For Islam.By Muslims.: July 2008

Barley: Good in fever, while use in a soup form.
Dates: The Prophet (SAW) said that a house without dates has no food. It should also be eaten at the time of childbirth.
Figs: It is a fruit from paradise and a cure for piles.
Grapes: The Prophet (SAW) was very fond of grapes - it purifies the blood, provides vigour and health, strengthens the kidneys and clears the bowels.
Honey: Considered the best remedy for diarrhoea when mixed in hot water. It is the food of foods, drink of drinks and drug of drugs. It is used for creating appetite, strengthening the stomach, eliminating phlegm; as a meat preservative, hair conditioner, eye soother and mouthwash. It is extremely beneficial in the morning in warm water.
Melon: The Prophet (SAW) said: 'None of your women who are pregnant and eat of water melon will fail to produce off spring that is good in countenance and good in character.'
Milk: The Prophet (SAW) said that milk wipes away heat from the heart just as the finger wipes away sweat from the brow. It strengthens the back, improved the brain, renews vision and drives away forgetfulness..
Mushroom: The Prophet (SAW) said that mushroom is a good cure for the eyes; it also serves as a form of birth control and arrests paralysis.
Olive Oil: Excellent treatment for skin and hair, delays old age, and treats inflammation of the stomach.
Pomegranate: The Prophet (SAW) said it cleanses you of Satan and evil aspirations for 40 days.
Vinegar: A food Prophet Muhammad (SAW) used to eat with olive oil. [That's now a fashion in elite Italian Restaurants]
Water: The Prophet (SAW) said the best drink in this world is water, when you are thirsty drink it by sips and not gulps, gulping produces sickness of the liver.

Recently, i have felt the strong want to perform the Haj or at least step into the holy city and ----around the Ka'bah. I wonder if i am blessed enough for that to happen before i meet my lord. Insyallah, if he wills. I have heard stories about how some rich and very affluent are unable to execute their Haj pilgrimage though it was coupled with perfect and careful planning. It is all in his hands, really.

I came across the following article in The Muslim Reader (vol.26) which moved me a lot and only brought me closer to my vision. The article is written by a brother Salman W. Morrison.
Insyallah, I hope it touches your heart too :)

-----------------------------------------------
I had known that the country around the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah (being in the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia) was somewhat barren, but the utter desolation of it took me by surprise on my first Haj in December 2007.

There were seemingly endless natural piles of rock – mostly in hillocks (whose size and ubiquity reminded me somewhat of the countryside around Seoul in South Korea). However, they weren’t all hillocks; barren peaks towered around the city of Makkah, including the one which contained the cave (and the miraculous cobweb and bird’s nest) of the Prophet Muhammad (s,a.w)’s escape, in the face of a death hunt from the city.
I travelled for hours by bus between Madinah and Makkah and saw nothing living in the landscape.
The ZamZam Spring
In most places there is no water. Even now, the water from bore-holes in Makkah is “hard”. In this context, the holy zamzam water takes on a special significance. The remarkable zamzam spring – it was uncovered by Ibrahim (alahu-salaam)‘s wife Hajar at the command of Allah(s.w.t)-under what was to become the Grand Mosque of MAkkah seems to increase in flow the greater the number of Hajis.

In the natural desolation of Makkah and Madinah was the Divine Wisdom of Allah: He made these cities the centre of Islam.

The big powers at the time of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w)-circa 600 CE – were the Byzantine and Persian Empires. They were also centres of culture in the world. The western part of Arabia, including Makkah and Madinah, was seen as a cultural backwater.

A Land with No Prize
If it had been suggested to any Persian or Byzantine general that he lead a military force to western Arabia, his first question would have been: Why? He would have pointed out that there was literally nothing along the way – often not even water – only hillocks of rock, behind any of which could be an enemy waiting in ambush. And when the invading force reached relatively poor (by human standards) Makkah or Madinah, there would be no prize, no booty. It would be prize of sorts for the “conquering “soldiers to slake their thirst.

So the region, including Madinah – and the Kabah which makes Makkah the qiblah of the Muslim world – was left alone by outside powers. The Kabah has remained protected up to now and Insha’Allah, it will stay invulnerable as long as there are pilgrims. (There was of course fierce domestic opposition to Islam, including fighting and battles. Rich spiritual lessons from the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w)’s struggles, eventually victorious, make up much of the Holy Quran).

The reverse was also true about the relative material poverty of both holy cities. Who would have guessed that from this “backwater” region, the Muslims would emerge to conquer Arabia itself, the neighbouring countries, North Africa and Anatolia? That Persia would become an Islamic power. And that eventually the muslims would take the message of Islam to central Asia, India, China and Southeast Asia. The region around Makkah and Madinah was ideal in which to build a powerful movement relatively unmolested by outside powers.

