About this blog

In recent times a plethora of misconceptions, misrepresentation and myths have been forged about Islam
and Muslims. Many western influentials from politicians, policymakers to judges have taken it upon
themselves to undermine the Islamic beliefs, values and rules so to make it palatable to their
egotistic minds and the secular liberal thoughts.

This blog is dedicated:-

1. To argue the point for Islam in its belief and systems and to refute the misconceptions.
2. To expose the weakness and contradictions of all forms of secularism.

14 Feb 2009

Valentine’s Day. Love is in the air!



Valentine’s Day. Love is in the air!
(Can a playa make it to paradise?)

Romeo and Shuliet.

Summer or winter – its there. The opposite sex. Wild. Raw. The girls are looking. The boys are watching. Beyoncé’s blingin. Eva’s singin. High heels clickin. The look across the classroom. The smiles, the giggles. The hot clothes and tight figures. The digits exchange. First “friends” then “something else”. Trips to the cinema or out to a day rave. The late night fone calls. The 10 page txts. Going to another area so that the “sasas/elders” don’t catch you. The funny look you get at home when you answer your phone sometimes. The first touch, the kiss. Romance all the way baby.

Whether you’re a boffin whose managed to get a smile from the school librarian and the dinner lady, a playa who doesn’t have to do a thing to pick up the thousands of Gashs lining up to go out with you, or the buff one who’s got all the boys wantin your digits – we all feel the constant, throbbing and powerful emotions of luuurve and lust, especially this time of year. And its not just you. The movie industry, music, adverts, magazines and pretty much everything else seems to constantly remind you what you’re missin – from the raw lusty girl/boy who is gagging for some loving, or simply the jackpot – “true love” – finding that special “soul mate”(or his/her friend!).

Arranged Asian Marriage?

But most of us have another cultural pressure as well as all the above - and it all stems from being Brown. Asian traditions, weird cultural practices that don’t make sense and pressure from our folks all make it harder and more confusing. Play around all you want - but you’re gonna have to marry the girl/boy your Mamma, or Amma, picks out for you. You can’t mention your girl to your Amma, can you? You know they wont allow you to marry her cos of many brilliant reasons like – she’s not Bengali/Pakistani, she’s white/black, she’s older than you, she’s not who we chose, she’s from the wrong ‘gushti’/’zaat’/’gram’/family, your other 12 brothers have to get married first or you have to have a house, a car and a PhD and earning a million bucks before you can even think of getting married and it goes on and on. And if you do argue – then you bring the dreaded “shame” on the family, which makes you feel well guilty – without knowing really why. If you’re a girl, then the consequences can get far worse.

What about Islam?

Unfortunately we take a lot of our Islam from our parents and families – and a lot of these “reasons” mentioned above may be passed off by your folks as “Islamic”. Well the good news is, the majority of them are very, very much NOT part of Islam. Great. But isn’t having a fully physical, hot, mind-blowing, intense and fun relationship with a girl/boy against Islam? Well, yes and no. All these things are allowed and even encouraged but within the limits of a marriage contract. See Allah SWT created you and put these burning desires and passions within you. But he also gave you a mind and the ability to control these desires and make sure that you satisfy them, fully, and organised the system of marriage in order to do that. See, the result wherever people stick to these ideas you find that there is harmony in society, less friction and sexual excitement, and more control and respect – And you don’t have to worry about who’s trying it on with your sister and some next ‘sasa miah’ trying it as well!

But we don’t live in that kind of society, so what do we find? People on the prowl like an animal in heat, buff girls/blokes used like objects and ugly people well… they get treated like rubbish! (And that’s all the people who are not the right shape, size, weight, build or colour - which is mostly everyone!)

So what do we do?

