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!
Sunday, 30 November 2008
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
Saturday, 11 October 2008
Proof that the UK government is retarded at the local level as well
No barbed wire...it might hurt the thieves, allotment holders told
By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 9:26 PM on 09th October 2008
A gardener who fenced off his allotment with barbed wire after being targeted by thieves has been ordered to take it down – in case intruders scratch themselves.
Bill Malcolm erected the 3ft fence after thieves struck three times in just four months, stealing tools worth around £300 from his shed and ransacking his vegetable patch.
But Bromsgrove district council has ordered the 61-year-old to remove the waist-high fence on health and safety grounds.
Demoralised: Bill Malcolm and his fence
Mr Malcolm, who has grown potatoes, onions, beetroot and asparagus on two patches at the Round Hill allotments in Marlbrook, Worcestershire, for the past eight years, said: 'It's an absolutely ridiculous situation.
'All I wanted was to protect my property but the wire had to go in case a thief scratched himself.
'The fence was just a single strand and ringing my property. It was only 3ft high – it wasn't as though I'd dug a moat filled with piranha fish and erected 6ft iron railings.
'The council said they were unhappy about the precautions I had made but my response was to tell them that only someone climbing over on to my allotment could possibly hurt themselves.
Security battle: Intruders have struck Bill's allotments three times in four months
'They shouldn't be trespassing in the first place but the council apologised and said they didn't want to be sued by a wounded thief.
'I told them to let the thief sue me so at least that way I would know who was breaking into my allotment but everything I said fell on deaf ears. It seems as though they are so wrapped up in red tape, they are unable to help me.'
Mr Malcolm said he had been robbed three times since June, along with around 16 of the 50 allotment keepers on the site.
'About £300 worth of tools were taken, including everything from a stainless steel border spade and pitchforks to screwdrivers and hammers,' he added. 'The thieves cut through steel locks on the shed, or broke in through the windows. I caught one lad of about 16 red-handed.
'He dropped the bag of tools and fled, but although the police took a description and finger prints, I heard nothing. Another time yobs broke in and completely trashed my potato and vegetable patches.
'A lot of people, myself included, are growing our own veg to beat the credit crunch. But what's the point if they are going to be ripped up by mindless idiots?
'I take care of this allotment but it's very demoralising to have your belongings stolen and your hard work ruined.'
A spokesman for Bromsgrove council said: 'With regard to the barbed wire, when this is identified on site, we are obliged to request its removal or remove it on health and safety grounds.'
Sergeant Nick Husbands, of West Mercia Police, said: 'We can confirm that five thefts from Round Hill allotments have been reported in the past year.
'These have mainly been from sheds and our advice to allotment holders is not to leave anything of value there.'
Mr Malcolm's plight comes just weeks after Bristol council angered allotment holders by urging them not to lock their sheds in case burglars damaged them breaking in.
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Understanding the Crisis
[Assalaam alaykum,
Please find below an interesting article discussing the connection between fiat money and the current financial mess in the US, which will have reprecussions in the UK.]
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
What caused this? It is a simple question, and yet answers are all over the map, as you might expect. Here’s mine in two words: fiat money. The word fiat means: out of nothing. Money out of nothing is money that is eventually worth nothing. The possibility of precisely that happening emerged on August 15, 1971. Since Nixon severed the last tie of the dollar to gold, the world’s monetary system has not been restrained by anything physical. We’ve depended on the discretion of central bankers. We can’t trust that, and this crisis shows precisely why.
Of course there are subsidiary factors. The lifting of restrictions on Freddie and Fannie. Subsidized lending. The Fed’s artificially low interest rates. The Community Reinvestment Act. Financial “deregulation.” The war. Bush profligacy. Debt. There is much more besides. But fighting each of these forces individually is like battling down flies at the garbage dump. The core issue is that there is nothing to restrain money creation.
The first time that people hear this, they find their minds rather boggled, and they want to know more. My whole experience in this area is that once people start digging around the area of monetary theory, they find that 1) it is not as difficult a subject as it seems, 2) it is endlessly fascinating, and 3) it explains far more than they realized before.
It was F.A. Hayek who bore this burden most directly for those in the English-speaking world. His books on the source of the business cycle and what to do about it appeared in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s. These works were cited by the Nobel Prize Committee in 1974 as his most important contribution to economic thought. His ideas are directly applicable to our current plight.
It has been a real tragedy that these works have been out of print. But this year, the Mises Institute made a hard push to get this book out in time for the current financial calamity. We set other projects aside and worked all hours to bring out the definitive collection. Here it is: Prices and Production and Other Works on Money, the Business Cycle and the Gold Standard, by F.A. Hayek.
The book is priceless in its content and presentation. Specifically, Hayek explains the mechanism by which loose credit generates false signals to investors, leading them to chase fads all over the market, and ending in sector-wide failures. He was writing at a time when the gold standard provided partial restraint on the government and the central bank. No more. So Hayek’s analysis of all of this is more penetrating than ever. The book also contains the complete text of his many battles with Keynes.
At this link, you can buy what we are calling the Crisis Book Kit at a deep discount. Just click the books you want and the discount happens.
At the same time he was writing, his mentor Ludwig von Mises was battling it out in Austria and the German-speaking world. He became the great opponent of not only inflationary finance but also the Continent’s version of the New Deal. The remarkable thing is that these essays were not translated until the 1980s and even then remained obscure. This book is really their first major debut, and it appeared only last year: The Causes of the Economic Crisis. You will see his expository virtuosity at work and also his amazing courage and passion.
It has been a major task of the Austrian school since 1912 to explain to people what money is, how it works, and how its corruption and distortion by the state is the source of both inflation and business cycles. The core book here is Mises’s own 1912 classic called The Theory of Money and Credit, written at the dawn of the central banking age. The prose is still crystal clear, and it continues to be the best textbook on money ever written.
In the American context of the Great Depression, one book captures the whole onset and response. It is Murray Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression. He shows that it wasn’t the 1929 crash that was the problem; it was the response to the crash that created the Depression. Bailouts. Price controls. Wage controls. Government programs. Trade restrictions. Crackdowns on the capital markets. And who did all this? It originated not with FDR but with Herbert Hoover – clear echoes of today. There is no understanding the present crisis without this book.
Finally we need to realize the problem of loose money and its effects are not new and not necessarily 20th century. The whole history of the American economy is littered with banking panics, bailouts, business cycles, and chaos, each with the same root. When the money goes bad, everything goes bad. Rothbard chronicles the long history of his marvelous book: History of Money and Banking in the United States.
The Mises Institute has sponsored research on this topic since it was created in 1982. Our first conference was on the gold standard. We’ve suffered for this choice. The best way to fall out of favor with the regime – or its libertarian and neocon supporters – is to question its central bankers. We’ve done that. But now, the work is done. It is available. The truth is out there. You only need to grab it, comprehend it, and spread it.
Please help. History hangs in the balance.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/understanding-the-crisis.html
[For a rather morbid forecast of what could be happening in the UK soon please read this article that was published today in the Daily Mail.]
Apocalypse Now?: New world order could have devastating implications for Western nations
Last updated at 1:23 AM on 20th September 2008
Almost exactly seven years ago Al Qaeda terrorists targeted their hijacked planes into the Twin Towers at the heart of New York’s financial centre — and the world was transformed.
There were no deaths this week, but the effects of the carnage on the financialmarkets will be far more profound and destabilising than the 9/11 atrocity.
For almost all of us, it will, I predict, be a change for the worse, and for a largeminority the consequences will be extremely distressing.
Here comes the apocalpse: Is the Western world entering a nightmare scenario, as depicted by Edvard Munch?
The Western world — Britain, Europe and the U.S. — has moved from excess toausterity overnight. This week’s financial typhoon will savagely impact livingstandards. In due course, it will topple governments and lead to a permanent transfer ofeconomic and political power from Europe and America to the emergent and, in somecases, such as China, semi-barbarous economies in the East.
I know I will be accused of being unnecessarily apocalyptic and irresponsiblynegative, but I believe that the greatest mistake we can now make is todownplay the seriousness of the situation and bury our heads in the sand.The seismic events which have seen the near-destruction of the investment banking sector and the collapse of insurance giant AIG are on the scale of the Great Crash of 1929. That was such a disaster because it created conditions for the emergence of fascism in continental Europe and then World War II.
Although it is hard to predict the consequences, we should expect ramifications of equal significance — including the re-emergence of violent Far Right parties across the globe.
Some experts were talking this week as if the financial crisis was nearly over. Theycould not be more wrong. The downturn has only just begun — and for most citizensuninvolved with finance the consequences have not been felt at all.
But they will be felt very soon and very brutally. The British economy is in the same position as the Texan coast earlier this month as Hurricane Ike approached — apparently calm, with life going on as normal, but an almighty storm is raging justover the horizon and heading our way with terrifying speed.
We can expect a sharp increase in personal bankruptcies. Yet the numbers will not peak until this time next year at the earliest.Hundreds of thousands of people will lose their jobs, with many forced to sell their houses. Property prices will slump.There will be extreme human suffering, panic and despair. Many careers will bedestroyed. This is considerably worse than the downturn of the early 1990s.
The orthodoxy from the British Government, the Confederation of British Industry and elsewhere that there will be a mild slowdown ending late next year is nonsense.
This crisis is vicious, dynamic and only just beginning. Even those of us lucky enough not to lose our jobs and our homes will have friends and relatives who do. Let us examine, first, the fate of City bankers from firms such as Lehman Brothers — all summarily dismissed when their firm went under this week. They will receive no severance payment and almost no chance ever again of benefiting from the six-figure salaries and massive bonuses they have taken forgranted over the past few years. That means they cannot service the huge mortgages they have taken out on hugely expensive houses. So this weekend they have become forced sellers — which means that thousands of new For Sale signs will be going up in London and the South-Eastin the coming weeks.
