“Be Patient and Paradise will be Yours”

Narrated Abu Said-Khudree (Ra):

Some Ansari persons asked for (something) from Allah’s Messenger (saw) and he gave them. They again asked him for (something) and he again gave them. And then they asked him and he gave them again till all that was with him finished. And then he (saw) said:

“If I had anything I would not keep it away from you. (Remember) Whoever abstains from asking others, Allah will make him contented, and whoever tries to make himself self-sufficient, Allah ill make him self-sufficient. And whoever remains patient Allah will make him patient. Nobody can be given a blessing better and greater than patience.” [Sahih Bukhari]

Also, Ata bin Rabah (RA) said: Ibn “Abbas said to me, “Shall I show you a woman of the people of paradise?” I said, “Yes” He said, “This black lady came to the Prophet (saw) and said, ‘I get attacks of epilepsy and my body becomes uncovered; please invoke Allah for me.’ The Prophet (saw) said (to her):

‘If you wish, be patient and Paradise will be yours’ and if you wish, I will invoke Allah to cure you.’

She said, ‘I will remain patient’ and added, ‘but I become uncovered, so please invoke Allah for me that I may not become uncovered.’ So he invoked Allah for her” [Sahih Bukhari]                              

'The issue of our Heart'

The issue of people’s hearts is an important and sensitive issue. The heart is called al-qalb in Arabic because it changes so quickly and frequently(taqallub – alteration, variation, ups and downs).

The Prophet (peace beupon him) said:
"The heart (qalb) takes its name from its constant changes (taqallub). The likeness of the heart is that of a feather at the root of a tree, being turned over and over by the wind." [Reported by Ahmad 4/408].

Man’s heart changes constantly, as the Prophet (peace be upon him) described: “The heart of the son of Adam changes more quickly than a pan of rapidly boiling water.” [Kitab al-Sunnah, no. 226]. 

 
Allah is the One Who turns hearts around and controls them.
Abd-Allah ibn Amr ibn al-As reported that he heard the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) say: “The hearts of the children of Adam are as one between the fingers of the Most Merciful, and He turns them in whatever way He wills.” Then he said: “O Allah, Controller of the hearts, direct our hearts to obey You.” [Reported by Muslim, no. 2654].

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The '3' type of Nafs mentioned in Qur'an:

1.) Nafs-e-Ammara: 'The one who sins without any remorse, without any guilt, without feeling regret, without feeling bad, they feel no shame after sinning etc. another example is when someone goes to sleep at night without even intending to wake up for fajr'

Treatment of Nafs-e-Ammara:

When you are firm onto your Fard & Wajibat.

2.) Nafs-e-Lowamah: 'The one who becomes half a Muslim, The one who sins at times but at times they don't sin. They feel bad after sinning, they have some remorse, some guilt, they feel the sting of the sin, they feel sad after sinning, etc.

3.) Nafs-e-Mutami'yeena:'The one's who don't even feel like sinning, they are so much into the remembrance of Allah (swt) that Allah (swt) is pleased with them as they are pleased with Allah (swt). Such people are 'Maqbool' (beloved) & 'Qabool' (accepted) in the sight of Allah (swt). Those people who attain this Nafs, Allah (swt) bless their heart with contentment because they are people of 'Takwa' (and Allah (swt) has mentioned this in Qur'an Himself)

How to reach Nafs-e-Mutami'yeena from Nafs-e-Lowamah:

When you are not only firm onto your Fard & Wajibat but you are also firm on 'Dhikr' of Allah (swt) and the sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (saw), This is the ONLY way one can travel from Nafs-e-Lowamah to Nafs-e-Mutami'yeena. Allah (swt) brings such people close to Him, and those whom Allah (swt) guide and want close to Him not even their Nafs can ever put them into sin.

- Shaykh Mufti Kamaluddin Ahmed (db)

Link: www.islamicspirituality.org

Is the Grass Greener on the Other Side?

