Welcome to Al-Irfad

By: Harun Yahya 

Have you ever thought about the fact that you did not exist before you were conceived and then born into the world and that you have come into existence from mere nothingness?

Have you ever thought about how the flowers you see in your living room everyday come out of pitch black, muddy soil with fragrant smells and are as colorful as they are?

Have you ever thought about how mosquitoes, which irritatingly fly around you, move their wings so fast that we are unable to see them?

Have you ever thought about how the peels of fruits such as bananas, watermelons, melons and oranges serve as wrappings of high quality, and how the fruits are packed in these wrappings so that they maintain their taste and fragrance?

Have you ever thought about the possibility that while you are asleep a sudden earthquake could raze your home, your office, and your city to the ground and that in a few seconds you could lose everything of the world you possess?

Have you ever thought of how your life passes away very quickly, and that you will grow old and become weak, and slowly lose your beauty, health and strength?

Have you ever thought about how one day you will find the angels of death appointed by God before you and that you will then leave this world?

Well, have you ever thought about why people are so attached to a world from which they will soon depart when what they basically need is to strive for the hereafter?

Man is a being whom God furnishes with the faculty of thought. Yet, most people do not use this very important faculty as they should. In fact, some people almost never think.

In truth, each person possesses a capacity for thought of which even he himself is unaware. Once man begins to use this capacity, facts he has not been able to realise until that very moment begin to be uncovered for him. The deeper he goes in reflection, the more his capacity to think improves, and this is possible for everyone. One just has to realise that one needs to reflect and then to strive hard.

Someone who does not think will remain totally distant from truths and lead his life in self-deception and error. As a result, he will not grasp the purpose of the creation of the world, and the reason for his existence on the earth. Yet, God has created everything with a purpose. This fact is stated in the Qur’an as follows: 

We did not create the heavens and the earth and everything between them as a game. We did not create them except with truth but most of them do not know it. (Surat ad-Dukhan: 38-39)

Did you suppose that We created you for amusement and that you would not return to Us? (Surat al-Muminun: 115)

Therefore, each person needs to ponder the purpose of creation, first as it concerns him himself, and then as it pertains to everything he sees in the universe and every event he experiences throughout his life. Someone who does not think, will understand the facts only after he dies, when he gives account before God, but then it will be too late. God says in the Qur’an that on the day of account, everybody will think and see the truth:

That day Hell is produced, that day man will remember; but how will the remembrance help him? He will say, “Oh! If only I had prepared in advance for this life of mine!” (Surat al-Fajr: 23-24)

The truth can be told to a person in many different ways; it can be shown by the use of details, pieces of evidence and by every means. Yet, if this person does not think over this truth on his own, sincerely and honestly with the purpose of comprehending the truth, all these efforts are useless. For this reason, when the messengers of God communicated the message to their people, they told them the truth clearly and then summoned them to think.

While God has given us a chance in the life of this world to reflect and derive conclusions from our reflections, to see the truth will bring us great gain in our life in the hereafter. For this reason, God has summoned all people, through His prophets and books, to reflect on their creation and on the creation of the universe:

Have they not reflected within themselves? God did not create the heavens and the earth and everything between them except with truth and for a fixed term. Yet many people reject the meeting with their Lord. (Surat ar-Rum:

A man who reflects grasps the secrets of God’s creation, the truth of the life of this world, the existence of hell and paradise, and the inner truth of matters. He gets a deeper understanding of the importance of being a person with whom God is pleased, and so he lives religion as is its due, recognizes God’s attributes in everything he sees, and begins to think not according to what the majority of people demand but as God commands. As a result, he takes pleasure from beauty much more than others do, and does not suffer distress from baseless misapprehensions and worldly greed.

These are only a few of the beautiful things a person who thinks will gain in the world. The gain in the hereafter of someone who always finds the truth by thinking, is the love, approval, mercy and the paradise of our Lord, which are above everything else.

Harun Yahya is a pen name used by Mr. Adnan Oktar. Born in Ankara in 1956, Adnan Oktar is a prominent Turkish intellectual. Completely devoted to moral values and dedicated to communicating the sacred values he cherishes to other people, Oktar started his intellectual struggle in 1979 during his education at Mimar Sinan University’s Academy of Fine Arts.

by Sheikh Sâlih al-Zahrânî|
  

It should be known that obedience to Allah is one of the chief reasons for attaining Allah’s pleasure, while disobedience to Him is a reason for being subject to His wrath. This point is emphasized repeatedly in the Qur’ân and Sunnah.

