Mercy From Allah During the First Ten Days of Ramadan

By Maria Zain at OnIslam.net

Ramadan is known to be broken down into thirds. The first ten days of Ramadan are known as the “Ten Days of Mercy.” Muslims are aware that Ramadan is a month of spiritual opportunities, but what does “mercy” really mean to Muslims?

One of Allah’s names is Ar-Rahman, the Most Merciful, and Muslims call upon Allah using this name in nearly everything they do. Thus, there is no surprise that Mercy manifests itself in the month that Allah created for Himself.

In the sacred hadith below, Allah says:

يَا ابْنَ آدَمَ إِنَّكَ مَا دَعَوْتَنِي وَرَجَوْتَنِي غَفَرْتُ لَكَ عَلَى مَا كَانَ فِيكَ وَلَا أُبَالِي يَا ابْنَ آدَمَ لَوْ بَلَغَتْ ذُنُوبُكَ عَنَانَ السَّمَاءِ ثُمَّ اسْتَغْفَرْتَنِي غَفَرْتُ لَكَ وَلَا أُبَالِي يَا ابْنَ آدَمَ إِنَّكَ لَوْ أَتَيْتَنِي بِقُرَابِ الْأَرْضِ خَطَايَا ثُمَّ لَقِيتَنِي لَا تُشْرِكُ بِي شَيْئًا لَأَتَيْتُكَ بِقُرَابِهَا مَغْفِرَةً

O son of Adam! However much you call upon Me and place your hopes in Me, I will forgive you without any reservation. O son of Adam! If you have sins piling up to the clouds and then ask My forgiveness, I will forgive you without any reservation. O son of Adam! If you come to me with enough mistakes to fill the Earth, and meet Me without associating anything as a partner with Me, I will come to you with enough forgiveness to fill the Earth.

[Sunan At-Tirmidhi, Book 45, Number 3540, Hasan]

Imagine entering Ramadan in full reflection of wrong doings. Many believers worry of the sins that they incurred along the way – the ones that were committed conscientiously and without realizing it. Yet Allah promises forgiveness. There is no similar attribute to anyone or anything in this world, hence the reminder to remove idolatry from one’s beliefs.

Through this hadith alone, Allah reminds that He is Ar-Rahman, the Most Compassionate, and Ar-Raheem, the Most Merciful. Basking in Allah’s Mercy – and finitely – the Mercy of Paradise – is something that every believing Muslim prays for. And with this fear of Allah’s punishment that is close to the heart of the believer, Allah says:

قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

Say: O My servants who have transgressed against their own souls, despair not of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Truly, He is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.

[Surah Az-Zumar 39:53]

Supplication and Remembrance Are Keys to Allah’s Mercy

A great way for Muslims to worship for the first ten days of mercy is to recite Du’a(supplications) and Dhikr (remembrance) invoking Allah’s mercy. With the doors of Paradise swung open and the doors of Hellfire shut, Allah never goes back on His Promise and with that, this is the perfect time to beg for Allah to shower His servants with Mercy. A recognized Quranic supplication, that can be recited as a remembrance is:

وَقُل رَّبِّ اغْفِرْ وَارْحَمْ وَأَنتَ خَيْرُ الرَّاحِمِينَ

O My Lord, forgive me and have mercy upon me for You are the best of the merciful.

[Surah Al-Mu’minun 23:118]

Allah also says:

فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِي وَلَا تَكْفُرُونِ

So, Remember Me, and I will remember you.

[Surah Al-Baqarah 2:152]

This is the best reminder to continuously ask from Allah, to continuously invoke blessings from Allah, to continuously prostrate and beg Allah for His Mercy – no matter how low, no matter how tired, no matter how riddled Muslims are with difficulties. Believers must never give up on Allah’s Mercy.

