Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Assalaamaleykum... (5) commentsI sometimes spend time surfing at www.mailfriends.com no..its not a veyr cool site...at one point in my life..it was interesting..but now, its purely lame. Whats unique about that site is that the number of active atheists there.They attack every form of faith and reliance to God. I see their point..why they dont believe in God... I'm sure my perfect complex body is just a coincidence, and act of evolution- nothing Divine, I'm sure there's nothing unique in the changing of the night and days and how they keep regular timing everyday- nothing Divine, I'm sure the perfect circulation of the planets on their axis and route around the sun..and the voyage of the entire solar system around an unknown element is entirely by chance- nothing Divine, I'm sure the barren deassert that became alive after the rain from the sky is somthing explainable by science- nothing Divine... I'm sure every blessing in my life is from myself, and i deserve them- they arent gifts from God. I'm sure there's no hereafter-we all turn to ashes after we die I'm sure there's no purpose of life- as i said..we all just wait to die and turn to ash. the list is endless... ps: the entired paragraph above is sarcastic There is God! And His Bounty is endless. I prostrate before my Lord, the creator of the Heavens and earth, creator of Angels, jins and mankind. I thank my Lord for showing me the Light of Faith, I pray to my Lord to never let me go astray from His Path, and so that my heart will never be veiled from receiving His Love. Lakh Lakh Shukriya Ya Rabbi.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Salaamaleykum, (5) commentsToday I decided that i should write something out of my own account rather than to copy paste like i did in the past few posts. So here I am, thinking of what to write. (30mins later)...still thinking... (another 15mins later)....thinking.... well..like King Mongkut (Yul Bryner) from the King And I said... 'When one have nothing to say, then its time to be silent.' -this is afzal, signing off.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Assalamualeykum..i was browsing around that day..and came across this artical by Yvonne Ridley.If u remember her, she was released by the Taliban after she promised to study Islam,She eventually embrassed Islam. (4) commentsI FEEL very uncomfortable about the pop culture which is growing around some so-called Nasheed artists. Of course I use the term Nasheed artists' very lightly. Islamic boy bands' and Muslim popsters' would probably be more appropriate. Eminent scholars throughout history have often opined that music is haram, and I don't recall reading anything about the Sahaba whooping it up to the sound of music. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for people letting off steam, but in a dignified manner and one which is appropriate to their surroundings. The reason I am expressing concern is that just a few days ago at a venue in Central London, sisters went wild in the aisles as some form of pop-mania swept through the concert venue. And I'm not just talking about silly, little girls who don't know any better; I am talking about sisters in their 20's, 30's and 40's, who squealed, shouted, swayed and danced. Even the security guys who looked more like pipe cleaners than bulldozers were left looking dazed and confused as they tried to stop hijabi sisters from standing on their chairs. Of course the stage groupies did not help at all as they waved and encouraged the largely female Muslim crowd to "get up and sing along." (They're called Fluffers' in lap-dancing circles!) The source of all this adulation was British-born Sami Yusuf, who is so proud of his claret-colored passport that he wants us all to wave the Union Jacks. I'm amazed he didn't encourage his fans to sing "Land of Hope and Glory." Brother Sami asked his audience to cheer if they were proud to be British ,and when they responded loudly, he said he couldn't hear them and asked them to cheer again. How can anyone be proud to be British? Britain is the third most hated country in the world. The Union Jack is drenched in the blood of our brothers and sisters across Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. Our history is steeped in the blood of colonialism, rooted in slavery, brutality, torture, and oppression. And we haven't had a decent game of soccer since we lifted the World Cup in 1966. Apparently Sami also said one of the selling points of Brand UK was having Muslims in the Metropolitan Police Force! Astafur'Allah! Dude, these are the same cops who have a shoot-to-kill policy and would have gunned down a Muslim last year if they could tell the difference between a Bangladeshi and a