Islamic Collections

The term "ahl" signifies the members of a household of a man, including his fellow tribesmen, kin, relatives, wife (or wives), children, and all those who share a family background, religion, housing, city, and country with him. "Ahl" and "al" are both the same term with the exception that "al" is exclusively used for human beings and should come before the family name, but such a condition is not existent in the case of "ahl". "Bayt" refers to habitation and dwelling, including tents and buildings both. The "ahl-al-bayt" of any person refers to his family members and all those who live in his house (c.f. "Mufradat al-Qur'an" by Raghib Isfahani; "Qamus" by Firoozabadi; "Majm`a al-Bahrayn". The term "ahl-al-bayt" (people of the house) has been repeated twice in the Holy Qur'an: 1. "... the mercy of Allah and his blessing are on you, O people of the house, ... (11:73...

The distinguished book entitled "al-Ghadir" has raised a huge wave in the world of Islam. Islamic thinkers shed light on the book in different perspectives; in literature, history, theology, tradition, tafsir, and sociology. From the social perspective we can deal with the Islamic unity. In this review the Islamic unity has been dealt with from a social point of view. Contemporary Muslim thinkers and reformists are of the view that unity and solidarity of Muslims are the most imperative Islamic exigencies at the present juncture when the enemies have made extensive inroads upon the Islamic community and have tried to resort to different ways and means to spread the old differences and create new ones. We are aware that Islamic unity and fraternity is the focus of attention of the Holy Legislator of Islam and is actually the major objective pursued by this Divine religion as firmed by the Qur'an, the "Sunnah", and the history of Islam. For this reason, some peopl...

Allamah Qutubud din Rawandi quotes from Lubbe Labaab' that it is related, that on the night of every friday, the spirits (Rooh) for the dead ones come to the doors of their houses and call out: "O my children! O' my relatives!Favour me by performing such acts which may prove helpful to me, and may also become the cause of Allah's blessings to be bestowed on you. Give us a place in your hearts, and do not forget us, have mercy on our wretched state. Surely we are in a state of imprisonment, loneliness, and anxiety. So do not hold your hands from giving alms (Sadqa) on our behalf, and pray for our forgiveness. It is possible that Allah may hear your prayers and bestow his mercy upon us, do so before you too may become like us. Alas! some day we were also strong and healthy as you are now. O' servants of Allah! Listen to our words, and pay heed to them. It is no doubt that the enormous wealth which you now enjoy was once ours. We did not spend it in the way of Alla...

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else. Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear. So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire. The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived, at the end. It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant. So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured? What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave. What will matter is not your success, but your significan...

Question: Astronomers believe that the shape of the Earth is spherical and it revolves around its axis; is it confirmed by science or still undecided? And if the Earth really revolves what are its scientific and perceptible signs? What is the reason that the Polestar, by means of which direction of Qibla is ascertained, always shows up at the same location? Other than this, is there any matter available in the Holy Quran and Islamic traditions that supports this? Answer: In the present age it is scientifically proved that earth is spherical and it rotates around its axis and for this different arguments are given. The most evident proof of the movement of the earth is the “Proof of Pendulum”. It is that if a heavy thing is hung with a rope that it can oscillate freely; when it is moved, it continues its movement for quite a long time. Now if the earth were immobile and without movement, then it is necessary that, the movement of the related thing should be upto a fixed line, but experi...

What is the exegesis of this verse? Question: What is the interpretation of the verse: Falaa uqsemo khunnasil jawaaril kunnase But nay! I swear by the stars, that run their course (and) hide themselves?[57] Answer: In the dictionary the meaning of Khunnas is one who returns and one who retreats. The meaning of Kunnas is one who gets concealed and Jaware is the plural of Jari (to continue, to flow) its meaning is the one who walks or moves. As the verses before and after this verse show and the commentators also say that by these verses it is meant those planets, which can be seen (mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), because they are in motion, they appear sometimes and sometimes they disappear. In the Holy Quran reference of those stars is given with an oath; and people’s attention is drawn towards their special and distinct behavior and their movement and rotation and it calls attention towards the greatness of the Creator of the universe. This means, the type of those returnin...

Question: Many causes are mentioned in Islam regarding the importance and greatness of Shab-e-Qadr. Well-known traditions of religious leaders indicate it to one of the following nights of the holy month of Ramadhan: 19th, 21st or 23rd. We are instructed to offer special prayers on this night. It seems that Shab-e-Qadr is not more than one night every year, but we know this also that, because of the difference in horizons the beginning of the month of Ramadan in some countries happens to be one or two days earlier and in some happens to be one or two days later. According to this situation in those places, there is difference of one or two nights of Shab-e-Qadr. And for those different places more than one Shab-e-Qadr comes into existence. This situation arises every year, as Shab-e-Qadr being only one night and in that particular night the angels descend with blessings and bounties, how harmonious is it? Is it that Shab-e-Qadr was especially in the time of the Prophet (‘s) and in Mecc...