Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Grave of Yahya b. Zakariyya
Grave of Yahya b. Zakariyya( يحيى بن زكريا) also known as the Biblical figure John the Baptist located at the Umayyad Mosque, Damascus Syria
The Grave of Imam Malik
The grave of Imam Malik ibn Anas on the left, and the grave of his teacher Abu Suhail an-Nāfi' ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abī Na'īm or An-Nāfi' (d. 785 CE) who was a scholar among the first generation of Muslims who came after the Companions of the Prophet. An-Nāfi' was the freed servant of 'Abdullah Ibn 'Umar, whom he served for thirty years. The style of recitation or qiraa'ah which an-Nāfi' transmitted, is considered by many scholars to be the best example of the recitation of the Qur'an. An-Nāfi' recited to seventy of the tabi'een, the most notable being Abu Ja'far Al-Qa'qaa'.
Fes Morocco
Almighty God, surely You know that I have not sought behind the founding of this city vainglory, nor pride, nor dissimulation, nor renown, nor arrogance. Rather, I sought that You would be worshipped therein and that in it Your Book shall always be recited and Your laws and Your Prophet’s tradition shall always be preserved as long as You shall preserve them...”
--Supplication of Moulay Idris II, founder of Fes Morocco
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Contentions 16 © Abdal Hakim Murad [October 2010]
Abdal Hakim Murad aka Timothy J. Winters
http://www.cambridgemuslimcollege.org/
Contentions 16
© Abdal Hakim Murad [October 2010]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The Soul of Europe has remembered its Pelagian Drinking Song.
2. Every bar is sinister, a stain on your escutcheon.
3. Woking teaches you not to be a Martian.
4. Always attend the mosque of someone else’s ethnicity.
5. Defensive religion dies.
6. European Islam? We Elches will survive the Holy Office when there are zambras as well as coloahades.
7. It is not your heart that keeps you alive, it is watching it.
8. Do not think that no woman is a slut, a harlot and a wanton.
9. Let not your experience of Rigour cause you to doubt Gentleness.
10. The least likely of your sincere falsehoods is your words: ‘I am a Sufi!’
11. The Teacher brings you near to the Divine rigour and gentleness.
12. Do not say ‘The qualities of mercy preponderate’, without adding, ‘but they do not eliminate.’
13. Let not your final thought be: ‘I could have been the dust beneath the feet of the saints, but I refused.’
14. Pray that you be granted knowledge in joy rather than in pain.
15. Finding the Teacher will not makes things easier, but it will make them clearer.
16. Every sin insults your honour, damages your faith, and courts punishment in this world and the next.
17. ‘Out of the names of Allah, whoever understands al-Sami’, al-Basir, al-Alim and al-Shahid, will never turn his attention towards expensive things.’ (Shahidullah Faridi, r.a.)
18. Only in generosity is the believer reckless.
19. You have an extended family.
20. Political theology: what proportion of sin can be removed if the temptation is removed also?
21. The Monoculture’s complaint about Islam amounts to only one demand: Be like us!
22. Khidma heals where ego ails.
23. Universalism and Egypt: Edom is the child of Moses and Isis. Islam is the child of Abraham and Hagar.
24. Transhumanism serves someone else’s ethics, not ours.
25. The 21st century: making love in the ruins of an earthquake.
26. Every sajda is a perfect opportunity to repent. (‘Did We not give you years enough?’)
27. Modernity: turn the world into a single piece of clockwork, which might then break.
28. Edom! Be just, even as James was just.
29. ‘The trouble with marrying your mistress is that you create a job vacancy’ (Sir James Goldsmith).
30. Real Sufism Rule No.1: I am a nuisance. Nobody else is a nuisance.
31. Were every Muslim only to spit simultaneously at Israel, it would drown.
32. The ego loves the grand gesture.
33. The pluralism born of the ism is no pleonasm.
34. The drama of the world is not the clash between Muslim and Pagan, or Tradition and Revolt, but between Love of God and Love of Self.
35. Demonic hatred is to see nothing of yourself in the other; virtuous hatred is to see the worst of yourself in the other.
36. Ignorant is he who believes that God can no longer take him from himself to Himself through a sudden knowledge of himself.
37. You think the world is His ice; but the water of His being is still water.
38. Salat is to teach you your own nothingness; du’a’ is to teach you your own helplessness.
39. It is hard to die right with God in the arms of Morpheus.
40. Never practice ordinary goodness.
41. The monoculture’s religion: God is represented by only one body.
42. Feminism? Tell the maenads to look at the sky.
43. The business of banks is the encouragement of debt.
44. The believer is the one who knows that the factual content of the Qur’an is only a fragment of its significance.
45. The Prophet was not his own.
46. Fiqh is to protect the anwaronment.
47. Not Ibrahim, but Brum’s ibram bifurcates the Big Heathens from the Small Heathians.
48. You will only understand art if you understand that modernity is against it.
49. The Teacher asks for nothing, and offers infinity; therefore give everything that you have.
50. Fitnas shall be bowled to thee. Play up! Play up! and play the game!
51. The gates of paradise are not only for the Sufis, but the inhabitants of Paradise are all Sufis, without the least exception.
52. The Monoculture is blind to the niqab.
53. ‘Tahrir’ usually indicates affiliation to the Haruriyya.
54. Only Rind takes pleasure in the senses; the secular is Zahid.
55. Form without meaning is without style.
56. ‘Asian voter’? Rather Disraeli than Dyce Sombre.
57. Uncle Same was not told that only Ghazali can heal Baghdad.
58. Existence is the perception of being.
59. Fashion is chic-anery.
60. Eudaemonian economics are Edomonics. Ishmael, however, pays with God’s coin.
61. Islam allows you to cut the web of Chalcedonian gerunds, and to see the face of Christ.
62. al-Ingiliziyyatu fusha al-Khalij.