Brazilian. This is the same police force that has raided more than 3000 Muslim homes in Britain since 9/11. What sort of life is there on Planet Sami, I wonder? If he is so proud to be British, why is he living in the great Middle Eastern democracy of Egypt? Apparently the sort of hysteria Sami helped encourage is also in America, and if it is happening on both sides of the Atlantic, then it must be creeping around the globe and poisoning the masses. Islamic boy bands like 786 and Mecca 2 Medina are also the subject of the sort of female adulation you expect to see on American Pop Idol or the X-Factor. Surely Islamic events should be promoting restrained and more sedate behavior. Do we blame the out-of-control sisters? Or do we blame the organizers for allowing this sort of excessive behavior which demeans Islam? Or do we blame the artists themselves? Abu Ali and Abu Abdul Malik, struggling for their Deen, would certainly not try to whip up this sort of hysteria. Neither would the anonymous heroic Nasheed artists who sing for freedom; check out Idhrib Ya Asad Fallujah, and you will know exactly what I mean. Fallujah is now synonymous with the sort of heroic resistance that elevated the Palestinians of Jenin to the ranks of the resistance written about in the Paris Communeand the Siege of Leningrad. The US military has banned the playing of any Nasheeds about Fallujah because of the power and the passion it evokes. If those Nasheeds had sisters running in the streets whooping and dancing, however, the Nasheeds may be encouraged because of haram activity surrounding them. Quite frankly, I really don't know how anyone in the Ummah can really let go and scream and shout with joy at pleasure domes when there is so much brutality and suffering going on in the world today. The rivers of blood flow freely from the veins of our brothers and sisters from across the Muslim world. Screaming and shouting the names of musical heroes drown out the screams coming from the dungeons of Uzbekistan where brothers and sisters are boiled alive in vats of water. How many will jump up and down and wave their arms in the air, shouting wildly for justice for our kin in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine, and Iraq? There are many more killing fields as well across the Asian and Arab world. Will you climb on theater chairs and express your rage over Guantanamo Bay and other gulags where our brothers and sisters are being tortured, raped, sodomized, beaten, and burned? Or will you just switch off this concerned sister and switch on to the likes of Sami Yusuf because he can sell you a pipe dream with his soothing words and melodic voice? Oh, Muslims, wake up! The Ummah is not bleeding; it is hemorrhaging. Listen not to what is haram. Listen to the pain of your global family.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Salaamaleykum. (6) commentsWell..everyday is mother's day...we should love our mother everyday...especially since the Heaven is at her feet. I recall one story my auntie told me when i was just 4 or 5 yrs old.(amazing right?..i still remember it) Well..the story goes...about this young man who lived alone with his mother.At one point he became a severe chronic gambler.One day..when his money ran out, he asked his mom for money...she,naturally, refused to give him even a cent for gambling.So it happens that he begun to attack his aged mother.The mother ran out of the house...and the son took out a dragger and threw it to the mother.The dragger penetrates the mother's heel.At the very moment the mother cried out of pain, the earth begun to shake.A huge crack opened up on the earth...the ungrateful son fell into that crack...and the earth closed back right after. Lesson? -dont be a gambler and throw dagger at your mom's feet.. ... NO NO!!!..it goes beyond that!...Love your mother, like a hadith that i remember reading...(I forgot the source, and i cant find the exact narration,sorry) but it goes something like this... Rasulullah s.a.w. once mentioned that a mother's love is priceless.Saying that she carried us in her womb for 9long months, and carried us until we can walk and even after that she take care of us, feed us and worry for us until we're grown up.So one of the Companians asked the Prophet s.a.w., 'what if i carried my mother on my back ...and feed her and take care of her every needs until the day she dies. Can i be considered to be eqaul to my mother?' At this Muhammad s.a.w. said 'No, because she nutured you waiting for the day you can live your own life, while you will nuture her, waiting for her to die' Here's a song by Ahmed Bukhateer, a dedication to all the mothers out there. لسوف أعود يا أمي
Saturday, May 06, 2006
by Kassim Ahmad
