Ramadan Sunnah 5: Give food to fasting person

A Sunnah A Day

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

The Prophet (pbuh) said: “Whoever gives food to a fasting person with which to break his fast, will have a reward equal to his, without it detracting in the slightest from the reward of the fasting person.” [Tirmidhi]

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There are plenty of ways to fulfill this sunnah- we can invite people for iftaar, take some food to the mosque with which people can break their fast or donate money to organizations that prepare iftaar for the poor.

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The Beloved (pbuh) and prohibiting treachery

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
والحمدلله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء  والمرسلين
In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate
All praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the most noble of the Prophets and Messengers

“He has no faith who does not keep trust”

(Tabarani)

We are taught from a young age to be honest. Unfortunately, these values sometimes decline as we grow older and not just that, become one-dimensional. So, we think we are not treacherous if we are truthful most of the time. But we have obligations and a betrayal of these obligations is a form of treachery. What image did we give of the Messenger of Allah, and of Islam? Have we betrayed the trust of the message? Have we betrayed other Muslims? The Prophet (pbuh) said “Truly, Muslims live by their commitments.” (Al-Albany) How committed are we to “La ilaha ila Allah, Muhammad Rasul Allah”?

The Beloved (pbuh) and water in wudhu

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
والحمدلله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء  والمرسلين
In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate
All praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the most noble of the Prophets and Messengers

We all know how precious water is. Perhaps more so today, when everyday we read about people living with inadequate water supplies (More than 1.1 billion people lack access to safe water, and 2.6 billion lack access to basic sanitation), of anticipated water wars (UN figures suggest there are around 300 potential conflicts over water around the world), of oppressive water distribution regimes (i.e. where Israelis get 4 times as much water as Palestinians, two-thirds of the water consumed in Israel comes from the occupied territories, while nearly half of the Israeli water installations are located in areas that were not part of its pre-1967 zone) and so on. Living in wealthy countries, it almost seems as if these problems are very far away and irrelevent. For this reason, it is important to think of Allah’s Words:

وكُلُواْ وَاشْرَبُواْ وَلاَ تُسْرِفُواْ

The Beloved (pbuh): Visiting him and meeting with him

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

والحمدلله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء والمرسلين

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate

All praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the most noble of the Prophets and Messengers

It is an amazing experience to pray in the Prophet’s (pbuh) Mosque and to be in Madina. The feeling is indescribable. The last time I was in Madina was 6 years ago, on a school umrah trip, and my friends and I could all testify to the feeling one gets being in Madina. When I was there a few days ago, it was the same exact feeling. For my brother it was the first time, yet even he said he felt a strange sense of lightness. SubhanAllah, the Prophet (pbuh) made du’a for Madina to be as beloved as Makkah and more 1430 years ago, and Allah’s response to the du’a can still be felt today.

The Beloved (pbuh) and listening to others

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

والحمدلله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء  والمرسلين

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate

All praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the most noble of the Prophets and Messengers

One of the disbelievers of Quriesh, Otba Ibn Rabi’a, came to the Prophet (pbuh) and offered him a number of  proposals, which showed a lot of disprespect to the religion. He told the Prophet (pbuh):

“O Muhammad, I have some offers for you from your folks, so listen to me.”

The Prophet (pbuh) told the man,

“Speak your mind, Abul-Walid.”

The Beloved (pbuh) and having a pure heart

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
والحمدلله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء  والمرسلين
In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate
All praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the most noble of the Prophets and Messengers

The Prophet (pbuh) once came out to the Mosque and said:

“Let no one among you convey to me what is said about me (in terms of what will give rise to bad feelings in my heart). For indeed I love to come out to you with a pure and clean heart (without having negative feelings about any of you as a result of knowing what you said about me)”
(Ahmad, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi)

The Beloved (pbuh) and mending discord

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

والحمدلله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء والمرسلين

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate

All praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the most noble of the Prophets and Messengers

The Prophet (pbuh) was once sitting with his companions (ra) when he asked them:

“Shall I tell you what is better than much prayer and charity?”

They said, “Yes.”

He said, “Mending discord. And beware of hatred – it strips you (of your deen).”

(Malik’s Muwatta)

The Beloved (pbuh) and coping with change

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم 

والحمدلله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء والمرسلين

 In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate

All praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the most noble of the Prophets and Messengers

 

 Life changes a lot. Sometimes these changes are sudden, sometimes we know they are coming, but all the same, they can be difficult to cope with. These changes can unnerve us. So how do we deal with them? Inevitably, there won’t be a one-size-fits-all approach because as we are all different, change will affect us differently and our ways of dealing with these changes will vary. However, there are some key things we can learn from the Beloved’s (pbuh) life.

The Beloved (pbuh) and Perseverance

 

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
والحمدلله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء  والمرسلين
In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate
All praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the most noble of the Prophets and Messengers

 

Antara ibn al-Shaddad was a pre-Islamic poet and hero. It was said that he never lost a battle. So a man came to him and asked him what his secret was. Antara then replied to him with something very strange; he told him, “put your finger in my mouth, and i’ll put my finger in yours, and we will bite. Then you’ll know the answer.”  So they both bit on each other’s fingers until Antara’s opponent couldn’t take it any more, and he pulled his finger out. Antara smiled and said “If you had persevered for a moment longer, i would have removed my finger. That is my secret”

While this is quite a gruesome example, the point of it is to show the strength of perseverance. If we just push ourselves for a little more, we can achieve our target inshAllah.

 

 

The Beloved (pbuh) and being prepared

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
والحمدلله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء  والمرسلين
In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate
All praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the most noble of the Prophets and Messengers

 
We’ve all been in situations, that when we really want something, there is an element missing which prevents us from getting that which we want.

For example, imagine there is an excellent course you want to apply for, but you know that your parents won’t allow you to go. You could decide not to apply at all, since you already know the answer, or you could go ahead and apply anyway, and make sure you have all the provisions ready… just in case. Or you know you have a lot of time to prepare for an application; you could leave it until the last minute, or do it as soon as possible.

 

The latter was the way of our Prophet (pbuh).