Muslim Student Union - UCI (i made it myself :-)
Last updated: Thursday, November 03, 2005
Bismillah-i-Rahman-i-Raheem. Alhamdu lillahi rabbil Aalameen.
shaykh/doctor israr ahmed is really breaking it down... he outlines in detail what his goal is for
islamizing pakistan's government by proposing an islamized democratic government:
"democratic khilafah"
GOOD STUFF!!! and its' in english too. Find the word "Khilafah" on this page:
http://www.aswatalislam.net/DisplayFilesP.aspx?TitleID=2028&TitleName=Israr_Ahmed
And I know it sounds all "sell-out-ish" at first BUT you will be VERY VERY surprised, hear him out -- its an 8 part lecture series.
He bases a lot of ideology on Allama Iqbal's philosophical poetry (fyi, Allama Iqbal is a urdu AND persian poet of the 1900's that makes shakespear look like doctor sues).
omg... if you read the ayah backwards its the same ayah in surah muddathir "And thy lord do thou magnify!" (in arabic of course):
wa...
rabbaka fa kabbir
(ud have to see it in actual arabic text)... i've seen stuff like this in many places... hafiz aslam did a detailed tafsir to the intro to surah fathiha, and he just kept going on and on and on just on
lexical miracles surah fathiha (which is only 8 verses long), amazing...
subhanAllah
... and of course this stuff is not the basis of our faith... but its nice.
... OMG, shaykh muhammad yaqubi's grandmother memorized Imam Malik's muwatta and would recite it while kneeding dough.
"A drunk muslim is better than a sober kafir" -- shaykh hamza.... dude i love shaykh
hamza... subhanAllah, people have to be pretty sure of themselves to be
criticizing this man. They're willing to work with liberal progressive athiests,
but not shaykh hamza... very unfortunate.
"Be a scholar, a teacher, a listener, or one who loves them. Do not be a fifth category and thereby be ruined"
(Ibn Abd. Al-Barr p. 30)
We end our prayer with assalamu alaikum (wr wb). One of the North African scholars, amr al khashyani was asked why we do so, and he said, "because you have just taken a journey to Allah, and when you come back from your journey, you say Assalamu Alaikum."
Isn't that JUICED UP?!?!?!
Martin Luther King said, "You don't have anything worth living for unless you have something worth dying for"
I have something worth dying for, do you?
I love shaykh nuh ha meem keller!!!! he's sooooo hardcore-genious!!! hahahahahah
There are two ways to look at Taqdir (Predestination/Destiny/Fate/etc): Practically or Philosophically.
Practically: this is the way the sahabas looked at it, its plain and simple: you do your utmost to accomplish something and then trust in Allah thinking that if it goes through, then it's from Allah, and if not then it's from Allah. And all the while u'r exerting urself you should be praying to Allah. One scholar (and its very possibly a hadith) that says: "any action that does you do not begin by saying "Bismillah" (i begin in the name of Allah) is cut off from barakah (blessing)"
Philosophically: My teacher, hafiz aslam, told me that people have written several books on this philosophically and we really don't need to understand it, but it's not forbidden to seek this knowledge as long as u know it is true in general.
But we're always curious, y'know what they say, "curiousity killed the cat and curiosity elevated the salik." (i made that up, hehe). So anyway, this is where shaykh nuh comes in... this explanation is juicy juiced up:
http://members.cox.net/ahmemon/docs/destiny.pdf
(first page didn't come out right but u could still read it.)
... scanned this for a brother that is learning arabic w/ me. Mustafa is teaching us -- join us quickly if you want to learn! Tustin masjid mon, wed, thurs after isha in the 'library' room
Also, please make dua that we both attain success.
Brothers that I am teaching tajweed:
I've basically written this out for you, but i am prone to error, cuz i'm me, however this is my official source (second to my teacher, Hafiz Aslam Patel):
http://members.cox.net/ahmemon/docs/Tajweed.pdf
"Unix isn't user-unfriendly. It's just picky about who its friends are." -- My TA's "quote of the day" at the end of his e-mail.
SubhanAllah. Educated-Jahiliya. People usually put what is always on their minds in their "quote of the day" e-mail signature, y'know the thing that people have taken as their ilah, their god, their purpose of life. Which is why it is so important to remember Allah "standing, sitting, and reclining on your side." (see Surah Al-Imran ayah 189 or something). And you see here a master's student in Computer Science who seems to be on one of the millions of paths that lead to hell. May Allah guide him to the straight path. Ameen (say Ameen).
I know a brother, a very simple brother, who is one of zillions, who probably can't solve an algebra problem, but can cry when hearing Abdul-Rahman Sudais recite. This brother is in MUCH better shape than any geek / jock / musician at a university, because he knows "who he is and who's he is." (shaykh hamza's quote). SubhanAllah.
Shaykh Hamza once told a story about a man who was leading prayer, and then realized that he didn't have wudhu, so he left to do wudhu and pulled one brother forward to continue leading prayer (which is one option you have, if it happens to u). So the first man did wudhu, came back, and the second man (the one he had pulled) was still standing there without having had made any progress. So the first man asked the second man, "what are you doing?!?!?!" and the second man responded, "oh i was just saving your spot."
HAHAHAAHHA. LOL! (Islamic humour). This man (the second one), as simple minded as he was, was better off than my TA as he is right now. And talking about my TA, i should be taking the blame onto myself, because I haven't talked to him about Islam yet, and in all honesty, i don't think i will.
"It is not through an act of the mind or will that anyone becomes a Muslim, but rather through the mercy of Allah" -- Shaykh Nuh Ha Meem Keller (at the end of his BEAUTIFUL story (which was more of a journey) on how he became a Muslim)
http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/nuh/bmuslim.htm
Extending the concept of Ihsan to "Islamic Movement"
Ihsan - to worship Allah as if you see him, and if you cannot get to this level, then know that surely, he sees you.*
People that are usually labeled as "sufi" use this concept to explain a high spiritual state (maqaam) in ritual worship, eg, in your devotion to Allah while you are praying. Imam Zaid (and please don't label him as sufi, he's too cool to label him as anything) gives commentary on this saying that if you were watching TV there was no way you would flip to MTV if your grandmother was present, but what about when you realize that you are in Allah's presence? See what I mean?
It's like if you are on an important phone call, lets say a phone interview with an employer at Microsoft -- you would want absolutely NOTHING to bother you, and you would do everything you can to tune out all external noises and distractions. You would double check every word that comes out of your mouth, and not only that but also the tone of voice attached to the words. So now what about when you truely realize that you are in the presence of Allah?
Example, Diaa (one of the bros at UCI) said that there was a scholar who was praying in the masjid along with many others, and all the sudden a lion came in. EVERYBODY RAN out of the masjid, except that scholar. The lion actually came and licked the scholar's feet, but the scholar was praying and didn't leave. Later, the scholar was asked, why weren't you afraid?!!? what were you thinking?!?!?! and the scholar replied, I was wondering if the spit of a lion is najas (substance that enters one into ritual impurity). So ya... he was praying "as if he sees Allah."
Now, extend this concept to any other form of worship, such as the form of worship that "Islamic Movement" people love to focus on -- "Enjoining Good and condemning evil" -- so enjoin good and forbid evil in the presence of Allah, now think about Imam Ahmed bin Hanbal (rahimahullah)-- wasn't he in that state?
The authorities were trying to get him to say that the Quran is a "creation" of Allah, as opposed to the "word" of Allah (which is what it is), but Imam Ahmed stood by the truth and would not budge. (The reason that this is a big deal is that creations can have imperfections (on purpose, but impefections nonetheless) whereas the Words of Allah have to be perfect, if Imam Ahmed would have budged, Islam would have changed)... so anyway, he was beaten soooo much that his blood and even meat was coming out of his wounds, I say that he was in this state of Ihsan, he was worshiping Allah by speaking the truth as if he saw Allah (as stated in the hadith above).
... so ya very interesting to think of the many different forms of "worship" with respect to this hadith.
* "Hadees Jibril"
I was recently reminded of one of my all-time favorite statements of a scholar:
"There are two things that will keep you from knowledge: arrogance and shyness" -- Imam Mujahid (Rahimahullah) (he's really old-school)
And Mustafa Umar said that this is actually a hadith, but i haven't read it anywhere -- anybody got riwayah on this?
one of the many many things i love about Islam is that it makes life so simple... we're all travellers trying to get to Jannah (heaven) by pleasing God as prescribed by his Messenger, Muhammad (pbuh). And naturally, things get simple, u no longer care much about taking from the world, cuz ur just travelling through it,
and you don't want to ruin it cuz ur a guest.. ** sigh of peace/contentment**
my fav description of Heaven:
24. A Reward for the deeds of their past (life).
25. Not frivolity will they hear therein, nor any taint of ill,-
26. Only the saying, "Peace! Peace".
(Surah Waqia... the iTranslation sooooo doesn't do it justice)
(is ayah 25 daleel that Blondes won't enter Jannah? muhuhahahahaha)
and scholars make commentary on this saying that if we enter Jannah, we will only be able to say "peace, peace..." for the first
couple of days... kinda like the mexican guy who broke down in tears in the zaytuna.org
infomercial. y'know what i mean? like completely in awe in the amount of peace
there is, kinda like when we see the Kaaba for the first time.
Oh God, how i hate bollywood... what a bunch of chumcha's... wannabe's... their god is America and corruption is their prophet.
and the god of America is their desires, and money is their prophet
may Allah guide us
Imam Patrick Robertson
"Astag-Frilla"
amazingly important messages from imam patrick, check out at least last 10-12 mins of
this dialog
http://real.meccaone.org:8080/ramgen/%7Emeccaone/audio/5thingswecando.rm
... hilarious
and the "Cleooooo" one is hilarious to on the meccaone.org website
Watch the next Muhammad AlShareef Webcast.... www.emanrush.com
Aatif and I are trying to bring AlMaghrib here, if not then it'll go to SD... which is all gravy too, 1 hour drive.
i just got rid of my 'forum'... partially cuz nobody went to it, and also cuz there is no reason for anybody to go to it.
My FORUM - Not that anybody but zain omar visits my profile, but just in case
y'know now that i think about it more... the 'profile' i wrote a few down:
The concept of an "Intellectual Fad" is an intellectual fad
isn't really true... there are such things as intellectual fads, even in the deen. If there is any knowledge that doesn't change us, we should suspect it of being an intellectual fad. Y'know what i mean? like sometimes getting way to carried away w/ the taqleed issue -- can be an intellectual fad... and is especially dangerous because it can (and does in some cases) cause divisions in the ummah.
I've gotta get this taqleed thing figured out... post something on my forum if u have input on this
I've been going thru a phase, Mustafa Umar snapped me out... dang i can't wait till he's done becoming a scholar inshAllah, HARDCORE!!! May Allah make it easy on him (say ameen)
Mustafa Umar: My shaykh in the Nadwa madrasa in India said:
"There are three opinons, and two of them are wrong:
1 - Taqleed (following a madhab) is Haraam, this is wrong.
2 - Taqleed is Wajib, this is also wrong
3 - Taqleed is permissible, this is the correct opinion."
And Mustafa added, the only thing that remains is the question, "Is following a Madhab recommended or just optional?"
