RIS photos are up!

It took long enough, but I've finally uploaded photos from the Reviving the Islamic Spirit Conference. Sorry for the delay, but it took a while to sort through the 1,000+ photos (only 800 of them were worth keeping, and out of those I've uploaded 120).
You can view them on my Flickr account here!

The Premier prayed with us

Today I went to the first* Juma at my mosque. It was the same prayer that Premier Dalton McGuinty attended and it was humbling to see him visit our still-under-construction mosque. He spoke for only 10 minutes, but the message he gave was really important.
(Paraphrasing): Hold onto your faith. It's what makes our society unique. Historically, societies were built upon the idea of sameness; that if we're the same colour, share the same culture and tradition that we would get along. In Canada, we're inviting others to come here and be themselves. He cited the recent Christmas tree controversy as well as the Quran issue in the States and said we shouldn't have these debates. There shouldn't be a problem with celebrating Christmas, Hannukah, Eid or Diwali.

I feel this idea of being "open" to others is something that our Muslim community desperately needs. We complain (with good reason) of Islamophobia, but have we looked at the way we see other religious or ethnic groups? None of the dinner parties we go to are complete without cracking a joke about the Chinese, Sikhs or Jews. If we want others to respect us and our needs, we need to respect them as well. (This was also a theme that I'm glad was floating around at RIS... speaking of which, I haven't written about it but do have a load of pictures I'll be putting up on Flickr sooon.)

Then the Premier did what I'd like to see more politicians do. He prayed with us. He could have stepped out and back in when it was time to meet the public, but he read 2 raka'ahs of Juma in the first row right next to the imam.

*Because of the current lack of space at our mosque, we have two Juma congregations.

Eid Mubarak

I kept forgetting that today is Eid.
There hasn't been much excitement or "Eid spirit" circulating around here... mainly because most of my family is travelling... my Dad is in Pakistan and my sister & her family are in Europe.

Eid Mubarak.

La`allakum tattaqun

Whether you're fasting today, tomorrow or Monday, make the most of Ramadhan.
Who knows if we'll be around to see it next year.



This is something I designed for Zum Zum Superstores. Thought I'd put it up here for other people to benefit from it as well. (Of course, it's only valid in the Toronto area... and as someone pointed out, the Asr timings are Hanafi). If you want a hard copy and live in the Toronto area, go down to the store where they have them. Their address is on the timetable.

The Muslim malaise

Apologies for the recent "Cut & Paste" posts... but I don't have much to blog about (other than the fact that I'm going for my oral surgery on Tuesday).

I was just browsing the Star's website and this article caught my eye. It's a good read. For some reason, the Expand function isn't working (probably been that way since I changed the template... but I never used it since then), so I can't hide the rest of the post. Will get around to fixing it soon.




Aug. 20, 2006. 07:03 AM
HAROON SIDDIQUI

He who wrongs a Jew or a Christian will have me as his accuser on the Day of Judgment.

— Prophet Muhammad

Contrary to the popular belief that the West is under siege from Muslim terrorists, it is Muslims who have become the biggest victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001, as inconceivable as that would have seemed in the aftermath of the murder of 2,900 Americans. Since then, between 34,000 and 100,000 Iraqis have been killed by the Americans or the insurgents. Nobody knows how many have been killed in Afghanistan. In the spots hit by terrorists — from London and Madrid to Amman, Istanbul, Riyadh and Jeddah, through Karachi to Bali and Jakarta — more Muslims have been killed and injured than non-Muslims.

None of this is to say that Muslims do not have problems that they must address. They do. But the problems are not quite what many in the West make them out to be.

One of the strangest aspects of the post-9/11 world is that, despite all the talk about Muslim terrorism, there is hardly any exploration of the complex causes of Muslim rage. Muslims are in a state of crisis, but their most daunting problems are not religious. They are geopolitical, economic and social — problems that have caused widespread Muslim despair and, in some cases, militancy, both of which are expressed in the religious terminology that Muslim masses relate to.

Most Muslims live in the developing world, much of it colonized by Western powers as recently as 50 years ago. Not all Muslim shortcomings emanate from colonialism and neo-imperialism, but several do.

