#ayat

[coco-notnot]

Been keeping myself busy but I still catch myself thinking and searching for you. 😔

[basicsofislam]

BASICS OF ISLAM :

The Intermediate World.Part2

Q:What does the spirit do in the intermediate world? The intermediate world is the realm where the spirit feels the "breath" of the bliss of Paradise or the punishment of Hell.

Those who led virtuous lives will be met by their good deeds (e.g., prayers, recitations, charity, etc.) in the form of amiable companions. Windows will be opened so that they can see heavenly scenes. And, as stated in a hadith, the grave will be like one of Paradise's gardens. However, even these people will suffer some punishment if they have some unforgiven sins, for such punishment will purify them of all sins and make them worthy of Paradise after the Resurrection.

Unbelievers will be met by their If unbelief and evil deeds, which will assume the forms of bad companions and such vermin as scorpions and snakes. They will be shown scenes of Hell and will experience the grave as one of Hell's pits.

Q:Do some bodily parts or cells remain alive after death? While we live in this world, it is our spirits that suffers pain and feel joy and happiness.

The spirit seems to feel pain through the nervous system, and uses this system to communicate with all bodily parts. Just how it does this remains a mystery to science, as does the type of interaction going on between the spirit and the body, especially the brain. Any bodily failure that results in death terminates the functioning of the nervous system. However, scientists have established that certain cells brain continue to live for a while after death. Scientists have studied the post-death signals received from the brain. If they can decipher such signals, such fields as criminology will benefit greatly when it comes to solving "unsolvable" crimes.

The following verses, which tell us how God revived a dead purson during the time of Moses, suggests this:

When Moses said to his people: "God commands you to sacrifice a cow" … they sacrificed her, a thing they had scarcely done. And when you killed a living soul, and disputed thereon, God disclosed what you were hiding so We said: "Smite him with part of it." Even so He brings to life the dead, and He shows you His signs, that haply you may have understanding. (2:67, 72–73)

Torments of the grave and Hell. Given the above understanding of the spirit, and the fact that it will remain in contact with the body's essentials particles while in the intermediate world, it is meaningless to discuss whether the spirit, the body, or both will suffer in the grave. However, as pointed out above, God will rebuild people on the Day of the Resurrection from or with those essential bodily particles, and they will be resurrected on the "morning" of the eternal life.

Since the spirit lives the worldly life together with the body and shares all its joys and griefs, God will resurrect people both bodily and spiritually. The Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama'a agree that the spirit and the body will go to either Paradise or Hell together. God will build bodies in forms peculiar to the Hereafter, where everything will be alive:

This life of the world is but a pastime and a game. Lo! the home of the Hereafter, that is life if they but knew. (29:64)

Q:What gifts we can send to the spirit after death? The spirits in the intermediate world will see and hear us, provided God allows this. He may even permit some saintly people to see, hear, and communicate with them.

After we die, our record of deeds is not closed. If we leave behind good, virtuous children, books, or institutions from which people continue to benefit, or if we have brought up people beneficial to humanity or contributed to their upbringing, our reward will continue to increase. If, we leave behind only evil things, our sins will continue to increase as long as they harm others.

So, if we want to benefit our loved ones who have gone to the other world, we should be good heirs. We should help the poor, take part in Islamic services, and lead a good and virtuous life, and spend what they left us to promote Islam and help those who need some help, whether Muslim or non-Muslim. All of these activities will cause their reward to increase.

[basicsofislam]

BASICS OF ISLAM :

Guidance

Q: What is Guidance, and Can We Guide Others? Guidance is a light kindled in someone by God as a result of his or her use of free will in the way of belief. As we affirmed earlier, only God can guide to the truth. There are many verses in the Qur'an that state this explicitly. For example:

If God willed, he could have brought them all to the guidance. (6:35)

If it had been your Lord's will, all who are on the Earth would have believed, all together. (10:99)

You do not guide whom you like, but God guides whom He wills. (28:56)

You cannot make the dead to hear, nor can you make the deaf to hear the call when they have turned to flee. Nor can you guide the blind out of their deviation. You can make none to hear save those who believe in Our Revelation so that they surrender and become Muslims. (30:52–53)

Since it is God Who guides, we implore Him in every rak'a of our daily prescribed prayers:

Guide us to the Straight Path (1:6).

