Category Archives: Education
Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) – The Ideal Model
Almighty Allah (the most Gracious and most Exalted) says in Surah Al-Ahzaab [33:56]:
“Surely, Allah (The Most Exalted) and His Angels shower their blessing on the Nabi (Peace be upon him and his family). O, you who believe! Send upon him (Divine) blessings and salute him fully well with best salutation.â€
This is a divine gift to the Muslim Ummah that Almighty Allah (Most Glorified and Exalted) invited them to join Him in His favorite pursuit of showering of blessing upon His Beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family). Almighty Allah (The Most Exalted) and His angels have been sending and shall continue to send his blessings upon Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family). This is a reward unparallel to any person in history on the face of earth.
Almighty Allah awarded him with another great reward: “And we exalted thy name”. Holy Prophet’s name is a part of the Kalimah Tayyaba “Lailaha illallah Muhammad ur Rasoolullah “In every Azan, Iqama, Salaat, Friday khutbas, sermons on Eids and Hajj, this Kalimah Tayyaba is repeated and raised loudly. In every Azan his name (peace be upon him and his family) is repeated twice. There are five azans per day – lets assume that there are 2 million mosques around the globe then the Prophet’s name Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is raised 20 million times daily from the minarets of the mosques alone! Subhan Allah!
Let’s look at one more example: there are 20 Farz (compulsory) rakaats daily Salaat for every Muslim where the name Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) is repeated 35 times a day. For instance we take 500 million Muslims, which is a small figure according to this CNN World report 2009 “There are about 1.57 billion Muslims in the world, according to the report, “Mapping the Global Muslim Population” by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. That represents about 23 percent of the total global population of 6.8 billion. (http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/10/07/muslim.world.population/index.html).
So, if 500 million Muslims in the world offer daily Salaat regularly. Prophet’s name Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) is repeated 17,500,000,000 times per day on the face of earth!
There is no such example of any person, male or female whose name is repeated so abundantly and with such high dignity daily on earth and for the last 1400 years. This is NOT because of human efforts BUT because of this divine declaration in the Holy Quran :
“And We (Allah) have exalted high your dignity†[Surah Inshirah:4]
Whatever position Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) was called upon to occupy, he brought to it a gleam, the like of which the history of man has not known. There is Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), the Prophet. There is Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), the Leader. There is Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), the King. There is Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), the Patriot. There is Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), the Warrior. There is Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), the Legislator, Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) the Friend, Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), the Compassionate, Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) the Affectionate and so on…..
It was him (peace be upon him and his family) who brought the humanity to the zenith. He was the one (peace be upon him and his family) who received the title of “Rehmatul lil Alameen†(mercy for all the universe) from the Rabbul Alameen (Creator of all the universe). It was him (peace be upon him and his family) who Almighty Allah chose as the “Khatim un Nabi’een†and was named MUSTAFA (peace be upon him and his family) – the Chosen one!
“And We (Allah) have sent you (O dear Prophet Muhammad) except as a mercy for all the universe.†[Surah Al-Anbya – 107]
It was at the conquest of Makkah that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) stood at the peak of hispower. His unconquerable will, unshakable determination, un-distractible purpose, through-going firmness, uncompromising persistency, indomitable spirit, endless patience, eternal endurance, irresistible courage, and a stamp of the nobility of character, mark the special features of his life.
His graciousness, his affability, his dignified character, his compassion, and politeness, his equable treatment to the powerful as well as the weak, his respectful attention to the rich as well as the poor and his generosity to friend as well as enemy inspired everyone. Even after receiving all the dignified titles and high positions, the king of all the worlds as already remarked, he would mend his clothes himself, cobble his shoes, milk his goats, and sleep on palm tree leaves with the pillow of his hands underneath his head, and Hazrat Omar (may Allah be well pleased with him) was touched to see the stripes on his body. Dates and barley bread were his usual meal and milk and honey, all his luxuries!
