Day in and day out, we use the knowledge, items, systems and ideas developed by our ancestors. Have you ever wondered who they were and how much effort it took them to develop what we use so easily? Have you ever thought that every small item we use, helps us to ease the day to day problems we face?
I sometimes wonder about small
items, like nail cutters, hammers, tires, light bulbs, and many more. I also wonder about medicinal and dietary uses of plants. There were people who took time and effort to determine which foods are poisonous and which are edible for us. It’s a huge accomplishment for them and a huge blessing for us, that we don't have to check each item, and we can just rely on the work our ancestors did.
We believe that everything is in the control of Allah, but Allah has never asked us to shut down our brains. Us humans have a lot of potential, as when we combine our wisdom with honesty and our intelligence with sincerity, we can bring wonders in this world. Some may think that since we are in this world for only a limited time, we should not create or make things which may benefit us and others. However, if we try, we can leave a legacy which will not only benefit us in
this world but continue to be Sadqa-ejariya for as long as it lasts. I think that’s a good use of our time, energy and wisdom. We have once again tried our best to bring you thought provoking articles. We point out some issues which can be controversial to some but the idea is to understand and think about it, not to feel offended or sad. We brought you in ‘Rate of Return' the issue of gender disparity and in ‘Fundamentally Flawed', the writer discusses how a human believes it’s rightness regardless of what actually is right; while ‘Advice From Our Lord’ discusses , oh well, discusses Advice From Our Lord.
I hope you would like this issue, please read, share and comment with us. We look forward to your input , send us your emails at northwestmuslim@gmail.com, we will be thrilled InShaAllah.
Who Are We
CONTENTS, ARTICLES, EDITOR & PROOFREAD BY:
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, LAYOUT,
DESIGN & ILLUSTRATIONS:
Photo by Andrej Lišakov on Unsplash
The Quran has advice to us, in order to help us become better human beings and to be successful in both worlds. In this article, we will go through the last 13 verses of Surah Araf and pull out lessons:
Those ˹idols˹ you invoke besides Allah are created beings like yourselves. So call upon them and see if they will answer you, if your claims are true!
(7:194)
Do they have feet to walk with? Or hands to hold with? Or eyes to see with? Or ears to hear with? Say, ˹O Prophet,˹ “Call upon your associategods and conspire against me without delay! (7:195)
“Indeed, my Protector is Allah Who has revealed this Book. For He
˹alone˹ protects the righteous. (7:196) But those ˹false gods˹ you call besides Him can neither help you nor even themselves.” (7:197)
If you ˹idolaters˹ call them to guidance, they cannot hear. And you ˹O Prophet˹ may see them facing towards you, but they cannot see.
(7:198)
Be gracious, enjoin what is right, and turn away from those who act ignorantly. (7:199)
If you are tempted by Satan, then seek refuge with Allah. Surely He is AllHearing, All-Knowing. (7:200)
Indeed, when Satan whispers to those mindful ˹of Allah˹, they remember
(Continued on page 8)
˹their Lord˹ then they start to see ˹things˹ clearly. (7:201)
But the devils persistently plunge their ˹human˹ associates1 deeper into wickedness, sparing no effort. (7:202)
If you ˹O Prophet˹ do not bring them a sign ˹which they demanded˹, they ask, “Why do you not make it yourself?” Say, “I only follow what is revealed to me from my Lord. This ˹Quran˹ is an insight from your Lord a guide and a mercy for those who believe.” (7:203)
When the Quran is recited, listen to it attentively and be silent, so you may be shown mercy. (7:204)
Lessons
Here are a few lessons we received from this passage:
1. False objects of worship are created and have no power.
2. Our protector is Allah (SWT). No one can harm us without the permission of Allah and there is no need to excessively fear others.
3. Be gracious. The term وفعلٱ ذخhas been translated as many things including, hold to forgiveness or pardoning, being gracious, taking what is freely given, which means treat others easily.
Remember your Lord inwardly with humility and reverence and in a moderate tone of voice, both morning and evening. And do not be one of the heedless. (7:205)
Surely those ˹angels˹ nearest to your Lord are not too proud to worship Him. They glorify Him. And to Him they prostrate. (7:205)
4. Enjoin what is right. We should encourage and command what is good.
5. Turn away from those who act ignorantly. This has also been translated as pay no attention to
(Continued on page 9)
foolish people. Scholars have mentioned that the 3 points in verse 7:199 are important parts of Rasullullah (S) character. Although the last point to turn away from the ignorant may seem odd at the start, but the reality is that if someone does not want to listen, or wants to be ignorant, you cannot force them to listen or use their reason. You can only be gracious and encourage what is good, but if someone does not listen, then it is best to disengage and focus efforts on more productive tasks or people. This lesson is instrumental in dealing with stubborn or difficult people.
