No Star – Wars but ‘Aqidah – Wars

I recently posted an add on a well known Dutch islamic forum (www.ontdekislam.nl) about a lecture in our mosque that was given by a good – masha’Allah – brother (topic: “Imam al-Ghazali on knowledge”) and as soon as I posted it someone reacted to my post with the question: “What is his ‘aqidah“? Subhanallah, what kind of a question is this I thought to myself, although knowing it came from a (pseudo -) “Salafi”? The thought went through my mind of replying to the brother if he happened to be from the ['aqidah - police or customs] so to speak or the ['aqidah - inquisition] but I refrained from doing that and I decently answered him the brother is a (Sunni) muslim and that that should suffice. He didn’t respond anymore.

This reminded me of something that is going on in our ummah, on the internet and outside the internet as well, namely the so called or what I’d call ['aqidah - wars] between mainly Salafis and those who ascribe to one of the 3 Sunni schools / madhahib of ‘aqidah: the Ash’aa-irah, the Maturidiyyah and the Athariyyah / Ahl ul-Hadeeth (which are not the nowadays Salafiyyah). Yes, the Ash’aa-irah and the Maturidiyyah belong to Ahl us-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah, this is even confirmed by what one could call Salafi scholars like Yusuf al-Qardawi and Muhammad Hassan ad-Dido.

Several websites can be mentioned in this regard to get a good grip of what exactly is going on, namely:

1.) Marifah and their forum: http://www.marifah.net/forums/ which is mainly Ash’ari and Maturidi, as opposed to:

2.) the Multaqa Ahl al Hadeeth forum: http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vbe/index.php which is mainly Salafi.

3.) Next to these two main sites there are 2 more Salafi sites which are really fighting the stances on the Marifah site:

- Asharis.com: http://www.asharis.com/creed/ On this site they speak about “Ash’ari burnout” as opposed to the so called “Salafi burnout” (see this link: http://salafiburnout.wordpress.com/ - which is suspended but one can read about that phenomenon on several websites) and they have – lol – a clinic to treat Ash’ aris who have a burnout. They also call the Marifah site “Knowledge and Realisation through Intellectual Fraud” subhanallah.

- Above the Throne: http://www.abovethethrone.com/arsh/

Both these sites seem to be from the same group of people behind it, stemming from apparently Philadelphia in the United States. There seems to be a heavy battle fought in Philadelphia. This website is representing the opposite view: http://www.nuruzzamaaninstitute.org/Nur_uz-Zamaan_Home_Page.html and they have a whole series on the ‘aqidah of imam al-Ash’ari on YouTube.

Also from another side or angle the Ahbash / Habashis attack the Salafis, see for example: http://www.aicp.org/home-mainmenu-1

What are the issues they are fighting each other over? I came to realize several things after much reading and researching:

1.) the issue of tawassul and tabarruk

2.) the Sifaat of Allah

3.) the division of tawheed in ar-Rububiyyah, al-Uluhiyyah and al-Asmaa wa’s-Sifaat

4.) the status of scholars like Ibn Taymiyyah and Muhammad ibn ‘Abd ul-Wahhaab

5.) saying “Ya Muhammad” or “Ya Rasulullah”

and several other issues.

A lot of these issues have to do with the interpretation of verses of the Qur’an, whether they are muhkam or mutashabbih, this is very important. Nex to this the strength of ahadith in matters of ‘aqidah and also fiqh, the difference between ahad ahadith and mutawatir ahadith and also, close to this the question whether a proof / dalil is qati’ or dhanni. If one understands this one gets a clearer picture of what exactly is going on and who is right. I’m leaving you to judge.

The brother who gave the lecture in our mosque explained the Mukhtasar Minhaj al-Qasidin by Ibn Qudamah and gave some examples with the regards to these issues and adviced us not busy ourselves with theses issues because they don’t bring any benefit. What benefit is there to argue about the meaning of the يد (which has 25 meanings according to Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani) of Allah? He mentioned that once a shaykh in Syria had two visitors, a Salafi scholar and a Ash’ari scholar and they were arguing with each other about the hadith which says that Allah descends to the lowest heaven in the last 3rd of the night to see if He can answer the du’as of the believers who are awake at that time and they couldn’t agree. Then the shaykh asked them who of them actually makes du’a in that part of the night and they both answered they didn’t. He made clear to them they completely missed the importance of that hadith. This is the stance we should take when trying to practice our faith insha’Allah, look at the real meanings instead of arguing with each other over secondary issues. May Allah make us of al-Qasidin.

Persoonlijke voornaamwoorden in het Arabisch

Sinds kort heb ik een persoonlijke leraar Arabisch die mij 1 keer in de week thuis bezoekt en wat ik van hem leer wil ik graag met jullie delen. In de toekomst zal ik een apart weblog aanmaken met mijn aantekeningen. Deze keer een schema met de persoonlijke voornaamwoorden in het Arabisch, te downloaden hier: http://www.2shared.com/file/9212599/ca04fbc2/Ahwaal_us-Sarf.html

al-Murshid al-Mu’in

Last Sunday (Nov. 1) I started an online (free) course on the Maliki fiqh text called: “al-Murshid al-Mu’in” which can be translated as “The Guiding Helper” by Ibn ‘Ashir rahimahullah, given by ustadh Abdusshakur Brooks from The Medina Way, link: http://www.themedinaway.com/site/  I studied part of the Mukhtasar al-Akhdari with him online before (last year).

