The life before

Ageism in the BBC just reflects the deep-rooted problem in this society, when it comes to how we view women

2011-01-12T18:06:00.003Z

The visual media must be made of youthful, attractive women. Fact. I'm not sure whether Miriam O Reilly, understood this fact when she made her claim and wanted to try to begin the war against it, or whether she actually believed that this society has room for every Tom, Dick or Harry on its' visual platforms and she believed, her case was the anomaly.

The truth is, ask any person what the criteria would be for taking a job as a presenter on television and I'm sure the answer would include the need to look good. The Apprentice's runner up Kate Walsh who spent the entire series trying to prove she was not just a pretty face, very nicely got hold of a job at Channel 5 it is clear, because of her pretty face. Some may argue, well she is very articulate and sharp as well - Well yes, but I haven't seen any of the other articulate and sharp women from the show, getting a presenting job on television.

The reality that Miriam experienced at Countryfile, indeed reflects an approach we as a society have towards people, and women in particular. They have to be appealing to the eye. Even though around us, on the streets we see very normal women who do not fit the size 8 model, do not have fly away Loreal hair and definitely are not all under the age of 35. In fact this supermodel image is virtually alien on the street and does not reflect reality at all. But we as women, are content to see it on our screens and more dangerously, aspire towards it, always feeling we do not make the mark.

It is clear the multi-billion dollar beauty industry are cause of this. They have realised that this unreachable target women wish to achieve in their image can create alot of revenue - From anti-wrinkle creams, to the endless amount of hair products, cosmetics to slimming tablets. The endless list reveals a desperate desire for us women, to want to be someone we are not.

What this perception of ourselves tells us moreso, is that in a society where we deem ourselves liberated, we in fact have become absolutely enslaved to measuring ourselves predominantly as women by the way we look. Forget who we are, the values we carry and what we can contribute, lets face it, being a woman in our free society first and foremost is about needing to look sexually appealing. So how far have we really come in the value of the contributions of women from the era we were enslaved to the kitchen, subject to the whims of the husband?

Is this what the 'freedoms' have amounted to for the women? That despite the fact that yes, she is free to vote, work and have a career, men are also free to view her purely for her exterior is they so wish, and billion dollar industries are free to exploit her to make money in whatever way they wish. Is this the freedom, which arises from the liberal secular way of life which we should as a world, be calling for? Honestly speaking - I think not.

I don't want the danger of 'freedom' to be unleashed on me. I want protection, honour and enshrined rights. Islam, in its ideas and implementation provides this. People and companies in an Islamic society cannot view me in whatever way gives them satisfaction or revenue. They must view me according to the values and system of Islam - The Prophet SAW said 'The world and all things in it are precious, but the most precious thing of all is a virtuous woman.' Here, the emphasis is clearly placed upon the values and character of the woman, over anything else. The social system of Islam then helps maintain this view, where general segregation of sexes, hijab and forbidding the woman to do jobs which exploit her femininity are a few of the laws. This means women can be valued in society for their actual contributions, as the sexual instinct is limited to the private sphere of marriage, not left to run loose in society. The society is therefore not left to choose how they want to view the woman, according to their benefit, Allah SWT shapes this view for us.

So Miriam O Reilly and others who applauded this case should realise that although her case maybe a step in the right direction, it is like taking a step against a forceful current - Such actions will never overturn it. To enable women to really be valued we must overturn the values that we live by in society, realising the freedoms arising from secularism are the real enslavement of the woman. It is Islam, and only Islam, I truly believe which can liberate the woman from the endless darkness that she goes through, into light. And this is the only avenue, we as an Ummah should seek in our politics, in the Muslim world.

Surah Ibrahim: 'Alif L'am Ra. O Muhammad! This is a Book which We have revealed to you so that you may bring mankind out of utter darkness (ways of ignorance) to the light, by the leave of their Lord, to the Way of the Mighty, the Praiseworthy (Allah)'

Those men who hold tight to their promise to Alllah

2010-12-29T16:41:00.001Z

'Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah' Al-Ahzab, 33: 23

I wrote this ayah here, on this blog, over a year ago, telling you all about a sister who sat in a state of worry about her own, and only, brother. Worry that his effort to fulfil his covenant with Allah was to embroil him in a reality beyond the imagination of you and me sitting here, in the cushion of comfort.

Today such a reality has manifested itself.

Across the globe, the Muslim Ummah continues to grow louder in its wish to liberate itself through Allah's law, which favours no class, no family, no limited being. It rather favours justice, harmony and a desire to worship only that which deserves to be worshipped.

As the strength of this call begins to shake the foundations of every society in which it is born; those who suffocate the Ummah and strangle them with their thrones, look on, fearful and worried.

They fear that however strong the grip is from the West of the globe, however much wealth they have hoarded into every pocket they own, this is not enough to stop the current which they see over the horizon. So now they throw aside all the rhetoric of freedom and democracy that they lived and breathed, throw aside the human rights facade that they tried to hold up, and desparately try to hold their seats in position. They realise that espionage and bloodshed, kidnappings and bribery aren't really the things which bring down establishents, it is in fact, ideas.

And how do you battle ideas? You can't bottle them, or pierce them with a bullet. All you can do, is desperately, pathetically do whatever you can to stop those who carry them. But behold, we know that these men are those men, who are true to their covenant with their Rabb. They can be hurt and maimed, but they can never be stopped.

So the throne clutchers still do all they can. They get in Britain to train their death squad, the RAB, to kill more proficiently (even though they say the training was in human rights... what human rights? For a group who is famous for being able to dodge human rights killing indiscriminately) due to their counter-terrorism motives. And we all know counter-terrorism has come to mean anything but stopping violence, rather shaping the plain of political Islam in the Muslim lands.

They abduct and jail those who are the furthest from terrorism and political murder and violence. They arrest those who promote justice and truth, whilst the real criminals roam the streets causing havoc and bloodshed.

This week, six Muslim men have been arrested and imprisoned under a justice system which knows no justice. They have been accused of harbouring terrorist books and even a petrol bomb. But reliable sources confirm them to be citizens of Bangladesh who were just trying to change life for their Ummah and return the sovereignty of the political world to where it rightly belongs. One or more of them has been tortured, before any type of charge has been brought upon them.

Now, only Allah knows when or whether, they will see the light of day or whether they will become lost in Bangladesh's dirty war against the peaceful Islamic revival.

Till then we can firstly tell everyone we can about the atrocities which are happening in Bangladesh and how we should not stand for this. We should rather stand shoulder to shoulder with those who are bravely trying to change the rotten system of Bangladesh, giving their voice strength and support. Speaking the truth is the least we can do for the sacrifices our brothers are making, in our name, for our deen. And last but not least, make abundant dua for them, and their families, that Allah SWT grants them sabrun jamil and surely reserves for them their share of Jaannatul Firdous, as he did for those who carried this same call over 1400 years ago.

As these men are men, who in the harshest of darkness, have clasped onto the the promise they made with Allah, and pulled through to inshaAllah, discover they inhabit the presence of the Prophets and righteous in the Akhirah.

MPs luxurious expenses will never end

2010-12-02T10:20:00.000Z

Even though we have had the whirlwind of the MP expenses scandal, which seemed to blacken the face of almost every MP that stood in Parliament at the time, I would still like to issue a stark warning. This problem, is far from over.

You can give these ruling representatives a telling off, name and shame them, and amend the rules and regulations under which they make claims. However let's be honest, if despite all this, they could get away with a small little duck pond, without anyone knowing, they would. Why? Because firstly the whole debacle was about the public finding out - Before it was all in the public, no one felt the remorse they showed on BBC News 24, whilst they claimed the mortgage for their 10th property. And no one can accept the argument, that it just did not occur to them it was wrong - come on, these people make complex policy decisions, as they say, for the country, come from the country's brightest schools - They are far from being not on the ball, as they claimed they were during this period.

The point is the root of this behaviour is a system which is all about seeking one's own benefit. Capitalism itself is founded on this notion, Parties function on this notion where policy drifts towards wherever the money lies, so why would the individuals in this party be exempt from this? It is natural that the mentality of benefit seeking has manifested itself across every element of Goverment. Thus when MPs who, may even have a genuine desire to affect politics, have an opportunity to get some free dosh - Why not? It's only a conscience that should stop them and for many that's not enough, particularly if no one's watching.

Thus I believe that unless we look at replacing the system of man-made law, democracy which plagues the world today, we will never put an end to such benefit seeking and ultimately corrupt behaviour. Under Islam iit was never about justifying to the public why you need a 300 odd paper shredder - The politicians in the first place, shaped by the Islamic values of the society understood that life is about pleasing Allah and being accountable to Him. So the worry of how the citizens he was accountable for, were living was more of a concern than what he could milk out the system. As his Akhirah depended on this, not the jewels and wealth he could milk out of his position.

People lost at sea all need a direction in which to swim, some just find the right one

2010-10-29T16:37:00.003+01:00

Blair's sister-in-law's recent announcement of embracing islam, has unleashed a fairly generous amount of media banter. The repetitive debates and fiery opinions which reappear - women in Islam are oppressed, or that she became a sympathiser of a political cause or the less overtly stated one; she's another hippee looking for the latest new thing.

Well I can't pretend to know what exactly went through Lauren Booth's mind before she took the religious plunge, but from what she describes as some sort of spiritual rush, it seems Islam for her just felt right. We live in times, lets be brutally honest here, where we all seeming to be swimming against some sort of tide. The way we overcome the tide is dependent on the amount of thinking we do, how much of reality we really see and whether we really find the strength and guidance to plunge our arms in the right current of water.

There is never the same discovery people make when they find Islam, but one thing is true for considerable amounts of women in the west - there comes a realisation when they live deep within the luring and luxurious riches of liberalism that a place where anything you wish for goes, is no place to wish for at all.

This isn't simply about the ritual stab at western decadence, for the sake of it. This is about living intertwined amongst wanting to fulfil all your hearts' desires, and realising that sometimes the consequences of which provide no warmth to the heart at all. In fact it's about realising that a culture of doing whatever one pleases is indeed what makes men leave the mother of their kids for the younger blonde with the pokey studio flat as the only baggage with the relationship, or what makes some men feel they can treat their lady whatever way is fitting for them at whatever time having no accountability to no one - only one's kicks at that time. Or even what drives big businesses to feel it's okay to make women feel their exterior is the only measure of who they are, and that whoever they are their exterior will never measure until they buy the latest daydream or magic concealer, just to ensure they sell sell sell.

It has been freedom to do what one pleases which has plagued society to a degree that it does little to please and care for all. Instead people are being pleased robbing, knifing, swearing and breaking up families. This is no model the rest of the world should lap up.

So do you still ask why. Do you still want to know why people don't want to be enslaved to the desires of the base human who instincts and needs are no different to that of any other mammal seeking to survive on a sahara plain.

Islam, throughout the last 1400 years, provided a heart-exhilirating liberation from slavery to the human heart, to slavery to the Creator of all human hearts, and limbs and minds. The Creator who has obligated on the human heart to care for those close to us, and far from us, those vulnerable, those ill. To care about what happens around you, instead about what happens within your own blockaded life. It is this accountability to Him in everything that you do, in the way you treat others and how you look after society, which liberates us.

This is the easiest swim and the calmest of tide to flow through. And this is why when you find this route in the ocean, you will never let it go.

Yes - Muslims and Islam still is centrestage

2010-10-06T23:35:00.000+01:00

The recent barrage of incidents where people on both sides of the Atlantic have taken an avid interest in burning the Quran, yet again highlights the fact that the atmosphere against Islam and Muslims is as hostile as ever. However for many of us spectators it may have been a piece of news we read and did not batter an eyelid at. Why? Because Islam bashing has become a norm in the West. Since 9/11, over 9 years ago now, insults against Muslims and sensationalisation of Islam has become part and parcel of the media and society within which we live - Thus a whole generation of youth, have grown into this culture as being the norm. It is no wonder then that the youth who burnt Qurans in Gateshead, have done what they have - They do not know anything different, do they?

The strange thing is that the liberal societies of the West pride themselves on their ability to embrace different colours and creeds by giving all the freedom to believe and practice what they wish, setting them aside from the subverted developing world - So the question then begs, how is such control and vetting of an entire community in the way they practice their faith, justified? It is clear that this multi-cultural malarkey is the 'theory' of secular liberalism, but in reality the societies to varying degrees, forcibly make people adopt secularism taking away all freedom. In France disallowing Muslim girls to take their Islam out into society by wearing hijab, in Belgium by banning the niqab. This shows the fallacy of the value of secular liberalism - in reality, it just doesn't work.

Being a Muslim I very recently read about how the Islamic State of the past, which existed for over 1400 years implementing Islam as a comprehensive ruling system, dealt with minorities. In fact it is well documented, from Moorish Spain to the now Arab world, people of different faith lived side by side without feelings of isolation or being labelled. It is well known that during the rule of Umar ibn Al Khattab, the third ruler of the Islamic State, the protection of Christians and Jews in the now conflict-filled, Jerusalem was ensured - Community cohesion was achieved as the non-Muslims were able to practice their own religions, freely, in their places of worship with the knowledge that they had the protection of the State on their side as citizens of the State. Such a picture of community cohesion is a far cry, from the picture that secular liberal democracy has achieved today.

The big clawback

2010-10-06T23:27:00.000+01:00

It is ludicrous that the Government is commited in clawing shrinking back a welfare system from the poor of Britain who they package to be a load of lazy louts - The finger instead from the onset should have been pointed at a decrepit system which has allowed the rich to uncontrollably increase their wealth with no care for those underneath them - This includes many politicians whose income and lives are intertwined with many of these rich elite.

This is because capitalism in its essence sets a precedence that wealth creation is the foremost measure of success and that the freedom provided for the individual through capitalism is the predominant value over any form of collective value or value of something higher than slavery to ones base desires. I think therefore it is high time we begin to have an intellectual debate about the way forward for mankind, a way forward which would ensure real fairness and society which is not broken, but wholly cohesive and productive.

Being a Muslim I sincerely believe that the model of the Islamic ruling system - the Caliphate - which existed for over 1400 years, spanning across the Muslim world, managed to purport values within society which ensured that slavery to ones desires and slavery to wealth creation were not the be all and end all. In fact the Islamic ruling system, based upon the Islamic Shariah, contrary to popular perception, ensured that the human being felt accountable to first and foremost God, for all of their actions in public and in private. The impact this had was a consciousness within society of caring for others, over purely oneself.

The Islamic values more specifically placed a strong emphasis on wealth distribution over wealth hoarding, philanthropy and a need to take care of one another, over simply increasing ones own material assets and looking out only for oneself - And these values are enshrined within the Islamic texts even to this day.

Some practical examples from the Economic system however are the Islamic zakat tax, the only form of wealth tax in Islam, taxed those on all the wealth they owned, over just someone's income. This meant the rich, with all their stored assets paid out more, than those struggling to survive. The prohibition of interest meant that the rich discontinued from getting richer from wealth they already had, and the poor poorer from debt they were struggling to pay back.

These are a few strands of the comprehensive Islamic system which no longer exists in the world today, but is being much debated across all elements of society currently in the Muslim world as a possible and real alternative to the crippling system of Capitalism.

Mr Zardari, Oh Mr Zardari.

2010-08-20T00:27:00.000+01:00

The worst natural disaster of recent times, with devestation worse than the tsumani, Kashmir and Haiti earthquakes put together, the people of Pakistan are somehow scrambling through what seems for all to be, a living hell.

The current floods which have swept across Pakistan, may have killed less than 2000, but around 4 million have been left with no homes. Images of families stranded on rooftops, clutching a cooking utensil or two, a few bunches of clothes, have shocked the world, mobilising the average joe bloggs to fund raise and attempt to do what they can to help these devestated people. Everyone that is, except Mr Asif Ali Zardari. Mr Asif Ali Zardari it seems has a heart made of steel, and a political motivation made of, how do I say it... Money.. to put it simply.

Harsh? Well, the floods happen, people die, the rest anguished, terrified, screaming for aid, medicine, food, water. Yet Mr Zardari, still gets on a plane, still goes off halfway across the world to meet a man who stamps his people down, blaming the world's problems on them. But why should Mr Zardari care? Who are those people to him anyway? Just his citizens.

He carries on a visit, swanning through Europe, leisurely stopping by in different places, garnering support for his party, for his son, his successor. Focussing and working hard to ensure support for a potential event which may happen in several years time, whilst an event which has already entered the past begs his minimum support if even for a moment.

Mr Zardari also must have seen the image of the three children squatting on a small bed submerged in what it seemed, miles of murky water; whilst he slept in his temporary kingdom, for what it has been reported, £10, 000 a night. As he set aside the leftovers of his multi-coursed meal onto the edge of his plate, and threw back the creaseless covers of his poster bed, I wonder if he peered at that photo, at the fact that those three children were clutching the side of the bed, not any morsel of food, and that there was not a sheet to be seen to be able to cover them.

Oh Mr Zardari, it is said that aid agencies now hold back their funds. They hold back the golden tickets for all these destitute people to obtain the basic things they need to survive, because last time they passed it over, the Reconstruction Agency of the Pakistani Earthquake did not see a fraction of it. £300 million never saw the light in the areas devestated by the earthquake, but wouldn't it be safe to say, managed to nestle its way into your wealth?

Mr Zardari, Mr Zardari. I detest to be the bearer of bad news. But it would not remain well seated within my conscience not to break this to you - Did you know, that the responsibility of the people is with the Government? Apologies for dropping this bombshell, but maybe somebody just needs to tell you, as you clearly cannot have known. How could you have? Otherwise you would never have gone to London, you would never have outstretched your hand to Cameron, you would never have ordered mass murder in Waziristan, you would never have even had the chance to touch the money before sending it off to feed the hungry and cure the sick.

Mr Zardari. Your Lord, sent down a Messenger who gave some very helpful guidance, maybe you should hear it:

'The imam is a shield for the Ummah, from behind which they fight and are protected'

Mr Zardari. You have claimed to be this imam but instead of protecting them, have let them anguish, a people unled, a people not looked after.

Mr Zardari, oh Mr Zardari. This Ummah can no longer bear the assumed leadership of a man whose shield over them is made of thorns, severing them to pieces. This Ummah is truly an Ummah who has Allah on their side, the mightiest of supporters, and thus will surely regain protection soon, through a strong supporter of Allah. They will regain an Imam whose shield over them is stronger than the most sturdy of metals. As this is Allah's promise. Till then Mr Zardari, oh Mr Zardari I recommend you flee, as far and wide as you can, before you are forced to. But then, you can never really flee can you? How could you ever flee from the Being in Whose Hand lies your very Soul?

Is it worse for someone to cheat on their lifetime spouse, parent of their children; or to park their car over two painted yellow lines?

2010-01-11T15:22:00.001Z

Perhaps a strange question, but a question I hope which evokes some thinking about what we determine as right and wrong. Britain and the West are free, secular societies so they say that they do not concern themselves with the private lives of individuals. However the rule of law in any nation frames the parameters of the society they live in, and therefore set forth the rights of wrongs that that society lives by.

In Britain it is a criminal offence to park your car on a double yellow line. To be honest I haven't really researched the rationale behind this law, however I assume it must have something to do with safety for motorists, convenience for those who live, work on those roads, etc (Who knows?) However to cheat on your life partner, someone you have married for life, and had children with, might be viewed badly in some sections of society, but is not a legal offence.

Although Western societies claim to not involve themselves in people's private lives and do not claim to dictate any type of moral code to the public, the reality is that often they do. They do not lay down a comprehensive moral code exactly, but they definitely do set down parameters for what people can and can't do within society. I can't run stark naked through Oxford Street, I can't hurl racial abuse at my work colleagues and I can't go and end the life of some random person on the street. There is the argument that freedom exists only until your assertion of freedom will harm someone else, and so such laws are justified - But however you put it, that's not real freedom, then is it? It's a set of norms, set within the Houses of Parliament with very little public influence (look what happened with Iraq), which the public must accept as their code to live by. It's a set of dictated rights and wrongs, labelled as 'freedom'.

However you could argue, that a dictated set of norms is a bit of an exaggerated adjective to use as the public largely accept the rights and wrongs which their laws have put down. And this is fine, however the question then arises is who actually decides what is right and wrong in the first place? Who really knows what is right for an entire population of over 60 million people in Britain? Is it right to ban every single citizen from smoking in public? Allowing every adult citizen to drink as much alcohol as they want? Not allow all groups of people within the society to debate and discuss their values, as they really are?

If parking my car in certain places is illegal, and adultery isn't, who designates these things as wrong and right? The truth is law making in democratic nations, is not simply about creating a set of laws for the betterment and benefit of the public - even though it can sincerely attempt to be at times - But the reality is that in a Capitalist nation, corporate companies, economic pressures, political rivalry, can all be things which can influence and help formulate law and policy. A recent documentary laid out how the Israeli lobby has clearly seeped into the main political parties within Britain, influencing their view towards the MidEast conflict, just because many of them have big bucks or their hands in some important pockets.

This discussion about right and wrong is a key one, in a time where the Government is eager to define what should be right and wrong for Muslims. What type of political voice we should have, what type of Islam we should have. In this climate, we need to be able to discuss with everyone, Muslims nad non-Muslim and get them to think about this idea of what is really right, and what is really wrong. Even the norms in society, which are deemed right, outside of the law, should be questioned. So why is it we deem it right to walk out the door showing our body and hair as women, luring others to our femininity and sexuality? Who deems this right? Where did this come from? Yes maybe the desire of women to be free, but more largely the desire for capitalist companies to create a booming fashion and beauty industry - Have we ever thought about where our rights and wrongs come from in this way?

So how can we ensure that we follow the right and abstain from the wrongs which are best for us, as human beings, best for our selves, our families, communities? And not simply for the benefit of the rich and therefore most powerful? The problem with man-made law is that human beings are inextricably influenced by their own desires, needs, prejudices when viewing things and are of course limited in our understanding - We don't even know what is going to happen to ourselves in the next second. So if we don't even know what's best for ourselves, what is best for our families according to their needs, how would someone therefore know how to meet the needs of millions of people?

The Shariah is a set of rules and laws, devised by the Allah SWT, who created every single thing on this Earth, and therefore knows each and every one of us best. In the Shariah Allah SWT has given an entire code for living for an entire society, where no particular individual has any particular precedence, but all are subject to the law of Allah SWT. No one's desires, personal benefits are allowed to take centrestage in policy making, as it is Allah who knows best:

'It may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not know.' Surah Baqarah

The Shariah enshrines the rights and wrongs of Islam, where pleasing Allah is what is always right, and displeasing him, wrong. The family is the microcosm of the Islamic society and is given due importance, and individuals are obliged to live with one another with respect, care and concern, whether Muslim or non-Muslim.

Therefore for the Muslim, what is right in life and what is wrong is set out, crystal clear. It's not about what we as individuals think is best and right, but what Allah thinks is right. It means what is right for society, not what is right just for the individual.

I'm not trying to say we need to go around calling everyone in the UK to live by Shariah, before my words as I imagine will be oh so misconstrued, but that we start a debate with people from all elements of society to begin to question the very foundations in society and understand that the rights and wrongs which the West live by are not the only universal rights and wrongs. That we should not just take the status quo of what is deemed right and wrong around us, for our own, just because the majority around us follow them. Rather Muslim or non-Muslim - we should question the basis for the views which we have, the beliefs we have and start the debate about what is really right and best for any society in this world.

Freedom to speak (dec 09)

2009-12-11T10:59:00.001Z

The freedom to speak is an enshrined value of the Western world. Something they pride themselves on and wish to promote in the Muslim world. So when the Danish cartoons happened, it was the freedom of speech debate which took centre stage. When the film Fitnah was created it was all protected by this freedom of speech value. One should be able to criticise and debate ideas, with openness as this is what creates a society which thinks about what it believes in, and questions it. So questioning the Islamic traditions in fitnah was the freedom to question and probe. Depicting the Prophet SAW as a terrorist was all about questioning the place of Islam and the Prophet SAW.

