Open Thread Sunday 09-27-2009 | Shuyukh on Twitter

Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Raheem.

posted by abu abdAllah Tariq Ahmed

As salamu alaykum wa Rahmat Allahi wa Barakatuhu.

Let me start off this Open Sunday with the one thing most of us cannot get enough of — our shuyukh! Yes, maybe you already have their twitter accounts. Or do you? Alhamdolillah, I've added a few here whom we all know and love, and check out the difference in tweet styles. Which shuyukh do you follow on twitter? If you're a shaykh and do not give a shake about twitter, why not? Come on, shake the tree of knowledge, akhee and give us a date or two, a morsel of ilm or tarbiyah on which we can get ourselves through our labors. Allaho laa ilaha illa Ho! Laa hawla wa laa quwwata illa billah.

Share your shuyukh's twitter addresses with us here, and I might add them to this live feed. :) Or share all the other peeps whose tweets pique you. Are most of your followers Muslim or non-Muslim? What about the people you follow? Does that matter?

Okay, lots to mine right there, but I have one more question for you on this Sunday, please. How close do you live to the masjid? Literally, what's the drive or walking distance (depending on which one you do most often)? And from work or school to the masjid you go to and from that location?

In my case the distance depends on the day of the week. The answers are 3.2 miles, 3.7 miles, and 7.9 miles — unless we throw in 'itikaaf which this year was 34.3 miles (though I was living there at that time, so maybe zero?), walhamdolillah. These distances are physical. And I want to say that the distance in my heart is mere instants' worth. May Allāh grant me that someday, bi'idhnillah. Āmīn.

All I can say about my heart is that the days I intend to pray in the masjid, indeed the individual ṣalāh I intend to pray in a masjid, those are the days that Allāh brings my heart closest to it, and my prayer is to live and work so close to the masjid that I could hear the muezzin without straining. Alhamdolillah, people may call you to pray by tweet, but the adhan is as the Prophet sull Allaho alayhi wa sallam approved it.