(CNN) — Muslims are a very diverse people. Although they share timeless universals that weave them together into a common fabric, it would be dishonest to paint them with a broad brush.

A sophisticated and elegant civilization built over fourteen centuries stretching from Spain to China, it was brought to its knees in a crescendo of upheaval during the 30-year period between the two world wars.

The stabilizing institutions native to Islamic society would never recover — imported, European-style nationalist ideologies would seal their fate. Amid this severe instability, no new post-industrial revolution thought could flourish and no space would be allowed for the intellectual framing of a contemporary yet “rooted” identity.

Making sense of the scattered pieces that remain would be a daunting task for even the best hearts and minds, let alone those who find themselves in the unenviable position of representing Muslim communities across the continents they span.



So it is with a great deal of deference to contributions and sacrifices offered up at precious price that I proceed to suggest that we have a problem. There is a vacuity in our leadership vision and the time has come for a change in course.

Community leaders both East and West have been unable to articulate a clear direction for Muslims that illustrates a positive, authentic identity that is engaged as a participant in global society.

For 10 years now, the discourse of Muslim religious leadership has been limited to a single mantra. We continue to be reminded what Islam and Muslims are not. Not extreme, not violent. We seem to be constantly trying to convince our fellow non-Muslim citizens and neighbors that Muslims are no different than them — nothing unique, nothing authentic, nothing remarkable.

Will the time ever arrive to talk about what Islam is and Muslims are, as opposed to only what they are not? Can we not talk about what unique and authentic contributions Muslims can bring to the global table? There are many Muslims throughout the world who would love to express how they, too, in their own unique way, are earning their keep in our great cosmopolitan societies. Can we know how Islam informs and inspires these contributions?

Current discourse from Muslim leaders appears to acquiesce to the faulty premise that extreme and violent tendencies are rampant among the mainstream Muslim population.

While it is true that a minority fringe of individuals have allowed their political and human rights frustrations to carry them beyond the pale of Islam’s normative teachings — violating the very principles of the religion they invoke — in so doing, their acts of terrorism cannot justifiably be branded “Islamic.” What they are, then, is criminal. Criminal in international law, criminal in Shariah law.

The vast majority of Muslims have never accepted this behavior. Not in the name of Islam, and not in any other name.

The question remains, is there anything more to Islam and Muslims than what they are not? Is there going to be a discourse that uplifts this silent and peaceful majority; that paints a hopeful future of possibilities for them?

Responsibility, accountability, and discipline form the bedrock of effective leadership. Its substance, however, is vision and clarity about where the community needs to go and how they will constructively engage with the world around them. From here, communication becomes essential. But that articulation must be the product of listening, caring, and conversance with local contexts. One of the most important vocations of the leader is to empower those he or she leads to achieve the goals outlined in the vision. This entails a robust program for succession planning. All of this however, must be effectively grounded in fidelity to the universal principles of cultural and doctrinal continuity.

Though leaders are often benign and well intentioned, the problem is one of effectiveness. Muslim leaders have been unable to articulate a vision for an effective way forward on behalf of their community. The situation is by no means hopeless; the substance of restoration is ready to hand. However, it requires a modicum of honesty, far-sightedness, and resolve.

Any such vision will have to be at once grounded in the roots of Muslim identity and positively engaged with the greater society.

There has been, as of yet, no systematic deliberation or collective discussion across community boundaries and affiliations aimed at fleshing out viable solutions based on a thorough situation assessment. Answers and solutions are arrived at haphazardly without significant reflection. This frequently leads to contradictions at a future point in time; further contributing to the alienation of the Muslim mainstream.

One of the key causes contributing to such confusion is the conspicuous devolution of classical Islamic institutions. The original institutions, native to Muslim society — whether religious or civil — had always provided a balancing effect to the community, securing the integrity of self-understanding, memory, and praxis — thereby facilitating balanced and responsible citizenship. The disequilibrium stemming from their neglect and decay is a direct contributor to the phenomenon of extremism.

For decades, Muslim elites have pursued a policy of disassociation from classical Islamic institutions and sometimes even the religion itself. This has led to the neglect of core institutions causing them to fall into a state of disrepair. However, despite this, Muslim elites have been unable to de-link themselves from the source of their identity as Muslims — the religion of Islam itself. It means the neglect and marginalization of native institutions inevitably comes back to haunt them.

