Towards Understanding the Islamic Faith:
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In the name of Allah, the Most-Merciful, the All-Compassionate
"May the Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon you"
Bismillah Walhamdulillah Was Salaatu Was Salaam 'ala Rasulillah
As-Salaam Alaykum Wa-Rahmatullahi Wa-Barakaatuh
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Towards Understanding the Islamic Faith:
Belief in Islam: Pursuit of Happiness: Stay Away from Vice & Believe in Islam
As humans, we were created of both body and soul, Islam seeks to create a balance of both.
Islam calls for virtue and rebukes vice. The rewards for virtuousness not only benefit individuals but the society as a whole. Through worshipping Allah and doing righteous deeds, spirituality soars with blessings of tranquility and a life of happiness.
Almighty God describes in the Quran how success lies in the purification of the soul and misery lies in instilling it with corruption:
{And [by] the soul and He who proportioned it. And inspired it [with discernment of] its wickedness and its righteousness, he has succeeded who purifies it, And he has failed who instills it [with corruption].} (Ash-Shams 91:7-10)
Why Am I not Happy?
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Understanding Islamic Faith - Is Islam a Religion, Culture, or Ethnicity? |
You might claim “I should be happy as I can do whatever I want whenever I feel like it; I have total freedom. But, why am I still unhappy?!”
The answer is simple; vices go againstfitrah (human nature).
Unfortunately, in our modern societies,fitrah is ridiculed and regarded as backward and vices are considered “Personal Freedoms”. But, how does that make us different from beasts if we follow our instincts? Humans have a freedom of choice, yes, but they have been created with the blessing to reason and think rationally.
As humans, we were created of both body and soul, Islam seeks to create a balance of both. If we bury our soul and only keep our body alive and overload it with what it cannot handle, we will live a life of misery. Islam permits us to enjoy the pleasures of this world, as long as they are through Halal (lawful) means and are in moderation.
Why Are Vices Unlawful in Islam?
Vices such as vanity, avarice, wrath, gluttony, jealousy, sloth, illicit relationships, alcohol, gambling, drugs and crimes are all considered unlawful in Islam as they are detrimental spiritually, physically and intellectually.
Vices Are Detrimental Spiritually
How can we quench our thirsty souls while engrossed in vices? Vices mutate human bodies, transforming them into bestial ones, leaving no room for spirituality. A body without a soul is doomed for misery and at times even to suicidal thoughts.
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Vices that taint the soul are as grave, since they slowly but surely corrode the heart. |
The Quran mentions the detrimental effects of bodily vices such as intoxicants (alcohol and drugs) and gambling:
{O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful. Satan only wants to cause between you animosity and hatred through intoxicants and gambling and to avert you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. So will you not desist?} (Al-Ma’idah 5:90-91)
Vices that taint the soul are as grave, since they slowly but surely corrode the heart. Vanity, avarice, wrath, sloth and jealousy, etc. are all harmful as they basically stem from putting one’s own desires above everything else to the extent of harming others, although the primary harm is the one that befalls the transgressor in doing injustice to his/her better self.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) warns us against the destructive effects of jealousy and envy:
“Beware of envy, for verily it destroys good deeds the way fire destroys wood." (Abu Dawud, 4903)
He (peace be upon him) also advises us to stay away from wrath:
"The strong is not the one who overcomes the people by his strength, but the strong is the one who controls himself while in anger." (Al-Bukhari, 6114)
Vices Are Detrimental Physically
We only have one body and if we don’t take good care of it, it will take its toll on our health. Islam moreover prohibits vices to protect us physically.
Illicit relationships can cause serious diseases such as syphilis and AIDS. Gluttony leads to obesity which in its turn causes life-threatening diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and other heart related diseases.
Allah Almighty warns us in the Holy Quran to stay away from gluttony:
{…and eat and drink but waste not by extravagance, certainly He (Allah) likes not Al-Musrifoon (those who waste by extravagance} (Al-A’raaf 7:31)
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Imam Ash-Shafi’i describes how gluttony in food and drink negatively affects the mind besides the harm it does to body and spirit. |
Drugs and overconsumption of alcohol can lead to serious medical conditions such as cancer, heart failure, cirrhosis (a chronic disease of the liver) and neuropathy (nerve damage). Moreover, there is an alarming risk for car accidents while intoxicated. Crimes such as murder and human trafficking are destructive too, as they either end or damage other peoples’ lives.
Vices Are Detrimental Intellectually
Imam Ash-Shafi’i describes how gluttony in food and drink negatively affects the mind besides the harm it does to body and spirit. He points out how:
“I have not filled myself in sixteen years because filling oneself makes the body heavy, removes clear understanding, induces sleep and makes one weak for worship.”
Chronic Heavy Drinking affects the intellect too. In the article 12 Health Risks of Chronic Heavy Drinking: Health Risks of Alcohol: 12 Health Problems Associated with Chronic Heavy Drinking, David Freeman quotes the words of James C. Garbutt, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and a researcher at the university's Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies:
“As people age, their brains shrink, on average, at a rate of about 1.9% per decade. That's considered normal. But heavy drinking speeds the shrinkage of certain key regions in the brain, resulting in memory loss and other symptoms of dementia."
Heavy drinking can also lead to subtle but potentially debilitating deficits in the ability to plan, make judgments, solve problems, and perform other aspects of "executive function," which are "the higher-order abilities that allow us to maximize our function as human beings."
