MEETING POINT

THE HEARTAllah subhanahu wa t’ala says, “On that day nothing will benefit the human being, neither wealth nor children, only the one who brings Allah a sound heart.” A sound heart is one that is free of defects and spiritual blemishes. Though the spiritual heart is centered in the physical heart, the heart being referred to here is the spiritual heart, not the physical heart. In ancient Chinese medicine, the heart houses what is known as “chen” which is “a spirit.” The Chinese character for “thinking,” “thought,” “love,” “virtue,” and “intending to listen” all contain the ideogram for the heart. In fact, in every culture in the world, people use metaphors that deal with the heart; in English, we call people who are cruel, “hard-hearted people.” There is also the idea of having “a cold heart” and “a warm heart.” People who do not hide their emotions well “wear their hearts on their sleeves.” When deeply affected, we say, “he affected me in my heart” or “in my core.” In fact, the English word “core” means “inner most,” and in Arabic, the equivalent “lub” comes from the Latin word, meaning “heart.” Thus, the core of the human being is indeed the heart. The word “courage” also comes from the same root word as for “heart” because courage is centered in the heart. The most ancient Indo-European word for heart means “that which leaps.” The heart leaps or beats in the breast of man. For example, people say, “my heart skipped a beat” in reaction to seeing somebody. Many such metaphors are used for the heart.

Three Types of PeopleThe ancients were aware of the spiritual diseases of the heart, and this is certainly at the essence of the Islamic teaching. One of the first things the Quran does is define three types of people: the mu’minun, the kafirun, and the munafiqun. The mu’minun are people whose hearts are alive while the kafirun are people whose hearts are dead. The munafiqun are people who have a disease or a sickness in their hearts; thus, Allah subhanahu wa t’ala says, “In their hearts is a disease, and they were increased in their disease.” This is also in accordance with another verse: “When their hearts deviated, Allah made them deviate further.” When somebody turns away from Allah subhanahu wa t’ala, Allah causes them to deviate even further from the truth.

The Heart and the BrainThe actual physical heart in our breast beats at about 100,000 times a day, pumping two gallons of blood per minute, 100 gallons per hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year for an entire life time! The vascular system that sends this life-giving blood is over 60,000 miles long: it is more than two times the circumference of the earth. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that the heart starts beating before the brain is formed; the heart begins to beat without any central nervous system. The dominant theory was that the central nervous system is what is controlling the entire human being from the brain, yet we know now that in fact

the nervous system does not initiate the heartbeat. It is actually self-initiated; we would say, it is initiated by Allah subhanahu wa t’ala.

The heart is the center of the human being. Many people think the brain is the center of consciousness, yet the Quran clearly states, “They have hearts that they are not able to understand with.” According to the Muslims, the center of human consciousness is the heart and not the brain itself, and it is only recently that human beings have learned there are over 40,000 neurons in the heart; in other words, there are cells in the heart that are communicating. Now, it is understood that there is two-way communication between the brain and the heart: the brain sends messages to the heart, but the heart also sends messages to the brain. The brain receives these messages from the heart, which reach the amygdala and the thalamus. The cortex receives input from the amygdala and thalamus that it processes to produce emotion; the new cortex relates to learning and reasoning. These processes are recent discoveries, and although we do not fully understand them, we do know that the heart is an extremely sophisticated organ.

According to the hadith, the heart is a source of knowledge. The Prophet, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said that wrong action is what irritates the heart. Thus, the heart actually knows wrong actions, and this is one of the reasons why people

The Diseases of the Heart

T H E N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E N E W M U S L I M S ’ P R O J E C T ~ F E B R U A R Y • 2 0 1 2

Continues on page 4…

IN THIS ISSUEA man of earth 3A higher ground for our marriages 6 Dhikr by word and by action 8

A warning 9 10 ways to avoid marrying the wrong person 10 Living Islam camp 14 Gil Scott-Heron saved my life 16

A Qur’an study in botany 19 Pilgrimage to Mecca 22My first prayers… 24Announcements 26Forgiveness & justice 27New book etc 28

by Shaykh Muhammad Maulud Translated into English by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

MP 522

EditorialMind your manners…

‘O you who believe! Raise not your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor speak aloud to him in talk as you speak aloud to one another, lest your deeds may be rendered fruitless while you perceive not. Verily! Those who lower their voices in the presence of Allah’s Messenger, they are the ones whose hearts Allah has tested for piety. For them is forgiveness and a great reward.’ Q49:1-3

Manners are a learned process of our upbringing from parents who want to instil the etiquettes of good behaviour in their children. Requests are therefore punctuated by ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you,’ ‘May I’ or, later in our more modern vocabulary, ‘Is it OK if…’ and so on. As the eldest girl in a family of ten any request of my parents as to whether I could participate in something, or not, was tightly secured in the etiquette of politely asking well into my mid to late twenties. At that stage it was they who drew my attention to the fact that I was no longer a child and should go do what I thought right without seeking their permission or approval. Meeting one of my former teachers from high school was a delightful surprise and yet, even after a decade of having left school, I could not bring myself to refer to him a ‘Pat’ and could only address him in the learned respected title of ‘Sir,’ which appeared to embarrass him much more than referring to him by his first name, which was uncomfortable for me.

When we enter Islam we tend to learn all the rituals of worship, the rights and wrongs of their performance as well as the intricate aspects of what perfects them. We consciously and consistently improve on perfecting each movement until it reflects a deeper understanding of how that particular act of worship affects and shapes the lived experiences we encounter in our daily lives. There seems to be something missing however and over the years I have frequently heard the question posed, particularly when behaviour does not reflect belief, as to whether someone has simply ‘adopted’ Islam, conforming to the rules in a sort of black and white approach, as opposed

to ‘becoming’ a Muslim where attitude, character and manners reflect what it really means to be a believer.

Adab is generally understood to be ‘all that is good in a person, noble characteristics, habits and traits’ that beautify the character and personality of the Muslim from their personal private relationships to their general discourse and interaction in the public sphere. The growing concern is that Adab has ‘made a swift exit’ and appears to have been well and truly replaced by a competition for glory based on abundant knowledge, Islamic or otherwise, and ‘worldly gain’ amassed and wielded as implements for admiration and ultimately, the subjugation of Muslims. Adab is usually something that is learned from parents, teachers and the elderly during ones upbringing and would naturally emanate from an innate sense of ‘righteous behaviour’ instilled in all God’s creation. It is no great wonder therefore, when a society chooses to turn a blind eye to the dissipating levels of respect towards the elderly, parents and those whose work falls within the category of what was and still is considered to be vocational, high ideals of morality and decency as well as the etiquettes of good behaviour soon vanish into the cold chill that sweeps the nation. What is of even greater concern is that this lack of manners is becoming more noticeable within the Muslim community – and not just amongst the youth, but across the board.

It is indeed a great privilege to be able to travel beyond the shores of these Sceptered Isles and perform Hajj or Umrah, or visit countries like Turkey and Oman and in doing so meet with Muslims who manage their time with precision and, on arriving at various prearranged d e s t i n a t i o n s throughout such trips, are met with a hospitality that is overwhelming for its courtesy and generosity of spirit. This is particularly

poignant when one reflects on how the Muslim community in the UK regard punctuality and where nothing starts or finishes at the appointed time due to the way in which we have allowed our mannerisms to become skewed with the indignities of rudeness and unacceptable behaviour. Of course we then try to call upon all of the necessary excuses such as ‘being patient’ and making ‘seventy excuses’ for our ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ while, worst of all, we indulge in drawing up all the beautiful prayerful expressions, Insha Allah – God Willing, Masha Allah – Just as God ordained it, to cover our indiscretions. Being met with the kind of adab expressed by Muslims outside the UK is frequently cause for consternation by those whose lack of adab, even the knowledge of it, is so obvious on such occasions.

It is said that ‘knowledge without adab is like fire without wood and adab without knowledge is like a spirit without a body.’ Abdullah Ibn Al- Mubarak said: “Mukhlid Ibn Al-Hussain once said to me, ‘We are more in need of acquiring adab (etiquettes) than learning Hadith.’ Considerable time has elapsed since these words of wisdom were expressed. Clearly the need for acquiring this Islamic beautification of behaviour has never been greater when the most important dress of the Mumin – that of the etiquettes and manners that surround our actions and interactions, are often so visibly absent from

our lives.

MP 52 3

How did your interest in environmentalism first arise?My love of the environment, combined with horror at the way it’s being abused, began with Islam. When living with traditional Muslims living close to the land, I perceived a harmony between men and nature that I had not seen before. This symbiotic relationship of man with nature extended right into the cities at that time (some 40 years ago). Things have changed now as urban Muslims become slaves to consumerism. Frugal, ‘close to nature’ living fades nowadays in the haste towards ‘progress.’ But perhaps the most environmentally vivid experience of my life came from wandering in the desert. Things are very clear in the desert. Heaven and Earth, life (water) and death (no water); from earth and water stems every life form. Living in the forest many years later, the memory of the desert became an instantaneous reminder of the priorities in the natural order. Then one sees how interconnected every living creature is and how Allah’s pattern of life is so supremely beautiful. In spite of our sciences we have only understood 0.01% of His creation on Earth. Yet the destruction continues unabated. Who will stop it? Sadly Muslims seem unconcerned.Can you describe the different projects you have been involved with over the years?Wherever and whenever I have the opportunity, I do some gardening. To dig a field or a garden is a very humbling and spiritually rewarding occupation as well as being good exercise. Perhaps the most thought-provoking garden was one I made in the tropical forest. Where the garden

becomes wilderness is a critical point of understanding of one’s relationship with Creation. To be reminded of the earth is a part of Islamic education. At present I am involved with building an eco-village in post-tsunami, post-war Aceh in Indonesia. In collaboration with IFEES we are also launching an ambitious project of tree planting. Trees live in communities and families like we do. Planting a tree is an act of charity.Your latest production is the environmental campaign film, ‘Clean Medina.’ What potential do you think film and music have to contribute to the environmental cause?Plenty. The media with film and music is the culture of the day and has largely replaced religion as the prime mover of public attitudes in urban societies. Urban Muslims are not immune to this and in any case most have lost contact with nature except perhaps as a recreational facility. Hopefully the film “Clean Medina” has started the ball rolling to get people, young and old, talking about public cleanliness. Most ills of the environment are caused by man’s lack of cleanliness in one way or another.Do you think that ‘Islamic Environmentalism’ can make an impact in the struggle to save our planet?This word ‘environmentalism’ sounds like just another distorted pseudo-scientific worldview like atheism, humanism, secularism, Islamism, etc! To be complete (insan al kamil) a Muslim should be as conscious of the natural environment as he is about other temporal preoccupations, as well as his nafs (ego), his ehsan (striving for excellence) and his ibadat (worship). The

environment is about loving the Earth. To serve the people is to love Allah; to manage the Earth wisely is to love Allah. It’s like the other face of deen (faith). Without being conscious of the natural world a Muslim is out of balance. How then can he be expected to be khalifah (guardian) and see when nature is out of balance, as it truly is today? What would you say is your greatest ‘environmental’ inspiration?Surah Rahman in the Qur’an. Read it ten times. You will see why. If you could change one thing that impacts the environment what would it be?Allah does not change people until they change themselves.What actions help you personally to live a greener way of life?Live as frugally as possible, throw away as little as possible, be sparing with water and remember the Garden. Let’s make frugality fashionable, as it was with the early Muslims.A craftsman works materials with his hands and learns patience, similar to farmers. People who live on the land still live in the fitrah. If you look at any person of faith who has worked all his life on the land, when they get to a certain age they have this wisdom. The land itself, and harmony with the earth, gives mankind wisdom. But we are deaf to that. When Islam combines with the wisdom of the Earth it’s like an inspirational spark – knowing man’s relationship with the Earth and the interdependence of both. Allah is the ultimate conserver and may He accept our efforts. Ameen.(You can read more about Hajji Ayman’s work to protect Aceh’s rainforests on his website: www.upriverprojects.org)

A great man of the Earth has departed from itA Man of the Earth Ayman Ahwal, who passed away in August 2011, was a British journalist, film-maker, craftsman and environmentalist who campaigned for the protection of threatened rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia. He converted to Islam in the late ’60s, while in the Moroccan desert. His extensive travels across the world, and years spent living in wildernesses reinforced his belief in the interconnectedness of all life. Here he spoke to EcoIslam about frugal living and the importance of staying in touch with the natural world.