Another hadith talks about Allah’s mercy in the world – the world that Muslims live in, the days they scamper through. Although Muslims see a lot of destruction, they also see plenty of love: from a husband to a wife; from a mother to her suckling baby; from a teacher to his students; from children to animals; and even from animals to their young. Mercy surrounds the world, yet Allah says He divided His mercy into a hundred parts, and only one of those hundred parts manifest itself in this world. The rest of the mercy belongs to Allah alone. Imagine Allah’s mercy during the first ten days of Ramadan, and imagine the mercy may bestow amongst those who take full advantage of the first ten days and how the mercy will manifest itself on Judgment Day and in the Hereafter.

Fasting Itself Is Mercy

The act of fasting, as one of the Pillars of Islam, is in itself an act of mercy. Through fasting, Muslims experience a healthy detox from food that does not benefit them. They become spiritually recharged and become more aware of leaving distractions that also do not benefit them. Muslims appreciate the little they have and think of those who have even less – families with children in war-torn countries, Muslims and non-Muslims living without food on a daily basis – those who fast without an opportunity to break their fast.

All of these amount to mercy in their own way, Muslims will have an opportunity to feel more merciful towards themselves, towards those who may have more, and to those who are less fortunate. Mercy manifests itself in humility in many, many ways. And all this can be achieved through a Ramadan that is filled with remembrance of Allah, reflection on abstinence, and spending the early nights deep in prayer.

But Allah promises something even more. He says:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ

O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous.

[Surah Al-Baqarah 2: 183]

Imagine being recognized as amongst the most pious Muslims, this is probably the most merciful appellation and gift that Allah can give His servant. And this can be attained by observing Ramadan with full servitude.

Fast and Ask in the Season of Mercy

The beauty of the first ten days of mercy is that it is a blessing within a blessing. While Muslims are actively striving to please Him, Allah adds a gift to the special month by creating this season of mercy. His mercy is showered upon those who engage in good deeds and the merits for them are multiplied, while those with a streak of bad deeds even are forgiven – provided that they are sincere in their repentance and strive to please Allah alone. It is during this time – through Allah’s mercy – that the status of pious servants are raised, and the more mercy that is compounded upon them, helps cleanse their hearts and turns them towards the correct direction in worshiping Allah.

What a great reminder for Muslims to bask in Allah’s mercy during the first third of Ramadan. Not only is fasting piling up merits and blessings, but the mercy of Allah continues to wash over everyone who engages in worship. Allah has created His servants to worship Him, as He says in the Quran:

 وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ

I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.

[Surah Adh-Dhariyat 51:56]

The virtues of fasting are great indeed, and one of the virtues is that Allah chose fasting for Himself. Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said:

قَالَ اللَّهُ كُلُّ عَمَلِ ابْنِ آدَمَ لَهُ إِلاَّ الصِّيَامَ، فَإِنَّهُ لِي، وَأَنَا أَجْزِي بِهِ‏.‏

Allah Almighty said: All the deeds of the children of Adam are for them, except fasting which is for Me, and I will give the reward for it.

The Prophet said further:

 ‏.‏ وَالصِّيَامُ جُنَّةٌ، وَإِذَا كَانَ يَوْمُ صَوْمِ أَحَدِكُمْ، فَلاَ يَرْفُثْ وَلاَ يَصْخَبْ، فَإِنْ سَابَّهُ أَحَدٌ، أَوْ قَاتَلَهُ فَلْيَقُلْ إِنِّي امْرُؤٌ صَائِمٌ‏.‏ وَالَّذِي نَفْسُ مُحَمَّدٍ بِيَدِهِ لَخُلُوفُ فَمِ الصَّائِمِ أَطْيَبُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ مِنْ رِيحِ الْمِسْكِ، لِلصَّائِمِ فَرْحَتَانِ يَفْرَحُهُمَا إِذَا أَفْطَرَ فَرِحَ، وَإِذَا لَقِيَ رَبَّهُ فَرِحَ بِصَوْمِهِ

Fasting is a shield from the fire and from sin. If one of you is fasting, he should avoid sexual relations with his wife and arguments. If somebody should fight or argue with him, he should say: I am fasting. By Him in Whose Hand is my soul, the unpleasant smell coming from the mouth of a fasting person is better in the sight of Allah than the smell of musk. There are two pleasures for the fasting person, one at the time of breaking his fast and the other when he meets his Lord; then he will be pleased because of his fasting.

