The Pleading Woman

A woman named Khawlah had a disagreement with her husband, Aws, who, in anger, told her she was like his mother. Before Islam, this was considered a form of divorce in Arabia. Khawlah sought the Prophet's opinion, who initially stated he had no teaching from Allah on the matter and, based on old Arab practices, she was divorced. She argued that their children would suffer from this separation. When the Prophet reiterated his answer, she prayed to Allah for a solution. Subsequently, these verses were revealed, ending this old divorce practice. (Recorded by Imam Ahmad)

Words matter. Allah creates with a word. People marry with a word. New Muslims enter Islam with a word. A word can make someone's day or break their heart, We shouldn't brag about our health in front of someone who is sick. Or brag about our money in front of someone who is poor. Or brag about our parents in front of an orphan. This is why it's important to think before we speak. If we do, we will not be saying 85% of the things we have in mind, simply because they will hurt someone's feelings or waste someone's time..

In Islam, it's forbidden to harm people with one's tongue, includ- ing pranking them in a dangerous way. Telling someone that their mother just died or their house is on fire is not funny, even if you call it an April Fool's Day' joke. The Prophet was travelling with some of his companions and they decided to have some rest. As they slept, one of them took something from his friend and hid it somewhere. When his friend woke up, he was terrified because he couldn't find it. Finally, the one who hid it gave it back, and told the Prophet that he was just pranking his friend. The Prophet told him that he shouldn't scare people even when he is joking with them. (Recorded by Imam Al-Bukhari)}

Ibn Abbas (the Prophet's cousin) was a very smart young man. The Prophet prayed to Allah to bless him with knowledge and wisdom. (Recorded by Imam Ahmad) After the Prophet's death, tbn Abbas sald to a man, Let's go and learn from the companions of the Prophet o we can teach others in the future.The man refused and said, Who are you? Do you think people will be in need of your knowledge? D Abbas didn't listen to him, and started to go around to collect knowi edge. He said that he would wait in front of someone's house for hours-even on sunny and dusty days-in order to learn from them. Eventually, Ibn Abbas gained so much knowledge that many people gathered to learn from him, The man who had refused to study with him later admitted, Tbn Abbas was right, and I was wrong. {Recorded by Imam At-Tabarani}:

Whether parents like it or not, kids learn from the media. Some moviesand videogames are good, but many are a bad influence. In many games, the more people you shoot, the more points you get. How many games give you points for helping a blind person cross the road, feeding the homeless, or cleaning up your room? Many movies feature heroes who destroy everything in their way without ever getting arrested. Many of us grew up with cartoons of a bulldog, a cat, and a mouse hitting and shooting each other the whole time. We saw a princess fall in love with a thief who had a flying carpet. We saw another princess witha very long hair fall in love with a cute thief. VWe saw a superhero in an all-black Costume who drove over 200 miles per hour and never got a ticket, a sailor man with tattoos who smoked pipe, a wooden boy with a long nose who always lied, a girl who stayed in a house with 7 little men that she didn't know and another girl who came home from a party after midnight with only one shoe. We saw a movie featuring several ancient Greek gods, and another with fairies who brought about spring and caused trees to bear fruit-which goes against our belief in the One True God Who takes care of everything Parents should filter out as much bad content as they can, and talk to their kids about both the pos- itive and negative messages that are in the media they consume.

You can learn from a book, but it's better to study with a teacher. This is why Allah didn't just send us the Quran, but He raised a prophet to explain its message to us. However, we have to choose the people we learn from carefully. Not everyone who has hun- dreds of lectures on YouTube or thousands of followers on social media is a reliable source of information. Moreover, many teachers have knowledge, but only a few are blessed with wisdom. Wisdom basically means to say or do the right thing at the right time in the right way..

This is a true story that happened in sna village in a Muslim country. Most of the people in this village were not educated-only a few were hafiz (those who mem- orized the entire Quran). One of them started to lead şalah at the masjid, but he didn't have knowledge. Be- fore Eid-ul-Adha, some people started asking him ques- tions on how to do qurbani (the sacrifice) properly. In- stead of saying, 1 don't know, he bought a book of figh (religious rulings) and started to teach. In one class, he read this ruling: It's recommended to make wudu' for qurbani. To explain it, he said, You must make wudu'for the sheep-washing its mouth, nose, face, head, legs, and little ears. OT course, he misunderstood the ruling. What it actually means is that the person himself should have wudu', not the animal.

Asking questions is a good way to learn and grow. No question is a bad question, as long as we ask to increase our knowledge. One day, I invited a historian to a Canadian school to speak about the challenges faced by early Muslim immigrants. He prepareda nice presentation and drove for almost one hour to get to the school. In the presentation, he mentioned the story of a man who couldn't find a job in Toronto in the early 1900's because of racism. So, this man started off by selling candy, and eventually became a successful businessman. The historian expected the students to ask about dealing with racism, or starting one's own business or how that man became successful in Canada. However, the first question was: What kind of candy did that man sell? And the historian got very disappointed. Imams too have to deal with these types of questions. For example:.