Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam; pilgrimage is made to the holy kaabah, which is located in Mecca, Saudia. Mecca is the most sacred city of Islam, and physically plus financially able Muslims are required to offer hajj once in their life time, it’s an obligation to visit the house of Allah. More than hundred thousand Muslims come from all over the world, belonging from different countries, nationalities to worship together in the central mosque “kaabah”. This is a celebration which is repeated year after year, happening since more than thirteen centuries and has made history for mankind. Hajj is not a journey of just going over there for your presence, but it’s a journey of returning to Allah almighty to which everything that exists in this whole wide universe is answerable to, Allah who is the source of everything, who makes all the decisions of this world. Everything has a reason behind in this world which is temporary, so the reason to perform hajj is to return to the merciful. Pilgrims are like rain drops which become part of the river that is flowing to its origin, the origin of eternity.

Muslims are to submit and surrender to their master, Allah. It has been mentioned in a hadith of Hazrat Imam Sadiq P.B.U.H:

“People who perform hajj and umrah are guests of Allah almighty, Allah would grant them with anything they wish for, and if they make an intercession about a person it would be accepted as well, and if they die in this way, Allah would forgive all their sins as he is beneficent and the most merciful”

The least reward of the acceptance of hajj is heaven, what more could you want? Muslims face the kaabah while praying, Muslims from all over the world face towards the holy mosque, and then I guess it’s pretty evident and crystal clear how much significance it has. If you have what it needs to perform hajj and you still don’t opt for it, we have this hadith which is specifically revealed for such people to put some sense in their minds that whom they are neglecting:

“Those who renounce their obligatory hajj without any genuine excuse would be reawaken as Jew or Christian”

Hajj is a milestone in a Muslims spiritual life and every Muslim should treat it in the same way, because the messenger of Allah almighty Hazrat Muhammad P.B.U.H himself has enforced performing hajj to Muslims and had assured the Muslims of that time the significance of it. The main idea of hajj is the unity of the Muslims at one place praying and seeking forgiveness from Allah almighty. Those who have performed hajj are referred as hajji in Muslim societies. Hajj has great significance as it unites all the Muslims from all over the world at one place which is the holy mosque where all honoring the same Allah, all in turn giving equal honor to each other, mere brotherhood.

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Osama

I am 20 years old from Karachi, Pakistan. I am doing graduation from Karachi University. Right now, doing freelance writing for Muslim Academy.

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The Night of Power; Laylat Al-Qadr and the Significance of this most precious night in Islam

The Holy month, Ramadan is the month of discipline, worship, morality, praying, peace and pretty much every good moral that would ever come across your mind. During this month Muslims around the world spend the daylight hours in a complete fast. Muslims would spend this whole month in repentance and trying to become closer to Allah, Reading Qur’an, praying day and night asking for forgiveness and thanking God for all his blessings on us.

The last ten Days in this Holy month Muslims indulge more and more into worshipping Allah and they seek and observe one special night that comes only once in a year and this night has a very special significance to all Muslims which is the Night of Power aka Laylat Al-Qadr.

This Night; the Night of Power marks the night in which the Holy Quran was first revealed to the prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Muslims regard this night as the most important event in history, as the Qur’an says;

“Indeed, We sent the Qur’an down during the Night of Power. And what can make you know what is the Night of Power? The Night of Power is better than a thousand months. The angels and the Spirit descend therein by permission of their Lord for every matter. Peace it is until the emergence of dawn.” (97:1-5)

Muslims spend the last ten nights of Ramadan in solid devotion, retreating to the mosque to read Qur’an, reciting special supplications, and reflecting on the meaning of Allah’s message to us.

Muslims often pray extra prayers on this Night, particularly the Night Prayers. They awake, pray, and hope God will give them anything they may desire on this night. Mostly, they perform tilawat (reading the Quran) trying to prove their sincere faith and hoping to attain Allah’s rewards (not to show off) then all his past sins will be forgiven. Because of this, many Muslims will treat the last 10 days of the month of Ramadan as a particularly good time for prayer and reading the Qur’an. It is believed to be a time of intense spirituality, when the believers are surrounded by angels, the gates of heaven are open, and God’s blessings and mercy are abundant.

Therefore Allah himself puts this night better than a thousand months. So worshipping on this night is better than if you worshipped for a thousand months (that’s about 83 years, and 4 months)! SubhanAllah! Thus it would be foolish to miss this Night of Power.

The exact date of this Holy night is unknown but there are some signs; the first sign: it was reported in Saheeh Muslim from the hadeeth of Ubayy ibn Ka’b announced that one of its signs was that when the sun rose on the following morning, it had no (visible) rays(Muslim, 76). The second sign: it was reported from the hadeeth of Ibn ‘Abbaas narrated by Ibn Khuzaimah, and by al-Tayaalisi in his Musnad, with a saheeh isnaad, that the Prophet (PBUH) said: “Laylat Al-Qadr is a pleasant night, neither hot nor cold, and the following day the sun rises red and weak.”(Saheeh Ibn Khuzaymah, 2912; Musnad al-Tayaalisi. The third sign: it was reported by al-Tabaraani with a hasan isnaad from the hadeeth of Waathilah ibn al-Asqa’ (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Laylat Al-Qadr is a bright night, neither hot nor cold, in which no meteors are seen.” Narrated by al-Tabaraani in al-Kabeer. See Majma‘ al-Zawaa’id, 3/179; Musnad Ahmad.

