….

inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raajioon

Umm Ibrahim, wife of Shaykh Ya’qubi passed away today. From what I understand there was a car accident and one of the children also suffered minor injuries.

Al-Fatiha

Eid Mubarak!

From Muhummad (S) - by Martin Lings

IT was not long after this outward sign of his authority and his mission that he began to experience powerful inward signs, in addition to those of which he had already been conscious. When asked about these he spoke of “true visions” which came to him in his sleep and he said that they were “like the breaking of the light of dawn.” 1 The immediate result of these visions was that solitude became dear to him, and he would go for spiritual retreats to a cave in Mount Hir? not far from the outskirts of Mecca. There was nothing in this that would have struck Quraysh as particularly strange, for retreat had been a traditional practice amongst the descendants of Ishmael, and in each generation there had been one or two who would withdraw to a solitary place from time to time so that they might have a period that was uncontaminated by the world of men. In accordance with this age-old practice, Muhammad would take with him provisions and consecrate a certain number of nights to the worship of God. Then he would return to his family, and sometimes on his return he took more provisions and went again to the mountain. During these few years it often happened that after he had left the town and was approaching his hermitage he would hear clearly the words “Peace be on thee, O Messenger of God”, 2 and he would turn and look for the speaker but no one was in sight, and it was as if the words had come from a tree or a stone.

Ramadan was the traditional month of retreat, and it was one night towards the end of Ramadan, in his fortieth year, when he was alone in the cave, that there came to him an Angel in the form of a man. The Angel said to him: “Recite!” and he said: “I am not a reciter,” whereupon, as he himself told it, “the Angel took me and whelmed me in his embrace until he had reached the limit of mine endurance. Then he released me and said: ‘Recite!’ I said: ‘I am not a reciter,’ and again he took me and whelmed me in his embrace, and again when he had reached the limit of mine endurance, he again released me and said: ‘Recite!’, and again I said ‘I am not a reciter.’ Then a third time he whelmed me as before, then released me and said:

Recite in the name of thy Lord who created!
He createth man from a clot of blood.
Recite; and thy Lord is the Most Bountiful,
He who hath taught by the pen,
taught man what he knew not. ”

He recited these words after the Angel, who thereupon left him; and he said; “It was as though the words were written on my heart.” 3 But he feared that this might mean he had become a jinn-inspired poet or a man possessed. So he fled from the cave, and when he was half-way down the slope of the mountain he heard a voice above him saying: “O Muhammad, thou art the Messenger of God, and I am Gabriel.” He raised his eyes heavenwards and there was his visitant, still recognisable but now clearly an Angel, filling the whole horizon, and again he said: “O Muhammad, thou art the Messenger of God, and I am Gabriel.” The Prophet stood gazing at the Angel; then he turned away from him, but whichever way he looked the Angel was always there, astride the horizon, whether it was to the north, to the south, to the east or to the west. Finally the Angel turned away, and the Prophet descended the slope and went to his house. “Cover me! Cover me!” he said to Khad?jah as with still quaking heart he laid himself on his couch. Alarmed, yet not daring to question him, she quickly brought a cloak and spread it over him. But when the intensity of his awe had abated he told her what he had seen and heard…

The death toll in Pakistan is rapidly increasing as new information comes in (19,000 as of last count, 42,000 wounded). Kashmir is in the 30,000 killed/missing count.

Please make dua for all those who have passed on, and those who are injured and dealing with this struggle and challenge.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aPgd_hxq12SM&refer=asia