In hadiths narrated from the Prophet (s) and the Ahl al-Bayt (a), the truth of Shafa’a has clearly been approved and explained.
The Prophet (s) stated, ” God blessed me with five privileges…one of which is [the right to make] Shafa’a and I have secured it for my people. Shafa’a will be for those who do not commit polytheism.”[5]
Also the Prophet (s) said, “three groups make Shafa’a for sinners before God and their Shafa’a will be accepted: prophets (s), scholars of religion and martyrs.”[6]
The hadiths of Shafa’a are in three groups:
Hadiths which say that Shafa’a will make a sinner be forgiven from going to the hell.
Hadiths which say that some sinners after while staying in the hell will enjoy Shafa’a and rescued from punishment.
Hadiths which say that some people will never enjoy Shafa’a and will eternally remain in hell.
Therefore, those hadiths which say that anyone having a particle of faith will enjoy Shafa’a do not disagree those hadiths which say one who does some very wrong act such as he takes the prayer of little importance will not enjoy Shafa’a because anyone who believes in God will once enjoy Shafa’a but he will be long left in hell so that some of his impurities will be cleansed and deserve Shafa’a.
[divider]
1)Ahmad, Musnad, vol.1 p.301; Nasa’i,Sunan, vol.1 p.209
2)Majlisi, Bihar al-anwar, vol.8 p.34
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The noble Prophet’s (s) Shafa’a has been clearly stated in the Qur’an and Muslims have no disagreement on the principle of Shafa’a in general and disagree only on its rulings and position. For example, in the verse “And keep vigil for a part of the night, as a supererogatory [devotion] for you. It may be that your Lord will raise you to a praiseworthy station.” (17:79) all Shi’a and Sunni exegetes agree that by “a praiseworthy station”, the position of Shafa’a is meant which God has promised to His Messenger (s).[1]
The verses mentioned in the Qur’an about Shafa’a can be categorized in some groups, some of them totally reject Shafa’a in the hereafter, some regard Shafa’a exclusive to God, some regard Shafa’a conditioned to the permission and order of God and some reject Shafa’a about some people.
Studying all the verses of Shafa’a implies that the glorious Qur’an approves of a kind of Shafa’a and disapproves and rejects other kinds of Shafa’a. The verses which reject Shafa’a imply that no one other than God has such a right and those verses which support Shafa’a imply that Shafa’a belongs to God and others can do Shafa’a only by His permission.
“Intercession is of no avail with Him except for those whom He permits.” (34:23)
1)Razi,al-Tafsir, vol.3 p55
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Definition The word of Shafa’a is derived from the root of Sha-Fa-‘A meaning “to append or join something to another”.[1] Shafi’ [intercessor] is called so because they join one to themselves and provide him/her with what he/she lacks and thus rescue him/her.
Shafa’a in religious terminology means “a creature’s mediation between God and another creature in delivering the good or driving away the evil whether in this world or in the hereafter.” Shafa’a means to make a change in the sinner so that he becomes non-deserved for receiving punishment and exclude him from the law of punishment; like repentance makes a wrongdoer non-deserved for punishment and makes him deserved for receiving God’s forgiveness. “There is no Shafi’ [intercessor] more rescuing than repentance.”[2]
Shafa’a has a close relation with Tawassul [invocation]: Tawassul is the act of one who takes refuge to an Infallible one (a) and asks him for intercession and thus Shafa’a is the act of the Infallible (a) who asks God to forgive that wrongdoer.
Believing in Shafa’a also exists in other divine religions such as Judaism and Christianity.[3] [divider]
1)Ibn Manzur, Lisan al-‘arab, vol.15
2)Majlisi, Bihar al-anwar, vol.6 p.19
3)New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol.7 p.519-520
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Introduction Shafa’a [intercession] is a religious act, all Muslims and followers of divine religions believe in. Shafa’a means that on the Day of Judgment, friends of God and some holy entities such as the Qur’an, with some conditions, intercede for some wrong-doers and rescue them from hellfire or cause the promotion of some people. Among Muslims, Wahhabis believe that only God can be asked for Shafa’a and if someone asks others for Shafa’a (especially after their demise), he is a polytheist. Belief in Shafa’a has a special position among Shi’a.
