Mercy

From the Al-Adab al-Mufrad al-Bukhari (Muslim Morals and Manner of al-Bukhari) chapter on Mercy:

174. The Most Merciful of those in the earth

372. ‘Umar was heard to say, “Anyone who does not show mercy will not be shown mercy. Anyone who does not forgive will not be forgiven. Anyone who does not turn in repentance will not be turned to nor will he be protected or guarded.”

373. Mu’awiya ibn Qurra reported that his father said, “A man said, ‘Messenger of Allah, I was going to slaughter a sheep and then I felt sorry for it (or ’sorry for the sheep I was going to slaughter’).’ He said twice, ‘Since you showed mercy to the
sheep, Allah will show mercy to you.’”

374. Abu Hurayra said, “I heard the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the truthful confirmed one, Abu’l-Qasim, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, ‘Mercy is only removed from the one who is destined for wretchedness.”

375. Jarir reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Allah will not show mercy to a person who does not show mercy to other people.”

The Book Foundation

My favorite translation of the Qur’an is the Muhammad Asad translation put out by the Book Foundation. SubhanAllah, it’s a gorgeous book, something that is beautiful to look at as well as to read. The translation is easy to understand, has excellent footnotes, and it has accurate transliteration in addition to the english and arabic. If you don’t have this book, put it on your list and get it!

The Book Foundation has also published a number of other books that are well worth checking into. If you don’t have the $100+ it would cost to buy them all at the moment, the Book Foundation has kindly put up the first parts of each of these books online, mashaAllah. I printed them all out yesterday and have started to read through them. They all get a thumbs up from me thus far.

The Book of Revelations, Selections and Interpretations from the Holy Qur’an, Kabir Helminski, Editor - this is the one that’s first on my list to buy. My husband is always telling me to THINK about the Qur’an, not just plow on through. He’s excellent at doing that. He’ll stop on a verse, pause for a moment, and then expound on it, going on and on and on, tying it to other verses and other subjects for as long as I’ll listen to him. This book has 256 verses from the Qur’an with interpretation afterwards. I think it would help me with the thinking and reflecting

The Book of Character, Writings on Virtue from Islamic and Other Sources by Camille Helminski - second on my list to buy. If I could chose to be a scholar of anything, I would be a scholar of adab. Somehow, I feel that most of the world’s ills are rooted in the fact that human beings treat each other like crud much of the time. We need a little more adab in this world.

The Book of Language, Exploring the Spiritual Vocabulary of Islam. Kabir Helminski, with Prince Ghazi Bin Muhammad

The Book of Nature, A Sourcebook of Spiritual Perspectives On Nature and the Environment, Camille Helminski, Editor

The Book of Essential Islam by Ali, Aisha, and Aliaa Rafea

The Fragrance of Faith, The Enlightened Heart of Islam by Jamal Rahman

Anger

One of my favorite all time pieces of Islamic Advice is a piece from Sunnipath called Don’t Get Angry. Alhamdulilah, I’ve read it so often, that I actually apply it’s advice now. Amazing how that works, isn’t it?

As mentioned earlier, I used to post often on CF. I popped in a few times this last week and posted re: the 6 imams at the Minneapolis airport situation. I definately got to put the advice about anger into practice on these threads. How does one respond to drivil like this? Or this?

At this point, I’m putting advice number 2 into good use:

2. Silence. Do not say anything when angry, lest it contravene the Sacred Law,
or go against your personal or social interests. The Messenger of Allah (Allah
bless him & give him peace) said, “If you get angry, stay silent.” [Ahmad]

I’d would like to provide a cool, rational response to these people, to show them that muslims are not a cancer, that we’re ordinary people who simply live to please their Lord. But, sometimes it’s hopeless. *sigh*

Content of Character

My favorite blogger, Sunni Sister, has finally gotten a computer and is back! As a prelude to her blogging manifesto, she has posted a number of ahadith from Sheikh Hamza Yusuf’s translation of Sheikh al Amin Ali Mazrui’s “The Content of Character.” This book is definately on my to read list.

These ahadith are a representation of another reason I am muslim - the focus on good character. Islam tells us to be good people. It’s unfortunate so many muslims forget this. Again, I marvel at the possible future we would have, if only muslims lived Islam.

The Messenger of Allah, sallalahu aleyhi wa ‘ala ahlihi wa sahbihi wa
salaam, said:

“Keep God in mind wherever you are; follow a wrong with a right that offsets it; and treat people courteously.” (Tirmidhi)

“Love for humanity is what you love for yourself.” (Bukhari)

“After obligatory rites, the action most beloved to God is delighting other Muslims.” (Tabarani)

“Should you ever become eager to mention another’s faults, recall your own.” (Rafi’i)

“If your good deeds delight you and your foul deeds distress you, you are a believer.” (Diyya)

“Abandon desire for this world, and God will love you. Abandon desire for others’ goods, and people will love you.” (Ibn Majah)

“The most virtuous behavior is to engage those who sever relations, to give to those who withhold from you, and to forgive those who wrong you.” (Tabarani)

“True spiritual excellence is devotion to God as if you see Him; and though you do not see Him, you at least know that He sees you.” (Bukhari, Muslim)

“What enables people to enter Paradise more than anything is piety and good character.” (Tirmidhi)

“The majority of man’s sins emanate from his tongue.” (Tabarani)

“The servants God loves most are those most sincere with God’s servants.” (Imam Ahmad)

“May God have mercy on a servant who spoke well and gained good, or kept silent and avoided harm.” (ibn al Mubarak)

“Consider well contentment, for it is a treasure without end.” (Tabarani)

“A person has done enough wrong in his life if he simply repeats everything he hears.” (Muslim)

