Regular showers, smelly today?

Many of us have showers everyday, or even every morning and evening, and if you hear that someone hasn't taken a shower one day, you think that he is "unclean" and "dirty", and sometimes you can smell the person.

But have we taken a spiritual morning or evening shower today? Do we take a spiritual shower everyday? To purify the stench/smell of our souls? This shower is the shower of the Qur'an, the shower of the dhikr of Allah (Hallowed is He) and thus the shower of the Mercy of Allah Most High which removes our sins.

The Prophet said "No people gather together in one of the houses of Allah, reciting the Book of Allah and studying it among themselves, but tranquillity and peace descends upon them, mercy envelopes them, the angels surround them, and Allah makes mention of them amongst those who are with Him. And whosoever is slowed down by his actions will not be hastened forward by his lineage" (Muslim)

The Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said “The Quran is an intercessor, and it is rightfully believed in. Whoever puts it in front of him, it will lead him to Paradise; whoever puts it behind him, it will steer him to the Hellfire.” [At-Tabarani]

Path of Righteousness- Imam Junayd al Baghdadi

This is part of Imam Junayd al Baghdadi's letter where he describes the path to Allah swt in a beautiful way:

Who are True scholars? Imam Junayd

Some people ask "how do I know a real scholar of Islam, and distinguish him/her from the fake scholars? How do I know a guided scholar?" Well Imam Junayd al-Baghdadi was asked similar, and in his Risala, he gave this amazing answer (apologies for the differing sizes, but insha'Allah it's readable):

Life Advice by Sayyidina Ali (RA)

"Accept good exhortations and refresh your mind with them. Adopt piety and kill your inordinate desires with its help. Build your character with the help of true faith in religion and Allah. Subjugate your nature with the vision of death, make it see the mortality of life and of all that it holds dear, force it to realize the actuality of misfortunes and adversities, the changes of circumstances and times and compel it to study the lives of past people. Persuade it to see the ruined cities, the dilapidated palaces, decaying signs and relics of fallen empires of past nations. Then meditate over the activities of those people, what they have all done when they were alive and were in power, what they achieved, from where they started their careers; where, when and how they were brought to an end, where they are now; what have they actually gained out of life and what was their contributions to the human welfare.

If you carefully ponder over these problems, you will find that each one of those people has parted company with the others and with all that he cherished and loved and he is now in a solitary abode, alone and unattended; and you also will be like him." - Sayyidina Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (may Allah be pleased with him and ennoble his face)

Imagination and Television

Some people claim TV is good for improving children's imagination and creativity. However scientific studies show otherwise, like this one which studied 400 short stories of kids aged 10-11 year old:
"the ubiquity and ease of access to television and videos perhaps robs today's children of the need to pursue their own thoughts and devise their own occupations". The scientific study also highlighted how children are becoming less creative and imaginative due to tv. ("Television and imagination" by Belton T, in Media, Culture and Society, 2001, 23)

Another good article is:
TV as hyposis

"Robert Kubey and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi did a study which appeared in Scientific American in 2002[1]. Participants carried a beeper which beeped several times a day and when it did, they wrote down what they were doing and how they were feeling.When beeped while watching TV, people recorded feeling relaxed and passive. What was surprising was that the relaxation ended as soon as the TV was switched off, but the feelings of passivity and lowered alertness continued.

Additionally, the participants had more trouble concentrating after viewing than before, and EEG studies showed less mental stimulation (identified by increased alpha brain wave production) while watching TV. Neither occurrences happened as a result of plain old reading.In other words, we associate "watching TV" with "being relaxed" (so we do relax), but after we finish watching we can't concentrate, feel sluggish, and become as stressed (or more so) than before.

Despite all this, of course, we keep on watching."

Diabetes and Television

Increased risk of diabetes (Type 2) is linked to watching TV (at just 2 hours TV a day). Another scientific fact to remember, when the average person watches 4 hours a day. It was a study involving 8300 adults from 6 medical institutions, and found "a deleterious effect of TV time on the risk of abnormal glucose metabolism in adults"

Reference "Physical activity and television viewing in relation to risk of undiagnosed abnormal glucose metabolism in adults." Diabetes Care. 2004 Nov;27(11):2603-9.

