A Miswak or Siwak is probably an alien thing to the western world. But, it’s a twig which a majority of people from Muslim countries use daily to brush their teeth. Although it might sound outdated to use twigs from trees for cleaning your teeth, studies conducted on the Miswak prove otherwise. Studies have inferred that Miswak is better than toothpaste for preventing gum disease. It is being known as chewing stick in the western world and is being looked upon as a form of alternative medicine. So, let’s analyze this “wonder twig” keeping documented scientific studies as proofs.

But first of all, why would anyone think of using a tree twig to clean their teeth? The fact is ancient man did not have the facility of a toothbrush and many cultures have used Miswak for oral hygiene. The use of Miswak is well spread in the Muslim population of the world, and is a common entity in Muslim countries. The reason for common use of Miswak by Muslims can be attributed to religious beliefs. The last messenger of Islam used it frequently and also instructed his followers to do the same and hence the practice continues widely in Muslim countries. There are 70 benefits of Miswak as suggested by Islamic Literature and many of these have been scientifically proven and the rest haven’t been studied yet.

You might be wondering what exactly a Miswak is in the first place. The Miswak is obtained from the twigs of the Arak tree (Peelu tree) although a few other trees can also be used to obtain it such as walnut and olive.

A few important benefits of Miswak

• Kills Gum disease causing bacteria.

• Fights plaque effectively.
• Fights against caries.

• Removes Bad breath and odor from mouth.

• Creates a fragrance in the mouth.

• Effectively clean between teeth due to its parallel bristles.

• Increases salivation and hence inhibits dry mouth (Xerostomia)

Scientific Studies on Miswak

Although the 70 supposed benefits of Miswak range widely, the main one we are examining is its effect on oral health. So, let’s throw some light on scientific studies conducted on Miswak.

The Wrigley Company made a study on Miswak which was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The study found that mints laced with Miswak extract were 20 times more effective in killing bacteria than ordinary mints. A small testimony to this fact is that after half an hour, the mints laced with Miswak extract killed about 60% of the bacteria where as the ordinary mints managed only 3.6%

In the August issue of Journal of Periodontology (2008) appeared a study conducted by Swedish researchers on Miswak. The study apparently found that suspended Miswak pieces in a petridish (medium for culturing bacteria) were able to kill bacteria that cause periodontal disease with out being in physical contact with the bacteria. The researchers suggested that Miswak might be giving antibiotics as gases trying to explain this phenomenon.

A study which compares toothbrushing and using Miswak (Miswak ing!) can be seen on Pubmed (U.S National Library for Medicine Service). The study concluded that Miswak was more effective than toothbrushing in reducing plaque and gingivitis provided it was used correctly. Similar studies found on the same website and elsewhere vouch for the effectiveness of Miswak over toothbrush.

A study conducted by a group of dentists at King Saud University concluded that using Miswak was at least as good as tooth brushing, if not better. There have been plenty of published studies on Miswak and infact entire books published which study its oral and systemic benefits.

Now, with all those studies chucked at you, you couldn’t help but wonder why it is so effective. This can be attributed to its strong antibacterial properties. Another important aspect to consider is that its bristles are parallel to the handle rather than perpendicular which means effective cleaning between the teeth. Now, that’s one natural toothbrush cum toothpaste cum floss.

A few related studies and articles on Miswak

Tootbbrush V/s Miswak

Systemic effects of Miswak

Comparing toothbrushing and Miswak in a population of Sudan

Journal of periodontal research

Journal of contemporary Dental practice

Study on anti-fungal effect of miswak

Study on uptake and release of fluoride from Miswak

During the holy month of Ramadhan, our diet should not differ very much from our normal diet and should be as simple as possible. The diet should be such that we maintain our normal weight, neither losing nor gaining. However, if one is over-weight, Ramadhan is an ideal time to normalise one's weight.

In view of the long hours of fasting, we should consume slow digesting foods including fibre containing-foods rather than fast-digesting foods. Slow digesting foods last up to 8 hours, while fast-digesting foods last for only 3 to 4 hours.

Slow-digesting foods are foods that contain grains and seeds like barley, wheat, oats, millet, semolina, beans, lentils, whole meal flour, unpolished rice, etc. (called complex carbohydrates).

Fast-burning foods are foods that contain sugar, white flour, etc. (called refined carbohydrates).

Fibre-containing foods are bran-containing foods, whole wheat, grains and seeds, vegetables like green beans, peas, sem (papry), marrow, mealies, spinach, and other herbs like methie, the leaves of beetroot (iron-rich), fruit with skin, dried fruit especially dried apricots, figs and prunes, almonds, etc.

The foods eaten should be well-balanced, containing foods from each food group, i.e. fruits, vegetables, meat/chicken/fish, bread/cereals and dairy products. Fried foods are unhealthy and should be limited. They cause indigestion, heart-burn, and weight problems.

AVOID
1. Fried and fatty foods.
2. Foods containing too much sugar.
3. Over-eating especially at sehri.
4. Too much tea at sehri. Tea makes you pass more urine taking with it valuable mineral salts that your body would need during the day.
5. Smoking cigarettes. If you cannot give up smoking, cut down gradually starting a few weeks before Ramadhan. Smoking is unhealthy and one should stop completely.

EAT
1. Complex carbohydrates at sehri so that the food lasts longer making you less hungry.
2. Haleem is an excellent source of protein and is a slow-burning food.
3. Dates are excellent source of sugar, fibre, carbohydrates, potassium and magnesium.
4. Almonds are rich in protein and fibre with less fat.
5. Bananas are a good source of potassium, magnesium and carbohydrates.

DRINK
As much water or fruit juices as possible between iftar and bedtime so that your body may adjust fluid levels in time.

CONSTIPATION
Constipation can cause piles (haemorroids), fissures (painful cracks in anal canal) and indigestion with a bloated feeling.
Causes: Too much refined foods, too little water and not enough fibre in the diet.
Remedy: Avoid excessive refined foods, increase water intake, use bran in baking, brown flour when making roti.

INDIGESTION AND WIND
Causes: Over-eating. Too much fried and fatty foods, spicy foods, and foods that produce wind e.g. eggs, cabbage, lentils, carbonated drinks like Cola also produce gas. 
Remedy: Do not over-eat, drink fruit juices or better still drink water. Avoid fried foods, add ajmor to wind-producing foods.

LETHARGY ('low blood pressure')
Excessive sweating, weakness, tiredness, lack of energy, dizziness, especially on getting up from sitting position, pale appearance and feeling faint are symptoms associated with "low blood pressure". This tends to occur towards the afternoon.
Causes: Too little fluid intake, decreased salt intake.
Remedy: Keep cool, increase fluid and salt intake.
Caution: Low blood pressure should be confirmed by taking a blood pressure reading when symptoms are present. Persons with high blood pressure may need their medication adjusted during Ramadhan. They should consult their doctor.

HEADACHE
Causes: Caffeine and tobacco-withdrawal, doing too much in one day, lack of sleep, hunger usually occur as the day goes by and worsens at the end of the day. When associated with "low blood pressure", the headache can be quite severe and can also cause nausea before Iftar.
Remedy: Cut down caffeine and tobacco slowly starting a week or two before Ramadhan. Herbal and caffeine-free teas may be substituted. Reorganise your schedule during the Ramadan so as to have adequate sleep.

LOW BLOOD SUGAR
Weakness, dizziness, tiredness, poor concentration, perspiring easily, feeling shaky (tremor), unable to perform physical activities, headache, palpitations are symptoms of low blood sugar.
Causes in non-diabetics: Having too much sugar i.e. refined carbohydrates especially at suhur (sehri). The body produces too much insulin causing the blood glucose to drop.
Remedy: Eat something at sehri and limit sugar-containing foods and drinks.
Caution: Diabetics may need to adjust their medication in Ramadan, consult your doctor.

MUSCLE CRAMPS
Causes: Inadequate intake of calcium, magnesium and potassium foods.
Remedy: Eat foods rich in the above minerals e.g. vegetables, fruit, dairy products, meat and dates.
Caution: Those on high blood pressure medication and with kidney stone problems should consult their doctor.

PEPTIC ULCERS, HEART BURN, GASTRITIS AND HIATUS HERNIA
Increased acid levels in the empty stomach in Ramadhan aggravate the above conditions. It presents as a burning feeling in the stomach area under the ribs and can extend upto the throat. Spicy foods, coffee, and Cola drinks worsen these conditions.
Medications are available to control acid levels in the stomach. People with proven peptic ulcers and hiatus hernia should consult their doctor well before Ramadhan.

KIDNEY STONES
Kidney stones may occur in people who have less liquids to drink. Therefore, it is essential to drink extra liquids so as to prevent stone formation.

JOINT PAINS
Causes: During Ramadhan, when extra salah are performed the pressure on the knee joints increases. In the elderly and those with arthritis this may result in pain, stiffness, swelling and discomfort.
Remedy: Lose weight so that the knees do not have to carry any extra load. Exercise the lower limbs before Ramadhan so that they can be prepared for the additional strain. Being physically fit allows greater fulfilment, thus enabling one to be able to perform salah with ease.
Dr. Farouk Haffejee
Islamic Medical Association of South Africa – Durban

Khutbah: "Knowledge, Gotta Have It" by Imam Mustafa Umar from Islamic Institute of Orange Cty on Vimeo.

