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posted by abu abdAllah Tariq Ahmed
May Allah grant you and yours from the best part of His Mercy today, before the 10 days of Mercy give way to the 10 days of Forgiveness; though His Mercy is always accessible to you, especially in Ramadan, the month of Mercy. May appreciating His Mercy prepare you to seek and bi ‘idhnillah receive His Forgiveness. And a special jazak Allah khayr to Amad who let me rush in this post.
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I would prefer for all of you the best guidance, and the best guidance is from Allah and His Messenger. And I wanted to share two things I learned from my 9th night of Ramadan. Subsequently, some corrections and examples have been added among the comments that I encourage any reader of the article to consider, too. And whatever good there is in what I have written is from Allah, and whatever harm is in it was from me. May Allah accept the good of it, and accept my repentance for the harm of it while protecting you from it, too.
Now for advice: learn Arabic, and find the tongue with which to speak to your brothers and sisters. Among many blessings of that day and night, Allah caused me to make iftar on the ninth night of Ramadan with Houston’s Bosnian community though I speak not two words of Bosanski, alhamdolillah alaa kulli haal.
Yet Allah was not only Merciful to me, but His Mercy extended to me a new brother — the masjid’s new imam (FOB Bosnia, mashaAllah) who speaks almost no English. We spoke much of the night in our common language.
Arabic.
Granted his Arabic made mine look as bad as my deficient studiousness deserved, but there’s a stern truth to be had here: confine yourself to English, and you have cut yourself off from the language in which students of knowledge converse. Study Arabic, and bi ‘idhnillah, just like me, you can at least learn from those students that Allah brings your way.
Second, a pearl of Mercy from my ninth night that shone so bright for me that tears flowed freely from my eyes afterwards while I drove home, until Allah sent a police car to make sure I kept my mind on careful late night driving.
Traditional Bosnian taraweeh finishing as quickly as it does, alhamdolillah, I had time to drop off everyone in my minivan and still get to Madrassah Islamiyyah in time to catch the majority of Hafidh Iqbal’s Urdu-language post-taraweeh “dars.” I mention that dars was in Urdu, partially because you non-Desis are just out of luck: this much of the Mercy of Allah you can only get the table scraps from it. And yet if you spoke Arabic, mashaAllah, you would have a language in common with Hafidh Iqbal, too.
By the end of their ninth night of taraweeh, Madrassah Islamiyyah had already finished Surah Tawbah, alhamdolillah. When I arrived in the musallah, the dars was about that surah.
And what brought tears to my eyes was the discussion of three particular sahabat who missed the Battle of Tabouk. In particular the punishment they endured before Allah accepted tawbah from each of them. And it made me think about when I have repented to Allah.
These three sahabah did not cause the battle to be lost. Indeed the Romans fled before ever entering the field of battle with the multitudes who were with RasoolAllah sull Allaho alayhi wa sallam.
These three sahabah were not guilty of any sin that would raise the eyebrows at masajid around the world.
All they did was procrastinate.
They knew about the call of RasoolAllah sull Allaho alayhi wa sallam to the Muslims to come as they were, in all haste, to join his army to defend Islam from the power of Rome. And they were hale and hearty, capable of fighting and without encumbrance or excuse. But things of this world held just enough of their attention that by the time they might have answered the call, the matter was settled on earth as well as in heaven.
And when the munafiqoon of Madinah, who had already been exposed in Uhud for example, gave excuses for their absence to RasoolAllah, not one was punished. And when the infirm and those with excuses to offer had done so, not one was punished.
But these three did what most of us would call a good deed: they admitted their error remorsefully, and offered no lie or exaggeration to save their necks. And what they endured…
First Allah and His Rasool handed down the commandment to the Muslims that they had to boycott these three. Then the boycott became even more firm such that the women of the households of these three had to leave them no comfort. And by the time 50 days had elapsed even the earth on which they walked hated the touch of them.
SubhanAllah, I could not imagine myself surviving 50 days like that for the sins I have done, wAllaho’Alim. Do you understand that they had the benefit of knowing exactly when Allah’s Anger was upon them? And exactly when His Mercy was extended to them? They were companions of the Messenger, sull Allaho alayhi wa sallam, so he delivered the commandment to boycott them, and he conveyed the news of the Mercy of Allah.
