Virtues of Sayyida Fatima (R.A.)

Dr. Tahir ul Qadri

Muhammad bin Ali narrates that the Messenger of Allah  said, “Indeed Fatimah is a part of me. Hence, whosoever angers her angers me.”

Ali () narrates, “He was present in the company of the Messenger of Allah  when the Holy Prophet  asked, ‘What is best for a woman’ on this the companions remained quiet. When I ret urned home I asked Fatimah, ‘Tell me what is best for a woman?’ Fatimah ( (سلام الله عليها replied, ‘It is best for a woman that no men ( i. e. out side of one’s immediate family: brothers, f ather, uncle, husband, sons) see her. ’ I mentioned this to the Holy Prophet  and he  said, ‘ Indeed Fatimah is a part of me.’”

Thawban () , the Slave* of the Messenger of Allah , narr ates that whenever the Holy Prophet  intended to go on a journey, the last person he would speak to from his  family before setting off would be Fatimah ( سلام الله عل یھا ) . Once he () returned from a journey, the first per son the Holy Prophet  would come to would be Fatimah.

Buraidah () narrates that from women Fatimah was the most beloved to the Holy Prophet  and from the men Ali ( كرم الله وجهه ) was most dear to him .

The Mother of the Believer s Ayeshah ( رضي الله عنها ) narrates,“I have not seen anyone who resembled the Holy Prophet  more in manners, habits, character and in the

method of sitting and standing than Fatimah the daughter of the Messenger of Allah.”

Miswar bin Makhramah narrates that the Holy Prophet  said, “Fatimah is a part of me so whoever angers her angers me.”

Ayeshah ( رضي الله عنها ) narrates, “I was at home with the Messenger of Allah  and we were in a humorous mood with each other when Fatimah ( سلام الله عليها ) came in.

The Holy Prophet  took hold of her hand and seated her behind him and whispered something to her. I do not know what was whispered. Then I looked at Fat imah

سلام الله عليها) ) and she was cryin g. Then the Holy Prophet  turned his attention to me and he talked and joked with me. The Holy Prophet  then turned towards Fatimah, joked with her and whispered something to her. When I looked at Fatimah I noticed that she ( (سلام الله عليهاwas laughing. When the Holy Prophet  got up and went out side, I asked Fatimah, ‘What did the Messenger of Allah  whisper to you?’ She replied, ‘Whatever the Messenger of Allah  whispered to me, I will not tell you about it.’ I said, ‘For the sake of Allah and my close relation to you (please tell me) .’ Then she said, ‘The Messenger of Allah  told me that the time of his passing away has come near. The very thought of separation from the Messenger of Allah  made me

cry. Then he  turned to me and whispered that from the ‘people of the house’ I will be the first who will meet him again. In anticipation of meeting him, I laughed.’”

Abu Ayyub Ansari narrates the Holy Prophet  said, “On the Day of Judgement an announcer from the depths of the Throne will announce, ‘Oh people! Bow your heads

and lower your gazes so that Fatimah daughter of Muhammad  can cross the Br idge ( sira t).’ She will pass in the company of seventy thousand servants from the hur-ul-in ( superior female servants in Paradise) who will be like flashes of lightning.”

Abu Yazid Madani narrates that the Holy Prophet  said, “Fatimah will be the first person to enter Paradise and she is to this ummah (nation) as Maryam was to the

‘Childr en of Israeel’ .”

Amr bin Dinar () narrates that Ayeshah ( رضي الله عنها ) said,“I have never seen anyone who is more truthful than Fatimah ( سلام الله عل یھا ) except for her f ather .”

Read full book: 

http://www.minhajbooks.com/images-books/virtus-syeda-fatima/virtus-syeda-fatima_1.pdf

Read more by Dr. Tahir ul Qadri:

http://baytunur.blogspot.com/2010/03/idea-behind-intermediation-in-islam.html

BIOGRAPHY Professor Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri:

Professor Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri earned his MA in Islamic Studies in 1972 with the University of the Punjab Gold Medal, achieved his LLB in 1974 and began to practise as a lawyer in the district courts of Jhang,Pakistan. He moved to Lahore in 1978 and joined the University of the Punjab as a lecturer in law and completed his doctorate in Islamic Law.  He also held the position of the Head of the Department for LLM in Islamic Legislation.

He is the founding leader of Minhaj-ul-Qur’an International (MQI), an organization with branches and centres in more than 90 countries around the globe, working for the promotion of peace and harmony between communities and the revival of spiritual endeavour based on the true teachings of Islam.

