30 Days as a Muslim

Hey look, it's (legally) online!

30 Days as a Muslim is the third episode of season 1 of the reality television show 30 days which produced by FX Networks created and introduced by Morgan Spurlock. It talks about a devoted Christian who had to spend 30 days with a Muslim family. See what is his point of view after and before this experience.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4381533152220779419

I mostly endorse this video (I watched ages ago; I think my only complaint was the harshness of one of the imams, but I really don't remember anymore).

The History of the Decline and Fall of the New York Knickerbockers By Sean Cunningham

I wasn't really gonna post this, but given last night's nationally televised disaster, I think this deserves some attention.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the New York Knickerbockers (Esquire)

10 Divinely Designed Churches

http://www.neatorama.com/2007/05/07/10-divinely-designed-churches/

Gorgeous.

Harun Yahya's Hadith Corner (Part 1)

Source: http://www.harunyahya.com/hadith_corner.php

Highlights:

Narrated Abu Hurairah: Allah’s Messenger said, “Be prompt in doing good deeds (before you are overtaken) by turbulence which would be like a part of the dark night. During (that stormy period) a man would be a believer in the morning and turn to disbelief in the evening, or he would be a believer in the evening and turn disbeliever in the morning, and would sell his Faith for worldly goods.” (Muslim)

Narrated Ibn Abbas: Allah’s Messenger said, “There are two blessings in which many people incur loss. (They are) health and free time (for doing good).” (Al-Bukhari )

Narrated Abu Hurairah: The Prophet said, “The religion (of Islam) is easy, and whoever makes the religion a rigour, it will overpower him. So, follow a middle course (in worship); if you can’t do this, do something near to it and give glad tidings and seek help (of Allah) at morn and at dusk and some part of night.” (Al-Bukhari)

Narrated Abu Hurairah: Allah’s Messenger said, “A Muslim is brother to a Muslim. He should neither deceive him nor accuse him of lying, nor leave him without assistance. Everything belonging to a Muslim is inviolable for a Muslim; his honour, his blood and property. Piety is here (and he pointed out to his chest thrice). Despising one’s Muslim brother is enough evil for a person.” (At-Tirmidhi)

Narrated Harithah bin Wahb: I heard Allah’s Messenger saying, “Shall I not inform you about those who are entitled to Paradise? It is every person who is, modest and humble (before Allah), a person who is accounted weak and is looked down upon but if he swears (hoping for Allah’s Bounty), Allah will certainly give him what he desires. Now shall I not inform you about the inmates of Hell? It is every violent, impertinent and proud man.” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)

Everyday Normal Guy Rap Song by Jon Lajoie

<3



Warning: Explicit (and hilarious) lyrics/language

"The Etiquette of Disagreement" by Dr. Sherman Abdul Hakim Jackson

Don't get me wrong, I adore Dr. Jackson. The problem is that his arguments are often lengthy, and methodical that he's incredibly hard to highlight. I'd make this a top priority read/implementation for *every* Muslim, in its entirety. Seriously.

Link: http://www.famsy.com/salam/Etiquette.htm

Highlights:

Some of us believe that a topic like "The Etiquette of Disagreement" is one of those topics that scholars and the ulamaa up in some ivory tower discuss and that it has very little to do with our everyday life, on the level of our everyday activities. What I want to propose to you tonight is that what we’re really talking about is a lesson in Islamic Civics.

...

These are lessons that are designed to prepare students to grow up to be citizens; to live in a society in such a way that they will be productive. That they will be able to contribute to the society — they will be a positive addition to the society and that they will promote the interest of the society as defined by the society’s leaders. What I want to propose tonight is that we need to get back to Islamic Civics, of how we as Muslims can function as productive individuals in groups in society in such a way that we promote the interests of Islam

"This is all well and good, to talk about being a jamaa’ah, but what about the fact that there are people who have ideas that we don’t agree with. What about the fact that there are people who endorse notions that we believe to be haram, what about the fact that there are people who advocate doctrines that we believe to be antithetical to Islam, that we believe to be against Islam? How can we maintain a jamaa’ah with these kinds of ideas in our midst? And it’s here that we come to the whole point of Islamic Civics, and what all of us in this room, in fact all of us who say laa ilaaha illallah Muhamadu rasulullah, what all of us have to remember is that this Deen is not our personal property. This Deen is the Deen of Allah (swt). And it is supposed to be practiced as Allah (swt) has commanded us to practice it. And Allah has commanded us, not asked us, commanded us in many ayat to be united, to have love and compassion among us. "

