Archive for month: September, 2015

Nowadays some people say: does really Allah need our worship? If we do not worship Him, is He going to be harmed?

At first, we should translate the word “Ibadah” which in Arabic means worship.

Ibadah is the very end level of humility of a servant toward his master, to the extent that the servant has no will against the will of his master and he/she is in the complete submission toward the master, the same meaning is applied in our subject. We all are the servants of Allah and His creatures.

Allah said in the holy Quran chapter Zariyat verse 56:

و ما خلقت الجن و الانس الا لیعبدون

“I did not create Jin and Human except to worship me”.

And this was the reason for sending various prophets to different peoples throughout the history.

Allah does not need our worship, because He is out of need of anything and anyone and this is something that has been proved by logical and intellectual argumentations and in fact we are the ones who need Allah and worshiping Him.

Imagine if all people build the windows of their houses back to the sun, does that really harm the sun or the people are the losers of the so much benefits of the sunshine?

Or another example, if the students of a teacher do not study well, does that really harm the teacher or the students are the ones who have deprived themselves from obtaining knowledge?

It is appropriate to say that the sense of worshiping has been in the human since the beginning of the creation of human, but the people sometimes go astray in finding the real instance of worshiping. Sometime they worship idols, or the sun or the moon or sometimes they worship the animals or other things, but the need of worshiping is inside the human.

So let’s look at the philosophy of worship:

The motives for worshiping Allah are as the following:

1) The very high greatness of Allah and the humility that we have toward Him, for example if you enter in the court of a king, unwantedly you start to show your humility toward him. Now compare that example with Allah, the All Mighty being that has created everything and He is the most powerful being and no one can do anything against His will and no one can prevent Him from doing an action. Before such a being, humility is very appropriate and let’s say is obligatory.

2) The second reason is that He is our creator, imagine if someone has given you something as a gift, every time you see him/her, you remember his/her gift and the favor he/she has done to you. So how can we be indifferent to a being that has given us all these favors and bounties, from our existence to different precious limbs of our body, different foods and fruits, the intellect etc. and the worship is a kind of thanksgiving toward Allah.

3) The feeling of dependence and need that we have to Him, makes us worship Him. After we have understood and proved from various intellectual arguments that our existence is given to us by Allah and we are dependent on Him and we are in the utter need to Him, it can make us feel the sense of worshiping Him.

About the philosophies of different kinds of worship in Islam, there is a very important point that I ask you to ponder upon it carefully, and that is, we must not say if I do not know the exact philosophy of a worship, I leave it and do not perform it, because after we have proved through different logical arguments that there is a God and He is the most knowledgeable and the most merciful and the most powerful and wisest and out of need of everything, and everything is in need of Him, we trust such a being and do not ask Him: why did you decree such and such rulings? just like when you know that a doctor is so much expert in his/her field and you visit him/her, you do not ask him/her why did you prescribe such and such medicine? or why did you say to me eat this or do not eat that? and we just trust him/her.

And it is appropriate to remind you that the philosophies of different kinds of worships like prayer, fasting, Hajj, etc. are mentioned in the holy Quran or different Narrations.

 

 

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Sources:

Beytoote.com

Tahoor.com

One of the rulings of Islam is the prohibition and Hormah of looking at the opposite sex under some conditions. The question is that why Islam did not let the people to be free in their looking?

At first we should say that it is not true that Islam has forbidden every looking at the opposite sex. It has an independent discussion that here is not its appropriate place, but we just have a summery here:

Looking at the opposite sex is unlawful if it is done in one of these cases:

1) If a man looks at the body of a woman more than her hands till the wrists and the face.

2) If looking at the woman or man is done with the sexual pleasure.

3) If looking at the opposite sex is done with the fear of falling into the sin in the future.(it means that probably at the time of looking, there is no any sexual pleasure, but the man or the woman fears that later on through thinking and imagination he/she will commit the sin.)

4) If a woman looks at the parts of the body of a man that usually those parts are covered like the leg.

Of course there are some other rules regarding looking at the opposite sex that we do not mention them here.

So let’s talk now about the philosophies behind this ruling,

Allah says in the holy Quran chapter Noor verse 30-31:

قُل لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ يَغُضُّوا مِنْ أَبْصَارِهِمْ وَيَحْفَظُوا فُرُوجَهُمْ ذَلِكَ أَزْكَى لَهُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا يَصْنَعُونَ

وَقُل لِّلْمُؤْمِنَاتِ يَغْضُضْنَ مِنْ أَبْصَارِهِنَّ وَيَحْفَظْنَ فُرُوجَهُنَّ

“Say to the believers they should lower their gaze and guard their private parts. That is purer for them. Allah is aware of the things they do.

And say to the believing women, that they lower their gaze cast down their eyes and guard their chastity”

It is interesting that after ordering the man to lower their gaze, the verse says: “that is purer for them”. We can understand from this part of the verse that someone who guards his eyes and does not let his eyes to go astray, he will have more purer heart, because such a poisonous look, little by little makes the heart poisoned and dirty and after a while, the person realizes that he/she has no interest in the worship of Allah or it makes him/her reluctant to perform his/her Islamic duties. So the man or woman should not underestimate such a look because it may lead little by little to the indifference to religion or even denial of Allah.

The commander of the faithful Imam Ali peace be upon him said:

“The one who makes his/her eye free, his/her regret will increase.”

You know it has been proved in the psychology that the one that always looks at the opposite sex with sexual pleasure, if he/she is married, after a while he/she feels reluctance to his/her spouse and always compares his/her spouse with the other men or women and it is very obvious that it can even lead to the divorce and the bad effects of a lot of divorces can be created. Or if he/she is unmarried, it may prevent him/her from getting married or postpone that or if he/she gets married, the mentioned problems above may happen to him/her as well.

