On Brotherhood
May 2, 2025 § Leave a comment
Imām Al-Shāfiʿī, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “The example of brotherhood for the sake of Allaah is like that of the hand and the eye—if the eye weeps, the hand wipes away its tears, and if the hand is in pain, the eye weeps for it. If you have a friend who helps you in obedience to Allaah, then hold fast to him, for taking someone as a friend is difficult and parting with them is easy.”
Ḥilyatul-Awliyā, 4/101.
On Seeing Your Soul Leave Your Body at the Time of Death
April 19, 2025 § Leave a comment
Shaikh ʿUthaimīn said, “A person sees his soul leave when it is taken. That is why his eyes remain open at the time of death, watching the soul as it leaves, it is taken and placed in a shroud and then taken up to Allaah.”
Sharḥ alʿAqīdah al-Wāsiṭiyyah, 1/76.
If You Wronged Someone then Ask them to Forgive You but They Say No I Will See you on the Day of Judgement
April 18, 2025 § Leave a comment
Shaikh ʿUthaimīn, Allaah have mercy on him, said, “This ḥadīth confirms judgement on the Day of Resurrection, that it is true and that every wronged person will be given his due right. But there is an issue here where if a person goes to someone he had oppressed in the past by backbiting him and slandering him or something of the sort, and then asks him to forgive him after he has repented to Allah and has become regretful and thus says to the person he wronged, ‘Forgive me, I was wrong, and I seek forgiveness from Allaah now and turn to Him in repentance, forgive me,’ and he apologises but the person who was wronged doesn’t accept it. So here we say that if Allaah sees that he is sincere in his repentance [/that his repentance is sound by having fulfilled its conditions] then Allaah will take on the responsibility of fulfilling the rights of that person who refused to forgive him.
The same goes for [matters related] to money. If you had an argument with someone and denied him some money of his which you had, then later you repented to Allaah and admitted it and went to him and said, ‘I denied you your right but now I repent to Allaah and am remorseful, [please] take your money,’ but he replies by saying, ‘Between me and you is the Day of Judgement,’ so here we say that if Allaah knows that your intention is true in your repentance, then He will take on the responsibility of the sin—i.e., He will satisfy the person you wronged. But you give the money away in charity on behalf of that wronged person so that you free yourself from the obligation you have to him.
For example, if you owed him 100 riyāls and you came to him after having become remorseful and having sought Allaah’s Forgiveness and asked him to take the hundred riyāls but he refused and said, ‘No, I want them from your good deeds on the Day of Judgement,’ then here we say that if Allaah sees that you are truthful in your intention then you will not be held as sinful and the sin is removed from you—but give the 100 in charity on his behalf so as to free yourself from it.
Sharḥ Riyāḍ aṣ-Ṣāliḥīn, 6/659-660.
The Outstanding Sister
November 17, 2024 § Leave a comment
The Shaikhah, Mūḍī bint ʿAbdullah al-Jalham, Allaah have mercy on her, d. 2016, she was born in ʿUnaizah. Her father passed away before she got married, so she took on the responsibility of raising her seven younger brothers. A short while after she got married she suffered burns [in a fire] in which a great part of her body was burnt and due to which she had to stay in hospital for a number of months. Yet despite these problems and difficulties she kept on studying and outdoing others. She had memorized the Qurʾān and the two Ṣaḥīḥs. Then she started following the lectures of the major scholars, Ibn Bāz, Ibn ʿUthaimīn and al-Fawzān. She was sharp and intelligent, quoting Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim by heart, citing the volume and page [she was taking from]. Then she started to give daily lectures to women except on Fridays, doing so for twenty-two years, even when ill. Such that in 2013 she got gangrene in her foot which had to be amputated half way up to her shin, then she started gradually losing her sight and had to stay in hospital for a number of months, but that didn’t stop her from giving her lectures since she used to leave the hospital every Sunday to give a dars on ʿaqīdah and then go back to the hospital. They counted the number of books that she taught and it came to seventy-five, amongst which were explanations of chapters from Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb at-Tawḥīd a number of times, al-Wāsiṭiyyah three times, and Sharḥ as-Sunnah of al-Barbahārī.