Allah says: “And He is pleased with Islam for you as a religion.” [Sûrah al-Mâ’idah: 3]

He says: “And He is not pleased with ingratitude in His servants; and if you are grateful, He is pleased with this in you.” [Sûrah al-Zumar: 7]

Allah is pleased with those who are truthful. Allah says: “Allah will say: This is the day when their truth shall benefit the truthful ones; they shall have gardens beneath which rivers flow to abide therein for ever: Allah is well pleased with them and they are well pleased with Allah; this is the mighty achievement.” [Sûrah al-Mâ’idah: 119]

He is pleased with the believers. Allah says: “Their reward with their Lord is gardens of perpetuity beneath which rivers flow, abiding therein for ever; Allah is well pleased with them and they are well pleased with Him; that is for those who fear their Lord.” [Sûrah al-Bayyinah: 8].

Allah is pleased with the soul that is firm on faith. Such a soul will be addressed in the Hereafter by the words: “Return to your Lord, well-pleased (with him), well-pleasing (to Him)” [Sûrah al-Fajr: 28]

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Allah’s being pleased is in the parent’s pleasure, and His displeasure is in the parent’s displeasure.” [Sunan al-Tirmidhî (1899)]

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said about the person being pleased with Allah’s decree: “Whoever is pleased, He will be pleased with him; and whoever is displeased, His displeasure will be upon him.” [Sunan al-Tirmidhî (2396)]

The Prophet (peace be upon him) also said: “The mostly hated among men to Allah is the one who is severe, facing others with enmity.” [Sahîh al-Bukhârî (2457) and Sahîh Muslim (2668)]

Allah is pleased with belief, with Islam, and with our acts of obedience. He likes the believers who obey Him and is pleased with them.

Allah hates and condemns unbelief, hypocrisy and all other forms of disobedience. He is displeased with the unbelievers and hypocrites in all of their guises.

This is the overarching principle with respect to Allah being pleased or displeased with us. However, we should not think it is easy to use this principle to make assessments about actual people.

We cannot describe an individual by saying that Allah is pleased with him or displeased with him on the basis of our assessment of that person’s obedience or disobedience. Such a statement cannot be made about someone without direct evidence from the Islamic sources. By making such an audacious statement about someone without direct evidence form the Qur’ân and Sunnah, we are making a claim about the Unseen and giving a ruling from ourselves that is only for Allah to give.

A person may do what appears to the people to be good, but he may face an evil end. In this case Allah is not pleased with him. Another person may do what appears to the people to be evil, but he may face a good end. Then Allah will be pleased with him.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “By Him besides whom there is no god, one of you will act like the people of Paradise until between him and Paradise there remains but the distance of a cubit, when what is written overtakes him and he begins to act like the denizens of Hell and thus enters Hell. And another amongst will act in the way of the denizens of Hell, until there remains between him and Hell a distance of a cubit, then what is written overtakes him and then he begins to act like the people of Paradise and enters Paradise.” [Sahîh al-Bukhârî (3208) and Sahîh Muslim (2643)]

We cannot make any declaration about the fate of someone in particular. However, we hope for the person whom we see performing good deeds and obeying Allah that Allah is pleased with him. Likewise, we fear for the person whom we see committing evil deeds and acts disobedience that he is earning Allah’s displeasure.

It is worth saying that works alone are not sufficient to earn Allah’s pleasure. Works need to be accompanied by true belief and faith in Allah.

Allah says about the deeds of the unbelievers: “And We shall turn to whatever deeds they did (in the worldly life), and We shall make such deeds as floating dust scattered about.” [Sûrah al-Furqân: 23]

When the Prophet (peace be upon him) was asked about one of the polytheists who died on unbelief, whether or not his good deeds and the help he gave to poor and needy will be of any benefit to him before Allah, he replied: “No. He had never said ‘Allah is my Lord’.”

A person should never be proud of his acts and think that Allah is pleased with him and has accepted his good deeds. Our deeds are assessed in the final outcome.

The Pious Predecessors used to fear that Allah would be displeased with them and would not accept their good works. One of them said: “If Allah accepts my work, I would like to die, because Allah says: ‘Allah only accepts from those who guard (against evil)’.” (The verse he quoted was to Sûrah al-Mâ’idah: 27.)