Then we prayed and I guess the right amount of blood went into Mustafa's head in sajda or something and he said:
"Here's a question that if you could answer, u're confusion (my phase) will be solved:"
"If there was a person that read all of Hidaya (Official text on Hanafi Fiqh), another person who read all of Umdat As-Saliqeen ("The Reliance of the Traveller") (now the official text on Shafi'i fiqh for English speakers), and another person that read the main text on fiqh for "Wahabis," "Salafis," and all of them followed ALLLL of it, which one is the best in the sight of Allah?"
The answer is so obvious, but it took me a while to get it because of this taqleed/sufi phase I've been going through, but once I did, it officially snapped me out of the phase... you wanna know what it is? well i aint gonna tell ya, post ur answers on the message board (all two of you that actually read my profile).
... all quotations are loosely quoted, mistakes are mine, correct stuff is in all likelihood prolly mustafa's
dude they really know what's up in the UK.
http://www.therevival.co.uk/aqeedah.htm
why are there sooo many similarities between the UK and nor. cal... the easy answer is "cuz they're both liberal" but gimme more than that? the similarities exist amoungst non-muslims in the two locations as well as muslims... very weird indeed
I just added a Message Board... its free... they advertise u, but it's all gravy.
post something so that i don't look like a loner please... hehehe
Here's a little contention of my own, yeah baby yeah:
This Election: The wolf, the wolf in sheppard's clothing, or the sheppard that the sheep don't vote for.
yeah, ya darn straight.... bustin' it like shaykh abdal hakim murad
"......Lucian in his advice that whoever sees a moral philosopher coming down the road should flee from him as from a mad dog. For0 such a person, expediency ruled, and nothing checked his behavior but convention." -- shaykh nuh ha meem keller in his story on how he became a muslim
o so tite.... http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/nuh/bmuslim.htm
OMG... i love shaykh nuh ha meem keller... check this out, its his story on how he became a Muslim... here's an excerpt:
"I studied philosophy at the university and it taught me to ask two things of whoever claimed to have the truth: What do you mean, and how do you know? When I asked these questions of my own religious tradition, I found no answers, and realized that Christianity had slipped from my hands. I then embarked on a search that is perhaps not unfamiliar to many young people in the West, a quest for meaning in a meaningless world."
............
"I also read A.J. Arberrys translation "The Qur'an Interpreted", and I recalled my early wish for a sacred book. Even in translation, the superiority of the Muslim scripture over the Bible was evident in every line, as if the reality of divine revelation, dimly heard of all my life, had now been placed before my eyes. In its exalted style, its power, its inexorable finality, its uncanny way of anticipating the arguments of the atheistic heart in advance and answering them; it was a clear exposition of God as God and man as man, the revelation of the awe-inspiring Divine Unity being the identical revelation of social and economic justice among men."
.........
much more... u'll have to read it... oh so juiced up:
http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/nuh/bmuslim.htm
juice... straight up juice...
I'm gonna vote for nader... and here's my rational:
I'm not going to vote for Bush because i am not crazy, no need for explanation. I'm not gonna vote for Kerry becuase: CA is going to Kerry anyway, AND he's anti-palestinian to some extent AND he's pro-draft (but won't say it flat out), so i don't wanna be held accountable for any such actions on the day of judgement. And of course we could play the 'lesser of two evils' game and vote for Kerry, if you do, ok, NMP (not my problem), BUT I think there is a better alternative for muslims at least in California: VOTE FOR NADER!!! U'll have to write him in, cuz he's been removed from the ballot. Sure, he doesn't stand a chance, but he speaks the truth, tells it like it is, y'know what i'm sayin'? So i want to support people who have that quality. He even came to the last ISNA conference, as far as i've seen, i don't think i disagree w/ anything he talks about (not that I won't find something, but y'know, y'know, he's good enough). www.votenader.org
And well people will say, "don't vote, u'r giving allegiance to a kafir." well that's one way to look at it, but in the case of nader, he ain't gonna win, only thing that will happen is that he'll get a little more of a push to keep speaking the truth.
Another benefit to voting, just in general, is that CAIR works very very hard to work politics in America. And one major negotiating tool they have is being able to say to other political organizations, political parties, and maybe even affiliated corporations, "X number of Muslims voted, so we Muslims are all that, cooperate with us." The bigger the X, the more power they have, and regardless of whether or not u agree with CAIR, the fact of the matter is that they are our brothers and sisters, and we should support them in what they are trying to accomplish, we've all gotta stick together y'know what i'm sayin?
and btw, i haven't gotten to read this yet (will do so after i fnish this profile entry), but Naseeb (massive online Muslim social network), had an interview with john kerry, here's is the transcript:
http://www.naseeb.com/naseebvibes/peace-detail.php?aid=2335
sweeeeeeeeeeet. just learned something:
If your answer is yes, i just learned that shariah accommodates you in this. If you have such a problem, you do wudhu, and the end of that wudhu is the end of the prayer (as opposed to passing gas or urinating or whatever). So, ie, you would do wudhu, regardless of whether u keep farting or dropping drops of urine, your wudhu will last until the end of that prayer time. This is the rule at least for hanafi fiqh by the way. Source: Pearls of Purity http://www.madrasaprogram.org/pearls.htm
I scanned this from "Dear Beloved Son" by Imam Ghazzali (rahimullah) aka "Hujjatal Islam" aka "Abu Hamid Ghazzali"... its about dawah, some do's and don'ts:
thot it would be useful for y'all as well (assuming anybody else actually reads this).
"when you do not pray for your enemy, the only reason you don't do it is because of hasad (jealousy)" -- Imam Nawawi (narrated by shaykh hamza)
I had ordered "Foundations of Islamic Jurisprudence" in Urdu (unfortunately wasn't available in Memon, hahahaaha) by Shaykh Zulfiqar Ahmad www.tasawwuf.org . It finally came in the mail and it said "Shaykh Zulfiqar Ahmad Naqshbandi," but my dad was like "what's this naqshbandi stuff?!?!" cuz he's seen a lot of illigit bidah, even shirk, come out of wannabe sufis doing qawalis and stuff, who ended up defiling the name of the naqshbandi tariqa, and even tasawwuf in general... but oh well, whatcha gonna do, but shaykh z is totally legit though, i really hope my dad listens to it... its really really good stuff as far as I could tell. Let me know if u want me to make u a copy, i'll put them all on one CD in WMA format or something. If you don't know me, send an email to sonyplaystation AT excite.com
Also please make dua that my dad be able to benefit from this series to its fullest. thanks.
By the way, anybody know of any lectures by a scholar from the Qadiri Tariqa? Or does anybody know if the Qadiri Tariqa turned into the Naqshbandi Tariqa? thanks.
I really wanna learn about other tariqas just in general, so far i have a strong overview of the Shadhili Tariqa (Shaykh Nuh Ha Meem's tariqa www.tasawwuf.com ) and the Naqshbandi Tariqa (Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanwi (rahimullah), Shaykh Hussain Abdul Sattar, Shaykh Zulfiqar Ahmad's tariqa www.tasawwuf.org ). I know that the Chistiyya (or something) tariqa exists, but know basically nothing about it. I also want to know about the Qadiri Tariqa as i mentioned above. Anybody know if Shaykh Hamza follows a tariqa? what is it? I asked "what tariqa does zaytuna follow?" at the zaytuna table at ISNA, and the sister (may Allah preserve her), said that they don't have an official tariqa. What tariqa does Shaykh Muhammad Ya'qubi follow? What tariqa does Shaykh Salek bin Siddina follow (he looks so hardcore in the pictures in zaytuna, when i read the part of hadith jibreel "Worship Allah as if u see him" i remember shaykh salek... dang he's totally out of this world)? O O O what i really wanna know is if Imam Zaid follows a tariqa, and if he does, which one, if i had to guess i'd say Naqshbandi cuz he studied for a long time in Syria... and Naqshbandi is big there too.
Whoa did u know that Paki/Indian Hanafis generally follow that Maturidi Aqeedah (as opposed to ashari)... not surprised but now i'm confirmed in that. I think Ashari's have like "49 names of Allah" or something as opposed to "99 names of Allah" like maturidis... not that its a big deal... cuz that was just formulated by scholars for our understanding anyway, but its interesting to find out where everything comes from. However the "names of Allah" thing is just a hypothesis, if somebody could confirm me in that, that would be very nice.
oh how i passionately hate bollywood.
bollywood = rebellion for the sake of rebellion.
wheras hollywood aint as bad:
hollywood = misguidance (i would say, due to Muslims' weakness in representing Islam. Cuz if non-Muslim Americans knew "who they were and who's they were," due to their honesty, their actions would be a manifestation of their true beliefs and their actions would transform their pure souls into beautiful souls)
I hypothesize that the inventor of TV has harmed humans more than Hitler.
Dang, its like shaytan's strongest weapon, the damage that wicked box does to humans is soooo tremendous... ** sigh **
(not to devalue Hitler's evilness in anyway of course)
Somebody asked me a question related to "condtiions for not keeping a fast" so i scanned my favorite book of hanafi fiqh... its like cliff notes for hanafis:
docs/conditionsForNotKeepingAFast.pdf
Here's a "contention" of my own that i've been wanting to put up here for a looong time, but i'd forget everytime i got on my computer:
The concept of an "Intellectual Fad" is an intellectual fad
Eh? Eh? not bad?
check that out... does'nt do much... at least not now... made it myself
I hate it how age groups are so separated because of the school system. It really puts a major road block in dawah efforts. I mean imagine even if there were ppl in their mid twenties interacting with kids in their jr. highschool age... that would be awesome. And further more, imagine if there were were 40+ year olds interacting with us arrogant sons of mothers (people from late teens to mid twenties). We'd make wise decisions in stead of spontaneous naive dogmatic ones. ** sigh ** Allahumma a'izza Islama wal muslimeen.
o ya, be sure to listen to this live Muhammad AlShareef broadcast:
http://www.emanrush.com/lessons-eesa.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memon ... very nice... thanks to zain omar.
Memon's are in the encyclopedia (Allah rehm kare), it goes very well with my profile entry if you skip the one just below. I'm talking about the one about Abdul Qadir Jilani (rahimullah)
I just finished Imam Zaid's "The rise and 'fall' of the ummah"... oh soooo beautiful. Allahumma A'Izza Islam wa Muslimeen! ameen.
Let the cultural evolution begin!!!
what am i talking about... well u'll need the mp3 CD, its sposed to be over 11 hours long, i felt like it was more though. I don't see it on islamicbookstore.com or even alhambraproductions.com so i feel I have the green light to burn you a copy. Just let me know, if you don't know me personally, send an e-mail to sonyplaystation AT excite.com (i state the e-mail addy like that to keep spammers' tools from adding that e-mail addy to their spam list) and include ur home address, and i'll send u a copy inshAllah.
Islam is like any other complex system -- you could study through several different perspectives. Kinda like how u could study the mechanics of a car, the thermodynamics, the dynamics, the aesthetic appeal, etc, etc, etc. well... one of the ways we could look at Islam is the historical perspective... this is is what this CD is all about, and ends with where history has left off, where we are going, and what we need to do to get there inshAllah.
stuff i learned recently:
Abdul Qadir (Kadir) Jilani (known to the memon's as "gosh pak") was not memon, in fact he was iraqi but spread Islam to SEVERAL SEVERAL SEVERAL people, including the memons. I would not hesitate at all to say that he was a wali-ullah.
My aunt told me one of his karamahs, she said that he was teaching a huge group of memons, and pointed at a bird like creature and said something and it fell down. He said that htis was shaytan. And just like any other auliya story, their validity is at the level of "do aliens exist?" the answer is, there is nothing to negate it, and there is nothing to prove it in our deen, and one's iman should not be based on that.
