Learn About Islam

Sixty Names of the Qurʾān, from the Qurʾān and the Sunnah, a lecture by Shaykh Abu Iyaad Amjad Rafiq (hafidhahullāh)

The first few minutes of this lecture were not recorded.

• The many names of the Messenger ﷺ, and of the Qurʾān, show their status: the more names a thing has, the greater its nobility

• The names of the Qurʾān all refer to one thing, yet each carries its own meaning

• Al-Muṣḥaf and al-Qurʾān: the Muṣḥaf is the whole written Qurʾān between two covers, from al-Fātiḥah to an-Nās

• Al-Furqān: it separates truth from falsehood, Tawḥīd from shirk and the Sunnah from innovation, with the explanation of Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah

• Ibn Taymiyyah's parable: the guidance is the directions to Makkah, and the clear proofs are the landmarks along the way

• Al-Kitāb and its descriptions: guidance for those who have taqwā, sent down with the truth, wise, mighty and upright

• Al-Hudā, aṣ-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm, adh-Dhikr, al-Bashīr wan-Nadhīr, and al-Muhaymin, which safeguards the truth of the earlier books

Recorded at The Salafi Centre of Manchester on 22/6/19, the evening before the Manchester Summer Conference 2019

Advice to the Tuition Club students on good manners, a talk by Ustādh Abdul Hakeem Mitchell (hafidhahullāh)

• The Prophet ﷺ said he was sent to perfect good character, so every good manner is from his Sunnah

• "Whoever believes in Allāh and the Last Day, let him speak good or remain silent": this is part of our īmān

• Help your brother whether he is the oppressor or the oppressed: advise the one who wrongs others, and stand up for the one who is wronged

• Do not mock one another or call each other names, and do not go looking for your brother's faults

• Be grateful that Allāh guided you to Islām, gave you a Muslim family and placed you among Muslim brothers and sisters

• ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu) said: bring yourselves to account before you are brought to account

Recorded at the Tuition Club on 5/10/22

Take advantage of five before five, a talk by Ustādh Abdul Hakeem Mitchell (hafidhahullāh)

• The ḥadīth: your youth before your old age, your health before your illness, your wealth before your poverty, your free time before you become busy, and your life before your death

• Every blessing calls for gratitude, and gratitude is shown by using the blessing in obedience to Allāh

• Youth is the time to seek knowledge, starting with the fundamentals, and to choose righteous companions, for a person is upon the religion of his close friend

• Shaykh al-Fawzān (hafidhahullāh): worship is of three types, with the body, with wealth, and with both together, such as Ḥajj

• Charity does not decrease wealth, so pay the zakāh and give in the way of Allāh while you are able

• Do not waste free time on idle speech, and rectify the heart, for the whole body follows it

• Actions are judged by their endings, and only a person's deeds stay with him in the grave

Recorded at the Sisters' Afternoon at the Bookshop on 2/1/26

Perfecting good character, a reminder by Ustādh Abdul Hakeem Mitchell (hafidhahullāh)

• The Prophet ﷺ said: "I was only sent to perfect good character"

• Actions follow the heart, so purify it of envy, hatred and self-amazement, and humble yourself for Allāh

• "Whoever believes in Allāh and the Last Day, let him speak good or remain silent"

• The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ is the best example, and good manners are a means of calling people to Islām and the Sunnah

• Whoever revives a good Sunnah has its reward and the reward of those who follow it

• Guidance is the most valuable thing a person can carry, so let it show in how you carry yourself

The strong believer, a reminder by Ustādh Abdul Hakeem Mitchell (hafidhahullāh)

• "The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allāh than the weak believer" (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim): strength of īmān, not physical strength

• Īmān is belief in the heart, speech on the tongue and action with the limbs; it increases with obedience and decreases with disobedience

• Rectifying the heart with Tawḥīd, sincerity and knowledge, and purifying it of envy, hatred and arrogance

• "Two words light on the tongue, heavy on the Scales": subḥānallāhi wa biḥamdihi, subḥānallāhil-ʿaẓīm

• Guarding the tongue from backbiting, tale-carrying and lying, for one careless word can lead to the Fire

• Knowledge comes before speech and action, and loving Allāh means following the Messenger ﷺ

Recorded on 15/8/26

ʿĀshūrāʾ and the story of Mūsā, a reminder by Ustādh Abdul Hakeem Mitchell (hafidhahullāh)

