Linguistic Definition: That act which brings you closer to another object.

O you who have believed, fear Allah and seek the means [of nearness] to Him and strive in His cause that you may succeed. (Surah al-Maidah 5:35)

People often use the verse above to justify using a wali/imam/shaykh/righteous person to get closer to Allah.

Contrary to that, Ibn Jareer said in his Tafseer (interpretation) of the above verse: “And to seek to draw nearer to Him by doing good actions and by pleasing Him.”

He didn’t say that we have to seek saints to get closer to Allah now did he?

Two Conditions of a Valid Tawassul

1.   Must be prescribed by the Quran and the Sunna (the teachings of Prophet Muhammad PBUH).

2.   Must use the correct means.

Types of Tawassul

There are ONLY 4 types of Tawassul sanctioned in the Quran and the Sunna:

1.   With the specific Names and Attributes of Allah.

And to Allah belong the best names, so invoke Him by them. And leave [the company of] those who practice deviation concerning His names. They will be recompensed for what they have been doing. (Surah al-A’raf 7:180)

As we already know, Allah has 99 beautiful Names and Attributes. So, invoke/supplicate/make Du’a to Allah using those perfect Names and Attributes. For example, when you want forgiveness, invoke Allah by his Attribute “al-Ghaffur” which means “the All-Forgiving”.

2.   With one’s state, past and present.

And [mention] Zechariah, when he called to his Lord, “My Lord, do not leave me alone [with no heir], while you are the best of inheritors.” (Surah al-Anbiya 21:89)

This is the Du’a made by Prophet Zechariah. He couldn’t bear children. Since he became the guardian of Mary (the mother of Prophet Jesus), his desire to have a child became so intense that he made that Du’a, stating his pitiful state. Subhanallah, Allah gave him a child.

Another example which might be easily visualized is how a beggar uses his pitiful state to ask people to help him. In that same way, you would mention your pitiful state to ask Allah for forgiveness.

3.   With one’s good deeds.

Those who say, “Our Lord, indeed we have believed, so forgive our sins and protect us from the punishment of the Fire,” (Surah ali-Imran 3:16)

In a long Hadeeth reported by Imam Bukhari,

Narrated Abdullah Ibn Omar (may Allah be pleased with him): ‘I heard Allah’s Messenger (SAWS) saying: “Three men from among those who were before you, set out together until they reached a cave at night and they entered it. A big rock rolled down the mountain and closed the mouth of the cave. They said (to each other): ‘Nothing can save us from this rock but to invoke Allah by mentioning the righteous deeds that we have done (for Allah’s sake only).” So, one of them said: ‘O Allah! I had old parents (whom I used to provide with milk) and I never provided my family (wife, children, etc.) with milk before them. One day, by chance I was delayed, and I arrived late (at night) after they had slept. I milked the sheep for them and then took the milk to them, but I found them sleeping. I did not like to offer my family the milk before them, so I waited for them and the bowl of milk was in my hand and I kept on waiting for them to get up until dawn. Then they got up and drank the milk. O Allah! If I did that for Your sake only, I invoke You to relieve us from our critical situation that has been caused by this rock.’ So, the rock moved a little, but they could not get out. The Prophet (SAWS) added: “The second man said: ‘O Allah! I had a cousin who was the dearest of all people to me and I wanted to have sexual intercourse with her, but she refused. Later she came across hard times during a year of famine and she came to me, and I gave her one hundred and twenty dinars on the condition that she would not resist my desires, and she agreed. When I was about to fulfill my desires, she said: “It is illegal for you to violate my chastity except through legitimate marriage.” So, I realized it was a sin to have sexual intercourse with her and left her, though she was the dearest of all people to me. I also left the gold I had given her. O Allah! If I did that for Your sake only, please relieve us from the present calamity.’ So, the rock moved a little more, but still they could not get out from the cave. The Prophet (SAWS) added: “Then the third man said: ‘O Allah! I employed few laborers and I paid them all of them their wages, with the exception of one man who did not take his wages and went away. I invested his wages and I gained much profit from this. (Then after some time) he came and said to me: “O Allah’s servant! Pay me my wages.” I said to him: “All the camels, cows, sheep, and slaves that you see here, are yours.” He said: “O Allah’s slave! Don’t mock me.” I said: “I am not mocking you.” So, he took the herd and drove them away and left nothing. O Allah! If I did that for Your sake only, please relieve us from the present suffering.’ So, the rock moved completely and they walked out. (Sahih Bukhari)

Similarly we can invoke Allah by mentioning our good deeds that we have done SINCERELY for the sake of Allah. For example, “O Allah, I believed in you and gave so much in charity, so please give it to me.”

4.   With the Du’a of a living person.

Anas r.a. said that whenever drought threatened them, Umar bin al-Khattaab r.a. used to ask al-Abbas bin Abdil Muttalib to invoke Allah for rain. He used to say, “O Allah! We used to ask our Prophet PBUH to invoke You for rain, and You would bless us with rain, and now we ask his uncle to invoke You for rain. O Allah! Bless us with rain.” (Sahih Bukhari No. 123)

So, it rained.

In another Hadeeth,

Usair b. Jabir reported that a delegation from Kufa came to ‘Umar and there was a person amongst them who jeered at Uwais. Thereupon Umar said: Is there amongst us one from Qaran? That person came and Umar said: Verily Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) has said: There would come to you a person from Yemen who would be called Uwais and he would leave none in Yemen (behind him) except his mother, and he would have the whiteness (due to leprosy) and he supplicated Allah and it was cured except for the size of a dinar or dirham. He who amongst you meets him should ask him to supplicate for forgiveness (from Allah) for you. (Sahih Muslim)

When Does It Becomes Shirk?

All OTHER types of Tawassul are either Bid’ah (innovations) or Shirk. To ask by the status of Prophet Muhammad PBUH is a Bid’ah, but not Shirk because it is ultimately from Allah.

Disclaimer

This note was taken from the course Lord of the Worlds, organized by AlKauthar Institute of Toronto. The course was taught by the founder of AlKauthar, Shaykh Tawfique Chowdhury. This note is in no way a substitute for this course for it is a different experience entirely. I would highly recommend that you attend this course, Insha Allah you can benefit more from it. If you wish to take anything from this note and include it in your own article, please provide a link to AlKauthar Institute so that people will know the source of the information. Allahua’lam.

Meaning: Asking an intermediary to press or support one’s request to another. The keyword here is “intermediary”. Shafa’ah is also known as intercession.

Types: Worldly and Spiritual

Worldly Shafa’ah

1.   It is allowed as long as you’re interceding in that which is good.

2.   For example, you ask a friend of yours to recommend you to your friend’s boss because you’re applying for a job there. Here, you are using your friend as an intermediary.

