Originally posted by AlwaysLearning: Will not give out names but they play for the Toon army - two are in the England Squard (I have my sources)... YOU heard it first on SOL... the toon arme, who are they ???

O'Sullivan denies conversion to Islam Simon Hattenstone Friday October 3, 2003 The former world snooker champion Ronnie O'Sullivan last night said that recent reports that he had ADVERTISEMENT converted to Islam were misleading. "There has been some confusion recently. I am not a Muslim. However, I am privileged with the friendship of Muslims who have been there for me and I value as true friends." O'Sullivan, widely regarded as the game's most gifted player, has often been front-page news. Rarely, though, has anything grabbed the headlines like his purported conversion to Islam. But last night he said it was all a big misunderstanding. "Yes, I'm interested in Islam, but I'm also interested in Buddhism and Christianity. Perhaps I've been naive and given people the wrong impression, and if I have I'm sorry. "It was a bit ****** of me, I suppose. I went along to a mosque because I'm interested in Islam, but I didn't know anyone would be interested in converting me. "Actually, even when they called me to the front of the mosque I didn't know what was happening. They were very friendly, and in my ignorance I thought it was just a social thing - their way of welcoming a stranger. I felt a bit overawed by all the people around me, especially because they were talking all the time. "I'm the kind of person who doesn't want to offend, and I just thought I'd keep everyone happy then politely leave. But now I know differently." O'Sullivan said he was in two minds whether to make any public statement about the "conversion" but felt it was important to set the record straight before the new season starts at Preston this weekend. "Everyone knows I'm not the most disciplined of fellas," he admitted. "I suppose that's why the press thought it was such a good story."

