Islamic Revival

Idries de Vries Sheikh Yusuf, Your appearance at Tahrir Square on the 18 th  of February 2011 during the height of what has been named the “Arab Spring”, and the warm reception given to you at the time by the hundreds of thousands who had gathered there confirmed your status as one of the most influential contemporary scholars of Islam. For the sharp observer, it also made clear that this “Arab Spring” has always been about more than just removal of tyrannical rulers. As an Islamic scholar, by name, for decades, you have been calling for a system change in Egypt – not just for the removal of a tyrant or change in regime. Therefore, the fact that the protest movement welcomed you to lead them in Jumu’ah Prayer signaled that they too stood for a system change. As a consequence, ever since this day, your opinions on the issue of government and governance have been given more attention than probably ever before. The Muslim mind is not yet clear about what is to replace the oppressive a

By Imam Abu Yusuf (d. 182 AH / 798 AD) When 'Umar ibn Abd al Aziz died, the learned men came to his wife to express sympathy and say how great a calamity had struck the people of Islam by his death. And they said to her, 'Tell us about him - for the one who knows best about a man is his wife'. And she said: "Indeed he never used to pray or fast more than the rest of you, but I never saw a servant of God who feared Him more than 'Umar. He devoted his body and his soul to the people. All day he would sit tending to their affairs, and when night came he would sit up while business remained. One evening when he had finished everything, he called for his lamp - from which he used to buy the oil from his own money - and prayed two prostrations. Then he sat back on his folded legs, with his chin in his hands, and the tears ran down from his cheeks, and this didn't stop until dawn, when he rose for a day of fasting. I said to him, 'Commander of the Believers, w

The Post-colonial era saw the Muslim World being introduced to governance structures and ideas which were born and developed in Western Europeand introduced to the Muslim world as a legacy of the colonial rulers. Decades since colonialists ended their physical occupation of Muslim Lands, the Muslim World finds itself engaged in the fundamental debate about governance models and structures and the political, economic, and social ideas on which these structures should be built. To the frustration of many, the debate seems to linger on endlessly and an intellectual stalemate seems to have dominated it for decades.  Hence, the intellectual progression in the Muslim World has been held hostage to this stalemate, leaving the Muslim World in a state of confusion and uncertainty due to lack of clear vision and direction. This in turn has lead to the economic, political, and social stagnation and instability in the Muslim World. At one end of the debate is a small group of liberal elite – con

The following is the introduction of the upcoming English translation of the book 'The Son - With his Father and Mother' by Sheikh Yousuf Baadarani (May Allah protect him) from Revival Publications .  Introduction Young and as an adult, I was near my father and mother, I could do without this world and its comforts. My father (May Allah (swt) have mercy upon him) was one of life's great schools. He was merciful to people and with them as if he was a walking heart, pure and purified of wickedness and meanness in his speech and deeds. He lived eighty years with a pure tongue, no one ever heard him utter an obscene word. In his eighty years no one knew him to have done a bad thing, always abstaining from anything improper, striving to do good and reconciling adversaries. He used to speak to me about his relationship with his father, how he had raised him, and how he did obey his father. May Allah (swt) have mercy upon him, he had no mother for she died when he was an inf

The celebration of Christmas or any of the holidays and occasions of the Kuffar is certainly Haram in Islam. Muslims are not permitted to celebrate them at all since it is considered an imitation of the Kuffar. Imitating the Kuffar in any of their religious affairs or in any gesture that distinguishes them is forbidden. Al-Bukhari narrated in his Sahih that Abu Said Al-Khudri (ra) reported that the Messenger of Allah (Sallalahu Alaihi Wasallam) said: “You will indeed follow the ways of those before you, hand span by hand span, and an arms length after another. Even if they enter into a lizard’s hole, you will follow them.” We asked, “Is it the Jews and the Christians” He (Sallalahu Alaihi Wasallam) replied, “Who else!” This hadith condemns the imitation of the Jews and the Christians. It is an evidence for the prohibition of imitating the Jews and the Christians in their religious occasions, symbols or any matter related to their belief. Celebrating Christmas is an act of imita