Ijtema 2008: Flooded with rain, Flooded with Blessings

The days of Ijtema are the most eagerly awaited days of the year to me. Since I came to Uttara I didn't miss attending this grand event. It's a huge opportunity to listen to the elders of Tabligh who come here from all the corners of the globe, inspiring us to work on Allah's path, spread the words of Quran and Sunnah. This year I knew I wouldn't be able to attend all three days, as the classes and exams were too heavily scheduled as we are heading towards the end of the semester. But man desires and Allah decides. Due to continuous rain and chilling winter cold, the Ijtema was cut short into just one day. I saw a glimpse of the misery of the people at Ijtema on Thursday. I went there at Asr and the scenario was totally miserable. It was raining from above, the water dripping down through the canopies. The clay roads were all muddy, making it a huge task to move around. People were finding no place even to put their luggage. At several spots I saw men removing mud using bottles and pots from the ground where they are supposed to stay for three days. I couldn't stay for much longer and headed back home. As I was returning, I could here our very own Maulana Zubair speaking about patience through the hurdles in life. He referred to the Sahabis (Ra), saying that they never prayed for their troubles to be gone, instead they prayed that they would face tougher challenges, so that they can prove themselves in the test of Imaan.
At Friday, the situation was getting even worse. So after the Maghrib prayers, the seniors of Tabligh and two people from each Zilla was called on an emergency meeting, from which the decision came to halt the proceedings of this year's Ijtema after the Isha prayer. The eagerly anticipated so called 'Akheri Munajat' was held at about 8:00 pm.
Apparantly it seems as though the Ijtema has been foiled, that it has failed its purpose. But it might not be so. Maybe this years Ijtema would be far more successful in achieving its goals than recent years. Allah tests the steadfastness of His subjects through all states and conditions, to see how strong they stand on the path of Allah, despite the state they are in. India's Maulana Saad said at the bayaan after Maghrib, that this seemingly failed congregation would bring many times more blessings from Allah than any other, and the far reaching positive effect of this Ijtema would be seen very shortly Inshallah. I guess what he meant is that through this turn of events, people will find new inspiration, encouragement and spirit to work for the sake of Deen Islam.
One immediate example of what Maulana Saad said was observed in the representation of the Ijtema by the media. Most of the times, when the electronic media covers this event, they hugely fail to bring out the true purpose of Ijtema, which is to send out Jamaats of Tabligh throughout the country and the world, to call people towards Allah. This year I was surprised to see a clear difference. I saw the report made by private broadcasters Channel-I on their news after the day Ijtema was terminated. I was really delighted to note that the true goal of Ijtema was indeed brought out clearly enough. In the papers as well, I saw similar changes. Pamphlets distributed by the government sponsored by Grameen Phone, which contained the map of the Ijtema ground, also mentioned the necessity of the work of Tabligh. These things are quite different from the previous years.
So in the same tone as all the Muslims of the country, I pray to Allah that this Ijtema which is apparently flooded by the rain, is in fact flooded by the Blessings of The Almighty.

Obedience to the Prophet (S) - According to The Holy Quran

For the guidance of all mankind until doomsday, The Almighty Allah has given us The Holy Quran. He has chosen Islam as the lifestyle for mankind, and as a living example of the Islamic life, He has sent the Last Prophet Muhammad (S). We as Muslims believe in this and yet many of us have a wrong conception that following the orders of The Holy Quran is compulsory and following the ways of Muhammad (S) is optional is Islam and a totally separate thing. Well, this conception can only be the result of lack of knowledge about The Holy Quran. Because The Quran itself orders mankind to follow the Last Prophet (S).

In the character of Muhammad (S), Allah Subhanu Wata’ala has poured down all the properties of a perfect human being, a role model which should be followed by every person If he wants peace in this life and the next. In The Holy Quran, Allah says:

“There is indeed a good model for you in the Messenger of Allah – for the one who has hope in Allah and the Last Day, and remembers Allah profusely.”

– Chapter 33- Surah Al-Ahzab:21.

According to the most accepted explanation (tafsir), Maariful Quran, this verse was initially revealed in context of the battle of Ahzab, to remind the hypocrites that they should have followed the example of the Holy Prophet (S) who stood firm in the battle, but by the unique style of The Holy Quran, the direction is given in generic terms to lay down a universal rule that Muslims should follow the ways of their Prophet (S) in all aspects of life.

Elsewhere in The Quran, The Almighty Allah describes the personality of Muhammad (S) as one who always wants only the good for mankind, and wants to save us from all sufferings:

“Surely, there has come to you a Messenger from amongst you, hard on whom is your suffering, for the good of you he craves and for believers he is kind, merciful.”

– Chapter 9 – Surah At-Tauba: 128.

