Paradise in Our Homes

[bamalli]

Paradise in Our Homes


In the name of Allah[1], the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful. Peace and
blessings of Allah be upon Prophet Muhammad (SAWS[2]).

May Allah (SWT)[3] accept our fasting. Remember, Prophet Muhammad (SAWS)
was heard to have said that in Ramadan there are people who would be
forgiven and saved every night from Hellfire. Take care that Allah is
very generous and if He grants you forgiveness this night or this year,
you will never be captured again among those who will be doomed to Hell.
May we all be forgiven.

Today's episode is about the value of the family for Allah (SWT). I wish
you can perceive precious it is. Allah (SWT) shakes the sky and earth
for its sake; Allah (SWT) becomes double pleased with you because of it,
as it is the base of the whole human world. Nowadays, we are
underestimating the family's value; divorce rate is growing and for
trivial reasons; sons share their secrets with their friends and are not
likewise attached to their families, to the point that they may accept
the same advice from a friend than from their own parents; brothers
fight upon heir heritage forgetting their kinship.

Do you seek Allah's (SWT) forgiveness? Do you want to benefit from
Ramadan, with mercy at its beginning, forgiveness in its middle, and
salvation from Hellfire at its end?? Do you want Paradise doors to open
and Hell doors to close? Your family has to be precious to you as it is
for Allah (SWT).

Let us review the history of mankind to know how precious family bonds
are. Let us start with Adam and Eve; the universe started with this one
family although Allah could have created many others at the same time.
However, Allah meant to raise the value of this family and present it as
the first establishment on earth. Kinship ties were created before
human beings, and it asked Allah (SWT) to make people keen to maintain
its ties. Allah(SWT) replied that He will be pleased with those who
maintain its ties and shall inflict punishment upon those who don't.
Even in Paradise, people in higher ranks act as intercessors for their
relatives to reach the same rank. See how precious the family is for
Allah (SWT)!!

Marriage is a very strong bond and an important contract that must be
taken more seriously by people. The aim of the program is to alert
families to come closer and stop being isolated from each other. These
words may seem theoretical to you; so let us take a practical example
from hajj[4], during the sai'[5] where we can remember the fear of a
mother (Hajar) for her son (Isma'il AS[6]). She was going to and forth
looking for water to quinsh her little baby's thrist, jogging between
the two hills 7 times (1/2 a km each round). At a certain point she
heard her son screaming so she ran, and this is what we nowadays do
during Umrah[7] and hajj. Allah (SWT) is hereby reminding you of your
own mother, her feelings for you and her efforts in bringing you up.

Remember also that Zamzam water was the result of a father's prayer.
Ibrahim (AS) (Abraham) was frightened for his wife and child whom he
left alone in the desert. He said what can be translated as, " Our
Lord, surely I have made (some) of my offspring to dwell in a valley
that is not under cultivation (Literally: other than that
"owning" plantation) at Your Inviolable Home, our Lord, that
they may keep up the prayer. So make heart-sights of mankind yearn
towards them and provide them with products, that possibly they would
thank (You)"(TMQ[8] , 14:37). Allah (SWT) accepts Ibrahim's prayer and
sends Jibril (AS) (Gabriel) to strike the earth under Isma'il's feet,
and Zamzam water sprung where the whole world will keep drinking from
this water till doom's day. Thus, the whole world would realize that
fathers' prayers are esteemed by Allah (SWT).

Sacrifice is a symbol for a strong Father-Son relationship. Ibrahim
(AS) saw himself in a dream slaughtering his son Isma'il and knew it was
Allah's (SWT) command. He faced his son with this news and Isma'il was
very obedient and knew it was a fact and accepted Allah's (SWT) will.
Thus, Allah sent a ram to be slaughtered as a sacrifice instead of
Isma'il, and He (SWT) ordered people to sacrifice every year to always
remind this kind of relationship. This is why we say during our prayers,
"All Prayers and Blessings of Allah be upon our master, the most noble
Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) and his family as well as Ibrahim (AS) and his
family". They are indeed great families.

Moreover, if we review the prophets' stories, we will find that their
families' dimension is often mentioned, either through their marriage
(e.g.: Adam and Eve, Ibrahim (AS) and Sarah, then Ibrahim (AS) and
Hajar, the story of Musa's (Moses) marriage), or father-son relationship
(e.g.: Ibrahim (AS) and Isma'il (Ishmael), Dawud (David) and
Solaiman (Solomon)), or brothers' relationship (e.g: Musa and Harun
(Aaron), Isa (Jesus) and his cousin Yahya (John)). You can also realize
many other relationships:

- A Mother caring for her child: Musa's (AS) mother and Maryam
(AS) "Mary".

- Father – Son conflict: Ibrahim (AS) and his father Azar,
Lut (Lot) and his son.

- Marital infidelity: Al-Aziz's wife.

- Brothers' conspiracy against their own brother: story of Yusuf
(AS) (Joseph). In this story, Allah (SWT) warns parents from
discriminating between their children in treatment. This story also
clarifies that all kinds of relationships are illustrated in the Holy
Qura'n, not only the ideal ones. Thus the Holy Qura'n is a reference for
any kind of relationships.

- A sister saving her brother: Musa's (AS) sister saving him
from the Pharaoh's palace. Allah (SWT) says what can be translated as,
"And she said to his sister, "Trail him," and so she beheld him
from afar, and they were not aware. And We had prohibited to him earlier
wet-nurses. So she said, "Shall I indicate to you the family of a
house who will sponsor him for you and advisably look after him?"
(TMQ, 28:11, 12).

