Allah is the name that I begin with; the name of the most Merciful, the most Compassionate. The Name of the One Who Alone is worthy of worship. The name of the One to Whom belongs all praise. The One Who was before all, Who is above all and Who will be when all else ceases to exist; the Eternal, the Immortal, the Omnipotent. The One Who knows all but cannot be comprehended; Who gave time and place an existence and sustained them and those bound by them. He is the One Whose pleasure I seek, Who gives me direction, fills me with hope and in Him lies my satisfaction. He is greater, grander and more splendid than my opinion and expectations of Him. My only desire is to meet Him and to hear the most beautiful word He promises those He has favoured: “Peace – a word from a Lord Most Merciful.” [Holy Quran – 36:58]
May His choicest peace, salutations and blessings be upon His Final Messenger, the Mercy for His world, the Jewel of existence, the Pearl of humanity, the Guide and Model for believers, the Most Perfect amongst His Creation, the one who completed and perfected the chapter of good conduct and manners; the Ray of Certainty for all who come across his life in person, through word or in script, the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته
May the peace of Allah be upon you, whether you know me or you don’t, and a very warm welcome to you.
I am new to blogging and I am using this space just to write my views and ideas. I don’t really know where this blog will lead me but I’m willing to give it wait and see how it develops.
My name, if you haven’t already worked it out from the blog name, is Mohammad Asrar Ul-Haq and I am a British Muslim Imam and Khateeb – I deliver religious sermons – who lives in West Yorkshire, England. I’m sure as the blog matures more about my views, ideas, opinions, interests etc will be revealed but in the meantime you can read a little more about me in the about me section on the blog and as I get the hang of this I’m sure I’ll be adding other little interesting bits here and there.
Here’s what I hope to do with this blog:
- Document things that I find interesting in life or get me thinking.
- To document a translation of the life of the most interesting man to have walked the Earth: Muhammad messenger of Allah. This will be done using an excellent biography that I have read in Arabic called نور اليقين في سيرة سيد المرسلين (Nūr ul-Yaqīn Fī Sīrat Sayyid il-Mursalīn). It was written about 100 years ago by the Egyptian scholar Allama al-Khudarī. Of course it will be done little by little and I will seek your help in completing it.
- I will try to occasionally add my Jumuah Khutbas (Friday Sermons) too. This is because many of my colleagues and friends have asked me to put together a collection of topics that may be useful as a resource for British Imams to deliver in their communities. So we will see how that goes.
- I also hope to add some podcasts of Islamic subjects, inshaAllah.
These being my aims for this blog, I will try to blog 2 -3 times a week with the Will of Allah Almighty. I hope that you will follow my page and continually give me your views, opinions and ideas on how I can improve the blog.
Just one last thing before I conclude this blog: it goes without saying that anything written in the blog represents my personal views only and not necessarily anyone I am related to, or work with or even work for. So I seek first and foremost the protection of God Almighty from anything that does not please Him and then I prematurely plead for His forgiveness should I make any mistakes; I fully acknowledge my shortcomings.
So for now, ma’ as-salāma and ila al-liqā – peace be with you until our next meeting.
Beacon of Certainty 