So it is clear that Prophet Muhammad (S) is the role model for mankind.

Now, the following verses explain more clearly, that it is in fact not an option, but an order from Allah to follow Muhammad (S), to do what He tells us, to keep way from what He forbids. Allah Ta’ala says in The Quran :

“Say (O Prophet): “if you do love Allah, follow me; Allah shall love you and forgive you your sins. And Allah is Most-Forgiving, Very-Merciful.”

Say:”Obey Allah and the Messenger.” Then, should they turn back, Allah does not love the disbelievers.”

- Chapter 3 – Surah Al-Imran: 31, 32.

In the explanation of the above verses, it is stated in Tafsir Maariful Quran : “...In other words, if a person living in the world of today claims that he loves his Creator and Master, then, he must test it on the touch-stone of his obedience to the Messenger, that is, match it against the frequency and quality of where and how he has been following him. Once this is done, the genuine and the fake of it will be exposed right there. How much true a person turns out to be in his claim will be visible from how much he makes it a point to follow the noble Prophet (S), using the guidance brought by him as the guiding force in his life. The same test will show that the weaker a person is in his claim, so equally weak he shall be in his obedience to the Prophet (S).”

In another verse of The Holy Quran, The Almighty Creator states:

“Whoever obeys the Messenger obeys Allah and whoever turns away, then, We did not send you to stand guard over them.”

–Chapter 4 – Surah An-Nisaa: 80.

The meaning of the above verse is as clear as it gets, that following the Prophet (S) and obeying his commands is actually the same as obeying the commands of Allah. Again, turning to Maariful Quran for the explanation: “Here, the obedience to the Prophet (S) has been equated with the obedience to Allah. From this it follows that whoever disobeys the Prophet (S), invariably disobeys the command of Allah. Since, obedience to Allah is obligatory, even rationally – so, obedience to the Prophet (S) also turns out to be equally obligatory. “

In the light of the above stated verses from The Quran and the explanations, there needs to be no further proof for the fact that, it is indeed the command of Allah that we follow the Sunnah of the Messenger (S) of Allah. Our Creator knows best what is best for us, and He has sent the Last Prophet Muhammad (S) as the role model for the entire mankind. So it is nowhere else but in the ways of the Prophet (S) that we can find true success. Henceforth we shall try to renew our efforts to adopt The Sunnah in every aspect of our life. May Allah keep us in the Straight Path. Ameen.

On Allah's path, with my father

This day was pretty memorable. The Jamaat from our mosque are staying at a mosque in Kuril for three days, starting from Friday. Last night, by Allah's will, my dad suddenly decided to go there and join the great work for a day. I didn't expect him to make such a decision. But no one knows what Allah wishes. So today after lunch, me and my father went to that mosque and joined our Jamaat. After Asr we went out for Gasht (to invite people to the mosque), and my father was there with us. I did the part of inviting. After Maghrib we listened to the discussion. And then after Isha we came back home.
It might not sound much to you, but I know how big this is for me. It teaches me a lesson. We always think that we can predict everything. We judge the future with reference to the present situation, and we forget that Allah can do whatever He wants. He can bring about things we never even imagined, He can make changes to the world within a blink of an eye. All we have to do is have some faith, and never stop praying and trying. May Allah open up our eyes to the Truth. Ameen.

The Wonderful Gathering

From 31 January I had the privilege of being present at the second largest Muslim gathering after the Hajj. Yes, I'm talking about the Tongi Ijtema. I anticipated it since the last one. I didn't stay at night, but I regularly attended the lectures of the elders. The place is huge, infact, if you haven't been there yourself, you have no idea about the magnitude of the place. The huge space is actually not enough for the magnitude of people who stay there. When I look around there, I see people from all over the country, from all fields of work. I see people who work in huge multinational companies, who earn tens of thousands, at the same frame I see people who live from hand to mouth. I see students, doctors, engineers, politicians, beggars, businessmen. But they are all living in the same state there. They are having food from the same plate, drinking water from the same glass, standing in lines to get to the toilet. They are living the same life there. The rich have left their luxurious apartments, their multi-million taka bathrooms and have come here to live the same life as a begger who's sleeping right next to him. People speaking in their various dialects, but speaking the same things, speaking about Tawheed, Risaalat, Aakhirat, encouraging each other to go out in Allah's path. It is assumed that about 20 lakh people gathered there to stay, but there's no hassle, no quarrel, no mismanagement. Everyone has a tendency to listen to others. By being there one actually gets an idea about
how the Muslim brotherhood should've been like. Muslims from rest of the world also were there. Everyone was there sacrificing there time, their luxury, their money only to be there and listen to the advices of the elders and prepare themselves to dedicate their lives for the Deen. I look around, amazed, and feel that yes, this is where I belong, this is where Muslims belong.
Last month I also had the opportunity to work for the Ijtema. There is no particular leader in this massive task. Everybody is a leader, everybody is a worker. All working together, ordinary people, make this huge task possible without any hassle. It shows the power of unity that we lack in our everyday life, which makes our life harder. Listening to the bayaans of the elders of Tabligh is really an opportunity that I cannot afford to miss when it comes by. Their words inspire us to obey the Deen that Prophet Muhammad (S) has shown to us, the Deen which the Sahaabis (R) practiced perfectly. It's not like they tell us to leave everything worldly and only to pray and weep. They preach the actual Islam, which says that anything we do in our life, if we do it according to Quran and Sunnah, it will be counted as worship of Allah. It's about trying as hard as you can and depending only on Allah and not on your efforts. It's possible to write volumes on this issue so I'm not writing any more. These bayaans inspire us to stay on Allah's path 24x7. May Allah give Tawfiq to us all to stay on Allah's path till death.
Ameen.

