Hazrat Umme Salamah(R.A)

Hadhrat Umme Salamah was the daughter of Hadhrat Abu Ummayyah
(Radhiyallaho anhu). She was first married to her cousin Hadhrat bin
Abdul Asad known as Abu Salamah (Radhiyallaho anhu). The couple
embraced Islam in the verybeginning and emigrated to Abyssinia, due to
the persecutions of Qureysh. A son was born to them in exile, who was
named Salamah. After returning from Abyssinia, the family emigrated to
Madinah . Hadhrat Umme Salamah's (Radhiyallaho anha) story about her
journey to Madinah, has been alreadygiven in the early part of the
chapter. After reachingMadinah, Hadhrat Umme Salmah (Rad laho anha)
got another son 'Umar andtwo daughters Durrah andZainab (Radhiyallaho
anhum).
Hadhrat Abu Salamah (Radhiyallaho anho) was the eleventh man to
embrace Islam. He participated in the battle of Badr as well as in
Uhud. He got a severe wound in Uhud, which did not heal for a long
time. He was sent by the Prophet Mohammad (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam)
in an expedition in Safar, 4 A. H. When he returned from the
expedition, the old wound again started giving trouble and at last he
died of the same on 8thJamadil-Akhir, 4 A. H. Hadhrat Umme Salamah
(Radi-allaho anha) was pregnant at the time. Zainab was born to her
after the death of her husband. After Umme Salamah had completed her
Iddat (waiting period), Hadhrat Abu Bakr (Radlahoanho) proposed to
marry her, but she declined.
Later, the Prophet Mohammad (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam) offered to
marry her. She said: "O, Prophet of Allah! I have quite a few children
with me and I am very sensitiveby nature. Moreover, a people are in
Mecca, and their permission for getting remarried is necessary."
The Prophet Mohammad (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam) said: "Allah will
look after your children and your sensitiveness willvanish in due
course. Noneof people will dislike the proposed marriage".
Hadhrat Umme Salamah then asked her (eldest) sonHadhrat Salamah
(Radhiyallaho anho) to serve as her guardian and give her in marriage
to theProphet Mohammad (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam) She was married in
the end of Shawwal, 4 A. H. She says: "I had heard from the Prophet
Mohammad (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam) that a person struck with a
calamity should recite this prayer:
"O, Allah! Recompense me for this affliction by giving me something
better than what I have lost: then Allah would accept his prayer." I
had been reciting this prayer since the death of Hadhrat Abu Salamah
(Radhiyallaho anho), but I could not imagine a husband better than he,
till Allah arrangedmy marriage with the Prophet Mohammad (Sallallaho
Alaihe Wasallam) ." Hadhrat Aishah (Radhiyallaho anha) says:
"Umme Salamah (Radhiyallaho anha) was famous for her beauty. Once I
contrived to see her. I found her much more beautiful than I had
heard. I mentioned this to Hafsah who said. "In my opinion, she is not
as beautiful as people say." She was the last of the Prophet Mohammad
(Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam) wives to die. It was in 59 or 62 A. H.
She was 84 at the time of her death, and as such she wasborn 9 years
before Nubuwwat.
As already been said, the Prophet Mohammad (Sallallaho Alaihe
Wasallam) married Hadhrat Umme Salamah after the death of Hadhrat
Zainab Khuzaimah (Radhiyallaho anha). She therefore lived in Hadhrat
Zainab's (Radhiyallaho anha) house. She found a had-mill, a kettle and
some barley in an earthen jar, lying in the house. Hadhrat Umme
Salamah milled some barley and after putting some fat cooked a
preparation , which she served to the Prophet Mohammad (Sallallaho
Alaihe Wasallam) on the very firstday of her marriage with him.