3. Smoking It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease. I understand why

I think that they do not follow a specific madhab, They say that they follow all the four schools of thought. I think that you should have a madhab, there are not many people in this world that have the knowledge to make there own tafsir. ................................................. What is a Madhhab? Why is it necessary to follow one? "The slogans we hear today about 'following the Qur'an and sunna instead of following the madhhabs' are wide of the mark...In reality it is a great leap backward, a call to abandon centuries of detailed, case-by-case Islamic scholarship in finding and spelling out the commands of the Qur'an and sunna," argues Nuh Ha Mim Keller. The word madhhab is derived from an Arabic word meaning "to go" or "to take as a way", and refers to a mujtahid's choice in regard to a number of interpretive possibilities in deriving the rule of Allah from the primary texts of the Qur'an and hadith on a particular question. In a larger sense, a madhhab represents the entire school of thought of a particular mujtahid Imam, such as Abu Hanifa, Malik, Shafi'i, or Ahmad--together with many first-rank scholars that came after each of these in their respective schools, who checked their evidences and refined and upgraded their work. The mujtahid Imams were thus explainers, who operationalized the Qur'an and sunna in the specific shari'a rulings in our lives that are collectively known as fiqh or "jurisprudence". In relation to our din or "religion", this fiqh is only part of it, for the religious knowledge each of us possesses is of three types. The first type is the general knowledge of tenets of Islamic belief in the oneness of Allah, in His angels, Books, messengers, the prophethood of Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace), and so on. All of us may derive this knowledge directly from the Qur'an and hadith, as is also the case with a second type of knowledge, that of general Islamic ethical principles to do good, avoid evil, cooperate with others in good works, and so forth. Every Muslim can take these general principles, which form the largest and most important part of his religion, from the Qur'an and hadith. The third type of knowledge is that of the specific understanding of particular divine commands and prohibitions that make up the shari'a. Here, because of both the nature and the sheer number of the Qur'an and hadith texts involved, people differ in the scholarly capacity to understand and deduce rulings from them. But all of us have been commanded to live them in our lives, in obedience to Allah, and so Muslims are of two types, those who can do this by themselves, and they are the mujtahid Imams; and those who must do so by means of another, that is, by following a mujtahid Imam, in accordance with Allah's word in Surat al-Nahl, " Ask those who recall, if you know not " (Qur'an 16:43), and in Surat al-Nisa, " If they had referred it to the Messenger and to those of authority among them, then those of them whose task it is to find it out would have known the matter " (Qur'an 4:83), in which the phrase those of them whose task it is to find it out, expresses the words "alladhina yastanbitunahu minhum", referring to those possessing the capacity to draw inferences directly from the evidence, which is called in Arabic istinbat. These and other verses and hadiths oblige the believer who is not at the level of istinbat or directly deriving rulings from the Qur'an and hadith to ask and follow someone in such rulings who is at this level. It is not difficult to see why Allah has obliged us to ask experts, for if each of us were personally responsible for evaluating all the primary texts relating to each question, a lifetime of study would hardly be enough for it, and one would either have to give up earning a living or give up ones din, which is why Allah says in surat al-Tawba, in the context of jihad: " Not all of the believers should go to fight. Of every section of them, why does not one part alone go forth, that the rest may gain knowledge of the religion and admonish their people when they return, that perhaps they may take warning " (Qur'an 9:122). The slogans we hear today about "following the Qur'an and sunna instead of following the madhhabs" are wide of the mark, for everyone agrees that we must follow the Qur'an and the sunna of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). The point is that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) is no longer alive to personally teach us, and everything we have from him, whether the hadith or the Qur'an, has been conveyed to us through Islamic scholars. So it is not a question of whether or not to take our din from scholars, but rather, from which scholars. And this is the reason we have madhhabs in Islam: because the excellence and superiority of the scholarship of the mujtahid Imams--together with the traditional scholars who followed in each of their schools and evaluated and upgraded their work after them--have met the test of scholarly investigation and won the confidence of thinking and practicing Muslims for all the centuries of Islamic greatness. The reason why madhhabs exist, the benefit of them, past, present, and future, is that they furnish thousands of sound, knowledge-based answers to Muslims questions on how to obey Allah. Muslims have realized that to follow a madhhab means to follow a super scholar who not only had a comprehensive knowledge of the Qur'an and hadith texts relating to each issue he gave judgements on, but also lived in an age a millennium closer to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and his Companions, when taqwa or "godfearingness" was the norm--both of which conditions are in striking contrast to the scholarship available today. While the call for a return to the Qur'an and sunna is an attractive slogan, in reality it is a great leap backward, a call to abandon centuries of detailed, case-by-case Islamic scholarship in finding and spelling out the commands of the Qur'an and sunna, a highly sophisticated, interdisciplinary effort by mujtahids, hadith specialists, Qur'anic exegetes, lexicographers, and other masters of the Islamic legal sciences. To abandon the fruits of this research, the Islamic shari'a, for the following of contemporary sheikhs who, despite the claims, are not at the level of their predecessors, is a replacement of something tried and proven for something at best tentative. The rhetoric of following the shari'a without following a particular madhhab is like a person going down to a car dealer to buy a car, but insisting it not be any known make--neither a Volkswagen nor Rolls-Royce nor Chevrolet--but rather "a car, pure and simple". Such a person does not really know what he wants; the cars on the lot do not come like that, but only in kinds. The salesman may be forgiven a slight smile, and can only point out that sophisticated products come from sophisticated means of production, from factories with a division of labor among those who test, produce, and assemble the many parts of the finished product. It is the nature of such collective human efforts to produce something far better than any of us alone could produce from scratch, even if given a forge and tools, and fifty years, or even a thousand. And so it is with the shari'a, which is more complex than any car because it deals with the universe of human actions and a wide interpretative range of sacred texts. This is why discarding the monumental scholarship of the madhhabs in operationalizing the Qur'an and sunna in order to adopt the understanding of a contemporary sheikh is not just a mistaken opinion. It is scrapping a Mercedes for a go-cart. © Nuh Ha Mim Keller 1995 ............................................... Why Muslims Follow Madhhabs "Who needs the Imams of Sacred Law when we have the Qur’an and hadith? Why can’t we take our Islam from the word of Allah and His Messenger?" Nuh Ha Mim Keller explains the necessity to respect and value scholars and the schools of Islamic law. The work of the mujtahid Imams of Sacred Law, those who deduce shari‘a rulings from Qur’an and hadith, has been the object of my research for some years now, during which I have sometimes heard the question: "Who needs the Imams of Sacred Law when we have the Qur’an and hadith? Why can’t we take our Islam from the word of Allah and His Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace), which are divinely protected from error, instead of taking it from the madhhabs or "schools of jurisprudence" of the mujtahid Imams such as Abu Hanifa, Malik, Shafi‘i, and Ahmad, which are not?" It cannot be hidden from any of you how urgent this issue is, or that many of the disagreements we see and hear in our mosques these days are due to lack of knowledge of fiqh or "Islamic jurisprudence" and its relation to Islam as a whole. Now, perhaps more than ever before, it is time for us to get back to basics and ask ourselves how we understand and carry out the commands of Allah. We will first discuss the knowledge of Islam that all of us possess, and then show where fiqh enters into it. We will look at the qualifications mentioned in the Qur’an and sunna for those who do fiqh, the mujtahid scholars. We will focus first on the extent of the mujtahid scholar’s knowledge—how many hadiths he has to know, and so on—and then we will look at the depth of his knowledge, through actual examples of dalils or "legal proofs" that demonstrate how scholars join between different and even contradictory hadiths to produce a unified and consistent legal ruling. We will close by discussing the mujtahid’s relation to the science of hadith authentication, and the conditions by which a scholar knows that a given hadith is sahih or "rigorously authenticated," so that he can accept and follow it. Qur’an and Hadith. The knowledge that you and I take from the Qur’an and the hadith is of several types: the first and most important concerns our faith, and is the knowledge of Allah and His attributes, and the other basic tenets of Islamic belief such as the messengerhood of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), the Last Day, and so on. Every Muslim can and must acquire this knowledge from the Book of Allah and the sunna. This is also the case with a second type of general knowledge, which does not concern faith, however, but rather works: the general laws of Islam to do good, to avoid evil, to perform the prayer, pay zakat, fast Ramadan, to cooperate with others in good works, and so forth. Anyone can learn and understand these general rules, which summarize the sirat al-mustaqim or "straight path" of our religion. Fiqh. A third type of knowledge is of the specific details of Islamic practice. Whereas anyone can understand the first two types of knowledge from the Qur’an and hadith, the understanding of this third type has a special name, fiqh, meaning literally "understanding." And people differ in their capacity to do it. I had a visitor one day in Jordan, for example, who, when we talked about why he hadn’t yet gone on hajj, mentioned the hadith of Anas ibn Malik that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "Whoever prays the dawn prayer (fajr) in a group and then sits and does dhikr until the sun rises, then prays two rak‘as, shall have the like of the reward of a hajj and an ‘umra." Anas said, "The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: ‘Completely, completely, completely’" (Tirmidhi, 2.481). My visitor had done just that this very morning, and he now believed that he had fulfilled his obligation to perform the hajj, and had no need to go to Mecca. The hadith was well authenticated (hasan). I distinguished for my visitor between having the reward of something, and lifting the obligation of Islam by actually doing it, and he saw my point. But there is a larger lesson here, that while the Qur’an and the sunna are ma‘sum or "divinely protected from error," the understanding of them is not. And someone who derives rulings from the Qur’an and hadith without training in ijtihad or "deduction from primary texts" as my visitor did, will be responsible for it on the Day of Judgment, just as an amateur doctor who had never been to medical school would be responsible if he performed an operation and somebody died under his knife. Why? Because Allah has explained in the Qur’an that fiqh, the detailed understanding of the divine command, requires specially trained members of the Muslim community to learn and teach it. Allah says in surat al-Tawba: "Not all of the believers should go to fight. Of every section of them, why does not one part alone go forth, that the rest may gain understanding of the religion, and to admonish their people when they return, that perhaps they may take warning" (Qur’an 9:122) —where the expression li yatafaqqahu fi al-din, "to gain understanding of the religion," is derived from precisely the same root (f-q-h) as the word fiqh or "jurisprudence," and is what Western students of Arabic would call a "fifth-form verb" (tafa‘‘ala), which indicates that the meaning contained in the root, understanding, is accomplished through careful, sustained effort. This Qur’anic verse establishes that there should be a category of people who have learned the religion so as to be qualified in turn to teach it. And Allah has commanded those who do not know a ruling in Sacred Law to ask those who do, by saying in surat al-Nahl, "Ask those who recall if you know not" (Qur’an 16:43), in which the words "those who recall," ahl al-dhikri, indicate those with knowledge of the Qur’an and sunna, at their forefront the mujtahid Imams of this Umma. Why? Because, first of all, the Qur’an and hadith are in Arabic, and as a translator, I can assure you that it is not just any Arabic. To understand the Qur’an and sunna, the mujtahid must have complete knowledge of the Arabic language in the same capacity as the early Arabs themselves had before the language came to be used by non-native speakers. This qualification, which almost no one in our time has, is not the main subject of my essay, but even if we did have it, what if you or I, though not trained specialists, wanted to deduce details of Islamic practice directly from the sources? After all, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) has said, in the hadith of Bukhari and Muslim: "When a judge gives judgement and strives to know a ruling (ijtahada) and is correct, he has two rewards. If he gives judgement and strives to know a ruling, but is wrong, he has one reward" (Bukhari, 9.133). The answer is that the term ijtihad or "striving to know a ruling" in this hadith does not mean just any person’s efforts to understand and operationalize an Islamic ruling, but rather the person with sound knowledge of everything the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) taught that relates to the question. Whoever makes ijtihad without this qualification is a criminal. The proof of this is the hadith that the Companion Jabir ibn ‘Abdullah said: We went on a journey, and a stone struck one of us and opened a gash in his head. When he later had a wet-dream in his sleep, he then asked his companions, "Do you find any dispensation for me to perform dry ablution (tayammum)?" [Meaning instead of a full purificatory bath (ghusl).] They told him, "We don’t find any dispensation for you if you can use water." So he performed the purificatory bath and his wound opened and he died. When we came to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), he was told of this and he said: "They have killed him, may Allah kill them. Why did they not ask?—for they didn’t know. The only cure for someone who does not know what to say is to ask" (Abu Dawud, 1.93). This hadith, which was related by Abu Dawud, is well authenticated (hasan), and every Muslim who has any taqwa should reflect on it carefully, for the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) indicated in it—in the strongest language possible—that to judge on a rule of Islam on the basis of insufficient knowledge is a crime. And like it is the well authenticated hadith "Whoever is given a legal opinion (fatwa) without knowledge, his sin is but upon the person who gave him the opinion" (Abu Dawud, 3.321). The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) also said: Judges are three: two of them in hell, and one in paradise. A man who knows the truth and judges accordingly, he shall go to paradise. A man who judges for people while ignorant, he shall go to hell. And a man who knows the truth but rules unjustly, he shall go to hell (Sharh al-sunna, 10.94). This hadith, which was related by Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, and others, is rigorously authenticated (sahih), and any Muslim who would like to avoid the hellfire should soberly consider the fate of whoever, in the words of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), "judges for people while ignorant." Yet we all have our Yusuf ‘Ali Qur’ans, and our Sahih al-Bukhari translations. Aren’t these adequate scholarly resources? These are valuable books, and do convey perhaps the largest and most important part of our din: the basic Islamic beliefs, and general laws of the religion. Our discussion here is not about these broad principles, but rather about understanding specific details of Islamic practice, which is called precisely fiqh. For this, I think any honest investigator who studies the issues will agree that the English translations are not enough. They are not enough because understanding the total Qur’an and hadith textual corpus, which comprises what we call the din, requires two dimensions in a scholar: a dimension of breadth, the substantive knowledge of all the texts; and a dimension of depth, the methodological tools needed to join between all the Qur’anic verses and hadiths, even those that ostensibly contradict one another. Knowledge of Primary Texts. As for the breadth of a mujtahid’s knowledge, it is recorded that Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal’s student Muhammad ibn ‘Ubaydullah ibn al-Munadi heard a man ask him [imam Ahmad]: "When a man has memorized 100,000 hadiths, is he a scholar of Sacred Law, a faqih?" And he said, "No." The man asked, "200,000 then?" And he said, "No." The man asked, "Then 300,000?" And he said, "No." The man asked, "400,000?" And Ahmad gestured with his hand to signify "about that many" (Ibn al-Qayyim: I‘lam al-muwaqqi‘in, 4.205). In truth, by the term "hadith" here Imam Ahmad meant the hadiths of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) in all their various chains of transmission, counting each chain of transmission as a separate hadith, and perhaps also counting the statements of the Sahaba. But the larger point here is that even if we eliminate the different chains, and speak only about the hadiths from the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) that are plainly acceptable as evidence, whether sahih, "rigorously authenticated" or hasan "well authenticated" (which for purposes of ijtihad, may be assimilated to the sahih), we are still speaking of well over 10,000 hadiths, and they are not contained in Bukhari alone, or in Bukhari and Muslim alone, nor yet in any six books, or even in any nine. Yet whoever wants to give a fatwa or "formal legal opinion" and judge for people that something is lawful or unlawful, obligatory or sunna, must know all the primary texts that relate to it. For the perhaps 10,000 hadiths that are sahih are, for the mujtahid, as one single hadith, and he must first know them in order to join between them to explain the unified command of Allah. I say "join between" because most of you must be aware that some sahih hadiths seem to controvert other equally sahih hadiths. What does a mujtahid do in such an instance? Ijtihad. Let’s look at some examples. Most of us know the hadiths about fasting on the Day of ‘Arafa for the non-pilgrim, that "it expiates [the sins of] the year before and the year after" (Muslim, 2.819). But another rigorously authenticated hadith prohibits fasting on Friday alone (Bukhari, 3.54), and a well authenticated hadith prohibits fasting on Saturday alone (Tirmidhi, 3.120), of which Tirmidhi explains, "The meaning of the ‘offensiveness’ in this is when a man singles out Saturday to fast on, since the Jews venerate Saturdays" (ibid.). Some scholars hold Sundays offensive to fast on for the same reason, that they are venerated by non-Muslims. (Other hadiths permit fasting one of these days together with the day before or the day after it, perhaps because no religion venerates two of the days in a row.) The question arises: What does one do when ‘Arafa falls on a Friday, a Saturday, or a Sunday? The general demand for fasting on the Day of ‘Arafa might well be qualified by the specific prohibition of fasting on just one of these days. But a mujtahid aware of the whole hadith corpus would certainly know a third hadith related by Muslim that is even more specific, and says: "Do not single out Friday from among other days to fast on, unless it coincides with a fast one of you performs" (Muslim, 2.801). The latter hadith establishes for the mujtahid the general principle that the ruling for fasting on a day normally prohibited to fast on changes when it "coincides with a fast one of you performs"—and so there is no problem with fasting whether the Day of Arafa falls on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Here as elsewhere, whoever wants to understand the ruling of doing something in Islam must know all the texts connected with it. Because as ordinary Muslims, you and I are not only responsible for obeying the Qur’anic verses and hadiths we are familiar with. We are responsible for obeying all of them, the whole shari‘a. And if we are not personally qualified to join between all of its texts—and we have heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal discuss how much knowledge this takes—we must follow someone who can, which is why Allah tells us, "Ask those who recall if you know not." The size and nature of this knowledge necessitate that the non-specialist use adab or "proper respect" towards the scholars of fiqh when he finds a hadith, whether in Bukhari or elsewhere, that ostensibly contradicts the schools of fiqh. A non-scholar, for example, reading through Sahih al-Bukhari will find the hadith that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) bared a thigh on the ride back from Khaybar (Bukhari, 1.103–4). And he might imagine that the four madhhabs or "legal schools"—Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi‘i, and Hanbali—were mistaken in their judgment that the thigh is ‘awra or "nakedness that must be covered." But in fact there are a number of other hadiths, all of them well authenticated (hasan) or rigorously authenticated (sahih) that prove that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) explicitly commanded various Sahaba to cover the thigh because it was nakedness. Hakim reports that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) saw Jarhad in the mosque wearing a mantle, and his thigh became uncovered, so the Prophet told him, "The thigh is part of one’s nakedness" (al-Mustadrak), of which Hakim said, "This is a hadith whose chain of transmission is rigorously authenticated (sahih)," which Imam Dhahabi confirmed (ibid.). Imam al-Baghawi records the sahih hadith that "the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) passed by Ma‘mar, whose two thighs were exposed, and told him, ‘O Ma‘mar, cover your two thighs, for the two thighs are nakedness’" (Sharh al-sunna 9.21). And Ahmad ibn Hanbal records that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "When one of you marries [someone to] his servant or hired man, let him not look at his nakedness, for what is below his navel to his two knees is nakedness" (Ahmad, 2.187), a hadith with a well authenticated (hasan) chain of transmission. The mujtahid Imams of the four schools knew these hadiths, and joined between them and the Khaybar hadith in Bukhari by the methodological principle that: "An explicit command in words from the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) is given precedence over an action of his." Why? Among other reasons, because certain laws of the shari‘a applied to the Prophet alone (Allah bless him and give him peace). Such as the fact that when he went into battle, he was not permitted to retreat, no matter how outnumbered. Or such as the obligatoriness for him alone of praying tahajjud or "night vigil prayer" after rising from sleep before dawn, which is merely sunna for the rest of us. Or such as the permissibility for him alone of not breaking his fast at night between fast-days. Or such as the permissibility for him alone of having more than four wives—the means through which Allah, in His wisdom, preserved for us the minutest details of the Prophet’s day-to-day sunna (Allah bless him and give him peace), which a larger number of wives would be far abler to observe and remember. Because certain laws of the shari‘a applied to him alone, the scholars of ijtihad have established the principle that in many cases, when an act was done by the Prophet personally (Allah bless him and give him peace), such as bearing the thigh after Khaybar, and when he gave an explicit command to us to do something else, in this case, to cover the thigh because it is nakedness, then the command is adopted for us, and the act is considered to pertain to him alone (Allah bless him and give him peace). We can see from this example the kind of scholarship it takes to seriously comprehend the whole body of hadith, both in breadth of knowledge, and depth of interpretive understanding or fiqh, and that anyone who would give a fatwa, on the basis of the Khaybar hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, that "the scholars are wrong and the hadith is right" would be guilty of criminal negligence for his ignorance. When one does not have substantive knowledge of the Qur’an and hadith corpus, and lacks the fiqh methodology to comprehensively join between it, the hadiths one has read are not enough. To take another example, there is a well authenticated (hasan) hadith that "the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) cursed women who visit graves" (Tirmidhi, 3.371). But scholars say that the prohibition of women visiting graves was abrogated (mansukh) by the rigorously authenticated (sahih) hadith "I had forbidden you to visit graves, but now visit them" (Muslim, 2.672). Here, although the expression "now visit them" (fa zuruha) is an imperative to men (or to a group of whom at least some are men), the fact that the hadith permits women as well as men to now visit graves is shown by another hadith related by Muslim in his Sahih that when ‘A'isha asked the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) what she should say if she visited graves, he told her, "Say: ‘Peace be upon the believers and Muslims of the folk of these abodes: May Allah have mercy on those of us who have gone ahead and those who have stayed behind: Allah willing, we shall certainly be joining you’" (Muslim, 2.671), which plainly entails the permissibility of her visiting graves in order to say this, for the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) would never have taught her these words if visiting the graves to say them had been disobedience. In other words, knowing all these hadiths, together with the methodological principle of naskh or "abrogation," is essential to drawing the valid fiqh conclusion that the first hadith in which "the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) cursed women who visit graves"—was abrogated by the second hadith, as is attested to by the third. Or consider the Qur’anic text in surat al-Ma’ida: "The food of those who have been given the Book is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them" (Qur’an 5:5). This is a general ruling ostensibly pertaining to all their food. Yet this ruling is subject to takhsis, or "restriction" by more specific rulings that prove that certain foods of Ahl al-Kitab, "those who have been given the Book," such as pork, or animals not properly slaughtered, are not lawful for us. Ignorance of this principle of takhsis or restriction seems to be especially common among would-be mujtahids of our times, from whom we often hear the more general ruling in the words "But the Qur’an says," or "But the hadith says," without any mention of the more particular ruling from a different hadith or Qur’anic versethat restricts it. The reply can only be "Yes, brother, the Qur’an does say, ‘The food of those who have been given the Book is lawful for you,’ But what else does it say?" or "Yes, the hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari says the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) bared his thigh on the return from Khaybar. But what else do the hadiths say, and more importantly, are you sure you know it?" The above examples illustrate only a few of the methodological rules needed by the mujtahid to understand and operationalize Islam by joining between all the evidence. Firstly, we saw the principle of takhsis or "restriction" of general rules by more specific ones, both in the example of fasting on the Day of ‘Arafa when it falls on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, and the example of the food of Ahl al-Kitab. Secondly, in the Khaybar hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari about baring the thigh and the hadiths commanding that the thigh be covered, we saw the principle of how an explicit prophetic command in words is given precedence over a mere action when there is a contradiction. Thirdly, we saw the principle of nasikh wa mansukh, of "an earlier ruling being abrogated by a later one," in the example of the initial prohibition of women visiting graves, and their subsequently being permitted to. These are only three of the ways that two or more texts of the Qur’an and hadith may enter into and qualify one another, rules that someone who derives the shari‘a from them must know. In other words, they are but three tools of a whole methodological toolbox. We do not have the time tonight to go through all these tools in detail, although we can mention some in passing, giving first their Arabic names, such as: —The ‘amm, a text of general applicability to many legal rulings, and its opposite: —The khass, that which is applicable to only one ruling or type of ruling. —The mujmal, that which requires other texts to be fully understood, and its opposite: —The mubayyan, that which is plain without other texts. —The mutlaq, that which is applicable without restriction, and its opposite: —The muqayyad, that which has restrictions given in other texts. —The nasikh, that which supersedes previous revealed rulings, and its opposite: —The mansukh: that which is superseded. —The nass: that which unequivocally decides a particular legal question, and its opposite: —The dhahir: that which can bear more than one interpretation. My point in mentioning what a mujtahid is, what fiqh is, and the types of texts that embody Allah’s commands, with the examples that illustrate them, is to answer our original question: "Why can’t we take our Islamic practice from the word of Allah and His messenger, which are divinely protected, instead of taking it from mujtahid Imams, who are not?" The answer, we have seen, is that revelation cannot be acted upon without understanding, and understanding requires firstly that one have the breadth of mastery of the whole, and secondly, the knowledge of how the parts relate to each other. Whoever joins between these two dimensions of the revelation is taking his Islamic practice from the word of Allah and His messenger, whether he does so personally, by being a mujtahid Imam, or whether by a means of another, by following one. Following Scholars (Taqlid). The Qur’an clearly distinguishes between these two levels—the nonspecialists whose way is taqlid or "following the results of scholar without knowing the detailed evidence"; and those whose task is to know and evaluate the evidence—by Allah Most High saying in surat al-Nisa’: "If they had referred it to the Messenger and to those of authority among them, then those of them whose task it is to find it out would have known the matter" (Qur’an 4:83) —where alladhina yastanbitunahu minhum, "those of them whose task it is to find it out," refers to those possessing the capacity to infer legal rulings directly from evidence, which is called in Arabic precisely istinbat, showing, as Qur’anic exegete al-Razi says, that "Allah has commanded those morally responsible to refer actual facts to someone who can infer (yastanbitu) the legal ruling concerning them" (Tafsir al-Fakhr al-Razi, 10.205). A person who has reached this level can and indeed must draw his inferences directly from evidence, and may not merely follow another scholar’s conclusions without examining the evidence (taqlid), a rule expressed in books of methodological principles of fiqh as: Laysa li al-‘alim an yuqallida, "The alim [i.e. the mujtahid at the level of instinbat referred to by the above Qur’anic verse] may not merely follow another scholar" (al-Juwayni: Sharh al-Waraqat, 75), meaning it is not legally permissible for one mujtahid to follow another mujtahid unless he knows and agrees