Dr.Tareq Suwaidan on the Description of Prophet Muhammad (saw)

Friday Dec 22 8:27 pm

Blessed Body;

Height- not tall, not short a little over average
Color- White, a little reddish (arab white lol)
Joints- well built, large joints
Hands- large hands compared to avg person; long fingere but very very soft palms
"touching his hand was softer than silk" and very cold
Head- larger than average
Forehead- wider then average
Round Face- described as the full moon and really beautiful
Large black eyes- whiteness had some reddish color and extremely long eyelashes.
Straight cheeks
Thin nose- raised bone in the middle
Wide mouth- wide smile
Stomach- "as a folded paper" a six pack

-Straight, solid back
-Top back between shoulders towards the left is the seal of the prophets. Raised a little bit, reddish in colour with hair growing out of it and a lot of black dots around it.

Shoulders- large and wide
Leg- Thin and long
Feet- raised at the bottom
Hair- extremely black with only a few gray hairs, could count them. Large Beard and very black, Trimmed From bottom and the side.

-Cut mustache wasn't showed
Tall neck- Color of sliver always mentioned.
Wide chest with very little hair
-Smelled as perfume by those close to him
-Always known as handsome as a full moon

Whoever dreams of the Prophet (SAW) you're actually seen him as the devil can't resemble him. You must have seen him as described.

Dress

Prophet SAW dressed in every dress of Arabia. There's no such dress as an islamic specific dress. As long as it meets the conditions of a modest dress, it is fine.

Headcover- He wore all kinds, turbans wasn't the only thing he wore. Not Mandatory to cover head.

Coat- He wore yemeni covers, kaman, persians, etc. He had special ones for Eid and meeting diplomats.

Stick- a custom of the Quraish. Nothing religous.

Ring- He wore it on the left hand. Hadiths: He wore it on the right are incorrect. Silver with a jewel on the inside of his palm so it doesnt show.Companions started wearing them too; he took them off and threw them away so it doesnt be taken as a sunnah.

Walk- as if pulling his legs out. Difficult to catch up with him SAW.

*No one in history is described in as much detail as RasuAllah SAW"

-If he was thinking, he would scratch his beard. He would never interrupt and would turn his whole body to the one speaking to him (SAW) to give them his entire respect.

-Never shouted when Angry. So how would you know when He (SAW) was angry? *Face would turn red * a small vein between eyebrows would turn red.

Smile: His teeth would show and had small openings between them. He would cover his mouth when he was laughing.

-Never pointed with his finger, only with his full hand.

Wonder: would move his palms up and down

Ethics

Generousity: He never ever refused anybody for anything. he was poor because he kept no money.Khadijah's wealth- Quraysh but he kept after her death. when He had nothing to give; he would borrow to give.

Courage: Never ran away from a battle where Muslims were in trouble.
Khandaq: only 300 men were left and he didnt run away
Muwayn: aty of Taif Surprise attack and injured Khalid bin Waleed. Only 100 muslims left out of 10,000. he led them until they came back.

Ali narrates: greatest fights became really heated, we would make sure we were close to Him (SAW) because we knew he wouldnt run away.

Humbleness: Hijrah from Makkah to Madinah: They would ask which one was the Prophet(SAW)? Meaning He(SAW) was just like them.

Anger: Never shouted. Only got angry when someone would hurt others; even non-muslims or breaks law of Allah (SWT) intentionally. A True believer wouldnt curse or use foul language.

Calm: so calm that most of the time He SAW wasnt talking. He would share though and not keep quiet all the time. Refused for people to stand up for him when he came in.

Shyness: So shy that when someone used foul langauge he would cover his face. Always made sure others ate before him. Made sure he was covered.

-He was with Ayesha (RA) when AbuBakr came to visit. His thigh was exposed. Later Umar joined too. When Uthman came he covered himself. When he was asked by Ayesha why he covered when Uthman came and not when AbuBakr and Umar came, he said "Should I not be shy of whom the angels are shy of?"

