A feeling of discouragement when you slip up
is a sure sign that you put your faith in deeds.

Your desire to withdraw from everything
when Allah has involved you in the world of means
is a hidden appetite.

Your desire for involvement with the world of means
when Allah has withdrawn you from it
is a fall from high aspiration.

Aspiration which rushes on ahead
cannot break through the walls of destiny.

Give yourself a rest from managing!
When Someone Else is doing it for you,
don't you start doing it for yourself!

Your striving for what is absolutely guaranteed to you
and your laxness in what is required of you
are evidence that your inner eye is dull.

If you make intense supplication
and the timing of the answer is delayed,
do not despair of it.
His reply to you is guaranteed;
but in the way He chooses,
not the way you choose,
and at the moment He desires,
not the moment you desire.

If something that is promised does not happen
even though the time for it is set,
do not doubt the promise!
If you do, that will dim your inner eye
and put out the light of your secret.

When He opens a way for you and makes Himself known to you,
then do not worry about your lack of deeds.
He only opened the way for you
because He desired to make Himself known to you.
Do you not see that while He grants gnosis of Himself to you,
you have only deeds to offer Him?
What He brings you -
What you bring Him -
What a difference there is between them!

Different states have different outcomes.
This accounts for the variety of types of action.

Actions are merely propped-up shapes.
Their life-breath is the presence of the secret of sincerity in them.

Bury your existence in the earth of obscurity.
If something sprouts before it is buried,
its fruits will never ripen.

Withdraw the heart into the arena of reflection
- nothing helps the heart more than that!

If the forms of phenomenal beings
are embedded in the mirror of the heart,
how can it be illuminated?
If it is fettered by its appetites,
how can it travel to Allah?
If it is not purified of the great impurity of its heedlessness,
how can it aspire to enter the presence of Allah?
If it has not turned away in regret from its lapses,
how can it hope to grasp the subtleties of secret knowledge?

Phenomenal being is utter and total darkness.
It is only the manifestation of the Real in it that gives it light.

When you see phenomenal being and do not see Him
in it, with it, before it or after it,
then you are truly in need of light.

You are veiled from the suns of gnoses
by the clouds of secondary traces.

One way He shows you the existence of His overwhelming power
is by veiling you from Him
by that which cannot exist alongside Him.

How can you imagine that something else veils Him
when He is the One who is manifest by everything?
How can you imagine that something else veils Him
when He is the One who is made manifest in everything?
How can you imagine that something else veils Him
when He is the One who is manifest to everything?
How can you imagine that something else veils Him
when He was the One who was Manifest before there was anything?
How can you imagine that something else veils Him
when He is more manifest than anything?
How can you imagine that something else veils Him
when He is the One with whom there is nothing else?
How can you imagine that something else veils Him
when He is the One who is nearer to you than anything?
How can you imagine that something else veils Him
when if it had not been for Him, there would not have been anything?

A marvel!
See how existence becomes manifest in non-existence!
How the in-time holds firm alongside Him whose attribute is eternal!

From the book of Al-HIkam by Ibnu 'Ata'illah

The Most Beautiful Flower

Once long ago, there were a group of men gathered together for the sake of Allah. These men were all knowledgeable in their own right. One man, a scholar (as they all were), was giving a talk of religious matter.

After the lesson, the teacher gave each man an assignment. To find the Most Beautiful Flower they could find and bring it back for all to see. They all left out immediately looking for the most beautiful flower.

Oh you should have seen the flowers that were picked. Orange with pinks, Reds and purples, beautiful colors. They all presented the flowers as they placed them on the teacher's desk.

There was one man, a small man, who had a bit of trouble finding his flower. He searched and searched until he found the perfect one. He entered the room and placed his flower on the desk. The other men gasped. They were shocked. They grumbled.

The teacher entered the room, and looked at all of the beautiful flowers and fixed his eyes upon one in particular.

"Who brought this flower to me? He asked with a very curious voice.

The small man replied in a very humble tone, " I am the one that placed this flower upon your desk, my dear teacher."

The teacher then asked, " Please akhi, tell me why, why this flower?"

The small man replied, again in a very humble tone, " I thought this one was the most beautiful flower in the entire field."

The teacher, very curious, then asked, " Please akhi, tell us your reasons for choosing this flower, InshaAllah."

The small man stared at his teacher, then at his fellow companions and said, " As I walked through the field of beautiful flowers, I could not help see their strength, with vibrant colors. They looked like beautiful Muslims, praying to Allah (swt) in salah. All of these flowers reaching up to the heavens humbled by the power and might of Allah (swt). Solely dependent upon Allah."

The small man paused, as if he were thinking of all the flowers he had seen.

He continued, " I then came upon a flower, small, withered, decaying. I walked to it, it was no longer full of life, devoid of any brilliant color, no longer with strength, and no longer in its worship to Allah (swt). This flower to me was the most beautiful flower, because it served Allah (swt) to its fullest. It worshiped Allah (swt) with humility and obedience. This flower had completed its purpose. And Allah (swt) had taken this flower out of Mercy, for its obedience to him."

He once again paused. The other men were on edge.

He continued, " You see, I dared not pick a flower which was still worshipping Allah (swt), I dared not place this flower in sadness, as it would no longer be able to praise Allah. I feared, that if I picked a flower, vibrant with color, glorifying Allah (swt), it would be as if I disturbed the salah of one of you. Astghfirullah (may Allah forgive me)

After the small man's explanation. All of the men in the room, gathered their flowers, placed them back into the ground, and praised Allah (swt).

Quran 3:190- "Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day,- there are indeed Signs for men of understanding,-"

Quran 42:29 "And among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the living creatures that He has scattered through them: and He has power to gather them together when He wills."

Subhanaka Allahumma wa bihamdika, ash hadu an la ilaha illah Anta, astghfiruka wa atoobu ilaika.

Glory is to You , Oh ALLAH, and praise is to You. I bear witness that there is no One worthy of Worship but You. I seek your forgiveness and return to you. Ameen

Narrated by Anas (Radhiallaho anho): Allah's Messenger sallallaahu 'alaihi wasallam) said, "Whoever possesses the following) three qualities will have the sweetness of faith (1): The one to whom Allah and His Apostle becomes dearer than anything else; (2) Who loves a person and he loves him only for Allah's Sake; (3) who hates to revert to atheism (disbelief) as he hates to be thrown into the Fire."

Sahih Al-Bukhari Vol. 9 : No. 74

The plague at the gardens of Babylon

Yesterday, today, tomorrow.. just days
To shed tears and touch the red screen in me
But what use are my tears now?
After so many wasted days
What use are my tears now?
For they are still going to be in pain

Pray pray pray, pray for them sister, pray for them
I pray for them, but I don’t feel for them
Does that make my prayer, a prayer of the hypocrite?

I walk down the stairs, to get a sandwich
People huddle around the TV
It’s the news, war on Iraq. War on Iraq, president is to address
Some kind of word I can’t see on the screen

Blindness kills us
Ignorance hurts in little places of the heart
Sometimes we can’t feel, we can’t draw the colors
Raging and stabbing in our hearts
Do we put up the music and surround ourselves with sounds
To drown out our guilt? -- Not trying to do enough
Killing us, killing us…

The black laptop and changing screen
Greet me as I slide into the purple sofa
Forwarded mails, links to see

[click]
The same picture posted on the screen
Again and again the blooded young man
With the police officer holding him
Lying atop a white sheet stained with red
Color of blood, color of bravery
Color of life and death. Sorrow clouds
The officer’s dark brown eyes, darts, troubled.
His callused hands try to hide the body
The blooded young man, I presume, is dead.
His eyes shut tight, pale skin of death.
A sixteen year old boy.

Others his age, my age,
walk the streets and aisles, laugh in malls,
wear stupid t shirts of sex, booze and
complain of the weather, terrible,
terrible weather, so cold, and the snow!
If we were in Florida, we wouldn’t need to suffer.
If only the weather was better,
we wouldn’t need to go through this gloom.

We ask, did you see the weather today?
They ask, did you see the bloody bodies?
Amputated Decapitated Shot
Torn and Sobbing, lining the streets today?
Did you check at the hospital? Maybe
your brother is there today.

[click ]
In the same musty room:
Other bodies, on the cold metal slabs,
Bloodied! Stained sterile white cloth devoid of emotion.
The room is small, how can it house all the
corpses?


[click]
The young woman of nineteen
laughs, but behind her eyes are stories.
She lies to people about her heart; they think
she is happy because she laughs and smiles.

Maybe, just maybe, her bells of laughter
is a cry in disguise. Because she no longer knows how
to tell of her pained dreams and their murder.
The dream of healing wounds,
Going to college, being a doctor
But her family needs water, flour, salt,
sugar and tomatoes.
None can pay for something apart from the flowers
on the dinner table. Everyday the same broken plates,
and brown water to drink.

And yet, we complain about the weather.
People die. People starve. People bleed.
And we sit laughing at stupid jokes
Again and again, recycled jokes
So stupid the cat wouldn’t laugh.
But we would. Maybe we’ve become worse than the cat.
Cause he can understand suffering, pain,
thorns, blood, glass, and wire, but us? We don’t.
We forgot. Or were we never with feeling?

Bulldozers smash our lives,
Dwindling life down the drain,
Making it drift away from us
From priority, importance, life, love.
From humanity. From meaning to none.

By: sister Nur
March 26, 2003

Mujahida

From the day Khadija asked him
To marry her,
To the night she convinced
her husband that the revelation
was more than mere hallucination,
till the second she became
the first believer,
I have been more than you imagined.

From the time A’isha stood firm against slander,
to the moment she held her dying husband,
till the time when she was sought after
for her knowledge,
I have been more than you imagined.

From the flight to Medinah,
And the triumph at Makkah to
the triumph of more than a billion,
in fourteen hundred and twenty years,
I have never been so easy for you to figure out.

I am the Bosnian woman,
raped by Serb soldiers as
my husband is forced to look on,
and the world turns away.

The blood that runs from the bodies of
Algerian women runs from me,
and stains the ground
for all humanity to see.

I am the woman on a Baghdad street corner,
begging journalists for a can of milk
so that I can feed my starving child.

I am the mother in Palestine,
mourning her eight year old son,
shot in the head by a soldier’s rubber bullet.

I am the Egyptian daughter
struggling to survive in a Cairo slum,
fighting the desert dust
that rises to choke the young.

I am the Indonesian woman
Sewing sneakers for the NBA
for the princely sum of $2 a day,
while restlessness burns the country around me.

I am the Iranian student,
sporting jeans and Mickey Mouse tee shirts
under my black chador, laughing and loving,
still recovering from an eight year war
that cost the lives of many men.

I am the sister, wife, daughter, and mother
to 700 million men.
I am all of my 700 million sisters,
and they are me.
I have always been more than
a terrorist’s helpmate.

I have always been more than
a veil or a scarf.
I have always been more than
one wife of many.
I have always been more than
a green card special.
In all of these myths,
I have always been voiceless,
when the truth is so much
louder.

I have never been that easy for you to
pin down,
yet I have never been the mystery that
you have created for me.

I am the warrior daughter of
Khadija, A’isha,
Maryam, and Nusaybah.
I am the mother of prophets,
the wife of khulafa,
the sister of shaheed.

I am the woman who wakes at dawn to face
Mecca in prayer,
bowing in submission only to The All Knowing.
I am fi jihad,
struggling daily to maintain
iman and identity,
to open the shut eyes of the world.

I am the woman who raises her voice
among men
to shout:
Takbeer!
Allahu Akbar!

