On the Tuesday night (2/26/08), ABC aired its primetime series entitled What Would You Do? (video below sleeve), in which a controversial scenario is staged with hidden cameras to see how the public would react to such a situation. Last Tuesday’s episode included a scenario in a popular bakery with one actor playing a female Muslim customer wearing hijab and another playing a bigoted store clerk who refused to serve her based on her being Muslim and insulted her with all kinds of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discriminatory remarks.

The reaction of the public was disturbing to say the least, but unfortunately, not surprising. According to ABC News, the majority of bystanders witnessed the incident yet chose not to get involved, largely due to approval of the clerk’s actions. A minority did speak up… some in defense of the Muslim customer (expressing their disgust to the clerk and threatening to boycott the bakery). While others, unfortunately, actually spoke up in support of the bigoted clerk’s actions. The ABC News article states: (more…)

Alhamdulillaah, we just finished the first day of a truly amazing event: The Texas Dawah Convention. Today consisted of a day-long carnival (lasting till 10 pm) right inside Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center. SubhanAllah, this was one of the most awesome Islamic events I have ever been to!

(more…)

As the last 10 nights of Ramadhan are now upon us, I wanted to share a short and simple yet extremely powerful lecture given by Br. Jalal ibn Sa’eed. This lecture is a brief tafseer of Surat At-Takaathur and is only about 10 minutes long; subhanAllah, it goes straight to the heart and hits the nail on the head. May Allah protect us from getting caught up in this dunya, especially during this blessed month, and allow us always to remember the true purpose of our creation.

YouTube Direktvideo link

JazakAllahu khayran to IA’s Br. Abu Sabaayaa for this awesome gem! This is so amazing that I am literally just going to copy and paste it. See below for an eman rush:

There is an interesting section of ‘Zad al-Ma’ad’ (2/33) where Ibn al-Qayyim talks about sawm al-wisal, which is that the Prophet would sometimes fast an entire 24-hour day without breaking his fast. When asked by the Companions why he had forbidden them from doing so while he himself would practice it, he replied: “I am not like anyone of you. During the night, my Lord provides me with food and drink.”

Ibn al-Qayyim mentions that there are two interpretations to what the Prophet meant when he said this. The first is that he is literally provided with food and drink, and the second is that he is being nourished spiritually by Allah. The stronger of the two interpretations is the second, because if the Prophet was being provided with actual food and drink, he would no longer be fasting at all, let alone continuously.

He then proceeded with a beautiful exposition of how it is that the servant can be nourished by Allah without eating or drinking anything. Although Ibn al-Qayyim wrote this in regards to the Prophet’s continuous fasting, it is something that can actually apply to any fasting person, such as ourselves: (more…)

This is a must read true story not too far from home and which took place only early this year. Br. Daniel and his family were originally from New England and had moved overseas to gain knowledge in the path of Allah. Very recently, a letter that Br. Daniel has written from jail has been posted on the internet; alhamdulillah, we are finally able to hear a story other than the one painted by the media. Their story is so amazing and eman-filled. Reading it will bring you to tears bi idhnillaah! It demonstrates the power of iman, sabr (patience), and tawakkul ala Allah (reliance upon Allah) in the face of severe trials and torments. Please keep him and his family in your duas and pray Allah reunites Br. Daniel with his family soon. Ameen.

In posting this story, I make a humble request that brothers and sisters not judge or jump to conclusions. Other brothers have written about Br. Daniel’s ordeal on their blogs a few months ago, however, I will not link to their posts, as I personally found them insulting (very pretentiously throwing around words like “brainwashed” and “terrorist”). In this letter, Br. Daniel personally stated that his trip to Somalia was in order to live under Islamic Law and that he had no intention of fighting, nor did he fight. So, inshaAllah, please leave off any “political” commentary… if you would like to say something of that nature, save it for another blog, and, preferably, another month, bi idhnillaah. Let us use this amazing story to increase in our iman and taqwa; let us admire a mindset that is so rare to find in this day and age.

The story can be found here: http://al-istiqamah.com/PP/Dan1.htm

Rather than writing a long article, I had wanted to pose a question to our readers. One of the major obstacles that Muslims living the West face, particularly those of us who must work amongst non-Muslims, is having to be “professional,” according to the Western concept of the word, without compromising our practice of the Sunnah. Allow me to be a bit less vague. If a brother would like to follow the sunnah with regards to his beard, he would not touch it, or at least leave it at fist-length. Without delving into the particular fiqhi rulings of whether or not the beard is fard, and if so, how long it must be, etc etc, we can safely say that it is considered highly recommended across the board to leave the beard either completely or at fist-length. Sisters, on the other hand, are required to cover, and, to my knowledge, the ulama agree that the minimum requirement for hijab includes a long outer-garment to be worn over her normal clothing (termed as jilbab) in addition to covering the hair. Again, I don’t wish to get into the fiqhi details of exactly what constitutes jilbab, or whether or not niqab is fard; rather, I am aiming at the obstacles faced when trying to meet requirements of hijab in the workplace. (more…)

Only Allah knows what the future holds for the Muslim lands, but from the present, it isn’t looking too bright, wa Allah ulMusta’an (Allah’s help is sought). Perhaps many were thinking that once the Bush administration finally comes to an end, inshaAllah, we will see a dramatic change in US foreign policy… after all, even many of the Republican candidates are speaking about the mistakes of the current administration in order to boost their campaign. Almost certainly, there will be some change in foreign policy once there is a new administration in the presidential office, but not necessarily the type we Muslims are looking for.

This news article says it all. To make a long story short, presidential hopeful Barack Hussein Obama, said that since, in his opinion, Pakistani President Musharraf (or Busharraf, to quote Br. Amad) is not doing enough to combat terrorism in Pakistan, then “he would possibly send troops into Pakistan to hunt down terrorists.” (more…)

Hat-tip to the original website (and to Br. Nadeem, for pointing out the website) for bringing to light this extremely insightful 1952 comic. The comic, posted below, is brilliant and speaks for itself. Quoting the website on which the comic was found:

Cartoonist and all-around seeker of unusual truths, Jay Kinney, says:

“Attached is a page from T-Man comics #3 from 1952. I just happened upon it by chance and - Holy Smokes! - all was revealed. We can now grasp the origins of the Bush administration’s foreign policy! It was all there in T-Man #3, 55 years ago! Perhaps Cheney read this comic in his youth and just bided his time until he was in a position to actualize it in real life.”

Last Saturday in Manhattan, I was blessed to have the opportunity to attend a talk given by Sh. Hussain Abdul Sattar entitled “Love for Allah.” While I would love to give a full summary of this talk, I unfortunately did not take notes, which makes summarizing an arduous task. However, I did want to share an amazing gem from the talk: (more…)

MashaAllaah, I was very recently informed of a major contribution to the online Islamic search tools. A brother at MIT has been working on this project for the past couple of years, and now, it is finally up, alhamdulillaah. The website (http://quran.csail.mit.edu) is an online Qur’an, but it is much more than that too. (more…)