Truth Always Prevails

The Quran: All Fire & Brimstone?

When Almighty Allah created Prophet Adam (peace be upon him), He placed him in Paradise and told him, as the Quran mentions:

*{Surely it is (ordained) for you that you shall not be hungry therein nor bare of clothing; And that you shall not be thirsty therein nor shall you feel the heat of the sun.}* (Ta-Ha 20:118-119)

Adam was commanded to obey Allah and eat from any where in Paradise but never to approach the forbidden tree. Seduced by Satan, Adam and Eve both ate from the forbidden tree and therefore, they were sent down to earth to toil and live a test.

This life-long test was ordained on Adam and his offspring who will have to go through the test throughout their life and then end up in one of two destinies; either Paradise or Hellfire. To qualify for the test, human beings have been endowed with the gift of free choice to be responsible for their choices.

Of course, not everyone will be obedient enough to comply with the commands of Allah and not everyone will be rebellious. Since no gain is without pain, people need to spend some effort to obtain Paradise. Being a composite of earthly factors and heavenly ones, we, human beings, will be torn between both in that life-long struggle.

Almighty Allah is the Merciful as well as the Just. Because of this, He told those who plan to disobey them of the destiny awaiting the disobedient, and told those who are obedient of the destiny He has prepared for them.

It stands to reason that the number of those who are bewildered by Satan, and therefore go in the wrong direction, exceeds by the number of those who will disobey Satan and hold fast to the straight path.

Because of this discrepancy in ratio, the most suitable thing was to mention punishment so frequently, and in numbers that exceed the mentioning of Paradise.

Paradise has been mentioned 66 times in the Quran, while Hellfire was mentioned 126 times. If you look at the world today, or at any juncture of history, you will find that the amount of disobedience really exceeds the amount of obedience.

The Quran itself tells us so many stories from previous nations who rejected their messengers and tortured them. The Quran mentions that only a few responded positively to these messages and chose to be believers. Allah refers to those who believed in Prophet Noah and says:

*{And there believed not with him but a few.}* (Hud 11:40)

In reference to those who accepted Moses, the Quran says:

*{But none believed in Moses except some children of his people.}* (Yunus 10:83)

Even today, the number of those who swerve from the way of Allah and reject the existence of God in the world, far more exceeds the number of those who believe. Even amongst those who believe, the number of those who practice is far less than the number of those who just claim to be believers by tongue only.

All this makes it understandable and completely reasonable to mention Hellfire and punishment in numbers that exceed the number of times Paradise is mentioned.

Moreover, it has always been the case that people who are blinded by ignorance and desire will be awakened by the punishment, or when they are told about it. And this is exactly what the Quran is doing. It is reminding these people many times, here and there, that they should wake up and bear in mind that punishment is waiting for those who rebel.

As for the role of punishment and reward in encouraging people to be good and discouraging them from disobedience, let me explain to you that this is necessary for a certain level of worship — until people realize the sweetness of worship and recognize that they worship Allah because they love Him.

To exemplify this, if there is a child who does not like studying or doing his homework and is unable to realize that studying is very beneficial for him, then the best way of dealing with him would be telling him that there will be a punishment if he fails to do his homework, and a reward if he finishes it.

Later on, when this same student grows up a bit and cherishes love for his study and realizes its benefits, the whole idea of reward and punishment will not be his motivation. Rather, he will be motivated by love, and this is what is really needed from him.

Similarly, when people do not realize the importance of worshipping Allah and obeying Him, the address of punishment and reward will be much more suitable for them until they realize that they love Almighty Allah. And this love should be the main motive for obeying Him.

Until they develop this kind of motive, I believe they will still be in need of a word here and there reminding them and pressing the buttons of fear and hope in their hearts and minds. Let's all pray Allah to grant us His love and to enshroud us in His mercy and pleasure.