But also consider this which indicates more to TV than normal. The study showed that children's resting metabolism was reduced more than if they were to lie there and do absolutely NOTHING. See "Effects of television on metabolic rate" Pediatrics, 1993, 91

Here's a news article on it:

TV time tied to diabetes and early death

Keep updated for more scientific studies on the affects of Television (TV)

The Decline of Knowledge and the Rise of Ideology in Muslim World

A Brother from HAKIM shared this:

by Dr. Joseph Lumbard, "The Decline of Knowledge and the Rise of Ideology in Muslim World" in Islam, Fundamentalism and the Betrayal of Tradition (Indiana: World Wisdom, 2009) 

Some excerpts from the book:

"Not only have many Muslim thinkers demonstrated a shallow understanding of non-Islamic elements, they have also distorted the religion itself. In attempting to reconstruct and reinterpret the Islamic tradition in light of the perceived achievements of the times, modernist thinkers of the past, such as Sayyid Aḥmad Khān, Muḥammad ʿAbduh and Jamāl al-Dīn Afghānī abandoned the rigorous intellectual discernment of traditional Islamic intellectuality - the first outright, the others with more subtlety. They lost sight of their intellectual traditions and unwittingly surrendered the ground of intelligence to a secular humanist tradition, whose ideologies they tried to foist upon other by reading them into their own traditions or simply by adding the adjective "Islamic". 

...

Though each has different players with different shades of emphasis, both stringent reformism and liberal modernism constitute artificial limitations of traditional Islamic knowledge inspired by the influence of secular ideologies. This has led to the inversion of Islamic thought and the destruction of Islamic civilization. As Seyyed Hossein Nasr writes, "In trying to render back to Islam its power on the stage of history, many of these movements have disfigured the nature of Islam itself."

...

Liberal modernist Muslim thinkers and radical reformist activists are two sides of the same coin. Whereas medieval thinkers like Ghazālī were able to analyze and utilize tools from outside influences, radical reformists reject them outwardly while submitting inwardly, andmodernists attempt to patch them onto the fabric of Islam, some claiming that they have been a part of that fabric all along. Both movements represent a subversion of traditional values and teachings from within the Islamic tradition. In an effort to transform Islamic civlization,each has in fact hastened the onset of the very illnesses they sought to ameliorate. Rather than contemplating and evaluating Western civlization through the Islamic intellectual tradition, modernists have embraced many tenets of Western though out of a deep sense of inferiority - a sense which results from mistaking the power of Western nations for the truth of Western ideologies. Finding these movements within their midst, the reformists have retreated to fanatical adherence and pietistic sentimentalism. The modernists fail to offer solutions because they only provide intermediate solutions which are fideistic and voluntaristic at best. But such a response cannot provide lastings solutions to the challenges posed by the West, beacuse these are at root intellectual challenges which demand an intellectual response.

...

The choice of great thinkers from whom one seeks guidance is not limited to a narrow definition of "orthodoxy", but extends to all those Islamic thinkers, Sunnī and Shīʿī, who have tried to lend clarity to the understanding of reality enjoined by the Qurʾān and ḥadīth. Those intellectuals who have been chosen for this essay are but few luminaries from an extensive tradition one which continues into our own day and is now showing signs of new life. In order for the malaise of the Islamic world to be fully addressed and the radical reform movements to be brought back into the fold of the Islamic tradition,the iḥsānī intellectual tradition needs to be accorded its proper place in a way of life that is fully and truly Islamic. In applying the principles of Islam to the modern world, whileavoiding the passionate rhetorical battles which rage around them, the representatives of this tradition exemplify this saying of Abū Saʿīd b. Abī 'l-Khayr:

"A [true] man is one who sits and rises among others, sleeps and eats, and interacts with others in the bazaar, buying and selling, who mixes with people, yet for one moment is not forgetful of God in his heart."

But such a path is not achieved by focusing upon reform of the world, of Islam, or of one's nation. It is first and foremost a reform of one's self."

____________________________________________________________________

For preview: http://books.google.com.my/booksid=uTUnWkJ4kmMC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Short comments:

Same points as raised by Prof. Al-Attas although Prof. Al-Attas have more gravitas in explaining those in his seminal works such as Risalah Untuk Kaum Muslimin and Islam and Secularism.

