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Hold fast to the rope of Allah and never take your faith for granted. These are not empty words. I have passed through those phases of great despair — despair at my own propensity to overwhelm myself with the same sins over and over — when a voice from within whispers, “There is no hope [...]

Two or three years ago in one very insignificant corner of the internet, a huge argument broke out between proponents of vaguely different interpretations of Islam, between brothers if you will. To the casual observer, such as myself peering in, it seemed like a skirmish on the border. But its effect on others was catastrophic. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

If you let the rot set in, it will, and it will gradually eat away at all that you have. This is the lesson that keeps on coming back to me. Last night I met a chap whose character shone beauty, as Allah wills. His manners were so appealing that at Isha the only du’a [...]

Saving Sajdah (Sumayah Hassan, An Obscure Sanctum) 

Random quotations keep on flowing into my mind: ‘they were not wronged, but they wronged themselves’ utmost amongst them. In this tragedy that it is my life — the perpetual oscillation between right and wrong curtailing my spiritual growth — every week seems to bring a new low and senseless despair. There came a sudden [...]

On his arrival in the UK last week, Geert Wilders hailed it as a victory for freedom of speech. Funny that—as comedian Jeremy Hardy pointed out on The News Quiz last year—given that he wants to ban the Qur’an. And with that thought, his presence escaped me. It was left to our Qur’an teacher to [...]

I have long been one of those admirers of the Muslim woman, who says, ‘How I wish I had faith the strength of theirs.’ For to take upon a visual marker of identity outside the norms of society and to wear it whenever one wanders into the public eye takes great courage. Observing English women [...]

As a weekend Ramadan Retreat drew to a close yesterday, the thought that stayed in my mind was that it was just what the doctor ordered. Though one fellow was heard muttering that it was just a social gathering — perhaps anticipating a hermit’s flight — for me ‘retreat’ indeed summed it up. For it [...]

When will you believe, I ask myself? When will you set aside your foolish games and get down to work for Him? When will you stand your nights in prayer, when will your heart contemplate, when will your supplications move you? I ask the question, but the desires remain, and so too my paltry faith [...]