Therefore one would hope that the ability to question and debate the values embedded in the society all around us would be encouraged, urged. However the recent war on terror in Britain has set quite a different standard for Muslims, when it comes to their ability to speak and debate freely. If Muslims voice their different views about politics, society and question the norms which people swallow as universal around them, freedom of speech suddenly has no place for them. If Muslims believe that the resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan is fully legitimate, as these lands have been bombed and destroyed, masses killed without any type of consent of the people, then are we supporters of terrorism? Because we believe in the self-determination of a people who are in the hands of foreign occupation? Did not Britain fight back during the Blitz? Did they welcome the bombing of their cities and embrace the Germans with open hands? Would we call those who assisted in the war effort to counter the blitz, insurgents and terrorists, simply because they wanted sovereignty in their own land?

What about those who believe the values of the people of the Muslim world should shape the way they live. The Muslim world should be allowed to let their way of life manifest itself in society and wiithin the state. Is this barbaric, backward if they want to live by the just Economic system of Islam, which distributes the wealth of the state to the poor, instead of letting the rich and elite accumulate it? A system which provides stability putting the interests of the people first, above the speculative markets? What about if they want their social values to manifest in society so that men and women maintain a respect towards each other instead of being encouraged to sexualise one another? So that family units are sanctified over individual's freedom to run after desires and temptations. Is this extremism? As if you call for a Caliphate, the Khilafah system, for the Muslim world, believing that democracy only perpetuates tyranny of man, allowing corruption of power and wealth; you have rejected the values of the West and have gone to far for this society.

But is this not the West who prides itself on the debate of ideas and values? Is this not the West who encourages people who criticise and discuss what leads to better societies? More harmonious societies?

Questions. Questions. No one seems to really answer. The problem is, the Government today, the prospective Conservative Government today is banding around alot of what will never be allowed. Extremism will never be allowed in British society, terrorism will never be allowed in British society and as Cameron has promised, he will ban Islamic groups who call for such terrorism once he comes to power. But Cameron has been quick to shove the debate about productive values in a very broken society which he wishes to mend, under the carpet. As these Islamic groups are those who are not and have never been engaged in any type of violent extremism, but have always been at the forefront of speaking out against colonisliam, occupation and the ability for Islam to solve the broken problems of society in the Muslim world. They want to discuss what values could potentially mend a society broken socially, economically and politically. So clearly Cameron's promise to ban such groups essentially means the promise to ban discussion and debate about values in society and silence those who actually think and don't just adopt the status quo blindly - That democracy is supreme. Rather maybe Cameron could stop to think - The reasons why some Muslims believe and call so wholeheartedly for Islamic law in the Muslim world, is because they wish more than anything for justice to return to our world today, the ceasing of the rich usurping the poor, and the powerful oppressing the weak. Something he could actually learn from maybe?

When light hits the prism

2009-11-03T16:17:00.000Z

Light, before it hits a prism, is one and whole. Blindingly illuminating. Then, as it travels through the unforgivingly jagged form of the prism, it splits into a variety of distinct colours which seem to have no resemblance to what came before. They all came from that same initial illuminating, all encompassing light, but the journey of the prism has shattered that oneness, creating many paths which seem now impossible to again unify.

Our purpose in life, I think, is a little like this. We all start off knowing that our purpose is one, wholly one on this earth. But as we travel through the jagged realities of this dunya, this purpose which can be explained in just three words, to worship Allah, becomes a multitiude of complex aims, desires and aspirations. And the further we fall into the lures of the dunya, the more divergent our aims and aspirations become, often becoming unrecognisable from our initial purpose, in reality, although we may not think so.

To exist in this world of course requires more than simply settling upon a prayer mat. And to fulfil your purpose in life, of worshipping Allah, definitely requires more than that. In fact as Muslims, we need to maintain a whole host of responsibilities in order to fulfil the instincts and needs we hold as human beings, in the way that Allah desires. But the question is, how do we maintain our purpose in life as well as live the life in this world?

The answer I think is quite simple. It means being able to distinguish the place where the light splits in the prism, where the purpose no longer is really the purpose. It's when we begin to do actions and then fit them into our purpose, however tenuous the link, instead of the other way round. And so normal this way of living has become for the Muslim, that to do things the other way round, raises eyebrows - they get labelled as making life as a Muslim very 'black and white'. That they have simplified it, that they have not really understood what living by Islam really means.

So when a Muslim woman has children, and she decides to fulfil her responsibility of bringing up her children, as this is the role, over all other roles, which Allah SWT will hold her to account for, she's being a bit black and white. It's all more complex than that. You can work in a job where you can do good, which gives you respect and social standing, you can put your kids in a nursery which teaches them well or you put them in the trusted care of a relative, and on top of all that the extra money that you earn will give those kids a better standard of life. It all fits in somehow to the grand scheme of our purpose in life, right? But I would ask that when we make these links, that we really stand back and ask ourselves. Is this action for Allah? Will these decisions get me closer to Jannah, or are they to enable me to progress more in this life, to fit in more in this life, to make myself more happy in this life? Because it's not really about being a stay at home mum or not. It's about the way we shape the decisions we make in life.

The point here is we live in a society today, where Capitalism has framed the right and wrong around us. From the bottom line - That money is it, has sprung values which promote accumulation of wealth, consumerism, materialism and when it comes to women, for example, in particular promotes the development of careers as the mark of value of a person. The values that the secular way of life has produced in society mean that people view personal benefit as paramount - Your career over your family, your contentment over the communities'. Although such an bare-faced exposition of society may stand as a little bit extreme, I believe that's exactly what it is. When you strip the society and values we live in of the normality which has grown on them, like the comfort of soft green moss on jagged rocks, I really believe, this is how it is.

So it's not really that complex. It is simple really. It's about the way you spend your time, that what gives you the feeling of worth and value is linked, inextricably, to your reason for being here. It actually is quite black and white. What makes things complex is the distractions of this dunya, the pressures of society and even family very often, and the luring values of personal benefit which have become so close to the way we think, they seem to even lurk under our skin.

So next time you start looking at your life in a very 'black and white' way, do so with pride, because it is Allah SWT who tells us repeatedly in the timeless Quran that those who forego the life of this world for His sake, His reward is with you.

And the life of this world is nothing but play and amusement. But far better is the house in the Hereafter for those who are AlMuttaqûn (the pious). Will you not then understand? (Al-An’am 6:32)

POST FROM ISLAMIC SYSTEM BLOGSPOT: The Muslim Woman’s Dress in Public

2009-11-03T15:57:00.000Z

http://islamicsystem.blogspot.com/2009/11/muslim-womans-dress-in-public.html

Lately, the Islamic rulings related to the affairs of Muslim women have seen a lot of interest from the enemies of Islam who are bent on separating Muslims from their Deen. One such ruling under attack is the dress of the Muslim woman in public life. It is incumbent on all Muslims, both men and women, to defend Islam from such attacks. The best way to do so is through the Adila (evidences) that relate to the women’s dress in public life.

Sha’r (Islamic law) has imposed a dress code on the Muslim woman that is specific to public life – she is obligated to wear distinct attire known as the “Jilbaab”. In public life it is not enough for a Muslim woman to cover her Awrah, which is defined by Shar’ as all of her body except the face and the hands.

The Jilbaab covers the Awrah and fulfills other re-quirements defined by Shar’ for public life.Jilbaab: an obligation prescribed by Allah (swt)Wearing the Jilbaab is not an obligation required by the tra-dition of our forefathers, or a social custom or a right granted to the husband or the father.

It is also not a matter of personal choice for the woman, or an expression of modesty. Rather, it is an order from Allah (swt), similar to the order of prayer and the order of fasting. Allah (swt) has revealed:يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ قُلْ لِأَزْوَاجِكَ وَبَنَاتِكَ وَنِسَاءِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ يُدْنِينَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِنْ جَلَابِيبِهِنَّ ذَلِكَ أَدْنَى أَنْ يُعْرَفْنَ فَلَا يُؤْذَيْنَ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ غَفُورًا رَحِيمًا“O Prophet! Say to your wives and your daughters and the women of the faithful to draw their Jalabib (plural of Jilbaab) close around them; that is better that they will be recognized and not annoyed. And God is ever Forgiv-ing, Gentle.”[TMQ 33:59]

Thus, the Muslimah wears the Jilbaab in submission to Allah (swt), seeking His pleasure and fearing His punishment:وَمَا كَانَ لِمُؤْمِنٍ وَلَا مُؤْمِنَةٍ إِذَا قَضَى اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَمْرًا أَنْ يَكُونَ لَهُمُ الْخِيَرَةُ مِنْ أَمْرِهِمْ وَمَنْ يَعْصِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ ضَلَالًا مُبِينًا“It is not fitting for a believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah or His messenger, to have any option about their decision; if anyone disobeys Allah and His messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong path.”[TMQ 33:36]

Wearing the Jilbaab is therefore a Hukm Shari (legal injunc-tion) associated with reward and punishment that is sup-ported by evidences from the Quran and the Sunnah. If the Muslim woman appears in public life without a Jilbaab over her normal clothes, she will be sinful for abandoning an obli-gation from Allah (swt).What the Islamic attire in public life is notA variety of common clothing arrangements are often con-fused with the correct Islamic attire for public life because of the misconception that simply covering the Awrah is sufficient in a public place. In truth, these arrangements are not substi-tutes for the Jilbaab and therefore do not absolve the Muslim woman of her obligation to dress correctly in public life.

For instance, some women may wear the Khimaar with a long dress or pants, while others may wear the Shalwar Kameez (traditional attire worn as an everyday dress in South Asia). However, both the Khimaar and the Shalwar Kameez are not substitutes for the Jilbaab since they fall short of satisfying the requirements for the Islamic public attire as defined by the Sha’r.

The Jilbaab in the Quran and the Sunnah

The Jilbaab is a loose outer garment which covers the whole body. The authority on the requirement for women to wear the Jilbaab is the Quran itself. In Surat al-Ahzaab the follow-ing verse instructs the Messenger (saw):يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ قُلْ لِأَزْوَاجِكَ وَبَنَاتِكَ وَنِسَاءِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ يُدْنِينَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِنْ جَلَابِيبِهِنَّ ذَلِكَ أَدْنَى أَنْ يُعْرَفْنَ فَلَا يُؤْذَيْنَ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ غَفُورًا رَحِيمًا“O Prophet! Say to your wives and your daugh-ters and the women of the faithful to draw their Jalabib (plural of Jilbaab) close around them; that is better that they will be recognized and not annoyed. And God is ever Forgiving, Gentle.”[TMQ 33:59]In his Tafseer, Al-Qurtubi explained:“Jalabeeb is the plural of Jilbaab, and it is a garment larger than a Khimaar (headscarf).

It has been narrated by Ibn ‘Ab-bas and Ibn Masud that it is a ridaa (large sheet of cloth). It is said that it is a qina’/veil but the correct view is that it is a garment which covers the whole body.
It has been reported in Sahih Muslim on the authority of Umm ‘Atiyyah who asked; ‘O Messenger of Allah! What about one who does not have a Jilbaab?’ He said, ‘Let her borrow the Jilbaab of her compan-ion.’”Also, In Surat An-Nur, Allah (swt) has commanded the Mus-lim woman to wear the Khimaar:وَلْيَضْرِبْنَ بِخُمُرِهِنَّ عَلَى جُيُوبِهِنَّ وَلَا يُبْدِينَ زِينَتَهُنَّ إِلَّا لِبُعُولَتِهِنَّ“Let them draw their Khumur (plural of Khimaar) over their necks and bosoms (Juyub). And let them not display (more of) their charms to any but their husbands...”[TMQ 24:31]

The Ayat is instructing women to drape their head-coverings (i.e. Khumur) over their necks and bosoms.The obligation of Jilbaab is also derived from the Sunnah of Rassulallah (saw):Umm Atiyya (ra) narrated:“We were ordered to bring out our menstruating women and screened women to the reli-gious gatherings and invocation of the Muslims on the two Eid festivals. These menstruating women were to keep away from the musalla. A woman asked, ‘O Messen-ger of Allah! What about one who does not have a Jil-baab?’ He said, ‘Let her borrow the Jilbaab of her com-panion.’"[Bukhari]A report narrated by Umm Salama (ra):“When the verse, ‘That they should draw their Jal-abib close around them’ was revealed, the women of Ansar (inhabitants of Madinah) came out as if they had crows over their heads by wearing Jal-abib.”[Abu Dawud]A report narrated by Aisha (ra):“The wife of Rifa'a al-Qurazi came to Allah's Messenger while I was sitting...and she was showing the fringe of her Jilbaab.”[Bukhari]As has been made amply clear by the cited evidences, the Muslim woman is obligated to wear a Jilbaab which conceals her normal clothes and drapes down until it covers her feet. This is in reference to the lower portion of the woman's clothes. As for the upper portion, she must wear a Khimaar, or something similar, that covers the entire head, the neck and the opening of the garment on the chest. In other words, it is Fard to wear these two pieces of clothes prior to leaving the house. This is because the command to wear these two pieces is general and it will remain so, since there is no evidence to make an exception to it.

It is also stipulated that the Jilbaab is draped down to the floor until it conceals the feet (i.e. they should drape their Jalabib down to the floor) because Allah (swt) says in the Ayah:يُدْنِينَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِنْ جَلَابِيبِهِنَّ“…to draw their Jalabib close around them…”[TMQ 33:59]It has been narrated on the authority of Ibn Umar (ra):“Rassu-lallah (saw) said: ‘On the Day of Judgement, Allah will not look with mercy towards the one that trails his garment behind him/herself in haughty pride.’ Umm Salama asked, ‘What are the women to do with the hems of their dresses?’ He answered, ‘Let them increase their hems the length of a hand span.’ She enquired, ‘Then their feet will be uncovered!’ He then replied, ‘Let them increase a fore arm’s length and no more.’”[Tirmidhi]This clearly shows that the garment which is worn over the woman’s normal clothes should be draped down towards the floor until it covers the feet. If the feet are covered by wearing shoes or socks, the garment must come down to the floor but it will not be necessary for it to cover the feet. However, if the feet are not covered by shoes or socks – then the garment must be draped and it must cover the feet.The Jilbaab must also not be semi-transparent to allow the normal clothes or any part of the Awrah to be seen from un-derneath. Furthermore, it must not become a form of Tabar-ruj (i.e. an attraction to men) and it must not resemble men’s clothing.In summary, it is not enough for the woman to cover her Awrah in public life. She is obligated to have a wide and loose fitting, i.e. an opaque baggy garment that she wears over her normal clothes in order to appear in public life.Muslim women steadfast in their DeenNowadays we sadly witness assaults on Islamic concepts from all corners, especially on the public symbols of Islamic observance such as the Islamic attire.

Enormous pressure is being applied on Muslim women to abandon or compromise on the correct Islamic attire in public life. The Muslim women of today should take guidance from the Muslim women of the past who were praised by the Messenger (saw) and earned the pleasure of Allah (swt). When the verses for covering were revealed they responded immediately without delay by covering their Awrah with whatever material they could find. Safiyyah, daughter of Shaybah, said that Aisha (ra) had mentioned the women of Ansar, praised them and said good words about them. She then said,“When Surat an-Nur came down, they took the curtains, tore them and made head covers (veils) of them.”[Abu Dawud]The Jilbaab: a matter of concern to Muslim husbandsAllah (swt) has clearly laid a responsibility on the husband to advise and teach the members of his household about the matters of their Deen. Allah (swt) has revealed:يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا قُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ وَأَهْلِيكُمْ نَارًا وَقُودُهَا النَّاسُ وَالْحِجَارَةُ عَلَيْهَا مَلَائِكَةٌ غِلَاظٌ شِدَادٌ لَا يَعْصُونَ اللَّهَ مَا أَمَرَهُمْ وَيَفْعَلُونَ مَا يُؤْمَرُونَ“O you who believe! Save yourselves and your families from a fire whose fuel is men and stones, over which are appointed angels stern and severe, who flinch not from executing the commands they receive from Allah, but do precisely what they are commanded.”[TMQ 66:6]Therefore, the matter of the Islamic attire in public life and the obligation of wearing the Jilbaab must be conveyed by Muslim husbands to their wives and their daughters, and they must show them how to be righteous, so they may all receive the blessing of Allah (swt) and be rewarded, to-gether, with Jannah.

The sick trio

2009-10-12T09:44:00.000+01:00

The news that three separate individuals living in different places across the UK have been charged with a series of acts of child abuse, has sent ripples of disgust as well as disbelief through the public.

The three individuals are said to have met on Facebook, and have since shared endless amounts of emails, texts and photos of the most depraved acts of child abuse. Vanessa George, a 39 year old nursery worker in Plymouth, had sent over 150 photos to Colin Blanchard from Rochdale and Angela Allen from Nottingham where she had taken the most graphic and disturbing images of sexual abuse of the children in the nursery she worked in. Between the three of them, graphic descriptions of child abuse, explicit photos were intensively exchanged to such a degree that police believe some sort of contest was occurring, due to the rapid acceleration in the depravity of the images and texts. The content of these photos and messages are so disturbing that the details are not being revealed to the public, but as they were described inside the courtroom, it was said that the parents of the children who Vanessa George possibly abused, wailed and cried in absolute despair.

The reality is paedophilia is rampant in society. The pages of newspapers are seldom free of some sort of case of sexual abuse of children. In 2002 the BBC conducted a documentary series which went on a hunt for Britain’s paedophiles and then the police’s lowest estimate for the UK, was around 230,000. And such cases are not restricted to only Britain, there was Jaycee Lee in America, the shocking Josef Fritzel case in Austria; just to name two - And these were simply two high profile cases. And finally a sad testimony of how rampant sexual abuse against children is, is just to read the barrage of comments listed after the BBC’s reports of this current case – The majority of the entries are individuals describing sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of someone as a child.

The question therefore always arises – How can we rid society of this despicable crime? The Sex Offenders Register, the CRB checking system are initiatives which seek to try to prevent acts of such sexual abuse occurring. After this current case of child abuse, a debate has now arisen on the need to ban camera phones in the workplace. Parents from the nursery within which Vanessa George worked, have already started a campaign calling for this amongst other things, as a way to prevent such sexual abuse against children in the future.

These policies and initiatives, although may make it a little difficult for sex offenders to carry out their crimes, they in no way make it impossible. A nursery worker can still smuggle a phone in into an enclosed nappy changing area in a nursery; a teacher can still obtain a successful CRB check, but still have committed atrocious crimes in secret – As was the case with Vanessa George. And although such initiatives make sexual crimes a little more difficult, they in no way eradicate the sick mentality that these people hold – the desire to sexually gratify themselves by abusing children, not caring about the consequence. This is because these people live in a society which is constantly screaming out that personal gratification is the most prized thing above all – We are told to make ourselves happy, whatever the cost. For some people that maybe enjoying a stable marital relationship, for some having one night stands with strangers one after the other, and for others sexually abusing a child. The problem is once you urge people to please themselves, different people will interprete this in different ways as this is the nature of human beings – Our desires and urges have no innate limits.

Personal gratification is pushed within Western secular societies because of the value which these societies hold as their cornerstone – Personal freedom which iterates that every individual is free to believe and behave in whatever way pleases them. This concept of freedom within society is founded by the viewpoint in life which all secular societies hold – That whether God exists or not is irrelevant, this is one life which is just about enjoying oneself and putting oneself first. Therefore this viewpoint in life inevitably affects the way people behave in the society. They have no regard for consequences of actions, as they live for themselves and are answerable to no one. This urges them to gratify themselves to a maximum degree, without even passing a thought about whether what they are doing is right or wrong, will have a good or bad impact on society. It’s simply about making oneself happy. The law is an after thought for many people, as many attempt to simply escape it.

Cases of paedophilia and child abuse, we know are not at all rare within the society we live in. However this particular case has caught much more media attention as two of the three perpetrators were women. When cases of paedophilia are committed by men, there has almost a level of desensitisation, as people are upset and angry, but not surprised. However the fact that in this instance, such depraved and disgusting acts of sexual abuse against children were committed by women – One of which who was herself a mother of two – has sent shockwaves throughout society.

The question has arisen across the board that how could a mother, who has children herself, carry out such disgusting abuse of other children? And women are seen to be the more nurturing and caring race – How could women therefore go against these instincts and behave in this way?

However in a way this debate is redundant, as regardless of whether the perpetrator is a man or a woman, both exist in the very same society which pushes increasing sexualisation in society. Therefore just because women may have more of a maternal instinct, does not mean they are immune from the dark consequences of letting their desires run free to any extent they desire. The American Psychological Association carried out a study in 2007 and found that magazines, television, video games and music videos all portray an alarming level of sexualisation in society which has a detrimental effect on particularly young girls.

Therefore paedophilia, can in no way be eradicated by simply banning camera phones from the workplace. What needs to happen is an entire overhaul of the very values of society which induce such behaviour within people. In Western secular societies this is the poisonous concept of freedom.
Islam on the complete other hand has a totally different viewpoint in life to secularism. Islam believes there is a God – A Creator who created everything in this world, including all of mankind. Islam iterates that mankind has come from this Creator, Allah SWT, and will undoubtedly return to Him SWT. This viewpoint in life creates a fundamental value within the Muslim, of accountability to Allah SWT in every action that one does.
This means that before seeking to fulfil one’s desires in whatever way one wants, despite the consequences on other people and society, the Muslim will think about what pleases Allah first.
Islam’s stance on sexual relations of any type outside of marriage between two consenting partners, is clear as the Prophet said in narrated by Abdullah bin ‘Abbas:
“A person who commits this act (sexual intercourse outside of marriage) is not a true believer of their faith” Imam Bukhari and Muslim
The system of Islam works to help sustain this mentality of chastity outside of marriage which Muslims hold, within the society. The fact that Islam directs the sexual instinct specifically to the realm of marriage and takes it completely out of society; means there are minimal agitations for the instinct in public life. This means that any billboards, TV advertisements, magazine pictures which depict anything even slightly sexual would be forbidden. The rule of segregation of the sexes, a man and woman not being allowed to be alone together and the strict punishments for fornification, rape and even accusing a chaste woman all supplement this mentality of chastity, and help the Muslim uphold their taqwa.
Therefore forget abusing children, the Islamic society aims to prevent the abuse of any man, woman or child. And it therefore is only the Islamic society which can return the depraved state we see across the world today, to a content and harmonious one. One where the simple thing of protecting our children and vulnerable, is maintained.

This is iman

2009-09-18T00:26:00.000+01:00

The Prophet SAW in his ascent to Jannah could smell a beautiful smell and asked Jibrael what the beautiful smell was. He SAW was told this was the smell of the hairdresser of the daughter of Firaun, and her children,.

Who may this woman and her children be, we may ask? Yet another figure in an Islamic history book? But surely, my dear sisters, this woman is more than a dormant figure in a book. This woman is the magnificent, most beautiful example for us all, on what Iman really means. What steadfastness upon the Haq really means. And what sacrifice fi sabeelilah really means.

And the hadith narrated in Ahmad and Ibn Majah is as follows:

The hairdresser of the daughter of the Firaun, a nobody, another servant in the expansive quarters of the Firaun was one day combing the hair of her master's daughter. And as she was doing so, she accidentally dropped the comb and after picking it up to resume her combing, she subconsciously uttered Bismillah. Just as we do, my dear sisters, before we eat, before we do any action, the utterance of bismillah is alhumdulilah of second nature to us, as it alhumdulilah was to her. But this utterance in no way had the same repercussions as maybe out utterances do today. Swiftly the daughter asked her what she had said, asking her whether she was mentioning the name of her father.

But this brave and valiant woman's reply was - No. I mention Allah, my God and the God of your father. Immediately the daughter became angry and rushed to her father to tell him what had happened. He, in his anger, at finding this out, summoned her to him.