63. The Liber Asian was the Dravidian revenge.
64. Our Shaykh-ul-Islam showed that Muslims may have three legs.
65. Guilt is to turn ugly acts into punishments.
66. The feminist has wine in her breasts.
67. Qawmun li’r-rutab, wa-qawmun li’r-rutab.
68. The lighter you are, the more you see your own darkness.
69. You have received everything that you have.
70. This is not the Modern Age. This is not the Postmodern Age. This is the Age of Khawatir.
71. The beginner looks at the results of action. The sage looks at the action itself.
72. Do not say ‘Halal’ or ‘Haram’ unless you know whether you yourself are Halal or Haram.
73. To respect her, first respect her sanctity. (Dowland, ‘Time Stands Still’)
74. He who marries for self-esteem shall surely be destroyed.
75. A man’s jihad today is to be a man. Women are already good at being women.
76. The fathers have died.
77. Haste is an attempt to steal God’s time.
78. The false Salafi cannot see that Allah’s light is green, not red.
79. Whatever it is that has taken you from the position of the majority, it is the ego.
80. Wisdom conjoins tafwid and ta’wil.
81. Modern education: seek knowledge from the cradle to the gravy.
82. Modernity is an out-of-body experience.
83. Islam is the love of the saints.
84. Complaining about the jalal? A volcano is always beautiful.
85. Help Uncle Same by throwing his tea overboard. ‘No taxation …’
86. Understand prayer, and you understand all of Islam.
87. Old age is so that you might grow more beautiful.
88. Modern art: This is what creation would have been like, if atheism were true.
89. If you do not know that Wudu is there to humble you, then you will never
understand the bathrooms of our masajid.
90. Make time for the Prayer, and the Prayer will make time for you.
91. Here Dubai, gone to borrow.
92. Drink deep during the jaam session.
93. The Monoculture exists to frown upon the dance of the soul.
94. Fulfilment is predicated on full consciousness; full consciousness is the gift of reflection.
95. Islam is not just a large religion, it is religion at large. ‘I am sent to all mankind’.
96. Love the Other to be an athari; love the Self to be a salafi.
97. Othering is ithar, not ta’thir.
98. The Book, in which there is no crookedness, will take away your crookedness, if your body is open to it.
99. The world has become small because there is nowhere to go.
100. Maidens! Feminism is the membership-ticket of the Monoculture
Add a caption
Abdal Hakim Murad aka Timothy J. Winters
http://www.cambridgemuslimcollege.org/
Contentions 16
© Abdal Hakim Murad [October 2010]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The Soul of Europe has remembered its Pelagian Drinking Song.
2. Every bar is sinister, a stain on your escutcheon.
3. Woking teaches you not to be a Martian.
4. Always attend the mosque of someone else’s ethnicity.
5. Defensive religion dies.
6. European Islam? We Elches will survive the Holy Office when there are zambras as well as coloahades.
7. It is not your heart that keeps you alive, it is watching it.
8. Do not think that no woman is a slut, a harlot and a wanton.
9. Let not your experience of Rigour cause you to doubt Gentleness.
10. The least likely of your sincere falsehoods is your words: ‘I am a Sufi!’
11. The Teacher brings you near to the Divine rigour and gentleness.
12. Do not say ‘The qualities of mercy preponderate’, without adding, ‘but they do not eliminate.’
13. Let not your final thought be: ‘I could have been the dust beneath the feet of the saints, but I refused.’
14. Pray that you be granted knowledge in joy rather than in pain.
15. Finding the Teacher will not makes things easier, but it will make them clearer.
16. Every sin insults your honour, damages your faith, and courts punishment in this world and the next.
17. ‘Out of the names of Allah, whoever understands al-Sami’, al-Basir, al-Alim and al-Shahid, will never turn his attention towards expensive things.’ (Shahidullah Faridi, r.a.)
18. Only in generosity is the believer reckless.
19. You have an extended family.
20. Political theology: what proportion of sin can be removed if the temptation is removed also?
21. The Monoculture’s complaint about Islam amounts to only one demand: Be like us!
22. Khidma heals where ego ails.
23. Universalism and Egypt: Edom is the child of Moses and Isis. Islam is the child of Abraham and Hagar.
24. Transhumanism serves someone else’s ethics, not ours.
25. The 21st century: making love in the ruins of an earthquake.
26. Every sajda is a perfect opportunity to repent. (‘Did We not give you years enough?’)
27. Modernity: turn the world into a single piece of clockwork, which might then break.
28. Edom! Be just, even as James was just.
29. ‘The trouble with marrying your mistress is that you create a job vacancy’ (Sir James Goldsmith).
30. Real Sufism Rule No.1: I am a nuisance. Nobody else is a nuisance.
31. Were every Muslim only to spit simultaneously at Israel, it would drown.
32. The ego loves the grand gesture.
33. The pluralism born of the ism is no pleonasm.
34. The drama of the world is not the clash between Muslim and Pagan, or Tradition and Revolt, but between Love of God and Love of Self.
35. Demonic hatred is to see nothing of yourself in the other; virtuous hatred is to see the worst of yourself in the other.
36. Ignorant is he who believes that God can no longer take him from himself to Himself through a sudden knowledge of himself.
37. You think the world is His ice; but the water of His being is still water.
38. Salat is to teach you your own nothingness; du’a’ is to teach you your own helplessness.
39. It is hard to die right with God in the arms of Morpheus.
40. Never practice ordinary goodness.
41. The monoculture’s religion: God is represented by only one body.
42. Feminism? Tell the maenads to look at the sky.
43. The business of banks is the encouragement of debt.
44. The believer is the one who knows that the factual content of the Qur’an is only a fragment of its significance.
45. The Prophet was not his own.
46. Fiqh is to protect the anwaronment.
47. Not Ibrahim, but Brum’s ibram bifurcates the Big Heathens from the Small Heathians.
48. You will only understand art if you understand that modernity is against it.
49. The Teacher asks for nothing, and offers infinity; therefore give everything that you have.
50. Fitnas shall be bowled to thee. Play up! Play up! and play the game!
51. The gates of paradise are not only for the Sufis, but the inhabitants of Paradise are all Sufis, without the least exception.
52. The Monoculture is blind to the niqab.
53. ‘Tahrir’ usually indicates affiliation to the Haruriyya.