As part of the spoils of the First World War, Britain and France helped themselves to much of the Ottoman Empire, including Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and what is now Israel, Jordan and the Palestine Authority. In later years, they and other European colonial powers created artificial states such as Kuwait and Nigeria. Or they divided peoples and nations along sectarian lines, such as bifurcating India in 1947 into Muslim Pakistan and largely Hindu India. In more recent years, the United States has maintained repressive proxy regimes in the Middle East to stifle public anti-Israeli sentiments, keep control of oil and maintain a captive market for armaments.

While the past casts a long shadow over Muslims, it is the present that haunts them. Hundreds of millions live in zones of conflict, precisely in the areas of European and American meddling, past and present — U.S.-occupied Iraq, U.S.-controlled Afghanistan, the Israeli Occupied Territories, and Kashmir, the disputed Muslim state on the border of India and Pakistan in the foothills of the Himalayas. Only the Russian war on Muslim Chechnya is not related to the history of Western machinations, but even that has had the tacit support of the Bush administration. These conflicts, along with the economic sanctions on Iraq, have killed an estimated 1.3 million Muslims in the last 15 years alone. Why are we surprised that Muslims are up in arms?

In addition, nearly 400 million Muslims live under authoritarian despots, many of them Western puppets, whose corruption and incompetence have left their people in economic and social shambles.

It is against this backdrop that one must look at the current malaise of Muslims and their increasing emotional reliance on their faith.

Economic Woes

The total GDP of the 56 members of the Islamic Conference, representing more than a quarter of the world's population, is less than 5 per cent of the world's economy. Their trade represents 7 per cent of global trade, even though more than two-thirds of the world's oil and gas lie under Muslim lands.

The standard of living in Muslim nations is abysmal even in the oil-rich regions, because of unconscionable gaps between the rulers and the ruled. A quarter of impoverished Pakistan's budget goes to the military. Most of the $2 billion a year of American aid given to Egypt as a reward for peace with Israel goes to the Egyptian military.

The most undemocratic Muslim states, which also happen to be the closest allies of the U.S., are the most economically backward.

The Arab nations, with a combined population of 280 million, muster a total GDP less than that of Spain. The rate of illiteracy among Arabs is 43 per cent, worse than that of much poorer nations. Half of Arab women are illiterate, representing two-thirds of the 65 million Arabs who cannot read or write. About 10 million Arab children are not in school. The most-educated Arabs live abroad, their talents untapped, unlike those of the Chinese and Indian diasporas, who have played significant roles in jump-starting the economies of their native lands.

A disproportionate percentage of the world's youth are Muslim. Half of Saudi Arabia's and a third of Iran's populations are younger than 20. There are few jobs for them. "Young and unemployed" is a phenomenon common to many Muslim nations.

A majority of the world's 12 million to 15 million refugees are Muslims, fleeing poverty and oppression. Europe's 20 million Muslims suffer high unemployment and poverty, especially in Germany and France. It was inevitable that many Muslims would find comfort in Islam.

Islamic Resurgence

Fundamentalism has been on the rise, and not just in Islam. There has been a parallel rise in Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism, with its inevitable political fallout — in the Israeli settler movement in the Occupied Territories, the politicization of the American conservative right (culminating in the election and re-election of George W. Bush), the rise to power of the Hindu nationalists in India, the Sikh separatist movement in the Punjab in India, and the aggressive nationalism of the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka.

That many Muslims have become "fundamentalist" does not mean that they are all fanatic and militant. Nor is the Muslim condition fully explained by the use of petro-dollars. First, Arab financial support for Islamic institutions around the world is still no match for the resources available for Christian global missionary or Zionist political work. Second, and more to the point, the rise of Islam is not confined to areas of Arab financial influence; it is a worldwide phenomenon.

Mosques are full. The use of the hijab (headscarf ) is on the rise. Madrassahs (religious schools) are packed. Zakat (Islamic charity) is at record levels, especially where governments have failed to provide essential services. In Egypt, much of the health care, emergency care and education are provided by the Muslim Brotherhood, in the Occupied Territories by Hamas, in Pakistan and elsewhere by groups that may be far less political but are no less Islamic.

