Sunday, 13 May 2018

The Proof for the testification that ‘Muhammad is the Messenger of Allaah’ & his characteristics – Shaykh Fawzan | Dawud Burbank [Audio|En]


May 13, 2018In .Our Prophet, .Salafi Audio, Prophets & Messengers, ShahadahTags: , , 
Bismillaah
Sharh-ul-Usool-ith-Thalaathah : Lesson 29
Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzan | Dawud Burbank [Audio|English]
Imaam Muhammad ibn ‘Abdul-Wahhaab (rahimahullaah) said:
And the Proof for the testification that ‘Muhammad is the Messenger of Allaah’ is His saying:

لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ مَا عَنِتُّمْ حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُم بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ رَءُوفٌ رَّحِيمٌ

There has indeed come to you a Messenger from Allaah from amongst yourselves; it grieves him that you undergo suffering. He is eager and anxious for your guidance and he is full of compassion and mercy for the believers. [9:128] 37
[37] : Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzan’s Explanation:
The first pillar of the pillars of Islaam is composed of two matters:
  1. The first: The testification Laa ilaaha illaAllaah (none has the right to be worshipped except Allaah).
  2. The second: The testification ‘Muhammadan rasoolullaah‘ (Muhammad is the Messenger of Allaah).
So these two are a single pillar. The first part means making ones worship purely and sincerely. And the second part means following the Messenger sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam.
The proof for the testification that ‘Muhammad is the Messenger of Allaah’ is His saying:  

لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ مَا عَنِتُّمْ حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُم بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ رَءُوفٌ رَّحِيمٌ

There has indeed come to you a Messenger from Allaah from amongst yourselves; it grieves him that you undergo suffering. He is eager and anxious for your guidance and he is full of compassion and mercy for the believers. [9:128]
And the proofs for the testification that ‘Muhammad is the Messenger of Allaah’ are many in the Book and the Sunnah, as well as the amazing miracles which prove his sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam‘s Messenger-ship.
And from the Book is this aayah:

لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ مَا عَنِتُّمْ حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُم بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ رَءُوفٌ رَّحِيمٌ

There has indeed come to you a Messenger from Allaah from amongst yourselves; it grieves him that you undergo suffering. He is eager and anxious for your guidance and he is full of compassion and mercy for the believers. [9:128]
So this is a witness from Allaah for this Messenger sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, for his Messenger-ship and it is an description of his characteristics.
His saying, He the Most High:

لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ

There has indeed come to you. [9:128]
The ‘Laam’ is a Laam to indicate an oath. So therefore, it carries along with it an oath which is understood (in the meaning) and is taken to be wallaahi (by Allaah) ‘there has certainly come to you.’

قَدْ

is a particle for confirmation and emphasis.

جَاءَكُمْ

He has come to you. [9:128]
O Mankind! This is an address to the whole of mankind, because his sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam‘s Messenger-ship was general to all of the thaqalayn (two species), mankind and jinn.

رَسُولٌ

A Messenger. [9:128]
He was one who had a revealed law sent to him by revelation and he was commanded to convey it. He was called a Messenger because he was mursal (sent) with a Message by Allaah the Perfect and Most High.

مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ

From your own selves. [9:128]
From your own species and your own type, from human-kind. He was not an angel from the angels. And this was the Way of Allaah the Perfect and Most High – that He would send to mankind, Messengers from them, in order to make their affair clear and in order for them to speak with them and because they would know them. If He had sent, as a Messenger to them, an angel, they would have not been able to speak with him because he would have not been from their type of being. Also, they would have not be able to see the angel, because he would have not been from their type of being. So from His Mercy, He the Perfect and Most High, is that He sent as a Messenger to mankind a Messenger from their own type. Indeed he was from the Arabs, and from the most noble of the houses of the Arabs in lineage, from the tribe of Baanee Haashim, who are the most honorable in lineage of Quraysh, and Quraysh are the most honorable of the Arabs in lineage.
So, he was the specially chosen from the best of people. They knew him and they knew of his personality, his lineage, tribe, and his town. If they had not known him, then how could they attest to his truthfulness? And if he came with other than their language, then how could they understand his speech?

عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ مَا عَنِتُّمْ

It grieves him greatly that you should suffer. [9:128]
His saying:

عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ

Meaning: It troubled him sallallaahu‘alaihiwasallam.

مَا عَنِتُّمْ

Meaning: Whatever troubles you.
Meaning: Inconvenience and hardship. The Messenger sallallaahu‘alaihiwasallamwas troubled by whatever caused trouble to his nation. He had not used to want hardship for them. Rather, he wanted ease and easiness. And therefore, his revealed law sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam came as something easy and easy-going.
He, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said:

بعثت بالحنيفية السمحة

I was sent with the Straight and true religion; the religion of ease.[1] [2]
[1] Ahmad (5/266). [2] Reported by Ahmad 23/623 (22291) from the hadeeth of Abu Umaamah Al-Baahilee, radiallaahu ‘anhu. [Shaikh Al-Albaanee declared this hadeeth as strong in As-Saheehah no. 2924]
He the Most High said:

وَمَا جَعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ مِنْ حَرَجٍ

And He did not place upon you any hardship in the religion. [22:78]
And He said:

مَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيَجْعَلَ عَلَيْكُم مِّنْ حَرَجٍ

Allaah does not wish to place any hardship upon you. [5:6]
So His revealed Way is easy, it goes along with the capability of the people and with what those given duties, are able to do, and it does not burden them with things they are not capable of. Therefore, the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam used to love to make things easy for them. He was never given a choice between two matters except that he chose the easiest one of the two as long as it was not sinful. He used to love to perform an action but he would leave it out of compassion for his Nation. He would leave the action even though he loved it, from the righteous deeds in order that he should not put difficulty upon his nation. These were from his characteristics, that whatever caused difficulty for his nation was a difficulty he felt himself, and he would become pleased with whatever was pleasing to them, and he would be joyful with whatever caused them to be joyful.
Whoever has these as his characteristics, then there is no doubt that he will not bring except that which is khayr (good) and Rahmah (mercy), sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam. 

حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُم

He is eager and anxious for you. [9:128]
Meaning: For your guidance and that you are taken out from the darkness into the light. Therefore, he himself bore difficulty in calling the people, seeking that they should be guided, and seeking to take them out from darkness into light to such an extent that Allaah said to him:

لَعَلَّكَ بَاخِعٌ نَّفْسَكَ أَلَّا يَكُونُوا مُؤْمِنِينَ

Perhaps you will destroy yourself with grief that they are not believing. [26:3]
Meaning: Perhaps you would bring about your own destruction that they do not believe, because of grief. So do not grieve for them. And this was from the completeness of his sincerity, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam. 
He was compassionate and merciful towards the believers. [9:128]
Meaning: ra’oof is from ra’fah (compassion), and it means tenderness and kindness.
Meaning: He described him with Rahmah (mercy), so he was not harsh. 

فَبِمَا رَحْمَةٍ مِّنَ اللَّهِ لِنتَ لَهُمْ ۖ وَلَوْ كُنتَ فَظًّا غَلِيظَ الْقَلْبِ لَانفَضُّوا مِنْ حَوْلِكَ

So by mercy from Allaah you were gentle with them, and if you had been severe and hard-hearted, they would have dispersed from around you. [3:159]
He  sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam was humble and gentle with the believers, he would lower his wing in gentleness, and he would meet them with a smiling face, and love, affection, and fine treatment. These were from his  sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam characteristics.
Allaah mentioned five attributes for this Messenger  sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam:
  1. First: He was from amongst you.
  2. Second: He was troubled by whatever troubled you.
  3. Third: He was eager and anxious for you.
  4. Fourth: He was compassionate towards the believers.
  5. Fifth: He was merciful.
Five characteristics from the characteristics of this Prophet  sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam. And compassion and mercy were mentioned specifically for the believers since he  sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam was stern upon the people of shirk and the obstinate and willful rejecters of the truth.
He would become angry for that which angered Allaah the Perfect and Most High, just as He the Most High said:

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ جَاهِدِ الْكُفَّارَ وَالْمُنَافِقِينَ وَاغْلُظْ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ وَمَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ ۖ وَبِئْسَ الْمَصِيرُ

O Prophet! Strive against the unbelievers and the hypocrites, and be stern against them. And their dwelling place will be the Hell-Fire, what an evil destination! [9:73]
The mercy and compassion was specific for the believers. Likewise the believers are to be the same with each other.

مُّحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ اللَّهِ ۚ وَالَّذِينَ مَعَهُ أَشِدَّاءُ عَلَى الْكُفَّارِ رُحَمَاءُ بَيْنَهُمْ

Muhammad is the Messenger of Allaah and those who are with him are stern against the unbelievers, merciful amongst themselves. [48:29]
These were his sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam characteristics.
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Wednesday, 9 May 2018

The Time Jeremiah Accused God of Raping Him


Jeremiah’s striking broadside against Yahweh in Jeremiah 20. The problem is most of our translators are wary to describe exactly what the prophet is accusing God of doing when he laments ever having accepted Yahweh’s call. The key verse is v.7. Here it is from an array of common translations (I’ve grouped ones that translate the bolded words the same:

Wycliffe:
7 (O) Lord, thou deceivedest me, and I am deceived; thou were stronger than I, and thou haddest the mastery; I am made into scorn all day. All men bemock me,
Geneva, KJV, RSV, ESV:
7 O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.
8 For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the Lordwas made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.
NASB:
7 O Lord, You have deceived me and I was deceived;
You have overcome me and prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
Everyone mocks me.
NIV ’84/TNIV/NIV ’11:
7 O Lord, you deceived me, and I was deceived (footnotes include “persuaded” in both cases);
you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long;
everyone mocks me.
NLT:
7 O Lord, you misled me,
and I allowed myself to be misled.
You are stronger than I am,
and you overpowered me.
Now I am mocked every day;
everyone laughs at me.
CEV:
7 You tricked me, Lord,
and I was really fooled.
You are stronger than I am,
and you have defeated me.
People never stop sneering
and insulting me.
The Message:
7 You pushed me into this, God, and I let you do it.
You were too much for me.
And now I’m a public joke.
They all poke fun at me.
CEB:
7 Lord, you enticed me, and I was taken in.
You were too strong for me, and you prevailed.
Now I’m laughed at all the time;
everyone mocks me.

I think you get the idea. Kudos to the older translations. In this case, the KJV/RSV family use the stronger word, “deceived,” while more modern translators seem uncomfortable with the notion that God could deceive someone and so change it a little – the NIV adds a more anodyne verb in the footnotes, and the New Living Translation and the Message even seem to blame Jeremiah, although that sense is not at all in the original, which simply repeats the same verb.
But that verb has a context that goes even beyond “deceived.”
This was first pointed out by Abraham J. Heschel, in his 1962 book The Prophets. The verb patah is found elsewhere in the Old Testament. For example:

When a man seduces a young woman who isn’t engaged to be married yet and he sleeps with her, he must marry her and pay the bride-price for her. (Exodus 22:16)

The rulers of the Philistines confronted her and said to her, “Seduce him and find out what gives him such great strength and what we can do to overpower him, so that we can tie him up and make him weak. Then we’ll each pay you eleven hundred pieces of silver.” (Judges 16:5)

If my heart has been drawn to a woman
and I have lurked at my neighbor’s door, (Job 31:9)

Therefore, I will charm her,
and bring her into the desert,
and speak tenderly to her heart. (Hosea 2:16)

while she’s a virgin,
that she not be seduced
and become pregnant
while still living at home;
when she’s married,
that she not go straying;
or having married,
that she not be infertile. (Sirach 42:10)

The typical context of patah is sexual, which makes the rest of the verse far darker:

Lord, you seduced me, and I was seduced.
You were too strong for me, and you prevailed.

The image of overpowering that follows seduction is less rhetorical and more physical. The image seems to be far closer to rape than any mere contest of wills. Indeed, this is exactly what Heschel argues, noting the second verb, hazak, usually translated “stronger” in Jeremiah 20:7, is also used elsewhere in a sexual context:

But if the man met up with the engaged woman in a field, grabbing her and having sex with her there, only the man will die. (Deuteronomy 22:25)

So the Levite grabbed his secondary wife and sent her outside to them. They raped her and abused her all night long until morning. They finally let her go as dawn was breaking. (Judges 19:25)

When she served him the food, he grabbed her and said, “Come have sex with me, my sister.”

