Ghurabah

Moving the Index Finger During Tashahhud: Many move their fingers back and forth, in circles, etc. during the tashahhud in the prayer, presumably relying on the hadith in which the Companion Wa’il bin Hujr said: “…He would make a circle with his middle finger and thumb, and point with his index finger. Then, he would raise his finger, and I saw him moving it to make supplications.” This hadith was reported by an-Nasa’i (1268), and it is authentic. However, in Ahmad bin Sa’id al-Ashbahi’s in ‘al-Bisharah fi Shudhudh Tahrik al-Isba’ fi at-Tashahhud wa Thubut al-Isharah’ (p. 72), it is mentioned that the wording of “…and I saw him moving it…” of the chain containing Za’idah bin Qudamah contradicts the wording of the chains of Bishr bin al-Mufaddal, Sufyan bin ‘Uyaynah, Sufyan ath-Thawri, ‘Abd al-Wahid bin Ziyad, Shu’bah, Zuhayr bin Mu’awiyah, ‘Abdullah bin Idris, Khalid bin ‘Abdullah at-Tahhan, Muhammad bin Fudayl, Abu al-Ahwas Sallam bin Sulaym, Abu ‘Awanah, and Ghilan bin Jami’ – all of these narrators reported it from ‘Asim bin Kulayb from his father from the Companion Wa’il bin Hujr, and none of them described the Prophet as having moved his finger during the tashahhud. In other words, since this same hadith was reported through thirteen other chains of narration, and none of the routes of narration mention the phrase “…I saw him moving it…” except for one, this specific phrase is considered a shadh addition that is to be disregarded, while the rest of the hadith is authentic and is to be acted upon, as was also opined by Muqbil al-Wadi’i. In support of this position, an-Nawawi said in ‘al-Majmu” (3/398): “And should one move his finger when lifting it to point with it? There are several opinions on this. The correct one – which is the clear opinion of the majority of scholars – is that one should not move his finger, and if he does happen to move it, this is makruh and does not nullify his prayer due to it being a minor movement. The second opinion is that it is haram to move his finger, and his prayer is nullified if he moves it…and this is a weak opinion. The third opinion is that it is mustahabb to move it, and their proof for this is the hadith of Wa’il bin Hujr in which he described the Messenger of Allah placing his hands in the tashahhud, saying: “Then, he would raise his finger, and I saw him moving it to make supplications.” This was reported by al-Bayhaqi with an authentic chain, and al-Bayhaqi said: “It is possible that what is meant by ‘moving it’ is that he lifted it up to point with it, not that he would move it repeatedly.”” Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi said in ‘al-Mughni’ (1/524): “…One should point with his index finger upon mentioning Allah in the tashahhud due to what we have narrated, and he should not move it.” ‘Uthman bin Ahmad al-Hambali said in ‘Hidayat ar-Raghib li Sharh ‘Umdat at-Talib’ (p. 126): “…So, he should raise his finger without moving it around in the tashahhud and while supplicating in his prayer…” Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi said in ‘al-Muhalla’ (4/151): “And we prefer that when the one in prayer sits for the tashahhud, he points with his finger and does not move it.” This was also affirmed by Muqbil al-Wadi’i in ‘as-Sahih al-Musnad’ (2/265). And Allah Knows best. [By: Any Sabaya (May Allah hasten his release) along with all Muslim prisoners ] @GhurabahMV - Telegram Channel

