One of the topics I’ve been thinking about lately is how parents or in general elders speak to young Muslims who are far from the Deen.  Often times, their tone or approach in talking ends up driving them further away from doing what is right.

I’ll give you one example:

One of my friends dad in Brooklyn goes to the masjid daily in Brighton beach. Often times he sees some of these young Muslims outside the masjid smoking. An ordinary uncle with a back home approach would generally start harassing them.

Anyways, so my friends dad went up to them one day while the Azan was being called and said “Why don’t you at least pray Salat and smoke after”?. Okay, before some of you start going all crazy, you need to remember that most of these youth have developed bad habits, and a little bit of gentleness in daw’ah can go a long way.

Yes, it’s better they at least pray and smoke rather than just smoke. In fact, when they start praying, insha’Allah that will allow them to gradually change for the better.  To make a long story short, those very same kids told my friend that they wished their parents had spoken to them in that manner.

Now this is the issue I wanted to tackle. Watch out Shatan! No but all jokes aside, there is a time to be strict and a time to be soft like halal Marshmallows. Based on who you are dealing with, whether it is on the individual or collective level, you need to be conscious of what you tell them and in what environment. By this, I’m referring to who they are around, it’s from the Sunnah to tell people their faults in a one on one setting. When you put people on blast like we say in the hood then you are in a sense humiliating and degrading them.

Alot more can be said in this article but I don’t want to fry your brains. This is something I need to work on in particular myself first. May Allah swt guide us and allow us to communicate in ways that influence people for the better in this life and in the next, Ameen.

One verse from the Qur’an before I bounce -

“Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of who is [rightly] guided.” – (Surah An-Nahl, Ayah 125)

Wa’salaam Yo.

So before I jump into my article, Tarbiyah is an Arabic word that linguistically means increase, growth, and loftiness. I guess in practical terms, it would involve the pursuit of knowledge and acting on it for personal spiritual and mental growth. Disturbia on the other hand which is basically disturb, in English means to interrupt rest, peace.

It’s like when your sleeping and someone screams at you to wake you up, or you wake up from the smell of strong onions from the kitchen! I know some of you know what I’m talking about. =) Just don’t go to the masjid with onion or garlic breath, the angels don’t like that according to the hadith. It can also be looked upon as when you sin and how that disturbs the peace within you, more particularly within your heart and soul.

Anyways, since I’m graduating in a couple of weeks from college insh’Allah. I gave my academic career to this point some thought and to be honest if Pre Kindergarten to the end of Bachelors was the ocean of knowledge, I haven’t even started swimming yet.  More importantly, in contrast to knowledge of the deen I can the say same, not even a little goldfish.

I wanted to talk about how the acquisition of knowledge and how that should play a role directly in improving ones life as a Muslim, speaking for myself first. It always fascinated me that some people who are experts in certain subjects act against their best knowledge.

Sort of like when you see a lung cancer specialist smoking a cigarette, yea strange human behavior. Or even more sadly which I’ve begun to notice on a small scale are hafiz’s gone wild. Your rational would tell you that someone is who is carrying the book of Allah in their mind would be more conscious of their actions. Not to say that people can’t change for the better during personal trials, no we pray that everyone does but my point is that once we know truth and falsehood we should stick to the truth or at least be consistent in our principles.

More importantly, all of the knowledge we acquire throughout our lives, what will it translate to in terms of our actions. How will it benefit us in this life and in the next? For me, I studied marketing. But if I can’t apply all those marketing concepts and strategies I’ve learned in creative ways that help myself and those around me then it’s wasted. Better yet, how will I give back to the deen? By that, I mean help in Daw’ah.

The other day I had the chance to quickly review what the average day is like when your memorizing the sahih sitta (6 major books of hadith), and while there are brothers and sisters around the world who have memorized thousands and thousands of hadith. What’s is scary is that the more knowledge we acquire of the deen whether it be Qu’ran, Hadith, etc. We now have an obligation to follow it. There is no doubt, we’ll have our ups and downs. Emaan increases and decreases. The challenge is how to we step up our game and maintain a high standard for ourselves indivdually as believers, because once you know what’s right we should try our best to not be swayed from it.

If the struggle is completing the five daily prayers, then make that your priority. But if you got that locked down and your consistent then move to the next, try to wake up for Tahajjud. It’s all relative.

So whatever knowledge we’re gaining in life, we need to ask ourselves what we’re going to do with it and individually evaluate ourselves. The sahabah’s (May Allah be pleased with all of them) when they heard revelation, they reacted accordingly and change their lifestyle to how Allah swt commanded them to do so. That’s Tarbiyah.

Anyways, those are some thoughts I wanted to write about.  insh’Allah I’ll write soon again. It’s 2 a.m., time to knock out don’t disturb me, ha!

May Allah swt allow all the knowledge we receive to benefit us in this life and in the next, Ameen.

