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Makkah to Madinah: An Epic Composition from Dr Abdullah Al-Kadi

Date: August 27, 2015

There are many memorable and historic journeys took place in the past which stands as the milestones in the historic culture. Musa had crossed the Red Sea! Caesar crossed Rubicon! These are some wonderful and inspiring instances for historic journeys. But here is a wonderful story of an epic journey which changed the human civilization. Dr Abdullah Al-Kadi researched for years and wrote the book Makkah to Madinah: A Photographic Journey of the Hijrah Route. The book reveals the journey took place in the start of the Muslim calendar Hijrah from Mecca to Madinah by Umar and the great companions of the Prophet who were alive at the time. Dr Abdullah Al-Kadi travelled 30,000 miles through the route of Hijrah to know the hurdles and puddles across the way. The journey helped him to get familiar about the oddly shaped rocks that were used as milestones along the way. Dr Al-Kadi was accompanied by his family and Peter Sanders a well-known British photographer. The book incorporates wonderful images from the journey which is captured by the golden eyes of Peter Sanders. Author reveals that there is much more to learn from the history for even more than 14 centuries.

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Alim.org – Ahadith are now linked to related Quran Ayaath

In Islam, Ahadith are derived from the sayings, teachings, habits, and life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). These represent the sunnah of the holy Prophet (PBUH) and are meant to be followed by all Muslims to live a righteous Islamic life. Ahadith are reported by Companions of our beloved Prophet (PBUH) and by His wives, the prominent being Hazrat Aisha (RA). Often Ahadith are reported by a chain of narrators, starting from a contemporary companion of Prophet Muhammad (PHUH) followed by the followers of the followers, and generations of scholars in Ahadith. Ahadith have been collected and organized as various books like Sahih Al Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Fiqh Us Sunnah, Tirmidhi, etc. Now Ahadith are the leading source of Islamic guidance after the holy Quran, and they act us the complete authority of sunnah and the life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Majority of Ahadith have their root in the holy Quran, the holy text revealed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by Allah (SWT) through angel Jibreel (AS). This happened because, Prophet Muhammad’s (PHUH) life was strictly according to the Quranic guidance and its derivations, and the Ahadith are narratives from His (PBUH) life. The holy Quran is revealed first, and Ahadith are later derived from Prophet’s (PBUH) Sunnah, means Quran is the foundation and reference to Ahadith. Also true is the fact that, some Ahadith act as explanation to many Quranic verses. This is apparent in Tafsir Ibn Kathir, where the Quran is explained through Ahadith. When Quran Ayaath are linked and stated along with Ahadith, it adds the authenticity of the Ahadith, since the holy Quran is the ultimate and undisputed truth. Moreover, Quran Ayaath make the Ahadith strong and provides direction to the reader to understand the Ahadith better. It is in the above context, Alim.org has decided and implemented linking of Ahadith with Quran Ayaath that act as references to the Ahadith. We have used techniques like context matching, machine language and pattern matching to identify Quran Ayaath that matches with Ahadith in context, meaning and background. Thus, Ahadith are linked to their Quran Ayaath references and these Ayaath are shown by side of the Ahadith as Quran references. Our implementation is unique in its kind, and we are delighted to roll out this feature for our users to experience and to provide feedback. Kindly refer to the reference Ayaath of some Ahadith and let us know your valuable feedback. Currently we have done Ayaath linking to Fiqh Us Sunnah Ahadith only and other Ahadith books will be linked and released soon. We are in the process of continuous refinement of our Ahadith Ayaath linking algorithm and your feedback will be used to derive rules to match Ahadith and Ayaath further. Our goal is to provide the users with a complete Ahadith referencing platform through Alim.org and enable them to contemplate upon the meanings and implications of Ahadith to understand it better and complete.

No feets are needed to perform Sujud; It needs a soul

Here is a wonderful and heart touching post from a disabled US Navy Veteran. Once he was admitted in the hospital in Washington DC, where he needs to undergo for some checkups and follow ups. In between he stepped up and down first floor and third floor for a long time. In the meantime, on the third floor, he could see the hospital chapel just outside the elevator doors. The chapel, including ten to fifteen members was getting ready for the Jumuah prayer. As he entered the hospital chapel, he was offered a seat in the front by considering the disability to his knees. It was too difficult for him to sit and pray. But they found a bench that he shared with two other gentlemen to pray. During the khutbah, the imam said that “Let us also make du&8217;a for our brothers and sisters that are too sick to join us in this room today.” Imam’s words hit him hard and he got in a mood of agony. That was a Ramadan season. And he thought like whether other disabled brothers sat next to him thought the same sad way. When he started to pray and make sujud the man in the wheelchair next to him caught his eyes. He was an old gentleman. When they first sat for the khutbah, he noticed that he had to struggle sitting up on his wheelchair, that he was missing both his legs. But, as they made sujud, he too did his prayers and Sujud. Here, the narrator doesn’t have any idea about how this man lost his legs. Maybe he lost his legs while serving the United States military. The very fact, the narrator coining here is that, he has done his Sujud. The narrator is feeling very sick due to his bad knees. At the same time, this old man is doing his Sujud without two legs. This made the veteran man to open his eyes. He was quickly reminded of the quote from Helen Keller “I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.”. He concludes the narration by remembering the words from the messenger of Allah” “Every Muslim has five rights over another Muslim: to return the greetings, to visit the sick, to accompany funeral processions, to accept an invitation, to respond to the sneezer.

Verse of Light

One of the most commented verses in Quran is the “Verse of Light” (24th Surah - An-Nur). The Surah unveils how Allah is the light of heaven and earth. Allah says the so called light in him is a niche and within which is a candle. The candle is placed in a glass which twinkles like a star in the sky. Olive tree’s oil from the blessed land of Quds is used for fuel to light the candle. This is very bright itself even without fire. With this, Allah guides to his light whomsoever he wills. There are a number of commentaries on this verse and the most famous comment is that this verse is a parable of faith. Here the candle refers to the light of Iman. The ultimate message of this Surah is that light of Iman and how to attain it. Verse 2 incorporates the topic of chastity and modesty and it talks about the punishment of fornication. Verse 27 is all about the modesty of seeking permission while entering to someone’s house. Verse 30 and 31 are the command of Allah for the believing men and women to lower their gazes and guard their chastity. Verse 58 speaks about the need to ask permission to enter parent’s room at special times by a person under the age of maturity. In short, all the verses talks about modesty. If a person preserves their modesty and stays away from anything that diminishes this, they preserve the light of Allah which He places in the hearts of the believers. Allah combines between light, modesty which means that if anyone preserves modesty, there will be blessed light, and if the modesty lacks, the light becomes dimmer.

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