After over 800 days of displacement, we began the massive project of restoring our home – only to live through another Israeli bombardment.

Hotel did not allow two Muslim women to wear full-body bathing suit, which has become bugbear of European far right

An Austrian court has found an alpine hotel’s ban on burkinis discriminatory, a politically explosive ruling in a country where the far right is on the rise.

The full-body bathing suit worn by some Muslim women has become a bugbear of the European far right, which has campaigned to restrict Muslim dress in public spaces.

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Government’s former extremism adviser sounds alarm as idea that diversity is harmful becomes ‘mainstream view’

Two in five Britons believe Muslims cannot integrate into British society and more than half believe the country’s national identity is disappearing due to “diversity”, a report authored by a former government adviser on extremism has found.

Sara Khan, who stood down in 2024 as the UK’s first counter-extremism commissioner, said such views contrasted sharply with accompanying findings that showed 85% of Muslims “favour integration”.

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Emails reveal push at press freedom group to exclude Palestinian journalists based on political criteria.

Asem Alnabih speaks from Gaza about Trump’s Board of Peace concentration camps and what people around the world can do to help Palestinians.

Michael Sanders (Armie Hammer) walks into a hospital room to “talk sense” into a rape victim

Citizen Vigilante is not only a vicious film, it is an extraordinarily stupid film. Directed by Uwe Boll, the German director behind the films Rampage and Darfur (previously best known for making video games into movies), it stars Armie Hammer (real name Armand Hammer, like the abrasive smokers’ toothpaste) as a former American army officer who goes around an unnamed European city (though it is mostly shot in Zagreb, Croatia) with an automatic pistol issuing homilies about fairness and the rule of law in between dispensing violent ‘justice’ to criminals and the judges who let them off, while posting pixellated videos on social media, castigating the ‘takeover’ of western society by immigrants and the “woke left”, proclaiming that he is doing this for the people “until they learn to do it themselves”. His exploits are interspersed with amateurish fake news footage as a breathless female presenter tells us about the immigrant crimewave and how women are afraid to walk the streets or let their children play outside as well as admiring social media videos saying “we need someone like him in Canada/Germany/wherever”. The film can be watched on YouTube for free at present: [1], [2].

The plot is detailed on the film’s Wikipedia entry. Hammer’s character kills three racketeers who had been planning to raid his shop and burn it down. An Interpol chief appears on TV, suggesting that the vigilante is part of some sort of Russian- and Chinese-backed international terrorist cell; meanwhile, Mr Toothpaste pays the bus fare of three local yobs who had refused to pay before delivering one of his lectures on fairness. He visits a badly-injured rape victim in hospital who initially tells him she wants her attackers imprisoned for the rest of their lives; when he explains what going to trial would mean and asks “do you want justice?”, she says yes. A group of armed police make their way to his flat while he has a worker in one of his brothels perform a sex act on him before he tells her to open the windows when clients shower, to stop mould growing on the walls. A police SWAT team raid his flat and find he has built himself a mini fortress with two weapons protruding; police open fire when he refuses to surrender, he fires on them and a number are killed. Later on, when the building is raided in his absence, police open the lid of a booby-trapped container which explodes in their face, killing several more cops and injuring the Interpol chief.

He kidnaps a judge who had passed a comically ‘woke’ sentence on a group of young rapists and given a TV address describing the attackers as victims, driving him to a remote place before killing him in a way that was meant to look like suicide (though he took the weapon with him). He then goes to the home of one of the gang rapists where he, his parents and his sister are eating dinner. He tells the rapist to call the other perpetrators and tell them to come around on a pretext, while interrogating him and his family. The rapist said he was getting psychiatric help and would be better in the future, the sister makes excuses for him, saying the women in Europe go round in miniskirts with their breasts on display, while the father said he had the Qur’an and his family values. Mr Toothpaste responded that his values were archaic and that it was the bad people who had come out of their home countries, not the good. When the other perpetrators arrive, he ushers them into the room where the family are sitting, killing them in front of the family then murdering the family.

