The revelation of the Qur’aan in seven styles (ahruf, sing. harf)

I have read that during the third Khalief, Oethmaan, a committee under
supervision of Zaid ibn Thabit has been ordered to make an official
editorship of the whole Koran. But this"Oethmanian" text didn't give
yet a uniform reading.
Because early arabic language didn't have vowels and also some
consonants had the same or almost the same form. New signs were
introduced to seperate thedifferent letters. But this still did not
stop the different ways of reading.
In the first half of the fourth/tenth century the 'imaam of the Koran
readers' in Baghdad, Ibn Moedjahid, gave a solutionto this problem. He
said that the word harf should be put equivalent to kira'a.He declared
seven ways ofreading correct. Because according to him the saying of
the Prophet (PBUH) that the Koran wassend in seven ahroef means that
seven ways of reading are inspired.
Nowadays only to ways ofreading are in use, Warsj of Nafi' and Hafs of 'Asim.
Could you tell me more about these different waysof reading? Are there
ahadieth about this?.
Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly :
you should note, may Allaah bless you, that the Qur'aan was revealed
in one style at the beginning,but the Messenger of Allaah (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) kept asking Jibreel until he taught
himseven styles, all of which were complete. The evidence for that is
the hadeeth of Ibn 'Abbaas who narrated that the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: "Jibreel taught me one style
and I reviewed it until he taughtme more, and I kept asking him for
more and he gave me more until finally there were seven styles."
(narrated by al-Bukhaari, 3047; Muslim, 819)
Secondly, what is meant by styles (ahruf, sing. harf)?
The best of the scholarly opinions concerning what is meant is that
there are seven ways of reciting the Qur'aan, where the wording may
differ but the meaning is the same; if there is a different meaning
then it is by way of variations on a theme, not opposing and
contradiction.
Thirdly:
Some of the scholars said that what was meant by ahruf was the
dialects of the Arabs, but this is far-fetched, because of thehadeeth
of 'Umar ibn al-Khattaab who said: "I heard Hishaam ibn Hakeem
reciting Soorat al-Furqaan in a manner different from that in which I
used to recite it and the way in which the Messenger of Allaah
(peaceand blessings of Allaah be upon him) taught me to recite it. I
was about to argue with him whilst he was praying, but I waited until
he finished his prayer, and then I tied his garment around his neck
and seized him by it and brought him to the Messenger of Allaah
(peaceand blessings of Allaah be upon him) and said, 'O Messenger of
Allaah, I heard this man reciting Soorat-al-Furqaan in a way different
to the way you taught it to me.' The Messenger of Allaah (peaceand
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said to him, 'Recite it,' and he
recited it as I had heard him recite it. The Messenger of Allaah(peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, 'It was revealed like
this.' Then he said to me, 'Reciteit,' so I recited it and he said,
'It was revealed like this.' This Qur'aan has been revealed in seven
different ways, so recite it in the way that is easiest for you.'"
(Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 2287; Muslim, 818)
It is known that Hishaam was Asadi Qurashi (i.e., from the clan of
Bani Asad in Quraysh) and 'Umar was'Adawi Qurashi (i.e., from the clan
of Bani 'Adiyy in Quraysh). Both of them were from Quraysh and Quraysh
had only one dialect. If the difference in ahruf (styles) had been a
difference in dialects, why would two men of Quraysh have been
different?
The scholars mentioned nearly forty different opinions concerning this
matter! Perhaps the most correct is that which we have mentioned
above. And Allaah knows best.
Fourthly:
It seems that the seven styles were revealed with different wordings,
as indicated by the hadeeth of 'Umar, because 'Umar's objection was to
the style, not the meaning. The differences between these styles are
not the matter of contradiction and opposition, rather they
aresynonymous, as Ibn Mas'ood said: "It is like one of you saying
halumma, aqbil or ta'aal (all different ways of saying 'Come here')."
Fifthly:
With regard to the seven recitations (al-qiraa'aat al-saba'), this
number is not based on the Qur'aan and Sunnah, rather it is the
ijtihaad of Ibn Mujaahid (may Allaah havemercy on him). People thought
that al-ahruf al-saba' (the seven styles) were al-qiraa'aat al-saba'
(the seven recitations) because they happened tobe the same number.
But this number may have come about coincidentally,or it may have been
done deliberately by Ibn Mujaahid to match what was narrated about the
number of styles (ahruf) being seven.....

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Entering the bathroom with a necklace with Qur’aanic aayaat

Can my wife enter the bathroom with a neckless that has words of the
Qur'an on it?
Praise be to Allaah.
It is not permitted to enterthe bathroom with anything that has aayat
from the Qur'aan on it, because this could lead to disrespect of the
Word of Allaah, may He be glorifiedand exalted. Therefore, your wife
should remove this necklace before entering the bathroom. Our advice
is that women should not wear any jewellery with aayaat or du'aa's on
it, because there are a number of reservations about this practice, of
which wearing it when entering the bathroom is just one.

