Mohammad Shafi responds:

Having said that, I have no hesitation in saying that Brother Najeeb does have valid points for consideration on the subjects of Hajj and the observance of the Eid per se.

Best of regards,

Your brother in Isla
Khalid Latif

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ادْخُلُوا فِي السِّلْمِ كَافَّةً وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ
الشَّيْطَانِ ۚ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ
Which means ” O ye who believe! Enter into Islam whole-heartedly; and follow not the footsteps of the evil one; for he is to you an avowed enemy”.
Allah SWT is calling to those who Beleived in the Mission and Message of the Blessed Prophet Peace Be Upon Him and obeyed him and followed his Judgement and agreed with him in the matters of Faith , Beleif, Righteousness and Judgement.
Entering whole heartedly into the folds of Islam means to make Rasul Allah SAW as the Ideal Personality not an Idol, to make Rasul Allah SAW as a Role Model till the Day of Judgement and follow in His footsteps in Righteous Judgement not our rational or logical or scietific conjectures but try to Understand and See the Quran in the Light of the Prophetic Interpretation and try to understand the Wisdom behind the Revelation of a particular Ayah under what circumstances.
Satan denied to accept the superiority of Adam for he found Adam nothing but a statue of clay and thus he denied to honour Adam on account of His Knowledge and Wisdom what Allah SWT imparted him when Allah breathed in Him the Spirit of Knowledge and Wisdom which gave him the status of Kaba of Angels. Angels were not commanded by Allah to worship Adam God forbid what we all the Muslims understand very well but the prostration was that of the Honour and Yeilding the status of Caliphate and an Imamate to Adam AS.
In the same way the Messengers were sent from the same Allah for the children of Adam to rightly guide them to the One who is Center of Focus of Truthful Beleivers Allah SWT but the Messengers were appointed to be the Beacons of the Way and like the shephered unto sheeps to lead them in Prayers in Ehsan.
Thus every prayer have to have an Imam otherwise every muslim can pray to Allah in any direction without an imam individually when we Muslims know that Allah is the creator of time and space and Allah is the Lord of East and West.
Thus the Principles and Foundation of Imamate which was laid down by Rasul Allah SAW by the Command of Allah SWT was a Divine Instruction and Advise to the Humanity to teach them that there are people in the sight of Allah who excel each other in terms of Knowledge and in Terms of Tazkiyyah, In Terms of Taqwa and In Terms of Righteousness . So that a man might realise the lack of his own abilities and so that he might honour his brothers in Islam those who are more Committed and More Knowing about the Seerah of the Blessed Prophet PBUH and those who try to immitate the Beautiful virtues and Beautiful Manners and the Inner Conscience of the Prophet PBUH inorder to integrate the Muslims on the Correct Methodology and Correct Way of Life.
This is what means Sunnah, that a man recognise the superiority of the Noble Prophet over the entire Creation and accept the Status of those who followed him in inwardly and outwardly to such and extent that Allah SWT revealed about them in His Word Al Quran, “They are Pleased of their Lord and Allah is Pleased of them” This verse is revealed regarding those who were living at the time of the Prophet PBUH for those who were yet to come from among this Ummah to make the standard of the Pious Predecessors outstanding from among the entire Ummah.
When we accept and recognise their Trust worthy and Honorable Status we accept and understand the meaning and wisdom behind the command of Allah to Angels of Prostrating Adam.
La Ilaha Illalahu means No One is worthy to be worshipped, Invoked, Beseeched and asked for Help except the True One Allah, And MUhmmad Ar Rasul Allah SAW means that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, not was the Messenger of Allah.
So the difference of is and was is to be understood thoroughly if we want to enter in the Religion of Islam wholeheartedly.
And Allah is the Source of Knowledge and Strength for his servants.
May Allah guide us all to the Right Path of our Noble Prophet SAW.
Aameen.
Brother in Islam

Mohammad Shafi respond:
The Brother seems to interpret the Qur’aanic Verse in question simply to mean that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is, and not was, the Messenger of Allah. Although he has not clearly spelt out the difference between ‘is’ and ‘was’ in his conclusion, from his prelude to this conclusion he appears to mean that besides the Qur’aan, the ahaadeeth are to be considered sacrosanct and followed unquestioningly. The Qur’aan undoubtedly asks the believers to obey the Messenger, and all the Messenger’s authentic orders are incorporated in the Qur’aan. It was when the last of such orders were thus incorporated that Allah declared, in Verse 5.3, that He perfected Islam as the Way of Life for mankind that day. And soon thereafter He took away the Messenger from this world. And there is no warrant, in this perfected Book of Allah Almighty, for any other Allah-approved source for Islam.

