Hadith A Day

[Khalidz]

What would you do in the following case?

During a battle in the way of Allah (swt), sayyedina Ali RA, found himself face to face with a kafir who attacked him violently. They were both brave and powerful men, but the kafir was no match for sayyedina Ali, who soon was sitting astride his chest, ready to finish him off.

"I invite you to bear witness that there is no god except Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah," said Ali. RA "Accept Islam, and your life will be spared."

"Never!" panted the kafir.

Sayyidina Ali R A lifted his sword and was just about to plunge it into his enemy, when the kafir spat defiantly in his face.

Much to the kafir's surprise, sayyidina Ali immediately jumped away from his enemy and lowered his sword.

"Go away!" said sayyidina Ali, "I cannot kill you now."

"Why did you do that?" asked the kafir. "You could have killed me easily."

"I was fighting you purely in the way of Allah," replied Ali, "but when you spat in my face, your insult made me angry and if I had killed you in anger, it would have taken me to the Hell Fire - so I had no choice but to let you go. To kill someone in anger or out of desire for revenge is not bravery, but the act of a coward."

On hearing this, the kafir was so impressed by sayyidina Ali's sincerity and self-control that he embraced Islam on the spot: "I bear witness that there is no god but Allah," he said, "and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah"

May Allah give us sincerity and clean our hearts.

Source: From the book "True stories for children" by Matina Wali Muhammad

[Khalidz]

Tolerance

One day the Prophet of Islam (sallallahu alaiyhi wassallam), seated himself in a mosque in Medina, along with some companions. Shortly thereafter, a Bedouin entered the mosque and began urinating. The Prophet’s (sallallahu alaiyhi wassallam), Companions rose with the intention of beating the Bedouin. But the Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wassallam), forbade them to do so, asking them to let him be. When the man had finished urinating, the Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wassallam), asked the Companions to fetch a bucket of water and wash the place clean.
Afterwards he explained to his Companions: You are sent to make things easy and not to make things difficult (Fathul Bari, 1/386).
This illustrates for us an unwavering principle of Islam, that is, in social life when any unpleasant incident takes place, the believers should concentrate on finding a solution to the problem and not just think in terms of what punishment to mete out to the problem-maker. On all such occasions the urge to reform should be engendered within the believers instead of a desire to exact revenge. Such methods should be adopted as alleviate rather than aggravate the problem. Just as when some building is set on fire, the most natural impulse is to immediately extinguish it, rather than fan the flames to make it flare up even more.

[Khalidz]

Hazrat Abu Musa(radhiyallahu anhu) enquired from the Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wassallam), "Which of the Muslims are best ?" The Prophet (sallallahu alaiyhi wassallam) said that, those who do not cause troubles and injuries through their actions and words to anyone. (Bukhari, Muslim)
"Each person's every joint must perform a charity every day the Sun comes up : to act justly between two people is a charity; to help a man with his mount, lifting him onto it or hoisting up his belongings onto it is a charity: a good word is a charity, every step you take to prayers is a charity and removing a harmful thing from the road is a charity." (Bukhari, Muslim)
He who believes in God and the Last Day should honour his guest; he who believes in God and the Last Day should not annoy his neighbours; and he who believes in God and the Last Day should say what is good or keep silent. (Bukhari, Muslim)
A good word is charity. (Bukhari, Muslim)

[Khalidz]

Think Twice

One night there was a woman at the airport who had to wait for several hours before catching her next flight. While she waited she bought a book and a pack of biscuits to spend the time. She looked for a place to sit and wait.

She was deep into her book, when suddenly she realized that there was a young man sitting next to her who was stretching his hand, with no concern whatsoever, and grabbing the pack of cookies lying between them. He started to eat them one by one.

Not wanting to make a fuss about it she decided to ignore him. The woman, slightly bothered, ate the cookies and watched the clock, while the young and shameless thief of biscuits was also finishing them. The woman started to get really angry at this point and thought "If I wasn't such a good and educated person, I would have given this daring man a black eye by now."

Every time she ate a biscuit, he had one too. The dialogue between their eyes continued and when only one biscuit was left, she wondered what was he going to do. Softly and with a nervous smile, the young man grabbed the last biscuit and broke it in two. He offered one half to the woman while he ate the other half.

Briskly she took the biscuit and thought, "What an insolent man! How uneducated! He didn't even thank me!" She had never met anybody so fresh and sighed relieved to hear her flight announced. She grabbed her bags and went towards the boarding gate refusing to look back to where that insolent thief was seated.

