Question:
asalamalykum,
Please can I ask these questions, forgive me if I am wrong for asking:
1-What is meant by “believer”? Does it mean anybody who says shahaadah? When Mahdi AS comes, will any person who says shahaddah go to him after he calls or will it be a certain type of beliver?
2-I am doing a course and I can’t find the origin of the ruku-who put it in the Quran and why? Also I don’t speak Arabic and am really struggling with the grammar aspect-could you help me please/direct me to a good book about sarf and nahv?
3-What does Islam say about culture and what advice can you give to us to balance it? What restirictains must we put on our culture in order to avoid sin?
I apologise about asking such obvious questions but sometimes I overlook the simple for the hard without truly understanding the basics.
Answer:
`Alaykum as-Salam,
A believer is one who believes in Allah, His angels, His Books, His Messengers, the Last Day, and Qadar. The believers will be tested when Mahdi comes, some will choose to follow the Dajjal instead, thinking that he is truthful.
The ruku` marks are at the end of passages where the meaning is complete and therefore pertain to the science of waqf and ibtida‘ (stopping and beginning) during Qur’anic recitation. Among its greatest exponents are Abu `Amr al-Dani (5th Hijri century) and the Sajawindi shaykhs – father and son – (sixth century). As for consigning the ruku` mark into the mus-haf I am not sure when this was first done but it would probably be mentioned in this book (which I do not have): Kunuz al-Burhan fi Rumuz Awqaf al-Qur’an (“The Treasures of Demonstration Concerning the Stop Signs of Qur’an”) by Muhammad Sadiq al-Hindi, published in Egypt in 1290H.
A good book for sarf and nahw for non-Arabic speakers would be Wright’s Arabic grammar which is widely available in print.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
