As the only mosque for miles around, serving employees and residents based in three nearby towns and several villages, you might think at least one of our two imams would ponder an inclusive offering at Friday prayer, choosing to bridge divides and unite the congregation with an inspiring speech that reaches into hearts, regardless of …
Woke up very early, way before dawn, moved by aches all over. In part, this is to be expected, for I have weak bones. In part, a bit shocking, because all I did was trip on a void in the pavement, unseen in the dark, finding myself facedown on the ground.
I regularly work long hours, starting early and finishing late. Not necessarily out of heroism: I’m most likely just making up hours after being distracted by a thought or feeling mid-morning. So yes, I will regularly be found still working late evening, insisting to my family that, “I just need to finish this off.” Still, …
In this time of council cuts and unrepaired pavements, take care. I just went flying through the air, landing on the ground with a thud, while collecting our daughter from an evening activity. Fortunately, I’m just left with bruises, gravel-pitted palms and a cut knee. For the elderly, infirm or pregnant, though, it could have …
Do you find sectarianism in your Book? No, you don’t. On the contrary, you find that it is vehemently condemned. Turn in repentance to Him, and be conscious of Him and establish prayer and do not be of those who associate others with God. Or of those who have divided their religion and become sects, …
It’s funny the things which trigger memories. The latest, a curry, dispatched to me via my wife from her friend two nights ago. She said she’d made it especially not hot for me… which can mean one of only two things: either there was a mixup with the tupperware in the kitchen, or we’ve just …
At work, I run as frugal an operation as I do at home. Colleagues laugh that I’m a true Yorkshireman. Tight, they mean. I’d say careful, considerate, value-seeking. Mindful of where the money is coming from, and from what other needy cause it might have been diverted. In my personal life, I don’t have a …
What do those bods in IT know, anyway? That seems to be the question the budget holder asks at the beginning of March each year, as they charge ahead implementing some solution to a problem that has not been identified, with the sole purpose of utilising the capital underspend which cannot possibly be redirected towards …
The rational mind struggles with what we might call miracles… or the unusual… or peculiar. That is, until it experiences the unfathomable for itself. When you personally experience what seems impossible, then you’re forced to concede that anything is probably possible. Life really is quite strange.
If anything positive at all could come from the dreadful assault on Ukraine, perhaps it is a rebalancing of the narrative on resistance.
A year ago, I had a serious meltdown when a well-meaning friend deposited what was basically a whole tree in front of my garage door. I sort of exploded and exchanged incensed words with him, demanding that he take it away. Everyone was a bit surprised by the quiet man’s rage. Anyhow, a year on, …
Often, we ourselves are an obstacle to people believing, because we present issues upon which there is clear difference of opinion and flexibility as unmovable absolutes, mostly based on our own profound ignorance.
If we spent as much time on core issues as we spend on the peripheral, perhaps we might progress. Why do we expend so much effort placing obstacles before those who believe — or who might believe — in defence of frivolous side issues? And, yes, I do say frivolous, regardless of the opinion of …
Get your priorities right. Prioritise what your Book prioritises, not what your local imam or community activist thinks important. I know mufti thinks it’s awfully very important that people be told that winding down listening to music in their spare time is a truly dreadful thing. But all it reveals is that we can’t see …
Strangely… oddly… weirdly… despite being the most insignificant of people… by virtue of simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time… I have been blessed in this life of mine to have known many a person of influence before they were influential… Thus have I never felt moved to respond to whatever they …
