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CONTENTS INTRODUCTION��7 A WINDOW INTO HUMAN BEHAVIOR��9 THOSE WALKING THE PATH��13 WHY SEARCH FOR THE INGREDIENTS OF THE ISLAMIC PERSONALITY?��19 ATTRIBUTES OF THE ISLAMIC PERSONALITY ��21

First: A Heavenly Nature (�ibghah) �� 21 Second: Clear Vision �� 39 Third: Pride �� 45 Fourth: Holding Fast to the Truth �� 49 Fifth: Confrontation �� 53 Sixth: Consistency With the Truth �� 57 Seventh: Contentment and Tranquility �� 63 Eighth: Realizing the Objective of Life �� 73 Ninth: Repenting to the Truth�� 75

A FINAL WORD ��81 SYMBOLS’ DIRECTORY ��82 GLOSSARY ��83 TRANSLITERATION CHART ��86 ACCENT CHART ��88

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INTRODUCTION

All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, and seek His Assistance, Forgiveness and Guidance. We seek refuge�with Allah from the evil of our souls and bad deeds. Whomever Allah guides will not be misguided by anyone. And whomever He misguides will not be guided by anyone. I openly testify that nothing deserves worship but Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

This book, my noble brother, is a transcript of a lecture I had delivered in a distant city. I delivered in front of a group of Muslim students of knowledge who had traveled long distances to seek knowledge previously acquired by our predecessors. Our need for such knowledge is treasured, yet we are spending no effort in seeking it.

Distant lands did not prevent those youth from holding steadfast to their religion. They came to listen to a beneficial speech and to mutually advise each other to hold on to the truth and practice patience.

This book is a humble effort that can be added to many other efforts to resist the campaign against the individual Muslim, the Muslim family, and the Muslim society. In fact, the real target of those campaigns is to destroy Islam and eliminate it from its roots.

We are certain that victory will only be attained by the righteous and patient. The darkness of falsehood will not last; instead, the radiance of Islam will shine again. I am

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certain that the lions of Islam will knock down the fortresses of disbelief. They will do so with inexorable will and souls overflowing with belief. Their intention in this life is for the welfare of the human race.

I have written these words for those who appear before me in the near horizon. They motivate me and heighten my hopes. By the Will of Allah, these words will be a torch of guidance toward the Straight Path. How can they not be, for these words have been decorated with verses of the Holy Book and sayings of the Prophet.

O’ Allah! Inspire us with that which is beneficial to us, and protect us from the evil of our souls.

Dr. ‘Umar Sulaym�n al-Ashqar

A WINDOW INTO HUMAN BEHAVIOR

If we were to examine human behavior during different times and places, we will find that humans live life styles that are immensely different. Some of those life styles are like navigating through a storm.

We will discover that humanity has gone through dark times, as if it was traveling through the darkness of night. It seemed to never reach the shores of safety no matter how much it traveled. Humanity set goals and sought objectives that changed as soon as humans approached the achievement of them. Just as if you approach the mirage, and as quickly as it appeared, it disappears.

When we analyze the different paths of life and in spite of the strong winds, we will find only one Straight Path. Whenever this path becomes in need of maintenance, a group of men stand up to clean it and make its borders clear once more.

Those walking this Straight Path were sometimes countless and other times few. But there has always been someone walking upon it.

We find this Straight Path to be one of enlightenment for the entire universe. The hearts and faces of those walking on this path are illuminated. Journeying around with torches in their

hands, they call others to join them on the Straight Path of enlightenment for the hearts and souls.

Don’t think that I am narrating a poet’s dream or the fantasy of someone secluded from life. We do not have a physical window through which we can view the past and present human behavior. But we surely have a book that was delivered from the One Who is All-Knowing and Who is Well-Acquainted with all matters. He is Most Truthful because He is the Creator of the heavens and earth, and the Founder of the human being. He was the First with nothing preceding Him in existence. He is the Creator of time and space, the Knower of all that occurs.