From time to time, the levels of our faith do tend to dwindle. This weakness of faith manifests itself in degraded quality of acts of our worship, negligence in remembering Allah, feeling indifferent to His commands and, in general, us having a doubtful heart. Experiencing any of these symptoms or others akin to them is an indication of a weakness of faith that in turn may be depriving us of peace, tranquility, and closeness to our creator and sustainer.

This weakness or weariness of faith (Eeman), whether due to a weak understanding of truth, or the strength of external negative forces, is to be expected. Consider what the Prophet (SAWS) said in this context:

“Faith wears out in your heart as clothes wear out, so ask Allah to renew the faith in your hearts.” (narrated by al-Haakim in his Mustadrak and al-Tabaraani in his Mu’jam with a saheeh isnaad).

Here are a few steps that we can take immediately to renew our faiths.

Seek Allah’s Help

As the prophet mentioned in the aforementioned hadith, we should first and foremost ask Allah to renew and reinforce the faith in our hearts. We should make this call part of our regular Duas. In doing so, we should also be mindful of why we believe in the message of truth in the first place. We believe because we can relate the message of truth revealed in the Quran to the realities of this universe and what we find within ourselves and our hearts. We believe because as humans, a deeper intellectual and spiritual introspection has caused our hearts to resonate with the message of truth. We believe because after having pondered over the messages of the Quran, we comprehend them and have internalized them in our psyche. But more importantly, we believe in the truth of the Quran and Islam because of Allah’s unchallengeable, unequivocal and logical assertion as the creator, sustainer, and sole power of this universe. Thus, being convinced of His deity and majesty and the nobility of His Messenger and Prophet, we have consciously chosen to believe and live that message of truth.

Reinforce truth with knowledge

Next, let’s get clear about the meaning of truth as Islam has defined it. The clearer the message of truth in our hearts, the stronger our faith will be. Part of the renewal is therefore to actively engage in understanding the message of truth in our hearts and minds through studying the Quran, studying the traditions of the Prophet (SAW) as documented in the books of hadith and poring over the knowledge of known scholars who have helped elaborate on that message. The process of renewing our faith thus requires an active and personal effort to reach out to learn the various truths defined in Islam. The more we strive for it, the more we will increase our levels of awareness and faith.

Remember, the longer you keep your heart locked up from learning more, the less you will be able to reason and comprehend the message of truth, and the more you will rely on blind faith alone to live the message of truth.

As Allah says in the Quran,

“Will they not then ponder over the Qur’an, or is it that they have their locks on (their) hearts (which bar them from reason).” [47:24]

Beware of symptoms of rejection

Finally, be wary of what in your heart could be blurring your view of the message of truth. Imaam ibn Katheer, in his famous Tafseer ibn Katheer, mentions the reasons that prevent people from believing the message of truth. If any of those reasons are seeping into your psyche and have started to blur your vision and impacting your faith as a result, you need to actively step in and cleanse yourself of those symptoms. The reasons that ibn Katheer had mentioned included:

• Kufrul-’Inaad (Disbelief out of stubbornness)
• Kufrul-Inkaar (Disbelief out of denial)
• Kufrul-Kibr (Disbelief out of arrogance and pride)
• Kufrul-Juhood (Disbelief out of rejection)
• Kufrul-Nifaaq (Disbelief out of hypocrisy)
• Kufrul-Istihaal (Disbelief out of trying to make HARAM (illegal) into HALAL (legal)
• Kufrul-Kurh (Disbelief out of detesting any of Allah’s commands)
• Kufrul-Istihzaha (Disbelief due to mockery and derision)
• Kufrul-I’raadh (Disbelief due to avoidance)
• Kufrul-Istibdaal (Disbelief because of trying to substitute Allah’s Laws)

In Summary

Living the message of truth, therefore, requires us to abandon stubbornness (an attitude when we know deep in our hearts that we are wrong), denial (blindly ignoring facts), arrogance (thinking that accepting truth will demean us), hypocrisy (pretending to be someone while concealing the truth), mockery and derision (we mock truth and the righteous to go along with others) and avoidance (for one reason or another we try to avoid the message of truth). Once we eliminate these negatives that may have stained our hearts and open our minds to the message of truth, we will be on our way to renew our faith. In that process, we will also sense Allah in our lives and we will feel the sweetness of faith.

Let’s remember the saying of the Prophet as reported by Anas (May Allah be pleased with him):

“Allah says: ‘ When a slave of Mine draws near to Me a span, I draw near to him a cubit; and if he draws near to Me a cubit, I draw near to him a fathom. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running.” [Al-Bukhari].

