:salam2:
dear brother ur advice to fast for Gaza is a very good one mashaallah... ur intention, to form unity, is very good and with fasting we can lover our needs so we can spend it (the money wich we would spend for nurishments normally) to the people in need... this is an action with wich Allah would be pleased with... sometimes people jump on somethingh without understanding and thinking....!
:salam2:
Actually sister, and with no insult to the brother, what was said still constitutes a bid'ah. . an innovation, no matter what the intention.
I advise those people who still have little understanding as to what Bid'ah is, to read the final posts in this thread, take consideration as to what is Bid'ah and what the Prophet :saw and his Sahabi said about it:
http://www.turntoislam.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49509
I think that if anyone is jumping "without understanding and thinking!", it is those who do not consider the action in a clear way.
To form unity, yes is good, to do so by selecting a day, and asking everyone to fast on it, is not unity. -
The Sunnah is to fast Mondays and Thursdays, if people normally do that, then this is good.
However, if the people do not normally do it and they have intention to fast on a particular day
for another reason that is not legislated, such as when all these people say fast on the 15th of January, or they say fast and give your money for Palestine, etc, then it becaomse Bid'ah..
Amr ibn Yahya narrated his father told him, "We used to sit at Abdullah Ibn Masood’s house before Fajr prayer. If he exited we would follow him to the musjid. Abu Musa Al-Ash’ari then came to us and asked us, ‘Did Abu Abur-Rahman (Abdullah Ibn Masood) come out yet?’ We said, ‘No’, so he sat with us till he emerged. We all stood up when he exited.
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He (Abu Musa Al-Ash’ari) said, ‘O Abu Adur-Rahman, I just saw something which I did not recognize, and I did not see, all thanks to Allah, but good.’ He (Ibn Masood) said, ‘What is it?’ He (Abu Musa) said, ‘If you live you will see it. I saw in the musjid people sitting in circles waiting for the prayer. In each circle there is a leader, and they have stones in their hands. He (the leader) would say, ‘Say Takbir (Allahu Akbar) 100 times’, so they say Takbir 100 times. He (the leader) would then say, ‘Say Tahil (La Ilaha Illa Allah) 100 times’, so they say Tahil 100 times. He (the leader) would then say, ‘Say Tasbih (Subhana Allah) 100 times’, so they say Tasbih 100 times.[/FONT]
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Ibn Masood said, ‘Did you not order them to count their evil deeds, and guarantee them that none of their good deeds will be lost?’ Then he and us left till we reached one of the circles. Then he (Ibn Masood) stood next to the circle and said, ‘What are you doing?’ They said, ‘O Abu Abdur-Rahamn, (these are) stones that we count our Takbir, Tahil, tasbih, and Tah’mid (Alhumdu’lillah).’[/FONT]
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Ibn Masood said, ‘Count your evil deeds, for I guarantee that none of your good deeds will be lost. What is the matter with you, O nation of Muhammad? How soon you come to your destruction! The companions (of Muhammad) are still many, these are his clothes still not worn out and his cookware did not break yet. By whom my soul is in His Hands, you are either following a religion better than Muhammad’s or followers of a way of evil.’ [/FONT]
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They said, ‘By Allah, O Abu Abdur-Rahman, we sought only what is good.’ Ibn Masood said, ‘Many people seek good, but they do not reach it. The Messenger told us some people who read the Qur’an will not have the Qur’an leave their throats (to their hearts). By Allah I do not know if most of you are from them.’ Then he left them. Amr Ibn Salamah said, ‘We saw most of those people fighting against us, in the battle of Nahrawan with the Khawarij.’" (Tirmidhi)[/FONT]
Edit: I think some are confused, this is not just an issue of saying "Fast FOR Gaza", this is an issue of actually fasting FOR ALLAH for a specific reason, time, date, way, etc, which was not done instructed. So, even if there is no Shirk involved and I do not believe any of the brothers or sisters have that in mind!! It is still wrong, because it falls under category of innovating something new into the religion.
We should not tell anyone to do a specific act of worship, in any way, reason or "style" except how Allah and His Prophet
instructed.... So fasting is in Ramadhan, and on other legislated days. .
It is same, if I tell everyone to pray 2 naafil rakats for unity on a specific day. -- If we pray 2 naafil rakaat just because it is a good sunnah to do then this is fine, but if the intention is because you heard someone say, " We are all doing a naafil prayer on 15th - whether they give a reason or not, (so even if they dont say we are doing it in solidarity with Palestinians or the people in Darfur, which not many want to pray or care for because they are poor and black
) then this is also same. Wrong..
Every thing in our Islam is done strictly in accordance with the Quran and Sunnah. So, we can not basically invent a day, and those who do these things are infact, trying to copy the Kuffar. They are the ones who have 1 minutes silence, they are the ones who organise special prayers where they hold hand, or they do hunger strikes etc,
The people who do this fast are similar to those who commemorate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad
or make othe such innovations.
So this is not an action Allah would be pleased with,
and Assalamu alaykum
