Taqwa: May Allaah continue to bless such moment until u are constantly immersed in his mercy and his light. You, me and all muslims amiin Kowneyn

Idil, u make me sad girl...here u go anyways! It was love at first sight A promised future bright call it destiny, call it faith It all ended on its appointed date Although, I accept it with out a fight Tears do fill my pillow at night to rip violently two souls apart does cause pain and broken heart But! Dont u turn our love to hate Practice patience-- its great Perhaps when you consider it late Allaah may yet bestow on us his grace Two souls in conflict yet in Love can only wait for decision from above Kowneyn

Ismahan: Ouch!!!!!!!!! Kowneyn

Rahiima: It might not benefit you; perhaps its too late and the Wahhabi virus has overwhelmed you. However, Its my sincere that pple who are not aware of what wahhabism is and stands will be better informed. Its my wish to contribute to the correct understanding of the NICMA that is Islam. I dont expect reward from you or anyother person. Its enough that Allaah what is in my soul and that which I abhor and that he knows my intentions for muslims and the ummaah. I understand now by your explanation why u put quotation marks around the word awliya. Now can u explain why the quotes around the word muslims also? Is it also because u respect the muslims who visit the graves of prophets and saints...which yesteryears was practically the whole ummaah Kowneyn

Rahiima I can tell that u suffer from a serious case of wahhabism by the way u have put qoutation marks around the word muslims and also the word awliya. Thanks for informing that there is a place called Najd (meaning an elevated place) in iraq. Do me one more favor and look at a map locate madina then point east and see if u hit Iraq lol. There are many hadith that clarify that the Najd meant is the famous Najd of old and today...not some obsecure spot in Iraq. I gave u three hadith for example one mentions Najd by name, the second mentions its direction--east, the third mentions an identifying landmark (wadi hanifa). Then again I know one of the prominent symptom of wahhabi syndrome is defective reasoning. But only if they were not so arrogant and envious they might have learned some wisdom. If u wish we can clarify further so there is no doubt that the Najd of the hadith is the real Najd lol--which abdulwahhaab and the ibn saud hail from. Kowneyn

The prophet scws said who ever visits my grave with all the right intentions I will certainly intercede for him. According to the shafi madhab which is one of the four madhabs that make up ahlul sunna wa jamaaca and which all somalis belong to, Its recommended that the graves of awliya should be especially marked so it can be visited. The reason is because the spirit of person has a special connection at that spot and its recommended that one visit around casr prayer time because the connection is strongest at that time. Because of shortsighted, dim-witted, hypocritical wahhabis and their equally foolish fanatics there are more muslims visiting the graves of the Pharoahs (the pyramids etc..,) and the site of evil spirits than the saints of ALLAAH. I wish I could visit the graves of every prophet and wali so I can express my love for them and so I could benefit from the light Allaah bestows on his obedient creatures whom he chooses and loves and who love him. Kowneyn

The prophet scws said who ever visits my grave with all the right intentions I will certainly intercede for him. According to the shafi madhab which is one of the four madhabs that make up ahlul sunna wa jamaaca and which all somalis belong to, Its recommended that the graves of awliya should be especially marked so it can be visited. The reason is because the spirit of person has a special connection at that spot and its recommended that one visit around casr prayer time because the connection is strongest at that time. Because of shortsighted, dim-witted, hypocritical wahhabis and their equally foolish fanatics there are more muslims visiting the graves of the Pharoahs (the pyramids etc..,) and the site of evil spirits than the saints of ALLAAH. I wish I could visit the graves of every prophet and wali so I can express my love for them and so I could benefit from the light Allaah bestows on his obedient creatures whom he chooses and loves and who love him. Kowneyn

The prophet scws said who ever visits my grave with all the right intentions I will certainly intercede for him. According to the shafi madhab which is one of the four madhabs that make up ahlul sunna wa jamaaca and which all somalis belong to, Its recommended that the graves of awliya should be especially marked so it can be visited. The reason is because the spirit of person has a special connection at that spot and its recommended that one visit around casr prayer time because the connection is strongest at that time. Because of shortsighted, dim-witted, hypocritical wahhabis and their equally foolish fanatics there are more muslims visiting the graves of the Pharoahs (the pyramids etc..,) and the site of evil spirits than the saints of ALLAAH. I wish I could visit the graves of every prophet and wali so I can express my love for them and so I could benefit from the light Allaah bestows on his obedient creatures whom he chooses and loves and who love him. Kowneyn

The prophet scws said who ever visits my grave with all the right intentions I will certainly intercede for him. According to the shafi madhab which is one of the four madhabs that make up ahlul sunna wa jamaaca and which all somalis belong to, Its recommended that the graves of awliya should be especially marked so it can be visited. The reason is because the spirit of person has a special connection at that spot and its recommended that one visit around casr prayer time because the connection is strongest at that time. Because of shortsighted, dim-witted, hypocritical wahhabis and their equally foolish fanatics there are more muslims visiting the graves of the Pharoahs (the pyramids etc..,) and the site of evil spirits than the saints of ALLAAH. I wish I could visit the graves of every prophet and wali so I can express my love for them and so I could benefit from the light Allaah bestows on his obedient creatures whom he chooses and loves and who love him. Kowneyn