Such is the divine wisdom of Allah. To me, this is inspirational. It tells me never to look at a situation from a wordly point of view, and that if Allah wants something to happen – no matter how impossible it may seem to us – it happens.

During the Haj period, there is no untaken sleeping space in Makkah. The space in a hotel measured and it fits 3 beds, then 3 will go in. My main impression of Makkah is that perhaps, up to 2.5million people praying in or around the floors of the Grand Mosque.

In the enormous crowd is the reason for this pilgrimage – the salaat and the connection with Allah (s.w.t.).The concentration upon this, and the crowds of Hajis entering and leaving the mosque, channels your spiritual efforts.

All pilgrims are dressed the same – simply – so that all appear to be on the poor side, whether they are the company boss or the worker from the factory floor. It occurred to me that, first, hardly because those Hajis clad simply in Ihram cloth, this was the closest I would come in this world to seeing a multitude as on judgement day (I may be right or wrong on this) and that, second we are all poor in God’s sight. Material wealth does not matter.

Personal Reflections on Haj
My lessons from the Haj are few but, to me, profound. One if humility – I am still learning this. Another is that I have previously regarded death and judgement day, while major turning points in my life, as distance … well, as distance I could make them. Now, suddenly, Allah was in my face to use modern parlance, and death- only God knows when we will leave this world – and judgement day were right up close. For all I know, they might begin to happen immediately.

Another source of knowledge and wisdom for me was discussions with the Singapore malay men in mine and other groups. Often I was asked where I was from and how it was that I , as the lone Caucasion, was in a Singapore group. My answer was that while I was from New Zealand, I was a Muslim from Singapore. Singapore is where I converted nearly 27 years ago and where I now live, so It is logical that I perform the Haj from here.

My Singapore group visited Madinah first. Ideally I would reverse the order, visiting Makkah first and then Madinah. This of course, simply depends on which tour you choose from the travel agency.

Why would I go to Makkah first? Because Madinah, at least when I visited there, had the normal amenities of the city. When I was in Madinah before the Haj – it was a shade less congested then Makkah, and my hotel had wonderful buffet meals of mainly Southeast Asian cuisine. However, because of the immense crowd waiting to visit both holy cities, the authorities have to spread the Hajis between them.

The Prophet’s (s.a.w) Mosque
Masjib Nabawie, the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad(s.a.w) in Madinah is awe –inspiring. The Masjid is beautiful. And its main floor is so large that, depending on which door you exit the masjid from, you will be in a different part of the surrounding city. Masjid Qiblatain, a short bus ride away, is where God told the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) to pray towards Makkah, not Jerusallem.

To me, to visit Madinah after Makkah is almost a reward. In Makkah one performs salaat, the also the circumambulation of the Kabah and the longer walk –and-run of the Sai-ee honouring Hajar’s search for water for herself and her baby, Ishmael(AS), the progenitor of the Arab people. In Madinah, there is salat, in Masjid Nabawie, if one is staying in the centre of the city.

The Burial Ground of Islamic Soldiers
An eye-opener for me, as a westerner, was the historic battles site we visited in Makkah and Madinah. In a western setting, it is customary to encounter a monument honouring the fallen and a manicured area at suche a commemorative site containing the graves, among which visitors walk. In the holy cities, there was of course plenty of information about the historic battles, the sites of which we looked at through iron railings around the perimeter. The sites themselves were bare brown earth, it being the burial ground of the Islamic soldiers and their foes.

The spectre of stampedes in the Haj was fresh in the memory, but there was much concrete being laid all the time to prevent such accidents. My impression is that every facility that is deemed to require a bigger space for millions of Hajis is being expanded. Renovative construction work was being carried out down one side of the Grand Mosque in Makkah and at the pits where one stones Shaytan.

The stoning of Shaytan pits have been transformed. The first of the three ‘stoning pits’ is capacious; before it was rebuilt, said one Haji who remembered, the throwing area was small compared to the present installation. From the outside now, the first well looks like the intersection of the highway flyovers, beneath which is the stoning well. My main impression of the pit and the area around is of space – lots of it – though nearly 3 million people in a continuous stream are casting stones at Shaytan.

The other two stoning pits are an example of the wealth and effort being made in expansion efforts. Both pits are at one mammoth installation at which work is continuing. At present, only one floor(the ground) is in operation. But it handles the crowd without any seeming risk to harm anyone, Inshallah.

The second floor looks like a flyover under construction, but I was told that only pedestrians will go up on the broad elevated walkway into the second floor, which is probably as spacious as the one beneath it. This installation, on which no concrete is being spared, clearly is being built for years to come.

For Islam.By Muslims.

Feedback please :)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

12 Foods of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w)

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Zin Reading the Quran in Dubai

Saturday, July 5, 2008

In the desolation of the Haj country, Divine Wisdom

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Upcoming Talks ...