• Firʿawn's tyranny over the Children of Isrāʾīl, and how Allāh protected the baby Mūsā in the river and in Firʿawn's own house

• Mūsā's duʿā that his brother Hārūn be made a prophet with him

• The magicians of Egypt, Mūsā's staff, and the magicians falling down in prostration: "We believe in the Lord of all creation"

• The parting of the sea: "Nay, verily with me is my Lord, He will guide me"

• Mūsā fasted the tenth of Muḥarram in gratitude, and the Prophet ﷺ said: "We have more right to Mūsā than you"

• Fasting the day before or after as well, and the hope that it expiates the sins of the previous year

• ʿĀshūrāʾ is a day of gratitude and worship, not a day of mourning

Recorded on the day of ʿĀshūrāʾ, 26/6/26

Be with the truthful, a reminder to the Girls' Youth Club by Ustādh Abdul Hakeem Mitchell (hafidhahullāh)

• "O you who believe, fear Allāh and be with the truthful" (at-Tawbah 9:119)

• Truthfulness begins with being truthful with Allāh: in belief, in Tawḥīd and in the Shahādah

• Truthfulness leads to righteousness and Jannah, and a person keeps being truthful until he is written with Allāh as truthful; lying leads to wickedness and the Fire

• People trust the one known for truthfulness and turn away from the one known for lying

• ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Mubārak: the isnād is part of the religion, and the preservation of the religion rests on truthfulness

• A lie is still a lie when joking, and the first sign of the hypocrite is that when he speaks he lies

• Whoever finds that lying has become a habit should not despair: make duʿā, for Allāh is able to change it

Recorded at the Girls' Youth Club, Salafi Bookstore & Islamic Centre, Manchester, on 1/5/26

Choosing good companions, a reminder to the Girls' Youth Club by Ustādh Abdul Hakeem Mitchell (hafidhahullāh)

• "O you who believe, fear Allāh and be with the truthful": Allāh commands us to keep the company of the truthful

• Truthfulness leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to Jannah, while lying leads to wickedness and wickedness leads to the Fire

• "A person is upon the religion of his close friend, so let each of you look at whom he befriends"

• Friends always invite one another, either to good or to evil, so choose those who will help you in this life and the Hereafter

• A true friend advises you and does not simply agree with you when you are wrong; enjoining the good and forbidding the evil is part of īmān

• Keep to the gatherings of good, for a person will be with those he loves, and be keys to good and locks against evil

Recorded at the Girls' Youth Club, Salafi Bookstore & Islamic Centre, Manchester, on 24/4/26

Beacons of Light, a lecture by Shaykh Zayd al-Madkhalī (raḥimahullāh), in Arabic with an English translation

• Strive for knowledge: two types of striving, of the heart (a great desire to seek and spread knowledge) and of the body (travelling, or in our time using the internet to connect with scholars)

• Be with the ʿUlamāʾ: life cannot be upon goodness unless affairs are returned to the scholars, directly or indirectly through their books and tapes

• Study your religion: the reward of the one who spreads knowledge and the one who studies it is the same

• Begin with the most important: rectify your belief through the three categories of Tawḥīd, then the pillars of Islām and Īmān, ḥalāl and ḥarām, and the Qurʾān and Sunnah

• Take knowledge from the people of the Sunnah: the person of innovation is advised, and if he refuses he is left and knowledge is not taken from him, even when it is learned through the internet

• Questions answered: collecting donations after Jumuʿah, reading Qurʾān in janābah, Tarāwīḥ and Tahajjud, and the characteristics of the scholars

Recorded in Manchester

Selected aḥādīth from Kitāb al-Iʿtiṣām bil-Kitāb was-Sunnah (Holding Fast to the Book and the Sunnah) of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī by Imām al-Bukhārī (raḥimahullāh), with the explanation of Shaykh Rabīʿ ibn Hādī al-Madkhalī (raḥimahullāh), taught by Ustādh Abdul Hakeem Mitchell (hafidhahullāh)

• The third ḥadīth

• The blessing of the Prophet ﷺ being sent to an unlettered people

• Preserving the Sunnah by memorising it and acting upon it

• The narrator Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways (d. 226H)

Streamed LIVE at the Phil Martin Centre, Moss Side, Manchester on 22/10/24