She passed away and she hadn’t even turned sixty.
ʿAjāʾib wa Asrār min Siyar al-ʿUlamā maʿal-ʿIlm, p. 30.
So Easy You Don’t Even Have to Move Your Mouth to Say it
November 7, 2024 § 1 Comment
Imām Ibn Ḥazm said, “Say Lā ilāha illallāh abundantly, because it is made of words that can be said with the tongue [alone] without the need for [the movement of] the lips, so the person sitting with you won’t even know.”
At-Talkhīṣ li Wujūh at-Takhlīṣ, 1/100.
Pharaoh
July 18, 2024 § Leave a comment
The Most High said, “And Pharaoh called out to his people, boasting, ‘My people, is the Kingdom of Egypt not mine? And these rivers that flow at my feet, are they not mine? Do you not see?’” [43:51]
He used to boast that the rivers flowed beneath him so Allaah made it all flow above him and put him at the bottom of the sea.
Their Ṣalāh
July 10, 2024 § Leave a comment
“ʿAlī ibn al-Fuḍail said, ‘I saw [Sufyān] ath-Thawrī in sajdah, I finished going round the Kaʿbah seven times before he lifted his head.’”
Aina Naḥnu min Hāʾulā, Vol. 1, p. 192.
They Are Waiting
June 24, 2024 § Leave a comment
Al-Ḥārith ibn Idrīs asked Dāwūd aṭ-Ṭāʾī to advise him, so he said, “Death’s soldiers are waiting for you.”
Aina Naḥnu min Hāʾulā, vol. 1, p. 28.
Al-Badr on Shaiṭān Waiting for you to Come Outside and How to Protect Yourself
June 22, 2024 § Leave a comment
Shaikh ʿAbdur-Razzāq al-Badr, Allaah protect him, said:
“But take note of a point here: every time you leave your house a shaiṭān is there waiting for you to come out.
Every time.
Every time you leave your house there is a shaiṭān waiting by your house—he has no other job except to wait for you to come out, and his mission and aim is well-known.
And he has helpers.
So when you say:
بِسْمِ الله، توكَّلْتُ عَلَى الله، وَلا حَوْلَ وَلا قُوَّةَ إلاَّ بِالله
Bismillāh. Tawakkaltu ʿalallāh. Wa lā ḥawla wa lā quwwta illa billāh.
“In the name of Allaah. I trust in Allaah. There is no might and no power but with Allaah.”
You are protected from his evil and that of his helpers and this shaiṭān then turns to his aids and brothers and tells them to lose hope in you, saying, ‘What are you going to do with a man who has been guided, defended and protected?’
That is why it is not fitting for a Muslim to deprive himself of this profound good and excellence, so he should make sure to say this great dhikr:
بِسْمِ الله، توكَّلْتُ عَلَى الله، وَلا حَوْلَ وَلا قُوَّةَ إلاَّ بِالله
Bismillāh. Tawakkaltu ʿalallāh. Wa lā ḥawla wa lā quwwta illa billāh.
“In the name of Allaah. I trust in Allaah. There is no might and no power but with Allaah.”
Sharḥ al-Wābil aṣ-Ṣayyib, lesson no. 22.
Raging Winds and Rough Seas
June 21, 2024 § 1 Comment
“Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd said, ‘We were at sea when the winds started to rage and the waves became fierce and the people started to cry and scream. So someone said to [either] Maʿyūf or his son, ‘That is [the great scholar] Ibrāhīm ibn Adham [over there], if only you’d go and ask him to make duʿā to Allaah.’ Ibrahīm was sleeping in a corner of the ship, his head wrapped in some garb. So he approached him and said, ‘Abū Isḥāq, don’t you see the state everyone’s in?’ So Ibrāhīm said, ‘O Allaah! You have shown us Your Strength now show us Your Mercy!’—and all became calm.’”