MP 524

can do terrible things, but, ultimately, they are affected negatively. In Crime and Punishment, the brilliant Russian author Dostoevsky’s indicates that crime itself is the perpetrator’s punishment because human beings have to live with the result of their actions: their souls are affected. When people do something against the heart, they act against the soul, and that actually affects human beings to the degree that they will go into a state of spiritual agitation, and people will use many ways to cover this up. This is what kufur is: “kufur” means “covering up.” To hide their agitation, people use alcohol, drugs, and sexual experimentation; they also seek power, wealth, and fame, taking themselves into a state of heedlessness, submerging themselves into the ephemeral world which causes them to forget their essential nature and to forget their hearts. Thus, people become cut off from their hearts.

Wrong Actions Sicken the HeartOne of the things about being cut off from the heart is that the more cut off from the heart one becomes, the sicker the heart grows because the heart needs nourishment, and heedlessness starves the spiritual heart. When one goes into a state of unawareness of Allah and the akhira, one becomes unaware of the infinite world in relation to the finite world, unaware that we are in this world for a temporary period. When we look at the infinite world in relation to the finite world, suddenly our concerns become focused on the infinite world and not on the finite world. On the other hand, when people are completely immersed within the finite world, believing that they will be here forever, believing that they will not be taken to account for their actions, this action in and of itself ultimately leads to the spiritual death of the hearts. However, before it dies and becomes putrid and completely fowl, the heart will show many symptoms. These are the spiritual diseases of the hearts.

Shubahat and Shahawat: Two Types of DiseasesThere are two types of diseases of the heart.

The first are called shubahat, and these are diseases that relate to understanding. For instance, if somebody is fearful of his provision from Allah, afraid he will not get his food for the day, then there is a disease in his heart because a sound heart has complete trust in Allah subhanahu wa t’ala, and a sick heart has doubt. For this reason,

a sound heart does not worry. It is the nafs (ego), shaytan, hawa (caprice), and dunya (the love of this ephemeral world) that lead to this state of fear or of anxiety. The heart in and of itself is an organ designed to be in a state of stillness, but the stillness will only come about by the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa t’ala. The Quran states, “Isn’t it by the dhikr of Allah that the heart is stilled?” This is what the heart wants: it wants to remember Allah subhanahu wa t’ala. When Allah is not remembered, the heart goes into a state of agitation: it goes in a state of turmoil, and it becomes diseased because it is not being fed. Just as we need to breathe because cells need life-giving oxygen and if we stop breathing, cells die, similarly, the heart also needs to breathe, and the breath of the heart is the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa t’ala. Dhikr is what feeds and nourishes the heart. The company of good people is the food and exercise of the heart. All of these things are necessary for the heart to be sound and healthy, and this is basically the purpose of Revelation. The Quran has come to remind people that our hearts need nourishment. Thus, Allah subhanahu wa t’ala tells us that the human being who will be in a good state in the next world is the one who brings a sound heart.

When we are born, we enter the world in a state of fitra: the original inherent nature of the human being; then we learn to be anxious. We learn anxiety from our mothers, fathers, and society. Thus, the Quran says that the human being is created in a state of anxiety (hala’), and the one group of people who are removed from

this state of anxiety are the musallin: the people of prayer. This “prayer” is not the five daily obligatory prayers; rather, it is the prayer of people who are always in a state of prayer (dhikr); they are always in a state of connection with Allah subhanahu wa t’ala, and this is the highest station. This is the station of people who are not diverted from the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa t’ala by buying, commerce, or anything else. They are the ones who remember Allah subhanahu wa t’ala, as the Quran states, “standing, sitting, and reclining

on their sides.” These are the people who are not the people of heedlessness (ghafla).

The second type of the diseases of the heart is called shahawat, and these are the base desires of the self. For instance, food and sex are shahawat; they are appetites. These become diseases when they grow out of proportion from their natural states. In Islam, we have a method or a means by which our hearts can be remedied and return to their sound state again. The dhikr that the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam did more than any other dhikr was “Oh Turner-Overer of the hearts, make my heart firm on your deen,” and it is important that Muslims be reminded of this.

The Text: Mat-hartul QulubIn Arabic, “Mat-hara” is ism makaan (a noun of place), and it means “a tool of tahara (purification),” and that is what Mat-hartul Qulub is. This text is the alchemy of the heart: it explains how to transform the heart. Mat-hartul Qulub was written by a great scholar, Shaykh Muhammad Maulud al-Musawir al-Ya’qubi from Mauritania. He was a brilliant scholar of West Africa who mastered all of the Islamic sciences as well as the inward sciences of Islam. He wrote this didactic poem in order to teach

…From page 1

MP 52 5

people the means to purify their hearts because he looked around and realized that everybody he saw had a diseased heart. Though he recognized the benefit in learning the abstract sciences of Islam, such as grammar, rhetoric, and logic, he felt that people may not have a great deal of need for that knowledge given the fact that on the Day of Judgment, the heart is the only thing about which we will be asked. The state of our hearts is the only thing that may benefit us because “actions are by intentions” as the hadith states. Since all our actions are rooted in intentions, and the place of intention is the heart, every action we do is rooted in our hearts. Thus, in reality when we are asked about our actions, we are asked about the intentions behind the actions, and given the fact that intentions emanate from the heart, what we are actually being asked about is the human heart. When Shaykh Muhammad Maulud realized this, he said that suddenly Allah subhanahu wa t’ala inspired him to write this text, and he based it upon many of the previous texts that had gone before, such as the last book of the Ihya ‘Ulumudin by Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali.

Rectification Begins with the SelfIf we look at the world today, the tribulations, the trials, and every war that we have, we will see that every bit of human suffering is rooted in human hearts. The reason people are aggressive against other people is due to diseases of the heart: covetousness, the desire to conquer, the desire to exploit other people, and the desire to steal their natural resources are all from diseases of the heart. A sound heart cannot commit such acts. Every murderer, every rapist, every idolater, every fowl person, every person showing an act of cruelty has a diseased heart because these actions emanate from diseased hearts. If the hearts were sound, none of these actions would be a reality. Therefore, if we wish to change our world, we cannot go about it by attempting to rectify the outward; rather, we change the world by rectifying the inward because it is the inward that precedes the outward.

In reality, everything that we see outside

of us comes from the unseen world. The phenomenal world emerges from the unseen world, and all actions emerge from the unseen realm of our hearts. Thus, if we want to rectify our actions, we must first rectify our hearts. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the famous American preacher and civil rights activist, said that in order for people to condemn injustice, they have to follow four stages: the first stage is that they must ascertain that injustices are indeed being perpetrated. People must point out the injustices, and in his case, it was injustices against the African-American people in the United States. The second stage is to negotiate: people must go to the oppressors and demand justice. If the oppressors refuse, then Dr. King said that the third stage is self-purification. He said that we must ask ourselves, are we ourselves wrongdoers? Are we ourselves oppressors? The final stage is to take action once we have looked into ourselves.

One of the things the Muslims of the modern world fail to recognise is that when we look at all of the terrible things that are happening to us, we often refuse to look at ourselves and ask ourselves, why are these things happening to us? If we ask that in all sincerity, the answer will come back in no uncertain terms that this is all from our own selves. We have brought all of the suffering upon ourselves. This is the only empowering position that we can take, and this is the Quranic position. Allah subhanahu wa t’ala says quite clearly that He places some of the oppressors over other oppressors because of what their hands were earning. According to Fakharudin ar-Razi’s explanation, radi Allahu ‘anhu, this verse means that whenever there is oppression in the earth, it is a result of other people’s oppression. Thus, those people who are being aggressed upon are being oppressed because of their own oppression. However, this is obviously with the exception of tribulation. There are definitely times when the mu’minun are tried, but if they respond accordingly with patience and perseverance, Allah subhanahu wa t’ala always gives them victory.

The Impure Oppress and thePure ElevateThere is no doubt that the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam and the sahaba were being oppressed when they were in Makkah, but Allah subhanahu wa t’ala later gave them victory. Within 23 years, the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam was not only no longer oppressed, he had conquered the entire Arabian peninsula, and all of the people who had previously oppressed him were begging him for mercy. Even though they deserved to be recompensed with punishment, the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam forgave them, and this is the difference between somebody whose heart is pure and somebody whose heart is impure. The impure people oppress, and the pure people not only forgive their oppressors, they actually conquer them by the power of Allah subhanahu wa t’ala, and then they elevate them. This is what Muslims must recognize: the only solution to all of our problems is that we have to purify ourselves, and this is what Mat-hartul Qulub is about; it is a book of self-purification. If we take this book seriously, work on our hearts, and actually implement what we learn from it, we will begin to see changes in our lives, around us, and within our own family dynamics. It is a blessing that we have this book and that this teaching still exists in our community. All that is left is for us to take this teaching upon ourselves and to take it seriously.

Medicine for the Diseased HeartIf you use the techniques that are given by the imams, you will see results. However, it is just as the prescription that the doctor gives you: the doctor can only write the prescription; he can give you the medicine, but he cannot force you to take the medicine. It is left for us to take the medicine. The imams have given us the medicine: our teaching is there; it is clear; it does work; and we can change ourselves with it. If we do, Allah subhanahu wa t’ala has promised that we will be rewarded in this world and in the next. Thus, all that is left for us to do now is to go through these diseases and then set out to implement their cures in sha Allah.

MP 526

The wedding proceeded as planned and the couple had a loving and happy relation-ship until the wife died twenty years later. Upon her death the husband regained his eyesight. When asked about his seemingly miraculous recovery he explained that he could see all along. He had feigned blind-ness all those years because he did not want to offend or sadden his wife.

From our jaded or cynical vantage points it is easy to dismiss such a story as a preposterous fabrication. To do so is to miss an important point that was not lost to those who circulated and were inspired by this and similar tales. Namely, our reli-gion is not an empty compilation of laws and strictures. The law is important and willingly accepting it is one of the keys to our salvation. However, the law is also a means that points us towards a higher eth-ical end. We are reminded in the Qur’an, Surely, the prayer wards off indecency and lewdness (29:45).

The Prophet, peace and blessings upon him, mentioned concerning the fast, “One

who does not abandon false speech and acting on its imperatives, God has no need that he gives up his food and drink” (Bukhari, 1903). These narrations empha-sise that there is far more to Islam than a mere adherence to rulings.

This is especially true in our marriages. Too many Muslims are involved in marriag-es that devolve into an empty observation of duties and an equally vacuous demand for the fulfillment of rights. While such practices are laudable in their proper con-text, when they are divorced from kindness, consideration, empathy, and true commit-ment they define marriages that become a fragile caricature. Such relationships are irreparably shattered by a silly argument, a few wrinkles on the face, unwanted pounds around the waist, a personality quirk or a whimsical desire to play the field to see if one can latch on to someone prettier, wealthier, younger, or possibly more excit-ing than one’s spouse.

These are issues that affect men and women. However, we men must step up

and do our part to help to arrest the alarm-ingly negative state of gender relations in our communities. The level of chivalry the current crisis demands does not require that we pretend to be blind for twenty years. However, it does require some serious soul searching, and it demands that we ask our-selves some hard questions. Below are a few areas where our inquiries might begin.

Why are so many Muslim men averse to marrying older or previously married wom-en? The general feeling among the women folk in our communities is that if you are not married by the age of twenty-five, then you have only two chances of being married thereafter –slim and none. This sentiment pervades our sisters’ minds and hearts be-cause of the reality they experience. Many brothers who put off marriage until they are past thirty-five will oftentimes marry some-one close to half their age, passing over a generation of women who are intellectually and psychologically more compatible with them and would prove wiser parents for their children.

By Imam Zaid Shakir

A Higher Groundfor Our Marriages

In the literature discussing Futuwwa, which has been translated as Muslim chivalry, there is the story of a young man who was engaged to marry a particularly beautiful woman. Before the wedding day, his fiancée was afflicted with a severe case of chicken pox which left her face terribly disfigured. Her father wrote to him informing him of the situation and asking if he preferred to call off the wedding. The young man replied to her father stating that he would still marry his daughter, but that he had recently experienced a gradual loss of sight, which he feared would culminate in blindness. By the wedding date he had in fact completely lost his vision.

MP 52 7

Despite this problem, and the clear so-cial, psychological and cultural pathologies it breeds, many of us will hasten to give a lecture reminding our audience of the fact that Khadija, the beloved wife of our Prophet, peace upon him, was fifteen years his senior. We might even mention that she and several of his other wives were previ-ously married. Why is it that what was good enough for our Prophet, peace upon him, is repugnant to ourselves or our sons?

A related question would be, “Why are so many of our brothers so hesitant to mar-ry strong, independent, intellectually astute women?” Many women in the West lack the support of extended family networks, which is increasingly true even in the Mus-lim world. Therefore, they must seek edu-cation or professional training to be in a po-sition to support themselves, if necessary, or assist their husbands, an increasingly likely scenario owing to the nature of work in postindustrial societies. This sociological fact leads to women in the West gener-ally manifesting a degree of education and independence that might not be present among women in more traditional societ-ies –even though such societies are rapidly disappearing.

