It’s Only Sunnah Bro!!!

By Saiful Islam

“It’s only Sunnah bro…!”

That is the statement often made by those who when encouraged towards a Sunnah, pull out as an excuse to justify the non-adoption of a particular act, dress code or method which was conducted by the beloved Messenger of Allah, Muhammad.

Here is a tangible example.  Coming out of a shop, a brother wearing jeans half hanging down and a D&G t-shirt came out “bopsing” awkwardly and poorly imitating the 50 Cent et al.  It just so happened that I knew him from our younger days at school.

“SALAAAAAAAMALAIKUM CUZZZIEEEEEE, WA GOWAN!!!”

Standing there, I looked at his state, and thought, MashaAllah, the salam (greeting) is still there!  ”Walaykum salam bro”, I said.  After the usual catching up phase of our discussion where the obligatory “hows it goin”, “you married yet” questions are asked, I shifted the conversation to his state.

“Bro your trousers are falling down”, I said laughingly.  With a smirk on his face he replied, “bro its style man, I can’t be seen with my trousers up, it’s just weird.”  Excuse me?! Was I hearing right?  I knew he was into his rap music, so I deliberately asked, “is that some rap culture style?”, to which he responded, “yeah man”.  The following conversation then ensued:

A Gender Question for the PM

By Farooq Bayyin

 

Farooq Bayyin is a 20 year old second year, engineering university student studying in the West Midlands.  He joins the ISSM Blog team to contribute his views to the discourses affecting the Muslim community in Britain today.

The UK claims to provide gender equality, with David Cameron claiming it to be a core British value in his “deplored” Munich speech, but in reality this is not the case. When we look at insurance rates men in some cases pay 100% more than women. Recently the European Court of Justice ruled ‘Taking the gender of the insured individual into account as a risk factor in insurance contracts constitutes discrimination’. Looking at the differences in pay of men and women it can be seen again gender equality does not exist. The list can go on but this is sufficient to show gender equality may be a core British value but in actual fact does not exist.

Blistering Open Letter to Mr Cameron by Sh. Haitham al-Haddad

By CoolnessofHind

Shaykh Haytham al-Haddad – actually… forget introductions – just read the letter.  Let’s hope it reaches beyond the ventriloquism of the neocons around Cameron and to his mind instead.

 

OPEN LETTER MR. CAMERON

Shaykh Haytham al-Haddad

 

Your speech was misleading, ill-timed, counter-productive. You have insulted the Muslims you are meant to serve and have demonstrated a failure to understand the Muslims and their faith.

To
The Rt. Hon. David Cameron
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street

Dear Mr Cameron

In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

“For me, I have set my face, firmly and truly, towards Him Who created the heavens and the earth, and never shall I give partners to Allah.” ( The saying of Abraham, Quran 6:79)

Compassion for All Creation

Saiful Islam

Messenger of Allahwas a balanced human being, who had all the perfect qualities a man could ever possess. He took each positive quality and exemplified them to its epitome.  Be it a husband or neighbour, a general of an army or a businessman, our master Muhammadwas exemplary in each of his duties and roles and was an all-round master.

One of his qualities was that of compassion.  The Messenger ofhad immense compassion and mercy for not only man, but for all creation.

Muslims in the West: Challenges and Opportunities

By CoolnessofHind

I wrote on the topic of the unique Muslim in the West previously on the ISSM blog.  Since then I came across a very insightful interview with a thinker and scholar on a topic most pertinent to the Muslims living the West.  I pray it is of benefit to the readers. Ameen

Source: www.ilmgate.org

Muslims in the West: Challenges and Opportunities – An Interview With Mawlana Khalil al-Rahman Sajjad al-Nu’mani al-Nadwi

[Mawlana Khalilul Rahman Sajjad Nu’mani Nadwi is from Lucknow, India and is a prolific scholar and thinker of Islam. He is the son of the distinguished Muslim scholar Mawlana Muhammad Manzur Nu’mani. He studied at the famous educational establishments of Dar al-'Ulum Nadwat al-‘Ulama’ and Madinah University. He is a renowned mufassir of the Qur'an and travels widely for the purpose of da‘wah. Recently, he was invited to South Africa to visit the leading Islamic and educational establishments. Sulaiman Kazi from Batley, West Yorkshire joined him for a week and interviewed him in Cape Town on 20th October 2002. Below is a transcript of his advice for Muslims living in the West.]

