DO YOU KNOW HOW TO ENGAGE WITH AL QUR'AN?

Do you know how to engage with the Quran?

by: Basma Abdelgafar

        There is something that has been bothering me for quite some time now and it is the realization that so many Muslims (especially youth) are not engaging with the Quran as they should be.
Instead of reading and trying to understand it many people feel that the Quran is too complex, too long, too repetitive, too sacred, scary, even dangerous and so avoid the exercise altogether.
Some have even been cautioned by others about reading it and trying to form their own understandings. This should certainly not be the case.
         I will tell you at the outset that I am not an Islamic scholar, nor have I formally studied the Quranic sciences but that is not a pre-requisite for reading and engaging with the Quran and benefiting from it, as I shall demonstrate below.

Seeking Allah in the Midlands

by: Hasan Suroor

Of the thousands of white Britons embracing Islam every year, most are thought to be professionally successful, independent-minded women, says a study

       Arguably, Islam has more than a mere perception problem over how it treats its women. Even after allowing for stereotyping (the image of a burqa-clad woman walking two paces behind her husband is a crude caricature of the modern Muslim woman), the fact is that Muslim women are more vulnerable to misogyny and cultural prejudices of their menfolk than women of any other faith. The more “Islamic” a society, the fewer individual freedoms its women enjoy.

MIXED SITUATION OF ISLAM AND MUSLIMS IN EUROPE

MIXED SITUATION OF ISLAM IN EUROPE: ON THE RISE IN BRITAIN, RISING ISLAMOPHOBIA IN FRANCE AND TERRORIZED BY GREEK NEO-NAZIS  IN ATHENS

by Syarif Hidayat

         Islam is the fastest growing religion in the West. Nevertheless, the West has many stereotypes and misconceptions about Islam that are due to: the media, Prejudice, and Ignorance. Islam is often looked upon as a "extremist", "terrorist", or "fundamental" religion. Many people hate Islam and do not want to acknowledge its true teachings.

         In many cases, the media’s reports about Islam are incorrect due to ignorance. This is one of the reasons why the West often hates Islam.  In contrast to what many Westerners think of Islam, Islam is a peaceful religion, which does not promote any injustice or crime. Stereotypes about Islam are not new to Western culture. Problems can be traced back 1400 years. At that time, Islam and Christianity were involved in the Crusades in the 1100’s and in the Ottoman and Moorish control in Europe. Islam spread quickly to the West, and started to threaten the position of the Christian Church and the ruling class.

When Halal becomes Haram, more Taqwa is needed

by Ahmed Kilani & Ali Cabban
(MuslimVillage.com)

      MuslimVillage.com has spent the past week investigating the Halal chicken controversy that has left many from Sydney’s Muslim community in a state of confusion, some even no longer eating chicken.
      After numerous meetings and interviews with representatives from Fresh Poultry, Taqwa Halal Certification (Taqwa), Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) Halal Certification and Red Lea Chickens, we present what we have discovered to be the facts.
     We pray that our findings will end the confusion and restore some certainty for the entire community. We believe that Taqwa, Fresh Poultry and AFIC Halal are all sincere in their endeavours. However, due to a lack of foresight, some errors of judgment, issues of trust and a lack of professional expertise, unnecessary doubt has been cast upon the status of Halal chicken produced both by Fresh Poultry and Red Lea.
     As MuslimVillage.com reported last week in the article “Claims of supplying non Halal chicken denied“, the current controversy was started when Taqwa Halal Certification made a public announcement on May 4 2013 via social media, sms and email asking the community to avoid eating any products from Fresh Poultry, the only Muslim owned Halal hand slaughtered chicken slaughterhouse and wholesaler/retailer in Australia.

THE CONVERSION OF MONGOLS TO ISLAM: THE POWER OF DA’WAH

The conversion of the Mongols: The power of Da’wah

by Allamah Abu ‘l-Hasan ‘Ali al-Nadwi

       Islam was about to be submerged in the whirlpool of the Mongol ardor of slaughter and destruction, as several Muslim writers had then expressed the fear, wiping it out of existence, but Islam suddenly began to capture the hearts of the savage Tartars. The preachers of Islam thus accomplished a task which the swordarm of the faith had failed to perform, by carrying the message of Islam to the barbaric hordes of heathen Mongols.

THE WORD “ISLAM” HAS A TWO-FOLD MEANING: PEACE, AND SUBMISSION TO GOD

 by  Syarif Hidayat

Understanding Islam: The word Islam has a two-fold meaning: submission and peace

     The word ISLAM has a two-fold meaning: peace, and submission to God. This submission requires a fully conscious and willing effort to submit to the one Almighty God. One must consciously and conscientiously give oneself to the service of Allah. This means to act on what Allah enjoins all of us to do (in the Qurân) and what His beloved Prophet, Muhammad (saw) encouraged us to do in his Sunnah (his lifestyle and sayings personifying the Qurân).
       Once we humble ourselves, rid ourselves of our egoism and submit totally to Allah, and to Him exclusively, in faith and in action, we will surely feel peace in our hearts. Establishing peace in our hearts will bring about peace in our external conduct as well.

MALAYSIAN MUSLIMS LEAD ISLAMIC WELLBEING INDEX

Malaysian Muslims lead wellbeing index

by Daud Batchelor

ACHIEVEMENT: The country has achieved commendable balance between religious observance and social development, says Daud Batchelor.

 IT has always been a big question: “Which Muslims in what Muslim country are closer to achieving the ideal of Islamic wellbeing”? Whose country is doing better at applying Islamic values?

A newly formulated rating index, the Islamic Index of Wellbeing (IIW), suggests that Muslims in Malaysia lead the Muslim countries surveyed in Islamic wellbeing, just ahead of their Indonesian cousins.

THE US MUSLIM CONVERTS: "WE ARE NOT BRAINWASHED!!!"

US Muslim Converts: We’re Not Brainwashed!!!

NEW YORK – As the news revealed that Boston suspect widowed wife was an American convert to Islam, stereotypes and misconceptions have been reignited about US women who have chosen Islam, portraying them as brainwashed and submissive who sacrificed their American life to satisfy their husbands.

“The moment you put on a hijab, people assume that you’ve forfeited your free will,” Lauren Schreiber, who favors traditional Islamic dress, told NBC News on Friday, April 26.
Schreiber, who became a Muslim in 2010, expected to hear comments being brainwashed after the media revealed that 24-year-old Katherine Russell, a New England doctor’s daughter, was married to Boston dead suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev.