Muhammad James Sutton

I do not know what my life would be like today without this notebook in it.

Islamic education in our Masjids is nearly non-existent.

Almost every youth in America would be unable to name ten of the Companions other than the Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali (May Allah be pleased with them all). However, those same youth could name ten rappers from their city much less the entire US. If you asked the youth to name a famous song from each rapper, they could probably do that. If you asked the same youth to name a Hadith from specific Companions, they would not be able to do that. Muslims with no Islam except a very thin thread.

How can we call the youth to follow the Salaf, and they do not even know who we are talking about?

If we ask every young Muslim in the West who some famous musician is, every young Muslim will be able to answer. However, if we ask those same youth who Sufyan Ath-Thawri is? Who Ibn Shihab Az-Zuhri is? Who Sufyan ibn Uyainah is? Only the fewest of the few would be able to answer. I remember asking a Yemen youth if he knew who Shaykh-ul-Islam ibn Taymiyyah was, and he told me that he was a khateeb in Egypt. I slapped my head.

Our actions have consequences. Statements are actions and beliefs of the hearts are actions of the heart, and they all have consequences.

He does not utter a statement except there is a watchful Angel present and recording that statement.

مَّا يَلْفِظُ مِن قَوْلٍ إِلَّا لَدَيْهِ رَقِيبٌ عَتِيدٌ

Allah said in the Quran:

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet ﷺ said, “Verily, a servant will say a word which is pleasing to Allah, and he does not place much value in his statement, and Allah will raise him up levels because of that statement. Another servant will say a word which is displeasing to Allah, and he does not consider the consequences of his statement, and he will fall into the hellfire because of that statement.”

عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ:‏ إِنَّ الْعَبْدَ لَيَتَكَلَّمُ بِالْكَلِمَةِ مِنْ رِضْوَانِ اللَّهِ لاَ يُلْقِي لَهَا بَالاً يَرْفَعُ اللَّهُ بِهَا دَرَجَاتٍ وَإِنَّ الْعَبْدَ لَيَتَكَلَّمُ بِالْكَلِمَةِ مِنْ سَخَطِ اللَّهِ لاَ يُلْقِي لَهَا بَالاً يَهْوِي بِهَا فِي جَهَنَّمَ.

It is crazy what we are witnessing in this day and age. We are literally witnessing so many Muslims ready to throw away Jannah for a social media post. Social media has made people so comfortable writing and saying things they are going to regret when they are held accountable for them. It is amazing how people are ready to dive into the hellfire for a few new followers or likes.

What also helps the student is to focus on getting him to memorize the most popular Hadiths that he has probably heard dozens of times in khutbahs and talks.

The best way to make books for memorization for the students is to make the book progressively more difficult. Insha'Allah, I will try to do that with a second collection. You start the student off at the beginning of the book with really short Hadiths of one or two lines and progressively make the Hadiths longer until by the end of the book, the student is able to easily memorize a Hadith of ten or more lines. With this book, I am trying to keep all the Hadiths within the range of one to four lines. The four line Hadiths will be mostly at the end of the book.

This is my tahajjud for the night, and what a beautiful tahajjud. If I were to pray, I would only benefit myself. If I spend the time with knowledge and writing a book for my brothers and sisters struggling with the Deen in the West, I benefit myself and others.

I am writing this message at 3:58 am in Fresno, and I have been up working on this book since 2:00 am. Time for some food.

Insha'Allah, as soon as I finish this book, I will put all my focus into the marriage book, so we can have that book published before Ramadan insha'Allah. I also have nearly completed the book on the authentic Prayer, which is also another Hadith collection. However, that book will be postponed a bit, so I can focus all my attention on the marriage book.

I am currently working on a small book right now. This book is going to be a compilation of 100 Hadiths for the laymen to memorize. I noticed that I was experiencing a lot of difficulties trying to get students in America to memorize the Hadith, so I figured I would compile 100 of the easiest Hadiths to memorize and translate them for the students, so nobody has an excuse. I have completed 42 Hadiths since I began this project before Fajr yesterday. Insha'Allah, I hope to finish this quickly.

Except the rafidah of course because they are just persian majoosi fodder.