Believe and do good

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّ حِيْمِ

When we look at the messages contained in the Holy Qur’an you will notice three basic things.  One is that the messages contained tell us about Allah; The Creature of the universe; The One True God.  The second is the rewards associated with doing good and the third is the consequences for doing evil.  Basically, that is the message Allah gave to mankind all throughout history. 

Prophet Muhammad (pboh) was special because as Allah says in the Qur’an;

We have not sent thee but as a universal (Messenger) to men.  (34:28)

And the message that he gave was of glad tidings and warnings.  He was able to successfully transmit the message that Allah gave to the believers and also convey a special consolation to man.  This is at the end of Surah Hadid;

O ye that believe! fear Allah, and believe In His Messenger, and He will bestow on you a double portion of His mercy: He will provide for you a light by which ye shall walk (straight in your Path), and He will forgive you (your past): for Allah is Oft- forgiving, Most Merciful.  (57:28)

Belief is more than just uttering it with the lips.  We must keep faith firm in the heart because whatever is in there is between you and your Lord.  No one else can see the contents of one’s heart.  Those who really believe in Allah and His Messenger (pboh); Allah says that He will give them twice amount of blessings and a light by which to guide you.

From the very beginning of the Holy Qur’an Allah has mentioned all that in it.  Firstly, Surah Fatiha describes Allah in His True Form.  We also affirm that we need Him to take care of us and we recognise the kind of grouping with which we would like to be associated; those who will be guided on the straight path.

In our opening prayer we highlight all these things and this makes us slightly above the previous nations with regards to our understanding and actions.  We have everything before us and we also know of the consequences of everything because Prophet Muhammad (pboh) saw with firsthand knowledge the results of mans actions.  And he was able to narrate as the revelations came because he had certain knowledge of it.

Sometimes we may ask why God did all this.  Why were His messengers subjected to all those hardships for example?  We really cannot understand the working of Allah; but we understand one thing; that if we conform, the end result will be assured for us to be good, and if we deviate we will just be another statistic, and that is the message that Islam gave to the world.  To believe and do good. 

We are special because Allah says He will bestow upon us a light if you follow dedicatedly.  Our mission is to strive to attain that light and keep it on the onward journey of life.

May Allah bless all the believers with this special light and may He continuously take care of our affairs.

Transcript of discourse delivered by

Maulana Dr. Waffie Mohammed

The enemy

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّ حِيْمِ

Allah has given Satan the capacity and capability to enter the human body just as an x-ray light can pass through the body without you being able to see or feel it.  So too Satan can enter because he is a kind of light. 

He has the capacity either to play on our emotions, desires, egos and our passions because they all come from the heart.  He doesn’t work on the mind because our control mechanism is the heart and these characteristics come from your heart.  He therefore uses these to divert your focus from the straight path. 

So he will work on these qualities just as how he played on the emotions of Adam and Eve in the Garden.  He never whispered in Adam’s ear because as the tradition goes when Allah created the body of Adam He left him in the Garden; Satan entered into Adam’s shell to scrutinized and found that inside Adam’s chest was hollow and could therefore be a weak spot. 

He will create intense passion for us because Allah says Satan looks at you from places you cannot see.  He has his men well trained to work on your weaknesses such as passion, anger, etc.  Allah allows them to do this.  It is us who have to resist.  This is why when Satan made the vow to attack the children of Adam Allah told him except those who are on the straight path.

That is why when tempted we are encouraged to say auzubillah minashaitan nirajeem.  Another way of protecting ourselves is by making wudu  properly.  It is recommended whilst performing your wudu you recite the following dua during the performance;

1.       While washing the hands before performing Wudhu, one should say:

Alla hummaj alni minat tawwabina waj alni minal mutatah hireen.

O Lord! Make me of those who repent and purify themselves.

2.       While rinsing the mouth one should say:

Alla Humma laq qini hujjati yawma alqaka wa atliq lisani bizikrika.

O Lord! Dictate to me the principles of faith on the Day I meet You, and make my tongue fluent with Your remembrance.

3.       While washing the nose one should say:

Alla humma la tuharrim 'alaya rihal jannati waj 'alni mim man yashummu riha ha wa rawha ha wa tiba ha.

