"And now, we've got to find out how fast it goes round our track, and that of course means handing it over to our tame racing driver.

Some say he once threw a microwave oven at a tramp.

(Shrug of the shoulders)

And long before anyone else...he realised that Jade Goody was...a racist pig-faced waste of blood and organs.

(Huge applause)

All we know is...he's called The Stig."


No-one puts it like Clarkson.

We said, “Ya Shaykh! Be careful what you say these days otherwise they’ll put you in jail!”

He said, “Don’t worry Ya Ikhwan, they don’t have any space…”

:-)

I just realised that I forgot to wish everyone a Happy New Year for 1428, so I hope everyone can get themselves together and make it a better year all round with plenty of New Year resolutions insha'Allah.

One thing that I'd like to believe is on most peoples' lists is to better their relationship with the Qur'an, whether just more time reading it, or reflecting about it or even hopefully memorising it. Insha'Allah I hope to put up some useful stuff on this in the next few weeks.

Also, let's not forget the blessings and excellence of fasting the 9th and 10th of Muharram, known as Tāsū‘ah and ‘Ashūrā’ for which the reward is well known - not just following the Sunnah of our Prophet (s), but honouring Moses (as) and also getting a year's sins wiped out for free too. Quality.

The 9th and 10th will be Sunday 28th and Monday 29th of January according to Makkah so all the best to you wherever you are.

After just watching CNN's attempt at a documentary entitled "The War Within" i.e. another load of bakwas about the Muslims, I couldn't help but laugh (indeed, I think I became a Dhahhûk...) when Omar Brookes (Abu Izzadeen), trying to work up some steam and put on a good show, comes out with a blunder straight out of "It'll Be Alright On The Night":

"(The Prophet (s) said, "I am al-Dhayyâq al-Qattâl!!"

Err...excuse me?

al-Dhayyâq?!?

Goodness me, what a travesty. May Allah protect our Messenger's honour from the ignorant who claim to follow him, and from those who describe him (sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) with names taken from their own pockets.

Goodness me. Again.

This is for you Jamal Byron:

"What a mess on the Prairie."

'Nuff said.

The Disease of Our Inherent –isms

Once again over the last few weeks, the media has effectively illustrated the bubbling intensity of feeling that lurks within the societal collective, regardless of race, gender or religion.

Call it the disease of the –isms, racism being the most obvious. Sexism and ageism are also sad realities today, Islam treating both subjects carefully. Unfortunately, Islam is also being asked to explain the perceived incidences of anti-Semitism, extremism and possibly egoism from the Dispatches show last week.

Jade Goody’s behaviour in the latest series of Big Brother indicated what some anthropologists call our “inherent racism” – something which I believe that most if not all people suffer from. And it is a widespread disease amongst all people of all ethnicity and religions. It lurks inside and raises its ugly head when our comfort zone is threatened – that zone of normality which we are brought up with from early years to later life. Everyone feels comfortable and relaxed alongside that which you know best and understand. That which we don’t know, the foreign, the strange, the different is always a threat until one makes the effort to overcome that ignorance.

You’ve seen the type that Miss Goody represents. You’ll also know the type that some Pakistani, Indian, Bengali and Somalian Muslim communities in the UK exhibit towards their white neighbours – well, that is when they actually acknowledge said neighbours even exist around them. Everyone feels more secure amongst their ‘own’.

Then you have those who can’t be bothered to make that effort and are happy to wallow in their ignobility, or find solace in the company of like-minded people and delight in their stupidity by playing to the audience with the lowest common denominator: we are the superior, civilised and developed bunch.

It’s amazing to see that Jade has become Public Enemy No. 1, despite the fact that her friends in the house have been as disgraceful and racist, as well as being generally representative of a certain social class under ‘New Labour’ whom we all know have great difficulty in refraining from their prejudices. Even worse was the incredibly ignorant and indeed arrogant statements denying racism by Big Brother and Channel 4, insisting that the general public were all blind stupid monkeys in what we saw – actually, maybe that fits the racism pattern quite well…

Of course, this feeling isn’t restricted to just one country or one race of people. Although Big Brother has illustrated, as correctly observed by some, the widespread reality it is here in the UK, it carries on unabated in the rest of the world. The controversy of a black Presidential candidate called Obama in the US has been well documented. The disgraceful behaviour of Pakistani cricket fans to South African fielders and the pathetic racist behaviour from Herschelle Gibbs and indeed his Captain Graeme Smith is just another example.