Anyway, he was a traditional scholar, and a great one at that, he had his own tariqa (well not him himself, like he took bayah w/ another major scholar, but he was so big this tariqa became named after him), it is known as the "kadiri tariqa" or "Qadiri tariqa." This actually explains a lot. y'know how memons do certain ibadaat more than plain old pakis -- for example, we'll pray an extra two rakat nafl after maghrib + 2 sunnah... this most likely has roots in the qadiri tariqa. (ie, he must have had all of his murids take bayah to do those extra, which kinda spread). This wouldn't be bidah, because it still is known as "nafl." If u still think its bidah, read some of shaykh nuh's stuff, and several other scholars' stuff that are not hanbali, wahabi, salafi, etc (no offense though)... and they'll set u straight. Similarly for the extra nawafil after Isha. And it probably is also where all the "panj surah" comes from (a book w/ excerpts of the Quran that should be recited everyday, largely based on sunnah, but sunnah taqleed style, where u abide by the sunnah by following a shaykh. So for example, the "panj surah" might say read surah yaseen in the morning, etc, etc, etc, surah waqia after maghrib, etc, several salawat on the prophet, etc. and actually have them listed there conveniently for u. I used to call all this bidah back in the wahabi days, but now i wised up, understood taqleed. Give the grannies and the grand pappies major props.
Abdul Qadir Jilani adds to the several examples of how the key ingredient (if not sole ingredient) to dawah is baraqah, and your relationship and spiritual state (maqaam) with Allah (swt). How else can you bring entire communities to Islam w/o even being raised in their community? w/o being fluent in their language (unless he learned it on the fly for dawah, and i woulnd't be surprised at that, and being a baraqah-heavy-weight, he probably could have. One of the sahabas mastered hebrew in two weeks for the sake of Islam).
... i mean think about it, people would enter Islam after talking to the prophet pbuh for a matter of minutes, how? why? it seems weird to us, our nafs and shaytan will tell us, "well the sahabas were naive and what not" (naudhubillah, astaghfirullah), but the fact of the matter is, the baraqah that Allah would put in the words of the prophet pbuh was AMAZING. I mean, there was that one ENEMY of islam who heard a certain verse being recited to him, and he fell in sajdah, cuz he couldn't bear not to. That's baraqah. Or how when one of the sahabas recited surah maryam to najashi (the righteous christian king of ethiopia at the time), broke down in TEARS, and didn't even know the meaning. Then it was translated for him, and he broke down in tears again. That's barkah! barakah that the sahabas had. And for those who don't understand tawassul (intermediary means), this would be an example of the Prophet's pbuh barakah travelling THROUGH (tawassul) the sahaba to najashi.
And as for the barakah in dawah thing... i've experienced this myself, when i'm keeping up w/ my adhkar (plural for dhikr) (which really really is not much, ask me and i'll let u in on it, very beginning of the naqshbandi tariqah www.tasawwuf.org ), Allah (swt) shows me opportunities for dawah. LITERALLY. like i dont' have to go looking for it, door to door or anything, somebody will jsut show up and I will be able to help them. Then when my adhkar looses sincerity** and i'm basically repeating w/ my tongue, dawah opportunities don't come up, AND the ones that i had started on fade.
** (cuz remember just the way objects have weight (mass * accelleration of gravity), our good deeds have spiritual weight (action * sincerity) (which is why a 'christian' who helps people for the sake of helping people, his sincerity to Allah is 0, and hence 0's out the equation)) This was explained by Shaykh Zulfikhaar Ahmad and Shaykh Hussain Abdul Sattar, may Allah preserve them both. Juice, i know.
So anyway... my main points in this profile were
DID YOU KNOW THAT:
I used to think, partially because it has become an urban legend, that we no longer have mujtahid scholars in the Ummah. A mujtahid scholar has to AT LEAST have the Quran + 100,000 ahadith (including the isnad (chains of narration)) MEMORIZED including SEVERAL SEVERAL other things (like whole important books). But Hafiz Aslam told me he knows at least one, but there are more (in the UK, where he went to 'skoo'). He said he even knows auliya (who know they are auliya), etc. However these ahadith STILLLL stick to taqleed!!! as opposed to students who read some books or listened to some lectures on usool ul fiqh that start their own madhab... sad.
I've heard stories about scholars who could memorize on the fly, like Imam Ahmad who would need to read something once or twice and would memorize what he read. But i thought that was wayyyy back in the day. however hafiz Aslam told me he has even met people that can stlll do that!!! its all about the baraqah in memory... american muslims desperately need tasawwuf.
I just love this contention, i just had to quote it... ther are so many beautiful ones that i won't be able to get to, oh man, shaykh abdal hakim murad (TJ Winters) is a genious!!! i love the guy! he's like a british imam ghazzali (i just hope he doesn't sue me for this, hehehehehe):
Islam = arithmetic
Iman = reading
Ihsan = writing.
(juice. I don't need to say any more, just juice)
Many wear the turban to prevent Allah from reading their minds.
Converts: we must jump the gap without losing our
clothes.
(i'm pretty sure he is referring to culture when he mentions clothes, because
Islam doesn't say "everybody become Arab," In islam u keep ur culture,
modify a little to fit shariah, and fuel a little to fill in the gaps... however
with all this wahabi style Islam (which definitly has hits positive points, i
dun wanna get into this), "5th
category of bidah, like wearing loose enough jeans, or something else that
shariah is indifferent to" )
The limited love to limit, while the open love to open.
Kufr is the betrayal of love.
Life is vocation, not vacation.
(oh so true, the brain understands, i just wish my nafs would)
The worst arrogance is the one that yields a sort of
humility.
(yeah, pretty darn scary aint it?)
What can modernity tell those who dislike shopping?
(hehe, funny. "modernity" (ie shaytan), would just beef up the
rhetoric and appeal to the nafs (carnal desires) (sound oddly familiar don't
it?))
An empire must be an umpire.
(clever. not that others weren't)
The means are the ends.
(this is the most compact explanation of taqdir i have ever seen, oh so
beautiful. The key to understanding taqdir is not worrying about
"understanding" it, but rather dealing with it the way the sahabas and
the prophet pbuh did, which is what that "contention" explains)
It is better to be guilty of something than to be
guilty of nothingness.
(again, tell that to my lazy nafs)
Discourtesy always resembles a failure.
(i could sense the gem in this, i just wish i could see it. Yaa rabi zidni 'Ilma.
I wish i could understand this, anybody out there care the explain it? It has to
do with the concept of ihsan.)
Islam in the West: there is isolation, or assimilation,
or success.
(classic.)
75. ‘Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving
kids all over the world, I can’t help but cry. I mean I’d love to be skinny
like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff.’ (Mariah Carey)
(what a freakin' idiot. That's what happens when shaytan kills ur soul **
sigh **, and the death of the soul by shaytan spreads like the death of the body
by the plague. Luckily Allah (swt) says, "So set thou thy face steadily and
truly to the Faith: (establish) Allah.s handiwork according to the pattern on
which He has made mankind: no change (let there be) in the work (wrought) by
Allah. that is the standard Religion: but most among mankind understand
not." (30:30).
and shaykh hamza says in this case "ardh" means "heart" (or
soul) as well... may Allah guide Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, and all the other
lost actresses and actors in hollywood (say ameen).
... i could go on and on... Shaykh abdal hakim is amazing.
I'll give 10 bucks to the first person that makes fortune cookies out of his "contentions" and puts them in a halal chinese restaurant. I really mean that, do it. Preferably Jameelah Gardens first.
I actually like contentions 6 and 5 the best respectively
http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/contentions6.htm
http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/contentions5.htm
This is soooo saweeeeeeeet:
http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/contentions.htm
check out his other contentions as well (at the bottom of the screen). I'd quote some, but i fear i'd be doing injustice to the others.
Here is an AWESOME article i read in zaytuna's semiannual season's journal. It is discussing the permissability of Music. I personally don't listen to any music, it makes recting and/or memorizing the Quran significantely harder and fills your mind with other than dhikr... BUT some bros/sisters make want to listen to music, the following will explain pretty well everything that has to do with Music in pretty good detail, read it, good stuff:
docs/musicFatwaSeasonsJournal.pdf
makes me feel guilty to treat our scholars kinda like celebrities cuz celebrities tend to be the scum of the earth, and scholars tend to be the best people on the earth. But the concept is simliar -- celebrities are role models for the people hooked on materialism, and scholars are the role models for those hooked on knowledge (now following and acting upon that knowledge is a different thing, see one profile down).
I memorized the following advice from "Dear Beloved Son" by Imam Ghazzali (ra) on the way to ISNA in chicago on the airplane:
Oh my dear son...
knowledge without action is insanity, and action without knowledge is vanity. Know that knowledge alone will not distance you from sin, nor bring you into obedience, nor distance you from the hell fire of tomorrow. If you do not act now, and do not learn from your mistakes, then on the last day you will say "send me back to my previous life, and i will do good actions." It will be said to you, "Oh Fool, that is where you just came from."
don't tell me that isn't juice, the wording isn't exact, but its real close.
This is different from my shortend profile a couple spots below, btw.
my cuz asked me two questions, i spent some time answering them, thought i'd post them up... they're still very brief responses but still informative:
1) what are the differences between shia (shi'ite) and Sunni Muslims?
some history on the khawarij-shia-sunni split:
or actually i know very little about khawarij, so lets just focus on shia
vs. sunni:
After the prophet passed away pbuh, abu bakr as-siddiq (ra) (a.k.a. "the
Prophet's sidekick" like robin was to batman (except that The prophet pbuh
and Abu Bakr ra could kick batman and robin's butt any time, any place, any
day!)) took the khalaifa (became the 'president')
everything was bueno.
Then Hazrat Umar, ra, took the khalifa after Abu bakr
everything was still bueno.
Then Hazrat Uthman (ra) took it after Hazrat Umar
everything was still bueno, but a lil' somethin' something was a little
uneasy amoungst all the Muslims
Then Hazrat Ali (ra) took the khalifa after hazrat uthman
at this point there were hurdreds of thousands (if not millions) of Muslims,
many didn't know much about Islam cuz of the speed it spread. The ones who
didn't know much started fighting over leadership, some protesters would say
"Hazrat Ali should have been the FIRST calipha" and this went to such
an
extent that they attacked Abu Bakr for no reason. (Kind of like in a Memon
household, if the husband spends time with his sister, the ignorant wife
will hate the sister (where she shouldn't hate anybody, but if so, it makes
more sense to hate the husband, humans are weird sometimes). So this created
a lot of tensions, shia muslims broke off, many of which didn't have
anything to do with the fighting and kinda went their own way with rivalry
against the main "sunni" muslims.
But understand that, All four of these were sahabas, and loved eachother
soooooo much that they would literally be willing to die for each other --
it was the ignorant new muslims amoungst the LARGE masses taht caused the
problems. And when i say "ignorant new muslims" i todn't mean that
they were
worse than us, they came way before us and were probably better, but this is
just history.
as time progressed, shias got really caught up in criticizing and slandering
first three khaliphas just to make Hazrat Ali look better. Many
started saying crazy things like Hazrat Ali should have been the prophet,
and that Angel Jibreel made a mistake. Shia's are a mess in some sense,
there are around 50 different types of "shia's", out of which 1 or 2
types
are actual muslims cuz of their beliefs -- and even that is questionable.