(1) commentsThe Medina Charter, written and promulgated by Prophet Muhammad for the multi-religious ten thousand-strong citizens of the city-state of Medina in 622 A.D is truly a remarkable political-constitutional document. The claim made by Professor M. Hamidullah that it was the first written constitution (FN1) in the world is not without basis. Aristotle's Constitution of Athens (FN2), written on papyrus, discovered by an American missionary in Egypt in 1890 and published in 1891, was not a constitution. It was an account of the constitution of the city-state of Athens. Other legal writings on the conduct of ancient societies have been found, but none can be described as a constitution. The Medina Charter is the first, and in this it preceded the American Constitution of 1787, considered by Western authorities as "a landmark document of the Western world … the oldest written national constitution in operation" (FN3) by more than a thousand years! It also preceded the English feudal bill of rights, the Magna Carter of 1215, by almost six centuries! Not only is the Madina Charter important in the sense that it is the first written constitution; it is also modern in the sense that it was promulgated for a plural society, giving equal rights to every citizen as well as giving them a say in governmental matters, as we shall see. Considering all these, it is amazing that those Muslim leaders and writers who talk and write about the Islamic state seldom refer to this important seminal political document of Islam. It is to be remembered that Muhammad had become a prophet, reciting God's revelations to his fellow-Meccans, for twelve years before he and his followers migrated to Yathrib, two hundred and ten miles to the north of Mecca. There was going to be another ten years to his mission before he completed the delivery of the Divine message to the Arabs and to mankind in God's final scripture, the Quran. So this Medina Charter was provisional in the sense that it could not contain all the provisions of statecraft contained in the Quran. Yathrib was later to known as "The City of the Prophet " or simply Medina. The reason for the migration was the growing opposition of the Quraisy aristocracy to his teachings and the receptive attitude shown by some Yathrib pilgrims to Mecca at this time. The whole text of the Charter has been reproduced, word for word, by Ibn Ishaq and Abu Ubaid in their respective books from the original preserved by Ibn Abi Khithamah. (FN4) The Charter consists of 47 clauses, but due to different numbering, Prof. Hamidullah counts it to be 52 (FN5). Clauses 1, 2 and 39 state the formation of a sovereign nation-state with a common citizenship, consisting of various communities, principally Muslim Arabs from Mecca (the Muhajirin or Immigrants), Muslim Arabs from Yathrib (the Ansar or Helpers), other monotheists form Yathrib (i.e. the Jews) and others who must be at that time still pagans. These constitute a unified citizenry (Arabic term, ummah), having equal rights and responsibilities, as distinct from other peoples. It should not escape anyone's notice that these two clauses established the first modern nation-state in the world. Although Medina was just a city, its Charter was to last until the beginning of the Umayyad Dynasty in 1661. Western historians cite the Treaties of Westphalia in 1648 as the beginning of the modern nation-state era. (FN6) The Charter provided a federal structure with a centralized authority, with the various tribes in various districts constituting a unit and enjoying autonomy in certain matters of a social, cultural and religious character. Provision for this district autonomy is repeated for each district. (Clauses 3 through to 11 and 26 through to 35) In fact, many matters were left in the hands of the autonomous units, except state security and national defense. (Clauses 17, 36 (a) and 47) Provisions for these centralized subjects are made in Clauses 13, 15, 17 and 44. Only in cases of disputes the units could not resolve, recourse for their decisions had to be made to the Prophet, whose decision was final. (Clauses 23 and 41) As Prof. Hamidullah rightly stated, " … this new constitution … brought with it very important, and -- to Arabia at least -- very revolutionary change and improvement, by providing the people with a central public institution for seeking justice, in place of everyone seeking it with the power of his own hand or, at best, that of his family. This epoch-making innovation … brought an end for all times to the chaos of tribalism and which laid the basis for a wider institution, viz a State." (FN7) It should be noted that this loyalty to the State by its plural citizenry constituted a nationalism, or more exactly a patriotism, that is approved by Islam, contrary to what some modern Muslim