Dec 31, 2012

How to approach the Quran by Shaykh Yusuf Al Qardawi [pdf]

How to approach the Quran by Shaykh Yusuf Al Qardawi

http://www.islambasics.com/index.php?act=download&BID=173

Riyadhus Saliheen Audio

 http://www.kalamullah.com/riyadhus-saliheen-audio.html

In this never been done before presentation of Imaam An-Nawaawee's widely accepted book you will find:

*Each and every verse from the Quran that starts the chapters recited in a beautiful and clear manner by Shaykh Adil Ajaawee and Nadir Qallaawee
*Each and every hadeeth read in a clear fashion by Brother Bilal Abdul-Kareem
*A brief explanation of each hadeeth read by Musa Maguire and Abu Taubah Mukhlis Robertson

English Only | English/Arabic Part 1 | English/Arabic Part 2 |
Explanation of Riyadhus Saliheen | Ibn Uthaymeen

Dec 25, 2012

A concise definition of Islamic Democracy given by Dr. Israr Ahmed

 A concise definition of Islamic Democracy given by Dr. Israr Ahmed (Rahimahullah)

1- Objections on Dr Israr Ahmad - Democracy vs Islamic Democracy --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpcBGs-8Ovo

Dec 22, 2012

Biography of Shaikh-al-Islam Imam Ibn Taimiyya

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CULaJmcVLtQ

Sheikh Muhammad Musa Al-Sharif

The speaker is Dr. Muhammad Musa Al-Shareef who was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and graduated from the Faculty of Shari`ah, Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, in 1408 A.H. He obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in the Qur'an and the Sunnah from Faculty of Usul Ad-Din (Theology) - Umm Al-Qura University. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Islamic Studies, King Abdul Aziz University.

Dec 19, 2012

We need to get over the diseases of nationalism, tribalism, different ethnicities, different languages

We need to get over the diseases of nationalism, tribalism, different ethnicities, different languages that may lead to differences amongst us, when in reality they should be a reason for our strength as an Ummah. This variety that we have, the different backgrounds that we have, the different ethnicities that we have, the different languages that we speak, should be a source of strength for us and not a source of weakness. 

Brothers and sisters, if we go back to Qur'an we'll find the answers but the problem is that we follow our whims, we follow our desires, we follow what we believe to be right and wrong, not what Allah tells us to be right and wrong. 

~ Imam Anwar Al Awlaki (Rahimahullah)

Dec 12, 2012

How to Read a Book by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

 I found it important for me to go through and all others too who are interested to be a 'READER'...

How to Read a Book by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf - Part 1 :: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHIiqWqPOng


How to Read a Book by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf - Part 2 :: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KorqQ25-h0k

Dec 1, 2012

The Caliphate: A Case Study in Confusion

The Caliphate: A Case Study in Confusion
By Abdul Hamid Abu Sulayman, pp110-118

http://islamic-world.net/khalifah/confusion.htm

One of the best stories I've ever heard : Making a Difference?

As she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children an untruth. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same. However, that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard .

Mrs.. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he did not play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. In addition, Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big 'F ' at the top of his papers.

Nov 25, 2012

Desiring to be Elevated an Popular

Desiring to be Elevated an Popular : an important knowledge reminder for the youth from kalamullah

http://www.kalamullah.com/youth09.html

Nov 19, 2012

Shaykh Qaradawi's Friday sermon at Al Azhar Mosque with English Subtitle

Shaykh Qaradawi's Friday sermon at Al Azhar Mosque with English Subtitle

Here goes the youtube link : Youtbe link for the video

May Allah give return to those who translated it. Shamim bhai, Shihan and Hala Apu.

Nov 17, 2012

You will never achieve what you want until you leave what you desire

Imam Suhaib Webb was discussing about some matters. He quoted from his teachers and other scholars. I learned some amazing points, my heart was shaken :

You will never achieve what you want until you leave what you desire. And you will never reach your goals until you have patience on what you hate.

 Every time you learn, if you behavior is not improved, be careful about hypocrisy.

If somebody worships Allah for a good feelings, he worships feelings not Allah. The highest station of worshiping is to worship Allah because He is Allah.

I learned these wonderful thoughts in the video "I tried but it didn't work", an amazing and entertaining lecture of only 34 minutes. Please, do not miss it, I request!

The video link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an30sWAUr74

Nov 16, 2012

Islamists’ Ideas on Democracy and Faith Face Test in Tunisia

 By ANTHONY SHADID, The New York Times  Saturday, February 18, 2012

[This article was reported and written before Mr. Shadid's death in Syria]

The epiphany of Said Ferjani came after his poor childhood in a pious town in Tunisia, after a religious renaissance a generation ago awakened his intellect, after he plotted a coup and a torturer broke his back, and after he fled to Britain to join other Islamists seeking asylum on a passport he had borrowed from a friend.

Twenty-two years later, when Mr. Ferjani returned home, he understood the task at hand: building a democracy, led by Islamists, that would be a model for the Arab world.

"This is our test," he said.

If the revolts that swept the Middle East a year ago were the coming of age of youths determined to imagine another future for the Arab world, the aftermath that has brought elections in Egypt and Tunisia and the prospect of decisive Islamist influence in Morocco, Libya and, perhaps, Syria is the moment of another, older generation.

No one knows how one of the most critical chapters in the history of the modern Arab world will end, as the region pivots from a movement against dictatorship toward a movement for something that is proving far more ambiguous. But the generation embodied by Mr. Ferjani, shaped by jail, exile and repression and bound by faith and alliances years in the making, will have the greatest say in determining what emerges.

