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Showing posts from November 21, 2012

Virtues and significance of fasting on Ashura , the 10th of Muharam :

The Day of `Ashura' ( the 10 th of Muharam )  has great virtues .  Let us find out why ? “This is a blessed day. On this day Allah saved the Children of Israel from their enemy (in Egypt) and so Prophet  Musa  fasted on this day giving thanks to Allah.” The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, Please note Moses is called Musa in Arabic . The Prophet of mercy, Muhammad  ( peace be upon him  ) used to fast the  Day of `Ashura'  even in Mecca, though he had not yet ordered others to do so, as mentioned in both Bukhari and Muslim. [Bukhari (2002), Muslim (1125)] Ibn   ` Abbas   (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “I never saw Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) so keen to fast any day and give it priority over any other than this day, the day of ` Ashura ', and this month, meaning Ramadan.” (Al- Bukhari ,   Hadith   1867) In another   hadith   we are told that fasting the day of ` Ashura ' expiates the sins of the previous year as the P

Israel and Palestine conflict:

Let us all pray for  a cease fire and a peaceful resolution between Israel and Gaza located in Palestine " There is a huge cry these days by certain groups claiming that the Quran is anti-Semitic, even leading to certain of its translations being banned in various school districts in the United States of America. [1]   We read about the definition of anti-Semitism in the Jewish Encyclopedia: “The term ‘Anti-Semitism’ has its origin in the ethnological theory that the Jews, as Semites, are entirely different from the Aryan, or Indo-European, populations and can never be amalgamated with them.  The word implies that the Jews are not opposed on account of their religion, but on account of their racial characteristics.” [2] One will immediately realize from this statement that the Quran is not at all anti-Semitic, and that the verses which do reprimand the Jews are specific to certain transgressions they made in regards to their religion, and not in regard to their racial