Glad tidings
Once there was a writer who benefitted friends and strangers alike. On the world-wide-web there were pages that touched the hearts of those seeking truth and offered a helping hand to the new wayfarers upon a path towards God. For the insignificant ones the writer was a blessing, conveying a message of peace and hope, [...]
Google Maps
The Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline is a proposed natural gas pipeline being developed by the Asian Development Bank. If the project is successful, the pipeline will transport Caspian Sea natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India. The 1,040 mile pipeline will run from Turkmenistan’s Dauletabad gas field to Afghanistan. From there it [...]
Women and Children
As sections of the media and governments worldwide congratulate themselves for telling Israel off for shooting civilians on the Mavi Maramara earlier this week, I am struck by the absolute lack of outrage at that hideous by-product of America’s robotic assassinations: the incidental deaths of women and children. In the course of the war on [...]
In God alone we trust
Sometimes the best way forward is to cut the excess baggage.
No, where you really from?
While I laughed last week at the amusing enquiries into my ethnicity, I have been reminded of the more serious side of the assumptions people make. A dear Puerto Rican friend who has lived in the UK for the past twenty years with her English husband has recently decided to move back to the States [...]
Where you from, brother?
It is sometimes supposed that converts to Islam get special treatment in the mosque, but I’m not so sure. Moving in the circles I do, it has become quite apparent over the past few months that the notion of the convert is still alien to many people’s minds. A Palestinian friend I often walk back [...]
Have patience
I used to be exacerbated by what I perceived as the aloofness of the folk at the local mosque wherever I happened to find myself. But times have changed. Over the past year or so attending the mosque in town in my lunch break, I have become part of the furniture. I am no longer [...]
Spam in the way of your Lord?
We are all used to receiving spam messages, but its use in promoting online Qur’an tuition must be quite an innovation. When I recived this comment overnight, I must say I was momentarily touched… I have seen many blogs and have don research on many but most of them lack of good substance but I [...]
Burnt retinas and RSI
In 1996 I wrote a novel entitled The Beauty of the Lion. From a literary point of view, it was a disaster, but for me as the writer it was remarkably influential. There was nothing remarkable about the book itself, except for its particularly sloppy style and poor punctuation. Indeed, I suppose the same story [...]
Reasons to be grateful
Alhamdulilah for companionship, friends, smiles and felt-tip pens. Alhamdulilah for a child’s eye, for a mentor’s advice, for helping hands. Alhamdulilah for a lifetime to approach Him.
Remembering the destroyer of pleasures
A few weeks ago I noticed a strange pulsating feeling in my abdomen. It was not painful, nor was it uncomfortable, so quite naturally I ignored it. On the fourth day, however, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to look my symptoms up, just in case. Well it could be this, or [...]
Two key principles
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 [...]
