This is the outcome of the fear of Allah and being conscious of accountability in the court of Allah. The following is a must read for all and hope to be a lesson for many in our society—-Mufti Ebrahim Desai.
Gulf News-Manama: An expatriate working as a street sweeper in Makkah saw his life change in a blink during the Haj season after his estranged brother sought to make amends for wronging him by returning his share of the family fortune.
The Bangladeshi man was sweeping Taneem Street in Makkah when an old man wearing the Ihram cloth of Haj pilgrims crossed the busy road and embraced him warmly much to the perplexity of passersby. However, the sweeper returned the embrace, indicating his familiarity with the older man.
The embrace in fact was between two brothers who had not seen each other for more than five years in the aftermath of a bitter dispute over inheritance rights, Saudi news site Sabq reported. The two men were from a wealthy family in Bangladesh, but the older brother had refused to give his sibling his share of the inheritance estimated at 17 million Saudi riyals (Dh 16.64 million) in cash in addition to several properties.
The older man even managed to have his younger brother sent to prison whenever he asked for his share. The younger brother, disappointed and dejected, opted to leave Bangladesh and work as a sweeper in the holy city of Makkah. As it turns out, the sweeper has become a millionaire in his home country.
He told the people who gathered around him and his brother that he had forgiven his brother who had apologised profusely for mistreating him and that he was ready to return home.
The older man said that he had been diagnosed with cancer and that he was not sure how long he would live.
He reportedly looked for his brother in several places to ask for his forgiveness and make amends for all the years of deprivation he was forced to endure. He even offered financial rewards to whoever could help him locate his brother.
According to the news site, the younger brother said he was ready to forget the past and move forward with his new life. “I will always be kind with the poor and the needy,” he said. “I have learned a lot about deprivation and poverty in the last five years. I will always be fair with everyone after I lived through years of injustice,” he said in Arabic, a language he learned during the time he spent sweeping the streets of Makkah.
Kaltouma Abakar, a refugee from Sudan's Darfur province, sits on the floor of her
living room during the iftar meal with her family in Rovaniemi Finland Tuesday July 24, 2012.
Muslims who live in this Arctic Circle city have only a few hours each day between
sunset and sunrise to break their fast during Ramadan. Some opt to observe the
sunrise and sunset times of a nearby Muslim country, but Abakar sticks to the
local Rovaniemi schedule. Rovaniemi,
a northern Finland town that straddles the Arctic.
ROVANIEMI, Finland — How do you observe dawn-to-dusk fasting when there is neither dawn nor dusk?
It’s a question facing a small but growing number of Muslims celebrating the holy month of Ramadan on the northern tip of Europe, where the the sun barely dips below the horizon at this time of year.
In Rovaniemi, a northern Finland town that straddles the Arctic Circle, the sun rises around 3:20 a.m. and sets about 11:20pm. That means Muslims who observe Ramadan could be required to go without food or drink for 20 hours.
In a few years, Ramadan will begin even closer to the summer solstice in late June, when the sun doesn’t set at all.
“We have to use common sense,” said Mahmoud Said, 27, who came to Finnish Lapland from Kenya three years ago.
To Said, that means following the fasting hours of the nearest Muslim country: Turkey.
“It involves 14 or 15 hours of fasting which is okay, it’s not bad,” said Said, who works for a non-governmental organization helping immigrants settle in the area. He estimates there are a little over 100 Muslims in Rovaniemi, mainly from Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan.
There is no unanimity on how to deal with the issue, which is becoming more pressing as more Muslim immigrants find their way to sparsely inhabited areas near the Arctic.
In Alaska, the Islamic Community Center of Anchorage, “after consultation with scholars,” advises Muslims to follow the fasting hours of Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.
The Dublin-based European Council for Fatwa and Research, however, said Muslims need to follow the local sunrise and sunset, even up north.
“The debate on how to do this in the north has been on going on for a few years,” said Omar Mustafa, the chairman of the Islamic Association of Sweden. “We fast according to the sun. As long as it is possible to tell dusk from dawn. This applies to 90 percent of Sweden’s Muslims.”
The few Muslims who live so far north that they are awash in 24-hour daylight should follow the daylight hours the closest city in Sweden where you can tell dawn from dusk, he said, noting that it’s permitted to break the fast for health reasons.
Kaltouma Abakar and her extended family of nine relatives came to Finland from Sudan’s Darfur region four years ago. She opts to observe the local Lapland sunrise and sunset times before breaking the fast in her downtown Rovaniemi apartment.
Kaltouma explains that she gets up early and works until the afternoon, then starts cooking the family’s iftar meal around 5 p.m.
