Shoulder to Shoulder, Toe to Toe. My Guidance is from Allah. Is it yours too?

By: Mujahidul Huq

Co-Editor: Moinul

Co-Editor: Neyamatullah

Sunni and Shi’a, what is this fray?

Is this how you repay our Wali?

Do you have any fear for The Day?

Or are you just challenging the Al-‘Aleem?

Sunni and Shi’a, what puts you apart?

Is this Illusionary world, your lust?

Or is it the pride of your rusty heart?

Either way, you lose the Ummah’s trust.

Sunni and Shi’a, are you that blind?

Didn’t you learn from Al-Haadi’s guide?

Hasn’t Al-Hakeem ordered us to bind?

Sunni and Shi’a, why are you so bold?

Do you think Al-Wadood approves your brother’s blood pool?

If you think so, you are very cold.

But don’t forget, Al-Muq’sit is always on the roll

Sunni and Shi’a, we are each other’s keepers

So please take this advice:

Study our common goals deeper

You will come to know our common IDs

Allah has blessed Adam and Eve as parents of all human being

Muhammad (peace be upon thee) would be the last of all those who receive

Regardless of your theology

I’m sure you will also accept Yamul Qiyma,

Before Allah who is Aj-Jaleel

Keep this in mind:

I’m just trying to warn you

On behalf of our great guide

Because it had been prohibited on you

To kill a Mumeenin

For having different point of view

So let’s start with a new page,

With the universal line

La-illa-ha-illallah

Muhammadur Rusulallah

The Free Flowing Thoughts That Linger in My Mind

"The Free Flowing Thoughts That Linger in My Mind"

By: Mujahidul Huq

Co-Edit: Neyamatullah

Justifying evil has a negative impact on Muslim youths who are living in a non-Muslim country, more specifically secular. In order for any society to achieve, or at least survive, the key is to pass “the society” on to the younger generation. Unlike other cultures, the Islamic code of law is very unique. This is because it is supposed to last until The Day of Judgment. Unfortunately, our youth in the USA are very confused about Islam. First off, I would say that those who oppose Islam are driving their plan to divide us; unfortunately some of us are actually being driven – causing the rest of the community to go astray. Second, many adults justify wrong aspects of life, based on their own beliefs, which actually disagree with “fiqh”. Finally, our youth receive a mixed message, which cause major identity crises in their lives.

Those who oppose Islam use, the method of “divide and conquer”, to destroy the message of The Messengers of Allah (swt). The best weapon of dividing and conquering is to make the purest way of life, impure – adding other cultural substances that contradict with the Islamic way of life. Of course, not everything that comes from other cultures is bad – for instance, food, language, and knowledge about our world. Things that can contradict with Islam range from dress code, to traditional custom such as dances, which are used as rituals.

In the Quran, Allah labeled people who change the laws of Allah (swt) as “musrik”. Unfortunately, in our community we have some people, who change “fiqh” for their own gain, although they know that it is incorrect. In Surah Al-Tawba (9:31), Allah (swt) has stated the following:

“They take their priests and their anchorites to be their lords in derogation of Allah, and (they take as their Lord) Christ the son of Mary; Yet they were commanded to worship but one Allah: there is no god but He. Praise and glory to him: (far is He) from having the parents they associate (with him)”.

In the following Hadith, we see the clarification of the verse:

“When Adee Ibn Hatim (radhi allahu anhu) heard this verse, he said, 'O Messenger of Allah. We didn't worship them.' The Messenger of Allah (sallalalhu alaihi wa-sallam) said, 'Did they not make Haraam what Allah made Halaal and you all made it Haraam, and they made Halaal what Allah made Haraam and you all made it Halaal?' He replied, 'Certainly.' The Prophet of Allah (sallalalhu alaihi wa-sallam) said, 'That is your worship to them.' [At-Tirmidhee (3/247)]”

One example, which is popular among teens (especially Bengali teens) is “my parents will not let me marry, someone who is ‘foreigner’, because they are different”. The other justification ranges from something too obvious such as watching movies (where they make halal what is haram, and make haram what is halal) to something rather controversial such as justifying the use of “riba,” or interest.

