Islamic Awareness Week begins today in Kingston

UPDATED !

Happy Jumuah!

Brothers Abu Hakeem Bilaal Davis, and Abu Khadeejah Abdul Waahidalam from the UK are in Jamaica for a series of lectures and seminars starting today. The khutbah today at the masjid I attend, will be given by one of them InshaAllah and tommorrow there will be a seminar InshaAllah. The topics look interesting especially the one about 'Islam's Solution to crime and violence'. I think that one is very needed in our society, the crime rate here is terrible. I'll let you all know what I thought of the khutbah when I get back from Jumuah InshaAllah, and will keep you posted about the seminar tomorrow InshaAllah.


UPDATE ! The Khutbah was excellent MashaAllah. It was mainly about dawah, that all the Messengers of Allah (pbut) called to Allah first, they called to tawheed first and foremost. The rules and laws came afterwards. In the time of Prophet Muhammad Sallalahu alaihi wa salam, none of the laws were revealed in Makka, they were revealed in Medina after the people had accepted tawheed (the oneness of Allah) and had a love for Allah in their hearts. Even the prohibition on alcohol came gradually, first they were told not to approach prayers while intoxicated. Then they were told not to come near to khamr (alcohol and intoxicants) whatsoever. So if someone had wanted to drink they couldnt drink at Dhur time because they would be intoxicated at Asr, and they couldnt drink at Asr time because they would be intoxicated at Maghrib, and they couldnt drink at Maghrib time because they would be intoxicated for Isha Prayer. So the only time they could drink without fearing that they would go to the prayer intoxicated was after Isha. So it was a gradual phasing out, then when the verse was revealed that they should not come near to alcohol, they discarded all their alcoholic beverages, their hearts had become attached to Allah and it was now easy for them to give up alcohol alltogether.

This reminded me of something I had read recently by Ibn Qayyim..

'...The smart one does not command people to abandon the dunya, because this is impossible for them. Rather, he has them abandon sins while they are established in their dunya. This is because abandoning the dunya is an optional virtue while abandoning sins is an obligation. So, how can he command them with something optional while they have not even fulfilled what is obligatory?

If it is difficult for them to abandon sins, he should then strive to get them to love Allah by reminding them of His signs, blessings, Kindness, perfection, and Loftiness. This is because the hearts are naturally designed to love Him, and if they become attached to loving Him, it then becomes extremely easy to abandon sins and to detach oneself from them.

Yahya bin Mu'adh said: 'The intelligent one seeking the dunya is better than the ignorant one abandoning it.'

The smart one calls the people to Allah from their dunya, and this makes it easier for them to respond to him. The zahid calls them to Allah by way of abandoning the dunya, and this makes it hard for them to respond, since it is very hard to pull someone away from the breast that he has developed his mind while suckling on...'

[al-Fawa'id; p. 233-234]

Sometimes when we give dawah (to Muslims and non-Muslims we dont realize the stage the person is at, one of the most important things we can do is to listen, not just speak, really listen and try to understand people. We need to start at the beginning, with love of Allah Subhana wa ta'ala, not associating partners with Him, whether it is other people, our job, money or whatever else we believe that we cannot do without, then and only then will we be able to accept and follow the 'rules'.