Archive for category: Philosophy of Islamic Laws

Reciting the holy Quran is so much recommended in Islam.

As we mentioned before there is a very important Narration which is narrated by both Shia and Sunni from the holy Prophet of Islam that he said:

“I leave among you two precious things, one is the book of Allah and the other is my household, until you hold strongly to both of them, you will never go astray.”

It is mentioned in a Narration that the numbers of the levels of Paradise is the same as the verses of the holy Quran.

About the holy Quran some different acts are considered as Ibadah and worship of Allah, like reciting it, listening to its recitation, pondering upon its verses, writing its chapters and verses, obeying its obligations and prohibitions, taking lessons and examples from its stories, etc.

Imam Sadiq peace be upon him said:

“The Quran is the treaty of Allah on the creatures and it is appropriate for every Muslim to look at his/her treaty and read it (at least) fifty verses every day.”

The holy Prophet of Islam said:

“The Quran is the table and feast of Allah, so learn from His feast and table as much as you can.”

And also he said:

“Enlighten your houses with the recitation of the Quran, if in a house the Quran is recited so much, the blessing gets so much in it and the inhabitants of that house will be in the vastness (of  livelihood) and they shine for the inhabitants of the heavens, just like the stars shine for the inhabitants of the earth.”

It is very interesting sentence that says: if you want Allah to talk to you, so recite the Quran, and if you want to talk to Allah, so perform prayer.

We all know that Allah has sent the holy Quran to the holy Prophet of Islam, the Prophet that bore so many hardships and made a lot of attempts for our guidance, if we refer to the books of history of Islam, we will get aware of some of the hardships that the holy Prophet and his companions tolerated.

We know that the holy Quran has two kinds of revelation, one is the revelation that took place in the night of Qadr( in the month of Ramadan) all in once, and the second revelation was through 23 years little by little and in different situations and because of various events and happenings, a lot of those situations happen to us, so we can take lessons from them and apply and implement them in our today’s life.

Another benefit of the recitation of the holy Quran is that it is one of the most obvious ways for removing the veils of negligence from our hearts, for example if we recite it every day and really ponder upon its verses or at least do pondering on some of its verses, it will remind us of our real position before Allah as His vicegerents on the earth.

The holy Quran is one of the most important gifts of Allah, there is a Narration which says: the one who is given the Quran by Allah, if he/she thinks that Allah has given anything better than the Quran to others, he/she has belittled a great thing (the holy Quran) and has counted something little as a great thing.

There are some ritual acts for reciting the holy Quran that if we observe them, we will take more benefits from it, like;

-Reciting with pondering on its verses.

-Reciting while having Wudu.

-Reciting the chapters of the holy Quran in our prayers.

-Reciting it in the state of humility and humbleness.

-Being joyful at the time of reaching to the verses which are related to the bounties of Allah in this world and in Paradise.

-Being sad at the time of reaching to the verses which are related to the punishments of Allah in this word and in the Hell.

-Giving the rewards of recitation of the holy Quran as the gift to the infallibles.

And at the end let me mention very briefly some of the other benefits of reciting the holy Quran according to the Narrations:

-Achieving to the welfare.

-The growth of “Iman” and faith in Allah.

-Being as a cause for fulfilling our wishes.

-Being as a cause for the sins of its reciters and the sins of their parents to be forgiven.

-Enhancing the time of using the power of sight.

-The purity of the heart.

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Sources:

Maarefquran.com

Hawzah.net

The life of human is mixed with different calamities and difficulties, that if the human has patience, he/she will be successful.

The meaning of patience is to be firm against the difficulty and to not give up before them or blame Allah because of that.

The meaning of patience in material issues is clear, but there is another kind of patience which is applied to the spiritual aspects, for example if the situations for committing a sin are ready and prepared for someone, but he/she despite of selfish eagerness toward that sin, does not commit it, it can be defined as a kind of the spiritual patience.

According to the Narrations, there are three kinds of patience:

1) Patience before the obedience of Allah, which means being firm against the problems in the ways of obeying Allah’s commands.

2) Patience before the disobedience of Allah, which means to be firm against the selfish desires which command us to commit sins.

3) Patience at the time of disasters and calamities.