Question: What advice would you give to Muslims in the West following the events of September 11, 2001?

Do you Love the Prophet (peace be upon him)?

By Saiful Islam

We, the Muslims, treat the Deen of Allah like America treated the black people: second class citizens or twentieth century slaves in the words of Malcolm X. How? Let me explain.

In the dunya we aspire to achieve the greatest, earn the most, and reach the highest position in the company in which we slavishly work.  We spend effort and time, often at the sacrifice of our family to get a promotion. We will aspire to reach the peak in the dunya… if we’re not practising we’ll avoid the question about praying, about chatting up women, womanising, wining and dining. ‘It’s for the molvis’ we’ll say.

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf: Wake up!

Saiful Islam

I came across a beautiful reminder Shaykh Hamza Yusuf – stimulating words for us all:

Facebook Fiasco – Where are the Responses by the Gov.-Backed “Muslim” Organisations?

By CoolnessofHind

With the facebook pages dedicated to drawing the blessed Prophet stirring the emotions and testing the patience of the Muslims around the globe to the final nerve, it is most intriguing to analyse the reactions of those stooges, chumps, sell-outs and traitors who are slavishly dedicated to stamping out the Western government instigated “extremism”.

Quite a few of the organisations funded by the government, such as the music-pumping Radical Middleway (RMW) and Campusalam have no comment or press statement on the issue.  Which is interesting because RMW for instance is known to bring down Ulama linked to the blood of the Prophet – surely out of some respect they should issue a statement of condemnation of the facebook fiasco.  Perhaps RMW will have another event called “from protest to engagement” and cap- off the event with a round of sisters singing and dances on stage with fellow male “nasheed artists”.  RMW have been “engaging” for many years; it does not seem to be a very effective method especially if one considers the hostile behaviour of non-Muslims towards Islam and Muslims.  Campusalam will probably release something, perhaps along the lines of “this has happened, it is terrible, but should we really shut our facebook accounts…” and then lead into a “controversial” discussion in the name of enlightened debate whether they should or shouldn’t, or maybe they’ll have another Comedislam event to show we aren’t extremists or terrorists but are happy-clappy Muslims… From personal experience, the same goes for Hear My Voice and all the other connected chump organisations.

The Veil – A symbol of Western Oppression

By Saiful Islam

Western oppression?  The veil is not imposed by the West! I hear people say.  That’s right, the West does not impose the wearing of the veil.  The free and “civil” West promotes its liberty by stripping their women and plastering them on massive billboards, rendering them into a commodity and tool to be abused by the capitalist system of exploitation.

Belgium of course is at the forefront of this “imposition” of removing the “symbol of oppression” as certain MPs called it.  The lower house of the Belgian parliament have passed legislation which will ban the wearing of the veil in public places.

Suddenly It Came

By Saiful Islam

Imagine the following.

You are at the peak of your life.  You have everything.  Wealth, women, the works.  You have your badboy car, with 20inch spinner wheels and a b-box the size of the entire boot.  You’re “living” it.  You go chill with your mates at a “gig” impressing the gals with your ultra tight top and flexing the “juiced” muscles.

Then, all of a sudden, your vision becomes all hazy as though your dehydrated.  You feel unstabilisingly dizzy and the scenery around you becomes the bane of your vision and thus your sense of reality.  Your body then shuts itself down and you collapse to the floor in a heap of carbon and water.

You then wake up in hospital and recieve some news.  You have been diagnosed with a cancer which has reached the stage where it cannot be cured.  One month. You have only one month to live.