The absence of grounded authenticity has been a missing lynchpin to the success of solution-aspiring initiatives. It is imperative that new solutions demonstrate how they are grounded in the roots of the timeless world view of Islam. This must be achieved in a way that is recognizable to the Muslim mainstream or it will never gain traction amongst the grassroots.

There persists a tendency to not allow psychological, moral, or intellectual space for new energy to emerge. Along with the voice of emergent generations of Muslim youth, non-Arab and non-Asian Muslims continue to be conspicuously absent or underrepresented in national and international leadership circles and events, even in Europe and the Americas.

There now exist whole generations of Muslims who have come of age in an environment where modernity, technology, representative government, free speech, and even gender relations are familiar territory and not overwhelming or confounding phenomena. With the right credentials and given an opportunity, they are the natural candidates to negotiate the challenge of making sense of Islam in the current post-modern cosmopolitan context without sacrificing continuity of identity. To date, however, everyone is forced to wait around for the old leadership to continue playing catch up.

“The kettle only fills the cup when its spout is lowered
A teacher can only benefit others when he lowers himself before Allah.”

A person might be arrogant, proud, ostentatious or have elements of those qualities if (PLEASE note I have said MIGHT - make your own decision) if:

0. You saw the above list and was proud to see that you are among it and feel that you are actually responsible for that.

1. Reading the above lines makes you roll your eyes or feel uncomfortable that the topic has been brought up.

2. You feel that the majority of the people you speak to have less Islamic knowledge than yourself.

3. You find yourself giving more advice than asking for it, and don’t feel that you need any right now.

4. You don’t agree that that having the above qualities is a indication of a possibility of arrogance.

5. Think of five people you are almost or absolutely sure have less Islamic knowledge than you. Was that easy for you to do?
5a. Now imagine them correcting you in your Salah, or in something you just said in front of a group of friends. Would your heart feel strange if such a thing happened?
5b. You automatically go into “I know what you do not know” mode whenever you speak to these five people and cannot consider speaking to them as intellectual equals or learning something from them or getting advice from them.

6. You have recently started a sentence in public with: “In my humble opinion…”

7. You openly declare your sinfulness in front of people when praised [not to lower yourself in your own eyes, but to show everyone how humble you are], or have strange forced reactions when complimented because you are not sure how to react and want to seem humble before people.

8. Think of a Muslim brother or sister whom you think has said some uninformed things about Islam, but is overall a good person and sincere. Think of someone praising and complimenting that person’s knowledge in front of you. This makes you slightly uncomfortable because you think it is undeserved and you have a better understanding.

9. Assume that there is someone who is/was in a position above you in some way shape or form (jama’ah, msa, masjid, work, school). You automatically assume that they got there through some means, not because they are worthy/competent/knowledgeable but because of shadiness.

10. You can think of at least a few instances where you have been corrected/advised in public and reacted with anger or sarcasm rather than gratitude. It is hard for you take accept advise from people who are younger than you, in your age group, or people who cannot be classified in one or more of the groups listed at the title of this post.

11. Think about all of the places in which you are important: MSA, work, Jama’ah, community work, masjids, etc. You feel that if you were to remove yourself from your activities there, that those groups would actually be at a loss, not realizing that if you were to leave - Allah can easily replace you with someone much more qualified.

12. Your Salah (prayer) is faster in private than it is in public.

13. When you read Quran in private, you imagine what it would be like if other people heard you recite.

14. You say things to people you know they will not understand in order to assert your intellectual superiority over them.

15. You automatically assume that you do have such knowledge that you actually have something so deep that some people won’t understand.

16. You look at brothers or sisters who are not involved with Islamic work or community activism, and feel that you are better than them because you are “useful” to the community while they are not.

17. You are more concerned about making a mistake in a khutbah because of what people would think, as opposed to making a mistake in calling to Allah (swt).

