500 Years of Worship

I heard Allah's Apostle saying, "The good deeds of any person will not make him enter Paradise." (i.e., None can enter Paradise through his good deeds.) They (the Prophet's Companions) said, "Not even you, O Allah's Apostle?" He said, "Not even myself, unless Allah bestows His favor and mercy on me." So be moderate in your religious deeds and do the deeds that are within your ability; and none of you should wish for death, for if he is a good doer, he may increase his good deeds, and if he is an evil doer, he may repent to Allah." (Sahih al-Bukhari Vol.7 Bk.70 No.577)

The angel Jibra’il (AS) told the Messenger of Allah (SAW) the following incident about a man in the past who has worshiped Allah (SWT) continuously for 500 years. He was granted a shelter on top of a mountain that was surrounded by salty water. However, Allah (SWT) caused a stream of sweet water to flow through the mountain for that individual. The man would drink from this water and use it to make ablution. Allah (SWT) also raised a pomegranate tree from which the man would eat one fruit every day.

One day, this person supplicated to Allah (SWT) that, “Oh Allah, bring my death while I am in the state of prostration.” Allah (SWT) accepted this du’a of his. Whenever Jibra’il (AS) came down to the Earth, he found this man prostrating to Allah (SWT). Jibrail (AS) said that on the Day of Judgment, Allah (SWT) will tell the angels to take this individual to Paradise through His Mercy. However, this man will insist that he should enter paradise through the good deeds that he had performed.

Then, Allah (SWT) will tell the angels to compare his good deeds with the blessings that were given to him in the world. It will be seen that 500 years of his worship does not even equal to the gift of eye sight that was given to him (and all of humanity, for that sake) by Allah. The angels will be asked to take him towards the hell-fire. Then the man will plead, “Oh Allah! Enter me into Paradise only through Your Mercy.” At that point, the following discussion will take place between Allah (SWT) and that man.

Allah: Oh my servant, who created you?

The worshipper: Oh Allah, You have created me.

Allah: Were you created because of the good deeds you have done or because of My mercy?

The worshiper: Because of Your mercy.

Allah: Who granted you the ability to worship for 500 years?

The worshiper: Oh the Almighty! You have granted me that ability.

Allah: Who placed you on the mountain surrounded by the ocean? Who caused a stream of sweet water to flow in between the salty water? Who caused a pomegranate tree to grow for you? Who granted you death while in the state of prostration?

The worshiper: Oh the Sustainer of the Worlds! You have done all of these.

Then Allah (SWT) will say, “All these have happened due to My Mercy and you too will enter Paradise only through My Mercy.”

Source: Obtained from the book Tambihul Ghafileen by Shaikh Abul-Laith Samarkandi.

We never realize just how integral the Mercy of Allah (SWT) is to our being. We tend to think that we are doing good deeds, and therefore we earn Paradise. What we fail to realize that even though we do good deeds, and we do earn rewards, we will NEVER be able to do enough good, enough worship, enough gratitude, enough devotion, enough anything in order to truly deserve the blessings that Allah (SWT) has graced us with.

– Anonymous

The actual story was slightly modified from: http://www.geocities.com/mutmainaa4/story/022.html

The Truth about Orphans and Adoption within Islam

“When a person puts his hand of compassion on the head of an orphan, for every hair of that orphan he will receive a blessing from Allah (SWT).” (Musnad Ahmad)

A while back, I was introduced to a common notion that many Christians and Westerners hold about Islam – that Islam forbids adoption. It was two summers ago, during my summer classes at my university. My friend, Johnny, who is an Egyptian Protestant Christian, showed me a clip from an Arab talk show (the clip itself presented by MERMI TV, now famous for taking snippets from  certain Arab media out of context and providing a false impression of the Arab world to everyone) in which a Muslim scholar was apparently presenting his case as to why adoption is forbidden. Needless to say, I was pretty shocked, and due to my severe lack of Islamic knowledge at the time, I couldn’t really give Johnny a good answer except how the scholar’s stance didn’t feel like the Islam I grew up with. Well,  a couple of years later, and a little bit wiser, I am here to tell you the truth about orphans and adoption in Islam.

In essence, what I have learned is that adoption really is forbidden in Islam; yet, sponsoring and fostering orphans is actually one of the most meritorious acts a Muslim may partake in. The question then arises: what exactly is the difference between adoption and sponsoring/fostering orphans? In reality, its all in a name – the name of the orphan, really. Islam forbids legal adoption, the full and nominal absorption of an orphan into another family. A family may adopt, raise, sponsor, etc. as many orphans as they wish, and they may even love the orphans like their own children – all of this is much encouraged in Islam. However, the orphan may not abandon his/her identity and name. The orphan may not accept the name of the adoptive family, but rather has to maintain his/her own family name and identity. Thus, unofficial adoption in general terms is much encouraged in Islam, but the orphan may not change his/her name and become a legal part of the family, no matter how close the two parties become. The reason for such measures are given below, but before we go over them, lets go over the textual evidence that fostering and sponsoring orphans are celebrated deeds in Islam.

There are a lot of reasons why the prohibition of adoption within Islam would seem illogical and contradictory. The two largest points probably come from the biography of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) himself. You see, believe it or not, Muhammad (SAW) was an orphan himself! As a matter of fact, one can make the argument that he was orphaned not once, not twice, but three times! First of all, Muhammad (SAW) never even met his father, Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib, who was actually a local celebrity for various reasons. Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib had tragically passed away while Muhammad (SAW) was still in his mother’s womb (1, pg.20).  Next, he had to suffer the loss of his beloved mother herself, Aminah bint Wahb, when he was only 6 years old (1, pg. 24). Afterwards, he was taken in by his paternal grandfather and local legend, Shaiba ibn Hisham, popularly known as Abd al-Muttalib. Unfortunately, even Abd al-Muttalib was destined to orphan young Muhammad (SAW), and when the Prophet was only 8, Adb al-Muttalib passed on (1, pg. 24). He was then finally placed under the aegis of his paternal uncle, Imran ibn Abd al-Muttalib, popularly known as Abu Talib (1, pg. 24). All this is common knowledge, and can be found in any decent and scholarly biography of Muhammad (SAW), so don’t just take my word for it.

The other major point from the biography of Muhammad (SAW) that makes the prohibition of adoption seem contradictory is built on my last point – not only was the Messenger orphan, but later on in life he had taken in and adopted a son himself! Before the advent of his prophethood, Muhammad (SAW) one day asked his first wife, Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (RA), to acquire a slave from a her cousin, who himself had recently acquired a few in Syria (1, pg. 41). She chose a young lad named Zayd ibn Harithah (RA), and upon seeing Zayd (RA), Muhammad (SAW) must have instantly fell in love with the boy, because he requested of Khadijah (RA) that they free Zayd (RA) and adopt him, and so they did (1, pg. 41). Consequently, Zayd (RA) was one of the first males to accept Islam, if not the first (2, pg. 86). Something special would happen concerning the adoption of Zayd (RA) later on, something that involved his identity and his marriage life and that of his adoptive father, Muhammad (SAW), something that did strike some of the Companions (RA) as weird at first – and we shall talk about that when we get there.

The aforementioned two points should have at least given critics some food for thought as to the meaning of the prohibition of adoption in Islam, and what exactly it entails to. However, we have so far only looked at the pre-Islamic history of Muhammad (SAW), and have recognized that Muhammad (SAW) was an orphan who was first fostered by his grandfather, and later by his uncle. Later in life, Muhammad (SAW) himself freed and adopted a slave. Lets now look at the teachings of Islam itself, and see how the Qur’an and the Sunnah talks about adoption.

Lets start with the Qur’an. One of my personal favorites is where God Almighty reminds Muhammad (SAW) that it was He who took care of him when he was orphaned, and it was He that provided for him during his childhood through the care of his grandfather and uncle, and provided guidance and wealth when he needed it:

“Did He not find thee an orphan and give thee shelter (and care)? And He found thee wandering, and He gave thee guidance. And He found thee in need, and made thee independent. Therefore, treat not the orphan with harshness…” (Qur’an Ch.93 vv.6-9)

God Almighty Himself provided for His last Messenger through foster care, and then commands all Muslims to treat orphans well, as He does again here:

“Serve Allah, and join not any partners with Him; and do good- to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, those in need, neighbours who are near, neighbours who are strangers, the companion by your side, the wayfarer (ye meet), and what your right hands possess: For Allah loveth not the arrogant, the vainglorious…” (Qur’an Ch.4 v.36)

It’s being made clear that orphans almost have certain rights over those more fortunate…In another place, it is even said that one of the attributes of the Righteous is that they care for orphans and others in need:

“…And they feed, for the love of Allah, the indigent, the orphan, and the captive,- (Saying),”We feed you for the sake of Allah alone: no reward do we desire from you…” (Qur’an Ch.76 vv.8-9

Apparently, caring for orphans is actually supposed to be a trademark of the Muslims (whether Muslims live up to that trademark or not is an entirely different story). We are also told that apathy towards orphans and those in need is an attribute of the disbelievers:

“Seest thou the one who denies the Judgment (to come)? Then such is the (man) who pushes aside the orphan (with harshness), And encourages not the feeding of the indigent.” (Qur’an Ch.107 vv.1-3)

The most adamant right dictated to orphans in the Qur’an is that their inheritance should NOT be messed with – you (the guardian) should hold it in trust until the orphans come of age, avoid coming near it unless it is to increase it, return it promptly and fully:

“And come not nigh to the orphan’s property, except to improve it, until he attain the age of full strength; give measure and weight with (full) justice;- no burden do We place on any soul, but that which it can bear;- whenever ye speak, speak justly, even if a near relative is concerned; and fulfill the covenant of Allah: thus doth He command you, that ye may remember.” (Qur’an Ch.6 v.152)

We  shouldn’t cheat the orphans by mixing our wealth with theirs, our property and goods with theirs, and then giving them the faulty, defective, or unworthy things:

“To orphans restore their property (When they reach their age), nor substitute (your) worthless things for (their) good ones; and devour not their substance (by mixing it up) with your own. For this is indeed a great sin.” (Qur’an Ch.4 v.2)

The guardians should not abuse their responsibility by devouring the orphan’s wealth while the child is still young – the rich shouldn’t even touch a penny, and the poor may take only that which is needed to put food on the table:

“Make trial of orphans until they reach the age of marriage; if then ye find sound judgment in them, release their property to them; but consume it not wastefully, nor in haste against their growing up. If the guardian is well-off, Let him claim no remuneration, but if he is poor, let him have for himself what is just and reasonable. When ye release their property to them, take witnesses in their presence: But all-sufficient is Allah in taking account.” (Qur’an Ch.4 v.6)

The amount of emphasis Allah (SWT) put on the inheritance means that it is something that we should emphasis on, and rightly so, since its basically God Almighty’s intended provision for the orphan, nor for anyone else. To deprive anyone of their God-given rights, to blatantly steal from someone’s destined provision – that is a major sin, as has already been stated above. Also, the emphasis on orphans’ rights by God Almighty tells us that this has been and will continue to be an area of major abuse and injustice. He reminds us so many times because He knows that we will continue to forget and turn a blind eye. Of course, Allah (SWT) never prophesies something without that something coming true, nor does He try to hammer a teaching into us without knowing that we need that teaching. We just have to look back a year and a half at the atrocities of the Iraqi special children’s orphanage in Baghdad for a recent reminder of our failures (3). The fact that it occurred in a country run by Muslims is even more painful for us, and it is our shame that we allow tragedies like that to occur, and still call ourselves Muslim.