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Homeless on the street

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"What did you give him money for? Anyone can tell he's just pretending. He'll only spend the money on drugs." How many times has a friend said those words to you when you gave a few coins to a person begging on the street?

Chances are that if you are reading this article on the Internet, you probably had breakfast this morning. Chances are that if you are reading it in the evening, you had lunch and dinner, too. Or if you didn't have breakfast, lunch, or dinner today, it might have been your choice. You could have had orange juice for breakfast if you had wanted, followed by either tea or coffee. Before breakfast, you probably got out of a cozy bed where you slept well all night, having watched TV or gone out with friends the evening before.

Imagine things were a bit different (well, actually, a lot different), and at the end of the day yesterday, you didn't go to bed, because you had no bed and no home to go to. Where would you have gone? Can you possibly imagine, just for a moment, if you had nowhere to sleep tonight? What would you do? Where would you go? Worse than that, imagine you had no mobile phone or money in your pocket. Nothing! What would you do?

Many, many young people find themselves in this dilemma every single day. They have nowhere to stay, no money to spend, and nothing to do for the whole day ahead of them. In every big city in the world, just around the corner from those high streets where millions of pounds are spent every day in fancy shops and restaurants, young men and women sit begging on the street. It is one of the most shameful things of our modern age that while many live in comfort, lacking nothing, many more live lives of total despair, not knowing where the next meal will come from or how they can manage to find a place to lay down their heads in safety for the night.

What makes the problem of homelessness even worse is that when people find themselves in such a situation, that is when the trouble really starts. Circumstances lead them to meet characters who are perhaps not the best people to have as friends. Maybe crime or even prostitution are the only ways of getting access to any money. People you thought you could rely on, let you down and steal what little you have. The situation keeps going from bad to worse.

Now, just before we go on, we need to admit that there are causes for this situation. Some people say that young people in this situation don't try hard enough to get jobs or look for adequate shelters offered by the many charities that exist to look after them. Some blame drugs or alcohol. Others say that those young people themselves didn't try hard enough to make it work at home, and they left too hastily. We can come back to all of that. Just for now, though, let's admit that the situation exists. Blaming someone is not going to solve the problem. Many people your age have nowhere to live. That is the fact of it. No fingers to point. No one to blame. Just a fact.

So what are we, as Muslims, to do about this? Do we condemn the homeless to their lives of misery because they have not managed to keep up with the demands of modern life? Maybe a row at home was the cause of the young persons' leaving the family home and setting off to the big city. Maybe there was some kind of abuse at home, either physical or sexual, which led them to leave. Maybe they were just too headstrong to stay in a family where parents were making quite ordinary demands of them. The situation is, of course, very complex. What, though, can we do?

First of all, like our beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), we ought to thank Almighty Allah whenever we see someone less fortunate than ourselves, that we have not been given that particular trial in our lives. We need to thank Allah each day for the comforts we enjoy and take for granted. Even though we might, at times, argue with parents, we thank Allah that they are there for us when we need them. We should thank Allah, too, that we really lack for nothing in life. Sure we moan and complain when we don't get quite the right brand that we asked for or when things don't go perfectly according to plan, but we really lack for nothing. As Muslims, we should be ever grateful for the good things we enjoy in life, saying al-hamdu lillah for them.

We need to be proactive, too. In other words, instead of just shaking our heads and saying how terrible it is that there are homeless young people on our streets, we should do something about it. We can look up many of the charities who work in this field. Do they need help? Do we have talents that could be offered? It need not be something big, but could be something as simple as writing a letter to an MP or a short article for a school or college magazine, highlighting the plight of the homeless and suggesting things such as affordable housing as ways out of the problem.

During Ramadan in particular, we turn our thoughts to those who are less fortunate than us. Maybe next Ramadan we could team up with others to offer help to the homeless. We could look for youth outreach programs, which try to give help and support where needed. We could even suggest to mosque leaders that the mosque might get involved in running a soup kitchen or collecting clothes and blankets. Apart from the help this would give where it is needed, it would also show the local community that Muslims care — not just about themselves, but also for any who are in need. It might even make those going to the mosque spare a thought for others too.

