6 Factors

Total number of pages: 40

This is for myself first and THEN for any other

individual or a group or a nation.

Introduction to Islam

(Submission to God)

"The only religion approved by God is Islam (Submission)" 3:19

On first impression, many who read the above statement will immediately say: hold on, what about Judaism and Christianity? After all, these religions were also authorised by God!

However, if we discard all labels (Judaism, Christianity .... etc) and only look into:

- The meaning of the word Islam, which means Submission to God

- Remind ourselves that all the prophets of God submitted to God Almighty and called their people to submit to the One and only God

then we can understand why the only true religion as far as God is concerned is Submission to God. The Arabic word for Submission to God is Islam.

In this light, Islam is not the religion of the Quran alone, nor is the religion brought by the prophet Muhammad. It is written in the Quran that Islam (Submission to God), is as old as Abraham (22:78), and that all the practices of Islam were first given to Abraham and his sons long before Muhammad was born.

"He decreed for you the same religion decreed for Noah, and what we inspired to you, and what we decreed for Abraham, Moses, and Jesus:

"You shall uphold this one religion,and do not divide it." 42:13

This Quranic verse, alongside numerous other verses, confirm the truth that as far as God is concerned there has always been one religion. The one religion was decreed to Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. All the Scripture revealed to mankind from God advocate one and the same religion. Submission to God alone is also described as Monotheism (Hanifeyah) …. see 3:67, 6:79, 10:105, 98:5.

The principal command from God in all Scripture is to worship God alone devoting all the religion to Him and rejecting all other gods/idols:

Old Testament:

"You shall have no other gods besides Me" (Exodus 20:3)

New Testament: "You shall worship the Lord your God. and Him only you shall serve" (Luke 4:8)

The Quran:

"You shall know that: "There is no other god beside God" 47:19

Submission to God is the religion whereby we recognize God's absolute authority, and reach an unshakeable conviction that God alone possesses all power; no other entity possesses any power that is independent of Him. The natural result of such a realization is to devote our lives and our worship absolutely

to God alone. As shown this is the message of all Scripture.

The above Quranic verse (42:13) confirms that the religion that was revealed to Muhammad through the Quran is not different from what was given to the previous prophets. Within the religion of Islam God decreed specific rituals and practices designed to teach man to worship his Lord. These acts (Prayer, pilgrimage .... etc.) were first taught to Abraham.

This truth is given light in numerous verses such as:

"We made them (Abraham and his sons) imams who guided in accordance with our commandments, and we taught them how to work righteousness, and how to observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) and the obligatory charity (Zakat)" 21:73

From the above, we can see that it is a mistaken belief among Muslims (and non Muslims alike) that Islam is basically the religion of the Quran and the religion of Muhammad.

Millions of Muslims today believe that it was Muhammad who taught them how to pray and conduct their other rituals. This belief is erroneous since it violates the truth of the Quran. In the Quran we read:

1- The practices of Islam were first given to Abraham and his sons (Prayer, pilgrimage, Zakat ... etc see 21:73, 22:26-29). This took place long before the time of Muhammad. 2- Across the ages, as normally happens, many

of these rituals were corrupted and the element of idolising human messengers and saints crept in. All the practices were thus restored to their pristine purity in the Quran. God also promised that the Quran will never be corrupted (15:9), thus all believers will always have access to the pure way of worshipping God.

3- Muhammad and all believers were commanded to follow the creed of Abraham, which is defined in all verses which have the words "Millat Ibrahim" (creed of Abraham), as Monotheism and refrain from associating partners with God (16:123). See Millat Ibrahim.

4- God also tells Muhammad (and all believers) in verse 5:48 that within each revelation there are specific laws and rites that are specific to the receivers of this particular revelation. Hence the command is issued in 5:48 that Muhammad should follow the rites given to him in the Quran and not the rites of previous people.

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Essentially, if there is only one religion decreed by God there must be One "truth". Do we conclude that there should be one revelation? The answer to this question is that "truth" and "revelation" are not absolutely equivalent terms. Because "truth" is an absolute term it is situated independent of form, whereas revelations are relative to time, people and place, and thus require a form. But to speak of form is to speak of diversity and thus plurality.