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Source:

Quran.porsemani.ir

Salat or prayer is one of the obligatory worships in Islam, although there are a lot of recommended prayers, but there are some obligatory kinds of that, like what we perform everyday which is the most manifest of it.

In the dictionaries the word Salat is translated as prayer and this word is used for every prayer in Islam as well as the word Doa is used so.

prayer is defined in a Narration as one of the five pillars of Islam.

Imam Baghir(peace be upon him) said:

“The prayer is the pillar of religion and its parable is that of the prop of a tent, when the prop remains upright, the pegs and ropes remain straight and upright, but when the prop bends or breaks neither the pegs nor ropes remain straight”.

In another Narration it is mentioned as the first thing, from which on the day of judgment a servant of Allah will be asked, if it is accepted, all of the other deeds will be accepted and if it is rejected, all of the other deeds will be rejected.

There are many Narrations regarding the importance of prayer in Islamic sources.

 

Many philosophies can be mentioned for performing prayer; like:

1) It is a way for remembering Allah.

It is a famous sentence that if someone wants to talk to Allah, he/she should perform prayer and if he/she wants Allah to talk to him/her, he/she should recite the holy Quran.

2) Allah said in the holy Quran chapter Ankabut verse:45:

 

أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ تَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاء وَالْمُنكَرِ وَلَذِكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ

“Establish the prayer. Prayer forbids indecency and dishonor. The remembrance of Allah is greater, and Allah knows what you do”

It is appropriate to mention that some people might ask if the prayer prevents the servant of Allah from committing sins, so why do we see some people that they perform their prayer regularly, but they commit sins and crimes as well. So what is the meaning of this verse?

As the answer to this question we say:

If we look at the words of this verse carefully, we see that the exact used word in this verse is تنهی” “which means forbids, and Allah did not use the wordتمنع” “which means prevents.  The verse means that performing prayer is a reminder and not a preventer and the next part of this answer is that a lot of our prayers are not the complete and perfect prayer which has all of its effects and benefits, for this very reason it is possible that a man is performing his prayer but at the same time he is gazing to a woman who is passing by. But if the preliminaries and prerequisites of prayer are observed and at the time of the performing the prayer, the heart that is the house of Allah is kept completely attentive to Allah and the servant feels him/herself in the presence of his/her creator, the prayer, definitely will have its benefits and results.

3) It is a way to remove the curtains and veils of negligence from our soul. It is narrated from the holy Prophet of Islam that prayer, looks like a clear-water river flowing ,in which if you wash yourself five times a day, nothing dirty remain on your body so prayer removes the sins.

When a person performs prayer every day five times, he/she remembers Allah and the duties and responsibilities that he/she has before Him and you know the verses and the Doas that we recite in the prayer is so effective and meaningful, like the mercy of Allah or the day of judgment or asking the guidance from Allah and being on the straight path etc. (of course if we really notice to what we recite and do, during the prayer).

Imagine what happens if we want to take lessons from what we say every day at least 10 times, for example when we mention Allah by the name of Al-Rahman and Al-Rahim which are related to the mercy of Allah, how cannot we be merciful in our family and in the society? Or when we remember the Day of Judgment by a verse in chapter Fatihah, can we be ignorant of our religious and moral duties?

4) Another philosophy of performing prayer is that it makes us tidy if we are observant to perform the prayer in its early time, because you know that performing prayer in those times is so much emphasized by the infallibles.

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Source:

Center.namaz.ir

Imamreza.net

 

One of the forbidden acts in Islam is gambling.

Allah said in chapter Al-Maaidah verse 90:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ إِنَّمَا الْخَمْرُ وَالْمَيْسِرُ وَالأَنصَابُ وَالأَزْلاَمُ رِجْسٌ مِّنْ عَمَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ فَاجْتَنِبُوهُ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ

“Believers, wine and gambling, idols and divining arrows are abominations from the work of Satan. Avoid them, in order that you prosper”.

Gambling was a game in which two sides were betting with each other that everyone who loses that game, he should do something for the winner or should give him money or other things.

Gambling has special games like backgammon, but betting itself in a lot of cases is forbidden in Islam even though it is not done with the special tools and games of gambling and there is a difference between the decrees of Maraji(the expert Islamic scholars who issue the decrees) about the decree of some tools and games that nowadays many times are used for playing, without any gambling or betting, like chess, but here is not an appropriate place for the detailed Islamic ruling, but lest talk about the philosophy of the prohibition of gambling:

You know in gambling, in a lot of cases, the things on which they gamble, are something which are very precious, like so much money or a house or even sometimes the family members or -God forbid- their spouses etc. and in a single play, one of two sides of gambling, loses his properties.

It is a very shameful act from both sides i.e. winner and the loser; from the side of winner it is very shameful that he takes the properties of his adversary and makes him miserable, and from the side of the loser, because it is obvious that after losing, what a deep sorrow may come to him and might lead him to other faults and sins in order to relieve his sorrow.

It is mentioned in the history that before Islam the tribe of Qoraysh, were doing so much gambling to the extent that they were giving their children and their wives in this way, when Islam emerged, forbade the gambling, and it can be said that for the shame of this act, playing with the tools of gambling even without betting, is forbidden, because this rule is a way to avoid from approaching to such a poisonous atmosphere.

And it is obvious that what a hostility and animosity are created between two sides of gambling and it is against one of the main orders of Islam regarding brotherhood and sympathy.

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Source:

Ahkam.porsemani.ir