slaam all,..I know this is long but very interesting..its a GR8 message for all of us sisters in Islam
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How A Pearl Protects Itself,
A Khutbah for the Muslim Women
by Muhammad Al-Shareef
When news of the Christian army that had prepared on the horizons to wipe
out Islam reached him, Abu Qudaamah Ash-Shaamee moved quickly to the Mimbar
of the Masjid. In a powerful and emotional speech, Abu Qudaamah ignited the
desire of the community to defend their land, Jihad for the sake of Allah.
As he left the Masjid, walking down a dark and secluded alley, a women
stopped him and said, “As salamu alaykum wa Rahmatullaah!” Abu Qudaamah
stopped and did not answer. She repeated her salam again, adding “this is
not how pious people should act.” She stepped forward from the shadows. “I
heard you in the Masjid encouraging the believers to go for Jihad and all I
have is this…” She handed him two long braids. “It can be used for a horse
rein. Perhaps Allah may write me as one of those who went for Jihaad.”
The next day as that Muslim village set out to confront the crusader army, a
young boy ran through the gathering and stood at the hooves of Abu
Qudaamah’s horse. “I ask you by Allah to allow me to join the army.” Some of
the elder fighters laughed at the boy. “The horses will trample you,” they
said. But Abu Qudaamah looked down into his eyes as he asked again, “I ask
you by Allah, let me join.” Abu Qudaamah then said, “On one condition, if
you are killed you will take me with you to Jannah amongst those you will be
allowed to intercede for.” That young boy smiled. “It’s a promise.”
When the two armies met and the fighting intensified, the young boy on the
back of Abu Qudaamah’s horse asked, “I ask you by Allah to give me 3
arrows.” “You’ll lose them!” The boy repeated, “I ask you by Allah to give
me them.” Abu Qudaamah gave him the arrows and the boy took aim.
“Bismillaah!” The arrow flew and killed a Roman. “Bismillaah!” The second
arrow flew, killing a second Roman. “Bismillaah!” The third arrow flew,
killing a third Roman. An arrow then struck the boy in the chest - knocking
him off the horse. Abu Qudaamah jumped down to his side, reminding the boy
in his final breaths, “Don’t forget the promise!” The boy reached into his
pocket, extracted a pouch and said, “Please return this to my mother.”
“Who’s your mother?” asked Abu Qudaamah. “The women that gave you the braids
yesterday.”
Think about this Muslimah. How did she reach this level of Taqwa where she
would sacrifice her hair when today other women do the same to imitate Kafir
icons, and her son when other women would die so long as their son stayed
home. Indeed, she spent her life in the obedience of Allah, and when exam
time came, she passed. Not only did she pass herself, but her children shone
with that same beauty of Iman, children that she herself raised.
Very often - and perhaps in our times when we have forgotten much of the
Sunnah - the lectures, khutbahs, and talks are all directed to the Muslim
men. We forget that from the Hady – guidance and way – of Rasul Allah - sal
Allahu alayhi wa sallam - was that he would allocate a specific day of the
week to teach the women. Women would come up to him in Hajj, in the street,
even in his home and ask him questions about the Deen. At the Eid Salah,
after addressing the men, he would take Bilal and go to the women section
and address the women. Allah revealed an entire Surah by the name of Surah
An-Nisa – the Women. And another by the name of – Maryam. And a third by the
name of al Mujaadalah – the women who pleads. It is in enlivening this
Sunnah that today this speech shall be addressed to the believing women,
al-Mu’minaat.
Dear Sister, Dear Mother, Dear Daughter. Everyone is looking for happiness
and fun, and I am sure you are not excluded. Where is that happiness and fun
though? And where and when do you want that happiness? Do you want
happiness, do you want to have `fun’ in this life at the expense of the
hereafter? Or is it in the hereafter, when you meet Allah that you want to
be happy?
Every where you go you shall find a swarm of people and media and culture
swearing to you that happiness is the happiness of the Dunya. Is it really
happiness though? On the day of Repayment, Allah shall take the most
`happiest’ kafir of the Dunya and dip him in Jahannam – Hellfire. Then he
shall ask him, “Have you ever seen any happiness?” The Kafir will say,
“Never!”
Nay, the happiness is only the happiness of the hereafter no matter what
happens in this Dunya. Allah shall bring on the Day of Repayment the most
tested human and dip him in Jannah – Paradise. He shall then ask him, “Have
you ever seen sadness?” And that person shall say, “Never!”
