A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Aristotle said, “It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Those who object to fasting part or all of Rajab and Sha’ban cite the same few reasons.  They state that Sayyidina Abu Hafsw ‘Umar ibn al-Khaththab al-Faruq ( r.a. ) punished the mutarajjibun , those who fasted the month of Rajab according to a practice carried over from the Jahiliyyah , by striking their hands until they broke their fast.  However, this does not constitute a valid objection as Sayyidina ‘Umar’s ( r.a. ) act was solely due to some people's emphasis of Rajab, which used to be fasted during the Jahiliyyah , over Ramadhan as the fasting month.  This is clearly not feared for present-day Muslims.  There was also a sacrifice named rajabiyyah performed in that month, a practice carried over from the Jahiliyyah .  Several ahadits in Sunan Abu Dawud and Musnad Ahmad show that it became obligatory in Islam until the obligation was abrogated.  Certain pre-Islamic practices were fought over even in the time o...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ In Swahih Muslim , Sunan ibn Majah , and partly, Musnad Ahmad , Sayyidina ‘Abdullah ( r.a. ), the freed slave of Sayyidatina Asma’ bint Abu Bakr ( r.a. ), reported, “Asma’ sent me to ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar saying. ‘The news has reached me that you prohibit the use of three things: the striped robe, saddle cloth made of red silk, and fasting the whole month of Rajab.’   ‘Abdullah said to me, ‘So far as what you say about fasting in the month of Rajab, how about one who observes continuous fasting?  And so far as what you say about the striped garment, I heard ‘Umar ibn al-Khaththab say that he had heard from Allah's Messenger ( s.a.w. ). ‘He who wears a silk garment, has no share for him.’  And I am afraid that stripes were part of it.  And so far as the red saddle cloth is concerned, here is ‘Abdullah's saddle cloth, and it is red.’’   I went back to Asma’ and informed her, so she said, ‘Here is the jubbah of Allah’s Mess...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ In Swahih Muslim , Sunan Abu Dawud and Musnad Ahmad , Sayyidina ‘Utsman ibn Hakim al-Answari ( r.a. ) is recorded to have said, “I asked Sa`id ibn Jubayr about fasting in Rajab, and we were then passing through the month of Rajab, whereupon he said, ‘I heard ibn ‘Abbas saying, ‘The Messenger of Allah used to observe fast so continuously that we thought he would never break it, and at other times he remained without fasting so continuously that we thought he would never fast.’’”   Imam ‘Asakir ad-Din Abu al-Husayn Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj  ( r.a. ), and Imam Abu Dawud Sulayman ibn al-Ash’ats as-Sijistani ( r.a. ) related it in Kitab asw-Swawm , respectively in the chapter on fasting at times other than Ramadhan, and in the chapter of fasting during Rajab.  Imam Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal ( r.a. ) also recorded this in his Musnad .   Imam Abu Zakariya Yahya ibn Sharaf an-Nawawi ( r.a. ) commented, in Sharh Swahih Muslim , o...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following paragraph is from Shaykh ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad al-Jaziri’s ( r.a. ) chapter, “Fasting Rajab, Sha’ban and the rest of the Holy Months”, in his al-Fiqh ‘ala al-Madzahib al-Arba’ah , “Jurisprudence according to the Four Schools”: Fasting the months of Rajab and Sha’ban is mandub, recommended, as agreed upon by three of the a’immah , while the Hanbalis differed in that they said fasting Rajab singly is disliked, except if one breaks the fast during it then it is not disliked.  Regarding the holy months, Dzu al-Qa’idah, Dzu al-Hijjah, Muharram, and Rajab, fasting them is recommended according to three of the a’immah , while the Hanafis differed in that they said what is recommended in the holy months is to fast three days from each of them, which are Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Muhammad Nazhim Adil al-Haqqani ( q.s. ) said, “We are trying to give a perfect method to everyone who is seeking real peace because reaching this peace and satisfaction is the destination of everybody.  You may take a train from London up to Edinburgh and on your way, there may be one hundred stations and at each station some people get out because everyone knows his destination.  If you get out before Edinburgh, you will not be satisfied.  This is not your destination.  If you get struck and remain in that station, you are going to suffer forever because you have reached a wrong destination.  Therefore, you must know your destination, and then you must take a ticket to that station, not to a station before it nor after it.  A person must do everything to save himself from arriving at the wrong station.  It is dangerous for a person not to look for his destination.  He must look out for his destinatio...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Shaykh Muhammad Nazhim Adil al-Haqqani ( q.s. ) said, “There are two ways in which a person may find rest.   One of them is through natural death.   Until death, a person struggles.   When he dies, his arms and legs are spread out and he is laid to rest and there is no more struggling.   