Many Muslim men will pass over tal-ented, educated women who are willing to put their careers and education on hold, if need be, to commit to a family. The com-mon reason given is that such women are too assertive, or they are not the kind of women the prospective husband’s mother is used to. As a result a significant num-ber of our sisters, despite their beauty, tal-ent, maturity, and dynamism are passed over for marriage in favor of an idealised, demure “real” Muslim woman. The social consequences of this practice are ex-tremely grave for our community.

Again, we can ask ourselves, “To what extent does this practice conform to the prophetic model?” Our Prophet, peace upon him, was surrounded by strong, as-sertive and independent women. His be-loved Khadija, who we have previously mentioned, was one of the most success-ful business people in the Arabian Penin-sula, and her wealth allowed the Prophet, peace upon him, to retreat to the Cave of

Hira where he would receive the first rev-elation. Aisha, despite her young age was an aggressive, free-spirited, intellectual powerhouse who would become one of the great female scholars in history. The foundation for her intellectual greatness was laid by the Prophet himself, peace upon him. Zainab bint Jahsh ran a “non-profit” organization. She would make vari-ous handicrafts, sell them in the market and then use the proceeds to secretly

give charity to the poor people of Madina. Umm Salama, had the courage to migrate from Mecca to Medina, unescorted, al-though she was ultimately accompanied by a single rider. She also had the vision to resolve the crisis at Hudaybiyya. These were all wives of the Prophet, peace upon him. To their names we could add those of many other strong and dynamic women who played a major role in the life of the fledgling Muslim community.

Another issue that is leading to many otherwise eligible women remaining single relates to color. If a panel of Muslim men, whose origins were in the Muslim world, were to choose Miss Universe, the title would never leave Scandinavia. No matter how beautiful a woman with a brown, black, or even tan complexion was, she would never be quite beautiful enough, because of her skin color. This attitude informs the way many choose their wives. This is a sen-sitive issue, but it is one we must address if we are to advance as a community. We may think that as in other areas ours is a “col-orblind” community. However, there are le-

gions of women who have been relegated to the status of unmarriageable social pari-ahs who would beg to differ.

God has stated that the basis for virtue with Him is piety, not tribe, race, or national origin (49:13). The Prophet, peace upon him, reminded us that God does not look at our physical forms, or at our wealth. Rather, He looks at our hearts and our deeds (Mus-lim, 2564). We debase ourselves when we exalt what God has belittled. God and his

Messenger, peace upon him, have belittled skin color as a designator of virtue or dis-tinction. What does it say about us when we use it as a truncheon to painfully blud-geon some of the most beautiful women imaginable into social insignificance?

Marriage is not a playground where the ego thoughtlessly pursues it vanities. This is something the chivalrous young man mentioned at the outset of this essay un-derstood. It is an institution that helps a man and a woman pursue the purpose of their creation: to glorify and worship God and to work, within the extent of our capa-bilities and resources, to make the world a better place for those we share it with and for those we will leave it to. This role is beautifully captured in the Qur’an, The believing men and women are each others supporting friends. They enjoin right, for-bid wrong, establish regular prayer, pay the poor due, and they obey God and His Mes-senger. They expect God’s Mercy. Surely, God is Mighty, Wise. (9:71)

Imam Zaid Shakir

“Why are so many of our brothers so hesitant to marry strong, independent, intellectually astute women?”

MP 528

Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi helps to clarify the relationship between the different ways of dhikr in the following passage. Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi says:

Remember that dhikr means to avoid forgetting Allah in any way that is possible. Contrary to what people think it is not confined to repeating the formula of nafi wa ithbat, negation and affirmation i.e. la ilaha illa Allah or repeating the ism dhat, the name of Allah. In fact every act in compliance to the commands of Allah, whether positive or negative, is to remember Allah. Even the buying and selling in which you observe the regulations of the Shari’ah, the laws of Allah pertaining to commercial interaction in this case, is dhikr; similarly, the marriage and divorce which is carried out according to the laws of the Shari`ah pertaining to marriage is dhikr. For those who perform these acts according to the Shari`ah they are not only conscious of the Giver of the Shari`ah but do not forget Him.

To be sure, the dhikr which consists in

saying the names and attributes of Allah is more effective and more helpful in generating the love of Allah, and winning His nearness; and the dhikr which consists in submitting to Allah’s commands, in carrying out His orders or abstaining from His prohibitions, is less effective in producing these qualities. H o w e v e r , some people have acquired these qualities as a result of practising dhikr in the sense of obeying Allah’s commands and avoiding His prohibitions. But such cases are few. Khwajah Naqshband has said about Zain ‘l-Din Tabyadi that he reached Allah by way of knowledge.

On the other hand, the dhikr which is saying the names and attributes of Allah, is a means or wasilah to the dhikr which

is obeying the rules of the Shari`ah in life. For it is impossible to observe the rules of the Shari`ah in all matters unless one has a strong love for the Giver of the Shari`ah and the strong love of Allah depends upon the dhikr of Allah by repeating to oneself His names and attributes. Hence one has to say

or verbalise dhikr in order to do, or translate into action, this noble dhikr.

Quoted from “Sufism and Shari`ah by Muhammad Abdul Haq Ansari (The Islamic Foundation, Leicester, UK, 1986), pp. 232-3. Originally from Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi’s letters, Vol. II:46.

al jabbar al `aziz al muhaymin al mu`min as salam al quddus al malik al rahim al rahman allah

al mutakabbiral khaliqal bari`al musawwiral ghaffaral qahharal wahhabal razzaqal fattahal `alim

al adl al hakam al basir as sami al muzill al mu`izz ar rafi` al khafid al basit al qabid

al latifal khabiral halimal azimal ghafuras shakural `alial kabiral hafizal muqit

al ba`ith al majid al wadud al hakim al wasi` al mujib ar raquib al karim al jalil al hasib

ash shahidak haqqal wakilal qawial matinal walial hamidal muhsial mubdial mu`id

al qadir as samad al ahad al wahid al maajid al wajid al quayyum al hayy akl mumit al muhyi

al muqtadiral muqaddinal mu`akhkhirtal awwalal akhiraz zahiral batinal walial muta`alial barr

al mughni al ghani al jami` malikulmulk ar ra`uf al `afuw al muntaquim at tawwab

al mani`ad darran nafian nural hadial badial baqial warithar rashidas sabur

al muqsit dhuljalalwalikram

al asma ul husna

Dhikr by Word and by Actionby Imam Ahmad Sirhindi

There are many different ways of dhikr, remembrance of Allah, both through obeying Allah’s Laws, and through repeating certain phrases.

“… one has to say or verbalise dhikr in order to do, or translate into action, this noble dhikr”

MP 52 9

This verse in the Qur’an is an invitation for humanity to make a relatively small effort in this world, in return for the eternal reward of the hereafter. It is a call to save ourselves from becoming fixated on our wealth and on providing our children with the latest gadget and games, which ultimately are mere distractions from our remembrance of the creator.

But humans are short-termist; we think primarily of our pleasures now rather than the harmony and serenity of the world to come. Chapter 102 of the Qur’an says that we are distracted by competing in worldly increase, until we finally end up in our graves where we will be questioned about our excesses.

Does this mean that it is wrong to own things? Of course not, as money and offspring can be positive things in the life of a believer, and we do of course have basic needs which need to be met. But we must remember that the pleasures of consumption are quickly gone, while lasting benefit comes only from using our wealth to uphold the rights of others; namely the orphan, the traveller, and the needy. Wealth is thus truly ours only once it has been given away.

Those who are genuinely distracted by worldly increase, and who make it an end in and of itself rather than as a means towards something better are in effect guilty of a form of idolatry. Ours is an age that has made idols of the great banks and finance houses, driven to frenzy by competition amongst billionaires who are kept awake at night by the thought that a rival might make a business deal more quickly than them. A banker who can asset strip companies and

throw its employees out onto the street is someone who is in the grip of an obsession that has thrown him beyond the normal frontiers of humanity.

Neo-classical economics has traditionally focused on four things: land, labour, capital and money, the first three of which are finite, while the fourth, money, is theoretically infinite, and is therefore where human greed has been particularly focussed. Thus arose a system where someone could, with approval, set up a bank with only £1, and then lend £100 using property and other assets promised by others as security.

The lender now has £100 including interest, which they earned by just sitting there and doing nothing. On the basis of this £100, they can then lend £1000, and on and on, until the cancerous growth lubricated by greed becomes so huge that it leads to a fundamental breakdown in the system. Such a system based on usury, with interest as the bizarre “price of money” which itself becomes a commodity, was once prohibited by all faiths. People had a simple and natural intuition that the commoditisation of a measurement of value would open the door to trading in unreal assets, and ultimately to a model of finance that would destroy natural restraints and even, potentially, the planet.

In the classical Islamic system, by contrast, money is the substance of either gold or silver. With a tangible and finite asset being the only

measure of value, there is a great deal more certainty about the value of assets and the price of money. This basic wisdom was though not just a theoretical ideal; it succeeded. Muslim society at its height was mercantile, and it was successful. Never was money assigned its own value and never was it seen as an end in and of itself.

Since the abolition of the gold standard however, theoretical limits on the price of money were removed. Last year’s meltdown, whose final consequences were unguessable, was a sign of the inbuilt dangers of a usurious world. Humans are naturally short-termist but in times of crisis we must take stock. As with the related environmental crisis, now is the time to be smarter and more self-restrained. The believer is in any case allergic to the mad amassing of wealth, since he or she expects true happiness and peace only in the remembering of God and in the next world.

Now is the time to think seriously about finding an economic system to replace the one whose dangers have just been revealed. Upon the conquest of Mecca, a verse of the Qur’an was revealed commanding people to give up what remained of their interest-based transactions, upon which a new system based on the value of gold and silver was initiated.

Those who relied so heavily on the old system would of course

have been unable to understand a system without banking charges, but not only was such a system

created but a successful civilisation was created

using these ideas.Last year we peered into the

abyss; now we must apply self-restraint and wisdom, before complete catastrophe ensues.

al jabbar al `aziz al muhaymin al mu`min as salam al quddus al malik al rahim al rahman allah

al mutakabbiral khaliqal bari`al musawwiral ghaffaral qahharal wahhabal razzaqal fattahal `alim

al adl al hakam al basir as sami al muzill al mu`izz ar rafi` al khafid al basit al qabid

al latifal khabiral halimal azimal ghafuras shakural `alial kabiral hafizal muqit

al ba`ith al majid al wadud al hakim al wasi` al mujib ar raquib al karim al jalil al hasib

ash shahidak haqqal wakilal qawial matinal walial hamidal muhsial mubdial mu`id

al qadir as samad al ahad al wahid al maajid al wajid al quayyum al hayy akl mumit al muhyi

al muqtadiral muqaddinal mu`akhkhirtal awwalal akhiraz zahiral batinal walial muta`alial barr

al mughni al ghani al jami` malikulmulk ar ra`uf al `afuw al muntaquim at tawwab

al mani`ad darran nafian nural hadial badial baqial warithar rashidas sabur

al muqsit dhuljalalwalikram

al asma ul husna

A Warning we Should Heed

The message of Islam is that pursuit of money for its own sake is unnatural, inhumane, and will lead us to catastrophe.

O you who believe! Let not your wealth nor your children distract you from remembrance of Allah. Those who do so, they are the losers. (63:9)

Abdal Hakim Murad

MP 5210

10 Ways to Avoid Marrying the Wrong Person

Do Not Marry ‘a Potential’: Oftentimes men consider marrying a woman hoping she never changes while a woman considers marrying a man she hopes she can change. This is the wrong approach on both accounts. Don’t assume that you can change a person after you’re married to them or that they will reach their potential. There is no guarantee, after all, that those changes will be for the better. In fact, it’s often for the worse. If you can’t accept someone or imagine living with them as they are then don’t marry them. These differences can include a number of things such as ideological or practical differences in religion, habits, hygiene, communication skills, etc.