Following is the speech by Charles on October 27, 1993, at the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford where he is a vice patron of the Centre for Islamic Studies.I believe wholeheartedly that the links between these two worlds, Muslims and Christrians,matter more today than ever before, because the degree of misunderstanding between the Islamic and Western worlds remains dangerously high, and because the need for the two to live and work together in our increasingly interdependent world has never been greater.

Islamic culture

There are one billion Muslims worldwide. Many millions of them live in countries of the Commonwealth. Ten million or more live in the West, and around one million in Britain. Our own Islamic community has been growing and flourishing for decades. There are nearly 500 mosques in Britain. Popular interest in Islamic culture in Britain is growing fast. Many of you will recall – and I think some of you took part in – the wonderful Festival of Islam which Her Majesty the Queen opened in 1976. Islam is all around us. And yet distrust, even fear, persist. In the post-Cold War world of the 1990s, the prospects for peace should be greater than at any time in this century.

 

It is odd, in many ways that misunderstandings between Islam and the West should persist. For that which binds our two worlds together is so much more powerful than that which divides us. Muslims, Christians – and Jews – are all ‘peoples of the Book’. Islam and Christianity share a common monotheistic vision: a belief in one divine God, in the transience of our earthly life, in our accountability for our actions, and in the assurance of life to come. We share many key values in common: respect for knowledge, for justice, compassion towards the poor and underprivileged, the importance of family life, respect for parents.

‘Honour thy father and thy mother’ is a Quranic precept too. Our history has been closely bound up together. There, however, is one root of the problem. For much of that history has been one of conflict: 14 centuries too often marked by mutual hostility.

That has given rise to an enduring tradition of fear and distrust, because our two worlds have so often seen that past in contradictory ways. To Western schoolchildren, the two hundred years of Crusades are traditionally seen as a series of heroic, chivalrous exploits in which the kings, knights, princes – and children – of Europe tried to wrest Jerusalem from the wicked Muslim infidel. To Muslims, the Crusades were an episode of great cruelty and terrible plunder, of Western infidel soldiers of fortune and horrific atrocities, perhaps exemplified best by the massacres committed by the Crusaders when, in 1099, they took back Jerusalem, the third holiest city in Islam.

For us in the West, 1492 speaks of human endeavour and new horizons, of Columbus and the discovery of the Americas. To Muslims, 1492 is a year of tragedy – the year Granada fell to Ferdinand and Isabella, signifying the end of eight centuries of Muslim civilisation in Europe. The point, I think, is not that one or other picture is truer, or has a monopoly of truth. It is that misunderstandings arise when we fail to appreciate how others look at the world, its history, and our respective roles in it.The corollary of how we in the West see our history has so often been to regard Islam as a threat – in mediaeval times as a military conqueror, and in more modern times as a source of intolerance, extremism and terrorism. One can understand how the taking of Constantinople, when it fell to Sultan Mehmet in 1453, and the close-run defeats of the Turks outside Vienna in 1529 and 1683, should have sent shivers of fear through Europe’s rulers. The history of the Balkans under Ottoman rule provided examples of cruelty which sank deep into Western feelings.

 

But the threat has not been one way. With Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798, followed by the invasions and conquests of the 19th century, the pendulum swung, and almost all the Arab world became occupied by the Western powers. With the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Europe’s triumph over Islam seemed complete. Those days of conquest are over. But even now our common attitude to Islam suffers because the way we understand it has been hijacked by the extreme and the superficial.

Extremist groups

To many of us in the West, Islam is seen in terms of the tragic civil war in Lebanon, the killings and bombings perpetrated by extremist groups in the Middle East, and by what is commonly referred to as ‘Islamic fundamentalism’. Our judgment of Islam has been grossly distorted by taking the extremes to be the norm. That is a serious mistake. It is like judging the quality of life in Britain by the existence of murder and rape, child abuse and drug addition. The extremes exist, and they must be dealt with. But when used as a basis to judge a society, they lead to distortion and unfairness.

For example, people in this country frequently argue that the Sharia law of the Islamic world is cruel, barbaric and unjust. Our newspapers, above all, love to peddle those unthinking prejudices. The truth is, of course, different and always more complex. My own understanding is that extremes, like the cutting off of hands, are rarely practised. The guiding principle and spirit of Islamic law, taken straight from the Qur’an, should be those of equity and compassion. We need to study its actual application before we make judgments. We must distinguish between systems of justice administered with integrity, and systems of justice as we may see them practised which have been deformed for poli

tical reasons into something no longer Islamic.

We must bear in mind the sharp debate taking place in the Islamic world itself about the extent of the universality or timelessness of Sharia law, and the degree to which the application of that law is continually changing and evolving.

