Covid-19 lockdown: NASFAT Intensifies Efforts To Boost Members Spiritual Attainment
Zainab Tanimu
Kaduna, NorthWest, Nigeria
The lockdown not withstanding, the Executive Members of Nastrul – Lahi -L- Fatih Society, (NASFAT) Kaduna branch, together with its Mission Board has continually worked out mechanisms towards uplifting its member spiritually.
One of such is the intensification of spiritual diet via online.
This piece is one of such SPIRITUAL DIETs delivered by NASFAT Zonal Vice Chairman, Alhaji Kazeem Adesanya
Read:
As-Salaam alaykum warahmatullahi waraabarakaatuhu
Today, we’ll be discussing the topic WHAT DO YOU DO AT HOME? (At this period of lockdown?)
We thank Allah for making us Muslims and we seek His blessings and mercy for the holy Prophet Muhammad, (SAW) his households and his companions.
Muslims are affected by this crisis, as much as the people of other religions. There’s hardly a person who is not in fear.
Indeed, it’s only the dead who have seen the end of this virus. Thus, the world is locked for the fear of a deadly virus.
Over three weeks now, the larger part of the world has been locked down for the fear of being infected by a deadly virus which has claimed a huge number of human souls on earth. ..
So, what can we keep ourselves busy doing at a time like this? What should be our primary engagement at home?
It is no doubt a part of Islamic ethics to seek refuge in isolation, social distancing and self imposed abstinence from others in the days of a ravaging plague, so as not to be infected or spread the deadly disease amongst people.
As Muslims, it’s not a crime to have fun and remain in a state of bliss with our spouses and children. In fact, it’s a nice time for responsible family men and women to enjoy the best of their spouses and children now more than ever; but then…
….We mustn’t forget to also spend the time – this lock down period – as an opportunity to grow in faith, piety and devotional worship. Even though, our lawful time with family members is a worship period, soul development is also crucial to our survival as Muslims.
Consequently, the following deeds and etiquette will be relevant at home at this crucial period:
*1. SALAWAATUL KHAMS*: The Masjid (mosque) is closed, but the five daily obligatory Salaat ( i.e. ritual prayer) is still in place. We must strictly keep to it, as we’ve always done. This is a great opportunity for a Muslim family to pray with love in congregation. In fact, the weakness of the Muslim home is exposed by the individual family member’s decision to insist on observing his Salaat alone during this lock down.
The father is the Imam of the Muslim home, the male children stand behind him, followed by the mother and her female children. Indeed, such an arrangement at home during a congregational prayer is usually an alluring sight of a spiritual aesthetic to behold.
It is permissible that a call to Adhaan ( i.e. lslamic call to prayer) be made at home at each time of every congregational Salaat, including the Fajr. (Fajir – dawn prayer. “First of the five daily prayers)
Aside from being the normal ritual of the daily obligatory Salaat, the repeated Adhaan in the home front scares away the evil jinn called A’amir ul Bait.
*2. FAMILY TA’ALEEM*: You may call it whatever name that suits your thought system. If you like, call it the Family Halqa; and if you want, call it the Darsu at home. You may also prefer to call it the Usrah sitting or Family Discussion. However, in my household, I prefer to call it Family Ta’aleem…
Who knows? This may be an opportunity to ultimately strengthen those who are spiritually weak, especially in the practice of Salaat, among the Muslim household.
Family Ta’aleem is a learning discussion or knowledge and piety acquisition study circle conducted by the family head to teach his households about Islam.
The book to be discussed must conform to the pristine message of the Qur’an and Sunnah, authored by a reputable scholar of Islam, for the purpose of growing the household’s knowledge, Taqwa or piety and faith or Imaan.
The father of the house, as the family head, or the eldest son at home, if he has the intellectual capability; or even the mother of the house, where the father is absent or is not available, shall lead the learning discussion, preferably with a book of knowledge.
This is the reason why every adult Muslim, male or female, must be learned with the message of Islam and also why he or she must have a teacher, for according to the words of scholars:
من ليس له استاذ فالشيطان استاذه
“Whoever has no teacher, the devil shall be his teacher. ..”
Of course, a knowledgeable man is the best teacher of his wife and children. If he failed to teach his children the pristine Islam, as understood in the Quran and Sunnah, his children will learn, acquire and imbibe a heretic doctrine outside the home and will then return home to declare him a Kaafir!
The culture of the Family Ta’aleem can be easily recalled from the exemplary sitting of the two companions of the holy Prophet Muhammad, may he be praised, Sa’eed and Fatima Bint Khattaab.
Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah had said in his RAODHATUL MUHIBEEN that the sitting, at which Umar Bn Al-Khattaab had met the couple (in the house of his sister, Faatimah Bint Khattab) on the day Umar accepted Islam could only be called a Family Ta’aleem, because in that sitting, these righteous couple were learning Islam together.
