Addressed by God with exaltation,
a unique subject in heavenly syntax
In this way you attained the Station of Arrival
Veiled from gaze of onlookers, a secret sealed in silence.
Thus you gathered every honor without peer,
And traversed every station in solitude.
What preeminence you have been entrusted with!
Past counting are all the blessings granted you!
With a whisper of the wind appears the first new leaf
And the trees tremble as life returns anew
Like a gentle breeze that grows to a tempest
A new song enters in my heart,
And lifts me on its wings.
Spring is here again.
The birds have begun to sing again. Looking out, I see tiny buds beginning to poke their way through the soil; branches bare all winter have dared to send forth their first green shoots. The wind blows warmer, the rain feels somehow fresher. It is unmistakeable – spring is here again.
How fitting that, as we approach the month of lights, the blessed month of mawlid, we should find ourselves entering the season of spring. For what more fitting time could there have been for the one whose birth signified the dawning of new hope for mankind, a new spring of tauhid after the dark and cold winter of disbelief; for the one who loved all things green and who revived dead hearts to life, than the month of Rabi’ al-Awwal (lit: the first spring)?
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf mentioned that the Prophet (s) was born in spring and loved green. He continued that green was the first colour that the eye could perceive, and the last that it could make out; the middle of the spectrum of light. Green is also the colour of chlorophyll, which mediates photosynthesis in plants – the conversion of pure light into energy and nourishment that ultimately allows our continued existence. The parallels are manifest but beautiful nonetheless: he (s) is from the light of Allah, the first Prophet and the last, the moderate and median way, neither too harsh nor too lenient; he is the source of all nourishment and the means of continuation for all spiritual life. He (s) is, as the commentaries of the Quran mention, the solitary flowering tree in the midst of a barren desert – from whose fruits all men feast, and beneath whose boughs all find shade and rest.
The advent of spring fills one with gladness – a joy that the believer cannot but feel when he or she contemplates the arrival of the best and most beloved of all creation (s). Allah says in the Holy Quran: ‘In the blessings of Allah and in His mercy – in that let them rejoice,’ and, ‘make remembrance of the Days of Allah.’ al-Bayhaqi relates that the Prophet (s) said, ‘the Days of Allah are Allah’s Blessings and Signs, and the Prophet’s birth is a great bliss.’ For almost a millennium, Muslims have joyfully commemorated the arrival of our spiritual Spring with the celebration of mawlid.
Mawlid has three meanings: the time of the Beloved’s (s) birth, the place of his birth and the fact of his birth. However, for hundreds of years, the word mawlid has been used to signify the celebration of the Prophet’s (s) birth. Mawalid have been – and still are – held wherever there are Muslims; from the Islamic heartlands of Arabia, Egypt and Syro-Palestine to the very borders of the traditional Islamic lands such as Indonesia, the Caucasus and Western Africa. In the 20th century, the globalization of the Ummah and mass migration has seen mawlid celebrated in the most unlikely of places – from the rain-swept streets of the UK to the snowy mountains of Canada to the tip of Southern Africa.
It is beloved of the common folk of the community and cherished by the elect. Kings and rulers have used mawlid to connect to their followers; scholars have used it to educate the people. Such has been its popularity among the learned and the unlearned – so deeply has it touched the hearts of Muslims from every walk of life – that one would struggle to find a place that has not been graced by the celebration of the Beloved of Allah (s).
Rabi` al-Awwal Mubarak, dear friends. May Allah enlighten all our hearts with the love of his Beloved (s), ennoble our eyes with his (s) vision in this world and the next, and fill our limbs with the strength to follow his blessed way.
Oh Cherishing Lord! Through the honour of Sayyidina Muhammad in Your eyes, purify our hearts from every evil quality that distances us from Your witnessing, Your love and Your mercy, let us die as members of his (s) community and under his banner of praise, yearning for the encounter with You, Oh Lord of Majesty and Grace! Then peace and blessings upon the elect of creation, the Master of the children of Adam, the Beloved of the Lord of the Worlds, Sayyidina wa Habibina Muhammad, his family, companions, and all who light their hearts from his blessed lamp.
It was the twang that threw me. I'm talking serious cowboy voice. The kind that can only come from out on the range. The kind that still startles my New England ears.
"Miss Fleeeeynn?" he said. "This is Kareem Salama. I understand you're trying to reach me." OK, hold it. I happened to have this man's Web site up for a story I was researching. And I knew that Salama was a Muslim, a law student, and a country and western singer. And, of course, I had read his biography on his site, where he detailed his multicultural upbringing. His parents, who now live in Richmond, southwest of Houston, took him to Native American powwows and the county fairs and rodeos and made trips to Branson, Mo., and Opryland in Nashville, Tenn.
As I listened to him, I couldn't reconcile the twang with the chiseled Egyptian face on the Web site. Most of the Muslims I know have foreign accents. But why should I be so jolted by a thoroughly American Muslim?
Or should I say: A Muslim who, at least on the surface, seems to fit another American stereotype? More on that later.
