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#21 – Strengthening Islamic Roots in One’s Family
Dec 27 – January 3, 2022
Jumaadal Ula 23 – 30, 1443

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Strengthening Islamic Roots in One's Family

What have Allah and His Messenger said about

Strengthening Islamic Roots in One's Family

وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَاتَّبَعَتْهُمْ ذُرِّيَّتُهُم بِإِيمَانٍ أَلْحَقْنَا بِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَمَا أَلَتْنَاهُم مِّنْ عَمَلِهِم مِّن شَيْءٍ ۚ كُلُّ امْرِئٍ بِمَا كَسَبَ رَهِينٌ
And those who believe and whose offspring follow them in Faith: to them shall We join their offspring, and We shall not decrease the reward of their deeds in anything. Every person is a pledge for that which he has earned.

Surah At-Tur (52) – Verse 21
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ قُوٓا۟ أَنفُسَكُمْ وَأَهْلِيكُمْ نَارًا وَقُودُهَا ٱلنَّاسُ وَٱلْحِجَارَةُ عَلَيْهَا مَلَـٰٓئِكَةٌ غِلَاظٌ شِدَادٌ لَّا يَعْصُونَ ٱللَّهَ مَآ أَمَرَهُمْ وَيَفْعَلُونَ مَا يُؤْمَرُونَ
O you who have believed, protect yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is people and stones, over which are [appointed] angels, harsh and severe; they do not disobey Allah in what He commands them but do what they are commanded.

Surah At-Tahrim (66) – Verse 6
عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عُمَرَ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمَا أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ أَلَا كُلُّكُمْ رَاعٍ وَكُلُّكُمْ مَسْئُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ فَالْإِمَامُ الَّذِي عَلَى النَّاسِ رَاعٍ وَهُوَ مَسْئُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ وَالرَّجُلُ رَاعٍ عَلَى أَهْلِ بَيْتِهِ وَهُوَ مَسْئُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ وَالْمَرْأَةُ رَاعِيَةٌ عَلَى أَهْلِ بَيْتِ زَوْجِهَا وَوَلَدِهِ وَهِيَ مَسْئُولَةٌ عَنْهُمْ وَعَبْدُ الرَّجُلِ رَاعٍ عَلَى مَالِ سَيِّدِهِ وَهُوَ مَسْئُولٌ عَنْهُ أَلَا فَكُلُّكُمْ رَاعٍ وَكُلُّكُمْ مَسْئُولٌ عَنْ رَعِيَّتِهِ
Abdullah ibn Umar reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Every one of you is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock. The leader of people is a guardian and is responsible for his subjects. A man is the guardian of his family and he is responsible for them. A woman is the guardian of her husband’s home and his children and she is responsible for them. The servant of a man is a guardian of the property of his master and he is responsible for it. No doubt, every one of you is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock.”

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 7138
Protecting Our Families From a Fire

قُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ وَأَهْلِيكُمْ (0 those who believe, save yourselves and your families from a fire…66:6). This verse addresses the general body of Muslims and enjoins upon them to safeguard themselves and their families from a fire of Hell whose fuel is people and stones. Then the verse goes on to describe the intensity and horror of the Hell-Fire. Towards the end of it the angels in charge of it, whose name is Zabaniah, are described. They are harsh and terrible from whom no inmate of Hell will be able to rescue himself by force, power, strength, flattery or bribery. The word أَهْلِيكُمْ (your families) comprehends wife, children and slaves [ males as well as females ]. It is not inconceivable to include full-time servants in the imperative like slaves. When this verse was revealed, Sayyidna ` Umar ؓ inquired: “O Messenger of Allah, we understand how to save ourselves from Hell, that is, we guard ourselves against sins and carry out the Divine injunctions, but how do we safeguard our families from Hell?” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied: “Instruct them to refrain from deeds that Allah has prohibited, and ask them to carry out deeds that Allah has enjoined. This will rescue them from the Hell-Fire.” [ Ruh-ul-Ma’ ani ]
Education and Training of Wife and Children: Every Muslim’s Responsibility