Following the Practices of the Kuffar: These are some interesting narrations worthy of reflection that are found in Hamud at-Tuwayjri’s ‘Ithaf al-Jama’ah bi Ma Ja’ fil-Fitan wal-Malahim wa Ashrat as-Sa’ah’ (1/267-274), and they deal with the concept of the Muslims imitating the practices of the nations that came before them. Of course, when these types of narrations come that inform us of future events, they are meant as an indhar (warning), not iqrar (approval) of what is being mentioned: 1 – Abu Sa’id al-Khudri narrated that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) said: “Indeed, you will follow the practices of those who came before you – handspan by handspan, armspan by armspan – to the point that if they follow the lizard into its hole, you would follow them in this.” We said: “O Messenger of Allah, are you referring to the Jews and Christians?” He replied: “Who else?” [Reported by Ahmad, al-Bukhari, and Muslim] 2 – al-Mustawrad bin Shaddad said that the Messenger of Allah said: “This nation (i.e. the Muslims) will not leave anything from the practices of the people who came before it except that it will adopt them.” [Reported by at-Tabarani, and al-Haythami said: “Its narrators are trustworthy.”] 3 – Hudhayfah said: “You will follow ways of those who came before you, step by step. You will not avoid their path, and it will not avoid you.” [Reported by al-Ajuri in ‘ash-Shari’ah’] 4 – He also said: “There is nothing that Bani Isra’il did except that you will do the same.” So, a man asked: “Will there be homosexuality amongst us?” He replied: “Yes.” [Reported by Ibn Abi Shaybah] 5 – ‘Abdullah bin Mas’ud said: “By Allah, you resemble Bani Isra’il more than anyone else. You will not leave a single thing that they did except that you will also do it, and there will not be a single characteristic that they had except that you will also have it.” [Reported by Muhammad bin Nasr al-Maruzi in ‘as-Sunnah’] 6 – Ibn Mas’ud and Hudhayfah both said: “You resemble Bani Isra’il more than anyone else in their character and practice. You imitate them in their actions step by step, except that I am not sure whether or not you will worship a calf!” [Reported by al-Baghawi and Ibn Abi Shaybah] 7 – Ibn ‘Abbas said: “There isn’t anything that was with Bani Isra’il except that it will also be with you.” [Reported by Nu’aym bin Hammad and Muhammad bin Nasr al-Maruzi] 8 – ‘Ubadah bin as-Samit said: “By Allah, there is nothing about those who came before you except that it will also be with you.” [Reported by Muhammad bin Nasr al-Maruzi] 9 – Ibn ‘Umar said: “You will adopt the practices of those who came before you – the good and the bad.” [Reported by al-Maruzi] 10 – al-Walid said that he was walking with Abyad, one of the Companions of the Prophet, to visit a friend: “So, we entered the mosque, and we saw the people praying. I said: “Praise be to Allah who has caused Islam to unite white and black people!” So, Abyad said: “By the One in Whose Hand my soul is, the Day of Resurrection will not come until you adopt some practices of every religion.” I said: “Will this be because people will leave Islam?” He replied: “They will pray like you pray, they will sit in your gatherings, they will live amongst you, and they will adopt some of the practices of every religion.”” [Reported by ‘Abdan in the book ‘as-Sahabah’] The author, Shaykh Hamud at-Tuwayjri (رحمه الله) then mentions: “These mawquf narrations from the Companions have the ruling of being marfu’ (attributed to the Prophet), since they discuss issues of the Unseen, and the Companions would not speak about such issues from their own opinion. Rather, they took these words from the Prophet, and Allah Knows best.” 👤 Abu Sabaya (May Allah hasten his release and along with other all) @GhurabahMV – Telegram Channel

hfar.' This is like the example of people who spend this short and temporary life remembering Allah and worshipping him. While others stare idly at the screen waiting for their time to come to an end not knowing what to do with the time they've been blessed with. May Allah accept all our deeds; big and small in this month and after this month and may he give is the strength to continue our good deeds outside of ramadhan. Ameen. ~ Ustaadh Aqeel Mahmood [Tafsir Ibn Kathir Telegram Channel] @GhurabahMV - Telegram Channel

