Assalaam alaykum,
I am writing this post because of a conversation I repeatedly have with a certain brother about 'ilm al-kalaam and the logical arguments that are currently circulating in western academic institutions. Today's discussion, albeit rather brief and informal, was about epistemology and the nature of reality, and of course it touched on how to answer certain individuals when they answer certain questions. This is a matter that I feel I need to get off my chest and insha'Allah some benefit will be found in what I have to say. I think numbered points would be the best way of going about this.
1) Not everyone on the face of this earth is sincerely seeking the Truth with the intention of submitting to it unconditionally once it has been found. How do we know this is true? Allah is Most Just and He rewards sincerity. If everyone on the face of the earth was sincerely seeking the truth and ready to submit to it, then the everyone on the face of the earth would be Muslim. They're not.
2) Allah called His Deen "Islam", i.e. submission, surrender, giving up, making peace etc. See 3:19, 3:85 and 5:3. "Islam" is the official name, not "The Religion of Truth", "The True Religion" or anything similar to that, even though such labels are correct. "Islam" is the official name because whether or not the Deen is true is not the issue. The truth of the Deen is actually obvious. The issue is whether or not the individual is capable of subduing his nafs, or his ego and his desires, and submitting to the Truth.
3) While 'Ilm Al-Kalaam seeks to answer people's questions about Islam and various theological subjects, there comes a point when no quality or amount of answers will do. A certain individual simply will not believe. Does this mean that Islam and the brilliant theologians that it has produced have failed to provide adequate answers? No. Someone disbelieves out of choice, as is made clear in 18:29. Al-Baqara, 2:6-7 is also extremely relevant here.
4) By examining the Qur'an and the Seerah and the various arguments and objections that the Quraysh and the disbelievers put forward, one will find no mention of them not understanding the message being presented, or of them being unconvinced. They ask for more signs but in reality, as Allah informs us, they are liars and they will never believe. If the Qur'an itself isn't a clear sign and proof, especially amongst a people who are the most skilled and proficient in the Arabic language, then what is? The disbelievers, and the Quraysh notables in particular, disbelieved for their own selfish reasons. They feared that they would lose their temporal position of power and authority. They feared that the tribe would lose it's status amongst the Arabs and thus much wealth.
5) As for disbelieving academics and scholars in the west today who always have new arguments and objections to Islam, are we, as Muslims, supposed to find theological and philosophical answers to all of them? What more proof do we need? See 14:10. The bulk of these arguments and objections, regardless of how sophisticated they may be, are really nothing more than a smokescreen, cunningly employed to cover the fact that they don't believe because, as a matter of fact, they don't want to. That's it. This case is very similar to many Muslims that I've met over the years who have been given several opportunities to learn Arabic, yet never have. Some have spent months or even years in an Arabic-speaking country. They come up with excuse after excuse as to why they haven't learned the language: the teacher was rubbish, the textbook was boring, the environment didn't allow me to focus, the course was too expensive, and so on and so on. Everytime a complaint is responded to and rectified another one pops up. What does this indicate? It indicates that this individual doesn't want to learn Arabic. He or she is simply not bothered. However, as a Muslim, this would be a shameful thing to admit. The same thing goes for these academics. They look better if they hide behind the smokescreen of appearing to be too intellectually sophisticated to accept Islam.
6) One of the silly arguments they like to put forward is the nature of reality. How do we know that this world is real? How is it more real than a dream? My question is: How does such a discussion benefit a Muslim? The fact is it doesn't. Playing semantic games about the word 'real' is a waste of time and another smokescreen, another excuse to turn away from Allah and fall down in pathetic, subservient obedience to one's nafs. As Muslims we believe in Allah. Allah is real; Al-Haqq. The Day of Judgement is real. This world is real, as opposed to dreams, because what we do in this world will be taken into account on the Day of Judgement. We will be asked about what we did in this world. We are not accountable for what we do in dreams, so in this sense, this most crucial sense, dreams are not real.
7) We believe in Allah and the Last Day. This is our focal point. This has to be at the forefront of our thoughts at all times. These disbelieving academics don't believe in Allah and the Last Day. They don't even believe in revelation, so they are left groping around in the dark and wasting their time on pointless discussions and arguments that are of absolutely no benefit. Should we really waste our time and try to respond to each and every one of their arguments? They want us to think that their problems are intellectual, that they're in the mind, but, as Allah tells us (2:10), their problems actually lie in the heart. In their hearts is a sickness, and no intellectual/rational/logical argument, no matter how brilliant, can cure a diseased heart, let alone a bring a dead heart to life.
May Allah guide us all to seek and acquire knowledge that is of benefit to us and may He protect us from delving into matters that are of no benefit, and all success lies with Him alone! Amin!
Assalaam alaykum,
Mahdi
Friday, 12 June 2009
Thursday, 14 May 2009
A Demonstration that the Wahhabis are Khawarij
taken from the book 'Ihya al-Maqbur' pages 59-60.
by the late Muhaddith of the Age,
Imam Abu'l-Fayd Ahmad ibn Abi Abdallah al-Siddiq al-Ghimmari,
author of 143 books.
bismillahi'rrahmani'rrahim
by the late Muhaddith of the Age,
Imam Abu'l-Fayd Ahmad ibn Abi Abdallah al-Siddiq al-Ghimmari,
author of 143 books.
As for the Qarniyyun, their land has not been blessed by Allah with any wali or salih since the beginning of Islam down to the present day. Instead, he only gave it the Qarn al-Shaytan ['the Devil's Horn'], whose followers were the Khawarij of the thirteenth and subsequent Islamic centuries. So fear God, and do not be like he who is beguiled by them, and supports their corrupt sect and worthless opinion, and their state of misguidance which was explicitly described by the Prophet (upon whom be blessings and peace), who characterised them as the 'Dogs of the Fire' [kilab al-nar], and informed us that they are the 'worst of all who dwell beneath the sky', and that they 'swerve from the religion as an arrow swerves away from its target,' and that they mouth among the best of sayings in the form of their prattlings about Tawhid, and implementing the Sunna, and combating bid'as - and yet, by Allah, they are drowning in bid'a; in fact, there is no bid'a worse than theirs, which causes them to 'swerve from the religion as an arrow swerves away from its target', in spite of their superficial efforts in worship and adherence to the religion. It is as the Prophet (upon whom be blessings and peace) declared: 'one of you would despise the prayer he says among them, and the fasting he completes with them; they recite Qur'an but it goes no further than their collarbones.'
It is for this reason that he refrained (upon him be blessings and peace) from making du'a for Najd in the way that he had prayed for the Yemen and for Syria, for he said: 'Allahumma bless us in our Yemen; bless us in our Syria' - and they said, 'And in our Najd, o Messenger of Allah?' (upon him be blessings and peace), but he repeated his prayer for the Yemen and for Syria; and they repeated their utterance; until he said, the second or the third time round, in order to explain why he would not pray for Najd:
'That is the place of earthquakes, and fitnas, and from it the Devil's Horn shall rise.' [Narrated by Bukhari.] And nothing has emerged from there to bring about earthquakes and fitnas in the religion like Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who was astray and led others astray. Hence he was the Devil's Horn foretold by the Messenger (upon him be blessings and peace), and he abstained from offering prayer for Najd because of him, and because of the fitnas which would flow from his demonic da'wa. Whoever adheres to that da'wa has committed unambiguous kufr, and is destined for apostasy and 'swerving from the religion', as is visible in the case of the other mulhids [heretical unbelievers] of the age who are notorious for their ilhad, for in every case they began by holding fast to the sect of the Devil's Horn, as is well-known to scholars of experience and insight.
Wa-salla'Llahu 'ala sayyidina Muhammadin wa-'ala alihi wa-sahbihi kullama dhakaru a-dhakirun wa-ghafala 'an dhikrihi al-ghafilun.
wa'l-hamdu li'Llahi rabbi'l-'alamin
Sunday, 5 April 2009
Fiqh us-Seerah
Assalaam alaykum,
All praise is for Allah.
Sheikh Ramadan Al-Buti's book, translated as The Jurisprudence of the Prophetic Biograghy, is a available to order from Sunni Publications (www.sunnipubs.com).
Sheikh Al-Buti shows again in this book why and how he is such a brilliant defender of the Faith. In an age when our Prophet, may Allah bless him grant him peace, is much maligned by Allah's enemies, a book like this is absolutely essential reading. Not only is the Seerah defended and explained, but the Sheikh details severals lessons and wisdoms that can be drawn from the Seerah in additions to dozens of fiqh rulings.
The translation has been available for a few years but sadly it is not a book that has been discussed and given the attention that it deserves. I can only do my part and with Allah alone is every success!
Assalaam alaykum,
Mahdi
All praise is for Allah.
Sheikh Ramadan Al-Buti's book, translated as The Jurisprudence of the Prophetic Biograghy, is a available to order from Sunni Publications (www.sunnipubs.com).
Sheikh Al-Buti shows again in this book why and how he is such a brilliant defender of the Faith. In an age when our Prophet, may Allah bless him grant him peace, is much maligned by Allah's enemies, a book like this is absolutely essential reading. Not only is the Seerah defended and explained, but the Sheikh details severals lessons and wisdoms that can be drawn from the Seerah in additions to dozens of fiqh rulings.
The translation has been available for a few years but sadly it is not a book that has been discussed and given the attention that it deserves. I can only do my part and with Allah alone is every success!
Assalaam alaykum,
Mahdi
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Global Warming isn't true! Don't worry about it!
Assalaam alaykum,
Please find below yet antother article declaring that global warming is false and absolutely baseless. People all over the world are experiencing an incredibly cold winter, the coldest for years, so the game appears to be well and truly up. All praise be to Allah for exposing the liars and crooks that hold positions in governments and other 'environmental' organisations. Shame on them for concocting such a miserable crock of nonsense for the purpose of inflicting people with carbon taxes (i.e. more of your money to hand over to greedy banks), invading indivudal privacy and removing civil liberties.
All praise be to Allah who told us: "If a corrupt person comes to you with a piece of information then clarify it so that you don't afflict a people out of ignorance and thus come to regret what you have done." [Al-Hujurat 49:6]
If any government official, especially those at the highest level, endorses any sort of cause or campaign, be suspicious. The articles below are two of many that can be found all over the internet.
Last updated January 29, 2009 11:04 a.m. PT
Murdock: Even left now laughing at global warming
DEROY MURDOCKSYNDICATED COLUMNIST
SAN FRANCISCO -- So-called "global warming" has shrunk from problem to punch line. And now, Leftists are laughing, too. It's hard not to chuckle at the idea of Earth boiling in a carbon cauldron when the news won't cooperate:
Nearly four inches of snow blanketed the United Arab Emirates' Jebel Jais region for just the second time in recorded history on Jan. 24. Citizens were speechless. The local dialect has no word for snowfall.
Dutchmen on ice skates sped past windmills as canals in Holland froze in mid-January for the first time since 1997. Defense Minister Eimert van Middelkoop, who inhabits a renovated 17th Century windmill, stumbled on the ice and fractured his wrist.
January saw northern Minnesota's temperatures plunge to 38 below zero, forcing ski-resort closures. A Frazee, Minnesota dog-sled race was cancelled, due to excessive snow. Snow whitened Surf City, North Carolina's beaches. Days ago, ice glazed Florida's citrus groves.
As Earth faces global cooling, both troglodyte right-wingers and lachrymose left-wingers find Albert Gore's simmering-planet hypothesis increasingly hilarious:
"In terms of (global warming's) capacity to cause the human species harm, I don't think it makes it into the top 10," Dr. Robert Giegengack, former chairman of University of Pennsylvania's Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, told the Pennsylvania Gazette. Giegengack voted for Gore in 2000, and says he likely would again.
Commentator Harold Ambler declared Jan. 3 on HuffingtonPost.com that he voted for Barack Obama "for a thousand times a thousand reasons." He added that Gore "owes the world an apology for his actions regarding global warming." He called Gore's assertion that "the science is in" on this issue "the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of mankind."
"Not only is it false that human activity has any significant effect on global warming or the weather in general, but for the record, global warming is over," retired Navy meteorologist Dr. Martin Hertzberg wrote on carbon-sense.com. The physical chemist and self-described "scientist and life-long liberal Democrat" added: "The average temperature of Earth's atmosphere has declined over the last 10 years. From the El Nino Year of 1998 until Jan. 2007, it dropped a quarter of a degree Celsius (0.45 degrees Fahrenheit). From Jan 2007 to the spring of 2008, it dropped a whopping three-quarters of a degree Celsius (1.35 degrees Fahrenheit). Those data further prove that the fear-mongering hysteria about human-caused global warming is completely unjustified and is totally counterproductive to our Nation's essential needs and security."
"It is a tribute to the scientific ignorance of politicians and journalists that they keep regurgitating the nonsense about human-caused global warming," veteran Left-wing commentator and Nation magazine columnist Alexander Cockburn wrote. "The greenhouse fear mongers rely on unverified, crudely oversimplified models to finger mankind's sinful contribution -- and carbon trafficking, just like the old indulgences, is powered by guilt, credulity, cynicism, and greed."
Some leftists believe the collective hallucination of warmism distracts from what they consider urgent progressive priorities:
"The most destructive force on the planet is power-driven financiers and profit-driven corporations and their cartels backed by military might," University of Ottawa physics professor Dr. Denis Rancourt has written. "The global warming myth is a red herring that contributes to hiding this truth."
Social historian Dr. David Noble of Canada's York University concurs. He has lamented that warmism is "diverting attention from the radical challenges of the global justice movements."
Geophysicist Dr. Claude Allegre, previously Education Minister in France's late 1990s Socialist government, denounced the "prophets of doom of global warming." He sounded amused in a September 2006 L'Express article. "The ecology of helpless protesting has become a very lucrative business for some people."
"The so-called 'consensus' on man-made global warming is not holding up," Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., told his colleagues Jan. 8. "It is becoming increasingly clear that skepticism about man-made global warming fear is not a partisan left vs. right issue."
