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'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(1)

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'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(1)
ahmer
02/26/02 at 16:53:43
February 15, 2002

'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation
Also Happens to Be White Suburbanite

By JONATHAN KAUFMAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

HAYWARD, Calif. -- When Mark Hanson was a 1970s teenager growing up in Marin County as the privileged son of a college professor and a liberal activist mother, he barely escaped serious injury in an auto accident. Baptized Greek Orthodox and attending Catholic high school, he began to explore Buddhism, metaphysics and other philosophies. He read excerpts from the Quran, and he decided at 18 to become a Muslim, taking the name Hamza Yusuf.

"A lot of people get into something at that stage of life, and it's a phase," he says.

It wasn't a phase. Twenty-five years later, the 43-year-old Mr. Yusuf -- as he is now known, though his legal name remains Mark Hanson -- is one of the most popular and influential leaders of American Muslims, helping a younger generation of followers bridge the gap between traditional Islam and American culture.

His speech at a Muslim conference in Chicago last fall attracted more than 10,000 people. Similar crowds have flocked to hear him at New York's Madison Square Garden in the past decade. Videotapes of his talks sell briskly over the Internet. Nine days after Sept. 11, he was invited to meet with President Bush. Standing outside the White House, Mr. Yusuf declared, "Islam was hijacked on that ... plane as an innocent victim" -- a statement that President Bush used in his speech to Congress that evening but that also prompted death threats from radical Muslims.

'A Rock Star'

"He's kind of like a rock star for the religious set," says Syed Ali, who teaches sociology at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va.

In the wake of Sept. 11, many of America's three million Muslims are struggling with what it means to be both Muslim and American. It's a dilemma Mr. Yusuf embodies: a white man in a religion still dominated by nonwhite immigrants; an American in a religion often deemed anti-American; a self-described moderate in a religion often seen as extremist.

The same day he visited the White House, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents knocked on the door of his home in California to quiz him about a speech he made Sept. 9 in which he said: "This country is facing a very terrible fate. ... This country stands condemned. It stands condemned like Europe stood condemned because of what it did -- and lest people forget that Europe suffered two world wars after conquering the Muslim lands."

Mr. Yusuf says he regrets those remarks and some other strident speeches he made over the years. "Anger is a dangerous emotion and not a part of the Islamic tradition," he says. "There are Muslims in the community whose anger has led them to do some pretty horrendous things. That's a problem, a horrendous problem. I don't want to contribute to that."

Like Catholic and Jewish immigrants before them, America's Muslims are confronting the challenge of assimilation versus tradition. Muslims are one of the country's most successful ethnic or religious groups. Nearly three-fifths are college graduates. Half make more than $50,000 a year and are in managerial, medical, professional, technical or teaching jobs. And as they have become successful, American Muslims have drifted away from the faith. Just 20% of American Muslims attend mosque regularly, according to Hamid Dabashi, chairman of the department of Middle Eastern languages and culture at Columbia University in New York.

A Return to Tradition

Recently, however, many American children of these immigrants are returning to the fold, enrolling in classes that teach classical Islamic law and traditions and, in the case of some women, choosing to wear a head scarf and robe even though they grew up in assimilated homes. At a convention of the Islamic Society of North America recently, one of the best-selling T-shirts among young Muslims featured a woman in a head scarf with the phrase, "It's good in the hood."

'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(2)
ahmer
02/26/02 at 16:55:08
These second-generation Muslims often shun their parents' immigrant mosques, perceived as too rigid and out of touch with American values. They are turning instead to leaders like Mr. Yusuf, who calls for renewed Islamic learning and understanding of Muslim history, but understands the challenges of child rearing, spirituality and marriage in modern society. Fluent in Arabic, Mr. Yusuf is comfortable peppering his sermons with quotes from the Quran and references to Oprah Winfrey, talking about the history of Islam and describing his struggle to keep his children from spending too much time on the Internet.

"He's not living in the past, he's living in the present," says Altaf Husain, president of the Muslim Student Association, which has sponsored talks by Mr. Yusuf at scores of college campuses. "He speaks our language. He is able to articulate in an American accent what Islam is like for young people."

