I posted this blog a year ago today, & wow was there some controversy regarding it, but today, I want to say that the dream really hasn't changed very much. I feel slightly closer and that today on the anniversary of the attack of the Mavi Marmara in international waters by the Israeli Offence Force I say that we should honour the 9 human lives which we lost and we should stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Gaza, today and every other day. They need us to protect & demand their basic human rights & as Muslims that's more than something we feel we should do, its an obligation. The more people who recognise the suffering & help the Palestinians the more hope of a brighter future for the children of Palestine.
So my blogs usually rhyme, yes? well this isn't poetry it isn't rap this is me. Si. Exception from revival. Or eS if you know me personally. Anyways read the story
After what happened today at like half past four this morning when the Isreali's decided to drop soldiers out of helicopters onto Marmara the one of the ships which was part of the flotilla travelling to Gaza, carrying tonnes of aid I realised something I'd known for a while. Something reflected in things i write usually (before I began writing soley about the loss i've had recently). Something most people tend to see in me only once they've really got to know me. The fact that I eS or Exception or (insert real name here) would love to be a humanitarian aids worker.
I'd love to travel abroad and teach children who never had the chance to learn, Or to work with the ill to make them better, or to build homes for those who had no shelter, or to in even in the slightest way help those less fortunate than me too rebuild their lives. That would make me happy. To see a smile even a slight glimpse of a smile on the face of a human, who had been living in poverty.
Why? Because before I was anybody or anything else, my first duty is as a human being. Because I am a human being. So I as a human being should respect the rights of other human beings. Should help other human beings who do not have as much as me & to share what I have with others even if that leaves me with nothing. A human beings basic rights to food, to clean water, to an education, to a home & to most importantly love should be fulfilled & I want to help those who cannot fulfill them needs themselves to gain what they need to be able to do that.
I believe in a society in which my brothers and sisters not only in Islam but of the Human race can live within, in peace & prosperity. Not fear under governmental dictatorships and harsh regimes inflicted upon them by people who care not for their people.
Yes I'm Fifteen & yes that may seem like a very long shot. But I'm optimistic and whatever little part I can play will be beneficial to a life, or many lives.
Inshallah Allah(swt) will aid me in this and inshallah one day I will help to change a life for the better. Ameen.
Comments
lol yh i didnt really keep up with all the comments being made afterwards but was an inspirational piece of writing no doubt.
My posts have attempted to address problems in the article and provide critical feedback which I think is necessary for the author and anyone reading it. If one wishes to take it great, if they choose not to, great. No doubt it will contribute to their thinking on the topic and maybe shape future views knowing there are a variety of outlooks and consider issues a little more deeply. It always remains my view that Muslims should strive to adopt the strongest view according to the evidences as too often we superficially and blindly adopt the most dominant ideology and culture of our time without considering it due to its pervasiveness.
Personal hard feelings do not come into it for me as I focus on the arguments and avoid addressing the individuals, their personalities and personal beliefs - something important if one does it for the sake of Allah(swt) and not personal fame or glory; thus retaining even the annonymous title!
If one takes critique of ideas personally they should not. If they cannot do this, then maybe publishing is not for them or they should restrict what they publish to a more limited private circle. Publishing to the world sadly contributes to a global debate where views are ruthlessly critiqued - especially as traditional Islamic thought is being comprehensively being attacked as part of the war on Islam in order to make it subservient to secular democracy and humanist ideologies.
I am more than happy to unreservedly and sincerely apologise to all involved in the discussion for anything I may have said knowingly/unknowingly to offend them as the intent was never that. I would not however apologise for critiquing the ideas as I do not find persuasive the counter-arguments that the article is not presenting humanist thoughts. I think that the broad arguments and evidences I presented from the divine sources and classical scholars is what we should present on this topic albeit in our own personal styles and tailored examples.
No doubt we all will remain with different perspectives.