If there had been a genre of vigilante movies already, this would stand as a parody of it with only a couple of changes. The sheer hypocrisy of Hammer’s character undermines his ruthless righteousness. He is a scoundrel, a brothel owner, a slum landlord, a cop killer. Despite the rage about Muslim immigrants and all their criminal ways, Mr Toothpaste is an immigrant himself (he calls himself a ‘citizen’ but is not) and performs all but one of the murders in this film. While some may approve of the rapists’ killings (or laying low the thugs he met on the bus, after later coming across them robbing someone for their mobile phone), nobody would agree that someone believing or repeating rape myths — myths widely believed in western society as well as among some immigrants — makes it acceptable to kill them. It is also not true that it is mostly migrants who do this, or that there is no legal redress when judges pass ridiculously lax sentences: in this country, two juvenile rapists had their community sentences increased to custodial ones only last week after a public outcry led to an appeal. In the Netherlands, two men in their 40s, one a former police officer, were acquitted of the rape of a 17-year-old girl because she did not resist or make her lack of consent obvious enough (that case is also going to appeal). In much of Europe where the Napoleonic Code prevails, even acquittals in lower courts can be overturned by higher courts, unlike in the UK. The closest incident I can think of to the opening murder scene (where a woman was senselessly murdered by a stranger in front of her toddler son) was the murder of Rachel Nickell in London in 1992, the perpetrator of which was a white man, Robert Napper. (Some might compare it to the murder of Iryna Zarutska on a North Carolina commuter train last year, which Uwe Boll has alluded to in interviews, but that happened after this was filmed.)

The scene of the police raid on Hammer’s character’s flat is also pretty ludicrous. In most developed countries the police, having gained access to a dwelling where a gunman was holding them at bay, would not just open fire when he failed to surrender at the first time of asking. There would be a siege, and there would be negotiations and only if he posed an immediate threat, by aiming a gun at them for example, would they fire at him. What happens in the street is different because a gunman in the street can injure bystanders (not to say that unjust killings do not happen in that situation). Some of the right-wing commentary supporting the film call the slain officers “corrupt police”, but in this case there was no corruption as such. They weren’t on the side of the rapists. They were trying to arrest an armed, violent serial killer.

The plot and the behaviour of the main character in Citizen Vigilante reflects Uwe Boll’s history as a maker of gamer films. It is a gamer’s fantasy, roaming around with a machine pistol, beating up baddies like a 21st century Terminator, shooting dead people who just get in the way: not only the actual criminals but their families and the police too. There is no room for subtlety: the police are not just acting in a system which doesn’t always deliver the degree of justice we might want, no: they’re baddies too and have to be blasted with the Uzi or incinerated. It is also extremely racist, with all the criminals being foreign in one way or another and mostly Middle Eastern. It plays up to assumptions about Arab society, the idea that Muslims newly arrived in the West (the family killed at the end are understood to be Syrian) will have never seen a woman not in an abaya and headscarf, at least; most of these countries have Christian populations, and Muslims who are not that religious, and there will be plenty of women dressed similarly to those in the West and, in some places, in bathing attire. This idea that they would never have seen a less than fully dressed woman before, or that this would produce uncontrollable sexual desire, is just not true.

The film is racist not because it posits that migrants do not have the right to rape, or should be punished when they do. It’s racist because it pretends that migrants, people perceived as ‘foreign’ (not including white Americans), are the only criminals of significance, that they are the only people who have objectionable attitudes to women, or who would excuse rape or blame the victims. (He does see two white men try to drug their dates, and swaps their drinks around so the men get the drug instead, but doesn’t shoot them.) Racist responses talk contemptuously of it being ‘dangerous’; the reason it is dangerous is because we have had more than one outbreak of violence in the UK since 2024 where organised mobs descended on towns as a result of mere rumours of crimes being committed by immigrants, on one occasion burning people out of their homes, running riot and threatening people because of the colour of their skin, and it is only a matter of time before these mobs kill someone and it might be someone completely innocent, and the rumour completely baseless. “Germany Banned Citizen Vigilante — are millions of men about to copy him?!”, gushes Nick Buckley MBE. Wouldn’t that be wonderful, eh? It’s all over YouTube and people are watching it for free, so Boll isn’t making any money out of it, but this could prove to be the 21st century’s Birth of a Nation (the 1915 film that inspired the revival of the Ku Klux Klan) which is a good reason to keep it out of cinemas.

