The Manrilla Blog | Life. Art. Religion. Culture.

[1] William C. Chittick’s, Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul The Pertinence of Islamic Cosmology in the Modern World [re-read]. [2] The Book Of Illumination Sign Of Success on the Spiritual Path by Shaykh Ahmad Ibn ‘Ata’ Allah Al-Iskandari. [3] Jamaluldeen Abdullah Ibn Hisham al-Ansari’s, Sharh Shudhur al-Dhahab; [4] Sherman Jackson’s, On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam Abu Hamid Al Ghazali’s Faysal L Tafriqa; [5] Seyyed Nasr’s, Science and Civilization in Islam; [6] Awdhah al-Masalik ila Alfiyat Ibn Malik Ibn Hisham al-Ansari; [7] Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s, Knowledge and the Sacred [re-read]; [8] Mystical Dimensions of Islam by Annemarie Schimmel; [9] A History of Islamic Legal Theories An Introduction to Sunni Usul Al-Fiqh, by Wael B. Hallaq; [10] also by Wael B. Hallaq, The Origins And Evolution Of Islamic Law; [11] Sufi Essays from Seyyed Hossein Nasr; [12] The Sacred Foundations of Justice in Islam The Teachings of Ali Ibn Abi Talib by Reza Shah Kazemi, M Ali Lakhani, and Leonard Lewisohn; [13] The Art of Reciting the Qur’an by Kristina Nelson; [14] Muhtar Holland’s Inner Dimensions of Islamic Worship - Al Ghazali; [15] The Essential Seyyed Hossein Nasr edited by William C. Chittick; [16] Daniel Abdal Hayy Moore’s Ramadan Sonnets/Poems; [17] Al-Ghazali’s Path to Sufism; [18] Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya on the Invocation of God from Al-Wabil Al-Sayyib Min Al-Kalim Al-Tayyib Muhammad Ibn Abi Bakr Ibn Qayyim Al Jawziyah; [19] Al-Ghazali’s Letter to a Disciple (Ghazali Series) Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali [re-read]; [20] Mulla Sadra’s The Elixir of the Gnostics Muhammad Ibn Ibrahim Sadr Al-Din Shirazi; [21] Ebrahim Moosa’s Ghazali And The Poetics Of Imagination [continuation]; [22] The Self-Disclosure of God Principles of Ibn Al-’Arabi’s Cosmology from William Chittick; [23] also from Chittick, Fakhruddin Iraqi Divine Flashes; [24] Hadith study: Sunan Abu Dawud; [25] Ira M. Lapidus’ A History of Islamic Societies [continuation]; [26] Ibn Ishaq’s al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah; [27] The Sufi Path of Knowledge by William Chittick; [28] The Practice of Everyday Life by Michel De Certeau; [29] After the Death of God by John D Caputo and Gianni Vattimo; [30] Tommie Shelby’s We Who Are Dark; [31] The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization by Richard W. Bulliet; [32] Imam al-Ghazali’s Ihya’ uluwm al-Deen [Arabic version]; [33] The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State by Noah Feldman; [34] al-Ghazali on the Manners Relating to Eating Book XI of the Revival of the Religious Sciences, translation by Denys Johnson-Davies; [35] David C. Lindberg and his The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, Prehistory to A.D. 1450; [36] al-Ghazali’s On Disciplining the Soul and on Breaking the Two Desires Books Xxii and Xxiii of the Revival of the Religious Sciences Nakamura; [37] White by Richard Dyer [continuation]; [38] Deliverance from Error and Mystical Union With the Almighty Al-Munqidh Min Al-Dalal by al-Ghazali; [39] Martin Lings’s Muhammad His Life Based on the Earliest Sources [continuation]; [40] Hadith Qudsi; [41] The Connectors in Modern Standard Arabic by Nariman Naili Al Warraki and Ahmed Taher Hassanein [review].

And while this may seem a bit ambitious, I will do my best to wade through this impressive stack this summer. I am going to try to adhere to the order as much as possible.