So-called "global warming" has accomplished the impossible: It has united liberals and conservatives in laughter.
Deroy Murdock is a columnist with Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. E-mail him at deroy.Murdock@gmail.com
[The original article can be found at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/397959_murdockonline30.html]
Arctic Sea Ice Increases at Record Rate
Arctic Sea Ice Increases at Record Rate
Guest Post by Jeff Id on February 3, 2009
Something I’ve been interested in for the last several months is sea ice data. What makes it interesting is that as I understand it, models demonstrate the poles should be most sensitive to global warming leading the planet temp, especially in the Arctic. Recently I have been able to process the monthly and daily gridded arctic data as provided by NSIDC. The daily values allow a better analysis of trend than can be provided by the monthly data.
If you’re like me you recall the claims of fastest melt rate ever were made about 2007 , I fully believed them, because the graphs showed a much more negative value than in the previous 30 years as shown in Figure 1 below.
Click for larger image
This effort was originally intended to investigate how bad the melt rate was in comparison to the natural variation, I didn’t get that far yet. Accessing and processing the gridded data was critical to the analysis, so I spent the time reading the literature and writing code. Having full access to the NSIDC data allows some interesting analysis, they do an excellent job on their site.
There are two primary algorithms used for processing ice data NasaTeam and Bootstrap. The descriptions of the data state the difference between the two is very small and the sets are interchangeable except that bootstrap is recommended for trend analysis in research publications. Bootstrap is only provided in monthly data format while NasaTeam is provided in both monthly and daily provided you’re willing to download over 1G of data, write code to process it, refit the land and missing data mask and sum the results. I am. Also, NasaTeam provides a near real time version of the polar ice data which has a different land mask and hasn’t been processed for missing data. This data isn’t as clean but I wanted to use it. I applied the same land mask as the rest of the series to insure that there was a consistent baseline for trend analysis. The missing data from Jan 2008 onward created noise in the series which I simply filtered out using a 7 day sliding window filter.
The mask looks like this Figure 2
The brown is land, black edges on land are coastline and light blue is the satellite data not measured. This mask is applied consistently through the entire data series. There was some question about masking on one of my other posts at WUWT where visually the land area seemed to change size, in the case of the NSIDC data they apply masks consistently except for the satellite hole and the near real time data.
The NasaTeam version of the arctic ice data looks like the plot below for 2009 (note the small size of the satellite data hole). This graph was created in R using the actual Nasa Team masks and data. I used the worst case land and polar masks to adjust the entire dataset to eliminate problems with consistency. Figure 3
Of course it’s an interesting picture, but what I wanted to know when I started this post was how bad was the worst melt rate in history and what is the actual melt area. In the plot below the arctic is losing sea ice at a rate of only 56K km^2/year. Of course sea ice area went up in the Antarctic during the same time frame though. Note the strong recovery in 08 of Figures 1 and 4, which actually exceeds values of most of the record, matching data back to 1980. Much of this is first year ice so the melt in 08 was expected to be a new record.
Click for larger image
If you recall, in 2007 and 08 we were treated to headlines like this, which most of us accepted with a shrug.
Scientists warn Arctic sea ice is melting at its fastest rate since records began
NASA data show Arctic saw fastest sea ice melt in August 2008
Arctic Just Witnessed Fastest August Ice Retreat in History
I processed and analyzed the NasaTeam land area and missing data masks spending hours understanding different variances they list on their own website. After nearly everything I could find (except satellite transitions errors) was corrected (a different post) and corrections for variance in the measured pixel size, the final result in 30 day trends of arctic sea ice looks like the graph below (Figure 5). This graph is a derivative of the ice area plot. The maximum peaks and valleys represent the maximum rates of change in 30 day periods through the ice record.
Click for larger image
Looking at this plot of the 30 day slopes of actual NASA gridded data, the maximum ice melt rate occurs in 1999 and in 2004 not in 2007. Surprisingly the maximum ice growth rates occur in 2007 and 2008, I don’t remember those headlines for some reason. Don’t forget when looking at the 2008 - 09 peak, the data is preliminary and hasn’t been through the same processing as the other data. From looking at the unprocessed data I doubt it will change much.
Certainly the 30 year arctic trend in ice area is downward, even the most committed global warming scientist has to admit this happens regularly in climate along with regular 30 year uptrends. The questions are, did we cause it or not, and was CO2 the instigating factor. The rapid recovery of ice levels has to have some meaning regarding the severity of the problem. This goes directly in the face of accelerated global warming and the doom and gloom scenarios promoted by our politicians and polyscienticians.
Why are my conclusions different from the news reported records? I think it’s likely due to the fact that the scientists used the monthly data which is processed using a weighted filter of the daily data that incorporates a longer time frame than a single month. This means their use of the monthly data to establish a monthly trend was in error and the real record down trends were actually set in 1999, 2003 and 1984. While the record uptrends were in 2007, 2008 and 1996.
[The original article along with the charts and diagrams can be found at http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/02/03/arctic-sea-ice-increases-at-record-rate/]
Please find below yet antother article declaring that global warming is false and absolutely baseless. People all over the world are experiencing an incredibly cold winter, the coldest for years, so the game appears to be well and truly up. All praise be to Allah for exposing the liars and crooks that hold positions in governments and other 'environmental' organisations. Shame on them for concocting such a miserable crock of nonsense for the purpose of inflicting people with carbon taxes (i.e. more of your money to hand over to greedy banks), invading indivudal privacy and removing civil liberties.
All praise be to Allah who told us: "If a corrupt person comes to you with a piece of information then clarify it so that you don't afflict a people out of ignorance and thus come to regret what you have done." [Al-Hujurat 49:6]
If any government official, especially those at the highest level, endorses any sort of cause or campaign, be suspicious. The articles below are two of many that can be found all over the internet.
Last updated January 29, 2009 11:04 a.m. PT
Murdock: Even left now laughing at global warming
DEROY MURDOCKSYNDICATED COLUMNIST
SAN FRANCISCO -- So-called "global warming" has shrunk from problem to punch line. And now, Leftists are laughing, too. It's hard not to chuckle at the idea of Earth boiling in a carbon cauldron when the news won't cooperate:
Nearly four inches of snow blanketed the United Arab Emirates' Jebel Jais region for just the second time in recorded history on Jan. 24. Citizens were speechless. The local dialect has no word for snowfall.
Dutchmen on ice skates sped past windmills as canals in Holland froze in mid-January for the first time since 1997. Defense Minister Eimert van Middelkoop, who inhabits a renovated 17th Century windmill, stumbled on the ice and fractured his wrist.
January saw northern Minnesota's temperatures plunge to 38 below zero, forcing ski-resort closures. A Frazee, Minnesota dog-sled race was cancelled, due to excessive snow. Snow whitened Surf City, North Carolina's beaches. Days ago, ice glazed Florida's citrus groves.
As Earth faces global cooling, both troglodyte right-wingers and lachrymose left-wingers find Albert Gore's simmering-planet hypothesis increasingly hilarious:
"In terms of (global warming's) capacity to cause the human species harm, I don't think it makes it into the top 10," Dr. Robert Giegengack, former chairman of University of Pennsylvania's Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, told the Pennsylvania Gazette. Giegengack voted for Gore in 2000, and says he likely would again.
Commentator Harold Ambler declared Jan. 3 on HuffingtonPost.com that he voted for Barack Obama "for a thousand times a thousand reasons." He added that Gore "owes the world an apology for his actions regarding global warming." He called Gore's assertion that "the science is in" on this issue "the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of mankind."
"Not only is it false that human activity has any significant effect on global warming or the weather in general, but for the record, global warming is over," retired Navy meteorologist Dr. Martin Hertzberg wrote on carbon-sense.com. The physical chemist and self-described "scientist and life-long liberal Democrat" added: "The average temperature of Earth's atmosphere has declined over the last 10 years. From the El Nino Year of 1998 until Jan. 2007, it dropped a quarter of a degree Celsius (0.45 degrees Fahrenheit). From Jan 2007 to the spring of 2008, it dropped a whopping three-quarters of a degree Celsius (1.35 degrees Fahrenheit). Those data further prove that the fear-mongering hysteria about human-caused global warming is completely unjustified and is totally counterproductive to our Nation's essential needs and security."
"It is a tribute to the scientific ignorance of politicians and journalists that they keep regurgitating the nonsense about human-caused global warming," veteran Left-wing commentator and Nation magazine columnist Alexander Cockburn wrote. "The greenhouse fear mongers rely on unverified, crudely oversimplified models to finger mankind's sinful contribution -- and carbon trafficking, just like the old indulgences, is powered by guilt, credulity, cynicism, and greed."
Some leftists believe the collective hallucination of warmism distracts from what they consider urgent progressive priorities:
"The most destructive force on the planet is power-driven financiers and profit-driven corporations and their cartels backed by military might," University of Ottawa physics professor Dr. Denis Rancourt has written. "The global warming myth is a red herring that contributes to hiding this truth."
Social historian Dr. David Noble of Canada's York University concurs. He has lamented that warmism is "diverting attention from the radical challenges of the global justice movements."
Geophysicist Dr. Claude Allegre, previously Education Minister in France's late 1990s Socialist government, denounced the "prophets of doom of global warming." He sounded amused in a September 2006 L'Express article. "The ecology of helpless protesting has become a very lucrative business for some people."
"The so-called 'consensus' on man-made global warming is not holding up," Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., told his colleagues Jan. 8. "It is becoming increasingly clear that skepticism about man-made global warming fear is not a partisan left vs. right issue."
So-called "global warming" has accomplished the impossible: It has united liberals and conservatives in laughter.
Deroy Murdock is a columnist with Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. E-mail him at deroy.Murdock@gmail.com
[The original article can be found at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/397959_murdockonline30.html]
Arctic Sea Ice Increases at Record Rate
Arctic Sea Ice Increases at Record Rate
Guest Post by Jeff Id on February 3, 2009
Something I’ve been interested in for the last several months is sea ice data. What makes it interesting is that as I understand it, models demonstrate the poles should be most sensitive to global warming leading the planet temp, especially in the Arctic. Recently I have been able to process the monthly and daily gridded arctic data as provided by NSIDC. The daily values allow a better analysis of trend than can be provided by the monthly data.
If you’re like me you recall the claims of fastest melt rate ever were made about 2007 , I fully believed them, because the graphs showed a much more negative value than in the previous 30 years as shown in Figure 1 below.
Click for larger image
This effort was originally intended to investigate how bad the melt rate was in comparison to the natural variation, I didn’t get that far yet. Accessing and processing the gridded data was critical to the analysis, so I spent the time reading the literature and writing code. Having full access to the NSIDC data allows some interesting analysis, they do an excellent job on their site.
There are two primary algorithms used for processing ice data NasaTeam and Bootstrap. The descriptions of the data state the difference between the two is very small and the sets are interchangeable except that bootstrap is recommended for trend analysis in research publications. Bootstrap is only provided in monthly data format while NasaTeam is provided in both monthly and daily provided you’re willing to download over 1G of data, write code to process it, refit the land and missing data mask and sum the results. I am. Also, NasaTeam provides a near real time version of the polar ice data which has a different land mask and hasn’t been processed for missing data. This data isn’t as clean but I wanted to use it. I applied the same land mask as the rest of the series to insure that there was a consistent baseline for trend analysis. The missing data from Jan 2008 onward created noise in the series which I simply filtered out using a 7 day sliding window filter.
The mask looks like this Figure 2
The brown is land, black edges on land are coastline and light blue is the satellite data not measured. This mask is applied consistently through the entire data series. There was some question about masking on one of my other posts at WUWT where visually the land area seemed to change size, in the case of the NSIDC data they apply masks consistently except for the satellite hole and the near real time data.
The NasaTeam version of the arctic ice data looks like the plot below for 2009 (note the small size of the satellite data hole). This graph was created in R using the actual Nasa Team masks and data. I used the worst case land and polar masks to adjust the entire dataset to eliminate problems with consistency. Figure 3
Of course it’s an interesting picture, but what I wanted to know when I started this post was how bad was the worst melt rate in history and what is the actual melt area. In the plot below the arctic is losing sea ice at a rate of only 56K km^2/year. Of course sea ice area went up in the Antarctic during the same time frame though. Note the strong recovery in 08 of Figures 1 and 4, which actually exceeds values of most of the record, matching data back to 1980. Much of this is first year ice so the melt in 08 was expected to be a new record.
Click for larger image
If you recall, in 2007 and 08 we were treated to headlines like this, which most of us accepted with a shrug.
Scientists warn Arctic sea ice is melting at its fastest rate since records began
NASA data show Arctic saw fastest sea ice melt in August 2008
Arctic Just Witnessed Fastest August Ice Retreat in History
I processed and analyzed the NasaTeam land area and missing data masks spending hours understanding different variances they list on their own website. After nearly everything I could find (except satellite transitions errors) was corrected (a different post) and corrections for variance in the measured pixel size, the final result in 30 day trends of arctic sea ice looks like the graph below (Figure 5). This graph is a derivative of the ice area plot. The maximum peaks and valleys represent the maximum rates of change in 30 day periods through the ice record.
Click for larger image
Looking at this plot of the 30 day slopes of actual NASA gridded data, the maximum ice melt rate occurs in 1999 and in 2004 not in 2007. Surprisingly the maximum ice growth rates occur in 2007 and 2008, I don’t remember those headlines for some reason. Don’t forget when looking at the 2008 - 09 peak, the data is preliminary and hasn’t been through the same processing as the other data. From looking at the unprocessed data I doubt it will change much.
Certainly the 30 year arctic trend in ice area is downward, even the most committed global warming scientist has to admit this happens regularly in climate along with regular 30 year uptrends. The questions are, did we cause it or not, and was CO2 the instigating factor. The rapid recovery of ice levels has to have some meaning regarding the severity of the problem. This goes directly in the face of accelerated global warming and the doom and gloom scenarios promoted by our politicians and polyscienticians.