According to his station, he has reached peace.   Yet, his peace by natural death may only be for his physical body.   He may still have not reached real peace spiritually.   Therefore, we seek peace for both sides, for our physical bodies and our spiritual selves.   Our physical bodies will get peace by death, natural death.   Then, there is no more movement, no more struggling.   But we must also look after our soul, whether it has peace or not, whether the souls is struggling or not.   For this reason, Prophet Muhammad ( s.a.w ) said, ‘Die before you die.’   This is what makes a person to reac...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The Vice-President, Da’wah , of Darul Arqam after me, Ariff Sultan s/o Yousoff Sultan, was a Zakir ‘Abd al-Karim Nayk fan.   As part of the proposed Darul Arqam talks, Zakir Nayk wanted his son to give a talk on Islam.   Fariq Nayk was born in 1994, meaning he was about 15 years old then.   The proposed topic was about Christianity.   The question I posed then, is the question I pose now: in what way is he qualified?   Because he is Zakir Nayk’s son?   Darul Arqam's Executive Committee agreed to this asinine proposal.   I was a Council member then, and a dissenting opinion.   So, I wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office, and copied the Ministry of Home Affairs and Police HQ, regarding the permit.   Can we imagine, if we had some Christian teenager giving a talk about how Islam is wrong?   We spend years studying the religious sciences, and some child is going to teach us?   Based on wha...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Plato mused, “Who are the true philosophers?   Those whose passion is to love the truth.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Shaykh Muhammad Nazhim Adil al-Haqqani ( q.s. ) said, “Our thariqa’ is with association and goodness is in the gathering.   Our thariqa’ complies with the shari’ah known to Ahl as-Sunnah wa al-Jama’ah .   Because of this, all actions that are done comply with sunnah , Qur’an and shari’ah .   There is no part of it, which opposes shari’ah .   Our thariqa’ is the core of shari’ah .”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ One of the worst abominations perpetrated by the Wahhabis under the leadership of ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab was the massacre of the people of Tha’if.  Upon entering that town, they killed everyone in sight, slaughtering both child and adult, the ruler and the ruled, the lowly and well-born.  They began with a suckling child nursing at his mother's breast and moved on to a group studying Qur’an, slaying them, down to the last man.  And when they wiped out the people they found in the houses, they went out into the streets, the shops and the mosques, killing whoever happened to be there.  They killed even men bowed in prayer until they had annihilated every Muslim who dwelt in Tha’if and only a remnant, some twenty or more, remained.   These were holed up in Bayt al-Fitni with ammunition, inaccessible to their approach.  There was another group at Bayt al-Far to the number of two-hundred and seventy who fought them that day, ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi ( q.s. ) said, “This being human is a guest house.   Every morning is a new arrival.   Be grateful for whatever comes, because each has been Sent as a guide from beyond.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The mufti of Zabid, Yemen, Sayyid ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn Sulayman al-Ahdal ( q.s. ) said, “It is enough testimony against Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab that the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) said, ‘Their mark is that they shave,’ for this was never done by any of the sects of innovators before him.”   This was related by Imam Ahmad ibn Zayni ad-Dahlan ( r.a. ), in his book, Khulaswat al-Kalam fi Bayan Umara’ al-Balad al-Haram .   When ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab had a group of Muslims killed because they did not shave their heads as he required his followers to do, Sayyid al-Mun’ami ( r.a. ) wrote a lampoon whose first verse is:   “Is there, concerning shaving the head at sword point, An authentic hadits related from my ancestor, the Prophet?”   He even ordered the women who followed him to shave their heads.   Once he ordered a woman who entered his new religion to shave her head.   She replied, “If you ordered men to shave of...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The great Hanafi jurist, Imam Muhammad Amin ibn ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn ‘Abidin ( r.a. ), stated, “As for his statement, ‘according to our creed’, those things we believe in aside from secondary juristic issues, which are incumbent on every legally bound individual without following another’s scholarly opinion.  These are what is found amongst the people of the sunnah who are none other than the Ash’ariyyah and Maturidiyyah , and they are both in agreement except for a few minor points, most of which can be reduced to a difference in technical language.”  He was referring to the creed of the Muslims, and a quote from Imam Abu Manswur Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Maturidi ( r.a. ).

