Taking our lad to the local mosque this afternoon, another youngster addressed him. “Is that your dad?” Then: “Is he Muslim?” The kids get a free pass for asking such questions. Adults less so. But this is the reality of the mosque in our locality: it’s a Pakistani club. Our daughter absolutely hates going to …
I’m a practicing Muslim. I’m just not very good at it yet. But they say, “Practice makes perfect.” So one day, perhaps, if the Most Merciful wills.
Remember the ocean of tears cried when we didn’t have children. Context for the tears now that we do. All of this will pass.
Sorry, I can’t take you seriously. You would condemn me as a heretic for occasionally listening to acoustic folk, because I’m a nobody. But you will stand by one who has publicly admitted to what are enormities in our deen, because he is famous and somehow serves your cause. In this warped worldview, I must …
I remember the first time I learned that treating others with kindness — or as you’d like to be treated — doesn’t mean they will reciprocate. That was on a team building activity camp, just after starting in senior school, aged eleven. Hanging back from joining in with the riotous behaviour of my classmates, I …
The whisperer will keep on whispering into our hearts, even after we have resolved to forgive, calling us back to that heedless rancour. Yes, and this evening it is back with a vengeance, reminding me of all I know to be true but have chosen to doubt for the sake of making peace. “They wronged …
Yes, we are Europeans too.
Twenty-five today. Twenty-five years a Muslim, that is. It was Tuesday 5th May 1998, right after the Bank Holiday weekend. The previous day I had gone wandering across Holborn, suddenly convinced by faith. As I meandered through Covent Garden, this question occurred to me over and over: “Will you leave all of this behind?” By …
A Muslim is not duty-bound to support a Muslim. However, they are duty-bound to support the just. We are not to be swayed by the demands of communitarianism. Rather, we’re guided by this Quranic maxim: O you who believe! Stand firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or …
“And not equal are the good deed and the bad. Repel evil by that which is better; and thereupon the one between whom you and him is enmity will become as though he was a devoted friend.” Quran 41:34
We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. But is it not sufficient concerning your Lord that He is, over all things, a Witness? Quran 41:53
As we merge into the last ten days of Ramadan, we’re cut down by a high fever. I guess we must have picked up a bug during our travels last weekend. We’re all aches, pain, shivers, coughs and sneezes. An uncomfortable fast. But all I can think is, “Let it be expiation for our sins.”
For its beautiful fraternity — cosmopolitan and diverse — embracing the community around Cambridge Central Mosque has a real appeal. So too for its intellectual and spiritual tradition. The mosque feels like a real sanctuary; an oasis away from the bustle of the world. But wander beyond its gates and garden, back out into the …
