The Strategy And Logic of Reform

No Muslim can say that there is no need to reform the degraded and stagnant condition of the Ummah. We shall now, InshAllah, indicate the way by which the Ummah may achieve the incumbent reformation. At the outset it should be understood that the change, the revolution which, the Ummah has suffered is a spiritual ailment. Spiritual ailments like physical ailments have causes. It is common practice that in the case of curing a physical disease we must first aim to determine its causes then work to eliminate them so as to achieve health and well-being. Likewise, in the case of the ailment of the Ummah we apply the same logic used to work with physical ailments to the treatment of  spiritual diseases i.e., we aim to identify and then eliminate the causes of disease once eliminated, spiritual health and vigor will be established.

First Principles of Reform

The two essential principles of reformation that we ought employ in revitalizing the Ummah are:

1.) Proper diagnosis of the reality and condition of the Ummah so as to establish the causes of the diseases we suffer.
2.) Determine the ways and means of eliminating these causes.

Much more at Imam Webb’s site.

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Du’a is the least we can do. Today, as three million Muslims stand at Mecca, we can make du’a for ourselves, and make du’a for them, and for everybody in the Ummah, and for every person in the whole wide world.

Eid Wishes, y’all.

[Image courtesy: Ron Gonzalez]

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 “There are no days on which righteous deeds are more beloved to Allaah then these ten days – i.e., ten days of Dhu’l-Hijjah).” They said: “O Messenger of Allaah, not even jihad for the sake of Allaah?” He said: “Not even jihad for the sake of Allaah, unless a man goes out himself with his wealth and does not come back with anything (i.e., he expends all his wealth and is martyred).” Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 969. (source).

What to do if you aren’t performing Hajj or Umrah this year?

1) Fast the first nine days:
“The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to fast nine days of Dhu’l-Hijjah and the day of ‘Ashoora’ and three days of each month – the first Monday and two Thursdays.” Narrated by Imam Ahmad, 21829; Abu Dawood, 2437; classed as da’eef in Nasab al-Raayah, 2/180, but classed as saheeh by al-Albaani.”

Brother Naeem:

 Today marks the first of the 12th month, Dhul-Hijjah, of the Islamic calendar. It has been reported that while the last 10 nights of Ramadan are the most blessed nights of the year, these first 10 days of Dhul-Hijjah are the most blessed days.

Fast, Pray, and Worship all you can.

[Image courtesy: la_imagen]

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In the nine times in which the word hubb appeared, it was mentioned with regards the actions of man towards Allaah, or with regards instances related to life. When Allaah the Exalted used the word in reference to Himself towards one of His Creation – Musa (peace be upon him) – He used a different word (mahabbah), that was only ever used to describe His own actions, as is most befitting of His majesty.Thus, when the love stems from mankind, the word hubb was used, but when it stems from Allaah, the word mahabbah was used.

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Do you have goals you’re trying to achieve? Is there something you really, really want? Are you willing to pray Qiyam and cry in front of Allah for it? Because nothing will turbo-charge your success like Qiyam. 

On the day of Judgment, Allah will ask about YOUR salah. If it’s not 100% perfect, He will not even LOOK at your other deeds. BUT! If your Fard salaah is not perfect, Allah will patch it up with your nafl and sunnah prayers–including Qiyaam-ul-Layl. [There's a hadith related to this recorded in the collection of At-Tabari] 