The general principles found in the Qur’an are furthered by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) himself:

“Abu Shuraih Khuwailid bin Amr Al-Khuza’i (RA) reported: The Prophet (SAW) said, ‘O Allah, I declare inviolable the rights of two weak ones: the orphans and women.'” (Sunan an-Nasa’i)

This is rather significant – the Messenger (SAW) has declared the rights of women and orphans to be inviolable. That on its own is significant, since it says that the rights of the orphans, and women, too, are divinely decreed. Whoever breaches those rights will have to pay to God Almighty.

“Narrated Sahl bin Sa’d: The Prophet said, “I and the person who looks after an orphan and provides for him, will be in Paradise like this,” putting his index and middle fingers together.” (Sahih Bukhari Vol.8 Bk.73 No.34)

“The best Muslim house is that in which is an orphan, who is benefited; and the worst Muslim house is that in which an orphan is ill-treated.” (Sunan Ibn Majah)

These two ahadith finally make it as clear as day. Islam highly advocates the fostering and sponsoring of orphans. Those who take in and look after orphans are seen as one of the best people, truly people of the Righteous.

With that, it has been verified that fostering and sponsoring orphans is greatly recommended in Islam, whereas changing one’s identity is strictly forbidden. We see that Allah (SWT) took care of Muhammad (SAW) by placing him under foster caretakers. Also, not only did Muhammad (SAW) adopt and raise  Zayd ibn Harithah (RA), but even fostered his child cousin, Ali ibn Abu Talib (RA) as well; Abu Talib has too many children, and it was putting a strain on his finances, so both Muhammad (SAW) and another paternal uncle of his, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (RA), volunteered to foster one of Abu Talib’s children (1, pg. 40). So, its obvious that fostering and sponsoring orphans in your own home is an extremely meritorious act. The only restriction is that it is forbidden for an adoptee to take on the name of the adoptive family and become part of the family itself:

“Allah has not assigned unto any man two hearts within his body, nor has He made your wives who you declare (to be your mothers) your mothers, nor has He made those who you claim (to be your children) your children. This is but a saying of your mouths. But Allah says the truth and He shows the way. Proclaim their real parentage. That will be more equitable in the sight of Allah. And if you know not their fathers, then (they are) your brethren in the faith, and your friends. And there is no sin for you in the mistakes that you make unintentionally, but what your hearts purpose (that will be a sin for you). Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Qur’an Ch.33 vv.4-5)

Why? A number of reasons. First of all, your name usually gives you your identity, and links you to your family. Orphan or not, God Almighty put you in a specific niche meant for no one else – your own place in your own family, even if they are all deceased, in jail, etc. You have the obligation to live your life as your biological parents’ child. Also, it makes inheritance records much easier for the adoptee. It goes the other way, too – the adoptee cannot join the adoptive family and inherit from them – God Almighty has already assigned those provisions the biological members of the families. Even the adoptee were to get some form of inheritance from the adoptive parents, it wouldn’t be as a son/daughter. This isn’t meant to be insultive or cold towards the orphan. An apple isn’t an orange, a cat isn’t a dog, and an adoptee isn’t the biological child of the adoptive parents. Inheritance is indeed a form of provision from Allah (SWT), and any provision from Allah (SWT) is a sacred provision. Inheritance has been deemed sacred, as one can easily see in the Qur’an verses already given before, so it is a big matter in Islam. The prohibition of legal adoption in Islam is partially because to protect the rights of inheritance. It doesn’t mean that there can’t be love and affection between the adoptee and the adoptive family. It just means that you acknowledge that that child isn’t physically yours, even if he/she is emotionally or intellectually yours. As such, the adoptee wouldn’t be a Mahram (unmarriageable person, like a father, sister, etc.), meaning that once the adoptee reaches puberty, the rules of hijab must be applied. If the child is a male, the adoptive females must wear the  hijab around the adoptee; if the adoptee is a female, she must wear a hijab around the adoptive males. The adoptees therefore have the ability to marry anyone from the adoptive family – it isn’t recommended or glorified in Islam, just acceptable for those rare cases when love just magically blooms (4, 5). Lastly, another reason for the prohibition of legal adoption is so that with the names in check, you can know our family tree, and know who is Mahram and who isn’t. Unbelievably, there are a lot of couples that have fallen in love, even gotten married, only to realize later that they were biological siblings separated at birth through adoption. The most famous case happened only a year ago in the UK, where a couple had to get their marriage annulled because they found out that they were actually twins, separated at birth (6). As you can read in this BBC article, it is even causing the UK government to rethink its adoption policies. The article says it better than I can:

“‘…If you start trying to conceal someone’s identity, sooner or later the truth will out,’ he (the crossbench peer) said. ‘And if you don’t know you are biologically related to someone, you may become attracted to them and tragedies like this may occur…'”

…”Pam Hodgkins, chief executive officer of the charity Adults Affected by Adoption (NORCAP) said there had been previous cases of separated siblings being attracted to each other. ‘We have a resistance, a very strong incest taboo where we are aware that someone is a biological relative,’ she said. “But when we are unaware of that relationship, we are naturally drawn to people who are quite similar to ourselves…'”

Islam’s answer is to keep your birth name and identity. You don’t have to change you identity to share love and affection with an adoptive family; you don’t have to change someone’s name and identity in order to adopt them and love and care for them. The true merit of adoption is beyond name tags. The science behind this growing phenomenon of love between siblings separated at birth is explored further in this article. It talks about possible explanations, genetic dangers being posed, and gives a lot of examples of similar instances in the UK and the United States.

Now that we have all this established, lets turn our focus towards Zayd ibn Harithah (RA), a.k.a Zayd ibn Harithah as we near the end of the post. His story is interesting, because the prohibition of legal adoption came through the example of his own affairs.

Muhammad (SAW) wanted to show the Muslims that ethnicity and social class should not be barriers between Muslims. In order to do this, he wanted his adopted son, Zayd (RA), a freed slave, to marry a beautiful upper class girl named Zaynab bint Jahsh (RA). At first, Muhammad’s (SAW) proposal was rejected by Zaynab (RA) and her brothers, because they thought that the gulf between the two individuals was too vast. However, God Almighty had other plans:

” It is not fitting for a Believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong Path.” (Qur’an Ch.33 v.36)

After hearing this, both parties became willing for the marriage to go through. It was fine at first, but later they began to have some marital issues (7). Allah (SWT) then revealed to Muhammad’s (SAW) heart that they would get divorced, and that the prophet himself would marry Zaynab (RA) afterwards (7). Of course, this caused difficulty within Muhammad’s (SAW) mind, and whenever Zayd (RA) came to Muhammad (SAW) asking for marital advice, he was always advised to stay with his wife – but Muhammad (SAW) knew that the revelations and prophecies of Allah (SWT) always come true (7). The only reason Muhammad (SAW) tried to postpone it was because it was an inspiration, not a command – Muhammad (SAW) obeyed all commands that Allah (SWT) gave (7). In the end, Zayd (RA) and Zaynab (RA) got divorced, and after the prescribed waiting time (iddah), Muhammad (SAW) was finally commanded by Allah (SWT) to marry Zaynab (RA), so he sent Zayd (RA) with his proposal (7). Zaynab (RA) was hesitant to go through without a command from Allah (SWT), so He revealed the following:

“Behold! Thou didst say to one who had received the grace of Allah and thy favour: “Retain thou (in wedlock) thy wife, and fear Allah.” But thou didst hide in thy heart that which Allah was about to make manifest: thou didst fear the people, but it is more fitting that thou shouldst fear Allah. Then when Zayd had dissolved (his marriage) with her, with the necessary (formality), We joined her in marriage to thee: in order that (in future) there may be no difficulty to the Believers in (the matter of) marriage with the wives of their adopted sons, when the latter have dissolved with the necessary (formality) (their marriage) with them. And Allah’s command must be fulfilled. There can be no difficulty to the Prophet in what Allah has indicated to him as a duty. It was the practice (approved) of Allah amongst those of old that have passed away. And the command of Allah is a decree determined. (It is the practice of those) who preach the Messages of Allah, and fear Him, and fear none but Allah. And enough is Allah to call (men) to account. Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) the Messenger of Allah, and the Seal of the Prophets: and Allah has full knowledge of all things.” (Qur’an Ch.33 vv.37-40)

Thus, the Messenger (SAW) and Zaynab (RA) married. It was happy marriage, at that. There wasn’t as much contrevorsy over the affair as you would think.

More importantly, the significance of the marriage was that it the adoptee was not genetically part of the adoptive family, and was not a Mahram. Therefore, his/her spouse was also not a Mahram. In this case, people would have thought that it was weird to marry your adopted son’s ex-wife. However, Allah (SWT) taught us that adoption does not really make someone change his/her identity. As a result, Zayd (RA), who used to be called Zaid ibn Muhammad, went back to being Zayd ibn Harithah. He never lost his bond with Muhammad (SAW), but now he went back to being who he was.

Since of the non-Mahram status of Zayd (RA), the marriage between Muhammad (SAW) and Zaynab (RA) was permissable, and God Almighty willed it to happen to show the Muslims that it really was okay. Once again, this wasn’t a recommendation, nor a command, but simply to show that something was allowable. If you aren’t satisfied, you should first ask yourself why you still have problems? Is it because it is morally wrong, or because you just think it’s  weird? Either way, I will eventually write a separate article on the matter – I think that article itself has gone on long enough. In the meanwhile, please read this refutation of the allegations about the marriage between Muhammad (SAW) and Zaynab (RA).