BNP canvassers in Burnley, 2012

A week ago, a report on a maternity care scandal in the Nottingham area was published. The Ockenden Maternity Review had been set up in May 2022 “following significant concerns raised regarding the quality and safety of maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) and concerns of local families”; this review replaced a prior regionally-led review as a result of families’ concerns. The week before, Rupert Lowe, founder and currently sole MP of the Restore Britain party, published his report from what he called his “Rape Gang Inquiry” (PDF), his crowd-funded inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal. Excerpts from that review have been published verbatim or uncritically summarised in posts on social media and Substack, often accompanied with complaints about how it was ‘ignored’ by the mainstream media; Ockenden’s review was, by contrast, front-page news, as was Baroness Amos’s review into maternity services nationwide, along with a high-profile resignation from its board. (The charity Rape Crisis has given its response here.)

I mention the two together because the Ockenden review represents how long an inquiry into a major regional scandal can take when done properly; the RGI report shows how quickly you can do it if you have reached your conclusion before you start. So many injustices have taken years to put right — Bloody Sunday, Hillsborough and the Grenfell Tower disaster spring to mind. Lowe’s report consists of a summary, a long section consisting of survivor testimony from the inquiry (usually with first names as pseudonyms, though some are identifiable having spoken publicly) and four profiles of ‘whistleblowers’. These include a former UKIP councillor, Caven Vines, who was successfully sued for libel by two Rotherham Labour MPs, John Healey and Kevin Barron, for claiming they knew about grooming gang abuse but did nothing (Lowe omits to mention the UKIP link). He also includes three long paragraphs on “Tommy Robinson”, without giving his real name (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), portraying him as a man persecuted by the police for “exposing grooming gangs” and for “speaking publicly” after forming the English Defence League, rather than rightly prosecuted for assaults, mortgage fraud, use of a false passport, stalking and harassment, and interfering in a grooming gang case in a way that could prejudice it (everyone in the media here knows that is against the law).

Lowe presents claims from politicians as fact. There is a page and a half about the situation in London, where to date there has been no prosecution of anyone for grooming gang activity but which he alleges “stands exposed as the epicentre of institutional denial in the grooming gang scandal” and where “the scale of abuse … was more catastrophic than anywhere else in the country”, an extraordinary claim. It is entirely possible that London is not free of grooming gangs, but to claim it is worse than anywhere else and has been somehow covered up really needs proof, not mere claims from a Tory councillor in Harrow and an ex-cop on a video posted by the Daily Express’s YouTube channel. London is the centre of the national media and if there was evidence of a lot of such abuse going on, it could easily have been reported on. Lowe alleges that the Metropolitan Police “announced a review of 9,000 child sexual exploitation cases”, inviting the reader to assume (wrongly) that CSE and grooming gang activity are synonymous. In a chapter outlining the “Islamic” influence on the gangs, he quotes liberally from a pseudonymous misery memoir by one Hannah Shah. Other unreliable sources include a Triggernometry podcast episode and various politically biased think-tank reports (Policy Exchange and Quilliam for example).

His chapter on the “Islamic influence” contains a long list of supposed issues with Islam (often flimsily-understood concepts) that are actually irrelevant to this situation, not only because they are simply inapplicable to the situation (for example, the discourse on slavery and the Barbary pirates, who were from North Africa, which is nowhere near Pakistan, and the victims were not slaves) but because the major players in the gangs were not particularly religious and just used distorted, selective readings of Islam to justify their behaviour. Every aspect of their behaviour and the modus operandi of the grooming gangs goes against many aspects of Islamic law: most obviously, the prohibition of consuming or supplying alcohol or other narcotics, sex outside marriage, pimping, rape, deception (such as forming relationships with vulnerable girls to lure them into the clutches of the gangs), coming between girls and their parents, using violence and threats to keep victims in their grip and prevent them living their own lives, among many other things. None of this is jihad; it’s just criminality. Lowe cites a Dr Hill  As for Al-Wala’ w’al-Bara’ (loyalty and disavowal), it’s quite likely that most of these men had never heard the term but as said the late mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdul-Aziz bin Baz, who took a hardline view of the concept, “Hating them and regarding them as enemies does not mean that you should mistreat them or transgress against them if they are not in a state of war with the Muslims”. Dr Hatem al-Haj gives a more nuanced view on the subject here.

