Islamic Article |- He feels distressed and sad when he remembersthe past, before he repented

am a born muslim,alhamdulillah.i started practising from last year
until now.i have full beard,i dont smoke,no girlfriend,dontwatch
films.i am always try to spend more times for gaining knowledge.but
recently ifeel depressed,my past memories are killing me,i always feel
scared when talking to peoples,i am getting ill so often,which hurting
me,even when i pray i feel that my prayer,my duaa is not gonna
accept.i am on hardship,difficulties as well.but i dont speak about
this problems to anyone,because i believe that only Allah can help me
out from this problem.i feel like i am doing something seriously
wrong.notice that sometimes i dont pray fajar on time.is it the main
reason?
Praise be to Allah.
Firstly, we congratulate you for having repented to Allah; He has
blessed you by enabling you to give up sin and disobedience and a life
of idle pursuits. This great blessing requires you to protect it by
turning to Allah, calling upon Him, beseeching Him and always
remembering Him, may He be glorified and exalted. All of that will
strengthen the heart and make you steadfast in adhering to the path of
obedience, and it will ward off the doubts and hesitations that have
come to you recently.
Secondly, with regard towhat has befallen you recently, there are
several reasons for that:
· Part of it is because you have become very withdrawn after
you were guided, but being guided has nothing to do with this
withdrawal.You could have chosen good people to mix withand make
friends with; in fact even if you mixedwith people who were not like
that, you could have focused on showing them the way to repent and
turn back to Allah. Being religiously committed does not mean at all
thatyou should stay away from people. Even when seeking knowledge, a
person can always look for friends to sit with in the class and who
can help you to revise. This ishow the social nature of human beings
always is, but their aims and behaviour may vary. Undoubtedly keeping
away from the friends you had in the past is a beneficial kind of
withdrawal, and it may be obligatory in some cases. But it will be
helpful to you to replace the friends of the past with other friends
who are righteous and can help you to adhere to the path of guidance,
console you and strengthen your resolve. Allah, may He be exalted,says
(interpretation of the meaning):
"And keep yourself (O Muhammad SAW) patiently with those who call on
their Lord (i.e. your companions who remember their Lord with
glorification, praising in prayers, etc., and other righteous deeds,
etc.) morning andafternoon, seeking His Face, and let not your eyes
overlook them, desiring the pomp and glitter of the life of the world;
and obey not himwhose heart We have made heedless of Our Remembrance,
one who follows his own lusts andwhose affair (deeds) hasbeen lost"
[al-Kahf 18:28].
· Part of it may be your thinking of some memories of the past.
This will inevitably happen, because you areat the beginning of the
path and the Shaytaan will never leave you alone; he will put in
yourmind images and scenes and thoughts that you used to be part of,
not solong ago. But be of goodcheer, for this difficulty and these
thoughts will soon disappear, in sha Allah, so long as you remain
steadfast on the path of guidance and adhere to righteous conduct.
· The doubts that arise in your own mind and the thoughts that
come to you from everywhere are the whispers of the Shaytaan that you
must ward off forcefully, seek refuge with Allah from them, and
constantly callupon Allah (in du'aa') and ask Him to make youstrong
and to save you from the Shaytaan and his whispers. Remember that
Allah, may He be exalted, has no need of us and our deeds, and that
Allah accepts our imperfect worship by Hiskindness and grace, and He
will reward for it and multiply the reward, out of His grace, kindness
and generosity. For Allahis Appreciative and Forbearing, may He be
glorified; He accepts a little and gives much. He is as His slave
thinks He is, may He be glorified and exalted, so do not think
negatively of your Lord, for Allah is Most Kind and Most Generous.
· As for your negligence with regard to Fajr prayer, it is
undoubtedly a major shortcoming on your part and is something that you
should hasten to set straight. A good start is indicative of good
progress on the path, so how about if your day begins with
disobedience towards Allah and heedlessness concerning one of His
greatest commands, and one of His greatest rightsover His slaves,
which is prayer offered on time? The Prophet (blessings and peace of
Allah be upon him) said: "Whoever prays Fajr is under the protection
of Allah, but anyone who falls short with regard tothe rights of
Allah, then Allah will seize him and will throw him into the Fire of
Hell." Narrated by Muslim in his Saheeh, 657. So do not deprive
yourself and do not exclude yourself from the protection of your Lord
and His shielding ofHis slave against his enemy. Do not deprive
yourself of all of that by being careless with regard to praying Fajr
atthe beginning of its timewith the congregation in the mosque, lest
your enemy gain power over you when you are the one who is bringing
thatupon yourself if you do that (neglect Fajr).