Personal bankruptcy:Traders and investment bankers face an uncertain future
If these unemployed investment bankers had the misfortune to buy anywhere near the top of the market, they now face the prospect of personal bankruptcy.This is because they will find that their houses are worth much less than they paid forthem, and will therefore be unable to repay their loan.With so many vendors on the market obliged to sell at any price, it can be assumed that any London house will fetch 25 per cent less this weekend than it would have done this time last week.Many of the younger bankers — those in their 20s and 30s with young families — now face utter disaster. Of course, there is scant public sympathy for these former ‘masters of the universe’ who enjoyed good times.
But we already know that Thursday’s merger of Lloyds Bank and HBOS (supposing itis completed: contrary to statements by Chancellor Alistair Darling, this is by no means certain) will lead directly to the loss of some 40,000 jobs amongbank workers. There will be bloodletting on every High Street where there is both an HBOS and Lloyds outlet — one branch will undoubtedly be closed.
But that body-blow is just the start. Over the coming months, the financial typhoon will mercilessly spread outwards and wreak devastation on the economy.Banks will foreclose on thousands of small businesses.Massive corporate failures are inevitable.These disasters will then rebound on the financial sector, as company bankruptciesand plunging house prices force fresh balance sheet write-downs and yet more sackings.
Unemployment — already rising fast and up 80,000 over the summer — is set to surge ahead and will increase well above the two million predicted by economists.This will produce a vicious spiral. Every worker out of a job means less tax receipts and higher welfare payments.
In last March’s Budget (a work of fiction when it was published), Alistair Darling forecast borrowing this year of £43 billion. Even at the time, this figure was shockingly large.
It meant that only Egypt, Pakistan and Hungary among significant world economies had more profligate government spending than Britain.
As of this weekend, Government borrowing is out of control.
It will soar nearer £100 billion next year — more than double Darling’s estimate. This will cast doubt about Britain’s ability to finance our debt in the internationalcredit markets.
The International Monetary Fund has already warned Darling about his reckless spending. In the months to come, it will demand cuts in government spending, just as it did in the 1970s when the then Labour Chancellor, Denis Healey, had to beg for an IMF loan.
Warned: Government borrowing is twice Chancellor Alistair Darling's estimate and has bought a rebuke from the IMF, Darling will have to take urgent, painful action to reverse the splurge of recent expenditure — welcomed by financially ignorant Labour MPs — on public services, in particular health and education. And whereas the responsible wing of the Labour Government, as it did in the 1970s, will support this prudence, the Left will call for extra spending to save jobs.
It is likely that the Labour Party will split on this issue — just as it did in the aftermath of the Crash in 1931 and again at the start of the 1980s. In the medium term, the only resolution to this debt crisis is a rise in inflation, as governments are forced to print money to fend off depression.
Savers should thus brace themselves for the return of double-digit price rises not seen since the early 1980s. Driven by poverty, crime will also soar — particularly crimes against property. We should also brace ourselves for a return of political violence to the streets. Certainly the British National Party will use the economic downturn to agitate againstimmigrants, accusing them of having ‘stolen British jobs’.The BNP made some striking gains at last May’s elections, and these will continue in the European elections next June.
This is the troubling prospect we face. But the worldwide consequences are just as significant and we can expect the Euro to fail under the strain of economic collapse.The Euro has never been tested by adversity. The single currency’s architects made one foolish mistake when they set it up ten years ago: they established monetary union ahead of political union.
In long-established democracies such as Britain and the United States, it is natural for one area of the country to help the other in times of difficulty. For instance, there was no strong objection when taxpayers in the South were asked to bail out Northern Rock, even though its operations were concentrated in the North-East.
Fascist threat: Far right parties such as Jean-Marie Le Pen's FN in France could exploit the situation. However, that is not the case in mainland Europe where French taxpayers would refuse to contribute huge sums to bail out, say, the Italian banking sector. That is why the Euro is likely to be destroyed by the coming economic storm — just as Britain’s membership of the European monetary system was smashed on Black Wednesday 1992. The truth is that this week’s seismic events will come as a crashing humiliation to the European political class.
Like in Britain, this crisis will be exploited by the Far Right in countries such as France, Holland and Austria. These countries have powerful neo-fascist parties which will relish recession, in particular singling out for blame ethnic minorities, just as the Nazis did in Germany after the 1929 crash.
The good news is that Britain — despite the efforts of Tony Blair and others — remains outside the Euro. It means we can control our interest rates and allow the pound to depreciate, unlike so many European countries, some of which (such as Ireland) are already being devoured by recession.
Wall Street Crash: The US became more insular after the stock market crashed in 1929
But the biggest worry is what will happen in the U.S. Ever since the end of World War II, America has been the world’s policeman. It has been able to play this role, and see off perceived enemies, such as Soviet Russia and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, because for the past 60 years it has been the greatest global economic power. The most important question facing the world today is whether the U.S. — already crippled by the estimated $2 trillion cost of financing the Iraq occupation — can afford to continue its global role.
The historical precedent is far from encouraging. After the 1929 crash, the U.S. turned in on itself, resorting to protectionism. It re-engaged with the world only after the attack by Japan at Pearl Harbour in December 1941. It is too early to say for sure, but it is possible that America is at a similar turning point in its history. President Bush’s decision to pour taxpayers’ money into so many bankrupt financial institutions has led to an explosion of U.S. national debt which will be hugely exacerbated by yesterday’s move in Washington. As a result, U.S. global creditworthiness is in jeopardy, and it is likely that at some stage over the next decade the dollar will lose its unchallenged status as the world’s reserve currency.
There are signs that this process has already begun. For this weakening of the currency was the fate of sterling in the economic crisis of the 1930s. Indeed, the subsequent decision to take the pound off the Gold Standard in 1931 marked the effective end of the British Empire.
Rising power: China has emerged as a threat to US power, and the recent Beijing Olympics have only added to its stature America’s global dominance — already threatened by the emergence of rival economic powers such as China — may soon be coming to its end. The U.S. will probably retreat inwardly, becoming isolationist, at any rate temporarily — opening the way to a new and even more menacing global order. It is inevitable that America will soon withdraw from Iraq, leaving its bitter enemy, Iran, unchallenged as the dominant regional power.
China will become ever more assertive and will want to humiliate Washington by seizing control of Taiwan, something the White House will be powerless to resist. It will move on to threaten nearby India.
Africa will become the scene of proxy wars between China and the West, just as it was the scene of proxy wars between the United States and Soviet Russia for much of the post-war period.
China, much to U.S. fury, will also start to meddle in Latin America. The world that will emerge from the Great Crash of 2008, therefore, will be dark and unpredictable.
This weekend, all sensible families will go through their finances, anticipate the inevitable problems that lie ahead, and cut back at once on unnecessary spending such as eating out, second cars and foreign holidays. For the past 25 years we have lived through a glorious party.
We have all — governments, companies, banks and, of course, consumers — lived beyond our means and are paying the price.
This weekend the hangover begins. It will be prolonged.
Life will be much closer to the austerity that followed World War II than the frenzied, debt-fuelled boom of the past two decades. Perhaps our lives will be none the worse for all this. Our values will certainly change — many will say not before time.
Material objects should count for much less. Almost overnight we have entered a new world, and we must learn to make the best of it.
[And Allah knows best!]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1058601/Apocalypse-Now--New-world-order-devastating-implications-Western-nations.html
Please find below an interesting article discussing the connection between fiat money and the current financial mess in the US, which will have reprecussions in the UK.]
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
What caused this? It is a simple question, and yet answers are all over the map, as you might expect. Here’s mine in two words: fiat money. The word fiat means: out of nothing. Money out of nothing is money that is eventually worth nothing. The possibility of precisely that happening emerged on August 15, 1971. Since Nixon severed the last tie of the dollar to gold, the world’s monetary system has not been restrained by anything physical. We’ve depended on the discretion of central bankers. We can’t trust that, and this crisis shows precisely why.
Of course there are subsidiary factors. The lifting of restrictions on Freddie and Fannie. Subsidized lending. The Fed’s artificially low interest rates. The Community Reinvestment Act. Financial “deregulation.” The war. Bush profligacy. Debt. There is much more besides. But fighting each of these forces individually is like battling down flies at the garbage dump. The core issue is that there is nothing to restrain money creation.
The first time that people hear this, they find their minds rather boggled, and they want to know more. My whole experience in this area is that once people start digging around the area of monetary theory, they find that 1) it is not as difficult a subject as it seems, 2) it is endlessly fascinating, and 3) it explains far more than they realized before.
It was F.A. Hayek who bore this burden most directly for those in the English-speaking world. His books on the source of the business cycle and what to do about it appeared in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s. These works were cited by the Nobel Prize Committee in 1974 as his most important contribution to economic thought. His ideas are directly applicable to our current plight.
It has been a real tragedy that these works have been out of print. But this year, the Mises Institute made a hard push to get this book out in time for the current financial calamity. We set other projects aside and worked all hours to bring out the definitive collection. Here it is: Prices and Production and Other Works on Money, the Business Cycle and the Gold Standard, by F.A. Hayek.
The book is priceless in its content and presentation. Specifically, Hayek explains the mechanism by which loose credit generates false signals to investors, leading them to chase fads all over the market, and ending in sector-wide failures. He was writing at a time when the gold standard provided partial restraint on the government and the central bank. No more. So Hayek’s analysis of all of this is more penetrating than ever. The book also contains the complete text of his many battles with Keynes.
At this link, you can buy what we are calling the Crisis Book Kit at a deep discount. Just click the books you want and the discount happens.
At the same time he was writing, his mentor Ludwig von Mises was battling it out in Austria and the German-speaking world. He became the great opponent of not only inflationary finance but also the Continent’s version of the New Deal. The remarkable thing is that these essays were not translated until the 1980s and even then remained obscure. This book is really their first major debut, and it appeared only last year: The Causes of the Economic Crisis. You will see his expository virtuosity at work and also his amazing courage and passion.