Choose Character over Chemistry:

While chemistry and attraction are no doubt important, character precedes them both. A famous quote follows, “Chemistry ignites the fire, but character keeps it burning.” The idea of falling “in love” should never be the sole reason for marrying someone; it is very easy to confuse infatuation and lust for love. The most important character traits to look for include humility, kindness, responsibility, & happiness. Here’s a breakdown of each trait:Humility: The humble person never makes demands of people but rather always does right by them. They put their values and principles above convenience and comfort. They are slow to anger, are modest, and avoid materialism. Kindness: The kind person is the quintessential giver. They seek to please and minimise the pain of others. To know if a person is a giver, observe how they treat their family, siblings, and parents. Do they have gratitude towards their parents for all that they’ve done for them? If not, then know that they will never appreciate what you do for them. How do they treat people they don’t have to be kind towards (i.e. waiters, sales associates, employees, etc)? How do they spend their money? How do they deal with anger; their own anger and

by Dr Nasisa Sekandari and Hosai Mojaddidi

There is a right way and a wrong way to get to know someone for marriage. The wrong way is to get caught up in the excitement and nuance of a budding relationship and in the process completely forget to ask the critical questions that help determine compatibility. One of the biggest mistakes that many young Muslims make is rushing into marriage without properly and thoroughly getting to know someone. A common myth is that the duration of a courtship is an accurate enough measure of how compatible two people are. The logic follows that the longer you speak with someone, the better you will know them. The problem with that premise is that no consideration is given to how that time is spent. Increasingly, young Muslim couples are engaging in “halal dating,” which is basically socializing with each other in the company of friends and/or family. This includes going out to dinner, watching a movie, playing some sport or other leisure activity, etc. Depending on the family or culture, conversations are minimal and chaperoned or worse, unrestricted and unsupervised. When you consider these limitations it makes one wonder when exactly, if ever at all, would the critical conversations take place? Unfortunately, for many, the answer is never and they live to suffer the consequences. If you or someone you know is in the “getting to know someone” phase, the following guide offers advice on exactly what to look for and avoid:

1

2

MP 52 11

their reaction to someone else’s anger? Responsibility: A responsible person has stability in their finances, relationships, job, and character. You can you rely on this person and trust what they say. Happiness: A happy person is content with their portion in life. They feel good about themselves and good about their life. They focus on what they have rather than on what they don’t have. They very rarely complain.

Do Not Neglect the Emotional Needs of Your Partner:

Both men and women have emotional needs and in order for a partnership to be successful those needs must be mutually met. The fundamental emotional need of a woman is to be loved. The fundamental emotional need of a man is to be respected and appreciated. To make a woman feel loved give her the three AAAs: Attention, Affection, & Appreciation. To make a man feel loved give him the three RRRs: Respect, Reassurance … . It is the obligation of each partner to make sure the other is happy and this extends to intimacy as well. As long as each partner is fulfilled by the emotional needs of the other, the intimate relationship will thrive. When a husband and wife take seriously each other’s emotional and physical needs each will feel more encouraged to fulfil the others desires and more encouraged to give the affection, love and appreciation. Working together in this way encourages reciprocity.

Avoid Opposing Life Plans: In marriage you can either grow together or grow apart. Sharing a common purpose in life will increase the chance that you will grow together.You must know what the person is into. In other words, what are they ultimately passionate about? Then ask yourself, “Do I respect this passion?” “Do I respect what they are into?” The more specifically you define yourself, i.e., your values, your beliefs, your lifestyle, the better chance you have of finding your

life partner, your soul mate, the one you are most compatible with. Remember, before you decide who to take along on a trip, you should first figure out your destination.

Avoid Pre-Marital Sexual/Physical Activity:

Recognize that there is incredible wisdom in why God has ordered us to refrain from intimacy before marriage; they are to prevent great harms as well as to keep sacred what is the most blessed part of a relationship between a man and a woman. Aside from the obvious spiritual consequences, when a relationship gets physical before its time, important issues like character, life philosophy, and compatibility go to the wayside. Consequently, everything is romanticized and it becomes difficult to even remember the important issues let alone talk about them. Intellectual commitment must be established before emotional or sexual commitment.

Avoid Lack of Emotional Connection:

There are four questions that you must answer YES to:

Do I respect and admire this person? What specifically do I respect and admire about this person? Do I trust this person? Can I rely on them? Do I trust their judgment? Do I trust their word? Can I believe what they say? Do I feel Safe? Do I feel emotionally safe with this person? Can I be vulnerable? Can I be myself? Can I be open? Can I express myself? Do I feel calm and at peace with this person? If the answer is “I don’t know, I’m not sure, etc.” keep evaluating until you know for sure and truly understand how you feel. If you don’t feel safe now, you won’t feel safe when you are married. If you don’t trust now, this won’t change when you are married!

Pay Attention to Your Own Emotional Anxiety:

Choosing someone you don’t feel safe with emotionally is not a good recipe for a long-lasting and loving marriage. Feeling emotionally safe is the foundation of a strong and healthy marriage. When you don’t feel safe, you can’t express your feelings and opinions. Learn how to identify whether you are in an abusive relationship. If you feel you always have to monitor what you say, if you are with someone and you feel you can’t really express yourself and are always walking on eggshells, then it’s very likely you are in an abusive relationship. Look for the following things:Controlling behavior: This includes controlling the way you act, the way you think, the way you dress, the way you wear your hair/hijab and the way you spend your time. Know the difference between suggestions and demands. Demands are an expression of control and if the demands are implied, than you must do it or there will be consequences. All of these are clear indications of abusive personalities. Anger issues: This is someone who raises their voice on a regular basis, who is angry, gets angry at you, uses anger against you, uses put downs, and curses at you, etc. You don’t have to put up with this type of treatment. Many people who tolerate this behavior usually come from abusive backgrounds. If this is the case

3

4

5

6

7

MP 5212

with you or someone you know, get help right away. Deal with those issues before getting married or before even thinking about getting married.

Beware of Lack of Openness In Your Partner:

Many couples make the mistake of not putting everything on the table for discussion from the onset. Ask yourself, “What do I need to know to be absolutely certain I want to marry this person?” “What bothers me about this person or the relationship?” It’s very important to identify what’s bothering you, things that concern you, and things you are afraid to bring up for discussion. Then you must have an honest discussion about them. This is a great way to test the strength of your relationship. Bringing up issues when there’s conflict is a great opportunity to really evaluate how well you communicate, negotiate, and work together as a team. When people get into power struggles and blame each other, it’s an indication they don’t work well as a team. Also important is being vulnerable around each other. Ask deep questions of each other and see how your partner responds. How do they handle it? Are they defensive? Do they attack? Do they withdraw? Do they get annoyed? Do they blame you? Do they ignore it? Do they hide or rationalise it? Don’t just listen to what they say but watch for how they say it!

Beware of Avoiding Personal Responsibility:

It’s very important to remember no one else is responsible for your happiness. Many people make the mistake of thinking someone else will fulfill them and make their life better and that’s their reason for getting married. People fail to realise that if they are unhappy as a single person, they will continue to be miserable when they are married. If you are currently not happy with yourself, don’t like yourself, don’t like the direction your life is going now, it’s important to take responsibility for that now and work on improving those areas of your life before considering marriage. Don’t

bring these issues into your marriage and hope your partner will fix them.

Watch Out For Lack of Emotional Health and Availability in Your Potential Partner:

Many people choose partners that are not emotionally healthy or available. One huge problem is when a partner is unable to balance the emotional ties to family members, the marriage ends up having 3 (or more) people in it rather than two. An example of this would be if a man is overly dependent on his mother and brings that relationship into the marriage; this is no doubt a recipe for disaster. Also important to consider are the following:• Avoid people who are emotionally empty inside. These include people who don’t like themselves because they lack the ability to be emotionally available. They are always preoccupied with their deficiencies, insecurities, and negative thoughts. They are in a perpetual fight with depression, never feel good, are isolated, are critical

and judgmental; tend to not have any close friends, and often distrust people or are afraid of them. Another clear indication about them is they always feel their needs are not getting met; they have a sense of entitlement and feel angry when they feel people should take care of them and they don’t. They feel burdened by other people’s needs and feel resentment towards them. These people cannot be emotionally available to build healthy relationships. • Addictions can also limit the level of availability of the partner to build a strong emotional relationship. Never marry an addict. Addictions are not limited to drugs and alcohol. They can be about addictions and dependency on work, internet, hobbies, sports, shopping, money, power, status, materialism, etc. When someone has an addiction, they will not and cannot be emotionally available to develop an intimate relationship with you!

Additional Points to Consider:The fact is no one looks 25 forever. •Ultimately, we love the person we marry

8

9

10

MP 52 13

for more than their appearance. When we get to know someone we love and admire, we’ll love them for their inner beauty and overall essence. • Once we find someone, we consciously or subconsciously want so badly for it all to work that we decide not to question or see what is clearly in front of our eyes: they were rude to the waiter, speaks ill of others, is rude to you, etc. We don’t stop to ask, “What does all of this mean about their character?” • Never separate someone from their family, background, education, belief system, etc. Asking clear questions can clarify this. Ask questions like, “What does it mean to have a simple lifestyle?” “What are your expectations of marriage?” “How would you help around the house?” Compare your definition with theirs. • Be flexible. Be open-minded! • Giving in a happy marriage should not be confused with martyrdom. It should be about taking pleasure and seeing the other person as happy because of your connection with them. • Morality and spirituality are the qualities that truly define someone in addition to beauty, money, and health. The morally upright and spiritual person will stand by your side during adversity and hardship. If someone isn’t God-conscience and doesn’t take themselves into account with God then why should you expect them to fulfill their rights owed to you? The ideal partner is someone who considers giving a gain and not causing a loss. Having a mutual and shared spiritual relationship will foster a successful marriage. Furthermore, a successful marriage is one that keeps the laws of family purity which require a certain degree of self-control and self-discipline, as well as the belief that the physical side of the relationship includes the spiritual and emotional side as well. Finding commonality and balance between the spiritual and emotional aspects of a relationship is a strong key to a healthy and thriving marriage.

The above article was [in part] inspired by and adapted from a presentation by Rabbi Dov Heller, M.A

There are four questions that you must answer YES to:

Do I respect and admire this person?

Do I trust this person? Do I feel Safe?

Do I feel calm and at peace with this person?

MP 5214

Asalamulaikum I am still reeling from the most amazing Islamic experience I have had ever. I went along to just the Friday of living Islam, a dear friend had encouraged me to go, then things just happened to make it possible for me to attend. I work with Read Foundation and was invited down there to meet with them. Also BBC asked if I would take part in an interview. So off I went. Where do I start? Well I guess the first impression was the tranquillity, the peace, the cleanliness of the site.

Then came the smiling faces, the Salamulaikum’s that was said to me by strangers, the amount of people that approached me and said ‘you’re on Face Book’ – fame through Face Book – well I never…! I listened to the most amazing talk about how we wash and care for our deceased, it was beautiful. Then the presenter said remember the revert and it hit home – ‘Yes! This is what it’s about. Caring for each other, becoming a family.’ I had tears on my cheeks. Then Jumah. Oh how beautiful mashaAllah the Khutbah was and just what I needed to hear. The smell of the fresh earth and the feeling of the air as you pray, subhanAllah. I laughed, I chatted, I smiled, I fell in love all over again with the religion I am new to. No segregation – everyone together, one ummah, one family – just as it is meant to be. Every one conducting themselves with the perfect Islamic manners. Then as the day moved on I listened to the most beautiful of story tellers and a talented young man showing his football skills, such a contrast and something for everyone. I had a brief chat with Zain Bhika and Hassan Rasul.

Then as the dusk came the Adhaan filled the evening air, people started to wander over to the field for prayer, again with tears on my cheeks I joined them, Maghrib the beautiful end of the day. Then Isha under the stars it truly does not become more romantic than that. After Isha prayer we were welcomed to join the fireworks - wow amazing absolutely amazing. I stood alone, reflecting as I watched the night sky shimmer with tiny stars, I watched the delight on children’s faces and I gave praise and thanks to Allah for opening my heart and welcoming me into Islam. I then joined my friends for supper in a marquee. Tired children on parent’s laps and excited chatter about the following day’s events surrounded us. I bid my friends goodnight and as I walked through the darkened camp grounds I could see the orange glow of the camp fire through the trees and the hush and gentleness as dhikr began. I stood for a few minutes and listened

knowing that no matter how lonely life may be at times and as a revert I am blessed to belong to this family. Jazakallah kahir to the organisers and I look forward Inshallah to the next time.

LIVING ISLAM FESTIVAL 2011Liz from Bradford describes her experiences

NEW MUSLIMS PROJECTSo many friends, acquaintances, new and interested people in the services provided by the NMP visited the NMP stand in the large bazar marquee at the Living Islam Festival. We would like to share with you a photographic memory of that weekend and the warm and smiling faces of all those who came along to say hello and extend their greetings of peace.Cheers

Batool

MP 52 15

MP 5216

My brother Reynold introduced me to the music of Gil Scott-Heron. Little did I realise how it, and more importantly Gil, would go on to shape my life.

I was 18, had just come out of a childhood in care, was traumatised, illiterate and had no prospects. Reynold, who was older, showed me an album called Moving Target, which had a picture of Gil running through the streets of Washington seen through the telescopic lens of a gun. Reynold was politicised and well-read – unlike me. I didn’t take life too seriously, partly because I couldn’t face up to what had happened to me. He made me sit down and listen to the song Washington DC and the lyrics summed up so much of my life: “The symbols of democracy pinned up against the coast, the outhouse of bureaucracy surrounded by a moat. Citizens of poverty are barely out of sight - The overlords escape in the evenings, brothers on the night.”