If one reads this book with an open heart and a contemplating mind, he will glance into the world of humans witnessing the amount of deviation that they have lived through. They lived through stages of darkness because they became misguided from worshipping their true god. Instead, they worshiped inanimate objects, trees, animals, and other humans.

The reader will discover there are several paths that will lead humanity to destruction. All such philosophies, beliefs, and ancient schools of thought are inconsistent with that which Allah revealed. Those pathways may have some differences between them, but they all convene as sources of falsehood that lead people astray.

In the midst of this falsehood, the Qur’an lays out for us the one long Straight Path, which has continued to be as such throughout the ages. Adam, the father of humans, walked

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this path as did all righteous humans, including Prophets, Messengers, the truthful, the righteous and martyrs.

The Qur’an narrates to us of their journeys on this path:

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�And verily, this is my Straight Path, so follow it, and follow not [other] paths, for they will separate you away from His Path. This He has ordained for you that you may become righteous.� �� (Qur’an 6: 153)

Those individuals always requested Allah to keep them steadfast on this Pathway:��

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�Guide us to the Straight Way, The Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not [the way] of those who earned Your Anger, nor of those who went astray.� �� (Qur’an 1: 6, 7)

During their journeys, they continuously sought their Lord’s Enlightenment:��

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�… Indeed, there has come to you from Allah a light and a plain Book.� �� (Qur’an 5: 15)

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�And thus We have sent to you [O’ Muhammad (�)] an Inspiration, and a Mercy of Our Command. You knew not what is the Book, nor what is faith. But We have made it a light wherewith We guide whosoever of Our slaves We will…� (Qur’an ��: 52)

In addition, they have invited others to this Straight Path and guiding light:

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�Invite mankind, to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and fair preaching...� ��(Qur’an 16: 125)

Allah guides whomever He wills, and those left unguided shall remain astray in the darkness.

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THOSE WALKING THE PATH

Those who walked the Straight Path while being enlightened with the heavenly truth represent the goodness among humanity. They have fulfilled the objective of their creation:

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�And I [Allah (�)] created not the jinn and humans except they should worship Me.� ��(Qur’an 51: 56)

They worship Allah in the manner He wants to be worshipped. Therefore, they were the ones who were chosen to be righteous.

As for those who became lost in the paths of life and were doomed in its valleys, they are more heedless than animals:

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�…They are like cattle, nay even more astray...� (Qur’ an 7: 179)

This occurred because they rejected the call of the truthful guides and were too arrogant to submit to the truth.�They overestimated their own intellectual abilities.

The ones who are walking the Proper Path are the true Muslims. Islam is Allah’ s true Religion which He sent with all of His Prophets. All of those who can be truly described


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as righteous followed Islam, for Allah did not reveal a religion other than Islam:

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�Truly, the religion with Allah is Islam...� (Qur’an 3: 19)

All Prophets were Muslim. They declared this fact openly. They also counseled their children and followers to adopt Islam as their religion.

For example, while building the Ka’ ba, Ibr�h m (Abraham) and Ism�’ l (Ishmael) were supplicating:

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�Our Lord! Make of us Muslims bowing to you; and of our progeny a people Muslim, bowing to you...�

(Qur’an 2: 128)

Both Ibr�h m and Ya‘q�b (Jacob) admonished their children:

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�… O’ my sons! Allah hath chosen the faith for you; then die not except in the state of Islam.�

(Qur’ an 2: 132)

Y�suf (Joseph), the son of Ya‘q�b, never forgot the advice of his ancestors and prayed that he would die as a Muslim:

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�… Take my soul [at death] as a Muslim, and unite me with the righteous.� ��(Qur’an 12: 101)

Throughout the generations, those who sought the path of enlightenment were true Muslims who never relied on their own physical or mental strength. Instead, the light of guidance shined over their hearts and minds. They were able to see with the light of guidance just as they were able to see with the light of the sun.