Anyway, I don’t want to go on too much about racism. There are some American Muslim bloggers who blog about nothing else. What should be of more interest to the Muslim is the psyche of the one who comes out with such personal and/or racial vitriol. Jade Goody, once in her stride, was away like the clappers. But why did it continue to get worse and worse?

It’s just that the best in a society are those who control their weaknesses and ill feelings; they are those who despite their anger, consider the consequences and keep in control. They are those who when hit by calamity, do not fall for the base emotion of blaming others but have patience. Importantly, as the Prophet (s) pointed out to the Companions, they are those who despite deep-seated prejudices, quell that deviant emotion and do not allow it to ever come to the fore – to get rid of the Jahiliyyah or ignorance of the Pre-Islamic period.

Muslims are fortunate in that we act as if we can see the Lord of all the Worlds in front of us, and if not that then at least have the knowledge that He sees our every action. This helps the Muslim be accountable for his actions, his feelings and his words and reach a higher spiritual satisfaction in this life. Likewise on the flipside, a Muslim runs the grave risk of becoming a hypocrite when acting loosely as if God doesn’t see him and retribution threatens to be severe for him.

I raise this because the reason Jade and her friends continued to get worse and worse in their attacks on the Indian actress, and why Gibbs felt it okay to abuse Pakistanis and why so many people who do crimes of every other kind is simply because they think no-one can see them, no-one can hear them, no-one can find out. In the age of secret cameras (I hope the irony of that is not lost on Jade in a house of hundreds of known cameras), stump-microphones, continuous recording and live broadcasting, we get a fascinating insight into the total lack of responsibility shown by people for their base emotions and prejudices.

Think Dean Jones and his off-camera terrorist remark to Hashim Amla, except that the mic was still on. Think Ron Atkinson and his attack on black players except that again, the mic was still on. Even worse, think of the Gibbs outburst caught on the stump microphone and the unbelievable response by the South African coach Micky Arthur: “Some things should remain private on the field.”

Wrong Mr Arthur - if you can’t purify your soul from your disease, then let it remain private not on the field, but deep and hidden away in the field of your dark heart.

One shouldn't criticise without offering a solution. All of us, whites and blacks, men and women, Muslims and non-Muslims must realise that the solution to our prejudices is to humanise the big “other”, humanise the fear, humanise the “unknown”. Further natural contact between the different people and the pursuit of knowledge about that which you don’t know or are not comfortable with, is the only solution to getting rid of our ignorance and dealing with the disease of many inherent –isms.

It’s amazing how the media (and again, Channel 4), despite how much it is criticised, has so clearly brought this home. A few Muslims would also do well to get to know other non-Muslims and start to act like a responsible person in civil society before labelling certain non-Muslim groups as “dirty”, or likening Jews to snorting pigs and other such inappropriate, unwarranted and most importantly un-Islamic behaviour.

Muslims have a duty to cleanse society of its deviations, whether at the governmental level or the personal and social level. They have an added responsibility to do this in the Prophetic manner; one of wisdom, style, appropriateness, mercy and above all, upholding the common best interests of the community. May we all be guided to such a way.

Many of us will know about the plight of Babar Ahmad and his family at the hands of the "War on Terror", but few will know that he has recently been moved from London to Strangeways, here in Manchester.

Things are tough as they are for Muslim prisoners but Babar is being singled out for specific punishment by the North's finest criminals; may Allah give him patience.

I wish to appeal to my congregation here in Manchester, to my friends, my students, and all others local to the North West - show Babar that we do not forget those who are less fortunate than us in which ever way Allah chooses that to be. The brothers from Hhugs have specifically asked for us to write to Babar so here is his address:

Babar Ahmad
MX 5383
HMP Manchester
Southall Street
Greater Manchester M60 9AH

Don't let us down, wa jazakumullahu khayran.

They’re still asking about Jihad. They always will.

So here it is. The real truth about Jihad and Terrorism.

If that clip doesn’t make you laugh your head off, you’re speaking the wrong language. Absolutely hilarious.

PS: Thanks to Hood for this one who once again proves that Arabicized Convert Madinans still do it better…

:-)

They ask about Jihad. They always do.

Although there were a few pantomine performances of note in the Dispatches programme, there's nothing new here. Same old drivel, same old bakwas.

So, when they ask about the Khilafah, women's rights, gays and all the rest of it, I say:

"Anyone for cricket chaps?"

(Yawn)

He (s) said, "Love for your brother that which you love for yourself."

