Understanding Takfeer

In light of the Umar Lee video in which he apparently renounces Islam and has re-embraced Christianity (there is NO DOUBT that if he actually said those words, then he is an apostate—with the exception that someone may have doctored the video), it is important to discuss the CONCEPT of apostasy. Many Muslims, and claimants of Islam, in the West are confused about this topic, and that is largely due to the leadership here not educating their congregations about this essential subject.

In general there are two deviant extremes regarding this issue. One are those labeled as “Takfeeris.” Takfeer is the act of deeming someone a disbeliever (Arabic: kaafir). Those typically labeled as “Takfeeris” by the general media are the quasi-Salafis (Wahhabis) and the Qutbis (followers of Sayyid Qutb and more extreme members of the Ikhwan—although it seems that many of them changed their position on this issue). Regarding the Qutbis, they claim that anyone who governs by other than Islam (or a single judgment other than Islam) becomes a disbeliever, and all those who work in such a government are disbelievers, and all those who do not rise up against the government are also disbelievers. Such a position is an invitation to mayhem and anarchy and is contrary to the position of the Sunni Muslim scholars.

As for the Wahhabis, they deemed various practices sanctioned by the Prophet to be shirk (polytheism). As a result of this misconception, the Wahhabis have deemed the vast majority of Muslims to be mushriks (polytheists) and disbelievers. And from that erroneous conclusion, they deemed that it is a religiously rewardable deed to murder Muslims. Also, many of the Wahhabis, like the Qutbis, take the position that to govern by other than Islam is also a form of shirk—this is why one finds groups, like Al-Qaeda and its affiliates committing the atrocities it does in the name of “Islam.”

On the other end of the spectrum are the quasi-traditionalists. These are people who have typically been trained in traditional sciences, they (claim to) follow one of the four Sunni madhhabs; they say they follow either the Ash`ari or Maturidi school of Sunni Theology; they praise tasawwuf (Sufism). Ostensibly, they appear to be Sunnis, but they have been introducing “liberal” accommodationist ideas to surreptitiously promote a pseudo-Sunni apologist agenda. It is enough to compare some of their pre-9/11 speeches with their speeches nowadays to understand this point.

Among their (quasi-traditionalists) deviant innovations is that they claim to refuse to make takfeer (deem as a disbeliever) ANYONE who claims to be a Muslim. This immediately leads to absurdities, like, by following such logic, one would have to call Louis Farrakhan a “Muslim,” in spite of his claim that:

1. Fard Muhammad is Allah

2. Hundreds of millions of Asiatic Blackmen are Allah

3. Allah was “self-created” from electricity trillions of years ago

According to the logic of the quasi-traditionalists, they would also have to consider those who follow a doctrine like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nation_of_Islam (the link says) to also be amongst the “Muslims.” Given such a ludicrous line of logic, one has to ask (rhetorically) where does it end? Is there—according to them—no distinction between Imaan and disbelief? Well, according to them, apparently there isn’t.

This refusal to make takfeer (deem a person to be a non-Muslim) has gone so far as one person contacting me and saying that he does not judge the person who has openly renounced Islam and embraced Christianity an apostate (and he didn’t say that is b/c the video in which the renunciation (apparently) took place was a fabrication).

Another one of these quasi-traditionalist celebrities has (apparently) innovated the absurd claim that you cannot call ANYONE a disbeliever because we do not know what state a person will die in. By following such sick reasoning, we also can’t deem anyone to be a “Muslim,” because we do not know what state the person will die upon. This same character has broken ranks with Ahlus-Sunnah and the Muslims by also claiming that those who reject Prophet Muhammad will attain salvation in the Hereafter.

We must be balanced in our approach to matters. Of course there is a grave danger in wanton accusations of blasphemy—but there is also grave danger in deeming blasphemy to be part of Islam. Let us take this back to first principles. We have to first define who a Muslim is. A Muslim is a person who believes in the Testification of Faith and its implications. If the person was not born to a Muslim family (or at least Muslim father (while married to the mother)), then he or she must utter the Testification of Faith to enter Islam. And the person, to be a Muslim, must believe in the Testification PROPERLY. That is, upon saying: “There is nothing worthy of worship except Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,” he must have the proper convictions about Allah and Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam). (And for the one born to a Muslim father, but never said the Testification, he would have to at least hold the correct conviction in the heart.)

The person must believe that Allah is the One, Perfect, Eternal, Omnipotent, All-Knowing Creator. Allah is the Creator of everything, and Allah ABSOLUTELY does not need or resemble anything. Allah is unimaginable. Only Allah deserves to be worshiped. Allah existed before the creations—before light and darkness, before time and place. This means that Allah is not a body, or an object, or a spatial entity or any other sort of dimensional being. Allah exists without time, place, or direction. Allah does not take up space or undergo change or transformation. To believe otherwise, is to believe contrary to what Muslims believe.

Regarding the belief in Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam), the person must believe that the Prophet was truthful in all he conveyed from Allah. One must believe that he (and all the other Prophets) was a man who always held the correct belief about Allah, and that the Prophets were of the highest honor and integrity. We must believe that the Prophets were all intelligent, courageous, trustworthy and embodied the best of manly virtues.

The one who contradicts the core meaning of the Testification of Faith is not a Muslim. Hence, the one who believes that Allah is weak, or ignorant, or requires space or a place in order to exist does not have the belief of Muslims. The one who, for instance, prays to a giant extraterrestrial being with a smiling face, or fingers, or a large tibia, or is during the daytime (allegedly) located above the `Arsh and late at night located beneath Prophet Jesus, would in reality not be praying to Allah. He would be praying to an object. And the person who worships an object—or anything else other than Allah—would NOT BE A MUSLIM. It is ludicrous to claim that the person can be a Muslim and an object worshiper at the same time. Likewise, to believe that the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam) lied, or was a scoundrel, or a fool, or a coward, or the likes is blatant blasphemy with no doubt.

When this first principle is established, it becomes easy to understand why Muslims MUST make takfeer on certain beliefs. One cannot deem blasphemy to be part of Islam. Likewise, it should be known, as per the teachings of the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam) that a time would come when ignorance and disbelief would become pervasive. As he said:

“A man would be a believer in the morning and turn to disbelief in the evening, or he would be a believer in the evening and turn disbeliever in the morning, and would sell his Faith for worldly goods.” [Muslim]

The Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam) told us that holding on to one’s Islam would be more difficult thn holding on to a red hot coal. Also, it should be more than evident that the satanic opponents of Islam would intentionally plant blasphemous misconceptions amongst the Muslims to cause confusion and to fool them into falling out of Islam, as we see here: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1716.html (the 0.1 MB outline is enough to catch the gist of these people’s evil machinations). Some of these blasphemous misconceptions would come from those masquerading as Muslim “leaders”. Also, Muslims should be aware that it is not a condition for one to commit riddah (apostasy) for one to openly renounce Islam. The person may slip into disbelief without knowing it, as the Prophet said:

“Certainly the slave [the human being, for instance] may utter a word he deems harmless, which results in his plummeting the depth of 70 years into the Hellfire.”

With that said, it is important that Muslims understand how blasphemy can be categorized, so that one can better understand how the rules of takfeer work. Disbelief (blasphemy) can be divided into three categories:

1. Ta`teel (Denial)

2. Tashbeeh (Resembling)

3. Takdheeb (Belying)

Ta`teel is the denying of the Attributes of Allah that one must necessarily know. That is, one must know, for instance, that Allah is Attributed with Existence, Oneness, Beginninglessness, Everlastingness, Power, Omniscience, Absolute Transcendence (i.e., being clear of all need for the creations), etc. It should be clear that the one who ascribes to Allah partners, or being originated, or being weak, or dependent could not possibly be considered a Muslim.

Tashbeeh is the resembling of Allah to the creations, whether that resembling is explicit or implicit. Examples of tashbeeh would be like when the Farrakhanis say “Allah is a real live human being and can’t be other than that.” Also, there are those who think that Allah is a giant body of light, others believe that Allah literally enters the bodies of people; some say Allah is a spiritual being, some say Allah is a material being—and some say both. Believing that Allah occupies space or is in a literal direction or has real-actual organs and other body parts is tashbeeh—even if the professor of said belief doesn’t recognize it as such. Again, the one who worships an object or dimensional being would not be worshiping Allah, and the one who does not worship Allah is not a Muslim.

Takdeeb is belying or rejecting what Islam teaches. There are matters that are commonly known and well-established amongst the Muslims. Examples of such would be, the existence of Paradise, the Prophethood of Moses and Jesus, the five prayers, fasting Ramadan, the permissibility of polygyny, the prohibition of fornication, homosexuality, and alcohol, or the illegitimacy of blasphemy. The one who rejects any of these matters, cannot be considered a Muslim, for Islam is based upon submission, and one can’t submit to Islam while one rejects what Islam teaches. (Nota Bene: the mere inclination towrds or engagement in sin is not blasphemy, as long as the person does not deem the sin to be acceptable in Islam.)

Among the claimants of Islam, I would say that the quasi-Salafis (Wahhabis) and the quasi-traditionalists pose the greatest threat to the growth and well-being of Muslims in the West. Regarding the Wahhabis, their da`wah to disbelief (tashbeeh, in particular) is still very active in the West. The Wahhabis’ literalist distortion of Qur’anic Verses and Hadiths has led many to thinking that Allah is an object located above our heads with various real-actual limbs and organs. This belief is blasphemy.

Furthermore, it is part of the Wahhabi ideology to deem the rest of the Muslims disbelievers (recently, I saw on a Wahhabi site one of the contributors saying that Muhammad ibn `Abdul-Wahhab (the founder of Wahhabism) saved Tawheed). Because of this erroneous premise, they deem it permissible to murder genuine Muslims and everyone else in the “name of Islam and jihad.” For those who can’t see the evils in the gross tashbeeh of Wahhabism, they should at least see the harm that these people do by their atrocities. The Wahhabis are going to continue to commit acts of terrorism in the West, and all the Muslims are going to take the blame for their barbaric deeds unless we stand up and relentlessly expose them.

As for the quasi-traditionalists, they have for the past decade slowly changed their positions and are morphing into some “new school of thought.” Instead of exposing and attacking the theology behind this extremists ideology and demonstrating that the core creed of Wahhabism contradicts Islam, these quasi-traditionalists have signed off on some “pledge” with the Wahhabis that somehow includes object worship among the “Sunni schools of Doctrine.” On the one hand they unite with those following a bona fide extremist ideology and on the other, these quasi-apologists are having a hard time taking stands against abominable trends, like the spreading of homosexuality in American society.

Additionally, these quasi-traditionalists are encouraging the Muslims in the West to remain ignorant of apostasy and how to protect oneself from it. The reality of the matter is that when a Muslim learns about apostasy, he (or she) has the means of discernment to readily distinguish between disbelief and Islam. When one acquires such knowledge, he begins to recognize all sorts of blasphemous statements in books, in magazines, on websites, and even from the mouths of those who are allegedly the “Muslim leaders” in the West. The quasi-traditionalists do not want to empower the Muslim masses with this knowledge, for that would mean that they would be brought into greater accountability by their followers. These “leaders” would be forced to justify the unjustifiable—which they can’t—and their credibility would be shattered. Instead clarifying matters of Creed for the Muslims, they are intentionally confusing people. This is indicative of their treachery. May Allah protect us from them and that.

In conclusion, I remind you and myself of the Hadith mentioned earlier:

“Be prompt in doing good deeds (before you are overtaken) by turbulence which would be like a part of the dark night. A man would be a believer in the morning and turn to disbelief in the evening, or he would be a believer in the evening and turn disbeliever in the morning, and would sell his Faith for worldly goods.”

May Allah guide us and protect us and make us amongst the steadfast and sincere and not among those who sell their Religion for a measly worldly gain.

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

The Apostasy of Umar Lee

The Apostasy of Umar Lee

(As one can see, the Christians and anti-Muslim bigots are going to run with this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esCyj0deeuM)

This is not intended as an attack on Umar Lee or his genuine motivations for becoming a Christian. Allah knows what lurks inside our hearts. I don’t know him personally, other than at an ISNA, I guess it was three years ago, I bumped into him and spoke to him for not more than a couple of minutes. I did, however, comment pretty regularly on his blogs. As a matter of fact Umar Lee’s blog introduced me to the “Muslim” blogoshere back probably at the tail end of its, what some might call, “golden age” (that is, around 2006-2008). Since then, many of those blogs have gone defunct. For me the blogs were an interesting world. Contrary to the Islamic forums, which were often battlegrounds between the Deobandi and Brewelis and Wahhabis, and sometimes involving very detailed matters of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) in the Hanafi School, which I have little knowledge of), the “Muslim” blogosphere focused more on the condition of Muslims in America. It was sort of a window into the minds of Muslims in this country and the challenges we face here.

One of the problems with said blogs was that many of the people involved had no training in traditional Islamic sciences. In many cases, their learning seems to have been that of attending a few Islamic lectures and reading books and clicking through layer upon layer of websites. As a result, there was A LOT of ignorance and misguidance propounded through those blogs. Nonetheless, the blogs did provide a place for the lay Muslims, and claimants of Islam, to exchange ideas.

At this time, Umar Lee’s blog was among the most popular. His “Rise and Fall of the [Quasi] Salafi Movement” was Umar’s claim to fame. I read it, and in many ways he and I were on parallel tracks, although we were on opposite aisles in the creedal war taking place in the Northeast. Although I started to become interested in “Islam” while I was off at a small liberal arts college (the kind of place Umar Lee used to detest) in Western New England, and Umar was in the hood involved in hood life (a sort of race reversal), we both saw Islam as a means for activism and social transformation. Although Umar is white, he had (from his writings) black sensibilities, and he seemed to be a good reader of character—in a street sort of way. While I was in college, I became one of those hyper-race conscious kind of guys.

It was also a different time in black culture. There was a substantial amount of what folks used to call “conscious rap,” whether from the likes of groups, such as, X-Clan, Public Enemy, and the various Fiver Percent rappers available—and this rap was even sometimes seen on MTV and BET. The so-called Nation of Islam was active in the inner city. Farrakhan loomed large in the psyche of many young urban black males. Traces of the black radical consciousness left over from the late 60′s and early 70′s could still be found among at least some of the “elders” in the black community. Also, there was the hype surrounding the Malcolm X movie, the “X caps,” and the movie itself. This was during the time of the crack blight and the rise in black on black murder and the prison industrial complex entrenching itself into the black community. It was hoped by many young black people that a shift of consciousness was taking place across black America to counter these problems. Black folks would finally wake up, get involved, and be agents for fundamental change—if not revolution—in America.

That black people would be on the forefront of this social transformation seemed logical. Black folk have always been a protest people. For myself, I rapidly passed through a black consciousness and black nationalism phase realizing that we needed something more to bind us (i.e., black folk). We are (or at least were) a religiously inclined people. After reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X, listening to Farrakhan tapes, and just having a familiarity with world history and using common sense, it was clear that Christianity, and its doctrine that the Eternal Creator of the Universe incarnated into an infant, could not possibly be the true religion of God and could not be the means to unite my people.

What was clear was that there could only be one True God, and that God alone deserved to be worshiped, and that Islam—in its genuine form—preached that belief. I saw Islam as the means to unite our people—under one rationally consistent belief in God. Islam would free my black Brothers and Sisters from the mental slavery of praying to a white man—an image that looked like our former slave masters—and the excessive emotionalism of the Negro Church. Islam would instill discipline and self-respect in us. Islam would give us structure and order. Islam would give us morality… without being a bunch of punks.

I wasn’t the only young man who had this hope for transformation in black community by way of Islam. There were many others. At this time, however, the Saudis, with their Wahhabi doctrine, saw an opportunity to spread their creed here in the US and among inner city African-Americans. The Wahhabis (quasi-Salafis) offered full paid scholarships to guys from the hood to go study at Madinah University and other Wahhabi institutes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This ideology (Wahhabism) became for many African-Americans synonymous with “Islam”—after all, the Two Sanctuaries (Mecca and Madinah) are contained in Saudi Arabia, and the Sunnis had very few publications available for English language readership—and certainly none as nice looking as the Saudi published literature. Those socially conscious and functional African-Americans, who were searching for Islam often passed through Farrakhanism and maybe flirted with the Warith Deen Community and often ended up in Wahhabism.

These converts would find that unlike the Farrakhanis and W.D. Community, the Wahhabis were not very concerned about social activism in America. The Arab Wahhabis were trying to transplant the Saudi agenda to American soil, and for many of the more intelligent and educated black converts, they sensed this and saw that the needs to African-Americans was not being met. This would further be compounded by the reports from African-Americans who returned from Saudi Arabia with horror stories about the virulent racism amongst the Arabs there. Furthermore, as the Wahhabi ranks swelled with the pathological underclass and prison ex-convicts, they brought their dysfunction to their centers (and other centers) and the ghetto drama was let loose. On the regular, the Wahhabis would be acting out and excommunicating one another (claiming so and so is off the manhaj), and there was lots of infighting. Then 9/11 came, and the Wahhabis were placed under greater scrutiny—some of the leadership was arrested, others were deported, and others up and left and made what they called “hijrah.”

After that, many of the African-American Wahhabis were left confused, and there was a phrase that was pretty common amongst the bloggers a few years back: “Salafi Burnout.” Many of the more educated and functional African-American converts had made great sacrifices to try to build what they called “Salafi Da`wah.” Careers were forsaken, family ties with non-Muslims were often severed, “marriages” were broken, and children suffered, and now without a growing community base to support them—but instead only a disintegrating toxic “community” to tear them down—these disillusioned converts had to deal with the reality of life in America.

This is where Umar Lee had been for quite a few years. He was—and so many others—a recovering Wahhabi. Again, I don’t want to talk about what his genuine motivations are for the many controversial things he said, but there can be no denying that much of what he said contained many insightful observations about the plight of the American Muslim community. Some people have been faulting him in his “Apostasy Video” for mentioning that the Muslims have not fixed the (or begun to fix—or for the most part not even addressed) the ills of American society—and especially not those in the inner city. People have to keep in mind that people like Umar Lee and myself became interested in Islam partly because we saw its socially transformative potential. We saw ourselves following in the footsteps of Malcolm X. And it was a jolt to see, as the American Muslim demographics changed in this country to a stronger immigrant base, the majority of Muslims not caring about social activism, not caring about racism, not caring about poverty, not caring about suffering in this country. To the contrary, one increasingly found Muslim immigrants not involved in da`wah, but involved in parasitic corner stores selling poison, haraam, and filth to the poor. Others among these immigrants contented to live out the American delusion in the Wonder Bread suburbs. This further contributed to Umar Lee’s—or at least people like him—sense of frustration and alienation.

Also, Umar Lee, to his credit, also observed the shift taking place amongst the quasi-traditionalists long before these characters made their sellout agenda more apparent. There were a number of the so-called celebrity imams who did talk about social activism, they did have scathing—but accurate—critiques of American society and its moral decay and hypocritical foreign policy. These “leaders” have “bin dun flipt the skript,” and now some are even trying to pretend there is no difference between Islam and disbelief by trying to erase the line between blasphemy and Imaan.

The converts in this country are HEMMORAGING. They are confused, and with the efforts being put forth today by the quasi-traditionalists, this confusion is only likely to grow. So what is to be to done? First and foremost, people have to acquire traditional Islamic knowledge, and above all THEY HAVE TO GET CLARITY IN THE CREED! Very often when Umar Lee would go on rants against the Wahhabis or other bloggers would bemoan about so-called “Salafi Burnout,” I would try to inject the importance of the Sunni `Aqidah. For the most part I was either ignored or attacked (attacked not by Umar Lee but others still hanging on to the Wahhabi doctrine).

The Muslims (real Muslims—not people who simply identify as such) believe that Allah is One—Allah has no partners, Allah is Unique with no similars; Allah is the One and only Creator and everything else is a creation; Allah is not a material or spiritual entity; Allah is not an object made of parts or potentially subject to addition or subtraction. The Sunni `Aqidah is based upon the belief that the Creator ABSOLUTELY does not need or resemble the creations. Hence, Allah is not dependent upon space; Allah does not have the properties of spatial beings, such as, having a size, a shape or a location. Whatever one imagines, Allah is different than that.

When one understands the above, one understands that the Creator of space, time, and direction is not literally located above the `Arsh (Ceiling of Paradise) during the day and beneath Prophet Jesus for part of the night, much less does the Creator have real-actual fingers, a shinbone, smiling face, and a foot. Muslims worship Allah, the Eternal Creator. The person who worships some sort of shadow-casting object with real-actual body parts on the Kursiyy would not be in reality worshiping Allah. He would be worshiping something other than Allah. And the one who worships something other than Allah is not a Muslim. Simple. Plain. And Clear.

One of the problems of those suffering from so-called “Salafi Burnout” is that many did not seem to realize that the Wahhabis are NOT Muslims. It is not the case that the Wahhabis are merely bad Muslims—the Wahhabis don’t have the Muslim belief in Allah. Hence, for those suffering from that anthropomorphic burnout, they have to realize that they weren’t Muslim in the first place. When this is clear, one can realize that much of the bad behavior that was done in the “name of Islam” was not done by Muslims. The Wahhabis are object worshipers. The Muslims do not worship an object or anything else that has a size or occupies space.

The converts need basic training in the matters of `Ilmul-Kalaam,<sup>1</sup> so that they can defend themselves against the onslaught of atheism and other deviant anti-Islamic and quasi-Islamic ideologies that are prevalent in the society. One of the quasi-traditionalist wrote that African-Americans don’t need to go into the matters of `Ilmul-Kalaam because, in essence, they are not an intellectual people… But that is exactly the problem that African-Americans suffer from—their worldview is largely emotional and not rational. A study of `Ilmul-Kalaam would give black converts (and other converts) the intellectual clarity in Creed needed to navigate through this society. If Umar Lee, for instance, had been trained in the matters of the Sunni Creed after his abandoning of Wahhabism—and was sufficiently educated in the belief that Allah exists without being in a place or a direction and that Allah is not a spatial entity—then it would not be as likely that such a person would be claiming that Jesus is his “Lord and Savior.”

Another matter related to the education of the convert, is informing him (or her) about the matter of apostasy—and I don’t mean only open stated renunciation of Islam—but that a person could fall out of Islam without knowing it. The person who claims that there is another Creator with Allah, or that Allah is ignorant, or weak, or that Allah is in need, or similar to the creations would not be a Muslim. Furthermore, the one who insults the Qur’an or the Prophets, or intentionally rejects what is commonly known amongst Muslims, or desecrates the Qur’an by throwing it into the trash or stepping on it commits disbelief.

Contrary to the claims of the Quasi-Traditionalists and the “Pledgers,” the issue of riddah (apostasy) and takfeer and the conditions of deeming a self-professed Muslim to be a disbeliever MUST BE DISCUSSED. Without this knowledge, a Muslim is liable commit kufr (disbelief) and fall out of Islam without knowing it. Many of the quasi-traditionalists are trying to suppress this discussion to hide their own insidious agendas. These people KNOW that the masses of the Muslims in the USA are confused and vulnerable to falling prey to blasphemy. These “leaders” KNOW that the famous Sunni scholars discussed these issues extensively, to warn and protect Muslims from adopting blasphemous beliefs or engaging in blasphemous acts or statements. Yet, these leaders will say things like, “This is only for the scholars to trouble themselves with.”

To show the erroneous nature of such a claim, it is not only the scholars who can potentially fall into disbelief—it is MORE likely for the unlearned to fall into disbelief. Furthermore, according to these “leaders,” one can’t call any self-professed “Muslim” a kaafir (disbeliever). But what would such people say about the likes of a Louis Farrakhan? Farrakhan claims to be a Muslim. Louis Farrakhan also claims that hundreds of millions of Asiatic Blackmen are Allah (a`udhu billah!). If a person doubts that such a belief is blasphemy, then that person himself would be a blasphemer. And the core of Farrakhan’s blasphemy is not only that he believes that Allah is collective of human beings, the core of his kufr is that he believes Allah is a spatial entity of some sort. And as Farrakhan is a disbeliever for such a belief, so are, for example, the Wahhabis for believing Allah is a spatial entity of some sort.

Likewise, by not clarifying the matter of takfeer (the rules related to deeming someone a disbeliever), it opens the door for all sorts of deviants to claim that they, too, are Muslims, such as, those who claim that polygyny is evil, that the Sacred Law does not recognize legal differences between men and women, that homosexual practices are allowed in Islam, that those who reject Prophet Muhammad (which by implication implies Allah has lied (a`udhu billah)) will attain salvation and bliss in the Hereafter, etc. However, when Muslims learn the basic rule: anyone who rejects what is commonly known and well-established in Islam can’t be considered a Muslim (for they have not submitted to what Islam teaches), then the limits between Islam and disbelief are clearly marked in a Muslim’s mind.

Furthermore, when one learns about apostasy, he knows that the indulgence in general sin does not render a person a disbeliever. It renders him or her a sinful Muslim. And general sinning, such as, not fasting Ramadan, eating pork, or selling alcohol—-even abominations like those just listed—does not take one out of Islam UNLESS, the person deems the sinful acts Islamically permissible (because deeming such acts permissible entails belying Islam and what the Prophet taught). However bad things may get in his (or her) life, the person can still hang on to the belief in the Oneness and Perfection of Allah and the belief in the miracle performer who taught that belief and the Sacred Law we should follow (that is, the Prophet Muhammad) and the person will still be a Muslim and will eventually earn Paradise.

Also, convert Muslims need to be educated early on about the different factions. Clarifying the difference between the Sunni Creed and deviant ideas and sects is not a source of division for the sincere. The sincere Muslim wants the Ummah to be united on guidance and not deviance. Additionally, converts need to be educated in the area of polemics—that is, how to debate and defend Islam, so that Muslims can compete in the marketplace of ideas. The traditional model of Muslims learning the “Five Pillars and Six Articles” (without detailed explanation), the basics of the prayer, the general do’s and don’ts of Muslims, and reading a (mis)translation of the Qur’an will not equip a Muslim with the means to defend himself in an overwhelmingly secular society.

Lastly, there has to be recognition that Umar Lee was very right regarding the area of social criticism. We need to build social institutions that are responsive to the Muslims—especially needed are institutions responsive to the needs of convert Muslims. Issues of race/racism, color-caste, class, marriage, and family have to be candidly discussed. Not discussing these issues isn’t going to make them go away. Instead, we as Muslims, as many a convert is told, should have the confidence that Islam does, indeed, have the means to address the society’s problems. We just have to sincere in our endeavor to learn and follow the guidance of our Prophet (salllallahu `alayhi was-sallam).

1Ilmul-Kalaam is the system the Sunni scholars used for explaining and defending the Muslim creed by using not only Scriptural proofs from the Qur’an and Hadith but also rational proofs that can be demonstrated independent of the Qur’an and Hadith.

https://twitter.com/Face2Floor

Lost in America

Lost in America

God-willing (now according to some, that’s a problematic phrase), this is the last post today on the various cess-poolians. According to the site:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/muslims-have-a-problem-uncle-ruslan-may-have-the-answer/2013/04/23/d8975c18-ab68-11e2-b6fd-ba6f5f26d70e_story_2.html

Boy, oh boy…. The author is Asra Noomani. She calls herself “married” to a non-Muslim man. She deems such “marriages” legitimate. Here is more about her: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asra_Nomani. As for the article, you have the uncle (apparently) getting disturbed at his nephew for saying “in-shaa’ Allah.” It says:

“Earlier, Tsarni had told the Associated Press: “When I was speaking to the older one, he started all this religious talk, ‘Insh’allah’ and all that, and I asked him, ‘Where is all that coming from?’” Insh’allah is the Arabic phrase that means “God willing.”

What Tsarni is admitting is something true but politically incorrect to talk about: the increasing use of these phrases of religiosity are code inside the community for someone who is becoming hardcore. It doesn’t mean that they’re becoming violent or criminal, but it’s a red flag.”

Subhaanallah, if a Muslim merely speaks like a Muslim, and says “God-willing” (because none of us know the future) about an event that he would like to see happen, then this is a sign that the person is “becoming hardcore?!?” This is what i mean by the LIS (Lost Immigrant Syndrome). It is people like this that will push ignorant but earnest Muslims into the camp of the extremists.