The new face of Islam by Nick Compton At first she tried to resist. She did not want this to happen. She was not that sort of person. After all, there were no gaps in her life, no spiritual ache, she did not need support or direction. But she kept reading and it kept making sense. Convert: Caroline Bate considers herself a Muslim More on this Story Famous converts to Allah (18 Mar 2002) 'I had absolutely no expectation or desire to end up where I am,' she says. 'It was almost with trepidation that I kept turning the pages and the trepidation just increased. I kept thinking: "OK, where's the flaw? Where's the bit that doesn't make sense?" But it never came. And then it was like: "Oh no, I can see where this is leading. This is disastrous. I don't want to be a Muslim!" Caroline Bate is 30 years old, blonde, blue-eyed and pretty, with a soft Home Counties accent. She has a degree from Cambridge (she studied Russian and German before switching to management studies) and works for an investment bank in the City. She is Middle England's dream daughter or daughter-in-law. And though she has yet to make her formal declaration of faith in Allah and the prophet Mohammed - a two-line pledge called the Shahada - she considers herself Muslim. She ticked the box on a form recently. It felt good, she says. Caroline is not alone. Though data is hard to come by, several London mosques have been reporting an increase in the number of converts to Islam, especially since 11 September. Like Caroline, many of these converts are from solid middle-class backgrounds, have successful careers, enjoy active social lives and are fundamentally happy with their lot. This is not a new trend, however. Matthew Wilkinson, a former head boy of Eton, became Tariq, when he converted to Islam in 1993. Jonathan Birt, son of Lord Birt, late of the BBC and now the government's transport guru, converted in 1997. The son and daughter of Lord Justice Scott also converted and Joe Ahmed Dobson, the 26-year-old son of the former Health Secretary Frank Dobson, has recently and, somewhat reluctantly, emerged as the voice of new Muslim converts in Britain. But it is a trend that has been pushed along by recent events. So far it has gone largely unnoticed, as the press concentrates on some of the more colourful characters that 11 September has thrown up. Since 11 September, the luridly painted poster boys of British Islam have been radical clerics such as Abu Hamza al-Masri, the steel-clawed, milky-eyed so-called 'mad mullah' of Finsbury Park mosque. Here are Victorian villains, fiendish emissaries of some ancient and foreign evil, straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. Their followers are blank-eyed drones like Richard Reid, packing his high-tops with high explosives. Or James McLintock, the 'Tartan Taliban'. There are lost boys, dislocated and dysfunctional, petty thieves preyed on in South London prisons and young offenders' institutions by fakir Fagins who forge an untempered anger into a righteous ire and provide it with a target. (Three imams working in British prisons have been suspended since 11 September for making 'inappropriate remarks' about the terrorist attacks.) But that is a sideshow, a compelling melodrama played out beyond the fringes of Islamic culture in this country. And while it might be stretching a point - and answering caricature with caricature - to insist that a demure English rose is the exemplar of the modern British convert to Islam, Caroline Bate is certainly more representative than Richard Reid. Talking to recent Muslim converts, it is striking how similar the descriptions of their embrace of Islam are. Most were introduced to Islam, and Islamic history and teaching, by friends. And, given that Islam is not generally a missionary faith, these were gentle introductions. For most, conversion was born of curiosity, an attempt to better understand the people around them. Caroline first started reading about Islam last April. A school friend she has known since she was 11 was marrying a Tunisian, a Muslim. 'My best friend was marrying into a different culture so I wanted to know more about it,' she explains. 'I came at it from more of a cultural perspective than a religious one. But the literature that I picked up just stimulated me. And Islamic teaching made perfect, logical sense. You can approach it intellectually and there are no gaps, no great leaps of faith that you have to make.' Roger (not his real name) is a doctor in his mid-thirties. About a year and a half ago, he started talking about Islam to Muslim colleagues at work. 'All I had ever heard about Islam in the media was Hezbollah and guerrillas and all of that. And here were these really decent people whom I was beginning to get to know. So I started to ask a few questions and I was amazed at my own ignorance.' He became a Muslim a couple of months ago. For these new converts, embracing Islam is usually a covert operation. They quietly read, talk, listen, learn. The hard part is coming out, declaring your newly acquired faith to friends and family, and, in some cases at least, facing up to fear, scepticism and even loathing. Caroline insists that the coming-out process has not been too painful. 'The reaction has been pretty much what I expected. I've had everything from "Do you know how they treat women?" to "Wow, great timing!" But your friends are your friends and I expect them to deal with it.' Others have had a harder time. Eleanor Martin, now Asya Ali (or some other combination of these names, depending on the circumstance), was a 24-year-old TV actress when she met Mo Sesay. She had a regular role as WPC Georgie Cudworth in BBC's Dangerfield during the mid-Nineties and Sesay, who later starred in Bhaji on the Beach, was also a Dangerfield regular. Sesay is a Muslim. 'Mo was such a kind man, just a good person. He wanted to know me as a person, there was nothing else going on. And I thought, well, here is this really decent guy and he is a Muslim. And the image I had of Islam was of men beating up women and going round in tanks killing people. 'The thing is we both had regular parts on the show, but they weren't very big parts, so we had a lot of time to sit in the caravan and talk. He really opened my eyes.' Eleanor finally converted in 1996. 'I wasn't sure I was going to until the last minute and then it just felt as if everything had fallen into place and there was no other option.' At first she kept her conversion secret. 'I was afraid of an adverse reaction from friends and family. I was really worried about what my father would say.' Her father was a devout Christian. A former radiotherapist, he had taken early retirement to go into the priesthood. But circumstances forced Eleanor's hand. A few months after she converted she met a Muslim African-American actor, Luqman Ali, and they decided to get married. 'I went home and said: "I've got some news. I'm getting married and I'm a Muslim." My mum was great. My dad said: "I think I'm going to get a drink now." 'It took Dad time. He went to see his spiritual adviser, a nun, whose brother happened to be a convert to Islam, and that helped. And he's great now, too. He's just happy that I'm following a path to God.' Roger, meanwhile, has yet to tell family or work colleagues of his conversion. 'I worry it will affect my career prospects,' he admits. 'I know first-hand how little people understand Islam. I know there is prejudice based on ignorance. A couple of years ago, if someone had told me they had converted, I would have thought they were odd. I don't want people to think I am an oddity or a curiosity because I don't think of myself like that.' Most converts acknowledge that living in an ethnically diverse city has made conversion easier than it might have been elsewhere. Stefania Marchetti was born and raised in Milan but came to London to study in 1997. She converted to Islam from Catholicism in April last year. 'It would have been far more difficult for me to convert in Italy,' she admits. 'The Italian media is very anti-Islam and generally Italians think that Muslim men are all terrorists and all Muslim women are slaves.' Certainly Karen Allen, a 28-year-old scheduler for Sky TV from Stoke Newington, has enjoyed a relatively smooth transition period. She converted to Islam last June and soon started wearing the traditional headscarf or hijab. 'When I first started wearing the hijab to work, there were a few jibes about Afghanistan and stuff, but people are fine now. They say things like: "That's a nice one you're wearing today." 'I think it might be more difficult outside London, but here there are a lot weirder things to look at than me.' What is especially striking about this stream of converts to Islam is that the majority seem to be women. Some suggest that twice as many women as men are turning to Islam. Batool Al Toma, who heads the New Muslim Project at the Leicester-based Islamic Foundation, which offers advice and support to recent converts, suggests this might be exaggeration, but admits that female converts are in the majority. 'A lot of people seem to think that women are more susceptible to Islam. I think it's largely because a lot of people are obsessed with the idea of an educated, liberated British woman converting to Islam which they feel subjugates and represses them in some way. We just get a lot more attention I suppose and that sparks people's interest.' Asya Ali: "I was afraid of an adverse reaction from friends and family" The lure of Islam for women is surprising, given that the conversion process may be even more problematic for them than for men. There is the commonly held belief that Islam represses women and female converts often have to deal with recrimination from female friends who view their adoption of Islam as some sort of betrayal. The wearing of a headscarf or hijab (a sartorial option, it should be noted, not a requirement) also makes Muslim women more visible than their male counterparts. Certainly, all the women I spoke to were quick to refute the idea that Islam imposes a women-know-thy-place ideology. 'The perception of how women are treated is completely incorrect,' insists Caroline. 'Women have a fantastic position in Islamic society.' Indeed, many women converts talk about the adoption of the Islamic dress code as a liberation. They see it not as a denial of sex and sexuality but rather as an acknowledgement that these are treasures to be shared with a loved one and them alone. They are not hidden but rather freed from objectification. Asya insists that the trick is to turn preconceptions on their head. She wears a scarf to show she is a Muslim and a smile to prove she is happy being one. One problem for converts is that they are caught between two cultures. 'Young Muslims are very accepting,' says Caroline. 'They are really happy that you have chosen to become Muslim. The older generation are not so accepting. For them, Islam is part of their cultural background, it's about the country they came from and it's what binds their communities together.' One step towards greater acceptance came last October when Reedah Nijabat opened ArRum, an Islamic restaurant/members' bar/ cultural centre/social club in Clerkenwell. Nijabat, a 31-year-old former barrister and management consultant from Walthamstow, originally conceived ArRum as a meeting place and networking venue for professional first- and second-generation London Muslims. But it has also become a focal point for many of London's Muslim converts. It is easy to see why. On any work evening, a mixed bag of middle-aged Pakistani men, young couples (some Muslim, some curious non-Muslim), kids and white British converts chat and tuck into halal 'fusion' food. While the club promotes Islamic culture, the vibe is a Hempel temple of inner calm. Sufi wailing calms the nerves, while the bar specialises in healthy juices. For the new converts I spoke to, ArRum is a place to meet other Muslims and somewhere to bring non-Muslim friends and introduce them to Islam in a way that doesn't scare them. ArRum accents Islam's USP among the major faiths: its openness and lack of hierarchy. And Nijabat has realised that if there is an endemic suspicion of stuffy organised religion among the British (and increasingly, one suspects, second-generation British Muslims) there is great interest in 'spirituality', whatever that might mean. 'I think that the problem has not been with the substance of the major faiths, whatever they are, but a marketing defect,' argues Nijabat. 'Everything we do here is about remembrance of God and Islam, but you can get that across in a cool way. I'm not saying anything that isn't in the Koran, but you have to talk to people on their level. 'I'm beginning to see that there is a huge misunderstanding and a bridge that needs to be crossed between ethnic communities, host communities and spiritual communities, and I think we are making a contribution to that. You can get so hung up on the divisions and how different we are, but it is the same God for all of us. And we still feel that loss whether it is an American life or a Palestinian life. A lot of people are going through a period of soul-searching and that can only be a good thing.' For many, that soul-searching has led them to Islam, not the Islam of the suicide bombers but mainstream Islam. And, as Joe Ahmed Dobson points out, ArRum and its new converts do not represent some kind of liberal IslamLite, a media-friendly dilution of the real thing. Dobson and the other new converts are orthodox, in the truest sense, and proud. They are also part of a project that may help all parties see Islam in new ways. As Nijabat admits: 'You can end up being quite defensive about it. And you can either get hung up about it or be proactive. Opening ArRum has helped me recognise that I can be British and Pakistani and a Muslim and a woman. And I'm not going to be a victim in any of this.' Famous coverts to Allah Email this article to a friend © Associated Newspapers Ltd., 15 March 2002 Terms and Conditions This Is London Kowneyn

