Filling up the psychological gap

Bismillahirohmanirohim (In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful and the Most Compassionate)

The revelation began with the words, "Read in the name of your Lord Who created" (surah al-Alaq verse1) and ended with the verse "... Today I have completed your religion for you and have bestowed upon you My Bounty in full measure, and have been pleased to assign for you Islam as your religion ..."(Surah al-mai'dah verse 3) Hence it shows how important knowledge is in the religion, in life in this world and the hereafter.

To undertake reading in science for example without reference to religion will neither benefit humanity nor lead it to the comprehensive knowledge necessary for building and maintaining civilised society. I didn't read a lot in the past and when I read, the material usually doesn't have to do anything with religion. This kind of knowledge will lead to those who know only the outer aspects of worldly life, but who, in regard to the afterlife are very negligent in reference to this ayat in the Qur'an "Do they not reflect on themselves? Allah created the heavens and the earth and whatever lies between them in Truth and for an appointed term. Yet many people deny that they will meet their Lord." (Surah al-Rum verse 8)  

"Then, We revealed the Book to you, (O Muhammad) with Truth, confirming what ever of the Book was revealed before, and protecting and guarding over it. Judge, then, in the affairs of men in accordance with the Law that Allah has revealed, and do not follow their desires in disregard of the Truth which has come to you. To each of you have We prescribed a law and a way. And had Allah so willed , He would surely have made you one single community; instead, (He gave each of you a Law and a way of life) in order to test you by what He gave you. Vie then, with one another in good works. Unto Allah is the return of all of you; and He will then make you understand the truth concerning the matters on which you disagreed" (Surah al-Mai'dah verse 48). "The All-Merciful taught the Qur'an, created humanity, and taught its expression..." (Surah ar-Rahman verse 1-4)

In this entry I would like to associate knowledge with psychology. It is very common to see that we always try to fill a psychological gap when facing difficulties or after accomplish something by saying something like "I am the only thing that is obstructing my achievement" or "the reason why this thing is a success is because I made it so!" In response to this Allah has revealed in His Glorious Holy Qur'an "Nay but humanity transgresses all bounds when it looks upon itself as self-sufficient". (Surah al-Alaq verse 7)

We normally think that we have total control in our accomplishments within the environment when it is actually Allah's doing.  When we try to fill our mind with this kind of psychological gap of being self-sufficient, "Those who turn from remembering Me shall live lives of misery; We shall raise him blind on the Day of Resurrection,". (Surah Ta Ha verse 124)

We usually try our utmost to succeed sometimes at the expense of defying the laws of the world/universe. This will then cause imbalance and will abuse environment and physical of ones body which in a way will live lives in misery. If one were to remember Him (Allah) , one were to be cautious of boundaries created by Him and will go beyond one's limitation on certain actions.

Going slightly off topic, my friend always mentions that some muslims do not eat pork because of the prohibition in the Qur'an but ignores the prohibition of intoxication/alcohol. Pork may be substitute with other halal meat, but there is no substitute in getting 'high'.  This in my opinion is a problem with the mind of needing to satisfy it psychologically. Needing a substance to be 'happy' when actually there is already much joy created in this world and these are the people who cannot live by the Law of this world. It is so easy to find happiness and be happy without these substances which are also used at times to enhance performance/capabilities to achieve success/happiness.

An example in the Qur'an mentions the prohibitions on intoxication "Believers! Intoxicants, games of chance, idolaltrous sacrifices at altars, and divining arrows are all abominations, the handiwork of Satan. So turn wholly away from it that you may attain to true success." (Surah al-Mai'dah verse 90).
Just to add on a little, " Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, reported: Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) observed, Whoever fornicates is not a believer so long as he commits it and no thief who steals is a believer as long as he commits theft, and no drunkard who drinks wine is a believer as long as he drinks it" (Sahih Bukhari and Muslim)

Hence the abuse of ones body will be avoided and it will be easier to attain success through the help of Allah.

This is just an opinion of mine that if one could not live the laws and boundaries of this world, one would not be able to live the laws and boundaries of the jannah(paradise) where people who are obedient and those who is a believer will be in jannah. A wise man once said to me "A muslim should be a prisoner in this world so that he may attain the leisure of the hereafter. If you choose to have leisure in this world, do not expect to achieve the leisure of the hereafter. Choose one and I hope you will choose the right one."

Is it really christmas?

