“It was reported from Abu Qutaadah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was asked about fasting on the Day of Arafah. He said, ‘It expiates for the sins of the previous year and of the coming year.‘ Narrated by Muslim.”

Also, make a lot of du’aa, prayers, and send plenty of peace and blessings to the Prophet Muhammad [saw] on this day, because it is the last of the blessed 10 days of Dhul Hijjah.

Some awesome facts about the Day of Arafah:

1.It is the day on which the religion was perfected and Allah’s Favour was completed.

In Al-Saheehayn it was reported from Umar ibn al-Khattaab (may Allah be pleased with him) that a Jewish man said to him, ‘O Ameer al-Mu’mineen, there is an aayah in your Book which you recite; if it had come to us Jews, we would have taken that day as an Eid (festival).’ Umar said, ‘Which aayah?’ He said: ‘This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.’ [al-Maa'idah 5:3 interpretation of the meaning].

Umar said, ‘We know on which day and in which place that was revealed to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). It was when he was standing in Arafah on a Friday.’

2.It is a day of Eid for the people who are in that place.

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘Yawm Arafah (the day of Arafah), Yawm al-Nahr (the Day of Sacrifice) and Ayyaam al-Tashreeq (the 3 days following Yawm al-Nahr) are Eid (festival) for us, the people of Islam. These are days of eating and drinking. This was narrated by the authors of al-Sunan.

It was reported that Umar ibn al-Khattaab said: ‘It i.e., the aayah ‘This day I have perfected’ was revealed on a Friday, the Day of Arafah, both of which praise be to Allah are Eids for us.’

3.It is a day by which Allah swore an oath.

The Almighty cannot swear by anything except that which is mighty. Yawm Arafah is the ‘witnessed day’ mentioned in the aayah (interpretation of the meaning):

‘By the witnessing day [Friday] and by the witnessed day [the Day of Arafah].’ [al-Burooj 85:3].

It was reported from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘The promised day is the Day of Resurrection, the witnessed day is the Day of Arafah, and the witnessing day is Friday.’ Narrated by al-Tirmidhi and classed as saheeh by al-Albaani.

It is the ‘odd’ [i.e., odd-numbered, Witr] by which Allah swore in the aayah (interpretation of the meaning):

‘And by the even and the odd’ [al-Fajr 89:3]. Ibn Abbaas said: ‘The even is the Day of al-Adhaa [i.e., 10th Dhul-Hijjah] and the odd is the Day of Arafah [i.e., 9th Dhul-Hijjah] This is also the view of Ikrimah and al-Dahhaak.

4.Fasting on this day is an expiation for two years.

It was reported from Abu Qutaadah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was asked about fasting on the Day of Arafah. He said, ‘It expiates for the sins of the previous year and of the coming year.’ Narrated by Muslim.

This (fasting) is mustahabb for those who are not on Hajj. In the case of the one who is on Hajj, it is not Sunnah for him to fast on the Day of Arafah, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) did not fast on this day in Arafah. It was narrated that he forbade fasting on the Day of Arafah in Arafah.

5.It is the day on which Allah took the covenant from the progeny of Adam.

It was reported that Ibn Abbaas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘Allah took the covenant from the …[offspring] of Adam in Na’maan, i.e., Arafah. He brought forth … all his offspring and spread them before Him, then He addressed them, and said: ‘Am I not your Lord? They said, ‘Yes, we testify,’ lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: ‘Verily, we have been unaware of this.’ Or lest you should say: ‘It was only our fathers aforetime who took others as partners in worship along with Allah, and we were (merely their) descendents after them; will You then destroy us because of the deeds of men who practised Al-Baatil (i.e., ploytheism and committing crimes and sins, invoking and worshipping others besides Allah)?’ [al-A'raaf 7:172-173 interpretation of the meaning].’ Narrated by Ahmad and classed as saheeh by al-Albaani. And there is no greater day than this and no greater covenant than this.

6.It is the day of forgiveness of sins, freedom from the Fire and pride in the people who are there:

In Saheeh Muslim it was narrated from Aa’ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘There is no day on which Allah frees more people from the Fire than the Day of Arafah. He comes close and expresses His pride to the angels, saying, ‘What do these people want?’

It was reported from Ibn Umar that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘Allah expresses His pride to His angels at the time of Ishaa on the Day of Arafah, about the people of Arafah. He says, ‘Look at My slaves who have come unkempt and dusty.’ Narrated by Ahmad and classed as saheeh by al-Albaani.

[http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/7284]

Jazakum Allahu khayran for those of you who attended today! As promised, the slideshow has been uploaded. Please note that all of the information is not on the slides themselves, so you have to combine them with your notes.

Also, the Morning and Evening adhkaar are linked as well. Be sure to listen to them every morning and evening, and eventually try to memorize them to gain benefit insha Allah.

