dawah

Life in Saudi Arabia

2010-05-12T15:15:00.001-07:00

About a week ago, I wrote a rather negative story about life in Saudi Arabia - and I believed things to be so at the time. But over the last couple of days, the perennial curse of the ethnographer has hit me. I’ve started changing my mind about Saudi Arabia. The very same things that made my blood boil a week ago, have become a way to appreciate the better aspects of Saudi life.

As a Muslim country, naturally some of Saudi Arabia’s good and bad points relate to religion (especially as Islam isn’t seen as just a religion here, but a way of life). Combined with this, my major interactions with Saudis thus far has been at the Qur’an dawrah (revision) classes that I’ve been attending over the past month, so this is the area I‘ve seen Saudis up close in. Besides, this approach should clear up the meaning of some of my more impenetrable facebook statuses!

Lets take one of those right now:

“ "Rivalry in worldly increase distracteth you" (alhaakum attakaasur) - Ibn Abbas used to read that one ayah all night and weep.”

Reading that status again, it strikes me that, for someone who is not from a similar situated culture to me, most of that status will be absolute gibberish - and yet the status touches upon perhaps the most fascinating part of Arab life. Memorisation of books is an integral part of the classical style of Arab education, and as one of the most famous scholars of his time, Ibn Abbas had obviously memorised the Qur’an, as well as numerous other books, and was reciting the verse from memory.

Of course there are arguments against rote-learning in the fluid world of education theory - and by and large they are right. It is far better to understand how a large leaf increases the rate of photosynthesis, than memorising that fact. However, what people often don’t realise is that the role of memorisation in classical Arab education is not the end itself, but a means to an end - meaning that understanding is gained, and to an even deeper level than normal. The second part of my status shows this. The scholars of the time used to learn only ten sentences at a time, but they would then make them part of their life by acting and reflecting upon them - and we all know that kinaesthetic learning is the in-thing these days. This meant that not only did they understand what they learnt, but they could also recall it at an instant, making them true masters of their field.

Even the process of memorisation opens doors to an understanding not available to others. For those of you who have memorised things over the years, you know how much repetition, linking, and photographic learning is involved. This intense focus often throws up rather interesting implications of the text - implications that wouldn’t occur to someone who was just reading it once through. Hence the booming world of exegeses in the Middle East. To learn Arabic grammar, one must memorise al-ajroomiyah, a centuries-old poem, and then read and understand its exegesis. To learn the art of recitation, one must learn al-jizriyah, another poem, and read its exegesis. In fact, this rule is applicable universally. One must memorise the core text, then read its exegesis, then understand and apply it.

Then of course there are the associated benefits of the practise of memorisation per se. One’s memory is like a muscle - the more one uses it, the stronger it becomes. There are famous stories such as that of the child prodigy Shafi’i, who would hear something once and memorise it, or of Bukhari, who had memorised over 500,000 hadith narrations (an entire libraries worth). But even for normal people, the effects are staggering. Take me for example, I’m not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, and yet I can memorise an entire page in five to ten minutes. For others I have met, these effects are even more pronounced.

And yet…Saudi Arabia, nay the Middle East in general, is no longer renowned for its education. Gone are the days of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, where Muslim, Christian and Jewish scholars would converge from all parts of the globe and exchange ideas. Gone are the likes of Averroes, Avicenna, and Ibn Khaldun.

And the reason for this decline is simple. The Arabs have lost their drive.

There are only two kinds of people in this world: shepherds or sheep. The shepherds are independent thinkers, willing to take risks, and who are leaders of men. Sheep do what sheep always do: follow. All of us fall into one of these two categories, and most of us into both. Unfortunately, most Saudis are sheep - but that’s not the problem. In a flock, there is only ever one shepherd, and lots of sheep. No, the problem with Saudi Arabia is that they don’t have the shepherds. Perhaps this is a corollary of being a monarchy, where independent thought on a political level is banned, or perhaps its because vision and imagination are looked down upon in this deeply conservative country.

But one thing has to be said in favour of the Saudis. They are the nicest sheep to be found anywhere. Their entire constitution is suited to that of a sheep. They are generally mild tempered, stoic to the extreme, uninterested in causing sedition and revolution, and affectionate. A few stories illustrate these characteristics clearly. A patient came to see my father, and after the results came through, was told that he was infertile. What was his response? “alhamdullillah!” he said. The literal translation of the phrase is “praise be to God”, but in use, it carries heavy connotations of thankfulness. My dad said afterwards that patients in most other countries tend to start crying, or get angry when told this kind of news, but that in Saudi Arabia he found that the feelings most displayed were that of forbearance and fortitude.

Then, when my brother went to get an egg roll during break at the Qur‘an dawrah, but found the bag empty, a ten year old boy standing nearby gave him his egg roll instead - the very last one. Then later that day, on the bus home, a boy of about fourteen gave up his seat to me, because I was older than him, then a younger boy gave up his seat to him. This great characteristic of preferring others over yourself, could arguably be linked back to Islam, but I think that would do a great injustice to the Arabs. I know for a fact that no Pakistani would ever relinquish his seat, his egg roll, or his fertility without a titanic struggle beforehand. Islam didn’t give the Arabs these good qualities, it merely refocused them into doing it for the hereafter.

Without wanting to be dragged into the murky waters of life after death, I have noticed that “death” isn’t a taboo subject here, as it is in Britain. For a few days I puzzled over this. Surely Saudis wanted to stay alive as much as any other race? But then it finally clicked. Whereas we in the West view the timeline of our existence as starting from our birth, and ending at our death, in the Middle East this timeline starts from the creation of our souls, and stretches into the after life. In other words, the Saudi/Arab/Muslim view of death is as merely a stepping stone on an infinitely long journey. This beautiful concept gets rid of the fear associated with death. In fact an Arabic saying for the deceased is “they have gone on ahead, and we will be joining them”.

And perhaps this desensitising of death is the very reason for the loss of drive in the Arabs. There are no ultimate deadlines in their view of existence, and hence no urgency. But this not the real reason, as it didn’t stop the Arabs from the Middle Ages from making the biggest advances in science at their time. So what was the difference between the Arabs then and the Arabs now?

To understand that, one has to realise that life is all about being able to switch between the general and the specific. One has to have a big general aim, and then has to gradually narrow the focus down to the specifics which will make that general aim a reality. Without a general aim, the specifics are aimless, and without the specifics, the general is unattainable. The difference between the Arabs now, and the Arabs of centuries bygone, is that the Arabs now, are stuck in the specifics, without really understanding why they are devoting their energies to a particular end; whereas the Arabs of the Middle Ages had a vision in mind; they had a thirst for knowledge, both religious and otherwise, and they were learning it to benefit humanity. Take Shafi’i, the child prodigy mentioned earlier. Not only did he go on to found one of the four established schools of thought in Islam, but he was also an accomplished doctor, poet, archer, and author of over a hundred books - and he died at the age of only 56.

But having said all that, it is this very rough-and-ready character of Saudis, hinting at their Bedouin past, that brings with it all the good traits too. In the times of the second Caliph, Abu Bakr, the Bedouin armies started assembling in the capital of the Muslim Empire Madinah. The uncouthness, rudeness, and harshness of these Bedouins riled the citizens of Madinah immensely, and they complained to the Caliph about them. But Abu Bakr didn’t take any action against them. He told the people to be patient, for these Bedouins were the very ones that were going to defend them and the Empire.

The same is true today. The Saudis have many bad traits - but along with these bad traits come corresponding good traits. It takes a bit of time to get past all the dead wood, but once one does, then one realises that the humanity that is found inside all of us, burns as brightly in this desert kingdom as anywhere else.

The Iran issue

2010-05-12T15:14:00.001-07:00

The Media War: A precursor to every military conflict

Living in Britain over the last three years, I’ve been exposed to a relentless attack on Iran and Ahmadinejad by the Western media. These attacks are not always blunt and instantly apparent. In fact they are nearly always veiled as neutral reporting, but are always sneakingly snide in tone and implicitly insinuating. Only occasionally does the language flare up in intensity, like it has this preceding week. But in many ways, the revelation of a second nuclear facility by Iran has not changed the political narrative much. The fundamental arguments and accusations levelled against them remain the same. These are essentially two: That Iran denies the Holocaust and that it wants to wipe Israel off the map.

Of course when we academically consider these claims they hold little to no credibility. And when we compare this to Israel’s denial of the Nakbah and their military posturing over Iran’s nuclear programme, it becomes clear who the real nuclear bully in the Middle East is.

First of all, lets take a look at the Holocaust denial charge.

If we actually consider what Ahmadinejad says, rather than the disgraceful twisting and paraphrasing of the Farsi which goes on in British papers, Ahmadinejad stated in a speech at Columbia University, “I'm not saying that it didn't happen at all. This is not judgment that I'm passing here. The Holocaust should be left open to debate and research like any other historical event.” This argument finds traction with the likes of Professor Finkelstein, the author of the “Holocaust Industry”. He argues that the Holocaust has been abused by being used as propaganda, and being mythologized by the Zionist lobbyists for their own land-grabbing purposes rather than being considered as the solemn and sensitive historical event that it is. And Finkelstein is ideally placed to draw these conclusions - his own parents were in the Holocaust.