54. Only Rind takes pleasure in the senses; the secular is Zahid.
55. Form without meaning is without style.
56. ‘Asian voter’? Rather Disraeli than Dyce Sombre.
57. Uncle Same was not told that only Ghazali can heal Baghdad.
58. Existence is the perception of being.
59. Fashion is chic-anery.
60. Eudaemonian economics are Edomonics. Ishmael, however, pays with God’s coin.
61. Islam allows you to cut the web of Chalcedonian gerunds, and to see the face of Christ.
62. al-Ingiliziyyatu fusha al-Khalij.
63. The Liber Asian was the Dravidian revenge.
64. Our Shaykh-ul-Islam showed that Muslims may have three legs.
65. Guilt is to turn ugly acts into punishments.
66. The feminist has wine in her breasts.
67. Qawmun li’r-rutab, wa-qawmun li’r-rutab.
68. The lighter you are, the more you see your own darkness.
69. You have received everything that you have.
70. This is not the Modern Age. This is not the Postmodern Age. This is the Age of Khawatir.
71. The beginner looks at the results of action. The sage looks at the action itself.
72. Do not say ‘Halal’ or ‘Haram’ unless you know whether you yourself are Halal or Haram.
73. To respect her, first respect her sanctity. (Dowland, ‘Time Stands Still’)
74. He who marries for self-esteem shall surely be destroyed.
75. A man’s jihad today is to be a man. Women are already good at being women.
76. The fathers have died.
77. Haste is an attempt to steal God’s time.
78. The false Salafi cannot see that Allah’s light is green, not red.
79. Whatever it is that has taken you from the position of the majority, it is the ego.
80. Wisdom conjoins tafwid and ta’wil.
81. Modern education: seek knowledge from the cradle to the gravy.
82. Modernity is an out-of-body experience.
83. Islam is the love of the saints.
84. Complaining about the jalal? A volcano is always beautiful.
85. Help Uncle Same by throwing his tea overboard. ‘No taxation …’
86. Understand prayer, and you understand all of Islam.
87. Old age is so that you might grow more beautiful.
88. Modern art: This is what creation would have been like, if atheism were true.
89. If you do not know that Wudu is there to humble you, then you will never
understand the bathrooms of our masajid.
90. Make time for the Prayer, and the Prayer will make time for you.
91. Here Dubai, gone to borrow.
92. Drink deep during the jaam session.
93. The Monoculture exists to frown upon the dance of the soul.
94. Fulfilment is predicated on full consciousness; full consciousness is the gift of reflection.
95. Islam is not just a large religion, it is religion at large. ‘I am sent to all mankind’.
96. Love the Other to be an athari; love the Self to be a salafi.
97. Othering is ithar, not ta’thir.
98. The Book, in which there is no crookedness, will take away your crookedness, if your body is open to it.
99. The world has become small because there is nowhere to go.
100. Maidens! Feminism is the membership-ticket of the Monoculture
Shaykh Mustafa Ceric
Shaykh Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina
born 1952 in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then Yugoslavia) is the Grand Mufti (reis-ul-ulema) of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He is serving his second 7-year term until 2013. He is fluent in Bosnian, English and Arabic, and cites a “passive knowledge” of Turkish, German and French. Cerić is married and has two daughters and a son.
Cerić graduated from the Madresa in Sarajevo and received a scholarship to Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. After his schooling there, he returned to his native Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he became an Imam. In 1981, he accepted the position of Imam at the Islamic Cultural Center of Greater Chicago in Northbrook, Illinois and settled in the United States for several years. He learned English and earned a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in Islamic Studies. When he finished his studies, he returned to his homeland, leaving the ICC and becoming a practicing Imam in a learning center in Zagreb in 1987. He officially became the Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999, although he has led the Islamic community in Bosnia since 1993
Add a caption
Shaykh Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina
born 1952 in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then Yugoslavia) is the Grand Mufti (reis-ul-ulema) of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He is serving his second 7-year term until 2013. He is fluent in Bosnian, English and Arabic, and cites a “passive knowledge” of Turkish, German and French. Cerić is married and has two daughters and a son.
Cerić graduated from the Madresa in Sarajevo and received a scholarship to Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. After his schooling there, he returned to his native Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he became an Imam. In 1981, he accepted the position of Imam at the Islamic Cultural Center of Greater Chicago in Northbrook, Illinois and settled in the United States for several years. He learned English and earned a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in Islamic Studies. When he finished his studies, he returned to his homeland, leaving the ICC and becoming a practicing Imam in a learning center in Zagreb in 1987. He officially became the Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999, although he has led the Islamic community in Bosnia since 1993
Sheikh Ali Gomaa
Sheikh Ali Gomaa was born on March 3rd 1952 in Bani Suwaif, Upper Egypt. He was raised in a pious household that respected knowledge. His father, a lawyer specializing in personal status shariah law, transferred his love of books to his son whose private library now boasts over 30,000 titles and is sought out by students and researchers from around the world in need of rare texts.
Sheikh Ali began memorizing the Quran at the age of ten and, although he did not go to religious schools, by the time he graduated from high school he had studied the six canonical collections of hadith as well as Maliki jurisprudence. When it came time for him to go to college he had the choice to enter either the faculty engineering or the faculty of commerce. He chose commerce since it was a field that would allow him the spare time to continue his religious studies while he was in school.
After graduating from college Sheikh Ali enrolled in al-Azhar University. During his first year in al-Azhar he memorized many of the foundational texts that other students who had gone through the al-Alzhar high school system had already encountered. These included works in jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, Quranic recitation, and hadith methodology. After completing a second bachelor's degree from al-Azhar in 1979, Sheikh Ali enrolled in a master's degree program at the same university's department of shariah and law. He obtained his master's degree in 1985 followed by a PhD from the same department in 1988.
In addition to his official studies, Sheikh Ali spent time with many sheikhs and masters of the shariah sciences and the spiritual path outside of the university setting. The most influential of these sheikhs was the Moroccan hadith scholar and Sufi Sheikh Abdullah bin Siddiq al-Ghumari who considered Sheikh Ali to be one of his most accomplished students.