This is very simple, Allah (swt) created life as a test, and there is no human being that escapes other than being tested. Now a lot of times what happens is, we look at other people’s lives and we think that they’re not being tested. We say “wow, my life is so difficult but this guy’s making $50,000 more than me, he has no problems” Right, this is human nature. Human nature is to look at the other person and always think that the grass is greener on the other side. I will tell you that there is no way that the grass is greener on the other side. First of all I know that having bad enough experience living in this life and having enough people come and tell me their problems… that the millionaire has problems and the person who is at below the poverty level also has their own problems. Now are the problems the same? 

No, the millionaire has problems that you would think that ‘how a person with so much wealth ever has problems’ and they have the same number of problems as the person living at the poverty level. It’s just the way Allah (swt) created life, you can’t escape, it’s not that when you earn a certain amount of money, you’ve escaped or that when you have a certain number of friends you’ve escaped or when you have a certain number of square feet in your home you’ve escaped. So Allah (swt) created varying tests and they vary based on the amount that a person’s been given but everybody’s being tested. So it’s the foolish one that looks at another person’s life and says “well if I had that I would do this” that doesn’t make any sense, if you had that you would have your own set of tests and you might fail them miserably or you might succeed, it doesn’t make any difference. Allah (swt) is not going to ask you what He gave you. You won’t be asked “I gave you this or I gave you this, why was it?” No, Allah (swt) gives you whatever He gives you. You will be asked how you used what He gave you.

So if He gave you health you’ll be asked about how you used it. But if you weren’t given health you won’t be asked why you didn’t have health. If you had wealth Allah (swt) will ask how you attained it and how you spent it. But if you don’t have it, Allah (swt) won’t ask you why you didn’t have wealth, that won’t be a question on the Day of Judgment that your salary was $100,000 how come it wasn’t $120,000? Answer up! That’s not going to be a question on the Day of Judgment. So that’s the way Allah (swt) has created life and we should be very clear, we don’t ever need to look at another person and ask why we’re not that person. We’re comfortable with whatever Allah (swt) made us and we should recognize that every single persons in a test. The biggest mistake, in fact the way you fail the test is to complain. 

“How come I don’t have this?

How come I don’t have that?

How come my kids are like this?

How come my this is like that?

How come my boss is like this?”

Those are all complaints they don’t get you anywhere. Nobody wins the game by complaining, In fact the Prophet (saw) asked for protection from the complaining tongue. That’s the person who gets deceived, they start blaming the world for their circumstance rather than recognizing that their circumstances are an opportunity for them to convert the mundane into something much more special.

- Shaykh Husain Abdul Sattar

Sunnah's of our beloved Prophet Muhammed (saw)

Sunnah's of our beloved Prophet (saw) have a lot of Barakah, we never know what little act Allah (swt) might like so He may shower his blessings on us. Ameen.

Instead of 'Hello' say As-Salam O Alaikum
Instead of 'Okay' say Insha'Allah
Instead of 'Bye' say Fia'man Allah
Instead of 'Thank You' say Jazak'Allah
Instead of 'Great' say Masha'Allah
Instead of 'I am fine' say Alhamd'u'lillah
Instead of 'Awesome' say Subhan'Allah

Don’t Run After The Sweets of This World, Live the Life of Prophet Muhammad (saw)

How Many People, Strive Extremely To Earn This World, To Gather, To Pile Up This World? Day After Day, Night After Night, Week After Week, Year After Year, Their Whole Life Is To Pile and Gather and Then, After They've Gathered What They Want to Gather, DEATH Takes Them and They Enjoy Nothing.