Now there is a problem of radicalization, as i mentioned in the last post. But what Asra means by “radicalization” is that if a Muslim prays at a mosque where the men and women do not line up next to each other, or don’t allow a woman to be the prayer leader for the general Friday communal prayer, then this is an indication that these people are “fundamentalists” and potential terrorists. Typical of these radical-apologists, they do not discuss the THEOLOGY that lies at the core of the Wahhabi deviance. The reason they NEVER discuss such is that the apologist-Munafiqs don’t want to expose the utter absurdity of their doctrine. These apologist-Munafiqs are typically abysmally ignorant of Islam, but have a handful of talking points that they know they can bring up to attack Muslims on and get a pat on the head from their anti-Islamic bigot masters.

On an almost side note, it disturbs me when you have people portraying those who do not believe the standard corporate dominated media’s as being “kooky conspiracy theorists.” It is disingenuous to pretend that certain security agencies have not encouraged acts of violence. COINTELPRO is a clear example, and more recently was the first World Trade Center bombing. As for the case with these brother, i am not saying they didn’t do it or they were not acting alone, but at the same time, it wouldn’t be very prudent to believe everything that comes from the mainstream media outlets, either.

Lastly, this goes to show all the more why Muslims who have learned the traditional Islamic sciences need to be involved in producing articles and books and addressing these issues. If we do not stand up and clarify these matters, then, these deviants will be more than willing to speak in our stead. May Allah grant us the courage and wisdom and to always be sincere in obedience.

It’s the THEOLOGY, Stupid

It’s the THEOLOGY, Stupid!

Although i don’t like the title of the article, and it should be known that so-called “Muslim Matters” is a Wahhabi site and part of the Al-Maghrib Wahhabi roadshow syndicate, this article makes some good points, but fails (not unsurprisingly) to address the real issue at hand:

http://muslimmatters.org/2013/05/02/8-reasons-i-dont-feel-gulity-abou-the-boston-bombings/

Let me get this straight. I’m an African-American male, and i don’t expect that people will ask me to apologize for the 70,000 or so murders black males have committed in the past decade (and many of those murders committed in the name of some sort of distorted sense of “blackness”). Likewise, i’m a Muslim, and i don’t feel guilty about each egregious act that is done in the name of Islam. I condemn the acts, as Islam commands, and i condemn those who engage in such acts (as we shall see) and, God-willing, i try to keep it moving.

Regarding the article, the author attempts to address those accusations that Islam is synonymous with “terrorism.” Of course, the term “terrorism” is itself an extremely loaded appellation. (You have currently a woman who allegedly offed a cop 40 years ago on the top of the Terrorist List: http://concreteloop.com/2013/05/awareness-angela-davis-speaks-on-assata-shakurs-fbi-terrorist-status .It should be enough for one to do a little research on COINTELPRO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO) to see that some might want to apply the term “terrorist”—without a long stretch—to the very organizations who label others as such.) None of this is to say that terrorism, however one wants to define it, committed by (self-identified) Muslims isn’t a very real problem for Muslims (and everyone else).

Radicalization is a serious concern. This shouldn’t give a person the impression that the masses of Muslims in America will become extremists or even a substantial minority, but the acts of a few individuals can cause much death and destruction. So in this regard, Muslims need to stop playing pretend about the number of Muslims involved in terrorist events in the US.

As for Tamerlan’s radicalization (and i am just going by what is the mainstream version of events from the corporate dominated media), it seems that he had been suffering from LIS (Lost Immigrant Syndrome). His folks brought him to America; he apparently had little religious training before arrival; he tried to fit into the mainstream of American society; he realized how shallow and vapid it all is, so, with the prompting of his mother, he started to become “religious.”

He apparently was not an emasculated metrosexual, but instead was a warrior type of guy. He became socially conscious of the condition of the Muslims around the world and the injustices they faced. Hence, he decided to attack (fellow) Americans to exact what he probably would’ve considered “revenge.” This is the problem that results when Muslim youth are not trained properly in their religion—either, they remain in a permanent state of arrested development suffering from the wannabe “Lost Immigrant Syndrome,” or they very frequently start to develop extremist sympathies… or worse. If he had learned properly and been mentored, then he would have been directed to transmute his frustration and anger into mastery of the self through the acts of worship, character development, and asceticism. His zeal to defend Islam would have been directed to learning the religion and polemics and organizing and educating Muslims and non-Muslims about the religion. He would have known that murder is haraam, and in Islam it is not the position of a citizen to declare war upon a government because he is not pleased with some of its policies.

In brief, what Tamerlan allegedly did is not justifiable in Islam. Period. Muslims condemn terrorism—after all, most of the victims of quasi-Islamic terrorism are Muslims. When it comes to stopping radicalization—and this is something the Muslims, indeed want—the leadership that claims to represent the Muslims in the West very frequently obfuscates the matter at hand.

Whether or not much of the Muslim world were under a virtual siege by the Transnational Corporate Consumer Military Industrial Mega-State, there would still be the internal problem of extremists. Although, the quasi-traditionalists can produce dozens of fatwahs (Islamic verdicts) citing proofs from classical and contemporary Islamic sources rightfully condemning terrorism, they almost altogether fail to mention the THEOLOGY that is behind this extremist ideology.

A few months ago, i posted this link the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xv90ENbnyA which (apparently) shows the Australian preacher advocating the Wahhabi corporeal doctrine of believing the Creator has a foot. The Muslim belief is that this universe could not by itself produce itself—it requires a Creator. The Creator existed before the creations. The Creator is not an object or temporal entity. And after the Creator originated the universe, the Creator did not transform into a body or a spirit or any other sort of spatial entity and materialize inside a place or a direction. Allah exists without a place. This is the Muslim belief; to believe otherwise is a nullification of basic Islamic tenets: i.e., the Creator ABSOLUTELY does not need or resemble any of the creations.

It is this doctrine of literalism regarding the Creator, which has led the Wahhabis to pray to a giant (imaginary) bipedal extraterrestrial shadow-casting object with smiling face, two hands, and a single leg. This is the result of reading the Qur’an and Hadith while ignorant of the depth of the Arabic language, Islamic doctrine, and the rules of reason. And it is this absurdly literalist interpretation of Islamic Scripture and Sacred Law that has led to the Wahhabis (quasi-Salafis) thinking that their acts mayhem and of murder are part of Islam. It should be of no surprise, then, that Tamerlan seems, according to the media, to have liked the so-called Sheikh Feiz.

From its inception in the mid-1700′s, the Wahhabis of central Arabia have posed a threat to social order. Then, as now, the Wahhabis (quasi-Salafis) have been notorious for their rape, plunder, and massacre in the name of worshiping a hideously deformed anthropomorphic imaginary creature that lives above their heads. We see these events playing out in Pakistan, Mali, Somalia, Syria, Libya, Iraq, and elsewhere. Wherever one sees terrorism committed in the name of Sunni Islam, one is going to see the influence of Wahhabism. And this Wahhabi terrorism is motivated by a methodological approach that is rooted in their gruesome `Aqidah (theology).

If the quasi-traditionalists were TRULY interested in preventing radicalization, then they would educate the Muslim masses and general public about the differences between the Muslim belief in God and the creed of Wahhabism. These quasi-traditionalists would expose the Wahhabi leaders, their books and websites, and make them outcasts and pariahs… but instead, these quasi-traditionalists invite Wahhabi speakers to their events and sit on panels with them… to talk about everything BUT the matters of doctrine (which is the root of the Wahhabi justification for terrorism). The reality of the matter is that the quasi-traditionalists are not interested in defending Islam, they, like the Wahhabis have their own agenda, and it is not for the betterment of the Muslims or the society at large.

A couple of other links on the Wahhabi menace:

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/understanding-the-link-between-the-wahhabi-doctrine-and-terrorism-part-1-of-2/

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/addendum-why-we-warn/

A Walking Contradiction

A Walking Contradiction

Like i said, i’m on a roll today (maa-shaa’ Allah):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ali-a-rizvi/an-atheist-muslims-perspective-on-the-root-causes-of-islamist-jihadism-and-the-politics-of-islamophobia_b_3159286.html

I once before encountered someone referring to themselves as an “atheist-Muslim.” It’s long, but in summary, it is the pretty standard attack against religion. According to the atheists, if people stopped believing in religion, everyone would just start getting along. These guys have a very peculiar line of reasoning. They will start to say that we need to recognize that all humans have the same rights (… and who gave humans their rights?). But what if some people refuse to recognize that all humans have the same rights (anyway, the secular supremacists don’t believe in “equality”—as the gender segregation in professional sports and the prison systems readily demonstrates… the secular supremacists believe in something other than “equality”). What if some people decide that other select groups of people aren’t really human after all and don’t deserve “human rights?” Furthermore, who’s going to enforce these values and laws… and how are they going to be able to do so without the threat of violence?

He goes on to condemn terrorism in the name of Islam, and he condemns Islam b/c some terrorists use “Islam” as a justification for their terrorism. And then he mentions that Islam is bad because Muslims do not reject that there are circumstances in which Muslims may engage in armed struggle for their religion. Again, another line of odd reasoning. Secular humanism has come to dominate the world order largely by MASSIVE AMOUNTS of violence and lies and propaganda. Their regimes were largely founded on violence and suppression of opposition. Simply consider the number of deaths in the name of various secular ideologies in the 20th century (doing this off the top of the wig):

WW I: 15 million
WW II: 40 million
Stalin/Communist USSR: 20 million
Mao/Communist China: 60 million
US in SE Asia: 3 million

The numerous proxy wars the major secular regimes sponsored throughout the so-called developing world led to tens of millions of other deaths. Also, these secular regimes don’t have a great deal of tolerance for those places that don’t accept multi-national consumer-cult values. And they certainly don’t have any love and tolerance for those states that do not accept corporate cleptocracy and banksterism. Also, ask one of these so-called Muslim atheists, how much money does, for instance, the US spend on the military (you can’t rightfully call it “defense” spending) each year? Given that there is no country in the world that can come close to invading the US, then what’s the purpose of all those weapons? Those weapons aren’t for spreading, love, peace, and random acts of kindness across the earth.

Lastly, according to the secular supremacists, human beings are merely masses of breathing flesh that are the accidental result of an evolution that evolved itself… by itself. There is no Afterlife (according to them). We live. We vainly attempt to gratify our innumerable and growing desires. We get old, and trying to fulfill those desires becomes even less plausible. And then we die, and become worm food and compost. Since (according to the secularists) life has no real purpose, then what difference does it make if they eliminate a few million or a few hundred million breeders or breathers from the earth (or if some non-secularists does it for them)? If there are fewer people, then the living won’t have to share as much, and they will presumably have more opportunities to (vainly) fulfill their desires… which, according to the secularists is the ultimate purpose of life anyway.

The fact is we have an Eternal, Omnipotent, Incomparable, and Transcendent Creator—the universe did not accidentally start to produce itself before it was existing. The Creator created life and made human beings the crown of creation—if they fulfill their lofty potential, which is to submit to and worship the Creator. The Creator gave us Sacred Laws by which to govern ourselves and prepare for the stages of existence after life on this earthly plane. Abiding by the Magna Carta, European Constitution or other man-made laws is not going to save one when he (or she) is in the grave, but if one follows the Sacred Laws of the final Prophet, Muhammad, with perfect sincerity, then one will attain ultimate success in this world and what is to come thereafter.

May Allah grant us piety and the blessed endings.

Filthy Fitnah #4 The Plan

Filthy Fitnah #4 The Plan

Too cold (in May!) to sit outside and get some Journal writing done, so i may as well go ahead and deal with these deviants. Firstly, this weekend Timothy Winters, has (apparently) given in to the homosickuals. The implications here are SERIOUS. This may just be a trial run by the homophiles, however, it is clear where this thing is going.

1) The homophiles will start doing their research on (self-identified) Muslim leaders (in particular, the so-called “moderates”) seeing if they can find any statements from them condemning homosickuality. Inevitably, they will find such statements—or at least find speeches or books where these quasi-traditionalists have praised the scholars of Ahlus-Sunnah… and it is well known that these same prominent scholars of Islam hold the consensus that homosickuality is an abomination, and the punishment for the sodomites is well known. The sickos, will then push these quasi-traditionalists into a corner asking the quasi-traditionalists, do they agree with what these so-called “homophobic” scholars say about homosickuality… or do they agree with what the Prophet said about homosickuality. Allah knows how they will attempt to slither out of such a situation… if they try at all.

2) When the extremists (meaning the genuine extremists, not someone who merely speaks out against those who lust for other men’s solid waste eliminatory outlets) see that these quasi-traditionalists are doing, they will attack them (at least verbally, if not otherwise), and the fellow quasi-traditionalists will be coming to their brethren’s aid trying to explain away, or defend, or otherwise confuse the Muslim masses/youth (and general public) about the Islamic position regarding homosickuality.

3) This is perhaps the gravest danger: given the recent (and condemnable) Boston bombing, Muslims will be held under greater scrutiny. There will be a (alleged) search for the roots of radicalization. Either the homophiles or the Islamophobes will propose the idea that one of the indicators of an “extremist” Muslim is his or her position on homosickuality. Then they will parade out some of the Pink Crescent Munafiqs (http://www.advocate.com/news/news-features/2011/10/11/pink-crescents-being-gay-and-muslim), who will say that the Qur’anic Verses and Hadiths and the Scholarly Consensus about this abomination have all been misunderstood for 1,400 years, and it is only the extremists (or potential extremists) who actually believe in them the way they’ve been understood for 1,400 years.

This has such serious implications, b/c we are talking about many cowardly self-identified Muslims deeming the haraam (forbidden) to be halaal (permissible) in order to keep their jobs, their “friends,” or just to be “accepted” by the secularists. And those genuine Muslims who refuse to blaspheme and wish to hold on to their Imaan will be deemed extremists, terrorists sympathizer, and the likes. God-willing, what needs to be done is for Muslims to develop counter-arguments to this madness, not so much to try to persuade the homosickuals/homophiles (b/c they tend not to be an honest or reasonable group of people—they simply have an agenda they want to push) but to reach the legions of people in the West who feel that there is something wrong, if not insidious, going on with this push to normalize homosickual behavior.

Filthy Fitnah Part 3: Timothy Winters (apparently) Gets Punked

Filthy Fitnah Part 3

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/douglas-murray/2013/05/why-has-abdul-hakim-murad-not-been-sacked-by-cambridge-university/

Now that Timothy Winters (aka Abdal-Hakim Murad) has now (apparently) knelt down to the homosickual lobby we can now anticipate that other quasi-traditional apologists will slither into the slime-light to come to his defense. They are using a deceptive argument:

1) They mention the general Islamic position that if a Muslim has the inclination towards homosickuality, but he (or she) suppresses the thoughts and the desires, then they are rewarded for that. That’s fine.

BUT….

2) Although these quasi-traditionalists tend to mention that it is forbidden (usually not in the most straightforward manner)… they don’t clarify that it is among the worst of the abominations, that has severe consequences in this life and the Hereafter.

—It is important to note that the homophiles are not just content with Muslims saying we will allow someone with homosickual inclinations into the mosques (as long as they don’t attempt to engage in such behavior, or worse, deem such behavior permissible). The homophiles want Muslims to say that homosickual behavior is legitimate AND THAT IT IS WRONG to say that it is a deviant/sinful behavior.*** In other words, they want Muslims to say (a`udhu billah) that the Prophet was wrong in what he conveyed—and that is absolute blasphemy.

3) These quasi-traditionalists (who are suppose to be the leaders of the Muslims in the West) are SILENT about the homosickual agenda. They mention the case #1 above but it is devoid of the larger social context: you have VERY POWERFUL interests in this society who are trying to make the acceptance and love for homosickuality/homosickuals mandated by law. (Given that one of the headquarters of quasi-traditionalists is in the Bay Area (in other words, Sodomite-Central), it is not likely that we are going to hear from them a clear cut stance against the homosickual agenda.)

Furthermore, the homosickuals are not trying to change adult Muslims, who have some degree of Islamic knowledge/identity. Their target is the Muslim youth. The Muslim youth are growing up in a time, where (for many of them) their identity is inextricably related to the mass media/pop culture. Therein, homosickuals run amok. And now, even the pro-athletes are coming out in favor of homosickuality. For these alleged leaders to be silent about this fitnah… b/c they are too afraid to take a stand or lose their university position, this reflects their fraudulence and their level of corruption. Our Deen is based upon being MEN/WOMEN who stand up for the Truth and enjoin good and forbid evil with wisdom. May Allah grant us that.

***Intentionally belying the Religion is itself blasphemy, for it entails rejecting what Allah has revealed.

Filthy Fitnah (Part 2)

Dr. Ben gits punked:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbBib1HmLNY

More obfuscation from the homophiles. The Doctor observes that if homo-”marriage” is made legal, it is a slippery slope for all sorts of other perversions (that was CLEARLY his point with his comment on “The Hannity Show”) becoming legal and demanding the “right” to call themselves “married.” How can it not be? Why restrict the alleged right to marriage only to normal oriented people and homosickuals? From a secular supremacist perspective, what’s wrong with a guy gittin’ down with his deceased lover (at least for a few days before the corpse gets a lil too rancid… but then that might be a turn on for some people)? What’s wrong with an exhibitionist gittin’ down with his jacks and billies (donkeys/goats) publicly at the state fair? What?… Are you going to JUDGE people and be INTOLERANT of other people’s alternative lifestyles?!?

Then you have Wolf, got the SMACK DOWN by David Duke, Blitzer (perhaps, it was Dave’s tearing Wolfie a new one… well i won’t go there: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbBib1HmLNY) acting “shocked” that someone would mention homosexuality and bestiality in the same breath. He (the guy who got ripped a new one by Davey D.) goes on to say that no one is suggesting that illegal behavior be made legal… but uh,… homosexuality was ILLEGAL not all that long ago and was considered a MENTAL ILLNESS. It was the homosexuals who pushed to change the laws and have reclassify homosickuality as something “normal.”

Similarly, this interviewer acts “shocked” when Jeremy Irons just follows the push for so-called “marriage equality” to the next step: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6eESTwC9OQ. What is the rationale (in this Brave Twisted New World) for preventing the widower from marrying his eighteen year old son? You have dad, he’s diggin’ his son’s solid waste eliminatory outlet, his son digs that dad digs his solid waste eliminatory outlet… they are consenting adults… they can’t breed (with each other)… who’s to judge? Some folks will say, “Well, that’s sick, that’s unnatural.” And, that’s what folks not too long ago said about the folks prancing around at the homo-parade in San Francisco.

Now here is a response to the Iron’s interview from a little South African tinker bell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhklkdIJp4s

This is typical of them. They like to ridicule those who don’t agree with them, because they know deep down inside they are a sick and warped people. They can’t actually debate what the issues are. They just use ridicule, and when ridicule doesn’t work, they use intimidation to suppress dissenting opinions (so much for the “tolerance” these perverts supposedly espouse). At least this Indian train wreck of a human being is honest about the homosickual agenda. It has nothing to do with “rights.” It’s about a bitter and hateful people wishing to subvert the society:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=n9M0xcs2Vw4

What you have is a group of people (homosickuals) who have no moral compass. Many of them like to be “avant garde” and “cutting edge” and always feel compelled to “push the fold” to attack the conventional moral standards of the society. These are a people who do not believe in limits (Ya Lateef it’s enough to google “gay parade” images and see WHAT A VILE, FILTHY, DESPICABLE group of people they are… and this is what they want for YOUR CHILDREN). They are a very miserable lot. They have to lie to themselves and lie to others that what they are doing is perfectly normal… and they have to lie about their agenda. They hate people with families and children… they themselves were often abused and molested by perverts when they were children, so they clearly don’t want what is best for others.

I will say this AGAIN: Brothers and Sisters in Islam, PLEASE do not underestimate the evil of what is taking place. Please have the courage and the wisdom to take a stand against this madness!

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

Dr. Ben Carson On Gay Marriage – Compares It to Bestiality and Pedophilia

http://www.youtube.com

After newfound conservative “folk hero” Dr. Ben Carson lumped pedophiles in with same-sex

A Response to the Homosexual Fitnah

A Response to the Homosexual Fitnah

I wrote a response here (had to tone it down some) regarding this homosexual fitnah that is engulfing this society:

http://www.suhaibwebb.com/ummah/community/gay-muslims-the-elephants-in-the-prayer-room/

Here’s the response:

Several things need to be sorted out here. One, it needs to be made abundantly clear that homosexual acts are strictly forbidden in Islam. Sodomy is an enormity. This needs to be said and stated clearly and unambiguously, for there are people with agendas who are in the name of “tolerance” trying to alter the Sacred Law and deem the haraam to be halaal.

With that said, the person who merely has a homosexual inclination has to repress it (just as the normal healthy male has to suppress his lustful inclinations for females he’s not married to). This struggle against the base desires is something all of us must struggle with. In that sense, the one with homosexual inclinations is like everyone else: we all have to resist our repulsive desires.

As for the person telling others, the general rule is that we don’t tell people about our sins. It isn’t wise to go around telling friends that you lust for members of the same sex. Instead, the one with homosexual inclinations needs to find a learned, pious, and wise Muslim who knows how to help heal the heart and seek advice. And it is better when seeking advice to use the third person (like to say: “What would you suggest to the young man who has homosexual proclivities?”) without mentioning the one who is actually afflicted with the disease.

Also, we should keep in mind that there are very powerful interests that are trying to impose the normalization of homosexuality upon Muslims. These people are NOT content with Muslims saying that the one who has homosexual inclinations is not sinful as long as he does not allow himself to have homosexual fantasies, or desire to act upon those fantasies, or engage in such an abomination. They want Muslims to deem that homosexuality is “Okay,” and that the punishments prescribed in the Deen for homosexual behavior are either due to fourteen centuries of misunderstanding what the Prophet taught—or they wish to have Muslims deem that the Islamic punishment for homosexual acts–as taught by the Prophet–are “barbaric.” May Allah protect us from kufr!

On the whole, we see the Muslims have been ominously silent in condemning the homosexualization of the the society. It is only a matter of time that the acceptance or condemnation of homosexuality will be the litmus test (by the secular supremacists) to determine whether or not one is an “extremist” Muslim or a “tolerant-progressive” Muslim. And we can imagine Muslims apostating en masse over this issue (by deeming the well-known haraam to be halaal). The homophiles want your kids, and if we do not develop clear and cogent arguments against dangers of the the homosexualization of the society, we place our survival as Believers here in jeopardy.

Lastly for those afflicted with homosexual feelings, the most important thing is not to deem these feelings to be legitimate. You have to fight yourself. Do not place yourself in circumstances in which you will feel aroused; if you do feel these desires, occupy your mind with something useful, like reciting the Qur’an. Remind yourself that this life is short and we must struggle against our base inclinations and the insidious satanic suggestions. The one who succumbs to them will get what he (or she) deserves in the Afterlife.

Also, be sure to eat from the halaal, eat very little meat, sleep less, and get up at night to pray. God-willing, with striving and sincerity, you will get relief from this trial. Allah is the One Who controls the hearts, and Allah is the One Who turns our hearts from the reprehensible to the rewardable. It’s all easy for Allah.

(Kinda wonderin’ if they took the title from this blog entry: http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/the-elephant-in-the-mosque/)

Quotation 57 Of Thought and Purpose

Quotation 57 Of Thought and Purpose

“Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment. With the majority, the bark of thought is allowed to ‘drift’ upon the ocean of life. Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction.”

—James Allen

https://twitter.com/Face2Floor

http://inthisjournal.wordpress.com/

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

Quotation #56 Of Castle Building

Quotation #56 Of Castle Building

“If you built castles in the sky ; your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now, put the foundations under them. “

—Henry David Thoreau

This is among my absolutely most favorite quotes in all of English literature… in my favorite book of English (American) literature.

https://twitter.com/Face2Floor

http://inthisjournal.wordpress.com/

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

Quotation #55 Of Liberating the Mind from Negativity

Quotation #55 Of Liberating the Mind from Negativity

“Clear your mind of can’t… because Allah can.”

               —Samuel Johnson/…Brother Ali (Gill–and not the rapper)

Some Comments:

More often than not, we do not endeavor to do great things–or even take the first steps to self-rectification–because we assume that we can’t or we won’t be successful.  As Willie says: “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”  Do not betray yourself.  Do not squander this life’s opportunity to strive to attain righteousness.  God-willing, we must break the barriers of self-imposed limitations.  That is done through personal exertion and having the yaqeen (certitude) that there is only One Creator.  Our past does not create, nor do our present circumstances, nor do our worries and concerns that we project about the future.  Relinquish that and free your soul.  What’s done can’t be undone.  If you sinned, then repent, and rely upon the One Who knows the outcome.  Have the himmah (resolute spiritual ambition) to aim high, and when you think that you’ve aimed as high as your dreams will allow, aim even higher, for only Allah creates, and we are rewarded for our (good) intentions.

https://twitter.com/Face2Floor

http://inthisjournal.wordpress.com/

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

African-American Exodus Part 5: Another Response

AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXODUS Part 5: Another Response

[This is a response to a college student and Brother named, Sid.]

SID SAYS: [I made adjustments to the paragraphs so they would be easier to read.]

You say we should separate from black culture and create a new Muslim one. Even if we did hypothetically do this we would still face discrimination from fellow Muslims. We cannot ignore the significant racism against blacks in the Muslim world. Look at the way blacks are treated in Iraq, Look at what happened in Sudan, in Libya to those black immigrants. Non of those people are criminals or lack morals and are in fact Muslim for the most part. Anti-black racism is not based solely on behavior. Racial supremacy belief systems in all its forms is based on irrationality, and is a sickness whether it is white supremacy, Arab supremacy, Asian supremacy, etc.

Even when blacks were mostly law abiding and church going we were still being lynched, and getting busted upside the head for having the audacity to be born a certain color. If all blacks woke up as Obama clones tomorrow racism would not disappear. The behavior of many blacks is disgusting, but that does not justify oppression whatever it is institutional racism, prison industrial complex or just bigotry on an individual basis. Also the poverty and poor education breeds ignorance. During the late 19th century and early 20th century those Irish and Italian immigrants living in ghettos of major cities were very criminalized and engaged in plenty anti-social behavior and were considered scum. They were able to assimilate into mainstream culture due to their white skin as they intermarriage and mixed with others of European descent.

Black people are at the bottom economically; morally and in every way imaginable because that’s the way the system of white supremacy wants it. Of course we are also responsible for going right along with it, happy to get a welfare check and some malt liquor and a bag of dope off the corner. But again if a woman goes out dressed half naked at night alone and gets raped, yes she is stupid but that does not justify the rape. Just as many blacks enjoy the ignorance and are happy to feed the prison system and have sex with any and everybody, but that does not excuse those at the top profiting and setting the stage for this behavior. I’ll end by saying this the Pre-Islamic Arabs were some of the most lewd and morally reprehensible people on earth yet the calling of Islam transformed the entire Arabian peninsula in a few short decades. I will never give up on the people of descended from, even if it is a losing battle I have to try. Some of these young punks on the street could be the next Malcolm x or a great Islamic scholar, but more realistically the next you or me.

 MY RESPONSE:

Good stuff, Brother. I appreciate the feedback. African-American Muslims have no choice but to develop a new culture. There is very little that an observant Muslim has in common with contemporary black culture. The two rarely intersect. Simply consider the values of Muslim culture (and I mean observant God-fearing Muslims and not the clowns behind the counter at the corna sto’). Our heroes are taken from the Qur’an, the Sunnah, the learned and righteous Muslims who strove against their base desires, opposed the satanic suggestions, worked to rid themselves of attachment to this fleeting world, and courageously stood up to enjoin virtue and oppose evil sincerely for the sake of the One, Perfect, Incomparable Creator of the universe. This is who we are (or should be). Aside from the matters of Creed, can you name a representative of black culture who does the aforementioned? Who is condemning gambling, alcohol consumption, pornography, and fornication? These people (that is, the representatives of black culture) can’t even condemn homosexuality. In all honesty, what do we have in common with them?

As for the existence of racism, I do NOT deny its existence—or its pervasiveness in the general society or amongst Muslims. But it should be evident that the racist derives some sort of pleasure and (temporal) benefit from it. If he didn’t, then he wouldn’t be a racist. That being the case, why should a racist want to change—if we leave out other than having a Religious motive? I do censure racism, but I also don’t do the pity-party victimization thing, for I feel the latter has been more deleterious to black folk than the former in the past few decades.