Rupert Lowe makes no attempt at analysis beyond issues such as political correctness and fear of being perceived as racist. The various blogs and social media posts which parrot extracts from this report also relay this ‘analysis’ uncritically. To clarify, this was a reason some of the time but was not the reason all the time. As Maggie Oliver and others have mentioned, other reasons include laziness, political interference and classism and sexism within police forces and social work departments: the young victims were seen as difficult, uncooperative, “child prostitutes”, the authors of their own misfortune, among other things. Rape myths are common in society and police across the UK and overseas have been known to look for ways to dispose of rape complaints unless they meet common “classic rape” stereotypes; this was seen in the investigation into the “Black Cab rapist”, John Worboys, and at least one of his victims was posh (now married to Boris Johnson, no less), so when they are girls from troubled families or council estates, the response can be expected to be at least as bad. West Yorkshire detectives stubbornly refused to believe that the Yorkshire Ripper was a Yorkshireman, having heard a north-easterner boast of the crimes on tape, despite several of his victims telling them so. There is nothing for the police in his set of ‘recommendations’; no challenge to police sexism or misogyny (or classism). Cases of serving police officers abusing their partners and spouses and others backing them up, or committing sexual crimes and getting away with it for some time are legion. I guess a MacPherson report for women would be too woke; wouldn’t want to hurt the police’s precious morale, would we?

There was a time when the existence of grooming gangs were widely doubted, that they were believed to be a figment of propaganda. We now know the gangs themselves were real, but this report absolutely is propaganda. It takes survivors’ stories and presents a pre-made analysis and recommendations that are standard right-wing talking points. This report is not a substitute for a proper public inquiry; that will have to take into account factors this report does not touch because its purpose will be to prevent further such abuses and to protect children both at home and in care, not to be racist enough to satisfy podcasters and the Reform/Restore media or to justify the policies of one political party.

A Photo Essay by Tomohiro Oshima

 

Japan has never declared itself a country of immigration.

Through successive revisions of its immigration laws, the government has maintained that it “does not adopt an immigration policy.” It has absorbed foreign workers through the Technical Intern Training Program, drawn international students into its labor market, and refused to call any of it immigration. By the end of 2023, the number of registered foreign residents reached approximately 3.4 million1. Yet the majority remain institutionally precarious — suspended between economic necessity and legal exclusion.

Scholar Hidenori Sakanaka, a former director of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau, has long argued that Japan operates as a de facto country of immigration while refusing to officially call it one — absorbing foreign labor through side-door channels even as it denies any shift in national policy. The vacuum this creates is filled by religious communities, ethnic networks, and mosques.

A young girl pauses during Quran study at Masjid Istiqlal Osaka, in Nishinari Ward’s Kamagasaki district.

In Nishinari Ward, Osaka — in the district known as Kamagasaki — stands Masjid Istiqlal Osaka. “Istiqlal” means independence in Indonesian. True to its name, this mosque has built a network of mutual aid that operates independently of state institutions. Muslims from Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and elsewhere gather here to pray, study, celebrate, and sustain one another. Children learn the Quran alongside their Japanese homework; young couples marry under Islamic rites; newborns are held in aging hands.

Children sit on the floor of the mosque’s community hall during a weekend lesson.

A teacher guides a student through her Quran writing exercises, sharing a smile mid-lesson.

One of those newborns is called Minami — “south” in Japanese — because she was born in the south of Osaka. Her father is a diplomat, and the family will soon leave again. “She was born here,” her mother said quietly. “So this is part of her.”

A grandmother holds her grandchild at the mosque — the newest generation of a family built far from home.

A child holds a handmade paper basket, decorated with drawings of Indonesian sweets, during a community gathering.

A student looks up from her notebook during Quran study.

But the mosque’s function extends far beyond the rhythms of ordinary life. When the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake struck, Masjid Istiqlal opened its doors to displaced people — stocking halal food, opening its prayer space, and providing bedding. Japan’s official evacuation plans had made no provision for halal dietary requirements, prayer schedules, or language barriers. During COVID-19, the mosque distributed food to those who had lost income and facilitated vaccination for foreign nationals facing linguistic barriers to public health services. These are not acts of charity. They are acts of infrastructure.

Children sit together on the prayer hall floor between lessons.

Boys laugh together at the mosque — the next generation growing up in Kamagasaki.

Kamagasaki was built by Japan’s postwar economic miracle as a reservoir of day labor. As that generation disappears, young Muslim migrants are putting down roots in the same streets. Among them: a man from Indonesia who works at an elderly care facility in rural Wakayama, who recently brought his bride from home. “When we have children,” he said, “we will have to move — somewhere outside Osaka, where the schools are better.”

