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BTW, the first person who has embraced Islam was a woman :)
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has added a new journalWhen Imam Ahmad was still young, his father died. He would tell his students of the work his mother went through in raising him, and he would pray for her. In the cold Baghdad nights, she would wake long before him to warm the water so that her son Ahmad could make wudu for Fajr. Then she would wrap him in blankets, herself cloaked in her Jilbaab, and guide him through the dark, cold alleys to reach the main Masjid, long before Fajr so that her son could get a good seat in class. Her son Ahmad - at that age in grade 2 or 3 - would sit all day long studying Quran and Sunnah, and she would wait for him to finish so that she could drop him home safely. At the age of 16, she prepared money and food for him and told him, "Travel for your search of knowledge." He left for Makkah and Madinah and many other places and et many great scholars. She raised Ahmad to become one of the four greatest Imams in Islam.
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has added a new journalHow did a British feminist journalist held captive by the Taliban become a proud Muslim woman? www.bbc.co.uk
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has added a new journalThe author requests that you share this article with non-Muslim friends and neighbors.
This past Tuesday, Muslims celebrated ?Id al-Fitr, one of Islam?s two great festivals. For me, it was a beautiful day that began with a truly warm and vibrant ?Id gathering at the Zaytuna Institute. God afforded me a wonderful opportunity to see friends who had been ?missing in action,? to meet enthusiastic new converts to Islam, and to kiss so many babies I felt like a politician. During that time, I was also able to break away from the gathering to visit the graves of some distinguished Muslims buried in a nearby cemetery. Visiting the local Muslim cemetery on ?Id day is a practice I have been able to maintain since my earliest years in Islam. They serve as a solemn reminder that all of us have an appointment with the Angel of Death.
I was blessed to stay at Zaytuna until the early afternoon when I departed to attend a meeting at a local school, a reminder that we are in America and sometimes, despite our best efforts to clear our schedules on the day of our festivals, the requisites of our everyday duties intervene. After that meeting, I was able to visit some of the Muslim families in the area. All of those visits filled my heart with awe at the simple dignity of ordinary Muslims, many of whom are struggling valiantly to survive in this sometimes cruel, always challenging and complicated society.
The last of those visits was to the family of Alia Ansari, the Afghani-American mother of six who was gunned down in central Fremont last Thursday as she walked to pick up her children from school. The Ansari family are everyday people?and, they are proud people. As I talked with Alia?s husband, brothers, and cousins who were gathered in the family?s humble apartment, it became clear to me that, most of all, they were proud to be Ansaris, descendants of the companion of the Prophet Muhammad, peace upon him, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, and the great Muslim mystical sage, Khawaja Abdullah Ansari. In Afghan society, they are people who are identified with piety and they endeavor to live up to that identification, in their various ways.
Alia Ansari migrated from war-torn Afghanistan at the age of 17. When her father died shortly thereafter, she became a second parent to her younger siblings. A life of hardship could not suppress her inner beauty, expressed most readily in an irrepressible smile. Her husband, Ahmadullah Ansari, an auto mechanic struggling to make ends meet for a family that includes six young children, five of them girls, spoke glowingly of Alia?s martyrdom and the place God has reserved for her in Heaven. Her story impressed on me the truth embodied in the words of a poet who said, ?Be yourself beautiful, and you will find the world full of beauty.?
Her husband, contrary to the caricature of the vindictive, hateful, enraged Muslim, mentioned how the family did not wish her martyrdom be treated as a hate crime, because he did not want her death to be a source of agitation in the area?s large Muslim community. He also mentioned that the family would not want the murderer executed, because that would not bring his wife back. His wife was a martyr, her place in Paradise secure?for him that was enough.
His gentle voice was most emphatic when he mentioned that he did not want his wife?s death to be politicized. Rather, he wanted her spirit of love and reconciliation to prevail after her passing as it had during her life. He spoke of his desire that her funeral be a solemn service, where people of all faiths could gather to remind each other just how important it is to work to remove the pernicious stain of racial and religious hatred from this society lest it lead to ever deepening spirals of senseless violence.