I came across a box of "Prestige" Ferrero Rocher Chocolates; it has your normal ones around the side, a little section in the middle which are "cherry chocolates" and then six intriguing looking chocolates labelled "espresso".

Be warned. Take it from a chocolate connoisseur. It is the most earth-shatteringly rough chocolate you will ever have. It has a warning label printed at the bottom saying "liquid centre". I only wish I read warning labels and acted upon them before eating the chocolate, and not crying afterwards.

Just a friendly piece of advice. Stay away. Like the plague.

For those Arabic speakers of you, take advantage of Shaykh Juday's first course of the year. It will be based upon his own 'Ulum al-Qur'an book, from which over the next few weeks I might post a few of my own personal notes during our studies together.

Imam Tahir mentioned in the advert can be contacted at Leeds Grand Mosque, which you will need to do in order to book a place and also to reserve a copy of the text.

Call this a "consultation document" - PG would appreciate some feedback from all those who expressed interest in the audio/visual/streaming of the 1st season of the al-Adab al-Mufrad class.

If it were to be screened on TV or streamed over the internet, what would be a good time of the day/night? And what day(s) of the week? Is 6pm-7pm better than 11pm-12pm or vice-versa? Consider 7pm-11pm difficult although if a strong case is put forward, it could be arranged. Also, if it was to be repeated during the daytime (in a week), what kind of time is more preferable?

Incidentally, please pass on to those other friends/students enquiring (I cannot keep up replying personally) that the 2nd season of the class will not be on for at least another few months. Your du'as for tawfiq and ikhlas are requested.

You can either leave feedback on this post or email dawah@PropheticGuidance.co.uk

They ask about divorce. They always do.

Of course, it is usually bad news for those involved. No-one can deny that.

But don't forget the mercy that it is for so many people who fall into mistakes or difficulties, whether through fraud, scams, or just simple naivety - and they need a way out to restart their lives.

Which makes it even more clearer that the Prophet (s) didn't say, "The most hated of the permissible (actions) according to Allah is divorce." (أبغض الحلال إلى الله الطلاق)

Just for the record: this hadith was narrated by Abu Dawud (2177), Hakim (196/2), Bayhaqi in al-Sunan (322/7) as well as others.

It is a weak hadith from the Prophet (s). It is authentic as a mursal report only, with one authentic chain as a mawquf report to Ibn 'Umar (r).

As for those who said so: Abu Hatim, Khattabi, Ibn Ma'een, Daraqutni, Bayhaqi, Ibn Hajr and many many others. See the Muwaffaqat (200/1) for a beneficial discussion on the chains by Sh Mashur Hasan.

PS all those people I've been discussing marital issues with over the last week: this is not a hint, ok?

I'm just getting things out of my system that's all... :-)

This is, truly, an excellent article. Please pass on to irritating atheist/agnostic/"secular humanist" colleagues, friends and neighbours with happiness.

I certainly will be.


Secular fundamentalists are the new totalitarians

Militant secularists like Richard Dawkins are taking their revenge on us believers for refusing to stay in the closet

Tobias Jones
Saturday January 6, 2007
The Guardian

There's an aspiring totalitarianism in Britain which is brilliantly disguised. It's disguised because the would-be dictators - and there are many of them - all pretend to be more tolerant than thou. They hide alongside the anti-racists, the anti-homophobes and anti-sexists. But what they are really against is something very different. They - call them secular fundamentalists - are anti-God, and what they really want is the eradication of religion, and all believers, from the face of the earth.

In recent years these unpleasant people have had a strategy of exploiting Britain's innate politeness. They realised that for a decade overly sensitive souls (normally called the PC brigade) had bent over backwards to avoid giving offence. Trying not to give offence was, despite the excesses, a noble courtesy.

But the fundamentalists saw an opening. Because we live in a multiconfessional society, they fostered the falsehood that wearing a crucifix or a veil or a turban was deeply offensive to other faiths. They pretended to be protecting religious sensibilities as a pretext to strip us of all religious expressions. In 2006 Jack Straw and BA fell into the fundamentalists' trap.

But Britons are actually laissez-faire about such things. And so the fundamentalists deployed an opposite tactic. Instead of pretending to protect religious sensibilities, they went on the offensive and sought to give offence. The subsequent reactions to the play Behzti in Birmingham, to Jerry Springer the Opera and to the Danish cartoons were wheeled out as examples of why religious groups are unable to live with our cherished freedom and tolerance.