Other than my educating fellow Muslims about the pernicious effects of racism and to remind them to fear Allah, what more can I do for them? Racism is a disease of the heart that is rooted in arrogance. It was this arrogance and racism that led Iblis to commit the first blasphemy. Iblis felt inherently superior to Adam because of the substance from which he was created, and this led to him objecting to the Commands of Allah. Furthermore, the Prophet said: “He is not one of us [i.e., among the righteous Muslims] who calls for ‘asabiyyah‘ [unjust tribal solidarity/support--and its natural extensions of racism and nationalism].” The train wreck of a mess that the Muslim world is currently in has been caused by no small part by this asabiyyah. Lastly, if someone detests me because of my complexion, I am not sinful. If someone harms me because of my race, and I am patient with that, I earn reward, and the one who harms me unjustly only earns sin. I don’t lose because of racism. The racist is the loser.

In the past when blacks in the South were openly and legally being persecuted by white racists, the black people resisted by demonstrating a level of discipline, organization, and character that earned the respect of many whites and others. They demonstrated that they could be the MORAL SUPERIORS of white racists. So it was their (relatively–i’m not talking about their bad beliefs or whether of not one agrees with absolute non-violent resistance) good BEHAVIOR that led to what has to be acknowledged as a social revolution in this country in less than 20 years. If the Civil Rights leaders had been thugs and goons talking about pillaging white businesses and raping white women, there would have been another Civil War in the South, and the blacks would not have turned up on top.

If black people concentrated their energies on producing a generation of unified “Obamas” (again, I am not talking about all his policies or his character) instead of aspiring to play basketball and rap, or crying about racism, you would have hundreds of thousands of high-functioning black men who could dominate, or at least be disproportionately be represented in the institutions of power. This is a page from the playbook of the upper level Jews. Although the Jews were hated by the white Gentiles, the Jews saw to it that their children were highly educated and went into fields of study and careers that enabled them to have influence on American finance, education, media, and culture far beyond their relatively small numbers. Jews saw to it to gain power—in spite of the racism and bigotry they faced—and as a result they are respected, or at least not openly hated. Blacks could have done the same… the problem was/is in their low functioning culture.

I want to reiterate, I am not defending the militarized prison industrial complex. As a Muslim, I judge matters according to Islam. If people are governing by other than Islam, then it is naturally expected that the institutions they build will be unjust. Furthermore, these institutions make phenomenal profits from ignorance and human misery. They have little incentive to change. And their changing would require a massive restructuring of the economic infrastructure of the society. In brief, I don’t expect anything from them, and that’s why I don’t focus (as much) on them.

On the other hand, don’t black people have an incentive not to be on the bottom of the social hierarchy?  How much money and time would it cost for black people to stop… drinking alcohol, buying drugs, rap CDs, spending money in strip clubs, on rapper costumes, on spinny rim thingies, etc.? How much government investment would this take, and how much time? Of course, it require none and could be done IMMEDIATELY… and for free. When the Divine Revelation came down about the prohibition of alcohol, the Muslims IMMEDIATELY stopped drinking and poured it out into the streets. The problem here is that you have a culture that is predicated on immediate self-indulgence and denigrates delayed gratification. You can’t talk about reforming a culture if its ethos doesn’t value self-control.

We must have a nuanced approach. Muslims do need to reach out to the poor, the dispossessed, and others. Some of those people may embrace Islam and become among the luminaries of this Religion.  I would love for that (especially, if i could be among those who guided that person in the initial stages of his journey). Muslims also need to understand the vicious nature of “The System.” For the latter, there isn’t a whole lot that can be done. “The System” is built upon greed and evil. The elite who control “The System” don’t want it to be transformed—so typically whatever changes that do take place, they tend not to be more than cosmetic—like, the election of Obama, for instance. (After all, “The System” is not calling people to Islam, so whatever changes are made to “The System,” they don’t lead to the salvation of people’s souls). Regarding the former, Muslims need to seek those people who SINCERELY WANT TO CHANGE (regardless of their race, class, social background, or previous religious affiliation). When you have a growing number of people who are serious about obeying Allah, then you can develop a new collective identity and culture based on taqwa (piety). And when you have a critical mass of pious people, then you can effect genuine and positive change in the society.

African-American Exodus: ‘It’s the Media’

It was said:

<<<“idiots like lil wayne now define blackness because of the media, black people do not control the media. Followers of lil wayne help fill prisons, so it is good for business. There are many intelligent black men and women around with thoughtful and insightful things to say, but they will never get the exposure and catch the eyes and ears of the masses.

This same media has made Islam a religion of terror and Muslims savages in the minds of the masses. ‘The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.’-Malcolm X”>>>

I think it is important to address some of the points that the Brother has raised. As for the argument that the “media” is what makes black people look bad this is the standard claim of those influenced by Cultural Marxism (keep in mind that it is one of the premises of Cultural Marxism that “victim” must NEVER be responsible for his reprobate behavior). (Chris Rock explains part of the reason why the problem isn’t actually the media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SylmnrJXaHM –warning: profane language.)

For one, as we mentioned elsewhere, in Islam the person who follows another in misguidance is still responsible for his own behavior. On the Judgment Day such a person will not have the excuse that it was “my friends, family, the media, the society,” etc. that caused me to sin. When we do a voluntary deed, we EARN that deed and are ACCOUNTABLE for it—regardless of what those around us are doing (or not doing).

It is not merely “the media” that portrays black culture in a negative light—it is black culture that portrays itself in a negative light… and it is the media that is normalizing black urban jungle jahiliyyah culture (J-Hill) and making it look hip and appealing (especially to those who are the intellectually and/or morally challenged). Just ask this girl here at the 0:30 mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SylmnrJXaHM.

If the media portrayed Chinese American culture in the same manner inner city black American culture is portrayed, the stereotypes would simply not match up to reality. A visit to Chinatown is in no way similar to a visit to “Blacktown” (or the “Hood”). White suburbanites (or black suburbanites) can safely stroll through a Chinatown on a Friday night, and aside from the occasional pickpocket, they usually have nothing to worry about. Let the same walk through your Blacktown on a summer eve’s Friday. In New York City, for instance, Asians make up 12% of the population… but commit approximately 3% of the murders. Blacks and Latinos, on the other hand, commit NINETY PERCENT of the murders in NYC. That is, the blacks and Latinos are about three times the population of Asians… but commit THIRTY TIMES more murder. (Aside: the “racism” argument can’t work here, for all three groups are racial minorities.)

The media stereotypes of black people stick because they pretty much conform to experience. Seventy percent of black children are illegitimate (with considerably higher (if that’s possible) number amongst the urban jungle J-Hills). The murder rates, well I just mentioned above for NYC. Nationwide, black males (of all ages) make up 6% of the population… but commit 40% of the murders. We can go on about the high school drop out rates, or absence of black males on college campuses. This isn’t media distortion, these are on the ground facts. What you have is a culture in a state of disintegration, and the sooner African-American Muslims realize this and make a hijrah (emigration) from that culture, the wiser and the better.

As for blacks not controlling the media, well why don’t they—or at least have a greater share of media control? Jews are a considerably smaller minority than blacks (about 2.5% of the population versus 12%), they have been historically discriminated against, and yet, their high level influence in the media is indisputable. Why don’t black people pool their resources and develop their own media networks that feature more than singing, dancing, and grown men chasing balls? We all know the reason why. We are talking about a low-functioning (dysfunctional) culture. When BET (even the acronym is dubious, isn’t it?) was black owned, its primary fare was music videos, church shows, and Negro college sports, and a very small number of shows with political pundits. Could you imagine a network called “Muslim Entertainment” and half or more of the programming containing hijabi women rump-shaking? Muslims wouldn’t make excuses for a woman doing such—they wouldn’t TOLERATE such behavior. Again, different cultures have different values… and some cultures are superior to others.

There is no doubt that there are intelligent and high-functioning black people out there… but they aren’t the driving force of the culture. The trends today in black culture come from the gutter-folk and not from the bourgeoisie. Furthermore, in many ways, the values of the two are not all that different. Granted, the latter are more functional and condemn murder, at least, but they still indulge in drugs, drunkenness, materialistic ostentation, lewd music, fornication, and homosexuality (just consider the “morals” of the typical black fraternity).

It’s beyond self-evident that much of this “black entertainment” is corporate psychological warfare designed to perpetuate (and propagate) black pathology. However, if black folks were concerned about their self-destructive portrayal in the media and its influence on their children, in particular, then there would be a greater collective effort to encourage black people to leave television, radio, and music alone altogether. And they could stop watching TV, going to the movies, listening to the radio, and music for… FREE. But we all know that would entail coming to grips with the stupid impulsive nafs-driven nature of black culture… but a culture that is predicated on immediate self-gratification isn’t going to advocate discipline. It should be clear that a people who lack self-control and common sense will be dominated by those with more discipline and intelligence. That’s the way of the world.

As for the portrayal of Muslims in the media, it is not the same as the portrayal of African-Americans. The portrayal of Muslims as terrorists is simply a distortion of reality. If we accept the corporate controlled standards of terrorism (and put aside regimes that spends hundreds of billions of dollars annually on instruments of warfare) then we can say that most terrorists are (self-identified) Muslims… but those terrorists, it has to be admitted, make up a minuscule portion of the Muslim population. There is no place in America that is considered a “hotbed” of Muslim terrorism. However, when it comes to the “hoods” across America, they are known as hotbeds “black terrorism” where murder and other violent crimes are daily occurrences. People (other than your hardocore Fox News devotees) do not live in constant fear of “Muslim moments” or even “terrorists moments,” for they are few and far between. However, those who live in the hood, or have to work therein, should be concerned about “Nigga Moments:” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhgwy9y5ttA because they happen not infrequently.

The number of people in the US who have died at the hands of Muslim (or at least those who self-identify as “Muslim”) terrorists since since 9/11 has been fewer than 100—that is, fewer than 100 in a decade. Now if we include 9/11, which was a “once in a century” kind of event (and for the time being we accept the standard corporate narrative) we are still looking at fewer than 3,500 people. This abominable crime was committed by (if we accept the standard corporate media narrative) 19 men, in a network that has (or had) a few thousand members (globally) of a people (Muslims) whose numbers top a billion.

In six months, black males commit more murders than in the nearly 90 year period (1882-1968) of white-on-black lynching (3,400). In the years since 9/11, black males have murdered approximately 70,000 people (there is no mistake with the 0′s), that is, about 25 times the number of people killed on 9/11. Another way to think about it is that black males in America commit more murder in a week (more than 125) than quasi-Muslim terrorists do in a decade. If we wish to talk about the terrorist events overseas, this can be ascribed largely to political instability and that these people believe they are fighting for the sake of God—in asymmetrical wars against invaders with far superior technology (it’s enough to compare the military budget of all the Muslim countries combined with that of the Pentagon to see what I mean). As misguided as many of these people are, they do believe they are fighting for higher principles: they are fighting against invaders and people who wish to spread their decadent culture into their societies. Now when Pookie murders Kool Aid for stepping on his shoe in a nightclub, what “higher principle” does he kill him for (even in his drug distorted mind)?

Also, Muslims have for CENTURIES been speaking out against and condemning Wahhabism. It has been Muslims who have suffered disproportionately at the hands of these (and other) radical extremists. The reason why terrorism has been able to spread in the Muslim world, is that there has been a negligence of MANY Muslims acquiring traditional Islamic knowledge and understanding thoroughly the matters of `Aqidah (Islamic Doctrine). This is our fault—and not the fault of the “white man” or the “Zionists” or the “Crusaders.” Furthermore, Muslims—meaning the vast majority of us—do not embrace “Terrorist Life” as something “cool” or “trendy.” And again, when these extremists do what they do, they are typically attempting to resist occupational forces. When our black goons commit murder, they are not fighting against the symbols of “capitalism,” “racism,” or “oppression.” They are typically killing each other in the name of ignorance, stupidity, impulsiveness, and clear-cut criminality.

Another point to consider is that Muslims, unlike black culture, have clear moral standards by which to judge. What makes one person superior to another not his color, ancestry, ethnicity. It is his (or her) moral standards and adherence to them. What are the sources of black morals today… besides the media, the street corner, and the cell block? The Negro Church (which itself is part of the problem with black America) is not the propagator of black values that it once was, and its influence—and certainly the values it once preached—are rapidly waning in significance.

How can black culture be improved when it has no interests to rectify itself morally? Black culture is not calling to the end of alcohol and drug consumption. It does not reject degenerate music and movies. It DEFINITELY does not condemn fornication. It has become increasingly atheistic/Satanic and also sympathetic to homosexuality. What part of a culture is salvageable when it not only rejects morality but works to undermine it?

As for Muslims, we have our share of issues personally and collectively to deal with. But we also have very clear standards by which to judge our behavior and others. We accept and tolerate what Islam allows. We condemn and reject what the Islam does not. Muslims have a clear solution to our problems: we have to overcome our laziness, learn our Religion properly, and put it into practice earnestly. Our values don’t change because some inebriated tatted-up simians get on stage promoting something to the contrary in a rap “song.” If some—or many—Muslims are influenced by such people, the Islamic judgment remains the same. The haraam (prohibited) remains such regardless of what the media and its minions say. And likewise, the virtuous remains such, even if the media and the dumbed-down masses ridicule and berate it.

God-willing, what will happen (and is happening) is that you will find black PEOPLE—individuals, not black culture, for the culture is done—who are FED UP. They realize that there has to be an alternative to what has become the “norm.” Life has to be more significant than “baby momma drama,” “dope boys,” “the latest track dropped,” “smoking blunts,” “drinking malt liquor,” “goin’ to the casinos,” etc. It is the duty of the Muslims to find these people. It is our duty to enjoin the good, forbid the evil, and provide that alternative (some) people are looking for. We must unite with sincerity, while educating and showing people the superiority of life lived as righteous Muslims. This means that we must produce a NEW culture in this society—a culture that has not been seen before. We must produce a culture that transcends corporate constructions of race, and establish that the basis of human excellence is obedience to the Creator of the universe.

https://twitter.com/Face2Floor

http://inthisjournal.wordpress.com/

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

Quotation #54 Of the Black Solution

Quotation #54 Of the Black Solution

“The black man in the ghettoes, for instance, has to start self-correcting his own material, moral, and spiritual defects and evils. The black man needs to start his own program to get rid of drunkenness, drug addiction, and prostitution. THE BLACK MAN IN AMERICA HAS TO LIFT UP HIS OWN SENSE OF VALUES.”

Those aren’t the words of some racist Rush Limbaugh fan, or some shuckin’ and jivin’ Uncle Tom Reverend Hamhock Negro. Those are the words of MALCOLM X. Malcolm and others did not struggle and strive and put their lives on the line so that cretins like this would “define blackness”:

Quotation #53 Of the (Current) Black Condition

QUOTATION #53 Of the (Current) Black Condition

“The last few decades have witnessed nothing less than a breakdown of civilization within the African-American community. This breakdown is characterized by extremely high rates of criminal activity, by the normalization of illegitimacy, by the predominance of single-parent families, by high levels of addiction to to alcohol and drugs, by a parasitic reliance on government provision, by a hostility to academic achievement, and by a scarcity of independent enterprises. Civilizing institutions such as small business, the church***, and the family are now greatly weakened and in some areas they are on the verge of breaking down altogether. The next generation [which is this current generation] is especially vulnerable. The crisis is privately acknowledged by black scholars and activists, who discuss it incessantly among themselves.”

—D. D’Souza (The End of Racism)

I have to say that his book was the most comprehensive and thorough books i ever read on black folks in America. His criticisms are (for the most part) cogent and indisputable. He injects a level of objectivity (and intelligence) that is often lacking on the topic of race in this country. His writing style is engaging, as well. It’s worth the read.

***As for the Negro Church, granted it has been a bastion of blasphemy and has contributed to the deep-seated sense of inferiority that came from worshiping the image of a white man, the Negro Church was a major civilizing element and organizational institution for African-Americans in previous generations.

https://twitter.com/Face2Floor

http://inthisjournal.wordpress.com/

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXODUS (Part 3: A Response to a Young Black Man)

AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXODUS (Part 3: A Response to a Young Black Man)

A person named “Sid” responded to the “African-American Exodus part 2.” He said:

Assalamu alaykum. As a 24 year old African American convert from Chicago, I agree a culture of ignorance has been promoted and permeates within the African American community. you are also correct that a large number of blacks like it that, but there are also a large number who want to do better and have done better. I for example am college and carry myself with self-respect and dignity. I think people must be judged on the individual merits of their character, even if the culture they have ascended from is unsavory. If we are going to judge based on culture we could judge Arabs since their countries have bred extremists and pushes Wahhabism. We could judge south Asians for the fact the Hindu caste systems has seeped into their culture. It is true that African American Muslims must rise above the culture of the black underclass, and many of us do. The same can be said for many Muslims around the world and their ignorant cultural practices.

My response (with some additions):

Wa `alaykumus-salaam, Sid,

I am happy to hear you are doing well for yourself. I TOTALLY agree with you, my Brother. On the Judgment Day, we will be judged by our own individual merits (or lack thereof). But the fact of human nature is that people will be judged by others according to the “tribe” and the culture that they apparently belong to.

Let me make myself clear: I am not saying that MOST black males are murderers or that all black people indulge in debauched lifestyles. The real issue at hand ARE THE TRENDS. The standards of behavior that are tolerated/accepted/promoted in the black community have clearly deteriorated in the past 50 years. Simply reflect on how the attitude towards homo-sickuality has been radically transformed in one generation. Just consider the practice that black people had of “sending away” their young daughters who became pregnant with illegitimate children. Black folk did this because of the stigma associated with out-of-wedlock pregnancy. This practice also served as a deterrent to others not to get knocked-up out of marriage. Nowadays, black folk hold baby showers for fornicatresses, and the single (never married) mother is touted as the epitome of the (allegedly) “strong woman” and the “pillar” of the black community.

This social dysfunction has largely come from the bottom up. You don’t find the black underclass imitating the (black) valedictorians graduating from elite colleges. Instead, you will find many of the black youth from solidly middle and upper middle class backgrounds imitating the goons on the street corner. The (allegedly) “authentic” black experience today isn’t embodied by the class of people that Martin Luther King or W.E.B. DuBois belonged to. The “authentic” black experience today belongs to pimps, strippers, rappers, and dope dealers.

The issue isn’t whether or not ALL black people—or even most black people—live such lifestyles. The issue is: given the current trajectory and degradation of black moral/social standards, will not pimpin’ and “ho-strollin’” just become a part of the mainstream black culture (as the tolerance and even defense of homo-sickuality has become)? The question is: Where is this thing going? As Muslims, should we not be able to anticipate these trends? And should we not enjoin the virtue and condemn vice?

African-Americans spend more time speaking out against those who are guilty of racial stereotyping than speaking out against those who ARE the racial stereotype. The stereotype of the ignorant, stupid, impulsive, violence prone, black thug is not a mere figment of the white America’s imagination. The body count in America’s inner cities clearly demonstrates that “stereotype” has a lot of reality to it.

Again, this is not to ignore influence of the media promoting this degenerate gutter “culture” (but then, if black folk are so concerned about how they are influenced by the media, then they shouldn’t watch TV or listen to music—that’s an easy no cost solution to media influence). Furthermore, there some real nasty institutions that make beau coup bucks off of black pathology (think: the prison industrial complex). But as we know, those who follow the purveyors of evil will not be excused for their behavior. The blame game won’t work on the Judgment Day. We all will be brought into account for what WE did. As for those who invite to evil, they will be in double jeopardy. They will be accountable for the sins they committed AND the sins of the ones who followed them in that evil… without lessening the sinfulness of the followers. This is the Justice of Allah.

It is pointless—and not manly—to keep asking people not to be racist against us. Remind folks that racism indicates a defect in the character and understanding, and that racism is an enormity. It was the arrogance and racism of Iblis (Satan) that led to the first incident of blasphemy. However, after offering the reminder and advice, we have to “keep it moving.” Get educated, have good manners, obey Allah, and focus on (humbly) surpassing others in doing virtuous deeds. Build families and institutions that reflect those values, and God-willing, people will find it difficult to be racist against us. This is our job. We need to role up our sleeves.

Also, if African-American Muslims develop a culture that is distinct from the black underclass, we can provide an ALTERNATIVE to those many black people (and other people) who are FED UP with what has become increasingly “black culture.” This can be, in-shaa’ Allah, our gift to black folk and to America.

As for other cultures being judged by their misfits and extremists, there is not a whole lot i can do for them—other than strive to educate people in the matters of the Religion. What we can do is demand higher standards from them—and from us. And it would be wise for us to take the initiative in this endeavor.

https://twitter.com/Face2Floor

http://inthisjournal.wordpress.com/

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXODUS (part 2)

AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXODUS (part 2)

(This is a response to someone regarding my first post on the “African-American Exodus.”)

Brother, the post did not get past the censors (at the Wahhabi site called “Muslim Matters”). I’ve had this discussion before with this woman. In essence, from what she says, she was traumatized by racism at the mosques she went to when growing up. That’s understandable. The problem for these people is that they don’t seem able to see black people (meaning the culture and values of a very large portion of urban blacks) through the eyes of immigrant Muslims. If a considerable percentage of the black people you encounter are crude, have no manners, no morals, have illegitimate kids on the regular (70% of all black children are illegit—with a considerably higher percentage in the hood), are criminals and borderline criminals, are irrationally impulsive and the smallest perceived slight can lead to an episode of life threatening violence, etc., it would be (normal) human nature not to look up to such people. You will want to stay away from them… and you CERTAINLY wouldn’t want your kids associating with such people, and DEFINITELY you don’t want your daughters marrying them. That’s not “racist”—that’s common sense.

What this pathological underclass class attempts to do is run the guilt-game on immigrant Muslims, but it just doesn’t work, because these Muslims have nothing to do with American slavery (and anyway, slavery isn’t haraam). You don’t have Affirmative Action in Islam. You can guilt trip the liberal whites, but for an immigrant Muslim who has come from REAL CRUSHING poverty or war, he considers that the American black has it real good here with all sorts of guvmint handouts and special programs FOR BLACKS. The majority of this pathological underclass doesn’t take advantage of the system (to improve their lives—not just sustain their get-over welfare lifestyles) because, and this is what the libs can’t understand: THEY LIKE IT THAT WAY. Again, simply look at the lifestyles of the well-to-do rappers and many black athletes. After they get rich, they don’t become humble contributors to civil society. They just have more money to indulge in their nafs-driven degenerate lifestyles.

The problem doesn’t stop there. When you see virtually NONE of the black leadership willing to stand up to this nihilistic hip hop culture (they call this corrosive crap the “art form” of inner city youth), or the plague of fornication/illegitimacy, or the homo-sickos, ad nauseum… no—when you see the black leadership DEFENDING this clearly anti-social culture, then you can conclude that these people like it that way and don’t want out. The blacks who do speak out against this menace to society are called “self-haters” (the author of the article, by the way, tried to seal off any criticism by dropping a variant of that phrase in the article).

None of this lets the prison-military-industrial complex, or the genuine white racists, or the immigrant Muslims with their need-some-couch-time color/racial hang-ups off the hook. But if you are soooooooooo concerned about others looking down on you, then don’t give them an excuse. If you don’t want to be stereotyped… then don’t be the stereotype—and don’t defend the stereotype. There was a time when a considerably larger number of African-Americans lived by the adage, “If you are black, then you have to be better than everyone else.” What’s wrong with that? Instead of asking people to tolerate (or indulge in) your current pathological state, why not focus on developing a culture that surpasses others in, let’s say, learning and education, manners and morals, hard work and thrift, self-control and self-denial? This has certainly worked for the East Asians and is within reach of practically all black people. We know the answer: this class of people (as a rule) does not want to improve—it’s very existence is predicated on degeneracy. Also in Islam, we do recognize the significance of class (and I don’t mean only income—i mean CLASS).

If you doubt what I am saying, today is Friday: go to what they call the Ay-Rab corna-sto’ and suggest to the patrons that they shouldn’t purchase malt liquor from the proprietors of that premise (or any other premise), and they should not indulge in fornication, and it would be a good idea not to listen to rap music. It matters not how humble and sincere you make such a plea, you will put your physical being at risk. Again, foul people like living foul.

If the average black person you encountered was like a Barack Obama (and I am not talking about his policies or details of his personal life—i mean that he is apparently well-mannered, intelligent, well-read, well-spoken, and socially functional) would there be such an (very often) open disdain for the African-Americans among the immigrant Muslims? NO! The reason why African-Americans are looked down upon is not merely because of racism, it is “behaviorism” and the culture they choose to identify with. Although there isn’t much people can do to change their race, they can totally change their behavior and their self-identified culture—and we know on the Judgment Day we will be judged for the latter two and not the former.

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

African-American Exodus (part 1)

AFRICAN AMERICAN EXODUS (part 1)

(I’m not trying to promote the Wahhabi site called “Muslim Matters,” but i felt that it is important to address this attitude of Black Apologists who simply refuse—at all costs—to really at the condition of African-American CULTURE and why other ethnic groups and cultures look down on black folk. Also, i think that my post will get censored.)

http://muslimmatters.org/2013/02/04/you-deserve-racism-because-youre-corrupt/

There is a difference between racism and “culturalism.” It is one thing to have disdain for a group of people because of their physical features, and it is another to have disdain for a given culture. Hating someone for their physical features is wrong. Hating a reprobate CULTURE is commendable.

Black ghetto culture isn’t something to be envied, admired, or romanticized about. It is enough to consider that black males (of all ages) constitute 6% of the population but commit 40% of the murders. In Chicago, for instance, blacks and Latinos commit NINETY-FIVE percent of all murders. (That means the 55% of the rest of the population commits 5% of the murders.) Folks can talk day and night about racial bias in prison sentencing and powder versus crack cocaine laws, but the ineluctable fact remains that African-American males commit an astronomically disproportionate amount of violent (and other) street crimes. One need not go any further than the murder rate in the black ghetto culture to demonstrate how despicable it is.

What is particularly dangerous is that those higher up the social food chain are normalizing—no, glamorizing—this degenerate culture via the media. The toxic nature of this stupid nafs-driven ghetto culture not only has infected a whole generation of African-American Muslim youth who happen to live in lower income minority neighborhoods, but this degenerate culture has also contaminated Muslim youth who would have normally had no connection with said culture.

Also, one should keep in mind that many of these black ghetto denizens actually LIKE IT THAT WAY. It is not just a matter of “poverty.” Simply consider the lifestyles of many rappers. Some are relatively to very wealthy… yet, they still live degenerate lifestyles. It isn’t poverty that makes them live in such manner, it is the state of the heart. Foul people like living foul.

As for conversion rates, as black culture slides deeper into the nihilistic abyss of hip-hop with its acceptance and normalization (and promotion) of drugs, alcohol, fornication, single mother homes, and now even sodomy and lesbianism, one (Allah knows best) can anticipate that there will be fewer and fewer African-American converts to Islam, for someone who has grown up on hip hop and Cultural Marxism simply cannot relate to Muslim values.

As for those AA who do convert, if they do not make a CLEAN BREAK from this ghetto gutter culture, then they will only breed children into dysfunctional pathological homes, in which, the children will typically be ignorant of the Deen and caught up in the web of ghetto life. It is the duty for African-American Muslims—those serious about their Deen—to declare (figurative) war upon this degenerate culture before it further contaminates the society and the Ummah.

Coming to America

A lil Ole Schoole flow for the folks at the “Corna Stoes”:

COMING TO AMERICA

Liquid-drug-truck deliverin’ death in front of your shop.
To the walkin’ horizontals it’s their “legal” narcotic.

As for you–false hopes got you caught up and cuffed–
To a register you strive to keep ill-bill stuffed.

Chasin… dead Masons:
While your children’s flesh flourishes foul from the haraam–
Feedin’ Muslims and Non- at the noon of Ramadan.

Sellin’ the hit-in-the-head–and even the hogged out bacon.
Satan’s got you constantly calculatin’ the filthy faloos you be makin’.

Ignorant, immigrants dealin’ ill with the native urban savage:
Slingin’ lotto, porn, swine and wine–takin’ advantage–
Of the lost and poor–whose own affairs they can’t manage.

So wuthcha doin?–Instead of Deenin’ ‘em up–you’re tearin’ ‘em down.
But what goes around comes around.
Behind the counter shot dead in the head found.
By many, it might not seem PRO-found:
Simply the consequence of being a slave-to-self and dunya bound.

WELCOME TO AMERICA!!!

https://twitter.com/Face2Floor

http://inthisjournal.wordpress.com/

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

 

 

Message to a Confused Blackman in America

Message to a Confused Blackman in America

Recently I posted: http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/the-african-american-muslim-in-2013-part-1/, which in part, discusses the importance of African-American Muslims learning traditional Islamic knowledge, and in particular, the matters pertaining to Sunni Doctrine. I posited that if African-American Muslims learn the method for explaining `Aqidah as taught by the leading Scholars of Doctrine (the Maaturidis and Ash`aris) then this will grant them intellectual clarity, and enable them to get past emotional arguments and personality cults. With such knowledge, they will be able to evaluate ideas, individuals, and groups in a rational manner consistent with the teachings of the Qur’an and the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam).