The last several weeks have been tough ones for the Muslim community here in Philadelphia. With the embarrassing letdown of the bank robbery scandal, many Muslims have been left in a state of bewilderment, angst, anger and confusion. I cannot say that I am not myself afflicted with some of these feelings. But there is always a silver lining. I had the pleasure to spend my weekend with Imam Anwar Muhaimin, partaking in the khatiyb training course. Imam Anwar continues to amaze me as he slowly unfolds the vast array of knowledge he has at his disposal. And as a teacher, you could not have a finer instructor. In fact, I would highly recommend two things: 1) if anyone is involved in giving the khut’bah for the Friday Prayer, I highly recommend the course to both newbies and oldies. 2) A condensed class or halaqah be given, distilled down into a one- or two-hour lecture. It was highly informative and I think it would be good for even lay members and women [meaning those who won’t ever give a khut’bah], allowing people to have a greater depth and appreciation of the significance of the Friday Prayer.

And it is with appreciation and admiration I will continue with. I approached the class as one who used to give halaqas as well as a frequent public speaker. I [wrongly!] assumed it would have a similar feeling. Just get the vernacular down and I’d be on my way. I couldn’t have been more off course! In a beneficial but amusing way, at the end of the second day, all of us participants were given an opportunity to deliver a short, sample khut’bah that we had to write up. Being full of bravado I happily volunteered to go first. As soon as my foot hit the mimbar though, a feeling came over me; something in between fear and awe. And this was with just ten people! Words that I’ve said a hundred times over in Arabic suddenly stumbled clumsily off my lips. My tongue felt like it swelled and I couldn’t think straight. My notes were right in front of me and I rushed through everything. My khut’bah was only six minutes but halfway through, I was sweating, as were many of the other participants. We all laughed at each other and had a great time. Imam Anwar in particular seemed amused as we all went up with one feeling and came down with another. Read more this entry »

I was honored last night to be asked to attend the Town Square Meeting at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Center City Philadelphia. The meeting was presented by Philadelphia Green and was about the merging of faith-based organizations and the stewardship of those religious groups and how they are or can be engaged in environmental activities. It quickly came to my attention that Muslims at least in this area have been woefully absent. Absent either due to ignorance of such activities or because it’s simply not on the radar. For the concerns of this post, I will address the latter.

Like so many topics and events today, Muslims seem to either be swept along by the Zeitgeist of the day or bypassed all together. This is an issue that we as a Muslim community need to address more seriously if we wish to have our voice taken seriously – otherwise, it will be taken away. By Zeitgeist I am referring to the trend that many Muslims allow popular consensus or dominant voices dictate to us what is or is not important. One example that comes to mind is a conversation I had with a Muslim brother who said we needed to take a tougher stance towards homosexuality. When I inquired as to what he meant, he was referring to the unions of gay couples and homosexual marriages. He was quite passionate about the topic and felt that Islam was somehow being eroded by this lapse in what he saw as social immorality. I calmly reminded the brother to consider the following: homosexuality is not permissible in Islam. God has made this readily apparent and therefore he should take comfort in this incontrovertible truth. In other words, the question has been answered by the Highest Authority, therefore why approach the topic as if it could be reopened for discussion [and ultimately, permissibility]. Read more this entry »

Today was an odd turn of events that had the building which houses my office on UPenn’s campus, play host to a talk on Islam by one of today’s most darling Muslim pundits, Irshad Manji. A self-proclaimed Muslim reformist, activist, human rights lobbiest and lesbian, Irshad gave a talk to an attentive audience which was comprised of both Muslim and non-Muslim, old and young alike. Dr. Leonard Swidler, from Temple University, was also on hand to add to the discussion. But, unfortunately, like her book, The Trouble With Islam Today, the talk was filled with nothing more than drivel. And that’s just the good part.

So much of the dialog today regarding Islam is in how it can fit into the master narrative of Western discourse. This encompasses everything from morals, ethics, to aesthetics, such as standards and concepts of beauty. When Islam fails to authenticate a narrative that falls within the margins of the dominant culture, it and vis-a-vie, the Muslims, are condemned as being backwards, barbaric, and even morally, ethically, and intellectually bankrupt. And when a people are deemed barbaric or morally bankrupt, the slippery slope to subjugation, whether it be figuratively, psychologically or physically can never trail far behind. This process of brutalization bears striking resemblance to the types of psychological terror that have been visited upon various minority groups in the West, especially in America, when they failed to meet the criterion of a dominant force that often have a pattern of “moving the goal post” when it suited itself opportune.

