True Love?

Posted Oct 14, 2011 by Aboo Thaabit with No Comments

In today’s world, a lot of young people are afflicted by a serious illness that is even more deadly than any virus or bacteria. It is an illness that affects the heart and will cause its death, if not treated.

This illness is none other than love before marriage, and it is with great sadness that a lot of youth fail to realize that in reality there is no such thing as “true” love before marriage, yes, there might be crushes, infatuations and the likes, but true love? No.

Some people might argue and say, how can you make such a bold statement? To that I reply, love is what creates happiness not sorrow, love is what gives you a peace of mind not worry and anguish but most importantly, love is that which brings you closer to Allaah the Most High, not that which will push you further away from Him and acquire His wrath.

Yet there are a few brothers and sisters, who truly love Allaah, only to find their hearts crippled by this disease, they have apparently fallen in “love” with the opposite gender (before  marriage) and can’t seem to stop thinking about them, they lose their appetite, their sleep and become neglectful of life as a whole.

These individuals sometimes regret falling in love and want a way out, they want a cure for this illness, but is there really a cure?

Listen to what Imaam Ibn al-Qayyim has to say:

“And the cure for this deadly illness (i.e. love before marriage) is for the person that is afflicted to realize that this love is only due to his/her own delusions and ignorance.

So upon such a person is to first and foremost strengthen their Tawheed and reliance upon Allaah, and secondly to increase in worship and busy themselves with it, so much so that they do not have any spare time letting their minds wander and think about their beloved.

And they should call upon Allaah to protect them and save them from this evil, just as Prophet Yusuf called upon Allaah and he was saved. And they should do as he did, be as he was, in terms of ikhlaas (sincerity) and remembering Allaah in abundance.

This is because if the heart is filled with ikhlaas for the sake of Allaah, there will be no space left for any unlawful love to be present, rather this only happens to a heart that is empty and has no ikhlaas whatsoever.

And let such people remind themselves that whatever Allaah has decreed for them is only in their own best interests, and when Allaah commands something it is never to cause harm or misery to His slaves.

And let them also remind themselves that their unlawful love does not benefit them, neither in this world or the hereafter! As for this world then they will be so preoccupied with their love that it will cripple them and will cause them to live in a fantasy world. And as for the hereafter then it will cause them to be preoccupied with the love of the creation instead of love for the Creator!

These people need to be reminded, that the one who is emerged in something will never see its ill effects, neither will the person who has never experienced such things. The only people who will be able to relate to them are those who have experienced the same thing but have been saved. Such people can look back and realize how evil it is.”

[ad-Daa' wa ad-Dawaa p. 300]

Dying on a Friday?

Posted Oct 10, 2011 by Aboo Thaabit with No Comments

There is a hadeeth that is often circulated by people and it has to do with passing away on a Friday. The hadeeth in mention goes as following:

The Messenger of Allaah said:

There is no Muslim that passes away during the day or night of a Friday except that Allaah saves him from the fitnah of the grave.

Now there has been quite a lot of talk about this hadeeth, some scholars declare it saheeh others question the authenticity of it, so I decided to translate for you the conclusion of our noble Shaikh, al-Albaanee.

He said in his book Ahkaam al-Janaa-iz

This Hadeeth has been reported both by Imaam Ahmad and al-Fasawee in his al-Ma’rifah, narrated through two paths by ‘Abdillaah bin ‘Amr and it has backing up evidence from hadeeths narrated by Jaabir bin ‘Abdillaah and Anas bin Maalik including others.

So keeping in mind all these other variations of this hadeeth it concludes this hadeeth as either hasan or saheeh. (even though the hadeeth itself might be weak)

[Ahkaam al-Janaa-iz  p. 49]

Shaikh al-Mubaarakfoori goes into depth regards this in his book Tuhfat al-Ahwadi which is an explanation of Sunan at-Tirmidhee. In it, he expands on the position of Shaikh al-Albaanee and brings a lot of evidence for this opinion.

And as for the meaning of the hadeeth:

 ”except that Allaah saves him from the fitnah of the grave”

The Shaikh says:

This could mean both being saved from the punishment of the grave as well as the questioning of the grave

[Tuhafat al-Ahwadi v. 4 p. 186]