“The time of Ramadan fasting is very long, and breaking the fast can be around 11:30 in the evening. The time you’re supposed to eat your breakfast is 2 o’clock in the morning,” the 31-year old said.
In the kitchen, Kaltouma’s two daughters – aged 11 and 6 – help prepare the food. They fry chicken and pastries filled with tuna in scalding hot oil. A pot of rice simmers on the stove while one girl kneads cornmeal dough which they’ll dip into a chicken broth and eat with their fingers – traditional Sudanese style – a few hours later.
Apart from the late sunset times, Kaltouma said the lack of “Muslim food” locally in Rovaniemi can be a challenge. She sometimes has to wait several days for halal meat and other traditional ingredients to come from the larger cities of Oulu, or Helsinki in the south.
Even though, technically, there is nightfall in Rovaniemi at this time of year, there is no true darkness. Instead, there’s a gray gloaming with occasional dappled rays of sun reaching over the northern horizon, giving the city a mystical quality even in the supposed dead of night.
The dates of Ramadan change according to the lunar calendar, moving back 11 days each year. That means that by 2015 there will be no sunset for a month when Ramadan falls closer to midsummer.
Still, Kaltouma says “there is going to be at least 10 minutes for us to break the fast.”
She said there is one positive aspect of observing long fasting hours in the Arctic during Ramadan: the cool temperatures.
“Unlike Africa, here in Finland you don’t get thirsty often. No matter how long you fast, you don’t get the urge for water.”
Maulāna Muhammad Anwarī Lā’ilpūrī says that the year in which he was studying hadīthunder Hadhrat ‛Allāmah Anwar Shāh Kashmīrī rahmatullah ‛alayh at Darul Ulūm Deoband, ‛Allāmah ‛Ali al Yamanī thumma al Misrī, a hāfidh al hadīth, came for vacation to India. He came to Mumbai and then went to Randheir. In Randheirhe met Maulāna Muftī Mahdi Hasan Sahib Shahjahānpūrī. ‛Allāmah ‛Ali was Hanbalī in madhab and was very a staunch defender of his school of thought. Hence when Mufti Mahdi Sahib talked about Darul Ulūm Deoband and its elders he was unable to entertain the discussion at length.
In this vacation he happened to come to Delhi and stayed by Maulavī Abdul Wahāb, a well known Ahl Hadīth scholar, in Sadr Bazār. Coincidently he got involved in a heated debate with Maulvī Abdul Wahāb about the timings ofSalāt. ‛Allamah ‛Ali became very despondent at the situation and made his stay elsewhere in Delhi. He would complain at times that what was done to a guest was inappropriate.
Someone suggested him to visit Dārul Ulūm Deoband; however he kept thinking that since he is Hanbalī and even though Hanbaliyyah is more in line with the way of the Ahl Hadīth, he did not receive the appropriate welcoming from them. How then would a non Hanbalī entertain him any better? But due to continuous insistence he decided to go Deoband.
When he reached Dārul ‛Ulūm Deoband, Maulāna Habībur Rehmān Uthmānī took great care in welcoming the sheikh. At the time there were some students from Yemen studying at the Dārul ‛Ulūm as well. Maulana Uthmānī also encouraged these students to take exceptional care of their guest. After just two days (at the Dārul ‛Ulūm) this Muhaddith and ‛Allama mentioned to his fellow countrymen,
“‛Ulamā’ Dārul ‛Ulūm are embodiment of good character. Look at the open heart and enthusiasm with which they have taken care of me, a complete stranger with no prior acquaintance. (All this and) although we are different in school of thought, their hospitality did not waver.”
Maulvī Muhammad Yahyā al Yemenī, a student, seeing that ‛Allāmah was impressed by the teachers, stated that,
“‛Just like the character of Ulamā’ Deoband is brilliant so is the grounding of their knowledge and intellect unmatchable.”
Upon this the Sheikh replied,
“Oh leave that aspect aside, what would a stranger non-Arab know the depth of knowledge”
Coincidently in the very days the eulogy written in Arabic by ‛Allāmah Shah Kashmīrī rahmatullah ‛alayh in remembrance of Hadhrat Shāh Abdur Rahīm Raipūrī (khalīfah of Hadhrat Maulāna Gangohī rahmatullah ‛alayh), was published in the Dārul Ulūm’s magazine. Maulvī Yahyā handed that magazine over to ‛Allāmah Ali al Yameni rahmatullah ‛alayh. Upon reading he said,
“I can smell the style and literature of the pre Islamic Arabic from these verses.”
