Flavour of Faith

It is related by Abbas bin Adbul Muttalib that he heard the Apostle of
God say: "He tasted the flavour of Faith and experienced itssweetness
who agreed with a truthful heart to accept God as His Cherisher, Islam
as his religion, and Muhammad as his Prophet." [Bukhari]
Commentary:
Just as all delicious foods posses a flavour but can beperceived only
when one's faculty of taste has not been lost or become perverted due
to illness or any other cause, there is also a special sweetness in
faith which can be enjoyed by those alone who have, willingly and
earnestly, made Allah their Lord and Master, Muhammad (PBUH) their
prophet and guide, and Islam their religion and way of life, and whose
hearts have bowed in submission to God and yielded in obedience to
theprophet and assented to bethe adherents of the path of Islam. In
other words, their bond with God, the prophet and Islam is not merely
formal, hereditary or intellectual but real, sincere and genuine.
Anas related to us that "Only he will taste the sweetness of faith who
hasthese three qualities: the love of God and the prophet that comes
to him before everything else, he loves whom he loves solelyfor the
sake of God, and theidea of going back to apostasy after he has
embraced Islam is as repugnant to him as being thrown into fire."
[Bukhari and Muslim]
Commentary:
The subject matter of this tradition is almost identicalto that of
proceeding one. It says that the sweetness of faith can only be
perceived by him whose love for God and the Apostle is stronger that
for anyone or anything else in the world, so much so that when he
loves somebody, it is wholly for the sake of God, and who is so deeply
devoted to the Islamic faiththat the very idea of leaving it and
reverting back to the apostasy is as painful to him as being castinto
fire.

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Going on Umrah without a Mahram

Q.) Is it permissible for a woman to perform Umrah with her friends
who are travelling with their mehrams in a group?
A.) According to the Hanafi school of thought, a woman can only travel
on a journey of more than 78 kms (about 48 miles) be this for Umrah,
Hajj or otherwise, if she is accompanied by her husband or a Mahram
relative. Mahrams refer to those males that are perpetually haram for
her to marry, like her father, grandfather, brothers of her father and
mother, sons, grandsons, her brothers, and sons of her brothers and
sisters.
Hence if the woman concerned does not have a mahram then she cannot
travel in this way i.e. with her friends and their Mahrams.
And Allah Ta'ala Knows Best/

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Talks/Announcements Immediately After Prayer

Q.) In some masajid, they have short announcments/talks between the
fardh and sunnah salat such as:
1.) A short talk, after prayer, on sunnah and adab.
2.) The Imam stands and talks to the congregation for a few minutes
and gives them advice.
3.) Du'a requests for sick and deceased people.
4.) In some schools, they have students read a page of Qur'an after
prayer to encourage other students to memorize.
What is the legal status of all of these announcements? The reason for
the question is that people who missed a few rakahs of prayer are
making up the missed rakahs are usually when the announcements start.
Or people start praying their sunnah and are interrupted by
announcements. So even if it is permissible to make a short
announcement after prayer, does the legal ruling change because of the
possibility of disturbingsomeone else's prayer?
A.) We are of the opinion that if people are performing Salaah or
making up for some missed rakaats, then announcements and duas should
not be made using the loud speaker unless they are extremely important
and kept very concise.
And Allah Ta'ala Knows Best/

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Diamonds: The hardest of minerals

What do a glittering diamond and a lead pencilhave in common? Diamonds
are very hard and the graphite of the pencil's tip is very soft. These
two different substances contain a wonderful proof of creation called
carbon.
A rough, unpolished diamond is the hardest of all minerals. (1) For
this reason, a crystal diamond is used to cut and to drill all kinds
of material and is also used as an abrasive tosmooth surfaces. (2)
Hardness is the resistance of a mineral to scratches from outside
forces; it is easy to recognize mineralsby this trait. By scratching
one mineral with another, their relative hardness canbe determined.
Scientists use a point system to designate the hardness of all
minerals. They rate diamonds with the highest ratio of ten over ten.
So, what makes diamonds so hard?
It is very interesting that the soft, breakable graphite in a pencil
tip is made up of the same atoms as a diamond. Graphite is composed of
the same carbon atoms as a diamond. But, while one is very soft, the
other is extremely hard. One is as black as a lump of charcoal; the
other may besparkling bright. One is commonly found in nature; the
other is rare. For all these reasons, diamonds are much more valuable
than graphite. How is it then, that carbonatoms can be so different
from one another?
Carbon: The Foundation of Life
(The Value of Diamonds is Determined by its Atoms)
Before we consider the differences, we must speak about the carbon
atoms that make up a diamond. The carbon atom is very important
forliving creatures. Nevil Sidgwick, the English chemist, states the
following in his book, Chemical Elements and Their Compounds :
Carbon is unique among the elements in the number and variety of the
compounds which it can form. Over a quarter of a million have already
been isolated and described, butthis gives a very imperfect idea of
its powers, since it is the basis of all forms of living matter. (3)
The class of compounds formed exclusively from carbon and hydrogen are
called hydrocarbons. This is a huge family of compounds that include
natural gas, liquid petroleum, kerosene, and lubricating oils. The
hydrocarbons ethylene and propylene form the basis of the
petrochemical industry. Hydrocarbons like benzene, toluene, and
turpentine are familiar to anyone who has worked with paints. The
naphthalene that protects our clothes from moths is another
hydrocarbon. Hydrocarbons combined with chlorine or fluorine form
anesthetics, which are the chemicals used in fire extinguishers and
the Freon used in refrigeration.
As one can see, carbon is very important; it is what makes the diamond
a rare mineral. A diamond has norival for being the finest example of
a crystalline structure in the world. Thecarbon atoms that give the
diamond crystal its hardness have an ideal geometric design.
Graphiteis also formed from carbonbut its atoms are not ordered as in
a diamond. Scientists describe this difference by the world allotropy
.
The Concept of Allotropy
The difference, in the arrangement of space, in the atoms that make up
the structure of an element is called allotropy . The atoms that
produce the structure are called allotrope atoms. We can explain this
with the following example:
Imagine that we have bought three loads of 10,000 bricks each and that
all these brinks are identical to one another. We have sent these
brinks to three different bricklayers who will each build a wall to
their own design independently of the others.
-Would the walls be identical?
-Would they all have the same sturdiness?
-Would the artistic arrangement of the bricks be similar?
If the answer to these questions is yes, the wall will not be allotropic.
If the answer to these questions is no, we can call the walls allotropic.
Oxygen and ozone are allotropes of oxygen atoms.
Diamonds, graphite, and amorph carbon are allotropes of carbon atoms.
White phosphorus and redphosphorus are allotropes of phosphorus atoms.
Rhombic sulfur and monocline sulfur are allotropes of sulfur.
Characteristics of Allotrope Atoms:
- The atom and its atomic number are the same.
- Their molecular geometry is different.
- They have different inclinations to enter chemical reactions, but
thecompounds formed by such a reaction are the same.
- The molecular sturdiness is different.

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