Times have certainly changed. I used to feel a great urgency to finish my various projects, but no longer. If the day or night do not offer me time to sit and work for a while, I just shrug my shoulders and wander on. All the urgency I once felt has left me. Perhaps it …
What a marvelous creation is the pomegranate.
One lesson that experience teaches me is that sincere repentance must always be followed by vigilance. In Ramadan we have the gift of being able to distinguish between two types of sins: those that come from within, from the nafs, and those that come from outside. When, in the midst of that blessed month, we …
We all feel legitimately aggrieved when newspapers lend disproportionate coverage to fringe provocateurs in the Muslim community, magnifying the significance of their actions far beyond realities on the ground. We frequently beg for reprieve in the face of negative reporting concerning Muslims and their faith, demanding fairness in its place. Whatever happened to balance, we …
O people of the interwebs, tell me something positive! What, pray, is the purpose of the daily trawl of the online press for tales of woe afflicting the Muslims, condensed and abbreviated into bite-sized chunks for readers to absorb in a fit of never ending misery? Will nobody stand up and say enough is enough? …
I had only just repented for the sins of the previous days and returned to my Lord ashamed when, on my return from a brief saunter in the back garden, a name whispered its way into my mind. I did not need to respond to the surprising murmur, but all of a sudden I was …
May God preserve us from fame, celebrity and great acclaim. May He protect us from the attention-seeking ego, from the lust for admiration, from inflated self-regard. If one day we should state our intention to head for the hills and disappear, may our words be true. Let not the lusts of the narcissistic self drive …
Who sits this side of the computer terminal, tapping out words that shoot out across the web? Nobody knows.
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 …
Last night on our return from an adoption seminar in London we dropped into West Ealing mosque to perform Maghrib before our not-too-long journey back to our green and pleasant valley out west. As I stood within in the midst of that diverse tribe — a mini united nations — I found myself thinking this: …
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. …
During the last football World Cup, my wife and I were invited to attend a small gathering hosted by some friends in their home. Although we knew them to be Shia Muslims (Shi’atu Ali), we quite gladly accepted their invitation so as not to break their hearts. So it was that we found ourselves in …
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 …
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 …
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 has …
