9 Hadith On Manners In Islam

▼ Kindness to parents

Abu Huraira (May Allah be pleased with him) reported:

A man came to the Prophet and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah! Who among the people is the most worthy of my good companionship? The Prophet (PBUH) said: Your mother. The man said, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man further asked, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man asked again, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your father. (Bukhari, Muslim)

This hadith teaches us that our mothers holds a very high rank in Islam and is given three times more importance than the father and that is because your mother has done three things for you that no one else has.

1) She carried you as a baby in her womb for nine months

2) She gave birth to you

3) She nurtured you in your infancy

Allah (swt) says in the Qur’an,

"Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him, and you be kind to your parents." (Qur'an 17:23)

Parents should be served earnestly and with sincerity. Remember, one of the easiest ways to get rewarded by Allah (SWT) is by being good to parents. 

▼ The rights of a muslim

Abu Huraira (May Allah be pleased with him) said:  I heard the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) say: “The rights of one Muslim over another are five: returning the greeting of salaam, visiting the sick, attending funerals, accepting invitations, and saying yarhamuk Allah (may Allah have mercy on you) to one who sneezes.” (Bukhari, Muslim)

▼ Significances of intentions

Narrated 'Umar bin Al-Khattab (May Allah be pleased with him), reported: Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, "The deeds are considered by the intentions, and a person will get the reward according to his intention. So whoever emigrated for Allah and His Messenger, his emigration will be for Allah and His Messenger; and whoever emigrated for worldly benefits or for a woman to marry, his emigration would be for what he emigrated for". [Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

Feeling Sad?

We are human beings, feeling sad, grief and being upset is part of our nature. There is not a single person in this world who has never felt it, it's only natural that we feel sad when we encounter some kind of loss, such as money, health, or loss of a loved one. We usually get upset or depressed whenever things don't go according to plan. The kind of education we want to achieve, the certain kind of job we want, the amount of money we want to make, the cars we would like to drive,the type of house we want to live in, the kind of spouses we want and so on. But, what do we often do when we don't accomplish these things? We get upset, frustrated and even angry at times for not getting what we want. 

We tend to think it's all in our hands and get angry, disappointed and upset when things don't go the way we want it to but, what we don't realize is that it is all in fact in Allah's hands and not ours. We don't realize that all the things we run after are all weak and temporary, none of those things are permanent and ever lasting. Even a house that is made of brick that lasts for decades can turn to dust if an earthquake or a tornado strikes. We might get fired tomorrow from the job we have today. We could even lose all the money we have today. We could lose the body we work so hard to maintain if caught with an illness today and none of it are in our control.

Similarly, if your happiness is defined by and attached to people, remember that it is temporary because people are only meant to be on this earth for a limited time which means the thing or the person that your happiness relies on is also temporary. Also, that people will disappoint you at some point and none of it will be in your control, they'll hurt you, disappoint you, even the person you love the most in this world will hurt you because people are not perfect or perhaps you will encounter a certain situation where you won't be able to be with them anymore. And this all this in fact will be Allah's way of testing you, for sure Allah will test you by reversing your situation.

"And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives" (2:155)

At this point, if your faith, prayers and you relationship with the Qur'an is not strong enough, your sadness will have the power to destroy you, simply because you have lost focus from the reality that the entire world and everything in it is temporary and we are here only to be tested by Allah. 

So how do we deal with this? How do we fight sadness and depression and not get upset? 

Simple Ways To Become More Grateful

In our lives every one of us struggles for one common thing- to be happy, to be at peace. We want it in terms of money, fame, career, family and etc. But, sometimes we fail to realize that happiness is not defined by all of these because if it was then, there wouldn't be people in the world today having all the money and fame in the world and still committing suicide. So how does one attain such peace of the mind? The key to that is by being grateful.

Scientific Miracles Of The Quran

It is unfortunate how in the present world there are thousands of people who divert away from God because they claim that God doesn't exist. They try to reason with logic and science and say there is no God. In fact it's sad but true that even many Muslims refuse to believe in Islam and divert from the religion because they think Islam is illogical, irrelevant and does not apply to our modern era. The question to ask is what makes you think that the Quran is illogical and non-scientific when the Quran is known to be the word of God because of its accuracy in fields of science, history and Arabic linguistics that was revealed 14 centuries ago to a man who could not read or write? It is in fact a great miracle that these facts, which could not have possibly been discovered without the technology of the 20th century, were explicitly stated by the Quran over 1400 years ago which proves that the Quran cannot possibly be from a human being.

                 

Some of the scientific miracles of the Quran are:

▼ The Expansion Of The Universe

"And it is We who have constructed the heaven with might, and verily, it is We who are steadily expanding it."
(The Qur'an, 51:47)

In this context the meaning of "heaven" is described as space and universe.This verse was revealed at the time when astronomy was still weak. Back then until the 20th century, it was known that the universe has a constant nature and it has existed since infinite time. The conclusion reached by science today is that the universe is constantly expanding which the Quran revealed over 1400 years ago.

Tips On How To Concentrate Better In Prayer

“Successful indeed are the believers. Those who perform their Salah with all solemnity and full submissiveness” – Qur'an (23:1-2)

As we all know Salah is one of the five pillars of Islam and whoever claims to believe in Allah and His Messenger (saw) must establish prayer. Just as they say, words without action is meaningless, similarly belief without sincerity has no meaning in Islam and sincerity is defined by our actions. So why is it so important that we concentrate better on our salah? 

It is narrated by Omar ( ra ) that a man might have white hair in Islam (he reaches old age while Muslim) and yet, he has not completed even one Salah for Allah the Exalted! He was asked why and he answered: He does not perfect the prayer’s required Khushu (Humbleness) ”  Al-Ihya, vol.1, p202. 

Khushu literally means fearing, obeying, being modest and submissiveness. In this sense, humbleness is a dual interaction, the essence of which is in the heart and the reflection of which is on the body. Khushu is like an indication of your faith and when you don't have it at all, you might want to check the status of your faith. 

Below are some tips and tricks to help you concentrate better in your prayer that I found to be the most effective and helpful in my own salah:

1. Make Wudu before each and every prayer

It helps prepare your mind and body for salah.

2. Be grateful

When you think and acknowledge all the blessings Allah(swt) has showered  you with , it is almost impossible to distract the mind from being humble and thankful.

3. Know the meaning of the verses you are reciting

When you know the meaning of the verses you recite in prayer it helps increase concentration in prayer since you can now connect with the Qur'an on a personal level.

4. Reflect upon the verses

Try to stop and think about every verse you read. Look up the hadiths and histories of that particular context beforehand and try to relate it to a situation around your life, this will help with the understanding of those verses better.

5. Pray like it's your last prayer

You never know if tomorrow comes so as long as you have this moment, try your best to dedicate it to Allah(swt) like you would if you knew this was your last prayer.

6. Pause between reciting each verse

When you pause between each verses it slows you down and helps you stay more aware of what you're saying.

7. Think of Allah all day long

It is commonly seen that whatever we think about the whole day, we end up thinking about it during our prayer. It is more sad than actually strange that we spend hours after hours paying full attention to our worldly activities but fail to give a sincere few minutes to the One who created us and the whole world itself.