ideologues assert. It is in line with the teaching in the Quranic verse, "O people, We created you from the same male and female and rendered you into distinct peoples and tribes that you may recognize one another. The best of you in the sight of God is the most righteous." (FN8) There were twenty districts each with a chief (naqib) and deputy chiefs (`arif) and its meeting place (saqifah). The city at this time had a population of about ten thousand. Of these, the Muslims made up only a few hundred; half of it were monotheist Jews, the rest being polytheists. (FN9) It is noteworthy that the Charter ordained equality to its members and protected them against oppression. (Clause 16). The State proclaimed the brotherhood of believers and gave each one a right and support to give protection to any individual, excepting an enemy. (Clause 15). It also extended help to its members in debt or in financial difficulties in regard to payment of ransom or blood-money. (Clause 12). It prohibited help or refuge to be given to a murderer. (Clause 22). A very important human right is given in Clause 25 where freedom was guaranteed for each community to practice its own religion. The implication of this clause is that each individual was also free to choose his or her religion, in line with the clear teachings of the Quran. (FN10) Another important principle of statecraft is consultation with the people in all matters. This is stated in Clause 37(a). Unlike in modern democratic polity, the voice of the people, vox populi, regardless of whether that voice represents right and truth or not, is given the highest value. This is a basic flaw in Western democracy. Another important principle of just governance is that no quarter is given to an injustice or wrong-doing. In the Charter, this is stated in Clause 47. As I stated above, this constitution is Muhammad's ijtihad at formulating a constitution when he was confronted with the task of administrating the city-state of Medina. At this time, he had not yet received the full Quran. He had therefore to fall back on customs and precedents, and he did. In any case, all constitutions are provisional in the sense that it must be adapted to changing times. A trace of Arab tribalism can be detected in two clauses where a member together with his family were to be punished because of a crime he committed. (Clauses 25 and 36(b)) This clearly contradicts another clause which states that no evil-doer is punished except for the crime he commits. (Clause 46) Perhaps, in the light of present Muslim interest in an "Islamic state", we should point out that this important constitutional document of Islam does not anywhere use the term "Islamic state" of "Islamic society". The major principles governing an Islamic society are, of course, present -- principles like justice, brotherhood and unity of believers, unity and cooperation among zitizens of the state, freedom of religion, strict adherence to pacts entered into between parties, cooperation to do good and to prevent evil, encouragement for high moral conduct, consultation as a method of government. It is also interesting to note that what has been called "Hudud laws", being part of Islamic Law, is also nowhere mentioned in the document. It should be noted that the Charter, this first Islamic political-constitutional document, was given to the people of Medina in the name of Muhammad the Prophet (Clause 1) and also in the name of God as well as Prophet Muhammad. (Clause 47) Why two different ways of phrasing the ultimate source of power? It is to be remembered that during the Western Middle Ages, the Church ruled supreme in the name of God, and God's name was, of course, much misused by hypocrites and opportunists. The modern Western practice of replacing God with the people has, of course, not helped matters very much. In the name of the people, oppression, wars, colonialism and aggressions have been launched. Thus, even in this modern age of science and technology, mankind cannot ignore a power that is greater than itself. Mankind has an autonomous right to live, and to live happily, but he must do that in a lawfully created Universe. It is in this sense that the Charter was given in the name of Muhammad the Prophet, who represented the principle of the good and of right reason, which is higher than the individual man. Likewise, in Clause 47 God's name was put first, as God represents the highest Good and the highest principle of right reason. This is necessary to conduct Man to higher and ever higher achievements. APPENDIX THE MEDINA CHARTER (FN11) In the name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Salaamaleykum... (1) commentswell, lately I found new friends from my neighbourhood..who..well..speaks english at the intermediate level. I've never thought communication is this important..until now.Its really hard to make jokes and well...make silly comments..which i believe is one of the important ways to make the friendship bond stronger. I used to think my urdu was at least at the upper beginer's level..well..again, i stand corrected. So..my point...communitcation is important.And lingual skills- dont know many languages superficially...know a few in depth. yes..thats it. i should start mastering Urdu soon..inshaAllah.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