Luckly most shias are of these one or two types.
over 90 percent of the muslims in the world are regular sunnis, and probably
8 percent are shias, and the other 2 are other deviant sects (that probably
aren't even real muslims, not that we can judge, if somebody says they are
Muslims, then we believe them, period).
shias pray differntly, some shias pray VERY differently.
Our approach to shias nowadays should be just to say "hey we're all muslims,
lets leave it at that" and teach them what u know about Islam -- and don't
learn anything from them without checking with a real sunni scholar. I would
recommend sunnis not to marry shias, unless they "convert" to sunni,
and I
would recommend not to eat meat at their houses unless u know where they buy
it from fo sho.
but just be a good muslim, and teach them what u know about Islam -- just as
u would anybody else -- muslim or non-Muslim.
------------------------------------------------
what will happen on the day of qiyamat?
basically:
an earthquake will happen all over the world, almost all humans will die.
Angel Israfil will blow a trumpet which will kill everybody, everything, and
eventually even Angel Israfil himself. Only Allah will be living, and
EVERYTHING else will be dead. Then Allah will bring Agnel Israfil to life,
and command him to blow the trumpet again -- everything will be brought back
to life (see all surahs in the last sipara, and especially the second surah
(surah naziyat)). We will wait for Allah to begin judgement, and will be
completely scared and anxious. Everybody will be naked, but nobody will
care, they will be too busy thinking about what will happen next. 1000 years (amount
of time)
will pass by, and eventually people will ask prophets to ask Allah to begin
the actual judgement, all prophets will refuse saying that they are too
afraid to ask, and finally prophet muhammad pbuh will ask, and Allah will
begin.
If u are good, u will be chillin' in a special shade that Allah has made
(one of the types of people that will get this shade are the people who were
good Muslims in their youth (before age 40)). If u were bad, u will
literally be drowning in your own sweat, that's how hot it will be.
Allah will judge u on every atom's weight of good or bad u have done, like
if u smiled at somebody, Allah will count that for u. If u gave somebody a
mean or dirty look, Allah will even count that. If you did more good than
bad, then if Allah chooses to bless your good deeds, he will send you to
Jannah. And if you did more bad than good, then Allah will send you to hell.
Both decisions are ultimately to him, Allah can send a "religious"
person to
hell and what we would consider a "bad" person to jannah.
We will eventually have to cross a bridge that is thinner than a thin string
that goes over hell and leads to Jannah . If we were good Allah will make it
easy, if we are bad, the hell fire will grab us and burn us. If we get into
Jannah, we will absolutely love it, and not be disappointed guaranteed, for a
few days all we will be able to say is "peace! peace!" If Allah
decides to
put us in Hell -- there will be nothing good in it, we will have to eat
other people's dead rotten bodies, and drink boiling water. The smallest punishment
that somebody can get
will be having to wear shoes that have fire so hot that it boils our brain.
The prophet pbuh said that nothing will help us more than a "Qalb-as-Saleem"
(a sound, peaceful, secure, whole, heart).
In order to get a qalb as-saleem (generally speaking): the first step is to
believe in the right things, the second step is to follow all of Allah's
rules, the third step is do a whooooole lot of dhikr and constantly be aware
of Allah. From this you see how to help others, if they are not Muslims,
tell them to believe in the right things, if they already belive, tell them
to do the right things (staring with praying 5 times a day), then once they
follow all the rules, tell them to make a lot of dhikr.
hope that answered ur Q, read the meaning of the last 20-30 surahs in the
Quran -- u'll learn a whole lot IA.
salaams,
Amir
My cuz asked me a question: "Are we allowed to take medicine w/ gelatine?"... how classic is that right? well i didn't deliver a fatwa, but rather gave her a push in the right direction in how to get answers to these types of questions, here is the e-mail:
Dont take this as fatwa, my regular disclaimer applies as always.
Assalamu Alaikum Sana,
(everybody else recieving this email, sana asked me about "can we take
medicine that has gelatine in it, like gel caps?" I sent her fatwas from
three different websites, and am now giving my opinion on this.)
first of all understand that I am FAAAAAR from being qualified, i am not
qualified at all, i don't even know arabic, but it is useful to get the
opinions of others, particularly older brothers and sisters raised in
America to be able to sort through the different differing opinions on
various issues in America.
first of all lemme give u a brief background on the three following websites
and scholars that I have refered to in my recent e-mails:
www.ask-imam.com is run by more than one
scholar, the head of which is Mufti
Ebrahim Desai. This is a MAAAJOR scholar, fully qualified in Islamic Law
(fiqh), he is my favorite source for fiqh, and is DEFINITLY baji's favorite
(i'm sure you have gotten email sent to you by ask-imam.com by baji by now).
He is a very strong scholar, lots of Khashiya (God-conciencness), amazing, I
would not be surprised if he is a wali-ullah of our time. (wali-ullah means
"friend of Allah," like many people (including myself) believe that
Abdul
Qadir Jilani (a.k.a. "Gosh Pak") was a Wali-Ullah). However Mufti
Ebrahim of
ask-imam.com does have one striking weakness as far as we are concerned is
that he is based in South Africa. One requirement of a mufti is that before
he passes fatwas, he must live in a country for at least 4 years, which may
or may not be qualified in this case. This world is a "global
community,"
for example messages can get passed around the world in a split second, so
the question that comes up is "does the rule about living in a country for
4
years for a mufti to start giving fatwa get satisfied by saying that we are
all part of a global community?" Furthermore, South Africa is a very
developed country, in fact there are many many white people there, hahahaha,
and is one of the top countries in the advancement of our deen, the masjids
over there get PACKED at the time of Fajr! my friend recently left to go
there to become a hafiz. But... even after all of that, do we take all
fatwas by www.ask-imam.com as valid living
in America, even though there are
differing opinions by (less qualified) scholars in our area? I say for the
VAST majority, yes, we should take his fatawa, but for SOME things maybe
not. This might be one of those "maybe not's"
www.islamqa.com and www.islam.org
(a.k.a. www.islamicity.com) are
generally
more liberal but are closer to home, you could read their fatwas. They
actually say that non-zabiha meat is halaal, and are really only concerned
with the pork gelatine question and ambiguity. We should stick to zabiha
only, for various reasons that I do not want to get into in this email.
Mufti Ebrahim Desai is more qualfied than the scholars running these
websites. We should respect their fatawa and them as well, they are in all
liklihood better than us overall.
so anyway... i mention all that for you to understand the sources better,
for future reference as well in other questions.
As far as the is it ok to take medicine that has gelatine (or alcohol for
that matter) is concerned, from all the fatawa that i have read on this
subject I think (and again i am not qualified, so don't just take my word
for it alone):
When you go to the doctor and he prescribes medicine, ask him if it has
gelatine or alcohol in it, if he says yes, ask him is there a medicine that
has the same effect but does not have gelatine or alcohol, if he says yes
then bueno, take the medicine thats clean. If he says no, then ask yourself
how serious is the sickness? if it is just a regular head ache, then it
might be better to drink more water and stay longer in sajdah which works
very well for me. If you have a heavy flu, that keeps you from doing what
needs to be done, and only gel-caps are available, then I'd say go for it.
Also be cautioned: don't use Islam to mix Doctor logic and your logic. I
mean lets say you have a bacterial infection that your doctor said that it
will only go away after taking 30 days of a certain antibiotic that only
comes in gel caps, and your doctor told you to take all 30 days
continuously, well then don't be like after 15 days you start feeling better
and say, "ok i feel better, doctor said 30 days, but gelcaps aren't totally
halaal, so i'll stop." This will hurt you, the bacterial infection could
come back, and it's back to the doctor for you -- just take all 30 days.
<< i edited some of this email out>>
The primary difference between that and Mufti Ebrahim Desai (
www.ask-imam.com ) is that he says that we
have to ask a mufti to judge the
severity of the illness before we say ok to gelcaps. I don't think this is
practical where we live -- Islamic Scholars and Doctors are very separated
and don't really know eachother, once we get more Alims that are doctors, or
Alims that are friends of and work with Doctors, then inshAllah i'd be
comfortable with that, because otherwise you become the middleman in the
process of judging severity, bias the opinion, defeat the purpose, waste the
mufti's time, and at the end of the day you start telling everybody that
"mufti ____ approved _____" when in fact the correct statement is
"mufti ___
approved ____ based on what I told them which is _____".... and you
wouldn't
remember that much
and on top of that there aren't too many muftis in our area anyway.
short question, long answer, sorry about that, i hope u read it, it took me
a while to type it out.
-- Amir
Osman recommended "My Beloved Son" by Hujjat-ul-Islam, Imam Abu-Hamid al-Ghazzali, and here's a sweet excerpt from it:
"Knowledge without action is insanity, and action without knowledge is vanity"
one of the brothers wanted a copy of dua-e-qunut for witr... here it is, thot id post it for the benefit of anybody who bothers to read my profile:
I've been wanting to learn the fiqh of marriage from a more formal text on Islamic Law (fiqh) for a while now, and Alhamdulillah Allah showed me this one book: "The Heavenly Ornaments" (originally called "Bahishti Zewar" in Urdu). This was (and might still be, although I doubt it is actively taught anymore) the mainstream, official text in Pakistan in the subject of "Islamic Studies," or ("Islamiat" in urdu) taught in schools. It goes through all the fiqh al Ibadat (Islamic jurisprudence related to worshiping the True, One and Only, God) AND (to my surprise) fiqh al Mu'amalat (the rules and regulations set by Allah and his Noble Messenger (pbuh) regarding everything else, such as business transactions, rights and responsibilites of the various family members, etc). The author, "Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi," was the BIG BOY of the ulema, major scholar, big on tasawwuf, highly respected in the whole indian subcontinent, this is one of those scholars whom grannies tell stories about to their grand-betas. It was translated by Shaykh Muhammad Ashraf, I'd say the translation isn't perfect, but its still good enough.
Anyway, I thought I'd scan and publish this for the benefit of Muslims who wanna know about this. He concisely deals with the "Mas-ala" (urdu) or "Maslaha" (arabic) (whcih means case, or situation) of the o-so-important question of "what are the rules and regulations of the wife living with the husbands parents and other relatives?"