18. When you make a mistake in regular conversation, you find yourself covering up for it by pretending you “knew that..but…”

19. Whenever the reference to sinners is made in the Quran, you don’t wonder for a second, “what if that is me?”

20. Whenever a reference is made to those people who speak without knowledge - you do not immediately think of yourself.

21. Imagine that a major community volunteer leadership position has opened for a young muslim adult. It will be the most influential position in the entire city/community and the decisions made in this position will be able to impact thousands of youth and how/where they receive knowledge about Islam and do youth activities and the ideologies by which they are led.

You cannot think of five people who are two years or more younger than you who should definitely be in this position more than you.

22. A fifteen-year old comes up to you, and tells you that your khutbah/speech/event you organized - sucked. That it didn’t connect to him, that you made mistakes in it, and that you should work on your speaking/organizing skills. but he does it in a nice way - without using the word “sucked”. What do you feel like? Anger?

23. You think about compliments other people give you and feel happy about them. You find yourself drawing nearer to the people who complement you and farther from the people who do not.

24. You don’t think people deserve the effort you put in sometimes.

25. You hear an old person who doesn’t know tajwid recite Quran, terribly. You laugh/cringe and think to yourself that you know what he does not know, rather than realizing that he simply was never taught properly. If he is young, rather than seeking to help him or offer lessons, you just shake your head and leave.

26. You think that scholars who don’t entirely agree with your teachers/leaders have less of an understanding of Islam than you do; and you’ve criticized them publicly without explicit permission from your teachers/leaders.

27. It makes you irritated when people assume that you do not know something which you do.

28. The idea that the only reason you have been given what you have been given (quran, islamic work, etc) is because without it you would be come the greatest sinner on the earth doesn’t really cross your mind. When the time comes for someone to lead any salah and the jama’ah is selecting an imam, you are so used to being pushed up there that you don’t even think about it anymore nor think about how many sins you are hiding from the people behind you.

29. Saying “my teacher” fills you up with just a little ounce of pride that you have a teacher, while the person you are speaking to does not.

30. There is a brother wearing earrings, gold chains, the ghetto-est clothes imaginable, swearing left and right, listening to obscene music, and always hitting on girls. There is also a sister who dresses in revealing clothes, makes obscene remarks, is always looking for a laugh, always makes sarcastic, biting remarks towards other sisters, and is dating two guys.

In reading the above, a feeling of superiority over them already entered your heart. The idea that perhaps they want to change and might be spending more time asking for forgiveness in secret than we spend sinning didn’t enter mind until you read this sentence.

“Modesty, to appear lesser than we are, is commendable. Yet, the exaggeration of humbleness to the extent of appearing abject, is a sin. Mu’adh ibn Jabal reports that the Messenger of Allah (Pbuh) said, “Showing excess attachment and appearing abject, reducing oneself to the state of a beggar, does not suit the character of a believer.” The only exception is the humbleness of a student towards his teacher, seeking to receive knowledge. Only knowledge is worth begging for, and worth humbling ourselves to receive. Another example of unlawful humility in Islam is to beg if we have shelter and food, even for only one day. To give someone a small gift with the hope of receiving a greater good is like begging.”

During his Caliphate, Umar (RA) was marching upon Damascus with his army. Abu Ubayda ibn Jerrah was with him. They came upon a little lake. Umar descended from his camel, took off his shoes, tied them together, and hung them on his shoulder. He took the halter of his camel and together they entered the water. Seeing this in front of the army, Abu Abayda said, “Oh the Commander of the believers, how can you be so humble in front of all your men?” Umar answered, “Woe to you, Abu Ubayda! If only anyone else other than you thought this way! Thoughts like this will cause the downfall of the Muslims. Don’t you see, we were indeed a very lowly people. Allah raised us to honor and greatness through Islam. If we forget who we are and wish other than Islam, which elevated us, the One who raised us, surely will debase us.”

“One will not enter Paradise, if one has an atom’s weight of arrogance in his/her heart.” a man then asked, “One may love his clothes to look good and his shoes to look good?!” The prophet replied, “Allah is beautiful and loves beauty, arrogance is: rejecting the truth and looking down on people.”

Faghfirlanaa, fa innahu laa yaghfiru adh-dhunooba illa Anta.