For further explication of such topics can be attained in WISE of HAKIM:

http://www.hakim.org.my/wise/course-module

1st Semester

Module 1: The Worldview of Islam: A Brief Overview

Module 2: The Place and Role of the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah

Module 3: The Nature and Reality of Man

Module 4: The Cosmos as the Created Book

Module 5: The Nature and Purpose of Knowledge

Module 6: The Meaning and Experience of Happiness

2nd Semester

Module 7: The External Problems of the Muslims: The Challenges of Western Culture

Module 8: The Threats of Secularization towards the Natural World, Politics and Values

Module 9: The Internal Problems of the Muslims: The Corruption of Knowledge, the Loss of Adab and the Rise                     of False Leaders

Module 10: The Islamization of Contemporary Knowledge and the Dewesternization of Thought and Language

Module 11: Ta'dib as the Concept of Education in Islam

Module 12: The Advent of Islam in the Histories of the Western and Malay Worlds

3rd Semester

Module 13: Epistemology

Module 14: Islamic Pyschology

Module 15: Islamic Theology

Module 16: The Study of Religion: Its History and Philosophy

Module 17: Philosophy and Ethical Theory

Module 18: The Philosophy of Science

Module 19: Tafsir, Ta'wil and Hermeneutics

Module 20: Usul Al-Fiqh: Siyasah Shar'iyyah

Module 21: Usul Al-Fiqh: Maqasid Al-Shari'iyyah

Module 22: Ethics and Leadership

Module 23: The Study of Malay Civilization: Its Philosophy and The Role of Islam

Module 24: Contemporary Islamic Thought

Black Magic and Miracles

An excellent answer:

Question: I was discussing with a the issue of karamat and black magic. He was saying that its hard to distinguish the two and that there are many instances where people are cured from diseases (like kidney failure etc) through black magic.

My question is two fold:
1) can black magic cure illnesses
2) how can one differentiate between black magic and karamat.

Answer: The efficiency of black magic is part of Divine beguilement/entrapment (istidraj), as black magic can effect a temporary benefit but its consequences are worse and cancel it sooner or later, since its being “black” entails kufr, which will manifest its evil here and hereafter. Istidraj is the diametrical opposite of tawfiq and ta’yid which are the qualities of mu`jiza and karama.

Shaykh Yusuf al-Nabhani (Allah have mercy on him) said at the conclusion of his section on karamat and mu`jizat in the introduction of his 900-page book Hujjat Allah `ala Alamin bi-Mu`jizat Sayyid al-Mursalin (p. 12-14):

<<The erudite Emir mentioned supernatural acts in his notes on `Abd al-Salam [al-Laqani] saying:

“Know that supernatural acts are of seven types:

(i) the stunning miracle accompanied by a challenge;

(ii) the ‘groundwork’ (irhas) before Prophethood which is its foundation as we say ‘to do the groundwork for a wall’;

(iii) the miraculous gift for a Saint;

(iv) spontaneous aid (al-ma`una) befalling a common person and saving him from catastrophe;

(v) beguilement/entrapment (istidraj) for a brazen transgressor in proportion to his claim. …;

(vi) humiliation for the brazen transgressor in flat contradiction of his claim; and

(vii) witchraft and quackery, although it was said that those are not among the supernatural acts as they are quite customary with respect to their practice.”[1]

The teacher of our teachers, the erudite Shaykh Ibrahim al-Bajuri (d. 1276) said in his marginalia on Jawharat al-Tawhid in commentary of the author’s [al-Laqani's] statement, [verse 68]

“With stunning miracles they were granted support out of Divine munificence (bil-mu`jizati uyyidu takarruman)”:

“Know that the [Arabic] word for the stunning miracle (mu`jiza) is derived lexically from the word ‘inability’ (`ajz) – the opposite of power – and denotes, by convention, a supernatural act accompanied by a challenge consisting in the claim of Messengership or Prophethood together with the lack of effective opposition. Al-Sa`d [al-Taftazani] (712-792) said: ‘It is something extraordinary that appears at the hands of the claimant to Prophethood at a time of challenge to the naysayers, which the latter can produce nothing that compares to it.”[2]

The verifying authorities consider it has eight integral aspects:

(i) It must consist in a discourse or deed or something that fails to take place; for example, respectively: the Qur’an, the gushing of water from between his fingers, and the failure of the fire to burn our Master Ibrahim. The attributes of the non-created are excluded from this aspect as in the case he might say, “The sign that I am truthful is that the Deity is described as the Creator.”

(ii) That it be truly supernatural, i.e. a breach of what people are naturally accustomed to over a period of time. Ordinary events are therefore excluded, for example the statement, “The sign that I am truthful is that the sun shall rise where it usually rises and set where it usually sets.”