Ahmadinejad also argues that “the pretext for establishing the Zionist regime is a lie, a lie which relies on an unreliable claim, a mythical claim, (as) the occupation of Palestine has nothing to do with the Holocaust”. What he is saying here is NOT that the Holocaust is a myth as numerous Western media outlets crowed, but rather that the whole argument for the state of Israel is. This argument was of course that the Jews needed a place in Israel to survive after WWII. This is utterly baseless. Indeed, historically speaking, Ben Gurion and his crazed Zionist friends actually struggled to get the volumes of immigration to Israel, as most European Jews were going to the US instead. Even today, most Jews live in America, not in the “homeland”. The Jews might have needed a place to call home, but they overwhelmingly chose the USA, not Israel.

Ahmadinejad also referred to the Holocaust as a sealed “black box” and asked why Western powers refuse permission for the claim to be “examined and surveyed”. This entire argument is beautifully summed up by Professor Dossa, a Canadian expert on Iran, who says “Ahmadinejad has not denied the Holocaust or proposed Israel’s liquidation; he has never done so in any of his speeches on the subject (all delivered in Farsi/Persian). As an Iran specialist, I can attest that both accusations are false... What Ahmadinejad has questioned is the mythologizing, the sacralization, of the Holocaust and the “Zionist regime’s” continued killing of Palestinians and Muslims. He has even raised doubts about the scale of the Holocaust. His rhetoric has been excessive and provocative. And he does not really care what we in the West think about Iran or Muslims; he does not kowtow to western or Israeli diktat.”

Now lets compare that with Israel. Israel has never accepted the historical fact that the Nakbah took place.

For those of you who don’t know what that is (this ignorance is a testament to the powerful Israeli propaganda machine - you know what the Holocaust is right?) the Nakbah, or Catastrophe took place in 1948 when the Zionist forces, led by Ben Gurion, systematically planned and carried out the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in order to achieve their aim of a Jewish majority state. This was achieved by November 1948, by which time approximately 700,000 Palestinians had lost their property, wealth and land and were made into refugees overnight.

The Nakbah also contained several well-documented accounts of massacres carried out by Israeli troops. Some of these were led by future Prime Ministers of the country! If that’s their leaders, then what more can you say? Ayn Zaytun, Sasa, Jaffa, Haifa, Deyr Yasin and many more Palestinian village were all the sights of Israeli butchering, and are now the sights of prosperous Israeli towns.

All that is strenuously denied by the Israeli Government. To this day they absolve themselves of any responsibility in creating the refugee crisis. They have also banned the teaching of the Nakbah in all Israeli schools. Interesting that. The Nazis too banned teaching things which damaged their twisted philosophy.

Now lets consider the claims that Iran wants to “wipe Israel off the map”.

This statement was apparently made by Ahmadinejad at a conference in 2005. It has been (wrongly) translated as “Our dear Imam (Ayatollah Khomeini) said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement. We cannot compromise over the issue of Palestine.”

Firstly, linguistics aside, Ahmadinejad's phrase was a quote of Ayatollah Khomeini, just like the Pope quoted how the Qur’an was a load of nonsense. The Western media played the linguistics game then, but seems to avoid it in this case.

According to Juan Cole, a University of Michigan Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History, Ahmadinejad's statement should be translated as “The Imam said that this regime occupying Jerusalem (een rezhim-e eshghalgar-e qods) must [vanish from] the page of time (bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad),” - Clearly much less provocative.

Professor Dossa puts an end to the controversy by concluding that “Ahmadinejad was quoting the Ayatollah Khomeini in the specific speech under discussion: what he said was that “the occupation regime over Jerusalem should vanish from the page of time.” No state action is envisaged in this lament; it denotes a spiritual wish, whereas the erroneous translation—“wipe Israel off the map” —suggests a military threat. There is a huge chasm between the correct and the incorrect translations. The notion that Iran can “wipe out” U.S.-backed, nuclear-armed Israel is ludicrous.”

Never mind starting a war, Ahmadinejad is also on the record on a number of occasions as explicitly ruling out war or attacks on Israel. In 2008, when asked to comment on whether he has called for the destruction of Israel he denied that his country would ever instigate military action, there being “no need for any measures by the Iranian people”. Instead he claimed that “the Zionist regime” in Israel would eventually collapse on its own. “I assure you... there won't be any war in the future,” he said. This was reported by the BBC.

When asked if he had issues with Jews, he replied that “creating an objection against the Zionists doesn't mean that there are objections against the Jewish”. He added that Jews lived in Iran and were represented in the country's parliament.

Now lets compare that to Israel. Here are a list of quotes of what Israel’s leaders have to say of the Palestinians.

“We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.” (Ben Gurion, first Israeli PM)

“[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs.” (Begin, former PM)

“The killing by a Jew of a non-Jew, i.e. a Palestinian, is considered essentially a good deed, and Jews should therefore have no compunction about it.” (Rabbi Ginsburg)

“Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.” (Ben Gurion)

“There is no such thing as a Palestinian.” (Golda Meir former PM)

Combine all that hatred with the clear evidence that Israel is preparing for a unilateral strike on Iran, as seen by its very ostentatious movement of warships, practising of bombing drills, and leaked documents. They have a track record of unilaterally attacking other countries too. Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon all count themselves as victims of “pre-emptive” strikes. Naked, unbridled aggression in other words. Its clear who the real Nuclear bully in the Middle East is.

Over the last ten years Israel has instigated countless attacks, and a number of Wars. They have a long track record of violence. Compare that with Iran. How many wars has Iran been involved in, in the last ten years? How many international law statutes has Iran violated as compared to Israel?

The evidence is clear, and yet the Western media coverage continues to smear Iran is the aggressor, and portray Israel and the West as the victims. They still level the old character assassination arguments that Ahmadinejad is an anti-Semite and denies Israel’s right to exist, and that the US’s opinion is second only to God’s.

Well I’ve just enunciated the opposition view to all that, its up to you what you believe now.

Ibrahim Khan

How to stay away from sins

2008-05-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

Recently I was reading near the end of Surah Mu'minoon, and I was wondering what was the best way to stay away from sins, especially sins we repeatedly do such as backbiting, lying and rushing our Salah. And the answer was pretty simple really:

	93	Say (O Muhammad SAW): " My Lord! If You would show me that with which they are threatened (torment),
	94	"My Lord! Then (save me from Your Punishment), and put me not amongst the people who are the Zalimoon (polytheists and wrong-doing)."

Here the message is we have to remember the punishment for our sins, as that is the best incentive to avoid sins, whilst the best incentive to do good deeds is the reward of it.
Also the company we keep is clearly important, and there is a hadith about every person being resurrected on the day of Judgment with the people he used to spend time with. It is like a person who is friends with a scent merchant, he will always smell nice after he has been in his shop, though he may not have bought anything (e.i. done any good deeds) while a person who is friends with a toilet cleaner (with no disrespect to toilet cleaners!) will be the opposite.

96 Repel evil with that which is better. We are Best-Acquainted with the things they utter.

	97	And say: "My Lord! I seek refuge with You from the whisperings (suggestions) of the Shayatin (devils).
	98	"And I seek refuge with You, My Lord! lest they may attend (or come near) me."

Here Allah is giving us advice on how to cope, he tells us that we need to combat all evil with good, (and by very definition anything which is halal and attempts to eradicate evil is good) so with regards to staying away from sins, we need to do good deeds, and lots of them, to wipe out our bad deeds.

There is a hadith which describes that a black dot is put on the heart of a person when he does a sin, but when he does a good deed this dot is wiped off. And some people whose hearts become totally covered, lose their understanding of what is right and what is wrong. - The moral is simple: Lots of sins will make it difficult get rid of them, and also to realise we need to get rid of them. The worrying thing for us today is that we think that we are essentially good Muslims. There is a hadith that states that a sign of the believer is that he is constantly fearful that he is a hypocrite, whilst the sign of a hypocrite is that he believes he is a good Muslim. Umar (ra) used to just ask Allah in his du'aa to break even, so that he wouldn't go to hell, and he used to ask Hudaifa ibn al-Yamaan, the man entrusted with the identities of the hypocrites, whether or not he was a hypocrite - and this was coming from a man promised Jannah, who Shaytan had given up on - SubhanAllah where do we stand?

The next ayah is another divine advice that we ask Allah for his help against Shaytan and his whisperings to do wrong. Shaytan will come to us on the day of judgement and say "Verily, Allah promised you a promise of truth. and I too promised you, but I betrayed you. I had no authority over you except that I called you, so you responded to me. So blame me not, but blame yourselves. I cannot help you, nor can you help me. I deny your former act in associating me (satan) as a partner with Allah (by obeying me in the life of the world). Verily, there is a painful torment for the Zalimoon (polytheists and wrong-doers, etc.)."