May Allah make things easy for you, relieve your worry and distress,
and make you steadfast in adhering to the straight path.
And Allah knows best.

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Islamic Article |- Our attitude towards the differences of opinion among the imams with regard to covering the face

There is an important matter that is giving me sleepless nights, which
is: what is the meaning of the differences of the imam concerning a
certain issue? If I say to someone that Shaykh So and so says that
something is haraam, hesays to me that is according to his madhhab or
the madhhab of his country, and we follow a different madhhab that
says it is halaal. This led me to the issue of hijab. For example, my
country follows the Maaliki madhhab, the imams of which say that "that
which is apparent" [al-Noor 24:33] refers to the face and hands. In
addition to that, the face-veil is virtually banned in my country,
i.e., you could never wear it in your daily life, such as wearing it
at work or in school. There are laws that ban it and the gloves.
Although personally I am fully convinced about the face-veil, I cannot
wear it. What is your ruling onthat? Because every timeI listen to
tapes about hijab from Shaykhs fromanother madhhab, I feel that my
hijab is not Islamically acceptable, and I understand from their words
that I am currently unveiled and making a wanton display of myself
(tabarruj) and I am a cause of fitnah among this ummah. What should we
do, as we are confused?.
Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly:
At the time of the Revelation, the Muslims learned the rulings of
Islam from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
through the verses of the Holy Qur'aan and theahaadeeth of his Sunnah.
Hence there were no differences of opinion among them except with
regard to some minor issues. If that happened, the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) would explain to them what was
correct.
When the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) died and
the Sahaabah spread out to various regions to teach the people Islam,
there appeared some differences with regard to some matters of fiqh
which arose at different times and in different places. These
differenceswere due to a number ofreasons, which we will sum up here
from the words of the scholars:
1- The evidence had not reached the one who held a different
opinion, and he made a mistake in forming his opinion.
2- The hadeeth had reached the scholar, but he did not regard the
transmitter as trustworthy, and he thought that it went against
something that was stronger, so he followed that which he thought was
stronger than it.
3- The hadeeth had reached him but he forgot it.
4- The hadeeth had reached him but he understood it in a way other
than the intended meaning.
5- The hadeeth reached him but it was abrogated, and he did not
know the abrogating text.
6- He thought that it contradicted something that was stronger than
it, whether that was a text or scholarly consensus (ijmaa')
7- The scholar used a weak hadeeth as the basis for his ruling, or
hederived the ruling by means of weak arguments.
For a detailed discussion of these reasons and others, see Raf'
al-Malaam 'an al-A'immati'l-A'laam by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah,
and al-Khilaaf bayna al-'Ulama': Asbaabuhu wa Mawqifuna minhu by
Shaykh al-'Uthaymeen.
We think that what we have mentioned about the reasons for differences
among the scholars i.e., with regardto matters of fiqh, will be clear
to you, in sha Allaah.
Secondly:
What should the Muslim's attitude be towards differences thatarise
between the scholars? In other words,which scholarly opinion should
the Muslim followin matters where they differed? The answer depends:
1 – If the Muslim is one who has studied shar'i knowledge and learned
its basic principles and minor issues, and he can distinguish right
from wrong with regard to scholarly views, then he has to follow that
which he thinks is correct and ignore that which he thinks is wrong.
2 – If he is one of the rank and file, or has not studied shar'i
knowledge, and thus cannot distinguish between right and wrong with
regard to scholarly views, then he must follow the fatwa ofa scholar
whose knowledge he trusts andwho he believes to be trustworthy and
religiously committed, whether he is from his own country or another
country, and differences between scholars will not matter after that.
He does not have to changewhat he is doing because he hears another
scholar issuing afatwa that differs from the one he is following,
unless he realizes that what he learned later onis the correct view,
on the basis of his confidence in the religious commitment and
knowledge of the second Shaykh.
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-'Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:
The one who has knowledge of evidence is required to follow the
evidence, even if it goes against some of the imams, if it does not go
against the consensus of the ummah.
The one who does not have any knowledge should ask the scholars,
because Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): "So ask of those
who know the Scripture, if you know not" [al-Nahl 16:43]. He should
ask one who he thinks has more knowledge and is more religiously
committed, but that does not mean that doing so obligatory,because the
one who is better may make a mistake with regard to aparticular issue,
and the one who is regarded as less knowledgeable may be right with
regard to it. But priority should be given to following the one who is
more knowledgeable and more religiously committed.
See also the answers to questions no. 8294 and 10645 .
