Feeding the Horse

Suppose you use a horse for transportation as people have done in the
past. One of your friends invites you to his house and you get there
by riding your horse. Now, what would happen if your friend totally
ignoresyou and starts feeding and looking after the horse only? You
will feel confused as yourself, the rider, was suppose to be the
guest, not the horse that you rode on.
The above situation sounds abnormal but thatis exactly what we are
doing today. Allah has given us a body and a soul. The soul rides on
thebody to pass through this world. In other words, thebody is like
the horse and the soul is like the rider ofthe horse. Today, we are
continuously busy in feeding and looking after the body but totally
ignored the well being of our souls. As a result, our souls have
become so weak without the spiritual food that it is notstrong enough
to even push us to go to the Masjid or wake up for Fajr prayer. Thus,
it is essentialthat we strengthen our soul with the spiritual food as
shown by Islam, such as keeping the company of the pious, recitation
of the Holy Quran, Dhikr of Allah and contemplating over the Greatness
of Allah.

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How to Safeguard the Islam of Newly Reverted Sister

I would like to thank the founders and the workers on this web site
because it helped me and is still helping me a lot.
I embraced Islam three years ago (Al-hamdulillah), and fromthat time
on I worked to convince my family members and my close friends to
submit to it.
My little sister (15 years old) who was watching me for the past three
years grew in her belief and eventually uttered the Shahada (testimony
offaith) one week ago ( Al-hamdulillah).
Now my concern is, how can I protect her faith; how can I help her to
strengthen it?
I feel she might lose her faith any time because the environment we
are living in encourages people to go astray. In addition to that, my
parents still don't know about her conversion, I'm sure that if they
knew they would not be pleased with it and they would try to get her
back to Judaism.
Please, I need your advice,I really don't know how to deal with this situation.
Praise be to Allaah.
First:
From that which makes a Muslim happy is his seeing people enter into
the true religion of Allah, the Exalted and leaving their false and
distorted religions. We'd like to congratulate you on having been
chosen by Allah for Islam and then for being granted the ability to
call towards the guidance which resulted in the Islam of your sister
and her being saved from the wrath and punishment of Allah. This takes
our minds back to the glorious companion, Abdullah ibn Salam, who was
a Jew and who entered Islam and perfected his Islam. We ask Allah, the
Exalted, to keep you and your sister firm and to grant you the
strength and ability to attain beneficial knowledge and work righteous
deeds.
Second:
From that which we advise you to do with your sister who entered Islam
in order to help keep her firmly upon the religions is the following:
1. Encourage her to recite and to listen to Quran a great deal. It
would be nice if you couldassist in selecting recitations of recitors
whose voices are pleasingto the listeners.
2. Make available to hersmall but highly beneficialIslamic books
which contain simplified Islamic rulings and the biographies of great
Islamic scholars and leaders. It would be preferred if they contained
biographies of female scholars, callers and warriors.
3. Make every effort to keep her away from bad company, especially
thosefriends which she had before Islam and who hadan impact on her
due to their strong personalities or gentleness. Be gentle while doing
this so as not to turn her away from you and have her more attached to
her friends.
4. Make easily accessible to her touching audio materials which
talk about Islamic issues and the fate of man after death and the
hereafter.
5. Encourage her to regularly praise and thankAllah, the Exalted,
for the blessing of guidance. Through gratitude, blessings last and
every slave requires of his Lord, the Exalted, to assist him,
strengthen him and keep him firm upon his religion.
6. Encourage her to pray regularly and on time while giving the
prayer its due by carrying out its necessary and compulsory actions in
the best manner and urge herto supplicate abundantly during the
prostration.
7. Be sure to tell her notto reveal her reversion to Islam to her
family at this time out of fear that they will influence her
negatively and cause her harm in her religion. See the answers to the
two questions 33827 and 69752 .
8. The fact that you were able to influence herand she accepted
Islam after observing you shows that she respects you and has love for
you. Therefore, try to be her best friend and the rock she can lean
on. Try your best to give her all the moral support you can; continue
being a good example for her, let her talk to you and share her
thoughts with you and lether feel that you are therefor her whenever
she needs you. Insha Allah your companionship and support will be a
positive influence on her.
9. It goes without saying that perhaps one of the most effective
means (if not the most effective) is for you to regularly and
consistently supplicate to Allah (du'aa) for her. Everything is in
Allah's Hands and He is the One Who controls the hearts, therefore,
implore Him to keep your sister firm upon the truth.
10. Gently try to help yoursister find a new set of friends who will
be supportive and act as good role models.
We ask Allah to keep you both firm upon His religion and to grant you
success in pleasing Him. Thank you for taking the time to benefit from
our site.
May Allah grant you beneficial knowledge and the ability to act according to it.

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How Sawad bin Qarib became a Muslim

In the report given by Imam Baihaqi in his Hadith collection, Hadhrat
Sawad bin Qarib stated:"In the period of ignorance or pre-Islamic
period, I had friendship with a jinn who used to give me information
about the future events which I used to tell the people. Many people
had become my devotees and offered me the presents as information by
him always proved true. One day, he came and awakened me when I
wasasleep and said: Get up and be conscious. If you possess some
sense, knowthat a Prophet has come from the descendants of Lawa bin
Ghalib. Then, thejinn recited a few verses which meant:
"I am surprised at those jinns who ride their camels and, getting
restless, flee to Makkah for guidance. The jinns who embraced Islam
are better than the unclean jinns. So, you should, also, look at that
chief of Arabs and travel towards that chief of the Bani Hashim."
Sawad bin Qarib stated that, after hearing these couplets, I remained
restless throughout the night. The second night, also, that jinn came
and awakened me and recitedthe same couplets. The third night, also,
this event took place. As the event happened for three nights
continuously, the love of Islam settled in my heart and I reached
Makkah for the Prophet (saw). As soon as the Prophet (saw) saw me,
hesaid: "Welcome! O Sawad bin Qarib. I know what brings you here." I
submitted: "O Apostle of Allah! I have composed some couplets praising
you. Please, first listen to these couplets." Being permitted by the
Prophet (saw) Sawad recited his poem praising the Prophet (saw). The
last couplet of this poem is:
"O Prophet of Allah! please, intercede for my forgiveness on the day
when nobody will intercede and benefit for anyone."

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The Locks on the Door

I always lock my doors before going outside. I believe all of us do
the same to protect our valuable properties from the thieves. I have
seen people with more than 3 locks on the door and some also have a
specialized integrated alarm system against forceful entry! Some also
have 24 hours live monitoring systems built in the house. Then one day
I was thinking, it is quite sad that we use so many locks in order to
safeguard some belongings, but, we have little or no locks at all in
ourselves to safeguard our iman from Shaitan and evils of this world.
This iman, which is more precious than any material thing, needs more
protection than our belongings.

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