The need for different revelations at different times and for different people is justified by the following factors:

1- Mankind has gone through enormous development through the ages physically, mentally and spiritually, that there was always the need for various revelations at different times and for different peoples. Although the various revelations are united in message and truth, yet we find that God never addresses identical revelations to two different people. This being so, it can be said that the diverse revelation do not, and should not contradict one another, for although they differ in form, the religion decreed in all of them (Monotheism) is one.

2- If there appears any apparent contradictions between different revelations, they are in human receptacles and not in the divine message. This is a result of human inability to interpret such revelations and more importantly the failure to preserve the 'truth' contained in the revelation, which always tends to be impaired and altered with the passing of time.

Ultimately, the apparent contradiction is no more than one between corrupt scripts and interpretations of the original revelations, and not between the revelations themselves. Inevitably, and through corruption in the transfer and application of a Scripture, together with the social and cultural factors that always widen the gap between the factions, we are left with a multitude of corrupt religions. These sub-religions in many ways hardly bare any resemblance to one

another, or to the original religion decreed by God.

For that, there becomes a necessity for mankind to receive another revelation that puts them back on track with God's law that has been badly corrupted.

3- We find that up until the advent of the industrial revolution and the fast travel era, the world was still a wide expanse of disjointed lands and peoples. Many people would have not even heard of those Scripture that have already been revealed in various other parts of the world. This is why a new scripture would be revealed to new communities who have not received the Scripture.

However, after the revelation of the Quran, there became no need for any further revelations. Not because the message of the Quran is much different from the message of the Torah or the Gospel, but because of the following reasons:

a- A divine promise has been endorsed in the Quran that it will not be corrupted like previous Scripture. As a result, and if the message would remain intact in one Scripture, there becomes no need to reveal further Scripture.

b- With the advent of the modern fast travel means of today, the whole world became a closer knit unit. People do not have to travel to hear or receive information, it is brought right up to them through the various media channels that were not available a few centuries ago

Why we are here?

The reason we were brought into this world is given in the Quran. Although there is no one Sura (chapter) that details all the information regarding this subject in a chronological sequence, yet various Quranic verses give pieces of information. By putting all these pieces of information together we are provided with a complete picture of this subject.

The Quran confirms that we were all living in God's Kingdom before we were brought into this world. Although this is our first and only life on planet earth yet it is not our first existence. We were all living before the earth was even created. We were put to death and reborn into this life on earth:

"Most exalted is the One in whose hands is all kingship, and He is Omnipotent. The One who created death and life for the purpose of distinguishing those among you who would do better. He is the Almighty, the Forgiving" 67:1-2

Since nothing in the Quran is a coincidence, and since God is the Most precise in expressing and delivering any truth, we cannot overlook the order in which the words "The One who created death and life.....". The placing of the word "death" before the word "life" indicates that we were put to death before we were brought to this life on earth, hence we must have been alive before we came to this world.

Sometime, in this previous existence, a few billion years ago, a feud arose in the Heavenly Society:

"Say, "Here is awesome news. That you are totally oblivious to. I had no knowledge

previously, about the feud in the High Society." 38:67-69

One of the high-ranking creatures, Satan, entertained supercilious thoughts that his God-given powers qualified him to be a god besides God. He thus challenged God's absolute authority. Not only was Satan's idea blasphemous, it was wrong - only God, and no one else, possesses the qualifications and ability to be a god. Consequent to Satan's blasphemy, a division occurred in the Heavenly Society. There were those who agreed with Satan (that he is capable of being a god). There were also those who were not sure, and then there were those who were under no doubt that God alone has the qualifications to be a god.

As a result, God gathered all those who sided with Satan and also those who were not sure and offered them a second chance to repent and submit to His absolute authority:

"We have offered the responsibility (freedom of choice) to the heavens and the earth, and the mountains, but they refused to bear it, and were afraid of it. But the human being accepted it; he was transgressing, ignorant." 33:72

While the vast majority of the guilty creatures took advantage of this opportunity, a minuscule minority failed to take advantage of this offer and arrogantly preferred to take the responsibility of the test. According to 33:72, we (humans) are among them!