with his evidences. The mujtahid Imams trained a number of scholars who were at this level. Imam Shafi‘i had al-Muzani, and Imam Abu Hanifa had Abu Yusuf and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani. It was to such students that Abu Hanifa addressed his words: "It is unlawful for whoever does not know my evidence to give my position as a fatwa" (al-Hamid: Luzum ittiba‘ madhahib al-a’imma, 6), and, "It is not lawful for anyone to give our position as a fatwa until he knows where we have taken it from" (ibid.). It is one of the howlers of our times that these words are sometimes quoted as though they were addressed to ordinary Muslims. If it were unlawful for the carpenter, the sailor, the computer programmer, the doctor, to do any act of worship before he had mastered the entire textual corpus of the Qur’an and thousands of hadiths, together with all the methodological principles needed to weigh the evidence and comprehensively join between it, he would either have to give up his profession or give up his religion. A lifetime of study would hardly be enough for this, a fact that Abu Hanifa knew better than anyone else, and it was to scholars of istinbat, the mujtahids, that he addressed his remarks. Whoever quotes these words to non-scholars to try to suggest that Abu Hanifa meant that it is wrong for ordinary Muslims to accept the work of scholars, should stop for a moment to reflect how insane this is, particularly in view of the life work of Abu Hanifa from beginning to end, which consisted precisely in summarizing the fiqh rulings of the religion for ordinary people to follow and benefit from. Imam Shafi‘i was also addressing this top level of scholars when he said: "When a hadith is sahih, it is my school (madhhab)"—which has been misunderstood by some to mean that if one finds a hadith, for example, in Sahih al-Bukhari that is inconsistent with a position of Shafi‘i's, one should presume that he was ignorant of it, drop the fiqh, and accept the hadith. I think the examples we have heard tonight of joining between several hadiths for a single ruling are too clear to misunderstand Shafi‘i in this way. Shafi‘i is referring to hadiths that he was previously unaware of and that mujtahid scholars know him to have been unaware of when he gave a particular ruling. And this, as Imam Nawawi has said, "is very difficult," for Shafi‘i was aware of a great deal. We have heard the opinion of Shafi‘i's student Ahmad ibn Hanbal about how many hadiths a faqih must know, and he unquestionably considered Shafi‘i to be such a scholar, for Shafi‘i was his sheikh in fiqh. Ibn Khuzayma, known as "the Imam of Imams" in hadith memorization, was once asked, "Do you know of any rigorously authenticated (sahih) hadith that Shafi‘i did not place in his books?" And he said "No" (Nawawi: al-Majmu‘, 1.10). And Imam Dhahabi has said, "Shafi‘i did not make a single mistake about a hadith" (Ibn Subki: Tabaqat al-Shafi‘iyya, 9.114). It is clear from all of this that Imam Shafi‘i's statement "When a hadith is sahih, it is my position" only makes sense—and could result in meaningful corrections—if addressed to scholars at a level of hadith mastery comparable to his own. Hadith Authentication. The last point raises another issue that few people are aware of today, and I shall devote the final part of my speech to it. Just as the mujtahid Imam is not like us in his command of the Qur’an and hadith evidence and the principles needed to join between it and infer rulings from it, so too he is not like us in the way he judges the authenticity of hadiths. If a person who is not a hadith specialist needs to rate a hadith, he will usually want to know if it appears, for example, in Sahih al-Bukhari, or Sahih Muslim, or if some hadith scholar has declared it to be sahih or hasan. A mujtahid does not do this. Rather, he reaches an independent judgment as to whether a particular hadith is truly from the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) through his own knowledge of hadith narrators and the sciences of hadith, and not from taqlid or "following the opinion of another hadith scholar." It is thus not necessarily an evidence against the positions of a mujtahid that Bukhari, or Muslim, or whoever, has accepted a hadith that contradicts the mujtahid’s evidence. Why? Because among hadith scholars, the reliability rating of individual narrators in hadith chains of transmission are disagreed about and therefore hadiths are disagreed about in the same manner that particular questions of fiqh are disagreed about among the scholars of fiqh. Like the schools of fiqh, the extent of this disagreement is relatively small in relation to the whole, but one should remember that it does exist. Because a mujtahid scholar is not bound to accept another scholar’s ijtihad regarding a particular hadith, the ijtihad of a hadith specialist of our own time that, for example, a hadith is weak (da‘if), is not necessarily an evidence against the ijtihad of a previous mujtahid that the hadith is acceptable. This is particularly true in the present day, when specialists in hadith are not at the level of their predecessors in either knowledge of hadith sciences, or memorization of hadiths. We should also remember what sahih means. I shall conclude my essay with the five conditions that have to be met for a hadith to be considered sahih, and we shall see, in sha’ Allah, how the scholars of hadith have differed about them, a discussion drawn in its outlines from contemporary Syrian hadith scholar Muhammad ‘Awwama’s Athar al-hadith al-sharif fi ikhtilaf al-A’imma al-fuqaha [The effect of hadith on the differences of the Imams of fiqh] (21–23): (a) The first condition is that a hadith must go back to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) by a continuous chain of narrators. There is a difference of opinion here between Bukhari and Muslim, in that Bukhari held that for any two adjacent narrators in a chain of transmission, it must be historically established that the two actually met, whereas Muslim and others stipulated only that their meeting have been possible, such as by one having lived in a particular city that the other is known to have visited at least once in his life. So some hadiths will be acceptable to Muslim that will not be acceptable to Bukhari and those of the mujtahid imams who adopt his criterion. (b) The second condition for a sahih hadith is that the narrators be morally upright. The scholars have disagreed about the definition of this, some accepting that it is enough that a narrator be a Muslim who is not proven to have been unacceptable. Others stipulate that he be outwardly established as having been morally upright, while other scholars stipulate that this be established inwardly as well. These different criteria are naturally reasons why two mujtahids may differ about the authenticity of a single hadith. © The third condition is that the narrators must be known to have had accurate memories. The verification of this is similarly subject to some disagreement between the Imams of hadith, resulting in differences about reliability ratings of particular narrators, and therefore of particular hadiths. (d) The fourth condition for a sahih hadith is that the text and transmission of the hadith must be free of shudhudh, or "variance from established standard narrations of it." An example is when a hadith is related by five different narrators who are contemporaries of one another, all of whom relate the same hadith from the same sheikh through his chain of transmission back to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). Here, if we find that four of the hadiths have the same wording but one of them has a variant wording, the hadith with the variant wording is called shadhdh or "deviant," and it is not accepted, because the difference is naturally assumed to be the mistake of the one narrator, since all of the narrators heard the hadith from the same sheikh. There is a hadith (to take an example researched by our hadith teacher, sheikh Shu‘ayb al-Arna’ut) related by Ahmad (4.318), Bayhaqi (2.132), Ibn Khuzayma (1.354), and Ibn Hibban, with a reliable chain of narrators (thiqat)—except for Kulayb ibn Hisham, who is a merely "acceptable" (saduq), not "reliable" (thiqa)—that the Companion Wa’il ibn Hujr al-Hadrami said that when he watched the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) kneeling in the Tashahhud or "Testification of Faith" of his prayer, the Prophet lifted his [index] finger, and I saw him move it, supplicating with it. I came [some time] after that and saw people in [winter] over-cloaks, their hands moving under the cloaks (Ibn Hibban, 5.170–71). Now, all of the versions of the hadith mentioning that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) moved his finger have been related to us by way of Za’ida ibn Qudama al-Thaqafi, a narrator who is considered reliable, and who transmitted it from the hadith sheikh ‘Asim ibn Kulayb, who related it from his father Kulayb ibn Shihab, from Wa’il ibn Hujr al-Hadrami. But we find that this version of "moving the finger" contradicts versions of the hadith transmitted from the same sheikh, ‘Asim ibn Kulayb, by no less than ten of ‘Asim’s other students, all of them reliable, who heard ‘Asim report that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) did not move but rather pointed (ashara) with his index finger (towards the qibla or "direction of prayer"). These companions of ‘Asim (with their hadiths, which are well authenticated (hasan)) are: Sufyan al-Thawri: "then he pointed with his index finger, putting the thumb to the middle finger to make a ring with them" (al-Musannaf 2.68–69); Sufyan ibn ‘Uyayna: "he joined his thumb and middle finger to make a ring, and pointed with his index finger" (Ahmad, 4.318); Shu‘ba ibn al-Hajjaj: "he pointed with his index finger, and formed a ring with the middle one" (Ahmad, 4.319); Qays ibn al-Rabi‘: "then he joined his thumb and middle finger to make a ring, and pointed with his index finger" (Tabarani, 22.33–34); ‘Abd al-Wahid ibn Ziyad al-‘Abdi: "he made a ring with a finger, and pointed with his index finger" (Ahmad, 4.316); ‘Abdullah ibn Idris al-Awdi: "he had joined his thumb and middle finger to make a ring, and raised the finger between them to make du‘a (supplication) in the Testification of Faith" (Ibn Majah, 1.295); Zuhayr ibn Mu‘awiya: "and I saw him [‘Asim] say, ‘Like this,’—and Zuhayr pointed with his first index finger, holding two fingers in, and made a ring with his thumb and second index [middle] finger" (Ahmad, 4.318–19); Abu al-Ahwas Sallam ibn Sulaym: "he began making du‘a like this—meaning with his index finger, pointing with it—" (Musnad al-Tayalisi, 137); Bishr ibn al-Mufaddal: "and I saw him [‘Asim] say, ‘Like this,’—and Bishr joined his thumb and middle finger to make a ring, and pointed with his index finger" (Abi Dawud, 1.251); and Khalid ibn Abdullah al-Wasiti: "then he joined his thumb and middle finger to make a ring, and pointed with his index finger" (Bayhaqi, 2.131). All of these narrators are reliable (thiqat), and all heard ‘Asim ibn Kulayb relate that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) "pointed with (ashara bi) his index finger" during the Testimony of Faith in his prayer. There are many other narrations of "pointing with the index finger" transmitted through sheikhs other than ‘Asim, omitted here for brevity—four of them, for example, in Sahih Muslim, 1.408–9). The point is, for illustrating the meaning of a shadhdh or "deviant hadith," that the version of moving the finger was conveyed only by Za’ida ibn Qudama from ‘Asim. Ibn Khuzayma says: "There is not a single hadith containing yuharrikuha (‘he moved it’) except this hadith mentioned by Za’ida" (Ibn Khuzayma, 1.354). So we know that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) used to point with his index finger, and that the version of "moving his finger" is shadhdh or "deviant," and represents a slip of the narrator, for the word ishara in the majority’s version means only "to point or gesture at," or "to indicate with the hand," and has no recorded lexical sense of wiggling or shaking the finger (Lisan al-‘Arab, 4.437 and al-Qamus al-muhit (540). This interpretation is explicitly borne out by well authenticated hadiths related from the Companion Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr that "the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) used to point with his index finger when making supplication [in the Testification of Faith], and did not move it" (Abi Dawud, 1.260) and that he "used to point with his index finger when making supplication, without moving it" (Bayhaqi, 2.131–32). Finally, we may note that Imam Bayhaqi has joined between the Za’ida ibn Qudama hadith and the many hadiths that apparently contradict it by suggesting that moving the finger in the Za’ida hadith may mean simply lifting it (rafa‘a), a wording explicitly mentioned in one version recorded by Muslim that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) "raised the right finger that is next to the thumb, and supplicated with it" (Muslim, 1.408). So according to Bayhaqi, the contradiction is only apparent, and raising the finger is the "movement" that Wa’il saw from the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and the people’s hands under their cloaks, according to Za’ida’s version, which remains, however, shadhdh or "deviant" from a hadith point of view, unless understood in this limitary sense. (e) The fifth and final condition for a sahih hadith is that both the text and chain of transmission must be without ‘illa or "hidden flaw" that alerts experts to expect inauthenticity in it. We will dwell for a moment on this point not only because it helps illustrate the processes of ijtihad, but because in-depth expertise in this condition was not common even among top hadith Imams. The greatest name in the field was ‘Ali al-Madini, one of the sheikhs of Bukhari, though his major work about it is now unfortunately lost. Daraqutni is perhaps the most famous specialist in the field whose works exist. In the words of Ibn al-Salah, a hafiz or "hadith master" (someone with at least 100,000 hadiths by memory), the knowledge of the ‘illa or "hidden flaw" is: among the greatest of the sciences of hadith, the most exacting, and highest: only scholars of great memorization, hadith expertise, and penetrating understanding have a thorough knowledge of it. It refers to obscure, hidden flaws that vitiate hadiths, "flawed" meaning that a defect is discovered that negates the authenticity of a hadith that is outwardly "rigorously authenticated" (sahih). It affects hadiths with reliable chains of narrators that outwardly appear to fulfill all the conditions of a sahih hadith (‘Ulum al-hadith). It may surprise some people to learn that one example often cited in hadith textbooks of such a hidden flaw (‘illa) is from Sahih Muslim, all of whose hadiths are rigorously authenticated (sahih), as Ibn al-Salah has said, "except for a very small number of words, which hadith masters of textual evaluation (naqd) such as Daraqutni and others have critiqued, and which are known to scholars of this level" (‘Ulum al-hadith). The hadith of the present example was related by Muslim from the Companion Anas ibn Malik in several versions, which might convince those unaware of its flaw to believe that someone at prayer should omit the Basmala or "Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim" at the beginning of the Fatiha. According to the hadith, Anas ibn Malik (Allah be well pleased with him) said, I prayed with the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace), Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, and ‘Uthman, and they opened with "al-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbi l-‘Alamin,"not mentioning "Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim" at the first of the recital or the last of it [and in another version, I didn’t hear any of them recite ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim’] (Muslim, 1.299). Scholars say the hadith’s flaw lies in the negation of the Basmala at the end, which is not the words of Anas, but rather one of the subnarrators explaining what he thought Anas meant. Ibn al-Salah says: "Its subnarrator related it with the above-mentioned wording in accordance with his own understanding of it" (Muqaddima Ibn al-Salah (b01), 99). This hadith is given as an example of a "hidden flaw" in a number of manuals of hadith terminology such as hadith master (hafiz) Suyuti’s Tadrib al-rawi (1.254–57); hadith master Ibn al-Salah’s Ulum al-hadith; hadith master Zayn al-Din al-‘Iraqi’s al-Taqyid wa al-idah (98–103); and others. Al-‘Iraqi says, "A number of hadith masters (huffaz) have judged it to be flawed, including Shafi‘i, Daraqutni, Bayhaqi, and Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr" (ibid., 98). Now, Bukhari has related the hadith up to the words "and they opened with ‘al-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbi l-‘Alamin’"; without mentioning omitting the Basmala (Bukhari, 1.189), and Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud relate no other version. Scholars point out, in this connection, that the words "al-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbi l-‘Alamin" were in fact the name of the Fatiha, for the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and his Companions often used the opening words of suras as names for them; for example, in the hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari of Abu Sa‘id ibn al-Mu‘alla, who relates that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: "I will teach you a sura that is the greatest sura of the Qur’an before you leave the mosque." Then he took my hand, and when he was going out, I said to him, "Didn’t you say, ‘I will teach you a sura that is the greatest sura of the Qur’an before you leave the mosque’?" And he said: "‘Al-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbi l-‘Alamin’: it is the Seven Oft-Recited [Verses] (al-Sab‘ al-Mathani) and the Tremendous Recital (al-Qur’an al-‘Adhim) that I have been given" (ibid., 6.20–21). In this hadith, "Al-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbi l-‘Alamin" is plainly the name of the Fatiha, and means nothing besides, for otherwise, it is one verse, not seven. ‘A'isha, who was one of the ulama of the Sahaba, also referred to names of suras in this way, as in the hadith of Bukhari that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), when he went to bed each night, joined his hands together, blew a light spray of saliva upon them, and read over them "Qul huwa Llahu Ahad," "Qul a‘udhu bi Rabbi l-Falaq," and "Qul a‘udhu bi Rabbi n-Nas"; then wiped every part of his body he could with them (ibid., 233–34), which clearly shows that she named the suras by their opening words (after the Basmala), as did other early Muslims (such as Bukhari in his chapter headings in the section of his Sahih on the Virtues of the Qur’an, for example). So there is no indication, in the portion of the Anas hadith’s wording that is agreed upon by both Bukhari and Muslim; namely, "I prayed with the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace), Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, and ‘Uthman, and they opened with ‘al-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbi l-‘Alamin,’" that the Basmala was not recited aloud. Says Tirmidhi: "Imam Shafi‘i has said, ‘Its meaning is that they used to begin with the Fatiha before the sura, not that they did not recite "Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim."’ And Shafi‘i held that the prayer was begun with ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim,’ and that it was recited aloud in prayers recited aloud" (Tirmidhi, 2.16). Hadith scholars who are masters of textual critique, like Daraqutni and others, consider the words of the Anas hadith"not mentioning ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim,’" which outwardly seem to suggest omitting the Basmala, to be vitiated by an ‘illa or "hidden flaw" for many reasons, a few of which are: —It is established by numerous intersubstantiative channels of transmission (tawatur), that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "There is no prayer for whoever does not recite the Fatiha" (Bukhari, 1.192). That the Basmala is the Fatiha’s first verse is shown by several facts: First, the Sahaba affirmed nothing in the collation of the Qur’an (mushaf) of ‘Uthman’s time except what was Qur’an, and they unanimously placed the Basmala at the beginning of every sura except surat al-Tawba. Second, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "When you recite ‘al-Hamdu li Llah,’ recite ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim,’ for it is the Sum of the Qur’an (Umm al-Qur’an), and the Compriser of the Scripture (Umm al-Kitab), and the Seven Oft-Repeated [Verses] (al-Sab‘ al-Mathani)—and ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim’ is one of its verses" (Bayhaqi, 2.45; and Daraqutni, 1.312), a hadith related with a rigorously authenticated (sahih) channel of transmission to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), and through another chain to Abu Hurayra alone (Allah be well pleased with him). Third, Umm Salama relates: "The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) used to recite: ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim. al-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbi l-‘Alamin,’ separating each phrase"; a hadith which Hakim said was rigorously authenticated (sahih) according to the conditions of Bukhari and Muslim, which Imam Dhahabi corroborated (al-Mustadrak, 1.232). Daraqutni also relates from Umm Salama that "the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) when he used to recite the Qur’an would pause in his recital verse by verse: ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim: al-Hamdu li Llahi Rabbi l-‘Alamin: ar-Rahmani r-Rahim: Maliki yawmi d-din.’" Daraqutni said, "Its ascription is rigorously authenticated (sahih); all of its narrators are reliable" (Daraqutni, 1.312–13). These hadiths show that the Basmala was recited aloud by the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) as part of the Fatiha. Fourth, Bukhari relates in his Sahih that when Anas was asked how the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) used to recite, "he answered: ‘By prolonging [the vowels]’—and then he [Anas] recited ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim,’ prolonging the Bismi Llah, prolonging the r-Rahman, and prolonging the r-Rahim" (Bukhari, 6.241), indicating that Anas regarded this as part of the Prophet’s Qur’an recital and that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) recited it aloud. Fifth, Daraqutni has recorded two hadiths, both from Ibn ‘Abbas, and has said about each of them, "This is a rigorously authenticated (sahih) chain of transmission, there is not a weak narrator in it," of which the first is: "The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) used to recite ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim,’ aloud"; and the second is: "The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) used to begin the prayer with ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim’" (al-Nawawi: al-Majmu‘, 3.347). —Imam al-Mawardi summarizes: "Because it is established that it is obligatory to recite the Fatiha in the prayer, and that the Basmala is part of it, the ruling for reciting the Basmala aloud or to oneself must be the same as that of reciting the Fatiha aloud or to oneself" (al-Hawi al-kabir, 2.139). —Imam Nawawi says: "Concerning reciting ‘Bismi Llahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim’ aloud, we have mentioned that our position is that it is praiseworthy to do so. Wherever one recites the Fatiha and sura aloud, the ruling for reciting the Basmala aloud is the same as reciting the rest of the Fatiha and sura aloud. This is the position of the majority of the ulama of the Sahaba and those who were taught by them (Tabi‘in) and those after them. As for the Sahaba who held the Basmala is recited aloud at prayer, the hadith master (hafiz) Abu Bakr al-Khatib reports that they included Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, ‘Ali, ‘Ammar ibn Yasir, Ubayy ibn Ka‘b, Ibn ‘Umar, Ibn ‘Abbas, Abu Qatada, Abu Sa‘id, Qays ibn Malik, Abu Hurayra, ‘Abdullah ibn Abi Awfa, Shaddad ibn Aws, ‘Abdullah ibn Ja‘far, Husayn ibn ‘Ali, Mu‘awiya, and the congregation of Emigrants (Muhajirin) and Helpers (Ansar) who were present with Mu‘awiya when he prayed in Medina but did not say the Basmala aloud, and they censured him, so he returned to saying it aloud" (al-Majmu‘, 3.341). These are some reasons why scholars regard the Anas hadith in Sahih Muslim to be mu‘all or "flawed." We cannot here discuss other aspects of the hadith such as the flaws in its chain of narrators, which are explained in detail in Zayn al-Din ‘Iraqi’s al-Taqyid wa al-idah (100–101), though the foregoing may give a general idea why it has been considered flawed by hadith masters (huffaz) such as Suyuti, ‘Iraqi, Ibn Salah, Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, Daraqutni, and Bayhaqi—and why the shari‘a ruling apparently deducible from the end of the hadith; namely, omitting the Basmala when reciting the Fatiha at prayer, has been rejected by al-Shafi‘i, Nawawi, and others, who hold that the Basmala is recited aloud whenever the Fatiha is. (The position of Abu Hanifa and Ahmad ibn Hanbal, it may be noted, is that one recites the Basmala to oneself before the Fatiha, thus joining between hadiths on both sides by interpreting the "omitting" in the Anas hadith in other than its apparent sense, to mean merely "reciting to oneself.") In any case, it is clearly not a story of "the hadith in Sahih Muslim that the Imams didn’t know about," as some of the unlearned seriously suggest today, but rather a difference of opinion in hadith authentication involving the highest levels of shari‘a scholarship. Studying the five conditions above for a sahih hadith and the differences about them among specialists shows us why the mujtahid Imams of the schools sometimes differ with one another about whether a particular hadith is really from the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). Whoever believes that a single scholar, whether Bukhari, Muslim, or a contemporary sheikh, can finish off all differences of opinion about the acceptability of particular hadiths, should correct his impressions by going and studying the sciences of hadith. What we can realize from this is that when we find a hadith in Sahih Bukhari that one school of fiqh seems to follow and another does not, it may well be that differences in fiqh methodology, hadith methodology, or both, play a role. Conclusions. Let me summarize everything I have said tonight. I first pointed out that the knowledge you and I learn from the Qur’an and hadith may be divided into three categories. The first is the knowledge of Allah and His attributes, and the basic truths of Islamic belief such as the messengerhood of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), the belief in the Last Day, and so on. Every Muslim can and must learn this knowledge from the Book of Allah and the sunna, which is also the case for the second kind of knowledge: that of general Islamic laws to do good, to avoid evil, to perform the prayer, pay zakat, fast Ramadan, to cooperate with others in good works, and so on. Anyone can and must learn these general prescriptions for him or herself. Then we discussed a third category of knowledge, which consists of fiqh or "understanding" of specific details of Islamic practice. We found in the Qur’an and sahih hadiths that people are of two types respecting this knowledge, those qualified to do ijtihad and those who are not. We mentioned the sahih hadith about "a man who judges for people while ignorant: he shall go to hell," showing that would-be mujtahids are criminals when they operate without training. We heard the Qur’anic verse that established that a certain group of the Muslim community must learn and be able to teach others the specific details of their religion. We heard the Qur’anic verse that those who do not know must ask those who do, as well as the verse about referring matters to "those whose task it is to find it out." We talked about these scholars, the mujtahid Imams, firstly, in terms of their comprehensive knowledge of the whole Qur’an and hadith textual corpus, and secondly, in terms of their depth of interpretation, and here we mentioned Qur’an and hadith examples that illustrate the processes by which mujtahid Imams join between multiple texts, and give precedence when there is ostensive conflict. Our concrete examples of ijtihad enabled us in turn to understand to whom the Imams addressed their famous remarks not to follow their positions without knowing the proofs. They addressed them to the first rank scholars they had trained and who were capable of grasping and evaluating the issues involved in these particular proofs. We then saw that the Imams were also mujtahids in the matter of judging hadiths to be sahih or otherwise, and noted that, just as it is unlawful for a mujtahid Imam to do taqlid or "follow another mujtahid without knowing his evidence" in a question of fiqh, neither does he do so in the question of accepting particular hadiths. Finally, we noted that the differences in reliability ratings of hadiths among qualified scholars were parallel to the differences among scholars about the details of Islamic practice: a relatively small amount of difference in relation to the whole. The main point of all of this is that while every Muslim can take the foundation of his Islam directly from the Qur’an and hadith; namely, the main beliefs and general ethical principles he has to follow—for the specific details of fiqh of Islamic practice, knowing a Qur’anic verse or hadith may be worlds apart from knowing the shari‘a ruling, unless one is a qualified mujtahid or is citing one. As for would-be mujtahids who know some Arabic and are armed with books of hadith, they are like the would-be doctor we mentioned earlier: if his only qualification were that he could read English and owned some medical books, we would certainly object to his practicing medicine, even if it were no more than operating on someone’s little finger. So what should be said of someone who knows only Arabic and has some books of hadith, and wants to operate on your akhira? To understand why Muslims follow madhhabs, we have to go beyond simplistic slogans about "the divinely-protected versus the non-divinely-protected," and appreciate the Imams of fiqh who have operationalized the Qur’an and sunna to apply in our lives as shari‘a, and we must ask ourselves if we really "hear and obey" when Allah tells us "Ask those who know if you know not" (Qur’an 16:43). © Nuh Ha Mim Keller, 1995 .................................................. I guess you are Like most of us somalis a follower of Imam Shafi's school of thought.Here is some information about Imam Shafi. ................................................. Shafi'iyyah Doctrines Shafi'iyyah was the third school of Islamic jurisprudence. According to the Shafi'i school the paramount sources of legal authority are the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Of less authority are the Ijma' of the community and thought of scholars (Ijitihad) exercised through qiyas. The scholar must interpret the ambiguous passages of the Qur'an according to the consensus of the Muslims, and if there is no consensus, according to qiyas. History The Shafi'iyyah school of Islamic law was named after Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i (767-819). He belonged originally to the school of Medina and was also a pupil of Malik ibn Anas (d.795), the founder of Malikiyyah. However, he came to believe in the overriding authority of the traditions from the Prophet and identified them with the Sunnah. Baghdad and Cairo were the chief centres of the Shafi'iyyah. From these two cities Shafi'i teaching spread into various parts of the Islamic world. In the tenth century Mecca and Medina came to be regarded as the school's chief centres outside of Egypt. In the centuries preceding the emergence of the Ottoman empire the Shafi'is had acquired supremacy in the central lands of Islam. It was only under the Ottoman sultans at the beginning of the sixteenth century that the Shafi'i were replaced by the Hanafites, who were given judicial authority in Constantinople, while Central Asia passed to the Shi'a as a result of the rise of the Safawids in 1501. In spite of these developments, the people in Egypt, Syria and the Hidjaz continued to follow the Shafi'i madhhab. Today it remains predominant in Southern Arabia, Bahrain, the Malay Archipelago, East Africa and several parts of Central Asia. Symbols The school has no symbol system. Adherents There are no figures for the number of followers of the school. It has some adherents in the following countries: Jordan, Palestine, Syria, the Lebanon and Yemen. It has a large following in the following countries: Egypt, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and among the Kurdish people. Headquarters/ Main Centre The school does not have a headquarters or main centre.

FABIO LIVERANI If a scriptwriter had come up with a screenplay encompassing the major upheavals in Fabio Liverani's recent life, hewould probably have had it sent back to him with comments such as "far-fetched" and "unrealistic" attached. The point about the 25-year-old playmaker is that he is the living embodiment of that daft notion that, just sometimes, dreams come true. Liverani is a player who in the space of 10 months has moved from being a Serie C regular to a senior international debut, via an outstanding first Serie A season, with Perugia. That achievement, in itself, would have been enough to earn him an important mention in the season's chronicles. Yet, he has written himself into Italian football history for another, much more important reason - the colour of his skin. Liverani is a black player, Rome-born of a Somalian mother and Italian father. When he lined up for Italy during their 1-0 friendly win against South Africa on April 25, he became the first black player selected by a senior Italian international side. As befitted an important occasion, all the omens on the day were right. For a start, fate and Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni decreed that he make his international debut in his current base, Perugia, in front of those fans for whom he has become an idol. Secondly, the debut came against South Africa, a country for so long in the vanguard of the struggle against racial prejudice. On top of that, the debut was facilitated by Trapattoni, who first 'discovered' him six years earlier. Finally, need one add that he gave an impeccable display, immediately suggesting that he will be on Trapattoni's shortlist when it comes to announcing his 2002 World Cup squad. When the coach named Liverani in his squad for the South Africa game, the news was greeted with unqualified acclaim, not so much because Liverani is the first black footballer to don the famous 'azzurro' (blue) shirt, but more because of his unquestioned talent. Even so, it seemed that Liverani would bestarting the match on the bench, perhaps being brought on as a replacement for the number one choice in the playmaker position, Roma captain Francesco Totti. Yet here again the sporting gods intervened, with Totti being ruled out of the match following an injury picked up during a practice match tussle withLiverani. So the Perugia man made the starting line-up, and with his first touch of the night sent Francesco Coco away down the right wing with a delicious through ball. It was the first of many, most of them directed at forwards Filippo Inzaghi and Vincenzo Mo ntella, during an international debut that simply oozed class. "It wasn't easy for Liverani because it's hard for anyone to step into such a key midfield role in an international side on your debut," said Trapattoni after the game. "Yet he played with natural ease as if hehad been playing behind Montella and Inzaghi all his life long." It was when Trapattoni was coach of then Serie A side Cagliari back in 1995 that he discovered Liverani, 19 years old and in his first professional season. Trapattoni was impressed by the teenager and suggested that, rather than train and travel with the reserves, Liverani be added to the first-team contingent. In the end, he never actually got to play in Serie A but the experience of his first-team training was to prove useful for both player and coach. Trapattoni noted the boy as one with a future; Liverani used Trapattoni as a reference when he went looking for employment in less demanding environs. After a brief spell at Serie C1 team Nocerina, he played for four Serie C2 seasons with Viterbese, the side from Viterbo, just north of Rome. Had it not been for the fact that 12 months ago Viterbese wereowned by tycoon Luciano Gaucci, the man who also owned Perugia, then perhaps little more would have been heard of Liverani. Last summer, however, when Gaucci decided to sell Viterbese, he offered Liverani a move to Perugia (for the modest annual salary of œ43,000, since doubled). This season, plucky Perugia have shown themselves to be one of the toughest relegation battlers of all, as witnessed by their current Serie A mid-table position. Prominent in that campaign has been Liverani, as well as coach Serse Cosmi and central defender Marco Materazzi, who also made an impressive Italy debut against South Africa. Liverani's arrival in the national team, however, clearly has resonances that go way beyond football. In a season when the international image of Italian soccer has been besmirched by the racist chants of fans (especially during Italy's friendly against England and a Lazio-Arsenal Champions League game last autumn), it is important that the increasingly multi-ethnic face of Italian society finally begins to be reflected in the nation's best-loved game. The midfielder is all too aware of his historic role, saying: "This was the most wonderful night of my life and I shall remember it always. Of course, I am proud to be the first coloured player to play for Italy. I am proud of the colour of my skin, even if it means nothing in the international team.Whether you're red, yellow, green or white, you only get a call-up if the coach thinks you can play a bit." Those of us who have watched Liverani in Italy know all too well that he can do that. With any luck, fans worldwide may also get to know about him next summer at the World Cup finals. Balanced, able to play off either foot, blessed with vision and football intelligence, deadly accurate with corner and free-kicks, his only obvious defect is a lack of pace. However, in an Italian season tortured by passport, doping and match-fixing scandals, the Liverani story is a welcome respite, a dream story that may yet run and run. FACT FILE Club Perugia Country Italy Born April 29, 1976, in Rome Previous clubs Cagliari, Nocerina, Viterbese International debut April 2001, v South Africa International caps 1 (0 goals)

which team do think it is ????

Britney Spears It's Britney's new smash, "Oops, I Said the F-word!" Check out the now infamous clip of the mega-popstar freaking out right before her performance at the Rock in Rio festival. And complaining that her pants are too short? What's up with that? http://www.campchaos.com/***** /britney.ram Sergeant Hartman Prank Calls The hysterical Camp Chaos original prank calls made from Full Metal Jacket audio clips as heard on the Howard Stern show. For Windows Media, click to stream, right click to save. WATCH FOR ALL NEW CALLS COMING SOON http://www.campchaos.com/***** /7eleven.wma Casey Kasem This is the classic, all-time greatest freak-outtake. Casey, as many of us have heard before, is attempting to get through a "Long-Distance Request and Dedication" about the death of a "little dog named Snuggles http://www.campchaos.com/***** /casey.ram The Icehouse Tape The best thing about this tape is the cursing juxtaposed with the silly music bed playing in the background. Listen to this Houston DJ attempting to read a radio commercial for an ice-skating rink called "The Icehouse". A classic. http://www.campchaos.com/***** /icehouse.ram

I agree with you Koonfur, i really don't understand american football/handball.

I think Roma will take the title this year

BERLIN, Germany, September 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Although Germany's constitutional court on Wednesday, September 24, quashed an earlier verdict by a lower court banning a Muslim teacher from wearing hijab in school, it authorized individual states to pass new laws to outlaw it. In a long-awaited decision on freedom of expression and religious neutrality in public schools, the constitutional court overturned a ruling that the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg was justified in refusing to hire Muslim teacher Fereshta Ludin, who insisted on wearing hijab, reported Agence France Press(AFP). The Afghanistan-born teacher, who became a German citizen in 1995, had fought her way to the highest tribunal to win the right to work in public schools while wearing her hijab. Baden-Wuerttemberg had argued that a teacher with a hijab would allegedly violate "the strict neutrality of public schools in religious issues" and could have undue influence on impressionable young children. The state education minister Annette Schaven claimed the hijab was political and "understood as a symbol of the exclusion of woman from civil and cultural society". The German Constitutional Court has now ruled by five votes to three that, under current laws, Ludin can wear the hijab. Marieluise Beck, the federal government's point woman on immigration, refugees and integration, had been a vocal supporter of Ludin's case. "The headscarf worn by some Muslim women has long been considered normal in Germany," she said in a statement. "In the debate on the Muslim headscarf, this piece of cloth is often a surface on which to project fears, anxieties and hasty generalizations." She interpreted the ruling as setting a clear legal foundation in support of religious freedom and parents' singular role in raising their children while respecting religious neutrality in schools. She was refused a job in 1998 - despite successfully completing an internship at a high school near Stuttgart. Ludin charged the state was equating the hijab with "things I already distanced myself from during my own school years". Today she works at an Islamic school in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg, which has a large Turkish Muslim population. The Muslim teacher maintained in the case that her religious beliefs posed no threat to Western values. "I consider religion part of my identity," the 31-year-old told the court at the first hearing in June. "So are democratic values," she added. "I often felt discriminated against in the past. Many of those accusations have now been lifted," she said. Ludin said that if she were unable to return to Baden-Wuerttemberg to teach if the state passed new legislation, she would be able to seek work in a public school in another state. Ms Ludin is not the only Muslim woman to be refused employment at a state school because of her hijab, so her case will have far-reaching implications, asserted BBC's Tristana Moore. Last month, the constitutional court ruled that a Muslim shop assistant had been wrongly sacked by her employers for wanting to wear a headscarf at work. The court declined to hear the department store's appeal against an October 2000 ruling by the federal employment tribunal, which said that wearing a headscarf was part of the woman's right to religious freedom. Dangerous However, the court ruled that regional governments in the 16 states are free to establish their own rules, and authorizing them to set up the necessary legislation on banning hijab. But in a country with 3.2 Muslim residents, it urged regional governments to find "a ruling acceptable to all". "The state legislatures are now free to provide the legal basis (for a hijab ban) that has been missing until now," the court said. The Central Council of Muslims in Germany blasted the decision as opening the door for states to issue blanket bans on teachers wearing hijab in schools, said AFP. "That would be a severe action against Muslims," council chairman Nadim Elias told Deutschlandfunk radio, adding that women wearing hijab had become part of "everyday life" in Germany. Hijab Debate The issue of hijab was become the center of heated debates between a sizeable and increasingly assertive Muslim minority in several European countries and the long tradition of secular education in the continent. So far, most countries do not have any specific legislation on whether or not hijab can be worn in schools or other public establishments. Major exceptions are Turkey, whose founder Ataturk banned hijab as part of a sweeping plan of modernization, and France which bars any kind of religious ostentation in the officially secular public schools, according to AFP. At the opposite extreme is Britain, where school principles allow hijabs, yarmulkas, turbans and crosses but often insist on students' wearing school uniforms at the same time. The Netherlands, for its part, allows hijab in schools but has drawn the line at face-covering veils known as niqabs because they are considered dangerous in physical education and hamper communication. Several countries like Denmark or Greece have no problems with hijab, which are widely worn in the northeastern Greek province of Thrace with its large Muslim population. In some countries, like Spain and Switzerland, governments leave it up to regional authorities to set the rules or, as is the case with Belgium, they leave the decision with school principals. Ironically, Europe's Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has sided with governments that want to ban hijab in schools. It rejected an accusation of discrimination against the canton of Geneva by a Muslim primary school teacher. The court claimed the canton's ban on hijab was not directed against the woman's religious convictions, but was meant to protect the freedoms of malleable young children. The court ruled in 2001 that it seemed difficult to reconcile the wearing of a hijab "with the message of tolerance, respect for others, equality and non-discrimination that all teachers in a democracy should transmit to their pupils."

Past work experience: Ran for congress and lost. * Produced a Hollywood slasher B movie. * Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas, company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock. * Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using tax-payer money. Biggest moves: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White Sox. Over paid A-Rod by many millions. Wrecked baseball salaries FOREVER. * With fathers help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas. Accomplishments: Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union. Replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog ridden city in America. Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money. Set record for most executions by any Governor in American history. * Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of father's appointments to the Supreme Court. Accomplishments as president: * Attacked and took over two countries. * Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury. * Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history. * Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period. * Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market. * First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner. * First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record. * First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history. * After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history. * Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips than any other president in US history. * In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job. * Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history. * Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period. * Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history. * Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television. * Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in US history. * Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed. * Presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have. * Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans. * Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind. (http://www.hyperreal.org/~dana/marches/) * Dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history. * Presidency is the most secretive and un-accountable of any in US history. * Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history. (the 'poorest' multi-millionaire, Condoleeza Rice has an Chevron oil tanker named after her). * First president in US history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously go bankrupt. * Presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world. * First president in US history to order a US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation. * Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States. * Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in US history. * First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the human rights commission. * First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the elections monitoring board. * Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history. * Rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant. * Withdrew from the World Court of Law. * Refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions. * First president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US elections). * All-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations. * My biggest life-time campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation). * Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history. * First president in US history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community. * First US president to establish a secret shadow government. * Took the biggest world sympathy for the US after 911, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history). * With a policy of 'dis-engagement' created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years. * First US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view his presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability. * First US president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the US than their immediate neighbor, North Korea. * Changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts. * Set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts. * Failed to fulfill pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive'. * Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capitol building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects. * In the 18 months following the 911 attacks has successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States. * Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history. * In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the US has ever been since the civil war. * Entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down. Records and References: * At least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available). * AWOL from National Guard and Deserted the military during a time of war. * Refuse to take drug test or even answer any questions about drug use. * All records of tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to fathers library, sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view. * All records of any SEC investigations into insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view. * All minutes of meetings for any public corporation served on the board are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view. * Any records or minutes from meetings (or VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public review. * For personal references please speak to my daddy or uncle James Baker (They can be reached at their offices of the Carlyle Group for war-profiteering.) --

Have you seen this one??? http://www.thatwasrandom.com/video/watch.php?id=iraqisnipertraining.mpeg&name=RELEASED:%20Iraqi%20Sniper%20Training

Well that makes me trust them,Does this not look suspicious, you have to be critical of what you read. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

