The Prophet Nuh عليه السلام (Part 3)

بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم
In the Name of Allah,
the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Nuhعليه السلام the Messenger

Allah Ta'ala chose to send Nuhعليه السلام to his people. There were
wealthy people and leaders among the children of Adamعليه السلام,
but Allah alone knew who should carry His message and who could
bear His trust.

Nuhعليه السلام was a pious and a generous man; he was intelligent and
forbearing, compassionate and sincere. He was truthful and trustworthy
and known for giving good counsel. Allah Ta'ala revealed to Nuhعليه السلام,
'Warn your people before a painful punishment comes to them.' (S71:1)
So Nuhعليه السلام stood up among his people and told them, 'I am a 
faithful messenger to you.' (S26: 107)

What answer did his people give to him?

When Nuhعليه السلام began to say to say to his people, I am a faithful
messenger to you,' (S26: 107) some of them answered back, 'When
did this man become a Prophet? Yesterday he was one of us and today
he says, ''I am Allah's messenger to you''!'

Nuhعليه السلام's friends said, 'This man used to play with us when we
were young and he sat with us every day. When did he become a Prophet?
Was it during the day or the night?'

The rich and the proud said, 'Couldn't Allah find anyone except him? Has
everyone except else died? Couldn't He find anyone except a poor man
from among the common people?'

The ignorant ones said to each other: 'This is only a man like 
yourselves. If Allah had willed, He would have sent down angels.
We have never heard of this among our fathers, the ancients.'
                                                                                            (S23: 24)

Some of the people said that Nuhعليه السلام only wanted to become a leader,
a man of power and position among them, by saying he was the messenger
of Allah.

Nuhعليه السلام and his people

People had got used to thinking that worshipping idols was the truth and a
sensible thing to do. They thought that anyone who did not worship idols
was foolish. They would say, 'Our fathers worshipped idols, so why doesn't
this man worship them?'

Nuhعليه السلام thought that their fathers were in the wrong and unwise and
that Adamعليه السلام, who was the father of the fathers, did not worship idols.
He worshipped Allah alone. Nuhعليه السلام thought that the people were in
the wrong and foolish when they worshipped stones and did not worship
Allah who had created them.

Nuhعليه السلام stood up among his people, saying in his loudest voice, 'O
my people! Worship Allah! You have no god but Him. Truly I fear for you
the punishment of a dreadful day.'

The Council of his people said, 'We see that you are in clear error.'
He said, 'My people, there is no error in me. But I am a messenger 
from the Lord of the worlds. I convey to you the message of my Lord 
and I give you good advice, for I know from Allah what you do not 
know.' (S7: 59-62)

'The lowliest follow you'

Nuhعليه السلام tried hard to make his people abandon idols and worship Allah
alone. But only a few of those people who worked with their  hands and ate
lawful food, lawfully earned, believed in him.

The rich were too proud of being rich to believe. Their pride kept them from
listening to Nuhعليه السلام. Their property and children distracted them from
thinking about the Next World. They would say, 'We are nobles and those
people are lowly.' When Nuhعليه السلام called them to Allah, they 
answered, 'How should we believe you when the lowliest follow you?'
                                                                                                          (S26: 11)

They asked Nuhعليه السلام to drive the poor away. Nuhعليه السلام refused and
said, 'I cannot drive away the believers. My door is not a king's door. 
I am only a clear warner.' (S26: 114-15)

Nuhعليه السلام knew that those poor people were sincere believers and that
Allah would be angry if he drove them away. Against the anger of Allah, no-
one would be able to help him. Nuhعليه السلام said, 'My people, who could
deliver me from Allah if I drive them away?' (S11: 30)


The argument of the rich
 

The rich said to the people: 'Listen to us. What Nuhعليه السلام is calling you 
to is not true. It is not good. Why? Because we are the first to sample every
good thing. We have every sort of good food, every sort of beautiful clothes.
We set the fashion and people follow us. We have seen that we do not want 
for any good thing, and nobody out-does us in anything in the city.'

They said about the poor people who had believed in Nuhعليه السلام : ''If there
had been any good in this religion, it would have come to us before 
these paupers. If it had been any good, they would not be before us in 
attaining it.'                                                           (S 46: 11)

Nuhعليه السلام's call
 

Nuhعليه السلام went on calling his people and  trying hard to counsel them.

He said, 'O my people! I am a clear warner to you, saying ''Worship 
Allah and fear Him and obey me that He may forgive you your sins 
and defer you to a specified term. When Allah's term comes, it cannot 
be deferred, if you only knew.''  (S71: 2-4)

Allah kept the rain from them and was angry with them. Their harvests were
small and they had few children. Nuhعليه السلام told them: 'My people! if you
believe, Allah will be pleased with you and remove this punishment.'

