MILLATI ISLAMI

(12 STEP ISLAMIC PROGRAM of RECOVERY FROM ALCOHOL, COCAINE and other drugs.) 

 Millati Islami attempts to address a problem in the Islamic Community that has not been thoroughly addressed. That is to recognize that devastating addictions can and do occur among the members of our family as well as among the American community at large.

 

                                                         MILLATI   ISLAMI

 

FORMAT FOR MEETINGS: 

 

1.          Group should be seated in a circle.

2.          Secretary will call the meeting to order.

3.          Recite Al-Fatiha in Arabic and English.

4.          Welcome everyone.

5.          Introduction of newcomers.

6.          Orientation to the facilities.

A.          Location of restrooms, refreshments. And literature.

B.           If you are holding drugs or paraphernalia, leave, clean up, then come back. We are interested in you.  We do not want your drugs.

C.          No smoking, prolonged conversations or use of profanity during the meeting.

7.          Reading of the literature.

A.          Sura Five, Ayats 90 & 91 (of the Qur’an).

B.           Who is an Addict?

C.          What is Millati Islami?

D.          Why?

E.           How it works/The Steps of Recovery.

F.           The Traditions of Millati Islami.

       8.    Begin meeting by introducing the speaker for (Speakers Meeting).

                  Or…Begin reading the literature for a Step or Literature Meeting, followed by        

Discussion of the literature.

Or   Begin Round Robin.  (Round Robins may be open discussion or Topic Meetings).

9.         Close Meeting by:

A.          Collecting donations (we are self supporting).

B.           Reading “Hope Through Millati Islami”.

C.          Recite Sura 103, ASR (103 of the Qur’an), in Arabic and English.

                         

 

 QUR’AN SURA V; AYATS, 90 & 91(translation)

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

(Translation)

O you who Believe!

Intoxicants and gambling.

Dedication to stones,

And divination by arrows,

Are evils,

Of Satan’s handiwork:

Avoid such evils,

That you may prosper.

 

Satan’s plan is (but)

To excite hostility and hatred

Between you with intoxicants

And gambling and hinder you

From the remembrance

Of Allah, and from prayer:

Will you not then abstain?

 

 

WHO IS AN ADDICT?

Most of us do not have to think twice about this statement.  We know.

Our whole life and thinking are centered in drugs in one form or another.  We are centered on getting and using and finding ways and means to get more drugs.

We use to live and live to use.

Very simply, an addict is a man or woman whose life is controlled by drugs.

We are people in the grip of a continuing and progressive illness whose ends are always the same;  jails, institutions, dereliction or death. 

 

WHAT IS MILLATI  ISLAMI ?

Millati Islami is a fellowship of men and women, joined together on “The Path of Peace”.  We share our experiences strengths and hopes while recovering from our active addiction to mind and mood altering substances.

 

We look to Allah, (God) to guide us on Millati Islami (The Path of Peace).  As recovering addicts we strive to become rightly guided Muslims, submitting our will to the will and service of Allah.  We begin the submitting process through the practice of Al-Islam (peaceful submission to the will of Allah) in our daily lives.

 

Islam tells us clearly that the status of man in this world is that of an “Abd” (slave or servant).  We must learn to be slaves and servants only to Allah and not slaves to mind or mood altering chemicals.  We must also learn not to be slaves to people, places, things and emotions.

 

Allah tells us that man is “Khalifatullah” or “The deputy and vicegerent of Allah”.  This means that Allah has entrusted us as human beings with custodianship of his creation.  Our own bodies, minds and souls truly belong to Allah.  They are only entrusted to us for a time.  We are charged with their care while we have them in our possession.

 

Our goal is to emerge successfully from this test called life as prescribed by Allah.  To win His pleasure and reward is our ultimate human objective.  May we accomplish sobriety success and peace of mind on Millati Islami.

 

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

(Translation)

Lo! Those who say:  Our Lord is Allah, and afterward are upright, the angels descend upon them, saying: Fear not nor grieve, but hear good tidings of the Paradise which you are promised.     QUR’AN (41:30)

 

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

(Translation)

And I created Jinn and human kind only that they might worship Me.

                                                                                       QUR’AN (51:56)

 

WHY

     We have sought to integrate the treatment requirements of both Al-Islam and the Twelve Step approach to recovery into a simultaneous program. We have intentionally avoided following the more traditional approach of treating one approach as “primary” and the other as “secondary”.

