A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Muwaffaq ad-Din Abu Muhammad ‘Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi ( r.a. ), the shaykh of Shaykh Taqi’ ad-Din Ahmad ibn ‘Abd al-Halim ibn Taymiyyah ( r.a. ) and the main fiqh authority in the late Hanbali madzhab in his book, Kitab at-Tawwabin , narrated that when Imam Malik ibn Dinar ( q.s. ) was asked regarding the circumstances of his repentance he said the following.   “I was a policeman, and I was given to drinking.  I bought a beautiful slave who gave me a daughter.  I doted over my daughter and when she began to crawl on all fours, I grew even fonder of her.  Whenever I put a strong drink in front of me, she would come to me and pull me away from it, or she would spill it from me.  When she completed two years, she passed.  I became consumed with grief over her loss.   When the night of mid-Sha’ban came - it was the night before Juma’ah - I stayed home and drank.  I did not pray the ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The ritual prayer for one’s adversaries in litigation, swalah al-khuswama’ , consists of four raka’at , with only one taslimah .   It is taken from al-Ghunya ath-Thalibi fii Thariq al-Haqq by Shaykh Muhyi ad-Din Abu Muhammad ibn Abu Swalih ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani ( q.s. ).   It is performed as follows:   1 st rak'ah : Surah al-Fatihah x1, Surah al-Ikhlasw x 11 2 nd rak'ah : Surah al-Fatihah x 1, Surah al-Ikhlasw x 10, Surah al-Kafirun x 3 3 rd rak'ah : Surah al-Fatihah x 1, Surah al-Ikhlasw x 10, Surah al-Takatsur x 1 4 th rak'ah : Surah al-Fatihah x 1, Surah al-Ikhlasw x 15, Ayat al-Kursi x 1.   The seeker must then donate the spiritual reward, earned by his performance of this swalah , to al-khuswama’ , his adversaries in litigation, so that Allah ( s.w.t. ) may Satisfy their claim on the Day of Resurrection, Yawm al-Qiyamah , if Allah ( s.w.t. ) so Wills.   This swalah may be performed on seven specifi...