Recently, a dear friend shared some of the tribulations and tests he was facing in his life. I offered some advice that I felt would inspire him and uplift his spirits. I would like to share this with you as I am hoping you will benefit from it as well.

Celebrate the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)
In whatever way you can: Mawlid, Salawat, Nasheed
Being close to his Family
Embrace the Prophet

The mawlid offers tranquility and relief

Why wouldn’t Allah not love those that love the Prophet?
Have ikhlas in your intentions

Serve the scholars and the shurafa
And remove any worries
Have rida’, acceptance of Allah’s tests
Smile, knowing that Allah chose you to overcome these tests

There are unseen levels where help arrives
Satan works hard to destroy us
However, we have Allah who protects us

Oh, one more advice…
TALK to Allah, really talk.

That was the title for Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah’s last session at the recent ALIM Winter Program. This was going to happen in the Muslim Community Association of the San Francisco Bay Area (MCA). Historically, this lecture had many ramifications. It is well-known that the MCA has had issues with tasawwuf being talked about, practiced or even mentioned in the halls of the mighty MCA.

With the graciousness of the ALIM staff, we were invited to listen to Dr. Umar and Dr. Abdul Hakim Jackson’s lectures on the 3rd day of their weekend program. With ultimate Grace of Allah, we were treated to a different topic then what we expected. Dr. Umar continued his topic from the day before, Modernity.

Here are some notes:

• Dr. Umar’s definition of modernity: based on 3 elements – an economic system, a political/legal system and a culture system.
• Solo problem solving vs. Group problem solving = Groups are always more successful
• Working with others, listening to them, learning from them allows us to establish an improved idea/system
• Muslims have to be future-oriented
• Most people cannot deal with being future-oriented: have to ‘move’, have to innovate, have to change to be future-oriented
• As Muslims, we should not have this problem as we have a sophisticated economic, political/legal sytem
• A religion cannot flourish without: Identity, Community, Continuity
• Spirituality is VERY IMPORTANT, it is EVERYTHING, however, it is very difficult to achieve. If you can achieve spirituality, then you have a connection with the vertical, then you are ‘home safe’ (Baseball fans can ponder on this)
• Spirituality: you have to drink it, eat it and imbibe it.
• Dr. Umar’s prediction about the 21st century: a century about rivalries and religious battles
• Knowledge cannot just be ‘horizontal’, then it becomes metaphorical. Knowledge needs to have vertical connection.
• Infinite infinite multiplicities – each moment in time is infinitely different than the moment before it or after it. This is the creative magnificence of our Creator.
• The world around us is beautiful but it is fading. To put the color back into the world we need to put more color into ourselves.
• Secret cure: when nothing can cure you, go home.

So what is the lesson from this? Sufism is real and necessary. It is so real, a wonderful scholar like Dr. Umar does not need to discuss sufism to discuss sufism. As for the hidden men (and women)… they will continue to remain hidden.

Halalfire has put up 2 stealth sites announcing their coming e-mams.org and muslimparents.com services. Halalfire is well known for their Zabihah.com site which is an excellent resource for finding restaurants with halal and zabihah menus. Other services Halalfire offers are Salatomatic (directory of mosques and Islamic schools), Halalapalooza (directory of Muslim owned businesses) and their popular online magazine, AltMuslim.

E-mams… IslamCrunch guesses:

• Electronic fatwas
• Online khutbahs
• Directory of scholars
• Digital baya (pledge of allegiance) to a tariqa*

Just noticed on their ‘About Us’ page:

e-mams.org – Your guide to the diversity of Islamic thought (coming early 2008)
muslimparents.com – Your guide to child-centric Islamic parenting (coming mid 2008)

Also, listed is another unnamed stealth project and a unnamed partner site (both due early 2008).

We will be waiting…

Happy 1429! The new hijri year has begun and we wanted to wish our readers a blessed year. Here are some important articles and reminders for this blessed month.

Muharram – the Month of Allah

Muslim reported from Abu Hurayra (Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said , “The best of fasts after the month of Ramadan are in the Month of Allah, which you call Muharram. And the best of prayer after the obligatory prayer is the night prayer.” [Muslim, 1163] (Source)

Ashura – A day (or two) of fasting

Fasting is particularly encouraged on Ashura (the 10th day of Muharram) and the day before it. [Reliance, e2.1(2)] (Source)

Ashura – Audio reminder

The Blessings of the Day of Ashura – Imam Zaid Shakir

Fasting advice

From the Book of Assistance by Imam Al-Haddad – Chapter on Fasting

Today, Muslim unity has been resolved. In our Gmail inbox, we received back-to-back messages from SunniPath and Al-Maghrib Institute. From the hundreds of emails we receive everyday, it struck us that unity has been achieved. Check it out:

Some of you might be thinking “IslamCrunch subscribes to Al-Maghrib’s newsletter’s???” To clarify, just because we subscribe to a newsletter, it does not mean we adhere to a certain methodology. We also subscribe to newsletters from the corporate tech sector and newsletters of other faiths yet we still remain MUSLIM. And may Allah continue to make us Muslim in our actions, deeds, thoughts, speech and intentions. Simply put, we subscribe to many newsletters to get a pulse of what is happening in the Muslim community.

Let’s all strive for Muslim unity (outside of our inbox).