With state institutions riddled with corruption and nepotism, some of the most talented Muslims, both rich and poor, have abandoned the official arena and retreated into the non-governmental domain of Islamic civil society.

The empty public sphere has been filled with firebrands — ill-tutored and ill-informed clergy or populist politicians who rally the masses with calls for jihad (struggle) for sundry causes. The greater the injustices in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Israeli Occupied Territories, Chechnya or elsewhere, the greater the public support for those calling for jihad. Jihad has also proven to be good business for many a mullah (Muslim priest) who has become rich or influential, or both, preaching it. Meanwhile, unelected governments lack the legitimacy and confidence to challenge the militant clerics, and fluctuate between ruthlessly repressing them and trying to out-Islamize them.

To divert domestic anger abroad, many governments also allow and sometimes encourage the radicals to rant at the U.S. and rave at Israel, or just at Jews. Sometimes even the elected leaders join in, as has Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinijad, denying the Holocaust and calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

In reality, most Muslim states are powerless to address the international crises that their publics want addressed. They have neither the military nor the economic and political clout to matter much to the U.S., the only power that counts these days. Or, as in the case of Egypt, Jordan, and the oil-rich Arab oligarchies, they are themselves dependent on Washington for their own survival.

`Muslims have developed a complex. They think they won't be heard if they don't shout. Every statement is like a war' Sharifa Zuriah Founder, Sisters in Islam

Feeling abandoned, the Muslim masses find comfort in religion. The Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation was a secular struggle before it became "Islamic." The same was true of the Lebanese resistance to the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, and also of the Chechen resistance to Russian repression.

Similarly, domestic critics of authoritarian regimes have found a hospitable home in the mosque. Islam being their last zone of comfort, most Muslims react strongly — sometimes irrationally and violently — when their faith or their Prophet is mocked or criticized, as the world witnessed during the Danish cartoon crisis. They react the way the angry disenfranchised do — hurling themselves into the streets, shouting themselves hoarse and destroying property, without much concern for the consequences, and engendering even more hostility in the West toward Muslims and Islam. But, as the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King famously said, riots are the voice of the voiceless.

Muslims have developed a "siege mentality, which is what the screaming, dogmatic and atavistic clerics" appeal to, says Chandra Muzaffar, Malaysian Muslim human rights activist. As he was telling me this in Kuala Lumpur in 2005, Sharifa Zuriah, a founder of Sisters in Islam, an advocacy group for Malaysian Muslim women, intervened: "Muslims have developed a complex. They think they won't be heard if they don't shout. Every statement is like a war."

Then there is real war, the war of terrorism.

Terrorism's Fallout

"That a majority of Al Qaeda are Muslims is not to say that a majority of Muslims are Al Qaeda, or subscribe to its tenets," Stephen Schulhofer, professor of law at New York University, told me in 2003. But it is also true that most terrorists these days are Muslims. That may only be a function of the times we live in — yesterday's terrorists came from other religions and tomorrow's may hail from some other. Still, terrorism has forced a debate among Muslims, who are divided into two camps. One side says that Muslims should no more have to apologize for their extremists than Christians, Jews or Hindus or anybody else, and that doing so only confirms the collective guilt being placed on Muslims. The other side believes that as long as some Muslims are blowing up civilians in suicide bombings, slitting the throats of hostages and committing other grisly acts, it is the duty of all Muslims to speak out and challenge the murderers' warped theology.

The latter view has prevailed. Terrorism — suicide bombings in particular— has been widely condemned. Just because an overwhelming majority of Muslims condemn Osama bin Laden and other extremists, however, does not mean that they feel any less for Muslims in Iraq or Palestine. Or that the internal debate that he has forced on Muslims is new. Throughout their 1,400-year history, Muslims have argued and quarrelled over various interpretations of the Qur'an and religious traditions.