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There are so many places lost beneath the waves around the world, you could create an alternate atlas of watery wreckages. But during the 20th century, the number of towns underwater increased exponentially as hydroelectricity projects submerged some to create power for many. These drowned towns were intentionally flooded behind new dams, their buildings removed or dismantled, and their residents displaced.
In recent years, droughts have allowed some of these towns to re-emerge. Others remain underwater. Here are 10 haunting waterworlds.
1. Villa Epecuén, Argentina
Photo: Santiago Matamoro, Wikimedia // CC BY 3.0
It’s now a haunting stretch of pale rubble and skeletal trees, but in the middle of the 20th century Villa Epecuén was one of Argentina’s most popular tourist spots. The once-charming village was developed in the 1920s to take advantage of the therapeutic salt waters of Lago Epecuén, some 340 miles southwest of Buenos Aires, and the population peaked in the 1970s at some 5,000 people. But in 1985, tragedy struck: heavy rains broke a nearby earthen dam, inundating the town and its hundreds of businesses.
The salty waters covered the town for about 25 years, until they began to recede as part of a long-term weather pattern, revealing salt-encrusted trees and the carcasses of vehicles and buildings. (The well-preserved town slaughterhouse is particularly eerie-looking.) In recent years, the remains of the town have been subject to a tourism push from local officials, who say it feels a bit like Pompeii. Villa Epecuén even has a single resident: the octogenarian Pablo Novak, who moved inland when the town was flooded but never entirely abandoned the place. (You can see a documentary about his amazing determination here.)
2. Shi Cheng, China
Beneath the waters of Lake Qiando in China’s Zhejiang province lies the 600-year-old “Lion City” of Shi Cheng. Flooded in 1959 to create a reservoir and hydroelectric station for the nearby city of Hangzhou, its beautiful ruins have been surprisingly well-preserved by the water, which reportedly protects the buildings better than if they were exposed to sun, wind, and rain.
The ruins were relatively unknown until a Chinese government expedition in 2001, which found a small city of wide streets, five entrance gates, and 265 archways featuring ornate stonework carvings of lions, dragons, and phoenixes, as well as historical inscriptions dating back to 1777. But although Shi Cheng gets most of the attention, it’s just one of the towns flooded to create Hangzhou’s reservoir: the even more ancient He Cheng was established in 208, and also disappeared beneath the waves in 1959.
Local diving companies regularly offer tours of the Shi Cheng ruins, although since they’re not well-mapped, the dives are recommended for advanced divers only. Now’s a good time to visit the flooded jewels beneath Lake Qiando, which could see more traffic after a proposed tunnel through the lake is completed. There are rumors of other proposed developments aimed at helping tourists see the ruins. The $6.4 million submarine built for exploring the lake was completed in 2004 but has never been used, thanks to opposition from local officials.
Related: 15 Ancient Cities You Need to Visit Right Now
3. Vilarinho das Furnas, Portugal
Photo: Benkeboy, Wikimedia // CC BY SA-3.0
It’s like something out of a short story: a tiny but vibrant village, known for its remarkably democratic way of life, is flooded by the local power company to create hydroelectricity for the region. As they prepare for the end, villagers gather up stories, artifacts, and memories to create a museum memorializing their old town and its communal way of life.
That’s what happened at the 2000-year-old town of Vilarinho da Furna in Portugal’s Minho region. According to oral accounts, the village is said to have been founded by Romans in the 1st century CE, and flourished for two millennia before being flooded by the Portuguese Electricity Company in 1972. In 1981, a museum dedicated to the submerged town opened in São João do Campo; the building was constructed using stones from some of the village’s old houses, and displays artifacts from the town. But that’s not all: remnants from the town can be seen during dry periods in the spring and fall, when water levels in the reservoir recede, and the remnants of walls, windows, and doors of the town re-emerge.
4. St. Thomas, Nevada
Located 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas, St. Thomas was established in 1865 as a Mormon outpost before becoming an agricultural community briefly known for producing cantaloupes and asparagus. In the 1930s, after the creation of the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead flooded, washing over the entire town. Today, during times of drought, the foundations of St. Thomas reappear — although each time they re-emerge, more of the structures have disappeared. In 2005, parts of 40 buildings were visible, including remnants of an old school and ice cream parlor. According to the National Park Service, much of the town is visible right now due to the current drought.
