SUBMISSION PRODUCTIONS

PRESENTS:

مهدال

عهد الب ري للق

THE CRADLE for the new Muslim

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INTRODUCTION 4

SESSION ONE: BASIC CREED 5 THE ATTRIBUTES OF ALLAH 6 Important pointers about some of the attributes 9 THE PROPHETS OF ALLAH 11

PURIFICATION 12 Ghusl 12 Wudu’ 13

Cleaning after Urination and Defecation (Istinja’) 14 Removing Filth 15

BASIC PRAYER 16 Important cases 18

QUESTIONS 21

SECOND SESSION 23 JUDGMENT 24

BASICS OF BLASPHEMY (KUFR) 26

THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE HEART AND SOME OF THE SINS OF THE VARIOUS ORGANS 28

LAST ISSUES 30

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INTRODUCTION Part of the obligatory knowledge is what is called the ‚immediate

knowledge (^ilmul-hal)‛. It is more specific than the all of the necessary

religious knowledge contained in the Summary. It is the knowledge one

needs for the immediate obedience to Allah. In this brief document, we

shall address the needs of a person who just embraced Islam within the

hour, for instance. Such a person must immediately learn certain matters

of belief, and learn about matters of purification and prayer, so to pray

before the exiting of the prayer time. They must also learn about some of

the sins because it is obligatory to refrain from them immediately.

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SESSION ONE: BASIC CREED

The most important knowledge is that of the Creed. One must

immediately know about Allah and His Messenger.

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THE ATTRIBUTES OF ALLAH

It is obligatory to know 13 attributes among the countless attributes of

Allah. They are

1) Existence: Allah is a self attributed with attributes. His self is His

reality and not a body. The selves of the creations are their bodies.

Allah’s existence is uncreated and hence is not physical. He exists

without place, space, directions or time. The existence of the

world is proof for the existence of its creator, for every doing

must have a doer.

2) Eternity: Allah exists without a beginning, because had He been

created, He would need a creator, and hence godhood would be

invalid for Him. But since the creations’ occurrence is confirmed

by senses and natural disposition (badihah), the Creator’s

existence, and more specifically, His beginningless existence, is

confirmed.

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3) Everlastingness: Allah exists without a beginning, and hence

must exist without end, for whatever comes to an end must have a

beginning. Whatever has a beginning or end is bound by time,

and whatever is bound by time is an occurrence; a creation.

4) Independence: Allah is free of need, for whoever is in need is not

God.

5) Oneness: One God is sufficient for the management of the

creation, thus another creator is not needed, and whoever is

needless and useless is not God.

6) Dissimilarity: Allah does not resemble the creation. He does not

resemble the dense, tangible entities like the rocks, trees, people,

etc., nor does He resemble the subtle, intangible entities like light,

darkness, etc. He does not have the characteristics of created

things, like motion, stillness, contact or separation.

7) Life: Allah must be alive, as proven by the existence of the

creation, for the one who creates must have power, will and

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knowledge, and whoever has power, will and knowledge must be

alive. However, Allah is alive without a body or soul, and Allah

does not die, so His life is absolutely different.

8) Power: Allah makes things come into existence and go out of

existence. He is exclusively the one who can make entities exist.

He can make something from nothing; without tools or effort, and

make those things vanish.

9) Will: Allah specifies His creations with His will; He gives them

some traits that they could have instead of other traits that they

could have. Also, Allah is not forced. He creates by His choice,

which is His will.

10) Knowledge: Allah knows what exists and what does not exist; He

knows what was, is, and shall be, and what shall not be, and every

detail of how it would be had it been. He knows His own reality

and the reality of His attributes. No one knows that but Him.

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11) Hearing: Allah hears everything that exists, but without ears,

because He is not an entity. Deafness is deficiency, and

deficiency is impossible to be an attribute of the Creator.

12) Sight: Allah sees everything that exists, but without eyes because

He is not an entity. Blindness is deficiency, and deficiency is

impossible to be an attribute of the Creator.