This knowledge is called “`Ilmul-Kalaam.” Regarding `Ilmul-Kalaam, however, there are two types: that which was used by some blasphemous factions to try to give “logical” support to their deviance, and that which was employed by the Sunnis to counter their misguidance. On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who oppose both legitimate `Ilmul-Kalaam as used by the Sunnis, and the illegitimate use of the science. The opponents of both types of `Ilmul-Kalaam are typically the mujassimah, that is, whose who believe that God is an object or spatial entity of some sort.

The most prominent contemporary incarnation of the mujassimah (among those claiming to be Muslims) is found among the Wahhabis (quasi-Salafis). Given that believing the Eternal Creator of the Universe has a giant smiling face, a shinbone, but one foot, two eyes, fingers, and casts a shadow is ludicrous, and is rejected by common sense, it should surprise none of us that the quasi-Salafis hate for the Sunnis to use `Ilmul-Kalaam. After all, anyone trained in Sunni `Ilmul-Kalaam can immediately see the absurdities of the Wahhabi doctrine and can easily refute it.

What is the core of `Ilmul-Kalaam? It is a system for explaining and defending the correct belief in God using both Scriptural and rational proofs. It is NOT philosophy but is based upon the principles of the the Qur’an:

1. Allah is the Creator of everything (13:16/39:62). That is, all that exists other than God is a created by God, whether it be the entities or the actions, feelings, thoughts, intentions, etc. of those entities. Allah is the Creator and everything else is a creation.

2. Allah absolutely does not need or resemble anything. (29:6/112:2 and 16:74/42:11) Since God existed before the universe, God is not dependent upon the universe—or any aspect of the universe. Allah existed before space and time; hence, Allah is not dependent upon space or time. Allah exists without a place, and Allah is not subject to time, change, or age. Likewise, since Allah is the Creator, and everything else is a creation, Allah is categorically different from everything else. Allah is not an object, image, or any other kind of spatial entity. Whatever one imagines, Allah is different from that.

From these two premises (clearly derived from the Qur’an—and NOT from philosophy), the Sunnis refuted the likes of those who denied Allah is the Creator of everything and rejected Destiny (Qadar), as well as, those who resembled Allah to the creations and claimed God exists in a place or direction. No reasonable and sincere person—who takes the time to understand the Sunni method of explaining Doctrine—is going to object to our argument that God is Unique, and that God alone deserves to be worshiped. This is what I am advocating for African-American Muslims (and all other Muslims) in their approach to understanding Islam.

Nonetheless, on one social media site, I found an objector. I won’t mention his name here—we’ll just call him Mr. Confused. He launched into a tirade about how African-Americans don’t need to follow Arabs or other foreigners to practice Islam—we already have our “great scholars.” Although my initial post focused on using universal creedal matters to distinguish the proper method from the erroneous for understanding Islam, this confused man turns the discussion into an anti-Arab diatribe. He perfectly makes my point that African-Americans need to get beyond emotionalism and judge matters in a cool, calm, rational fashion—and that `Ilmul-Kalaam would give African-Americans the means to do so. This person, not being a student of `Ilmul-Kalaam, shoots off one silly, contradictory, non sequitir argument after another. Let us now examine a few.

This person is from the “Madhhab” of W. D. Mohammed. Now to be fair, it seems that in his last few years, W.D. rejected much of the deviance that he promulgated for most of his life. He did encourage some of his followers to go overseas and (apparently) seek traditional Islamic knowledge. And W.D. was dismayed at the end of his life with the leaders and “Imams” in his organization for not continuing to grow and acquire traditional knowledge. What Mr. Confused defends, however, is the “paleo-madhhab” of W.D. and not what is ascribed to him at the end of his life, and this is what we will respond to here.

Mr. Confused says that African-Americans should not learn about Islam from Arabs. Perhaps, it doesn’t occur to him that the VAST MAJORITY of the Companions were Arabs, and the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) himself is an Arab. Now, if he wishes to claim that all the Arabs went astray, then it begs to question who has preserved Islam down through the centuries and what was their method for doing so (aside: I’ve posed this question to other of the same sect and never got an answer).

Mr. Confused rehashes the same tired argument that many of the older followers of the WD assert. They assume that none of the African-American Sunnis have any familiarity with black history and the struggle of black folk in America. Personally, it was my study of Afrocentricity, BLACK NATIONALISM, and African history that generated my interest in Islam. I was longing for African-Americans who could teach Islam IN A BLACK CONTEXT—dealing with black issues. I came to Sunni Islam AFTER being influenced by Malcolm X, Farrakhan, the 5%ers, Malachi York, and the “Nation” (of so-called Islam). I became a student of traditional knowledge not because my (later) teachers were Arabs, but IN SPITE of them being Arabs (My first teacher was black and the next was “white”–so I thought (he was part white and later I found out he was also part Bengali). It was only after knowing these Brothers for almost two years that I found out that their Shaykh was a black man from Africa.)

The reason why I didn’t join a black (quasi) Islamic organization is because, I could not find one that could answer the questions I had about God, the questions I had about spirituality and mysticism, questions I had about the different factions claiming to be Muslim, nor could they answer questions I had about history and how do we know that a given person is actually following the teachings of the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam)?

I didn’t reject Farrakhan/the “Nation” because they were black, but because I could not buy into their belief that Fard Muhammad was “Allah in person.” I rejected Malachi York not because he was black, but because he never made it clear about what befits Allah and what does not—that’s aside from all those blasphemous images in his books that claim to be of the Prophets (but they all look like him with different hair styles). Again, I did not reject the 5%ers because they were black—to the contrary, I was fascinated by their (pseudo) scientific talk. I rejected them because it was hard for me to believe that such low life people could be “Allah” (a`udhu billah!). Even with my rudimentary understanding of Islam, I knew that the core of the Muslim belief is that there is only one God and not hundreds of millions of (alleged) Gods.

I was hoping (back in the day) that WD, having renounced the blasphemous belief of God-incarnate that his father (la`natullah `alayh) promoted, would be a true representative of Islam—and would deal with issues relevant to me as a young black man. Having the background I did with black nationalism, I wanted “an Islam” that would talk about ethnicity and identity; that would discuss the legacy of slavery on the black psyche; that would discuss the servile mentality of some African-Americans in relation to immigrant Muslims; that would discuss the colorism and racism many immigrant Muslims felt towards blacks, and the stultifying inferiority complexes they felt around whites. WD did discuss these things… but….

…But there was no clarity about the matters of Doctrine. I read his articles, his newspapers, his writings, and talked with his followers. What I found was a mass of confusion (and no, it ain’t b/c he and his peeps are just so deep that they can’t be understood). When it comes to general details of `Aqidah, WD’s works are bereft of them. Basic questions I had about matters of Creed could not be answered. It seems that either he was ignorant of or didn’t understand various theological controversies, whether it be about Allah’s Attributes and ta’weel (non-literal interpretation), human will and Destiny, the matter of good and evil, the role of Sufism, the influence of Greek philosophy in the Muslim world, etc. When it came to choosing to learn about the proper belief in the Creator of the Universe and talking about black activism, knowing my Lord took priority.

I had encountered theological discussions in the works of Orientalists (and even in a book by the Wahhabi, Bilal Philips). I WANTED CLARITY. WD’s followers were caught up in the cult of personality, and could not stop talking about how WD is the supposed Mujaddid (Reviver of the Sunnah) of the era. (Actually, Mr. Confused said that WD Mohammed is the greatest Mufassir (interpreter) of the Qur’an after the Prophet.)

Also, there was the issue of history. It was very clear—even in my initial readings—that Islamic learning is from teacher to student via isnaads (chains of scholarly transmission) going back to the Prophet. WD never spoke of such, and I could not find where he had any such isnaad. (It is interesting to note that in one looooong debate I had with another WD follower that I challenged him to list five scholars between 930 C.E. (approx. end of the Salaf era) and 1930 (when Fard Muhammad appears on the scene) who followed his methodology. He couldn’t. I asked him to list three. He couldn’t. I asked him to name one. He couldn’t. That’s because the WD “madhhab” has no connection to the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam).)

What I found with WD was far-fetched fanciful interpretations of Islam. He, for instance, denied the existence of the jinn, because their existence isn’t recognized by mainstream Western science. To the contrary, he said that one would have to be a fool to believe in such entities (in spite of the fact the PROPHET told us about their existence and the scholars devoting entire books to the topic of jinn). WD rejected the existence of the miracles. He said, for instance that the Red Sea did not actually split, but that one has to look into the “symbolic significance” of the term “red” and the term “sea.” This is similar to the claim of the apologists of the early 20^th century, such as, one who claimed that the birds mentioned in Suratul-Feel, were not actually birds, but a virus that had caused the army of Abrahah to die. Such an explanation is not supported by the Mufassirun (Qur’anic exegetes) nor by history.

In reality, WD, hadn’t sloughed off the Isma`ili influences of his father.<sup>1</sup> The Isma`ilis are a notorious sect of Shi`ah who engage in “symbolic interpretations,” numerology, and distortion of Qur’anic Verses—to the point that they denied explicitly clear matters, such as, the reality of the Hereafter. They claimed, for instance, that “Paradise” is living in this world and being free of religious obligations. (This is not a whole lot different from Elijah Poole (WD’s father) claiming that Paradise in not in the Afterlife , but is in this world and being free from the rule of the white man.)

If WD had studied `Ilmul-Kalaam, he could have understood there is a difference between what is impossible and what is uncustomary or unfamiliar. The two must not be confused. Impossible are things like, the daughter giving birth to her own mother or someone drawing a “square circle.” What is impossible is for an infant (or any other object) to become the Eternal Creator. Such things do not have the potential to exist under any circumstances, for they are by their very nature contrary to definition.

On the other hand, the uncustomary refers that which could potentially occur but is contrary to the norm. Believing in the miracles, although they are uncustomary, is not “superstitious.” The miracle is the means by which a Prophet proves his Prophethood. Likewise, believing in the unfamiliar, although we might not have experienced such a matter, does not preclude its existence. For instance, believing the realm of the jinn is not superstitious. (Even back in the day I always found it odd that WD rejected the existence of the jinn but apparently affirmed the existence of the Afterlife when neither are accepted by Western science.) Reason (the sound intellect) says that both miracles and the jinn have the potential to exist (for they are not contrary to definition), and when the report of such comes from a trustworthy source, that is, the mouth of a Prophet whose message has been preserved, then we must believe they are real.

After studying more traditional knowledge, and then returning to WD’s works, the egregious nature of his misguidance became all the more evident. Among his deviant claims is that the person who rejects Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) will attain salvation in the Hereafter. He attempted to justify this blasphemous position by quoting 2:69, which refers to the GENUINE followers of the Prophets of their time. The Qur’an makes it EXPLICITLY clear that salvation is based not only only believing CORRECTLY in Allah, but also in the Prophet Muhammad:

“Whoever does not believe in Allah and His Messenger [Muhammad] is a disbeliever for whom Allah has prepared Hell.” (48:13)

Likewise, there is the saying of the Prophet Muhammad:

“Any Jew or Christian who hears about me and my Message, but fails to accept will be condemned to Hell.” (Related by Imam Muslim)

A simple way to counter this self-professed “Muslim” apologist is to walk him through a series of questions:

1. Do not Muslims believe Allah is truthful in what Allah revealed? [Yes.]

2. Do not Muslims believe Allah revealed the Qur’an? [Yes.]

3. Does not the the Qur’an say that Muhammad is the Messenger ? [Yes.]

4. Do Christians believe Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah? [No.]

Hence, by rejecting what Allah revealed, the Christians are claiming Allah lied (a`udhu billah), and claiming Allah lied is clearly blasphemy.

An untold number of people have gone astray over this misconception that WD actively promoted. (WD’s misguidance on this matter went further. He even claimed that the Christian men could marry Muslim women—despite such a prohibition is common knowledge in Islam.)

When these OBVIOUS errors in doctrine are mentioned to the typical WD member, like Mr. Confused, he pulls out the old canard that African-American Sunnis are a bunch of wannabes enamored with the Arab guys at the corner store selling malt liquor 40 oz. to the natives. There is some truth in this in the sense there were African-American Sunnis who adopted the manners and behavior of their foreign teachers, and in many cases fell out of touch with the condition of black America. So that may be… but…

One: selling swine and wine does not make a Muslim a disbeliever. It is very possible a person may have the correct belief in Allah and in the Prophet, while falling into even major sins. Being guilty of enormities is not disbelief.

Two: The Muslim who engages in enormities is far superior to the one who commits a single act (saying or belief) of blasphemy.

Three: the deviance and misguidance of (many) Arabs does not make the teachings of WD any less blasphemous.

Hence, African-American Sunnis oppose WD’s ideology not because he isn’t a foreigner, but because what he taught opposed the teachings of the Qur’an and the Prophet. Again, as was the point of the blog entry, “African-Americans Muslims in 2013,” for one to understand the different groups and factions out there, one has to take it back to the matters of the Creed. If a person has a blasphemous belief in Allah or the Prophet, then he is not Muslim. Full stop. Period.

Lastly, having the correct belief and studying traditional Islamic sciences does not mean that one cannot address contemporary social issues. It’s simply a matter of setting priorities: we must educate the people about the proper `Aqidah (and warn them about blasphemy) first and foremost, for our salvation depends upon dying as Muslim. BUT we also must deal with the day-to-day concerns and needs of the people around us.

Sadly, many of the VERY legitimate issues that the so-called “Nation of Islam” (and WD to a lesser extent) raised about black America—and the solutions they proposed—were dismissed by Sunnis because of all the vile deviance associated with the Nation’s doctrine. Whether it be the importance of a good work ethic, family stability, diet and nutrition, establishing businesses, opening schools, social services, and farming, the “Nation” was pretty much on point, and it would be prudent to study what they said and what they accomplished, take out the poison, and develop a da`wah that is effective and relevant to the people we deal with. This is the way of wisdom. This is the way of Islam.

1Oddly enough, although Elijah Poole openly insulted Allah by calling God a human (or race of humans, i.e., Asiatic Blackmen) and although Elijah Poole claimed to be a Messenger of Allah after Prophet Muhammad, WD and his followers still bestowed the title “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad” to this enemy of God.

The African-American Muslim in 2013 (part 1)

The African-American Muslim in 2013

Unity vs. Clarity

This is a continuation of the “The African American Muslim in 2012.” It’s just that I ran out of days in 2012 to complete the series. Well, with that said, let’s continue. There has been a long standing idea among African-American activists that religion and doctrine needs to be put aside for the greater good of black solidarity. Granted, sectarianism (among self-identified Muslim and Christian groups) has long been a cause for black disunity and factionalism, this does not mean that black people should ignore the true belief in the Creator. Furthermore, ultimate social unity should be founded upon recognizing the Unity (Oneness) and Perfection of God and not anything less than that.

This should be most evident to the self-professed Sunni Muslim. The Prophet came to unite people under a single—the correct—belief in the Creator. That belief the Prophet called people to is from the revelation of Allah; that creed is clear; that creed is rationally consistent; that creed is intellectually irrefutable. There is One Perfect Eternal Creator, the Creator of everything, Who absolutely does not need or resemble anything. This is the Creed of the Prophet Muhammad and the Sunni Muslims. (For more on the Sunni Muslim belief in God, please see here: http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2012/09/30/a-primer-to-the-muslim-belief-in-the-creator/

Unity of African-American Muslims (and Muslims, in general) is based upon the recognition and acceptance of the the proper belief in God. The sincere Muslim cannot unite in the name of Islam with a person who rejects the correct belief in the Creator. To the contrary, it is the duty of the Muslim to advise such a person to abandon his ill convictions, and to warn others about the devastating consequences of having a bad belief in God.

It is a folly in the extreme to claim to unite Muslims while not clarifying the most fundamental aspect of Islam—namely, the correct belief in Allah. This is especially so when we know doctrinal confusion is rampant amongst African-Americans who self-identify as “Muslims.” One, largely African-American, organization claiming to represent Sunni Muslims, attempts to indulge in such folly. In their mission statement, they claim that they wish to they base their organization upon the teachings of Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama`ah (The Orthodox Sunni Majority). In one article on the site, they claim to “respect the diverse opinions of the great scholars of Islam.” And then they proceed to list not only genuine Sunni scholars, such as, Imam Malik, Ash-Shafi`iyy, and Al-Ghazali, they also list deviants who blatantly opposed the Sunni Creed. Among those listed are:

1. Ibn Taymiyyah (died c. 1328 C.E.): An extremely controversial figure, who was imprisoned multiple times for deviant fatwas (Islamic rulings) and blasphemous beliefs, including: claiming that there are entities that are beginningless; that Hellfire will terminate; that Allah is a giant object with organs and limbs. All of these beliefs contradict the Muslim creed.

2. Bin Baz (died 1999 C.E.) He was one of the main proponents of Saudi-Wahhabism. Infamous for his deviant fatwas (verdicts) as with the Wahhabis (quasi-Salafis), in general, Bin Baz deemed the vast majority of the Sunnis (those who follow the Ash`ari- Maaturidi method of explaining the Sunni doctrine) to be heretics. Furthermore, Bin Baz, like Ibn Taymiyyah, believed that Allah is a giant spatial entity with real-actual body parts. (This hideous belief stems from the Wahhabi distortion of Qur’anic Verses and Hadiths. For more information about the Wahhabi movement, please see: http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/the-difference-between-the-sunni-and-quasi- salafiwahhabi-doctrines/.

3. Sayyid Qutb (died 1966 C.E.): He was an Egyptian who was radicalized, in part because of the white racist treatment he received during his stay in the United States. He became the leader of what is known as the “Ikhwan” (“Muslim Brotherhood”) and turned it into a revolutionary organization that had among its ill beliefs, the creed of the Khawarij. Sayyid Qutb claimed that any Muslim ruler who governs by any judgment other than Islam becomes a disbeliever by doing so, and he must be removed from power. He even went further to claim that anyone who works in the government for such a ruler is a disbeliever, and also anyone who does not rise up in rebellion against such a ruler is a disbeliever. And from these erroneous conclusions, he claimed that it was permissible to murder such people. Such a claim is fundamentally contrary to the teachings of Islam as found in the famous work on Sunni doctrine by the genuine Egyptian scholar, Abu Ja`far At-Tahawi:

“We hold that we must not revolt against Imams (Muslim rulers) and their appointed governors, even if they act unjustly.

At-Tahawi also says: “We do not deem any member of the People of the Qiblah a blasphemer because of a sin, unless he deems it lawful [that is, if someone deems a known sin to be permissible, then they are belying Islam, and this is blasphemy---but the mere indulgence in a sin is not blasphemy].

It is the ideology of the Qutbis (followers of Sayyid Qutb) combined with the doctrine of the Wahhabis that has inspired Al-Qaeda and laid the basis for much of the terrorists activity that is taking place over a large swath of the earth today.

Additionally, Sayyid Qutb claimed that Allah is literally everywhere in all places. This opposes the Muslim creed that Allah, the Creator of space existed before space, and after creating space, Allah did not transform and materialize in a place. Allah knows and has power over everything everywhere. Allah, however, is not a spatial entity. Allah exists without a place.

4. Al-Albani (d. 1999) He was the self-taught, imagined to be scholar of Hadith and another notorious figure among the Wahhabis (quasi-Salafis), who adhered to the corporeal (object) worshiping doctrine of his Wahhabi-Saudi brethren.

Furthermore, the author of the article welcomes those who adherents to the Sunni madhhabs and qualified scholarship, as well as, those who reject the following thereof.

We can see how this attempt at unity is futile from its inception. The Sunnis, who constitute the vast majority of the Muslims and their scholars, do not hold the same belief as the so-called “Salafis” (Wahhabis). Whereas, the Sunnis say that Allah is absolutely Free-of-Need and absolutely Incomparable, that the Creator of space, direction, and time exists without being in space, direction, or time, the quasi-Salafis worship a giant shadow-casting extraterrestrial smiling face bipedal object with a single shin. (The quasi-Salafis come up with such a deranged belief about God because of their literalism and distortion of the Qur’an and Hadiths.) It is not possible for a sincere Sunni Muslim to be Islamically united with the worshiper of a imaginary (or real) spatial entity.

Furthermore, the quasi-Salafis consider the Sunni Majority, the followers of Ash`ari-Maaturidi theology, to be—in the least—heretics in the extreme, and many of the quasi-Salafis consider the Ash`aris and Maaturidis to be kuffar (disbelievers). And of course, the Sunnis, such as, Imam An-Nawawi (who, incidentally is mentioned in the very same article) consider the one who thinks Allah is an object to be a disbeliever. The sincere Muslim does not ignore centuries of Islamic scholarship and the numerous works of heresiology written by the Sunnis to change our position regarding the Wahhabi-literalists and their deviant corporeal doctrine. The bottom line is that the the Sunnis worship Allah, the One Who exists without a place, and the Wahhabis (quasi-Salafis) worship a giant object that is the product of their demented imaginations.

When it comes to Sufism, the organization does not clarify the difference between this genuine Islamic science, and the likes of pretenders to tasawwuf (Sufism). Again, the objective of the sincere is clarity and when one has clarity, one can establish bona fide unity with like-minded people. Among the pseudo-sufis, there are many blasphemous beliefs. The true belief is that Allah is not a “jism”–a spatial entity. Allah is not a solid-dense body; Allah is not a subtle or ethereal entity. Allah does not occupy a location, whether it be a location of the upper worlds, or in all places, or inside our bodies. Allah exists; Allah is not a spatial being; Allah exists without a place. Hence, the claims of some pseudo-sufis that Allah is literal “light,” or that Allah exists everywhere, or that everything is Allah, or that Allah is a spirit that enters the bodies of the righteous are all contrary to the pure creed of Tawheed as taught by the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam). Such beliefs constitute blasphemy, for the person who worships a light, or worships everything, or something that is inside himself or others, would not, in reality, be worshiping Allah. And the one who worships something other than Allah would not be a Muslim.

One cannot help but question the sincerity of those who advocate “unity” over clarity. Why not simply educate the masses about the proper belief in Allah and the genuine Sunni doctrine, and draw the people’s attention to those ideas, groups, and individuals who teach beliefs that contradict the positions of the true Sunnis. It is not difficult to do. There is a single correct belief in God. It is easy to understand and not difficult to explain. When one knows that belief, it becomes obvious why the belief that, for instance, God has limbs and organs or occupies space is wrong and entails blasphemy. For the misinformed person who honestly wishes to follow the Truth, when he hears the Truth, he accepts it, and rejects his previously held bad beliefs, and says the Declaration of Faith (Shahadah) to become Muslim.¹

As for Alladhina fi qulubihim zayghun—“Those with diseased hearts”–they not only will stubbornly reject the true belief in Tawheed (the belief in the Oneness and Perfection of God) when it is presented to them, they will actively oppose it. And for anyone who is familiar with the inner-city quasi-Salafi experience, the Wahhabis have no problem turning to violence to stop those who oppose their “minhaj.” By teaching the true Sunni Creed, one is able to segregate those who sincerely wish to have the proper belief in Allah from those who do not. And it should be obvious to all (who are sincere) that it is not possible to “unite” under the banner of Islam with those who choose to worship an (imaginary) object instead of Allah.

Also, this issue of “uniting” Sunni Muslims with heretics and those with blasphemous beliefs in the name of Islam absolutely disregards the principle of amr bil-ma`roof wa-nahi `anil-munkar, that is, the enjoining of the good and forbidding evil. It is the duty of the Muslim to invite people to the Truth—and not to falsehood and confusion. Our goal shouldn’t be to “unite” with those who have strayed from the Sunni Way, but to advise such people to follow the Truth, and if they refuse, then there should be declarations warning the public about such people’s deviance.

To fail to educate Muslims about misconceptions in creed and warn against those who propagate bad beliefs leads to a “tragedy of errors,” like we see here where a person who is suppose to be a representative of traditional Sunni Islam is on a panel with Louis Farrakhan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AeVFqLjNz8

Louis Farrakhan claims to be Muslim, while also promoting the blasphemous belief that Allah was created from electricity trillions of years ago—and was also born to a white woman in the year 1877. The Qur’an, on the other hand, says that Allah does not have offspring and Allah has no equal and is beyond comparison. (For more on the beliefs of the Farrakhanis, please see this link: http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/refutation-of-farrakhanism-the-so-called-nation-of-islam/.)

Contrary to the claims of one author on the circuit, African-American Muslims do indeed need a more detailed study of the matters of Islamic Doctrine and `Ilmul-Kalam as employed by the Sunnis.<sup>2</sup> `Ilmul-Kalaam is the science by which the Sunni scholars systematized the proofs from the Qur’an, Hadiths, and the rational proofs for the Islamic Doctrine. This was done to expose the fallacious arguments of deviant factions and to demonstrate the intellectual invincibility of the Sunni creed. As a result of the thorough work of the Ash`ari-Maaturidi scholars, the Sunnis at large adopted their method for defending the creed of the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wa-sallam).

The merits of such study are numerous. Studying the details of the Sunni doctrine would encourage African-Americans to think more rationally and be less emotional. Such a study would instill intellectual confidence in a people woefully lacking in it. Also, at a time when religion, in general, is being assaulted by the atheistic claim that belief in God is irrational, the one equipped with `Ilmul-Kalaam can defend the belief in Tawheed with rational arguments—something the atheists claim to respect. A more detailed study of Islamic Doctrine would also connect African-Americans to their intellectual heritage—for the Muslims of West Africa have historically been Ash`aris in doctrine.

Understanding `Ilmul-Kalaam, would make it much easier for African-Americans to give da`wah in a clear and rationally consistent manner. The questions that the typical seeker would ask about the Creator and religion, such as: Destiny, good and evil, human will, and the Attributes of God have been addressed by the great scholars of Doctrine not only with Qur’anic proofs, but also with easy to grasp rational proofs. These rational proofs are often indispensable when talking to non-Muslims about Islam (for they do not accept the Qur’an as a point of reference). Educating African-American Muslims about this knowledge doesn’t “cause confusion”—it causes clarity. With this knowledge, one understands what he (or she) believes, and one can distinguish the rationally consistent belief of the Sunnis from the various deviations in doctrine of the misguided.

Why would someone discourage African-Americans from acquiring this precious knowledge—or at least neglect teaching them it? One, would be groups, like the Wahhabis (quasi-Salafis), who oppose this knowledge because it makes their object-worshiping doctrine immediately appear absurd. As for those who claim to be “Sunni-Traditionalists,” there is a movement going on among them—which seems to motivated largely by the desire to plunder people’s pockets—to avoid going talking about `Aqidah (Doctrine) beyond the most rudimentary aspects. This is done so that there will be no apparent “disagreements” amongst those who have studied the Sunni Ash`ari-Maturidi Doctrine and the likes of pseudo-sufis and Wahhabis. The more speakers (regardless of doctrinal persuasion) at conferences, the more people they can attract. And the more people they can attract, the more money they can make. May Allah protect us from the lust for lucre.

In conclusion, the deplorable condition of the African-American Muslim cannot improve until there is a sincere desire to attain clarity in the Creed. Many African-Americans are simply lazy about the matters of `Aqidah, and don’t strive to put forth the effort to study and get to the bottom of various doctrinal controversies. Many of us act as if there is no way to know the difference between the True Creed of the Prophet and the heresy of deviants. This needs to change, God-willing. And this can change, if a there is a sincere commitment to studying the Sunni Doctrine as expressed by the Maaturidi-Ash`ari scholars. This has been the way of success for the Sunnis in the past, and in-shaa’ Allah, it will be the way to success for the African-American Muslim in the future.

And Allah knows best.

1One becomes Muslim by saying the Declaration of Faith: “Nothing is worthy of worship except Allah. MuHammad is the Messenger of Allah.” This is all that is needed for one to embrace Islam (witnesses or a ritual bath are not required).

2This does not refer to the `Ilmul-Kalaam that was employed by the Mu`tazilah and other deviant factions that was condemned by the early Sunni scholars.