Mowsūʿah Ibn Abid-Dunyā, vol. 5, p. 270.
Allaah Never Looked At Anything Except That He Had Mercy On It
June 18, 2024 § Leave a comment
“Jaʿfar ibn Sulaimān said, ‘I heard Abū ʿImrān al-Jūnī say, ‘Allaah never looked at anything except that He had Mercy on it, and if He looked at the Denizens of Hell He would have had Mercy on them—but He decreed that He would never look at them.’’”
Mowsūʿah Ibn Abid-Dunyā, vol. 3, p. 496.
Ibn Taymiyyah Speaking About The Kaʿbah
June 3, 2024 § 2 Comments
The Shaikh of the Shaikhs of Islaam, Ibn Taymiyyah, Allaah have mercy on him, said, “And likewise how Allaah singled out the Kaʿbah, the Sacred House, from the time Ibrāhīm built it to this day, in terms of how it is exalted, revered and how the hearts are drawn to it. And it is common knowledge that kings and other people build fortresses, cities and palaces with formidable tools, solid in structure—and then it doesn’t take long before they fall apart and are debased. [While] the Kaʿbah is a House built with black stones, in a barren valley, devoid of any gardens, water and other things that people desire, nor does it have any military to defend it from enemies, nor, on the way to it, are there any of the desires that the souls covet, on the contrary, many times the journey there is fraught with fear, fatigue, thirst and hunger that only Allaah knows the true extent of. Yet despite this Allaah alone knows the [extent of the] number of hearts of ˹believing˺ people that incline towards it, and He gave the House honour, dignity and greatness through which He humbled the [very] necks of the people of earth such that powerful leaders and tyrannical heads [of state] go to it and are humbled and submissive there like anyone else. That this is outside man’s ability and [outside] the strength of their souls or bodies is something known by necessity, [seeing that] the one who built it died thousands of years ago.”
Aṣ-Ṣafadiyyah, 1/220.
Don’t Forget About Not Trimming Hair or Nails if you Intend to Sacrifice
June 2, 2024 § Leave a comment
From Umm Salamah, Allaah be pleased with her, that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever sees the new crescent of Dhul-Hijjah and wants to offer a sacrifice, let him not remove any of his hair or nails until he has offered the sacrifice.”
An-Nasāʾ ī, Ṣaḥīḥ.
How to Stop Sinning by Ibn al-Qayyim Explained by al-Badr – Part Two: Love
May 30, 2024 § 1 Comment
“Imām Ibn al-Qayyim said, ‘No. 2. Loving Allaah ﷻ. So a person leaves sinning against Him out of love for Him, because ‘A lover obeys his beloved.’ And this is because the best [kind of] abstention is the type carried out by someone doing it out of love, just like the best [kind of] obedience is the type done out of love—for there lies a huge chasm between the abstention of a lover and his obedience and that of someone who does so out of fear of the punishment.’
Explaining the above, al-Badr said, ‘The second incentive: the love of Allaah ﷻ. As He said, ‘… but the ˹true˺ believers love Allah even more.’ [2:165]
So when a servant keeps his heart busy with Allaah’s Love it diverts him from falling into things that anger Him ﷻ, since acts of disobedience and sins cause a servant to miss out on his share and portion of Allaah’s Love for him in proportion to the sins and mistakes he falls into. And because true love of Allaah requires and demands obeying His Orders and keeping away from what angers Him, as He said, ‘Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ “If you ˹sincerely˺ love Allaah, then follow me, Allaah will love you and forgive your sins.’ [3:31]
And that is why it was said:
You disobey the Lord while feigning his Love
How preposterous, [utterly] unprecedented an analogy
If your love were true you would have obeyed Him
For indeed a lover submits to his beloved.’”
Bawāʿith al-Khalāṣ minadh-Dhunūb, pp. 10-11.