Related: Road Trip: Searching for the Civil War Ghost Towns of Dixie
5. Potosi, Venezuela
Photo: Junctions, Flickr // CC BY 2.0
In what remains of Potosi, Venezuela, the mildewed ruins of a gothic church sit alone in a giant field. At one point, the church was part of a vibrant Andean village with 1,200 inhabitants, but in 1985 the town was flooded when a nearby river was dammed to create a hydroelectric plant. For about 20 years, only the cross of the church’s steeple was visible above the waters, as if marking the grave of the entire city. In 2008 the waters of the reservoir began to recede due to asevere drought linked to El Niño. By 2010 the church had been completely uncovered, joining the ruins of local houses, the town square, and a cemetery, all of which can now be seen.
6. Port Royal, Jamaica
They used to call it the “Wickedest City on Earth.” For decades in the 17th century, Port Royal was known for its rum, prostitutes, and pirates, who used the town’s strategic location in the middle of the Caribbean as their base for plundering Spanish treasure fleets. But in 1692 the city was hit with a massive earthquake, which destroyed some buildings and sucked others into the sand. The tsunami that followed drenched the town, swallowing up 33 acres for good. In all, at least 2,000 people were killed. Today, much of the once-scandalous city lies 40 feet below water. Since the 1950s, divers have been exploring the ruins, which are said to be remarkably complete. As Atlas Obscura notes, access from the government is required to dive. For those who don’t want to get wet, many of the artifacts recovered over the years can be seen at the Museums of History and Ethnography at the Institute of Jamaica in Kingston.
Related: The Famously Beautiful Fjords and Eerie Ghost Towns of Greenland
7. Catskills, New York
New York may have the highest concentration of drowned towns in the U.S., thanks to the number that were submerged to supply thirsty New York City. Between 1910 and 1928,dozens of farm villages in the Catskills were flooded to create reservoirs for the Big Apple. The creation of the Ashokan Reservoir, which began operating in 1915, required the abandonment and flooding of about a dozen hamlets alone. On the cusp of being displaced, thousands of residents were asked to help clear out their homes and businesses, and in some cases even dig up their relatives and move their bodies. Today, some claim that when water levels are low, the tops of the churches, schools, barns, and orchards drowned by the creation of Ashokan can still be seen. During a major drought in 2002, building foundations and old wells were revealed. Direct access to the reservoir has been limited since 9/11, but you can still catch a glimpse of the structures from nearby bridges.
The Catskills are also home to perhaps the most ironically named drowned town of them all: Neversink. The town was one of two flooded in 1953 for the creation of the Neversink reservoir. The other town displaced to create the new water supply was named Bittersweet.
8. Monument City, Indiana
In 2012, a severe drought in the Midwest revealed the remnants of Monument City, including the foundations of houses and bricks from the old schoolhouse, long since demolished. The tiny town (estimated population: 30), established in 1875, was one of three flooded to create the Salamonie reservoir in 1965. After water levels fell by 12 feet in 2012, locals began flocking to the area to take remnants of the tiny town, before the Department of Natural Resources finally stepped in to offer supervised tours. The reservoir was originally created to help prevent the flooding of other towns. When water levels in the reservoir are low, the remnants of the town can again be seen.
9. Flooded Belfry, Kalyazin, Russia
Photo: Michael Clarke Stuff, Flickr // CC BY SA-2.0
In 1939, Joseph Stalin gave orders to flood the 12th-century town of Kalyazin, Russia to build the Uglich reservoir. The waters submerged several medieval buildings, including two monasteries, but the Kalyazin Bell Tower, also known as the “Flooded Belfry,” is still looming above the Volga. At 244 feet high, the 19th-century campanile is one of the tallest Orthodox Christian structures in the world. (It looks a bit like a many-layered wedding cake.) Authorities have reinforced the tower and built a small artificial island around it, turning it into a popular spot for swimmers and tourists. Amazingly, Orthodox Christian services are still held inside the tower several times a year.
10. Church of Mediano, Spain
Photo: Juan R. Lascorz, Wikimedia // CC BY SA-3.0
Spain has a number of drowned towns, but one of the most notable sights is the Church of Mediano (above) in La Fueva, Huesca. The church, which dates to the late 16th century, was submerged in 1974 to create the Mediano Reservoir. The tip of the steeple is always visible, even when the reservoir’s levels are full. Intrepid divers used to be able to explore both the inside and out, but the inside has been boarded up for safety reasons. Elsewhere in the country, in Catalonia, the ruins of the 1,000-year-old village of Sant Romà de Sau(below) are also visible when water levels in a nearby reservoir drop, and include their own atmospheric church.
