The story of four brothers

In the Name of Allah, the most beneficient, the most Merciful.

Once upon a time, there was a kind person named Muhammad lived with his wife in a small village. Allah gave him four sons, Hanif, Malik, Ahmad, and Shafee. He loved his sons, and taught them good manners, and how to worship Allah. All four were the most obedient, and pious. Later, Allah gave him more sons and daughters, but these four were the most prominent ones.

Muhammad taught all of his kids that they are like limbs of a single body, and if one would suffer, others should cry out in pain. Also, that regardless of disagreements they should follow his teachings, and stay united so the outsiders cannot take advantage of them. He also taught them that disagreement will not harm them, but dividing into separate groups will.

One day Muhammad passed away leaving behind a big state and many children, but he ordered in his will that the estate should never be divided, because their strength was in the unity, and all his children should live together. All his children understood this, and taught their children the same message.

The estate was too big, so each of the four eldest divided responsibilities, and setup rules to help their children complete tasks, but the central control was still the core rules setup by Muhammad. Each of the four rules were based upon wisdom, and knowledge, but they were not same, since created by a human being.

On occassion, there will be conflicts, where two brothers rules contradicted each other, and a solution has to be reached. So, all will gather together, and debate to figure out which rule should be used. Usually the brother Hanif's rules be used since he had the skill to extrapolate in new situations. Slowly, most of their children used rules from Hanif, but some still used rules from other brothers. All brothers have commanded their kids to accept the other brother if their argument has the direct teaching of their grand father Muhammad, because all of them were following his rules. In essence, if any of the rule contradicted an explicit rule of Muhammad, it must be abandoned, and the brother who got the correct rule should be followed.

Despite the different rules, some children would follow the best of all four rules, because they had learned the art of deriving rules. There was a brotherhood at the core of the family, and everyone stayed together in the same estaet, and the size of the family kept increasing. Unfortunately, all of the children of Muhammad passed away one by one, but his grand children were maintaining the unity, and staying with one identity of the estate.

After many years, several generations were passed, and new generation were now running the estate. They did not like the arguing on the rules, and wanted to stablize the rule system so there are less conflicts. Also, the pride in the family lineage took hold of some of the people in the family, and they begin to identifying the original rules of the four brothers, and started to adopt rules solely based on their father from those four, and started rejecting the rules from other three brothers. These were the richest of the family, so they were able to implement their version of rules for their part of the estate. Everything was still normal, because they all lived together, but there was a certain pride to their rule system now.

In fact, there were always people in the family who debated and fixed problems with the rules as new situation arise in the estate, but they always kept the rules of Muhammad to be unchanging, and allowed changes to all other rules. This kept the unity among them, and protected against any foreign influence. This was the golden rule that was never to be broken. They are not allowed to form other estates, hence weakening the family.

However, the movement to establish four rules independent of each other won, and the estate was divided into four different functional bodies, each following a certain rules from the original four brothers. This worked for a while, but after a while, it became clear that the four functional parts of the estate has become separate estates in themselves, and cannot function as a single estate. This was due to the strict adherence to the single set of rules, and no allowance for deabte from other parts of the estate.

After several years, the estate of Muhammad became the four estate, and were moved to different cities. Hence, the brotherhood ended, and estate of Muhammad was lost. Conflicts on the rules were reduced, but the cost was too high, because now the people identified as the new four estates more than they identified as the original estate.



Four city estate ruled that if one becomes the resident of the city, they are not allowed to visit the other cities, or work there. In essence, they claimed that a person must follow the rules of the city in all circumstances to be protected from the foreign looters and the King who owned everything.


However, there was a small group of people lived outside the cities, who worked in all four cities, and kept the original rules of Muhammad alive. The small group of people living outside worked on bringing unity among the four cities, and wanted to remove illegal and illogical rules from the rules of the four cities. Interestingly, they were labelled as the spies of the other cities, when they argue against a certain rule to be baseless, and yelled at or threatened. On one such occassion, a person asked "Can we live in this city, but follow some rules that seem more correct from the explaination of the leader of the other city?" answer was "NO! NO! once you sign up here, you must follow all rules good or bad. "

One powerful analogy given by the cities to the minority group living outside the city is "How do you know what is best for you? Don't you need a cardioligist to diagnose heart issues, and you should trust his opinion over the opinion of a non-cardioligist?" Answer given "Yes, it is true that one has to be cardioligist to issue diagnosis on heart issues, but isn't it wise to get a second opinion from two cardioligist and see which opinion is better so we are not being mis-diagnosed. On the other hand, it is unwise to keep the same doctor, when the symptoms are getting worst. Also, it should be acceptable to have multiple doctors who we select from for different specialities they posses. So, it is a flawed argument from the cities that a lay person cannot chose between cardioligists, because they have not studied medicine. In fact, everyone choses doctors and lawyers they trust and change when needed."