“Veiling the thoughts of the faithful is akin to restoring life to the dead.” (Tabarani)”

“God veils the faults of anyone who suppresses his anger.” (ibn Abi ad Dunya)

“Whoever has no shame before others has no shame before God.” (Tabarani)

“The Muslim is one from whose tongue and hand other Muslims are safe.” (Bukhari, Muslim)

“A person’s spiritual practice is only as good as that of his close friends; so consider well whom you befriend.” (Tirmidhi)

“Speak the truth even though it be bitter.” (ibn Hibban)

“Fulfillment is not plenty of goods; rather it is self-fulfillment.” (Bukhari, Muslim)

“Gentleness never accompanies anything without enhancing it, nor is it ever removed from anything without demeaning it.” (Bayhaqi)

“Beautiful Islam entails minding one’s own business.” (Tirmidhi)

Advice our modern muslim rulers could take to heart

It’s funny where an internet rambling can take you.

Today, it started with the quiz “Which Arab Leader are you?”

My husband and I are both Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen by the way. Two peas in a pod, politics wonks to the end.

This lead to a discussion on different forms of economics and politics, which leads my husband talk about his favorite subject - islamic economics.

Which in turns leads to the topic of distribution of wealth.

Which leads to my husband mentioning the 5th rashidun caliph. I’m like, huh? There are 4. So, I get to learn about Caliph Umar ibn Abdel Aziz (717-720), who had some pretty cool ideas about equality of different races in the muslim ummah and the taxation system.

Finally, as I was attempting to google this Umar (there’s not much out there on him online that I could find), I come across this gem from Imam al Ghazali from the Wikipedia’s page on Caliph.

This is suppose to be from his “Nasihat al-Muluk” or “Advice for Kings,” that he wrote to a seljuq caliph. I don’t have the book to check for sure. If it’s inaccurate, please let me know.

Every muslim in a leadership position should read this and take it to heart:

1. The ruler should understand the importance and danger of the authority entrusted to him. In authority there is great blessing, since he who exercises it righteously obtained unsurpassed happiness but if any ruler fails to do so he incurs torment surpassed only by the torment for unbelief.

2. The ruler should always be thirsting to meet devout religious scholars and ask them for advice.

3. The ruler should understand that he must not be content with personally refraining from injustice, but must discipline his slave-troops, servants, and officers and never tolerate unjust conduct by them; for he will be interrogated not only about his own unjust deeds but also about those of his staff.

4. The ruler should not be dominated by pride; for pride gives rise to the dominance of anger, and will impel him to revenge. Anger is the evil genius and blight of the intellect. If anger is becoming dominant it will be necessary for the ruler in all his affairs to bend his inclinations in the direction of forgiveness and make a habit of generosity and forbearance unless he is to be like the wild beasts.

5. In every situation that arises, the ruler should figure that he is the subject and the other person is the holder of authority. He should not sanction for others anything that he would not sanction for himself. For if he would do so he would be making fraudulent and treasonable use of the authority entrusted to him.

6. The ruler should not disregard the attendance of petitioners at his court and should beware of the danger of so doing. He should solve the grievances of the Muslims.

7. The ruler should not form a habit of indulging the passions. Although he might dress more finely or eat more sumptuously, he should be content with all that he has; for without contentment, just conduct will not be possible.

8. The ruler should make the utmost effort to behave gently and avoid governing harshly.

9. The ruler should endeavor to keep all the subjects pleased with him. The ruler should not let himself be so deluded by the praise he gets from any who approach him as to believe that all the subjects are pleased with him. On the contrary, such praise is entirely due to fear. He must therefore appoint trustworthy persons to carry on espionage and inquire about his standing among the people, so that he may be able to learn his faults from men’s tongues.

10. The ruler should not give satisfaction to any person if a contravention of God’s law would be required to please him for no harm will come from such a person’s displeasure.

Can you imagine what kind of world we would live in, if our muslim leaders would strive to enact even one of these pieces of advice? SubhanAllah!

Kindness in speech

In addition to time spent on Christian Forums, I’ve been a member of Islamica for years. The posters are teenage and 20 something muslims. I read more than I post there (1000 posts over 5 years, as opposed to my nearly 6000 posts on CF in 3 years), and on occasion come across wondeful gems of wisdom.

Some posters are very agressive in their posting styles. Yesterday, one of these posters posted an apology about his past style, and posted a beautiful reminder of how we should interact with one another. SubhanAllah, the Qur’an has answers to everything. This is one of the reasons I’m a muslim - adab:

Allah says in the Quran to discuss in the best possible manner when youcall to Islam, because not even you yourself know who will get Paradise and who will not:

“You shall invite to the path of your Lord with wisdom and kind enlightenment, and debate with them in the best possible manner. Your Lord knows best who has strayed from His path, and He knows best who are the guided ones.” (Quran, 16:125)

I should not retaliate to aggressive posts because Allah says:

“But if you resort to patience (instead of revenge), it would be better” (Quran, 16:126)

“You shall resort to patience–and your patience is attainable only with Allah’s help. Do not grieve over them, and do not be annoyed…” (Quran, 16:127)

And even if someone insults my religion, I should remember Allah’s injunction in the Quran:

“And remain steadfast in the face of their utterances, and disregard them in a nice manner.” (Quran, 73:10)

Even those who reject Islam, Allah says to just give them time:”And let Me deal with those…who reject (the Call); just give them a little time.” (Quran, 73:11)

I do not wish to drive a wedge between myself and other Muslims. Allah says in the Quran:

“Tell My servants to treat each other in the best possible manner, for the devil will always try to drive a wedge among them. Surely, the devil is man’s most ardent enemy.” (Quran, 17:53)