13) Speech: Allah speaks without letters, sounds or language, because

He is not an entity. He orders, forbids, promises, threatens,

informs and questions by this attribute.

Important pointers about some of the

attributes

1) All of His attributes have no beginning or end.

2) In reference to His dissimilarity to the creation, one must be

warned about the ‚Likeners‛ (the Mushabbihah), and informed

briefly about the ambiguous (mutashabih) verses, out of fear

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of him meeting a Wahhabiyy or reading a mistranslation. It must

also be clarified that Allah exists without a place or direction.

3) In reference to His hearing and sight, it must be clarified that

they are not eyes or ears. Allah does not have a body or any

bodily attributes.

4) In reference to His will and power, it must be clarified that Allah

is the creator of everything, including the evil and the deeds of

the slaves.

5) In reference to His speech, several points need to be clarified:

a. Among them is that His speech is not letters, sounds or

languages.

b. Our reason for quoting Arabic verses after saying, ‚Allah

said‛, should be clarified.

c. Lastly, it must also be clarified that He orders, forbids,

promises and threatens (questions and informs).

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THE PROPHETS OF ALLAH

Throughout history, Allah sent prophets; men who receive revelation

from Him. They are the greatest creation of Allah. The first of them was

Adam. The last and greatest was Muhammad. They all have certain

necessary qualities so that they could successfully fulfill their mission.

Among those qualities is that they are beautiful, courageous, intelligent,

truthful and trustworthy. They are impeccable; protected from ever

committing blasphemy, major and small abject sins, they never

worshipped anyone other than Allah. They perform miracles, which are

extraordinary, supernatural matters created by Allah and performed by he

who claims to be a prophet. They prove his truthfulness, comply with his

claim, and they cannot be outdone. Some of the Prophets were

Messengers; they came with a new law. We follow the laws revealed to

Prophet Muhammad, and believe in what was revealed to all of the

Prophets.

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PURIFICATION

The accountable Muslim must pray all prayers on time, and thus must

immediately learn not only the prayer, but also some of its conditions,

namely four matters of purification, which is, according to a definition,

that which permits the prayer:

Ghusl

The first is the full ‚shower (ghusl)‛. It is defined as making the water run

over the entire body with an intention (of worship). There are five reasons

for being obligated to perform this shower before praying. The first two

are for men and women: sexual intercourse and ejaculation. The last three

are only for women: childbirth and the termination of both menstrual and

postpartum bleeding. It is performed by making an intention when the

water touches the body, and then washing the entire body with mere

water.

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NOTE: It is not an obligation that the ghusl be in the form of what is

commonly known as a shower. It is only a condition that the entire body

be washed with flowing water, and not wiped with something wet.

Wudu’

The second is the ablution (wudu’). It is defined as the washing of certain

organs with an intention (of worship). There are four things that break the

wudu’:

1) Anything that exits the private parts, except for ejaculated

fluid of men and women1

2) Touching the skin of a marriageable woman who reached an

stage at which she is normally desired,

3) Touching the penis, anus or vagina of a human with the

inner part of the bare hand,

1 Sometimes the ejaculation may invalidate the wudu’. Specifying that has details: If that

happens without physical contact, such as by mere thought or glance, or seeing a wet dream while firmly seated on the buttocks, the wudu’ is preserved. If it takes place by contact, it is broken.

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4) Losing consciousness, except if one slept with his buttocks

firmly planted.

One performs wudu’ by doing six things:

1) Making the proper intention when the water touches the

face,

2) Washing the face,

3) Washing the hands, forearms and elbows,

4) Wiping the hair,

5) Washing the feet and the ankles,

6) And keeping the order.

Cleaning after Urination and Defecation

(Istinja’)

The third matter is istinja’, which is the obligatory cleaning after anything

wet comes from the private parts, except ejaculated fluid, for all wet

material that exits those organs is filthy, except for ejaculated fluid; it is

pure. It can be performed in two ways:

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1) The first is by water. It is recommended to pour the water with

the right hand, and to wipe with the left hand until there is no

trace of filth left.