By: Umm Zaid
November 1997

in the stillness of the spinning world
----------------------------------------------------

in the stillness of the spinning world
my mind is twirling in confusion
in the stillness of the spinning world
my heart is void in seeking solution

my mind is twirling in confusion
the stillness is all but an illusion
in the stillness of the spinning world
the stillness is all but a perception

twirling and circling
chaotic deep inside, my small cosmos

spinning and swimming
angelic deep outside, the vast cosmos

to be in harmony, like the planets
is to walk in grace in its assigned path

to be bright, as the stars
is to shine brilliant when darkness surrounds

to be beautiful, as the moon
is to reflect the beauty from the true light

to be magnificent, as the sun
is to give others of what you have

and to gaze deeply to the creature
is to step closer to the Creator
in the stillness of the spinning world, no more
in the movement of the still world, you soar

.: 'ibadun faqeer li rabbi ar-rahmaan :.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ in the stillness of the spinning world :: notice that the world is always spinning but we don't feel that we're spinning with it, we feel as if we're still .
+ the stillness is all but an illusion, but a perception :: the stillness is not real . we are in fact spinning (try and picture yourself from outside the world) very fast . but our perception deceives us .
+ my small cosmos :: saidina 'ali r.a. said .. inside my body, there's a cosmos .. Allahu a'lam.
+ swimming angelic deep outside :: in surah an-nazi'aat , wassabihaati sabha = and by the swimmers, swimming (referring to the planets or to the angels) .. and Allah knows best
+ the vast cosmos :: the universe
+ assigned path :: the path assigned by Allah, siraat ul-mustaqeem
+ true light :: nur 'ala nur - the only true absolute light is the light of Allah
+ in the movement of the still world :: in akhirah is reality, you are moving but you are no longer in the earth time dimension .

APABILA SEMANGAT MEREDUP

Sayyidah mengeluh. Sudah hampir seminggu hatinya selalu
diliputi dengan perasaan gelisah dan was-was. Ibadahnya banyak
menurun, kualiti mahupun kuantiti. Bacaan Qur’an, solat dan
zikirnya hanya sebagai rutin yang tidak lagi memberikan rasa
nikmat. Sayyidah menyedari bahawa dia semakin merasa berat untuk
meluangkan waktu di tengah malam untuk membaca surah-surah Quran,
berlama-lama dalam solat dan mengisi waktu untuk berzikir. Selalu
muncul keinginannya untuk mempersingkatkan waktu solat hingga dia
dapat melakukan aktiviti lainnya – study atau berbual dengan
teman-teman sebilik.



Sikap Lemah

Sikap lemah yang timbul pada diri seseorang ketika dia
melakukan ibadah, setelah pada asalnya dia bersemangat, disebut
juga dengan istilah futur, seperti apa yang dialami oleh Sayyidah
di atas. Salah satu bentuk futur adalah rasa malas beribadah bahkan
meninggalkannya sama sekali. Sikap lemah tersebut timbul akibat
renggangnya hubungan seorang hamba dengan Penciptanya.

Kesibukan yang dapat menurunkan kualiti dan kuantiti ibadah,
banyaknya maksiat atau dosa kepada Allah, akan menyebabkan
seseorang merasakan kesempitan dalam urusan dan kegelisahan dalam
hatinya. Saat itulah hubungan seorang hamba dan Sang Pencipta
menjauh.

Imam Hasan Al-Basri mengatakan : “Kebaikan itu merupakan cahaya
dalam kalbu. Cahaya kalbu yang akan memberikan kekuatan pada tubuh.
Sedangkan keburukan itu merupakan kegelapan kalbu, kegelapan yang
akan menimbulkan kelemahan tubuh."



Timbulnya Futur

Futur boleh disebabkan antara lain oleh :

1. Maksiat kepada Allah

Perbuatan maksiat yang diiringi dengan sikap tenang ketika
melakukannya (tanpa merasa bersalah dan tidak diiringi dengan
istighfar) dapat merosak hubungan seseorang dengan Allah SWT.
Dosa-dosa kecil yang diremehkan seseorang akan semakin menompok.
Dalam sebuah hadisnya Rasulullah SAW pernah melukiskan, bahawa
seorang mukmin yang melakukan dosa, maka dosa itu seperti satu
titik hitam dalam hatinya. Jika dia beristighfar, maka hatinya akan
bersinar kembali. Apabila tidak, maka titik hitam itu akan menutupi
hatinya seperti yang difirmankan Allah:

Sekali-kali tidak (demikian), sebenarnya apa yang selalu mereka
usahakan itu menutup hati mereka. (QS83:14)

Hati yang diliputi titik hitam itu, kata Rasulullah, akan menjadi
lebih hitam sehingga tidak dapat membezakan antara kebenaran dan
keburukan. Urwah bin Zubair, salah seorang ulama tabi’in pernah
mengatakan: “Apabila kalian menyaksikan seseorang melakukan
kebaikan, ketahuilah bahawa kebaikan itu memiliki
saudara-saudaranya yang lain bagi orang tersebut. Apabila kalian
lihat seseorang melakukan keburukan, ketahuilah bahawa keburukan
itu mempunyai saudara-saudaranya yang lain bagi orang tersebut.
Kerana sesungguhnya kebaikan itu menunjukkan saudaranya, dan
demikian pula keburukan menunjukkan saudaranya."

Memang benar, bahawa seseorang yang berbuat dosa akan cenderung
untuk melakukan dosa lain. Sebaliknya seseorang yang melakukan satu
kebaikan akan cenderung untuk melakukan kebaikan berikutnya.
Keburukan akan melarat pada sikap buruk lainnya, demikian pula
kebaikan.

2. Sikap terlalu berlebihan terhadap hal-hal yang dibolehkan
(mubah)

Allah memerintahkan untuk melakukan segala sesuatu secara
seimbang dan tanpa melampaui batas. Allah berfirman:

Makan dan minumlah, dan jangan berlebih-lebihan. Sesungguhnya Allah
tidak menyukai orang-orang yang berlebih-lebihan. (QS7: 31)

Abu Sulaiman ad-Darani mengatakan bahawa seseorang yang makan
terlalu kenyang akan ditimpa 6 jenis penyakit, yang salah satunya
adalah perasaan malas untuk beribadah. Logiknya benar. Bukankah
orang yang merasa perutnya kenyang memboyah lebih suka tidur
daripada lama berdiri di waktu shalat atau duduk untuk berzikir dan
bertafakkur? Tentu saja sikap berlebihan yang dimaksud bukan hanya
berlebihan dalam hal makan.

3. Tenggelam dalam kenikmatan dunia

Ertinya, terlalu mengutamakan dunia atau tenggelam dalam aktiviti
pencarian harta dan kenikmatan dunia. Dr. Mustafa as-Siba’i pernah
menuliskan dalam bukunya sesuatu yang patut kita renungi: “Ada dua
cinta yang tidak pernah bersamaan dalam satu waktu pada jiwa
seseorang, iaitu cinta Allah dan cinta maksiat ...".

Bagaimana seseorang boleh mencintai Allah, sedangkan perbuatan
maksiatnya itu menjauhkannya dari Allah? Atau bagaimana seseorang
boleh melakukan maksiat, sedangkan dia sangat cinta kepada Allah?
Tepatlah apa yang dikatakan oleh Dr. Mustafa bahawa kedua cinta ini
tidak akan pernah tumbuh bersama.


Masing-Masing Ada Saatnya

Fenomena futur ini sebenarnya merupakan satu perkara yang
lumrah. Rasulullah SAW bersabda: “Setiap amal itu ada masa semangat
dan ada masa lemahnya. Barangsiapa yang pada masa lemahnya dia
tetap dalam sunnah (petunjuk) ku, maka dia telah beruntung. Namun
barangsiapa yang beralih kepada selain itu bererti dia telah
celaka." (HR. Ahmad)

Satu hari seorang jurutulis Rasulullah, Abu Rub’i Hanzalah,
pernah datang kepada Rasulullah dan mengadu: “Wahai Rasulullah,
Hanzalah telah berbuat nifak ...". “Apa yang kamu maksudkan dengan
nifak itu?" tanya Rasulullah. “Wahai Rasul, ketika kami
bersama-sama anda dan anda mengingatkan kami akan Neraka dan
Syurga, seolah-olah keduanya ada di kelopak mata kami. Tetapi bila
kami tidak bersamamu, kami dilalaikan oleh anak, isteri serta tanah
ladang kami yang menjadikan kami banyak lupa." Kemudian Rasulullah
bersabda: “Demi Zat yang diriku ada ditanganNya, sekiranya kalian
terus-menerus dalam keadaan sebagaimana ketika kamu bersamaku, dan
selalu dalam keadaan berzikir, nescaya malaikat akan bersalam
denganmu ketika kamu berada di pasar dan di jalanan. Akan tetapi
wahai Hanzalah, masing-masing itu ada saatnya." (HR. Muslim)



Seimbang Dan Realistik

Namun, dua hadis di atas tidak dapat menghalalkan sikap kita
ketika mengalami kelemahan dalam beribadah. Tetapi minimumnya ada
tiga perkara yang dapat kita gali dari dua hadis tersebut :

Pertama, bahawa Rasulullah sendiri menganggap fenomena futur itu
sebagai hal yang wajar, manakala pada saat lemah itu seseorang
tetap memelihara kewajiban dan perintah Allah serta sunnah
Rasulullah. Sebagaimana manusia diciptakan dengan kapasiti yang
terbatas, kelemahan dan kelelahan dalam beribadah adalah salah satu
tabiatnya. Kini tinggal bagaimana mereka mengisi saat-saat lemah
itu dengan tindakan yang tidak mengabaikan tuntunan Islam. Ibadah
mempunyai cakupan yang luas dan tidak terbatas pada aktiviti
tertentu yang dapat menjemukan. Ucapan Rasulullah pada Hanzalah:
“Masing-masing itu ada saatnya," menunjukkan bahawa bermain dan
bergurau dengan keluarga atau mencari nafkah adalah hal yang
diperbolehkan dan bahkan sangat dianjurkan dalam Islam, asalkan
semuanya itu dilakukan dengan tidak berlebihan.

Kedua, sikap futur yang ditolelir oleh Islam adalah futur yang
terjadi pada batas waktu tertentu dan tidak terus-menerus. Jangan
kerana menganggap fenomena futur itu wajar, seseorang bersikap
“santai-santai" saja ketika ia menyadari bahawa ia sedang futur
hingga berlarut-larut. Tetapi segeralah mengambil sikap seperti
yang dicontohkan dalam hal ketiga berikut ini. .

Ketiga, adanya sikap sensitif para salafus soleh dalam merasai
kesalahan yang dilakukan dan usaha untuk memelihara diri dari
kesalahan tersebut, seperti yang dicontohkan oleh sikap Hanzalah.
Mereka senantiasa menjaga kesinambungan amal soleh yang mereka
lakukan. Kelemahan manusiawi memang tetap ada. Namun hal itu tidak
membuat mereka lalai terhadap kewajiban mereka terhadap Allah.



Saling Menegur

Kadangkala seseorang tidak mengetahui kekurangan dan
kesalahannya bahkan tidak sedar bahawa dirinya sedang mengalami
futur, kecuali melalui teguran dan nasihat orang lain. Justeru,
menghadapi gejala futur dengan segala fenomenanya menjadi
tanggungjawab bersama dan tidak boleh dilakukan secara sendirian.

... dan nasihat menasihati supaya mentaati kebenaran dan nasihat
menasihati supaya menetapi kesabaran. (QS. 103:3)

wa Allahu ‘a’lam.

