Friday Nasiha - Issue #437 Rajab 19, 1428, A.H. - August 3, 2007, C.E. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Living the Quran Surah al-Anfal (The Spoils of War) - Chapter 8: Verse 24 (Partial) Living Through Quran "O you who believe, respond to Allah and His messenger as they call you to that which gives you life"
The Quran came to change the beliefs, behavior and outlook of all who are astray. It came to guide them to the true happiness and the way of life that one should follow in this life. Al-Suddi, an early commentator on the Quran, stated that this verse means that Islam gave the Companions true life after they were truly dead in disbelief. The difference between faith and disbelief is truly comparable to the difference between life and death. Knowing the Quran, that source of life to which Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him) is calling every human, as opposed to not knowing it is also comparable to the difference between life and death. The effect of the Quran can clearly be seen in the first generation of Muslims. These were the people who were given life by the Quran. They were taken from darkness into light. The example they set is the example that all later generations who believe in the Quran must aspire to. The Change in the Arabs Brought about Through the Quran Perhaps one of the best descriptions of the change that took place among the Muslims can be seen in the famous statement of the Companion Jafar ibn Abu Taalib who was asked by the Negus of Abyssinia about the mission of the Messenger. He told him: "O king, we were an ignorant people, worshipping idols, eating carrion and indulging in sexual pleasures. We teased our neighbors, a brother oppressed his brother, and the strong devoured the weak. At this time a man rose among us, who had already been known to be truthful, noble and honest. This man called us to Islam. And he taught us to give up worshipping stones, to speak the truth, to refrain from bloodshed, and not to defraud the orphans of their property. He taught us to provide comfort to our neighbors and not to bring a slander against chaste women. He enjoined upon us to offer prayers, observe fasts and give alms. We followed him, gave up polytheism and idolatry and refrained from all evil deeds." That generation, in turn, took the message to the rest of the world. They were clearly a people who were taken from darkness into light and to the straight path of Allah. When asked by the Emperor of Persia what brought the Muslims to their lands, two different Companions answered in similar terms: "Allah has sent us to take whoever wishes from the servitude of mankind to the servitude of Allah and from the tightness of this world to its expanse and from the injustice of the ways of life [in this world] to the justice of Islam." Why Doesn't the Quran Have the Same Effect Today? The reason why the Quran does not have the same effect today has nothing to do with the essential nature of the Quran- as it will always be the true guidance that is ever available to take mankind from darkness into light. The source of the problem is in the way that many of today's believers approach the Quran. The possible reasons for this kind of situation could be many. In general, though, four, which were mentioned in the introductory chapter, stand out glaringly: (1) Some Muslims emphasize secondary aspects of the Quran while ignoring its more important primary aspects; (2) Too many Muslims do not recognize and understand the primary goals of the Quran; therefore they read it but do not get out of it what it desires (3) In addition, some Muslims do not approach the Quran in the proper manner, missing the essential link between what it teaches and how it is to affect mankind; and (4) Even when the above obstacles or problems are overcome, still some Muslims do not interpret the Quran in the proper manner and, hence, although they read it they do not get its correct teachings from it. Source: "How to Approach and Understand the Quran" - Jamal ad din Zarabozo ============================================================================================================== Understanding the Prophet's Life Listening Skills Psychology teaches us that, though you are not necessary going to convince others or change their minds by listening to them, you are going to endear them to you and make them more sympathetic. One of the most notable qualities of great and influential people is their ability to listen to others and to show them proper regard. A delegation of Mecca 's polytheists once came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) to object to him. They spoke at length until they had nothing more to say. Only then did the Prophet (peace be upon him) spoke up and ask: "Are you done?" When they told him that they were, he began reciting to them some words from the Qur'ân. The person who speaks to you may feel in his heart that he has been wronged or that he has been disenfranchised. He may have a point of view that he is passionate about and that he wishes to communicate to you. You have to afford him a proper outlet to air his grievances. If you do not give him a proper hearing, his grievances will transform into a deluge or bring about within him destructive psychological problems. Experience shows us that major problems that face us as individuals, families, and nations, started off as small problems that were not properly acknowledged and addressed. They grew until they reached critical mass and exploded. Affording due recognition is a safety valve for both the individual and society. When some problem arises that starts to exert pressure, many people forget that it is possible to contain it, and instead toss more fuel upon the fire. Source: "Respect for Our Daughters" - Salman al Awdah ============================================================================================================== Blindspot! Atheists are Polytheists! An atheist is said to be someone who denies the existence of the Creator. This is a good definition, provided that we mean by it that the creator whose existence they deny is the only God of religion, the one true Creator. Otherwise, atheists do believe in creators, albeit they do not recognize them under that appellation. This is so because atheists, in their endeavor to find alternatives to God for explaining the existence of the temporal things we see around us, invent some imaginary entities and give them some of the essential attributes of God. Thus materialistic atheists used to believe in matter as such a god. But this matter-god of theirs is not the matter with which we are familiar in our daily life; it is something that is eternal and everlasting, hence the statement, which used to masquerade as a scientific fact, "matter is neither created nor destroyed." But when you ask them to point this eternal and everlasting matter you discover that they are only chasing a will-o'-the-wisp. The matter that we can recognize and to which we can point is matter in the form of the large heavenly bodies, in the form of earthly physical things, and in the form of the constituents of these things: molecules, atoms, subatomic particles, photons, etc., none of which is eternal. Atheistic materialists used to believe in an eternal matter behind all such material things, which come and go, but the advent of the "big bang" theory shattered all hopes in the existence of such matter. Scientists now believe that everything-matter, energy, even space and time-had a beginning. In fact they speak about a moment of creation of all these things. Another such imaginary god is Nature (with a capital N). The nature with which we are familiar is the totality of natural things. But when we are told that Nature does this or that, as atheists are prone to say, we find ourselves at a loss. What is this Nature? If it be the one we know, how can it cause or create itself? But if it is something else, then we want to have proof of its existence. The same applies to Evolution. Now evolution, scientifically speaking, is "[t]he gradual process by which the present diversity of plant and animal life arose from the earliest and most primary organisms." (Concise Science Dictionary) But the Evolution of the atheists is not this process; rather it is the agent, which brings about the process. Only in this unscientific and imaginary sense can evolution take the place of God; otherwise, a believer who accepts the theory of evolution can easily reconcile it with his belief in God, by saying that that process is itself the work of the Creator. There are, on the other hand, atheists who say in a misleading way that they believe in God; but on inspection, their god turns out to be the god of the atheists. I am referring here to people like Einstein, who is said by some to have been a believer, but whose god was in fact not God the Creator in whom we all believe. Einstein declared that he believed in "Spinoza's god," i.e. in a god that is identical with the universe, and who does not thus interfere from outside in its working. "The man who is thoroughly convinced of the universal operation of the law of causation, "says Einstein, "cannot for a moment entertain the idea of a being who interferes in the course of events." [Quoted by Hans Kung, Does God Exist? Vantage Books, 1981, p. 629] Thus all atheists are in fact polytheists, or mushriks. A mushrik, according to Islam, is one who believes in a god or gods besides, or to the exclusion of, the one true God, or who worships such gods, even if he also worships the true God. That perhaps is the reason why the Quran never talks about atheists, but only about mushriks (or polytheists). Source: Manar As-Sabeel - Jaafar Sheikh Idris ==============================================================================================================
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