Message from a Mangina

Message from a Mangina

“A male feminist. A man who is overly concerned with women’s issues to the point of complacency or contempt for those of his own gender. ” (From the “Urban Dictionary”)

http://dailynewsegypt.com/2013/01/22/the-great-male-crisis-2/

It is particularly sad and disconcerting to see someone with the name “Mahmoud” producing such tripe. The statistics he produces at the beginning of the article are pretty much in line with what I’ve encountered elsewhere. First of all, I don’t know of any society that promotes “gender equality.” What is promoted is feminism and “selective equality.” That is, equality in areas in which women can compete with men… but not “equality” in areas where women can’t compete with men (such as, in contact sports or in prison cells). However, on the other hand, no such equality is promoted for men in the area or domestic abuse charges, of child custody (women become the primary custodians in the vast majority if cases), or reproductive matters (a woman can have an abortion against a man’s will—but at the same time she can have a baby that she wants—but he doesn’t–and force the man to pay child support on that child). This clearly doesn’t constitute “equality.” It constitutes something else… it constitutes some sort of an agenda. This is the best brief clip i’ve encountered on that agenda to date:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN05DHO9bJw

This is what is really going on here. But of course in those Cultural-Marxist institutes of allegedly higher learning (i.e., indoctrination), arguments that are contrary to the narrative of feminism are labeled “hate speech”… and are not allowed in these supposed bastions of “tolerance.”

As for women dominating in the universities, it is understandable. Much of the primary schooling today is designed for girls. The competitive energetic boy is often seen as a threat, and is given psychoactive drugs. If it doesn’t go to that extent, still many boys grow up in single mother homes and in classrooms dominated by women (and now even the administration is dominated by women). Many boys. simply. tune. out. Also, by the time the guy is college age, he may figure out that something is going with the education/indoctrination system—and things are not playing out to his favor… or even to “equality.”

Also, women are creatures of comfort. They understand that if they go to college and jump through the hoops, then they can get a well-paying job in cozy little office somewhere—no questions asked. That means they can have money and go shopping and buy things at the mall. For men, they usually are only interested in trinkets and shiny little things (or shiny big things) to the extent that they can attract women. If a man can get women without having those shiny things, then guess what? He will not be motivated to go to school or go to work. If there isn’t a moral revulsion against fornication or a sense of the importance of family life, there is no compelling reason for a guy to become responsible.

Dave summarizes this humorously (but vulgarly) in the first 1:40 of this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymNdfdQvdVc

This is the reality of the differences between the genders. No amount of social engineering can change this fact. If there are plenty of easy-access women, there will also be plenty of trifling shiftless men. If you doubt this… then familiarize yourself with the black ghettos in America.

Regarding what the author calls gendercide (a term only a mangina would use such a term), why didn’t women simply stop men from abusing them? If a man threatened a woman, then why didn’t women simply beat the man down? If societies of the past abused women, then why didn’t women seize control of the societies and dominate men (or at least establish “equally-equal” societies)? We all know the response to the those questions… it leads to something that the feminists don’t want to recognize… men and women ain’t the same.

Mahmoud says:

“Highly successful women in Egyptian society are openly talking and lamenting the disappearance of ‘the golden standard male’. Many are now supporting their husbands and those are the ones who have found husbands to marry. Talk to the single ones and you will hear lamentations to no end.”

I’m confident that (many) highly successful males aren’t lamenting about their inability to find wives. Again why is that? Why can’t these “highly successful” women (here, I am assuming he means by “highly successful,” engrossed in money and dunya) find mates? The reason being is that women don’t marry down. They marry across or up. Whereas the “highly successful” male can marry one of his social peers, he can also marry the girl from the village—or the maid. Women—especially “highly successful” ones—find it hard to marry among the socially humble. So much for same-sameness among the genders.

Now Mahmoud, starts heading over the cliff that manginas of Muslim heritage usually do. He says:

“And the men refuse to acknowledge the situation [of the shift in gender roles], insisting on being the decision-makers despite not being the providers, with their authority now entirely founded and dependent on spirituality and religion. In actuality, violence and religion have become their only weapon left.”

There has been a MAJOR failure of men underestimating the threat of feminism. After all, it is difficult to oppose “fair play,” which was the rhetorical platform of feminism. But feminism was never about “fair play.” Feminism was about social subversion, and taking women out of their homes and away from their families, so they could be more easily exploited by the corporate-consumer complex. The other reason why men, at least in the West where fornication is rampant, were silent about feminism was that feminism granted these males easy-access to women. (You don’t bite the hand that feeds you—or lays you.) And now, the men in the West are paying the price. As for feminism in the Muslim world, this is clearly an artificial and alien ideology imposed upon societies by the dominate Western (global corporate) hegemony.

No Muslim can doubt the authority that men have. Male authority—as are all the rights and authorities human beings have—is granted by the Creator of the Universe as conveyed by the Messenger of Allah. No Muslim doubts such is a bad thing. To the contrary, male authority is a good thing. As for violence, again, this mangina doesn’t deal with the underlying issue of why women don’t simply the violence perpetrated against them by men? The answer is obvious: women are in need of the protection of (responsible) men. If the man’s authority is undermined, and if the society is producing a mass of lost, confused, dysfunctional males, you will end up with manginas, and with nihilistic thugs. The nihilistic thugs will attack and abuse women, and the emasculated males, who grew up being taught that men and women are equally-equal, will expect the women to fend for themselves, just as guys would be expected to fend for themselves. (Incidentally, you rarely hear about a guy getting traumatized by a group of groping women on Egyptian public transit.)

Lastly, the author says:

Hence the constitution, where Islamists insist that women obey them in the household. Hence the Salafi [he might mean Wahhabi, but all observant Muslims would agree with this point] preachers who are promoting younger female marriages all the time, just so that they can get the girls out of school and out of competition. And in reality, those are all acts of desperation, of a gender that is losing its dominance globally and is unable to cope with it without violence or oppression that they use religion to excuse. In western countries, men just get depressed.

Following the Sunnah of the Prophet is not an act of desperation. It is the only means of liberation from perilous nature of false worship and misguided man (or woman)-made ideologies. Isn’t it part of Islam that the wives should be obedient to their husbands? Isn’t it part of Islam that people (males and females) are encouraged to get married young? Doing so helps prevent the sort of moral decay we see in the Western societies. Marrying young was, after all, a specific instruction from the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam). Also, why is it necessary to have more and more women in the workforce competing with men and taking their jobs? Let the men work—have the opportunity to be responsible–and let the women be home taking care of the children. This is the way of our predecessors… and as Muslims, we consider those who came before us, as a whole, to be superior to us.

It has to be asked again: why does Mahmoud keep failing to mention the agencies and the ideology that is promoting this “always-equally-equal-sometimes” feminist ideology… and how it is based upon contradictions, lies, and deception? Sadly, lost souls, like Mahmoud, abound in the Muslim world. Instead of following the Sunnah of the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam), they follow the Sunnah of the secularists. Their frame of reference is not what the righteous Muslims say, but what they are fed by their global corporate masters. Feminism is a sham that was—as stated by its founders—intended to undermine society by having women compete with men, instead of men and women cooperating and taking roles that are in accordance with their natural temperaments. Feminism has nothing to do with “truth.” And it certainly has nothing to do with salvation of one’s self in the Hereafter.

 https://twitter.com/Face2Floor

http://inthisjournal.wordpress.com/

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

Quotation 52 Of (Genuine) Education

Quotation 52 Of (Genuine) Education

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to consider a thought without accepting it.”

—Aristotle

 

Alternative Health: The Industry

I am going to stress this again. We need to take more responsibility for our health. A big part of this is changing our relationship to food. That is, we need to see food as our medicine, and not merely something to stuff in our our bodies to indulge the nafs (base desires). Also, it must be understood that there is a system in place that is designed to profit from producing human misery.

First they contaminate the food with all sorts of disease causing fertilizers and pesticides (that’s aside from the genetically modified Franken-Food). Then the “food” is processed and all sorts of chemicals, refined white sugars, excessive salt, and high fructose corn syrup is added. After consuming this mess for years, one almost inevitably starts to get sick, and then they roll out the dope dealing pharmaceutical companies and as they refer to them their “whores” (allopathic doctors) to prescribe their concoctions.

 

The solution is for people to educate themselves and their families and to simply RESIST YOUR IMPULSES to consume this stuff. This mess is BY DESIGN. Simply consider this: if the “medical” industry were about healing people and having a healthy society, it would large put itself out of business… which is something they definitely don’t want to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C42_gnJ3a8&feature=relmfu

Some Food for Thought

Some Food for Thought

It is interesting to note that Israel receives more US foreign aid than ALL OF SUB SAHARAN AFRICA… but Sub Saharan Africa has 800 million people (and about 40 nations)… Israel has 8 (million). That’s means that Sub Saharan Africa has a population 100X the size of Israel. Many regions in Africa are suffering from dire poverty and the HIV/AIDS plague… yet, the Zionist entity gets more money from US citizens. If someone can’t recognize that something is going on here, they probably have been lobotomized.

https://twitter.com/Face2Floor

The Menace of the Feminists

The Menace of the Feminists (Part One)

In light of a recent long drawn out discussion I had about feminism and the dangers that this ideology poses to a person’s Imaan (Faith), I happened to stumble upon the following article this morning (which was being praised by an opponent of Islam):

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20121129/NEWS01/311300074/Feminist-scholar-s-book-hijab-s-rise-earns-Grawemeyer-religion-award

Let’s first get the matter of the so-called Muslim Brotherhood (“Ikhwaan”) out of the way. The primary ideologue of the group was a black guy from Egypt named Sayyid Qutb. He came to America, got called the N-Word more times than he liked, went back home, and began to write books about the decadence of American society. He was not a religiously learned person, and mixed ideas from radical communism with his (mis)understanding of Islam. Among his blasphemous claims was that Allah is literally everywhere. Muslims believe that Allah exists without being in a location, as Imam Ali (the fourth Caliph) said: “One cannot ask about the where [location] of the One [Allah] Who created the whereabouts.” Allah was before space, distance, and direction. Allah is not an object or spatial entity; Allah does not have a size, shape, or dimensions. The Creator ABSOLUTELY does not need or resemble the creations. Whatever one imagines, Allah is different from that.

Sayyid Qutb said disparaging things not only about Allah, he also insulted the Prophets, such as claiming that Prophet Moses was a wishy-washy indecisive person. Perhaps his most notorious innovation (at least on the political/social level, for his blasphemies against God and the Prophets is in reality worse) was the claim that any leader who governs by other than Islam (even in a particular ruling) becomes a disbeliever (kaafir). And anyone who works in the government of such a ruler is a disbeliever, and anyone who does not rise up in rebellion against such a ruler is a disbeliever. This is the twisted “justification” that is used by these clowns the world over to go about blowing themselves and the elderly, women, children, and infants of whatever creed “in the name of ‘jihad’ and Islam.” These people do not represent Islam, and to deem such acts legitimate is in reality blasphemy and renders one out of the fold of Islam.

A little background on feminism…. First of all, many people are utterly inundated by secular supremacist propaganda day and night. The agents at the Ministries of Secular Thought (meaning, Hollywood, Madison Ave., academia, the music industry, ad nauseum) relentlessly pump out the same tired drivel intended to dupe the gullible and credulous. Some of this propaganda is specifically targeted to Muslim women in the West (as we can see in the Rand Report agenda by Cheryl Benard¹) And sadly, many Muslim women have not been trained to analyze and critique the nonsense that these people spew.

Many young naïve self-identified Muslims who call themselves “feminists” typically have no idea what the origin of this ideology is—and I am talking here specifically about the feminism of that started in the 1960′s. It (feminism) had nothing to do with “empowering women” or granting “equal rights” for women and men—much less, adherence to the Qur’an and Sunnah. It’s stated purpose was to undermine and destroy the social order. Feminism is simply one of the weapons of Cultural-Marxism. Some naïve self-identified Muslim women may claim that they will take the “good parts” of feminism and discard the rest. But the underlying principles of feminism not only contradict Islam, feminism opposes and berates what the Prophet taught. Instead, if a Sister wishes to be empowered, she needs to learn her Religion well, and if on some instances Islam and feminism happen to intersect, then so be it.

Okay, now let’s get down to the article. Leila Ahmad (so the article says) was “alarmed” by seeing Muslim women wearing hijaab. Now what devout Muslim is going to be “alarmed” about fellow Muslims obeying Allah? If the person is not a devout (and knowledgeable Muslim) then their opinions on religious matters are immaterial. She then throws around the phrase: “male-dominated fundamentalism?” Now if she provided a legitimate religious critique of the Ikhwan, we could hear her out (but she doesn’t). What this type typically means is that they don’t like the fact that Islam has different laws pertaining to men and women. In other words, they don’t like what the Prophet taught, and in reality whoever doesn’t like what the Prophet taught (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam) is not a Muslim.

The Cultural-Marxists are quick to throw around the term “rights.” …But they never mention who gave humans their rights? Humans couldn’t have given themselves their rights. In reality our rights come from God, and we know what rights we have from God by way of the Prophet of God, Muhammad (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam). This is one reason why Cultural-Marxism/feminism are absolutely antithetical to Islam. Muslims posit that our rights come from the Creator, and the Cultural-Marxists posit our rights come from their social-engineering think tanks.

Consequently, when a Muslim hears a feminists talk about “women’s rights” they need to understand that the feminist means something TOTALLY different from Islam teaches. In the mind of the feminist, women’s “rights” means total “equal-equality” (well, actually selective “equal-equality”). The feminist means that women should have identical rights to the man (well, in those cases when it would be to the woman’s advantage), and not only rights, but that women should, in essence, behave the same as men. However, we all know that the Prophet said one of the signs of the coming of the Judgment Day was the women and men would start to imitate each other—and he cursed the ones who would do so.

Ahmed speaks of a “patriarchal reading of Islam.” “Patriarchy” refers to a social order that is led by men.  This is how the feminists and Cultural-Marxists view patriarchy:

(…So the image says. This is the standard stuff that is fed to young impressionable women on the college campuses in in their “Women studies” courses.)

Patriarchy, however, is the very social order that the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam) commanded. Not surprisingly, this author finds the “Prophet’s reading of Islam” objectionable.

The article says: “Ahmed said she grew up in Egypt in the 1940s when ’90 percent of the women did not wear hijab, not because they were not pious Muslims, but because at that point the hijab was not thought to be a requirement of Islam.’” More Cultural-Marxist gibberish and subterfuge. First of all, it probably wasn’t that only 10% of all Egyptian women were wearing hijaab. She probably means those living in the major cities and were the ones most seduced by European miseudcation/values and the most infatuated with imitating “Massa.” Secondly, wearing the hijaab it is part of what is called “necessarily known” knowledge in Islam. All but the most horrendously ignorant Muslim knows that hijaab is an obligation. Consequently, the one who rejects it, has rejected a part of Islam, and the one who does so is not a Muslim (much less a pious Muslim). And if one did happen to be so horrendously ignorant about the ruling pertaining to the hijaab, then their ignorance of such is an enormity and would preclude them from being among the “pious.”

What Leila really means, and this is common with these pseudo-Muslim feminists is… well she says it right here: “Among those teachings, Ahmed said, is the notion that the hijab is mandatory even though many Muslims still dispute this.” SMH… No, no, no, Leila. MUSLIMS do NOT dispute that the hijaab is an obligation. Rand Corporation Apologists dispute that the hijaab is an obligation. As we said the obligation of the hijaab is a matter of Scholarly consensus (Ijmaa`) that is well-established and commonly known amongst the Muslims.

This is the greatest danger feminism/Cultural-Marxism poses to Muslims. Not only do the feminists reject particular Islamic judgments (which is kufr (disbelief)), their underlying claim is that ALL THE MUSLIMS FOR 1,300-1,400 years all conspired to conceal, alter, and distort basic Islamic rulings—or that all the Muslims for that time were ignorant of those basic Islamic rulings. In either case, they are claiming that Islam has not been reliably preserved and transmitted (which is also kufr). But, if the feminists believe that Islam has not been reliably preserved and transmitted, then they are claiming that Islam is a MAN-made doctrine of lies. And if that is the case, then… WHY IN THE WORLD ARE THEY CALLING THEMSELVES MUSLIMS?!? In reality, these people are munaafiqun (i.e., hypocrites who claim to be Muslim, while hating Islam in their hearts). And nowadays, these people tend to work with the secular supremacists in their effort to destroy Islam from within and from without (as we see with the Rand Report’s, “Democratic Partners in Islam”).

In summary, feminism leads to kufr (disbelief). I need to stick this in here because it’s important. Virtually ALL the feminists support homosexuality (well, let me say lesbianism, because, there are some feminists who don’t consider that men have the right to live). All except for the most extreme pseudo-Muslim says that homosexuality is forbidden in Islam (although someone needs to educate these guys here: http://www.france24.com/en/20121202-paris-france-homosexual-gay-friendly-mosque-condemned-muslim-leaders-–for the record, Muslims’ “fear” of homosexuality is not a “phobia” but it is based upon a rational fearing of Allah’s punishment for engaging in or supporting perverted abominable behavior). Given that Islam rejects homosexuality and feminism encourages it, then the two cannot be reconciled.

A person cannot call herself a “devout Muslim” and a “feminist” if they wish to be logically consistent (or a devout Muslim, for that matter). For Sisters serious about empowerment—and I am all for that—then let them be serious about acquiring the knowledge of the Deen. Let them put that knowledge into practice with sincerity. Let them be involved in the da`wah, and let them be lionesses in standing up and enjoining the good and forbidding the evil. And let them understand that one’s strength is based upon obedience to Allah—and not to some twisted Cultural-Marxist ideology. Sisters should strive (with their Brothers) to build stalwart families and communities devoted to the Sunnah of the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam). And we should NOT let hypocritical, diseased-hearted, and empty-brained people divide and separate us from each other and from our yearning to enter Paradise.

With Allah is the success.

1That is, her piece entitled: “Democratic Partners in Islam.”

Quotation 51 Of Negroes and Christianity

Quotation 51 Of Negroes and Christianity

[PLEASE SHARE.  PLEASE SHARE.]

“Because the Negro church is such a free field and it is controlled largely by the Negroes themselves, it seems that practically all the incompetents and undesirables who have been barred from other walks of life by race prejudice and economic difficulties have rushed into the ministry for the exploitation of the people.”

“Sometimes you find as many as two or three store-front churches in a single block where Negroes indulge in heathen-like practices which could hardly be equaled in the jungle.  The Negroes in Africa have not descended to such depths.”

“The Negro has been so busy doing hat he is told to do that he has not stopped long enough to think about the meaning of these things [that is, the reasons for Protestant sectarianism (---or the absurdities of Christian doctrine)].”

“The Negroes could not be expected to raise a higher standard than their aristocratic governing class [i.e., the white slave owners] teeming with sin and vice.”

“It is very clear then, that if the Negroes got their conception of religion from slaveholders, libertines, and murderers, there maybe something wrong about it and WOULD NOT HURT TO INVESTIGATE IT [my emphasis].”

—Carter G. Woodson, The Miseducation of the Negro

Given that it is “The Season,” it is important that African-American Muslims (and others) educate black folk about the reality of Christianity.  Looooooong before Christianity reached the shores of America, the Bible had been altered, the genuine teachings of Jesus had been distorted, and the European masses had been duped (or forced) into believing a set of doctrines that could not be deemed by any reasonable standards as anything other than fraudulent (for more on this see the following: http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/why-we-dont-celebrate-christmas/).

It is not so much that black people were treated in a barbaric fashion by the white slavemasters (for a person may know the Truth and still be evil and abusive), but the fact of the matter is that the Christian Europeans who foisted Christianity on the American slaves did not have the authentic teachings of Jesus.  And the ludicrous doctrine of claiming the Creator of the Universe sired a child, and became the son of Himself, and then had to get murdered so people’s sins could be forgiven was an innovation that was formalized HUNDREDS of years after Jesus’ time on Earth.

In reality, Christianity became the “state religion” of black America largely because black folk knew little else.  Sincere independent research and study all point to the fact that Christianity is a fabrication made at the hands of a few corrupt clergy and political rulers—going way back to the first centuries of the Common Era.  Sadly, many African-Americans are too negligent to simply investigate the history of Christianity and how it came to be.  Nonetheless, some African-Americans do investigate, and many, praise Allah, as a result have embraced Islam.

The Muslim belief in God is plain, pure, and easy to understand: there is One Perfect, Omniscient Creator, Who is the Creator of everything and absolutely does not need or resemble anything.  The Creator existed before any of the creations (before light and darkness, distance and direction, time and space).  The Creator does not have a color, or size, or dimensions; the Creator does not have a comrade, wife, offspring, or lineage.  The Creator is not an object.  The Creator is not a material or spiritual being.  The Creator (Allah) exists without a place.  Whatever you imagine in your mind, God is different from that.  This is the True Belief in the Creator, and this is, in reality, what Jesus taught.  For more on this, please see here:

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2012/09/30/a-primer-to-the-muslim-belief-in-the-creator/

Quotation 50 Of God’s Eternality

Quotation 50 Of God’s Eternality

“Allah exists without a beginning and everything else exists with a beginning. Allah is the Creator and everything else is a creation.”

(Shaykh `Abdullah Al-Harariyy, Al-Mukhtasar (The Summary))

The Sunni Faqih (scholar of Islamic Jurisprudence) and Muhaddith (scholar of Hadith) Shaykh `Abdullah Al-Harariyy¹ mentioned in his Summary of the Personal Obligatory Knowledge the above quote pertaining to the correct belief in the Creator (Allah). Muslims believe in One Perfect God. God (Allah) is the Creator of everything. That is, everything that exists other than God is a creation.

In brief we know that God exists, for the creations stand as proof for the existence of a Creator. Contrary to the claims of the atheists, the universe could not be self-created, for as we have mentioned here: http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/the-atheist-delusion/ it is absurd to claim that something was existing before it was originated, and then it was originated after it was already existing. That is, for something to (allegedly) “create itself,” it would require existence to act (something that doesn’t exist can’t do something). And to claim that what already was existing originated itself is likewise absurd—a thing could not exist before it existed. Furthermore, one cannot honestly claim that the universe is beginningless, for that leads to the absurdity of what is called an “infinite regress.” The present is the culmination (limit) of what came before… but that which is allegedly infinite does not have a limit.

The atheists have faith in “particles” and “chance”—but particles cannot give themselves their own properties, and they cannot arrange themselves “by chance.” The statistical chance of pulling cards numbered 1-10 from a bag in sequential order is 1 in 3.6 million. And if we add just five more cards to the bag, the statistical chance of pulling them out in sequential order 1-15 becomes 1 in 1,307,674,368,000. The atheists will reject the claim of the one who says that he was able to randomly pull twenty-five cards out of a bag a dozen consecutive times (without cheating) but, yet, he has faith that the particles of the human eye, for instance, somehow arranged themselves and designated themselves with the attribute of sight. Islam, contrary to atheism, invites people to be reasonable: the universe could not possible “create itself” and arrange itself… all by itself. Muslim are certain that the universe requires a Creator.

Unlike the Ancient Greeks philosophers, the Muslims recognize that only Allah is beginningless (the Greek philosophers held the conviction that there was a co-eternal substance from which God allegedly created the universe). Allah originated this universe ex nihilo—that is, from nothing, as the Prophet Muhammad informed us about the beginning of creation: “Allah was [existing] and there was nothing other than Allah.” Allah then created the Primordial Water and from that substance everything else was created.

It is understood that since Allah is the only one who exists without a beginning, then Allah is Unique. Allah is totally and categorically different from everything else. God is uncreated; hence, God is unlike the creations. Also, it is evident that since Allah existed before the creations, then Allah is not dependent upon any of the creations. Allah existed before place, directions, distance, and time. Therefore, it is known that Allah is not a spatial entity, for Allah does not have a size, because whatever has a size requires space in order to exist. Allah is not a temporal entity, for Allah has no age and does not undergo change, and Allah does not have an origin. The dimensions of time and space are both created; Allah existed before they existed without needing them, and after Allah created time and space, Allah did not transform and become dependent upon them. God is not an object or an image: whatever one imagines, Allah is different from that.

Everything that exists (other than God) is originated by God. Allah is not only the Originator Who initiated the universe, but Allah is the Creator of every moment of creation. Each motion and stillness that occurs in the universe is created by Allah. The thoughts, the feelings, the intentions–-everything (other than Allah) is created by Allah. The creations do not have the power to bring themselves into being, and they do not have the power to sustain themselves from moment to moment. There is only One Creator, and the true Name of the Creator is “Allah.”

Since Allah is the sole Creator of everything, and we are merely the property of Allah, then Allah has the right to do with us whatever Allah so wills. Allah is the Owner of everything, and Allah owes us nothing. The wise and prudent thing for the human being to do is to submit to God, which is the essence of Islam.² The person who revolts against God will never find true contentment in this fleeting world and will be in a state of perdition in the Hereafter. For one to attain the ultimate felicity and bliss, one must be a Muslim and strive to fulfill all of the commands of Allah and avoid all forbidden matters. This is the path of ultimate success in this life and the one to come. May Allah, the Lord of the Heavens and Earth, grant us that.

1For more information about Shaykh `Abdullah and his teachings please see: http://www.shaykhabdullah.com/biography/

2A person becomes Muslim by saying: “Nothing is worthy of worship except Allah. Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,” with the desire to become Muslim. No witnesses or ritual bathing is required beforehand.

Quotation 49 Of Vision

A shot from Mount Sugarloaf in Deerfield, MA

Quotation 49 Of Vision

“The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough. “

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

http://inthisjournal.wordpress.com/
http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

Quotation 48 Of Finding Purpose

Quotation 48 Of Finding Purpose

“Many people have the wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”

—Helen Keller

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

G-Weed Prep

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PREPARING G-WEED TEA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoYyYQ1i5q0

Pour 8-12 oz of spring water into a pot. Bring to a fish eye (that is when the water starts to look like fish eyes and not quite to a boil). Take a teaspoon of the tea, and put in the water. Turn the

water down to very low and keep as such for 3-4 minutes for a light refreshing tea, but i would advise you to make a more potent/medicinal brew. Just keep the tea on low for 20 minutes (or longer). Then drink. You do NOT need sweetener—it is already naturally sweet. Take a cup in the morning (instead of coffee—or whatever folks drink); take another cup in the mid-afternoon (especially, good for those folks who start to feel tired at that time). And you might want to take one more cup before dinner (preferably, you should take the tea on an empty stomach).

Once the tea gets into your system, you can just take the first two cups. Also, what i would do is use the tea from the first batch (in the morning) and mix it with a half a tsp with the afternoon batch. The tea leaves are totally edible, but i usually use a dollar store strainer when i pour the tea—although, i will mix the g-weed tea with other herbal brews i make.

Enjoy and spread the word!

https://twitter.com/Face2Floor

Quotation 47 Of Surrendering to the (Base) Desires

Quotation 47 Of Surrendering to the (Base) Desires

“Every act of compliance with their motions [of the lower self] facilitates a second compliance, every new step towards depravity is made with less reluctance than the former, and thus the descent to life merely sensual is perpetually accelerated.”

—Samuel Johnson

https://twitter.com/Face2Floor

Quotation 45 Of Wisdom and Virtue

Quotation 45 Of Wisdom and Virtue

“Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.”

—David Star Jordan

Bilal Philips vs. The Sunnis

Ibnul-Jawziyy versus Bilal Philips

The famous Hanbaliyy scholar, Abul-Faraj ibnul-Jawziyy[1], (597/1201)was a scholar of Al-Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence), Tafsir (Qur’anic Exegesis), Hadith and the Arabic language. He wrote a book Daf`u Shubahit-Tashbih(which is a book refuting the quasi-Hanbali corporealists/anthropomorphists).

In this book he said: “If someone addresses us by saying “If you deem Allah to be clear of being in any direction, then it is as if you are saying that the existence of Allah is impossible.” [The Wahhabis and other object worshipers reject the true belief in Allah, that is, the belief that Allah exists without being in a direction or place.  Since, the Wahhabis think Allah is an object, they believe that Allah requires a place in order to exists.  The Muslims say that Allah is not dependent upon any of the creations---including place or direction!]

We reply that if we are talking about something that rationally accepts connection at one time and separation at another time, then we agree with you that if we say about this thing that it is not in any direction then we are denying the existence of this thing itself.  But if the thing does not accept either of these opposite attributes, then we say that this thing is clear of both attributes. And this does not lead to a rational impossibility.”

Ibnul-Jawziyy then says:

“If that person tells us “Then you are asking me to admit something which I cannot understand,” we tell him that if you mean by your statement what you try to imagine, then of course this does not apply to Allah ta`aalaa, because only a body that has a certain limit, volume and color accepts to be imagined. The imagination (khayal) is used for what you see. The person does not imagine anything except what is similar to what he had seen before. Because the imagination (wahm) is a direct result of the senses: sight, hearing smell and taste. But if you mean that this is something which the sound mind does not accept, we already mentioned the rational proof of this matter. You have to admit that the sound mind accepts that because the sound mind does not contradict the rational proof.”

