"The messenger of Allah, pbuh, led the Eid prayer and then
gave the sermon. Then he realized that his voice will not
have reached the women. So he walked to the women, gave them
the sermon and taught them the message of Islam particularly
about charity, sadaqa. Then the women started donating their
ear rings and finger rings in the way of Allah
[sadaqa]."
Hadith narrated by Ibn Abbas, r.a., collected in Sahih
Bukhari #962, Sahih Muslim, # 884, Musnad of Ahmad #
1902
Breaking News
Prominent & Distinguished Islamic Scholar, Sheikh Abdullah
el-Faisal , Arrested in Jamaica.
On August 25, in Kingston, Jamaica, a famous Islamic
preacher and scholar Sheikh El-Faisal was arrested. Faisal
is known for his fiery orations against the occupation of
Muslim countries by the western powers.
The US is getting him extradited to the US to be tried as a
"terrorist." Looks like an informant was callimg him and
probably got him to say things which would amount to support
for "terrorism."
The government is out to get anyone who urges Muslims to
join the mujahideen. It is easy to get a fiery orator to say
things challenging the US occupation of Muslim
countries.
On top of that he is Black and that could stir up Black
people who are aware of the great wrongs which have been
done to them.
Sheikh Faisal put up an eloquent defense of the Blind Shaikh
Dr. Omar Abdel Rahman when Saudi "salafis" were trying to
demean the Blind scholar.
This appears to be an attempt to silence a preacher who
speaks well. Anyone who condemns US attacks on the Islamic
State is immediately labelled as a "terrorist" though he
might not have hurt anyone.
Muslims should beware of informants whose job is to get
Muslim scholars imprisoned.
Burma
Mujahideen emerge from among Rohingya Muslims Brutalized
by Buddhists.
August 20 - 25. Mujahideen struck back at Burmese [Myanmer]
security forces, setting 20 checkpoints on fire. The
Buddhist regime which has committed widespread atrocties
against Muslims is in a state of shock that it is getting
some payback.
United Nations which has done nothing to stop massacres of
Muslims in Burma is now speaking against the mujahideen. [IS
is suspected but details are not available.]
[With thanks to Br. Zakhum via Br. Zaheer Bawany]
Children of the occupation: growing up in Palestine
Nawal Jabarin wants to be a doctor when she grows up. For
now, she lives in a cave with 14 siblings, in constant fear
of military raids. We meet the Palestinian children living
underIsraeli occupation.
By Harriet Sherwood - 7 February 2014
alt
Nawal Jabarin, 12, and her brothers, two-month-old Issa and
two-year-old Jibril, in their West Bank home.
The rough track is an unmarked turning across a primeval
landscape of rock and sand under a vast cobalt sky. Our Jeep
bounces between boulders and dust-covered gorse bushes
before beginning a bone-jolting descent from the high ridge
into a deep valley. An Israeli army camp comes into view,
then the tinyvillage of Jinba: two buildings, a few tents, a
scattering of animal pens. A pair of military helicopters
clatter overhead. The air smells of sheep.
At the end of this track in the southern West Bank,
12-year-old Nawal Jabarin lives in a cave. She was born in
the gloom beneath its low, jagged roof, as were two of her
brothers, and her father a generation earlier. Along the
rock-strewn track that connects Jinba to the nearest paved
road, Nawal's mother gave birth to another baby, unable to
reach hospital in time; on the same stretch of flattened
earth, Nawal's father was beaten by Israeli settlers in
front of the terrified child.
The cave and an adjacent tent are home to 18 people: Nawal's
father, his two wives and 15 children. The family's 200
sheep are penned outside. An ancient generator that runs on
costly diesel provides power for a maximum of three hours a
day. Water is fetched from village wells, or delivered by
tractor at up to 20 times the cost of piped water. During
the winter, bitter winds sweep across the desert landscape,
slicing through the tent and forcing the whole family to
crowd into the cave for warmth. "In winter, we are stacked
on top of one another," Nawal tells me.
She rarely leaves the village. "I used to ride in my
father's car. But the settlers stopped us. They beat my
father before my eyes, cursing, using foul language. They
took our things and threw them out of the car."
Even home is not safe. "The soldiers come in [the cave] to
search. I don't know what they're looking for," she says.
"Sometimes they open the pens and let the sheep out. In
Ramadan, they came and took my brothers. I saw the soldiers
beat them with the heel of their guns. They forced us to
leave the cave."
Despite the hardships of her life, Nawal is happy. "This is
my homeland, this is where I want to be. It's hard here, but
I like my home and the land and the sheep." But, she adds,
"I will be even happier if we are allowed to stay."
Nawal is one of a second generation of Palestinians to be
born into occupation. Her birth came 34 years after Israel
seized the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem during
the six-day war. Military law was imposed on the Palestinian
population, and soon afterwards Israel began to build
colonies on occupied land under military protection. East
Jerusalem was annexed in a move declared illegal under
international law.
The first generation - Nawal's parents and their peers - are
now approaching middle age, their entire lives dominated by
the daily grind and small humiliations of an occupied
people. Around four million Palestinians have known nothing
but an existence defined by checkpoints, demands for
identity papers, night raids, detentions, house demolitions,
displacement, verbal abuse, intimidation, physical attacks,
imprisonment and violent death. It is a cruel mosaic:
countless seemingly unrelated fragments that, when put
together, build a picture of power and powerlessness. Yet,
after 46 years, it has also become a kind of normality.
For the young, the impact of such an environment is often
profound. Children are exposed to experiences that shape
attitudes for a lifetime and, in some cases, have lasting
psychological consequences. Frank Roni, a child protection
specialist for Unicef, the United Nations' agency for
children, who works in the West Bank, Gaza and East
Jerusalem, speaks of the "inter-generational trauma" of
living under occupation. "The ongoing conflict, the
deterioration of the economy and social environment, the
increase in violence - this all impacts heavily on
children," he says. "Psychological walls" mirror physical
barriers and checkpoints. "Children form a ghetto mentality
and lose hope for the future, which fuels a cycle of
despair," Roni says.
But their experiences are inevitably uneven. Many children
living in the major Palestinian cities, under a degree of
self-government, rarely come into contact with settlers or
soldiers, while such encounters are part of daily life for
those in the 62% of the West Bank under full Israeli
control, known as Area C. Children in Gaza live in a
blockaded strip of land, often growing up in extreme
economic hardship, and with direct and shocking experience
of intense warfare. In East Jerusalem, a high proportion of
Palestinian children grow up in impoverished ghettoes,
encroached upon by expanding Israeli settlements or with
extremist settlers taking over properties in their
midst.
In the South Hebron Hills, the shepherds who have roamed the
area for generations now live alongside ideologically and
religiously driven Jews who claim an ancient biblical
connection to the land and see the Palestinians as
interlopers. They have built gated settlements on the
hilltops, serviced with paved roads, electricity and running
water, and protected by the army. The settlers and soldiers
have brought fear to the cave-dwellers: violent attacks on
the local Palestinian population are frequent, along with
military raids and the constant threat of forcible removal
from their land.
Nawal's village is inside an area designated in the 1980s by
the Israeli army as "Firing Zone 918" for military training.
The army wants to clear out eight Palestinian communities on
the grounds that it is unsafe for them to remain within a
military training zone; they are not "permanent residents".
A legal battle over the fate of the villages, launched
before Nawal was born, is still unresolved.
Her school, a basic three-room structure, is under a
demolition order, as is the only other building in the
village, the mosque, which is used as an overspill
classroom. Both were constructed without official Israeli
permits, which are hardly ever granted. Haytham Abu Sabha,
Nawal's teacher, says his pupils' lives are "very hard. The
children have no recreation. They lack the basic things in
life: there is no electricity, high malnutrition, no
playgrounds. When they get sick or are hurt, it's hard
getting them to hospital. We are forced to be
primitive."