With his slim build, neatly trimmed mustache and soft-spoken manner, Mr. Yusuf looks like a professor at a liberal-arts college. His father, who for a while taught college English, named his son after Columbia University English professor Mark van Doren. Today, Mr. Yusuf lives in an upper-middle-class home at the end of a suburban San Francisco cul-de-sac with a minivan in the driveway. His Mexican-American wife converted to Islam two years after marrying Mr. Yusuf and wears a head scarf and robe. On a recent Friday night, their four young boys clamored for Mr. Yusuf to read to them and settle sibling squabbles. Mr. Yusuf's wife cooked enchiladas in the kitchen.

In some ways, Mr. Yusuf's background echoes that of another Marin County seeker drawn to Islam -- John Walker Lindh, currently awaiting trial in the U.S. for fighting on behalf of the Taliban. But whereas Mr. Lindh embraced the radical Islam of al Qaeda, Mr. Yusuf became a Sufi, a member of a mystical, intellectual branch of Islam that attracts many white American converts.

When he was a child, Mr. Yusuf recalls, his mother kept a poem by a famous Sufi poet on the wall, right next to a saying by a famous Jewish sage. Eventually, his parents enrolled him in a Catholic high school. "My mother is a seeker," says Mr. Yusuf. One of his sisters converted to Orthodox Judaism when she married a Jewish husband. Another became Muslim after Mr. Yusuf converted. "My family has a pretty deep interest in the deep questions," he says.

The Appeal of Discipline

Islam, with its vivid descriptions of a single God passing judgment on people in the afterlife, appealed to Mr. Yusuf. So did the discipline of praying five times a day. Meeting other American converts to Islam in California and elsewhere gave Mr. Yusuf a sense of belonging, he says.

After converting, Mr. Yusuf dropped out of college and spent the next decade traveling to the United Arab Emirates and Mauritania, learning Arabic and studying with Muslim scholars. During a visit to Algeria, he was arrested as a spy. "They didn't know what to make of this American who wanted to learn Arabic and study Islam," he says

Mr. Yusuf returned to California to complete his college degree and went on to get a nursing degree, planning to return to West Africa. Soon, he began teaching at local mosques, and his sermons struck a chord with young people, many of whom had drifted away from Islam. Many Muslim immigrants, says Mr. Yusuf, "were too complacent, too caught up in the American dream, the pursuit of material goals. They lost sight of the higher goals." But he adds: "That's easy for someone who grew up in Marin County to say. I didn't grow up in Madras, India, in poverty."

On a recent Saturday, Mr. Yusuf sat before a crowd of 200 people in a former church assembly hall, dressed in a white robe. A cameraman videotaped his sermon, to be copied and sold over the Internet. The crowd was racially and ethnically mixed. About 32% of America's Muslims are from South Asia or of South Asian descent; 26% are Arab-American. African-Americans make up about 20% of the country's Muslim population.

The topic this day was male-female relations. Traditional Islamic law, Mr. Yusuf told the crowd, treated women fairly, giving them the right to divorce and also a share of communal property. Though a screen divided the women in the hall from the men, they participated actively in the discussion. One asked whether it is proper under Islamic law to seek a divorce from her husband after they had been separated for two years. Mr. Yusuf said it is. Another woman asked for the titles of good books on raising children. Mr. Yusuf recommended one by a Muslim scholar and several by British and American authors.

'Islam Means Submission'

While Mr. Yusuf peppers his talks with modern allusions, he also embraces tradition. He encourages followers to pray five times a day and to study Islamic texts. He believes women should dress modestly, with their heads covered. Though he lives in a suburb with a first-rate school system, he home-schools his children and doesn't own a television. "Islam means submissions," he says. "It is hard. It is supposed to be hard. If it weren't hard, it wouldn't be worth doing."

'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(3)
ahmer
02/26/02 at 16:55:27
It's a message many young Muslims find appealing. Hosai Nisari was born in Afghanistan but didn't go to mosque or wear a veil when she was growing up in California. In college, she became more interested in Islam and decided to start wearing a head scarf and robe. She has been coming to Mr. Yusuf's talks since 1997 and now teaches at an elementary school run by a local mosque. "If you go to an immigrant mosque, you get ideas that are foreign," she says as she leaves the two-hour session. "He speaks to us from an American Muslim perspective."

