QuranClub Islamic Blog

The Islamic capitalism of John Ruskin

2012-01-02T17:43:00.000-05:00

Below is a quote from the final essay of John Ruskin's Unto This Last, first published in 1860. This collection of essays was a strong influence on Ghandi's life. With his creativity, mindfulness of God, and sharp intelligence, Ruskin rejects the two most popular economic ideas of his time: materialist capitalism on the one hand, and communist socialism on the other, instead proposing a form of capitalism that's exactly the Quran's: capitalism that's guided by such unfashionable ideas as kindness and virtue:

Observe, in these statements I am not taking up, nor countenancing one whit, the common socialist idea of division of property[1]; division of property is its destruction; and with it the destruction of all hope, all industry, and all justice: it is simply chaos—a chaos towards which the believers in modern political economy are fast tending, and from which I am striving to save them[2]. The rich man does not keep back meat from the poor by retaining his riches; but by basely using them. Riches are a form of strength; and a strong man does not injure others by keeping his strength, but by using it injuriously. The socialist, seeing a strong man oppress a weak one, cries out—"Break the strong man's arms"; but I say, "Teach him to use them to better purpose." The fortitude and intelligence which acquire riches[3] are intended, by the Giver of both, not to scatter, nor to give away, but to employ those riches in the service of mankind; in other words, in the redemption of the erring and aid of the weak—that is to say, there is first to be the work to gain money; then the Sabbath of use for it—the Sabbath, whose law is, not to lose life, but to save. It is continually the fault or the folly of the poor that they are poor, as it is usually a child's fault if it falls into a pond, and a cripple's weakness that slips at a crossing; nevertheless, most passers-by would pull the child out, or help up the cripple. Put it at the worst, that all the poor of the world are but disobedient children, or careless cripples, and that all rich people are wise and strong, and you will see at once that neither is the socialist right in desiring to make everybody poor, powerless, and foolish as he is himself, nor the rich man right in leaving the children in the mire.

—John Ruskin, Unto This Last and Other Essays on Political Economy. Note #63.

[1] Communism.

[2] There are many examples of the chaos that ensue when men are prevented from owning property: Philosopher David Stove, in his What's Wrong with Benevelonce makes a powerful case for the fact that men have no motivation to work and create civilization if there isn't the possibility of keeping their wealth, and he describes the deep, overwhelming unhappiness of men living under communist regimes (there are no smiling faces to be seen on the streets). Dr. Daniel Amneus makes the same point in his Garbage Generation, mentioning the idle and purposeless life of US men who, due to the unjust US divorce and family court system, end up living their lives as little more than money-making machines for their ex-wives, putting most of their earnings into a family that's no longer theirs. Paul Graham in his Hackers and Painters mentions that the most important reason for the West's renaissance was likely the first appearance of Italian city-states that allowed men to keep the fruits of their labor, instead of giving it to the ruling prince as was popular at the time elsewhere in the world (it can also be argued that allowing men to keep their wealth was the cause of appearance of the civilizations of Babylon and ancient Athens).

[3] According to many scholars, high intelligence and wealth are correlated: The richest group of society are also the most intelligent (i.e. smart people find it easier to get rich). See The Bell Curve. Here Ruskin is alluding to this observation, which even today is unpopular to state; people don't like the thought that biology can determine a person's chance of getting rich or poor. This is unfortunate, as the scholars who wrote The Bell Curve note, because it creates a society that doesn't teach intelligent people that it is their duty to take care of the poor.

Christian suffering in the Middle East this Christmas: The myth and the reality

2011-12-25T11:46:00.000-05:00

In a typical show of the sad naivete of many Western Christian , Christian-run news sites and blogs are lamenting the suffering of Christians in the Middle East in the typical "Christians good Muslims bad" mode of speech.

A good discussion of this unfortunate Christian hobby follows, from professor Juan Cole's Informed Comment:

The press is full of stories this Christmas season about the negative effects on Middle Eastern Christians of the Arab upheavals of 2011. This “vale of tears” approach does profound injustice to the actual reality of the Arab Christians. The discourse of the persecution of a helpless Christian minority serves Orientalist purposes, intimating that the West has yet another hapless object of pity and reason to intervene in the Middle East, and blaming Muslims as a whole for intolerance instead of acknowledging cross-religious alliances.

The Egyptian revolution against Hosni Mubarak, for instance, was an ecumenical affair, with many of Egypt’s 8-million-strong Coptic Christians joining their Muslim compatriots in protests (Christians are about 10 percent of the Egyptian population). Christians no less than Muslims were fed up with Mubarak’s dictatorship. They were convinced that the regime fomented sectarian tensions so as to divide and rule. They were under disabilities imposed by the Mubarak state.