When he learnt that the person who has composed such an eulogy in this day and age is teaching Bukhāri and Tirmidhī Sharīf at Dārul Ulūm Deoband, ‛Allāmah decided to take part in the lessons. Next day he went along with the Yemeni students and sat for lessons. What ill fortune that the topic under discussion was in refutation of ‛Allāmah Ibn Taymiyyah. ‛Allāmah Shah Kashmīrī rahmatullah ‛alayh, keeping ‛Allamah Ali al Yameni in mind, decided to give the lesson in Arabic.
Hence a lengthy dialogue on the obsessive stances of ‛Allāmah Ibn Taymiyyah and its response and then responses to that response opened. ‛Allamah Ali attended the lessons for one week and then he disclosed his first impression to the Yemeni students,
“I have travelled from Lavant (Shām) to Hindustān and have visited nearly every Muslim city. I have given lessons on Sahihayn (BukhārīSharīf and Muslim Sharīf) in Egypt myself but I have never seen a scholar of this stature. I tried to silence him innumerable times but his command and depth of knowledge is incomparable.”
The day when he was about to leave Deoband, he announced in the gathering of students that,
“لو حلفت انه اعلم بابى حنيفة لما حنثت”
If I were to take an oath that he (‛Allāmah Kashmīri) is more knowledgeable than
Imām Abu Hanīfah then it (reality of the matter) would not break my oath.
However ‛Allāmah Shah Kashmīrī rahmatullah ‛alayh’s humility could not accept such praise and when he came to know of these impressions of the Sheikh, he stopped the students after ‛Asr and made the announcement,
“Sheikh Ali Misrī has exaggerated in my favour. The extent of reach of Imām A‛dham in his Ijtihād is so high that I cannot fathom reaching anywhere close to it.”
This is a story about a man named Rashed. He tells his story as follows…
I was not more than thirty years old when my wife gave birth to my first child. I still remember that night.
I had stayed out all night long with my friends, as was my habit. It was a night filled with useless talk, and worse, with backbiting, gossiping, and making fun of people. I was mostly the one who made people laugh; I would mock others and my friends would laugh and laugh. I remember on that night that I’d made them laugh a lot. I had an amazing ability to imitate others – I could change the sound of my voice until I sounded exactly like the person I was mocking. No one was safe from my biting mockery, even my friends; some people started avoiding me just to be safe from my tongue. I remember on that night, I had made fun of a blind man who I’d seen begging in the market. What was worse, I had put my foot out in front him – he tripped and fell, and started turning his head around, not knowing what to say.
I went back to my house, late as usual, and I found my wife waiting for me. She was in a terrible state, and said in a quivering voice, “Rashed… where were you?”
“Where would I be, on Mars?” I said sarcastically, “With my friends of course.”
She was visibly exhausted, and holding back tears, she said, “Rashed, I’m so tired. It seems the baby is going to come soon.” A silent tear fell on her cheek.
I felt that I had neglected my wife. I should have taken care of her and not stayed out so much all those nights… especially since she was in her ninth month. I quickly took her to the hospital; she went into the delivery room, and suffered through long hours of pain.
I waited patiently for her to give birth… but her delivery was difficult, and I waited a long time until I got tired. So I went home and left my phone number with the hospital so they could call with the good news. An hour later, they called me to congratulate me on the birth of Salem. I went to the hospital immediately. As soon as they saw me, they asked me to go see the doctor who had overlooked my wife’s delivery.
“What doctor?” I cried out, “I just want to see my son Salem!”
“First go see the doctor,” they said.
I went to the doctor, and she started talking to me about trials, and about being satisfied with Allah’s decree. Then she said, “Your son has a serious deformity in his eyes, and it seems that he has no vision.” I lowered my head while I fought back tears… I remembered that blind man begging in the market who I’d tripped and made others laugh at.
Subhan Allah, you get what you give! I stayed brooding quietly for a while… I didn’t know what to say. Then I remembered by wife and son. I thanked the doctor for her kindness, and went to go see my wife. My wife wasn’t sad. She believed in the decree of Allah… she was content… How often had she advised me to stop mocking people! “Don’t backbite people,” she always used to repeat… We left the hospital, and Salem came with us.
In reality, I didn’t pay much attention to him. I pretended that he wasn’t in the house with us. When he started crying loudly, I’d escape to the living room to sleep there. My wife took good care of him, and loved him a lot. As for myself, I didn’t hate him, but I couldn’t love him either.