Likewise, we should not give a decision on behalf of Allah and decide for ourselves that Allah is displeased with a particular person or that He will not forgive that person.

The exception to this is where we have direct textual evidence attesting to Allah’s pleasure or displeasure at a certain individual.

For instance, we have clear evidence that Allah is pleased with the Companions. Allah says: “And (as for) the foremost, the first of the Muhâjirîn and the Ansâr, and those who followed them in goodness, Allah is well pleased with them and they are well pleased with Him, and He has prepared for them gardens beneath which rivers flow, to abide in them for ever; that is the mighty achievement.” [Sûrah al-Tawbah: 100]

The same applies particularly to the Companions who participated in the oath of Ridwân under the tree at Hudaybiyah. Allah says: “Certainly Allah was well pleased with the believers when they swore allegiance to you under the tree, and He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down tranquility on them and rewarded them with a near victory.” [Sûrah al-Fath: 18]

Allah declares that he is pleased with His Prophet Ishmael (peace be upon him). Allah says: “And he enjoined on his family prayer and almsgiving, and was one in whom his Lord was well pleased” [Sûrah Maryam: 55]

And some of those whom Allah is displeased with and whom He has openly cursed are: Satan, Pharaoh, Hâmân, Qârûn and Abû Lahab.

We ask refuge with Allah from displeasing Him and beseech Him to guide us aright and bless us to attain his pleasure
 
http://www.islamtoday.com/showme2.cfm?cat_id=35&sub_cat_id=787

by Huma Ahmad

As I stood there in front of the room lecturing on “The Soul’s Journey After Death”, I could not help but think that what I was doing was futile.  Half of the people in that room were going to walk out with the same beliefs as they came in with; that this was all something like a fairy tale. The other half would listen, nod and go back out doing the same things they were doing before.There is something inherently wrong with our generation. I say this as being one of them.

We listen to lectures on Islam like they are stories of old. We’re not quite sure if Islam is completely correct. Because if we did, would we continue doing the things we do? Where is our aqeedah? Where is our certainty in truth? Where is our fundamental belief? For example, we’re not quite sure what will happen after we die, but we’ll take the Islamic explanation because it’s there. Why don’t we believe that what will happen to us after we die is the truth? The truth is the way we should look at it, like it is something that will definately occur, like any other fact of life, any other undeniable scientific law or simple equation.

Some facts: We will be tested. We will die. Our soul will be taken. Our soul will be placed back in our bodies and be questioned. We will undergo punishment of the grave. We will be ressurrected. We will be asked. We will be punished.

My soul questioned if any of this reached the 30 college age students in front of me.

I decided to give two examples from my own experience. One a friend that I grew up with and went to Islamic weekend school with. One day senior year in high school, she just started getting sick. Just like that she became so ill. She passed away a year later from ovarian cancer. We were 19. Can you imagine? 19 years old. She was engaged and had just gotten married.  She was just one of us.

A second example; some of you might have known her, Basma. She was the daughter of Imam Siraj Wahaj in New York City. She went to MYNA conferences and camps with us. She was active. She was one of the best Muslims I’ve ever met. One of those kinds of Muslims you meet and you can’t stop smiling when you talk to them. She was pregnant and gave birth on a Thursday I remember to a beautiful baby girl. A week later, just days after, she didn’t feel right and went back into the hospital and died soon after from internal bleeding. Unthinkable, the community of New York was stunned. She was only 20 years old. She was gone and a beautiful baby girl in her place. They named her Maryum.

These are examples I give that occured to me in my life. I’m sure no one is immune and have felt the pain of loss in their own lives.

Can you imagine, I said to the 30 pairs of eyes staring at me, they were 19 and 20 years old. They were just like us. I’m sure they never thought it would happen to them either.

I think every night before we go to sleep we should think about what we did that day.

“I woke up, I went to school, I saw someone committing a sin. I discussed it with others. Someone new was at the MSA meeting I didn’t bother to talk to them or be friendly. I made a remark that I knew hurt someone. I missed Asr because I didn’t want to be late for class.”

We need to think about these things. What if we don’t wake up the next morning? Allah tells us that He takes the souls at night and keeps the ones that aren’t to be returned. What if we don’t wake up? What if we are hurtled to the next step; we wake up and our soul is being taken out of our bodies, taken up to the heavens and taken back down into the body. We are buried, the dirt slowly covering us. We are made to sit up, are questioned. What will we say? We receive punishment of the grave. We are resurrected. We are asked about every single tiny small thing that we did.

