Almurid: April 2007

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Companionship and Community [as-Sohba wa’l Jamā’a] is the first of the Ten Virtues arranged by Imām Abdessalam Yassine within a context of progress and ascension (moral, spiritual and intellectual.) Companionship and Community means to have a spiritual guide—who is also your temporal guide unlike Sufi orders—who shows you the way towards God through opening to you all the avenues of Jihad without exception. The inward Jihad of the self in the company of your brothers and sisters in faith comes in the first place; then follow the Jihad in all spheres of life, not in the sense of military war exclusively but rather in the sense of acquiring all the means (scientific, economic, industrial, technological, moral and spiritual) susceptible to qualify our Umma to transmit the message of mercy to mankind in peaceful ways. Thus, Companionship and Community are two sides of the same coin. In other words, a Believer cannot attain spiritual excellence in its most perfect form, that of the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace), without being engaged in a communitarian project similar to that in which the Companions (God be pleased with them) were involved.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

The Value of Time in the Life of the Muslim

Al-Hasan al-BaSrī (God have mercy upon him) said: “O son of Adam, you are none but a number of days; each time a day passes, a part of you departs.” Therefore, let your time be like a budget from which you spend. Be like a niggard and avoid wasting time in heedlessness and trivialities. Know that the time over which you will feel sorrow—sorrow will be then too late—is the time wherein you did not remember God—Exalted be He—with your tongue, your heart and the ceaseless effort to serve His Cause and support His Faith. Save your time and avoid wasting the time of your brothers with long visits and lack of punctuality.