A Muslim Convert Once Before

‎ بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Sayyidina Abu Ayyub Khalid ibn Zayd al-Answari ( r.a. ) was one of the great companions.   He took part in the battle of Constantinople.   Near the enemy border, he fell ill.   As the illness grew worse, he dictated his will as follows: “When I die, take my dead body with you.   When you line up against the enemy, bury me at your feet.”   The Muslims buried him at the foot of the fort.   People soon came to know the blessings emanating from the grave.   Whatever they prayed for, at the grave, was immediately Granted.   This is recorded in Imam Abu ‘Umar Yusuf ibn ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abd al-Barr’s ( r.a. ) al-Istiyy’ab fi Ma‘rifat al-Aswhab , where he wrote, “And Abu Ayyub’s grave lies near the ramparts of the fort, and everybody knows it.”   He further wrote, “When people pray for rain there, it starts raining.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Tafwid does not mean silence in the face of corrupt beliefs, but rather refraining from plunging into credal matters so long as the prevailing understanding remains sound.  Indicating sound creed is a righteous act, and is what prevailed during the epoch of the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) and the Rightly-Guided Caliphs.  When there arise widespread deviations from correct understanding, however, then Muslims are obligated to work to rectify them.  This is what occurred throughout Muslim history, whenever the early Muslims undertook to oppose false creeds.   Shaykh Abu Sa’id ibn Abu al-Hasan Yasar al-Baswri ( q.s. ) said, “None of the Salaf would mention a thing, nor would they debate it, for they were all of a single uniform mission.  They only began to talk about a matter and engage in debate when people began to deny it or raise doubts about it.  When people began to innovate in the religion, Allah Raised eminent scholars ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ According to Imam Abu ‘Umar Yusuf ibn ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abd al-Barr ( r.a. ), some people once said to Jesus ( a.s. ), “O Spirit of God, inform us about the nature of wealth.”   He answered, “The possessor of wealth always has one of three qualities: he either gains it by unlawful means, obstructs it from reaching the one who deserves it, or by accumulating it is distracted from worship of his Lord.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu ‘Umar Yusuf ibn ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abd al-Barr ( r.a. ) related, in his Isti’ab fi Ma’rifat asw-Swahabah , that the Prophet ( s.a.w. ), after forbidding two or three times the use of khaluq , a kind of perfume mixed with saffron, and finding that Sayyidina Sawad ibn ‘Amr al-Qari al-Answari ( r.a. ) was wearing it, nudged him in the mid-section with a  jaridah ,   palm-tree stalk, and scratched him.  The latter asked for reparation; when the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) bared his own belly to him, he jumped and kissed the Prophet’s ( s.a.w. ) belly.    Shaykh  Abu ‘Abdullah  Muhammad ibn Ishaq’s ( r.a. ) version in the Sirah mentions that Sayyidina Sawad ( r.a. ) was standing in the ranks of the Companions of Badr ( r.a. ) at the time of this incident.  The Prophet ( s.a.w. ) was arranging the ranks with his miqra’ah , switch, with the words, “Align yourself with the others,” and he nudged Sayyidina Sawad’s ( r....