Wasalaam Yo.

That being said, social media is a great way to inform non Muslims and spark productive engaging conversations.

Say hello to Muslim Hulk. This is far by the most creative Muslim twitter account I’ve seen, Yea he has anger problems but he gets angry for the right reasons.

His Slogan is “ISLAMOPHOBES, JIHADIS, AND NON-ELASTIC THOBES HAVE CREATED MUSLIM HULK! MUSLIM HULK MAD!”

Muslim Hulk’s tweets are reflective of where daw’ah meets creativity and smart comedy.  Just by looking at what he says, you can tell it’s effective.

Anyways check out some examples of what Muslim hulk is saying below, mash’Allah very entertaining and beneficial:

• “ALMOST FORGOT – HAPPY ISLAMIC NEW YEAR! HOPEFULLY SMASH HATRED AND IGNORANCE THIS YEAR”
• “EID MUBARAK TO ALL! WOULD GIVE YOU BIG EID HUG AFTER PRAYERS BUT AFRAID I MIGHT CRUSH YOU”
• NEED TO FIND SPECIAL PANTS THAT DON’T RIP, MUST PROTECT AWRAH WHEN GROW BIG & GREEN, CANNOT SMASH WHILE NAKED
• MUSLIMHULK LIKE BREAK FAST WITH BIG MEDJOOL DATES – THE INCREDIBLE HULK OF DATES!
• MUSLIMHULK RAGING AGAINST STEREOTYPE OF MUSLIMS RAGING! OK, THAT COUNTERPRODUCTIVE SO MUSLIMHULK CALM DOWN NOW

Hilarious isn’t it? Follow him on twitter for more at MuslimHulk

You give the rights to others want you want for yourself. So many Rabbi’s want to join me in celebrating the building of this Islamic cultural center because they know the best way to fight antisemitism is to fight Islamophobia

This immediately reminded me of the hadith by our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) who said “A believer is not the one who eats his full when his neighbor is hungry”.

I’ve come to the realization that at times we tend to focus on long distance charitable work while people in our own community continue to starve. Of course the best thing to do is help those who are near and far in order to maximize your rewards.

One day I was at Venice beach in California and I had some halal food leftover. I was getting the itch to not waste it so I start looking for a homeless brother to give the rest to. I spotted one guy who appeared to be homeless and offered him the food, he gave me a nasty look and basically said I’m not poor. Yup that wasn’t nice. Lesson of the story: Don’t judge people by how they look and make sure to prioritize charity for those who need it!

Another time, I saw a man digging in the trash and some people walked by and gave him a funny look. He replied “Man, what’s your trash is my treasure”.

There is no doubt that Islam is a religion of diversity and one of the best ways to diversify is in sadaqa. No need to do your risk analysis, Allah promises you your wealth will never diminish if you spend in his way.

Take a deep breath and smell your fresh bills, it’s in the Qur’an.

“And whatsoever you spend of anything (in Allah’s Cause), He will replace it. (34:39).

So what does this all mean for us? You know every time your about to drop some money in the donation box, shatan comes around and says “Chill, if you give that extra $20, you’ll be broke later on”. Well don’t let him fool you. Now is the best time to give sadaqa. All of the big devils are chained up which means it should be easier for us to spend for the way of Allah. We have heard scholars say over and over gain that by helping others your only helping yourself.

You probably have also heard that no matter how less you may think you have of something, there is always someone in the world who has less than you. So be grateful. This connects to one of the wisdom’s of fasting which is to feel the suffering of those who are less fortunate in the world.

Ibn Abbas narrates that “The Prophet was the most generous of all the people, and he used to become more generous in Ramadan when Gabriel met him. Gabriel used to meet him every night during Ramadan to revise the Qur’an with him. Allah’s Apostle then used to be more generous than the fast wind”.

We can read “Creating a world without poverty” by our brother Muhammad Yunus and take note that “Ninety four percent of the world income goes to 40 percent of the people, while the other 60 percent must lives on only 6 percent of world income”. Shocking indeed, but the question remains what are we going to do about it? As Muslims the Holy Quran and Sunnah lays out the blueprint for us on why we should help those who are helpless. Yes we are witnesses to mankind but until we individually participate in giving to those who have less than us in the world than we won’t even see the change we want to see.

We don’t like seeing people beg and we make dua that Allah protect us from ever being in that condition. Hazrat Ali (RA) said “It is better to die than to beg, when a man begs he loses his faith”. Let’s get the charity to those who need so they won’t have an opportunity to beg.

Alhumdulilah, I have the opportunity this year to volunteer for M100. M100 is a grant foundation that serves the Washington, DC metropolitan area and strives to pool funding from diverse donors, identify non-profits whose work fulfills unique sadaqa categories, and fund innovative projects which serve the local community.