We ask Allaah to accept our fasting and our prayer at night, and to help us to remember Him and to thank Him and to worship Him properly. May Allaah bless our Prophet Muhammad!

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There are many verses in the Quran, which pose as guides in the way a Muslim needs to lead their lives. This will not be easy to translate since not many people know how to translate the Tajweed. Some want to know the parables, the deeds and the teachings of the prophet and this is through the hadith. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) wanted to clarify to the Islamic faith all the details that do pertain to the rules, structures and the way of life of being a Muslim. The Quran acts like the guidebook, which is represented in different structures and the Muslims, need to follow the word to the core.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) came up with the hadith and Sunnah and these come in handy to remind the Muslims on how to lead their lives. It is important for one to take into account all the different parables, and teachings indicated in the Quran. It gets hard to deal with different situations and calls for an intense amount of knowledge and wise to solve some issues. This is the reason why there are codes that they will follow and get to solve the issue at hand,

The hadith shows the follow how to act in a certain situation, how to respond to certain matters hand how to lead a good life. When one is shown through examples, they have a higher chance of understanding and following it compared to the tajweed. It gets very easy to understand the entire concept compared to other ways of knowing the religion. There are always themes that one will follow and this creates the impression of how one needs to lead their Islamic way of life. It is paramount for everyone to follow the codes, the examples, and the Sunnah if they follow the Islamic faith.

With the hadith, most Muslims grow up knowing how to lead a holy life just like the one the prophet set and the examples indicated in the Quran. One needs to keep on revising them to have a deeper understanding to them and see how it will help them with the current situation. Islam is a worldwide religion and it has now become very easy to access it through the online channel. Many Muslims gather in the mosques to find out more on the teachings and this will aid them along the way. The Islamic teachers find it relevant to place daily situations, and assist them to lead a religious life.

From the little children to the aged, it is now very easy to find the hadith in the online source and religious books and they end up elaborating them and placing them in the present context. These act as guides and they go a long way in giving one the right following to have a holy life as required in the Islamic way of life. It is important to keep on going though the hadith and sunnah all the time and they will end up being clearer with time. This will enable one to have a deeper understanding on the Islamic way of life.

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Many people try different means by which they could prove that idol worship is bad and the different drawbacks and disadvantages which it has to a Non Muslim, because the typical Muslim teacher is not willing to quote Quran ayahs for this purpose. However this is totally incorrect, because the Quran is revealed from Allah to the entire Mankind and that includes Non Muslims too.

There are several verses which could be used for this purpose such as the one which says, “Do they hear you when you call onto them?” This is a very effective question that we can ask the Non Muslims even without directly quoting the Quran verse, Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) used to do his dawah as mentioned in the Quran as, “Why is it that you do not eat, do you not speak? By doing so, he had already established with his people that these idols and statues cannot hear. The verse continues, “Do they hear when you call or Do they benefit you or harm you?”

This is very interesting, look at the context of these verses, if these people really believed that their idols are able to do that, they would have replied with the affirmative. They would have said, yes they do listen to us, hear us and yes they do benefit and harm us. You know, what they said? Rather we found our forefathers doing that “Because he quoted them they had no answer so they went to the old trick that every disbeliever has. Well this is what my people were doing and this is what my forefathers are doing that is why I am going to follow their footsteps. I do not need to change.

After Abraham (peace be upon him) had put them in a corner and they were not able to give them a satisfying response, they had just give him anything where we find our forefathers, he said, “Do you see that which you are worshiping you and your misguided forefathers they are all enemies to me.”

This is Laa ilaaha illallaah, since Laa ilaaha … is negating false Gods. Illallaah is affirming to Allah Alone. He said all of these Gods that your are worshipping they are enemies to me, illaa Rabbullalameen except the Lord of the Worlds. So through Tawheed Ar Ruboobiyah he established Tawheed Al Uloohiyah. And not only that he made the statement illa rabballalameen that he detailed. Then he mentioned the various qualities that Allah the Exalted has. Among them, “And when I am ill, it is He who cures me.” And “The one who will cause me to die then will cause me to live again”

And a number of other things he mentioned of the Ruboobiyah. Then he called unto Allah Subhaanu wa Ta’laa through the Uloohiyah as established in the following verse, “O Allah give me the ability to judge and wisdom and join me with the righteous” as well as in, “Give me a good reputation among those who will come in the later generations and make me among those inherit the paradise of bounty and pleasure and forgive my father verily he was among the misguided one’s and do not disgrace me on the day that you resurrect your creation, the day where no wealth or children will be of any benefit except the one who comes to Allah with a sound heart.” And the one, who comes to Allah with a sound heart, is the one who establishes the three categories of Tawheed in her/his life!

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