As a result, all God's creatures were classified into four categories:

1. Angels: Creatures who upheld God's absolute authority.

2. Animals: Creatures who rebelled but then accepted God's invitation to repent.

3. Jins: Creatures who agreed with Satan; that he is capable of being a "god."

4. Humans: Creatures who did not make up their minds; they failed to make a firm stand with God's absolute authority, they also rejected the second offer given to them.

The Most Merciful

The angels expected God to banish the creatures who did not uphold His absolute authority (2:30). But God is Most Merciful; He decided to give us a chance to denounce our mistake, and informed the angels that He knew what they did not know (2:30). God knew that some creatures deserved a chance to be redeemed.

If you claim the ability to fly a plane, the best way to test your claim is to give you a plane and ask you to fly it. This is precisely what God decided to do in response to Satan's claim. God created seven vast universes, then informed the angels that He was appointing Satan as a "khalifa" (supreme ruler) on the tiny mote called "Earth" (2:30).

God's plan called for creating death (67:1-2), then bringing the humans and jins into this

world for the soul purpose of rectifying their mistake and for worshipping God.

"I have not created the jins and the humans for any purpose except to worship Me alone." 51:56

Thus, all humans and Jin start over without any biases, and exercise full freedom to uphold God's absolute authority or Satan's polytheistic theory. To make this crucial decision, every human being receives a message from God advocating His absolute authority. This is given to the human in the form of the Scripture sent with guidance and way to salvation. Whoever accepts the guidance and submits to God will then be redeemed into God's Kingdom. Those who refuse it will end up in hell:

"We said, "Go down therefrom, all of you. When guidance comes to you from Me, those who follow My guidance will have no fear, nor will they grieve.

"As for those who disbelieve and reject our revelations, they will be dwellers of Hell, wherein they abide forever." 2:38-39

The human being will also receive a message from the devil pushing his polytheistic principles. To give us a headstart, the Most Merciful gathered all the human beings before Him, prior to sending us to this world, and we bore witness that He alone is our Lord and Master:

"Recall that your Lord summoned all the descendants of Adam, and had them bear witness for themselves: "Am I not your Lord?" They all said, "Yes. We bear witness." Thus, you cannot say on the Day of Resurrection, "We were not aware of this." 7:172

The reader is urged to ask himself/herself if they ever remember making such a witness directly to God? The fact that none of us remembers any such event confirms the fact

that we had a previous existence and that we are now oblivious of this existence. As a matter of fact the moment we are brought into this life on earth our memories are wiped clean of our previous existence.

The fact that we all made such a pledge to God is reflected in our natural instinct that is an integral part of every human being. Our instincts come to the fore when we are at the danger of a near death situation. At that time, which may be a split second, our survival instinct takes over and we plead with God to save us, at that time we know that He alone can save us.

After putting the rebels to death, the souls of humans and jins were placed in a special depository. God then created the appropriate bodies to house the souls of jinns and humans during the test period. The first jinn body was made from fire, and Satan was assigned to that body (15:27). The first human body was created from earthly material, clay (15:26), and God assigned the first human soul to that body. The divine plan called for the angels to serve the humans on earth - guard them, drive the wind and rain for them, distribute provisions, etc. This fact is stated in the Quran allegorically: "Your Lord said to the angels, `Fall prostrate before Adam."" Satan of course refused to have anything to do with serving the human race (2:34, 7:11, 17:61, 18:50, 20:116).

While Adam's body remained on earth, the real person, the soul, was admitted into Heaven in the outermost universe. God gave Adam certain commandments, represented by the forbidden tree, and Satan was appointed as Adam's

companion to deliver to Adam his satanic message. The rest is history.

Every time a human being is born, a human person is assigned to the new baby from the depository of souls. God assigns the souls in accordance with His knowledge (28:68). Every soul deserves to be assigned to a certain body, and live under certain circumstances. God alone knows which souls are good and which souls are evil. Our children are assigned to our homes in accordance with God"s plan.

An independent jinn soul is also assigned to the new human being to represent Satan"s point of view. While the physical body of any jinn is reproduced from the parent jinns, the jinn soul is that of an independent individual. Jinns are descendants of Satan (7:27, 18:50).