[Sahih Bukhari, Book 31, Number 128]

Thus the rewards without measure will manifest itself throughout the days of Ramadan for those who sincerely repent and engage in good deeds for only Allah alone. All this mercy spills over throughout Ramadan and through a believer’s life up until the Day of Judgment where the fasting person may be recognized as amongst the pious, by Allah’s merciful decision.

Success comes from Allah, and Allah knows best.

(www.faithinallah.org / 19.07.2012)

Israel releases speaker of Palestinian parliament from detention

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli authorities released a senior Hamas lawmaker Thursday after six months held under the controversial practice of administrative detention.

Aziz Dweik, speaker of the Palestinian parliament, was arrested Jan. 19 at a checkpoint as he was leaving Ramallah for his hometown of Hebron in the southern end of the West Bank.

Israel uses administrative detention to hold Palestinians in prison without charge or trial for up to six months, with the possibility of indefinite extensions. The practice is widely condemned by the international community.

Some of the more than 300 Palestinians held under the system recently participated long hunger strikes to protest their detention, and some have won release.

Dweik, who is in his 60s, was elected to the Palestinian parliament in 2006 on a Hamas-backed ticket. The parliament largely stopped functioning when Hamas’ forces drove loyalists of the Fatah movement out of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

On Thursday, members of his family and Hamas lawmakers and officials waited for him at an Israeli army checkpoint near Ramallah, where he was dropped off.

Dweik’s attorney, Fadi Qawasmi, who had negotiated a deal with the military prosecutor to allow the release of the speaker at the end of his term, said he believed Dweik was released because of his stature as speaker of the parliament.

“Pressure from parliament members around the world must have left an impact on the Israeli decision to release him,” he said.

Israel still holds 21 Palestinian lawmakers from the West Bank, almost all of them members of Hamas, under administrative detention.

(latimesblogs.latimes.com / 19.07.2012)

Haniyeh says to meet Mursi next week

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — The prime minister in the Gaza Strip said Thursday that he was set to meet new Egyptian president Muhammad Mursi next week in Cairo.

Ismail Haniyeh said that he and a delegation of 100 people from Gaza were planning to meet Mursi during Ramadan.

Haniyeh was speaking at an event marking the release of the annual school exam results where he handed out scholarships to the 10 top-scoring students from Gaza.

(www.maannews.net / 19.07.2012)

Activist: Settlers uproot trees in Beit Ummar

HEBRON (Ma’an) — A number of settlers from Beit Ain settlement damaged agricultural lands near Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, and uprooted 25 trees, a local activist said Thursday.

Mohammed Awad said the trees were owned by Hammad Abdul Hamid Slabee, who has lost more than 200 trees in six attacks since last summer.

The land is his only source of income, Awad said.

(www.maannews.net / 19.07.2012)

Islamitische dressuurruiter: ik vast gewoon tijdens de Spelen

DRESSUURRUITER YESSIN RAHMOUNINOS

Over ruim een week beginnen in Londen de Olympische Spelen, maar de ramadan begint ook bijna. En dat kan voor sporters uit islamitische landen best lastig zijn. Want eigenlijk mogen ze van zonsopgang tot zonsondergang niet eten.

In de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten en Egypte hebben religieuze leiders daarom een fatwa uitgesproken waardoor Olympische deelnemers niet hoeven te vasten en sommige sporters hebben al aangekondigd dit jaar het vasten over te slaan.

Yessin Rahmouni (27) is een van de 3000 islamitische sporters die deze spelen met de ramadan te maken krijgt. De Marokkaanse dressuurruiter uit Haarlem gaat voor Marokko naar de Olympische Spelen. Maar hij houdt zich wél gewoon aan de ramadan.