– Farhan R.

References

(1) – Harun, ‘Abdus-Salam M. Sirat Ibn Hisham. Cairo, Egypt: Al-Falah Foundation for Translation, Publication & Distribution, 2000.

(2) – Watt, W. Montgomery. Muhammad in Mecca. Oxford UP, 1953.

(3) – Lagorio, Christine. “Iraqi Orphanage Nightmare.” CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. 18 June 2007. CBS Interactive, Inc. 7 Jan. 2009 <http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/18/eveningnews/main2946007.shtml&gt;.

(4) – “I have feelings for my adopted brother. I don’t want to prey on him and mess with his development! – relationship advice.” DearCupid.ORG. 26 Aug. 2008. 07 Jan. 2009 <http://www.dearcupid.org/question/i-have-feelings-for-my-adopted-brother-.html&gt;.

(5) – “Can two adopted siblings get married? – Yahoo! Answers.” Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo! Inc. 07 Jan. 2009 <http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071206084728AAAkQp6&gt;.

(6) – “Parted-at-birth twins ‘married'” BBC NEWS – News Front Page. 11 Jan. 2008. BBC. 07 Jan. 2009 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7182817.stm&gt;.

(7) – IOL Shari`ah Researchers. “Islam’s Stance on Adoption.” IslamOnline.net – Living Shari’ah – Ask the Scholar. 5 Dec. 2001. IslamOnline.net. 07 Jan. 2009 <http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Islamonline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503544668&gt;.

Difficulties with the Genesis Creation Story

"It is He Who hath created for you all things that are on earth; Moreover His design comprehended the heavens, for He gave order and perfection to the seven firmaments; and of all things He hath perfect knowledge." (Qur'an Ch.2 v.29)

As-salamu ‘alaykum, may the peace and blessings of God be upon everyone.

I just wanted to get this out of my head. I am a biology major, and as such, I have a scientific-oriented mind. As a result, I have found a few impossibilities found in the Judeo-Christian view of the creation of the universe. I want to let them all out here not only to show everyone, but also just to help me arrange my thoughts. Please feel free to comment, but only after you read the whole article please.

List of Difficulties in the Genesis Creation Account:

1) – The first thing God made in this universe is the planet Earth and its waters, before everything else, even before light (Genesis 1:1). We have been able to observe hundreds of thousands of things in this universe that makes our planet seem like a newborn baby. For example, our own solar system is said to be about 4.5 billion years old, found from methods such as radioactive dating of meteorites (along with terrestrial and lunar samples) and helioseismology (1). However, the universe itself is thought to be about 13.7 billion years, a number derived from methodologies such as using a function of cosmological parameters, or using NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Problem, or just WMAP (2). If that general statement isn’t enough, some objects in the universe are thought to be older than our solar system as well. For example, on March 30, 2008, astronomers in New Mexico were able to observe an explosion that took long before the planet even existed (3). The light from this gamma-ray burst travelled 8.4 billion light years to get to Earth, where scientists were finally able to observe it this year. Since light travels at a limited speed, what we see in the sky is actually history – light had to travel all the way from the origin to get to Earth. What we see is the light from events that took place at a previous point in time. Even sunlight takes around 8 minutes to reach us. If the sun suddenly vanished, we wouldn’t know for an entire 8 minutes! All in all, it looks bleak that the Earth came first. Even if all this evidence was wrong, it still doesn’t change the fact that there is no evidence at all to persuade on to believe that the Earth came first – all arrows point to the contrary.

2) – God created light before He created stars, or any other possible alternative source of light (Genesis 1:3, 14-16). This one is simple. How can you have light without a light source? For those in the dark (no pun intended), the stars of our universe are the source of all light. Now, there is a valid counter-argument from Christians, and that is that if God wills something, it HAPPENS, no matter how impossible it is. If God wanted to inverse gravity, it would happen. If God wanted men to bear children, it would happen. If God wanted Richard Simmons to become the prime minister of Israel, it would indeed happen. This is something that i must concede. My only rebuttal is that although their point is indeed valid, it doesn’t fit God’s tendencies for a natural and orderly Creation as shown and observed all about us. Although anything is possible, the universe usually follows a set of laws that are constant and predictable. There isn’t anything blasphemous about these laws. After all, all the “laws of science” are truly just the laws of the Creator. As such, we have no reason to think that Allah (SWT) indeed performed a miracle by creating before stars, while we have patterns that imply that God usually follows His own laws of physics. If the Universe was created with just free-flowing light without any source, then where is that light now? Is there any evidence, of that light, any sort of radiation or anything? No. All evidence suggests that the Universe had a precise beginning, and that it came from nothing. Indeed, most Christians accept the Big Bang Theory. If you accept that the Universe came out of nothing, then you must accept all the other physical evidences that we have that support that theory. Some Christians claim that the Universe was created with things already in motion, like light created already traveling between two points, instead of it shooting out of a star first. This conflicts with current data, and is totally based on whimsy. Once again, the Bible simply just supports an otherwise unsupported series of hypotheses that even contradict themselves.

3) – There was Night and Day on Earth before the Sun was created (Genesis 1:5, 16). This is sort of like a tangent off the last point. How do you have Day and Night without the Sun? The earth rotates to have Day and Night, with one light source. Yet light had no source until the 4th day. You see, we have Day and Night thanks to the rotation of the Earth. The side that faces the light source is experiences Day, while the other side is experiencing Night. Since there was no light and no light source, how could there be Day and Night?

4) – God created vegetation before the He created the Sun (Genesis 1:11, 16). I was beating a dead horse on the last point, and now I’m shooting it with a shotgun. You can’t have plants without their source of nourishment. Of course, you can point to the fact that there is light already from the First Day. However, that light is also in question. However, since according to the Bible there still was light, no matter how many issues I have with that, it still provides the plants with light, so I will not go any further. I just want to point to the fact that Jews and Christians are saying that even grass came into being on Earth before the rest of the entire universe. This view is just so incredibly geocentric and arrogant. It’s no wonder that when Galileo Galilei proposed his heliocentric theory (that our solar system revolves around our Sun), he almost got himself excommunicated. Not only that, but it goes in COMPLETE contrast with paleololgical records, and you can see below.

5 & 6) – God created grasses, seed-bearing plants and flowering plants on the same day, and all came before animals were ever created (Genesis 1:11, 20-21). Seed-bearing plants are called gymnosperm, and fruit-bearing plants, which in turn are flower-bearing plants, come from angiosperms. According to the geological time scale and fossil records, the earliest true gymnosperms appeared during the Permian Period, at least 253 million years ago (4)(5). However, the first ever seeding plants, called progymnosperms, began to appear in the Devonian Period, at least 374 million years ago (4)(5). Angiosperms popped up during the Cretaceous Period, 135 million years ago (4)(5). Do the math. To make matters worse, grasses were true late comers, squeezing in at only 37 million years ago, during the Eocene Period (4)(5). That is a day that lasted roughly 340 million years. One explanation would be that the word “Day” in Genesis meant a long period of time, since the Hebrew word “youm” can mean both. However, but for some reason must Christian Creationists insist that it meant 24-hour days due to contextual reasons. Whatever the case, there is an even bigger problem. You see, these plants were all supposed to come BEFORE any animals appeared. However, as we can see in the fossil records, animals came before even the progymnosperms, as early as 630 million years ago, in the Ediacaran Period (4)(5)(6). These pre-progymnosperm animals included sponges, trilobites, priapulid worms, inarticulate brachiopods, anomalocharids, bivalves, nautiloids, ostracods, bryozoa, echinoderms, both jawed and jawless fish, sea scorpions, corals, and crinoids(4)(5)(6). Animals that came inbetween progymnosperms and gymnosperms include both winged and wingless insects, goniatite ammonoids, coleoids, early sharks, and reptiles(4)(5)(6). Animals that appeared between gymnosperms and angiosperms include dinosaurs, teleost fish, many modern insect clades, crocodilia, and small mammals(4)(5)(6). Lastly, animals that came inbetween angiosperms and grasses include monotremes, marsupials, placental mammals, Eusuchia, and modern sharks(4)(5)(6). What we see is a complete dismantlement of the Genesis Creation account on gymnosperms, angiosperms, and grasses. Lets say the dating was all wrong based due to whatever reason. The fact is that there isn’t even any room to even allow a hypothesis supporting the Bible. Just because you think you can disprove the fossil record doesn’t mean that you can prove the Biblical accounts. Not only are all 3 types of plants spread out the fossil records, but all sorts of animals bespeckle the records between them. Dinosaurs are both created and become extinct during the K-T extinction event, before the first grass ever sprouted (4)(5)(6)(7). The fact that the fossil record shows the complete opposite of what the Bible proposes is too much to ignore. It’s not that there are slight discrepancies; the fossil records show the EXACT OPPOSITE of what the bible says – you can’t get more opposite than this. Also, there is no evidence that supports the Biblical accounts at all, so even if one were to disprove the fossil record, the Biblical account still has no weight. Whereas the Bible says these plants appeared on the same day, we see that they appeared throughout the fossil records in 4 stages. Whereas the Bible says that these plants came before any animals, we see that animals actually came before these plants, and different types of plants actually appeared between each stage. It is as if the fossil record designed strictly to combat the Bible…potential reason for Creationists to yell conspiracy of the scientific community against them? I don’t know. I don’t think so, because as much as Christians would love to claim, it isn’t Science vs. Bible. It is just science investigating. Science isn’t a necessarily religion or organization – it is a method of observation and learning from those observations. If God created the Universe, then science is just studying God’s creation. Science can be wrong sometimes, yes, and scientists can be rather biased, definitely yes, but science isn’t trying to disprove anyone. Scientists just study what they see. All I know is that there isn’t much theory involved, as Jews and Christians would like to claim. It’s like looking at a ruler and seeing how tall something is. You just read the scale. A lot of Christian Creationists like Lee Strobel and Johnathan Wells actually use the fossil record to support Creationism, and rightly so. Therefore, the sad fact that Creationists both disparage the fossil records while at the same time use it for their needs is evidence of a double standards characteristic of Christian apologetics today. It also shows that “Christian science” isn’t really a science, but a series of incoherent rebuttals to everything science puts out, rebuttals that tend to conflict one another. By the way, it is important to note that according the Biblical science, there are only 2 kingdoms of life on Earth – plants and animals. Nowhere in the Bible is the creation of the kingdoms of Bacteria, Archea, Protista, and Fungi mentioned. The Bible doesn’t even account for the creation of the earliest land plants, bryophytes. Bryophytes include liverworts, hornworts, and mosses, and reproduce through gametophytes. It seems as if the early Jews saw the observable world around them, and came to the understandable conclusion that plants are less advanced then animals, so they must have come first. Thus, they wrote that into their Scriptures. Perhaps they thought fungi were plants. The Jews didn’t mention the other microscopic kingdoms since back then such microorganisms weren’t even observable. This fact also explains the Christian belief that disease comes from demons, not God – without the knowledge of the existence of germs, who else could they think of else except Satan and his evil minions that would cause such suffering in people?