We, you and I, we live in silence of a different kind altogether. How often do we make tawbah for any one action that requires it? How much time passes before we let our minds wander from the gravity of what we have done? These sahabah had no such respite.
We know the hadith which teaches that when Allah Loves one of His slaves — may He Love you, and me, too — then He Commands Jibreel alayhis salam to love that slave. And what happens by the end of that hadith? From all creation comes love for that slave, alhamdolillah. SubhanAllah, I say we revel in contemplating this isnad of love.
Those three endured in a physical and emotional fashion the half of the hadith that most Muslims tend to forget. What happens — may Allah save us from it — when Allah Hates from amongst His slaves. That hate manifests from all creation.
And from one point of view their misdeed caused not one single bit of difference. Which point of view? The view of one whose heart is in ghafla, may Allah protect us from that. The heart of one who sins without guilt — that person might look at what transpired before and after Tabouk and say, “no harm, no foul.” That perhaps these three should have protested. After all, the imam of your masjid, the ameer of your local students of knowledge, or your teacher of ilm — have not they ever asked you to do something while you came back on the due date or after with an excuse? SubhanAllah, wastagfirullah, wa ‘attooboo ‘alayh.
Indeed the enemies of Islam thought this period of punishment was the opportunity in which to turn aside one of these three sahabat. And realizing that hurt those sahabat even more: not only does the earth itself despise their touch, but the accursed ones look to them as potential allies?
And after that Allah showed them Mercy.
And it really was the best day of their lives when Allah turned to them in Mercy.
And it only took 50 days.
So, how long should we be patient seeking the Mercy of Allah when we know what we know, each of us, about ourselves? And do we feel the gratitude those sahabah felt when we witness some event in our life that bears testimony that Allah has extended us His Mercy or Forgiveness or both?
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Siraaj Muhammad
August 30, 2009 at 5:17 PM
Great article, jazakallaahu khayran for this excellent reminder and reflection.
Siraaj
abu abdAllah Tariq Ahmed
August 31, 2009 at 1:44 AM
Wa eeyak, Siraaj. :)
MBloggerer
August 30, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Masha’Allah, absolutely beautiful message. Jazak Allahu khayran and keep up the goodly works.
Abu Saffiyah
August 30, 2009 at 6:55 PM
Jazaka Allah Kheir. The three companions’ story really is powerful subhana Allah.
As for Arabic, I remember seeing Sh. Abdulbary Yahya, Sh. Saed Rageah and Sh. Shazim Khan talk in Arabic, a Vietnamese, Somalian and a Pakistani and I thought ‘Subhana Allah’, Arabic IS the language of toulab al ‘ilm.
Only one correction, may Allah strenghten us all. The hadith “It (Ramadhan) is the month, whose beginning is mercy, its middle, forgiveness and its end, emancipation from the fire (of hell)” is weak.
The hadeeth was narrated in the Saheeh of Ibn Khuzaima 1887, that Ali ibn Zaid ibn Jad’aan narrated that Sa’eed ibn Almusayyab narrated that Salman Alfarisi narrated the hadeeth. At the end, Ibn Khuzaima said “if it is authentic” and mentioned about Ali ibn Zaid “He is not trustworthy, as he has a bad memory.” The only other books of hadeeth this hadeeth appeared was in Alwahidi in Alwaseet, and by Almahamili, as it wasn’t narrated in any of the 6 books.
There are several scholars of hadeeth who all agreed that this narrator is weak such as Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, Imam Al Bayhaqi, Al-Albani, and others.
