Rameez Abid's Blog

This is a really nice discussion. Goes over many of the main controversies over it and the Shaykh provides satisfactory responses. I would highly recommend it. https://youtu.be/dbu4FlhIAZ0?is=JF433nIcsM6eDvJh

It is stated in al-Ādāb al-Sharʿiyyah (1/257) by Ibn Mufliḥ: Al-Marrudhi said: I asked Abū ʿAbd Allāh [Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal] about a group of people of innovation who accost others and declare them disbelievers. He said: ‘Do not confront them.’ I said: ‘What is it that you dislike about their being imprisoned?’ He said: ‘They have mothers and sisters.’ I said: ‘But they have imprisoned a man and wronged him, and they have asked me to speak on his behalf so that he may be released.’ He said: ‘If any one of them would be imprisoned as a result, then no.’ Then he said, "This is our neighbor who imprisoned that man, and he died in prison."

A translation of Shaykh Hatem al-'Awni's short booklet on the topic of dealing with innovators. He advocates for a balanced position on the topic and uses numerous examples, both theoretical and practical, from scholarly history to build his case. I believe there is too much black and white in some circles regarding it. For the sake of brevity and time, the author’s footnotes and references were not included. Those who wish to dive deeper or see the references can refer to the original Arabic text linked on the page. https://rameezabid.substack.com/p/dealing-with-an-innovator-between

"Justice means restoring people’s rights, obtaining redress for the oppressed and supporting them, restraining the oppressor, and deterring him—but without exceeding the bounds of justice." -Shaykh Hatem al-'Awni

When I was learning Arabic and working to improve my reading comprehension, I dreaded having to look up words while reading. Each interruption broke my concentration and disrupted my flow, which I found incredibly frustrating. I used to wish someone could just sit beside me and tell me the word I was stuck on, so I could keep moving through the text. I know some people enjoy the process of looking up words themselves and see it as part of learning, but I always found it too time-consuming. It seemed far more efficient to have someone quickly give me the meaning, so I could commit it to memory and move on. As you know, I love building free tools, so I've just built a new free tool which I hope will help Arabic learners with that process. Just paste any Arabic text and instantly get: ✅ Full Tashkeel (Harakat) — Every word beautifully vowelized so you read it correctly, the first time. ✅ Hover for Meanings — Don't know a word? Just hover over it and the English meaning pops up instantly. No dictionaries, no interruptions. ✅ One-Click Translation — Want the full meaning? Reveal a clean English translation of the entire text whenever you're ready. ✅ Adjustable Font Size — Make the Arabic as large and clear as you like. Easy on the eyes. ✅ Copy Anything — Save the vowelized text or translation with a single click. I hope this tool meets you where you are at your current Arabic study and helps you grow your Arabic reading skills. Since the tool is using AI, it does require you to input your own OpenAI API key. It doesn't store it on the server at all, it stays in your own computer. You have the option to erase it once you close the browser or you can store it locally on your machine so it doesn't forget. Regardless, the server never stores it, so great for privacy and secruity. It's completely free to use as a platform, the only cost you will have is whatever is associated with your own token use costs every time you run it but for personal use it should be pretty cheap. You can set limits in your openAI account on how much it should spend per month and so on. It uses their 5.4 mini model so a person should be able to read a whole book or two for less than $5. It is more than enough for most learners or those wanting to simply practice. I'm still playing with it and I'd love people to test it. If you come across any issues, please do get in touch with me via the contact form. P.S. - So far I've only tested the tool on desktop not mobile. Also, always remember that AI can make mistakes, so be wary of that. But they've come a long way and mistakes are more rare than the earlier models. https://deenapps.com/ReadArabic/

"And among men there is one who worships Allah on the verge (ḥarf ): so if some good thing happens to him, he is satisfied with it, and if a trial befalls him, he turns his face back. He loses both this world and the Hereafter. That is the manifest loss." [Qur'an 22:11] What is meant by ḥarf here is the aspect upon which worship occurs. He, exalted is His praise, is saying: among people is one who worships Allah on the basis of a blessing that reaches him and good that he obtains, such as increase in wealth, bodily health, and the granting of requests; and he remains reassured by that so long as these matters remain with him and these conditions continue for him. But if his condition changes and Allah Most High tests him with hardship in his livelihood, harm in his body, and poverty in his wealth, he abandons the worship of his Lord and disbelieves in Him. Such a person has worshiped Allah, exalted and glorified, upon one aspect and one way. That is the meaning of ḥarf. If he had worshiped Him, blessed and exalted is He, with gratitude for blessing, patience at calamity, and contentment with decree in ease and hardship, adversity and prosperity, poverty and wealth, health and trial—since He, glorified is He, is worthy of being worshiped in every state—then he would not have worshiped Him upon a ḥarf. -Abu ʿAmr al-Dānī

