Oneness of Allah (Tawheed)

The believer who affirms the Oneness of Allaah (Tawheed) knows that everything happens by the decree of Allaah; what Allaah wills happens and what He does not will does not happen; there is nothing that can block the will of Allaah from being executed in His creation. Thus the heart of the believer who affirms the Oneness of Allaah is at rest, and he knows that there is no room for regret or grief in his life, because the command of Allaah preceded (the event) and His will is executed. Allaah says:

•►“No calamity befalls on the earth or in yourselves but it is inscribed in the Book of Decrees (Al‑Lawh Al‑Mahfooz) before We bring it into existence. Verily, that is easy for Allaah." [al-Hadeed 57:22]

•►“We will try you with fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives, and fruits; but give glad tidings to those who are patient. Who, when a misfortune overtakes them, say:
نﻮﻌﺟار ﻪﻴﻟإ ﺎﻧإو ﻪﻠﻟ ﺎﻧإ
`To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return.’ It is these on whom descend blessings and mercy from their Lord, and it is they who are rightly guided.” [Surah al-Baqarah: 155-157]

The Messenger of Allaah (SallAllahu alyhi Wasallam) said:
•►“There is no Muslim who is afflicted by a calamity and when he remembers it, even if it was in the dim and distant past, he says:
نﻮﻌﺟار ﻪﻴﻟإ ﺎﻧإو ﻪﻠﻟ ﺎﻧإ
inna lillāhi wa inna ilayhi rāji‘ūn (verily to Allāh we belong and unto Him is our return), but Allāh will give him a reward like that of the day when it befell him.”

[Muslim, Sahih, Book on funerals, no. 918; Abu Dawud, Sunan, Book on funerals, no. 3119; Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 6, p. 309; and Malik, Al-Muwatta', Book on funerals, no. 558.]

I’m sorry

I’m sorry.
I’m sorry I don’t have the most perfect skin.
I’m sorry I don’t look like a Victoria Secrets model
I’m sorry I don’t have the best style.
I’m sorry I’m not tall.

I’m sorry I’m not perfectly skinny- 5’7 nor 100 pounds.
I’m sorry I have stretch marks here and there.
I’m sorry I have bad hijab days.
I’m sorry that I’m plain.
I’m sorry my eyebrows aren’t thin and perfectly trimmed.
I’m sorry my face isn’t caked in make-up.
I’m sorry that I can never meet society’s standards.
But you know what?
I don’t need to care about society’s criteria.
I don’t need people to tell me I’m beautiful.
I don’t need compliments to make me feel better.
I don’t need a superficial love that can’t withstand a stretch mark here or chub there.
I don’t need to keep sinking into a never ending pit of low self-esteem.
Because I looked to Allah, and He told me the perfect recipe to be Beautiful.
Not just temporarily, but forever.

“And the servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk upon the earth easily, and when the ignorant address them [harshly], they say [words of] peace,…” [25:63]

“And [they are] those who, when they spend, do so not excessively or sparingly but are ever, between that, [justly] moderate {25:67]

“And he who repents and does righteousness does indeed turn to Allah with [accepted] repentance. And [they are] those who do not testify to falsehood, and when they pass near ill speech, they pass by with dignity. And those who, when reminded of the verses of their Lord, do not fall upon them deaf and blind. And those who say, “Our Lord, grant us from among our wives and offspring comfort to our eyes and make us an example for the righteous.” Those will be awarded the Chamber for what they patiently endured, and they will be received therein with greetings and [words of] peace.” [25:71-75]

Ya Allah, when the world criticizes me a million times over
Ya Allah, when the world keeps telling me hurtful things
Ya Allah, when the world keeps pushing “ugly” at me.
Give me the courage to hold firm to your Deen.
Ya Allah, as long as I am beautiful to you, nothing else matters.

Ya Allah, even when everyone leaves my side, let me take comfort in the fact that You are closer to me than my jugular vein [50:16]...!!!

(http://www.PureMatrimony.com/)

A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said,

“A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim. He should neither wrong him, nor let him down. Whoever attends to the needs of his brother, Allah will attend to his needs; and whoever relieves a Muslim of some distress, Allah will relieve him of one of the distresses of the Day of Resurrection; and whoever covers (the faults of) a Muslim, Allah will cover him (his faults) on the Day of Resurrection.”

In addition, he (peace be upon him) said,

“Anyone who relieves a Muslim of a worldly distress, Allah will relieve them of one of the distresses of the Day of Resurrection; and anyone who eases matters for a hard-pressed person, Allah will ease matters for them in this world and the Hereafter; and anyone who covers (the faults) of a Muslim, Allah will cover them (their faults) in this world and in the Hereafter. Allah supports His Servant as long as the Servant is supportive of their brother.”

