Curriculum for the Traveler on the Tarîqah of the Sharî'ah

[Al-Faruqi]

Assalâmu 'alaykum wa rahmatullâhi wa barakâtuh.

Does anyone have a good curriculum of how to pass the day in different islamic activities?

Don't we already have a daily routine with salâh?

I suggest that before engaging in various supererogatory acts (e.g. awrâd, hizb, juz, etc.) you first ensure to fulfill all farâ'id, wujûb and confirmed sunan. All those acts naturally revolve around the five daily salâh, so you just "follow the flow" of the sharî'ah so to say…

Examples for obligatory acts (farâ'id):

• Five daily salâh

• Fasting in Ramadân

• Learning the knowledge ('ilm) which is obligatory on you (e.g. 'aqîdah, tahârah, salâh, zakâh, sawm, hajj)

• etc.

Examples for necessary acts (wujûb):

• Praying every fard salâh in congregation (for males only)

• Praying salât al-witr

• Keeping the beard at fist-length (for males only)

• Making up (qadâ) missed fasts, prayers, etc.

• Abstention from sins

• etc.

Examples for confirmed sunnah acts (sunan al-mu'akkadah):

• Praying every confirmed sunnah salâh

• Reciting the confirmed sunnah du'â (e.g. du'â after adhân, after waking up from sleep, etc.)

• Reciting the confirmed sunnah adhkâr (e.g. adhkâr after fard salâh, after sunnah salâh, adhkâr of the morning and evening, etc.)

• etc.

The best books to cover your basic obligatory knowledge are:

• The Absolute Essentials of Islam (This should be the very first book given to a new Muslim.)

• Al-'Aqîdah al-Tahâwiyyah (or wait for WhiteThreadPress' forthcoming edition of Al-'Aqîdah al-Tahâwiyyah with 'Allâmah Maydani's commentary. There's also an alternative edition with explanation by Shaykh (Mawlânâ) Qari Muhammad Tayyib, former rector of the renowned Dar al-’Ulûm in Deoband, India.)

• Al-Fiqh al-Akbar

• Nûr al-Îdah

• (Reflections of Pearls)

Final notes:

• Read those five books thoroughly at the very least.

• Stick to those five books, focus on them, master them, don't get distracted by the myriads of other books out there. These five are currently the best available books on the market; reliable, comprehensive content and top publishing/typesetting quality.

• Memorize and practice all sunan mentioned in Reflection of Pearls. (Reflection of Pearls has better typesetting and transliteration than Hisn al-Muslim and it also contains the Hanafî qunût du'â, which Hisn al-Muslim lacks.)

• If possible study Al-'Aqîdah al-Tahâwiyyah, Al-Fiqh al-Akbar and Nûr al-Îdah under a reliable scholar.

• If you don't have any local scholar available you can attend the free Euro-Sunni Nûr al-Îdah online lessons with Shaykh (Mawlânâ) Muhammad Muslim after Ramadân 1431 AH.

There's no point in doing enormous amounts of nawâfil 'ibâdah if the farâ'id, wujûb and confirmed sunan are not properly established in one's life. So focus on the above mentioned things; with this you should be busy for a good while and once you have implemented all those then you will inshâ Allâh be ahead of a lot of people. After that you can move on and work towards other goals, depending on the dictates of sharî'ah and the needs of yourself, your family and your local community...

Hopefully this posting is helpful somehow, if yes, then please make du'â for me, jazâkumu Llâhu khayr.

و الله تعالى اعلم

Wassalâmu 'alaykum wa rahmatullâhi wa barakâtuh.

[akabirofdeoband]

Before I read this I had the impression of you being an overzealous qitaali.

But your post had made me reevaluate my opinion and apologise to you.
Subhanallah, what you wrote was very deep..,,,

ja zakallahu jhayrun katheera!

[akabirofdeoband]

One of the things that would help is for Muslims in the west to talk to each other about deeni matters more. To informally mention some beauties of the Chosen one, talk about jannah and jahannam in our day to day dunyawi conversations.
To imbibe the fragrance of eternity in he mundane if you like.
We discuss football cricket politics etc in gatherings at houses , but would be nice for ppl to teach each other duaas and share hadiths etc
I think people ( outside if a religious context such as being on jamat) feel shy about this, but would be nice to change that.
At the moment I find if you do that people think you're some kinda geek

I live far from the masjid so miss the atmosphere that that brings.

[London786]

nothing wrong with being an overzeolous qitaali....the ahadeeth clearly praise such an attitude...I wish to be killed in the path of ALLAH and be brought back to life, be killed and brought back to life, be killed and brought back to life...whoever does not desire to be a qitaali dies on a branch of hypocricy...sahih muslim....the virtues can be mentioned over and over....obviously there are certain conditions to be fulfilled...and a massive difference between jihad and fasad....We ask ALLAH to bless those fighting in his way ameen....

your point about bringing about deen in general conversations is very important...I mean it is a very effective way...with some people you can't just open up such topics but you can go about a roundabout way...