Islam is a Game Changer

Islam is a game changer. Every other system, every human-made "ism" –
feudalism, tribalism, nationalism, monarchism, capitalism, communism,
fascism – treats human beings like commodities orless. Every other
system simply plays around with variables like distribution of wealth
and labor, or elevates one group of human beings based on lineage or
geography, while devaluing others to less-than-human status.
All these systems are fundamentally uncivilized, even barbaric.
Islam changes everything. Islam says, we're going to uphold the
fundamental dignity of all human beings.
"And We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them
on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things and
preferred them over much of what We have created, with [definite]
preference." – Quran, 17:70
Allah has honored all the children of Adam. Not onlyMuslims, not only
men, notone race or nation, not only the wealthy or beautiful, but all
humans. As for the nature of man, Allah says, "[So mention] when your
Lord said to the angels, 'Indeed, I am going to create a human being
from clay. So whenI have proportioned him and breathed into him ofMy
[created] soul, then fall down to him in prostration.'" – Quran,
38:71-72
A being into whom Allah breathed cannot help but be noble by nature.
Yes, we humans are corruptibleand shortsighted, but we don't have to
be. Our nature is pure. We can, at times, rise above our own
foolishness and become great.
When it comes to morality,Islam takes the approach of trusting human
beings to live by values like compassion, justice, fairness, help for
the poor, brotherhood and sisterhood, devotion to God, and
non-attachment to material luxuries.
That's what Islam is supposed to be!
This is why certain oppressive cultural practices found in parts of
the Muslim world are so abominable. I'm talking about so-called honor
killings, female genital mutilation, denial of education to women,
violence against religious minorities, etc. These practices must be
abolished. They are anathema to everything Islam represents.
Islam came to promote an idea of human dignity based on:
1- Our relationship with Allah;
2- The love and mercy we show one another;
3- The utilization of our free will for a higher purpose.
All human beings are created in the best of molds ( You Are Perfectly
Created ). All human beingsare born on the fitrah , the pure and
natural way, with an inborn inclination to recognize the Creator and
do good. Racism and nationalism are abhorred and abolished. Women
arerecognized as intellectual and spiritual beings, not property,
objects, or vassals.
That's Islam as it should be. It's a revolutionary system. Rather than
a limited material or tribal system, it is for the first time in
history a human system. If we're practicing anything less then we're
not practicing Islam. If we look down on certain races, if we hate
people because of their nationality or religion, if we subjugate
women, then we're practicing a fraud, and shaming ourselves before the
world.
Islam rises above everything that came before. Islam came to change
the world, and to elevate the essential nobility all human beings, a
nobility not based on nation or tribe, but on our eternal souls.
That's the call of Islam. That's the path we must follow.

Patiently Persevere

"The writer Mustapha Sadiq Ar-Rafei wrote, 'When I looked into history
I found a small number of individuals whose lives mirrored thelife
cycle of a grain of wheat. They were torn from their roots, then
crushed, then ground in mills, then kneaded withfists, then rolled out
and baked in ovens at high temperatures… just so they could provide
food for others.'
Patiently persevere in the face of hardship hoping fora good outcome
because you never know how many dead hearts you willbring to life in
the process. No hardship lasts forever. There is always an end."

The Tall Grass

I could listen all day
to the eucalyptus leaves
rustling in the wind, passing it on.
You said once
that the world was stale and worn,
like a room where everything's been used.
Sometimes I wonder
if you were speaking of yourself.
I don't see the world that way,
or you either. At this moment
the clouds in the Eastern sky
are limned with red light
like the edge of a forest fire.
The cows across the road are grazing
in the acres that burned last year.
Now tall green grass grows there.
I know they are slow beasts, barely aware,
but they love their calves,
and they worship in their way.
They are beautiful in their striped coats.
All is beautiful, especially you.
If your world is a stale room
then let me break the door
and carry you into the June sunshine.
Maybe you're right that everything's been touched,
but the world renews itself.
The rains wash to the sea,
and all is clean. I know that -
like the acres where the cows graze -
you've been burned.
You said you have ten thousand questions
and nowhere to turn. You said
you are a painful mystery to yourself.
That's okay. None of us have answers,
none of us know our own depths
any more than we know the stars..
You are innocent as a childto me.
You are new, never stained,
the tall grass growing green
on the acres of your soul.