Everything around you has an effect When a person does something for the sake of Allah and has

s full trust in Allah, even if its apparent does not look like the outcome will be good, but where there is trust in Allah and done for the sake of Allah he receives something called barakah In this day and age the muslims have lost their belief in barakak whereas Allah has said in the opening verses of surah bakrah You will notice the first characteristic of a believer is that he believes in the unseen my brothers and sisters barakah is from the unseen Barakah means a lot of benefit or a huge amount of benefit with small actions

Lets look at just one story in the life of the prophet (SAW) the lessons of this story are as relevant today as they were 1400 years ago and you will notice that our surroundings our environment the food we eat the words we utter the footsteps we take the company we keep EVERYTHING has an effect on us at times those things can be a means of us entering jannah and getting closer to Allah and at times it could be a means of us entering jahannam (May Allah protect us from that) In the sixth year of Hijrah after the treaty of hudaybiyah the prophet SAW sent 8 letters to surrounding rules inviting them to islam. Among the rules was thumamah bin uthal. He was among the most powerful arab rulers at the time. When he received the letter he became enraged with anger. The letter asked him to submit fully to Allah and his messenger (SAW). And rulers are rarely inclined to submit to anothers will. He had a strong desire to kill the prophet SAW. For a long time he plotted and waited for the right time. It was not easy to attack a muslim. Their sense of brotherhood ran deep. What group of people greet one another with salam and smiles when they meet and over look one anothers faults? The enemies of islam knew to attack one muslim, is to attack all the muslims because they supported one another.

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He illustrated this by interlacing the fingers of both his hand

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So thumamah wanted to harm the messenger of allah (SAW) so one day he ambushed a group of companions and killed them. From that day forth the prophet (SAW) declared him a wanted man, but why should he fear? He was a ruler with his own people.

Soon after thumamah set out to make umrah and passed by medina. He was captured by a group of sahabah who did not know who he was. So they brought him back to medina and tied him to one of the masjids pillars. When the prophet was about to enter the masjid he saw thumamah and informed the companions of who he was. The prophet SAW then went to thumamah. Imagine the scene, one ruler standing in front of another. The sun shining down upon thumamah as the prophet stood there in front of him. The one who had threatened to annihilate islam and had killed some companions was now tied to a pillar in the center of the medina. The prophet said, What do you have to say for yourself? Thumamah said, if you want to kill out of revenge, then you have someone of noble blood to kill. If out of mercy, you want to forgive, then I will be grateful. If you want compensation, I will give you whatever you ask. The prophet (SAW) could do whatever he wanted to him. Instead, he walked away and left him, but continued to personally send him food and drink. Despite thumamah being a sworned enemy of islam, the prophet (SAW) treated him well. He was not immediately killed in revenge for the companions that he killed. He was neither tortured nor cursed at. Instead while he was kept prisoner, his needs were looked after and he received his food directly from the house of the prophet. How much barakah must have been in the food that comes from the house of the prophet? Just as some foods can lead to physical problems The early sufi abu bakr al-duqqi said: the stomach is a place where foods mix together. When you put pure food into it, the limbs proceed to do good works. When you put doubtful foods into it,, your path to Allah becomes filled with doubt. And when you put something connected with the unlawful, there is a barrier between you and the command of Allah How many times have you met a muslim that questions the command of Allah? No wonder our hearts are filled with doubts. No wonder we have such difficulty following the commands of Allah! Everyone knows that non-zabiha meat is haram to eat, but few people realize how little Baraka there is in halal meat when cooked by those that are heedless of Allah. Note, that I am not talking about haram food, I am talking about halal food. You should know what you are doing to yourself when you eat. The prophet said that the black stone in the kaaba descended from jannah whiter than milk, but was blackened by the sins of those who touched it. (tirmizhi) This indicates that peoples spiritual states have an effect on what they handle and ouch. A cook at a restaurant who prepares food while thinking about the opposite sex, listening to music, etc cannot produce food nearly as good for you as that prepared by someone who remembers Allah. Food prepared in the heedlessness of Allah causes heedlessness of Allah. Without a doubt there is such a thing as barakah in food. So the prophet (SAW) returned the following day and said what do you have to say for yourself? Thumamah said if you want to kill out of revenge, then you have someone of noble blood to kill. If out of your mercy, you want to forgive, then I will be grateful. If you want money in compensation, I will give you whatever you ask. The prophet then left and came back the next

day. He said what do you have to say for yourself? He repeated the same thing he said the prior two days.

The the prophet turned around and said to the companions set him free. Thumamah probably never thought that he would just be set free without having suffered a punishment or payment. He had promised to kill the messenger of Allah and he had already killed some companions. However, he was given a camel and set free to do whatever he wanted. But if you think about it, why should he be surprised? He just spent three days in the masjid of rasulullah. He watched those about whom Allah says:

:: These are characteristics of a Muslim. Just as the sins of people had an effect on the black stone, the righteousness of Muslims has an effect on people. Your righteousness has an effect on those around you. We spend hours talking about islam to non-muslims and we spend even more time talking about islam to muslims, yet our company has no effect. This is, in part, due to our own failings. You are the company that you keep whether that company is good or bad is up to you. This is the meaning behind the ayah:

A muslim should take another muslim as a friend preferring him over a non-muslim. And why shouldnt you prefer the company of those that have muslim characteristics over those that do not. Wouldnt you want the positive effect of a muslims company? May Allah make us into a people that even the non muslims woud prefer our friendship over other non-muslims. So once thumamah realized he was free, he jumped on the camel and quickly rode away from the masjid until he came to a garden near al-baqi. There, he allowed his camel to drink and he washed himself and he had a moment to reflect. This was an opportunity. At this point, he flew back to the masjid. He entered into the masjid looking for the messenger of Allah and announced laa ilaha illah, Muhammad al rasulullah