The Islamic Bulletin Volume X IX No. 24 Page 20 4) A good deed can be counted as ten times or more, while the bad deed is counted as only one bad deed. Imagine the mercy of God! Not just ten times, it sometimes reaches 700 times. And only Allah knows the reward for fasting. 5) The sins convert to good deeds for those who asked Allah for forgiveness and started obeying him again. If you disobeyed Allah for 20 years and then started obeying him and didn’t return back to the sins you were doing…the whole 20 years sins will convert to good deeds. 6) This next rule is quite difficult: the witnesses. The 1st witnesses are the angels. They wrote everything you did. They leave out nothing. Even if you made fun of someone with a smile. The 2nd witness is Mohammed (S). Imagine the prophet is testifying against you. He told you about the fajr prayer, he told you to lower your gaze, he told you to treat your parents with kindness. Didn’t he teach you all of this? So imagine your situation…how you might feel when the prophet testifies against you. The 3rd witness is the land (the earth). If you traveled to make umrah, all of these miles, every sand particle, every tree, every rock, every blow of the wind will testify about you. The companions always prayed in lots of places so every piece of land will testify for them in front of Allah. Please make the lands that will testify on your side be more than those which will testify against you. Don’t ever travel to commit sins. Do you know what that means…it means that all of these thousands of miles will testify against you on judgment day. The last witness is so unusual you would never think of it ... some disbelievers think that there is no way they won’t go to hell so they will tell Allah, ‘’I’m not satisfied with these witnesses. No one testifies against me except myself.” So Allah agrees and says, “Yes, we accept your testimony’’. So his mouth gets shut. Look at the verses: “That Day shall we set a seal on their mouths. But their hands will speak to us, and their feet bear witness, to all that they did.” “On the Day that the enemies of Allah will be gathered together to the Fire, they will be marched in ranks. At length, when they reach the (Fire), their hearing, their sight, and their skins will bear witness against them, as to (all) their deeds. They will say to their skins: “Why bear ye witness against us?” They will say: “(Allah) hath given us speech, - (He) who giveth speech to everything: He created you for the first time, and unto Him were ye to return.” And his body starts to testify against him and the man becomes confused…Why did you do this my hand? Why did you do this my hand? I did what I did just for your pleasure. So it says: “Allah has given me speech, who giveth speech to everything”. Can you imagine you are fighting with your own body? Your organs are fighting with each other! Can you imagine how humiliating?!? The judgment starts right now. The verse says: “And thy Lord cometh, and His angels, rank upon rank”. Then, one by one will be presented in front of Allah all by himself. YOU, come to the Almighty! The angels come and take YOU! Can you imagine this? You and Allah and your book in your hands? So some people will run going to Allah as soon as he was called— he wants to stand and talk to Allah. Others will shiver from fright. So the angels will drag them and they will beg the angels to take them to hell without standing before Allah. You are now standing before Allah and He starts asking you, ‘’Did you take my meeting for granted? Was I so unimportant? Did you dare to do what you did in front of me and were ashamed from people? Why did you do this sin? Didn’t I get you married? Didn’t I give you strength? Didn’t I give you money?” “What made you think I’ll forgive you for all your sins? Did you forget you’re going to meet Me? Why did you seem so polite in front of people and you come to me with all the ugly things you do? Why did you hide from people and not be ashamed in front of me although you know I can see you? Why did you shiver if anyone saw you committing the sin and don’t shiver when I look at you? Wasn’t I watching your eyes and your legs when you were going to disobey me?” If you were a disobedient slave and you are reading your book, the skin of your face falls and you burst in blood. Allah is so angry from you and tells you, ‘’I’ll never forgive you for your sins. Angels, take him to hell— I’m angry with him’’. But if you were an obedient slave to Allah, Allah would tell you “come closer’’. So you approach Allah and you find yourself overwhelmed with His light. Then He covers you with a sheet so no one can hear you. So He tells you, “Can you remember that sin and that sin and that sin”. At this moment you think you are a goner. But Allah tells you, ‘’I concealed them to you in life and I am concealing them to you now. I forgive you and I’m pleased with you…go to My heaven’’. I hope you have imagined it well. Today you have a chance to save yourself. I hope you don’t wait until it is too late. Editor’s note: This speech by Amr Khaled has been translated from Arabic and has been edited for length and clarity. HOW NOT TO MISS FAJR Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid The solution to this problem, like others, has two aspects: theoretical and practical. The theoretical aspect may be further broken down into two points: The Muslim should know the great status of salaat al-fajr in the sight of Allah, may He be glorified. The Prophet (SAW) said: «Whoever prays the dawn prayer in congregation, it is as if he had prayed the whole night long.» (Muslim) The Prophet (SAW) also said: «The most burdensome prayers for the hypocrites are salaat al-isha and salaat al-fajr, but if they only knew what they contain, they would come even if they had to crawl.» (Ahmad). «Whoever prays fajr is under the protection of Allah. Do not put yourselves in a situation where Allah has to call you to account for your negligence.» (Tabaraani) «Angels come to you in shifts by night and by day. They meet at salaat al-fajr and salaat al-asr, then those who had stayed with you at night ascend, and are asked by the One Who knows better than they: How did you find My servants? They say, We left them when they were praying, and we came to them when they were praying.» (Bukhaari). «Whoever prays al-Bardayn will enter Paradise.» (Bukhari). Al-Bardayn are fajr and asr. The practical aspect of dealing with this problem includes a number of steps which the Muslim can take in order to get used to performing salaat al-fajr regularly in congregation. These steps include: *Sleeping early. According to a saheeh hadeeth, the Prophet (SAW) used to dislike sleeping before isha and talking afterwards. The Muslim should not sleep before salaat al-isha because it is obvious that most of those who sleep before it will spend the rest of the night feeling so tired and heavy that it will be as if they are ill. * It is a fact that people differ with regard to their need for sleep, so it is not possible to dictate a set number of hours that people should sleep, but each person should stick to the
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