99	Until, when death comes to one of them (those who join partners with Allah), he says: "My Lord! Send me back,

100"So that I may do good in that which I have left behind!" No! It is but a word that he speaks, and behind them is Barzakh (a barrier) until the Day when they will be resurrected.

We should remember death much, as there is no other thing out there which will sober us up so quickly as to think that it is VERY possible that we may die any moment, and that we will be raised up on the day of Judgement doing the act we were last doing in the world. Imagine getting resurrected whilst in the act stealing, or in the act of adultery ....or in the act of Salah. The more good actions we do, the more likely it is we will meet death whilst doing good.

We have to also remember that this life is short, and that everyone will be regretful on the day of Judgement, the bad wanting to have done more good deeds, whilst the good people will want the same thing, but be less regretful than the bad! Let us make sure we minimise our regret as much as possible.

And finally this is the end we all have to face:

101Then, when the Trumpet is blown, there will be no kinship among them that Day, nor will they ask of one another.
102Then, those whose scales (of good deeds) are heavy, - these, they are the successful.
103And those whose scales (of good deeds) are light, they are those who lose their ownselves, in Hell will they abide.

the most famous hadith

2008-01-05T14:48:00.001-08:00

"Inna mal a'maalu binniya (Wa fir riwaayaa-binniyaat), winnima likulimri'im ma nawa fa man kanat hijratu ila allahhi wa rasoolhi, fa hijratuhu ila allahi wa rasoolih. wa manat hijratuhu ila adunya yuseebuha, auw imra'atin yatazawejuha fa hijratuhu ila ma haajara ilih." (Bukhari, Muslim, Umdah tul ahkam, arbaeen annawawi etc)

Narrated by Umar bin al-Khattab that the Prophet of Alllah (saw) said- verily actions are based upon intention(s), and for every person is what they intend. and whoever makes Hijrah for Allah and his Messenger then his Hijrah will be for Allah and his Messenger, and whosoever makes Hijrah for worldly gain, then they will get it, or for a woman, they will marry her, and Hijrah is for what you make Hijrah for.

This very famous hadith is a hadith which is the first hadith mentioned in Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Umdah tul Ahkaam and the 40 hadeeth of imam Nawawi. Why do these scholars place this hadith at such a high level in their celebrated books?

The answer is simple: Everything that follow in those books echoes the simple principle laid down by this hadith- "Actions are based upon intentions". These books of hadith then go onto taharah and salah etc...but all of those are worthless if not done for the sole pleasure of Allah (swt).

Now we need to reflect on ourselves and see are we doing things for Allah or are we just showing off? Do we pray salah in Jam'aah or in front of people, differently do when we are on our own? If the answer is yes then this is a form of shirk because our worship is then no longer for Allah (swt).

This is also a form of nifaaq as Allah swt mention in surah Nisa "Verily, the hypocrites seek to deceive Allah, but it is He Who deceives them. And when they stand up for As-Salat (the prayer), they stand with laziness and to be seen of men, and they do not remember Allah but little." (V142)

a few questions for us:
1) do we stand lazily
2)do we yawn in Salah
3)do we know what we are reading
4)Do we know what surah we read after we finish the salah?
5) do we remember Allah in the salah and feel spiritually uplifted after Salah?
6) or do we stand thinking about this world, and use the salah as a moment to regroup our thoughts?

If any of those answers were yes then we have the traits of hypocrisy in us and three verse later Allah says: "Verily, the hyprocrites will be in the lowest depths (grade) of the Fire; no helper will you find for them." (V145)

Is that where we want to be?

Lets adhere to Abu Bakr's (ra) to his armies, that they should have khushu (concentration, sincerity and humbleness) in their salah, and pray our salahs with khushu too.

Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews Part 1 of 4 Clips

2007-12-07T14:22:00.001-08:00

i have recently started reading this guys book, and i think this topic is pertinent to all Muslims, as it seems to crop up time and again in any discussion. Da'wah doesnt mean to know about politics, but it does help.

the worth of education

2007-06-16T12:12:00.000-07:00

We don't value our Islamic knowledge anymore. We pay a fortune on school fees, tuition etc, but when it comes to Islamic knowledge, the local mosques free 2 hour excuse for a creche suffices. They say actions speak louder than words. This is what we think of Islamic knowledge.

compare this to the story of Faroukh who was a pious predecessor of ours. He was newly married and went off to jihad. He stayed on Jihad for a long long time (30 years I think), and before he went he left a huge box of gold coins, and told his wife not to touch it, and gave her a little gold, and said spend this until he came back in a few months. The wife, spread out this little sum over 2 years, and now she had a baby to care for too. Eventually she started taking only the necessary amounts to survive out of the box.

Many years past and went Faroukh turned back homeward, the first thing he did was visit the Masjid, where he saw a crowd around a very knowledgeable scholar preaching, and he listened to him, though he didn't see him, and he was very impressed by the depth of his wisdom. Afterwards he went home to find a young man entering his house. Faroukh had a bit of an argument with him saying it was his house etc and what the hell did the guy think he was doing, who was claiming it was his house etc. But all the people came around saying it was the young mans house. Then inside a voice called out asking "Is that you Faroukh?". Then the wife and husband met up again after 30 years. Soon the conversation turned to the gold...the gold had disappeared. The wife asked "Did you see a man in the Masjid?" Faroukh answered that he had and that he was very impressed.
"would you like your son to be like that?" the mother asked, and again Faroukh agreed. Then that pious woman revealed how she had spent what in today's money is about £2 million on her son's Islamic education so that he got the very best, and the man was indeed his son.
Faroukh ran outside and started yelling that he was the son of the scholar X (i forgot the name).

These people lived their belief, their deen, their Eman showed through their actions....does ours?

2007-06-08T11:35:00.000-07:00

Here is an Islamicly orientated economics blog I wrote on one of my other sites:

http://economicsguide.blogspot.com/2007/06/goldsmith-opens-pandoras-box.html

its pertaining the way interest pervades the system and raising awareness about the evils of fractional reserve banking.

the problems of the Ummah - innovation and hypocrisy

2007-05-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

Islam is a religion which is strongly based in a lack of conjecture in matter pertaining religion. What I mean by that is that unlike other religions Islam says that we worship Allah (God) the way He asks to be worshipped. This means that anything in religious matters is absolutely forbidden unless it has an authentic narration directly from the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) or a verse from the Qur'an. This means that as Islam is from Allah, our actions are not tainted by the base interpretations of man as when Allah says in the Qur'an "This day I have perfected your religion for you", if we change it we are naturally making it less than perfect and consequently not divine.
This brings me on to the next thing - innovations. Innovations specifically in religion are expressly forbidden in Islam and "all innovation lead to misguidance and all misguidance leads to the Hellfire" (Hadith). We should not EVER just blindly follow as a famous scholar of Islam once said (paraphrasing)- you dont respect what you just blindly follow, and something you don't respect means you Eman (faith) will be lacking, so we should all question our beliefs and see if they are actually authentic according to Islamic traditions of Qur'an and hadith. As the Quraysh said and all the misguided people said "our forefathers did this" thus we should too - what a specious argument! The obvious assumption here is that the parents were right...how do they know this? They don't. The sad thing is that these verses in the Qur'an could apply to any one of us Muslims today, as we have also lost our link with real Islamic knowledge and are currently running on an empty tank with just patchy unsettled knowledge that we can gather in passing from different people.
Why this slothfulness in educating ourselves about our very way of life? the answer is painful but needs to be said: we are all hypocrites to varying degrees. We need to realise this now and theres even a hadith that states to the effect that the hypocrite is he who thinks himself not a hypocrite, and the true believer always thinks he has hypocrisy in him and tries to get rid of it. Even Umar (rah) the person promised paradise by the Prophet (PBUH), he asked Hudaifa Bin al Yaman(rah), who was the sahabi intrusted with the names of the hypocrites, about whether or not he was on the list, such was his concern about himself! And this from a person who took part in all the Battles, was promised Jannah and was the second righteous Khalifah!
We have to sit down and take in introspective look at ourselves and look at the way we for example commit sins, every time we commit a sin this is proof that our Eman is weak, as think about it - if I were to tell you that you would be burnt for this sin , would you still do it? not likely. We don't have that belief anymore and this is leading to the endless cycle of lack of education and hence belief ,sin, more lack of belief, more sin etc.
How can we change? well lets look at the sahaba again. Why were they the great leaders they were? because the best leader is one who can govern himself. We need to start right at the basics and build it up inshAllah. For example we should try and weed out the hypocrisy in our hearts in Salah by concentrating on the meanings, and if we don't know them, then by learning them first. This will inshAllah have a huge impact on our lives, as consider 5 times a day we are unhypocritically stnading infront of our creator, meditating on the true purpose of life - to worship Allah, will we then commit more or less sins? The answer is the answer to our initial and extensive problems. Only when we actively work to stamp out this malaise of hypocrisy can we as Muslims become strong again. Lets start out with the Salah and build steadily.
Anything good is from Allah, and all mistakes are from me.