A talk delivered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani at the Qurba Retreat “Detour Ahead: Staying on the Prophetic Path, August 2010. Shaykh Faraz highlights the Qur’anic call to mindfulness (taqwa); the virtues of taqwa; its three levels; and how mindfulness is manifest in faith, outward actions, the actions of the heart, and also in one’s thinking.

See: The Path of Taqwa - Faraz Rabbani - Qurba Retreat 2010 from Qurba on Vimeo

Despite knowing that the Blessed Night of Power falls somewhere in the last ten days of Ramadan, the question continues to pop up: Which night is Laylatul Qadr? But before we ask such a question it would help to step back and look deep into the spirituality of Islam.

Rather than mechanistically looking at the last ten nights as a gambling of a limited supply of worshiping energy, scarcely interspersed here and there, and wrestling with ourselves on whether tonight is an odd night or an even night depending on which moon-sighting system was used, we can save ourselves some stress by considering Laylatul Qadr and what it means to be a sincere worshiper. At the heart of any act of worship is sincere intention (ikhlas) and in skewing our ibadah in only a few of the last ten nights, hoping to bump into the blessed Night of Power by chance, not effort, we risk damaging that crucial sincere intention, so that even if we do perform ibadah on the Night of Power, we run the risk of a diminished reward.

How does it appear to our Lord, Allah subhana wa ta’ala, to see His servants knit-picking over which of the last ten nights is the Night of Power? Is not the reward generous enough that we should rush to it? If we are being stingy with our worship, then do we truly yearn to seek the Face of our Lord? If we find weakness in our hearts, then these are the tough questions we need to ask ourselves.

We can also ask ourselves: “If tonight were the Night of Power, and I did happen to pray this night, but I neglected worship on all the other of the last ten nights- is this proper adab towards my Creator? Do I expect my Lord’s generosity while I am greedy with my worship? Even with my poor adab, if I were to gain the reward, what sort of relationship is this to have with my Lord? Don’t I desire closeness (qurb) with my Most Merciful Lord?” No matter how tired you are, you will be fully rested the next day, so what does it matter if you are feeling tired in worship when the reward is worth a 1,000 months?

And whosoever honors the Symbols of Allah, then it is truly from the piety (taqwa) of the heart. (Qur’an, 22.32)

The Night of Power is undoubtedly a tremendous symbol of Allah, and the question of which of the last ten nights is the Night of Power can be answered through the meanings of this verse. Honoring the Night of Power entails not simply worshiping during it, but honoring all of the last ten nights. Seen from this perspective we can ask our nafs rhetorically, “Which of the last ten nights of Ramadan isn’t Laylatul Qadr?” And as Ramadan greets us goodbye in honoring the last ten nights with due worship, we honor the greater blessing that is Ramadan.

May Allah bless us with the fullest reward of Laylatul Qadr, ameen.

As we move into the last ten days of the Blessed Month of Ramadhan, it’s the perfect time to pause and reflect on a few of the lessons learned by  attendees of the Toronto seminar, “The Laws of Love: The Keys to a Spiritually Transformative Ramadan.” The seminar was held shortly before the start of Ramadan, and gave attendees the tools to make this Ramadan a time of true spiritual transformation.

English professor and part-time SeekersGuidance MC, Br. Ray Lacina, had travelled all the way from Michigan to be a part of the event. He started things off by welcoming the attendees and introducing Shaykh Faraz Rabbani.

Opening with the Purpose of Fasting

Shaykh Faraz opened the seminar with a reminder of the true purpose of fasting — to seek the pleasure of Allah out of sincere love for Him.  The Laws of Love are the keys to this:

(1) Thankfulness (shukr),

(2) Mindfulness (taqwa),

(3) Magnifying Allah (takbir),

(4) Worshipfulness (‘ibada) and

(5) Drawing Close (taqarrub).

Shaykh Zahir Bacchus, of the Lote Tree Foundation (www.lotetree.ca) then led attendees through a detailed tafsir of the Qur’anic verses related to fasting.

Reminding attendees of the Virtues of Fasting, Shaykh Yusuf Badat of Islamic Foundation (www.islamicfoundation.ca) outlined the key benefits of fasting:
(1) elevation of the Believer,
(2) Expiation of sins,
(3) Breaking of desire,
(4) Multiplication of reward and
(5) Increasing in thankfulness to Allah.

