On A Slippery Road

Have you ever walked on a slippery path? How do you walk? Do you sashay? Do you march? Do you stroll? Or do you watch your every step so you won’t fall flat on your face, or behind. i find this a very beautiful way of explaining what having taqwa means. I have never heard [...]

Usury

Riba, or usury, is forbidden in Islam. It’s an action that merits war against Allah on the Day of Judgment. Mortgages, Banks, Loans. Today, usury is widespread such that some Muslim scholars even okays it.
Riba signifies greed in material wealth. It extract profit at the expense of others. It doles out hardships upon people.
One thing [...]

Forbidden Foods

When I was eight, my father took us to the Las Vegas, where we sat down to a meal in a restaurant. If it’s one thing I remember about that trip, it was my father’s fury at the waiter who served us our food. It was spinach, or something that looked like spinach, that my [...]

Abused Blessings

Two things we should do upon receiving any blessings from Allah:
1. Mention Allah by making zikr
2. Be grateful to Allah by using the blessing as commanded.
And (remember) when Musa (Moses) asked for water for his people, We said: “Strike the stone with your stick.” Then gushed forth therefrom twelve springs. Each (group of) people knew [...]

Fear Public Speaking No More!

According to a 1985 Wall Street Journal Article, the number one fear in America is public speaking. For some reason, that makes me chuckle. As an Asian, I’m too familiar with that fear, but to read that statistic coming from the Americans makes me laugh in disbelief. Seriously, Americans afraid of public speaking ?!
I would [...]

Got Knowledge?

One of the definitions for knowledge found in the dictionary is ‘the sum of what is known’. Realistically, ‘the sum of what is known’ would be an infinite number. As proven in my regular doses of National Geographic newsletter, new discoveries keep popping up, some abrogating the previous ‘knowledge’ of a certain thing. No one [...]

Are You Illiterate?

What does it mean to be illiterate? Dictionary.com defines it as below.
1. unable to read and write
2. having or demonstrating very little of no education
3. showing lack of culture, esp. in language or literature
4. displaying a marked lack of knowledge in a particular field: He is musically illiterate
78: Muhsin Khan: And there are among them [...]

Why Prophet Ibraheem a.s. was chosen as an Imaam

And (remember) when the Lord of Ibrahim (Abraham) [i.e., Allah] tried him with (certain) Commands, which he fulfilled. He (Allah) said (to him), “Verily, I am going to make you a leader (Prophet) of mankind.” [Ibrahim (Abraham)] said, “And of my offspring (to make leaders).” (Allah) said, “My Covenant (Prophethood, etc.) includes not Zalimun (polytheists [...]

The Rock

Matters of the heart. I know it’s cliche but I like the phrase. In this case, the hardened heart. Allah describes the hardened heart as being harder than stones.
Then, after that, your hearts were hardened and became as stones or even worse in hardness. And indeed, there are stones out of which rivers gush forth, [...]

The Story of Adam

In the story of Adam in Surah Al Baqarah, Iblis is said to have been ordered to bow down to Adam along with the angels, but he refused, claiming that the fact that he was created from fire is more superior than someone who is created from clay. Thus the first sin was born: arrogance.
What [...]