1.
I was traveling for Hajj. With me there was a band of travelers who were going for the Hajj or the Holy Pilgrimage to Mecca. When we reached the town of Kufa I went to the local bazaar to buy some essential goods. On the way at a deserted place I saw carcass of a donkey and a woman with torn clothes was cutting flesh from it and putting into a bag.
I thought to myself: I must follow her to check whether this woman was a meat seller and whether she is taking this meat to sell at a shop in the marketplace. Then very carefully and quietly I started following her. I found that the woman entered into a house, which seemed to be her residence. She had four daughters there. All of them had sign of extreme poverty and suffering. I saw the condition of their home to be very poor, there was hardly any furniture. As I was waiting just outside, I heard the woman in a teary voice speaking to her daughters: “Take and eat this meat and express gratitude to Allah.”
The girls started cooking the meat and in seeing this my heart was filled with grief.
Then I called out, “O servants of Allah, for the sake of Allah do not eat this meat.” (In Islam meat of dead animal is not halal, not permitted / non-kosher).
Then they asked me, “Who are you?”
I replied, “I am a wayfarer.” Then the woman asked me, “Why have you come to us? We are prisoner of our fate. For the last three years we have no one to help us. The father of these girl was a very good person. He wanted to marry these daughters to good family, but death did not give him the opportunity. He has returned to his Lord. Whatever wealth he left are finished. We know that it is not permissible to eat meat of dead animal. But we are starving for four days. That is why it has become permissible for us.”
Rabee Ibn Soleman then described, hearing their tale I started to cry and returned to my lodge to bring the Ihram (piece of clothe reserved for the holy Pilgrimage), all the goods that I had, and six hundred dirham (currency of that time). On my way I bought flour with hundred dirham, clothes with another hundred dirham and placed the remaining dirham in the flour sac.
Upon reaching their house, the woman then expressed her gratitude to me and prayed saying thus, “O Ibn Soleman, May Allah forgive all your past sins and all the sins in the future and may Allah give you place in the Paradise. And May Allah reward you with such a reward which soon to manifest before you.”
Her elder daughter prayerfully said, “May Allah give you double reward and may Allah forgive all your wrong doings.”
The second daughter said, “Whatever you have donated, may Allah give you much more than this.”
The third daughter said, “May Allah grant you that you unite with our grand father Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam on the Day of Judgment.”
And the youngest one supplicated, “O Allah! He who has been so kind to us, please speedily grant him good returning reward.”
Soleman continues, “By then the band of the Pilgrims have left for Mecca and I stayed back in Kufa, for I had no provision left for the long journey to Mecca. Then they returned after the completion of Hajj. I wanted to congratulate them and ask them for blessing. When I met the first band of Pilgrims I congratulated them and said, “May Allah accept you Hajj.” Then one of them said in wonder (for they saw him participating at the Hajj), “Were you not with us? Didn’t you yourself performed the Hajj with us? Were you not in the plain of Arafat? Did you not circumbulate with us?”
man amana rabah
Whosoever trade with Us, becomes a profiteer.
This is yours, please accept what belongs to you.”
Rabee Ibn Soleman later described, “I've never seen this bag before. Nevertheless because of their persistence I brought it with me at home and after the night prayer I recited my prescribed litanies. Then I contemplated on what happened!
Meanwhile I fell asleep and in my vision I was granted the good fortune to meet the Holy Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. I greeted him with greeting of peace and kissed his holy hand. He replied with a smile and said, “Ya Rabee! How many witness do I have to present to you before you will accept it's validity?
Listen! This is what happened: When you donated everything that you had to that lady who is from my blood and in doing so you postponed your desire to go to Hajj, then I made supplication for you at the Court of Allah so that you be awarded with even better gifts. Then Allah sent an angel in your exact shape and form and commanded that he perform pilgrimage every year on your behalf, until the Day of Judgment. And Allah also returned your six hundred dirham in the world with six hundred gold coins, so that you may find peace and satisfaction.”
After this the Holy Prophet pronounced this sentence, "Whosoever trade with Us, become a profiteer."
When I awoke from my dream and sleep, I found the bag is with me and there were six hundred gold coins inside it. All praise, glory, beauty, love and grace belongs to Allah.
- Translated from Shapna Jagate Priyo Nabi (s), (Beloved Prophet in the realm of Dream) by Maulana Mohammad Aminul Islam. The incident is recorded in the title, Siratunnabi ba'd aj Vesalunnabi.
2.
People whom neither commerce nor worldly transactions can divert from the Remembrance of Allah, nor from regular Prayer, nor from the practice of regular Charity: Their (only) awareness and concern is for the Awesome Day when hearts and eyes will be transformed (in a world wholly new).
That Allah may reward them according to the best of their deeds, and add even more for them out of His Grace: for Allah provides for those whom He will, without measure.
But the Unbelievers,- their deeds are like a mirage in sandy deserts, which the man parched with thirst mistakes for water; until when he comes up to it, he finds it to be nothing: But he finds Allah (ever) with him, and Allah will pay him his account: and Allah is swift in taking account.
- The Quran, Chapter of Light, verses 37-39
3.
A real believer who believes in the true reality of the hereafter will always think of those transactions, the ever lasting profit of which is gained in the eternal life, in the Kingdom of God. Alas! If we were those who have certainty in the rewards of the Hereafter, we would have become people racing to do good in this world to ripe its reward in the Kingdom. This life is the harvesting ground of the Hereafter. Faith is actualized through action. It is through engagement with sacred actions that we not only testify for our faith but also strengthen it, increase our capacity of the heart to contain greater certainty of True Reality.
Fortunately we do have plenty of opportunities to engage in such sacred actions for which perpetual blessings can be gained. One such opportunity is to support the reprinting of the Tajwidi Qur'an, one of the best contemporary translation of the Words of God made available to us and many in present time, specially for Westerners. Shaykh Nooruddeen Durkee’s transliteration/translation of the Tajwidi Qur’an has been a blessing for us all. This is a very valuable guide for non-Arabic readers to the pronunciation of the original text and to understanding some of the meanings revealed in the glorious Quran.
Tajwidi Qur'an is translated and transliterated into English from Arabic. The transliteration (based on Mesa and Hart's rules) is clear and accurate, and is found directly opposite its Arabic counterpart. The language is respectful yet contemporary and very understandable. Additions to or ‘bridges’ in the text, necessary for the sake of English reading, are clearly distinguished by brackets and contain no editorial comment.
In 1994, Shaykh Abdullah Noorudeen Durkee, may Allah bless him and grant him good health, began this work while living in Alexandria, Egypt, as an aid to non-Arabic readers of the Qur'an. After it was completed in 2000, he sent it to a select group of Arabic scholars, speakers and readers as well as to a representative cross-section of Muslim readers for further review and correction. This latter stage, coupled with careful revisions of form, layout and design, took 3 more years. It was printed and bound during Ramadan 1424-2003.
At the moment there is an appeal posted at Green Mountain School to help reprint another five thousand copies of Tajwidi Qur'an. There are some suggested ways in which anyone can contribute in this project. Click on the banner image below to learn more about how you may engage. May Allah increase our capacity to do what is good, beautiful and pleasing to Him. May each of our noble intention and action be accepted and rewarded by the Most Generous One.
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| Click here to learn about an opportunity to engage to contribute to printing and spreading the Quran |
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