Al `Imran 121-130
The Qur’an is not revealed to human minds and hearts cut off from their pasts. It is not revealed to blank minds, but to minds already shaped and constrained by their culture (inherited from their ancestors) and by present, ongoing relations and commitments.
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What is Balaghah?
It should be ordered and coherent, with a clear direction of argument. The listener or reader should be able to make sense of, to understand, the speech or writing as it moves along. (That is one reason why specialised terminology and technical subject-matter are not compatible with balaghah.)
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The Virtue of Sūrah al-Kahf
They said: What is the degree of authenticity of the Prophetic narrations found regarding the virtues of chapters (sūrahs) of the Noble Qur’ān? I said: The authenticated (ṣahīh) of them are very few, and of the most well known established ṣahīh is what reliable narrators have transmitted about…
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Fasting six days of Shawwal
Your question was: How important is fasting six days in Shawwal? My response: Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, may Allah be pleased with him, reported from Allah’s Messenger, peace be upon him, that he said: “For one who observed the fast of Ramadan…
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Religious emotion and self-knowledge
People often confuse the intensity of an experience or feeling with the reality and authenticity of that experience or feeling. This applies very much to religious and devotional exercises. Both these can induce states of minds like…
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Manners in Islam
There is no rigid definition; it is relative to time and place and occasion. Nevertheless, we can apply a couple of test questions that, I find, always give a pretty good indication of what the level should be. First, I ask: am I behaving like this…
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Don’t Waste Ramadan
The Prophet (s) said that he was sent to make things easy for the believers. His sunnah in deciding the times of the daily prayers, and the beginning and end of Ramadan, is meant to make things easy so that the people would come together…
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Marriage
I wish to share with you some thoughts on three areas of marriage: the personal relationship of the couple, their relationship with their children, and their relationship with their extended families, especially their parents…
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