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Articles, Page 18

When you behold Allah’s majesty…by Ibn Al Qayyim

By Ibn Al Qayyim
“He is perfectly knowledgeable of what rests inside the souls of His slaves, observing their every private and public affair. All alone, He manages His kingdom; He hears and sees, gives and withholds, rewards and punishes, honors and humiliates, creates and provides, takes life and gives it, portions and plans…”

A Hajj for future peace

By Rabbi Allen S Maller
“The ritual slaughter of Qurbani (Korban in Hebrew) Halal/Kosher animals toward the end of all the ritual reenactments comes to teach everyone that: “Their flesh and their blood do not reach Allah, but the devotion from you reaches Him.” (Quran 22:37). This is the same basic understanding that the Hebrew Prophets and the Rabbis gave to the offerings in the Temple of Solomon. 

Thus we can understand why “Prophet Muhammad was once asked by his Companions: “O Prophet of Allah! What is this qurbani?” He replied, “It is the Sunnah of your father Ibrahim.”

Refugees: A Human Condition

By Shaykh Hamza Yusuf
“in 1492, the Ottoman
Sultan Bayezid II welcomed over 150,000 Jews fleeing Spanish persecution to Turkey, granting them citizenship and then building beautiful synagogues—many stand to this day—for the newly arrived refugees. In the 1840’s, during the Irish potato famine, Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Majid sent not only money but ships with grain to provide relief for the needy. In 1860, when local Druze attacked the Christian quarter in Damascus, Emir Abdelkader of Algeria saved over four thousand Christians, including the French consul and his staff, by giving them refuge in his compound and defending them with his Algerian troops…”

What is the purpose of your life?

By Sheikh Abdul Hamid Lachporia
“We may live for 60 to 100 years on this Doonya, but we are going to spend  many, many years in eternity Insha’ Allah. This is the warm-up – the dress rehearsal. We were created by Almighty Allah Subhanahu Wata’ala for Him, and until we figure that out, life is a series of problems: ..”

The Quran’s message for all humanity

By Aslam Abdullah
“The Quran addresses human beings as “Ya aiyuhal Nas” (O Humankind) directly 306 times and indirectly more than two thousand times in its over 6,000 verses. In contrast the Quran specifically addresses Muslim men and women (Ya aiyuhal Muslimun/Muslimat/Muslimatun/etc) by name only 49 times. How can anyone refuse to share a copy of the Quran with non-Muslims? In fact, the first revelation that the prophet received was first recited by the Prophet to non-Muslims…”

I applaud British Islam’s refusal to bow to the establishment

By Giles Fraser in The Guardian
“This good Muslim/bad Muslim distinction has history, of course. It was precisely this distinction that the British colonial authorities used to separate the secular, wine-drinking, western-integrated, moderate Muslims who were prepared to collaborate with British rule and the suspiciously religious, uppity, bearded Muslims who refused to bend the knee to colonial power. As the Oxford professor Tariq Ramadan has rightly pointed out, the good Muslim/bad Muslim distinction is entirely unhelpful, not least because it associates being good and moderate with some diminution of a Muslim’s religiosity. The distinction effectively says: if you are brown and pray more times a day than the local vicar then you should probably expect to have your phone tapped….”