God's Messenger says:

"I have been sent to call people to belief. It is none but God only Who guides them and places belief in their hearts." Besides the verses above and many other similar ones, other verses state that God's Messenger calls and guides people to the Straight Path:

Surely you call them to the Straight Path (23:73) and:

Thus We have revealed a Spirit to you from Our Command. You did not know what was the Scripture, nor what the Faith was, but We have made it a light whereby We guide whom We will of Our servants. You are indeed guiding to the Straight Path. (42:52)

These verses are not contradictory. As we said above, God creates everyone with the potential to accept belief. However, the family, educational, and environmental conditions have a certain role in guidance or misguidance. So, in order to call people to belief, God sent Messengers throughout human history and gave some of them Books whereby people could reform themselves. Prophet Muhammad, the last Messenger, received the Qur'an from God via revelation. The Qur'an, being the last Divine Book and uncorrupted, contains the principles of guidance.

The Messenger's personal conduct and good example, which embody its teaching, also make his way of life a means to guidance. He recites the Divine Revelation, shows people the signs of God, and destroys their misconceptions, superstitions, and sins. In fact, every thing, event, and phenomenon is a sign pointing to God's Existence and Unity. Therefore, if you want to believe sincerely and without prejudice, struggle against carnal desires and the temptations of your evil-commanding self, and use your free will to seek the truth, God will guide you to one of the ways leading to Him. He declares in the Qur'an:

Be aware of God and seek the means (of approach to and knowledge of) Him, and strive in His way in order that you may succeed and be prosperous [in both worlds]. (5:35)

As for those who strive in Us [in Our way, for Our sake, and to reach Us], We guide them to Our paths; God is with the good. (29:69)

In order to find or to deserve guidance, you must strive for it sincerely and search for the ways leading to it. Those whom God has blessed with guidance should set good examples for others, and then call others to it through all lawful (Islamic) means. In many verses, God commands His Messenger to do just that:

Warn your tribe of near kindred [of their end and the consequences of their deeds and of the punishment of Hell). (26:214)

Remind and give advice, for you are one to remind. (88:21)

Proclaim openly and insistently what you are commanded. (15:94)

Call to the path of your Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and reason with them in the most courteous manner. (16:125)

Surely in the Messenger of God you have a good example for him who hopes for God and the Last Day, and remembers God oft. (33:21)

The Messenger communicated God's revelations to people and called them to belief in the best and most effective way. He also bore all difficulties and persecutions, and rejected the most alluring bribes to stop calling people to belief in God. He continued his mission without expecting any worldly reward. Since he sought only God's good pleasure and to cause people to be prosperous in both worlds, when he conquered Makka (an event marking his triumph to make God's Word prevail among his people) he forgave those who had persecuted both him and his followers for 21 years, saying:

"No reproach this day shall be on you. God will forgive you. He is the Most Merciful of the Merciful. Go! You are free." He once told 'Ali: If someone finds guidance at your hand, this is better for you than having red camels.According to the rule that "the one who causes is like the doer," the one who leads another to guidance receives the same reward as the new believer, without any decrease in his or her own reward. Similarly, the Messenger says:

Whoever establishes a good path receives the same reward as those who follow that path thereafter until the Last Day, without any decrease in their reward. Whoever establishes an evil path is burdened with the same sins as those who follow it thereafter until the Last Day, without any decrease in their burden. Those who lead others to guidance should not remind them of this by saying such things as: "If I hadn't been a means to your guidance, you never would have been guided." This is a grave sin and shows ingratitude to God, for only God guides and causes one to lead another to guidance.

Similarly, those use by God to guide someone to guidance, should never attribute their deed to themselves. Rather, they should say something like:

"Praise God, for He has made me, a poor and needy person, a means for so meritorious a deed as leading someone to guidance. God is so powerful, so merciful to His servants, and so munificent that He creates clusters of grapes on wood. The wood has no right to ascribe to itself the grapes growing on it. I am no better than that wood." As for those who have found guidance, they should think: "Seeing my need and helplessness, God, my Master, used one of His servants to lead me toward guidance. All praise be to Him."

Nevertheless, the one led to guidance should be thankful to the person so used by God. After all, since God is the Creator of us and whatever we do, He also creates the means that enable guidance and misguidance. But this does not negate or diminish our free will when it comes to guidance or misguidance.