(iii) It must take place at the hands of the claimant to Prophethood. This excludes the miraculous gift (karama) which takes place at the hands of an evidently righteous and pious servant. This aspect also excludes spontaneous aid which takes place at the hands of common people, saving them from catastrophe; it excludes beguilement/entrapment, which is whatever occurrence takes place at the hands of a corrupt person as [repayment for his] deceit and scheming; and it excludes debasement, which is what takes place at his hands to belie him, as happened with Musaylima the arch-liar when he spat into the blind eye of a one-eyed man to heal it but the good eye went out instead.

(iv) It must be paired with the assertion of Prophethood or Messengership literally haqiqatan) or else in effect (hukman), if it comes a little later. This excludes the groundwork, namely, whatever miracles take place before Prophethood or Messengership as a preliminary or foundation, such as the shading of the cloud for him &#61541; before his mission <or the light that shone in the forehead of his father `Abd Allah>.[3]

(v) The miracle must take place in accordance with the claim being made as opposed to any discordant phenomenon, for example if one were to say: “The sign that I am truthful is that the sea shall part in two” then the mountain parts in two.

(vi) The miracle must not be tantamount to a disavowal of what is being claimed. For example, if one were to say: “The sign that I am truthful is that this object shall speak,” then the object speaks and declares that he is a liar. This is other than if he were to revive a dead person who then declared him a liar, because the object has no will and its disavowal is therefore considered a Divine order, while a human being has free choice and his disavowal is not conclusive since he might choose to disbelieve in a true claim.

(vii) It must be impossible to counter it. This condition excludes witchcraft and charlatanry (sha`badha), which is a sleight of hand suggesting that something is taking place in reality when in fact it is not, as in the case of the snakes [of the magicians]. Some of the Ulema added that

(viii) it must not take place at a time when natural customs are abolished, for example when the sun rises from the place where it usually sets. This excludes the phenomena that take place at the hands of the Anti-Christ as when he orders the sky to rain then it rains, and he orders the earth to sprout and it sprouts.

Then he [al-Bajuri] said, concerning the author’s [al-Laqani] statement, [verse 73]

“And his stunning miracles are many and resplendent”
(wa mu`jizatuhu kathiratun ghurar):

“Know that whatever miracles of his are definitely known and mass-transmitted such as the Qur’an, there is no doubt that whoever denies them commits disbelief. As for evidence below that level, if it is well-known – such as the gushing of water from his fingers &#61541; – then the one who denies it commits a grave sin (fisq). If the evidence is not well-known or is not firmly established through a sound or fair chain of transmission then the one who denies it is reprimanded only.”[4]

Taken from:

http://seekersguidance.org/ans-blog/2012/02/28/what-is-the-difference-between-black-magic-and-a-miracle/

Body image and Female Brain

I discovered a gem of a website and discovered this:

“Do I look fat in those pants?” is a question many women ask their husbands at home before deciding to go out in their choice of clothing. What happens in the husband’s brain when he hears this question is akin to going off and the most wide scale panic response. Many men would rather face an enemy in the battlefield than face this question during a calm evening. The correct answer whether she does look fat or not is, “don’t be ridiculous honey, you look fantastic”. Obviously the truth of this statement is irrelevant. If he wants the evening to remain calm, he must produce this answer or else sleep with one eye open for the next few months.

As it turns out, eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia, which have been associated with concerns about body image and size are estimated to be about 10 times more common in women than men. What is it that makes women more victims to these eating disorders? A possible reason that has been proposed goes back to the differences in brain function. It seems that women might be processing information about their body image quite differently than men.

In a study published by the British Journal of Psychiatry in 2005, a team of researchers sought to detect gender differences in brain activation during the processing of unpleasant words concerning body image. 13 men and 13 women, all of which were 25 years old and physically, as well as psychologically healthy were recruited to participate in this study. Each participant underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging tests to assess brain activity during an emotional decision task. Brain activity was recorded while they were presented with a series of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant words concerning body image. In addition to the brain imaging, the participants were also asked to rate the words for how unpleasant they were on a scale from 1 (very unpleasant) to 7 (very pleasant).

The results from the rating of words by men and women showed both to have a similar assessment of the degree of unpleasantness. In other words, both men and women have similar initial psychological perceptions when it comes to how they assess unpleasant words describing their body image. However, brain activation was significantly different between both genders.

In response to unpleasant words, men had their brains record activity in the left hippocampus, left superior temporal gyrus, left fusiform gyrus and left medial frontal gyrus. These regions of the brain have roles in perception of emotions and word and number recognition. They also play important roles in face and body recognition.

Women brains on the other hand had their brains record activity in the left parahippocampal gyrus including amygdala, left thalamus and right caudate body. These brain regions are responsible for recording memories of emotional reactions and play a role in relating the transmission of information regarding worrying events.

Taken together, it seems that when men are told unpleasant information about their body image, their brain response is more about assessing external factors relating to the person speaking to them. Women on the other hand develop an emotional response that is stored and coded in their brain, which internalizes the unpleasant information in a way that translates to a constant reflection onwhat has been said about their body image. Hence, many men are able to continue eating their burger as they receive a comment about how much chubbier they have become, while women will skip dinner for a week if one hesitates to answer the question, “do I look fat in those pants?”

The medial prefrontal cortex, which was only activated in men in response to unpleasant words, has been implicated to have a role in emotional processing. Recent studies have shown this area to be active when people turn their attention inwards to assess self-relevant attributes or emotional awareness. What is interesting about this region, is its connections to areas of the brain that deal with our emotional response. This makes the medial prefrontal cortex an interaction zone between emotional and cognitive processing. What seems to be the case is that this region may have a role in controlling the emotional response in the brain.

So what it all boils down to is that having a structure like the amygdala become active in response to unpleasant words exclusively in women, makes them have a more emotional response. On the other hand, having the medial prefrontal cortex activated exclusively in men, makes them have a more cognitive response to unpleasant words about their body image. This in turn translates into women caring way more about how they look than men do.

While this study, as well as others, is giving us an explanation to why women are more sensitive to what is said about their body image, it is definitely not settling for men out there when they are asked, “do I look fat in those pants?” Nevertheless, knowing that you are physiologically blocked from being able to reason this out with your wife, you should just memorize the right response, “you’ve never looked skinnier in those pants sweetheart!”

Mohamed Ghilan

UVic Neuroscience

From:

http://mohamedghilan.com/2012/04/06/body-image-the-female-brain-why-they-care-more/

Gems from Prophet: Master of Change part 2 – Habib Ali al-Jifri

Part 2

Some people think negatively of surrender. This isn’t surrendering. This is the result of losing surrender.

Whoever soundly surrenders will have removed from the heart the minutest bit of surrendering to other than God.

How can you ascend degrees from surrender of being freed? Beware, every one of us have to be at a point of surrendering to something. No-one is exempt.

1) Someone who is selfish
2) Someone who shows off

There are people who surrender to themselves and others to other people.

3) Being freed of both. These have really surrendered to God.

To surrender to God is to acknowledge the truth. This truth is that we were created from nothing. He let us be His representatives. He gave us authority over the earth so we can hike mountains, dive into oceans and fly into the sky. We have some kind of authority. We have the remit to interact with it in a way that is disharmonious to the rest of creation.

We have enough importance where two angels write down everything from us, this is their sole occupation.
No celebrity/politician has this kind of attention. Who has a human being who writes for their entire life? Do you realise your value? You have two angels writing, ten protecting you and angels as representatives whose concern is your provision, lifespan and your place in Paradise. You’ve got all these angels occupied with you. Even angels of the highest rank are occupied with you.

Do you think having the entire cosmos occupied with you is just a jest?

He created you and deposited your soul in your body. He created you upon 3 announcements:
1) He entrusted you with a trust
2) He told the  angels that He would place a vicegerent on the earth
3) It was an address, a direct one without intermediary from Allah to you. You heard God. You were spoken to by God. You spoke to God with nothing between you. The world of spirits were created before bodies which are nothing but a cover.

And He made us bear witness, “Am I not your Lord?” Each one of us responded, “Yes, you are.” This is the bayah. The connection. Our spirits witnessed Allah’s Lordship and dominions prior to being in bodies.

We have three responsibilities:
1) Ibadah - worship in the universal meaning of slavehood not just by time
2) Tazkiya - purification of self – “Successful is he who purifies it, lost is he who loses it.”
3) Imarat’l ‘ard – Be his khalifa, cultivate the earth. Not in the way we do today by polluting the environment and destructing the earth’s resources.

How can these realities be realised? Wait for moments where veils are pierced and understanding comes.
The goal of going up in surrendering to God is to overcome the selfishness and whims of the soul which will do anything to achieve whims and to harmonise with God’s address.

Some people struggle with the obligations and prohibitions as they haven’t seen the real picture.
“God has not made incumbent more than what the soul can bear.” So you can carry this.