Then, when Allah sent the rain to them and blessed their crops and children,
Nuhعليه السلام called his people and said to them: 'Don't you recognize Allah?
These are the signs of Allah all around you. Can't you see them? Can't you 
see the heavens and the earth? Can't you see the sun and the moon? Who
created the heavens? Who placed the moon in them as a light and made the 
sun a lamp? He created you and laid the earth as a carpet for you.'

But the people of Nuhعليه السلام would not understand and would not believe.
When Nuhعليه السلام called them to Allah, they put their fingers in their ears.
Now, how can anyone who does not hear a message understand it? How 
can anyone who does not want to hear, hear?

Stories of the Prophets 

by Sayyed Abul Hassan Ali Nadwi

  

Omarرضى الله عنه - Ep1

#MBC1 - #OmarSeries - Ep1 - English Subtitles 

This is a series based on the life of Umarرضى الله عنه . It is a very informative
and interesting series.

Note to parents : Please bear in mind to tell the children the actors 
who play the characters of the Sahabahs(R.A) are just that and they are 
really not the Sahabahs(R.A) whom they portrait (please try to emphasise 
the fact, as it is possible they may associate the Sahabah (R.A) with the actor).

My Eyptian Village 3

بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم
In the Name of Allah,
the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

4. Our River Nile

Al-Hamdulillah, the River Nile flows through our country. It is
the longest river in the world and for thousands of years has been
our life blood.

In the past, the Nile would flood each summer when the snows of
the  Jibaal al- qamar (''mountains of the moon'') melted in the high-
lands of East Africa. Most years, flood waters brought a rich layer
of wet mud that irrigated and enriched the fields. In some regions,
four or five crops could be grown in one year!

In 1967, the Aswan High Dam project was completed. In the south
of Egypt, the Nile River was dammed for the first time creating the
world's largest reservoir -- Lake Nasser. Today, the Aswan High
Dam controls the flow of the Nile River. Flooding no longer occurs.
Fellahin all along its banks make use of the river water for their
farming.

In the picture, you can see a felucca, the traditional broad-sail boat
of the Nile. It belongs to my uncle who named it after my aunt :
Nuriyyah. When my uncle does not have to deliver goods up and
down the river, he lets us sail with him in his boat. In our part of
Egypt, there are no longer any crocodiles or hippopotamuses in
the river. The Nile crocodiles does live along the river banks in
the south. When the Greeks first came to our country more than
two thousand years ago, they had never seen a hippo before. As a
result, they called this large water-dwelling mammal a ''river horse''
or hippopotamus in Greek.

Each summer, my uncle takes me and my family on his felucca and
we spend the entire day sailing. This is where I learned to swim. I can
now dive very deep, too! The water here is cleaner and fish are found
in plenty. I swim a lot and catch a lot of fish in the clean water of the
river. Fish are indeed found in abundance if you know where to look
for them.

At the back of the felucca, my uncle has built a small musallah out of
wooden planks. We make wudhu using water from the Nile River, and
if possible pray all together in the musallah. At the end of the day, we
fry our day's catch of fresh fish which we eat with my mother's delicious
aysh. Al-Hamdulillah for Allah's many, many blessings!


5. Our Village Market

Every Thursday there is an open market - the suq al-khamees -- on the
outskirts of our village. The suq-al-khamees is an opportunity for all
of us to meet up with our friends from neighbouring villages. It is here
that I sometimes sell some extra eggs!

Everyone likes to visit the suq-al-khamees. The variety of goods for 
sale is truly amazing. The freshest fruits and vegetables are piled into
high pyramids, but by the end of the day, these may be reduced to mere
handfuls.

In the corner of the market, animals are sold: donkeys, horses, goats,
sheep, water buffalo and camels. Our village lies on the camel caravan
route that begins in the Sudan and ends in the great camel market (suq
al-jamaal), in Imbaba, a suburb of Cairo.

For the children of our village, the most exciting time is when the 
camel caravans pass through Al-Khayriyyah. Life in the desert is not
possible without the camel, the safinah al-sahara', or ''the ship of the 
desert''.  Whenever I see a camel, I remember the Prophet Muhammad
صلى الله عليه وسلم, who like everyone during his time, owned and rode 
camels. I remember the story of the Prophetصلى الله عليه وسلم when he had
to migrate from Makkah -the event that initiated the hijrah calender. On 
his entering Yathreb (Al-Madinah), all ansars (the people of Al-Madinah
who supported the Prophetصلى الله عليه وسلم) wanted the camel (named al-
qaswa') to come to rest in front of their house. The camel did stop at a 
place which is today the site of the Prophetصلى الله عليه وسلم's Masjid in
Al-Madinah. 'Abu Ayyub al-Ansariرضى الله عنه, because his house was 
closest to where the camel stopped, became the first Companion to
offer the Prophetصلى الله عليه وسلم a place to rest in Al-Madinah.