We should also distinguish Islam from the customs of some Islamic states. Another obvious Western prejudice is to judge the position of women in Islamic society by the extreme cases. Yet Islam is not a monolith and the picture is not simple. Remember, if you will, that Islamic countries like Turkey, Egypt and Syria gave women the vote as early as Europe did its women – and much earlier than in Switzerland! In those countries women have long enjoyed equal pay, and the opportunity to play a full working role in their societies.

 

The rights of Muslim women to property and inheritance, to some protection if divorced, and to the conducting of business, were rights prescribed by the Qur’an fourteen hundred years ago, even if they were not everywhere translated into practice. In Britain at least, some of these rights were novel even to my grandmother’s generation! Benazir Bhutto and Begum Khaleda Zia became prime ministers in their own traditional societies when Britain had for the first time ever in its history elected a female prime minister.

That, I think, does not smack of a mediaeval society. Women are not automatically second-class citizens because they live in Islamic countries. We cannot judge the position of women in Islam aright if we take the most conservative Islamic states as representative of the whole. For example, the veiling of women is not at all universal across the Islamic world. Indeed, I was intrigued to learn that the custom of wearing the veil owed much to Byzantine and Sassanian traditions, nothing to the Prophet of Islam.

Some Muslim women never adopted the veil, others have discarded it, others – particularly the younger generation – have more recently chosen to wear the veil or the headscarf as a personal statement of their Muslim identity. But we should not confuse the modesty of dress prescribed by the Qur’an for men as well as women with the outward forms of secular custom or social status which have their origins elsewhere.

Islamic world

We in the West need also to understand the Islamic world’s view of us. There is nothing to be gained, and much harm to be done, by refusing to comprehend the extent to which many people in the Islamic world genuinely fear our own Western materialism and mass culture as a deadly challenge to their Islamic culture and way of life. Some of us may think the material trappings of Western society which we have exported to the Islamic world – television, fast-food, and the electronic gadgets of our everyday life – are a modernising, self-evidently good, influence. But we fall into the trap of dreadful arrogance if we confuse ‘modernity’ in other countries with their becoming more like us.

The fact is that our form of materialism can be offensive to devout Muslims – and I do not just mean the extremists among them. We must understand that reaction, just as the West’s attitude to some of the more rigorous aspects of Islamic life needs to be understood in the Islamic world. This, I believe, would help us understand what we have commonly come to see as the threat of Islamic fundamentalism.

Modern Europe Prides

Islam nurtured and preserved the quest for learning. In the words of the tradition, ‘the ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr’. Cordoba in the 10th century was by far the most civilised city of Europe. We know of lending libraries in Spain at the time King Alfred was making terrible blunders with the culinary arts in this country. It is said that the 400,000 volumes in its ruler’s library amounted to more books than all the libraries of the rest of Europe put together. That was made possible because the Muslim world acquired from China the skill of making paper more than 400 years before the rest of non-Muslim Europe.

Many of the traits on which modern Europe prides itself came to it from Muslim Spain. Diplomacy, free trade, open borders, the techniques of academic research, of anthropology, etiquette, fashion, alternative medicine, hospitals, all came from this great city of cities. Mediaeval Islam was a religion of remarkable tolerance for its time, allowing Jews and Christians the right to practise their inherited beliefs, and setting an example which was not, unfortunately, copied for many centuries in the West.

The surprise is the extent to which Islam has been a part of Europe for so long, first in Spain, then in the Balkans, and the extent to which it has contributed so much towards the civilisation which we all too often think of, wrongly, as entirely Western. Islam is part of our past and present, in all fields of human endeavor. It has helped to create modern Europe. It is part of our own inheritance, not a thing apart.

More than this, Islam can teach us today a way of understanding and living in the world. At the heart of Islam is its preservation of an integral view of the Universe. Islam – like Buddhism and Hinduism – refuses to separate man and nature, religion and science, mind and matter, and has preserved a metaphysical and unified view of ourselves and the world around us. ‘

We live today in one world, forged by instant communications, by television, by the exchange of information on a scale undreamed of by our grandparents. The world economy functions as an inter-dependant entity. Problems of society, the quality of life and the environment, are global in their causes and effects, and none of us any longer has the luxury of being able to solve them on our own.

The Islamic and Western worlds share problems common to us all: how we adapt to change in our societies, how we help young people who feel alienated from their parents or society’s values, how we deal with Aids, drugs, and the disintegration of the family.

Of course, these problems vary in nature and intensity between societies. But the similarity of human experience is considerable. The international trade in hard drugs is one example, the damage we are collectively doing to our environment is another. We have to solve these threats to our communities and our lives together. Simply getting to know each other can achieve wonders. I remember vividly, for example, taking a group of Muslims and non-Muslims some years ago to see the work of the Marylebone Health Centre in London, of which I am patron. The enthusiasm and common determination that shared experience generated was immensely heart-warming.