Lessons from a lift in Makkah I find it a little awkward and strange being in a lift with other people. You don't know where to stand, where to look, what to do with yourself while you're waiting eagerly for your floor number to arrive on the digital screen that your eyes are fixed on to. You're afraid of looking elsewhere or at someone else and causing an uncomfortable situation. I was in a similar situation this morning in my hotel lift in Makkah. There was an uncomfortable silence in the lift as we were making our way to our rooms after the fajr prayer. Apparently depending on the number of people in the lift people take up different areas of the lift. So if there's five people then four would be in each corner and one poor person would be the centre of attention in the middle. I haven't had the opportunity to try and observe this theory because it'll probably end up causing an even stranger situation in the lift with me looking around at everyone's positions in the lift like a nutter. So anyway there's about 8-9 of us in the lift (I was sort of in the middle with a couple of others if you're interested in the schematic layout of persons in said lift) and we're all trying to act normal desperately hoping that our floor number will come up quickly so we can escape this strange social setting. No one is speaking. Everyone is silent. Until a brother from the middle of the lift says something thought provoking. He was a young Arab brother with a trimmed beard and wearing a night thoub and someone I had never seen or met before. Just your average person. But what he said stayed with me and caused me to post this from my hotel room in Makkah a couple of hours later. He said with a smile and almost as if he was talking to himself and reminding himself: 'Subhanallah, this lift is like the dunya. People leave it and people enter it!' I was relieved he didn't say something useless in the company of strangers in a lift. But he was right; people enter and leave this world at different stages in their life. Some people stay on for a long time and others leave as soon as they're brought into this world. I learnt some things from this incident in the lift. 1. Life in this world is like a race. People race to get ahead of the pack just like people rushing to get on a lift, unconcerned about how they spend their time while in it. 2. The expensive suites are always at the highest part of the hotel. They overlook the rest of the people who are below them. On the day of judgement it will be said to the one who used to recite the quran in this world: 'recite and rise.' For every ayah that he knows he will be raised in rank in paradise. If he only memorised a few surahs he'll be in the lower levels. Someone who memorised the whole quran will keep rising until he completes the whole quran and he'll be in the luxury suites in paradise! That's the best kind of lift! 3. It's amazing where inspiration and valuable life lessons can come from. I never expected to hear something so thought provoking from a stranger in a lift. 4. That brother probably said something that was on his mind in passing and maybe didn't even realise how it affected some of us on the lift. 5. Allah knows the reward he will receive for what he said even if he's unaware. If you have something beneficial to say then don't hesitate to say it. A person may benefit even if you think no one will. The prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa Salam) said: whoever believes in Allah and the last day then speak good or remain silent. 6. The prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa Salam) said: A man will speak a word that is pleasing to Allah while he is unaware of it and Allah will record His pleasure for it until the day that he meets him' (Tirmidhi). Allah will never forget a good deed that you did even if you yourself forgot! 6. Don't hesitate or think twice about doing a good deed. 7. This life is temporary just like your time in a lift. Make every second of your life count. 8. Some lifts and waiting rooms in saudi have stickers on the wall saying: 'use this spare time making

Cutting plants before it's Ripening! "Allah promised you pleasures of the Hereafter, so do not be in hurry and seek them in this worldly life as you aren cutting plants before their harvest time, while they are much better if you wait. Likewise the pleasures of Hereafter, are so much better." [Reportedly Ibn Al Qayyim رحمه الله, reportedly Al-Fawaid, pg 66] @GhurabahMV - Telegram Channel

A heart touching reminder!! "...Hijrah in the path of Allah was an important I’baadah. A Muslim doesn’t want to be in a situation where he is paying taxes to the enemies of Allah, Almighty and they are using this money to fight Muslims. He doesn’t want to be in a situation where he is increasing the numbers of Kuffar. He doesn’t want to be in a situation where the Kuffar are using him to give Fatwa against his own people or to fight against the Ummah. A Muslim doesn’t want to be in a situation where he will be the cause of Fitnah for his children and grand children. A Muslim doesn’t want to be in a situation where he might be able to worship Allah, Almighty but it is going to be difficult for his wife, it is going to be difficult for his kids to carry on, on the path of Allah. So it is necessary for the Muslim to find a place that is best for his I’baadah. We shouldn’t be looking for a place that is best for his Rizq. We should be looking for a place that is best for our I’baadah. And then Allah will take care of the rest. That should be our objective when it comes to Hijrah in the way of Allah." -Imaam Anwar Awlaki (Rahimahullah) (Hijrah for the sake of Allah) @GhurabahMV - Telegram Channel

