Oct 1 2009

Why Were We Created

Dr. Bilal Philips
Language: English | Format: PDF | Pages: 10 | Size: 1 MB

We have to answer the most fundamental question that every human being asks himself at some point in his or her lifetime. Not just Muslims, but every single human being. “Why was I created? Why am I here? What am I doing in this world? Why did God create me?” These questions, are questions which each and everyone of us reflects on at some point during their life. We have some answers, which are given generally, but usually these answers don’t satisfy us, they seem somewhat simplistic. We still wonder. “Why me? Why here?” I know all of you, generally speaking, in the back of your mind, you are saying “to worship Allâh, khallas (finish), what more is there to say? Why do we need to have a big long talk on why we were created, when we all know it is to worship Allâh?” But wait, if this is presented to a non-Muslim, the next logical question would be “why does Allâh want us to worship Him?” and then your stuck.

It means, in our own minds it is not really clear to us. Why did Allâh create us to worship Him? The question, why did Allâh create us, for some people, and we have to deal with those people around us, who don’t consider there to be any purpose in man’s creation because he is just a product of evolution that the forces of nature have produced him, and just as we don’t have apes, dogs or cows thinking about why they are here, then we don’t really have to think about it either. Of course that being the basis of the philosophy of western society, that man is without purpose, then the whole issue of government, morality etc has no basis in Revelation, there is no guidance there. The product of this is of course the corruption that we are living in.

For a Muslim, when we go in to this topic, we have to find our understanding in divine revelation and not human speculation. Because human speculation has no bounds, we can imagine all kinds of things, and is any of you have studied philosophy of religion, you can see how many opinions exist about the creation of man and existence. Because of the variety of philosophies, which are out there, no one can say this one is correct or that one is incorrect, because there is no guidance behind it. No divine revelation. It is only from divine revelation that we can determine the reality of our creation, because it is Allâh who has created us and he knows the purpose of our creation. We can hardly understand ourselves, much less try to understand the essence of things. So it is for Allâh to inform us through the revelation in the Qur’ân and the Sunnah which was brought by his last Messenger sallallâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam and the Messengers before. Now if we are to look, initially into revelation, to determine why was man created, there is a deeper question that we should be asking before that. “Why did God create?” Before we even get to man, why did god create, because man is not the greatest act of creation that we should be so focused on why man. No, because Allâh says:

لَخَلۡقُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٲتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضِ أَڪۡبَرُ مِنۡ خَلۡقِ ٱلنَّاسِ وَلَـٰكِنَّ أَڪۡثَرَ ٱلنَّاسِ لَا يَعۡلَمُونَ

“The creation of the Heavens and the Earth is indeed greater then the creation of mankind; yet, most of mankind know not.” [Sûrah Ghâfir, verse 57]

Man is not the greatest act of creation, this universe is far more complex and far more magnificent then man. So the issue of creation should then go to why create? As opposed to simply why create man?

Fundamentally, we can say that the creation is the natural consequence of the attribute of creator. Allâh is the creator. That is one of his attributes. That is what he has informed us. That being his attribute, the creator, the natural consequence or the product of this attribute is his creation. Continue reading →

Aug 23 2009

Mankind And Satan

Muhammad Mitwaly Ash-Sha’rawy
Language: English | Format: PDF | Pages: 68 | Size: 1 MB

Who is the devil? A question that always crosses our minds, finding no answer to it. The devil is unseen to us, he sees us but we cannot see him. He whispers in our ears and insinuates evil (thoughts, doubts, fears, suggestions..) into our minds without knowing where is he? Or what does he do? And the question persists, who is the devil? Allah, all praise and glory is to Him, out of mercifulness to our minds told us who the devil is, and the story of his enmity against mankind and how can we confront him and defeat him and defeat all the seen and the unseen powers in the entire universe. Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, orders us to seek refuge with Him from the devil because Allah, Whose Majesty reigns supreme, is The Omnipotent, highly above all His creatures, whether believers or disbelievers, obedient or disobedient, those given free choice or those without power of free choice. This captivating piece of literature takes a compeling look into satans roles through the ages. This book should Inshallah help the reader to understand the tools and limitations of mankinds greatest enemy. Continue reading →

Aug 1 2009

The Fundamentals Of Tawheed – Islamic Monotheism

Dr. Bilal Philips
Language: English | Format: PDF | Pages: 250 | Size: 8 MB

The Fundamentals Of Tawheed: Tawheed, the oneness of God, is the core of the Islamic faith. Mankind is assigned the duty of implementing this concept on earth in every walk of life since the days of Adam. However, Satan spares no effort to distract mankind from the guided path. This book points out and clarifies this concept. Continue reading →

Jul 31 2009

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) A Blessing For Mankind

International Islamic Publishing House
Language: English | Format: PDF | Pages: 38 | Size: 1 MB

Muhammad (PBUH) (Blessings and Peace be upon him) was born in Makkah, Arabia, on Monday, 12 Rabi’ Al-Awwal (2 August C.E). His mother, Aminah was the daughter of Wahb bin Abd Al-Manaf of the Zahrah family. His father, Abdullah, was the son of Abd Al-Muttalib. His genealogy has been traced to the noble house of Isma’il, the son of Ibrahim (Abraham) (PBUH) (May Peace be upon him) in about the fortieth descent. Muhammad’s father had died before his birth and his mother died when he was about six years old making him an orphan. In accordance with the tradition of noble families of Makkah, he was taken by a foster mother, Halimah, to her village where he lived for a few years. During these years he was taken to Makkah several times to visit his mother. After the death of his mother, he was placed under the custody of his grandfather, Abd Al-Muttalib. When the grandfather died, he was under the care of his uncle, Abu Talib. By this time he used to look after sheep around Makkah and used to accompany his uncle on trade journeys to Syria.

Youth

In his youth he believed firmly in the Oneness of Allah (God)(SWT). He lived a very simple life and hated vanity and pride. He was compassionate to the poor, widows and orphans and shared their sufferings by helping them. He avoided all vices, which were commonly practiced among young people such as gambling, drinking wine, vulgarity and others. He was well-known as As-Sadiq (the truthful) and Al-Amin (the trustworthy). He was always trusted as a mediator between two conflicting parties in his homeland, Makkah.

Marriage

When he was about 25 years old, his uncle urged him to work with the caravan which belonged to a wealthy widow named Khadijah. He accepted and undertook the journey to Syria. He conducted business with such prudence and sense of duty that he returned with larger profit than usual. Khadijah was so impressed by the honest and attractive personality of Muhammad (PBUH) that she offered to marry him which Muhammad (PBUH) accepted. This marriage was a happy one. They had children. Khadijah was so far his only wife until she died at the age of 51.

Prophethood

Muhammad (PBUH) was born amidst a polytheistic (unbeliever) society. He was saddened and sick of the corrupt society around him. He often went to Hira cave in the mountain near Makkah, later known as Jabal An-nur (the mountain of Light) where he meditated and pondered over the prevailing darkness brought about by ignorance. There he often remained deep in thought in communion with the unseen yet All-Pervading God of the Universe. One night, while he was meditating in the Hira cave, the Angel Gabriel (peace be upon him) came to him. The Angel aroused him and his mighty voice reverberated in his ears. He was perplexed and did not know what to do. He was asked to read. He replied: “I cannot read!” The Angel repeated three times asking Muhammad (PBUH) to read, but he replied the same answer. Finally the Angel asked:

[Read in the name of your Lord , who created man from a clot. Read in the name of your God, the Most Bountiful, who taught by means of the pen, and taught man what he did not know.] (Qur’an 96: 1-5) Continue reading →