Zakat: Helping the Needy at Home or Just Abroad?

Thoughts that first cross the mind when it is suggested that zakat should be given at home in the UK, as well as abroad, is: foolish; nonsensical; totally irresponsible; utter ignorance; unIslamic, even! After all, who in Britain is truly poor or needy compared to, say, the millions of people in Malawi, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and other parts…

‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani: See[k]ing God in the Shopping Mall

In our second visit to the discourses of the saintly shaykh, ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (the first outing may be read here), we find him discussing the issue of going to the market place: or, in our time, the shopping mall. While it is beyond doubt that markets and commerce have played a critical role in Muslim…