Parents’ decisions on both economic and social life have a huge impact on a child’s way of thinking. I would like to end with the following story; I hope no one takes the story personally, or to any offense whatsoever. It begins: I heard about a Muslim teenager who got himself a girlfriend. When he was notified by his friends that Islam does not allow those kinds of relationships, his reply was, “I’m not doing haram, because she is merely my companion”, when his friends asked how he came to that conclusion the teen replied, “well since we can’t follow Islamic law, we should be allowed to do it. Because my father said we are allowed to pay and give interest, because no one can guarantee that riba and interest are the same. Even if they were, we can’t survive without using it, and I’ve read in the Quran that riba is one of the deadly sins. Therefore at this time Islam shouldn’t be followed”. Although his friends tried to explain, he kept on insisting that, “my father said, that we are allowed to do what is not allowed in Islam, if we can’t survive”. Now as we can tell, the father did not realize that his actions made his son trail off the path of Islam, just by justifying what is wrong. I was confused.

Islamic Time Line (approximately)

c. 570 CE	Birth of Muhammad.
c. 610 CE	Muhammad receives first vision in a cave near Mecca.
c. 610-22 CE	Muhammad preaches in Mecca.
622 CE	Hijira - Muhammad and followers flee to Medina. Islamic calendar (AH, Anno Hegirae) begins.
624 CE	Muslims successfully attack Meccan caravans at Badr.
625	Muslims are defeated by Meccans at Uhud.
630	Muslims capture Mecca. Ka'ba is cleansed, pilgrimage rites are Islamicized, tribes of Arabia vow allegiance to Muhammad
632	Death of Muhammad. Abu Bakr chosen as caliph.
632-33	Wars of ridda (apostasy) restore allegiance to Islam
633	Muslim conquests (Futuhat) begin.
633-42	Muslim armies take the Fertile Crescent (Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia), North African coast, parts of Persian and Byzantine Empires
c. 650	Caliph Uthman has the Qur'an written down.
656	Uthman is murdered; Ali becomes fourth caliph.
657	Battle of Siffin. Mu'awiya, governor of Syria, claims the caliphate.
659	Arbitration at Adruh is opposed by Ali's supporters.
661	Ali is murdered; Mu'awiya becomes caliph. Beginning of Umayyad Caliphate (661-750).
680	Death of Husayn marks beginning of the Shi'at Ali ("party of Ali") or Shi'a sect.
685-705	Reign of Abd al-Malik. Centralization of administration - Arabic becomes official written language (instead of Greek and Persian) and Arab coinage is established.
late 600s	Ruling classes in East and West Africa convert to Islam.
700-800s	Groups of ascetics and mystics begin to form
710	Arab armies enter Spain from North Africa.
732	Muslim empire reaches its furthes extent. Battle of Tours prevents further advance northwards.
747	Revolt defeats the Umayyads.
750	Abu l'Abbas becomes caliph in Iraq
754	Baghdad (Madinat al-Salam, "city of peace") becomes the new capital of the Abbasid empire.
755	Abd ar-Rahman founds an Umayyad Dynasty in Cordoba, Spain.
765	Division within Shi'ites - majority are the modern Imamiyya (Twelvers) who co-exist with Abbasid caliphs; minority are more extreme Isma'iliyaa (Seveners).
786-809	Reign of Harun ar-Rashid, best known through the stories of The Thousand and One Nights.
800s	Written collections of Hadith (sayings of the Prophet) are compiled. Sicily comes under Muslim rule.
813-33	Reign of Ma'mun. Theological controversy over whether the Qur'an is created or uncreated and eternal. Center for translation of texts from Greek to Arabic founded in Baghdad.
869-883	Uprisings of black slaves (Zanj) are eventually defeated.
908	First Fatimid caliph in Tunisia.
928	Umayyad Abd ar-Rahman III declares himself caliph in Cordoba.
940	Muhammad al-Mahdi, the twelfth imam, disappears. Twelvers still await the future return of the "Hidden Imam."
945	The Buyids (Persian) invade Baghdad and take power from caliph.
969	Fatimids gain power in Egypt and attack Palestine, Syria, and Arabia. Cairo (Al-Qahira, "the victorious city") is founded.
980-1037	Life of Avicenna, Iranian physician and Aristotelian philosopher.
996-1021	Reign of Fatimid al-Hakim. Hamza ibn Ali forms basis of esoteric Druze religion.
late 900s	West Africa begins to convert to Islam
1030	Umayyad caliphate in Cordoba defeated by the Christian Reconquista.
1055	Seljuk Turks take Baghdad; Abbasids now only nominal rulers.
1000s	Reconquista takes more of Spain, Sicily falls to the Normans, Crusader kingdoms are briefly established in Palestine and Syria.