6. When you are tempted by Shaitaan, seek refuge with Allah
(SWT). This can be through
“
Auzhobillahi minas Shaitaan ir
rajeem”
7. When people who are conscious of Allah remember Allah, they start to see things clearly.
8. But the devils continue to plunge their human associates into wickedness and spare no effort to achieve their goal. Verses 200 give a solution to deal with temptations, which is to seek refuge in Allah, or seek the protection of Allah. Then the next few verses show that either you can seek refuge in Allah, see things clearly for what they are, and, from what I understand, sidestep the temptation. However, some of us will decide to pursue the temptation, and when we get into it, the devils will not stop pursuing their goal to plunge us deeper into wickedness. Therefore, when facing evil, we need to realize that falling into temptations have consequences.
9. The Quran is an insight from our lord, and a mercy and guidance for those who believe. The Quran is a source of benefit to us, it is not a burden on us. This is also mention in surah Yunus, “O mankind, there has to come to you instruction from your Lord and healing for what is in the breasts and guidance and mercy for the believers” (10:57)
10. When the Quran is being recited be quiet and listen to it attentively in order to receive mercy. When the Quran is being recited, then listen to it. Listening to the Quran is of benefit to us, as if we listen to it, we can learn from it.
11. Remember Allah (SWT) quietly and inwardly during the evenings and the mornings. In other words take some time to remember Allah in the evenings and the mornings. Rasulullah (S) used to
Overall, just 13 verses in Surah Aa give us lots of small lessons to help us have the correct trust in Allah (7:194 198), interact with others well (7:199), sidestep temptations
spiritually improve ourselves (7:203
206). Many people read many self help books to help get these lessons, while the Quran provides these lessons for all of us to learn and benefit from.
Allah knows best.
Photo By: Luca Bravo on Unsplash
By Shaista Khurshid, Calgary, Alberta
Photo by Micheile dot com 1 on Unsplash
oy oh boy. In South-Asian culture, and many other religions and cultures, men and boys get far more superiority than women or girls. Just search for patriarchy, misogyny, and gender disparity. I have always wondered: Why? Many religious institutions try to prove the divinity of masculine creatures, while others just think that men are better in many ways.
This lopsided thinking process has creeped into our religion, despite clear instructions from the Quran about women and girls. Many still think of men as superior beings, and prefer boys over girls.
For years, I have asked myself: Why so? A girl and a boy are the same. There is no difference whatsoever in pregnancy or delivery. They both need food. They both need love and affection, and they both need education and a good upbringing. So what is the difference between them? Today's world has proven that women can do what men can do. But what women can do, men can’t. Men cannot bear children. So there is a (Continued on page 14)
biological difference in genders, but both are created to work together. So the question is, why favor one gender over the other when both are needed for the society to work flawlessly?
Many cultures up until now have established guidelines for how men and women should behave. One was that since women give birth, men should provide. The system worked for a long time as a collaborative system, until someone tried to make it into a competition instead of collaboration. Instead of “distribution of chores” it has become a personality and superiority complex. When the chores of life become personality complexes, inequality arises. When inequality arises, some will be favored while others will be pushed down. We see this daily in our lives, where some races or people are considered superior over others. The same goes for gender too.
We favor men and boys because we understand their importance in society. Whether it is God mandated or not, that is besides the point for us. We only focus on current trends. And current trends say that men are superior in many ways than women. So, when we favor boys over girls it's not about what they can do or can’t do. It is about the rate of return. Men and boys are usually earners and they produce money. While girls and women are mostly those who help voluntarily. And in this capitalistic world, money is everything. Free work is neither appreciated nor recognized. So when we love our boys, we know they are going to be our bank account in the future so we spend our time, effort and love to mature this investment. While women or girls will not bring us anything as they will move to their husband's house. So, why invest in things which have no rate of return?
This is a despicable thinking process. But this is how our culture has been operating for a long time. And we will continue to favor men and boys in the coming future because we want to secure our future. It will only come to an end when we understand that we are given by Allah what we need to live and our future until death is also sustained by Him also. We should not see our children as our retirement savings but to see them as Allah’s creation, whose upbringing is obligated upon us by Allah.