Here are some links and documents related to that text for those interested:

- http://maliki.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=107&Itemid=62  A biography of Ibn Ashir

- http://zaytuna.org/ibnashirbook.asp  A translation by Hamza Yusuf that still needs to be published

- Videos on You Tube and other websites: http://video.google.nl/videosearch?hl=nl&source=hp&q=Ibn+Ashir&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=gcL2Sv3sGI3T-QbCuqT6DQ&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCMQqwQwAw#  (Mainly in French)

- The text and recitation can be bought and downloaded for a very cheap price on the website of Abdullah bin Hamid Ali: http://www.lamppostproductions.com/catalog/18/downloads

- Here is an English translation along with the matn (text) in Arabic and explanation: http://www.seekingilm.com/books/murshid.pdf

- Here a video with the whole text recited:  http://habibwahid.magnify.net/video/La-croyance-Sunnite-matn-ibn-as

There used to be a website with the name The Guiding Helper but it is offline / not functioning anymore.

For those interested studying the Maliki madhhab here some more beneficial links:

- A great article on the development of the Maliki madhhab in Morocco: http://www.dar-sirr.com/Moroccan-Malikism.html  They also have  a bio of imam Malik r.

- Log of brother Said Bak with a lot of resources on the Maliki madhhab: http://www.muwatta.com/

Adhaan in Germany (and the Netherlands)

I visited a small German city yesterday (Saturday the 7th of November) called Dueren (near Aachen) to go to a dars/lesson in another place (Siegen, in the so called Sauerland, south-east Germany). While walking around with another brother enjoying some lunch at hand I sudden heard the start of the adhaan out loud in public but no mosque was to be seen. I was not sure if I heard it correctly because I couldn’t believe my ears. The adhaan in Germany? Yes indeed, we kept listening and starting walking towards the direction we heard it coming from.  We stumbled upon a big Turkish mosque and the adhaan was being called. Subhanallah just at the moment I thought it was time for the ‘asr –  prayer I heard the adhaan. This is amazing, we asked the people there about it and they confirmed it is allowed in their city three times a day, except for fajr and ‘ishaa. Dueren apparently is the only city in the whole of Germany where calling the adhaan in public is allowed masha’Allah wa la hawla wa la quwatta illah billah! Our day already started off blessed. We prayed ‘asr at that mosque and continued on our way. Here is a picture of the mosque: http://www.2shared.com/file/9012345/3f59141d/Afb0002.html

We were not able to record the adhaan on our mobiles though. Islam is growing, also in Europe wa’l-hamdulillah! Coming from the Netherlands we know that Geert Wilders wouldn’t like this of course. I think it is not allowed except for one mosque in our country to call the believers to prayer. Little did he know that the adhaan was already called in the Netherlands in 1957 at/from the second mosque of the country established by muslims from the Moluccan islands in Indonesia (and he – Geert Wilders –  is of Indonesian descent subhanallah!). Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo4VOn6I5SU  At one time in history the Netherlands could even be called the biggest/largest muslim country in the world because of their ruling over Indonesia as a colonial power. He doesn’t seem to be aware of his own history, the history of the Netherlands and Indonesia. Wouldn’t it be great to hear the adhaan all over our country? Isn’t a human voice much more beautiful than the noise/voice a clocktower makes?

What kind of a muslim I am

Two articles on brother Suhaib’s log caught my eye:

1.) “Suhaib! Where do you stand? What kind of muslim are you?”: http://www.suhaibwebb.com/blog/counseling/suhaib-where-do-you-stand-what-kind-of-muslim-are-you/

2.) “Drop the prefix: I’m just muslim”: http://www.suhaibwebb.com/personaldvlpt/drop-the-prefix-i%e2%80%99m-just-muslim/#more-6554

This is me and this (and Allah) is enough for me. I’m a MUSLIM. I’m thankful to be a muslim – alhamdulillah – and I don’t want to be associated with any other hizb than that of islam. I’m sick of all those subdivisions and affiliations people ascribe themselves to, whether Salafis or Sufis or anything else. I am a muslim who follows the Salaf and who recognizes the science of tasawwuf (purely based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah) as an integral and important part of islam, that’s it. I do recognize the four Sunni schools in fiqh and the three schools in ‘aqidah but as a layman I don’t follow any of these schools, I do study them, because I put my trust in a scholar from one of these schools whether in fiqh or ‘aqidah when I want to know something. I’m closest to the Shafi’i and Maliki madhhab and in ‘aqidah to the Athari madhhab. I’m a moderate or try to follow the middle road/path, al-wasatiyyah, as advocated by shaykh Yusuf al-Qardawi and others like imam Ahmed Saad.

Leading contemporary scholars and students of knowledge for me are:

- al-Qardawi

- ‘Ali Jumu’ah

- Bin Bayyah

- Salman al-Awdah

- Muhammad Hasan al-Dido

- Haytham al-Haddad

- Hamza Yusuf

- Zaid Shakir

- Suhaib Webb

- Muhammad Akram Nadwi

- Samir al-Nass