Sounds cool right? Well you can be a part of it by donating and take advantage of giving sadaqa this Ramadan.  During each night of Ramadan, the foundation will give out a grant of $1000 to a different non-profit organization that fulfills a unique charitable category.

Mashallah, The first grant was given to d.c. central kitchen.

Well that wraps it up. May Allah swt make this Ramadan a success for all of us and grant us the health, wealth and time to reap the rewards of it. Ameen.

More information on the event here.

May Allah swt make it successful, Ameen.

Here it goes: Alllahuma anta hasaanta khalqii fahassin khuluqii.

“Oh Allah! As you have beautified my outward/physical appearance, then beautify my inward appearance (character)”.

Yup there’s a dua or just about anything, sort of how Apple markets there is an app for just about anything.

Sorry for not posting a real article recently but I’m back again like mothers day, chill in Islam everyday is mothers day.

Anyways, I’ll begin with a quote from Imam Shafi (Rahimullah – which means May Allah have mercy on him), who was one of the greatest scholars in Islamic History.

Once he was asked how he attained such great character and he responded by saying

“I listened to my critics and took their criticism seriously”.

Often times we may realize that whenever people around us try to correct us in our actions, statements and most importantly in our ignorance, our anger overrides and shatan whispers to us saying “how can you accept that criticism”?.

Basically he gets you all gassed up and filled with pride, in reaction you may start an argument with the person who tried to give you sincere advice.

You may also start thinking about the negatives of that person. In the end, your relationship will get hurt and Shatan will be happy. The point is no one is perfect and you will always find faults in others, but once we focus on ourselves and internalize that constructive criticism for the Sake of Allah then not only will we change, but we can be an example for others.

On the other side, the one who gives the criticism should be gentle in his or her approach. This is important because different people are at different stages in how they are growing as Muslims. So we should be careful in how we offer that advice.

So there have been a couple of topics highlighted around accepting constructive criticism which include the following: Character, Anger and Advice.

I’ll mention 5 quick points that we can all benefit from insh’Allah and try to put into practice.

1. Anger -Prepare yourself for constructive criticism from others, if you don’t your emotions will effect you negatively in the moment when someone does try to give you advice about one of your faults. Now obviously that advice has to be of importance in relation to an issue that will help you improve as a Muslim. Our beloved Prophet Muhammad (s) gave us a prescription in treating anger, which was to recite “Audhu billahi minashaytan nirajeem” which means “I seek refuge in Allah from shatan the accursed”.
2. Character – The believers protect one another and are mirrors to each other. Take that advice seriously, we should look at it as guidance, because the quicker we find out our shortcomings, the sooner we can correct ourselves for the Sake of Allah.
3. Advice – Our beloved Prophet said : ‘The Deen (religion) is naseehah (advice/sincerity)’. We said ‘To whom?’ He said ‘To Allah and His Book, and His Messenger, and to the leaders of the Muslims and their common folk.’ Related by Muslim] Naseeha is a serious arabic word, it can also mean clarification/purification.
4. Saying it Right – If you want to deliver some constructive criticism, try not to hurt the persons feeling, choose the right time and place, be honest and keep your intentions clean and try to end with a compliment.
5. Dua – I’ll end with another quote from Imam Shafi (R)
   

   “Never do I debate a man with a desire to hear him err in his speech, or to expose the flaws in his argument, and thus vanquish him. Whenever I face an opponent in debate I silently supplicate, ‘O Lord, help him so that truth may manifest itself in his heart and on his tongue. If it be that the truth is on my side, may he follow me; and if the truth be on his side, may I follow him.”

   Well there you have it, until next time insh’Allah my brothers and sisters.

   Salam…Peace!

I just wanted to share an article by a guest writer, Sister Alima, she’s from the UK.

Mash’Allah Allah swt has given her good writing skills and she’s directed that in positive ways.

Below you will find one of her articles which is titled ” The Inner Beauty or Out”?

Salam. I pray that you are all in the best of health. We live in a society where we are constantly being judged by our appearance and actions. Words such as ‘slag’ and ‘desperado’ are now so commonly used but have you ever stopped to think, why is it that such vile words are being spread by the younger generation? There was a time where the colour of our skin determined our status in society but that was all set to change. An odd 20-30 years on, improvement has been made but to what extent?

If you were to go and stand in the middle of the bull ring, approximately how many university students do you think you will see? 50? 100 maybe. Due to the recession, the numbers of university applications have raised steadily making it even more difficult to get into our desired field. Would you say that it is the level of education that makes or breaks a person? Is it our skin colour or family background? Maybe it is our appearance or possibly our wealth? In honest truth, I believe that it is none of these. Think of an individual’s character as being a jigsaw. If a piece is missing, then their character is not complete. It’s missing an important piece. It is a piece that keeps the whole jigsaw together. A piece that when fitted in, can reveal a picture. That missing piece – beauty. You see, there is a difference between appearance and beauty.