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab wrote an essay called Kashf ash-Shubuhat ‘an Khaliq al-‘Ardhi wa as-Samawat , “The Clarification of Unclarity Concerning the Creator of Heaven and Earth”, for ‘Abdullah ibn Sa’ud, the bandit leader of the first Saudi state.   In this work, he declared that all present-day Muslims are disbelievers and have been so for the last six hundred years.  He applied the verses in the Qur’an meant to refer to disbelievers among the tribe of the Quraysh to most God-fearing and pious individuals of the Muslim community.  ibn Sa’ud naturally took this work as a pretext and device for extending his political sovereignty by subjecting the Arabs to his dominance.  ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab began to call people to his religion and instilled in their hearts the idea that everyone under the sun was an idolater.  What is more, he said anyone who slew an “idolater”, when he died, would go immediately to Paradise.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu Muhammad Sa’id ibn al-Musayyib ( r.a. ) said, after they removed the quarters of the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) to expand the Mosque, “I wish they had left them as they were, so that those who grew up in Madinah, and those who came from outside, could have seen how little the Messenger of Allah ( s.a.w. ) made do with in his life.   That would have been an incentive for people to abstain from competing with one another in amassing wealth and boasting over it.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu al-Qasim al-Junayd ibn Muhammad al-Baghdadi ( q.s. ) said, “Blindness is better for the eye which does not derive lesson from the Creation of Allah ( s.w.t. ).   Muteness is better for the tongue which does not make the dzikr of Allah ( s.w.t. ).   Deafness is better for the ear which does not listen to the truth.   Death is better for the body which does not worship Allah ( s.w.t. ).”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Alawi al-Haddad ( q.s. ) wrote, in Risalah al-Mu’awanah , “Comfort the broken-hearted, be gentle to the weak and the needy, console the poor, be lenient with the insolvent, and lend to those who ask.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The learned Habib Thaha ibn ‘Alawi al-Haddad ( q.s. ), the father of Habib Ahmad Mashhur ibn Thaha al-Haddad ( q.s. ), who passed away, in Makkah, in 1995, said, “In our opinion, the one element in the statements and actions of ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab that makes his departure from the foundations of Islam unquestionable is the fact that he, without support of any generally accepted interpretation of Qur’an or sunnah , took matters in our religion necessarily well-known to be objects of haram , agreed upon by ijma’ , and made them halal .  Furthermore, along with that, he disparaged the prophets, the Messengers, saints and the pious.  Willful disparagement of anyone failing under these categories of person is kufr according to the consensus reached by the four a’immah of the schools of Islamic law.”   Examples of him making halal that which was haram include asking Muslims to repeat their shahadah by claiming they were mushrikin , o...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Shaykha Rabi’ah al-‘Adawiyyah al-Qaysiyyah al-Baswri ( q.s. ) said:   “I have loved You with two loves - A selfish love and a love that is worthy of You. As for the love which is selfish, Therein, I occupy myself with You, To the exclusion of all others. But in the love which is worthy of You, You Raise the veil that I may see You. Yet is the praise not mine in this or that, But the praise is to You in both that and this.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Prophet Muhammad ( s.a.w. ) said, “O Allah, I ask You for Your Love, and the love of those who love You, and the love of every action that draws me closer to Your Love.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi ( q.s. ) said, “It is God’s Kindness to Terrify you in order to Lead you to Safety.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Taqi’ ad-Din Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn ‘Abd al-Kafi’ as-Subki ( r.a. ) said, “All of the Hanafiyyah , Shafi’iyyah , Malikiyyah and Hanbaliyyah are one in their creed, following the way of the sunnah in the manner laid down by Abu al-Hasan al-Ash’ari.  Generally speaking, the theology of the Ash’ariyyah is gathered in the writings of Abi Ja’far ath-Thahawi, who has been received, and accepted, by the various schools.”  He was referring to Imam Abu Ja’far Ahmad ibn Muhammad ath-Thahawi ( r.a. ).

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is a video of the current Grant Mufti of Saudi Arabia, the Wahhabi scholar, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn ‘Abdullah ash-Shaykh.   Here, he is recorded stating that Sayyidina Husayn ibn ‘Ali ( r.a. ), the grandson of the Prophet ( s.a.w. ), and one of the chiefs of the youth of Paradise, was guilty of rebellion against the “rightful caliph”, the apostate and tyrant, Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah, and exonerated Yazid of wrongdoing.   This is contrary to the position of the entirety of Sunni and Shi’ah Islam, and is an outrageous slur upon the Ahl al-Bayt .   This is a clear example of the kufr of this sect.   As the Grand Mufti, he is also the head of the Permanent Committee for Islamic Research & Issuing Fatwas.   In this capacity, he has made some controversial statements and fatawa .   In 2007, for example, he announced plans to demolish the Green Dome over the Rawdhah , and flatten the maqamat of the Prophet Muhammad...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ This is a video, from the 06 th January 2017, of the imam at Jami' Chulia Mosque cursing Christians and Jews.  This was during the Friday khuthbah .  He did it again on the 24 th February, meaning that this is not a one-off occurrence but a norm. In summary, he said, “God Grant us victory over the disbelievers, God Grant us victory over the polytheists, God Grant us victory over the hypocrites and the people of envy, God Grant us victory over the Jews and the Christians, God Grant us victory over the Jews and the Christians ...” The last part was repeated twice as an emphasis, and it is certainly not in the ayat in the Qur’an.   This is 2017, and we still have unlettered people leading prayers in the mosque and supplicating as if we are all living in the Crusades and there is a huge religious war.  How is this acceptable in the context of Singapore?  It is only because he said it in Arabic that most people in the co...