The new face of Islam by Nick Compton At first she tried to resist. She did not want this to happen. She was not that sort of person. After all, there were no gaps in her life, no spiritual ache, she did not need support or direction. But she kept reading and it kept making sense. Convert: Caroline Bate considers herself a Muslim More on this Story Famous converts to Allah (18 Mar 2002) 'I had absolutely no expectation or desire to end up where I am,' she says. 'It was almost with trepidation that I kept turning the pages and the trepidation just increased. I kept thinking: "OK, where's the flaw? Where's the bit that doesn't make sense?" But it never came. And then it was like: "Oh no, I can see where this is leading. This is disastrous. I don't want to be a Muslim!" Caroline Bate is 30 years old, blonde, blue-eyed and pretty, with a soft Home Counties accent. She has a degree from Cambridge (she studied Russian and German before switching to management studies) and works for an investment bank in the City. She is Middle England's dream daughter or daughter-in-law. And though she has yet to make her formal declaration of faith in Allah and the prophet Mohammed - a two-line pledge called the Shahada - she considers herself Muslim. She ticked the box on a form recently. It felt good, she says. Caroline is not alone. Though data is hard to come by, several London mosques have been reporting an increase in the number of converts to Islam, especially since 11 September. Like Caroline, many of these converts are from solid middle-class backgrounds, have successful careers, enjoy active social lives and are fundamentally happy with their lot. This is not a new trend, however. Matthew Wilkinson, a former head boy of Eton, became Tariq, when he converted to Islam in 1993. Jonathan Birt, son of Lord Birt, late of the BBC and now the government's transport guru, converted in 1997. The son and daughter of Lord Justice Scott also converted and Joe Ahmed Dobson, the 26-year-old son of the former Health Secretary Frank Dobson, has recently and, somewhat reluctantly, emerged as the voice of new Muslim converts in Britain. But it is a trend that has been pushed along by recent events. So far it has gone largely unnoticed, as the press concentrates on some of the more colourful characters that 11 September has thrown up. Since 11 September, the luridly painted poster boys of British Islam have been radical clerics such as Abu Hamza al-Masri, the steel-clawed, milky-eyed so-called 'mad mullah' of Finsbury Park mosque. Here are Victorian villains, fiendish emissaries of some ancient and foreign evil, straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. Their followers are blank-eyed drones like Richard Reid, packing his high-tops with high explosives. Or James McLintock, the 'Tartan Taliban'. There are lost boys, dislocated and dysfunctional, petty thieves preyed on in South London prisons and young offenders' institutions by fakir Fagins who forge an untempered anger into a righteous ire and provide it with a target. (Three imams working in British prisons have been suspended since 11 September for making 'inappropriate remarks' about the terrorist attacks.) But that is a sideshow, a compelling melodrama played out beyond the fringes of Islamic culture in this country. And while it might be stretching a point - and answering caricature with caricature - to insist that a demure English rose is the exemplar of the modern British convert to Islam, Caroline Bate is certainly more representative than Richard Reid. Talking to recent Muslim converts, it is striking how similar the descriptions of their embrace of Islam are. Most were introduced to Islam, and Islamic history and teaching, by friends. And, given that Islam is not generally a missionary faith, these were gentle introductions. For most, conversion was born of curiosity, an attempt to better understand the people around them. Caroline first started reading about Islam last April. A school friend she has known since she was 11 was marrying a Tunisian, a Muslim. 'My best friend was marrying into a different culture so I wanted to know more about it,' she explains. 'I came at it from more of a cultural perspective than a religious one. But the literature that I picked up just stimulated me. And Islamic teaching made perfect, logical sense. You can approach it intellectually and there are no gaps, no great leaps of faith that you have to make.' Roger (not his real name) is a doctor in his mid-thirties. About a year and a half ago, he started talking about Islam to Muslim colleagues at work. 'All I had ever heard about Islam in the media was Hezbollah and guerrillas and all of that. And here were these really decent people whom I was beginning to get to know. So I started to ask a few questions and I was amazed at my own ignorance.' He became a Muslim a couple of months ago. For these new converts, embracing Islam is usually a covert operation. They quietly read, talk, listen, learn. The hard part is coming out, declaring your newly acquired faith to friends and family, and, in some cases at least, facing up to fear, scepticism and even loathing. Caroline insists that the coming-out process has not been too painful. 'The reaction has been pretty much what I expected. I've had everything from "Do you know how they treat women?" to "Wow, great timing!" But your friends are your friends and I expect them to deal with it.' Others have had a harder time. Eleanor Martin, now Asya Ali (or some other combination of these names, depending on the circumstance), was a 24-year-old TV actress when she met Mo Sesay. She had a regular role as WPC Georgie Cudworth in BBC's Dangerfield during the mid-Nineties and Sesay, who later starred in Bhaji on the Beach, was also a Dangerfield regular. Sesay is a Muslim. 'Mo was such a kind man, just a good person. He wanted to know me as a person, there was nothing else going on. And I thought, well, here is this really decent guy and he is a Muslim. And the image I had of Islam was of men beating up women and going round in tanks killing people. 'The thing is we both had regular parts on the show, but they weren't very big parts, so we had a lot of time to sit in the caravan and talk. He really opened my eyes.' Eleanor finally converted in 1996. 'I wasn't sure I was going to until the last minute and then it just felt as if everything had fallen into place and there was no other option.' At first she kept her conversion secret. 'I was afraid of an adverse reaction from friends and family. I was really worried about what my father would say.' Her father was a devout Christian. A former radiotherapist, he had taken early retirement to go into the priesthood. But circumstances forced Eleanor's hand. A few months after she converted she met a Muslim African-American actor, Luqman Ali, and they decided to get married. 'I went home and said: "I've got some news. I'm getting married and I'm a Muslim." My mum was great. My dad said: "I think I'm going to get a drink now." 'It took Dad time. He went to see his spiritual adviser, a nun, whose brother happened to be a convert to Islam, and that helped. And he's great now, too. He's just happy that I'm following a path to God.' Roger, meanwhile, has yet to tell family or work colleagues of his conversion. 'I worry it will affect my career prospects,' he admits. 'I know first-hand how little people understand Islam. I know there is prejudice based on ignorance. A couple of years ago, if someone had told me they had converted, I would have thought they were odd. I don't want people to think I am an oddity or a curiosity because I don't think of myself like that.' Most converts acknowledge that living in an ethnically diverse city has made conversion easier than it might have been elsewhere. Stefania Marchetti was born and raised in Milan but came to London to study in 1997. She converted to Islam from Catholicism in April last year. 'It would have been far more difficult for me to convert in Italy,' she admits. 'The Italian media is very anti-Islam and generally Italians think that Muslim men are all terrorists and all Muslim women are slaves.' Certainly Karen Allen, a 28-year-old scheduler for Sky TV from Stoke Newington, has enjoyed a relatively smooth transition period. She converted to Islam last June and soon started wearing the traditional headscarf or hijab. 'When I first started wearing the hijab to work, there were a few jibes about Afghanistan and stuff, but people are fine now. They say things like: "That's a nice one you're wearing today." 'I think it might be more difficult outside London, but here there are a lot weirder things to look at than me.' What is especially striking about this stream of converts to Islam is that the majority seem to be women. Some suggest that twice as many women as men are turning to Islam. Batool Al Toma, who heads the New Muslim Project at the Leicester-based Islamic Foundation, which offers advice and support to recent converts, suggests this might be exaggeration, but admits that female converts are in the majority. 'A lot of people seem to think that women are more susceptible to Islam. I think it's largely because a lot of people are obsessed with the idea of an educated, liberated British woman converting to Islam which they feel subjugates and represses them in some way. We just get a lot more attention I suppose and that sparks people's interest.' Asya Ali: "I was afraid of an adverse reaction from friends and family" The lure of Islam for women is surprising, given that the conversion process may be even more problematic for them than for men. There is the commonly held belief that Islam represses women and female converts often have to deal with recrimination from female friends who view their adoption of Islam as some sort of betrayal. The wearing of a headscarf or hijab (a sartorial option, it should be noted, not a requirement) also makes Muslim women more visible than their male counterparts. Certainly, all the women I spoke to were quick to refute the idea that Islam imposes a women-know-thy-place ideology. 'The perception of how women are treated is completely incorrect,' insists Caroline. 'Women have a fantastic position in Islamic society.' Indeed, many women converts talk about the adoption of the Islamic dress code as a liberation. They see it not as a denial of sex and sexuality but rather as an acknowledgement that these are treasures to be shared with a loved one and them alone. They are not hidden but rather freed from objectification. Asya insists that the trick is to turn preconceptions on their head. She wears a scarf to show she is a Muslim and a smile to prove she is happy being one. One problem for converts is that they are caught between two cultures. 'Young Muslims are very accepting,' says Caroline. 'They are really happy that you have chosen to become Muslim. The older generation are not so accepting. For them, Islam is part of their cultural background, it's about the country they came from and it's what binds their communities together.' One step towards greater acceptance came last October when Reedah Nijabat opened ArRum, an Islamic restaurant/members' bar/ cultural centre/social club in Clerkenwell. Nijabat, a 31-year-old former barrister and management consultant from Walthamstow, originally conceived ArRum as a meeting place and networking venue for professional first- and second-generation London Muslims. But it has also become a focal point for many of London's Muslim converts. It is easy to see why. On any work evening, a mixed bag of middle-aged Pakistani men, young couples (some Muslim, some curious non-Muslim), kids and white British converts chat and tuck into halal 'fusion' food. While the club promotes Islamic culture, the vibe is a Hempel temple of inner calm. Sufi wailing calms the nerves, while the bar specialises in healthy juices. For the new converts I spoke to, ArRum is a place to meet other Muslims and somewhere to bring non-Muslim friends and introduce them to Islam in a way that doesn't scare them. ArRum accents Islam's USP among the major faiths: its openness and lack of hierarchy. And Nijabat has realised that if there is an endemic suspicion of stuffy organised religion among the British (and increasingly, one suspects, second-generation British Muslims) there is great interest in 'spirituality', whatever that might mean. 'I think that the problem has not been with the substance of the major faiths, whatever they are, but a marketing defect,' argues Nijabat. 'Everything we do here is about remembrance of God and Islam, but you can get that across in a cool way. I'm not saying anything that isn't in the Koran, but you have to talk to people on their level. 'I'm beginning to see that there is a huge misunderstanding and a bridge that needs to be crossed between ethnic communities, host communities and spiritual communities, and I think we are making a contribution to that. You can get so hung up on the divisions and how different we are, but it is the same God for all of us. And we still feel that loss whether it is an American life or a Palestinian life. A lot of people are going through a period of soul-searching and that can only be a good thing.' For many, that soul-searching has led them to Islam, not the Islam of the suicide bombers but mainstream Islam. And, as Joe Ahmed Dobson points out, ArRum and its new converts do not represent some kind of liberal IslamLite, a media-friendly dilution of the real thing. Dobson and the other new converts are orthodox, in the truest sense, and proud. They are also part of a project that may help all parties see Islam in new ways. As Nijabat admits: 'You can end up being quite defensive about it. And you can either get hung up about it or be proactive. Opening ArRum has helped me recognise that I can be British and Pakistani and a Muslim and a woman. And I'm not going to be a victim in any of this.' Famous coverts to Allah Email this article to a friend © Associated Newspapers Ltd., 15 March 2002 Terms and Conditions This Is London Kowneyn

