About AlHidaayah.Net
I have been addicted to reading for as long as I can remember. I was very bookish even as a child and, I
am sure, terribly boring! I would pester my older brother for his books and whenever I stayed over at my aunt's or grandmother's during the school holidays, I would raid my cousins' shelves and school bags for something to bury my nose into.
It was my father who planted and nurtured this love for reading. Bedtime meant going over a few lessons on Islam and then reading a good story.
Every couple of months, he would drive my siblings and I to the second hand bookstore located in a quiet housing estate - a tiny shop in a corner, with wall-to-wall and floor-to- ceiling shelves and barely enough standing room. Baskets filled with even more books of all kinds lined the outer corridor. There, we would joyfully search for books - as many as we wanted.
My father loved books as well. Even when he was ill with cancer, he would not cease trying to increase his knowledge of Islam. My father is no longer with us now - he passed away in November 2003 after courageously fighting cancer for two years. When I went through his shelves shortly after his death, I saw that he was part way through "Minhaj al-Muslim", among several other books.
I wanted to do something for him and was greatly heartened when I read these ahadeeth:
The Prophet sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam said: "When a person dies, all his deeds come to an end except three: sadaqah jaariyah (ongoing charity, e.g. a waqf or endowment), beneficial knowledge (which he has left behind), or a righteous child who will pray for him." (at-Tirmidhi)
Ibn ‘Abbaas radhiallahu `anhuma reported that the mother of Sa’d ibn ‘Ubaadah radhiallahu `anhuma died when he was away from her. He said: "O Messenger of Allaah, my mother has died and I am away from her. Will it benefit her anything if I give in charity on her behalf?" He said, "Yes." He said, "Then I ask you to be my witness that I am giving my garden al-Mikhraaf (so called because it bore so many dates) in charity on her behalf." (al-Bukhari)
So, I have begun this site to do something constructive for the sake and pleasure of Allah and in the hope that it will be a form of sadaqa jaariyah for my father. May Allah give us the best in this world and the hereafter, ameen.