Whoever intercedes in good, he is rewarded for it. Whoever intercedes with a harmful intercession, he will bear its burden. Indeed Allah is able to do anything. (Surah an-Nisa’ 4:85)

Spiritual Shafa’ah

The Rule and the Two Conditions of a Valid Spiritual Shafa’ah

The Quran states that ALL Shafa’ah belongs to Allah.

Say, “To Allah belongs [the right to allow] intercession entirely. To Him belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. Then to Him you will be returned.” (Surah az-Zumar 39:44)

Rule: Shafa’ah must be asked from Him and not from the one who will do the intercession.

Plus, no Shafa’ah shall be accepted by Allah until two conditions are met:

First Condition: Allah must grant the intercessor permission to intercede.

Allah – there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer of [all] existence. Neither drowsiness overtakes Him nor sleep. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who is it that can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them, and they encompass not a thing of His knowledge except for what He wills. His Kursi extends over the heavens and the earth, and their preservation tires Him not. And He is the Most High, the Most Great.  (Surah al-Baqarah 2:255)

Also, refer to 34:23, 20:109, and 43:86.

Imagine a King – a very powerful King – who has all the power imaginable. The whole world under his feet. And you are at his presence. Do you dare to speak in front of him without his permission?

Second Condition: Allah must be pleased with the person whom the intercessor is interceding for.

They cannot precede Him in word, and they act by His command. (Surah an-Anbiya’ 21:27)

A Shaheed (martyr) can intercede on the Day of Judgment. However, he/she can’t intercede for whomsoever he/she wills. That person whom the martyr is interceding for must be pleased by Allah.

Wisdom of Spiritual Shafa’ah

1.   It is a means of honouring some people. Imagine having the permission to speak when no one else can speak in front of your Creator. Indeed, it is an honour.

2.   It is also a means of showing mercy to others. By Allah allowing certain people to intercede for you, it is one of many ways that Allah is Merciful to you.

Types of Spiritual Shafa’ah

First Type: General for all creation (with respect to the two conditions mentioned before).

Examples:

1.   Raises the rank in Jannah (Paradise) to be with the loved ones.

• Jannah has many levels/ranks. Let’s say that you are in Jannah and your wife is at a level above you. She can ask Allah to bring you up to her level so that the two of you will be together.
• If you marry another man/woman after your wife/husband passed away, you will be with the last person you’re married to. That’s why ‘Aisyah was prevented to marry another man.
  
• Lesson: Marry righteous people!

2.   Saved from the Fire of Hell.

• For example, your stillborn child (born from the womb after 120 days until before 40 days of Nifas) whom you have made ‘Aqiqah will tie his/her umbilical cord around you on the Day of Judgment and pull you to Jannah, disallowing the Angel to take you to Hell.
• Lesson: Do not grieve over your stillborn child ^_^

3.   Removed from Hellfire before completing one’s time.

• The people in the Hellfire will ask the people in Jannah to ask Allah to forgive them.
• For example, one who is in Jannah would probably say, “O Allah! My friend so-and-so often went with me to the Masjid, helped me in times of need, attended Usrah,…, please forgive him.”

Second Type: Specific to Prophet Muhammad PBUH

Examples:

1.   Intercession to start the Reckoning on the Day of Judgment.

• The Day of Judgment will be long for some people. They can stand waiting for 50,000 years before the Reckoning starts!
• The Prophet PBUH will make Sajda to ask Allah to start the Day of Judgment. This is what we ask Allah for in the Du’a after the Azan which is the Maqam-e Mahmood.

2.   Intercession for his entire Ummah.

• “Allah gave all of the Prophets at least one Du’a [each] which He has answered [in the world], except for me: I have preserved my Du’a and will use it on the Day of Judgment for Allah to enter my Ummah into Jannah [by forgiving them].” (Sahih Muslim)
• 120 rows will enter Jannah, the first 80 will be Prophet Muhammad’s Ummah.
• Lesson: Indeed, we should love this man more than our parents.

3.   Intercession for his uncle.

4.   Intercession to open the gates of Paradise.

5.   Intercession for those who made Du’a to Allah for him.

6.   Intercession for the major sinners who are still praying and upon Tawheed.

When Does It Becomes Shirk?

1.   Asking a living person to make Du’a for you is permissible.

• Provided that you know that only Allah answers your Du’a.
  
• It’s not recommended to this often. You might be too dependent on others’ Du’a and think that your Du’a isn’t going to be answered because you’re not good enough or for some other reasons.

2.   Asking a dead person at his/her grave (at a distance where normally a living person can hear you).

• Could be Shirk if you believe that the person in the grave has the right/obligation that Allah will give him/her intercession.
• Could be Bid’ah if you believe that the dead can hear you in a way that he/she can hear you if he/she is alive.

3.   Asking a dead person far away from his grave (at a distance where it is impossible for a living person to hear you).

• For example, calling out to a grave in Canada from Malaysia.
• This is Shirk because you are giving the attribute of being All-Hearing to the dead.

Disclaimer

This note was taken from the course Lord of the Worlds, organized by AlKauthar Institute of Toronto. The course was taught by the founder of AlKauthar, Shaykh Tawfique Chowdhury. This note is in no way a substitute for this course for it is a different experience entirely. I would highly recommend that you attend this course, Insha Allah you can benefit more from it. If you wish to take anything from this note and include it in your own article, please provide a link to AlKauthar Institute so that people will know the source of the information. Allahua’lam.

Anas Ibn Malik  says: “I have never seen a man who was more compassionate to his family members than Muhammad” (Muslim)

Usrah agenda:-

1- Tasmi’: Qur’an recitation
2- Tazkirah: Topic TBA
3- A brief summary of Educating Your Child in Modern Times by Shaikh Hamza Yusuf and John Taylor Gatto.
4- Home school anyone? – some thoughts on school system.
5- Are our mosques children-friendly?
6-  Who respect who? – the wisdom of Ali r.a.
7- Haram? – positive psychology
8- Rotan?!?!?!  Prophetic relation with children.

Note: full note will be posted after Usrah

‘Islamists’ or Muslims?

• Islamist: a new consciousness and new agencies involving a desire to reshape the modern world according to Islamic principles. (Activist)
• Muslim: a more passive historical and cultural stance on the part of the religion and its believers.

“Conservative democrats” or “Muslim democrats”?

The term ‘conservative democracy’ then points at two parallel processes: a new Muslim self on the one hand that does not put an ‘and’ to demarcate between Islam and democracy and who is open to the possibility of a mutual borrowing. In this case, this term involves a renunciation of an earlier Islamist claim that Islam was totally distinct from Western frames of reference. The prefix ‘conservative’ on the other hand testifies to Muslim actors’ long lasting desire to blend democracy with conservative values such as emphasis on the family or the prohibition of pornography.