Christians in a Changing Arab World are Making their own Destinies [Informed Comment]

Christians are suffering in some parts of the Middle East, but again, the situation is far more complex than what even the intelligent Christians seem to realize, and it is largely self-inflicted, through popular Christian support for Bush and Israel:

Where Christians are in a truly difficult situation, as in Iraq, the proximate cause is actually American intervention, which was conducted in such a way as to heighten sectarian tensions. Christians were flourishing in Iraq in 2000 and 2001, and there was no al-Qaeda extremism. The instability provoked in Iraq by George W. Bush is far more important as an explanation of their difficulties than a supposed eternal and essential Muslim hostility to them (if that were the case, why are they better treated in some times, places and governmental systems?)

Chaldean Christians in northern Iraq have cancelled private Christmas celebrations this year, restricting themselves to church services. Alsumaria reports that Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako said, “the continuous targeting of Christians in Mosul, incidents of Badinan of Kurdistan in addition to other situations in Iraq led Christians to cancel Christmas celebrations…” It isn’t just Arab Muslims who have tensions with Iraqi Christians, but also the Kurds, who are largely American allies.

Likewise, continued massive rightwing Israeli land and water theft in the Palestinian West Bank, and the separation barrier built by the Israelis that crowds in on Bethlehem, have hurt the Palestinian Christians, who are for the most part in solidarity with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The some 12 million Arab Christians (out of some 350 million Arabs) are active agents in their own fates. They make alliances with Muslim fundamentalist forces as well as with secularists, and sometimes switch alliances. They fight back against repression, as they did at Maspero in Cairo this year, risking death or injury. And the Christian West and its Jewish-nationalist allies can sometimes be their worst enemies, not sympathetic rescuers.

Christians in a Changing Arab World are Making their own Destinies [Informed Comment]

Instead of looking to themselves and realizing that their actions have consequences, and praying to God for forgiveness for their errors that have caused their Christian brothers so much suffering, many Christians take the ignoble and arrogant route of blaming Muslims for their naivete, racism against Muslim ethnicities, and general lack of Christian virtue as taught by Jesus.

Footsteps in heaven

2011-12-21T11:01:00.001-05:00

It is related by Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet (s) once said to Bilal at the time of fajr: "Tell me about your act from which you expect the most in your Islam, for I have heard the sound of your footsteps in heaven."

"I have done nothing," replied Bilal, "which could give me hope, except that when I perform the wudu' in any part of the day or night I try to offer as much of salah with it as I can."

From The Four Pillars of Islam by Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi (1913-1999).

Small things

2011-11-24T11:37:00.001-05:00

one of us know if we will ever do anything significant for the cause of Islam in our lifetime. It is impossible to know if we will ever attain the status of an 'alim, martyr, or parent. This is a strong motivation to do as many little things as possible on a daily basis with the time we have now. Little things that are easily accessible for all of us, that do not require money or a surplus of time, are abundant in Islam.

One can start with something as simple as wudu'. There are a number of merits surrounding the subject of ritual ablution. One of them is to go to bed in a fresh state of wudu'.[1]

Something small like this, done consistently, can help transform one's soul by chinking away at sloth, carelessness, and dirt -- both figuratively and literally.

[1] Sahih Bukhari, 1:247.

Is five prayers per day excessive in number?

2011-11-10T12:27:00.001-05:00

In the Mi’raj[1] fifty daily prayers were prescribed for the believers. However, their number was later reduced to five. This was done to impress upon man that he had been found capable by God of devoting such a large part of his time and energy to His worship. The one who keeps this in mind will never regard the five daily prayers as excessive. In fact, he will realize that he had been found worthy of much more and had the Lord, out of His Grace, not made the concession, he would be carrying out His command dutifully and performing as many as fifty prayers (salāh) every day. God showed his favor to him and made the five prayers equivalent of fifty in reward. However, the original command is there to stir his ambition and urge him on to greater effort.

From Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi (1913-1999), The Four Pillars of Islam, p. 11.

[1] Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey.

Selfless Giving: The Most Effective Form of Islamic Dawah

2011-11-09T22:02:00.001-05:00

The entire text of this essay is reproduced below. This essay is available as an ebook download for the Kindle and other devices, please refer to our Islamic eBooks page for download links.

r. Ali Qaradaghi, former president of the Fiqh and Osool (Islamic law) branch of Qatar University, and the founder of Rabitay Islamiy Kurd, a successful Islamic charity in northern Iraq says in an interview:[1]

“I've learned that dawah[2] doesn't truly reach the masses except when it is through acts of charity, and this is my understanding of the saying of Allah, "Be a nation that calls for what is good, encourages what is right, and discourages what is wrong, and those who do this are the successful ones"[3] . You call people to do charity toward others, and then in addition to it you encourage people to do what's right or discourage them from doing wrong. So in Kurdistan we adopted orphans, built mosques, and supported widows. There were over 50,000 thousand orphans in the country. 4,000 villages had been completely destroyed.[4] When we started our charity organization in 1991 we found out that the fruit of charitable acts is much greater than the fruit of the dawah that tries to only offer wisdom and guidance.”

Hearing this clarified an important concept in my mind: that there are two kinds of religious charities; those that, like Dr. Qaradaghi’s charity, serve people without expecting anything in return, and those that try to administer religion with the help they give.