Knowledge is power. We can empower ourselves and others by finding out more about this terrible problem. Islamic societies at university might like to get involved to show their student friends what Islam is really about. It is easy to give a talk or hand out a few leaflets. Helping the homeless would really make people sit up and think.

And, next time, when someone asks you on the street to "spare the price of a cup of tea" or to "give any spare change," instead of making moral judgments, perhaps you should simply help. If some of those homeless are not telling the truth and are not really in need, they will have Allah to answer for. If you give some help for Allah's sake, out of a genuine care for someone less well-off than you, then you, too, will be rewarded by Allah for your good intention. In sha' Allah, young Muslims working together can make a difference to the lives of people who have nothing. Even if we can help just one person, we will have indeed made a big difference.

http://www.idristawfiq.com/6-Homeless%20on%20the%20street.html

The Story of Prophet Saleh

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By Idris Tawfiq

Many of the prophets mentioned in the Quran, are prophets shared with Christianity and Judaism, for their stories are often told in the Bible. Such prophets as Moses, David, Solomon, and Abraham are just a few of the famous names.

Islam, of course, recognizes all former prophets, believing that God Almighty (Allah) sent them throughout the history of mankind to every nation to speak His message.
In fact, we can read in the Quran what means,

[Indeed! We sent a messenger to every nation.] (An-Nahl 16:36)

Muslims believe that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the very last in a long line of such messengers. His message was for all people and for all time.

The Quran, though, also tells us about some prophets who are not mentioned in the Bible.
One of these is Prophet Saleh (peace be upon him). His story is interesting because God does not just tell it once in the Quran, but many times.

Prophet Saleh lived in the region of Al-Hajr, which was located along the trade route from southern Arabia to Syria. The city of "Madain Saleh" lies several hundred kilometers north of Madinah in modern-day Saudi Arabia, is named after him.

The rock dwellings in which the people lived are still to be seen there to this day. Saleh was called to preach a message to the people of Thamud.

According to the Quran, these people cultivated very rich fertile land, and they had become very vain because of their wealth. They also worshipped many gods, oppressed the poor in their midst and lived lives which were far from the kind of lives Allah wanted them to lead.

Saleh's message was very simple: they were to turn away from the bad behavior and to turn, instead, to the One God, Allah, who gave them all the good things they enjoyed.

Now that doesn't seem a very difficult message to grasp, does it? Yet the people of Thamud were very stubborn in their ways, and refused to accept the message which Saleh was bringing them.

God works in very strange ways, sometimes quite beyond our comprehension. The way He chose to speak to the people of Thamud was through the story of a camel!

This is, perhaps, the first thing we should note about the story of Saleh as it is told in the Quran. God can choose any way to convey His message to us.

We are often slow to understand, but He can speak to us through people and events, or He can even speak to us through the example of a camel. The fact that He tells us the story not once, but many times, is a sure sign that its message is important.

The story as told in the Quran goes like this. The people of Thamud were very vain and they refused to accept that Saleh was a messenger sent from God, so they asked him for a sign to prove his credentials.

["O Saleh!" they said, "You have been among us a bearer of our hopes as we wished you to be our chief, till you brought this new thing of telling us to leave our gods and worship your God Alone! We are really in doubt as to that which you invite us to".} (Hud 11:62)

They asked him, in fact, not just for any sign, but something quite specific. They pointed at a huge rock that was standing by itself, and proposed to him that he ask his God to create a she-camel out of it.

Despite their obstinacy, Saleh did this, on the condition that they would believe in God if he produced the she-camel from the rock, and to this they agreed.