This is a nice article about Islam: For the article : The New Face of Islam Go to this link http://216.33.236.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=0c32a6f401a5056a75d36f6309e9088b&lat=1017076026&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ethisislondon%2ecom%2fdynamic%2flifestyle%2flondonli fe%2freview%2ehtml%3fin_review_id%3d523131%26in_review_text_id%3d

This is a nice article about Islam: For the article : The New Face of Islam Go to this link http://216.33.236.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=0c32a6f401a5056a75d36f6309e9088b&lat=1017076026&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ethisislondon%2ecom%2fdynamic%2flifestyle%2flondonli fe%2freview%2ehtml%3fin_review_id%3d523131%26in_review_text_id%3d

OK! ISMAHAN SINCE UR STARTING OUT...AMMA GONNA SCHOOL U IN THE ART OF ROMANTIC RHYME <img src=" WHEN THE SKY IS BLUE ITS TIME FOR ME AND YOU WHENEVER ITS CLEAR I WILL HOLD YOU NEAR WHEN ITS CLOUDY TIME TO GET ROWDY WHEN U SEE THE RAINBOW TIME TO START THE SHOW IF U FEEL LIKE ITS FALLIN WELL!! THATS BECAUSE WE ARE BALLIN WE WILL CONTINUE THE WINDIN TILL CLOUDS APPEAR WITH SILVER LINING THE SKY IS CLEAR, THE SUN IS SHININ KOWNEYN WE CAN CONTINUE THE LESSONS IF U WISH ISMAHAN http://www.somaliaonline.com/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm16.gif" alt="" />

Its perhaps the most ridiculous suggestion to suggest that Iraq is Najd. The Najd of today is that of the time of the rasuul scws. Allaah preserved the name so there is no doubt. The same tribes that inhabited at the time of the rasuul inhabit it today. These tribes were the once who produced and supported the prophethood of Musaylima The Lier. Who believed that he was a co-messenger with the rasuul scws. The campaign to put down his rebellion was among the costliest undertaken by the ummaah because these pple were so fanatical in their stupidity; not unlike the adamant fools that propagate wahhaabism today. In fact, Wahhabism is the resurgence of the spirit of that evil and rebellious pple. After Allaah gave them wealth and victory in this day and age to spread their mischeif they have proven beyond any doubt their evil instinct and inclination to hypocrisy. They continue to hold the view that they hold a special position in Islam as musaylima did and therefore are arrogant enough to dislodge the family of the rasuul which the prophet commanded us to hold on to along with quran so that we dont go astray from their position in Islam. Similarly they spread with venomous lies about the awliya and saalixiin who are the spiritual inheritors of the rasuul so that they could replace them and build a kingdom based on hypocrisy . Well their honeymoon is over and their dynasty will fall inshallaah very soon. The true light of Islam will shine again and will reign over darkness of today is world walaw karrihal kaafirun. Kowneyn

