Remember how when he was in the wife's -- in the house of Umm Salamah, radhi allahu anha, and he said, "what do you have for us today?" And she said, "Only vinegar." And he said, "The best nutrition is vinegar." And she brought him some broken bread, and he had it with the vinegar. And when he, salallahu alayhi wa salam, said, "the best nutrition is vinegar" ... you know that's not tech- ... well, we can't say that it's not correct. So we can't even say that sentence. But it's, as commentary, our masters, radhi allah anhum, said, "it is understood" -- see how they're eloquent, radhi allahu anhum -- they say, "it is understood that vinegar is not the best of nutrition." See? They didn't say it, even though that's not true, because that's not good adab with the messenger, salallahu alayhi wa salam. But they said, "Though it is known that vinegar is not the best nutrition, out of kindness and mercy he, salallahu alayhi wa salam, said, in other words, whatever it is that you have will be wonderful. It is the best nutrition -- whatever it is in your house, it is the best nutrition for us."

- Shaykh Abdullah Adhami, in his lecture on love for the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa salam.

Labels: daily reads

There was the method of kneeling,
a fine method, if you lived in a country
where stones were smooth.
The women dreamed wistfully of bleached courtyards,
hidden corners where knee fit rock.
Their prayers were weathered rib bones,
small calcium words uttered in sequence,
as if this shedding of syllables could somehow
fuse them to the sky.

There were the men who had been shepherds so long
they walked like sheep.
Under the olive trees, they raised their arms --
Hear us! We have pain on earth!
We have so much pain there is no place to store it!
But the olives bobbed peacefully
in fragrant buckets of vinegar and thyme.
At night the men ate heartily, flat bread and white cheese,
and were happy in spite of the pain,
because there was also happiness.

Some prized the pilgrimage,
wrapping themselves in new white linen
to ride buses across miles of vacant sand.
When they arrived at Mecca
they would circle the holy places,
on foot, many times,
they would bend to kiss the earth
and return, their lean faces housing mystery.

While for certain cousins and grandmothers
the pilgrimage occurred daily,
lugging water from the spring
or balancing the baskets of grapes.
These were the ones present at births,
humming quietly to perspiring mothers.
The ones stitching intricate needlework into children's dresses,
forgetting how easily children soil clothes.

There were those who didn't care about praying.
The young ones. The ones who had been to America.
They told the old ones, you are wasting your time.
     Time? -- The old ones prayed for the young ones.
They prayed for Allah to mend their brains,
for the twig, the round moon,
to speak suddenly in a commanding tone.

And occasionally there would be one
who did none of this,
the old man Fowzi, for example, Fowzi the fool,
who beat everyone at dominoes,
insisted he spoke with God as he spoke with goats,
and was famous for his laugh.

- Different Ways to Pray, by Naomi Shihab Nye.

Labels: daily reads

"His family life seems to have been happy, based on sincerity, respect, and love. Farid al-Din al-Attar relates that his children, asked how they knew if he were angry, replied that he used to treat them, on such occasions, with an affection which was even stronger than usual, but at the same time refrained from food and drink."

- From Dr. Muhammad Ibraheem Al-Geyoushi's "Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi: His Works and Thoughts," read in a post at Akram's Razor.


"Anger is like a ball of fire, but if you swallow it it's sweeter than honey."

- Sayyiduna 'Ali, radhi allahu anhu, clipped from a post by Salikah.


In the dark of the moon, in flying snow, in the dead of winter,
war spreading, families dying, the world in danger,
I walk the rocky hillside, sowing clover.

- "February 2, 1968," a poem by Wendell Berry.

Labels: daily reads

Umm Salama says that the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa salam, died on Monday; that he was buried on Wednesday. And she says, "The death of the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa salam, had not hit us until Wednesday night. After Isha, we started to hear the sound of shovels." Subhanallah, imagine if you are in the shoes of Umar, if you are in the shoes of Abu Bakr, or Aisha, or Fatima, or Zaynab, or Khalid bin Walid, and you're hearing the sounds of the shovels which are digging the grave of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa salam. Can you fathom this? Can you fathom how much they must have been overcome? Umm Salama says that "when we heard the sound of these shovels, we began to weep," meaning the household of the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa salam. "We began to mourn, we began to cry, we began to wail," and then she says the entire city of Medina began to shake with tears at the loss of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa salam. The city itself, the community, is shaking out of the loss of rasulullahi, salallahu alayhi wa salam -- the loss of al-habib, alayhi salatu wa salam.

Now, the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa salam, was buried after salatu Isha on Wednesday night. That means the first prayer that came after the burial of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, would have been salatu Fajr. Umm Salama says that Bilal, radhi allahu anhu, he arose to give the call of prayer, and when he came to one part in the adhan the entire city of Medina began to weep again. She said, "We went into convulsions from crying at the loss of al-habib, salallahu alayhi wa salam."

Imagine now, brother and sister, imagine that you're there on that night, that fajr, sitting in the place of Umm Salama, or Umar, and suddenly you hear Bilal, who had that sweet voice, say:

"Ashadu anna Muhammad ar-rasulullah ... ashadu anna Muhammad ar-rasulullah ..."

- Suhaib Webb, from The Prophetic Legacy.

Labels: daily reads