Archive for April, 2008

Housewarming Mawlid

It’s been about a month since we moved to our new place. Alhamdulillah, we managed to get Habib Abbas As-Saqqaf and his students to come over and do the Mawlid An-Nabi for us.

Here’s a short video of the Qiyam part of the Mawlid:

Thanks to my mom and the rest of my family and in-laws for helping out with the food and stuff. May Allah bless them all.

Chill Yo Islam Yo Mascot

Alhamdulillah, Bro. Saad Ahmad Rashad, whose blog is amazingly hilarious and informative, looked me up to draw a mascot for his blog and stuff. He basically wanted a hip-hoppin’ Muslim brother with a beard and a kufi. So here’s what I came up with.

And here are some banners for his blog:

Animated banners:

Anyone else want any cartoons done? I’ll be glad to do it insha’Allah.

Duped

I’ve had my fair share of being in a Sufi order which was very beneficial to me in the first few years. It took me a long time, 11 years to be exact, to notice strange things happening among the various sects of this certain Sufi order. I’m never one to follow blindly, alhamdulillah, especially if I notice that the guide is a liar and a slanderer. So I kept moving from one sect to another, all within the same Sufi order, to seek the truth. Something was wrong in almost all of these groups. It’s not in the dhikr, due to the fact the dhikr is fantastic and most of the verses are from the Qur’an anyway. It’s definitely in the reliance of the guides (in the plural form due to the existence of different sects—each claiming that they’re on the true path and that the others are deluded) to seek for ‘instruction’ from the unseen world. These so-called ‘enlightened’ guides heavily rely on those ‘instructions’ without any question or doubt whatsoever. What Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi mentioned in his Futuhah al-Makkiyyah answered most of my questions.

Of all beings in the natural world, the jinn are the most ignorant of God. They report to their sitting companion the occurrence of events and what is happening in the cosmos, because they acquire that through listening to the Higher Plenum by stealth. Then their [human] companion supposes that God has honored him. He should be careful about what he thinks! This is why you will never see any of those who sit with the jinn having actualized any knowledge of God whatsoever. The most that can happen is that the man who is provided for by the spirits of the jinn is given knowledge of the characteristics of plants, stones, names and letters. This is the science of simid’. Hence, this person will acquire from the jinn nothing but a knowledge that is blamed by the tongues of the revealed religions. So, if someone claims to be their companion-and if he speaks the truth in his claim-ask him a question concerning his knowledge of the divine things. You will find that he has no tasting in that whatsoever.

Of course, if I were to present what Shaykh Ibn ‘Arabi said to these people, they would brush it off and exclaim that their knowledge is much higher than Shaykh Ibn ‘Arabi, or something of the sort. Too bad most of the students are sincere and have no clue what is going on. Insha’Allah these so-called guides will answer to God for all the lies and slanders they’ve specifically created about me and all the lies they’ve created to ensure that they have a steady amount of students rallying behind them.

To a certain guide, I say this, please stop shaming Shaykh Ahmad Al-Buni by misspelling the names of certain Jinns he mentioned in his book Shams al-Ma’arif al-Kubra. Before you try to dupe other students, at least open his book and extract the proper names because certainly the ‘instruction’ you receive from the unseen world have been giving you the wrong names.

May God protect us from such liars and cleanse the name of Sufism which is purity and total experiential knowledge of Him.

This is Jihad

Ijtema.net

Many thanks to Bro. Dunner for telling his blog visitors about this site. Because of his post, a fantastic site by the name of Ijtema came across this site and wrote a little something about it.

I’m ecstatic, but not at the fact that this site was mentioned. A couple of weeks ago, I was contemplating of setting up some sort of a portal to showcase blogs, videos, art , etc, done by fellow Muslims who feel the need to ‘protest’ (using various online media) against terrorism and Islamophobia. Ijtema is doing just that!

I’m personally frustrated with fellow Muslims who’d rather resort to boycotts, protests, burning flags, etc to voice their opinions, than actually sitting down, using whatever talents or gifts Allah has given them, and come up with something that will not jeopardize Islam’s status as a religion of peace.

Here’s what Ijtema has to say about themselves:

What is IJTEMA?

Ijtema is the Arabic word for “congregation” or “gathering”. The aim of the editors at IJTEMA is to gather together the best of the Muslim blogosphere in one place, as a showcase of what we truly believe to be, real Muslim voices, and real Muslim talent.

Why are you doing this?

Because we have no choice.

The mainstream media seems to have an agenda: to propagate the idea of a supposed ‘Clash of Civilisations’. The most vocal elements on both sides of the camp - those who are for or against this idea - are mainly non-Muslim; it seems that the Muslim community has lost its ability to reach out. In the meantime, a handful of media moguls gets to choose what the West (or, in fact, the rest of planet Earth) hears about Islam, and our Ummah. And sure enough, the likes of Bin-Laden (who, incidentally, are disliked by most of Muslim World) come across loud and clear.

This kind of misrepresentation makes us mad, uneasy, and restless.

True Islam calls to the middle path, but the voice of this middle path has been lost amongst all the hype; we aim to find it, and be its mouthpiece, with God as our Guide.

Masha’Allah. What they’re doing is exactly what needs to be done. Some people will brush our efforts off and say Islamophobes won’t care and won’t even take notice of our efforts. Well if they do take notice, alhamdulillah, if not, then I’m pretty sure Allah will take notice and reward those who are trying to defend their religion using any creative means He has given them, and not by burning up flags and Bush effigies.

Ijtema you rule! If I can contribute in any way I can, I will insha’Allah.