Arbitrary Thoughts

Beauty Tips just for you sisters!

My dear sisters in Islam,

This post is specially for you,Please take a look at this advice, so that you can stay attractive and beautiful for the rest of your life.

It is simply amazing

That the first thing we recite in a newborn’s ear is:

Allah is great, Allah is great.
Allah is great, Allah is great.
I bear witness that there is no deity except God. 
I bear witness that there is no deity except God.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God.
Come to prayer, Come to prayer.
Come to success, Come to success.
Allah is great, Allah is great.
There is no deity except God. 

Is that not enough indication of the type of life we are supposed to live?

Prayer is reminded at birth. Wow. SubhanAllah.

So I have not posted a lot of entries since before Ramadan…

And I feel that I have been neglecting my tumblr blog. I blame my odd sleeping patterns during Ramadan. During Ramadan, I had certain goals that I wanted to accomplish, such as 1). Attending Masjid more 2). Putting an end to gossip 3). Asking for forgiveness from others 4). Attending Taraweeh 5). Making the most of the last ten days of Ramadan 6). Not watching any television 7). Eating less food 8). Reciting Quran more and 9). Being a God-pleasing Muslim in general.

Success in fulfilling my goals was based highly on the people I surrounded myself with. I tried to spend little time with people that brought my imaan down, and more time with people that were constantly struggling to engage in remembrance of Allah (Exalted is He). This is not to say that I judge those that are not outwardly practicing, but at the end of the day, I have to look after myself. We should never take our faith for granted; it does not take much to fall into a state of doubt, and eventually to disbelief. Disobedience to God is the precursor to disbelief. To ensure that we are not one of the unfortunate, we should constantly evaluate, and if need be, make sacrifices for God’s happiness (which can very well be limiting your time with people that bring your faith down).

Ramadan, like other months, is a month of choices. For every conflict of interest, we have a decision to make, and sometimes we have a time limit. One of the most prominent advantages of Ramadan is that there is no shaytan to sway our decisions. Any other month, shaytan can influence us to make split second decisions that can be avoided during this holy month. For example, any other time of the year, we might pray fard and neglect sunnah prayers by telling ourselves that we are not spiritually “ready” to do any extra ibadat; the time period to make this decision is short and sometimes it does not take Shaytan much work/time to persuade us. But, in Ramadan, we feel more inclined to carry out these extra acts of worship because Shaytan is not distracting our minds with superfluous thoughts. Thus, we are forced to do some sort of self-contemplation, whether we act upon it or not, because we are stuck with our own thoughts. Personally, the continuous struggle to make right decisions is another major component (along with the people I surrounded myself with) that ensured my success. Many people might not understand what really is the “right” decision, but I believe I have the answer to that question. Before any decision, ask yourself this: “Will God be happy with this decision?”. Your answer to this decision will let you know whether your decision is the “right” one or not. It’s a lot simpler than people make it to be.

Another very critical component of fasting is the physical nature of the worship. We refuse to eat and drink for a specific amount of the day for the sake of God. Essentially, we choose to satisfy our souls rather than our bodies. On a normal day, when hunger or thirst hits us, we proceed on having food or water. We do this daily and generally we do not stop to think about the fact that we are hungry and that we should probably feed ourselves to diminish that hunger. This is all done subconsciously without much thought. On the other hand, fasting forces us to stop and think. When we get hungry while fasting, we are forced to think, “Oh, I should eat since my body is hungry, but I cannot, because I am fasting”. Then, perhaps subconsciously, we think, “I cannot break this fast to satisfy my hunger because of the purpose of my fasting –God”.  Fasting forces us to be conscious of God. Allah says in the Quran: “O you who believe, fasting has been prescribed for you as it has been prescribed for people before you so that you will attain Taqwa (God consciousness)” (Qur’an, al-Baqarah, 2:183). Every time I come across this quote, I am amazed at the validity of its claim. We really do attain taqwa. We really do. It does not matter how devout we are or how practicing we are in other forms of ibadat; if we are fasting for the sake of God, we will be forced to think of God more than our usual amount (usually at time of hunger). Not eating and drinking really helps me spiritually because in my opinion, the lesser I consume, the more I give. Abstaining from food and water helped me be successful in carrying out some of my goals and will continue doing so inshAllah in the future.  

Now that Ramadan is over, we should try extra hard to stay focused. We should first of all, not be affected by petty matters, because Shaytan loves a distressed heart. A distressed heart can be the greatest distraction from the worship of God. This is because emotions can be overwhelming and they can sometimes take over a person to the point where any form of worship is coupled with these tangential thoughts. If that seems impossible, then cry and talk things out with God, not just in your heart, but also out loud. It is good to talk to others who can help as well, but when it comes to getting close to your Lord, this is a very effective way to achieve that.

Maybe, it might be a good idea to fast a couple of days to get back into the groove of things, because fasting is one of the best ways to attain God consciousness. Listening and reciting the Quran is very important as well.

I wrote most of this entry some time ago but am posting it now because I feel like this is the best time.

