Assess Your Piety before the End of Ramadan

Muhammad Abdullah Javed
June 3, 2019

Before the completion of the blessed month, Ramadan, its last few days provide you with an exceptional opportunity to assess and test the quantum of Taqwa and apply its power. Yes, we are talking about that Taqwa which has been nourished with days of fastings and prayers.

This could be one of the most relevant questions to seek for, isn’t it? But to know its answer a parameter is quite essential as the vastness of Taqwa doesn’t permit us to guess and strive vaguely for its assessment. The Quran presents a verse which is quietly justifiable to what we are looking for:

And be quick in the race for forgiveness from your Lord and to a Paradise as vast as the heavens and the earth, prepared for the God-fearing. (Surah Aal-e-Imran: 133)

Just look at the verse, it speaks of a speedy action. For the assessment of Taqwa it specifies “speed” and “goal”.

The Speed – Why speed is needed? Why can’t a person accomplish the task with his own routine? There can be two justifiable answers; one, by virtue of fastings and prayers the person has succeeded in getting loads of good qualities and the speedy action is just to test how far those qualities are true to their formation. Second, to move from a place, energy is required. If the place happens to be powerful, large amount of energy is needed. You can raise your feet from the ground with ease but the same doesn’t hold good when the ground is sticky. Again, look at the way an object is put into space. To get rid of earth’s gravitational pull, the object needs to escape from earth’s atmosphere with a velocity greater than the gravitational pull that comes around 11 km per second. Any object with less speed will fall back on the ground as we see the stone thrown up falls back.

So you need to be quick else the ground will pull you back. Your ground is quite sticky with its own lavish preferences, unfulfilled dreams and unfinished desires. The Quran clearly states that the under-performance of a person and his idleness is for the same reason:

O Believers! What is amiss with you that when it is said to you: “March forth in the cause of Allah”, you stick heavily to the earth? Do you prefer the worldly life to the Hereafter? (Surah At-Tauba: 38)

The Goal – It’s a pillar that acts as a reference point to gauge the direction and speed, it stimulates a person to motivate himself for the achievement. Here, the lofty goal — “forgiveness of the Lord” and the “paradise” has all the attractions to enhance a person’s motivation and speed to the maximum extent.

The days of Fast and Qiyam must have ensured the required fuel and passion in you to register greater speed and get rid of the worldly pleasure for attaining Allah’s forgiveness and Jannah. Stand up on your toes; just check your amount of fuel and speedometer. Few days left, energize yourself to the maximum as you need to maintain that greater-speed for the rest of eleven months to be an epitome of Taqwa.

 

The author is the Director of AJ Academy For Research and Development, Raichur, Karnataka. He can be reached at [email protected]

Comments

Asifuddin Qhaize
 - 
Tuesday, 19 May 2020

Alhamdulillaha We will be thankful to Allah for Making us Enter in this Blessed Month of Ramadan. Now we have to Make the most of this blessed month.

Jazakallaha

Abdullah Javeed Sahab

 

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News Network
January 30,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 30: A kidnap case in Bengaluru has proved that crime-based series on TV channels can inspire youth to commit crimes. 21-year-old Chirag R Mehta, who kidnapped a schoolboy and got arrested within an hour after demanding Rs 5 lakh ransom, has told police that he thought of abducting the boy after watching Crime Patrol, a popular Hindi crime anthology series created by Subramanian S. lyer for Sony TV. The kidnapped schoolboy was rescued by the police and reunited with his parents. Son of a gift shop owner from Basavanagudi area in Bengaluru, Chirag has reportedly told police that decided to make some quick money to spend on cricket betting and gambling after learning kidnap tricks from the ‘Crime Patrol’. According to police, Chirag reached a private school around 3pm on Tuesday on a Bounce rental bike and zeroed in on a fourth standard student who was walking out of school. He told the boy he was his father's friend and that he required help to search for a relative who had gone missing. The boy believed Chirag and rode pillion on the bike. Chirag then engaged the boy in conversation and learnt about his father's business and got his mobile phone number. He then made a call to the boy's father, demanded Rs 5 lakh and warned him against approaching cops. However, the boy's father alerted Cottonpet police and special teams were formed to crack the case. While Cottonpet inspector Venkatesh TC's squad verified CCTV footage in and around the school, Chamarajpet inspector BG Kumaraswamy's team started tracking the suspect's mobile phone movements. An hour later, the suspect's location was traced to a hotel on the Lavelle Road-St Mark's Road stretch. Police rushed there, rescued the boy and arrested Chirag.