The lesson I’ve learned from the success of Dr. Qaradaghi’s charity, and the failure of various Christian charities that are active in the same region, is that religious charities should be manifestations of their religion’s teachings, not propaganda centers. Religious charities shouldn't have a conversion agenda; their only goal should be following God’s words when He says:

And they love to feed the poor, orphans, and those imprisoned, [saying:] "We are feeding you due to our desire to meet God, we do not want from you any reward or gratitude."[5]

This attitude is extremely powerful. And we rarely see it from anyone, even from those who think they are very religious. But every now and then a man or woman appears who changes the world through the constant practice of this oft ignored commandment.

Selfless kindness that doesn’t expect gratitude, that only gives and doesn’t wait expectantly for anything in return, touches the depth of our hearts. We quickly fall in love with those who show this behavior toward us, and they quickly amass thousands and sometimes millions of followers. This is not a form of trickery to cause them to convert to our religion. Any religion that practices selfless-giving in service of God and teaches it is a true religion and deserves to be followed. The Quran, though the book of Islam, describes Christians who practice their religion in this selfless way as follows:

And you will find the closest of people to the believers to be those who said “We are the supporters” [of God, the Quran’s way of referring to Christians] because from them there are people devoted to learning and ascetics, and they do not act with arrogance. And when they hear what was sent to the Messenger [Prophet Muhammad] you will see their eyes overflow with tears as they recognize the truth they already know, saying “our Lord, we have believed, so count us among the witnesses.” “And how can we not believe in God and what has come to us of the truth, and we long for our Lord to include us in the company of the righteous?” So God rewarded them for saying this with gardens graced with flowing streams, to live in there forever, and this is the reward of those who do good.[6]

Though it’s not clear from this verse, the Quran doesn’t expect them to convert to Islam, as clarified by other verses from the Quran:

The [Muslim] believers, the Jews, the Christians, and the Sabians–all those who believe in God and the Last Day and do good–will have their rewards with their Lord, there is no fear for them, nor will they grieve.[7]

And also:

And every group has a direction to which it turns [when it prays], so compete with each other in doing good deeds. Wherever you are God will bring you together [on the day of Judgment], God is very much able at doing anything [He wants].[8]

Not all those who benefit from a selflessly-giving charity will appreciate the service, but this is the whole point: Not expecting anything in return. The charity should embody its religion and represent it, and beyond this, whether people appreciate it or not, is not the charity’s business, it is God’s, because as God says:

It’s not your duty to guide them, rather God guides whoever He wishes. Whatever you spend of good things [i.e. not broken or spoiled things] you do it for yourselves [God doesn’t benefit from your good deeds, ultimately you benefit from it in the afterlife]. Everything you spend should be in seeking of God’s pleasure. Whatever good things you spend will be faithfully returned to you [by God, in this life or the afterlife], and you will not be wronged [i.e. your reward will be just].[9]

Thus we should not expect any form of reward or gratitude for our acts of charity, it is this selfless, non-expectant, unassuming form of giving that softens the hearts of people toward God’s beautiful religions.

Giving selflessly, without expecting gratitude, is a difficult ideal, and one that few people and charities actually reach. It is very difficult to do charity without expecting gratitude from those who benefit from it, it is against human nature. We like to be thanked when we are nice to others. It is a state that could be rightly described by the following Quranic verse, though from a different context:

And [this state] is not reached except by those who have made it a life-long habit to practice patience, and it is not reached except by those who have a great share [of God’s mercy, bounty, and guidance].[10]

For those who like to do good deeds, the difficulty of selfless giving makes it even more worthwhile to pursue. God rewards good deeds based on the amount of effort we put into them, and selfless giving requires a great amount, maybe super-human, effort to achieve, and for this reason the rewards are clearly going to be great.

I should note that I'm not saying all other non-profits, such as those that produce religious lectures, are useless. Producing and offering lectures is of course a good deed, but those who do so should take into account God’s command:

There is no compulsion in faith.[11]

Thus making a group of homeless people sit through an hour-long lecture with the promise of free lunch is wrong and 'un-religious, because it is a form of compulsion (though slight)—the person who does this has used a reward to compel a group of hungry people to listen to religious indoctrination. And it completely goes against the ideals of selfless and non-expectant generosity that I mentioned above.

Religious charities should not force people to consume dawah material with their food, the charities themselves, their selfless giving and caring, should be the very dawah itself.

Notes

[1] Hadeeth Adhikrayat ma'a Dr. Ali Al-Qaradaghi, interview by Dr. Jasim Al-Mutawwa [Arabic].

[2] Arabic for ‘calling’ or ‘inviting’, in Islamic literature it refers to evangelism.

[3] Quran, 3:104.

[4] By Saddam Hussein's regime, through his Anfal campaign.

[5] Quran, 76:8, 9. Literal translation: And they feed food with love to a poor person, an orphan, and a prisoner. Indeed we are feeding you for God’s face, we do not want from you a reward or thanks.

[6] Quran, 5:82-85.

[7] Quran, 2:62.

[8] Quran, 2:148.