Beautiful Advices

Hazrat Abu Zar (Radhiallahu anhu) related that Rasulullah (Sallallahu alaihi wasallam) had said to him, "I advise you to fear Allah, as this is the root of all virtues; remain engaged in the recitation of Holy Qur'an and in Zikr of Almighty Allah, which will earn you an appreciation in the Heavens and serve you as a light in this world; keep silent for most of the time, so that you speak nothing but good, as this will keep the devil away from you and make it easy for you to perform your religious duties; abstain also from too much laughing, for laughing weakens the heart and deprives the face of its spiritual glow (radiance); always take part in Jihad as this is the sign of piety for my Ummah; like the poor and keep their company; compare your lot with persons lower than you, and never look up to those higher than you, otherwise you will forget the bounties of Almighty Allah and become ungrateful to Him; try to retain ties with your relatives though they may try to break them; do not hesitate to speak out the truth, though it may be bitter for others; always obey Almighty Allah in spite of adverse criticism; find fault with your own self, and never with others; do not criticize others for the shortcomings that you suffer from. O! Abuzar (Radhiallahu anhu), there is no wisdom better than farsightedness, abstinence from the unlawful is the best act of piety, and good manners constitute true nobility."

(From Fazail-e-A'mal)

Beyond Human Comprehension

As narrated by Ibni-Abi-Dunya, Hazrat Muhammad(S) once approached a group of Sahabah (companions) who were sitting in silence. He asked them what they were thinking about. The Sahabah replied that they were pondering over the wonderful creations of Allah. Rasulullah (S) appreciated it and said, “Do not ever meditate over the ‘Self’ of Almighty Allah, (He is beyond comprehension), but do meditate over His creation.”

In this Hadith our Prophet(S) inspires us to ponder upon the wonderful creations of Allah, but forbids us to think about the ‘Self’ or the being of Allah, which means he forbids us to meditate on what is Allah like, because Allah is beyond human comprehension or understanding. Many of us have read the Hadith, but have we ever tried to understand why our Prophet(S) has forbidden us to think about the ‘Self’ of Allah, and why Allah is beyond human comprehension? Science tells us that Allah is indeed beyond comprehension. There is perfect scientific explanation for why we should not meditate on the being of Allah.

Atheists (those who don’t believe in God) raise many stupid questions about God, such as, ‘what was God doing before creating us?’, ‘what was before God?’, ‘who created God?’, ‘doesn’t God anything else to do but to look after us?’ etc. But we have to understand that these kinds of questions only come to our mind because we are bound by the 3 dimensions of space (the x, y, z coordinates) and the 4^th dimension time and everything in our universe follows the laws of physics. So we can never imagine anything that is beyond the 4 dimensions (3 dimensions of space and time) and which doesn’t follow the rules of physics. That’s why whenever we depict aliens, we do make them look weird, but we do give them hands and feet! Everything in the universe we live in, are bound by these 4 dimensions and everything follows the laws of science. But does that mean the creator of the universe also is bound by these limitations?

Let me give you an easy example. Suppose you create a computer software using C++ language. In that program you make a section called ‘credits’. If the user of the software clicks on ‘credits’ the software displays the name of its creator. Which means the software knows that you created it. But does the software have the slightest of idea what kind of a being you are? Does it have any idea on the complex structure of human beings? Does it know about the cells in our body, our organs, the reactions that are running all the time inside us, how our brain works? In fact, the software doesn’t even have the idea of 3 dimensional space. It only understands 0 and 1. So how can humans, mere tiny creations of Allah, expect to understand what Allah is like?