So Heschel argues, “The words used by Jeremiah to describe the impact of God upon his life are identical with the terms for seduction and rape in the legal terminology of the Bible. (113)”
The overall impression is one of shame and embarrassment, especially given the mockery Jeremiah subsequently describes. Walter Baumgartner in Jeremiah’s Poems of Lament says the seduction language is only “a weak allusion” but when combined with the stronger language of the subsequent line, which he says is taken from wrestling, it is clear the prophet has “half willingly, half under coercion, placed himself in Yahweh’s service. … But now, like a girl stranded in shame, … he reaps nothing but scorn and derision” (74).

Needless to say, Heschel’s argument, while adopted by some, has also been opposed by others.
Mark Smith, writing in The Laments of Jeremiah and Their Contexts, translates the key verbs “fooled … seized … prevailed.” “Less equal interpretations are possible,” he acknowledges. “Given other images in the context, the sexual interpretation seems unlikely.” Likewise, Jack Lundbom, writing for the Anchor Bible commentary, argues for “deceive” as the meaning, particularly because there is another prophetic context in which patah is used non-sexually – in Ezekiel 14:9:

As for the prophet who was seduced into speaking a word, even though it was I, the Lord, who seduced that prophet, I will use my power against him and cut him off completely from my people Israel.

Now that verse opens up a whole different set of questions, but this is clearly not a sexual seduction, and Jeremiah could be simply arguing he was deceived by God the same way Ezekiel describes a prophet being deceived by God. But even the notion of God’s potential deception is too strong for Lundbom, who goes back to Jeremiah 1 to look at how God’s calling of Jeremiah, which is clearly what is in question here, is described, and he argues:  “Yahweh did nothing deceptive in calling Jeremiah into divine service. What he did do was to act in a heavy-handed manner with the young Jeremiah.”
Well, OK, but Jeremiah’s not being fully rational here, right? So why should we expect a calm or accurate recitation of the circumstances of his calling. This is about what Jeremiah felt and therefore said, not what actually happened.
It’s interesting because Lundbom contradicts the conclusion of John Bright, who had written the previous commentary on Jeremiah for the Anchor Bible series. In 7a, he argues: “The word ‘seduce’ is chosen and the familiar ‘you’ employed to bring out the well-nigh blasphemous tone that Jeremiah adopts.”

Indeed, this is the key point. Even if we decide Jeremiah is not accusing God of seduction and rape, he’s still accusing him of deception and violence. Those are strong words. As William Holliday writes in the Heremeneia commentary series:

Verse 7a thus embodies an outburst that is deeply rebellious, not to say blasphemous: Jeremiah understands Yahweh as brute force, as deceptive, beyond any conventional norm. Having earlier thought that Yahweh called him into a relation of mutual trust and responsibility, he now perceives Yahweh to have tricked him, made sport of him beyond all comprehension.

The violence in 7b, Holliday argues, very well could be sexual. The seduction language of 7a almost undoubtedly is, according to him. He builds on the argument of John MacLennon Berridge (Prophet, People and the Word of Yahweh: An Examination  of Form and Content in the Proclamation of the Prophet Jeremiah, 1970) that not only does Jeremiah’s use of hazak hearken to Deuteronomy’s notion of a woman being raped, but that his subsequent cry in verse 8 – “Every time I open my mouth, I cry out and say, ‘Violence and destruction!'” – echoes the implied cry of the woman from Deuteronomy 22:27: “Since the man met up with her in a field, the engaged woman may well have called out for help, but there was no one to rescue her.” It’s possible, Berridge and Holliday argue, that Jeremiah’s cry echoed a legal formulation of the cry for those who had been sexually assaulted. But Holliday acknowledges that’s perhaps something of a stretch:
All this is less than an airtight argument, but the probability is strong that the verb “you are stronger than I” continues the semantic field of sexual violence with which the verse began. Since these verbs are used in laws against sexual violence, the implication is that Yahweh has broken his own Torah in his treatment of Jeremiah.