Their ascent to the forefront of Arab politics charts the lingering intellectual and organizational prowess of the Muslim Brotherhood, a revivalist movement founded by an Egyptian schoolteacher in a Suez Canal town in 1928. But intellectual currents that once radiated from Egypt now just as often flow in the other direction, as scholars and activists in Morocco and Tunisia, perched on the Arab world's periphery and often influenced by the West, export ideas that seek a synthesis of what the most radical Islamists, along with their many critics here and in the West, still deem irreconcilable: faith and democracy.

More often than not, they are asking societies for trust that, given the experiences of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution or the Islamist-led coup in Sudan in 1989, authoritarian leaders and secular forces are reluctant to offer.

Mr. Ferjani, a 57-year-old self-taught intellectual as exuberant as he is pious, acknowledges the doubts. In one of several interviews, he declared that history — a word he uses often — would judge his generation not on its ability to take power but rather on what it did with power, which has come after four decades of activism.

"I can tell you one thing, we now have a golden opportunity," he said, smiling. "And in this golden opportunity, I'm not interested in control. I'm interested in delivering the best charismatic system, a charismatic, democratic system. This is my dream."

A Chance Encounter

Nothing in Mr. Ferjani's childhood really set him on the path to realize this ambition. Born in Kairouan, a town reputed by some Muslims to be Islam's fourth holiest city, he was not especially pious as a child. His father, a shopkeeper, never managed to provide enough for his family. He remembered going three days without food once, and wearing cheap sandals to school. "Poverty, we tasted it," he recalled.

By his own account, he was unruly and rambunctious until he turned 16. That year, Rachid al-Ghannouchi, an Arab nationalist turned Islamist who had studied in Egypt and Syria before returning to Tunisia, took a job teaching Arabic in Kairouan. Mr. Ghannouchi would stay only a year before setting out to eventually form the Islamic Tendency Movement, then the Ennahda Party, but he left a legacy with his students.

"He was always talking about the world and politics," Mr. Ferjani said. "Why as Muslims are we backwards? What makes us backwards? Is it our destiny to be so?"

The questions posed by Mr. Ghannouchi have shaped successive generations of Islamists, a term that never captures their diversity. The theme was examined in the work of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose notion of missionary work proved so successful over 50 years. It was there, too, in the works of Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian thinker whose writings resonated long after he was hanged in 1966, helping give rise to a militant Islamism that bloodied the Middle East. Later, "The Hidden Duty," a text that laid the groundwork for the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981, tried to resolve the issue. So did Mr. Ghannouchi, who endorsed pluralism and democracy, even as revolution raged in Iran.

In Kairouan's colonial-era Negra Mosque, Mr. Ferjani and a hundred other youths gathered to study them all. "Read, read, read, read," he recalled. "Even when I walked, I read."

Mr. Ferjani eventually made his way to Tunis, the capital, where he joined his old Arabic teacher's group. "Politics was there from the beginning," he said in the interview.

Tunisia was ruled at the time by Habib Bourguiba, who was so secular that he once made it a point to drink orange juice on television during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. Mr. Bourguiba, in power since 1957, cracked down on Mr. Ghannouchi's followers, and with the prospect of many of them being executed, Mr. Ferjani said he helped in plotting a coup d'état. He met many of the organizers at a video store he ran in a low-slung building of white stucco and blue shutters, across the street from Parliament.

Seventeen hours before they were to carry it out, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Mr. Bourguiba's interior minister, led his own coup. Ten days later, on Nov. 17, 1987, Mr. Ferjani was arrested. He spent 18 months in jail, where his interrogators strapped him to a bar in what he called "the roasted chicken" position and fractured his vertebra with an iron rod. Unable to walk, the pain searing, he would be carried by prisoners on their backs whenever he had to move.

"They were extreme experts in how to make the torture felt in every part of the body," Mr. Ferjani recalled. "I would stay awake until 5 a.m. in the morning. I'd pray till dawn, then I'd sleep, and I'd only fall asleep because there was nothing left in me."

Five months after his release, still in a wheelchair, he trained himself to walk 50 yards so that security would not notice him at the airport. He shaved his beard and borrowed a friend's passport. Then he caught a flight to London and sought asylum.

Crucible of Exile

Islamists of Mr. Ferjani's generation wear prison time like a badge of honor. But exile, especially for the Tunisians, was often no less formative.

The London where Mr. Ferjani traveled became a hub of sorts for Islamist politics in the 1990s. Mr. Ghannouchi soon arrived there, joining Mr. Ferjani. Salafis from Saudi Arabia mixed with their frequent adversaries, Shiites from Bahrain, finding more common ground in London than at home.

Ahmed Yousef, a scholar and Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, recalled a similar environment in the United States, where he made lifelong contacts at conferences in Washington. Among the connections: Saadeddine Othmani, a Moroccan scholar and politician; Ali Sadreddine Bayanouni, a Syrian Brotherhood leader; Abdul Latif Arabiyat, an Islamist leader from Jordan; and Abdelilah Benkirane, a Moroccan who is now the prime minister.

The environment became less permissive after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, Mr. Yousef said, but until then, "it was like paradise."

"In exile, people feel they need each other," said Azzam Tamimi, a Palestinian scholar and activist in London, who has written a biography of Mr. Ghannouchi. "Back home, the national environment imposes itself on you. Priorities become different."

Mr. Ferjani compared his years in London to the intellectual awakening he underwent in Kairouan in the 1970s. Settling with his wife and five children in the neighborhood of Ealing, he remained in Islamist circles, soon embroiled in the debates over Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, but broadening his horizons into civil society. He took classes on the history of Europe, democracy, the environment and social change.

He said he understood what Mr. Tamimi called the "common roots and common ground" of Islamist activists, many of whom never expected to return home. "We know each other," he said. "But knowing is one thing, doing things together in every sense — as many may think — is another. In politics, it's not that we all agree."