It has been a major task of the Austrian school since 1912 to explain to people what money is, how it works, and how its corruption and distortion by the state is the source of both inflation and business cycles. The core book here is Mises’s own 1912 classic called The Theory of Money and Credit, written at the dawn of the central banking age. The prose is still crystal clear, and it continues to be the best textbook on money ever written.
In the American context of the Great Depression, one book captures the whole onset and response. It is Murray Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression. He shows that it wasn’t the 1929 crash that was the problem; it was the response to the crash that created the Depression. Bailouts. Price controls. Wage controls. Government programs. Trade restrictions. Crackdowns on the capital markets. And who did all this? It originated not with FDR but with Herbert Hoover – clear echoes of today. There is no understanding the present crisis without this book.
Finally we need to realize the problem of loose money and its effects are not new and not necessarily 20th century. The whole history of the American economy is littered with banking panics, bailouts, business cycles, and chaos, each with the same root. When the money goes bad, everything goes bad. Rothbard chronicles the long history of his marvelous book: History of Money and Banking in the United States.
The Mises Institute has sponsored research on this topic since it was created in 1982. Our first conference was on the gold standard. We’ve suffered for this choice. The best way to fall out of favor with the regime – or its libertarian and neocon supporters – is to question its central bankers. We’ve done that. But now, the work is done. It is available. The truth is out there. You only need to grab it, comprehend it, and spread it.
Please help. History hangs in the balance.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/understanding-the-crisis.html
[For a rather morbid forecast of what could be happening in the UK soon please read this article that was published today in the Daily Mail.]
Apocalypse Now?: New world order could have devastating implications for Western nations
Last updated at 1:23 AM on 20th September 2008
Almost exactly seven years ago Al Qaeda terrorists targeted their hijacked planes into the Twin Towers at the heart of New York’s financial centre — and the world was transformed.
There were no deaths this week, but the effects of the carnage on the financialmarkets will be far more profound and destabilising than the 9/11 atrocity.
For almost all of us, it will, I predict, be a change for the worse, and for a largeminority the consequences will be extremely distressing.
Here comes the apocalpse: Is the Western world entering a nightmare scenario, as depicted by Edvard Munch?
The Western world — Britain, Europe and the U.S. — has moved from excess toausterity overnight. This week’s financial typhoon will savagely impact livingstandards. In due course, it will topple governments and lead to a permanent transfer ofeconomic and political power from Europe and America to the emergent and, in somecases, such as China, semi-barbarous economies in the East.
I know I will be accused of being unnecessarily apocalyptic and irresponsiblynegative, but I believe that the greatest mistake we can now make is todownplay the seriousness of the situation and bury our heads in the sand.The seismic events which have seen the near-destruction of the investment banking sector and the collapse of insurance giant AIG are on the scale of the Great Crash of 1929. That was such a disaster because it created conditions for the emergence of fascism in continental Europe and then World War II.
Although it is hard to predict the consequences, we should expect ramifications of equal significance — including the re-emergence of violent Far Right parties across the globe.
Some experts were talking this week as if the financial crisis was nearly over. Theycould not be more wrong. The downturn has only just begun — and for most citizensuninvolved with finance the consequences have not been felt at all.
But they will be felt very soon and very brutally. The British economy is in the same position as the Texan coast earlier this month as Hurricane Ike approached — apparently calm, with life going on as normal, but an almighty storm is raging justover the horizon and heading our way with terrifying speed.
We can expect a sharp increase in personal bankruptcies. Yet the numbers will not peak until this time next year at the earliest.Hundreds of thousands of people will lose their jobs, with many forced to sell their houses. Property prices will slump.There will be extreme human suffering, panic and despair. Many careers will bedestroyed. This is considerably worse than the downturn of the early 1990s.
The orthodoxy from the British Government, the Confederation of British Industry and elsewhere that there will be a mild slowdown ending late next year is nonsense.
This crisis is vicious, dynamic and only just beginning. Even those of us lucky enough not to lose our jobs and our homes will have friends and relatives who do. Let us examine, first, the fate of City bankers from firms such as Lehman Brothers — all summarily dismissed when their firm went under this week. They will receive no severance payment and almost no chance ever again of benefiting from the six-figure salaries and massive bonuses they have taken forgranted over the past few years. That means they cannot service the huge mortgages they have taken out on hugely expensive houses. So this weekend they have become forced sellers — which means that thousands of new For Sale signs will be going up in London and the South-Eastin the coming weeks.
Personal bankruptcy:Traders and investment bankers face an uncertain future
If these unemployed investment bankers had the misfortune to buy anywhere near the top of the market, they now face the prospect of personal bankruptcy.This is because they will find that their houses are worth much less than they paid forthem, and will therefore be unable to repay their loan.With so many vendors on the market obliged to sell at any price, it can be assumed that any London house will fetch 25 per cent less this weekend than it would have done this time last week.Many of the younger bankers — those in their 20s and 30s with young families — now face utter disaster. Of course, there is scant public sympathy for these former ‘masters of the universe’ who enjoyed good times.
But we already know that Thursday’s merger of Lloyds Bank and HBOS (supposing itis completed: contrary to statements by Chancellor Alistair Darling, this is by no means certain) will lead directly to the loss of some 40,000 jobs amongbank workers. There will be bloodletting on every High Street where there is both an HBOS and Lloyds outlet — one branch will undoubtedly be closed.
But that body-blow is just the start. Over the coming months, the financial typhoon will mercilessly spread outwards and wreak devastation on the economy.Banks will foreclose on thousands of small businesses.Massive corporate failures are inevitable.These disasters will then rebound on the financial sector, as company bankruptciesand plunging house prices force fresh balance sheet write-downs and yet more sackings.
Unemployment — already rising fast and up 80,000 over the summer — is set to surge ahead and will increase well above the two million predicted by economists.This will produce a vicious spiral. Every worker out of a job means less tax receipts and higher welfare payments.
In last March’s Budget (a work of fiction when it was published), Alistair Darling forecast borrowing this year of £43 billion. Even at the time, this figure was shockingly large.
It meant that only Egypt, Pakistan and Hungary among significant world economies had more profligate government spending than Britain.
As of this weekend, Government borrowing is out of control.
It will soar nearer £100 billion next year — more than double Darling’s estimate. This will cast doubt about Britain’s ability to finance our debt in the internationalcredit markets.
The International Monetary Fund has already warned Darling about his reckless spending. In the months to come, it will demand cuts in government spending, just as it did in the 1970s when the then Labour Chancellor, Denis Healey, had to beg for an IMF loan.
Warned: Government borrowing is twice Chancellor Alistair Darling's estimate and has bought a rebuke from the IMF, Darling will have to take urgent, painful action to reverse the splurge of recent expenditure — welcomed by financially ignorant Labour MPs — on public services, in particular health and education. And whereas the responsible wing of the Labour Government, as it did in the 1970s, will support this prudence, the Left will call for extra spending to save jobs.
It is likely that the Labour Party will split on this issue — just as it did in the aftermath of the Crash in 1931 and again at the start of the 1980s. In the medium term, the only resolution to this debt crisis is a rise in inflation, as governments are forced to print money to fend off depression.
Savers should thus brace themselves for the return of double-digit price rises not seen since the early 1980s. Driven by poverty, crime will also soar — particularly crimes against property. We should also brace ourselves for a return of political violence to the streets. Certainly the British National Party will use the economic downturn to agitate againstimmigrants, accusing them of having ‘stolen British jobs’.The BNP made some striking gains at last May’s elections, and these will continue in the European elections next June.
This is the troubling prospect we face. But the worldwide consequences are just as significant and we can expect the Euro to fail under the strain of economic collapse.The Euro has never been tested by adversity. The single currency’s architects made one foolish mistake when they set it up ten years ago: they established monetary union ahead of political union.
In long-established democracies such as Britain and the United States, it is natural for one area of the country to help the other in times of difficulty. For instance, there was no strong objection when taxpayers in the South were asked to bail out Northern Rock, even though its operations were concentrated in the North-East.
Fascist threat: Far right parties such as Jean-Marie Le Pen's FN in France could exploit the situation. However, that is not the case in mainland Europe where French taxpayers would refuse to contribute huge sums to bail out, say, the Italian banking sector. That is why the Euro is likely to be destroyed by the coming economic storm — just as Britain’s membership of the European monetary system was smashed on Black Wednesday 1992. The truth is that this week’s seismic events will come as a crashing humiliation to the European political class.
Like in Britain, this crisis will be exploited by the Far Right in countries such as France, Holland and Austria. These countries have powerful neo-fascist parties which will relish recession, in particular singling out for blame ethnic minorities, just as the Nazis did in Germany after the 1929 crash.
The good news is that Britain — despite the efforts of Tony Blair and others — remains outside the Euro. It means we can control our interest rates and allow the pound to depreciate, unlike so many European countries, some of which (such as Ireland) are already being devoured by recession.
Wall Street Crash: The US became more insular after the stock market crashed in 1929
But the biggest worry is what will happen in the U.S. Ever since the end of World War II, America has been the world’s policeman. It has been able to play this role, and see off perceived enemies, such as Soviet Russia and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, because for the past 60 years it has been the greatest global economic power. The most important question facing the world today is whether the U.S. — already crippled by the estimated $2 trillion cost of financing the Iraq occupation — can afford to continue its global role.
The historical precedent is far from encouraging. After the 1929 crash, the U.S. turned in on itself, resorting to protectionism. It re-engaged with the world only after the attack by Japan at Pearl Harbour in December 1941. It is too early to say for sure, but it is possible that America is at a similar turning point in its history. President Bush’s decision to pour taxpayers’ money into so many bankrupt financial institutions has led to an explosion of U.S. national debt which will be hugely exacerbated by yesterday’s move in Washington. As a result, U.S. global creditworthiness is in jeopardy, and it is likely that at some stage over the next decade the dollar will lose its unchallenged status as the world’s reserve currency.