KETIKA DOSA ANDA SEDALAM SAMUDERA

Pernahkah kita menghitung dosa yang kita lakukan dalam satu hari, satu minggu, satu bulan, satu tahun bahkan sepanjang usia kita?

Andaikan saja kita bersedia menyediakan satu kotak kosong, lalu kita masukkan semua dosa-dosa yang kita lakukan, kira-kira apa yang terjadi? Saya menduga kuat bahwa kotak tersebut sudah tak berbentuk kotak lagi, karena tak mampu menaham muatan dosa kita.

Bukankah shalat kita masih "bolong-bolong"? Bukankah pernah kita tahan hak orang miskin yang ada di harta kita? Bukankah pernah kita kobarkan rasa dengki dan permusuhan kepada sesama muslim? Bukankah kita pernah melepitkan selembar amplop agar urusan kita lancar? Bukankah pernah kita terima uang tak jelas statusnya sehingga pendapatan kita berlipat ganda? Bukankah kita tak mau menolong saudara kita yg dalam kesulitan walaupun kita sanggup menolongnya?

Daftar ini akan menjadi sangat panjang......

Lalu, apa yang harus kita lakukan?

Allah berfirman dalam Surat az-Zumar [39]: 53 "Katakanlah: "Hai hamba-hambaKu yang melampaui batas terhadap diri mereka sendiri, janganlah kamu berputus asa dari rahmat Allah. sesungguhnya Allah mengampuni dosa-dosa semuanya. Sesungguhnya Dia-lah Yang Maha Pengampun lagi Maha Penyayang."

Indah benar ayat ini, Allah menyapa kita dengan panggilan yang bernada teguran, namun tidak diikuti dengan kalimat yang berbau murka. Justru Allah mengingatkan kita untuk tidak berputus asa dari rahmat Allah. Allah pun menjanjikan untuk mengampuni dosa-dosa kita.

Karena itu, kosongkanlah lagi kotak yang telah penuh tadi dengan taubat pada-Nya.Kita kembalikan kotak itu seperti keadaan semula, kita kembalikan jiwa kita ke pada jiwa yang fitri dan nazih.

Jika anda mempunyai onta yang lengkap dengan segala perabotannya, lalu tiba-tiba onta itu hilang. Bukankah anda sedih? Bagaimana kalau tiba-tiba onta itu datang kembali berjalan menuju anda lengkap dengan segala perbekalannya? Bukankah Anda akan bahagia? "Ketahuilah," kata Rasul, "Allah akan lebih senang lagi melihat hamba-Nya yang berlumuran dosa berjalan kembali menuju-Nya!"

Allah berfirman: "Dan kembalilahh kamu kepada Tuhanmu, dan berserah dirilah kepada-Nya sebelum datang azab kepadamu kemudian kamu tidak dapat ditolong (lagi)." (QS 39:54)

Seperti onta yang sesat jalan dan mungkin telah tenggelam di dasar samudera, mengapa kita tak berjalan kembali menuju Allah dan menangis di "kaki kebesaran-Nya" mengakui kesalahan kita dan memohon ampunNya...

Wahai Tuhan Yang Kasih Sayang-Nya lebih besar dari murka-Nya, Ampuni kami Ya Allah!

ukhuwah.or.id

Impossible or I'm possible?
Author :: Anonymous

Never underestimate your Clients' Complaint, no matter how funny it might be!
[pesanan buat du'at dalam melayani mad'u]

This is a real story that happened between the customer of General Motors and its Customer-Care Executive. A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors: "This is the second time I have written to you, and I don't blame you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of Ice-Cream for dessert after dinner each night.

But the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we've eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. It's also a fact that I
recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem.

You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice-cream, when I start back from the store my car won't start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know I'm serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds: "What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?"

The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an Engineer to check it out anyway. The latter was surprised to be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinnertime, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn't start.

The Engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, they got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. The car started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start.

Now the Engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this man's car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore, to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem.

And toward this end he began to take notes: he jotted down all sorts of data: time of day, type of gas uses, time to drive back and forth etc. In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of the store. Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup.

All the other flavors were kept in the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to check out the flavor.

Now, the question for the Engineer was why the car wouldn't start when it took less time. Once time became problem - not the vanilla ice cream Eureka!!!!

The engineer quickly came up with the answer: "vapour lock". It was happening every night; but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapour lock to dissipate.

Remember: Even crazy looking problems are sometimes real and all problems seem to be simple only when we find the solution with a cool thinking. Don't just say its "IMPOSSIBLE" without putting a sincere effort...

Observe the word "IMPOSSIBLE" carefully... Looking closer you will see, "I'M POSSIBLE"... What really matter is your attitude and your perception.

[ talk about correlation and causality huh? :) ]

Why Should I Study?
by: Muhammad al-Shareef

Many years ago in Uzbekistan, a baby boy was born blind. His Mother, the strong Mu'minah that she was, did not lose sight of He who had the Power to cure him. She prayed and prayed for her sons sight. And within a few years the boy regained his eyes.

She was widowed, the boy an orphan. She traveled with him to Makkah so that he could receive an Islamic Education. She arranged that he attend the circles of the scholars, and in those circles, he began excelling in the science of Hadeeth. He traveled to distant villages in search of the most authentic sayings of Rasul Allah (pbuh). He would pray two raka'at before accepting a Hadeeth. His mother named him: Muhammad ibn Isma'il. And many of us know him today by the book he compiled, the book that stands after the Qur'an in authenticity: Saheeh Al-Imam Al-Bukhari!

In another land, in another time, chilly Baghdad winds would wake up another boy. Much before Fajr, his mother would bundle him in warm shawls and escort him through the darkness, making sure he reached the Masjid safely. After Fajr, she would wait for him as he read Hadeeth to the biggest scholars of the land. Then, long after the sun had come up, she would meet him outside and together they would walk home. She was a strong mother indeed, for her son grew up to become an Imam of the Muslim Ummah, an Imam by the name of Ahmad ibn Hanbal. (Manaaqib Ahmad, by Ibn Al-Jowzee)

Imam Suyuti authored his first book, Tafseer Bismillaah Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheeem, when he was in grade 2!

Dear brothers and sisters, why should we try to follow in the footsteps of these many other stars of Islam? The information that we shall in sha' Allah learn is not like anything else. This knowledge is the law of Allah and the inheritance of the Prophets. It is our duty to preserve and protect the estate of Rasul Allah (pbuh), something that cannot happen without there being serious and sincere brothers and sisters spending long days and nights reading, reflecting, and teaching others.

Every Islamic revival that takes place is built on something. Some revivals are built on emotions, others on politics. Do you know which shall remain firm when the wind of woe blows? It shall be the one that was built on sound knowledge of the words of Allah and the Sunnah of Rasul Allah.

A sincere man once stood on the beach shore watching, to his dismay, the waves thrashing a fish up and down, left and right. The man concluded that he must save the fish. He thrashed into the water and grabbed the fish by the tail. He then thrashed back to shore and threw the fish on the beach, satisfied that he had saved it from the water!

Dear brothers and sisters, when we work for the sake of Allah without knowledge of what the path of Allah is, many times we do as that young man did.

We are living in an age of information. We have lights in every corner of the house when only yesterday our ancestors read by the light of the moon. We have publishing houses when only yesterday our ancestors wrote the books they owned with their own hands. We have CD's to search the Hadeeth archives when our scholars spent days upon days searching for proof and evidence in their libraries. Shouldn't the knowledge increase with all this ease? It should. But it has not.

Dear brothers and sisters, we know that when a prize is great, the responsibility, and the work required for that prize shall also be great. And because of this, we see the enormous reward promised to those scholars and students of Islam due to the heavy work required.

The Prophet (pbuh) said, "Whoever seeks out a path to acquire knowledge (of the deen), Allah makes easy a path for them to Jannah!" - Muslim

Shaykh Abdur-Rahman As-Sa'dee said, "Thus any path a person takes, whether physical or otherwise, something that will help them in acquiring knowledge of the Deen, they enter in the words of the Prophet, "Whoever seeks out a path to acquire knowledge (of the deen), Allah makes easy a path for them to Jannah." "

Rasul Allah told us that when a person seeks out a path to learn about Islam, this is a sign that Allah loves them and that He wants good for them in this life and the next.

From Mu'aawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, the Prophet (pbuh) said, "Whoever Allah wishes good for, he grants them Fiqh (understading) of the Deen."

And Rasul Allah told us that the sincere scholars have a place with Allah that no one else can reach, and that they are the inheritors of the Prophet's estate in passing it on to the world.

Rasul Allah said, "The virtue of the scholar to a worshipper (Aabid) is similar to the virtue of the moon when it is full to the rest of the stars. And verily the scholars are the inheritors of the Prophets. Verily the Prophets did not leave behind dirhams and deenars, but rather they left behind knowledge. Thus whoever takes it, takes it as a bountiful share." - Authentic, narrated by Abu Dawood, Tirmidhi, and Ibn Majah.

The position of the people of Islamic knowledge reached such a level that Allah (Jalla Thanaa'uhu wa taqaddasat Asmaa'uhu) and the Angels pray for them!

From Abu Umaamah: Rasul Allah said, "Verily Allah and His angels, even the ant in its hole and the fish in the sea, verily (they all) pray for he who teaches people good." - authentic, narrated by Tabraanee.

Rasul Allah prayed for them also. He said, as narrated by Zayd ibn Thabit, "May Allah grant light (and happiness and beauty in the face) of someone who hears a hadith from us and memorizes it until he passes it on to others!" - authentic, narrated by Tirmidhi.

One of the Hadeeth scholars that Imam Bukhari took from, Hisham ibn Ammar narrates a story that happened to him when he was 8 years old. He says, "My father sold a house of his for 20 Deenaars so that I could go for Hajj (and study Islam). When I arrived in Madinah, I went to the circle of Imam Maalik. He was sitting amongst his students like a king. People would ask him questions and he would answer. When I entered the crowd and my turn came up I said, 'Haddithnee (recite to me)!' He said, 'Rather you read.' I said, 'No, you haddithnee!' Imam Maalik said, 'No you read!' When I talked back and argued, he got angry and said to another student, go with this boy outside and smack him 15 times!' That student took me outside and smacked me 15 times with a stick and then brought me back to Imam Maalik. I said, 'You have Dhulm (wronged) me! My father sold his house so that I could come to you and be honored by listening to your teaching and seek knowledge from you. And you smacked me 15 times without any crime on my part, I shall not forgive you!' Imam Maalik then said, 'What is the expiation for this Dhulm (wronging)?' I said, 'You have to recite 15 Ahadeeth to me, that is the expiation.' So Imam Maalik began reciting the Ahadeeth to me until he completed 15. When he ended I told him, 'Beat me more and read more Hadeeth to me." Imam Maalik laughed and said, 'be off.' - From the book Ma'rifat Al-Qurraa' al-Kibaar by Imam Adh-Dhahabi.

From the beginning of time, there has been a race between the doers of good and the doers of evil. Adam and Iblees, Musa and Fir'own, Muhammad and Abu Jahl. Today that race has not ended. Think: How hard are the doers of evil working and how hard are we?

Umar once said, "I seek Allah's protection from Jalad (the strength and enthusiasm) of the sinner, and the laziness of the God-fearer." Subhaan Allah, it is as if he is contemplating the time that we are now living in.