The Wahhabi who Loved Beauty Kerim Fenari Spending three years in the desert heat of Saudi Arabia was for me a time of Ultimate Enlightenment, which raised the veil from the Umma’s most enigmatic and closely-guarded secret. Access to the Ka‘ba is relatively straightforward when compared to the challenge of grasping this secret, namely, the hidden, Manichean division in today’s Muslim world, which is not between secularisation and Islam - a relatively straightforward tension - but between normative Islam and the heresy which is its latter-day simulacrum. As I came to realise, understanding this schism is the key to grasping everything that is wrong with the Muslim nation today. Saudi Arabia has undoubted virtues. Its crude but generally effective erasure of vice from public spaces is praiseworthy and deserves our respect. Once, returning to London, I took my small child into the Fleet Street church of St Dunstan’s, to escape from the February rain. Inside, however, we were confronted with an exhibition of giant terracotta bas-reliefs depicting the Disciples of Christ, all nude and grimacing, their grotesquely deformed pudenda projecting into the nave. We hurriedly exited into the rain; and I silently prayed for a long life for King Fahd, who, despite all that may be said, is not ashamed before the world to suppress the perversions of the age, and to drive them deep underground where they belong. The King deserves our prayers, too, for his patronage of several mosque projects: not the extensions to the Great Sanctuaries of Makka and Madina, which were accomplished by teams of mediocrities; but the smaller mosques of Quba and Qiblatayn in Madina, and the astonishingly beautiful Miqat of Dhu’l-Hulayfa, the oasis-like structure just south of the Holy Prophet’s city where pilgrims from the north bathe, pray, and don their Ihram; a truly noble setting for the primordially beautiful and dignified rites of our religion. Yet it cannot be said that the modern Saudi soul is attuned to beauty. Buildings surviving from before the 20th century are uniformly impressive; more recent structures are exhibitions of the worst of Third World kitsch. And people’s homes are lurid and garishly decorated with shocking pink carpets and fluffed-up Ziegfeld Follies furniture, all illuminated by fluorescent tubes or mock-Bourbon chandeliers. To those who have come to Islam, as I did, out of a love for Islamic art and the art of Islamic living, this collapse of the age-old Muslim aesthetic is puzzling. The usual explanation is the obvious supply-side account, which describes how the invasion of Muslim suqs in the 19th century by cheap European manufactured goods destroyed the crafts and the artisanal classes which for centuries had cultivated beauty. The Islamic guilds which presided over the production of artefacts which are absent from modern Muslim homes but which are the prized possessions of Western museums had been training grounds not only for technique, but for spiritual excellence, taking as their motto the hadith: ‘Allah is beautiful, and He loves beauty’. The ihsan here advocated is an intuitive gift. Guild masters would train their apprentices for seven years in religious practices as well as in the mechanics of crafting carpets, lamps or ceramics. Every guild was either part of a Sufi tariqa, or functioned as a tariqa in its own right. Manual work was hence turned into a method of dhikr; every instant at the potter’s wheel, or the rugmaker’s frame, would be occupied with the mention of God and His Prophet. The production of beauty was seen as evidence of the craftsman’s inner repose and detachment; faults were the consequence of faults in the soul. The Industrial Revolution swept most of this away; and ironically the Muslim crafts now survive largely thanks to the Western demand. Nowadays, ‘ethnic’ artifacts, from costly Afghan rugs down to humble brass candlesticks sold at Oxfam, are mainly attractive to people who do not share the worldview which made their beauty possible. Saudi Arabia, because it has the money to demolish and rebuild and import, has been ravaged more deeply than most Muslim countries in this regard. Most Moroccans are too poor to pull down their stone houses and replace them with cement imitations of Western models; but the Saudis have been unrestrained. Almost all of Makka and Madina, and a good part of Jeddah, has been uncomprehendingly bulldozed and replaced with concrete carbuncles, faced in ghastly variegated marble. Standing in the ruins of a formerly exquisite Saudi city, one realises that the ‘decline of the guilds’ explanation does not go far enough. Offered the choice between beautiful and ugly Western imports, the Saudis seem invariably to choose what is ugly. They reject their own music, but do not listen to Mozart instead, but to Michael Jackson and other exhalations of the damned degeneracy of America. They throw out traditional Arab or Ottoman furniture, and replace it with mock “Louis Farouk” vulgarity so extreme that it is produced in Europe largely for export. One can imagine the truckers and removal men in Italy or Spain averting their eyes from their awful loads, thankfully putting them on ships bound only for distant Arabian ports. While living in Saudi Arabia, I had an acquaintance who was troubled by all of this. He was an American convert from a middle-class background who had a scholarship to study at the ‘Umm al-Qura Islamic University’ in Makka. Although he is today the least likely of men to read Q-News http://www.aapi.co.uk/qnews, I will preserve his anonymity by calling him Jalal. Jalal loved Islamic art, and the great lyrical productions of Sufi poetry. He had come to the religion not through reading Mawdudi, or Muhammad Qutb - for their complex-ridden resentfulness would have repelled a person of his culture and sensitivity - but through travelling in tribal Muslim areas, where he breathed that precious and liberating air which one can only describe as the Islamic spirit. Not the boy-scout bonhomerie of the liberal Ikhwan, or the nervous guilt of the Tabligh, but authentic, unpolluted Islam, as shaped and lived for countless generations by joyfully untroubled lovers of Allah. Jalal’s fate, however, was to don a gas-mask supplied by the Wahhabi sect, which cut him off from the liberating oxygen of normative Islam and slowly asphyxiated him with fumes of human making. At the university, his open-mindedness made him heedless of our counsels about choosing company that would open his heart to the love of his Lord, rather than close it in recriminations and self-exaltation. And this was his undoing. I never learned the name of the man who converted him to Wahhabism. But one can deduce his character, and the expression on his face, and his body-language, without difficulty. As months passed, and Jalal the Arabic student fell under the spell of the shouting sermoniser he insisted on hearing, a shadow crept over his features. Formerly a frequent visitor to Madina, he went less often, troubled by Wahhabi polemic against paying too much attention to God’s messengers. His confidence that the sacred could be discerned in nature, in saints and in beauty began to waver, a process that clearly agonised him. At times, when we spoke, he