As Salaamu Alaikum

I would encourage everyone to read the brother’s letter to Judge Brinkema, both for its balance and insight, and to realize exactly what this brother is facing.

I also encourage everyone to make du’a that he doesn’t have to miss the entire childhood of his four kids.

May Allah release him and all unjustly imprisoned Muslims.

As for this article, I have to disagree with the blanket condemnation of moderinty and Enlightenment. Not that moral relativism, humanism, materialism, etc. are consistent with Islam. They are not. However, the broader concepts of modernity and Enlightenment are so contested, and their histories so complex, that it is hard to make such a definitive statement.

Of course, the schizophrenia that he identifies is real, and something that we all feel at some level. That said, I don’t see “tradition” as synonymous with belief, or as innocent, balanced and virtuous. Indeed, it was very much the ills of tradition that inspired the bitter pill of modernity (as Ismail defines and describes it).

Jazzak Allaah for posting to the letter and May Allaah reward Bro. Ismail for sharing his thoughts.

I look forward to seeing Brother Ismail’s thoughts outlined further inshAllaah.

I have to say as someone who has recently started to devote more time to studying seriously the intellectual history that is “modernity” and the “englightenment” that I tend to agree with the thoughts of Brother Musa. Indeed, one cannot deny that the enormous deficiencies of both religious belief and social/political/economic/intellectual realities in pre-modern Europe must be understood in order to understand the Enligtenment. Now, as Muslims it is convenient for us to simply blame these things on the perversities of Christianity, and indeed the extent to which Christianity was astray from true faith contributed to many of the problems and made it much harder for Christianity to provide a true defense against the attacks that came upon it. However, we cannot stop there and feel comfortable. Many of the despicable aspects of pre-modern European society are still present in Muslim communities around the globe. The consistent and persistent refusal of us as Muslims to actually live according to Islam make it almost ridiculous for us to present Islam as a solution to others and make it truly impossible for us to hold up any large scale examples of a possible alternative to modernity.

Now this is not to say that the so-called West does not have many of the same problems and neither to say that modernity has not brought its own nightmares of previously unimagined scope as witnessed in the wars and genocides of the 20th century which resulted in on the order of 200 million human deaths.

Many of us who are “of the West” often try to join the best of both worlds and sometimes that seems to be a beautiful thing. But the schizophrenia referred to by both Brother Ismail and brother Musa always gnaws at us, (some more than others) and I think as a result of that our sincere efforts are often internally contradictory and perhaps doomed to failure of one type or another.

I don’t claim to have the answers, at this point what I really want to put forward is that I think the questions are really difficult and I am extremely skeptical of those on whatever side who present the way forward as easy and clear. At the same time I have confidence in Allaah (swt) that He is Merciful on us and that He has provided us with clear guidance and I am certainly open to being proven wrong on anything I tend to think about these issues now.

Wa Allaahu ta’ ‘ala ‘Alam.

Assalamu alaikum Br.Ismail

Insha Allah you are in peace and good health by the grace of Allah Subhanaataala, the Lord of the worlds, the creator of this beautiful universe, the master of the day of judgement.

I didnt get a chance to read your above posted article as today was the first time I heard about u in MM and immediately I went and did google search to find more information about you. Read few articles and got some glimpses and finally I came to MM to complete your letter to the judge.

SubhanaAllah! Your letter was very true and I was able to feel that it came from your heart. Your letter wouldnt have affected me that much(made me cry) if you didnt have a family. The fact that you have a wonderful wife with small children and old parents. Your inability to be with them when they need you most, just this fact itself affected me so much.

Khair. Still at this moment I am making dua to Allah Subhanaataala to ease your and your family’s difficulties.

Alhamdulilah! You accepted it with respect and patience. May Allah reward you immensely for your patience and honesty.

Yes. for everybody your case is over and you r in the jail forthe remaining 17 years without any parole.

As you stated at the end of your letter, never loose hope. Insha Allah I will keep on making dua for you and your family. Dua is the weapon of the belivers. Allah Subhanaatala will definitely hear the dua of His slaves and especially the dua of the ones who are being oppressed.

The prophet sallAllaahu alayhi wasallam said: “Protect yourselves from the duaa of the oppressed, for their is no veil between it and Allaah.”

Please keep up your duas and continue to be patient. May be Allah Subhanaatala has got something else for you. Change your focus and by the time now I believe you must have changed.

Your thoughts and writings are sharp and they are golden ink that this ummah needs the most at these times.

I dont know what facitlies are there for you in the jail for you to increase your knowledge, and keep up your writting, and to keep up with whats going on around the world.

May Allah provide you with all you need so each and every moment that you spend there will seed to your contributions to this ummah. Ameen.

This life is surely a test. Our whole life would be just few moments on the day of judgement which is 50,000 years long.

Please make sure each and every moment that you spend now in the prison, you reap rewards for your patience, as well as your contribution.

May these rewards from your writing contribution grow and grow and be a huge mountain of good deeds for you on the day of judgement.

May Allah guide your parents to the truth.

May Allah make your loving wife sr.Mirsada strong and give her patience to raise all your kids as excellent muslims.

May Allah ease the hardship of your family and increase the support of your family.

