I searched in vain amongst my brethren for a modicum of sympathy, or mere mention, for three hundred lives lost in a moment of barbaric insanity. Years ago it was decided, “To condemn is to admit responsibility.” Hogwash. A month ago, when a white supremacist cut down fifty souls gathered for Friday prayers in two …
By nature, the human being is ignorant, unjust and lazy. We have to really struggle and actively strive not to be unjust to people. If we are constantly on guard and are prepared to correct ourselves, we may be able to transcend our natural state, but it is hard. Part of this is checking the …
It is a despicable, barbaric and heinous crime to attack worshippers in their places of worship on any day, let alone on their holy days. Those that massacre worshippers — Muslim, Christian or any other — ripping them to shreds with high explosives, stand against the very book they claim to profess.
They reject the presumed innovation of praying for forgiveness on the night of 15 Shaban, but embrace the innovation of suicide bombing without pause. Rebels without a cause.
These inner conversations. Momentarily it occurs to me that I am free of certain sins. Finally I have broken the yoke. Alhamdulilah.
For the past several weeks in our household, weekend evenings have been spent watching the touching Turkish drama, Yunus Emre, on Netflix. It has become something of a family affair, to be keenly anticipated throughout the week. Some nights we watched episodes back to back for hours on end, hooked on the quaint storytelling. In …
Yesterday, as I wandered through the graveyard on my way home from Friday prayer, a fellow visiting his father’s grave decided to share his interesting insights with me. “You are not alone in not being able to understand the imam,” he said. Apart from a handful of old men, nobody can understand the imam! If …
Were it not for the question of monotheism, I might well have ended up a Quaker or a Methodist. Had I been seeking an identity, it’s likely I would have chosen a home closer to my character. I might find myself part of a different kind of community: unaggressive, softer, calmer, more progressive, socially constructive. …
I feel like I have wasted years of my life with this thing we call traditionalism, which in reality is just an invention of the internet, imagined to frame the context in which we find ourselves.
To live a life, holding no malice. These are the sentiments that occur to me, wandering back home from an old man’s janazah (funeral). He was a good man, always smiling, always friendly. Rarely did he miss a prayer in the mosque. He would be there at fajr, watching the sun rise on his way …
It is not due to envy that I caution today’s sheikhs and public intellectuals about their vast followings online. Some have tens of thousands, others have hundreds of thousands, still others have millions. And maybe that is a good thing: there may indeed be baraka in those followings and great benefit for the masses.
Don’t let your fear of people hold you back. Don’t succumb to intimidation. Be true to yourself, even if this means you walk alone.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry that we drove you out of the religion. I’m sorry that we drove you from the path you once embraced with sincerity and passion. The one you once pursued with all that inner strength of yours, that forced you to sit at the feet of those you thought would guide you, …
As a youngster, at around the age of 15, I became interested in the field of sustainable development. An article in the magazine of a Sunday newspaper about life in Burkina Faso had particular influence on me. From that moment on, I was convinced that my future lay in working on rural projects in central …
Leave me, if you must. I will not rush to rehabilitate the reputation of a predator, however highly he is held in esteem, or however eloquent his speech, or however wise he seems. The silos have been opened, an assault has been launched, the incendiary payload delivered: distraction for the masses, in the latest skirmish …