But it is a sign of the times that the most extreme interpretation of the Qur'an appeals to Muslim masses these days, and that far too many clerics are attacking Christians and Jews and delivering fire-and-brimstone sermons full of the imagery of war and martyrdom. This is contrary to the message of the Qur'an — Do not argue with the followers of earlier revelation other than in the most kindly manner (29:46) — and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad: "Do not consider me better than Moses," and, "I am closest of all people to Jesus, son of Mary."

For all the emphasis that today's clerics put on the Prophet's war record, he spent a total of less than a week in actual battle in the 23 years of his prophethood. He advised his followers to "be moderate in religious matters, for excess caused the destruction of earlier communities." A moderate himself, he smiled often, spoke softly and delivered brief sermons. "The Prophet disliked ranting and raving," wrote Imam Bukhari, the ninth-century Islamic scholar of the Prophet's sayings. Ayesha, the Prophet's wife, reported that "he spoke so few words that you could count them." His most famous speech, during the Haj pilgrimage in AD 632, which laid down an entire covenant, was less than 2,800 words.

Muhammad was respectful of Christians and Jews. Hearing the news that the king of Ethiopia had died, he told his followers, "A righteous man has died today; so stand up and pray for your brother." When a Christian delegation came to Medina, he invited them to conduct their service in the mosque, saying, "This is a place consecrated to God." When Saffiyah, one of his wives, complained that she was taunted for her Jewish origins, he told her, "Say unto them, `my father is Aaron, and my uncle is Moses.'"

Yet angry Muslims, not unlike African Americans not too long ago, pay little heed to voices of moderation. This is partly a reflection of the fact that there is no central religious authority in Islam. Only the minority Shiites have a religious hierarchy of ayatollahs, who instruct followers on religious and sometimes political matters. The majority Sunnis do not have the equivalent of the Pope or the Archbishop of Canterbury. A central tenet of their faith is that there is no intermediary between the believer and God. This makes for great democracy — everyone is free to issue a fatwa (religious ruling) and everyone else is free to ignore it. But the "fatwa chaos" does create confusion — among non-Muslims, who are spooked by the red-hot rhetoric, and also among Muslims, who are left wondering about the "right answers" to some of the most pressing issues of the day.

Muslim Apologetics

There are two kinds of Muslim apologetics. The first is denial: there's little or nothing wrong with Muslims, when there clearly is. The second, seen among some Muslims in the West, takes the form of self-flagellation, of apologizing for their faith or distancing themselves from it. To wit:

"Yes, the problem is Islam, and we must fix it." (Why is Islam any more of a problem than any other faith? And how are they going to fix it?)

"I am a Muslim but I am not a fundamentalist Muslim." (Do Christians say, "I am Christian but not an evangelical Christian?")

"I am a Muslim but ashamed to call myself one." (Do all Hindus have to apologize for those few who, in 1992, went on a mosque-ravaging rampage in India?)

Some of these sentiments may be genuinely held. More likely, they reflect the immigrant pathology of catering to majority mores, a new twist on the past practice of immigrants to North America anglicizing their names.

Such defensiveness aside, Muslims do suffer from deeper problems. Many are preoccupied with the minutiae of rituals (Should one wash the bare feet before prayers or do so symbolically over the socks?) at the expense of the centrality of the faith, which is fostering peace, justice and compassion, not just for Muslims but for everyone. Many Muslims are too judgmental of each other, whereas a central tenet of their faith is that it is up to God to judge — Your Lord knows best who goes astray (53:30) (also, 6:117, 16:125, 17:94, 28:56, 68:7).

Some Muslims have taken to a culture of conspiracy theories. Hence the notion that Princess Diana did not die in an accident but was killed because the British royal family did not want her to marry Dodi Al Fayed, a Muslim. Or the canard that Jews working at the World Trade Center had advance notice of 9/11.

There is too much of a literalist reading of the Qur'an (a trait, ironically, also adopted by anti-Islamists in the West). There is too little ijtehad (religious innovation) as called for by Islam to keep believers in tune with their times. Theological rigidity and narrow-mindedness have led, among other things, to Sunni hostility toward the minority Shiites, as seen in the sectarian killings in Pakistan.