Legal principles [Final] - Sh.Abdallah Bin Bayyah

Session 7 (RIS Retreat)
Final session
-notes by Br.Suleyman

4th principle: Harm should be removed

So anything that harms goes under this principle. In the Quran it either says not to do harm or to remove it.

Ex. not to harm women
- to remove harm from the road

A lot of times when the Prophet or Quran shows something is mubah (permissible) it starts with “there is no harm in….”

Ex. smoking – it is harmful for yourself, and it harms others so you can’t do it.

Shouldn’t harm neighbours i.e loud music.

You shouldn’t harm animals

You shouldn’t harm nature

Shouldn’t harm civilians in war.

And you shouldn’t harm other people’s reputation or your own. So speak well.

You should also not harm the intellect – i.e intoxicants

5th principle: Matters are considered based on their intentions

Islam is not rites and rituals, there’s a spirit, the spirit is the intention, the niyyah.

This gives life to the worship. Allah does not only look at the outward actions but He looks at your intention

Hadith – “actions are nothing without intention”

You can not change the intention after the action is done already.

You can do an action that is pure but the intention can make it impure. Or you can do an action that is impure but the intention can make it pure.

Ex. a bad action can become good if you lie to an army to help save civilians or if the army wants to harm people

In terms of oaths – the validity of the oath depends on the intention

Ex. “Wallah don’t go to him” you said this because that person owes you some money and you don’t want someone to go to him. But once that person pays you back, the intention of the oath was resolved, so the oath is over.

In terms of marriage, some people marry because of the intention of a green card.

Scholars have differed on the validity of such a marriage.

Gems of Light- Yahya Rhodus

Session 6 (RIS Retreat)
-notes by Br.Suleyman

Kitabul Arbaeen Al Asad by Imam Al ghazali

Love is one of the best inward qualities of a human being. Rasulullah has been given the title of Habeeballah.

Imam al Ghazali says that loving Allah is the highest station anyone can reach

The other stations that are lower and lead up to the stations of love are Tawbah, Shukr, Sabr and Taqwa. (repentance, gratefulness, patience,fear of Allah)

Many people associate justice with Islam but not really love. Christianity is more known for love than Islam is. It is important to note that Islam has a perfect balance between its spiritual aspect and its judicial aspect.

In a Hadith-ul Qudsi, the Prophet SAW has said “that the people that will drawn near to Me (Allah) will come near to Me (Allah) by performing incumbent acts as well as the nawafil (voluntary acts)”

You don’t have to be a scholar to attain the rank of being beloved to Allah

Chapter of Muhabbah

This chapter will cover:

-Why people love
-The ways of increasing love
-Gaining knowledge of Allah
-Why humans cant have true knowledge of Allah
-What it means for Allah to love a servant
-Signs of when a servant loves his lord

The Quran says “He loves them, and they love him. They are merciful towards the believers and stern in the path of the non-believer”

Allah says that if your fathers, brothers, mothers, wives etc. are more beloved to you then Allah and his messenger then you are among the fasiqeen.

“Love the prophet for the love of Allah”

So when you love the prophet, you love Allah.

To love Allah, is to follow this commands.

There is no way to sense Allah. You can’t rationalize the essence of Allah, Allah is above anything that you imagine of him.

The Prophet SAW said that his love in this dunya was women, musk and the coolness of his eyes was the salaah.

Everything that is pleasurable to humans are beloved to them.

Before Human’s love something they have to have knowledge and understanding of it.

Two types of human perceptions are outward perceptions and inward perceptions

Outward are the 5 senses. For the eye, the pleasure is beautiful forms. Ears like rhythmically balanced sounds, smell and test like things like food and musk. People like to feel soft things. The self inclines towards all of these things

The inward sense is the 6th sense which is through the heart. When the Prophet said that the coolness of his eyes is the prayer, he means through the sense of his heart.

Legal Principles II - Sh. Abdullah bin Bayyah

Session 4 (RIS Retreat)
-notes by Br.Suleyman

3rd principle: Custom has legal weight

Sometimes customs are apart of Islam.

Customs are defined as the culture of a society.