[9] Quran. 2:272. Literal translation: It’s not upon you their guidance, but God guides who He wants, and whatever you spend of good things then it’s for yourselves and you shouldn’t spend anything except to seek God’s face and whatever you spend will be faithfully given back to you and you will not be wronged.

[10] Quran, 41:35. Literal translation: And it is not reached except by those who were patient, and it is not reached except by those who have a great share.

[11] Quran, 2:256. Literal translation: There is no forcing in faith.

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Cover Credits

Photo © Neal Fowler. Cover design by Ikram Kurdi.

Published by QuranClub.

Kaaba magnet art

2011-10-30T00:26:00.001-04:00

Saudi artist Ahmad Mater has created the pictured piece of art that depicts a cubic magnet with iron filings around it, resembling the circumambulation of worshipers around the Kaaba.

It's beautiful.

The full set of photos can be found at Ahmad Mater's Flickr photostream.

The prayer of two prophets

2011-10-16T18:47:00.000-04:00

In verse 129 of Suratul Baqara we read the following prayer, which was made by Prophet Ibraheem and his son, Prophet Ismaeel, when they were building the Ka'ba:

رَبَّنَا وَابْعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آَيَاتِكَ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
Our Lord, please raise up among them a prophet who recites Your verses upon them, who teaches them the Book, and teaches them wisdom, and who purifies them. Truly You are the Mightiest, the Most Wise.

A few pages later we read the following:

فَلَا تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَاخْشَوْنِي وَلِأُتِمَّ نِعْمَتِي عَلَيْكُمْ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ (150) كَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا فِيكُمْ رَسُولًا مِنْكُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْكُمْ آَيَاتِنَا وَيُزَكِّيكُمْ وَيُعَلِّمُكُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَيُعَلِّمُكُمْ مَا لَمْ تَكُونُوا تَعْلَمُونَ (151) فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِي وَلَا تَكْفُرُونِ (152)
150. So don't fear them, and fear Me, that I may perfect My favor on you, and that you may be guided.

151. Just as We have sent you a prophet of your own who recites upon you Our verses, who purifies you, who teaches you the Book and wisdom, and who teaches you what you did not know before.

152. So remember Me, and I will remember you, and be thankful toward Me and never ungrateful.

If you read the Arabic, you will see that verse 129 and verse 151 mirror each other's wording (it's apparent in the English translation too). This is Allah's way of telling us that the sending of Prophet Muhammad is Allah's answer to Prophet Ibraheem and his son's prayer.

This little Quranic story can be considered Islam's 'back story'; the two prophets who built the Ka'ba made a prayer to Allah, Allah's answer, which came about 2500 years later, was Prophet Muhammad, a descendant of the two prophets, and today all of us Muslims are living the consequences of this story.

Imam Ghazzali on rejecting science

2011-10-08T19:16:00.001-04:00

The 20th century scholar Said Hawwa mentions in his book, Allah Jalla Jalaluhu:

ولقد قال الإمام الغزالي في كتابه (تهافت الفلاسفة) حاملاً على علماء الدين، المنكرين للحقائق العلمية، كمعرفة وقت الكسوف والخسوف وغيرها: (ومن ظن أن المناظرة في إبطال هذا من الدين، فقد جنى على الدين وضعف أمره؛ فإن هذه الأمور تقوم عليها براهين هندسية وحسابية لا تبقى معها ريبة، فمن يطلع عليها ويتحقق من أدلتها، ثم يقال له: إن هذا على خلاف الشرع، لم يسترب فيه، وإنما يستريب في الشرع، وضرر الشرع ممن ينصره لا بطريقه، أكثر من ضرره ممن يطعن فيه، وهو كما قيل: عدو عاقل خير من صديق جاهل).

Imam Ghazzali says in his book Tahafutul Falasifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers), talking to the scholars of religion, those who deny scientific truths such as the knowledge of solar and lunar eclipse schedules and other facts:

"And anyone who thinks that it is a religious duty to debate and refute these scientific facts has committed a crime against religion and has weakened it, because these facts are based on geometrical and computational evidence in which there is no doubt; when someone acquires knowledge of these scientific facts and checks the validity of the evidence behind them, if he is told: these facts are in contradiction with religion, he is not going to doubt his scientific facts but rather he will doubt the religion [QuranClub's emphasis]. The damage done to religion by those who try to support it in misguided ways is larger than the damage done by those who slander it, it is as they say: a wise enemy is better than an ignorant friend."

When religion isn't shy of science

2011-10-04T22:57:00.000-04:00

Said Hawwa, the 20th century Islamic scholar who was mentioned in our previous post, writes in his book Allah Jalla Jalaluhu:

في كل ظاهرة جوانب لا تُعدّ ولا تحصى تدل على الله.

إننا نقول هذا، لأن بعض الناس يتوهمون أن التفكير في الكون، ودراسة ظواهره بعمق، وترتيب المقدمات على النتائج، والوصول إلى الحقائق، ونبذ الأوهام، والقضاء على الخرافة، والتمسك بالقانون الذي أوصلت إليه التجربة: كل هذه المعاني مما لا يتفق مع الفكر الديني.