The assigned jinn remains with the human being from birth to death, and serves as the main witness on the Day of Judgment (50:23). A continuous debate takes place in our heads between the human soul and the jinn soul until both of them are convinced of one point of view.

The Original Sin

Contrary to common belief, the "Original Sin" was not Adam"s violation of God's law when he ate from the forbidden tree. The original sin was our failure to uphold God"s absolute authority during the Great Feud.

If the human person convinces his or her jinn companion to denounce that original sin, and uphold God's absolute authority, both creatures are redeemed to God's eternal kingdom on the Day of Judgment. But if the

jinn companion convinces the human being to uphold Satan's idolatrous views, then both creatures are exiled forever from God's kingdom.

To promote his point of view, Satan and his representatives advocate the idolization of such powerless creatures as Muhammad, Jesus, Mary, and the saints. Since we are here due to our polytheistic tendencies, most of us are easy prey for Satan.

Satan"s incompetence as a "god" has already been proven by the prevalence of chaos, disease, accidents, misery, and war throughout his dominion (36:66). On the other hand, the human beings who denounce Satan, uphold God"s absolute authority, and refrain from idolizing powerless and dead creatures like Jesus and Muhammad, are restored to God's protection - they enjoy a perfect life here in this world and forever.

Because our life in this world is a series of tests designed to expose our polytheistic ideas, idol worship is the only unforgivable offense (4:48, 116). The world is divinely designed to manifest our decision to uphold either God's absolute authority, or Satan's idolatrous views (67:1-2). The day and the night change constantly to test our willingness to uphold God's laws by observing the Dawn Prayer and fasting during the hottest and longest days. Only those who are totally certain about God"s absolute authority are redeemed (26:89).

Dear readers,

As I said below,

"I have not created the jins and the humans for any purpose except to worship Me alone." 51:56

It means that what we THINK we are here for is NOT what we all are here for. We are here for the WORSHIP of ALLAH almighty and NOT for our enjoyment. See to the fact that when a child is born in this world, it CRIES and not LAUGHS. But Allah says which means that When a soul goes to heaven (or enters the doors to heaven) it LAUGHS with PRIDE. This clearly means that this life is NOT for enjoyment as it is said many times in Quran:-

Aal-e-

Imran [3:197]

Little is it for enjoyment; their ultimate abode is Hell: what an evil bed (to lie on)!

Al-

Anaam [6:44]

But when they forget the warning they had received, We opened to them the gates of all (good) things, until, in the midst of their enjoyment of Our gifts, on a sudden, We called them to account, when lo! they were plunged in despair!

Yunus [10:70] A little enjoyment in this world! and then to Us will be their return. Then shall We make them taste the severest Penalty for their blasphemies.

Questions arise in human mind:

1) So if THIS life is not for ENJOYMENT then WHICH life will it be? 2) Why should we not enjoy our time as this time will NOT come again? ANSWERS given by some ULEMAS.

As you see, Islam teaches us patience. Question is: what has PATIENCE linked with this argument. This life as said in Quran is temporary:

Ghafir [40:39] "O my people! This life of the present is nothing but (temporary) convenience: it is the Hereafter that is the Home that will last.

If LIFE is temporary then dear readers, that does NOT mean that HUMAN SOUL is

temporary too. It is permanent. Human soul will NOT end like life. IT will only die in

this world but dieing does not specifically mean FINISHING. But it means to finish from

THIS life. Yet there IS a life ahead of us that will come. And that life is eternal.

TODAY we think that maturity is from a person who speaks something really effective. Effective in a sense that he/she will have great financial and moral benefit from the world because of what we says and what he does. But do you readers THINK that MATURITY is from a person who worries of a 50 to 100 years life, or someone who worries about this 50 to 100 years ALONG with the endless life ahead of him? Readers, today we are confusing the term, “mature” with someone who concerns with this little life only. Dear Readers, as I said earlier that we are here to WORSHIP Allah Almighty. So this needs an