Al-Badr Explaining Ibn al-Qayyim’s Words on How to Stop Sinning – Part One
May 27, 2024 § Leave a comment
Imām Ibn al-Qayyim ﵀ said, “Chapter: Strengthening One’s Incentives to [Practise] the Dīn is Done Through a Number of Ways.
To hold Allaah ﷻ in such veneration—knowing that He is watching and listening—that it stops you from sinning. And whoever’s heart bears witness to His Greatness will find that it will not [then] obey him in that [sin] at all.”
Explaining the above, Al-Badr said:
“The first incentive to leave sins: Venerating Allaah and regarding Him to be too Great.
And that is where a person witnesses Allaah’s Majesty and Greatness in his heart, as He said, “They have not shown Allaah His proper reverence—when on the Day of Judgment the ˹whole˺ earth will be in His Grip, and the heavens will be rolled up in His Right Hand. Glorified and Exalted is He above what they associate ˹with Him˺!” [39:67] and He said, “What is the matter with you that you are not in awe of the Majesty of Allaah? When He truly created you in stages ˹of development˺?” [71:13-14]
Explaining the āyah, Ibn ʿAbbās ﵁ said, “What is the matter with you that you do not exalt/glorify Him as He ought to be?”
Al-Qurṭubī ﵀ said about, “وقارا”, ‘i.e., stage after stage until creation was completed … so whoever did this and had the ability to do so deserves that you exalt and glorify Him.’
The effect that witnessing Allaah’s Majesty and Greatness in one’s heart has on a person can be seen in what happened to the noble Companion, Jubair ibn Muṭʿim ﵁, when he heard some of the verses that were talking about Allaah’s Greatness, that He is the Creator, the Provider, and the One who governs all creation—this all led him ﵁ to enter Islām. He said, ‘I heard the Prophet reciting [Sūrah] aṭ-Ṭūr in Maghrib, when he got to the verse that said, ‘Or were they created by nothing, or are they ˹their own˺ creators? Or did they create the heavens and the earth? In fact, they have no certainty. Or do they possess the treasuries of your Lord, or are they in control ˹of everything˺?’ [52:35-37] ‘It was as if my heart were about to take flight.’ [Bukhārī] And in another wording, ‘And that was when belief was first planted in my heart.’ [Bukhārī]
So when a person’s soul whispers to him to commit a sin he should use his heart to witness Allaah’s Greatness and Power and Might/Omnipotence, and that He is privy to all actions and statements. So when a servant feels or perceives that in his heart then it is inevitable that he will refrain from committing sins, with Allaah’s Help.
Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith al-Ḥāfī said, ‘If the people pondered over Allaah’s Greatness they wouldn’t disobey Him’”
Bawāʿith al-Khalāṣ minadh-Dhunūb, pp. 7-9.
Their Ṣalāh
May 26, 2024 § 1 Comment
“From ʿAlī ibn Abī Ḥamlah and al-Awzāʿī and Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Kuraib who said, ‘ʿAlī ibn ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAbbās used to make a thousand prostrations a day.’”
Tahdhīb Kutub az-Zuhd al-Musnadah, no. 2178.
Ṭāwūs and His Companions
May 24, 2024 § 2 Comments
“From Ibn Abī Rawwād who said, ‘When Ṭāwūs and his companions would finish praying ʿAsr, they would turn to the qiblah and not speak to anyone and then they would humbly implore Allaah in duʿā.”
Az-Zuhd, 2209.
“Soon.”
May 23, 2024 § Leave a comment
“‘Saʿīd ibn Jubair would finish reciting the Qurʾān every two days …’ ‘He entered the Kaʿbah and finished the Qurʾān in one rak’ah …’ ‘He would cry until he became bleary-eyed …’ ‘Explaining The Most High’s Statement: ‘Nay! Man desires to continue committing sins.’ [75:5] he said, ‘He says, ‘Soon, I will repent.’’’”
Tahdhīb Kutub az-Zuhd al-Musnadah, Nos. 1622-23 and 1626.
