By: Om Mohammed

Ahmed, a recent high school graduate and new prospect in the Saudi Arabian overseas scholarship program, was on his first trip to the US in pursuit of his college education. As time and experience reveals, this scholarship proves to be an education in life as well as simple schooling.

He had only arrived in the states 3 months prior, and now it was Christmas break – a break of only two weeks – not enough time to spend on the tickets for a trip back home. Going home from his friends’ house one night, he stopped to fill up for gas at the neighborhood gas station. As he stopped, however, he noticed something a bit out of the ordinary. A portion of the gas station’s adjacent store was not only obviously closed (due to the fact that there were no lights on inside), but it was also bound down with chain and pad lock. Not the whole store, mind you, but the corner portion that housed within it the liquor section.

By: Sheikh Mohammad Bin Saleh Al-Othaimeen

Fasting:

Fasting is a form of worship by abstaining from things which nullify it, from dawn till sunset.

Fasting of the Month of Ramadhan:

Fasting of the Month of Ramadhan is one of the five pillars of Islam, as indicated by the saying of the Prophet “Islam stands on five (pillars): To witness that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet; to perform Prayers; To pay Zakat; To fast the month of Ramadhan and To perform pilgrimage to Makkah”.

By: Om Mohammed

It says in the Quran: “O you who believe! The fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may attain piety.” (Qur’an 2:183)

To try to fully describe the Arabic word (taqwa, or tattaqun), let us say that it is piety, the knowledge and fear of Allah and His punishment, sincerity towards serving and worshiping Him, and all that each of the above explanations entails (i.e. abstaining from that which may cause His anger, and doing or attending to that which pleases Him).

By: Om Mohammed

So often we say something, either a word itself or the way we combine words together, meaning or intending one thing, but its actual meaning or true meaning can perhaps be something else altogether. For instance, a recent email making the rounds on the net these days (in Arabic) is a warning to (messenger) chat users to beware of the frequently used code word ‘burp’. The meaning of this code word is ‘just a minute’, or ‘excuse me’, or the likes. The Arabic presentation of this code word is, of course, the Arabic lettering baa, raa, and then baa. The same spelling of the word ‘bi-rabb’ which is found in the Quran, meaning ‘by the Lord’, or in other words, a reference to Allah Almighty. The email warning is a reminder for Muslims to beware of seemingly innocent words or code-representations of words which may be somehow insulting or derogatory to Allah or Islam. The messenger code may not have been instilled initially as an insult to Islam or Muslims, but it is still important for us to take note of what we say (and write) at all times, to make sure that there is nothing derogatory there towards Allah or Islam.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question 103: Why is not lawful for girls in some Muslim countries to choose any man she wants to marry?

Question 102: Is it lawful for a woman to divorce her husband if he is infertile, ill or having a chronic disease? And is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife if she is barren or has a chronic disease?

By: Om Mohammed

It is apparent that prayer is an ingrown trait of human nature. Even the earliest recordings of human history point to the fact that mankind has always prayed in some format to various deities. Even those man-made deities of the various pagan peoples throughout the history of mankind have been recorded as to have sought guidance and help from their deities, albeit man-made or even of a multiple nature.

Dr. Ali AbdulTawab

By: Om Mohammed

Dr. Tariq As-Suweidan is a well-known scholar/speaker on Islamic themes, of Kuwaiti origin. He began his lifetime career as a Doctor of Physics. His life of learning and teaching the miracles of the nature of physics led him toward his final evolution into a professional preacher/talker on many Islamic topics involving some nature of scientific proofs of the truth of the message of Islam. He has even delved into some topics of historic nature, dealing with the seerah (or historical biography) of the prophets and that of the prophet Mohammed and his companions.