Islam and Patriotism
“Beware of the politician who tells you that to make us feel safe over here, we have to make life unbearable for someone else over there. Patriotism is no excuse for foreign invasions driven by Big Oil and the arms industry…”
Safe Landings
“We’re constantly on a journey, not just from one place to another in the physical world, but also from one state to another, in the spiritual world.
When we were born, our soul, our Ruuh has travelled from the realm of eternity into the world of time and space. It accompanies our body on this journey through life, and when we die, our Soul will separate from the body and travel again, back to eternity, back to Allah, back to the timeless and space-less dimension whence it began…”
False Choices: Are you British, European, American or Muslim?
“A Muslim can be Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Egyptian by birth, British by nationality and at the same time be an obedient son, a loving father, a loyal husband and a helpful neighbour. One can be all this at the same time, with no contradictions. The contradictions only exist in someone else’s mind…”
Hajj Reflections 2009
“Here we walk around the geographical centre of Islam, the Kaaba, centre of our Islamic universe. Our tawaaf symbolises effort, action, in a constant, circular motion, centred round a fixed and immovable idea of Unity: Tawheed. Unity of belief, Unity of purpose, even while there’s a diversity of opinions and different starting points…”
No Mercy, No Faith
“Allah wants us to be constantly mindful of His Mercy, and to express Mercy in our dealings with other people…
Beware of Cultural Imperialism
Deliberately or naively, cultural imperialism turns people from the colonies into mirror-images of their masters: They become little brown Englishmen, and little brown Europeans. They pose no threat to the status quo, in fact they help to keep things as they are. They reinforce the false notion of superiority of one human being over another, one cultural system over others…
Meritocracy: Leadership of the most talented
The wise Caliphs of Andalusia were not only concerned with the welfare of Muslims. They were totally committed to uphold justice and to guarantee the welfare of everyone in their dominion, including the Jews and Christians.
Culture and Islam
Sadly, many children grow up developing a strong resentment towards Islam, because their parents impose intolerable burdens on them, cultural burdens, in the name of Islam. Some examples are: the oppression of women, denying girls the right to education, genital mutilation i.e. female circumcision, forced marriages and so-called ‘honour’ killings. None of these despicable and barbaric practices has anything at all to do with Islam. They are pre-Islamic traditions that are totally forbidden for Muslims. Yet some uneducated Muslims behave as if this is part of their religion…