And she came and stood, a woman, a woman, sisters, in front of this great, most tyrannical and dictatorial Pharaoh. And he said to her, 'who is your god?' And she said, 'Allah is my lord.' He said 'who is Allah?' She said 'Allah is my god and yours.' Yes, she was cornered and put in a place, when she had to answer, she answered. No compromise, no thinking about how it would affect her job, her livelihood and most of all her 5 children.

Her answer made the Firaun furious and he ordered for chains to be brought. They whipped her, punsihed her but her reply was the same 'Allah is my lord and yours.'

And so he ordered for them to bring a large container and he spilt boiling oil in to this container, and then he said, 'bring me all her children!' And her first child was brought. A child who for a mother, her heart aches for, when he may graze his knee, bang his head. Yet as the Firaun asked her the same question again and her response was the same, this child was put into the boiling oil, for his flesh to melt away from his bones, leaving his mother in this dunya.

But my dear sisters, the pain of the loss of a child, in front of your very eyes, in a manner which could make the coldest of hearts weep, did in no way weaken this jewel of Allah. She continued to watch all four of her children being immersed in the boiling oil and killed in this way. And then came the fifth, a baby who was still breastfeeding. And she was about to pull back. Imagine sisters, the innocent form of a baby whose total dependence on the mother for all form of nourishment, imagine how a mother would feel to think of the fate that laid for him. And then Allah SWT, the Lord of the heavens and the earth, in his magnificence, enabled this baby to speak to his mother. 'Be patient my mother, you are in the truth, Allah Allah has promised you with a great heaven, keep going mother.' SubhanAllah!

And the same fate befall the innocent baby.

She knew she was next and she began to cry. The tyrant, Firaun, then asked her why she was crying. And sisters, it was not in regret of what she had done, or in anger for Allah's test upon her. No. It was because she had a request she wanted to ask this man, but she did not know whether he would comply. And what was this request?

This request was - After she was also boiled alive, that all that remained of her and her children should be gathered together and buried in the same grave. This is so, on Yawm Ul Qiyamah, she could be raised with all the children beside her and enter Jannah with them.

Sisters, what are our tests? Comfort? Ease? The fear of what people will say to us? The sacrifice of wealth, status, career? Just think of this fragant jewel of Jannah, and remember that nothing is too big a sacrifice for the sake of our Rabb.

A picture of the end

2009-09-13T01:25:00.000+01:00

The Prophet SAW always iterated, that a believer should remember death. So sisters, please imagine:

The time for the day’s iftar is nearing and you count in your head the many things you still have to do in the short time span that you have. And then you remember you have not prayed Asr Salah. You leave the ladle beside the cooker, brush your hands with the tea towel nearby and gallop up the stairs to make wudu. You had intended to break the fight the children were having over the new remote controlled car you bought them, but you reassure yourself, that you can do so in about ten minutes, after you finish your salah.

You splash the water in the bathroom sink as you whizz through wudu, then just about wipe the dripping water off your face with the hanging towel and rush to your room, eyeing it for the prayer mat. You find it, throw it down onto the thick soft carpet and swiftly make your takbir. You try to forget the fizzling noise of the hot oil frying the samosas you can hear in the distance, as you know if you think about this, you will be worrying over the colour of the samosas, over the concentration in your salah. You recite the surahs, complete the sujood and as you turn your head in salam, finishing off your salah, and your thoughts immediately return to all the commotion happening downstairs. You can hear the oil, you can hear the cartoons on TV, but now most of all you can hear two children arguing and screaming over a small red remote controlled car you found in a sale yesterday.

And you rise quickly, scanning in your head all the things you still have left to do and thinking about the order in which you will do them to ensure everything gets done before the time of iftar. As you rise you sweep up the prayer mat with you from under your feet. But as you fold the prayer mat in half, it falls from your hands, to end up in a scrumpled heap on the floor in front of you. And over the next few seconds, the following happens:

A piercing, numbing pain consumes your entire head which feels like someone ripped your head apart from the inside. So intense is the pain, that it overwhelms every sensation you felt just one moment ago. So intense is the feeling that the clear vision that you just had becomes dark and the walnut veneered wardrobe which always stands in front of you directly in your vision, when you pray salah, every day, no longer is recognisable.

You realise that you are falling to the floor, hitting something on your left side which you know is the end of the bed. You have not even thought about making some sort of noise through your mouth, but you can’t even think how to use it as you can’t find your voice. But before you can even exert that effort your whole body violently convulses and you are laying in your vomit on the floor. Things slowly come back into focus and you can see the colourful pieces of lego, play plates and cups under that walnut veneered wardrobe that have collected over time. You can hear again the shouts from downstairs which have seemed to have died down and despite the numbing pain which has engulfed your head, a bellowing ache forms in the deepest pit of your stomach as you have flashes of the baby always looking for you, but never being able to express it, you imagine your daughter sitting at the living room window wondering when you will come back and you imagine them waiting at the school gates with the delicate hope of seeing you, just maybe today, pulling up in the car. You briefly think of all those you love and you feel crippled when imagining the pain they will feel. But as you lay there, feeling very little, not understanding where you are now, what is happening, one thought becomes crystal clear in the depths of your heart.

The feeling that you felt before you undertook your most important exam, the feeling you felt before you faced your parents after disobeying them in the worst way possible at some point in your childhood – Think back to the most intense, gripping sense of fear you have felt, having no idea what was to come, being crippled by the feeling of not knowing what would happen to you. Think back to this feeling and multiply it exponentially. Because lying there, in the double bedroom, of your three bedroomed house, with the cooking still on the hob downstairs, the kids still running around chasing the speeding car across the room, you realise that this is it. This is the moment when it all ends, all opportunities, all hopes, all desires, everything comes to a dark end. Overwhelming feeling of being lost, the unknown engulfs you as you realise that your limbs will now bring you now avail to gtake you where you want to go, as you are going back to Allah. No turning back, the good deeds and the evil sins now stand in their separate lines waiting to travel with you, back to your Rabb. All those times when you put the wealth, the children, the enjoyments of this dunya above the pleasure of your Rabb; all those times when you thought tomorrow will be the time when I sacrifice for Allah; all those times now are all you have, without ever actually embracing the sacrifice– Those times now are all you have.

The pictures of those times now dry in your mind, and your heart frantically tries to change them, etch some out, ply some of them to rub out the sin and complacency in the dunya. But as helpless as you lie there on your bedroom floor, you realise you are just as helpless now in changing any of your deeds. You are now in Allah’s hands, waiting for His account, with the story of your life as your baggage. That realisation that would be strong enough to knock you down to the floor overcomes you, that the end really did come and you never made those sacrifices, never detached your heart from the pulls of the dunya. You are trapped in a time now where there is going to be no going back, and you would cry the tears of a lifetime in regret but you are past that ownership of yourself and your free will.

As the Angel of Death swoops into your suburban home to collect the next soul for that night, your physical self is still curled up on the floor next to the creased up prayer mat. The stench of the vomit travels into the passage and your loved ones try to understand what the smell is. The screams and the cries of those who walk in, as the Angel glides away, to find you would have perturbed you beyond belief when you were in this dunya, but now your ears cannot hear them you eyes cannot see them.

There is no immunity from death, so there should be no denial of it. May Allah SWT help us to remember death and our return to him, just as we remember living our lives in the dunya.

Back in the month where Allah SWT could do no more to urge us to worship him

2009-09-10T22:11:00.000+01:00

It's been a while. I'm not yet another one of those blogs who has been electrically active then disappeared into thin air when posting gets tedious. Because it's all for Allah SWT right? We don't get tired of praying and fasting, so how can we tire of spreading the word of Allah?

Post maternity leave 3 month return to work, a mad trip with two young children to Malaysia which although was supposed to be leisure ended up being an examination of my patience and stress levels. But now alhumdulila back at home, with the kids, wondering how to structure life, with no work lying ahead, no new baby about to come, it's just about fulfilling my responsibilities in the best way possible. And as someone asked, will I get bored? Bored? What a question. How can you get bored when you have the weight of the responsibilities of a Muslimah on your shoulder... Where is the time or audacity to feel boredom? The Angel of Death lurks behind us, in front of us every twenty minutes or so, someone once worked out if I remember correctly - Would I tell him, when he finally decided to take me, yikes I was bored with fulfilling my obligations of being a mother and bringing up my children in the best way that I can so Paradise can be at my feet, bored maintaining the home which brings me the reward of a jeehad, and tired with trying to carry Allah's deen to everyone around me in a time which is as dark as the time the Sahabah struggled in...??!!! So nope, bored, doesn't even fit in the equation. And I'm sorry, but I'm not that much of a sheep that I will kill myself working in the office in the day, working at home in the night, fighting with my kids and fighting with my hubby, just to get through the day. Yes everyone around me is doing it, people in my office even did it, but I have to ask myself why and I would rather choose tranquility in life, any day.

But having returned from Malaysia in the blessed month of Ramadan, of course Ramadan always sparks thoughts about what ibadah means. And my thought for tonight, as we enter the most blessed ten days of Ramadan, is that understand what ibadah really is. Because something is clearer than crystal, whatever action you do, whatever intention you have Allah SWT is the All Hearing and All Seeing, he knows it all. So if you neglect Allah's commands all year round, going by what pleases you, what fits in with the people you hang out with, over what Allah wants of you, Allah doesn't forget this, come Ramadan. Even though you may begin your fasting, retrieve your prayers and even maybe don the hijab, Allah SWT knows that you do it in this month maybe because everyone else does it, maybe because this month has a special spiritual atmosphere that motivates you, or maybe you do just want to please Allah. But our obedience to Allah knows no limits, no seasonalities. Allah keeps out hearts beating 365 days a year, every second every minute of the day, not by season or by month. Allah SWT grants us the mercy of family, rizq (provisions) even the mercy of tests in life to gain reward and expiate our sins, these mercies are never part-time, or intermittent.

So without questioning whether we mean to worship Allah sincerely in this month or not, the bigger question is why we have the mentality that we can choose when to obey Allah and when not to:
'But no, by your Lord, they can have no real iman until they make you (oh Muhammad) judge in all of the disputes and find in themselves no resistance in your decision and accept them with fullest submission' (surah Nisa)
Allah SWT uses many things in his Noble Quran to swear by, but in this ayah he views the content to be of so much importance that the Lord of the worlds swears by Himself. And Allah SWT majestically tells us in this verse, that our obedience to what the Messenger of Allah brought us goes beyond the fancies and superficial desires we human beings hold - And real faith is by embracing the code of Islam, as our own code for life. Despite the fear of what friends and family will see, the fear of loss of a job or client, the desires of status and honour in this world - whatever it may be - fullest submission is only what it can be.

Don't end this Ramadan by switching off the religious button in your brain. And anyway, you can only switch off something when you have the power to do so. But this is Allah Subhanahu Wa Taala we are talking about. The Allah who exists all year round, sees everything you do, and is closer to you at this very moment than your jugular vein. And let's face it, it's not us who really does the switching off, that's for Allah isn't it, when he decides to make that last intake of cool oxgenated air, our very last.

Polygamy – The Cause of ‘Social Breakdown’?

2009-07-24T14:45:00.000+01:00

Newsnight’s recent report into polygamy highlighted how the practice was on the increase within the Muslim community in the UK, despite it being reportedly on the decrease in the Muslim world. The report sought to understand the effects polygamy has on family life, and why Muslims in the UK may be taking it up. The report interviewed a woman who had been in a polygamous marriage and found it a negative experience. She claimed polygamy was not about ‘religion’, but about ‘Men out there’ who were ‘abusing women’.

Shadow Cohesion Secretary, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, raised her concerns about polygamy in the report, claiming that many of her female constituents are suffering within the practice, and she felt strongly that the Government was turning a ‘blind eye’ to it and the ‘social breakdown’ it was causing.

It is interesting that this report very vividly laid out polygamy within the Muslim community being the reason for social breakdown as well as the abuse and exploitation of women in society. As in reality even if it is on the rise, polygamy occurs within a very small proportion of the Muslim community, which is a community which itself forms a mere 2.8% of the UK population. Therefore the numbers of people affected by polygamy are minute, in proportion to the population of Britain.

So the question begs, how can such a small practice be blamed for the cause of social breakdown in society? Rather if the Government want to deal with ‘social breakdown’, should they not look at the actual social breakdown happening all around them - The mainstream attitudes in their society which cause fathers to walk away from women they have made pregnant without so much as a flinch, men who drug women at a parties and rape them while they are unconscious and partners who treat their women in whatever way pleases them? Are these practices sweeping across British society, over the miniscule practice of polygamy, not the ones causing real ‘social breakdown’ to the utmost degree?

Statistics only further highlight this ‘social breakdown’ that is occurring within British society today. One cannot blame polygamy for the fact that births outside marriage in the UK, have gone from about 10% in 1970s to over 40% in the 2000s, and in 2007 the proportion of lone parents as heads of households was treble that of the 1971 statistic of 4%. It is not in polygamy that can be pointed at for the fact that domestic violence accounts for nearly a quarter of all recorded violent crime in England and Wales and on average and two women per week are killed by a male partner or former partner. And it was not polygamy that caused the Children’s Society to conclude from their report of children in the UK that they were more depressed and anxious than ever - Rather it was the excessive individualism of adults whose love lives and romance came before stability and security for their children.

Therefore clearly, it is not polygamy that is causing 'social breakdown' in society and maybe if the media as well as Baroness Warsi turned their spotlight in the correct direction, they may begin to deal with the real social breakdown happening all around us. This has been and is continuing to be the disastrous effects of liberalism, where people believe they are free to do what they want and treat others however they want, irrespective of responsibilities, commitments and what is right or wrong.

The ironic thing about this polygamy onslaught is that if a man wishes to commit and gives rights to other women that he has a relationship with, this is criminalised under UK law – However if a man wants to marry one woman and mess around with others giving them no rights or commitment, he has full right to do so under the law. This highlights the utter fallacy of man-made law where the indulgements and fulfilment of sensual desires comes first, before the rights of people and what is best for family and the society.

No one denies that Muslim men who have conducted polygamous marriages and have done things such as conceal previous wives identities, denied other wives the same rights as the first, are not in the wrong, as Allah SWT says: ‘Marry such women as seem good to you, two, three, four; but if you fear you will not be equitable, then only one, or what your right hands own; so it is likelier you will not be partial’ (Surah Nisa: 3) Thus unjust treatment is in fact in contradiction to Islam, as a man must be able to give all his wives equal shares in everything and must treat them all justly, as he is accountable to Allah for his treatment of them. The Prophet SAW said, ‘The best of you are those who are best to their wives and I am best to mine.’ However the issue here is not that polygamy is the problem, rather it is the fact that the men have not adhered by the correct process in line with the Quran and Sunnah, but have used it to fulfil their own whims and desires.

Finally this polygamy debate has been nothing more than the latest attack that the media has had the opportunity to undertake on Islam and namely on Muslim women. After debates about the hijab, niqab, burka all subjugating and oppressing the Muslim woman, polygamy is the issue that is next in line for this discussion. However this is rather misconstrued as it is not only Muslims who practice polygamy. Firstly as discussed above, masses of people practice ‘polygamy’ in British society, but it just doesn’t have the same name - Those who have affairs, extra-marital relationships. Also the Jewish community and many Christian groups within the US, such as the Mormons practice it, but the report did not even so much as touch upon their communities, and how women are oppressed in them.

What this does show therefore that such an attack is just the latest in line on the ever increasing attack upon Islam as a way of life, and all of its systems. Despite who else practices polygamy, and who else oppresses and subjugates women on an even bigger scale, it is Islam and Muslims who are under the spotlight and must take the blame for these issues. It is without a doubt the fact that the comprehensiveness nature of Islam is a threat to the Western values and a hatred is actively being built up of the distinct Muslim way of life, to try and curb its rapid flourishment across the globe. But we all know the beautiful words of Allah SWT when he assures the Muslims: “They wish to extinguish the light of Allâh with their mouths, but Allâh will perfect His light; even though the unbelievers detest it. It is He Who sent His Messenger with the guidance and the religion of truth, that it may prevail over all other religions, even though those who worship others besides Allâh may detest it.” [Surah as-Saff 8-9]

Here we still are

2009-07-13T22:54:00.000+01:00

Women in Afghanistan are facing increasing violence almost eight years after the fall of the Taliban, a UN report has showed. The report, issued by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, focuses on the "growing trend", not rapid decrease, of violence and sexual threats made against women in public life. So eight years after a liberation war, here we still are.

The thing about Afghanistan was that if it ever was first about rooting out one famous man - the Notorious Mr Bin Laden, the operation soon became something else. As it had to, just as Iraq did otherwise how else could the public continue to stomach and support what was happening. And the something else it had to become was the women. From the onset of the Afghanistan campaign, the blue grilled burqa draped over a suffocating Afghani woman was just as frequent an image as that of Mr Bin Laden himself - The women's plight in Afghanistan very swiftly took centre stage in the world's media as the second in line plug for the devastating bloodshed. We heard very soon about the ‘no everything policy’, which is what I call it – No education, no healthcare with male consent, no ability to go outside without male permission, etc. These female struggles became apparent to us with the unprecedented sudden media spotlight, and the world longed for the heroic solders to go and liberate them.

But we sit here eight years later, knowing what happened next. That eight years on, British soldiers continue to die by their many trying to conquer Afghanistan from the multitude of factions and tribes which govern it and women's rights has become the least of the problems on the Western To-Do list. Although there is some sort of Afghani ‘democratic’ parliament put in place, their presence serves more for glossy photo opportunities for the media, than an actual ruling capacity over the people. It is the warlords and their multiple factions who in reality, still rule Afghanistan. So even when the Karzai Government, under Western pressure have attempted to make reforms, they have not have the courage to implement any real change at all – Having attempted to deal with violence against women within marriage, they have recently taken a small step to simply tweak the marital law so that men can still starve their wives as a punishment, instead of physically beat them.

The reality is, the situation for women in Afghanistan is not very different now than it was before the war – Rates for education for girls in Kabul has slightly increased with the ability for NGOs and other independent organisations to work there, however in the South and West of the country things are just as they were eight years ago. Professional women across the country are still kidnapped and killed as the Taliban and its factions continue to assert their authority on how they view women in society. This seems nowhere near the liberation that the West claimed to bring Afghanistan’s female race.Western liberalism did of course in some attempts enter Afghanistan. Beauty salons grew in stature in Kabul and the beauty company Revlon swooped in before the women could even fling there burqas off. This reinforced the message from the West to the Afghani women; that adopting the view that looking pretty is a measure of liberation, is the way forward for them.

But the thing is the burqas did not actually fling off, even with the presence of salons and Revlon. Forget the fact that lipsticks would be the least of their concerns, there is a deeper discussion to be had about values. Without sounding naive, of course women in Afghanistan still feared the repercussions of the Taliban warlords in rejecting their rules, anyone could say which would be the main reason for their continuing submission, but there was a more deeper issue here I think. Although the Afghani women were atrociously oppressed, liberation for them was not necessarily about slapping on some Revlon make-up. And this is something the world needs to understand - That liberation for women is not only in the form of Western liberalism where women must assert their sexual freedoms and desire to live like a man through equality, to feel liberated. In fact history in the West shows that exploiting the sexuality of women through the value of freedom, has brought a whole different set of devastating problems for society. Thus although denial of basic rights, being owned like cattle is the Afghani society’s absolute exploitation of women; can the opposite be drawn from societies which implement liberalism? Is not the standard of women being sexual comoddities as the norm as well as leaving her to run the rat race of seeking her own financial independence despite what other responsibilities she may have in life, another form of exploitation? How can such standards for women be seen as the liberation when they have their own chains of subjugation?

Eight years, ten years, twenty years. Even if Britain and America set their hearts on changing women's rights in Afghanistan with what they see as their golden freedom and liberalism, they would only replace one set of problems, with a whole host of another. So it’s time we seek a solution for the women of Afghanistan which actually gives them rights and protection without unshedding another load of social problems. And a change that would actually put the needs of the people, and the women first – not make them the convenient smokescreen to cover up real political objectives. This is the complete system of Islam, which enshrines rights for women in such a way that it fosters absolute honour and protection for them from all types of exploitation in society.

It is Islam which forms the sentiments of the people of Afghanistan, for even those who have twisted it to exploit the people. And it is Islam which forms the sentiments of the women, who seek Allah’s mercy and help for the oppression they undergo. And it is the Islamic ruling system, led by a sincere ruler, which can eradicate all the tribal practices once and for all and ensure it is only the pure and undiluted Shariah which is implemented as happened in the time of the Prophet SAW. And most importantly, for this debate, it is Islam which will actually give women their rights to full participation in public life, without compromising their role as women. Instead of punishing a race for holding X chromosomes in their DNA, Islam actually gave them a distinct value; as the Prophet SAW famously once said, ‘Paradise is at the feet of your mother’ and that ‘The world and all things in the world are precious but the most precious thing in the world is a virtuous woman.’ Which other society can boast of enshrining the honour of a woman in such an intrinsic way as this?

The Afghanistan dilemma has become a plagued one in the Western media today, as all wonder how it is they can overcome this lingering mess. But one thing remains sure, that whether their military campaign ends ‘successfully’ or not, the place of women in Afghanistan will remain a cause for concern until real change can occur for them, which brings real honour. Not the most popular change, which has no proven track record in the least.

Universal Gender Equality?

2009-05-22T10:21:00.000+01:00

The Government’s recent counter terrorism strategy, Contest 2, has not only clearly set forward what constitutes as terrorism when it comes to Muslims, but also what values we should hold. What ‘extremism’ is, is no longer a sketchy phrase twisted by whoever uses it – It now has a clear definition of a Muslim who carries ideas that do not fit in with the liberal secular views of the West, and includes objection to homosexuality and belief in Shariah law. This agenda therefore in moulding the Muslim, is very much upon the values more than anything. And for Muslim women, there is nothing more dangerous than their call to abandon the values of the Islamic social laws and take upon the Western values of gender equality. The former Home Secretary, John Reid, told a Muslim audience in September 2006:

Our fight is with those who do not share our values and who use terror to try and force us to accept theirs. When I say values, I mean those values based on our shared humanity on our shared understanding of the rights to life, equality, justice and opportunity, the principles of devotion to family and to society, and to faith, to good works, to good deeds, to charity.

‘Equality’ here is assumed to be a value the whole of humanity undoubtedly take on, and a value as he goes onto say is synonymous with good families, society and general goodness. That is an absolution sweeping assumption, that most do not question - But what I want to pledge today, is that, please, women, do question.

Tessa Jowell, the then Culture Secreatary, commented on the veil fiasco ignited by Jack Straw by saying that veiled women were failing to take a full place in society and that ‘equality for women’ was something integral which ‘We fought generations for’. The Government have therefore been trying to lure Muslim women out of their shells, into the world of gender equality with a whole host of measures. The Muslim Women’s Advisory Group, set up by the Home Office, has been active since the July bombings, providing the Home Office with insight into the world of Muslim women and the community. This advisory group most recently launched a massive programme called, ‘Play your part – Make your mark’, to try and get more Muslim women active in British public life, from becoming school Governors to actual politicians.

Behind the mask of being active in your community, the Government is attempting to entice Muslim women to leave their unique social standing given by Islam, and adopt a value which the West have ‘fought generations for’. By using Muslim women themselves to take this call out to the community, through seemingly innocuous calls such as help your community, the Government has been able to pressure and lure Muslim women to take on roles just like men – As of course, women are drawn as when packaged like this, we all want to fulfil our potential and give our due to our communities and our children. As it is not about being involved in the community, the problem I have with the whole agenda is the sweeping assumtion that somehow the lifestyles of specifically Muslim women, needs altering, and it is the values of therefore Muslim women that need changing. Cmon we all know that a lack of political participation and activism in society is absolutely shameful within the cruxes of mainstream British societies.

