Introductory Post

As-salaam-ul-ailakum Readers,

I am Nida Bhatti and will also be posting on IslamBites along with my talented friend Samia. Well, I'll be posting whenever Allah (SWT) permits or gives me enough inspiration to write.

What I really wanted to write about today was the history of Islam and how we can still apply it to our lives today. Now, of course, due to limited time and space, I can't give you the full account of everything that happened - there's enough information to fill a book, several books in fact. But what I aim to do, Inshallah, is to take certain aspects of our modern lives and relate them to the Prophet's (SAW) life.

But before I begin, I wanted to share this video that a friend of mine showed me on Thursday. It's about this man, Ruben, who went on a "Holy Quest" and after exploring every major religion, decided to convert to Islam and change his name to Abu Bakr. It's quite funny as well, so I definitely recommend that you watch it.

Part 1:

Part 2:

When he said "I've never been kissed by that many men, in my life. It was a beautiful day I must admit. That day was the day I had more brothers than I could imagine, more sisters as well..." it got me thinking about the Islamic community. We are, in fact, supposed to be a very loving and polite Ummah. Now, it is a well known fact that the Prophet (SAW) was the epitome of good manners and greatly loved by all his Companions and followers. Even Abu Sufyan, his enemy at the time, told Caesar how well mannered, honest and trust-worthy the Messenger of Allah (SAW) was. And his (SAW) is the behaviour we ought to be imitating.

One of the easy things we can do to "spread the love" is just greet every brother/sister in Islam, that we meet, with a smile and the proper greeting 'As-salaam-u-alaikum Wa-rehmatullahi Wa-barakatuhu'. By saying this, we are asking Allah (SWT) to bestow peace, mercy and blessing upon that person because:

1) Salaam means peace in Arabic - in fact, word Islam is also derived from salaam as well.

2) Rehmat means mercy

3) Baraka is Arabic for blessing

Now, what I don't understand is that how can the religion that takes it's name from the word peace and encourages us to greet people with peace, mercy and blessings, also be the religion of violence and terrorism, as today's media portray's it to be?

Which reminds me! The Prophet (SAW) would never condone acts of violence, like 9/11, that involved killing innocent people. Just take for example Abu Dujanah (Radiallahu-anhu):

It is narrated in Al-Bukhari, that on the eve of the Battle of Uhud, Muhammed (SAW) gave his sword to Abu Dujanah (RAN). This made him really excited and he started strutting around the Muslim's camp, wearing his red bandanna, the sword raised above his head saying things like: I've got a special sword. I'm going to kill lots of evil people. [Note: this is not an exact quote.] To which the Prophet (SAW) replied:

"This is a sort of walking that Allah hates, except in such a situation."

[Aside: I can just image Muhammed (SAW) saying that with a smile on his face, or even laughing.] So the next day, there's Abu Dujanah (RAN) - a big, fierce, 200-push-ups-a-day sort of a man - in the midst of the heated battle, swinging the sword around, hacking away at the enemy, the Quaraish, when he suddenly stops. Because there in front of him is a woman. (You see, the Quaraish soldiers used to bring their wives and slave-women along to the wars with them so that they would "encourage and arouse" the men before battle). Az-Zubair bin Al-Awwam (RAN), who witnessed this incident, said:

"Into the thick of the battle, he (Abu Dujanah RAN) rushed to kill a person who was inciting the enemy to fight the Muslims. Upon this, the person shrieked and lo! it was a woman. Abu Dujanah spared her saying 'I respect the Prophet and his sword too much to use it on a woman.'" (i.e. the Prophet would not have been happy about the cold hearted killing of a woman.)

On a side note, I just briefly wanted to mention Jihad. Jihad actually means to struggle in the cause of Allah. Now, this struggle can be as simple and as personal as a struggle against your inner demons, it doesn't have to be an all out war. And as for those people who commit heinous crimes (like killing innocent people) in the name of "Jihad", have not read the Qur'an or don't actually understand it and the ideology of Islam. Only Allah (SWT) knows best.

Anyway, I think that's quite enough from me today. Take care my brothers and sisters.
Fi-anamullah
Nida