Eran Efrati - Russell Tribunal 2014 - 24/09

Do Words Hurt? | Nassr Adris

True love and Abu Bakr

 

Growing up, I loved reading stories of love, from the desire of Bilqees for Yusuf AS to the love of Yaqoob AS for his son Yusuf AS. The stories were endless and created a desire in me to know this feeling.

In the books of this world, this great emotion is treated quite unfairly – it is given the understanding of external beauty and physical closeness. Yet the stories of the Prophets and Companions show us a love that superseded the physical and was based entirely on the aakhirah. Love that never fades, love that increases you in piety and love that protects your from the harms of your very self.

One such example of this intense emotion lies in the story of Abu Bakr RA. During the historical journey of the emigration from Makkah to Madina we saw his never ending support and encouragement to the Holy Prophet SAW. During this time of fear and tiresome journey, Abu Bakr RA says, I was extremely thirsty and went to fetch some milk, and as I came back I said ‘Drink oh Prophet of Allah! And the Holy Prophet drank to his
full until he was quenched. Subahaanallah, such a love, his thirst set aside for in the quenching of the beloved Rasool, all other thirsts are quenched.

This love allowed Abu Bakr RA to leave his children penniless and this love caused him to cry in abundance at the conquest of Makkah. When his father Abu Quhaafa finally accepts Islam, all the Muslims are happy, whilst As Sideeq weeps. The Muslims in shock ask him : “Today is a day of happiness , your father has accepted Islam and is saved from the fire so
what is making you cry?!”

Ponder at the reply of Abu Bakr RA, ponder at the level of love that makes a man sad on the very day his own flesh and blood accepts Islam. He says: “I am crying because my desire is that the person who accepted Islam now is not my father but Abu Talib , the uncle of my beloved Prophet, as this would have made the Holy Prophet more happy. Allahu Akbar!

Such a love that demands selflessness, and has a connection beyond the needs of the body, soul and heart…”

This love that was not based on features or favours, allowed Abu Bakr to stand up when even the mighty Umar Al Khattab was shaken with grief.

At the death of the Holy Prophet SAW, with the hurt of losing his beloved friend, his spiritual guide and husband of his daughter passing away. Abu Bakr RA’s heart becomes strong and he stands firm and says : Whoever worshipped Muhammad, then He has passed away but whoever has worshipped Allah, so verily He is alive and will not die.

Amazing! At a time when you would expect him to be crumbling, we see the true strength of his love for the beloved Nabi SAW. And that is the love that every believer has to strive for, a love that allows him to be strong in the face of adversity, a love that moves beyond lip service, a love that allows you to sacrifice your every breath…

Oh Allah grant us your true love, the love of your Beloved Prophets and the actions of those who truly love you… Ameen

Source

'Father, forgive me, I will not kill for you'

Ibn 'Arabî's Twofold Perception of Woman Woman as Human Being and Cosmic Principle

In the Name of Allah the Rahman the Rahim

It is astonishing that a colossal Islamic scholar, Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabî (AH 560-638), who lived more than eight centuries ago, should have declared that woman and man are absolutely equal in terms of human potentiality. He interpreted the "degree" which was given to man over woman[1] as an ontological matter, abolishing singular male images of the universe in favour of a binary conjugal conception, where male and female are coupled together in a necessary cosmic unity on the level of both Creation and Gnosis.

Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabî has presented a new vision of woman in the history of Islamic Culture. It is indeed a vision worthy of inspiring contemporary Muslims, of acting as a foundation for the reassessment of their notions and concepts about women in Islam, and of propelling the wheel of cultural change in the proper path.

For the purpose of outlining Ibn 'Arabî's vision, my research is divided into two main parts, each containing two subsections, that is a total of four, each holding the potential to be a springboard for a new wave of thought on the issue of women.

Woman as Human Being

Ibn 'Arabî views human reality as one in all human beings, males and females. The two genders are equal in respect of humanity, and that is their origin. Maleness and femaleness are contingent states in the human essence. He says: "Humanity unites male and female, and in it maleness and femaleness are contingencies, not a human reality."[2] He also says: "Eve was created from Adam, and so she has two determinations (hukm), that of male by virtue of origin and that of female by virtue of contingency."[3] Based upon this gender equality as human being, woman is qualified to work in all the same occupations as a man does, and possesses the aptitude for the performance of all intellectual and spiritual activities. In the following, we study a woman's aptitude for knowledge and spirituality.

Woman's aptitude for knowledge

Texts preserve for us many reports from which one can prove the evident and direct participation of women in cultural and political life. This started at the time of the Prophet, the Companions, and lasted through the first few centuries of the Hijrah, until the dark ages when the role of the free woman in public life faded away to a role of owned slavery - whether by purchase or by capture as a result of war - in the field of arts and in the courts of rulers. This brought about a new kind of relationship of inequality between men and women, between a powerful authoritarian owner and a powerless owned, who would not shy away on most occasions from using guile and deception in order to achieve personal gain.

In spite of the appearance of a breach in the life of men's and women's societies, sufi circles remained, for the most part, open to both genders, looking upon woman as a human being and not as a female, as a person with exactly the same aptitude for divine closeness and gnosis as a man.

Ibn 'Arabî further developed the vision of the sufis who preceded him, with regard to women being people of knowledge and gnosis. Woman manifested in his works in two aspects: the sufi and thefiqh fields.