Therefore we need to understand in its entirety what this ‘gender equality’ is actually about and not fall for the rosy picture painted for us all. As Tessa Jowell very nicely pointed out, the idea of ‘gender equality’ arose actually out of the hostile battle women had to undergo in the West to simply attain certain rights for themselves in this society. Women in the West were faced with the inability to vote, leave a violent husband, own property and had poor rights in education and employment. Women were seen as lesser to men, having lesser mental capacity to be active in public life. It was therefore brave women who took it upon themselves to fight these oppressive circumstances and battle against the establishment and men, attempting to grab everything men had and were entitled to. It is this battle which has evolved to today, where women still feel on the defensive, fighting to have everything and be everything men are despite the consequences; and whether this is even the right thing to actually do.

The battle for equality has meant, that women in society have lost value for who they are as women, but are constantly trying to live upto the roles of men and thus contribute to the economy – as this is set as the measure of achievement. It means that women feel in order to be valued and feel successful, they must work – Whether this be delaying a family until an age when they regret not being able to conceive, or after having children assigning their care to other than themselves in the name of trying to still feel successful. Therefore how can this idea of equality lead to the successful building of the family and therefore society, when family incessantly becomes a second class priority?

Gender equality does not appreciate, in the workplace or in the home, the innate differences of the sexes rather ignores them leaving women to suffer. As when working women do bring home an income just like their partner, they find that the equality attitude does not stretch that far when it comes to the home. The majority of the housework still needs to be fitted in by them. An Oxford University study in 2001 showed that whether a woman works or not, this has little impact on the predominant amount of housework a woman does.The fact that better flexible working conditions for mothers and better maternity rights has also been a more recent ongoing battle shows how gender neutral laws and policies have done little to actually cater for the woman. And therefore women have been forced to betray equality in its essence in calling for such policies, just in order to survive in the workplace.

Thus the reality is real gender equality does not actually exist in society. This can be shown moreso in the fact that the gender pay gap between men and women still exists despite the lengthy equality battle so far - A study by the Office for National Statistics last year, claimed that this gap had widened to 17.1%. A report by the Equal Opportunities Commission in 2004 showed that women still faced a ‘glass ceiling’ when it came to progressing to senior positions in a variety of sectors. Finally equality in no way, has guaranteed the honour of women in society – A recent Home Office report found that there were over 650,000 reported cases of domestic violence in the last year, three times more than the previous year. Clearly the current viewpoint towards women in society is not working and it is time we look towards a viewpoint and solution which will guarantee women peace and tranquility and maintain their honour.

Islam views men and women in a totally different light to the West. In the eyes of Allah SWT, the Creator of mankind; all Muslims, men or women are equal in their intellect and in their ability to accrue good deeds:
‘Indeed the Muslim men and Muslim women, and the believing men and the believing women, and the men who obey and the women who obey, and the truthful men and the truthful women, and the patient men and the patient women, and the humble men and the humble women, and charitable men and the charitable women, and the fasting men and the fasting women, and the men who guard their chastity and the women who guard their chastity, and the men who profusely remember Allah and the women who profusely remember Allah – for all of them, Allah has kept prepared forgiveness and an immense reward.’ Surah Ahzab 35

However when it comes to men and women, Islam looks at the overall needs of society as well as individuals. Both men and women have the right to vote, have a political voice, have access to justice and are punished in the same way, as these are things are gender irrelevant. However when it comes to the family unit, the centrepoint of society and the role of men and women within this, Islam takes a unique view which places the good of the community and society before greedy desires of individuals and establishments.

Allah SWT designated different roles for men and women, according to their different needs and abilities. Women have therefore been given the primary role of looking after the home and family, whilst the father is given the role of the breadwinner and the guardian of the family. The Prophet SAW said:
‘Each of you is a guardian and each is resonsible for those under his care. A ruler is a guardian, a man is a guardian of his family, a woman is the guardian of her husband’s house and children. For each of you is a guardian and each of you is responsible for those under his care. ‘ (Bukhari and Muslim)

Neither role is better or lesser than the other, but each plays a vital role in society to build it prosperously and each role is valued for its contribution. Under the Islamic Khilafah rather, being a wife and a mother is not a cause for ridicule or failure, rather is looked at with great admiration by society as the Prophet SAW said, ‘Paradise lies at the feet of the mother’ and He SAW said of a virtuous wife, ‘The world and all things in it are precious, but the most precious of all is a virtuous wife’. Women would therefore not be pressured to juggle a career, home and family, just in order to feel successful; rather the Khilafah would deem a woman’s contributions to her family the best contribution she can make to society and value this. Muslim women therefore would not measure their contributions and successes against men, but by what Allah, their Creator, has prescribed for them.

Islam never set the status quo for women at a lower position than men, rather from the onset Islam enshrined the honour and value of women in an Islamic society as wives and mothers. Therefore there is no room under the Khilafah for derogatory attitudes towards women, treating them as commodities as is seen in the West. As the Prophet SAW warned the believers in his Last Sermon:
‘Fear Allah regarding women, they are a trust in your hands’
Therefore my dear sisters in Islam! Understand that this call for gender equality in the West may appear as giving you many rights and liberation, but in actual fact it will enslave you to the oppressive law of man and subjugate you. It is only the Deen of Allah SWT which can guarantee you value for who you are and the beautiful things you can contribute to the society around you.

I am free to do what I want

2009-05-07T23:15:00.001+01:00

In this society, many of us really believe we are free to do what we want with our lives. And being a teenager or young adult, brings with it a whole different perspective. Soon as we enter into the world of being a young person in this society, we are tempted to take on a whole outlook on the way we live life. Whether its going out to clubs and pubs, looking for no-strings-attached romance or being typically rebellious with family and authority; the attitude of just living by whatever takes ones fancy or gives one pleasure is a common one for teenagers.

In Western society, the youth have created as well as have been pushed into a niche where responsibility is a far concern as seeking pleasures is the only concern. Thus being sexually active without responsibility has grave consequences – Alfie Patten, the 13 year old who became a father was a shocking example of this. This is no surprise as a survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International in 2005 revealed that in the US, 27% 13 to 16 year olds and 41% of 14 to 15 year olds are sexually active. It is therefore no surprise that teenage pregnancies are a significant problem in the West, with the US and Britain having the highest rates.

Although the attitude of doing as one pleases exists in the West, the reality is that we live in a society, not in isolation. Therefore although some of us may interprete freedom in our lives as just trying to get a good job, have a decent career and start a stable family to make ourselves happy, another person may interprete this freedom in a totally different way. So making oneself happy for a rapist has a lot more of a disasterous consequence, although they have acted upon the same idea that we ourselves hold - the freedom to please ourselves. So if we really believe we all should be allowed to exercise our own freedoms as we live quite a decent and righteous life, then we should not have a problem with a rapist existing in our society too, who also has exercised his freedom.

Are you really free?

This is the question which many of us living in Western societies assume the answer to. However if we really ask ourselves this question we will find the answer to be in the negative. We are not at all really free. Although society promotes sexual freedom to satisfy ones desires, the British law requires that you must be above the age of 16 to do so. Although we believe we are free to dress in whatever way we please, be it a sack even if we chose, the reality is if you decided to walk down the street stark naked, you would be arrested. If you asked a newspaper to report some type of abuse about the Queen you would be told that it was not allowed.

Therefore it is clear we are not at all totally free – We are just free to the extent that society and the Government allow you to be. Therefore the question then begs, that if we are not free, but all live by a set of norms and rules, then what rules should we be following? The norms of a society which human beings have decided for themselves, or the norms and rules of the Creator who created our very bodies and souls?

Freedom causes you to think only about yourself

The desire to exercise their desires before anything else, damn any responsibility naturally fuels a certain mentality within young people. The endless quest to make oneself happy, makes people put their own desires first, above anyone elses.

The idea of individualism in society causes young people to just have fun without limits, without thinking about the impact on other people or on society. Individualism gives boys the licence to do behave sexually in whatever way they please, but never intend to commit to the girl they are intimate with. Individualism means a superficial desire of always wanting a pretty size 8 girlfriend, as a woman on a BBC reality TV show about single mothers disclosed, that her partner left her whilst she was 5 months pregnant because he felt she lost her ‘looks’. Individualism means parents who prioiritised their own career success or love life over the wellbeing of their children, as reported by the 2009 Children’s Society report; which has resulted in children being more anxious and unhappy.

The panel which produced the 2009 Children’s society report stated that the current ‘excessive individualism needs to be replaced by a value system where people seek satisfaction more from helping others rather than pursuing private advantage’. [1]

Western societies breed the idea of individualism as an idea people live by in society and you are told it does not matter how your actions affect others – if you are fine that’s all the matters. However this is not at all true as everything people do in society affects others – If a man is intimate with a woman and gets her pregnant and then does a runner, he not only affects the life of the woman who has to survive and bring up a child and fend for herself alone, but he also affects the life of the baby who grows up without having a father figure. Actions by individuals affects society, and this is the idea that must be understood by Western society for it to deal with the current social breakdown that is being witnessed in society.

Islam cares about others around you

There is a Hadith reported in Bukhari, narrated by Nu'man bin Basheer (ra) that the prophet (saw) said,
"The example of the one who stands for the Deen of Allah and the one who has left it are like the people in a boat, some of whom occupy the upper deck and some occupy the lower deck. Whenever those in the lower deck need water, they have to go to the upper deck to retrieve it. So some of them said, ‘why don't we make a hole in our deck so we do not harm the people of the upper deck?' If the people do not stop them, they will all fall and be failures, but if they stop them they will all be saved"
The Prophet SAW is here aliking the example of the situation of people needing to work together to keep a ship afloat, like people in society – If people just seek to fulfil their own needs and desires without thinking about everyone else, then eventually they will all sink. Islam therefore necessitates that we think about the community and society, as well as our own selves. Under the Islamic Khilafah, the social system of Islam necessitates that the agitation of the sexual instinct is totally removed from society, so that the society and community are protected from the ravages of unrestricted promiscuity which occur as a result of unrestricted freedom. The Prophet SAW said:
‘Oh you youngsters. Whoever amongst you who can afford to marry should marry, because it will help him more to lower his gaze and guard his modesty (i.e.chastity). And whoever is not able to marry he should fast, because it will be a protection for him’ (Bukhari and Muslim).
The stability and commitment of marriage is the place for the satisfaction of this instinct, so that it is not let loose in society.
We are slaves of Allah

The idea that we are free to do whatever we want and fulfil are desires in whatever way we want, is a total fallacy. If we have no freedom over the number of times our heart beats, how many electric impulses our brain sends and how much oxygen our lungs intake, how can we possibly believe that we are free to fulfil the needs and desires of our body in other respects, as discussed above? Clearly we have been created by Allah and are being kept alive by Allah, so how can we have the audacity to believe that when it comes to the areas of our needs where we have a choice, that Allah has no room to tell us what to do?

Rather Allah SWT has clearly told us in Surah Adh-Dhuriyat,

‘I have created jinn and man for no reason but to worship me’.

This makes clear that whether it is the involuntary or ivoluntary needs and desires, everything we do must be in line with what Allah loves, and abstaining from whatever Allah hates, as our very purpose in this world, is for Him.

The Prophet SAW narrated in a hadith, ‘Any action not based upon our affair will be rejected.’

Therefore there is no room for a Muslim to feel that he has the freedom to choose however to fulfil his desires – Every single action he does must be in line with Islam. This does not mean that a Muslim must pray and fast 24 hours a day and nothing else, but it just means that in the way we have relationships with people, how we buy and sell, how we behave with our parents, where we go in our free-time, must all be in line with the deen of Allah.

This is because as Muslims we know that death is the most definite thing and that after death the Day of Judgement will inevitably come, where we must answer for every single deed that we carried out in this world. This will be the Day when, ‘he who has done an atom's weight of good shall see it And he who has done an atom's weight of evil shall see it.’ (surah Zalzalah 7-8)

Thus knowing that Allah will account us for even the smallest error we make in arrogance defying his deen, should make us people who use our minds to always think before we act. The behaviour of doing as we please, damn consequences and whether it is right or wrong, is never for the thinking, mature Muslim.

The thinking, mature Muslim has taqwa, fear and consciousness of his Creator, which ignites within him a desire to continuously remember his Lord in everything he does, so even if she wants to freemix and join in with the other girls with their flirting and college romances, her fear and love for Allah far exceeds her small and human desires. She remembers that Allah’s promise of the great reward of the Hereafter which will satisfy ones desires beyond imagination, is the best reward to wait for:
"And whoever fears Allah, and keeps his duty to Him, He will forgive his sins from him and will enlarge his reward." [TMQ At-Talaq 65:5]
Indeed, life in this society is extremely difficult to withstand for the Muslim youth, as they are constantly forced into submitting to their lowly human desires and seek their own benefit. But a Muslim knows that this is simply the path to destruction, in this life and the Hereafter and for the community around them. With the help of their Creator, therefore they are able to seek the higher ground for actions and live purely for Allah over the base desires of human beings:
‘Those who believe and constantly guard against evil, for them are glad tidings in the life of the present and in the Hereafter, no change can there be in the words of Allah. This is indeed the supreme felicity.’ (Surah Yunus 63-4)
[1] http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/whats_happening/media_office/latest_news/14758_pr.html

The silent tests

2009-04-28T22:37:00.000+01:00

Living in this dunya is testing and tempting, as Allah SWT tells us in the Qur'an. But living in the West is a whole another ballgame.

People assume that to carry the dawah for Islam in the Muslim world is the most testing thing you can do, and the most testing place you can be. Because in some parts of the Muslim world, to speak for this deen means hardship, means imprisonment and even torture - We look at our brothers and sisters undergoing this in Egypt and Uzbekistan and breathe a sigh of relief - What would I have done if that was me? A test beyond our capabilities we may even believe, in a quiet moment.

However my dear sisters, I would like those of us who look at the Muslim world and then count our blessings about our ease here, to actually stop and think. Step outside our bubble and actually think. Those of us who cover according to the Ahkam of Allah, don't have a haram mortgage, try to pray all of our salat and maybe even do the recommended fasting - Have we made it? We live by the haram and halal of this deen, because of our conviction of Islam and our acknowledgement of our creator and his Messenger SAW - But is this enough? When we look back to Aishah RA, of course she fasted, she prayed, she was a good wife, but she also held onto nothing in this dunya, except for Allah's deen. She never even allowed herself to keep any wealth - even what she needed, but she gave it away as sadaqah; she left her home and everything in it to move to Madinah purely for the sake of Islam and when Muhammad SAW her husband, offered her the comforts and ease of this world over marriage to him and continuing hardship - without a flinch she chose him and the deen. It's the question you probably know is coming, but what would we have done? Because living in the West, I truly believe that our tests are not necessarily less, they are just different. The tests which pull us away from our deen in the West, are of the more subtle and deceiving traits of Shaitan - Where tests and temptations are not even recognised as what they are.

We need to have the most modern aesthetically slick TVs, flawlessly modern newly fitted kitchens, our children dressed in a selection of the cutest of clothing armed with the most latest of toys and us ourselves clad in the latest and most hippest of clothes even our hijabs and jilbabs. Whatever the material asset, it's about the need to consume and keep up essentially with the joneses - Although our yardstick may not necessarily be the joneses, but our own pitless desire as human beings to consume wealth, fuelled by the Capitalist society we live in. As the Prophet SAW said 'The son of Adam, if he had a mountain of gold he would wish for another.'

Just distinguishing the haram and halal which we need to live by in Western society, is by no means enough for us to actually live by what we are trying to live by - Islam. Because this means that although we have understood we need to follow Allah's rules and laws, we have not actually understood why we are here in the first place. That it is not just about abiding by the rights and wrongs of Islam, but still having the same objective in life as non-Muslims - making ourselves happy. This happens when sisters cover, pray and fast etc but are always seeking ways of fulfilling the pit of personal happiness which is fuelled in the West, so they say 'being Islamic doesn't mean being boring you know!' - An innocent statement, but if meant in a particular context a dangerous statement to make. That although I abide by Allah's laws, I still need to fulfil my real purpose in life which is having fun, being happy, having a lovely Islamic house with a decent car, the nicest jilbabs and the whole range of toys available on the market for my kids. This may also mean needing to entertain ourselves by attending women's dinners, nasheed concerts etc - All in the name of happiness.

The reason why a Muslim is on this earth is:
'I have created jinn and man for no other reason but to worship me' Surah Adh-Dhuriyat
She is not here just to have fun, or just to be happy even if its all in an Islamic way. A Muslim is here live purely for Allah and his deen. The quest for personal happiness is not a quest for this dunya. It was not a quest for Aishah RA, Asma RA, Khadijah RA, Maryam AS, Asiyah RA. These great women who have surely gained Allah's pleasure did not gain it by holding onto the thread of do's and don'ts of Allah's message - They have gained Allah's pleasure because of the fact that the deen was the centrepoint of their lives, for which they were willing to, and did(!!) sacrifice everything putting Allah's pleasure constantly above their own. Allah SWT says:
'Surely my Prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are (all) for Allah, Lord of the Worlds.' (Al-An`am 6: 162)

My dear sisters, the hardest test is the fact that falling into the ditch of Capitalist consumerism, materialism and the quest for personal happiness is almost unnoticable. It's so easy to concern yourself with buying the latest high street trend, the most nicest of new furniture for the home and before you know it we too have been sucked into this bottomless pit.

But the Muslim is the thinker. I am not saying that having material things are themselves the shaitan, but it is the concepts that come behind them for us. We must ensure that it is only the material things, not the concepts which we take from this Western society. As the concepts are in aversion to Islam and will steer us away from living for this deen, and living for this dawah.

Al Qamar

2009-04-04T12:46:00.000+01:00

I heard you wake when we all sleep
When you change your face for the day to come
Your man-boots, your struggle,
Your journey to keep going.
Oh my sister, my sweet sister, I love you.

It's a male affair
But you've swallowed the pain
And glide through with dignity,
Making the floors that you sweep
Pages of your deeds
Oh my sister, my sweet sister, I love you.

Five innocent hearts await
The echoes of your steps
You hide the bruised knees
From their glances
They know not but I do and of course
Does the Almighty above
Oh my sister, my sweet sister, I love you.

The scent of your perfume
And the tenderness of your hands
return to fill the air
in a house of islam
Oh my sister, my sweet sister, I love you.

But your heart doesn't stop
Your mind doesn't rest
The promise of Allah holds it's unrelenting thread
you give everything, every breath left in that day
To scatter forth the word of Allah
And the hope of the Amir who we know, inshaAllah
is to come
My sister, my sweet sister, I love you.

Winds, seas and miles of land
Hurdle between my smile and yours
But I pray that my Creator
In all of his mercy
One day unlocks me to you
Till then, my sister
Stay strong
Because I pray to Allah
Oh Allah
That blessed Jannah yearns for you

'Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah' Al-Ahzab, 33: 23

2009-03-06T21:49:00.000Z

We are chasing many things in life. Having the perfect home, perfect family, perfect career. Perfection is a standard which is the requisite which must be met and life's goals become geared into doggedly achieving it, in all spheres. However trying to achieve perfection in the deen is deemed more often than not, as either extreme or escaping life's responsibilities.

To people - You become an extremist when you start bringing Islam into places and things where Islam didn't even seem to fit before, and you start escaping life's responsibilities when you take the brave step of maybe prioritising your deen over acquiring wealth, status, letters after your name or your social life even perhaps. The deen of course is not about abandoning life in this dunya. Rather it is living the dunya with the constant thought of the Akhirah. The point however is, when people decide to make certain sacrifices or choices towards Allah's deen the labels are all too quick to be slapped on.

But striving to achieve the best in our deen is the one worry, which I worry so often, do I worry enough about? How do I know if I have, when it comes down to it, given and sacrificed enough to make my entry into Jannah real?And of course I don't, and I never will, but there are events in people's lives which test them to the core, giving them it feels the echoes of the awaiting news of Jannah.

A friend of mine, is in a state of worry, wondering about the state of her brother who due to speaking out about corruption of a Muslim Government, now has to be in a state of hiding. He did it for Allah's sake, seeking only his reward.
'Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah'
Of all things in life, may Allah make us strong enough, and worthy enough to be amongst the group of believers who have been true to our covenant with Him. And make the strong who speak the Haqq, number many in this Ummah.

Jungle rules

2009-03-01T22:14:00.000Z

Please read the comments attached to this post at the end, for a clearer political understanding of these events.

The recent massacre in Bangladesh has been heartbreaking. To yet again see faces in anguish, families in peril and most of all bodies after bodies, of people dead puts a rock in your stomach and sinking feeling in your heart. What on earth happened?

As the news goes, a lash out over pay and conditions. An arm of the paramilitary of Bangladesh exasperated with bad pay and conditions and unfulfilled promises, decided to take their future into their own hands and animalistically lashed out, slashing anything that breathed. Clearly not seeking the further support of the state for their requests, but showing people maybe who was boss and that evidently, they had had enough.

The class system in Bangladesh is nothing that even raises an eyebrow. We're all used to it. Even if you do not live in Bangladesh, beckoning your house maid and throwing a couple of taka at your fatigued rickshaw driver - if it hasn't become second nature - swiftly does after a stay in Bangladesh. As that is the way the world works, the poor need to survive, the needy need to earn their bread, so we are all doing them a favour by providing them with these jobs in the first place. And on top of that now, as I have recently heard, the working class have their own store of individualism now and as i was told, if you are too generous too them then they will just abuse you. So it is accepted behaviour to be cruel to the beggar that comes to your door, or grunt at the housemaid rather than talk. And its a believable story in a place like Bangladesh, where surviving is the name of the game, no matter who or what is in your way.

The horrific ordeal that Bangladeshis encountered a couple of days ago, where people where burnt alive and brutally killed no matter who they were or what part they played, I believe was the most painful example of surviving. An arm of the paramilitary in Bangladesh who were seeking better pay for the work they did, and wanted an end to the elitism the main army held, reacted in way where they were sure their voice got heard, being bottom of a heavy heap of hierarchy and class.

They had had enough of trying to achieve change and equal treatment to their army counterparts, through the channels provided. But it became clear that as always, elitism and the class system is paramount. If you mean something in Bangladesh you'll get things, but if you are from the meagre and lowly, then it's a waiting game, or more truthfully - a dead end. In a place like Bangladesh where the poor and working class are routinely exploited and have no proper avenue through which to channel their complaints and grievances, it was only time which was to stand in the way of some sort of crazy mental event such as this, as a reaction to finding their 'dead end'. If you are standing in a room of people and you need them to know something, there is a limit to how much screaming you can do. After a while if they are still ignoring you, your anger and frustration will get the better of you and cause you to react in a way which i'm sure you will regret. Instincts and needs can be dangerous if left to depravation - in both humans and animals. What these men did was animalistic brutality. But we have to be honest, in a jungle nothing else rules but jungle rules.

It is clear that beautifully orchestrated just and fair elections had no real effect on the actual politics and change in Bangladesh, as the problems which existed in Bangladesh (which we are so used to, that they don't even seem problems anymore - poverty, corruption) still exist now that the present government is in place. Whether the recent BDR mutiny was callously planned or not, there is a real question which we all need to ask ourselves, and that is do we want the people of Bangladesh to continue to live in this jungle? Because should it not be, that the job and purpose of any Government, is to take care of the needs of their people and secure these needs?Rather than the PM telling these folk committing the atrocious acts that they were testing her patience beyond tolerance, maybe she should actually review what her tolerance levels have been. To tolerate millions of people living in squalor, subjected to crime, unfair treatment, poor pay, bribery and corruption on a routine basis, I view, as a very generous tolerance level.

Clearly Bangladesh, like many other Muslim governments, has paid lipservice to the real needs of the people they rule over, whilst in reality concerning themselves with pocketing foreign aid, creating ties with foreign nations and embedding 'signs' of progress in the nation, as labelled largely by the West (women working and achieving equality became more of a concern to deal with than actually getting provisions on the tables of the families throughout Bangladesh). Without the resources and concern being utilised to actually really raise the standard of living for the entire population of the country, and not just the rich, the common folk have just been left to fend for themselves. And with no proper rules or avenues of hope it is wholly natural the people have become exasperated.