Other scholars that Sheikh Ali studied with include: Sheikh Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuda, Sheikh Muhammad Abu Nur Zuhayr, Sheikh Jad al-Rabb Ramadan Goma', Sheikh al-Husayni Yusif al-Shaykh, Sheikh Muhammad Yasin al-Fadani, Sheikh Abd al-Jalil al-Qarnishawi al-Maliki, Sheikh al-Azhar Sheikh Jad al-Haqq Ali Jadd al-Haq, Sheikh Abd al-'Aziz al-Zayat, Sheikh Ahmed Muhammad Mursi al-Naqshibandi, Sheikh Muhammad Zaki Ibrahim, and Sheikh Muhammad Hafidh al-Tijani.
Before his appointment as Grand Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Ali was Professor of Juristic Methodologies at al-Azhar University. In addition to teaching classes on the university campus, in the mid-1990's Sheikh Ali reestablished the tradition of giving lessons in the al-Azhar mosque. For a decade Sheikh Ali could be found in one of the side rooms of the mosque teaching jurisprudence, juristic methodology, hadith and its sciences, theology, and spirituality from the early morning until noon six days a week. These lessons were open to the public and a number of students who had adopted an extremist approach to religion attended regularly. Sheikh Ali engaged these students challenging their understanding of Islam and offering alternative interpretations to extremist views. As a result many of these students renounced extremism and embraced the more moderate vision of Islam that Sheikh Ali taught. A close circle of young religious scholars who had adopted his approach soon formed around Sheikh Ali and now that much of his time is taken up with official duties, this group of scholars continues the tradition of giving informal lessons in the al-Azhar mosque.
In 1998 Sheikh Ali began delivering the Friday sermon at Cairo's Sultan Hasan Mosque, one of the city's grandest and most beautiful examples of Mamluk architecture. His sermons drew a crowd of hundreds, many of whom would remain after the prayer to attend his public lesson and question and answer session. In the ten years since he began delivering sermons there Cairenes from all walks of life have been drawn to Sultan Hasan to hear his message that emphasizes mercy, intelligence, and understanding when confronting the difficulties of the contemporary world.
In 2003 Sheikh Ali was appointed Grand Mufti of Egypt. Since taking on the position he has revolutionized the process of issuing fatwas in Egypt transforming Dar al-Ifta from a institution that was the extension of one individual (the Grand Mufti) to a modern institution with a fatwa council and a system of checks and balances. Sheikh Ali has also added a technological aspect to the institution by developing a sophisticated website and call center through which people can request fatwas even if they are unable to come to the institution personally. Over the last five years Sheikh Ali has overseen the issuance of many important, and some controversial, fatwas all of which share the common characteristic of striving to show the continued relevance of Islam for people living in the 21st century. The methodology according to which this is carried out can be characterized by a profound respect for the intellectual product of the past accompanied by a realization of its shortcomings, when they exist, and an understanding of the specific needs the times in which we live.
Sheikh Ali is a prolific author and writer on Islamic issues and he writes a weekly column in the Egyptian al-Ahram newspaper in which he discusses matters of current interest and religion.
Add a caption
Sheikh Ali Gomaa
Sheikh Ali Gomaa was born on March 3rd 1952 in Bani Suwaif, Upper Egypt. He was raised in a pious household that respected knowledge. His father, a lawyer specializing in personal status shariah law, transferred his love of books to his son whose private library now boasts over 30,000 titles and is sought out by students and researchers from around the world in need of rare texts.
Sheikh Ali began memorizing the Quran at the age of ten and, although he did not go to religious schools, by the time he graduated from high school he had studied the six canonical collections of hadith as well as Maliki jurisprudence. When it came time for him to go to college he had the choice to enter either the faculty engineering or the faculty of commerce. He chose commerce since it was a field that would allow him the spare time to continue his religious studies while he was in school.
After graduating from college Sheikh Ali enrolled in al-Azhar University. During his first year in al-Azhar he memorized many of the foundational texts that other students who had gone through the al-Alzhar high school system had already encountered. These included works in jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, Quranic recitation, and hadith methodology. After completing a second bachelor's degree from al-Azhar in 1979, Sheikh Ali enrolled in a master's degree program at the same university's department of shariah and law. He obtained his master's degree in 1985 followed by a PhD from the same department in 1988.
In addition to his official studies, Sheikh Ali spent time with many sheikhs and masters of the shariah sciences and the spiritual path outside of the university setting. The most influential of these sheikhs was the Moroccan hadith scholar and Sufi Sheikh Abdullah bin Siddiq al-Ghumari who considered Sheikh Ali to be one of his most accomplished students.
Other scholars that Sheikh Ali studied with include: Sheikh Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuda, Sheikh Muhammad Abu Nur Zuhayr, Sheikh Jad al-Rabb Ramadan Goma', Sheikh al-Husayni Yusif al-Shaykh, Sheikh Muhammad Yasin al-Fadani, Sheikh Abd al-Jalil al-Qarnishawi al-Maliki, Sheikh al-Azhar Sheikh Jad al-Haqq Ali Jadd al-Haq, Sheikh Abd al-'Aziz al-Zayat, Sheikh Ahmed Muhammad Mursi al-Naqshibandi, Sheikh Muhammad Zaki Ibrahim, and Sheikh Muhammad Hafidh al-Tijani.
Before his appointment as Grand Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Ali was Professor of Juristic Methodologies at al-Azhar University. In addition to teaching classes on the university campus, in the mid-1990's Sheikh Ali reestablished the tradition of giving lessons in the al-Azhar mosque. For a decade Sheikh Ali could be found in one of the side rooms of the mosque teaching jurisprudence, juristic methodology, hadith and its sciences, theology, and spirituality from the early morning until noon six days a week. These lessons were open to the public and a number of students who had adopted an extremist approach to religion attended regularly. Sheikh Ali engaged these students challenging their understanding of Islam and offering alternative interpretations to extremist views. As a result many of these students renounced extremism and embraced the more moderate vision of Islam that Sheikh Ali taught. A close circle of young religious scholars who had adopted his approach soon formed around Sheikh Ali and now that much of his time is taken up with official duties, this group of scholars continues the tradition of giving informal lessons in the al-Azhar mosque.