How can one of us be too lazy to pray 2 raka'at at night, when the people of the Dunya spend the entire night watching movies, some of which they have to read the translation on the bottom of the screen? How can we be too lazy to read for 2 hours, when the people of the Dunya - those who just want more money to continue their sin - spend days upon days of all-nighters studying for their exams? Why do we cringe at paying 6 dollars for an Islamic book, when the people of the Dunya spend hundreds, rather thousands in pursuit of their sin?

What's wrong? What has happened to us?

Listen to those who came before us. Some Fuqahaa' said, "For years I desired to eat Hareesah (a sweet dish) and I wasn't able to because it was only sold during class time."

Imam Su'bah said, "If I ever saw someone running in the streets of the village I would only think one of two things: He was either crazy or a student of Hadeeth!"

And Ibn Al-Jowzee said, "I haven't seen a flaw more sad in the community than those who stop working even though they have the ability to continue."

How do we correct the situation dear brothers and sisters? Let us reflect on the following:

Firstly: We must be sincere in our desire to learn Islam. We are learning this Deen to rid ourselves, firstly, of ignorance and then to help others to rid themselves of ignorance.

Do you know the first Hadeeth in Sahih Bukhari, and in many many other Hadith books? It is not a coincidence that the first Hadeeth is: "Verily Actions are (judged) by their intentions." The scholars are reminding us from the very beginning of our path to learning, from page one, that it must be for the sake of Allah.

Allah ordered us to be sincere to Him in what we do: "And they have been commanded no more than this: to worship Allah, offering Him sincere devotion, being true (in faith)." Al Bayyinah, 5

Rasul Allah said, "Whoever studies that which is meant for the sake of Allah, desiring only a piece of the Dunya, he shall not smell the frangrance of Jannah on the Day of Judgement." - authentic, narrated by Ahmad, and Tirmidhi.

Ibn Abbas said, "Verily a man shall be protected (by Allah) in proportion to his niyyah (intention for doing what it is he is doing)."

And this issue of intention is not an easy matter. Sufyan ath-Thowree said, "I have never nursed something more rebellious than my intentions." - from the book, Al-Ja'mi' li akhlaaq al-Raawee, by Al-Khateeb al-Baghdaadi.

Listen to the advice of Imam Ibn Jamaa'ah if you want to know what it takes to correct your intention, "A proper and sincere intention when studying Islam is to intend to win the pleasure of Allah by what you are doing. You should intend to practice what you learn, to resurrect the Shariah, hoping that this knowledge will shine light on your heart, cleanse your soul, and bring you closer to Allah on the day of Judgement. Your intention for studying Islam should not be to win any worldly commodity, like leadership or fame or riches. It should not be learnt so that you can show off to your colleagues or so that people will revere you and sit you in a chief position in their gatherings, and so on." - from Imam Ibn Jamaa'ah's book, Tadhkirat as-Saami' wal Mutakallim.

Secondly: We should understand that we are in a continuous war with Shaytaan, and he does not want us to succeed in this studying. Allah ta'aala says, "When thou does read the Qur'an, seek Allah's protection from Satan the Rejected One." An-Nahl, 98

The Shaytaan shall sit in the face of every good thing that you try to do. Rasul Allah told us, "The Shaytaan sits in the path (of every goodness) that the son of Aadam (may try to take). He sat in front of him when he took the path to Islam and told him, 'how could you leave the religion of your fathers and your fore-fathers?' But he disobeyed him and became Muslim. Then Shaytaan sat in front of him in his path to Hijrah and said, 'How could you leave your land and your sky?' But he disobeyed him and migrated (from Makkah). Then he sat in front of him in his path of Jihaad and said, 'Why should you do Jihad? It will only exhaust your wealth and body. You'll be killed, your wife will marry someone else, and your wealth will be divided (to others).' But he disobeyed him and went for Jihad." Rasul Allah then said, "Whoever does this, it is a duty upon Allah that He shall enter him into Jannah!"

How will the Shaytaan sit in your face:

He will tell you to study tomorrow, and when tomorrow comes, study tomorrow. Procrastination is from the Shaytaan!

Shaytaan will tell you that you are busy now and that later in your life you shall take the time out to study Islam. After marriage, after graduation, after you get a job. Life shall pass and the 'after' shall live forever.

Shaytaan will tell you that the situation of the Ummah is lost and that you studying will not help anything, so don't waste your time. Combat this with what you've seen from the Jihad of knowledge and teaching that Rasul Allah and those that came before us did.

Shaytaan will tell you that there are enough scholars, they don't need you. Combat this with the fact that scholars shall die, and if the knowledge is not passed on to the next generation, it shall die in the community. There are 1.4 billion Muslims and the problem that always comes up is that there are not enough teachers and scholars. Everyone is a shepherd and everyone shall be responsible for his or her flock!

Thirdly: We should never forget to pray to Allah to bless us with His Mercy in succeeding in our intentions to learn Islam for His sake.

Allah ta'aala says "When My servants ask thee concerning Me, I am indeed close (to them): I listen to the prayer of every suppliant when he calleth on Me." Surah Al-Baqarah, 186

Let us pray to Allah now to make this effort we are doing to learn His Deen, to learn His Shariah, sincere for His sake. And that He blesses us by His Mercy to succeed in what we intend. Verily, he has the Power to do anything.

Ameen.

Muslim Multazim

"Sesungguhnya orang-orang yang mengatakan, 'Rabb kami ialah Allah', kemudian mereka meneguhkan pendirian mereka, maka malaikat akan turun kepada mereka (dengan mengatakan), 'Janganlah kamu merasa takut dan janganlah kamu merasa sedih; dan bergembiralah kamu dengan (memperoleh) surga yang telah dijanjikan Allah kepadamu'." (Fushshilat: 30).

Rasulullah saw dan para sahabat adalah orang-orang yang memiliki jiwa yang teguh , mereka patut untuk kita jadikan contoh dalam hal iltizam. Namun patutkah insan-insan yang mengikuti jalan mereka selaku umat terbaik, kini dicap dengan pelbagai tuduhan dan anggapan negatif sebagaimana yang sering terjadi sekarang ini?

Iltizam adalah suatu kata yang umum yang menunjukkan makna menetapi dan sungguh-sungguh terhadap syariat atau selainnya. Akan tetapi, dalam konteks sekarang ini lebih cenderung banyak dipakai untuk istilah orang yang berpegang teguh terhadap syariat dan tamasuk (memegang erat) agama (Islam). Dari sini kita katakan bahwa orang yang bersungguh-sungguh dalam agama (iltizam) adalah seorang lurus dan istikamah (mustaqim), memagang syariat (al mutamassik bisy syari'ah), taat kepada Allah (al muthi' lillah), atau menjalankan syariat Allah dan itiba kepada Rasulullah saw ('amilan bisyari'atillah wa muttabi'an lirasulillah).

Dari definisi (ta'rif) di atas, iltizam pada prinsipnya adalah memegang teguh syariat, mengamalkannya dan itiba kepada sunah Rasulullah saw: inilah hakikat iltizam. Kita akan melihat bahwa seorang yang multazim aktivi sehariannya akan berkisar pada amalan-amalan wajib, ataupun sunah, mungkin juga tambahan (nawafil) dari bentuk-bentuk ibadah dan ketaatan, tidak ketinggalan juga ibadah-badah fardu kifayah. Demikianlah tuntutan yang harus dipenuhi oleh seseorang yang akan meletakkan dirinya sebagai orang yang multazim.

Allah SWT berfirman yang ertinya, "Dan berpeganglah kamu semuanya kepada tali (agama) Allah, dan janganlah kamu bercerai berai." (Ali Imran: 103). Dalam konteks ini iltizam bermakna menetapi sesuatu dan berpegang teguh kepadanya (I'tisham).

"Maka wajib atas kalian semua berpegang teguh dengan sunahku dan sunah khulafaur rasidin yang telah mendapatkan petunjuk, gigitlah sunah tersebut dengan gigi geraham." (maksudnya berpegang teguhlah dengan sunah sekuat tenaga, red) (HR Ahmad, Abu Daud, Ibnu Majah dan ad Darimi).

Apa yang dilakukan seorang multazim? Seorang yang benar-benar multazim harus melakukan amalan-amalan yang menjadi bukti konkrit atas kesungguhan dan komitmennya terhadap Islam. Pertama, Berpegang teguh dengan as Sunah. Seorang yang multazim sudah barang tentu harus memegang as Sunah dengan sungguh-sungguh, atau dengan kata lain mereka adalah ahlus sunah dan ahlus syariah. Dia juga al jamaah (kelompoknya Nabi dan para sa! habat), meskipun merupaka golongan minoriti dalam umat manusia, akan tetapi, mereka yang benar-benar pengikut sejati yang kuat dan berada di baris terdepan adalah minoritas darimajoriti pengikut Muhammad saw.

Kedua, seorang yang multazim giat menuntut ilmu. Muslim yang multazim haruslah selalu menuntut ilmu sehingga ia beribadah kepada Allah di atas dasar cahaya dan hujjah yang jelas, bukan di atas prasangka dan dugaan, meniru dan ikut-ikutan, kejahilan dan kesesatan. Perkara ini menjadi aspek yang perlu dititik beratkan , sebab seorang yang iltizam dengan ajaran Islam otomatis akan menjadi da'i yang menyeru ke jalan Allah. Ia akan mengajak orang lain untuk beristikamah, iltizam dan menjalankan syariat Allah dalam kehidupan. Dengan ilmu (syar'i) inilah, ia akan mengajak orang ke jalan Allah dengan berlandaskan hujah yang terang (bashirah).

Ketiga, multazim adalah seorang yang meninggalkan bid'ah, maksiat dan kesia-siaan (lahwu). Seorang yang istikamah harus s! elalu bersemangat untuk senantiasa melakukan apa-apa yang disyariatkan Allah, belajar dan mengajarkan Islam. Ia selayaknya juga harus berusaha sekuat tenaga menjauhi segala bentuk yang bisa mencoreng harga dirinya, menodai keadilannya, dan apa saja yang bisa menuurunkan martabat dan kedudukannya. Hal itu dapat dilakukan dengan cara meninggalkan bid'ah, maksiat, dan segala bentuk kesia-siaan.

Keempat, ia berdakwah menyeru ke jalan Allah, juga berjihad menegakkan kalimatullah. Setelah seseorang diberi rahmat oleh Allah berupa kemampuan untuk beriltizam dan beristiqamah, maka ia tidak boleh berhenti sampai di sini. Akan tetapi, ia masih mempunyai kewajiban yang sangat penting, yaitu berdakwah mengajak orang ke jalan Allah. Mengajak siapa saja, baik saudara, sahabat, teman kerja, keluarga, dan siapa saja yang ada di sekelilingnya. Ini merupakan salah satu kewajiban seorang muslim terhadap saudaranya seiman, sebab jika ia tidak berdakwah kepada kebaikan tentu mereka yang buruk dan sesat akan mengajak kepada keburukan dan kesesatan yan! g mereka kerjakan. Bukankah kita akan senang jika banyak orang yang mengikuti jejak kebaikan yang kita lakukan? Bukankah kita senang jika banyak orang yang menolong dan membantu kita? Kita juga akan merasa senang jika banyak orang yang senantiasa berbuat kebajikan dan meniti agama yang lurus, baik itu kalangan pemuda, remaja, maupun anak-anak.

Sumber: Diadaptasi dari Haqiqatul Iltizam, Syekh Abdullah bin Abdurrahman al-Jibrin, disusun dalam bentuk buku oleh Abu Anas Ali bin Husani Abu Luz.