The Dictionary and Glossary of Koran by Penrice (1873) translates the word Wali as “To be very near to any one either as Kindred or neighbors”; Aulia, being plural of Wali. The word wali also forms a part of Urdu and Persian vocabulary. Urdu Lexicons translate this word to give the same meaning as in Penrice’s Glossary. In addition, Urdu dictionaries also have another word “Aulia-Allah” meaning persons who are closer to Allah by virtue of their piety and devotion to Allah. In practice Aulia Allah, among Urdu speaking people refers to the Dawah workers who came to this part of the subcontinent (essentially from Arabia) several centuries ago and brought the religion of Islam to the locals. The preaching and practice of these scholars, the hardships they underwent, the devotion and patience with which they preached has been chronicled by several historians. Interestingly, the work of these Muslim preachers is closely observed and recorded by Christian missionaries as well; obviously due to exemplary nature and the success rate of these Muslim preachers as an input to their own preaching methodology. It is no wonder, therefore, that these Preachers are highly respected even today and are referred to as Auila-Allah meaning friends of Allah or those close to Allah. While I do not question the meaning of Wali which you have stated viz. Protector or guardian, yet one can not ignore other meanings. It is therefore not quite correct to declare all those who refer to these religious men as Aulia Allah or simply Aulia as indulging in the unpardonable sin of Shirk. I strongly believe that one should not be callous in declaring any Muslim as indulging in shirk without properly understanding what exactly the people other than those of our own school of thought think, act and believe. Prophet of Allah, (pbuh) after his heavenly journey of Mairaj said “if anyone gets even the slightest idea of hell fire he would stop smiling for the rest of his life”. Let alone Hell fire, even if one sees the worldly sufferings due to starvation or painful diseases, any body with even slightest kindness in his heart would instantly say: Even our worst enemy should not suffer like this. Under these circumstances I can not imagine how heartless one can be to make declarations like “alas you are all committing shirk”; as if to say “you are all hell bound and I am the blessed one entering paradise for sure”. This according me is arrogance (Takabbur) and surely Allah will call upon, on the Day of Judgment, such arrogant to account for what they used to say.
Dr Arshad Ahmed

Mohammad Shafi responds:
It appears the learned Dr has not bothered to read my comments on the Qur’aanic Verse quoted, carefully. Otherwise he would not have committed obvious factual mistakes. While I myself dispute the meaning of wali to be exclusively ‘Protector/Guardian’, the Dr seems to attribute the ‘exclusive’ meaning to me! However, the Dr should know that the word has been used in the Verse in the meaning of Protector/Guardian. The Verse reiterates that man can have no one, other than Allah, as his wali. And if he takes any one as his wali, other than Allah, despite this clear divine injunction, he is committing nothing but shirk. Does the Dr want to contradict the Qur’aan?

You and I will not know that, because of the fact we can’t open his heart ans See if someone is sincere.

So please every sincere worshipper must refrain from falling in the hands of this idiotry.

ISlam is simple.
Creator is the one who must be whorshipped!
Are You in NEed call the creator!
The creator will send you help ether way he helps you or you get tested.
Only ALLAh know his real soldiers.\\
So You all try to be a Wali of Allah and refrain from callin others that.

You and I are not in the position to judge of someone is or is not.

If someone tells me he or he is a wali, than I will say to this person.
What does it benefit you if he was or was not?

Because I dont know what he does at Home.\

Maybe he jells at his wife beat his children, dont give Zakat.
Maybe he does not even believe in Allah, only saying it that people can Say look at that.
Thats a Wali.

Allah states in the quran that one should not be afraid if he is a wali of Allah.
So try all of you to be a sincere devout whorshipper of Allah.
And don’t brag about the nafila your doing and try to make you Ibadah sincere to Allah
Ask Allah to make him your best friend and Allah is the only real friend we need.
Brothers & Sisters keep Islam Simple like it is.
Ask ALLAH and Allah will Insja Allah

Salaam aleikoem
Your brother from Amsterdam
Abuadam,Ibrahim Dahou
http://Www.iciu.nl

What i think is meant by wali in some verses, which Allah SWT says the beleivers are the walis of each other . I means they are helpers of each other. Inspiring eachother for Truth and Righteousness.
Encouraging each other to have Patience with Trails and Tribulations seeking the Releif even in difficult and bitter situations from Allah.
Helping each other performing their righteous religious duties towards Allah and serving Islamic Benefits and serving Muslims and Humanity.
Councelling each other in matters of faith and Beleif and purification and in other worldy related issues.
Supporting each other in a Just Cause when it comes to stand with each other against any sort of aggresstion,injustice or oppression.
Consoling each other through Advises and suggesstions.
Spending upon each other in the times of Ease and difficulties inorder to make each other experience the Delight of Faith and the Love in Islam encouraing each other to have Love for each other for the sake of Islam and grow the spirit of sacrifice for each other thus unifying the Muslim Community and making Muslims live like One Muslim Body.
By giving company to each other in the times of greif and lonliness.
By establishing the institutes of Learning Islamic Knowledge and where we can discuss with each other matters of religion and world on the whole.
This is what i think is the meaning of Wali.
“Seeking Assistance in matters related to Religion and World”
I personally beleive that there is none except Allah who is the Listener of our Prayers and who can answer to our Prayers but Allah.
There is none who is allowed to be called for help except Allah which is the meaning of Iyyaka nabudu Wa Iyyaka Nastaeen.
Worshipping Allah alone means calling none other than Allah for help.
But seeking help from each other in order to make you to take your course of life so that our Judgement is Righteous Judgement.
Allah knows the Best
May Allah increase us in Knowledge and make us get benefitted by our Life and live as Muslims and die as Muslims.
Aameen
Brother In Islam
Muneer