Somehow we have to learn to understand each other, and to educate our children – a new generation – whose attitudes and cultural outlook may be different from ours so that they understand too. We have to show trust, mutual respect and tolerance, if we are to find the common ground between us and work together to find solutions. The community enterprise approach of my own Trust, and the very successful Volunteers Scheme it has run for some years, show how much can be achieved by a common effort which spans the classes, cultures and religions.

The Islamic and Western world can no longer afford to stand apart from a common effort to solve their common problems. We cannot afford to revive the territorial and political confrontations of the past. We have to share experiences, to explain ourselves to each other, to understand and tolerate, and build on the positive principles our cultures have in common.

That trade has to be two-way. Each of us needs to understand the importance of conciliation, of reflection – TADABBUR – to open our minds and unlock our hearts to each other. I am utterly convinced that the Islamic and Western worlds have much to learn from each other. Just as the oil engineer in the Gulf may be European, so the heart transplant surgeon in Britain may be Egyptian.

If this need for tolerance and exchange is true internationally, it applies with special force within Britain itself. Britain is a multi-racial and multi-cultural society.

Courtesy – Websites

Imaam Sufyaan (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:

Be truthful at all times and in all places. Stay away from lying and from deception, and do not sit alongside liars and deceivers, for all such deeds are sins.

My brother, be careful not to show off, either in speech or in deed, for showing off is Shirkitself (Shirk being to associate partners with Allaah in worship).

Do not be conceited, for even a good deed is not raised (to the heavens) if any conceitedness is involved in it.

Take your religion only from one who is sincerely and compassionately concerned about his own religious guidance. The example of a scholar who is not concerned about his own religious well-being is that of a sick doctor: If he cannot treat his own disease…then how can he treat the diseases of others…? Likewise, if one is not concerned about his own religious well-being, then how can he be concerned about the religious well-being of others?

My brother, your religion is nothing more than your flesh and blood (i.e., You should be concerned about your religious well-being, because if you aren’t, it is your flesh and blood that will pay the penalty through the punishment of Allaah). Cry out of concern for your soul and have mercy on it; if you do not have mercy on it, then mercy will not be shown to it.

Sit only in the company of one who advises you to desire little from this world and who encourages you to put your hopes in the Hereafter. Take care not to sit with worldly people who speak constantly about worldly affairs; such people will ruin your religious well-being and will corrupt your heart.

Remember death frequently, and just as frequently ask Allaah to forgive you for your past sins.

Ask Allaah to keep you safe (safe from evil, from dangerous diseases, from trials and tribulations, etc) for the remainder of your life.

My brother, develop a good character and noble manners.

Do not act contrary to the Jamaa’ah (the general body of Sunni Muslims), for goodness and safety are the consequences of being in harmony with the Jamaa’ah.

Someone who strives constantly for this world is like a person who builds one home and destroys another (because he builds prosperity for himself in this world, while he destroys all chances of becoming prosperous in the Hereafter).

Give sincere advice to every believer who asks you a question regarding his religion. And never hide good advice to someone who asks you about a matter that leads to the Good Pleasure of Allaah (subhaanahu wa ta’aala).

If you love your (Muslim) brother for the sake of Allaah, then give him generously from your self and your wealth.

Stay far away from arguments, quarrels, and disputes; otherwise, you will become a wrongdoer, a transgressor, and a deceiver.

Be patient at all times and in all places, for patience leads to righteousness, and righteousness leads to Paradise. Do not become angry and furious, for those two emotions lead to wickedness, and wickedness leads to the Hellfire.

Do not argue with a scholar, for that will lead to him loathing you. Being able to visit scholars (and learn from them) is a mercy, and cutting oneself off from them means that one is bringing down upon himself the wrath of Allaah (subhaanahu wa ta’aala). Verily, the scholars are the treasurers of the Prophets (‘alayhumus salaam) and are also their inheritors.

Turn away from worldly pleasures and things (to a certain degree), and, as a result, Allaah will enable you to see the faults and defects of this world. Be a man of Wara’ (one who forsakes all dubious and some lawful things because he fears that those things will lead to what is prohibited in Islaam), and (on the Day of Resurrection) Allaah will make your session of accountability easier for you.

Leave many of the things regarding which you are doubtful, and replace them with things regarding which you are not doubtful, and you will, as a result, remain safe: So by warding off doubt with certainty, you will remain safe in your religion.

Enjoin good and forbid evil — thus will you become loved by Allaah. Despise wicked-doers, and drive away devils (regardless of whether they are humans or jinn).