In the holy Quran more than seventy times, the concept of patience has been used.

For example Allah said in chapter Zomar verse 10:

إِنَّمَا يُوَفَّى الصَّابِرُونَ أَجْرَهُم بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ

“Surely, those who are patient will be recompensed in full without count.”

A lot of calamities that happen to us are as a kind of test that Allah examines us through them. Look at the verse 155 from chapter bagharah:

وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِّنَ الْخَوفْ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِّنَ الأَمَوَالِ وَالأنفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ

“We shall test you with something of fear and hunger, and decrease of goods, life and fruits. Give glad tidings to the patient.”

In the continuation of the mentioned verse, as description of the patients and their rewards, Allah said:

الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَتْهُم مُّصِيبَةٌ قَالُواْ إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ

أُولَئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَلَوَاتٌ مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ وَرَحْمَةٌ وَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُهْتَدُونَ

“Who, in adversity say: ‘we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.

On those will be prayers and mercy from their lord, those are guided.”

The great symbols of being patient are the prophets of Allah and the infallible Imams.

You know that they tolerated many difficulties in the way of promoting the religion of Allah and inviting others to it.

The story of Prophet Jacob is so famous in this regard. He had many properties, in a very great divine test, Allah took them even his children, and Prophet Jacob became ill to the extent that he was agonizing, but after tolerating all of these difficulties and being patient, his properties and children and his health returned and he was given more than before and the praise of Allah included him.

If the prophets of Allah were not patient and as soon as they confronted with difficulties were leaving their mission, there was no religion of Allah on the earth and all of its blessings did not reach to humanity.

We can take help form patience, Allah said in chapter Bagahrah verse 153:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ اسْتَعِينُواْ بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلاَةِ إِنَّ اللّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ

“Believers, seek assistance in patience and prayer, Allah is with those who are patient.”

It is very important for a believer to have the companionship of the All-Mighty Allah in his/her life, and one of the ways of obtaining this companionship as it is mentioned in the above verse, is through patience.

And the interesting point here is that in this verse both prayer and patience have been recommended, some exegesis said as the description of this relation: sometimes the patience of human gets hard for him/her, so the human can refuge to prayer.

Patience can be a key for entering paradise. Imam Baqir peace be upon him said in a very informative saying:

“Paradise is wrapped with calamities and patience (If we want to reach to it, we must pay its price i.e. patience), so the one who is patient in this world, he/she will enter Paradise, and Hell is wrapped with pleasures and different kinds of selfish eagerness, so the one who gives the (Haram and prohibited) pleasure of his/her ego to it, he/she will enter the Hell.”

The commander of the faithful Imam Ali peace be upon him mentioned one of the benefits of patience in this saying, he said:

“Take away the sorrow form yourself by the means of power of patience and good certainty.”

We must know that even if we tolerate calamities in this world and be patient, it is nothing compared to the convenience in the hereafter. Imam Ali peace be upon him in one of his sermons in which he talked about the characteristics of the pious individuals (which are compiled in the book of Nahj Al-balaghah) said:

“They were patient a few days, (because of that) they reached to long convenience.”

The wise Luqman sometimes was advising his son, one of his advices is mentioned in the verse 17 in chapter Luqman in the holy Quran, Allah said in that verse narrating the advice of Luqman:

يَا بُنَيَّ أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ وَأْمُرْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَانْهَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَاصْبِرْ عَلَى مَا أَصَابَكَ إِنَّ ذَلِكَ مِنْ عَزْمِ الْأُمُورِ

“O’ my son, establish the prayer, order with honor but forbid dishonor, and bear patiently with whatever may fall upon you. Indeed that is true constancy.”

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Sources:

Eteghadat.com

Tahoor.com

 

 

“Feeding” the people especially the poor people is so much recommended in Islam.

You can see this feeding in general in some occasions like what happens in the day of Ashura( the tenth day of the lunar month of Mohharam in which we hold ceremonies for the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein peace be upon him and his faithful companions) or what happens at the month of Ramadan in which people feed others in the time of Iftar( at the sunset of the day of fasting) etc.

But we can feed others in other days of the year and obtain the rewards and blessings of this recommended act.

