To all those enquiring, this blog will indeed be quiet for the next month whilst I am away - your du'as are requested as always.

The fiqh lessons will resume at the end of December insha'Allah. As for Season II of al-Adab al-Mufrad then we hope to start around the end of January 2007 insha'Allah - please visit the PG website in a few weeks time (currently under construction) for the latest update on start dates (www.PropheticGuidance.co.uk).

Finally, please take advantage of a blessed gathering of scholars and professionals at the IMEF Conference this weekend, including a rare appearance from one of the leading scholars in the West, Shaykh 'Awadulla al-Azhari. Visit www.imef.org.uk for more information.

Enjoy (but benefit)!

For the craicket aficionados...

An interview with the Spin Legend
By Robin Martin-Jenkins, reproduced with kind permission from The Wisden Cricketer.
This article will appear in the November issue on sale Friday 13 October.

In the chaotic aftermath of Sussex’s Championship-clinching match at Trent Bridge I am witnessing the scenes from the dressing-room balcony. There are 400 or so Sussex supporters waving flags and smiling. Some sing, others chatter excitedly. Cameras flash at me from all angles and the air smells of beer and champagne. People shout congratulations and thanks but I’m not out here to milk the applause. I’m looking for a little bearded legspinner to interview.

As in the Where’s Wally? books I had as a child I keep on seeing glimpses of features that fit; a beard here, a Sussex shirt there but no Mushtaq Ahmed. Then I see a pack of media men surrounding someone. Like hyenas at a fresh kill they are pressing in on him with tape recorders and cameras. He is undeniably the man of the moment. Ten minutes ago he took his 102nd first-class wicket of the summer to help Sussex clinch our second Championship title in four seasons. Mushtaq was, of course, the pivotal player in both successes but it is not just with his bowling that he has helped to bring silverware to the club. His bubbly personality has rubbed off on everyone at Sussex and his strong commitment to his Muslim faith and the discipline that goes with it has been an eye-opener for many of our players, both young and old.

Before he came to Sussex in 2003 I had seen him bowl many times for Pakistan, most memorably in the 1992 World Cup final when he bamboozled Graeme Hick with a magnificent googly. I had also played against him in my second ever Sunday League match in 1995. I faced two balls from him. The first was a big legbreak that beat my forward prod by several inches. The second was a bit shorter and I made room to cut only to see the undetected googly fizz back and hit my off stump before I could bring my bat even halfway down. I felt a fool but need not have done. Hick had fallen the same way and since Mushy has played for Sussex I have seen what is surely the best googly in cricket do for scores of batsmen, some considerably better players than me.

When he finally gets back to the dressing room I am dubious that he will grant me yet another interview. I ask him for a few words. Someone pops a champagne bottle and sprays it around the room. Mushy ducks his head under his jumper to protect his vow of alcoholic abstinence and beckons me outside. I reckon I have got my man.

Robin Martin-Jenkins Do you feel safer out here, Mushy?
Mushtaq Ahmed Absolutely, Mr Tucker (his usual method of address; a Mr followed by a nickname). Much more of this and I won’t be able to call myself a proper Muslim.

RMJ You look tired but happy as you should be after winning the Championship for the second time in four years.
MA Yes, and thank you to Allah who actually gave us this victory. If you pray to him and ask him for success, he will give you success. It’s been a team effort and I’m very, very happy.

RMJ Is this a better feeling than in 2003 when we won?
MA In a sense, yes, because when we did it once everyone said it was a one-off season and then Sussex weren’t going to win ever again. Now we’ve won two trophies in a season people will say there has to be something special about this side. We’ve beaten plenty of really good teams this year.

RMJ And we’ve had fun this year.
MA Definitely. I’ve loved my time at Sussex. I came here at the right time in my life. I love the family atmosphere at the club. People care about each other more than the performances. I feel like it’s my second home. People respect me here and I want to perform 100% for them in return.

RMJ Do you and your family like Brighton?
MA We love it. It’s a good spot with the beach and pier. There’s lots of things for them to do and that takes the pressure off me because I know they can go out on their own and enjoy their life.

RMJ You should get a job with the Brighton tourist board when you finish cricket. When you play at places like Leicester and Edgbaston you have many friends come and watch but in Brighton there is a very small Muslim community.
MA But this actually helps my cricket. When I finish the game I just want to go home, relax and enjoy my family and my home.

