Burqa Bandit Closure, Mothers Day, War On Our Boys, and Hezb-
Closure to the Burqa Bandits
I am tired of hearing about the so-called “burqa bandits” and the controversy surrounding the refusal to burry them by the Germantown Masjid. And as Imam Luqman Ahmed stated in his email that people need to be quiet unless they know what they are talking about and leave this to people who know the community to discuss and imams (I agree with the first part and almost all of what he said and respect that brother a lot, meaning you should know before you comment, but disagree on the second half as at least half of the imams in America couldn’t tell their butt from a hole in the ground). I am also tired of people blaming this solely on the Salafi community as if there was no crime in Philly before the Salafis and there were no Muslims movements with a lot of criminality in them before, those who believe that have selective memories, and I could challenge you on that but need not do so. So, I am going to leave this alone and as a matter of fact I am tired of hearing about it.
Mothers Day Thoughts
I hope many of my readers did not get suckered into observing this un-Islamic holiday designed for the benefit of card companies, chocolate makers, and florists. Every day is Mothers Day. My grandmother called me on Saturday saying she was waiting on my call the next day and I called her back in the chilly Philly weather from Rittenhosue Square waiting on a brother and said “you do not need a day you are special everyday and this is a holiday with no meaning and that is my gift to you; stop observing this meaningless celebration”. In this same manner I do not observe any holiday to commemorate any person, past or present, if you truly love this person they do not need a special day.
Our Boys
Along with my friends Tariq Nelson and Rasheed Moore I am going to begin writing a series of pieces on the feminization of the Muslim male, Muslim movements promoting or turning a blind-eye to this, the miseducation of our boys, the anti-boy sentiment in public schools, and the infiltration into the Muslim community of these feminist anti-male attitudes (primarily being introduced by Muslim women and males educated in the system here and giving the thoughts of social scientists supremacy over the teachings of Islam).
Hezbol-
I do not like to talk about things going on outside of America that do not directly effect us here; but I am concerned about the instability and violence being spread by the group that calls itself Hezbollah in Lebanon and their targeting of Sunnis and Christians. Unfortunately I have heard many Sunnis here, who would be Hezbollah targets there, applauding their recent acts of vigilantism.
May 12, 2008 at 9:00 pm
As salaamu ‘alaykum Umar,
I look forward to the series on our Muslim boys.
As to the anti-boy school issues, I increasingly think that gender separation in education would be highly beneficial.
I hope that you brothers are careful and specific in your discussion of these issues because there are many behaviors that many traditional American males would have thought feminine that were indeed engaged in by the best of creation and the best example of men, the Prophet (saw). These would include hugging of male friends and companions, verbal expression of love for male companions, weeping out of emotion, physical and verbal expressions of love for children, both male and female, assisting his wives with housework including cleaning/mending clothes, engaging in shura with his wives and seeking their opinion on all variety of matters, etc. etc.
So, indeed the concept of men being masculine and women being feminine is encouraged by Islam, and there is obviously some extent to which different times and cultures define masculinity and femininity differently, but we should not think that the Prophet (saw) enshrined our particular prejudiced view of what masculine is as guidance forever, especially in cases where our own ideas of masculinity may directly contradict the sunnah. In fact, the Prophet (saw) did not embrace all aspects of “masculinity” in the Arab jahilliya culture, but he taught his people that true manhood was different in some ways from what they thought it was.
Allaah knows best.
May 12, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Oh, I forgot to mention wearing a dress (thobes or izars), wearing nice scents, dyeing of the beard. Heck, to be honest, in many American subcultures engaging in religious worship (going to church) is thought to be in some ways a feminine activity.
Similarly, anyone with eyes to see or ears to read knows that in much of the world, including the U.S. in some ways but especially in parts of the world including the Muslim world, women are in general treated horribly and despicably by men. In a lot of cases, this treatment, this treatment is tied up in false notions of what it means to be a man. This can also be seen clearly in the bizarre double standards for boys and girls having nothing at all to do with Islamic notions of masculinity and femininity (there is nothing ‘manly’ about fornicating or engaging in other sins when one is “young” or not married.) which lead to the preverted notions of “honor” one sees in some parts of the Muslim world or the extreme gender policies associated in the public view with the Taliban which are greatly oppressive to women (lack of equal educational opportunities for women being the example most clearly lacking in any type of Islamic rationale or justification.
Allaah knows best.
May 12, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Yes, but of course! Mother’s Day is bid’ah. So is having a passport picture taken and all sorts of other nonsensical stuff.
Tammy
May 12, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Ms. Swofford,
Umar didn’t say that Mother’s Day was a “bid’ah.” He said it was “un-Islamic” and the reasons he gave for not celebrating it included avoiding commercialism and the danger that once we set aside a certain “day” for a person it either implies or could lead to that person not getting the proper respect they deserve every single day of the year.