Embracing Democracy

Through Mr. Ferjani's years in exile, the dominant image of political Islam was the bloody record of Egypt's insurgency in the 1990s, the Algerian civil war and the ascent of Bin Laden, whose Manichaean view of the world mirrored the most vitriolic statements of the Bush administration.

But no less dramatic was the shift under way within various currents inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood. Mr. Ghannouchi, his own thoughts evolving in exile, became an early proponent of a more inclusive and tolerant Islamism, arguing a generation ago that notions of elections and majority rule were universal and did not contradict Islam. Early on, he supported affirmative action to increase women's participation in Parliament, a break with the unrelenting notion of missionary work that so long defined the Brotherhood.

"Frankly, the guy who brought democracy into the Islamic movement is Ghannouchi," Mr. Ferjani said. As Mr. Ghannouchi himself put it in an interview late last year, at a conference in Istanbul attended by Islamist activists from Tunisia to the Palestinian territories, "Rulers benefit from violence more than their opponents do."

In debates that played out across the Arab world, though often ignored by the West, the questions of reconciling democracy and Islam raged from the 1990s on. In the middle of that decade, a young Egyptian Islamist named Aboul-Ela Maadi broke from the Brotherhood and formed the Center Party, declaring its support for elections and the alternation of power and, as important, dissent and coalitions with non-Islamic parties.

Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an enormously influential Egyptian cleric based in Doha, Qatar, often sided with the progressives. (In 2005, he turned heads by declaring on Al Jazeera satellite television that "freedom comes before Islamic law.") Though the Brotherhood still resents Mr. Maadi for his defection, it has largely adopted his ideas, which had seemed so novel in 1996.

Those debates reverberated across the region. Mr. Yousef, the Palestinian, remembered the impact of reading Mr. Ghannouchi's monthly magazine, Al Maarifa, as a student in Egypt. In Libya, Ali Sallabi, who once debated politics with jihadists in the prisons of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, cited Mr. Ghannouchi and Sheik Qaradawi as inspirations.

Critics view the shifts as tactical, even rhetorical. But the very essence of the debates has marked a fulcrum in the intellectual currents of today's political Islam.

"Al-sama' wa'l-ta'a," went the old Brotherhood ideal, which translates as "hearing and obeying." "That's over," said Tariq Ramadan, a prominent Islamic scholar based in London and a grandson of Mr. Banna, the Brotherhood founder. "The new generation is saying if it's going to be this, then we're leaving. You have a new understanding and a new energy."

He noted that in contrast to Mr. Ferjani's earlier years, when Egypt was the source of new Islamist thought, the influences are now more pronounced of exiles in Europe, scholars in North Africa like Mr. Ghannouchi and Ahmed Raysouni, and Islamist parties like Ennahda in Tunisia and Mr. Benkirane's Justice and Development Party in Morocco.

"It's not coming just from the Middle East anymore," Mr. Ramadan said. "It's coming from North African countries and from the West. There are new visions and there are new ways of understanding. Now they are bringing these thoughts back to the Middle East."

From his perch in London, Mr. Ferjani incorporated talk of Westminster when formulating his idea of a charismatic state, whether led by Islamists or others. After vehemently rejecting the left, he now embraces Karl Marx's critique of capitalism.

Exile, he said, "changed me a lot, profoundly."

Applying Theories

On a brisk winter day, Mr. Ferjani sat in Ennahda's offices in Tunisia, a five-story building whose plastic sign inscribed with its name lent a sense of the unfinished.

Nearly a year had passed since he had returned to Tunis, draped in the red national flag and walking effortlessly through the airport. He carried a passport that was his. His beard had gone gray, save for a mustache that served as a reminder of his youth in Kairouan. About 200 people met him at the terminal.

"No place for traitors in Tunisia, only for those who defend her!" he sang, joining the crowd as it recited the national anthem. "We live and die loyal to Tunisia."

On this day, his mood was more somber. In protests, secular activists were denouncing the caliphate that they believed was sure to rise from the victory of Ennahda in elections in October. Newspapers opposed to the party were full of stories of abuses by puritanical Islamists and Ennahda's supposed tolerance of extreme practices. In well-to-do cafes, some Tunisians viewed Ennahda's success in existential terms, talking of an inevitable intolerance sanctioned by religion that would extinguish Tunisia's cosmopolitanism. The cultural debates seemed to overshadow what everyone agreed was more pressing: an ailing economy.

"Frankly, we're on top of things," Mr. Ferjani said.

But in a less guarded moment, he asked, "Can you really solve problems of 50 years in less than one month with a government that is less than one month old?"

In an interview, Mr. Ferjani had once quipped, "You know, power corrupts." As he sat at the party headquarters on this day, he wrestled with those questions of power. Next to him were stacks of the party's newspaper, The Dawn. One column railed against "counterrevolutionary media"; another darkly hinted at conspiracies. The front page declared, "Parliament is against sit-ins and for listening to the demands of the people."

"We don't fear freedom of expression, but we cannot allow disorder," he said. "People have to be responsible. They have to know there is law and order."

He suggested that protesters should obtain permission from the police. He worried that the news media was too reckless. He hinted that the forces of the ancien régime were still plotting. In the cramped room, his exuberance had turned stern, and his words were hesitant.

"Everybody has to be careful not to be dragged into a dictatorial instinct, no matter what happens," he said. "We can't lose the soul of our revolution."

This, he said, was the test.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

First published on February 17, 2012

Nov 1, 2012

The Caravan of Light :: by Al Mahmud

Our caravan is from the past to the eternity
Having reached here from the Badr through the Uhud
Being here after a long travel.
Who questions about our destination!