RMJ And eat pizza.
MA Exactly. I don’t want to be distracted by friends asking me out all the time.

RMJ When you play for Pakistan you have many other devout Muslims around you. Here at Sussex we have quite a secular-minded team. Is that ever a serious problem for you?
MA I’ve never had a problem with it at Sussex. Whenever I want to pray in the dressing room you guys give me space, you turn the music off and you put clothes on if you’re walking past to the showers. All these things help me to worship. I think you all know my first priority is to my religion.

RMJ I think we respect you because the discipline involved in your worship is so alien to most of us and we are genuinely interested in Islam as it’s having such a big impact on the world at the moment.
MA I love it when you guys ask me questions about it. Why do you pray five times a day? Why do you read the Koran? In this way we can share information about our faiths. I think it’s great that 90% of the Sussex dressing room now knows what proper Islam is all about. It can only help in the longer term.

RMJ And it’s obviously helped your cricket. You are a much more consistent bowler now than in your pre-Muslim days.
MA My naughty days?

RMJ Yes, your naughty days in which you have given us so many tantalising glimpses of what you got up to without ever revealing what really went on. Don’t you miss all that champagne being drunk in the dressing room?
MA (ignoring my last question with a smile on his face) My faith has definitely helped my cricket. Big time. I’ve talked a lot about it in my book Twenty20 Vision that’s coming out soon.

RMJ Nice plug.
MA Thanks. But seriously, I’m not worried about tomorrow any more. I’m worried about now. And I’m not worried about now even because I know it’s not in my hands. All I have to do is work hard and do the right things and I know Allah will provide bread and butter for my family.

RMJ Would that be naan bread and butter?
MA Yes. And the odd pizza. But if I treat people well, forgive them, don’t take revenge, don’t talk behind people’s backs – all these things help to build up a positive personality and with that I become a positive player. That, and the discipline, has helped my game.

RMJ The discipline?
MA It helps my temperament. If I get hit for four now I think to myself ‘it doesn’t matter actually’ because there’s more to life. So the next ball I’m back on the spot.

RMJ You obviously live for cricket, and your commitment to county cricket, both here and when you were at Somerset, has been immense. You must have seen changes in the way the game is played over the years. When I first joined the Sussex staff we had no pre-season training programmes, for example, and the second-team boys were not allowed in the first-team dressing room without the permission of the captain.
MA There is much more professionalism in county cricket now. People are more into fitness.

RMJ Even you?
MA Ha, ha. Well I still do it in my own special way but I have to follow the lead of everyone else and that means working more on fitness than the old days. The other big difference is that most teams bat all the way down to 10 or 11 now. You don’t get tailenders as such. Everyone puts a price on their wicket. There’s so much more at stake on the cricket now:much more prize money, trying not to get relegated. Every day vital points are at stake and so every day is a tough day. This toughness is definitely showing through with results for the England team.

RMJ So have two divisions been the biggest factor in this improvement?
MA I think so. All the coaches, captains and players want to play first division to play against the best.

RMJ And what about from a spinner’s perspective? Have English players become better players of spin?
MA Definitely. You can see the results. They recently drew a Test series in India. India have been lethal at home, beating Australia a couple of times. These players have faced a diet of much better spinners in county cricket in recent years. Murali, Shane Warne, Saqlain. Take Mr Strauss. He scored a brilliant hundred against us at Hove just before he started playing for England. He will have played against these spinners and that would have given him experience and confidence this summer against Pakistan.

RMJ He was out to Danish Kaneria only twice this summer – once past 100 and once past 50. Does this mean you don’t advocate overseas players because the England players can get used to them and then perform better against them on the international stage?
MA But it goes both ways. You can’t clap with one hand. People have played me better in county cricket the more they have faced me but I still got 100 wickets this year. Why is that? Because I have come up with game plans for them too. We can learn about England player’s weaknesses as well and then it depends who is cleverer and who uses the information the best. But the advantages that overseas players bring to English cricket far outweigh the disadvantages. Far. The passion, experience and skills they bring rub off on young people here. How many youngsters at Hampshire want to bowl like Shane Warne now?

RMJ Talking of which, I saw you chatting to Warne when we played Hampshire. Do you get on well with him?
MA We have a lot of respect for each other. When we played each other in Test cricket we used to share ideas with each other. I’d show him a googly and he’d talk about his big legspinner.