My stance on taqleed: I agree with taqleed, so when the maslaha's are given, and their juristic opinion, as long as it comes from a strong SOURCE, ie a respected scholar, it is good enough for a layman like me. People who disagree w/ taqleed, labeled "wahabis", will have a knee-jerk reaction, "can i have daleel for that brother?" (as if, if they were presented daleel, they would be able to judge whether or not the methodology in which the daleel was offered was valid... they couldn't, and would inevitably rely on the best rhetoric and desires presented by the argument and that which is being argued).... so ie... this aint for u if u disagree w/ taqleed:
docs/marriageHanafiFiqh.pdf ... start reading at "Maintenance of Wife." The Maslaha's of residency of the wife are discussed on page 2, under "Residency" (... duhh... hehe).
oh and also... Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi follows hanafi fiqh... not that I'd imagine that it would be too different for any of the other madhabs.
and btw... here is Murabtal Haaj's (murabit al haj, murabit al hajj... however u spell it) fatwa translated by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf on taqleed: http://muslim-canada.org/hansonmadhhab.html
i still can't get over this... its so stinkin' funny:
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/presaddress2.shtml
got it from umar's profile
o people of the book, at least follow your own book:
New International Version (translation of the Bible)
Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
This is like tassawuf 101... what you should do when in a state of blessing... thank God. And the way you thank God is to use that blessing in any way except haram (forbidden) which includes what we must do, would we could do for extra credit, and even what is just plainly allowed. So if this is talking about the body, well then there you go, use your body, and all parts of your body, in ANY way except haram... which includes the removal of everything from the subtle social poison known as the marketing strategy of "sex sells", to the building of the very weapons that plague all but maybe 10-15% of the world, to the launching of unfounded wars on indigent countries, to the spreading of social and political disturbance between neighbors in a country and neighboring countries in order to sell weapons to them in exchange for their own natural resources. Muslims did not invent, nor do we produce weapons from the hand pistol to the nuclear bomb. If Muslims can build the beautiful structures from Al Andalus, Spain to the Taj Mahal in India they could have built a simple little gun, but it was beyond their imagination. oh people of the book, this is a manifestation of your own diverted and rebellious sick mind... lets see you practice what you preach.
http://www.emanrush.com/tracker/ccount.php?P=5
its about the ideal sleeping habits of Muslims... so sweeeet... i really think non-muslims can benefit too
and here are some lectures notes i whipped up for my family:
family_lectures/abu_hanifa.txt
In the past 9 months or so (it is now 4/27/2004), my profiles have really taken a dip in size and number -- there are two reasons for that: 1. Most of my writing has been in e-mails. 2. I have learned a whole lot alhamdulillah, and inshAllah Allah will keep it coming; so this creates a kind of unbalanced input stream of knowledge -- my output kind of got retarded cuz of that (retarded as in "took a hit in volume" not as in "drrrrr..."). I hesitated to put these up, cuz they might offend, but i appolgize in advance, plz forgive me inshAllah if i do offend. If you ask me personally to remove one (or even all) i prolly will IA.
However out of the long e-mails i have gotten, i have had good feelings about
some of them, and many of those, i got very good feedback on. here they are:
(u might wanna read them bottom-up, cuz they are pretty much all responses to
other e-mails)
I was really trying not to write another one of my long infamous emails, but
misconceptions happen when I summarize, but o well, delete it if u will....
here it goes...
don't get me wrong bro... that's not what i meant... Allahumma A'Izza Islama
WalMuslimin fo sho, i'm talking about ideologies, and if people stayed awake
and didn't walk out during Br. Hatem Bazians lecture (I dozed off during one
of them i must admit) we'd know that all of this ideological research is
necessary in what he called "deconstructionalist theory" -- this
monster
that we call "zionism" isn't gonna go down easy -- we have to find its
weak
spots, and studying its anatomy is the first step.
for example i remember not too long ago Muslims were (expressively, openly)
hating on "Jews," all the sudden people like Dr. Levine had an
"agenda,"
when he was just another smart hippi with jewish parents who is looking for
a non-violent religion, and now we changed that to hating on "zionism"
because for one, we saw many Jews that were against zionism. Second, they
were supportive of us and our efforts. The brother that I was talking to at
MSA-West was just saying that maybe we need to start zeroing in further on
certain aspects of zionism. For example, out of Orthodox Jews, they all are
supposed to believe that Palestine is supposed to come to Jews
MIRACULOUSLY -- however some of them are still classified "zionists,"
but
pose no threat, because they refuse to use violent means, and are still
waiting for a miracle.
remember that the prophet pbuh taught us not to get angry, because haste is
with Shaytan... and this was one of Zaid Shakir's (and suhaib webb's as well
i think) messages -- that we need to stop reacting and start acting,
building institutions at all levels so much so that one day inshAllah if we
have a brother like Imam Jameel in jail, all we gotta do is make a couple
phone calls and "shut America down" (imam zaid) until Imam Jamil is
released -- once we are in a position like that, we could start
realistically planning to make Islam as a globally accepted ideology,
government, way of life, etc. Many of these protests and stuff that we take
part in on campus reek of anger and hostility -- we change very few
non-muslim minds in some of the protests -- and hence miss our whole goal --
all we do during SOME of these is entertain ourselves, and i feel that that
is the bitter truth, maybe we need to find other alternatives, such as
"silent protests," more involvement in the new u (like previous uci
msu's),
etc., all kinds of intellectual debates: political, ideological,
theological, etc.
and as far as my hating politics -- Its not because i support killing
babies, but because i am very bad at history and anything related to
history.... it is a personal weakness (I barely pulled a C in AP US
history), but i keep the people that are good at this stuff in my duas, for
them to do what they do best, and inshAllah I'll do what I do best for the
sake of Allah. May Allah give us strength.
and the "random chick" that wrote the letter is not heartless, lack of
knowledge most likely, she was hurt and distressed for the mistreatment that
she went through in her country, we should respect that, and possibly find
some openning for dawah. Jews had their Golden Age in an Islamic State, and
the Muslims in charge did not make that possible by disrespecting their
"chicks" and calling them "heartless" -- and i am not saying
to agree with
them in any way that is against Islam.
and I swear I love you too for the sake of Allah,
forgive me if i offended anybody,
Amir
----- Original Message -----
From: <somebody>
To: <msu-uci-board@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 12:37 AM
Subject: Re: [msu-uci-board] Fwd: Siege
> p.s there is no politics in a dead baby
> --- <somebody> wrote:
> > well Amir ( u know i love u ) i find it hard to
> > swallow when a house gets bulldozed and
> > destoryed...if
> > u really want to know how a Palestinein sees reality
> > ask someone who has been there...not some random
> > chick
> > with no heart and no knowldege...or someone who has
> > never been there... :-) love <somebody>
> >
> > p.s
> >
> > stop letting them scare u guys
> >
> > --- Amir Memon <ahmemon@cox.net>
wrote:
> > > o crap....
> > >
> > > that's not bueno
> > >
> > > honestly, i think we could tone down some of the
> > > "jews are out to get us"
> > > lingo -- even in our jokes.... many of them in the
> > > US are just as lost as
> > > most Christians (and many Muslims, unfortunately)
> > >
> > > and as for zionism -- i was really surprised when
> > i
> > > heard this at
> > > MSA-West -- but one of the brothers at berkeley,
> > > studies this stuff i'm
> > > guessing in pretty good detail, and probably a lot
> > > of his theory comes from
> > > HatemBazian (one of the speakers, phd Muslim
> > > hardcore pro-palestine
> > > scholar), said that even Zionism is multi-layered,
> > > and that some of it
> > > really isn't bad -- i dunno, still kinda hard to
> > > swollow for me, but one
> > > thing is fo sho, we really need to study this
> > stuff
> > > in more detail, looking
> > > for weak points to target, and commonalities to
> > > carefully capitalize on...
> > >
> > > i dunno, i hate politics
> > >
> > > Assalamu Alaikum
> > >
-----------
> > > Dóra_ wrote:
> > > Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 22:34:33 -0800 (PST)
> > > Subject: Siege
> > > From:
> > > To: msu_uci@yahoo.com
> > >
> > > The UCI campus is full of your inciting
> > > advertisement for next week's
> > > presentation? discussion? It doesn't really matter
> > > what it is. America is
> > > under siege. By the Zionist. Because some people
> > > might not get it first,
> > > you draw some Stars of David to make the message
> > > clear.
> > >
> > > I cannot believe it is happening here in the US.
> > > From where I come from,
> > > swatsikas are everywhere, and people use the word
> > > "Jew" only when they
> > > swear. And that is part of the reason I moved from
> > > my country. And today I
> > > have to read this "America under siege" again and
> > > again. By putting up
> > > those posters, you guys promote HATE. What you
> > guys
> > > do, is antimsemitic.
> > > If you really think that Jews/Israelis (like 2
> > > percent of the American
> > > population) control America, then please keep it
> > to
> > > yourselves.
> > >
> > > If you don't change the posters' text, I will turn
> > > to other places for
> > > help (to stop the diplay of incitement). Thank
> > you,
> > >
> > > (** name deleted **)
> > >
----- Original Message -----
From: Amir Memon
To: msu-uci-board@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 7:05 AM
Subject: Re: [msu-uci-board] Fwd: Re: A question.
(this is another one of my long e-mails... sorry, and just delete it if u find
it annoying, no problemo)
Walaikum Assalam,
are you kidding?!!?!? call him up on that, we could take him... bring it!
He is looking for trouble, he thinks he could win. Look, he will not change his
mind no matter what you say. When people approach you like that, they have
arrogance, and arrogance, as it turns out, is one of the, if not THE hardest
disease to break, however, this question is a VERY common question, and not many
people are arrogant about it. This is actually one obstacle that we have to
overcome -- the cultural stigma attached to polygamy, and marriage at an age
before the majestic "18."
We have to think about what the scholars would do, because this is a matter of
strategic planning. Imam Muhasibi (contemporary of imam ahmed Hanbal) (rahimullah)
said dont get into arguments with the fool or the forebearer, in this case this
he is at least a forebearer -- due to his arrogance. I think imam muhasibi said
this because sooner or later it turns into vain talk (see surah muddathir), can
lead us ourselves to arrogance (cuz we try to show them up), and probably other
reasons. HOWEVER, there have to be lupoles and exceptions to this, otherwise we
wouldn't see people like Imam Abu Hanifa rahimullah getting into debates.
For example when Imam Abu Hanifa rahimullah was about 6 years old, a roman came
up to the Muslim community full of scholars and commonfolk in iraq/iran (i'm
guessing "kufa"), got everybody's attention, climbed up on an elevated
place and asked people three questions: "what was there before
Allah?," "Which way does Allah face?," and "What is Allah
doing right now?" and the scholars started planning, but young Abu Hanifa
rahimullah showed him up on his own in public (I could tell you more detail in
person IA). But if you notice the nature of these questions, he had two
motivations (i infer):
1 - He himself did not get it, these questions were bothering him, he thought
and thought, he thought he figured out a contradiction, became sure of it,
thought that nobody can break the contradiction just the way he couldn't, and
became arrogant. However there was something (his fitra) pointing otherwise, and
it becomes a challenge of oppressing his fitra, hence the definition of kufr.
2 - He wants to challenge, and oppress his fitra -- which also means doing the
same to anything/anyone that AGREES with his fitra, so he came to attack Islam.
I think we will find the EXACT same thing in ali. And our MAIN objective should
NOT be to correct and guide ali, but rather to capitalize off of his arrogance
and turn it into a massive dawah opportunity. The truth is that, orientalist
(western athiests that write books like "The Reveng of God")
"scholars" of islam crank out people in the hundreds feeding them with
the SAME information as Ali, this is a MAJOR problem, and i think a great dawah
opportunity.
but notice the difference between what Imam Muhasibi rahimullah talks about vs.
what Imam Abu hanifa's rahimullah situation indicates -- the difference is an
audience. If we could get him to guarantee a non-muslim audience of X size,
advertise it properly to increase the audience even more (perhaps to world
religion classes themselves), it will be like setting up dominos -- a little bit
of work initially then all we gotta do is tip it over which isn't fool proof,
but extremely easy.
think of it this way -- what have we got to lose? the people that would come are
messed up in the head anyway because of "World Religion" classes, etc,
we have the truth on our side, it is just a matter of presenting it. If we leave
him alone he'll go reek havoc on his own anyway. Honestly, it doens't take much,
this is a very common question anyway, i think i could take him, but since this
is a public thing, i'm not gonna volunteer (i get shy in public) -- but i know
fo sho that if even i could take him, somebody like Aatif could rip him to
shreds. Not that "ripping him to shreds" is what we crave, but rahter
exposing the lies that he is bringing and ripping them to shreds in front of an
audience.
please don't let this get away -- I truely think that nothing is a coincidence
and Allah is providing us an opportunity for dawah, an opportunity that we may
be asked about on the day of judgement. but if u do let it get away, no hard
feelings of course, maybe somebody sees something wrong that i don't.