A bride signs the marriage certificate at Masjid Istiqlal Osaka, witnesses looking on.

A groom places a ring on his bride’s finger during their Islamic wedding ceremony at the mosque.

Japan did not decide to receive these people. Yet they are already here — raising the next generation, building community, putting down roots. The country is changing without having decided to change.

 

Related:

– Ramadan In India’s Capital: A Photo Essay

– Ramadan At The Uyghur Mosque: Community, Prayers, And Grief

1    The figure comes from Japan’s Immigration Services Agency. Their English-language report confirms 3,410,992 foreign residents as of the end of 2023 (see the chart on p.1): https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/930004452.pdf

The post Undecided Nation: How A Mosque In Kamagasaki Fills Japan’s Immigration Gap – A Photo Story appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Melat Kiros rattles political establishment.

Kids were slain, tortured and persecuted because of their Palestinian identity.

Israeli forces arrest “doctor of the poor,” health care activists in West Bank.

When life doesn’t go as planned, the lessons of Hudaybiyyah remind us to trust the wisdom of Allah, Al-Ḥakīm.

Allah Is Al-Ḥakīm

As human beings, one of the greatest challenges we face is trusting Allah’s wisdom when we cannot yet see the wisdom behind His decree. We often struggle to understand why events unfold as they do, particularly when circumstances seem contrary to our hopes and expectations. Yet Allah is Al-Ḥakīm — the One whose wisdom is perfect, whose decree is precise, and whose knowledge encompasses the past, the present, and what is yet to come. This reality is reflected throughout the Seerah, with the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah serving as one of the most compelling examples.

A Dream That Inspired Hope

Six years after the Hijrah, the Prophet ﷺ had a dream in which he and his followers entered Makkah to complete the ʿUmrah pilgrimage. Certain that this dream was a divine message from Allah, he shared the news with his Companions and arranged to travel to the Holy Sanctuary. Allah later revealed:

“Certainly has Allah shown to His Messenger the vision in truth: you will surely enter al-Masjid al-Ḥarām, if Allah wills, in safety, with your heads shaved or hair shortened, not fearing [anyone].”  (Qur’an 48:27)

For the Muslims, this journey was of profound significance. Years earlier, they had been forced to leave Makkah, abandoning their homes and families for the sake of Allah. Returning to their birthplace and the Kaʿbah filled them with hope and anticipation. The Prophet ﷺ, accompanied by approximately 1,400 of his Companions, entered the ritual state of iḥrām. Entering iḥrām with sacrificial animals demonstrated that their purpose was purely spiritual, and not military.

When Expectations Meet Reality

As the Muslims approached Makkah, they were looking forward to the opportunity to perform ʿUmrah. However, the Quraysh suddenly thwarted their hopes by denying them entry into the city. What started as a pilgrimage fueled by faith and optimism unexpectedly turned into uncertainty.

The Muslims made camp. As negotiations began and envoys were sent back and forth, the prospect of reaching Makkah became increasingly unlikely. Many of the Prophet’s companions felt a deep sense of disappointment; having left Madinah specifically to perform the Umrah, they now found their path blocked.

The atmosphere at Hudaybiyyah became significantly tense; as a result, the Prophet ﷺ dispatched ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān to Makkah. He was tasked with negotiating with the Quraysh to reassure them that the Muslims had come exclusively for the pilgrimage and not for warfare. ʿUthmān was an ideal choice for this role because of his high standing and strong tribal connections within the Quraysh leadership.

Confusion and anxiety soon spread among the Muslims after reports circulated that ʿUthmān had been killed. As tensions mounted, it was difficult to imagine that these very events would become the prelude to one of the greatest victories in Islamic history.

Little did they know that Allah, Al-Ḥakīm, the All-Wise, was subtly guiding every unfolding event towards a reality the Muslims could not yet perceive.

The Treaty That Felt Like a Defeat

Ultimately, discussions between the Muslims and the Quraysh led to a peace treaty, later known as the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah. However, several conditions seemed very unfavourable. One of these conditions was that the Muslims had to return to Madinah without completing their ʿUmrah pilgrimage. Having travelled with the expectation of entering Makkah, many found the outcome difficult to accept.