(Kenan Cayir)

Erdogan: Background

• Brought up in a observant Muslim family, he graduated from a religious high school (Imam Hatip school) and then studied Business Admin at Aksaray School of Economics and Commercial Sciences (now it is known as Marmara University’s Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences).
• Mayor of Istanbul 1994-1998.
• In 1998, he was given a prison sentence after he had read poetry regarded as a violation of Kemalism by judges.It included lines translated as “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers…“
• In 2001, he established the moderate Justice and Development Party( AKP/JDP) with former Fazilet Partisi and Anavatan Partisi members, and became Prime Minister of Turkey in 2003
• Before he established AKP, polls showed that we will garner at least 30% support from the people. He has the aura!

AKP: The Model

• Erdogan’s statement, “My reference is Islam“
• It started to redefine and reframe their religious demands and ideals in terms of a universal vocabulary on human rights and liberties.
• This Islamic sensitivity of the JDP leadership may be called a soft version  of “islamism without Islamists.“
• Ali Bulac argues that JDP’s new discourse on “democratic Islam” is an agreement among the urban poor, agricultural sectors, and Anatolian entrepreneurs and this is a “new version of Islamism” that has continued since the Young Ottomans. He also claims the underlying factors behind the AKP’s success is the unvoiced and unspoken existence of Islamism.
• Islamic state, but state of Muslims, implying that this new state is secular but responsive to the Muslims’ demands.

Islamic civilization & the west: Harmonization or antagonism?

We are to prove that a Muslim society is capable of changing and re-inovating itself, attaining contemporary standards while preserving its values, traditions, and identity. We acted on the premise that the highest contemporary standards of democracy-fundamental freedoms, gender equality, free markets, civil society, transparency, good governance, rule of law, and rational use of resources- are universal expectations. It is our belief that out people and other Muslim nations fully deserve to have these expectations met. Our sicieties can only benefit from the realization of these standards. And indeed, our societies have the necesssary historical background and moral and spiritual strength to adapt themselves to modernity when guided with successful and determined leadership

(Abdullah Gul 2003)

Islamization: Diversity in expression is key.

Five main groups:

1) Political organization, the political parties of NOM

2) Religious orders and communities like several branches of Nakshibendi order and of Nurcu Movement

3) Intellectuals like Sezai Karakoc, Ismet Ozel, Ali Bulac

4) Business associations (Musiad), trade unions, (Hak-Is), and human rights association (Mazlum-Der)

5) Independent small organizations around some journals, foundations, and associations

Full Usrah agenda:-

1- Tazkirah: Youth’s role in reappraisal of Islam.
2- Culture of excellency: Where art thou?
3- Agenda to change our condition: A brief summary of Shaikh Hamza Yusuf’s book.
4- Islamization: Diversity in expression is key.
5- Are we ‘Islamists’ or Muslims?
6- Islamic civilization & the west: Harmonization or antagonism?
7- Are there any shared values between “us” and “them”?
8- Kemalism and Erdoganism: Bridging secularism, Islamism, and democracy.
9- The Erbakan vs Erdogan trend (’traditionalist’  vs ‘reformist’)
10- “Conservative democrats” or “Muslim democrats”?
11- Pragmatic strategist: Al-Ghazali or Ibn Taimiyya’s approach?

For further readings:-

1) A brief summary of Agenda to Change Our Condition.

2) A case of traditionalist-reformist split

3) We are all Erdogans, really?

“O Allah, I seek refuge in you from grief and anxiety, impotence and indolence, cowardice and miserliness, and from being overcome by debt and overpowered by men”2

Our Glorious Past
Dr. Umar Faruq Abdallah stressed the importance for us to put some wind into our sail of ‘memory ship’, so that we have role models from our glorious past, which we can derive our inspirations from. I believe we should study figures in our tradition, especially those who are closest to us in terms of personality, expert field, background, etc. Our role models should be people who are proven to be “serious about their lives” and rightly-guided – we have a lot of people who are like that in our glorious past and some in the present. Having said that, we should not get all hung up with our past, and blame our current condition entirely to ‘others’ fault and get ourselves engross with multiple conspiracy theories that will give us no benefits.

Hamza Yusuf spoke in his lecture, Reviving The Spirit of Andalusia:-
“Our challenge as Muslims is to determine how best we can revive the ability for Islam to work with the great challenges of our time, the great transformations of our time, using the past as our compass. We must recognize that we are in the present, on a journey into the future, and the past is our North Star. We must see the principles of the past and derive strength from our past, but we must also able to reconcile with the fact that we are modern people”

Inner Transformation
Syaikh Hamza Yusuf starts his book, Agenda to Change Our Condition with the topic Taqwa, which highlights his stress on inner transformation – through spiritual struggle with the soul – as a requisite to transform our ailing condition.

There are five stations of taqwa according to Imam Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbi:
- guarding against disbelief – this is the station of submission;
- guarding against forbidden things – this is the station of repentance;
- guarding against doubtful matters – this is the station of scrupulousness;
- guarding against extraneous matters – this is the station of freedom (zuhd);
- guarding against other than Allah occupying the heart – this is the station of vigilance.3

Regarding the theory of five stations propounded by Ibn Juzayy, he said that our community is suffering because the vast majority of us are only at the first or second station, and the benefits of taqwa will spread in our communities only if a critical mass of Muslims commits to moving to the third and fourth stations. In other words, we need to be serious about attaining scrupulousness and zuhd – as was the case for the prophetic and pious predecessors’ communities – if the beauty of Islam is to be truly embodied by the ummah again. Zuhd4 is not a complete avoidance of the world. It is when you have dunya in you hand, but not in your heart. So are we up to the task in elevating our stations at the very least to the third station – and beyond?

“Had only the people of the cities believed and had taqwa, We would have opened up for them blessings from the heavens and the earth” (Qur’an 7:96).

Outer Transformation
Outer transformation is about the struggle with the derogatory aspects of the society, which means upholding social justice and promoting a culture that embodies moral behavior. The inner transformation and the outer transformation should come hand-in-hand – we must change ourselves first before we seek to change the world. If we ourselves are corrupted, then we don’t have the moral authority to change others. Syaikh Hamza Yusuf stresses the need for civic involvement in our behalf as part of our effort to improve the world that we live in. I would like to quote an excerpt of Agenda To Change Our Condition that addresses the issue of cooperation because I think it is relevant to most of us – especially me, maybe, in my disarray:-

“This religion is based on recognizing the abilities of the believers that constitute the ummah and facilitating the use of their respective gifts. We need to understand that if one person focuses upon an area of concern, he or she is complementing our own work and not detracting from it by not joining us. We should not see other Muslims, either individuals or organized groups, as competitors or antagonists. Rather, we should see them as brothers and sisters and either work with them or work separately with amicable relations, the least of which is giving them the greeting of peace with a smile.

Islamic work through diverse organizations should never be the basis for negating the bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood established between us by Islam. When that happens, we are no longer doing Islamic work but are engaged in politics. We should speak well of other organizations or be silent about them. Once we recognize that most of them are engaged in different aspect of the same struggle, we come to respect their efforts. If some appear to be misguided, then we should offer counsel and pray for them. If they have deviant positions or beliefs, then we should request that qualified scholars clarify with clear proofs what those deviations are.