SeekersGuidance instructor, Mufti Umer Esmail emphasized the centrality of the Qur’an to one’s worship in the month of Ramadhan in the session, Connecting with the Qur’an.

During the lunch break SeekersGuidance student, Sr. Hafsa Taher conducted an ice-breaker activity, encouraging attendees to mingle within their respective groups, and there were also prizes of books and tasbeh beads up for grabs. Sr. Asma won from the sisters, and from the brothers, Shaykh Faraz and Ustadha’s Shireen’s young son got the highest score.

The Fiqh of Fasting & Its Social Aspects

Shaykh Faraz returned to the podium to outline the Fiqh of Fasting.   He began by carefully analyzing the formal definition of fasting:  “Refraining from nullifiers during the day, with intention.”  He then explored issues related to fasting, such as the distinction between accidental breaking of the fast — which must be made up — and forgetfulness, which does not break the fast.

Shaykh Faraz then reminded attendees of the tremendous blessings in i’tikaf — blessings which can be earned even if one can’t set aside a long period of time to spend in the mosque.  Men, he said, can make the intention for i’tikaf whenever entering the masjid at any time, while women can also do so when going to their private prayer space at home.

Ustadha Shireen Ahmed concluded the seminar with a discussion of the social aspects of the month, which can be a form of worship in itself, if done with intention and in a way that is pleasing to Allah.  Her five counsels reminded attendees first of the sunnas of food in Ramadan, including the sunnas of being both host and guest in gatherings.

Ustadha Shireen went on to explore how to manage our key relationships in Ramadan — from friends and family to one’s own children and spouse, and how to maintain good character.  She concluded with an important reminder of the importance of social responsibility in Ramadan, particularly the giving of charity.

Nasheed artist Nader Khan gave the audience and speakers a performance at the end of the seminar.

As the Blessed Month draws to a close, may we all continue to implement these important lessons with sincerity and love — and may Allah find our fasting and our works acceptable.

Feedback from attendees:

“Masha’Allah, the whole event was very beneficial. The topics chosen, the speakers, the presentations & the venue were all great.”

“Event was very very beneficial”

“Very very very good to have a sister address a mixed gathering”

Related SeekersGuidance Content::

Blog:
The Inner Dimensions of Fasting - Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
The Spiritual Retreat (I`tikaf)

Answers:
Complete Guide to the Fiqh of Fasting - Ustadha Naielah Ackbarali
Principles on What Invalidates Fasting - Ustadh Waseem Hussain

Also check out the SeekersGuidance IslamCast for free podcasts, and the wide range of SeekersGuidance Courses.

Love for Allah is the English edition of the Shaykh’s famous book, ‘Ishq Ilahi.’ The book discusses basic principles of our love for Allah based on the Quran, Sunnah, and the noble tradition of our great scholars. Of note are the dozens of poems translated from Arabic and Urdu, which highlight the concepts discussed.

To purchase this book or the actual Urdu book “Ishq-e-Ilahi”, please visit Faqir Publications. To view or download PDF  versions of sections of this book, click on the links below.

• Love for Allah (complete book)
• Chapter 1 - The Importance of Love for Allah
• Chapter 2 - The Effects of Love for Allah
• Chapter 3 - The Condition of the Lovers of Allah in this World
• Chapter 4 - A Comparison Between Love and Intellect
• Chapter 5 - True Love and Metaphorical Love
• Chapter 6 - The Condition of the Lovers of Allah When Dying
• Chapter 7 - The Condition of the Lovers of Allah in Their Graves
• Chapter 8 - The Condition of the Lovers of Allah on the Day of Judgment
• Chapter 9 - The Signs of a Sincere Lover
• Chapter 10 - Love for Allah in Present Times
• Chapter 11 - How to Attain Love for Allah
• Chapter 12 - The Difference Between a Murid and a Murad

See: Love for Allah - Translation of Ishq-e-Ilahi - Written by Shaykh Zulfiqar Ahmad

A lecture series based on two sections in the third quarter of Imam al-Ghazali’s Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya’ Ulum al-Din). This course will delve into the foundational principles of disciplining one’s soul, offering a theoretical framework of how this is achieved. Brought to you by Zaytuna College.