Most controversially within the Muslim community, Mr. Yusuf is sharply critical of what he calls "political Islam" -- the focus of many Muslim leaders on political issues, which he believes has turned many Muslims away from mosques.

"Middle East politics have become so central," he says. "It's definitely important, but it's one component in a very large tradition. The concern of the Muslim community has to be centered here. There needs to be a lot more outreach to people alienated from mosques, people alienated from the anger-based approach."

Mr. Yusuf has expressed his own anger about Israel in the past. In 1995 he said, "The Jews would have us believe that God has this bias to this little small tribe in the middle of the desert and all the rest of humanity is just rubbish. I mean that is the basic doctrine of the Jewish religion, and that's why it is a most racist religion."

Mr. Yusuf says he regrets those remarks, saying they were "inappropriate, non-Islamic and out of character." He says he and many other Muslims have allowed "political animosity" over issues like the Middle East to become "racial and ethnic animosity."

"We have to change that," he says. "I am groping with that myself." Even before Sept. 11, Mr. Yusuf was delivering sermons urging Muslims to show respect for Jews and meeting with rabbis.

Upon hearing of the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Yusuf says, his first response was to pray that Muslims weren't involved. When it became clear that they were, Mr. Yusuf says he became aware of the "deep rage in parts of the Muslim community." Suhail Khan, a Muslim aide in the Bush administration who had heard Mr. Yusuf speak over the years, invited him to the White House to meet with Mr. Bush the day of the president's Sept. 20 address to Congress. Mr. Yusuf was one of six religious leaders, and the only Muslim, to meet the president privately, presenting him with a copy of the Quran. Mr. Yusuf attended the speech that evening, sitting near first lady Laura Bush.

Muslim Backlash

Lately, Mr. Yusuf has become increasingly critical of Muslim countries, even as he says he is troubled by the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Unchecked power in the hands of any government can lead to repression and unilateral military action, Mr. Yusuf says. "The only reason that Muslim countries are not doing it is because they do not have the power," he said in a sermon delivered after Sept. 11. "That is why they can only do it to their own population."

Such views, and Mr. Yusuf's critique of mosques that focus on Middle East politics, are prompting criticism from other Muslim leaders.

"Mr. Yusuf is a popular speaker, but I don't think he is a relevant figure in Muslim politics," says Agha Saeed, national chairman of the American Muslim Alliance, which encourages Muslim involvement in politics. "His political views don't reflect the feelings of the community. The Palestinian issue remains central to American Muslims."

After Sept. 11, says Mr. Saeed, Mr. Yusuf responded "more as a person born in this country. The different parts of his biography came into conflict."

It's a conflict Mr. Yusuf says he shares with growing numbers of American Muslims. "We're struggling to find not only our identity in this country, but our voice," he says.

Following the recently concluded World Economic Forum, Mr. Yusuf sat in a New York hotel lobby, dressed in a conservative dark suit, sipping tea, reflecting on meetings with American business and political leaders, as well as influential Arabs, some of whom were consumed with talk of American conspiracies against their interests.

It pains him, he says, to hear the "us versus them" approach that Muslims and Americans often take with each other.

"I'm one of us, and I'm one of them at the same time," he says.
Re: 'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(1)
jannah
02/26/02 at 23:26:36
wow crazy article... i don't like how he's refered to the 'rock star' of the new muslim generation!!!  it's also scary how they are perpetuating this idea of a "good islam" (spiritual, non-political) and a "bad islam" (practicing and involved)

and all these terms like "American Muslims" "Radical Muslims,

"These second-generation Muslims often shun their parents' immigrant mosques, perceived as too rigid and out of touch with American values. "  ????

and  John Walker member of radical islam... and hamza yusuf nice sufi....???

and what's with their obsession with the 'headscarf and robes'

anyway dangerous.... very dangerous... we can't divorce islam and politics and sprituality and practicing islam, we should  be strong on that point...