Ummah Films - Pursuit of Cleanliness

2007-05-13T02:32:00.001-07:00

this is a very pertinent video and even explores the intricacies of choosing a suitable water vessel!

Hifz of the Qur'an

2007-04-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

Im sorry I've not updated for a long time, what with exams and things, here goes though...

Hifz of the Qur'an (learning the Qur'an by heart) has gone down as whole over the years. before you would find many huffaz (memorisers) across the community, but now we look and see literally only about 1 in about 150-200 people who know the entire Qur'an by heart. and i think we can look at this alarming trend of increasing alienation from the word of Allah and link it to the downward spiral Muslims are in currently.
on an historical note we can look at the Abbasid Caliphate, and can arguably trace the rise of the Iranians and Turks (nothing against them :D ), which led to the lessening in importance of the Arabic language and naturally this has an indirect effect on the importance attached to the Hifz of the Qur'an.
the answer is to start learning the Qur'an, not putting it off until we finish X or Y, but starting now and making time for ourselves to read what God as lain down for us in his own words. only then can we really understand what Islam is about. We can harp on about lectures and books, but what is more effective...a commentary on something, or reading the "something" and then listening to the commentary on it.
there are many practical benefits of learning the Qur'an, namely, you learn how to manage your time much better, you exercise your mind regularly (how many people actually know something word-for-word off by heart in a different language, indeed this is a miracle of the Qur'an that we are able to learn it as the comparison for a vast number of non-Arab Muslims is like learning a shakespeare play in chinese) and also it has been proved that singing is very beneficial to the body as it gives a workout to the entire upper body, similarly, reciting the Qur'an also helps you burn off those calories in an effective manner.
the exercising of the mind thing...I'm serious man, this is absolutely true, you will or may have noticed that huffaz (memorisers) generally punch above their weight in terms of their natural abilities and in terms of what results they achieve. This could also be linked to the barakah(blessing) that comes with reading the Qur'an, so if you want to do better at anything...do hifz ..who would say no to that really? I know people who ain't that clever and they have achieved some pretty amazing things after learning the Qur'an.
When i say "memorise the Qur'an" this may seem daunting, and rightly is, but we have to remember that we don't HAVE to memorise ALL of it, we could memorise bits we like, but keep memorising all of our lives, because, until we have finished, (and when we do inshAllah finish, we can always learn the authentic sayings of Muhammad (saw)) we should never stop.
when a person really starts to do something with a strong belief or intention it slowly becomes part of their life and affects them so deeply that sometimes their life becomes that thing, like one of my coaches once rather shockingly said "cricket is my life", now compare that to the Prophets description by his wife Aisha (rah) who said his character was the Qur'an. what would we like our "main" thing to be?
there are also many hadith that relate about the virute of memorising the Quran such as your parents being crowned with a crown more brighter than the moon. but there are certain things we should be careful about, namely to learn or try to learn it with tajweed, and this is easier than you think...just listen to a recording of a reciter and copy him syllable for syllable, the upside is you'll read with tajweed and develop a good voice, the downside...you wont have a distinctive style. second...learn with meaning, this should probably be first, without meaning this doesn't do anything to us in terms of changing ourselves. also we should try and learn Arabic too.
also when we read, we should ALWAYS read in a beautiful voice as this is a hadith. this makes us feel good and inshAllah encourage us to learn and read the Qur'an further. also we should learn about 10 ayahs (or more) and then implement it into our life after understanding it. This will make it much easier to remember as we will be doing as well as reading, this as modern teaching methods even show is much more effective and this is what the sahaba did too.
when doing Hifz, a certain amount of repetitions of words is involved and linking to previous ayahs, which makes it possible for a Hafiz to spend more than the normal time actually reflecting and pondering on the deep meanings found in the Qur'an. this means that even years after i learnt an ayah, i could read it again and glean something new from it that i never saw in it before.
finally i would like to say that a person who does hifz, makes the Qur'an his life and character
and acts upon it, this person will become a beloved person of Allah, and think about it...when reading the rulebook for life so much...is this person more or less likely to commit the sins the Qur'an forbids, or more or less likely to do the good the Qur'an advocates?
anything good i said is from Allah (swt) and anything wrong is my own error.

proofs that there is a God.

2007-03-01T14:48:00.000-08:00

heres a forum convo im having about proofs that there is a God.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lao tzu

Greetings, gugen,

I don't believe in gods in general, so naturally I don't believe in your god in particular. Humans have a long history of looking for rhyme and reason in the world around them, and, failing to find explanation, they often choose to invoke causes they cannot understand by recreating them in human shape. Even when we do not dress them in our own physical form, though that's common enough, we grant them all of the other aspects of humanity.

We give them a personality, a consciousness, control of their environment, and a desire to be respected. We make them in our own image. We create them with desires that we can fulfill in exchange for hope that our own desires can likewise be met.

I find this process understandable, but ultimately unproductive.

Over the past few thousand years, humans have slowly learned to take control of most of the aspects of divinity we once assigned to our gods. We control the lightning today. We foretell the hurricanes. We measure the earthquakes and build our structures with these stresses in mind. Our need to pray for relief from these natural disasters has consequently waned.

Over the past few hundred years, humans have slowly learned to discover for ourselves, in reliable fashion, facts beyond our natural ability to discover them. From the depths of the living cell to the galactic clusters at the furthest extent of the universe, we have learned to see what could not be seen before. Our need for "revelation" as an avenue to truth has consequently abated.

Islam, like the Abrahamic faiths that preceded it and followed it, is today an anachronism. The universe as we humans perceived it thousands of years ago is today as quaint as our perception of our place within it once was. We are growing up, and putting away the childish self-centeredness that sees the universe as nothing more than a place created for us.

As ever, Jesse

basically you are saying we dont need a God, its an illogical and old-fashioned idea which we use to explain the existence of the world, and now in the 21st century we are more advanced and civilised and thus need to do away with this "childish" belief.

okay well firstly, the theist always has more proof than an atheist. the atheist (which is almost a religious belief system - they believe in something that cannot be proven) cannot prove there is not a God. However we, Muslims, can.

We can do it through the following logic:

1.There had to be a source for all the matter in the Big Bang = God
(im sure with your knowledge you know the other arguments too )
2.It makes sense that God contact us as he would have a reason for creating us.(tenable on its own but stands well when linked to the next few points)
3.If he contacted us, it would make sense to tell us what he requires off us.
4.This contact logically would be easiest if he sent them a prophet from amongst human beings.
5.These human Prophets would then have an essentially matching set of teachings at the basic level. (eg Moses-Jesus-Muhammad all preach monotheism.) As they are all from the same source=God.
6.Now these Prophets would not speak of their own...as no-one would believe them...they need authority of "God". So they have books sent down to them, which also deals with the problem of following the teachings of God once the prophet passes away-as now they have a lasting copy of God's teachings.
7.God gives these Prophets signs that would impress the people they were aimed at: eg Jesus PBUHand the healings, raising from dead etc, Muhammad PBUH came at a time sufficiently advanced enough for God to end all revelations to mankind...(eg the Torah and NT corrupted and the Qur'an isn't -also people more advanced in lots of other ways) and he came at a time when,people were getting into literature much more, and from 1400 years ago, until the end of time - ...the biggest miracle of the Prophet Muhammad, given to him by God, is the Qur'an.
8. so now we have the Qur'an as the proof of God's existence, like the people who witnessed Jesus healing lepers etc, the modern day person has to read the Qur'an and think...is this book similar to any other book i have ever read?
does it sound like its been written by an illierate and uneducated man in a desert 1400 years ago? (scientifically sound too - but thats another way to prove the existence of God)
9.the next proof is the messengership of Muhammad, his life and his motives. simple put, either Muhammad PBUH was a prophet of God, or he wasn't.
Now lets look at his motives if he wasnt a Prophet of God. Muhammad was offered enormous wealth, but he refused. He was offered kingship of Makkah but he refused. He used to darn his own clothes, and him and his family used to survive on many occasions on only water and dates. And he continued to live very very simply all his life, even towards the end, when wealth was pouring into the hands of the Muslims. He had only 2 pieces of cloth, and at the time of his death, he had pawned off his armour to someone in order to live. This is the man that could ask any Muslim to give him wealth and the Muslim would give him all his wealth - but he never did. He used to stand for hours upon hours in prayer in the middle of the night, sacrificing his own sleep, crying to his Lord for forgiveness of the Muslims, for their success in this world and the next and thanking God for all that he had given him, he used to stand so much so much that his feet used to swell up. The question is: was this man sincere or not? The answer, as even Non-Muslims have to conclude is that he most definitely was.
now the next challenge: to prove he really was from God:
firstly his message matched the other previous "selfless" and "sincere" and "monotheistic" prophets that came before him - so thats criteria 1 met.
Next, the only other option we have to go down...is that he was (naoodobillah) insane or deluded. This allegation is dealt with extensively in the Qur'an and refuted, God does deal with this as he knows that this is the only option left for people to reject him.
Also we have to look at his life...was this man really acting insane? The enemies of him at the time also had to conclude that he wasn't insane, he didn't have fits, he didn't speak or act in a strange manner and his words (if they were not Gods -the Qur'an in other words) were not something even a highly intelligent and gifted poet/orator/linguist of the time could have made up, never mind an insane person. He used to be the best in character in Makkah and his fame for this was such that he was known as "the trustworthy". -his judgement was respected (many authentic stories that i wont mention here ) - why respect a madmans judgement?
Also we look at this guys achievements: he managed something that no-one had ever managed in history: uniting the arab tribes, and doing this in only 23 years.He must have been an incredible diplomat and an incredible orator -insane...doesnt add up?
What else did he do? He lay the seeds for one of the biggest empires ever seen on earth - changing those backward sheep-herders into scholars, doctors and teachers...and insane deluded man did this?
He had the following of 100,000s, this is impossible for a madman to have accomplished. Think about it: this is the most authentically reported on person ever. His entire life, from his sayings to family life to travelling to even going to the toilet, all was recorded. From here we know that if there was any even HINT of Insanity - he would have been found out straight away...and he would never have got this incredibly large following. (and remember the arabs were a tribal society - notoriously hard to unite).
Also for him to have written a book like the Qur'an, his own character and ideas, as any authors does, must be in the Qur'an. As we know...he was an incredibly humble person...but the Qur'an is an extremely authoritive book as befits something from God- why the mismatch if he wrote it?
Also If he wrote the Qur'an, he must have been secretly studying (which with the scrutiny he was constantly under - was impossible) modern scientific facts...using a non-existent microscope and a non-existent powerful telescope, and also we have to take the advanced scientific facts to be known to him as a given right?
He must also have been a psychologist, the like of which has never been seen since and before him,to have written a book like the Qur'an, which addresses all the thoughts of a questioning reader, giving them powerful arguments to swallow. - again ...this guy insane...deluded you say?
So we have to conclude that he wasnt insane, wasnt lying and was sincere. Therefore there remains only one option: He was the Messenger of God!