7 & 8 ) – God created sea creatures and birds on the same day, and created them before He created land animals (Genesis 1:20-21, 24). These 2 points mirror the last 2 points, almost like a corollary, only this time we are talking about animals instead of plants. Same argument and reasoning as above – the fossil record not only shows the opposite, but even if the fossil record is wrong, there isn’t any sign that the Biblical account is correct. It is as if God arranged the fossils the way they are now just to show that Christians that their Scriptures are corrupted. The only thing the Bible got right is that ocean life developed before life on land (4)(5). However, birds came much, much later, after the dinosaurs, insects, etc. If I go into detail, I would just be posting the entire paragraph above, so just reread the previous paragraph. Basically, the earliest birds came into being during the Jurassic Period, at least 150 million years ago (4)(5). Birds as we know them today finally started to appear in the Miocene Period, 7 million years ago (4)(5). In contrast, the earliest land vertebrates appeared in the Carboniferous Period, 326 million years ago (4)(5), with land invertebrates probably establishing themselves earlier. Here is the thing – nothing the Bible says really matches the geological records except the fact that fish were among the first animals to be created. However, EVERYTHING ELSE is in complete contrast. It isn’t that the Bible got a few things wrong – the Bible gives a completely different and opposite story than what we find today (what we find, not just what evolutionists WANT to find, although there is sometimes bias on the science side too). There is no evidence at all to support the Bible. There is conflict among so many points, that one must stop and think. It is as troubling as if the Bible were to describe deserts as tropical paradises.

So all in all, these are the 8 impossibilities that I find in the Book of Genesis. I will concede that I am a Biology STUDENT, not a bio-whiz or anything, so I am not an authority. However, that is why only listed simple points and used simple arguments, without going into detail. It doesn’t take much brainpower to figure all this out. There is one thing I want to note, however. There is a raging fight between Jewish and Christian Creationists and evolutionists. Creationists are wrong to say that science is trying to disprove the Bible – it’s just that whatever science finds seems to show how inaccurate the Bible is. This is why the Internet is filled with many Creationist sites that try to prove the Bible using their own methods, while at the same time contradicting themselves and other Creationist sites. While one site uses the fossil record to prove that evolution is wrong, another site claims that the fossil is record is a myth, and so on. There is no coherency among Creationists, while science just sticks to what it finds. Evolutionists have become “religiously fanatical” themselves, and unfortunately see what the want to see, too. However, for the most part, scientists remain fairly honest. All this being said, let me get to my point. In the end, only one person is right. No matter how incoherent anyone is, the thing is that there are a lot of good valid arguments on both side, some which even give me pause to think and ponder. Yes, Creationism is still valid – after all, Islam does believe that Allah (SWT created the world. Luckily, Islam in silent on the details, as if Allah (SWT) knew in His Infinite Wisdom that the early days of Creation would fall under such hot dispute. This way, Muslims don’t have anything to worry. We just don’t believe in macroevolution, and there is enough evidence to support our claim. Everything else Islam lets science figure out. Allah (SWT) knew that it would be impossible for us to come to a common agreement. There are so many arguments out there from both sides; it almost makes someone want to cry. How do you know what is true, and what is false? Especially for a layman, who doesn’t know that much into the details of science, how does he/she know what is the truth, and what is false? Allah (SWT) knew this would happen, masha’Allah, and He didn’t let Islam fall into this battle. Christians and Jews have it bad in this respect, as they actually have a detailed account to prove against all odds. In the end, my point is that one should take the Genesis Creation Story into consideration, but one SHOULD NOT use only this story to accept OR dismiss the Bible as the inerrant word of God. There is just too much information to shift through. It would take a lifetime just to hear all the arguments, and another life time to see if they are valid, and even then, one might just never be able to truly find out. God knew that one can never find yaqin (absolute certainty one’s faith in God and religion) using the story of Creation, even in our modern age, so the details were never given in the Qur’an. This fact is evidence in of itself that Islam is the TRUTH. Instead, the Qur’an alludes to many scientific facts that are used to support its moral teachings, and in such surprise scientists. How could a 7th century illiterate shepherd/merchant know that the Earth and the Moon each travel in their own orbits (Qur’an 21:33)? How did he know about the Big Bang Theory (Qur’an 21:30)? How did he know that mountains are leg pegs, that most of a mountain lies hidden underground, sort of like how an iceberg is mostly underwater, and they keep the Earth’s crust stable (Qur’an 21:31, 78:7) ? These facts, which represent but a drop of water in the pool of scientific facts found in the verses of the Qur’an, are found in the Qur’an, but how did they get there? The answer is that the Qur’an is the Word of God. In any case, even if the Biblical account was proven true by science, it wouldn’t cause much consternation to Muslims since we believe that the Bible contains fragments of the Word of God, fragments strewn with corruption by the hand of humanity. Thus, the Qur’an always wins against the Bible when the two books conflict on a scientific matter (like on whether the Earth is flat of spherical). Anyways, thank you for reading, and remember – this article is meant to bring certain facts to attention. Due to the nature of the prehistory being uncertain, and thus hard to know for certain what happened, these facts should not be used alone to accept or dismiss the Bible. There are a lot more stuff in the Bible to argue about. We will probably never know what really happened in the beginning of time.

References:
1 – http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html
2 – http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/age.html
3 – http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=25109
4 – http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/geologictime.php
5 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_timescale
6 – Levey, Judith S. The World Almanac for Kids 1998, pg. 19. K-III Reference Company, United States. 1997.
7 – http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/extinction.html
8 – http://www2.una.edu/pdavis/bryophytes.htm

The Puzzling 25 Words and 113 Letters of Surah al-Fatihah

"And We have bestowed upon thee the Seven Oft-repeated (verses) and the Grand Qur'an." (Qur'an Ch.15 v.87)

Once I was reading the Tafsir Ibn Kathir, which is a well-known commentary of the Holy Qur’an by the 14th century scholar Ibn Kathir.  I started with Surah al-Fatihah, since that is the first surah of the Qur’an. However, while reading the commentary, I came upon an interesting note and stumbling block:

“The scholars say that Al-Fatihah consists of twenty-five words, and that it contains one hundred and thirteen letters.” (Tafsir Ibn Kathir for Surah al-Fatihah)

The problem is that when I went back to check this out, I could manage 25 words by excluding the Basmallah, but I couldn’t seem to derive 113 letters. You see, there was a difference of opinion on whether the Basmallah was a part of the surah or not. It is a universally accepted that there were 7 ayat (verses). However, some scholars believed that the Basmallah was the first line of the surah, whereas others believed it was just used as a header, like it is in every other surah, and then the 7th verse was actuallly divided into 2 verses (or else, excluding the Basmallah, there would be only 6). To illustrate, the first group that included the Basmallah divided the surah like this: 1A, 2B, 3C, 4D, 5E, 6F, 7G. Those not in favour of the Basmallah divided the surah like this: 1B, 2C, 3D, 4E, 5F, 6G(first half), 7G(second half). This doesn’t mean that we lost the surah, since there aren’t any discrepencies in the words themselves. It is reallly just a matter of bookkeeping. The format of al-Fatiha is just the way it was then – it is only a matter of numbering the verses, that’s all. Apparenly, the scholars decided later to include the Basmallah. I don’t know too much about it.

However, what bothered me was that even though I could count 25 words if I didn’t count the Basmallah (I don’t know whether Ibn Kathir believed the Basmallah didn’t count as a verse, or that the Basmalalh was such a well known and integral formula of Muslim life that it didn’t need to be considered for this essentially record-keeping activity), I could never get 113 letters – instead I kept counting 120 letters. This has been bothering me a lot the past 2 months, to the point where it became an obsession. However, today I finally cracked it, masha’Allah! I am going to share it with everyone here because at the moment there is not a single site on the Internet that explains it, and I don’t want any Muslim brothers or sisters to be as worried as I was.

This explanation will only make sense to those who know Arabic and are familiar with Surah al-Fatihah, due to the nature of the topic. Anyways, to begin, the first rule to counting by Ibn Kathir’s method is that you only count the letters that are pronounced, and exclude those that are silent. So, is the phrase “Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim,” which means “The Lord of Mercy, the Ever-Merciful,” you only count, in order, the alif, ra, haa, meem, nuun, ra, haa, yaa, and meem – and ignore the silent letters such as the lam’s. Also, using the same phrase, you count letters with the shaddah twice, since that is the effect of the shaddah on the pronounciation.  The last rule is that when you have a letter attached to an alif to prolong its pronounciation to two beats, and that same letter also falls under a maad, you count the maad and exclude the alif. For example, in the last word of the surah is “Daaaleen”, meaning “those who have gone astray.” It is attached to an alif, and is under a maad. Therefore, you count the letter but ignore the alif. Following Ibn Kathir’s rules (which no one uses nowadays, or at least to my knowledge), and using his method of numbering the verses (which is to exclude the Basmallah), here is what you should count per ayah: V1 – 18 letters, V2 – 11 letters, V3 – 10 letters, V4 – 21 letters, V5 – 15 letters, V6 – 17 letters, and V7 – 21 letters. It is important to note that you should be wary of which mus’haf to use – some spell the word “maliki” with a meem connected to an alif to signal the double prolongation, but for Ibn Kahtir’s method to work, you need one that signifies the prolongation using a short fat’ha muddah that looks like a minuture alif above the meem. Both methods are legitimate, by the way, just like you spell it “colour” or color,” depending on where you are from and your preference. It also should be noted that the entire surah is recounted and various ahadith and early Qur’anic manuscripts, so no one should be worried about whether the Surah al-Fatiha we know today is the same one that was revealed to Muhammad (SAW) so long ago – it is, no doubt about it. The difference among scholars was just on numbering the verses.

Anyways, I hope that was enlightening. It was nice to write on something a bit more trivial for a change.

– Farhan R.

Hamza Andreas Tzortzis and “The Intellectual Basis of Islam”

"Here is a Message for mankind: Let them take warning therefrom, and let them know that He is (no other than) One Allah: let men of understanding take heed." (Qur'an Ch.14 v.52)

Hey everyone, salam. I found another awesome YouTube video worth sharing. This time it is a video by a Greek revert named Hamza Andreas Tzortzis. He is a well known lecturer/author/debater, and in this video, he gives a lecture on what he feels is the intellectual basis of Islam. I personally love this lecture because I always try to take a rational/intellectual approach to everything myself, so it appealed to my thinking. He begins of by proving the existence of Allah (SWT), and then moves on to explain the inimitability of the Qur’an, thus proving it’s divine origin. The audio is a bit hard to hear, so you have to focus the whole time; it is 1 hours:17 minutes:50 seconds long. Below you will find a link to the PowerPoint presentation that you uses in the video as well. You should also check out his websites, which I also provide below.

The Intellectual Basis of Islam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I84jUPG2HI&hl

Click here for his PowerPoint presentation. If you don’t have the actual PowerPoint software from Microsoft Office, you can download the free PowerPoint Viewer here.

Check out his websites:

http://www.hamzatzortzis.com
http://www.hamzatzortzis.blogspot.com
http://www.theinimitablequran.com

– Farhan R.

The Doubting Christian – Robert Beckford

"Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands, and then say:"This is from Allah," to traffic with it for miserable price!- Woe to them for what their hands do write, and for the gain they make thereby." (Qur'an Ch.2 v.79)

There is a theologian that my housemate and I were talking about, and I think everyone should check him out. Heralding a Pentecostal Christian background, Dr. Robert Beckford is a British theologian that has caused much controversy by his work on Christianity. You see, his more popular work deals with examining Christian beliefs that most Christians take for granted as being factual, and seeing whether those beliefs are validated by historical and archaeological evidence. What is even more interesting is that although he proclaims Christianity, he seems to disbelieve major doctrinal concepts of the Christian faith, such as the infallibility of the Bible, or the complete the story of the life of Jesus (AS) as we know it through the Bible. Personally, and with all due respect, I have doubt about his “Christian faith.” I wouldn’t be surprised if he later admitted to never being Christian. However, his work, at the very least, if not considered scholarly (as a lot of conservative Christian organizations try to say), is at the very least rather thought provoking. I am not saying that I believe everything he says – I don’t. However, a lot of what he says are based of facts which you cannot deny. As a Muslim, I found it refreshing that the Muslim perspective of the Bible find some support from Christian, or at the very least, non-Muslim, research. Of course, I am not asking anyone to just accept his words. That would be stupid. I am proposing that everyone watch the 2 documentaries whose links you will find below, and do your own research. God Almighty rewards honest Truth-seeking with Truth. So go and seek Truth.

Who Wrote the Bible?

As a Muslim, I believe in the corruption of all previous revelations, and that the Qur’an is the only infallible divine scripture we have today. Therefore, the general idea of this documentary is appealing to Muslims. We don’t necessary agree with the specific theories presented, but it is enough to validate our doubts about the Old and New Testaments. This is probably the most well-known documentary by Dr. Beckford, and appeared on Christmas Day, 2004 in the UK on Channel 4 (nice timing, eh?). It is approximately 2 hours long, according its website.

Part 1/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r7IKdTngIc&hl

Part 2/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW_X9pkvtXA&hl

Part 3/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEq-On2FuCc&hl

Part 4/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NRnr1wW5cU&hl

Part 5/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY4-J_bp70A&hl

Part 6/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH6Ayyzh3QQ&hl

Part 7/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mczbw18LCRg&hl

Part 8/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xu0kYLvUJo&hl

Part 9/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npQolF_isLE&hl

Part 10/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw6tlSwWgwA&hl

The Hidden Story of Jesus

This is a bit more controversial documentary in my opinion because a lot of what is presented here doesn’t coincide with the Islamic accounts of Jesus (AS). However, it is only fair that I present it here for everyone for purely acaedemic reasons. Take from it what you feel, but be honest with your feelings. This documentary also appeared on Christmas Day, 2004 in the UK on Channel 4 (more nice timing), and is probably also 2 hours long (I can’t remember).

Part 1/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhef6wa2Mpc&hl

Part 2/11

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=stke9Dp2YLQ

Part 3/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1_fcDiosjQ&hl

Part 4/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtONEzcD8vU&hl

Part 5/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaIt2y0Yjwo&hl

Part 6/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltZltysPz5A&hl

Part 7/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbqRN_8oq8M&hl

Part 8/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG3EiMGetTI&hl

Part 9/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw_L7H1GfEE&hl

Part 10/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EA0pBj6bfg&hl

Part 11/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV6ydg23Sec&hl

There are much more by him, but these are the only two I have authority to post, since these are the only two I have watched. However, a simple Google search should give you more by him. Please watch them and post your comments. And more importantly, do you own research before you resolve to your own conclusions.

– Farhan R.

Basic Outline of the Story of Adam (AS) and Hawwa as Found in the Qur’an and Ahadith

This is by no means an exhaustive collection of material available on the Muslim perspective of our first father, Adam (AS). This is just a gathering of information from the most basic and well-known sources. This article was originally meant to be a cheat sheet for my friend Timmy and I in order to help us prepare us for comparing Adam’s (AS) story in the Bible with that found in the Qur’an. After putting it all together, though, I decided that I might as well start a little “Basic Outline of the Stories of the Prophets as Found in the Qur’an and Ahadith” series. I only put down annecdotes from sources that I have personally have found or feel I can trust as a student. All the Qur’an verses were translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. Anyways, enjoy!

Adam (AS) and Hawwa (Eve) Are Created in Paradise

• (Sahih Muslim Bk.4 Ch.152 No.1856, 1857): Abu Huraira reported the Apostle of Allah as saying: “The best day on which the sun has risen is Friday; on it Adam was created. On it (Friday) he was made to enter Paradise, on it he was expelled from it. And the Last Hour will take place on no day other than Friday.“

• (Qur’an Ch.3 v.59): The similitude of Jesus before Allah (SWT) is as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him: “Be!” and he was.

• (Qur’an Ch.55 v.14): He (Allah (SWT) created man from sounding clay like unto pottery.

• (Sahih al-Bukhari Vol.4 Bk.55 No.543): Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, “Allah created Adam, making him 60 cubits (90 feet, or 27.4 meters) tall. When He created him, He said to him, ‘Go and greet that group of angels, and listen to their reply, for it will be your greeting and the greeting of your offspring.’ So, Adam said (to the angels), ‘As-Salamu Alaikum (peace be upon you).’ The angels said, ‘As-salamu Alaika wa Rahmatu-l-lahi ( Peace and Allah’s Mercy be upon you).’ Thus the angels added to Adam’s salutation the expression, ‘Wa Rahmatu-l-lahi.’ Any person who will enter Paradise will resemble Adam (in appearance and figure). People have been decreasing in stature since Adam’s creation.“
• (Sunan al-Tirmidhi Bk.50 Ch.94 No.3379) Abu Hurairah (RA) reported that Allah’s Messenger said: “When Allah created Adam and blew into him the spirit, he sneezed and said ‘Alhamdulillah’ (All-Praise is due to Allah). Thus, he praised Allah with His permission. And, so, his Lord said to him ‘Yaharmakullah’ (may Allah have mercy on you), 0 Adam, go to those angels (to the angels among them who are seated) and say: ‘As-Salamu Alaikum (peace be upon you).’ They responded: ‘As-salamu Alaika wa Rahmatu-l-lahi ( Peace and Allah’s Mercy be upon you). Then he returned to his Lord who said, ‘This is your salutation and the salutation of your children to each other.’ And, Allah said to him while His Hands were closed in a Fist, ‘Choose whichever of the two you wish.’ He (Adam) said, ‘I choose the right hand of my Lord – and both hands of my Lord are right and blessed.’ Then, Allah spread it open – and, behold, in it were Adam and his progeny. He asked, “0 Lord, who are they?” He said, ‘They are your off-spring.’ And with regard to every person, his age was inscribed between his two eyes. And, behold, among them was a man, most radiant of them all – or one of the most radiant of them. He asked, ‘0 Lord, who is he?’ Allah said, “He is your son Dawud (David). And I have decreed for him the age forty years.” He said, ‘0 Lord, add to his age.’ He (Allah (SWT)) said, ‘That is what is decreed for him.’ He (Adam (AS)) said, ‘0 Lord! Then indeed set aside for him from my age, sixty years.” Allah said, ‘That is for you to do.’ Then, he lived in Paradise as long as Allah willed. Then he was sent down (to Earth) and he kept a count of his age. The Angel of Death came to him and Adam said to him, “Surely, you have made haste. For me, a thousand years have been written down.” The angel said, “Certainly, but you have set aside for your son Dawud sixty years.” But he denied. So his offspring denied. And he forgot, so his offspring forgot.” (The Prophet said): “Since that day the command is issued to write down and to have witnesses.” This hadith is hasan gharib (ranked as ‘fair’) through this sanad (chain of narration). It is also reported through other isnad from Abu Hurairah from the Prophet (SAW). (Reported from Zayd ibn Aslam, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurairah, from the Prophet)

• (Sahih Muslim Bk.32 Ch.29 No.6319, 6320): Anas reported Allah’s Messenger (SAW) as saying: “When Allah fashioned Adam in Paradise, He left him as He liked him to leave. Iblis then roamed round him to see what actually that was and when he found him hollow from within, he recognized that he had been created with a disposition that he would not have control over himself.“

• (Sahih Muslim Bk.32 Ch.30 No.6325): This hadith has been transmitted on the authority of Abu Huraira and in the hadith transmitted on the authority of Ibn Hatim. Allah’s Apostle is reported to have said: “When any one of you fights with his brother, he should avoid his face for Allah created Adam in His own image.“

• (Qur’an Ch.4 v.1): O mankind! reverence your Guardian-Lord, who created you from a single person, created, of like nature, His mate, and from them twain scattered (like seeds) countless men and women;- reverence Allah, through whom ye demand your mutual (rights), and (reverence) the wombs (That bore you): for Allah ever watches over you.

• (Qur’an Ch. 7 v.189): It is He Who created you from a single person, and made his mate of like nature, in order that he might dwell with her (in love)…

• (Sahih al-Bukhari Vol.4 Bk.55 No.548): Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah ‘s Apostle said, “Treat women nicely, for a women is created from a rib, and the most curved portion of the rib is its upper portion, so, if you should try to straighten it, it will break, but if you leave it as it is, it will remain crooked. So treat women nicely.“

• (Sunan Abu Dawood, Saheeh Al-Jaami’ As-Sagheer wa-Ziyadatuhu (No.1759), as well as in Silsalatul-Ahaadeeth-as-Saheehah (No.1630)): Imam Ahmad has narrated from Abu Musa that the Prophet said: “Allah has created Adam from a handful (of soil) which He had gathered from all over the earth. That is how the children of Adam came according to the (colour and nature of the) earth. There are white among them, as well as red and black, and cross colours. There are those among them who are of bad nature and good nature, soft as well as harsh and in between.