Al-Islam - Pusat Informasi dan Komunikasi Islam Indonesia

The Diameter of the Bomb

The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimetres

and the diameter of its effective

range about seven metres

and in it four dead and eleven wounded

and around them in a greater circle

of pain and time are scattered two hospitals and one cemetery

but the young woman was

buried where she came from

over a hundred kilometres away

enlarge the circle greatly

and the lone man who weeps over her death

in a far corner of distant country

includes the whole world in the circle

and I won't speak at all about the crying of orphans

that reaches to the seat of God

and from then onward, making

the circle without end

* Translated from Hebrew by Yehuda Amichai and Ted Hughes

Rohaniyyat: Qatlana Fi al Jannah ..Wa Qatlakum Fi an Nar

Sesungguhnya mujahid Islam ketika menyertai peperangan ia meletakkan dalam pemikirannya bahawa ia berada antara dua kebaikan, samada kemenangan atau mati syahid. Muslim tidak akan selamanya kalah dalam peperangan, mereka dalam keadaan baik dan menuju kepada kebaikan. Ini mendorong mereka keluar berjihad. Mereka inginkan kematian sebagaimana musuh mereka inginkan kehidupan. Mereka sentiasa menyanyikan lagu yang mereka pelajari daripada Syeikh Islam Ibnu Taimiah apabila berkata: "apa yang boleh musuhku lakukan kepadaku?, syurgaku ialah taman di dalam hatiku, kemana sahaja aku pergi ia bersama ku, tidak berpisah daripadaku selamanya…pemenjaraan bagiku "khulwah", pembunuhan bagi ku syahadah dan pembuangan negeri bagiku pelancungan".

Ada pun bagi orang bukan Islam tidak apa faedah bagi mereka kecuali kemenangan, pemikiran mereka sibuk memikirkan tenteng kemenangan. Mereka berada antara dua pilihan samada menang didunia atau kerugian didunia dan azab di akhirat. Firman Allah s.w.t bermaksud:

"Sesunguhnya orang-orang kafir membelanjakan harta mereka untuk menghalang/menutup jalan Allah. mereka akan terus membelanjakannya kemudian ia menjadi penyesalan dan kemudian dikalahkan. Dan orang-orang kafir dihimpun di dalam neraka".

Ketika Abu Sufyan mahu beredar-setelah tamat perang Uhud- ia berhenti megah dengan kemenangan dan berkata dengan suara yang lantang kepada golongan yang beriman; "hari silih berganti, peperangan ada kalah dan menang, hari untuk menebus kekalahan Badar".

Ia dengan kata-katanya itu bermaksud mahu melemahkan keazaman muslimin, lalu Rasulullah s.a.w berkata kepada sahabat-sahabat yang bersama dengannya: Tidakkah kamu mahu menjawab mereka?, mereka berkata; bagaimana kami nak menjawab?, Nabi berkata: katakan kepada mereka, tidak sama sama sekali, yang terkorban dikalangan kami masuk syurga dan yang terbunuh dikalangan kamu masuk neraka. Rasulullah s.a.w cuba mengembalikan keazaman muslimin dan menguatkan kehendak mereka.

Abu Sufyan berkata lagi: Uzza menyebelahi kami dan tidak ada Uzza bagi kamu. Nabi berkata; kenapa kamu tidak jawab?, sahabat bertanya bagaimana kami nak jawab?, Nabi berkata; katakan kepada mereka Allah melindungi kami dan tidak ada pelindung bagi kamu. Abu Sufyan berkata: tinggilah Hubal, dan Rasulullah s.a.w berkata; kenapa kamu tidak menjawab?, sahabat bertanya, bagaimana kami nak jawab?, Katakan kepada mereka : Allah lebih tinggi dan lebih mulia.

Berkata Syeikh Ssyed Qutb pengarang kitab tafsir Zilal al Quran:-

Firman Allah taala yang bermaksud: (jangan kamu rasa hina berlawan dengan musuh…kalau kamu sakit mereka juga sakit seperti kamu sakit dan kamu mengharap daripada Allah apa yang mereka tidak harapkan…)

Satu sentuhan yang kuat yang memberi kesan yang sangat mendalam untuk mengobarkan semangat jihad fi sabilillah dan meringankan kesakitan serta kesukaran yang dihadapi oleh mujahidin. Satu gambaran yang cukup jelas mempelihatkan perbezaan keadaan mujahidin yang beriman dan keadaan musuh yang memerangi mereka di persimpangan jalan.

Dengan gambaran ini dua jalan berpecah, tertonjol dua manhaj, segala kesakitan enteng, segala kepayahan menjadi mudah dan tidak ada ruang untuk merasa lemah atau tidak berupaya. Orang lain juga sakit, tetapi mukmin mengharap daripada Allah apa yang mereka (orang kafir) tidak harapkan.

Ia merupaka galakan untuk terus berjihad, menaggung kesakitan, keperitan dan kejerihan. Ia menyentuh hati mukmin dengan sentuhan yang halus dan mendalam, menjamah hingga ke lubuk hati dan menyuluh sinaran/cahaya yang kuat kearah kesudahan, matlamat dan tujuan.

Jangan kamu rasa hina atau lemah dalam menghadapi musuh, jika kamu merasa sakit, mereka juga merasa sakit seperti kamu. Sedang kamu mengharapkan daripada Allah apa yang mereka tidak harapkan. Allah amat mengetahui lagi maha bijaksana.

Ia hanya beberapa kalimat yang menggariskan jalur penentuan dan menyingkap jurang pemisah yang amat jauh anatara dua pihak yang bersengketa.

Sesungguhnya orang yang beriman sanggup menanggung sakit dan luka dalam peperangan, tetapi bukan mereka sahaja yang menaggungnya..sesunguhnya musuh mereka juga merasa sakit, luka dan pedih. Namun kedudukan antara keduanya sangat jauh. Orang beriman berjihad kerana Allah dan mengharapkan ganjaran daripadannya, manakala orang kafir mereka hilang dan lenyap, berjuang bukan kerana Allah dan tidak mengharapkan daripada Allah apa-apa, samada semasa hidup atau setelah mati.

Apabila kafir bersungguh-sungguh untuk berperang, maka orang beriman harus lebih bersungguh lagi, apabila orang kafir sanggup menaggung kesakitan, maka orang Islam harus lebih tahan sabar menanggung kesakitan, mereka harus lebih bersedia untuk meneruskan perjuangan menentang musuh, memerangi mereka, menjejaki saki baki kekuatan mereka sehingga mereka tidak lagi memiliki apa-apa kekuatan dan sehingga dapat dipadamkan api fitnah dan keagamaan kembali kepada Allah.

Inilah dia kelebihan akidah kepercayaan kepada Allah dalam perjuangan. Disana akan berlaku keadaan dimana masyaqqah mengatasi keupayaan, kesakitan lebih berat dari apa yang boleh ditanggung oleh manusia dan hati manusia berhajat kepada bantuan yang melimpah dari luar dan bekalan. Dalam keadaan ini bantuan daripada Allah yang maha menolong akan datang , dan bekalan dari ar Rahman akan muncul.

Bimbingan dan pelajaran ini sesuai dengan keadaan apabila perang terbuka berlaku antara dua pihak yang sama kuat. Peperangan yang mana kedua-dua pihak yang berjuang akan merasai kesakitan, kerana setiap kumpulan berperang dengan menggunakan kekuatan senjata masing-masing.

Namun boleh jadi berlaku satu masa golongan mukminah terlibat dalam pertempuran yang tidak setanding..namun kaedah tetap tidak berubah. Kebatilan tidak tidak selamanya selamat, walaupun ia menang, ia tetapi menghadapi tekanan dari dalam, percanggahan, perbalahan sesama sendiri dan pertembungan dengan fitrah asal kejadian sesuatu dan tabiat(perasaan) semulajadinya.

Pilihan yang ada dihadapan golongan Islam pada masa itu ialah bertahan dan jangan putus asa. Ia hendaklah tahu bahawa walaupun ia merasa sakit tetapi musuhnya juga merasa sakit. Terdapat banyak bentuk sakit dan banyak jenis kesedraan..kamu mengharapkan daripada Allah apa yang tidak diharapkan oleh mereka. Inilah ucapan takziah yang mendalam dan ia lah pemisah antara lua jalan.

Orang yang beriman tidak mengharapkan bala berlaku tetapi memohon daripada Allah supaya diberi keafiatan dan kesihatan. Tetapi jika ia diseru kepada jihad dia keluar-tanpa malas- sambil memohon daripada Allah satu daripada dua perkara; kemengan atau mati syahid. Kedua-dua adalah kurniaan daripada Allah dan kedu-duanya kejayaan yang besar.Lalu Allah memberikan kepadanya as syahadah (mati syahid), dia redha dengan apa yang dikurniakan oleh Allah kepadanya atau gembira dengan kedudukan as syahadah yang tinggi disisi Allah.

Frman Allah lagi yang bermaksud: "berperanglah pada jalan Allah mereka yang menjual kehidupan dunia mereka dengan kehidupan akhirat. Dan barangsiapa yang berperang pada jalan Allah lalu ia di bunuh atau menang, Allah akan berikan kepadanya ganjaran yang besar".

Dalam ayat ini Allah menggesa supaya berperang dan menggalakkannya, kemudian seterusnya cuba mengangkat atau membebaskan mereka yang lambat, berat dan punggung mereka melekat pada bumi, menggerakkan kekuatan dalaman mereka supaya menjengok kepada apa yang lebih baik dan lebih kekal yakni akhirat dan mendorong mereka supaya menjual dunia dengan akhirat serta menjanjikan mereka sebagai balasan kepada itu semua kurnian Allah dalam dua keadaan dan salah satu dari dua kebaikan; kemenangan atau mati syahid.

Oleh itu berperanglah pada jalan Allah, kerana Islam tidak tahu peperangan selain dari jalan Allah, tidak kenal peperangan untuk mendapat harta rampasan, untuk memaksa kekuasaan atau untuk keagongan sesaorang individu atau satu-satu bangsa.

Ia tidak berperang kerana mahu menguasai bumi, menguasai penduduk, untuk mendapat sumber asli untuk industri, untuk memasarkan produk ekonomi, untuk kebebasan pengaliran modal ditanah jajahan atau separa jajahan.

Ia tidak berperang kerana keagungan sesaorang individu, keluarga, lapisan manusia, kemegahan negara, umat atau keturunan. Ia hanya berperang pada jalan Allah, untuk meninggikan kalimah Allah diatas muka bumi, untuk melaksanakan manhajnya dalam menguruskan kehidupan, untuk memberi manusia menikmati kebaikan manhaj ini, keadilannya yang mutlak antara sesama manusia disamping kebebasan setiap individu memilih akidah yang ia yakini..dibawah naungan manhaj rabbani, insani, universal dan sejagat.

Ketika seorang muslim keluar untuk berperang pada jalan Allah dengan tujuan untuk meninggikan kalimah Allah dan melaksanakan manhajNya, lalu dibunuh, ia mati syahid dan mendapat maqam(kedudukan)seorang syahid disisI Allah.
Ada pun jika ia keluar berperang untuk tujuan lain selain dari tujuan ini ia tidak dinamakan syahid dan tidak akan mendapat ganjaran syuhada' disisi Allah, bahkan juga disisi ampuya tujuan lain yang ia keluar kerananya. Sesiapa yang menyifatkan mereka sebagai syahid telah mengada pendustaan terhadap Allah dan memberi gelaran kepada diri mereka atau orang lain dengan gelaran yang palsu.

Maka berperanglah pada jalan Allah, sahaja pada jalan Allah. Barangsiapa yang mahu menjual dunia dengan akhirat dan mendapat kelebihan yang besar daripada Allah, dalam dua keadaan samada ia dibunuh pada jalan Allah atau memperolehi kemenangan, Allah akan memberikan kepadannya ganjaran yang besar.


