How to engage with what is happening in our time
I generally avoid commenting on political issues, because in my experience doing so only serves to complicate and multiply the weaknesses of my fellow Muslims. I prefer to focus on matters which can waken people to a strong realization that they have…
Islamophobia
Any phobia has two directions from which it arises. One direction is from the person himself who is suffering the phobia, some cause in him, psychological or cultural. The other direction is from that which the phobia is about. In this case, Muslims should realise and admit to…
Al `Imran 121-130
The Qur’an is not revealed to human minds and hearts cut off from their pasts. It is not revealed to blank minds, but to minds already shaped and constrained by their culture (inherited from their ancestors) and by present, ongoing relations and commitments.
Manners in Islam
There is no rigid definition; it is relative to time and place and occasion. Nevertheless, we can apply a couple of test questions that, I find, always give a pretty good indication of what the level should be. First, I ask: am I behaving like this…
Don’t Waste Ramadan
The Prophet (s) said that he was sent to make things easy for the believers. His sunnah in deciding the times of the daily prayers, and the beginning and end of Ramadan, is meant to make things easy so that the people would come together…
Marriage
I wish to share with you some thoughts on three areas of marriage: the personal relationship of the couple, their relationship with their children, and their relationship with their extended families, especially their parents…
Islamic Finance
Islamic finance over the last three decades or so has grown into a huge industry. It is huge both in the sense that vast sums of money are handled by Islamic finance, and also in the sense that a great many scholars have been attracted to it…
Charity in Islam
Even where people are relatively comfortable, the norm of doing charity remains visible and beneficial – even in Muslim communities in the UK, you will see children running around with plates of food for the neighbours if something nice has been cooked.