The children are also forced to be brave. Nawal insists she
is not afraid of the soldiers. But when I ask if she has
cried during the raids on her home, she hesitates before
nodding almost imperceptibly, unwilling to admit to her
fears. Psychologists and counselors working with Palestinian
children say this reluctance to acknowledge and vocalize
frightening experiences compounds the damage caused by the
event itself. "Children say they are not afraid of soldiers,
but their body language tells you something different," says
Mona Zaghrout, head of counseling at the YMCA in Beit
Sahour, near Bethlehem. "They feel ashamed to say they are
afraid."
alt
Ahed Tamimi, 12, plays hopscotch, likes movies about
mermaids and teases her brothers at home in Nabi Saleh.
Like Nawal, 12-year-old Ahed Tamimi boldly asserts that she,
too, has no fear of soldiers, before quietly admitting that
sometimes she is afraid. Ahed's apparent fearlessness
catapulted her to a brief fame a year ago when a video of
her angrily confronting Israeli soldiers was posted online.
The girl was invited to Turkey, where she was hailed as a
child hero.
Amid tree-covered hills almost three hours' drive north of
Jinba, Nabi Saleh is a village of around 500 people, most of
whom share the family name of Tamimi. From Ahed's home, the
Israeli settlement of Halamish is visible across a valley.
Founded in 1977, it is built partly on land confiscated from
local Palestinian families. An Israeli army base is situated
next to the settlement.
When settlers appropriated the village spring five years
ago, the people of Nabi Saleh began weekly protests. Ahed's
parents, Bassem and Nariman, have been at the forefront of
the demonstrations, which are largely nonviolent, although
they often involve some stone-throwing. The Israeli military
routinely respond with tear gas, stun grenades, rubber
bullets, jets of foul-smelling fluid known as "skunk", and
sometimes live ammunition.
Two villagers have been killed, and around 350 - including
large numbers of children - injured. Ahed was shot in the
wrist by a rubber bullet. At least 140 people from Nabi
Saleh have been detained or imprisoned as a result of
protest activity, including 40 minors. Bassem has been
jailed nine times - four times since his daughter's birth -
and was named a " prisoner of conscience" by Amnesty
International; Nariman has been detained five times since
the protests began; and Ahed's older brother, Waed, was
arrested. Her uncle, Rushdie Tamimi, died two days after
being shot by soldiers in November 2012. An Israel Defense
Forces investigation later found that soldiers fired 80
bullets without justification; they also prevented villagers
giving medical aid to the injured man.
Ahed, a slight, elfin-faced girl, is a discomforting mix of
worldliness and naivety. For a child, she knows far too much
about tear gas and rubber bullets, demolition orders and
military raids. Her home, scarred by repeated army assaults,
is one of 13 in the village that are threatened with being
bulldozed. When I ask how often she has experienced the
effects of tear gas, she laughs, saying she cannot count the
times. I ask her to describe it. "I can't breathe, my eyes
hurt, it feels like I'm suffocating. Sometimes it's 10
minutes until I can see again," she says.
Like Nawal, Ahed is familiar with military raids on her
home. One, while her father was in prison, began at 3am with
the sound of assault rifles being battered against the front
door. "I woke up, there were soldiers in my bedroom. My mum
was screaming at the soldiers. They turned everything upside
down, searching. They took our laptop and cameras and
phones."
According to Bassem, his daughter "sometimes wakes up at
night, shouting and afraid. Most of the time, the children
are nervous and stressed, and this affects their education.
Their priorities change, they don't see the point in
learning."
Those working with Palestinian children say this is a common
reaction. "When you live under constant threat or fear of
danger, your coping mechanisms deteriorate. Children are
nearly always under stress, afraid to go to school, unable
to concentrate," Frank Roni says.
Mona Zaghrout of the YMCA lists typical responses to trauma
among children: "Nightmares, lack of concentration,
reluctance to go to school, clinginess, unwillingness to
sleep alone, insomnia, aggressive behavior, regressive
behavior, bed-wetting. Psychosomatic symptoms, such as a
high fever without a biological reason, or a rash over the
body. These are the most common things we see."
The flip side of Ahed's life is one of poignant prosaicness.
She plays hopscotch and football with her school friends,
likes movies about mermaids, teases her brothers, skips with
a rope in the sitting room. But she shrinks from the
suggestion that we photograph her near the army watchtower
at the entrance to the village, only reluctantly agreeing to
a few minutes within sight of the soldier behind the
concrete.
Her answers to questions about what the protests are over
and the role of the army seem practiced, the result of
living in a highly politicized community. "We want to
liberate Palestine, we want to live as free people, the
soldiers are here to protect the settlers and prevent us
reaching our land." With her brothers, she watches a DVD of
edited footage showing her parents being arrested, their
faces contorted in anger and pain, her own confrontation
with Israeli soldiers, a night-time raid on the house, her
uncle writhing on the ground after being shot. On top of
witnessing these events first-hand, she relives them over
and over again on screen.
The settlers across the valley appear to her as completely
alien. She has never had direct contact with any of them. No
soldier, she says, has ever spoken a civil word to her.
alt
Waleed Abu Aishe's family put a steel cage over their house
in Hebron after attacks by settlers: 'It's like living in a
prison. No one can visit us. Soldiers are there day and
night. I don't remember anything else'.
It's the same for 13-year-old Waleed Abu Aishe. Israeli
soldiers are stationed at the end of his street in the
volatile city of Hebron 24 hours a day, yet none has ever
acknowledged the skinny, bespectacled boy by name as he
makes his way home from school. "They make out they don't
know us, but of course they do," he says. "They just want to
make things difficult. They know my name, but they never use
it."
Nowhere in the West Bank do Israeli settlers and
Palestinians live in closer proximity or with greater
animosity than in Hebron. A few hundred biblically inspired
Jews reside in the heart of the ancient city, protected by
around 4,000 soldiers, amid a Palestinian population of
170,000. In 1997 the city was divided into H1, administered
by the Palestinian Authority, and H2, a much smaller area
around the old market, under the control of the Israeli
military. H2 is now a near-ghost town: shuttered shops,
empty houses, deserted streets, packs of wild dogs, and
armed soldiers on most street corners. Here, the remaining
Palestinian families endure an uneasy existence with their
settler neighbors.
In Tel Rumeida, Waleed's neighborhood, almost all the
Palestinian residents have left. Only the Abu Aishes and
another family remain on his street, alongside new settler
apartment blocks and portable buildings. Waleed lives much
closer to his settler and soldier neighbors than either Ahed
Tamimi or Nawal Jabarin: from his front window, you can see
directly into settler homes a few meters away. Next door to
his home is an army base housing around 400 soldiers.
Following violent attacks, stone-throwing, smashed windows
and repeated harassment from settlers, the Abu Aishes
erected a steel mesh cage and video cameras over the front
of the three-storey house where the family has lived for 55
years. When not at school, Waleed spends almost all his time
inside this cage. "For me, this is normal," he says. "I got
used to it. But it's like living in a prison. No one can
visit us. The soldiers stop people at the bottom of the
street, and if they are not from our family, it's forbidden
for them to visit. There is only one way to our house, and
the soldiers are there day and night. I don't remember
anything else: they have been here since I was born."
Despite his "normality", he wishes his friends could come to
the house, or that he and his brother could play football on
the street.