//Do you Know any other fake islamic sites ?? Statement from Azzam Publications About Jihadunspun.com In Defence of the Mujahideen In the Name of Allah the Most Merciful the Most Kind All Praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, who calms the hearts of the believers from what torments them and leads them to what benefits them. Peace and blessings be upon the Unlettered Prophet (SAWS), the leader of the Mujahideen, upon his family, his Companions and all those who follow them in righteousness until the Day of Resurrection. "And as for those who make Jihad in Our Path, We shall surely guide them to Our Ways. And indeed Allah is with those who do good." [Quran 29:69] "O you who believe, if an evil-doer comes to you with news, verify it lest you harm people in ignorance, and afterwards you become regretful for what you have done." [Quran 49:6] In May 2002, a web-site was launched - http://www.jihadunspun.com,/ with the slogan to provide 'A Clear View of the US War on Terrorism'. The web-site looks professional with slick graphics, and gives the impression that it is a news source about Jihad and the Mujahideen. During the last few months, we have given mixed signals to the public on our opinion of this site and the purpose of this statement is to clarify our position on this site. Since we were the ones who initially informed the public about this site, we owe it to the public to inform them of our reservations on it, following recent events. The timing of this statement comes after two attacks from JUS on our credibility: the first one indirect and the second being a direct attack. Initially, we saw the matter as an oversight on JUS's part and gave them the benefit of the doubt. Following the second and other statements, we had no choice but to issue one statement to end this matter once and for all, in defence of the Mujahideen, so that we absolve ourselves of responsibility before Allah on the Day of Resurrection. By issuing this statement, we remind those Muslims who may be disheartened by thinking that 'Jihad sites are fighting amongst themselves', that this is not a case of Muslim infighting, but a case of informed Muslim sources advising their fellow Muslims of new plots and schemes doctored by non-Muslim Western Intelligence agencies in order to discredit the Mujahideen and weaken support for them amongst the masses. We also advise the naive Muslims that this is not a case of a few mistakes being made which should be overlooked, but evil plans by the enemies of Islam and the Muslims, being supported by brains and money. The first indirect attack made by JUS on our credibility was concerning the capture of alleged Al-Qaida operative, Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah, in Karachi in September 2002. On 17 September 2002, we issued a news item confirming the arrest of Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah despite contrary claims on the Jehad Online web-site. A few days later, JUS published a news feature citing various 'sources' to claim that Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah was NOT in fact captured. We considered this an indirect attack on our credibility, but at the time decided not to say anything, thinking it was just an oversight on their behalf. The second and more recent direct attack made by JUS on our credibility was concerning the recent letter that Usama Bin Laden wrote in response to some claims made against him and Al-Qaida in the American press. We published the English version of this letter as an exclusive letter (the Arabic version has not yet been released), but in a news item dated 28 October 2002 titled: A Letter from Osama Bin Laden in Reply to the American Press?, JUS directly attacked Azzam, and its credibility with respect to its judgement on its association with the web-site, Waaqiah.com. JUS further cast doubts on the authenticity of this letter citing what they perceived to be logical reasons. Following this second, direct attack on our credibility and integrity, and JUS's statement that Waaqiah.Com is now the home of Britain's controversial Azzam Publications, which has led to our Azzam.com domain being taken down by authorities following this statement (it remains down as this statement goes to press), we had no choice but to issue a statement and warn the Muslims about what Jihadunspun is really about. About Azzam Publications To begin with, we would like to introduce Azzam Publications to those who are new to it. Azzam Publications is an independent media organisation, established in 1996, that has been providing authentic news and information about Jihad and the Mujahideen everywhere, from a network of informed correspondents on the ground in troubled hotspots. Azzam Publications is not a news agency that collects together material from other media organisations, but a news source in itself. >From 1999-2001, through it's web-site on the Jihad in Chechnya, Qoqaz.net, Azzam provided authentic news, interviews, photographs and statements on the Jihad in Chechnya. Qoqaz.net was even used by non-Muslim news agencies during this part of the war, to provide information from the side of the Mujahideen. This news was provided by Azzam's correspondents on the ground, one of whom was killed in the year 2000 defending himself from an ambush at a Russian checkpoint, Shaheed Masood Al-Benin: his biography, photographs and account of how he was killed, was published on Qoqaz.net and mirror locations on the Internet still carry his story. Any of the Mujahideen High Command in Chechnya today can confirm the efforts of Shaheed Masood Al-Benin in providing authentic news about the Jihad in Chechnya, to the World. In the Year 2000, one of Azzam's videos that was released, and continues to be sold by Maktabah Al-Ansaar Bookstore, was The Martyrs of Bosnia, Part 1. The end of this video contains a previously-recorded statement, in video, of Foreign Mujahideen Commander in Chechnya, Shaheed Khattab, confirming by name the efforts of Azzam Publications in providing authentic news about events concerning the Mujahideen in Chechnya. Since November 2001, Azzam.com has been providing authentic news, information, interviews and statements about the current Jihad in Afghanistan, from sources and correspondents on the ground inside Afghanistan. Another one of Azzam's correspondents, Shaheed Suraqah Al-Andalusi, was killed in December 2001, in the Battle for Tora Bora, by an American cluster bomb. His biography and will were published on Azzam.com early in 2002, and any of the Foreign Mujahideen commanders in Afghanistan today can confirm the efforts of Shaheed Suraqah Al-Andalusi in providing media coverage of the events in Afghanistan. Throughout 2001 and 2002, Azzam.com has been the first to provide authentic news on key events in this Crusade. Azzam was the first to provide information that Abu Zubaydah MAY actually have been killed in March 2002 and is not currently being held by the US authorities. Azzam was the first to provide a review of the video released by Al-Ansaar News Agency in early 2002 that had recent, March 2002 footage of Usama Bin Laden. Azzam was the first to confirm the arrest of Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah despite contrary claims being circulated on Arabic discussion boards. Azzam was the first to provide a review of the English video, The Nineteen Martyrs, even before Al-Jazeera acknowledged the existence of such a video. In fact, Azzam were the ones who titled the video, The Nineteen Martyrs, because neither Al-Jazeera nor any other Arabic web-sites called the video by this name. Azzam was the first to provide a transcript of the latest interview by Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri on Iraq, after this video was released by Al-Ansaar News Agency to APTN (Associated Press Television Network). During 2002, our web-site was shut down several times by the authorities and after being shut in July 2002, our web-site has still not re-appeared at the time this statement goes to press. Since September 2002, our domain was forwarding to Waaqiah.com, a web-site independent of Azzam, that we consider reliable, genuine and an authentic source of our daily news postings. About Jihadunspun.Com We have some serious reservations on the credibility of JUS, to the extent that we advise the Muslims to exercise caution when accepting their analysis and articles, and we advise the Muslims against giving their credit card details to them (either to access their premium service or to purchase products). Amongst some of the reasons for this advice, are the following: 1. In the early part of 2002, realising the effect that Azzam's web-site had on the Muslim Ummah and the attention given to it by both the media, US Government officials and 'anti-terrorism' authors (The New Jackals by Simon Reeve, The Holy War, Inc by Peter Bergen, Inside Al-Qaida by Dr Rohan Gunaratna, to name but a few), we expected the Western intelligence authorities, realising that it is difficult to entirely shut down a web-based news source, to invest in a major project in order to discredit our site and reduce its credibility in the eyes of the Muslims. Our analysts established that the authorities could only do this by creating another major 'Jihad' web-site which would use our site in order to establish its own credibility, initially mentioning our site positively, using this to steer Muslims to this new site, and once a wide readership had been established, to begin to directly and indirectly discredit Azzam as a source of reliable and authentic information. For one who has experience of infiltration methods and attempts used by Intelligence agencies against Muslims, it is lethal to be naive. 2. The credibility of a web-site providing information on Jihad is not established by fast loading and the slick nature of its graphics and presentations. On the contrary, many years of hard work, effort and sacrifice including blood, together with the direct nature of the information provided, is what builds up the credibility of a web-site providing news and information on Jihad and the Mujahideen. Many Muslims may be attracted to Jihadunspun because it loads fast, has impressive graphics and gives the (false) impression that it has correspondents on the ground that provide it authentic, direct news. We must admit that we ourselves were initially fooled by its external image and supported and cooperated with them. Allah (SWT) described in the Quran about the mosque that the hypocrites in Madinah established as a rival mosque to that established by the Prophet (SAWS). The mosque established by the hypocrites was larger, better looking and had better facilities than that established by the Prophet (SAWS) and the Sahabah. He (SWT) said: "And as for those who put up a mosque by way of harming and disbelief, and to disunite the believers, and as an outpost for those who warred against Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad SAW) aforetime, they will indeed swear that their intention is nothing but good. Allah bears witness that they are certainly liars. Never stand you therein. Verily, the mosque whose foundation was laid from the first day on piety is more worthy that you stand therein (to pray). In it are men who love to clean and to purify themselves. And Allah loves those who make themselves clean and pure. Is it then he, who laid the foundation of his building on piety to Allah and His Good Pleasure, better, or he who laid the foundation of his building on an undetermined brink of a precipice ready to crumble down, so that it crumbled to pieces with him into the Fire of Hell. And Allah guides not the people who are the Zalimun (cruel, violent, proud, polytheist and wrong-doer). The building which they built will never cease to be a cause of hypocrisy and doubt in their hearts, unless their hearts are cut to pieces. (i.e. till they die). And Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise." [Quran 9:107-110] 3. The 'front' behind Jihadunspun.com is supposedly a middle-aged Canadian businesswoman who is said to have accepted Islam after 11 September 2001. The Muslims can draw their own conclusions from this, bearing in mind the tenfold increase in the budgets and manpower of Western intelligence agencies in the post-September-11th World. 4. We re-iterate and reconfirm the capture of Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah in Karachi in September 2002 regardless of any claims made by JUS or on any Arabic discussion boards. Furthermore, we put our credibility and the credibility of every news item we have provided over the last six years, on the line to confirm that Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah was arrested in Karachi, that the photograph the media alleged was him was not him but someone else, that Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah was not arrested following a shootout in an apartment block and that the remaining people that were captured or killed by the Pakistani authorities were ordinary Arabs with no connection with Al-Qaida whatsoever - they were neither commanders, leaders nor 'terrorists'. They were simple people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. As for Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah himself, he was just an ordinary Mujahid who was said to have attempted to enter Afghanistan after the American attack in November 2001, just like thousands of other Muslims. He is certainly not a senior Al-Qaida official nor a 'terrorist' - such claims are made by the US authorities in order to brainwash the American people that America is succeeding in this war against Islam. Various Arab discussion boards circulated reports that Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah was not captured because the person in the photograph of Pakistani newspapers was not him. These reports were translated by JUS, who published them in a special feature, which we interpreted as an indirect attack on our credibility. 5. In response to the second and direct attack by JUS on Azzam's publishing of Usama Bin Laden's latest letter, we have the following to say: JUS wrote: 'The following letter, supposedly written by Osama bin Laden, has been making its way around the Internet. It first appeared on waaqiah.com, which is apparently the new home of Britain’s controversial Azzam Publications, who's previous sites were shut down some time ago by British authorities.' Here, JUS have sought to directly discredit Azzam by using the words, 'supposedly written by Osama bin Laden', casting doubts on its authenticity. They say the letter 'has been making its way around the Internet', failing to inform their viewers that the letter was actually an Azzam Exclusive item. Then they proceeded to write off Azzam Publications as 'controversial Azzam Publications'. This was followed by a direct attack on both Waaqiah.com and Azzam, with JUS saying: 'Oddly, waaqiah.com is currently rife with profanities, published as 'viewer mail', which raises the question if it is actually published by Muslims or if this is another instance of deception by authorities.' In a statement that Azzam issued on 24 September, explaining why and how our web- site was shut down, we specifically mentioned Waaqiah.com as a reliable source of news and information from Azzam. By JUS claiming that Waaqiah.com may actually be published by non-Muslim authorities, they imply that Azzam, who vouched for Waaqiah.com and forwarded their domain to this site, is also run by non-Muslim authorities. Indirectly they imply that Shaheed Khattab, who lived and fought with Azzam Correspondents, mentioned Azzam in one of his videos [see The Martyrs of Bosnia video, 2000] and survived numerous assassination attempts, must have been duped by these non-Muslims. This is followed by JUS's reasons why this letter is a hoax, made by by Azzam: 'We have several difficulties with the validity of this letter including the fact that it did not appear on any of the traditional Arabic sources that publish his communiqués such as the Al-Jazeera Television network or the host of Arabic websites that are traditional channels for the dissemination of his material. Bin Laden himself speaks directly to the Islamic media in his latest communiqué 'To The Islamic Ummah On The First Anniversary Of The New American Crusader War' about the obligation to make information widely available. It would be an oddity indeed if this material was only disseminated to one source, and in particular, a non-Arab one.' We are amazed at the inference that just because the Arabic form of the letter has not yet appeared on Al-Jazeera, the letter is a hoax? Whilst it is true that Al-Jazeera has previously mentioned statements and shown Al-Qaida videos, Al-Jazeera has also edited some of these videos and chosen not to show some at all, such as The Unreleased Interview of Usama Bin Laden with Al-Jazeera correspondent, Tayseer Allouni, which was not shown by Al-Jazeera at all. This interview was instead released by Al- Ansaar News Agency. As for the 'host of Arabic websites' that JUS relies upon, the majority of these web-sites are new web-sites that, like JUS, opened well after 11 September 2001. These 'arab sources' include Al Neda (Markaz Darasaat) [we consider this to be a 100% authentic web-site], Jehad Online - which, despite being a new site, does an excellent job of spreading news in the Arabic language. After this, the JUS writer wrote: 'In addition, the letter itself contains none of the earmarks of Bin Laden; there is no date, no Islamic greeting, no reference where it came from and no signature or closing accreditation. For those familiar with Bin Laden’s material, the tone and style of this letter are also problematic, lacking his usual commitment and style of expression. This could be due in part to poor translation however it seems highly unlikely that Bin Laden would issue a second address within a two week period, let alone one that does not refer to any current events. Of course there is the possibility that it could be both a very old letter and a poor translation.' and 'It is common knowledge amongst those who understand his modus operandi that Osama bin Laden has absolutely no concern whatsoever what the American press thinks about him or how they represent him for that matter. Furthermore, he always dictates his own timing when communicating and it is highly unlikely that he would issue this lengthy 'reply' to something that is of absolutely no consequence, namely the American press.' and 'All that said, the article follows, uncut and uncensored. We caution our readers with these concerns and publish it here for information purposes only so that you may draw your own conclusions.' With all due respect, we would like to ask JUS: We are surprised at your your newly found 'expertise' on Bin Laden's material, his modus operandi, and what he thinks, or does not think, about the American press. A slick website and a large operating budget allowing you to show Bin Laden's face on your five-month-old web-site and the ability to purchase and stream all his latest videos online, in some cases paying Al-Jazeera or APTN tens of thousands of dollars to purchase these videos, does not make you an authority on Bin Laden, nor allows you to inform the people what he is or isn't. Azzam Publications is a news source: when we provide news, it is already authentic and confirmed/provided by our correspondents. Our years of experience and credibility bear testimony to this. We do not need to fabricate things, especially those attributed to another Muslim (i.e. Usama Bin Laden) just so people can 'draw their own conclusions'. Azzam Publications was established as an authentic news source at least five years before Jihadunspun even came into existence. We have already established our credibility amongst both Muslims and non-Muslims and this credibility can be freely confirmed by any 'individuals of substance' anywhere in the World, as well as reliable Jihad media sources such as Maktabah Al-Ansaar bookstore (established 1995) and Dharb-e-Mumin (established 1996). We are not in need of a five-month old web-site, allegedly run by a post-September 11th middle-aged convert to Islam, with plenty of money and resources at 'her' disposal, to establish our credibility. 6. Jihadunspun, whilst portraying the impression that it provides all news relating to this War against Islam, uncensored and unedited, specifically chooses to selectively censor and block articles and news items that will be of immense value to the Muslims. Examples of important items and accounts that Jihadunspun censored and did not publish are: - News items relating to the execution of Mossad agent - Daniel Pearl (also known as a 'Wall Street Journal' journalist), including written and video evidence from the Mujahideen that he was a spy. - A first hand account of the Battle off Shahi-Kot, also known as Operation Anaconda, in the account published by Azzam with the title: Operation Anaconda or Operation Giant Mongoose, which can currently be found on Waaqiah.com. - A first hand account of the massacre at the Qila-e-Janghi fortess in Mazar- i-Sharif, published by Azzam with the title: The Fortress of War, which can currently be found on Waaqiah.com. - The Statement from Azzam.com Regardinng Closure of its Web-Site which mentioned the events leading up to the closure of our web-site, exposed the plots of the authorities against us and indirectly warned the Muslims against web-sites like Jihadunspun. We acknowledge that several Azzam articles have been published by Jihadunspun, some with and some without our permission, some with mentioning Azzam as the source and some without mentioning Azzam as the source. It is our consideration that these articles were published in order to build up JUS's credibility in the eyes of the Muslims, as a web-site that 'supports Azzam.' 7. Jihadunspun has never been shut down by the authorities and nor has it been mentioned by them as a site that promotes terrorism, even though some of the material on Jihadunspun may be considered more 'extreme' than that found on other pro-Jihad web-sites. In fact, non-Muslim journalists who have attacked other Jihad web-sites, actually praise Jihadunspun. However, we expect that following this statement of ours, Jihadunspun may intermittently be closed and open, so that it will be said: 'Jihadunspun is also being shut down like other web-sites'. 8. Jihadunspun has long been involved in slandering the Mujahideen and those who sacrifice their lives for Islam and Jihad. Jihadunspun frequently refers to both captured and free Mujahideen, as 'Al-Qaida leaders', terrorists and 'Al-Qaida operatives', even when the non-Muslim media has not labelled them as such. Such comments serve to add weight to the claims of prosecutors in ignorant states when any Mujahideen are captured, that they indeed are Al-Qaida and terrorists, as mentioned on 'pro-Jihad' web-sites. Prosecutors frequently mention information from pro-Jihad web-sites, such as the recent law suit filed by Americans against Saudi Arabian individuals and organisations, which mentions Azzam Publications specifically by name, as part of its 'evidence'. More recently, Jihadunspun publicised media reports slandering Usama Bin Laden and accusing him of adultery, in the 03 November 2002 news item titled 'Bin Laden's Wife Held in Armed Yemen Raid', where they mentioned Pakistani Dawn's report of Bin Laden's 'fifth and favourite wife' having been captured in Yemen, when it is well-known from the Islamic Shariah that a Muslim man marrying more than four wives is tantamount to adultery. Despite this, they attempt to give the impression that they are a Muslim-run, 'pro-Jihad' web-site. To conclude, we say that we have some serious reservations about Jihadunspun, as to who is behind it, based on the above reasons, foremost amongst them being recent efforts of JUS to discredit Azzam and their slandering of the Mujahideen, and we would like to warn the Muslims against accepting the opinions of this site, giving their personal details to them and offering to help them. As for those sincere Muslims who have volunteered to help them in editing, translating, etc., we would advise them to cease their assistance, and if they still wish to contribute to the efforts of the Mujahideen, to make web-sites of their own, which distribute the authentic news of the Mujahideen from sources whose credibility was established long before 11 September 2001. For those who do not wish to accept this advice, we absolve our responsibility for them before Allah on the Day of Judgement, and any repercusions they suffer in this life and the next, resulting from failing to heed our advice. As for George Tenet, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, we say: Perish in your rage for all your attempts to discredit the Jihad and weaken support amongst the Muslims for the Mujahideen will be in vain. Allah has exposed your plans and he will help the believers against the disbelievers, hypocrites and their allies, no matter what 'intelligent' plans your spin-doctors come up with, for our Lord has promised us: "Never will Allah allow the disbelievers a upper-hand over the believers." [Quran 4:141] Finally, we say to the Muslims who remain double-minded after reading this statement: You have a simple choice to make as to who to believe; on the one hand of the scale you have the fast loading, new web-site of Jihadunspun, with its impressive graphics, and on the other hand you have the credibility of Azzam.Com, Qoqaz.net and Maktabah Al-Ansaar and the blood of its martyred correspondents to consider. We end with praises to Allah and peace and blessings upon His Messenger, Muhammad (SAWS), the leader of the Mujahideen, his family, his Companions and all those who follow them in righteousness until the Day of Resurrection. Peace be upon those who follow the Guidance. Azzam Publications 01 Ramadan 1423AH 06 November 2002