Gil was talking about the White House surrounded by the urban ghettos, the bits the tourists don’t see – the reality of the city’s ghetto life. My brother explained what the song meant. He drew a parallel between what Gil was talking about in Washington

DC and what we, as black people, were facing in Toxteth, Liverpool, in the run up to the riots of 1981.

Reynold was trying to wake me up to consciousness. I had already got in with the wrong crowd, and he was concerned that if I didn’t dissociate myself from them it would only be a matter of time before I was incarcerated again – and this time not in a care home.

Why had I been put in care in the first place? My name back then was Mark Trevor Watson, and when I was eight years old my father had a stroke. Dad was black from Guyana, my mum white Welsh. All the family (there were four kids, and mum and dad) were the butt of racist abuse. Dad, a former merchant seaman, was a real worker. Nothing could stop him. He even volunteered to work on Christmas Day 1974 for the Netherley Property Guards, who patrolled the warehouses on the Liverpool docks. It was a horribly cold winter. He left the house at 5am to wait for the bus to take him to work. It never came. Dad waited till 10am and eventually trudged home defeated. That was the only time I saw this big strong seaman cry. He didn’t open his Christmas presents, he just went straight to

bed. He had a stroke in his sleep and when he woke up he was a quadriplegic, paralysed from the neck down. He stayed like that for the rest of his life, in and out of the geriatric ward until he died four years later.

Mum, who worked in the Meccano factory, continued to struggle with the four of us. But she couldn’t really cope. I was a handful – dyslexic and dyspraxic, but undiagnosed. I hated school. We were virtually the only black kids there, and the pupils used to be brought into school assembly to the sound of the headmaster’s favourite recording – Black Sambo: “Black Sambo, black Sambo, living in the jungle alone, except for Big black Mumbo and Big black Jumbo.” No one considered it a problem. After that everyone would turn to me and my sisters and call us black sambo. There were fights, and everyone called us troublemakers. At nine I was expelled from that school, which resulted in me being taken into local authority care in 1975.

I was “sentenced” to nine years under a care order having committed no crime. They didn’t see it like that, of course. They labelled me maladjusted and told all of us that we were menaces to society; that society needed protecting from us. On the night they took me into care, they put me in an admission unit where they locked me in a room with bars on the window for 14 days and 14 nights. This practice later came to be outlawed following the infamous pin-down scandal in Staffordshire, but in the 70s it was common. It was the most traumatic experience of my life, for which I would later seek justice in the courts.

Just before Christmas 1975 I was taken to a place called Woolton Vale assessment centre, otherwise known as Menlove. It was a large, Victorian prison with bars on every window, locks on every door and an isolation cell inside. It had previously operated as a remand home for prisoners. In 1974 it

Gil Scott-Heron saved my life’A modern day convert’s tale - Abdul Malik Al Nasir

‘After a traumatic childhood Abdul Malik Al Nasir seemed to be heading for jail or an early death. Then, at the age of 18, he met the famous poet and musician – with remarkable consequences

Malik with Gil Scott-Heron on tour in 2009

“I was a handful – dyslexic and dyspraxic, but undiagnosed. I hated school.”

MP 52 17

had been converted to an assessment centre for kids, but still operated illegally under the old rules. Confinement might not have been permitted, but it didn’t stop them. Meanwhile, the local remand centre, Risley, was full, so Menlove became an overspill for prisoners. This meant they were mixing children from broken homes with hardened criminals – and locking them up. Another matter over which I would later sue.

From there I was moved to several different community homes where I suffered varying degrees of physical and racial abuse over the years until I was 18 and my care order ceased. I was visited by my social worker who gave me £100, made me sign a form to say I would never come back for more money, and within a few months I was living in a hostel for homeless black youths.

That was when Gil changed my life. He was playing at Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre, and the gig was sold out. It was 1985, Gil had a record in the charts, and was at the peak of his fame. A friend of mine, the late photographer Penny Potter, got me in – she had a backstage pass and told his team that I was her assistant. I watched the show and was mesmerised. It was hard to describe what he did exactly – he rapped, he played jazz, he was a poet, he educated – he was just singing a song, but it was as if he was part of a collective soul that existed in the room.

After the show I went backstage with Penny. Gil was standing there with a bunch of people around him – photographers snapping away, reporters stuffing mics under his nose, promoters with bags of money, and the band members trying to get paid. Everybody seemed to want something from him. I shook his hand, thanked him for the performance and turned round to leave. He said: “Hold on a minute brother, what’s going on round here? I heard you had some riots”. I told him about Toxteth and how the black communities had rioted across the country in the long hot summer of 1981. He said: “Yeah we had some of them back in DC”. He wanted to know about the people of Toxteth so I offered to take him to the scenes of the riots. The next day we toured the area and I gave him a running commentary of what had happened in each

place, all the places that had been burned down and what had happened as a result.

Now if there’s one thing they taught us in care it was how to cook, and I offered to feed Gil and the band. The trouble was I didn’t have a place to live. So I asked my friend Dobbo if I could borrow his flat, cashed my giro cheque, and spent my two weeks’ money on food. Gil bought his whole 17-strong entourage back to the flat and I fed them all. Entrees, starters, mango juice, the works. He tried to pay me £100, which was a lot of money then. I wouldn’t accept it; he tried again and I refused again. When he realised there was no point in trying to pay me, he said to his promoter: “We’ll be back in England in a few weeks. Give the brother the details of the hotel where we’ll be.” Then he said: “I’d like for you to join us on the tour.” To do what, I asked? “Whatever you wanna do, carry some drums, whatever you want,” was his response. And that’s what I did.

Gil took it on himself to spend whatever time he could in the evening mentoring me, giving me encouragement and trying to foster in me a sense of self-worth. I had been indoctrinated by the care system to believe that I was maladjusted and useless from the age of nine, but Gil refused to accept it. He saw something in me that I did not see in myself – my potential.

I had told Gil everything about my life. Except for one thing – I could hardly read. I was just so ashamed. It was 1988 and I’d been on the road with him for four years. This time we were touring America with Richie Havens and Gil passed me a book and asked me to read a page back to him. I felt like my heart was going to stop. I’d always had the attitude that if Gil asked me to do anything I’d do it, and for the first time he’d asked me to do something I couldn’t do. I’d always made myself useful by doing anything, from the band’s laundry to flogging Gil’s books at gigs, to helping the roadies, to navigating for the driver. I was always conscious of not trying to be a burden because I was aware he was paying

for my flights and hotel rooms, and when he asked me to read and I couldn’t I felt cold, and fumbled and fumbled, to the point when he said “What’s the problem? Are you not fluent in reading?” That was the first time I ever knew a person could be fluent at reading. Being a child of the streets, fluency was something I’d always associated with talking; talking was my survival mechanism. Gil made me take stock of the fact that illiteracy was something not to be ashamed of, but something to address. I told him I’d never been taught – that was the first

time I’d admitted it even to myself. In the care system education or literacy weren’t encouraged, and most people came out of it like me.

Not many people know that Gil was a teacher – he had a Masters degree in English from Lincoln University. Despite not having a first degree he was accepted on to the Masters programme on the strength of two books he had written as a teen; The Vulture, a murder mystery, and The Nigger Factory, which was about life on black college campuses. I’d been running with the wrong crowd and he took it as a personal challenge to turn me around; to take me away from a life of hustling and make me productive. If I’d ended up like most of my peers in care I’d be dead or in jail by now. Gil’s intervention saved my life.

He used to introduce me to people as his son, despite the fact that he has his own children. It was so touching. At the age of 12 I lost my father, and when I met Gil at 18 he took on that role and took it on seriously.

Back then, I had so many problems; my mind was like a spaghetti junction. There were so many narratives going on in my head that I couldn’t unravel them, and Gil would listen to them all. At the end he’d invariably say one or two sentences that would sum up what it had taken me so long to say, and also direct me to what I should do about it.

“He saw something in me that I did not see in myself – my potential.”

MP 5218

In 1987 we were on tour and Gil suggested it was time for me to get a job. For two years I went to sea, working as a steward on a ferry, then on oil tankers, scrubbing decks, cleaning toilets, serving food. Every night from 6pm to midnight I taught myself to read and write. I started experimenting with language by writing poetry and songs. When I got to port I’d write to Gil, and enclose poems or songs for his appraisal. In between stints at sea, I would go on tour with Gil and he would appraise my work. By 1990, at the end of a period at sea, I had a considerable body of work; poetry, prose and songs. But I just put them in a box in a cupboard in my mum’s house and left them for years. Gil then encouraged me to go to college and university and educate myself. The problem was, I didn’t have any qualifications. So in 1990 I took a job with Littlewoods on a positive-action training scheme where they took on four black kids a year and trained them in management, and through that they sponsored me to go to college to study business and finance. I got a degree in sociology and geography, which seemed appropriate for a seaman with my background, followed by a postgraduate diploma in social research and a Masters degree in media production.

I continued to tour with Gil when I could. He was so proud of me. My degree was the culmination of everything he had invested in me and I’d invested in myself. What Gil gave me was a reason to live. At the age of 18 I couldn’t see anything to live for.

In 1992 I met the Last Poets, a band that had been Gil’s mentors and who are often credited as being the first rappers. Gil’s famous song The Revolution Will Not Be Televised was inspired by the Last Poets’ Niggers Are Scared of Revolution. There was a yearning in my soul for spirituality. I had lots of questions about religion, but Gil was more spiritual than religious. Jalal and Suliman from the Last Poets spoke to me about Islam, it struck a cord and in 1992 I became a Muslim and changed my name from Mark Trevor Watson to Abdul Malik Al Nasir and started managing The Last Poets’ leader Jalal. I later started my own record company and worked with the likes of Public Enemy, Run DMC, Wyclef Jean, Sly Dunbar, the Wailers and Steel Pulse.

Over the years things took a toll on Gil. For many years he had preached against the evil of drugs, but he became an abuser himself, and in 2001 he was sent to jail in New York State for possession of cocaine. When he got into trouble, it reminded me how much he’d helped me. So I flew to New York and visited him in jail – he’d been pumping iron, eating three square meals a day, which he rarely got when we were on the road, and looked more relaxed and fit than I’d seen him in years. I went through all the security checks, and they told me to take a seat in the visiting room while they got the prisoner. He didn’t know who was coming, and when he saw me he had a huge smile on his face. The guard called him over and said: “Ah, the famous Gil Scot Heron . . . tuck your shirt in.” It was just an attempt to humiliate him. I bit my tongue.

By 2004, I had received substantial compensation for what I suffered in care. I dug out my old poems from that box in my mother’s house, and showed them to my wife Sarah. She said I should do something with them, so I set up my own publishing company, Fore-Word Press, and published my first book, Ordinary Guy, in my original name Mark T Watson. Gil was elated when I sent him a copy. Not simply because it was dedicated to him but also because he knew without his mentoring, I wouldn’t have been able to read or write.

In 2008, I was producing an album at Wyclef Jean’s studio in New York and there was a huge commemoration concert at Radio City Music Hall for Martin Luther King Day. Wyclef was performing, and he introduced me to Stevie Wonder. Now Stevie and Gil had been integral in fighting for a national holiday to celebrate Martin Luther King, and I told him about my relationship with Gil. “Is Gil out of prison?” he asked. Yes, I said. “Well, bring him here now.” So I phoned Gil, and brought him to the show. When we arrived at Stevie’s dressing room and I announced Gil to Stevie, Stevie Wonder stood up, and said: ‘Gil Scott Heron y’all’, and the whole dressing room burst into rapturous applause.

Last year Gil made a comeback album, I’m New Here, which got great reviews. I joined him on what would be his final tour of Europe.

It’s three weeks since Gil died, and I’m still in shock. I’m 45, married with five children, and Gil has been the most important person to me throughout my adult life. His funeral in Harlem was a sombre affair. What touched me most was all the love in the room. After the band played a beautiful tribute and Gil’s ex-wife Brenda delivered a eulogy, the rapper Kanye West took to the pulpit and sang Lost in the World, a song that contains a sample from Gil’s poem Comment #1. It was a beautiful tribute.

After the service, I told Kanye my story and asked if he would take part in a tribute concert for Gil in Liverpool, the place where we met all those years ago and he took me under his wing. This is my way of saying: “Thank you Gil. You saved my life.”