As the Crusaders made their way to Dimashq, Ibn al-Jawzi stood in the city's Masjid al-Umawi and delivered a khutbah in which he said the following: "O people! What's wrong with you? You forgot your din, abandoned your honor, and refrained from aiding Allah's cause, so He didn't aid you. You think that honor belongs to the mushrik. But Allah reserved honor for Himself, His Messenger, and the believers. Woe to you! Aren't you pained and torn apart to see the enemies of both Allah & yourselves appearing in your land that was irrigated with the blood of your forefathers? They humiliate & subjugate you while you were once the rulers of the world! Aren't your hearts shaken, your zeal stoked, as you see your brothers surrounded by the enemy and suffering all types of attack? Will you eat, drink, and enjoy the pleasures of life while your brothers over there wear clothes of flames and sleep on beds of burning coals?" He continued, saying that "if you aren't knights of war, then clear the way for the women to turn its wheel. Then go perfume yourselves and apply your eyeliner, you bearded & turbaned women! Otherwise, get on your horses! Here are their bridles & reins. O people! Do you know what these bridles & reins are made of? The women crafted them out of their own hair since they have nothing else to offer. I swear by Allah that these are the braids of young virgins so concealed & protected in their homes that their hair has never been touched by sunlight." He continued, saying that "if you're unable to place them on those horses, then take them and place them on yourselves as locks & braids, because this is the hair of women. Don't you have any feeling left within yourselves?" He then tossed the bridles into the audience and yelled: "O pillars of this masjid, sway! O stones of this building, collapse! O hearts, burn out of pain & sadness! The men have lost their manhood!" @GhurabahMV - Telegram Channel

“When a community does not stand up to wrongdoers, when it does not take any positive steps to punish transgressors, it deserves to share in the punishment of those wrongdoers and transgressors. It should be said that the worst type of wrongdoing is to abandon Allaah’s law which He has laid down to be implemented in human life. As a system, Islaam has a serious outlook based on mutual help and solidarity within the community. Islaam does not allow its followers to sit idle when injustice, corruption and wrongdoing continue on the rampage, let alone sees Allaah’s faith abandoned and His Godhead denied in order to be substituted by false claims. Such people cannot hope to be spared trial and temptation simple because they are good within themselves.” ~ Sayyid Qutb (رحمه الله) [Fee Zhilaal Al-Quraan [English trans.], 7/111] @GhurabahMV - Telegram Channel

