Our Umrah

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The Love of God for His creation pt3

The Love of God for Humanity
Part 3 of 3
Jibreel Keresztes, University Graduate


All praise is due to God, and peace and blessings be on his messengers and all the righteous people who follow the guidance sent from their Lord.
This is the final part in the series discussing the love of God for His creation. We talked about the deep meaning of one of God’s name, Ar-Rahman, and about the undeniable proof that God loves all His creation.
We will proceed to talk about another name which represents a specific love which only privileged ones will experience. The name is Ar Raheem. Ar Raheem is a special type of mercy and love which is given to those who love God. These are the ones who have accepted His guidance, and chose to walk in the right path. These are the believers who they themselves love God with all their hearts and souls. Their eyes are filled with tears at the mention of God and His words.
A love relationship is a two way relationship. God loves His creation. How can He not? He created us. If you were to make a car, or a computer, or write a book and publish it, would you not love it? Would you not care for it? You would. He loves us beyond the shadow of a doubt.
What about us? Do we love Him? Do you love God? Look into your heart right now? Well, do you? Love is not just about words. How can people say they love God but not obey Him? How can people say they love God, but not look for the truth of what He wants us to do? How can we say we love God and constantly do evil? Every single person should analyze their blessings and then think about how much they have done in this love relationship. I believe it is time for us to admit that we are lacking on our part. The believers are the ones who really love God, and He loves them more:
“Yet there are men who take others besides God as equal (with God), loving them as they should love Him. But those who believe love God more.” (Quran 2:165)

The believers are the ones who fulfill their part in this love relationship. God loves them, due to their devotion, their love of Him, and their obedience. God loves the good-doers (2:195, 3:134, 3:148, 5:13, 5:193), the repentant (2:222), and the God-conscious (3:76, 9:4, 9:7).
Why is there a distinction in this love? How can God love some more than others? The answer is that God loves all as we have proven throughout the past articles, but there is a distinction in the levels of love in order to make distinction between the evil and the good.
If everyone would be entitled to the same type of love, who would bother to strive for betterment? Who would bother to work and be a good-doer, obedient, devoted and in quest for truth? There has to be a distinction between what is right and what is wrong, and only those who are willing to find God and abandon evil will receive His special love. Do you want it?

I could never give justice to this topic and I ask Allah’s forgiveness for that. Everyone should experience God’s love on a personal level. If you are not experiencing that, then you may want to make that a personal goal. God loves you and has always loved you, ever before you came into this world.
I will end with this beautiful hadith that can only move one to tears. God said:
“I and jinn and mankind are in great news. I create, yet they worship others, I provide them with the means of sustenance, yet they thank others. My blessings are descending on my servants, yet their evils are ascending to Me. I see their affection though I am self-sufficient, yet they show that to Me by doing sins, though they are the poorest. People who call on Me are the ones with whom I sit. Whoever wants to keep a comapny of Me should call on Me. People who keep on obeying Me are those whom I love. As for those who commit sins, I will never make them despair of My mercy. If they repent, I will love them. If anyone of them repents, I will receive him from far. Whoever turned away from Me, I will approach him saying “Where are you going? Do you have any other God? Whoever does a good deed, his reward will be ten times as much and more, and whoever does a bad deed, will be punished only for this one evil deed, or I will forgive him. By the Might and Majesty, if they ask my pardon, I will forgive them." (Amr Khaled's Allah's love for Humans)
We have come to the final word but before we depart, I want you to keep in mind one thing: love alone is as flying with one wing. Our relationship with our Creator is a balance between love, fear and hope. Do you have all three?

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The Love of God for His creation pt2

The Love of God for Humanity Part 2 of 3
Jibreel Keresztes, University Graduate

Praise be to God The Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, and peace and blessings be on his prophet Muhammad, his family and all his followers. As we have discussed in part one of this article, God The Most High loves but He is not love. He possesses the attribute of Love but in the most perfect of forms, without carrying the aspects of jealousy, desire and weakness. God is The Most Perfect and loves in the most perfect way.

The two attributes which embody a special love for the creation, a love that cannot be described or cannot be given justice by using the word love alone; the two attributes are Ar-Rahman (The Most Gracious), and Ar-Raheem (The Most Merciful). The fascinating and miraculous nature (as any Muslim would argue) of the Arabic language is that many profound words cannot be translated in another language by using only one word. I was thinking one day about the statement : "A picture is worth a thousand words", and came to realize that in Arabic it is the other way. A word is worth a thousand pictures, or a thousand descriptions.

We will start by looking at the word Ar-Rahman. It can be translated as the Most Gracious, The Most Lovingly Beneficent, The Most Kind and Giving, The Most Infinitely Good. The word Rahman comes from the root word RAHM. The following Arabic connotations are found in the Arabic language: to love, to have tenderness, gentleness, to have mercy, pity, to show favor and goodness. The word Rahman, in the words of the scholars such as ibn Al Qaim has the meaning of the abundant and all encompassing love that God showers on His creation without any effort on our behalf.

In a normal love relationship there are two people. The wife loves the husband and back, the mother loves the son and he loves his mother. But God loves us without asking anything in return. There are people in this world who do not even admit God’s existence, swear at God and hate God, yet God showers them with His abundant love day and night. Day and night such people breath, have food on their tables, and have families and are much more fortunate than others, yet they do not recognize the love that they have been given.

What better way to show and express love than through action. On one occasion a person of a certain faith came to me and told me that his God loves him more than my God loves me because in his holy book there are many references to love. The first thing that came to my mind was that we have the same God. The second thing that came to my mind was that love is not in saying I love you to someone, but in showing it through action.