O Lord! Do not deprive me of the fragrance of Paradise, and make me of those who smell its fragrance and per fume.

4.       While washing the face, one should say:

Alla humma bayyiz wajhi yawma taswaddufihil wujuh wala tusawwid waj hi yawma tabyazzul wujuh.

O Lord! Make my face bright on the Day when the faces will turn dark. Do not darken my face on the Day when the faces are bright.

5.       While pouring water over the right elbow, one should say:

Alla humma a'tini kitabi bi yamini wal khulda fil jinani bi yasari wa hasibni hisaban yasira.

O Lord! Give my book of deeds in my right hand, and a permanent stay in Paradise on my left, and make my reckoning an easy one.

6.       While pouring water over the left elbow, one should say:

Alla humma la tutini kitabi bishimali wala min wara'i zahri wala taj alha maghlu latan ila unuqi wa a'uzu bika min muqat ta'atin niran.

O Lord! Do not give my book of deeds in my left hand, nor from behind my back, nor chain it to my neck. I seek refuge in You from the Hell-fire.

7.       While performing the wiping of the head, one should say:

Alla humma ghashshini bi rahmatika wa barakatika wa 'afwika.

O Lord! Cover me with Your Mercy, Blessings and Forgiveness.

8.       While performing the wiping of the feet, one should say:

Alla humma thabbitni ala sirati yawma tazillu fihil aqdam. Waj'al sa'yi fi ma yurzika 'anni ya zal jalali wal ikram.

O Lord! Keep me firm on the Bridge (to Paradise) on the Day when the feet will slip, and help me in my efforts to do things which will please You, O' Glorious and Mighty!

Satan is indeed very clever and we should at all times be on guard and protect ourselves from his whispering.  If the wudu is made properly, he will be unable to interfere with the person who is standing before his Lord in worship; otherwise he can come and cause our minds to waver by indulging in all types of thoughts instead of thinking only about Allah.

May Allah make it easy for us and protect us.  May He enable us to ward off the temptations of the because of the weaknesses of our personalities.

Transcript of discourse delivered by

Maulana Dr. Waffie Mohammed

Vicegerency: A divine gift

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّ حِيْمِ

After Allah created the entire universe and He had perfected the earth, then He created man, with the capability and capacity of becoming His representative on earth.  Because of the fact that man was a new species in creation, the angels and jinn were unable to assess his capacity and capability.  When it was announced to them that Adam was to be Allah’s representative on earth, they were shocked and surprised.

Adam was specially blessed by Allah in many ways.  On one hand, he was to manifest the Divine Attributes in the dealing with the rest of the creatures; and on the other hand, he was given some knowledge which was unknown to the others.

In addition to all these blessings, it was made possible for him and his progeny to meet his Lord as a human being with both body and soul.  This was made evident by Prophet Muhammad (pboh) on the night of Miraj.

Although the names of all created things were impressed in the knowledge of Adam it is left for his progeny to discover and use them as they see fit.  Perhaps, that is one of the reasons why it is believed that science discovers names of things as each name gives a concept of something that is existence.

New discoveries of things in nature confirm the Message of the Qur’anic verse in which Allah says that every day He is manifesting Himself in some form of Glory (55:29).

At the beginning Adam was not fully aware of the effect that prohibited things were to have on a person.  It was only when he tasted the tree that he realized the reason for remembering the Commands to uphold the do’s and avoid the don’ts.

With the coming of Prophet Muhammad (pboh) Allah gave clear and complete guidance regarding believers’ indulgence in permissible and avoidance of prohibited.  Allah re-enforced the message with examples of events, etc. of bygone times to help us comprehend the message in a more meaningful way.

Satan does not like the status of man in the universe and his capability of ascent back to the Creator.  As a result, he vowed to prevent this from happening by making man forget the commands, and by decorating the evil in order to divert him from the Right Way.

As indulgence in evil creates a weight on the doer of the act, he or she will not be able to rise up on the way to the Lord. Such actions will also restrict the penetration of the light of the soul in the cells of the body, so that the person will be resurrected without any light in the body and will ultimately be confined to hell.

 

Transcript of discourse delivered by

Maulana Dr. Waffie Mohammed