conclusion:
so basically you have many ways to prove God:
the first cause, intelligent design etc.
then you have the fact that we have a logically believable (they all match) tradition of messengers of God coming to us through history.
The life of Muhammad is another fantastic example of there being a God and him communicating to mankind.
Also the Qur'an is the miracle given to us by God, as proof that he exists.(and thats another topic on its own )

thanks for the replies btw

Going to the toilet

2007-02-20T02:25:00.000-08:00

Now i got into this discussion with a mate of mine about cleanliness in general and cleaning up in the toilet specifically. (I dont know how it happened :) )
well basically we were talking about the pros and cons of cleaning with a tissue as compared to cleaning with water....
the convo went something like this (with poetic licience):

Me: what i dont understand is why people wash their hands after going to the toilet?
Mate: Man, its obvious! its so they are clean! are you tellin' me you dont wash your hands after going to the toilet?!
Me: No (i do just for the record :)), What im saying is...why do people clean the dirtiest part of their body superficially using a tissue, but then take the right steps to wash their hands with water...surely they should either not wash them at all as they are less dirty or wipe them with a dry tissue?
Mate: err...because its a part of the body we can see...or use more...
Me: Okay lets give You an analogy: You get some dog-poop and smear it all over your armpit, as that is a part of the body little seen and little used, would you, using your philosophy of "clean it if you can see it" clean it still?
Mate: yeh i would, but anyway we have a shower everyday..!
Me: So you're admitting the superiority of cleaning with water?
Mate: ...
Me: And anyway, you go around for the rest of the day with poo sticking to your body...even a baby is in a better state man! he gets cleaned with wet wipes!
Mate: oh look lets go into our class....
Me: yeh lets, and by the way, we clean ourselves with water as thats what our religion teaches.
Mate: yeh it does seem kinda right....maybe we should all start cleaning ourselves with water.

Yeh, that wasnt at all how the convo went, but some key points of discussion that were raised, i tried to mention.

Anyway ill leave you with this rather elegant (im new to them) equation relating to imaginary numbers:
(a+bi)(c+di) = (ac-bd)+(bc+ad)i

where i is the square root of -1 and i squared is -1

religion in a nutshell

2007-02-12T13:18:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about religion and belief - and how its such as vast subject...how many hundreds of thousands of books written on the topic...then i thought - actually religion is very simple, and I came up with the 2 key questions which sum up what its all about:
1) Is there a God?
2) (If yes to the first one) Did God communicate to us through the Quran?

Thats it! because simply, if the two answers are yes for a person, then he would be foolish to not become a Muslim...as he has accepted the Quran...so he knows the benefits of Islam and also the punishment in store for him if he then rejects Islam after accepting that the Qur'an is the word of God.

Now the second question doesn't have to have "through the Quran" in...it could be any other religious book such as the Torah, the Bible or the Bagavad Gita. Now we approach the next hurdle in the search for truth....Which religion is correct...if not all being either right or wrong?

1) Are religions wrong?
2)Are all religions correct?
3) Which religion is correct?

1
Okay, I think ill start with this. Here we are basically stating:
"all religions are wrong"
Right, that doesn't really answer the purpose of life, rather it avoids answering it. But that is not reason alone to dismiss this stance. The next is, that this argument is just a conclusion- it needs support, such as proving why all religions are in fact wrong. Also how then can we for example dismiss the scientific facts in the Quran or other miraculous events? Also refer to an answer to atheism in my older posts.

2
Okay, again this is a huge thinking flaw, many religions contradict in their teachings, for example you have Muslims saying Jesus was only a messenger of God, while Christians claim he was the son of God - how can both possibly be right?
And for a religion to be from God, it ALL has to be 100% correct, so the next argument that in fact all religions teach good things therefore are all right, is also easily dissmissable as even if a religion has good teachings, if its beliefs are wrong, then there is no point trying to reach God through the path which is clearly wrong, rather we should search for a path which is authentically from God and which also teaches good.

3
Here we are entering into comparative religion, and I wont go into this as theres plenty of sources out there already:
www.beconvinced.com
www.muslim-responses.com
www.answering-christianity.com
and ofcourse theres a "christianity" part to my second post, which rather pales in contrasts to the forementioned sites ;).

But basically heres what we have to look at:
Is the religion's teachings sensible and logical and in harmony with what science tells us?
Are the teachings actually what they were when they were first revealed from God, so in other words - ARE THEY AUTHENTIC? ARE THEY UNCORRUPTED?ARE THEY WHAT GOD SAID OR JUST A MAN?

To conclude, religion is really quite easy to understand once we know what questions we are trying to answer. I hope this doesnt sound like the ramblings of a madman ;)

2007-02-07T14:41:00.000-08:00

2007-02-07T12:21:00.000-08:00

Science in the Quran -
As a Muslim, we have faith in God. However this isn't blind faith. This faith rests upon common sense, rationale, logic and, the topic for today, science.
Now most people think that religions are just about faith, and all they do is basically say something, such as "believe this book is from God", and then, just because the teachings in the book are quite wise, expect you to believe in it.
Now Islam says you have faith, but this goes hand in hand with proof. What proofs can there be in a book 1400 years ago that we, the enlightened/scientific age could possibly accept? well here we go: (I've copy pasted a lot here :) )

Quran and science

1) star formation
A new star forming out of a cloud of gas and dust (nebula), which is one of the remnants of the "smoke" that was the origin of the whole universe. (The Space Atlas, Heather and Henbest, page 50)
Allah Almighty said: "Then He turned to the heaven when it was smoke...(The Noble Quran, 41:11)"

2) Only Allah could do this without a telescope!
"And when the heaven splitteth asunder and becometh ROSY LIKE RED HIDE - (The Noble Quran, 55:37)" (look at picture)

3) The Big Bang

"Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of creation), before we clove them asunder? We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe? (The Noble Quran, 21:30)"

The Arabic word for "sky" in Noble Verse 41:11 above is "samaa", which is the same word used for "heaven" and "Universe". Since the 7 heavens didn't exist yet (because the seven firmaments or heavens were mentioned in the next Noble Verse 41:12), then this CLEARLY MAKES the "samaa" be referring to the Universe, since the heaven was the entire Universe when GOD Almighty "comprehended in His design the sky". He then later divided it into seven firmaments or heavens.

Anyway, as we clearly see above in the Noble Verses, Allah Almighty initially created the Universe or the "samaa" with smoke (Dukhan). Dukhan in Arabic refers to the smoke coming from fire, which is always HOT GAS.

4) The expansion of the universe is now a commonly known fact...old hat for the Muslims:

"And the firmament, We constructed with power and skill and verily We are expanding it. (The Noble Quran, 51:47)"

5) we discover nowadays that there are 7 layers of the atmosphere....the Quran says it to a bunch of arabs in a desert 1400 years ago:

Do you not see how He created seven heavens in layers?