Many Of Those Who Saw The Beginning Of Day Yet, Did Not See The End Of It Many Are Those, Who Expected Morning but Did Not Live To See It, If Only You Had Known Your Appointed Time, You Would Had Detested For Worldly Materials. Brothers and Sisters, What Are We? Who Are We? We Are Nothing but Flesh and Bones, We Are Nothing but Servants, Slaves of the Al-Mighty Lord, Of Allah (swt) The One Who gave Us this Life In Order To Utilize This Life, Not The Way Me or You Want, No!!! We Are Slaves of The One That Gave us This Ability, Who Lent Us This Body That We Are Carrying, In Order To Utilize It, In The Way and Only Way He Is Pleased With.

 The Day Will Come When Your Bones Will Be bared Of Its Flesh, There Will Be No More Flesh On It and Your Living Bodies That You Are Carrying Today Will Become A Hand Full Of Bones, Underneath A Pile Of Dirt. This Is Your Reality, The Intelligent Man For This Reflects, Contemplates, Ponders Of His Reality He Knows That His Time Is Passing Away, Every Second That Goes, Is Gone but It Will Be Registered In Your Record, Either For or Against You. Our Time Is Melting Away, Just Like A Block Or Cube Of Ice but The Intelligent Man Knows, And Believes, that His Real Success, His Only Salvation Is To Do All The Acts That Will Remove Him, From The Severe Punishment Of Hellfire and Thus Admit Him Into Eternal Bliss Of Paradise, Isn’t This What We Want? Isn’t This What We Are Striving For? Only Allah (swt) Knows Our Time Dear Brothers and Sisters, Only the Al-Mighty Lord Knows When The Hour Will Come"

Open your Eyes and Plan Your Future According to Qur’an & Sunnah of Our Beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw) before it’s too late. Follow the Footsteps of Prophet Muhammad (saw) who was Rehmatul-il-alameen For All the Creation of Allah (swt). He Is the Most Blessed Personality And He Is Our Leader, He Is Our Role Model. A Leader Lives His Life In Comfort And Makes Others Work But My Brothers And Sisters Our Leader, The Leader of All Mankind, The Leader of All Creation of Allah (swt) Faced The Most Hardships In His Life, He Was Tortured By Non-Believers The Most, Yet He prayed For Their Forgiveness, Yet He Asked Allah (swt) to Forgive them, Have You Forgotten The People of Taif???, Oh My Allah (swt) Bless Our Nabi (saw), Where Would We Ever Find A Man Like Him? A Personality Like That? Nowhere, Never Ever, He Sacrificed Everything All luxuries For Us, For His Ummat And We Are Answerable for That. We Have to Repay Him And In order to Do So We Need to Follow His Footsteps, Live The Life of Our Prophet Muhammad (saw), to Bring Coolness To His Eyes When We Meet Him in Jannah Insha’Allah ul Aziz. May Allah (swt) Bless Us All And Lead Us To The Straight Path By His Grace And Enable Us to Follow Our Beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw)’s Mubarik Footsteps. Ameen

Night of 15th of Sha'ban & it's importance

Allah (swt) , due to his infinite grace and mercy, presented to His bondsmen some special occasions wherein they have a golden opportunity of earning the mercy and forgiveness of Allah. 

Some explicit examples of these special occasions are the nights of Ramadan and Laylatul Qadr. In the same mold is the fifteenth night of Sha'baan. 

Several Ahaadith extol the tremendous merit of this occasion. Amongst them is the fact that countless people are forgiven by Allah during this blessed night. It is due to this reason that this night is called "The night of Bara'at" (i.e. the night wherein judgment of being from Jahannam and punishmentis passed).

SOME AHADITH CONCERNING SHAB-E-BARA'AT

1. It is reported from Hazrat Mau’dh Ibn-e-Jabal (R.A.) that Rasulullah (S.A.W.)said: "On the fifteenth night of Sha’ban Allah bestows his special attention on His entire creation. He then pardons His entire creation except an idolater and one who harbours enmity.' 

2.  It is narrated from Hazrat Abdullah bin Amr (R.A.) that RasulAllah (S.A.W.) said "Allah looks with special attention towards His creation on the fifteenth night of Sha'baan and forgives all his servants except two categories of people; the person who harbours enmity and a murderer." 