Due to the division of the resources in four cities, foreign looters were attacking and harming all four cities, and they were not able to defend on their own. They claimed that it is impossible to form the original one estate of Muhammad now, so the best option is to live in one of the city estate and follow their rules instead.

In fact, these four cities fail to realize that there is nothing wrong with having multiple rules to run different part of the estate, but the central estate has to be one. If there are conflicts in rules, the best rule should be adopted that is closest to the original rules of Muhammad. Of course, this has to be done by the experts, and a process has to be established. Unfortunately, the leaders of these four cities does not want to go against their forefathers and leave the power for unity, so they will not allow debate between two cities.

Yes, there will be more debates, and conflicts, but the estate of Muhammad will be formed, and thats the definition of the unity, and everything else is a loss, however peaceful it is.

May Allah protects this small group from the opression, and taunts from the powerful cities, and guide them to bring about unity.

And the story continues...

JazakAllah Khairin
An outsider to four cities

AbuArman (Adnan Jumani)

Marraige in Islam

In the Name of Allah.

All praise is due to Allah, the creator, the sustainer.

Any mistake I make is from my ego, and any good that I say is from Allah.

Prophet Muhammad (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “The most blessed nikah is the one with the least expenses.” [Bayhaqi]

One of the pious person was talking about a recent wedding of a close relative they attended, and with great pride he spoke about hundreds who participated in the Nikah, and Valima. I was puzzled to hear this, because I remember the hadith above which clearly states that it is better to keep the expenses at the lowest for Nikah ceremony, if one wants to get blessings of Allah.

It is not too surprising, because it is quite common in Pakistani/Indian families to glorify and spent thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars/rupees. I didn't pay too much attention to this fact until I came across this hadith. It is certainly not haram to spend all your money in your daughter's wedding, but it is sad to see the avalanche of peer pressure it creates.

When I proposed my marriage over the pay phone, and performed the Nikah with 4 or 5 men, one of them a catholic, inside the Masjid in Queens NY, I didn't realize that I was receiving the best marraige a Muslim can hope for. Since that day, my life has been filled with more blessings then I can count, Alhamdulilah ir RabilAlameen. I was as broke as you can be, and with no hope of finishing education. However, I did spend on Valima, because my mother and my sisters were really upset about the fact that they couldn't follow all the hindu traditions of Mehndi, and Mayoon. Looking back, it wasn't even my idea, because I wouldn't go to Masjid for Jum'aa either, but agreed to it, since I can Marry for free in the masjid.

So what is the wisdom in Prophet (PBUH) saying the above? It is very clear that marraige has become a transaction that scare most of us, and keep most of us bachelor, because we need alot of money for the hall, food, gifts, clothes...etc, the wife has to be perfect with the beauty with no match in the family, or at least from a family that has a higher status in the society.

The Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said:“Nikah (marriage) is my Sunna. He who shuns my Sunna is not of me.”(Muslim)

If, for some reason the marraige doesn't workout, and the daughter comes back home, it is not even possible to remarry, because the debt from the first marraige is not even paid off yet. Also, men run away from a divorced women like a plague. The companions were opposite of this, and will make sure that no woman is without proper support and a husband.

Months of planning and a big bank balance is required to get married nowadays, but why? Who are we trying to please? Ourselves? Our new spouses? Shouldn't we try to please Allah?

On top of all this, haram activities have become norm, and a successful marraige ceremony need to have a DJ, and a non-Mahram hip-shake fest. Hindu traditions are being kept alive in the hearts of young muslim boys and girls. Money spent alone can make the marraige an activity out of reach from many poor families, and the women wait years to get married. Some of my mother's sisters are still not married. It is not because they have some defect or have bad character. It is because we have change the rules of the game, and made it impossible for them to get married.

Let the non-muslims run after the most luxurious weddings, and we, muslims, should follow the command of Muhammad bin Abdullah (PBUH).

Hadith - Al-Tirmidhi #3090, Narrated Abu Hurairah, r.a.

Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) said, 'When someone with whose religion and character you are satisfied asks your daughter in marriage, accede to his request. If you do not do so, there will be temptation on Earth and extensive corruption.' [Tirmidhi, Nasa'i and Ibn Majah transmitted it.]

Would you lke to practice Islam? Marry as early as you can. Choose a pious person over wealthy. Marry for their character, and marry them in the simplest way possible. You will not regret it InshAllah. Marry your daughters and sons, as soon as they are able to earn money, and do not follow the path of the people who compete each other in this world, if and only if you believe in Allah and the last day.

The mutual rivalry for piling up (the good things of this world) diverts you (from the more serious things), Until ye visit the graves. " (Quran 102:1-2)


JazakAllah Khairin
A struggling Muslim
AbuArman (Adnan Jumani)