In recent years the nastier side of this totalitarianism has become blatantly apparent. It emerged with the hijab issue in France. With the hijab ban in French schools, a state was banishing religion not only from its corridors, but also from its citizens.

It was an assertion that after centuries of the naked public square (denuded of religion referents) the public now too had to go naked. The former had been true tolerance, something exceptional and laudable. It allowed everyone to bring their own cosmic testimony to the square. But this new form of "tolerance" changed things. From everyone being welcome, it had become everyone but.

There's a background to all this. Since 2001, lazy intellectuals have been allowed to get away with repeating the nonsense that terrorism and war are the consequences of belief in God. Believers are ridiculed for being, in contrast to the stupendously brainy atheists, very dim. Listen to Richard Dawkins' comment on Nadia Eweida (the BA employee who refused to take off her cross): "she had one of the most stupid faces I've ever seen." Nice.

There's also the fact that we live in a cultural milieu dominated by postmodernism. Broadly speaking, it attempts to deconstruct power and its narratives. It tries to rescue the marginalised. A noble intent, but because it doesn't believe in truth, anything goes. The tyranny of orthodoxy has been replaced by the tyranny of relativism. You're supposed to believe in nothing, and hence nihilists and atheists are suddenly rather chic. Postmodernism has taken tolerance to the extremes, where extremists thrive. It's a dangerous form of appeasement.

The greatest appeasers, however, have been the believers. Until recently many hid their religion in the closet. They conceded that it was something private. Until a few years ago religion was similar to soft drugs: a blind eye was turned to private use but woe betide you if you were caught dealing. Only recently have believers realised that religion is certainly personal, but it can never be private.

The reasons for that "outing" of believers are complex. But what is certain is that wise agnostics pleaded with believers to take a public lead again, because the point about believers is that they are obeying (and disobeying) all sorts of commandments that the state doesn't see or understand. Because they are able to differentiate sin from crime, they have a moral register more nuanced than most. Even a wise atheist (and I've met a few of them in church, as they desperately try to get their kids into the local C of E school) knows that believers can deal with social anarchy much better than the state ever can.

That is why these fundamentalists are so in evidence. They're not only needled by their own hypocrisy; they are also furious that believers have broken the old pact to stay out of public debate. Witness, for example, Mary Riddell's astonishing sentence in the Observer last month (try replacing "religion" with "homosexuality" to get the point): "secularists do not wish to harm religion or deny its great cultural influence. They simply want it to know its place." In other words: get back in the closet.

Christians feel particularly aggrieved because we believe that Jesus invented secularism. Jesus's teachings desacralised the state: no authority, not even Caesar's, was comparable to God's. As Nick Spencer writes in Doing God, "the secular was Christianity's gift to the world, denoting a public space in which authorities should be respected, but could be legitimately challenged and could never accord to themselves absolute or ultimate significance". Christianity, far from creating an absolutist state, initiated dissent from state absolutism.

And so for centuries a combination of British agnosticism and pragmatism meant that believers were judged not by the causes of their belief, but by its consequences. Everyone could taste the fruits, even those who couldn't believe in a sustaining, invisible root. These new militants, however, believe themselves to be the only arbiters of taste; they want to eradicate the root and cause. They will dictate what you can wear and what you can say. That, after all, is what totalitarians do.

· Tobias Jones is the author of The Dark Heart of Italy; his new book, Utopian Dreams, is published this month

A question was raised during last night's Tafsir class concerning Verse 77 of al-Nisa' where Allah 'azza wa jall says, "The Hereafter is better for him who has Taqwa..."

So, as Shaykh Kehlan said, it's a simple equation: those who have Taqwa will never have any issues in this life because they always remember that the Akhirah is the ultimate objective and far better for them. Hence all problems, setbacks and difficulties in this temporal life are all taken in ones stride.

The question though: do you know anyone who has Taqwa?

In fact, have you ever seen anyone have proper Taqwa?

We hear about Taqwa in the Qur'an all the time. We know that Jannah is reserved for the people of Taqwa. We know that there is no position better than to be from the people of Taqwa. We are reminded every week to have Taqwa. And when we slip up, we are warned by our better folk to have Taqwa.

So surely there must be a some who took heed out there right? A few even?

Really?

I can't think of anyone. If I honestly sit down and have a deep think about it, I can't think of a single person (and most definitely not myself) that is in a continuous state of Taqwa - a Muttaqi.

When was the last time you saw a person fear Allah and be aware of Him whilst speaking on the phone?

When was the last time you sat with someone and you thought to yourself, "This person really fears Allah."

