MLK: "The preaching ministry"

It has been my conviction ever since reading Rauschenbusch that any religion that professes concern for the souls of men and is not equally concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion only waiting for the day to be buried. It well has been said: "A religion that ends with the individual, ends."

I feel that preaching is one of the most vital needs of our society, if it is used correctly. There is a great paradox in preaching: on the one it may be very helpful and on the other it may be very pernicious. It is my opinion that sincerity is not enough for the preaching ministry. The minister must be both sincere and intelligent...I also think that the minister should possess profundity of conviction. We have too many ministers in the pulpit who are great spellbinders and too few possess spiritual power. It is my profound conviction that I, as an aspirant for the ministry, should possess those powers.

I think that preaching should grow out of the experiences of the people. Therefore, I, as a minister, must know the problems of the people that I am pastoring. Too often do educated ministers leave the people lost in the fog of theological abstraction, rather than presenting that theology in the light of the people's experiences. It is my conviction that the minister must somehow take profound theological and philosophical views and place them in a concrete framework. I must forever make the complex the simple.

Above all, I see the preaching ministry as a dual process. On the one hand I must attempt to change the soul of individuals so that their societies may be changed. On the other I must attempt to change the societies so that the individual soul will have a change. Therefore, I must be concerned about unemployment, slums, and economic insecurity. I am a profound advocate of the social gospel.

-Carson, Clayborne, ed. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Warner Books, 1998. 18-19.

For a little more on Rauschenbusch and the Social Gospel see: http://ebaadenews.blogspot.com/2010/01/for-role-of-church-concerned-him-deeply.html

مكتبة الإرشاد - إسطنبول.

http://www.irsad.com.tr/

"In this regard,

America appears as an extension of Europe but with a patently different response to the problem of religion. Whereas the European response resulted in the "death of God," the American reaction has tended toward the "death of Satan," drowning the Evil One in a torrent of fascinosum powerful enough to extinguish the fires of Hell. This radically alters the meaning of religion. For at the very least it undermines the notion of salvation - salvation from what? - and worship loses much its urgency, except as a means of soliciting earthly favors from God.

-Dr. Sherman Jackson in Islam and the Blackamerican

"Religion,

however, like art often consists of a dialogue with the past in order to find a perspective from which to view the present. Tradition provides a jumping-off point which enables men and women to engage with the perennial questions about the ultimate meaning of life.

-Karen Armstrong, A History of God, 306

"Teach Islam?

Kya, you want to become some mawlvi, some scholar and give fatwas? (Looks to sky) We have enough blessings, Allah thera shukar. You can bless us by becoming a surgeon. You like kids? Become a pediatrician; teach them Islam as you give them their lollipops!"

-Khulsoom, the mother in The Domestic Crusaders by Wajahat Ali

http://www.domesticcrusaders.com/

Dr. Noureddine Eter

https://www.facebook.com/Noor.aldeen.Eter/

Dawood Yasin: A brief response to the question regarding the legal position of halal slaughter & hunting

Imam Dawood Yasin

January 21, 2013 at 1:00pm · 

A brief response to the question regarding the legal position of halal slaughter & hunting.

Question: is hunting exempt from the normally applicable rules, or is the hunter, after he strikes his target, assumed to then slaughter the animal using proper techniques of the dhabh, e.g., cutting the two jugular veins.

The rules governing hunting and halal slaughter are different. Hunting an animal does not make one exempt from the normally applicable rules of slaughter; rather hunting is another form of the ritual slaughter. By hunting, he hunter employs a method that makes it possible to kill a non-domesticated animal, other than the standard slaughter procedures because of the difficulty or near impossibility of handling wild animals and slaughtering them.

Mentioning God’s name: the basmallah

Before shooting an animal, a Muslim hunter must mention the name of God basmala, although if the hunter leaves this act accidentally then hunted animal is still halal (permissible). However, if the hunter intentionally omits the basmala, then the hunted animal is impermissible to eat. The reason for the impermissibly is that the individual has intentionally left the injunction of mentioning the name of God.

After the shot

The question is best understood if we discuss it through two separate scenarios. The first is when the hunter shoots his or her intended game and recovers the game while it is dead. If the animal is killed as a result of the hunt, then no additional slaughter is necessary, and the animal’s meat is halal (permissible). It is important to mention that after the shot the hunter must begin to actively search for the animal, without any unnecessary delays.

The second scenario is if the animal is still alive after being shot, then one must slaughter it. In this scenario, if the animal is not slaughtered according to known conditions for thabh (the ritual act of standard slaughter procedures), then animal is impermissible and cannot be eaten. This position is according to the Hanifi School, and the Maliki School holds a similar opinion. As a bow hunter I would like to examine this ruling further in respect to the priority given to the preservation of life regarding the maqasid (the objectives of Islamic law).

The Safi’e School differs; if an individual fears that bodily harm may result in the process of standard slaughter procedures, then it is permissible for the hunter to allow the animal expire.

If the animal is not recovered and is left overnight, the meat is not permissible and cannot be eaten. The general rule in Maliki fiqh is that a wounded animal, which you cannot track down and leave during the night and find dead the next day, cannot be eaten. But there are differences within the school on that point.

This is a very general answer and I hope it adds some insight to your question.

Check out @jimatdeltaco's Tweet: https://twitter.com/jimatdeltaco/status/822318569799065602?s=09

Islamosaic is Musa Furber’s imprint for publishing in both print and electronic formats.

http://islamosaic.com/publications/

Religious Leaders at the Annual Meeting 2017

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_AM17_Religious_Leaders.pdf

Securing Open Societies

Securing Open Societies

How should societies respond to the rise of extremism, populism and nationalism?

Join experts, policy-makers and faith leaders for a frank discussion of the options for maintaining open societies in the face of fear and uncertainty.

Speakers: David Rosen, Kenneth Roth, Nik Gowing, Patrick Chappatte, Hamza Yusuf Hanson, Bernadette Ségol, Matthieu Ricard, Oliver Mcternan,Jeanne Bourgault, Chris Seiple, Abdallah Bayyah, Kjell Grandhagen
https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2015/sessions/securing-open-societies/

World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2015 The New Global Context

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_AM15_Report.pdf

SÜLEYMANIYE LIBRARY

http://hazine.info/suleymaniye-library/

Khaled Abou El Fadl: How Hatred of Islam is Corrupting the American Soul

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2017/01/18/4606049.htm

NYT: "President’s Term Running Out, Gambia Shudders as He Refuses to Quit" (Jan. 18, 2017)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/world/africa/gambia-yahya-jammeh-adama-barrow.html?_r=0

via Rayad

"High Level Forum on Combating Anti-Muslim Discrimination and Hatred" at U.N. yesterday (January 17, 2016)

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=55983#.WH9d-bYrK2w

https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2017/01/267016.htm

https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/niger/18525/high-level-forum-combating-anti-muslim-discrimination-and-hatred_en

https://eeas.europa.eu/sites/eeas/files/hlf_concept_note_and_agenda_fin.pdf

http://www.unmultimedia.org/avlibrary/asset/1815/1815302/ (Recording, 3 hours and 14 minutes)

http://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/detail.jsp?id=712/712400&key=2&query=*&lang=en&sf=

Huxley Quote

There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution. 

-- Aldous Huxley