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...

Basic night navigation: finding Qiblah direction at night using Stars

Allah SWT, Says in Surat Al-Nahl (The Bee):

{ وَعَلامَاتٍ وَبِٱلنَّجْمِ هُمْ يَهْتَدُونَ }

"And landmarks. And by the stars they are [also] guided." [16:16]

Allah SWT, with His Bounties, made from the stars a way for us to find our directions. We shall discuss in the following entry, few stars that would help us get our direction (for Northern Hemisphere only)

During the course of the night, the stars are not staying in one place, they move as the earth rotates. This is valid for most of the stars to the exception of one of them: Polaris...

Polaris is the North Star, it stays almost at the same place all night long and this is why it is so important for navigation:

This long-exposure photograph shows the Delicate Arch, a rock formation in Utah, silhouetted against the night sky, which is filled with the trails of stars. The brightest and innermost trail, seen at the centre of the arch, was made by Polaris, the North Star or Pole Star. This is the closest of the naked-eye stars to the earth’s north celestial pole. The direction of the rotational axis of the earth slowly changes, so every few thousand years a different star serves as the North Star.

Encarta Encyclopedia

David Nunuk/Photo Researchers, Inc

Image Source: wikipedia.org

The bright innermost circle is created by Polaris.
If Polaris stays at the same place during all night, you then have a fixed reliable point for you to refer and to guide yourself.

How to find Polaris:

Two main constellations are used to help find Polaris: Ursa Major (also known as Great Bear and also known as Big Dipper) and Cassiopeia. Both of these will be found the northern part of the night sky, so they indicate by themselves the North direction without having to go into details of the true North.

Two main advantages that these constellations have: they are visible during all seasons and they appear almost all night long.


The Great Bear (Big Dipper shape) and Cassiopeia (W shape) constellations will rotate during the night around one point: Polaris. This could be seen in the following animation

Image source: Wikipedia.org

According to where you live, Polaris will be found at different altitudes. The higher the Latitude of your place, the higher in the sky you would see it.
People in Equator would see Polaris right above the horizon, while someone sitting right at the North Pole would see it exactly on top of his head. Polaris altitude (height above horizon) gives you your Latitude.


Take a note: If you live in a city, you might not be able to observe all of this, because the city lights are contaminating the light from the stars..

• If you are living in Mecca, you are on Latitude 21deg N, you would see Polaris at same altitude, 21deg N.
• If you are living in Medina, Polaris altitude = Latitude = 24 deg
• If you are living in Singapore, Polaris altitude = Latitude = 1 deg (very difficult to see, right above horizon)
• If you are living  in Kuala Lumpur, Polaris altitude = Latitude = 3 deg (difficult to see also)
• If you are living  in Virginia Beach or Algiers, Polaris altitude = Latitude = 37 deg
• If you are living in Aberdeen, it is higher in the sky, Polaris altitude = Latitude = 57 deg

Using the Big Dipper & Cassiopeia: (You may click on the pictures to have clearer view)

Ursa Major Constellation - بنات نعش 

Finding Polaris using Cassiopeia / Ursa major/ "The One with a Chair"

 

Cassiopeia - ذات الكرسي

Finding Polaris using Cassiopeia

What Ursa Major and Cassiopeia look like in the sky:

I know it might be a bit difficult to spot these constellations, especially if we live in a city where lights interfere with good observation...however, I wanted to post these pictures showing how they would look like in the sky..

Ursa Major - Source Google Images

Photo: Noel Carboni

Cassiopeia - Source Google Images

Cassiopeia and its famous "W" shape

Good to know:


One person lost his boat at sea and managed to drop into a raft before the boat sank. He managed to stay in the same maritime route by keeping his raft at the same Latitude. He managed to do this by using a pencil he had with him !!...he would locate Polaris at night and made sure that it would always be at the same height using his pen while laying on his back in the raft. He was able to steer his raft to stay always within that same Latitude....He eventually managed to get rescued by a passing boat after days spent in the open ocean...

So one can never know, Polaris = Latitude, keep this in mind and it might save your life one day...


What about Southern Hemisphere?
People in the Southern Hemisphere, like Australians, Brazilians etc will not be able to see the same stars than in the Northern Hemisphere. There is no equivalent to a Polaris for the South, they use Crux, or Southern Cross, to find South.


Articles referenced from Wikipedia.org:
Contrary to popular belief, Crux is not opposite to Ursa Major. In fact, in tropical regions both Crux (low in the south) and Ursa Major (low in the north) can be seen in the sky from April to June. Crux is exactly opposite to Cassiopeia on the celestial sphere, and therefore it cannot be in the sky with the latter at the same time.


The brightest stars of Crux appear on the flags ofAustralia, Brazil, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Samoa. They also appear on the flags of the Australian state of Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory, as well as the flag of Magallanes Region of Chile, the flag of Londrina (Brazil) and several Argentine provincial flags and emblems (for example,, Tierra del Fuego and Santa Cruz). The flag of the Mercosur trading zone displays the four brightest stars. Crux also appears on the Brazilian coat of arms.