Mirror, mirror on the wall…
June 27, 2010
“Mirror, Mirror On The Wall…”
11 Other-than-Dieting ways to look and feel beautiful
I’m listening to this lecture above and it’s rather unique. You think it would be about dieting but the shaikh brings up ahadith that are rarely known to the masses but wise about looking beautiful. He also backs up the tips with practical tools and advice on how to look and feel beautiful. And no, this is not just for people who are looking to get married but also for after the marriage.
Here are two ahadith about your hair. Have you heard of them?
Allah’s messenger (saws) said,
“Never come with your hair and beard disheveled like a devil.”
(Sunan Al-Tirmidhi)
Allah’s messenger (saws) said,
“Whoever has hair should honour it.”
(Sunan Abu-Dawood)
How many brothers do we see with long straggly beards without proper maintenance? 
Ok, just to be fair, I have seen some brothers that do a good job.
I’m not sure how long they will keep the audio on this site so go ahead and check it out before it’s too late.
Audio
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Note: 
photo credit: YasooYamoo.com
The gardens of peace
June 12, 2009
© Greeks Rethink
Today is Friday the 12th June 2009.
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| In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful | |
| “Truly! To Allah we belong and truly, to Him we shall return” (Sura 2: 156) |
As I opened my eyes to the new day and started planning my busy day ahead, thoughts of death, dying and burial started coming in to my mind. “ Life is short” is a common saying. Everybody seems to be using this expression at the slip of the tongue. How many times one stops and thinks what it means is another matter.
“Every soul shall taste death” says an ayaah in the Holy Qur’an. “If you reach the evening do not expect to live by the morning, and if you reach morning do not expect to live by evening” is a hadith of our holy prophet (peace be upon him). So on my way to work I stopped at our local Muslim cemetery. I do not do so often but today the need to visit and reflect was overpowering. As I was driving along the little country road speed limit 40 miles per hour and keeping to it, I was thinking that the chances are that this is the route that my own funeral procession will take and I better pray a few words of forgiveness and my declaration of faith to my Creator while I still can. Also words of thanks for having another day to be with my family came to my mind and lips. And as I renewed my declaration of faith and blessings on our Holy Prophet (peace be upon him), I had reached the gates of our local Muslim cemetery the Gardens of peace. Gardens of peace is a registered charitable trust. At 21.5 acres it is the largest Muslim Cemetery in the UK, with enough space for over 10,000 graves. Facilities include parking for 76 cars and provision for making wudhu and salaah.
The landscape architects used to design the Cemetery won the top Award in the internationally recognised Stonegard Phoenix Competition for their work. The Cemetery has also won a Special Award from the British Association of Landscape Industries for groundbreaking work in urban renewal.
Additionally in 2006 the Cemetery was recognised by London in Bloom for the quality of its landscaping.
“This is such a short trip” I thought. “It does not take long at all,” to get to destination.” It does not take long at all to leave everything behind and finally be in the box (grave) where no possessions or relatives can help me and the only thing I can take with me is my own deeds.
As I parked the car I looked at the Gardens of peace and I marvelled at how much thought and consideration had gone in this tranquill final place of rest. I never stop to marvel every time I come here, as I remember times gone by when I had attended funerals when the Gardens of Peace was not here. For them there were graves in a sectioned off place of the Christian cemeteries. Still thankful though as they were also burials of dignity. As the Muslim population in the local area was growing and the older generation was passing away, their children wanted the best for them in death as well as in life. Thus the dream was born which with the effort of dedicated brothers and sisters became reality. Everything was thought of. As I am now speaking to the brother in charge of the cemetery I discussed the following issues with him. He was more than willing to answer my questions. We spoke about:
Islamic Death rites
§ When a Muslim person dies, it is important that he or she is
buried as soon as possible after death and on the same day.
This practice can only be delayed if the death Is reported to the coroner and post-mortem examination is necessary. Burial is that one person is buried per grave with the face of the deceased when buried, facing Makkah. The grave itself should be raised by a minimum of six inches.
Dignity in death
The Human Rights Act 1988 (HRA) came into force on 2nd October 2000 and incorporates into UK legislation many of the provisions of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). The ECHR is a binding international agreement that the UK was involved in drafting and has sought to comply with since 1951. The Convention enshrines fundamental civil and political rights that, for many years, were not part of our own legal system. Using the Convention usually meant exhausting the domestic appeal system before taking a case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. This was often time-consuming and costly. Since coming into force, the HRA has made the Convention rights enforceable in our domestic courts.
The Act makes it unlawful for a ‘public authority’, such as a government department or local authority (including a parish or community council) to act in a way that is incompatible with Convention rights, unless it is bound to do so in order to ‘give effect to legislation.’
Human Rights and the Disposal of the Dead
(1) Everyone has the right for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.
(2) There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
Article 9: Freedom of conscience
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.
(2) Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs shall be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedom of others.
