Dear Youth 04

Dear Youth...

Welcome back to your special section. We begin in the name of God. We praise God and thank Him. We ask God to raise the rank of Prophet Muhammad and protect his nation from that which he feared for it. We hope that you are in good health, that you are doing well in school, and that you are being kind to your parents.

This month we continue to talk about lies which some people say about God, our Creator. Before we continue let us remember what we learned earlier. We said that some people say that God is a man and this is blasphemy. God is not a man. So if someone draws a picture of a man and says that this is a picture of God, then we know that this is blasphemy. We hate for people to do such a thing.

We said before that God does not resemble His creation at all, so we know that whatever picture a person may draw is not God and whatever picture may come to a person's mind is not God. We also mentioned that God does not need a place to exist in, so we do not believe that God is in a place up above us. Paradise is above us. A lot of angels are above us. Paradise and angels are wonderful things that God created. God is not like them. God exists without being in a place.

Recently the cover of a well-known magazine showed a girl holding up a picture and looking upwards. The cover read: "What children want God to see". Know without doubt that God is not a body up above us looking down at things we hold up. God sees all seeable things whether we hold something up or we hide it. Be firm in believing that God exists without being in a place and never accept the belief that God is a body living in a place above us.

Some people say things that might confuse people about the correct belief in God. A man on T.V. was talking about how he did not die even though he became unconscious while piloting an airplane. He said: "The Lord walks with me daily. He was in the cockpit with me". Muslims don't talk like this. God is our Lord, the One Who created us and owns us. God is not like us. We walk and we do not say about God that He walks. We say that God sees, hears and knows about us. And we know that God's seeing, hearing and knowing are not like ours. When we are protected in a certain place, we do not say that God is in that place. We are in that place being protected by God, but God does not need a place.

From the teachings of Prophet Muhammad we have explanation for the unusual things which sometimes happen to people. In this life Muslims and even non-Muslims are protected by angels by God's will. The man in the airplane was protected from being killed in an airplane crash by God's will. God protected him from dying even though he did not have the right belief about God. There is a wisdom in this that God knows. Just because God protected the man from dying does not mean that God accepts his wrong belief. This man should give up his wrong belief and believe the correct belief about God, that God is not a man who walks, and that God exists without being in a place.

Praise be to God who sent the Prophets telling us about the correct belief in God. God willing next month we will continue to warn you about some of the lies being said about God, our Creator.

The Creator does not resemble the creation

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A Prophet of Islam-Prophet Shith

Praise be to God Who created the noble, truthful prophets. Loving the prophets is among the obligations of the heart so let us continue to learn about these great examples. For the past three months we talked about the first of the prophets, Prophet Adam. God's willing you are now more knowledgeable about beloved Prophet Adam. It is ugly how some people mock Prophet Adam. Praise be to God that He guided us to be among those who love and respect the first man and Prophet.

We would like to see if you remember some things we told you last month. Who was the first person who committed the great sin of murder? Also, what is the name of the city where Prophet Adam is thought to be buried and how many other prophets are buried there near him? The answers are at the end of this article.

As we said last month, Prophet Adam lived for a long time. Do you remember how long he lived? It was for 1000 years. Prophet Adam was patient with all the discomforts of living on this earth for all those years. Allah will reward him greatly on the Day of Judgment, and he will reenter Paradise and live therein forever. Remember how we said that before Prophet Adam lived on earth he lived in Paradise with his honorable wife for 130 years! Prophet Adam will enter Paradise again on the Day of Judgment and will never be sent out of it.

After Prophet Adam, God continued to send prophets to Earth as a mercy from Him to the people. If you remember, we told you that Lady Hawwa' gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, but once she gave birth and had a boy only. This boy grew to be Prophet Shith, peace be upon him. Prophet Shith was the second prophet God sent to the people.

Prophet Shith was born after Qabil had committed the great sin of killing his brother Habil. Of course Prophet Shith never committed a sin like that of his brother, for as we have said, prophets never commit blasphemy, great sins, or small, mean sins both before and after prophethood, may God raise their ranks.

The name Shith means "the gift of God". Prophets are well mannered even as little children. They are not mischievous, rude, nor do they tell lies. Such a child for a parent is indeed a gift from God. Before Prophet Adam died he made Shith the custodian of his other children, but Shith was not yet a prophet. Then when Prophet Adam died, Shith received Revelation and became a prophet and a messenger.

God revealed many sheets of guidance to Prophet Shith, 50 different ones in all. Shith was a messenger as well as a prophet. What does this mean? This is something important that we would like to explain.

Both prophets who are not messengers and those who are receive Revelation from God. They both have all those perfect human characteristics which we spoke of, such as truthfulness, trustworthiness and intelligence. But a messenger has something more. He receives a new set of rules from God which cancels some of the laws of the messenger before him. Not every prophet is a messenger, but every messenger is a prophet. In Arabic a messenger is called Rasul.

One of the laws of Prophet Adam's time which was canceled during Prophet Shith's time was the permissibility for a brother to marry his sister. From Prophet Shith's time until the Day of Judgment it is forbidden for a brother to marry his sister.

During the lifetime of Prophet Shith all the humans continued to be Muslims and none of them blasphemed. How beautiful it must have been during Prophet Shith's time compared to nowadays with so many blasphemers spreading their wrong beliefs and committing so many sins.

Prophet Shith spent his life in the honorable city of Makkah performing Hajj and ^Umrah until he died at the age of 912. It was mentioned Prophet Shith was buried with his parents, Prophet Adam and Lady Hawwa'. As you can see, Prophet Adam was not the only human who lived for a long time. Prophet Shith lived a long life full of patience like his father. Some Prophets lived even longer than a thousand years. God's willing we will tell you more about some of these other prophets in upcoming months.

Answers to our questions

Q.Who was the first person to commit murder?

A.It was the son of Prophet Adam named Qabil (he is called Cain in English).

Q.In what city was Prophet Adam buried, and how many other prophets were buried nearby?

A.It was mentioned Prophet Adam was buried in Mina which is very close to Makkah. It is mentioned that seventy other prophets are buried near to Prophet Adam, Prophet Shith being one of them.

All Prophets are truthful, trustworthy and intelligent