There are signs that this process has already begun. For this weakening of the currency was the fate of sterling in the economic crisis of the 1930s. Indeed, the subsequent decision to take the pound off the Gold Standard in 1931 marked the effective end of the British Empire.
Rising power: China has emerged as a threat to US power, and the recent Beijing Olympics have only added to its stature America’s global dominance — already threatened by the emergence of rival economic powers such as China — may soon be coming to its end. The U.S. will probably retreat inwardly, becoming isolationist, at any rate temporarily — opening the way to a new and even more menacing global order. It is inevitable that America will soon withdraw from Iraq, leaving its bitter enemy, Iran, unchallenged as the dominant regional power.
China will become ever more assertive and will want to humiliate Washington by seizing control of Taiwan, something the White House will be powerless to resist. It will move on to threaten nearby India.
Africa will become the scene of proxy wars between China and the West, just as it was the scene of proxy wars between the United States and Soviet Russia for much of the post-war period.
China, much to U.S. fury, will also start to meddle in Latin America. The world that will emerge from the Great Crash of 2008, therefore, will be dark and unpredictable.
This weekend, all sensible families will go through their finances, anticipate the inevitable problems that lie ahead, and cut back at once on unnecessary spending such as eating out, second cars and foreign holidays. For the past 25 years we have lived through a glorious party.
We have all — governments, companies, banks and, of course, consumers — lived beyond our means and are paying the price.
This weekend the hangover begins. It will be prolonged.
Life will be much closer to the austerity that followed World War II than the frenzied, debt-fuelled boom of the past two decades. Perhaps our lives will be none the worse for all this. Our values will certainly change — many will say not before time.
Material objects should count for much less. Almost overnight we have entered a new world, and we must learn to make the best of it.
[And Allah knows best!]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1058601/Apocalypse-Now--New-world-order-devastating-implications-Western-nations.html
Monday, 8 September 2008
Global Cooling? Unprecedented Ice Storms In Kenya
But suspend your rational thought process for a moment - the WWF assures us that CO2 causes global warming and global cooling
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Evidence that the planet is tip-toeing towards the onset of a new mini ice age continues to present itself following unprecedented ice storms in Kenya as well as Sydney experiencing its coldest August for 60 years. But don’t worry because according to the World Wildlife Fund, global cooling can just as easily be blamed on CO2 emissions as can global warming.
The cold snap arrives on the back of the Sun reaching a milestone not observed in nearly 100 years - the entire month of August passed without a single sunspot being noted.
Lack of solar activity in 2008 has coincided with evidence of a cooling trend across the world.
Earlier this year, China experienced its coldest winter in 100 years while northeast America was hit by record snow levels and Britain suffered its coldest April in decades as late-blooming daffodils were pounded with hail and snow on an almost daily basis. The British summer also left many yearning for global warming, with temperatures in June and July rarely struggling to get over 16 degrees and on one occasion even dropping as low as 9 degrees in the middle of the afternoon.
“Summer heat continues in short supply, continuing a trend that has dominated much of the 21st Century’s opening decade,” reports the Chicago Tribune. “There have been only 162 days 90 degrees or warmer at Midway Airport over the period from 2000 to 2008. That’s by far the fewest 90-degree temperatures in the opening nine years of any decade on record here since 1930.”
According to an Associated Press report, The Farmers Almanac is now also predicting “below-average temperatures for most of the U.S.” The publication boasts of an 85 per cent accuracy rate for its forecasts which are given two years in advance.
According to a report from the World Meteorological Organization last month, the first half of 2008 was the coolest for at least five years, adding that it may actually be the coolest since 2000.
Meanwhile, Arctic ice has expanded by 30 per cent since this time last year as respected scientists predict a new mini ice age within 10 years.
Continuing the trend, parts of Kenya just experienced unprecedented ice storms after which 4 inch deep hail covered the ground.
“Residents of a village in central Kenya were shocked to see a blanket of hail resembling snow covering their land,” reports the BBC.
“I have not seen such a thing ever since I was born,” said one resident of Nyahururu.
Hail storms in western Kenya are not unknown, but the hail normally melts instantly because of high temperatures on the ground. Not this time around, and Kenyans were keen to take advantage of the rare event by enjoying numerous photo opportunities.
Meanwhile, in Sydney, Australians are talking about “the big chill,” the coldest August in Sydney for more than 60 years.
So what’s to blame for the sudden cold snap affecting many parts of the globe? The rapid decrease in solar activity, an event that has always preceded similar mini-ice age periods throughout history?
Not according to the World Wildlife Fund, who blame human-caused CO2 emissions for the cold snap.
That’s right - in case you weren’t aware of the new climate change catch-all explanation, CO2 now causes global warming as well as global cooling.
All weather events, be it rainfall, storms, hurricanes, typhoons or earthquakes are also caused by CO2 emissions.
But don’t worry because experts have the solution that can save us all from global warming, global cooling, or whatever the weather happens to be doing at any particular time.
At a cost to the taxpayer of around $100 billion dollars a year, as part of a program to “geo-engineer” the world, scientists are proposing to build a fleet of spaceships that will be sent up above the Earth’s atmosphere, spanning half the diameter of the entire planet, to block out the Sun from reaching parts of the globe.
But I thought CO2, and not the Sun, was the main driver of climate change?
Maybe Barney the purple dinosaur is the true culprit behind it all - but whatever the explanation - at least I can be assured that my government and the esteemed experts advising them will do their level best to tax and control every aspect of my behavior in the interests of saving us all from global warming, global cooling, or whatever else the weather decides to do tomorrow.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/global-cooling-unprecedented-ice-storms-in-kenya.html
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Evidence that the planet is tip-toeing towards the onset of a new mini ice age continues to present itself following unprecedented ice storms in Kenya as well as Sydney experiencing its coldest August for 60 years. But don’t worry because according to the World Wildlife Fund, global cooling can just as easily be blamed on CO2 emissions as can global warming.
The cold snap arrives on the back of the Sun reaching a milestone not observed in nearly 100 years - the entire month of August passed without a single sunspot being noted.
Lack of solar activity in 2008 has coincided with evidence of a cooling trend across the world.
Earlier this year, China experienced its coldest winter in 100 years while northeast America was hit by record snow levels and Britain suffered its coldest April in decades as late-blooming daffodils were pounded with hail and snow on an almost daily basis. The British summer also left many yearning for global warming, with temperatures in June and July rarely struggling to get over 16 degrees and on one occasion even dropping as low as 9 degrees in the middle of the afternoon.
“Summer heat continues in short supply, continuing a trend that has dominated much of the 21st Century’s opening decade,” reports the Chicago Tribune. “There have been only 162 days 90 degrees or warmer at Midway Airport over the period from 2000 to 2008. That’s by far the fewest 90-degree temperatures in the opening nine years of any decade on record here since 1930.”
According to an Associated Press report, The Farmers Almanac is now also predicting “below-average temperatures for most of the U.S.” The publication boasts of an 85 per cent accuracy rate for its forecasts which are given two years in advance.
According to a report from the World Meteorological Organization last month, the first half of 2008 was the coolest for at least five years, adding that it may actually be the coolest since 2000.
Meanwhile, Arctic ice has expanded by 30 per cent since this time last year as respected scientists predict a new mini ice age within 10 years.
Continuing the trend, parts of Kenya just experienced unprecedented ice storms after which 4 inch deep hail covered the ground.
“Residents of a village in central Kenya were shocked to see a blanket of hail resembling snow covering their land,” reports the BBC.
“I have not seen such a thing ever since I was born,” said one resident of Nyahururu.
Hail storms in western Kenya are not unknown, but the hail normally melts instantly because of high temperatures on the ground. Not this time around, and Kenyans were keen to take advantage of the rare event by enjoying numerous photo opportunities.
Meanwhile, in Sydney, Australians are talking about “the big chill,” the coldest August in Sydney for more than 60 years.
So what’s to blame for the sudden cold snap affecting many parts of the globe? The rapid decrease in solar activity, an event that has always preceded similar mini-ice age periods throughout history?
Not according to the World Wildlife Fund, who blame human-caused CO2 emissions for the cold snap.
That’s right - in case you weren’t aware of the new climate change catch-all explanation, CO2 now causes global warming as well as global cooling.
All weather events, be it rainfall, storms, hurricanes, typhoons or earthquakes are also caused by CO2 emissions.
But don’t worry because experts have the solution that can save us all from global warming, global cooling, or whatever the weather happens to be doing at any particular time.
At a cost to the taxpayer of around $100 billion dollars a year, as part of a program to “geo-engineer” the world, scientists are proposing to build a fleet of spaceships that will be sent up above the Earth’s atmosphere, spanning half the diameter of the entire planet, to block out the Sun from reaching parts of the globe.
But I thought CO2, and not the Sun, was the main driver of climate change?
Maybe Barney the purple dinosaur is the true culprit behind it all - but whatever the explanation - at least I can be assured that my government and the esteemed experts advising them will do their level best to tax and control every aspect of my behavior in the interests of saving us all from global warming, global cooling, or whatever else the weather decides to do tomorrow.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/global-cooling-unprecedented-ice-storms-in-kenya.html
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Notts New Muslims and Moon Sighting
Assalaam alaykum,
Notts New Muslims is no more. From now on it shall be known as New Muslims and be an online resource for anyone who is interested. Brother Ghufran, the site administrator, has been asked to make a few changes to the site and insha'Allah these will take place in due course.
As for moon sighting, please read the two articles that I've posted on the site. One was posted two years ago and the second at the beginning of last Ramadan. I've been informed that for Nottingham Ramadan began Tuesday at Maghrib, so Wednesday is the first fast. Monday was the 29th of Sha'ban and the crescent was not sighted. This is accrording to the local monthly moon sightings that have been taking place since January 2006.