would return for a while to his old self, and talk enthusiastically about architecture, of textiles, of the sacred geography of Muslim cities. But then a cloud would come over his face, and he would almost shudder, as his programming once again took him over, and he parroted the shallow slogans of Wahhabism. I thought, once, of the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Jalal was being possessed. Prior to my years in Saudi Arabia, I had been puzzled by the vehemence of the traditional ulema’s hostility to Wahhabism. Wahhabism, I felt sure, was no more than an overheated Hanbalism, with a naive Bedouin literalism in speaking of a delineated and anthropomorphic God. Watching the shadows gather around Jalal, however, convinced me that something more ominous, even infernal, was at work. Wahhabism seemed to be not simply or even primarily a package of ideas; it was an existential condition. It breathed an intensity, a dark radioactivity which could, on prolonged exposure, make me physically weak, or sick. After one intense session with a Wahhabi, whose blindness had veiled from him my own orientation, I had to detoxify myself by taking a long walk, breathing deeply, and repeating thousands of prayers upon the Holy Prophet. I once met a Ugandan who lamented the decline of Islam in his country, and laid the blame very bitterly at the Wahhabis’ door. Before they came, he said, Islam had been spreading fast, largely through the public and joyful celebrations of Mawlid. Singing with passion and rhythm is the key to the African soul, he told me; and yet the Wahhabis, well-funded and with deadly zeal in their eyes, slowly turned off the taps to the Mawlid, until the entire community became disconsolate, forced awkwardly into a dry type of religion that failed to speak to their condition. With the Muslims browbeaten by an organised anti-tariqa and anti-Mawlid sect, the Christian missionaries, with their Africanised hymns, suddenly found the going much easier. Back in Makka, Jalal’s condition was getting worse. He began to stand very close in front of me, fingering my lapels as he spoke. In this I recognised a symptom of a very advanced case of Wahhabism. When I spoke to him of beauty, or art, or literature, or holiness, his face now blazed with an amused and self-righteous contempt. All that was bid‘a. A mosque could be made of concrete, carpeted with lime-green rugs, and illuminated with multicoloured fluorescent strips, and it was just as good a space for prayer as a medieval structure erected by great craftsmen. Jalal’s room at the university, which he shared with three others, was slowly stripped of anything “ethnically” Muslim - small rugs from Kashmir, rosewater sprinklers, and, of course, his ebony prayer beads. His life was stripped down, sterilised, irradiated with ultraviolet light from the harshest end of the religious spectrum. His reading habits withered, as he realised that the great sacred poets of Islam: Rumi, Sana’i, Shabistari and the rest, were all Sufis, and that the soil of Wahhabism had been as sterile for literature as it had been for all the other arts of Islam. I watched this transformation with pain. I had hoped, as had others, that he would someday combine his cultural sensitivities with his Islamic knowledge to become a major Muslim leader back in America, speaking two languages with fluency. His destiny, however, lay through the Wahhabi desert. And in the end, he died of thirst. He suffered a kind of spiritual heart-attack. His attempt to change his spiritual makeup finally collapsed, as I should have anticipated. A crisis which must have tortured him almost beyond endurance brought about his sudden departure from the university, and from the country. He renounced Islam, and encountered and married a Chinese girl. He now practices a form of Nishiren Buddhism which no doubt helps to satisfy, as Wahhabism never could, his craving for contemplation and beauty. Jalal’s case was extreme, but I fear it is not unique. The spread of Wahhabism, fostered by the general disequilibrium of the age, is rapid, and is contaminating many thousands of souls that might otherwise, with proper exposure to traditional ulama and an attachment to a spiritual director, have found the tranquillity and serenity of authentic Islam. While I know that everything is by Allah’s decree, I blame myself for Jalal’s apostasy. I should have taken him to visit the saints, and the true gatherings of divine love that discreetly flourish in Saudi Arabia, which could have inoculated him against the virus which led to his death. But he represents, in extreme form, the whole story of the Umma’s contemporary crisis. Our lack of recognition of, of insistence upon, beauty, as the traditional accompaniment to the Muslim life, indicates the absence of beauty in our souls, and the distance from our Maker that ensues from the decline of tradition and from the diabolically-contrived spread of heresy and disharmony. Thankfully, the Umma is still filled with saints, Sufis, and great craftsmen. Economic backwardness has in this respect been a great preservative. Having travelled the world, I know that amid no other community may one find such glories of spirituality and human excellence. All the more reason to defend tradition against this new plague, which denatures and impoverishes Islam precisely at the moment in history when the West, shattered by the decline of its own religion, could begin to see it as an appealing and desperately-needed alternative.

Rahiima: First I would not be talking about your so-called sheikh and the corrupt Saudi Regime that sponsors his rebellious hypocrisy against Allaah and his rasuul scws if they were not a disease within the ummaah that is eating it from within. They are enemy within and it is a duty of muslim to expose them. But the choice remains yours wether to accept or reject our efforts. You have mentioned Najd(the region that this ideology originated from). Amazingly the rasuul told exactly about the fitna to arise from this region. The Prophet said, Peace be upon him: "O Allah, bless our Syria and our Yemen!" They said: "Ya Rasulallah, and our Najd!" He didn't reply. He blessed Syria and Yemen twice more. They asked him to bless Najd twice more but he didn't reply. The third time he said: "There [in Najd] are the earthquakes and the dissensions, and through it will dawn the epoch [or horn] of shaytan." Hadith 2: "A people that recite the Qur'an will come out of the East [Najd is east of medina], but it will not go past their throats. Every time a generation of them is cut down another one will come until the last one finds itself on the side of the Antichrist." Hadith 3: On the authority of al-`Abbas: "A man will come out of the Wadi Abu Hanifah [in Najd] (whose appearance is) like a bull that lunges against its yoke. There will be much slaughter and killing in his time. They will make the possessions of Muslims lawful for themselves and for trade among themselves. They will make the lives of Muslims lawful for themselves and for boasting among themselves. In that confusion the despised and the lowly will attain positions of power. Their idle desires will keep company with them the way a dog keeps company with its master." Kowneyn