It is also true that in Islam we don’t make any day sacred or “holy” other than the two Eids which were established by the Prophet (saw).
Allaah knows best
May 13, 2008 at 12:57 am
Far be it for me to disagree…, well, no not far be it as we just talked about the relevancy of being able to disagree, I did celebrate Mother’s Day. I was not suckered into it, but rather did it as an act of devotion. I love my mother dearly and do not relegate her to a solitary day of the year but to say that it’s “un-Islamic” is a stretch of the term. Secondly, what constitutes this neologism, “Islamic”? Does it invalidate my Islam that I celebrate Mother’s Day? Does conducting actions that are not “Islamic [I would like to see how many can inform me what Islamic is/isn't]” banish me from the pale of belief? I would advise caution in this regard.
But I know you like to throw caution to the wind! :) Call me man. Let me know wha’s up. Peace.
May 13, 2008 at 1:01 am
Jazakumullah Khayran,
For bringing up this very important issue I look forward to reading more from you on this subject.
I have written a few pieces already feel free to comment.
Rasheed
May 13, 2008 at 2:48 am
as salaamu alaykum,
InshaAllah, as Muslims we stand for truth and justice and not sectarian tribalism. These “Sunnis” you are so quick to support are hardly men of religion and the situation in Lebanon is far more complicated than Sunni vs. Shi’a and has always had more to do with convenient political alliances than confessions. Are you also worried about the Druze? HizbALLAH is not targeting Sunnis on the street and frankly, never has. I’ve actually spent time in Lebanon in mixed areas and even with mixed Sunni Shi’a families who support HizbAllah. They are, in fact, keeping a great deal of order where chaos could break out.
You may disagree with their existence as a militia vs resistance or whatever, but this is not and never has been a sunni vs. shi’a issue.
I pray for the day when American Muslims get over this 90’s obsession with allying with Arab racism or Iranian racism thickly veiled in sectarianism and look at the Middle East with some critical thought and historical understanding.
May 13, 2008 at 3:33 am
Marc we will talk more about this later, perhaps after I find Hillary, but it definitely does not invalidate anyone’s Islam, it is just not a practice that is Islamic as there were mothers in the time of the Prophet (s.a.s.) and no such day was set aside. In the meantime you can enjoy the CD’s…lol
May 13, 2008 at 3:42 am
Ha!! Man… Yeah, they are DOPE!! You might have to buy them back from me.
But as for your comment on there not being a Mother’s Day at the time of the Prophet, there were many things not at his time - and that is not grounds for making them “un-Islamic”. I dare say, we must be careful of making anything “Islamic”. This neologism connotes a sense of ahistoricity and out-of-timeness. The Prophet’s time does not function as a de facto immutable precedent. This in fact is the whole point of usul al-fiqh. We’ll discuss it more in the future but not at Kabobeesh. I always get indigestion afterwards. How about a nice tofu joint? I’m 50% Sufi after all :)
May 13, 2008 at 4:01 am
Bid’ah (innovation) is only blameworthy if it is somehow stipulated as being fardh. That is, I could dismiss something like Mother’s Day as a bid’ah if you said it was obligatory like salat or saum. If you have a non-muslim mother who is used to receiving gifts on Mother’s Day, then it could be seen as praiseworthy to make her happy. And then you could give her another gift the following week. Let’s not be over-reactionary and wantonly iconoclastic.
May 13, 2008 at 5:29 am
As Salaam Alaikum,
I am looking forward to your series about Muslim males, but I really hope you understand “feminization”. I’ve just finished an anthropology class, so I definitly know what is culture. Whose culture are you going to hold up, I wonder, and consider it the Muslim way?
On Mother’s Day. I wished my mother and mother-in-law a very happy day for Mother’s Day! :-) I totally believe in secular celebrations!
peace
May 13, 2008 at 1:55 pm
The whole issue depends on the flip of the coin in my mind. While Umar considers it “Un-Islamic”, as he moved within the ranks during the heyday of the Salafi/Da’wah movement in years gone by, it was certainly considered bi’dah. But yet, on many web sites I see honor given to Khadijah as the wife of Rasool Muhammad and also to Aisha. What is the difference? Negating the holiday because of the commercialism is merely a flanking maneuver in my mind. A mother can be honored by the son going to her home on that day and cleaning her house from top to bottom. (Oh the horror of the thought!) Doesn’t cost a thing. smile
In the world of those such as Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, or Dr. (Abu Ameenah) Bilal Phillips the bottom floor is whether a specific Hadith is Saheeh or Da’eef. For other prominent Islamists, the top floor is al-Qur’an with the Qur’an as the sifter of the Hadith. Dr. Shabbir Ahmed, M.D. has published a book titled, “The Criminals of Islam.” He resides in Florida. It is very easy to read and in the top left corner simply says, “For the open-minded reader only.” He somewhat deconstructs some of the Hadith which make no sense. Now whether he celebrates Mother’s Day I haven’t a clue.