Stay Away from Vice & Believe in Islam = Pursuit of Happiness
Are you feeling bothered, depressed and sick of your miserable life? Do you feel you’ve lost your sense of purpose and the more you search for it in worldly “pleasures” the more you feel the void?
This is indeed the life Almighty God warns us from falling into if we turn away from His remembrance:
{And whoever turns away from My remembrance - indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind.}(Ta-Ha 20:124)
Allah most Glorified grants us a good life both in this life and in the hereafter if we believe in Him and do right:
{Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer - We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward [in the Hereafter] according to the best of what they used to do.} (An-Nahl 16:97)
What is belief in Islam? Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) describes this (an excerpt from a longer hadith) when asked by Angel Gabriel about Iman (belief):
“It is to believe in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, the Last Day, and in the divine destiny of both good and evil.” (Muslim, 8)
Along with Belief, you need to do righteous deeds too like prayers, fasting, zakah, charity, supplications, etc. You should also practice good Islamic traits such as piety, patience, kindness, generosity, modesty, etc.
So, wake up from your slumber in vice and give yourself a chance to experience the beauty and serenity of a virtuous life through the teachings of Islam.
http://www.onislam.net/english/reading-islam/understanding-islam/islam-and-the-world/469105-belief-in-islam-pursuit-of-happiness.html
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ALLAH'S COMMAND - INVOKE ME
[ALLAH'S Quran - 40:60 - Al-Muntakhab] "Invoke Me," says Allah, your Creator, "I respond to your invocation." "Meanwhile those who are too proud to pay reverence to Me and do not display adoration with appropriate acts and rites, shall take up their abode in Hell, plunged into infamy and humiliation."The Prophet (pbuh) has said: [Muslim, Book #035, Hadith #6595] "Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The supplication of the servant is granted in case he does not supplicate for sin or for severing the ties of blood, or he does not become impatient. It was said: Allah's Messenger, what does:" If he does not grow impatient" imply? He said: That he should say like this: I supplicated and I supplicated but I did not find it being responded. and theu he becomes frustrated and abandons supplication."
http://al-tanzil.com/Prophet_Explained_Quran_2.html
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The Tree of Zaqqum is a torment inside of the Hell-Fire that Allah (swt) has prepared for those who disbelieve.
The Holy Quran says- 17.60 And [remember, O Muhammad], when We told you, "Indeed, your Lord has encompassed the people." And We did not make the sight which We showed you except as a trial for the people, as was the accursed tree [mentioned] in the Qur'an. And We threaten them, but it increases them not except in great transgression.
37.61 For the like of this let the workers [on earth] work.
37.62 Is Paradise a better accommodation or the tree of zaqqum?
37.63 Indeed, We have made it a torment for the wrongdoers.
37.64 Indeed, it is a tree issuing from the bottom of the Hellfire,
37.65 Its emerging fruit as if it was heads of the devils.
37.66 And indeed, they will eat from it and fill with it their bellies.
37.67 Then indeed, they will have after it a mixture of scalding water.
37.68 Then indeed, their return will be to the Hellfire.
44.43 Indeed, the tree of zaqqum
44.44 Is food for the sinful.
44.45 Like murky oil, it boils within bellies
44.46 Like the boiling of scalding water.
44.47 [It will be commanded], "Seize him and drag him into the midst of the Hellfire,
44.48 Then pour over his head from the torment of scalding water."
44.49 [It will be said], "Taste! Indeed, you are the honored, the noble!
44.50 Indeed, this is what you used to dispute."
56.51 Then indeed you, O those astray [who are] deniers,
56.52 Will be eating from trees of zaqqum
56.53 And filling with it your bellies
56.54 And drinking on top of it from scalding water
56.55 And will drink as the drinking of thirsty camels.
56.56 That is their accommodation on the Day of Recompense.
In the Quran, the Tree of Zaqqum is mentioned in these four seperate surahs (chapters), and I can never even imagine describing it as it's shown in the Quran.A Hadith says-
Narrated Ibn Abbas: Regarding: 'And We granted the vision (Ascension to the Heaven "Miraj") which We showed you (O Muhammad as an actual eye witness) but as a trial for mankind.' (17.60) It was an actual eye-witness which was shown to Allah's Apostle during the night he was taken on a journey (through the heavens). And the cursed tree is the tree of Az-zaqqum (a bitter pungent tree which grows at the bottom of Hell). (Book #60, Hadith #240) [Bukhari]So here we have so many warner of these punishments, and we still disbelieve, so are we not defiantly disobedient? May Allah (swt) save us all from His Wrath and may He admit us into His Mercy-Ameen.
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He would not enter Paradise until his debt was paid off
Ibn Jahsh (radia Allahu 'anhu) said: We were sitting with the Messenger of Allah(sala Allahu 'aleihi wa salaam) when he raised his head towards the sky, then he put his palm on his forehead and said: "Subhaan Allah! What a strict issue has been revealed to me!"
We remained silent and were afraid. The following morning I asked him, "O Messenger of Allah, what is this strict issue that has been revealed?" He said,
"By the One in Whose hand is my soul, if a man were killed in battle for the sake of Allah, then brought back to life, then killed and brought back to life again, then killed, and he owed a debt, he would not enter Paradise until his debt was paid off." [Hasan by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Nasaa'i, 4367]