Islamic Revival

The following is the translation of an Arabic article. Al-‘Izzah is a manifestation from the manifestations of survival or remaining in respect to the human. There is no human upon the face of the earth except that he seeks to attain it. That is because he has been created upon that as his Fitrah. It is known that what drives the human towards his conducts in this life is only his instincts and organic needs and in the case where Al-‘Izzah is from the manifestations of Al-Buqaa’ (survival or remaining), then the original position in respect to the human is that he is driven to realise it like his being driven to fulfil the rest of his instincts. Therefore, the seeking of ‘Izzah is Fitriy (natural) and there is no question about that. However, this going forth or drive is not inevitable or certain. That is because every manifestation of survival (i.e. attached to the instincts) within the human has two faces to it. That is like generosity and stinginess which are both linked to

By Shafiul Huq Shaykh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani’s (may Allah have mercy on him) argument for the existence of a creator is best summarised in the brief paragraph below from his concise, yet profound, book,  Nidham ul-Islam : “The reason that things must have a creator, is because the things which are comprehensible by the mind that is man, life, and the universe, are limited, weak, imperfect, and are in need for something other than themselves. Man is limited, because he grows in every aspect to a certain limit that he cannot surpass, so he is limited. Life is limited, because it manifests itself only in individuals, and what is noticed by the senses is that it is concluded with the individual, thus it is limited. The universe is limited, because it is the sum of celestial bodies, and each body is limited; and the sum of limited things is self-evidently limited. Thus, man, life, and the universe are definitely limited. When we ponder on the limited (thing), we see that it is not azali

Many young Muslims, with well-placed and sincere intentions to defend Islam against feminism, or the ‘Left’, can actually end up doing more harm than good. This is even more present among many Muslim lecturers and the emerging body of Muslim apologists who have become very much akin — and unfortunately so — to conservative pundits. How? Let us take feminism as an example. We can go about criticizing feminism two ways. The first, overlooks just how saturated, nuanced and multifaceted the debates on feminism actually are and thus — these critiques — end up making tabloid like generalizations, false equivocations, and an array of other fallacies. In turn, young Muslims who have even a cursory experience in, let’s say, academia, are immediately turned off from end up associating our superficial critiques with ‘normative Islam’. We fail to acknowledge that many of these ideas, like feminism, are complicated thought-structures that cannot be reduced or equivocated with punch-line assumpti

Contentment: The status only perspective can bring This piece seeks to explore how the human mind works when it comes to the perception of wealth and luxuries. Many people exert much effort and spend much time dreaming of a bigger house, or a nicer car, or a newer phone, or a faster computer and so on. But the problem is that for the human mind it doesn’t matter what you get, because in the end your brain will grow accustomed to it and it will be as plain in your eyes as any wrinkly old shirt in your closet. The problem is that everything we have today is actually  a step up from something else . A big house is a step up from a small apartment, and a small apartment is a step up from homelessness. An iPhone 8 is a step up from a old Nokia flip phone, and an old Nokia flip phone is a step up from only having a landline. A new Land Rover is a step up from an old Corolla, and an old Corolla is a step up from having to ride a horse across hundreds of kilometres to get to wher

The companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), the  Ṣaḥ āba h,  hold a truly special place in the history of Islam.  Whether one considers the most famous of them or even those that are perhaps less well known, their steadfastness, sacrifice, commitment and devotion is truly unparalleled.  It should be of no surprise that they are credited with having the accolade ‘may Allah be pleased with him/her’ after the very mention of their name. Explicit praise is given to the  Ṣaḥ āba h  in the text of the Qur’ān itself, where Allah says: والسابقون الأولون من المهاجرين والأنصار والذين اتبعوهم بإحسان رضي الله عنهم ورضوا عنه وأعد لهم جنات تجري تحتها الأنهار خالدين فيها أبدا ذلك الفوز العظيم And (as for) the foremost, the first of the Muh ā jireen and the An ṣ ā r, and those who followed them in goodness, Allah is well pleased with them and they are well pleased with Him, and He has prepared for them gardens beneath which rivers flow, to abide in them forever; that is

…A time will come upon men, when their men of understanding (fuqah ā)  are few but their Qur’ ā n reciters are many; when the letters of the Qur’ ā n are guarded carefully but its boundaries are lost, when many ask but few give, when they make the sermon long but the prayer short, and put their desires before their actions. The statement has been attributed to the companion Abdallah bin Mas’ud.  Whilst not a Prophetic statement, its description of times to come is truly insightful (1).  Our present age is truly one of peculiarities.  That hardly seems a surprise given what we have been foretold about events that would come to pass within the revelation.  Amongst the many oddities of the age, we seem to be witnessing the increasing rise in the use of the soundbite.  Often it is used with the rubric of motivational quotes, general aphorisms or even catchy one-liners, its prevalence has become quite staggering. That is not to suggest that the use of  any  form of soundbite, motivat