As we sat on the floor of their sparsely furnished living room to eat a meal of traditional Afghan food, our gathering was overseen by four walls decorated with only an unframed picture of the Ka?aba, and a tapestry with Ayatu Kursi, the Qur?anic Verse of the Throne (2:255), printed on it. Husband, brothers, and cousins gathered around to tell me more about just who Alia Ansari was. They spoke proudly of a deeply religious individual who embodied the true spirit of the ?Ansar,? the Helpers. The original Ansar were those Muslims in Medina who welcomed into their city and homes the faithful believers who had migrated from Mecca, fleeing the persecution of that city?s population. The Qur?an mentions the spirit the Ansar exhibited in the following terms:
As for those who had previously established homes , having adopted the faith; they show their love and affection to those who migrated to them . You will not find their hearts harboring any desire for that given to those migrants; rather they give preference to them over themselves, even though they are themselves afflicted with grinding poverty. (59:9)
Alia was indeed a helper. In addition to her tireless and faithful service to her immediate family, she was constantly helping relatives and neighbors, many of whom themselves had recently migrated to this country from their native Afghanistan. Her brother, Humayun, remarked that she did the work of six people and never complained. A typical day might find her preparing meals for the family, dropping the children to school, taking a neighbor shopping, shuttling a newly-arrived relative to the immigration department, watching a neighbor?s child, nursing a sick relative, or numerous other tasks demanding the sacrifice of her time and energy.
Although never formally educated in Islam, she was a deeply devout and spiritual individual. Her husband noted that she never missed a prayer. He quietly added that she would stand for voluntary prayer every night until she wept beseeching God to save her daughters from the ravages of the lewd, violent, promiscuous youth culture of this country. Her deep spirituality is illustrated by the following incident. A few days before her demise, she told her husband that she had seen her deceased grandfather, an individual well known for his righteousness, in a dream. The learned sage indicated that the end of her worldly struggles was near, and a resting place in Paradise would soon be hers.
As a pious Muslim woman, she never left home without her hijab, the traditional head scarf worn by Muslim women. She was proud of her hijab. In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, some of her friends and relatives, afraid of reprisal attacks, took off their hijabs. Alia encouraged them not to compromise their religion, especially when they had nothing to do with those crimes. As for herself, she told them that she would never take off her hijab, even if someone put a gun to her head demanding that she do so. Alia said that her hijab was her flag. She could not have known as she began the fateful walk to her children?s school last Thursday that her path would cross that of a lone gunman who in a single act of mindless violence would bring a close to a life of dedication and service. She could not have known that her grandfather?s words were so close to fulfillment. She could not have known that she would soon die defending her flag.
Among the believers are those who have been true to their covenant to God. Among them are those who have given their lives, others patiently wait their turn, having never weakened in their resolve. (33:23)
Imam Zaid Shakir
Zaytuna Institute
10/25/06
Peacetwou
Masha Allah. Thanks for sharing this. May Allah (swt) bless the family of Alia Ansari and keep them strong and grant her Jannatul Firdaus.Peace
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has added a new journalSalaam everyone,
I took this very interesting text from a fellow naseeber JE, Choosa.
Enjoy ladies :D (gents too) :
Peace be upon you,
All Muslims are familiar with the Sahih of Bukhari, viewed as the most authentic collection of hadith, the second text of Islam after the Quran. What most Muslims do not know is the role that women played in transmitting that knowledge, where for knowledge to pass from one scholar to another, it would be qualified by an ijaza (certificate of learning).
The ijazas for the Sahih of Bukhari feature heavily a Muslim female scholar named Karima al-Marwaziyya (d.463/1070). In fact, she was considered the best authority on the Sahih of al-Bukhari in her own time.
Abu Dharr of Herat, one of the other leading scholars of that period attached such great importance to her authority that he advised his students to study the Sahih under no one else, because of the quality of her scholarship. She thus figures as a central point in the transmission of this seminal text of Islam.
'Her name occurs with extraordinary frequency of the ijazas for narrating the text of this book'
"It is in fact very common in the ijaza of the transmission of the Bukhari text to find as middle member of the long chain (of transmission) the name of Karima al-Marwaziyya,"
Among her students were al-Khatib al-Baghdadi and al-Humaydi - two of the other leading scholars of that time period who are perhaps more well known - probably because they are men.
Next time someone cites a hadith from Bukhari and speaks negatively about women, why not remind them that were it not for a female scholar, they wouldnt even have the knowledge which they so heavily rely on! And may Allah have mercy and guide us all, amen.
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has added a new journalAsmaa' bint Abu Bakr
Asmaa' daughter of Abu Bakr said: "az-Zubair (Ibn al-`Awwam, the cousin of the Prophet , through his aunt) married me. He had neither wealth, slave or anything else like it, except a camel (to get water) and a horse. I used to graze his horse, , made arrangements for providing water and patched up leather bucket and kneaded the flour. But I was not proficient in baking the bread, so my female neighbors used to bake bread for me . And I used to carry on my head the stones (seeds) of the d~tes from az-Zubair's land which Allaah's Messenger had endowed him, and it was at a distance of two miles (from Madinah).