The fact is Allah created the 3 dimensions of space and time for governing us. Yes, Allah CREATED the three dimensions of space, Allah CREATED time. It might sound weird to many people, that how can a dimension be created? How can time be created? Well, let me get back to that computer software example. The computer runs on the Binary system. Every software of the computer is governed by the binary system. That’s why the softwares don’t understand anything beyond the binary system. So the binary system for the computer is like the 4 dimensions for us, right? Well, who created the binary system? We did. Humans created the binary system for the computer, which means we created the laws by which the computer softwares are governed. So is it unbelievable that Allah created the 4 dimensions and the laws of science to govern the universe?

Even modern science implies that Allah is beyond space-time. We try to understand Allah but He is beyond our limitations of knowledge and thought. Because He is beyond science. Modern science itself tells us that Allah is beyond the understanding of humans. We need to take a look at what science tells us about the creation of the universe.

Although materialists try to give many alternate theories of it, the Big Bang theory is accepted as the true theory of the beginning of the universe by most of the scientists. The Encarta Encyclopedia states: “Big Bang Theory, currently accepted explanation of the beginning of the universe. The big bang theory proposes that the universe was once extremely compact, dense, and hot. Some original event, a cosmic explosion called the big bang, occurred about 13.7 billion years ago, and the universe has since been expanding and cooling.” (Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2005. © 1993-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.) The big bang theory says that at some time about 13.7 billion years ago, the universe was extremely dense and as small as a point in space. In that moment because of an original event, there was an explosion in that point and the whole universe started to expand at a great speed. Thus the universe as we see it today came into being, and the universe is still expanding. Yes, this theory is correct, in fact it is also supported by The Holy Quran. Allah says in the Quran:

Do those who disbelieve not see that the heavens and the earth were sewn together and then We unstitched them and that We made from water every living So thing? will they not believe? (Qur’an, 21:30)

During the late 1960s renowned physicist Stephen Hawking proved that a singularity must also have occurred at the big bang. A singularity is a point of infinite density and zero radius and most importantly, at a singularity all the laws of science and physics break down. At first, singularities were only thought to have occurred at the time when a star collapses into a black hole. But later in 1970 Stephen Hawking and his colleague Roger Penrose proved that if the general theory of relativity is correct, then there must have been a singularity at the big bang. That means the universe started from a point on which all the laws of science break down. So there is no possibility of understanding what happened before the big bang, and which also means that time had a beginning at the moment of big bang. The Encarta encyclopedia states supporting this: “Further, the big bang theory does not explain what existed before the big bang. It may be that time itself began at the big bang, so that it makes no sense to discuss what happened “before” the big bang.”(Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2005. © 1993-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.) Now it is clear that Allah the Almighty Creator is beyond our laws of science and beyond space-time. So it is utterly insane to try to understand the ‘Self’ of Allah.

We can see now that there is perfect scientific explanation of why Allah is beyond our comprehension. It is simply because space-time and all the laws of science began with the big bang and Allah is beyond space-time and the laws of science. With proper knowledge of physics we can see that it is impossible for humans to understand Allah. But without these knowledge, if one continues to ponder upon what Allah is like, then it is highly possible that he might be mislead and he might start asking stupid questions like materialists and atheists. That’s why for all of us, it is extremely necessary to follow the guidance of our Prophet(S) that we should not try to think about what Allah is like, but we should always think about His wonderful creations and praise Him from the depth of our hearts.

The Purpose of Science

Many people think that science and religion are at odds. Many scientists think that religion is against science, many pious people think that science is anti-religion. But most people fail to understand that science and religion are not against each other. Science is in fact a creation of God. Allah has created science for us, then how can it be against religion? If we look with an open mind, we will see that science and religion are infact intertwined.

Allah has created us to worship Him, and everything else is created to serve us.But how? Science tells us how. Through science we get to know the use of every single element of the universe. Take a look around. Every thing we see has been created by man from the elements of nature to serve humans. Through science Allah taught us what to do with what.

Allah has created heaven and hell. Why? We all know why. He will send the believers to heaven and the disbelievers to hell. Now take a look around again. If you look at the vastness of the universe when you look at the sky, the earth, the beauties of nature, you have to think, why would anyone disbelieve in the existance of God? That's where science comes in again. Science creates an explanation of everything.Whatever we look at, everything, every event has a scientific explanation.Then one starts to think, if science can explain that, then what has God got to do with it? That's how science creates doubts in our mind. And because of these doubts our faith in God is put to the test. That's why there are believers and disbelievers, heaven and hell. Disbelievers take science as god and god as fiction, while believers take Allah as almighty creator and science as His gift.

So we can clearly see that through science Allah serves the biggest purposes of creation.

Lastly I couldn't resist to qoute a line from the book Angels & Demons that I liked too much,

Science and religion are not at odds,
science is simply too young to understand.