Ok, so we know sex outside marriage (zina) is haraam (forbidden and punishable by Allah), but what do we do when there are so many girls/boys talking to me, callin me, loving me? Like we said, everywhere we are constantly bombarded by images, from TV to our classrooms. But Islam didn’t just leave it at that. See Allah knows all the little haraam roads that lead to the big final haraam, and Allah knows all the small things, that will end up with big and bad things. So all the many ways that these kind of haraam relationships can start, are prevented before they can even begin – how? Well Islam tells us to monitor our intentions, the way we look at girls/boys, the way we speak to them and the time we spend with them and how we spend it. The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) said, "The adultery of the eyes is the sight, the adultery of the tongue is the talk, and the inner self wishes, desires and the private parts testify all this or deny it" [Bukhari] So its not “just the sex bit” that’s considered wrong, as the above hadith of the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) tells us. This prevents us into getting into any kind of “hot” situation where it may become proper hard and dangerous if we loose control.

Also Islam encourages good company, and fasting to control ourselves. See, its much easier when you’re in good company, with bros/sisters who can chill and aren’t pushing you to have girlfriends/boyfriends, drink or take drugs, but instead joke, hang, relax and want to help each other become better Muslims - than in the middle of a house party or some dark back room with a girl/boy if you want to try to control yourself and stay away from Zina! So the best way to stay out of a fight with shaitan and yourself is not to be tricked and enter it in the first place! Nuff said!

She’s/He’s the one.

But if you do have a girl/man who you have been seeing and think you are “serious” but also want to stick to Islam, what can you do practically? Well firstly, realise that the more you meet each other and the more closer you get – the harder it will be to stop doing something haraam. To get married in Islam you will need the permission of the girl’s father to marry her. So finding a way to approach that would be a good idea. Maybe tell your family and her telling hers. See what your brothers and sisters say. Involve someone you trust and knows Islam to try to ask for advice. Getting engaged is a real possibility – it helps you to work towards the “Big Day”, plan the process properly, give the family time to get to know each other and show them and the rest of the community you are serious about each other and about sticking to the commands of Allah.

We know it aint easy, and can seem not only impossible, but proper scary. But don’t forget that in trying to do that right thing you can always call on Allah the Almighty to help you. In fact Allah promises to help you if you are in this situation - Abu Hurairah (ra) narrates that the Prophet (saws) said: "Three (persons) have a right from Allah to be helped: the Mujahid in the way of Allah, the seeker for marriage who wishes to guard his chastity and the slave who seeks funds to free oneself."

It may be a big responsibility but getting engaged helps you to work towards that in a manageable time period. Its not weird to be young and trying to get married – Allah made us this way so its only natural! In fact our prophet encouraged this - The Prophet (saws) said: “Oh you who are young. Whoever amongst you can afford to marry should marry, because it will help him refrain from looking at other women, and guard his modesty (i.e. private parts from unlawful sex). And whoever is not able to marry he should fast because it will protect him” [Muslim].

May Allah SWT help us to be in good company, protect us from all the roads that lead to haraam and if we are in a situation then may he grant us the strength and courage to take the step to work towards getting married according to Islam. Aamen!

[Article written by Ayaz Abdur-Rahman, www.centralmod.blogspot.com]
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What they said...

“Islam represented the greatest military power on earth…It was the foremost economic power in the world…It had achieved the highest level so far in human history, in the arts and sciences of civilization...Islam in contrast created a world civilization, poly-ethnic, multiracial, international, one might even say intercontinental.”





[Bernard Lewis, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Orientalist and Historian, 2001]





"There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world. It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts…the civilization I'm talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600… Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage"





[Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard, 2001]





"For the first three centuries of its existence (circ. A.D 650-1000) the realm of Islam was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world. Studded with splendid cities, gracious mosques and quiet universities where the wisdom of the ancient world was preserved and appreciated, the Moslem world offered a striking contrast to the Christian West, then sunk in the night of the Dark Ages."





[Lothrop Stoddard, Ph.D (Harvard), American political theorist and historian, 1932]





"Medieval Islam was technologically advanced and open to innovation. It achieved far higher literacy rates than in contemporary Europe;it assimilated the legacy of classical Greek civilization to such a degree that many classical books are now known to us only through Arabic copies. It invented windmills ,trigonometry, lateen sails and made major advances in metallurgy, mechanical and chemical engineering and irrigation methods. In the middle-ages the flow of technology was overwhelmingly from Islam to Europe rather from Europe to Islam. Only after the 1500's did the net direction of flow begin to reverse."