If you want to become strong (in faith)…then be exultant only a little and laugh only a little when you get something you want from this world. Concentrate on working for the Hereafter; if you do that, Allaah will be sufficient for you regarding your worldly concerns….

Ask Allaah for safety (in both your religious and worldly affairs). If you intend to something for your Hereafter – such as giving charity – then apply yourself to doing it quickly before theShaytaan (the Devil) weakens your resolve and thus prevents you from doing it.

Do not be a heavy eater, whereby you work less than you eat, for that is disliked (in Islaam). Do not eat without an intention, and do not eat when you are not hungry. And do not fill your stomach constantly until you become a corpse, not having remembered Allaah while you were alive (but instead having been concerned with eating to your full and fulfilling your desires).

Decrease the frequency with which you fall into error, accept apologizes (from those who wronged you), and forgive the person who wronged you.

Be the type of person from whom people generally expect good things and from whose evil people feel safe.

Do not hate anyone who obeys Allaah, and be merciful both towards people in general and towards those with whom you are well-acquainted (or both to the general masses of Muslim and to people of high standing in society).

Do not sever the ties of the womb (i.e., do not cut off relations with family members and relatives), and join ties with those who have severed them from you. Pardon those who wronged you, and you will, as a result, become a companion of the Prophets and martyrs.

Do not be a frequent visitor of the marketplace, for the people there (mostly sellers, but some buyers also) are wolves in men’s clothing. Marketplaces are often frequented by devils – devils both of the human kind and of the jinn kind. When you enter the marketplace, it becomes obligatory upon you to enjoin good and forbid evil – but know that you will only see evil there. Stand to one side of the marketplace and call out: ‘I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped but Allaah alone; He has no partner; the dominion of all that exists belongs to Him. He is deserving of all praise. It is He Who gives life, and it is He Who causes death. All goodness is in His hands, and He is upon all things capable. There is neither might nor power except with Allaah, the All-High, the All-Mighty. [ Check - 1 Million Virtues + 1 Million Sins Forgiven + 1 Million Grades Raised]

Do not enter into disputes with worldly people over their worldly things, and, as a result, Allaah will love you, and the people of earth will love you.

And be humble….When you are healthy, do good deeds, and you will be granted safety and health (physically and spiritually) from above.

Be a forgiving person, and you will get the things you want. Be a merciful person, and all things will be merciful towards you.

My brother, do not allow your days, nights, and hours to be wasted on falsehood. Spend from your self for yourself – for the Day of Thirst (the Day of Resurrection). My brother, your thirst will not be quenched on the Day of Resurrection unless the Most Merciful is pleased with you, and you will not achieve His Good pleasure unless you are obedient to Him. Perform many voluntary good deeds, for they have the effect of bringing you closer to Allaah.

Be generous, and your faults will be covered, and Allaah will make easier for you your session of accountability (on the Day of Resurrection) as well as the horrors (that will take place on that day).

Perform many good deeds, and Allaah will make you feel happy and at ease in your grave.  Stay away from all prohibited deeds, and thus will you taste the sweetness of faith (Eemaan). Sit in the company of righteous and pious people, and Allaah will make well for you the affairs of your religion. And in the affairs of your religion, consult those who fear Allaah. Hasten to perform good deeds, and Allaah will protect you from disobeying Him.

Remember Allaah frequently, and, as a result, Allaah will make you less desirous of this world (and its pleasures and possessions). Remember death, and, as a result, Allaah will make your worldly affairs easier for you. Yearn for Paradise, and, as a result, Allaah will help you obey Him. Be frightened by the Hellfire, and,  as a result, Allaah will make it easier for you to endure the hardships of this life.”

Transcribed from: The Biography of Sufyaan Ath-Thauree, p176-181

Compiled by:  Salaahud-Deen ibn ‘Alee ibn ‘Abdul-Maujood

Internet Source : http://daragharbi.com/

Journey of the Midnight Sun Mosque from Nilufer Rahman on Vimeo.

In Islam, much depends on the sun.

The devout offer a prayer at sunrise and another at sunset.

Simple enough in most of the Muslim world. But a little tricky in Yellowknife, land of the midnight sun, noontime dim and North America's northernmost mosque.

At this time of year, the capital of the Northwest Territories is closing in on nearly 24-hour darkness, when a sliver of sun bumps into view for a few brief hours a day. To squeeze a few more hours into their five-times-a-day prayer regimen, local Muslims have adopted Edmonton's prayer schedule.

"You will be doing a sunrise prayer while it is still pitch-black out," says Summayah Petrus, 24, an engineer who spent her first winter north of 60 last year. "Or in the summer, a sunset prayer at 9 o'clock – four hours before the actual sunset! It is definitely a little weird."