Years ago, the black (or occasionally green) Kiswah, or covering for
the Kaa'bah in Makkah was made in Egypt (see illustration). Each year
the newly embroidered kiswah was transported by camel to Makkah in
a ceremony called the mahmal. My grandfather remembers a story his
father told him : a camel from Al-khayriyyah village was once chosen 
to carry the kiswah to Makkah. This was indeed an honour our village
has never forgotten.

Sitting atop a camel and riding among the sand dunes behind our village,
I often imagine myself a famous traveller like Ibn Battuta. But sometimes,
the up and down swaying motion makes me feel ''sea sick'', as if I were 
really sailing on a ''ship in the desert''!

Islamic Village Stories
Written & Illustrated by
Luqman Nagy 

The History of Makkah Mukarramah

سم الله الرحمان الرحيم
In the Name of Allah,
the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.



The Location of Makkah Mukarramah

Makkah Mukarramah is located in the west of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
It is situated at the foot of such a valley in the Hijaaz region that is completely
surrounded by mountains. The area that is low-lying and level is called
Bat'haa and the area to the east of the Masjid Haraam is known as Ma'laa
( higher ground ). The area to the west and the south is called Misfala ( lower
ground ). Rasulullaahصلى الله عليه وسلم was from amongst those who lived in
the Ma'laa area. He was born there and lived there until the time he migrated.
To enter Makkah Mukarramah, there are three principle routes, Ma'laa,
Misfala and Shubaykah.

The Virtues of Makkah Mukarramah

Allah Taála had selected this blessed city to be the location of His House.
It was also here that the final Rasul and guide of the worlds
Rasulullaahصلى الله عليه وسلم was born and here also did he begin to announce
his prophethood to the world. It is to this city that Allah Taála has made it
obligatory for His bondsmen to travel to fulfil certain rites. It is for this
reason that people of Imaan arrival in Makkah from all parts of the worlds
with their hearts filled with love and their appearances exuding humility and
submission. They are drawn to this blessed land with simple clothing, open
heads and free from worldly adornment.

The place has been blessed with such sancity and safety that anyone
entering it becomes safe and protected. Even if a person steeped in sin
heads there, he becomes cleansed like a new-born baby. There is no other
place on earth to which Islam has made the journey obligatory. Muslims
have been commanded to make Ta aaf ( circumambulate ) the House of
Allah Taála, something that has no example equal on earth. The Hajar Aswad
( Black Stone) and Rukn Yamaani can boast to have been kissed and
touched by none less than our noble master Rasulullaah صلى الله عليه وسلم.For
Muslims to emulate this is not only allowed in Islam, but highly recommended.

Makkah Mukarramah is that honoured city, the sancity of which Allah Ta'ala
Himself takes an oath on. This is found not once , but twice in the Qurán in
Surah Balad and Surah Teen. In Makkah Mukarramah that the Masjid
Haraam is situated, a Masjid in which the reward of a single salaah is multi-
plied by a hundred thousand.

The city is the location of the Qiblah, a direction towards which every person
performing salaah must face. It is that sacred direction which a person
relieving himself cannot face towards nor can he face his back towards it.
The city also has the privilege of being a place where even intending to do
evil attracts a grave warning of punishment from Allah Taála. The ill effects
and punishment for a sin in this holy place is also amplified.

This is that wonderful place that attracts hearts like a magnet. It is that sweet
fountain that although providing satisfaction, a person's heart cannot get
enough of it. The more a person visits it, the more his heart yearns to return.

The splendid city houses sites where duáas are readily acceppted, where
sins are forgiven and where difficulties are alleviated. The city also has the
honour of being a place of safety for carrying weapons is also forbidden. In
addition to this, no Kuffaar or Mushrikeen are allowed here. When Qiyaamah
draws near and strife will be tearing the world aparts, this special city will be
under the protection of the angels and Dajjaal will be unable to enter it.

The History of Makkah Mukarramah
by Dr. Muhammad Ilyas Abdul Ghani

Tuhfatul Atfaal - A Gift for the Children

Learning the thajweed rules in the form of a nasheed