JazzakAllah Khair,
Amir
----- Original Message -----
From: MSU UCI
To: msu-uci-board@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 11:24 PM
Subject: [msu-uci-board] Fwd: Re: A question.
Assalamu alaykum,
Another heads up. I say no to this one only because this "ali" is
looking for trouble. We aren't so just forget about it right???
Jazakum Allah khair.
ali aliabadi <alialiabadi@hotmail.com> wrote:
From: "ali aliabadi"
To: msu_uci@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: A question.
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 05:47:50 +0000
Howdy, and thanks for the response. The topic that I'm interested in
debating would be Mohammed's character. Issues such as his relation to
Ayesha and his adopted son's wife would definitely be included, among many
other of his actions. I envision this being well advertised for the campus
community, and having my self in the antagonistic position while a fellow
student or MSU individual will be the protagonist. It will provide an area
for open debate on a crucial topic, and will be tons of fun.
Thanks,
Ali
>From: MSU UCI
>To:
>Subject: Re: A question.
>Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 17:34:31 -0700 (PDT)
>
>I think you would have to be more specific before we can tell you anything.
>
>Thanks,
>MSU UCI
>
>ali aliabadi wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I wanted to know if you folks would be willing to do a debate on a topic in
>Islam.
>
>
>Curiously,
>
>Ali
Walaikum Assalam,
this is a huge e-mail, even for me, but you asked for it...
bro... that's very vague... u are stating obvious concerns, be more
specific. What do you think would be a good idea to do right now, step by
step?
I hear you talking about this a lot, and honestly I always get to feeling,
"and...?" However I know you have something great brewing in that
noggin of
yours. lemme help you focus:
You said in the first paragraph that we need to speak the truth. What truth?
the fact that "american foreign policy" is messed up? ok, so what part
of it
would you like to focus on? iraq? palestine? kashmeer? etc? if, lets say
iraq, what about it? the bombings? sanctions? health conditions? economy?
education? what kind of education? And once you focus on one of these things
and choose to speak out against it, who will you speak to to cause change?
the "American government?" ok, so what part of it? "George W.
Bush?" thats
both naive and silly for many reasons. the FBI? CIA? INS? the Food and Drug
Administration? the FCC? the Department of Agriculture? And what you bring
is the truth, but do they care? does it affect their bottom line? or how
about taking sides with people like micheal moore, he's loud, and is against
the stuff that you are against, or is he? all they care about "American
soldiers" dying. Well i've got news for you, in a couple years, Boeing is
unleashing a new line of war machine, one that is literally remote
controlled, where you have 0 American Soldier casualties, who will care
then?
And if you do go that route, what about our Islamic teachings? remember the
battle of the trench, Muslims took the win partially because they didn't
rely on the kuffar, how about that? Which makes me wonder why we spend so
much time protesting, do we expect something from them? going off on a
tangent here... the funny thing is that we protest to an audience who
generally can't concentrate on ANYTHING for more than 5 minutes, and the
ones who can, already speak out against it, but in their own way, which is
many times contrary to or off from the teachings of Islam. If we are trying
to gain something from them, then what? and if not, then why even protest?
Classically protesting is useful if it is part of a larger plan, in order to
shift the spotlight on us and open up the floor to voice an opinion -- not
just protesting for the sake of protesting -- don't get me wrong, its almost
as fun for me as the next guy, but lets use our brains here. and at UCI, I
know an added, unexpected benefit has been motivating new MSU freshmen, and
opening the door wide open for Islam (and closing the doors on others, which
is besides the point, or is it?)
and then you quote the translation of an Ayah, which to me, clearly points
the the purification of the heart, the use of the word "anfusihim" or
"nafs"
(13:11). And we want the change of our "condition," condition as in
what?
money? the prophet pbuh didn't care about that, and in fact distanced his
heart from it, not to say that it is necessarily bad. There are people out
there that would like Muslims to co-operate with each other no matter what.
It seems like they have no problem cooperating with shias that curse Abu
Bakr Assidiq (ra). And it seems like the same people are, ironically, caught
up in Sufi-Salafi rivalris, but don't claim either side. So exactly who and
who do we not cooperate with? We are tested with wealth as well as poverty,
are we trying to dictate to Allah what we would like Him to test us with? I
think u must have figured out by now that if you want to do well in school,
you fall in love with the subject, not the letter grade -- and the letter
grade is a positive side effect, and the GPA is yet another positive side
effect of consistently getting good grades and hence consistantly loving the
course material. So define "condition," define that which you
are going
after.
Then you talk about the Noble Quran not playing a big enough role in our
lives. Given our strengths, and our weaknesses, such as the people we have,
the talent they posess, the money available, and the time they are willing
to spend -- what should be step 1, 2, 3? Right now all of these resources
are spread out the way a teaspoon of peanut butter would look spread out on
a large desk -- thin and pretty much non-existant. Will these steps lead to
an institution that is attractive, productive, low-maintenence, and rigid
enough that it doesn't collapse after an X amount of human imperfection?
institution can be as simple as a group of brothers or sisters of a target
audience getting together in place A, studying a well-defined set of
material, with dead lines, a competitive environment, leaders, and back-up
leaders. For example, this is something i want to get started personally:
paki uncles and aunties don't know tajweed, so a way to lock their
dedication and motivation long enough to leave them with tangible benefits.
Then offering sequals to such classes, such as building an arabic
vocabulary. This is VERY do-able, and i know there are MANY other similar
opportunities. These may and will seem small at first -- but go after
quality, as for size, all the pieces can be consolidated when the time is
right inshAllah.
Then you talk about "the project" ... what project? I read your
previous
e-mail, and again, i saw some specific things, but these things did not lead
to one specific goal. I saw a huge list of goals, but we have to focus and
tackle one or two at a time. Then you say stuff about the Day of Judgement,
well we all wanna do well there, it is needless to remind us and just
lengthens the e-mail which is why nobody responds (ironic that i am talking
about lenght, i know).
Then you talk about MSU's goal to build a community -- yeah that's it! and i
think alhamdulillah we are progressing nicely. Do you see something wrong?
if so what? and how do we fix it, in a step by step, realistic, tangible
manner?
So to get you started off, i think u should do this: Look around, find
things that are in a HIGH demand, only need a small step, or a couple small
steps up, and you should come up wiht a huge list of these things. Out of
these thigns, find something that you are good at, like, and think that you
will be able to do in a consistant manner. Then start taking action, but
don't rely on anybody else -- because you WILL be dissapointed,
Allah-u-Alam. Bismillah.
wa iyakum,
Amir
check out these imam zaid lectures:
http://www.generation-m.org/video/imam_zaid.wmv
(this one's hardcore)
http://www.jannah.org/jannahradio/imamzaid.rm
they are both about what we were talking about. there's more on ibn.net
(look for "best lecture series"), after listening all these, <one
of the brothers> is an
official imam zaid fan, hehe.
----- Original Message -----
From: <some brother>
To:
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2004 5:12 PM
Subject: IMPORTANT, PLS READAl salamu yalaykum
I sent u guys an e-mail a week or so ago, and it seems i didn't get my point accross. As muslims we are not to see injustice and stay silent, we can't see wrong and leave it, we can't be passive and careless...and u know the hadith, if u see something wrong change it with your hands, and if u can't with your hands then with your tongue....and to the end,
and u know the ayah, Allah will not change a nation until they change themselves
there are muslims were music is dearer to their heart than quran, our "islamic" countire's governments are corrupt, we can't bring justice to ourselves, how are muslims going to rise once again?
this project is to change the muslims around us, its what we can do...just think, on the Day of Judgment, what are u going to say to Allah if ur asked what u did with your life, or what u did for the muslims, or why you didn't spread justice and fix the wrong...
u see, this project is what muslim's should do, and its not an optional matter, we have to spread justice and this is one way to do so, and if your not with this then ur spreading it another way
btw, isn't one of MSU's goals to create a community? im not asking for anything more...
i hope to get replies, and i hope u understand how important this is...
jazakum Allah khair
OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!
Hamza Yusuf, his mom, and Umar ibn al Khatab (rahimullah) are all left handed like me!!!!!!!
SAWEEEEEET
In summary, An older sister asked me questions, i answered, and she loved it, asked me to share it with another specific sister, so i figured i'd put it up if it'll help another person.
The questions were, in summary, "I had a bad dream, and i'm kinda scared, what do u think?" "People come to me with their problems and just don't stop backbiting, what do i do, how do i get them to stop?"
I know ppl don't read disclaimers, so i'll restate -- I'm not an Alim, or anywhere near it, this is not fatwa, or even anything like it, so don't treat it like it was. And what i write below is not fatwa style anyway, its more pointers.
this color blue is my modification to the e-mail for the purposes of this "profile" from here on out, besides the URLs...
Assalamu Alaikum,
You're not supposed to tell other people about bad dreams... shaytan is just
messing with your head, and sometimes he will mess with your head so that
you tell other people about your bad dreams, so that the people you tell get
disturbed in the head -- so bottom line, forget it. all bad dreams are from
shaytan.
as for people telling you their problems -- if you think you can solve them
through islam, then go for it. HOWEVER you REALLY have to know what you are
doing, if you don't know you HAVE to say "i don't know." DO NOT say
"i don't
know BUT..."
But knowing the people that you talk to, they are not coming for advice,
rather they come to you because they have a disease in their hearts --
back-biting "geebat" -- this is a disease of the heart. They have an
urge to
talk about other people, and look for people to whom they can talk to -- and
u are the perfect person to talk to because you are good at listening.
Here is what you should do:
if you see somebody that is literally CRYING, not anything less: cheer them
up, which will actually count as "zikr," for which you get LOADS of
"sawab"
for. Every time they talk about somebody, change the subject. Talk about
their kids, your kids, cartoons, politics, or my favorite subject
-- Islam.
Most of the time though, they will not be crying, in those cases, tell them
flat out -- "haji (a mutual friend of ours)
says that you have a disease in your heart, which is
backbiting, so shut up and read Quran." This disease is just like any other
disease of the heart, for example, not being able to control your anger,
arrogance, eating too much, and not caring about the religion that leads to
laziness, greed, etc. These diseases are very
dangerous because they cause
you to sin over and over again. And many times involve others and hence
spread to others.
So if you DO NOT stop them:
- you will allow and cause them to sin
- allow and cause yourself to sin
- not put an end to their disease
- and allow yourself to become INFECTED with their disease.
Think of it this way, if I came upto you, started sneezing, and you knew
that I had a cold (zukhaam), then would you shake my hand? if you did then
you would probably catch a cold, which will hurt for a few days. But the
disease that you can get from them, can hurt FOREVER!!! ie it could send you
to hell. So tell them to shut up and read some Quran, and if you want,
tell
them that Haji said to shut up and read the Quran. Here are some suggestions
you can make to them: Read the Quran, learn to read it properly with correct
pronounciation. Read it with meaning. Read some hadith. Read some Islamic
articles. Read fatwas by mufti Ebrahim Desai on the internet
(www.ask-imam.com ). Become involved in
the masjid. or my favorite -- buy
some lectures from www.alhambraproductions.com
, and listen to that, this
way they increase their knowledge of Islam, improve their English, spend
money for the sake of Allah, that will go to build a masjid, community, and
inshAllah one day an Islamic University.
you are just going to have to stand up for yourself, just imagine they have
some nasty contageous disease, which they do, and that should help you to
make them stop.