Islam encourages following the customs of your society, in the Quran it says “practice your customs with what is good”

There are 3 categories of customs in the shareeah:

1. Islam rejects
- in jahiliyyah, the custom of boasting, idolatry and burying baby daughters alive were customs of the Arabs before the prophet SAW, but Islam rejects them.

2. Accepts it

3. Calibrated the customs

- some were good, some were bad, so Islam purified the bad.

There are 2 types of customs.

1. How people speak:

- different expressions, different ways of indicating different things.

ex. in western custom, when someone says “we’re through” it means that the couple has broken up.

2. How people act:
- how people do things – i.e body language, signs – middle finger = crude.

Many things in Islam depend on the custom of the society that you are in.

Ex. the custom for today is that when you go to the convenient store to buy something, there is little to no words when buying, you just put the gum or whatever on the counter and put the money without talking with the cashier.

Imam Shafi said that this transaction is invalid, and you have to talk to the person in order for the transaction to be valid.

The other Imams said it was okay because it is the custom of the people.

The Tree of Spiritual Knowledge and States- Zaid Shakir

Session 3
Shajara al-Ma'arif w'al-Ahwal : “The Tree of Spiritual Knowledge and States” by Al-'Izz bin 'Abd as-Salaam- (RIS Retreat)
-notes by Br.Suleyman

Al Izz passed away on the year 660 Hijri, His life coincided with Imam Nawawi. His life was 1219 to 196 C.E

His students were Ibn Taqeeq and Sharfudeen.

He wrote a book: Shajara al ma’arif wal ahwal.

He was from Egypt, before him, all the shaykhs would give fatwa. When he arrived, no one dared to give fatwa in his presence. so he was a great scholar.

He was originally from Syria, but got banished so he went to Egypt

One time, Salih Ismail, the sultan of Damascus was in a power struggle with his nephew, who was the Egyptian sultan. As a result he allied with the crusaders. Because of this, al Izz gave fatwa against him, so the sultan banished him, and he went to Egypt, where Najumuddin, salih’s nephew was. He was appointed the chief judge.

Al Izz was not afraid of anyone and stood up for justice and against corruption. He told Najmuddin that Allah has given you this dominion and yet you allow alcohol and other transgressions in it. This forced him in to destroying a wine establishment.

Al Izz said, he is not afraid of people because whenever he compares them to Allah, the person is like a pussy cat.

Starting of the Book Reading
Opens with a section dealing with the ettiquettes of the Quran.

1. To adorn oneself with the characteristics of worship to Allah, i.e humility, ikhlaas etc.

2. To adorn oneself with some of the attributes of ruboobiyah, i.e justice and goodness.

The attributes of Allah are of two types:

1. Those which are specific to him (pre-existing nature, eternal)

2. Those which can be adorned by humans.

For example, Allah is beautiful and he loves beauty.

Next Section

-The fruits of Knowledge and its benefits

Knowledge means two things:

1. Knowledge that is acquired
2. Knowledge whose manifestations can be perceived, but it, itself can not be perceived, i.e knowledge of Allah’s essence. no one knows what Allah looks like, it can not be perceived.

The most virtuous acquired knowledge, is the knowledge of Allah.

This knowledge commands every good.

To have knowledge of the quranic rulings and commands, will help to make you obedient to Allah. Knowledge of the quranic references to faith will make you have more Iman.

Knowledge causes elevation of state, lofty speech and pleasing actions.

At the level of sharee'ah, the world is something to be enjoyed, within the limits.

The best enjoyment is a virtuous spouse.

The fruit of the knowledge of the lowliness of the dunya is hastness to going to the here after

So there are different fruits for different knowledge, as mentioned before (i.e strong faith, obedience)

One of the purposes of divine knowledge is to realize your true nature which is that you have a spiritual being, as well as a physical being. But the main being is your spiritual one. The physical being is shared with the animals, but we have a spiritual being as well. People who don’t have divine knowledge, do not enjoy the fruit of realizing you have a spiritual state.