Among those who struggled most was ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. Troubled by the terms of the treaty, he asked the Prophet ﷺ, “Are you not truly the Messenger of Allah?” The Prophet ﷺ replied, “Indeed, I am the Messenger of Allah, and I do not disobey Him, and He will never forsake me” (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī).

At that moment, ʿUmar could see only the apparent setback before him, while the Prophet ﷺ remained steadfast in his trust in Allah. His questions reflected not a lack of faith, but the struggle of a sincere believer seeking to understand what had not yet become clear.

Years later, he recalled that day with deep regret, devoting himself to prayer, fasting, charity, and other acts of worship to seek Allah’s forgiveness. His response powerfully reminds us that sincere believers may, at times, struggle to understand Allah’s decree. Nevertheless, true faith involves being humble before Allah and trusting in His wisdom even when it is not immediately apparent.

Amid the sorrow, another remarkable lesson emerged. Seeing the Muslims consumed by distress and confusion, the Prophet ﷺ consulted his wife, Umm Salamah. She suggested that he lead by example, performing the rituals himself in silence. When the Prophet ﷺ acted on her counsel, the Companions promptly joined him in performing the rites.

Umm Salamah’s wisdom resolved a difficult moment at Hudaybiyyah. The incident reflects the Prophet ﷺ’s noble character. Despite being the recipient of divine revelation, he deeply valued consultation, actively sought the counsel of others, and embraced wisdom wherever Allah placed it.

A Clear Victory

As the Muslims returned to Madinah, many struggled to accept the outcome of Hudaybiyyah. Their entry into Makkah had been denied, the terms of the treaty seemed unfavourable, and the long-awaited ʿUmrah pilgrimage had been deferred.

It was during this very journey that Allah revealed:

“Indeed, We have granted you a clear victory.” (Qur’an 48:1)

The revelation dramatically reshaped the narrative of Hudaybiyyah. How could an event marked by disappointment be described as a clear victory? This was the wisdom of Al-Ḥakīm, unfolding in a manner the Muslims could not yet comprehend.

The treaty ushered in a period of peace that paved the way for Islam to grow. In the years that followed, more people entered the faith than ever before.

Spiritual Insights for Muslims Today

Hudaybiyyah offers many timeless lessons for Muslims navigating uncertainty, disappointment, and delay. Among the most prominent are the following:

1. We Judge by the Present; Yet Allah Sees the Future

Many of us have experienced situations that initially seemed disappointing, only to realise later that Allah had placed goodness within them. The Companions could see only the disappointment of Hudaybiyyah. They had set out hoping to enter Makkah and complete their pilgrimage, yet found themselves returning home without fulfilling the purpose for which they had travelled. Allah, however, saw the victories that would unfold through the treaty. We all experience moments when life unfolds differently from what we had hoped. We may desperately want a particular job, hope for a certain opportunity, or make plans that seem entirely right to us, only for the door to remain closed.

Hudaybiyyah reminds us that we often evaluate events according to what we have lost, whereas Allah’s wisdom encompasses what those very events may yet bring about.

2. Faith Requires Obedience Before Understanding

The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah demonstrates the Companions’ profound love for the Prophet ﷺ and their commitment to Islam. Despite their dashed hopes, they followed his example, shaving their heads and completing the rites, trusting his judgement even when the wisdom of the treaty was not yet clear. There are times when we know what Allah requires of us, yet we struggle to see the wisdom behind it. Whether it is maintaining family ties after being hurt, persevering in prayer during hardship, or remaining patient when a duʿāʾ seems unanswered, as Muslims, we are called to trust Allah before we fully understand His decree.

Hudaybiyyah reminds us that obedience often precedes understanding.

3. The Perfection of Allah’s Wisdom

The reaction of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb at Hudaybiyyah is a powerful reminder of the perfection of Allah’s wisdom and the constraints of human judgment. ʿUmar was not an ordinary believer; he was among the greatest of the Companions. The Prophet ﷺ praised his insight and virtues, and even said that if there were to be a prophet after him, it would have been ʿUmar. Yet despite his sincerity, wisdom, and faith, he struggled to comprehend the wisdom behind the treaty.

How often do we become convinced that a particular outcome is best for us, only to discover later that our perspective was incomplete? We may think that a particular opportunity, relationship, or plan will bring us happiness, yet Allah knows what we do not know. The example of ʿUmar reminds us that even the most sincere and insightful believers are limited in their wisdom, whereas Allah’s wisdom is perfect and all-encompassing.

