On the night that the Commander of the Faithful Imam ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him) died, after having been stabbed with a poison dagger by the wretched Ibn Muljum, Ali’s son, Imam Hasan (peace be upon him), rose to deliver a khutbah, saying:

“Tonight you have killed a man on a night in which the Qur’an came down, a night in which Jesus the son of Mary was taken up, and a night in which Joshua the son of Nun, the champion of Moses was killed. By God, none of those who were before him are ahead of him and none of those who will come after him will overtake him. By God, if the Prophet sent him on a raid, Gabriel was at his right hand and Michael at his left. By God, he did not leave (at his death) gold or silver except for 800 or 700 dirhams, which he set aside for a servant woman.”

Imam ‘Ali was the first imam of the Prophetic household to undertake the office after the Prophet’s death and the fourth caliph of the Muslim Ummah to rule over it. He was the cousin of the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace), the first male to accept Islam, the husband of the most perfect woman to ever live, Sayyida Fatimah (peace be upon her), the champion of the Muslim army, the progenitor of wilayah, the most knowledgeable among the companions of the Prophet, the father of the leaders of the youths of Paradise (Hasan and Husayn), the executor of the Prophet’s affairs (wasi), the gate to the city of knowledge, the door to the house of wisdom, and the well from which the divine fountain of secret knowledge of Allah pours fourth to all awliyah.

Peace be upon you, Ya Abu Turab, the day you were born inside the Ka’ba, the day you died, and the day you will pour the sweetest beverage for the believers at the fountain of Kawthar.

I was perusing a popular salafi site (just to see what type of information they had — and to check out their latest sufi-refutations), and I stumbled upon an intriguing fatwa, apparently from Shaykh Al-Uthaymeen, proving that the sun revolves around the earth.

His only argument is that the Qur’an mentions the sun moving, and thus he makes an assumption from those verses that the earth is stationary. But the fact that the sun moves is not indicative of its movement around the earth. The Qur’an clearly states that the sun has its own orbit and does not mention that orbit as being around the earth. Science now confirms this (although the Qur’an mentioned it 1400 years ago), that the solar systems revolve around the center of the galaxy.

There is also quite a bit of evidence in the Qur’an about the earth’s rotation on its axis and its revolving around the sun.

It never ceases to amaze me. When reading the Qur’an, especially during Ramadan, it is always like reading it again for the first time. Of course, in years past, I always read translations. To now read the Arabic just adds to the multidimensional depth of what I receive from Allah’s book.

It is both prose and poetry, simple and complex, relaxing yet invigorating, spiritually deep and yet practically applicable, historical and foretelling, small enough to fit between two covers and yet boundless in its knowledge.

It is reported that the Messenger of Allah (prayers and peace be upon him) said, “The best of you is he who learns the Qur’an and then teaches it.”

It is reported by the master of traditions, Al-Shaykh Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Ya’qub ibn Ishaq al-Kulayni ar-Razi (may Allah make his grave fragrant) that the sixth Imam from the Prophet’s immaculate household, Ja’far ibn Muhammad as-Sadiq (peace be upon them) said:

“Whoever satiates a hungry believer so that he is satisfied fully, neither a human being among people, nor a near-stationed angel, nor a divine Messenger knows how great his reward is in the Hereafter, except Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.”

Then he added: “Feeding a hungry Muslim is one of the means of obtaining forgiveness.” After that he recited the word of Allah, Almighty and Glorious: “Or the feeding on a day of hunger, of an orphan near of kin, or to the indigent (down) in the dust.” (Qur’an 90:14-16)

– al-Kafi, vol 2, p. 201

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