History of Islam- Dr. Tareq Suwaidan

Session 2
RIS Retreat
-notes by Br.Suleyman

Era of the Prophet SAW (571-632) (53 BH (before hijri) – 11 AH)

571 – Prophet Muhammad (saw) is born

576 – Mother died

578 – Given under the care of abdul muttallib

595 – Married to Khadijah (RA)

610 – Received wahi

- The Prophet never worshipped idols, he followed Ibrahim’s religion, he went to Hira to meditate.

613 – Declaration at Mount Safa, inviting all to Islam

615 – Small party migrates to Abyssinia for two reasons:

1. Torture
2. Establishing escape from Arabia – if the Persians would try to take Saudi Arabia over.

617 – Boycott of Hashemites, they settled in a valley

- more Muslims migrate

619 – boycott was liften, abu talib died, and 3 days later khadijah dies

620 – Miraaj

- Went to Taif
- In 13 years there were only 150 Muslims

622 AD – 0 AH – Migration to Madinah

Madinah had 3 groups:

-Jews
-Aws
-Khzaraj

- this is the start of the Islamic calendar. Umar is the one who decided this date as the start

623 – 2 – Battle of Badr

624 – 3 – Battle of Uhud

626 – 5 – Battle of Khandaq

627 – 6 – Treaty of Hudaibiya

- This is when Islam spread a lot, when there was peace

628 – 7 – Battle of khaibar

629 – 8 – Battle of Mutah

- Makkans violate treaty

- Conquest of Makkah

- Battle of Hunayn (Ta’if)

630 – 9 – Battle of Tabook

- Year of delegations

631 – 10 – Muhammad performs hajj
- last verse of the Quran was revealed, Islam was complete.

632 – 11 – Muhammad dies

Era of Khulifah Rashidun (632-661)(11-41)

632 – 634 11 – 13

Abu bakr is chosen as khalifah unanimously. Ali was delayed in giving bayah because when AbuBakr denied Fatima to get the inheritance from the Prophet, Fatimah was upset with AbuBakr and so Ali did not want to upset Fatima by giving bayah to AbuBakr, so he waited till after Fatima passed away to give bayah.

- Battle of apostates
- Battles in Persia and iraq
- Compilation of the Quran
- Battle of Yarmook, Muslims conquer Rome

634 – 13 – Umar became khalifah

- Took Khalid Bin Waleed out of leadership

635 – 14 – Islam conquers Persians.

636 – 732 – 15 – 11

Life of the famous poet, Al Farazdaq who was a poet since the age of 15. He was a shia, so his poems were about the relatives of the Prophet.

His rival was Jareer, they had written poems against each other.

One day, Al Farazdaq looked for Jareer and saw a man from his city. He asked the man for Jareer’s latest poem. The man recited it, but when the man got to the last part of the sentence, Farazdaq would finish it for him, even though he never heard the poem before. that is how well they knew each other.

636 – 15 Muslims take Jerusalem

- The agreement between Umar and Jerusalem

- When umar found Masjid-ul Aqsa, he found that it was used as a garbage dump! Umar and his companions cleaned it out themselves!

641 – 20 – Muslims conquer Egypt and Persia.

642 – 21 – Muslims took Syria and Palestine.

643 – 23 – Umar was assassinated by Abu lu’lu, Uthman was elected for khalifah

644 – 650 24 – 30 – Muslims conquered Cyprus, Iran and Afghanistan

645 – 24 – Death of Al Khansa. She was a famous arab poet. Before she was Muslim, her brother died and she wrote so much grieving poetry – this is known as the best grieving poetry ever. but she mourned sooo much. but once she became Muslim, she stopped grieving because she submitted to Allah’s will.

646 – 25 – Death of Ka’b bin ZOHAIR. He wrote poetry praising the Prophet directly. Meaning he was reciting the poem to the Prophet.

650 – 732 30 - ? – the life of Jarir. He was a great all around poet.

651 – 31 – First naval battle of the Muslims, Constatine was killed

656 – 35 – Uprising against Uthman
The revolution killed Uthman and ruled the Muslims for 3 days. They were the ones who were leading the salaah in the Prophet’s mosque.

Ali became khalifah, but decided not to deal with the revolutionaries just yet for many reasons.