[wlm]
Re: 'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(1)
ahmer
02/27/02 at 00:37:38


yep.. i couldn't agree more...!!
Re: 'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(1)
Kareema_Abdul-Khab
02/27/02 at 02:07:32
I just heard Hamza Yusuf speak(on a video) for the first time, and I was pretty happy with him.  True, sometimes he did seem to go a bit farther than a Muslim should, but he still raises many valid points.

The media in general, loves to label Muslims as either friendly ones who practice Islam but do their best to make ideas conform, and unfriendly extremist terrorists who practice that 'Shariah' thing, however totally wrong these labels might be.

Basically, their doing Islam, but their doing it OUR way.

Apparently, they are surprised to find that someone so...like us.. can still encourage it.

I don't think he was saying 'ignore those children being mowed down on the streets of Palestine, I think he was talking about how the focus should be on the Greater Jihad within first. I think he failed to make this clear, though.
Re: 'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(1)
jaihoon
02/27/02 at 02:51:04
[quote]February 15, 2002

'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation
Also Happens to Be White Suburbanite

By JONATHAN KAUFMAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
[/quote]

[slm]

In a recent issue of WSJ, there was an editorial about the Sep 11 attack and how it was perceived as 'coz those terrorirst envy West's culture and technology'

Has anyone come across that article?

Re: 'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(1)
WhatDFish
02/27/02 at 04:26:03
assalaamu`alaikum

the inner jihaad of one's self or as some refer to the 'greater' jihaad is something one has to go thru every day and we cant use that as an excuse not to go for the real jihaad. the rest of the world is redefining Islaam of course with the help of CNN and BBC and what they want of Islaam is what they have reduced Christianity to. ie a deen which is only in your heart and not an explicit manifestation of it. we must remember that Eeman is what you believe in ur heart, say with ur tongue and carry out in actions.

i think many brothers and sisters would disagree with me but I believe 'scholars' like Hamza Yusuf and Abdal Hakeem Murad are detrimental to the Ummah. and I say this abt Hamza Yusuf in light of what he has written and spoken abt after the 911 incident. as for the latter, he has always been abt 'spiritual' Islaam and salafi bashin has been his forte. and ive attended one of his lectures in Singapore. the governments of the world would definately like to use the views of such 'scholars' to justify a watered-down version of Islaam.

and like sister Jannah says its a dangerous when we divorce politics, spirituality etc etc.


If I do what is right, it is only from Allah (swt):
"Whatever good reaches you is from Allah" surah an Nisa
All praise is to Him. If I do what is wrong, it is from myself:
"But whatever evil befalls you is from yourself" verse 79
Re: 'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(1)
WhatDFish
02/27/02 at 04:27:45
By    UmNusaybah    on    Sunday,    July    2,    2000    -    06:12   pm:

Greater                 and                 'Lesser'                 Jihad?

THE  SLANDERED JIHAD

Among  the  erroneous notions aimed at stifling the spirit of Jihad in this
Ummah  is  the  idea  of  greater'  and  'lesser' Jihads. According to this
belief,  striving  against  desires  of  the self is considered the Greater
Jihad, which makes the Jihad of the battlefield the Lesser Jihad. This idea
is  based upon a story mentioned by al Khatib al Baghdadi in his book, "The
History  of Baghdad", by way of Yahya ibn al 'Ala', who said, "We were told
by  Layth, on the authority of 'Ata', on the authority of Abu Rabah, on the
authority  of Jabir, who said, 'The Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam)
returned  from one of his battles, and thereupon told us, 'You have arrived
with  an  excellent  arrival,  you  have  come from the Lesser Jihad to the
Greater  Jihad  -  the  striving  of  a  servant  (of  Allah)  against  his
desires.''"

This  concept,  despite  the  fact  that  it  is based on a hadeeth, can be
refuted  from  several  aspects,  of  which we shall mention the following.

Firstly:

This  hadeeth  cannot  be  used to establish proof, for Al Bayhaqi has said
regarding  it,  that  "Its chain of narration is weak. (Da'eef)", Al Suyuti
also  pronounced  a  verdict  of  weakness  on it in his book, "Al Jam'i al
Saghir".

Somebody might claim that da'eef (weak) Ahadeeth can be accepted in matters
of superogatory virtuous deeds. This is unacceptable, for we do not believe
that  Jihad  can  be a superogatory deed. Indeed, how can it be so when the
Messenger  of  Allah  (salallaahu  'alayhee  wa  sallam)  has said that the
asceticism        of       his       Ummah       lies       in       Jihad?