[basicsofislam]

BASICS OF ISLAM :

Existence of God.Part2

Countenances. Countless human beings have lived since Adam's creation. Despite their common origin—a sperm and ovum, which are formed from the same sort of foods consumed by one's parents—and although they are composed of the same structures, elements, organisms, every person has a unique countenance. This shows one with an absolutely free choice and all-encompassing knowledge, and He is God. Divine teaching and directing. To direct our lives and learn what is good or bad for us takes at least 15 years. However, many animals acquire this knowledge soon after their birth. A duckling can swim as soon as it hatches. Ants start to dig nests in the ground when they leave their cocoons. Bees and spiders quickly learn how to make their honeycombs and webs, respectively, that are such marvels that we cannot produce them. Who teaches young eels born in the Atlantic Ocean to find their way to their ancestral home in the Pacific Ocean? The birds' migration is still a mystery. How can you explain such astounding facts other than by attributing them to the teaching or directing of one who knows everything and has arranged the universe and its inhabitants in such a way that they can direct their lives? The spirit and the conscience. Despite enormous scientific advances, we cannot explain life. Life is the gift of the Ever-Living One, Who "breathes" a spirit into each embryo. Our ignorance of the spirit's nature and its relation with the body does not negate its existance. The spirit is sent to the world to be perfected and acquire a state appropriate for the other life. Our conscience is the center of our inclinations toward right and wrong. Everybody feels this conscience on some occasions. So, the spirit and conscience are strong arguments for the existence of One God. Our innate dispositions and history. We are innately disposed to good and beauty, and adverse to evil and ugliness. We also are inclined to virtues and moral values. Unless corrupted by external factors and conditions, we seek the good and moral values, which are universal. The values we seek naturally are the same virtues and morality promulgated by all Divine inspired religions. As history witnesses, humanity has never lived without a religion. Just as no system has superseded religion in human life, the Prophets and religious people always have been most influential people and left indelible marks on human history. This is another irrefutable proof for the existence of the One God. Human intuition. We feel many intuitions and emotions, which are a sort of message from immaterial realms. Among them, the intuition of eternity arouses in us a desire for eternity, which we seek to fulfill in many ways. However, it can be realized only through belief in and worship of the Eternal One Who inspired this intuition and desire in us. True human happiness lies in satisfying this desire for eternity. Consensus. If a few people who never tell the truth come and tell us at various times the same thing, we may believe them in the absence of any alternative. But when thousands of Prophets who never lied, and countless saints and believers who adopted truthfulness as a most essential pillar of belief, all agree that God exists, how can we reject their testimony for that of a few liars? The Qur'an and other Scriptures. Proofs for the Qur'an's Divine origin are also proofs for God's existence. The Qur'an teaches with great emphasis and force, as does the Bible in its uncorrupted parts, the existence of One God. The Prophets. Thousands of Prophets came and guided humanity to truth. All of them were justly renowned for their truthfulness and other praiseworthy virtues. All gave priority to preaching the existence and Oneness of God.

[basicsofislam]

BASICS OF ISLAM :

Existence of God.Part2

Mercy and providence. All living and non-living beings are in continuous need of many things, even a small portion of which they cannot supply by themselves. For example, the universe's operation and maintenance demand the existence of such universal laws as growth, reproduction, gravitation, and repulsion. However, these "natural" laws have no external, visible, or material existence; their existence is completely nominal. How can something that exists only nominally, which has no knowledge and consciousness, be responsible for a miraculous creation requiring absolute knowledge and wisdom? How can it have the power of choice and preference? So, one who has all these attributes has established these natural laws and uses them to veil His operations for a certain purpose.

Plants require air, water, heat, and light. But they can obtain none of these on their own. Our needs are infinite. Fortunately, all of our essential needs, from the very beginning of our earthly existence to our death, are met by someone beyond our own capacity and intervention. We enter this world and find everything prepared to meet our all sense, intellectual, and spiritual needs. This clearly shows that one who is infinitely merciful and knowledgeable provides for all created beings in the most extraordinary way, and causes all things to collaborate to that end.

Mutual helping. As mentioned above, everything in the universe helps everything else. This mutual helping is so comprehensive that, for example, just as almost all things (including air, water, fire, soil, the sun and sky) help us in the most extraordinarily prearranged manner, so do bodily cells, members, and systems cooperate to keep us alive. Soil, air, water, heat, and bacteria cooperate to keep plants alive. This cooperation and mutual helping, observed among unconscious beings but requiring knowledge and deliberate purpose, show the existence of one who arranges them in that miraculous way. Cleanliness. Until we began over-polluting our air, water, and land, the natural world was cleansed and purified continually. Even now, it preserves its original purity in many regions where the ways of modern civilization have not yet taken hold. Have you ever wondered why nature is so clean, why forests are so clean although many animals die there every day? Have you ever considered that if all flies born in a single summer were to survive, our planet would be covered with layers of fly bodies? Have you ever noticed that nothing is wasted in nature? Every death is the beginning of a new birth. For example, a dead body decomposes and is integrated into the ground. Elements die and are revived in plants; plants die in animal and human stomachs and are promoted to the higher rank of life. This cycle of death and revival is one reason for the universe's continual cleanliness and purity. As well as bacteria and insects, winds and rain, black holes, and oxygen all serve to sustain the universe's purity. This purity points to one who is all-holy, whose attributes include cleanliness and purity.

