Date: May 29, 2016
The author Jameel Syed expresses his experience in Umrah that he witnessed while his pilgrimage. He says nobody can walk empty handed from this place of purification. He first visited Umrah in the month of Ramadan in 1998. The pilgrimage journey was a gift from his parents for graduating from the University of Michigan. Pilgrims chanted loud and loud as they moved closer to the object of desire. His heart beats started to beat faster and faster when he reaches the place of Allah. His eyes started to fill with tears and while walking towards the object of desire he was in a dreamy state. Finally he stopped and he knew that he was in the presence of majesty. People come from far and near to have their prayers heard. Different people believes in Islam with different skin colors eat different foods, speak different languages, wear different clothes and practice different customs all gathered in one place to celebrate peace, brotherhood and unity. The pilgrimage places like Mecca and Madinah have their own flavors. Both cities carry the wonderful air of devotion and humanity and both are complimentary to one another. Both cities make you feel safe and privileged. While the trip to Madinah, he could meet many notable personalities who are working for Islam and its teachings. Qalam Institute, Ustadh Wissam Sharieff, Imam Dawood Yasin, Imam Khalid Latif, imam Omer Bajwa, Ustadh Jameel Besada were some among them. The ever loving and memorable thing that the author could do was being given the permission to raise the adhan in two masajid of the holy city: Darul Hadith and the famed Islamic University of Madinah. Since this greatest thing happened, he believes that nobody can walk away from this place empty handed.
"The best of what a man leaves behind are three: a righteous child who supplicates for him, ongoing charity the reward of which reaches him, and knowledge that is acted upon after him."
Sunan Ibn Mājah
"Every day two angels come down from Heaven and one of them says, 'O Allah! Compensate every person who spends in Your Cause,' and the other (angel) says, 'O Allah! Destroy every miser.'"
Sahih Bukhari
Praise be to Allah, the Creator and Cherisher of the worlds and peace be upon his prophet Muhammad SAW. The blessed month of Ramadan is near completion. A month which brings mercy, forgiveness, and freedom from fire if completed virtuously. The month of Shawwal, which follows Ramadan, also has unique opportunities to continue to earn Allah’s blessings. Muhammad SAW said, “The one who fasts the month of Ramadan, followed by six days in Shawwal, is purified of sins as if he was just born.” (Hadith: Sahih Muslim and Abu Da’ud). The six days of fasting in Shawwal can begin any day after Eid al-Fitr and can be completed continuously or spread throughout the month. There are differences of opinion regarding the requirement to make up missed Ramadan (fard) fasts before keeping Shawwal (nafl) fasts. See the link below from Yasir Qadhi: However we choose to do it, certainly, rewards come from Allah and anything we do sincerely to please him will not be wasted. _As for those who believe and do good deeds, rest assured that We do not waste the reward of him who does a good work._ (Quran 18:30) The Alim Foundation Inc., NMS/NH, May 21, 2020
Read MoreFasting during Ramadan is one of the five fundamental pillars of Islam and mandatory for all healthy adult Muslims to fast from sunrise to sunset for a period of a month. During fasting, Muslims are required to refrain from all intakes of food, water, beverages, smoking and from sexual intercourse. Ramadan fasting causes many physiological, biochemical, metabolic and spiritual changes in the body. Ramadan Fasting increases the Red Blood Cells (RBCs), White Blood Cells (WBCs), platelet (PLT) count, High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (HDL-c), and decreases the blood cholesterol, triglycerides, Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (LDL-c) and Very Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (VLDL-c). Moreover, it reduces body weight, waist circumference, body mass index, body fat, blood glucose, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and anxiety levels. Furthermore, Ramadan fasting decreases the inflammation, pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1b, IL-6, tumour necrosis factor a and cancer promotion. Among healthy adults, there are no adverse effects of Ramadan fasting on the brain, heart, lung, liver, kidney, haematologic, endocrine profile and cognitive functions. Ramadan fasting is a healthy non pharmacological means for minimizing the risk factors and improving health. Although Ramadan fasting is safe for all healthy individuals, but those with various illnesses such as diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, renal and eye illness should consult their physicians and firmly follow the scientific recommendations.
Read MorePart I Salah (Prayer) is one of the Five Pillars in the faith of Islam and an obligatory religious duty for every Muslim. It is a physical, mental, and spiritual act of devotion that is to be performed five times every day at prescribed times. In this ritual, the believer starts stand-up, bows, prostrates themselves, and completes while sitting in the prayer platform. At the time of each posture, the believer delivers or recites certain sections, phrases and prayers. The term salah is generally translated as "prayer" but this definition is little unclear. Muslims use the words "dua" or "prayer" when mentioning to the common description of prayers which is "reverent requests made to God". Many scientific studies are done on belief and worshiping approaches. A team of scholars from Malaysia recently answered this query by learning how Muslim prayer affects alpha waves in the brain, and their results show a profound connection between mind and body. The study was completed using brain scanning technology, such as magnetic-resonance imaging and electroencephalograms (EEG), to know how the brain responds to spiritual or divine practice. Islamic prayer, or salat, needs the believer to go through more than a few distinct bodily postures while performing specific supplications. The sequence of positions is fixed, and it’s repeated many times for each act of prayer. Believers start out standing, then bow at the waist till their upper bodies are corresponding with the ground, with their hands pressed against the knees. Then, they come back to a standing posture before bowing down to the fully prostrate posture and touching the foreheads on to the ground. After bowing, believers sit up on their knees temporarily before coming back to a final bowing position. The same cycle will start again. Each of the stage in this prayer cycle will last for a few seconds, and the total prayer cycle lasts around 30 seconds and a full minute. During the study, the researchers studied brain waves at variety of postures with and without vocal prayers. To learn more into this and understand how these different postures mark brain waves, they fitted the helpers with EEG monitors around the frontal, central, temporal, parietal, and occipital regions and told the volunteers to complete a series of prayer cycle. Consequently, they found substantial increases in alpha movement in volunteers’ parietal and occipital but, amazingly, only during the bowing stage of the salat. In contrast, alpha wave stages didn’t vary much at all amid inactive state and prayer in the standing, bowing, or kneeling positions. This following study dig through the effect of Islamic prayer (salat) on a relative power (RPα) of electroencephalography (EEG) and autonomic nervous movement and the connection between them by means of spectral scrutiny of EEG and heart rate variability (HRV). !(/img/equation.png) where fmax=95 Hz, fl=8 Hz, fh=13 H During the prayer salat, a remarkable increase (p
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