Love Knows No Command
Sometimes the sea lies before one’s eyes, but one doesn’t even dream of having a swim... Unfortunate...but it happens. Very recently, my heart touched the warm, eternal blueness of a verse in the Qur’an. While it was right before my eyes all these years, I never managed to let my heart delve in... Now, am I in the sea then? Have I delved deep enough? Touching the eternal is, of course, eternal. ...

(Let Me Call) My Lord On Thee
This song, sung by Nader Khan, is the English translation of a poem written by Yunus Emre (1240-1320), one of the most famous Sufi poets who has made a great impact on the Turkish-Muslim culture. This poem is at essence an entreaty to God, by means of the intercession of those things and people that are deemed to be close to God Almighty, such as the rocks and the mountains,  and the Prophets of ...

The Last Days of the Prophet
Friday sermon - Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad - Cambridge - 11th March 2011 - 25mins 23secs  [audioplayer mp3="/images/upload/media/last-days-of-the-prophet2295343280.mp3" ogg="/images/upload/media/last-days-of-the-prophet2295343280.mp3.ogg" width="634"][/audioplayer]   Martin Luther King Junior once said that "the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,...

Ramadan in Istanbul
The fasting month, in spite of its private nature (‘Fasting is Mine’, as the hadith insists), is more of a public affair than any of the other rites of religion, perhaps because of its elemental quality; and in this city it forces each citizen to decide how he stands with God. Ramadan brings to the surface some of Istanbul’s deepest human secrets. The great City resembles the  improbable arm of ...

From Hamza Yusuf’s Viewpoint: What can the West learn from Islam
Hamza Yusuf calls attention to the prejudices of the Western world against Islam, as well as the attitude of Muslims towards the West, which is apparently biased. According to Yusuf, both the Westerners and the Muslims have to make themselves known to each other in order to eliminate the negative prejudices that accompany abstract concepts that are based on the "fallacy of personification". What ...

Attitudes and Behavior of the Prophet towards Non-Muslims
That the Prophet was trustworthy, defended justice, sided with the poor and weak, gave importance to familial relations, emphasized the rights of parents, and had many similar characteristics are all matters of historical record. Religious Tradition in the Hejaz The Hejaz Peninsula has come into contact with different cultural elements and religious traditions throughout history. This region stre...

Arabia in the Pre-Islamic Period
To understand the religion that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) conveyed and the effects that this religion had on society it is necessary to understand in part the ethnic, geographic, social, cultural, economic and religious features of the environment in which Prophet Muhammad lived. Revealing this process, which directly affected the existence of Islamic society, will not only help us to understand t...

Walead Mosaad Teaching on Insights From Imam Ghazali
Shaykh Walead Mosaad explains Imam al-Ghazali's understanding of the two great types of knowledge. Filmed at the Yenikapi Mevlevihane in Istanbul during the Rihla 2012 program. See http://www.deenintensive.com/?p=36...

Medina: The City Renewed by Emigration
Following a gloomy Maghrib prayer, the congregation leaves the Prophet's Mosque; all are silent. The congregation has shrunk in size; familiar faces have been replaced with faces that are now strangers through a loss of trust. The locals have gone to perform pilgrimage or have locked themselves into their homes. The Egyptian dissidents, slaves who are accustomed to rebellion, and the Bedouins, w...

When Were "Candle Nights" First Celebrated?
The Prophet Muhammad's (pbuh) birthday, Raghaib, Mi‘raj, The Night of Salvation (Bara'a) and the Night of Power are special nights celebrated and considered to be holy by Muslims. Because these nights were first celebrated during the reign of the Ottoman sultan, Selim II (1566-1574), by illuminating the mosques with candles on the minarets, these nights were called "candle nights." Thedates of cel...

Are You a Shadow or Body?
I recently became acquainted with a concept: “Regenerating the Sunna.” Not imitating the Sunna, but realizing it, bringing it to fruition, actualizing it. The concept implies not merely remembering the actions of Prophet Muhammad, but living and experiencing those behaviors in the here and now. It does not refer to remembrance of the Sunna through longing, but its manifestation as an aesthetic e...

Quicunque Vult: or, My Journey to Islam - IV
PART IV: “Christians, too, Can Recognize the Quran as the Word of God” As the Muslim years pass, one's sense of gratitude and humility increases, usually with the realisation that one still knows little. Theory becomes (attempted) practice. There are meetings with remarkable men: the beauty and compassion of Sufism; and the lessons learned the tragic superficiality of Wahhabism. There is the fell...