Allahu akbar..walillahi al hamd


http://massej.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=708&POSTNUKESID=09326040118302927bd91ec5bcab5028

Is a true love

by: Aflah (i think so.. )

I was a baby when I heard the word ‘love’
Then I learnt the words; ‘mama’ and ‘papa’
Then I learnt how to catch their attentions
And I felt comfortable living in their atmosphere.

I was a toddler when I learnt how to spell ‘love’
Then I learnt the words; ‘teacher’ and ‘friend’
Then I learnt how to making friend
And I felt difficult to get along with people.

I was a lovely girl when I knew the meaning of ‘love’
Then I learnt the words; ‘girlfriend’ and ‘boyfriend’
Then I learnt how to be an attractive girl
And I felt proud when the boys whistling to me.

I was a young lady when I was in my first ‘love’
Then I learnt the words; wife and husband
Then I learnt to manage my responsibilities
And I felt hard to taste the ‘sugar and spice’.

I was an old woman when I lost my ‘love’
Then I learnt the words; live and die
Then I learnt that ‘life goes on’
And I felt alone without my spouse.

Once upon a time I’ve said;
“I’m falling in love.
I feel the sense of love.
I feel the spirit of the true love, and
I know what love is more than a word…”

Time passed by and so do my words
After getting up and down
In the valley of knowledge and experience
Now, I wonder what is ‘love’ really meant to me.

Once again
I’m thinking about the ‘true love’
What is it and how is it
And finally I got the answer
When I really feel in it
Not just in the human being
But further than that

Confidently, I began my steps
Towards the rightful ‘true love’
And now I really know what love is
Not just a sensation word
But a spirit that never been told.

I am an old nanny when I wrote these verses
After I learnt how to mix the ‘sugar and spice’
Then I learnt the words; thankful and redha
After I feel the love of The Greatest Creator.

CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK

How Books Have Shaped U.S. Policy

By MICHIKO KAKUTANI


President Bush has never been known as a bookworm. An instinctive politician who goes with his gut, he has usually left the heavy reading in the family to his wife, Laura, a former librarian. He is "often uncurious and as a result ill informed," his former speechwriter, David Frum, wrote in a memoir this year, adding that "conspicuous intelligence seemed actively unwelcome in the Bush White House."

It is curious then that books by historians, philosophers and policy analysts have played a significant role in shaping and promulgating the administration's thinking about foreign policy, America's place in the world and the war against Iraq.

Michael Harrington's book "The Other America" is widely credited with helping catalyze the Kennedy-Johnson war on poverty in the 1960's and the creation of Great Society programs. George Gilder's book "Wealth and Poverty" was publicly endorsed by President Ronald Reagan, who embraced its message of tax cuts. George H. W. Bush's comparison of Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait to Hitler's annexation of the Sudetenland was informed by his reading of Martin Gilbert's book "The Second World War." And Robert D. Kaplan's book "Balkan Ghosts," which emphasized the ancient hatreds of the region, is said to have contributed to the initial reservations of President Bill Clinton about becoming more boldly involved there.

In this White House, no single book is pivotal, but an array of writings — many by neoconservative authors closely affiliated with administration officials or their intellectual mentors — have provided a fertile philosophical matrix for policy decisions as various as the doctrine of pre-emption and civilian oversight of military affairs.

Indeed Mr. Bush, whose father was accused of lacking the "vision thing," presides over an administration that is driven in high degree by big and often abstract theories: theories that promote a "moral" (some might say moralistic) approach to foreign policy; an unembarrassed embrace of power; a detestation of relativistic thinking; and an often Manichaean view of the world that, like the president's language, manages to be darkly Hobbesian and willfully optimistic at the same time.

It is less a matter of outside scholars and experts preaching to members of the administration than an incestuous world of policy making, policy analysis and historical commentary in which like-minded colleagues and friends trade ideas, egg one another on and sometimes provide spin on one another's behalf. In the last few years a growing number of theorists have published books to promote their ideas. Most of them have a distinctively instructive or prescriptive tone: this is what is wrong (with America, with the military, with the world); this is what needs to be done to fix it.

Last summer President Bush — whose favorite book had been Marquis James's 1929 biography of Sam Houston, who evolved from being the man the Cherokees called Big Drunk to the father of Texas — made it known that he was reading "Supreme Command" by Eliot A. Cohen, a member of the Defense Policy Board (along with its former chairman, Richard N. Perle) and a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (where Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz was once dean). The book was widely circulated at the Defense and State Departments and came emblazoned with a blurb from the editor of The Weekly Standard, William Kristol, saying it was the single volume he most wished Mr. Bush to read.

On March 21, as the war was beginning, Mr. Kristol said at the American Enterprise Institute that Mr. Bush "seems to understand, better than many presidents, I would say, the lesson of our friend Eliot Cohen's book of about a year ago, `Supreme Command,' that political strategy should drive military strategy." The ubiquitous Mr. Kristol is also the author, along with Lawrence F. Kaplan, of a new book called "The War Over Iraq: Saddam's Tyranny and America's Mission," which applauds the administration's determination to "liberate" Iraq and tries to place the president's "robust approach to the international scene" in the tradition of Ronald Reagan and Harry S. Truman.

As for the Cohen book, its central thesis, in Clemenceau's famous words, is that "war is too important to be left to the generals." It exhorts civilian leaders to query, prod and give orders to their subordinates — an interesting thesis given the allegations in the military that Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld ignored the advice of senior officers and initially committed insufficient troops to Iraq.

"Supreme Command" charges that the president's father abdicated responsibility in favor of the military in the first Persian Gulf war, ending it too early and allowing Saddam Hussein to stay in power. In interviews Mr. Cohen has chided the American military, saying he is wary when it naïvely dabbles in geopolitics. One example he has cited concerns the military's worry that the Arab street might erupt in protest if the United States ousted President Hussein. And he has praised Mr. Rumsfeld for exercising the sort of civilian control over the Pentagon that he admires.

"The point is that Rumsfeld is really — is on top," Mr. Cohen told Brit Hume of Fox News last year. "He's asking the tough, probing questions. Churchill once said, it's always right to probe, and I think that's the right motto for a civilian leader." Two of Mr. Rumsfeld's favorite books are reportedly William Manchester's biography of Winston Churchill, "The Last Lion," and Roberta Wohlstetter's study of intelligence failure, "Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision."

Several books and thinkers also appear to have helped form the thinking of Vice President Dick Cheney, whose position on Iraq became increasingly akin to that of neoconservatives like Mr. Kristol in the year after 9/11. Last fall he read "An Autumn of War" by Victor Davis Hanson, a classicist, military historian and National Review contributor, whom he later invited to dinner. In that volume Mr. Hanson wrote approvingly of the ancient Greek view of war as "terrible but innate to civilization — and not always unjust or amoral if it is waged for good causes to destroy evil and save the innocent."

He asserted that we were in an "outright bloody war against tyranny, intolerance and theocracy," and he called for going to war "hard, long, without guilt, apology or respite until our enemies are no more."

Newsweek said that "Cheney told his aides that Hanson's book reflected his philosophy."

Newsweek also reported that after 9/11 Mr. Cheney spent much of his time in an undisclosed location reading books about weapons of mass destruction and consulting with scholars about the Middle East. Among them was Bernard Lewis, the Princeton historian who wrote the best-selling "What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response" and was a participant in a pre-Sept. 11 study of ancient empires, sponsored by Mr. Rumsfeld's office, to understand how they maintained their dominance.

Mr. Lewis reportedly told Mr. Cheney that the Arab world looked down on weakness and respected the exercise of force. After talks with him and other Middle East experts like the Johns Hopkins scholar Fouad Ajami, Time reported, Mr. Cheney "gradually abandoned his former skepticism about the potential for democracy in the Middle East," a development that became a tipping point in the tilt toward war.

Early this year Mr. Lewis wrote an article for Newsweek International in which he made a case for American intervention in Iraq and argued that "worries about Iraqi civilians — fighting in the streets, popular resistance" were overblown. Now Mr. Lewis has written an article for The Wall Street Journal Europe in which he argues that Iraqis may be reluctant to welcome American soldiers because antiwar protests reinforce their worry that "the United States may flinch from finishing the job."

Mr. Hanson also predicted a quick war, three to four weeks, he told The Los Angeles Times, while Mr. Cohen told the House Armed Services Committee last October that establishing a moderate regime in Baghdad "would have beneficial consequences well beyond Iraq, including in our war against Islamic extremism."

Many of the thinkers in the continuing dialogue among administration officials and the neoconservatives urging them toward war wear several hats. For instance, Robert Kagan is best known as the author of the hot new policy book "Of Paradise and Power," in which he writes that on "major strategic and international questions today, Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus."

Although the book has been hailed for its incisive and in some ways prescient analysis of trans-Atlantic differences, it can also be read as a defense of America's aggressive unilateralism. Mr. Kagan has played a prominent role, along with Mr. Kristol, at the Project for the New American Century, a group that calls for the United States to adopt a muscular military posture and "challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values."

Among the people who signed the project's 1997 statement of principles were Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, Mr. Wolfowitz, I. Lewis Libby (Mr. Cheney's chief of staff) and Mr. Cohen. Also signing were Mr. Kagan's father, the Yale classics professor Donald Kagan (who provided an enthusiastic blurb for Mr. Hanson's book), and the theorist Francis Fukuyama, whose 1992 book, "The End of History and the Last Man," famously (and to some, absurdly) trumpeted the triumph of the West and the exhaustion of alternatives to liberal democracy.

Supporters of the Project group like Mr. Fukuyama, Mr. Wolfowitz and William J. Bennett (former secretary of education) — along with other neocons like Justice Clarence Thomas and Alan Keyes (the conservative presidential candidate) — are followers of the late Leo Strauss, who was a political philosopher at the University of Chicago and a godfather of sorts to the neocon movement. "Straussians," the conservative author Dinesh D'Souza has written, like to use the philosophy of "natural right" — which for the ancients was a basis for differentiating between right and wrong — "to defend liberal democracy and moral values against their adversaries both foreign and indigenous." Many of Strauss's ideas were popularized by Allan Bloom, who was the author of the best seller "The Closing of the American Mind" and a mentor to both Mr. Fukuyama and Mr. Wolfowitz (who became the inspiration for a minor character in "Ravelstein," Saul Bellow's 2000 roman à clef about Bloom).

Both Strauss and Bloom reviled moral relativism, invoked the teaching of the classics and took an elitist view of education. As teachers in the Socratic tradition, they also ardently believed in mentors, a role that Mr. Kristol, an avowed Straussian, filled so energetically as Vice President Dan Quayle's chief of staff that he became known as "Dan Quayle's brain."

