Mashallah, our community of around 5000 souls raised over £100,000 for the less fortunate this Ramadan. May Allah reward the generous amongst us and increase us in good deeds. Seeds of a unified community.
For thirty years, I’ve framed my inner battles as purely spiritual challenges, which I continuously seem to fail. But just last night, after taking myself to task for repeating decades-old mistakes, I was confronted by a new thought: could there be more to this than just a spiritual malady. In short, how does my spiritual …
I somehow manage to wreck every Ramadan. Fasting from food and drink has always been made easy for me, mashaAllah. But as for subduing my domineering nafs? That’s seemingly an impossible task. The sad reality is that my 27th Ramadan is little different from my first or second. The same commanding self that spoilt those …
Must every generation of the newly-religious be knocked off course by fabricated hadith about the signs of the hour? It seems like it, for there they go again, oblivious to the last round a decade ago, and probably every decade for a thousand years, since they were first fabricated by political forces granting themselves legitimacy …
The fact we exist at all is a miracle to me. You say you find it difficult to believe in God. I find it hard to believe in our own existence, but here we are. Personally, I can’t comprehend the formation of the first single cell organisms, let alone complex creatures like ourselves with our …
I am at that juncture once more like so many times before. That dawning realisation that has dawned so many times before, after investing so much in an idea. It’s the realisation that strikes hard as I remember every single sin through the years, all of them of a similar kind. In truth, I return …
Charity does not diminish wealth. I say that with absolute certainty, for it always has a way of working its way back to you, multiplied several times over. Indeed, charity is the only form of worship I have any hope in. I am not a pious soul, capable of faultless prayer or constraining my nafs. …
And that, right there, is what we really mean when we say, “Allahu akbar!”
Everyone is saying King Charles is not a good Christian for inviting Muslims to break their Ramadan fast at Windsor Castle. But is that really so? For anyone who had been to church on a Sunday would regularly have listened to the Sermon of the Mount, in which Jesus is reported to have said: You …
This Ramadan, if the Most Merciful wills, we shall take a trip down memory lane to spend time in mosques we frequented in earlier years. Suleymaniye in Hackney, where we performed our nikah and walima. Aziziye in Stoke Newington, above the restaurant and shops we used to often visit. West Ealing, formerly a ten minute …
There’s an intriguing contrast in how different spiritual traditions approach the concept of fasting and religious discipline. Some communities are particularly vocal in articulating their disdain for fasting as a worthless ritual practice, while simultaneously requiring adherents to observe what many outsiders would consider ritual practices themselves. At first glance, criticisms of fasting alongside emphasis …
This week marks the beginning of a significant season of fasting for many around the world. Ramadan will commence at the weekend for Muslims, Eastern Christians will observe the start of Lent on Monday (Clean Monday), and Western Christians on Wednesday (Ash Wednesday). The convergence of these fasting traditions is rare, occurring again next year …
In life, we are tested by whatever our hearts attach to.
