Sheikhy Notes

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Habib Umar ibn Hafiz

Establishing That Special Connection to Allah & His Beloved

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Thursday, November 10, 2011

It seems strange to be talking about this but as usual my pretty bonnet has a bee in it. So it’s time to do something and get to the root of the problem.

Increasingly, we are witnessing a more radical style of preacher who is almost devoid of actual knowledge. Instead they are people who want to enforce cultural norms. Thus vindicating the bad aspects of the culture.

We were bemused when we first saw this and were slightly confused because what they were saying seemed plausible.

Yet, the more we thought about their words the more holes we found and the cheese started to smell. So let’s be clear to what they were trying to say; they negated the need to seek knowledge and informed the Muslims that their culture was fine.

Now there are positive aspects of culture and there are negative aspects. When culture backs up religion then it is positive when it goes against the religion that's when it is negative. We began to realise that even though he was not preaching hate he was preaching ignorance. It made me wonder if he was a scholar and how he could now negate the point of seeking knowledge. As knowledge is what makes someone a scholar. Was he threatened that someone would take his place or was it because he did not understand the situation that he was in? Islam is a religion of spreading knowledge so how could he sit in the seat of the minbar and be so comfortable preaching ignorance?

Hate

This is something that happens a lot and it is really causing a lot of damage to those serious students of knowledge who want to learn their religion.

As they cannot study with a teacher who continually attacks groups for their beliefs. I do think there are times when things need to be said but do we need to have bbc style repeats every time we switch on? It is really abhorrent and disgusting.

As the one preaching this, is wasting time as the student needs to study not be indoctrinated. Because that is what the teacher is doing. Students are fed up of this approach to studying because it implies that the student does not know what he is talking about.

This is another way that the village mentality lives on. Do you think that I do not have a brain so you have to keep repeating the same refutation against the same group more than once a lesson? That’s what it sounds like and that is what it feels like. In reality the teacher or whoever is preaching hate. Whether he is right or wrong is another matter. The teacher is preaching hate not religion or knowledge. This seems to be an old plague that is running amok in our time.

Who loses?

Everyone who hears the speaker loses, as the method of hate preaching means exclusivity. In other words only him and those who follow him are the true bastions of Islam and everyone else are lairs or cheats. He is the real loser and will be accountable for sins that he is unaware that he is committing.

Those people who are blindly following out of misplaced religious zeal are zealots who have lost control, as they sprout racist comments because that’s what exclusive Islam brings.

It’s only you and your tribe who are right and everyone else are wrong. Racism is against so many Islamic principles but despite this, hate preachers propagate this ignorance. You see they act like Islam is their property and that only they belong to Islam. Instead of serving they are the served, instead of belonging to Islam they say Islam belongs to them, as it is only them who are the true Muslims. Is it because they feel threatened as the opposite group are spreading at increasing rate? Something that their group is not! So in order to check this they are attacking with the only way they know how by refutation.

The cure is balance

The correct balance is seen by the majority of the scholars that I have placed on this blog. The reason being that they are balanced and fair in their approach which is something we do not always see in other people.

We instead see a type siege mentality in which only those who agree with their scholar are correct Muslims and all the rest are not true Muslims. The Islam that attracts me is the Islam that is inclusive and not the Islam that is exclusive. It is only exclusive because of their definitions.

We are not saying that all groups are correct some are clearly incorrect and need to be avoided. We do not accept those who go against the sound opinions of the four Sunni schools of Islam and those who correct Sunni beliefs. We do reject those who try to add things to the deen that are not part of it as well propagating the incorrect beliefs of their deceased ‘scholars.’

Now we disagree with certain groups and we refute them but we do not make it our lives work to incite people to attack and fight them, in some sort of misconstrued act of defence of Islam, instead it comes out as something ugly and disgusting. I would really like to see a balanced Islam emerge from the remnants of the religion that has been passed down to us. There are many sunnahs that our parents practice that have been left by other communities. So it behoves us to take the flag from them and hold it high or else we could fall where they did not.

This is meant to make people think about their actions because I do not hate anything more than a hate or ignorance preacher. The Muslims in the UK really have a lot to do if we are to be successful and you cannot preach Islam to people you hate and that’s why dawah, in this country, has not even begun.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Habib Umar ibn Hafiz

Making Dua

Sunday, November 06, 2011

The Disputations

Part five

1. Reading is essential for opening the mind.

2. Visiting is essential for the opening the eyes.

3. Witnessing is essential for opening the heart

4. If you hang on long enough everything perishes.

5. Religious leaders should plant hope.

6. Little victories means the war will be won one day.

7. Never outstay your welcome.

8. You came from the realm of spirits a temporary abode to the womb then world to a temporary abode, then to the grave a temporary abode then to the day of judgement and finally to Paradise or hell your final abode.

9. Words that contain darkness and light affect the heart. The words with truth contain light that gives the heart ease. Words that contain darkness causes distress. So if you are affected by falsehood know he carries more darkness that you have light and vice versa.

10. Regret can be closer to obedience.

11. Reflect over each instance in your life to uncover meanings.

12. Often blessings are given without being worthy of them.

13. Anticipation of gratitude from people because of what you have done to them is foolishness.

14. Tears come from up on high and those around can feel the emotions flow from those who cry.

15. The difference the west and the east are that the west places invisible chains upon its people and the east put visible chains upon its people. The east has dictators that are visible and the west has dictators that are invisible, and every so often the west has a puppet change. This change distracts us from doing anything.

16. ‘He who makes the law knows better than anyone else how it should be executed and interpreted.” (P.54 Jean Jacques Rousseau the Social contract) Is this not Islam? We look to the scared law for our basis in the world.

17. Nothing is safe. All that you have can be lost in a single moment.

18. The greatest homage paid to hypocrisy is to think one is free from it.

19. Worrying about the future wastes the present.

20. I have come to the conclusion that most men cannot clean anything!

21. “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”- El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (aka Malcolm X).