endless effort. But ON THE OTHER HAND, Allah Almighty made this effort humanly possible. I have seen A LOT of people saying how can we do all this? Its so DIFFICULT but considering the fact that every reaction needs some FACTORS to make the reaction as quick and efficient as possible. For instance, take The manufacture of water as an example. Water is made from 2 different gases at very high temperatures, Hydrogen and Oxygen. Here im talking about TEMPERATURE as a factor. If we try to do the reaction at room temperature, the reaction would have been impossible and IMPRACTICAL. But if we take the temperature to 100 degrees, still it would be a VERY slow reaction. It will NOT be impossible but still would have been impractical. But if we give the temperature the reaction needs, it would be a really fast reaction. Similarly the case is with our religion. To practice our religion, we need some factors. As some ulema claimed that religion is a MIXTURE of factors, some other summarized the factors into 7 factors. Furthermore, they reduced these down to 6 factors. According to religion experts, by having these 6 factors in our life, one can practice religion quite easily.

DECLARANCE of ONENESS of ALLAH

The first and foremost factor of islam is the declarance of ONENESS of Allah Almighty. � ال ه ا �

محمد رسول � ◌

Romanization:

"lā elaha ella Allahu, Muhammad ur-rasul Allah"

English rendering:

There is none worthy of worship but Allah, and Muhammad [peace be upon him] is the messenger of Allah.

Importance: Declaring the ONENESS of Allah is ONE thing, ACCEPTING the fact is another. Even a class 4 kid in a muslim country is taught its meaning and pronunciation. The first part, there is no God but Allah means that Allah has the total control over EVERYTHING. All is done by HIM and NONE is done by anything or anyone OTHER than Him. ALLAH Almighty is the one who is giving me the strength to write this and the SAME ALLAH Almighty is the one who is giving YOU the strength to READ this. This ALSO means that we should believe that our SUCCESS is in Allah’s hands and NOT in our hands. Whatever bad thing Is happening to us God forbid, Allah is secretly telling us a message. Whatever Good thing is being done, Allah is secretly telling us a message. Today we think that our jobs, money, luxury, cars are

giving us this ease but no, it is ALLAH’s power over everything that we are getting the ease. There lived a wealthy king. He had this noble who kept the keys of the treasury of the king. One day, as always, he locked the door of the treasury and left for hunting. Meanwhile the king entered the treasury with this spare key for something. Allah Almighty put a thought in the noble’s mind that the treasury has NOT been locked. That he FORGOT to LOCK it. And he goes back to the treasury and finds out it was open. He locked that door and then left again for hunting. On the other hand, the KING who was in the treasury got locked from inside and the keys were useful OUTSIDE the treasury. He kept on trying to open the door but failed. Unfortunately, he died of thirst and hunger, and wrote in his will, “Look at me, im DIEING in my wealth”. I wanted to say that our happiness is given by God and NOT by our wealth. Allah says is Quran:

Al-

Baqara [2:26]

allah disdains not to use the similitude of things lowest as well as highest. Those who believe know that it is truth from their Lord; but those who reject Faith say: "What means allah by this similitude?" By it He causes many to stray and many He leads into the right path

but He causes not to stray, except those who forsake (the path).

Hud [11:88] He said: "O my people! see ye whether I have a Clear (Sign) from my Lord, and He hath given me sustenance (pure and) good as from Himself? I wish not, in opposition to you, to do that which I forbid you to do. I only desire (your) betterment to the best of my power; and my success (in

my task) can only come from allah: in Him I trust and unto Him I look.

Al-Kahf [18:44] There, the (only) protection comes from allah, the True One. He is the Best to reward and the Best to give success.

So conclusion is that we should seek help ONLY from Allah and trust HIM alone. Second Part of this Kalima says that Muhammad (s.a.w) is the MESSENGER of Allah. This is something all do not believe. The previous messengers also stated the oneness of Allah but did NOT tell about Muhammad as messenger of Allah. Instead there message were different for example: Ibrahim (a.s) BROUGHT: THERE IS NO GOD BUT ALLAH AND IBRAHIM IS THE FRIEND OF ALLAH And so on but MUHAMMAD (s.a.w) is MUHAMMAD is the MESSENGER OF ALLAH. Here Christians, and jews

come to disagree. They do not believe in the presence of Muhammad (s.a.w)