Woman as spiritual teacher, guiding shaykh, and divine mother

This characterisation was personified by a woman of gnosis from Seville, Fatima bint al-Muthanna of Cordoba. In his youth, Ibn 'Arabî served her, himself,[4] for about two years. This is longer than any period of time he spent in the "company" of a sufi gnostic, inasmuch as the words "serve" and "company" denote in sufi terminology, taking and learning from, being polished by association and company and service, all of which is unveiled by sufis in an educational method quite different from that of the faqih who requires intellectual force-feeding. When Ibn 'Arabî says "I served", it means he took the person served as a shaykh, a guide, and a spiritual teacher. Therefore, Fatima bint al-Muthanna was for Ibn 'Arabî all that a shaykh is to a murid.

Ibn 'Arabî, the murid, acknowledged the role of the Sevillean gnostic in his rebirth, and accepted his spiritual descent from her, which he never did with any of the shaykhs he accompanied and served during his lifetime. She was the only one he called "my mother". And she used to tell him: "I am your divine mother, and the light of your earthly mother."[5]

The influence of this gnostic lady on the rebirth of Ibn 'Arabî appears in the few passages he relates in the Futuhat which include her contemplations and the gifts of sainthood that were granted to her. She used to say to Ibn 'Arabî for example, "I wonder at him who says he loves God and yet is not rejoiced by Him, for He is the one witnessed by him, His eye observes him in every eye, and He is not hidden from him, not for one moment."[6]

Ibn 'Arabî came to know her station when she told him that the Fatiha of the Quran served her. He learned first-hand when she recited the Fatiha for a matter she desired and he read with her. As a result of her reading, she created a three-dimensional ethereal image of the Fatiha, and asked it to carry out such and such an order.[7] He also mentions benefiting from this gnostic lady's knowledge in the field of the science of letters, which is a science of saints.[8]

Therefore, the Sevillean gnostic manifested in the life of Ibn 'Arabî in the position of guiding saint and spiritual teacher, and he was not embarrassed to learn from her, or to surrender to her leadership, or to stand as a murid before her knowledge. This is practical proof of Ibn 'Arabî's declaration that a woman can be a shaykh and a spiritual guide, and that men are allowed to be among her disciples. So let no attention be paid to those who do not see that a man can be the disciple of a woman on the pretext of the mixing of the sexes, because historically and to this day, women have been numbered among the disciples of male shaykhs. The issue here is the aptitude for knowledge and learning, which allows a woman to take on her rightful role in the life of a disciple.

Full article:

"If I stood up in a mosque, people knew trouble was coming" | Shahina Siddiqui

Female Scholars in Islam - Shaykh Mohammed Akram Nadwi

The Beginning and the End with Omar Suleiman: Creation (Ep 1)

Who’s Afraid of the Hijab? | Kiran Malik-Khan | TEDxFortMcMurray

Sermon: Honoring the Houses of God by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

Amazed by the Quran with Nouman Ali Khan: A Strange Thing

Top 10 Misconceptions about Muslims

Finding Inner Peace - Nouman Ali Khan - Quran Weekly

Schisms and heterodoxy among Muslims

One of Islam's major objectives is to achieve unity of mankind through unity of God. The first and essential step toward unity of mankind is the unity of the Muslim community (Umma.) Quran's exhortations to Muslims to remain united are stated in clear and unambiguous terms. "And hold fast, all together, unto the bond with Allah, and do not draw apart from one another. And remember the blessings, which Allah has bestowed upon you: how you were enemies, He brought hearts together, so that through His blessings you become brethren". (Al-Imran. 6:159 and Al-Anbiya. 21:92-93.) Islam's annoyance at those who tear apart the unity of the community "wide asunder piece by piece, --" (Al-Muminun. 23:52-52) is unmistakable. The condemnation of previous communities who have broken apart in sects also appears forcefully on multiple occasions. (Al-Anam. 6:159 and Al-Anbiya. 21:92-93.)

It is therefore surprising and perplexing to see how divided and torn apart the Muslim community is. Heterodoxy or departure from the original religious point of view of the Quran and Sunnah (The way) of Prophet Muhammad appears to be the rule rather than the exception. In fact sometimes it is difficult to identify a group that is universally accepted as truly representing the tenets of Quran. There are a multitude of Islamic and quasi-Islamic sects. In one instance an entirely new religion has evolved. This old and continuing phenomenon of discord and heterodoxy deserves close scrutiny and analysis. 

- See more at: http://www.islamicity.com/articles/Articles.asp?ref=IC0404-2265#sthash.EoyrU8Ic.dpuf

Surah Al-Kahf (in-depth) with Nouman Ali Khan: If Allah Had a Son

Women’s groups campaign in D.C. to help victims of forced marriages

 

Mariam was a sixth-grader in Toronto when her family started pressuring her to get engaged. They sent her on a summer trip to their native Pakistan, ostensibly to study but actually to meet a fiance chosen by her aunt. When she protested after returning home, she said, her mother kept insisting and wearing her down.

“She cried a lot. She prayed loudly to God that I would change. She refused to speak to me for days. She told me the family’s honor was at stake,” recounted Mariam, now 20, who asked that her last name not be published. “I wanted to finish school and go to college, but at times I almost said yes, just so she would stop crying.”

Finally, when she turned 17, Mariam decided to leave home — an unthinkable act in her culture. With encouragement from a women’s rights group, she slipped out early one morning, taking a small bag. No shelter would accept her, because she had not been physically abused, and she felt racked with guilt and loneliness. Eventually, though, she found housing, friends and a measure of emotional independence.

Today, Mariam is active in a growing movement in the United States and Canada to promote public awareness and legal protections for victims of forced marriage.

Full article

The Strategy of Satan by Nouman Ali Khan