What have you prepared for the Hour? Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that a man asked the Prophet ﷺ about the Hour: مَتَى السَّاعَةُ؟ “When is the Hour?” The Prophet ﷺ replied: وَمَاذَا أَعْدَدْتَ لَهَا؟ “What have you prepared for it?” The man said that he had not prepared a…
A woman may need to move away from her family for work or study. She may be student in her twenties, or working away from her family home, or maybe in her thirties or forties, still sharing a bedroom and needing more privacy, or she may find that living at home is affecting her wellbeing….
Between your choice and Allah’s choice for you Qatadah ibn al-Nu’man narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said: إِذَا أَحَبَّ اللَّهُ عَبْدًا حَمَاهُ الدُّنْيَا كَمَا يَظَلُّ أَحَدُكُمْ يَحْمِي سَقِيمَهُ الْمَاءَ “When Allah loves a servant, He shields him from worldly things, just as one of you would keep water away from a sick person.” (Tirmidhi) In…
It is a great privilege to read through the Seerah of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and try to explore how things used to be: what the society was like, what the connections were, and how people lived. In the previous sessions, we covered the trade routes, the products they used to sell, the markets, and the…
Moral, Human and Civilisational Values in Islam I always ask myself, imagine if the Prophet ﷺ was here with us today. What would we say to him? Would we feel proud to be from his ummah, or shy of our shortcomings? Though I love him without a shadow of a doubt, I still have plenty…
Allah Almighty says towards the end of Surat al-Jumu’ah: فَإِذَا قُضِيَتِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةُ فَٱنتَشِرُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَٱبْتَغُوا۟ مِن فَضْلِ ٱللَّهِ وَٱذْكُرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ كَثِيرًا لَّعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ “When the prayer has been concluded, disperse through the land and seek the bounty of Allah, and remember Allah often so that you may succeed.”(Surat al-Jumu’ah, 62:10) We see here that…
Can You Pray in a Car? Is it permissible to pray in a car? What should you do if you are on a long journey and the prayer time is running out? Does it make a difference if you are on a motorway, a train or an aeroplane? The basic rule is that an obligatory…
When one spouse is tidy and the other is messy This is a very common issue between husbands and wives. When two people are sharing the same space, they will not necessarily have the same habits or the same understanding of what is tidy. One person likes everything to be put away and all the…
We often recite Surat al-Masad in our salah. When we hear the name of Abu Lahab we know that he was one of the fiercest opponents of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. What makes his story particularly painful and puzzling is that Abu Lahab was no stranger – he was the Prophet’s ﷺ own uncle! When…
The religious and social privilege of Quraysh: the Hums and the Hillah Makkan society before Islam was not divided only by lineage, wealth and tribal protection. There was also a form of religious distinction connected to the Haram and the rituals of Hajj. One of the clearest examples was the Hums. The term Hums was…
Previously, we looked briefly at why we need to study the Seerah and the importance of studying it. We then followed that with an overview of the situation in Arabia and the regions surrounding it at that time. We need to know what was going on around the Arabian Peninsula. It was not just about…
Debt is sometimes unavoidable. Situations arise that mean finances are no longer balancing – people borrow because of illness, loss of income, family responsibilities etc. However, the Prophet ﷺ repeatedly warned us not to take debt lightly. Debt can turn financial security into anxiety, place pressure on a person’s character, and remains an obligation even…
What does the iddah of a divorced woman entail? When a marriage ends, the Quran prescribes a waiting period known as the iddah (عدة) before a woman can marry again. The length and rules of the iddah depend on whether the marriage ended through divorce or the death of the husband, and whether the woman…
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ advised Abu Dharr al-Ghifari (may Allah be pleased with him) to follow seven commands, and through him taught the Ummah. عن أبي ذَرٍّ الغِفاريِّ رضي الله عنه، قال: أمرَني خليلي ﷺ بسبع: ١-(أمرَني بحبِّ المساكينِ والدُّنوِّ منهُم. ٢-وأمرَني أن أنظرَ إلى مَن هو دُوني ولا أنظرَ إلى مَن هو فوقي. ٣-وأمرَني…
The question of whether a man should wear his trousers above or below his ankles often leads to strong opinions. There are authentic hadiths warning men about letting their clothes fall below the ankles. But there is also a deeper lesson behind these hadiths: arrogance. At the time of the Prophet ﷺ, wealthy and powerful…