Why are my conclusions different from the news reported records? I think it’s likely due to the fact that the scientists used the monthly data which is processed using a weighted filter of the daily data that incorporates a longer time frame than a single month. This means their use of the monthly data to establish a monthly trend was in error and the real record down trends were actually set in 1999, 2003 and 1984. While the record uptrends were in 2007, 2008 and 1996.
[The original article along with the charts and diagrams can be found at http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/02/03/arctic-sea-ice-increases-at-record-rate/]
Monday, 19 January 2009
The Covenant of Consistency
Alhamdulilah, an answer to 'A Common Word' has been compiled and is now available from http://www.htspub.com/.
Alhamdulilah, it is good to see that most Muslims here in Morocco are clear about salvation and what it means to be an Orthodox Muslim as opposed to a cultist or disbeliever. However, it is Muslims inhabiting English-speaking contries in the west, i.e the UK, the US and Canada, that are having difficulty grasping this absolutely fundamental axiom of our faith: Islam is THE Truth and the only gateway to salvation.
This is not suprising considering how our so-called 'community leaders' have immersed themselves heavily in inter-faith and regularly use terms such as 'Abrahamic faiths', and then go on to refer to Jews and Christians as 'believers', even though Allah has made it clear that Ibrahim, alaihi as-salaam, was neither a Jew nor a Christian (see 3:64-68, which interestingly enough comes right after the verse that was used to support 'A Common Word'. If only they had kept reading.) and that the believers are only those who believe in Allah and His Messenger (see 24:62 and 49:15).
The Qur'an has been translated into English several times and is widely available. While the threat of eternal judgement can and will cause offense to many, it is much better to be open and honest about this matter. We, as Muslims, do not believe that salvation is possible unless one submits to Allah and believes that there is no god but Him and Muhammad, salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger. At this juncture I would recommend that people refer back to the article 'The Purpose of Life' at http://www.newmuslims.co.uk/, which contains several unequivocal verses from the Qur'an. I myself have come accross many instances, online and in person, in which a Muslim has tried to dance around this issue and a disbeliever then grows frustrated and starts quoting what Allah has said regarding eschatology, at which point the Muslim tries to retreat and back away, only increasing the disbeliever's sense that he is being lied to and/or something is being hidden from him.
These same voices in the west spend a lot of time and effort talking about 'religious tolerance' and start muddying the water and confusing common believers about the use of terms such as 'kafir' and 'non-Muslim'. First of all, religious tolerance is not the issue, and we have been commanded to tolerate kufr, i.e. the kufr of the people of the Book. We have not been commanded to accept it, though. This is made clear by Allah in 3:85. Playing around with the word 'kafir' is also problematic.
Imam Al-Maidani, the great Asha'ari Hanafi scholar of the 13th century AH, in his commentary on Imam at-Tahawi's creed text, explains that if something carries the attribute of size it should be called 'big' and if it has the attribute of smallness then it should be called 'small', so if someone carries the attribute of kufr then of course he or she is a 'kafir'. (p.90) The term 'kafir' is not derogatory but is merely a theological classification, and Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, may Allah be pleased with him and raise his rank, said that 'kuffar' (plural of kafir) come in three types: the ignorant, the arrogant, and the antagonisic. The first type has not been presented with the faith, but this does not mean he is entirely ignorant because this person testified to Allah's Lordship before entering this world. See 7:172. This verse also indicates that the default state of a human being is belief in Allah, not kufr, and this is why the verb kafara also means 'to cover up'. The second and third categories have been presented with the faith but the latter is more rigid in his rejection, such that he actively works against Islam. These last two categories are understood.
Back to the first. This person has not accepted Islam, so regardless we have to present the faith to them. He or she is still technically a kafir. There is no third option. Labelling them 'non-Muslim' on the grounds that they may accept faith later, i.e. 'how do we know?', is a baseless argument because Allah has not commanded us to make judgements and verdicts regarding that which we don't know and can't know. We have only been commanded to judge by what Allah has made us privy to. If someone is not a Muslim they're a kafir, and if they're not a kafir they must be a Muslim. Because I don't know the future I have no way of knowing that all the Muslims I know personally will die as Muslims. Of course I pray that they do but does that mean I should refer to them as 'non-kafirs'? I can only judge by the here and now, and right now they're Muslims. I don't what they will be like in the future and I don't even know what they're like when they're not in my presence. However, based on what I do know and what they've told me, they're Muslims, and that's enough.
In closing, I remind myself and whoever may be reading this that we must show love and compassion to disbelievers and pray for their guidance. Our differences with them are theological; not personal. See 28:56. We should love them and love for them to be guided. What we hate is kufr. Allah hates to see them reject faith (see 40:10) and so should we.
And with Allah alone is every success!
Your brother in Faith,
Mahdi
p.s. Regarding the words 'non-Muslim' and 'kafir' and their usage, you will notice that it is most common amongst Asians and Arabs. It should be noted that the traditional Muslim lands that these people come from, i.e. from Morocco to India, have been subjected to brutal wars and oppression for over 200 years now, by and large at the hands of Europeans and Americans. You will notice that while most Asians and Arabs (and I am generalising), especially the older generation and those who have emigrated to the UK and/or US, are bitter towards the Americans and Europeans , at the same time they are full of admiration and yes, fear. Hence, when face to face with the descendants of their ancestors' colonial masters (e.g. anything from an inter-faith meeting to the workplace), the term 'non-Muslim' is used, but in private, and especially when angry about some recent event, the term 'kafir' is used, and is definitely meant in a derogative fashion.
If you are a new believer or a newly committed believer, please bear this point in mind. Arabs and Asians are collectively suffering from a very severe inferiority complex and carry an acute vicitim mentality due to what has happened over the past 200 years, most notably the events of the colonial period. Time and time again these people have been invaded and defeated, invaded and defeated, invaded and defeated. What just happened in Gaza, may Allah help those people, is just the latest in a long, long series. It shouldn't come as surprise that these people are not full of self-esteem and confidence, but they are full of anger and resentment. Think of a child at school who is bullied on a daily basis. In public he respects the bully, but in private he is very bitter.
The cry 'why are we a defeated ummah?' is not only expressed by the laity but confirmed by their scholars, even though the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, described this Ummah as marhuma, i.e. one that is shown mercy, and its punishment is in this life while its reward is in the next.
Therefore, while there are many brilliant scholars in the Arab world and the Indian sub-continent, who can teach many or all of the sciences, be wary of taking on their social and political views and mindsets. A victim mentality or inferiority complex is very dangerous for a new or newly committed believer, who needs to have confidence and pride in his or her faith.
And our last call is All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all Creation!
Alhamdulilah, it is good to see that most Muslims here in Morocco are clear about salvation and what it means to be an Orthodox Muslim as opposed to a cultist or disbeliever. However, it is Muslims inhabiting English-speaking contries in the west, i.e the UK, the US and Canada, that are having difficulty grasping this absolutely fundamental axiom of our faith: Islam is THE Truth and the only gateway to salvation.