2) The second is by wiping three times with something pure, dry,

uprooting, and unrespectable. Each wipe must be with a different

side of whatever is used for wiping.

Removing Filth

The fourth matter of purification needed for the validity of Prayer is the

removal of other types of unexcused filth from the body, clothing, place

of prayer, and what one carries. One must use water to remove filth. If it

is undetectable, it is enough to pour water over it once. If it is detectable,

it is enough to remove the bulk and then pour water over it until its traces

are removed. If the water were plenty, one could then place the filth in the

water without contaminating the water, unless it changes.

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BASIC PRAYER

If the new Muslim were accountable, he needs to pray the due prayer

before its time goes out. It is common that the prayer time would soon go

out after explaining the immediate matters of belief and purification as

swiftly and concisely as possible. Furthermore, one may want to consider

that the new Muslim is sometimes weak, not yet having the strength to be

patient with performing certain acts of worship or avoiding some sins.

Our most important goal is to help this Muslim perform a valid prayer

after having learned the belief and some of the conditions of prayer. For

the immediate obedience to Allah, we first teach him the obligatory

matters, and delay the optional matters that take time away from

explaining the obligatory conditions and integrals. So, while praying the

obligatory prayer, one must:

1) Cover the unlawful nakedness, face the Qiblah, stand if able

and,

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2) Say Allahu Akbar in Arabic if able, while simultaneously

intending to perform the obligatory prayer,

3) Recite the Fatihah properly, which can only be done in Arabic,

or recite a replacement (properly).

4) Bow with tranquility2 (being still long enough to say

Subhanallah),

5) Stand upright with tranquility,

6) Prostrate twice, each with tranquility

7) Sit with tranquility between the two prostrations,

8) From there, a person would do one of two things:

A. Stand up after that to complete the rest of his prayer, which

would be by repeating everything already mentioned, except

saying Allahu Akbar with an intention,

B. Or if one has completed all the cycles of his prayer, he must

sit to end the prayer,

2 This is called in Arabic “tuma’ninah”

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9) Recite the Tashahhud while sitting to end the prayer,

10) After that, make Salah on the Prophet while sitting to end the

prayer,

11) Then say, ‚As Salamu ^alaykum‛ to end the prayer.

12) One must observe the order of the Prayer’s integrals.

Important cases

1) Whoever does not know the Fatihah by heart- which is

obligatory-, must learn it before the prayer time exits. If he

cannot, he may read it from a page while praying, or he may

repeat after someone who prompts him while he is praying. It is

not permissible to abandon these issues; i.e., saying the Fatihah,

unless he has an excuse.

If one is unable, either because the time will exit before being

able to learn, or because his intellect is slow, he may replace it

with seven other properly recited verses of the Qur’an, whether

they were in order or not. One absolutely must not translate the

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Fatihah for the prayer in any case, nor would he replace it with

other than Qur’an when able to recite the Qur’an. If unable, he

may replace it with words of remembrance, like saying ‚Allahu

Akbar‛ 20 times. Twenty times is sufficient because the

condition of whatever one uses to replace the Fatihah is that it

would not have fewer letters than the Fatihah itself. This

replacement is valid only for a time that one needs to be able to

learn how to recite. After that time passes, the replacement is no

longer valid, because the person fell short of his obligation. If

one is unable to do any of the aforementioned, then he stands for

the duration of the Fatihah without saying anything.

