Islamic Information Blog Issue 10

Assalamu Alaikum brothers and sisters

I hope you are all well and that your families are well too.

Time and time again I will say this and I really do respect the sisters of Islam, why? Because theses sisters are at the front line and covering up for the sake of Allah, and the amount of abuse, name calling they may get, they still cover up their beauty, MashAllah! May Allah reward you all. Don't get me wrong I respect the brothers as well, but if you look at us brothers we could easily take off our thobe, wear normal clothes, change our names from Ali to Alex and no one would ever know we were a Muslim, whereas we look at our sisters and they continue to cover their beauty, no matter what happens! I remember reading a story about a Muslim girl who wasn't wearing hijab before, but the day after 9/11 she was scared that people would attack her cause she was a Muslim, she went to the underground to catch a train and she saw fellow sisters, wearing hijab, niqab, enjoying their day, like nothing happened yesterday, they were STILL covered up and practicing their religion, that image brought tears to the girl's eyes and she went home, and started wearing hijab. SubhanAllah. When I read that story it got to me a lot because theses sisters have a lot of guts, you might say its not guts or confidents or anything like that, it is! of course they are just praciticing Islam but in this world, it isn't getting better, and nowadays the generations that are growing up are getting more violence so it can be easy for a sister to uncover nowadays because of the threats and abuse they may get, but MashAllah its so wonderful to see the sisters fearing Allah more than the people that is on this planet. Brothers we should be more fearing of Allah as well, its nice to have emaan, but we still need to do many other things like support our sisters, wives and daughters, everyone whether married or not should lower their gaze for it is easy to sin, we look to our left and we look to our right and we can sin.

"Tell the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for them; And Allah is well acquainted with all that they do. And tell the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty…"
[Surah an-Nur [24:30-31]].

Allah tells us:
"O you who believe! Do not follow Satan's footsteps: if any will follow the footsteps of Satan, he will command what is shameful and wrong..."
[Surah an-Nur [24:21]].

On the authority of Jurayr who said, "I asked the Messenger of Allah about accidentally looking at something that is not allowed and he said, 'Turn your eyes away.'"
(Muslim).

Every single one of us want to go to paradise, there are many things we should follow in this beautiful religion to get there, but sadly many of us do not follow what is needed to be followed, again and again I will point out that calling yourself a Muslim isn't going to get you there,
brothers and sisters there is a reason to why Allah sent the Quran down for us, Allah didn't have to, but He is Al Rahman (The Merciful) He is Al Shakur (The Most Grateful) and most of all He is Al Khaliq (The Creator) and The Creator wanted us to follow Islam because it is the ONLY perfect way of life, the Quran has no mistakes, it has never been changed since revealed. Allah is Al Muhaimin (The Protector) and He will always protect the Quran.

The beautiful thing about Islam is that if every Quran was destroyed, you could find brothers and sisters all around the world who would be able to create the Arabic Quran again (Arabic is the true version of the Quran whereas every other langauge is a translation for those who can't
speak Arabic), because there are brothers and sisters who have memorised the whole Quran. The Quran can teach you many things about how to live life, how to be a good Muslim, what we should be doing (i.e worship Allah) The Quran can give you so much information about this religion has well as the teachings of the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) give yourself time to read the quran and hadiths, do something that will increase your emaan because time is short, look how fast time has been since you were born to now,

"It is He who created you from dust, then from a sperm-drop, then from a clinging clot; then He brings you out as a child; then [He develops you] that you reach your [time of] maturity, then [further] that you become elders. And among you is he who is taken in death before [that], so that you reach a specified term (The time decreed for your death)."
[Surah Ghafir [40:67]]

"He it is who gives life and causes death; and when He decrees a matter, He but says to it "Be" and it is" [Surah Ghafir [40:68]]

Abu Hurairah (ra) reported that he heard the Prophet Peace be upon him asking: "Let someone imagine he had a river flowing in front of his house where he washes himself five times a day,
would this leave any dirt on him?" He companions replied: "Nothing of his dirt will remain"
The prophet Peace be upon him then said: "This is exactly like the five daily prayers by which Allah wipes out one's sins"
[Taken from Sahih Bukhari]

My point for this Hadith is simple, look at what it has been saying, and why its an easy way for Allah to forgive your sins! praying all 5 daily prayers on time could mean that Allah may forgive your sins, it is that easy! That is why we worship Allah, for the reward and forgiveness of our Lord, and inshallah we do what is asked from Allah, what reason is there for us not to go to paradise? (Allah knows best)

Writing to your ummah that are held in prison

There are so many that are now in prison for wrong reasons, many have read the story about brother Babar Ahmed, but there are so many others that are in prison for stupid reasons for example this brother

The masjid I usually go to, the Imam was reading this to us and he started to cry, its showed us that he cares about theses brothers and sisters that are treated badly, it was very emotional especially to the reason why this brother was arrested...for playing paintball.

Brother Hammad Abdur-Raheem was born in Washington, USA and arrested in Virginia and sentenced for 9 years from 2001.

Hammad came from a loving middle-class family. After high school he joined the US Army participating in the first Gulf War. While stationed in Arizona he accepted Islam. Returning to the DC area, where there is a large Muslim population, Hammad re-educated himself to become an engineer for a major US telecoms company. Along with a group of Muslims, he would go paintballing on weekends in order to have 'fun' and stay in good physical condition. Because of the 'fun' activity they all fell victim to a federal 'witch-hunt' that claimed that they were training for jihad and supporting Laskar al-Taiba in Kashmir. Hammad, who was a leader in paintball training, had never travelled to Pakistan or Kashmir. When he was indicted he asked 'what is Laskar al-Talba!' He had never heard of the group he was puportedly supporting. Hammad stood strong during the ordeal and never pleaded gulity despite the undeus pressure applied to him by the US government. Hammad was sentenced to 9 years and will not be released until 2010. Hammad spends his time praying, reading, playing basketball and working in the prison library.

You have just read, it doesnt matter if you are a born Muslim or even a revert, this can happen to us, there are so many more stories like this from Cage Prisoners at www.cageprisoners.com
please find the time to look and inshallah look for more information on how to help.

Until the next issue inshallah, place your trust in Allah and always make Dua for your brothers and sisters

Your Brother in Islam

WaSalaam