Islamic Revival

Dr. Ovamir Anjum’s recent piece for the Yaqeen Institute entitled “Who wants the Caliphate?” is certainly worth a read. It is a fairly substantial long-read for an internet article, so to summarise just a few of the points I found interesting; please note there is much more in the article than what I mention below, these are just some initial points to spark your interest in reading the article for yourself. 1. The desire amongst Muslims for a Caliphate is only growing, due to the failure of the current nation-states and the neo-liberal order which is enforced by the current unrepresentative regimes across the Middle East region and beyond. The emergence and fall of ISIS has increased this desire, juxtaposing what a bad version of a claim to a caliphate looks like with the ideal. 2. This failure is not limited to the Middle East – the whole world is currently experiencing the fallout from the failure of the current world order, as highlighted by growing inequality etc. 3. He addr...

In this video, we discuss the framework behind reviewing the age of Aisha (RA). We then take a look at the matter with respect to the Hadith, Seerah, History, and Fiqh. By: Iyad Hilal.

Numerous well known scholars have become interlocutors for the current regimes across the Middle East and Muslim countries, forsaking leadership of the oppressed in the name of a wisdom they claim monopoly over, promoting a perversion of normative Islamic thought under the guise of a traditional Islam that they have ceased to represent, if they ever did. “The scholars are the inheritors of the Prophets” Much has been written, by scholars and others, regarding the prohibition in Islamic jurisprudence of intentionally killing civilians. This has generally been considered an abuse of differences within the Islamic tradition regarding the rules and conduct of armed conflict ( jihad ). Consequently, those groups and individuals who carry out and subsequently try to justify such actions with reference to that tradition are cast as perversions completely outside of the bounds of legitimate Islamic rulings ( ijtihad ). This is unsurprising, as generally the underlying cause ...

If Islam be denied political agency because it is too inconvenient, then surely by the same principle, the rest of Islam be also denied when inconvenient also. And when the voice of Islam that resides in the minds of Muslims, be also deemed inconvenient due to the insufferable dissonance between absence of action and Islam’s persistent exhortation to obligation, application and resolution of the affairs of the believer and the community of believers – it too shall be exorcised in the name of the same principle by which Islam was denied any political agency in the first place – inconvenience. Over time, the muffled and mostly silenced voice of Islam will be (mis)taken for an absence of the ability of Islam, and therefore God – to ever address and resolve worldly problems. Forgotten will be the reasons for the cause of the inconvenience, those who created and maintained it, who imposed and guarded it – the guns of foreign powers, the whip wielded by colonially created ruling elite...

Source:  https://medium.com/@thinkingmuslim Modi’s surprise actions in Kashmir after repealing Article 370 was influenced by a worldview that has seized India, Hindutva, a rabid form of nationalism that is built upon a grand conceit. For Hindu nationalists, Islam is the problem and its place in any future India is for it to be subdued, depoliticised and chastened by the power of the state and the braying of the mob. It is a necessary doctrine Modi has encouraged to create a direction for his country to provide purpose and meaning for what many Indian’s today call its historical moment . Modi has attempted to patch together a ‘grand narrative’ about the country, as he aspires to develop India into a regional power. Like most ultra-nationalists, focussing upon a perceived enemy within and an enemy next door enables a national sentiment for national progression. In this regard, Hindutva shares a lot with 1930’s European fascism. The mob lynching of Pehl...

شرح (الرسالة للإمام الشافعي رحمه الله) درس : ١ Part 1 of a series by Dr Shaykh Shu'ayb ibn Mukhtar explaining the great work on the foundations of Islamic jurisprudence, Al-Risala of Imam Shafi (rh). The video is in the Urdu language.

The Book of Monotheism Kit ā b ut-Tawḥeed: The Basis of Islam and the Reality of Monotheism, occupies a unique place amongst contemporary Islamic works. Volume 1 is now published and is the first book in the series. The book is the magnum opus of Professor Muḥammad ibn Abdullah al-Mas’ari (may Allah preserve him), and has been rendered into English for the first time. The work represents an in-depth study into the very root origins of Islam, the essential nature of Tawḥeed .  Coupled with that, it tackles head on not only the age-old problem concerning the precise nature of worship ( ibādah ) and polytheism ( shirk ), but also how these topics correspond to contemporary issues like ruling, governance and allegiance. Liberated from confused ill-disciplined divisions, primacy throughout the work is given to the original textual sources: the Qur’an and the Prophetic Sunnah .  By returning to the original textual sources many of the phantasms that have plagued Isl...