A warning we should heed by Abdal Hakim Murad

Article in the Guardian UK today about the economic system

Dr. Umar and Abdal Hakim Murad on Reason

Two papers to check out:

Abdal Hakim Murad (TJ Winter) has "Reason as Balance: the evolution of 'aql" as a paper for the Cambridge Muslim College while Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah's first "operational principle" in the Nawawi paper "Living Islam with Purpose" is Trusting Reason.

What do you think?

AHM Quote: "The believer's greatest argument is his face..."

I just love this quote from Abdal Hakim Murad (TJ Winter)

"The believer's greatest argument is his face. True religion lights up the face; false religion fills it with insecurity, rage and suspicion. This is perceptible not only to insiders, but to anyone who maintains some connection with unsullied primordial human nature in his heart. The early conversions to Islam often took place among populations that had no access to the language of the Muslims who now lived among them; but they were no less profound in consequence. Religion is ultimately a matter of personal transformation, and no amount of missionary work will persuade people - with the occasional exception of the disturbed and the desperate - unless our own transformation is complete enough to be able to transform others."

BBC Thought for the Day, 8 May 2009: Abdal Hakim Murad

"All this, it seems to me, makes the debate about multiculturalism much more interesting. Politicians fret about social cohesion, and worry that our national identity is at risk. Some commentators mistrust religious and ethnic minorities, with their continuing desire to be distinctive. Yet if the concern - surely a very legitimate one - is about our sense of belonging, the Gallup poll suggests that the Muslim minority is more part of the solution than part of the problem. Difference does not have to undermine cohesion.

 

Still, we Muslims need to think about how our religious identity, which for most of us seems to support a strong national solidarity and loyalty, is one sort of genuinely British identity. Clearly, one important part of being British is that there is no single way of being British. And no less clearly, the culture of young British Muslims is distinctive, but is unmistakeably indigenous, and usually strongly regional as well. Pilgrims in Mecca, a city where the English language was never heard only a couple of generations ago, can now be heard speaking with the most perfect Glaswegian, Liverpudlian, or North London accents."

Read the rest here

(Courtesy of Radical Middle Way)

Abdal Hakim Murad: America as a Jihad State

New piece from theologian and intellectual Abdal Hakim Murad entitled: America as a Jihad State: Middle Eastern perceptions of modern American theopolitics available here

thanks to Najeeb for the heads-up on this :)

"Should you not gain your wants, my soul, then be not grieved..."

by Imam 'Ali bin Husayn al-Habshi
(translated by Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad)

Should you not gain your wants, my soul, then be not grieved;
But hasten to that banquet which your Lord's bequeathed

And when a thing for which you ask is slow to come,

Then know that often through delay are gifts received

Find solace in privation and respect its due,
For only by contentment is the heart relieved

And know that when the trials of life have rendered you
Despairing of all hope, and of all joy bereaved,

Then shake yourself and rouse yourself from heedlessness,
And make pure hope a meadow that you never leave

Your Maker's gifts take subtle and uncounted forms.
How fine the fabric of the world His hands have weaved

The journey done, they came to the water of life,
And all the caravan drank deep, their thirst relieved

Far be it from the host to leave them thirsty there,
His spring pours forth all generosity received

My Lord, my trust in all Your purposes is strong,
That trust is now my shield; I'm safe, and undeceived

All those who hope for grace from You will feel Your rain;
Too generous are You to leave my branch unleaved

May blessings rest upon the loved one, Muhammad,
Who's been my means to high degrees since I believed

He is my fortress and my handhold, so my soul,
Hold fast, and travel to a joy still unconceived

-----

the Arabic for this poem (in a slightly different version than the one sung) is available here