Furthermore,  anybody who follows up on Yahya ibn al 'Ala', the narrator of
the  hadeeth, will find in his biography things which will make him forsake
the  man's  Ahadeeth. Ibn Hajar al 'Asqalani said about him in "Al-Taqrib",

"he         was         accused         of        forging        Ahadeeth."

Al             Dhahabi            said            in            "Al-Mizan",

"Abu  Hatim said that he is not a strong narrator, Ibn Mu'in classified him
as weak, al Daraqutni said that he is to be neghected, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal
said    that    he    is    a    liar    and   a   forger   of   Ahadeeth."


Secondly:

This  hadeeth  explicitly contradicts clear verses of the Qur'an. Allah the
Mighty,    the    Majestic,    says,    (Translation   of   the   Meaning),

"Those  believers  who sit back are not equal to those who perform Jihad in
the  Path  of  Allah  with their wealth and their selves. Allah has favored
those  who perform Jihad with their wealth and their selves by degrees over
those who sit back. To both (groups) has Allah promised good, but Allah has
favored  the  mujahideen  with  a great reward, by ranks from Him, and with
Forgiveness,   over  those  who  sit  back.  And  Allah  is  Oft-Forgiving,
Most-Merciful."

Qur'an                                                            [4:95-96]


Thirdly:

This hadeeth contradicts mutawatir (mass-narrated) Ahadeeth which have been
reported  from  the Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam), and which make
plain   the   excellence  of  Jihad.  We  will  mention  a  few  of  these.

"A  morning  or  an  evening  spent in the Path of Allah is better than the
world     and     all     it     contains."     [Bukhari     and    Muslim]

"Standing for an hour in the ranks of battle in the Path of Allah is better
than       standing       for      sixty      years      (in      prayer)."
[Sahih                              al-                              Jami']

Abu  Hurayrah  (radiallaahu  'anhu)  said,  "Is any of you able to stand in
prayer without stopping, and to fast continuously for as long as he lives?"
The  people  said,  "Oh  Abu Hurayrah! Who could endure that?" He said, "By
Allah!  A  day  of  a  mujaahid  in the Path of Allah is better than that."

The  claim  of  those  who  say that the 'struggle against the self' is the
Greater  Jihad  because  the  individual  is  put  to  test  by  day and by
night,     may     be     refuted     by     the     following     hadeeth:

On  the  authority of Rashid, on the authority of Sa'd (radiallaahu 'anhu),
on  the  authority of one of the Companions, that a man said, "Oh Messenger
of  Allah!  Why  is  it  that  the  believers are all put to trial in their
graves,  except  for  the  martyrs?"  He  (salallaahu  'alayhee  wa sallam)
said,

"The  clashing  of  swords  above  his  head was sufficient trial for him."
[Sahih                                                            al-Jam'i]


Fourthly:

This  erroneous  and  slanderous notion involves injustice and wrong to the
status  of  the  mujahideen.  Allah  (Ta'aala)  has  ordered us to practice
justice   in   our   verdicts,   saying,   (Translation  of  the  Meaning),

Be  just, it is closer to piety; and fear Allah. Allah is aware of what you
do."

Qur'an                                                                [5:8]

Is  it  any  part  of  justice  and  fair  treatment for us to say that our
brethren in the land of attention and battle are in a lesser Jihad when the
mines  are  exploding beneath their feet, with the result that their bodies
fly  into the air, and their limbs and blood are scattered all over, to the
extent   that   their   pure  corpses  cannot  be  contained  in  a  grave?

And  that is for the sake of Allah, and if He wills, He may bless the limbs
of  a  body  torn to pieces. Were these youths in a lesser Jihad, while our
fasting,  and  breaking  our fasts on the most delicious of food are then a
greater                                                           Jihad?...

By  Allah!  This  is  an unequal measure, and if you were to put the matter
before  the  most knowledgeable people on earth, they would never arrive at
such                  a                  disparate                 verdict.