Salem grew. He started to crawl, and had a strange way of crawling. When he was almost one year old, he started trying to walk, and we discovered that he was crippled. I felt like he was an even greater burden on me. After him, my wife gave birth to Umar and Khaled. The years passed, and Salem grew, and his brothers grew. I never liked to sit at home, I was always out with my friends… in reality, I was like a plaything at their disposal [entertaining them whenever they wanted].
My wife never gave up on my reform. She always made du’aa for my guidance. She never got angry with my reckless behavior, but she would get really sad if she saw me neglecting Salem and paying attention to the rest of his brothers. Salem grew, and my worries grew with him. I didn’t mind when my wife asked to enroll him in a special school for the handicapped.
I didn’t really feel the passing of the years. My days were all the same. Work and sleep and food and staying out with friends. One Friday, I woke up at 11 am. This was early for me. I was invited to a gathering, so I got dressed and perfumed, and was about to go out. I passed by our living room, and was startled by the sight of Salem – he was sobbing! This was the first time I had noticed Salem crying since he was a baby. Ten years had passed, and I hadn’t paid attention to him. I tried to ignore him now, but I couldn’t take it… I heard him calling out to his mother while I was in the room. I turned towards him, and went closer. “Salem! Why are you crying?” I asked.
When he heard my voice, he stopped crying. Then when he realized how close I was, he started feeling around him with his small hands. What was wrong with him? I discovered that he was trying to move away from me! It was as if he was saying, “Now, you’ve decided to notice me? Where have you been for the last ten years?” I followed him… he had gone into his room. At first, he refused to tell me why he’d been crying. I tried to be gentle with him… Salem started to tell me why he’d been crying, while I listened and trembled.
Do you know what the reason was?! His brother Umar, the one who used to take him to the masjid, was late. And because it was Jumu’ah prayer, Salem was afraid he wouldn’t find a place in the first row. He called out to Umar… and he called out to his mother… but nobody answered, so he cried. I sat there looking at the tears flowing from his blind eyes. I couldn’t bear the rest of his words. I put my hand over his mouth and said, “Is this why you were crying, Salem!”
“Yes,” he said.
I forgot about my friends, I forgot about the gathering, and I said, “Don’t be sad, Salem. Do you know who’s going to take you to the masjid today?”
“Umar, of course,” he said, “… but he’s always late.”
“No,” I said, “I’m going to take you.”
Salem was shocked… he couldn’t believe it. He thought I was mocking him. His tears came and he started crying. I wiped his tears with my hand and then took hold of his hand. I wanted to take him to the masjid by car. He refused and said, “The masjid is near… I want to walk there.” Yes, by Allah, he said this to me.
I couldn’t remember when the last time I had entered the masjid was, but it was the first time I felt fear and regret for what I’d neglected in the long years that had passed. The masjid was filled with worshippers, but I still found a place for Salem in the first row. We listened to the Jumu’ah khutbah together, and he prayed next to me. But really, I was the one praying next to him.
After the prayer, Salem asked me for a musHaf. I was surprised! How was he going to read when he was blind? I almost ignored his request, but I decided to humor him out of fear of hurting his feelings. I passed him a musHaf. He asked me to open the musHaf to Surat al-Kahf. I started flipping through the pages and looking through the index until I found it. He took the musHaf from me, put it in front of him, and started reading the Surah… with his eyes closed… ya Allah! He had the whole Surah memorized.
I was ashamed of myself. I picked up a musHaf… I felt my limbs tremble… I read and I read. I asked Allah to forgive me and to guide me. I couldn’t take it… I started crying like a child. There were still some people in the masjid praying sunnah… I was embarrassed by their presence, so I tried to hold my tears. My crying turned into whimpering and long, sobbing breaths. The only thing I felt was a small hand reaching out to my face, and then wiping the tears away. It was Salem! I pulled him to my chest… I looked at him. I said to myself… you’re not the blind one, but I am, for having drifted after immoral people who were pulling me to hellfire. We went back home. My wife was extremely worried about Salem, but her worry turned into tears [of joy] when she found out I had prayed Jumu’ah with Salem.
From that day on, I never missed the congregational prayer in the masjid. I left my bad friends… and I made righteous friends among people I met at the masjid. I tasted the sweetness of iman with them. I learned things from them that distracted me from this world. I never missed out on gatherings of remembrance [halaqas], or on the witr prayer. I recited the entire Qur’an, several times, in one month. I moistened my tongue with the remembrance of Allah, that He might forgive my backbiting and mocking of the people. I felt closer to my family. The looks of fear and pity that had occupied my wife’s eyes disappeared. A smile now never parted from the face of my son Salem. Anyone who saw him would have felt that he owned the world and everything in it. I praised and thanked Allah a lot for His blessings.
One day, my righteous friends decided to go to a far away location for da’wah. I hesitated about going. I prayed istikharah, and consulted with my wife. I thought she would refuse… but the opposite happened! She was extremely happy, and even encouraged me… because in the past, she had seen me traveling without consulting her, for the purpose of sin and evil. I went to Salem, and told him I would be traveling. With tears, he wrapped me up in his small arms…
I was away from home for three and a half months. In that period, whenever I got a chance, I called my wife and talked to my children. I missed them so much… and oh, how I missed Salem! I wanted to hear his voice… he was the only one who hadn’t talked to me since I’d traveled. He was either at school or at the masjid whenever I called them.
Whenever I would tell my wife how much I missed him, she would laugh happily, joyfully, except for the last time I called her. I didn’t hear her expected laugh. Her voice changed. I said to her, “Give my salam to Salem,” and she said, “Insha’Allah,” and was quiet.
At last, I went back home. I knocked on the door. I hoped that it was Salem who would open up for me, but was surprised to find my son Khaled, who was not more than four years old. I picked him up in my arms while he squealed, “Baba! Baba!” I don’t know why my heart tensed when I entered the house.
I sought refuge in Allah from the accursed shaytan… I approached my wife… her face was different. As if she was pretending to be happy. I inspected her closely then said, “What’s wrong with you?” “Nothing,” she said. Suddenly, I remembered Salem. “Where’s Salem?” I asked. She lowered her head. She didn’t answer. Hot tears fell on her cheeks.
“Salem! Where’s Salem?” I cried out.
At that moment, I only heard the sound of my son Khaled talking in his own way, saying, “Baba… Thalem went to pawadise… with Allah…”
My wife couldn’t take it. She broke down crying. She almost fell to the floor, and left the room. Later, I found out that Salem had contracted a fever two weeks before I’d returned, so my wife took him to the hospital… the fever got more and more severe, and didn’t leave him… until his soul left his body…
And if this earth closes in on you in spite of its vastness, and your soul closes is on you because of what it’s carrying… call out, “Oh Allah!” If solutions run out, and paths are constricted, and ropes are cut off, and your hopes are no more… call out, “Oh Allah.” Allah wished to guide Salem’s father on the hands of Salem, before Salem’s death. How merciful is Allah!
Abu Bakr Al-Nabulusy (RA) was a great scholar who renounced this worldly life, he was pious, always eager to avoid sins and a great worshipper. That’s how Ibn Katheer (RA) describes him in his Al-Bidâyah wa-Nihâyah.
The story is during the Fatimide “caliphate”. The Fatimids usurped the caliphate title while setting up their corrupt creed. Identifying themselves as the progeny of Fatimah (RA), they propagated idolatry, made sins widespread as well as abusing the companions (RA). They did not hesitate to ally with the crusaders against muslims but were eventually defeated by Salah ud deen al-ayyoubi (RA).
The story takes place in Egypt, in the 4th century after hijrah, under the reign of fourth ruler, Al-Mu’izz, responsible of the transfer of the caliphate to Cairo.
Ibn Katheer (RA) describes him as a tyrant and a taghut. He recounts this event as a an evidence to show his deviance and tyranny.
Thus Abu Bakr Al-Nabulusy (RA) was once brought before him. The tyrant said to him “I was informed that you stated if you had 10 arrows you would shoot 9 at the Christians and one at the Egyptians (ie against the Fatimids)”.
The shaykh replied “No I didn’t say that”.
The tyrant then thought the shaykh had retracted because of fear, so he asked : “Then what did you say ?”
The shaykh replied “I said if I had 10 arrows, I would shoot only one at the Christians, and the remaining on you”.
The tyrant asked why and the shaykh bravely replied “Because you changed the religion of the muslim community, and (because) you assassinated pious people, you quench the light of the only deity, Allah, and you claimed unjustly what was not yours”.
And with these words he signed his own death warrant.
The consequences lasted three days :
On the first day it was announced officially Abu Bakr Nabulusy would be sentenced to death.
The second day he was flogged harshly and violently.
The third day the tyrant ordered him to be skinned alive, and so he brought a Jewish executioner.
He started to flay the shaykh who was reciting Qur’anic verses.
The Jewish related “I was suddenly caught by feelings for him. While I was flaying him and passing near his heart, I decided to hit with the knife to end it quickly, and he died.”
Ibn Katheer relates that still in his time (400 years later) his descendants were called “Children of the martyr” and that there was still loads of good in them.