To understand what my title means one should understand that we, humans are made of two different components. We have a Body and a Ruh (English translation: soul), Body made of dirt and soil and Ruh is the special light delivered within our mother’s womb by angels following Allah’s commandment. When a women enters the 120th day (4 months) of her pregnancy, Allah SWT sends down an angel to write down four things: He is ordered to write down his (i.e. the new creature’s) deeds, his livelihood, his (date of) death, and whether he will be blessed or wretched (in religion). Then the soul is breathed into him (Sahih Al-Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 54, Number 430)
The majesty of Allah is such that He created Ruh of every single one of Adam’s progeny, long before he made the bodies and gathered us all as our Ruh’s minus the body and took a covenant form us. Every single one of us agreed that Allah is our creator and gave him the covenant that we wont be setting up rivals against Him and bore witness to him as our creator (Surah # 7, Verse # 172). And what did we do when the Ruh was deposited into our respective bodies? We deny Allah as being our creator and we question His presence?
We spend a BIG portion of our life running after worldly needs and trying our best to fulfil bodily needs and wants. We invest so much of our time and efforts into quenching our bodily desires and needs that we completely ignore to feed and strengthen the other component of our creation – our Ruh! We end up dehydrating and weakening our Ruh, thereby leading many of us to question Allah and His presence. ‘How do you know that there is a God?’, ‘Prove to me that there is but a God!’ – could perhaps be the best philosophical and atheist questions; the answer to which is one simple fact – But, You all did know .. All of us bore witness to this fact a long time ago. The only crucial difference being that you forgot!
Ramadhan is that magnificent month when we actually cater to the needs of our Ruh and nourish it. Since Ruh was created by Allah and delivered to us by Allah, Allah also provided with the proper nourishment for our Ruh – The Quran. Notice the amazing coincidence that Allah SWT arranged for the food for our Ruh to be delivered to us for the first time in the same month of Ramadhan, This was the month when Quran was revealed to the mankind.We restrain ourself from fulfilling the bodily needs during Ramadhan, giving us an excellent opportunity to devote time and attention to nourish and strengthen our Ruh inshallah. Therefore, Tarawee is a crucial component of Ramadhan where the recitation of Quran, its understanding enriches our Ruh and our faith in Allah SWT.
May Allah help us make the best out of this month and ease our sorrow and pain and grant us happiness and peace. Ameen
Ramadhan Mubarak
Inspired by Nouman Ali Khan’s lecture series on Ramadhan
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The story of Moses is mentioned in many different passages in the Quran, presented here is his life in the light of Quran and Sunnah. Mentioned in Quran ” Ta-Sin-Min. These are the verses of the Manifest book. We relate to you the story of Moses and Pharoah in truth, for people to believe … to show Pharoah and Haman and their soldiers what they were dreading from them” (28:1-6). The people of Israel were the best people of that time, but Pharoah exploited them and dealt with them with injustice. He used to kill their males and spared the women. The reason behind this evil practice was the beliefs of Israelites that there will come a child from the progeny of Abraham, who will destroy the kingdom of Pharoah. Suddi has narrated from Ibn Abbas and other companions: Pharoah had a dream, that a fire came from the direction of Jerusalem and burnt all the Coptic people and their houses, and did not harm Israelites. When he woke up, he was frightened of his dream. He gathered all priests, soothsayers and sorcerers and asked them the interpretation of his dream. They said, ‘There will be born a boy from these people, who will destroy the people of Egypt’. So pharoah released an order to kill all newborn baby boys and to leave the girls alive.
Many exegete’s said: The Coptic population complained to Pharoah that Israelites are getting less and less in number, because of killing their boys. Consequently, they were loosing manpower of Israelites and were forced to carry out those works performed by the Israelites. So Pharoah found an economical and socially sound solution, and hence decreed a new order, that from now he would kill the children from one year and then spare to live those born the next year. It is said that Aaron (Moses’s brother) was born in the year of pardon and Moses was born in the year when they were to be killed. When Moses’ mother gave birth to Moses, it was inspired to her that she should make a chest and tie it with a long rope, with the other hand tied with her house. As her house was on the bank of Nile, she should place him in the chest and let the rope lose so it could hide in the reeds in the Nile as mentioned in Surah Al-Qasas, Verse # 7-9. However one day she let the chest go in the Nile, she forgot to tie it with her house. Now the chest went on till it passed by the Pharoah’s place. So “the family of Pharoah picked him up, that Moses should be to them an adversary and a cause of sorrow. Surely, Pharoah, Haman and their soldiers were sinners (28: 8).