And don’t think that this happiness and fun is exclusive to the hereafter.
It is very much tied to this life as well. Listen and understand the words
of Allah:
Whoever works righteousness, whether male or female, while he (or she) is a
true believer verily to him We will give a good life (in this world with
respect, contentment and lawful provision), and We shall pay them certainly
a reward in proportion to the best of what they used to do (i.e. Paradise in
the Hereafter). – Surah AnNahl (16/97)
Dear Sister, you have to understand that you or anyone may enter Hellfire!
By Allah, we are not better than Fatimah, the daughter of Rasul Allah - sal
Allahu alayhi wa sallam. And he said to her, “O Fatimah the daughter of
Muhammad, Ask me whatever you wish from my wealth, for I shall avail you
nothing to Allah.” Meaning that it doesn’t matter if you’re my daughter, if
you don’t work for Jannah, saying to Allah that my father is so and so will
not help you in anyway.
Islam is filled with many Mu’minahs that completed their Taqwa of Allah.
When the other girls put up posters of kafir singers and kafir athletes and
kafir actresses, you should put up posters in your heart of Fatimah and many
other Mu’minahs.
Aasiyah, the wife of Fir’own. Her Eeman in Allah thrived under the shadow of
someone that said, “I am your Lord, Most High!” When news reached Fir’own of
his wife’s Eeman he beat her and commanded his guards to beat her. They took
her out in the scalding noon heat, tied her hands and feet and beat her
perpetually. Who did she turn to? She turned to Allah! She prayed, “My lord,
build for me a home with you in Paradise and save me from Fir’own and his
deeds and save me from the transgressive people.”
It was narrated that when she said this, the sky opened for her and she saw
her home in Paradise. She smiled. The guards watched astonished - she’s
being tortured and she smiles? Frustrated, Fir’own commanded a boulder to be
brought and dropped on Aasiyah, to crush her to death. But Allah took her
soul before the boulder was brought and she became an example for all the
believing men and women till the end of time:
[And Allah has set forth an example for those who believe: the wife of
Fir’own (Pharaoh) – when she said, "My Lord, Build for me a home with You in
Paradise, and save me from Fir’own and his deeds, and save me from the
transgressive-disbelieving people.] -Tahreem 66/11
When we talk about Jihad and Shuhadaa’ - martyrs, do you know who the first
Muslim in Islam to be killed in the path of Allah was? It was Summayah, the
mother of Ammar. When Abu Jahl heard of her Islam and her husband Yaasir and
her son Ammar, he whipped them all and beat them. So much so, that Rasul
Allah would pass by them as they went through this test of their Iman and
would say to them, “Be patient O family of Yaasir, for you have a date set
(when you shall enter) Jannah!”
As Abu Jahl beat Sumayyah one day, she refused to recant her Deen, something
that enraged Abu Jahl. He took a spear as she lay on the burning sand,
looking up to the sky, and he speared her through her midsection. She was
the first of her family and the entire Ummah to meet Allah as a Martyr.
Dear Sister, our role models come from the Quran. You may have heard the
story of the boy and the king. When the entire village became Muslim by the
death of that young boy, the king ordered that an enormous fire be kindled
and that all those who would not recant their religion be burnt alive. A
Mu’minah, stood with her baby over the fire. She looked at her baby, and
seeking her child’s weakness and innocence, she considered turning her back.
The baby said to her, “What are you waiting for mother. Go forward for you
are on the truth!” She nodded. Then with her baby in hand she was pushed to
her death.
[And they ill-treated them for no other reason than that they believed in
Allah, Exalted in Power, Worthy of all Praise!- * Him to Whom belongs the
dominion of the heavens and the earth! And Allah is Witness to all things.].
- Surah AlBuruj, 8,9
And dear sister, your role models come to you from today. As her son tells
us, a senior women in a Muslim land decided that all the vanity that
normally happens in the gatherings of women was not for her. She turned to
Salah and praying at night, and in her old age, she found herself calling to
her son one night from her prayer room. He son says, “I came in and she was
in Sajda saying that she was paralysed!” Her son took her to the doctors and
she began a cycle of rehabilitation, but there was little hope. She then
commanded her son to take her back home, take her back to her prayer room,
take her back to that Sajdah. As she prayed to Allah in her sajdah, the
night came when she called to her son. “Astawdi’ukallaah alladhee laa
yadee’u wa daa’i’uh – I leave you in the trust of Allah, and whenever
something is left in Allah’s trust it is never lost.” She passed away in her
sajdah. Her muscles froze in that position and so they had to wash her body
as she was in Sajdah. The prayed Janazah for her as her body was in sajdah.