Vooral mentaal zwaarder

“Ik denk dat ik het prima kan volhouden, ik heb nooit moeite met de ramadan”, zegt hij. “Daarnaast rij ik tijdens de spelen minder uren op mijn paard dan nu.” Wel denkt hij dat het mentaal zwaarder wordt, dat het lastiger wordt om je te concentreren. “Maar daar hebben andere islamitische sporters misschien meer last van, zoals de duursporters.”

(nos.nl / 19.07.2012)

Opposition: Syrian rebels seize Iraq border gate

BEIRUT (Reuters) — Syrian rebels took control of the main Abu Kamal border gate with Iraq on Thursday, opposition activists said, on the same day opponents to President Bashar Assad overran a border crossing with Turkey.

Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said rebel fighters told him they had clashed with government troops on Thursday morning before seizing the border gate on the eastern frontier, along the Euphrates river.

(www.maannews.net / 19.07.2012)

When I Stoop

 

One poem for Mahmoud al-Sarsak, the prisoner who imprisoned his jailer.

The walls of my prison

Whisper to me;

They tell me stories of people who were here

Of people who lived here.

There was the weak

And there was the old.

There was the child.

There was the lady.

They were here,

But now they are there.

***

In my prison, I talk to the walls

And they to me talk

That one day I will walk:

One day my jailer will stoop

At my feet

To unlock the chains.

It does not matter why

But he will stoop.

***

Inside my prison I draw my future

With minute details.

On the other side of the wall

(Behind the bars)

Sits the jailer.

As he turns back

And looks me in the eye,

He pours mountains of boredom

And let’s loose of a sigh.

I look back and smile.

He clears his throat

Blinks once then twice

And moves his lips.

I walk away

And give him my back.

I smile again

Winking at the wall.

‘See,’ it tells me

‘I know,’ I reply,

And bend down

And shake my chains.

The look in his face,

The fear in his eyes

Both make my day.

***

Inside my prison,

I also stoop,

But when I do,

I stoop to conquer.

(thisisgaza.wordpress.com / 19.07.2012)

Israeli soldiers confiscate water storage tanks on West Bank

Children from the Aleyan family play in front of their tent in the Ein Al Hilwa area. The family was last month forced by Israeli soldiers to evacuate their home for military exercises and then a few days later, the soldiers returned to confiscate their water.

EIN AL HILWA, WEST BANK // These rocky foothills are a forbidding place even for the scattered Bedouin communities that have herded livestock here for generations. Yet it is not the summer heat that is threatening their way of life.

Last month, Israeli soldiers began confiscating water-storage containers used by Bedouin in several pastoral encampments on the northern fringes of the West Bank’s Jordan Valley area.

No explanation was given to the dozens of impoverished residents, who have since been rationing their already scarce water supplies and tending to thirsty livestock.

But no explanation was needed. Many here see the confiscations as the latest Israeli tactic to put pressure on Bedouin and Palestinian residents to leave this resource-rich area.

“Water is the source of life. Without it, how can we live here?” said Mohammed Aleyan, 34, a shepherd from Ein Al Hilwa encampment.

He said the soldiers came without notice and handcuffed him and his 15-year-old nephew before emptying water containers and leaving with the mobile tanks.

Because the encampments are denied access to Israeli utilities, the Bedouin have had to bring in water from distant springs by lorry.

Fatimah Ka’abne, a mother of seven aged in her 30s, said that some women pleaded with the soldiers to stop “but they threw us to the ground”. She said: “They laughed at us.”

The incidents highlight the broader struggle over the Jordan Valley and its fertile fields and substantial supplies of underground water.

The vast area, essential for a viable Palestinian state, forms more than a quarter of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967. Under the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israel was allowed to directly administer more than 60 per cent of the West Bank – including most of the Jordan Valley.

Little remit was granted to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and that may never be increased.