“
Enjoin Prayer on your household, and do keep observing it. We do not ask you for any worldly provision; rather, it is We Who provide you, and ultimately the pious will end up the best.” (Quran 20:132)
your children equally, love them exorbitantly without thinking of them as future investments. We don’t bring up our children for ourselves, we do it for Allah. We make them decent citizens, full of faith and love for His creations. We help them to become someone strong who can stand up to the world and help it to become greater. Stop raising boys as your rate of return and girls as useless creations. Allah has made each with purpose. Make them someone whom you will be proud of, on the Day of Judgment. Raise them the way that they not only become your Sadaqa Jaria in this world but also someone who asks Allah to raise your levels to higher place in Jannah.
We as Muslims need to change our behavior and straighten it to align with what Allah has established for us. Treat
Photo By Janita Sumeiko on Unsplash
e humans are funny in the sense that we perceive or believe things which are sometimes completely and inherently wrong. Still, we live our lives according to our fictional philosophies. We may be delusional, but this is how the world works, in my opinion.
Mostly we know our flaws and we want to hide them, and it is completely understandable and sometimes overtly necessary. Why should we flaunt our flaws in public anyways?
There might be many reasons we hide our guilty pleasures or flaws. One would be that we want to be seen in the public eye as we per- ceive ourselves- flawless and confi- dent. Or it could be that we might not like to be fed to the pro- verbial wolves. That we dis- like to face the lashing of gossipy tongues. Or it could be that we inherently think that the flaw we have is really devastating and morally or ethically wrong. Or could be that we think that we are flawless. (Continued
It is one thing to hide the flaws and guilt from others and another thing to think ourselves as inherently flawless. Sometimes hiding our flaws from public eyes can instill some traits which might be wrong itself. For example, in order to shift the public's attention from us, we sometimes keep our focus towards other people's flaws and we gossip about others, to keep the negative attention away from ourselves. This is a tried and tested distraction tactic. This type of thing is done by the media and governing bodies all the time. Suddenly, some minor and irrelevant things take up most of the news and are discussed as if the world is ending, but as soon as the purpose of distraction is over, the chaos subsides. The real story dies as it was never born, hidden in the piles of bytes. This is the same ploys we apply in social situations when we know we must hide our flaws.
And whoever does a wrong or wrongs himself but then seeks forgiveness of Allah will find Allah Forgiving and Merciful. And whoever commits a sin only earns it against himself. And Allah is ever Knowing and Wise. But whoever earns an offense or a sin and then blames it on an innocent [person] has taken upon himself a slander and manifest sin. (4:110 -113)
There are two problems that arise from this thought process. Firstly, in this way we focus our energies and attention towards finding other people's shortcomings. This leads to self righteousness and negative perceptions of others. Have you ˹O Prophet˹ not seen those who ˹falsely˹ elevate themselves? It is Allah who elevates whoever He wills. And none will be wronged ˹even by the width of˹ the thread of a date stone. (4:49)
Secondly suspicion, negativity, and mistrust also arise and our delusion of being flawless, as we unintentionally
compare ourselves with others and we become victims of our vicious attention.
Is this a productive and decent way to live? I guess not. What if we all treat others as we want to be treated before doing anything? Be cognisant of our actions. See the bigger picture of the impact of our action. This way many moral, ethical, and criminal dilemmas will never occur.
It is true, who wants to be robbed, murdered, kidnapped, exploited or abused by others. Similarly, who wants to be bullied, lashed, catcalled, verbally abused, or discriminated against. If everyone is cognisant of this simple yet powerful moral code, these words probably would never enter the dictionary.
either building or destroying this place earth, our only home for this life. We are all humans, there is no ‘other’ in this. The ‘other’ is a human like us. Fundamentally flawed like us, in need of necessities, longing and ridden with mistakes. We might be different in culture , religions, colors, race, language, yet uniquely similar with each other. But it is important to believe firmly in that we are not better than others and there is no comparison or competition.
Moral code application starts with understanding ourselves as humans, flawed, mistake prone, yet beautifully created humans. We have a capability of
When we see others as our equal but different, similar yet unique; applying simple laws of decency towards others becomes quite easy. If we keep away other people from our lashing tongue and stop throwing them to the proverbial wolves, we will eventually create a society based on love and mutual respect. Nobody will feel flawed or flawless. This earth becomes more serene and peaceful.
Photo By Jorge Salvador on Unsplash