The carried her to the grave yard as her body was in Sajdah. The buried her
as she was in Sajdah. And the Prophet said that we shall all be resurrected
on what we died on, she shall be resurrected on the day of judgement in
Sajdah to Allah – Jalla Jalaaluhu wa taqaddasat asmaa’uhu - because that it
how she lived and died.
Part II
There are many other stories that we know about of powerful believing
mothers, wives and sisters and many, many that Allah only knows about.
Whenever a halaqah is going on, the Muslim women outnumber the men. At the
American Open University, (www.open-university.edu) the overwhelming
majority of students are Muslim women. Go to an Islamic teachers/schools
conference, attend a lecture and you shall see the mismatch of sisters to
brothers. Sometimes it is sad to see all these brothers lacking the
motivation that many Muslimahs have. But if there is a beautiful sign in all
this, it is that – in sha’ Allah ta’ala – those sisters are going to raise
an army of believing men and women in the coming generation. WAllahu akbar!
When Imam Ahmad was still young, his father died. He would tell his students
of the work his mother went through in raising him, and he would pray for
her. In the cold Baghdad nights, she would wake long before him to warm the
water so that her son Ahmad could make wudu for Fajr. Then she would wrap
him in blankets, herself cloaked in her Jilbaab, and guide him through the
dark, cold alleys to reach the main Masjid, long before Fajr so that her son
could get a good seat in class. Her son Ahmad - at that age in grade 2 or 3
- would sit all day long studying Quran and Sunnah, and she would wait for
him to finish so that she could drop him home safely. At the age of 16, she
prepared money and food for him and told him, “Travel for your search of
knowledge.” He left for Makkah and Madinah and many other places and met
many great scholars. She raised Ahmad to become one of the four greatest
Imams in Islam.
Dear sister, after all this, ask a non-Muslim what it is that he wants from
you? Does he want you to be liberated? Liberated from what? From Allah and
his Messenger? From the Quran and the Sunnah? From Jannah? From this deen
that Allah chose for you?
And what is he going to give you in return? Happinness? By Allah, he does
not own any happiness to give. Is he going to give you love and protection
from punishment in the grave and from the gatekeepers of hellfire and from
death? Why is it that they want to liberate young beautiful women? Why don’t
they liberate the seniors? Why don’t they liberate the indigenous? Why don’t
they liberate the inmates? Why is their target audience a young and skinny
and tall women (their definition of beauty) between the age of 13 – 28? And
why is their first call for you to take off your Hijab?
Remember that friend – if you consider him so – carefully, for – without any
doubt, by Allah - he shall be your bitterest enemy on the day of Repayment:
[Friends on that day will be foes, one to another - except the Righteous] -
Surah Zukhruf (43/67)
One Kafirah summed up exactly what they think of women, “It’s not who you
are, it’s what you wear and what you look like!” And listen to Fabian, a
french `model’ (of what?), as she spit on the fashion industry. “Fashion
houses made me into a mannequin, a wooden idol. The mission: to manipulate
hearts and alter minds. I learnt how to be worthless, nothing on the inside,
cold. We lived in a world of filth in all that filth means.”
When the Prophet - sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam - stood on the plain of
Arafah and gave his farewell speech he said to the Ummah, “Treat the women
kindly!” History records that in Europe in the same year, at the same time
that Islam was saying this, the Christian clergy were arguing whether a
women was a human or an animal! Those clergymen are the ancestors of the
Kuffar that now want to `liberate’ you.
There is much more than can be said. I shall conclude with the advice of
Rasul Allah - sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam - to every Muslim mother,
daughter, and wife: “If the women prays her five (Salah), fasts her month
(of Ramadan), protects herself (from committing Zina), and listens to her
husband, it will be said to her, `from any door you wish, enter Paradise!”
Sister, that is where you want to be.
[O ye who believe! give your response to Allah and His Messenger, when He
calls you to that which shall give you life; and know that Allah cometh
between a man and his heart, and that it is He to Whom ye shall (all) be
gathered.] - Surah Anfal 8/24
Allah and His Messenger are calling you to life. Dear sister, reply!