Ibnul-Jawziyy continues to say:

“And know that all that you see are either jawhars [particles] or attributes of these jawhars (`ard) which cannot stand by itself [i.e, the properties of bodies, such as size, shape, motion, stillness]. But because of the judgment of the mind, we exalt Allah from being a body, particle, or an attribute of a body (`ard). So then , you have to submit to the rational proof that Allah is not attributed with either movement, or stillness, or occupying a volume, or being in a place.” This is the end of the statement of Ibnul-Jawziyy.

Ibnul-Hajar al-Haytamiyy said: “Exalting Allah from being connected or disconnected goes back to the saying that the Creator is not inside this universe, nor outside it. Based on that Al-Imam Al-Ghazaliyy said ‘For something to be in connection or disconnection, it has to be a body occupying a space, and Allah tabaraka wa ta`aalaa is exalted from such attributes. Hence Allah is exalted from being connected or separated. Occupying a space (tahayyuz) and being a body/spatial entity (jismiyyah) is impossible to be attributes of Allah.’ Hence Allah ta`aalaa is exalted from being attributed with these two opposites matters, connection or separation, and Allah is exalted from being inside this world or outside it. Just as the solid [inanimate] bodies which do not have a soul are not attributed with either knowledge or ignorance [happiness or sadness], because what makes it valid for one to be attributed with knowledge or ignorance is one‘s being alive.”

An-Nawawiyy said in his book Rawdatut-Talibin in the “Chapter of Apostasy”, conveying from Al-Mutawalli, “The one who ascribes Allah that which He is exalted from by ijma` (Scholarly Consensus), like colours, being in connection (at-ittisal) or disconnection (al-infisal), is a blasphemer.”

REFUTING THE SAYING OF BILAL PHILIPS

In his book he erroneously calls, The Fundamentals of Tawhid, Bilal Philips (b. Kingston, Jamaica c. 1952) attempts to produce a so-called “logical proof” that Allah is located above our heads.  On page 129 he says:

“Thus, when God created the world, either He created it in Himself or outside Himself.  The first possibility is unacceptable because it would mean that Allaah, the infinite Supreme Being, has within Himself finite attributes of deficiency and weakness.  Therefore, He must have created the world outside Himself, He either created the world above Himself or below Himself.  Since human experience nowhere confirms prayer downwards, and being below creation contradicts God’s majesty and supremacy, God must therefore be above His creation and distinct from it.”

Point 1: Faulty assumption: Bilal Philips assumes that Allah is an object of some sort. Hence, he posits that the universe would either exist inside or outside of Allah. In his mind he is thinking of bodies/objects which may exist inside one body or another body.

Point 2:  False dilemma: This is also an example of the fallacy of bifurcation (the black-white fallacy), in which one poses two alternatives, when a third or more alternatives are possible. In this case, there is third option (which is the fact of the matter): Allah is not a spatial entity and being “inside” and “outside” are inapplicable to Allah. This fallacy stems from the faulty assumption of B. Philips that Allah is an object.

Point 3: Semantic fallacy: He misunderstands what Muslims believe about the `Uluww of Allah. By `Uluww (of Allah) Muslims understand a Highness or Exaltation of STATUS and not literal altitude and location. (Just as in English, the British king would be referred to by some of the subjects as the “royal HIGHNESS,” and this “highness” was a matter of social status and not literal direction.)

Point 4: Scriptural contradiction (that is, Verses and Hadiths (that if taken literally) contradict the claim Allah is located above us): There are a multitude of Qur’anic Verses and Hadiths that if taken literally would mean that Allah is located somewhere other than literally above us (59:16 would literally mean Allah is closer to us than our throats. If taken literally, 96:19 would mean Allah is located beneath us. If taken literally, 24:35 means that Allah would be a lamp located in a mine shaft. If taken literally, 2:115 would mean that Allah has a “front part of the head” that exists in every direction which we turn. If taken literally, 57:4 would mean that Allah is literally everywhere. Also, among the sahih Hadiths, that if taken literally, is one that means Allah is located between the person and the direction of the Ka`bah.) To their credit, the Wahhabis don’t take any of the above in their most literal sense. They make “ta’weel” (non-literal interpretation)—nonetheless, they still think Allah is a giant object located above the `Arsh some of the time and below Prophet Jesus some of the time.

Regarding Bilal Philips’s claim that either Allah created the universe above Himself or below Himself, it is enough to mention the Hadith related by Imam Muslim, in which he reported that the Prophet said:

“[O Allah] You are Adh-Dhaahir and there is nothing above You. And You are Al-Baatin, and there is nothing below You.”¹

Imam Al-Bayhaqi mentioned in his book, Al-Asmaa’u was-Sifaat that the Sunni scholars said since nothing exists above nor below Allah, then Allah exists without being in a place. Ironically, Bilal Philips, just five pages after trying to fabricate a “logical proof” that Allah is an object located above our heads, quotes from Al-Bayhaqi’s, Al-Asmaa’u was-Sifaat… but for some reason or another, he just happens to leave out mentioning that Al-Bayhaqi produced a proof from the Sunnah of the Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam) to EXPLICITLY demonstrate that Allah exists without being in a place. This is a clear demonstration of the deceptive nature of the Wahhabis. These are a people who have no regard for the True Belief in Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, so be warned of them, and warn others of their mendacious methodology.

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

---

[1] Ibnul-Jawziyy should not be confused with the “corporealist” Ibnul-Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah (d. 751/1350) who was the student of Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyah (728/1328)

1Adh-Dhaahir is a Name of Allah, which means, The One Whose Existence is Evident (that is, the entire stands as proof for the Existence of the Creator). Al-Baatin means: The One Whose Reality cannot be fathomed by the imagination.

Quotation 44 Of Problem Solving

Quotation 44 Of Problem Solving

“You can not solve a problem from the same level of consciousness that created* it.”

—Albert Einstein

(*Of course, by “create” i don’t mean bringing from non-existence into being. “Creating” in that sense is only for God. However, the problems we cause (typically) can’t be resolved unless we change our attitude towards the problem and elevate our consciousness, so we can see the problem from a broader perspective.)

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

The Elephant in the Mosque

The Elephant in the Mosque:

The Wahhabi Menace

Many people who self-identify as Muslims ask: why should traditional Sunni Muslims should exert their time and energy to warning against those who are called “Wahhabis” (although nowadays the Wahhabis don’t usually refer to themselves as “Wahhabis but “Salafis”). The answer is manifold. Although there are many groups and ideologies that pose threats to the Muslims, such as, the cult of corporate consumerism, Christian missionaries, the military-industrial complex, the atheists, materialists and hedonists, ad nauseum, these ideologies, as grave of a concern they may be in various parts of the world, none of these groups consider themselves Muslims. Ignorant and vulnerable Muslims do not think that the beliefs these people mentioned advocate are actually from the religion of the Prophet Muhammad. Wahhabism, on the other hand, masquerades itself in the garb of piety and claims to be the true protector of the Sunnah of the Prophet. This can even be seen in the name “Salafi” that the Wahhabis have adopted for themselves. Because of the long history of Wahhabi villainy, and their being exposed by Sunni scholars and historians, the Wahhabis call themselves “Salafis” to gain—in the minds of the unsuspecting—legitimacy by claiming to affiliate themselves with the earliest and most righteous generations of Muslims in the Muhammadiyyah nation, that is, the genuine Salaf, who lived in the first 300 years of the Hijrah.

If one wishes to expose Wahhabism and demonstrate that Wahhabism is NOT simply a “sect” of Islam, but that the Wahhabism is contrary to Islam, then all one needs to do is examine the ludicrous (dis)beliefs the Wahhabis have regarding the Creator of the Universe. First, every Muslim must know and believe that the Prophet Muhammad only taught one belief in God. There is only one true belief in God, and the person who holds a bad belief about Allah would not be a Muslim in reality, for he’d be worshiping something other than God, and that would be shirk (polytheism). The correct belief in God—the belief universally shared by all Muslims is that Allah is One: Allah has no associates; no one or thing creates except Allah. Allah is Unique; Allah is Incomparable and has no similarity—at all—to the originated beings. Allah is Indivisible, that is, Allah is not something that could potentially be subject to division or composition. Allah is not a body, object, or spatial entity. Allah has no size and does not require dimensions to exist. Allah exists without place, distance, or direction.

Muslims universally believe that Allah is Eternal. Allah is not subject to time. Allah has no start, or origin, or age. Allah does not undergo change, for change entails development, and development indicates either perfection or imperfection. Allah, the Holy and Almighty, does not “improve” or degenerate in status. Given that Allah is Eternal and everything else is a creation, it is known that Allah is not dependent upon the creations. Allah was before the creations were. Allah was before the existence of space and place. Allah does not change or transform. After creating space and place, Allah did not transform and materialize in a location. In summary, the Muslims universally believe in One Perfect Eternal Creator, Who is the Creator of everything and absolutely does not need or resemble anything. Whoever does not believe as such does not hold the belief in God that the Prophet Muhammad taught, and consequently would not be a Muslim.

The Wahhabis, in a nutshell, pray to a giant unidentified extraterrestrial object with fingers, two feet, one shin, a pair of out stretched right hands and a smiling face. This is not the belief of the Muslims. Now some may think that what was described is a caricature of the Wahhabi doctrine, but it is not. The Wahhabis believe that Allah is large—and not small. The Wahhabis believe that Allah is not on the earth, but dwells in a location above our heads; hence, they believe that Allah is extraterrestrial (and an object). The Wahhabis believe that people will not be able to identify Allah on the Judgment Day, until Allah allegedly shows off His supposed shin. The Wahhabis believe that Allah has fingers, and will place some of the creations of His alleged fingers come the Judgment Day. The Wahhabis believe that Allah has two feet which are allegedly on the Kursiyy now, and one of which will be put into Hell on the Judgment Day. The Wahhabis claim that Allah has a pair of right hands, and that His alleged hands are outstretched. And, indeed, the Wahhabis claim Allah “smiles” and has a “face.”

If one doubts, one can look at this video here, which demonstrates the repulsive nature of Wahhabi anthropomorphism:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–T3z8QIOjM&feature=relmfu

Of course, many Wahhabis will not openly profess such an outlandish and repulsive belief in the way described above, for it would cause many of even its more fanatical members to call into question such an absurd and contradictory doctrine. Also, the Wahhabis, in order to take the edge off of their anthropomorphism, will claim things like, “Allah has a literal face, but it’s not like ours.” A “face” is the front part of the head. A literal head is a body part. Whosoever believes Allah is a body is not a Believer in Islam. Also, even if the Wahhabi does not believe that Allah has a real-actual-literal “front part of the head,” the Wahhabis do indeed believe that Allah is some sort of object that exists in a direction and requires space in order to exist. This alone is tantamount to kufr (disbelief), for it entails ascribing to Allah originated attributes and the dependency upon space. Allah is Sublimely clear from all that which the object worshipers ascribe to Him!

The above is enough to make it clear to every reasonable Muslim that the belief of the Wahhabis contradicts the belief of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. Nonetheless, because many Muslims are not well learned in the matters of Tawheed (the science pertaining to the Oneness and Perfection of God), they may fall victim to the religious rhetoric of the Wahhabis. The Wahhabis do this by emphasizing Sunnah matters of dress and practice, and even claim that they are against all forms of shirk (polytheism)—but they fail to realize that their worship of a giant imaginary object also entails shirk, for it certainly doesn’t entail worship of the Creator.

In addition to the erroneous convictions the Wahhabis have regarding God, the Wahhabis do not consider the masses of Muslims to be Muslims. Given the absurd literalist misunderstanding of Qur’anic Verses and Hadiths pertaining to matters of doctrine, it should not be surprising that the Wahhabis also have an absurd and literalist methodology pertaining to the matters of Islamic jurisprudence. Because the Wahhabis imagined meanings to Qur’anic Verses that were not there, the Wahhabis consider the Muslims at large to be polytheists. This can be seen from their origins in the region called “Najd” (this was a region the Prophet, incidentally, warned us about and said it would be an area where the “horm of the devil would arise).

The Wahhabis follow Muhammad ibn `Abdul-Wahhab. Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab deemed it to be a virtuous deed to kill Muslims and confiscate their property (because in his mind the Muslims weren’t Muslims in reality). Later, in the early 1800′s the Wahhabis occupied much of Al-Hijaz (Western Arabia), including, Ta’if, Madinah, and Mecca, where the Wahhabis pillaged, terrorized and massacred the inhabitants of that blessed land. This is the historical reality of Wahhabism. This is the history that the Wahhabis are ominously silent about.

Given that the Wahhabi sect started off as a terrorist movement, it should not be surprising that those who self-identify as Sunni Muslims and commit acts of terrorism are almost always Wahhabis or heavily influenced by their ideology. The Muslims in North Africa and the Middle East and into Central Asia have suffered tremendously because of the blood spilled in the name of this Wahhabi ideology. And for the Muslims in the West, the negative perception of Muslims and the increasing levels of persecution are largely due to the influence of Wahhabism. That is not to say that Wahhabism is the only problem the Muslims face in the West, but when it comes to those involved in terrorist plots, or even those entrapped in such plots by the security agencies, Wahhabism is a significant factor in inspiring those who may have the ambition to commit atrocities. If Muslims in the West wish to reduce the level of bigotry we face, then it would serve us well to expose those who promote the Wahhabi ideology in the name of Islam.

The way to combat the radicalization caused by Wahhabism is to equip the general Muslim population with some of the standard Islamic proofs for the Existence, Oneness, Transcendence, and Perfection of Allah. These are the proofs from the Qur’an and Hadith (sayings of the Prophet) that the Sunni scholars elaborated upon in great detail to refute those who mistook the attributes of the creations for the Attributes of the Creator and consequently ascribed to God bodily properties. These proofs also include the sound rational proofs, such as:

Allah is not dependent upon the creations.

Space and direction are creations.

Ergo, Allah is not dependent upon space or direction.

By exposing the ludicrous object-worshiping Wahhabi doctrine and demonstrating that it is not the Islamic belief in One absolutely Incomparable Creator, Muslims would be better able to identify and isolate the Wahhabis in their mosques and communities.

Another benefit in exposing the Wahhabis from a doctrinal point of view is that not only would one be educating Muslims and fortifying the Muslims with the Qur’anic, Prophetic, and rational proofs for the Islamic belief in God, one would also be educating non-Muslims about Islam. Instead of starting the conversation from a position of apologizing for Islam—or for extremists—Muslims could now engage non-Muslims by explaining to them the profundity of the Muslim belief in the Creator. Many non-Muslims simply don’t know much more about Islam other than what they have heard in the mass media. Never therein is the actual Muslim belief in God discussed in any detail. This is the job of Muslims. If the genuine Islamic belief is made known to more of the public, there is a very good chance a considerable number of truth seeking non-Muslims would embrace Islam. Hence, it is mandatory for more Muslims to acquire the knowledge of Islamic theology and educate non-Muslims about the true belief in the Creator of the Universe.

It must be asked: why don’t more Islamic organizations simply identify the menace of extremism—i.e., Wahhabism—by name? Surely it is not a difficult matter to investigate the theology of Wahhabism, or Wahhabism’s historical origins and its connection to fanaticism and terrorism. Sadly, many Muslim centers and their leadership are beholden to varying degrees to the funding from the Saudi-Wahhabi regime. Other Islamic centers simply are not well-versed in detailed matters of traditional Islamic doctrine and are not familiar with the doctrines of Wahhabism. Other Islamic centers respond to the matter of Wahhabism with the simple-minded misunderstanding that if “controversial” theological matters are ignored and not discussed, then “Muslim unity” will be realized—while failing to recognize that Islamic solidarity is predicated on having the proper belief in God. The Wahhabis do not have the proper belief in God—Wahhabis believe in some form of object worship. Muslims do not worship an object.

For Muslims to strive against radicalization and extremism, we have to be sincere. First of all, we have to be sincere to Allah. Being sincere to Allah, means seeing to it that one learns his (or her) Religion well; that one has the correct belief in God—that one does not violate God’s Perfection and Oneness by ascribing to God the characteristics of created beings. Being sincere also means that one does not betray the Muslims by failing to warn them about those beliefs that nullify one’s Islam, such as, the object-worshiping creed of the Wahhabis. And finally, sincerity also means not betraying the larger society by pretending that there isn’t a Wahhabi menace masquerading in Muslim garb in our mosques.

Praise and thanks to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.

 

 

 

Why the Confusion?

Why the Confusion?

This is something that i came across today, and i want to go into to more detail later, in-shaa’ Allah, but i figured it’s important to share, so that people can think about what is going on with those who claim to represent traditional Sunni Islam in this country.

It was said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlFmTDQqYc4&feature=relmfu

This is what i intend to get to regarding the intellectual laziness of (many) African-American Muslims in this series: http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/the-african-american-muslim-in-2012/. If the matters of the True `Aqidah are not sorted out, and the issues of kufr (disbelief) and riddah are not taught and made abundantly clear, then it opens the door for all kinds of heresy and blasphemy. I don’t see how one cannot conclude that there is INTENTIONAL CONFUSION being propagated by African-American allegedly “Sunni” traditionalists. Why not teach the proper Creed—these characters are all familiar with how the Sunni scholars explained the `Aqidah. And why do they INTENTIONALLY avoid educating the masses about matters pertaining to apostasy? Again, the Sunni scholars wrote extensively on this topic. How can you claim to love Muslim, but encourage them to be ignorant on how to protect their Islam in a time of great fitnah and disbelief.

There is a CLEAR CAMPAIGN being promoted by those who CLAIM TO BE Sunni leaders to undermine the basics of the Islamic Belief. On the one hand, you have the likes of one professor who signs-off on a Nation Nut’s Ph. D., that tries to “prove” Allah is a (black) human being. On the other hand, you have, and i just discovered this today, the so-called: “Coalition of African-American Muslims,” which includes the Farrakhanis (see refutation of Farrakhanism here: http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/refutation-of-farrakhanism-the-so-called-nation-of-islam/).

And then you have another person (although not African-American) who writes a 20+ page document in which he can’t define what a non-Muslim is. And more recently, in a video (apparently) he claims that those who reject Prophet Muhammad will be saved in the Hereafter. Something is going on here. This cannot be all just one big mistake or oversight. These so-called “leaders” are INTENTIONALLY trying to dumb down the Muslims are lie to the general public. Please share this information near and wide.

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

A Primer to the Muslim Belief in the Creator

A Primer to the Muslim Belief in God

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

In the Arabic language, the word “Allah” used to refer to God, the Creator.  Muslims believe in One, Perfect, Eternal and Everlasting, Omnipotent and All-Knowing Creator, Who is the Creator of everything and absolutely does not need or resemble anything.  Muslims do not worship Prophet Muhammad or any other human being; Muslims do not worship the Ka`bah; Muslims do not worship the moon.  Muslims worship the Creator, and Muslims are certain that the Creator has no likeness to the creations.  Whatever one imagines, Allah (the Creator) is categorically different from that.

In Islam, the intellect and Faith are in harmony.  The Muslim belief in the Creator is rationally consistent.  The proof for the existence of the Creator is the existence of the creations.  This universe could not have possibly “created itself,” because something that was not existing could not possibly do something.  A thing must be to do.  That is, for something to act, it has to exist.  Furthermore, given the complexity of the cosmos, it is absurd to think that an incredibly large number of particles “just happened to arrange themselves”—all by themselves—into an orderly universe.  The truth is that there is a Creator Who brought this universe and all its contents into being.

Muslims believe there is only One Creator.  God has no associates, no partners, no family members.  Since, by definition, God is clear from every defect, we know that God has the Perfect Power and Will.  Whatever God wills to be, it shall be.  No one can overcome the Power of the Creator; nor can they prevent, interrupt, delay, or accelerate what God has willed.  If there were two (or more) alleged “gods,” as some people claim, then it would lead to absurdities.  If one alleged god willed for the sun to rise in a given place, and another willed for the sun to set in the same place, we know that both could not occur at the same time.  It must be the case that either one or neither of their wills is fulfilled.  If neither is fulfilled, then neither of them is the True God.  If one of their wills is fulfilled, then that One would be the True God and the other would not be God.  This is an elementary proof that there must be only one Creator.

Muslims believe that the Creator is Eternal (Beginningless).  Allah (God) exists without a beginning, and everything else exists with a beginning.  Allah is the Creator and everything else is a creation.  As we established, there is only One God.  God is the Creator, that is, the One who brings things into existence.  Allah existed before the creations.  God was before time.  God does not have an age, because God is the Creator of time and is not measured by time.    Allah is not an event—that is, God isn’t something that wasn’t and then started to exist.  Anything that starts to exist is originated, and God is not originated.  God is not subject to change, for change involves becoming different.  God is God and does not become something else.  God is Perfect, and God is not subject to development or alteration.

God knows everything—without exception.  Allah knows what we will do before we do it.  God has the Perfect Power over all the creations.  Allah has the Perfect Will.  Whatever God has willed to be shall be and whatever God has not willed to be shall not be.  Everything that occurs, occurs by the Knowledge, Power, and Will of God.  Our bodies, our thoughts, our feelings, our actions—whether pleasurable or painful, good or bad, wise or foolish—all occur by the creating of God.  The sincere person must submit to God and recognize that God owns us, and God owes us nothing.  God is not obligated to grant us a sip of water or a morsel of food.  Whatever bounties God grants us are by God’s Generosity, and whatever suffering we experience is by God’s Justice.

The Creator does not need anything—Allah existed before any of the creations without being dependent upon anything.  And after God originated the creations, God did not transform and start to become in need of the creations.  God exists without a place.  God is not in all places.  Before there was a place, there was a Creator.   God is not inside of Heaven or Paradise (nor above Heaven or Paradise).  God is not inside our mind.  We may use our minds to recognize that God exists, but God is totally unlike what we can imagine.

God exists without being in a direction; Allah is clear of having a volume, size, shape, or dimensions.  God is not an object or an image.  God is not a material being; God is not a spiritual being.  Both the material beings and spiritual beings are subject to time and space.  God is far greater than something that would dependent upon the creations.   The Creator is not attributed with motion or stillness.  Motion and stillness are the properties of objects—things that take up space.  Objects require the space they occupy.  Allah existed before space, and Allah does not require any of the creations in order to exist… Allah is the Creator and everything else is a creation.

****************

 WARNING

There are some irrational silly-minded people who twist and distort the Verses of the Qur’an and Hadiths (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) and think that God is a giant object with a smiling face, fingers, and a shin—this is contrary to the Muslim belief.  There are others who call themselves Muslims, but they think God is a human being.  Anyone who prays to something that occupies space is not praying to Allah, and the person who worships something other than God is not a Muslim.

***************

Allah does not resemble anything—God is far greater than what we may find in the recesses of our minds or in the distant galaxies of outer space.  Allah is not light, nor is Allah darkness.  Abu Bakr As-Siddeeq, the first of the Muslim rulers after the death of Prophet Muhammad, said: “Knowing that you are incapable of imagining God is knowledge in itself.  Attempting to fathom God’s Reality is disbelief and paganism.”  Muslims do not pray to objects or images—whether those objects or images are here on earth, in our minds, or beyond this earth.  Muslims worship the Creator and only the Creator, the One Who has no needs and no similarity.

This is a brief summary of some of the things the Muslims believe about the Creator.

 

 

 

A BLACK MAN’S MANIFESTO

A Black Man’s Manifesto (the short version)

I have been meaning to get around to this for a while, as part of my other blog: http://inthisjournal.wordpress.com/.  I felt it was necessary to address this issue since I am writing about my experiences as recorded in my Journals, and I wanted to make it clear what my views are on race, identity, and Islam TODAY, so that people don’t think I have the same views now as I did back at the time of my “Great Racial Awakening.”  I feel that it is important to make it abundantly clear that this was a phase that, thank Allah, I passed through.

Nonetheless, it is also important that Muslims have a candid discussion about race and identity.  And I believe that African-American Muslims—those who are serious about their religion—are uniquely poised to initiate that discussion.  They want to have that discussion, but more often than not, such discussions are suppressed by the immigrant population.  I would say that a major reason for this is that many immigrants simply don’t feel comfortable about talking about race… because racism and color hang-ups are so deeply entrenched into their cultures.  This is reflected in the matrimonial sections of some Islamic magazines wherein South Asians would have “personals,” like: “FAIR SKINNED daughter with degree in computer science….”  Or: “Looking for a suitable husband for my FAIR SKINNED sister with Master’s in Biology,” and so on.  Or if one goes to Saudi Arabia, and finds that it is common for the natives to refer to a black person as “`Abid” (slave).  Or if one goes to some places in the Middle East he can find that the banks offer loans for plastic surgery so that the women can go get their noses hacked-up, so they can look like the Europeans they are so deeply infatuated with.

This type of stuff goes on not rarely—and it is not unnoticed by black folk (African-Americans).  Everyone who knows me, or gives an honest read of my blogs, knows that I DEFINITELY don’t let African-Americans off the hook.  But something can be said about African-Americans: as a rule (the Michael Jacksons of the community, aside), we are comfortable with our complexion—not perfectly so—but at least we are not ashamed about who we are, and we don’t openly try to be something we are not.  It just ain’t cool to say: “I wanna be white.” As a matter of fact, among the worst insults that can be leveled at a black person is to call him an “Uncle Tom,” “sell-out,” or “wannabe.”

Because of the history of this country, African-Americans had to make race the foremost aspect of their identity, and many of us have learned not only to live with it but to dig the skin we’re in.  Also African-Americans are able to grasp matters that seem just too abstruse for many immigrant Muslims who have their own racial/color hang-ups.  For one, “being white” in the American context isn’t just about a skin complexion.  Being “white” is tied into a Western European identity (that historically was tied into Christianity).  As every observant white Muslim convert knows, your “white card” gets revoked with the quickness if you start walking around wearing a hijaab or a kufi and thawb or offering your prayers in public places.

It matters not that you are a fair-skinned Syrian with blue eyes.  After Billy Bob and Bubba call you a “Sand N-Word” for sticking your foot into the rest-stop sink basin, your effort to explain that you are as white as they are, and that in the Shari`ah you are “white,” is going to be in vain… And if you want to keep talking to them about the Shari`ah, it may very well be a cause for them, and their Masonburg buddies to resuscitate their old custom of lynching.  Black folk know that what is called “Islamophobia” is not only driven by a general hatred of Islam, but it is also driven by racism and the disdain of all things that are not white (of Western European descent).

*************************************

Okay, enough of that.  Let’s get to the Black Man’s Manifesto.  When you die and are put in that hole in the ground, the Angels of Interrogation will come.  They are going to ask you about: your Lord, your religion, and your Prophet.  You are not going to be questioned about what color you are.  Similarly, the Prophet informed us: “Allah does not judge you according to your shapes and outward appearances but according to our hearts and actions.”  Our creed and our deeds are ultimately what matters, and are the difference between Paradise and Hellfire.

On the Judgment Day, you are not going to be punished—nor rewarded—simply because you are black.  However, if you are treated unjustly because you are black, and you are patient with that, and you attempt to rectify the situation by enjoining the good and forbidding the evil (for racism is an evil), then your encounters with racists and racism is an opportunity for you to earn reward.  And conversely, if you allow your response to racism and racists to cause you to transgress the limits of the Sacred Law and fall into sin (or use as an excuse to sin), then you will be accountable for those transgressions.  That’s the bottom line.

With the above said, African-American Muslims have a unique set of circumstances that, quite frankly, we need to work through.  And it really isn’t the place for other folks to say: “Just get over it.”  In one sense, they are absolutely right.  But on the other hand, if you ain’t been there, then you really don’t know what it’s like.  (It’s like me telling someone to “get over” your father giving you whoopins’ when you were twelve for not memorizing all of Suratul-Baqarah, or your family pressuring you to become a medical doctor and marrying that girl from the village back home.  Ain’t been there.  Ain’t done that.  And ain’t gonna pretend I did.)  We all have our issues we need to work through.

You (meaning other Muslim ethnic groups) have your own scholars, your own leaders, your own heroes.  You have, or at least historically have had, access to the Arabic language.  You have lineages that have been preserved intact for a thousand years or more.  We don’t have that. It’s not only what we don’t have, it’s what we do have… meaning we inherited a culture that was by designed never intended to be functional.  We were told that we were inferior, stupid, and bestial. A lot of that crap got internalized… and for most of us, we never came to grips with it.  Part of the reason we became Muslim is that perhaps on a gut level, if nothing else, we felt Islam, since it is the Truth, would enable us to deal with this baggage.