I believe honoring a mother pretty well covers the argument. smile
Tammy
May 13, 2008 at 2:14 pm
@Baba,
The Messenger of Allaah (salallaahu alayhi wa salam) said EVERY Bid’ah is misguidance and will lead to the Hell-Fire. There is no such thing as a good bid’ah in Islaam. He also said our TWO festivals are the eids that we celebrate, and he NEVER mentioned celebrating anything else after that. Our Mother A’isha (radiyyallaahu anha) said,
“Whoever adds something to out affair i.e. Islaam will have it rejected.”
What Muslims need to concern themselves with is the fact that it is NOT permissible to celebrate or even acknowledge the festivals of the kuffar–ALL OF THEM. Shaykhul Islaam ibn Taymiyyah (rahimahullaah) said in the book “The Right Way” that even acknowledging the festivals of the kuffar is an act of kufr in itself, and whoever does it needs to make tawbah.
Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab said in a narration that should be etched in gold:
“Islaam is a Deen of proofs, not opinions”.
May 13, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I would have to argue with you about Hizb’Allah. The real tools here are the Sunni led Lebanese that call themselves the “March 14th” movement. They have taken hundreds of millions of dollars of American money and are a real pawn in the American plan for the Middle East. That plan, I do not need to tell you, will not be in the benefit of the Muslims of the area.
The real porblem in Lebanon is that you have a sectarian based government which allocates positions and power based on which mosque or church you attend. The power is distributed based on decades old census information.
Imagine, if you would, California is split up where the governor, secretary of state, speaker of the state government and the seats in the government are all given to different races of people based on percentage of population. Imagine if this was based on a census from 30 years ago.
You’d have a government that pretty much excluded Hispanics, now some 50% of California’s population. Imagine if the whites, which may be a minority now, allied with Asians, decided to keep the Hispanics from asking for equal representation.
How long do you think that would last before the Hispanics, some 50% of the population, decided that they would not be allow to have fair and equal representation and decided to do something about it?
That is what we have in Lebanon. We have the Shi’a who are the largest group in the country not being given equal representation. You have the Sunnis and Christians, both minorities, trying to hold onto power when they do not have the numbers to support their current level of power.
I am against a system of government that allocates power based on religious affiliation, I think it is doomed to failure. However, if they insist on such a model then it MUST be done according to current population, not from the last census which was some 30 years or more old.
Sunnis and Christians refuse to let a new census to be done because they know they will have to loose their positions that they have created for themselves.
Image if Obama was told he couldnt be president because there were not enough blacks in America in 1960 to justify it?
That is the insanity at play in Lebanon today.
We wouldnt accept it for ourselves, why would we expect others to accept it?
Dont buy into the sectarian bloodletting that some people are selling. It is just another way that people from outside the Ummah want to split it apart.
May 13, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Umm Ali, I agree with you 100%.
It isn’t a Shia/Sunni issue. The Saudi regime and other arab regimes stooges of the West are trying to portray this as Iran trying to expand its influence in the Arab world and cause strives between the shia and sunni community. This is a big lie.
On one hand, you have arab rivalry with Iran and dislike of the Iranians (I sometimes think some of these stupid people hate the iranians more than the americans/israelis who are kiling them).
On the other hand, you have the corrupt arab regimes (who are puppets of the US) that are afraid that Iran (who is the only country in the ME not a puppet of the US) will somehow support their own masses who harbor anti-western sentiments to topple their regimes.
If you have followed the recent events in Lebanon, you know very well that Hezbollah did not start this. It is this despicable tranvestite Siniora (who did not have the guts to protect his own country while it was being bombed by Israel and came on TV crying) who made the move to ban the Hezbollah private communication network. There is no doubt that this move was dictated by the US/Israel.
Get rid of the Hezbollah private communication network and you take away from one of the most useful tools that Hezbollah has to defend itself against Israeli aggression.
Also, you make it easy for the US/Israel to spy on Hezbollah if it uses open lines of communication and for Israel to start tracking and assassinating Hezbollah leaders.
Hezbollah is not targeting Sunnis. It is targeting those who want to destroy Hezbollah and hand over Lebanese soverignity to the US/Israel.
As Ummali pointed out, there are a lot of sunnis who support Hezbollah and are not bigoted against the Shia.
May 13, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Salaam Alaikum.
I enjoyed very nice phone calls from my children (back in the States) on the occasion of Mother’s Day. They are not Muslim so I don’t think they considered whether it was bid’ah or not. LOL!
As for Hezbollah, it is all ugly politics and frankly part of the Iranian backed political-expansionist plans in the Middle East. Hezbollah is hard to take seriously as the “Party of God” and frankly I don’t know many around here (in the Gulf) that do. I have also spent time in Lebanon and have/had many Lebanese friends and students of all religious affiliations. When it comes to internal Lebanese politics, I don’t know many that support the role Hezbollah has taken in internal Lebanese politics over the last 5-6 years.
