Project "Revive a Sunnah" Week 21

Project "Revive a Sunnah"

To join the e-mail list, please visit: http://groups.google.com/group/project-revive-a-sunnah

February 27th 2007 (9th of Safar 1428 AH)
Windsor, Ontario, Canada

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.
May peace and blessings be upon the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam), his family, and his companions.

What is Project "Revive a Sunnah"?

Let's face the reality of today. There are many, many Sunnahs of the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) which are not being practiced. This may be due to reasons such as negligence, laziness and/or ignorance. Project "Revive a Sunnah" is a project dedicated to bringing back the forgotten Sunnahs of the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam).

Why the Project "Revive a Sunnah"?

This question can be answered from two sources: Qur'an and Sunnah.
Firstly, Allah ('azza wa jall) says in the Qur'an:

1.
"…Help you one another in Al-Birr and At-Taqwa (virtue, righteousness and piety); but do not help one another in sin and transgression. And fear Allâh. Verily, Allâh is Severe in punishment." [5:2]

2.
"Say (O Muhammad (peace be upon him) to mankind): "If you (really) love Allâh then follow me (i.e. accept Islâmic Monotheism, follow the Qur'ân and the Sunnah), Allâh will love you and forgive you your sins. And Allâh is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." [3:31]

Secondly, from the Hadith, it is reported that the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) said:

"Whoever revives an aspect of my Sunnah that is forgotten after my death, he will have a reward equivalent to that of the people who follow him, without it detracting in the least from their reward." (Reported by al-Tirmidhi, 7/443; this is a hasan hadîth because of corroborating asânîd).

Hence, we start off by responding to Allah's ('azza wa jall) call. We do our utmost to follow the Sunnah of the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam). We obviously do this in order to earn the love of Allah ('azza wa jall). What a better way of doing so than helping each other to achieve this (solely for the sake of Allah ('azza wa jall)).

How does it work?

Initially, when this project was first launched, it was conducted solely via e-mail. Starting with Week 4, the project will be available on-line, so that a broader audience may participate. A blog entry will be posted each week. The entry will describe what the Sunnah is, provide evidence from the Sunnah, and shed light on how it can be implemented, insha Allah. The project will still continue through e-mail (simultaneously to the blog). If you are not receiving the weekly Project "Revive a Sunnah" e-mails and would like to, then please join the group by visiting: http://groups.google.com/group/project-revive-a-sunnah .

How can you participate?

You can be a part of this project in a number of different ways. Some of them include:

nominating a "forgotten sunnah" to be focussed on for one week

forwarding the Project "Revive a Sunnah" URL to your friends and family

encouraging others to participate

spreading the word

I know that a lot of you have probably been asking the question: “Where has Project ‘Revive a Sunnah’ been??” Here, I would like to take a few moments to explain what has happened within the last week or two.

I send out the Project “Revive a Sunnah” e-mails through Gmail, and I use eBlogger for the Project “Revive a Sunnah” blog. As some of you already know, both Gmail and eBlogger are powered by Google and one uses both of the services with their Gmail (or Google) account. To make a long story short, my Gmail account was disabled for almost a week. No clear reason was given to me, but I think it may (and just may) have had something to do with my mass Project “Revive a Sunnah” weekly e-mails – but even this is uncertain. For those who have had their Gmail account disabled know how difficult it is to get a hold of Customer Support at Google…it’s like running around helplessly looking for someone while there is no one to find. During that period of a week or so, I had absolutely no access to Gmail. When I got my account back, I knew I had to look for an alternative way of sending out the weekly e-mails. So, as a result, I had to create a group to which I could send the weekly e-mails to.

I sent out an invitation to all of those who were on the mailing list.
You can join the group by visiting: http://groups.google.com/group/project-revive-a-sunnah

I would kindly request everyone to join this group as the direct e-mails will no longer be sent out.

Please spread the word around and notify those whom you know to have been receiving the weekly e-mails.

I will send out two e-mails; one for the week that was missed, and one for the current week. A third e-mail will be sent out within a few days for the upcoming week, insha Allah.

Moving on to the Sunnah to be revived for the week that was missed, insha Allah…

Week 21: February 23rd-March 2nd 2007
(5th-12 of Safar 1428 AH)

Throughout his lifetime, the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) has taught us many duas. All of the duas bring some type of benefit to us. Sometimes, the dua is a means of our sins being forgiven, and sometimes the dua is a means of us being protected from something harmful. The dua for entering the toilet is a perfect example.

As toilets are unclean places, the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) taught us a dua which will protect us from any harm while using the toilet, insha Allah.

The Dua

Bismillah. Allahumma inna 'audhu bika minal khubthi wal khabaa'ith.

'In the name of Allah. Oh Allah, I seek protection in You from unclean spirits, male and female.'

I remember when I was younger, my brother wrote out this dua and posted it on the door of the washroom. Every time before I’d enter the washroom, I’d see the dua and read it. This was such an effective way of remembering something -- over time, this dua became embedded in my mind. This is the history I have with this dua and I thought it might be important to revive it, in case some of us don’t know of it, or if some of us have forgotten it.

In conclusion, we shouldn’t be lazy when it comes to duas. If it’s going to benefit us, then why not take a few seconds are read it? We should strive to learn and implement as many duas of the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) as we can, insha Allah.

You are most welcome to direct any Feedback/Comments/Suggestions/Nominations to albosnawi@gmail.com

May Allah reward you all.
Praise be to Allah and may the blessings be upon the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam).

Wa Salaamu Alaykoum,

Kemal Smajlovic