This is a republished post which was written on the occasion of Moharram 1428 but it’s equally applicable for other months as well.

Many of you in Pakistan will be going to fast on 9th and 10th Moharram Inshallah on Monday and Tuesday, there is an important issue while keeping Nafl fasts in non-Ramadan months.

I already mentioned here the importance and history of Ashoora and Fast (Sawm/Roza). As you know that fast starts right after the Subha Sadiq[the first minor appearance of light on sky] and ends when sun sets. In Ramadan Fajr time starts right after Subha Sadiq and you start hearing Azaan from different masjids of your area while in non-Ramadan months, the time of Fajr starts after 10/15 minutes of Subha Sadiq hence you hear Azaan after 10/15 minutes. Since in Ramadan we stop eating after hearing Azaan while this practice will not help in non-Ramadan months like Moharram,Shaban or any day when you decide to keep Nafli Roza. Quitting eating after hearing Azaan in non-Ramadan months means you didn’t keep the roza because you were still eating after the time of Subha Sadiq which means your efforts went fruitless.

The question is how to find time of Subha Sadiq? Well very simple, if you are regular to your local area masjid then you can easily find the time of Subha Sadiq in time schedule chart; even if you are not used to go Masjid for Salat then you can just offer a salat in Masjid for sake of finding Subha Sadiq time. Make sure you find the latest Subha Sadiq timining that is if you are going to keep fast on Monday, you should visit Masjid today[Sunday] to find Subha Sadiq timings because times keep changing every day.

So do save your fast and spread the word to your fellow muslims and save their rozas as well.

Tagged:Islam,Fasting,fast,muharram

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A reader on Karachi Metroblog shared this beautiful piece.

This is an EID gift from my side to all Muslim readers. Feel this beautiful piece.

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Sunday would be the 1st Shawwal-ul-Mukarram in Pakistan which would start a three days festival for Pakistani muslims. Eid as most of you might know is the gift of Allah for those who actually take advantage of this month.

2007 is the year which is not good for us and made us cry many times, still it’s bleeding like hell and on occasion of 27th Ramadan, I heard news of bombartment in Wazristan areas which converted several women and kids into pieces.

So, this is another EID which we we’re going to celebrate. People are buying lots of stuff from markets. I am recieving greetings via mails, eid cards etc. I am usually not a party person and Eid was always just another day for me.

Imagine if someone in your family or beloved one passes away before Eid or in month of Ramadan, how would you feel? would like to smile, have fun,throw parties or you would try to celebrate it simply and according to Sunnah. Don’t get confused or take me wrong that Muslims shouldn’t celebrate Eid. It’s the reward by Allah for those who perform Ibadah in whole month, refusing to obey His order would just ruin all our prayers. Unfortunately Eid for us has just become an excuse of excessive shopping,buying clothes and visiting relatives, nothing else. None of us try to seek the spiritual side of the Eid.

My fellow blogger and a known figure Sabahat Bhai(aka iFaqeer) lost his dad in month. I don’t need to tell worth of father or mother for any child and definately it was more than a pain for Sabahat bhai’s family. It would be quite natural that his family would not feel same on this eid and wouldn’t be cheerish enough to enjoy the ‘glamorous’ side of Eid(which we should always avoid). This is why Sabahat set a message on his Facebook profile which I agree 100%, Sabahat says, let’s focus on the spiritual side of the season.

My fellow blogger would be in pain because he lost his loved one. People like you or me are still lucky that so far we have not lost any closed relative and we are mast in our life and busy in buying stuff even during prayer times. Imagine if(Godforbid) you hear a news that someone in your family passes away, how would it make you feel? will you like to continue shopping by saying, I am busy at the moment!? Imagine you hear such news during shopping which just takes away your soul and then you see few people near to you busy in Hulla Gulla and masti and laughing out loud. How would it feel to you? For a moment you would like to throw them away and you would like to cry out loud. Why the hell are you going to feel like that? Just because you lost someone closed to your heart? why do you expect others cry for you or even feel for you?… But then your heart will not listen any logic. Your brain won’t respond you sensibly, after all you have just lost your closed one.