Verily God loves us, if He did not create us, we would not be here. Verily God loves us, if not we would perish. If you ate a good meal today, drank some clean water, and you were able to breath, know that God loves you. If you are sick, and you did not have the blessing to have the articles mentioned above, know that God still loves you for you have experienced life with its good and bad. If you are stricken by poverty and have lost love ones, or you are on the verge of disaster, know that God still loves you, for you were born in this world and you have experienced at one point or another the beauty of love. (To be continued with part 3)

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The Love of God for His creation pt1

The Love of God for Humanity - Part 1
Jibreel Keresztes, University Graduate

Praise be to God, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earths and peace and blessings be upon His prophet Mohammed, his family and all the righteous followers till the day of judgment. I begin in the name of God the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

One of the most important emotions that have been at the foundation of humanity since the beginning of time is love. Love has been the driving force for wars and for peace. Love has been the emotion that has built up society and in many instances has caused it to fall apart.

If we check the dictionary definition of love, we will get a variety of mixed definitions under the umbrella of love. Love can be sensual. Love can be directed towards a material object, or a certain behavior. Love can cause happiness, and at the same time it can be the cause of jealousy and depression. When one asks most religious people, they will say that God is love. We will closely examine this claim in the light of the Quran, and God’s greatest names: Al-Rahman (The Most Gracious), and Al-Raheem (The Most Merciful).

If love is subject to such weaknesses as jealousy and worldly attachments, could we attribute such weaknesses to God? In the view of Islamic creed such things are unthinkable. God is not love in that love is sometimes a feeling of weakness and helplessness in front of another person or material. Love can be an uncontrollable feeling, and verily God is in control of everything. Yet God loves His creation without a doubt.
Part of the miraculous nature of the Quran is the fact that God chose the perfect words to describe His love for his creation. The word love is found in the Quran more than twenty times under different forms such as “hubb”, “muhabbah” and “wudda”.

“I cast over you (O Moses) the garment of love (mahabbah) from Me and (this) in order that you may be reared under My care “(20:39).

The love that God has for His people is a feeling and not the essence of God. God has the Most Perfect Attributes as described in the Quran under His 99 names. One of such is The Loving. This word alone if analyzed deeply would give us some of the most amazing insights into God’s love.

Two names are mentioned in the Quran 114 places which embody a special type of love that God has for His creations, both believers and non-believers. These names are Al-Rahman and Al-Raheem. Casting aside the one word English translation of such, we will ponder deeply over the meaning of these words and attributes, and over the wisdom of such words being mentioned in the Quran.
“(This is) a Book that We have revealed unto you (O Prophet), full of lasting Bliss that they may ponder upon its Messages and that those who have understood may (take them to heart and [always] be mindful”. [38:29] (To be continued)

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My reflections on surah Yusuf (Joseph) - Beautiful Patience

In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful

Surah Yusuf (nr.12) is one of the most beautiful chapters of the Quran. It has been revealed in it's entirety to prophet Muhammad during the year of sadness when his wife Khadija and his uncle Abu Talib died. One of the greatest lessons that this chapter taught me is beautiful patience.

"Beautiful Patience" said Yaqub, after he found out that his son Yusuf was eaten by the wolf according to his other jealous sons. And it was beautiful patience from there on for both him and Yusuf who were separated for the first time. Yaqub became blind and Yusuf was in a weal, sold, enslaved, almost molested by the wife of the Aziz, and then thrown in jail. But jail was more beloved to him than what the wife of the Aziz was inviting him to. She wanted to seduce him while he wanted to obey Allah. With beautiful patience he went to the dungeon and spend years in there. He never complained, and nor did Yaqub. Both knew that Allah swt was testing them and both got their reward in the end.

Thinking about this and trying to relate it to myself and others, how long does it take till our bubble is burst? We get mad at any trial or hardship that comes our way, and we complain for the lamest things. So where is our beautiful patience? Anyone who cuts us off on the road, we are ready to go crazy on him. Any money that we loose or when our car brakes down, causes us so much pain an agony. Why? Because we are attached to this world while Yusuf loved the dungeon more than this world and the beauty of the woman who was seducing him. What would you have done in Yusuf's place, if a beautiful woman of high status would have invited you to her bed? How about more than one? Would you have kept your beautiful patience?

Allah can test us with anything He wills, and we have to have patience. The reward and relief will come. Maybe not right away such as in the case of Yusuf and Yaqub, but it will come, if not in this life than in the hear after. We ask Allah swt to give us beautiful patience.

And Allah knows best

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As featured on deenshow

By the grace of Allah swt this is the first time I have told my story (it's a condensed version) on youtube. Many people have been asking me to make a video about how I came to Islam, however I have not done so. The reason for that is that I do not believe that dawa should be about me but it should be about Islam. Some brothers, however pointed out that some people might relate to my story, so insh Allah I have it on my to do list for this year sometime. I hope that Allah swt accepts this.
Salamo Aleikum

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The Deen Show Interview

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As salamo aleikum and welcom

Welcome everyone to Jibreelk's Debunking Attacks Against Islam
This is a humble attempt to answer some of the most common questions and attacks on Islam
The author of this site would like to apologize in advance for any mistakes he will make and he would like to make the disclaimer that he is not a scholar of Islam, not even a student of knowledge, but only a seeker of truth. He welcomes all your questions, concerns and suggestions.
And Allah is the source of all

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