That's just one of the quirks of being Muslim in this booming frontier city of about 20,000, where a little mosque on the edge of the Arctic has become a crowded hub for the Muslim faith.

Since 2001, Yellowknife's total population has grown by more than 13 per cent, making it Canada's fastest-growing capital. Many of those newcomers are immigrants who are finding the country's small cities increasingly attractive, according to census data released yesterday. While Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver remain the top destinations for immigrants, smaller cities like London, Winnipeg and, yes, even Yellowknife are drawing an increasing share.

Yellowknife picked up 510 new immigrants between 2001 and 2006 – paltry compared to major urban areas, but notable compared to the mere 290 who headed to Whitehorse, that other territorial capital of around 20,000 people.

A recent city survey found more than 110 ethnicities living within Yellowknife.

With that influx has come a hash of cultures, nationalities and denominations.

Most are after a share of new oil, gas and mineral wealth flowing through a city that calls itself the Diamond Capital of North America."We're a mini-United Nations," Mayor Gordon Van Tighem says.

The clearest illustration of this blooming multiculturalism appears every day around noon outside a narrow, wooden building on the edge of the city's Old Town. At Dhuhr, the Muslim midday prayer, white taxicabs swarm around the little mosque, and the parking lot erupts with kufi caps and robes of all colours.

Just seven years ago, Yellowknife's Muslims had to pray at a library. A group of locals eventually converted an old daycare centre into the Islamic Centre of Yellowknife. Today, it's overflowing; on a recent weekday, one supplicant offered prayers in the cloakroom outside the crowded prayer hall.

"Ten years ago, people didn't really notice many Muslims here," says Fadil Memedi, a gruff cabbie who's lived in the city for 12 years. "Now we number over 100. We're not such a tiny part of Yellowknife any more."

The actual number is probably much higher. In 2001, Statistics Canada recorded 130 Muslims in Yellowknife. It hasn't released religion figures from its 2006 census yet, but the number of Muslims is likely to have eclipsed 150 given recent population trends.

They come from Lebanon, Sudan, Somalia, Macedonia, and arrive in Yellowknife for jobs. The city has openings aplenty, and the pay tends to be higher than down south. For anyone burdened with heavy immigration expenses, a stint in Yellowknife is a good way to pay it off.

"The jobs are everywhere" says Yousry Abdel Mejid, head of the mosque. "Talk to anyone on the plane ride here and you'll probably have a job by the time you land. You stay six months; you pay your debts."

That type of draw presents a few quandaries: a lack of single Muslim women, for one. The 2001 census showed that Muslim men outnumber Muslim women in Yellowknife three to two.

"It's a problem," said Mr. Abdel Mejid. "If I didn't have a family, I probably wouldn't move here."

Ms. Petrus noticed the gender imbalance soon after moving to Yellowknife last year.

Scores of single Muslim men drive cabs here. When they got wind that an eligible Muslim woman had come to town, "I was being offered a ride every time I stepped out the door," she says.

"It's a little weird in the Muslim community for a woman to be away from home and not married. People were always coming up to me wanting to know the reason why I hadn't married yet."

Ms. Petrus has since moved south to Kelowna, B.C., but would return to Yellowknife if the right job opened up.

For its part, the community has done its best to balance genders. Mosque-goers have pooled up to $10,000 at a time to help local Muslim men bring fiancées from the Middle East to Canada.

Upon arriving in Yellowknife, these newcomers might have a few difficulties acclimatizing. In addition to the unusual prayer schedule, there's also the cold and the limited variety of halal food.

The geographic hardships can make for equivalent spiritual ones. To shore up faith around town, the mosque recently brought in an Egyptian Imam for a six-month stint.

Most eventually warm to the city. "I was surprised that nobody in Yellowknife ever bothered me about my head scarf," says Ms. Petrus, who grew up in Montreal. "In Quebec people will say, 'Go back to where you came from.' "

Not that Yellowknife is entirely immune to bigotry. After the 9/11 attacks, vandals tore down the mosque's sign. A few months earlier, someone smashed a window.

"There were some challenges," Mayor Van Tighem admits. "But the very next week [after 9/11] our churches were preaching tolerance from the pulpit. As a general rule, we are a community that accepts and receives people from all faiths."

Most Muslims in the city would agree. They've brought together other faiths in several religious forums over the years and encourage one another to support local charities.

"In a big city, it's much easier to become isolated in your religious community and not consider the outside world," says Mr. Abdel Mejid. "This is such a small community that you have to be a part of it. We have to engage with other religions. I know it's not the Islam way, but it's good for me and good for my religion."