Rameez Abid's Blog

Makhul said: I heard Ibn ‘Umar say: "A man may seek guidance (istikharah) from Allah—Exalted is He—and the choice is made for him, yet he becomes resentful toward his Lord—Mighty and Majestic is He. However, it is not long before he looks at the outcome and realizes that the choice made for him was indeed the best." -Tafsir Al-Qurtubi 4:19

'Akhlaq' in its broadest sense includes all relationships. It includes one's relationship with God. It includes relationships with humans. It includes relationships with one's self. It includes relationships with animals. Lacking in any one of these is a deficiency in Akhlaq. To treat other humans nicely while failing to recognise and express gratitude to God - the Lord and Sustainer who deserves most praise and recognition - is nothing but bad character. To treat God nicely while disregarding relationships with humans is not only bad character, but, in reality, a contradiction - as any true relationship with God would be reflected in one's treatment with others.

The Noble Qur’an spoke the truth: its style is not poetry. But the Arabs were not mad, nor were they ignorant of the characteristics of poetry, when they said of this lofty style that it was poetry. It overwhelmed their imagination with its brilliant imagery; it enchanted their conscience with its captivating logic; and it seized their hearing with its beautiful rhythm. These are the essential characteristics of poetry, if we leave aside rhyme and metrical feet. Yet the Qur’anic style has combined the merits of both prose and poetry. Expression is freed from the restraints of a single rhyme and complete meters, and thereby gains full freedom to express all its broad purposes. At the same time, it takes from poetry its inner music, its closely balanced endings that dispense with meters, and its near-rhyming that dispenses with formal rhymes. It joins this to the characteristics we have mentioned, so that prose and patterned composition are united. Wherever a person recites the Qur’an, he senses that inner rhythm in its flow. It appears clearly in the short surahs, in the rapid endings, and in passages of imagery and personification in general; and it recedes, a little or a great deal, in the long surahs, until precision alone predominates in the verses of legislation. Yet in all cases it is always noticeable in the structure of Qur’anic composition. -Sayyid Qutb

Another kind of words portraying [imagery] by their sound appears in Surat al-Nas: “Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind, the King of mankind, the God of mankind, from the evil of the retreating whisperer, who whispers in the breasts of mankind, from among jinn and mankind.” Read it continuously and you find your voice producing a complete “whispering” suited to the atmosphere of the surah: the atmosphere of the whispering of the retreating whisperer who whispers in the breasts of mankind, from among jinn and mankind. -Sayyid Qutb

Al-Bukhari (no.6780) records the hadith about a man who was brought to the Prophet ﷺ for repeatedly drinking alcohol. After one such occasion, a Companion cursed him because he had been brought for the punishment of flogging quite a few times. The Prophet ﷺ stopped him and said: لَا تَلْعَنُوهُ، فَوَاللَّهِ مَا عَلِمْتُ إِنَّهُ يُحِبُّ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ “Do not curse him. By Allah, I know that he loves Allah and His Messenger.” This is a profoundly hopeful hadith teaching us that a person may repeatedly be overcome by a sin — even a grave one requiring a public punishment — without that sin extinguishing the love of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ within his heart. The Prophet ﷺ condemned the sin, ordered its punishment, but upheld the sinner’s dignity and faith. He did not allow a repeated failure to avoid the same sin to become the man’s entire identity. So the lesson here is: Never confuse a believer’s weakness for a particular sin with the absence of goodness in his heart. For oftentimes the love of Allah remains alive even in a heart still struggling to obey Him in some of the basics. Wa’Llahu wali al-tawfiq.

Salam All. As you all know, I love building tech tools to help others save money, time, and resources. So now I've just launched another new tool: a mass e-mail service. Platforms like MailChimp and Constant Contact charge way too much. My platform charges a flat fee of $.001 per email, which is roughly around $1 for every 1,000 emails sent. It's a true pay as you go model, no monthly contracts or subscription fees. You only pay for what you send. For years, I've been seeing organizations and small businesses spending unnecessary fees on platforms that they do not even use their full potentials of, they just need to send weekly updates or promote events or donations. Another issue is that many of these big platforms are designed for marketing agencies, not those who just want to send announcements and updates. That's one of the reasons they charge you those high fees. My platform is designed for those very organizations that don't need to behave like a marketing agency. The platform has many of the same essentials as the major players in the industry (templates, drag and drop, AI, lists, segments, open/click reporting, etc.). I also have a quick delete button to get rid of those emails from your list that are part of your lists but have never opened your emails, something major platforms make very difficult to do so they can keep charging you more for sending to your lists. I recommend an annual clean up of getting rid of all emails that have never opened your sent emails. This keeps your list clean and saves you money, on my platform you can just do this with a click of a button. For this first phase, I'm looking for businesses or organizations with 50k subscribers or less that may be interested. You can check my website for more info where it also compares my platform pricing with Mailchimp and Constant Contact, please reach out via the form on the site if interested or have any questions: http://deenapps.com/email-blast.php

Some requested share and copy buttons for each section of my English Tafsirs App. So that's been added now as well.