In 1998 Sheikh Ali began delivering the Friday sermon at Cairo's Sultan Hasan Mosque, one of the city's grandest and most beautiful examples of Mamluk architecture. His sermons drew a crowd of hundreds, many of whom would remain after the prayer to attend his public lesson and question and answer session. In the ten years since he began delivering sermons there Cairenes from all walks of life have been drawn to Sultan Hasan to hear his message that emphasizes mercy, intelligence, and understanding when confronting the difficulties of the contemporary world.
In 2003 Sheikh Ali was appointed Grand Mufti of Egypt. Since taking on the position he has revolutionized the process of issuing fatwas in Egypt transforming Dar al-Ifta from a institution that was the extension of one individual (the Grand Mufti) to a modern institution with a fatwa council and a system of checks and balances. Sheikh Ali has also added a technological aspect to the institution by developing a sophisticated website and call center through which people can request fatwas even if they are unable to come to the institution personally. Over the last five years Sheikh Ali has overseen the issuance of many important, and some controversial, fatwas all of which share the common characteristic of striving to show the continued relevance of Islam for people living in the 21st century. The methodology according to which this is carried out can be characterized by a profound respect for the intellectual product of the past accompanied by a realization of its shortcomings, when they exist, and an understanding of the specific needs the times in which we live.
Sheikh Ali is a prolific author and writer on Islamic issues and he writes a weekly column in the Egyptian al-Ahram newspaper in which he discusses matters of current interest and religion.
Martin Lings aka Abu Bakr Siraj Ad-Din
Martin Lings aka Abu Bakr Siraj Ad-Din
(January 24, 1909 – May 12, 2005)
Sidi Martin Lings was born in Burnage, Manchester in 1909 to a Protestant family. The young Lings gained an introduction to travelling at a young age, spending significant time in the United States due to his father's employment.
Lings attended Clifton College and went on to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he gained a BA in English Language and Literature. At Magdalen, he was a student and then a close friend of C. S. Lewis. After graduating from Oxford Lings went to Vytautas Magnus University, in Lithuania, where he taught Anglo-Saxon and Middle English.
For Lings himself, however, the most important event whilst at Oxford was his discovery of the writings of the René Guénon, a French metaphysician and Muslim convert, and those of Frithjof Schuon, a German spiritual authority, metaphysician and Perennialist. In 1938, Lings went to Basle to make Schuon's acquaintance and he remained Frithjof Schuon's disciple and expositor for the rest of his life.
In 1939, Lings went to Cairo, Egypt, in order to visit a friend who was an assistant of René Guénon. Not long after arriving in Cairo, his friend died and Lings began studying Arabic.
Cairo became his home for over a decade; he became an English language teacher at the University of Cairo and produced Shakespeare plays annually. Lings married Lesley Smalley in 1944 and lived with her in a village near the pyramids. Despite having settled comfortably in Egypt, Lings was forced to leave in 1952 after anti-British disturbances.
Upon returning to the United Kingdom he continued his education, earning a BA in Arabic and a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London). His doctoral thesis became a well-received book on Algerian Sufi Ahmad al-Alawi. After completing his doctorate, Lings worked at the British Museum and later British Library, overseeing eastern manuscripts and other textual works, rising to the position of Keeper of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts 1970-73. He was also a frequent contributor to the journal, Studies in Comparative Religion.
A writer throughout this period, Lings' output increased in the last quarter of his life. While his thesis work on Ahmad al-Alawi had been well-regarded, his most famous work was a biography of Muhammad, written in 1983, which earned him acclaim in the Muslim world and prizes from the governments of Pakistan and Egypt. His work was hailed as the "best biography of the prophet in English" at the National Seerat Conference in Islamabad. He also continued travelling extensively, although he made his home in Kent. He died in 2005.
In addition to his writings on Sufism, Lings was a Shakespeare scholar. His contribution to Shakespeare scholarship was to point out the deeper esoteric meanings found in Shakespeare's plays, and the spirituality of Shakespeare himself. More recent editions of Lings's books on Shakespeare include a foreword by Charles, Prince of Wales. Just before his death he gave an interview on this topic, which was posthumously made into the film Shakespeare's Spirituality: A Perspective.
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Martin Lings aka Abu Bakr Siraj Ad-Din
(January 24, 1909 – May 12, 2005)
Sidi Martin Lings was born in Burnage, Manchester in 1909 to a Protestant family. The young Lings gained an introduction to travelling at a young age, spending significant time in the United States due to his father's employment.
Lings attended Clifton College and went on to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he gained a BA in English Language and Literature. At Magdalen, he was a student and then a close friend of C. S. Lewis. After graduating from Oxford Lings went to Vytautas Magnus University, in Lithuania, where he taught Anglo-Saxon and Middle English.
For Lings himself, however, the most important event whilst at Oxford was his discovery of the writings of the René Guénon, a French metaphysician and Muslim convert, and those of Frithjof Schuon, a German spiritual authority, metaphysician and Perennialist. In 1938, Lings went to Basle to make Schuon's acquaintance and he remained Frithjof Schuon's disciple and expositor for the rest of his life.
In 1939, Lings went to Cairo, Egypt, in order to visit a friend who was an assistant of René Guénon. Not long after arriving in Cairo, his friend died and Lings began studying Arabic.
Cairo became his home for over a decade; he became an English language teacher at the University of Cairo and produced Shakespeare plays annually. Lings married Lesley Smalley in 1944 and lived with her in a village near the pyramids. Despite having settled comfortably in Egypt, Lings was forced to leave in 1952 after anti-British disturbances.
Upon returning to the United Kingdom he continued his education, earning a BA in Arabic and a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London). His doctoral thesis became a well-received book on Algerian Sufi Ahmad al-Alawi. After completing his doctorate, Lings worked at the British Museum and later British Library, overseeing eastern manuscripts and other textual works, rising to the position of Keeper of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts 1970-73. He was also a frequent contributor to the journal, Studies in Comparative Religion.