This ALSO means that if we DECLARE THE ONENESS OF ALLAH, we have OBEY His commands, and for THAT we have to follow the MESSENGER in a prescribed form known as sunnah or hadith. Without one of these one does not have faith. For instance, a person has faith in Allah but does not follow sunnah is a failiour like a person eats goat. Goat is allowed in ISLAM. Whereas a person does NOT cut it the way HOLY prophet (saw) did, the goal will eventually be haraam (forbidden). We nowadays forget the importance of sunnah I our life. We say that do the fard and forget the sunnah (God Forbid). Unfortunately, they are wrong, because sunnah is also a necessary thing and that IS why holy prophet (saw) was sent down to this world. So we should obey Allah AS WELL as holy prophet (saw)

PRAYER

After we said that Allah is ONE and MUHAMMAD (saw) is HIS messenger, we only turned muslims. But after we ACCEPT the fact as I said earlier, one has to FOLLOW Allah. So let us see the second factor of religion that is salah (prayer). According to Quran:

Al-

Baqara [2:153]

O ye who believe! Seek help with patient perseverance and prayer: for Allah is with those who patiently persevere.

Aal-e-Imran [3:43] "O Mary! worship thy Lord devoutly; prostrate thyself, and bow down (in prayer) with those who bow down."

Prayer is one of the MOST IMPORTANT things in islam. It is one of the PILLARS OF ISLAM. Without prayer, the chance of glad tidings is horrifying. We can NOT be successful without prayer. As I gave the ayat of Surah AAL E IMRAN, Allah is ordering MARYAM (a.s) to Pray. This is ONE of the things Allah has not left anyone at. All mature male and female are ordered to observe prayers at correct timings. Jibrael (a.s) says which meant that he can count the droplets of RAIN but can NOT count the blessings of ALLAH upon the person who has prayed one fard namaaz with TAKBEER-e-ULLAH. How unlucky will be one who could not offer prayers in his life. Allah guarantees jannah for those who are steadfast in their

prayers. Those who pray regularly will not have their hisaab kitaab. Hisaab kitaab will be a moment where all prophets (a.s) except Muhammad (saw) will be worrying. Even though their jannah is written, but that moment will be so tough. Yet those who pray regularly will NOT go through that phase mashallah. Another hadith explains that Prayer is the visit of a person to God Almighty (miraaj) Yet another says that a person is NEAREST to ALLAH almighty when he/she is prostrating before Allah Almighty. After reading the above gifts, one should NOT be foolish enough to leave prayers for this world’s pleasures and commitments.

KNOWLEDGE AND REMEMBRANCE

Now that one KNOWS that prayer is important, he should know the prescribed manner to do so, too. It is said that there are some people whose prayer are not even accepted before they turn 60 years! How unlucky would be those who spend their lives praying and then in the end find out that they have wasted their efforts. It is obligatory upon EVERY muslim mature male and female and they should KNOW the difference between right and wrong, halaal and haraam, good and bad, dirty and clean. The correct ways to offer prayer, the correct way to spend their lives. For that ALLAH almighty gave us a source and ANOTHER blessing named Quran, Hadith and SUNNAH. These 3 materials provide us with EVERY thing related to islam. ALL the matters (past, present or future) are given here. A person came to a sahabah and asked how much time of day do you muslims spend in worshipping Allah? The sahabah said that the muslims spend 24 hours in that. He asked how can you give SO much time for Allah? Don’t you do any OTHER thing? Sahabah replied that they spend their lives according to sunnah which is why their smallest of acts for instance eating food become ibaadat (worship). With knowledge one should also remember Allah at all times. Good or bad, happy or sad. Allah has the RIGHT to be remembered.

