According to Western psychology, if you become mad about something, you should get it of the chest and let it out. But this is not the Islamic way. You will feel a lot better after you screamed at somebody or whatever, but the correct way is to control yourself.
Prophet Mohamed (صلى الله عليه وسلم)said “don’t get angry.”
You have to control your anger. Control the anger and bear the suffering of what people put you through. This is not a pleasant thing to do but it is the way to Paradise. For us to become better Muslims, to become the Muslims who earn Paradise, we have to deal with this reality. We have to have Sabr, patience. Prophet Mohamed (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said reported by Maimoonah, “This world is a prison for the believer and a paradise for the disbeliever”.
This is the full concept. It is a prison for believers because they cannot let their desires to go wild and to do whatever they feel like doing. They have to control their desires. It is prison which they set for themselves. Whereas the disbelievers, do anything they feel like doing. That is paradise. Allah describes paradise for us saying “Enter paradise wherever you wish”.
Do you have to have a Muslim name to be Muslim or not? Because my friend is a convert but she doesn’t have a Muslim name, her name is Payton.
It is not a requirement for a Muslim to have Arabic, Persian or other language names, as long as her given name does not represent shirk (like the name Diana – goddess of love) or have a bad meaning. Hence she may keep her given name without changing it.
Family names should not be changed under any circumstance because Allah (swt) said: “Call them by [the names of] their fathers; it is more just in the sight of Allah “.
I am a converted Muslim, but my family is not. What should I do?
Your foremost duty is to call them to Islam. Allah has blessed you with guidance in your life; it is your duty to pass that guidance on to others, in the hope that Allah will also guide them. So, it is an obligation on you to call them to Islam.
If your wife is a Christian, you are allowed to remain married to her because Islam allows a Muslim male to marry a Christian or Jewish female. If she is a Buddhist or Hindu, then the marriage is dissolved unless she accepts Islam.
As a Muslim, you are obliged to set down certain principles in your household and this is why Islam allows the male to remain married to the female. If a female accepts Islam, she cannot remain married to a male Christian or Jew. This is because the male lays down the laws in the home, so if she accepts Islam, he may say “I want you to cook me some pork”, or “go down to the store and buy me some alcohol”, or “I want to dance with this man’s wife and want him to dance with you”. A woman is obliged to do what her husband wants her to do, so in cases such as those mentioned above, she will be forced to commit many crimes against herself and against Islam.
However, in the case of a Muslim male, whatever laws are laid down in the home are for the benefit of the home. If he says “no alcohol in the home”, it is to protect the home; if he says “parties only on a limited scale”, you can invite your female friends over, or have a female party, but getting up and dancing with another man’s wife and vice versa is not permissible as it can lead to corruption. A man may tell his wife to stop wearing miniskirts and going out with her body half exposed, and this is for her benefit. A non-Muslim man, on the other hand, may say “I don’t want this long dress, this is covering yourself up! I want to be proud of you, so I want you to wear this short dress exposing yourself!” She is now being forced to do things that are in fact harmful.
Therefore, Islam allows a male to stay married to a female who is a Christian. However, he is still encouraged to lay down the law within the home and to continue encouraging her to come to Islam. He doesn’t have to force her but if he finds that she is not complying with what he has set down in the home and she is undermining Islam in the home, he may be obliged to annul the marriage because the marriage should be Islamic. For example, he would want to raise his children as Muslims and she might want to take them to the church and try to continue to get them involved in Christianity. Even though she may not be a Muslim, the fundamental principles involved in the marriage should be Islamic and the children should be raised as Muslims, so I would say that a person is obliged to call the rest of his family to Islam.
He should encourage his parents to accept Islam, but also take into account their age and the attitude of the elders towards the youngster. So he should not try to push Islam down their throats, but rather introduce it gradually. He should also show it in his behavior because if he comes back as a Muslim and he is coarser, harsher, and rougher with his parents than he was them earlier, they will say that Islam doesn’t produce a good thing, and it is a terrible product.