We ought to keep in mind that Mosses a.s. was commanded to go to Pharaoh and speak to him a gentle word (Qur’an 20:44). Remembering that we are not more righteous than Mosses a.s. and that our brother is certainly not father astray than Pharaoh, we can approach the matter with gentle humility and a genuine desire for the well-being and guidance of all.

In addition, we should avoid labeling other people or groups as Salafi, Sufi, or Wahhabi, for example, as these engender animosity. Name-calling is condemned in the Qur’an, if the intention is contempt. If the intention is to elucidate a position, then we must examine our intention and also our level of understanding.” 5

I would like to note that my reference for this article is mainly Agenda To Change Our Condition by Syaikh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir. If the reader finds ideas in this article as interesting then pray read that book as it covers these topics in-depth.

Let’s change our condition!

Footnotes:-
1. Ibn Juzayy, al-Tahsil (Beirut: Dar al-Arqam, n.d.) I:69.
2. Sahih al-Bukhari [7:158]
3. Hamza Yusuf and Zaid Shakir, Agenda to Change Our Condition (Zaytuna Institute 2007) pg 2
4. A decent page that explains Zuhd: http://www.sunnahonline.com/ilm/purification/0067.htm 5. Hamza Yusuf and Zaid Shakir, Agenda to Change Our Condition (Zaytuna Institute 2007) pg 18-19.

…and He has enumerated everything in numbers.

QUR’AN (Al-Jinn 72:28)

I was reading Lost History in the subway: When I read this verse, I was awestruck… “Why haven’t I heard of this verse before?” I wondered, what is the context of the verse? What precedes this fragmented verse? Is He talking about the universe?

He alone knows the Unseen, nor does He make any one acquainted with His Mysteries. Except a messenger whom He has chosen: and then He makes a band of watchers march before him and behind him. So that He may know that they have truly delivered the messages of their Lord, and He encompasses what is with them and He records the number of all things. (Al-Jinn 72: 26-28)

An excerpt from Micharl Hamilton Morgan’s Lost History (Pp 82-90):

A pivotal force in creating these numbers and formulas is a Persian man born in about 780 in the faraway town of Khiva, Khorasan province, known as Khwarizm to the Arabs, in Central Asia. He is named Mohammad al-Khwarizmi, literally Mohammad of Khwarizm.

In the eighth century, his birthplace is deep in the steppe, a way station on the Silk Road that stretches at one end from China, at the other end from Rome. Though the two ends of this spectrum have never had a direct contact, over the centuries there is a fairly regular exchange between two worlds. All this passes through Khorasan; at times the exchange is no more than a breeze, a foreign and exotic lost butterfly hanging in the air for a few seconds, then swept away.

This dark-haired main, with piercing brown eyes set into deep sockets and cheeks creased by leanness and weather, is a magician in other ways as well. Steeped in the tradition of faith and of magic, he yearns to find the secrets of the universe in numbers. He writes mathematical problems; he dreams numbers; he reduces every movement of his day to numbers: the numbers of steps to the bathhouse, the angle of sun to Earth and the triangle created there, and the curves of the Silk Road wandering across half the Earth.

In numbers and equations and computations spinning out of their series, he sense the hidden codes of the universe, the numerical representation of the complexity of God’s creation. And as a Muslim, in a time when it is believed that God can be revealed through reason and knowledge, he will help lead a great mathematical revolution, giving the first glimpse of a future day when the age of computers will outstrip the processing speeds and capabilities of the human mind, no matter how brilliant.

At the founding of the House of Wisdom in 832 in Baghdad, al-Khwarizmi is summoned by the Caliph al-Mamun himself to assist in the search for God in the numeral. And when he arrives there, he sees the great interpreters like Hunayun ibn Ishaq gradually decoding the formulas of Euclid’s Elements based on geometry, of Pythagoras and Ptolemy, and thoughts of Aristotle and Socrates. Others are translating Archimedes’s works such as The Sphere and the Cylinder, The Measurement of the Circle, The Equilibrium of Planes, and Floating bodies, all of which help influence Muslim thought significantly. Al-Khwarizmi will help in that effort, because he is able to read Greek and turn its meaning into Arabic.

The Central Asian man sees turbaned mathematician-astronomers working together in rooms using maps, star charts, astrotables, and other measuring instruments, thinking through problems together, checking each other’s work, poring over translations, and discussing endlessly. For a man who has often done much of his work alone and had rarely found thinkers who were his equal, to find so much intelligence and competition gathered in one place is both exhilarating and intimidating. But he knows ths is an unparalleled opportunity, and he will make as much of it as he can.

Weak and drunk with the world that is now exploding in his head, al-Khwarizmi knows that mathematics has to be the code work of the divine. From the discovery of the Hindu dot that will one day be represented in much of the world by a circle and known a zero, he sees an infinite number of paths and possibilities streaking out in all directions. And he is not alone in these kinds of thoughts, for in the house of wisdom and other mathematical salons that will arise at other courts, dozens and eventually hundreds astronomical-mathematical thinkers are turning over in their minds assorted issues, each coming at the numeric mystery from a slightly different angle. Unconsciously and intuitively, the early Muslim mathematicians will create a kind of collective intelligence, feeding on each other, borrowing and stealing from one another, competing for the favors of patrons, making terrible mistakes, authoring spectacular breakthroughs. In a way, the House of Wisdom in Baghdad and similar Muslim centers will be the world’s first think tanks, an example of network computing, using networked human brains rather than machines.

And al-Khwarizmi and his colleagues are not alone in time or history, for aside from inventing, they also assimilate and aggregate much of the brilliance that has come before. From the Babylonians via the Greeks, they inherit the sexagesimal measure of time in 60 seconds and 60 minutes. Muslim astronomers and other scientists will translate these numerals into the degrees of the compass and the directions of earth and sky that will survive into the 21^st century. From the Indians they will capture the astronomic importance of numbers. Via the Persians and directly from the Indians, they will capture the zero, and the breakthrough of decimal math, and the first hints at representing numbers as symbols and not as words.

Among other things, al-Khwarizmi realizes as he scribbles that the very process of writing mathematics will need to be revised. In his day there are three different methods of calculating math in the Abbasid world and its environs. There is the universal finger counting method, which serves certain basic purposes well, as in business transactions of small size. There is a more complicated version using Arabic letter characters, which is better but still not up to the task.