We don’t need to see God as a rapist to understand how surprisingly strong Jeremiah’s sentiments are. Walter Brueggemann’s commentary on Jeremiah makes this point well:
Although the lines complain about human hostility, the focus is on the ways of Yahweh, who seems not to be faithful and trustworthy. The complaint begins with an accusation that Yahweh has seduced him. The verb rendered “deceived” could be rendered more strongly as “harassed,” “taken advantage of,” “abused,” even “raped.” Jeremiah finds himself helpless before Yahweh’s power, which is overwhelming and irresistible, even if not trustworthy.

Jeremiah, of course, is one of the great prophets, hailed as a champion of the faith. Yet chapter 20 captures him in a state of abject despondence, jaded not only with his call but blaming God for tricking and overpowering him, potentially even using the language of seduction and rape, so deep is his anger, hurt and shame.
For whatever reason, translators have done us a great disservice in this verse, neutering the strength of Jeremiah’s lament and obscuring a potential source of comfort for those who feel similarly abused by God but feel saying so would be wrong. If the laments of Jeremiah 20:7-18 tell us anything, it is that God’s people can remain faithful to their creator while questioning him deeply, bluntly and strongly. In a world too often beset by tragedy – and in a culture plagued by a view of God as too big and otherworldly for us to dare approach with the raw words and emotion such tragedy causes – that is a lesson we could use.


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Sunday, 6 May 2018

Does Nutritional Injections break the fast? – Fatwas of Ibn Baz


May 6, 2018  In Ramadhan, Saum (Fasting) Tags: , , 
Bismillaah
Q: I have read in some books of Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) including Fiqh Al-Sunnah by Shaykh Sayyid Sabiq that nutritive injections and other non-oral medications do not break the Sawm (Fast). 
However, I know also that some scholars dispute this, so I want to know the generally-accepted opinion of scholars in this regard. May Allah reward you with the best.
A: The correct opinion is that nutritive injections break the Sawm if taken deliberately. However, this does not apply to ordinary injections which are solely medical. May Allah grant us success.
Fatwas of Ibn Baz > Volume 15 > Book on Fasting > Nullifiers of fasting that necessitate Kaffarah > Do nutritive injections break Sawm?
The eleventh question of Fatwa no. 5176
Q 11: What is the ruling on having injection during the daytime in Ramadan, whether for nutrition or treatment?
A: It is permissible for a person observing Sawm (Fast) to be treated by injections, whether intravenous or intramuscular, during the day in Ramadan.
But it is not permissible to have nutritive injections, as they come under the same ruling as having food and drinks.Thus, taking them is considered a trick to break Sawm in Ramadan.
If it is possible to have the intravenous or intramuscular injections during the night, it will be better.
May Allah grant us success. May peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family and Companions.
The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta’
Member – Chairman
`Abdullah ibn Qa`ud  – `Abdul-`Aziz ibn `Abdullah ibn Baz
Fatwas of the Permanent Committee >  Acts of worship  >  Sawm (Fast)  >  Types of Sawm (Fast)  >  Obligatory Sawm  >  The Sawm of Ramadan  >  Invalidators of Sawm  >  Injection for a fasting person  > Q 11: What is the ruling on having injection during the daytime in Ramadan, whether for nutrition or treatment?
Anesthetic injections and cleaning, filling, or extracting teeth while fasting
Q: If a person has pain in their tooth, then a dentist cleans, fills or extracts it, does it affect their Sawm (Fast)? Does an anesthetic injection invalidate Sawm?
A: The things listed in the question do not have any effect on the validity of the Sawm. They are permissible, but a person should be careful to avoid swallowing any medicine or blood during treatment.
Similarly, the injection mentioned does not have any effect on the validity of the Sawm, because it is not like food or drink. The basic principle is that Sawm remains valid.
Fatwas of Ibn Baz (alifta.net) > Volume 15 > Book on Fasting > Nullifiers of fasting that necessitate Kaffarah > Anesthetic injections and cleaning, filling, or extracting teeth while fasting
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Miracle by the permission of Allah Swt

 Written by brother Aiman The Theology of a Single Word: Qur’anic Eloquence and the Refutation of Deification One of the most striking site...