Articles

Given the current world affairs, I recently walked into a local prayer hall expecting to hear words filled with advice on loving the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) and living the Prophetic example.

In March of 2012 Al-Madina Institute took fifty spiritual aspirants on a tour of Morocco. The excited Al-Madina crowd assembled by the lounge at JFK airport buzzing around the brilliant Imam Mohammad Magid while waiting for their plane to depart for Morocco.

It was an amazing tale of attempted seduction. Yusuf (peace be upon him) lived for years in the house of Zulekha, a woman of beauty, power and influence. Day in and day out, Zulekha was exposed to his physical allure, a composition so stunning that the Messenger Muhammad [peace be upon him and his family] said "Yusuf has been given half of all beauty"[Muslim].

It was the third year after the hijrah, during the middle of the blessed month of Ramadan. God had blessed Fatima, daughter of the Messenger of Allah, with her first son.

The spiritual masters of the past, knowing that the Qur'an was the solution to all problems, would later encourage their students to often repeat this supplication of Musa when they were in need of a job or a spouse. Today, we find that this supplication is as important now as ever before.

A person who fasts with complete faith becomes aware very rapidly that he is a pilgrim in this world and that he is a creature destined for a goal beyond this material existence. The world about him loses some of its materiality and gains an aspect of "vacuity" and transparence which in the case of the contemplative Muslim leads directly to a contemplation of God in His creation.