If ʿUmar could not fully perceive Allah’s wisdom in that moment, how much more limited is our own understanding? Hudaybiyyah reminds us to approach Allah’s decree with humility, accepting that His wisdom is perfect and transcends our knowledge.

4. Women’s Contributions to the Prophetic Community

The role of Umm Salamah at Hudaybiyyah reminds us that women were active contributors to the Prophetic community and that the flourishing of the early Muslim community was shaped by the efforts of both men and women. Her wisdom helped guide the Muslims through a moment of profound difficulty and uncertainty.

How often do we benefit from the advice of a parent, friend, or teacher after initially overlooking their perspective? Umm Salamah’s role at Hudaybiyyah reminds us of the importance of listening to wise counsel and recognising the value that others can bring to our lives and communities.

The incident also reflects the esteem and high regard in which the Prophet ﷺ held women. Despite being the recipient of divine revelation, he sought and accepted Umm Salamah’s counsel, appreciating the wisdom of her advice. Hudaybiyyah also reminds us that insight and sound judgment are qualities that Allah bestows upon whomever He wills.

5. Allah’s Wisdom Often Becomes Clear Only with Time

The hidden virtues of Hudaybiyyah were not immediately apparent to the Companions. Only with the passing of time did they witness the peace, growth, and victories that flowed from the treaty. The incident reminds us to be cautious about judging Allah’s decree too quickly, for some of His greatest blessings only become apparent in hindsight. How often do we look back on a difficult period in our lives and become aware of blessings that we were unable to see at the time?

Conclusion

The incident at Hudaybiyyah stands as one of the clearest manifestations of Allah as Al-Ḥakīm, the All-Wise. What appeared to many of the Companions as a setback was, in reality, the beginning of one of the greatest victories in Islamic history.

The Companions saw the delay; Allah saw the victory.

They saw the obstacle; Allah saw the opening.

And they saw what was before them, while Al-Ḥakīm saw what was yet to come.

And therein lies a timeless lesson for every believer living through the uncertainties of life: trust in the wisdom of Al-Ḥakīm, even when it has not yet become clear.

Related:

Reconstructing Our Understanding of the Sīrah

Prophetic Guidance For An Exemplary Ramadan

The post Trusting Allah: Lessons from Hudaybiyyah appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Where do you watch a World Cup match in Nuseirat with just 10 minutes of electricity a day?

Unmarried man and woman whipped 21 times each because they had violated province’s version of Islamic law

A young couple in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province have been publicly caned after a Sharia court convicted them of violating Islamic law by kissing during a TikTok livestream.

The court ordered the couple, a 22-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman, to be whipped with a rattan cane 21 times each for kissing without being married. At least 100 people witnessed the caning, carried out by a group of people wearing robes and hoods on a stage in Bustanussalatin City Park in Banda Aceh.

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Katharina von Schnurbein smears organizers of Rome Pride.

My name is Ahmad, but, thanks to Aunt Samah, people call me Johnny.

Does anyone seriously think this kind of amplification is harmless?

Elon Musk has long described himself as a “centrist”. He likes to pretend that he hasn’t changed his views; it’s the Democrats who have lurched to the left. He’s merely a free speech advocate; a self-styled “moderate” resisting the excesses of the “woke mind virus”.

But when you pay attention to his actual digital footprint – the tweets, the retweets, the algorithmic amplification – a very different, much darker picture emerges. The world’s richest person clearly isn’t interested in cultivating a neutral marketplace of ideas; rather, he has turned Twitter/X into a platform where far-right and racist content is repeatedly rewarded and amplified.

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Strong marriages are built on more than tawakkul – they’re built on honest conversations about money.

When Expectations Collide

Khadija, a 26 year old woman living in New York, has been searching for a marriage partner for a few years now and finally met someone she thought could marry. Her courtship with Khalid went really well for a month. She adored the fact that he was quite an ambitious man focused on serving the community with most of his free time.

Her own work as a teacher was a modest one, but she lived with her father so her own expenses were almost nothing, affording her a comfortable lifestyle. As they got closer to the marriage date, both of them began to realise that there were major differences in the way they were approaching life itself when they began to discuss the wedding ceremony.

She wanted to have the Nikah at the mosque, with a grand reception in a rented garden afterward.

