Reformation of the Self

    The irony of human life is that we can lose everything we’ve ever worked for at any moment through the occurrence of death. Yet, when we get the opportunity to spend our wealth for good causes, many of us are miserly, forgetting what we spend in those moments of good constitute the only wealth that will follow till eternity. Everything else belongs to the people we leave behind. The textual support of this truth is found in Sahih Bukhari where the Prophet (SAW) counsel us on making wise choices as regards our material resources. Narrated `Abdullah: The Prophet (ﷺ) said , "Who among you considers the wealth of his heirs dearer to him than his own wealth?" They replied, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! There is none among us but loves his own wealth more." The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "So his wealth is whatever he spends (in Allah's Cause) during his life (on good deeds) while the wealth of his heirs is whatever he leaves after his death." Theref...

  There are many ways hypocrisy can manifest in a Muslim’s life. But morality is so important that the Prophet (SAW) relates to us in Sahih Bukhari about four behaviors of character that every believer need to guard against with an iron fist, if he is a bit conscious of the vice of hypocrisy. The hadith goes as follows: Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Amr: The Prophet (ﷺ) said: "Whoever has the following four (characteristics) will be a pure hypocrite and whoever has one of the following four characteristics will have one characteristic of hypocrisy unless and until he gives it up.   1. Whenever he is entrusted, he betrays.   2. Whenever he speaks, he tells a lie.   3. Whenever he makes a covenant, he proves treacherous.   4. Whenever he quarrels, he behaves in a very imprudent, evil and insulting manner."   Here you go! If we want to attack the vice of hypocrisy, we should start by being serious against these four poor behaviors. ...

  “Would you then, if you were given the authority, do mischief in the land, and sever your ties of kinship?”_ [Quran 47: 22]   “Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, let him maintain the bonds of kinship.”_(Bukhari)   Out of the Mercy of Allah (SWT), Muslims have been given some measure of freedom in certain aspects of life and worship. And at the same time, Allah (SWT) has made certain things obligatory. He who knows this distinction and acts according to it is a person of knowledge and faith. But for a lot of people, a challenge occurs when something is obligatory but is quite easy to dismiss its importance because it has less to do with rituals of worship like daily prayers, Zakat and fasting in Ramadan. What I am referring to here is an aspect of religion that relates to the bond of kinship. This is an important aspect of worship that many people don’t realize. In fact, it is so important that Allah (SWT) has made it very clear both in the Quran a...

    Allah (SWT) says we should know Him before we worship. And the hadith of today is about making sure we know halal as halal and haram as haram and that we stay clear of all doubtful matters. According to Imam al-Nawawi (RA) and many other scholars, the hadith below is one of the very few ahadith around which the entire religion of Islam is understood. It indicates that religious matters fall into three categories: halal, haram and doubtful. And it goes as follows in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim: An-Nu`man ibn Bashir (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say:   “The halal (lawful) is clear and the haram (prohibited) is clear, and between them are unclear matters that are unknown to most people. Whoever is wary of these unclear matters, has absolved his religion and honor. And whoever indulges in them, has indulged in the haram. It is like a shepherd who herds his sheep too close to a preser...

  Ibn `Abbas says the Prophet (ﷺ) embraced me and said, “O Allah! Teach him (the knowledge of) the Book (Qur’an).”— Sahih al-Bukhari   In this life, applied knowledge is the ultimate success. Whether one decides to be a scholar, business person or farmer. The most important thing is to be a true believer in the complete meaning of the word. This is because the pleasure of Allah is the ultimate thing for a true believer and as such he is willing to sacrifice all he has for the sake of pleasing Allah. To explain this better let’s look into the following hadith of the Prophet as stated in Sahih Bukhari. Ibn Mas`ud narrated:“I heard the Prophet (ﷺ) saying, “There is no envy except in two: a person who God has given wealth and he spends it in the right way, and a person whom Allah has given wisdom (i.e. religious knowledge) and he gives His decisions accordingly and teaches it to the others.” Hope you get the powerful analogy of the Prophet in that concise hadith. E...