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“Whoever possesses the following three qualities will have the sweetness (delight) of faith:

"Whoever possesses the following three qualities will have the
sweetness (delight) of faith:
1. The one to whom Allah and His Apostle becomes dearer than anything else.
2. Who loves a person and he loves him only for Allah's sake.
3. Who hates to revert to Atheism (disbelief) as he hates to be thrown
into the fire."
Sahih Al Bukhari, Vol.1, Book 2, No. 16 —

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A Concise Reply to Christianity - A Muslim View

If this booklet were writtento announce my conversion to Christianity,
no Christian would complain that it is too blunt. So if I must reject
an aspect of Christianity in a succinct form, let me not be accused of
bluntness either. A Muslim believes inthe religion of Jesus but sees
mainline Christianity as a religion constructed about Jesus. Our
protest is against two excesses: The apotheosis of Jesus and themost
frequent missionary tactic directed toward Muslims.
Part One
Christians and Muslims wholearn something of one another's religion
find that a crucial issue is the nature of Jesus. The majority of
Christians deify Jesus while Muslims say that he was nomore than a
prophet of God, a faultless human being. The doctrine of the Trinity
avows that three distinct co-equals are God. In particular, Jesus is
said to be God the Son, or the Son of God. As the Muslim questions
details of this theology, the Christian characteristically forms a
common explanation for our differences: He complains that Muslims do
not understand the Trinity; that we are actually accusing Christians
of Tritheism and other heresies.
So the Muslim seeks clarification of the teachingand asks at every
step:"How could that be so?" For example, we insist that the term "Son
of God" cannot have a literal interpretation. Sonship anddivine nature
would be necessary attributes of such an actuality, but theseare
incompatible. The first describes a recipient of life while the second
describes One who received life from no one. These are
mutuallyexclusive requirements then. To be a son is to be less than
divine, and to be divine is to be no one's son.
As a discussion proceeds, it is the Christian who will eventually take
refuge in the response: "These are things that we cannot understand."
His assessment of the Muslim's problem becomes his own confession. The
Christian explanation becomes self-defeating so there is a change of
tactic.
He complains that the Muslim refuses to accept what cannot be
understood. But the modified approach is a diversion. Now the concepts
of verification andunderstanding are confused. To illustrate: Chemical
reactions may be verified but the atom is notthereby understood. Facts
are catalogued but not always explained. This distinction is the key
to ourconcise reply. It is the Muslim who must redirect the
discussion. Our primaryissue is more basic than resolving the
incongruities of Trinitarian doctrine. Rather than ask how the Trinity
can be so, we should ask why it must be so. We ask, "Why must Jesus be
divine? Can we verify the necessity of this belief?"
The Muslim Position
A few centuries ago, European Philosophers commonly felt that a
conjecture was proven if it could be shown to be equivalent to an
assertion made by Aristotle. Unfortunately, such an approach stopped
short of challenging Aristotle and discovering truth.
Similarly,testing the Trinitarian case on what people have said about
Jesus stops short of establishing the integrity of the authorities and
the truth of the matter.
Our purpose here is no more than the illustration that belief in the
Trinity can only be based on Church authority. Many Christians admit
that this isthe case while others insist that the teaching was
elaborated by Jesus himself. "Let them produce their proof," is the
repeated admonition of the Quran, that is, "provide the documentation
that Jesus himself claimed unqualified deity," (Quran 21:24). Unless
this evidencecan be produced, authorities are subject to challenge.
Then the Christian may not evade the Muslim's questions concerning
understanding. The Christian will have no justification for
maintaining an illogical position, unless he is content to rely on the
opinions of men. If he will probe no deeper than this, the
Christian-Muslim dialogue is finished.
For Christians, the only documents accepted as reporting the words of
Jesus are the accounts given in the Bible. We leave the Muslim
attitude toward the Bible for part II of this essay and find our
motivation now in the Quranic verse, "Say: 'O People of the Book! You
have no ground to stand upon unless you stand fast by the Law, the
Gospel, andall the revelation that has come to you from your Lord."
(Quran 5:68). Christians are advised to support their claims by citing
their books. Thus Muslims believe that no saying of Jesus can be
produced which shows himgrasping at equality with God. The primary
issue is not whether Jesus is God. The first question is whether he
said that he was equal to God.