We already said the destination is the eternity.
Rise and fall of agony could never sway us.
Our body is maimed.
The field of Muta became fertile with the drops of our blood.
Color of all blossomed roses is our blood.
Their fragrance is our exhaled air.
We have the noble Qur’an in our hand;
The sacred one that never let any believers to rest.
How can then we rest?
The goal of our journey is the golden entrance
Which is not on this world.

Oct 30, 2012

The way Ghannouchi understood Karl Marx

Rachid Ghannouchi: The Mastermind of Tunisian Democracy

Rachid Ghannouchi observed that by focusing solely on Western philosophy, the philosophy lessons addressed primarily the psychological and sociological problems of Western societies and offered a set of solutions that were reflective of the social and religious upheavals and particular situations experienced by these societies. In his article ("Barnamij al-Falsafah Wa Jil ad-Daya" reads "The philosophy curriculum and the generation of loss", Kuwait-1992) Ghannouchi sought to demonstrate that by emphasizing Marx, Freud, and Sartre, the philosophy curriculum served to discredit religion. The evidence, according to Ghannouchi, was that no mention of Islamic societies is to be found anywhere in Marx's analysis.

How could Marx's theory be considered a universal law applicable, as suggested by the school curriculum in Tunisia, to the history of humanity? How could Marx's theory that religion is people's opium and a barrier hindering social revolution against capitalism be considered a general rule applicable to every religion while such perception is the product of the particular experience of European societies, an experience marred by the collaboration of the Church with feudal lords and their collective endeavor to dissuade the people from rebelling against oppression? Ghannouchi then applied the same line of questioning to other Western philosophers. He asked: ―How could Freud's theory, that whatever befalls humans of psychological disorders is sexually related, be considered a scientific theory when it was largely a reflection of the state of mind of an oppressed Jew in a majority Christian society that debased sexual desire?

 [Excerpts from "Rachid Ghannouchi: A Democrat within Islamism" by Azzam Tamimi]

Seerah Book : In the Footsteps of the Prophet by Tariq Ramadan

Book Title  :  In the Footsteps of the Prophet
Author   :  Tariq Ramadan



download link : http://islamicstudies.islammessage.com/EBook.aspx?bid=304

Oct 29, 2012

Facebook; what it actually is? -- Khalid Yasin

Facebook; what it actually is?

It's a platform where the sinners pretend to be saints and the ignorant appears to be knowledgeable. It's a place where idiotic stuff gets the most attention, likes and shares but the truth is being ignored to a big extent. It's where the enemies are friends and the haters are fans. It's where rumors are spread with certainty while the actuality is being labeled as
"Photoshop". It's where you lose your real identity and you end up being just a copy/paste. It's the mother of distraction that's taking you away from your actual purpose in life.

It's time that we wake up! It's time to be real! There's more to life beyond this little box of illusion. Remember, you are more than just a Facebook account.

I remind myself before others.


-- Sheikh Khalid Yasin

Oct 24, 2012

the precious reminder for me from my sister

the precious reminder for me from my sister. may Allah reward her....

There are moments of weakness. and that's why ALLAH has created us to do wrong and to come back to Him,asking for his mercy and forgivness,knowing that no matter how far we go we'll always come back to him in the end cuz he's the only one we have !....

brother this is life!!! accept it the way it is !!!! accept that you're a human and that you'll always do wrong and come back to ALLAH..accept that everyone around you is humans and the only reason that you find them so faultless is that ALLAH covers their sins nothing else...they do sin just like you,they can even sin worse but ALLAH covers them as he covers me and you !!! accept that you're a human brother ,you're insan the word comes from forgetfulness,we sin because we forget our purpose..we forget the serenity of trusting ALLAH....and it's our nature ....that's why ALLAH has called you and me Insan...but it does not mean we're hopless bhai! ALLAH even punishes us if we lose faith in His Mercy ...

keep it balanced brother ...have peace in your heart knowing that you're not an angel ..and that ALLAH is always there for you whenever you lose the way..

Oct 21, 2012

the ummah of Islam was founded as a community, a state and a world order

"Ever since 622 A.C, the first day of Hijrah or Islamic era, the day on which the Prophet Muhammad migrated from Makkah to Madinah, the ummah of Islam was founded as a community, a state and a world order. 

It was a trans-tribal, trans-national and trans-imperial movement seeking a new definition of human identity, a new form of human association and a new order of relations between human groups.

It was not an utopian dream but a socio-economic and millitary movement, firmly implanted on earth and translating itself into prescriptions governing every aspect of human living. It sought to mobilize the whole of humankind in a concerted effort to rebuild culture and civilization on a new basis." 

~~ Ismail Raji Al Faruqi Al Shaheed (Rahimahullah)

It was obvious to me that the decline of the Muslims was not due to any shortcomings in Islam

"It was obvious to me that the decline of the Muslims was not due to any shortcomings in Islam but rather to their own failure to up to it.....It was not Muslims that had made Islam great; it was Islam that made Muslims great. 

But as soon as their faith became habit and ceased to be a program of life, to be continuously pursued, the creative impulse that underlay their civilization waned and gradually gave way to indolence, sterility and cultural decay." 

~~ Muhammad Asad

Big matters and Small matters


by  Shohana Akter

In the evening I saw a facebook comment and in reply I mentioned to that person that he did not realize what he said. Certainly we don't give thought to what we say most of the time, if we would then human race would have stopped talking ..Entirely. But after an hour or so I went on repeating the mistake of that certain individual. I said something which could have caused a fitnah by forgetting the hadith which "I "quote thousand times a day!

"Fitna is asleep; may God curse the one who awakens it."