Adam (AS) and Hawwah (Eve) Are Deceived by Iblis (Satan), Yet Forgiven by Allah (SWT) and Receive Guidance Thereafter

• (Qur’an Ch.7 vv.10-27): 10. It is We Who have placed you with authority on earth, and provided you therein with means for the fulfilment of your life: small are the thanks that ye give! 11. It is We Who created you and gave you shape; then We bade the angels bow down to Adam, and they bowed down; not so Iblis; He refused to be of those who bow down. 12. ((Allah)) said: “What prevented thee from bowing down when I commanded thee?” He said: “I am better than he: Thou didst create me from fire, and him from clay.” 13. ((Allah)) said: “Get thee down from this: it is not for thee to be arrogant here: get out, for thou art of the meanest (of creatures).” 14. He said: “Give me respite till the day they are raised up.” 15. ((Allah)) said: “Be thou among those who have respite.” 16. He said: “Because thou hast thrown me out of the way, lo! I will lie in wait for them on thy straight way: 17. “Then will I assault them from before them and behind them, from their right and their left: Nor wilt thou find, in most of them, gratitude (for thy mercies).” 18. ((Allah)) said: “Get out from this, disgraced and expelled. If any of them follow thee,- Hell will I fill with you all. 19. “O Adam! dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden, and enjoy (its good things) as ye wish: but approach not this tree, or ye run into harm and transgression.” 20. Then began Satan to whisper suggestions to them, bringing openly before their minds all their shame that was hidden from them (before): he said: “Your Lord only forbade you this tree, lest ye should become angels or such beings as live for ever.” 21. And he swore to them both, that he was their sincere adviser. 22. So by deceit he brought about their fall: when they tasted of the tree, their shame became manifest to them, and they began to sew together the leaves of the garden over their bodies. And their Lord called unto them: “Did I not forbid you that tree, and tell you that Satan was an avowed enemy unto you?” 23. They said: “Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls: If thou forgive us not and bestow not upon us Thy Mercy, we shall certainly be lost.” 24. ((Allah)) said: “Get ye down. With enmity between yourselves. On earth will be your dwelling-place and your means of livelihood,- for a time.” 25. He said: “Therein shall ye live, and therein shall ye die; but from it shall ye be taken out (at last).” 26. O ye Children of Adam! We have bestowed raiment upon you to cover your shame, as well as to be an adornment to you. But the raiment of righteousness,- that is the best. Such are among the Signs of Allah, that they may receive admonition! 27. O ye Children of Adam! Let not Satan seduce you, in the same manner as He got your parents out of the Garden, stripping them of their raiment, to expose their shame: for he and his tribe watch you from a position where ye cannot see them: We made the evil ones friends (only) to those without faith.

• (Qur’an Ch. 2 vv.28-38): 28. How can ye reject the faith in Allah.- seeing that ye were without life, and He gave you life; then will He cause you to die, and will again bring you to life; and again to Him will ye return. 29. It is He Who hath created for you all things that are on earth; Moreover His design comprehended the heavens, for He gave order and perfection to the seven firmaments; and of all things He hath perfect knowledge. 30. Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: “I will create a vicegerent on earth.” They said: “Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood?- whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?” He said: “I know what ye know not.” 31. And He taught Adam the nature of all things; then He placed them before the angels, and said: “Tell me the nature of these if ye are right.” 32. They said: “Glory to Thee, of knowledge We have none, save what Thou Hast taught us: In truth it is Thou Who art perfect in knowledge and wisdom.” 33. He said: “O Adam! Tell them their natures.” When he had told them, Allah said: “Did I not tell you that I know the secrets of heaven and earth, and I know what ye reveal and what ye conceal?” 34. And behold, We said to the angels: “Bow down to Adam” and they bowed down. Not so Iblis: he refused and was haughty: He was of those who reject Faith. 35. We said: “O Adam! dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden; and eat of the bountiful things therein as (where and when) ye will; but approach not this tree, or ye run into harm and transgression.” 36. Then did Satan make them slip from the (garden), and get them out of the state (of felicity) in which they had been. We said: “Get ye down, all (ye people), with enmity between yourselves. On earth will be your dwelling-place and your means of livelihood – for a time.” 37. Then learnt Adam from his Lord words of inspiration, and his Lord Turned towards him; for He is Oft-Returning, Most Merciful. 38. We said: “Get ye down all from here; and if, as is sure, there comes to you Guidance from me, whosoever follows My guidance, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.

• (Qur’an Ch.20 vv.115-123) – 115. We had already, beforehand, taken the covenant of Adam, but he forgot: and We found on his part no firm resolve. 116. When We said to the angels, “Prostrate yourselves to Adam”, they prostrated themselves, but not Iblis: he refused. 117. Then We said: “O Adam! verily, this is an enemy to thee and thy wife: so let him not get you both out of the Garden, so that thou art landed in misery. 118. “There is therein (enough provision) for thee not to go hungry nor to go naked, 119. “Nor to suffer from thirst, nor from the sun’s heat.” 120. But Satan whispered evil to him: he said, “O Adam! shall I lead thee to the Tree of Eternity and to a kingdom that never decays?” 121. In the result, they both ate of the tree, and so their nakedness appeared to them: they began to sew together, for their covering, leaves from the Garden: thus did Adam disobey his Lord, and allow himself to be seduced. 122. But his Lord chose him (for His Grace): He turned to him, and gave him Guidance. 123. He said: “Get ye down, both of you,- all together, from the Garden, with enmity one to another: but if, as is sure, there comes to you Guidance from Me, whosoever follows My Guidance, will not lose his way, nor fall into misery.
  

• (Qur’an Ch.3 v.33): Allah did choose Adam and Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of ‘Imran above all people.

• (Qur’an Ch. 17 vv.61-65): 61. Behold! We said to the angels: “Bow down unto Adam”: They bowed down except Iblis: He said, “Shall I bow down to one whom Thou didst create from clay?” 62. He said: “Seest Thou? this is the one whom Thou hast honoured above me! If Thou wilt but respite me to the Day of Judgment, I will surely bring his descendants under my sway – all but a few!” 63. ((Allah)) said: “Go thy way; if any of them follow thee, verily Hell will be the recompense of you (all)- an ample recompense. 64. “Lead to destruction those whom thou canst among them, with thy (seductive) voice; make assaults on them with thy cavalry and thy infantry; mutually share with them wealth and children; and make promises to them.” But Satan promises them nothing but deceit. 65. “As for My servants, no authority shalt thou have over them:” Enough is thy Lord for a Disposer of affairs.
  

• (Qur’an Ch.18 v.50): Behold! We said to the angels, “Bow down to Adam”: They bowed down except Iblis. He was one of the Jinns, and he broke the Command of his Lord. Will ye then take him and his progeny as protectors rather than Me? And they are enemies to you! Evil would be the exchange for the wrong-doers!
  
• (Hadith Qudsi 34): On the authority of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) say: Allah the Almighty said: “O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of Me, I would forgive you. O son of Adam, were you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth and were you then to face Me, ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great at it.” It was related by at-Tirmidhi (also by Ahmad ibn Hanbal). Its chain of authorities is sound.

Qabil (Cain) and Habil (Abel)

• (Qur’an Ch.5 vv.28-32): 28. Recite to them the truth of the story of the two sons of Adam. Behold! they each presented a sacrifice (to Allah.: It was accepted from one, but not from the other. Said the latter: “Be sure I will slay thee.” “Surely,” said the former, “(Allah) doth accept of the sacrifice of those who are righteous. 29. “If thou dost stretch thy hand against me, to slay me, it is not for me to stretch my hand against thee to slay thee: for I do fear Allah, the cherisher of the worlds. 30. “For me, I intend to let thee draw on thyself my sin as well as thine, for thou wilt be among the companions of the fire, and that is the reward of those who do wrong.” 31. The (selfish) soul of the other led him to the murder of his brother: he murdered him, and became (himself) one of the lost ones. 32. Then Allah sent a raven, who scratched the ground, to show him how to hide the shame of his brother. “Woe is me!” said he; “Was I not even able to be as this raven, and to hide the shame of my brother?” then he became full of regrets.
• (Sahih al-Bukhari Vol.9 Ch.83 No.6): Narrated ‘Abdullah: The Prophet said, “No human being is killed unjustly, but a part of responsibility for the crime is laid on the first son of Adam who invented the tradition of killing (murdering) on the earth.” (It is said that he was Qabil).

On the Day of Judgement

• (Sahih al-Bukhari Vol.8 Bk.76 No.536): Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, “The first man to be called on the Day of Resurrection will be Adam who will be shown his offspring, and it will be said to them, ‘This is your father, Adam.’ Adam will say (responding to the call), ‘Labbaik and Sa’daik.‘ Then Allah will say (to Adam), ‘Take out of your offspring, the people of Hell.’ Adam will say, ‘O Lord, how many should I take out?’ Allah will say, ‘Take out ninety-nine out of every hundred.” They (the Prophet’s companions) said, “O Allah’s Apostle! If ninety-nine out of every one hundred of us are taken away, what will remain out of us?” He said, “My followers in comparison to the other nations are like a white hair on a black ox.”

• (Sahih al-Bukhari Vol.6 Bk.60 No.3): Narrated Anas: Allah’s Apostle said, “The believers will be assembled on the Day of Resurrection and they will say, ‘Let us look for someone to intercede for us with our Lord so that He may relieve us from this place of ours.’ So they will go to Adam and say, ‘You are Adam, the father of mankind, and Allah created you with His Own Hands and ordered the angels to prostrate before you, and He taught you the names of all things; so please intercede for us with our Lord so that He may relieve us.’ Adam will say, to them, ‘I am not fit for that,’ and then he will mention to them his mistake which he has committed.”…

Most of my sources may be found at the USC MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts. This online archive is an indespensible treasure trove of the msot basic and neccessary Muslim texts, and I highly reccomnend that you bookmark it.

http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/

Below is a link to Ibn Kathir’s rendition of Adam’s (AS) life in his Stories of the Prophets. Ibn Kathir weaves the stories quite wonderfully in my opinion, combining various sources into one solid and comprehensive biography. My only trouble with Ibn Kathir is that a lot of his material is from non-Muslim sources, such as the Midrash, etc. Of course, he only uses what Muslims would deem as possibly true, and rejects obvious fallacies. I suppose he meant it to be “stories” instead of “biographies.” However, perhaps his sources were indeed Muslim, and I just haven’t located them. Anyways, despite that, I still love Ibn Kathir’s work because he really examines the stories and extracts the teachings, morals, and hidden messages. I highly reccomend Ibn Kathir for those who wish to learn about the prophets of Islam, and what their stories teach us and mean to us.

http://www.islamawareness.net/Prophets/adam.html

The entirety of Ibn Kathir’s Stories of the Prophets may be found here:

http://www.islamguiden.com/arkiv/stories_of_the_prophets.pdf

Was Muhammad (SAW) Truly Deceived by Satan?