Gradual, minimal and what we call realistic change will mean nothing if we want to deal with the mammoth problems which face this nation. Rather the vision needs to be drawn massively out, if these are our concerns. For mammoth problems, we need mammoth radical change. A change in politics where the sole concern of the government and the system which it implements is accountability to the Creator of all mankind - of both rich and poor - so that the concerns, rules and laws then are all centred around actually putting the needs of people and justice before anything else. The system of Allah SWT is the only system, which does not put any human being, any group of people before any others. Rather all are rightful citizens and have rightful access to food clothing and shelter, whoever they are whatever background they come from. It is no wonder that in the history of the Islamic State, it is documented that many non-muslims happily lived within the State with all their needs met in plenty, even if they did not believe in a single aspect of Allah's deen. I mean, they were being fed, watered and protected to utter contentment, why would they even care what the Government that looked after them believed in?

The massacre by the BDR has been a unruly and cruel experience of jungle rules. Where in effect there are no rules, or laws, and people have been left to make up their own to try to fend their own flock. May Allah SWT bring soon his rahma and his Ahkam upon us, so that the jungle and lawlessness of human desires are eradicated forever.

Ugliness of democracy

2009-02-23T22:57:00.000Z

Democracies are rated as the supreme system for our world today. The supreme system which no other can match or surpass. It's the buzzword if any Muslim uses in their speech or written word, you become an accepted member of society. It's the system which if we do not aspire to live under, we are viewed as extremists, as leaked to the Guardian.

Today's return of Binyam Mohammad to the UK, has uncovered an ugly truth for one of the foremost democracies of the world - That democracy actually doesn't unconditionally secure our justice, or even human rights - Just because you live in a democracy, does not in any way mean supremacy in values.

Democracies cover up the ugliness of human greed. Of people who rule by what they believe to be the best for their government, their ruling elite, and it seems, maybe their people. This means that legislation and decisions are subject to several human minds and largely their whims, who have the wealth and power to sit around the table. The evidence over time has only shown that governments will sacrifice any value which stands in their way to fulfil national interests, whether this is the killing of the innocent in Iraq for oil or the innocent victims of the war on terror in which sustains the fear of terrorism.

It is therefore time the world really does open up the debate, without brashly silencing those who have begun to question the untouchable notion of democracy. No democratic government, if it really believes in its own values, should fear the criticism of its system. If their supremacy really stands, criticism and debate can only be healthy in strengthening the conviction in it. Silencing of such criticism can only be rooted in a fear of the actual legitimacy of ones supremacy.

The latest big gulp

2009-02-22T13:59:00.001Z

Catching a glimpse of the front page of one of most popular British tabloids a few mornings ago, was a sight a little too shocking for even the most liberal in British society. Every once in a while, British society manages to throw up a case which has pushed the values of liberalism to such an extreme, that even the staunchest advocates of the famous freedoms, need to take a big gulp.

The picture shows thirteen year old Alfie Patten sitting on a hospital bed holding his tiny, fully formed newborn baby girl in his arms. Without the bold text across the page informing you, anyone would have assumed he was her older brother or cousin – but never father. But it is true, that baby Maisie was conceived by this young boy and his fifteen year old girlfriend apparently after a single episode of promiscuity. And the public have been further shocked by the mad scramble that has presented itself in the media as other young boys have come forward, claiming to actually be the baby’s father.

Ed Balls, the Children’s Secretary as well as the Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron, have been among the politicians swift to show their disagreement with this event. Cameron said that it was worrying that in the UK ‘children are having children’ and this is something that has to be put right. Ed Balls further urged that society had to do everything possible to try to bring the level of teenage pregnancies down. Additionally the local MP in Eastbourne, where both Alfie Patten and his girlfriend Chantelle Steadman are from, has called for an urgent assessment of the actions that have been undertaken by the children’s (and yes, you cannot call them anything but this) parents and everyone elses’ attempt to make as much money as possible out of this PR dream.

The problem is, although the public have been overtly horrified by this latest story, there really should not be a problem. The liberal pioneers amongst British society should actually not take a big gulp, or even sigh for that matter! As Alfie Patten and Chantelle Steadman, amongst thousands of other young teens, have just been following the way of life that everyone else in the society they live in, follows. The society that they have walked into teenagehood with, is one where everyone is urged to live life to the full and believe they are free to do what they want. After all, freedom is the enshrined value which their nation felt important enough to export to the rest of the world.

And according to the values that David Cameron himself has so staunchly advocated in the past, little Alfie has just exercised his freedom to live the way he wants to, in a society which has urged him to do so. The fact that he can barely look after himself, forget another human being by exercising his freedoms, is not something I have heard many British politicians discuss deeply when they have so impassionately defended the untouchable freedoms before.

Therefore British politicians should stop being hypocritical and stand by what they constantly ram down the throats of the rest of the world. That if freedom and liberalism is your yardstick, then Alfie and his latest escapade is absolutely fine - damn the consequences to society - Even if we get a horrible feeling in the bottom of our stomach as we foresee an innocent baby girl face a life ahead of family instability. As her father, who when asked about how he would support her financially had to ask the journalist what that very word meant.

The reality is that we are done damning consequences to society. Not just for Alfie Patten’s innocent baby girl, but for each and every individual in this society. We are done living in an increasing hell hole, where your property, the innocence of your children, your very lives are not at all sanctified.

It is high time we realize that freedom and liberalism will only deliver a society with social degradation. Rather it is Islam that enshrines the values of honour, security and a strict social code to deliver a society which functions with harmony. It reminds every individual in that society, that in fact you are not at all free, rather you are accountable to your Creator and he will account you for all the responsibilities and relationships you undertake in this dunya. Maintaining your rights and responsibilities to your family is a key facet of the Islamic social system. As the noble Prophet SAW:
"There is no sin more deserving of having punishment meted out by Allah to its perpetrator in advance in this world along with what He stores up for him in the next world than oppression and severing ties of family." [Tirmidhi]
Hence it is without a doubt, that the Khilafah and the society it creates, is what the world needs today for the return of a harmonious, responsible society.

Umm Hakim, returned to Allah 26 Jan 2009

2009-02-09T14:51:00.000Z

See below the last two diary entries of one of our dear sisters in Islam, who returned to Allah last month. Her husband has given us the privilege to read these and be inspired by them. May Allah SWT give her Jannatul Firdeous and His full protection. May He SWT give her family the highest of patience, and reward.....

My dear sister Ruksanah has given me this book [diary], so that I can write my thoughts, feelings or poetry. Between you and me I am not really good at expressing myself through writing and as far as poetry> goes, well I'm not quite sure about that! – ha, ha, hee, hee.

Anyway let me see what comes out as I sit here [hospital] & think about what's been going on. I've got cancer. What does this mean? To> most when you say cancer they think DEATH. But by the Mercy of Allah (swt) this thought is not consuming me. Allah (swt) is the one who gives & takes life and this disease is not going to rob me of any time in the Duniya. How many times have we given talks or written things about this?

To realise that these concepts are not theory is very important. It is what makes a Muslimah who they are & how we cope. They [concepts] tie us close to Allah (swt) and bring comfort to our hearts. So cancer, leukemia, flu or cold, flying in a plane, getting in a car or simply going to sleep at night makes no difference to me in terms of death. None of these things cause your death. It is Allah (swt) that controls> this.

So what do I think? To be honest I don't really think about it [cancer] too much. I have been pretty much carrying on like normal dealings with today, today's pains and today's problem's. Melek (my dearest Melek) asked me yesterday how I deal with the pain. I laughed and told her I take the drugs. This really made me think about my brothers and sisters around the world , in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Pakistan, etc. That simply don't have these drugs. Not only don't they have them [drugs], they don't have a medical team or a hospital bed for that matter. How blessed we are! Subhannah Allah! We got all of it. The consultant who is going to ork on my liver is a partner to the queen's surgeon.! But what of my sisters, the Fathimas', the Ayshas' that scream in pain or just rock back and forth. I think of them and tears come to my eyes. I want to see the coming of the Khilafah. The lifting of this oppression sobadly. How blessed are we?

By he mercy of Allah (swt) I get through the pain, I pray the duas that are there to relief them. I drink my Zam Zam [water] and pray "O Allah! You are the curer, the healer, and the reliever of pain, so cure me, heal me and relieve my pain."

1st Dec 08

They are going to let me go home today InshaAllah. I am really looking forward to it. It is quite funny I have lived off a few things in a cupboard and some stuff on a table for about six weeks. [In hospital] Just goes to show all we need some food, clothes and shelter. I just wanted to write a bit about the overwhelming support I have had from my sisters who love me for the sake of Allah (swt) and the brothers that pray for me and show support to Ferdeous. How fortunate am I, SubhanaAllah! I feel so blessed, so many people are making dua for me, may they all go to Jannatul Ferdoeus., their sins be forgiven and their personal duas be answered. I love them all for the sake of Allah (swt). It reminds me of the hadith where two people love each other without having any family ties, purely for the sake of Allah (swt) [1] . InshaAllah, we fall into this category . I think about people who are alone and go through the same thing and l o about myself. What if I wasn't practicing [Islam] with so many sisters and brothers like I have now. Who would have been there for me? Who would be praying for me? We are so blessed. Allah (swt) is really taking care of me.

[Cemaliye 'Jem' Beyzade, Umm Hakim. Age 36, d. 28 Muharram 1430 AH /> 26 January, 2009]

Our neverending desires

2009-02-03T20:36:00.001Z

The recent report from the Children's Society has only reaffirmed the doubts many of us have had about the effects of the society we live in on our precious, innocent children. That the impact of living in a society where the adults amongst us have been led by an ever growing need to appease our own desires, has been catastrophic. Family break-ups, working mothers, excessive materialism are all factors which, in three years of research by the Society, were found as contributing to children today being more anxious and troubled.

Ideas such as liberalism and freedom we see are cornerstone in Western society, people live by them, politicians and the media advocate them. These values, are the values which are said to make people happy and content - People have the freedom to eat, dress, live and worship whatever and whoever they want, as long as they do not directly harm anyone else. We are all individuals in this society who have the freedom to live however we want to. These values have not only be thoroughly adopted here, but have been exported to the Muslim world as the values which should be adopted if those societies wish to progress.

However, there is a big but, the but, which whilst everyone has been busy being in the relationships they want, and walking when they want, being in the job they want and career they want to trying to have all the material things they want; has been silently festering away. The but of the impact of continually self-indulging behaviour.

It is true capitalist systems view their societies in this way and recognise them as being made up of a group of individuals. The reality is however, we don't live in isolation, we live as human beings in communities, come from families and build friends. Our actions not only impact our own selves, but impact those around us. And this could not be more true for anyone than our own children.

The Prophet SAW narrated in a hadith that for the woman, looking after her husband's home and children, is not only rewardable but the weight of this work equates with the work of the men who march forth eager to sacrifice their lives for the sake of Islam. Allah SWT knows the needs of our children and he has thus laid out for us the priority we should hold in securing their needs. He has set out the whole female sex, the mothers, as prioritising the upbringing of children as their primary role. The neverending greed and desires of adults, can never be the basis upon which we decide how to bring up our next generation, as we have seen in this society, if it is; they will always be put second after careers, the latest romance and wanting to have fun.

This report has surfaced the ugly realisation that the grossly individualistic culture that is engulfing British society, is damaging the wellbeing of the next generation. Although the report makes a series of recommendations such as civil birth ceremonies to attempt to combat this ailing culture for our children, nothing recommended actually begins to tackle the real problem at bay here. Giving parents better access to information and trying to curb commercial advertising to children may help the situation, but at the end of the day as long as parents in society believe in freedom and individualism, the danger of individual needs and desires dictating the way family lives are led, will always be. I'm not saying here that everyone in British society are gluttonous ineffective parents, but that the values upheld in society are conducive to adult behaviour which puts oneself first knowingly or unknowingly. We may not all be like parents of Baby P, but unless we have a yardstick and measure with which to judge our actions by and guide us, how do we know whether we are really meeting the needs of those we are responsible for?

The report recommends that our selfish adult behaviour has to stop. But I say, why blame the people who are simply living by the norms of the society and system which propagates them? Rather it is not the average parent we should really be blaming for this particular lifestyle people lead, but we should be looking at the society and values which promote and uphold such ideas of putting oneself continually first. Thus the release of this report has reinforced the need of an alternative system for us to live by which promotes a whole new set of values, not just prioritising the accumulation of capital and wealth, leaving society to rot. A system with values which allows the Creator who created us from nothing to dictate how we manage our relationships, is integral now if we want harmonious and secure family relationships to return to the face of this earth.

Letter from a Mother in Gaza

2009-01-28T11:59:00.000Z

My dear sisters and brothers

I wanted to take this opportunity to send you a message from the sisters and brothers in Gaza. Please hear our situation and tell everyone that you know and don't know. When the Zionists attacked us on 27th December 2008, they not only attacked Hamas, they not only attacked the Muslims of Gaza, they attacked Muslims everywhere. They attacked Islam in the hope that they will weaken it and ultimately destroy it and ummah of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم.And they will never stop here. They want the beloved Al Aqsa, they want the West Bank and believe me when I tell you that they want the whole of the Middle East.But they will never succeed. They will never remove the light of Allah inshAllah.

Our situation is dire but our iman is strong Alhamdulillah, even though we have no water to speak of, and when we do, it is polluted and diseased. We have no money to buy mineral water. When we find the money those that sell it say that it is too dangerous for them to travel out to get new supplies. We have no gas, and have not had for the last four months. We cook the little food we have on real fires that we have learned to prepare.Our men have lost all of their jobs. They spend their days at home now. My husband can spend a day just going from place to place just for the basic need of water. He usually returns empty handed. There are no schools, no banks from which we can withdraw our money. Few hospitals are open for our wounded. You are constantly aware that you risk your life when you go out and when you are indoors. They give us a curfew between 1-4pm. We can go out, they say, in safety to get your supplies, but that is a lie. They have often used that opportunity to add more shuhadaa to their list.We eat one day rice and one day bread. Meat and milk are a luxury. They are using chemical warfare in the areas which are on the borders. They are killing us by bullets and tanks and B52s, but they are also killing us slowly by starving our children, inflicting indescribable diseases with their chemical warfare and laughing as our suffering becomes prolonged and unbearable.

All this and we are being told that people demonstrate all over the world. MashAllah the fact that you go to embassies and leave your homes makes us feel truly that we are not alone in our struggle.But you go home at night and lock your door. We cannot do that. I have to leave my home on the second floor every night and stay with my sister on the ground floor. Should there be an attack, it's quicker to leave from the ground floor.

But the ummah is asking where are the Muslim armies? Where is the victory? And where is our true leader who will save us from this death? Where are the armies of Salahadeen Ayubi? Do not look to the UN, they recognised Israel in 1949 as a state and sealed our fate as it is today. Do not turn to America or Britain, did they not invade our ummah in Iraq and Afghanistan. Call the armies in Egypt, in Syria, in Turkey, in Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. In Bangladesh, in the Gulf, in Indonesia and in Libya where are they? Are they content to watch women scream for their help as they bury their young children? Are the screams of their sisters and brothers falling on deaf ears? We have a right to eat and drink in safety and security. We have a right to laugh and live in hope, do we not?Yes we are tired. When we hear rockets and bombs and see planes that fly too close to our building, I scream with my young son and my husband feels helpless. The brothers will know what it must be like to feel helpless to protect the honour and lives of your family. It kills something of him inside. We often wonder when will they sell our land cheaply, will it take one thousand or two thousand deaths. We wait to see.

The Israelis have started to plan where their settlements will be in Gaza. This is what we have become.In all this there is no one but Allah سبحانه وتعالى that can save us. Don't forget us because you are all that we have now. Your sadaqaat is not reaching us, and when they open borders it only reaches a few who can do nothing with it because we risk our lives just to buy food. They will kill anyone, anyone even if he is a five year old child carrying food for his family. We want to live from the sweat of our men, not from the sweat of others because we are dying.Keep up the work of Allah and pray and work for the victory that will come soon and rescue our ummah everywhere inshAllah.May Allah سبحانه وتعالى make us steadfast in our deen, during struggle and during ease. Ya Allah bring us the victory soon and re-establish Islam as the authority by which we live, Ya Allah send us the sons of Salahudeen, the army of Islam to rescue Mohammed's صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم ummah from the oppression under which we live. Ya Allah protect our children and remove the zionists from our land. Ya Allah witness today that we account our rulers, we pray that you return our true leader the Khaleefah soon.
Ameen.

والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاتهYour sister umm Taqi

Death is the most definite thing you will ever do

2009-01-26T22:19:00.000Z

Death, is by far, the only definite thing, you will do in your life. You may plan to go on holiday, plan to move to a new house, or plan to sit an exam; but all these things are subject to change. Airports could be closed, mortgages could fall through and exam halls could even start leaking. But the end of your life, is the one thing that can never change or be amended, as Allah SWT has told us that the ajal is fixed.
'For each community, there is a predetermined life span. Once their ajal comes to an end, they cannot delay it by one hour, nor advance it. ' (TMQ 7:34)

So if there is anything we should prepare for in life, should it not be the most definite thing? Rather we prepare endlessly for all those things in our life which have no certainty, and avoid the sole event that is certain.

Today our sister in Islam, a devout servant of Allah, a dutiful wife, beloved mother of three and devoted dawah carrier of Allah's deen, returned to our Rabb. Her death has sent ripples of shock through the community that lived around her - not because death is something unexpected, but because it has been a reminder that we too, despite how young we feel, despite how dependent are children still are on us, or how attached our family are to us, are all also hanging by the string of Allah's beckoning.

To lose a sister in Islam, is like losing a limb, or part of your body. We feel the loss as our own. But alhumdulilah more than anything we know she has actually returned to the place of her creation and real birth, where we will all to return. We just pray that her children and her family have the patience to live through her absence in their lives, and inshaAllah are able to get used to life without her a soon as is possible. Our love, duas are with them.

An event like this, reinforces the thought that we really are here for a fleeting moment and may face Allah anytime soon. And it is this thought that energises us to continue with full zeal with the things that will matter, in this context.

Ya Allah, enable us to live only for you, worship only you, and sacrifice as much as is possible for you, so that we may face you knowing that our time here was worth it...

Ameen.

Ya Muslimoon, Who will defend the children of Gaza?

2009-01-19T12:35:00.001Z

Is the Prophet's SAW vision, our vision?

2009-01-16T17:54:00.000Z

A noble and beloved man sat in the remote Arabian peninsula, hundreds of years ago, and talked to his companions about a vision he had. A vision which he and his 30 odd followers would work to carry out. A vision of conquering the world.

This man if you hadn't already guessed it, was Muhammad SAW. Our noble and beloved Prophet had upto 40 companions during his dawah work in Makkah, but this did not constrict the vision that he had. He SAW had a vision, that one day inshaAllah the Islam that he was propagating, which only a small group of people in the world had accepted; would one day rule on every inch of the globe.

The Prophet SAW and his companions were being persecuted to the extent in Makkah, that they were incessantly starved, tortured and humiliated and made up only a small minority of the society; as the Quraysh had their own plan to stamp out this deviant little new craze. Thus when the Quraysh heard about the Prophet SAW's vision, that Islam would one day not only rule over Makkah, but over the globe, they thought it was nothing more than a big joke. In fact people thought his 'phase' of Islam would definitely come to some sort of end sooner rather than later, and it was Abu Talib, his very beloved Uncle who came to him, with love and affection, insinuating this and asking him to give up, sooner rather than later. But the response of the Prophet SAW, in a time, when it looked like not only would Islam never spread, but its followers may not even survive, was:

'If you put the sun in my right hand, and the moon in my left, I would not leave the struggle (for this deen) until either it is victorious, or I perish therein.'

For the Prophet SAW non-pursuance of this Deen was never an option. Whether it seemed easy or not, realistic or not, Islam was to be taken to humanity and offered as the alternative system by which it should live. We would say many wonderful things about this beloved Prophet of ours, but one thing we would never say, astighfirullah, was that he was a dreamer. An idealistic dreamer. But this was definitely how the Qurayshi society around him saw him.

For those of us living in this dark and painful world of the 21st century, who have decided that the Islamic vision is the only way, the label of idealistic dreamer is all too familiar. We live in a world where Muslim lives are cheap, in many parts of the globe. Muslim blood was a small price to play for oil in Iraq, a pipeline and domination in Afganistan, and today for the strength of Israel. Today the Muslim Ummah have no less love for their Muslim brethren across the world, and everytime we are hit, we feel impulsed to respond. But it is how we respond that is key. We have taken up a certain mentality that we have to respond to such atrocities in a way which will reap most result, in the most pragmatic way. Hence it is easy for us to send over some charity, stop buying from Starbucks and M&S, and even make that all important dua to Allah SWT. These avenues of seeking a solution for our brethren, make us feel good perhaps, are instantaneous, easy to carry out and most of all we think have the most immediate impact. But we just need to look to the life of our Prophet SAW to see how he reacted to situations and crises in his Prophethood.

When the Prophet SAW was offered to share the rule in Makkah with the Quraysh, his refusal was stark. When tribes, which he approached for the military support for Islam, may have had the military capability but either wanted to share the rule with him or had particualr treaties with nations which meant they could not fight them in any event; his refusal was stark. Rather the Prophet SAW continued to work tirelessly, still trying to change the society in Makkah, and still approaching tribe after tribe for the military support, without any type of impatience or need for an instantaneous, pragmatic compromised result. Rather he had the trust that the full result, in its entirety, would come from Allah.

If the noble Prophet SAW is our example, then should our method be any different? We are working for the same Ummah he worked for, to protect the same Deen he sought to protect. If the Prophet SAW did not at all compromise or feel the need to pursue avenues which were most palatable and perceivably 'realistic' then why should we? After all we just need to put in the effort to try and implement the solution Allah SWT gives us for our problems, and doesn't the result come from him SWT?

Alhumdulilah we must make dua, we must give charity for the needy, but we must also realise that we need to work for a viable, sustainable solution for the oppressed Muslims of the world which will protect them, and of course protect Islam. This in the past, always was the Islamic rule, led by a sincere Islamic ruler. And if the Prophet SAW with his handful of comapnions could have a vision of this being the solution for the world, us, with our 1.5 billion Ummah; shouldn't we too?

It is time the Muslims realise that practicality, realism, pragmatism, mean nothing without the blessing of Allah. It is Allah who can bring forth life from a stone and it is Allah who gives us all the barakah in our lives. Thus instead of worrying about what is practical and realistic or not, shouldn't we just channel our efforts into what is obligatory upon us or not? After all, we have been born with the blessing of this time, by the mercy of Allah. Allah chose, throughout the entire history of this world, to bring us into this dunya during the short few years when the Islamic Khilafah has not been in existence, by default giving us all the blessing and opportunity to partake in this work, just as the noble Sahabah and the Prophet SAW himself did.

It is high time we abandon the thoughts of what we think is realistic, practical and palatable for the rest of the world in how we conduct our politics. Rather we should work for what we think is right for humanity and will bring them back the mercy and ease of a just rule. This may mean that as others are busy doing the rounds to raise money for Gaza, and you write, discuss and propagate the idea of Khilafah, the label of 'unrealistic, idealistic dreamer without any sense of urgency' may come your way. But to those I would say than none is more unrealistic, idealistic and complacent, than those who believe that their solutions are better than Allah's, for our politics; and sit in the comfort of this thought. Rather it is the most brave and reliant on Allah who will strive forth, eager to carry the word of Islam, uncompromisingly, to the world, just waiting for his SWT victory.

Our precious jewels

2009-01-13T21:45:00.000Z

This is the third time I'm editing this post. I write it, look at the picture, and keep coming back.

Our sweet precious jewels,

You lie there with such innocent and peaceful looks on your faces. Indeed, your souls must be safe with Allah SWT, in Allah's firm grasp. You have been taken from us, in the midst of a storm, but we cannot forget you. Because you have been the sacrifice of our inactivity, our complacency and the need for our rulers to save their own thrones, before they save your sweet hearts.