The cage, and public condemnation that erupted in Israel
following the broadcast on television of a Jewish woman
hissing "whore" in Arabic through the mesh at female members
of the Abu Aishe family, have reduced settler attacks and
abuse. But Waleed still gets called "donkey" or "dog", and
is sometimes chased by settler children.
His mother, Ibtasan, says the soldiers take no action to
protect her children. "They have got used to this way of
life, but it's very exhausting. Always I am worried," she
says as images from the street below flicker on a television
monitor in the corner of the living room. "It was easier
when they were little, although they had bad dreams. They
would sleep one next to me, one next to my husband and one
between us."
A 2010 report by the children's rights organization Defense
for Children International (DCI) said Palestinian children
in Hebron were "frequently the targets of settler attacks in
the form of physical assaults and stone-throwing that injure
them" and were "especially vulnerable to settler
attacks".
I ask Waleed if he's ever tempted to retaliate. He looks
uncomfortable. "Some of my friends throw stones at the
soldiers," he says. "Even if I wanted to, I couldn't,
because the soldiers know me."
Stone-throwing by Palestinian children at settlers and
security forces is common, sometimes causing injuries and
even deaths. Bassem Tamimi neither advocates nor condemns
it: "If we throw stones, the soldiers shoot. But if we don't
throw stones, they shoot anyway. Stone-throwing is a
reaction. You can't be a victim all the time," he says.
alt
'People respect me because I've been arrested so many
times,' says Muslim Odeh, 14, who lives in Silwan, East
Jerusalem.
Another father, whose adolescent son has been detained by
the Israeli police 16 times since the age of nine, concurs.
"We have the right to defend ourselves, but what do we have
to defend ourselves with? Do we have tanks, or jet
fighters?" asks Mousa Odeh.
His son, Muslim, now 14, is well known to the Israeli
security forces in the East Jerusalem district of Silwan. A
few minutes' drive from the five-star hotels around the
ancient walls of Jerusalem's Old City, Silwan is wedged in a
gulley, a dense jumble of houses along steep and narrow
streets lined with car repair workshops and tired grocery
stores.
It has always been a tough neighborhood, but an influx of
hardline settlers has created acute tensions, exacerbated by
the aggression of their private armed security guards and
demolition orders against more than 80 Palestinian homes.
The area's youths throw stones and rocks at the settlers'
reinforced vehicles, risking arrest by the ever-present
police.
"Every minute you see the police - up and down, up and
down," Muslim says. "They stop us, search us, bug us. When
I'm bored, I bug them, too. Why should I be frightened of
them?" The boy insists he is not among the stone-throwers,
an assertion that stretches credulity. "The police accuse me
of making trouble, but I don't throw stones, ever. Some of
my friends, maybe."
Hyam, Muslim's mother, says her son, the youngest of five
children, has changed since the arrests began. "They have
destroyed him psychologically. He's more aggressive and
nervous, hyper, always wanting to be out in the
streets."
Muslim's detentions have followed a typical, well-documented
pattern. Between 500 and 700 Palestinian children are
arrested by Israeli security forces each year, most accused
of throwing stones. They are often arrested at night, taken
away from home without a parent or adult accompanying them,
questioned without lawyers, held in cells before an
appearance in court. Some are blindfolded or have their
hands bound with plastic ties. Many report physical and
verbal abuse, and say they make false confessions. According
to DCI, which has taken hundreds of affidavits from minors
in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, these children are
often pumped for information on relatives and neighbors by
their interrogators. Muslim has been held for periods
varying from a few hours to a week.
For Muslim, his repeated detentions are a rite of passage.
"People respect me because I've been arrested so many
times," he tells me. Child psychologists see it rather
differently. They say young boys are often feted as heroes
when they return from detention, which denies them the scope
to process their traumatic experiences and express common
feelings of acute anxiety. According to Zaghrout, boys are
expected to act tough. "In our culture, it's easier for
girls to show fear and cry. Boys are told they shouldn't
cry. It's hard for boys to say they are frightened to go to
the toilet alone or that they want to sleep with their
parents. But they still have these feelings, they just come
out differently - in nightmares, bed-wetting,
aggression."
Mousa, Muslim's father and the imam of the local mosque,
says that, despite his son's bravado, he is an unhappy and
insecure boy. "When the army comes, he clings to me. Since
the beginning of the arrests, he sleeps with me." While
Mousa is talking, Muslim suddenly leaves the house carrying
a knife, intent on puncturing a football being kicked
against the front wall by local children. "This is
disturbed, irrational behavior," Mousa says. "This is
because of the arrests. They have destroyed his childhood.
He saw his father, his brother, his sister being arrested.
There is a demolition order on the house. Most of our
neighbors have been arrested. This is the childhood of this
boy. He is not growing up in Disneyland."
Mousa describes his own detention while trying to prevent
the police arresting his son. "They carried me in my
underwear from here to the Russian Compound [a cell and
court complex in central Jerusalem]. Can you imagine more
humiliation than this? We are religious people - we don't
even let our children see us without clothes. If you gave me
a million dollars, I would not go outside in my
underwear."
The moment when children realize their parents, especially
their fathers, cannot protect them is psychologically
significant, according to experts. "For children, their
fathers are the protectors of the family. But often these
men reach a point where they cannot protect their children.
Sometimes soldiers humiliate fathers in front of children.
This is very difficult for children who naturally see their
father as a hero," Zaghrout says.
According to Roni at Unicef, "Children can lose faith and
respect when they see their father beaten in front of them.
These children sometimes develop a resistance to respecting
people in authority. We hear parents saying, 'I can't
control my child any more - they won't listen to me.' This
creates great stresses within a family."
Muslim now skips school regularly, saying it bores him, and
instead spends his days roaming the streets. According to
Mousa, the boy's teachers say he is hard to control,
aggressive and uncooperative. At the end of our visit, the
restless teenager accompanies us back to our car. He bounces
along the road, leaning in open car windows to twist a
steering wheel or honk a horn. As we prepare to leave, he
gives us a word of warning: "Be careful. Some kid might
throw rocks at you."
Despite their difficult lives, each of these four children
has a touchstone of normality in their life. For Nawal, it
is the sheep that she tends. Ahed likes football and playing
with dolls. Waleed is passionate about drawing. Muslim looks
after horses in his neighborhood. And each has an ambition
for the future: Nawal hopes to be a doctor, to care for the
cave-dwellers and shepherds of the South Hebron Hills; Ahed
wants to become a lawyer, to fight for Palestinian rights;
Waleed aspires to be an architect, to design houses without
cages; and Muslim enjoys fixing things and would like to be
a car mechanic.
But growing up under occupation is shaping another
generation of Palestinians. The professionals who work with
these children say many traumatized youngsters become angry
and hopeless adults, contributing to a cycle of despair and
violence. "What we face in our childhood, and how we deal
with it, forms us as adults," Zaghrout says.
"There is a cycle of trauma imprinted on Palestinian
consciousness, passed down from generation to generation,"
Rita Giacaman, professor of public health at Birzeit
university, says. "Despair is also handed down. It's hard
for children to see a future. The past not only informs the
present, but also the future."
Islam is against Slavery & Statues.
Both Sides in Clash of Kuffar are Wrong. Stand United vs
Kufr.
On August 25 Br. Kaukab Siddique gave the Juma khutba and
led prayers at Masjid Jamaat al-Muslimeen in Baltimore.
It's a small mosque but the congregation is growing and the
masjid is almost out of space.
[Some of our Arab brothers wept during the story of Hajira,
r.a. May Allah bless them.]
Here is an outline of the khutba:
Allah is warning us. The total eclipse made us remember
the eclipse which is reported in Sahih hadith, and the
Prophet, pbuh, told us to make extra prayers. He taught that
the Laws of Allah are not connected to the lives of humans
but to the overall structure of the universe.