2) Whoever is able to say the Tashahhud and the Salah on the

Prophet in Arabic is not permitted to translate them. If he is

unable, he may translate them, as Shaykh Taqiyyud-Din Al-

Husniyy said in his explanation of Abu Shuja^:

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د والصلة على النب صلى هللا عليه وسلم بالعربية ل جيوز له أن من عرف التشه

حرام فإن عجز ترمجها يعدل إل ترمجتها كتكبرية ال

‚It is not permitted for whoever knows the Tashahhud and the Salah on

the Prophet in Arabic to resort to their translations, like the formula

‘Allahu Akbar’ that initiates the prayer. If unable, he translates them.‛

3) It is important to help the New Muslim recite the letters

properly. If he is an English speaker, pay special attention to his

pronunciation of the (ح [ha’]), the (ع[^ayn]), the ( س [sin]), the

There .([sad] ص) and especially the ,([ghayn] غ) the ,([dad]ض)

is another recitation of the Fatihah in which the ( ص [sad]) is

replaced by the ( س [sin]). That recitation may be easier for him.

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QUESTIONS

1. What is the immediate knowledge?

2. What is included in the immediate knowledge?

3. What is the most important knowledge?

4. What are the attributes of Allah that are obligatory on every

accountable person to know?

5. List three important pointers about the attributes. List all five for

extra credit.

6. Who are the Prophets?

7. What are the qualities of the Prophets mentioned in this

document?

8. What are miracles?

9. What are the signs of ejaculation?

10. What are the types of bleeding from the vagina?

11. What is a ghusl?

12. What necessitates a ghusl?

13. What is specific to women in a ghusl?

14. What is wudu’?

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15. What does not break the wudu’ although it comes from the

private part?

16. When would a person sleep without losing wudu’?

17. In reference to the validity or invalidity of the prayer, mention

the categories of filth.

18. Mention the amounts (quantities) of water.

19. What are the qualities of filth?

20. When is water contaminated by filth?

21. What does it mean to say that some filth is undetectable?

22. List the conditions for the intention in the prayer.

23. What must one do while saying the first ‚Allahu Akbar‛?

24. List the steps for the one who does not know the Fatihah.

25. What can be translated in the Prayer, why, and what cannot?

26. What letters should one pay attention to when reciting the

Fatihah.

27. When is the tattoo not excused?

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SECOND SESSION

After learning the correct belief and praying on time, one can inform

the new Muslim about other immediate information, such as the

Islamic belief about the Afterlife, and the reality of blasphemy.

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JUDGMENT

All Muslims believe that this life is a trial and time for working towards

the Afterlife. There is no doubt that the accountable person has his deeds

of this present life recorded by two Angels, that he will die, and except for

those whom Allah spared, will be questioned in his grave by the Angels

of Questioning. Death is the complete separation of the soul from the

body. If his body were amongst those that decayed, he will be recreated

on Judgment Day and judged for the deeds of his life. If it is not of that

type, his soul and body will be rejoined without his body being

reconstructed, and he will be judged.

If there were no Afterlife in which the people would be judged for their

deeds, this life would be meaningless, and all who did crimes and fulfilled

their desires would have been the winners, while those who refrained

from allowing their pleasures to control them would be the losers. The

Qur’an confirms that the believer will be rewarded/punished for the good

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and bad deeds- although Allah may forgive him despite his deserving

torture, and that the blasphemer would not have any good deeds on That

Day. He will only be punished for his bad deeds. The good deeds he did

in this life will not be in his favor on That Day, for Allah will endow upon

him in this life for his good deeds. Whoever doubts about or denies the

Day of Judgment is refuted by his own existence and created being, for

the one who created him in the first place would definitely have the power

to create him again.

One’s book of deeds will be presented to him, and he shall remember all

that he had forgotten of his deeds. His deeds will be weighed in a scale,

and he will enter Paradise or Hell. The one who dies as a Muslim is

guaranteed to enter Paradise, and he will never leave it, even if he enters

Hell first, and the blasphemer will never exit Hell. Paradise, Hell, and the

Afterlife are all real and physical, not just spiritual or allegorical. Paradise

is everlasting, as well as Hell, and there is no death or sleep in the

Afterlife.

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1. What are the names of the Angels who record the deeds?