Bismillahirohmaneerohim (In the name of Allah the Most compassionate, the Most Merciful)

We have reach this time of the year where christians generally celebrate christmas which is the birth of christ. Is it being mentioned anywhere that Jesus(Isa) was born on the 25th of December? I have read about this somewhere and I've tried to look it up in the bible about the birth of christ but had no much luck about the specific date. Why does it interest me as a muslim? It is because we muslims consider Jesus/Isa alaihisalam as a prophet of Allah so I was really curious about the birth of prophet Isa alaihisalam and to understand the religion which celebrates the birth of the great man prophet Isa alaihisalam. Let me first clarify that I am not a scholar of the bible nor am I a sheikh/Imam.

Even though I have read this somewhere, I had to look it up myself. It was this particular verse that was mentioned which was Luke chapter 2 verse 8-12 which says: "(8)And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. (9)An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. (10)But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people." (11)Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. (12)This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Reading these verses in a glance, you would not see anything much. But in verse 8 which says "And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night" caused curiousity of the conditions during the birth. I googled the weather conditions of Bethlehem which is the place of birth according to the bible. The weather conditions of Bethlehem would be freezing cold at night and it is not a custom for the shepherds to watch over their flocks at night particularly during from November till March.

Hence, after reading and a bit of researching in the bible, I have yet to understand why is it celebrated on the 25th of December. Though I might be wrong for I am not really knowledgeable of the bible, this is just a personal research I did. If I am wrong, please forgive me and my humble opinions as I am not trying to cause any disruption on anyone or any religion.

These are some verses on the birth of Jesus/Isa alaihisalam in the Qur'an.

"(O Muhammad) recite in the Book of the account of Mary, when she withdrew from her people to a place towards the east; (17) and drew a curtain , screening herself from people where upon we sent to her Our spirit and he appeared to her as a well-shaped man, (18) Mary exclaimed: "I surely take refuge from you with the Most Compassionate Lord, if you are at all God-fearing." (19) He said: "I am just a message-bearer of your Lord, I have come to grant you a most pure boy." (20) Mary said : "How can a boy be born to me when no man has even touched me, nor have I been unchaste?" (21) The angel said: "Thus shall it be. Your Lord says: 'It is easy for Me; and We shall do so in order to make him a Sign for mankind and a mercy from Us. This has been decreed.'" " (surah Maryam verse 16-21)

In my humble opinion, it is not right to assign something(in this case the birthday) to the great man and prophet which does not actually belong to him.

The intention of this blog

Bismillahirohmanirohim (In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful and the Most Compassionate)

In this entry, I'll be expressing from a slightly personal experience. Those who are close to me will understand that in the past 2 weeks, I have been apologising about some Islamic statuses that me and my wife made now and then. I apologised about it because some have misunderstood it and take it that we are a show off. To be honest, I'm not a pious person but I'm trying my outmost to be insha'Allah. I do not mean to be a show off "pious" person because I know there are tons of ustaz, sheikhs and imams out there who are waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy better than myself. Similarly like I've mentioned in one of my previous entries, there is no point to be the richest person on the planet because one day, there will be another person who will be richer. Therefore we could only do our best in certain things and appreciate what is given to us by Allah. The reason why I took 2 weeks to write this is because I do not want to write unnecessary stuff with my emotions. I needed to review it and think about it thoroughly with my mind rather with my heart.

Everything that I have written here is of my opinion from reading and researching from books written by scholars. I myself am not a scholar, ustaz, sheikh, or an imam and I have clearly stated in my previous entries. Whatever I have written is not even and does not qualify as a fatwa. Never anywhere have I written that me and my wife are hollier than others. We wrote and update our statuses because we are not that perfect muslims, we did a lot of mistakes in the past or even in the present and as a result we want to remind ourselves and others at the same time. Personally I don't update the facebook status that much as it is a joint account with my wife, but whatever I've learned, I teach it to my wife and then she updates the status whenever she wants to. But somehow we are often taken as a "show off" because of our islamic statuses.

Examples of statuses that was being looked at as a "show off":-
"Alhamdulillah, this morning we woke up feeling so thankful that Allah has chosen us as one of his Ummah that is leading towards the right path!" There are many ummah before us and Islam, and we are glad to be the ummah of our beloved Prophet Muhammad salallahualaihiwassalam which is leading towards the right path. The ummah before us was also leading to the right path in their time, i.e the ummah of Prophet Musa (Moses). We are glad to be the ummah of Prophet Muhammad salallahualaihiwassalam because  even though we are the last ummah, we would be the first ummah to be entered into jannah (paradise), and we were merely expressing ourselves to be lucky to be in this ummah.  If we do not believe that this ummah is in the right path, then there is no reason to believe in Islam. Never it was meant that we are the only one who are on the right path.