Shaykh Yahya Rhodus is also a teacher with Seekers Guidance teaching courses on the works of Imam al-Ghazali on spirituality.

Excerpt from Part 1: Imam al-Ghazali also mentions in the chapter on scrupulousness, how people reach the particular levels of scrupulousness where there was a person who worked for a king. And he mentioned this individual wouldn’t give that king an inkwell because he feared what would be written from that inkwell would’ve been something against the Shariah and so he would have directly helped a ma’siya (sin) take place. It’s the level of wa’ra (scrupulousness) the people of Allah have.

Excerpt from Part 2: One time one of the scholars in Yemen passed away 653, had his sons go out to get some food and to bring it back. They were in a particular place and one of his sons, Alawi, didn’t come back with any food. And he asked him, “Why didn’t you bring any food?” He replied, “Every time that I wanted to pick some fruit, I saw the tree or the vine in and of itself making tasbih, glorifying Allah subhana wa ta’ala, I couldn’t bear myself to pick that fruit and at the same time I had this witnessing that I had, that everything in reality is glorifying the praises of Allah subhana wa ta’ala.”

Excerpt of Part 3: al-Hasan said: “Good character is a cheerful face, magnanimity, and doing no harm.” al-Wasiti said, “It is that one should not argue with anyone, or be argued with by anyone because of one’s firm knowledge of God exalted is He.”

Excerpt from Part 4: The other illusory notion which is adduced is the statement, that ‘Anger, desire, worldliness and other traits of its kind cannot be torn from the human creature as long as he lives.’ This is also an error into which a faction has fallen which imagines, the purpose of spiritual struggle is the complete suppression and effacement of these attributes. Such a view is absurd, for desire has been created for a purpose. There is a wisdom behind desire; how else are you going to get a product from the farthest parts of the Earth? If human beings did not have desire what would enable people to travel long distances for business? It’s desire. Doesn’t mean desire is always good but there is a wisdom behind everything that Allah subhana wa ta’ala does.

Excerpt from Part 5: It’s wajib for parents to do everything they can to facilitate for their children to  become people of Allah. It’s obligation that they be thinking about this. Yes, they have to provide for them outwardly, yes they have to provide food, clothes, shelter, and the safety and security, but more important than all of that is that they provide a way to get close to Allah subhana wa ta’ala, to attain adab and good character.

Divine Tests and the Great Virtue of Steadfast Patience

Allah Most High tells us in the Qur’an:

“And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient, Who, when distress strikes them, say, “Indeed we belong to Allah , and indeed to Him we will return.” Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy. And it is those who are the truly guided.” [Qur'an, 2.155-157]

It has come in hadith from the Beloved Messenger of Allah (peace & blessings be upon him & his folk) that, “Whoever says ‘innaa li’l Llahi wa innaa ilayhi raji`un (We are Allah’s and to Him is our return)’ in distress, Allah will reward them for it and grant them good in exchange.”

It has also come in hadith that one a lamp got extinguished, so the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said ”innaa li’l Llahi wa innaa ilayhi raji`un (We are Allah’s and to Him is our return).” A’isha (Allah be pleased with her) remarked, “It is only a lamp!” The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) responded, “Everything that displeases the believer is distress.” [Abu Dawud, in his Marasil]

The Meaning of ’innaa li’l Llahi wa innaa ilayhi raji`un’ (We are Allah’s and to Him is our return)

It is explained in Tafsir al-Jalalayn that this means:

(We are Allah’s) as His property and servants, and He can do with us as He wills. (And to Him is our return) in the Hereafter, where He will recompense us.

Realization of Slavehood

This is a realization of one’s slavehood (`ubudiyya), that Allah is both one’s creator and sustainer; that everything is from Allah; and that one’s responsibility and opportunity is to accept things insofar as they are from Allah, and to turn to Him in both ease and distress in the ways most likely to be most pleasing to Him.

The Meaning of “Give good tidings to the patient”

Patience is to remain firm on what is pleasing to Allah.