Ramadan: The Month of Wala’ and Bara’ ________________________________________ Ramadan is a month of many things for the Muslims: it is a month of mercy, forgiveness, blessing, worship, exertion, devotion, and discipline. In addition, it has historically been a month that revived the concept of wala’ and bara’ in the conscience of the believers in one way or another. Firstly and most famously, the 17th of Ramadan 2 AH was the day of the first decisive battle between Islam and kufr: the Battle of Badr. On the same day (17th) of Ramadan six years later, the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه و سلم) conquered Makkah along with 10,000 Muslim soldiers. That day, he entered the Ka’bah and personally smashed each of the 360 idols he found inside. Later that same Ramadan, he sent his Companions to destroy the other idols worshipped by the Arabs: Khalid bin al-Walid was sent to destroy al-‘Uzza, ‘Amr bin al-‘As to destroy Suwa’, and Sa’d bin Zayd to destroy Manat. The next year, upon his return from the expedition to Tabuk in Ramadan, the Prophet sent a group of his Companions to demolish the Masjid ad-Dirar that was built by the hypocrites. In Ramadan of 92 AH, Tariq bin Ziyad led an army against the Gothic King Roderick in the Battle of Guadalete. This was a battle in which the Muslims defeated an army of Goths eight times their size, initiating the Islamic conquest of Andalusia, Southern Italy, and parts of France. Ramadan of the year 584 AH marked victory for the Muslims in the Battle of Hittin, in which Salah ad-Din al-Ayyubi laid waste to the army of the Crusaders, resulting in his conquest of Jerusalem. In Ramadan of the year 658 AH, the Mongols were dealt their first decisive defeat in history at the hands of Sayf ad-Din Qutuz in the Battle of ‘Ayn Jalut, avenging the deaths of the millions and millions of Muslims killed during the rape of their lands. The revival of wala’ and bara’ in Ramadan was also manifested in the mosques of the Salaf during their prayers, as al-Imam Malik reported in his ‘Muwatta” (306): وَحَدَّثَنِي عَنْ مَالِكٍ، عَنْ دَاوُدَ بْنِ الْحُصَيْنِ، أَنَّهُ سَمِعَ الأَعْرَجَ يَقُولُ: مَا أَدْرَكْتُ النَّاسَ، إِلاَّ وَهُمْ يَلْعَنُونَ الْكَفَرَةَ فِي رَمَضَانَ al-A’raj said: “I did not find the people except that they would be cursing the kuffar in Ramadan.” In ‘al-Istidhkar’ (2/72), Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr said: “This shows that it is permissible to curse the kuffar whether or not they are dhimmis. This is not obligatory. Rather, it is allowed for those who do it out of hatred for them for the sake of Allah due to their denial of the truth and their enmity to the Religion and its people…They would supplicate in the Witr of their prayer in Ramadan and curse the kuffar in imitation of the Messenger of Allah when he supplicated in his Qunut against Ra’al, Dhakwan, and Bani Lahyan, who had killed his Companions at the Well of Ma’unah. And Ibn Wahb narrated from Malik that the Qunut in Ramadan should be in the last half of Ramadan, and it is the cursing of the kuffar. He curses the kuffar, and those behind him say ‘amin.’ …and al-A’raj met a group of the Companions and the major Tabi’in, and this is the practice of the people of Madinah.” Also, on p. 32 of his treatise ‘Qiyam Ramadan,’ al-Albani mentions a narration of Ibn Khuzaymah’s (2/155) in which ‘Umar would appoint someone to lead the people in prayer at night in Ramadan, and at the end of the prayer after the first half of the month, the leader would make the following supplication: اللهم قاتل الكفرة الذين يصدون عن سبيلك ويكذبون رسلك ولا يؤمنون بوعدك وخالف بين كلمتهم وألق في قلوبهم الرعب وألق عليهم رجزك وعذابك إله الحق ‘O Allah, fight the kuffar who lead people away from Your Path, deny your Messengers, and do not believe in Your Promise. Divide them and throw fear into their hearts, and throw Your punishment upon them, O Deity of Truth!’ The leader of the prayer would then invoke peace and blessings upon the Prophet, pray for the Muslims for what was good, and then ask Allah’s Forgiveness for the believers. After this, they would finish

supplication with the following: اللهم إياك نعبد ولك نصلي ونسجد وإليك نسعى ونحفد ونرجو رحمتك ربنا ونخاف عذابك الجد إن عذابك لمن عاديت ملحق ‘O Allah, we worship You, and we pray to You, and we prostrate to You, and we strive and rush and hope for Your Mercy, our Lord. And we fear Your true punishment, as Your punishment is close behind Your enemies.’ After this, he would go into prostration. So, these glimpses of the Muslims who came before us show that they treated Ramadan as a month to revive the concept of wala’ and bara’. @GhurabahMV - Telegram Channel