Thirdly:
If you ask about our view on the issue of covering the face, the most
correct scholarly view in our opinion is that it is obligatory to
cover the face in front ofnon-mahram men. Thereis a great deal of
evidence and scholarly views concerning that, as among the Maalikis.
Many of them said that itis not permissible for a woman to uncover her
face in front of non-mahram men, not because it is 'awrah but because
uncovering it runs the risk of fitnah. But some of them think that it
is 'awrah. Hence women, in their view, are forbidden to go out in
front of non-mahram men with their faces uncovered.
Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
"And when you ask (his wives) for anything you want, ask them from
behind a screen"
[al-Ahzaab 33:53]
al-Qaadi Abu Bakr ibn al-'Arabi al-Maaliki (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:
The entire woman is 'awrah, her body and her voice, so it is not
permissible to uncover that except in cases of necessity, such as when
testimony is given against her, or medical treatment, or asking her
about her health issues. End quote.
Ahkaam al-Qur'aan by Ibn al-'Arabi (3/1578, 1579).
Al-Qurtubi (may Allaah have mercy on him), who is also Maaliki, said:
This verse indicates that Allaah has given permission to ask of them
from behind a screen if there is some need, or when they ask a
question about something. That includesall women. Because it is a
basic shar'i principle that the entire woman is'awrah, her body and
her voice – as stated above –it is not permissible to uncover that
except in cases of necessity such as when testimony is given against
her, or medical treatment, or asking her about her health issues. End
quote.
In al-Jaami' li Ahkaam al-Qur'aan (14/227) it says:
For more information onthe views of Maaliki fuqaha' concerning the
obligation for women tocover their faces, see: al-Ma'yaar al-Mu'arrab
by al-Wanshireesi (10/165 and 11/226 and 229), Mawaahib al-Jaleel by
al-Hattaab (3/141), al-Dhakheerah by al-Quraafi (3/307) and Haashiyat
al-Dasooqi 'alaal-Sharh al-Kabeer (2/55).
We have discussed this issue and its evidence in more than one answer
on this site. Please see the answers to questionsno. 11774 , 12525 ,
13998 , 21134 and 21536 .
Fourthly:
With regard to what youmention about the laws in your country
forbidding women to cover their faces, that is something that makes
usfeel very sad, to hear that covering and chastity are being opposed
and wanton display and unveiling are being encouraged everywhere,
especially when that happens in a country that is supposed to be
Muslim.
If the laws forbid women to cover, and you fear persecution because of
covering your faces, then there is no sin on you if you do not do it
in that case, so long as that is based on necessity. So a woman should
not go out of her house with her face uncovered except in cases of
necessity. If she can break the law and put up with a little bit of
hassle, let her do so for there is no obedience to any created being
if it involves disobedience towards the Creator.
And Allaah knows best.

Islamic Article |- He feels distressed and sad when he remembersthe past, before he repented

am a born muslim,alhamdulillah.i started practising from last year
until now.i have full beard,i dont smoke,no girlfriend,dontwatch
films.i am always try to spend more times for gaining knowledge.but
recently ifeel depressed,my past memories are killing me,i always feel
scared when talking to peoples,i am getting ill so often,which hurting
me,even when i pray i feel that my prayer,my duaa is not gonna
accept.i am on hardship,difficulties as well.but i dont speak about
this problems to anyone,because i believe that only Allah can help me
out from this problem.i feel like i am doing something seriously
wrong.notice that sometimes i dont pray fajar on time.is it the main
reason?
Praise be to Allah.
Firstly, we congratulate you for having repented to Allah; He has
blessed you by enabling you to give up sin and disobedience and a life
of idle pursuits. This great blessing requires you to protect it by
turning to Allah, calling upon Him, beseeching Him and always
remembering Him, may He be glorified and exalted. All of that will
strengthen the heart and make you steadfast in adhering to the path of
obedience, and it will ward off the doubts and hesitations that have
come to you recently.
Secondly, with regard towhat has befallen you recently, there are
several reasons for that:
· Part of it is because you have become very withdrawn after
you were guided, but being guided has nothing to do with this
withdrawal.You could have chosen good people to mix withand make
friends with; in fact even if you mixedwith people who were not like
that, you could have focused on showing them the way to repent and
turn back to Allah. Being religiously committed does not mean at all
thatyou should stay away from people. Even when seeking knowledge, a
person can always look for friends to sit with in the class and who
can help you to revise. This ishow the social nature of human beings
always is, but their aims and behaviour may vary. Undoubtedly keeping
away from the friends you had in the past is a beneficial kind of
withdrawal, and it may be obligatory in some cases. But it will be
helpful to you to replace the friends of the past with other friends
who are righteous and can help you to adhere to the path of guidance,
console you and strengthen your resolve. Allah, may He be exalted,says
(interpretation of the meaning):
"And keep yourself (O Muhammad SAW) patiently with those who call on
their Lord (i.e. your companions who remember their Lord with
glorification, praising in prayers, etc., and other righteous deeds,
etc.) morning andafternoon, seeking His Face, and let not your eyes
overlook them, desiring the pomp and glitter of the life of the world;
and obey not himwhose heart We have made heedless of Our Remembrance,
one who follows his own lusts andwhose affair (deeds) hasbeen lost"
[al-Kahf 18:28].