A decision: I’ll carry on in obligations and leave that which is prohibited and if I miss this I’ll continue travelling to the mustahab (recommended)/makruh (disliked) as when I do that which is liked, I’ll draw closer to God.

You need to discipline yourself, program yourself like a horse needs to be disciplined before it can provide.

The Sunnah will become beloved to you as you realise that you’re attached to RasulAllah (peace and blessings be upon him) as you’re doing every action in its highest form.

Now come to the vast banquet table. Don’t go with your ego, you wouldn’t love with your ego. You’ll be illumined as the permissible is a bounty and a trust which has been placed so you’ll  only take what you need and you’ll look after it.

The one who has total surrendering will not allow to transgress and will always be the victorious as he has ascended by reigning himself in to a state where he resonates in harmony with the entire cosmos that Allah has entrusted him.

Go out and seek out the character of those who have reached surrendering of Allah.
He walks in the state of being pleased with God. He looks with the eye of compassion. His tongue is occupied with dhikr (remembrance of God). He looks at the Creator and creation with opinion. He has made peace.

More to follow, in sha Allah.

From:
http://zaranargis.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/gems-from-muhammad-master-of-change-habib-ali-al-jifri-part-2/

Gems from Prophet: Master of Change – by Habib Ali al-Jifri

Excellent notes from the course:

The Companions said that our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was more modest than a virgin in her quarters.

Our Lady, Fatima Zahra (May Allah be pleased with her) was fasting with Sayyidina Ali (May Allah ennoble his face) for three days and they only had one loaf of bread and some water. Each day, someone would knock. “Who’s there?” A response came, A pauper, O people of the Prophetic House.” Sayyidina Ali would turn to his wife, may Allah be pleased with them both. She replied, “Give him the loaf as I will feel ashamed in front of God if I turn away a poor person empty-handed.”
On the second day, an orphan came. On the third day, a prisoner of war came and the same happened.
On the surface, sense of shame was there even in hardships.

Modesty is not just to feel ashamed. It’s deeper than this. It’s a feeling in the heart of the believer. It’s the heart that makes him leave and do certain things. It’s adab, courtesy. In the believer, it’s to have adab as the believer has vigilance with Allah. That’s why it’s real. Very real!

Thinking what others think isn’t real modesty as he’ll do other things when people leave. Only good from this is that at least society isn’t openly promoting this so it can’t be a norm and it will be a preventative of promoting. This can turn to calamity if it’s the only reason. You know why? It makes these bad things to be done underground. It’s like a state of hypocrisy. It’s like a cancer which spreads unnoticeably.

This sense of modesty is loftier, better, purer and more majestic as one is vigilant of the Divine Presence and they don’t do something when God is watching them as it’s displeasing to Him. This grows in the heart and when it is cultivated can take you to Sidiqeen. This can take you to the degree of ascent. The degree of one who does good deeds out of fear of hell to one who does good deeds out of modesty before God.

He knows that which is manifest and that which is hidden. This is modesty. How will I approach Him when He knows?
A person who’s like this, they will experience life with a different pleasure.

Our Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) wanted to see Abyssinians dancing with spears on the Day of Eid. Our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) looked at her and noticed this. He said, “O Aisha, would you like to see them play?”
She replied, “Yes.” Our Prophet Muhammad stood and she stood behind him, looking over his shoulders. Her hayah was such that she wanted to look but not be looked at door. He stood at the door and said, “Are you bored yet?” She replied, “not yet.” When she got bored, she rested her cheek on his shoulder. This is the shoulder that left the earth and transcended heavens, it went to the Lote tree and went beyond where Gabriel stopped. We need to understand this reality.

Men need to understand that we enjoy that which is permissible. Who’ll be more modest than Our Lady Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, and more protective than our Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him?

Those with modesty enjoy life to its intensity.

Wasn’t Our Prophet Muhammad’s life enjoyable? For sure. It was sanctified and beautiful. They enjoyed life. No-one experienced pleasures of life like they did. They didn’t need to take off the vestment of beauty to enjoy that.

I can enjoy life with modesty as long as it’s not based for others.

Young men and women have the same rules. Hayah should be present for both. Neither men nor women had such modesty like our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

Protect yourself with the Shariah (Sacred Law). It’ll protect you inwardly and outwardly. Tie it with love and compassion. This is the foundation of any relation.

More to follow, in sha Allah.

Taken from:
http://zaranargis.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/gems-from-muhammad-master-of-change-habib-ali-al-jifri-part-1/