Family Ta’aleem is a way of leading the entire family members to the Jannah, (paradise) if one is so fortunate, and it is also in fulfilment of the following verse of the holy Quran:
Surah At-Tahrim, Verse 6:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا قُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ وَأَهْلِيكُمْ نَارًا وَقُودُهَا النَّاسُ وَالْحِجَارَةُ عَلَيْهَا مَلَائِكَةٌ غِلَاظٌ شِدَادٌ لَّا يَعْصُونَ اللَّهَ مَا أَمَرَهُمْ وَيَفْعَلُونَ مَا يُؤْمَرُونَ
O you who believe! save yourselves and your families from a fire whose fuel is men and stones; over it are angels stern and strong, they do not disobey Allah in what He commands them, and do as they are commanded.
Ordinarily, a specific time of the day of the week must be chosen for the family Ta’aleem, but now that we are all locked down. The daily Family Ta’aleem is in order. ..
*3. NAWAAFIL DEVOTION*: Nawaafil is the plural of Nafl. “Nafl” is an Arabic word, which literally means “to get something extra”. There are many kinds of non obligatory or voluntary Nawaafil such as Tahayiat-ul-wudu (offering two raka`ts right after ablution), Ishraak (after Fajr, praising the Lord through Tasbeeh till the Sun has risen, then performing two or four raka`ts), and Tahajjud (praying in the later part of night) etc are few examples of Nawaafil
The Nafl Tahajjud has been even emphasized by Allah in following words of the Holy Quran:
“And from [part of] the night, pray with it as additional [worship] for you; it is expected that your Lord will elevate you to a praised station.” [Quran, 17: 79]
The above mentioned verse shows that there is one supplementary mode of seeking Allah, the Exalted, for His compassion, which is performed during night time, and it results in finding a blessed rank on the Day of Resurrection. The prayer that has been referred to here is indeed the salah of Tahajjud.
We should take advantage of this particular period to imbibe the habit of observing all the Sunnah oriented Nawaafil, since we are now at home. There’s no doubt that we now enjoy the privilege of plenty time, part of which we should exploit to move closer to Allah.
The holy Prophet Muhammad once advised Abdullah ibn Umar thus:
“O’Abdullah! Do not be like so and so, who used to offer Thahajjud at night and then stopped offering it.” (Bukhari)
So, primarily, tilawah means, move closely behind, to go forward, to flow in a sequence, let go in pursuit, to take as a guide, leader, master, a model, to accept the authority, to espouse the cause, to act upon, walk after, practice a way of life, to understand, to follow the train of thought – or to follow.
To read is only secondary, for in reading too, words follow each other, one closely behind the other, in an orderly and meaningful sequence. If one word does not follow the other, or if the sequence or the order is not observed, the meaning is destroyed.
*4. TILAAWATUL QUR’AN:* Tilaawah is the word that the holy Qur’an uses to describe the act of its reading. No single word in English can convey the full meaning of Tilaawah. ‘To follow’ is closest to its primary meaning.
Hence, reading the Qur’an, understanding the Qur’an, following the Qur’an – that is how those who have any right to claim faith in it relate themselves to it. Thus, Tilawah or recitation is an act in which your whole person, soul, heart, mind, tongue and body, participates. In short your whole existence becomes involved.
This particular period, we should also imbibe the habit of reading the holy Qur’an as ought to be recited. We should ponder over its and set a target for ourselves. There are some, amongst the servants of Allah, who have completed a whole round of Quranic recitation with deep reflection and there are others who are still on it.
In reading the Qur’an, mind and body, reason and feeling lose their distinction; they become fused. As the tongue recites and words flow from the lips, the mind ponders, the heart reflects, the soul absorbs, tears well up in the eyes, the heart quakes and trembles, the skin shivers and softens just as the heart does, there no longer remains any duality between the two, even your hair may stand on end.
We should practice what some scholars of Sunnah have called ورد يوم من كتاب الله ie. Daily devotion with the Book of Allah. It is a way of reading some pages daily from the holy Qur’an. It may however preferably be a juz a day.
The best of ancient scholars of Islam had used their time of seclusion, isolation or separation from people for learning and revising the holy Qur’an.
The great scholar, Imam Dhahabi, confirmed in his Siyal A’alaam Nublaah, that Shaykh Taqiyudeen Ibn Taimiyyah had continuously revised the whole Quran one hundred and Sixty times in seclusion when he was imprisoned.
We’ll stop here tonight till the coming week, insha Allah. We thank you for your patience. As Salaam alaykum warahmatullahi waraabarakaatuhu.
