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Cont’d from page 2
Driving hatred between people (12:100; 17:53)
Breaking promises (14:22)
Extravagance (17:27)
Arguing about God without knowledge (22:3)
Following your parents blindly about religion (31:21)
May God forgive us all and help us to stay away from the tools of the devil. Recognizing Satan’s traps may help us avoid them. All praises to God alone.
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In the world there are few things more submissive and weaker than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing surpasses it. Put up barricades, erect levees, and make everything waterproof; with enough passage of time, the flexible quality of water will triumph. There is no better example of this fact about water than the creation of the magnificent Grand Canyon. This architectural masterpiece was carved out by water.
Water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it.
Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone, just like it did to the Grand Canyon. (We should be like water.)
So, like water, let us trust GOD and be persistently gentle and willingly submit when faced with challenges, then watch the resistance to all of our challenges dissolve and go away.
Like water, if we can’t go through the obstacles we face, let us go around them. Yes, as Submitters we should and we can be like water. Remember, that as human beings, we are 65% water. Part of GOD’S Perfect Design.
We read in the Holy Quran
[27:88] When you look at the mountains, you think that they are standing still. But they are moving, like the clouds. Such is the manufacture of GOD, who perfected everything. He is fully Cognizant of everything you do.
There is a lot going on around the mountain and on the mountain itself. The rain drenches the mountain, the sun scorches it, the mountain is snowed upon, we humans use the mountain for sporting activities such as mountain climbing, skiing and camping.
Yet through it all, it doesn’t complain and instead, is detached from the commotion around it and remains focused on pleasing GOD. (We should be like the mountain.)
In the midst of all the real life challenges we are faced with, all the different Quranic understandings we have to deal with, the different egos, let us be like the mountain by not being immensely involved with distractions which the Quran calls illusions, but to be detached from them and maintain our focus on pleasing GOD ALONE.
[Ed. note: you can view Tom’s conference presentation at
http://masjidtucson.org/conference/2014/ ]
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[11:7] He is the One who created the heavens and the earth in six days―and His (earthly) domain was completely covered with water―in order to test you …
[21:30] Do the unbelievers not realize that the heaven and the earth used to be one solid mass that we exploded into existence? And from water we made all living things. Would they believe?
[27:61] Who is the One who made the earth habitable, caused rivers to run through it,
placed on it mountains, and created a barrier between the two waters? Is it another god with GOD? …
[16:15] And He placed stabilizers (mountains) on earth, lest it tumbles with you, as well as rivers and roads, that you may be guided.
[17:37] You shall not walk proudly on earth―you cannot bore through the earth, nor can you be as tall as the mountains.
[38:18] We committed the mountains in his service, glorifying with him night and day.
[50:7] And we created the earth, and scattered on it mountains, and grew in it all kinds of beautiful plants.
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Salaam Alaikum.
As your humble brother, greetings and may you receive all Allah’s blessings. I’m writing to inform you of my recent move to Folsom State Prison in Repressa, California. I once again thank you for the Quran, the Final Testament. It has really brought joy and understanding of the Quran to me. Other Qurans, which I’ve read, had me lost occasionally because their translations were proper English and not so-called American-English, which I comprehend a little better, inshallah. I feel there are many more who feel the same as I feel, so thank you for bringing clarity in my understanding and more joy into reading and comprehending this Glorious Quran, the Final Testament.
Yours truly,
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[96:1-5] Read, in the name of your Lord, who created. He created man from an embryo. Read, and your Lord, Most Exalted. Teaches by means of the pen. He teaches man what he never knew.