[basicsofislam]

BASICS OF ISLAM

Existence of God.Part1

Q: Does God exist? The existence of God is too evident to need any arguments.

Some saintly scholars have stated that God Himself is more manifest than any other being, but those who lack insight cannot see Him. Others have said that He is concealed from direct perception because of His Self-manifestation's intensity.

However, the great influence of positivism and materialim on science humanity makes it necessary to discuss such arguments. This way of thinking reduces existence to what can be directly perceived and thereby blinds itself to the invisible dimensions of existence, which are far more vast than the visible. Since we must strive to remove the veil drawn by materialism and positivism, we will review briefly some of the traditional demonstrations for God's necessary existence.

Before doing so, it is worth reflecting upon the historical fact that, since the very beginning of human life, the overwhelming majority of humanity has believed in God's existence.

This alone is enough to establish God's existence. Unbelievers cannot claim intellectual superiority over believers, for the latter contain many innovative scientists, scholars, researchers and, most importantly, saints and Prophets (the experts in this field). Also, people usually confuse the non-acceptance of something's existence with the acceptance of its non-existence. While the former is only a negation or a rejection, the latter is a judgment needing proof. No one has ever proven, and cannot prove, God's non-existence. In contrast, countless arguments prove His existence.

This point may be clarified through the following analogy: Imagine a large palace with 1,000 entrances, 999 of which are open and one of which appears to be closed. How can you claim that the palace cannot be entered? This is what unbelievers do by confining their (and others') attention only to the door which appears to be closed. The doors to God's existence are open to everybody, provided that they sincerely intend to enter through them.

Some of those doors—the demonstrations for God's existence—are as follows:

Creation is contingent. In other words, it is equally possible for something to exist or not to exist. Also, it is possible for something to come into existence at any time, place, and form, and with any character. No thing or person has any role in determining how, when, or where it comes into existence, or what character and features it will have. Some power has to choose. This power must be infinite, and have absolute will and all-comprehensive knowledge. Necessarily, this power is God. Things are finite. Everything is changeable. Given this, everything is contained by time and space and therefore must have a beginning and an end. That which has a beginning needs a beginningless one to bring it into existence. As an unending regress through the originator of each originator is unacceptable, reason demands the existence of one who is infinitely self-existent and self-subsistent, who does not change. This one is God. Life. Life is a riddle but transparent. It is a riddle that scientists cannot explain with material causes, and transparent because it shows or reflects a creative power. Through both of these characteristics, life declares: "God created me." Orderliness in creation. Everything in the universe, and the universe as a whole, displays a magnificent harmony and order. This is seen in every item and in their harmonious interrelationships. This is true to such an extent that one part's existence necessitates the whole's existence, just as the whole's existence requires all its parts' existence. A single deformed cell may lead to the whole body's death. Similarly a single pomegranate requires for its existence the collaborative and cooperative existence of air, water, soil, and the sun, as well as their well-balanced mutual cooperation. Such harmony and cooperativeness point to a creator of order, one who knows everything in all its relations and characteristics, one who can put everything in order. The creator of that order is God. Artistry in creation. All creation exhibits an overwhelming artistry of dazzling worth. Yet it is created, as we see it, easily and quickly. Furthermore, creation is divided into countless families, genera, species, and even smaller groups, each of which has so many members. Despite this variety and abundance, we see only orderliness, art, and ease. This shows the existence of one with an absolute power and knowledge: God. Finality in creation. Nothing in the universe is pointless. As ecology shows in particular, everything in creation, no matter how apparently insignificant, has a significant role in existence and serves a certain purpose. The chain of creation up to humanity, the last link in creation, is evidently directed toward a final purpose. Since this requires a wise one who pursues certain purposes in creation, and since only humanity has the consciousness to pursue those purposes, the wisdom and purposiveness in creation necessarily point to God.