However, if he comes back and is kind and gentle, they see that Islam actually has affected him, so he treats his family in ways that they never expected. This can have a greater effect than any words that may be said, so the best method of calling people to Islam, especially your family, is your own example. Apply Islam in your own life, so that you would be a living example for what Islam can do for man.
Anger and desires?
According to Western psychology, if you become mad about something, you should get it of the chest and let it out. But this is not the Islamic way. You will feel a lot better after you screamed at somebody or whatever, but the correct way is to control yourself.
Prophet Mohamed (صلى الله عليه وسلم)said “don’t get angry.”
You have to control your anger. Control the anger and bear the suffering of what people put you through. This is not a pleasant thing to do but it is the way to Paradise. For us to become better Muslims, to become the Muslims who earn Paradise, we have to deal with this reality. We have to have Sabr, patience. Prophet Mohamed (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said reported by Maimoonah, “This world is a prison for the believer and a paradise for the disbeliever”.
This is the full concept. It is a prison for believers because they cannot let their desires to go wild and to do whatever they feel like doing. They have to control their desires. It is prison which they set for themselves. Whereas the disbelievers, do anything they feel like doing. That is paradise. Allah describes paradise for us saying “Enter paradise wherever you wish”.
I’m suffering from sorrows and dissatisfaction with my appearance. I’m grown up with many emotional problems with my family. Now I’m emotionally ill and it’s getting worse. I feel very hard to bring my mind into control. Indeed I feel very hard to pray though I have the intention. I was continuously praying tahajjud but now I can’t wake up for subah, and I’m losing my confidence. What can I do to overcome this quickly? Please give me advice to overcome this situation with simple ways because I know many things that help to prevent depression but I can’t do them.
My advice is to reflect each day on something good which has happened to you either that day or on previous days, and make sujood ash-shukr (the prostration for gratitude). You don’t have to have wudoo, nor do you have to face the Qiblah. In sha Allah, it will help make a difference in your life.
وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكُمْ لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ ۖ وَلَئِن كَفَرْتُمْ إِنَّ عَذَابِي لَشَدِيدٌ ﴿٧
“And [remember] when your Lord proclaimed, ‘If you are grateful, I will surely increase you [in favor]; but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe.’”
There is no “quick” cure. Just do the things which will increase your iman and gradually your situation will improve. Iman is increased by doing additional good deeds sincerely, and carefully avoiding sinful deeds as sins decrease iman.
Allah Almighty says in the Holy Qur’an:
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَهُمْ أَجْرٌ غَيْرُ مَمْنُونٍ ﴿٨
“For those who believe and work righteous deeds; is a reward that will never fail.”
So, apply this simple formula in your life and your state will be transformed for sure, in shaa Allah.
Did Islam appear in the 6th century for the first time?
Islam is not looked at as being something which showed up for the first time in history in the 6th century, by the efforts of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم), based on revelation which he received from God. We don’t look as Islam as having begun at that point. Islam began when the first man created, who was also the first prophet; Adam, and from Adam’s time to that of Muhammad’s, there were a number of prophets who came in between. All of these prophets are considered to be prophets of Islam. The teachings that they brought were teachings of Islam because Islam fundamentally means submission to the will of God. This is the essence of the religion which was brought by all of the prophets and that religion was one. People in time, due to nationalistic reasons or cultural reasons, etc. gave different names to the religions which were brought by the prophets, but the essence of that religion is one and it is fundamentally, submission to the will of God. This is why we say that Islam, when we talk about it in the final form, is a part and parcel of the Islam which was brought by all of the prophets. So in Islam, in its final form which appeared in the 6th century, we find that there are certain things that existed amongst the Arabs at a time when the message came. This is because, although the message is a universal message, and this is something made very clear in the Quran, we find the prophets that came before, like Jesus and Moses, who were sent to particular people in particular places for particular periods of time. Their later followers tried to universalize the message. However, when we look even at the existing writings that have been attributed to the prophets, we find that these prophets were sent to particular people, and thus, when we look in the Quran, we find numerous references where God says that Muhammad was sent as a mercy to all mankind .