Fasting on the 15th of Sha’ban

“In order to observe the Night of Bara’ah, one should remain awakened in this night as much as one can. If someone has better opportunities, he should spend the whole night in worship and prayer. However, if one cannot do so for whatever reason or another, he can select a considerable portion of the night, preferably of the second half of it for this purpose, and should perform the following acts of worship:

• Salah (prayer)
• Recitation of the Holy Qur’an
• Dhikr (remembrance of Allah, by reciting the Names of Allah or other tasbeehaat)
• Durood (salutations) upon the Holy Prophet(saw)
• Engaging in much supplication (dua) and invoking Allah(swt).

One should avoid acts that are not a part of the Shariah and have never been mentioned in the ahadeeth and nor were practiced upon by the Sahaabah (ra) or the Pious predecessors (ra), but are rather customary practices that have been introduced into the religion such as cooking specials meals on this night, or gathering together in a location to celebrate this night etc..

Fast of the 15^th Sha’ban

On the day immediately following the Night of Bara’ah, i.e. the 15^th of Sha’ban, it is mustahabb (advisable) to keep a fast. The Holy Prophet(saw) is reported to have recommended this fast emphatically (mentioned in At-Targheeb wat-Tarheeb with the narration of Ibn Majah). Although the scholars of hadith have some doubts in the authenticity of this report, yet as is known from other ahadeeth that the fasts of the first half of Sha’ban have special merits and the Holy Prophet(saw) used to fast most of the days in Sha’ban. Moreover, a large number of the elders (salaf) of the Ummah have been observing the fast of the 15^th of Sha’ban. This constant practice indicates that they accepted the relevant hadith as authentic. Therefore it is advisable to fast the 15^th of Sha’ban as an optional (nafl) fast. “

ANOTHER SOURCE GIVES ME THIS INFORMATION:

Apart from fasting in the month of sha’ban that has been proved authentic by above narrations, there is a concept of Laylat al-Nusf min Sha’baan (the 15th of Sha’baan). Which infact is like any other night, and there is no sound report from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) to indicate that on this night the fate or destiny of people is decided.

It was narrated from Abu Moosa al-Ash’ari that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Allaah looks down on the night of the fifteenth of Sha’baan and forgives all his creation except a mushrik or one who harbours hatred against the Muslims.” Narrated by Ibn Maajah, 1390.

The “one who harbours hatred against the Muslims” means one who has enmity towards a Muslim brother.

In al-Zawaa’id it says: Its isnaad is da’eef, because ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Lahee’ah is da’eef (weak) and al-Waleed ibn Muslim is mudallis.

There is also some idtiraab (weakness) in the hadeeth, as stated by al-Daaraqutni in al-‘Ilal, 6/50, 51. He said: This hadeeth is not proven.

It was narrated from Mu’aadh ibn Jabal, ‘Aa’ishah, Abu Hurayrah, Abu Tha’labah al-Khushani and others, but the isnaads are not free of some weakness, and some of them are very weak.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali said:

Concerning the virtue of the night of the fifteenth of Sha’baan there are numerous ahaadeeth, concerning which the scholars differed, but most of them classed them as da’eef, and Ibn Hibbaan classed some of them as saheeh.

Lataa’if al-Ma’aazif, 261.

Allaah’s descending to the first heaven does not only happen on the night of the fifteenth of Sha’baan, rather it is proven in al-Saheehayn and elsewhere that Allaah descends to the first heaven every night, in the last third of the night. The night of the fifteenth of Sha’baan is included in this general meaning.

Virtue of praying, fasting and worshipping on the fifteenth of Sha’baan (al-nusf min Sha’baan) does not come under the heading of da’eef (weak), rather it comes under the heading of mawdoo’ (fabricated) and baatil (false). So it is not permissible to follow it or to act upon it, whether that is in doing righteous deeds or otherwise.

END. 

In my opinion, if you are fasting this day, fast because the Prophet (peace be upon him) talked about fasting the 13th, 14th, and 15th of every month so one can observe fast on this day to honour that hadith.

Here is the hadith that talks about this:

It was narrated that Abu Dharr (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said to me: “If you fast any part of the month, then fast the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 761; al-Nasaa’i, 2424; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Targheeb, 1038. 

Also, since the 15th lies on a Thursday that is even more beneficial for you:

Abu Hurayrah  narrated that the Prophet  used to fast on Mondays and Thursdays and he was asked: ”O Prophet of Allaah, why do you fast on Mondays and Thursdays?, and he replied: ”On Mondays and Thursdays, Allaah forgives to every Muslim except for two persons who are deserting each other, and Allaah would say to the angels, “leave them until they reconcile.” [Ibn Maajah]

This Hadeeth was narrated with a different wording by Imaam Muslim :“The doors of Paradise open on Mondays and Thursdays; and every servant who does not associate anything with Allaah will be forgiven, except a man who has enmity and disputes with his Muslim brother, in which case, Allaah would say: “Put both of them off until they are reconciled.” [Muslim]

So when you fast this thursday inshAllah, fast because it is a Thursday and because it is the month of Shaban. To be on the safer side, do not introduce bidah into this equation and only give it importance because it is the fifteenth of this month (and we are encouraged to fast more in this month since the Prophet did so) and because is it a Thursday.