May 13, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Um Ali and West African in Philly have it spot on.
This is ALL about Saudi and other pro US groups in the Middle East trying to leverage against Iran.
To this end some of them have even met members of the Israeli government, trying to figure out a way to sell out their Muslim brothers and sisters.
This is about corrupt politicians in Beirut, Sunni and Christian, trying to hold unto power they unfairly have, and about corrupt Arab governments worried about the threats to their $4 million dollar Mercedes Benz and gold plated bathroom fixtures.
To this end they are willing to deal with the US, even Israel, to keep it up.
This isnt about Sunni and Shi’a, this is about corruption and evil nation states actively TRYING to start a civil war to further their own agenda.
May 13, 2008 at 7:23 pm
No one is tryign to add anything to Islam by celebrating Mother’s Day!
People need to recognize secular observances!
Mother’s Day is not a “kuffar” festival. It does not in anyway distinguish believers from non-believers!
May 13, 2008 at 7:31 pm
The question is who is assigning specialty or sacredness to a certain day. Only Allaah (swt) can do this. Now, it is always rewarding in the sight of God to do good for one’s mother. However, one cannot argue that it is especially good on a certain day without evidence.
I am all for being wantonly iconoclastic.
Marc,
I am a big fan of the terms “Islamic” and “un-Islamic.” And I’ve heard several times from Dr. J why they are bad terms. I still like them, although of course I have to admit that a lot of times in use they reflect sloppy thinking. Still, that just means one should not use them badly, not necessarily that they can have no use at all. In practice, a term like “un-Islamic” is basically used to reflect a range of possibilities the speaker basically is indicating that he understands the activity being described to be either a bid’ah or haraam or makrooh or possibly just something that Muslims have not done customarily and he/she doesn’t know the ruling about. Now, you would be right that a person might be better to be clear about exactly which of these labels they mean by the term, but most likely the person is not a faqih or mujtahid and there is some value to be attached to the ability to remain vague in their suggestion that they think it would be better if Muslims did not engage in the activity.
Allaahu Alim.
(And I realize my case is not perfect here Marc, but I also think that those who dismiss the terms out of hand as having no merit need to be challenged a little more….I hope you don’t mind :)
Salaam.
May 13, 2008 at 7:34 pm
mappp,
You are expressing a big problem right there in your comment. If it has nothing to do with either adding or subtracting something from Islam, then you are right that it may not be a bid’ah…But how can you then say “people need to recognize secular observences!”? Are you making it fardh? What do you possibly mean by ‘need to’?
May 13, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Please give me proof that Islam is a religion that is against commercialism.
Does the Prophet’s silence on this matter constitute a ban? I think you are dabbling on speculation and that is most certainly getting close to a true bid’ah. If you are not conversant with the Muslim intellectual tradition I would recommend you avoid making public statements. You really only due harm to yourself and other others as well. For a more precise definition on bid’ah, see Dr. Jackson’s definition.
May 13, 2008 at 8:26 pm
As salaamu ‘alaykum Marc,
I realize that my attempt to justify the use of the term “un-Islamic” could basically be just as well used as reasons why using the term is bad idea. It was a quick attempt at an explanation. So, inshAllaah at a future point maybe I can better formulate what I’m getting at.
Allaah knows best.
Salaam.
May 13, 2008 at 8:31 pm
The manner in which the neologism “Islamic” is deployed has a big impact on its usefulness and validity. To a certain degree, because modern society has developed outside the framework of shariah, it makes sense to use “Islamic” as a adjective to describe lawful alternatives to the norm–i.e. Islamic banking, Islamic movies, etc. In this sense, it is perfectly natural to seek a neologism for new and relatively unprecedented situations.
Converesely, “Islamic” is also used to veil the cultural and ideological dynamics of what Dr. Jackson calls “post-colonial Islam” and similar formations. In this sense, “Islamic” functions to sanctify that which is very contextual, contingent, and often deeply flawed. This is how you get “Islamic” institutions where unislamic behavior is rampant…such as racism and mistreatment of staff at “Islamic schools”, to give one common example.
Even among those who avoid celebrating holidays other than Eid, there is the view that a convert may celebrate secular holidays with his family to warm their hearts, so it’s not really worth getting into a fuss over Mother’s Day.
May 13, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Have any of you ever read anything about what the raafidah shi’a believe!?! Have you ever read any of the works written by the great scholars of the past (yes I’m referring to the Salaf)!?! They are on a religion other than Islaam.
How can you accept their claim that their 12 imams have knowledge of the unseen (in violation of what Allaah said in Surah Jinn 72:26-27), knew when they are going to die, and control all the atoms in the universe. Taken from the evil, shirk filled book “Kaafi”.