Then look at the massive storm which is striking the
coast of Texas. Human beings should realize the power of
Allah's creation. Allah is not trying to destroying us but
giving us glimpses of the immensity of His creation and an
inkling of the end of the world as we are messing up the
environment.
The Hajj gives us the concept of ONE UMMAH which the
enemies of Islam are trying to undermine. Allah wants us to
be brothers and sisters globally, from Gambia to the
Philippines, from Kashmir to Chechnia.
The power structure does not want us to send zakat and
sadaqat to Muslim countries where widows and orphans created
by bombing by the kuffar are in great misery.
If we are 54 little tin pot republics, imperialism and
Zionism will blow us away. As ONE UMMAH we are a global
power. If you hurt one of us, you hurt all of us.
When the election campaign in America began, our Jamaat
urged Muslims not to vote for either party. It is indeed
shameful and disgraceful for any Muslim to be running around
trying to make this kafir or that kafir our leader with
childish arguments that Abu Lahab is better than Abu
Jahal.
See how the two forces have emerged: on one side are the
racists who hate Muslims, Mexicans, Black people and all
people of color. On the other side are the Communists [who
don't believe in God], the homos, the sexual anarchists.
Both want to continue to make war against Islam. Stay away
from them.
We can learn from the struggle of Malcolm X [al-Hajj
Malik Shabazz]. The system tried to destroy him owing to
petty crime and hustling young people fall into. In prison
he learned of Black power and became the greatest speaker of
the NOI, a slanted version of Islam.
When Malcolm went to Africa, he was treated as a brother
and found that most of Africa is Muslim but they did not
know what his version of "Islam" meant. He went to Lebanon
and got a huge welcome from the Arab communities.
Then he went to Makka and was embraced by "White"
Muslims as a brother. He was shocked that his idea of the
"White man is the devil" was not correct. A person's
character, faith and behavior is key. There are oppressors
in each race and in each nation as well as good people.
Smashing statues and pagan monuments is the tradition of
Islam. The Prophet, pbuh, made war against slavers. He
smashed the idols which stood for the enslavement of
humanity. He sent Bilal, r.a., [a freed slave], Ali, r.a.,
the youthful supporter of Islam and Khalid ibn al-Waleed,
r.a., who knew slavery and paganism well, to destroy the
temples of enslavement and tyranny.
I am proud that my daughter participated in the removal of a
confederate monument.
Part II
Few people remember that the holiest city of Islam,
Makka, was founded by a Black African WOMAN named Hajira,
may Allah be pleased with her.
Hajira, r.a., was left alone in the desert with her
little baby [Ismail, pbuh]. There was no food or water in
the barren, hot, desert. She saw that her baby would die
soon.
A woman alone, with no male help, she did not despair.
She ran up and down the hills in the area, trying to see if
any human caravan was on the horizon. She ran up and down
the hills SEVEN TIMES but there was no one there and her
baby was dying. She did not give up.
Then she noticed a wet spot near where she had left the
baby. Was it his urine? No, then she saw the angel Gabriel.
He was pointing to a spot in the sand with his wing,
signaling to her to dig there.
She went down and started digging there and the more she
dug, the more water came out. She and her baby were
saved.
Dear Muslims, that water fountain is still there,
several thousand years later, and millions of people drink
from it every year or take some of it as a blessing.
A passing caravan saw birds on the horizon and wondered
how that was possible in the desert unless there was water.
They kept moving till they met Hajira, r.a., and her baby,
Ismail, pbuh.
They asked her permission to stay there and share the
blessing,
That's how the holiest city of Islam was founded by a
Black African woman who would not give up. This is the
greatest miracle of Islam, second only to the Qur'an.
Dear Muslims, we need a central core of Muslim women in
our Masjid to make it a success, within the hijabi,
respectful, purifying rules of Islam.
The Prophet, pbuh, followed the Sunnah of Hajira, r.a.,
by following her steps up the two hills, Safa and Marwa.
Ayesha, r.a., narrates that the Prophet, pbuh, did
RUMMEL, which is an Arabic term for running up hill, when he
followed the path of Hajira, r.a., in going up Safa and
Marwa 7 times. He wanted to show the kuffar his strength
although he was in his 60s.
Conclusion:
I urge the community to support the committees set up to
strengthen this masjid. Please provide your support and
expertise. We have the following:
Committee to keep the masjid open during the week. As a
working class community, this is not easy.
Security committee.
A second imam so the first one can travel
sometimes.
A women's committee to invite sisters to the masjid.
A history committee to trace and record the history of
the Black and Muslim communities in America.
Family Day committee to celebrate our achievements,
inshaAllah.
Every one of us should be doing da'wah and distributing
literature.
Leadership program to prepare young people to give
khutbas and to pronounce the Qur'an correctly.
[Br. Kaukab brought the story of Hajira, r.a., to the Muslim
community more than 20 years back. It is being renewed to
mobilize the Muslims again. It is from the most authentic
book of Hadith, Sahih al-Bukhari.]
Invitation to Think from Br.Robert Solano
Hurricane Harvey and 30 inches of Rain
How will Muslims will do Eid in parts of Texas?
Jamaat al-Muslimeen wants to Help.
Dear Muslims: Asalamu alaikum
The Corpus Christi area has been devastated by the
hurricane.
Non-Stop rain is now turning Houston into a lake.
Among the suffering masses are Muslims who have lost
everything.
Let us try to help the suffering people, at least the
Muslims.
Send your donations to :
International Bank of Commerce [IBC]
Account # 1011800861
Routing # 114911580
Mail checks to:
Robert Solano
1445 E. Madison st, # 380
Brownsville, TX 78520
- Br. Robert Solano lives in Texas and is a member of the
Jamaat al-Muslimeen leadership team. He's conducted da'wa
over the past several decades to the Hispanic community and
given the Spanish translation of the Qur'an to more than 500
people.
PAKISTAN
Letter to an Arab brother.
Pakistan Should NOT have been created?
Many Indians think similarly.
Here is a Scholarly Reply setting the Doubts to rest.
by Mantaqi [Illinois]
Brother
Assalam Aliekum,
You said the other day the creation of Pakistan was a
mistake because it divided the Ummah. Since when did the
Hindu mushriks become a part of the Ummah? The Hijrah
divided the Muslims as some Muslims did not or could not
leave Mecca. So should Muslims have lived under the rule of
Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab so as to keep the Ummah united?
Should Bani Israel have stayed in Egypt under Firoun so that
those who could not leave would not be divided?
You gave an example of Lebanon and Syria being divided, and
you compared that to dividing Pakistan and India. Very wrong
analogy. It is not even comparing apples and oranges, it's
like comparing apples and cow manure. Syria and Lebanon were
separated by the French and the British to divide Muslim
majority lands, and create Lebanon, a place which at that
time had a Christian plurality. How can that compare with
the Muslims of South Asia struggling against the British and
the Hindus for a separate homeland?
Before partition, undivided British India had about 2/3
Hindus and 1/3 Muslims. Muslims realized that under a
democratic rule Muslims would perpetually be 5th class
citizens in India if not outright slaves. I have noticed
among Arabs that they wish this enslavement on us
Pakistanis, and they are supposed to be our brothers. Are
they like the brothers of Yusuf (pbuh)? I remember when I
was in graduate school a Kuwaiti asked me if I was from
India or Pakistan, and then in the same breath said there is
no difference. Then he said that Pakistan should be a part
of India. As the Iran-Iraq war was going on, I asked him if
Iraq should be a part of Iran. He said no, as Iran was
Persian and Shia. So for him there was an unbridgeable
difference between Ajami and Arabi, Shia and Sunni, but no
difference between Muslim and Hindu, Shirk and Tawheed,
worship of One God versus worship of 30 million gods.