RMJ When I faced him, I could pick his googly quite easily. When I face you in the nets I can pick you only some of the time (Mushy looks at me doubtfully). I’ve seen good players of spin, like Andy Flower, struggle to pick you. How come Shane Warne has nearly 700 Test wickets and you have only 180?
MA I was dropped from the Pakistan side when Saqlain was bowling well. I had one bad game and I was left out. My confidence dropped big time. Confidence is such a big thing in cricket, especially for a spinner. Shane Warne has always played in a winnning team with great bowlers around him. Maybe if I’d played as many Test matches as him I’d have been able to take as many wickets.

RMJ Young English spinners haven’t had many role models in recent times but they’ve got a big one now in Monty Panesar. What do you feel about his impact on the English game?
MA I think he can become a world-class match winner. If he combines with Flintoff, Harmison and the others, England are always going to believe they can beat anyone. He adds to their belief and that’s what winning is all about. Belief.

RMJ In county cricket now it is the spinners that are winning matches. Go back 10 or 20 years and it was the fast bowlers. It used to be Marshall, Holding and Garner. Now it’s Mushtaq, Murali and Warne.
MA Captains have realised they can bowl their spinners all day whereas the fast bowlers get tired and aren’t so effective against the tail. And you know another reason for this? The weather. It used to be cold and the wickets would seam in April, May, June and then again in September. Nowadays it’s much warmer and the wickets are drier throughout the year.

RMJ So global warming has been good for you. You should be encouraging people to burn more fossil fuels.
MA I think there’d be more money for spinners in the game then.

RMJ How much longer have you got playing the game?
MA The day I’m a liability in the field, or the day I stop enjoying the pre-match football, then I’ll stop.

RMJ And become Pakistan coach, after your stint as assistant last winter?
MA Inshallah.

Just how do the Shawafi' travel on the London Underground??

In fact, if it wasn't for Kebabish and East London Mosque, who needs London anyway...

Ay na'm.

:-)

إِن يَمْسَسْكُمْ قَرْحٌ فَقَدْ مَسَّ الْقَوْمَ قَرْحٌ مِّثْلُهُ وَتِلْكَ الأيَّامُ نُدَاوِلُهَا بَيْنَ النَّاسِ وَلِيَعْلَمَ اللّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَيَتَّخِذَ مِنكُمْ شُهَدَاء وَاللّهُ لاَ يُحِبُّ الظَّالِمِينَ

"If a wound hath touched you, be sure a similar wound hath touched the others. Such days (of varying fortunes) We give to men and men by turns: that Allah may know those that believe, and that He may take to Himself from your ranks Martyrs. And Allah loveth not those that do wrong." (3:140)


I've been thinking about this ayah over the last week after receiving a few emails about different people.

The first email was concerning the most recent attempt to revive the case for the freeing of Sheikh 'Ali Timimi - visit here - which is a noble effort to help free someone who has been instrumental in helping Muslims to come closer to Allah. No doubt his imprisonment was a blow to the da'wah.

Arguably a bigger setback was that of Anwar Awlaki, a more 'mainstream' Da'ee, who has just been imprisoned in Yemen in the latest act of the War Against Truth. I remember fondly the days when we would reminisce over Shatibi's Muwaffaqat, something which I (sold out and) left studying to return back to England whereas he carried on and completed it under his illustrious teacher. May Allah give him and his family hope, patience and strength, Ameen.

His da'wah has been touching hearts for many years now and this act of oppression from the world's puppets, the latest of just a continuous worldwide attempt to kill off and imprison Muslims by proxy in every 'Muslim' country in the world, will shock many of us in the West who benefitted so much from his exposition on the Sirah and other aspects of Islam.

But that's always the way - nothing has changed. 'Ulema, du'at and tullab al-'ilm all the way down to basic Muslims who have a concern for the fellow people and call them to what is right, have always faced struggles in their da'wah. No-one lives for ever. People come and go, da'wah peaks and troughs, good times with the bad, ease with difficulty, indeed as He said, "Such days (of varying fortunes) We give to men and men by turns..."

I suppose all us old-timers have to probably water down our shows even more, and if not then get ready for the slammer (or even worse if you get caught outside the West in a Muslim country by-proxy of course). The only problem is...how do you water down water?

