Month: February 2018

(Photo Credit @The_MuslimTimes) Syed Sharfuddin The Charter of Madinah in two parts, the first part dealing with the rights and obligations of the Mohajirs and Ansaar of Madinah (Clauses 1-24) and the second part dealing with the rights and obligations of the Jews, their clients and friends, pagans, polytheists and other inhabitants of Madinah. The…

Syed Sharfuddin (This essay developed out of a discourse on the nature of Muslim Ummah and the rights of minorities). Ummah أُمَّةً is an Arabic word which means community. But because of its Arabic origin it has acquired an association with the predominant faith of the people of Arabia. When someone uses the word Ummah,…

Syed Sharfuddin A man woke up early in order to offer his morning prayer in the neighbourhood mosque. He got dressed, set on his way to Allah’s house. On his way to the mosque, the man accidentally set foot on a loose stone and fell down. His clothes got dirty. He got up, brushed himself…

Syed Sharfuddin Imam Fakhr al Din Al-Raazi, in his commentary of Surah Fatiha in Tafseer Al-Kabeer identifies five components of a few things both known and unknown to the faithful. These are: the five pillars of Islam, five senses, five obligatory prayers, five key components of Surah Fatiha, five types of self and five stages…

Syed Sharfuddin There are many words used in the holy Quran to describe women in different relationships and roles. These are both in singular nouns such as wife, woman and partner and in plural nouns such as aunts, sisters, mothers, daughters, married women, divorced women and women as close relatives and in general. الْمُسْلِمَاتِ و…

Syed Sharfuddin Imam Razi writes in Tafseer Kabeer (Vol 1, page 173) that invocation of the name of Allah بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ is extremely powerful and effective when done with full conviction. He points out the two specific places where Bismillah (literally meaning ‘in the name of Allah’) is mentioned in the holy Quran…

Prophet Moses was born with stammer. But when on Mount Sinai he was commanded by Allah to go to the Pharaoh of his time and invite him to embrace Islam, Moses prayed to Allah to remove his stammer so that he could convey the divine message without any difficulty. Allah asked Moses to eat a…

Syed Sharfuddin In his voluminous commentary on Surah Fateha in Tafseer al-Kabeer, also known as Mafatih-al-Ghayb (Arabic), Volume 1 (pages 235-236), Imam Muhammad Fakhr al-Din Razi explains the attributes of Allah, Rahman and Raheem through three parables. He says Rahman means Allah gives provisions in ways man cannot even imagine. Raheem means Allah gives provisions in ways…

🔴 Syed Sharfuddin The Holy Quran describes certain regrets which people will express on the Day of Judgement when they will stand before their Lord in humility and admission of their transgressions. These regrets represent the essence of Islam in three elements: belief and obedience to one God, following in the footsteps of His apostle…

Syed Sharfuddin Yesterday I posted on WhatsApp a famous Arabic phrase which is repeated every week in Friday sermons and on other occasions. The post said: “Man yahdillahu fala mudhillalahu, wa man yudhlillahu fala hadiyalahu. Translation: “Whoever is guided by Allah cannot be led astray by anyone; and whoever is left astray by Allah, no…

By Syed Sharfuddin A Sheikh was commenting on the parable of Moses and Al-Khidr in Surah Kahf (Chapter 18 ‘the Cave’ in the Quran) which is well known to Muslims. He said the key lesson of this parable is that man cannot fathom the plan of Allah because it is beyond the reach of human…