Take a caring mother for instance. She bores a child and suffers the pains of child birth for 9 whole months. Then she not only brings her up, she cares for every single need of the child. She feels proud to have the child. It is her belonging. The pains of the child are the pains of the mother. She cares for it MORE than herself. She ignores the annoying attitude of the child and acts it’s age. But when the child grows up. When it is mature enough to handle himself. Then if the child leaves her mother, doesn’t even remember her by saying to his friends, oh yes my mother did this for me. When that child gets lost in the wonders of the world then imagine yourself how disheartened that mother will be. She will think that why did she endure all the sufferings when she had to live up to the day her own belonging threw her away! Keep this in notice that according to hadith Allah Almighty loves His creation more than 70 mothers. And when His OWN believers (muslims) start to ignore and NOT remember Him, then IMAGINE the feeling Allah will have. Remembering is not by repeating the recital terms but even by looking at every thing and remembering Allah and saying MASHALLAH only Allah can do it. Whatever bad and good things happen to us ALHAMDULILLAH Allah did it for good. I thank Him for it. Not only I THANK Him for it but I PRAISE Him for it. That is what Alhamdulillah means, that ALL praises are for ALLAH. It does NOT include the feeling that if someone comes to you and says oh you said a wonderful thing and you say In return ALHAMDULILLAH I know. That is self praising. That is only SAYING Alhamdulillah but not MEANING it. You are praising yourself by saying

it. On the other hand Allah deserves all praises then we should have THE attitude that everything I AM is ONLY and ONLY because of ALLAH Almighty. According to a hadith which means that the ones who REMEMBER Allah are the examples of LIVE people and those who do NOT remember Allah are the examples of DEAD. So no matter how much we are lively in this life, if Allah is NOT in us, then we are equal to dead people. For Remembrance, ulema have issued a sunnah way of doing it. The sunnah way to ask from Allah Almighty is by first PRAISING Allah, then Giving Salam and darood to Muhammad (saw) and then asking Allah. Similarly, seeing THIS, the ulema gave this way of zikr (remembrance) by ATLEAST whispering 100 times 3rd kamila tamjeed, 100 times 4th kalima tawheed, 100 times any darood and then 100 times astaghfaar because constantly we are doing sins in our life. But most importantly I think we should have a sound KNOWLEDGE and MEANING of what we are whispering about.

HUMAN RIGHTS

By praying, searching for knowledge and remembering Allah Almighty, Allah is testing our taqwaa (piety). But side by side, Human Rights and our relationship (ikraam-e-muslim) is according to me, the BIGGEST and the most DIFFICULT chapter in religion. And unfortunately, people miss this chapter out. On of my friends told me that waking up at fajar in the morning in freezing cold is easier than to swallow the abuse and a nasty comment given by someone. Surely, there are ahadith and ayats upon prayer, and other things but there are MUCH more serious terms used in the case of human behavior. We in our society talk A LOT behind people’s backs. It is a COMMON problem in this society. We FIND topics to talk about a specific person and the EXCUSES we give are that we are only trying to change that person and also that we should know what type of person he/she is. There are SEVERAL examples of Islamic history that Allah has kept secrets of many people’s sins even from prophets. Let us consider this case of Prophet Musa’s (a.s) time: At the time of Prophet Musa (AS) once a terrible famine occurred. People came to the Prophet (AS) and asked him to pray for rain. Prophet Musa (AS) took thousand and thousands of people with him and supplicated to Allah Taala for rainfall. He sought the Help of Allah Tala for the sake of infants, old pious men and four footed animals. However, no rain came! Allah Taala informed Prophet Musa (AM) : “O Musa!The reason for no rain is that amongst

you there is one person who is disobeying my commands for forty consecutive years. Tell him to get out from your gathering; it is for him I have terminated rainfall.” Prophet Musa (AM) announced: “O the sinner! Who had been committing sin for 40 consecutive years! Get out from our gathering! It is for you the rain is not coming!” Listening to this announcement, the sinner looked around and saw that none got out of the gathering! He thought, it is to me whom this is being addressed. He further thought that when I would get out of this gathering people would definitely see me. Alas! What a humiliation would that be! On the other hand, if I do not get out from here, for me the rain wouldn’t come ! Suddenly while pondering on these thoughts, he covered his face with a cloth and started weeping. With great repentance he prayed: “O Rahmanur Raheem! I had been disobeying you since 40 years! You gave me the opportunity to come back, but I hadn’t utilize the chances. Now I (sincerely) turn to You! Do accept me (my Tawba)!” His prayer hadn’t even completed yet, rain started pouring heavily! Prophet Musa (AS) was quite astounded ! Being surpised, he said to Allah Taala: “O Lord! Not a single person had left this gathering. What is the reason for rainfall then?” Allah Taala’s reply was: “O Musa! It is for that person now I descended the rain, for whom I had previously stopped it.”

