My favorite Muslim Blog

[eTeacher]

The link: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=kr156

He is a Hafiz of the Noble Quraan and has a few years left to become a doctor. He is from Chicago. Masha Allah a really intelligent Muslim.

[Yusuf]

His articles on Salafism are excellent MashaAllah.

[A D I D A S]

Its a wonderful blog. Mashallah

[Omar HH]

Assalam Alaikum,

Yeah I talk to this guy on AIM alot.

I found it through this website, maybe eteacher was the guy who put it up.

Jazakallah wa Khayrun

[eTeacher]

http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=kr156

some nice recent posts on there

[abdul518ca]

Hey man, I don't understand Hijabis who wear black-booty pants either. There're so many of them here. I saw one wearing a *RAINBOW* colored Hijab. :$

[eTeacher]

You HAVE to read his most recent post. When I came across the article he commented on about some people in Toronto, I was gonna reply to it. But I guess I really don't need to. He did a great job. May Allah increase him in wisdom and knowledge.

The link: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=kr156

[Mossy]

I would have to disagree with some of his points.. They *do* have a name of what they're creating, they call it "Progressive Islam" ;)

Of course, that's assuming there is a "They", which is generally a bit far off the mark when it comes to subcultural evolution within the Ummah. In the cases illustrated in the article, wasn't the female khutbah mosque ahmadi/ismaili?

Reformist movements in Islam are nothing new, this is just the current wave driven by the need to find a balance/place in combination with the Western education system. It cannot be denied that our Ummah has become heavily culturalised, that Islam is slipping from something percieved as an abstraction/religion to a mere socio-political phenomenon in the public psyche. Faced with the challenges of reconciling the way one has been bought up with the apparent message of ones religion, you have to take your cue from somewhere - methinks this is the major benefit of events such as RIS - the spark is there, as is the passion, it's just how you direct it.

I've been looking at the "progressive" muslim movement with interest for a while now. As with most things, it certainly is not a homogeneous movement/ideology, although it's interesting to see the recent formation of the "Progressive Muslims Union" in an attempt to convey one facet of this overall aim, ie reconciliation (nb, I think they have their pluses and minuses personally.

Living Tradition (http://living-tradition.blogspot.com/) is an interesting blog with regards to this - currently it's stuck too much in refutation mode and sometimes can go a bit ott imo, but it's useful for keeping a tab on developments. There was also an interesting recent article by Abdus Sattar Ghazali (http://www.amperspective.com/html/pmu_agenda.html) on this group. The comments are a bit amusing, but it is always interesting how every single group always claims the right of haqq. Fiercely contested that is.

I also have some issue with the reference of the hadith pertaining to female leadership, but for some reason registering on xanga scares me. Hmm. I also don't generally think sarcasm is the best form of analytical pose as it tends to create an echo-chamber effect. Those are scary.

Eh, in the end it all kicks back to identity.

What's yours?

[eTeacher]

He's put up a good post on his recitation and his Quran Khatam dua... do check it out:

www.xanga.com/kr156

[ibn_abdullah]

I think he needs to stay away from the fiqh and other issues that should be left to the ulema. Other than that he has some good insight on various issues.

Wallahu'alam

[Kareem]

his recitation is very nice

[Sad ibn Abu Waqqas]

I prayed behind him at MECCA in Darien Illinois. Mashallah he sounds exactly like Sudais. I think he is a little misinformed about the significance of a beard in the Hanafi madhab; I tried to explain it, but my post was deleted.

Salams,

What did you try to explain to him about the beard in the Hanafi school?

Wa al-salam,

[godilali]

I didn't approach him personally; I posted on his blog. If you read his blog, he seems to indicate that the fist-length position is "merely sunnah," and some people one the message board were saying the beard itself is just a sunnah. Although I feel what he wrote was well-intentioned and meant to create tolerance within the ummah, it is very dangerous to write about fiqh issues. And he said some stuff about how miniatures of the sahaba show them with trimmed beards. We place out trust in ahadith, not drawings. Basically, I said that in the Hanafi madhab, fist length is wajib, according to Raddul Muhtar, Fatawa Hindiyyah, etc. and that the tablighi who told him to keep a long beard was correct according to the Hanafi madhab, but that he should not try to impose it on non-Hanafis.