ولئن وجد هذا عند ديانات خاطئة، ومذاهب باطلة، فلا يصح هذا في الدين الحق، ولن يوجد أبداً. لأن الحق لا يتعارض مع الحق. فإذا كان الدين حقاً، فلابد أن يكون كل أصل فيه، وكل فرع من فروعه، منسجماً انسجاماً تاماً مع الحقيقة التي قام عليها البرهان؛ وإلا فأن نصاً واحداً من نصوص الدين، يُثبَتُ تناقضه مع الحقيقة القاطعة، كافٍ لأن يزعزع الثقة في الدين كله.

من كتاب "الله جل جلاله" لسعيد حوى.

In every phenomenon in this universe there are an uncountable and incalculable number of features that give evidence of God's existence.

We say this because some people have the illusion that thinking of the universe, studying its phenomena in depth, formulating laws upon our findings, reaching scientific truths, dispelling myths, abolishing superstition, and holding fast to the laws that experiments prove, are all activities that are in disagreement with religious thinking.

And if [anti-scientific thinking and attitude] is found in false religions and invalid doctrines, it should not be found in a true religion, because truth does not contradict truth. Thus if a religion is true, then all of its roots need to be true, and all of its branches, in complete harmony with the truths that conclusive evidence support. Because if not, if even one line of text in the religion's texts is found to contradict a proven truth of the world, it is going to be enough to shake our trust in the entire religion [QuranClub's emphasis].

Said Hawwa on the human need for God

2011-10-03T18:20:00.000-04:00

Some people think it is God's duty to come to them and compel them to believe in Him. They think if God doesn't show up on their doorstep, they don't need to acknowledge His existence.

On this attitude the great 20th century Syrian scholar Said Hawwa (pictured) writes:

ترى هل الله هو الذي يحتاج إلينا كي نؤمن به، أم نحن الذين نحتاج أن نؤمن من أجل أنفسنا؟ والجواب { إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَغَنِيٌّ عَنِ الْعَالَمِينَ } (العنكبوت: 6) وإذن فلنحرر أنفسنا من أجل أن نكون أهلاً لرؤية آيات الله. سعيد حوى في كتابه الله جل جلاله

Tell me, is it God who needs us to believe in Him, or is it we who need to believe for our own sake? And the answer is: "Indeed God is totally needless of the inhabitants of the worlds" [Quran, 29:6]. Therefore let's free ourselves so that we may be in the company of those who see His signs. -Said Hawwa in his book, Allah Jalla Jalaluhu.

Said Hawwa goes on to say that belief in God comes out of thought and reflection, as demonstrated in the Quran by the story of prophet Ibraheem's finding of God. It is not God's fault that people refuse to dedicate a minute to think about where they came from, and what the purpose of their existence is.

Extraordinary Muslims: An Essay

2011-10-02T12:54:00.001-04:00

[The entire text of this essay is reproduced below. This essay is available on Smashwords.com for the Kindle and other devices, please refer to our Islamic eBooks page for more information.]

Extraordinary Muslims

You have probably heard tales of great Muslim personalities who lived their lives with incredible confidence, independence, and courage; tales of people who didn't fear criticizing powerful rulers and receiving their wrath, or who didn't turn back when facing enemies a thousand times stronger than themselves. Where does this kind of confidence come from, and is it possible for us ordinary Muslims to acquire it?

Someone who makes it a habit to read the Quran approaches this powerful state of mind because the source of this state is within the Quran. One Quranic concept that seems to be fundamental to acquiring extraordinary courage and confidence can be expressed as follows:

Nothing can ever benefit me or harm me except with God’s approval.

There are many verses in the Quran that contain the above idea, yet I've read them for years without realizing just how powerful this way of thinking is.
I'll show you three examples:

Say: I possess no power to harm or benefit myself except as Allah wills. [Quran, 10:49]

If Allah afflicts you with harm, no one can remove it except Him. If He desires good for you, no one can avert His favour. He bestows it on whichever of His slaves He wills. He is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. [Quran, 10:107]

Say: "Nothing shall ever happen to us except what Allah has ordained for us. He is our Maula (Lord, Helper and Protector)." And in Allah let the believers put their trust.[Quran, 9:51]

It’s common knowledge among Muslims that without Allah’s approval nothing can happen. But most of us never take this to its logical conclusion: that our relationship with God is the only thing that matters, since it is He who decides whether good or bad things should happen to us.

While just knowing the above doesn’t cause one to be a special Muslim, knowing it while also living every moment in full awareness of this fact does transform the Muslim into an extraordinarily confident, independent, and powerful being.

Ordinary Muslims go about their days performing the necessary duties that Allah asks of them, and occasionally offer voluntary acts of piety. They also live in a state that’s more peaceful and more enlightened than non-religious people. But there’s a great distance between these Muslims and the great Muslims that we have heard about in history. And that great distance is exactly due to the cause I described above: Ordinary Muslims know that our relationship with God is the only thing that matters, but great Muslims live it.