Few expect Israel to relinquish control any time soon, said Shlomo Brom, a fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

Israelis had begun to question the ability of Jordan – which maintains a peace treaty with Tel Aviv – to police its boundary with the Jordan Valley.

“The situation in Jordan is more chaotic than it used to be,” Mr Brom said.

Jordan – like Egypt, the other Arab country that has a peace treaty with Israel – has formed an integral pillar to Tel Aviv’s regional security.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, echoed this sentiment last year, reaffirming his position that Israel must retain a long-term military presence in the Jordan Valley in the event of a peace deal with the Palestinians because “Israel’s line of defence begins here”.

In the meantime, Israel has been expanding Jordan Valley settlements and extracting disproportional amounts of water from aquifers.

The area’s 37 settlements, home to about 9,500 residents, control an estimated 86 per cent of Jordan Valley land. Much of that is used for an extensive network of farms. So much, in fact, that Jordan Valley settlers use about a third of the annual amount of water available to all 2.5 million West Bank Palestinians, according to the Israeli-rights watchdog of the occupied Palestinian territories, B’Tselem.

Some Jordan Valley Bedouin survive on 20 litres a day, which B’Tselem describes on its website as barely meeting the World Health Organisation’s standard for “short-term survival”.

For Palestinians, the reason for such disparities is clear. Before the Israeli occupation began, between 200,000 and 320,000 Arabs, both Palestinian and Bedouin, lived in the Jordan Valley. Now, that number is about 56,000.

“They want to kick us out of the Jordan Valley and concentrate us in the cities,” said Ibrahim Sawaftah, a Palestinian activist in the area.

Many non-Jews have left the valley because of Israel’s policies of home demolitions and military exercises in the area.

Demolitions have increased over the past year. In 2011, Israel demolished 212 Palestinian structures in the area, displacing 432 people, according to statistics provided by the Displacement Working Group, a collection of non-governmental organisations and aid agencies.

Even though human-rights organisations say demolitions violate obligations under international law as an occupying power, Israel argues they were built without permits. Obtaining such permits is practically impossible for Palestinians.

Days before confiscating water containers in encampments in and around Ein Al Hilwa, soldiers demolished two Bedouin structures and conducted military exercises. Israel designated these areas as firing zones in the 1970s, rendering their inhabitants – including those living in the area before then – illegal.

Muna Aleyan, 36, her seven children and neighbours were last month forced out of their encampments by soldiers for a training exercise. They were allowed to return the following day.

“We had to leave all our possessions, and they just threw us in the street like animals,” she said.

A few days later, the soldiers came again to confiscate their water, Mrs Aleyan said. She added that soldiers had for several years blocked their access to a nearby spring, forcing them to pay higher sums for water shipped in from other West Bank areas.

“They don’t do this to the Jews,” she said, pointing to the Israeli settlement of Maskiyot on the adjacent hilltop.

The coordinator of government activities in the territories, a branch of Israel’s defence ministry that operates in the West Bank, said that the water confiscations were punishment for the “expanding phenomenon of water theft” from mains in the area.

It did not mention whether anyone had been charged with a crime.

Officials from the PA have intervened by giving new storage containers and mobile-water tankers to families in the area. Mr Aleyan said he was able to provide water for his family and his sheep because of the PA’s assistance.

Given the restrictions, he doubted how long that would last, citing a comment made to him by an Israeli soldier who confiscated his water tank.

“I asked: ‘What do you want me to do now’?” Mr Alayan recalled. “The soldier looked at me and said: ‘You can leave’.”

(www.thenational.ae / 19.07.2012)

Urgent action to save Palestinian hunger strikers

Addameer, Al-Haq and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-IL) reiterate their utmost concern for the lives of the Palestinian prisoners currently on hunger strike in Israeli prison, especially for gravely-ill prisoner Akram Rikhawi who is on his 99^th day of hunger strike today.