Here in Morocco Sunday was the 29th of Sha'ban and the crescent was not sighted, so Sha'ban was counted as 30 days and Tuesday was the first fast. Alhamduliah, in this country everyone fasts on the same day. Why? Because the Sunnah of physically sighting the moon is upheld. There is no room for the two innovations of following calculation and/or following Saudi Arabia, and with Allah alone is every success!
Ramadan Mubarak!
Notts New Muslims is no more. From now on it shall be known as New Muslims and be an online resource for anyone who is interested. Brother Ghufran, the site administrator, has been asked to make a few changes to the site and insha'Allah these will take place in due course.
As for moon sighting, please read the two articles that I've posted on the site. One was posted two years ago and the second at the beginning of last Ramadan. I've been informed that for Nottingham Ramadan began Tuesday at Maghrib, so Wednesday is the first fast. Monday was the 29th of Sha'ban and the crescent was not sighted. This is accrording to the local monthly moon sightings that have been taking place since January 2006.
Here in Morocco Sunday was the 29th of Sha'ban and the crescent was not sighted, so Sha'ban was counted as 30 days and Tuesday was the first fast. Alhamduliah, in this country everyone fasts on the same day. Why? Because the Sunnah of physically sighting the moon is upheld. There is no room for the two innovations of following calculation and/or following Saudi Arabia, and with Allah alone is every success!
Ramadan Mubarak!
Sunday, 24 August 2008
Shari'ah Law: Brought to you by wordly reconciliation
Assalaam alaykum,
I kindly advise all brothers and sisters to visit www.htspub.com and read the latest article posted by Brother Abu Ja'far Al-Hanbali. The other articles in the 'Our Failure is Our Loss' series are also highly recommended.
It is about time Muslims stopped and looked at the bigger picture of what is going on in this country between the Muslim community and the government. I can add one thing to this discussion:
Muslims need to stop thinking that worldly governments and disbelievers in general will accept us and like us as long as we are not violent and don't preach violence. This is an incredibly naive way of looking at things. The Seerah is there to teach; it's not merely a storybook. The fledgling Muslim community suffered immensely at the hands of the idol-worshipers in Makkah, and this was before any battle had been fought and even before any verse referring to armed combat had been revealed. 'Would you do this to a man because he says: "My Lord is Allah"?' Abu Bakr As-Siddiq asked after seeing the Noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, being abused. This question is rhetorical.
There will always be those who will seek to undermine Islam, regardless of the circumstances. Believers need to be wary of this and seek refuge in Allah.
Assalaam alaykum,
I kindly advise all brothers and sisters to visit www.htspub.com and read the latest article posted by Brother Abu Ja'far Al-Hanbali. The other articles in the 'Our Failure is Our Loss' series are also highly recommended.
It is about time Muslims stopped and looked at the bigger picture of what is going on in this country between the Muslim community and the government. I can add one thing to this discussion:
Muslims need to stop thinking that worldly governments and disbelievers in general will accept us and like us as long as we are not violent and don't preach violence. This is an incredibly naive way of looking at things. The Seerah is there to teach; it's not merely a storybook. The fledgling Muslim community suffered immensely at the hands of the idol-worshipers in Makkah, and this was before any battle had been fought and even before any verse referring to armed combat had been revealed. 'Would you do this to a man because he says: "My Lord is Allah"?' Abu Bakr As-Siddiq asked after seeing the Noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, being abused. This question is rhetorical.
There will always be those who will seek to undermine Islam, regardless of the circumstances. Believers need to be wary of this and seek refuge in Allah.
Assalaam alaykum,
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
Are you feeling cold this summer? What happened to global warming?
Scientist Predicts Ice Age Within 10 Years
University of Mexico expert says lack of solar activity to cause significant cooling that will last over half a century
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet (www.prisonplanet.com)
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
As evidence builds of the earth entering a dramatic cooling trend, another scientist has gone public with his conviction that we are about to enter a new ice age, rendering warnings about global warming fraudulent and irrelevant.
Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera of the Institute of Geophysics at the University of Mexico states that “In about ten years the Earth will enter a “little ice age” which will last from 60 to 80 years and may be caused by the decrease in solar activity,” according to a report in the major Mexican newspaper Milenio Diario.
Herrera slammed the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) stance on global warming as “erroneous” because of their failure to factor in the impact of solar activity.
The models and forecasts of the IPCC “is incorrect because only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include, for example, solar activity,” said Herrera.
Herrera states that the earth is entering a natural phase of climate transition during which solar activity will diminish considerably, “so that in two years or so, there will be a small ice age that lasts from 60 to 80 years.”
Herrera cited the growth in glaciers observed at the Andes, Perito Moreno, Logan, the highest mountain in Canada, and Franz-Josef Glacier, New Zealand.
A dramatic cooling trend is being observed across the planet even as people like Al Gore continue to claim that the threat of global warming mandates the poor and middle class be hit with CO2 taxes in order to prevent climate change.
Both anecdotal evidence and hard data indicates that the planet is in the beginning stages of a significant downturn in global temperatures.
Following the end of the Sun’s most active period in over 11,000 years, the last 10 years have displayed a clear cooling trend as temperatures post-1998 leveled out and are now plummeting.
China recently experienced its coldest winter in 100 years while northeast America was hit by record snow levels and Britain suffered its coldest April in decades as late-blooming daffodils were pounded with hail and snow on an almost daily basis. The British summer has also left many yearning for global warming, with temperatures in June and July rarely struggling to get over 16 degrees and on one occasion even dropping as low as 9 degrees in the middle of the afternoon.
“Summer heat continues in short supply, continuing a trend that has dominated much of the 21st Century’s opening decade,” reports the Chicago Tribune. “There have been only 162 days 90 degrees or warmer at Midway Airport over the period from 2000 to 2008. That’s by far the fewest 90-degree temperatures in the opening nine years of any decade on record here since 1930.”
The reason? Sunspot activity has dwindled. There have only been a handful of days in the past two months where any sunspot activity has been observed and over 400 spotless days have been recorded in the current solar cycle.
“The sun’s surface has been fairly blank for the last couple of years, and that has some worried that it may be entering another Maunder minimum, the sun’s 50-year abstinence from sunspots, which some scientists have linked to the Little Ice Age of the 17th century,” reports one science blog.
Since the sun, and not carbon dioxide, is the principle driver of climate change, a dearth of sunspot activity would herald a repeat of the Maunder Minimum, the name given to the period roughly from 1645 to 1715, when sunspots became exceedingly rare and contributed to the onset of the Little Ice Age during which Europe and North America were hit by bitterly cold winters and the Thames river in London completely froze.
Long-time man-made global warming advocates NASA assure us that significant sunspot activity will return in 2012, but a recent a paper on recent solar trends by William Livingston and Matthew Penn of the National Solar Observatory in Tucson, predicts that sunspots will all but vanish after 2015.
As we reported last week, the Armagh observatory, which has been measuring sun cycles for over 200 years. predicts that global temperatures will drop by two degrees over the next 20 years as solar activity grinds to a halt and the planet drastically cools down, potentially heralding the onset of a new ice age.
“Based on the past Armagh measurements, this suggests that over the next two decades, global temperatures may fall by about 2 degrees C — that is, to a level lower than any we have seen in the last 100 years….”Temperatures have already fallen by about 0.5 degrees C over the past 12 months and, if this is only the start of it, it would be a serious concern,” concludes David Watt.
University of Mexico expert says lack of solar activity to cause significant cooling that will last over half a century
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet (www.prisonplanet.com)
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
As evidence builds of the earth entering a dramatic cooling trend, another scientist has gone public with his conviction that we are about to enter a new ice age, rendering warnings about global warming fraudulent and irrelevant.
Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera of the Institute of Geophysics at the University of Mexico states that “In about ten years the Earth will enter a “little ice age” which will last from 60 to 80 years and may be caused by the decrease in solar activity,” according to a report in the major Mexican newspaper Milenio Diario.
Herrera slammed the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) stance on global warming as “erroneous” because of their failure to factor in the impact of solar activity.
The models and forecasts of the IPCC “is incorrect because only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include, for example, solar activity,” said Herrera.
Herrera states that the earth is entering a natural phase of climate transition during which solar activity will diminish considerably, “so that in two years or so, there will be a small ice age that lasts from 60 to 80 years.”
Herrera cited the growth in glaciers observed at the Andes, Perito Moreno, Logan, the highest mountain in Canada, and Franz-Josef Glacier, New Zealand.
A dramatic cooling trend is being observed across the planet even as people like Al Gore continue to claim that the threat of global warming mandates the poor and middle class be hit with CO2 taxes in order to prevent climate change.
Both anecdotal evidence and hard data indicates that the planet is in the beginning stages of a significant downturn in global temperatures.
Following the end of the Sun’s most active period in over 11,000 years, the last 10 years have displayed a clear cooling trend as temperatures post-1998 leveled out and are now plummeting.
China recently experienced its coldest winter in 100 years while northeast America was hit by record snow levels and Britain suffered its coldest April in decades as late-blooming daffodils were pounded with hail and snow on an almost daily basis. The British summer has also left many yearning for global warming, with temperatures in June and July rarely struggling to get over 16 degrees and on one occasion even dropping as low as 9 degrees in the middle of the afternoon.
“Summer heat continues in short supply, continuing a trend that has dominated much of the 21st Century’s opening decade,” reports the Chicago Tribune. “There have been only 162 days 90 degrees or warmer at Midway Airport over the period from 2000 to 2008. That’s by far the fewest 90-degree temperatures in the opening nine years of any decade on record here since 1930.”
The reason? Sunspot activity has dwindled. There have only been a handful of days in the past two months where any sunspot activity has been observed and over 400 spotless days have been recorded in the current solar cycle.