Ibn Ajiba states:

(Give good tidings to the patient) namely, those who remain resolute in their seeking. They shall attain unto everything that they long for, and will reach that will they set forth for. They are those when faced by obstacles or impediments realize their neediness as servants of Allah, and attach themselves to the Power of His Lordship. So they return to Allah in all matters. And He thereby grants them shelter from all things. This are the ones who have particular concern from their Lord and those whom He draws close. (And it is those who are truly guided) to close proximity to the Beloved. [Ibn Ajiba, al-Bahr al-Madid]

Shaykh al-Islam Abu’s Su`ud said in his Qur’anic exegesis,

“Patience is not merely uttering this statement of return (”innaa li’llahi…”) with the tongue. Rather, it is to affirm its meaning with the heart (at well), such that one brings to mind what one was created for; that one is returning to their Lord; reminding oneself of Allah’s blessings upon one; and to remember that what remains of these blessings is many times greater than what was lost (in the difficulty). If one does this, then the distess will become easy to bear, and it will return to submission.”

He continues by explaining that the good tidings are what is mentioned after: it is such steadfastly patient individuals are those who are truly guided to all that is correct and true–which is why they surrender, submit, and return to Allah in accepting His Decree (qada’). And it is these people who succeed in attaining their religious and worldly goals, because anyone who attains unto their Allah’s concern, mercy, and blessings will not have missed out on anything worth seeking. [Tafsir Abu's Su`ud]

Ibn Juzayy states:

A point of benefit: Patience has been mentioned in the Qur’an in more than seventy places, because of the tremendousness of its place in religion. Some of the scholar have said that all good deeds have known reward except for patience, because the reward of patience is beyond measure–because Allah Most High states, “The patient shall be granted their reward beyond measure.”

Related Entries:

SG Blog: The Qur’an on Patience, Steadfastness, Resolve, Mindfulness, and Success - 3.200

SG IslamCast: Patience (sabr)–its virtues, reality, and manifestation - Faraz Rabbani - Khutba

Guidance of the Prophet Muhammad on the Virtues of Patience (and Thankfulness) in Tribulation and Hardship

And Allah alone gives success.

Faraz Rabbani

Dr. Hatem Bazian and Imam Zaid Shakir lead the Zaytuna College faculty to the stage

Zaytuna College held its convocation for its inaugural class of fifteen students Monday, August 23, at the International House in Berkeley. Classes for the students began the following day. The ceremony included remarks by the College’s three founders, Dr. Hatem Bazian, Imam Zaid Shakir, and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, as well as guest remarks from Dr. James A. Donahue, the president of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Virginia Gray Henry, director of the academic publisher Fons Vitae, read “The Meeting Place,” a poem by Martin Lings, while incoming student Rasheeda Plenty recited her own poem, “Book.”

We will look back on this day, Zaytuna’s first day of classes, as a historic moment in the history of Islam in America. Beautiful pictures of the first accredited Muslim college in America. Please sign up as a monthly donor towards this historic institution. Not only is it a consistent good deed but an ongoing sadaqa that will benefit you until the Day of Judgment.

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf expresses hope for the inaugural class of Zaytuna College

Ustadh Abdullah bin Hamid Ali addresses a question during class

Visit Zaytuna College to view more photos of this momentous day.

Yahya ibn Mu`adh al-Razi (Allah have mercy upon him), one of the great imams of the spiritual path from the early Muslims (salaf), said:

“Glad tidings be to a servant who has:

1. Made their occupation worship (`ibada);

2. Neediness (faqr) their longing;

3. Spiritual seclusion (`uzla) their desire;

4. The Hereafter their concern;

5. Seeking a living their means [f: rather than an end in itself];

6. Death their reflection (fikr);

7. Their intention busy with renunciation (zuhd);

8. Killed through abasement (dhull) their self-consequence (`izz);

9. Making their Lord their sole need;

10. Remembering their errors in their solitude (khalwa);

11. Sending forth in ecstasy their contemplation;

12. Complaining only to Allah regarding their strangeness (ghurba);

13. And asking through repentance for Allah’s Mercy.

Glad tidings be to one for whom these are their traits; whose regret is over their sins; ever-yearning in need by night and day; weeping before Allah in the depths of the night; calling upon the All-Merciful; seeking the Gardens of Paradise; and fearing the Fires of Hell.” [Related by Abu Nu`aym, Hilyat al-Awliya, 10.58]