A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Dr. Colin Turner wrote, “I cannot pretend that this is an academic paper, although at some point it may grow into one.  At the moment it is merely an exercise in thinking aloud, so please bear with me.   In a sense, this paper represents the confluence of two streams of thought.  The first stream, the smaller of the two, concerns the notion of uswatun hasanah or the ‘excellent pattern’, which is an epithet given to both the Prophet Muhammad ( s.a.w. ) and the Prophet Abraham ( a.s. ), in the Qur’an.  The second stream, and the more substantial one, concerns an on-going research interest of mine in the concept of the ‘vital lie’, popularised by Ernest Becker, a cultural anthropologist who died some forty years ago now and whose main claim to fame is the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, ‘The Denial of Death’.   Let me start with the first stream of thought, which concerns this notion of uswatun hasanah – the notion of th...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ One of the great Sufi a’immah who was also known as a muhaddits , preacher, and Maliki jurist, Shaykh Taj ad-Din Abu al-Fadhl Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Atha’illah as-Sakandari ( q.s. ) is the author of al-Hikam , Miftah al-Falah , Qaswd al-Mujarrad fi Ma’rifat al-Ism al-Mufrad , Taj al-‘Arus al-Hawi li Tadzhib an-Nufus , ‘Unwan at-Tawfiq fi Adab ath-Thariq , the biographical Latha’if fi Manaqib Abu al-‘Abbas al-Mursi wa Shaykhihi Abu al-Hasan , and others.  He was Shaykh Shahab ad-Din Abu al-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn ‘Umar al-Mursi’s ( q.s. ) student and the second successor of the Sufi founder, Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn ‘Abdullah ash-Shadzili ( q.s. ).   Shaykh ibn ‘Atha’illah as-Sakandari ( q.s. ) was one of those who confronted Shaykh Taqi’ ad-Din Ahmad ibn ‘Abd al-Halim ibn Taymiyyah ( r.a. ) for his excesses in attacking those of the Sufis with whom he disagreed.  Shaykh ibn ‘Atha’illah as-Sakandari ( q.s. ) never referred to Shaykh...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Christianity, like any old religion, has had its share of extremists, and few comes as extreme as their own suicide fighters, the Circumcellions.  The Circumcellions roamed Northern Africa, killing people, torturing them, and pillaging, in the name of Christianity, until they were killed.  They were bands of Roman Christian radicals in Numidia and nearby regions of North Africa in the early to mid-4 th century.  They were considered heretical by the Catholic Church.  They condemned poverty and slavery, and advocated cancelling debt and freeing slaves.  They started out as a movement to fight oppression.   The origin of the term “Circumcellions” is uncertain.  It  may have been coined as a mockery  name by their critics who referred to them as “ circum cellas euntes ”, “they go around larders”.  This referred to their habit of moving about among the peasants, living on those they sought to indoctrina...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is taken from the swuhbah by Shaykh Muhammad Nazhim Adil al-Haqqani ( q.s. ), from the 02 nd March 2023.   We live in a world of possibilities, a world where everything occurs for an asbab , a reason.  That is a characteristic of this worldly life, not the characteristics of the Divine realm.  In life, what Allah ( s.w.t. ) places before us, choices.  We have to make the right choice in order to benefit.  It is like a huge table filled with all kinds of food, and we are free to pick and choose what we want to eat.  On one side of the table, there is Divine food, food for the soul, every single nourishment needed by our spiritual selves; nothing is missing.  The prophets and saints beckon us to this side of the table.  However, many reject the invitation because the journey to that side of the table is arduous.  There are many qualifications to be met before we can get the food.  I...