WRITING THE QUR’AN ON A TABLET (WÀLA/HÀNTUN): BID'AH OR NOT??
1. Shaikh ul-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned in “Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā”
Vol. 19, p. 36, Dār al-Wafāʾ edition:
“It is...
Researchers at the University of Bergen ran a study comparing 213 Sudanese men. Half brushed their teeth with a chewed tree root. Half used a regular plastic toothbrush. The tree root group came out with healthier gums and less plaque.
That stick is called a miswak. The WHO has been quietly recommending it since 1986. In 2011, scientists at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute finally cracked the chemistry.
The active ingredient is benzyl isothiocyanate, a natural plant defense compound from the same family of sulfur molecules that give cabbage and mustard their sharp bite. The compound punches through the outer wall of bacteria that cause gum disease. From there, it dismantles the chemistry that keeps the bacteria alive. The Karolinska team isolated it by running root extracts through a chemical analyzer that identifies individual molecules.
The stick comes from the Salvadora persica tree, which grows in dry parts of Africa, the Middle East, and India. Inside the wood you also find natural fluoride, a gentle abrasive called silica that polishes off plaque, sulfur compounds, and tannins that tighten gum tissue. A separate team at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg ran another trial. They soaked the sticks in a fluoride solution. The fluoride left in the test group’s saliva came out higher than what people got from regular fluoride toothpaste.
A more recent systematic review pulled together a stack of randomized trials. Miswak on its own controlled plaque about as well as a regular toothbrush. Used alongside the toothbrush, it actually beat brushing alone on both plaque and gum inflammation scores. The Princess Nourah University trial from 2024 complicates that. Over two weeks, the miswak group’s plaque held steady while the toothbrush group’s dropped further. And gums in the miswak group got noticeably worse for people who sawed at their teeth too hard. Aggressive horizontal scrubbing tears at the soft tissue along the gum line.
One stick costs under 10 cents in the regions where the tree grows, and a single twig lasts for weeks. In sub-Saharan Africa, herbal toothpastes built around miswak and neem (another bitter chewing-stick tree) made up over a quarter of toothpaste sales in 2023.
The honest caveat is that Western dental literature treats the miswak as an add-on rather than a replacement, mostly because reaching the back molars with a stick is awkward. Used correctly, with soft perpendicular brushing along the gum line and no aggressive sawing, it does what a toothbrush does and adds a low-grade antibiotic on top. For most of human dental history, this is what cleaning your teeth looked like.
🇳🇬🇺🇸 Tinubu is now using the term “Islamic State” to refer to terrorists. 🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️
Let me telling you what’s happening here.
While the U.S. was preparing for China and in China, they couldn’t help but notice Tinubu’s frolicking with Emmanuel Macron re the France Africa forward summit. As soon as the United States concluded the China trip, they quickly called him to ensure their grip on him (a.k.a their grip on Nigeria’s critical minerals) is still intact. The even got him to use the term “Islamic state” to refer to terrorists. I have never seen him use that term before. Normally, the highest he’d would do is use the word ISIS, which is very different from saying Islamic State, if you understand the strategic importance of framing.
I can bet my life savings that this was drafted and sent to him for posting by the U.S. state department.
This is also a message to the opposition who think they are courting US friendship.
1. He’s surely not takfiring anyone & I don’t think it’s fair to characterize his post as such. Stating that something is kufr doesn’t mean everyone who falls into it or affiliates themselves with it becomes kaafir right there and then. There’s excuse of ignorance, & ta'wīl, and that’s why it’s important to keep speaking the unadulterated truth about the kufr/kufr pathway that feminism is so everyone can understand & not flirt with kufr unknowingly.
2. Feminism, like almost every other word, in any language has a standard meaning. It doesn’t become whatever you want it to be. BY DEFINITION, it is incompatible with the laws of Allaah that grants women and men special favors (fadl), over the other respectively, that fit each gender, under his divinely wise adjudication of equity. He also commands us to not covet what the other gender has been favored in (Q4:32).