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A lot of people seem to be confused about where takfeer is legitimate and where it is not. Generally speaking, common people do not call people kaafirs unless either they do not claim to be Muslim, or they are part of a sect known to have beliefs so extreme as to put them outside of Islam (such as the Qadianis or Isma’ilis), or they reject something that is commonly known of Islam, such as that extramarital sex or the drinking of alcoholic drinks is forbidden, or insult Islam or the Prophet (sall’ Allahu ‘alaihi wa sallam). In the first of these cases, I question whether we should commonly use the word kaafir when speaking or writing in English, since there alternatives which are actual English which are not known as racially derogatory terms. DT makes out there is something terrible about making takfeer. In fact, distinguishing who is a Muslim from who isn’t is part of Islamic scholarship; what is offensive is careless accusations prompted by acrimonious differences of opinion; a classic example is the tendency of some “salafis” to call rulers who fail to implement the Shari’ah unbelievers, so as to justify making war (so-called jihad) on them – and classifying anyone who disagrees with them as unbelievers along with them. This opens the door for an awful lot of bloodshed, as we saw in Egypt and, worst of all, Algeria. He also compares the accusations about Shi’ites practising taqiyya with the claims Muslim-haters make against Muslims in general, namely “that they are liars, and that lying is religiously mandated”; in fact, Muslims are, for the most part, commanded to tell the truth even when it is inconvenient, and we hear references to taqiyya only in reference to Shi’ites, who practise it in disputes with Sunnis, not with non-Muslims, while people who hate Islam cry “taqiyya” every time a Muslim says something about their own religion with conflicts with what they allege. One has nothing to do with the other; the lying referred to in this article is specifically Shi’ites lying to Sunnis.   

Umar Lee explains takfir:

 This is a very controversial issue as many Muslims in different time periods have went overboard with takfir. In this era most of what have become to know as “al-Qaeda like” organizations are generally referred to by Muslim scholars and people of knowledge as takfiris (some will incorrectly call them Wahabbis or Salafis; but it has been the ulama of the Salafis who have been most vocal in their opposition to the takfiris and even making takfir against people who have obviously left Islam for fear of issuing a false accusation).  

Takfir should not be pronounced easily and without the consent of the ulama and it should not be used as a method to further political unrest; but we should never abandon maintaining standards for who is and who is not a Muslim. If we completely abandoned takfir than the polytheists and others who obviously hold beliefs that are in opposition to the fundamental essence of Islam would have to be considered Muslim. 

Read the full posts here and here.

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Just like any other day of the week, walking home from University. Look up, look across and I see a crowd. I walk to the crowd. The crowd are watching. Watching him. Watching him real hard. I look at them. I then look at him. It’s silent. Everyone’s silent, except him.

He screams: “Kill me. Please.” Everyone else still pitch silent. They stare. “Don’t watch me, just slay me, please,” he says. Paul Sherlock, a weak, indignant homeless man.

He looks as though he’s already dead but alive in appearance. “I’ve lost my wife, my children, my work, my home; there’s nothing left for me in this world. I might as well be dead, and rot in hell” he says.

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My problem with the jihad being waged by the Taliban is illustrated in this passage of the article:

“Ibrahim’s recent injury, it turns out, was the result of a clash between his forces and a group of foreign fighters under the command of Dr. Khalil. The foreigners wanted to close down a girls’ school, sparking a battle. Two Arabs and 11 Pakistanis commanded by Dr. Khalil had been killed by Ibrahim’s men.”

These fighters may spend most of their time praying in the masjid (as mentioned in the article), but they have no problem turning around and killing each other over differences in religious interpretation.

How very typical of this Ummah.

From Reporter Embedded with Taliban.

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But over at the women’s side – whoa, it was a proper melee! The women were sitting in their own wee huddles, nattering away about everything and anything. The children were making music of their own in their wee corners. And it made me wonder why this was the case?

If the Imam was in sight, would these women sit and talk as they were? Most probably not. They’d even tell their children off for making a racket
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I would MUCH prefer to be able to SEE the speaker when he is speaking rather than have audio projected into a room. The voice which fills the room acts like background noise and when there isn’t any chance you can offend the speaker (since he can’t see you anyway) by actively tuning out, then talking over him isn’t given a second thought. Ruining the speech/talk for other members of the congregation?

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On the topic of speaker, if you do happen to be in the same room, then to be able to SEE the speaker helps a lot. Having designated seating for women at the back of the hall, where everybody infront resembles ants, or the only view is the back of peoples heads does nothing for me.  On top of which, from such an angle the speaker looks like a fat blur distracts and causes my concentration and attention span to dwindle and deteriorate fast. Yes I used to sit near the front of the lecture hall at Uni for exactly the same reasons.

Are mosques, and MSA’s going to change things around so women have a clear and equal view of the speaker? Or are we to be relegated to spots where a pair of binocular’s and/or a good pair of ears are required?

This is a situation that’s unique to Western Muslim societies, and it will be a mark of maturity of the community to actively address it and solve it to the satisfaction of all parties.

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