Thus while an ordinary Muslim feels worried in the presence of a tyrant, easily forgetting that God is the main factor that matters, the great Muslim faces the tyrant with God in mind, knowing that God is the only person of power in the room, and that the tyrant is completely powerless.

The great Muslims have the ability to always be aware of the fact that nothing can harm or benefit them without God willing it. This allows them to go about their day never supplicating to anyone other than God, and never fearing anyone other than Him. This way of life turns them into extremely dignified characters that radiate spiritual awareness.

What is it that allows the great Muslims to always be aware of God’s power over every situation? Why do ordinary Muslims forget all about God in stressful situations?

It all depends on how close to God the Muslim lives. A person who only performs the minimum requirements of Islam and spends little time thinking of God lives faraway from God. But those who have listened to Allah’s command of:

And get closer. [Quran, 96:19]

and who spend every spare moment of their day obeying this command live in a very special place: near God, every moment of their lives blessed by His nearness. It’s as if they already live in Heaven; everywhere they go they take with them the calm and peace of their nearness to God, exuding beyond-human radiance and sureness.

Living close to God is something you have to do daily. It’s not a destination you can reach, it’s a way of life. It’s quite possible for one to live close to God at one period of their lives and later grow far away (I think we have all experienced this). Therefore to be an extraordinary Muslim, you need to find a practical strategy that allows you to stay near God at all times. Here we can look at the extraordinary Muslims to find the most effective strategies for staying close to God, we know that what they do works.

Here you can go and study the lives of great Muslims to find out how they lived. In my own limited research, the one practice that stood out to me, that seemed to be shared by all extraordinary Muslims, is their close relationship with the Quran. They read it constantly, for many hours every day. And for this reason I consider it the most important factor in determining how close a Muslim is to Allah. Extraordinary Muslims do a lot of other pious acts, but all of them can be traced back to Quranic commandments.

For example performing a lot of Salah (formal prayers) is something that these Muslims do a lot. But performing Salah isn’t very inspiring if it’s not done within the larger framework of spirituality provided by the Quran. What I mean is that if you read a lot of Quran, your Salah will be enjoyable and beneficial. But if you don’t, your Salah won’t be able to inspire you as much.

Salah is an act of worship, and it fails to inspire you if you don’t already have a very good idea who you’re worshiping--if you don’t already have a close relationship with Him. But it becomes extremely pleasurable and beneficial once your relationship with Allah becomes close, and this is provided by Quran reading.

It’s hard to determine what a good amount of Quran reading is. But you can determine if you’re reading enough if you look at your life. Do you feel close to Allah? Do you hurry through your prayers or do you savor them? If you hurry through your prayers, you can be sure that you’re not reading enough Quran, because it’s Quran reading that provides you with the basis for enjoying prayers.

Another question is do you spend long stretches of hours completely oblivious of Allah’s presence, or do you find your thoughts constantly going back to Him?

Therefore the way toward living as an extraordinary Muslim can be expressed as follows:

Read a lot of Quran to grow nearer to Allah. Once you are near Allah, you’ll live the knowledge that nothing good or bad can reach you without His will, and this will give you the extraordinary spirituality and courage of extraordinary Muslims.

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Why all 'terrorists' are Muslim: 'terrorist' is just another word for 'barbarian'

2011-07-27T15:32:00.006-04:00

In reply to a comment by Aneebaba on my previous post, I wrote something that I think deserves a post of its own:

I think it might be more due to pride than fear that US media doesn't like to use 'terrorism' on terror committed by their own kind. It is nothing new, they've thought of Muslims as 'those barbarians' since the beginnings of Islam, and in my opinion 'terrorist' is a modern, politically correct replacement for the word 'barbarian'. Barbarian means 'scary evil guy who is inferior to me', which is exactly what the word 'terrorist' means as used by the media.

If you think of it that way, you see why it is so hard for Western people to use the word terrorism to describe crimes committed by their own people; it is like calling themselves barbarians.

However, I'm not suggesting that their majority realizes the fact that 'barbarian' and 'terrorist' are synonyms.

What I said becomes even clearer when you read Glenn Greenwald's description of the situation:

The U.S. and its allies can, by definition, never commit Terrorism even when it is beyond question that the purpose of their violence is to terrorize civilian populations into submission. Conversely, Muslims who attack purely military targets -- even if the target is an invading army in their own countries -- are, by definition, Terrorists.

The situation can be summed up in this syllogism:

Terrorists are barbarians.
Muslims are the only modern-day barbarians.
Therefore all terrorists are Muslim.

After finding this connection, I realize that it is useless to try to prove to non-Muslims that terror attacks are committed by people of all groups. The more fundamental problem is that they consider Muslims barbarians, they have held on to the millennium-old Western tradition of looking down on Muslims. This is issue that we need to address.