Feminism, not even talking about the radical type or the type with explicit anti-Islam agenda, seeks EQUALITY between the genders in certain spheres (which is not bad for the most part), including those where Islam has genderized things, like Imamship, qiwāmah, nubuwwa, status of the mother being higher than the father, jamā’ah prayer requirements, jihād bi sayf, etc. I’ve written extensively about it already, several times now, and I don’t want to sound like a broken record at this point. The point is, you just can’t polish turd. Feminism is fundamentally not compatible with Islam & saying that isn’t takfirism.
The root of the word 'Muslimah'
It comes from the Arabic verb aslama أسلم which means to submit.
The noun is Islām إسلام which means submission
The subject is Muslim مسلم (masculine) or Muslimah مسلمة (feminine) which means the one who submits (to Allah in worship and obedience)
A feminist on the other hand, is the one who challenges Allah's authority to make the decree concerning the difference between a man and a woman.
Literally and technically, it's impossible to be a Muslimah and at the same time, a feminist. They are mutually exclusive.
@lifeofmustapha This is a prescription, not attributed to the Prophet, with a specified number at a specified time, with a specified result/outcome. Ibn Taymiyah suggested this, and Ibn qayyim referred to it (endorsed it).
Will we consider it a blameworthy innovation?!
https://t.co/vJb05uHjOi
Ibn al-Qayyim narrates that Ibn Taymiyyah said:
“He who repeats 40 times, between the Sunnah of Fajr and the Fard of Fajr:
“Yā Hayy Yā Qayyūm, Lā Ilāha illā ant, bi Rahmatika Astaghīth”
His heart will be alive, and it would not die”.
Madārij al-Sālikīn, 1/446
RE: Abu Lut’s “1000” Istighfar Challenge - Important for our education.
Bismillah Ar-Rahmaan Ar-Raheem
The “1,000” I mentioned in the post is not a prescription. It is an arbitrary number which I mentioned because I perceive it to be more than what the average person does daily.
For a person to prescribe a number attached to an adhkar, he must have an evidence for it as much as he must have an evidence for the adhkar himself.
For example, when the Prophet ﷺ prescribed for his daughter, Faatimah, in the hadith narrated by ‘Ali to say “Subhanallah”, “Alhamdulillah”, and “Allahu Akbar”, he told her to say them 33, 33, and 34 times respectively [Sahih Bukhari 3705]. This is the evidence for doing these adhkar these specific number of times.
Note that the Prophet ﷺ does not speak from his own whims on masaa’il pertaining to ibaadah. Just as the adhkaar was revelation, the adad (number) was also revelation from above.
Allah said in Surah An-Najm (3 - 4):
وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ ٱلْهَوَىٰٓ ٣
إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا وَحْىٌۭ يُوحَىٰ ٤
3. Nor does he speak from [his own] inclination. 4. It is not but a revelation revealed…
So if someone prescribes to you to read Surah Al-Kahf 313 times, for example, he must show you the evidence to support his “313” number because specific devotional quantities can be legislated through revelation. If you’re attaching a figure to an adhkaar as a prescription, there must be evidence backing it.
Now back to my post challenging you to do “1000” istighfaar daily:
Am I PRESCRIBING istighfar?
Yes. Is evidence for that? Yes (plentifully so).
Am I PRESCRIBING 1000 times?
No. I am only prescribing that you do it plentifully (Evidence: Sunan Ibn Majah 3818, and more).
The “1000” figure I put is simply an arbitrary number to challenge you so as to ultimately achieve doing istighfar more times than you probably have in the past. This is evident from the fact that I said “you can start with 500 a day”. If it was a prescription, it won’t have this flexibility.
There is no special virtue attached to the figure 1000. It is not revelation. Do 1500, 2000, 783, or even just 3 - you’re not violating any sacred number.
There’s a distinction I’m making. Prescribing a specific number as an act of worship requires evidence. Encouraging abundance using an arbitrary motivational target is a different category.
Potential concerns on my post which tows this line are valid in principle, but I don’t think it applies here.
I hope this clarifies that aspect.
Also, worthy of mentioning: QUALITY over QUANTITY. I am not calling on anyone to just chant istighfar mechanically & absentmindedly. This is a danger you must avoid with any adhkaar. Be present-minded with Allah and think of what you’re asking Him in each iteration you ask for it. Again, QUALITY over QUANTITY - and what is best is QUALITY plus QUANTITY.