Bulo: He uses the quraan and tradition to cause mischief to create confusion and division among muslims. The rasuul scws said he feared for us the misguidance of the likes of this man who use the quraan out of context to cause mischief and dissension. Bulo...If u want to understand wahhabism at its core read the confession of the shaitan who mentored him. I suggest also to stop reading Abdul-Wahhab for all the four madhabs of the sunnaah rejected and actually pronounced him as Kaaffir...even the learned men in his family (his brother and father) issued fatwa calling him a heretic and a rebellious soul. He was captured and tried by the khalifat, then executed and worse his body was not even burried with the rest of the muslims because despite discussion and persuasion he refused to return to the fold of islaam. Like him all those who continue on his course will be cleansed off from the ummaah inshallaah. Now if all the evidence at hand doesnt create a deep revulsion and disgust with Wahhaabism as a creed deep down in your soul. Then perhaps your soul has found the correct spirit in marriage and I need not say more. My effort is for those who have been taken in an aware but whose soul will be revulsed and stirred to seek the sublime and true spirit of islaam once evidence is given. The staunch once will not be changed by any evidence or persuasion because there soul found its mate. Now regarding wether its appropriate to ask other than Allaah for help!!! the answer is a resounding NOOOOOO!!! The problem here lies when pple misunderstand the islamic concept of Tawassul "way of approach" and Shifaaca or "intercession" to/with Allaah. When Adam cs was created all the angels were ordered to prostrate themselves to him. This test exposed the evil jinn ibleys who was with the angels but not one of them. He refused because of his arrogance claiming he was better than Adam, thus fooling himself and forgetting that ALLAH knows best. Was Allaah asking for Adam to be worshipped, instead of him? off course not, Adam was only away or an approach to ALLAAH (after all he breathed in him his own spirit) and by prostrating to him they were in the big picture only prostrating to ALLAAH. But the evil ibleys claimed ALLAAH has asked him to commit shirk but he wished to worship none but ALLAAH...his logic of course was clouded by his arrogance. So for one to ask those closer to ALLAAH the rasuul scws, the awliya and salaaxin to intercede for them is not shirk but the correct wasila or road to ALLAAH. So if you have believed (imaan) and performed the good work in accordance with this believe (camal saalax) and ur at Allaah's door you must ask for the key to his mercy; similarly if you seek forgiveness or provisions in this world and hereafter this is the road. The key is first and foremost Muhammad scws and second those with him and of him and the way to ask him to intercede is to send Sallaawat on him. Adam cs knew instinctually the approach to ALLAAH was through Muhammed scws when he noted the Shahaada (la illaaha illa Allaah, Muxammadun rasuulullaah) written on the Allaah's throne. His wise insight got him Allaah's forgiveness and ALLAAH said he would definitely forgive All who approached him through his beloved and obedient rasuul scws. Now Mr Macruuf as a typical person drunk with wahhaabi spirits (the favorite drink of the soul inclined to hypocrisy) he is employing rhetoric to discuss things beyond his reach and understanding---He mentioned the mawliid for example as bidca or innovation. Because they are always chasing away pple from the wise therefore correct way to ALLAAH the staunch Wahhabis deserves to be labelled shaidan-gadheere...little wisdom but too arrogant. The Mawliid is basically the collective gathering of muslims to send sallaawat upon the rasuul, ussually during fridays. The prophet scws said to send sallaawat upon him and in particularly on friday its nights and days...Because on that day he scws hears us directly and will intercede with ALLAAH for us. Why this day? u might ask? if u recall the day of reckoning is on a friday which is the day the rasuul scws will intercede for us and therefore by sending sallaawats upon the rasuul on friday we will be asking him to intercede for us on that day. Lucky are those who collectively gather in whatever form to send sallawaats to the rasuul scws on this blessed day and night. The once who bad mouth this blessed action which is firmly grounded in Islam might as well be sad now cause certainly they will face gloom on the day of reckoning when they realize that there evil souls are too arrogant to ask for the shafaaca on that day. Kowneyn Al-Baqir

Here is a link to the book: http://asmar.perso.ch/wahhabies/htm/spy1.htm

Bulo: Abdul-Wahhaab of Najd was not a scholar but a tool used by britian in fullfilling their evil inspired imperialist drive against rest of humanity. Like his fellowers today the salafis etc., he thought knowing something is the same thing as understanding it. He was a man who essentially despite having learned so much had superficial knowledge, unfortunately his ego was to enormous for him to take a backseat to those Allaah had given the wisdom and the insight. Therefore, he fell a victim to the predatory british spy agents who had infiltrated the ummaah to look for weak links to exploit inorder to unravel the ummaah from within. The British intelligence(if predatory human can be called intelligent)had found such a specimen in M.AbdulWahhaab of Najd who was manipulated and trained to embolden a sickness he harbored in his heart (the sickness of hypocrisy that was suppressed in his subconcious to become manifest and worse to give it voice of legitimacy through the art of rhetoric and propaganda that the spy thought him. They found the populous in Najd ripe and receptive to their evil inspirations; furthermore, they were ready and willing to sow the seeds of mischief and dissension among the muslim ummaah, seeing that this provided a window of opportunity to expand their political power in the arabian peninsula. With their new version of corrupted islam that they hypocritically called purified they hoped to gain spiritual leadership of the ummaah as well. They fancied, planned and betrayed the ummaah, the rasuul scws and ALLAAH. But, alas! if they only understood they would have known they only contrived, conspired and betrayed themselves because ALLAAH's plan encompasses all plans. By the for plan, knowledge and will of ALLAAH they exposed the sickness of hypocrisy that lurked in their heart and by their mischief only further purified the ummaah. Under the spiritual banner of hypocrisy and the political authority of the Saud family the Wahhabi Dynasty became established. From its center in Saudi Arabia and with the help of petrol dollars the wahhabism program of corrupting the core of muslims had mislead many of our contemporary muslims...who are not aware of the nature of this movement and assume anything coming from xijaaz (mecca and medina) and from bearded men who claim to be learned must be holy truth. I would like to expand further on this subject but bulo if ur really interested in knowing the truth about Wahhabism and the dark influence among muslims. visit this and similar sites: http://shell.spqr.net/islam/warning.html And for the origin of Wahhaabism look no further than the book titled the "memoirs of a british spy" which the evil spy who be-friended, manipulated and mentored abdul-wahhaab wrote. Read it for not only the fact it contains but to read it as the account of a human shaydan using the techniques that all shaydans jinn or man use: that is to utilize (wiswaas) the sickness hidden in our subconcious to fall from grace and guidance of ALLAAH...so that we become slaves to its sick desires and in the hereafter we are with it in the hell-fire. Kowneyn Textembolden

Miskiin-Macruuf: BTW, What is plain to a person of deep insight and wisdom may be to a Wahhaabi a far removed secret. If u had contemplated on the quraan u would have known that ALLAAH does point out regularly that its men of understanding that will be concious of his ayats and messages. How many ayats are qualified by statements similar to...wa ma yadakaru ilaa uluu-albaab etc. So although the signs are plain to see it requires a certain state of mind and heart to see them plainly. Dont assume because I say something is in plain view that u dont have to wear ur glasses (if ur visually challenged) etc. to see it. Again its the concrete and unidimensional thinking coupled with the arrogance, envy and jealousy in their heart(which prevents them from benefitting from those ALLAAH has guided). Kowneyn