By Sheikh Muhammad Al Munajjid
(7) comments
Acknowledging your shortcomings is one of the first steps in disciplining yourself. Whoever acknowledges that he has shortcomings has started on the path to self-discipline. This acknowledgement is one of the things that make us discipline ourselves and be persistent in doing so. This acknowledgement should not put you off disciplining yourself. It is a sign of Allah’s care when a person tries to change himself and develop, as Allah says (interpretation of the meaning): “Verily, Allaah will not change the condition of a people as long as they do not change their state themselves” [al-Ra’d 13:11] So whoever tries to change for the sake of Allah, Allaah will help him to change. Each person is individually responsible for his own self, and will be questioned individually, as Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “There is none in the heavens and the earth but comes unto the Most Gracious (Allaah) as a slave. Verily, He knows each one of them, and has counted them a full counting. And everyone of them will come to Him alone on the Day of Resurrection (without any helper, or protector or defender)” [Maryam 19:93-95] Man cannot benefit from what he has been told about goodness unless he himself takes an interest in that. Do you not know the story of the wife of Nooh and the wife of Loot, who were members of the households of two Prophets, one of whom was one of the Messengers of strong will? Imagine how these Prophets strove to guide their wives and how much guidance these wives received, but there was no interest on their part, so it was said to both of them: “Enter the Fire along with those who enter!” [al-Tahreem 66:10 – interpretation of the meaning] Whereas the wife of Pharaoh – even though she was a member of the household of one of the greatest evildoers – is presented by Allah as an example to those who believe because she disciplined herself. The ways in which a Muslim can discipline himself are as follows: 1- Worshipping Allah, keeping in contact with Him and submitting to Him. That is done by paying attention to doing obligatory acts of worship well, and cleansing your heart of any attachment to anything other than Allah. 2- Reading Qur’aan a great deal, pondering its meanings and seeking to understand it. 3- Reading useful religious books that describe the ways of treating and cleansing the heart, such as Mukhtasar Manhaaj al-Qaasideen, Tahdheeb Madaarij al-Saalikeen and so on; reading the biographies of the salaf and learning about their attitude and behaviour, such as Sifat al-Safwah by Ibn al-Jawzi and Ayna nahnu min Akhlaaq al-Salaf by Baha’ al-Deen ‘Aqeel and Naasir al-Jaleel. 4- Attending educational programs such as classes and lectures. 5- Making good use of your time and using it to do things that will be of benefit in both worldly and spiritual terms 6- Not indulging too much in permissible things and not paying too much attention to them. 7- Keeping company with righteous people and looking for righteous companions, who can help you to do good. Those who live alone will miss out on a lot of the characteristics of a good brother such as preferring others to oneself and being patient. 8- Trying to act on what you learn and put it into practice. 9- Checking closely on yourself. 10- Having confidence in yourself – whilst relying on Allah – because the one who has no confidence cannot act. 11-Despising yourself for not doing enough for the sake of Allah. This does not contradict the things mentioned above. Man has to strive hard whilst still thinking that his efforts are not enough. 12-Practising withdrawal or isolation as prescribed in sharee’ah..You should not mix with people all the time, rather you must have some time which you spend alone, in worship as prescribed in Islam. We ask Allah to help us and you to discipline ourselves and submit to that which Allah loves and is pleased with. May Allah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and companions. <<Home About:  Strada Placido means 'Placid Road'. The holistic nature of this 'road' will venture to areas of all type. Politics, religion, self-improvements, cultures, etc.
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