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
If i was to take it that seriously then yes i would stop posting but one person tearing everything i say apart is not about to stop me quite frankly it just made me more determined. Only my post had nothing to do with secular democracies, or the humanist ideologies not by my intention anyway. But i respecet what you are trying to say about the Traditional Islamic views and them bieng attacked because yes i do agree with you there but i'm sure theres alot more that we dont agree on.
Well maybe we would present more arguments. I have already said that I don't know what a humanist is. I didnt know that whilst writing the argument so i cannot have intentionally made my blog post an "humanist blog post". Sorry if i have in anyway offended you but this was a blog post not a article. It was not meant to be perfect nor was it published on here for somebody to come and presume that everything I had written had and underlying message embedded in it because to be quite frank if it did then why would i post it on a muslim forum? why would i even say it like that? Would i not just find some where else to make clear what you seem to think i wanted to say?
I guess we will. But thank you for spending your time critisisng my blog, if nothing else then i seem to have learn some more advance english. and idelogoy's of Humanism which well i doubt i really needed to know.
& as sawsan has said earlier. I'm 15 your older than me as your knowledge & language clearly show. So should you not encourage us, the next generation to do good, to stay on the right path? After all as a teenager i'm sure you know what it's like and how many options you are faced with a nd how hard it actually is to make the right decesions because of all the changes that you face. But that again is another issue, I just think that somewhere in your critisism you should have stopped to think maybe about how this discussion was going to affect the younger generation. I mean this is the voice of the muslim youth website after all?. Anyways Salaams
that's not always the best approach, to always pick at the negative and criticise,, by doing that you have to take into consideration the others persons views and the fact that they may not be entirely wrong. It's actually ok to sometimes say fine that's good and be done with it. Yet I guess it's good your keeping an open mind.
ws Sister
JZK for your comments - they are well received and indicate a sincere individual - may Allah reward you for your efforts.
//If i was to take it that seriously then yes i would stop posting but one person tearing everything i say apart is not about to stop me quite frankly it just made me more determined.//
I am glad to hear this - my critique, maybe not unlike that a teacher or a parent may provide, is not intended to disuade you from writing or doing the dawa which is great from such a young person. It is to highlight potential problems that one may not have been aware of or may have absorbed living in this mixed up society without realising it. Having grown up in the UK myself, I had absorbed no end of secular ideas and views, most of them almost through osmosis like processes - and that is the problem with secularism - it does not impose itself on you in a clear way where you choose to accept it or not (like most religions) but subtely, where you don't even realise you've adopted kufr ideas and values. Unless one studies philosophy, political science, sociology, psychology, political economy and history one struggles to make sense of the ideas and paradigms and those of Islam - adopting all and sundry believing it to be ok with Islam.
The problem is not just in your articles - some of which hmd are good - there are similar issues with this website from my general reading of it. As a platform to encourage youth to express themselves and get interested in Islam, it is a noble aim. However, much of the influences that have been absorbed and digested as seen by the articles are those of western philosophies: nationalism, secularism, democracy, freedom, human rights, identities, citizenship etc The editor and others who post justify these ideas when corrected, and when referred to classical scholarship or contemporary scholarship who have researched and articulated the ideas, they just belittle them or laugh them off - an example of fundamental problems with elections expressed in consent theory is a case in question where some Muslims wish to dump what thousands of years of uninfluenced Islamic scholarship based on Quran and Sunnah have said about the baya (oath of allegiance to a Caliph) for a flawed electoral system which in most cases is little more than a sham to allow existing elites to bounce power between them.
It is strange to find such a strong push for us being British Muslims whilst through history Muslims have seen their political identity as being Muslims who are part of one ummah (that has occassionally fractured to be reunited by great personalities). Since the treaty of Westphalia and the threat from the Ottoman Caliphate, the world have always flexible borders and political identities revolving around religion. Since the creation of nation states, national political identities have been born which began being adopted by Muslimcries centuries later when the colonialists came to their lands and encouraged secular nationalists to take power and destroy the Islamic Caliphate and be politically divided. The project continues today encouraging us to be British Muslims, French Muslims, Egyptian Muslims, Pakistani Muslims, with new loyalties, homelands, histories, cultures and languages that are mutually exclusive to each other with just a common secularised trimmed down set of rituals being the common factor. Useful to keep us divided and as distant as possible from our real brothers and sisters in faith.