Ibn Taymiyyah on Why the Heart was Created
May 22, 2024 § Leave a comment
بل القلب لم يخلق إلا لذكر الله فما سوى ذلك فليس موضعا له
The Shaikh of the Shaikhs of Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah, Allaah have mercy on him, said, “The heart was only created to remember Allaah. Everything else has no place there.”
Risālatun fil-Qalb wa annahū Khuliqa li-Yuʿlama bihil-Ḥaqq wa Yustaʿmala fīmā Khuliqa lahū, p. 27.
The Level of Caution Ibn Baaz’s Teacher and the Mufti Before Him, Muḥammad Ibn Ibrāhīm, Would Go to When Asked Questions, Unlike Today’s Juhhāl who Don’t Even Reach the Level of Students of Knowledge
May 20, 2024 § Leave a comment
Shaikh Ḥamad al-Farhūd said, “In 1958 in Jeddah I injured my leg and it got put in a cast, I couldn’t move so I used to perform tayammam [dry-ablution] and then pray not facing the qiblah. When I came to Riyad I asked the Shaikh [Muḥammad Ibn Ibrāhīm] as to whether my prayer was valid or whether I should make it up. So he spent a few days looking into it and then never gave me a fatwā on the issue.”
Sīrah Samāḥatish-Shaikh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, point no. 15.
Al-Badr’s Book ‘Some of the Salaf’s Advice for the Youth.’ · Number 2 · Taking Knowledge from Senior Scholars
May 19, 2024 § Leave a comment
Al-Badr said:
“From Ḥammād ibn Zaid who said, ‘We visited Anas ibn Sīrīn when he was sick, so he said, ‘Young men, fear Allaah. Look carefully at who you are taking these ḥadīths from because they are from your religion.’’
This is a great will [and piece of advice], i.e., that the youth who is going ahead and seeking knowledge and learning ḥadīth should be learning at the hands of the trustworthy people of knowledge and those grounded in it, the people of insight and expertise, those senior in knowledge, he should not be taking knowledge from everyone, but from the people of the Sunnah whose expertise in it is established.
From Ibn Shawdhab who said, ‘One of Allaah’s Blessings on a young person is that when he begins to follow the Sunnah he gets together with a person of the Sunnah who carries him along on it.’
From ʿAmr ibn Qais al-Mulāʾī who said, ‘If you see a youth with Ahlus-Sunnah from the onset then have hope for him, and if you see him with the people of innovation then despair of him, for a young person will follow what he was first raised on.’
From ʿAmr ibn Qais who said, ‘The young person grows, if he favours sitting with the people of knowledge then he is on the verge of being saved, but if he inclines to other people then he is on the verge of being destroyed.’”
Min Waṣāys-Salaf lish-Shabāb, pp. 8-9.
The Humility of Shaikh Ibn Baaz’s Teacher and the Mufti Before him, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm
May 18, 2024 § Leave a comment
وكان إذا أثنى عليه أحد أو مدحه يقاطعه بقوله: اللهُ يَتُوْبُ عَلَيْنَا، اللهُ يَعْفُو عَنَّا
“When someone would praise or compliment him he would cut him off by saying, ‘May Allaah turn in Mercy to us, may Allaah pardon us.’”
Sīrah Samāḥatish-Shaikh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, p. 23.
Ibn Baaz’s Teacher’s Humility, Shaikh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm. Compare it to Today’s Juhhāl who Don’t Mind Having Titles They Don’t Deserve Before Their Names
May 17, 2024 § Leave a comment
The Muftī of Saudi Arabia before Ibn Baaz was Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, may Allaah have mercy on them both. Shaikh Ḥamad al-Farhūd said about him:
“I accompanied him for more than eighteen years and never once did I hear him refer to himself as ‘Shaikh’ or ‘Mufti,’ … when he would mention his [own] name he would mention it without any titles, except for one time only. And that was when he hosted a dignitary from the Gulf who was a good man. So he wanted me to call the hotel so that he [could speak to them and] make a reservation for the guest [from the Gulf]. When he spoke to the receptionist, who was Egyptian [and he asked for his name], he told him, ‘Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm,’ but he never recognised him. So he said, ‘Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āl ash-Shaikh,’ but he still didn’t recognise him. So he repeated it a number of times but with the same result. So then he said, ‘The Mufti [of Saudi Arabia].’ Then when he ended the call he said, ‘May Allaah grant him guidance, he forced me to say that word [i.e., Mufti’].’”