An individual can change their appearance in order to please others but beauty, beauty is within. The beauty of an individual cannot be seen but merely expressed. This is known as the inner beauty of a person. We all have it, but most of us don’t appreciate it. I suppose appearance can also be referred to as being the ‘outer beauty. So which is preferred? The inner beauty or out?

We have all been blessed with beauty both on the inside and out. But have we not been provided with garments to cover our outer beauty? ‘This beauty that I have is just a simple part of me. This body that I have no stranger has a right to see’ (The Veil, by Dawud Wharnsby)

In the Qur’an it says ‘“O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks close round them (when they go abroad). That will be better, so that they may be recognized and not annoyed. Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.” (Quran 33:59)

So why do we here in the West feel pressurized to look good, not for ourselves but for others? Why do we feel that hours should be spent perfecting our makeup and ensuring that our clothes are so tight that it looks as we have wrapped ourselves in plastic? None of us are perfect but we should strive to be some of the best Muslims around. Money doesn’t bring happiness nor does having the perfect body shape. We are all different and unique in our way and at times, we need to be reminded. The outer beauty is what draws attention to one’s self and portrays us in a negative way.

The inner beauty is what makes us the person that we are today. Our inner beauty cannot be taken away from us and if anything, it can grow in time. It may not be physically observable but its presence can be felt. It’s a shame that in society, we are not judged by our character but merely by our appearance.

So which is preferred? The inner beauty or out? The real beauty or the fake? I know what my answer is, but what is yours?

If you are interested in reading more articles by Sister Alima, feel free to send her an email and she’ll gladly provide them insh’Allah. She can be reached at – alima-15@hotmail.co.uk

So anyways let me start off by quoting a hadith which is official. You ready? I don’t think you are, just playing.

Anas b. Malik relates that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:

“Women and fragrance have been made dear to my affections, but prayer was made the sweetness of my eyes.”

For all of you who want the stamp of approval.

This hadith is related in Musnad Ahmad and Sunan al-Nasai al-Kubra, among other sources. It is an authentic hadith. It has been authenticated by al-Hâkim in al-Mustadrak and by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani in Fath al-Bârî. (Must get this book, if you haven’t already)

One rapper said I don’t need cologne I smell like fresh money, haha. Well you’ll get your money and your fresh bills if you spend in the way of Allah swt and I don’t care what you smell like, just make sure you smell good insh’Allah.

A lot of times we often forget practicing simple things that our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) used to do. I have emphasized before on brushing your teeth, using the miswak and wearing clean socks in general, especially to the masjid but I also wanted to touch upon one aspect of what the hadith above highlights, which is fragrance.

I was just reading an article on the effects of fragrance and their was a study which showed the subjective and physiological effects of aromas and fragrances on emotions. The study was trying to prove how scents can effect major mood dimensions of happiness, stimulation, relaxation and sensuality and what they found was that consumers who had positive reactions to fragrances they smelled became less stress, this was evident in from their blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, etc.

Pretty cool right? So whether you use basic scents and use anything from body wash to deodorant, cologne, oils, it’s important you use it as this was recommended by our beloved Prophet.

Especially on Fridays when we go to Jumu’ah, one hadith states that “A person who has a bath on Friday, cleanses himself fully, uses oil and perfume; then goes to the mosque early in the afternoon and takes his place quietly without pushing or disturbing people; then he prays (optional prayer as much as he was able to pray) then sits quietly listening to the khutbah, he will be forgiven his sins between this jumu’ah and the next Jumu’ah.” (bukhari).

The hadith when translated uses the word “perfume”, but this used interchangeable with attar, essence and scents in general.

Right out of the dictionary, perfume means: a substance, extract, or preparation for diffusing or imparting an agreeable or attractive smell, esp. a fluid containing fragrant natural oils extracted from flowers, woods, etc., or similar synthetic oils.

See that, so that hadith is reflective of why we should fragrance. We all need to remember that living Islam must be understand in it’s totality and we must manifest it in our life, and until we make a sincere commitment to strive as being complete Muslims then we can’t be representatives of this religion.

Now obviously your intentions need to be pure, you can wear scents to attract people for the wrong reasons but I think you all know what I mean what I’ve mentioned above.

Tips and reminders for all of us:

1. Take a shower daily, use soap, apply deodorant
2. Do your laundry and try to keep your clothes clean at all times, especially when you pray.
3. You might ask how do I know if something is clean? Well by certain properties such as look, smell, etc.
4. Don’t be afraid to take constructive criticism on cleanliness from your fellow brother or if your a sister from another sister.
5. Lastly, imagine if we give dawah with wisdom, good attitude while smelling and looking good. Wouldn’t that be more effective? The answer is YES.

Well there you have it. I smells good, I use dryer sheets and everything, =)