[Al-Quran, 71:15]

He Who created the seven heavens in layers…

[Al-Quran, 67:3]

But don't take my word for it:

Earth's atmosphere is composed of several layers having distinct chemical and electrical properties. (1)

The atmosphere consist of several layers. (2)

The atmosphere of the Earth may be divided into several distinct layers. (3)

(1) http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/space/ATMO_PHYSICS.HTML

(2) http://pss.fit.edu/gpl/allskycam/skyhome.htm

(3) http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/earth/atmosphere.html

6) The sun in an orbit

We didn't know about this amazing fact until very recently, how the sun is infact orbiting around the center of our Galaxy, the Milky Way.

And He (i.e., Allah) it is Who created the night and the day, the sun and the moon. They float, each in a orbit (The Noble Quran, Ya'seen 21:33)

and I shall assume everyone accepts that infact the moon is in an orbit. ;)

7) The fact that the sperm decide our sex

The female sex cell has XX, and the sperm has XY. (Now this means that the male sperm decides what the sex of the child is going to be....the Quran tells us:

"Now let man but think From what he is created! He is created from A drop emitted -- Proceedings from between the backbone and the ribs: Surely (Allah) is able To bring him back (To life)! The Day that (All) things secret Will be tested, (Man) will have No power, And no helper. (The Noble Quran, 86:5-10)"

"Verily We created Man from a drop of mingled sperm, In order to try him: So We gave him (the gifts), Of Hearing and Sight. (The Noble Quran, 76:2)"

8) All life originated from water

Now scientists have discovered that infact all life did start off from water , but again the Quran mentions this 1400 years ago!

"Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of creation), before we clove them asunder? We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe? (The Noble Quran, 21:30)"

"It is He Who has created man from water: then has He established relationships of lineage and marriage: for thy Lord has power (over all things). (The Noble Quran, 25:54)"

"And God has created every animal from water: of them there are some that creep on their bellies; some that walk on two legs; and some that walk on four. God creates what He wills for verily God has power over all things. (The Noble Quran, 24:45)"

9) The fact in the Quran that everyones fingertips were unique and were used in the Quran as a way to differentiate between people.

"Does man think that WE Cannot assemble his bones? Nay, WE are able to put Together in perfect order The very tips of his fingers."

[AL-QUR'AN 75:3-4]

10) The Quran mentions the fact that plants have 2 sexes and are produced in pairs. we have only recently discovered this but again its mentioned without the aid of a microscope, revealed to some of the most backward people on earth at that time, to an illiterate man - and the words revealed to him carry this incredible, nay - mind-boggling knowledge in them.

“(God is the One who) sent down rain from the sky and with it brought forth a variety of plants in pairs [azwajan min nabatin shatta].” {Quran, 20:53}

The Arabic word "Azwajan" is literally derived from the root word "Zawj", which literally means "pair".

Also, in Arabic a husband and a wife are called "Azwaj", "Azwajan" and/or "Zawjan", which is another similar word that is derived from "Zawj".

Conclusion

These and a huge number of other amazing scientific facts can be found at http://www.answering-christianity.com/sci_quran.htm

(This is the site ive used for this blog)

(among the ones not mentioned are: the internal waves within an ocean, Embryo development in detail mentioned in the Quran, a barrier between two seas of different salinities and temperatures etc, mixing and flowing into one another, among others)

Basically once you keep in perspective that the Quran was revealed 1400 years ago to someone who couldnt possibly have guessed, never mind known, this whole list of recent scientific discoveries ( he was illiterate and the society he lived in was a tribal desert society which had little to no scientific knowledge), you have to conclude that this book must be from the all-knowing creator: Allah.

The Quran mentioning this means that it must be from God, as the other options are irrational, namely: Muhammad got extremely lucky while "making up" the Quran, or that this was added in later on after these discoveries.

The first we have already dealt with, the second is also not true, as once you look into the history of the Quranic compilation (see previous posts) and the history of the Muslim empire during the first few 100 years, you realise that the Quran we have today, is exactly the same Quran Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Him) recited 1400 years ago. And that no additions or subtractions ever took place right from the start, never mind 100s of years after when the scientists properly started researching and discovering information (not the info mentioned above though-other information).

The reason being that with 100,000 of people who knew the entire Quran of by heart, walking around, at that point, plus there only being one version of the Quran available meant that it was impossible for anyone to dupe others by additions into the text.

Even these early Muslim scientists didn't discover stuff such as the Big Bang idea, the embryo development cycle, all the other facts in the Quran - the majority of which didn't get discovered over the last 50-100 years!

So to really conclude, Islam, along with all its beautiful teachings of worshipping the One all-powerful God, living a healthy life and aiming to go to Paradise, also gives Muslims the security that their religion doesn't contradict science(unlike others), rather it adds to it. This all contributes to the stronger faith (Eman) of the Muslim, making him a better practising Muslim as he really believes in God (Allah) and he really believes that the Quran is the Word of God.

2007-02-05T14:07:00.000-08:00

Coming next---
Religions [or ways of life :) ] shouldn't just be about BLIND faith. because then the faith is weak as it doesnt rest on anything firm.
Islam says religion should be about faith which rests on science, logic, rationale and common sense.

InshAllah (God willing) the next post in going to discuss the dozens of amazing scientific facts in the Quran - which have only been discovered recently - but were in the Quran 1400 years ago!

2007-02-05T13:30:00.000-08:00

Quran-
The Noble Quran is the Muslim holy book. It is not, as is commonly thought, a biography of Muhammad, rather its a book of guidance for mankind straight from their God - (Allah).
The book talks about 100s of different topics, but the whole book revolves around one idea: The singular, simple and pure concept of one God ("say he, Allah is one" 112:1) (tawheed- in arabic). It teaches that the purpose of life is to accept God without any partners and then to worship God in the way he has taught us( see previous post).

The Quran was revealed in many different revelations in different times and circumstances to the messenger of God- Muhammad (pbuh). Muhammad was illiterate so it was very surprising for the arabs at the time, for Muhammad to be reciting what they admitted was so beautiful that it was "not the speech of man". The Quran is always without fail God speaking to humanity, rather than Muhammad speaking from his own thoughts. It was completed in 23 years. This revealed Quran was taught to the companions of Muhammad and they learnt it by heart (its very possible -I know many many people who have done this 100,000s in the world, probably in the millions). It was also written down, dictated by Muhammad to his scribes.

After the messenger of God passed away, the Quran was compiled into one book by the Khalifa (ruler) of the muslims, so as to safeguard the Quran from any corruption. This was done quickly as many Huffaz ( memorisers of the Quran) were dying in battles so the Quran had to be written down. The companions all threw themselves into contributing to this compilation. Now the person doing the compilation was himself a Haffiz ( memoriser of the entire Quran). But he didnt rely on his memory and his copies....he said that for every verse in the Quran to be safely included, there had to be a written record of it, written by someone who was dictated the verse directly from Muhammad and atleast 2 people who knew the verse by heart. Thus the Quran was compiled.

Later on another compilation took place, so as to give the companions who were away fighting at the time of the first compilation, a chance to contribute to the honoured task of compiling the Quran. - This compilation exactly matched the first one! so 2 seperate compilations using different sources got exactly the same verses!

This is a far cry from the Judaeo-Christian scriptures, penned by anonymous authors, each with their own ideology to spread, with many contradictions and even clear-cut borrowing form each other! They are essentially (inaccurate) biographies of various people, with little to nothing directly from God(God doesnt really address mankind in these texts). The Bible was compiled 150-300 years after Jesus. The Quran on the other hand was compiled using authentic sources, with all people involved known, along with their life stories and character, with multiple independent sources all corroborating and supporting each other. This was done within only 2-4 years after Muhammads death! (note: closer to time=less chance of information loss)

Vlog #9: Who Hijacked Islam??!

2007-02-03T08:12:00.001-08:00

this is a fantastic series of sites - very very useful and a good reminder for us all

islam- not really a religion

2007-02-02T14:52:00.000-08:00

Most people think Islam is a religion. they are right in a sense. however the word "religion" doesnt really do justice to Islam.
theres a remarkably fluid word in arabic - "deen" - this basically means "way of life". Now thats what Islam really is all about.
Islam teaches basically that the purpose for our creation was only to : worship God. (i have not created Jinn and mankind except but to worship me 51:56) - now if that is the main aim of our life...then surely everything, yes EVERYTHING should then therefore be geared towards this worship. Islam has a say in everything we do in our life. here ill give a few examples:
okay so lets start right at the start of the day:

you wake up and immediately say "praise be to Allah who gives us life after he has caused us to die and to him is the return." Now after this you get up, put your slippers on (right foot first) and go to the toilet (left foot first). here you read "oh Allah I seek protection in you from the male and female unclean spirits." - then you go to brush your teeth. ( the Prophet (PBUH)( whos example muslims have to follow) used to brush 5 times a day, sometimes even more, and he strongly encouraged brushing of our teeth! and this is 1400 years ago, before everyone knew about the dangers of unclean teeth too. and now we find out we should brush before bed and after we wake up...what did the prophet used to do? exactly that!)

now you want to answer the call of nature...does islam have teachings for that too? - yes it does!
you answer the call of nature...then you use your left hand (islam pays high emphasis on keeping seperate the hand with which you touch dirty things and the hand you use for other things like eating) to clean youself, using water(as islam teaches). Now why water...you may ask...well the answer is simply that if you had some dog-poo on a table..would you use a tissue to clean it off or would you use water...? why use tissues for our own bodies...and be less clean?

okay so now your all spruced up...you want to do wudu (ritual cleansing-which is required before you can do ritual prayer or read the Quran ) -so you start....rinse your mouth and nose out 3 times, wash entire face 3 times, wash arms upto elbows 3 times, wipe hair and wash ears, then wash feet - you now are clean im sure you'll agree with me.
okay now you realise its a friday - Islam teaches that a person should bathe or shower atleast once a week-and especially on a friday - so you go into shower and have a shower. ( it is said that cleanliness is half of faith - in islam)

Ill stop there(dont want to bore people...i think ive proven that islam is infact a way of life...There are many more teachings about being in the toilet that i havent mentioned...let alone the 100,000 of other authentic teachings about other activities(eating, sleeping, business, politics etc etc)...not like other religions where its just hearsay with anonymous authors.

by the way, you dont HAVE to do this as a muslim, the majority of the things i mnetioned are recommended but not compulsory...so if a muslim decided to ditch brushing their teeth for a week - they are still muslim. :) the whole concept is that - you have a purpose to your life - worshipping God - and you try and remember and worship him in every single act of yours.