Dr Tahir ul Qadri is a prolific author and researcher. He has authored around 1000 books out of which 360 books are already published, and the rest of the 640 are yet to be published. An unrivalled orator and speaker, he has delivered over 5000 lectures (in Urdu, English and Arabic), on a wide range of subjects.

Courtesy:

http://www.minhaj.org/english/tid/8718/A-Profile-of-Shaykh-ul-Islam-Dr-Muhammad-Tahir-ul-Qadri.html

Imam Ali (A.S.): Levels of True Religious Understanding in Islam

James W. Morris

The contents of [Imam] Ali’s lesson to[ his closest companion and disciple] Kumayl [ibn Ziyad al-Nakha’i] are all presented as a clarification of his opening statement that:

There are three sorts of people (with regard to Religion, al-Din).

• A divinely inspired Knower (‘alim rabbani);
• the person who is seeking (that true spiritual) Knowing (muta‘allim) along the path of salvation;
• and the riffraff and rabble, the followers of every screaming voice, those who bend with every wind, who have not sought to be illuminated by the Light of (divine) Knowing and who have not had recourse to a solid support.

In the remainder of his lesson, Ali goes on to explain some of the basic conditions for these three radically different levels of (and potentials for) true religious understanding. Each of his points here—as throughout the Nahj al-Balagha—is of course profoundly rooted in the central teachings of the Qur’an. However here we can only summarize his most essential observations in the simplest possible terms.

First, and most importantly, it is human Hearts (the Qur’anic qalb al-insan) that are the

locus of true spiritual ‘Knowing’ (‘ilm) and of our awareness of God and Truth: that is, it is not simply our mind or intellect or passion. Hence the decisive practical importance, throughout the Nahj al-Balagha, of Ali’s constant stress on the purification of our hearts, through inner surrender to the divine Will (taslim), as the underlying spiritual purpose of the many divine commandments.

Divine, inspired ‘Knowing,’ however it is outwardly acquired, can only be

perceived as such by the Heart that has been ‘polished,’ emptied of this world’s distractions and attachments, and thereby opened up to the full significance and reality of the divine Word—and to the further rights and obligations (another dimension of the Arabic al-Haqq) flowing from that opening.

Second, the practically indispensable key to this human potential for religious Knowing

is the real existence and efforts of a limited number of divinely guided individuals—again, not of particular books, rituals, doctrines or worldly institutions, none of which are even mentioned in this intimate, highly personal lesson. Ali refers here to those very special human doorways to true religious understanding by several profoundly significant Qur’anic expressions: the ‘divine Knowers’; the ‘Friends of God’ (awliya’ Allah); God’s ‘Proofs’ or ‘Clear Signs’ on Earth (hujja, bayyina); God’s ‘True Servants’ (‘ibad Allah); and finally as God’s true earthly ‘stand-ins’ or 'Stewards’ (khalifat Allah).

The Imam tells us several other very important things in his description of these true

‘Friends of God:’

• They are always present on earth, ‘whether openly or in secret.’

• They are directly inspired by the divine ‘Spirit of Certainty’ (ruh alyaqin

Therefore they pre-eminently possess true spiritual Insight (haqiqat albasara) into the deeper spiritual realities underlying earthly events and experiences, into the actual meanings of the infinite divine ‘Signs’ constituting our existence

• Their spiritual task and mission on earth is to pass on this divine

Knowing to those properly qualified souls who are truly ready for and

receptive to their divinely inspired teachings.

Third, Ali describes the divine ‘Knowing’ that can be conveyed uniquely by these

specially missioned individuals as having the following qualities:

• It is the ‘Din (true Religion/true Justice) by which God is truly

worshipped and served.’

• It is the indispensable key to realising what the Qur’an constantly

describes as our ultimate human purpose: i.e., to transforming the mortal

biped or ‘human-animal’ (bashar) into the theomorphic, truly human

being (insan), who alone can freely follow and truly obey God (the inner

state of ita‘a), eventually becoming a pure manifestation of the divine

Will.

• Their divinely inspired Knowing is the true ‘Judge’ or Criterion for

rightly perceiving and employing all the illusory possessions (mal) of this world .

Fourth, the ‘true Seekers’ (muta‘allimun) of that divine Knowing have at least the

following basic pre-requisites, each of which distinguishes them from the large majority of ordinary souls (al-nas). One might therefore say that each of these following five points mentioned by Ali here is in itself an essential pre-condition for acquiring true religious understanding:

Those true religious Seekers have a rare natural spiritual capacity to

recognize, absorb, and actualize the inspired teachings of the Friends of

God.