Also, ask yourself (other Muslim ethnic groups) what heroes from our own people do we have?  We (African-American Muslims) have the Muslim heroes in general, but where are our Salahud-Deens, Al-Bayhaqis, Ibn Hajars, Ahmad Bambas, Abdul-Qadir Jilanis, Dhun Nun Al-Misriyys, Muhammad Al-Fatihs?  Other than Malcolm X, who was no learned Muslim by his own admission, who do we have?  Who do we have that we can relate to as an example of someone who triumphantly navigated through the racial labyrinth of America as a learned and pious Muslim?

The solution?  We have to be our own heroes.  And I say that humbly, not in a haughty or arrogant manner—nor underestimating what that entails.  But only we can tell our own story, and we need to see to it, in-shaa’ Allah, that we make that story worthy of telling.  We need to produce men and women of knowledge, sincerity, wisdom, and integrity.  This means that we have to deal with our issues: our laziness, our impulsiveness, our irresponsibility, our intellectual cowardice—a cowardice that is even afraid to investigate and clarify what is the correct belief in Allah.  We have to deal with this, and although I usually try to keep my blogs pretty clean, I will use this word here: we have to deal with this “get-over, ghetto-nigger slave” mentality, in which we are constantly trying to get something for nothing. Such a mindset reflects a heart that is utterly infected with insincerity… and self-deception.

Lastly, this manifesto shouldn’t be anything that makes other Muslims feel intimidated or uncomfortable, but it should make them excited to see a people grow and be transformed by the power and beauty of Islam.  And this is not a call to some sort of jahiliyyah black nationalism, either.  Instead, it is an invitation to African-American Muslims to begin to resolve their issues, so they can be a genuine asset to the Ummah, and in doing so, they can make everyone stronger, in-shaa’ Allah.

That’s my manifesto… at least the short version.

With Allah is the success, and Allah knows best.

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

Say NO to Haqqaphobia

Say NO to Haqqaphobia

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

Maa-shaa’ Allah, me thinks Brother Ali has coined his own neologism… “Haqqaphobia.”  I  never felt comfortable with the term “Islamophobia.”  Phobia means an “irrational fear.”  Many of the Haqqaphobes don’t have an “irrational” fear of Islam.  They are infatuated with their delusions and their lies, and they know Muslims are for the TRUTH (Haqq).  The Haqq and falsehood don’t go together; hence, they fear Islam.  This is not an irrational fear (at least on one level—ultimately, it is irrational to prefer falsehood over Truth) but an understanding of a very basic principle: the light of Truth eliminates the darkness of ignorance and exposes falsehood.

These Haqqaphobes fear that Islam will get strong and the Muslims will rise again (as the Prophet has foretold).  That fear isn’t irrational—it’s a natural expected thing that the people who love lies and deception would fear the propagation of Truth.  Also, in saying that these people are “Haqqaphobic” it points to the fact that these are not interested in the Truth regardless of what one calls it.  It is enough to consider that when the Haqqaphobes attack Islam, they present strawman arguments, use a multitude of emotional appeals to a dumbed-down ignorant populace, and NEVER honestly present the Muslims’ rationale for their positions… and they NEVER mention what Muslims believe about the Creator.

If you are debating with someone and you SINCERELY wish to arrive at the truth of the matter, you present your opponents arguments in the strongest possible fashion, and THEN you expose his (or her) inconsistencies—if there are any (sometimes in a debate there isn’t any genuine difference once people come to an agreement of about the terms being used).  If one sincerely wants to understand what motivates Muslims, then one has to seek to understand what Muslims believe about the Creator, for the sincere Muslim, his (or her) actions should be motivated by a desire to obey God.  This leads to understanding the arguments Muslims use for the Creator’s Existence and Attributes.

Once we establish that the Creator exists, that the Creator must necessarily be Unique and without any partners and without any needs, that the Creator has no beginning or end and is not subject to change, that the Creator is Omnipotent and Omniscient, that the Creator exists without being in time, place, distance or direction—that the Creator is gloriously Perfect and Holy and clear of any blemish or defect, then, for the objective and reasonable person, he has to admit that Muslims have the proper belief in the Creator.

From there we establish that although the human intellect has the capacity to recognize the Oneness and Perfection of the Creator, the mind by itself cannot perceive what course of action would be to the person’s ultimate benefit in this world… or whether or not there is a life to come after this dimension of existence, i.e., after we expire.   This would lead to talking about Prophets, that the Prophets embody the highest human virtues; how the Prophets prove their Prophethood through the performance of miracles; how the miracles are not “fairy tales,” for recognizing that things may occur contrary custom doesn’t mean that they are “impossible”—the Creator, the One Who makes human life out of body fluid has the Power over all the creations, which includes the customary matters and the uncustomary ones.  From that point, we establish that the Prophet Muhammad is a Prophet, he performed miracles, and we can be certain that he did so because the reports about many of them reached us by mutawaatir (i.e., numerous witnesses to incredible events that were conveyed to numerous other people and so on in such a manner that it is inconceivable that all those people conspired to lie).

And if a person was even more honest in seeking the Truth, then he would mention WHY Muslims don’t believe that the universe somehow “created itself before it was existing,” like the atheists claim, or that the Creator of the universe impregnated a 12 or 13 year old “girl” and materialized in her womb, like the Christians claim… and so on.  But the truth of the matter is that the Haqqaphobic have no desire to follow the Truth—and definitely don’t want others who might be seeking or lost and confused to know the Truth.  This is why they bring up matters about Islam that are wrenched waaaaay out of context, appeal to people’s emotions and not their reason to turn people away from Islam and away from the Truth.

The other thing the Haqqaphobic do is use some guy rockin’ a suicide belt, thinking he’s going to go to Paradise, if he detonates himself at the local orphanage as an “example” of “Islamic piety.”  Not to justify what this fool is about to do, but the Haqqaphobes adroitly avoid mentioning any context—no mentioning that he saw his mother and sister shot in the head by corporate-fascist mercenaries, or that his baby was droned, or that his best friend lost his legs to a cluster bomb.

Similarly, the Haqqaphobes will take the frothing at the mouth ignoramus and use him as an example why Muslims can’t be reasoned with.  (That’s like me going to the local parasitic J-Hill corna sto’ and interviewing the drunk, the half-wit, the prostitute, and the dope fiend and explaining why democracy is an absurd idea.)  Again, all the while the “Haqqaphobic” very shrewdly remove all context… and are careful never to deal with Muslims who are rooted in the knowledge of their religion and are familiar with the conventional Western mindset.

The matter boils down to:

1. We have a Creator (the Creator is Perfect, beyond compare or need)

2. This life is not without purpose (our Creator deserves to be worshiped; we must obey the Commands of our Creator, as we know them from the Prophet of God, Muhammad (sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam)

3. This life is not the end of our existence (there is an Afterlife and accountablity for what we did, said, and believed)

It is only Islam that satisfies the needs of the human being.  Islam guides people to the proper understanding of Who the Creator is.  Islam reforms and edifies the human being through the proper worship and obedience to the Creator.  Islam prepares the human being for the long journey ahead after we blow our last breath on this plane of existence.  Praying to a human being or something in the imagination isn’t the same as worshiping God.  And secularism isn’t going to save one in the grave.  Islam liberates the mind and soul from the burdens and maladies of false worship, anti-worship, mendacity, and insincerity that go along with Haqqaphobia—because Islam is the Haqq that our Lord has ordered us to follow.

May Allah, our Lord, make us among the humble, truthful, wise, and sincere and enable us to die on the Haqq—on the Religion of Islam.

Quotation 43 Of Self Mastery

Quotation 43 Of Self Mastery

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

“Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.”
― Miyamoto Musashi

The African-American Muslim in 2012 (part 2)

The African-American Muslim in 2012 (part 2)

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

Praise and thanks to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds,

In the first entry on this topic, we mentioned some of the reasons why African-American Muslims have not been able to compete with the influx of immigrant Muslims or their children.  Many of the problems stem from family dysfunction.  The serial marriages, the divorces, the almost certainly doomed from the start attempts at polygyny, all contributed to the instability in the household, and this has meant that many African-American Muslim children have grown up in households that, beyond the surface of religiosity, were not a whole lot different from their non-Muslim peers in the hood.

We have all seen the results.  Youth who attended Muslim schools, some even went overseas, gained relative fluency in Arabic, memorized substantial portions of the Qur’an but still ended up in the vortex of street culture, crime, incarceration, serial fornication, and producing children out-of-wedlock on the regular.  Instead of taking a long hard and sincere look at the current condition of African-American culture, the standard black mantra says: “(Fill in the blank for whatever ethnic/racial group) do it, too.”  That’s beside the point.  The fact that other Muslim ethnic groups may have their pathological and dysfunctional individuals, they are not producing a culture of convicts and daughters with illegitimate children at the rate of the African-American Muslim.  Also, many of the immigrant youth who are jacked-up are actually imitating African-American ghetto culture.

Furthermore, if one wants to improve his condition, he looks to those who are faring better than he is, and he attempts to emulate them.  That’s why Muslims take the Prophets, the righteous scholars, and pious people as role models.  A Muslim striving to be obedient doesn’t look at the lowlifes of the community and then say that at least he’s not doing that much worse than those dregs.

Also, this struck me particularly hard recently: if one were to ask a Pakistani youth, or an Arab, or a Somali, or a Malaysian youth to think about his ethnic culture, he would see his ethnic culture being inextricably interwoven with Islam.  The foods he eats, the way he (or at least his parents and grandparents) dresses, the family structure, would have some relation to Islam, or at least the culture of Muslims.   Now juxtapose that with an African-American youth (the child of converts) living in the inner city. Yes, he is a Muslim (or at least self-identifies as such) but what is his culture?  His culture almost certainly will be black ghetto non-Muslim culture.  It’s not the culture of Appalachian hicks; it’s not the culture of the Obamas; it’s not the culture of the `Ulamaa’.  To the contrary, it’s the culture of the streets—and it has nothing to do with the virtues of Islamic piety.

Okay, some may respond that there are plenty of (fill in the blank ethnic group) who are also running the streets and caught up in ghetto culture.  True, indeed.  But unless that young Muslim (of immigrant background) really takes the plunge into pathology (again, usually imitating that black ghetto culture) they can usually snap out of it.  They don’t find themselves doing extended bids in prison, and the girls don’t have two and three (illegitimate) baby daddies in their lives.  Furthermore, when all is said and done, that Egyptian, Pakistani, Mauritanian, Bangladeshi Muslim knows at the end of the day this ghetto culture isn’t really his culture.  He has a culture that is connected to Islam and extends back to multiple generations of Muslims.

Compare the above to the situation with the African-American Muslim.  He can look around at many of the African-American Muslims and see that they are relegated to a lower status in the immigrant mosques, and if he attends an inner city mosque, well, that child is going to see many of the problems of the hood also witnessed within the mosque.  (After all, the behavior of the inner city mosques largely mirrors what is on the street).  Also, and this is something that the immigrant Muslims often overlook and rarely fail to misunderstand:

They don’t understand what it means to “be black”—even if they are “black” (like, when one Somali woman (many shades darker than I) complained to me about how deeply offended she was that some non-Muslims were treating her as if she were “black”).  What has become black American CULTURE is something utterly repulsive.  Black CULTURE was not always this way.  W.E.B. Dubois didn’t behave in this manner, nor did, the polyglot, Paul Robeson, Ida B. Wells, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Adam Clayton Powell, etc.  I am not saying that they were free from character faults—but they did not typically normalize and glorify black ghetto pathological culture.  They saw black ghetto/underclass culture as a problem that needed to be fixed—not something that needed to be cherished and embraced!  These black leaders of previous generations demanded that black people and their culture raise their standards—not lower them.

Again, there was no shortage of deviants and social misfits in the past, but such people and their behavior were not used as a standard to define “blackness.”  Such behavior was ostracized by the majority of black folk.  Today, standard black culture is defined by the lowest and most loathsome elements of the black community, and for the most part, black folk are fine with that—and rush to the defense of these social miscreants (just consider the response to the death of “No Limit N-Word,” the Jenna 6, or the Duke stripper case).

The black ghetto culture is simply unsustainable.  Again, to silence, the cavilers, when I speak of “black ghetto culture” (BGC), I am talking about the ethos of the ghetto, and what has become the standard, or at least a far more tolerated standard, of behavior.  I am not talking about black people who happen to be poor, whether by choice or circumstance, or happen to live in the “hood;” I am talking about the prevailing pathological culture of the ghetto—we all know it when we see it, so let’s stop frontin’.  The virulent fornication and plague of bastardy, the drug addiction, the astronomically high dropout rates and general state of ignorance and stupidity, all contribute to the breakdown of community and the meltdown of a culture.  If someone thinks I am exaggerating, then it should be enough to consider that black males—who make up a mere six percent of the population (and this includes black males of all ages)—commit FORTY PERCENT of all murders.  Say what one may about the racism in the court system, this statistical fact unambiguously demonstrates that the violent and pathological nature of black ghetto culture.

This disintegration of life in the “hood” is further accelerated by the fact that there is little in the BGC that prepares it for the realities of a global economy in the Information Age.  Also, one should keep in mind that certain economies have found it profoundly profitable to keep the BGC subsisting, whether it be the “social services” industry, the liberal Negro race pimps, the increasingly militaristic police forces, the prison-industrial complex—which is now becoming privatized and has a vested interest in seeing that the pathologies of the black ghetto culture persist (in its own special dysfunctional way).

Okay, we see the evident mess cultural carnage of inner city culture, but what is its source?  We have to realize that the mindset of black ghetto culture is one programmed for self-destruction.  It is the Willie Lynch Syndrome on an epidemic level.  Although the “Willie Lynch Letter” is almost certainly a fabrication, the practices mentioned therein were undoubtedly employed during the era of slavery (and what came after) to keep black people psychologically fragmented and socially and divided.

This (meaning the Willie Lynch Syndrome) ensured that black males, for instance, would feel reduced to the level of brute beasts used for brawn and breeding purposes (we see this today with the semi-literate athlete chasing balls and the “buck” N-Words bragging about their sexual prowess… with virtually nothing else “going on” for themselves).  This meant that blacks had to be taught that they were intellectually inadequate—that learning and academics were something for white people.  The seeds of self-hatred had to be planted, and with the self-hatred came jealousy and distrust of all things black.  And with that self-hatred came the notorious “crabs in a barrel” mentality” that is so pervasive in the black community until today.

Historically, the strong-willed, disciplined, and intelligent black people transcended the obstacles of white racism, and perhaps what was even a greater impediment to their progress: the negativity of fellow black folks.  These African-Americans frequently went on to become the heroes of black culture—the role models of future generations.  However, with the 1960’s and the spread of Cultural Marxism and moral relativism, a seismic shift in American cultural values took place as a whole and in black culture, in particular.  Drug use became popularized; fornication was unabashedly promoted; illegitimacy increasingly became the norm; feminism and single motherhood was touted as “progress;” the welfare state emasculated and destabilized the black family.  Given what was already sown into the black culture and psyche, this made the African-American community particularly vulnerable to the overall degeneration of American values.

This is not to defend or legitimate deviant behavior—as I’ve said elsewhere, explaining something is not the same as justifying it.  It is important, however, to understand the lay of the land and what is going on in the heads of black folk.  As for the African-American Muslim, many of us never made the exodus from black ghetto culture mindset and value system.  We are still looking to “get over” to get something for nothing—failing to keep in mind that none of us can “get over” on Allah.  Allah knows not only what we do, Allah knows the motivations behind what we do.  Certainly the Creator knows all about the creation.

Many of us are still living in a neo-jahiliyyah gutter state of mind.  Our values tend to be those not of the traditional black elite, the Paul Lawerence Dunbar’s, the Booker T. Wahington’s, the Frederick Douglas’s—that is, for those who still “want to keep it black” and “stay in touch with their ‘heritage’.”  Instead, many of us consider those with the lowest degree of self-restraint, and the most ignorant, treacherous, and vile people African-Americans have produced (think no further than your typical rapper of today) are the “epitome of blackness.”  This is not to mention that many of us are out of touch with the behavior and character of the best of humanity: the behavior and character of the Prophets, and after them, the awliyaa’ (the highly righteous).

The African-American Muslim is still in the midst of a deep identity crisis.  And if he does not snap out of this confused state, then he will be relegated to a footnote in the history of Islam in this country, and he will have few or no Muslims descendants left to make du`aa’ for him after he dies.  This crisis, however, can only be resolved by a sincere commitment to learn authentic traditional Islamic knowledge and internalizing the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad  (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam). God-willing, in the next entry we will talk about how we may begin do that.

Quotation 42 Of Purpose

Quotation 42 Of Purpose

“Great minds have purposes, others have wishes. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes; but great minds rise above them.”

—Washington Irving

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

Quotation 41 Of Himmah (Lofty Spiritual Ambition)

Quotation 41 Of Himmah (Lofty Spiritual Ambition)

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

“It’s not the critic who counts; nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes up short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who does actually try to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they lie in the gray twilight that knows neither victory or defeat.”

—Theodore Roosevelt

May we be among those high-minded people who sincerely strive to do great things for the Religion of Allah.

Qutation #40 Of the Originator (Al-Baari’)

Quotation 40 Of The Originator (Al-Bari’)

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

“The Originator of the Universe is Allah, the Unique, the Eternal, the Alive the Omnipotent, the Omniscient, the Hearing, the Seeing, the One Who does whatever He Wills. Allah is not a bodily characteristic (`arad), nor a ‘body’ (jism), nor an elementary particle (jawhar). Allah is not a thing formed, circumscribed, enumerated, divisible, composed, or limited. Allah is not attributed with quiddity (‘whatness’), nor by modality (kayfiyyah—‘howness’). Allah is not situated in any location, and time does not lapse upon Allah. Allah does not resemble anything.”

—Imam Najmud-Deen An-Nasafiyy

Commentary

The author, Najmud-Deen An-Nasafiyy (d. 537 A.H./c. 1142 CE) was a famous Hanafi scholar, and a follower of the Maaturidiyy school of `Aqidah (Doctrine). Ahlus-Sunnahwal-Jama`ah (The Orthodox Sunni Majority) follows the methodology of Abu Mansur Al-Maaturidiyy or Abul-Hasan Al-Ash`ariyy in the matters of explaining the details of the Muslim creed and theology. These two schools are, in essence, the same: they teach that there is One, Perfect, Eternal Creator, Who is the Creator of everything, and that the Creator absolutely does not need or resemble anything. Whoever believes otherwise is not from Ahlus-Sunnah but also is not a Muslim, for the bear minimum of Islam is to believe properly in Allah and in the Prophets.

The reason for the two schools is due largely to their geographical origins. Although Al-Maaturidiyy and Al-Ash`ariyy were contemporaries, they were from two different regions of the Muslim world. The latter taught in Baghdad, and the former was from Central Asia. The differences in the two schools are on minor points and also in the terms of expressions employed, but again, the fundamentals of the belief in Allah are the same, for truth is one, and falsehood is multitudinous.

These two scholars and their schools stood up to clarify and defend the Creed of the Sunnis by systematizing the proofs from the Qur’an and Sunnah, as well as, the irrefutable rational proofs. The latter are particularly indispensable for the Muslims in the West today. This is said because many of the people we encounter here are not Muslims, and to demonstrate to them the veracity of the Muslim creed, it is important to demonstrate that the Islamic belief in God is rationally consistent, and not racked by contradictions and absurdities, as is the case with other religions and atheism.

As for the passage mentioned above, it is taken from the famous treatise written by the author called, “Al-`Aqidah An-Nasafiyyah” (The Doctrine of An-Nasafiyy). Many scholars have written commentaries on this text, including, the recently deceased, Shaykh Abdullah Al-Harrari (http://www.shaykhabdullah.com/) and perhaps the most famous of the commentaries, is the one written by At-Taftazaniyy.

Allah is Al-Baari’, the Originator of the Universe, that is, all that exists (other than Allah), whether it be what we can perceive or what we cannot perceive, such as, the realm of the Angels and jinn has been originated by Allah. Allah brought this creation into existence ex nihilo, that is, from nothing. Allah needed nothing to originate this universe from. This is contrary to the claims of the classical Greek philosophers and what is ascribed to the Ancient Egyptians. Both claimed that there was a co-eternal substance with God from which God created the universe. Muslims understand that Allah alone is the Creator. The Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam) informed us in a Hadith about the start of creation. He said: “Allah was [before the origination of any creation] and there was nothing other than Allah.” Allah was before light and darkness, distance and direction, time and place. The Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam) then informed us in this Hadith that Allah created the Primordial Water and from that substance (which is certainly created) Allah created everything else.

Allah is Al-Wahid. This means that Allah is One without an associate or partner. No one or thing deserves to be worshiped except Allah. No one can create anything except Allah, that is, we cannot produce something from nothingness. Also, Allah is One in the sense that Allah is Unique, that is, Allah has no similar in His¹ Reality, Attributes, or Actions. Allah is the One and Only Creator, and no one or thing is similar to Allah.

Allah is attributed with Life, and the Life of Allah is without a material or ethereal body. Allah is not a physical or spiritual being. The soul (ruh) is a spiritual body that exists within our physical bodies. The soul is not Allah, nor is the soul a part of Allah. The living creatures have souls, but Allah is not a creature and does not have a soul. Allah has power over all the creations. Nothing is independent of Allah’s control. Also, Allah knows everything—with no exception. Allah knows what was, what is, and what shall be. Allah knows what won’t be—but if it were to be how it would be! Allah is attributed with Hearing and Sight, but the Hearing and Sight of Allah is not related to organs or instruments. Allah sees and hears everything that is possibly audible and possibly visible. Allah’s Hearing and Sight are Perfect, as are, all the Attributes of Allah.

Allah is attributed with Will. The Will of Allah is an Eternal Attribute by which Allah specifies things to be the way they are. The creations have the properties that they have because Allah specified them with those properties as opposed to other properties (or non-existence). Allah is the not only the Originator of the creation, but each moment is itself created by Allah. No thing can exist independent of the creating of Allah. Everything is dependent upon the Creator and the Creator is not dependent upon anything.

Imam An-Nasafiyy mentions that Allah is not an `arad. An `arad is a bodily property. The `arad does not have an existence independent of a body. Some examples of the `arads would include, motion/stillness, mass, size, shape, color, taste, etc. Allah is clear of all such characteristics. As for the jism it is the composite entity (something composed of particles), and the jawhar is the indivisible particle. If we consider any object we are familiar with, it is conceivable that that object can be divided, and that subdivision can be further divided, and so on. However, common sense tells us that a finite body could not be made of infinite parts (for this would lead to the absurdity that a pencil would be composed of as many particles as Mount Everest); hence, the given body must be composed of “elementary particles” that no longer accept further division. Allah is not an elementary particle, and Allah is not a thing composed of elementary particles. Allah is not a body, object, or spatial entity, and Allah is not attributed with the properties of bodies, objects, or spatial entities.

An-Nasafiyy goes on to talk more about Tanzeeh of Allah (that is, the Muslim belief that God is Glorious Great from being dependent upon any of the creations or resembling any of the creations). He mentions some of what Abu Ja`far At-Tahawiyy said in his famous treatise on the Sunni Creed two centuries earlier:

“Allah is supremely clear of all boundaries, extremities, sides, organs, appendages, and instruments. None of the six directions contain Allah, as is the case with all originated things.”²

It is the belief of the Muslims that Allah is not attributed with quiddity—that is, “whatness.” One cannot ask “what is God”—for there is no “what” to compare God to. God is God, and God is not something else—nor is there something else similar to God. Likewise, one cannot ask “how” is God, for “howness” (modality) is inapplicable to Allah. One should be warned about a ruse used by the quasi-Salafis (Wahhabis). The quasi-Salafis ascribe to Allah various temporal and corporeal attributes, and then claim that, for instance, they don’t know “how” Allah’s (alleged) real-actual face, eyes, fingers, shinbone, or feet are. First it must be said that Allah has no “how” to ask about. “How” does not apply to Allah, just as age, color, texture and other created attributes do not apply to Allah.

Furthermore, words have meanings. One cannot ascribe “real-actual” body parts to the Creator and then say that those “real-actual” body parts are not “real-actual” body parts. Either a person believes that Allah has “real-actual” organs and limbs, which is object worship and kufr (disbelief), or the person does not believe Allah is composed of “real-actual” body parts, and if that is the case, then he (or she) shouldn’t use English expressions that could lead one to think inappropriate things about their Lord. Regarding the Wahhabis (so-called Salafis), the fact that they think Allah casts a shadow and moves about in the nighttime exposes that they are guilty of object worship.

An-Nasafiyy goes on to mention one of the essentials of the Islamic Creed: that is, Allah exists without being in a location. He says of Allah: “La yatamakkanu fee makaan,” which means, Allah is not positioned or situated in a place. This matter is especially important for one to understand nowadays, for there are many people who are confused about this fundamental aspect of Islam. Before there was place, there was a Creator. After Allah originated the creations (which includes place) Allah did not transform and materialize in a place. Likewise, Allah exists without being in a direction. Direction, after all, is the comparison of the location of one object to the location of another object. Allah is not an object, and since Allah is not an object, then Allah is not in a direction or a place.

An-Nasafiyy goes on to say that time does not lapse upon Allah. As space is related to the objects, time is related to the occurrences. The occurrence is something that wasn’t and then was brought into being. The occurrence has a before (before it existed), a duration, and a termination—its existence is inextricably related to change. This is why Imam Al-Junayd Al-Baghdadiyy said: “Change is the greatest indication of being a creation.” Allah does not have an origin. Allah was before the occurrences; Allah’s Existence does not have a duration and does not have a termination. Allah is Perfect and not subject to transformation. Allah does not change; hence, age and time are inapplicable to Allah. Allah is not a temporal entity.

And in conclusion, Imam An-Nasafiyy says that Allah has no similarity to the creations. This is in keeping with the glorious Verse of the Qur’an: Laysa kamithlihi shay’, which means: “There is absolutely nothing like Allah whatsoever.” The Creator is absolutely different from the creations. The Creator exists without time, place, distance, or direction. The Creator is unimaginable, as Abu Bakr Siddeeq said: “Knowing you are incapable of imagining Allah, is knowledge in itself. Attempting to imagine Allah is disbelief and paganism.” That is so, because all that one can imagine is related to created phenomena, and to think that Allah is somehow or somewhat similar to any created being is to violate Allah’s Oneness and Perfection. And to commit such a violation would cause a person to fall into shirk (the worship of other than Allah), and such shirk is certainly blasphemy.

May Allah guide us and protect us in our Deen and enable us to spread the genuine Creed of the Muslims. Praise and thanks to Allah, and Allah knows best!

1The use of the grammatically masculine pronoun is a means of speech and does not mean that Allah is a “male.” Allah is not a body and does not have an actual gender.

2For more explanation on this statement, please see: http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/the-tanzeeh-of-allah/

The African-American Muslim in 2012

The African-American Muslim in 2012

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

Praise and thanks be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds

I had in mind to write this article prior to what occurred here in Memphis this weekend. What occurred took me back to another place and another era in my life, and it made what I am about to address all the more real and concrete. I had intended to write my “Black Man’s Manifesto” over on my other blog (http://inthisjournal.wordpress.com/) to clear the air about my position today about being Muslim and race in America, so that the readers don’t think that I hold the same views now that I held in my Journals many years ago.

People read what they wish into my comments about this subject. Some think that I am the Muslim version of Uncle Ruckus, and others “just know” that I am a crypto-Khaled Muhammad¹ wannabe. The fact of the matter is I am neither. Being critical of the current condition of black culturedoesn’t mean that I hate or feel ashamed of being black. On the other hand, to ignore the unique condition of the African-American convert, or to tell him just to “get over” the matters of race and identity reflects a real ignorance or insensitivity to African-American sensibilities. As one person said to me recently, “The immigrants [Muslims] do not know how to raise African-American children.” People are different. Different people have different problems, and different problems require different solutions.

My objective here is to give the Muslims a wake up call regarding a people who are in a deep state of crisis, namely, African-American Muslim. Why am I talking about African-American Muslims, in particular? Because there is no other ethnic group of converts that actually has developed their own Muslim subculture. African-American Muslims (and those who identify as Muslim and/or are considered to be “Muslim” by the general African-American population—I’m not going into the matters of creed, yet) have a relatively substantial and disproportionate amount of influence in African-American culture over the past fifty years. If you doubt me, ask yourself how many white American Muslim converts are considered to be “heroes,” leaders, or role models in mainstream white culture? I’m not talking about white converts who are thought of highly by fellow Muslims, I am talking about white converts that are regarded highly by white non-Muslims. Typically the white convert is seen as little more than a race traitor amongst his brethren of European origins.