This is not suprising considering how our so-called 'community leaders' have immersed themselves heavily in inter-faith and regularly use terms such as 'Abrahamic faiths', and then go on to refer to Jews and Christians as 'believers', even though Allah has made it clear that Ibrahim, alaihi as-salaam, was neither a Jew nor a Christian (see 3:64-68, which interestingly enough comes right after the verse that was used to support 'A Common Word'. If only they had kept reading.) and that the believers are only those who believe in Allah and His Messenger (see 24:62 and 49:15).
The Qur'an has been translated into English several times and is widely available. While the threat of eternal judgement can and will cause offense to many, it is much better to be open and honest about this matter. We, as Muslims, do not believe that salvation is possible unless one submits to Allah and believes that there is no god but Him and Muhammad, salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger. At this juncture I would recommend that people refer back to the article 'The Purpose of Life' at http://www.newmuslims.co.uk/, which contains several unequivocal verses from the Qur'an. I myself have come accross many instances, online and in person, in which a Muslim has tried to dance around this issue and a disbeliever then grows frustrated and starts quoting what Allah has said regarding eschatology, at which point the Muslim tries to retreat and back away, only increasing the disbeliever's sense that he is being lied to and/or something is being hidden from him.
These same voices in the west spend a lot of time and effort talking about 'religious tolerance' and start muddying the water and confusing common believers about the use of terms such as 'kafir' and 'non-Muslim'. First of all, religious tolerance is not the issue, and we have been commanded to tolerate kufr, i.e. the kufr of the people of the Book. We have not been commanded to accept it, though. This is made clear by Allah in 3:85. Playing around with the word 'kafir' is also problematic.
Imam Al-Maidani, the great Asha'ari Hanafi scholar of the 13th century AH, in his commentary on Imam at-Tahawi's creed text, explains that if something carries the attribute of size it should be called 'big' and if it has the attribute of smallness then it should be called 'small', so if someone carries the attribute of kufr then of course he or she is a 'kafir'. (p.90) The term 'kafir' is not derogatory but is merely a theological classification, and Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, may Allah be pleased with him and raise his rank, said that 'kuffar' (plural of kafir) come in three types: the ignorant, the arrogant, and the antagonisic. The first type has not been presented with the faith, but this does not mean he is entirely ignorant because this person testified to Allah's Lordship before entering this world. See 7:172. This verse also indicates that the default state of a human being is belief in Allah, not kufr, and this is why the verb kafara also means 'to cover up'. The second and third categories have been presented with the faith but the latter is more rigid in his rejection, such that he actively works against Islam. These last two categories are understood.
Back to the first. This person has not accepted Islam, so regardless we have to present the faith to them. He or she is still technically a kafir. There is no third option. Labelling them 'non-Muslim' on the grounds that they may accept faith later, i.e. 'how do we know?', is a baseless argument because Allah has not commanded us to make judgements and verdicts regarding that which we don't know and can't know. We have only been commanded to judge by what Allah has made us privy to. If someone is not a Muslim they're a kafir, and if they're not a kafir they must be a Muslim. Because I don't know the future I have no way of knowing that all the Muslims I know personally will die as Muslims. Of course I pray that they do but does that mean I should refer to them as 'non-kafirs'? I can only judge by the here and now, and right now they're Muslims. I don't what they will be like in the future and I don't even know what they're like when they're not in my presence. However, based on what I do know and what they've told me, they're Muslims, and that's enough.
In closing, I remind myself and whoever may be reading this that we must show love and compassion to disbelievers and pray for their guidance. Our differences with them are theological; not personal. See 28:56. We should love them and love for them to be guided. What we hate is kufr. Allah hates to see them reject faith (see 40:10) and so should we.
And with Allah alone is every success!
Your brother in Faith,
Mahdi
p.s. Regarding the words 'non-Muslim' and 'kafir' and their usage, you will notice that it is most common amongst Asians and Arabs. It should be noted that the traditional Muslim lands that these people come from, i.e. from Morocco to India, have been subjected to brutal wars and oppression for over 200 years now, by and large at the hands of Europeans and Americans. You will notice that while most Asians and Arabs (and I am generalising), especially the older generation and those who have emigrated to the UK and/or US, are bitter towards the Americans and Europeans , at the same time they are full of admiration and yes, fear. Hence, when face to face with the descendants of their ancestors' colonial masters (e.g. anything from an inter-faith meeting to the workplace), the term 'non-Muslim' is used, but in private, and especially when angry about some recent event, the term 'kafir' is used, and is definitely meant in a derogative fashion.
If you are a new believer or a newly committed believer, please bear this point in mind. Arabs and Asians are collectively suffering from a very severe inferiority complex and carry an acute vicitim mentality due to what has happened over the past 200 years, most notably the events of the colonial period. Time and time again these people have been invaded and defeated, invaded and defeated, invaded and defeated. What just happened in Gaza, may Allah help those people, is just the latest in a long, long series. It shouldn't come as surprise that these people are not full of self-esteem and confidence, but they are full of anger and resentment. Think of a child at school who is bullied on a daily basis. In public he respects the bully, but in private he is very bitter.
The cry 'why are we a defeated ummah?' is not only expressed by the laity but confirmed by their scholars, even though the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, described this Ummah as marhuma, i.e. one that is shown mercy, and its punishment is in this life while its reward is in the next.
Therefore, while there are many brilliant scholars in the Arab world and the Indian sub-continent, who can teach many or all of the sciences, be wary of taking on their social and political views and mindsets. A victim mentality or inferiority complex is very dangerous for a new or newly committed believer, who needs to have confidence and pride in his or her faith.
And our last call is All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all Creation!
Sunday, 30 November 2008
Allah is the First and the Last
Why is Allah not the goal?
It's been three months since I packed up and left the UK, and I can't say that I miss it. On the other hand, I can't categorically say that being here is better because only Allah knows what tomorrow will bring. 'Be in the dunya as if you are a stranger, or someone crossing a road'. [Narrated by Imam Al-Bukhari]. Not having a place to call home can be disheartening to some, but it's a beautiful reminder that this is not home. "O my people! This worldly life is but a brief enjoyment, whereas, behold, the life to come is the home abiding." [40:39]
When things don't go according to plan, or they go horribly wrong, this is how Allah reminds us that where we are now is not ultimately where we belong. We need to be yearning for Allah, missing Him, and asking Him not to make the ephemeral things of our existence here more beloved to us than Him, and our inevitable meeting with Him.
'Allah! I miss you! You've placed me here with all these distractions and diversions, but one day I will be back. You are going to call me back. Please allow me to be ready, willing.'
I wish I could say this and think this more often!
In my relatively short time as a Muslim I have noticed a consistent fault that seems to be running through our organisations, whether they be da'wa organisation, tariqas, madhabs, or simple community initiatives. I don't want to say this because I desire to gainsay or disparage a lot of good work that has been done, but I'm going to say what I have to say because I believe things would be very different if this simple point was kept in mind.
Every Muslim organisation must have Allah as its number one objective. The goal and the return is to Him. The most an organisation can be is a means to Allah. A cursory look at some of the words used makes this clear, such as madhab (a road entered upon) or tariqa (a path, or road). But a road to what? A road must have a destination. You wouldn't be on a road if it didn't have a destination. When travelling along a road do you think about where you're going or do you marvel at the tarmac and gravel underneath your feet?