1. There was too much chaos in Madinah, so he needed to fix that first.

2. He did not know who the killer was, so there needed to be a fair trial.

Aeysha and Talha decided to put matters into their own hands since Ali wouldn’t do anything right then. They went to Basrah to get more numbers. They entered Basrah against the leader of Basrah’s permission. Bo the leader didn’t allow Aeysha and Talha in because it was against Ali’s orders. They entered forcefully and some Muslims were killed. Ali tried to make peace so he lead an army to Basrah asking what Aeysha’s army wanted. She said that they won’t give bayah to him until Ali gets the murderer of Uthman. Ali agreed, but the revolutionaries wanted to stop this so they ignited a battle, and so there was the battle between Aeisha’s and Ali’s army.

The battle finally ended later on.

657 – 37 – Battle of Sifeen

Syria was not under Ali, Syria was under Mua'wiah and so Ali went to Syria with an army. Mu’awiah was told by Uthman’s wife to avenge Uthman’s death, so he refused to give bayah to Ali until all of the people involved in the killing of Uthman, would be put to death. Ali said that nothing would happen without a fair trial.

And so the battle of Sifeen started.

Legal principles I - Sh. Abdullah bin Bayyah

Session 1
(RIS Retreat)
-notes by Br.Suleyman

There are 5 famous principles of Shariah. These principles are the root of the shariah of our deen.

During the Prophet’s time, the Shariah was not written down, there were oral transmissions. The Quran was written down, and some Hadith were.

During the first century of Islam, ibn shihab collected the Hadith

So from here you had different collections of Hadith. From the principles that were in the Hadith, people derived the shareeah. Even though the shareeah was complete at Rasulullah’s time, different situations occurred so there were different schools of though.

From these constant derivation from Quran and Hadith, there were common principles for these derivations. These were the 5 principles of sharee'ah.

1. Certainty is not removed by doubt

2. Difficulties demand relief

3. Harm must be removed

4. Custom has legal weight

5. Matters are considered, based on their intentions

These qawaid (principles) became written down and they were set principles for deriving shareah.

The first qa’idah (principle): Certainty is not removed by doubt

Doubts are not given consideration in light of certainty.

Allah says in the Quran that kaafirs only follow what they think, they are in doubt and have no foundations.

This means that Muslims should have certainty in their actions.

All of the aqeedah, fiqh, Ibadaah etc. follow this principle.
An example of this principle is if you did wudhu (this is the certainty) and if you don’t know if you kept it or not (this is the doubt). then you go with the certainty, which is that you did the wudhu and remove the doubt, which is whether or not you kept it.

The same applies in Salaah – i.e if you are praying and you are on the 2nd rakaah and you are not sure if it is the 3rd, you go with the certainty which is the 2nd.

for legal issues (dept, stealing etc.) the certainty must have proof. So everyone is innocent until proven guilty. There is a lesson in this, which is not to be suspicious of people unless valid proof is given.

Everything is assumed pure, unless there is a reason why it is impure

Everything is permissible unless proven impermissible.

Second principle: Hardship necessitates facilities

Allah is aware of the weakness of mankind and he says in the Quran many times that He wants to lighten your burden.

A person’s life fluctuates, meaning he is born into weakness (baby/child) then gets older and strong (youth) and then they are back to weak.

For this reason circumstances change for hardship. When you are old, you are not able to do things that you were able to do when you were in your youth.

When one is healthy they can do many things, but if they get sick, there is hardship and they can’t do some of things they could do when they were healthy.

Wealthy people can do things that poor people can’t (i.e give sadaqah etc.)

Allah says “with difficulty becomes easy”

Rasulullah tells people to make things easy

The aim of the shareah is to make things easy for people.

Shaytan makes things difficult

So a person’s obligation is only to the degree of a persons burden.

So if it is time for jihad – that is an obligation, but if you have a severe flu, you won’t be able to fight and so you don’t have to fulfill the obligation because that would be a burden greater than you could bare.

Another example is at the time of Rasulullah (saw) companions were being tortured – much hardship, and so rasulullah permitted them giving into the torturers demand, as long as they didn’t mean it in their heart.

Example with hajj, if you are not financially or physically capable it is not an obligation.