Islamic Revival

I’m wishing my brothers and sisters – a belated productive and Khair [Good]-filled New Year! 1441 Hijri. Yesterday was the beginning of the New Year, 1441! That’s right, 1441 years have passed since the Prophet Muhammed (SAAW) made his historic hijra (migration) from Makkah to Yathrib, setting up the first Islamic State and society, to be known simply as “The City” (Al-Madinah). Now while Muslims are not commanded to celebrate the new year of the lunar calendar used by the Prophet Muhammed (SAAW), a new calendar year – as any event that occurs upon Muslims, should be used to reflect on our relationship with our Creator, Allah (SWT), through our personal rituals, our personal development as His servants, and our relationship with the Ummah. Most Muslims today would greatly benefit from reflection upon the origins of the Hijri calendar. You see, the Christians celebrate their New Year based upon a Gregorian calendar they borrowed from the Romans but setting their dat

From The Thinking Muslim Podcast: https://anchor.fm/thethinkingmuslim/episodes/Understanding-Indias-Citizenship-Law-with-Dr-Asher-Siddiqui-Delhi-e9ubks   "This week I speak to Dr Asher Siddiqui , an engineer from Delhi who has been at the epicentre of the  protests at Delhi’s Jamia Millia University. During the past two weeks, India has been rocked by countrywide demonstrations spontaneously driven by largely young Muslim’s energised by their mutual dislike for a new citizenship law designed to relegate Muslim’s as second class citizens. The law, the Citizenship Amendment Act, enables the state to fast track the citizenship of migrants but significantly omits Muslim’s. The fear is this is another step in dismantling the rights of Muslims of India." Follow the programme on Twitter @thinking_muslim https://twitter.com/thinking_muslim Join the Thinking Muslim Course - visit thinkingmuslim.eventbrite.co.uk

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 Pehlu Kh