I've seen a number of attacks on our culture and heritage and history by posters, which repeat discredited secular nationalist half-truths of our glorious history carefully selected from problematic periods of our history and generalised in a disgraceful manner. These efforts were made when the Ottoman Caliphate was destroyed by the secular nationalists that wanted to discredit and wipe out shared collective Muslim memories and histories, dislocating us from our past, so we adopt the new nationalist political identities to support their new secular nationalist states that would implement corrupt man made systems. Many recent scholars are unravelling such historic revisionism attempts as fraudulent, the famous Ottomanist sister Suraiya Faroqhi being a case in question.
Selective use of classical scholars and Islamic texts are used only when they suit, and ignored when they suit, indicative of a modernist project going on. All of the scholars agreed on the Caliphate or Imamate - where Muslims must have one ruler - however today modernists argue we should have many rulers that leave us politically divided and belittle the Caliphate as not being even from Islam - the flawed democratic model apparently being just as Islamic - failing to mention that over a millenium of Islamic scholarship who were aware of the Greek ideas on democracy never entertained it, with Muslim philosophers attacking it!
I would sincerely encourage my Muslim brothers and sisters to question some of the modern scholars who encourage dubious views, from permitting riba, adopting nationalistic political identites, figting our brothers and sisters with western militaries, permitting dumping of the hijab, dumping ideas of dar al-Islam, through to turning a blind eye when the western nations oppress our brothers and sisters in Palestine or occupy our lands or demonise Muslims who oppose them as extremists or terrorists whilst the kuffar are their brothers and sisters (articles like http://www.votinghalalorharam.blogspot.com/ show even the confusion, divisions and even political pressures on Western Muslim scholars to conform otherwise they are labelled preachers of hate and marginalised like what Ch. 4 did to Suhaib Hasan who in turn quickly turned and began to praise democracy - what can they do?) - all so that we have a comfortable and luxurious lifestyles in the west and keeping the westerners happy, whilst our brothers and sisters around the world are exploited, oppressed, starved, raped, killed, insulted, imprisoned, tortured, no opportunities for their children... I personally am more than happy to sacrifice such luxuries for Allah's sake if it helps improve the lot of my brothers and sisters across the Muslim world! And if it requires minimally speaking up to do something about it, I am more than happy to do so - regardless of the consequences.
We are living in very confused and difficult times, our lands dominated by Western nations and their political lackeys, dominating us culturally, politically, militarily and intellectually, doing their best to prevent us from unifying and removing their hegemony and control.
It is at this time the likes of you and I need to do what we can to bring about change - if we don't who will?
Salaams sister,
I guess in the end no that we've both explained our selves a little more were not that much different. Well yes we are different in many ways but i don't label myself a british muslim. I am a Muslim, I have a British Nationality but that really I don't see as my identity, my identity is that of a Muslim girl. whether that be turkish, australian, morrocan, egyptian, palestinian is irrelevant. I am a muslim, Islam unites or is meant to unite the Ummah, i guess to an extent i will agree with you on the idea that many people think label themselves as britich muslim, french muslim ect & we cannot condemn that as wrong as they maybe merely pointing out there nationality and not really seeing it or intending it to mean they are not part of the bigger picture part of the Muslim Ummah.