Salama graciously answered all my questions and pulled back the curtain on an unexpectedly American portrait. It's probably safe to say your average Oklahoma boy isn't memorizing classical Arabic poetry and composing a melody for John Donne's "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning." And I'm guessing you don't see too many Muslims in 10-gallon hats at the Grand Ole Opry.
Salama acknowledged that "the vast majority of us (Muslims) don't fit the image of people have in their head."
"Although, I understand why people have that image in their head," he added.
Salama pushes past that. After he earns his degree at the University of Iowa, he hopes to pursue his law career in — where else? — Nashville. Maybe he'll give Toby Keith a run for his money, but Salama seems more interested in sharing a musical message he believes will resonate with people of all faiths.
Dear Friend,
As-Salamu alaykum. We hope this message finds you well. In November 2004, King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of Jordan launched the Amman Message, a declaration aimed at clarifying the true nature of Islam and the nature of true Islam to the world. It is a message of devotion to God, love of the neighbor, goodwill, moderation and peace. Since then, the Amman Message has come to be epitomized in three major juridical and doctrinal points, each crucial to addressing the problems the Islamic world faces today.
1. The great traditional schools of jurisprudence, theology, and spirituality are valid from the point of view of Islam, and the followers of these schools, which include both Sunni and Shi‘i denominations, are all Muslims. Islam has fundamental tenets but is also diverse.
2. It is impermissible to declare any Muslim so defined as an unbeliever/apostate (a practice called takfir).
3. Only those with the proper moral and intellectual qualifications, and the proper methodology, may issue fatwas (religious edicts).
Since they were first introduced, these three points have been recognized and ratified universally, through fatwas and official statements, in meetings of the highest and most recognized authorities and scholars in Islamic law, from all denominations and schools of thought all over the world. This is a unique historical event. The statements and signatures from these religious leaders can be see on www.ammanmessage.com.
These three points are vital for the future of the Islamic world. We suffer from disunity and discord, and must reaffirm our unity as an Islamic ummah. We suffer from wounds and ignorant prejudice which would take us into conflict with many of those who would live at peace with us. We must denounce the practice of takfir (accusing Muslims of apostasy for interpretations and opinions different from ours), which too often opens the door to terrible crimes against our own brothers and sisters. Moreover, all such atrocities committed in the name of Islam are traceable to the fatwa of men totally unqualified, morally and intellectually, to issue one. It is thus imperative that the ummah speak with one voice in reaffirming true Islam.
We invite you to add your voice to this unique and historic international Islamic consensus. Please visit www.ammanmessage.com, where you can read more about the Amman Message and find many useful documents and links. Under ENDORSE you can add your name to the list of Muslims worldwide who have endorsed and supported the three points. Your endorsement is important for all our futures.
Yours Sincerely,
The Amman Message Committee,
As the editor of altmuslim.com, I try to focus our articles on items of interest to Muslims and others alike, in a manner geared towards open discourse and critical inquiry. And even though altmuslim.com is part of a larger Web endeavor through our parent company, Halalfire Media LLC, I don't usually write about the various other web projects that we work on. But I want make an exception, and give you an early look at a website that I hope will do a lot of good for both the Muslim community and the larger communities in which we live.
After two years of conceptual planning and two months of feverish coding, I'm proud to present unitedmuslims.org - a website designed to aggregate the energy and talent of the Muslim community and actively put it to use in making the world a better place. This week, unitedmuslims.org is launching simultaneously in the US, UK, and Canada, with more countries coming online soon.
There are many things that we as Muslims can do to head off a "clash of civilizations", but the most effective and dignified way, in my opinion, to "win the hearts and minds" of our fellow citizens is to show that we care about causes important to everyone, not just ourselves. This site was meant to introduce Muslims to causes in their community, and bring a visible Muslim presence to local community efforts.
Sometimes dumb sounds cute: Sixty percent of Americans can't name five of the Ten Commandments, and 50% of high school seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah were married.
Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University, isn't laughing. Americans' deep ignorance of world religions - their own, their neighbors' or the combatants in Iraq, Darfur or Kashmir - is dangerous, he says.
His new book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - and Doesn't, argues that everyone needs to grasp Bible basics, as well as the core beliefs, stories, symbols and heroes of other faiths.
Belief is not his business, says Prothero, who grew up Episcopalian and now says he's a spiritually "confused Christian." He says his argument is for empowered citizenship.
"More and more of our national and international questions are religiously inflected," he says, citing President Bush's speeches laden with biblical references and the furor when the first Muslim member of Congress chose to be sworn in with his right hand on Thomas Jefferson's Quran.
Occasionally we’re surprised into laughing at something funny, but most laughter has little to do with humor. It’s an instinctual survival tool for social animals, not an intellectual response to wit. It’s not about getting the joke. It’s about getting along.
When Robert R. Provine tried applying his training in neuroscience to laughter 20 years ago, he naïvely began by dragging people into his laboratory at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, to watch episodes of “Saturday Night Live” and a George Carlin routine. They didn’t laugh much. It was what a stand-up comic would call a bad room.