Similar stuff has been said to me by Arabs at our mosque.
What kind of disease of the heart are these Arabs suffering
from?
Pakistani nationalism is different than Lebanese or Syrian
nationalism, as they are directed against other Muslims.
Arab nationalism is against non-Arabs. These are examples of
jahilli assabiyya. Pakistani nationalism is Muslim
nationalism and is directed against Hindu India. It is not
directed against other Muslims to the west of Pakistan.
I am saddened but no longer shocked by the hostility some
Indian Muslims have for Pakistan. Some of them believe the
Indian propaganda that Pakistan is a backward primitive
state while India is a modern super power. They suffer from
the pathetic kind of nationalism that some Blacks suffered
from during Jim Crow days, where they try to identify with a
country that rejects them. They also have a kind of jealousy
where they are angry that Pakistani Muslims are not getting
their homes attacked by Hindu mobs.
Indian Muslims are in really bad state.
They are regularly attacked by Hindu mobs.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_Muslims_in_Idia).
Muslims are among the most backward group in India
(https://scroll.in/article/812272/muslims-have-the-lowest-rae-of-enrolment-in-higher-education-in-india).
You referred to Pakistan as a little country. Pakistan is a
country of almost 200 million. This is probably more than
the population of Egypt, Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and Bilad
Usham.
Pakistan is one of the largest producers and suppliers of
agricultural products
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Pakistan).
Pakistan is an industrialized country
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_of_Pakistan.
Pakistan has a strong defense industry
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_industry_of_Pakistan) It makes many different kinds of weapons
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_equipment_maufactured_in_Pakistan).
Since 2010 Pakistan produces 450,000 to 500,000 university
graduates every year. So since 2010 it has produced 3.5
million university graduates, i.e., around half the total
population of Lebanon.
Pakistan started out in 1947 with a total of one university
in Pakistan and zero industry. Now it has many
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Pakisan).
Muslims in India fear mob attacks by Hindu mobs. Pakistan
does not fear India's army as Allah has made Pakistan strong
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_Armed_Forces). While
Indian Muslims fear mob attacks Pakistan fears an attack by
the United States like the one it did against Iraq. That is
the comparison. Indian Muslims are helpless against Hindu
mobs while Pakistan fears the world's number one super
power. What a difference in attitude and capability.
Indian Muslims are happy when they are allowed to construct
a mosque, when a Hindu politician supports them. I heard one
Muslim brother boasting how in one city Muslim gangs scare
the Hindus. That is like a Blackman boasting how Black gangs
scare the Whites. That doesn't change their low position in
the society.
Pakistanis are happy when they test a new missile, a nuclear
bomb, or some other achievement.
Pakistan was probably the only non-Arab country whose
personnel fought Israelis in 1967 and 1973
(https://rehmat1.com/2012/08/17/pakistani-pilots-who-shot-don-10-israeli-jets/).
Pakistan provided diplomatic immunity to Algerian and other
North African revolutionary leaders in their struggle.
Said Ramadan, son in law of Hassan Banna was given a
Pakistani passport in exile.
Mugabe, leader of the independence movement of Zimbabwe from
apartheid Rhodesia, was helped by Pakistan when he was in
exile. Later the Pakistan Air Force trained Zimbabwe's Air
Force.
Pakistan put together the alliance that helped the Afghans
confront the Soviet invaders. This led to the defeat and
disintegration of the Soviet Union. As a result The Central
Asian republics, and Eastern European countries became free,
and Germany became united again. Also this led to the
anointing of the United States as the "sole superpower."
However, instead of showing gratitude to Pakistan and
Muslims who defeated the Soviet Union, the United States and
these same European countries have been on the rampage
against the Muslims since 1991. They are now growling at
Pakistan because they accuse Pakistan of helping the Islamic
resistance in Afghanistan.
I have noticed that Arabs don't make duas for Kashmir, while
we always have Palestine in our hearts.
If Pakistan had not been formed Muslims of south Asia would
have been like the Palestinians. Palestinians form about 40
percent of the land of Palestine but have zero power. The
only people with any power are the people of Gaza who have
separated but are surrounded by Israel and Sissi (maloun).
If every Palestinian man woman and child had a PH.D., their
status would be less than of 18 year old Israeli soldiers
with guns. A Palestinian with three PH.Ds is less free than
a Pakistani farmer with a fifth grade education.
In the twentieth century Arabs produced Michel Aflaq and
Gamal Abdul Nasser. Pakistan produced Iqbal, Jinnah and
Moudoudi. The two the Arabs did produce, i.e., Hassan Al
Banna and Syed Qutb, they murdered. Iqbal and Jinnah were
the architects of Pakistan. Iqbal was the one who thought of
Pakistan. Arabs are mostly unaware of Iqbal. An Arab brother
at our masjid who has studied Iqbal told me that in his
opinion the last time Arabs produced some one of the caliber
of Iqbal was Imam Shafaee. That is his opinion, not
mine.
Iqbal was not only the inspiration for Pakistan but also is
regarded by the Iranians as an inspiration for their
revolution along with Khomeini and Ali Shariati. The Tajiks
of Tajikistan in their short period of democratic government
adopted Iqbal's Persian poem as their anthem of freedom.
Hamas has quotes from Iqbal in its charter.
Meanwhile India has been forming an alliance with Israel,
and assisting the subjugation of Palestinians as well as
Afghanistan.
After the collapse of the Mughal empire the Hindu Marahattas
almost destroyed the Muslim presence in India, and Muslims
were saved by Afghans:
http://historypak.com/third-battle-of-panipat/
The Sikhs rose up and slaughtered Muslims on a huge scale.
Badshahi Masjid, the largest in the world at that time was
converted to a stable by the Sikhs. In Urdu and Punjabi the
word Sikhashahi (rule of the Sikhs) has become synonymous
with extreme oppression and cruelty.
https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/punjabi-musalman-were-tertiar-class-citizens-under-ranjeet-singh.450658/page-3
In 1849 when the British conquered Punjab the Muslims helped
them, and in 1856 they restored the masjid to the Muslims.
https://www.shughal.com/14-spellbinding-moments-history-empeors-mosque/.
We don't want to be in a position again where Kaffir rulers
decide our destiny. Pakistan was achieved after huge
sacrifices. The reason some Pakistanis are disappointed is
that Pakistan was supposed to be Madina-e-Thani. A place
where we will establish a laboratory of Islamic rule in a
modern country. That hasn't happened yet. That doesn't mean
that we should become the slaves of Hindus. Hindus are
Kuffar, and among the most najis of the Kuffar.
I would suggest that you gain knowledge about history of
this Muslim country before you say things that insult the
blood of the millions of shahudah including many from my
family.
This is a brief overview. http://storyofpakistan.com/
This book gives a good overview of the struggle for Pakistan
https://www.amazon.com/Jinnah-Pakistan-Islamic-Identity-Salain/dp/0415149665.
Jazakullah Khairun
Mantaqi
News Within the U.S.
Kashmiris in America Speak out on Changing Situation in
Indian Occupied Kashmir
There is youth-led resistance in Kashmir: Barrister
Sultan
Washington, D.C. August 24, 2017. "The conflict in Indian
Occupied Kashmir has acquired a new dimension. Since, July
of last year, Kashmiri youth have taken the lead to press
for their inalienable right to self-determination, a right
guaranteed by the United Nations. The youth has taken to
streets, paralyzing the unlawful local administration. They
have made it abundantly clear that there is no turning back
- this is a do or die phase of the long struggle for "Azadi"
(freedom) after decades of the oppressive Indian rule," said
Barrister Sultan Mehmood Choudhry, the former Prime Minister
of Azad Kashmir during a press conference in Washington
Metro-Politian area.