If there is a true danger that we should worry about the future of Islam

"If there is a true danger that we should worry about the future of Islam, 
it is intellectual stagnation and the despotism of Muslim rulers." 

~~ Rashid Al Ghanouchi

Islam, very simply, is a philosophy of human liberation

"Islam, very simply, is a philosophy of human liberation. Its first summon, "Say there is no god but God and prosper," propounds Tawhid as the necessary means to that end. We see that from the same beginning, Islamic humanism ascends to a kind of awareness, while Marxist humanism proceeds to a kind of production. 
Then does Islam lead to a mystical and ascetic idealism foreign to actuality? Has Islam, like the mystical religions and ideologies, forgotten the principle of justice? Not at all! Islam addresses economic welfare and social justice as principles of its social order; indeed it stresses them. 
To be precise, in Islam these principles constitute essential prerequisites; they can free man from poverty and discrimination so that, through moral growth and particular evolution, he may freely unfold his inherent divine nature. This is paramount to the philosophy of human life in Islam." 
-- Dr. Ali Shariati

Oct 17, 2012

Message I wrote to Imam Suhaib Webb

Imam! I love you for the sake of Allah...

Your speeches, reminders, directions, the light of your knowledge stirs my heart and I find an urge inside me to know our Deen, to work for Allah, to love our beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and to design my life for Allah's satisfaction.

May Allah grant you vast knowledge and wisdom and a long life as a good servant of Him for serving more for His Deen. May Allah accept us for the ultimate success... Please keep me in your prayers.

-- I am someone who is your student from thousand miles away, a brother in Islam...

[A message from Bangladesh]
17-10-2012

Islam was founded as a community, a state and a world order

"Ever since 622 A.C, the first day of Hijrah or Islamic era, the day on which the Prophet Muhammad migrated from Makkah to Madinah, the ummah of Islam was founded as a community, a state and a world order.
It was a trans-tribal, trans-national and trans-imperial movement seeking a new definition of human identity, a new form of human association and a new order of relations between human groups.
It was not an utopian dream but a socio-economic and millitary movement, firmly implanted on earth and translating itself into prescriptions governing every aspect of human living. It sought to mobilize the whole of humankind in a concerted effort to rebuild culture and civilization on a new basis."
--  Ismail Raji Al Faruqi Al Shaheed (Rahimahullah)

Oct 13, 2012

Pearls of Islamic Scholars : Quotes [1]

source : IOU FB page

Taqwaa has three levels:

The first: Protecting the heart and limbs from sins and all forbidden matters.
The second: Protecting the heart and limbs form disliked matters [Makrooh].
The third: Protecting oneself from the fudool [curiosity] and what does not concern him.

The first gives the servant his life, the second gives him health and strength and the third enables him to gain happiness, contentment and light.”
 

 [Ibn al Qayyim; Al Fawaa-id :P 45]


Ash-Shafi‘i (rahimahullâh) said, “Whoever spread gossip for you spreads gossip against you. Whoever relates tales to you will tell tales about you. Whoever when you please him says about you what is not in you, when you anger him will say about you what is not in you.”
Siyar ‘Alam al Nubala’ of Imaam ad-Dhahabee


Abu Ad-Dardaa:

“It is better to advise your friend than to severe relations with him, for no one can take the place of your friend if you lose him. However, how could you grieve after he dies, when you have shunned him when he was still alive?”

(Sifaat us-Safwah, 1/364)
 


 Sufyaan ath-Thawree:  "The scholars are similar to rain, wherever they fall, they benefit."  (Jam'ee Bayaan al 'Ilm wa Fadlihee 1/56)

Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawiyyah:  "Patience is that the heart does not feel anger towards that which is destined and that the mouth does not complain."  (al-’Uddah, p. 156)

 
 "If your brother mentions something to you in private, then walks away, it is an amaanah (trust) even if he didn't instruct you not to inform anyone." 
(Ibn Muflih's Adaab Ash-Sharee'ah).
-- Umar ibn al-Khattab

The perfection of Tawheed is found when there remains nothing in the heart except Allaah -- Ibn al-Qayyim, (al Madaarij 3/485)


Oct 5, 2012

Quotes of Imam Ibn Taymiyyah

I collected them from another source, where the BOOK SOURCE of the quotes are given, yet I am not sure about their authenticity, much. this is for my personal collection. Please do not publish them publicly without finding them on book. 

* * *

Shaykh al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah was famous for stating profound statements, below is a selection of some of them:

1. Every punishment from Him is pure justice and every blessing from Him is pure grace.
2.Whoever desires everlasting bliss, let him adhere firmly to the threshold of servitude.
3. The Lord loves to be loved.
4.Guidance is not attained except with knowledge and correct direction is not attained except with patience.
5. In this world is a Paradise, whoever does not enter it will not enter the Paradise of the Hereafter.

Oct 4, 2012

Seeking refuge from knowledge that does not benefit

Allahumma inni a'udhu bika
min 'ilmin la yanfa'
wa min qalbin la yakhsha'
wa min du'ain la yusma'
wa min nafsin la tashba'

"O Allah! I seek refuge with You from knowledge that does not benefit, and from a heart that is not subdued and humble, and from a supplication that is not heard, and from a soul that is not satisfied."

What is holding me back? -- Yasir Qadhi

What is holding me back? I don't feel like it. Video lecture by Sh Yasir Qadhi...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCUyekCxy0w

Oct 3, 2012

If there is a true danger

"If there is a true danger we should worry about for the future of Islam, 
it is intellectual stagnation and the despotism of Muslim rulers".

-- Shaykh Rashid al-Ghannoushi 

Sep 5, 2012

Love for the sake of Allah


Love for the sake of Allah, Stand together before Him as slave

Sep 4, 2012

Knowing Others for Judging others?

You will see that *KNOWING* and *JUDGING* are having qualitative difference in perspective toward people. If anybody is always ready to *judge* others, it is very clear in any religious perspective that he doesn't have the beauty to hold the religion, I read a quote from bible which is in memory like this, "if you go to judge others, you have no time to love them". In terms of Islaam, we are repeatedly taught "dont go for spying others" and at the same time, "only allah knows the best what is in others heart". So, to my understandings in all along my life is -- A judgmental mind is beyond any accepted level of spirituality.

In my life, when I expected someone to a level in spirituality and got a deep shock from him/her behavior, I couldn't convince me. Coz it was a great flaw in his/her attitude but it is not expected and also not *accepted* in many cases for the role/position/designation they hold.

on the other hand, when I tried to convince me that okay well, know that "nobody is perfect". It was a typical widely used *smart like* sentence but I found it is totally useless. I know nobody is perfect but while I am already in an interaction with someone, a person I know from previous days, and repeatedly same mistake I have to face and every-time I face it, I'm in need of telling me, "nobody is perfect" don't work. I was not convinced and couldn't stop being hurt.


But while I am aware of people I have around, I am loving to mix with them, communicating with them and in the mean time I figure out their limitations I experienced, I prepare myself accordingly about *dealing* their limitations. It is because I have the limitations of *tolerating* people and my *Objective* is to have a good conversation/interaction/
communication so that I can accomplish my work peacefully, efficiently. and during the time, I must be *out of judgmental* attitude and only then *KNOWING* someone will work.

W
hat I just said was my effort of finding a better solution, understanding to develop for my mind to deal with situations that will provide me a safeguard from being worried and getting hurt.

Aug 31, 2012

I learned about our attitude toward our scholars

I learned from Dr Tariq Ramadan what actually should be our attitude toward the scholars.

To be critical and to ask them questions. because, if do not ask them our critical questions, they will not keep on thinking on critical things. Additionally, we don't have capacity and scopes of thinking many critical situations and their solutions that our Scholars do have. If we don't ask them, they normally will not be concerned about them. so, it is our duty to ask our scholars to work for us, thereby to serve us and thus serving our Lord Almighty.
 

My additional thinking with it is --
All those scholars are human being and they can never cover all perspectives of thinking and can never experience the situations that people do. so while they grow in knowledge, they are excellent and they know many things and sometimes masters in certain fields. but they may not be master in all perspectives so there may be some shortcomings, less amazing portions in their ideas and contributions. that doesn't nullify them nor a cause to be treated as flawless.

So, it is our mind, which will be keeping on respecting them with criticizing their limitations. but not crossing our limit of being modest and respectful -- this is an essential quality of any learner and the absence of it  eventually nullify the eligibility of being a learner.


i think and found it is important to know *where* goes the limitation but may be that attitude is not to be 'khutiye khutinati jana' (spying to know). i knew nobody is perfect long way back in my life but it didnt work on being hurt and confused about people i value much. i was in darkness before developing the attitude of knowing *where is the limitation* with respectful critical mind.  

An excellent article on Milestone and its typical misreadings

Faisal - The Legacy of a King

Faisal - The Legacy of a King

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_m23Yt3FLI

Aug 26, 2012

United we stand, one destiny : Hamza Yusuf

watching such a speech is an experience for me. sometimes I learn looking from some perspectives which is new, which makes me growing in thinking new dimensions...

this is more an American aspect, this is more interesting as a listener to this wonderful style. I was very little fascinated like this ever as an audience by the speeches I've gone through in my life. I was dissolved in accent, flow of presentation, topics brought dramatically....
A wonderful lecture by Hamza Yusuf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4B9dVJatyQ

Speaking Truth and Building Power : A lecture by Tariq Ramadan

Speaking Truth and Building Power : A lecture by Tariq Ramadan

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoWh_v7Fy20

Aug 23, 2012

Are They Leaving Islam? -- SuhaibWebb

regarding people leaving Islam - "Whether it is in the masjid, on the street, or online, these incidents are too numerous to count. If you haven't heard these stories, then you haven't been listening" Read Up so that we're not a part of the problem, but a part of the solution!
http://www.suhaibwebb.com/society/dawah/why-are-they-leaving-islam/

Aug 18, 2012

The Arab Awakening : Islam and the New Middle East by Tariq Ramadan

Middle East Institute, Singapore

Dr. Tariq Ramadan for a talk on "The Arab Awakening: Islam and the New Middle East" on 12 July 2012.

http://www.tariqramadan.com/spip.php?article12432&lang=en

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPC_1k056TE

Aug 16, 2012

Amazing Ramadan Dua

http://www.suhaibwebb.com/personaldvlpt/worship/fasting-ramadan/a-gift-for-the-27th-night-ramadan-dua%E2%80%99-with-english-translation/

mp3 download : http://www.suhaibwebb.com/audio/2011/Sh-Jibreel-Dua-08.26.mp3

Many of us spend a good portion of our Ramadan nights with our hands raised in du`a' (supplication), listening to the heart-felt words of our imam or shaykh calling on Allah in the witr prayer.  For those of us who don't speak Arabic, it is a time when we often long to understand the meaning of the words being said with such evident intensity and feeling.  It is for this reason that we would like to present a beautiful du`a' of Shaykh Muhammad Jebril of Cairo, Egypt – said at the completion of his recitation of the Qur'an in Ramadan1 - accompanied by an English translation.

Please remember us in your du`a's as Ramadan draws to a close.  May Allah help us make the most of these last few precious days and nights of this blessed month.  Ameen.


Jul 28, 2012

Post Islamist Revolutions - Prof Tariq Ramadan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXu1JXUth1o

Prof Tariq Ramadan was in Malaysia recently and TVSunnah managed to capture one the Lectures entitled - POST ISLAMIST REVOLUTIONS. Organised by IRF - Islamic Renaissance Front - the lecture was held on the 15th July 2012 at The International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM).

Jul 27, 2012

Al Jabbar : Mending the broken heart


In our journey to gain tranquility of the heart, we explored what we need to know when faced with difficult situations. We need to understand that Allah has told us we will be tested, that these tests are for a reason, and that there will be relief insha’Allah (God willing). When we are worried thinking about the future, we need to work hard but have full trust in Allah that He will not leave us, and we must always think well of Allah because that is what we will find.

Jul 26, 2012

Insightful Quotes

"When you will learn to ignore,
You won't have to bear the burden of hatred." 
-- Shihan


"To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books." 
--Musaffa

Jul 21, 2012

Few preparations for marriage

website for dua on marriage  : http://www.duas.org/matri1.htm

istikhara : http://islamqa.info/en/ref/2217

Istikhara, How and Why : Abdul Nasir Jangda:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEcovFTsQ4E

In The Footsteps of the Prophet ; How Muslims should Contribute to the World --by Tariq Ramadan

"In The Footsteps of the Prophet ; How Muslims should Contribute to the World" - a lecture by Prof Tariq Ramadan

Dr. Tariq Ramadan in Kualalampur Malaysia in July 2012


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1roj2Oi4s3Y

Jul 19, 2012

Fasting in Ramadan

"O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous" - (Surah Baqarah :183)


Tariq Ramadan Quotes - 2

"The more I know, the best I believe. The more I know, the best I'm worshiping Him (Allah). Because, in the end Allah knows the best. But what I am trying to do by the knowledge is, to come close."
-- Tariq Ramadan [Zaytuna Guest Lecture]


"Many people comes to me to ask "which one are you first? are you Swiss or Muslim?
I reply, "silly question".
When I vote, I am a Swiss. When I die, I am a Muslim. Because, I am not gonna die with my passport! I will die with my faith. and when I vote, it is because of the passport I have."
-- Tariq Ramadan [in burke lecture]

Reading Inside Islam-WISC article on Tariq Ramadan

I was reading an article on Taiq Ramadan on his thoughts and book "What I Believe".
http://insideislam.wisc.edu/index.php/archives/4224

This is a wonderful review on Professor Ramadan's "what I believe". Thanks to Reem for this write-up.
Dr Tariq Ramadan has got some amazing thoughts that fascinated me. Especially the ideas of pluralism is very essential in all the communities. I would emphasize that even in this Muslim community, this perspective is missing at a large scale which should had to be there. People of different ideas, religions, caste, creed are there in this earth, it is the diversity we must acknowledge. and keeping it in mind, we should move together for making this world a good place.

At the same time, Professor Ramadan always emphasizes in spiritual intelligence and intelligent spirituality. This is really essential for any believer, from any belief. What I realized from his other write-ups, we really need hold strong voice against all odds of our communities. No matter who is that or how is that. When we will practice to speak against the wrong-doing of the community and national leaders, we will be serving better by them.
In the end, we all need a better place for living on earth, providing a better earth to our next generation.

Jul 18, 2012

Jul 16, 2012

Tariq Ramadan Quotes

Tariq Ramadan is someone who opened a world to me. I learned to relate my religious understandings and their deep meanings with the philosophical essence. So I take any probable opportunity to learn his ideas.Quotes I collected are from various sources of  internet where a major part is from the twitter account of Professor Tariq Ramadan. Hope the learners all over the world will be benefited by his amazing quotes. May Our Lord bless us!

Disclaimer: There might be mistakes in this collection as sources were different blogs, tweets, goodreads, youtube lectures I listened to and noted down. so please don't refer these quotes in any formal media, publications.

QUOTES OF TARIQ RAMADAN:

  1. "We have to be the media when media is silent "--@TariqRamadan 
  2. "To be courageous is to be a voice for the voiceless"--@TariqRamadan.
  3. " we fail when we try to give simple answers to complicated problems" --@TariqRamadan
  4. A good Muslim is not one who is strictest in his judgment, but who is most patient in listening--@TariqRamadan
  5. We pray in the night to change the world during the day---@TariqRamadan
  6. "There is no Shariah without positive Jihad, which is promoting good in the society."--@TariqRamadan
  7. "A Muslim should be sincerely religious AND politically aware." --@TariqRamadan
  8. "Stand up for your values, be courageous and humble"--@TariqRamadan
  9. "There is no faith, without a critical mind"--@TariqRamadan
  10. "We need to realize that we should be on the side of any human being who is oppressed."--@TariqRamadan
  11. "The message of Islam asks you to be intellectually, spiritually, socially, and politically independent" --@TariqRamadan
  12. "Islam doesn't need reform, we need to reform the Muslim mind." --@TariqRamadan

Jul 12, 2012

Ibn Taymiyyah quotes -1

Shaykhul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (rahimahullah) said:

The Religion of the Muslims is built upon following the Book of Allaah, the Sunnah of His Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) and that which the Ummah has agreed upon.  So these are the three infallible usool (fundamentals). So whatever the Ummah differs in, then it is referred back to Allaah and His Messenger.
Thus, it is not for anyone to set up a person for the Ummah, and to call to his way and form walaa' (love, loyalty and allegiance) and 'adaa (enmity and hatred) based upon that, except for the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam). Nor is any speech set up for them based upon which they form walaa' and 'adaa except for the Speech of Allaah, and that of His Messenger, and that which the Ummah has agreed upon.
Rather, this is that practice of the people of innovation, who set up a person or a saying, with which they cause splits in the Ummah; forming walaa' and 'adaa based upon that saying or ascription.

Majmoo'ul Fataawaa (20/164)

I tried and it didn't work by Imam Suhaib Webb

A firing amazing speech by Imam Suhaib webb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an30sWAUr74

Jul 11, 2012

Dr. Tariq Ramadan - Radical Reform

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLlDJ8h5HQE

Dr. Tariq Ramadan - Radical Reform (ISBCC Friday Halaqa 4/13/2012) 

Tariq Ramadan at PEN American Center - Secularism, Islam, and Democracy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoLE4PeTUgE


PEN American Center - Secularism, Islam, and Democracy Muslims in Europe and the West Entire Event

In his first public appearance in the United States since he was barred from entering the country in 2004, Tariq Ramadan discusses the relationship between Islam and the West with Dalia Mogahed, George Packer, Joan Wallach Scott, and Jacob Weisberg at the 2010 event Secularism, Islam, and Democracy: Muslims in Europe and the West.

http://www.tariqramadan.com/spip.php?lang=fr

Hamza Yusuf: God-consciousness After Ramadan (Eid Al Fitr 2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS9GZBB_D8M

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf offers reflections before the sermon and prayer on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, 2011.
Hamza Yusuf is a co-founder of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, Ca: http://www.zaytunacollege.org/
For additional lectures and articles by Hamza Yusuf, http://sandala.org/

Fasting, Materialism and Time Management: Ramadan Advice by Imam Suhaib Webb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDfO46rl0_g

Imam Suhaib Webb offers Ramadan advice to Zaytuna Summer Arabic Intensive students on fasting, materialism and time management. Gain Knowledge & Support a College, become a Zaytuna Companion today,
http://www.zaytunacollege.org/companions


How Morocco Dodged the Arab Spring

written by Nicolas Pelham on NYR BLOG

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/jul/05/how-morocco-dodged-arab-spring/

Jul 7, 2012

True Loneliness

True Loneliness is not having Allah in one's life

Jul 5, 2012

King Faisal of Saudi Arabia

Henry Kissinger & King Faisal in 1973, tried but failed to get King Faisal to agree to lift the Saudi embargo on oil shipments to the U.S

Jul 3, 2012

Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State? :: Tariq Ramadan

by Tariq Ramadan | 30 Jan 2012
One of the distinguishing features of political Islam in the early twentieth century was its call for the creation of an Islamic state. Methods and strategies might differ ("bottom up" for the Muslim Brotherhood, "top down" by revolution for other organisations, and as happened in Iran), but the aim remained the same.

The structure of the state was conceptualised in the light of Islamic principles (as drawn up by the classical Sunni and Shiite traditions) and articulated around the core concept of "Islamic law," meaning the concept of Sharia. It was no accident that late nineteenth and early twentieth century Islamist organisations expressly sought to revive Islam's social and political heritage.

As the Ottoman Empire was being dismantled and broken up into numerous smaller countries, and as western colonial rulers expanded their control, it became essential to visualise the paths and the stages leading to independence and, in the long run, to reunifying the Ummah, the Muslim spiritual community, understood – or idealised – at the time as a political entity, which the Ottoman state had symbolically, though imperfectly, represented.

Jul 1, 2012

Tariq Ramadan The Quest for Meaning and Pluralism

Tariq Ramadan - The Quest for Meaning: Pluralism in SFU


This is a wonderful presentation of Professor Tariq Ramadan in SFU.

President Mursi's Speech and BBC World review

The speech in Tahrir square : 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHmZTFsevf8


BBC World review on President Mursi's Speech : 

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/p00trs08
 

Jun 27, 2012

Jun 26, 2012

Amazing Lecture on Fair Trade Commerce by Hamzah Yusuf in RIS conference 2011



Fair Trade Commerce for a Better World by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf
December 25, 2011 :: Toronto :: Canada
Reviving the Islamic Spirit
www.revivingtheislamicspirit.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seEpf-bmnIQ

Jun 24, 2012

Few published articles on Mohamed Morsi's win in Egypt's Presidential Election 2012

Egyptian President-elect Mohamed Morsi's full 25-minute speech on 25 June 2012 night :: Borzou Daragahi

Egyptian President-elect Mohamed Morsi's full 25-minute speech tonight

The speech is translated to English by Borzou Daragahi on Monday, June 25, 2012 at 5:58am. It is Collected from his Facebook Note.
.....................................

In the name of God, the most compassionate, the most merciful. Thanks be to Allah, prayers and peace be upon the messenger of Allah. Say: In the bounty of Allah and in His mercy: therein let them rejoice. It is better than what they hoard (Quranic verse). Egyptian people, you who today are rejoicing and celebrating the feast of democracy in Egypt, you who are standing in squares, in the Tahrir Square and in all the squares of Egypt, my beloved ones, my family and people, my brethren and my sons, who are looking forward to the future, you who want good, rebirth, development, stability, safety and security for our country of Egypt. My beloved ones, I address you thanks to God Almighty. We all thank God for reaching this historic moment, this moment which represents a landmark that has been written with the hands and wills of the Egyptians, their blood, tears and sacrifices, this moment, which we are all shaping with these sacrifices. I would not have talked to you today as the first president elected by the free will of Egyptians in the first presidential elections after the 25 January revolution, I would not have been here today with you now amid this sweeping joy, which is sweeping all corners of our beloved homeland, I would not have been here but for God's help and these sacrifices, the precious blood of our honourable martyrs and our great injured men.

Jun 23, 2012

Jun 20, 2012

Way To The Quran Book [PDF] and Text Khurram Murad

A wonderful book is Way To The Quran by Ustadh Khurram Murad. beautiful analysis, tips, directions to study the Noble Quran.