Mark has been a dish washer, a toilet cleaner, a milkman, a labourer, a potato bagger, a salesman, a merchant seaman, an advertising manager, a marketing co-ordinator, a tour manager, a roadie, a sales and marketing manager, a researcher, a research project manager, a business advisor, the director of Merseyside Refugee Support Network, a director of Hornby Housing, a director of a housing CO-OP, an author and a publisher. He holds a BA Hons. in Geography & Sociology, a Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Social Research and is an Associate of The Institute of Business Advisors.

As told to Simon Hattenstoneguardian.co.uk, Sunday 19 June 2011

Malik Al Nasir reading for an

MSc. in Applied Social Research

at Liverpool Hope University (2002).

“My degree was the culmination of everything he had invested in me

and I’d invested in myself.”

MP 52 19

These verses, in Arabic ayahs, are the opening verses of Surat at-Tin (the Chapter in the Qur’an known as ‘The Figs’), a Makkan Surah and one of the shortest in the Noble Qur’an; it has only eight ayahs after the Basmallah, the Arabic term for ‘In the name of Allah2, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful.’

The theme of the Surah deals with two main issues. Firstly, that Allah has honoured man; he has created him in the best of forms and with an instinct to act righteously. He has honoured him with his lineage, which goes back to Adam; Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) informed us that Adam was created from dust. Man was honoured with the truth of belief in Allah as his Lord, in Islam as His religion, and in the Prophethood and the divine message as being the method of spreading knowledge of Him. This religion, Islam, brought with it clear answers to the questions that confuse people throughout their lives, irrespective of their status or position. Some of these answers concern beliefs, worship, manners and behaviour, constituting the core of religion. Man cannot establish any true rules for himself concerning these issues, since they either concern transcendental matters such as faith and divine orders related to worship or because they are rules concerning his behaviour, such as ethical matters. Man has never been able to establish rules for his conduct based on his own ideas and abilities, all of which makes religion a necessary part of man’s life on Earth.

Tenets of faith in Surat At-Tin: 1. Allah (SWT) has created man in the best form. Those who believe and do

good deeds will be honoured by Allah; in this life, they will be honoured with His blessings, care, generosity and mercy. In the hereafter, Allah will make them enter Paradise and give them their due reward. 2. Islam is the religion Allah revealed gradually to his apostles and sealed with the Prophet Muhammad, preserving it in the language of its revelation (Arabic). 3. True faith is exemplified by good deeds.

Signs of creation in Surat At-Tin: 1. Allah swore by both the figs and the olives owing to them being complete foods of high nutritional value for human beings. He also mentioned the sanctity of their native lands. 2. Allah swore by the Noble Mountain, Tur, in Sinai where He spoke to His Messenger and servant, Moses. 3. Allah swore by the City of Security, Makkah, in which the first sanctuary for mankind was built. Modern science has proved that Makkah is the most unique place on earth. 4. Allah refers to man as having been created in the best of statures. 5. Allah warns people that they could be reduced to be the lowest of the low in this life and the hereafter. Allah makes man the most honourable of all creation when he is a good believer and the most hateful when he is bad or a disbeliever. Behavioural science recognizes such depravation in many people nowadays.

Each of the issues mentioned above require separate research. I shall limit my essay to a discussion of the first three ayahs of this Surah.

Scientific implications in the first three ayahs of Surat At-Tin: Allah swearing an oath by the figs

In swearing an oath by the figs, Allah (who knows best) seems to be drawing our attention to the miraculous creation of such fruit and its high nutritional value.

Parts of the fig’s creation wonders The fig is a complex accessory fruit

that is actually an inside-out flower cluster called a synconium, formed as a result of the growth of synconia in the shape of a cone. Tiny female flowers (pistil) line the inner surface of the synconia while male flowers (stamens) spread out around the outer layer which is narrow at the top. The female flowers usually mature before the male ones. Allah Has assigned the fig wasp (blastophaga) to help pollinate the fig flowers. The relationship is symbiotic; fig flowers provide a warm safe place for blastophaga larvae to stay and feed in until they become adults. As the adult wasps make their way out of the flower, their bodies come into contact with the male flowers, pollen sticks to the body of the insects that then carry the pollen to the female flowers, pollinating them and allowing fertilization to begin. Three generations of flowers are found in the fig tree. The first generation contains the male and insect-hosting flowers. The second generation of flowers are female ones pollinated by the insects coming out of the first generation flowers. These insects fertilize the flowers producing the main harvest of the fig tree. The third generation flowers contain insect-hosting flowers where the insects spend the winter.

A Qur’an Study in Botany

“By the figs, by the olives, by Mount Sinai, and by this City of Security” (Quran, The Figs: 1-3) 1

MP 5220

Who else but Allah could set up such an accurate reproductive system for the fig tree? Who else but Allah could teach the fig wasp that its home is in the flower of fig tree to assist fertilization as it moves from one flower to another? The relationship between this insect and the fig flower is one of the most amazing examples of symbiosis between plants and insects.

The benefits of figs Figs are rich in carbohydrates which form

53% of their overall mass. Monosaccharide and carbohydrate compounds make up the majority of carbohydrates present along with a small amount of proteins (approximately 3.6%) and smaller amounts of potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, copper, zinc, sulphur, sodium and chorine. Figs also contain many vitamins, enzymes, acids, antiseptic agents, high fibre content (18.5%) and a high percentage of water. Among the special enzymes found in the fig is an enzyme called ficin which has been found to play an important role in digestion.

Japanese scientists have discovered an aromatic aldehyde compound, benzaldehyde (C6H5CHO) in figs. This chemical compound was extracted from figs and has proved to be effective in fighting carcinogens. Carbohydrates compounds known as the soralins have also been discovered in figs; these compounds play an important role in fortifying blood against a number of disease-causing viruses and parasites, such as hepatitis C. This carbohydrate group is found in large amounts in figs; in its syrup, juices and jams.

Figs have also proved to be beneficial for breastfeeding mothers, in treating haemorrhoids, chronic constipation, gout, chest diseases, menstrual disorders, epilepsy, mouth ulcers, gingivitis, tonsillitis, pharyngitis, leucoderma, removing warts, healing injuries, and different kinds of ulcers. Thus, Abu Darda’ narrated that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, “If I were to tell you of a fruit that has been sent from paradise, it would be the fig. Fruits of paradise are without pits. Eat the fig as it is a cure for haemorrhoids and gout”. Swearing an oath by the olives:

Olives and olive oil are mentioned in the Qur’an seven times; one of these occasions

is where Allah swears by the fig and the olive at the beginning of Surat At-Tin. The olive tree is a blessed tree and so is its fruit. It is a perennial tree which can live for more than a thousand years. It is considered an important source of oil. Olive oil is one of the healthiest oils; it contains very small amounts of fatty acid and does not increase the amount of harmful fats in the blood as other kinds of oil do. This is because the fats in olive oil are all unsaturated and do not cause atherosclerosis, hypertension or any other diseases. Olive oil is a yellow transparent fluid rich with oleic acids, used in cooking or added to salads. It plays an important role in deoxidizing the cholesterol secreted by the body. This is because it contains vitamin E as well as other chemical compounds known as polyphenolic compounds which prevent the oil from autoxidizing; protecting the body from the dangers of harmful lipid peroxides.

Regular consumption of olive oil decreases the overall amount of cholesterol in the blood and its other harmful kinds in particular. More particularly, it reduces the possibility of heart diseases and cancer. Aside from its use in cooking, olive oil is an ingredient of many medicines, ointments, hair oils, soap, and it is also used in oil lamps because of the clear flames it produces.

Curing olives preserves them for use in food. The oil content of an olive is approximately 67-84% of its mass. Olive oil is made up of important chemical compounds, including glycerol compounds and fatty acids known as glycerides. Fatty acids make up a high percentage of the oil’s mass; oleic acid constitutes the largest percentage of the fatty acids in olives and olive oil, along with small amounts of palmatic acid, linolic acid, stearic acid, and mystric acid. Moreover, olives and olive oil contain a moderate amount of proteins and smaller amounts of potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, copper, sulfur and fibre. These elements are needed to produce about a thousand chemical compounds that are essential and useful for the wellbeing of the human body. For these reasons and for others unknown to us about olives, Omar Ibn Al-Khattab reported that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh)

said, “ e a t olives and use its ointment for it comes from a blessed tree”. Muadh Ibn Jabal reported that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, “The best miswak3 is that of the olive tree as it is a blessed tree. It is my miswak and that used by Prophets before me”.

Allah swears by the olive and mentions it seven times in the Qur’an. Olive and olive oil are rich in fats and proteins and low in carbohydrates (sugar and starches) whereas the fig is rich in sugar and starchy compounds, and low in fats and proteins. Therefore, figs and olives fulfil the human body’s need for nutritional substances. The oath sworn on them at the beginning of the Surat is a scientific miracle revealed in the Qur’an 1400 years ago.

Swearing an oath by Mount Sinai This is Mount Tur in Sinai, or the Mountain

of Moses where the Torah was revealed to Moses. It is mentioned in 12 ayahs in the Qur’an (Surat Al-Baqara: ayahs 63, 93, An-Nisa’: 154, Al-A’raaf: 143, 171, Maryam: 52, Ta Ha: 80, Al-Mu’minun: 20, Al-Qasas: 29, 46, At-Tur: 1 and At-Tin: 2). One Surah (chapter) even bears its name (Surat At-Tur). It is, of course, a blessed place worthy of having an oath sworn by it.

Swearing by the City of Security The City of Security is the Noble city of

Makkah where the first place of worship for mankind was built. The Messenger of Allah said, “The Ka’ba was a small hill over water, then the earth formed under it”, meaning that the earth under the Ka’ba is the first piece of land to have appeared on the surface of the huge ocean that covered Earth in the beginning. Then land started to spread around this blessed place to form a continent called the “mother continent” (Pangaea).

Pangaea was then divided, forming the seven continents. These continents were

MP 52 21

much closer to each other than they are now. Later, they started drifting away from each other or colliding with each other until they settled in their current locations. Scientifically, it has been proved that Makkah is and was the centre of land throughout all phases of Earth’s development. In other words, if one draws a circle with Makkah at the centre, the circle would completely surround the solid land on earth. Allah says in the Qur’an what can be translated as, “The first house (of worship) appointed for men was that at Bakka: full of blessing and of guidance for all kinds of beings” (Qur’an, 96 Al-Imran).

These ayahs that compare the earth (in its smallness) with the heavens (with its large dimensions) point to the earth being the centre of the universe as does the ayah which talks about the separation and the unification of the earth and the heavens. If the earth was the centre of the universe and the Ka’ba was the centre of the land on the primary earth, then below it are six layers of earth, above it seven skies, making the Noble Ka’ba the centre of the centre of the universe. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, “The shrine of Makkah, is a midpoint shrine; it is centralised between seven layers of earth and seven layers of skies”.

He further emphasises this fact by saying, ”O people of Quraysh, O people of Makkah, you all stand parallel to the centre of heaven!” Also, the Messenger of Allah once asked his honourable companions, “Do you know what the Bait al-Ma’mur is?” They replied, “Allah

and His Messenger know best”. He said, “It is a house in the seventh heaven exactly above the K’aba, if it fell, it would fall right over it. Seventy thousand angels enter into it every day; when the last of them come out they do not return there again”.

All these miracles make Makkah the place that Muslims turn to five times daily in prayers and their place of pilgrimage in which one prayer is equivalent to one thousand prayers elsewhere. It was also the hometown of many Prophets. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, “When their nations perished, Prophets used to migrate to Makkah, stay there with their followers, and worship Allah until they died. Noah, Hud, Salah, and Shu’aib all died in Makkah and were buried between Zam zam well and the black stone”. Prophet Isma’il and his mother Hagar were both buried at Hajr Ismail, a place in Makkah. Allah also chose Makkah to be the birth place of His last Messenger. He swore by the city in Surat At-Tin and Surat Al-Balad (The City) which He named after Makkah. Allah gave Makkah the epithet of ‘the mother of all cities,’ Ummul Qura, as it was the place where land first appeared and is subsequently the mother of all the earth. Makkah is thus worthy of having an oath sworn by it and of being called the ‘City of Security’ in Surat At-Tin, and was worthy of having a Surat named after it, Al-Balad.

These scientific facts about the fig and the olive, about Makkah, the city of security and the historical and religious facts concerning the meeting between Allah and

his servant, Moses, on Mount Tur, were all facts unknown to the inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula and to all mankind at the time of their revelation 1400 years ago and for many centuries after. The oath by the fig and the olive could never be one taken by man; it is the word of Allah and the proof of the Prophethood of His last Messenger, Muhammad (pbuh). It proves that the Messenger of Allah received the inspiration from Gabriel and was taught by the Creator of the heavens and earth, Allah.

1. Translation of the Meaning of the Qur’an.

This translation is for the realised meaning, so

far, of the stated (Surah:Ayah) of the Qur’an.