[MinSid]

Maybe he's not hanafi

[Kareem]

or maybe he has trouble growing a beard and took a dispensation, maybe his post about the beard was the view he took for the dispensation

[godilali]

Maybe we should invite him here to clear things up; I don't have a problem with him not growing a fist-length beard and I would personally not have a problem praying behind him; I just have a problem with people brushing off what the tablighi said as making a fuss over something that is just a sunnah. Who knows, maybe someone goes to his blog to gain some Islamic knowledge, and comes out thinking that Hanafi ulema are backwards and ignorant.

[Omar HH]

I talk to him online, he's awesome.

Allah barak fee.

He has his own fiqh teachers who teach him.

:jazak:
:hamd:
:saw:

[kr156]

as salaam `alaykum

I recently found out that this thread existed on sunniforum and I wanted to write a few things in regards to this specific thread.

Firstly, I feel honored and humbled at the kind words and praise from my beloved Shaykh, Mawlana Nazim. His own humility led him to conveniently forget to mention that he's been a positive influence in my life as well as my brother's. Alhamdulillah, I did complete memorization of the Qur'an in 9 months, but it was my brother who got the perfect 1600 on his SAT's.

As for the specific post about the fist-length beard, I think if one reads the comments I wrote in the post thread, I clarified what exactly I was referring to. But just in case I wasn't clear enough, I'll summarize.

--The point of the post was not to engage in a legal debate regarding the status of the fist-length beard as sunnah or wajib. That's an issue for another day, and I tend to agree, as per the Hanafi texts, that it's wajib.

--The point of the post, however, had to do with the fatwah that the respected mufti gave which stated that prayer behind an imam who does not have a fist-length beard is invalid. Please note the difference in topics. I heard the same narration from several other sources after the incident I mentioned on my blog, so I'm pretty sure that he did in fact say this. Hence, my argument was that I personally disagreed with this legal opinion, and I felt that I was allowed to do so, as per the hadith of the Prophet (salallahu `alayhi wa sallam) from the 40 Hadith of Imam Nawawi that states that one should consult one's heart (istafti qalbak)... even if the people repeatedly give you religious opinions (wa in aftaak al-naasu wa aftawk) in favor of it. Therefore, my disagreement was to this specific legal ruling of the respected mufti. I was not trying to question the validity of the classical texts themselves.

--What makes this case even more complicated is that this same mufti, when he went to India last, appointed a young local scholar (Mawlana Yusuf Abdullah... I'm sure Mawlana Nazim knows him) to lead the prayer at his masjid where he is the normal imam during his absence. Mawlana Yusuf also translates many of the mufti's texts from Urdu into English. Mawlana Yusuf, however, does NOT have a fist-length beard and he does trim his beard quite regularly. I wonder then if his leading the prayer is also invalid?

--For the record, I'm not clean-shaven. I do have a beard... well, what can be considered as the bare minimum of falling under the legal definition of the beard: hair that covers the jawbone and can be firmly and easily plucked with two fingers. I would like to keep a longer beard, but my mother has requested that I keep it at this length. when I asked my teachers about this, all 3 of them said that I should listen to my mother's guidance in the matter, for the time being at least. They said that listening to her is fard, which takes a higher legal authority over anything else as long as it's not shirk. Perhaps other scholars might disagree with my teachers' opinions, but that's perhaps an issue for another day.

Anyway, I hope I've clarified some of the confusion that may have been present in the wake of that specific post. Again, I'm sure that perhaps some may disagree with what I've written, but at the very least, I hope that all readers of this forum can appreciate that I'm not just developing this opinion out of a vacuum, and that there is textual and scholarly proof guiding my personal feelings on this fatwah.

[Omar HH]

wa `alaykum as salam,

whats up buddy?