I am alot less knowledgeable at this age then you are, and inshallah i will go onto learn more about my religion & the history of Islam & don't think that my culture or nationality is going to stand in the way of me personally bieng a Muslim, Modern Scholars i don't know enough about to understand properly or make any judgement on. But I wear my hijab, dress modestly, practise islam, I do my best. I never used to even acknowledge my religion much in the past i have been very far from it. But recently in the past year my Identity as a Muslim has become everything to me, it is who i am and it is far more important to me than bieng a British citizen or of a Pakistani heritage. Thats all irrelevant to an extent. Yes i respect the luxuries i have living here in Britian as many of my Muslim brothers and Sisters worldwide have nothing. but on the other hand yes i would be willing to give it all up. that wouldn't stand as a problem for me. They say we are blessed with this western life but this western life, or atleast some aspects of it, are what leave our brothers and sisters abroad in such bad states for example the taxes that we pay maybe used on eapons used in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in saying all of that that does not mean that being here in Britian is not a privelidge that i respect nor does it mean that i do not like bieng classed as British because quite frankly i have no issue with that. I just don't think that has anything to do with my religous identity. The two do not mix, nor should they. My culture, my religion and my nationality are three diferent things completley.
I wish to go onto study more into Islam the history, & learn classic arabic & look into alot more of the classical islamic texts and the the sunnah the hadith & the meaning of the quran. I have alot to learn, and i am aware of that. but inshallah, if Allah (swt) wills i will take whichever steps i take in life with the right intentions for the right reasons & i will know the Islamic rulings on it.
& as for secular & humanist & inislamic ideology. Things surround us everyday living in a society in which it is in alot of cases the norm as a teenager experienceing life and many aspects of it for the first time I'm bound to make mistakes but Inshallah I will correct myself & not intend to make these mistakes on purpose. But the ideology's that surround us, as u said may be absobed into us without us even knowing so yes it is important to know the difference. and thats where time comes in with age inshallah my knowledge will grow from the little i understand and know now to something alot bigger and i will be able to share my views on them topics and be able to see them alot clearer as and when the time comes & i understand.
As for making a change. Yes i beleive in change. Yes Now as a 15 year old i see the world as a great big mess in many different ways & yes i do want to take an active roll in making a change be that big or small. But for now i will stick to issues i can understand and do what i as a 15 year old school kid can do.
May allah(swt) keep us all on the right path & keep us all working towards the right goal. Ameen.
Excellent answer! Your understanding is actually very good!
thankyou.
I was having a look at that InspiredByMuhammad
website and on the page on coexistance it mentioned the following hadith:
I wonder what the exact reference is. But it does help support the original blog post as being correct.
Another hadith mentioned on the page on human rights:
and goes on to state:
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
"All creatures are like a family to God" Hadith Mishkat 3:1392
"How many people find fault in what they're reading and the fault is in their own understanding" Al Mutanabbi
Sahih Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 64, Number 265 - Narrated Abu Huraira:
and for the earlier discussion - Surah Kahf verse 110 sees the Prophet
being told by God to mention that he 
is a man like the kuffar he is addressing: [qs:18:110]
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
Your point being???
Don't you think its beautiful?
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
The verse is beautiful - shame about your interpretation of it!
The verse is comparing Muhammed(saw) with humans (bashar) and not with kuffar - it is not saying he is kuffar like you, it is saying he is human like you continuing to say except he receives revelation! A major difference!
The verse is God telling the Prophet
to tell the people - in this case the kuffar, the mushrikeen, polythiests, that he 
is a man like them.
I am not saying that me and the prophet
are the same, that would be an absurd thing to even contemplate I am a sinner and nowhere near the calibre of most scholars and walis etc, forget something so noble. Besides, there is another hadith when the sahabah tried to copy the continuous fasts of the Prophet (saw), he 
told them to not to do that because he is not like them.
I am not questioning that the prophet
was special beyond my comprehension. I am saying that God told the prophet 
mention a common bond of humanity when preaching to the kuffaar.
The common bond of humanity is something you have been arguing against.
(The hadith I quoted also mentioned the widowed and the poor without specifying that they have to be Muslim)
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
The verse mentions nothing about bond of humanity - it makes the point he is a human to whom revelation has been provided.