Are there any information about who this Man? Called Sun Tzu was??

//Have anyone else been on this site ??? Statement from Azzam Publications About Jihadunspun.com In Defence of the Mujahideen In the Name of Allah the Most Merciful the Most Kind All Praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, who calms the hearts of the believers from what torments them and leads them to what benefits them. Peace and blessings be upon the Unlettered Prophet (SAWS), the leader of the Mujahideen, upon his family, his Companions and all those who follow them in righteousness until the Day of Resurrection. "And as for those who make Jihad in Our Path, We shall surely guide them to Our Ways. And indeed Allah is with those who do good." [Quran 29:69] "O you who believe, if an evil-doer comes to you with news, verify it lest you harm people in ignorance, and afterwards you become regretful for what you have done." [Quran 49:6] In May 2002, a web-site was launched - http://www.jihadunspun.com,/ with the slogan to provide 'A Clear View of the US War on Terrorism'. The web-site looks professional with slick graphics, and gives the impression that it is a news source about Jihad and the Mujahideen. During the last few months, we have given mixed signals to the public on our opinion of this site and the purpose of this statement is to clarify our position on this site. Since we were the ones who initially informed the public about this site, we owe it to the public to inform them of our reservations on it, following recent events. The timing of this statement comes after two attacks from JUS on our credibility: the first one indirect and the second being a direct attack. Initially, we saw the matter as an oversight on JUS's part and gave them the benefit of the doubt. Following the second and other statements, we had no choice but to issue one statement to end this matter once and for all, in defence of the Mujahideen, so that we absolve ourselves of responsibility before Allah on the Day of Resurrection. By issuing this statement, we remind those Muslims who may be disheartened by thinking that 'Jihad sites are fighting amongst themselves', that this is not a case of Muslim infighting, but a case of informed Muslim sources advising their fellow Muslims of new plots and schemes doctored by non-Muslim Western Intelligence agencies in order to discredit the Mujahideen and weaken support for them amongst the masses. We also advise the naive Muslims that this is not a case of a few mistakes being made which should be overlooked, but evil plans by the enemies of Islam and the Muslims, being supported by brains and money. The first indirect attack made by JUS on our credibility was concerning the capture of alleged Al-Qaida operative, Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah, in Karachi in September 2002. On 17 September 2002, we issued a news item confirming the arrest of Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah despite contrary claims on the Jehad Online web-site. A few days later, JUS published a news feature citing various 'sources' to claim that Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah was NOT in fact captured. We considered this an indirect attack on our credibility, but at the time decided not to say anything, thinking it was just an oversight on their behalf. The second and more recent direct attack made by JUS on our credibility was concerning the recent letter that Usama Bin Laden wrote in response to some claims made against him and Al-Qaida in the American press. We published the English version of this letter as an exclusive letter (the Arabic version has not yet been released), but in a news item dated 28 October 2002 titled: A Letter from Osama Bin Laden in Reply to the American Press?, JUS directly attacked Azzam, and its credibility with respect to its judgement on its association with the web-site, Waaqiah.com. JUS further cast doubts on the authenticity of this letter citing what they perceived to be logical reasons. Following this second, direct attack on our credibility and integrity, and JUS's statement that Waaqiah.Com is now the home of Britain's controversial Azzam Publications, which has led to our Azzam.com domain being taken down by authorities following this statement (it remains down as this statement goes to press), we had no choice but to issue a statement and warn the Muslims about what Jihadunspun is really about. About Azzam Publications To begin with, we would like to introduce Azzam Publications to those who are new to it. Azzam Publications is an independent media organisation, established in 1996, that has been providing authentic news and information about Jihad and the Mujahideen everywhere, from a network of informed correspondents on the ground in troubled hotspots. Azzam Publications is not a news agency that collects together material from other media organisations, but a news source in itself. >From 1999-2001, through it's web-site on the Jihad in Chechnya, Qoqaz.net, Azzam provided authentic news, interviews, photographs and statements on the Jihad in Chechnya. Qoqaz.net was even used by non-Muslim news agencies during this part of the war, to provide information from the side of the Mujahideen. This news was provided by Azzam's correspondents on the ground, one of whom was killed in the year 2000 defending himself from an ambush at a Russian checkpoint, Shaheed Masood Al-Benin: his biography, photographs and account of how he was killed, was published on Qoqaz.net and mirror locations on the Internet still carry his story. Any of the Mujahideen High Command in Chechnya today can confirm the efforts of Shaheed Masood Al-Benin in providing authentic news about the Jihad in Chechnya, to the World. In the Year 2000, one of Azzam's videos that was released, and continues to be sold by Maktabah Al-Ansaar Bookstore, was The Martyrs of Bosnia, Part 1. The end of this video contains a previously-recorded statement, in video, of Foreign Mujahideen Commander in Chechnya, Shaheed Khattab, confirming by name the efforts of Azzam Publications in providing authentic news about events concerning the Mujahideen in Chechnya. Since November 2001, Azzam.com has been providing authentic news, information, interviews and statements about the current Jihad in Afghanistan, from sources and correspondents on the ground inside Afghanistan. Another one of Azzam's correspondents, Shaheed Suraqah Al-Andalusi, was killed in December 2001, in the Battle for Tora Bora, by an American cluster bomb. His biography and will were published on Azzam.com early in 2002, and any of the Foreign Mujahideen commanders in Afghanistan today can confirm the efforts of Shaheed Suraqah Al-Andalusi in providing media coverage of the events in Afghanistan. Throughout 2001 and 2002, Azzam.com has been the first to provide authentic news on key events in this Crusade. Azzam was the first to provide information that Abu Zubaydah MAY actually have been killed in March 2002 and is not currently being held by the US authorities. Azzam was the first to provide a review of the video released by Al-Ansaar News Agency in early 2002 that had recent, March 2002 footage of Usama Bin Laden. Azzam was the first to confirm the arrest of Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah despite contrary claims being circulated on Arabic discussion boards. Azzam was the first to provide a review of the English video, The Nineteen Martyrs, even before Al-Jazeera acknowledged the existence of such a video. In fact, Azzam were the ones who titled the video, The Nineteen Martyrs, because neither Al-Jazeera nor any other Arabic web-sites called the video by this name. Azzam was the first to provide a transcript of the latest interview by Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri on Iraq, after this video was released by Al-Ansaar News Agency to APTN (Associated Press Television Network). During 2002, our web-site was shut down several times by the authorities and after being shut in July 2002, our web-site has still not re-appeared at the time this statement goes to press. Since September 2002, our domain was forwarding to Waaqiah.com, a web-site independent of Azzam, that we consider reliable, genuine and an authentic source of our daily news postings. About Jihadunspun.Com We have some serious reservations on the credibility of JUS, to the extent that we advise the Muslims to exercise caution when accepting their analysis and articles, and we advise the Muslims against giving their credit card details to them (either to access their premium service or to purchase products). Amongst some of the reasons for this advice, are the following: 1. In the early part of 2002, realising the effect that Azzam's web-site had on the Muslim Ummah and the attention given to it by both the media, US Government officials and 'anti-terrorism' authors (The New Jackals by Simon Reeve, The Holy War, Inc by Peter Bergen, Inside Al-Qaida by Dr Rohan Gunaratna, to name but a few), we expected the Western intelligence authorities, realising that it is difficult to entirely shut down a web-based news source, to invest in a major project in order to discredit our site and reduce its credibility in the eyes of the Muslims. Our analysts established that the authorities could only do this by creating another major 'Jihad' web-site which would use our site in order to establish its own credibility, initially mentioning our site positively, using this to steer Muslims to this new site, and once a wide readership had been established, to begin to directly and indirectly discredit Azzam as a source of reliable and authentic information. For one who has experience of infiltration methods and attempts used by Intelligence agencies against Muslims, it is lethal to be naive. 2. The credibility of a web-site providing information on Jihad is not established by fast loading and the slick nature of its graphics and presentations. On the contrary, many years of hard work, effort and sacrifice including blood, together with the direct nature of the information provided, is what builds up the credibility of a web-site providing news and information on Jihad and the Mujahideen. Many Muslims may be attracted to Jihadunspun because it loads fast, has impressive graphics and gives the (false) impression that it has correspondents on the ground that provide it authentic, direct news. We must admit that we ourselves were initially fooled by its external image and supported and cooperated with them. Allah (SWT) described in the Quran about the mosque that the hypocrites in Madinah established as a rival mosque to that established by the Prophet (SAWS). The mosque established by the hypocrites was larger, better looking and had better facilities than that established by the Prophet (SAWS) and the Sahabah. He (SWT) said: "And as for those who put up a mosque by way of harming and disbelief, and to disunite the believers, and as an outpost for those who warred against Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad SAW) aforetime, they will indeed swear that their intention is nothing but good. Allah bears witness that they are certainly liars. Never stand you therein. Verily, the mosque whose foundation was laid from the first day on piety is more worthy that you stand therein (to pray). In it are men who love to clean and to purify themselves. And Allah loves those who make themselves clean and pure. Is it then he, who laid the foundation of his building on piety to Allah and His Good Pleasure, better, or he who laid the foundation of his building on an undetermined brink of a precipice ready to crumble down, so that it crumbled to pieces with him into the Fire of Hell. And Allah guides not the people who are the Zalimun (cruel, violent, proud, polytheist and wrong-doer). The building which they built will never cease to be a cause of hypocrisy and doubt in their hearts, unless their hearts are cut to pieces. (i.e. till they die). And Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise." [Quran 9:107-110] 3. The 'front' behind Jihadunspun.com is supposedly a middle-aged Canadian businesswoman who is said to have accepted Islam after 11 September 2001. The Muslims can draw their own conclusions from this, bearing in mind the tenfold increase in the budgets and manpower of Western intelligence agencies in the post-September-11th World. 4. We re-iterate and reconfirm the capture of Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah in Karachi in September 2002 regardless of any claims made by JUS or on any Arabic discussion boards. Furthermore, we put our credibility and the credibility of every news item we have provided over the last six years, on the line to confirm that Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah was arrested in Karachi, that the photograph the media alleged was him was not him but someone else, that Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah was not arrested following a shootout in an apartment block and that the remaining people that were captured or killed by the Pakistani authorities were ordinary Arabs with no connection with Al-Qaida whatsoever - they were neither commanders, leaders nor 'terrorists'. They were simple people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. As for Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah himself, he was just an ordinary Mujahid who was said to have attempted to enter Afghanistan after the American attack in November 2001, just like thousands of other Muslims. He is certainly not a senior Al-Qaida official nor a 'terrorist' - such claims are made by the US authorities in order to brainwash the American people that America is succeeding in this war against Islam. Various Arab discussion boards circulated reports that Ramzi bin Al-Sheebah was not captured because the person in the photograph of Pakistani newspapers was not him. These reports were translated by JUS, who published them in a special feature, which we interpreted as an indirect attack on our credibility. 5. In response to the second and direct attack by JUS on Azzam's publishing of Usama Bin Laden's latest letter, we have the following to say: JUS wrote: 'The following letter, supposedly written by Osama bin Laden, has been making its way around the Internet. It first appeared on waaqiah.com, which is apparently the new home of Britain’s controversial Azzam Publications, who's previous sites were shut down some time ago by British authorities.' Here, JUS have sought to directly discredit Azzam by using the words, 'supposedly written by Osama bin Laden', casting doubts on its authenticity. They say the letter 'has been making its way around the Internet', failing to inform their viewers that the letter was actually an Azzam Exclusive item. Then they proceeded to write off Azzam Publications as 'controversial Azzam Publications'. This was followed by a direct attack on both Waaqiah.com and Azzam, with JUS saying: 'Oddly, waaqiah.com is currently rife with profanities, published as 'viewer mail', which raises the question if it is actually published by Muslims or if this is another instance of deception by authorities.' In a statement that Azzam issued on 24 September, explaining why and how our web- site was shut down, we specifically mentioned Waaqiah.com as a reliable source of news and information from Azzam. By JUS claiming that Waaqiah.com may actually be published by non-Muslim authorities, they imply that Azzam, who vouched for Waaqiah.com and forwarded their domain to this site, is also run by non-Muslim authorities. Indirectly they imply that Shaheed Khattab, who lived and fought with Azzam Correspondents, mentioned Azzam in one of his videos [see The Martyrs of Bosnia video, 2000] and survived numerous assassination attempts, must have been duped by these non-Muslims. This is followed by JUS's reasons why this letter is a hoax, made by by Azzam: 'We have several difficulties with the validity of this letter including the fact that it did not appear on any of the traditional Arabic sources that publish his communiqués such as the Al-Jazeera Television network or the host of Arabic websites that are traditional channels for the dissemination of his material. Bin Laden himself speaks directly to the Islamic media in his latest communiqué 'To The Islamic Ummah On The First Anniversary Of The New American Crusader War' about the obligation to make information widely available. It would be an oddity indeed if this material was only disseminated to one source, and in particular, a non-Arab one.' We are amazed at the inference that just because the Arabic form of the letter has not yet appeared on Al-Jazeera, the letter is a hoax? Whilst it is true that Al-Jazeera has previously mentioned statements and shown Al-Qaida videos, Al-Jazeera has also edited some of these videos and chosen not to show some at all, such as The Unreleased Interview of Usama Bin Laden with Al-Jazeera correspondent, Tayseer Allouni, which was not shown by Al-Jazeera at all. This interview was instead released by Al- Ansaar News Agency. As for the 'host of Arabic websites' that JUS relies upon, the majority of these web-sites are new web-sites that, like JUS, opened well after 11 September 2001. These 'arab sources' include Al Neda (Markaz Darasaat) [we consider this to be a 100% authentic web-site], Jehad Online - which, despite being a new site, does an excellent job of spreading news in the Arabic language. After this, the JUS writer wrote: 'In addition, the letter itself contains none of the earmarks of Bin Laden; there is no date, no Islamic greeting, no reference where it came from and no signature or closing accreditation. For those familiar with Bin Laden’s material, the tone and style of this letter are also problematic, lacking his usual commitment and style of expression. This could be due in part to poor translation however it seems highly unlikely that Bin Laden would issue a second address within a two week period, let alone one that does not refer to any current events. Of course there is the possibility that it could be both a very old letter and a poor translation.' and 'It is common knowledge amongst those who understand his modus operandi that Osama bin Laden has absolutely no concern whatsoever what the American press thinks about him or how they represent him for that matter. Furthermore, he always dictates his own timing when communicating and it is highly unlikely that he would issue this lengthy 'reply' to something that is of absolutely no consequence, namely the American press.' and 'All that said, the article follows, uncut and uncensored. We caution our readers with these concerns and publish it here for information purposes only so that you may draw your own conclusions.' With all due respect, we would like to ask JUS: We are surprised at your your newly found 'expertise' on Bin Laden's material, his modus operandi, and what he thinks, or does not think, about the American press. A slick website and a large operating budget allowing you to show Bin Laden's face on your five-month-old web-site and the ability to purchase and stream all his latest videos online, in some cases paying Al-Jazeera or APTN tens of thousands of dollars to purchase these videos, does not make you an authority on Bin Laden, nor allows you to inform the people what he is or isn't. Azzam Publications is a news source: when we provide news, it is already authentic and confirmed/provided by our correspondents. Our years of experience and credibility bear testimony to this. We do not need to fabricate things, especially those attributed to another Muslim (i.e. Usama Bin Laden) just so people can 'draw their own conclusions'. Azzam Publications was established as an authentic news source at least five years before Jihadunspun even came into existence. We have already established our credibility amongst both Muslims and non-Muslims and this credibility can be freely confirmed by any 'individuals of substance' anywhere in the World, as well as reliable Jihad media sources such as Maktabah Al-Ansaar bookstore (established 1995) and Dharb-e-Mumin (established 1996). We are not in need of a five-month old web-site, allegedly run by a post-September 11th middle-aged convert to Islam, with plenty of money and resources at 'her' disposal, to establish our credibility. 6. Jihadunspun, whilst portraying the impression that it provides all news relating to this War against Islam, uncensored and unedited, specifically chooses to selectively censor and block articles and news items that will be of immense value to the Muslims. Examples of important items and accounts that Jihadunspun censored and did not publish are: - News items relating to the execution of Mossad agent - Daniel Pearl (also known as a 'Wall Street Journal' journalist), including written and video evidence from the Mujahideen that he was a spy. - A first hand account of the Battle off Shahi-Kot, also known as Operation Anaconda, in the account published by Azzam with the title: Operation Anaconda or Operation Giant Mongoose, which can currently be found on Waaqiah.com. - A first hand account of the massacre at the Qila-e-Janghi fortess in Mazar- i-Sharif, published by Azzam with the title: The Fortress of War, which can currently be found on Waaqiah.com. - The Statement from Azzam.com Regardinng Closure of its Web-Site which mentioned the events leading up to the closure of our web-site, exposed the plots of the authorities against us and indirectly warned the Muslims against web-sites like Jihadunspun. We acknowledge that several Azzam articles have been published by Jihadunspun, some with and some without our permission, some with mentioning Azzam as the source and some without mentioning Azzam as the source. It is our consideration that these articles were published in order to build up JUS's credibility in the eyes of the Muslims, as a web-site that 'supports Azzam.' 7. Jihadunspun has never been shut down by the authorities and nor has it been mentioned by them as a site that promotes terrorism, even though some of the material on Jihadunspun may be considered more 'extreme' than that found on other pro-Jihad web-sites. In fact, non-Muslim journalists who have attacked other Jihad web-sites, actually praise Jihadunspun. However, we expect that following this statement of ours, Jihadunspun may intermittently be closed and open, so that it will be said: 'Jihadunspun is also being shut down like other web-sites'. 8. Jihadunspun has long been involved in slandering the Mujahideen and those who sacrifice their lives for Islam and Jihad. Jihadunspun frequently refers to both captured and free Mujahideen, as 'Al-Qaida leaders', terrorists and 'Al-Qaida operatives', even when the non-Muslim media has not labelled them as such. Such comments serve to add weight to the claims of prosecutors in ignorant states when any Mujahideen are captured, that they indeed are Al-Qaida and terrorists, as mentioned on 'pro-Jihad' web-sites. Prosecutors frequently mention information from pro-Jihad web-sites, such as the recent law suit filed by Americans against Saudi Arabian individuals and organisations, which mentions Azzam Publications specifically by name, as part of its 'evidence'. More recently, Jihadunspun publicised media reports slandering Usama Bin Laden and accusing him of adultery, in the 03 November 2002 news item titled 'Bin Laden's Wife Held in Armed Yemen Raid', where they mentioned Pakistani Dawn's report of Bin Laden's 'fifth and favourite wife' having been captured in Yemen, when it is well-known from the Islamic Shariah that a Muslim man marrying more than four wives is tantamount to adultery. Despite this, they attempt to give the impression that they are a Muslim-run, 'pro-Jihad' web-site. To conclude, we say that we have some serious reservations about Jihadunspun, as to who is behind it, based on the above reasons, foremost amongst them being recent efforts of JUS to discredit Azzam and their slandering of the Mujahideen, and we would like to warn the Muslims against accepting the opinions of this site, giving their personal details to them and offering to help them. As for those sincere Muslims who have volunteered to help them in editing, translating, etc., we would advise them to cease their assistance, and if they still wish to contribute to the efforts of the Mujahideen, to make web-sites of their own, which distribute the authentic news of the Mujahideen from sources whose credibility was established long before 11 September 2001. For those who do not wish to accept this advice, we absolve our responsibility for them before Allah on the Day of Judgement, and any repercusions they suffer in this life and the next, resulting from failing to heed our advice. As for George Tenet, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, we say: Perish in your rage for all your attempts to discredit the Jihad and weaken support amongst the Muslims for the Mujahideen will be in vain. Allah has exposed your plans and he will help the believers against the disbelievers, hypocrites and their allies, no matter what 'intelligent' plans your spin-doctors come up with, for our Lord has promised us: "Never will Allah allow the disbelievers a upper-hand over the believers." [Quran 4:141] Finally, we say to the Muslims who remain double-minded after reading this statement: You have a simple choice to make as to who to believe; on the one hand of the scale you have the fast loading, new web-site of Jihadunspun, with its impressive graphics, and on the other hand you have the credibility of Azzam.Com, Qoqaz.net and Maktabah Al-Ansaar and the blood of its martyred correspondents to consider. We end with praises to Allah and peace and blessings upon His Messenger, Muhammad (SAWS), the leader of the Mujahideen, his family, his Companions and all those who follow them in righteousness until the Day of Resurrection. Peace be upon those who follow the Guidance. Azzam Publications 01 Ramadan 1423AH 06 November 2002