He, on the other hand,  wanted something more modest, with a reception at his house with a total of 45 guests, as he preferred to spend the money on a down payment for a new house, which was not something he had consulted her about.

Neither person was acting in bad faith. The relationship ended because they had never taken the time to understand each other’s expectations. The disagreements were short but impactful and the two of them decided sorrowfully to end the courtship and what could potentially have been a wonderful marriage for the two of them.

The above is one among the many different stories that make up the Muslim marriage crisis that is swiftly proliferating the Ummah (especially in the West).  Many Muslim leaders, counselors, and researchers have expressed concern that divorce has become increasingly common among American Muslims (although comprehensive national data remain limited).

The reasons for this are many and cannot be limited to one issue alone. But what we do know is that money is among the biggest factors that lead to relationship/courtship breakdown.

Financial Incompatibilities and the Marriage Crisis

While statistics on this issue are difficult to come by,  estimates suggest that financial problems contribute to roughly 20–40% of divorces in the United States, making money one of the leading sources of marital conflict.  Estimates for the UK hover around the 30% mark.

To be clear, this is not due to the main earner of the house earning insufficiently (though that certainly contributes). Rather, it stems from a lack of communication around money in a relationship context that many of us are guilty of doing.

This is both an individual and a societal issue that we face. Many Muslim-majority cultures (South Asian, Arab etc.) are not fully comfortable with speaking about money (barring certain exceptions). This leads to people often avoiding this conversation (consciously or not) within their own marital contexts too. The justification at times that is given (especially by the God-conscious) is that marriage comes with its own Rizq and that we should have tawakkul regarding money matters.

However, while Tawakkul is an important attitude to have, it is not enough if it’s not supplemented by other steps. Tawakkul in Islam has never meant abandoning planning or difficult conversations. The Prophet ﷺ tied trust in Allah to taking the appropriate steps toward success. And no, this does not mean just working harder/smarter (which is also important).

Communicating Expectations

The most significant issue here is communication between the spouses. Aspiring couples should discuss finances at various stages of their courtship. They should begin with broader discussions about principles and values. As they move toward marriage, they should discuss their specific circumstances, expectations, and plans for the nikah and their first year together. Even after marriage, they should continue reviewing their financial situation and expectations regularly.

The details of this are something we discuss in a pre-Nikah guide that we at AML Finance developed.

These discussions are paramount to setting up a healthy marriage because of a key principle that many of us are often not taught: strong and collaborative marriages are built to last when couples can have hard conversations with each other.

Let’s say that again: marriages become strong when couples are not afraid to have honest and frank conversations about difficult subjects.

Struggling With Guilt and Shame

Conversations about money often trigger and bring out emotions such as guilt, shame and fear. Men especially struggle with not feeling adequate and having it all together (due to our expected role as providers) and are often coasting through marriages with their wives not understanding the financial health of their household.

The illusion of comfort and safety only breaks when circumstances change (sudden financial expenses like a new car, medical expenses etc.). This inevitably brings about much negativity and causes the couple to fight and lose trust in the other.

Our own parents are not always able to teach us how to have these conversations. Many of our parents entered marriage under very different economic and social circumstances. As a result, they may not have had to navigate some of the financial realities younger Muslim couples face today.

Issues like the rise of women working, higher levels of integration among younger generations in the West, a cost of living crisis and smaller families, among many others, are new and not something they know how to deal with easily, despite these having an impact on our financial stories.

Our Work and Introducing the Series

At AML Finance, we help people understand their financial backgrounds and navigate financial conversations during the courtship period. Through workshops and training—primarily in the UK—we work with couples from a variety of backgrounds. While our focus is on serving the Muslim community, we believe these principles can benefit families more broadly.

This article is the first in a series exploring the intersection of money and marriage. Future articles will address topics such as personal financial stories, the expectations men and women bring into marriage, modern realities like dual-income households and government-registered versus nikah marriages, and the often-overlooked issue of financial abuse.

Our hope is to encourage healthier conversations around money, helping couples protect their marriages from the whispers of Shaytaan and build stronger relationships rooted in trust, communication, and mutual understanding.

Related:

3 Urgent Financial Questions to Ask A Potential Spouse

Meaningful Money: How Financial Literacy Amplifies Your Giving

The post When Tawakkul Isn’t Enough: Why Financial Silence Hurts Marriages appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

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