A writer throughout this period, Lings' output increased in the last quarter of his life. While his thesis work on Ahmad al-Alawi had been well-regarded, his most famous work was a biography of Muhammad, written in 1983, which earned him acclaim in the Muslim world and prizes from the governments of Pakistan and Egypt. His work was hailed as the "best biography of the prophet in English" at the National Seerat Conference in Islamabad. He also continued travelling extensively, although he made his home in Kent. He died in 2005.
In addition to his writings on Sufism, Lings was a Shakespeare scholar. His contribution to Shakespeare scholarship was to point out the deeper esoteric meanings found in Shakespeare's plays, and the spirituality of Shakespeare himself. More recent editions of Lings's books on Shakespeare include a foreword by Charles, Prince of Wales. Just before his death he gave an interview on this topic, which was posthumously made into the film Shakespeare's Spirituality: A Perspective.
Sidi Ibrahim Titus Burckhardt
Sidi Ibrahim Titus Burckhardt
German Swiss, was born in Florence, Italy in 1908 and died in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1984. He devoted all his life to the study and exposition of the different aspects of Wisdom and Tradition.
In literary and philosophic terms, he was an eminent member of the "traditionalist school" of twentieth-century authors. He was a frequent contributor to the journal Studies in Comparative Religion along with other prominent members of the school. He compiled and published work from the sufi masters: Ibn Arabi (1165–1240), Abd-al-karim Jili (1365–1424) and Muhammad al-Arabi al-Darqawi (1760–1823).
Imam Warith Deen Muhammed
Warith Deen Muhammed (born Wallace D. Muhammad; October 30, 1933 - September 9, 2008) was an African American Muslim leader and the son of Clara and Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam from 1933 to 1975.
He became leader of the Nation of Islam after his father’s death on February 25, 1975 and merged it to orthodox or Sunni Islam. Warith Deen Muhammed rejected many of the teachings of his father. It was estimated he brought 200,000 followers from the Nation of Islam to Sunni Islam.
Al-Hajj Ahmad Tawfiq
portrait of Shaykh Tawfiq circa 1977
Shaykh-‘Allama Al-Hajj Ahmad Tawfiq
Shaykh-‘Allama Al-Hajj Ahmad Tawfiq, the founding Imam of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, Inc., was born in Newberry, South Carolina on September 20, 1936. He came to New York City at the age of eight and attended schools in New York City. He was athletically talented all of his life. As an adolescent, he played football for DeWitt Clinton High School, and enjoyed swimming. As an adult he took to long-distance running and excelled in martial arts. He also possessed a musical talent that he developed through studies at the Manhattan School of Music, where he became proficient on the French Horn. Shaykh Tawfiq played with the Prince Hall Symphony Band and later conducted the Cairo Symphony Orchestra.
He was an American of African descent who also traced his lineage to Osceola, the Seminole warrior chief. He embraced Islam as teenager, and this became the focal point of his life for almost thirty years. Shaykh-‘Allama Tawfiq, served as a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force. He later became a member of the Muslim Mosque, Inc., the organization founded by the late Al-Hajj Malik Shabazz (popularly known as Malcolm X). In order to help raise the level of Islamic scholarship among Muslim Americans of African decent, he went to study at Al-Azhar University, the oldest and most prestigious institution of Islamic education in the world, in Cairo, Egypt. While there, Shaykh-‘Allama Tawfiq studied Islamic and International Jurisprudence. He also attended The Academy of Islamic Research in Egypt, The Sadiyya School of Semitic Languages, and the Goth School of German Languages. He studied several tongues, including Arabic, Swahili, Hebrew, Spanish, French, German, Chinese and Japanese. A gifted liguist, he distinguished himself as a speaker, teacher and translator of Classical Arabic.
While a student at Al-Azhar, the Shaykh-‘Allama conceived the establishment of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood. When he returned to the United States, he and several associates formed the congregation and the organization known by that name. The mosque is located in Harlem, and is known for its contributions to the establishment and development of Islam in North America, and the improvement of the quality of life in the Harlem community.
Shaykh-‘Allama Tawfiq’s goal was to present a true picture of Islam in the United States, at a time when it was greatly misunderstood. He strongly advocated the establishment of an indigenous Muslim intelligentsia, and he is the father of the movement to do so. His vision included the establishment of instructions that reflect the culture and dignity of the religion of Islam. His commitment was to the upliftment of the American of African descent through the teachings of this increasingly popular faith. He viewed Islam as the means by which many of the social and psychological ills of his people could be cured. He devoted his life to those ends, and it was his sincerest desire that Muslims leave this profound legacy to their children.
From the late 1960s through the mid-1980s, Shaykh-'Allaama Al-Hajj K. Ahmad Tawfiq established a standard amongst Muslim Americans of African descent of delivering weekly khutab (sermons) in both Qur'anic Arabic and English. He was a visionary leader who regularly taught and published English translations of the proper 'Aqeedah (binding beliefs and practices) of the Ahlus-Sunna wal Jamaat ("The People of the Sunna and unified Community"), some 30 years before the coming of the Salafi movement to America. They appeared regularly in The Western Sunrise, an independent newspaper published by the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood.
When Minister Malcolm X formed the Muslim Mosque, Inc. after embracing the Sunna, K. Ahmad Tawfiq became a member. As such, he received a scholarship to study at Al-Azhar University. He began his studies there in September, 1964, the same year as Akbar Muhammad, the older brother of Imam W.D. Muhammad and a professor at the State University of New York.
Upon Shaykh Tawfiq's return to the United States two years after the martyrdom of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (May Allah grant him the promised reward of all true martyrs, which is paradise), Sister Betty Shabazz asked him to tutor their three eldest daughters (see Ilyasah Shabazz's book, Growing Up X, pp. 57-59). He taught them Arabic and Islamic studies as well as African and African American history. He extended his teaching of these subjects to his people and others.
In 1977, Shaykh-'Allama Tawfiq produced an album of Qur'anic recitation (Sura Yasin and Sura Yusuf). This was the first time a recording of this type had been done by an American. It was distributed throughout the country and is now available on CD.
In 1979, dedicated to "giving a true presentation of Al-Islam to American society," Shaykh Tawfiq began the now-common practice in New York City of representing Al-Islam in large public events that were both civil and religious in nature. His student, Imam Al-Hajj Talib 'Abdur-Rashid, continues this practice today.
His da'wa (i.e. propagational) efforts were relentless. He spoke regularly in venues ranging from community-based forums to college campuses, religious seminars to radio and television programs, teaching and clarifying Al-Islam during a time when the organization known as the Nation of Islam was at its height.
Years before tariqas from abroad became prevalent in the United States, the Shaykh-'Allama taught his students the value of tazkiyya (purification of the soul) and athkaar (dhikrs) centered on the Asmaaul-Husna (99 names of Allah), from that which has been transmitted from Almighty Allah (Glory be to Him) and His Messenger Muhammad (May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). I n 1975 he recorded live with his congregation, awraad (Islamic litanies), expressive of this dimension of worship.
Shaykh-'Allaama Tawfiq was known and respected as a leader in both Muslim and non-Muslim circles. His leadership and vision resulted in the inclusion of the Muslim holy days of the 'Eidul-Fitr and 'Eidul-Adha to the City of New York's official calendar and cancellation of alternate side of the street parking for these holy days.
At Shaykh-'Allaama Tawfiq's death, Muslims throughout the nation and the world prayed for him, including many of the downtrodden incarcerated in American prisons. At his memorial, people from various walks of life and ethnic groups came to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture to pay tribute to him.
He passed on December 21, 1988 after a long illness. He was the author of The Black Man and Islam, and a translator of The Message of Education and Guidance, by the noted Egyptian Muslim leader , Imam Hassan Al-Banna (May Allah forgive and reward him).
http://www.mosqueofislamicbrotherhoodinc.org/shaykyhtawfiq.html
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portrait of Shaykh Tawfiq circa 1977
Shaykh-‘Allama Al-Hajj Ahmad Tawfiq
Shaykh-‘Allama Al-Hajj Ahmad Tawfiq, the founding Imam of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, Inc., was born in Newberry, South Carolina on September 20, 1936. He came to New York City at the age of eight and attended schools in New York City. He was athletically talented all of his life. As an adolescent, he played football for DeWitt Clinton High School, and enjoyed swimming. As an adult he took to long-distance running and excelled in martial arts. He also possessed a musical talent that he developed through studies at the Manhattan School of Music, where he became proficient on the French Horn. Shaykh Tawfiq played with the Prince Hall Symphony Band and later conducted the Cairo Symphony Orchestra.
He was an American of African descent who also traced his lineage to Osceola, the Seminole warrior chief. He embraced Islam as teenager, and this became the focal point of his life for almost thirty years. Shaykh-‘Allama Tawfiq, served as a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force. He later became a member of the Muslim Mosque, Inc., the organization founded by the late Al-Hajj Malik Shabazz (popularly known as Malcolm X). In order to help raise the level of Islamic scholarship among Muslim Americans of African decent, he went to study at Al-Azhar University, the oldest and most prestigious institution of Islamic education in the world, in Cairo, Egypt. While there, Shaykh-‘Allama Tawfiq studied Islamic and International Jurisprudence. He also attended The Academy of Islamic Research in Egypt, The Sadiyya School of Semitic Languages, and the Goth School of German Languages. He studied several tongues, including Arabic, Swahili, Hebrew, Spanish, French, German, Chinese and Japanese. A gifted liguist, he distinguished himself as a speaker, teacher and translator of Classical Arabic.
While a student at Al-Azhar, the Shaykh-‘Allama conceived the establishment of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood. When he returned to the United States, he and several associates formed the congregation and the organization known by that name. The mosque is located in Harlem, and is known for its contributions to the establishment and development of Islam in North America, and the improvement of the quality of life in the Harlem community.
Shaykh-‘Allama Tawfiq’s goal was to present a true picture of Islam in the United States, at a time when it was greatly misunderstood. He strongly advocated the establishment of an indigenous Muslim intelligentsia, and he is the father of the movement to do so. His vision included the establishment of instructions that reflect the culture and dignity of the religion of Islam. His commitment was to the upliftment of the American of African descent through the teachings of this increasingly popular faith. He viewed Islam as the means by which many of the social and psychological ills of his people could be cured. He devoted his life to those ends, and it was his sincerest desire that Muslims leave this profound legacy to their children.
From the late 1960s through the mid-1980s, Shaykh-'Allaama Al-Hajj K. Ahmad Tawfiq established a standard amongst Muslim Americans of African descent of delivering weekly khutab (sermons) in both Qur'anic Arabic and English. He was a visionary leader who regularly taught and published English translations of the proper 'Aqeedah (binding beliefs and practices) of the Ahlus-Sunna wal Jamaat ("The People of the Sunna and unified Community"), some 30 years before the coming of the Salafi movement to America. They appeared regularly in The Western Sunrise, an independent newspaper published by the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood.
When Minister Malcolm X formed the Muslim Mosque, Inc. after embracing the Sunna, K. Ahmad Tawfiq became a member. As such, he received a scholarship to study at Al-Azhar University. He began his studies there in September, 1964, the same year as Akbar Muhammad, the older brother of Imam W.D. Muhammad and a professor at the State University of New York.
Upon Shaykh Tawfiq's return to the United States two years after the martyrdom of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (May Allah grant him the promised reward of all true martyrs, which is paradise), Sister Betty Shabazz asked him to tutor their three eldest daughters (see Ilyasah Shabazz's book, Growing Up X, pp. 57-59). He taught them Arabic and Islamic studies as well as African and African American history. He extended his teaching of these subjects to his people and others.
In 1977, Shaykh-'Allama Tawfiq produced an album of Qur'anic recitation (Sura Yasin and Sura Yusuf). This was the first time a recording of this type had been done by an American. It was distributed throughout the country and is now available on CD.