The jurists have pointed out that, according to the verse under comment, it is the responsibility of every Muslim to educate the wife and children in matters of Shari obligations, and in matters of halal and Haram and train them diligently to act upon them. A hadith says, “May Allah shower His mercy upon a person who says: ‘0 my wife and children, (be mindful of) your prayers, your fasting, your alms, your indigent, your orphan, your neighbour! It is hopeful that Allah will gather all these with him in Paradise” ‘Your prayers, your fasting’ and so on’ implies ‘Take care of them. Do not ignore them.’ The phrase مسکینکم یتیمکم ‘Your indigent, your orphan and so on’ implies ‘Fulfill their rights towards them willingly and readily.’ Righteous elders have said that the person deepest in punishment on the Day of Judgment will be the one whose family is ignorant and unaware of the religion. [ Ruh ]

[Maarif ul Quran Vol-8, Maktabah Dar al Uloom, Translation by Prof. Muhammad Hasan Askari & Prof. Muhammad Shamim, Page 523 – 524]

Spiritual Reminders

The Babyhood of The Prophet (ﷺ)
Thuwayba nursed the prophet (ﷺ) for a few days and the Prophet (ﷺ) always remembered her throughout his life in Makkah. He lived in Makkah through the age of 53. As long as he was in Makkah, he always looked after her and treated her with gifts and did whatever he could. Even after migrating to Madinah, he would send gifts to her. Finally, when he went and conquered Makkah, he asked for her. The people said, “She has passed away.” The Prophet (ﷺ) asked, “What about her son, Masrooh?” They said, “He has passed away as well.” He asked, “Do they have any family members? Anyone that they left behind that I can look after?” They said, “No relatives.” Then, after a few days of Thuwayba nursing the Prophet (ﷺ), there was a tradition in the Arabs especially in the noble families amongst the Quraysh that they would send their children out into the rural areas for the first years of their lives. Why was this? So they could have access to fresh air, good quality of water, and another thing they were particular about was the language. They wanted their children to speak the most eloquent and clear language with the perfect accent, as was expected from those types of noble families. The best place for this to happen was in those rural areas.

So, the Prophet (ﷺ)’s mother, Aminah, was looking to send him for some time, but there was a problem; people would come from Banu Sa’ad into Makkah every year and take children for the sake of nursing and would bring them back to Banu Sa’ad where the air and water quality was very good and who would speak very eloquent language. So, this year, the tribe of Banu Sa’ad came with a family who was extremely poor, and that year in Banu Sa’ad, there was a severe drought, so there was not much pasture there, their animals were starving and without much milk, so they lived off of the meat and milk of goats and their animals. For them, it was a very tough year. With them, there was a family of a wife, husband and newborn son. They, too, came. Now, this family seemed to be worse off than the others because even their animals were so weak and tired that they would delay their whole caravans, and the people of the caravan would poke and beat their camel trying to get it to move faster, and the camel would not give milk either. So, they had neither food nor money, and their transport was exhausted, tired and weak. They were starving most of the time. The newborn baby that they had was also constantly crying out of hunger because it had no milk because the mother was not nourished enough.
So, they come into Makkah hoping to find a family, ideally, a wealthy family, who could give their child in return for something that they could live off of, but because their animal was so slow, they entered into Makkah last, and by the time they got there, all the children of the wealthy families had already been taken, and there was only one newborn child left. This child was Muhammad (ﷺ). The reason that nobody had taken him was because the people learnt that his father had passed away and that he was an orphan. They thought that his mother was struggling to survive so she would not be able to compensate them. When Halimah, the woman of the family, entered into Makkah, she finds that there is no child left except for one – the orphan, and look around to see if there was anyone else, to no avail. She tells her husband, “I am going to get that child, and I will pray to Allah (SWT) that he blesses us to be able to take care of this child.” The husband agrees, and they take the Prophet (ﷺ) from his home.