Those true Muslims walked their path while Allah was shining His Light on them and engulfing them with His Care.

Those who have opposed them, refused to be enlightened with the heavenly light, but opted to utilize dim lights that did not enable them to lighten up areas of pitch darkness. They are just like a person who holds a miniature torch in the midst of a dark stormy night. True Muslims, on the other hand, hold within their hands the sun itself.

Clear Characteristics

True Muslims are a very distinct type of people. They possess attributes that set them apart from everyone else. In other words, their personalities have distinct characteristics which were seen in early Muslims, Prophets and Messengers, and their followers. We also see these characteristics in true followers of modern day Islam.

The Balanced Personality

The Islamic personality is the only balanced personality. It is balanced in its attributes, demeanor, hopes and judgments.


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It is the only personality that is not distorted. It is consistent with its natural form, leading the person to live the life which Allah wants. Non-Muslims, on the other hand, lead a life of ambiguous thinking, not knowing the Correct Path.

The Distorted Islamic Personality

Those who have adopted Islam in name only and those who consider the Qur’ an a book for mere recitation do not represent the proper Islamic personality. This is because a proper Islamic personality is one which represents the true teachings of Islam.

As for those who affiliate themselves with Islam but seek to rectify hearts and minds by utilizing worldly methods, they only represent a distorted Islamic personality. This is true regardless of their titles and claimed status.

Some of those who claim to be Sufis and philosophers have contributed to distorting the Islamic personality. We observe people who claim to be Muslim, but in reality they have nothing but a thin layer of Islam which quickly dissolves during times of calamities.

The Islamic Personality Through the Ages

Throughout the centuries, the Islamic personality has been subjected to many attempts to destroy and eliminate it.

When such efforts failed to reach these goals, they resorted to distorting the Islamic personality. The enemies of Islam lead these campaigns by introducing foreign philosophies


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and traditions that aided in throwing doubts into the hearts of Muslims.

The enemies of Islam were hoping to stop Islam from being the only contributor to shaping the Muslim personality; as Allah wanted it to be. The genuine Islamic ‘aq�dah (creed) became polluted with the science of Kal�m and philosophy, in addition to those who claimed to receive knowledge through unveilings of their hearts and unauthenticated revelations.

This confused Muslims, and resulted in a proliferation of those who claimed to possess the truth. Many Islamic groups were generated which in turn produced feuding to the point of accusing one another of apostasy and heresy.

The Islamic Personality of Today

The Islamic personality of today is a representation of the immense culture we inherited from our forefathers. This culture was affected by several elements, some of which only wanted ill-will for Islam and Muslims.

The struggles of today are directed at controlling the human intellect, including matters of faith. “Super Powers” have a great fondness to this type of control. For this control, they have mobilized huge sums of money and their media and writers. Had the same amounts of money been spent on eliminating poverty, illness, or illiteracy, the entire humanity would have benefited. Unfortunately, it is part of human nature to be keen on spreading one’ s system of thinking and


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to convince others of adopting it. Allah (�) has said the truth:

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�… Thus We have made alluring to each people their own doings… � (Qur’an 6: 108)

Building the Islamic Personality All Over Again

Since the personalities of most contemporary Muslims do not represent the true Islamic personality, it has become important to go back and reestablish the true Islamic personality with its clear attributes that are similar to that of Prophets, Messengers, the honorable Companions and noble religious figures.

In doing so, we must resort to the same resources which our predecessors utilized. These resources were the Qur’ an and the Sunnah. Although these two resources were sufficient, what truly helped our predecessors was the presence of the Prophet (�) among them. He (�) embodied the perfect Islamic personality and his Companions represented the ideal Islamic generation. The presence of such practical examples made it easy to develop a society in which the pleasant fragrance of Islam was always in the atmosphere

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Download - ATTRIBUTES OF THE ISLAMIC PERSONALITY, Umar al-Asqar

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