· Part of it may be your thinking of some memories of the past.
This will inevitably happen, because you areat the beginning of the
path and the Shaytaan will never leave you alone; he will put in
yourmind images and scenes and thoughts that you used to be part of,
not solong ago. But be of goodcheer, for this difficulty and these
thoughts will soon disappear, in sha Allah, so long as you remain
steadfast on the path of guidance and adhere to righteous conduct.
· The doubts that arise in your own mind and the thoughts that
come to you from everywhere are the whispers of the Shaytaan that you
must ward off forcefully, seek refuge with Allah from them, and
constantly callupon Allah (in du'aa') and ask Him to make youstrong
and to save you from the Shaytaan and his whispers. Remember that
Allah, may He be exalted, has no need of us and our deeds, and that
Allah accepts our imperfect worship by Hiskindness and grace, and He
will reward for it and multiply the reward, out of His grace, kindness
and generosity. For Allahis Appreciative and Forbearing, may He be
glorified; He accepts a little and gives much. He is as His slave
thinks He is, may He be glorified and exalted, so do not think
negatively of your Lord, for Allah is Most Kind and Most Generous.
· As for your negligence with regard to Fajr prayer, it is
undoubtedly a major shortcoming on your part and is something that you
should hasten to set straight. A good start is indicative of good
progress on the path, so how about if your day begins with
disobedience towards Allah and heedlessness concerning one of His
greatest commands, and one of His greatest rightsover His slaves,
which is prayer offered on time? The Prophet (blessings and peace of
Allah be upon him) said: "Whoever prays Fajr is under the protection
of Allah, but anyone who falls short with regard tothe rights of
Allah, then Allah will seize him and will throw him into the Fire of
Hell." Narrated by Muslim in his Saheeh, 657. So do not deprive
yourself and do not exclude yourself from the protection of your Lord
and His shielding ofHis slave against his enemy. Do not deprive
yourself of all of that by being careless with regard to praying Fajr
atthe beginning of its timewith the congregation in the mosque, lest
your enemy gain power over you when you are the one who is bringing
thatupon yourself if you do that (neglect Fajr).
May Allah make things easy for you, relieve your worry and distress,
and make you steadfast in adhering to the straight path.
And Allah knows best.

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Islamic Article |- How to be benefited bythe Holy Qur'an

Now that you have got acquainted with the subjects and the objectives
of the Divine Book [the Qur'an], you will have to take into
consideration an important point, as by doing so the door of being
benefited by it will be opened to you, and the passage to knowledge
and wisdom will be wide open to your heart. This point is to look at
this Glorious Book as an educational one, a teaching book by which you
should be benefited, regarding it your duty to learn fromit. By
learning, teaching, benefiting and being benefited we do not mean its
different literary syntactical and morphological aspects,nor its
eloquence and rhetoric and other stylistic points, nor being
interested in its stories, tales and episodes from the historical
point of viewin order to get information about the past nations. None
of these is included in theobjectives of the Qur'an , and they are,
infact, far away from the main objective of this divine Book. The fact
that our advantage from this great Book is quite small is because we
usually do not take it to be a book of teaching and education. We
recite the Qur'an just for its reward. So, we pay attention only to
our intonation when reciting it. We want our recitation to be perfect
and correct so as to obtain its reward,then we stop at that and feel
satisfied with it. Thus, we spend some forty years reciting the Qur'an
without being benefited by it, except the reward for recitingit. If we
do look at its teaching and educational side, we concern ourselves
withits eloquence and syntax and its miraculous aspects, or even
somewhat higher, we engage ourselves with its history, the occasions
of the revelation of the ayahs, the times of their revelation, which
surah or ayah was revealed in Mecca and which in al-Madinah, the
differences in recitations and in the exegeses of the Sunnis and the
Shiites and other secondary affairswhich are outside the main
objective and they themselves cause us to be barred from the Qur'an
and to neglect remembering Allah. Even our great commentators of the
Qur'an are very much concerned about one or another of the said
affairs, without opening the door of learning to the people.