Saleh then fervently prayed to God to answer their request. The huge rock moved and split, and from it came a wonderful she-camel, which was pregnant and soon to give birth. God provided the Thamud people with this miracle to test them, to see if they would obey His orders. Saleh told them:

[O my people! This she-camel of Allah is a sign to you. Leave her to feed on Allah's earth, and inflict no harm on her, or a swift punishment will seize you!] (Hud 11:64)

The camel lived among them, and soon gave birth to a calf. Some of the people accepted to believe in God because of what they had seen, and because of what they had promised.

Others, however, did not, and they began to hate the camel, as it reminded them of Saleh and of the promise they had made to him. It used to graze among their herds and drink from their water.

In fact, one day it would drink, and the next day the other animals would drink. Saleh told them to let it drink from the water of the well for one day, and leave it to them the second day as Allah ordered:

[She has a right to drink (water), and you have a right to drink water, each on a day appointed] (Al-Qamar 54:28)

Instead of convincing them to be kind to the animal, they actually chose to harm it.

[The leaders of the arrogant party among his people said to those who were powerless – those among them who believed – "Do you know for sure that Saleh is a messenger from his Lord?"

They said, "We do indeed believe in the revelation which has been sent through him."

The arrogant party said, "For our part, we reject what you believe in."

Then they hamstrung the camel, and insolently defied the order of their Lord, saying "Oh Saleh! Bring about your threats, if you are truly a messenger of Allah!" ] (Al-A`raf 7:75-77)

As if their disbelief was not enough, they also challenged Saleh to bring down the punishment of God upon them if he was, indeed, a prophet.

Nine men amongst them, known for their mischief and prompted on by some of the women, went to the camel and its calf at night time, and they killed them both.

Saleh was angry at what they had done. The camel had surely done them no harm, he said.

[Enjoy yourselves in your homes for three days. This is a promise that will not be belied!] (Al-Hijr 11:65).

Despite their scoffing and scorn for his message, the people were destroyed.

[On the third day, when the sun rose above the horizon, a mighty blast overtook them, followed by a terrible earthquake that left them lying dead prostrate in their homes. The area was left barren as if nobody had lived there before!](Hud 11:67-68)

Saleh and the people who were left moved from that place, never to return.

Lessons From the Story
The message of Saleh, then, must be important or God would not have repeated it so often in the Quran. So what does it tell us today? How can this episode of a camel teach modern men and women how to live?

Well, first of all it teaches us that we should not put God to the test, asking for signs and proofs from Him, when the whole of creation is surely one great sign of His goodness to the world. He has repeatedly sent His messengers to us, but we are very slow to believe.

It teaches us, also, not to disobey Him, but to listen to His prophets and messengers and be prompt to do what they say.

The story of Saleh teaches us, too, an important fact about ourselves. We agree with God when things are going good for us, but then we go back on what we have promised to Him, turning back to our previous ways.

Think of how many times we have pleaded for such and such a thing, promising to do all manner of good things in return. When we get what we want, we tend to forget our promises very quickly.

Finally, the message of Saleh is a salutary one for today's world. It teaches us that God will not be mocked. He, the Creator of the heavens and the earth and everything in between, is in charge of all things.

Sometimes humans think they can fool Him and act against His will, but all things are within His grasp. He can put an end to our stubbornness at any moment if He chooses to.

We think we are so important and so clever, with our nuclear weapons and our ability to send people into outer space, while at the same time, like the people of Thamud, we oppress the poor, and deny even simple people their rights.

Prophet Saleh (peace be upon him) teaches us something very important: that doing God's will is a reward in itself. We need neither signs nor proofs nor congratulations for doing it. He tells us,

[No reward do I ask of you for it; my reward is only from the Lord of the worlds.] (Ash-Shu`araa' 26:145).

You can find the story of Prophet Saleh told in full in these places in the Quran: the seventh chapter, called Al-A`raf, verses 73-78, the 11th chapter, called Hud, verses 61-68, the 26th chapter, called Ash-Shu`araa', verses 141-159, and the 27th chapter, called An-Naml, verses 45-53. It can teach us all to be better people.

