According to Islamic teachings, the true criterion for human rank is faith (īmān). Lineage, colour, language, culture, sect, disposition, social service, or merely moral qualities—although important in their own right—possess a certain significance. However, in the sight of Allah, the basis of real worth and status rests upon this reality: whether a person’s heart is… Continue reading A Believer and a Disbeliever Are Not Equal
Reminder: Create another world
Wherever you cast your gaze, you behold rampant evil and blazing corruption; wherever you alight or journey on, trials receive you in succession like the ceaseless waves of an unquiet sea, and wars follow one upon another as though they were a fate unwilling to loosen its grip upon this earth. Turn away from this… Continue reading Reminder: Create another world
Reminder: Speech is headache itself
Indeed, speech, even when it adorns itself in the garb of intimate supplication and veils itself behind a curtain of secrecy, is headache itself, and to the soul a grievous exhaustion. It weighs upon the ear as though the voice were a hammer striking against thought; it wearies the heart until words become a dust… Continue reading Reminder: Speech is headache itself
Reminder: How Admirable Is Shibli’s Intellect, and How Admirable His Prose!
I said: How admirable is Shibli’s intellect, and how admirable his prose! They asked me: Why do you praise Shibli’s mind and extol it with such lavish commendation? I replied: Because he recognised, yes, recognised with true and thorough understanding, the secret of this nation’s decline when it turned away from its original source and… Continue reading Reminder: How Admirable Is Shibli’s Intellect, and How Admirable His Prose!
Reminder: A nation that cannot tell earthenware from pearls
We are a nation that cannot distinguish earthenware from pearls, nor clay from ruby; that does not discern between the sorcery of magicians and the staff of Moses, nor between the trickery of charlatans and the miracle of Jesus, son of Mary. We call people to the religion of God, yet cling to human schools… Continue reading Reminder: A nation that cannot tell earthenware from pearls
What Have the Muslims Lost Through Their Decline?
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم The question of decline has constituted one of the most intricate and urgent inquiries in modern Islamic consciousness. It is no longer merely a description of a historical phase of regression; rather, it has become an analytical framework through which to understand the structural dysfunction that afflicted the systems of values,… Continue reading What Have the Muslims Lost Through Their Decline?
Reminder: Islam does not suit you, o you enamoured of comfort!
O you who are infatuated with comfort! O you who prefer safety above all, who delight in food and are devoted to drink, living as though created for ease and intoxicated by pleasure! Islam does not suit you. It is a faith of sacrifice, the refuge of hearts that have understood the meaning of self-giving,… Continue reading Reminder: Islam does not suit you, o you enamoured of comfort!
Reminder: My darkness came from my purity
I am deeply enamoured of myself, profoundly deluded by her; I behold her in my eyes raised above her true measure, and I clothe her with attributes of purity that are not hers. I persuade myself that I have attained a degree of sanctity beyond the reach of others. I claim that my conscience is… Continue reading Reminder: My darkness came from my purity
The First Ramadan in Oxford
Ramadan in Oxford brings with it a peculiar atmosphere. This city breathes within an ancient scholarly air: the old university buildings that seem to bear witness to centuries of learning; the cobbled pathways that awaken to the echo of footsteps; the quiet currents of the River Thames holding the sky’s reflection like a mirror; and… Continue reading The First Ramadan in Oxford
Reminder: Refrain from sin
Refrain from sin, for sin diminishes your rank before your Lord, clouds the purity of your heart, and steals the radiance from your face. It plants within the soul a darkness that none can dispel except the light of repentance, and a constriction that none can relieve except sincere return to God. A sin, however… Continue reading Reminder: Refrain from sin