[tawakkull]

[basicsofislam]

BASICS OF ISLAM :

Aspects of Jihad.Part1

Q: What are the different aspects of jihad ? Jihad literally means striving or doing one's best to achieve something, and its practitioners (mujahidin) are those who devote themselves fully to obtaining God's good pleasure by opposing those forces that seek to defeat His religion and the upholding of His word. It is far more complex and abstract than actual war, known in Arabic as qital.

A major principle of jihad is enjoining good and forbidding evil (amr bi al-ma'ruf wa nahiy 'an al-munkar), which involves promoting virtues and trying to block the spread of vices. The Islamic community, introduced by the Qur'an, is envisioned as a model community that makes every effort to exemplify what the Prophet brought to its members:

Thus We have made you a community justly balanced, that you might be witnesses for all people, and the Messenger may be a witness for you (2:143).

Aspects of jihad The first Revelation contained the command Read!, although there was little to read among the Arabs and most of them were illiterate. Thus, many scholars have deduced that this command means that believers should use their intellectual and spiritual faculties to discern God's acts in the universe and His laws in the universe's creation and operation, and thereby purify their minds of superstition through acquiring true knowledge based on observation and contemplation.

By satisfying their minds through studying the Divine signs in the universe and cleansing their hearts of sins, people secure a balanced life. Constantly aware of His supervision and of their need to seek forgiveness at all times, people will break their carnal selves' forbidden desires and, through prayer, be able to do good deeds.

Thus Read! signifies an action. For God's Messenger, pure and without superstition, it meant he would have to start his mission of informing his people of God's revelations and how to read the signs in the universe in order to purify their minds of superstition and their hearts of sin. He would enlighten them, intellectually and spiritually, by instructing them in both the Qur'an and the universe:

We have sent among you, of yourselves, a Messenger who recites to you Our signs, purifies you, and instructs you in the Book and in the Wisdom, and also instructs you in what you know not (2:151).

People are like raw minerals waiting to be purified and refined by Prophets, who remove the seal from their hearts and ears and lift the veils from their eyes. Thus enlightened, people can understand the meaning of the Divine laws of nature, which are signs of His Existence and Unity, and penetrate into the subtle reality of things and events. Only those who are guided by Prophets can attain the high status that God expects them to attain. Prophets also instruct people in the Book (the Qur'an) and in Wisdom.

The Prophet teaches us what we do not know, and we will continue to learn from him about how to purify ourselves from sin until the Day of Judgment. Such great saints as 'Ali ibn Abu Talib, 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Imam Ghazzali, Imam Rabbani, Fudayl ibn 'Iyad, Ibrahim ibn Adham, Bishr al-Khafi, and others who might have been Prophets if God had not ended that function with Prophet Muhammad, have followed this way.

Jihad, which enables believers to keep their belief vigorous and active, has two aspects. The first is the greater jihad, which involves fighting superstition, wrong convictions, carnal desires, and evil inclinations in the pursuit of intellectual and spiritual enlightenment. The second is the lesser jihad, which involves encouraging others to follow this path. While usually understood in a military sense, it is far more than that it consists of every action done by a believer or a believing community to advance the cause of Islam for His sake by ways of which He has approved. These two aspects cannot be separated, for success in one helps the believer achieve success in the other.

The Prophet perfectly combined these two aspects. Testimonials to his unequalled courage when facing his enemies are found in numerous history books, as are accounts of his spiritual battles during the nights and while fasting. Even though God had forgiven all of his sins, he once asked 'A'isha, when she thought his persistence in prayer to be excessive:

"Shall I not be a slave grateful to God?" He also would pray:

"O God, I seek refuge in your pleasure from Your wrath, in Your forgiveness from Your punishment, and with You from You. I cannot praise You as You praise Yourself." His Companions followed his example as best they could. They were as sincere and humble as dervishes in worshipping God at night. Sincere in their deeds, they did everything only for His sake. If our jihad is to be successful, this is the path that we must follow. We must defeat our pride, self-regard, and insincerity, and strive to acquire self-control, spread the truth to others, overcome our carnal desires and animal impulses, and encourage others to do likewise in order to obtain God's good pleasure. The Prophet said about these two aspects:

"The eyes of two people will never witness the fire of Hell: The eyes of the soldier who guards the frontiers and on battlefields, and the eyes of one who cries for fear of God." In Surat al-Nasr, the Qur'an describes both types of jihad:

When the help of God comes, and victory, and you see people entering God's religion in throngs, then glorify the praise of your Lord, and seek His forgiveness, for He is Relenting, Merciful (110:1-3).