What will we say? I wanted to forget the time I did this, the time I said that. Countless countless sins before me. So many in just that past day that I didn’t think about? What to do?

Allah gives us another chance when we wake up the next morning. Here is a new day. You can now make up for what you did the day before. You can run out and ask forgiveness for all those you wronged. You can try to make up for it, improve. Another bright beautiful day.

We need to stop being complacent. We are too comfortable. What is wrong with us that we live in delusion? We think about our lives and are comfortable. “Oh I am doing enough. I’ll get to heaven eventually. I’m Muslim that’s enough.” Why aren’t we scared? Why do we think we will go to heaven? We are nothing compared to the people of past. We commit sin after sin and our hearts feel nothing. What is wrong us that we do not feel discomfort, pain when we commit a sin, before we do it, not even a twinge?

Sometimes Allah might send a hardship upon people to bring them to the right way. Hardship brings many people back to Islam. Sometimes Allah might keep people poor because He knows what would happen if they had money. Shouldn’t we be scared? If we disobey Allah, He might send something to teach us. Perhaps that would be better. Perhaps we should pray that Allah send us something to remind us, to scare us.

I remind myself first, before anyone.

We need to wake up. We need to know that what is coming is true beyond any doubt. We will die. We will be resurrected. We will pay for each and every sin we committed.

One day we won’t wake up the next morning, and oh the regret we will feel on that day…the regret.

Taken from Albalagh

“By the time. Verily Man is in a state of loss. Except such as have Faith and do righteous deeds and exhort one another to Truth and exhort one another to endurance.” [al-Asr, 103].Time is money. So goes the most used metaphor for time in the English language. There is some truth in it as time can be used to produce wealth and wasting time may also mean losing opportunities to produce wealth. Yet this metaphor also implies something about the purpose of life itself that we should examine carefully. If a child says that money is candy, he’ll be right in the sense that money can be used to buy candy. But adults will laugh at him because the statement implies that candy is the most important object that money can buy. Similarly “Time is money” implies that money is the most important object in life: One must value time as he or she values money.

Historically this has been one of the key metaphors driving the engine of industrial revolution and technological development in the past few centuries. A lot of inventions and new technique have aimed at saving time and therefore money. And certainly the list of such inventions and their achievements in speed are mind-boggling. Today men, materials, and ideas can be moved from one place to another at an astonishing speed. The tasks that used to take months and years can be finished in minutes. And yet there is something ironic about all this development. Despite the tremendous explosion in timesaving gadgets, life has become busier than ever before. Overall we can’t show much for all the time that has been saved.

We are very busy, but at the end of the day we can’t tell what we have been busy doing. Where all the saved time has gone? In what way our lives have become more productive? Just imagine how Internet has made it possible for information to move all over the world in seconds. And then see how the same medium is being used to waste countless hours in frivolous discussions in chat rooms or meaningless net surfing! The juxtaposition of the time saving and time wasting nature of the same tool brings in full focus the basic problem with the prevalent ideas of time itself.

One may think that the metaphor is not to be blamed for this waste. After all “Time is money” would seem to suggest that no time should be wasted. Actually belittling time by equating it with money allows whiling it away when one has made the money he needs! So people talk about “killing time” and the need for the gadgets that let them kill time. One has to consider time to be much more important than money not to waste it like this!

To put things in perspective a quick historic comparison is in order. Consider the period of early Muslims when none of these technological marvels were available. There is a common notion that people then leisurely lived in sleepy little towns and had little to do. Actually that was a period of unprecedented activity in all aspects of life! Theirs was a period of intense military and political activity during which nearly half the known world came under the banner of Islam. Coming from a most backward part of the world, they introduced a new civilization to the world that was proud of its civilization and its military might. In personal life they used to spend a lot more time in worship than we do, most of them spending big parts of their nights in individual prayers. This would seem to leave a lot less time for other pursuits in life. We also know that means of communications were so poor then, that sometimes they had to travel on horseback for weeks or months to go to another area, say, to collect a report of a hadith from someone who had heard it directly from the Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam. Yet during this period and despite all the logistics problems, together they collected the hundreds of thousands of ahadith that have been compiled into various collections and are available today! And this is just one aspect of their work! How in the world did they find time for that?

