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Is Today’s Islam a Failure or Success Story?
ONE COULD ARGUE that Islam, despite what we are being led to believe, is actually a modern success story. Now this might sound strange to some, perhaps to many. So let me explain: No doubt, media portrayals are negative, dark and gloomy. And of course, events around the world involving Muslims, or at least the Continue reading
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Modernity & Compulsory Schooling: the Theft of Children’s Minds?
‘We don’t need no education We don’t need no thought control No dark sarcasm in the class room Teachers leave them kids alone Hey teachers leave them kids alone! All in all it’s just another brick in the wall.’ [Pink Floyd, Brick in the Wall] IN 1800 ONLY five percent of Britain had any formal Continue reading
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‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani: On the Path to Allah in a Nutshell
Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali opens his biography of the venerable saintly scholar, ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, with this highly profound and glowing tribute: ‘The worldly renuncient (al-zahid), shaykh of the age, exemplar of the knowers [of Allah] (qudwat al-‘arifin), sultan of the shaykhs, master of the people of the path in his time (sayyid ahl al-tariqah fi Continue reading
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When Hearts Are Blinded, Blinkered or Biased
Sufyan b. ‘Uyaynah, one of the saintly scholars of early Islam, would frequently recite this following couplet: al-mar’u idha kana lahu fikrah/fa fi kulfi shay’in lahu ‘ibrah – ‘A person, if he is given to [frequent] contemplation / Will draw a valuable lesson from everything.’ This visual Quranic reflection highlights one verse of the Holy Continue reading
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To Give When One Sees A Need, Not Just When Asked
Culled from Imam al-Tabari’s tafsir, this Qur’an Reflection explains that those with means are responsible for seeking out those in need, whether they ask or not, recognising that part of their surplus wealth is a right that must be put in the service of the poor and the needy. For in Islam, true generosity isn’t Continue reading
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Contentment: Software of the Soul
In a very short, yet highly instructive passage, the venerable Hanbali jurist and saintly scholar, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, said: لَا بُدَّ لِكُلِّ مُؤْمِنٍ فِي سَائِرِ أَحْوَالِهِ مِنْ ثَلَاثَةِ أَشْيَاءَ : أَمْرٌ يَمْتَثِلُهُ، وَنَهْيٌ يَجْتَنِبُهُ، وَقَدْرٌ يَرْضَى بِهِ. فَأَقَلُّ حَالَةِ الْمُؤْمِنِ لَا يَخْلُو فِيهَا مِنْ أَحَدِ هَذِهِ الْأَشْيَاءِ الثَّلَاثَةِ، فَيَنْبَغِي لَهُ أَنْ يَلْزَمَ هَمَّهَا قَلْبُهُ، وَلِيُحَدِّثَ Continue reading