Hijab ban and hearts?

Some people think the hijab is oppressive or some Muslims want to remove the hijab or have removed it. Although it is fardh (obligatory) to wear hijab, let these same people look at the hijab (veil) that covers their hearts. This veil is soo thick that it blocks the Divine Lights from penetrating the heart, and so there are many diseases in the hearts of many people.
Remove the veils of greed, arrogance, pride, ignorance and so on from your heart. Gain Islamic knowledge and become more humble and obey Allah Most High.
And these veils over hearts apply to men and women, boys and girls.
Who is more oppressed than one who is caged by her desires and ignorance, such that the person does not worship Allah swt?

Beauty and looks?

"If people put as much effort in purifying their hearts and character as they put in beautifying their external appearances, they would walk on water"

How many people look in the mirror daily and get sad or unhappy over their looks, or check how they look, and change their clothes, or see if their clothes are okay? Yet how many look at their hearts and characters to see if that's okay and if its ugly or beautiful and how they should improve?

If you say you can't see the diseases of the heart, then just count how many times a day you swear, shout/get angry, lie, show pride, look down upon others, backbite, insult others, become jealous of others etc.

These are things to reflect on, since Allah swt said:  [On] a day in which neither wealth nor children will be of benefit, except one who comes to God with a sound heart. (Qur'an 26:88-89) .

‎"The world is a vehicle for you. If you drive it, it will deliver you to your destination. If it drives you, you will be destroyed." Hasan al-Basri (Rahimullah)

Abu Abdallah al-Antaki said: “When even the smallest [particle of] certainty enters one’s heart, it fills the heart with light and expels whatever doubt there is in it. Consequently, the heart becomes filled with gratitude to and fear of God Most High.”

Cohabitation and dating increases divorce- scientific study

• "Couples who cohabit before marriage (and especially before an engagement or an otherwise clear commitment) tend to be less satisfied with their marriages — and more likely to divorce — than couples who do not. These negative outcomes are called the cohabitation effect."

  “I spent more time planning my wedding than I spent happily married,” . 

  "Women are more likely to view cohabitation as a step toward marriage, while men are more likely to see it as a way to test a relationship or postpone commitment, and this gender asymmetry is associated with negative interactions and lower levels of commitment even after the relationship progresses to marriage.  "
  

  Alhamdulillah for the wisdom of Islam. I included dating in the title because dating also has a poor record of avoiding divorces and are higher than correct Islamic marriages. Many people who dated for years, yet their marriages only last for a few months or a year, and the factors are similar as in cohabitation. For example this is because people say they date because "we want to know the person more", the same excuse used for cohabitation. Yet as the article and scientific study shows, knowing a person really well by being together so much doesn't decrease the chance of divorce.

  The source of the study and article is:

  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/the-downside-of-cohabiting-before-marriage.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&smid=fb-share

The Caliph and true brotherhood

This is true unity, selflessness care and brotherhood/sisterhood/friendship, where are the real Muslims of today?:

“When Ghulam al-Khalil slandered the Sufis [of Baghdad] before the caliph, he ordered them to be beheaded. Al-Junayd [avoided this trial] by presenting himself as a jurist (faqih), for he indeed issued legal rulings according to the juridical school [named after] Abu Thawr, while others, including al-Shahham, al-Raqqam, and al-Nuri, were arrested. When leather mats were spread for their beheading, al-Nuri stepped forward.

The executioner asked him: ‘Do you know what you are stepping forward for?’ Al-Nuri responded that he did. The executioner then asked him: ‘Then what makes you hurry?’ Al-Nuri answered: ‘I’d rather my companions live another moment.’ The executioner was perplexed and reported the matter to the caliph, who sent the Sufis over to the judge to investigate their affair. The judge posed several legal questions to Abu 'l-Husayn al-Nuri, who answered them all. He then proceeded to say [the following]: ‘God has servants who, when they stand, they stand for the sake of God; when they speak, they speak for the sake of God.’

He said other things as well that made the judge weep. He then sent the following note to the caliph: ‘If these folk are heretics, then there’s not a single [faithful] Muslim on the face of the earth.’ (From the Risala of al-Qushayri) 

Why is the Ummah down?

People talk about why the Muslims declined, and many academic studies have been done, going deep into the issue and often coming up with  abstruse and far-fetched explanations, and many of them miss the mark or don't go to the root.

Allah said: “Truly, God does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.” (Quran 13:11)

Thus we see that we need to change our state/condition and that is one of the major reasons why the Muslims are and have been in decline.

Yet the way Muslims treat each other, is far from the Prophetic way, and generally indicates selfishness.

The Qur'an said: “They prefer others above themselves, even though poverty be their portion” (al-Hashr, 59.9)

Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “None of you truly believes (in Allah and in His religion) until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself” [Bukhari and Muslim]

Who can say that they’ve met a SINGLE Muslim (apart from the Awliya) who has implemented the above Hadith? You get many religious and charitable Muslims, but almost none prefer others to themselves, or at least love for them what they love for themselves. Until we change this attitude, we’re not going to be an Ummah that will get anywhere. We’ll go from one nightmare to another, like Syria’s oppressed Muslims not getting helped because other Muslim states care about themselves more. 

Where are the likes of the Ansar, who when their own families were starving, and the migrant guests needed food too, the Ansar gave the migrants food instead and sheltered them in their own homes?

Go on, prefer others to yourselves. Be fair to people, but don't demand that they be fair to you.

Islam is preserved every generation

The following Hadith serves to prove that the true Islam is taught (obviously by scholars especially) in every generation and century, and that no generation will be free of the true Islam.

 From the Companion Ibrahim b. `Abd al-Rahman al-`Adhari from the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) who said: "From every succeeding generation its upright folk shall carry this knowledge in turn. They shall repeal from it the distortions of the extremists (tahrif al-ghalin), the (mis)interpretations of the ignorant (ta'wil al-jahilin), and the pretenses of the liars (intihal al-mubtilin)."

It is a Sahih Hadith according to Imam Ahmad (as narrated by al-Khallal in his `Ilal per al-Khatib in Sharaf As-hab al-Hadith p. 29) and is narrated by a number of people with various chains. The Arabic text is given below

The Hadith proves the feminists, modernists, "salafis",  and liberal Muslim sects wrong since their teachings are often teachings that only arose in the 19th century and were never held before in the history of Islam and are thus bad innovations. If even 1 generation of Islam didn't have those teachings, then we know that sect is wrong.

Break

Salams all,
I'm taking a break from posting till the 10th of April insha'Allah. Sorry for that, and hope for your duas as I have been quite ill over the past week