A lot of noise is being made about Shaykh Hamza and how much he 'watered down' his da'wah post 9-11 (often confused for maturity of thought), yet you have deviant 'Muslims' appearing from all corners condemning Shaykh Hamza for being extremist. My goodness me.

Moral of the story: hold your nerve, stick to your Deen, and don't compromise. Or at the very least, make Yasir Arafat proud: "The mountains are never shaken by the wind!"

Alternatively, maybe us old dogs should step aside and let the new blood come through with a new twist. The third email showed me what could well possibly be the future direction of da'wah in the interim at least; young Muslim lads presenting a simple easy form of the Deen with a giggle and a google - you can't help but admire the efforts of lads like these.

Watch the latest example of their offering here.

Finally, remember one thing: it's one of His greatest blessings upon us that the work of da'wah and its results are not in our hands, but in His, jalla wa 'ala. Alhamdulillah, the last time I checked, the Qur'an was still there on the table so things aren't too bad...

May Allah accept the Shuhada', may He hasten the release of those wrongly imprisoned and may He strengthen us all to remain firm and patient upon His Path, Ameen.

This was sent to me by my old friend Imam Tahir Anwar, although how he heard about this in sunny California before I did (and I live on that forsaken motorway and surrounding areas!) beats me...

:-)



A Musalla for Musafirs.

In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Most Beneficient.

By the Grace of Allah, a local charity in Preston has become instrumental in an enduring project aiming to provide muslims travelling across the UK the opportunity to offer daily prayers at motorway services.

Directors at Hilton Park services have granted a license to a Preston based charity to occupy a special designated room for prayer purposes equipped with ablution facilities at the popular M6 Hilton Park Services.

A Prayer Room facility – A Musalla

Hilton Park services at Junction 10A off the M6 is notably the first service station in the UK to offer a prayer room with ablution facilities starting from December 10th 2006. The project has been an objective of the charitable trust for quite some time, and it is with the grace of Allah that permission has been granted by the service operator to provide such a needed amenity.

Peace of Mind for Travellers - Musafirs

For many years, Muslims were unable to find suitable praying or washing facilities at the UK’s service stations. Quite often, Muslims were forced to offer prayer outside the services where they could find a bare patch at the car park or nook behind the buildings. Futhermore, they found it difficult to perform ablution in the toilet washbasins particularly during busy periods- which caused inconvenience to regular users who find individuals removing their socks and placing bare feet into washbasins unsightly.

A Local Charity Project.

The local charity trust aims to acquire more locations for prayers at crucial motorway service locations across the UK. This project of many intends to alleviate the problems faced by Muslims who have been unable to offer prayer at a convenient and safe place on the UK’s Motorway network – inshAllah, Ameen.

Now before you smirk, remember two things:

1. The only reason that such a picture exists is because the apnai are driving all the taxis or claiming all the dole this country can muster.

2. It's no good smiling whilst the very same Polish bloke in the picture is currently plastering your extension - whilst you stand over his shoulder and try and pretend to be busy and important...

And that means you Q.

:-)

From Hood. Nice. Masha'Allah.


The animals and the Ark

Rendered to the English by Hood Bradford
from the original Arabic of Ahmad Shawqi



When Noah’s Ark was done, water ensued to swell,

Divine assistance came to move its hefty hull.

And then inside a sight than no one thought to see,

The waves had not splashed out upon the open sea

Until you saw the Lion stroll as donkey’s pal.

A cat he frolicked, mice caressing on his tail

And elephants they listened so, they could not bore,

to foul sounds of comfort that came from the Boar.

The feline race, it raced up to the Canine’s side.

The wolf’s fang now for sheep to love & kiss in pride.

Gazelles they leaped to reach up to the vultures height,

While ants they met with aardvarks almost every night.

Small chicks they groomed the foxes coat so ever soft.

The rabbit’s love then tamed the weasel’s wily craft.

So old disputes were squashed and thought as never so,

and jubilation spread within the Ark below.

Until the day that great ship onto Judi lay.

And all in it ‘came certain of another day.

Returned they did to former tendencies and ways,

And took upon themselves the mode of long-gone days.

So correlate to this the likeness of mankind

When danger strikes and hazard fills the heart and mind

But yet you only see from them such struggle, strife

For most of them they live a sort of normal life…