Blog Archives
Talk to Allah (swt)
Source: hibamagazine.com
By: Binte Aqueel
There are times in life when we feel confused – when our mind seems to be an endless cycle of thoughts and emotions, which just seem to be driving us crazy. There are times when we feel sad about how people treat us; when we feel hopeless about how things are; when we feel that the world is just not on our side, and when we feel completely alone.
At times like these, we often forget that there is one Being, Who is always with us and never leaves us – Allah (swt)! Allah (swt) says in the Quran:
“And when My slaves ask you (O Muhammad) concerning Me, then (answer them), I am indeed near (to them by My Knowledge). I respond to the invocations of the supplicant when he calls on Me (without any mediator or intercessor).” (Al-Baqarah 2:186)
There is a beautiful Hadeeth-e-Qudsi narrated by Abu Hurairah (rta): “The Prophet (sa) said: Allah (swt) says: ‘I am in accordance with the thoughts of My slave about Me; and I am with him when he remembers Me. If he remembers Me in himself, I also remember him in Myself. If he remembers Me in a group, I remember him in a better group (i.e., angels); if he draws near Me by the span of a palm, I draw near him by a cubit. If he draws near Me by a cubit, I draw near him by the space covered by two hands. If he walks towards Me, I go to him running.’” (Bukhari and Muslim)
This is the love Allah (swt) has for us!
French Muslim Murdered, Stabbed 17 Times in Apparent ‘Islamophobic’ Attack
A Moroccan man has been killed in southern France in an apparent Islamophobic attack.
Source: sputniknews.com
MOSCOW, January 17 (Sputnik) — Mohamed El Makouli died near the French city of Avignon on Wednesday, when an attacker rushed into the victim’s house in the village of Beaucet, shouting “I am your god, I am your Islam” before stabbing the man 17 times, the National Observatory Against Islamophobia said, according to the AFP news agency.
The Paris shooting: 9 points to ponder
By: Omid Safi
Source: onbeing.org
As a person of faith, times like these try my soul. Times like these are precisely when we need to turn to our faith. We turn inward, not because the answers are easy, but because not turning inward is unthinkable in moments of crisis.
So let us begin, not with the cartoons at the center of the shootings at the office of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, but with the human beings. Let it always be about the human beings:
- Stéphane “Charb” Charbonnier, 47 (editor)
- Bernard Maris, 68 (economist)
- Georges Wolinski, 80 (cartoonist)
- Jean “Cabu” Cabut, 78 (cartoonist)
- Bernard “Tignous” Verlhac, 57 (cartoonist)
- Philippe Honoré, 73 (cartoonist)
- Elsa Cayat (columnist)
- Michel Renaud (a guest)
- Frederic Boisseau (building maintenance worker)
- Franck Brinsolaro, 49 (a police officer)
- Moustapha Ourrad (copy editor)… It’s not Muslims vs. cartoonists, as long as there are Muslim cartoonists.
- Ahmed Merabet, 42, (police officer)… A Muslim who died protecting the cartoonists from Muslim terrorists. Muslim vs. Muslim.
And brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, and Hamyd Mourad — the shooters, with a legacy of crime behind them.
I try to resist the urge to turn the victims into saintly beings, or the shooters into embodiments of evil. We are all imperfect beings, walking contradictions of selfishness and beauty. And sometimes, like the actions of the Kouachi brothers and Mourad, it results in acts of unspeakable atrocity.
THE BREAKING NEWS CONSUMER’S HANDBOOK
Source: onthemedia.org
By: Alex Goldman
This week’s shooting at the DC Navy Yard was the latest in a long string of breaking news reporting to get many of the essential facts wrong.
In fact, the rampant misreporting that follows shootings like this is so predictable that OTM has unintentionally developed a formula for covering them. We look at how all the bad information came out. We suggest ways that the news media could better report breaking news. This time, we’re doing something different.
This is our Breaking News Consumer’s Handbook. Rather than counting on news outlets to get it right, we’re looking at the other end. Below are some tips for how, in the wake of a big, tragic story, you can sort good information from bad. We’ve even made a handy, printable PDF that you can tape to your wall the next time you encounter a big news event.
Status of the Qur’an
Source: blog.islamiconlineuniversity.com
By: Arshul Mohammed
In modern times, we have become wonted to living on our own; as if God does not exist. Many of us feel that religion is no longer apposite; books of religious teachings have been replaced by modern books of science and “progressive” thinking. The Qur’an – Is it relevant today? Or has it gone into the oblivions of the past as have many other books?
Allah 
says in the Qur’an:
And the Messenger has said, “O my Lord, indeed my people have taken this Qur’an as [a thing] abandoned.”(Al-Furqān, 25:30)
How many of us would like that to happen on the Day of Judgement? He 
left behind the the word of God, the sempiternal miracle, the words of Allah 
between our hands, and we have simply left it on shelves to collect dust!
Jihad: A Misunderstood Concept from Islam
By: Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani (Chairman, Islamic Supreme Council of America), Shaykh Seraj Hendricks
Source: http://islamicsupremecouncil.org/
It cannot be over-emphasized that Islam upholds the values of reason, balance and responsibility in the conduct of its worldly affairs. There is nothing arbitrary about its legal provisions relating to matters of war, peace, international relationships and the rule of law. In this area there is considerable agreement between Islamic law and the legal systems currently practiced throughout the world. In addition to the real possibility that these legal systems were profoundly influenced by the legal heritage of Islam, this commonality can be explained by the fact that the protection and endorsement of basic human rights form the cornerstone of Islamic legislation.
The international community has come to agree, through the institution of the United Nations, on a body of human rights and interests which Islam has always endorsed. This ought not to surprise anyone if the basic realism, rationality and pragmatism of Islamic law is recognized.
Jihad: A Misunderstood Concept from Islam – History and Law
By: Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani (Chairman, Islamic Supreme Council of America), Shaykh Seraj Hendricks
Source: http://islamicsupremecouncil.org/
Jihad in History and Law
Let us now consider the nature of Jihad more fully as it appears in the history and law of Islam. Jihad in Arabic means “to strive for some objective”. Thus, the common assumption, that Jihad is combat, is incorrect. In fact Jihad, in its technical meaning, has several branches, among which are the combative forms of Jihad.
Jihad: A Misunderstood Concept from Islam – Islamic Propagation
By: Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani (Chairman, Islamic Supreme Council of America), Shaykh Seraj Hendricks
Source: http://islamicsupremecouncil.org/
Jihad and Islamic Propagation
God says in the Qur’an, “Invite (all) to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for thy Lord knoweth best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance.” [16:125]
Calling people to Islam and making them acquainted with it in all its aspects through dialogue and kind persuasion is the first type of Jihad in Islam, in contrast to the imagined belief that Jihad is only of the combative form. This is referred to in the Qur’an where Allah I says, “so obey not the disbelievers, but strive against them (by preaching) with the utmost endeavor with it (the Qur’an)” [25:52]. Here the word “strive”
<jaahidu>, is used to mean struggle by means of the tongue—preaching and exhortation—and to persevere despite the obstinate resistance of some unbelievers to the beliefs and ideals of Islam.
PASS THE KNOWLEDGE (LIGHT & LIFE) 