Cheating and Deception

Cheating and deception are despicable characteristics that are beneath a decent person. Intentionally distorting the truth in order to mislead others contradicts the values of honesty, which requires an attitude of sincerity, straightforwardness, and fairness that leaves no room for cheating, lying, trickery, or deceit. There are many texts from the Quran and the Sunnah conveying the meaning that cheating, whether the target be Muslims or non-Muslims, is forbidden.

Accepting the guidance of Islam leads a person to truthfulness, which means a person completely avoids cheating, cheating, and back-stabbing. The Prophet of Islam said:

“Whoever bears arms against us is not one of us, and whoever cheats us is not one of us.” (Saheeh Muslim)

According to another report, the Prophet passed by a pile of food in the market. He put his hand inside it and felt dampness, although the surface was dry. He said:

“O owner of the food, what is this?’

The man said, ‘It was damaged by rain, O Messenger of God.’

He said, ‘Why did you not put the rain-damaged food on top so that people could see it! Whoever cheats us is not one of us.” (Saheeh Muslim)

Muslim society is based on purity of feeling, love, sincerity towards every Muslim, and fulfillment of promises to every member of society. Its members are endowed with piety, truthfulness, and faithfulness. Cheating and deception are alien characters in contrast to the noble character of a true Muslim. There is no room in it for swindlers, double crossers, tricksters, or traitors.

Islam views cheating and deception as heinous sins, a source of shame to the one guilty of committing them, both in this world and the next. The Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, did not merely denounce them by excluding them from the Muslim community in this world, he also announced that on the Day of Judgment every traitor would be raised carrying the flag of his betrayal. A caller will cry out from the vast arena of judgment, pointing to him, drawing attention to him:

Salvation from Hellfire

God has said in the Quran:

“Those who have disbelieved and died in disbelief, the earth full of gold would not be accepted from any of them if one offered it as a ransom. They will have a painful punishment, and they will have no helpers.” (Quran 3:91)

So, this life is our only chance to win Paradise and to escape from Hellfire, because if someone dies in disbelief, he will not have another chance to come back to this world to believe. As God has said in the Quran about what is going to happen for the unbelievers on the Day of Judgment:

“If you could but see when they are set before the Fire (Hell) and say, “Would that we might return (to the world)! Then we would not reject the verses of our Lord, but we would be of the believers!” (Quran 6:27)

But no one will have this second opportunity.

The Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, said: “The happiest man in the world of those doomed to the Fire (Hell) on the Day of Judgment will be dipped in the Fire once. Then he will be asked, ‘Son of Adam, did you ever see any good? Did you ever experience any blessing?’ So he will say, ‘No, by God, O Lord!’”[1]

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Collected From:http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/243/

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The Pleasures of Paradise

The reality of Paradise is something which people will never be able to understand until they actually enter it, but God has shown us glimpses of it in the Quran. He has described it as a place essentially different to the life of this world, both in the very nature and purpose of life, as well as the types of delights which people will enjoy therein. 

 The Quran tells people about Paradise, which God offers to them, describes its great blessings, and proclaims its beauties to everyone. It informs people that Paradise is one of two ways of life prepared for them in the afterworld, and that every good thing will be theirs in Paradise to a degree that surpasses our present ability to imagine. 

 It also shows that Paradise is a place where all blessings have been created perfectly and where people will be offered everything their souls and hearts will desire, and that people will be far removed from want and need, anxiety or sadness, sorrow and regret. Every kind of beauty and blessing exists in Paradise and will be revealed with a perfection never seen or known before. God has prepared such blessings there as a gift, and these will be offered only to people with whom He is pleased.

But what is the nature of these delights in Paradise, and how will it be different from the delights of this world? We will try to highlight a few of these differences.

Pure delight without pain and suffering

The Pleasures of Paradise 2

The Eternalness of the Hereafter

The Pleasures of this world are transient whilst the joys of the hereafter are lasting and eternal. In this life when a person enjoys something, it is only a short while before they get bored with it and proceed to search for something they feel is better, or they may not feel a need for it altogether. As for the delights of Paradise, a person will never feel bored with anything, but rather, its goodness will increase each time they indulge in it.

Also, the life of this world is very short. Humans only live on this earth for a short while, and very few people reach the age of seventy.

“…Say: Short is the enjoyment of this world. The Hereafter is (far) better for him who fears God...” (Quran 4:77)

As for Paradise, people will live forever. God says:

“...its provision is eternal and so is its shade…” (Quran 13:35)

“What is with you must vanish, and what is with God will endure …” (Quran 16:96)

“(It will be said to them): This is Our Provision, which will never finish” (Quran 38:54)

Superior Delights

The delights of the people of Paradise, such as their clothing, food, drink, jewelry and palaces, will be far superior to their counterparts in this world. There is in fact no room for comparison, as even the smallest space in Paradise is better than this world and all that is in it. The Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, said:

There Is No Place For Valentine's Day In Islam

On 14th February Every year many people celebrates Valentine's Day which is also called day of Love. It was a Roman Festival if we see its history. On this day Boys purpose Girls and gives flowers and gifts to them. Valentine's Day is part of Western Culture but unfortunately from last few years many people has started promoting it in our culture as well.

There is no place for events like Valentine's Day in Islam. Firstly its a festival of Non Muslims. Secondly celebrating such days spreads many problems in the society. Many boys uses this day as a chance to attack respect of girls. This day also becomes cause of wrong relationships between girls and boys outside the marriage. Islam has clearly set guidelines for us that only relationship of husband and wife is Halal.

