Muharram is marked in many places by chest-thumping, flagellating crowds and processions that leave traffic jams and chaos in their wake. People make special sweets and dishes and line streets with streamers and lamps, to the extent that non-Muslims mistake these ceremonies for a celebration and might even wish Muslims “Happy Muharram”! While many Muslims…...
Muslims are spending a great deal of their time online – according to Professor Gary Bunt, author of ‘Virtually Islamic’ and ‘Islam in the Digital Age’, there are over a 100 million Muslims online globally – and the line between ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ life is getting blurred for many…....
“And indeed, We have made the Qur’an easy for remembrance, then is there any that will remember (receive admonition)?” (Qur’an, 54: 17) THIS is just one verse out of numerous in the Qur’an that points to the universality of the Qur’anic message and the fact that it is easy to understand and remember; “an Arabic…...
DO you know that scientists have recently found that eating less leads to a healthier and longer life? And that eating less is exactly what the Prophet ﷺ recommended 14 centuries ago? Isn’t that amazing?! Sometime ago I read about an interesting clinical trial that was underway at Washington University in Boston, called ‘Calerie’ (Comprehensive…...
WE’VE all heard stories from the lives of the early Muslims with regard to their patience in poverty, their Zuhd (abstinence) and their general disdain for the trappings of this worldly life. Yet in this age of plenty, our problem is dealing with excess, not figuring out how to make do with less, and this…...
I knew I had to get across to you somehow when you wouldn’t answer phone calls or emails and text messages. When you wouldn’t come over for lunch or dinner or even a cup of tea when invited, much less drop in uninvited like you used to. I just want to tell you: I know…...
THIS Monday, as I was skimming through my Facebook feed, I read: “Goodbye to all my dear friends and family that I love”. Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old American diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, died on Saturday night and wrote her final message : “Goodbye to all my dear friends and family that I love. Today…...
The graffiti reads, “Allah’s Messenger ﷺ said: Haya is a branch of faith.” For a generation that has been brought up on risqué offerings from Hollywood and Bollywood, music channels, TV soaps and talk shows, suggestive advertisements and explicit content on the Internet, the Islamic concept of Haya’ might seem like an outdated, impossibly archaic…...
IT is reported that Umar Bin Al-Khattab رضي الله عنه once came out and saw a traveling party and asked, “Who is this traveling party?” They replied, “Pilgrims (on Hajj).” He asked them three times, “And nothing else has brought you forth?” They replied, “Nothing else.” He said, “If the travelers (on Hajj) knew who…...
MOST prominent TV channels have special coverage of the Haj pilgrimage, and thousands of viewers from all over the world tune in to Saudi TV’s live broadcast of the pilgrimage through satellite channels and the Internet. The sight of hundreds of thousands of believers from every nation of the world, united in their intention and…...