• They know that they need the indispensable guidance of God’s Friends

(the awliya’), and therefore actively seek it out. That is to say, they

actually realize that they are spiritually ‘ignorant’ and needy.

• They are willing and able to submit to the guidance of those divine

Knowers and Bearers of Truth, especially with regard to acknowledging

the true, ultimate aims of this inspired spiritual Knowing. In other

words, they have the indispensable humility to recognize their inner

ignorance and to overcome the central spiritual obstacle of pride.

• They have the practical insight and active spiritual perspicacity (basara)

to ‘see though’ the ongoing divine ‘private lessons’, the most essential

divine ‘Signs’ (ayat) of each soul’s life. (This particular point is one that

Ali especially stresses throughout all the sermons and teachings of the

Nahj al-Balagha.)   

• They are not secretly governed by their desires for power and

domination, qualities which Ali stresses (along with pride) as the

particular psychic passions most likely to trip up the otherwise apt

potential spiritual seekers of this group.

Finally, the rest of humanity are clearly—indeed even vehemently—said to lack, for the

time being, the above-mentioned prerequisites for realized spiritual learning and illumination, because of the current domination of their hearts by their psychic passions of the nafs: for power, pleasure, possessions, and the attractions ‘this lower world’ (al-dunya) in general. In this particular context, Ali does not openly clarify whether or not ‘purification’ of our hearts from such worldly passions is in itself the only obstacle to deeper spiritual and religious realization, or whether some individuals are simply born with dramatically greater, relatively unique spiritual capacities and potential. However, his recurrent and insistent practical stress on the ethically purifying dimensions of Islamic ritual and devotional practice throughout much of the rest of the Nahj al-Balagha is a strong indication that revealed prescriptions for religious teaching and practice can and should be understood as well as an indispensable preparatory discipline that can be used to move at least some individuals toward the receptive inner state of these true ‘seekers.’

Read full paper: 

http://www.religioperennis.org/documents/morris/ImamAli.pdf

Prof. James W. Morris teaches at the Theology Department at Boston College, MA, USA. He took his doctorate from Harvard University in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 1980.

Prior to joining Boston College, Professor Morris held the Sharjah Chair of Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, and he has taught previously at Princeton University, Oberlin College, Temple University, and the Institute of Ismaili Studies in Paris and London.

Two Almond Kernels in the Same Shell: The Shaykh & the Travelling Merchant

Of one Essence is the human race,
Thusly has Creation put the Base;
One Limb impacted is sufficient,
For all Others to feel the Mace.

Poetry of Shaykh Saadi Shirazi at the entrance of Hall of Nations, New York

From a family of scholars,  Shaykh Saadi Shirazi (1184 – 1283) lost his father (Mushrraf bin Muslih) at an early age and was educated by his maternal grandfather (Mas’ud bin Muslih). At fourteen years old, he was sent to Baghdad to study in the prestigious university, the Nizamiyya of Baghdad, where he acquired the traditional learning of Islam.

        
In 1226, the unsettled conditions following the Mongol invasion of Persia led Shaykh Saadi to embark on a world tour covering a vast region from North Africa through the entire Middle East to India. He narrates stories of his visits to many important cities of the East, including Mecca, where he made pilgrimage several times. 

After thirty years of traveling, in 1256, Saadi returned to his hometown Shiraz, where Atabek Abibakr bin Saad was then the ruler. Saadi was welcomed by the court, but decided to live in the prestigious monastery of the Sufi master Abu Abdullah bin Khafif (882-992).

Today his tomb soon is a popular site for pilgrimage. His tomb was renovated in the eighteenth century when Karim Khan Zand was the Persian king in Shiraz, and most recently in 1951. 

His best known works are the Bostan (The Orchard) and the Golestan (The Rose Garden).  In his books, Saadi affectionately refers to two of his teachers: The Sufi master Shihab al-Din Abu Hafs Suhrawardi (died in 1234) and Shams al-Din Abul Faraj bin al-Jowzi. 

In his books, Saadi distinguished between the spiritual and the practical or mundane aspects of life. In the Golestan,  mundane Saadi lowers the spiritual to touch the heart of his fellow wayfarers. The Shaykh preaching in the Khaniqah experiences a totally different world than the merchant passing through a town. The unique thing about Saadi is that he embodies both the Sufi Shaykh and the traveling merchant. They are, as he himself puts it, two almond kernels in the same shell.