2. How is this life a test?

3. What is death?

4. What are the names of the Angels of Questioning?

5. Who is spared from their questioning?

BASICS OF BLASPHEMY (KUFR)

The new Muslim needs to know that blasphemy could take place by

beliefs, sayings, or doings, and it does not require intent. Some examples

of blasphemous beliefs are:

Likening Allah to the creation,

Denying His Attributes,

Ascribing to the Prophets what does not befit them,

Doubting about Judgment Day, Paradise, Hell, or other basic

creedal matters after knowing that they are confirmed in the

Religion,

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Believing that a Religion other than Islam is valid,

Knowing that Muslims deem something unlawful while

believing that it is lawful, and vice versa,

Knowing that Muslims deem something obligatory while

believing that it is not obligatory, and vice versa,

Doubting about whether Islam is valid or not.

And other matters that one will learn when acquiring the

Personal Obligatory Knowledge with detail.

Some examples of blasphemous sayings are:

Uttering any of the aforementioned issues,

Literally calling a Muslim a blasphemer without any confusion

or fallacy,

Anything that belittles the religious matters, like to say,

‚Paradise is for the babies‛, or ‚the prescribed Prayer is a waste

of time‛.

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Some examples of blasphemous doings are:

Prostrating to a creation other than a human with or without the

intention of worship. As for prostrating to a human with the

intent of honor and not as worship, it is not blasphemy, but still

a sin,

Knowingly throwing respectable religious material in the trash,

Standing, sitting or spitting on religiously, respectable material

while realizing what one is doing.

THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE HEART AND SOME

OF THE SINS OF THE VARIOUS ORGANS

It is obligatory on the Muslim to believe in Allah and in what He

revealed, and to believe in the Messenger of Allah and what he conveyed.

He must also do his good deeds sincerely, regret disobeying His Lord, and

fear Him to the extent that it stops him from sinning. He must refrain from

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objecting to Allah with his heart or tongue, use his endowments in

obedience only, practice the obligatory patience, hate the devil, and hate

the sins. He must not practice the forbidden envy, not think highly of

himself because of his good deeds, not be arrogant, nor be happy with

sins. He must avoid the forbidden food and drink, the forbidden look, the

forbidden touch, gossip, slander, lying and stealing. He must not abandon

the obligations, interrupt them after initiating them and before completing

them, nor is he permitted to do them incorrectly. He must bid the good

and forbid the evil whenever able, and avoid all other sins that will be

learned from the summary of Obligatory Knowledge.

Repentance from the sin is by ceasing the sinful act, intending to never

return to something like it, and regretting that one disobeyed Allah, which

is the greatest integral of repentance. Repenting from the sin is an

immediate obligation.

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LAST ISSUES

It is beneficial to review the issues of likening Allah to the creation, and

in a wise way, to warn from reading translations, as the new Muslim may

be eager to read translations of the Qur’an and Hadith. The new Muslim

must be informed of the correct way of acquiring the knowledge. He must

also be taught the Fatihah immediately. Let that Muslim also know of the

obligations mentioned in the hadith:

وأن محما رسىل بني اإلسالم على خمس، شهادة أن ال إله إال الل

كاة، وصىم رمضان، وحج البيت هللا، وإقام الصالة، وإيتاء الز

“Islam is built upon five things: the testimony that no

one is God except Allah and that Muhammad is the

Messenger of Allah, establishing the Prayer, paying the

Zakah, fasting Ramadan, and seeking the House (the

Ka^bah).”

One needs to be clever when teaching the new Muslim the obligations and

sins, because if his heart is still weak in Islam, it is possible that telling

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him about certain matters would repel him from the Religion. For

example, one should not rush to tell the new Muslim that wind and string

instruments are forbidden, nor stop him from eating some forbidden meat

if that will break him and make him deaf towards hearing more important

and vital things. This is why Imam ^Aliyy said:

ثوا الناس ورسوله حد ب الل با ي عرفون أتبون أن يكذ

‚Address the people with what is familiar to them. Do you like for

Allah and His Messenger to be contradicted?‛

One can then inform the new Muslim of the obligatory knowledge and

order him to be diligent in acquiring it,

AND ALLAH KNOWS BEST