1071	Seljuk Turks defeat Byzantines at Battle of Manzikert.
1090	Hasan-i Sabbah takes Alamut in the Persian mountains, the Assassin sect forms around him.
1099	Christian Crusaders take Jerusalem.
1100-1200s	Sufi orders (turuq) are founded.
1126-98	Life of Averroës, Muslim philosopher from Cordoba who sought to integrate Islam with Greek thought.
1171	Fatimid power ends in Egypt with the conquests of Saladin.
1174	Saladin declares himself sultan of Egypt and Syria.
1193	Death of Saladin; most of Crusader states have returned to Islam.
1200s	Assassins wipes out by the Mongols. Indian rulers in Delhi take title of Sultan. Spanish mystic Muhyi al-Din ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240) flourishes.
1221	Genghis Khan and the Mongols enter Persia.
1241	Mongols take the Punjab.
1258	Mongols capture Baghdad; city is sacked and caliph is killed. End of Abbasid caliphate.
1281-1324	Reign of Uthman (Osman), who founds the Ottoman Empire. Muslim merchants and missionary Sufis settle in SE Asia.
mid-1300s	Ottomans capture Bursa and Iznik and move into Europe.
1366	Capital of Ottoman Empire moved from Bursa to Adrianople.
late 1300s	Ottomans take control of the Balkans.
1400s	Islam reaches the Philippines.
1453	Mehmet Fatih (rules 1451-81) conquers Constantinople. The two halves of the Ottoman Empire are united and the sultan becomes Byzantine emperor.
1492	Castile and Aragon capture Granada. All Muslims (and Jews) expelled from Spain.
1501	Isma'il (1487-1524) claims to be the Hidden Imam and is proclaimed Shah (king) of Persia. Twelver Shi'ism becomes official religion of Persia.
1516	Ottomans conquer Syria and Egypt.
1517	Ottomans control Mecca and Medina.
1520-66	Reign of Suleyman the Magnificent; Ottoman Empire reaches its zenith. Hungary and coastlands of Algeria and Tunisia come under Ottoman rule.
1526	Babur (Mongolian) seizes the Delhi sultanate and takes control of northern India.
1556	Akbar founds the Mughal dynasty in northern India.
1600-1700s	Venetians, Habsburgs, and Russians divide European Ottoman lands between them.
1625	Java comes under rule of Muslim kingdom of Mataram.
1699	Treaty of Karlowitz confirms first substantial losses of Ottoman Empire in Europe.
1700s	Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab rejects Sufism and all innovation (bid'a). Founds what becomes the Saudi Arabian kingdom. Hindus regain power from Mughals in northern India.
1738	Mughal empire invaded by the Afghans.
1779	Afghans ousted by Qajar dynasty, which rules Persia until 1925.
1798	Napoleon's expedition to Egypt.
1805	Muhammad Ali becomes governor of Egypt, which becomes independent of the Ottomans, gains control of western Arabia and extends into the Sudan.
1807-76	Tanzimat period. Ottoman Empire undergoes extensive program of modernization in government, law, and medicine.
1830	Greece regains independence from Ottomans.
1850s	Non-Muslim Ottoman citizens granted equality with Muslims.
1858	Last Mughal in India is deposed and India comes under British rule.
1876-1908	Reign of Abd al-Hamid II; autocratic and religiously conservative period in Ottoman rule.
1878	Congress of Berlin recognizes independence of Balkan states previously under Muslim rule.
1882-1952	Egypt occupied by the British.
1908-18	Last decade of Ottoman rule. Rise of nationalistic "Young Turks." More liberal policies develop.
1912	Founding of Islamic Union (Sareket Islam), a modernizing movement in SE Asia.
1918	Fall of Ottoman Empire. League of Nations grants Britain mandatory status over Palestine and Iraq, and France over Lebanon and Syria.
1923	Republic of Turkey established. Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) is first president.
1927	Tablighi Jamaat reform movement founded in India.
1928	Ikhwan al-Muslimun (Muslim Brothers) founded in Egypt.
1941	Jamaat-i Islami reform movement founded in Lahore, India.
1945	Indonesia becomes independent republic.
1945-60s	Islam spreads to the West with mass migrations from Asia, Africa, and India.
1947	Pakistan founded as an Islamic nation. Islam becomes a minority religion in India.
1957	Independent Malayan state established with Islam as the official religion but guaranteed tolerance.
1960s	Familes from SE Asia and North Africa emigrate to Europe and the Americas.
1979	Shah of Iran is overthrown by Ayatullah Ruhullah Khumayni, who establishes strict fundamentalist rule of Shi'a principles.
late 1990s	Taliban come to power in Afghanistan.
2001	Muslim extremists attack the United States.
2003	Saddam Hussein ousted by Western forces.