Barrister warned that the deadly silence of the world powers
over gruesome human rights abuses by the occupation forces
in Kashmir has given India a virtual license to kill
innocent Kashmiris. He insisted that Kashmiris are not
opposed to bilateral India‑Pakistani talks if they
advance the cause of peace, international law, and human
rights. What is outrageous about asking that these talks be
made meaningful by including the Kashmiri leadership?
Barrister Choudhary added that it was high time the
government of India realizes that such a huge movement that
has been there since 1947 and especially after 1990 is a
peoples struggle. The government of India has to stop people
viewing Kashmir from the prism of Pakistan. Pointing out
that hundreds of thousands of people have been killed,
tortured, jailed, and are missing, Barrister said that no
struggle of such magnitude could be sponsored by an external
party.
Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary General, World Kashmir
Awareness Forum said that peace between India and Pakistan
could help unlock another conflict with even higher stakes
for the United States: the war in Afghanistan. Indeed, a
growing chorus of experts has begun arguing that the road to
Kabul runs through Kashmir — (The Road to Kabul Runs
Through Kashmir, Jonathan Tepperman, Newsweek, February 10,
2010.) that the U.S. will never stabilize the former without
peace in the latter. Suddenly, bringing India and Pakistan
together seems to be very much in America's interest. Which
makes the Trump administration's determination to avoid the
issue increasingly hard to fathom.
The people of Kashmir do not wish anybody to take a partisan
side. Kashmiris are convinced, nevertheless, that impartial
observers would support the Kashmir cause based on universal
principles, democratic values, rule of law and international
justice. It is high time that all concerned parties --
India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri leadership -- sit together
and chalk out a strategy for the sake of peace and stability
in the region of South Asia. Because ultimately, the
negotiations, not violence, is the only way to resolve the
Kashmir conflict, and that Kashmiris cannot be excluded from
the negotiating table if a peace process is to be serious,
meaningful and result-oriented.
The event was sponsored by Sardar Zulfiqar Roshan Khan,
Irfan Tassaduq Khan and Sardar Zubair Khan.
ANALYSIS
[Shi'ite Armada and Western air forces killed 40,000
civilians. How was it done?]
Covering Up the Massacre of Mosul
August 21, 2017
By Nicolas J S Davies
Iraqi Kurdish military intelligence reports have estimated
that the nine-month-long U.S.-Iraqi siege and bombardment of
Mosul to oust Islamic State forces killed 40,000 civilians.
This is the most realistic estimate so far of the civilian
death toll in Mosul.
U.S. soldiers fire an M109A6 Paladin from a tactical
assembly area at Hamam al-Alil to support the start of the
Iraqi security forces' offensive in West Mosul, Iraq, Feb.
19, 2017. (Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Hull)
But even this is likely to be an underestimate of the true
number of civilians killed. No serious, objective study has
been conducted to count the dead in Mosul, and studies in
other war zones have invariably found numbers of dead that
exceeded previous estimates by as much as 20 to one, as a
United Nations-backed Truth Commission did in Guatemala
after the end of its civil war. In Iraq, epidemiological
studies in 2004 and 2006 revealed a post-invasion death toll
that was about 12 times higher than previous estimates.
The bombardment of Mosul included tens of thousands of bombs
and missiles dropped by U.S. and "coalition" warplanes,
thousands of 220-pound HiMARS rockets fired by U.S. Marines
from their "Rocket City" base at Quayara, and tens or
hundreds of thousands of 155-mm and 122-mm howitzer shells
fired by U.S., French and Iraqi artillery.
This nine-month bombardment left much of Mosul in ruins ( as
seen here), so the scale of slaughter among the civilian
population should not be a surprise to anybody. But the
revelation of the Kurdish intelligence reports by former
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari in an interview with
Patrick Cockburn of the U.K.'s Independent newspaper makes
it clear that allied intelligence agencies were well aware
of the scale of civilian casualties throughout this brutal
campaign.
The Kurdish intelligence reports raise serious questions
about the U.S. military's own statements regarding civilian
deaths in its bombing of Iraq and Syria since 2014. As
recently as April 30, 2017, the U.S. military publicly
estimated the total number of civilian deaths caused by all
of the 79,992 bombs and missiles it had dropped on Iraq and
Syria since 2014 only as "at least 352." On June 2, it only
slightly revised its absurd estimate to "at least 484."
The "discrepancy" - multiply by almost 100 - in the civilian
death toll between the Kurdish military intelligence reports
and the U.S. military's public statements can hardly be a
question of interpretation or good-faith disagreement among
allies. The numbers confirm that, as independent analysts
have suspected, the U.S. military has conducted a deliberate
campaign to publicly underestimate the number of civilians
it has killed in its bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria.
Propaganda Campaign
The only rational purpose for such an extensive propaganda
campaign by U.S. military authorities is to minimize the
public reaction inside the United States and Europe to the
killing of tens of thousands of civilians so that U.S. and
allied forces can keep bombing and killing without political
hindrance or accountability.
Nikki Haley, United States Permanent Representative to the
UN, denounces alleged Syrian war crimes before the Security
Council on
April 27, 2017 (UN Photo)
It would be naive to believe that the corrupt institutions
of government in the United States or the subservient U.S.
corporate media will take serious steps to investigate the
true number of civilians killed in Mosul. But it is
important that global civil society come to terms with the
reality of the destruction of Mosul and the slaughter of its
people. The U.N. and governments around the world should
hold the United States accountable for its actions and take
firm action to stop the slaughter of civilians in Raqqa, Tal
Afar, Hawija and wherever the U.S-led bombing campaign
continues unabated.
The U.S. propaganda campaign to pretend that its aggressive
military operations are not killing hundreds of thousands of
civilians began well before the assault on Mosul. In fact,
while the U.S. military has failed to decisively defeat
resistance forces in any of the countries it has attacked or
invaded since 2001, its failures on the battlefield have
been offset by remarkable success in a domestic propaganda
campaign that has left the American public in near-total
ignorance of the death and destruction U.S. armed forces
have wreaked in at least seven countries (Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Libya).
In 2015, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR)
co-published a report titled, " Body Count: Casualty Figures
After 10 Years of the 'War On Terror'." This 97-page report
examined publicly available efforts to count the dead in
Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and concluded that about 1.3
million people had been killed in those three countries
alone.
I will examine the PSR study in more detail in a moment, but
its figure of 1.3 million dead in just three countries
stands in striking contrast to what U.S. officials and
corporate media have told the American public about the
ever-expanding global war being fought in our name.
After examining the various estimates of war deaths in Iraq,
the authors of Body Count concluded that the epidemiological
study headed by Gilbert Burnham of Johns Hopkins School of
Public Health in 2006 was the most thorough and reliable.
But just a few months after that study found that about
600,000 Iraqis had probably been killed in the three years
since the U.S.-led invasion, an AP-Ipsos poll that asked a
thousand Americans to estimate how many Iraqis had been
killed yielded a median response of only 9,890.
So, once again, we find a vast discrepancy - multiply by
about 60 - between what the public was led to believe and a
serious estimate of the numbers of people killed. While the
U.S. military has meticulously counted and identified its
own casualties in these wars, it has worked hard to keep the
U.S. public in the dark about how many people have been
killed in the countries it has attacked or invaded.