Muslims complain about the West's double standards, yet they have their own. While they often criticize the United States and Europe for mistreating Muslims, they rarely speak up against the persecution of non-Muslims by Muslims. They also show a high tolerance for Muslims killing fellow Muslims. The Sudanese genocide of the non-Arab Muslims of Darfur drew mostly silence. The killing of Shiites by the Sunnis in Iraq was shrugged off as part of the anti-U.S. resistance. The overt and subtle racism of the oil-rich Arab states toward the millions of their guest workers goes unmourned.

Muslims do not have much to be proud of in the contemporary world. So they take comfort in their burgeoning numbers. At the turn of the millennium in 2000, there were many learned papers projecting the rise in Muslim population. But if Muslims have not achieved much at 1.3 billion, they are not likely to at 1.5 billion, either.

To escape the present, many Muslims hark back to their glorious past: how Islam was a reform movement; how Muslims led the world in knowledge, in astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, natural sciences, philosophy and physics; and how the Islamic empires were successful primarily because, with some egregious exceptions, they nurtured the local cultures and respected the religions of their non-Muslim majority populations. This is why Egypt and Syria remained non-Muslim under Muslim rule for 300 years and 600 years, respectively, and India always remained majority Hindu.

As true as all that history is, it is not very helpful today unless Muslims learn something from it — to value human life; accept each other's religious differences; respect other faiths; return to their historic culture of academic excellence, scientific inquiry and economic self-reliance; and learn to live with differences of opinion and the periodic rancorous debates that mark democracies.

It may be unfair to berate ordinary Muslims, given that too many are struggling to survive, that nearly half live under authoritarian regimes where they can speak up only on pain of being incarcerated, tortured or killed, and that they are helpless spectators to the sufferings of fellow Muslims in an unjust world order. Yet Muslims have no choice but to confront their challenges, for Allah never changes a people's state unless they change what's in themselves (13:11).

George Galloway

This video has been floating around in emails and on several websites, so I thought I'd share it here.

He tells it like it is.

And call not those who are slain in the way of Allah "dead." Nay, they are living, only ye perceive not.

I just received a text message from a friend informing me that another close friend of ours passed away in a car accident. They were a group of 6 men, gone to the Yukon Territories for the purposes of Dawah & Tabligh. Last night they were in a car accident and 5 of them were martyred while one remains in critical condition. The bodies are being flown back tomorrow, with the Janazaah prayers to be held at Madina Masjid in Downtown Toronto on Thursday after Zuhr.

What a shock... I can't believe what's happened.

Those who believe, and have left their homes and striven with their wealth and their lives in Allah's way are of much greater worth in Allah's sight. These are they who are triumphant.

Update:
Article about the accident.
And another one, as well as one from the Toronto Star.

Only those believe in Our revelations who, when they are reminded of them, fall down prostrate and hymn the praise of their Lord, and they are not scornful,

[Those] Who forsake their beds to cry unto their Lord in fear and hope, and spend of that which We have bestowed on them.

Visual Dhikr

Don't remember how I came across this (probably through someone else's blog), but wow.

?

The interesting part is around 2m 30sec.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2764633579093046327

Muslims in China

Just received this link by email.
Check it out.

Al-Hadid 57:12-17

On the day when thou (Muhammad) wilt see the believers, men and women, their light shining forth before them and on their right hands, (and wilt hear it said unto them): Glad news for you this day: Gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein ye are immortal. That is the supreme triumph.

On the day when the hypocritical men and the hypocritical women will say unto those who believe: Look on us that we may borrow from your light! it will be said: Go back and seek for light! Then there will separate them a wall wherein is a gate, the inner side whereof containeth mercy, while the outer side thereof is toward the doom.

They will cry unto them (saying): Were we not with you? They will say: Yea, verily; but ye tempted one another, and hesitated, and doubted, and vain desires beguiled you till the ordinance of Allah came to pass; and the deceiver deceived you concerning Allah;

So this day no ransom can be taken from you nor from those who disbelieved. Your home is the Fire; that is your patron, and a hapless journey's end.

