But it will not go past their throat

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As Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh! I hope this finds you close to Allah & in the best of health and Iman.


On the authority of Abu Sa'eed Al- Khudree ( May Allah be pleased with him) he said that the Messenger of Allah (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) said:

" There will come a people who will recite the Qur'aan but it will not go past their throats.

Three types of people read the Qur'aan:
a believer,
a hypocrite,
and a criminal."

(Musnad of Ahmad, Al-Haakim and others, graded Hasan)

The Recording Angel on the Left Waits....

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As Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh! I hope this finds you close to Allah & in the best of health and Iman.

AbdurRahman.org | May 12, 2011 at 7:00 PM | Categories: Character, Sins | URL: http://wp.me/p1VJ3-zL

 

Abu Umamah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated the Messenger of Allah (salallahu alayhi wa salim) said, “ The companion (Angel) on the left lifts his pen for six hours for the Muslim slave that errs or sins. If this slave repents and seeks Allah’s forgiveness for that error or sin, the Angel doesn’t record it. And if the slave doesn’t ask Allah for forgiveness, the Angel records it once.

Collected by At-Tabarani in Kabir (7667 ) , Abu Na’eem in Hilya (6/124), Al-Bayhaqi in Shu’ib (6788). Shaykh Al-Albani graded this hadeeth as being Hasan in Saheehah (1209)

Benefits for this topic:
Lifts the pen for six hours: These six hours could refer to astrological time, or another time period.
The Muslim slave that errs or sins: Means the Angel won’t record the sin or error before the six hours passes. He simply delays writing it.
If the slave repents: This refers to the salve seeking sincere repentance for the sin or error he’s done.
The Angel doesn’t record it: Means the Angel on the left ignores writing it.
If the slave doesn’t ask Allah for forgiveness: This means the Angel on the left writes it down as one bad deed, unlike the Angel that records the good deeds. The Angel on the right writes down a good deed ten times.[ Faydul Qadir Al-Manawee]

 Translated by Abu Aaliyah Abdullah ibn Dwight Lamont Battle

Today is Earth Day - Simple Ways to Make a Difference

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As Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh! I hope this finds you close to Allah & in the best of health and Iman.

There are MANY ways to go green & help the environment.  Below are just a few ways.  You can find many more by doing a Google Search.  WHAT WAYS ARE YOU HELPING?  COMMENTS ARE ENCOURAGED!

1. Unplug electrical items from the wall.  The EPA says that 10-15 percent of home energy loss is caused by “vampire,” or phantom power loads—electricity consumed by electronics when they are powered off yet still plugged into an outlet. Everything from a clock radio to a DVD player sucks phantom power, raising electric bills and wasting resources. By remembering to unplug all electronics or using a power strip to cut the power of multiple items, you’re saving the environment and your budget.

 2. Make your own cleaning products. Using environmentally safe cleaning products made at home saves money and ensures toxic chemicals will not leak into the earth, sacrificing drinking water quality and causing harm to lakes and rivers. With a refillable spray bottle and a few common household pantry items, most anything can be effectively, and safely, cleaned. Recipes for environmentally friendly household cleaning solutions can be found by visiting EcoCycle.org.

3. Properly insulate your home. Heating and cooling systems are costly to operate and emit harmful greenhouse gasses. Making sure your home is sufficiently insulated from air leaks will prevent costly energy consumption.

 4. Switch your shower head. There was a time when “low-flow” showers meant having to sacrifice water pressure. Thankfully, the advancement in shower head technologies means there’s no reason to not make this simple, and cost effective, change. By replacing your current shower head with one bearing the EPA WaterSense Label, the average household could save 2,300 gallons of water each year.

5. Plant a tree. Trees are not only beautiful, but they help reduce greenhouse emissions by taking in harmful CO2 gasses. They are also natural weather barriers during peak heating and cooling hours, and can increase property values. For advice on tree planting and care, talk to the friendly people of Graf Tree Care in St. Charles. Graf employs four certified arborists among their staff of 11 and are dedicated to the care and preservation of trees.