Read more: 

http://www.tebyan.net/index.aspx?pid=27020, 

http://www.worldandi.com/subscribers/feature_detail.asp?num=26802

A Sharp-Toothed Wolf May Become Audacious

Shaykh Saadi Shirazi (1184-1283)

I heard that a dervish, burning in the fire of poverty and sewing patch upon patch, said to comfort his mind: 

'We are contented with dry bread and a patched robe 

For it is easier to bear the load of one's own trouble 

than that of thanks to others.' 

-                   

Who sold abstinence, knowledge and piety 

Filled a granary but burnt it clean away.  

-                   

Severity and mildness together are best 

Like a bleeder who is a surgeon and also applies a salve. 

A wise man uses neither severity to excess 

Nor mildness; for it lessens his authority. 

He neither exalts himself too much 

Nor exposes himself at once to contempt. 

-                        

A youth said to his father: 'O wise man, 

Give me for instruction one advice like an aged person.' 

He said: 'Be kind but not to such a degree 

That a sharp-toothed wolf may become audacious.'  

http://classics.mit.edu/Sadi/gulistan.9.viii.html

Hashim Kamali: Protection of Freedom of Religion in Islam

Dr. Hashim Kamali

Both Wafi and Awdah have drawn the conclusion that Islam protects freedom of religion in at least three ways. 


Firstly, by enacting that no one may be compelled to abandon his religion and embrace Islam, which is clearly proclaimed in Surat al-Baqarah (II:256). Muslim rulers and conquerors have generally abided by this principle and allowed their subjects to continue practicing their own religion, provided they paid the poll-tax (jizyah) and obeyed the government in power. They were, on the other hand, exempted from military service and the jizyah was a substitute for this. 


Secondly, Islam validates the freedom of the individual to propagate the religion of his following through sound reasoning and argumentation. Thus, Muslims are required in the Qur'an to resort to courteous reasoning to attract others to Islam and to permit the practitioners of other religions to employ the same methods. (XXI: 46; XVI:125; II:111). 


Thirdly, the Qur'an validates the norm that true faith stems from certitude and conviction, and not from imitation and mere adherence to forms. As the following passage shows, this is why the Qur'an denounced pre-Islamic practices and attitudes which promoted the blind imitation of ancestral precedents at the expense of independent thought and personal conviction. 


When it is said to them: 'Follow what God has revealed', they say: 'Nay we follow the ways of our fathers'; what! even though their fathers understood naught and were not rightly-guided. (II:170) ²¹² 

      Commenting on this Qur'anic verse, Wafi refers to, and supports the conclusion Abduh has reached, that 'thoughtless imitation which lacks wisdom and correct guidance is the hallmark of the disbelievers. A man can hardly be called faithful or a believer (mu'min) unless he thinks about his faith and satisfies himself as to the veracity of his belief.' Awdah concurs with Abduh, but adds that the Shari ah also obligates one who is faithful to protect and safeguard his belief. If a person is exposed to intolerable oppression on account of his belief and lacks the means to protect his freedom, then he should migrate to a place where he can safeguard his belief and self-respect. Awdah concludes by saying that 'if the person is able to migrate and he does not do so, then he would have committed an injustice against himself.’ Awdah's conclusion here is based on the Qur'anic text (IV:97-98) which denounces the attitude of those who do not exert themselves, if necessary, to migrate, in order to safeguard the integrity and freedom of their consciences.

Read more:

http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:W4IVoPNac2MJ:www.globalwebpost.com/farooqm/study_res/islam/freedom/kamali_freedom.doc+has

Dr Mohammad Hashim Kamali is Professor of Law at the International Islamic University Malaysia where he has been teaching Islamic law and jurisprudence since 1985. Among his other works published by the Islamic Texts Society is Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence.

Hashim Kamali: Quranic Recognition of Truth of Revealed Faiths

Dr. Hashim Kamali
  

The Qur'anic recognition of the truth and essential unity of the revealed faiths is not confined to Christianity and Judaism but extends to all the Prophets preceding Moses and Jesus and their teachings. Thus, it is stated that belief in all of them is an integral part of the Muslim faith: 

Say: We believe in God and in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the tribes, and in the scriptures that God sent to Moses and Jesus, and the Prophets. We make no distinction between them (111:84) 

      Affirmative references to others revealed religions is one of the major themes of the Qur'an. These recur in several places in the Book and they consistently confirm that Islam does not deny the followers of other faiths the freedom, both within and outside the territorial domain of Islam, to choose, retain and practice the religion they wish to follow. This is precisely the conclusion that commentators have drawn from the totality of the Qur'anic evidence. Referring to these verses, Fathi Uthman writes that 'Islam rejects compulsion even if it be the only way to Islam itself... for worshipping God and the enforcement of His law cannot be properly achieved unless man is free from fear ..