"...Allah's Apostle...used to go in seclusion in the Cave of Hira where he used to worship (Allah (SWT) alone) continuously for many days before his desire to see his family...suddenly the Truth descended upon him while he was in the Cave of Hira..." (Sahih al-Bukhari Ch.1 Bk.1 No.3)

There are three theories floating around out there which non-Muslims tend to hold on the prophethood and revelations of Muhammad ibn Abdullah (SAW): that either (1) he was an outright liar, (2) he was a madman, or (3) he was deceived by Satan. Needless to say, all of the abovementioned theories are baseless and easily refuted, but today we are going to dismantle the myth about Muhammad (SAW) being deceived by Satan. Remember to be honest with yourselves whilst reading this.

Now, there are a couple ways to realize that Muhammad (SAW) was not deceived by the devil. We will discuss my favorite one first. In Islam, Shaytan (Satan) is presented as the greatest enemy of Muslims (besides their own temptations). It is Shaytan who first tempted Adam (AS) and Eve to sin, and it was Shaytan who has always called mankind away from the path of Islam to sin ever since. Shaytan works in many ways, including both spreading lies and false revelations as well as whispering thoughts in one’s head to misguide him/her. In order to teach Muslims about this danger and to help them succeed despite it, Allah commands us to seek refuge in Him:

“Whenever you recite the Qur’an, seek refuge with Allah (SAW) from the cursed Satan.” (Qur’an Ch.16 v.98)

Here we find that God Almighty actually encourages us to pray for protection from Satan, making it incumbent upon every reciter of the Qur’an before he/she starts reciting, and in effect, before every prayer. The phrase we say is “a’udhu billahi min ash-shaytanir-rajim,” or “I seen refuge in Allah (SWT) from Satan, the Accursed One.” Even more, the word used for Satan is Shaytan, and it not only means Satan, but anything/anyone used to achieve evil, or attributed to evil, whether it be jinni, humans, or even ideologies or physical impurities. As such, we are also taught to say this whenever you have impure thoughts, are in fear, etc. The question now arises: would Satan ever deceive someone into seeking refuge from all evil (including Shaytan himself) in the One God Almighty? Isn’t that like a con artist who sells fake gems but requires the buyers to check with experts to make sure that the gems are real? Now, how do we know for sure that Satan would never do that, particularly from a Christian point of view? From an objective point of view, I think the logic is pretty self-explanatory, but since this argument against Islam usually comes from Christians, lets try to approach it form a possible Christian perspective by going to the Bible.

In the gospels we read a story about how Jesus (AS) once performed an exorcism on a possessed man in front of the Pharisees. The Pharisees, unable to explain the miracle in any other way, accused Jesus (AS) of being an agent of the prince of demons, Beelzeboul. Jesus (AS) then retorts:

“…Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzeboul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.” (Matthew 12:25-27)

“…How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come.” (Mark 3:23-26)

Basically, the Bible says that Satan cannot work against himself. He cannot even possess someone only to have his agent expel him.  Although Muslims would actually disagree with that last statement about possession, what both Muslims and Christians would believe is that Satan, at the very least, cannot ask you to pray for protection from God Almighty against himself. That would be dividing himself against himself.

Some critics would try to make the argument that the above mentioned Bible verses pertain only to possessions and exorcisms. So, the resultant question arises: did Muhammad (SAW) ever perform exorcisms? The answer is..yes! For example, we see a story of how the Messenger (SAW) was traveling somewhere with a companion, whereupon he was called upon by a mother to heal her son who was apparently possessed by a jinn (jinni are generally, with the major exception of Satan, what Christians attribute the classification “demon” to, only that jinni are a separate creation made of fire that can be good or evil, not the fallen angels of Christian lore) while on a trip, using the words:

“In the name of Allah (SWT), I am the slave of Allah (SWT), get out, enemy of Allah!” (Musnad Ahmad, vol:4, pg. 170, and Al-Hakim, who declared it sahih)

Afterwords, the son showed no more signs of his symptoms.  There is also a story about who the Prophet was accosted by a jinn once (the word used for the jinn was once again Shaytan, but like previously stated, that doesn’t always mean Satan himself), but was able to force the jinn into submission (not necessarily through any sort of physical strength, but through faith and the aegis of Allah) (Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 2 Bk.22 No.301). Even a companion (RA) of the Messenger (SAW) had the opportunity and the ability to fend of a jinn (Sunan ad-Darimi). So as you can see, the Messenger of Islam (SAW) and his Sahaba (RA), or Companions, had experiences with jinn, overpowering them, and even exorcising them. Therefore, even the most literal and narrow interpretation of the Bible verses ensure that Islam was NOT the result of Muhammad (SAW) being deceived by the devil. Mind you, these aren’t all just healings – these are exorcisms. I personally am not sure how Christians view healing, but presumably they view healing as something that can be mimicked Satan. Otherwise, I would launch into the VAST miracles of healing in Islam (ruqyah), performed by the Prophet (SAW), the Sahaba (RA), and others, all the way down to modern times. As a matter of fact, Muslims still practice exorcisms to this very day, with people like Sheikh Bilal Philips (RH) and Sheikh Yasir Qadhi (RH) being very knowledgeable in the matter.

A second way to determine that Muhammad (SAW) was not deceived by the devil, at least from a Christian perspective, is to look at it theologically/philosophically. You see, if Satan really did deceive Muhammad (SAW), that means that God Almighty let the Muslims be deceived, despite our prayers to seek refuge in God Almighty form Satan. Even more so, after God Almighty let this happened, He never rectified Satan’s endeavor. God Almighty never sent another angel, vision, or anything similar to the Prophet (SAW), warning him of Satan’s ploys. Something that came up: if something did happen like that, it would have undoubtedly have been mentioned in a book of hadith or something similar. We have many stories of the prophet which, if someone were trying to hide the truth, would not have included in books and have passed onto future generations for fear of misunderstanding or embarassment. However, it is clear after reading something like Sahih al-Bukhari that the scholars did not include or exclude stories based on how good or bad it would make Islam look, but on how authentic the story was.

It would have been in deception and undeserved ignorance that God Almighty let Muslims die from the first revelation of the Qur’an to this very day. Even though Islam would have taught Muslims to love and cherish Allah (SWT), to bond and kindle a relationship with Him, to do good, to stay away from evil, etc., God Almighty still chose to let the Muslims live in their delusions; basically, someone who was born Muslim has already been sentenced to Hell for all eternity without ever being given a chance, unless they meet a knowledgeable – enough Christian who could help shed light for the Muslim (Christians believe strictly that unless you accept Christ as your Savior that you are damned to Hell, but Muslims are taught that each individual is judged according to their own circumstances – even though a lot of the Qur’an and ahadith speaks in generalizations, it is made clear that the you cannot apply these generalizations to specific individuals, ergo you cannot say so-and-so is going to Hell just because he is Muslim).

This is a total contradiction to a fair and just Creator, especially a deity who, without any reason except perhaps compassion, apparently appeared to the murderous and malicious Paul of Tarsus and turned the Nazi-like Jewish persecutor of the Christians into a Christian himself. The bothersome question is, while Muslims are God-conscious, God-fearing, God-loving, and, if anything, totally open to God Almighty and any sort guidance to the Truth, and want nothing more than to be with God Almighty (as any Muslim can attest), God Almighty, if He indeed allowed Satan to deceive Muhammad (SAW), totally abandoned the Muslim community to our doom, whereas people like Paul of Tarsus, who really didn’t care about the Truth, or pleasing God Almighty, but rather felt more pleasure in killing “heretics,” received a vision from Jesus (AS) himself…WHY? Doesn’t God Almighty unconditionally love all human beings?

Because Christians make acceptance of Christ the only criteria for salvation, salvation in Christianity is based solely on whether God Almighty wants you to be with Him or not in Heaven, for if He does want you in Heaven, no amount of evil nor disobedience will stop Him from miraculously guiding you from salvation. Likewise, if God Almighty decides to reject you, no amount of godliness, Truth-seeking, prayer, contemplation, or sacrifice will ever invoke Him on giving you in an iota of guidance. The Christians seem to try to make it sound like there is nothing wrong with this condition, and at first, this may seem acceptable for Muslims, for its true that Allah (SWT) guides who He wills or rejects who He wills (Qur’an Ch.14 v.4), but further reading of the Qur’an says otherwise. In truth, Allah (SWT) may misguide those who refuse to believe, who refuse to seek and accept the Truth, whereas may also guide those who are trying to seek the Truth. In Islam, it is taught that honestly seeking the Truth will give you an answer, whereas in Christianity (if this theory against Muhammad (SAW) is taken to be true), no matter how much you seek the Truth, you have no promise that God Almighty loves  you enough to send you appropriate guidance. In essence, if Allah (SWT) truly did allow Muhammad (SAW) to be deceived by Satan, He would have committed a gross injustice by allowing such righteousness-oriented and Truth-seeking people and the Messenger (SAW), the Sahaba (RA), and everyone else, all the way to even my own grandparents, to believe in a lie without giving us a chance to even choose and decide, giving us a chance to be convinced (for surely, God Almighty wants us to be convinced when we accept His religion, not just taking a leap of blind faith).

There are other reasons, too, such as when Jesus (AS) is reported to have said to watch out for false prophets by looking at their fruit (Matthew 7:15-20). The fruits of Islam have been the the encouragement of marriage and family life, the banning of alcohol, the banning of sexual promiscuity, the development of women’s right along with human rights in general and even animal rights, the advancement and spread of basically every field of knowledge there is, encouragement of proper social manners/conduct, propagation of good personal hygiene, the fostering of the love of God Almighty and the urge to seek the Truth, etc. There is a plethora of evidence, if only people cared to look. However, it is my opinion that the two main points mentioned above enough at least to prompt more exploration into the matter, and to me, enough to thoroughly prove that Islam is NOT a product of Satan (at least from an honest Christian perspective).