(Deleted portion -- basically goodbyes)
now that i read it again, it really wasn't all that,
very basic, but she liked it and couldn't stop telling me how much it helped --
so here it is -- not like anybody reads this anyway.
"well its just that comic books like 'oh mom can i get spider man,' well thats just like, like, its just another false story. You may like it but its just a false -- thing. But the Quran its just like -- real. Its not a made up story about some guy that got bit by a spider." -- the, probably 8 year old, kid in the Zaytuna Warsh Quran School infomercial
ahhh, a lesson that i didn't learn until i was 18 or 19 -- to stop wasting time with "false stories" like spider man in his example, or for me, the several sticoms, the simpsons, etc. Rather spend that time productively eg w/ the Quran.
I thought the kid was cute, but then i think "Beans" from "Even Stevens" on disney is cute -- not that i watch that anymore (see above)... check out their movie:
Imam Warsh Quran School Video (scroll to the middle when u see the little white kid -- i'm guessing his family converted)
and as for y'all zaytuna haters, check out what their community is like (and the fact that they have an actual Muslim community): Zaytuna Video
My dad has a very innocent and pure heart mashAllah... however its mixed with a certain degree naiveness, which makes him the perfect sheep for these marketing wolves, CNN, Fox News, etc to prey on and mess with his head.
I once asked him (a Q that i got from, i dunno where):
Do you think there are more Black Professional Athletes or Black Doctors?
and within 3 seconds, he said Black Pro Athletes.
HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I'd say that's enough proof that subliminal White Supremist domination still exists. What are the causes, and the solution:
Well if u really ask me, one usual suspect would come to mind -- Satan, Iblis, the devil, yeah that's right -- the idiot who rebelled against Allah. Because, at the core racism is the same sin as the first sin ever (according to most scholars). When Allah told Shaytan to bow down to Adam pbuh, he ddin't and he said, ~="he is made of clay, and I am made of fire, fire is better than clay." So this idea of a 2 dimensional, superficial, classification that arrogates one "type" over another "type." We believe that the only way one person can be better than another is if s/he is closer to Allah, ie if Allah favors that person. HOWEVER, there's a catch to that, we don't know if Allah favors one over another! so ie, i could be "walking on water, and floating in the air" as a result of my piety, but then become arrogant, commit shirk, and die in such a state, and i'd be in pretty bad shape in terms of my akhira. As opposed to a person who commits a lot of sins, then on his death bed, asks for fogiveness, Allah accepts and forgives him for everything -- then that guy's golden.
So this whole superficial idea of, "the amount of melanin in my skin is different from the amount of melanin in yours and therefore I am better than you," (ie i'm black u're white, or i'm white u're black), is really a repetition of Shaytan's mistake. Shaytan knows how he screwed himself over with such a mentality, and since he is a sworn enemy of ours as it says in the Quran, he wants us to stumble in the same way.
but there's a wrinkle in our crinkle: Our society has enough trouble admitting to the existence of Allah -- getting them to believe in Shaytan is no easy task. and the lack of this awareness of our enemy, allows our enemy (shaytan) to just pummel us without us even knowing. It's like turning on the Game Genie cheat codes in "Mike Tyson's Punchout" for old school NES, fighting the last level (against Tyson himself), and just letting go of the controller. What happens? Tyson just unloads on us. So I imagine Shaytan doing the same to unsuspecting American Society. Shaytan tells women that true freedom is their flesh to literally be "free," ie like Nelly's hideous song, "its getting hot in here, so take off all ur clothes." Again there is this two dimensional, superficial mentality -- the idea that freedom is skin deep -- in fact not EVEN skin deep, even shallower. because our skin has several layers.
So... what to do, what to do, right? in short, ~="Shaytan is our enemy so take him as our enemy." And understand, that even in a basketball game, lets say its the Lakers (us) vs. Utah Jazz (our arch enemies), if they kick our butts by half time, we don't sit around complaining, "boo hoo utah jazz is so mean." NO! we get out there, and give it all we got. When behind, we patiently perservere (Sabr). and once ahead, we stay ahead, dont' let no point advantage decieve you, u just keep pushin' it. Complaining aobut Utah Jazz, aobut how its unfairly matched won't do u any good. Nor will complaining that they are "cheating" will do us any good, we change what we can for the better -- which is ourselves. They'll keep cheating like the cheaters that they are, and complaining will do little good -- cuz for all we know, the Refs have money riding on Jazz. And learn from our father and prophet Adam. When Shaytan decieved him, he ate the forbidden fruit, was punished. What did he say? he said, ~="O Allah please forgive me, I have wronged myself." So in another words, he took the blame on himself, he didn't even blame Shaytan!!! As opposed to Shaytan who, when he commited the sin of disobedience by not bowing down, said, "You (Allah) put me in such a position, I worshipped u so much, I don't deserve this." etc.
ok that was all over the place, sounded like i had no point, i should have been studying for finals, but o well... here are the points that i was trying to make:
- White supremacy still exists, the causes are unknown, it could be a relic of a bad habit, a handful of people calling the shots, and/or "work of the devil." I believe it is all of the above, but mainly Shaytan.
- Racism is a Shaytani concept that has striking similarities to his (shaytan's) own sin -- the sin of arrogating oneself to a higher level, which is bad enough, but doing so on a superficial basis.
- Fellow Americans not being aware of Shaytan and his dirty work, and therefore are constantly blindsided and have pushed us to the sorry state of morality that we are in now.
- In order to fix this, Muslims, should stop complaining (about the enemy (whether shaytan or other(s)), and certainly about fellow Muslims) and start working for the sake of Allah.
OMG OMG OMG... i'm so HYPED!!!! I got to speak the truth in front of many actual oppressors (for the sake of Allah) -- point blank!!! ask me about it.
One hadith says, the best type of jihad is when you speak the truth in front of an oppressor (eg malcolm X)
the national average violent crime risk is 3.0/10, in CA it is 4.3/10, and in Amir Abdel Malik's area (Oakland, CA) is 8/10 ... crazy huh? may Allah help him and his community in dawah
"Terrorism is to Jihad as Adultery is to Marriage"
-- Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson
(I wonder what he got on his SAT's... get it? analogies, SATs, get it?... small joke. small joke?... ** booooooo ***
"Grainy videos of his sermons sell in their thousands and hint that he is not cut from the same cloth as teachers from the Indian sub-continent or Arabia. His goatee beard is almost fashionable. Sporting a turban plus an American accent, he is curiously familiar. Could he be that singer from the Monkees, I wonder momentarily. However, in the flesh, his angular features, intellectual intensity and learned, didactic style recall another American icon: Malcolm X."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0%2C3604%2C564960%2C00.html
don't u just love shaykh hamza, he's the man!!! as for his goatee, the reason he doesn't have a full beard is cuz he doesn't grow hair enough to make a continuous beard -- Umar Quraishi actually asked on the zaytuna or alhambraproductions website.
This is a true scholar, I dunno about other ppl, but the same kind of love that i feel when I hear about prophet Muhammad pbuh, i feel when i hear about sheikh hamza (but of course for the prophet pbuh it's gonna be more love). I mean I could even see a certain love that the BBC news anchorman felt when interviewing sheikh hamza. These ulema are the inheritors of the prophet pbuh,
Imam Shafi'i was an amazing scholar, several great quotes and stories, i know
a few, but from the few that I know, I'd say my favorite one, is (and i know
which one u are thinking of but its not that):
"The eye of contentment sees no faults and the eye of contempt sees nothing
but faults"
Sobob99: i can't find the p/np rule anywhere
Carrrera GT3: sounds very familiar
Carrrera GT3: from AI and ics 23
Carrrera GT3: what calss
Sobob99: lol
Sobob99: Pass no pass
Carrrera GT3: o, hahaahahah
Carrrera GT3: o
Sobob99: hahaha
Sobob99: HAHAHAHAH
Carrrera GT3: what a nerd i am
Carrrera GT3: hahahahahaha
Sobob99: thats hilarious!!
Carrrera GT3: that's one for the away message and/or profile
chuckle chuckle chuckle
i was referring to the p-np "satisfiable" problem that ICS teachers can't stop talking about -- the simple question that once proven/disproven will get them a nobel prize
This is an excellent lecture for Muslim bros/sisters:
http://www.jannah.org/jannahradio/imamzaidvision.rm
which i got from:
http://www.jannah.org/jannahradio/
Zaid Shakir's the man too....
hahahah in that lecture he's like MSA's need to organize better not just sit around at think about (~=) "How can I get Hamza Yusuf to come down to our MSA" .... Sheikh Hamza's so cool
Just got "The Purification of the Soul" 12-cassette series by Imam Zaid Shakir... OH YEAH!!!
"Sheikh Shakey" -- Main Character in many of Imam Zaid's little parables..... HAHAHAAHAH
In another lecture by him (not in this series), He's like, "So this guy goes to the Sheikh, and the Sheikh just shakes his head" HAHAHAHAAHAHAH (say it out loud if u don't get it)
Alhamdulillah (All Praises are due to Allah (God))
I HATE it when ppl talk crap about Sheikh Hamza Yusuf Hanson... absolutely detest it... disagreeing is one thing, but disrespecting and denouncing is another.
It's very rare that you'll here me say something along the lines of i sincerely hate something... well this is one of them. I love sheikh hamza... he's totally the man...
ok here's the deal... well first of all, lemme say that I love my dad, and that i respect him, and so on and so forth....
I bought like 6 cassettes of sheikh hamza lectures (one on each cassette), plus a 24-cassette series of "the purification of the heart" by him, i listened to the 6 at least twice, and lent out 3 of them. I listened to all the 24 cassettes, and now i'm on # 20 the second time (i have lots of time in my car). me and my fam went to vegas (no we ddin't gamble or do any of the haram crap, well not more than when we're at home) and i put on a lot of these cassettes. and my dad was was very impressed w/ him, he was like, the thing i like about him is that he tells us how we can practice Islam here. Everything was all well and good, but today he talked to one an uncle, who i really like and is very religious, and got some negativity about sheikh hamza. And now my dad is like don't listen to his lectures listen to so and so instead, he's a fanatic, and when non muslims become muslims they become extremists and all that kinda crap. and then the convo swayed to how he doubts an Islamic state, that it's not good enough, and/or not as good as American political system, and blah blah...
well anyway... here's the deal w/ sheikh hamza... he generally has four types of lectures:
- targettted towards non muslims
- targetted towards muslims formally with time constraints
- targetted towards muslims w/ no time constraints (a series of classes)
- in the media, like BBC
when he gives lectures to non-muslims, he pulls references from non-muslim sources, such as the socratic method, aristotle, shakespeare in order to explain an Islamic concept, but what bothers some muslims is that sometimes because of the nature of the non-muslim sources, it kinda conflicts with Islamic teachings, another problem is that muslims just blindly say crap like "why does he need to quote non muslim sources," whether explicitly or subtly. When talking to muslims formally he generally tries to bridge the gap btwn muslims and non muslims w/o breaking any Islamic rules, for example he'll be like don't hate the kuffar, go ahead and hate what they do (eg Lut pbuh said to his people, "i hate what you do" as opposed to "i hate you" (his ppl were gay -- literally)). And he also points out instances when and where non-muslims have been kind to us -- and trust me there are many of those -- so his solution is, since we should love for others what we love for ourselves, we should love Islam for non-muslims -- especially since they are so nice to us -- so a STRONG emphasis on dawah. The problem that ppl have w/ this is that they love to hate people, and find non-muslims an easy target for releasing their aggression and hatered -- and Sheikh hamza (and others like him) get caught in the cross fire. Now the third category of his lectures, "targetted towards muslims w/ no time constraints on his lecture time" -- this is where ppl just looooooove him, however the problem is that these cost money -- they are generally several cassettes long, he uses ALMOST exclusively sources like Imam Gazzalli, Shafi'i, abu hanifa, and of course my personal favorit Imam Malik (Rahimullah)... he just totally busts it up. He uses non-Muslims sources as well, but not that often, but when he does it's totally called for (for example his commentary on ... just ask me i'll explain it... tha'ts a whole new can o worms right there... good stuff). The last one is the media -- now i don't care who you are -- whatever anybody says, runs the chance of being misquoted, taken out of context, etc, as long as it will sell the news paper, and bring advertisers -- and well controversy sells -- ppl like to hear "muslims are out to get us" -- so sheikh hamza, being sheikh hamza, gets called on to appear in media many times, usually BBC is pretty nice, but other news networks are very screwy, so they pick on him, and he tries his best, in a freely available lecture "clarity amoungst confusion (part 2)" on his site, he says just that, in fact he appologizes!!! he's like, that time (he was refering to a particular time) they put me on the spot, and i trie my best, then he was like, and that other time, go ahead and ask sheikh sirage (he must also have been being interviews) what they asked me, what I said, and what was put on TV, and i did what i could, and if i made any mistakes i'm sorry... how many men can appoligize!?!?!? ESPECIALLY when they are SOOOOO respected, IN PUBLIC, and makes his lecture PUBLIC ON THE INTERNET, ANNND keep in mind that he is not only popular in cali, but throughout the country, Canda, and the UK, and other parts of the world -- a man of that stature appologizing is NO SMALL thing. ANNND in the purification of the heart lec series, he said he just goes on and on about not being arrogant and how its cures, its signs, and so on, and all this is according to MAAAJOR scholars... and I find A LOT more of those signs in the people talking about sheikh hamza rahter than sheikh hamza himself -- not my dad tho, he's a different character. My dad is just influenced VEEEEERY easily, i really really mean VERRRY easily, and when he heard that from this uncle that he respects that sheikh hamza is bad or whatever... then that's it, he's right, and gives the uncle higher priority than me. It's funny my dad was like he is like haree pagree or whatever, hahahhah, haree pagree is like paki sisn't it??!?!!? And sheikh hamza once said "mujhe angrezi nahin maalum hai, and that's all the urdu i know" -- and we've got people accusing him of taking part in Jahil Pakistani Politics -- COME ON NOW!!!!
Before Prophet Muhammad pbuh, and at his time, people used to reject and ridicule prophets -- and now people do that to our Ulema...
and lets get this straight -- list Sheikh Hamza's qualifications, as far as i
know:
After learning Arabic Fluently, sheikh Hamza spent 10 YEARS becoming an Alim
with some of the biggest Ulema mainly in Africa, a lot in Morroco. He is Maliki
(and that's not why I love Imam Malik Rahimullah so much), the greatest scholar
he has learned from from what i could tell is Murrattal Hajj, who used to do
LOADS of dhikr, including waking up for Qiyam-ul-Layl every night 4 hours before
Fajr time -- consistantly, that's all i could remember for now. But i mena just
think about it right -- 10 years -- ppl spend 6-8 years normally to do the same
-- and that INCLUDES the time spent to learn Arabic. And Sheikh Hamza, STILL in
one of his lectures, very sincerely, refers to himself as still learning -- i
can't remember if he used the word "student" to describe himself as
well. Oh, and then got a BA in religious sciences at San Jose State Univ... and
his father is a Shakespearean scholar, which has an affect (positive, mainly in
the way of dawah).
ppl just really gotta stop criticising, cuz this is what's ripping us (as in Muslims throughout the world) apart -- and I find that there is an adab for constructive criticism (in a nutshell: 1- state what the person did right, 2- state with great respect what they did wrong and how they can improve)-- and of course there's the whole thing about not saying "i hate you" but "i hate what you do" -- if it the thing they are doing is worthy of hate -- and there's this GRRRREAT imam ahmed story that i read once on the net, but couldn't find it thereafter.
that was long -- but PLZ don't say anything bad about any of our Ulema, including but certainly not limited to Sheikh Hamza Yusuf -- and if you've got beef w/ his material, i encourage you to buy one of his lecture series classes -- not just his "singles" -- after all, our Ulema have spent A LOT more time studying the dean than we have. Like Aatif says, "take what is good, and leave what isn't" or something like that -- disagreements will always happen, and i disagree w/ a couple htings sheikh Hamza said, but it's all good, u gotta learn to overlook eachothers imperfections (assuming that the thing that i disagreed w/ is actually his imperfection as opposed to mine).
Allahumma a'izzah Islama w-alMuslimeen
Rabanagfirli wa li walidaya wa lil mu'minina yawma ya kumul Hisaab
Ameen
btw... i know the imam Ahmed story well enough to tell u in person, i just don't feel comfy publishing it -- ask me in person.
CONGRADULATIONS Ubaid Mahmood and Aisha Kaka (they're getting married).
remember them in your duas, and i really mean that.
His Nikkah is at the Garden Grove Masjid, January 10th, after Dhuhr Prayer (Zohar Namaz).
May Allah give them true guidance, health, wealth, islamic & dunya knowledge, sabr, strength, riteous children, means for Allah's Rahmah, means for his forgiveness, safety from every sin, benefit from every good deed, success in attaining paradise, and protection from the fire. Ameen. (say Ameen).
Just came back from a Yusuf Islahi lecture (lecture 2/10 tafsir of Surah Yaseen)... He's a major Alim (Islamic Scholar) from India, wrote several books. His whole lecture was in urdu, some of it was hardcore urdu....
he made a whole bunch of awesome points, but he mentioned a really cool story, here it is:
There was a guy, in the local park, who was looking for something that he had lost. For a looong time he's just looking around, lifting up things, looking under them, and so on. so another guy comes up to him and asks him, if he would like some help, so he says yeah sure. so they both keep looking for it, about a couple of hours pass by and they just cannot find it. so the second (helper) guy asks the first guy, "exactly where were you when you lost it." and the first guy says "at home." and the second guy says "AT HOME?!!?!? why have we been looking for it out here then???" and the first guy says, "because it's dark at home, its much more convenient to look for it out here."
... hahahaahah, hilarious! how clueless and naive is that! but that's the way so many muslims are nowadays, looking for peace in all this craziness, a few years ago they would at least look in sources that recognize decency, but now that's long gone as well. we are so lucky to have the Quran in our homes, internet, etc, but we don't use it. "Ar Rahman. Alamal Quran.... Fa bi Ayi Aala e rabi kuma tukadhibaan." won't translate it, look it up, Surah Rahman, juzz (or "para" or "part") 27.
OMG, this really really, umm... what's the word, "positively shocked?" me:
One of the Salaf, for 40 years used to pray in the first row of the masjid in every prayer, then one day he was late, but he didn't want to enter into the masjid because he didn't want people to see him being late. Then he realized that he had been showing off in praying all these years (so ie praying for the sake of getting praise in being in the first row of prayer, not for the sake of Allah). So, out of fear of his prayers not being accepted, he made up ALLLL of his prayers for the last 40 years!!!
listening to these things, makes me realize how horribly pathetic we are in properly using our freedom in religion.
I got this from the purification of the heart side one of the 5th "cassette" at about 16 mins or so, see link below. He was talking about being in a state of "reeah" or arrogance, and in this case he was talking about being in this state and not even knowing it. http://www.dubaibuzz.com/hamzayusuf.php . OMG, i just hit another point in his lecture, that has to do w/ not openly sinning, DEF listen to it! even if u'r not a muslim, don't matter, listen to it!
o and salaf = 3nd generation after prophet Muhammad pbuh, ie people who knew people who knew people who met The Prophet pbuh.... or soemthing like that
One of the Sahabas (people who had met the prophet Muhammad pbuh) used to feed ants in front of his house. When asked why, he said because I don't want the ants to testify against me on the Day of Judgement that I deprived them of their neighborly rights.... and he was very serious about that.
It's sad that we don't even know our neighbors anymore, how there are people KILLING each other in the name of the very religion that caused people like this Sahabas to be in the peaceful state of mind that this sahaba was in. In PK, my cuz was telling me how he and his neighborhood friends found a stray dog, tied him to a tree and threw rocks at the dog until it's eye fell out and later died. I heard a similar story from another paki relative. What's wrong with our Ummah, it's very depressing.
another mini-story is of a prostitute who saw a thirsty dog. She went to a well, filled it up w/ water, and gave it to the dog, and Allah sent her to heaven for that (despite her being a prostitute)... and to hear of stories like my cuz's makes me think that is our ummah even better than that prostitute? the one who would do injustice to her body by selling it, use that illegitimate money to buy food to further feed her body with that food, and her dependents, and not to mention allowing the person who bought her to commit injustice to his body, etc.
it's very sad to see our Muslim Ummah, we really need to shape up, and if i didn't know better I'd say it was too late, but like i've said before: The Muslim Ummah is like a body, and now it still is a body, a body taht is terminally ill with a taqdir to live.
this profile entry was very sporadic, incoherent, and all over the place, but o well... i've been like that all day today really.
Ralph would click there too, as you could see, he's pointing to it.
AIM allows such small profiles (1024 characters max, including links, color info and whatever)... subprofile just seems really gay to me, i dunno why, it just does. So here's a powerful alternative WebProfile © *.
I'm keeping it simple so don't come up to me and tell me stuff like, "Hey Amir you could ________, ________, and ________ to improve your page :) " casue if you do i'll tell you to ______ off, and go ______ yourself!!!!
hahaahahha
yeah i really will tell you to buzz off and go hit yourself... don't force me.
hahahahhaahaha
ok, it's not healthy when you laugh at your own jokes, but what can i say, i'm an ICS major.
ne way... my pt is that the page is extremely simple because:
What will prolly be on the site (page):
dang i prolly should make the fine print fine... this is getting long...
well i know that not many ppl view profiles... but i know i do... it's another distraction i've found when i'm trying to not do my hw. actually i know a few others do for sure cause:
hmm... what else...
i dunno... pretty nice counter at the bottom huh? it's built into front page, i dunno why ppl even bother learning html... these html editing programs really make learning html worthless to know... unless you are actually writing such programs like frontpage, or yeah, i guess if you're a big-time-hardcore webdesigner, but still, i'd rather make the basic foundation w/ like frontpage or netscape composer, then modify, modify, modify... too bad i realized that leanring HTML is fairly worthless for my level after i learned some.
Contact info:
email: amir_memon@hotmail.com
AIM: carrreragt3
your visitor number =
* not really copyrighted, I just like the c-circle... © © © © © ©
**had to use "hereby" in a disclaimer, just to make it sound official
*** SOB = Son of a Biscuit
CheckIt, Tradmark of Atif (Kashif's bro, Sorry i dunno his last name)
pbuh = peace be upon him (something that Muslims say after the names of all the prophets)
All corrections in Red Bold Text