Now, ask yourself how many Muslim converts (or people perceived to be Muslim) have been heroes, leaders, or role models in the African-American community (and not necessarily for religious reasons)? Not always, but also not infrequently, when a black person embraces Islam, it is seen (or at least was seen) as a positive thing among non-Muslim African-Americans. It would be thought that this convert would clean himself up from the drugs and alcohol, stop chasing women and become a family man; he would start to instill discipline and order in other aspects of his life. This is not the same perception that a white convert is seen by fellow white non-Muslims. As for other American ethnic groups, I know that there is a growing Latino Muslim community, but I don’t know of any that have reached any major prominence among non-Muslim Latinos, and as for converts from East Asian backgrounds, I think they remain to be very few and very far between.

Also, it was African-Americans who pretty much made the word “Islam” a household word in America. This was due largely to the activism of the so-called Nation of Islam (“Nation”). And it was the work of African-American activists (many of whom were at least influenced by those who self-identified as “Muslims”) that made America’s previously virulent racism tolerable for those Muslims who started coming to America after the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965.² With that said, many African-American Muslims would like to “get their props” for the sacrifices people of their ethnicity have made to improve the racial conditions in this country—something the immigrant Muslims benefit from immensely. I can understand those sentiments, even if they matter little to me now.

Now let us get down to the meat and potatoes. I decided to delay writing my “Race Manifesto” because of what I witnessed at the ISNA Convention this year. Perhaps, while I was there in the bazaar and walking about, I saw a dozen men I could—or would like to think I could—identify as African-American. That’s not many—given that there were probably 30,000 people in attendance. Also, this morning, as I was thinking some more about ISNA, I realized that I don’t remember seeing any African-American vendors. I saw a couple working with I think it was the Wahhabi booksellers, but they were just there setting up and the likes. I didn’t spend much time on the clothing side of the bazaar, but usually there wouldn’t be many African-American vendors there anyhow.

One might say that, “Well, ISNA isn’t really an African-American event: it’s an Indo-Pakistani/Bangladeshi kinda thing.” That’s understood, but Washington D.C. is a city that is still 50% black and a substantial number of those African-Americans are self-identified as Muslim. To number, perhaps, not more than a few dozen—or even a few hundred—at such a major Muslim event indicates that something is amiss. One might counter that the $75 entrance fee is cost prohibitive for many African-American Muslims. Yes, I am sure that is a factor, but that leads to another issue. Why is it that the South Asians, who entered this country having to struggle with language and cultural obstacles and religious prejudices, are able to afford such an event—often traveling hundreds of miles and having to pay for relatively expensive hotel rooms—while a substantial number of African-American Muslims who live in the Washington, D.C. region cannot?

As for saying that ISNA ain’t a black thing, then exactly what is a “black thing?” Several years ago I attended as a vendor the MANA Conference in Philadelphia. MANA (Muslim Alliance in North America) is the black version of ISNA, so to speak. Seeing that ISNA is not particularly responsive to the needs of the African-American, MANA attempted to hold a conference to talk about the issues of indigenous (i.e., largely, African-American) Muslims. The problem here is that the MANA convention, held in the city with probably the largest percentage of African-American Muslims in the world, located about two hours from both D.C. and New York City, attracted, it was said, 1,500 people in total. I’m not good with the head counting, but it didn’t even seem like it was that many.

Furthermore, in contrast to what one sees at ISNA (not to mention the RIS): thousands upon thousands upon thousands of teenagers and early 20-somethings, I do not recall seeing two dozen folks from that age bracket at MANA. What comes to mind was one mother that seemed to be dragging her “tween”/teenage children along; she wanted them to be there, so they could see some African-American “scholars.” It seemed that most of the people there were “ole-heads,” who used the convention as an opportunity to catch up on lost time… time lost somewhere perhaps back in the mid 80′s.

Well, if the African-Americans are not at ISNA nor MANA, then were are they? I have to give a shout to Umar Lee for the piece he did on the history of the American Wahhabis and other articles he’s done about the condition of the working class Muslims. He’s far more familiar with the different African-American Muslim enclaves than I am but my observations, although narrower in scope, are pretty much in line with his. There are exceptions (like those the Brother who just visited pointed to) but on the whole, we have witnessed general loss of the momentum among those African-Americans who self-identify as Muslims. Again, for the time being, I am not going into the details of Doctrine (God-willing, I’m going to get there), but when we consider the hundreds of thousands of people who were involved with the “Nation,” and the many tens of thousands (if not more) who were involved with the community of W.D. Mohammed, and the various other black nationalist figures who started to identify with Sunni Islam through the seventies and eighties, and then a little later with the rise of African-American Wahhabism, what remains of what has been called the “Movement Muslims?”³

It’s been about forty years since African-Americans in any recognizable numbers began to call themselves “Sunni Muslim.” In those four decades, what have they produced? Where are their national institutions? (I am not talking about the W.D. Community, per se, because for most of that time they opposed traditional Sunni scholarship, although I have heard that there have been changes in that community in more recent years).

In spite of African-Americans being at the vanguard of what was popularly considered to be “Islam” in this country, and at one time being the largest ethnic of Muslims in America, how have they become increasingly irrelevant in the discourse about Islam in this country? I think that there are two general reasons. One, was that during the early days of this period there was an absolute dearth of traditional Sunni learning in this country. People simply did not have much access to traditional scholarship. The books available were poorly written (or translated) and few qualified people were around to explain and clarify, especially, in English. This led to people reading, for instance, a “Yusuf Ali” (an immensely problematic book), a collection of ((mis)translated) Hadiths, and a Muslim prayer book, and trying to come up with their own understanding of “Islam.” Some dabbled into the Arabic language. Islamic scholarship simply does not work in a “do-it-yourself” manner. A people whose grasp of the traditional Islamic scholarship is that tenuous will easily be surpassed by immigrants—even if the immigrants themselves don’t have much training in the traditional Islamic sciences.

This ignorance of traditional scholarship left the door for the unscrupulous to exploit the African-American zeal to learn about Islam. The Saudi regime, with its Wahhabi⁴ ideology, offered scholarships to almost anyone who wanted to go to the Kingdom to study. Many went to study for various stretches. Some went long enough to get their Wahhabi indoctrination and learn enough Arabic to astound the unlettered black folk. Others went for lengthier periods. These people, although not following genuine Sunni Islam certainly had more than enough “familiarity” with traditional scholarship than those who were still trying to figure Islam out from pulp fiqh texts coming from the Indian subcontinent or the works of the “modernists” and the Orientalists.

The Wahhabis (so-called Salafis) could at least masquerade as Sunni Muslims (to the point that they still confuse a good number of Muslims in Muslim countries until today). The Wahhabis quote not only the “Qur’an and Sunnah,” but also (selectively) quote a good number of traditional Sunni scholars. As Umar Lee points out, as the Wahhabi movement began to grow amongst African-Americans, the percentage of the socially dysfunctional amongst them also began to grow. It can be said that a good number of early Wahhabi converts were relatively educated, intelligent, and functional human beings. Many of them were inspired in their “quest” via the socially conscious lyrics of rap in the late 80′s and reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X—or seeing Spike Lee’s movie on Malcolm. These early converts gravitated towards Wahhabism probably not because they preferred the doctrinal absurdities of Wahhabism over the clarity and rational consistency of the genuine Sunni creed, but at that time (late 80′s-early 90′s), people had little access to traditional Sunni scholarship, much less, detailed explanations of the Sunni belief or clearly written English refutations of Wahhabism by Sunni authors.

Of course, there were the pathological types in the African-American Wahhabi movement from the earliest days, but as I like to point out, when a criticalmass of such people become part of a given community, the community almost inevitably has to unravel and disintegrate. Also, for the Wahhabis, they were so keen on importing and imposing their rigid methodology—as they had learned it in Saudi—that they ignored the social needs of the African-Americans in the inner city. (One can give due credit to the “Nation” in that it addressed the psyche of black folks—the tragic thing is that the Nation also taught the people misguidance and blasphemy in the process. Unfortunately, many immigrant Muslims in da`wah still don’t understand the unique problems that African-Americans face, and as a result do not examine the programs the Nation developed to assist with the material and psychological needs of black people.)

As the African-American Wahhabi movement brought more and more followers from the black underclass and prisons into its fold, it also brought in the problems that flourish in the ghetto. In some cases, some of the Wahhabis did try to “keep things halaal,” such as, instead of committing serial fornication with almost any female with a pulse, the Wahhabis just made serial “contracts” with any female who could be “wifed.” Many of the men had no gainful employment… but that did not stop them from breeding kids that they didn’t care for. Then there was the outright haraam and illegal activity, whether the criminal violence, or drug dealing, or the con-games. Unlike the “Nation,” which focused on addressing and eradicating black ghetto pathologies, as well as, the importance of financial and familial stability, the Wahhabis, and even many African-American Sunni Muslims, failed to break the cycle of social and family dysfunction that is so pervasive in the “hood.” This, in a nutshell, explains why African-American Muslims (as a community) are having a smaller and smaller role in the discourse about Islam in America.

God-willing, in the next entry on this topic, we will discuss the consequences of this failure, and what can be doing to help rectify the situation.

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.

1Khaled Muhammad had been a leader in the so-called nation of Islam (please see refutation here: http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/refutation-of-farrakhanism-the-so-called-nation-of-islam/). And later he founded the New Black Panther Party. He was notorious for his black racist tirades against white people.

2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_Nationality_Act_of_1965

3Is there any African-American (self-identified as) Sunni organization, aside from those who call themselves “Salafis” on the national stage (among Muslims) with membership beyond a few hundred? And if so what institutions have they built?

4The Wahhabis (they refer to themselves as “Salafis”) are a corporealist faction that claims God is a giant bipedal unidentified extraterrestrial shadow-casting object with a smiling face and one shinbone. The Wahhabi (so-called “Salafi”) creed contradicts some of the most fundamental principles of the Muslim belief in the Creator, namely, that the Creator ABSOLUTELY does not need or resemble the creations. Allah is the Creator of space, place, distance and direction, and Allah exists without being in a space, place, distance, or direction. Allah is not an image or object. Whatever one imagines, Allah is absolutely different from that! Please see the following for a refutation of Wahhabism: http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/the-difference-between-the-sunni-and-quasi-salafi-wahhabi-doctrines/.

Quotations 38 and 39 Of Self-Doubt

Quotations 38 and 39 Of Self-Doubt

#38

“What would you attempt to achieve if you were confident (in-shaa’ Allah) you would succeed?”

#39

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”

—William Shakespeare

facetofloor.wordpress.com/

Some ISNA Reflections

Some ISNA Reflections

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/

This is our fifth year going to the ISNA convention to sell books, pass out pamphlets, an simply get to meet people. This year we were a bit short-handed, but praise Allah, we managed. In brief, the ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) convention is the largest annual Muslim convention in the country. It attracts Muslims from all over the USA and Canada, and there are speakers who come from other parts of the world as well.

As for the demographics of the attendees, I said a few years ago that 75% were South Asians (Bangladeshis/Indo-Pakistanis); I was quickly corrected and the person said more like 85%. I have to agree, and this year there seemed to be more South Asians than years before. In terms of sheer numbers, the convention typically attracts 30,000-40,000 people. Although I may be wrong, but it did seem that there were fewer people this year than before—but still the number was in the tens of thousands. Besides the South Asian community, there was no other “sub-dominant” group. There was a medley of other ethnic groups, such as, Turks, East Africans, a few Arabs, a few African-Americans and white Americans, some West Africans, and some people from Indonesia and Malaysia. I spent most of my time at our table, so I did not see that much, but this is an assessment from the people who passed by at the bazaar, and the few times that I walked around.

There’s always lot’s of energy at the convention. For many, this is one of the religious highlights of the year along with the Eids. The general atmosphere there is pleasant, and the people are friendly. I am quick to remind people about the difference between the Muslim culture, as seen at ISNA, and what it would be like to be sitting at a table during a hip hop convention. It is clear, for to all but the most hardened cultural relativists, that not all cultures are “equal.”

The convention provides me, personally, with the opportunity to see what is new on the market, especially with books. Although the Internet provides access to all kinds of information, sometimes a book title might slip under the radar. Aside from the Wahhabi book publishers that are ISNA, such as, the so-called, Darusalaam and Al-Basheer, most of the book sellers are indiscriminate with what they sell. One may very well find a book by the notorious Wahhabi, Uthaimeen, right next to a translation from the works of Al-Ghazali. Sometimes, such books can even be seen side by side.

This leads me to my more critical assessment of the conference. MANY—I mean MANY—of the Muslims there in attendance seem to have very little traditional Islamic education. I am not that familiar with what South Asians learn or how they learn about Islam in their home countries, but it seems to me, aside from that minority who are “students of (traditional) knowledge,” that the typical religious education consists of little more than memorizing some Qur’an (without careful attention to the rules of tajweed), how to pray, fast, and some basic rules of Islamic etiquette—and some sirah of the Prophet and stories about the Companions.

I make this assessment, in part, because when many of the people came by the table, and I made it a point to mention that we have a translation and explanation of the Creed of At-Tahawi, they seemed utterly unfamiliar with the name, although, At-Tahawi himself was a Hanafi, and the overwhelming majority of Muslims in South Asia are Hanafis, and At-Tahawi’s book is universally known among the students of knowledge. If it is, like it seems, that many of the first generation Muslim immigrants are unfamiliar with the classical Islamic doctrinal tradition—beyond the most elementary matters—then that would mean that they are utterly ill-equipped to deal with the challenges of Western modernity. And if that is the case with the first generation, then it can be all the more expected that the second generation does not have the theological heft to contend in this marketplace of ideas. And this is something extremely dangerous.

You’re Being Tricked, Hoodwinked, Bamboozled, Led Astray….

The word “lucidity” kept reverberating in my head at ISNA this year. Perhaps it was the reishi (or the newest supplement to the herbal arsenal that I bought in D.C.’s Chinatown that weekend) but I could not help but recognize that it seemed that many of the people there do not have clarity. I don’t mean that they have bad beliefs, but they are not familiar with “who is who” and the ideologies followed by the various speakers in attendance. Do they know what an “apologist” is? Or a so-called “Hislami?¹” Or a Wahhabi? Or a quasi-traditionalist? Are they capable of discerning the talk of genuine Ahlus-Sunnah from the people of deviant innovation? As the scholars have said: “The one who does not know evil is more prone to fall into it.” Furthermore, many the speakers, instead of educating the masses about the matters of `Aqidah and making things perspicuous—crystal clear—for them, they are dumbing the audiences down and sedating them with “feel good stories” that don’t address the most important aspect of Islam: that is, the CORRECT BELIEF in the Creator of the universe, and the correct belief in the Prophets.

Some of these speakers are extremely popular. These speakers are educated in the classical Islamic tradition; they know how the scholars explained matters of doctrine; they know that those scholars spoke explicitly about blasphemy and apostasy (kufr and riddah); these speakers are not people who’ve been attending little madrasahs in obscure villages in Kashmir or in the deserts of Chad for the past 20 years and are unfamiliar with the deviant doctrines Muslims in the West are confronted with. They know exactly what areas of `Aqidah the Muslims in America are confused about—or may be vulnerable to confusion—yet, these speakers are conspicuously silent about these matters. It is enough to look at the various question and answers posed on message boards and blogs about the basic belief in Allah and other fundamental matters of creed to realize that there is A LOT of doctrinal confusion among Muslims in America. We can also be nearly certain that the vast majority of the people would accept the truth from these speakers with no problem (just as they devour their convolution with no apparent objection). So why not simply state the truth and inform the people?

It is difficult to think that this is not by design. For one, there was the “Pledge” that was signed a few years ago in which various folks on “The Circuit” said that the Muslims, in general, should not concern themselves with the matters of Creed beyond the most rudimentary issues. This “Pledge” includes expanding the term “Sunni Islam” to include the Wahhabi doctrine. The Wahhabi doctrine, however, entails praying to a giant extraterrestrial shadow-casting bipedal object with a smiling face, organs, and a shinbone. The Sunni scholars have explicitly deemed such a belief kufr (blasphemy). Conversely, the Wahhabis (going back to the founder of Wahhabism, Muhammad ibn `Abdul-Wahhab) deemed that the masses of Muslims are “grave worshipers” and disbelievers. As a result, the Wahhabis have taught that it is permissible to mass murder those who do not follow their ideology (and we see the consequence of this deviant ideology in the terrorist acts being committed the world over in the “name of Islam”).

How can it be that the (real) Sunnis would consider genuine object worshipers, like the Wahhabis, part of Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama`ah? How would a sincere Sunni Muslim abandon enjoining the good and forbidding evil for the sake of some false sense of “unity?” It is part of our religion to inform and educate others about the proper belief in the Creator. If a person is praying to a giant imaginary spatial entity that he thinks lives above his head, then he is not a Muslim. You teach him the correct belief. If he accepts, that is great for him, but if he rejects, then it would not possible to “unite” with an object worshiper in the name of “Islam.”

One can readily imagine the absurd scenarios this method of “unity” would lead to. If a non-Muslim were to ask a genuine Sunni questions about the Muslim belief in God, the genuine Sunni would explain that Allah, the Creator of time and space, exists without time or space; Allah is not a material or spiritual being. Allah is not not something with a size or dimensions. Whatever one imagines, Allah is different from that. The Wahhabi, however, would interject and say that, indeed, Allah does have a size and dimensions and that Allah has giant organs and limbs and a smiling face. The non-Muslim would immediately see that these are two different beliefs and that it is not possible that both of these beliefs could be correct. It is not possible that the sincere Sunni could “unite” with a Wahhabi in the name of Islam. And this applies to all the other deviant ideologies and factions that claim to represent Islam, but teach kufr in reality.

We are not talking about differences in the details of fiqh. There are people who claim to be Muslim giving speeches in front of thousands of people, but they reject the creed of the Prophet. This is known. Aside from the Wahhabi doctrine, you have people claiming to be Muslim, and they believe that Allah is a body of light. Others claim that Allah is everything and everything is Allah. Others claim that a person can attain salvation while rejecting Prophet Muhammad—although Allah informed us that he (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam) is a Prophet! These beliefs are kufr (blasphemy) and nullify one’s Islam. Yet, we don’t hear any of these speakers taking the time out to warn their captivated audiences about these erroneous beliefs—beliefs that are not uncommon among those who identify themselves as Muslims.

What lends greater suspicion to something more insidious is going is that one prominent American writer and speaker, who is at least heavily influenced by Wahhabi ideology, has a very extensive website but has virtually nothing dedicated to what he might consider “Tawheed.” I’m not saying it’s a bad thing that he doesn’t mention what is typically mentioned by Wahhabis in the matters of Tawheed, but it is odd that something so fundamental as the matters of creed are not mentioned. It’s as if he is intentionally is trying to conceal the details of what his conviction about Allah are.

Among the most famous of these personalities on the circuit wrote a couple of years ago a 20 page article in which he could not clearly define what a kaafir is. Twenty-one pages of obfuscation, that praise Allah, I can clarify in one sentence: a kaafir is a person who is not a Muslim. And I can add, maa-shaa’ Allah, an additional detail: the kaafirs are of two types: the accountable kaafir (those who are sane, pubescent, and heard the call to Islam² in a language they can understand) and the unaccountable kaafir (those who are not sane, or not pubescent, or did not hear the call to Islam). Islam teaches that the Muslims will ultimately attain salvation in the Hereafter, and the accountable kaafirs will be in Hell for perpetuity. (The non-accountable people will not be punished in the Hereafter for their disbelief and will be admitted to Paradise).

It should not be surprising that this person engaged in his 21 page exercise of obfuscation, for he has now recently admitted (at least according to a Youtube video) that he does not believe in the standard Islamic belief in salvific exclusivity—that Islam is the only religion accepted by Allah (Al-Qur’an 3:16; 3:85; 48:13). To the contrary, he admits that he has a belief different from what Ahlus-Sunnah says about the destination of those who rejected the message of Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam).

As a convert coming from a sort of social-activist background, I was all for “unity, but first and foremost, I was for CLARITY. I wanted to know what the true belief in God was. I wanted to know how I could know that it was the true belief in God; I wanted to know how to rationally explain and intellectually defend the true belief in God. It seemed obvious that there would be beliefs that would not merely contradict the correct Islamic belief, but there would be beliefs that would render a person’s Islam null and void. It was evident to me once I started learning traditional knowledge that not everyone who calls himself a Muslim is a Muslim. There are, after all, people who claim to be Muslim and say that the word “Allah” is an acronym for Arm-Leg-Leg-Arm-Head and call themselves “Allah.” There are people who claim that Allah is Fard Muhammad. When I learned the true Creed, the erroneous beliefs became obvious, and I could explain why such beliefs were incorrect.

The creed of the Sunnis, as explained by the great Ash`ari and Maaturidi scholars, was so evidently true that I could not possibly want to “unite in the name of Islam” with someone who would reject the pure creed of Tawheed and opt for object or image worship and polytheism. It was clear to me that these misguided people had diseases in their hearts and harbored ill convictions about their Creator. I did not want to “unite” with such people—to the contrary, I wanted to learn how to refute such people.

One indicator that many of these “leaders” are not remotely sincere is that they are telling their listeners not to learn about takfeer and apostasy. Who in their right mind would encourage a Muslim to be ignorant about those matters that would negate their Islam and be a reason for them to lose all their good deeds and be cast into Hellfire—forever? Instead, these “leaders” will give speeches on how to save the environment—but not on how to save one’s self from falling into kufr.

Also, it makes perfect sense to me that the opponents of Islam would attempt to undermine Islam from within. These people who cannot bear the truth would naturally try to undermine Islam by supporting or initiating deviant factions that would call unsuspecting Muslims to confusion, misguidance, disunity, and blasphemy. We see that this is part of their agenda very clearly here: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1716.html. The way for one to protect him or herself would be to learn about the blasphemy so that one would be aware of it and be able to identify those who are promoting it, in-shaa’ Allah. To the contrary, these “leaders” promote books and share the stage with those calling to blasphemy in the name of Islam, and they tell their followers NOT to learn what the Sunni scholars said about blasphemy.

These “leaders”are telling the people to disregard the matters of apostasy. There are people who are confused about what nullifies one’s Islam, and these leaders instead of educating them about what those matters are and the rules pertaining to blasphemy, they tell their audiences to simply ignore them. We live in a time and place where holding on to one’s Islam is getting more and more difficult, and the society is increasingly becoming engulfed in disbelief and sacrilege, yet these “leaders” are not educating Muslims on how to protect themselves from the fire fueled by human beings and stones.

The solution is simple. The true Sunni Muslims need to be diligent in propagating the creed of Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama`ah, as it was codified by the great Ash`ari and Maaturidi scholars. We see that the Muslims need to be educated about the matters of kufr and riddah (disbelief and apostasy). The various theological controversies whether about the Attributes of Allah, Destiny, human will, the muhkam and mutashaabihaat Verses, etc. have all been discussed and resolved by these great theological schools; hence we should follow them. The Ash`aris-Maaturidis explained the matters of the Sunni creed in a rational manner (consistent, of course, with the Qur’an and Sunnah), which is especially important in this age of science and alleged “intellectualism.”

In conclusion, either a person believes Allah is the One and Only Creator, Who absolutely does not need or resemble anything, and that Muhammad is the final Prophet and his Sacred Laws are superior to all other laws, or the person rejects this and is a disbeliever. Simple as that. Muslims who are not educated in the Sunni theological tradition will find it difficult to rationally defend the Muslim doctrine. They will have no clarity in explaining the true belief of the Sunni Muslims, and they will be susceptible to those miscreants who wish to exploit their ignorance. So let those who haven’t learned sit with those people who can teach them, and let us all unite with the proper knowledge and with sincerity to obey Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. This is how we can build a strong Muslim community in North America and elsewhere.

1A so-called “Hislami” is an ignoramus who simply makes up things about the Deen (hence, “His” (so-called) “Islam”).

2The “call to Islam” means hearing the Declaration of Faith—that is, “There is nothing worthy of worship except Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.”

Don’t Snore on the Apologists

Don’t Snore on the Apologists

It was said:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=415702528489095
(Let’s be ABSOLUTELY clear that the one who rejects or belies what is commonly known and well-established as part of Islam is not a Muslim—regardless of what such a person may call him or herself.)

We’ve been warning about this for some time. Again, people should not underestimate the kind of threat that these so-called “progressives” are to the Muslims in the West. Many just dismiss them as extreme ignoramuses and deviants, but what they are doing is opening the door for Muslims to tolerate and normalize “less” deviant behavior. The objective is to redraw the line as to what some might call “moderate” Islam and what is “extremist” Islam.

In my opinion, the apologists/the Western pop-culture propaganda matrix are as great a threat to Muslims in the West as the radical extremists and Wahhabis. Please, do not sleep on the apologists/”modernists.” Their arguments are very persuasive to those who have grown up in a culture saturated with secularism and have little background in the traditional Islamic sciences (much less Islamic polemics and counter-arguments to Western ideologies).

The subject is touched upon here:

http://facetofloor.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/muslim-youth-and-the-identity-of-crisis/

                                    *******************************

May I say politely that I don’t think folks are getting it. When people talk about “proving” that such a prayer is invalid and then quoting scholarly sources to demonstrate such, this is futile to do with a person who does not accept the framework from which you are operating (just as one does not quote (as a primary source) the Qur’an to refute a Christian or an atheist). You have to address erroneous underlying principles from which these apologists operate. The apologists are operating from a secular/anti-traditional perspective, and this is the general zeitgeist of popular culture (it says that tradition is “old fashioned” and outdated and that we must believe in the promise of some utopia that will come in the future with more “progress”).

One has to keep in mind that the VAST MAJORITY of second generation Muslim youth have NO TRAINING in the traditional Islamic sciences. And it is safe to say that MANY of the first generation Muslim immigrants also did not have such training, but what they did have was an attachment to Islamic culture (or at least the culture of their Muslim country). They may be dirt-ignorant about the details of Islamic jurisprudence, but they knew certain things were right or wrong because that is simply what Muslims do (or don’t do). However, in this country, there is no real Islamic culture (or culture from Muslim countries) outside of a few pockets where some Muslims are concentrated. Instead, what a Muslim child is exposed to is secularism/Cultural Marxism. They are indoctrinated into the ideology of “equality,” “tolerance (as the secularists),” “anti-judgmentalism,” “human rights” (again, as the secularists define them), “democracy,” ad nauseum. In the contemporary culture these ideas are part of the standard operating system—and they are not to be challenged. How many Muslim high school seniors do you think are out there in America who can break down the folly of democracy, or write a five page essay on why Muslims do not believe in “equality” between the genders, or give a twenty minute lecture in front of a mixed (Muslim and non-Muslim) audience on the absurdity of claiming two men can marry each other? Let’s be real: WE ARE NOT AT ALL PREPARED FOR THE REALITY OF THIS 21ST CENTURY CORPORATE-CONSUMER SECULAR SOCIETY. And these youth have no wherewithal to resist it. To date, we—the older Muslims—have failed to educate the next generation properly. Now, we have to wake the <expletive> up.

With that said, for a person who has grown up with the notion of “equality,” of course, she (or maybe even he) is going to question why women can’t lead the prayers? After all, to claim that one believes in gender “equality,” and not allow the women to lead the prayers is hypocritical. We have to keep in mind that she (or he) has grown up hearing from her indoctrinators about the so-called “evils of patriarchy.” She (or he) has been told that what is needed is “progress,” and progress is for women to gain (selective) “sameness” with men. If you tell her (or him) “Bukhari reported” or that that “Abu Hanifah said,” she (or he) is going to tell you that she (or he) doesn’t take from men who record “sexist” and “homophobic” remarks in their works. What is needed is for Muslims to be trained in polemics, so they can tear down the facade of secularism and Cultural Marxism (along with the proofs from standard traditional Islamic scholarship). Without that, the Muslims (talking about younger Muslims, in particular) are completely vulnerable to the propaganda/pop culture matrix they are totally submerged in.

Post Script

More Cultural Marxist gibberish from an apologist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26q-kZlmXMk&feature=youtu.be

And if one truly wishes to understand what is driving this apologist agenda, one should read the summary version of this Rand Report:

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1716.html