from 7th January, 2009 …
I met Abdel-Bari Atwan of Al-Quds newspaper in the BBC studio that morning. He did several interviews over the Gaza crisis that was raging at the time. The Israeli ambassador in London was also interviewed on the programme.
BBC Radio 4 Thought for the Day 7-Jan-09 (Islam and Evolution)
Presentation delivered at The Times’ Cheltenham Science Festival, 3-7 June 2009, Session: Faith in Evolution, Thursday 4th June 2009.
Magnificent composition by the author and fantastic translation by the late Prof. A.J. Arberry of Cambridge.
Astronomical Aubade – Ibn Hani
Islamic Astronomical Poetry (Powerpoint slides)
… by my father, 11 principles given.
A brief history and overview of Islam in Japan by Sheikh Dr. Salih al-Samarrai.
Biographical note: Sheikh Samarra’i is originally from Samarra’ (pronounced Saa-marr-raa’) in Iraq, as his name suggests. Around the 1950’s, he was studying at the Agricultural University in Faisalabad, Pakistan, which claimed to be the largest agricultural university in Asia when I visited it in the 1980’s. (Impressive: instead of high-tech buildings and labs, one of the most important resource is vast fields growing different crops!) At that time, my grandfather was living in Faisalabad with his children and Sheikh Samarra’i was one of my father’s Arabic teachers during this period.
Under Saddam Hussein throughout the 70’s and 80’s, Iraq persecuted the Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) so Sheikh Samarra’i went to Japan, where he helped set up the Islamic centre. He later held a professorial position at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, in the department of agriculture, since his PhD was in that field.
I first met Sheikh Samarra’i when I accompanied my father to KAA University when he went to visit his old sheikh around 1990. I still remember the imam of the university prayer room reading out ahadith from Riyad al-Salihin after one of the afternoon prayers. The prayer room was packed with faculty and other staff. I was into the hardcore salafism of the JIMAS variety at that time (JIMAS of 20 years ago, that is), which my father mentioned to Sheikh Samarra’i, who said to me, “We need constructive criticism, not the destructive type.” He also said, “Coming together is goodness, all of it. Splitting apart is harmful, all of it (al-tajammu’ kulluhu khayr, wa l-tafarruq kulluhu sharr).” We had dinner at his house, where I met two of his sons. The eldest is called Qutaybah, and it was the first time I’d met someone with that lovely name.
Some years later, they visited us in London. Once, I introduced Abu Muntasir to Sheikh Samarra’i at our house in Tottenham. The Saudi-based Iraqi professor was dressed in a suit and tie, whilst we British Muslims were in robes and turbans. He immediately said that since we were living in the West, we had to adopt local dress. At the time, we immediately dismissed this as “a typical Ikhwani inferiority complex” in our youthful boisterousness and arrogance. How times have changed! 🙂
Sheikh Samarra’i later retired from KAAU and returned to Japan to head up the Islamic Centre again. As far as I know, he is still there.
Almost unbelievably, many traditional scholars, even in Western and other non-Arab lands, still hold that the Friday sermon must be given entirely in Arabic, and (for some) that the Friday prayers are invalid otherwise! Here is a very concise fatwa from the late Shaykh Ibn Baz of Saudi Arabia that confirms a more reasonable and common-sense position, i.e. that the Friday sermon must be understandable to the audience and therefore must be given in whichever language or language(s) that helps to achieve this aim.
In 1998 while I was living in Portsmouth, I had a discussion with some traditionally-trained imams and khatibs from the Indian sub-continent over this issue. They were adamant that it was not permitted to use a language other than Arabic in the Friday sermon.
I also have in my possession a published fatwa of the respected Mufti Taqi Usmani of Pakistan supporting the latter view based on the Hanafi and other schools of law. He even says in this fatwa that “the purpose of the Friday sermon is not to remind or admonish, but for the community to hear a recited Arabic sermon” (my paraphrase). To me, this is excessive traditionalism that is utterly unreasonable, and based on merely copying fathers and forefathers. However, that is an old fatwa and I do hope that the esteemed Shaykh Taqi Usmani has moved on from it or retracted it. Does anyone know if he has?
Of course, those who stick to Arabic-only khutbahs in non-Arabic congregations usually have a discourse (bayan) beforehand in English, Urdu, Bengali or other local language. This serves the purpose of teaching and admonition, but the rules of the sermon (khutbah) do not apply: e.g. people can talk amongst themselves during the discourse and do not have to listen attentively. Sidi Ahmad Thomson once told me that another method they used to use at the Ihsan Mosque in Norwich was for the sermon to be Arabic-only but that it was translated into English after the prayer, because they thought Maliki law prohibited non-Arabic sermons. Those who wished to understand what was said would therefore need to stay for another session after the sermon and prayer. I firmly believe that the best method, and the one closest to the Sunnah (in its spirit, without dry legalism or madhhabism) is to combine Arabic (especially for quoting the Qur’an, Hadith, etc.) with the local language(s), and that is the method we have employed at Tawhid Mosque ever since it was founded in the 1980’s. Regent’s Park Mosque have always used this method also, ever since I can remember attending Friday prayers there as a child in the 1970’s. Remember, the issue of Latin-only Bibles and Sunday Masses vs. local languages was one of the issues during the Christian Reformation. Deja vu? Friday sermons in non-Arabic languagesChapter One of Imam Ibn al-Qayyim’s book explaining the Qur’anic oaths. Any volunteers for translating the rest of the book? 😉
PAPER MONEY – Islamic Legal Analysis
Selected excerpts translated from the book, which is a discussion & analysis by Sheikh Abdullah b. Sulayman b. Mani’, now a member of the Council of Senior Islamic Scholars (Lajnah Kibar al-‘Ulama’) of Saudi Arabia. The version I’ve used is the author’s original Master’s thesis – this was later expanded into a bigger book.
With the current chaos in the financial markets, it is especially urgent in our times to re-evaluate our financial, monetary and banking systems. A critique of fiat money, token money, paper money and electronic money is long overdue. This text may be helpful in providing Islamic viewpoints to the discussion. Other resources I recommend are The Creature from Jekyll Island by Edward Griffin (a gripping read!), Tarek el-Diwany’s The Problem with Interest and his website Islamic Finance (www.islamic-finance.com), and the cartoon film Money as Debt.
Socrates taught, “Know thyself!” and similar teachings are found in the Old and New Testaments, and undoubtedly in other faith traditions. The Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) is reported to have taught, “Whoever knows himself knows his Lord.” The following analyses of this hadith by Imam Ibn Taymiyyah of Syria (d. 728 H) and Imam Suyuti of Egypt (d. 911 H) would suggest that although the hadith is questionable in its authenticity, its meaning is undoubtedly correct for it is implied in the Koran. Furthermore, the early Salaf and Sufis were in no doubt that it is a central teaching of Islam.
Interesting explanation of the idea of the “Muhammadan reality” (al-haqiqah al-Muhammadiyyah) from Imam Ibn Taymiyyah (661-728 H)!
In the mysticism of other faith traditions, the roles of Moses, Christ, Buddha, etc. correspond to the Muhammadan role here.
UNITY 