You remind us that we have no rest in our day, no peace in our quiet moments and no ease in our lives, until justice descends this world. Justice which allows your brothers and sisters still in this dunya, to play and breathe in safety, under the shield of a sincere Khalif.

I wish you a sweet journey to Almighty Allah SWT as I'm sure Jannah awaits, impatiently, for you.

I wanted to share with you the thoughts that passed as I saw this - That that could have been my children... And moreover they ARE my children.

More than a third of those killed in Gaza have been children - crushed by the rubble of their house collapsing upon them, having their arm, leg or head blown off by an airstrike or being sprayed incessantly by shrapnel, they are suffering it all. March this Sunday, for the Children of Gaza. Marble Arch, Zuhr Salah.

'The Ummah (Muslim community) is like one body. If one part of it hurts, then the rest of it reacts with restlessness and fever. ' The Prophet SAW (Muslim)

The real crisis for Gaza

2009-01-08T22:15:00.000Z

On 27th December 2008, Israel began its latest intense offensive against the people of Gaza, claiming a need to protect their citizens from Hamas rockets.

The entire region is being targeted, everyone a potential threat to Israel's thunderous campaign and although Israel claims to be fighting Hamas, it is evident that the targets and victims of Israel's war are innocent women and children. In fact, over a third of the deaths in Gaza to date in this current conflict, have been children. Israel has additionally kept its forced blockade in place, meaning the 1.5 million living in Gaza - men women and children – are imprisoned in this killing field.

And as the world's media focussed upon this region, questioning what would happen, all the Israeli Government officials can say, is that they were just protecting themselves from Hamas' offensive. Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister said, when questioned about the evident dis-proportionality in how Israel was reacting to Hamas’ few and far between rockets, 'This is the expression of self-defense, the right of self-defense of a state.' However this seems absurd when everyone knows that the rockets Hamas fire, are nothing in comparison with the latest technology Israel uses in their warfare and the effect is evident in the fact that a few days into the offensive 430 Palestinians had been killed, whilst number of Israelis killed were 4.

Even though the treachery of Israel is so clear to see, the international community still do not act. All the UN Secretary General could say, after the first few days of the conflict, was that the violence was ‘deeply saddening’ and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called it, ‘appalling’ – and it was not even clear who this was exactly directed at. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in his new role representing the West as their Middle East envoy, called for a ceasefire which would firstly ‘protect Israel’ and almost as a sidepoint(!) end the violence for those in Gaza.

We would think that the Muslim rulers may have been better in protecting the brethren of their deen. But not surprisingly, their inaction is even worse. The Egyptian people have become frustrated with Hosni Mubarak’s inability to even break ties with Israel and there are rumours of rifts in the Egyptian army due to this. King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan have been passionately donating their blood for the injured in Gaza, but cannot donate their words of opposition or actions to deal with their transgressing Israeli neighbour. Even Assad of Syria, who is supposed to be the most anti-Israeli has been having tea with the French President ambling through discussions on how both parties can stop the violence. The ability for Israel to do as they please is clearly protected by the entire international community, which comes before their need to actually stop the bloodbath being created in Gaza.

Moreover the discussions happening within the international community are all about how to end the current bout of violence. This is clearly evading the real issue as trying to get Israel to stop the current intense violence, still does not solve the fact that the people in Gaza are subject to the curfews and blockades of Israel in their everyday daily lives, food supplies and all other imports or exports in and out of Palestine will always be subject to Israeli control, and the ability to run Palestine like a puppet will still be in the hands of Israel. Whether the current violence ends or not, Israel will still be free to apply all of its injustices and controls to Palestine as it has done for the past 60 years. Just because the current conflict has been forced onto the media and political stage, does not mean that when other stories have dominated people’s minds in the past 60 years, the suffering in Palestine even if less intense, has not been as acute.

Therefore we need to be clear that the problem is not just the current violence, it’s the reason for why the current violence can occur in the first place and this is the very existence of Israel. From 1948, when the land on which Israel sits was stolen from the Muslims and given to the Israelis for them to establish their state on, was the day the green light was given for the Muslims in that region to live under occupation, oppression and tyranny.

Therefore we need to understand very succinctly that this problem is not a problem of violence and killing in itself, but is the fact that the very existence of Israel is illegitimate and came about from the theft of Muslim land. This is the bottom line, and unless we deal with the problem from the roots, we will forever be trying to deal with the problems which manifest as a result, such as the current offensive.

And although people call this crisis a humanitarian crisis, or a national struggle; it is more than anything, an Islamic crisis. As the land of Palestine was stolen from the Muslim Ummah and the theft of Muslim land, is indeed a serious issue in Islam. The Prophet SAW said, ‘That he who gives one hands span of Muslim land away, will experience a hand span of the hellfire.’ It is therefore clear that the theft of Muslim land is an issue that should shake our souls, just as our souls were shaken when the Prophet SAW’s name was defamed in recent books and cartoons, and when the Quran was flushed down the toilet in Guantanamo Bay.

And before any bond, it is the bond of Iman between the Muslims which makes us a strong unit who feel each others sorrow and pain like our own. The Prophet SAW said, ‘The Ummah is like a body, when one part of it hurts, the rest of it reacts with restlessness and fever.’ So whatever nationality we are, Bangladeshi, Pakistani or Chinese, the suffering of our brothers and sisters is definitely our problem, that we need to seek a solution for. But some of us feel that by donating charity to the victims in Gaza, we have fulfilled their right over us - Charity is indeed a rewardable action, in the eyes of Allah SWT, but this is not the solution for the actual problem of the occupation of Palestine as charity will keep the people alive and feed and clothe them, but it will in no way change their situation. Even if they are fed and clothed, tomorrow they will still be subject to Israeli tyranny, as they had been today. And if we believe that by giving charity we have done our bit for our brothers and sisters in that region, then we do them a great disservice. As they do not want to be kept alive in this living hell, they want to be liberated from it.

It is without the doubt that the Capitalist ideology with its premise of seeking benefit and economic interest has enabled the Palestinian people to remain in the situation that they are. For the Western world, having a key ally such as Israel in the heart of the Muslim world, where they fear Muslim unity and independence; is of paramount benefit. Thus it is ludicrous for us to hope that by protesting and appealing to the Western world with a humanitarian plea, we can achieve change and justice. As capitalism puts benefit of its nation states first, before the wellbeing of people. The state of poverty in the world in places such as Africa, today is testimount to the fact that the wellbeing of people is of lesser importance to those nations who hold the Capitalist ideology, over the need to usurp and accumulate wealth and power. Therefore it is a futile action to try and get Capitalist nations to solve the problem of Palestine, as they will never see the occupation of the region as something they need to set right as there is not benefit in it for them, moreover Israel’s existence is in their benefit. Therefore if there is no room for uncompromising justice within capitalism, then we clearly need to seek an alternative system to live by which does have this as its cornerstone.

The Islamic ideology is the only alternative option for the world today, if we wish for the return of uncompromising justice. It is an Islamic government, led by a sincere Khalif, which will care about the bloodshed of the Palestinians and ensure that the occupation of the land is a priority to be dealt with. The Islamic Khilafah will put the wellbeing of its Ummah and the lands of Islam, before the accumulation of wealth or the need to be arrogant and powerful. The Prophet SAW said, ‘The Imam is a shield for the Ummah, from behind which they fight and are protected.’

Many years after the Rightly Guided Khalifs, even during the period of intense decline for the Islamic Khilafah, the Khalif Sultan Abdul Hamid II in the late 19th century, when asked by the father of Zionism Dr Hertzel whether he would sell Palestine, his response was very stark:
‘Palestine is not mine to give. My people have fought with blood
and sweat to protect this land. Let the Jews keep their millions
and once the Khilafah is torn apart one day, they can have Palestine
without a price’

My dear sisters in Islam! The blessed rule of Allah has been torn to shreds in our lands today, and Palestine today it is true, has no price for our rulers. It will only be the Islamic Khilafah, led by a sincere Khalif, who can deal with the transgressing Israel and protect our Muslim brothers and sisters in Palestine. It is a sincere Khalif who will gather together all the soldiers he can find and all the resources he can muster to march forth in order to retrieve back the land of Al Quds and restore to this noble Ummah what is rightfully theirs, under the most rightful rule.

So my dear sisters in Islam! Work towards this solution which will relieve our suffering Ummah, and do not prolong their pain by engaging yourself in other futile acts, in the hope that they will alleviate the suffering of your Muslim brethren, as surely any other ceasefire, roadmap or compromise will end as being a mirage and return us to our degraded position. Rather be part of the work to bring back a righteous ruler who rules by what Allah revealed and return justice to the face of this earth:

Allâh has promised those among you who believe, and do righteous good deeds, that He will certainly grant them succession to (the present rulers) in the earth, as He granted it to those before them, and that He will grant them the authority to practise their religion, that which He has chosen for them (i.e. Islâm). And He will surely give them in exchange a safe security after their fear (provided) they (believers) worship Me and do not associate anything (in worship) with Me. But whoever disbelieved after this, they are the Fâsiqûn (rebellious, disobedient to Allâh). (TMQ 24:55)

A forward I received on practical actions we can do for Gaza

2009-01-08T15:16:00.000Z

The massacre and genocide in Gaza still continues and our brothers and sisters are in a dire situation, with nothing apart from stones and rockets to protect them. Please constantly call and email the egyptian embassy, Egypt has an army of 450,000 soldiers compared to 180,000 israeli troops. Call on the arab-muslim armies to defend Gaza.

Sunday 11th January 2009 - Is a demonstration going to the Egyptian, Syrian and Saudi Embassy. GATHERING AT MARBLE ARCH 12.30pm (nearest tube Marble arch station), and ending with a congregation prayer insha'Allah.

phone and email these embassies on a daily basis and ask why they have supported Israel's massacre in Gaza, why they did nothing to defend the muslims in Gaza? and why they continue their TREATIES WITH ISRAEL?

Egyptian Embassy Tel: 020 7499 3304/2401

Jordanian Embassy Tel 020 79373685

Syrian Embassy Tel 020 72459012

Saudi Embassy Tel 020 79173000

Egypt alone has 450,000 regular troops to Israel's 180,000; and comparable levels of tanks and aircrafts. Combined these countries are overwhelmingly more powerful. Yet they do nothing.

Below is an action plan that we sisters can insha'Allah try and follow up:
ACTION POINTS:

1) EMAIL/ PHONE UP MUSLIM EMBASSIES MENTIONED IN THE NOTE above

2) KEEP THE DISCUSSION GOING ABOUT THE ARAB/ MUSLIM LEADERS & THEIR TREACHERY ON THE BUSSES, TUBE EVERYWHERE

3) ATTEND DEMONSTRATIONS WHICH ARE INLINE WITH ISLAM...OUR ARMIES IN THE MUSLIM LANDS SHOULD DEFEND THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE LIKE SALAH UD DIN DID!!! BE VERY CLEAR, WHAT THE OBJECTIVE OF THE ORGANISER IS? AS WE ARE ACCOUNTABLE FOR WHAT WE BECOME PART OF! WHY DO WE DEMONSTRATE OUTSIDE ISRAELI EMBASSY? We must also not fool ourselves in to thinking that foreign powers and institutions such solve this current crisis or indeed any other in the Muslim world. These powers look after their own interests only and are themselves guilty of wars and massacres against Muslims. They show their double standards by invading and occupying Muslim lands on false pretences, yet are reduced to issuing hollow words of chastisement to Israel over its current acts of barbarism.

4) WRITE TO MEDIA OUTLETS/ BLOGS ETC

5) DONT ALLOW YOURSELF TO BECOME IMMUNE TO THE BLOOD OF OUR BROTHERS, SISTERS AND CHILDREN...keep updated with news, ONE THING THAT MIGHT HELP IS MAY BE MAKE ALJAZEERA.NET/ ENGLISH YOUR HOMEPAGE OR CUT THE PICTURES OR PRINT THEM & KEEP THEM ON YOU

6) LAST BUT NOT LEAST INCREASE THE RECOMMENDED ACTIONS, OF DUA, TAHUJJUD, SURAH FATH(49) AND BEG ALLAH SWT DURING THE LAST PART OF THE NIGHT TO END THE SUFFERINGS OF GAZAN'S & THE RETURN OF KHILAFAH.

Do the Muslims of Gaza cry for blankets and gourmet cuisine?

2009-01-05T00:16:00.000Z

I switched on my TV to try and get the latest news on the terrible situation of our brethren in Gaza. Although I attended the big demonstration today in London, calling all the Arab rulers to account for their inaction, I still find that after the cooking, cleaning, wiping runny noses and picking up toys, the thoughts of Gaza start escaping me. So in a worried flurry I feel I need to feel what's happening again - I mean if it was my mother, sister and own children, would I just switch off just because I'd been to a demo for a couple of hours that day? It might have made me feel like I'd done my bit today, and I could go to sleep content tonight, but it's not about me is it? It's all about them. And their suffering doesn't end, even though I can switch my TV off... Anyway having found some actual footage of Gaza which seemed to vaguely reflect what might be happening, I found a very pleasant brother inshaAllah I pray, earnestly raising funds for his Muslim brethren in Gaza on this particular channel. He pleaded with the Ummah to remember their brothers and sisters, and their relationship to them, and empty their pockets so the charity could send food and other necessities in this trying time. It was the emergency 'Gaza crisis appeal' and the harrowing images on the side of the screen accompanied the bank details of the Islamic charity who were conducting this noble cause.

I really pray Allah SWT rewards the brother and all those who assisted him on that programme for his efforts, and for reminding us all that those people out there are our people, just as much as the very people we live with in our home. However it made me think - when I have watched footage of an absolutely devestated mother, mourning the death of her 3 children, the thought about how she would feed herself, or even keep herself warm that night, really wasn't the first thought to strike me. All I could think about was how could her three innocent children be slaughtered in this way in the first place? Of course I pray the woman is fed and clothed properly, after the ordeal she has been through, but much more than that - I pray that no other woman like her has to go through what she went through.

It is without a doubt the people of Gaza will need emergency provisions over the coming days, as they always have, and many charities have been dedicated and committed to accomplishing this. Nobody would deny this is a weighty and noble cause. However food, shelter and clothing has no bearing on the occupation, oppression and absolute injustice the people of Gaza are subject to, day in day out, not just over the last few days, but since the establishment of Israel. There was a grandmother giving a television interview a while back and she was talking about how she has lived in the muddy squalor of a refugee camp, in a makeshift tent for so many years, and now her grandchildren have the honour of experiencing this too. Food and clothing from charities was what largely fed this woman and her family, and may Allah give the people who provided this for them, much reward. However no amount of food and clothing has been able to enable this woman, her children and her grandchildren to return to their rightful home, occupied by Israelis. Charity has kept her alive, but not at all changed her situation.

Making ourselves feel better, I think, is something key. Because in the society we live in, often charity - be it Children in Need, comic relief - is often plugged by reminding people how good it feels to help others. And this is natural within human beings, that we like to help others like ourselves, but this shouldn't be why we do it. As if this is the case, we may do the action which makes us feel better, but is not in the best interest of those we are helping. The emotion of seeing the dead and injured in Gaza, makes us want to have some sort of release - Emptying your pocket there and then, has an instantaneous result and can give us the feeling that we have done our bit. We can then brush our hands and walk away to get on with our lives. However if we have the wellbeing and best interests of the people at heart, then we will realise that giving charity helps, but is in no way the solution for the problem in Palestine and if we do give charity, we can in no way feel that we have done our bit period.

The solution for the tanks and ground forces which have recently wormed their way into Gaza is of course not blankets and food. It's resistance, as strong as the offensive is. It's a resistance that has the capacity and capabilities to fight the likes of tanks and state of the art phosphorus bombs, led by a just ruler who does not have revenge or personal power at his heart - But has the oppressed people, and the stolen land as his central drive. Unless we call for this, we will just be feeding and clothing the people in Gaza to keep them alive and well, and as better bait, for the Israeli soldiers to come and kill. A bit crude, but that's it really, isn't it?

A Muslim does not act by emotion or by the rage of his heart, he is higher than this. He is led by his mind and its thinking to undertake the correct actions, in line with Islam. Thus let us not be like those who act purely by base desires, doing things because it makes us feel good, regardless of what the consequences and impact is. As let's face it - as the tanks roll in through the thick of the night, and the bombs illuminate the black, still sky as I write, do the people of Gaza really cry for a wide variety of foods and a selection of clothes?

Do you live by Islam, or Live for it?

2009-01-01T18:22:00.000Z

I'm in the midst of my routine visit to my parents home these Christmas hols. It really has become routine, as as the Christmas holidays have dawned over the last few years, we have packed up our belongings, our woolly scarfs and several warm jumpers, jumped into our car ready for our relaxing break in the Welsh plains. The period of time here has come to characterise excesses of wonderful food, all the Christmas television and most of all rich amounts of family time as everyone is home, cuddled around the coffee table and blazing heaters. The ritual sale shopping where I try to buy all the things I need for the coming year, along with the wonderful time I spend with my family, who appreciate it to the nth degree, always brings with it a urging question for me on what life really is about. Without getting to mushily philosophical, every year I get a window into the world which could possibly be if I didn't have the central hearth of Islam in my life.

Alhumdulilah I can put my hand on my heart and say the time with my family, all the practical things I need to buy and do, has for me a strong link to my Creator; as clearly we all know the weight Islam places on pleasing the parents and keeping ties with kin. My ritual shopping even has a link (however tenuously some may assume!) it's all the stuff I need to get for my family and my kids to keep us going for a while inshaAllah. But it's that link that keeps me feeling cool. As without that link, I contemplate how would I really feel?

For me this link is what keeps me feeling content that the actions I do have some sort of weight and value, as Allah SWT has clearly told us in Surah AdhDhuriyat that the purpose of the creation of mankind, is for the sole purpose of us to worship him - not to shop, chill or let our life drift away trying to just even be happy.

But I think alhumdulilah alot of us, many of us who have had the honour to re-find Islam again, can intellectuslise this link. The understanding that unless our lives are led in accordance with Allah's rules and laws, then there is no meaning or use for us. But my understanding of this deen tells me that the Islamic purpose in life means more than this, and this is something I think we all find a battle to embed in life. And what concerns me more for the Muslim community I see living around me, is a more recent phenomenan which I feel challenges the desire for us to live purely for Islam.

A sister I remember once said to me that the biggest obstacle for the Muslim community in the West to regaining and working for the vision to resestablish just Islamic rule in the Muslim world, is that we have been lured by a lifestyle, the British Muslim lifestyle which acts as separating us and our aspirations from the rest of the Ummah. The fact that we now have supermarket halal meat, even halal organic meat now I hear, a growing abundance of masjids, the mushrooming of Islamic fashion, the whole new ethos of Islamic shopping, Islamic entertainment - both music and TV(!!) and even the opportunities to engage in British politics with your Islamic(ish) agenda; has meant for many Muslims who live by Islam today that we feel that this is it. We have an Islamicised version of almost everything on the mainstream British market. We have everything we need just around us and our goals become to develop this British Islamic lifestyle over anything else, whichI feel replicates the concepts of escapist entertainment culture we see in the West. We bury ourselves in material things and ideas which give us our kicks and take up our time, and ultimately help us escape the stark realities of this world and life. Things happening abroad then aren't really our problem as much, as we feel we belong here in the West and this is where our allegiances, worries and goals should lie. Alhumdulilah many of these things are good for the Muslim community in one sense as they have aided us to live by Islam and retain our Deen, but I fear that there are more dangers in this phenomenan than can be at first perceived, if the community do not treat this whole new revolution appropriately. I fear that we will just become hijab wearing and salah practising versions of our British counterparts we live with and amongst.

I'm not a traditional isolationist, if that's what you are now thinking. I don't believe in shunning everything with a taint of what is Western, but what I do believe is that we not only have to distinguish between the haram and halal in this society, but also the key ideas and concepts. Our Prophet SAW, throughout his entire Prophethood never sought comfort, whether material or emotional as his goal in life and neither did his Sahabah. Rather his goal throughout his life was always to make Islam superior and to protect his Ummah, as he famously said to Abu Talib 'If you put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left, I would not leave this struggle until it is victorious or I perish therein'. For him SAW, not only would he sacrifice his comfort and the comfort of his family for Islam, but even his SAW life he SAW was willing to give. And if this is the example, of our best example, then is this not we should follow?

The beauty of the Deen of Islam is that it does not require us to follow a life of asceticism where we renounce everything and anything material, it does not even view wealth as something which is innately evil; but what Allah always does ask us to question, is why we are in this world in the first place. That are we here to seek comforts, pursue an individualistic lifestyle as our non-Muslim counterparts are urged to, looking out and living for ourselves and only those close to us; and getting our kicks in life out of material things? Just because some of these things maybe cloaked in an Islamic appearance, does not mean our use of them are not any less dangerous than the popular culture and fashion races of the West.

The abundance of evidences in the Quran and Sunnah highlight that the reason why we wake in the morning, all the kicks and what we dedicate the most important parts of our day to, what we get excited about - all that - should be for Islam, nothing else. As the Prophet SAW said 'None of you truly believes, until your desires conform with what I have brought.' We must therefore take the time out from our all engulfing lives to think. Think about what being a Muslim really means, that we live to carry Allah's word to the world and make Islam superior. That we are a vanguard of Islam and the Ummah and that this brings a duty and responsibility. It's not just about praying, fasting, having your Islamic mortgage and getting your kids into Islamic schools. We need to contemplate about this beautiful Deen of Allah SWT and how it is gathering dust in the auspicious Qurans on our shelves and is deemed, astaghfirullah, not good enough to rule over us in this so-called modern world we live in. And the effects of this being manifold - we have a global economics which has gone past breaking point, social systems where rape, crime, murder are in their multitude, and a world where abusing and oppressing the Ummah is just part of life.
With this turbulent reality around us, it is not normal for any follower of Islam or servant of Allah SWT to be able to live a life of comfort, content with all the Islamicised provisions we have gained and that's about it. The fact that even one mother of this Ummah yesterday in Gaza experienced the death of all her children should be cause for us all to dedicate our efforts and energy and time and sweat to work in the correct manner for the reestablishment of Allah's law and the shield of a righteous ruler for this Ummah. The Prophet SAW said: 'The imam is a shield from behind which the Ummah fight and are defended.' And the pain of this should be as sharp as the pain we would feel for our own mother or sister, as the Prophet SAW likened our relationship with the Ummah, wherever they are, as being part of the same body - if they hurt, we inevitably feel it too.

To live in this dunya is right and good as our bodies, our families all do have a right over us, as prescribed by our Creator. However this should not become our sole purpose in life as this was never the mission Allah SWT set for us, from the moment he set mankind onto this earth. Rather Allah's pleasure, and the promise of Jannah, we know only is rewarded to those who live to make Allah's deen the highest, sacrificing as much as we possibly can of this dunya - Not those who simply live by the basics of what Allah has forbidden and enjoined. It is living for Islam, not simply by Islam which is the pathway into Jannah, and who would want to risk it being any other way?
'Say: If it be that your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your mates, or your kindred; the wealth that ye have gained; the commerce in which ye fear a decline: or the dwellings in which ye delight - are dearer to you than Allah, or His Messenger, or the striving in His cause;- then wait until Allah brings about His decision: and Allah guides not the rebellious.' (9:24)

Who will ever break the silence on Israel?