The way you suffer or could suffer, someone else would have suffered or suffering in your country. Ghazala Khan of TPS made an excellent post about disaster in Wazirstan area, I second/thired/nth to words of Ghazala. Do remeber this is not the only one. In 2007 we faced horrible Balochistan flood and people are still suffering over there, we are not hearing any news due to political stunts one after another. We then experienced 12th may massacare in karachi when I lost 45+ people of my own city. We then suffered deaths due to rain, again 30+ people died and then we had lal masjid’s sadist incident when I saw that soldiers invading a mosque, offending books of Quran and Hadiths by dumping them in nullah(savrage lines). I am not including Waziristan crisis because it has become an obvious conflict in Pakistan. One after another we faced so many problems. On top of that, we have not yet made those people calm who lost everything in earthquake 2005. I remeber that during earth quake crises(which is still ON), I didn’t find too many crowd in markets and even newspaper reported it. Everyone was willing to contribute and help those people. Even beggers were complaining that people were not given them money and they were mad their all Kamai went for Earthquake victims.

The question which bothered that time and bothering me this year again, Do we always need a natural disaster as an excuse to realize others’ pain? Is it necessary that unless we suffer ourselves, we can’t feel pain of others? Things have changed a lot from 2005, we have faced so many crisis that even Balochistan flood couldn’t motivate us. Maybe we are eagerly waiting for some kind of disaster which Quran tells us about nations of Aad and Samood or Noah’s? If there’s something like that then we are going to make the biggest mistake because then we would not survive either.

I would just say one thing, just try to consider all those who lost their lives this year due to different crisis your loved one and feel their pain. I am not gonna tell you WHAT YOU DO FOR THEM because you are not told when you lose your own relatives. I am sure once you consider them your own relatives, you wouldn’t require any teacher to teach you a lesson, just like nobody asks you to give you tips to feel pain when you lose your mom,your dad,your sister,wife or anyone who’s near to you.

May Allah bless all of you. Do celebrate eid but by thanking Allah who gave you another chance to become a zero-meter Muslim rather polluting yourself more after getting involved in same activities and fantasies. Eid Mobarak.

On a related note, as I requested/advised all Muslim men on earth, do pay attention what I’m expecting from all of you. Do give them credit to make you a human being and keeping your name high.

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If you remember, tonight is Pakistan’s 60th Birthday according to Islamic calendar. 14th August was the night when it Muslims were observings 27th Ramadan 1368.

May Allah showers all the blessings of Lailatul Qadr over Pakistan and keeps its safe and make it Islamic hub further for the rest of the world-Ameen.

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Many of you would have observed that different people in your surrounding always have different activities after Iftar. Some people go for Masjid for Ba-Jamat namaz after 5-10 minutes of breaking fast while few finish Iftar first then get ready for salat.

If you re heading towards masjid, you will always find lots of guys at Panshop near your home where they try their level best to grab a ciggerrete and smoke. It looks very weired to me. Smokers run towards Panshop like drug addict.

Some people don’t have dinner in Ramadan. I am one of them and totally rely on Iftar food. There are people who don’t each much iftar stuff like Pakoray, Dahi Baray etc and prefer to eat routine meal which they used to take in other months. Some people just get ready for Eid shopping. In short, there’s no such uniform trend at all.

I have created a poll to learn what are post-Iftar acitivites of my blog readers. I might have some option but have tried my level best to cover most of them. I had not made much efforts to edit my template, therefore inorder to cast you vote, you would have to go to mainpage of my blog. You will see a poll on right bar of my page. Cast your vote. You have option to select more than one choice. To submit your vite visit:

http://kadnan.com/blog

So let me know what’s your preference.

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[The hypocrites are] like the example of Satan when he says to man, “Disbelieve.” But when he disbelieves, he says, “Indeed, I am disassociated from you. Indeed, I fear Allah, Lord of the worlds.” So the outcome for both of them is that they will be in the Fire, abiding eternally therein. And that is the recompense of the wrong-doers.

منافقوں کی) مثال شیطان کی سی ہے کہ انسان سے کہتا رہا کہ کافر ہوجا- جب وہ کافر ہوگیا تو کہنے لگا کہ مجھے تجھ سے کچھ سروکار نہیں- مجھ کو خدائے رب العالمین سے ڈر لگتا ہے
تو دونوں کا انجام یہ ہوا کہ دونوں دوزخ میں (داخل ہوئے) ہمیشہ اس میں رہیں گے- اور بےانصافوں کی یہی سزا ہے

(Quran 59:17)

See, even Satan fears Allah and we?

Ask yourself!