And there is the Hindu method, a decimal system with characters representing quantities ranging from 0 to 9, and then arranged in a combination to reach up and down into positive and negative infinity from the sources dot of zero. The Hindu numerals are the best, the only ones adequate to all the possibilities that al-Khwarizmi and his counterparts and successors see dancing in their heads: needs like calculating the area of irregular spaces; finding missing quantities using the relationship of known ones; calculating the relationship of the Earth to the sun and stars, so as to better compute the holy days as commanded by the Prophet; finding the location of Mecca so that the faithful can pray in that direction with certainly and not guesswork. The Hindu cum Muslim number system will be essential to establishing a new theory about curvature that will show how to resolve the two different universes of angles and curves. The new number system will begin to help answer the mathematical questions implicit in conical space and projections. And the Hindu-Arab numbers will be essential to 21^st century questions such as the behavior of light and the properties of solids. Modern technology and civilization will not able to rise and evolve without these numbers.

In al-Khwarizmi’s mind and in the Hindu system, all spins around the dot of nothingness. Brilliant Bhramagupta had found the zero and tried to represent its emptiness and mystery in a written equation. He wrote the ultimate truth of zero to be: Zero divided by zero equals zero. And though he was wrong in that calculation, which is impossible, he was infinitely prescient in his willingness to think in new ways, which in turn threw a spark of genius to the Muslims, starting a bonfire of thought.

Two hundred years later up on that Baghdad roof, al-Khwarizmi laughs to himself. The equation of division of and by zero is absurd; it proves nothing. He laughs out loud, risking waking the others. A woman of the night calls up to him, unaccustomed to hearing laughter from this handsome, dark man and wondering if he wants company. But he is off in his thoughts.

The zero, he realizes, must be accepted on pure faith. It cannot be proven. And in terrible irony, which he considers sharing with his patron al-Mamun, he sees that the ultimate value of rationalist mathematics is pure revelation, just as god was revealed not quantified.

Pp 82-90, Lost History, Michael Hamilton Morgan, National Geographic.

Note: This whole article is a direct copy from Michael Hamilton’s book, please buy the book and read it to know more about our lost history.

In 638, the Christians were forced to surrender Jerusalem to Muslim control under caliph Umar al-Khattab. In a remarkable gesture for the time, Sophronius invited Umar to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but Umar refused the invitation, saying, “If I had prayed in the church it would have been lost to you, for the Believers [Muslims] would have taken it saying: Umar prayed here.” In other words, Umar declined the offer, fearing that accepting the invitation might endanger the church’s status as a Christian place of worship: The Muslims might break the treaty and turn the church into a mosque. Such was the respect that caliph Umar showed towards the place of worship of other religion. Today, we witness attacks on churches by Muslims in our home country. These irresponsible acts are in complete contradiction with the great spirit shown by the rightly-guided caliph Umar.

Furthermore, Umar also made it clear that the religious freedom of the citizens of Ilya (Jerusalem) and the sanctity of their synagogues and places of worship were confirmed: “This is the protection which the slave-servant of Allah, Umar, the Commander of the Believers, extends to the people of Ilya: The safeguarding of their lives, properties, churches, crosses, and of their entire community. Their churches cannot be occupied, demolished, or damaged, nor are their crosses or anything belonging to them to be touched. They will never be forced to abandon their religion, nor will they be oppressed.” (At-Tabari, Tarikh, Vol III, p. 609, ed. Dar Al-Ma`arif, Egypt.)

It is also stated in the Qur’an that Islam protects the places of worship of non-Muslims, and allows them to observe their religious ceremonies: To those against whom war is made, permission is given (to fight), because they are wronged;- and verily, Allah is most powerful for their aid; (They are) those who have been expelled from their homes unjustly only because they said: “Our Lord is Allâh.” – For had it not been that Allah checks one set of people by means of another, monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques, wherein the Name of Allâh is mentioned much would surely have been pulled down. Verily, Allah will help those who help His (Cause). Truly, Allâh is All-Strong, All-Mighty.(Al-Hajj 22: 39-40)

In light of these evidences, Usrah Toronto condemns the attacks on churches done by those irresponsible people and calls upon Muslims from all around the world to embody the true spirit of Islam – one that respects the rights of other religions and the sanctity of their places of worship.

For further reading:-

1) Shaikh Yusuf Qaradhawi’s fatwa regarding protection of non-muslims’ places of worship: http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?cid=1119503544972&pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar%2FFatwaE%2FFatwaEAskTheScholar

2) Dr Mohd Asri’s statement condemning the attacks on churches at Malaysia: http://drmaza.com/home/?p=953

3) Dr Mohd Asri’s proposed guideline regarding the ruling of using the name of Allah by non-muslims: http://drmaza.com/home/?p=931

]]> http://masatoronto.org/usrah/?feed=rss2&p=59 2 http://masatoronto.org/usrah/?p=53 http://masatoronto.org/usrah/?p=53#comments Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:29:26 +0000 Taufik http://masatoronto.org/usrah/?p=53

There is a glossary at the end of this article on certain scientific terms and Malay terms which may help the reader to understand the article better.

When you hear about “kahwin dulu, baru dating“, probably in your mind you will be thinking about a guy with a kopiah 24 hours on his head marrying a girl who wear the tudung labuh or even a niqaab, better known as purdah at Malaysia. Your first instinct will also probably be, “I pray, I fast, I wear tudung, but I am not these extreme ‘alim people. I need to get to know my partner for life inside out. So, I need to date him, to know whether we are serasi or not.” I perfectly understand your concern. I understand that you are not ‘crazy’ enough to just jump into a marriage without knowing who your partner really is. So in the end, this kahwin dulu baru dating trend becomes an exclusive thing among people who are active in dakwah and jemaah, while the muslim masses are walking together holding hands or ‘hanging out’ at restaurants at KLCC, Mid Valley, etc. Some of these people are perhaps incurable, but I believe some just don’t get how kahwin dulu baru dating can actually work. I will try my best to show you that kahwin dulu baru dating actually works, and romantic love is hogwash in supposedly spotting the ideal partner for a long-lasting marriage.

Firstly, I have heard about people mocking about those who had successful marriage through matchmake as just being ‘lucky’. To set the record straight, according to National Geographic, the divorce rate of the Western world which embraces total romantic love is around 50 to 60% – a healthy percentage indeed! So, even if you start your marriage with romantic love, the probability for it to last until death-do-you-apart is less than half. I would like to call upon those ardent defenders of romantic love to pause for awhile and enjoy this statistics before proceeding to conjure some pseudo theories about the advantages of having romantic love – you can’t fool the figures. I would say that the western society has 1001 flaws in keeping a safe household and those ‘other factors’ surely contribute to the statistics, but the fact still remain that romantic love fails to spot these people’s partner for life. According to a study done by Utusan Malaysia, our country also has a divorce rate of 54% and our society is practically westernised with majority embracing romantic love – although maybe not the type that ends up on the bed. So it’s the same old story, statistics wise.