Miskiin-Macruuf: Like I said the quran is a letter and a spirit. Its a book with an essence. Similarly Islam has an essence...Do you know what that is??? U pple have the nerve to call yourselves salaf (earliest generation of Islam) when u r a phenomenon of the last hour. There is no denying that there have been impostors claiming to be sufis, who fooled some gullible pple. But like my brother here pointed out it is despicable hypocrisy to try to paint the real tasawwuf with the same brush. If u were honest u would concentrate on the true nature and purpose of tasawwuf and its great spiritual champions who Allaah established between intervals of Islamic history to revitalize his religion and to spiritually awaken the ummaah, and moreover to spread its blessed message among a greater number of mankind. But Alas!, the followers of this deviant sect have learned too well the empty rhetoric of their western mentors. Like them they have fallen victim to their own propaganda and believe in their own lies. Understand wahhaabism is a disease of the heart and its primary symptom is hypocrisy. These pple are defective in their reasoning, lack deeper understanding and wisdom and are too stubborn and arrogant to seek help. Understand also Islam requires has a core or heart and tasawuf deals with this aspect of islam. To attack tasawwuf is to attack the heart of Islaam. Similarly to attack the Sharia, the madhabs etc.., is to attack the physical body of islaam. Kowneyn

Suratal waqica acuudubillaahi minalshaidami rajiim bismillaahi raxmaani raxiim 75.Falaa uqsimu bi mawaqicil nujuum 76.innahu la qasamun law taclamuuna al-cadiim 77.innahu la quraan ul-kariim 78.fi kitaabin maknuun 79 la yamasuhuna illaa mudaaharuun 80.Tanziilun min rabbil caalamiin. By the promise of the lining of the stars And this is a great promise if u know This an honored(noble) Quraan in a book hidden untouched except by the cleansed (clean) send down by the lord of the universe. Perhaps...The stars have lined and the the hidden book will be touched by those clean by Allaah's process of cleansing and it will bring honor and nobility (Karaama) to the son of Adam again. Iqra bismi rabbika lladii khalaq...Iqra wa rabbukal akram. Ya uyuhalnaas taqu rabbakum inna zilzilata sacaatil shai' un cadiim.... Saddaqallaahul cadiim Kowneyn

Suratal waqica acuudubillaahi minalshaidami rajiim bismillaahi raxmaani raxiim 75.Falaa uqsimu bi mawaqicil nujuum 76.innahu la qasamun law taclamuuna al-cadiim 77.innahu la quraan ul-kariim 78.fi kitaabin maknuun 79 la yamasuhuna illaa mudaaharuun 80.Tanziilun min rabbil caalamiin. By the promise of the lining of the stars And this is a great promise if u know This an honored(noble) Quraan in a book hidden untouched except by the cleansed (clean) send down by the lord of the universe. Perhaps...The stars have lined and the the hidden book will be touched by those clean by Allaah's process of cleansing and it will bring honor and nobility (Karaama) to the son of Adam again. Iqra bismi rabbika lladii khalaq...Iqra wa rabbukal akram. Ya uyuhalnaas taqu rabbakum inna zilzilata sacaatil shai' un cadiim.... Saddaqallaahul cadiim Kowneyn

Sister: Let me explain to you in this fashion...Islam has two main branches...Sunni and Shia. The prophet scws said that he will leave two things behind which if we hold on to it we will not go astray: The quraan and the sunnaah. On another occasion he mentioned two things (thaqlayn) that if we hold on to will save gaurd us, however this time it was: The quraan and his ahlul bayt. By Allaah's will history did play out in accordance with the rasuul scws words: the difference between the shia and sunnis doesnot lie in the quraan, because we both have the same quraan. In the original versions of shia and sunna as practiced by the early generations the distinction was that one leaned heavily on the recorded sunnah of the prophet scws while the other relied heavily and honored the ahlul bayt. I am not saying that sunnis ignored the ahlul bayt or that the shias ignored the sunnah...just that there was difference emphasis... In time corrupt individuals using the name of sunnis or shias widened the rift. But suffice to say the difference at the core of correct shia and sunna lies merely in their emphasis in the second part of the which the prophet said was coupled to the quraan and which we should hold on to. Muslims will eventually learn to honor both the recorded sunnah and the ahlul bayt of the rasuul scws as essential parts of whole and at that time differences will disappear inshallaah as Allaah and his prophet scws have promised. Now, we come to tawassuf or sufism...this is part and parcel of the religion...both sunnis and shia have tawassuf. What is tawassuf? tawassuf is knowledge of states of the soul and the purification of inner being or the heart...after all imaan is the affair of the heart. This knowledge is inherited from the rasuul scws...he was the great physician of the psyche of man and the great purifier of souls that turned the wretched tribesmen of arabia into a beacon of light for all humanity to witness and follow suit. Off course, like anything great there always copy cats or fakes and these imitators have fooled some pple and as always its important to use your judgement and rely on ALLAAH to guide to the right pple with this knowledge. Unfortunately, in our age we have among us the wahhaabis and their off springs salaafis (selfishis) etc...who despise the awliya, the ahlul bayt and ignore and belittle this crucial part of islam...the purification of the inner self. When u see someone who dismisses tasawwuf, the awliya and the ahlul bayt off hand without qualifying correctly...know that this person is one of two an ignorant person speaking with out real knowledge or a shaitan... Remember a hardcore wahhaabi--is Shaitan Gadh-dheer... As the rasuul scws warned us that when the hour is near there will rise pple who look and sport the sunnah on the outside but at their core or heart are shayaadiin. They are not enlightened by the light of islaam and interpret sharia and religious books in darkness. They hate tassawuf, the awliya, the salixiin and the ahlul bayt exactly because this...they are pple with the light of wisdom inherited from the rasuul scws to purify your inner state. In sum, all muslims are one so long as they are true to the purpose of ALLAAH inwardly and outwardly. And this is the safest way to judge the muslim ummaah today. Except for deviant groups like the wahhaabis, salaafis hiding among the sunnis we can say hold your judgement on the rest of the ummaah wether shia and sunni... let me say one last thing...The Quraan is one and its secrets are locked...Its unlocked by the recorded sunnaah of he rasuul and the spiritual inheritors of the risaalah (the ahlul bayt, awliya, ulema etc...). Similarly the inner being is a hidden secret and the quraan is meant to purify that inner being and that process can be carried out best by the knowers of the secrets...the awliya, salixiin, ahlul bayt. acuudu billaahi minal shaidani rajiim. Bismillaahi Raxmaani Raxiim Innama yuridullaahu an yud-hiba canka rijsa ahlul bayti wa yu dahirkum tad-hiira Allaah wishes to eradicate the stains of evil, Oh The members of the household, and to clean you by a process of cleansing...says the above verse and u find in suratal waaqica. Innahu la quraanul kariim, fi kitaabin maknuun, la yamassahu illaa mudaharuun This is a noble Quraan, in a hidden (secret) book, and wont be touched except by those clean. U cant experience the enlightment of islaam, the beauty and overwhelming glory of the quraan except by changing the state of your soul... wa salaamucaleykum wa raxmatullaahi wa barakat kowneyn