How can you accept their claim that all of the 114,000 Sahaba (radiyyallaahu anhum) at the time of the death of the Rasulullaah (salallaahu alayhi wa salam), were all kuffar except for up to nine of them!?!
How can you accept their claim that when the Mahdi returns, he’s going to raise our Mother, A’aisha (radiyyallaahu anha), from the dead and beat her for being a “whore” (subhanallaah); an allegation that Allaah Himself freed her from in Surah Nur!?!
How can you accept their claim that the Angel Jibreel (alayhi salam) made a mistake and gave the Revelation to the Messenger of Allaah (salallaahu alayhi wa salam); or even worse, their claim that they conspired to keep it from Ali!?!
Where did Allaah and His Messenger (salallaahu alayhi wa salam) legislate that the Muslims should march to their “holy” cities, najaf and karbala; and cut themselves, and then make tawwaf around the graves of dead human beings!?!
I could be here all day citing their deviate un-Islaamic beliefs.
The raafidah shi’a are kuffar, not Daud’s words, but the words of ALL the scholars of Ahlus Sunnah. The takfir the scholars declared on them is as old as their group is. Get a copy of their book “Kaafi” and read their shirk and kufr for yourself. Get a copy of Shaykhul Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah’s book he wrote about them, called “Minhaajus Saalikeen” where he refuted them and their beliefs.
Great Muslims throughout history fought Jihad against the raafidah shi’a; like Ibn Taymiyyah and Salaahuddin Ayubi (rahimahumullaah).
May 13, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Daud, chill out. No one here is equating doing something nice for your mother on so-called “Mother’s Day” with accepting the tenants of Shi’ites.
May 13, 2008 at 9:18 pm
It is well-known (or should be well-known) in the Deen, ALL things regarding worship are HARAM, unless there is a text that makes it lawful. In the Dunyah affairs, EVERYTHING is HALAL unless there is a text forbidding it.
There are two conditions that MUST be fulfilled for ANY action to be accepted by Allaah: 1. It MUST be done solely for Allaah’s sake, and 2. It MUST follow the Sunnah. The proofs for these conditions are:
1. The hadith narrated by Umar (radiyyallaahu anhu) “Actions are rewarded by their intentions…”
2. The hadith narrated by A’isah (radiyyallaahu anha) “Who ever adds anything to our affair i.e. Islaam, that is not from it, will have it rejected.
Now, bring a proof that it is permissible to celebrate any of the kuffar’s holidays.
“Dr” Jackson doesn’t know the definition of bid’ah. For the benefit of the people, it is defined as follows:
“Any belief, speech or action that was innovated into the Deen after the death of the Messenger of Allaah (salallaahu alayhi wa salam), that has no textual basis in the Book of Allaah, nor the Authentic Sunnah, nor the actions of the Sahaba (radiyyallaahu anhum); where one tries to either worship Allaah and/or gain nearness to Him” (tawassul).
So when someone says “there is a good bid’ah”, you can respond “when Umar (radiyyallaahu anhu) said that “it was a good bid’ah”, he was talking about the idea to reinstate offering Taraweeh in congregation. There were authentic narrations stating that that was something done while the Messenger of Allaah (salallaahu alayhi wa salam) was still alive. Therefore it was not something new, but reviving a Sunnah that was already established.”
Also, if someone comes up and sarcastically says, having carpeting and lights in the Masjid is a bid’ah. You respond with, “putting lights and carpeting in the Masjid is not an attempt to worship Allaah, nor gain nearness to Him. So that is not bid’ah.”
May 13, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Tammy’s shrill stupidity as usual is amusing. I have yet to read a post by this self-declared “expert” on Islam which didn’t come off as idiotic and uninformed. Remember this is the same hysterical islamophobe who was deliberately misrepresenting the Christian Science Monitor article on Muslim American attitudes on terrorism.
Mothers day was created by Hallmark(with roots in ancient Greek paganism) as a way to commercialize a single day in a year in a culture where parents are no longer honored or relevant. We respect and honor our parents 24/7/365 so its redundant to us to follow this.
The post on femenization of men should be interesting. 40 plus years of social engineering and gender role reversal and viola! Here we are.
May 13, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Daud,
I think you did a fine job expressing a traditionally accepted definition of bid’ah and explaining how to apply it in certain circumstances.
Your line about Dr. Jackson was unnecessary to your point, completely inappropriate in terms of proper Islamic (!) behavior, and served to undercut anyone possibly agreeing with you.
I was going to say to Musa’s point that I agree with everything he said, but then we’d have nothing to “discuss” or disagree about. It seems clear that that would have been better.
Allaah knows best.
May 14, 2008 at 12:57 am
Sacred in what way? Worship? And if so, is any one advocating that we worship our mothers? Again, if you are not conversant with the intellectual tradition you are speaking out of nafs - and more importantly your scope is all out of wack. And it is scope that I have to take you and this argument to task. You don’t want to celebrate Mother’s Day - fine. But the moment you want to take from “Umar Lee or Abu Al-Irlandee wants” to “un-Islamic” then I have to step in say you’re over stepping your bounds [I am not saying authority because you have no vested authority].