This is the noble role model about which the Holy Quran says:
“Certainly, you have an excellent model in following the Rasool (Messenger) of Allah. This is (ideal model) for the one who has hope in Allah and the Last Day and remembers Allah too much.†[Al-Ahzaab 33:21]
May Almighty Allah bless and guide us all to the right path and to follow His beloved Prophet’s (peace be upon him and his family) teachings. Ameen.
Sister Sadaf Akbani
Houston, Texas, USA
skakbani@hotmail.com
Sister Sadaf is a Computer Graphic Designer by profession. She is the Joint Secretary of Women’s Committee (Pakistani American Association Houston) and the Youth Secretary of Karwaan-e-Adab literary society Houston. She has received several awards in debates, essays, poetry and hosting.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) – The world’s most influential social reformer
Islam is by far the most powerful social movement, the world has ever observed. It proved to be a process, which brought revolutionary changes in the socio-economic and political values of, the then, prevailing society. Hazrat Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), as a gift of Allah Almighty (The Most Exalted) for mankind, led the world to a new era of peace and prosperity. Based on pragmatic outlook, this short essay highlights the remarkable image of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) as the most distinguished social reformer of human history.
According to the famous psychoanalyst and ex-president of American Psychiatric Association Dr. Jules H. Masserman (1905-94) a true leader should fulfill the utilities of furnishing people the well being, secure social organization and one set of beliefs. Judged on this criterion Masserman further cited examples of people who can be regarded as leaders. These include: Pasteur and Salk as leaders in the first sense; Gandhi, Confucious, Alexander, Caesar and Hitler as leader of executing the second requirement while Jesus and Buddha as those fulfilling third category. Masserman, after arguing that none of the above mentioned perfectly matches with the norms, boldly suggests that “the greatest leader of all times was Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) who combined all three functions†[1]. Bearing in mind the universally accepted idea of leadership as the process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task [2], one can easily recognize that a real leader can not only reshape the ideas and beliefs of people, but could also reform society in true sense of words.
Many of world’s renowned historians, including William L. Langer (1896 – 1977) [3], have given account of the dejected circumstances of the society before Islam. In general the whole world was clutched by extreme paganism, all sort of wickedness and chaos. The poor people and women were treated like animals. People were inundated in social evils, and their demeanor was not administered by any moral convention. The advent of Islam via Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) was a kind of blessing for the society as a whole as it actually brought revolutionary changes in the values. Applying mathematical modeling of social, economic, and historical dynamics it has been established that socioeconomic reform is the distinguishing success of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) [4].
Numerous examples can be cited on how Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) restructured the society. For the sake of brevity, we only consider a few aspects in a concise way, as otherwise an unlimited space is required to accomplish the job.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), by condescending the practices regarding mistreatment of the women, uplifted their position in the society [5]. For instance Muhammad’s (peace be upon him and his family) denunciation of infanticide has been regarded as the key facet of His (peace be upon him and his family) efforts to lift the position of women. Moreover, His (peace be upon him and his family) endeavors effectively influenced many matters relevant to marriage and legacy. Consequently women were accorded with exceptionally secured standing.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) by setting up the concept of shared society (i.e., Ummah) provided the basis equality of all human beings [6]. It was a milestone in history of mankind in context of sociology and turned out to be a significant factor for the ethical organization and establishment of justice in the society. It ought to be stressed that a salient feature of the societal restructuring was the economic perspective. For the assistance of the underprivileged, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) implemented a comprehensive system [7] comprising not only of Zakat as per order of Allah Almighty (The Most Exalted) but also Khairat and Sadaqaat clearly favoring equal distribution of capital [8].
It is also worth mentioning that today’s burning concern of environment was also effectively addressed by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family). A modern anthropologist and an expert in the Middle East and North Africa region and environmental issues, Francesca De Chatel has skillfully analyzed this view. In one of her recent article [9], Frances, after carefully examining the philosophy of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), has emphasized that a closer reading of his teachings concerning land and water, proper treatment of animals, plants and birds and the equal rights of users reveals that He (peace be upon him and his family) is undoubtedly a strong promoter of environmental protection. She has therefore termed Him (peace be upon him and his family) as “environmentalist avant la letter- a pioneer in the domain of conservation, sustainable development and resource management, and one who constantly sought to maintain a harmonious balance between man and natureâ€.
