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Showing posts from November, 2011

Anti-capitalism rattles the world: Making sense of the “Occupy Movement”

Dissatisfaction with the systems of capitalism in the West is about to reach a tipping point. Only two months ago a relatively small group of around 2.000 people marched unto Wall Street in New York to protest against political and economic inequality in America. Since then, this “Occupy Movement” has spread worldwide, organizing protests against the control of super-rich over politics and the economy in over 1.500 cities around the world. When the Nobel-price economist Joseph Stiglitz in May of this year wrote an article to criticize the political and economic state-of-affairs in America, he named it “ Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% ”. A title which aptly plays on Abraham Lincoln’s famous description of America’s democracy as being “government of the people, by the people, for the people” to describe the reality of the political system in the United States. Stiglitz’s criticism, in short, is that the “democratic” political process in America is fully controlled by only a small group

The Definition of Iman

The following is a chapter from the book 'The Ark of Salvation' by Abdul-Kareem Hassan and Imam Murad el-Adnany: The Meaning of Imaan in Arabic Language: Imaan is `attesting to the truth', i.e., Tassdeeq. Imam Tabari in his Tafseer of al- Baqarah , verse 3 says: "Belief ( Imaan ) for the Arabs is attesting to the truth ( Tassdeeq ) [of something] : someone who verbally attests to the truth of something is called a believer in it, and someone who attests to the truth of what he says by what he does is called a believer. Hence the words of Allah [in which Jacob's sons fabricate the story of Joseph's disappearance before their father]: "You would never believe us, even if we spoke the truth. "[TMQ 12:17 ], i.e., you would never attest to the truth of what we said ." The Definition of Imaan in Shari'ah Terminology: Imaan is the decisive belief, i.e., Tassdeeq jaazim . This is the view of the scholars of ahl al-Sunnah as mentione

Refutation of Gradualism (tadarruj)

The following is an extract from the translation of the arabic book entitled 'Dawa ilal Islam' (Dawa to Islam) by Sheikh Ahmad Mahmoud, published in English by Revival Publications . We want to look at, treat and demonstrate the corruption of the idea of gradualism in the adoption of Islam, and the ideas that result from this idea, such as the permission for Muslims to participate in the current systems. The view that Democracy is from Islam is an attempt to make Islam more acceptable to the mind. This is because these thoughts have a strong relationship with the work of some groups in bringing change. So what is gradualism? What does it include according to those who hold this view? What are its justifications? What is the Shar’ee rule regarding it? When the Muslims reached the abyss of spiritual weakness, material and intellectual backwardness and political decline, their thoughts came to reflect their bad situation. Those who adhered to Islam came to have thoughts that d