The Qur'an is most explicit on the dignity and nobility of man, both individually and collectively, and it repeatedly expresses the theme that a person's dignity is intimately related to his or her freedom -particularly freedom of conscience. In sum, the Qur'an is consistent in its affirmation of the freedom of belief and it fully supports the conclusion that the objectives of the Shari ah cannot be properly fulfilled without granting people the freedom of belief, and the liberty to express it. 


Another pertinent Qur'anic theme is the affirmation that religion is a matter of individual conviction and belief, and that persuasion and advice are the only ways through which others may be invited to embrace Islam. The passages that are quoted below also cast light on the function of the Prophet, and the methods which he was to follow in his summons to the new faith. 
If they embrace Islam, they are rightly-guided, but if they turn their backs on it, then your only duty is to convey [the message]. (111:20)  


Remind them, for you are one who reminds; you are not a warden over them. (LXXXVIII:21-22) 
And if they turn away, We have not sent you as a guardian over them. Your duty is but to convey the message. (XLII:48)


Obey God and obey the Messenger and beware. But if you turn back then know that Our Messenger's duty is but to proclaim clearly [the message]. (V:92. See also V:99 to the same effect.) 
 
      Yet another Qur'anic theme which occurs in a number of passages is that invitation to the faith must be wisely made with courteous advice, and that it must be based on sound reasoning and eloquent persuasion. The message here once again precludes resorting to compulsion in the promotion and propagation of Islam. Moreover, it is to be understood that anything which dilutes the self-evident meaning of the Qur'an on these points, whether in the name of jihad or enlightenment, is unacceptable and should be strongly discouraged. For jihad is abused when it is pursued in such a way as to impede the Qur'anic principle of the freedom of belief. 


Read Paper: 

http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:W4IVoPNac2MJ:www.globalwebpost.com/farooqm/study_res/islam/freedom/kamali_freedom.doc+has


Dr Mohammad Hashim Kamali is Professor of Law at the International Islamic University Malaysia where he has been teaching Islamic law and jurisprudence since 1985. Among his other works published by the Islamic Texts Society is Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence.

Hashim Kamali: Quranic Passages on Jihad and Apostasy

Dr. Hashim Kamali

Notwithstanding the relative clarity of the Qur'anic proclamations on the freedom of religion, the subject has become controversial. This is due partly to certain other passages in the Qur'an which have sometimes been interpreted in a manner which casts doubt on the subject. Indeed, some commentators have drawn the drastic conclusion that the Qur'anic passages which validate holy war (jihad) and fighting against disbelievers actually abrogate the Qur'an's proclamation on tolerance and respect for other religions. 


The controversy has been exacerbated further by reliance on the provision in the Sunnah which authorizes the death penalty for apostasy without due consideration of other evidence in the Sunnah to the effect that punishment by death was meant only for apostasy accompanied by hostility and treason. However, a full enquiry into these issues would fall beyond the scope of this study. Some of these issues have already been treated and investigated at length in books and articles in the English language. I shall, therefore, confine my discussion to some of the conclusions that have been drawn, without paying undue attention to many of the details. 

  

The Prophet did not treat apostasy as a proscribed offense (hadd), but, on the contrary, pardoned many individuals who had embraced Islam, then renounced it, and then embraced it again, Included among these was Abd Allah ibn Abi Sarh, the foster brother of Uthman ibn Affan, and one-time scribe of the Prophet, whom the Prophet forgave when Uthman interceded on his behalf. Other cases included that of al-Harith ibn Suwayd, 'and a group of people from Mecca' who embraced Islam, renounced it afterwards, and then re-embraced it. Their lives too were spared.


In response to the question of whether Islam permits war as a means of propagation, many scholars have reached the conclusion that war is permissible only to protect the freedom of belief and to prevent oppression. The Qur'an forbids sedition (fitnah) in religion, as well as the persecution of people for their religious beliefs. It is this fitnah, as Abu Zahrah observes, which the Qur'an declares to be a menace greater than murder, and thus it permits waging war in order to prevent tyranny and sedition, as the following text shows: 'And fight them until fitnah is no more and religion is for God alone. But if they stop then there is to be no hostility except against the oppressors.' (II: 193) 

Read paper: 

http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:W4IVoPNac2MJ:www.globalwebpost.com/farooqm/study_res/islam/freedom/kamali_freedom.doc+has