The answer is simple. They were driven by a different metaphor for time. They valued it as the gift whose proper or improper use would determine the outcome for the eternity. They had listened to the Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, when he said: “There are two blessings that most people are deluded by. Health and available time.” [Bukhari]. They took his advice very seriously when he said: “Value five things before five other things: Youth before old age; health before sickness; affluence before poverty; leisure before becoming too busy; and life before death.” [Tirmidhi]. Abdullah bin Hasn (Radi-Allahu unhu) reports that whenever two companions met they would not depart till they had recited sura al-Asr to each other reminding themselves of the eternal loss that everyone faces if we waste away our time in foolish pursuits. They did not waste any moment of their life in gossips, useless talks, or meaningless pursuits.

The difference is clear. We may have a fast car, but if we are riding it for the joy of speed driving, not because we want to get there, we’ll never get there. The success of our elders or salaf lies in their overriding sense of purpose and accountability and their concern with using their time very carefully.

Coming closer to our own period we find other examples of a similar nature. Consider the case of Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, who died about sixty years ago. On the surface he just ran a small monastery and a religious school and was given to spending long periods of time in individual worship. But he also authored about 1200 publications ranging from small booklets to encyclopedic works like “Bahishti Zevar”, which has seen millions of copies in print. He also used to answer all his mail everyday, which consisted of dozens and sometimes hundreds of pieces. And he taught many generations of scholars! His secret? A strict discipline born of a deep concern about accountability for time.

We are becoming older every day. One day our time will be up and we’ll leave this world forever. What happens afterwards will depend solely on how we used all the moments available to us before that certain but unknown moment comes. Time is life. What is at stake is the entire eternity.

Question:  I want to evaluate myself. How do I do that?

Answer: As far as the five basic tenets of Islam and the injunctions about Haram food are concerned, there can be no compromise in any situation except as and when allowed by Islam itself; for example reduced prayer in travel and Haram food in unbearable hunger. Similarly, big sins as fornication, theft and murder are to be avoided in all situations. In other matters, try to avoid evil as much as possible without putting so much burden on yourself that you be ultimately bound to commit a greater sin. In these areas, Islam gives a lot of allowance in case of an evil that has pervaded the society. Moving gradually towards the ideal is more natural here.

In ethics and social responsibility, ask yourself: What would the Prophet (sws) have done in this matter? It is he who is our ideal in morality and ethics. Although we can never reach his level, we can use the example of his life to chart out the course of our own. Blessings of Allah be upon him.

I know, in a far off land, practising your religion poses immense difficulties and you are bound to feel lonely. Learn to talk to God. His hotline is Tahajjud – when the world sleeps, wake whenever conveniently possible to open your heart to Him. Learn how to speak to Him through the prayers of the Prophet (sws)¹.Train you ear to listen to Him as He speaks through the Qur’an. Then, you’ll hear Him talking to you².

Seek His refuge in your prayer and in your perseverance, in occasional fasting³, and in the study and the propagation of religion⁴. Let your prayer and perseverance be your strength, your fasting your shield and the knowledge and propagation of your religion your sword. With these, you shall prevail. Insha‘Allah.

^1. Many booklets of the Prophet’s prayers are available. You can say these prayers before turning your head for salam in each prayer.
^2. I strongly recommend recitation of Surah al-Duha and Surah Alam Nashrah~.
^3. Three times a month is quite enough.
^4.As much as is conveniently possible in your circumstances.

1.  Our Knowledge

Wasted by not taking action with it.

2.  Our Actions

Wasted by committing them without sincerity.

3.  Our Wealth

Wasted by using on things that will not bring us ajr (reward from Allah).  We waste our money, our status, our authority, on things which have no benefit in this life or in the akhirah (hereafter).

4.  Our Hearts

Wasted because they are empty from the love of Allah (swt) and his Messenger (sallallahu ‘alahi wasallam), and a feeling of peace and contentment.  In it’s place, our hearts are filled with something or someone else.

5.  Our Bodies

Wasted because we don’t use them in ibadah (worship) and service of Allah.

6.  Our Love

Our emotional love is misdirected, not towards Allah, but towards something/someone else.

7.  Our Time

Wasted, not used properly, to compensate for that which has passed, by doing what is righteous to make up for past deeds.

8.  Our Intellect

Wasted on things that are not beneficial, that are detremental to society and the individual, not in contemplation or reflection.

9.  Our Service

Wasted in service of someone who will not bring us closer to Allah, moreover something that will benefit us in dunya.

10. Our Dhikr (Remembrence of Allah)

Wasted, because it does not effect us or our hearts.