A Muslim Convert Once More

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is taken from Imam Shams ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah’s ( r.a. ) al-Wabil asw-Swayyib min al-Kalim ath-Thayyib .   The gatherings where Allah ( s.w.t. ) is mentioned are the gatherings of angels, whereas those full of chatter and heedlessness are the gatherings of devils.  Let the servant decide which of these two gatherings is more pleasing and important to him, for he will belong to it in this world and the next.   An invoker is made joyful by his invocation and makes those around him joyful, for he is Blessed where ever he may be.  But someone who is heedless of Allah’s ( s.w.t. ) mention, someone who just chatters, is made sorrowful by his heedlessness and empty talk, and makes those around him sorrowful as well.  Dzikr saves the servant from regret on the Day of Judgement.  Every gathering is which the servant does not mention his Lord will be a source o...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is taken from a transcript of a discourse delivered by Mawlana Wafi’ Muhammad at his weekly dzikr session held at the Hermitage Masjid, on Thursday, 18 th September 2014.   The personality and mission of Abraham ( a.s. ) has many dimensions and lessons for us.   Throughout his life, he was very much interested in passing on the legacy of monotheism.   However, throughout his travels he realised that he was not attracting the people as he would have hoped for and thus prayed to Allah for a righteous offspring to carry on his teachings.   Today, we will look at one aspect of his personality, which is his total and complete submission to Allah ( s.w.t. ).   Firstly, we need to understand that Abraham ( a.s. ), up to his teenage years, did not grow up with his parents.   When he eventually went home to his parents, he was surprised to see them and his people worshipping idols.   As a matter of fac...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is recorded in al-Qawl al-Badi’ fi asw-Swalah ‘ala al-Habib ash-Shafi’i , by Imam Shams ad-Din Muhammad ibn ‘Abd ar-Rahman as-Sakhawi ( q.s. ).   A pious saint, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Sa’id ibn Mutharrif ( q.s. ) said, “I had made it a habit to confer a fixed number of blessings upon the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) before retiring to bed at night.  I once retired to bed in the upper chamber of my house after conferring my fixed number of blessings, when I saw the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) in a dream.  He entered through the door of the upper chamber whereby the whole upper chamber instantly filled with light.  The Prophet ( s.a.w. ) then came towards me and said, ‘Bring forward that mouth which confers blessings upon me in abundance so that I may kiss it.’   I felt ashamed to present my mouth before the blessed mouth of the Prophet ( s.a.w. ), and so I turned my cheek towards him.  The Prophet ( s.a.w. ) then kissed me ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is adapted from Signs on the Horizons by Shaykh Harun Michael Sugich.   “If you did not know anything about him and met him in a dark alley at night, you would probably start shaking with fear, raise your hands, beg for mercy, and hand over your wallet.  He was tall, scarred, and scary.  I forget his name, but remember his hard face.  He was, in fact, the polar opposite of this menacing thuggish figure.  He was a feature of the bazaars and markets of Fes, patrolling the stalls to make sure both traders and customers behaved themselves.  He settled disputes, chased down thieves and pickpockets, and generally kept everybody honest.  He was like an ex-officio muhtaswib or swahib as-sawq , which in traditional Muslim society was the keeper of markets and public morality.   He did not get paid for doing this and his role was without any legal basis, but he did not need a license.  His toug...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following are the main points of the prostrations of forgetfulness, sajdah as-sahw .  This is quite technical.  The two reasons for the performance of the sajdah as-sahw are non-performance of something called for, such as an integral sunnah , or performance of something uncalled-for, such as absentmindedly adding a rak’ah to one’s swalah .   As for the non-performance, if one misses an integral part of the swalah and does not remember it until doing what comes after it, then one must, if still in the same rak’ah , go back to it, perform it and what comes after it, and, since it is a sunnah mu’akkadah , prostrate for it at the end of the swalah .  If one is a follower who misses an integral portion of the swalah , one continues following the imam until the imam completes the swalah with salam , and then rises alone to perform a makeup rak’ah .  One is only obligated to repeat a missed integral part of the swalah...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is adapted from Signs on the Horizons by Shaykh Harun Michael Sugich.   “We were invited into the bourgeois home of a wealthy Saudi industrialist who was a dogmatic Salafi that constantly condemned Sufism but who loved my teacher, Sayyid ‘Umar ‘Abdullah.  The industrialist was denouncing the practice of the sacred dance, hadhrah , as a forbidden innovation, bid’ah adh-dhalalah , in Islam.  When the industrialist left the salon where we were sitting, Sayyid ‘Umar jumped up mischievously and said to us sotto voce, ‘Now, if I stand here before you and declare God’s Name, ‘Allah!’; is this Forbidden?’  We looked at him, shrugged and shook our heads.   He then moved casually from one foot to another and said, ‘If I do this and say, ‘Allah!’ am I doing something Forbidden?’  Of course not.   He then moved from one foot to another with more rhythm and said, ‘If I do this and say ‘Allah!  Allah!’...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is extracted from Shaykh Taj ad-Din Abu al-Fadhl Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Atha’illah as-Sakandari’s ( q.s. ) Kitab at-Tanwir fi Isqath at-Tadbir .   We may ask what “beautify the way you request” actually means in the Prophet’s ( s.a.w. ) advice, “Stay warily conscious of Allah and beautify the way you beseech and request.”   In reality, beautifying the way we ask has many dimensions.   Shaykh ibn ‘Atha’illah ( q.s. ) described for us here what Allah ( s.w.t. ) had Disclosed to him of these dimensions through Divine Generosity.   We should know, and may Allah ( s.w.t. ) be Merciful to us, that people who search for sustenance are of two basic types.   Firstly, there are people who search for means of livelihood with obsessive preoccupation, to the point that their attention is diverted from Allah ( s.w.t. ).   Aspiration and attention, if focused obsessively on any one thing, divert a person f...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following are two threads where The Sharing Group members introduce themselves, and explain their role in being part of something greater than themselves.   This is an explanation of what we are: The Sharing Circle: The Swuhbah ; and these are the norms of how we run our physical sessions: How to Begin & Run a Sharing Session .   Brother Terence Helikaon Nunis : as-Salaamu ’Alaykum .  As a start, my name is Terence Nunis. I used to be a Catholic prior to my conversion.  The blog, A Muslim Convert Once More , belongs to me.  I converted in 1999, at St. Alphonsus at 0300h.  I was alone. I officially converted to Islam in 2001.  I studied primarily under Shaykh Zakariya ibn ‘Umar Bagharib ( q.s. ) for eight years until he passed away.  I was in the second batch for the Diploma in Islamic Studies at IIUM.  I was a Council member and briefly an Executive Committee member of Darul Arqam Singapore. ...