Fifthly:

The  Egyptian,  Dr.  Muhammad  Amin says, in his book, "The Path of Islamic
Propagation",

"Jihad  of  the  self  and  Jihad  by  wealth,  if  they do not lead one to
establish  the  Call  of Truth, and to stand beside it, enjoining the right
and  forbidding  the  wrong,  and contributing one's life and wealth in the
Path    of    Allah,    are   deficient   Jihads   containing   inadequacy.

It  is  astonishing  that the hour of testing and of severity, in which the
feet are shaken and the heart reaches the throat, can be called the Hour of
the Lesser Jihad, while the hours of safety and comfort in secure homes, in
the   midst   of   one's  family  and  friends,  can  be  called  hours  of
the                              Greater                             Jihad!

In  the  like  of  such  appellations  do the holders-back rejoice in their
sitting  behind from obeying the Messenger of Allah (salallaahu 'alayhee wa
sallam)   and   his  Companions  (radiallaahu  'anhum)?  Such  people  find
contentment  and  comfort  in  this way, while in reality they only deceive
their  weak  souls,  for  the  true  values  of  the deeds are entirely the
opposite."

Finally,  we  conclude  with  some  verses  which were sent by the mujaahid
scholar  'Abdullaah ibn al Mubarak, from the land of Jihad to his friend Al
Fudayl  ibn  'Iyad, who used to preach to the rulers and make them cry, yet
did    not    seek    any    payment,    being    a   sincere   worshipper.


Oh  worshipper  in  the  Two  Sanctuaries, if you could only behold us, You
would  see  that  you,  in your devotions, are only playing. If you are one
whose  cheek  is  tinged  with his tears, Then our chests are dyed with our
blood.


-                                Abu                                Khubayb


The                             Pretended                             Jihad

Some  people  may be astonished when they hear a person describing Jihad in
person  as  a  lesser  Jihad,  or  who  deems fighting in the Path of Allah
(Ta'aala)  little  in  comparison to other acts of devotion. However, if we
pursue  the  lives of these people, look at their histories and investigate
the  reason for their confusion regarding the matter, we will find that the
explanation  for  their  stance  is simple. These are the people who people
undervalue  Jihad and give priority to studying in universities, writing in
magazines,  and  giving  speeches  in  conferences  over fighting and being
martyred.  By  examining  their  lives,  one will find a common denominator
which  brings  them together in deficiency and unites them in their vantage
point.

The  common denominator among the feeble and those who hold back from Jihad
(the people of theories and concepts) is that they have not participated in
Jihad.  The  opportunity  has  not presented itself to these people (by the
Will  of  Allah Ta'aala), nor have they had the good fortune to join a camp
of mujahideen. In such a camp there is a lack of luxuries and a scarcity of
necessities  which would make them feel the difference between a day in the
camp  and a similar day in the university with its food, entertainment, and
air-conditioned                         class                        rooms.

Re: 'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(1)
WhatDFish
02/27/02 at 04:28:12
How  can  these people recognize the true value of Jihad when they have not participated in the regiments of war nor entered into the arenas of tumult?


If a man plunges into a single battle, it will be sufficient to correct all
his  misconceptions. The soldier, in only a few hours, may see things whose
horror  would  make children gray haired: bombs and splinters sweeping away
the  souls  of  the  most  beloved  of his Brethren who shared with him his
traveling,  training, ribat (guarding the front line), and Jihad. What will
be  the situation of these people when the rockets and shells are exploding
over  their heads and beneath their feet? How will it be when they see with
their  very  own eyes the scattering of arms, legs and intestines so that a
healthy   body   with  well-proportioned  limbs  will  become  handicapped,
dismembered,                        or                        paralyzed?...

This  then  is the underlying reason for the confusion on the part of those
who                             underrate                            Jihad.

In  a  few  hours  or  days,  the  mujaahid  sees,  with his own eyes, such
hardships,  trials,  and  tribulations  as others do not see in decades. It
will  be  impossible  for anyone who engages in this experience of Jihad to
equate  physical  Jihad  with  other pacifistic means of Da'wah. Therefore,
anyone  who  disputes  with the mujaahid in the issue of Jihad or who calls
people  to  abandon fighting should join a camp, even if only as a servant.
Or   he   should   participate  in  a  battle  even  if  only  as  a  cook.

