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As a Christian, I was brought up on that saying attributed to Isa — peace be upon — that the greatest commandment of the Law was to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind, and that next was to love our neighbour as [...]

There was an interesting piece on Radio 4′s Open Book yesterday on how a listener who had found it difficult to concentrate on reading since bereavement fifteen years ago could get back into the habit. There is an organisation based in Liverpool which aims to help people like this achieve this very goal and its [...]

It is better to be reproached and held to account in this world, and for it to be a driver for reform, than to wait until the Hour. Alhamdulilah in all circumstances, as my wife would say.

If you want to measure the extent of your reliance on God, check your response to a friend’s reproach. It is easy to moisten one’s tongue with ‘Allah is enough for me.‘ But when the deep depression descends upon receipt of unwanted words, it becomes apparent that there is a gap between one’s desired state [...]

To think well of Muslims is to regard nothing they do or say as evil when it can be interpreted otherwise. If you cannot find a good interpretation, in the case of sins, for example, then reproach them for committing them, and believe that their faith will eventually drive them to refrain and repent of [...]

The generosity of Allah knows no bounds. This lunchtime, inbetween prayers at the masjid, I was found pondering upon my sins. However would He forgive me, I asked myself, their memory fleeting in and out of my mind. I reminded myself that God’s mercy is not like human mercy; that while man might weigh the [...]

Last night I had a drifting sleep. Not really sleeping, not really awake, shifting in and out of consciousness all through the night. When sleep took me, there were dreams, but I only recall two of them now. In the first I watched as the Americans launched a cruise missile on one of their own [...]

Friends are allowed to have blue moments, brief falling-outs, disagreements and the odd depression. Because a friend shouts at me, or takes issue with something I say, it doesn’t mean the friendship’s through. But even it was and we were suddenly enemies to one another, it would not change God’s sacred law. Back-biting is still [...]

Whoever could conceive it? These ancient Armenian Muslims sitting in my kitchen, eating hamsi and tushu, in the Chiltern hills. The universes that open up before us continually amaze me. Whatever next, I wonder?

A new day dawns and suddenly I find myself incredibly grateful. Grateful that I acted a fool and received my dressing down. Grateful that I felt that pang of pain in my heart when I read the respondent’s words and realised what I had done. Grateful that He humbled me and reminded me of my [...]

Reflecting on today, and my life in general, it is true what they say: I suffer from foot in mouth syndrome. I have the uncanny ability to irritate people incredibly powerfully. There was the whole iPhone saga a year ago where I stuck my oar in, suggesting money could be better spent. Fortunately I have [...]

How sad it is that this soul so quickly falls unconscious, forgetting that it will be held to account for everything. How can one so suddenly become so heedless, shooting off like that, uncaring of the consequences? How can one’s faith be so minute — like the mustard seed of the parables of a churchgoing [...]