Are there anyone who know why the chat is not working???

Are there anyone who know why the chat is not working???

We somalis are not better then other people. There are bad people amongst all the worlds nation's. I'm a muslim ,I don't gudge people after what race they happen to be.Yes I can understand you there are some arabs I can not stand ,but when you write that you hate arabs then you are generalizing 100 million people.Thats alot of people.

Originally posted by ManOfWisdom: Have u noticed that we are better than the Arabs? Sayid Mohamed Abdulle Hassan said: "Aliyow don't complain Arabs are womanish!" They hate us and they are not good at all! What is ur opinion? THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD'S LAST SERMON "O People, lend me an attentive ear, for I don't know whether, after this year, I shall ever be amongst you again. Therefore listen to what I am saying to you carefully and TAKE THIS WORDS TO THOSE WHO COULD NOT BE PRESENT HERE TODAY. O People, just as you regard this month, this day, this city as Sacred, so regard the life and property of every Muslim as a sacred trust. Return the goods entrusted to you to their rightful owners. Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you. Remember that you will indeed meet your LORD, and that HE will indeed reckon your deeds. ALLAH has forbidden you to take usury (Interest), therefore all interest obligation shall henceforth be waived... Beware of Satan, for your safety of your religion. He has lost all hope that he will ever be able to lead you astray in big things, so beware of following him in small things. O People, it is true that you have certain rights with regard to your women, but they also have right over you. If they abide by your right then to them belongs the right to be fed and clothed in kindness. Do treat your women well and be kind to them for they are your partners and comitted helpers. And it is your right that they do not make friends with any one of whom you do not approve, as well as never to commit adultery. O People, listen to me in earnest, whorship ALLAH, say your five daily prayers (Salah), fast during the month of Ramadhan, and give your wealth in Zakat. Perform Hajj if you can afford to. You know that every Muslim is the brother of another Muslim. YOU ARE ALL EQUAL. NOBODY HAS SUPERIORITY OVER OTHER EXCEPT BY PIETY AND GOOD ACTION. Remember, one day you will appear before ALLAH and answer for your deeds. So beware, do not astray from the path of righteousness after I am gone. O People, NO PROPHET OR APOSTLE WILL COME AFTER ME AND NO NEW FAITH WILL BE BORN. Reason well, therefore, O People, and understand my words which I convey to you. I leave behind me two things, the QUR'AN and my example, the SUNNAH and if you follow these you will never go astray. All those who listen to me shall pass on my words to others and those to others again; and may the last ones understand my words better than those who listen to me direcly. BE MY WITNESS O ALLAH THAT I HAVE CONVEYED YOUR MESSAGE TO YOUR PEOPLE."

http://www.alfredlilienthal.com/greaterisrael.htm

http://www.spamz.net/absoluteig/gallery.asp?action=viewimage&categoryid=&text=Shakira&imageid=427&box=&shownew=

http://www.spamz.net/absoluteig/gallery.asp?action=viewimage&categoryid=&text=arab&imageid=4067&box=&shownew=

Somalia To Play World Cup Home Game In Accra Accra, Sept. 17, GNA - The senior national team, the Black Stars, World Cup qualifier against war-ravage Somalia in Asmara, has been rescheduled for Ghana. Mr Kofi Nsiah, General Secretary of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), told the GNA Sports in Accra on Wednesday that the new twist was as a result of the unstable political situation in that country, which necessitated FIFA to move the two-leg affair to Ghana. The matches will be played within a five-day period between November 14 and 19, which has been declared as FIFA's free periods. The first leg was initially scheduled for Somalis capital Asmara, on Sunday, September 12, but the GFA wrote to FIFA to inquire about the safety of the place. FIFA wrote back, declaring the place unsafe and subsequently, asked Somalia to look for an alternative venue. Unfortunately, the two venues proposed by Somalia - Djibouti and Kenya - will also be busy on September 12 hence, the shift to Ghana. Sequel to this, the Somali FA wrote to the GFA on September 14 confirming to play both matches in Ghana but asked the GFA to furnish it with the match venues and accommodation arrangements. Mr Nsiah, however, told the GNA that the FA and the new coach Zalf Zumdick are to meet later on Wednesday to decide on the match venues. A source however, said it is likely the matches will be played at the Obuasi and Accra Sports Stadiums respectively.

Has Platini Won The World Cup The EU Cup The Champ lige The Italien Liga The Spanish Liga NO NO NO NO NO