Some people say we need to know whether we have ‘chemistry’ through countless dates, hang outs, and spending a lot of time together. Going through a person’s ‘CV’, peer opinion or recommendation, observing her/him in public, and a brief get-to-know session are just not enough. We know that during this courting period, everyone pijak semut pon tak mati, and you will always forgive your partner’s shortcoming no matter how big they are, simply because you are madly in love. How many times have we heard about glitch-free Pakwe 1.0 who eventually turned into Husband 1.0 with lots of viruses and trojan horses? Also note that I am not saying go into a marriage with someone you know you don’t like, but I am saying you don’t need these romantic craps to know a person through and through. The fact is you won’t really know a person unless you live, eat, and sleep with him or her.

I wonder how Amazon.com can make big bucks, if everyone really insists in browsing through a book before buying it. Worst still, this book has a lot of pages written in magic invisible ink that will only show up after you buy it! So you never really know what you are buying. What if good reviews, high-praise critics, and best sellers are not enough for one to make a decision to buy a book? I admit that drawing an analogy between life partner with a book just doesn’t make sense at all. Let’s get scientific. So what really is this thing called love? Anthropologist Helen Fisher, a professor at Rutgers University, has conducted an extensive research on the biochemical pathways of love in all its manifestations: lust, romance, attachment, the way they start and wane, etc. Here is part of what her research is about:-

“After doing MRI on the brain of two lovers – they had been ‘madly in love’ for seven months during that time – she found out that parts of brain linked up to reward and pleasure – the ventral segmental area and the caudate nucleus- lit up. What excited Fisher most was not so much finding a location, an address, for love as tracing its specific chemical pathways. Love lights up the caudate nucleus because it is home to a dense spread of receptors for a neurotransmitter called dopamine, which Fisher came to think of as part of our own endogenous love potion. In the right proportions, dopamine creates intense energy, exhilaration, focused attention, and motivation to win rewards. It is why, when you are newly in love, you can stay up all night, watch the sun rise, run a race, ski fast down a slope ordinarily too steep for your skill. Love makes you bold, makes you bright, makes you run real risks, which you sometimes survive, and sometimes you don’t.” [The Chemistry of Love, National Geographic]

Sounds familiar? Mind you that mentally-ill people also shows high amount of dopamine in their brain, and scientists cannot tell apart one who is mentally-ill and one who is ‘madly in love’ by just MRIing their brains. Cool, right? The meaning of ‘madly in love’ is more real than what we think of, as the brain chemistry of infatuation is indeed akin to mental illness. Tak heran la, pijak semut pon tak mati, lautan api pon akan ku redah, dan gunung tinggi mana pon akan ku daki. Do you think an orang gila can make a sound judgement? The fact is, when you are in deep romantic obsession, you just want to win rewards from your partner due to the excessive dopamines, not objectively finding faults in him or her as you claim. Of course nobody is perfect, there is no point in finding every fault in your partner, and supposedly marriage is about reconciling differences and accepting the fact that your partner is another human being, inescapable from making mistakes. What I am stressing here is that dating and hanging out are for mere pleasures, not finding the right partner. How can something that is similar to mental-illness becomes a reliable way to make your decision of a lifetime? So am I still not convincing? Let’s hear further what Dr. Helen Fischer has to say about the chemistry of love:-

“Most scientist who studied love, divide it into three segments: lust, romantic obsession, and attachment. The first stage of it which is lust which is actually the sex drive. One of the things that men like about women is their waist to hip ratio, which according to scientists, the desirable waist to hip ratio is point seven. Women are attracted to man with broad shoulders and rugged features, all showing a great deal of testosterone. The second stage of love is romantic passion, and the same chemicals are involved when a person is in love is when they are high on Amphetamine [dopamine stimulus] , and the scientists are speculating that it ends after about four years, and that’s because that is the amount of time that it takes for a human baby to become ‘viable’. And two things happen, either the couple separate or they stay together in long term relationship. That third stage is called attachment and there is a different chemical in brain that is involved in a long-term relationship, which is called oxytocin, and that causes one to feel very calm and soothe. Emily and Brian of Ohio had been married for 60 years and have twenty children. They were to me sort of perfect example of this long-term relationship attachment.” [The Chemistry of Love, National Geographic]

So, according to scientists, this romantic passion can only last at maximum for four years, but they don’t quite know why yet – biology is always vague. Some say that the human body just can’t stand the state of high in dopamine for so long because it deteriorates the body, while some gave the theory that four years is the maximum time span for a couple to have their first baby, so they need to get ’serious’. Whatever it is, no wonder a lot of people complain that their once glitch-free Pakwe 1.0 turned into Husband 1.0 with lots of viruses and trojan horses. Another thing to point out is that couples who are in long-term relationship show high amount of oxytocin in their brains, which is a totally different chemical from dopamine. Oxytocin is also present when you have good relationships with your parents, brothers, sisters, and friends. So what makes a relationship last long is this feeling of attachment to your partner like you have for your parents, friends, and family, not the romantic passion during courtship. It is interesting to note that oxytocin causes one to feel very calm and soothe, while dopamine creates intense energy, exhilaration, focused attention, and motivation to win rewards. There is no similarity at all between these two chemicals; in fact, their purposes are actually the opposite to each other. So only a fool would think that romantic passion is the mechanism that should be used to find a suitable partner. It is like trying to use a hammer to cut your finger nail.

“And those who say: “Our Lord! Bestow on us from our wives and our offspring the comfort of our eyes, and make us leaders of those who have Taqwa.” [Qur'an 25:74]

Is qurrota a’yun (comfort of our eyes) mentioned in the Qur’an, the feeling of calm and soothe (triggered by oxytocin) that is presence when a relationship is based on attachment? Finally, let’s listen to what Jody Cobb, the photographer of National Geographic magazine who wrote the article The Chemistry of Love, has to say about her impossible task: Photographing love:-

“I didn’t want to just photograph weddings, that I think is what is expected. I didn’t want to do a valentine, I didn’t want to do a hallmark card. The notion of love because anyone who has ever really been in love knows that, that’s not the reality. So I was very much interested to show real life and cultures all over the world. And women are becoming educated and wanting to make their own choices in mate selection, things are changing really fast. And just like in the West, where we truly believe in love and romance and happily ever after, we still have a 50-60% divorce rate.” [The Chemistry of Love, National Geographic]

It is pretty clear now that dating dulu baru kahwin doesn’t come even close to ensure a happily-ever-after relationship. Ironically, those ‘extreme ‘alim people’ are the ones who understand real love and real life, not those Casanovas. Do note that I am not saying if you kahwin baru baru dating then your marriage will last forever, but if you dating dulu baru kahwin then you are doom to failure. I am simply pointing out that romantic passion has nothing to do about spoting the ‘right person’ in your life. It is also true that incompatibility may happen between two persons, like there is just no chemistry between the two of you. The point is, you don’t need to go on countless hang outs to spot that. You don’t need to overload your neuropathways with excessive dopamine to find the supposedly elusive chemistry. It is common sense: You sit down and talk with a person for 15 minutes and you’ll know whether you can get along with that person or not. I am talking in general, meaning even with a stranger who you want to make him as your friend, not just your life partner. As for the opposite gender, more than that, it is the evil desire from your nafs. Of course, if you are still in doubt, go through the person’s ‘CV’, find peer opinion or recommendation about that person, observe her/him in public, and so on and so forth, as long as it is according to the syariah. Whatever you do, don’t get mentally-ill. In the end, you still have to ride all the gelora after the romantic passion dies out and you dah kahwin – Husband 1.0 and Wife 1.0. Last piece of advice: Ride them with oxytocin, not dopamine, ok? Above all, bring along taqwa, inshaAllah it will be pretty smooth sailing.