It is only 'terrorism' if Muslims did it

2011-07-23T11:41:00.002-04:00

That Terrorism means nothing more than violence committed by Muslims whom the West dislikes has been proven repeatedly. When an airplane was flown into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, it was immediately proclaimed to be Terrorism, until it was revealed that the attacker was a white, non-Muslim, American anti-tax advocate with a series of domestic political grievances. The U.S. and its allies can, by definition, never commit Terrorism even when it is beyond question that the purpose of their violence is to terrorize civilian populations into submission. Conversely, Muslims who attack purely military targets -- even if the target is an invading army in their own countries -- are, by definition, Terrorists. That is why, as NYU's Remi Brulin has extensively documented, Terrorism is the most meaningless, and therefore the most manipulated, word in the English language. Yesterday provided yet another sterling example.

The omnipotence of Al Qaeda and meaninglessness of "Terrorism" [Salon.com]

When Allah misguides people

2011-03-19T23:20:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I happened to be listening to some Quran when the following verse caught my attention:

وَيُضِلُّ اللَّهُ الظَّالِمِينَ
And Allah misguides those who knowingly do evil. [Quran, 14:27]

This was somewhat of a surprise to me. Doesn't Allah always push humans toward what's good, right, and just? Apparently not.

To understand this verse better, let's look at what comes before it:

يُثَبِّتُ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا بِالْقَوْلِ الثَّابِتِ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَفِي الْآَخِرَةِ
God will make the believers firm (on their beliefs) in this life and the next by the help of God's enduring words. [Quran, 14:27]

In other words, depending on a person's choices, God may either choose to guide the person toward a better future, or toward a worse future.

God reserves the right to be a bad influence on people who God deems deserving of it.

Muslims saving Jews during World War II

2011-02-13T23:48:00.000-05:00

I had never heard of this:

That story begins with a single word: Besa. It is a code of honor that's been practiced among Albanian Muslims for centuries. Rooted in teachings from the Koran, Besa compels Muslim families to place a stranger's needs above all else.

Jews fleeing to Albania were welcomed into Muslim homes, not as refugees but as guests. Entire villages would protect them.

Muslims Saving Jews During World War II [cair.com]

Where to find news on the Egypt protests

2011-02-03T15:13:00.002-05:00

Here are the best options we have found for following news on the Egypt protests:

We have created a Twitter 'list' that follows tweets from 30 people (news reporters and activists) who are inside Cairo right now. You can read their latest updates at QuranClub's inside-cairo list.
Reuters has a live blog called Unrest in Egypt that is being continuously updated.
Wikimapia map of Tahrir square and surrounding areas with lots of useful building labels. The Abdul Min'im Ar-Riyadh square that contains the Egyptian museum and the 6th of October bridge overpass is north of Tahrir square, you can see it here. The Ramses Hilton Hotel on that square probably houses the camera that is feeding Al Jazeera English.
Al Jazeera English's live video stream.

Photo by Ramy Raoof.

Forgiveness and Repentance

2011-01-23T19:44:00.001-05:00

How often is our patience tested through daily trials? How often do we lose sight of our goal as Muslims? How often do we forgive those who hurt us?

I have been pondering upon the importance of repentance and forgiveness. We are all weak humans, when we give into the whispers of shaytan sadness takes over our souls. If such feelings are persistent, then one has not repented to Allah (swt), for Allah (swt) never turns away a repentant slave, He is Most-Forgiving.

وَٱسۡتَغۡفِرِ ٱللَّهَ‌ۖ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ غَفُورً۬ا رَّحِيمً۬ا
But seek the forgiveness of Allah; for Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
سُوۡرَةُ النِّسَاء: 106

I recall getting very frustrated with some family members, the worries of life had its toll on me. My father saw that I was suffering deep inside. He sat me down and asked me why I could not let my worries go and forgive the individual who had hurt me very much, I replied "I can't forgive her, dad". My father then said something to me that has never left my mind to this day, he said:

if Allah (swt) forgives all our hideous sins, then who are we not to forgive one another?

It is of utmost importance for us to remember that no matter how hurt we feel, no matter what an individual has done to us, we must put our trust and reliance in Allah (swt), Is he not the Most-Forgiving?

For every sin we have committed, repentance and reliance on Allah alone is the key to a happy heart, a happy heart is consistently in the remembrance of Allah (swt).

Live every minute as if it is your last, seek forgiveness from Allah (swt).

Narrated Mujahid:

Abdullah bin 'Umar said, "Allah's Apostle took hold of my shoulder and said, 'Be in this world as if you were a stranger or a traveler.'" The sub-narrator added: Ibn 'Umar used to say, "If you survive till the evening, do not expect to be alive in the morning, and if you survive till the morning, do not expect to be alive in the evening, and take from your health for your sickness, and (take) from your life for your death."
(Bukhari :: Book 8 :: Volume 76 :: Hadith 425)

Allah's reason for making 'darkness' plural while leaving 'light' singular

2011-01-17T21:50:00.001-05:00

Aboo Imraan al-Mekseekee of The Aajurroomiyyah Blog makes this interesting observation:

The word 'the light' النُّورِ (an-Noor) is singular while the word 'darkness' الظُّلُمَاتِ (ath-Thulumaat) is plural. Why is that?

