Ramadhan Retreat 2009

My Dear Friends, Students, brothers and sisters: Asalaamu alaykum wa Rahmatullahe wa Barakatuh This years Ramadan Retreat was designed, insh’Allah to focus on the great blessings of the month of Ramadan as a means to grasp the subtleties of perception (ayn ul Lataif) available to the sincere and devoted seeker of understanding Reality and oneself; and the signs of Behavior (Akhlaq) that indicate that an individual is utilizing the subtle organs of perception in Read more

The Voice of Oneness and Unity

 

See video of Ramadhan Retreat at SoulTV.net

 If you want to get more out of fasting than hunger or thirst, to nourish the spiritual side is to nourish the body too. Soultv.net  – click on “spirituality” channel

The Oneness of Allah and the Oneness of His Community

“The Oneness of Allah and the Oneness of His Community” by Shaykh Ahmed Abdur Rashid Bismillah ir Rahman ir Raheem, Bismillâh, Alhamdulillâh Allâhumma salli wa sallim alâ sayyidinâ Muhammadin, wa alâ âlihi wa sahbih

Qul Hu-wallaahu ‘Ahad, ‘Allaahus-Samad Lam yalid, wa lam yuulad, Wa lam yakun la-Hu kufuwan ‘Ahad. Say: He is Allah the One and Only; Allah the Eternal Absolute; He begets not nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him (112:1-4).

Most discussions about unity in Islam begin with Surah Iklas. Here Allah (Subhannahu wa ta’alaa)summarizes the premise of Islam: that God is One, and that He is only One-there are no partners, no family, no son, no wife. Many people have written and spoken on the Oneness of Allah (tawhid). But today I would like to focus on the application of the reality of Allah’s (Subhannahu wa ta’alaa)oneness in our day-to-day lives. What must we strive for that will make clear the Truth of Unity? How and why does Islam demand that we strive for unity within our community, that we find common ground among all people through the worship and service of Allah (Subhannahu wa ta’alaa)and His creatures? How conscious are we of Allah (Subh.aanahu wa ta’alaa)? And what are the results of forgetting Allah (Subh.aanahu wa ta’alaa)? In the society we live in-both in the Islamic community, with all its disparities, and in the larger community of non-Muslims, with its many social ills-the reality of not remembering Allah (Subhannahu wa ta’alaa)is the reality of not having the right tool to meet the challenges we face. Islam Can Meet Today’s Challenges At the very beginning of Islam, the Prophet’s (salla-llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) effort to form a community was based on bay’at: that is, on people taking his hand and making the Read more