He was telling me the procedures they had to go through to aquire the land depending totally on Sadaqah and loans from Muslims which still pay back and of course all the stringent procedures with the Planning Permissions Department of the local authority. In the end the result is here for all of us to see. I was told that the cemetery has an average of 2-3 burials per week and that the land they have aquired is sufficient for single graves for the next 200 years. We also discussed the recycling of the graves, and I was told that in app 200 years they would possibly have to start reusing the same graves by buring on top of the existing.
What moves me the most here is that all the graves are the same, no rich and no poor distinctions, we are all the same in death. I love the canal that runs along the cemetery as a symbolic separation of the land of the dead and the living, with the dua of greeting the dead on the bridge. We recite the dua just as we enter the area of the graves.
As I am contemplating and feeling grateful my thoughts turn to Greece. I am thinking of the urgent need of our brothers and sisters for a place to worship and a cemetery. “ In a hadith narrated by Anas the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “None of you will have faith, unless he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.” They have been waiting too long.” I say. “Please see that nothing is impossible.” Just look at the ” Gardens of Peace.”
Photo gallery 1 : http://www.gardens-of-peace.org.uk/album2/index.html
Photo galelry 2: http://www.gardens-of-peace.org.uk/album1/index.html
Xenia UK
Life is a…
March 12, 2009
When I ask people to fill in the blank with the first thing that comes to their minds, you would be surprised at some of the crazy and exhilarating answers. A blast, a party, a cucumber, hell, a roller coaster, a maze, a garden, you name it. I wish my answer would be life is a blast, but honestly, the first thing that came to my mind is that life is a test.
That’s been my answer at least since I took my shahada to become a Muslim. From one test to the other through the typical obstacles of a new Muslim (compound the test when dealing with Greek families!), sometimes you can feel despair.
But, when I learned that the more Allah tests you, the more He loves you,I felt a sense of hope and strength that I can get through it. At times like this, I used to go upstairs to the sisters’ end of the mosque and sit there by myself and stare at the intricate designs of the carpet. I would imagine that this one thread of carpet I was pulling at would be my entire life from beginning to end and that the entire carpet would be the vastness of the afterlife that lasts an eternity. It reminded me of the hadith,
Al-Mustaurad bin Shaddad reported that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, “This world (i.e., its pleasures and duration) in comparison with the hereafter is (similar to the amount of water) one gets when he puts his finger in the sea. Let him then see what it returns with”. [Muslim].
This would calm me and put my life back into perspective that the tests we go through are not that big of a deal. It also reminded me to sweat the small stuff and not to blow up over something so insignificant when things can be worked out in a better manner.
I’ve always been the type of person that strove to attain what others may think is the impossible. So, no wonder I think that life is a test. In this type of business, you just have to expect problems – big problems! – and big tests, one after another.
I reminisce over the words of wisdom of one leader who said that the higher you go in life, the bigger the problems you will face so if you’re going to face problems anyway, why not aim for the biggest of problems?
Also, when watching a farewell video of a leader who was told recently by his doctor that he had three months to live, he said that when you want to do something, there are going to be brick walls. They are there to give you a chance to prove how badly you want something and to keep the others who don’t want it badly enough out.
In the end, life is what you make of it. Most of us screw up 90% of the time, but the important part is how we fix it. After all, the entire reason we are on this planet is to worship the Creator of the heavens and the earth alone and work for the real life – the hereafter.
So, what is life for you?
Life is a… (fill in the blank in the comments section).
p.s. No, the photo at the top is not of me, haha.
Love-hate relationship at its best
October 16, 2008
There was a companion very dear to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that said, “Not one believer is brought into existence who hears about me without seeing me except that he loves me.”
And throughout history, this hadith has served to be true. It’s a true love-hate relationship. He is either dearly loved and appreciated or he is totally despised and attacked.
This companion was one of the best in memorization. He was a muhaddith, a faqi, a mufti and a mufassir all at the same time. He took the lead in narrating the most hadith – 5374 in total- and he was the son-in-law of the most knowledgeable tabi’ee, Sa’eed ibn AlMusayab.
This companion is none other than Abu Hurayra (nicknamed the ‘Father of the Kitten’).
Those who attack him might not know that he asked the prophet (pbuh) to ask Allah to make him and his mother beloved to His believing servants and that He make them beloved to them.
And so the prophet Muhammad supplicated, ” O Allâh! Make Your little servant here – meaning Abû Hurayra – and his mother beloved to Your believing servants, and make the believers beloved to the two of them.”
Some say that it would be impossible for someone to memorize that many ahadith in such a short span of time (3 years only) but they don’t realize that logically speaking, it is possible to memorize 3.5 hadith a day and on top of that, the prophet (pbuh) supplicated to help Abu Hurayra with his memory.
Let’s break it down:
- 5374 hadith in the 6 hadith collections
- Repeated hadith = 4074
- Hadith remaining= 1003
- Those ahadith heard by other companions also=almost 1000
- Hadith remaining that are only narrated by Abu Hurayra = less than 10
Logically speaking, he could not have made these hadith up!
The more you study about Abu Hurayra’s life, the more and more you appreciate how much Allah preserved His deen through him.