Any Orthodox Muslim organisation is and will be successful as long as it sees itself as a means to Allah, and a means amongst many other means. For example, if an organisation has the objective of getting believers back in the masjid to pray their five daily prayers, every day, then this is indeed noble and full of blessings. As soon as the organisation, at any level, makes its objective the recruitment of believers to the organisation itself, therby making the organisation the end as opposed to the means, things go horribly wrong.
Nowadays many Muslims marvel at the road beneath their feet. 'What madhab do you follow, brother?' We have been commanded to follow the first three generations, and the madhabs are our only link to that blessed age, i.e. it is through the madhabs that Allah has preserved the deen and allowed it to reach us. But does that mean one should exalt in the fact that they are a Maliki and not a Hanafi? No. Should one be alarmed if someone else decides that they would rather be a Hanbali than a Hanafi, or a Shafi'i? No. Does it matter? No. To follow one of the four is what is important. What 'one' that is is not important.
The same thing can be said of people who follow Sufi tariqas nowadays. Many of them love to ask the question: 'Brother, are you on the [enter name here] tariqa?' or 'What tariqa are you on?' or 'Do you have a shaykh? I'm a [enter name of tariqa here] and we're all murids of Shaykh [enter name here].' As soon as someone asks me this question I realise that they've missed the point completely. 'How are you?' is a much better question. We could expand it and say: 'How is your journey back to Allah going?' Alhamdulilah, I do know brothers and sisters who actually mean that when they ask 'how are you?'
What bothers me is that their discussion seems to centre more on the tariqa and the 'shaykh' then it does on Allah. The 'shaykh' did this. The 'shaykh' said this. The 'shaykh' is this and this and this and this etc. On a side note, have these people studied their creed and made sure it is sound and valid? Have they studied their fiqh and have they made sure they are following the mu'tamad positions of their school? This is what the great Imam, Shaikh al-Islam, Abdul-Qadir Al-Jilani stipulated in his book Al-Ghunya. Furthermore, Imam Ash-Shafi'i said:
Faqih and Sufi, don't be just one
For indeed, by the Truth of Allah, I am advising you
That one [the Faqih] is harsh. His heart has not tasted taqwa
This one [the Sufi] is ignorant. How can an ignorant person attain to righteousness?
There are some people who actively promote their respective tariqa and talk endlessly about the massive blessing of being on such and such tariqa. Imagine that you are travelling with some people down the M1 to London because you are going to meet someone. Would you and your friends spend your time talking about how amazing the M1 is: 'Wow! Sometimes there are three lanes going either way and sometimes there are only two!'? Or, would you actually talk about where you're going, realising that the road you are taking is not as important as what the road leads to.
Furthermore, if you tell these people that you are not on their tariqa [there are other motorways that lead to London!] they seem disturbed. Something must be wrong with you. Insha'Allah, you'll 'come round' in time. Maybe you're not one of the 'chosen and blessed few'. These attempts to promote a specific tariqa are in fact a declaration that the specific tariqa has been transformed from a means to an end in and of itself, and it's all downhill from there. They are in awe of the arrow on the signpost and completely oblivious of where it is pointing. It reminds me of the thousands (maybe millions?) of people who are fascinated by people like Malcolm X, claim they have read his autobiograhphy numerous times, but they are yet to say the shahada of salvation and enter into a direct relationship with their Lord. SubhanAllah! What's going on?
We have been created to worship Allah [see 51:56]. We need to be glorifying Him and praising Him with every movement and with every breath. This is the basis of everything, and with Allah alone is every success!
It's been three months since I packed up and left the UK, and I can't say that I miss it. On the other hand, I can't categorically say that being here is better because only Allah knows what tomorrow will bring. 'Be in the dunya as if you are a stranger, or someone crossing a road'. [Narrated by Imam Al-Bukhari]. Not having a place to call home can be disheartening to some, but it's a beautiful reminder that this is not home. "O my people! This worldly life is but a brief enjoyment, whereas, behold, the life to come is the home abiding." [40:39]
When things don't go according to plan, or they go horribly wrong, this is how Allah reminds us that where we are now is not ultimately where we belong. We need to be yearning for Allah, missing Him, and asking Him not to make the ephemeral things of our existence here more beloved to us than Him, and our inevitable meeting with Him.
'Allah! I miss you! You've placed me here with all these distractions and diversions, but one day I will be back. You are going to call me back. Please allow me to be ready, willing.'
I wish I could say this and think this more often!
In my relatively short time as a Muslim I have noticed a consistent fault that seems to be running through our organisations, whether they be da'wa organisation, tariqas, madhabs, or simple community initiatives. I don't want to say this because I desire to gainsay or disparage a lot of good work that has been done, but I'm going to say what I have to say because I believe things would be very different if this simple point was kept in mind.
Every Muslim organisation must have Allah as its number one objective. The goal and the return is to Him. The most an organisation can be is a means to Allah. A cursory look at some of the words used makes this clear, such as madhab (a road entered upon) or tariqa (a path, or road). But a road to what? A road must have a destination. You wouldn't be on a road if it didn't have a destination. When travelling along a road do you think about where you're going or do you marvel at the tarmac and gravel underneath your feet?
Any Orthodox Muslim organisation is and will be successful as long as it sees itself as a means to Allah, and a means amongst many other means. For example, if an organisation has the objective of getting believers back in the masjid to pray their five daily prayers, every day, then this is indeed noble and full of blessings. As soon as the organisation, at any level, makes its objective the recruitment of believers to the organisation itself, therby making the organisation the end as opposed to the means, things go horribly wrong.
Nowadays many Muslims marvel at the road beneath their feet. 'What madhab do you follow, brother?' We have been commanded to follow the first three generations, and the madhabs are our only link to that blessed age, i.e. it is through the madhabs that Allah has preserved the deen and allowed it to reach us. But does that mean one should exalt in the fact that they are a Maliki and not a Hanafi? No. Should one be alarmed if someone else decides that they would rather be a Hanbali than a Hanafi, or a Shafi'i? No. Does it matter? No. To follow one of the four is what is important. What 'one' that is is not important.
The same thing can be said of people who follow Sufi tariqas nowadays. Many of them love to ask the question: 'Brother, are you on the [enter name here] tariqa?' or 'What tariqa are you on?' or 'Do you have a shaykh? I'm a [enter name of tariqa here] and we're all murids of Shaykh [enter name here].' As soon as someone asks me this question I realise that they've missed the point completely. 'How are you?' is a much better question. We could expand it and say: 'How is your journey back to Allah going?' Alhamdulilah, I do know brothers and sisters who actually mean that when they ask 'how are you?'
What bothers me is that their discussion seems to centre more on the tariqa and the 'shaykh' then it does on Allah. The 'shaykh' did this. The 'shaykh' said this. The 'shaykh' is this and this and this and this etc. On a side note, have these people studied their creed and made sure it is sound and valid? Have they studied their fiqh and have they made sure they are following the mu'tamad positions of their school? This is what the great Imam, Shaikh al-Islam, Abdul-Qadir Al-Jilani stipulated in his book Al-Ghunya. Furthermore, Imam Ash-Shafi'i said:
Faqih and Sufi, don't be just one
For indeed, by the Truth of Allah, I am advising you
That one [the Faqih] is harsh. His heart has not tasted taqwa
This one [the Sufi] is ignorant. How can an ignorant person attain to righteousness?
