U of A Sisters’ Circle

SAKEENAH is the educational foundation founded by Shaykh Abdallah Adhami. It aims to devote the sacred Islamic sciences, along with the various disciplines of human knowledge, to the enrichment of people’s lived reality, and toward a communal definition of Islam in the Western experience.

Check out Shaykh Abdallah’s lectures! The one on Love for the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) (P1, P2) is very moving. If you showed up last sisters circle meeting, you’ll see the stories mentioned were mainly from this speech :).

“In embarrassment, I confess my love, and yet, my longing draws me near. I should absorb my shame in silence, but I feel that I will combust if I do not speak. What I want is impossible and even preposterous, but since childhood this has been my singular dream. I want the laws of nature to break, I want history to revert, and I want to spend a single day in your company. I want to hug your hand, kiss your head, feel your heart, and implore you to pray for me. I want to study your movements, your gestures, the blink of your eye, and memorize your every step. I want to imbue every cell in my brain and every nerve in my body with a sense of your balance and dignity. I want to mend my heart by fully absorbing your beauty, and then rebuild my faith in humanity. Yet, I know that if the earth and nature could not pause to grant you relief, history will not revert, and I will have to go on living in my visions and dreams.”

– KM Abou El Fadl on Dreaming of the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam)

The Sunnah as Primordiality

by Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad

“For the Prophet is humanity itself, in its Adamic perfection. In him, and in his style of life, the highest possibilities of our condition are realised and revealed. And this is beauty itself: the word jamil, beautiful, which is one of his names, refers also to virtue. Ihsan, the Prophetic state of harmony with God, means the engendering of husn, or beauty.”

This is a paraphrase of a passage from Ihya Ulum al-Din (it’s found in the article)

‘The Messenger of God (s) was the mildest of men, but also the bravest and most just of men. He was the most restrained of people; never touching the hand of a woman over whom he did not have rights, or who was not his mahram. He was the most generous of men, so that never did a gold or silver coin spend the night in his house. If something remained at the end of the day, because he had not found someone to give it to, and night descended, he would go out, and not return home until he had given it to someone in need. From what Allah gave him [...] he would take only the simplest and easiest foods: dates and barley, giving anything else away in the path of Allah. Never did he refuse a gift for which he was asked. He used to mend his own sandals, and patch his own clothes, and serve his family, and help them to cut meat. He was the shyest of men, so that his gaze would never remain long in the face of anyone else. He would accept the invitation of a freeman or a slave, and accept a gift, even if it were no more than a gulp of milk, or the thigh of a rabbit, and offer something in return. He never consumed anything given in sadaqa. He was not too proud to reply to a slave-girl, or a pauper in rags. He would become angered for his Lord, never for himself; he would cause truth and justice to prevail even if this led to discomfort to himself or to his companions.
‘He used to bind a stone around his waist out of hunger. He would eat what was brought, and would not refuse any permissible food. If there was dates without bread, he would eat, if there was roast meat, he would eat; if there was rough barley bread, he would eat it; if there was honey or something sweet, he would eat it; if there was only yogurt without even bread, he would be quite satisfied with that.
‘He was not sated, even with barley-bread, for three consecutive days, until the day he met his Lord, not because of poverty, or avarice, but because he always preferred others over himself.
‘He would attend weddings, and visit the sick, and attend funerals, and would often walk among his enemies without a guard. He was the most humble of men, and the most serene, without arrogance. He was the most eloquent of men, without ever speaking for too long. He was the most cheerful of men. He was afraid of nothing in the dunya. He would wear a rough Yemeni cloak, or a woolen tunic; whatever was lawful and was to hand, that he would wear. He would ride whatever was to hand: sometimes a horse, sometimes a camel, sometimes a mule, sometimes a donkey. And at times he would walk barefoot, without an upper garment or a turban or a cap. He would visit the sick even if they were in the furthest part of Madina. He loved perfumes, and disliked foul smells.
‘He maintained affectionate and loyal ties with his relatives, but without preferring them to anyone who was superior to them. He never snubbed anyone. He accepted the excuse of anyone who made an excuse. He would joke, but would never say anything that was not true. He would laugh, but not uproarously. He would watch permissible games and sports, and would not criticise them. He ran races with his wives. Voices would be raised around him, and he would be patient. He kept a sheep, from which he would draw milk for his family. He would walk among the fields of his companions. He never despised any pauper for his poverty or illness; neither did he hold any king in awe simply because he was a king. He would call rich and poor to Allah, without distinction.
‘In him, Allah combined all noble traits of character; although he neither read nor wrote, having grown up in a land of ignorance and deserts in poverty, as a shepherd, and as an orphan with neither father nor mother. But Allah Himself taught him all the excellent qualities of character, and praiseworthy ways, and the stories of the early and the later prophets, and the way to salvation and triumph in the Akhira, and to joy and detachment in the dunya, and how to hold fast to duty, and to avoid the unnecessary. May Allah give us success in obeying him, and in following his sunna. Amin ya rabb al-alamin.’

Assalamu alaikum Sisters

Hope you all had a very restful long weekend

InshaAllah our next Sisters’ Circle Meeting will be Wednesday (tomorrow ) 12:00-12:50 room 606 SUB
Sr. Amena will tell us about Nusaybah bint Ka’b (RadiAllahu anha)

The film, An Inconvenient Truth, also came up in our discussion of signs of the Day of Judgment. Watch the preview below. We should all try and watch this film!

One of the signs of the coming of the Day of Judgment is an increase in earthquakes. Last meeting, we began discussing examples of this and an article by Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad reflecting on the Turkish earthquakes was mentioned. It’s an excellent article - very insightful. Here’s the link:

When the Generous Appears with the Name Avenger

Last meeting, Sr. Salwa presented the signs of the Day of Judgment. Alhamdulillah, we had a very fruitful discussion :). Here is a summary:

Minor Signs of the day of Judgment

1. slave will become master

2. shepherds will compete for the constructions of tall buildings

3. knowledge of islam will be taken away and ignorance will increase

- No respect for scholars

- Anyone and everyone is a scholar

4. Drinking and fornication will increase heavily

5. Population of men will increase till when there will be 50 women for 1 man

6. 30 people will claim to be prophets before dajjal comes

7. abundance of wealth where no body would accept zakkah

8. killing will increase

9. time will be shortened that a year will be like a month and month like a day and day like an hour

10. 2 great countries will fight and kill each other

11. Earthquakes will increase

12. A person will pass by the grave and wish they would trade places without despair

13. Coming of the last Prophet s.a.w

Major signs of the day of judgment

1. Dajjal will come claiming to be God, purpose to deceive and unbelievers will follow him

2. Mahdi will come at the time of dajjal

3. Essa will come back

4. An animal will come and call people back to Islam.

5. Yajooj and Ma’jooj

6. 3 places will sink and swallowed up in the earth, in west, east and in the Saudi Arabian Penensula

7. Fire will come from the area of yemen and sweep the world

8. Sun will rise from the west

9. Angel israfeel will blow the horn

4 questions in the grave:

1. Who is your lord

2. What is your religion

3. Who told you about your religion

4. What is the book