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A woman, who reverted to Islam 17 years ago, has become the first Ukrainian to memorize the Holy Qur’an in full, overcoming language barriers and time constraint.
“I started by learning Arabic language, so I used to write the verses and translate their meanings to understand and memorize them,” said Vera Verinak, whose new name carries the meaning of Iman or faith.
“This took me long time as I was a university student, before getting busy with work, marriage and children.”
Learning Arabic language was a great help for the ambitious Muslim revert, she added.
“After learning Arabic, the Islamic cultural center in Kiev put a schedule to help me memorize the Qur’an which helped me to memorize it within nine months only,” she said.
Vera, who helped her brother, mother and four sisters to revert to Islam, has been helping young people seeking knowledge about the fastest growing religion.
Vera, 35, noted that she did not expect to succeed in memorizing the Qur’an in full, especially after considering language barriers and lack of time.
Achieving her life dream of memorizing the Qur’an, the Muslim mother says she is keen on teaching Muslims the Holy Qur’an as well as spreading true image of Islam among non-Muslims.
A Ukrainian young revert, Jana, said she took the decision to revert to Islam after meeting Vera who convinced her that “Islam was both a faith and a way of life.”
As of 2012, there was an estimated 500,000 Muslims in Ukraine and about 300,000 of them were of Crimean Tatars. Today Islam is the largest minority religion in Ukraine, coming next to Christianity.
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A private school in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh denied entry to a Muslim girl in the classroom for wearing a hijab, with the school’s administration claiming the decision was taken not to discriminate between children on the basis of dress.
“Many girls want to study and practice their religion by wearing the hijab, but face a lot of difficulty in schools,” Nahid Lari, member of Uttar Pradesh Commission for Protection of Child Rights, said.
“They discriminate with Muslim girls by not allowing them to wear a headscarf.”
The dilemma started when 9-year-old Farheen Fatima could not sit inside her classroom in St. Joseph Inter College in Lucknow town as the school administration denied her entry while wearing headscarf.
Farheen also told that the school is being run by a Hindu family and not by Christian missionaries.
“The school has its own dress code. And there should not be any discrimination on the basis of religion in the school. We are not concerned about the religion of our students,” N. Emenuel, principal of the school, said.
“Farheen and her parents were informed about dress code in the school at the time of admission.”
However, Farheen and her mother stated that they were not informed about dress code banning hijab during the admission process.
“She was wearing headscarf at the time of admission process. Her photograph with headscarf was affixed even on her admission form,” said Waqar Fatima, mother of Farheen.
“They should have told us earlier that she will not be allowed with a headscarf in the school.”
Farheen informed that she was not allowed to go inside the classroom, the very next day of her admission.
She spent her whole day sitting inside the library, only to be asked to call her parents on the next day.
They were informed that Farheen will only be allowed to sit inside the classroom without her headscarf.
“We gave an application to the school administration asking them to allow Farheen to attend classes wearing her headscarf,” her mother added.
“They never replied to our letter. The school principal even refused to give anything in writing on dress code.”
Another School
As the new went viral, Lari, visited the school and inquired from other students about Farheen’s headscarf.
She asked them whether they feel discriminated because of the presence of Farheen in the school.
“Not a single student said they had any problem with Farheen wearing headscarf,” Lari said.
Farheen’s family has now decided their daughter will transfer to another school.
But, the commission has recommended harsh action against school management.
District Collector of Lucknow Raj Shekhar has ordered an inquiry against the school.
The incident of banning Muslim students due to their religious beliefs is not the first in India.
In 2009, the Supreme Court of India directed a Christian school based in central India to reinstate a class 10 Muslim student, Mohammed Salim, who was sacked after he refused to shave insisting it was part of his religious belief.
Muslims account for 180 million of India’s 1.1 billion people, the world’s third-largest Islamic population after those of Indonesia and Pakistan.
Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.
Muslims have long complained of being discriminated against in all walks of life in Hindu-majority India.
Official figures indicate that Muslims, who make up around 13 percent of India’s population, are lagging behind in literacy.
Muslims also complain of being discriminated against in jobs.