Idris Tawfiq is a British writer who became Muslim a few years ago. Previously, he was head of religious education in different schools in the United Kingdom. Before embracing Islam, he was a Roman Catholic priest. He now lives in Egypt. For more information about him, visit www.idristawfiq.com.

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My Purpose in Life

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By Sumayyah Meehan
Freelance Writer

The scene is grim, the circumstances dire. A grandmother anxiously waits outside the delivery room door. Her daughter was just rushed in for an emergency C-section.

The hallway is eerily silent. However, the silence is soon shattered with screams. The delivery door bursts open and an intern races out with a limp baby in his arms. The umbilical cord is still attached as it whips against the walls, splattering blood wherever it hits.

All the old woman can see are the backs of the intern's shoes as he frantically sprints up the stairs to the ICU, with her grandchild in his arms, before the door swings shut. She has no idea if the baby is a boy or a girl or even if it will live long enough for her to see it.

The year was 1973 and the baby was me.

I was born two months premature and as a result, my lungs did not fully develop. Right after birth, I went into respiratory distress. The walls of my lungs were stuck together. There was not enough surfactant to keep them inflated and they could not inflate on their own.

Luckily, the intern recognized the condition and quickly raced me to the ICU. He risked his career and future by taking matters into his own hands. If he had not, I would have died.

The intern quickly cut my chest open and inserted a vacuum into each lung to mechanically inflate it. My lungs rose and collapsed eleven times. I, clinically, died eleven times. But finally, my lungs began working on their own. I spent my first three months in the hospital.

The intern who saved my life visited often. However, my primary care pediatrician told my mother that I would be mentally retarded, blind, deaf, and would never be able to walk since my brain had been deprived of oxygen for so long.

By the grace of Allah Almighty, I made a full recovery and thrived from the moment I left the hospital. I did not suffer any ill consequences despite my precarious entry into this world and I forged a loving relationship with the grandmother who first laid eyes on my when my life most assuredly hung in the balance.

Throughout my life, I would hear members of my family refer to me as a "miracle" or say just how "lucky" I was. Even as a small child, I possessed the knowledge that chance had nothing to do with my existence. I lived for a reason known only to Allah.

It would take me years to find out what my purpose in life was. As a small child I can remember playing with my Barbie dolls while contemplating upon why I had lived.

As the only member of my family to go to college, I remember sitting in philosophy class pondering upon why I had survived birth and been blessed enough to get a higher education as I quickly jotted down class notes.

I spent the greater part of my life searching for the meaning of why I lived until my journey came to a screeching halt the day I decided to begin reading the Holy Quran. I read and read feeling as if I had found the truth, which had for so long eluded me. And then I came to a verse that answered the question that I had so long asked myself and others.

Allah Almighty says in the Quran:

[I created jinn and mankind only in order that they might worship Me.] (Adh-Dhariyat 51:56)

In a mere thirteen tiny words, I finally found my purpose in life. I lived so that I might worship Allah as a Muslim. It really is that simple.

From the moment I took the Shahadah declaring my faith in God alone without partners, I have used my life to not only tell others about Islam but also teach them about it by providing true information about the fast-growing religion and the world.

I've also made a point to annihilate stereotypes, misinformation, propaganda and Islamophobia (which is in abundance in the popular media) with the most technologically advanced creation known to man: the pen.

All humans share a common purpose in life. However, not all humans heed the inner inclination that pulls them back towards their Creator.

I was chosen to be a Muslim and am thankful that, when the call came, my heart was open to receive the blessing.

And that is the only purpose that matters in this world.

Sumayyah Meehanreverted to Islam almost 11 years ago. She is a Waynesburg College graduate with a BA in criminal justice. She is working on an Islamic children's book. She resides in Kuwait with her husband and three children.

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