This is totally different to arguing we were first and foremost humans and had some common values which we can somehow agree to - we were not - we were were rooh at the beginning. As humans, the values and ideas we had were from Adam(as) who had his ideas and values from God.
What is this bond of humanity? Do you mean we have common biological charactertistics or something else?
Do u by any chance know how many times the Qur'an addresses the Bani'i Adam (as) (i.e. all of humanity)?
And we are all Creations of God.
And we all have souls.
And we dont have ANY way of knowing which of the people we meet on a day-to-day basis are destined for Paradise, and which are destined for Hell.
So I think we should be really careful in brandishing words like 'kuffar', 'mushrik', or even 'Muslim' or 'Mu'min'.
It is only for God to Judge.
Don't just do something! Stand there.
You've not answered my question above - maybe you can have another go.
Glad you appear to accept we were souls before we were humans - and that as humans, we have no values other than those provided to us.
God may use Bani Adam however as you no doubt know that bani refers to offspring or descendents - what is your point?
I'm not in the business of telling individuals their destination as that is for God to decide - however telling them what God has said about kafireen, munafiqeen etc and their final destination is my business... as it should be of anyone who does da'wa.
That when addressing the descendants of Adam (as), Allah (swt) is addressing all mankind. So all mankind share something which is sanctioned by God. That should answer your question. (if you don't understand what I meant, then me typing any more will simply confuse you further.)
But da'wah is supposed to be done with hikmah (wisdom).
Please tell me, where the hikmah is in saying to a non-Muslim that we believe non-Muslims will have a horrible punishment, and that the only way to avoid this punishment is to become Muslim?
How is that da'wah? For me, it is just like gloating in a very rude way.
Don't just do something! Stand there.
What does mankind share? Have you actually read the preceding discussion or have you just jumped in again...after a few posts only to say not sure what you are talking about?
But da'wah is supposed to be done with hikmah (wisdom).
Please tell me, where the hikmah is in saying to a non-Muslim that we believe non-Muslims will have a horrible punishment, and that the only way to avoid this punishment is to become Muslim?
How is that da'wah? For me, it is just like gloating in a very rude way.[/quote]
Well given God has mentioned such statements in the Quran which were read to the Kuffar of Mecca, and maybe if you give it a little bit more thought than you have given it with your comments above, you might conclude the Muslims and Allah were not gloating - then again you might not!
Once again, seeing either the trees or the forest.
Why was God telling the Prophet
to remind the kuffar that he 
was also a man? It was invoking a common bond between them two in order to preach.
I get the impression that you are too arrogant to admit fault. I should give you leeway as you are most probably far younger than me. But at the same time the blog poster you jumped on is most likely younger than you.
But that is not really defending my actions. I should be more gracious.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
You forget the verse is also for believers - and for humanity - you keep banging on about kuffar and bonds with them!
And one could turn the comment of arrogance back to you too...
I dont forget that the Qur'an is also for believers. But that bit of it is irrelevant to the discussion here as you were denying a common bond of humanity that is also shared with Non Muslims. I was specifically addressing that.
With believers there are many more bonds too.
yes one can. It Does not make it any less true.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
Maybe you can point out where?
Of-course Non-Muslims like Muslims have heads, arms, legs, biological systems etc That is in common and noone denies that.
However, to argue we have something else in common in origin, putting religion aside, ie values and ideas - this is nonsense! I would challenge you to substantiate it! This Quranic verse provides no evidence on that and as such is an irrelevant discussion if all you're trying to prove is biological commonality - a cursory glance shows that without the need of any tafsirs of verses!
If it was irrelevant why did God tell the Prophet
to remind the people of their common bond?
They could already see he
had two hands, two eyes, a head, fingers and toes, but the verse goes much much further than that.
