if any shameful acts were to occur between two genders, the girl is usually the one to blame. She began reciting Qur’an as the bus driver drove out of the city and into the desert. All of a sudden, a car stops in front of the bus and she finds people stepping out of the car. To her surprise, these people turned out to be her father and brother. These two men approach the bus, and the bus driver lets her out. She follows them back to the car and they drive her home without conveying a word to her. When she arrives home, she discoverers that her father and brother were actually in a deep sleep. Upon seeing this, she was left in surprise and wonder as to how this can occur. Thus, she decided to contact a Shaykh and tell him about the incident. The Shaykh asked her what she was doing the moment the bus stopped. She told him she was reciting the Qur’an. The Shaykh told her that those two men were in fact angles Allah sent to help her. He told her that it was Allah (swt) who sent them in the form of her father and brother so she would go with them and arrive home safely.

Subhanallah, if you put your trust in Allah, He will help you in ways you can never imagine.

Allah mentions in the Qur’an:       أَلَيۡسَ ٱللَّهُ بِكَافٍ عَبۡدَهُ 

Is not Allah enough for His servant? 

And not only that, Allah has a special reward for those who put their trust in him!

Narrated Ibn ‘Abbas: The Prophet said, “The people were displayed in front of me and I saw one prophet passing by with a large group of his followers, and another prophet passing by with only a small group of people, and another prophet passing by with only ten (persons), and another prophet passing by with only five (persons), and another prophet passed by alone. And then I looked and saw a large multitude of people, so I asked Gabriel, “Are these people my followers?’ He said, ‘No, but look towards the horizon.’ I looked and saw a very large multitude of people. Gabriel said. ‘Those are your followers, and those are Seventy thousand (persons) in front of them who will neither have any reckoning of their accounts nor will receive any punishment.’ I asked, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘For they used not to treat themselves with branding (cauterization) nor with Ruqya (get oneself treated by the recitation of some Verses of the Qur’an) and not to see evil omen in things, and they used to put their trust (only) in their Lord.” On hearing that, ‘Ukasha bin Mihsan got up and said (to the Prophet), “Invoke Allah to make me one of them.” The Prophet said, “O Allah, make him one of them.” Then another man got up and said (to the Prophet), “Invoke Allah to make me one of them.” The Prophet said, ‘Ukasha has preceded you.”

In another narration, Ukasha asked the Prophet, “Am I one of them, O Allah’s Apostle?’ The Prophet said, “Yes.”

Help from Allah, and entering to Jannah without reckoning. What more can you ask for?

Three Fundamental Principles

Islamic Mini-Course by Shaikh Muhammad Abdulrahman

Iman: Part 1

Just for this portion of the notes, I used the color GREEN to indicate the definitions of Iman.

The 2nd level of our deen is: Iman

The meaning (or conditions)of Iman (according to Ahlu sunnah wal Jama’aah) is:

1. Faith in the heart
2. speech of the tongue
3. action of the limbs

This also means that Shirk and kufur would also have the same meaning (just implemented differently).

ex #1: If a person begins to have doubts -faith of the heart- (as in denying certain aspects of Islam, and it becomes engraved their mind), then he is a kaffir. Even if they say the shahada (speech of the tongue) and pray (action of the limbs).

ex #2: If a person believes in Islam (faith of the heart), and prays (action of the limbs) but curses Allah and his messenger, then he is  kaffir.

ex #3: If a person believes in Islam (faith of the heart), and says the shahadah (speech of the tongue), but prays to an idol (action of the limbs), then this is shirk.

So, you can basically say the three definitions given for Iman above are connected.  If one is screwed up, you Iman is in danger. NOTE: NOT DOING EVEN ONE OF THESE THREE DEFINITIONS OF FAITH COULD TAKE YOU OUT OF ISLAM

last example: If a person denounces Islam from his heart – faith in the heart- (while knowing that its the truth), but says the shahadah (speech of the tongue), and prays (action of the limbs), then he is a Munafiq (a hypocrite).

Note the difference: this last person KNOWS in his heart that Islam is the truth, yet he chooses to denounce it, yet fulfills the other two definitions of Iman.  This is difference from the person mentioned in example #1 because the person in example #1 denies a certain part of Islam.

I hope this made sense for everyone inshallah.

Alhamdulilah, i just got a blog (as you can tell ), and i just want to thank all the other great people out there who inspired me thorugh their writing to improve my charachter. Inshallah i plan to post regularly…hopefully.