 

According to Akram’s wife after speaking to lawyers who visited him, his health continues to deteriorate. Akram is now unable to move his left leg and left hand and can only move with a wheelchair. Two days ago, Akram attempted to stand and immediately fell to the ground and struck his head. He was taken to Assaf Harofeh Hospital and then returned to Ramleh prison medical clinic. He is currently consuming water, salt and vitamins. Akram, who suffers from diabetes, asthma and osteoporosis, remains on hunger strike, demanding his immediate release due to his medical condition.

 

Administrative detainee Samer Al-Barq is on his 59^th day of renewed hunger strike today, following a prior 30-day hunger strike. Israel continues to refuse to release him to his home in the West Bank. PHR-IL lawyer Mohammad Mahagni visited Samer in Ramleh prison medical clinic this morning. Samer reported that his health has severely deteriorated. He noted that three weeks ago, his heart rate had dropped to 35 beats per minute, which is an alarming and life-threatening state. He was then transferred to Assaf Harofeh Hospital for one night, during which he was shackled by three limbs to the hospital bed. Samer also reported that the Israeli Prison Service is threatening him with force-treatment or force-feeding if he does not break his hunger strike. Samer currently suffers from vertigo, drastic weight loss and involuntary shivering and coldness in his legs, symptoms that may indicate peripheral nerve damage.

 

Hassan Safadi is on his 29^th day of renewed hunger strike today, following his 71-day hunger strike in protest against his administrative detention. According to Hassan’s family, last week he stopped drinking water for two days and was subsequently taken to Assaf Harofeh Hospital due to rapid deterioration in his health. He is now back in Ramleh prison in solitary confinement, where he awaits a hearing on 25 July. This hearing may determine whether or not his new administrative detention order is upheld, given that he was included in the agreement to end Palestinian prisoners’ mass hunger strike and should have been released on 21 June.

 

While administrative detention is allowed under international humanitarian law, it must be used only under exceptional circumstances as it infringes upon basic human rights, including the right to a fair trial. Indeed, the denial of a fair trial constitutes a ‘grave breach’ of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Furthermore, the European Parliament called on Israel in a September 2008 resolution to “guarantee that minimum standards on detention be respected, to bring to trial all detainees, [and] to put an end to the use of ‘administrative detention orders’.” The United Nations Human Rights Committee has stated several times that prolonged administrative detention is likely to result in the exposure of detainees to “torture, ill-treatment and other violations of human rights.”

 

A fourth hunger striker, Ayman Sharawna, is on his 19^th day of hunger strike today. Ayman was released in the prisoner exchange deal last October, only to be re-arrested on 31 January. No charges have been filed against him. Ayman is currently being held in solitary confinement in Rimon prison.

 

An Addameer lawyer submitted a request to visit the hunger strikers in Ramleh prison medical clinic and was not given permission until Monday, 23 July. All current hunger strikers are still denied access to independent doctors. Two appeals will be submitted tomorrow by PHR-IL to the District Court regarding entry of doctors to Akram and Samer.

 

In light of the further deterioration of the conditions of the remaining Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, Addameer, Al-Haq and PHR-IL urge the international community to immediately intervene on their behalf and demand:

 

• unrestricted access for independent physicians to all hunger strikers;
• the immediate transfer of Akram Rikhawi and Samer Al-Barq to a public hospital, and the transfer of all prisoners on hunger strike for more than 40 days to public hospitals;
• that no hunger striker be shackled while hospitalized;
• that all hunger strikers—especially those in advanced stages of hunger strike—be allowed family visits, while they are still lucid;
• that all information be given to families as to the medical condition of their loved ones, which is the responsibility of hospitals and medical staff in accordance with standards of medical ethics;
• that Akram Rikhawi be granted release on humanitarian grounds;
• that Hassan Safadi and Samer Al-Barq, along with all other administrative detainees, be immediately and unconditionally released;
• that the European Parliament immediately dispatch a parliamentary fact-finding mission that includes members of its Subcommittee on Human Rights to investigate the conditions of detention of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

(www.alternativenews.org / 19.07.2012)