“The sun’s surface has been fairly blank for the last couple of years, and that has some worried that it may be entering another Maunder minimum, the sun’s 50-year abstinence from sunspots, which some scientists have linked to the Little Ice Age of the 17th century,” reports one science blog.
Since the sun, and not carbon dioxide, is the principle driver of climate change, a dearth of sunspot activity would herald a repeat of the Maunder Minimum, the name given to the period roughly from 1645 to 1715, when sunspots became exceedingly rare and contributed to the onset of the Little Ice Age during which Europe and North America were hit by bitterly cold winters and the Thames river in London completely froze.
Long-time man-made global warming advocates NASA assure us that significant sunspot activity will return in 2012, but a recent a paper on recent solar trends by William Livingston and Matthew Penn of the National Solar Observatory in Tucson, predicts that sunspots will all but vanish after 2015.
As we reported last week, the Armagh observatory, which has been measuring sun cycles for over 200 years. predicts that global temperatures will drop by two degrees over the next 20 years as solar activity grinds to a halt and the planet drastically cools down, potentially heralding the onset of a new ice age.
“Based on the past Armagh measurements, this suggests that over the next two decades, global temperatures may fall by about 2 degrees C — that is, to a level lower than any we have seen in the last 100 years….”Temperatures have already fallen by about 0.5 degrees C over the past 12 months and, if this is only the start of it, it would be a serious concern,” concludes David Watt.
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Wednesday, 6 August 2008
Thursday, 24 July 2008
Ibn Jabal Arabic: Level One in Bradford, London and Manchester
Ibn Jabal Institute
Ibn Jabal Institute offers an unrivalled programme of part-time and full-time courses across the UK, with an established reputation as one of London's leading Arabic teaching Institutes. This summer we have courses coming up in Harrow, Angel, Bradford and Manchester.
Ibn Jabal Summer School
Free this Summer? Ibn Jabal Summer School runs 3 week Intensive courses throughout the summer. Level 1 covers in just 15 lessons the complete grammatical content of an entire full-time academic year at a British university. Available in Manchester, Bradford, and London. There are just 4 more 3-Week Intensive Courses left this summer, apply now as spaces fill up fast!
L1 3 Week Intensive D - Afternoon / London
Mon 4 August 2008 - Fri 22 August 2008
3 weeks full-time / 5 intensive classes per week Mon-Fri / 1pm - 5:00pm
Venue Ibn Jabal Institute, 29 Sidney Grove, EC1V 7LP / Register Now
L1 3 Week Intensive E / London
Mon 25 August 2008 - Fri 12 September 2008
3 weeks full-time / 5 intensive classes per week Mon-Fri / 9am - 1:00pm
Venue Ibn Jabal Institute, 29 Sidney Grove, EC1V 7LP / Register Now
L1 3 Week Intensive / Bradford
Mon 4 August 2008 - Fri 22 August 2008
3 weeks full-time / 5 intensive classes per week Mon-Fri / 9.00am - 1:00pm
Venue Bradford University, Richmond Road, BD7 1DP / Register Now
L1 3 Week Intensive / Manchester
Mon 4 August 2008 - Fri 22 August 2008
3 weeks full-time / 5 intensive classes per week Mon-Fri / 1.00pm - 5:00pm
Venue Islah Centre, Ladybarn Lane, M14 6YL / Register Now
For further details and to register please visit www.ibnjabal.com
Ibn Jabal Institute offers an unrivalled programme of part-time and full-time courses across the UK, with an established reputation as one of London's leading Arabic teaching Institutes. This summer we have courses coming up in Harrow, Angel, Bradford and Manchester.
Ibn Jabal Summer School
Free this Summer? Ibn Jabal Summer School runs 3 week Intensive courses throughout the summer. Level 1 covers in just 15 lessons the complete grammatical content of an entire full-time academic year at a British university. Available in Manchester, Bradford, and London. There are just 4 more 3-Week Intensive Courses left this summer, apply now as spaces fill up fast!
L1 3 Week Intensive D - Afternoon / London
Mon 4 August 2008 - Fri 22 August 2008
3 weeks full-time / 5 intensive classes per week Mon-Fri / 1pm - 5:00pm
Venue Ibn Jabal Institute, 29 Sidney Grove, EC1V 7LP / Register Now
L1 3 Week Intensive E / London
Mon 25 August 2008 - Fri 12 September 2008
3 weeks full-time / 5 intensive classes per week Mon-Fri / 9am - 1:00pm
Venue Ibn Jabal Institute, 29 Sidney Grove, EC1V 7LP / Register Now
L1 3 Week Intensive / Bradford
Mon 4 August 2008 - Fri 22 August 2008
3 weeks full-time / 5 intensive classes per week Mon-Fri / 9.00am - 1:00pm
Venue Bradford University, Richmond Road, BD7 1DP / Register Now
L1 3 Week Intensive / Manchester
Mon 4 August 2008 - Fri 22 August 2008
3 weeks full-time / 5 intensive classes per week Mon-Fri / 1.00pm - 5:00pm
Venue Islah Centre, Ladybarn Lane, M14 6YL / Register Now
For further details and to register please visit www.ibnjabal.com
Monday, 21 July 2008
10 things you should eliminate from your diet today
Assalaam alaykum,
Please read the following list from ABC news in the US. Number 5 is particularly interesting:
1) Trans fats
Read your labels! Anything that says "partially hydrogenated" is a trans fat.
Trans fats cause clogged arteries, type 2 diabetes, and other serious health problems. Only cook with organic butter or extra-virgin coconut oil as all other oils will turn into trans fat when used for cooking (including olive oil).
2) Artificial sweeteners
Contribute to diabetes because they prompt you to eat more.
Aspartame and sucralose (Splenda) should be avoided completely due to their toxic effects on the body. Alternatives are raw honey, agave nectar, stevia extract, and xylitol.
3) High fructose corn syrup and processed sugars
Fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar.
This may be one of the reasons Americans continue to get fatter.
4) Soy products
Creates hormonal imbalances in men and women by affecting estrogen levels.
Instead of soy milk for drinks and for infants, use goat's milk. It is the closest to a human mother's milk and is highly anti-allergenic.
5) Pork products
Creates toxic cells. Never meant for consumption.
6) Shellfish
Shellfish are scavengers ingesting countless toxins from the water in an attempt to keep our oceans and lakes clean.
7) Processed wheat and white flour
You used flour and water in elementary school to make glue paper mache hard as concrete. It has a similar affect on the body. Choose sprouted grain bread as an alternative.
8) Soft drinks
Sodas (even diet ones) poison the body. They don't reduce your hunger as solid food does, so your caloric intake is even higher. Regular soft drinks are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup and diet drinks use artificial sweeteners. A great alternative to the fizz you crave is to add fresh lime or lemon to sparkling water along with approved sweeteners.
9) Unfiltered tap water
Regular tap water is filled with chemicals and infused with chlorine. Always drink fresh spring water or filtered water and use a water filter for your home (even for bathing and washing clothes).
10) Non-organic dairy and meat products
Animals that are not raised organically are fed chemical and hormone-laced foods and by eating them, those harmful toxins go directly into you.
Source: http://www.abc15.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=c0437975-6777-4664-911c-51ca437286e3
Please read the following list from ABC news in the US. Number 5 is particularly interesting:
1) Trans fats
Read your labels! Anything that says "partially hydrogenated" is a trans fat.
Trans fats cause clogged arteries, type 2 diabetes, and other serious health problems. Only cook with organic butter or extra-virgin coconut oil as all other oils will turn into trans fat when used for cooking (including olive oil).
2) Artificial sweeteners
Contribute to diabetes because they prompt you to eat more.
Aspartame and sucralose (Splenda) should be avoided completely due to their toxic effects on the body. Alternatives are raw honey, agave nectar, stevia extract, and xylitol.
3) High fructose corn syrup and processed sugars
Fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar.
This may be one of the reasons Americans continue to get fatter.
4) Soy products
Creates hormonal imbalances in men and women by affecting estrogen levels.
Instead of soy milk for drinks and for infants, use goat's milk. It is the closest to a human mother's milk and is highly anti-allergenic.
5) Pork products
Creates toxic cells. Never meant for consumption.
6) Shellfish
Shellfish are scavengers ingesting countless toxins from the water in an attempt to keep our oceans and lakes clean.
7) Processed wheat and white flour
You used flour and water in elementary school to make glue paper mache hard as concrete. It has a similar affect on the body. Choose sprouted grain bread as an alternative.
8) Soft drinks
Sodas (even diet ones) poison the body. They don't reduce your hunger as solid food does, so your caloric intake is even higher. Regular soft drinks are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup and diet drinks use artificial sweeteners. A great alternative to the fizz you crave is to add fresh lime or lemon to sparkling water along with approved sweeteners.
9) Unfiltered tap water
Regular tap water is filled with chemicals and infused with chlorine. Always drink fresh spring water or filtered water and use a water filter for your home (even for bathing and washing clothes).
10) Non-organic dairy and meat products
Animals that are not raised organically are fed chemical and hormone-laced foods and by eating them, those harmful toxins go directly into you.
Source: http://www.abc15.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=c0437975-6777-4664-911c-51ca437286e3
Saturday, 21 June 2008
New Books available from Sunni Publications
Top: AL-LA MADHHABIYYA: ABANDONING THE MADHHABS
THE MOST DANGEROUS BID`AH THREATENING THE ISLAMIC SHARI`AH
BY SHAYKH DR. MUHAMMAD SA`ID RAMADAN AL-BUTI
Bottom: OUR MASTER MUHAMMAD
THE MESSENGER OF ALLAH (ASWS)
HIS SUBLIME CHARACTER & EXALTED ATTRIBUTES VOLUME 1
BY IMAM `ABDALLAH SIRAJUDDIN AL-HUSAYNI (RA)
FOREWORD BY SHAYKH MUHAMMAD B. YAHYA AL-NINOWY
TRANSLATED BY KHALID WILLIAMS
Please visit www.sunnipubs.com!