In 1979, dedicated to "giving a true presentation of Al-Islam to American society," Shaykh Tawfiq began the now-common practice in New York City of representing Al-Islam in large public events that were both civil and religious in nature. His student, Imam Al-Hajj Talib 'Abdur-Rashid, continues this practice today.
His da'wa (i.e. propagational) efforts were relentless. He spoke regularly in venues ranging from community-based forums to college campuses, religious seminars to radio and television programs, teaching and clarifying Al-Islam during a time when the organization known as the Nation of Islam was at its height.
Years before tariqas from abroad became prevalent in the United States, the Shaykh-'Allama taught his students the value of tazkiyya (purification of the soul) and athkaar (dhikrs) centered on the Asmaaul-Husna (99 names of Allah), from that which has been transmitted from Almighty Allah (Glory be to Him) and His Messenger Muhammad (May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). I n 1975 he recorded live with his congregation, awraad (Islamic litanies), expressive of this dimension of worship.
Shaykh-'Allaama Tawfiq was known and respected as a leader in both Muslim and non-Muslim circles. His leadership and vision resulted in the inclusion of the Muslim holy days of the 'Eidul-Fitr and 'Eidul-Adha to the City of New York's official calendar and cancellation of alternate side of the street parking for these holy days.
At Shaykh-'Allaama Tawfiq's death, Muslims throughout the nation and the world prayed for him, including many of the downtrodden incarcerated in American prisons. At his memorial, people from various walks of life and ethnic groups came to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture to pay tribute to him.
He passed on December 21, 1988 after a long illness. He was the author of The Black Man and Islam, and a translator of The Message of Education and Guidance, by the noted Egyptian Muslim leader , Imam Hassan Al-Banna (May Allah forgive and reward him).
http://www.mosqueofislamicbrotherhoodinc.org/shaykyhtawfiq.html
Shaykh Ibrahima Fall
Shaykh Ibrahima Fall (1855–1930) was a disciple of Shaykh Ahmadu Bàmba Mbàkke, founder of the Mouride Brotherhood movement in West Africa. Well known in the Mouride Brotherhood, Ibrahima Fall established the influential Baye Fall movement. Ibrahima Fall was a son of Amadou Rokhaya Fall and Seynabou Ndiaye. At an early age, Ibrahima Fall memorized the Qur'an. Ibrahima Fall achieved scholarship in major Islamic and Arabic sciences such as theology, fiqh, tafsir, grammar and rhetoric.
Surat (Chapter) al Mulk from the Quran written by Omar Ibn Said
Surat (Chapter) al Mulk from the Quran written by Omar Ibn Said
Omar ibn Said is widely known for fourteen manuscripts that he wrote in Arabic. Out of all of his Arabic manuscripts, he is best known for his autobiographical essay written in 1831. It describes some of the events of his life and includes reflections on his steadfast adherence to Islam and his openness towards other 'God fearing' people. On the surface the document may appear to be tolerant towards slavery, however Said begins it with Surat Al-Mulk, a chapter from the Qur'an, which states that only God has sovereignty over human beings.
Most of Said's other work consisted of Islamic manuscripts in Arabic, including a handwritten copy of some short chapters (surat) from the Qur'an that are now part of the North Carolina Collection in the Wilson Library at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Omar ibn Said
Omar ibn Said (1770-1864)
was born in present-day Senegal in Futa Tooro, a region between the Senegal River and Gambia River in West Africa, to a wealthy family. He was an Islamic scholar and a Fula who spent 25 years of his life studying with prominent Muslim scholars in Africa. In 1807, he was captured during a military conflict, enslaved and taken across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. He escaped from a cruel master in Charleston, South Carolina, and journeyed to Fayetteville, North Carolina. There he was recaptured and later sold to James Owen. Said lived into his mid-nineties and was still a slave at the time of his death in 1864. He was buried in Bladen County, North Carolina. Omar ibn Said was also known as Uncle Moreau and Prince Omeroh.In 1991, a masjid in Fayetteville, North Carolina renamed itself Masjid Omar Ibn Said in his honor.
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Omar ibn Said (1770-1864)
was born in present-day Senegal in Futa Tooro, a region between the Senegal River and Gambia River in West Africa, to a wealthy family. He was an Islamic scholar and a Fula who spent 25 years of his life studying with prominent Muslim scholars in Africa. In 1807, he was captured during a military conflict, enslaved and taken across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. He escaped from a cruel master in Charleston, South Carolina, and journeyed to Fayetteville, North Carolina. There he was recaptured and later sold to James Owen. Said lived into his mid-nineties and was still a slave at the time of his death in 1864. He was buried in Bladen County, North Carolina. Omar ibn Said was also known as Uncle Moreau and Prince Omeroh.In 1991, a masjid in Fayetteville, North Carolina renamed itself Masjid Omar Ibn Said in his honor.
Ibn Battuta
Hajji Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Al Lawati Al Tanji Ibn Battuta (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد ابن عبد الله اللواتي الطنجي بن بطوطة), or simply Ibn Battuta (February 25, 1304–1368 or 1369), was a Moroccan Berber Islamic scholar and traveller who is known for the account of his travels and excursions called the Rihla. His journeys lasted for a period of nearly thirty years and covered almost the entirety of the known Islamic world and beyond, extending from North Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the West, to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China in the East, a distance readily surpassing that of his predecessors and his near-contemporary Marco Polo. With this extensive account of his journey, Ibn Battuta is often considered as one of the greatest travellers ever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Battuta
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Hajji Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Al Lawati Al Tanji Ibn Battuta (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد ابن عبد الله اللواتي الطنجي بن بطوطة), or simply Ibn Battuta (February 25, 1304–1368 or 1369), was a Moroccan Berber Islamic scholar and traveller who is known for the account of his travels and excursions called the Rihla. His journeys lasted for a period of nearly thirty years and covered almost the entirety of the known Islamic world and beyond, extending from North Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the West, to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China in the East, a distance readily surpassing that of his predecessors and his near-contemporary Marco Polo. With this extensive account of his journey, Ibn Battuta is often considered as one of the greatest travellers ever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Battuta
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