Climbing the Steep Hill
I haven't personally attended the iftaars organized in luxurious restaurants with crowded groups, but as I hear more and more about the amount of food that goes to waste in these so-called charity events, I can't help but write about the irony that such iftaars create with some anger-tinged sorrow.

When attendees in these events organized by this charity or that foundation see that kilos of meat a...

Its Beginning is Mercy, Its Middle is Forgiveness
It is related from our Prophet (s.a.w) that he said about Ramadan, “Its beginning is mercy, its middle is forgiveness, and its ending is liberation from the Hellfire.” The stage of mercy has come and gone; now is the time for forgiveness. The mercy of God surrounds us as a manifestation of his name Rahman, whether we want to or not, whether we deserve it or not. (His name Rahim, however, is more a...

The Purpose of Fasting: Accustoming to Self to God-Consciousness
Verse 183 in Surah Baqara prescribes fasting for all believers, and at the end of this verse Allah explains the wisdom behind this command. In the words of Quran commentator Elmalılı Hamdi Yazır: “Fasting has been prescribed on us as it has been prescribed on those before us, so that we may shield ourselves from all sorts of danger and reach the rank of God-consciousness by attaining the faculty o...

He Called and We Obeyed
Almighty Allah says to us in the Quran:

And proclaim the Pilgrimage among men: They will come to thee on foot and on every lean camel through deep and distant mountain ravines. That they may witness the benefits provided by them. (Al-Hajj 22:27-28)

This is the call from our lord Allah. He made it holy by His majesty, and did this for His faithful servers. It is a call from the one, Allah, to the n...

The Mawlid of al-Barzanji
Together with frequent contributor Abdal Hakim Murad LastProphet.info is honoured to present a short clip from a recording of the mawlid of Imam Ja’far al-Barzanji (d. 1764). One of the most famous and popular mawlid recitals celebrating the Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) birth, this particular recording comes all the way from Cape Town, South Africa, where it was movingly performed by the acclaimed Ma...

Albanian Mawlid


Together with frequent contributor Abdal Hakim Murad LastProphet.info is honoured to present a short clip from the recording of a mawlid performance filmed at the Fatih mosque in the city of Durrës, Albania. The mawlid is sung in Albanian from a translation written by Hafiz Ali Ulqinaku in 1873 of Suleiman Chelebi’s famous 15th century mawlid. Hafiz Ulqinaku was an extraordinary figure whose tal...

Mawlid
Meaning "place and time of birth," the word "mawlid" is used in the Islamic world to express the honored welcoming of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) to this world.

Muslim poets competed with one another to make literary works regarding the Prophet, whom Allah sent as a mercy to the worlds. It was attempted in these prosaic and poetical works to welcome him to the world, to describe the miracles and extra...

Discovering the Legacy of Muhammad
Going beyond the hype and discovering the legacy of Muhammad

Today is a special day, for it is today we remember a man who was without peer, who changed history more than any other person and would bring balance to the lives of his followers throughout the centuries. Strangely, the image that some of the world has of this man is in stark contrast to the vast literature of eyewitness accounts. This...

How Are We to Realize the Mawlid?
The word mawlid is defined as “place and time of birth” in dictionaries. “Mevlid,” or the “Veladet Kandili” in Turkish, is the night on which Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) graced the earth with his arrival, coinciding with the 12th night of the month of Rabi` al-Awwal on the Hijri calendar.

The era of the Prophet and the four Caliphs that followed, as well as the reign of Umayyads and Abbasids, did not s...

Hajj: Inward and Outward Journey
In this article, I would like to share with you some of my personal reflections on the hajj, a journey to the center of the Muslim world to where the faith began, not just for Muhammad (peace be upon him), but because it was were Abraham (peace be upon him) built the first house of pilgrimage dedicated to a monotheistic conception of God. Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and when talking ...

Eid: Days Of Joy And Celebration
In Arabic the word "eid" means "customary joy and sadness; a day for gathering together."

According to Mahmud al-Kashgari, bayram, the Turkish word for eid, is originally from the Persian bezrem/bezram, and it means a day of entertainment. The pronunciation as bayram is from the Oğuz Turks.

The outstanding characteristic of bayram is eating and drinking because it is a preparation for entertainmen...

On Seeking the Night of Destiny (Laylatul Qadr)
Rather than mechanistically looking at the last ten nights as a gambling of a limited supply of worshiping energy, scarcely interspersed here and there, and wrestling with ourselves on whether tonight is an odd night or an even night depending on which moon-sighting system was used, we can save ourselves some stress by considering Laylatul Qadr and what it means to be a sincere worshiper. At the h...