“I love you because of your religion. If you let go of your religion, then I have to let go of my love for you” Imam Nawawi.

Glossary:

Scientific terms:

Neurotransmitters – are chemicals that are used to relay, amplify and modulate electrical signals between a neuron (brain/nervous system cells) and another cell.

Dopamine – Dopamine is a neurotrasmitter and it has many functions in the brain. Most importantly, dopamine is central to the reward system. Dopamine is commonly associated with the pleasure system of the brain, providing feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate a person proactively to perform certain activities. Dopamine is released by naturally rewarding experiences such as food and sex. Disruption to the dopamine system has also been strongly linked to psychosis and schizoprenia, with abnormally high dopamine action apparently leading to these conditions. Now you can see the link between sex/romantic passion and psychosis.

Oxytocin – Oxytocin is a mamalian hormone that also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. In the brain, oxytocin is involved in social recognition and bonding, and might be involved in the formation of trust between people. Oxytocin is also an important hormone for women for various reasons, but in this article I am focusing on the function of oxytocin in the brain.

MRI – MRI stands for Magnetic resonance imaging, which is a non-invasive method used to render images of the inside of an object. In this particular case, it is used to render images inside of the brain.

Malay terms:

kahwin dulu baru dating – A loose translation would be: Marriage first, only then comes dating.

dating dulu baru kawhin – A loose translation would be: Dating first, only then comes marriage

tudung – hijab

serasi – compatible

pijak semut pon tak mati – Literally it means: Even if you step on an ant, the ant won’t die. What it actually means is someone who control his behavior to give a false, good impression during dating.

pakwe – boyfriend

Tak heran la, pijak semut pon tak mati, lautan api pon akan ku redah, dan gunung tingga mana pon akan ku daki – Literally it means: No wonder he steps on an ant, the ant won’t die, and he will say, “I will cross a fiery ocean for your sake, I will climb the tallest mountain for your sake.” I guess you get the meaning already

References:

1. Slater, Lauren. The Chemistry of Love. National Geographic Magazine, February 2006

2. Fisher, Helen. Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love. Henry Holt and Company, 2004.

Come and register as volunteer for RIS 8!

Jom datang RIS 8 ramai-ramai!

Need to find an accommodation during your stay at Toronto for RIS 8?

The Reviving the Islamic Spirit (RIS) convention was first held in 2003 at Metro Toronto Convention Centre, and it was quite a hit, with 3500 attendees. Since then, RIS is been held annually during the winter break at Toronto, and the attendance has grown three fold in subsequent years, with the 2006 convention is reported to have over 15 000 attendees. The official attendance figure for the 2007 convention is not out yet, but I would vouch that this year’s hall is even more pact than last year’s.

Over the years, distinguished scholars from all over the world have become speakers at RIS, including the likes of Tariq Ramadhan, Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah, Dr. Zakir Naik, Dr. Abdal Hakim Murad (T.J. Winter), Dr. Abdal Hakim Jackson, Bilal Abu Ameenah Philips, Dr. Jamal Badawi, Syaykh Riyadh ul Haq, Tariq Suwaidan, Imam Zaid Shakir, and of course Syakh Hamza Yusuf himself.

One of the major attractions of RIS is its nasheed concert, which is usually held as the last event of the convention. Famous nasheed artists like Sami Yusuf, Native Deen, Najam Sheraz, Outlandish (hip-hop group, of course), Hamza Robetson, and Raihan (Ye la, yang itu la, Raihan mana lagi!) have made appearances there. This year, the concert is held as a separate event from the convention, due to ’some other reasons.’ There was also a special screening of the film, Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of happiness with commentaries by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf at this year’s RIS entertainment session (the new name for the separate concert).

After giving you these staggering figures and facts, the first question that comes to your mind might be, “Who is the organizer?” Well, the answer is, there is no official organization which organizes this convention, and the closest one that I can give you is: This event is “A Unique Youth Effort.” To give you a further hint, Syaikh Hamza Yusuf, Imam Zaid Shakir, and Tariq Suwaidan have perfect attendances as speakers for RIS thus far – albeit, Tariq Suwaydan didn’t make it to this year’s convention due to unavoidable, outside circumstances.

This year RIS started with the Knowledge Retreat (traditionally the Knowledge Retreat is held after the convention), which is an educational program that focuses mainly on core sciences of the Islamic Tradition (i.e. Usul Fiqh, Ulum Hadith, Tafseer Qur’an, Tasawwuf, etc.) – the convention itself usually focuses more on contemporary issues. At first, the knowledge retreat was meant to give the organizers and volunteers of the convention a chance to learn and interact with distinguished Shuyukhs (speakers) of the convention. Note: The organizers and volunteers are unable to listen to the lectures in the real convention as they have to do their assigned duties during that period.

Nowadays the Knowledge Retreat (KR) is open to everyone, but priority is still given to the organizers and volunteers. The KR has also grown into sort of a small convention that complements the real RIS itself, with 500 participants in this year’s KR. I have been told by the organizers that some of the Shuyukhs were actually more interested to teach in the KR than the real RIS itself, which had given the organizers some real headaches! Probably some of the participants were more interested to come to the KR than the real RIS too – how ironic.

I have promised to give my own personal account of this year’s RIS, so here it goes. After the gruelling and tiresome Fall semester (not to mention I got owned by the final exams), I was looking forward to the winter break – primarily due to KR and RIS, and forget about catching up with my sleeping time after pulling out a couple of all-nighters during the exams week. Actually, KR started right on the next day after my final paper of exams. So it was like cramming for the wordly, and then suddenly the hereafter came without warning – metaphorically, of course.

This year’s KR promised to be an amazing event. I couldn’t wait to hear lectures by the star-studded speakers line-up of Syaykh Hamza Yusuf, Syaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah, Dr. Umar Faruq Abdallah, Habib Ali al-Jifri, Dr. Abdal Hakim Jackson, Imam Zaid Shakir, and Ustadh (or is it Ustat?) Yahya Rhodus. Furthermore, the Shuyukhs will be reading, translating, and explaining the works of great, traditional scholars such as Shaykh Waliullah Dahlawi’s Causes and Cures of Differences of Opinions , Ibn Juzayy’s Refinement of the Heart (Taswiyat al Quloob), Ibn Ata’Allah’s Taj al-Arus (literally it means Crown of the Bride), commentary on selected hadith by Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah, and a kitab by Imam Alawi al-Haddad which I can’t quite remember it’s title (pardon me). In short, if you know who those shuyukhs are, and what these kutub (shall I say kitabs?) are about, you won’t want to miss this event – you can ask Bangku if you don’t believe me.