Is not the time ripe for the hearts of those who believe to submit to Allah's reminder and to the truth which is revealed, that they become not as those who received the scripture of old but the term was prolonged for them and so their hearts were hardened, and many of them are evil-livers.

Know that Allah quickeneth the earth after its death. We have made clear Our revelations for you, that haply ye may understand.

Turning Muslim in Texas

Interesting video on Texan converts.

Eid Mubarak

:)

From it We created you
and into it We shall send you back
and from it will We raise you a second time.

and unto Him is our Return.

"Hotel collapses in Mecca; dozens killed"

In a sense, what better period to leave this world? (While performing the pilgrimage)
This may not be the end though, since many people also die in stampedes during the stoning of the jamaarat and other incidents.

Click Expand to read the article from the Toronto Star.

Hotel collapses in Mecca; dozens killed
Jan. 5, 2006. 09:33 AM

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A hotel at the gates to Mecca's Islamic shrines collapsed Thursday as millions of Muslims gathered in their holiest city for the annual hajj pilgrimage, security officials said. Pan-Arab satellite television broadcasters reported dozens were killed or injured.

The television reports said the Louloat al-Kheir, while security officials said the Al-Ghaza Hotel had collapsed. The tragedy occurred early Thursday afternoon. Millions of Muslim faithful are flooding into Mecca for the annual hajj pilgrimage that climaxes on Monday with the Eid al-Adha, a four-day feast.

Islam's five pillars demand that followers profess there is one God and Mohammed is His prophet, pray five times daily, give alms, fast daily during the holy month of Ramadan and - if financially able - travel to Mecca at least once in their lifetime.

The number of pilgrims to Mecca has increased elevenfold over the past 15 years. During that time, the Saudi government spent billions of dollars to improve accommodations, transportation and medical facilities for the "guests of Allah."

The massive gathering has been hit with tragedies frequently in recent years.
The worst hajj-related tragedy occured in 1990 when 1,426 pilgrims were killed in a stampede in an overcrowded pedestrian tunnel leading to holy sites in Mecca.

In 2004, on the final day of the ceremonies, 251 people were trampled to death when the crowd panicked during the ritual stoning of the devil. Three years earlier, 35 hajj pilgrims were killed in stampede the same ceremony.

In 1998, about 180 pilgrims were trampled to death when panic erupted after several of them fell off an overpass during the ritual. Four years earlier, in 1994, some 270 pilgrims killed in a stampede during the stoning ritual.

During an anti-U.S. demonstration staged by Iranians in 1987, some 402 people, mostly pilgrims from Iran, were killed and 649 were wounded in the crash of a Pakistani jetliner carrying hajj pilgrims Jiddah to Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

Eid Cards

Elysium and I were talking about the lack of good Eid cards available to us Canadians. So, with his photography and my design skills, we were thinking of (teaming up with another designer in the States) and coming up with some professional quality Eid cards.

I wanted to get some feedback from you guys about what you think of the idea, how much you'd be willing to pay and maybe even some of your own stories of "Eid card frustrations".

If the response is really good, then we might even be able to increase production and supply stores like Hallmark or Carlton (seeing as to how the never have any cards for Muslim holidays.)

Al-Infitar (The Cleaving Asunder)

When the heaven is cleft asunder,
When the planets are dispersed,
When the seas are poured forth,
And the graves are overturned,
A soul will know what it hath sent before (it) and what left behind.
O man! What hath made thee careless concerning thy Lord, the Bountiful,
Who created thee, then fashioned, then proportioned thee ?
Into whatsoever form He will, He casteth thee.
Nay, but ye deny the Judgment.
Lo! there are above you guardians,
Generous and recording,
Who know (all) that ye do.
Lo! the righteous verily will be in delight.
And lo! the wicked verily will be in hell;
They will burn therein on the Day of Judgment,
And will not be absent thence.
Ah, what will convey unto thee what the Day of Judgment is!
Again, what will convey unto thee what the Day of Judgment is!
A day on which no soul hath power at all for any (other) soul. The (absolute) command on that day is Allah's.

Hijjabed

I came across this video from someone else's blog.
...Thought it was funny.