But God still asked the prophet
to say to the people that "I am a man like you". Not just "a man", but "a man like you" (Basharum-mithlukum). "like you" being the key words that I am focussing on. focussing on similarity. Common bonds.
God could have asked for the prophet
to only state that he was a man, but he didn't, he also told the prophet 
to say "mithlukum", "like you". Not just a human, but a human like you.
The prophet
was not told "I have hands and feet and legs and a head" but that he had them LIKE the others, that he 
was addressing.
Why was he reminding them of the commonality? in order to use it for da'wah.
Now if the prophet
can be told by God to mention the common bond in humanity, its good enough for me. Maybe you think you are better...
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
I have been a non-Muslim, a practising Muslim and a non-practising Muslim. In all these different stages, I was the same/similar person (not just in physical traits).
Did you know that i had *shock horror* MORALS before I was a Muslim???
Did you know that I valued Truth and Justice before i was a Muslim???
There is VERY LITTLE that is different from my family's morals and mine. While I'm not naive enough to say that I think their morals are perfect (or even desirable)... I don't see them as completely incompatible.
REMEMBER: The Prophet
sent some of the sahaba to live under Christian rule, and they followed the laws of that place.
Please answer this: On average, how many times a week do you break a British Law because you are trying to fulfill your Islamic Duties, or break an Islamic principal because you are following British Law?
Don't just do something! Stand there.
I would suggest there is something seriously wrong with you and your understanding / implementation of Islam!
What was your moral criteria then before you was a Muslim from whence came these morals?
Maybe you can articulate what you mean/meant by these terms if anything?
I would conclude that you must be a most confused Muslim or your family is Muslim!
Maybe you can cite the reference that states they "followed the laws of that place" - or maybe this is something wrong someone has told you.
Don't see the relevance of this - maybe you can elaborate...
Maybe you can provide a text that stipulates a reason, or the reason you are advancing - or more likely you cannot and are putting your own speculative unsubstantiated opinion to a Quranic verse... hmmmm.... so you appear to have skills of a mufassir?
And what is this bond that you are talking about? You keep using the term without defining it. He does state a mortal like you and then qualifies this which you ignore by saying I receive revelation - ie my ideas and concepts are from God.
So what are you saying the reason is?
So saying I am a man like you doesn't mean he was physically like them - so how was he like them? In his ideas?
You've not stated what commonality you are referring to - you just repeat "bond"!
He does not mention common bond of humanity - as much as you would like that to be said - you need to substantiate that assertion which you have not done above.
Rpeating the word bond is not substantiation. The verse simply states I am a mortal/human like you except I receive revelation - explain step by step how you reach your conclusion... and what you mean by common bond and what you mean by humanity if not biology/psychology - physical characterisitics - which is what the verse appears to imply!
That's quite an accusation. What is your reason for this? Do you honestly think that non-Muslims are evil or something?
If I didn't already know that you thrive in making contentious and antagonistic comments to people, I would be offended.
Don't see the relevance of this.
Ermm.... by 'Truth' i mean 'things which are true' and 'Justice' 'things that are just'.
Not quite sure how to explain this further... if you're unsure what the words mean you can look here:
(I think 'truth' is in there somewhere too).
Maybe you understand Truth and Justice the same way that I do, and think that a non-Muslim could NEVER understand or value these ideas. If this is the case you are simply wrong.
I'm not pretending our actions are the same. They eat pork, drink alcohol, don't pray or fast... but these are ACTIONS and not MORALS.
Internally, we are very different too. They only believe in the first quarter of the Shahada (ashadu la illah)... but it doesn't cause any friction between us.
In terms of morals, there is very little we disagree on. (although of course there are some differences, and I'm not trying to say that Muslims should forget about the things which we differ on).
Tend not to ask for references during a khutbah. But I've heard this more than a few times, and I don't mean a random thing someone once told me.
The relevance of this is because you seem to be saying (over and over again), that being a good Muslim is not compatible with being British (and by that, I mean culturally).
Don't just do something! Stand there.
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