When Ahmad ibn Hanbal was imprisoned, the jailer came to him and asked, "O Abu Abdullah, is the hadith narrated regarding oppressors and their aides authentic?" He replied, "Yes." The jailer then asked, "Am I, then, one of the oppressors' aides?" Ahmad answered, "The aides of oppressors are those who trim your hair, wash your clothes, prepare your food, and buy from or sell to you; as for you, you are one of them." -Manāqib al-Imām Aḥmad, p. 431

🏔️ One Mountain, Many Paths? You've heard it a hundred times: "We're all climbing the same mountain." "All religions are basically saying the same thing." "Claiming your religion is the truth is arrogant." It sounds humble, kind, and it feels like the mature, tolerant position. But on close scrutiny, what you find isn't tolerance. It's a machine that quietly dismantles far more than it admits. Islam already holds together the two things advocates of this ideology say are impossible: firm conviction of the exclusive truth of Islam and genuine compassion for fellow humans regardless of belief. We are not all climbing the same mountain. But we can walk beside one another with justice, mercy, and honesty — without pretending we believe nothing. Read it here: https://rameezabid.substack.com/p/one-mountain-many-paths-the-quiet

A summarized AI translation of both Razi and Qurtubi's tafsirs is now loaded into the app. https://tafsir.deenapps.com/index.php?chapter=1&verse=1&trans=usmani&tafsir_type=al-razi#viewer

I’ve built another Telegram research bot tool for exploring fiqh and usul al-fiqh across the four Sunni schools using the Turath (Shamela) library. This tool helps you: -Search Hanbali, Hanafi, Maliki, and Shafi‘i sources individually -Compare multiple…

I’ve built another Telegram research bot tool for exploring fiqh and usul al-fiqh across the four Sunni schools using the Turath (Shamela) library. This tool helps you: -Search Hanbali, Hanafi, Maliki, and Shafi‘i sources individually -Compare multiple madhhabs in one query -Search preferred texts first for each school, you can define them by their IDs in the .env file without touching the python code -Search within any single book as well by its Turath book ID -Search Usul al-Fiqh sources separately -Optionally search IslamQA and IslamWeb Arabic fatwa databases through Brave API Search -Add more. Workflow: Ask any question in Ara or Eng -> Creates queries to search the Turath database within specified source(s) -> Sends to AI for analysis -> Responds with the result after analysis and cites the exact sources with link to the exact page to explore further on own. It’s designed for research and quick reference. ✅ Free ✅ Open source ✅ Self-Hosted ✅ Telegram-based ✅ Built for serious fiqh study Repo: https://github.com/rameezabid/ai-fiqh-research-assistant If you’re interested in Islamic research tools, feel free to check it out and share feedback.

🔗 https://www.whyislamistrue.com/ By the grace of Allah Most High, Why Islam Is True is now free for the world. If you haven’t taken the course yet, now is the time to sign up. And if you have already taken it, please share this announcement with your family and friends. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: “Whoever points someone towards something good, it is as though he had done that good thing himself.” — Muslim When someone strengthens and protects their iman because you shared this with them, you are rewarded for that too. Please share widely!

One of the ugliest things I have seen online Muslim personalities adopt is this… when they are discussing or refuting someone they have fallen out with, they depict the other person with the ugliest possible face as the thumbnail. They make the eyes look sinister, add an evil smile, or edit the face so realistically that you would think it was real. This is not befitting even against a disbeliever, let alone a fellow Muslim. Exceptions do not make the rule, so do not rush to hide behind them. You would sit there and edit a man’s face to look evil? You would do that if the Prophet ﷺ were next to you? You would genuinely think that would make him happy and proud of you? You are so passionate about the Sunnah… but where is basic decency? Your murūʾah? فليبلغ الشاهد منكم الغائب Send this to whoever needs to hear it… or summarise the message to them. It is no longer “lost Islamic history”. It is “lost Islamic decency”. Reclaim your dignity, otherwise remove yourself from these circles. The dīn deserves better defenders than us.

"For most of those who seek the mighty Qur’an, hardly any aspiration remains except strength of memorization, speed of recitation, precise pronunciation of its words, investigation of the articulation points of its letters, and desire for a beautiful voice in reciting it. All of that, though good, is surpassed by what is more important, more complete, more worthy, and more fitting: understanding its meanings, reflecting upon it, acting according to what it requires, stopping at its limits, and attaining the fruit of fear of Allah Most High through excellent recitation." -Abu Shama Al-Maqdisi

Abu Shama Al-Maqdisi (d. 665 AH) has done an excellent job of telling the story of how the Qur'an that we recite today came to be compiled after the Prophet's ﷺ death in his book Al-Murshid al-Wajeez. He cites varying sources, interprets, gives precedence to some reports over others, reconciles, and more to bring the story together in a comprehensive style. I thought originally to fully translate it but then I realized that most folks today would prefer to read something like this as a single story with a flowing style without interruptions related to chains, authors, judging accounts, duplicate reports, etc. Therefore, his whole chapter on the topic here has been presented as a single, flowing story of the compilation suited for modern audience. It details the story from the second chapter about the compilation project starting from Abu Bakr but without distractions of chains, multiple reports, duplicates, judgments, etc. It reads like a story rather than a historical account. For those interested in the details and references cited in the article can consult the original book. https://rameezabid.substack.com/p/how-the-quran-was-compiled-after