- A woman longing to have a child to care for: Asya the
Pharaoh's wife, Musa's substitute mother.

- A grandfather and a grandmother yearning to have a child:
Maryam's (AS) parents.

- Musa (AS) asking Allah (SWT) for the assistance of his
brother: Allah (SWT) says what can be translated as, "And my brother
(is) Harûžn; (Aaron) he is more eloquent than I (am) in speech;
(Literally: in tongue= regarding his tongue) so send him with me as an
auxiliary to sincerely confirm me in (my speech). Surely I fear they
will cry me lies."(TMQ, 28:34).

- Musa (AS) quarrelling with his brother, when he returned and
found his people abandoning their religion and worshipping a buffalo.
He was so angry with his brother, but Harun (AS) reminded Musa (AS) of
their mother and asked him not to grasp his beard before people, so Musa
(AS) repented and asked for Allah's (SWT) forgiveness for himself and
his brother.

The importance of the family is illustrated clearly in the seerah (the
biography of Prophet Muhammad (SAWS)). We can see him as a grandson and
how kind his grandfather was, compensating him for the loss of his
father. We can also see him as a son excusing Allah (SWT) to visit his
mother's grave 50 years after death, and crying for her loss till
everyone around was moved by his feelings and cried too. We can see him
as a father, when his daughter Fatimah knew he was dying because he
could not get up and kiss her on her forehead as he usually did whenever
he saw her. He never left Al-Madinah before visiting his daughter and,
her house was the first to welcome him on his return. We can see him as
a father-in-law, who for the sake of his daughter's husband (Ali Ibn
Abi-Talib) covered his daughter's mother-in-law (Fatimah Bint Asad) when
she died with his own cloak.

It is narrated that when the Prophet (SAWS) entered jannah (Paradise)
on al-israa and al-mi'raj day[9] he heard sounds of servants in a
palace and when asked whose Palace it was, the angels told him that it
was for Haritha Ibn Al-Noaman. Haritha was dutiful to his mother during
his life and so deserved to be rewared after his death. He also saw Omm
Solaim who was in Paradise as a reward for pleasing her husband and and
for being obedient to him.

The family is so precious that you are double rewarded when you share a
good deed with your family than doing it alone. A man is considered and
is known as someone who remembers Allah (SWT) a lot when he merely wakes
up at night and awakens his wife to pray two Raka'a (one unit of
Islamic prayer).

One might ask me why is the family so precious? This is a logical
question. We are created to reform earth and mankind were assigned this
mission. This job is very hard and needs passion and feelings to help us
accomplish it. Passion comes from kinship ties and family bond
supporting eachother through the hardships of life. In our life it is so
hard to keep those bonds from bieng shattered, but the Prophet (SAWS)
was heard to have said that whoever was able to fulfil Allah's commands
in a time when people are no longer doing so will be rewarded as if one
migrated to Madinnah specially to visit the Pophet (SAWS).

When the west went through the industrial revolution, they discovered
that science solved many of their problems and thought that they no
longer needed family ties, and that the same theories can be applied
socially. They did not compare the past state to the present, which led
to their confusion and instability. We can overpower the west by our
preservation of our family ties.

Let us see this reportage for a family that has lost its son. The aim
of watching this is not to be sad but to realize how precious a family
is and how hard it is to lose one of its members:

- The mother: I was very related and attached to my son Amr as
he was my only child.

- The father: May be Allah wanted to purify me of my sins, so he
took my son; thus I accepted Allah's (SWT) will.

- The mother: I lost my mother, my father and many other
relatives, but I grieved for the loss of my son more than my grieve for
all of them.

- The father: I want to tell my son that no matter how long we
live, we surely shall all die and meet at last, hopefully in Paradise.

- The mother: When he took the Bachelors degree and was supposed
to travel to England to study for the Masters and PHD, I refused and
could not imagine the idea of not having him around. Everyone around
blamed me for standing against fulfilling his future dreams. Now that
he is dead, I do not know how to live without him. Of course, I am
pleased with him and always pray for him, I do not have even the
slightest anger against anything he did. He usually asked me if I had
been pleased with him, and to my surprise he always used to tell me that
I would go to Paradise because of him. I miss you my son.

[1] The word Allah is the Arabic term for God. Although the use of the
word "Allah" is most often associated with Islam, it is not used
exclusively by Muslims; Arab Christians and Arabic-speaking Jews also
use it to refer to the One God. The Arabic word expresses the unique
characteristics of the One God more precisely than the English term.
Whereas the word "Allah" has no plural form in Arabic, the English form
does. Allah is the God worshipped by all Prophets, from Adam to Noah,
Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.

[2] Salla Allah alayhe Wa Salam [All Prayers and Peace of Allah be upon
him].

[3] SWT = Suhanahu wa Ta'ala [Glorified and Exalted Be He]

[4] The pilgrimage to Makkah during the first half of the month of
Dhul-Hijjah, and is the fifth pillar of Islam.

[5] Striving between the two hills of Safa and Marwa in Makkah.

[6] AS= Alayhee as-Salam [All Peace of Allah be upon him].

[7] voluntary short pilgrimage that can be performed at any time of the
year.

[8] TMQ=Translation of the Meaning of the Qur'an. This translation is
for the realized meaning, so far, of the stated (Surah:Ayah) of the
Qur'an. Reading the translated meaning of the Qur'an can never replace
reading it in Arabic, the language in which it was revealed.

[9] The night journey of Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) from Makkah to
Jerusalem and his ascension to the seventh heaven.