(visit www.searchtruth.com-and look at hadith section and see if there some topic you cant find addressed or a principle to apply to the topic in question- and look at the sheer number of authentic sayings of Muhammad(PBUH))

hey that might be an other topic to write about...what is "authentic" and what is the "SCIENCE" of hadith ( the sayings or actions of the Prophet Muhammad(PBUH)) and how they are verified to be authentic...and ofcourse a comparison to other religious documents which were much more volatile in their formative years and dubious in their origins.

2007-02-01T15:09:00.000-08:00

Dawah on MSN

increasingly people are spending a lot of their time online and on MSN. this is an excellent opportunity to tell people about islam, because naturally in ther own homes people feel much more comfortable and online they are much more open too. face to face there are sometimes some barriers.
so what we have started is to do dawah online (telling people about islam), not converting them, as that would be trying sumthing only Allah can do - we cannot convert even 1 person - only Allah can guide them. all we are doing is giving them the information for them to make that decision for themselves.
so what i propose us muslims online do is add each other ( that way we have collectively more knowledge and poeple to give dawah to) and then after reading this brief (badly written in some parts) guide - go ahead and give dawah.
People involved:

Umair --- umair_tk@hotmail.com
Ibrahim --- ibrahim_thebest123@hotmail.com
Ammar--- ammar_tg@hotmail.com
Danyal--- m_danyal@hotmail.co.uk
Akib
Zeeshan---
Adam
Ashraf
wasif wasif_syed_44@hotmail.com
(add us plz)

Why we r doing it:
as its Fard on us to convey message of Islam
as Biggest sunnah of Messenger (saw)
as it says so in the quran: 12:108
as its our obligation to the non muslims we meet - so that they cant say to us on the say of resurrection
that we didnt tell them about Islam...and then we'll be in a tight spot

WHo we r doing it for:
We are doing it for Allah alone, and if we do it for ANY other reason then we aint doing it for Allah
so we have to keep a tabs on our intention all the time.

What are we doing?
calling to the worship of the creator ( ALllah) alone and without partners rather than the worhship
of the creation.
calling to worship Allah in the way he has said in the Quran and to do it according to the sunnah
of the Prophet (saw)

so basically...the kalimah/shahadah - no God worthy of
being worshipped except Allah, and Muhammad (saw) is his messenger.

_________________________________________________________________________________________
| 11 key things for dawah |
| |
| 1) doing it only for Allah |
| 2) knowing what we r calling to: eg knowing basics about Islam - certain knowledge |
| 3) call to EVERYONE - all have that right to know the truth. |
| 4) sincerity - practise what you preach - absolutely vital |
| 5) know intellectual background, and background of listeners- |
| relationship should be like a doctor to a patient. |
| 6) know your and their psychology -good first impression- plant a seed about islam |
| never get emotive, and argumentative, keep convo postive (lots of LOLs and ROFLs :)|
| 7) oppose falsehood and aggression in any form - justice is huhe concept in islam |
| 8) dont get dragged into proving bible wrong-if it happens it happens |
| but always remember keep the convo about islam at all times. |
| 9) offer better alternative - islam and social ills, purpose of life etc |
|10) be patient- remember ppl dont change overnight - many take years |
| to become a muslim, its important that we plant that seed and then nurture it |
|11) be ready to accept criticism, and be adaptable, and this comes with experience - |
| - so gain some and do dawah all the time u r online! |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
coming soon!
Quran-
what it is
who its for
what it talks about
its compilation-comparison with bible
science in the quran

Islam- a way of life
--Islam and Social problems
-drugs, smoking etc
-no sex before marriage
-islamic economics
-islamic laws
etc

--islam and everyday life
-islam and toiletry
-eating
-sleeping
-talking
-studying
etc

things to say to certain types of people: ( for the argumentative among us ;) )

------------------------------------------------------------christians--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First of all before we give some points of discussion about christianity - we always seem to forget
that our aim is not to prove their religion is false, rather it is to prove Islam is right.
we shouldnt criticise them and make them go on the defensive as then our objective of inviting them to
Islam is not going to be acheived however well we put it after that attack on their beliefs. If
it does infact crop up then obviously we discuss it, but always remember to give the islamic viewpoint
,which without exception makes more sense, so as to keep telling them about Islam.

We should also tell them about the similarities between us eg. "we have to love Jesus mor than we love
our own parents" or "we have to believe in the bible to be muslim"(obviously the uncorrupted initial version) or
"islam also teaches peace and forgiveness", or "we also pray to God" etc etc

What do they believe:

1)the majority believe in the trinity (their way of explaining God): Father, Son, Holy Ghost.
They believe that God is 3 parts in 1.
2)They believe Jesus was man and God.
3)They believe the Bible to be the word of God.
4)They believe Jesus died for the forgiveness of our sins
5)they believe he was resurrected after 3 days.

(--a good reference for christianity is www.answering-christianity.com--)

-Point 1
--------
the trinity doesnt make sense. its not correct logically. when talking this analogy is quite good:
"You say Jesus, Father and holy spirit is God?" "ok so Jesus is one pencil, Father is another and Holy
spirit is another. that is 3 pencils...how can 3 pencils = 1 pencil?"
now they will generally say "no they are all at once so they are one"
say:so 1/3=0.333 - so jesus is only a third God? - isnt that limiting God and saying theres something
he cant do? - isnt that defeating the purpose of God? -
also the trinity isnt mentioned ONCE in the entire bible!, jesus (as) never claims to be god! infact
jesus comes across as a very monothiestic and humble messenger of God in the Bible -
how then can christians say he is god if he never even claims it - its like you saying im going to kiss everyone
who walks past me, after you hear me clearly say that i am gonna kick anyone that walks past me!

now theres a new argument - "we cannot comprehend god" - they say- therefore it doesnt matter if we cant make sense of the trinity...
okay if that is the case:
1) why does the torah stick to a monotheistic god? (and the majority of the NT too)- if they believe in the torah (OT)...
then they must realise that they have totally changed the whole nature of god form what the bible states.
why does god change his entire way of revealing himself and reveal 2/3 more of himself in the NT?
2) life is a test - god wants us to believe in him - why would he reveal an illogical and unbelievable religion then?
then using this argument we could argue anything about god - like say a relgion says that a female goddess mated
with a male god and produced discworld which morphed into the earth etc etc - all this makes sense when we say we cannot comprehend god!

and then offer them the islamic answer - god is one and only one and jesus is not god and only a messenger of god.
-point 2
--------
Jesus was man and God? - so he somehow combined his weakness of man with the infinite power of God?
So when jesus died on the cross...who died...God? - was the world without God for 3 days?
So when Jesus says he doesnt know when the day of Judgement is...is he not God...isnt he all knowing.
when he prays...is he praying to himself...why is he asking himself for forgiveness or help if he is
god himself...is he accepting the superiority of the father over himself? in which case he isnt all-
powerful!
why does he say "he is my God and your God" - err..isnt he God?

perhaps the biggest point here is this: If jesus was God - and the Bible is the book of God - Why in
the world doesnt it say even once in the Bible - clearly that Jesus was God?? thats like claiming
that I am giving away money...without me ever saying so...and then people accepting the words of other
people...

Jesus is called the Son of God in the Bible - but then again...so is Adam and so is David among
others...this was an expression in those days meaning to be a Prophet or someone close to God.

Jesus says in the bible he has not come to change the law (jewish beliefs) rather to reliven them...isnt saying
that Jesus (as) is God totally against the monotheism Judaism teaching?