Lastly, the digital counter. As mentioned, the whole post is to encourage and motivate within the boundaries of the shari’ah. The motivation to do more istighfar that the digital counter gives when you see you have only 50 left to get to the 1000 is not evidently wrong to me (I am open to hearing a sound argument against it inherently). The only case I can make against it from a self-critical standpoint is that some people might, over-time, attach a sacredness to the figure they’re trying to meet. But I think the existence of this potential possibility is too speculative to outweigh the maslaha therein.
Barakallahu feekum.
@lifeofmustapha This is a prescription, not attributed to the Prophet, with a specified number at a specified time, with a specified result/outcome. Ibn Taymiyah suggested this, and Ibn qayyim referred to it (endorsed it).
Will we consider it a blameworthy innovation?!
https://t.co/vJb05uHjOi
@lifeofmustapha This is a prescription, not attributed to the Prophet, with a specified number at a specified time, with a specified result/outcome. Ibn Taymiyah suggested this, and Ibn qayyim referred to it (endorsed it).
Will we consider it a blameworthy innovation?!
https://t.co/vJb05uHjOi
Ibn al-Qayyim narrates that Ibn Taymiyyah said:
“He who repeats 40 times, between the Sunnah of Fajr and the Fard of Fajr:
“Yā Hayy Yā Qayyūm, Lā Ilāha illā ant, bi Rahmatika Astaghīth”
His heart will be alive, and it would not die”.
Madārij al-Sālikīn, 1/446
Have you noticed that the people at the very top of every industry in this world knew each other from way back?
That’s because they all had a single unfair advantage that most people ignore.
Think about this:
In 2023, the founder of Altschool said that he noticed that 80% of the people dominating the tech space in Nigeria at the time were people hanging around CChub circa 2011-2013.
In 2023 as well, tech cabal released an article called the paystack mafia. It was an article outlining several tech founders doing incredible things, raising funds and building. They were all at the company around the same time.
If you read up the PayPal mafia, you see the exact same pattern. How that the founders of YouTube, LinkedIn, Tesla, Palantir, Space X were all together at some point.
Let’s leave tech.
Coscharis. Ifeanyi Ubah. Ibeto. Inosson.
All billionaires in Nigeria. They all come from the same community. Nnewi.
They all started the same - trading spare parts.
The money used to settle coscharis from his apprenticeship was given to him by Okeiyi ( Chisco ) who was serving at the same time.
I promise you:
An unfair advantage that will remain the differentiating factor for the top 1% forever is something called community.
I don’t know how to explain it but something magical happens when people of like minds and similar vision come together in a confined space. No matter how small they start.
It’s like energy is coming together and something has to emerge as a result. It can’t be result-less.
The reason you’re already thinking “how do I get into communities that will help me grow?” Is because you’re not sincere with your desires.
You’re looking for already-made groups. They won’t accept you into their circle.
I won’t as well. I don’t trust you.
Start where you are. One. Two. Three friends that are simply hungry pursuing diverse dreams bound by a genuine desire to change their lives…you will shock yourself in a few years.
Rooting for you. Like mad.
❤️⏰
WRITING THE QUR’AN ON A TABLET (WÀLA/HÀNTUN): BID'AH OR NOT??
1. Shaikh ul-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned in “Majmūʿ al-Fatāw��”
Vol. 19, p. 36, Dār al-Wafāʾ edition:
“It is...
Doctors life goals:
1 Become a doctor
2 Marry a doctor
3 Make their kids doctors
4 Get them married 2 a doctor
Engineer life goals:
1 Study Engineering
2 Tell your siblings & Friends not 2 study Engg
3 Tell every1 not 2 study Engg
4 Die watching every 1 choosing Engg
Doctors life goals:
1 Become a doctor
2 Marry a doctor
3 Make their kids doctors
4 Get them married 2 a doctor
Engineer life goals:
1 Study Engineering
2 Tell your siblings & Friends not 2 study Engg
3 Tell every1 not 2 study Engg
4 Die watching every 1 choosing Engg
It was said to Hasan Al Basri رحمه الله
"A man sins, then he repents, then he sins, then he repents, then he sins, then he repents until he dies"
He said: "I do not know this being anything but the characteristics of a believer."
Hilayah Al Awliyah 2/315 T: Dar As Sunnah