I've come across some Islam critics who try to use an incident mentioned in Bukhari to claim that the Prophet ﷺ tried to commit suicide in the beginning of Revelation and that this proves somehow that he was perhaps mentally ill. This is an unreliable addition in the narration and numerous scholars have pointed it out throughout the centuries. This article explains why they criticized it and why it shouldn't relief upon. https://rameezabid.substack.com/p/did-the-prophet-muhammad-try-to-take

Musa said to Allah on the Mount: "You are the best among those who forgive." [Qur'an 7:155] It means that all created beings who forgive do so for some benefit, praise, reward, relief, or removal of resentment; but God forgives out of pure grace, generosity, and mercy, without need or self-interest. -Imam al-Razi

Habituation to custom suggests dullness; infatuation with stubbornness brings about corruption; and rigid adherence to imitated belief repels right guidance. Whoever becomes accustomed to an art, whether it is knowledge or opinion, his nature recoils from its opposite and his hearing keeps away from it. Your call only increases him in flight and aversion, and your encouragement benefits him only with persistence and arrogance. Whoever has a bitter, sick mouth finds even sweet, pure water bitter. -Imam al-Ghazali

This is a really nice discussion. Goes over many of the main controversies over it and the Shaykh provides satisfactory responses. I would highly recommend it. https://youtu.be/dbu4FlhIAZ0?is=JF433nIcsM6eDvJh

It is stated in al-Ādāb al-Sharʿiyyah (1/257) by Ibn Mufliḥ: Al-Marwadhī said: I asked Abū ʿAbd Allāh [Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal] about a group of people of innovation who accost others and declare them disbelievers. He said: ‘Do not confront them.’ I said: ‘What is it that you dislike about their being imprisoned?’ He said: ‘They have mothers and sisters.’ I said: ‘But they have imprisoned a man and wronged him, and they have asked me to speak on his behalf so that he may be released.’ He said: ‘If any one of them would be imprisoned as a result, then no.’

A translation of Shaykh Hatem al-'Awni's short booklet on the topic of dealing with innovators. He advocates for a balanced position on the topic and uses numerous examples, both theoretical and practical, from scholarly history to build his case. For the sake of brevity and time, the author’s footnotes and references were not included. Those who wish to dive deeper or see the references can refer to the original Arabic text linked on the page. https://rameezabid.substack.com/p/dealing-with-an-innovator-between

"Justice means restoring people’s rights, obtaining redress for the oppressed and supporting them, restraining the oppressor, and deterring him—but without exceeding the bounds of justice." -Shaykh Hatem al-'Awni

When I was learning Arabic and working to improve my reading comprehension, I dreaded having to look up words while reading. Each interruption broke my concentration and disrupted my flow, which I found incredibly frustrating. I used to wish someone could just sit beside me and tell me the word I was stuck on, so I could keep moving through the text. I know some people enjoy the process of looking up words themselves and see it as part of learning, but I always found it too time-consuming. It seemed far more efficient to have someone quickly give me the meaning, so I could commit it to memory and move on. As you know, I love building free tools, so I've just built a new free tool which I hope will help Arabic learners with that process. Just paste any Arabic text and instantly get: ✅ Full Tashkeel (Harakat) — Every word beautifully vowelized so you read it correctly, the first time. ✅ Hover for Meanings — Don't know a word? Just hover over it and the English meaning pops up instantly. No dictionaries, no interruptions. ✅ One-Click Translation — Want the full meaning? Reveal a clean English translation of the entire text whenever you're ready. ✅ Adjustable Font Size — Make the Arabic as large and clear as you like. Easy on the eyes. ✅ Copy Anything — Save the vowelized text or translation with a single click. I hope this tool meets you where you are at your current Arabic study and helps you grow your Arabic reading skills. Since the tool is using AI, it does require you to input your own OpenAI API key. It doesn't store it on the server at all, it stays in your own computer. You have the option to erase it once you close the browser or you can store it locally on your machine so it doesn't forget. Regardless, the server never stores it, so great for privacy and secruity. It's completely free to use as a platform, the only cost you will have is whatever is associated with your own token use costs every time you run it but for personal use it should be pretty cheap. You can set limits in your openAI account on how much it should spend per month and so on. It uses their 5.4 mini model so a person should be able to read a whole book or two for less than $5. It is more than enough for most learners or those wanting to simply practice. I'm still playing with it and I'd love people to test it. If you come across any issues, please do get in touch with me via the contact form. P.S. - Always remember that AI can make mistakes, so be wary of that. https://deenapps.com/ReadArabic/

"And among men there is one who worships Allah (standing) on the verge (ḥarf ): so if some good thing happens to him, he is satisfied with it, and if a trial befalls him, he turns his face back. He loses both this world and the Hereafter. That is the manifest loss." [Qur'an 22:11] What is meant by ḥarf here is the aspect upon which worship occurs. He, exalted is His praise, is saying: among people is one who worships Allah on the basis of a blessing that reaches him and good that he obtains, such as increase in wealth, bodily health, and the granting of requests; and he remains reassured by that so long as these matters remain with him and these conditions continue for him. But if his condition changes and Allah Most High tests him with hardship in his livelihood, harm in his body, and poverty in his wealth, he abandons the worship of his Lord and disbelieves in Him. Such a person has worshiped Allah, exalted and glorified, upon one aspect and one way. That is the meaning of ḥarf. If he had worshiped Him, blessed and exalted is He, with gratitude for blessing, patience at calamity, and contentment with decree in ease and hardship, adversity and prosperity, poverty and wealth, health and trial—since He, glorified is He, is worthy of being worshiped in every state—then he would not have worshiped Him upon a ḥarf. -Abu ʿAmr al-Dānī

When Ahmad ibn Hanbal was imprisoned, the jailer came to him and asked, "O Abu Abdullah, is the hadith narrated regarding oppressors and their aides authentic?" He replied, "Yes." The jailer then asked, "Am I, then, one of the oppressors' aides?" Ahmad answered, "The aides of oppressors are those who trim your hair, wash your clothes, prepare your food, and buy from or sell to you; as for you, you are one of them." -Manāqib al-Imām Aḥmad, p. 431