Rameez Abid's Blog

Allah compares the life of this world, its splendor, and the delusion it creates to the flourishing growth of spring. It delights those who look upon it and deceives the ignorant, who imagine that it will endure and do not expect it to pass away. They become so distracted by it that they neglect the purpose for which they were created. Then it vanishes from them, and they are separated from its pleasures in the shortest time, just as this spring growth becomes dry stubble after being green, and withered debris after being alive. People have witnessed this condition, and both the righteous and the wicked acknowledge it. Yet intoxication with desires and the weakness of faith’s prompting lead them to prefer the immediate to the hereafter. -Abdur Rahman As-Sa'di

Steadfastness has two foundations. The early generations mention these two foundations: moderation in deeds and firm adherence to the Sunnah. Satan probes the servant’s heart and tests it. If he finds in it an inclination toward religious innovation and an aversion to complete submission to the Sunnah, he draws him away from adhering to it. If he finds him eager for the Sunnah and earnest in seeking it, he cannot prevail by cutting him off from it. Instead, he urges him to exert himself excessively, be harsh with himself, and exceed the bounds of moderation in following it, saying to him: “This is goodness and obedience, and doing more and striving harder in it is better. Do not slacken with those who slacken, or sleep with those who sleep.” He continues urging and inciting him until he drives him beyond moderation. One of the early generations said: “There is no command Allah has given except that Satan seeks to pull people in one of two directions regarding it: either toward neglect or toward exceeding the limits, which is excess. He does not care which of the two he achieves.” -Ibn al-Qayyim

What frees a person from seeking compensation for his good deeds is knowing that he is entirely a servant [of Allah]. A servant is not entitled to compensation or wages for serving his master, for he serves him by virtue of his servitude. Whatever recompense and reward he receives from his master is a favor from him, kindness toward him, and a blessing bestowed upon him, not payment in exchange for service. Wages are due only to a free person or to someone else’s servant, not to the master’s own servant. -Ibn al-Qayyim

What grieves our hearts reveals what we hold dear. This reminder calls us to reflect on our concern for our dīn and our own shortcomings. Ibn Mufliḥ al-Ḥanbalī رحمه الله said: “It is astonishing that so many people lament the ruin of homes, dwindling provision, and rising prices, and complain about the times. Yet they have never once lamented the estrangement of the religion, the dying out of the Sunnahs, or the spread of religious innovations. Nor have they wept over their own shortcomings. This is because of the weakness of their faith and how great this world appears in their eyes.” Al-Ādāb al-Sharʿiyyah, 3/240. O Allāh, strengthen our faith, awaken our hearts to our shortcomings, and do not make this world our greatest concern. Āmīn.

A translation of a section from Shaykh Al-Sa'di's book Al-Qawaa’id al-Hisaan, pgs. 24-27. https://rameezabid.substack.com/p/the-qurans-method-of-establishing

The difference between hope and wishful thinking is that wishful thinking accompanies laziness and does not lead a person along the path of earnest effort and striving. Hope, however, accompanies exertion and sound reliance upon Allah. The first is like someone who wishes he had land to sow and from which to harvest crops. The second is like someone who breaks up his land, cultivates it, sows it, and hopes for the crops to grow. For this reason, those who know Allah agree that hope is not sound unless accompanied by action. -Ibn al-Qayyim

There was disagreement over why Allah, exalted is He, called His names “the Most Beautiful.” It was said: because they contain exaltedness, magnification, sanctification, and purification; and every matter that is magnified may be described in this way. It was also said: they were called “Most Beautiful” because of the reward promised for the servant who mentions them, and the abundant gift granted when one seeks nearness through supplication by them. It was said: they were called “Most Beautiful” because they are beautiful to the ears and to the hearts. It was also said: because they indicate His oneness, generosity, munificence, mercy, and favors. It has been said that the meaning of describing them as “the Most Beautiful” is to know what is necessary in describing Him, what is permissible in speaking of His attributes, and what is impossible and inconceivable regarding Him. -Imam al-Qurtubi

For believers, sins are merely momentary stumbles along their journey toward Allah the Almighty—fleeting lapses caused by worldly desires or the promptings of Satan. In contrast, for the heedless, sin is a way of life; they plan for it and dwell at length on how to commit it, remaining in a state of sin for as long as the thought of that transgression occupies their minds. Believers’ sins require nothing more than seeking forgiveness, as repentance immediately follows the act. The heedless, however, need to transform their entire lifestyle; the change they require is akin to the Hijrah (migration) to Allah and His Messenger—moving from the Abode of Disbelief to the Abode of Islam. They need to rouse their faith from its slumber so that it may shield them against the heedlessness driven by base desires and Satan. -Shaykh Hatem al-Awni

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Artificial Intelligence: Are We At Another Oppenheimer Moment? WHEN ROBERT OPPENHEIMER witnessed the first atomic explosion in 1945, he famously recalled the Bhagavad Gita: ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ Humanity had crossed a threshold: it had acquired a power whose consequences it could foresee only dimly, and whose moral gravity became apparent only after the threshold had been crossed. Artificial intelligence may be bringing us to another such moment. The comparison is imperfect. For AI is not an atomic bomb, and its possibilities for human good are extraordinary. Yet the deeper parallel remains; namely, once again, our power to create seems to be advancing more rapidly than our wisdom or ethics about what ought to be created. Islam has never regarded knowledge as an unqualified good detached from moral purpose. Knowledge is a gift, but also a trust (amanah); power is an ability, but also an accountability. The Qur’anic vision of man as khalifah — a steward upon the earth — places human ingenuity within a larger moral framework. The question is therefore never simply, What can we do? but also, What should we do with what we have been given? This becomes especially urgent when technology amplifies, not only our intelligence, but our desires. Human beings possess reason, but also the nafs: that restless lower self which seeks power, possession, recognition and control. Technology does not necessarily purify these impulses; it can enormously magnify them. A civilisation may therefore become astonishingly intelligent, yet remain spiritually immature. Perhaps this is the deeper meaning of an Oppenheimer moment. It is when technological achievement becomes a test of the human soul. Knowledge gives us power, but power without moral wisdom can become its own form of ignorance. AI may therefore confront us with an ancient truth in a startlingly new form: the greatest danger may not lie in the intelligence we create, but in the human being who wields it. The question is not merely whether machines will become more like us, but whether, in acquiring such extraordinary power, we will remember what we ourselves are meant to be.

I'm starting an exclusive chat group for only paid subscribers on my Substack blog. It will be a space for rich and detailed back and forth conversations between the subscribers and myself on a host of topics. Subscribers can start new chat threads on a topic or join others' threads. If you're interested, you can join here: https://substack.com/chat/group/c5f4b1e8-d778-48c5-812a-d3592bdf1758

After feedback on my Arabic reading assistant app for Arabic learners, it seems some folks did not understand the bringing your own API key requirement or were not comfortable using it, so now it no longer requires it. It comes with a generous free daily limit. I hope it helps you in your Arabic learning journey! https://deenapps.com/readarabic/

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