Prophet Musa (AS) asked Allah Taala: O Allah! Do expose that person to me! Reply from Allah Taala came: “I did not humiliate him at the time he disobeyed me; why would I humiliate him now – when he has come under My Shelter?”

Here even ALLAH is not telling His messenger about the person, how do WE have the right to expose someone? When ALLAH loves them more than 70 mothers? Allah never said that He loves only the muslims, Allah says that He loves ALL the creation. Human Rights include the rights from the person sitting right beside you to the person at the other end of this world. Every Son has a right over his parents that He be dutiful to them. He should take care of the parents when they grow older. He should not waste his parents money. Similarly, the parents have a right over their children. They should give them food, clothing, shelter. Even RELIGION is their right. The parents should make them marry in appropriate times with a perfect mate for him/her. The countries have rights. An AMERICAN person should not abuse a PAKISTANI or vise versa. A Punjani should not abuse a pathan. A white should not taunt a black because we ALL are equal infront of Allah Almighty. Racism is NOT supported in the light of islam.

Friends have rights that they should not be taunted which have personal effect to their lives as I said in my previous essay. The poor have a right over rich and rich have a right over poor. The citizen has a right over the president and the president has a right over citizen. Everyone in this world is meant for others and when they start to think of themselves, they develop an ego problem within themselves which lead to a pharaoh-type characteristic and this is ONE character is NOT accepted by ALLAH Almighty.

INTENTION

The intention is a smaller topic yet equally important as the rest. As I have said earlier and as you all accept that No God but ALLAH. So it is a natural fact that everything should be done FOR Allah. Similarly, that does is not accepted which is done for respect, fame, fear of someone BESIDE Allah. Whatever deeds we do in this world, they SHOULD have right intention so as they go WITH us in the day of judgment.

DAAWAH-o-TABLEEGH

This is the 6th factor of faith and one of the most important one as it is linked with most other factors. Allah states in Quran which means that we are the CHOSEN and BEST ummah from the ENTIRE mankind who spread Goodness, STOPS badness and keeps FAITH in Allah. This is what I ALWAYS tell people. First Allah ADDRESSES us. The CREATOR, CHERISHER, SUSTAINER informs us that WE are the BEST AMONG mankind. And we have been sent for the BETTERMENT of mankind. SUCH a HIGH status has been given to us by Lord, our God ALMIGHTY. Then Allah explains WHY are WE the best. Or in other words Allah informs us WHO are the best, And says who SPREAD Goodness and STOPS badness (amar bil maaroof nahee anil munkar). And in the end tells us that we have FAITH in ALLAH. That WE should do OUR effort and tell the person what is correct and LEAVE the rest to ALLAH. Because ALLAH does not leave our efforts without reward. He SOMEWHERE in this world makes a non muslim a muslim the time we put an effort for ALLAH. It is linked with prayer also because according to hadith which means that prayer is a complete dawah. It means that the style of praying and when everyone is so disciplined and EQUAL in front of ALLAH ALMIGHTY then people turn into muslims this way. And it is linked with ikraam e muslim because our RELATIONSHIPS and BEHAVIOUR is what tells the correct things. Islam is NOT spread by sword but is spread by the

down to earth attitude of the rulers! Holy Prophet (saw) said in his deathbed which means that obey prayers and be nice with the poor people in this ummah. When someone sees the islam does not HAVE the concept of poor and rich, he embraces the truth. This is a difficult task to follow the 6 factors with discipline so it is prescribed by ulema to spend some time in tableegh. A lot of people question me that in islam nowhere is it said to leave homes. My answer to this question is that we do not actually LEAVE homes but we LEARN the sunnah of prophet (saw). We go into an atmosphere where practicing these things is relatively easier, where the worldly obligations are not hindering us and we develop a habit of practicing these things daily.

"And whose words can be better than his, who calls

(people) towards Allah, and performs good deeds, and

says: " I am one of those who submit to Allah!"

Jazakallah Khair. Asad Bhatti Muslim Digest www.iqrasearchtruth.blogspot.comwww.iqrasearchtruth.blogspot.comwww.iqrasearchtruth.blogspot.comwww.iqrasearchtruth.blogspot.com