Reading the translated meaning of the Qur’an

can never replace reading it in Arabic, the

language in which it was revealed.

2. The word Allah is the Arabic term for God.

Although the use of the word “Allah” is most

often associated with Islam, it is not used

exclusively by Muslims; Arab Christians and

Arabic-speaking Jews also use it to refer to

the One God. The Arabic word expresses the

unique characteristics of the One God more

precisely than the English term. Whereas the

word “Allah” has no plural form in Arabic,

the English form does, and the word ‘Allah’

in Arabic has no connotation of gender. Allah

is the God worshipped by all Prophets, from

Adam to Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and

Muhammad.

3. A twig of certain trees, used on a regular

basis by Muslims for centuries to maintain oral

hygiene.

An amazing tale about fig waspsFigs are pretty amazing. They have many thousands of flowers but chances are you’ve never seen them. They’re hidden away inside the fig fruit and are pollinated by tiny fig wasps. Most of the 750 species of fig have their very own species of fig wasp which in turn is completely dependent on that fig species for food and shelter. It’s where they will grow up, meet their partner and die.

It all starts when a female wasp finds an unripe fig. She crawls through a tiny hole in the fig (opposite the stem end, you can see the mark on fresh figs), to

get to the flowers in the centre of the fig. It’s a tight squeeze and she usually has her wings and antennae ripped off in the process.

When she gets through she lays her eggs and pollinates the flowers before she dies – fruit that isn’t pollinated won’t mature and her young will die. The fig detects the eggs’ presence and makes a nutritious gall around them. When they hatch the wasp larvae live inside the gall, being fed by the fig tree. Then, once they’re mature, the wasps emerge from their galls into the central cavity of the fig. It’s here that they mate. The males then work together to chew a tunnel

through the fig wall. After this is complete, they die.

The females collect some pollen from the fig flowers inside the fig and then use the tunnel made by the males to leave and set off in search of another fig in which to lay their eggs. And then it happens all over again ...

Amazing?PS this shouldn’t put you off eating figs - most cultivated forms are self fertilizing so no wasps get involved. More’s the pity.

by Jan

MP 5222

However, one name, Lady Evelyn Cobbold (1867 - 1963) failed inexplicably to achieve a proper recognition. William Facey finally does justice to this remarkable woman, the first British Muslim woman on record to have visited the Holy Cities of Madinah and Makkah and to have written about her pilgrimage.

In the excellent introduction, co-written with Miranda Taylor, Facey highlights for the first time the family link between Lady Evelyn and her great-aunt, the formidable Jane Digby (1807-1881) who was successively Lady Ellenborough, Baroness Venningen, and Countess Theotoky before she married her fourth and last husband, a Syrian Bedouin, Sheikh Abdul Medjuel El Mezrab. With him, she lived happily for 30 years until she died at the age of 74.

Both women shared a love of the Arab world. Jane Digby swiftly adopted the Arab way of life, smoking the narghile, wearing

traditional clothes and outlining her blue eyes with kohl. Unlike Lady Evelyn, the highly unconventional Jane Digby, who was equally at ease speaking nine languages and milking camels, never wrote a book and never intended to convert to Islam. Lesley Blanch, who wrote her biography in “The Wilder Shores of Love,” tells us that her husband’s “deep inbred piety awoke her own dormant religious principles” and “she came to redouble her now active participation in church affairs.”

For Lady Evelyn, things were completely different. In fact, she didn’t even remember the exact time when she decided to become a Muslim. “It seems that I have always been a Muslim. This is not so strange when one remembers that Islam is the natural religion that a child left to itself would develop,” she said.

Lady Evelyn spent most of her childhood in a Moorish villa perched on a hill outside

Algiers. She learned to speak Arabic, and her favourite pastime was to escape her governess and visit the mosques with her Algerian friends.

A few years later, while staying in Rome, she had the opportunity to visit the Pope. She recounts in the introduction of “Pilgrimage to Mecca” that “when His Holiness suddenly addressed me, asking if I was a Catholic, I was taken aback for a moment and then replied that I was a Muslim… A match was lit and I then and there determined to read up and study the faith. The more I read and the more I studied, the more convinced I became that Islam was the most practical religion… Since then I have never wavered in my belief that there is but one God.”

Indeed, this belief in the Oneness of God never left her. And like many Westerners, Lady Evelyn was deeply touched by Islamic spirituality, the inner side of faith. Two years before her marriage to John Cobbold in Cairo, she wrote a poem in which she evoked the fundamental principle of Tawhid (belief in one God) in a prayer, “To Him, the One. The Essence of all” and “His Presence within and around.”

I was particularly moved by the passage about her funeral. Lady Evelyn spent the last twenty years of her life quasi-secluded on her estate at Glen Carron, and then in a

Pilgrimage to MeccaThe first British Muslim woman on record to have visited the Holy Cities of Madinah and Makkah

By Lisa Kaaki, lisa.kaaki@arabnews.com

At her Glen Carron estate in northwest Scotland, Lady Evelyn was known as a superior deerstalker and hunter.

During the 19th century, many women, particularly Englishwomen, were fascinated by the Arab world. Most of these female travellers, like Lucie Duff Gordon, Lady Ann Blunt, Gertrude Bell, Isabelle Eberhardt and Freya Stark, to name but a few, are known to us through their impassioned travelogues.

MP 52 23

nursing home in Inverness. Yet it is obvious that, despite the fact she had lost touch with other Muslims, she must have insisted on many occasions that her written instructions for her Muslim funeral be followed.

Sheikh Muhammad Tufail, the imam of the Woking Mosque, was dispatched to Glen Carron, in Scotland, to perform the funeral prayer on Monday Jan. 28, 1963. When he arrived, he discovered Lady Evelyn’s wishes. She had clearly instructed that a specific verse from the Surah Al Nur (light), “Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth,” be inscribed on a flat slab and placed on her grave.

This verse reminds me of a beautiful passage she wrote, about the same surah, in “Pilgrimage to Mecca:” “I read entranced, it is impossible to give a translation that can convey the poetry, the subtle meaning that floods the soul when read in the original. To me the simple grandeur of the diction, the variety of the imageries, the splendour of the word painting differentiates the Qur’an from all other scriptures…”

Lady Evelyn was able to see and describe the way women lived in Madinah and Makkah, something no writer had ever done before her. Facey also remarks that, “as an eminent and distinguished personage in her own right, she had equal access to the male side of life, being regarded like Gertrude

Bell or Freya Stark (or indeed Margaret Thatcher in our own day), as a kind of honorary man.”

Lady Evelyn Cobbold was also known as Sayyidah Zainab, her Muslim name, and wrote an honest and sincere account of her pilgrimage to Makkah. She was excited to be the first British woman on record to have made her pilgrimage, but that gave way to a deeper emotion as she prayed in the Haram

(the Holy Mosque) in Makkah.One cannot fail to be touched by the way

she expresses her feelings in those sublime moments: “It would require a master pen to describe that scene, poignant in its intensity of that great concourse of humanity of which I was one small unit, completely lost to their surroundings in fervour of religious enthusiasm. Many of the pilgrims had tears streaming down their cheeks; others raised their faces to the starlit sky that had witnessed this drama so often in the past centuries. The shining eyes, the passionate appeals, the pitiful hands outstretched in prayer m o v e d me in a way that nothing had ever done before, and I felt caught up in a strong wave of spiritual exaltation. I was one with the rest of the pilgrims in a sublime act of complete surrender to the Supreme Will, which is Islam.”

Very little has been written about the history of Islam and British Muslims in the United Kingdom, and this book makes a valuable contribution to a

little known subject. One often overlooks the fact that becoming a Muslim in Europe is still not easy. Islam dictates a way of life whose social norms and legislations are resented by secular regimes. A citizen has the right to choose his faith, but is not given the means to follow it. Converting to Islam is also socially alienating, especially for practicing Muslims whose refusal to drink alcohol is too often seen as a rejection of the most basic expression of Christianity and, by extension, Western conviviality.

Even if Lady Evelyn was not a practicing Muslim in Britain, her conversion to Islam did not go well with her in-laws and worsened after the death of her husband. However, she hung onto her faith until the very end. “When I look into my journal I shall live it all again. Time cannot rob me of the memories that I treasure in my heart… the countless pilgrims who passed me with shining eyes of faith, the wonder and glory of the Haram of Makkah, the great pilgrimage through the desert and the hills to Arafaat, and above all the abiding sense of joy and fulfilment that possesses the soul.”

I cannot but imagine Lady Evelyn reliving the exalted beauty of her Hajj toward the end of her life. And she carried those memories with her on the majestic slopes of Glen Carron, where a humble headstone is inscribed with the verse from Surah Al Nur that moved her so much, “Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth.”

William Facey (william.facey@arabia.uk.com) the author of the book ‘Pilgrimage

to Makkah: Lady Evelyn Cobbold,’ has spent his career

as a museum consultant, writer

and publisher on the Arabian Peninsula. He

worked and travelled widely there during the

1970’s and 1980’s, and since then his books have established him as

a well-known author on the region. He is currently

director of Arabian Publishing Ltd., London.

Lady Evelyn’s permission to make her pilgrimage was arranged by Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in London, Shaykh Hafiz Wahba, shown here during one of the visits to England (probably 1935) by HRH Prince Sa’ud ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz. Wahba stands on the left and slightly behind the prince; Wahba wrote the original introduction to Lady Evelyn’s Pilgrimage to Mecca.

MP 5224

This fall, three women in the prayer group from our small-town university decided to make our way to Noor. It would be my first visit to a real Mosque: usually we worship in a “Multi-Faith-Prayer-Room”. My friend jokingly called it our “all white trip to Noor.” I had not noticed any significance that it was white members of our prayer group who were free to make the trip. But the comment had been bugging me. My tinge of embarrassment is a Western one: in Islam race is kind of a non-issue. Islam spreads, mainly, not by birth but by conversion. The

Muslim Students Association—the group of which ours is a splinter—might say the three of us are bad Muslims for many reasons, but race is just not one of them.

No, this embarrassment come from my own worry about how this looks to everyone else; my fascination with Islam, my potential conversion, my insistence that shari’a is not what people think, at least when you look broadly enough, all this, I know, looks childish, utopian and uninformed on my part; the equivalent of how the young flirt with communism or vote for Nadar. Thinking

about it, I decide that my olive skin and dark hair means I could probably pass for Arab - though that’s a stretch. Certainly, Syrian or Persian though. On the bus, we talk about mothers, grad school, our plans for the prayer group.

Ester returns from the bathroom and warns us that the window is not frosted and in fact you could see in through it I feel the instant need to ask. “What would a hijabi girl do?” “Hold it.” says Ester definitively. I cannot help asking childishly curious questions like these about “hijabi

My First Prayers at a Real Mosque: A Young Woman Recounts why the Faith Fits

By Joan Elizabeth Mulholland

In my recent love affair with Islam, I often feel the weight of how it appears to an outside observer. But even worse that tiny part of me that wonders if they are right. I was one of a small number of children in this world who were fortunate enough to have grown up without a religion. I say “fortunate” because that upbringing has blessed me with the chance to choose myself. When I hit my alcoholic bottom at twenty-two, and was finally able to reach out to AA, I was told, essentially: find God or die drinking. To die young was almost as scary as the prospect of going on living in the absolute hell I has created for myself and so I went with the God thing.

MP 52 25

girls.” Hijabi girls are the Muslim version of a golden girl - who is above average in every way.

We tease, but sometimes I envy them, their sweetness and their simple preservation of the status quo. They are who they are, and unfortunately I am who I am: a bunch of experiences that pull me in different directions, force me to look for more complex explanations.

Finally, we arrive at the mosque, a modern Japanese-influenced building. This is not how I imagined it. It just didn’t scream “Mosque”. I was expecting something much more ornate, which is ridiculous, given that the whole reason Islam is so compelling to me is it’s lack of pomp and ceremony. What did I expect from a faith that forbids pictures of the Prophet Muhammad, and has no religious props of any kind?

Perhaps my favorite things about Islam, being a person who adores words and books is that in Islam we worship nothing but God with no intermediaries –not even Muhammad himself - save the words of the Qur’an, which are direct from God. Muhammad never healed the sick or parted the sea, no, his words themselves are the miracle and they, plus God make up Islam completely. The words of the Qur’an are all that belong in a Mosque, however beautifully they may be written on its walls, or recited in a call to prayer, it is them and only them that should inspire the awe and make a Mosque a glorious, God-filled place.

Inside there is big open foyer that holds an open guest book which is not invitation enough for me to sign. As one friend signs the book, the other says to me, “they are going to think we are hijabi girls”. Suddenly, I remember that I am wearing a headscarf, as is Louise, making us look like the kind of Muslims that wear our Muslim garb full time and don’t have friends who don’t. I think we liked the idea of being hijabi girls, if only for a day, but worried about perhaps making a wrong first impression at a Mosque where most of the women who pray know a great deal more than I do about Islam and don’t choose to wear their hijab all

the time. Later, in the bathroom washing my hands, I remove my headscarf and begin to wash for prayers.