2008-12-29T18:08:00.000Z

Deeply saddening, appalling is indeed the violence in Gaza, as our world leaders have called it. Events which stir our emotions intensely. But more than emotion, we all feel a view, have an opinion as politics doesn't just conjure feeling, it conjures thought and viewpoints as more than anything its about how we look after mankind in the world we live in. And in this present world we live in, it has to be said not only is the Palestinian conflict one of the most saddening, but is one which conjures the most political voice. For even the most apolitical amongst us, we all have a view about whether those people who claimed their homeland after around 2000 years, were right to do so, or wrong.
I remember some years ago, before I came to Islam, I was travelling in Morocco with a young Jewish girl who told me about how her parents envisaged settling in Israel one day from the UK, as their ultimate dream. At that time all I knew about Israel was, that it was a place in the middle east which came up in the news now and again, but didn't really know why and I wasn't that bothered either. When I returned to the UK, I ambled through some news pages in a vague attempt to maybe find out about this Israel. All I read was Israel was suffering at the hands of Palestinians and Palestinians were suffering at the hands of Israelis. Seemed like another classic conflict situation with some sort of history I'd never get but I hoped, as a passing thought, that both sides would meet in the middle somewhere. Thats classic conflict mediation isn't it, even in marriages, it's all about meeting somewhere in the middle; compromise. Both sides had to do their bit.
A couple of years later, my attachment to my Muslim brethren, urged me to read up on the history of Palestine and Israel. I read about a group of people homeless in Europe. I read about them set their eyes on a land they not only wanted to live in, but rule over. I read about them coming into Palestine and throwing people out of their homes, bulldozing them down and making people refugees in their own land. I read about bloodshed, I read about their domination, occupation spreading like a infectious disease. I read about their sophisticated missiles and tanks, whose design, manufacture was aided in Britain and America; massacre families, and the resistance of the Palestinians named as terrorism. Palestinians who grew up generation after generation in the muddy squalor of refugee camps in their own land attempted to fight this occupation with whatever they had. I read it all. Then came the wall, the blockades and the intense attacks of the last few days.
This was Israel. This was occupation, domination and suffering to the nth degee whilst the world watched, calling it deeply saddening and terribly appalling, but never wrong.
There have been many demos over the last few days, asking Israel to stop the attacks - and despite news reports saying that they won't until Hamas does, we must be slightly loopy if we ever believe they will put an end to their agenda which has been ruthlessly undertaken over the past century. And the West - they will never verbalise Israel's cruelty, as they are the ones who set the cannon loose and gave the go-ahead all those years ago. It's a silence that will never be broken in Washington or London, and if we don't own up to this, we continue to leave the suffering Palestinians stranded in a problem which has been sugarcoated and sold to us as a solution through roadmaps and ceasefires.
The solution lies in a place which we don't always look. Like a action-packed thriller, where the director misguides you into thinking who the killer is, masking the real one in order to create that all breath-taking twist, the Muslims will also face their twist. The realisation that sustainable change can only come from the solution Allah SWT gives us for our politics. Lobbying MPs, pressuring Israel, all these things serve to divert us from the real solution - the armies of the Muslim lands - who did they stand to defend? The thousands and thousands of people, weaponry who make up the Muslim armies - where and for what reason do they stand idle?
Allah SWT will ask the rulers of the Muslim world, where were their ears and their eyes as the missiles fell, one after the other? These rulers we know prefer to shake the hands of the perpetrators than straighten them, in order to keep their seats of power. But Allah Almighty is the owner of the Heavens and the Earth, and it is He who can destroy all 50+ of them and their kingdoms in a fell swoop and one day InshaAllah He will. There will come a day, as Allah SWT has promised where just Islamic rule will return to this Earth and liberate all the oppressed. This is the only solution which can pool together the resources of the Muslim world, and create the unity to enable a resistance which stands to the likes as those of Israel. This is the solution which doesn't accept a few Palestinian homes being returned, or a few Palestinians being allowed to work - This is the solution which will return an uncompromising rule of law which favours no race, only justice, to the Arabian plains. I pray that we are strong enough to remember this and become part of its return, instead of busying ourselves with fruitless actions which actively ensue its delay.

A Cruel Parallel

2008-12-22T23:44:00.000Z

Imagine a 32 year old educated and mature woman being thrown into a vehicle, gagged by human hands to the point of an unbearable sense of suffocation and fearing that the tin roof of that van was possibly the last sight her eyes would ever see. Then imagine a 20 year old new bride, adorned with gold and glittering reds, still glowing with excitement and her fresh coyness, feel her skin turn wet, burn slowly and then unimaginably intensely, scorching and searing till it resembled black leather. Both images may make you sigh, or as it did for me, make your stomach turn. But both women I can now tell you were Bangladeshi, oppressed, tortured and victims of a situation where they had no control.

However as some of you may have already recognised, indeed for my first example the ending was a happy ending - the law successfully intervened and returned 32 year old Dr Humayra Abedin back home to the UK earlier this month - From the safety of her family who had duped her, and then imprisoned her in order to force her into a marriage with Dr Khondokar Mohammad Abdul Jalal, whose proposal she had declined earlier this year. Together with the pressure from a Bangladeshi Human Rights Group, as well as more importantly the pressure of the British Court, the Bangladeshi police were able to track Dr Abedin down on 15 December. The Dhaka court immediately ruled that she be freed and allowed to return to Britain. Indeed Dr Abedin has returned and after a painful period in her life, is still free to pursue her plans of becoming a trained GP in East London.

However the story of my second victim, does not have an ending that sits as well. On the 18th January 2007, Sabina Yasmin in Dhaka was married to Khairul Islam. But instead of her auspicious wedding day being the beginning of a more blessed and auspicious new life, it was a day that would prove devastating. Sabina that day, fell prey to the vengeance of some neighbours of her husband's family who had a long dispute with them and on her wedding day, she became another statistic in Bangladesh's shocking acid burning record. She was admitted into Dhaka Medical College hospital with 55% of her body mangled and melted by lethal acid from treacherous hands. After 22 long days and nights of suffering the agony of such burns, Sabina passed away. The police did not arrest anyone in relation to her assault, despite having strong evidence about the perpetrators and the campaigning of a human rights group.

The painful suffering and eventual death of Sabina is difficult to swallow, when set aside the new lease of life Dr Abedin has to now begin her life again and follow her ambitions to train as a GP. But what is more difficult to contemplate is how the life and wellbeing of Dr Abedin was worth more than the young life of the new Dhaka bride. For her, courts across the Atlantic and of course Dhaka set loose all possible efforts, to ensure her safety was restored and protected. Yet for Sabina, her life was left to wither away in a hospital and justice and the law did not just dust their hands of her, they forgot her from the very beginning. A hollow statistic to be brushed under the carpet as soon as she was gone. To even find the news article on her was an investigative feat.

I don't feel comfortable with reeling off statistics now for you all to picture the context of what the situation for women such as Sabina in Bangladesh is really like. Because any statistics I come across, on UNICEF, from Bangladeshi Government Records, just cannot reflect the real picture. Firstly with almost half the Bangladeshi population living in abject poverty with token access to statutatory assistance and unable to report crimes properly, in addition to the actual government institutions being corrupt and grotesquely pervasive when it comes to recording actual crime and injustice in the country, looking at any statistics is as good as not. But I'll give you some anyway, save you thinking I write and speak from a cloud above. 8.76% of the burns treated in Dhaka University in a four year period were as a result of acid throwing (http://www.medbc.com/annals/review/vol_14/num_3/text/vol14n3p115.asp), and most of these victims were young girls. More than 14% of pregnant women's deaths are associated with injury and violence they are subjected to (http://www.hurights.or.jp/asia-pacific/040/02.htm) and according to the Bangladesh police, registered cases of cruelty to women topped over 12 000 to 20 000 every year between 2003 and 2007, compared to around 1000 recorded cases of robbery each year from 2003 and 2007 (http://www.police.gov.bd/index5.php?category=48).

Women like Sabina are withering away in hospitals and homes across Bangladesh, daily. The system does not care and does not want to care, as they are not worth the efforts of the police or court of law. But for the Bangladeshi court, pressure from world media and moreover the routine desire to appease Colonial Father Britain, urged them to relentlessly seek protection for Dr Abedin. Interestingly, Dr Abedin's message to women in her situation was 'come forward and don't give hope.' Sadly, hope is a step too far for most women in Bangladesh who do not have the royal visas of Britain to fight for them, or the wealth or influence of the ruling elite. For those who have been born into the average family in Bangladesh, struggling to survive, justice and the promise of protection from the State is nothing but a dream which will never manifest itself into reality.

For a country which has been praised for its corruption clean-up, and more recently its impressive democratic election process which was deemed as possibly 'fairest' in the world by American Presidential candidate McCain, it would seem that justice and human rights records in such a country should be as dazzling. But this obviously could not be further from the truth, where justice is conditional to how high profile you are and whether helping you would bring the Government any benefit. Clearly for Dr Abedin, pursuing justice for her was unavoidable as the eyes of the world and the British Government impinged on it.

To be able to protect women in Bangladesh, not a select few women, it is evident that we need a Government that will believe in this and pursue this. Throughout the short history of Bangladesh, never has there been a time where oppression, subjugation and a failure to protect people have not been the absolute norm. It's therefore time we stop looking to the political options in Bangladesh that have been handed to us pre-prepared, but call for a new type of politics which will uphaul the rotten current system to replace it with one that places justice at its heart.

In the Islamic ruling system, the Khilafah State, justice for the oppressed is not conditional to how much wealth they have, their status or particular situation, rather any oppressed citizen deserves justice by the State. This is because the ruler in Islam must abide by the principle that he is responsible for the wellbeing of all his citizens by the hadith of the Noble Prophet SAW: "Each of you is a shepherd, and all of you are responsible for your flocks." [Bukhari, Muslim]. Rather than fearing their colonial masters in the West in how they execute their rule of law and justice, the ruler in Islam fears his accountability to Allah on the Day of Judgement according to how he looked after and protected the flock he was entrusted with. In addition to this, crimes against women would be something which would be far from tolerated. Rather the viewpoint towards women in an Islamic State is one of high stature and honour. As the Prophet (SAW) said, "The world and all the things in it are precious but the most precious thing in the world is a righteous woman" . He SAW also said: "Whoever has three daughters and shelters them, provides what they need and shows compassion towards them, will certainly deserve paradise." Finally he SAW very famously said, "The best of you are those who are best to their wives." Clearly an Islamic society would build a strong respect for women, where oppression and subjugation of any kind would be abhorred. The rule of law would support this, with strict punishments for even accusing falsely a chaste woman.

It is conclusive that it is only the Islamic rule of law and its correct implementation which can secure real justice for women in Bangladesh, irrespective of their social standing or situation. Without this, justice will be just like a lottery, if you get a winning ticket then the Bangladeshi Government will pull out the highest of stops for you, but if you happen to get a losing one, expect a dark and devastating road to despair.

A Notun Din?

2008-12-11T20:59:00.000Z

For those who have been born and bred in the UK, a prospective Bangladeshi election and political change means nothing more I'm sure than rain. It comes every other day (especially if you're from sunny Wales) and you don't really batter an eyelid at it. Bangladeshi politics always seems to be an impassioned issue, heated all the time whenever our parents would surf the Bangla news so we all grew a type of immunity towards it. Whether it's some Awami League or BNP, BJP - one of the two?! None of it really makes sense. And as I have recently tried to decipher the politics of Bangladesh, I feel (sorry to burst any bubbles) that it still doesn't really make any sense.
American Presidential candidate McCain after a recent visit to Bangladesh claimed that the upcoming election was possibly one of the 'fairest' of the world. With the caretaker Government's astringent clean-up process across the political world and the massive programme to register over 80 million people, McCain was truly wowed by this rags to riches story.
But before people get carried away by his sweeping claims, I'd really like to question what type of future this free and fair election will give Bangladesh? Will it free them from their deeply ridden problems of crime and corruption? Will give return fairness for all the poor and destitute? Rather than just praise a process, what the real issue is what this process will achieve.
And first and foremost if this is a model of democracy, with the people driving the politicians and politics they want representing them, then why is it that the caretaker Government is astringently screening who can even stand as a party or contestant? Less than half the parties who initially applied for registration have been given the go ahead to actually partake in the process, with Islamically inclined parties being thoroughly scrutinised due to liberalist pressure. Even the widely known party Jamaat e Islam narrowly just made it. Is that democracy?
The fairness that the caretaker Government claim to have created across political culture in the last two years, will no doubt bring a smirk to many a face. Newspaper editor and political analyst Shyamal Dutt said that the anti-corruption drive has failed to stop many bad people from entering the election, in his opinion. Corruption has been straightened out when wanted and to whom wanted, often sporadic. The fact that the two former Prime Minister's, who even the most politically illiterate know were entrenched in corruption, received a year in prison rsp with one out on bail and the other on medical parole, itslef says alot about what the intentions behind their imprisonment really were. Forget financial embezzlement, the fact that both during their terms were never able to attempt to deal with the impoverished people they ruled over, but could fulfil massive plans for India, America or their ruling elite, is itself I feel a crime that deserves more than endless years in prison. And indeed the destination for the ruler who mistreats his people, is no short of hellfire. Thus it makes me wonder who the 'clean-up' act was really for - the people of Bangladesh, or to achieve the nodding heads in America and Britain and for comments like those of Mc Cain.
The reality is this democratic election, in all its hype, will in the end come to be a moment of deja vu for Bangladesh. If you sleep through this election, don't worry you will have seen the result at some point during Bangladeshi history - Either Awami League or the BNP. This is the people's choice dished to you on a plate pre-arranged. And whichever comes to power, it will always be the Capulet-Montague style battle which dominates political headlines - Which party or family did what against whom, over what policy will improve the quality of life for Bangladeshi people.
How can we aspire for change from politics which has been proven as failed? The discussion has to develop outside of the box handed to us.
What we want is real, sustainable change for Bangladesh. Change which shakes the etablishment down to its roots, and actually uproots it! Discarding the deeply-entrenched corruption, injustice to replace it with a system of governance which holds the wellbeing of its citizens and justice for them as its cornerstone, absolutely uncompromisingly. Where everyone, including the ruler and his bandwagon, are all subject to the law and no one is above the law. Where justice is enshrined in an independent judiciary and the authority lies with the people.Where there is a very clear and distinct measure for what the ruler has to abide by, with removal as the consequence of not doing so. And where the sole sovereignty lies with the one Being who deserves it - Allah SWT.
A big vision, a crazy vision you may think. But in this crazy world we live in, big revolutionary change is the only change which will do. Nobody thought the Berlin Wall would change. Nobody thought the Cold War would change and nobody ever thought that occupied America in the 18th century would rise to become the world's superpower. But as a brother not so long ago said, big change can happen. And what I'd like to leave you with is a plea, to believe it and work for it.

untitled

2008-11-18T22:50:00.000Z

I feel physically, vilely, wretchedly sick to the point where words feel too delicate and airy to actually describe the repulsive feeling. The death of Baby P. How he was trained as a dog by his mother's murderous boyfriend. Trained to kneel on the floor waiting to be punished. The baby lived in a house where human faeces and rat infestations were a normal reality. Where he awoke everyday to a mother who slept routinely till lunchtime not bothering to even acknowledge him, let alone tend to him, breaking his spine like he was the piece of plank from Karate Kid, spinning him on a chair till he came crashing down to the floor. It's excrutiating to read and listen and fill your mind with this. As my husband just told me to stop it, 'I don't want to hear it.' But that's it. We don't want to hear it. We don't want to see it and tomorrow it's another disaster we've ascribed to anomalies of evil in our developed, technologically advanced society.

The Baby P media focus has been quick and harsh to point all the blame on Haringey Social services, who admittedly tripped up badly having not dealt with this case promptly despite all the clues. However this is a very easy scapegoat. A palpable, graspable organisation we can all hound on. Purge our grief on and then walk away tomorrow brushing the dust off our hands. And this is why it's Baby P today, Sharon Matthews kidnapping her daughter yesterday and so many other children being sacrificed due to a bigger problem that yet has not been identified.

Forget the peripheral organisations who have this minimal capacity to try and monitor people and their behaviour; let's actually ask the golden question - Why is it that it is so normal for our society to produce the likes of Baby P every so often, such examples of human irresponsibility, cruelty and utter eradication of the difference between right and wrong? Do we not ask why? Do we not ask what have been the consequences of us living in a culture and society which values as its cornerstone the freedom to lead our lives as we please, accountable to nothing and no one, living for today, forget what happens tomorrow. A society where pleasing our sensual desires becomes the paramount goal in life, like a sniffer dog lured by its goldmine; over all need to construct our lives by a higher calling.

We're not animals. We're mammals with a mind and unless we use it to differentiate ourselves from animals, it seems that society will become a jungle of battling desires and disasters. Let's please begin to point the finger in the right direction. That human beings are made up of a mixture of desires, emotions and particular natures. If we are left to decide for ourselves how are life should be, such cases are inevitable and as we are seeing, are becoming normal. For all those who believed a society based upon Islam was a dilly dallying daydream, I ask do you really still think so? Are you really still happy to settle for this quagmire we now live in? Set aside all the scapegoats and please, I beg of you, just contemplate the realise the viscous, wretched jungle of anguish will we see if we sit back and just passively wait...

Obama ahoy!

2008-11-06T22:15:00.000Z

Obama fever has ransacked not just Atlantic shores but global expanses. Everybody's talkin' about the new black brother, knocking on ordinary people's doors a year ago conjuring political support; to now becoming the the world's latest Greek demiGod. Mr Barack Obaaaaaama. Don't worry I'm not just here to have a rant and a rave at every single TV show falling and blubbering at his every image, I've just made a few observations myself that I'd like to share.

Firstly I do not want to, in any way, belittle the sense of enormity this political event would have meant for those who lived through the Civil Rights movement and life before that - The absolute segregation, degradation in life that had to be endured by a people whose only fault was the shade of their skin. To have been roused by the visionary dream of Martin Luther King, imagining a day where equality of treatment and opportunities would have seemed as dreamlike as Hans Christian Anderson's fairytales. No one would underestimate the feeling of achievement that people such as Jesse Jackson would have felt to have seen this day.

However, just as the American idealistic bubble puzzles us once in a while I feel it's doing so once again. This idea that the advent of a Black political role model is an absolute new start for race relations in America is kinda puzzling. I'm thinking Colin Powell. I'm thinking Condeleeza Rice. Yes, not Presidents, but one could say you couldn't get much closer than they did to having their fairshare of the political leadership of America. Thus this idea that this a whole new dawn for African Americans appears more Obama campaign spin than it is reality. If representation
actually had impact then why was it that having the likes of Colin Powell in such high esholons of American politics didn't actually affect the twisted and deep-rooted racism that took place after the atrocity of Hurricane Katrina?Then what real difference can another Black politican really, practically make?

And this is where my problem lies. Democracy at its core places representation as a key value. The idea is that you work towards representation of the people, to be able to create justice and equal rights for them. But isn't this in reality a fallacy? For example, the ongoing plug to get more women into higher political positions - how does this actually affect the attitudes and treatment of women in real society on the ground? Another woman in the House of Commons for example, doesn't really have a bearing on the prejudices, oppression and exploitation of rights many women go through in all walks of life on a grassroots level. Tessa or Ruth sitting in the House of Commons debating anything from childcare to troops in Iraq moreover seems mutually exclusive from the issue of Samantha being prostituted for drugs in Bethnal Green, or Alisha scared for her son's involvement in gangs.

The argument is that representation creates better empathy and understanding of problems. So Obama may understand the feeling of being degraded due to his skin and Tessa might understand the importance of children for a mother - But we're human beings with weaknesses, fallacies, different perceptions of what is good bad, important unimportant. To rely purely on that empathy or possible experience of someone who you feel represents you, is absolutely naive. I wouldn't trust any stranger to look after my kids, why would I want one to use their perceptions and experiences to legislate rules for them?

The Rwandan Government boasts a whopping 56.25% of its Parliamentary seats belonging to women - the current shining world record. So do they have a women's rights record as gleaming to match? Well we know that during the civil war in Rwanda, one of the most widely used weapon was that of rape against women (HRW 1996). A common practice of 'marriage by abduction' which takes place today in Rwanda deems it possible for a man to abduct a woman to marry her and he then holds absolute power over her, despite what she wants, thinks or feels. Developments on tackling such deeprooted exploitation of women in a country with the best female representation in Government in the world, has been minimal.

Islam does not rely on representation as a means of achieving justice. A Khalif (ruler) in Islam is at the service of his people, to rule by Islam and the Shariah. So he does not have the mercy to give ample rights and advantages to a group of people, and take away or forget another. The rights of people are laid out in Islam and he must execute them, otherwise face removal. He has a measure by which people can judge his ruling, the Shariah. Thus just because he is not a woman, doesn't mean he cannot rule over them with justice - Because the law he rules with is that which has been created by the Creator of all women, the Creator who knows the nature and needs of women the best. When Umar ibn Al Khattab, the second khalif of Islam decided to fix the dowry rate it was a laywoman who stood up and accounted him, warning him that he could not restrict something which Allah and his Messenger did not restrict. He immidately agreed with the woman's comment, deeming her right, and that he was wrong. It was therefore Islam which was supreme, not perceptions of what Umar or his assistants felt were right.

Obama symbolises i'm sure the road to recovery, change for the world's superpower who it felt almost overnight became crippled by a plethora of problems. But all I ask is that we all think outside of the lines that are drawn for us. That there is a world beyond democracy and that our vision and mind is not squashed into the box of what politics has come to mean. Because if justice is our goal, then we need to look at the bigger picture and work out how to really achieve it; even if this means rethinking whether the map which we have always used up until now, really does set out the right way.

The New Fire - The Jewel of Medina

2008-10-09T23:21:00.000+01:00

It' s those blood thirsty, hot blooded raging Muslims at it again. The jewel of Medina is the latest book by American Sherry Jones who wanted to write a fictional book, based around the Prophet SAW and his youngest wife, revered by Muslims worldwide. Interestingly she has been very outwright wanting to engage with Muslims about the book, assuring all that she doesn't want to paint Islam or Muhammad SAW in a bad light - in fact she views him as a very gentle and loving husband, as well as Aisha being a dazzling character who always interested her. However the problem may not be in the fact that Jones has a calculated plan of spiteful vengeance which she wants to unleash on Muslims and the beloved revered people of their faith; but rather the paint which she brushes her story with. Aisha, she claims is a woman subjugated and controlled by men and contemplates the freedom that other women observe. The Prophet SAW is depicted as having some sort of lustful fixation with women through his repeated marriages. More than anything, the book distorts the context of the time these people lived in -Women, wealth, fixation on the lures of life actually came to mean very little, in fact they became a drop of water compared to the ocean which then occupied them - Allah and the Hereafter he promised.
Jones' discussion about women's place in the book is pinged around the scales of value perceived for women in the West and the lenses of Western values are what Jones sees through. Women's happiness is deemed by how much equality and freedom they are granted with in life. But Islam and the Muslim women of the early days around the blessed Prophet SAW were more than intellectually aware of what value meant for women; what real liberation meant and that the entire emphasis in life for Muslims transcended beyond petty concerns that seem to flood the minds of people in the society we live in. Muhammad SAW and Aisha, in Joneses book, are not the Muhammad SAW and Aisha which we know through undisputed historical documentation, rather they could be a Tom Dick or Harry from Western society, with all their longings about satisfying oneself and asserting one's freedom.
Lastly, the freedom of speech lark all over again. And frankly I'm a bit tired of it. Cuz let's call it how it is. It's not really 'freedom of speech' is it, more like 'the let's see how far we can push the Muslims game'. No one contests the ability to have honest sincere and productive dialogue. But why would a society want to encourage us to act on the freedom to insult and offend? None of us would knock on our neighbours door and start rudely insulting every member of their family and the way they live their life - We'll see them on the way to work the next mrning, and will need them to kindly keep an eye on the house when we go on holiday. Living with people, requires the need to hold respect for one another - actively.
And it would be near impossible for Jones to have ignored the high esteem with which Muslims hold these people in their history. To the extent that they will not stand images of them being created, send blessings after their names everytime they are mentioned and would never dream of misquoting them. Therefore to walk the rope of deciding to get into the minds of the Prophet of the Muslims and his revered wife and make-up their thoughts, can't have been an innocent, naive choice of action. As one reviewer said, if Aisha was alive, she could have sued for libel.