They account for less than seven percent of public service employees, only five percent of railways workers, around four percent of banking employees, and there are only 29,000 Muslims in India’s 1.3 million-strong military.
Source : On Islam
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Hujjat al-Islam Ramazani-Gilani, stated that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has several shortcomings, one of which is due to its lack of proof, as it is a human-made and not a divine document.
The Friday prayers’ leader and the imam of the Islamic Centre of German city of Hamburg, Hujjat al-Islam Dr. Reza Ramazani-Gilani, stated that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has several shortcomings, one of which is due to its lack of proof, as it is a human-made and not a divine document.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948. The Declaration consists of thirty articles which have been elaborated in subsequent international treaties, regional human rights instruments, national constitutions, and other laws.
The provisions of this declaration consist of a series of slogans, and the principles, proofs and arguments have stated nowhere, even in the endnotes and attachments related to the declaration.
He said that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights claims to be related to all of mankind, locations and times, but it has been codified due to the prevailing in the society of the time it was formulated. It should also refer to the reasons, sources and principles of these issues as well.
Hamburg’s Friday prayers’ leader said that all human beings, and from the perspective of dignity, all rights are equal and stated that in terms of the philosophical foundations and intellectual arguments in regard to the issues which evoke different and conflicting views should be clarified.
Hujjat al-Islam Ramazani-Gilani added that writing a series of rights without taking the necessary fundamentals and resources into consideration is intellectually unacceptable. Thus, it is necessary for these shortcomings to be seriously considered.
His Eminence said that only if human rights are based on a credible collection of rules and regulations and not created by mankind they can be acceptable. “From the perspective of Islam, human rights cannot be achieved by the rules of interpretation of several people but only through the laws of God,” he said.
He pointed out other shortcomings of the Declaration of Human Rights, adding it does not have any enforcement, but it is a series of legal materials that have been put together without any guarantee.
A British newspaper revealed on Monday, that a Britain left his family and sold his property to finance his trip to Iraq to fight ISIS, while he affirmed his readiness to die for the sake of the fight against extremists.
The British newspaper “Daily Mail” said in a report that “Jim Atherton, aged 53 years old, left his hometown in Britain, after leaving his wife and three children. He sold his car, motorbike and a boat to finance his trip to Iraq to fight ISIS,” pointing out that he “confirmed his readiness to die for the sake of the fight against extremists.”
The newspaper added that “Atherton joined other fighters from Australia, the United States and Europe, who are fighting ISIS.”
For his part, the son of Atherton said that “My father felt compelled to come out and to fight ISIS, despite the death of his brother with the British forces in Iraq in 2006.
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Publicly available flight data has shown that areas with higher Muslim densities in Detroit and other American cities are constantly being spied on by planes linked to an FBI surveillance program which is allegedly used to track down spies, terrorists and criminals.
According to data available at FlightRadar24.com, since Friday, FBI has conducted seven flights over Metro Detroit, with prolonged surveillance over Dearborn, a city that is populated by Muslim and Middle Eastern residents.
The flights over Dearborn matched patterns from similar flights over other cities, including Baltimore where the FBI flew planes to monitor the riots following the death Freddie Gray, a black man who died in police custody in May.
They were all done in slow-speed and counter-clockwise orbits, covering a several miles wide area from an altitude of about one mile. An average of 19 identical loops was made in each flight, which was usually conducted in nights.
The plane, identified as a 2010 single-engine Cessna Skylane, is equipped with cutting-edge technologies such as high-resolution cameras and cell phone surveillance systems.
The Cessna is owned by a company called OTV Leasing of Bristow, Va. Earlier reports revealed that OTV Leasing is one of at least 13 fake companies that the FBI uses as a front to cover its secret missions.
An earlier Associated Press report showed that Robert Lindley, who is listed as the chief executive of the company, is also the CEO of several other fake companies and has at least three distinct signatures in aircraft records.
The report also noted that in a 30-day period, the FBI conducted more 100 flights over 30 cities in eleven states.
The US Attorney’s Office in Detroit and the FBI declined to comment on the recent flights.
The vast surveillance has angered Muslim activists in the United States and some of them are planning to hit back with lawsuits.
In 2010, the FBI told Congress that it is equipped with at least 115 operational airplanes.
FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano admitted to existence of such programs only a few months ago. He claimed that these activities are not classified and are only used to follow criminals and terrorists.
Source : Agencies
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