When we try to make everything in Islam a matter of consensus, we are going against the way of our pious ancestors no matter what we call ourselves. This is a fact, and another fact is that our pious ancestors differed on more than they agreed on. There was one scholar named ibn Al-Mundhir who died in the year 310H. Ibn Al-Mundhir wrote a book called Kitabul-Ijmaa’, this was a book that included everything that the ulamaa agreed upon up until his death. This book is only about 250 pages big. The rest was all subject to ongoing debate, ongoing discussion. But the Muslims then had rules for discussion and that is why they could discuss and continue to debate and even change their minds without it leading to hatred and distrust and someone accusing the other of not being a pious Muslim.

Wallahi (By Allah), sometimes we take a brother who says laa ilaaha illallah Muhammadu rasullallah and then he doesn’t have a beard and we treat him like he is a kaafir, subhanallah! What priority does this have? We know the hadith of rasullallah (s), he said on the Day of Judgement there’s one man who took a card written on it Laa illaha illallah, on one side of the scale, put all his other bad deeds on the other side of the scale and what happened? This card outweighed all the other deeds. This is not my words, this is the word of the Prophet (s), whether we like it or not, this is the deen that the Prophet (s) taught us. And he taught us that for a reason.

There is a hadith of the Prophet (s) in Sahih Muslim, Shaikh ul Islam Ibn Taymiya talks about this hadith in some detail. A man at the time of the Prophet (s) used to drink wine and would get caught and was whipped. He would drink again and be whipped again. One day they caught him drunk again and brought him before the Prophet (s) and after punishing began to curse him. Do you know what the Prophet (s) said to them? He (s) said: "Do not curse him because he loves Allah and the Prophet." There are weak Believers and strong Believers and not all Believers are strong. This does not mean that they are not Believers. And this is what the Prophet (s) has taught us. If we continue to act in the way that the Prophet (s) taught us to act toward our brothers and our sisters may be next year, five years or ten years from now they will evolve into a much better Muslim. And the Prophet (s) said, "Gentleness and kindness was never a part of anything except that it made it beautiful, and harshness was never a part of anything except that it made it ugly."

There's a LOT more. Seriously, go read it.

A Man in the Attic by Ali Imran Zaidi

Source: http://current.com/items/87571021_a_man_in_the_attic



A bit melodramatic, but I appreciated it regardless.

Jim Denevan Artwork

Source: http://design-milk.com/artist-jim-denevan/

Jim Denevan makes freehand art in sand using a piece of driftwood, sometimes for up to 7 hours. Then the water washes it away. Talk about the journey and not the result. See more images at his website below.

Gallery

"The Content of Character" (Part 8)

"The Content of Character: Ethical Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (saw)"
Translation and Introduction by Hamza Yusuf
Collected by Shaykh Al-Amin Ali Mazrui

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A final few notes.

I didn't intend to highlight the last section of the book, and I won't, unless someone specifically requests it. The post-hadith section of the book first discusses the classification of hadith (in regards to strength) and then more specifically talks about many of the weaker hadith included in the compilation. Sh. Hamza contends (while quoting various scholars who agree with this opinion) that the use of weaker hadith is permitted for various reasons, specifically:

- If a hadith is weak in its chain of narration, it can be strengthened by numerous different chains narrating a similar hadith.
- It is in line with already proven principles of Islam.
- The hadith is not extremely unreliable.
- Those who act on the hadith do so "without believing it is absolutely established" [Imam Suyuti summarization; p. 55 in Content of Character]

---

Finally, Sh. Hamza includes a biography of many of the narrators/collectors of the hadith included in his compilation. What absolutely amazed me while sifting through the stories was how far these men and women traveled in their acquisition of knowledge. In the biographies, it wasn't uncommon to hear about them traveling through Syria, Iraq, Egypt and even so far as China (particularly striking, considering the hadith "Pursue knowledge even to China, for its pursuance is the sacred duty of every Muslim." [Ibn 'Abdal-Barr]) in order to collect hadith or to learn from the most knowledgeable scholars.

