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What is fasting?

Date: June 18, 2015

Fasting is a holy act of prayer and sacrifice for the sake of Allah and your sins will be forgiven by Allah. During the holy month of Ramadan, an Islam must abstain from food, drinks, life pleasures, intercourse, smoking and other sins. Islam must abstain from food and drinks before the break of the dawn till sunset. During Ramadan month, every sane and able Muslim should fast. In addition, for getting eligibility for fasting he or she must attain the age of puberty and maturity. Fasting should start by taking the sahri. Sahri is the food or drink you take in anticipation of the next day’s fasting. So you must take sahri before the Subah Sadiq. If you missed the sahri, you must skip fasting for the day. As soon as the sun set in the evening, you must break the fast by having dates and water. You should break the fasting before the Magrib prayers. Things that break fasting * Eating and drinking during the fasting time. * Smoking. * Pouring oil into ears. * Swallowing pebble, stone, paper etc. * Saliva mingled with blood. * Applying medicine drops in nostrils. * Masturbation. * Sexual intercourse. Things that do not break fasting * Smell perfume, using surma in the eyes and applying oil to the hair. * Inhaling a fly without one’s intention. * To swallow saliva. * Undergoing for a blood test. * To take bath during fasting time. * To pour water into ear unknowingly.

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Read the sky and find the Qiblah

Everybody know that what exactly Qiblah is. It is the direction of the Kaaba,the sacred building at Mecca, to which Muslims turn at prayer. Suppose, you are on a road trip and it is the time to pray Maghrib and ‘Isha. Suddenly you strated peforming the Wudu. But how do you know which direction to face? Your answer might be to use a Qiblah app from your smart phone. Thats right! But if you are not having such facilities in your hand, what is the perfect solution to find the Qiblah? Before inventing smart phones and such technologies, Muslim sailors developed the art of reading the stars to find the navigation. As the earth rotates, stars moves to different positions. Muslim sailors called it al-Qiblah and it is found in the constellation they named al-Rakabah. We know it as the North Star, found in the Little Dipper. Once you are done this, it becomes easy to locate the north star to know the Qiblah. Check out the folllowing steps to find out the Qiblah: 1. Locate Banat Naash al-Kubra (The Big Dipper). The Big Dipper is one of the easiest constellations to find. This constellation is shaped as a large spoon. That is, three stars in the handle and four stars in the head. By finding this Big Dipper, you can spot the north star. 2. Trace a line to al-Qiblah (the north star). Next step is to imagine a line that connects the front two stars of this Big Dipper. If you follow this particular line, you can spot the north star at a five times distance range. It&8217;s the first bright star you&8217;ll run into that&8217;s close to this vector. 3. Verify that you are spotted the north star itself. Be sure that you have spotted the north star itself and then only start the prayer. Otherwise, your prayer time may get conflicted.

Verse of Light

One of the most commented verses in Quran is the “Verse of Light” (24th Surah - An-Nur). The Surah unveils how Allah is the light of heaven and earth. Allah says the so called light in him is a niche and within which is a candle. The candle is placed in a glass which twinkles like a star in the sky. Olive tree’s oil from the blessed land of Quds is used for fuel to light the candle. This is very bright itself even without fire. With this, Allah guides to his light whomsoever he wills. There are a number of commentaries on this verse and the most famous comment is that this verse is a parable of faith. Here the candle refers to the light of Iman. The ultimate message of this Surah is that light of Iman and how to attain it. Verse 2 incorporates the topic of chastity and modesty and it talks about the punishment of fornication. Verse 27 is all about the modesty of seeking permission while entering to someone’s house. Verse 30 and 31 are the command of Allah for the believing men and women to lower their gazes and guard their chastity. Verse 58 speaks about the need to ask permission to enter parent’s room at special times by a person under the age of maturity. In short, all the verses talks about modesty. If a person preserves their modesty and stays away from anything that diminishes this, they preserve the light of Allah which He places in the hearts of the believers. Allah combines between light, modesty which means that if anyone preserves modesty, there will be blessed light, and if the modesty lacks, the light becomes dimmer.

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Asalam-o-alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatahu. Uthman bin Affan (R) reported: عَنْ عُثْمَانَ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ عَنْ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ خَيْرُكُمْ مَنْ تَعَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ وَعَلَّمَهُ صحيح البخاري كتاب فضائل القرآن باب خيركم من تعلم القرآن و عَلَّمَهُ The Prophet, peace and blessings upon him, said: “The best of you are those who learn the Quran and teach it.” Sahih al-Bukhari 5029 https://www.alim.org/hadith/sahih-bukhari/6/ Alhamdulillah! The journey of the Alim Foundation Inc. started in early 1991 on a CD-ROM followed by its transition to the Alim.org online platform in mid-2010. Since then, the Alim Foundation has been consistently delivering authentic Islamic knowledge resources – Quran (Arabic, Translations, Tafasir), Ahadith, Islamic History, Islamic News and Articles – to the global community through its web and mobile resources. During our analysis of the incoming traffic and user demographics of our audience worldwide, we realized we could use this time to upgrade our web platform to meet the next level of usability and accessibility demands. To achieve these performance metrics, we have renovated the design, layout, and technology of this valuable resource for your benefit. We have also ported the website to a better infrastructure, while retaining all the existing Islamic Knowledge resources we have been known to provide. We have done the platform migration to make Alim.org faster and more user-friendly. In accordance to the request of many users, our new layout offers a smoother design and clean UI . All the sections in the old site – Arabic Quran, Mushaf, Quran Translations, Quran Tafasir, Ahadiths, History and News and Views – are implemented in our new and improved site. There are navigation menu items that lead to all the sections and you should be able to access your desired content within a few hours. Here are the URLs for a few regularly visited sections: Quran home page for all sections including Arabic Quran, Mushaf, Translations, and Tafsir: https://www.alim.org/quran/ Quran with translation: https://www.alim.org/quran Mushaf: https://www.alim.org/quran Asad Translation: https://www.alim.org/quran Tafsir Ibn Kathir: https://www.alim.org/quran Hadith home page: https://www.alim.org/hadith/ Sahih Bukhari: https://www.alim.org/hadith/sahih-bukhari/1/ Sahih Muslim: https://www.alim.org/hadith/sahih-muslim/1/ Islamic History home page: https://www.alim.org/history/ Khalifa Abu Bakr (RA): https://www.alim.org/history/khalifa-abu-bakr/before-and-after-conversion-to-islam Please continue to use the new alim.org(https://www.alim.org/) and as you become familiar with the new navigation. We will quickly make it easy to locate and access your desired sections, insha Allah. Please feel free to let the alim.org team know regarding any issues that you may encounter. We truly value your feedback and suggestions. The Alim Foundation is at your service to facilitate this excellent resource for you as quickly as practically possible. Additionally, the Alim team requests that you please share Alim with your family, friends, and relatives. As always, your user and financial support makes this blessed endeavor possible, inshaAllah. Stay tuned for bright things in the coming future! May Allah SWT Guide us all to attaining and spreading His Knowledge, ameen. Walaikum Asalam. The Alim Foundation, Inc.

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