(Al-Bukhari, Sahih, Book on injustices and unlawful appropriation, no. 2442; Muslim, Sahih, Book on righteousness, upholding ties of kinship, and good manners no. 2580; Al-Tirmidhy, Sunan, Book on ordained punishments, no. 1426; Abu Dawud, Sunan, Book on manners, no. 4893; and Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 2, p. 91)

ILoveAllaah.com

Sayings of the Pious Predecessors

ILoveAllaah.com

Full Ablution (Mandi Hadas)

How to do Ghusl (Full Ablution).

1. Form the intention in the heart to purify oneself from major impurity: janaabah (impurity following sexual discharge), menses or nifaas (postpartum bleeding).
2. Then say Bismillah (in your heart while in bathroom) and wash the hands three times, then wash any dirt from the private part.
3. Then do wudoo’ as for prayer, a complete wudoo’.
4. Then pour water over the head three times, and rub the hair so that the water reaches the roots of the hair.
5. Then wash the body, making sure that the water reaches all parts, starting with the right side of the body and then the left, and rubbing it with the hands so that the water reaches the entire body.

IslamicTube

The Quranic Arabic Corpus

Welcome to the Quranic Arabic Corpus, an annotated linguistic resource which shows the Arabic grammar, syntax and morphology for each word in the Holy Quran. The corpus provides three levels of analysis: morphological annotation, a syntactic treebank and a semantic ontology.

The Quran is a significant religious text written in Quranic Arabic, and is followed by believers of the Islamic faith. The Quran contains 6,236 numbered verses (ayāt) and is divided into 114 chapters. An example verse from the Quran: (21:30) Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe?http://corpus.quran.com/

Why Are Women Turning to Islam

At a time when Islam is faced with hostile media coverage particularly where the status of women in Islam is concerned, it may be quite surprising to learn that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, and even more ironic to discover that the majority of converts to Islam are WOMEN . 

The status of women in society is neither a new issue, nor is it a fully settled one. And where Islam is mentioned, for many the term 'Muslim Women' prompts images of exhausted mothers chained to the stove, 'victims' suppressed in a life of indoctrination, frantic to be westernized and so on. Others will go to great lengths to explain how the hijaab is an obstacle, clouding the mind, and comment that female converts are either brainwashed, stupid or traitors to their sex. I reject such accusations and pose to them the following question: why is it that so many women who have been born and brought in the so called 'civilized' societies of Europe and America are willing to reject their 'liberty' and 'independence' to embrace a religion that supposedly oppresses them and is widely assumed to be prejudicial to them? 

As a Christian convert to Islam, I can only present my personal experience and reasons for rejecting the 'freedom' that women claim to have in this society in favour of the only Religion that truly liberates women by giving us a status and position, which is completely unique when compared with that of our non-Muslim counterparts. Before coming to Islam, I had strong feminist tendencies and recognized that where a woman was concerned, a lot of shuffling around had been going on, yet without being able to pin her on the social map. The problem was ongoing: new 'women's issues' being raised without the previous ones being satisfactorily resolved. Like the many women who shared my background, I would 
accuse Islam of being a sexist religion, discriminating, oppressing and giving men the greater privileges. All of this, coming from a person who did not even know Islam, one who had been blinded due to ignorance and had accepted this deliberately distorted definition of Islam. 

However, despite my criticisms of Islam, inwardly, I wasn't satisfied with my own status as a woman in this society. It seemed to me that society would define such terms as 'liberty' and 'freedom' and then these definitions were accepted by women without us even attempting to question or challenge them. There was clearly a great contradiction between what women were told in theory and what actually happened in practice. The more I pondered, the greater emptiness I felt within. I was slowly beginning to reach a stage where my dissatisfaction with my status as a women in this society, was really a reflection of my greater dissatisfaction with society itself. Everything seemed to be degenerating backwards, despite the claims that the 1990's was going to be the decade of success and prosperity. Something vital seemed to be missing from my life and nothing would fill this vacuum. 

Being a Christian did not do anything for me, and I began to question the validity of only remembering God one day a week - Sundays! As with many other Christians too, I had become disillusioned with the hypocrisy of the Church and was becoming increasingly unhappy with the concept of Trinity and the deification of Jesus. 

Eventually, I began to look into Islam. At first, I was only interested in looking at those issues, which specifically dealt with women. I was surprised. What I read and learned, taught me a lot about myself as a woman, and also about where the real oppression of a woman lies: in every other system and way of life outside of Islam. Muslim women have been given their rights in every aspect of the religion with clear definitions of their role in society - as had men - with no injustice against either of them. As Allah says: «"Whoever does deeds of righteousness, be they male or female, and have faith, they will enter paradise and not the least injustice will be done to them"» [Nisaa 4:124] 

So having amended my misconceptions about the true status of women in Islam, I was now looking further. I wanted to find that thing which was going to fill the vacuum in my life. My attention was drawn towards the beliefs and practices of Islam. It was only through establishing the fundamentals that I would understand where to turn and what to prioritize. These are often the areas, which receive little attention or controversy in society, and when studying the Islamic Creed, it becomes clear why this is the case: such concise, faultless and wholly comprehensive details cannot be found elsewhere.