A Muslim Convert Once Before

The Council of Carthage declared Pelagius a heretic in 418 CE. The argument he was condemned for has not stopped since.  It resurfaces in every theological tradition that takes seriously the question of human moral responsibility — including Islam, which arrived centuries later and proceeded to have the same argument with considerable vigour. The Man and the Controversy Pelagius was a British monk — his origins are debated, but the sources consistently place him as coming from the British Isles — who arrived in Rome around 380 CE and built a significant reputation as an ascetic and moral teacher.  His public life was austere.  His rhetoric was persuasive.  Bishop Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis called him a saintly man before calling him a heretic.  The transition between those two assessments tells you something about the intensity of the theological stakes involved. Bishop Augustine of Hippo summarised it in The Spirit and the Letter IV : “There is an opinion ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is adapted from a swuhbah from Shaykh Muhammad Nazhim Adil al-Haqqani ( q.s. ) on the 09 th April 2010.   Many so-called scholars in Islam reject taswawwuf and thariqa’ .  Some not only reject it, they even label it as bid’ah , an innovation.  We have to open our eyes and take a good look at the world around ourselves today.  We have become restless creatures.  We seek solace and peace but cannot find it in the world of technology and entertainment.  Our souls are thirsty for spirituality.  There is an intense craving in many hearts today for a journey of love.  The world of materialistic pursuit is not one that will ever bring happiness to our hearts.  One is never contented or satisfied.  It is a world of mutual boasting and petty rivalry; it is meaningless and empty, and souls can never find rest.  The world of materialism leads to Jahannam ; it is Cursed by Allah ( s.w...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is taken from The Qur’anic Symbolism of Water , by Shaykh Siraj ad-Din Abu Bakr Martin Lings ( q.s. ).   In the Quran, the ideas of mercy and water, in particular rain, are in a sense inseparable.  With them must be included the idea of Revelation, tanzal , which means literally “a sending down.”  The Revelation and the rain are both “Sent Down” by the All-Merciful, and both are described throughout the Qur’an as “mercy,” and both are spoken of as “life-giving.”  So close is the connection of ideas that rain might even be said to be an integral part of the Revelation which it prolongs, as it were, in order that by penetrating the material world the Divine Mercy may reach the uttermost confines of Creation; and to perform the rite of ablution is to identify oneself, in the world of matter, with this wave of Mercy, and to return with it as it ebbs back towards the Principle, for purification is a return to our o...