After boarding the plane and nicely seated, she looked for her book which was nearly finished by now. While looking into her bag she was totally surprised to find her pack of biscuits nearly intact. "If my biscuits are here", she thought feeling terribly, "those others were his and he tried to share them with me." Too late to apologize to the young man, she realized with pain, that it was her who had been insolent, uneducated and a thief, and not him.

How many times in our lives, had we know with certainty that something happened in a certain way, only to discover later that it wasn't true?

How many times has our lack of trust within us made us judge other people unfairly with our conceited ideas, often far away from reality.

[Khalidz]

The Last meeting

When the noble Prophet reached Madinah, Muadh ibn Jabal stayed in his company as much as possible. He studied the Qur'an and the laws of Islam until he became one of the most well-versed of all the companions in the religion of Islam.

Wherever Muadh went, people would refer to him for legal judgements on matters over which they differed. This is not strange since he was brought up in the school of the Prophet himself and learnt as much as he could from him.

He was the best pupil of the best teacher. His knowledge bore the stamp of authenticity..

The best certificate that he could have received came from the Prophet himself when he said:

"The most knowledgeable of my ummah in matters of halal and haram is Muadh ibn Jabal."

One of the greatest of Muadh's contributions to the ummah of Muhammad was that he was one of the group of six who collected the Qur'an during the lifetime of the Prophet, peace be upon him. Whenever a group of companions met and Muadh was among them, they would look at him with awe and respect on account of his knowledge. The Prophet and his two Khalifahs after him placed this unique gift and power in the service of Islam.

After the liberation of Makkah, the Quraysh became Muslims en masse. The Prophet immediately saw the need of the new Muslims for teachers to instruct them in the fundamentals of Islam and to make them truly understand the spirit and letter of its laws. He appointed Attab ibn Usay as his deputy in Makkah and he asked Muadh ibn Jabal to stay with him and teach people the Qur'an and instruct them in the religion.

Sometime after the Prophet had returned to Madinah, messengers of the kings of Yemen came to him announcing that they and the people of Yemen had become Muslims. They requested that some teachers should be with them to teach Islam to the people. For this task the Prophet commissioned a group of competent du'at (missionaries) and made Muadh ibn Jabal their amir. He then put the following question to Muadh:

"According to what will you judge?"

"According to the Book of God," replied Muadh.

"And if you find nothing therein?"

"According to the Sunnah of the Prophet of God."

"And if you find nothing therein?"

"Then I will exert myself (exercise ijtihad) to form own judgement." The Prophet was pleased with this reply and said:

"Praise be to God Who has guided the messenger of the Prophet to that which pleases the Prophet."

The Prophet personally bade farewell to this mission of guidance and light and walked for some distance alongside Muadh as he rode out of the city. Finally he said to him: "O Muadh, perhaps you shall not meet me again after this year. Perhaps when you return you shall see only my mosque and my grave."

Muadh wept. Those with him wept too. A feeling of sadness and desolation overtook him as he parted from his beloved Prophet, peace and blessings of God be on him.

The Prophet's premonition was correct. The eyes of Muadh never beheld the Prophet after that moment. The Prophet died before Muadh returned from the Yemen. There is no doubt that Muadh wept when he returned to Madinah and found there was no longer the blessed company of the Prophet .

[Khalidz]

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.


The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.


Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.
The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.


The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.


As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.


One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn't hear the band - he could see it. In his mind's eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.
Days and weeks passed. One morning, the nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.


As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.
Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall.


The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall. She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you."


Lessons: There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations. Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled. If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can't buy.
People will forget what you said... People will forget what you did... But people will never forget how you made them feel...
Make someone happy, share a kind word today.

A good word is charity. (Bukhari, Muslim)
Author: Unknown
Courtesy: www.everymuslim.com

[Khalidz]

The Emperor's Horseman

A long time ago, there was an Emperor who told his horseman that if he could ride on his horse and cover as much land area as he likes, then the Emperor would give him the area of land he has covered. Sure enough, the horseman quickly jumped onto his horse and rode as fast as possible to cover as much land area as he could. He kept on riding and riding, whipping the horse to go as fast as possible. When he was hungry or tired, he did not stop because he wanted to cover as much area as possible.
Came to a point when he had covered a substantial area and he was exhausted and was dying. Then he asked himself, "Why did I pushed myself so hard to cover so much land area? Now I am dying and I only need a very small area to bury myself."

The above story is similar with the journey of our Life. We push very hard everyday to make more money, to gain power and recognition. We neglect our health, time with our family and to appreciate the surrounding beauty and the hobbies we love to do. One day when we look back, we will realize that we don't really need that much, but then we cannot turn back time for what we have missed. Life is not about making money, acquiring power or recognition. Life is definitely not about work!