– Farhan R.

Salah – Just Another Obligation in a Burdensome Religion?

Abu Huraira (RA) reported: The Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: “The nearest a servant comes to his Lord is when he is prostrating himself, so make supplication (in this state).” (Sahih Muslim Ch.37 Bk.4 No.0979)

Salah is the 2nd pillar of Islam, and is one of the most obvious manifestation of faith in Islam. Our daily lives are supposed to be held together by these 5 daily prayers and are a part of the covenant between Muslims and God. However, important as it is, salah is also one of the most neglected aspects of Islam today. You would be hard-pressed to find a Muslim who actually regularly prays all 5 prayers everyday. For some reason the huge importance of salah is put aside and people just believe that if they “have faith” then that is enough, but they don’t seem to understand that if you really have faith, it should manifest itself in your actions and lifestyles – and salah, the second pillar right after the profession of faith, should be one of the most natural manifestations of one’s faith.

Back in the day, the Muslims used to get together and discuss things like the best way of praying their supererogatory late-night prayers, but today Muslims are usually surprised if they see another Muslim praying just the 5 obligatory prayers. It is so easy to procrastinate prayers or make up excuses for why you can’t pray right now and why that’s okay. Even with those who do maintain their prayers, sometimes it is so hard to get off the couch, wash up and pray. The hardest is probably the dawn prayer, Fajr , which requires you go wake up at least about 15 minutes before dawn.

After some thought, I think I have an idea as to why it seems so natural to feel reluctance towards  salah, or at least why salah may seem like a chore to use when our religion teaches that it is something so wonderful.

If a goldfish tried to live in the Dead Sea, it wouldn’t live very long. Goldfish, in their natural state [it’s state of islam – the way God meant it to be naturally], need to live in freshwater, and to live in anything else can be severely detrimental to their health. However, you will not find goldfish in the Dead Sea because they do not have the free will (nor the intellectual capacity) to decide to migrate to the Dead Sea and try establishing a colony there. Human beings, on the other hand, do have free will, meaning even though we have a natural state of islam that is mandatory to our health and well-being, we have the option of choosing our life styles and following our whims and desires. This includes choosing to eat properly or improperly, choosing to get enough exercise or not to get enough exercise, choosing to dress appropriately to the weather or to dress inappropriately to the whether, or even choosing to skip salah when every aspect of us needs to pray and worship God Almighty. That is right – more then an obligation, salah is a human necessity, a necessity that makes its absence known on each and every atom of the human. As a matter of fact, the whole idea behind Islam is that to follow God’s revelation is our most natural state of being, our state of islam, because God teaches us how to live as he meant us to live. It is how we are designed, just as goldfish were designed to live in freshwater. Do we ever think of eating as just a burden or chore? NO! Therefore, why is salah seen that way?

However, we just don’t realize that salah is such an integral necessity. That is the trouble with free will. God Almighty knows what is best for us, and He gave us guidance that is for our own good. However, since we have the will to accept or reject, what appeals to us seems to be a favour, and what doesn’t appeal to us appears to be a burdensome command. In truth, everything in Islam is considered both a favour and a command (not a burden, though!), for God Almighty commands us to be Muslim, commands us to live up to our potential and purpose, and to achieve success in our ultimate goals. God Almighty commands us to be Muslim and press forward to please Him, fulfill our potential and achieve paradise; He commands us to do what is best for us! All the legislation in Islam, such as those concerning salah, wudhu, zabiha, sadaqah, istinja’, etc. are good for us, but sometimes we are too ignorant to figure it all out.

Here is what happens when we feel like skipping prayer. We are naturally always looking for pleasure, looking for nourishment, looking for contentment. However, our conception of salah has been misconstrued by our minds into something of a chore, of a bore, of a sort of weird series of motion. Some people pray only by actions of the body, but their minds are off somewhere else, thinking about school, work, television, etc. Some Muslims don’t know what they are saying when they pray in Arabic, nor are they even curious. They miss the whole point of salah. Unfortunately, what they don’t realize is that most of the time what we need when we are looking to do something else besides salah is, in fact, salah itself. We tend to seek the benefits that are associated with a true, complete salah elsewhere, in a more materialistic place. We rather sleep in than pray Fajr, rather eat out for lunch than pray Zuhr, busy ourselves with mundane chores rather then pray ‘Asr, go out and watch a movie with friends than pray Maghrib, and rather stay up and browse YouTube than pray ‘Isha’a. What we are looking for actually lies within salah.

[However, there are of course times when we have a genuine reason for missing or delaying salah. If you have a medical emergency, obviously you need to take care of that. If you are extremely preoccupied at the moment, like a surgeon in the middle of a complicated surgery, it is probably okay to take care of such an immediate and important need first. The prophet himself said,

“No prayer can be (rightly said) when the food is there (before the worshipper), or when he is prompted by the call of nature.” [Sahih al-Muslim, Bk.004, No.1139

Thus, Islam does teach moderation and consideration of special circumstance, and as such, one ought to use self-honesty and common sense when deciding if you actually are delaying prayer for a good reason or not.]

It gets a little more complicated, however. Scientists say that humans have a sweet tooth in order to drive us to eat fruits that provide our bodies with vitamins and minerals needed for health and simple carbohydrates for quick energy (1), but unfortunately these days we try to satisfy that need for healthy fruits with unhealthy candies, pastries, soft drinks, etc. Likewise, with salah we try to fill that gap with material things, because we are brought up to believe that all the solutions to our problems lie in materialistic things, that there is no room in the modern world for spiritual play. We become foolish, trying trust our own desires instead of the wisdom of Allah (SWT).

Truly, what we desire outside of salah can be acquired in the highest quality inside of salah. That is why when you chase after materialistic solutions, you are always left wanting. As the hadith says:

“…If the son of Adam (AS) had one valley of money he would wish for the second. If he had two valleys, he would wish for the third. So, nothing except soil can fill up the bellies (hunger) of the son of Adam (AS) (i.e. dying and returning from the earth from whence we all came)…” (Sahih al-Bukhari Vol.8 Bk.76 No.446)

We will never satisfy ourselves by the materialism prevalent all around us. With all honesty, the satisfaction of a completed salah for the sake of Allah (SWT) is indescribable, a feeling everyone should experience, a feeling that is so subtle and yet overwhelming, that one becomes addicted to it. The more you realize that feeling, the more you want of it, but this time, you want more not just for your pleasure, but for the connection between yourself and Allah (SWT). The more you worship and love Him, the more you want to worship Him, because that is how we are designed, how we are meant to be. This is similar to how more people work out, the more they want to exercise and work out because our bodies enjoy and crave what is naturally good for it (the “sweeth tooth” equivalent for working out comes in the form of the endorphin rush during exercise that make an individual enjoy the physical experience).

Worship is our natural state (Surah adh-Dhariyat, Qur’an Ch. 51 v.56). Even outside of salah, things like zakat, sawm, hijab, du’a, etc. may at first seem like Islam focuses too on the material and not on the spiritual, especially to non-Muslims who may have the false notion that Islam is a religion of only works. However, it is all about the intention, efforts and experience, and when someone experiences Islam, they see all of it as opportunities to establish a connection and communicate with God. We Muslims should love praying, giving charity, fasting, etc., but some Muslims in this day and age are getting secularized.

The feeling you get after a complete, honest, intensive and focused salah – the mute silence of your mind, the adoration in your heart, the submissiveness of your will, the sense of fulfillment that you feel enveloping your body, the joy of accomplishing what your Lord Almighty has prescribed for you for your own benefit, the total and personal relationship/communication and warm affinity you feel with Allah Almighty, the hope/fear for the acceptance of your salah by God and of the atonement/mercy that you know very well you don’t deserve but God Almighty graces you with anyways, and the heartfelt confirmation of the reality of Islam, the reality of Allah in our lives as our Rabb, our Lord/Caretaker, and the relief you have wash over you, flowing up and across you after you realize that everything is now in Allah’s hands (so please stop stressing out and take a chill pill) –  that feeling…once you experience that unmistakable experience, you will know salah is just what you really need, not sleep, or an extra hour of television, nor an extra snack, etc. All those things aren’t necessarily bad in themselves, but are only dangerous when Shaytan uses them as a distraction from your real goals. At times, you might mess up here and there, miss a prayer or two, but as you get more into keeping your salah you will feel  much sorrow and regret when missing just one prayer.

Some might say that deeds like salah just create more feelings of self-righteousness, pride and arrogance. This is true if one doesn’t fully understand salah or if he/she is praying for the wrong reasons. If you just look at a translation of of salah, and if you understand the meaning behind the concept of salah then it should lead to humility, gratitude and repentance. Salah makes you remember just how imperfect you are, and how much more work your Islam needs. Even if you start feeling righteous and proud, putting things in proper context usually dissolves such unwanted feelings.

People also may complain about how salah is mostly scripted instead of allowing the Muslim to say what he or she wants. The thing is, the scripted portions are mandatory because they basically summarize our condition to us, and the more you study those scripted portions the more you realize just how perfect of a prayer they really are. Regular prayer where you just raised you hands up anywhere you are (though actually you don’t really have to raise your hands or even make an audible prayer – mental prayers are better than nothing) and talk to God is called du’a and is highly encouraged and loved by God, but sometimes we pray too much for what we want and what we think we need. The salah teaches us what we really need in the long run and serve more to a benefit for us as a constant reminder of Islam throughout the day. God doesn’t need our prayers, but we do, and the physicality of the salah unites our bodies’ submission with out mental focus on the prayer to God and the spiritual warmth and integrity to form one rather powerful and incomparable experience.

The more we try to satisfy our need of prayer with materialistic things, the more that empty hole, that desire, that yearning, will grow, and left unabated, it will tear you up without you realizing it. It is only on the musalla (prayer mat) that we truly rediscover our purpose and passion, our love and our life, our relationship with Allah Almighty (SWT). That is why our deen is called Islam, peace through total submittal to God Almighty, and why our obligatory prayers are called salah – a word which when taken also by its etymological meaning may ultimately refer to the warm intensive connection between us and Allah (SWT).

– Farhan R.

(1) – Bramen, Lisa. “The Evolution of the Sweet Tooth”. Smithsonian.com <http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2010/02/the-evolution-of-the-sweet-tooth/> February 10, 2010. Last Accessed September 21, 2011.