It is interesting that in Islamic Feqh and jurisprudence, in some cases Muslims must feed the needy, like if someone could not fast in the month of Ramadan and he/she did not compensate that in the other days of the year till the next month of Ramadan, he/she must give specific amount of food to numbers of poor people (of course it has some rules in detail that we do not talk about them here).

It is very shocking that in the holy Quran, Allah said in chapter Maaun verses 1-2-3:

أَرَأَيْتَ الَّذِي يُكَذِّبُ بِالدِّينِ

فَذَلِكَ الَّذِي يَدُعُّ الْيَتِيمَ

وَلَا يَحُضُّ عَلَى طَعَامِ الْمِسْكِينِ

“Have you seen he who belied the recompense?

It is he who turns away the orphan,

and does not urge others to feed the needy”.

We see that Allah blamed the one that does not encourage others to feed the poor.

And from 33 till 36 verses in chapter Haqqa, we understand that the one who did not believe in the great Lord and did not encourage others to feed the poor, he/she has no friend in the fire of Hell and he/she has no food except foul pus.

Now imagine what is the punishment of the one that not only does not encourage others to feed the poor, but also prevents them and forbid them to do so?

On the other hand, we see that in chapter Insan,  Allah has praised Imam Ali and Lady Fatimah and their two sons, Imam Hasan and Imam Husein peace be upon them all, because of feeding the poor and the orphan, and the captive.

There is an interesting story for which the chapter Insan revealed and it is accepted by all branches of Muslims, and let me mention very briefly that story, Imam Hasan and Imam Hussein got sick, so their parents i.e. Imam Ali and Lady Fatimah made Nazr (oath) that if our children get cured, we will fast for three days, the children got healthy, so the parents fasted three days and in every sunset of fasting .i.e. at the time of Iftar, a needy came to their house. In the first night a poor came at their door and asked for help and in the second night an orphan came and did so and this happened in the third night by an captive, this very generous family for all three nights gave their food for the sake of Allah to the poor and orphan and captive and remained hungry, and then the verses of chapter Insan descended, and if you refer to this chapter you will see that how much Allah has praised them in many verses one after the other.

We see this good customs in the life of the Prophets of Allah, for example there is a Narration that says: Prophet Abraham was chosen as the Khalil and dear friend of Allah because of some attributes, and among them, he was feeding the people.

Feeding the people especially the needy people creates a kind of sympathy and kindness among the people and paves the way for gathering the hearts with each other.

And this is a way for reducing and removing hunger and poverty from the members of the society.

It is narrated from Imam Sadiq peace be upon him that he said:

The one who makes a believer to taste the sweetness of a bit, Allah will make away from him/her the bitterness of the Day of Judgment.

It is mentioned in a Narration that a believer on the Day of Judgment is told: Look at the people and distinguish the one who has done a good to you and make the one who has drunk you and has fed you and has done good to you, enter paradise.

Imam Sadiq peace be upon him said:

There are three things that make the human released from the punishment of the hereafter:

-Feeding.

-Saying hello.

-And prayer in night or night prayer.

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Sources:

Maarefquran.org

Mehrnews.com

 

 

In Islam having “Ikhlas” is so important. Ikhlas means to perform our worship only for the sake of Allah and for no other reason and goal. Ikhlas is an obligatory act in worships, for example if we perform prayer, or Wudu or Ghusl without Ikhlas, these worships are not valid and we must do them again from the beginning. Even if we perform them for Allah and beside that, we have other goal for that worship, it is invalid.

If we have Ikhlas in an action that in its innate nature, it is not considered as a worship, but because of having Ikhlas in it, we will be rewarded, for example if we eat and rest for the sake of Allah, for example if we eat and rest in order to be powerful enough to worship Allah and help His creatures, this eating or sleeping will be considered as a kind of worship.

The opposite point of Ikhlas is called Riya or Hypocrisy, for example if we perform prayer in a way that people listen to it and say: what a beautiful recitation he has, it is known as hypocrisy.

It must be known that the one that is hypocrite and always wants to obtain the satisfaction of the others, such person always is uneasy, because no one can obtain the satisfaction of all people, the people that praise him/her, if they get aware of a little thing from the life of that person that they do not like, they start reproaching that person, so we realize that it is not worthwhile to look for a temporary pleasure and leave all of those rewards and bounties and blessings and nearness to Allah and His satisfaction, which have permanent effects.