     Millati Islami (The Path of Peace), Inshallah, offers a fresh perspective from the aged ideas for treating our fallen human condition.  We pray further it will serve as a model for more successfully understanding and addressing the special problems encountered as recovering Muslims and addicts in a predominantly non-Muslim society.

 

(How It Works) THE STEPS OF RECOVERY

1.          We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction and  our lives have become unmanageable.

2.          We came to believe that Allah could and would restore us to sanity.

3.          We made a decision to submit our will to the will of Allah.

4.          We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5.          We admitted to Allah and to ourselves the exact nature of our wrongs.

6.          Asking Allah for right guidance, we became willing and open for change, ready to have Allah remove our defects of character.

7.          We humbly ask Allah to remove our shortcomings.

8.          We made a list of persons we have harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

9.          We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10.      We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11.      We sought through Salaat and Iqraa to improve our understanding of Taqwa and Ihsan.

12.      Having increased our level of Iman (faith) and Taqwa, as a result of working these steps, we carried this message to addicts and began practicing these principles in all our affairs.

 

Salaat-Prayer

Iqraa-Reading and studying

Taqwa-God consciousness, to have proper love and respect for Allah

Ihsan- Even though we cannot see Allah, he does see us

 

THE TRADITIONS OF MILLATI ISLAMI

1.          Shahadah- We bare witness there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the last Messenger of Allah.

2.          Personal recovery depends on “Millati Islami” unity.  Believers are friends and protectors, one of another.

3.          For our individual and Jama’ah (group) purpose there is but one ultimate authority which is Allah, (God), the source from which all originates.

4.          Requirements for participation are a desire to stop using and willingness to learn a better way of life.

5.          Each Jama’ah should be autonomous except in their adherence to these traditions.

6.          Our primary Jama’ah ‘s purpose is carrying Al-Islam as the message of recovery to the addict who still suffers. (Dawah)

7.          Problems of money, property and prestige must never divert us from our primary purpose.  

8.          Every Millati Islami Jama’ah should be self-supporting, but may accept Sadaqa (voluntary charity) without attached obligations of promises to donating parties.

9.          We create service boards or committees directly responsible to those we serve.

10.      The Millati Islami name ought never be drawn into public controversy, or unrelated issues.

11.      Our public relation policy is based upon attraction before promotion.  The criteria for both are decided by Jama’ah, Taqwa, and Ihsan.

12.      Iman (faith) is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, reminding us to place principles before personalities.

 

HOPE THROUGH MILLATI ISLAMI

 

The people of Millati Islami (the path of peace) are recovering addicts who have learned to live without drugs.  If they can do it so can we.

 

Through working the steps of the Millati Islami program, we learn to live useful lives.  As addicts we are never cured and carry the disease within us all our lives.  However we have a disease from which we do recover.   Each day we are given another chance to live.  We, as Muslims, are not burdened with recovery on a daily basis.  We recover from Salaat (prayer) to Salaat.

 

None of us is too discredited or has sunk too low to be welcomed cordially into the Jama’ah when we mean business.  Social distinctions, petty rivalries and jealousies are meaningless.  Being wrecked and then restored in the same vessel, is a mercy from Allah, and miraculous.

 

Through the fellowship of Millati Islami we are united under  God (Allah) with hearts and minds attuned to the welfare of others.  Prophet Muhammad (SAW) has taught us to “Want for our brother what we want for ourselves”.  There is the therapeutic value of one addict helping another.

 

Allah instructs us in the Qur’an “Believers are friends and protectors, one of another”.  Though at first we may feel jittery and alone in recovery, we must realize that our greatest reliance is always upon Allah.  He shows us how to develop the relations, fellowship an “Peace” that we crave.  He reveals more to us as we grow.

 

Qur’an: Sura-XVI, Ayat 97

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

(Translation)

Whoever works righteousness

Man or Woman, and has Faith,

Verily, to him will We give

A new life, a life

That is good and pure, and  We

Will bestow on such their reward

According to the best

Of their Actions

 

Chapter 103 of the Qur’an

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

(Translation)

Sura ASR or Time through the Ages

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

By (the Token of) Time (through the Ages),

Verily Man is in loss,

Except  such as have faith, do righteous deeds,

And (join together)

In the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy.

 

MILLATI ISLAMI  MUSLIM 12-STEP RECOVERY/REPENTANCE PROGRAM