I wake up in a society that shuns me, it shuns my religion and distorts my place within it until everyone is lead to believe that my religion actually oppresses me. A sad reality. My religion has been established to give my kind liberty and lift us from the soil society buried us in. My […]
I smiled as I searched down the alphabetically-ordered index of my newly acquired English-Arabic Quran. Instead of a series of verse references next to the word I was searching for, I found: “This word occurs more than 200 times in the Noble Quran. Mentioning every place will make the index very big”. That word was […]
The last verse of Surah Al-Fatiha categorises mankind into three different groups. After having asked Allah (swt) to be guided to the right path, verse 7 elaborates on this path and mentions: “The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favour, not of those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are […]
Another dimension found in this chapter is the concept of requesting and asking from Allah (swt). After mentioning some of the Creator’s attributes and confessing that our sole worship belongs to Him alone, we then make a request to Allah (swt). In such an important chapter of the Qur’an, what is being asked also needs […]
The fifth verse of the first chapter of the Holy Qur’an emphasises that the exclusivity of worship and seeking help belongs to Allah (swt) as it is stated: “It is You we worship and You we ask for help” (1:5). The tone of this verse changes compared to the previous ones, as where verses 1 […]
Continuing our discussion about the infinite general and specific mercy of Allah (swt) and how we should also exhibit such compassion to those around us, the following verse places the human being between fear and hope (Khawf wa Raja’). Up to this verse the individual becomes hopeful in the mercy of Allah (swt); but before […]