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My hosting for this website expires in two weeks time and while renewing it will not break the bank, I do wonder whether I ought to let it lapse. An argument once put to me for continuing to publish my thoughts was that the Internet is the one platform of mass communication that Muslims have [...]

Who sits this side of the computer terminal, tapping out words that shoot out across the web? Nobody knows. Nobody knows if the author is a believer or a doubter, the pious or a sinner, the learned or the ignorant, a guide, the guided, the misguided or a misguider. Nobody knows if the author is [...]

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 [...]

Did your friend die the day they went a little odd? Did you bury your friend that day? How terribly sad, don’t you think, given that saying about true friendship? ‘A friend in need…’ Are friends only for the good times? For times of joy and good humour? Are friends only for agreement, for support, [...]

It is a sentiment that several of us have noticed being repeated with increasing frequency on the world-wide-web: that the Muslim blogosphere is dying a death, that all the good blogs have disappeared, that the Muslim blogging phenomenon has run its course and all that remains is tired, uninspirational, repetitive dross. As a so-called blogger [...]

He reads my words and then he frowns. ‘I want to hear your true voice,’ he mourns, ‘I was expecting something deep, something meaningful.’ But this is my true voice; this is what I am. We are the Pharisees in his mind, devoid of the spirit and light. If only, he weeps, we were as [...]

Over and over, these two words keep coming to mind, for I fear I am losing the words on my tongue. My monotonous voice has always irritated me, but these breaking words? Some words just won’t come out, some letters become an ill-pronounced splurge which echo back in my ears so disgracefully. Salam alaikum wa [...]

Swallow not the bitter pill, said he, but what a bout of misery followed it. The agitation, the grumpiness, the inexplicable tears: they all well up from nowhere and no amount of “what’s the matter with you” can help. If I knew what the matter was I’d do something about it. Not enough fresh fruit? [...]

Deify not mere mortals, for it is liable to end in tears, nor set out seeking their approval. This is the lesson we learned when we admired the writer too much and praised them beyond their station, forgetting mashaAllah and subhanAllah, forgetting that everything is by the will of God. When we forgot our manners, [...]

I have quite a confession to make: I have not been inspired by a sermon in six years. I am talking about a real live sermon, as in the one we attend each week during the mandatory Friday prayer. I have had the good fortune to listen to a few online, proving that not everything [...]

What’s this Twitter business then? Crawling out of my cave recently, I learned that Twitter’s all the rage.

Ignorance is a blameworthy state, while seeking knowledge is praised. I don’t doubt or deny this, but sometimes witnessing the great schisms between better Muslims than I, I start to take comfort from my ignorance. I cannot call myself a Salafi, a Sufi, a Traditionalist. I am none of these things, for my knowledge is meagre, my learning scant.