The second striking quality that was common in all the narrators was their strong memory. There were narrators who had memorized THOUSANDS of hadith and were able to recall not only their exact phrasing, but also their chains of narration off the top of their head. One man was reported to have such a strong memory that he could memorize an entire book after just one reading. Imam Tirmidhi's memory was extraordinary, even late in his life when he had gone blind; it's said that once, after his blindness set in, he was walking down a path and bent low at one section to avoid a low tree branch he had once encountered there before.

All in all, it's really an amazing small and simple book. Go buy it. Seriously.
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Humility in Knowledge, Arrogance in Ignorance

Humility among our leaders, I think, encourages humility in our populace. Sad, that both seem so difficult to find, especially since humility is such a huge base for adab. I'd love a(n accessible and somewhat concise) article on the importance of Islamic scholarship; if anyone happens to have one, please share. salaam.
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Humility in Knowledge, Arrogance in Ignorance

Highlights:

In the best traditions of this Ummah Imam Malik considered his knowledge as a trust. When he knew something to be right or wrong, no intimidation could stop him from declaring so. It was his fatwa that divorce given under compulsion is invalid, that earned him the wrath of the ruler (as it implied that pledge of allegiance given under compulsion was also invalid). He was punished with lashes and at every strike he said, "I am Malik bin Anas and I declare that divorce given under compulsion is invalid."

Yet it was the same Imam Malik who was more likely to say "la adree" (I don't know) or "la ahsin" (I don't know it very well) in response to the constant flow of queries directed toward him. Once a person approached him and told him that he had come from Marrakesh --- after a six month journey --- only to ask a question. "My people back home are waiting for your answer," he said. After hearing the question Imam Malik replied, "Please tell your people that I do not know the answer to your question." In one case he was asked forty-eight questions and in response to thirty-two of them he said, "I don't know." It was commonly said that if somebody wrote down Imam Malik's answers to questions, he could easily fill pages with "I don't know" before writing a real answer.

The reason for this extraordinary care was nothing but a deep sense of accountability before Allah. It was the caution of a person who was standing between Hell and Heaven, fearful that one wrong step could lead him to the former. "Before you answer a question about religious law, visualize that you are standing at the gates of Hell and Heaven," he used to advise others.

They knew very well the tremendous burden inherent in a statement that begins "Allah says", or "The Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, says". For here stating something that is not so means that a person is attributing something to Allah or the Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, that is not true. What can be a greater sin than that! They always remembered that it is Haram to give fatwa without knowledge. They always remembered the Hadith, "Whoever interprets the Qur'an without knowledge should make his abode in Hell."

"audiences today readily confuse eloquence with scholarship."

Today one can find all sorts of un-Islamic ideas and practices, conjectures, whims, and desires finding approval in the "Ijtihaddom" that has been concocted. What is more we also make a virtue out of this catastrophe by bragging that we have broken the "shackles of blind following" and opened direct access to the original sources of Islamic teachings. But no amount of bragging can hide the fact that this is the equivalent of allowing unlicensed and untrained people to practice medicine. Although in this case the resulting death and injury is not physical and is therefore less visible.

"A pseudo doctor is danger to life. A pseudo religious scholar is danger to faith." Do we know the danger?

Patients Per Doctor Map of the World

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/10/17/185-the-doctorspatients-map-of-the-world/

Countries with the highest ratio of patients to doctors:

Burundi 33,500
Ethiopia 33,500
Liberia 33,500
Mozambique 33,500
Malawi 50,000
Tanzania 50,000

The scariest part of that list is comparing it to countries with the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the world:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_HIV/AIDS_adult_prevalence_rate

Tanzania, Malawai and Mozambique are among the countries with the highest AIDS prevalence/populations (# 12, 8, 10 by prevalence; # 5, 12, 7 by population size).

Chema Madoz Photography

http://www.chemamadoz.com/

Despite the site being in some indistinguishable non-English language, I enjoyed.