Living far from the masjid is very detrimental for most people's imaan....collectivety is very important...I mean out of all the sunnahs and the most emphasised deed seems to be salaat with jamaat...ALLAH give us all the ability to read 5 times a day salah with jamaat in the masjid with takbir-e-ular. ameen.

[Sunni_Student786]

nothing wrong with being an overzeolous qitaali........

I think that the key objection would be to being "OVERZEALOUS", i.e. meaning a zeal that goes beyond what the Quran and Sunnah have prescribed.

[a_muslim]

I think that the key objection would be to being "OVERZEALOUS", i.e. meaning a zeal that goes beyond what the Quran and Sunnah have prescribed.

overzealous

o·ver·zeal·ous (vr-zls)
adj.

Excessively enthusiastic

Source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/overzealous

I think brother London is referring to somebody who is excessively enthusiastic about qitaal. Anything wrong with that??

[Al-Faruqi]

The curriculum got updated.

[hope1]

The curriculum got updated.

Assalamu alaikum brother,

May I suggest something regarding the curriculum brother. I have given it a lot of thought for myself over last couple months. Here is my suggestion if it benefits:

i) Replace Nur al-Idah with Ascent to Felicity and after studying that book one can look at Nur al-Idah. This Nur al-Idah translation has some inaccuracies and at certain places incorrect rulings. But the Ascent to Felicity is concise, yet detailed and does not go into some issues we don't usually need (which Nur al-Idah does). However it covers the issues we need in more detail. I highly recommend that one does a reading of this book every month if possible for one year and he will inshaAllah have a solid grounding in fiqh.

ii) I suggest you wait for the Aqida Tahawiyya White Thread Press will release. It should be out soon. Also Mufti Abdur Rahman did classes on Aqida Tahawiyya and can be downloaded for free from www.zamzamacademy.com. One can follow it from there. After this one can read Fiqh al-Akbar as it is a bit advanced. Ascent to Felicity also has a very good section on aqida.

iii) May I suggest some additional books which are small?
a) Hayat al-Muslimeen by Moulana Thanwi (covers important aspects of Islam with hadith)
b) Beheshti Zewar Part 6 only - for issues dealing with ma'mulaat, ma'sheraat and akhlaaq and basic hadith covering a wide aspect of Islam
c) Sealed Nectar (seerah) - to develop love of RasulAllah may Allah bless him and grant him peace

Sorry - don't want to take over your thread. This is just for discussion. I can remove it.

[Sunni_Student786]

.... This Nur al-Idah translation has some inaccuracies and at certain places incorrect rulings. ...

Mind giving some examples of both?

[hope1]

Mind giving some examples of both?

Assalamu alaikum,

I should not have said incorrect opinions, but rather less preferred opinion or not the relied upon opinion.

Between page 327-328 it states two or three times that a traveler is allowed to break his fast without sin. This is not the case. A traveler is only excused from immediately fasting on that day if one is a traveler before subh as-sadiq (i.e. he has left the city limits) - this is what the chapter is referring to. If he is fasting and then starts the journey, or he started the fast in the journey - in either case it is sinful to break the fast - but if one does so there is no kaffarah. I am not only saying this from the book or from my understanding but I clarified this with Mufti Saeed saheb (from Azadville), as I find many people are confused regarding this matter. Also if one will travel in the morning (after subh as-sadiq) he must keep fast and he is not excused from omitting it. Brother Ali al-Hanafi gave me a nice loophole in another thread - but Mufti Saeed saheb said not to use it because we are using to avoid to the fast and that is not the purpose/intent of the original masala.

There is another discussion about whether one requires water or any pure liquid to remove najasat from body and clothing. Nur al-Idah says any pure liquid will do (which is the opinion of Abu Hanifa) but I have read in a two places and confirmed with a mufti that the fatwa is on Imam Muhammad that water is required.

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My point is not only this. Nur al-Idah is also quite detailed. In my opinion if this is the first book one picks up one might get confused. The first book in my opinion should be Ascent to Felicity as it does an AMAZING job of explaining everything in clear English. This is also the first book taught in SunniPath. In many confusing issues this book makes the matter very clear to understand. I can go on and on about these issues.

The Nur al-Idah has a lot of benefits (especially if studied with a teacher - for which we have a good opportunity now), but in my opinion those benefits cannot be absorbed fully without first reading a more straightforward book like Ascent to Felicity. In many places even though Nur al-Idah gives accurate rulings it cannot be understood without further explanation - which the commentary does not give in a few places, but I found that explanation clearly in Ascent to Felicity. I cannot praise the Ascent to Felicity enough. I recommended this book to a 4rd year Bury student who is very intelligent and smart (who already did Nur al-Idah, Quduri and Ikhtiyar) and he was amazed by this book.

I also have high hopes for the Aqida Tahawiyya being brought out by White Thread Press. Hopefully it should be out soon inshaAllah. Hopefully it will be more straightforward to undrerstand that Fiqh al-Akbar. I had to read the section on the attributes of Allah five times before understanding what was going on. To understand that is also very important though. In my opinion the first step should be the Aqida Tahawiyya along with Mufti Abdur Rahman's audio lectures and then Fiqh al Akbar.

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