Thursday, 29 May 2008
The Essentials of Islam: Fiqh for Beginners
Assalaam alaykum,
Alhamdulilah, the dates and venue have been confirmed for the Fiqh Class.
Start Date: Monday, 16 June, 2008.
Time: 6-8 pm
Venue: Room 547, Chaucer Building, City Campus, Nottingham Trent University
Finish Date: Before Ramadan insha'Allah
Requirements: Pen, paper and a copy of the book Ar-Risalah Al-Jamiah, translated as the Essentials of Islam and available from www.ivpublishing.co.uk, and preferably a translation of the Qur'an and a copy of the Jibril Hadith.
Topics: Beliefs, Purification, Prayer, Fasting, Zakat, Hajj, and basic Halaal and Haraam
Brother and Sisters welcome!
Assalaam alaykum,
Mahdi Lock
Notts New Muslims
www.nottsnewmuslims.com
Monday, 26 May 2008
Monday, 19 May 2008
Ar-Risalah Al-Jamiah
Assalaam alaykum,
Alhamdulilah, before the class starts I was wondering who would be interested in buying a copy of the text Ar-Risalah Al-Jamiah, translated into English by Shaykh Abdul Aziz Fredericks.
The text is available from http://www.ivpublishing.co.uk/ for £2.99, but I've spoken with Brother Naeem Ali and I will insha'Allah be ordering 20 copies of the book and distributing them for £3.50 to cover shipping costs, which will be approximately £10 altogether.
If you're interested please let me know asap by email: nottsnewmuslims@yahoo.co.uk. As I write 7 copies have already been reserved, so there are only 13 left!
Assalaam alaykum,
Mahdi Lock
Notts New Muslims
www.nottsnewmuslims.com
Online Shafi'i Fiqh
Assalaam alaykum,
I pray this message finds you all in good health and iman, amin!
If any of you are interested in learning Shafi'i fiqh (i.e. how to make wudu, pray etc.) then please visit http://www.ihsanpath.com/content/ShafiFiqh.aspx.
You will need to register with Paltalk, which is free of charge and the section of the text (Al Muqaddimah Al Hadramiyyah (Arabic only)) for each week can be downloaded from the same website.
Al Muqaddimah Al Hadramiyyah is the third text on the Shafi'i fiqh curriculum (visit http://www.daralmustafa.org/curriculum.htm) but Insha'Allah a class on Ar-Risalah Al-Jamiah, which is the first text, will be starting here in Nottingham next month, and with Allah alone is every success!
Assalaam alaykum,
Mahdi Lock
Notts New Muslims
www.nottsnewmuslims.com
Topic: Shafi Fiqh
Book: Al Muqaddimah Al Hadramiyyah
Teacher: Shaykh Sayyid Issa bin Yahya Al-Husainy Al-Ninowy
Date: To start on Friday 16/5/2008 (and then weekly Insha Allah)
Time: USA Eastern Time 6:30pm / UK summer time 11:30pm / Malaysian time 6:30am (Saturday morning)
[please be patient as the Shaykh has a class before that and may be slightly delayed]
Place: Internet teaching using paltalk
Room: Alhaqq Fiqh Shafii Class
The text (in Arabic only) can also be downloaded from the website.
I pray this message finds you all in good health and iman, amin!
If any of you are interested in learning Shafi'i fiqh (i.e. how to make wudu, pray etc.) then please visit http://www.ihsanpath.com/content/ShafiFiqh.aspx.
You will need to register with Paltalk, which is free of charge and the section of the text (Al Muqaddimah Al Hadramiyyah (Arabic only)) for each week can be downloaded from the same website.
Al Muqaddimah Al Hadramiyyah is the third text on the Shafi'i fiqh curriculum (visit http://www.daralmustafa.org/curriculum.htm) but Insha'Allah a class on Ar-Risalah Al-Jamiah, which is the first text, will be starting here in Nottingham next month, and with Allah alone is every success!
Assalaam alaykum,
Mahdi Lock
Notts New Muslims
www.nottsnewmuslims.com
Topic: Shafi Fiqh
Book: Al Muqaddimah Al Hadramiyyah
Teacher: Shaykh Sayyid Issa bin Yahya Al-Husainy Al-Ninowy
Date: To start on Friday 16/5/2008 (and then weekly Insha Allah)
Time: USA Eastern Time 6:30pm / UK summer time 11:30pm / Malaysian time 6:30am (Saturday morning)
[please be patient as the Shaykh has a class before that and may be slightly delayed]
Place: Internet teaching using paltalk
Room: Alhaqq Fiqh Shafii Class
The text (in Arabic only) can also be downloaded from the website.
Thursday, 15 May 2008
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
1st Day of Jamad al-Uwla
Alhamdulilah, the crescent was sighted clearly over Nottingham at sunset on Tuesday, the 6th of May. Rabi' Al-Akhir is counted as 29 days and we have now entered the month of Jamad Al-Uwla. The 29th of Jamad Al-Uwla, which is the next moon sighting day, will fall on Wednesday the 4th June, and with Allah alone is every success.
For further details on moon sighting please read the articles at www.nottsnewmuslims.com.
For further details on moon sighting please read the articles at www.nottsnewmuslims.com.
Sunday, 4 May 2008
Travelling Around Fes
Alhamdulilah, Brother Idris Watts, who lived in the beautiful city of Fes, Morocco for over five years, has compiled a short guide for those of you who are interested in visiting. Please visit www.nottsnewmuslims.com.
I myself spent one year in Fes to study Arabic, and I would definitely recommend it to new Muslims and newly committed Muslims who want to study Arabic and learn more about the Deen in a relaxed and calm environment, and with Allah alone is every success!
I myself spent one year in Fes to study Arabic, and I would definitely recommend it to new Muslims and newly committed Muslims who want to study Arabic and learn more about the Deen in a relaxed and calm environment, and with Allah alone is every success!
Friday, 2 May 2008
Your body's many cries for water
For those of you who suffer from asthma I would highly recommend visiting the website www.watercure.com and reading 'ABC of Asthma, Allergies and Lupus.' I read the book and, alhamdulilah, I have not used any asthma medication for over four months. Please read the following extract, copied from the website, and ask yourself if you are indeed drinking enough water. For a general understanding of the topic, please read the book 'Your Body's Many Cries for Water.'
"You're not sick; you're thirsty. Don't treat thirst with medication."
Dr. F. Batmanghelidj
Our life, our planet. Over 70% of the earth's surface is water. However, most of it—98%--is salt water. Only 2% of the earth's H20 is fresh water that we can drink, and of this, almost all is trapped in frozen glaciers.
You are not just what you eat; you are what you drink.
This is why water is so important to your health.
The Water Cure (TWC) does not sell water or purification systems or any related products. We offer insights and information; both free and in books that give you easy-to-understand scientific explanations on why water is vital to your well-being.
TWC believes promoting "water for health, for healing, for life" is an invaluable public health message. We can all change the way we drink – by drinking pure, natural water that is good for our health, our pocket book, and our environment.
No miracles. Just common sense backed by Dr. F. Batmaghelidj’s years of research and investigation into why water works so well in keeping us healthy and pain free. It can even cure illness in some people who get sick.
Water is the basis of all life and that includes your body. Your muscles that moves you body are 75% water; your blood that transport nutrients is 82% water; your lungs that provide your oxygen are 90% water; your brain that is the control center of your body is 76% water; even your bones are 25% water.
Our health is truly dependent on the quality and quantity of the water we drink.
Dr. B's pioneering work shows that Unintentional Chronic Dehydration (UCD) contributes and even produces pain and many degenerative diseases that can be prevented and treated by increasing water intake on a regular basis.
If you are committed to a healthy lifestyle, make drinking enough natural water a habit in you life. It won't take long for you to feel the benefit.
It is a free investment for your long-term health.
(www.watercure.com)
"You're not sick; you're thirsty. Don't treat thirst with medication."
Dr. F. Batmanghelidj
Our life, our planet. Over 70% of the earth's surface is water. However, most of it—98%--is salt water. Only 2% of the earth's H20 is fresh water that we can drink, and of this, almost all is trapped in frozen glaciers.
You are not just what you eat; you are what you drink.
This is why water is so important to your health.
The Water Cure (TWC) does not sell water or purification systems or any related products. We offer insights and information; both free and in books that give you easy-to-understand scientific explanations on why water is vital to your well-being.
TWC believes promoting "water for health, for healing, for life" is an invaluable public health message. We can all change the way we drink – by drinking pure, natural water that is good for our health, our pocket book, and our environment.
No miracles. Just common sense backed by Dr. F. Batmaghelidj’s years of research and investigation into why water works so well in keeping us healthy and pain free. It can even cure illness in some people who get sick.
Water is the basis of all life and that includes your body. Your muscles that moves you body are 75% water; your blood that transport nutrients is 82% water; your lungs that provide your oxygen are 90% water; your brain that is the control center of your body is 76% water; even your bones are 25% water.
Our health is truly dependent on the quality and quantity of the water we drink.
Dr. B's pioneering work shows that Unintentional Chronic Dehydration (UCD) contributes and even produces pain and many degenerative diseases that can be prevented and treated by increasing water intake on a regular basis.
If you are committed to a healthy lifestyle, make drinking enough natural water a habit in you life. It won't take long for you to feel the benefit.
It is a free investment for your long-term health.
(www.watercure.com)
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
The Primordial Rank of the Prophet, salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam
Alhamdulilah, a new article is now available from www.nottsnewmuslims.com. It's a translation of the first chapter of Imam As-Sayuti's classic text entitled Al-Khasais Al-Kubra.
The book deals with the special characteristics that make our Prophet, salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, unique, starting with his primordial rank. Insha'Allah a translation of the entire book, both volumes, will be underway soon, and with Allah alone is every success!