As admitted earlier, it is impossible to encapsulate various aspects of life of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) as the world’s most prominent communal reformer. Nevertheless it will be best to conclude the essay with the remarks of modern era’s renowned astrophysicist and historian Michael H. Hart concerning ratings of men who contributed for the boost-up of humanity. In his words, “My choice of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he (peace be upon him and his family) was the only man in history who (peace be upon him and his family) was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels†[10].
References
[1]. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,879377-3,00.html
[2]. M. M. Chemers, Efficacy and effectiveness: Integrating models of leadership and intelligence. In Riggio, R. E., Murphy, S. E. & Pirozzolo, F. J. (Eds.) Multiple intelligences and leadership. Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates (2002).
[3]. W. L. Langer, An Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, USA. (1968).
[4]. A. Korotayey, V. Klimenko and D. Proussakov, Origins of Islam: Political-Anthropological and Environmental Context. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 53/3–4 (1999)
[5]. M. M. Valentine, Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East. Lynne Rienner Publishers, USA. (1993).
[6]. S. Ganjoo, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family): The Greatest Benefactor. Anmol Publications, New Delhi, India. (2004).
[7]. M. Bonner, “Poverty and Economics in the Qur’an”, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, XXXV: 3 (2005).
[8]. B. Lewis, “Communism and Islam”, International Affairs, Royal Institute of International Affairs 30 (1), (1954).
[9].http://muslimvillage.com/story.php?id=828
[10]. M.H. Hart, “The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History”, Kensington Publishing Corp. New York, USA. (1978)
Prof. Intikhab Ulfat
Chalmers University of Technology
Goteborg, Sweden
intikhab@chalmers.se
Prof. Intikhab works at the Department of Applied Physics at Chalmers University, Sweden. He also worked at the University of Karachi Pakistan and is affiliated with the Swedish National Laboratory for Synchrotron Radiation.
Why Tajweed?
Here at the IECRC Center in Sacramento, have heard concerns from a parents about the change in the format of the Quran classes and the addition of Tajweed Thursday. While the completion (Khatm) of the Quran is a goal of many parents, it should not be the end of their children’s’ Qur’anic studies. Some may have not heard about Tajweed or we may think that its not important for children and that they now already know how to recite. While true in a couple of cases, your child can make big mistakes in their recitation that may be carried on into their lives if it is not corrected by learning and applying the rules of Tajweed early on.
The Holy Qur’an mentions:
Or a little more; and recite the Qur’an in slow, measured rhythmic tones.
The reason for this injunction is that when pronouncing certain letters in the Qur’an, if the pronunciation (Qirat) is not correct in certain cases, it can change the meaning of the Ayat of the Qur’an. So rather than receiving only benefit from the Qur’an, one may actually cause harm to oneself in such instances. For this reason, we have added Tajweed to this class.
Initially, your child will have some difficulty in learning the rules. This is normal. However, once he or she learn some basic rules, and apply these rules to 10-15 pages of the Qu’ran, they will be able to read thereafter, the rest of the Qur’an, insha-Allah, with proper Tajweed. This will require that your child practice the recitation of the Quran loudly at home and in class without being shy or embarrassed about how they sound or look. We will also require that parents purchase a Tajweed Musaf (a copy of the Qur’an highlighting the Tajweed rules) which we plan to order soon. The cost of it is expected to be about $20 per copy. This will help the student stay focused on the rules of Tajweed.
Rest assured that our commitment to the betterment of the Deen of your children is our first priority and, Alhamdulillah, this is reflected in the dedication of the IECRC staff, who have been working day and night to bring you this school and this level of community service.
We ask you to trust us. We are confident that if you and your children stay the course, not only their recitation, but also their personal selves will be a means by which the Pleasure (Rida) of Allah, Most High is sought and the Love of Allah and His Beloved Rasul (sallallahu alayhe wasallam) is achieved.