Daud - you’ve got completely off track and derailed your own argument. Perhaps you should read over the points again. Secondly, I have an issue with your statement:
So what you’re saying is that the Prophet lived through and handled all possible scenarios? If not, then how do we handle unprecedented issues that are not formulaicly spelled out in the Qur’an or Sunnah? Qiyas? Ijtihad? If so, then your above argument falls apart. Please be careful of what you lay at the feet of the Prophet and his sunnah. How else do you think we had the whole development of a system of interpretation [usul al-fiqh] to safeguard against doctrinal heresies [that is in fact how the madhahib got started after all - in defense of Muslim theology]. Again, it is extremely important to be conversant with the Muslim intellectual tradition and it’s methodologies and histories.
May 14, 2008 at 1:09 am
Ma sha’ Allah, Daud. Not only have you made a complete ass of yourself but you’ve gone and slandered a scholar of our religion. A man who has dedicated his life to the study of Islam and who could not doubt, completely dismantle your weak-ass ‘aqiydah in a matter of moments. And as for the quotes around “Dr” is that to imply his PhD is invalid? I guess back-bitting is halaal for you, though. Do us a favor and stick to character development. Your Islam is obviously highly lacking.
This is why I say this kinda sh*t is a bad idea when you make statements like this - you get knuckleheads that chime in and have no training. They can only regurgitate like a myna bird.
May 14, 2008 at 4:34 am
I think I’m one of the ‘feminist males’ of which you speak.
No offense taken. I won’t take back the bumper sticker, or nothin’
Heh
Peace
J
May 14, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Sherman Jackson ain’t no scholar!
Here are the classes Sherman Jackson had to choose from while at Penn. These classes do not qualify him as an Islaamic scholar, they qualify him as an “orientalist”. His knowledge base is taken from this orientalist program, established by the kuffar orientalists who study Islaam—and you know the kuffar know very little about Islaam.
This curriculum can not be compared to what is studied at Saudi Arabia and Yemen, where they study the Islaamic sciences, as well as Shar’eeah, Hadith, Da’wah, Usoolu Deen, & Qur’an.
This curriculum, and the professors he sat with does not even come near to qualifying sherman jackson as a scholar of Islaam, because he NEVER studied the Deen. He has a phd in oriental studies, and that’s it–no detailed study of aqeedah, tawheed, the science of hadith, correct fiqh etc. That’s why he says all the dumb-ass, irrelevant things he says.
Penn’s Middle Eastern Studies (formerly the Oriental Studies Department)
Anthropology
ANTH 100 ~ Topics In Anthropology and the Modern World (Iraq)
Arabic
ARAB 031-038 ~ Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced Int. and Advanced MSA
ARAB 039 ~ Colloquial Arabic
ARAB 331 ~ Advanced Spoken Standard Arabic.
ARAB 332 ~ Advanced Arabic Composition
ARAB 338 ~ Introduction to Quran and Tafsir
ARAB 435 ~ Readings in Islamics
ARAB 436 ~ Introduction to Classical Arabic Texts.
Art History
ARTH 217 ~ Introduction to the Visual Culture of the Islamic World
ARTH 417 ~ Later Islamic Art & Architecture
Hebrew
HEBR 051-054 ~ Elementary & Intermediate Modern Hebrew
HEBR 059 ~ Advanced Modern Hebrew: Reading and Composition.
HEBR 455 ~ Post-Baccalaureate Hebrew Texts .
HEBR 259 ~ Introduction to Modern Hebrew Literature
HEBR 359 ~ Modern Hebrew Literature
HEBR 552 ~ Advanced Hebrew: Reading and Comprehension
History
HIST 081 ~ History of the Middle East since 1800
HIST 082 ~ Islam in Global Perspective
HIST 083 ~ Diplomacy in the Middle East
HIST 084 ~ The Middle East in the 20th Century
HIST 087 ~ The Middle East and the US
HIST 106 ~ Images of Islam & the Middle East
HIST 201 ~ What Were the Crusades?