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By Javeria Aqeel

A Man decided to become a wood cutter, he bought for himself a brand new saw and started his wood cutting business. He did extremely well in his new business and was able to fell many trees and earn a lot of profit. Time passed by but his business started declining.. the number of tress he was able to fell declined day by day…he was confused.. he was perturbed that what in the world was happening! How come he was so successful in the start?

Then a man came to him and told him..Look at your saw…it has become blunt due to constant usage.. you need to sharpen your saw, you need to revive it back to its previous glorious state of sharpness. This is your tool , your key to success. If your tool is blunt and weak how can you be successful?

This is the Principle of Self-Renewal. This is one of the Keys To Success, this is the 7th Habit of Highly Effective People as mentioned by Stephen R. Covey.

The 7 Habits are:

• Habit 1: Be Proactive: Principles of Personal Vision
• Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind: Principles of Personal Leadership
• Habit 3: Put First Things First: Principles of Personal Management
• Habit 4: Think Win/Win: Principles of Interpersonal Leadership
• Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood: Principles of Empathetic Communication
• Habit 6: Synergize: Principles of Creative Communication
• Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw: Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal

About 7th Habit Stephen Covey says

Sharpen the Saw is the unique endowment of continuous improvement or self-renewal to overcome entropy. If you don’t constantly improve and renew yourself, you’ll fall into entropy, closed systems and styles. At one end of the continuum is entropy (everything breaks down), and the other end is continuous improvement, innovation, and refinement. On the continuum, you go from a condition of entropy to a condition of continuous renewal, improvement, innovation, and refinement.( Source)

It seems that the Muslims of today are struck in this Entropy. They are imprisoned in ritualistic worship and merely verbal declaration of Emaan.There is no improvement, no purification , no refinement and no increase of Emaan.

Fourteen hundred years ago, Allah Tala gave us the Glorious Quran and Muslims were expected to keep increasing their faith by it and therefore keep increasing and improving their Self and to keep purifying themselves.

Allah Tala says in Surah Tawbah Ayat 124:

And whenever there comes down a Sûrah (chapter from the Qur’ân), some of them (hypocrites) say: “Which of you has had his Faith increased by it?” As for those who believe, it has increased their Faith, and they rejoice.

Allah Tala says in Surah Al-Lail Ayat 17-18

And Al-Muttaqûn will be far removed from it (Hell). He who spends his wealth for increase in self-purification

Allah Tala also gave us this month of Ramadan to Sharpen up our emaan, to revive our souls and to re-energize our faith and connection with Allah and to purify ourselves. Prophet Muhammad saw gave us the wisdom of Sayaam during the day and Qayaam during the night to keep us on our toes and to Renew Our Self totally by being on a training program day and night for 30 days. Allah Tala imprisoned the Shayateen to make it easy for us to do so.

Before the Start of Ramadan, i mentioned on my blog about a “Welcome Ramadan” lecture by Safiya Khan here.

I also introduced Safiya Khan in the following words:

Safiya Khan is one of the most talented students of Dr. Farhat Hashmi. Due to her great interest and knowledge in the subject of Psychology, she beautifully and eloquently explains the concepts of the Quran based on the human psychology. Being an avid reador of she explains how the Qur’an gave the best concepts about Successful people fourteen hundered years ago which, the success literature of today provides after years of research. She brings in a unique dimension in understanding the Qur’an..

Alhamdullilah, this lecture is now available as a small booklet called “Welcome Ramadan A Self Renewal Plan.For this lecture and booklet, She has used this concept of Self Renewal from Stephen Covey This booklet gives us the practical guidelines to implement this Self renewal Process Effectively in Ramadan. The Self Renewal Process by Stephen Covey incorporates 4 dimensions Soul Mind Body Heart..

“Human beings are not things needing to be motivated and controlled; they are four dimensional�body, mind, heart, and spirit.” (Stephen Covey)

Safiya Khan has discussed these four dimensions with respect to Ramadan. What practical steps need to be taken to Renew these four dimensions in Ramadan. Read through the pdf booklet for more details. A very brief summary of the renewal plan is shown in the slide below taken from her Presentation.

Audio Lecture of “Welcome Ramadan” Lecture should be available online in a few days Inshallah.

Just like cutting trees with a blunt knife is impossible…similarly entering Jannah is impossible with a blunt, dead Emaan. If we refuse to utilize Ramadan for renewing our selves and our emaan, we are worst than a stupid wood cutter cutting trees with a terribly blunt knife.