Assalam.o.alikum. Shaykh, I am here to ask you the shar’ee view on my divorce matter. Please help me as I’m in a very critical situation. My husband divorced me thrice with a break on a single telephonic conversation (in one time). During his act, we were both familiar with what he was doing. But after that he realized what he did. Is this considered a single divorce? Everyone gives me different opinions. Please tell me what I should do. We both want to get rujuoo (live together), as we love each other very much and we can’t live without each other. But, can we?
Wa alaykum salaam. If your case has not already been taken to the authorities and a ruling made in the court, the correct view is that it counts as one divorce, whether it is uttered in a single phrase, such as saying “You are thrice divorced” or in repeated words such as saying, “You are divorced, you are divorced, you are divorced.” This is the view favored by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) and was the view regarded as most correct by Shaykh al-Sa’di (may Allah have mercy on him) and Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him).
They quoted as evidence the hadeeth narrated by Muslim (1472) from Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: At the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), Abu Bakr and the first two years of ‘Umar’s caliphate, a threefold divorce was counted as one. Then ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab said: “People have become hasty in a matter in which they should take their time. I am thinking of holding them to it. So he made it binding upon them.”
Does Allah favour a nation to fight against another i.e., favouring some people over others?
Well, yes! Allah favours some people over others, as Allah favours some individuals over others. There are numbers of verses in the Quran where Allah speaks about some people being favoured over others by Him. Even some Prophets were favoured more than other Prophets. Therefore, this concept is not strange, because Allah repels some people and favours others, as He uses them to repel many people and to save others.
(تِلْكَ الرُّسُلُ فَضَّلْنَا بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍۘ مِنْهُمْ مَنْ كَلَّمَ اللَّهُۖ وَرَفَعَ بَعْضَهُمْ دَرَجَاتٍۚ وَآتَيْنَا عِيسَى ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ الْبَيِّنَاتِ وَأَيَّدْنَاهُ بِرُوحِ الْقُدُسِۗ وَلَوْشَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا اقْتَتَلَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ بَعْدِهِمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَتْهُمُ الْبَيِّنَاتُ وَلَٰكِنِ اخْتَلَفُوا فَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ آمَنَ وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ كَفَرَۚ وَلَوْشَاءَاللَّهُ مَا اقْتَتَلُوا وَلَٰكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَفْعَلُ مَا يُرِيدُ) {البقرة:253}
“Those messengers – some of them We caused to exceed others. Among them were those to whom Allah spoke, and He raised some of them in degree (of honour). And We gave Jesus, the son of Mary, clear proofs (Signs), and We supported him with the Pure Spirit [i.e., Gabriel]. If Allah had so willed, succeeding generations would not have fought among each other, after clear proofs (signs) had come to them, but they differed, and some believed and others disbelieved. If Allah had so willed, they would not have fought each other; but Allah does what He intends.”
Could you please tell me how the prophets prayed to Allah?
What we have in terms of evidence from the Old Testament is that there are a series of them, which I have mentioned in the book called, “The True Message of Jesus Christ” which is available. It is mentioned that Jesus said in Mathew 26:39 that, “and going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed.”
It is also mentioned in the Old Testament, that Prophet Ibrahim fell on his face and prayed, and also in Numbers Chapters 16, 22 and chapter 21 verse 6, both Moses and Aaron were recorded as falling to their faces and praying.
In Joshua Chapter 5, verses 6, 7 and 14, Joshua fell his face on the earth and worshipped. So there are many other examples, and generally, this method of prostration is a fundamental part of the acts of worship which were practiced by the prophets, from the time of Prophet Adam till the final prophet. It is the ultimate sign of submission.
This is what we should realize when talking about the different modes of religion; meaning, when we stand in prayer, when we bow and we prostrate, these are modes by which people in this world have adopted for submission, showing their allegiances or obedience to them. Like, when the ruler or judge comes into the court everybody stands or rises in honour of the honorable presiding judge.
If the ruler is powerful, then the people that come before him bow, and if the ruler is extremely powerful, they prostrate before him. So in our worship, we stand, bow and prostrate for God alone, reminding ourselves that in our lives—daily lives, we should not submit ourselves to God’s creatures in such a way that we disobey God.
]]>