In "Ravelstein," Mr. Bellow, described the Wolfowitz and Bloom characters talking about Desert Storm. "And it was essential to fit up-to-the-minute decisions in the gulf war — made by obviously limited pols like Bush and Baker," he wrote, "into a true-as-possible picture of the forces at work — into the political history of this civilization." In 1992 Mr. D'Souza put it this way: "Straussians have an intellectual rigor that is very attractive. They have extolled the idea of the statesman and the notion of advising the great, the prince, like Machiavelli or Aristotle. This is necessary because the prince is not always the smartest guy in the world."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/05/arts/05WARB.html?pagewanted=3&ei=5062&en=1601b62aa14442c1&ex=1050210000&partner=GOOGLE

: Saat Peluru Menembusi Jantungmu :
(Buat para syuhada')



"Janganlah kamu mengira bahawa orang-orang yang gugur
di jalan Allah itu mati; bahkan mereka itu hidup di
sisi Rabbnya dengan mendapat rezeki" (Ali-Imran:169)



takmau ku tangisi pemergianmu, sayang
kutau kau bahagia
tersenyum dalam tidur yang panjang
tiap tetes darahmu menghapus dosa
yang merontokkan dedaunan dari dahannya
bidadari bergegas menyongsong
mengusap debu yang menempel di wajahmu

(sungguh aku cemburu)


Saat peluru menembusi jantungmu
keluarlah ruhmu bersemayam di jasad burung hijau
bebas berterbangan di dalam syurga
mendatangi sungai-sungai syurga
memakan buah-buahannya
tinggal di lampu-lampu emas
yang tergantung di bawah naungan 'Arsy


Kematianmu sekadar sebuah cubitan
di kuburan merasa aman
paling berbahagialah kau nanti
bermesraan di samping bidadari
dengan hiasanmu mahkuta permata yakut


"Barangsiapa yang terbunuh kerana mempertahankan
haknya yang diambil secara zhalim, maka dia syahid"
(HR An-Nasa'i dan Adh-Dhiya' - soheh)

Tiara
2.4.03

Description of the Prophet Mohammed (SAW)

The following is an excerpt from the book entitled "The Message of Mohammad", by Athar Husain. Among other things, it talks about some of the personal characteristics of the prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him), the final messenger of Allah (God). It has been edited slightly in order to reduce it's length. Care has been taken not to change the content inshallah. The topics include:


Appearance
Dress
Mode of living
His manners and disposition
Children
Daily routine
Trust in Allah
Justice
Equality
Kindness to animals
Love for the poor

Appearance

Muhammad (pbuh) was of a height a little above the average. He was of sturdy build with long muscular limbs and tapering fingers. The hair of his head was long and thick with some waves in them. His forehead was large and prominent, his eyelashes were long and thick, his nose was sloping, his mouth was somewhat large and his teeth were well set. His cheeks were spare and he had a pleasant smile. His eyes were large and black with a touch of brown. His beard was thick and at the time of his death, he had seventeen gray hairs in it. He had a thin line of fine hair over his neck and chest.

His gait was firm and he walked so fast that others found it diffucult to keep pace with him. His face was genial but at times, when he was deep in thought, there there were long periods of silence, yet he always kept himself busy with something. He did not speak unnecessarily and what he said was always to the point and without any padding. At times he would make his meaning clear by slowly repeating what he had said. His laugh was mostly a smile. He kept his feelings under firm control - when annoyed, he would turn aside or keep silent, when pleased he would lower his eyes (Shamail Tirmizi).

Dress

His dress generally consisted of a shirt, tamad (trousers), a sheet thrown round the sholders and a turban. On rare occasions, he would put on costly robes presented to him by foreign emissaries in the later part of his life (Ahmed, Musnad, Hafiz Bin Qaiyyam).

His blanket had several patches (Tirmizi). He had very few spare clothes, but he kept them spotlessy clean (Bukhari). He wanted others also to put on simple but clean clothes. Once he saw a person putting on dirty clothes and remarked,

"Why can't this man wash them." (Abu Dawud, Chapter "Dress").
On another occasion he enquired of a person in dirty clothes whether he had any income. Upon getting a reply in the affirmative, he observed,
"When Allah has blessed you with His bounty, your appearence should reflect it." (Abu Dawud)
He used to observe:
"Cleanliness is piety".

Mode of living

His house was but a hut with walls of unbaked clay and a thatched roof of palm leaves covered by camel skin. He had separate apartments for his wives, a small room for each made of similar materials. His own apartment contained a rope cot, a pillow stuffed with palm leaves , the skin of some animal spread on the floor and a water bag of leather and some weapons. These were all his earthly belongings, besides a camel, a horse, and an ass and some land which he had aquired in the later part of his life (Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud). Once a few of his disciples, noticing the imprint of his mattress on his body, wished to give him a softer bed but he politely declined the offer saying,
"What have I to do with worldly things. My connection with the world is like that of a traveler resting for a while underneath the shade of a tree and then moving on."
Amr Ibn Al-Harith, a brother in law of the prophet (pbuh), says that when the prophet died, he did not leave a cent, a slave man or woman, or any property except his white mule, his weapons and a piece of land which he had dedicated for the good of the community (Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari).

He advised the people to live simple lives and himself practised great austerities. Even when he had become the virtual king of arabia, he lived an austere life bordering on privation. His wife Aiysha (ra) says that there was hardly a day in his life when he had two square meals (Muslim, Sahih Muslim, Vol.2, pg 198). When he died there was nothing in his house except a few seeds of barley left from a mound of the grain obtained from a Jew by pawning his armour (Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari, Chapter "Aljihad").

He had declared unlawful for himself and his family anything given by the people by way of zakat or sadaqa (types of charity). He was so particular about this that he would not appoint any member of his family as a zakat collector (Sahah-Kitab Sadqat).

His manners and disposition
"By the grace of Allah, you are gentle towards the people; if you had been stern and ill-tempered, they would have dispersed from round about you" (translation of Qur'an 3:159)
About himself the prophet (pbuh) said
"Allah has sent me as an apostle so that I may demonstrate perfection of character, refinement of manners and loftiness of deportment." (Malik, Mawatta; Ahmed, Musnad; Mishkat)

By nature he was gentle and kind hearted, always inclined to be gracious and to overlook the faults of others. Politeness and courtesy, compassion and tenderness, simplicity and humility, sympathy and sincerity were some of the keynotes of his character. In the cause of right and justice he could be resolute and severe but more often than not, his severity was tempered with generosity. He had charming manners which won him the affection of his followers and secured their devotion. Though virtual king of Arabia and an apostle of Allah, he never assumed an air of superiority. Not that he had to conceal any such vein by practice and artifice: with fear of Allah, sincere humility was ingrained in his heart. He used to say,
"I am a Prophet of Allah but I do not know what will be my end." (Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari, Chapter "Al-Janaiz")

In one of his sermons calculated to instill the fear of Allah and the day of reckoning in the hearts of men, he said,
"O people of Quraish be prepared for the hereafter, I cannot save you from the punishment of Allah; O Bani Abd Manaf, I cannot save you from Allah; O Abbas, son of Abdul Mutalib, I cannot protect you either; O Fatima, daughter of Muhammad, even you I cannot save." (Sahahin)

He used to pray,
"O Allah! I am but a man. If I hurt any one in any manner, then forgive me and do not punish me." (Ahmed, Musnad, Vol. 6 pg. 103)
He always received people with courtesy and showed respect to older people and stated:
"To honor an old man is to show respect to Allah."

He would not deny courtesy even to wicked persons. It is stated that a person came to his house and asked permission for admission. The prophet (pbuh) remarked that he was not a good person but might be admitted. When he came in and while he remained in the house, he was shown full courtesy. When he left Aiysha (ra) said,
"You did not think well of this man, but you treated him so well."
The prophet (pbuh) replied,
"He is a bad person in the sight of Allah who does not behave courteously and people shun his company bacause of his bad manners." (Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari)

He was always the first to greet another and would not withdraw his hand from a handshake till the other man withdrew his. If one wanted to say something in his ears, he would not turn away till one had finished (Abu Dawud, Tirmizi). He did not like people to get up for him and used to say,
"Let him who likes people to stand up in his honour, he should seek a place in hell." (Abu Dawud, Kitabul Adab, Muhammadi Press, Delhi).

He would himself, however, stand up when any dignitary came to him. He had stood up to receive the wet nurse who had reared him in infancy and had spread his own sheet for her. His foster brother was given similar treatment. He avoided sitting at a prominent place in a gathering, so much so that people coming in had difficulty in spotting him and had to ask which was the Prophet (pbuh). Quite frequently uncouth bedouins accosted him in their own gruff and impolite manner but he never took offence. (Abu Dawud Kitabul Atama).

He used to visit the poorest of ailing persons and exhorted all muslims to do likewise (Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari, Chapter "Attendance on ailing persons").

He would sit with the humblest of persons saying that righteousness alone was the criterion of one's superiority over another. He invariably invited people be they slaves, servants or the poorest believers, to partake with him of his scanty meals (Tirmizi, Sunan Tirmizi).

Whenever he visited a person he would first greet him and then take his permission to enter the house. He advised the people to follow this etiquette and not to get annoyed if anyone declined to give permission, for it was quite likely the person concerned was busy otherwise and did not mean any disrespect (Ibid).

There was no type of household work too low or too undignified for him. Aiysha (ra) has stated,

"He always joined in household work and would at times mend his clothes, repair his shoes and sweep the floor. He would milk, tether, and feed his animals and do the household shopping." (Qazi Iyaz: Shifa; Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari, Chapter: Kitabul Adab)

He would not hesitate to do the menial work of others, particularly of orphans and widows (Nasi, Darmi). Once when there was no male member in the house of the companion Kabab Bin Arat who had gone to the battlefield, he used to go to his house daily and milk his cattle for the inhabitants (Ibn Saad Vol. 6, p 213).

Children

He was especially fond of children and used to get into the spirit of childish games in their company. He would have fun with the children who had come back from Abyssinia and tried to speak in Abyssinian with them. It was his practice to give lifts on his camel to children when he returned from journeys (Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari, Vol. 2 pg.886). He would pick up children in his arms, play with them, and kiss them. A companion, recalling his childhood, said,
"In my childhood I used to fell dates by throwing stones at palm trees. Somebody took me to the Prophet (pbuh) who advised me to pick up the dates lying on the ground but not to fell them with stones. He then patted me and blessed me." (Abu Dawud)

Daily routine

On the authority of Ali, Tirmizi has recorded that the Prophet (pbuh) had carefully apportioned his time according to the demands on him for offering worship to Allah public affairs, and personal matters.

After the early morning prayers he would remain sitting in the mosque reciting praises of Allah till the sun rose and more people collected. He would then preach to them. After the sermons were over, he would talk genially with the people, enquire about their welfare and even exchange jokes with them. Taxes and revenues were also disrtibuted at this time (Muslim, Sahih Muslim Tirmizi, Sunan Tirmizi). He would then offer chaste prayers and go home and get busy with household work (Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmizi). He would again return to the mosque for the mid-day and afternoon prayers, listen to the problems of the people and give solace and guidance to them. After the afternoon prayers, he would visit each of his wives and, after the evening prayers, his wives would collect at one place and he would have his dinner (Muslim, Sahih Muslim). After the night prayers, he would recite some suras of the Quran and before going to bed would pray:
"O Allah, I die and live with thy name on my lips."
On getting up he would say,
"All praise to Allah Who has given me life after death and towards Whom is the return."

He used to brush his teeth five times a day, before each of the daily prayers. After midnight, he used to get up for the tahajjud prayers which he never missed even once in his life (Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari). He was not fastidious about his bed: sometimes he slept on his cot, sometimes on a skin or ordinary matress, and sometimes on the ground (Zarqani).

On friday he used to give sermons after the weekly "Jumma" prayers. He was not annoyed if anyone interrupted him during the sermons for anything. It is stated that once, while he was delivering his sermon, a bedouin approached him and said, "O messenger of Allah, I am a traveler and am ignorant of my religion." The prophet (pbuh) got down from the pulpit, explained the salient features of Islam to him and then resumed the sermon (Tirmizi, Sunan Tirmizi).

On another occasion his grandson Husain, still a child, came tumbling to him while he was delivering a sermon. He descended and took him in his lap and then continued the sermon (Ibid).