Brother Aboo Imraan explains that the singularity of 'light' signifies the fact that there is one single truth (Allah's way), in contrast to the plural 'darknesses', signifying the various ways of deviation.

Reaching Muslims and turning them into Christians

2011-01-14T22:28:00.023-05:00

A new Christian book titled Reaching Muslims aims to convert Muslims into Christians. We can do better than this.

A brother sent me news about an upcoming Christian book that wants to improve the relationship between Christians and Muslims. It is written by Nick Chatrath, a very friendly Indian man who is also a Christian evangelist. Evangelists are Christians who believe in the importance of spreading Christianity throughout the world.

In this video which is on the book's Amazon.com page, Mr. Chatrath makes it clear that his aim is to help Christians convert Muslims to Christianity, for example when he says that many features of his book are designed "to help you help Muslims see Jesus afresh."

Obviously we Muslims aren't very keen on seeing Jesus afresh, but this Christian effort isn't entirely negative. It certainly is better than the older (and sadly, still prevalent) doctrine of considering all Muslims savages and barbarians.* It is also better than trying to trick uneducated Muslims into converting to Christianity using fake Qurans. But still, this book shows a deep problem that both Christians and Muslims suffer from: Neither side is interested in understanding the other side unless there is an agenda involved.

Both Islam and Christianity teach the important of acceptance and forgiveness. And yet, each side often gives the other side this attitude:

If you are not like us, guess what? We are going to do everything in our power to change you into someone who is just like us. We'll learn about you, and we'll befriend you, and slowly but surely brainwash you into seeing the world just like we see it.

This attitude is extremely disrespectful toward the person receiving it. It doesn't show any acknowledgement for the fact that the other person is a human being—able to understand the world for themselves and make their own decisions. It discounts the other person's lifelong beliefs (you are wrong. We are right) without having earned the right to do so.

Religious belief is very personal, and as prophet Muhammad has taught us, nobody has the right to push it on others. I shouldn't have to say this, everyone knows that it is impolite to tell a stranger, or your neighbor

Hey, you know what you said about [insert topic here]. Well, you are wrong.

I know you are Muslim and you believe that Jesus is a prophet. But you are wrong. Jesus is actually God's child, and you must believe this because, well, we do.

Challenging people's beliefs on issues of faith is impolite. But there is an exception. Prophet Muhammad invited his closest friends and relatives to embrace Islam; after a lifetime of friendship, he had earned the right to talk to them about such personal topics. This is the only type of evangelism that doesn't offend the intelligence and dignity of its audience.

Nick Chatrath's method of evangelism, however, is offensive. It doesn't bother to do the hard work necessary to earn the right to ask others to embrace one's own religion. At best it creates a polite relationship between a Christian and a Muslim, exactly the kind of relationship in which it is very impolite to push personal beliefs on others.

What is the solution? It is to keep what is personal personal. This is a very basic, millennia-old code of conduct of civilized society, one which evangelists of both sides have so far been incapable of grasping.

[Last updated: January 17, 2011]

* We Muslims have had our own share of considering non-Muslims savages and barbarians. Thankfully today most of us have taken to heart the Quran's messages of acceptance and kindness toward non-Muslims.

How it feels to be Muslim

2011-01-13T16:34:00.012-05:00

Here are some related articles that might be of interest:

[Thanks to Soup.tumblr.com for the screenshot.]

Assorted Links

2011-01-07T17:26:00.000-05:00

Hajj poem

2011-01-03T13:16:00.003-05:00

Photo source.

Every sin washed away.

Every tear passing with fear.

I repent to you today.

The one voice I struggled to hear.

Pull me closer to your care.

Hold me to my words.

My life was full of empty air

This light is all I've yearned.

The English translation of the Quran for the Kindle

2010-12-15T11:06:00.016-05:00

Download link [Ebook - .mobi - 856 Kilobytes]

The file linked above is Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan and Dr. Muhammad Taqiyuddeen al-Hilali's translation of the Quran, the Noble Quran, for the Kindle.

It has a working table of contents which helps greatly with browsing chapters.

Thanks to Abdullah Hashim of SayfSolutions.com for providing the file.

This file should also work on any device supported by the Mobipocket reader or one of the Kindle applications.

On freedom

2010-11-03T17:13:00.002-04:00

When prophet Adam disobeyed God, he proved to God his unworthiness of Paradise. God transfered him to Earth and asked him to prove himself worthy of Paradise in order to get back into it.

Our job on Earth is to prove to God that we have learned from prophet Adam's mistake, and to prove that we indeed are worthy of Paradise.

The proof, of course, will come from obeying God's commands.

Every human being on Earth is forbidden from entering Paradise until he proves that he is worthy of it.

Humans are prisoners in this world. At the moment of their death, God decides their future. The decision is based on their conduct. If they obeyed His commands and proved themselves worthy of Paradise, they will be freed. If on the other hand they disobeyed His commands, they will be transfered to a far worse prison, to stay in there forever.