Plan to create Muslim cemetery sparks uproar in Texas city

“When you have local clergy members telling people that Muslims are a danger, they take it as true,” [Khalil] Abdur-Rashid said. “We hope to engage the pastor, the church and local residents in order to build bridges.”

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/8/13/bid-to-develop-islamic-cemetery-sparks-uproar-in-texas-town.html 

"One of my teachers,

Shaykh Abdul Wadod Shalabi (d.2008), was fearless in calling for justice in Egypt. As well as becoming Deputy Shaykh al-Azhar he was imprisoned for five years by the regime. Once he came to London for a conference. I went with him to a newsagent where he needed to buy something. He looked around, and saw the sights which make us flinch but which we are used to: the adult magazines, the bottles of Bacardi, the scratch cards. Behind the till sat a depressed-looking Asian woman. 

The shaykh was a man with firm views about what was right. He had gone to prison for them! But his response to this scene startled me. He said nothing about the horrors which were all around. Instead he kindly talked to the woman and asked what her name was. It sounded like a Muslim name, and he gently conversed with her, affirming her identity; and then he left. So simple an encounter, but so effective! Where scowling and blaming would have driven her further into her shell, he gave her a moment of peace and a happy reminder that she was Muslim. For her, briefly, the sun came out. If there was a door for her back to religion, he had opened it for her, with that compassionate smile.

-Abdal-Hakim Murad, "Clarification on the Boundaries of Da'wa," July 15, 2014.

Imam Zaid on ISIS, Sex Slaves and Islam

Imam Zaid Shakir

39 mins · 

ISIS, Sex Slaves and Islam

As-Salaam Alaikum,

Yesterday's New York Times' (NYT) article highlighting ISIS' sexual enslavement of Yazidi women has cast a critical light on the issue of slavery and Islam. The ensuing implications should concern all Muslims. This is so owing to the fact that ISIS presents its practices as normative Islam and accuses the masses of Muslims who reject their draconian interpretation of the religion as ignoramuses or cowards who are afraid to identify with "real" Islam.

ISIS' practices and fatwas are based on a type of literalism that has never been part of normative Islam, both during its formulation and after its maturation. Why is this so? Normative Islam is based on both rulings and interpretive principles. Those who, like ISIS, separate the rulings from the principles both misrepresent Islam and open the door to varieties and degrees of harm that the religion strictly forbids.

The idea of understanding rulings in light of the interpretive principle is implied by the Prophet, peace and blessings upon him, when he stated, "Whosoever Allah desires good for, He gives him a good understanding of the religion." By implication, one Allah desires to ruin is left void of any understanding. The relevant point here is that merely knowing a particular ruling is not sufficient. One has to understand it.

The first thing we should understand about slavery is that it is not an integral part of Islam such as praying, fasting, the prohibition of interest, etc. As such, it is amenable to being rejected without any sin falling on the one rejecting it. For this reason, every Muslim nation has legally outlawed slavery and there have been no noticeable protests or accusations of sin or disbelief levied at the ministries and scholars who oversaw the drafting of the relevant legislation. We remind Bernard Haykel that these prohibitions occurred long before the advent of ISIS, so they were not motivated by embarrassment.

The fact that slavery is not an integral part of Islam also means that Fatwas associated with it are amenable to change with changing circumstances, something that factored into the prohibitions mentioned above. We can cite the following as an example of an issue calling for a change in a Fatwa associated with sexual slavery. For those who argue that Islam has retained sexual slavery as a deterrent to other nations from going to war against Muslims; in the current context the actions of ISIS are being used to fan the flames of war as hatred and fear of not just ISIS, but Muslims in general grows. In that the ruling to reinstitute slavery has lost its deterrent power, the ruing itself collapses. The legal principle relevant here is the following: "A ruling is associated with its legal rationale, implemented when the latter is present, voided when it is absent."

The widespread rejection of slavery among Muslims approaches the level of irreproachable consensus as it has become the 'Urf or convention of the Muslim people. In this case, such convention has legal authority. One proof of this is that ISIS had to publish articles rebuking its hesitant minions who were repulsed by the idea of enslaving and raping Yazidi women and girls.

Another relevant legal principle is consideration of the harmful implications of a ruling. This principle is subordinate to the principle of removing the means that lead to an unlawful end, even if those means, in some cases, are themselves lawful. In the case of ISIS and slavery, one of the frightening implications of their actions is that it is turning people away from Islam in droves, including many Muslims. Combined with the rise of an organized and aggressive Atheist movement, the murderous and rapacious actions of ISIS are becoming the poster child used to highlight everything that is wrong with religion in general and Islam in particular.

The first and highest objective of Islamic law is the preservation of religion itself. When an action, such as sexual slavery, which in no way, shape, or form could be described as an essential of the religion, is undermining the religion, that action is to be rejected. Hence, we reject these repugnant actions of ISIS and urge all Muslims to do the same.

Our religion is not this hideous Frankenstein-like creation being cobbled together by ISIS and their ilk and endorsed by some Islamic studies professors at Princeton Univerisity. It is a beautiful gift of a sophisticated civilization, however, that gift will not be understood or understandable when the principles that allow us to make sense of various rulings are cast aside. May Allah grant us all understanding.

Imam Zaid Shakir

Shadi Hamid in Foreign Policy: Sisi’s Regime Is a Gift to the Islamic State

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/08/06/sisi-is-the-best-gift-the-islamic-state-ever-got/

also via Shaykh Omar ma sha Allah!

Dominating Muslims, Domesticating Islam: How the Middle East was Lost Khaled Abou El Fadl 6 AUG 2015

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2015/08/06/4288333.htm

via Shaykh Omar Qureshi

Hadith from B & M on the Dajjal

"If anyone learns by heart the first ten verses of the Surah al-Kahf, he will be protected from the Dajjal." [Sahih Muslim] 

http://sunnah.com/nasai/50/90 

Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) told us a long narrative about Ad-Dajjal, and among the many things he mentioned, was his saying, "Ad-Dajjal will come and it will be forbidden for him to pass through the entrances of Medina. He will land in some of the salty barren areas (outside) Medina; on that day the best man or one of the best men will come up to him and say, 'I testify that you are the same Dajjal whose description was given to us by Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) .' Ad-Dajjal will say to the people, 'If I kill this man and bring him back to life again, will you doubt my claim?' They will say, 'No.' Then Ad-Dajjal will kill that man and bring him back to life. That man will say, 'Now I know your reality better than before.' Ad-Dajjal will say, 'I want to kill him but I cannot.' " [Bukhari] 

http://sunnah.com/bukhari/29/16 

"I heard Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) in his prayer, seeking refuge with Allah from the afflictions of Al-Dajjal". [Bukhari] 

http://sunnah.com/bukhari/92/76