From Andalus
Bismillah
He said:
– that Allah disposes souls in such ways that some are repulsed by others and some are attracted by others
– if people are hurting one, offending one, etc, it is because Allah out of His mercy wants one to turn away from placing one’s hope in people to turning to Allah (those people are sent to you by Allah as a test, so don’t see the people, but see Allah instead)
From Sheikh Suhaib Webb’s blog
Imam al-Fayruzabadi [may Allah have mercy upon him] said,
“Gratitude [to Allah] is built on five principles:
When one of these conditions is lost, then one of the principles of gratitude is gone.”
Ibn al-Qayyim [may Allah have mercy upon him] said,
“Thankfulness is the appearance of Allah’s blessing upon:
Allah says, “If you give thanks to Me, I will increase you.”
From Islamica Magazine
By JORDAN ROBINSON
The Muslim community in America remains gripped by “analysis paralysis,” argues Shahed Amanullah, editor-in-chief of the online magazine altmuslim.com. But he sees a light at the end of the tunnel, and for Amanullah, that light comes from his MacBook laptop screen. The Internet can be a powerful tool for open discussion, criticism, engagement and empowerment. But few efforts from the Muslim community have leveraged it as well as alt.muslim.
I will not
dance to your war
drum. I will
not lend my soul nor
my bones to your war
drum. I will
not dance to your
beating. I know that beat.
It is lifeless. I know
intimately that skin
you are hitting. It
was alive once
hunted stolen
stretched. I will
not dance to your drummed
up war. I will not pop
spin beak for you. I
will not hate for you or
even hate you. I will
not kill for you. Especially
I will not die
for you. I will not mourn
the dead with murder nor
suicide. I will not side
with you nor dance to bombs
because everyone else is
dancing. Everyone can be
wrong. Life is a right not
collateral or casual. I
will not forget where
I come from. I
will craft my own drum. Gather my beloved
near and our chanting
will be dancing. Our
humming will be drumming. I
will not be played. I
will not lend my name
nor my rhythm to your
beat. I will dance
and resist and dance and
persist and dance. This heartbeat is louder than
death. Your war drum ain’t
louder than this breath.
From Islamica Magazine
In America, law and politics have a hard time separating themselves. When it comes to issues of civil liberties and civil rights, you can hardly tell them apart. Enter Farhana Khera, former Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and co-founder of Muslim Advocates, a legal and policy advocacy organization.
From IslamOnline
CAIRO — A group of Muslim men patrol the street of their a crime-prone Washington neighborhood to deter drug dealers and restore a lost sense of safety, to the welcome of residents ad local police.“Nobody is going to invest in a drug-infested area,” Leroy Thorpe, founder of the Muslim neighborhood watch who goes by the Muslim name Mahdi, told the Washington Post on Tuesday, August 28.
About two months ago, the owners of the 35-unit Kelsey Gardens complex in Shaw, a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood in central Washington, D.C., asked the group to arrange security for the residents and crack down on drug dealers.
The complex is scheduled to be razed next month and a new structure will take its place and the owners want to encourage more investment in the area.
The patrol comprises a dozen of practicing Muslim men and is a spinoff of the Citizens Organized Patrol Efforts (COPE), a neighborhood watch established in 1988 in Shaw.
Dressed in ample red T-shirts and red baseball hats with “COPE Patrol” written on them, the Muslim patrol works 12-hour shifts on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the peak nights for drug dealing.
Age of Jahiliyah 