The only setback of the KR was that some of the speakers failed to turn up due to unexpected and unavoidable circumstances – nobody’s fault really, the organizers had done whatever they could to bring them to the event and the speakers had made every intentions and preparations to come too. As for Habib Ali al-Jifri, his mother got severely sick, so he decided to stay with his mother during that trying time. He was supposed to give a lecture with the title “Jannah is Under the Feet of Mother” at RIS, and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf made the comment: “Habib Ali al-Jifri gives us a living-lesson on this topic by choosing to stay with his mother back at home”, which I can’t agree more. Dr. Umar Faruq Abdullah and Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah also failed to turn up, probably due to problems in getting into the country. So the absentees of these great speakers was a bit of a let down, but it was understandable, plus we still have plenty of other great speakers at the convention.

Admittedly, I was pretty tired during the KR, so it was a bit hard for me to concentrate on some of the lectures – at times. Dr. Abdal Hakim Jackson was given the task to dissect Ibn Ata’Allah’s Taj al-Arus, which seems to be an awkward match at first sight, but to me, his lectures turned out to be one the best in KR – at least they were meaningful to me. For those who are not familiar with Taj al-Arus, it is mainly about the science of spirituality, or in other words, tasawwuf. To me, he gave a practical approach on this highly subjective and individualized business of spiritual hygiene – not to mention he quoted quite a lot of Ibn Taimiyya and Ibn Qayyim too along the way.

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf translated and elaborated some parts of Ibn Juzay’s Refinement of the Heart (Taswiyat al Quloob), a topic which seems to overlap Dr. Abdal Hakim Jackson’s lectures. However, it turned out fine; in fact, they complemented each other and this formation added more dimensions to the subject – so to speak. By the way, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf mentioned that he had a ‘chit chat’ once with Richard Dawkins, and the guy labelled him as “powerfully stupid” – new, ‘poweful’ adjective that I learned on that day. You know Shaykh Hamza, he always exudes this ‘aura’ whenever he is around – if you know what I mean, and don’t take it out of context – he is always the man. It was indeed a pleasure to hear lectures by this humble genius (as opposed to “powerfully stupid”, I suppose), not to mention, the chance to speak with him (albeit for a short while), and to pray behind him.

Moving on, Imam Zaid Shakir explained about Shaykh Waliullah Dahlawi’s role as a mujadid during his era and he gave a decent treatment on the subject of handling differences of oppinion (ikhtilaf) according to Shaykh Waliullah Dahlawi. The subject is too technical for most people, so he had to make his lectures more appealing to the audience by touching on other ‘lighter’ side issues from time to time; thus lessening the time spent on treating the main subject. To me his approach was understandable – we need a different program if we want to get real deep into this subject.

Ustadh Yahya Rhodus did an extensive commentary on Surah al-Fatihah and Surah al-Hujurat, while Syaikh Abdullah bin Hamid Ali substituted Habib Ali al-Jifri on Sirah Nabawi. Syaikh Abdullah Hamid’s references were mainly Ibn Hisham’s and Ibn Ishaq’s classical works, so I was pretty familiar with most of the stuff, especially since at that time, I was reading Tariq Ramadhan’s In the Footsteps of the Prophet. Nevertheless, it served as refreshment for my ailing memory about the important subject, the life of our Prophet s.a.w.

To sum up, the KR lived up to my initial, high expectation; in spite of the exclusion of certain much-anticipated speakers. I would say, I benefited a lot from the KR, although I hope the topics were covered in more details. As you might notice, this program is really heavy on spiritual subject. When you have these quality scholars handling this topic; it made a lot of difference as they really enlighten you.

After writing this long, finally I arrive at the real thing: RIS. Ironically, the convention is something that I have the least point to talk about. I was volunteering, so I missed most of the lectures (I would say I attended roughly around 35-40% of the lectures). The theme of this year’s convention is Family: The Basis of a Civil Society. By the way, I was in charge of the Children’s Program. What better ways to realize the meaning of the convention’s theme than to take care of little rascals? It was an interesting experience indeed. I realized that it’s one thing to take care of one noty kid, but it is something totally different to take care of twenty of them.

Furthermore, it doesn’t get any easier if you come from a different culture or upbringing than your ’subordinate’. Those kids that I took care of are indeed Arabs, Pakistanis, and Persians by race, but they are essentially Canadians – they are brought up with the dominant culture in their mindset. They are being thought to question authority, to be confident, etcetera. Moreoever, if you ask me the rules of galah panjang or baling selipar then maybe I would know, but if you ask me to judge a game of Octopus, then… Well, I can make good, flyable paper airplanes. Anyway, I had a lot of fun. Not to mention, now I have more respect for kindergarten teachers and perhaps moms (hehe..).

So, the burning, unanswered question thus far is still: What is the convention all about? I have mentioned that actually, I am not the right person to answer this question. To sum up, this year’s RIS is about the mundane stuff: Arranged marriage (not forced marriage), dating (or perhaps how not to date), give and take (in other words, how not to fight with your wife or husband), Homo Familius (not Homo Autonomous), parenting skills, etc. You can go to RIS’s program page to get a rough idea of what I mean.

I always think that pornography is a big problem in our community. It is a widespread activity among our youth. It ruins our spiritual health and often we underestimate how our ailing, inner spiritual condition manifests in the outside world. Shaykh Hamza Yusuf has always been particular about this topic. He always cites the fact that the largest amount of viewers of internet pornography comes from Muslim countries (I have no citation for this, sorry). So there was an hour and a half session dedicated to the problems of pornography (spiritually and physically) done by Shaykh Hamza himself and Pamela Paul in this year’s RIS. I applaud this effort.

On something noteworthy that I learned from the lectures: Dr. Abdal Hakim Jackson pointed out that we should not give an over-idealistic picture of super-Muslim marriage and super-Muslim family – we are only human. Yes, we strive for the best, but we are not in utopia in this ephemeral world. He pointed out that even the anbiya like Nabi Ya’qub and Nabi Nuh had problems with their sons – it’s only normal, we shouldn’t feel like a total failure if everything is not 100% right in our family.

Finally, I don’t think it is fair if I pass any judgement about the convention as I attended barely half of the lectures. My guess would be, it should make everyone happy: The children got advices about respecting their parents (which should make the parents happy), while the parents got advices about not forcing their children into unwanted marriages (which I presume will make the young audience happy), the young couples learned how not to fight with each other, and the eager-to-marry ones learn how-not-to-date-yet-still-able-to-find-a-suitable-partner.

To sum up, I enjoyed RIS 6 a lot, and I made a lot of new, heart-warming friends – including the little ones during the convention. I hope to see more of us in the next RIS convention