"It feels so good waking up at the calm of Subuh whilst everyone else is still asleep. The hectic worldly life becomes wayyy easier when we have worshipped him! Here's to our morning family jog! :)" If I'm not mistaken this status was updated during ramadhan. The Prophet salallahualaihiwassalam said, "Every night there is a special time during which whatever a muslim asks Allah subhanawata'ala of any good relating to this life or the hereafter, it will be granted to him; and this moment comes every night." Even though the status mentioned "subuh" it was because during the summer our night time is very short therefore it was very close to subuh/fajr. We are merely echoing/agreeing the saying of our Prophet salallahualaihiwasalam and we do not intend to imply that we are the only ones who wakes up for subuh/fajr. It is understood that every muslims should/obligatory wake up for fajr. The main point was, it is really true that there is a special time every night and during this special time it is very calm.

It would be really weird to justify every single statuses made.

Personally after taking my Masters in Islamic banking, I am more inclined to do researches on Islam and all these researches is written in my blog. Therefore if one looks through my blogs, one could see that entries like siwak or toothbrush (gold or fiat money), the recent controversial jerseys, another argument on islamic banks, in reference on "why is islamic home financing is haram?", reforming Islam, having doubts?, the importance of holy books and  law shari'ah fiqh? The superiority of Islamic Jurisprudence & Law are all researches from my studies. My opinion of those who labels me a "show off" are of course against my blog(researches) and hence, they are also against my studies in Islam. Even though saying that, this is just my personal opinion as I cannot read their minds as I'm just another human being therefore only Allah knows best! As I've mentioned I am just another human being and I am also trapped into making assumptions but I do not intend to make it my final conclusion, therefore it is an open assumption and forgive me if I have assumed wrongly.

The last thing is, I've only written good things on Islam what it teaches us to do. All my opinions that I gave are mostly on the consequence of not following the teachings of Islam. I could take criticism if one were to criticise the content of an entry, for example:- what you have written is not really what the teachings of Islam meant, but to criticise my blog as a general does not justifies anything. I would be glad if there was a difference of opinion concerning the topics of my blog, so that there could be a discussion. I have written time and time again that if I have done any wrong in my writting, please correct me and yet most choose not to. I do not write or promote pornography, drugs or violence and yet my blog is being criticise unjustifiedly. The point of me writing all of my entries on a blog is so that one could read it willingly. If it is not of interest, then time was wasted reading this blog.

Hadith : Bukhari and Muslim

The Messenger of Allah salallahualaihiwasalam said: " Beware of suspicion, for suspicion (may be based on) the most untrue information; and do not spy upon one another and do not try to bare each other's hidden failings."

"O ye who believe! Avoid suspicion as much (as possible): for suspicion in some cases is a sin: And spy not on each other behind their backs. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Nay, ye would abhor it...But fear Allah: For Allah is Oft-Returning, Most Merciful." (surah al-hujuraat verse 12)

I do not know how to avoid from being suspicion in this case. In my opinion, no matter how sincere I write this blog, there will be some that sees it differently.

"Behold, ye received it on your tongues, and said out of your mouths things of which ye had no knowledge; and ye thought it to be a light matter, while it was most serious in the sight of Allah." (surah al-noor verse 15)

On the authority of Abu Hurayrah : "Beware of backbiting, for backbiting is more serious than adultery.  A man may commit adultery, and drink, and then repent, and Allah will forgive him.  But, the backbiter will not be forgiven by Allah until his companion forgives him." [Suyuti, Al-Jami` as-Saghir, 1/174, #2919, from Ibn Abid-Dunya, and Abush-Shaykh, Al-Tawbikh.]

I remind myself firstly that I should avoid doing such things and I advise others who have something against my blog, please confront me rather than asking others what is meant on my blog. Confront me so that backbiting may be avoided because I fear for you and backbiting is a serious matter in the sight of Allah. It doesn't make sense if I make a gadget and you ask the manual from a different person. I pray to Allah that I do not wish to be the one who backbites. Lastly, I would like to apologise to everyone that I may have backbite and for all my wrong doings.