The Pen

Allah shows great support to His Prophet (PBUH) and praises his excellent character.

If you take care of people, Allah will take care of you.

It's important to say 'in-sha-Allah' (God willing) because nothing can happen without Allah's permission.

The idol-worshippers are warned of punishments in this life and the next for being ungrateful to Allah, worshipping idols, and for abusing the Prophet (PBUH).

Those who don't pray in this life will have a hard time on Judgment Day.

One should always be patient and never lose hope.

The Prophet's son lbrahim died before he turned 2 years old. On the same day, a solar eclipse hap- pened. Many people started to say that the sun was eclipsed because of lbrahim's death. The Proohet gave a talk, in which he said,The sun and the moon are two natural signs. They don't eclipse for anyone's death or birth. When you see an eclipse, pray to Allah.(Recorded by Imam Al-Bukhari)One day, a man from outside Madinah came to the Prophet asking for two camel loads from the clothes by his neck food. But the man asked in a rude way. He pulled the Prophet so hard that his neck turned red. Then he yelled, I want these two camels loaded with food right now. This food doesn't belong to you or your father| The Prophet kept calmn and said The food belongs to Allah, and I am only His servant. But you will be punished for what you just did. The man said, You can't punish mel The Prophet ss asked, Why? The man sald Because you are better than me. You don't respond to evil with evil. The Prophet smiled and told his companions to give him the food he requested. (Recorded by imam Al-Bukhari).

There was a comnpanion by the name of Nu'aiman, who was known for his practical jokes One day, a man came to Madinah to sell fruits. Nu'aiman told the man that he wanted to buy some fruits. He then took the fruits and gave them to the Prophet as a gift. Then the ma came asking for his money. Nu'aiman told the man, The Prophet will pay you. He sao, Nu'aiman! i thought you said it was a gift. Nu'aiman replied, Yes, but i never said l am payis for it. The Prophet smiled and paid the money. (Recorded by Imam Abu Ya'la)

One day, the Prophet was camping outside of Makkah on the way back to Madinan. young non-Muslim man by the name of Aws (also known as Abu Mahzourah) came with sone of his friends to observe from a distance. When it was time for azan, Aws and his friends stat ed copying the azan jokingly. The Prophet told his companions, Do you see those yours men? One of them has a beautiful voice. AwS and his friends were brought to him , nd they were asked to make azan one by one, Aws was the last to call the azan. The Prophet told him to sit down, wiped over his head, and prayed for him. Aws accepted islam on the spot Then the Prophet taught him the proper azan and told him, Go, you are now the mu azzin of the Haram (the official person to call the azan at the Holy Mosque in Makkah): Recoraeo by Imam Muslim & Imam An-Nasa'i} Aws said that he loved Prophet Muhammad % so much that he never shaved his head because it was touched by the Prophet's hand.

Verses 10-16 talk about an arrogant Makkan idol-worshipper, Al-Walid ibn Al-Mughirah, one of the worst enemies of Islam. He called the Prophet is 'a crazy man' and called the Quran fairy tales/ So, Allah responded by listing 10 of his evil qualities-2 of which he didn't know: the fact that he was born outside of marriage, and that his nose would be chopped off several years later at the Battle of Badr. At least 3 of his 10 sons accepted lslam, including Khalid ibn A-Walid. {Recorded by Imam Al-Qurtubi}

There was a good man who had a big garden and used to give some of its harvest to the pool. When he died, his children decided that their father was wrong for wasting their fruit by Shat ing it with the needy. They decided to pick the produce and keep it all for themnselves, but they forgot to say in-sha-Allah. So, Allah punished them for their selfishness and ingratitude by destroying their garden. (Recorded by Imam lbn Kathir)

A man by the name of Joha wanted to buy a donkey so he put the money in his pocket and started walking to the market, He passed by his neighbour, who asked Joha why he was going to the market. Joha replied, l am buying a donkey today The neighbour reminded Joha to say in-sha-Alah,but Joha said, Why should I say in-sha-Allah? The money is in my pocket, and the donkey is in the market. Joha then left with a smile on his face, but soon returned with tears in his eyes. His neign- bour asked, Joha ! Where is the donkey? And Joha replied with a broken voice, In-sha-Alah, the money was stolen!

The idol-worshippers rejected the idea of life after death. They claimed that even if there is a Day of Judgment, they will be going to Jannah just like the believers. So the following passage was revealed to teach them that they are not in a position to decide how they will be treated in the Next Life. They have no proof to support this claim. They should know that they are going to the Fire if they continue to reject Allah. {Recorded by Imam Al-Qurtubi}

Allah gives people control over their actions in this life so they can decide what they want to do. However, the Quran says in verses 1:4 and 82:19 that Allah will have ful authority on Judg- ment Day. According to verses 42-43 of this surah, the wicked will try to pray to save them- selves from Hell, but they will not be able to kneel down because they will have no control over their bodies. They will not even be able to stop their organs from testifying against them on that Day (41:20). {Recorded by Imam Al-Bukhari & Imam Muslim}.

After Yunus left his city without Allah's permission, he prayed for forgiveness. After Adam a ate from the forbidden tree, he prayed for forgiveness. After Musa killed a man by mis- take, he prayed for forgiveness. So, Allah forgave all of them. But when Satan disobeyed Allah by refusing to bow down before Adam , he argued with Allah, and never prayed for forgive- ness. This is why he was never forgiven.

When some people do something wrong, they either pretend they didn't do it, or lie about it, or blame it on someone else, or argue about it. When we make a mistake, we should apologize and learn from our mistake.

One day, l gave a talk about people who harm themselves. and 1 used smoking as an example. One brother, who was a heavy smoker, came to argue with me after the talk, saying that smok ing has many benetits. Although he argued for about 15-20 minutes, he didn't mention a single benefit. I told him, Thanks brother. I will tell you how smoking will benefit you:

2.Burglars will not break into your house at night. Why? Be- cause you will be up all night coughing.

3.Dogs will not attack you. Why? Because you will age so fast that you will have to use a cane. When dogs see the cane, they will leave you alone.

We both laughed, then he left for a smoke!'

According to verses 48-50 below, even if you make a mistake, Allah is always willing to give you a second chance to be your best. After Prophet Yunus prayed to Allah for forgiveness, He blessed him and made himn one of the best prophets. So it doesn't matter how you start in life, what matters to Allah is how you finish.

Growing up as a young African-American in the 1930s. Malcolm X had a rough childhood. After his father was killed and his mother was sent to the mental hospital, Malcolm and his siblings found themselves in foster homes. He dropped out of school and fell into street life with gangs. In 1946, he ended up in jail where he found out about Islam, and later became a Muslim (even though at the time he didn't have the right in- formation about the faith). In jail he had nothing but time, so he started to think about improving his life and realized that education was the only way to do it. He taught himself how to read and write, memorized the entire dictionary page by page, and read all the book