[Jared Diamond, UCLA sociologist and Author, 1997]



"No other society has such a record of success in uniting in an equality of status, of opportunity and endeavour so many and so varied races of mankind. The great Muslim communities of Africa, India and Indonesia, perhaps also the small community in Japan, show that Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the great societies of the East and west is to be replaced by cooperation, the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition."





[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Professor at Harvard University, 1932]





“The Muhammadan Law which is binding on all -- from the crowned head to the meanest subject is a law interwoven with a system of the wisest, the most learned and the most enlightened jurisprudence that ever existed in the world.”





[Edmund Burke, British Statesman and Philosopher, 1789]





"The Exile here is not like in our homeland. The Turks hold respectable Jews in esteem. Here and in Alexandria, Egypt, Jews are the chief officers and administrators of the customs, and the king’s revenues. No injuries are perpetuated against them in all the empire. Only this year, in consequence of the extraordinary expenditure caused by the war against Shah Tahmsap al-Sufi, were the Jews required to make advances of loans to the princes."





[David dei Rossi, Jewish Traveller 17CE, quoted by Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands]





"The notable religious tolerance towards Christians and Jew under Muslim rule had given way to the uncompromising zealotry of Spanish Inquisition. Jews and Muslims thus fled Spain with large numbers of Jews immigrating to the Ottoman Empire which was known for its tolerance to the Jews."





[Graham Fuller, Author and former CIA, 1995]





“If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilization owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straightjacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and systems of beliefs, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history”





[Charles Philip Arthur George, HRH The Prince of Wales, 1993]





"...Not being subject to the Sharia, Jews and Christians were free to go to their own religious authorities for adjudication of disputes; but in many cases they went instead to the [Muslim] Qadi"





[Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of History and Author, 2004]





"Here in the land of the Turks we have nothing to complain of. We possess great fortunes; much gold and silver are in our hands. We are not oppressed by heavy taxes and our commerce is free and unhindered. Rich are the fruits of the earth. Everything is cheap and each one of us lives in freedom. Here a Jew is not compelled to wear a yellow star as a badge of shame as is the case in Germany where even wealth and great fortune is a curse for a Jew because he therewith arouses jealousy among the Christians and they devise all kinds of slander against him to rob him of his gold. Arise my brethren, gird up your loins, collect up your forces and come to us."





[In his book 'Constantinople', Philip Mansel quotes a rabbi in Turkey writing to his brethren in Europe where they were facing increasing persecution after 1453]





"Praise be to the beneficent God for his mercy towards me! Kings of the earth, to whom his [the Caliph’s] magnificence and power are known, bring gifts to him, conciliating his favour by costly presents, such as the king of the Germans, the king of the Gebalim, the king of Constantinople, and others. All their gifts pass through my hands, and I am charged with making gifts in return. (Let my lips express praise to the God in heaven who so far extends his loving kindness towards me without any merit of my own, but in the fullness of his mercies.) I always ask the ambassadors of these monarchs about our brethren the Jews, the remnant of the captivity, whether they have heard anything concerning the deliverance of those who have pined in bondage and had found no rest."





[Hasdai Ibn Shaprut (915-990 CE) Jewish physician, chief minister of Islamic Caliphate in Cordova, 'The Jewish Caravan']





"In Baghdad there are about forty thousand Jews, and they dwell in security, prosperity, and honour under the great Caliph [al-Mustanjid, 1160-70 CE], and amongst them are great sages, the Heads of the Academies engaged in the study of the Law…’"





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[Leon Ostorog, French Jurist]





"The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories; science owes a great deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence"





[Robert Briffault, Novelist and Historian, 1928]





"The only effective link between the old and the new science is afforded by the Arabs. The dark ages come as an utter gap in the scientific history of Europe, and for more than a thousand years there was not a scientific man of note except in Arabia"





[Oliver Joseph Lodge, Writer and Professor of Physics, 1893]





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[Zion Zohar, Jewish scholar at Florida International University, 2005]







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