There are some people who actively promote their respective tariqa and talk endlessly about the massive blessing of being on such and such tariqa. Imagine that you are travelling with some people down the M1 to London because you are going to meet someone. Would you and your friends spend your time talking about how amazing the M1 is: 'Wow! Sometimes there are three lanes going either way and sometimes there are only two!'? Or, would you actually talk about where you're going, realising that the road you are taking is not as important as what the road leads to.
Furthermore, if you tell these people that you are not on their tariqa [there are other motorways that lead to London!] they seem disturbed. Something must be wrong with you. Insha'Allah, you'll 'come round' in time. Maybe you're not one of the 'chosen and blessed few'. These attempts to promote a specific tariqa are in fact a declaration that the specific tariqa has been transformed from a means to an end in and of itself, and it's all downhill from there. They are in awe of the arrow on the signpost and completely oblivious of where it is pointing. It reminds me of the thousands (maybe millions?) of people who are fascinated by people like Malcolm X, claim they have read his autobiograhphy numerous times, but they are yet to say the shahada of salvation and enter into a direct relationship with their Lord. SubhanAllah! What's going on?
We have been created to worship Allah [see 51:56]. We need to be glorifying Him and praising Him with every movement and with every breath. This is the basis of everything, and with Allah alone is every success!
Friday, 31 October 2008
Why? Creed does matter. (Our Failure is Our Loss 5)
Assalaam alaykum,
I kindly invite all of you to read the latest article at www.htspub.com. It deals with an extremely important and relevant topic of discussion.
It is indeed very sad to see 'community leaders' amongst Ahl us-Sunnah wa'l Jama'ah telling believers that all they need to know is the six pillars of faith, as recorded in the first hadith in Sahih Muslim, and that everything beyond that is not necessary.
We then have to ask this question. If we mitigate the importance of creed then how is it possible for orthodox believers to know more about Allah and thereby draw closer to Him? If the promise of salvation by faith alone, i.e. that Allah wants to have a relationship with humanity and He has promised that He will never turn away from them (see Al-Baqarah 2:256 for one example) then how can the believers be expected to strive and struggle to seek His pleasure? What about the promise of seeing Him (Al-Qiyaamah 75:22-23 and Yunus 10:26)? These are massively important creedal points that need to be at the forefront of the minds of believers.
We need to constantly be thinking of what Allah has done for us, continues to do for us, and what He still has in store for us. Why should the teaching and preaching of salvation, especially, and the doctrine of seeing Allah in the Hereafter be played down, or even ignored, for the sake of not offending the people of innovation? This is nothing short of treachery towards the common believer.
It is also sad that amongst Ahl us-Sunnah we have scholars who have decided to re-interpret the ahadith regarding the division of the Ummah into 73 sects by saying that the saved sect is the entire Ummah, i.e. Ahl us-Sunnah and the people of innovation and heresy, while the 72 other sects are the Jews and Christians. This was never said by the first three generations or even those who came after, so it is an interpretation that is to be rejected absolutely. Even Shaikh Abdul Qadir Al-Jilani, of whom so many people nowadys claim affiliation, states that the saved sect (al-firqatu an-najiyyah) is Ahl us-Sunnah wa'l Jama'ah (Al-Ghunya p.143) and then goes on to discuss and describe the remaining 72 sects in quite some detail. They are not the Jews and the Christians. One may also refer to classical works on heresiography such as Kitab As-Shari'ah by Imam Abu Bakr Al-Aajuri and Al-Milal wa An-Nihal by Imam ash-Shahrastani.
With Allah alone is every success. As a layman I can only advise believers to take their deen seriously and to learn Arabic at any and every opportunity. Don't let anyone, regardless of their intention, take you for a ride and waste your time because they don't want to offend some individual or organisation. It is your right to know who the standard bearers of this Deen are and to know what they have said. Even more so, it is your right to know who Allah is and what He has promised you, and with that you can draw closer to Him. (see Al-Baqarah 2:186)
May Allah show us all truth as truth, and help us follow it, and show us falsehood as falsehood and help us avoid it, amin!
Assalaam alaykum,
Mahdi
I kindly invite all of you to read the latest article at www.htspub.com. It deals with an extremely important and relevant topic of discussion.
It is indeed very sad to see 'community leaders' amongst Ahl us-Sunnah wa'l Jama'ah telling believers that all they need to know is the six pillars of faith, as recorded in the first hadith in Sahih Muslim, and that everything beyond that is not necessary.
We then have to ask this question. If we mitigate the importance of creed then how is it possible for orthodox believers to know more about Allah and thereby draw closer to Him? If the promise of salvation by faith alone, i.e. that Allah wants to have a relationship with humanity and He has promised that He will never turn away from them (see Al-Baqarah 2:256 for one example) then how can the believers be expected to strive and struggle to seek His pleasure? What about the promise of seeing Him (Al-Qiyaamah 75:22-23 and Yunus 10:26)? These are massively important creedal points that need to be at the forefront of the minds of believers.
We need to constantly be thinking of what Allah has done for us, continues to do for us, and what He still has in store for us. Why should the teaching and preaching of salvation, especially, and the doctrine of seeing Allah in the Hereafter be played down, or even ignored, for the sake of not offending the people of innovation? This is nothing short of treachery towards the common believer.
It is also sad that amongst Ahl us-Sunnah we have scholars who have decided to re-interpret the ahadith regarding the division of the Ummah into 73 sects by saying that the saved sect is the entire Ummah, i.e. Ahl us-Sunnah and the people of innovation and heresy, while the 72 other sects are the Jews and Christians. This was never said by the first three generations or even those who came after, so it is an interpretation that is to be rejected absolutely. Even Shaikh Abdul Qadir Al-Jilani, of whom so many people nowadys claim affiliation, states that the saved sect (al-firqatu an-najiyyah) is Ahl us-Sunnah wa'l Jama'ah (Al-Ghunya p.143) and then goes on to discuss and describe the remaining 72 sects in quite some detail. They are not the Jews and the Christians. One may also refer to classical works on heresiography such as Kitab As-Shari'ah by Imam Abu Bakr Al-Aajuri and Al-Milal wa An-Nihal by Imam ash-Shahrastani.
With Allah alone is every success. As a layman I can only advise believers to take their deen seriously and to learn Arabic at any and every opportunity. Don't let anyone, regardless of their intention, take you for a ride and waste your time because they don't want to offend some individual or organisation. It is your right to know who the standard bearers of this Deen are and to know what they have said. Even more so, it is your right to know who Allah is and what He has promised you, and with that you can draw closer to Him. (see Al-Baqarah 2:186)
May Allah show us all truth as truth, and help us follow it, and show us falsehood as falsehood and help us avoid it, amin!
Assalaam alaykum,
Mahdi
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