The moment she takes him into her arms, all of a sudden, her body starts producing milk, enough that it is enough for her own child and the new child that she had taken in. When they get onto the camel to ride back, the camel is rejuvenated and sprints ahead of the caravan, and when they look at it, its udders are filled with milk and enough for the whole family. The people say, “That cannot be the same camel that you traveled here on. That one looked so weak and thin, and you were always prodding and poking it.” Everything changed, and both the husband and wife noticed this right away. The husband said to Halimah, “You have taken a very blessed soul. There is something very special about this child.” She said, “I agree.” These blessings continued. When they went back, the animals that were sent out by Halimah would come back, even in the drought, plump, healthy and full of lots of milk. All of this was the barakah of the Prophet (ﷺ). May Allah (SWT) give us Tawfiq to have the value of what the Prophet (ﷺ) brought into this world.

[Al-Raheeq Al-Makhtum, page 37 – 38, Issam Diab’s English Translation]

YOUR WEEKLY DOSE OF

Sirah

Prophet (ﷺ)’s Last Message To His Uncle
In Rajab [Tareekh Al-Islam 1/120], the tenth year of the Prophethood, Abu Talib fell ill and passed away, six months after leaving the confinement at Ash-Sh‘ib. In another version, Abu Talib breathed his last in Ramadan, three days prior to the death of Khadijah [R] . On the authority of Al-Musaiyab, when Abu Talib was on the death bed, the Prophet [pbuh] entered the room where he saw Abu Jahl and ‘Abdullah bin Abi Omaiyah. He requested his uncle: “My uncle, you just make a profession that there is no true god but Allâh, and I will bear testimony before Allâh (of your being a believer)”. Abu Jahl and ‘Abdullah bin Abi Omaiyah addressing him said: “Abu Talib, would you abandon the religion of ‘Abdul-Muttalib?” The Messenger of Allâh [pbuh] constantly requested him (to accept his offer), and (on the other hand) was repeated the same statement (of Abu Jahl and ‘Abdullah bin Abi Omaiyah) — till Abu Talib gave his final decision and he stuck to the religion of ‘Abdul-Muttalib and refused to profess that there is no true god but Allâh

[Above sections taken from Al-Raheeq Al-Makhtum, page 79, Issam Diab’s English Translation]

Read Next Blog: Making a Resolve to Change

Sunnah Acts

Making Dua For One’s Family
Abu Hurayra said,

“Neither Jew nor Christian has heard me and then not loved me. I wanted my mother to become Muslim, but she refused. I told her about it and she still refused. I went to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and said, ‘Pray to Allah for me.’ He did so and I went to her. She was inside the door of the house and said, ‘Abu Hurayra, I have become Muslim.’ I told the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and I asked, ‘Make supplication to Allah for me and my mother.’ He said, ‘O Allah, make people love Abu Hurayra and his mother.'”

[Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 34 – Graded Hasan]

Adhkar/Dua

Dua For Family Members
رَّبِّ ٱغْفِرْ لِى وَلِوَٰلِدَىَّ وَلِمَن دَخَلَ بَيْتِىَ مُؤْمِنًا وَلِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَٱلْمُؤْمِنَـٰتِ وَلَا تَزِدِ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ إِلَّا تَبَارًۢا

Rabbi ighfir lee waliwalidayyawaliman dakhala baytiya mu/minan walilmu/mineena walmu/minatiwala tazidi aththalimeena illatabaran

“My Lord, forgive me and my parents and whoever enters my house a believer and the believing men and believing women. And do not increase the wrongdoers except in destruction.”

[Surah Nuh, Ayah 28]


رَبَّنَا ٱغْفِرْ لَنَا وَلِإِخْوَٰنِنَا ٱلَّذِينَ سَبَقُونَا بِٱلْإِيمَـٰنِ وَلَا تَجْعَلْ فِى قُلُوبِنَا غِلًّا لِّلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ رَبَّنَآ إِنَّكَ رَءُوفٌ رَّحِيمٌ

rabbana ighfir lana wali-ikhwaninaallatheena sabaqoona bil-eemani walatajAAal fee quloobina ghillan lillatheena amanoorabbana innaka raoofun raheem

“Our Lord! Forgive us and our fellow believers who preceded us in faith, and do not allow bitterness into our hearts towards those who believe. Our Lord! Indeed, You are Ever Gracious, Most Merciful.”

[Quran 59:10]

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