So he went out into natural habitats — city sidewalks, suburban malls — and carefully observed thousands of “laugh episodes.” He found that 80 percent to 90 percent of them came after straight lines like “I know” or “I’ll see you guys later.” The witticisms that induced laughter rarely rose above the level of “You smell like you had a good workout.”
“Most prelaugh dialogue,” Professor Provine concluded in “Laughter,” his 2000 book, “is like that of an interminable television situation comedy scripted by an extremely ungifted writer.”
The central tenet of the argument is that during the cold war an understanding of human nature as suspicious, distrustful and always operating out of self-interest came to dominate political thinking. From that emerged a narrow definition of freedom as "giving people the ability to get whatever they wanted". This kind of freedom has become the central political idea of the past 25 years, but it's a corrosive form of pessimism rooted in a bleak, simplistic view of human nature.
It all goes back to the bizarre world of cold-war strategists in America developing sophisticated ways to achieve the "delicate balance of terror". They seized upon game theory that originated in poker playing as a way of rationally calculating your opponent's moves and therefore your own. How many Soviet cities would you have to nuke to deter the Soviets from nuking New York? The theory was that the suspicious distrustfulness of both sides in the cold war created a kind of stability.
Under the glistening dome of a mosque on Long Island, hundreds of men sat cross-legged on the floor. Many were doctors and engineers born in Pakistan and India. Dressed in khakis, polo shirts and the odd silk tunic, they fidgeted and whispered.
One thing stood between them and dinner: A visitor from Harlem was coming to ask for money.
A towering black man with a gray-flecked beard finally swept into the room, his bodyguard trailing him. Wearing a long, embroidered robe and matching hat, he took the microphone and began talking about a different group of Muslims, the thousands of African-Americans who have found Islam in prison.
“We are all brothers and sisters,” said the visitor, known as Imam Talib.
The men stared. To some of them, it seemed, he was from another planet. As the imam returned their gaze, he had a similar sensation. “They live in another world,” he later said.
Only 28 miles separate Imam Talib’s mosque in Harlem from the Islamic Center of Long Island. The congregations they each serve — African-Americans at the city mosque and immigrants of South Asian and Arab descent in the suburbs — represent the largest Muslim populations in the United States. Yet a vast gulf divides them, one marked by race and class, culture and history.
WASHINGTON - Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, had little good to say about President Bush's foreign policy when he ran for office in 2006.
Now, two months into office, the Minnesota Democrat has plans to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other top State Department officials to talk about showcasing his story as part of their public diplomacy efforts in the Muslim world.
"Hey, my country first. We can work out our political differences later," said Ellison, an outspoken critic of the Iraq war. "I've said I'm willing to do whatever I can to make some friends for America."
Building on the international cachet he's built since taking his oath of office on Thomas Jefferson's Quran, Ellison has been profiled three times by the State Department's overseas press bureau. On Monday he did a Voice of America interview from his office, where an American flag was placed conspicuously behind his desk for the cameras.
He's scheduled to follow up Thursday in a teleconference with Karen Hughes, the State Department's undersecretary for public diplomacy. The teleconference has been tasked by the White House to promote American values and confront ideological support for terrorism around the world.
Muslim commentators and administration officials say that, whatever controversy Ellison has engendered at home, he can help America's image abroad, especially in the Arab world.
AB: As American Muslims look forward in 2007. What should they have at the front of their minds in terms of achievement?
ZS: I think number one thing Muslims should have at the front of their head, are the requisites of this society, and how Islam can address some of the needs of this society. For so long we have been focused on what (is) going on overseas. At the end of the day, we did not make those messes over there. At the end of the day we’re not going be able to fix it.
AB: When you say “we” you mean-
ZS: Muslims here in America. WE didn’t make those messes, we’re not going be able to fix them. If the people who are there, living that reality can’t fix it…Or, are extremely challenge to fix it…What are we going do from half way around the world?
The reason I say that though, is that our efforts to continually try and expend our resources and expend our spiritual, moral and political capital addressing those issues- we leave our own issues unresolved. By leaving our own issues unresolved, we create vulnerabilities for ourselves that impinge on our ability to do anything meaningfully for the brothers and sisters over there. So we can’t empower ourselves because we’re so busy trying to address the situation of powerless Muslims in other places.
So, I think that’s number one to put at the top of the agenda for 2007.
Secondly, I think we need to develop a moral agenda. Recently I read that you, like myself were reading Jimmy Carter’s book. Not the controversial one on the Palestine situation, but “Our Endangered Values”. I think as Muslims we need to develop a moral agenda. We need to see ourselves as apart of the moral consciousness of this country. Because we can’t constantly condemn the policies of this country, but then not bring our voice to bear in trying to direct the country on a different path in terms of its foreign and domestic policy.
Once Ebrahim passed by a drunkard. His mouth was foul, so he fetched water and washed the drunkard's mouth.
"Do you leave foul the mouth that has mouthed the name of God? That is irreverence!" Ebrahim said to himself.
"The ascetic of Khorasan washed your mouth," they told the man when he woke.
"I too now repent," the man declared.
After that Ebrahim heard in a dream, "Thou didst wash a mouth for My sake. I have washed thy heart."
