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.
"The best of what a man leaves behind are three: a righteous child who supplicates for him, ongoing charity the reward of which reaches him, and knowledge that is acted upon after him."
Sunan Ibn Mājah
"Every day two angels come down from Heaven and one of them says, 'O Allah! Compensate every person who spends in Your Cause,' and the other (angel) says, 'O Allah! Destroy every miser.'"
Sahih Bukhari
Excitement When a tried and tested product jumps into the 21st century, you can't help but feel excited about it. This is the exact emotion I'm feeling as I test drive the Alim.org website. I saw some of the familiar (from the 90s!) and lots that was new. But there is so much to explore, that I've only touched the surface. So I thought to myself...why not share my experiences of Alim.org as I Iearn more about the site? The Rundown Before I jump into specifics though, I think it would be useful to understand in layman's terms what the site is all about. Very simply....Qur'an, hadith, Islamic history, and much much more...all in a social network platform. Essentially, you have a plethora of Islamic information at your fingertips that you can discuss...ask questions about. So you may be thinking..."The web is full of such information. What makes Alim.org so unique?" A few things at least... 1. A one-stop powerful shop on the web that allows you to go beyond just Qur'anic recitations and hadith narrations to searches and comparisions and tafsir and transliteration and historical accounts and subject indexes and and...should I go on? Where else do you get ALL of that in one site?? 2. I do have to go on though...because I haven't even mentioned the most unique part! Alim.org is the first Islamic knowledge-based website of its kind to open its doors to social networking. Where else can you read a surah and then comment on it, ask a question about it, or share it easily with others? Right here, at Alim.org...that's where. I'm looking forward to sharing my experiences. There's so much to see and talk about it! Till then, happy Alim.org surfing to all of you. :-) Wa'salaam alaikum wa rahmatullah
Read MoreAlexander, a French pilgrim who embraced Islam and adopted his Muslim name, Hamza is recently blessed by King Abdullah to do Haj as his guest. The King was in great happiness and proud of Hamza’s sacrifice to Islam religion that he drove 7,000 km in his car with his wife to perform Umrah in Makkah. He is s now in Makkah as the guest of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for Haj. He was in search for the truth and found that Islam is the religion of peace and truth and the man is now happy to embrace the world’s great religion. As there are millions of devotees across world who wish to perform Umrah/Haj in Makkah, Hamza was in the last queue to have an Umrah visa. But his devotion and sacrifice to Allah helped him to be in the golden list of King’s guests. And now he is in the divine route to pray at the Grand Mosque in Makkah. It was the entire Almighty’s compassion that we have been selected as one of 1,000 guest pilgrims of King Abdullah to perform Haj this year. I could not believe my ears.”- Says Hamza. Hamza intends to study Islamic law to gain more knowledge about the religion and spread its message among others.
Read MoreHiba Masood a writer, speaker and a story teller talks about her Baba's influence in teaching Quran and its holy threads in her wonderful opinion piece "Baba, The Quran and Me". When she was in her younger age, she had to recite Quran every day, that her Baba taught her to do so without fail. She memorizes her childhood experience in the holy month of Ramadan as well as her Baba's powerful Ramadan experiences. Her Baba looked after all his children with extreme care. She had not faced poverty or any other means difficulties in life. Baba used to talk about his life and his days spent with his eight brothers and sisters used to look like. They were like in abject poverty, splitting one bowl of food for Iftar amongst a family of eleven and so on. Baba used to say that once all the work is done, you should recite Quran in every single possible minute. Every letter you recite during Ramadan has 70 times the regular reward? That means every letter, like saying Alif, gets you seven hundred good deeds. Years passed and with all the impetuous, rebellion of youth, of spending my days in smoke-filled rooms, strategizing with socialist/activists, and my evenings protesting against the Iraq war on the frozen streets of Toronto. Of not praying at all, of not so much as glancing towards the dusty shelf where my Qur'an sat the entire year. Next year Hiba got married and her brand new husband got astonished by her behavior and activities. She never proper placed her shoes and she always misplaced her cell phone. And she blessed with a baby boy just before the month of holy Ramadan. And there have many, many more years filled with anxiety, scary financial strain and a stormy marriage of sickness and grief. Years passed with no changes. Hiba recited Quran verses just as a routine, or just like fasting in the month of Ramadan without knowing the rewards of reciting. At last wisdom came to her brain at the age of thirty and she started to settle in life. Slowly, as an enthusiastically expected reconnection, she started reciting Quran well to Allah to the Qur'an to her childhood, to her father and to herself. Now her beloved father is aging and sick and she is in great agony by thinking about her sick dad. She used to caress his dad's grey hair, press her cheeks to his. She says that she misses him a lot and she is afraid of the future. But most of all, she whisper her gratitude. Gratitude for gifting her so freely all the things, all the lessons, all the beliefs, all the forces of habit and inspiring stories and abiding, enriching traditions that have blessed her life. Ultimately he was the lighthouse when he was able.
Read More