- Point 3
----------
www.video.google.com - search for "who wrote the bible" for a useful resource - and of course
answering-christianity.com... ;)

some points...Bible scholars accept that the writers of the 4 gospels were all anonymous, they have
ascribed them to Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, but no-one knows who wrote them.
The Bible was compiled a full 150-300 years after jesus! it was compiled by people who had their own sets of beliefs
and they only chose gospels most suited to those specific beliefs...

incidentally 27 gospels were left out of the final Bible! among which are the gospel of Barnabas, peter, thomas and mary
magdelene! these people form main characters in the gospels... and their writings are declared as heretical!
(incidentally the gospel of barnabas is supposed to contain prophecies by name of Muhammed (saw) - search it online..)
muhammad in the Bible - \deut, xviii, 15 /john, xiv, 16, also check out shaykh Deedats works - very useful (search online)

The Bible has clear contradictions such as the genealogy of Jesus in Mathew 1:1 and Luke ...
(for more...refer to answering-christianity.com)

The Bible also has sections where it says "early manuscripts dont mention this bit"...why is it included then? surely
the manuscripts closest to the time were most accurate, and anyway why were there differences between the two texts...
surely as "Gods word" it couldnt be edited by any freestyle scribe? ( interesting use of freestyle...;) )
the gospel writers were not eye-witnesses...rather they wrote about events from hearsay of others.

also the bible is scientifically incorrect - in the creation story - it clearly says:
1) that the night and day were there before the sun and the moon!
2) that the plants came before the sun!
3) no evolution whatsoever in 7 days
4) they may argue that 7 periods of time argument - well how do plants survive millions of years before the sun? and anyway
when god rests on the 7th day...is there no evolution then?
now they may try to neatly sidestep this argument by saying that the creation story is actually just figurative before science
told us the truth...well tell them...u say the bible is from god...that god knows all...its for guidance...why then would god LIE
to us in his holy book? - also this means the bible contradicts clear fact - sumthing we can prove for sumthing in contradiction to...
it...we obviously believe the proveable side! science! quran too! dawah territory!

now tell them about there only being one version of the quran - and how its exactly the same as the first quran-and then
discuss the quran and bring in islam ( dawah teritory)

-point 4
--------
jesus died for the forgiveness of our sins, to get rid of original sin...and went to hell for 3 days.
okay well first of all we ask the question...why didnt Jesus "supposedly God" not just forgive the sins - or why did the
"loving father" not just forgive the sins?
2nd - its highly unfair that one man suffers for everyone...thats like hanging me for Ian huntleys murders! totally
unfair! And God is most just...wheres the justice...and anyway isnt this world supposed to be a test? wheres the test
now if we aint gonna be punished whatever happens?
next we can recyle the point that if jesus is god...and god dies on the cross...who the hell (pardon the pun) is running
the world?
next if jesus went to hell for 3 days...why dont the Gospels mention it?...and anyway this is "God" we are talking
about...God doesnt need to get punished...thats just plain stupid... god creates us to test us...he makes everyone pass
the test...and then he punishes himself for out sins? whaaat!

- point 5
---------
jesus was resurrected...but was he? the early gospels dont mention this.
also when jesus "is resurrected" he is seen my Mary Magdelene ( a close companion) but she doesnt recognise him! this is
her religious leader who shes been taught by...and she doesnt recognise him..how can that be...the same for the
disciples...they dont recognise him either! how can that possibly be?
then theres the conundrum that is the sign of Jonah - (http://www.jamaat.net/jonah/signofjonah.html) - basically jesus
says he will give:ND THERE SHALL NO SIGN (no miracle) BE GIVEN TO IT, BUT THE SIGN (miracle) OF THE PROPHET JONAS: FOR
AS JONAS WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE WHALE'S BELLY - now jonas was alive in the belly of the whale - so jesus
was alive in the belly of the earth too...also the three days and three night totally doesnt add up as if jesus was buried
on friday evening and the tomb was empty by the sunday morning- then we are looking at only 1 day and 2 nights!

general tips:
always focus on the trinity more - as that is easiest to lead to islam and tawheed (one-ness of Allah)
dont waste too much time on die-hard christians as they are just not interested in what you have to say...
its hard to not get in a heated debate sumtimes but always try to keep the temperature at under 14 degrees celsius :)

---------------------------------------------------------------Atheists---------------------------------------------------------------------

They are basically people who don't believe that God exists.

- Point 1 - BIG BANG THEORY
---------------------------
This is something the atheist use to explain how we came into being. The theory of big bang tells us that there were some "matter"
at the beginning which had immense temperature and density. And there was like a supernova which caused the space to expand... and the
earth was formed.

QURAN's VIEW ON THIS: Then He Istawa (rose over) towards the heaven when it was SMOKE, and said to it and to the earth: "Come both
of you willingly or unwillingly." They both said: "We come, willingly." (41:11).

"Do not the unbelievers see that the Heavens and the earth were joined together, then We split them apart." (21:30)

This shows that Quran completely agrees with the theory of big bang. At this point during your conversation, you could say, "How could
someone know about this 1400 years ago?"

Also, where did this matter for big bang come from?

- Point 2 - BIG BANG THEORY EXTENDED...
---------------------------------------
It is also known that the space is constantly expanding... The Quran agrees with it and this is what it says:

"And the firmament, We constructed with power and skill and verily We are expanding it." (51:47)
**firemanent means "the vault of heaven; sky"
Who could have known that 1400 years ago? Only Allah.

- Point 3 - Theory of Evolution
-----------------------------------
Theory of evolution states how we all came from water. Quran also agrees with it.

"Have not those who disbelieve known that the heavens and the earth were joined together as one united piece,
then We parted them? And We have made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?" (21:30)

Evolution then goes on to claim how we evolved from one species to another... this is where the problem arises... we as muslims don't agree
with this as we know and are told that Prophet Adam was created on his image (i.e. he didnt go through stages of being infant etc).
Furthermore, if you think about it, life started from water... so lets say fishes were the first animals. How would a fish develop lungs? Why would it need
to? Its gills are specialised to take in oxygen from water. It is inefficient to breathe in water and extract oxygen from it, as water is dense and so lots
of energy will be wasted to carry this out.
I asked this question to someone and he said what if the fish gets washed to the shores and lays eggs. Clearly there are some things wrong with this
suggestion. Firstly, the fish would die if it leaves the water since fishes dont "breathe" in air but get their oxygen from water. Secondly, say for argument's
sake, the fish layed eggs as soon as it came to the shore and then died. The eggs won't hatch into animals with lungs because they contain genes for forming
gills, so they would immediately die.

We believe partly in evolution, things like "adapting" to environment. So, for example if I go live at high altitude, my body will start to produce more red
blood cells to carry more oxygen. This is because there is less oxygen in the environment at high altitude. The body "adapts" to the environment. As you can
see this idea is completely logic and makes sense.

- Other General Points - including Lion analogy
-----------------------------------------------

athiests think they are the most logical ppl on earth (they love science)as they think its irrational to believe in god or to give god as a
reason for our creation etc. -
firstly congratulate them on their independent thinking, and their quest for believing in proven things then ask them why they dont believe in
god?

okay give them this higly logical analogy: you have a room, someone says there is a lion in it...they offer you a gun...do u or do u not take it?
lets break the answers down:
u take the gun - no lion - ur safe
u take the gun - lion attacks in a bloody rage and jumps for your throat...u shoot it...ur safe
u dont take the gun - no lion - ur safe
u dont take the gun -lion attacks in a bloody rage and jumps for your throat...the lion gets your throat, and eats you. - emphatically not safe!

so the obvious choice is to take the gun (islam) and protect yourself from the lion ( punishment)

also always use science with atheists as they love it - use the obove points for help.

negative cohesion ( using a third party you both oppose to get a relationship together) eg the idea of the trinity...they will see you dont like
irrational concepts.

also very useful is to spell out for them what they believe in, namely: that they have seen everything in the universe, at all times, outside the
universe, and all this at the same time...and therefore have concluded there is no god! - they havent - so they cant say there is absolutely no
chance of there being a god.

these convos should be quite easy to link back to tawheed ( the oneness of God).

---------------------------------------------------------------Agnostics------------------------------------------------------------------------

these aint sure whether there is a god or not....use the atheist section to convince them of a god...then...

1)give them scientific facts in quran as a "wow" factor (so to speak),
2)and then ask them open questions and basically find out their purpose in life
3)where they think we came from,
4)where we are going, etc

obviously always giving islamic viewpoint too...

coming soon!
InshAllah

Deists: think there is a god...but dont follow a religion...
?Hindus?:
?Jews?: (OT reliability maybe)
spiritual religions eg Budhism etc:
ppl not interested:

plz let us know if anything we said is wrong - we are absolutely open to justified criticism-and anything that we said is wrong is from us and anything we said right is from Allah.
and above all -GET INVOLVED!!

intro to blog

2007-02-01T14:56:00.000-08:00

This blog is inshAllah going to be a bit of a reference for all people interested in giving dawah to islam, online on software such as MSN, Yahoo and others.
this website will enable us InshAllah to let other muslims brethren know about this excellent opportunity we have online everyday (especially us teenagers) when we go on MSN etc, to tell people about islam.
and simple maths tells us the more people know about this opportunity...the more people we give dawah to...the more reward we get. :)