• Pay your bills online. If every house in the United States did this, we would save 18 million trees every year.
• Make the most of your reusable bags - bring your own reusable bags to the store to spare the use of plastic bags. They now come in all different types of patterns and colors, so being green can be trendy.
• Green is beautiful. There are many beauty and personal care products that are good for you AND the environment. EcoTools and Physicians Formula are great brands that offer many varieties of products that are kind to both Mother Nature and your body.
• Your four-legged friend wants to reduce their carbon footprint too! Use biodegradable plastic bags to pick up pet waste.
• Clean green by making your own environmentally friendly cleaning solution or find one of the many choices available now in your local store. 
• Ditch the bottled water.  Buy a water filter and filter your tap water into re-usable bottles.
• Get with a group of friends or gather your family and pledge to clean up your block, your neighborhood, a highway, a stream, a park, etc.
  

Figure out how to make every day Earth Day. 

1. Turn off the lights! And the screens, printers, etc. I know this seems like an obvious one, but it is amazing how many empty rooms still have lights on, and how many electronic devices that are rarely used are left perpetually on--just in case.

2. Don't print. Try your best to solely use electronic documents during Earth Day. How many documents have you printed just so you could read it and throw it away? How many sheets of paper are wasted from printing gone wrong--printing too many copies, or printing an entire 50-page document when you only needed to read a couple pages? But if you must print...   


3. Use both sides of paper for printed documents. Why use double the paper, when you can cut your waste in half immediately? This is a great policy, particularly for internal documents and drafts. Another paper-saving option for printing of drafts and internal documents is to use a smaller font and wider margins to maximize the use of the paper.

4. Offset your carbon footprint. Give something back to the environment on Earth Day. Workers consume resources all year. On Earth Day, plant a tree or three to give back to the Earth and make sure that the planet's natural resources are not exhausted.

Recycle:
EDCO has made it easy to do curbside recycling. Items that are accepted for recycling are paper products, including computer paper, catalogs, junk mail, copier paper, phone books, grocery bags, gift wrap and envelops, even if they have “windows”; cardboard, including food packaging such as cereal boxes, cake-mix boxes, frozen food boxes, egg cartons and soda/beer carriers; all beverage containers marked “CA Redemption Value” or “CA Cash Refund”; plastic containers labeled #1-#7; aluminum and tin cans, liquor bottles, empty aerosol cans, pie tins, glass jars and bottles. See the full list here. Just drop the recyclables in the blue bin and put it on the curb on trash day.

Ditch your Dryer:
We pay a lot of hidden taxes for the wonderful sun that we get all year long, why not put some of that instant solar power to work and reap the reward of sun-fresh clothes. The dryer takes a lot of energy to run, so start out trying half-time loads, hanging the clothes out to dry when they're damp, then eventually go all the way and ditch that dryer.

Excerpt from my Interview with a Muslim College student about Prayer

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As Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh! I hope this finds you close to Allah & in the best of health and Iman.


THIS INTERVIEW WAS DONE IN MARCH 2011.

Sister Marwa: Describe to me the experience of praying Jama’a, together, with the rest of the sisters, standing in line, all of us standing in line, doing the same thing at the same time, listening to the same voice. How does it feel like? The experience of praying with sisters, shoulder to shoulder.

Sister @pril: It has a different feeling than when you’re praying by yourself. It’s like we’re all coming together for the same thing. We’re all coming together for the same prize. It’s like if you really believe in a charity― let’s say you organize a breast cancer walk―you might get a few friends together, but once you organize a large group, it has a larger impact. It has a much stronger fleeing. You feel very unified. We’re all Muslims. We all believe the same thing. We’re all doing the same thing. It has a very strong feeling. It also creates a bond because after we get done, sometimes we hug each other. It’s not like how Christians pray at church. We’re touching each other. You know? We’re touching each others’ feet. Our shoulders, our elbows are touching. You’re very close to somebody.  We’re all standing. We’re all doing the exact same thing. It’s a very good feeling inside that we’re all sharing in the same thing, at the exact same time because you never know when you’re going to pray with these sisters again.  We all die. We’re all going to die. You just never knew when someone won’t be there the next week.  Even ourselves, we might not even be here tonight. You really have to appreciate what’s going on right now. Focus on right now.  And it’s just a really good feeling being with everyone doing the same thing at the same time. It just has a louder voice, to have everyone do the exact same thing.