This enables U.S. political and military leaders to maintain
the fiction that we are fighting these wars in other
countries for the benefit of their people, as opposed to
killing millions of them, bombing their cities to rubble,
and plunging country after country into intractable violence
and chaos for which our morally bankrupt leaders have no
solution, military or otherwise.
(After the Burnham study was released in 2006, the Western
mainstream media spent more time and space tearing the study
down than was ever spent trying to ascertain a realistic
number of Iraqis who had died because of the invasion.)
Misguided Weapons
As the U.S. unleashed its "shock and awe" bombardment of
Iraq in 2003, one intrepid AP reporter spoke to Rob Hewson,
the editor of Jane's Air-Launched Weapons, an international
arms trade journal, who actually understood what
"air-launched weapons" are designed to do. Hewson estimated
that 20-25 percent of the latest U.S. "precision" weapons
were missing their targets, killing random people and
destroying random buildings across Iraq.
At the start of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, President
George W. Bush ordered the U.S. military to conduct a
devastating aerial assault on Baghdad, known as "shock and
awe."
The Pentagon eventually divulged that a third of the bombs
dropped on Iraq were not "precision weapons" in the first
place, so altogether about half of the bombs exploding in
Iraq were either just good old-fashioned carpet bombing or
"precision" weapons often missing their targets.
As Rob Hewson told the AP, "In a war that's being fought for
the benefit of the Iraqi people, you can't afford to kill
any of them. But you can't drop bombs and not kill people.
There's a real dichotomy in all of this."
Fourteen years later, this dichotomy persists throughout
U.S. military operations around the world. Behind
euphemistic terms like "regime change" and "humanitarian
intervention," the aggressive U.S.-led use of force has
destroyed whatever order existed in at least six countries
and large parts of several more, leaving them mired in
intractable violence and chaos.
In each of these countries, the U.S. military is now
fighting irregular forces that operate among civilian
populations, making it impossible to target these militants
or militiamen without killing large numbers of civilians.
But of course, killing civilians only drives more of the
survivors to join the fight against Western outsiders,
ensuring that this now global asymmetric war keeps spreading
and escalating.
Body Count's estimate of 1.3 million dead, which put the
total death toll in Iraq at about 1 million, was based on
several epidemiological studies conducted there. But the
authors emphasized that no such studies had been conducted
in Afghanistan or Pakistan, and so its estimates for those
countries were based on fragmentary, less reliable reports
compiled by human rights groups, the Afghan and Pakistani
governments and the U.N. Assistance Mission to Afghanistan.
So Body Count's conservative estimate of 300,000 people
killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan could well be only a
fraction of the real number of people killed in those
countries since 2001.
Hundreds of thousands more people have been killed in Syria,
Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Palestine, the Philippines, Ukraine,
Mali and other countries swept up in this ever-expanding
asymmetric war, along with Western victims of terrorist
crimes from San Bernardino to Barcelona and Turku. Thus, it
is probably no exaggeration to say that the wars the U.S.
has waged since 2001 have killed at least two million
people, and that the bloodshed is neither contained nor
diminishing.
How will we, the American people, in whose name all these
wars are being fought, hold both ourselves and our political
and military leaders accountable for this mass destruction
of mostly innocent human life? And how will we hold our
military leaders and corporate media accountable for the
insidious propaganda campaign that permits rivers of human
blood to keep flowing unreported and unchecked through the
shadows of our vaunted but illusory "information
society"?
Nicolas J S Davies is the author of Blood On Our Hands: the
American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq. He also wrote
the chapters on "Obama at War" in Grading the 44th
President: a Report Card on Barack Obama's First Term as a
Progressive Leader .
GUIDANCE
A True Hajj Washes Away all Past Sins
by Sis. Yasmin
'Assalaamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullaahi wa Barakaatuhu'.
Allah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala) revealed in the 'Qur'an'...
'And proclaim the 'Hajj' among mankind.
They will come to thee on foot and (mounted) on every
camel,
lean on account of journeys
through deep and distant mountain highways'
(Source - Quran ~Surat Al-Hajj~ 22 Ayah #28).
When Ibrahim (Alaihis Salaam) completed the structure
of the 'Kabah'...
Allah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala) commanded him to call the
people to Hajj.
Ibrahim (Alaihis Salaam) pleaded...
"O Allah ! How shall my voice reach all of those people"
?
Allah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala) told him that his duty was
only to give the call...
and it was up to Allah to make it reach the people.
Ibrahim (Alaihis Salaam) then climbed Mount Arafat
and called out in his loudest voice...
'O People ! Verily Allah has prescribed upon you
'Hajj' so perform 'Hajj'."
'Amr ibn Al-'Aas [Allah have mercy on him] narrates ...
"When Islam entered my heart,
I went to the Messenger of Allah and said...
'Give me your hand so that I may pledge allegiance to
you.'
The Prophet (Sallallahu 'Alaihi Wasallam) spread his
hand,
but I withdrew mine.
he (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) said...
'What is wrong 'Amr ?'
I said, 'I want to make a condition.'
'And what is that?' he (Sallallahu 'Alaihi Wasallam)
asked,
I said, 'That Allah will forgive me.'
Then Prophet~ (Sallallahu 'Alaihi Wasallam) said,
'Did you not know that Islam wipes out what came before it,
and that 'Hijrah' wipes out what came before it
and that 'Hajj' wipes out what came before it !'
(Source: Sahih Muslim).
Hajj is the fifth pillar upon which Islam stands.
Allah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala) made it compulsory ....
upon every able Muslim male and female to perform it,
at least once in a lifetime.
Allah (Subhanuhu Wa Ta'ala) revealed:
"Hajj there to is a duty mankind owes to Allah,
those who can afford the journey, but if any deny faith,
Allah stands not in need of any of His creatures".
(Source:- 'Quran' ~Surat Ali Imran~ 3 Ayah # 97).
Performance of the 'Hajj' washes away all sins.
Abu Hurairah [Allah be pleased with him] narrates...
I heard the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) say...
"Whoever performs 'Hajj' and does not commit
any 'Rafath' (obscenity) or 'Fusooq' (transgression),
he returns (free from sin) as the day his Mother bore
him".
( Source ~Sahih Bukhari).
'Hajj' is one of the greatest deeds one can accomplish in
his or her lifetime.
Abu Hurairah[ Allah be pleased with him] narrates...
The Prophet (Sallallahu 'Alaihi Wasallam) was asked...
"What deed is the best?"
He (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) said...
"Iman in Allah and His Messenger."
"Then what?"
"Jihad for the sake of Allah."
"Then what?"
"Hajj Mabroor ".
{ A 'Hajj' accepted by Allah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala) }
Abu Sha'thaa'[Allah be pleased with him] said...
"I contemplated the good deeds that a person does.
I found that 'Salaah' as well as Fasting are a 'Jihad'
of the body.
And that 'Sadaqa' is a 'Jihad' of someone's wealth.
But 'Hajj' is a 'Jihad' of both body and wealth."
'Hajj' is the greatest Jihad!
Aishah (Radiallahu 'Anha) asked the
Prophet (Sallallahu 'Alaihi wa sallam)...
" We find that 'Jihad' is the best deed,
shouldn't we (women) do 'Jihad' ? "
The Prophet (Sallallahu 'Alaihi Wasallam) replied...
"Rather the best 'Jihad' is a Hajj Mabroor!"
Aishah (R.A.) said later on...
"I'll never cease performing 'Hajj' after
I heard that from Rasul Allah" (Agreed Upon).
The 'Dua' of the one in 'Hajj' shall be accepted.
The Prophet (Sallallahu 'Alaihi wa sallam) said...
"The soldier in the path of Allah and the one who
performs 'Hajj'
and the one who performs 'Umrah',
all are the delegation of Allah!