You can download the complete lecture by Ms.Safiya Khan from here.

If you want to share anything related to Ramadan then you are most welcome to share on this blog. For details visit here.

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By Zainub Razvi

I was reading my Sound Vision Ramadan newsletter this morning when I came across a very relevant article on how women in Muslim societies generally tend to squander their Ramadans. The author complained how many Muslim women seem to miss the blessings of Ramadan because of the overemphasis on great food at Iftar time. While she attributed this to a lack of consideration for the needs of women, an interesting anecdote shared by friend revealed a rather disturbing trend:

She [author’s friend] was originally from Egypt, and she recounted how her mother and the women in her neighborhood actually competed with each other in Ramadan over food. In other words, they vied for the title of “maker of the best Ka’k (cookies) this side of Alexandria.” And this was despite the fact that male family members and even the Imam were encouraging women to share in the blessings of the month through prayer and mosque participation.

Instantly I couldn’t help but think how at least part of this held very true for women in my hometown Karachi, and Pakistan in general. Every Ramadan it’s almost as if everyone suddenly decides its time to indulge into some form of cooking extravaganza. TV channels all start dolling out tons of new cookery shows, women spend hours and hours before both Afrati and Sehri to prepare the most grand, most compelling menus ever and every restaurant in town tries to offer the most attractive deals possible.

As Eid approaches, invites for Iftarparties are thrown out by the dozens by socialites of all kinds. Ironically, as the month near draws close and the climax of its associated bounties approaches in the last week, Iftar party invitations will also reach their most hectic duration. And of course, I don’t even need point out how fruitfully some women utilize their taak ratein by spending entire nights at shopping malls.

In short, the whole purpose of Ramadan seems to get lost somewhere amidst a needless frenzy of overzealous cooking and shopping. Unlike the Egypitan women spoken of in the article earlier though, for a multitude of reasons, women in Pakistan have seemingly always been isolated from organised religion. Despite the emphasis laid by the Prophet (peace be upon him) on the benefits of attending Eid prayers (one hadith, related in al-Bukhari, has quoted the Prophet as commanding Eid prayers compulsory on all Muslims, including the slave women, the free women, the virgins, and even the menstruating women, whom the Prophet instructed to go out to the prayer area but refrain from praying, so they can witness the good of collective Muslim supplication and the Imam’s khutbah) we see that through out Pakistan and not just in Karachi this concept is unheard of. Similarly, despite the importance of taraweeh prayers (which are classified as a sunat-e-muakida by some scholars, i.e. a sunat the Prophet never abandoned at any time during his lifetime), only a handful of mosques will arrange for facilities for women to join in tarawah jamaats.

It is undeniable that a lot of women are, because of this misplaced notion of women’s role in religion, inevitably left with very few, if any, opportunities to maximize their rewards during Ramadan. But equally, some of us have no one but our self to blame. A lot of us do have the resources, the time and the chance to engage in these activities but yet we consider it wiser to de-prioritise them, and instead waste this unique month, by intentional choice, in either free reign shopping, just for the sake of it socializing or grandiose cooking, and in the process, defeating the whole concept behind fasting in the first place (that of controlling one’s worldly desires).

This Ramadan, let’s aim to remove our inner and outer obstacles to spiritual success, and utilize this blessed time in more productive ways then we have in the past. As the Sound Vision article advises, “ditch out any feelings of guilt, competition or jealousy we may have for other sisters” because of how fast or how much they can cook. Be ready to deal with the biggest outer obstacle to spiritual success: our families. “We love them and yes, their demands for food high in fat, salt and sugar can be indulged once in a while in Ramadan” but don’t let it distract you from the central purpose of this month. May Allah give us all the ability to best utilize this month. All the best for your self, and remember me in your prayers.

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A father who was not blessed with a child for many years ,reaches to older age. He prays for His future generation. Finally God hears Him and grants Him a child.

(37:100-101)

My Lord, grant me [a child] from among the righteous.So We gave him good tidings of a forbearing boy

اے پروردگار مجھے (اولاد) عطا فرما (جو) سعادت مندوں میں سے (ہو)
تو ہم نے ان کو ایک نرم دل لڑکے کی خوشخبری دی

The child grewup a little. One day father saw a dream and discuss it with His son. THe boy was very young.
(37:102)

And when he reached with him [the age of] exertion, he said, “O my son, indeed I have seen in a dream that I [must] sacrifice you, so see what you think?