The writer believes that so far no "tafsir" [exegesis] has yet been
written to the Book of Allah. Generally, to write a"tafsir" for a book
means to explain the objectives of the book and to draw the attentions
to what its author wants to say. This noble Book, whichAllah, the
Exalted, testifies to be a book of guidance and teaching, and the
light of the road of man's journey, its exegete should find in each
oneof its stories, or even ineach ayah, a directive guiding to the
invisibleworld, so as to show tothe learner the road to happiness, to
knowledge and to humanity. A "mufassir"[commentator or exegete] is the
one who tells us what was the "objective" of the revelation, not
the"occasion" of the revelation as is explained in the exegeses. In
the very story of Adam and Eve and their affairs with Iblis, from the
very moment of their creation till their descent to the earth, which
story is repeated by Allah several times in the Qur'an, there are so
many overt and covert teachings [ ma'arif ] and admonitions, and it
reminds us of so many of spiritual faultsand Satanic characters,as
well as many perfections of the soul and human knowledgewhich it
introduces to us, whereas we still disregard them.
In short, the Book of Allah is a book of knowledge and ethics, and an
invitation to happiness and perfection. So, its exegesis should also
be a book of gnosticism and ethics, explaining the gnostic and ethical
points of view, and other aspects of inviting to its happiness [
sa`ada ] . The commentator who neglects these points, disregards them
or attaches no importance to them, is,actually, neglecting
theobjective of the Qur'an and the main aim of revealing the [divine]
books and sending the messengers. This is a grave mistake which has
prevented the ummah, for many centuries, from being benefited by the
Glorious Qur'an, and it has blocked the road ofguidance in their
faces.We have to learn the objective of the revelation of the Qur'an
-disregarding the intellectual and argumentative aspects, which show
us the goal by themselves-from the Qur'an itself. The author of a book
knows better his own objective. So, let us have a glance at what the
author of this BookHimself says concerning the affairs of the Qur'an.
He says: " This is the Book, wherein is no doubt, a guide for the
muttaqin [those who fear Allah]". [299] He describes His Book as being
a book of guidance. In a short surah He repeats saying: " We have made
the Qur'an easy for remembrance, but is there any one who will mind?"
[300] He says: "...We have revealed to you the Remembrance that youmay
explain to mankind what has been sent down to them and that haply they
will reflect," [301] and "A Book We have revealed to you, blessed,
that they may ponder over its ayahs and that men of understanding may
remember," [302] and many other noble ayahs, to restate whichwould be
lengthy.
This opinion of ours is not intended to criticize the tafsirs, as
every one of their authors has taken great pains and strivenhard in
order to write a noble book, so, may Allah bless them and grant them
good reward. We intend justto say that the door must be open before
the people to be benefited by this Book,which is the only one leading
to Allah and the only one for educating the souls with the divine
disciplines and laws, the greatest means of connection between the
created and Creator, the strong handle and the firm cord of adhering
to theMight of Divinity. Let the scholars and commentators write
Persian and Arabic exegeses with the aim of explaining the gnostic and
ethical teachings and instructions, showing the way of connecting the
created to the Creator, and expounding the migration from Darul Ghurur
[the House of Conceit = this world] tothe Darus-Surur wal Khulud [the
House of Pleasure and Eternity], according to what has been deposited
in this noble Book. The authorof this Book is not as-Sakkaki or the
Shaykh, whose objectives were eloquence and rhetoric, nor is He
Sibawayh or al-Khalil, whose objectives weregrammar and syntax, nor is
He al-Mas'udi or Ibn Khillakan, whose objectives revolved around the
history of the world. This Book is not like the stick of Moses or his
White Hand, nor is it like the blow of Christ who could raise the dead
[by Allah's permission], to have been sent down only as a miracle to
prove the true prophethood of the Holy Prophet. This divine Book is,
as a matter of fact, a bookof enlivening the hearts with the
everlasting life of divine knowledge. It is Allah's Book which invites
to divine affairs. So, the commentator has to teach these divine
affairs to the people, and the people have to refer to his commentary
to learn those affairs, so that they may attain its advantage: "And We
reveal of the Qur'an that which is a healing and a mercy to the
believers, and it adds only to the perdition ofthe wrongdoers." [303]
Which perdition is graver than that we keep reciting the Divine Book
for thirty or forty years and referto the exegeses, and yet we do not
get its real objectives? "Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves. If You
do not forgive us and have not mercy upon us, we shall certainly be of
the losers."