HIST 202 ~ Zionist Debates
HIST 206 ~ Empire & Colony in the Near East / Modern Middle East Society / War in the Middle East (Majors’ Seminar in World History after 1800)
HIST 317 ~ Islam & the West
HIST 550 ~ Topics in Jewish History (Zionist Founders & Sabra Children)
Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
NELC 037 ~ The People of Modern Egypt
NELC 038 ~ Journeys in Arabic Narrative
NELC 102 ~ Introduction to the Middle East
NELC 104 ~ Jerusalem through the Ages
NELC 115 ~ Persian Mystical Thought: Rumi
NELC 118 ~ Iranian Cinema: Gender, Politics, & Religion
NELC 130 ~ Introduction to the Qur’an
NELC 132 ~ Origins of Islamic Political Thought
NELC 159 ~ Israeli Literature and Film in Translation
NELC 201 ~ Modern Mideast Literatures in Translation
NELC 212 ~ Fiction of Modern Iran
NELC 233 ~ The Arabic Literary Heritage
NELC 238 ~ Classical Islamic Law
NELC 331 ~ Iraq, Egypt & Algeria
NELC 332 ~ North Africa: History, Culture, Society
NELC 335 ~ Muslims, Christians, Jews
NELC 336 ~ Nationalism in the Middle East
NELC 434 ~ Arabic Literature & Theory
NELC 435 ~ Readings in Islamic Studies
NELC 437 ~ Islamic Intellectual Tradition
NELC 633 ~ Selected Topics in Arabic Literature
NELC 638 ~ Approaches to Islamic Law
Persian
PERS 012-16 ~ Elementary, Intermediate & Advanced Persian
PERS 017 ~ Persian Reading and Writing for Fluent Speakers
PERS 018 ~ Advanced Persian in the Media
Political Science
PSCI 131 ~ American Foreign Policy
PSCI 198 ~ Politics & Government in Israel
PSCI 211 ~ Politics in the Contemporary Middle East
PSCI 253 ~ International Politics in the Middle East
PSCI 275 ~ Muslim Political Thought
PSCI 5xx ~ Middle East Politics
PSCI 5xx ~ Politics of Contemporary Iraq
Religion
RELS 100 ~ Islamic Civilization
RELS 143 ~ Islamic Religion
RELS 1xx ~ Islam and Modernity
RELS 246 ~ Islamic Mysticism
RELS 247 ~ Islamic Ethics
RELS 2xx ~ Women and Islamic Constructions of Gender
RELS 445 ~ Sufism (seminar open to undergraduates)
RELS 545 ~ Sufi Texts / Hadith / The Qur’an (Topics in Islamic Religion)
Turkish
TURK 021-026 ~ Elementary, Intermediate & Advanced Turkish
Here are the faculty who have Muslim names, and could be the “scholars” he sat with.
Faculty School of Arts and Sciences
Economics
Suleyman Ozmucur - B.A., Bogazici University (1973); M.A., Manchester University (1974); Ph.D., Istanbul University (1976).
History
Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet - B.A., University of North Carolina (1989); M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D., Yale University (1997).
Near East Languages and Civilizations
Jamal Ali – B.A., University of California at Riverside (1987); M.A., University of California at Los Angeles (1995); Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles (2005). teaches arabic
Tajmah Assefi-Shirazi – B.A., Tehran University (1959); M.A., National University of Tehran (1976); Ph.D., Tehran University (1990). shia’i kaffir
Fariba Azabdaftari – M.S., Syracuse University (1983); B.S., College of Translations, Tehran, Iran (1974). shia’i kaffir
Feride Hatiboglu - Ph.D. Marmara University (2007); M.A., Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey (1991); L.L.B., Istanbul University (1982). From Turkey (not a center of Islaamic knowledge), teaches Turkish language
Hassan Nitami – B.A., University of Cadi Ayyad, Marrakesh, Morocco (1997). Morroco, teaches Arabic. I know him, he don’t even pray!
Emad Rushdie – B.S., Cairo University (1988); M.A. American University
in Cairo. teaches arabic
Mbarek Sryfi – B.A., University of Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah, Fez, Morocco (1990); M.A., Ecole Normale Superieure, Rabat, Morocco (1995). Currently a graduate student in the PhD. program in Arabic Literature and Islamic Studies at Penn. teaches arabic
Religious Studies
Jamal Elias (webpage) - B.A., Stanford University (1983); M.A., University of Pennsylvania (1985); M.A., Yale University (1987); Ph.D., Yale University (1991). Research Interests: Islamic mystical thought and metaphysics; Popular Culture in South Asia and Turkey; Sufi literature.!?! Subhanallaah!!!!
Sociology
Hocine Fetni – L.L.B., (Licence en Droit), Constantine University Institute of Law, Algeria (1977); L.L.M., New York University School of Law (1980); L.L.M., University of Pennsylvania Law School (1981); Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania (1992).so he/she is a lawyer.
Wharton School
Finance
Mamdouh El-Nady - B.Com. , Cairo University (1975); M.A., Monterey Institute of International Studies (1982); M.B.A., American Graduate School of International Management (1983); Ed.D., San Francisco University (2000).
Linguistic Data Consortium
Muhamed Maamouri - Diplôme d’études littéraires générales (DELG), Paris-Sorbonne (1961); Licence es-Lettres Anglaises, Université de Tunis (1963); Diplôme d’études supérieures (DES d’anglais), Université de Paris (1964); M.A., Cornell University (1965); Ph.D. Cornell University (1967). Teaches arabic
May 14, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Salaam alaikum Umar,
I wonder how have Muslim women in American have feminized the brothers? Please do explain. And which Muslim women in particular?