Allah (Subhanuhu wa-ta'ala) called them and they
answered.
And they asked Him, and He shall grant them
(what they ask for)!"
(Source: An Authentic Hadith, narrated by Ibn Majah and Ibn
Hibban).
In the Islamic history books it was narrated that
on the day of 'Arafat',
a man from Turkmenistan stood on the plains
of Arafat in Hajj.
To his left all he could see was Muslims
crying and praying to Allah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala).
To his right all he could see was Muslims
crying and praying to Allah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala).
Because of his native tongue,
he could not imitate the lengthy prayers of the others.
At this realization everything blurred in front of him.
His face reddened, his eyes poured tears as he raised his
hands,
"O Allah! Grant me everything that they are asking for !
Grant me everything that they are asking for !"
And Allah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala) accepted his 'Dua'....!
There is not a single day that the sun has come up on
more beloved to Allah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala) than
the Day of 'Arafat'.
The Prophet (Sallallahu 'Alaihi wa sallam) said...
"There is no day on which Allah frees more of His
slaves from Fire
than the Day of 'Arafat', and He verily draws near,
then boasts of them before the angles, saying...
'What do they seek?'
(Source:Sahih Muslim).
"Verily Allah boasts of the people of 'Arafat'
before the people of Heaven (Angels) saying:
'Look to my servants who have come to Me
disheveled and dusty.'
Abdullah ibn Al-Mubaarak (R) narrates:
I went to Sufyaan ibn al-Uyaynah as the day of Arafat
was setting.
he sat on his knees, his hands raised to the Heavens,
and tears moistened his cheeks and beard.
he turned and looked at me, so I asked him,
"Amongst the people who have gathered here for 'Hajj',
who is in the worst state?"
Sufyaan ibn al-Uyaynah said...
"he who thinks that Allah will not forgive him."
A Mabroor Hajj is one
in which Allah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala)
is not disobeyed during or after.
Others have said that a Hajj Mabroor is one that is accepted,
and the sign of it's acceptance is that a person will go back
in a better state then when he came...
and that he will discontinue the sins
that were between him and Allah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala).
when Ibn Umar (R.A) was on his deathbed
and his son reminded him of all the good deeds that he did
with the Prophet (Sallallahu 'Alaihi wa sallam) and the
companions.
he told him...
" Quiet ! Don't you know whom Allah accepts from... ?
Verily Allah only accepts from the God-Fearing
(Al-Muttaqoon)."
Indeed, the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) said:
"And there is no reward for an accepted 'Hajj'
except ...{?}...
*Jannah*{!!!}
A Lil Note: ... With that spirit, let us march forward in the search of the
Mercy of Allah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala) and His Forgiveness,
to the first house of Allah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala) on earth
to 'Hajj' {!!!} "In Shaa Allah"...{!!!}
...My 'Salaams' to you all...
~Sis in Faith Yasmin~
"All that is on earth will Perish. But will abide {Forever}
the Face of thy Lord, full of Majesty, Bounty and Honour"
{'Quran'- Surah Al-Rahman-55.26-27 }
I Want to Die With my Forehead on the Ground!
The Sunnah in my Heart, Allah on my Mind,
Qur'an on my Tongue, and Tears in my Eyes!
'In Shaa Allah'!
' Son of Adam! You are nothing but a number of days,
whenever each day passes then part of you has Gone.
{Al-Hasan Al-Basree}
War News
Syria
30 Km retreat for Assad's forces. SDF Kurds Stuck in al
-Raqqa, getting slaughtered. Fighting Around Damascus.
Hizbullah fails in Western Qalamoun.
August 21 to August 27.
Kurdish Communists who had entered al-Raqqa are stuck at the
IS second line of defense and are getting slaughtered by
snipers. The IS forces have tunnels within the city and are
able to move their forces without attracting US air
strikes.
Assad's elite Hizbullah forces with Shi'ite militias and
Alawite units reached Madan which is on the border of
al-Raqqa province and then were driven back for 30 km by
ISIS fighters. This is the biggest Assad retreat in several
months. They admit 32 troops killed. SOHR says 12 IS were
also killed.
Around Damascus, Assad's forces struck al-Rahman Islamic
group with ground to ground missiles and serious clashes are
ongoing at the gates of Damascus.
The Hizbullah-Lebanese offensives from the West of Damascus,
known as West Qalamoun, on the border of Lebanon, failed to
dislodge IS. However with ongoing Russian bombing , it
appears that IS is making an arrangement to go to IS
stronghold in Deir ez Zor without being bombed.
Jaysh al-Islam captured 13 Assad troops just outside
Damascus, including 2 officers, and exchanged them with 32
Muslim women and children whom Assad's forces had
kidnaped.
Assad's forces are advancing on one front trying to break
the siege of the Alawite garrison in a sector of Deir ez Zor
city.
The bombing campaign is going on every day. Russian air
force is bombing IS and former al-Nusra east of Hama and in
the desert east of Homs approaching the oil wells.
The American air force is bombing al-Raqqa and parts of Deir
ez Zor and al-Mayadein, with a steady flow of civilian
casualties.
The SDF Kurds are clashing with FSA north of Aleppo.
In eastern Syria, Hasakeh, students are protesting a Kurdish
imposed educational Kurdish syllabus. They are demanding
Arabic, pointing out that it is the language of the
Qur;an.
The latest [August 27] is that ISIS fighters sneaked into
Shaddadi, a town near Hasakeh, and attacked SDF troops,
inflicting serious casualties.
Iraq
Huge Disappointment for Baghdad Regime.
The "Militants" had Slipped out of Tal Afar. 20 killed.
A huge US-backed Shia army of 50,000 [US figures] asaulted
the town of Tal Afar south west of Mosul. There was hardly
anyone there.
The IS forces had slipped out and gone to the IS stronghold
of Hawija, in north central Iraq. The US air force bombed
and bombed, the Baghdad tank columns fired and fired but it
was a total waste.
Looks like Baghdad had an intelligence failure. They were
under the impression that 1000 fighters and 20000 civilians
in Tal Afar. Other than a couple of thousand civilians
miserable in the desert, they can't find anyone other than
the 20 "militants" killed by the regime's artillery
fire.
The is giving solace to itself by claiming that the
command-and-control structure has collapsed so they could
not stand and fight.
When a 50,000 man juggernaut is coming at you, with air
support, you just leave if you are a few hundred and have no
heavy weapons.
Looks like the Shia leader Abadi does not know how guerrilla
warfare works.
Philippines
Marawi Still in hands of ISIS groups.
Another Group Wants to join.
On August 24, Filipino jet fighters and helicopters bombed
and missiled the area around the central mosque in Marawi.
Then elite troops went in and "captured" the mosque. However
they were better behaved than the Shia army in Mosul and did
not damage the mosque.
It was declared a great victory and the Filipino president
arrived to share in the "victory" celebrations.
However, there were no "militants" dead or alive in the
mosque. They had simply relocated themselves along with the
captives they had taken.
Two days later the mujahideen took over the mosque area
again and fighting is going on there as of now [August
27].
More trouble is in store for Philippines as the Bangsamoro
Freedom Front [BFF], a salafi group based in Mindanao is
leaning towards joining the Islamic State [IS]. This group
led by Abu Bakr broke away from the Moro Liberation Front
which wants autonomy within Philippines. This group wants
complete independence.
Meanwhile central ISIS has issued a second video depicting
the losses of the Filipino army and the martyrdom of some IS
fighters. The video blames the US and Australia for helping
the Manila regime and urges Muslims in Indonesia and
Malaysia to join the fight.