And countless other such narrations are found. However while some of the narrations regarding Laylatul Bara’ah are weak and may lead one into the error of totally disregarding this wondrous night, we have to see what the understanding of Muhaditheen was regarding these narrations & save ourselves from adopting an attitude that might lead us into missing out on this night’s Barakah. 

VIEW OF MUHADITHEEN REGARDING SHAB-E-BARA'AT

 “An overview of the various narrations regarding this night lends credence to the acceptability of the virtue of this night. The Reason being that although these narrations are weak, they are numerous and narrated by a number of Sahabah.

Some are such that not much criticism has been leveled at their Sanad (chain of narrators). Ibnu-Hibbaan has included some of these narrations in his 'Sahih" and Hafiz Mundhiri has remarked regarding the Sanad of some that 'LA BA'SA BIHI' (it is acceptable). 

Therefore, according to the principal of the Muhadditheen, the excellence of the night of Bara'at is proven from a conjunction of all narrations.  This is the general consensus of the Muhadditheen and Fuqaha and this is correct. 

Even Ibn-e-Taymiyyah, accepts the virtue of the night of Bara'at.  He says: 'So many Abaadith and reports exist regarding the excellence of the fifteenth night of Sha'ban that one is compelled to accept that this night does possess some virtue.' Some of the pious predecessors used to specially devote this night for Salah” -Muhaddith Shaykh Fazl-ur-Rahman al-Azam

 

VIRTUE OF THIS NIGHT AS ESTABLISHED BY MUHADITHEEN

 “The virtue of this night that is established from these Ahaadith is that from the very beginning of the night Allah turns with special mercy and attention towards the creation and forgives those who repent and seek forgiveness. Every Muslim should therefore value this night. Turn towards Allah with sincere regret and shame over sins committed and make a promise never to return to sin again and seek forgiveness from Allah. Seek forgiveness for oneself and the rest of the Muslims, living and deceased. Have the firm hope and resolution in the heart that Allah will surely show mercy and forgiveness.” - Muhaddith Shaykh Fazl-ur-Rahman al-Azam

 UNFORTUNATE PEOPLE WHO ARE DEPRIVED ON THIS NIGHT

It is understood from the Ahaadith that even on this night, some servants of Allah are deprived of His forgiveness. They are as follows:

1. Idolaters

2. Those who harbour enmity against others

3. Consumers of alcohol

4. Those who disobey their parents

5. Those who wear their trousers, kurtas, lungis, etc. below their ankles;

6. Those who commit adultery and murderers

7. And those who sever family ties.

We can thus gauge the severity of these sins and the need to perpetually abstain from them as they are so grave that even on an occasion when Allah's mercy comes to the fore, they still pose an obstacle to our forgiveness.

Every Muslim should consider carefully and if he is involved in any of these sins, he should sincerely repent and seek forgiveness for his sin lest he be deprived of this night.

THE SPECIAL VIRTUE OF THE NIGHT OF BARA'AT

 The special virtues of the night of Bara'at are:

1. Contrary to other nights wherein the last third of the night has special blessings and Allah descends to the lowest Heaven during this section of the night, on the night of Bara'at the special rain of the mercy and forgiveness of Allah begins to shower down right from the beginning of the night and continues right up till dawn.

2. The sins of countless of people are pardoned. The numbers of pronouncements seeking out those who want forgiveness far supersede those which occur on other nights. 

THE FAST OF THE 15TH OF SHA'BAAN

Whereas the fast of 15th of Sha’ban is not Sunnah, however it was a Sunnah of Nabi SAW to fast a lot in the month of Sha’baan. And if we have uptil now been deprived of this Sunnah, 15th of Sha’baan can be a good chance for us; a night of Ibadah followed up by a day of fasting will inshAllah benefit us spiritually.

Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed, regarding the fast of 15th of Sha’ban states:

“Muhadiseen have viewed the reports about the 15th of Shaban to be transmitted by a chain that is known as ‘hasan’. Ibn-e-Tamiyah himself mentions the amal or the practice of all the great and pious generations of Muslims, that they would make special worship on this night and that they would fast on the day of the 15th of Sha’ban. So, I would encourage generally that the Prophet saw used to increase his fasts in the month of Sha’ban and if someone hasn’t started as yet, starting from the 15th would be a wonderful way to start. Otherwise, it was a year round sunnah of the Prophet saw, that he saw used to fast on the 13th, 14th and 15th of any month.”

The shaykh also states:

“For us, who live extremely busy lives that are distracted from the remembrance of Allah swt, we may need something to snap us into this reality that the month of Ramadan is indeed coming soon and I think for that reason, if nothing else, marking the night before the 15th of Sha’ban with extra ibadat and spending the day of the 15th of Shaban in a state of fasting is even more important and critical for us modernity afflicted Muslims, because we don’t have that Sunnah temperament that we are present and preparing for the month of Ramadan, which for us still seems like a distant future event. 

The thing that is critical for many of us that we should spend the night of the 15th of Shaban with as much ibadat as we can and that day in a state of fasting to snap us out of worldly distractions and back into heightened remembrance and awareness of Allah swt and to really make us feel the imminent coming of the month of Ramadan like the Prophet saw felt the imminent coming of the month of Ramadan.”

WHAT IBADAH TO DO IN THIS NIGHT?

 A person can do any sort of Ibadah on this night. No nawafil or special Salah of Laylatul Bara’ah are sunnah. One should try to do all sorts of Ibadah; darood, astaghfar, nawafil, zikr, dua etc.

Also no special amal is associated with this night, according to Sunnah.

MAKE SPECIAL DUA ON THIS NIGHT REGARDING SPIRITUAL RIZQ

 Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed states:

 “There are some Ahadith that mention that the night of 15th Sha’ban is a night in which Allah swt decides the Rizq of the creation for the upcoming year again these ahadith are hasan  in their chain of narration, they are reliably sound but not of utmost soundness. So, it’s not a necessary part of the Deen of Islam that a person believe in this but again we have to look and make our response the way that the muhadiseen and ullema was and it is that the vast overwhelming 95% of all of the mufasireen, muhadiseen, fuqaha, usooleen, auliya-e-kamileen took this to heart and they would make extra prayers and dua to Allah swt to make them a good Rizq in the following year.”

CONCEPT OF RIZQ

Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed:  “We need to understand that the concept of Rizq is much more than just monetary wealth and our sustenance, it includes first and foremost our spiritual rizq: that how much ‘amal we are going to do next year, how much ikhlaas it is going to have, how much qubooliat it will have i.e. how much will be accepted by Allah swt, how much tahajjud we are going to do, how much fajr we are going to do, how much isha we are going to do or how much jama’at we are going to do, how much dhikr we are going to do, how much tillawat, istighfar, durood salawaat, khidmat etc that we are going to do. 

And when we think of it like that, it’s very interesting that in the deen of Islam, Allah swt has linked this annual planning to the month of Ramadan, it almost seems that the 15th of Shaban is the initial decision by Allah swt about about how much to bestow upon us the following year but then Allah swt gave us the rest of Sha’ban and all of Ramadan to earn more and more.

**The above mentioned text has either been taken from “15th of Sha’ban in the Light of Quran & Hadith” by the great Muhaddith Shaykh Fazl-ur-Rahman al-Azam. Or from the audio by Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed.

The full text can be read at:

http://attahawi.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/15th-night-shabaan.pdf

And the audio at:

http://www.islamicspirituality.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Laylatul-Baraah-And-Spending-Shaban.mp3

 Source:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/zaynab-academy-lahore-unofficial/night-of-15th-of-shaban-its-importance/409922949044608?notif_t=note_reply