Imam Ali peace be upon him said:

“There are so much distance between two acts, the act that its pleasure goes and its consequence remains, and the act that its effort goes and its reward remains.”

If we really and deeply believe in the verse 88 from chapter Qasas, the style of our life will change, Allah said in this verse:

كُلُّ شَيْءٍ هَالِكٌ إِلَّا وَجْهَهُ

“All things perish, except His face.”

Every matter of this world is under the will of Allah(of course it must be noted that this sentence does not mean that we believe in predestination, but it means that for example if Allah wants someone to be dignified, no one can prevent it from happening)

Allah said in chapter Fatir verse 10:

مَن كَانَ يُرِيدُ الْعِزَّةَ فَلِلَّهِ الْعِزَّةُ جَمِيعًا

“He who wants might, the might belongs to Allah altogether.”

So if someone thinks that his/her dignity is due to the will of people, he/she is making a great mistake.

If we know that Allah is powerful on all things and He is the most merciful and aware of everything which occurs in minds and hearts, we will have more Ikhlas in our actions.

So is it logical to leave transaction with such a being and instead of that, be busy with those that they are in a very deep need to the Lord of the world?

The infallibles and their real students not only were abstaining from having the material intentions, but also they had no intention of reaching to the paradise or being away from the fire of Hell.

Imam Ali peace be upon him said:

“O’ Allah, I neither worshiped you because of eagerness to the paradise, nor fear from fire (of Hell) but I found you worthy of being worshiped, so I worshiped you.”

And one of the most important ways for obtaining Ikhlas is to purify our hearts from the evil characteristics, like envy, hatred, avidity, and let the heart to be the house of Allah, because there are Narrations in this regard, like the Narration that says:

The heart is the shrine of Allah, so do not let anyone other than Allah to be the inhabitant in the shrine of Allah.

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Source:

Akhlagh.porsemani.ir

One of the conditions for a marriage to be valid is to define something as “Dowry”.

The motives of paying dowry have been changed several times throughout the history, sometimes it was considered as the price of the bride, and in a period of time it was as a gift from the groom to the father of the bride, and sometime it was as a gift to the bride herself.

In the holy Quran chapter Rumm verse 21, Allah said:

وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ أَنْ خَلَقَ لَكُم مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا لِّتَسْكُنُوا إِلَيْهَا وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَكُم مَّوَدَّةً وَرَحْمَةً إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ

“And of His signs is that He created for you wives from among yourselves that you might reside with them, and has put kindness and mercy between you. Surely, there are signs in this for those who think”.

In this verse the spouses are defined as a means for tranquility.

It is interesting that in a workmanlike management, women are created as the symbol of beauty and somehow richness and men are created like they are seeking the beauty and they are in need of that and this difference between men and women makes the one who is seeker, look after the one who is sought and makes him do his best to reach her, the man is looking for the tranquility and the woman is looking carefully to find which of the seekers of her, is most suitable for her tranquility and has the purest feelings.

When the holy Quran talks about dowry, it says in chapter Nisa verse 4:

وَآتُواْ النَّسَاء صَدُقَاتِهِنَّ نِحْلَةً

“Give women their dowries freely”

The word “نحله” in the verse is described in the exegesis of the holy Quran as gift.

You know in the contracts like transaction, there are two sides, and every side gives something and receives something, but from the exegesis of this verse we understand that dowry is not made obligatory as one side of contract of marriage, despite of the belief of some people that they think that dowry is something that men give, because of the pleasure that they gain through marriage, but we take this point from the verse that it is as a gift.

So we can say that dowry is a gift that men accept to pay it to the women as thanks for accepting their proposal. And it is a way for men to show their honesty, and it is interesting that the word in Arabic which is used for dowry is “صداق” or صدقه” ” which literally is related to the honesty, and in fact it is a symbol for honesty and for this very reason we see that the amount of that is not obligatory in Islam and it is something that is defined out of consent between man and woman.

So as summery of this essay we say that dowry is paid for two reasons:

1) A way to show the honesty of men.

2) A way to thank women because of the accepting the marriage.