Many people tries to justify this day by saying that its a day of Love and peace. My answer to such people is that why you restrict love and peace to one day?? we should love and spread peace others 365 days of the year.

Famous Scholar Ibtisam Elahi Zaheer said about this day that "the sensual form of love is only allowed between Husband and wife in Islam. Valentine day does not promote love between husband and wife .It basically promotes extramarital relations which are not allowed in Islam .We as Muslims need to discourage these kinds of events to save our society from free mixing .If these kinds of events will be tolerated we will be victims of immodesty and ultimately will not be able to protect our society from adultery and fornication."

So we should keep ourselves away from such events and tries to follow Sunnah in every matter of life.

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Control Your Tongue To Protect Yourself From Sins

A Human uses different parts of his body for doing different types of sins. For Example a human uses his eyes to see Haram things, he uses his hands for doing different haram works, a human uses his legs to go towards a sin. One of the major part of human body which he uses for doing sins is his tongue.

Just think From this tongue how many times we uses bad words everyday which keeps on increasing our sins. We use this tongue to abuse others, to speak against others, to speak lie, to show anger on others and to spread hatred between people.

Now think if we start controlling our tongue from speaking all these bad things we will be able to save ourselves from how many sins?? A Hadith of Prophet Muhammad SAW says a person who guarantees me to guard his tongue i guarantee him about paradise. Another Hadith says remaining silent is better than speaking bad.

We should also remember that a person is known from how he speaks??? a person who speaks good from his language will also be liked and respected by others. on other hand a person who lies, abuses and speaks bad from his tongue is not liked by anyone. There is a famous quotation "first think then speak".

The Summary of this article is that if we will control our tongue from speaking bad we will not only get success and respect by the society in this world but we will also get success in hereafter. May Allah SWT help us all to use our tongues for right purposes.

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Wedding Expenses and Islam

Allah SWT says in the Quran “Those who, when they spend, are not extravagant and not niggardly, but hold a just (balance) between those (extremes);” From among the standards of islam for livelihood, one is to restrain from spending extra and also to restrain oneself from being a miser.

The verse mentions that the correct way to spend is to be balanced while spending. This golden rule is so affective that if all people start following it, the bad economic conditions will transform dramatically, but unfortunately, people do not consider them worth noting.

We see many examples of extravagance in our society in many forms. One of them is spending lavishly on weddings. No matter who, poor or rich, people spend money on weddings as if they are in some competition and they have to win it.

The lavish display of dowry and other wedding items have made it just like some exhibition. Wedding expenses are not only limited to the people who are going to be wed or their family members, but one wedding affects every person who wants to attend it. Females want new cloths jewelry and shoes for them, for their kids and for their husbands.

Thus one wedding becomes so expensive for a good number of people.

While arguing on this issue, some people say, this all is due to our cultural mix with Hinduism. Others say that people just want to have an upper hand over their relatives and wedding gives them a fair chance to do so. whatsoever the reasons brought forth, we being muslims should not forget that whatever we do is recorded instantly and will be shown to us when we will be raised again.

Our beloved prophet s.a.w.w could marry his daughters in the best way by spending as much as he could and people would help him any possible way, but the way he s.a.w.w married his daughters and himself got married should be taken as best examples for every person in muslim society.

Muhammad s.a.w.w never spent any extra money to show off. He found for his daughters best husbands, and he found for himself wives not because they were beautiful or rich. He s.a.w.w set for us a decent criteria of how to arrange marriages and how to look for a spouse on what basis.

All the righteous muslims followed this example until people started diverting from the right path. Islam does not asks believers whether they have given their daughters or sisters trucks of dowry or whether they served 10s of dishes on walimah.

The concept of barat is also not there in islam, simple nikah and walimah to validate nikah are two main events of marriage. Mehndi, obten and all other related events are not Islamic and they should not be celebrated because they are plain wastage of money.

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Pillars of Islam and Application of Faith

Islam is built on five pillars ( Hadith Sahih Bukhari Vol 1, Book 2, No 7 ), the first of which is a state of faith, the other four are major exercises of faith of which some are daily, some weekly, some monthly, some annually and some are required as a minimum once in a lifetime. These exercises of faith are to serve man's spiritual purposes, satisfy his human needs and to mark his whole life with a Divine touch. The five pillars of Islam are:

WITNESSING (SHAHADA) THAT ALLAH IS ONE AND MUHAMMAD IS HIS MESSENGER

This statement of faith must be declared publicly. It should be a genuine belief which includes all the above articles of faith. The witnessing of the Oneness of Allah is the rejection of any form of deity other than Allah, and the witnessing that Muhammad is His Messenger is the acceptance of him being chosen by Allah to convey His message of Islam to all humanity and to deliver it from the darkness of ignorance into the light of belief in, and knowledge of, the Creator. The statement of Shahada in arabic is:

" Ashhadu Alla Ilaha Illa Allah Wa Ashhadu Anna Muhammad Rasulu Allah "

An English translation would be:

I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is His Messenger

PRAYER (SALAH)

Praying to the Creator on a daily basis is the best way to cultivate in a man a sound personality and to actualize his aspiration. Allah does not need man's prayer because He is free of all needs. Prayer is for our immeasurable benefit, and the blessings are beyond imagination.