Sadaqa

Narrated Abu Musa Al-Ash’ari: The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, ‘On every Muslim there is enjoined (a compulsory) sadaqa (alms).’ They (the people) said, ‘If one has nothing?’ He said, ‘He should work with his hands so that he may benefit himself and give in charity.’ They said, ‘If he cannot work or does not work?’ He said, ‘Then he should help the oppressed unhappy person (by word or action or both).’ They said, ‘If he does not do it?’ He said, ‘Then he should enjoin what is good (or said what is reasonable).’ They said, ‘If he does not do that?’ He said, ‘Then he should refrain from doing evil, for that will be considered for Him as a Sadaqa (charity)’ 

Sahih al Bukhari, Vol. 8, Book 73, Hadith 51.

Beware of Innovation

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Beware of newly-invented matters, for every newly-invented matter is an innovation (bid’ah) and every innovation is a going-astray.” (Narrated by Ahmad, Abu Dawood, al-Tirmidhi and others).

Signs of a Hypocrite

'Signs of a Hypocrite' - By Nouman Ali Khan

What You Need to Succeed - Navaid Aziz

Guarding the Tongue

Allah says (interpretation of the meaning): 

"neither backbite one another. Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You would hate it (so hate backbiting). And fear Allah. Verily, Allah is the One Who forgives and accepts repentance, Most Merciful. "

[al-Hujuraat 49:12] 

The Muslim has to guard his tongue and avoid things that have been forbidden. Among these forbidden things which people take often lightly are gheebah (backbiting), buhtaan (slander) and nameemah (malicious gossip).

Gheebah or backbiting means speaking about a Muslim in his absence and saying things that he would not like to have spread around or mentioned. Buhtaan or slander means saying things about a Muslim that are not true, or in other words telling lies about him. Nameemah or malicious gossip means telling one person what another said in order to cause trouble between them. (Islam QA)

Health and Free time: Two Blessings

Ibn Abbas (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) said, "There are two blessings in which many people incur loss. (They are) health and free time (for doing good)".
[Al-Bukhari] 

The majority of people do not take proper care of both these things, with the result that one wastes the time in useless activities and spends the physical strength and energy in the disobedience of Allah. (Riyad-us-saliheen)

Let's try our best to make use of these two blessings to the best of our abilities before its too late!

Do not become proud

"Do not become proud merely because you worship often, for consider what happened to Iblis after he spent a great deal of time worshipping." (Hasan Al Basri)

Faith Based Intelligence

A great series of lectures on Faith Based Intelligence by Sheikh Moutasem Al-Hameedi. Here is part 1 of 15. For the rest, just follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIUNAuzpj2o