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June 23, 2012 Child rescue team runs into rock

Even as anxiety mounts, jawans continue with their tireless efforts
torescue four-year-old Mahi, who has been trapped in a borewell at a
village in Gurgaon since Wednesday night.
The ongoing relentlessefforts to pull four-year-old Mahi outof a
70-foot-deep borewell at Kasan village here have beenhampered what
with the rescue teams, digging a rescue tunnel, encountering arock.
The three-day rescue operation, which was expected to have
beencompleted on Friday night, continued till late in the evening on
Saturday, further dimming the hopes of the girl being brought out
alive.
"We were just a metreaway from the girl on Friday evening when we ran
into the rock. It slowed down the pace of work as the team initially
refrained from using drilling machines to avoid a cave-in and tried to
cut the rock manually. Later, the drilling machine was also used
selectively. When senior officers of the 3 Engineers Regiment reviewed
the situation on Saturday afternoon, it was decided to navigate around
the rock," said District Public Relations Officer (Gurgaon) R.S.
Sangwan, adding more equipment was being procured to expedite the
work.
Earlier in the day, the team of Army personnel, which was initially
constituted for digging the tunnel,had to be withdrawn as it was
exhausted. "Continuously engaged in digging for over 36 hours, the
personnel were replaced by a new team on Saturday morning," said Mr.
Sangwan.
He said the operation was going on without a break but it would be
difficult to speculate how long it would take. "It is a rocky terrain.
We are trying our level best topull out the girl at the earliest." A
two-member team of paediatricians from the Medanta Medicity Hospital
was also stationed at the spot on Friday night in anticipation of the
operation being completed anytime soon.
Besides, two ambulances of the Gurgaon Civil Hospital and one from the
Army were present at the spot and adequatearrangements had been made
at a hospital in Manesar.
To a query, Mr. Sangwan said: "The girl has been supplied oxygen since
she fell into the borewell on Wednesday night, but there is no update
on her condition as of now. Cameras lowered into the borewell time and
again have not captured any movement, but then there is no space for
them. Also, it is not possible to supply food and water to the girl
with the borewell being so narrow."

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Jokes

Husband: I had a 5ne dream last night.I dreamed I was touring world in
a fine car. WIfe:Sorry,I heard Engine snorting.
@
X: Do you think a genius ever makes a good husband? Y: You should
better ask my wife.
@
Appu-Oye!wat R U doing? Pappu-Recording babies voice. Appu-y? Pappu-
When he grows up,I shall ask him wat he meant by dis?
@
Most people have 5 senses. Some people have 6 senses. But u r blessed
with 7 senses. An extra sense is NON SENSE.
@
A silent night, a star above, a blessed gift of hope and love. A
blessed Christmas to you!
@
8 Semesters 80 GB sylabus80 MB v study 80 KB v remember 80 Bytes v
ans. BINARY Marks v get, known as BTech (Brain Technically Empty)

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In a season of consumerist madness, let’s be grateful, and give

At this time of year the stores are pushing their sales at us.
Advertising is everywhere. There if a frenzy to buy, buy, buy. Let's
realize that this is not a spiritual way of life. It's not an
appropriate lifestylefor someone who is dedicated to God. The
consumerist madness is a deception. There's no joy orpeace attached to
it. It's a shallow illusion.
Look at what society has done to itself in the name of consumerism. A
day of thanks (Thanksgiving) has become the prelude to "Black Friday",
the biggest shopping day of the year. Itused to be that Black Friday
did not begin until Friday morning, out of respect for Thanksgiving.
Then the starting gun was moved to midnight, and now it has crept into
Thursday evening. Nothing is sacred.
The Prophet 'Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus the son of Mary), peace be upon
him, has been turned into a marketing strategy. His purported birthday
has become a month of shopping insanity, presidedover by a mythical
sub-deity named Santa. People go into debt, they fight over sale
goods… no mention is made of faith.
We Muslims fall prey to thesame consumerist lifestyle. Sometimes the
holy monthof Ramadan becomes a month of shopping, sleeping and binge
eating, astaghfirullah.
Let us – Christians, Muslims,Jews and all people of God – not follow
this path. Let'shew to a way of sacrifice, zakat (purification),
sadaqah (charity), zuhd (giving up material luxury).We don't have to
be monks, but we must focus on the things that matter: faith and
family.
There are movements that advocate a simple living, back-to-nature,
low-impactlifestyle. In Islam this is called zuhd , which could be
translated as detachment or asceticism. Zuhd is a choice that a person
makes to give up the hunger for material possessions and transgressive
carnal experiences, and live a simple lifestyle dedicated to God.
That's what we need.
The faith in our hearts is more important than the brand name of the
clothes we wear. Where our feet carry us – to someplace good or bad –
is more important than the cost of our shoes. The sincerity in our
hearts is more important than any gift. May Allah help us to see what
is important in life.

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