May 14, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Marc,
Yes, “sacred” in the sense that acts of ‘ibadah have a special value on that day more than others. No, no one is talking about worshipping our mothers, but one way of worshipping Allaah (swt) is to serve or in other ways honor one’s mother. To say that it is especially rewarding with Allaah (swt) to do so on a certain day “Mother’s Day” is what would be a bid’ah.
Marc, be careful with your accusations of who is or is not “conversant with the tradition.” Why can’t you just rebut my argument if it is incorrect and not resort to ad hominem? In my case, because I happen to be very ignorant and a great sinner, you may be speaking the truth, but in no way do you know me well enough to make such statements. In the future you may make such an allegation against someone much more “conversant in the tradition” or even if not, then one much closer to Allaah (swt) than yourself.
Allaah knows best.
May 14, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I meant to say “could be” considered a bid’ah. I am not in any way endorsing an opinion one way or the other on whether Mother’s Day is a bid’ah.
May 14, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Daud, it is not the position of mainstream Ahl As-Sunnah scholars to label the Shia as “kafir”. We can say they are sorely misguided, but we respect them as Muslims even if they reject other Muslims. Please consider not being the Sunni heavyweight here or elsewhere on the internet.
May 14, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I sense that Daud betrays a pathological self-loathing that I find all to frequent with many BAM’s, especially among the “insta-scholars” experts in our communities. Who determines who is a scholar is highly subjective.
May 14, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Well, we can try to disagree with Daud or whoever else in a respectful manner. There doesn’t seem to be much love for the sake of Allah going on here…
May 15, 2008 at 1:28 am
Daud, not only are you uncouth and your assumptions baseless, you’re a total ass. It is clear why someone as unmannered as you are is so blatantly ignorant. So you went to UPenn’s web site and copy/pasted their course curriculum and have used that as base to judge Dr. Jackson on. Your assumption, that if he’s taken all of these classes, that this amounts to all that Dr. Jackson has learned. And as for Dr. Jackson being an orientalist, have you actually spent any time with him to determine this? I would have asked you if you’ve read any of his works but by the admission of your own stupidity I must assume you can’t read at all.
So let me guess. You are so intimately familiar with where and with whom else he has studied with in the Muslim world. Ma sha’ Allah, perhaps you’re like one of those apocryphal Sufi sheikhs who can be in two places at once, too. Please tell me where Saudi Arabia and or Yemen make automatic qualifiers for infallible religious knowledge. But I suppose I’m wrong to begin with as someone as learned as yourself, who’s a master of so many sciences, is able to pass judgment on a recognized scholar of the religion - both at home and abroad.
Money - do us all a favor and keep the miswak planted between the gap in your two front teeth so we don’t have to hear any more hype from you.
May 15, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Salaam alaikum brother Musa!! Long time no here from.
May 16, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Wa Alaikum As Salaam. How’s Masr? Mia mia?
May 16, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Have no time to read 40 comments but wanted to pass on a tip– read Leonard Sax’s books, Why Gender Matters and Boys Adrift. Really great stuff when dealing with the issue of raising boys as BOYS.
May 17, 2008 at 3:19 am
Honestly guys,
I think we do to the shi’a what we accuse non-Muslims of doing to us. We selectively quote their texts and disregard what their mainstream scholars actually say. It’s really quite pathetic.
Let’s face it, Arab analysis of Hizbullah for the most part is dismal. They essentialize Hizbullah as being Iranian because they are in denial that there are Arab Shi’a and its easy to hate and disregard the ethnic other.
Hizbullah has always maintained a rhetoric of unity amongst Muslims. I can’t speak for whats in their books. Hell, I’ve seen some stuff in our books too that I’m not sure I’m ready to accept. It’s about time we take them at face value, rather than always assuming some sort of shi’a conspiracy. They are, after all, the only successful arab movement to have in some sense defeated Israel.
As Muslims in America we always support for justice no matter who its defenders are. In Lebanon, the guys in power aren’t exactly on the side of independence, justice and Islam. Sa’ad al-Hariri is a billionare. One might legitimately ask how he got all that money. But these are questions no one wants to ask. Instead we do what we are best at; engage in polemical tomfoolery.
May 19, 2008 at 12:32 am
[...] may cause chagrin to those who think that Muslim male (especially us “white” converts) are too feminized but I still can’t find too much that I don’t appreciate in this 1970s feminist [...]
May 19, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Sherman Jackson spent a considerable time in Egypt learning from traditional scholars while he was director of CASA.
Shaykh Taqi uddin Hilali was a graduate of a German University, were he also taught….the German Language.
That never took away from his scholarship, the traditional studies he did in Morrocco. He was considered one of the few Mujtahids of his time.