Sīrah Samāḥatish-Shaikh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, p. 23.
Al-Badr’s Book ‘Some of the Salaf’s Advice for the Youth.’ · Number 1 · Seeing Righteous Role-models
May 16, 2024 § Leave a comment
Shaikh ʿAbdur-Razzāq al-Badr said, “From Abul-Aḥwaṣ who said, ‘Abū Isḥāq [whose name is] ʿAmr as-Subaiʿī said:
‘Young men, take advantage [of your youth]: hardly a night will pass by me without me reciting a thousand āyahs. And I read Sūrah al-Baqarah in one rakʿah and I fast the sacred months [Ashurul-Ḥurum] and the three days of every month and Mondays and Thursdays.’ Then he recited, ‘And proclaim the blessings of your Lord.’ [93:11] [Reported by al-Ḥākim in his al-Mustadrak, no. 3947]
When he said he recites one thousand āyahs a day he meant approximately not exactly that number, meaning that he would finish reading the Qurʾān every week. Finishing the Qurʾān every week was the way of the majority of the Salaf.
When ʿAmr bin Maymūn would meet one of his brothers he would say, ‘Last night Allaah blessed me by allowing me to pray such and such a number of Ṣalāh. And He blessed me by allowing me to do such and such good deeds.’
After mentioning the two previous narrations in al-Mustadrak, Abū ʿAbdullah al-Ḥākim said, ‘So may Allaah have mercy on ʿAmr bin ʿUbaidillaah as-Subaiʿi and ʿAmr bin Maymūn al-Awdī because they pointed out things that would encourage the youth to worship.’
The two narrations also emphasise leading by example, because the youth are in need of [seeing people of] such rank so that they [themselves] become active and so that complying [with the truth] becomes easier for them.
But the teacher should draw [their] attention to having pure intentions so that they don’t fall into showing-off and have their deeds nullified.”
Min Waṣāys-Salaf lish-Shabāb, pp. 6-7, [post title, ’Seeing Righteous Role-models,’ is not from the book].
Ibn al-Qayyim on Dying as a Muslim
May 12, 2024 § Leave a comment
Ibn al-Qayyim said, “Dying upon Islaam is the most sublime goal of the servant.”
Al-Fawāʾid, p. 292.
“People Will Come Across a Time When …”
May 8, 2024 § Leave a comment
Hudhaifah bin al-Yamān, Allaah be pleased with him, said, “People will come across a time when the only people who will be saved in it will be the ones who make duʿā like a drowning person would.”
Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaibah, 37134.
Ibn Taymiyyah’s Tafsir of Surah Nuh
April 27, 2024 § Leave a comment
“Imām adh-Dhahabī said, ‘And our Shaikh Ibn Taymiyyah was like that wallāhī,—he spent more than a year just on the tafsīr of Sūrah Nūḥ.’”
Tārīkh al-Islām wa Wafayāt al-Mashāhīr wal-Aʿlām, 30/226.
Reign in the Arrogance
April 25, 2024 § Leave a comment
“Ibn ʿUmar, may Allaah be pleased with him, said, ‘Taqwā is that you don’t see yourself as being better than anyone else.’”
Tafsīr al-Baghawī.
When Some Women who were Wearing Thin Clothes Visited ʿĀʾishah May Allaah be Pleased with Her
April 24, 2024 § Leave a comment
“Some women went to visit ʿĀʾishah, may Allaah be pleased with her, and they were wearing thin clothes, so she said, ‘If you are believing women—then these are not the clothes of believing women.’”
Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī, vol. 14, p. 244.