May Allah protect and raise your four loving children Fatima, Hamza, Aisha, and Hasan as pious, strong muslims.

“But give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere. Those who say, when afflicted with calamity, ‘To Allah we belong, and to Him is our return.’ They are those on whom descend blessings from their Lord,
and mercy. They are the ones who receive guidance.” (2:155-157)

Your sister in this beautiful deen.

Muslimah

As Salaamu `aleykum wa Rahmatullah

Dear Br. Ismail,

Alhamdulillah it was a blessing to read your letter to Br. Amad. I used to live in Maryland and had the pleasure of meeting you while you were with CAIR and attending your and other brothers’ trials a few times. I pray that Allah(SWT) Give you and your family comfort, release, and high Iman.

If I understand you correctly, you aren’t arguing that there is anything against being American (Western, or any culture).

The issue with “modernity” understood in the context of the “Enlightenment” was that its particular response to the tyrannical and immoral Church yielded an alternative dogma and principles around which to organize society which undermine the way of life of Muslims, and even Christians.

I think that the “balance” is one that is struck in a personal and practical context, but I don’t see how the secular humanism, naturalism, and outright monism of the Enlightenment can ever be squared within an Islamic conscience.

For an interesting read on evolution and it’s Enlightenment origin, read “Algeny” by Jeremy Rifkin. Lewis Mumford in “Myth of the Machine” talks about a strange resurrection of sun worship during the Enlightenment – particularly evident in the writings of Kepler.

Now, I hope this isn’t taken as an attack on the West, America, or anything except Kufr, whether it’s in Europe, the Muslim World, wherever. The principles we understand from what Allah(SWT) Revealed in the Qur’an, give us a Furqan to tell Guidance from Error and it should be applied to everything, including “tradition”.

The fact that success will once again be `Ala Minhaj an-Nubuwwah, whenever and wherever it will take place, is a reminder that modernity may not contain the solution, but it will be solved moving forward.

May Allah(SWT) Bring it about through our faith and deeds.

w’Salaamu `aleykum,
Hanif

As salaam aleikum! :)

In regards to this discussion, the conflict may there between Western society and Islam, but the mere existence of brothers and sisters such as you and I, who find the balance and equilibrium in troubling times…is proof that Islam also has the capacity to adapt and will continue to until we overcome. Perhaps its a consequence of our negative thinking that we see this conflict to be unsurmountable to the point that we cannot imagine how the Western can become Islamic. The brother wears a basketball jersey trying to look like `tuff`but that same jersey has the name of Abdul-Jabbar on it`s back. On one level yes, we can call it schizophrenic, but the first Muslims had to bear the same trials and were in their own way schizophrenic and if Abu Bakr (ra) were here today, even us Muslims would diagnose him as depressed, emotional and majnun…but that`s only if we look through the glasses of the kuffar…

But in regards to modernity, scientific advancement and the Muslim future in the West, Muslims have forgotten the nature of Islam. Just as you mentioned that Islam is the natural state of the soul, it will always remain no matter how unusual it may seem at that moment. Anything can be Islamicized. We have Allah`s promise and the American giant is losing it`s balance. When it falls the ground might rumble but the giant that has always stood will remain standing: Islam.

What I would like to ask you my dear brother is something that you most likely have contemplated and if you haven`t I would definitely like to hear your thoughts and ideas, especially from where you are:

Activism has grown as a result of historical events. But we write, protest, `fight`for the rights of our imprisoned or hungry or dying brothers, but only as long as we do it from the comfort of our air-conditioned homes, at ease in front of our wide computer monitors.
This In-Activism is obvious and almost blatantly hypocritical but we still do it almost because it`s easy and gives us an arrogance for performing a `good deed`…it is not getting us anywhere and so I ask:

If anything, what can we do about it? What sort of `new and innovative`methods should we try? How might we affect true change?

Jazaka Allahu khayran for your time and May Allah free you.

I’m reading Muhammad Asad’s book “Islam at the crossroads”; I’ve only read the first couple of chapters so far but they reminded me of this text by Ismail Royer. The ideas he expresses here seem identical to what Asad was trying to say in his book. It’s striking. Does anyone who may have read Asad’s book agree?

abu AbdAllah

I know that it first came out in 1934, and it has been modified by Muhammad Asad over the years. The most popular Swedish translation – I live in Sweden – of the meaning of the Qur’an comes with Asad’s notes from his own translation, so I am aware of some of the bizarre aqeedah. I also have his Road to Mecca but I haven’t read it yet. I agree with you that Ismail Royer – walhamdulillah – takes the position of ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama’ah so I wouldn’t compare him to Asad in that sense. Actually, I was sceptical when I first picked up “Islam at the Crossroads” and didn’t expect to get much out of it, exactly because of what I knew of Muhammad Asad’s aqeedah. But as I read it I was reminded of this text by Ismail Royer since the message is very similar. I wouldn’t describe him as a modernist, even in the later part of his life, since he still stood by what he wrote in his “Islam at the crossroads” later in life.

I don’t know that much about him, so I wont say much either but I would recommend that you read “Islam at the Crossroads”. I think you may be surprised, let’s just leave it at that ;)