Contemplation Basic Ethics & Manners

Woe to Every Scorner and Mocker — Backbiting and Ridicule

Verse: "Woe to every scorner and mocker — who collects wealth and counts it." (104:1-2) "Hammaz": One who scorns openly in speech or a…

Contemplation Intermediate Creed

With Him Are the Keys of the Unseen — Five Things Only Allah Knows

Verse: "With Him are the keys of the unseen — none knows them but He." (6:59) Hadith: "The keys of the unseen are five known only to A…

Contemplation Intermediate The Hereafter

With Him Are the Keys of the Unseen — The Five Things Only He Knows

Verse: "With Him are the keys of the unseen — none knows them except Him." (6:59) — The absolute unseen is restricted to Allah alone. The …

Contemplation Basic Social Conduct

O Believers Avoid Much Suspicion — Indeed Some Suspicion Is a Sin

Verse: "O believers, avoid much suspicion — indeed some suspicion is a sin." (49:12) — The prohibition is on "much" suspicion, not all — s…

Contemplation Basic Social Conduct

Woe to Every Backbiter Scorner Who Gathers Wealth and Counts It — Critique of Excessive Wealth and Slander

Verse: "Woe to every backbiter, scorner — who gathers wealth and counts it." (104:1-2) — "Humazah luzamah" — one whose constant habit is b…

Contemplation Intermediate Al-Masad

Perish the Hands of Abu Lahab — The Eternal Model of Opposition

Verses: "May the hands of Abu Lahab perish, and may he perish (1) His wealth and what he earned will not avail him" Reflection: Surah…

Contemplation Basic Al-Masad

And His Wife, the Carrier of Firewood — The Person Who Ignites Fires Between People

Verses: "And his wife, the carrier of firewood (4) Around her neck is a rope of twisted fibre" Reflection: The wife of Abu Lahab is m…

Contemplation Basic Trust in Allah

We Have Opened for You a Clear Opening — Allah Named the Apparent Setback a Clear Opening

Verse: "We have opened for you a clear opening." (48:1) — Revealed after the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah — which the companions saw as a humilia…

Reasons for Revelation Intermediate Monotheism

The Question About the Soul — Al-Isra 85

Occasion of Revelation (Sahih — Agreed Upon): Abdullah ibn Masud said: "I was walking with the Prophet ﷺ in some farmland in Medina. He p…

Reasons for Revelation Intermediate Makki Events

Surah Al-Kahf — Quraysh Tests the Prophet with a Jewish Question

Occasion of Revelation (Sahih — Bukhari, Muslim & Ahmad): The Meccan disbelievers sent Al-Nadr ibn Al-Harith and Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayt to …

Reasons for Revelation Intermediate Madani Events

"They Ask You About the Spirit" — Jews Testing the Prophet

Verse: "They ask you about the spirit — say: the spirit is from the command of my Lord, and of knowledge you have been given only a little…

Quranic Stories Intermediate Musa

Musa and the Righteous Servant (Al-Khidr) — Limits of Human Knowledge

Verse: "Musa said to him: May I follow you so that you teach me some of the right knowledge you were taught?" (18:66) Musa seeking know…

Quranic Stories Advanced Musa

Al-Khidr and Musa — Three Events and the Hidden Wisdom

Quranic context: Al-Kahf 60-82 Context: Moses was told that at the meeting of the two seas was a man more knowledgeable than him. He t…

Quranic Terms Advanced Rhetoric

Iltifat — The Sudden Style Shift

Definition: Shifting from one style to another in speech — third person to second person, or vice versa. Example in Al-Fatiha: Begins …

Quranic Terms Intermediate I'jaz

Inimitability of the Unseen — Three Types and Examples

Definition: Inimitability of the Unseen is the Quran's disclosure of matters unknown to any human except by revelation — some fulfilled d…

Quranic Terms Advanced Quranic Sciences

Ruh and Nafs in the Quran — The Precise Distinction Between the Two Terms

First: Nafs (Soul/Self) Used in the Quran with multiple meanings: The person/individual: "Every soul shall taste death" (3:185) — ev…

Fiqh Rulings Basic Transactions

Prohibition of Backbiting and Tale-Bearing

Verse: "Do not backbite one another. Would any of you like to eat his dead brother's flesh? You would hate it." (49:12) Definition of b…

Fiqh Rulings Intermediate Special Topics

And Do Not Spy — Prohibition of Spying

Verse: "And do not spy and do not backbite one another." (49:12) — Spying: investigating people's faults and secrets without permission. I…

Fiqh Rulings Basic Ethics & Manners

Prohibition of Spying and Backbiting — Sanctity of a Muslim's Honor

Verse: "Do not spy, and do not backbite one another. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would loathe it." (49…

Quranic Rhetoric Advanced Iltifat

Iltifat — Types and Purposes in the Quran

Three basic types: (1) Third to second person: "Praise to Allah...You alone we worship." (2) Second to third: "Until you are in ships, and…

Quranic Rhetoric Intermediate Iltifat

Shift from Third to Second Person — "Praise to Allah... You Alone We Worship"

Iltifat in Al-Fatiha: The opening verses speak about Allah in the third person — "Praise to Allah, Lord of the worlds, the Most Merciful, …

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