When was the last time you met anyone who acted as if they were being watched by Allah, were aware of Him, and feared His Command 'jalla wa 'ala?

Exactly.

Depressing isn't it. But hey, just a reminder innit?

"This is the way of men?!"

I'd never have ever thought it possible for there to be such a sadness, such support and such unity of feeling from the general Muslims around the world at the death of a man who oppressed and butchered thousands of people during his reign.

Thus ends the chapter of history that was al-Ra'ees Saddam Hussein.

From the shock on 'Eed morning until five days later, I've been reflecting on how on Earth could there be such a PR turnaround? How does one of the world's greatest criminals become the Muslim world's greatest "martyr" of the 21st Century? How is it that after reading through hundreds of Arabic and English reports, comments and commentaries on the whole episode, that there seems to be so much consensus of opinion between scholars and lay-people, friends and foe that Saddam died with honour and for "the cause", surely a massive own-goal from an intentionally provocative American execution.

I've struggled over this. Iraqis who had brothers and fathers killed by Saddam swore a few days ago that they wished they were in his place and died with such dignity. Iraqis who fled 15-20 years ago from Saddam's tyranny never to see their ageing families again, personally swear to me that he died a Muslim Shaheed, forgiven for his evil throughout his life and a changed man at the end.

"You what?!" I exclaim, but they insisted on it, and who am I to argue with those who hold the right to avenge for their own slain families. But I have come to realise that this forgiving feeling stems from the incredible insult and attack on our Deen by the aggressive invaders and their leaders on the Day of Sacrifice. As we got ready to slaughter sheep for ourselves, the invaders tried to slaughter the Deen via the hanging of a man and ended up causing such families above to slaughter their deep emotions; anger and revenge against Saddam turning to pardon and forgiveness with the new enemy clearly set in their hearts.

You may think this is all a farce because Saddam was a criminal etc, yet I am relaying first-hand from such families. Other stories and support are clear to see in the Muslim world ranging from the sublime to the maybe-not-so-ridiculous. Indeed, one of the less serious statements I heard from a Jordanian Shaykh was his analogy between Saddam's death and that of the man who killed 99 people, the last of them being a "monk" who gave misguidance and yet was forgiven by Allah in the famous Prophetic hadith. Well, as the Shaykh said, Saddam is the same except that his "Priest" was Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr...!

What?!

Distractions aside, I can't doubt the clarity of Saddam's testament at the end - so to Allah is his affair and indeed to Him we all return.

As for honour, then it is difficult to deny him that. As he was pathetically taunted by the Safavid transgressors on behalf of the internal and external enemies of Allah, his composure and dignity was scary. "This is the way of men?!" he replies to the chants of "Muqtada! Muqtada!" And then there was that Shahadah...

Was he playing the crowd? Was he sincere? I don't know but he certainly achieved the desired effect amongst many.

Many a brutal and evil man has gone down "honourably" at the final hour in order to milk the watching masses or even holding an utterly sincere belief, although sincerely wrong, that they were leaving as heros and martyrs. One incident narrated in the Saheeh always brings a smile to my face, simply for the utter arrogance and pride of the criminal. When the Prophet (s) requested 'Abdullah b. Mas'ud to go and check on the condition of Abu Jahl who had been mortally wounded at Badr, Ibn Mas'ud came to Abu Jahl and asked him mockingly whilst holding his beard, "So you're Abu Jahl?"

"Is there a man more greater than the one you have killed??" he immediately replied.

Ibn Mas'ud was a small man, especially compared to the obese Abu Jahl. In a further narration collected by al-Hakim, Ibn Mas'ud climbed on to the huge immobile frame of Abu Jahl, and placed his small leg on Abu Jahl's neck and said, "May Allah humiliate you, O Enemy of God!"

"And what have I been humiliated by? Is there anyone more honoured (than me) to be killed by someone (so noble) like you?" he replied.

His sarcasm was not missed by Ibn Mas'ud, who climbed on to him to which Abu Jahl said, "O Shepherd boy! You have climbed very high today!" to which Ibn Mas'ud took off his head.

I know, I know, what's the link? Well, there isn't one. It's just that when I saw Saddam the Tyrant acting so defiant and proud at the end, it reminded me of Abu Jahl's defiance and cockiness as well.

Except of course that one died a humiliated resident of the Fire at the hands of the greatest generation to walk the Earth, and the other died in dignity at the hands of the greatest transgressors of our times as a resident...

...of heaven?

Now that's something to think about.