Shahada

The words that are spoken when one becomes a Muslim, are few but so significant. With the utterance of these words, a person acknowledges Allah as the Creator and Sustainer of all, and the messengership of His Prophet (peace be upon him). With these words, which come from the heart, a person steps from disbelief and ignorance to knowledge, light and guidence. A person can only reach this state by the Mercy and Guidance of Allah the Almighty.

Allah is Beautiful & Loves Beauty

From 'Abdullaah Ibn Mas'ood (radiyallaahu 'anhu) who said that the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said, "No one will enter Paradise who has an atom's weight of pride in his heart." A man said, "What if a man likes his clothes to look good and his shoes to look good?" He said, "Allaah is beautiful and loves beauty. Pride means denying the truth and looking down on people." [1] ......  

Ibnul-Qayyim (d.751H) - may Allah bless him- said, commenting upon this hadeeth: ''The phrase 'Allaah is beautiful and loves beauty,' includes the beautiful clothing which was asked about in the same hadeeth. It is included by way of generalization, meaning that beauty in all things is what is meant here. In Saheeh Muslim, it says: "Allaah is good and only accepts that which is good." [2] In Sunanut-Tirmidhee it says: "Allaah loves to see the effects of His blessing on His slave.'' [3] It was reported that Abul-Ahwas al-Jashamee said: The Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) saw me wearing old, tattered clothes, and asked me,

Practical steps towards learning Arabic

Alhamdulillah with all the teaching aids and easy access to information that we have, learning Arabic does not necessarily mean travelling on arduous journeys to distant lands as it once used to. With discipline and commitment, the student can study much in his own time.

Here are some tips to help you along they way:

A Priority for all of us

Scholars throughout the ages, from the Companions to the present day, encouraged the Ummah to learn the Arabic language. Ubay ibn Ka’b (radi allaahu ‘anhu) said,

“Teach Arabic like you teach the memorisation of the Qur’an!”
Abu Bakr (radi allaahu ‘anhu) said:

“That I recite and forget (a portion of the Qur’an) is more beloved to me than to make a grammatical mistake!”
And ‘Umar (radi allaahu ‘anhu) once passed by a group of archers who missed their targets.

The Preservation of the Arabic Language

Languages usually evolve. Just look at the difference between Shakespearean English and modern day English. In many ways they seem like two totally different languages and a man from England in Shakespearean times and a man from modern day England would find it extremely difficult to communicate! But the Arabic language is not just ‘a language’. This is why the Sahaba and the early generations of Muslims strove to preserve the classical Arabic language. It was Ali (radi allaahu ‘anhu) who noticed on the tongues of some of the Arabs a slight change in dialect and ordered for the grammar rules of Arabic to be recorded in a universal form. He knew that the preservation of the Arabic language was part of the preservation of Islam itself.

Arabic- The Key to Understanding the Qur’an

By Sister Fatima Barakatullah

We all feel touched when we open up a good translation of the meaning of the Qur’an and we ponder and wonder at the beauty of the words and the deep meanings within. But in reality we are just seeing a glimpse of the real treasure that the Qur’an is.

Imagine how you would feel if you could understand the words of Allah in the form in which they were sent down and not just rely on a translation of the meaning in English. Imagine the power of the words and the directness of the message then! The potency would be awesome!

The Qur’an is the word of Allah; a direct message from Allah to us His creation and Allah chose the Arabic language as the language of this message. Indeed Allah tells us this in the Qur’an emphasising to us that to understand the message in its fuller form one must understand the language: