Luqman's Advice to His Son

..and what nice Golden advises indeed than the ones that Luqman gave to his son...The following is pulled from Tafseer al Jalayan, Surat Luqman [31]:

12 { وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا لُقْمَانَ ٱلْحِكْمَةَ أَنِ ٱشْكُرْ للَّهِ وَمَن يَشْكُرْ فَإِنَّمَا يَشْكُرُ لِنَفْسِهِ وَمَن كَفَرَ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَنِيٌّ حَمِيدٌ }

"And verily We gave Luqmān wisdom, comprising knowledge, religiousness, and right-mindedness in speech; his many wisdoms are well-known. He used to give legal opinions [in matters of religion] before David was summoned [to prophethood], but lived on into the latter’s summoning. He then took to acquiring knowledge from him [David] and refrained from giving [any more] legal opinions, explaining this thus: ‘Should I not be content if someone [like the prophet David] has spared me the trouble?’ He was once asked, ‘What is the worst kind of person?’ He said, ‘The one who does not care that people should see him doing evil’. In other words, [We gave him wisdom] and We said to him: ‘Give thanks to God, for the wisdom that He has given you. Whoever gives thanks only for his own sake, because the reward for his gratitude shall be his, and whoever is ungrateful, for a grace, then surely God is Independent, [without need] of His creation, Praised", in what He does.

13 { وَإِذْ قَالَ لُقْمَانُ لابْنِهِ وَهُوَ يَعِظُهُ يٰبُنَيَّ لاَ تُشْرِكْ بِٱللَّهِ إِنَّ ٱلشِّرْكَ لَظُلْمٌ عَظِيمٌ }

"And, mention, when Luqmān said to his son, when he was admonishing him, ‘O my son (yā bunayya is an affectionate diminutive [of yā ibnī]) do not ascribe partners to God: idolatry is truly a tremendous wrong’, so return to him [in repentance] and submit [to Him].

{ يٰبُنَيَّ إِنَّهَآ إِن تَكُ مِثْقَالَ حَبَّةٍ مِّنْ خَرْدَلٍ فَتَكُنْ فِي صَخْرَةٍ أَوْ فِي ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ أَوْ فِي ٱلأَرْضِ يَأْتِ بِهَا ٱللَّهُ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَطِيفٌ خَبِيرٌ } 16

‘O my son! Even if it, namely, the evil trait, should be the weight of a grain of mustard-seed, and [even if] it be in a rock, or in the heavens, or in the earth, in other words, in the most concealed place therein, God will bring it forth, and He will call [that person] to account for it. Truly God is Subtle, in bringing it forth, Aware, of its location.

 17 { يٰبُنَيَّ أَقِمِ ٱلصَّلاَةَ وَأْمُرْ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ وَٱنْهَ عَنِ ٱلْمُنْكَرِ وَٱصْبِرْ عَلَىٰ مَآ أَصَابَكَ إِنَّ ذَلِكَ مِنْ عَزْمِ ٱلأُمُورِ }

O my son! Establish prayer and enjoin decency and forbid indecency. And be patient through whatever may befall you, as a result of such enjoining and forbidding. Truly that, which is mentioned, is true constancy, in other words, that is one of those necessary things regarding which one must have firm resolve.

 18 { وَلاَ تُصَعِّرْ خَدَّكَ لِلنَّاسِ وَلاَ تَمْشِ فِي ٱلأَرْضِ مَرَحاً إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لاَ يُحِبُّ كُلَّ مُخْتَالٍ فَخُورٍ } 

And do not turn your cheek disdainfully from people (tusa‘‘ir: a variant reading has tusā‘ir) do not turn your face away in disdain, and do not walk upon the earth exultantly, in other words, with haughtiness. Truly God does not like any swaggering braggart, strutting in his step, [boasting] in front of people.

 19 { وَٱقْصِدْ فِي مَشْيِكَ وَٱغْضُضْ مِن صَوْتِكَ إِنَّ أَنكَرَ ٱلأَصْوَاتِ لَصَوْتُ ٱلْحَمِيرِ }

And be modest in your bearing, being moderate in it, neither dragging slowly nor rushing, but peaceful and dignified, and lower your voice; indeed the most hideous of voices is the donkey’s voice’, beginning [its hideous bray] with an exhalation and ending with an inhalation.

May Allah Make us among those who will follow these advises and all the advises in the Quran...

Basic navigation: finding Qiblah direction using Shadow

Allah (SWT) Says in Surat Al Furqan, verse 45:

{ أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ كَيْفَ مَدَّ ٱلظِّلَّ وَلَوْ شَآءَ لَجَعَلَهُ سَاكِناً ثُمَّ جَعَلْنَا ٱلشَّمْسَ عَلَيْهِ دَلِيلاً }

"Have you not considered your Lord - how He extends the shadow, and if He willed, He could have made it stationary? Then We made the sun for it an indication." Quran [25:45]


We do not have to search for the Sun everytime to search our direction, in fact, after Sun rises, it is much easier to see the Shadow to find our direction, this is valid especially if we are in a car or a bus and need to know which direction we are taking...


This picture was taken during a recent trip to the Omani desert. It was taken early morning. The vehicle is driving through valleys and we do not have to waste time searching for the Sun itself, we can make use of the shadow, and in this case, from the shadow, we could tell that the Sun is on the left hand side of the vehicle.
As we are in the early hours of the morning, on my left is thus East, on my right is West, the vehicle is moving towards the South.





Same day, during the return trip. Again, shadows on the ground, use the one from the light pole, or the vehicle itself. Sun is certainly on the rear left of the car, indicating the West....the vehicle is thus moving North East..

It is good practice to always keep these references when travelling in desert, especially driving away from black top roads and cities, don't rely only on GPS, but keep an eye on where the Sun, Shadow, Moon are compared to the vehicle movement...
A friend of mine got lost in the desert one day, they were in a 4 x 4 car, he picked up his friend from the airport, and drove towards their rig camp inside the desert. He said that during the trip, he saw the Moon on his left, then kept chatting with his friends, then after a while, he saw the Moon on his right hand side !...he immediately knew that they got lost, and that the vehicle turned around somewhere...They had to climb on a high hill, and sought for city light indication, they got lucky and noticed at very far distance the glowing orangy color of a gas flare from a refinery, and drove towards it until intersecting a black top road...if my friend did not notice early enough that they lost their way by keeping for reference the position of the Moon, they might have drove deeper inside the desert, and might have gone lost for good...

The next picture shows some shadow in a forest: if this is in the afternoon, the shadow would continue to elongate, but it will always indicate the East direction (as the Sun is setting in the West). If I was in North Africa and needed to pray towards Mekkah, I would thus need to face East, I would just need to put my prayer mat exactly at the same direction of the shadow on the ground, with the Sun behind me...