“Jenny, they have a whole Wudu room for that”, says Louise and I’m visibly excited. I have only ever washed in bathrooms since our small splinter group is not set up with all the amenities of the “Multi-Faith-Prayer-Room” to which the Muslim Students Association lays claim.

The Wudu room is magnificent. It’s like a beautiful roman bathhouse. The whole room is covered in white tiles and looks as if it simply rose up from the floor, just for you. It reminds me of that live shape-shifting space ship from Star Trek that could simply manifest for you all manner of creature comforts. There is a comfortable stool to sit on while you wash. In front of me there is helpful signage: “how to wash for prayers.” Ester treats us to each step aloud and we wash first our hands - to the elbow, then our face and neck, and because of the sign says to: we do our ears. We don’t usually but it feels good and I like it. I don’t wear foundation on Fridays anymore but when I wash my face I cheat a little by avoiding my mascaraed eyes.

As I flick a few drops of water on my

hairline and I watch Ester douse hers generously, I again think “What am doing here?” and “why Islam of all faiths?” I imagine how today, I will bow down, for the first time with many other Muslims in a proper Mosque with a proper Imam: will it be everything I had been hoping for? Until now, Islam has been anything but the straight jacket I thought it was and much more like a well tailored one that was made just for me, or for someone very close to my size.

When you chip away everything that has been added to Islam since the death of the

Prophet, you are left with a core faith that is more protestant than the Protestants and was so long before they existed. This insistence on a personal relationship with God suits me perfectly.

The greatest sin a Muslim can commit is shirk - the crime of joining others with God. To do so is to forsake the personal relationship with God that Islam supports. This is why, whenever it mentions Muslims as a group, the Qur’an defines them as those who do the things that built that relationship, like reading the Qur’an, doing their five-times-daily prayers, fasting during Ramadan and making the pilgrimage to Makkah.

We all finish the ritual with a proper foot wash and put our headscarves on again. Most people have already begun to pray and we leave our purses on the side and join them. I lift my arms and say “Allahu Akbar” then cross my heart with my hands looking down. I think about the sameness and the uniqueness of each person’s prayers and again how Islam is a well-tailored jacket - structured, but in a way that supports you - in my experience.

When I have finished two rounds before Jumah - I do the physical motions since I have not yet memorised the prayer and use

the time to silently thank God for bringing me here - I take my cue from others to sit. When the Imam arrives I almost laugh aloud at my earlier anxieties about race. His name is “Tim” –short for Timothy and he’s Italian and a former Catholic who, unlike me, wouldn’t stand a chance of passing for anything but white. But he is a Muslim, like

I may be one day. Islam helps thaw out my heart when it gets

frozen and keeps me on track in a way that does not feel disciplinary; I’m taking better care of my home and putting money away for the future and it feels easy and natural. Islam supports me in becoming my most beautiful self, helps me become a more contented, humble, responsible person. Joan Elizabeth Mulholland has an MA in Philosophy and is pursuing her Ph.D. in political science.

I imagine how today, I will bow down, for the first time with many other Muslims in a proper Mosque with a proper Imam …

MP 5226

New to the readership of Meeting Point We welcome our new readers and hope that in the contents of Meeting Point all our readers will find something of educational benefit and enjoyment. Please do not hesitate to be in touch should you require any assistance.Aled Jamieson, CeridigionMichelle Louise, HuddersfieldNiomi Aretha, HalifaxTracy Shoman, CamdenRose Robinson, WiganJosie Luscombe, StanwellRobin Westwood, CheltenhamAlistar Calendar, LondonMonojit Choudhury, SloughSajida Aaron, Ontario, CanadaAlicia Blatiak, BristolMoneeb Hidrey, StaffordSimon Davies, Birmingham

BirthsTo Soraya Hemmings and her husband Ibrahim a baby girl Aishah and to Mustafa Davies and family, a little girl Hafsa in November last year – we pray that little Aisha and Hafsa will bring comfort to the hearts and joy to the households and that they both will enjoy good health and strength of Iman throughout her long lives – God Willing

DeathsBirmingham sadly witnessed the loss of some of the great converts to Islam who dedicated themselves and contributed so much to the community there. Our regular reader Yaqoob Johnson from London wrote of the passing of his dear brother and friend Ayman Abdalqadir Ahwal who passed away in Birmingham after a long illness. Yaqoob described Ayman as ‘a tower of strength to the Birmingham Muslim community, alhamdulillah, and to many people across the world.’ At his funeral tributes were paid in Urdu and in English by Shaykh Abd alHakim Murad. (See page 3).Dawood Burbank from Birmingham and his wife were tragically killed in an accident

which took place while both were travelling from Jeddah to Makkah on Hajj 2011. Dawood’s friends said of him that ‘the sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh) was beloved to him and was something he instilled into his children. He was a softly spoken and very polite brother..’ Both were in Ihran at the time of the accident and were chanting the Talbiyyah which will, according to the sources, be the way they will be raised to meet their Lord on the Day of all days when, God Willing, all of our departed will be re-joined with their beloved families and be granted the fruits of Jannat Al-Firdous. From Allah we come and to Him is our return.

MarriagesWarmest congratulations go to Sophia, daughter of Yasmin Murphy from Leicester, and her new husband Ilyas who were joined together as husband and wife in December. We wish them a very long and happy union together.

AnnouncementsDATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Ramadan Retreat 2012 & EOD This year’s Ramadan Retreat will take place on the weekend of August 10th – 12th

Eid Open Day Sunday, August 26th

Knowledge Seekers & NMPAugust 24th – Sept 2ndCollaborative 10 day intensive Arabic and Islamic Studies coursewww.ks-courses.com

Look out for details for all of the above in next issue of Meeting Point.

Islam Awareness week12-18 March 2012Join in the activities.Details at: www.iaw.org.uk

NEW MUSLIM SURVEY

Despite increasing numbers of Muslim reverts, we are still viewed as “brainwashed” or “troubled” people and this only complicates our lives and dawah. With this in mind, a group of international sisters based in London is writing a book about new Muslims around the world. However, this is not a collection of stories but a social research where reverts share their views and needs through an online survey (anonymously if they wish).

This is a truly ground-breaking and unique study since nothing of this large-scale has ever been done before. The focus of this thought-provoking book will be the intellectual dimension of conversion to show non-Muslims that ours is a conscious choice based purely on the teachings of Islam. You can give dawah through this project by taking the survey, helping out with translations, research or writing insha’Allah.

Visit our website www.thenewmuslimsurvey.blogspot.com or contact Safia on thenewmuslimsurvey@gmail.com or by telephone on 07817205400.

MP 52 27

LETTERS

Forgivenes and Justice: Meditation on Hadith

In the Qur’an, God is just, and requires justice; but he is also forgiving, and requires forgiveness; in fact, its references to the latter property outnumber those on justice by a ratio of approximately ten to one.2 Islamic theology has not always been clear how the ensuing tension is to be resolved. ‘My Mercy outstrips My wrath’ is a well-known divine saying,3 but one which nonetheless is far from abolishing God’s wrath. Indeed, a righteous indignation about injustice is integral to the prophetic representation of God’s qualities, and from the earliest moments of its revelation the Qur’an links God’s expectations of His creatures to justice towards the weak. Often the same texts are explicitly eschatological, affirming that those who do not uphold God’s justice in this world will be at its receiving end in the next. Indigenous Arab religion can expect a stern retribution, given that its demands are for tribal solidarity, not for the upholding of universal canons of justice.4 The idol cannot demand justice, only retribution (tha’r); and the prophetic vocation must therefore link the destruction of paganism with the establishment of a code of justice which overturns Arab norms by refusing to discriminate between the tribes. This hadith is to be read against the background of clan vendettas: instead of seeking collective retaliation against a miscreant’s tribe, the victim of injustice is to appeal to the new law, and to recall that all apparent imbalances will have a just settlement at the judgement seat.

1. Tirmidhi, Imaam, 59.2. Muhammad Fu’ad ‘Abd al-Baqi al-Mu‘jam al-Mufahras li-alfaz al-Qur’an al-Karim (Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, 1939): 234 occurrences of the root gh-f-r, contrasted with 28 for ‘-d-l. The hadith literature also suggests a major disparity: A.J. Wensinck, et al., Concordance et indices de la tradition musulmane (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1936-88), IV. 528-40 (gh-f-r); IV. 151-5 (‘-d-l). Despite the crudity of this statistical exercise the discrepancy is suggestive.3. BukharÏ, Taw^Ïd, 13; Muslim, Tawba, 14,4. Cf. the pagan tribesman’s cry: ‘I am of Ghaziyya; if she be in error, then I will err; And if Ghaziyya is guided aright, I go right with her!’ Toshihiko Izutsu, Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Qur’an (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1966), 55. This is precisely the ‘my country right or wrong’ of 20th century jahiliyya. For Arabian tribalism see further ibid., 55-72; M.M. Bravmann, The Spiritual Background of Early Islam: Studies in Ancient Arab Concepts (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1972), 67.

by Abdal Hakim Murad

The Prophet (pbuh) prayed for pardon for his people, and received the reply: ‘I have forgiven them all but acts of oppression, for I shall exact recompense for the one who is wronged, from his oppressor.’ 1

Salaam Alaikum,Thank you for putting me in touch with Edward Seddon in Cardif – He contacted me last week and offered me a lot of support and advice. Last night I made my Shahada and received my certificate at Darul’Isra Mosque/Islamic centre. It was a very beautiful experience for me that will stay in my heart for the rest of my life Alhamdulilah. It was also an opportunity to meet a small group of very sincere and big hearted muslims.

Thank you for making my transition to Islam possible.

Lisa

Thank you again for yet another wonderful Ramadan retreat. We drove home reflecting on the weekend, what we had learnt, new friendships made and old ones renewed, and then enjoyed the blackberries that the children had picked in the grounds for iftar, Alhamdulillah.

Although we are used to the retreat usually taking place in the last 10 days, I think that having it slightly earlier does afford us the opportunity to put into practice what we have learnt, generosity of spirit in Ramadan, and with Sr Kathleen’s model we have the skills to fulfil our goals insha’Allah! I am also looking forward to rereading Companions of the prophet, starting with Mus’ab ibn ‘Umayr, May Allah be pleased with him, with a renewed motivation following the wonderful talk by Br Ismail Sezgin.

Lastly I am forwarding the confirmation of the donation made to Islamic relief’s East Africa appeal for £90.00 raised entirely by the children attending the retreat for their lively and creative talent show, Masha’Allah.

Lena & family

MP 5228

✁

I wish to order a copy of Transcending Jerusalem and enclose a Chq/PO for £7.99 (inc. p&p) made payable to ‘Peter Stockton’

Name: .................................................................................................. Address: .................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................................................................

Post Code ................................................................................... Tel: ..................................................................................................

Email: .............................................................................................................................................................................................................

MEETING POINT is published by the: New Muslims’ Project, The Islamic Foundation, Ratby Lane, Markfield, Leicester LE 67 9SY, UKTel: 01530 243937 Fax: 01530 244946E-mail: batool@islamic-foundation.org.uk

Ne

w B

oo

k

‘Transcending Jerusalem’ considers the major figures in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths, from Adam through Abraham and Moses to Jesus and Muhammad, trying to find a way of understanding their many paradoxes. These include the three faiths/one God dilemma; Jews as Chosen People; Christian Jesus as Messiah; and Islam’s ‘Perfected religion’. By understanding the way each faith tells us something about who and where we are, where we’ve come from and where we’re headed, we can come to see religion not as the biggest part of the problem but as the biggest part of the solution. It is written from a Muslim point of view.

ISBN Number: 978-1-84923-322-4Pages 316Publisher: youwriteon.comCost of the book: £7.99 inc. p&p (also available on Amazon.co.uk)

Please complete your order below and post to the following address:

Peter Stockton, 59 Field View, Bar Hill, Cambridge CB23 8SY

E-mail: pstockton_1154@yahoo.com

Transcending Jerusalemby Peter Stockton

Until 15 April 2012

Hajjjourney

to the heart of Islam

Left: The Ka‘ba. AP/PA. Right: Hajj certificate (detail). 17th–18th century AD. Nasser D. Khalili

Collection of Islamic Art (Khalili Family Trust).

Book now britishmuseum.org/hajj

HSBC Amanah has supported the exhibition’s international reach outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

‘Brilliant’

The Guardian

The Times

In partnership with

King Abdulaziz Public LibraryRiyadh, Saudi Arabia