Also, Sh. Waleed Abdulhakeem notes: “As upon examining the text of the Hadeeth, Ramadan is all mercy, not just the first 10 days. Ramadan is all forgiveness, not just the middle 10. And so on. So the Hadeeth is not authentic from both sides, the chain of narration, and the strangeness of the text. And Allah knows best.”
abu abdAllah Tariq Ahmed
August 31, 2009 at 1:47 AM
Jazak Allah khayr, akhi. I had never heard these critiques of the hadith. I especially appreciated the detail you provided. May Allah increase you in ‘ilm.
ummimaryam
August 30, 2009 at 8:39 PM
Assalamualykum brother,
After long time I am reading your article.Jazakumallahu khairaa for a excellent piece.The lesson I learned from taseer of surah Tawba – the three shahabas were truthful and repented sincerely ..May Allahtaala include us among saadiq and among the special slaves to whom Allahtaala is Raouf…
salaam
ibnabeeomar
August 30, 2009 at 11:06 PM
great post mashallah
Sadaf Farooqi
August 30, 2009 at 11:12 PM
How do we know? Please can you give an example of such an event?
abu abdAllah Tariq Ahmed
August 31, 2009 at 2:45 AM
I apologize, ukhti. I would prefer for you the best guidance, and the best guidance is from Allah and His Messenger. I would guess that if there was confusion caused by what you quoted, it was from the limits of my writing, either in my content, the style, or the choice of words.
May Allah forgive me for it: I had thought to add to my article words that much wiser men and women would have added without hesitation, “And whatever good there is in what I have written is from Allah, and whatever harm is in it was from me.” So jazak Allah khayr for giving me cause to add it via this comment.
As to what answer I could offer, an example we can consider every Friday from the Seerah and the tafsir of Surah al-Kahf (please correct me if I am mistaken at all). The Prophet sull Allaho alayhi wa sallam was often questioned by the kuffaar who only hoped thereby to embarrass him — may Allah’s curse be on each and every responsible party who ever sought to embarrass him during his life or after, save only those whom it pleases Allah to Forgive such as those who subsequently accept(ed) Islam. Khayr, it so happens that Surah al-Kahf contains ayat that are answers which had been promised on the expectation of revelation. And Allah delayed those revelations to make clear what pleases Him more. And the revelation of the verses was itself an event that signified Allah’s pleasure with His Messenger, sull Allaho alayhi wa sallam.
And I think that the sahabat receiving the news of Allah’s acceptance of their tawbah is the example of an event that was on my mind when I wrote the article.
A third example I like is of the scholars whose understanding of the effects of sin was so accurate mashaAllah that when they would find themselves forgetful, they recognized the need to make istigfar. And they attributed their returned memory to that repentance. Still these instances of forgetfulness might be counted as minor events by some, despite the consequences. Imagine the one who loses from his memory an ayat of Quran, may Allah protect us from it. And then he dies, perhaps that next instant. If Allah grants him jannat, still that ayat will be looking down at him from the next level of jannat — the level to which he would have ascended had he retained it. A significant loss, may Allah protect us from it.
Yet another example might be that of any person who is beset at any time by what seems to him a great trial, may Allah preserve us in our deen. We know it may be that Allah grants thereby a higher station to this person though his sabr. Yet we know, and I suggest that the person himself should know, that much misfortune is brought on man by his misdeeds, misfortune as punishment in this life that he might rectify himself. — And lost indeed is the person who has forgotten that Allah accepts sincere repentance from anyone before death’s approach. — So consider the man who alhamdolillah repents. Then literally he finds ease in his life, and the ease itself is proof of Allah’s Mercy to him, whether or not the man later remembers. And may Allah cause us to die as those who remember Him and His Graces much and often.
Algebra
August 31, 2009 at 3:05 PM
MashAllah nice explanations.
salam
abu abdAllah Tariq Ahmed
August 31, 2009 at 3:12 AM
And I would include, too, as examples “everyday miracles” and ones not so everyday — to me these all exemplify events/signs/ayat of Allah’s Mercy, and depending on the situation, also of His Forgiveness or Forbearance.
Also when I write that an event bears witness, I mean in the sense that the significance of the event in terms of Mercy, Forgiveness, Forbearance is manifest and evident — that only those lost in the darknesses/dhulumaat of this world would miss the meaning. Yet the evidence will still be available against each such person because Allah will not let them confuse themselves on the Day of Judgment when confronted with the event recorded in their book of deeds…
And may Allah accept our repentances, extend us His Mercy, grant us our books in our right hands, and admit us to Jannat al Firdaus without question.
Fay
September 2, 2009 at 11:47 PM
Jazakallah Khayr, this was very much needed you have no idea how much this meant to me. May Allah(swt) accept all our sincere repentance.