Session 1

Duaa of the Week: Duaa after Waking Up

Memorize this duaa by the next halaqah inshallah and implement it into your daily routine inshallah.

Quranic Tafseer: Surah Fatiha

The Prophet ﷺ said, “No group of people will gather together in a house from the houses of Allah”— and many ulema (scholars) said this doesn’t mean just the masjid, this could be any place where people gather to study the Qur’an—and the Prophet continued “and they come together to recite the book of Allah, the Qur’an, and to study it and to ponder upon it, except that tranquility from Allah will descend on them and that they will be covered with rahma (mercy) and that the angels will come to this gathering and cover them and shower them. And the stack of the angels will go all the way to the heavens and Allah is going to mention your name by you studying the Qur’an.”

Q: Names of AlFatiha

The scholars say that Al-Fatihah consists of twenty-five words, and that it contains one hundred and thirteen letters.

If you get 7 rewards for every letter, think about 113*7 = 791 rewards

Q: How many ayats does the surah have?

Q: Proof that the surah is seven versus, ie that the bismillah is included.

 Importance of knowing the meaning of this surah

There are 5 fard prayers in the day, fajr 2 rakah, dhur 4 rakah, asr 4 rakah, maghrib 3 rakah, and isha 4 rakah. For a total of 17 rakahs. That is 17 times a day, not including any sunnah or nawafil that you have read the surah. Think about the impact of knowing what you are reciting, and knowing that Allah is responding to you as you recite. Think about what you are promising and asking Allah for. This is a great way to increase kushoo in Salah

Hadith of the Day

On the authority of Ameer ul-Mu'mineen (the Commander of the Faithful), Aboo Hafs `Umar ibn al-Khattaab radiAllaahu anhu, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam say:

"Actions are but by intentions and every man shall have only that which he intended. Thus he whose migration (Hijrah to Madeenah from Makkah) was for Allaah and His Messenger, his migration was for Allaah and His Messenger, and he whose migration was to achieve some worldly benefit or to take some woman in marriage, his migration was for that for which he migrated." Explanation of Hadeeth 1 This is a saheeh hadeeth that has been agreed upon by the scholars, and is collected in both the collections of al-Bukhaaree (Hadeeth No. 1) and Muslim (Hadeeth No. 1907). This hadeeth is great in its benefit and importance, and it has been said that the religion of al-Islaam revolves around it. Some of the scholars have said that it is 1/3rd of Knowledge, because the actions of man involve his heart, his tongue and his limbs, and hence the intention in the heart is 1/3rd of that. Other scholars have said that the whole religion is encompassed in three hadeeth - this one, the hadeeth "The Halaal is clear, the Haraam is clear and between them are doubtful matters...", and the hadeeth "Whoever innovates in this religion that which is not from it will have his actions rejected [by Allaah]". [Note: These other hadeeth will be covered later in shaa' Allaah] Some of the scholars have said that this hadeeth should be mentioned at the beginning of every book, in order to establish that the seeking of knowledge is for the sake of Allah alone, and not for anyone else. It is also said that this Hadeeth is the foundation of Islam, so clearly we understand that it is very IMPIORTANT that we understand and spread this hadeeth to those around us, so we may be of those that have surely practiced what the Prophet had to say,PBUH. Imam Ahmed stated, that there are 3 Hadeeth’s around which Islam revolves, and out of those 3 Hadiths this Hadith is the 1st. In the hadeeth, when the Prophet (sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam) says "actions are but by intention,"  the 'by' here means that the acceptance and correctness of any action depends upon the intention behind it. An action which is apparently good, such as giving money in charity, will be rejected if the intention behind it is wrong, for example: to show off. Indeed, the Prophet (sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam) has narrated from Allaah that if a person performs an act for Allaah's sake and also for the sake of someone else, then Allaah will reject the deed entirely and leave the whole of it for the partner that the person made. This shows us how grave the sin of shirk is - it is the only sin that Allaah will never forgive. In the hadeeth, the words "shall have" means that the person will be rewarded for only that which he intended. So, as mentioned in the hadeeth, if a person performed the Hijrah, but did it with the wrong intention then he would not be rewarded for that action of Hijrah. The word "actions" refers to those actions which are part of the Sharee'ah of Islaam. Thus, any action of the Sharee'ah - such as making wudoo', or ghusl, or making tayammum, or the prayer, or zakaat, or fasting, or the Hajj, or i'tikaaf in the masjid, or any other act of worship - will not be accepted and rewarded unless it is performed with the correct intention. Summary Everything we do has to be intended to be for Allaah, i.e., for anything we do we want to make sure that it will be acceptable to Him and will not in any way interfere with the upholding of His Deen. A good action with the wrong intention will not get us any reward in the Hereafter.

Topic of the Day: The Importance of the Years of Youth

·      Wasting of the heart: Done by preferring this worldly life over the Hereafter

·      Wasting of time: Done by having incessant hopes (leads to following desires)

“As for him who transgressed and preferred the life of this world, verily, his abode will be Hell-fire. And as for he who feared the standing before his Lord, and restrained himself from impure desires and lusts, verily, Paradise will be his abode.”

-An-Naziat 37-41

·      Desires are the root of all evil because the one who follows his desires has essentially pushed aside the guidance. Especially in our youth, there are desires for many things (attraction to the opposite sex, partying etc). So our job is as Allah said:

“And follow that which is revealed to you, and be patient until Allah judges and He is the best of judges.”

- Yunus 109

·      The Messenger of Allah (S.A.W) said:

“Take advantage of five things before five other things: from your youth before your old age, your health before your sickness, your wealth before your poverty, your free time before you become occupied and from your life before your death.”

-       Narrated by Abdullah bin Abbas

·      Take advantage of your youth, because you are today able to perform optional fasts; when you are old you will not be able to withstand the pains of fasting. Right now you are a youth who can get up and pray in the middle of the night, staying up in the bowings and prostrations. It’s the time in which you are not tied down with many responsibilities. Tomorrow, as the years pass, the responsibilities pile up and you won’t have as much time as you may have now.

·      If we look to the people who first gave victory to Islam, we would find that many of them were youths. In fact, most of them were less than 20 years of age. How many youth today would be willing to sacrifice everything for Islam?

·      Allah will ask a specific question to everyone on the Day of Resurrection:

“The two feet of a servant will not move from their places until he is asked about four things: about his life and what he did with it, about his youth and how he spent it, about how well he acted upon his knowledge, and about his earnings- where he obtained it, and what he spent on it.”

-       at-Tirmidhi (2417)

·      Even though the period of youth is part of a person’s life, Allah has singled out the period of youth for questioning. Shaytaan often whispers to us and tells us that we will have time later in our lives to worship Allah; but the truth is that we do not know when we will die and we do not know when we will meet our Lord.

·      Allah will shade the youth who was raised in obedience on the day in which there will be no other shade:

“There are seven whom Allah will shade beneath the shade of His Throne on the day in which there will be no shade but His shade…(including) a youth who was raised upon the obedience to Allah.”

-       Al Bukhari (1423) and Muslim (1031)

·      It’s important that we gain knowledge about Islam from a young age so that it is easy to implement it throughout our lives. When the decisions that we make in our life are made taking the path of Islam into consideration, the rest of our lives will be a lot easier. For example, choosing a career that is halal and brings you thawaab instead of a career that involves haraam; or choosing a spouse who is righteous and has strong Imaan rather than choosing a spouse for their wealth or looks. Later in life, we may come to realize how the decisions we made were not in coherence with Islam. It will be more difficult to implement Islam later than if we make the right decisions from the beginning.