جب وہ ان کے ساتھ دوڑنے (کی عمر) کو پہنچا تو ابراہیم نے کہا کہ بیٹا میں خواب میں دیکھتا ہوں کہ (گویا) تم کو ذبح کر رہا ہوں تو تم سوچو کہ تمہارا کیا خیال ہے؟

How the father would be feeling at that time. He got a son after several years of prayers and now He was being asked to sacrifice Him. The son was young. He should have been cried. But What son said?

(37:102)

O my father, do as you are commanded. You will find me, if Allah wills, of the steadfast

انہوں نے کہا کہ ابا جو آپ کو حکم ہوا ہے وہی کیجیئے خدا نے چاہا تو آپ مجھے صابروں میں پایئے گا

Both father and son got agreed to fulfill the command of Allah.

(37:103)

And when they had both submitted and he put him down upon his forehead

جب دونوں نے حکم مان لیا اور باپ نے بیٹے کو ماتھے کے بل لٹا دیا

Just Imagine! How the Father would be feeling at that time, going to sacrifice his son, going to lose Him forever. Do you have any doubt about the love between a father and son? In today’s world, a father gets agreed to steal things for sake of his kids so that his kid doesn’t suffer but the father I am discussing above was a great father and His son was a great Son. Both father and Son was agreed to fulfill what Their creator had asked Them. This was too much. Angels would also be getting surprised who said something like that upon creation of mankind when Allah informed them about His verdict.

(2:30)

when your Lord said to the angels, “Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority.” They said, “Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?”

اور (وہ وقت یاد کرنے کے قابل ہے) جب تمہارے پروردگار نے فرشتوں سے فرمایا کہ میں زمین میں (اپنا) نائب بنانے والا ہوں- انہوں نے کہا- کیا تُو اس میں ایسے شخص کو نائب بنانا چاہتا ہے جو خرابیاں کرے اور کشت وخون کرتا پھرے اور ہم تیری تعریف کے ساتھ تسبیح وتقدیس کرتے رہتے ہیں

What The father and son were going to do was unbelievable for everyone. Man is the creature of Allah which can’t be understood. THis is why Allah replied to His angels.

(2:30)

Indeed, I know that which you do not know.

میں وہ باتیں جانتا ہوں جو تم نہیں جانتے

Indeed! Allah knew that His Obedient servants will fulfill His wish. When Allah saw this, He just gave glad tidings to both father and son.

(37:104)

We called to him, “O Abraham, You have fulfilled the vision.”

تو ہم نے ان کو پکارا کہ اے ابراہیم تم نے خواب کو سچا کر دکھایا

Offcourse when there are such creatures of Allah then He has to say something like:

(3:105)

Indeed, We thus reward the doers of good.

ہم نیکوکاروں کو ایسا ہی بدلہ دیا کرتے ہیں

This was the story of great Prohphet Abraham(aS) and His great Son Ismail(AS). Allah blessed their family so much that future generations produced great prophets including our beloved Muhmmad(saw). Offcourse Abraham(AS) deserved this status.

Now we look at ourselves. We also claim to be follower of same Allah. We as a father not willing to give our kids for sake of Allah. I am not talking about sacrifice like Abraham did. Neither Allah asks us such thing. He just asked us to give away our soul,quit our own wish and just obey Him. We rather prefer our kids to get addmissions in good private schools, we don’t care whether we re doing somethnig for his Akhirat or not. Neither we are such sons like Ismail(as) that even if our fathers ask us to recite Quran or go Masjid, we in return say, Parh loun ga na, aap ko kiya hay(I will pray, what’s your problem?) . Neither fathers are pure nor sons. Still we look towards Allah and expect His blessings and when nothing comes out, we start cursing that Allah is not listening us. How foolish we are! Our grand ancestor Abraham(as) and His Son(as) proved angels wrong by giving such sacrifice while on other hand we are just proving angels right. At one side we are disobeying Allah while on other hand we are offending His verdict, the verdict of creation of Human race. We commit double sin, still we expect good from Allah. Ain’t we stupid?

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Shaikh Sahab from Germany sent this Ramadan Planner which is very cool. Hope all of us could follow properly.

Thankyou shaikh saab.

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