Slideshow

Adhkaar (uncompress them first, and then you might need to use iTunes to open them up and play them)

Umar ibn al-Khattab narrated that the Prophet (pbuh) said, “There is no one amongst you who does wodoo’ and does it properly and does it well, then he says…

“I bear witness that there is no God except Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His Messenger”

…except the gates of Paradise will be open to him and he may enter through whichever of them he wishes.” (Muslim)

SubhanAllah! Paradise for doing wudu properly?! That’s quite a catch! And hold on, it just gets better – check this out:

Humraan, the freed slave of Uthman, said that he heard Uthman say that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, “Whoever does wudu as I have done it, then prays two rak’ahs in which he focuses completely on his prayer, his previous sins will be forgiven.” (Muslim)

SubhanAllah and Alhamdulillah that Islam is such a merciful deen. Indeed, it is beyond us to comprehend the Mercy of Allah (swt)- imagine, being forgiven for ALL of our sins just because we tried our best to focus on wudu and then prayed with khushoo. We sin so much everyday, and yet we have so many opportunities to clean our slates! Dawud Wharnsby Ali, in his nasheed “Life Returns,” sums it all up pretty well:

“We are the cracked earth, the thirsty, dirty spirit of man. If we gasp, we will be heard. Forgiveness falls like rain on our hands.“


Download audio file (lifereturns.mp3)


With all of these evil instances guaranteed to happen to us at one point or another, is their any point to go on? It seems as if we’re just set up to fail. If you’ve ever felt distressed or depressed about the transgressions of your soul, Allah has got answers for you that you will not want to miss.

Through His beloved Prophet Muhammad [saw], Allah reminds us about the nature of our being. “Every son of Adam is a sinner,” the Prophet [saw] began a hadith. In this first part of his statement, the Prophet is reminding us of our total weakness to fall into temptation and give in to the possibility to sin. He reminds us that we will, without a doubt, misbehave; that there will never be a period of time which we do not do wrong.

Kind of a bitter reality check, right?

After this reminder sets in and establishes itself as a tangible reality within the human, the Prophet [saw] finishes the hadith, “and the best of sinners are those who repent constantly.” Thus while we will never be able to make it through a complete day without stumbling once or twice, we are reminded that the fact that we sin is not really what matters, but what truly is important is that we counter our inevitable faults with prayers for forgiveness.

This doesn’t mean that we should just give in to every sin we encounter and rely on our repentance alone, however. Part of effective repentance from the inevitable sins comes in two parts: first is to stay away from doing the sin at all costs, and the second is to sincerely repent if the resistance isn’t strong enough.

But is saying sorry enough? Won’t our sins accumulate to a point where Allah will not even accept our prayers for forgiveness anymore? Let’s quench our heart’s thirst with this verse from the Qur’an:

“Tell them (oh Muhammad): ‘My (God’s) Servants who have committed excesses against themselves, do not be in despair in the mercy of Allah – surely, Allah forgives all sins. Verily Allah is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful’”
[Surah az-Zumar 39:53]

For all of us who, at one point or another, thought that we were beyond help. At times when we had sunken into sadness over our own shortcomings. When we missed fajr that morning, when we yelled at our mom when she was just trying to help us, when we looked at that girl when we know we shouldn’t have – this verse gives us hope.

Allah [swt] is commanding us, not advising us, to never lose despair. Because of the word choice and way He is using it, it is taken from this verse that it is actually prohibited, forbidden, and haram upon us to lose hope in Allah’s mercy, for surely “Allah forgives all sins.” Again, while this definitely isn’t a free ticket to go and party hard in haram fashion, it is a reminder to balance our hearts in regards to fearing Allah’s punishment, and hoping for His love and mercy.

So let the light at the end of the tunnel stay lit, let the rays of sun coming from behind those dark clouds shine through. There is hope for Allah’s forgiveness, and we know this because He tells us so. We may have faults and shortcomings, but it’s nothing that Allah can’t forgive; coupled with sincere repentance, getting forgiveness is as close as asking for it insha Allah.

“The heart is like a bird; Love is the head, and the two wings are hope and fear.”
Madaarij as-Salikeen by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah

Whenever I am tempted to sin, or whenever I’m not praying with the right mindset – basically whenever I’m faulting, I try to think of this image.

Picture the Prophet [saw]. Picture Muhammad. Picture him being mocked, having garbage thrown at him, and beaten. Picture him worried about his people, worried about them displeasing Allah – worried about a punishment of Hell-fire that they may recieve.

Picture him walking, a worried look on his face, into the city of Taa`if. Picture children picking up rocks, while adults are laughing and yelling nasty things to him. Picture everyone in the city tossing rocks and other objects at him. Picture the Prophet getting hit all over – his face, his chest, his back. Picture blood rolling down his body, filling up his leather shoes.

Fast forward.

Picture Islam flourishing. Muslims are doing amazing, the Islamic state is booming. It’s 2 in the morning, pitch black outside.

Picture a man, Muhammad, with his forehead on the ground, and a small puddle forming under his face.

Picture a man crying in prostration, silent tears rolling on his face.

Picture Muhammad.

Listen. Listen to him whisper his plea to Allah [swt]. Listen carefully. Between sobs, he is saying “My Ummah, My Ummah.”

He was worried about us. He cried about us. It’s about time we honor his tears, his fears, and his worries. Let’s do what Allah wants, let’s do what Muhammad [saw] wanted us to do, and follow his ways as he instructed us through his sunnah.

Let’s do it.