In the end of his book Al-Ibaanah, the Qur'an scholar Al-Makki ibn Abi Talib (d. 437 AH) divides various Qir'aat (modes of recitations) that have reached us into three types: 1) The famous seven that conform to the Uthmanic codex. 2) Other than the famous seven that conform to the Uthmanic codex. 3) Qir'aat that do not conform to the Uthmanic codex. He opines that it is permissible to recite the Qur'an with the first two types but not the last because it has reached us via solitary reports, we are not certain about it, and it contradicts the Uthmanic codex on which a consensus has formed. But what really interested me is when he illustrates the various Qir'aat that have reached us for all three types for Surah al-Fatiha, it's the only surah he covers for sake of brevity. If you view them all together in a table type format, it will immediately show the following: -None of them are contradictory in the sense that the meaning changes in a way where halal becomes haram or vice versa. -It's mostly just pronunciation related and in rare cases where a different word is used, it behaves more like variations of the same notions being articulated in different formats. This is important to understand because I've seen some Christian preachers trying to cast doubts in the hearts of Muslims by claiming that the Qir'aat show a lack of preservation of the Qur'an and are contradictory in some way. I decided to make a visual representation in a table format of the various Qir'aat of Al-Fatiha based on Al-Makki's representation. You can view it in the link below. I would suggest to view it on a desktop/laptop for best representation but if you use your phone, then you can scroll to the right to see each of the three sections. https://quran.deenapps.com/qiraat/fatiha.html

The Benefit of Multiple Modes of Recitations If someone asks, “What is the benefit of reciting according to more than one mode of recitation?” Al-Makki ibn Abi Talib (d. 437 AH) answers in his book Al-Ibaanah, pgs. 80-82: The answer is that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, did not place hardship upon His servants in their religion, nor did He impose constriction upon them in what He made obligatory for them. The languages of those upon whom the Qur’an was revealed differed, and a person accustomed to one dialect cannot shift his tongue to another dialect except with difficulty and great effort. So Allah made matters easy for them by revealing His Book in seven distinct dialectal forms within the Qur’an, with meanings that are sometimes the same and sometimes different, so that each people might recite in their own dialect, or in whatever was easy for them from the dialect of others, according to what they were accustomed to. Some people were accustomed to pronouncing the hamzah, others to lightening it; some to open pronunciation, and others to imālah. The same applies to grammatical inflection, the difference of vowels, and other such features in their dialects. Thus every group was able to speak clearly and recite according to its natural tongue, its dialect, and the dialect of those near to it. In this there was great gentleness toward them and abundant ease for them. A similar example in the Qur’an of Allah’s kindness to His servants and His making matters easy for them is the gradual revelation of obligations, rulings, commands, and prohibitions, one matter after another, over more than twenty years. Because of this, they were more receptive to it, and it was easier upon them. Had all of it been revealed at once, it would have been difficult and severe for them, and hardship and difficulty would have overtaken them in that. So Allah favored them by revealing some of the obligations; then, when they became accustomed to that obligation, acted upon it, and time passed until it became habitual for them, another obligation was revealed, until Allah completed His religion with ease for His servants. The blessings of Allah cannot be counted. Another similar example in the Qur’an is that Allah, exalted be His mention, knew that not every person would gather the Qur’an at the time of its revelation, nor would everyone become aware of everything in which the servants were addressed. So He repeated the stories, warnings, threats, affirmation of divine oneness, reports about resurrection and gathering, the proofs for its possibility, and other matters in most of the surahs of the Qur’an, so that whoever received some of the surahs would become aware of all of that, and whoever received other portions would also find similar matters therein. Whoever received even a single surah would become aware of most of that, so that no one would miss what he needed from what Allah intended to make known to His creation. Thus, in repetition there was great kindness and clear guidance to the truth, by Allah’s grace toward His creation. This is among the many blessings of Allah upon His creation and His gentleness toward them. If you were to investigate this, you would find many examples of it."

"Prophet ﷺ said, “You must adhere to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs after me.” We say: 'Umar and the rest of the four caliphs do not independently legislate, for revelation was not sent to them. They were honored with the command to follow their Sunnah because they were the keenest of people to adhere to his Sunnah. In their actions, they were followers of transmitted precedent, not innovators or introducers of new matters. The meaning of this is that when we command people to follow the Sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs, we only do so because their practice represents another way of knowing the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ in matters for which no Sunnah has been transmitted to us." -Sh. Hatem al-Awni