Update: this article is now available on www.marifah.net. As for a translation of the entire book, Allah knows best at this point.
UPDATE (17/02/2017): www.marifah.net is down. This translation is now available here.
The book deals with the special characteristics that make our Prophet, salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, unique, starting with his primordial rank. Insha'Allah a translation of the entire book, both volumes, will be underway soon, and with Allah alone is every success!
Update: this article is now available on www.marifah.net. As for a translation of the entire book, Allah knows best at this point.
UPDATE (17/02/2017): www.marifah.net is down. This translation is now available here.
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
Pledge of Mutual Respect and Co-Operation: Sunnis and Salafis
Below is a short response to the abovementioned pledge as well as a discussion of the term 'Sunni' and its validity, posted on www.newislamicdirections.com, subject to approval!
Assalaam alaykum,
The term 'Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah' was used by the First Three Generations. See the first page of Imam at-Tahawi's creed text: 'This is an explanation of the creed of Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah...' The Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, said in a Sahih hadith, narrated by both Al-Bukhari and Muslim: 'The best generation is my generation, then those who come next, then those who come next.' If the best generations had no problem calling themselves Ahl us-Sunnah, i.e. Sunnis, then I don't see why those who adhere to doctrine and practice of the First Three generations, which is the Four Madhabs and the creedal disciplines of Imams Ahmad, Abu Hasan Al-Ash'ari and Abu Mansur Al-Maturidi, should shy away from calling themselves 'Sunnis'. It means to adhere to nothing other than the Sunnah of our Beloved Messenger and the way of the First Three Generations.
As for the Salafi movement, no pledge or signed document will change what the Imams of Ahl us-
Sunnah said about Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab and his movement, including those who were contemporary to him and the generations just after, which is that Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab is an apostate and a false prophet and his movement is the revival of the Khawarij in our age. These Imams include, amongst others:
-Imam Sulayman ibn Abdul Wahhab (Hanbali Qadi, see his book As-Sawaiq Al-Ilahiyya)
- Imam Mustafa Ash-Shatti (Hanbali, see his book An-Nuqul Ash-Sha'riyyah, translated as The Divine Texts and available from www.htspub.com)
- Imam Alawi Al-Haddad (Shafi'i, see his book Misbah Al-Anaam)
- Imam Ahmad Dardir (Maliki)
- Imam As-Sawi (Maliki)
- Imam Ibn Abdideen (Hanafi)
Insha'Allah the writings of many of these authors on this topic will be available in English soon, and with Allah alone is every success!
Assalaam alaykum,
Mahdi
P.S. I would like to further add that this is not a personal attack on any individual, but the objective, rather, is to discuss the facts of revelation and the facts of history. The Day of Judgement is real, and within Islam there is the true Orthodox faith and there are counterfeits. I desire to see all Muslims die on the truth and not any form of counterfeit Islam, and Salafiyyah is a very serious counterfeit.
p.p.s I've deleted most of the comments on this post, as of 14 May, and left that which is most beneficial. The discussion on iman and salvation is a response to a question that a brother posted.
Assalaam alaykum,
The term 'Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah' was used by the First Three Generations. See the first page of Imam at-Tahawi's creed text: 'This is an explanation of the creed of Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah...' The Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, said in a Sahih hadith, narrated by both Al-Bukhari and Muslim: 'The best generation is my generation, then those who come next, then those who come next.' If the best generations had no problem calling themselves Ahl us-Sunnah, i.e. Sunnis, then I don't see why those who adhere to doctrine and practice of the First Three generations, which is the Four Madhabs and the creedal disciplines of Imams Ahmad, Abu Hasan Al-Ash'ari and Abu Mansur Al-Maturidi, should shy away from calling themselves 'Sunnis'. It means to adhere to nothing other than the Sunnah of our Beloved Messenger and the way of the First Three Generations.
As for the Salafi movement, no pledge or signed document will change what the Imams of Ahl us-
Sunnah said about Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab and his movement, including those who were contemporary to him and the generations just after, which is that Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab is an apostate and a false prophet and his movement is the revival of the Khawarij in our age. These Imams include, amongst others:
-Imam Sulayman ibn Abdul Wahhab (Hanbali Qadi, see his book As-Sawaiq Al-Ilahiyya)
- Imam Mustafa Ash-Shatti (Hanbali, see his book An-Nuqul Ash-Sha'riyyah, translated as The Divine Texts and available from www.htspub.com)
- Imam Alawi Al-Haddad (Shafi'i, see his book Misbah Al-Anaam)
- Imam Ahmad Dardir (Maliki)
- Imam As-Sawi (Maliki)
- Imam Ibn Abdideen (Hanafi)
Insha'Allah the writings of many of these authors on this topic will be available in English soon, and with Allah alone is every success!
Assalaam alaykum,
Mahdi
P.S. I would like to further add that this is not a personal attack on any individual, but the objective, rather, is to discuss the facts of revelation and the facts of history. The Day of Judgement is real, and within Islam there is the true Orthodox faith and there are counterfeits. I desire to see all Muslims die on the truth and not any form of counterfeit Islam, and Salafiyyah is a very serious counterfeit.
p.p.s I've deleted most of the comments on this post, as of 14 May, and left that which is most beneficial. The discussion on iman and salvation is a response to a question that a brother posted.
Sunday, 13 April 2008
Khutbas by Shaykh Ramadan Al-Buti on Fiqh of Minorities
Assalaam alaykum,
The two khutbahs that are on www.marifah.net are now available from www.nottsnewmuslims.com. For the first Fiqh of Minorities article please click http://www.nottsnewmuslims.com/Bouti-Minority%20Fiqh.pdf. Please note that this version is no different than the one available from www.marifah.net.
The Mawlid Khutbah: Fiqh of Minorities is available from: http://www.nottsnewmuslims.com/Bouti_Mawlid%20Khutbah.pdf. Please note that this version includes all of the original footnotes, including quotes from the text Tahkim Al-Qawanin and three footnotes that were removed from the version on www.marifah.net, which further explain Shaykh Al-Buti's words.
The quotes from Tahkim Al-Qawanin were not included in the marifah.net version as they were thought to be unnecessary, but they are included here for the reader's benefit.
The three footnotes, numbers 12, the last bit of 16, and 18 were removed because a certain individual threatened to withdraw his endorsement of marifah.net if those footnotes remained. If anybody feels that I, as the translator, misinterpreted Sheikh Al-Buti's words then I highly recommend that they watch Sheikh Al-Buti's lecture on Minority Fiqh that he gave at the Islamic University of Rotterdam last year (2007), available from:
http://www.marifah.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=108&Itemid=71.
In the Q&A session the Sheikh says, and may Allah the Exalted preserve him, that the European Council for Fatwa and Research, which is one of if not the main organisation promoting Minority Fiqh, does not deserve to be called a Fatwa Council because not all of its members are on the level of fatwa. Insha'Allah a transcript of the lecture in Arabic, along with its translation, will be available soon, and with Allah alone is every success.
I would further like to state that the purpose of translating these articles is not to offend or attack anyone, but rather to allow English-speaking Muslims in the West to see both sides of the argument and draw their own conclusions, and with Allah alone is every success.
Assalaam alaykum,
Mahdi
UPDATE (16/01/2011): As the Notts News Muslims website is down and the organisation no more, these two khuthabs (one is actually a monthly word) are now only available from www.marifah.net and the first, shorter, article is now avaible on this blog.
UPDATE (08/02/2011) Alhamdulilah, the second article (the Mawlid Khutbah), with all the original footnotes, is now available on this blog.
The two khutbahs that are on www.marifah.net are now available from www.nottsnewmuslims.com. For the first Fiqh of Minorities article please click http://www.nottsnewmuslims.com/Bouti-Minority%20Fiqh.pdf. Please note that this version is no different than the one available from www.marifah.net.
The Mawlid Khutbah: Fiqh of Minorities is available from: http://www.nottsnewmuslims.com/Bouti_Mawlid%20Khutbah.pdf. Please note that this version includes all of the original footnotes, including quotes from the text Tahkim Al-Qawanin and three footnotes that were removed from the version on www.marifah.net, which further explain Shaykh Al-Buti's words.
The quotes from Tahkim Al-Qawanin were not included in the marifah.net version as they were thought to be unnecessary, but they are included here for the reader's benefit.
The three footnotes, numbers 12, the last bit of 16, and 18 were removed because a certain individual threatened to withdraw his endorsement of marifah.net if those footnotes remained. If anybody feels that I, as the translator, misinterpreted Sheikh Al-Buti's words then I highly recommend that they watch Sheikh Al-Buti's lecture on Minority Fiqh that he gave at the Islamic University of Rotterdam last year (2007), available from:
http://www.marifah.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=108&Itemid=71.
In the Q&A session the Sheikh says, and may Allah the Exalted preserve him, that the European Council for Fatwa and Research, which is one of if not the main organisation promoting Minority Fiqh, does not deserve to be called a Fatwa Council because not all of its members are on the level of fatwa. Insha'Allah a transcript of the lecture in Arabic, along with its translation, will be available soon, and with Allah alone is every success.
I would further like to state that the purpose of translating these articles is not to offend or attack anyone, but rather to allow English-speaking Muslims in the West to see both sides of the argument and draw their own conclusions, and with Allah alone is every success.
Assalaam alaykum,
Mahdi
UPDATE (16/01/2011): As the Notts News Muslims website is down and the organisation no more, these two khuthabs (one is actually a monthly word) are now only available from www.marifah.net and the first, shorter, article is now avaible on this blog.
UPDATE (08/02/2011) Alhamdulilah, the second article (the Mawlid Khutbah), with all the original footnotes, is now available on this blog.
Assalaam alaykum
Alhamdulilah, this is the blog of Brother Mahdi Lock. This is where I will, insha'Allah, be posting all my own articles and translations from now on, in addition to other sites, and with Allah alone is every success!
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