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Agencies
July 29,2020

Dubai, Jul 29: Muslim pilgrims on Wednesday begin the annual Haj, downsized this year as the Saudi hosts strive to prevent a coronavirus outbreak during the five-day pilgrimage.

The Haj, one of the five pillars of Islam and a must for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lifetime, is usually one of the world's largest religious gatherings.

But this year only up to 10,000 people already residing in the Kingdom will participate in the ritual, a tiny fraction of the 2.5 million pilgrims from around the world that attended last year.

"There are no security-related concerns in this pilgrimage, but (downsizing) is to protect pilgrims from the danger of the pandemic," said Khalid bin Qarar Al Harbi, Saudi Arabia's director of public security.

Pilgrims will be required to wear masks and observe social distancing during a series of religious rites that are completed over five days in the holy city of Makkah and its surroundings in western Saudi Arabia.

Those selected to take part in the Haj were subject to temperature checks and placed in quarantine as they began trickling into Makkah at the weekend.

State media showed health workers sanitising their luggage, and some pilgrims reported being given electronic wristbands to allow authorities to monitor their whereabouts.

Workers, clutching brooms and disinfectant, were seen cleaning the area around the Kaaba, the structure at the centre of the Grand Mosque draped in gold-embroidered cloth towards which Muslims around the world pray.

Haj authorities have cordoned off the Holy Kaaba this year, saying pilgrims will not be allowed to touch it, to limit the chances of infection.

They also reported setting up multiple health facilities, mobile clinics and ambulances to cater to the pilgrims.

Saudi authorities said only around 1,000 pilgrims residing in the Kingdom would be permitted for the Haj. Some 70 per cent of the pilgrims are foreigners residing in the Kingdom, while the rest will be Saudi citizens, authorities said.

All worshippers were required to be tested for coronavirus before arriving in the holy city of Makkah and will also have to quarantine after the pilgrimage as the number of cases in the Kingdom nears 270,000.

They were given elaborate amenity kits that include sterilised pebbles for a stoning ritual, disinfectants, masks, a prayer rug and the Ihram, a seamless white garment worn by pilgrims, according to a Haj ministry programme document.

"I did not expect, among millions of Muslims, to be blessed with approval," Emirati pilgrim Abdullah Al Kathiri said in a video released by the Saudi media ministry.

"It is an indescribable feeling... especially since it is my first pilgrimage."

The Haj ministry said non-Saudi residents of the Kingdom from around 160 countries competed in the online selection process but it did not say how many people applied.

Despite the pandemic, many pilgrims consider it safer to participate in this year's ritual without the usual colossal crowds cramming into tiny religious sites, which make it a logistical nightmare and a health hazard.

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News Network
January 2,2020

Mysuru, Jan 2: Mysuru-based Karnataka State Open University is gearing up to offer courses online from this year onwards and a proposal in this connection will be placed before the University Grants Commission (UGC) this month, after approval from the board of management.

As of now, the university offers 31 courses, including undergraduate, postgraduate, and diploma programmes.

Vice-chancellor Vidyashankar S Said that the university will submit its proposal to the UGC soon.

“This is being done to make learning convenient and help students study their courses of choices from the comfort of their homes.”

After launching online admissions for courses, this is another step to go paperless and towards an e-campus, the V-C explained.

The university has also proposed to launch 12 new courses for 2020-21.

A proposal in this regard will be placed before the board for approval on Thursday and the same will be submitted to the UGC for its nod.

Prof. Vidyashankar said the these courses will be in addition to the 31 already available.

The new courses include LLM, MA in Education, BBA, BSc, BCA, diploma in Information Technology, postgraduate diploma in Information Technology, BSc in Information Technology, MSc in Information Technology, MSc in Botany, PG diploma in Banking and Insurance, MSc in Zoology, MA in Telugu, Executive MBA, and MSc in Food Sciences and Nutrition.

The new courses had been proposed based on students’ feedback and the trend.

The V-C said the admissions for the January cycle have begun and over 380 students had so far taken admissions online.

“We are hoping for good admissions this cycle and are expecting around 12,000 admissions,” he replied.

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