Trust in Allah (swt)

Muhammad (pbuh) preached to the people to trust in Allah (swt). His whole life was a sublime example of the precept. In the loneliness of Makkah, in the midst of persecution and danger, in adversity and tribulations, and in the thick of enemies in the battles of Uhud and Hunain, complete faith and trust in Allah (swt) appears as the dominant feature in his life. However great the danger that confronted him, he never lost hope and never allowed himself to be unduly agitated. Abu Talib knew the feelings of the Quraish when the Prophet (pbuh) started his mission. He also knew the lengths to which the Quraish could go, and requested the Prophet (pbuh) to abandon his mission, but the latter calmly replied,
"Dear uncle, do not go by my loneliness. Truth will not go unsupported for long. The whole of Arabia and beyond will one day espouse its cause." (Ibn Hisham, Sirat-ur-Rasul.)

When the attitude of the Quraish became more threatening, Abu Talib again begged his nephew to renounce his mission but the Prophet's (pbuh) reply was:
"O my uncle, if they placed the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left, to force me to renounce my work, verily I would not desist thereform until Allah made manifest His cause, or I perished in the attempt." (Ibid)

To another well-wisher, he said,
"Allah will not leave me forelorn."

A dejected and oppressed disciple was comforted with the words:
"By Allah, the day is near when this faith will reach its pinnacle and none will have to fear anyone except Allah." (Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari)

It was the same trust in Allah (swt) which emboldened the prophet (pbuh) to say his prayers openly in the haram in the teeth of opposition. The Quraish were once collected there and were conspiring to put an end to his life when he next entered the haram. His young daughter Fatima, who happened to overhear their talk rushed weeping to her father and told him of the designs of the Quraish. He consoled her, did his ablutions and went to the Kaaba to say prayers. There was only consternation among the Quraish when they saw him (Ahmed, Musnad, Vol. 1, pg. 368).
Then leaving his house for Madinah he asked Ali (ra) to sleep on his bed and told him,

"Do not worry, no one will be able to do you any harm" (Tabari, Ibn Hisham)

Even though the enemies had surrounded the house, he left the house reciting the Quranic verse:
"We have set a barricade before them and a barricade behind them and (thus) have covered them so that they see not" (translation of Qur'an 36:9)
Abu Bakr was frightened when pursuers came close to the cavern in which he and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) were hiding during their flight, but the Prophet (pbuh) heartened him,
"Grieve not. Allah is with us."

A guard was kept at the Prophet's house in Madinah because of the danger that surrounded him but he had it withdrawn when the Quranic verse was revealed:
"Allah will protect you from the people" (translation of Qur'an 5:67).

A man was caught waiting in ambush to assault the Prophet (pbuh) but he was directed to be released with the words,
"Even if this man wanted to kill me, he could not." (Ahmed, Musnad, Vol.3 pg. 471)

A Jewess from Khaibar had put poison in the Prophet's (pbuh) food. He spat it out after taking a morsel but a disciple who had his fill died the next day. The Jewess was brought before the prophet (pbuh) who questioned her:
"Why did you do this?" "To kill you," was her defiant reply. She was told, "Allah would not have allowed you to do it." (Muslim, Sahih Muslim.)

In the battle of Uhud when the rear guard action of the Makkan army had disorganized the Muslim army and had turned the tables, the Prophet (pbuh) stood as firm as a rock even though he had suffered personal injuries. When Abu Sufiyan taunted the Muslims and shouted "Victory to hubal!" (hubal was one of their idols), the Prophet (pbuh) asked Umar (ra) to shout back, "Allah is our protector and friend. You have no protector and friend. Allah is Great, Magnificent." (Ibn Hisham, Sirat-Ur-Rasul).

Again in the battle of Hunain, when the unexpected assault of the army had swept the Muslim force off its feet and a defeat seemed imminent, the Prophet (pbuh) did not yield ground. With trust in Allah (swt) he showed such courage that the Muslim army rallied behind him to win a signal victory.

Justice

The Prophet (pbuh) asked people to be just and kind. As the supreme judge and arbiter, as the leader of men, as generalissimo of a rising power, as a reformer and apostle, he had always to deal with men and their affairs. He had often to deal with mutually inimical and warring tribes when showing justice to one carried the danger of antagonizing the other, and yet he never deviated from the path of justice. In administering justice, he made no distinction between believers and nonbelievers, friends and foes, high and low. From numerous instances reported in the traditions, a few are given below.

Sakhar, a chief of a tribe, had helped Muhammad (pbuh) greatly in the seige of Taif, for which he was naturally obliged to him. Soon after, two charges were brought against Sakhar: one by Mughira of illegal confinement of his (Mughira's) aunt and the other by Banu Salim of forcible occupation of his spring by Sakhar. In both cases, he decided against Sakhar and made him undo the wrong. (Abu Dawud, Sunan Dawud, pg.80)

Abdullah Bin Sahal, a companion, was deputed to collect rent from Jews of Khaibar. His cousin Mahisa accompanied him but, on reaching Khaibar, they had separated. Abdullah was waylaid and done to death. Mahisa reported this tragedy to the Prophet (pbuh) but as there were no eye-witnesses to identify the guilty, he did not say anything to the Jews and paid the blood-money out of the state revenues (Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari Nasai).

A woman of the Makhzoom family with good connections was found guilty of theft. For the prestige of the Quraish, some prominent people including Asama Bin Zaid interceded to save her from punishment. The Prophet (pbuh) refused to condone the crime and expressed displeasure saying,

"Many a community ruined itself in the past as they only punished the poor and ignored the offences of the exalted. By Allah, if Muhammad's (My) daughter Fatima would have committed theft, her hand would have been severed." (Bukhari, Sahh Bukhari, Chapter "Alhadood")
The Jews, in spite of their hostility to the Prophet (pbuh), were so impressed by his impartiallity and sense of justice that they used to bring their cases to him, and he decided them according to Jewish law. (Abu Dawud, Sunan Dawud)
Once, while he was distributing the spoils of war, people flocked around him and one man almost fell upon him. He pushed the men with a stick causing a slight abrasion. He was so sorry about this that he told the man that he could have his revenge, but the man said, "O messenger of Allah, I forgive you." (Abu Dawud, Kitablu Diyat).

In his fatal illness, the Prophet (pbuh) proclaimed in a concourse assembled at his house that if he owed anything to anyone the person concerned could claim it; if he had ever hurt anyone's person, honor or property, he could have his price while he was yet in this world. A hush fell on the crowd. One man came forward to claim a few dirhams which were paid at once. (Ibn Hisham, Sirat-ur-Rasul)

Equality

Muhammad (pbuh) asked people to shun notions of racial, family or any other form of superiority based on mundane things and said that righteousness alone was the criterion of one's superiority over another. It has already been shown how he mixed with everyone on equal terms, how he ate with slaves, servants and the poorest on the same sheet (a practice that is still followed in Arabia), how he refused all privileges and worked like any ordinary laborer. Two instances may, however, be quoted here:

Once the Prophet (pbuh) visited Saad Bin Abadah. While returning Saad sent his son Quais with him. The Prophet (pbuh) asked Quais to mount his camel with him. Quais hesitated out of respect but the Prophet (pbuh) insisted: "Either mount the camel or go back." Quais decided to go back. (Abu Dawud, Kitabul Adab)

On another occasion he was traveling on his camel over hilly terrain with a disciple, Uqba Bin Aamir. After going some distance, he asked Uqba to ride the camel, but Uqba thought this would be showing disrespect to the Prophet (pbuh). But the Prophet (pbuh) insisted and he had to comply. The Prophet (pbuh) himself walked on foot as he did not want to put too much load on the animal. (Nasai pg. 803)

The prisioners of war of Badr included Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet (pbuh). Some people were prepared to forgo their shares and remit the Prophet's (pbuh) ransom but he declined saying that he could make no distinctions. (Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari, Chapter "Ransoms")

During a halt on a journey, the companions apportioned work among themselves for preparing food. The Prophet (pbuh) took upon himself the task of collecting firewood. His companions pleaded that they would do it and that he need not take the trouble, but he replied,

"It is true, but I do not like to attribute any distinction to myself. Allah does not like the man who considers himself superior to his companions." (Zarqani, Vol 4 pg. 306)

Kindness to animals

The Prophet (pbuh) not only preached to the people to show kindness to each other but also to all living souls. He forbade the practice of cutting tails and manes of horses, of branding animals at any soft spot, and of keeping horses saddled unnecessarily (Muslim, Sahih Muslim). If he saw any animal over-loaded or ill-fed he would pull up the owner and say,
"Fear Allah in your treatment of animals." (Abu Dawud, Kitab Jihad).

A companion came to him with the young ones of a bird in his sheet and said that the mother bird had hovered over them all along. He was directed to replace her offspring in the same bush (Mishkat, Abu Dawud)

During a journey, somebody picked up some birds eggs. The bird's painful note and fluttering attracted the attention of the Prophet (pbuh), who asked the man to replace the eggs (Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari).

As his army marched towards Makkah to conquer it, they passed a female dog with puppies. The Prophet (pbuh) not only gave orders that they should not be disturbed, but posted a man to see that this was done.

He stated,

"Verily, there is heavenly reward for every act of kindness done to a living animal."

Love for the poor

The Prophet (pbuh) enjoined upon Muslims to treat the poor kindly and to help them with alms, zakat, and in other ways. He said:
"He is not a perfect muslim who eats his fill and lets his neighbor go hungry."

He asked,
"Do you love your Creator? Then love your fellow beings first."

Monopoly is unlawful in Islam and he preached that "It is diffucult for a man laden with riches to climb the steep path that leads to bliss."

He did not prohibit or discourage the aquisition of wealth but insisted that it be lawfully aquired by honest means and that a portion of it would go to the poor. He advised his followers
"To give the laborer his wages before his perspiration dried up."

He did not encourage beggary either and stated that
"Allah is gracious to him who earns his living by his own labor, and that if a man begs to increase his property, Allah will diminish it and whoever has food for the day, it is prohibited for him to beg."

To his wife he said,
"O Aysha, love the poor and let them come to you and Allah will draw you near to Himself." (Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari)

One or two instances of the Prophet's (pbuh) concern for the poor may be given here. A Madinan, Ibad Bin Sharjil, was once starving. He entered an orchard and picked some fruit. The owner of the orchard gave him a sound beating and stripped off his clothes. The poor man appealed to the Prophet (pbuh) who remonstrated the owner thus:
"This man was ignorant, you should have dispelled his ignorance; he was hungry, you should have fed him."

His clothes were restored to the Madinan and, in addition, some grain was given to him (Abu Dawud, Kitabul Jihad).

A debtor, Jabir Bin Abdullah, was being harassed by his creditor as he could not clear his debt owing to the failure of his date crop. The Prophet (pbuh) went with Jabir to the house of the creditor and pleaded with him to give Jabir some more time but the creditor was not prepared to oblige. The Prophet (pbuh) then went to the oasis and having seen for himself that the crop was really poor, he again approached the creditor with no better result. He then rested for some time and approached the creditor for a third time but the latter was adamant. The Prophet (pbuh) went again to the orchard and asked Jabir to pluck the dates. As Allah would have it, the collection not only sufficed to clear the dues but left something to spare (Bukhari, Sahih Bukhari).

His love for the poor was so deep that he used to pray:

"O Allah, keep me poor in my life and at my death and raise me at resurrection among those who are poor." (Nasai, Chapter: Pardon)

http://www.unn.ac.uk/societies/islamic/prophets/attrib_m.htm