Women Wearing Perfume Outside

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As Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh! I hope this finds you close to Allah & in the best of health and Iman.

AbdurRahman.org | April 19, 2011 at 5:28 PM | Categories: Islam, women | URL: http://wp.me/p1VJ3-yU

 In the Name of Allaah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful...

The imaam, Aboo Daawood {d.275) collected in his Sunan (#4174) that Aboo Hurayrah encountered a woman who was wearing perfume, and the tail of her garment was dusty.  He said, "O servant of al-Jabbaar!  Have you come from the masjid?"  She said, "Yes."  He said, "And you have perfumed yourself for that purpose (i.e. praying in the masjid)?"  She said, "Yes."  He then said, "I heard my beloved Abul-Qaasim (may Allaah raise his rank and grant him peace) saying:

"The prayer of a woman who wears perfume to go to the masjid is not accepted until she returns and takes a bath, like the bath of janaabah (after sexual intercourse, i.e. a full bath)."

Understanding the Hadeeth:

[1] The hadeeth was also collected by Ahmad, Ibn Maajah and others, with a weak chain because of 'Aasim ibn 'Ubaydillaah.  However, it is strengthened by another chain found in Saheeh Ibn Khuzaymah (1682).  The latter chain is also weak, however they strengthen each other and thus the hadeeth is considered authentic, classified as: hasan lighayrihi[1].  Ibn Khuzaymah considered the hadeeth to be authentic.  Al-Albaanee authenticated it in as-Saheehah (1031).

[2] The statement, "like the bath of janaabah" specifies that the intention is not to just remove the perfume from the place it was applied, but rather a full bath must be taken.

[3] Some people may misunderstand the hadeeth to be specific to women who go the masjid for prayer, however this is clearly not the case.  The mention of the masjid is not restrictive in this hadeeth, and the ruling applies to women going out anywhere.  Since the masjid is a place where the men have been encouraged to dress well for and wear perfume, then it is not disliked for the smell of the perfume to be in the masjid.  So the problem with women wearing perfume to the masjid is the distraction they would create and the potential fitnah that would ensue.  This is the 'illah (reason) for the prohibition.  Thus, if this is the ruling for being around the best people, the people who pray in the masjids, the people whom Allaah has praised in His Book as being those who truly believe in Him and that they are men who are not distracted by trade, then how much more does the prohibition apply to the most evil places, the gathering sites of the wicked (fujjaar), the most despised places on earth to Allaah...!!  So it as if he was using the masjid as an example of the best case scenario, where one would never imagine someone acting upon his desires and chasing after a woman... so then if it is not allowed to wear perfume in such a place, then what about the places where illicit behavior is very common!

This general application of the hadeeth seems to be what Aboo Daawood understood when he gathered the hadeeth in his Sunan and entitled the chapter: "The Chapter of What has Been Reported About Women Wearing Perfume Outside"

[4] A similar hadeeth in Saheeh Muslim (#444) forbids women from attending 'Eshaa' Prayer in the masjid if they have been affected by bakhoor (burned fragrances, like incense).  It is also to be understood in light of point #3.

[5] The hadeeth shows that the Companions used to enjoin the good and forbid the evil with women who were not in their family.

 

[6] The hadeeth also shows the practical implementation of tathab-but (being certain before acting), since Aboo Hurayrah asked the woman, "And you have perfumed yourself...?"  Notice that he did not assume that the scent was hers without asking.

And Allaah knows best.