Then  after  that,  we will see if, in his opinion, the pen is equal to the
Kalashnikov.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Allahum-Mansur al Mujahideen Fe Kulli makaan

Whoever has three things discovers the sweetness of iman:
that Allah and His Messenger are more beloved to him than all else,
that he loves another only for the sake of Allah Most High, and that he hates to return to kufr (disbelief) as he would hate to be
thrown into fire." Mutafaqqun `alayh


"The  people  will  soon  summon  one  another to attack you as people when eating  invite  others  to  share their dish." Someone asked: "Will that be because  of  our  small  numbers at that time?" The Prophet (SAWS) replied: "No,  you  will  be numerous at that time: but you will be scum and rubbish like  that  carried down by a torrent, and Allah will take fear of you from the  breasts  of  your  enemy  and  put  wahn (weakness) into your hearts." Someone  asked: "What is wahn (weakness)?" He (SAWS) replied: "Love of this world             and             dislike             of            death." [Prophet  Muhammad  (SAWS)  on  the  authority  of Thawbaan. Related by Abu Dawud]

Re: 'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(1)
jaihoon
02/27/02 at 16:52:14
Fatwa hai sheikh ka
ye zamaana qalam ka hai
Duniya mein ab rahi nahi talwaar kaar gar
Lekin janaab-e-sheikh ko Maloom kya nahi?
Masjid mein ab yeh wa'dh be soz be asar!

:D

- ALLAMA IQBAL

The world needs a 'realistic scholar' like Sheikh Zainudhin Makhdum, the author of Thuhfathul Mujahideen
Re: 'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(1)
Halima
03/01/02 at 09:31:24
Does being a Muslim today mean we must be afraid to the extent of not airing or views or standing up for human rights in terms of our religion and our fellow Muslims whereever they may be?

I don't believe so.  Yes, Islam is a peaceful religion.  But it is a religion tainted with terrorrism regardless of which of part of the world a Muslims lives.  No matter what people think of Islam, it is a religion no one, and I mean no one will abuse in my face.

Terrorrism is ugly and painful.  I do not condon it, not at all.  But neither do I condon the killings of Palestinians, their living like squaters in their own land with constant fear.  We all want to live peacefully with our neighbours their religion, colour or creed does not matter.  The issue of the middle east needs to be resolved for peace to be there and to be enjoyed by everyone on this earth.  And Muslims have an obligation to see to this.  Especially the Muslim governments and the Muslim world.  The events of September 11 affected Muslims across the globe.

One is for sure.  War such between the Israelis and the Palestinians will not solve anything.  It will continue to be killings and counter killings.  And so long as the middle east issues stand, no one is safe.  So, it is not only the Americans, the Israelis and Palestinians who live in fear.  This became plainly clear after the September 11 events.  Fear spread across the globe.  Middle events which we only used to see on TV screen at news hours became a reality.  They were not far enough anymore.  They were not Israeli and Arabs issues alone anymore.

Being civil and tolerant to one another is good.  But it does not solve anything if the real issues outstanding are not addressed.  Really addressed.
Re: 'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(1)
ahmer
03/01/02 at 16:19:27
[slm]

i agree with jannah.. tis article is dangerous.. it just shows a trend what they want..'separation of masjid and state'.. which can never succeed insha'Allah.. but my fear is that some of our own people will be used in this nefarious design..

now they are talkin of immigrant and non immigrant masjids..we already have turkish, arabic and paki masjid..now here comes one more from the shaytan...

May Allah protect us..ameen

[wlm]
ahmer
Re: 'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(1)
Ghurabah
03/02/02 at 08:34:35
[quote author=WhatDFish link=board=ummah;num=1014760423;start=0#9 date=02/27/02 at 04:28:12]
Allahum-Mansur al Mujahideen Fe Kulli makaan

[/quote]

Ameen.
Re: 'Rock Star' of New Muslim Generation(1)
Ghurabah
03/02/02 at 08:35:55
[quote author=ahmer link=board=ummah;num=1014760423;start=0#12 date=03/01/02 at 16:19:27]

May Allah protect us..ameen
[/quote]

Ameen.


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