The role of ‘ulama’
The fact is that the `ulama’ are not a respected group in society. The respect that they are given is primarily sentimental because of the emotional attachment that all people have to their religious and cultural background. That background in all societies without exception, until the last century…
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…
Surah al-Mursalat
This surah alerts us to the very evident reality that life in this world subsists within a beneficent arrangement that has been put in place and operates independently of human will and agency. Although this reality is obvious everywhere and at all times…
Surah al-Kahf
This surah was revealed in Makkah at a time when the hostility of the Quraysh, and their fear and hatred of Islam and of the Prophet, were at their height. They adopted every measure to stop the Prophet from preaching…
Surah al-Takwir & Surah al-Infitar
These surahs compel us to call to mind realities that we accept are true but which we almost-never include in our conscious, deliberate calculations when we decide on a course of action or when we put a value on something when we say…
Surah al-Insan & al-Dahr
This surah can be paired with the one before it. Al-Qiyamah ended with a brief account of the lowly first stages of human life, from which one can hardly imagine that there could emerge so complex a creature as a human being capable of knowing right from wrong and therefore…
Surah al-Tatfif
Woe unto the mean-hearted – those who, when they take the measure from people, strive to have it full, and when they measure for them, strive to make it short. Although some translations render mutaffifin as fraudsters…