The moment Asiyah (Pharoah’s wife) looks at the baby Moses, she falls in love with him. She asks Pharoah to spare Moses as a gift to her further adding that “He may be of use to us or we may take him as a son” (28:9) since they never had any children of their own. Once Moses was taken inside Pharoah’s palace and they wanted to keep him, they looked for someone who could foster the child. However, he did not feed from any foster mother, neither did he eat any food from any one. They became helpless as Allah has said “And We ordained that he would refuse to be suckled by any foster mother” (28: 12). When Moses was escorted to the market with midwives to search for someone to suckle him, they were spotted by Moses’ sister and without giving nay hint that she was his sister, directed them to Moses’ mother. His mother took him and out him to his breasts. He immediately started suckling making them all overjoyed and relieved. Asiyah immediately calls for her and accepts her proposal of letting Moses stay with her to be suckled and fed. So Moses mother happily returned with her son to her home. Allah said, “Thus We did return him to his mother that her eye may be delighted and she is not grieved, and that she would know that the promise of Allah is true, but most of them do not know” (28:13)
To be continued inshallah ..
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Narrated Aisha R.A.A, The mother of faithful believers: The commencement of the divine revelations to Allah’s Messenger S.A.S was in the form of good righteous (true) dreams which came true like bright daylight, and then the love of seclusion was bestowed upon him. He used to go in seclusion n the cave of Hira where he used to worship (Allah Alone) continuously for many nights before returning to his family. He used to take with him the journey food for the stay and then come home back to his wife Khadija to take his food likewise again till suddenly the Truth descended upon him while he was in the cave of Hira. The angel came to him and asked him to read. The prophet S.A.S replied, ‘I do not know how to read’.
The prophet S.A.S added, ‘ Then the angel caught me (forcefully) and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read and I replied, ‘ I do not know how to read’. Thereupon he caught me again and pressed me a second time till I could not bear it any more. He then released me and asked me again to read but I again replied, ‘I do not know how to read’. Thereupon he caught me for the third time and pressed me and then released me and said, ‘Read in the Name of your Lord, Who has created (all that exists). Has created man from a clot (a piece of thick coagulated blood). Read! And your Lord is the Most generous,‘ (V.96:1-3). Then Allah Messenger S.A.S returned with the revelation and his heart beating severely. Then he came to Khadijah bint khuwalid R.A.A and said, ‘Cover me! Cover me!’ They covered him till his fear was over and after that he told khadijah R.A.A everything that happened (And said), I fear that something may happen to me’. Khadijah replied, ‘ Nerver! By Allah, Allah will never disgrace you. You keep good relations with your kith and kin, help the poor and the destitute, serve your guests generously and assist the deserving calamity-afflicted ones.’
Khadijah R.A.A then accompanied him to her cousin Waraqa bin Naufal bin Asad bin Abdul Uzza, who during the period of ignorance became a christian and used to write the writings with Hebrew letters. He would write from the Gospel in Hebrew as much as Allah wished him to write. He was an old man and had lost his eyesight. Khadijah said to Waraqa,’Listen to the story of your nephew, O my cousin!’ Waraqa said, ‘O my nephew, what have you seen?’ Allah’s Messenger described whatever he had seen. Warqa said, ‘This is the same one(angel, i.e. Jibril) whom Allah has sent to Musa. I wish I were young and could live up to the time when your people would turn you out’. Allah’s Messenger asked, ‘Will they drive me out?’ Waraqa replied in affirmative and added, ‘Anyone who came with something similar to what you have brought was treated with hostility; and if I should remain alive till the day then I would support you strongly,. But after a few days Waraqa died and the divine revelations was also paused for a while.
Narrated Jabir bin Abdullah Al-Ansari while talking about the period of pause in revelation, reported the speech of the prophet S.A.S. While i was walking, all of a sudden I heard a voice from the sky. I looked up and saw the same angel, who had visited me at the cave of Hira, sitting on a chair between the sky and the earth. I got scared of him and came back home and said, ‘Wrap me(in a blanket).’ And then Allah revealed the following Holy verses of Quran: ‘O you(Muhammad S.A.S) envoled(in garments)! Arise and warn … (upto you) and keep away from Ar-Rujz(the idols)! {V.74:1-5}. After this the revelations started coming strongly and frequently in succession one after the other. (Sahih Al Bukhari, #3 &4).
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