A major portion of my critique on Manji’s arguments and positions as well as comments that Dr. Swidler gave, were that neither Manji nor Swidler are scholastically equipped to answer any such questions regarding the intellectual tradition of Islam. Manji is a journalist of questionable objectivity and Swidler’s expertise lies outside the fold of Islam. Manji often relies on crude reductionism coupled with a woefully absent basic familiarity with the Islamic Tradition. Buzz words like ijtihad, fatwah and of course, the crowd pleaser, jihad, are tossed out to lend to her some Islamic academic credibility. In fact, Swidler’s presence is somewhat questionable as Temple University could have certainly offered up someone who would have been far better suited to the task at hand. In light of access to scholars like Khaled Blankinship, it remained a curiosity as to why Manji chose a non-Muslim religious professor to engage in talks about Muslim reform.

But to take things a step further, Manji’s book, The Trouble With Islam Today, is guilty of the same crime that many of its contemporaries are: making the personal experience an ontological narrative. To help further explain my point, let me offer this explanation: because of the trials and tribulations that Manji faced as a child, because of the personal experiences that Manji had and the choices she’s made, she has taken the sum of those experiences and built the foundation of her argument around them such that they take on a scope that is completely inappropriate. That because they were or are issues for Manji they must be equally important issues for all Muslims in all times and in all places. A great deal of Manji’s contemporaries, such as Ayan Hirsi Ali to name one, frame their arguments in the same manner. But to reiterate, these criticisms of Islam do not simply stop at personal narrative, they apex again at how Islam falls short on a laundry list of items such as equality, human rights, tolerance and progression. In where Islam fails to be equal, tolerant or progressive in the “Western” paradigm that Manji offers up, Islam is deemed to have a problem. So this left me asking some simply but pertinent issues. Are any of these issues true? And if so, how, and in what way? And again, if so, what would be the best way of looking for resolutions. Read more this entry »

Or is it just a big waste of time and a growing fitnah for our community? I am troubled by things that I read on the blogosphere and it has made me address the validity of blogging. We all know that Allah will ask us what we spent our time doing. I do not want that to be add to the list of things I already know I have to ask forgiveness for. Instead of seeing a healthy dialog [which is what some of us who blog want though I have to question the intentions of others] much of what I read seems to be filled with malice and cowardice. Referring to the post above, a dialog commenced about the permissibility of Mother’s Day and within a short period we went from trying to feel out each other’s points, make counter arguments and having a dialog to a brother slandering Dr. Sherman ‘Abd al-Hamik’ Jackson. And let me tell - I ain’t gonna let that happen without a fight! Dr. Jackson has done more for Muslims through his writings and his talks and his genuine suhbah [companionship] than this joker could ever hope to attain and yet he saw fit to substitute slander and back-bitting for intellectual insight. If one is unable to argue and have discourse in a dignified manner, then shut up. If you can’t remain civil without making ghiybah on recognized scholars, you don’t have the skills to examine the issue from various angles and are not conversant with the Muslim intellectual tradition, then keep your mouth shut!

I have not decided to completely bow out of the race just yet - but it is on the table. And to a great degree, it will be based on the assessment of whether or not blogging is beneficial. I did just receive a number of emails from readers who thanked me for what I write - that is encouraging. Al Hamdulillah for that. But I’m not doing it to win popularity contests. I do it to write about and discuss relevant issues. But time will tell if this is the best format for that.

And God knows best.

I was up in New York City this past weekend and Monday photographing and attending the lecture series by Zaytuna Institute as a part of their Minara program, held at NYU [actually, it was held at Cooper Union but it seemed to be a joint custody affair] entitled: For God & Country, showcasing Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and professor Khaled Blankinship from Temple University. Sunday’s event at NYU was an all-day affair and both speakers gave very insightful talks. In particular it was great to hear and see Dr. Blankinship interact with a broader audience, many of whom may not have been familiar with him. He is without a doubt a school of impeccable character and pedigree and his knowledge reaches into many branches of the various sciences from religion to history. I put up a someshots from the event on as well a few from Monday’s book signing/talk at Columbia featuring Richard Bulliet, author of The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization. For those interested in modern conversations about the inclusion or exclusion of Islam from the Western pale, I recommend his book as a thought provoking read. Here’s a few images from that even as well.