"As I was one day carrying the stones of dates upon my head I happened to meet Allaah's Messenger along with a group of his Companions. He called me and said to the camel to sit down so that he should make me ride behind him. I felt shy to go with men and I remembered az-Zuhair and his gheerah(1), and he was the man having the most gheerah. When the Messenger of Allaah understood my shyness, he left. I came to az-Zubair and said: 'The Messenger of Allaah met me as I was carrying the stones of the dates on my head, and there was with him a group of his Companions, he said to the camel to sit down so that I mount it, I felt shy from him, and remembered your gheerah.' Whereupon he (az-Zubair) said: 'By Allaah, the carrying of dates' stone upon your head is more severe a burden on me than riding with him.' until Abu Bakr sent afterwards a female servant who took upon herself the responsibility of looking after the horse and I felt as if she had emancipated me(2)." Remember that Asmaa' was the sister in law of the Prophet !
Asmaa' reported: "I performed the household duties of az-Zubair and he had a horse, I used to look after it. Nothing was (more) for me than looking after the horse. I used to bring grass for it and looked after it, then I got a servant as Allaah's Messenger had some prisoners of war in his possession. He gave me a female servant. She then began to look after the horse and thus relieved me of this burden. A person came and he said: 'Mother of Abdullah, I am a destitute person and I intend that I should start business under the shadow of your house.' I (Asmaa') said: 'If I grant you permission, az Zubair may not agree to that, so you come and make a demand of it when az-Zubair is also present there.'
He came accordingly and said: 'Mother of Abdullah, I am a destitute person. I intend to start small business in the shadow of your house. I said: 'Is there not in Madinah (any place for starting the business) except my house?' Az-Zubair said: 'Why is it that you prohibit the destitute man to start business here?' So he started business and he (earned so much) that we sold our slave-girl to him. Az-Zubair came to me while the money was in my lap. He said: 'Give this to me.' I said: '(I intend) to spend it in charity.'" Notice how Asmaa' had been in favor of allowing that person to start business under the shadow of their house, but she did not like to do anything which could be a source of annoyance or disgust to her husband. She, therefore, posed a question in order to solicit the opinion of her husband and when his reaction was found favorable, she agreed to this proposal.
Dear Sister, Allaah (T) has made you a protected jewel in Islam whom the liberalists are trying to make an object of trade, and the modernists are trying to strip you of your modesty and shyness. Read these ahadith carefully, over and over, and ponder on them very deeply. They contain a gold mine for both women and men. Asmaa' had the following credits to her personality (among others):
She was one of the most noble women of Arabia at that time.
The daughter of the pure and the noble Abu Bakr , the leader of his tribe, and the first Caliph of Islam.
The sister-in-law of the best of mankind. Mohammad , who named her "Thaatun-Nitaaqayn" (the one with two belts), for her heroic act during the Hijrah of the Prophet and Abu Bakr , from Makkah to Madinah.
The sister of the most knowledgeable woman, 'Aishah who is among the only seven Companions of the Prophet who narrated more than a thousand ahadith.
The wife of az-Zubair Ibn al-`Awwaam, one of the ten people promised Paradise by the Messenger of Allaah . Az-Zubair was brave, courageous and defended the Prophet with his sword.
The Mother of ameerul-mu'mineen 'Abdullah Ibn az-Zubair who was given bay`a in Hijaz and was killed by al-Hajjaaj(3): and
the mother of 'Urwah, who when he entered in prayer he would forget about this life It was 'Urwah who when his leg had to be cut, was told to drink wine as an anesthesia but refused to drink wine and instead, gave intructions to cut it while he was in prayer. They did, and he did not feel anything until he woke up.
Asmaa', may Allaah (T) be pleased with her, was one of the most noble personalities, yet was veiled and shy in front of men. She refused to be with men, mingle with them, ride among them or go with them; and. by Allaah, the men being talked about were no ordinary men! They were the Messenger of Allaah , and his Companions. She served her husband as a true wife should, staying at home to take care of her household.
She was very careful at guarding and preserving her honor, and the honor of her husband. Did she ever pressure az-Zubair by reminding him of her honorable lineage as the daughter of the noble Abu Bakr? She was patient for the hardship she went through, and was loving and respectful towards her husband. Can a woman be richer than Asmaa'?
Her father, Abu Bakr , was a rich merchant. Yet, she carried stones of dates on her head, and walked miles to get water and date seeds. She also dealt with horses and camels , baked bread, pleased her husband, yet would not takc decisions without him, even if it were an obvious decision for the pleasure of Allaah (swt).
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