Too busy with Ramadan

2008-09-22T22:15:00.000+01:00

Spiritual hedonism. A contradiction of course. Spirituality is seldom hedonistic, in whatever faith you look at. But my view, is that it can be. The most awe-inspiring, majestic month of Ramadan is now upon us, moreover, is fast dwindling away from us with its most blessed days now in our grasp. The masjids spill out onto the street, the banter and warmth between the Muslim brethren is more than ever. The salat are lengthy, the duas are tear-filled, alhumdulilah. The spiritual feeling of the Deen, exists in the hearts of people in abundance and people we see run to perform the nawafil deeds with longing and desire.

There is goodness in this of course, however it's no doubt that the atmosphere created in this month is utterly feel-good. There's a sense of unity and sense of togetherness which one feels as everyone is carrying out these ibadah actions. So one who seldom prayed a fard salah, stands still to the recitiation of taraweeh salat through the night, day after day within such an atmosphere. Of course as Allah Almighty says, that it is the rememberance of Allah, that hearts do find rest. But should we not be careful that the objective of our ibadah truly is subservience to Allah, and not in seeking the pleasure of feeling spiritual and at rest?

I mention this not to pick a bone, but because someone in this blessed month, when asked whether they had been discussing the recent devestating Pakistan bombing on their Ramadan radio station, stated that they had simply been 'too busy with Ramadan'. Too busy with this month to have been able to use a section of their radio airtime to discuss this critical and devestating event which not only killed Muslim brethren, but was important politically for the Muslims. To discuss that political unrest plagues the air of Pakistan, the place where no leader in the current system - be they Musharraf, Bhutto or Zardari - has acceptance from the people. Where the government, whoever the ruler, has betrayed the people by fighting it's warped war on terror against its very own people (I here have to mention Dr Afia Siddique). Where secular law has escalated sectarian and tribal violence; and where the people now call for justice and there is a growing call for Islam.

As Muslims it is our duty to understand the affairs of our Muslim brothers and sisters and be able to engage in advocating the correct politics for them in their declined state with the absence of Islam. This is a a crucial part of being Muslim. It was in the month of Ramadan that our beloved Prophet SAW became busy enough to fight the Battle of Badr, and in the 13th century that the famous Ain Jaloot battle in Palestine was fought by the Muslim army. Isn't it the month where all good deeds are multiplied, so giving in charity, wanting for your brother what you want for yourself, speaking for the oppressed and accounting tyrant rulers? Ibadah is living by Allah's rules, laws and commands. Be this fasting, praying, or politics.

Ibadah for a Muslim ain't just no feel-good drug. It's our passport to Allah's promised Paradise. Therefore we have to ensure that we use the rest of this month to not only multiply and intensify our ibadah to him - our praying, dua, Qiyam ul Layl through the thickness of the night; but our obligations to this noble Ummah of Rasulullah SAW.

Al Qamar

2008-09-22T15:20:00.000+01:00

I heard you wake when we all sleep

When you change your face for the day to come

Your man-boots, your struggle,

Your journey to keep going.

Oh my sister, my sweet sister, I love you.

It's a male affair

But you've swallowed the pain

And glide through with dignity,

Making the floors that you sweep

Pages of your deeds

Oh my sister, my sweet sister, I love you.

Five innocent hearts await

The echoes of your steps

You hide the bruised knees

From their glances

They know not but I do and of course

Does the Almighty above

Oh my sister, my sweet sister, I love you.

The scent of your perfume

And the tenderness of your hands

return to fill the air

in a house of islam

Oh my sister, my sweet sister, I love you.

But your heart doesn't stop

Your mind doesn't rest

The promise of Allah holds it's unrelenting thread

you give everything, every breath left in that day

To scatter forth the word of Allah

And the hope of the Amir who we know, inshaAllah

is to come

My sister, my sweet sister, I love you.

Winds, seas and miles of land

Hurdle between my smile and yours

But I pray that my Creator

In all of his mercy

One day unlocks me to you

Till then, my sister

Stay strong

Because I pray to Allah

Oh Allah

That blessed Jannah yearns for you

It's just a piece of cloth

2008-09-16T15:09:00.000+01:00

It's just a piece of cloth
Without your headscarf, you'll attract flies. The elusive Egyptian ad campaign has not only stirred up discussion, but interestingly laid another misdemeanor on the whole veil debate. The poster shows two pink lollipops, one wrapped and the other unwrapped and covered in flies. The caption reads, "You can't stop them, but you can protect yourself." Crazy I would say. How can a piece of cotton, chiffon or maybe even luxury authentic pashmina stop men from sexually harassing a woman? Headscarves are not woven with secret weapons or conceal personal rape alarms, but to the surprise I'm sure of everyone, really are just pieces of cloth.
I myself donned my headscarf and jilbab several years ago, not actually because I decided I needed a weapon to protect myself - Moreover I anticipated subjection to torrents of verbal and perhaps physical abuse at the time by donning it, as it was shortly after 9/11 in a very heated political climate.
It is of course true that the hijab is part of the social system of Islam, which seeks to create a society which is harmonious and void of lewdness and promiscuity. However the argument that covered women somehow have acquired an automatic man-repellent, is a well repeated one across the media. And it's high time that such a supposition is broken down, as it is no way as simplistic as this - A lollipop wrapper really can't just solve the acute problem of the continuing exploitation of women.

The Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) recently conducted a survey of hundred of Egyptian and foreign women of all backgrounds. Shockingly, 84.5% of them said they had experienced some form of sexual harassment, with most reporting that they were bothered by men every day. This seems shocking, and many may feel that a Muslim country would have lower levels of sexual harassment due to the Islamic viewpoint towards women. But this is where it is crucial to understand the importance of the implementation of Islam in society over, the practicing of Islam amongst families and within the home. The authors of the Egyptian ad campaign may have attempted to try to solve the harassment problem by urging women to cover up, but have failed to realise that even if women cover up in the society they live in, they will still be subject to harassment and sexual exploitation once they leave the home. This is because whether the women cover up or not, once they walk out their front doors they are subject to the free and secular ideas which are thrown around about women in society.
No Muslim nation today implements the Islamic Shariah and rules by Islam. Therefore all of the Muslim nations have a deadly concoction of many ideas in their societies, with a presumption that Western free and secular values must be withheld upmost to be able to progress. But what people fail to recognise is that it is these very values, coupled with traditional tribal values, which are growingly to blame for such degradation of women in our society.
The Prophet SAW said in a hadith: 'The world and all things in the world are precious but the most precious thing in the world is a virtuous woman'
Women instead of being treasured and protected as is laid out in Islam , are left to be savaged by the ravages of freedom and secular thought. It has allowed men, as well as various industries, to view women in whatever way they please, be it a sexual object and this has became reality in many of the Muslim countries. Ruby, the famous Egyptian singer, is a popular success of the Egyptian music industry and has pushed the path of liberation for women by dressing and singing as provocatively as possible. Such images and messages about women have given the all OK in society allowing people, all the more, to view women through their sexual appeal. It is irrelevant then whether a woman covers or not, as the way in which that woman should be seen in society has already been defined.
Additionally the Muslim societies have taken on board again the many backward, tribal and traditional ideas that exist about women within various cultures - That men have the right to exploit them and dominate them. In modern day Egypt, such ideas have manifested themselves in an extremely low reporting rate of sexual crime. Women, the ECWR further found, felt ashamed and embarrassed about the harassment they underwent and therefore did not want to report it. It's a devastating thought to see women feel so helpless and out on their own in a society, that they couldn't even feel they could report a crime carried out against them. Such subversion of women also existed before the advent of Islam in the time of the Prophet SAW - Women were exploited and routinely gang raped. However when the Islamic Shariah was implemented, it ensured that such practices were abolished - Adultery and fornification have strict punishments, as well as the crime of accusing a chaste woman in Islam. Hence the Islamic Shariah, ensures that the value and protection of the women, the mothers of the Ummah, in society, is paramount.
The Islamic social system are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. They need to all fit together to work to create the harmonious society Islam envisages. And the essence of this harmonious society proposed in Islam, is ensuring that respect and dignity of both sexes in society is absolutely enshrined. Therefore the Islamic social code promotes and restricts whatever is needed to protect this. Women are not to be viewed as sexual commodities in society, through billboards, music or TV ads; and it is obligatory in Islam for both men and women to dress in a particular manner and lower their gaze so as to not even begin the process of the wolf whistles. The Prophet SAW maintained a general segregation of men and women in the society he governed, except for specific situations and needs. What all this did, was create a society where sex and the agitation for sex, was taken out of society. This is to guarantee, as much as possible that people are not urged to view each other sexually as and when they please, rather sex is something for stable marital relationships. But all this in itself means nothing, unless the actual society and state ensures that the mentality of chastity, respect towards the opposite sex and accountability to God is present in each and every individual.
Islam does in no way promote the idea that women are responsible for any sexual harassment they undergo, rather Islam promotes the idea that women are to be valued and respected, and not viewed as sexual commodities. The headscarf cannot therefore in itself fight it's own battle, it is merely part of a wider system which Muslims believe has been divinely constructed to attempt to deal with many of the social problems humankind has faced for time.

Bangladeshi Universities and their power for prem

2008-09-15T23:44:00.000+01:00

I always remember cuddling next to my mum, engulfed in big fleecy deshi blankets, and joining the family glued to the latest natak (drama) that had been shipped over from relatives in Bangladesh. For anyone who has never watched a Bangladeshi serial drama - the real authentic ones, not the ones where heros and heroines now dance around trees, will know that they do depict a life which is considerably true to the life of people in Bangladesh. I cannot now recall names and storylines very exactly from those sleepy days, but one thing I do remember was almost every one had some sort of cushy romance between a young female student and her teacher, or tutor.

Last month the Bangladeshi Mahila Parishad organised a meeting to propose a policy to tackle the growing sexual harassment happening in universities and colleges in Bangladesh, by the teaching staff on female students. A policy to curb it.

“Our movement is not against a particular teacher or teacher community, rather it is the movement against the ailing culture that might engulf the whole society if not resisted,” said BMP President Ayesha Khanam.

What strikes me, strong and hard(!), is how a policy to attempt to restrict such behaviour by teachers and lecturers will really work. I mean cmon its Bangladesh! Since when did the rule of law mean anything to anyone? No one's saying it's not implemented, but it's fact that everyone and anyone from the very elite to the very middle classs to the poor, just to get by, have to evade the rule of law, participate in bribery and ghoosh just to live their daily lives. This isn't exactly a culture and society where the rule of law and policy has really helped to alleviate problems.

More than anything, President Ayesha Khanam said it herself- 'an ailing culture that might engulf the whole of society'. It's a culture not a legislative problem. Legislation can help deal with perpetrators and depict the states' viewpoint on the issue, but society and culture in Bangladesh is saying a totally different thing. On the suburban streets of Dhaka, women who are progressed and a touch above from the commonfolk are seen as those who have taken on the model of the free, liberated, sexually alluring as seen in the West.. and of course Bollywood. It is the sexual aspect and femininity of the women which has had to be exposed, revealed for her to be seen as progressive and appealing in society. Weeks before even the advent of Ramadan tailors across Dhaka were fully booked all preparing people's jaw-dropping Eid outfits, beauty parlours have mushroomed across the city in which every type of beauty treatment is not only offered, but is the norm for many young women. Therefore the viewpoint towards women being sexual commodities is being normalised, allowing everyone, including men, companies, to also view her in this way. It is then no wonder that such a view of women in society has given rise to sexual crimes against her - If society, media and advertising is telling us to view women in this way, why shouldn't I, the common man may consciously or unconsciously feel.

Therefore new policy, women rights groups and all the rest may try to bring their share of solutions to this growing problem, but they are building sandcastles to close too the shore. Current thoughts in society about women, trickled over from the West, will eventually wear and wash them away. President Ayesha Khanam is right. We should fear an ailing culture, but instead of trying to patch it up and work with it, we need to uproot secular, free values to replace it with a society which will truly value and protect the viewpoint towards women.

The quagmire of women's rights

2008-09-15T20:50:00.000+01:00

Saudi Arabia and women. Put the two words together and either shake your head in pity or the more common reaction - make a face in disgust. Whilst Muslim women, like myself, living in the West are banging on about how an Islamic society can protect and elevate the status of women, the reality of the female position in a so-called Islamic place like Saudi Arabia raises an uncomfortable eyebrow.

The Human Rights Watch report released recently reviewing the position of Saudi women, unleashed scores of energised media and journalistic discussion. Some articulating their inevitable deep criticism; and others relaying their personal experiences of being female in Saudi Arabia - the alarming sexual harassment which takes place in a country which is supposed to be brushing sex under the carpet. Secret but fatalistic meetings between strangers, just to find a marriage partner is the shocking reality of Saudi Arabian society; and with a Saudi Prince having married his 100th wife, not so long ago - the value and rights of women, in this pseudo-Islamic society really isn't looking too good.

However the debate conjured around this report has very much been an 'either or' one, that if you reject Saudi Arabian female oppression, the natural antithesis we should call for is equality and total liberalism, as practised in secular states. But it is this mapping of the debate I find difficult to agree with.

I agree that being a woman and living in the shade of Riyadh would not be an experience I would find elevating; however I'd also say the reality of being a woman living in a secular, liberal state also brings it problems. Saudi Arabian society has denied women of basic rights, but Western liberal states, in their call for freedom of thought, expression, sexuality has meant that even though women can work, vote and have no restriction in what they wear or where they go; there is also absolute freedom when it comes to exploiting them and their sexuality. Although many may argue that they don't feel exploited; the reality is that the price of liberalism means utter freedom both ways – Freedom for the media, multi-national companies and men to view women in whatever capacity they see fit or makes money. And the more dangerous result being the effects of ‘freedom’ in a rapist or sexual harasser. The law may disallow and punish them afterwards, but the thoughts and mentality have already allowed to have been created - the law for many of these people are just an after thought.

Typical(!) Many I am sure are thinking - The typical Muslim lashing out on our freedoms. But it's time we admit that women have not only been exploited by distorted Islamic and cultural traditions, but also by the effects of liberalism. It's time we redefine the debate to begin thinking about real rights and value for women - not settle for whatever's half working in the world today. It will be this discussion which will help much of the world understand why scores of women are turning to Islam today.

Saudi Arabia claims to rule by Islamic law, but has little evidence of this and instead has grossly misapplied certain Islamic laws to buffet their sense of supremacy. It is rather another despotic, tyrannical regime where accountability is a far-off daydream and dodgy deals of oil and aircraft are primary concerns. If you believe Saudi Arabia implements Islamic law and values, then you must have seen a pig fly.

As a Muslim woman, this makes me more determined to sell the case for Islam. Islam, implemented correctly, was a complete mode of governance which in the past enabled women to exercise their rights - whether it be to vote, to work, to engage in politics or just be an active member of society. These rights could not be usurped for the benefit of any Government, leader or Minister - rather they are enshrined by the texts of Islam. Unlike Saudi Arabian society, women were protected from sexual harassment and abuse through the Islamic social system of segregation of sexes, and the hijab but these were not used as a method to exploit their position and oppress them. Rather it liberated them to be able to actively participate in society and be valued for their contributions, over the way they looked. This supported the mentality of chastity generated in society, due to an overwhelming consciousness of God and accountability to God.

Unlike liberalism, Islam recognises the need for the running of a harmonious society and instead of leaving women to fight their own gender rat races; it ensures that women are protected and valued - sexually, financially and in whatever roles they take on in society.

And before you start having flash images of the ‘them vs us’ minded Muslim ninjas charged in forcibly implementing their Shariah law on British soil – Just take a breath. Unfortunately continued sensationalist media coverage of Islam and Muslims has disabled the will for Muslims to have open and respectful debate about values, without making us sound like we hate everything and everyone Western and just want to violently take over the world.

Saudi Arabia is truly a quagmire for women's rights, however lets' not hide behind the facade that everything to the West of it, is female utopia. It’s time we really open up the discussion and begin talking about achieving real uncompromised women’s rights.

The Hidden Bruised faces

2008-09-15T12:20:00.000+01:00

The tragedies and tears which knife crime have brought to the forefront of the British landscape, have become cause of conversation for everyone - The epidemic that seems to be sweeping the country has been pitched in the media as a problem which all of us are potentially vulnerable to. And rightly so, of course, being callously stabbed alive, repeatedly, in broad daylight, in a public area for no reason at all, is a reality which would send chills down the spine of anyone. And for such a threat to exist in the very society you live in, is enough to cause a very relevant debate.

However Joan Smith in the Independent, very interestingly pointed out that although our brimming concern for knife crime out of the many violent crimes which affect people in our society today is very relevant and expected, there is another violent crime which affects scores of people across the country, and doesn't just mainly occur in inner-city hotspots like knife crime. The swollen bruised face of a woman who has been the victim of domestic violence does not make it onto front pages of all the main newspapers even though there are 12.9 million victims of domestic violence a year, whereas from 2007-8 there have been 130,000 recorded incidents involving knives. It isn't as exciting, if one can grotesquely label it as that, as this new knife crime epidemic on the tip of everyone's tongue. It's age-old, but who can deny, still rampantly exists.

Domestic violence accounts for about 16% of all UK violent crime. It is however chronically underreported, so it is likely that many homes up and down the UK harbour couples for whom inflicted bruises and injuries are commonplace. Victims can be both men and women, however statistics show that 77% of victims are women, and upto 2 women every week are killed by a current or former male partner.

The fact that domestic violence is a crime which has been around, and seems to have always been around, has inevitably meant that there have already been many measures pursued to try and deal with it. The Home Office launched a Domestic Violence National Plan, which has national targets it sets of to achieve; Local Government have departments and teams working in their local Boroughs, tackling domestic violence through cross-cutting approaches. The Crime Reduction department of the Home Office boasts of many initiatives and from 1997 these include pregnant women as well as children in education being routinely assessed for domestic violence; every police force having a domestic violence coordinator and the much documented recent Sanctuary scheme which was essentially an accommodation scheme supporting victims to remain in their own homes with surveillence.

Tackling domestic violence from the Government, as well as such measures which tackle the violence as and after it happens, also includes preventative measures. An example of this is a Crime Reduction Programme funded project which was about awareness raising for young people to shift attitudes about violence in schools. These initiatives are particularly targetted in areas where figures of violence are high. However how far have all these initiatives, actually helped to tackle domestic violence across society? Yes helping women live their lives with these perpetrating men whom they may not want to leave, providing support, bettering policing to be able to arrest perpetrators all has its merit and is needed, but will do nothing to eradicate the crime from society as a whole in the first place. The preventative measures such as education and awareness raising may touch individuals, but cannot reach the entire population and more than anything is confusing as outside in society, the opposite message about women exists.

If we are to really eradicate a violent crime mainly inflicted on women - from someone who maybe a wife of 15 years, to a one night stand from a nightclub, we need to get to the root of what it is which makes any man think and feel he has the legitimacy to physically beat a woman. And we need to solve this problem for everyone - not just the hotspots where figures are high so funding for awareness programmes are allocated - but we need to understand in society why this problem so rampantly exists. We should be looking at how we uproot domestic violence from its root instead of tackling it through a multitude of initiatives bit by bit - like a plant pulled out not just by it's pretty flowers or dainty leaves, but by it's thick and life-sustaining roots.

After observation, we can see that we live in a society where the personal freedoms, the freedom to think and practice what you like, is the cornerstone. Although packaged as the being the essence of a society that is most progressive, analysis will highlight that in fact it is the idea of freedoms in society have in fact meant that men and multinational companies have been free to exploit women in the way which most benefits them. Multinational companies have sold everything from cosmetics to advertising the British Motor Show by utilising women as sexual commodities - Flawless women with unrealistic body sizes and proportions are plastered across billboards, magazines, and television advertisements, giving a message across society that it is okay to view women in this way. It is no wonder then, that men subject to these images also take on this message - That viewing women in this way is normal and justified.

The argument can easily be made that women exposing their femininity and sexuality does not at all mean they are 'asking' to be beaten up - The classic rebuke. Of course not. No human being can be called responsible for another one's actions which inflict and oppress him. However as a society we need to be more intelligent and objective about the reasons as to why such endemic problems are increasingly existing. And it is without a doubt that if society around you is giving you the message that it is justified and normal to exploit the opposite sex in this way, this will inevitably have an impact on the viewpoint of certain people, and maybe the thinking which leads to such behaviour.

Additionally the idea of personal freedom gives the individual in society the sense that pleasing oneself and being subject to one's desires is the upmost concern - For some this may mean leading what would be constituted as a normal life, maybe getting married, and pleasing one's partner and enjoying their company but for some being subject to one's whims and desires may mean controlling your partner, chastising them emotionally and physically. Different people will inevitably exercise their freedoms according to their own desires and this is the crux of the problem.

The debate needs to therefore be about what type of society would create a community where such violence and exploitation would be minimised. A society that would be ruled by the rules and laws of Islam would implement the social system of Islam which aims to preserve the chastity of men and women in society and ensure harmony for the family unit. This means that anything that exploits the sexuality and femininity of a woman is forbidden and instead women are viewed as jewels to be honoured and protected. Good treatment of women is spoken about by the Prophet SAW on many an occasion. He (Sallallaho alaihi wasallam) has said:

O people, your wives have a certain right over you and you have certain rights over them. Treat them well and be kind to them for they are your partners and committed helpers. (Tirmidhi)

and He SAW said as narrated by Abu Huraira (radhialiaho anho),

"The believers who show the most perfect faith are those who have the best disposition and the best of you are those who are best to their wives " (Tirmidhi).

He SAW also likened women to a bent rib, that if it is straightened too readily can cause it to break. This very aptly illustrates the need for sensitivity when dealing with women.

Allah SWT speaks in his words in the Noble Quran about the nature of a husband - wife relationship, that they are 'a garment for you and you are a garment for them' (TMQ 2:187). The image of garments for one another beautifully exemplifies the type of relationship Islam advocates in a couple - of covering and protecting one another from any type of harm. Additionally the Islamic society is based upon the idea of fear and accountability to a Creator which would curb the behaviour of treating others in whatever way you wish behind closed doors.

However many may argue that domestic violence is rampant in the Muslim community is Islam therefore not the problem? This is however very much the opposite case. Firstly although Muslim families may practice private aspects of Islam, they are still subject to the wider society we live under and therefore also suffer the consequences of personal freedoms. But in addition to this, much of the Muslim community also carry many backward traditional ideas from Eastern culture which view women as subordinate to men and as a result causes them to treat women badly. Islam came 1400 years ago to eradicate these practices and ideas and was able to through the implementation of the Islamic State. It has been the absence of Islam on a societal level which has allowed such poisonous ideas to return to the minds and community of the Muslims.

No way is the Islamic Khilafah an utopia where domestic violence is guaranteed to not exist, as human beings are all subject to flaws and to succumb to shortcomings. However the discussion which is pressing for us today, is whether the value of personal freedoms as a basis for society is exacerbating the social problems such as the rampant domestic violence that we see today. Until we begin this discussion, I feel sad to say that I fear the bruised faces and battered knees of women will become all the more common and an issue of normality.

Ramadan Lazing

2008-09-15T00:26:00.000+01:00

It's Ramadan and we enter the month with such hype - Texts greeting each other with the mercies of this month flooding mobile cyberspace and an excitement as our spiritual senses are heightened after a whole year has passed. But like many things in life, it's easy to hype up a moment in excitement, but much harder to sustain that enthusiasm consistently. It's 30 days, 30 nights. That's over 600 hours. I'd love to discover a magic solution as to how we can remain committed and dedicated for those 600 hours (and more of course, I just can't be bothered to fork out my calculator). But then that's impossible right? We're insaan and can't keep going like the angels who know of nothing else than to worship Allah. But then, why not aim high?! Argh. More than this being an interesting first blog, it has been the process for me to feel energised again, energised to keep on going and strive for the highest rank on that all important Last Day. May you SWT keep us on the correct path. Ameen.