Highlights from the last day of the Reviving The Islamic Spirit 2007 Convention:

• Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah sent a video message that was later translated by Shaykh Abdullah bin Hamid Ali, Zaytuna Institute’s newest scholar.
• Unfortunately, Imam Warith Deen Muhammad could not attend. We were really keen on listening to Imam W.D.
• After Imam Zaid Shakir’s lecture about African-American/Canadian culture and family values, he introduced Kairi Jamil to talk about his father, Imam Jamil al-Amin.
• After Imam Zaid’s lecture, he addressed one of the most important questions in our day and age: “Should we follow moonsighting, moon calculation or whatever Saudi Arabia says?” He provided the following points which prove the logical choice of moonsighting:

1. After many years of the Saudis giving erroneous sightings, it would not be wise to follow their decisions.
2. The world is divided by the International Date Line, therefore we will always have the ‘Eid and/or the beginning of the month on 2 different days on different parts of the world.
3. We should not connect ‘Eid il Adha with the beginning of Hajj. In the second year of hijra, ‘Eid il Adha was revealed as a celebration for the Muslims. In the tenth year (8 years later!), the rites of Hajj were commanded upon the Muslims. For 8 years, how did the early Muslims define ‘Eid il Adha? Moonsighting!

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s and Imam Zaid’s headlining speeches were awe-inspiring. Their call to Muslims around the world to uplift themselves and become a benefit to humanity is an important reminder to us all. Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad gave another excellent lecture, we will try to decipher our notes and share it here soon, insha’Allah.

Overall highlights for the IslamCrunch team:

• Meeting several family members descended from the noble lineage of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), including the Al-Sagoff, Moumani, Al-Junied and Al-Gilani families.
• Being in the presence and talking to Sidi Yahya Rhodus.
• Spending time with Preacher Moss’ family. Their baby is so cute!
• Meeting Shaykh Faraz Rabbani again. What a blessing to have him as a resource in the West.
• Meeting Abdul-Rehman Malik, Contributing Editor to Q-News. Shared our memories and ties to Singapore.
• Spending some quality (albeit brief) time with Nazim Baksh.
• Finally meeting Haider Ali and Zeeshan Zafar from the UK after many years of email and phone correspondence.
• Sharing meals with our Bay Area friends and San Diego brothers.
• Seeing our RIS family and friends. Special thanks to Waseem, Yasir, Fahad, Asif and Saeed for going the extra kilometre for us.
• UPDATE: Another highlight - seeing our old friend and brother, Sidi Khalil Moore. What a blessing to hear his amazing voice. Check out his project: Seek Sacred Knowledge (We covered SeekSacredKnowledge.com here)

Highlights from Day 2 of the Reviving the Islamic Spirit Convention:

• Shaykh Habib Ali al-Jifri sent a special video message which Sidi Yahya Rhodus translated.
• Shaykh Hamza Yusuf and Pamela Paul conducted a lecture on pornography and how it debases women. The lecture had some mature topics and was dealt in a very professional, elegant manner. The lecture was based on topics that Pamela Paul wrote in her book, Pornified.
• Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad delivered a very precise, calculated lecture with subtle yet powerful knowledge.
• Imam Zaid delivered a dynamic lecture about our youth. Imam Zaid’s wittiness helped to convey the message.
• Shaykh Hamza’s headlining lecture: reading and interpretations from a book written by Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah about the craft of futuwa (plural of fatwa).

Biggest highlight: helping Islamic Relief with their donation collections.

Most profound moment: the Islamic Relief video. Very sad, very moving.

Please visit Islamic Relief (www.irw.org) to learn more about their work and to donate.

Quotes of the day:

“Whether you are old school or new school, return to the Quran to get schooled!” - Imam Zaid Shakir

“Without Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah, the meeting scholars is a meeting of peers. With Shaykh Abdullah, it would be a meeting with the Pir. Because he is suPERior.” - Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

Here are some quick highlights from the Reviving The Islamic Spirit Convention Day 1:

• Shaykh Mokhtar Maghroui is not attending
• Dr. Tareq Suwaidan is not attending, however, he has sent some video messages which will be presented.
• Final session included a panel of speakers: Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Imam Zaid Shakir, Dr. Abdul Hakim Jackson, Sister Rabiya, Dr. Jamal Badawi and moderated by Dr. Jamila Karim

Some of the IslamCrunch team are in Toronto during the last weekend of 2007 to attend the Reviving the Islamic Spirit Convention. This event is our favorite large-scale Islamic conference in the West. The organizers have always treated us well. This year we are not attached at a booth like previous years. Insha’Allah, we will try to post more about the event.

It is with great sadness to report that Shaykh Habib Ali al-Jifri and Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayyah will not be attending the convention. Our teachers have informed us of this earlier in the week. However, we are excited about re-uniting with another teacher of ours, Sidi Yahya Rhodus, who is currently teaching in Tarim, Yemen.

Today, Imam Zaid Shakir will be delivering the Jumaah khutbah. After that, it will be time to see old friends, make new friends, visit with the scholars and network with the community.

If you are attending the RIS convention, drop us a comment here, we would love to meet you!

UPDATE: Highlights from RIS6…
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

Imam Zaid Shakir will conduct his first online live lecture session via his NewIslamicDirections.com online presence.

To register, please visit: http://registration.newislamicdirections.com/

Class Description:

This class will examine the purpose of Life from an Islamic perspective and then endeavor to show how it is imperative that a Muslim live his or her life in pursuit of that purpose.

To accomplish these twin objectives we will examine aspects of Qur’an and its commentary; Hadith or prophetic tradition and its explanation; prophetic biography and its implications; along with contemporary insights into the human condition.

We will emphasize how important certain theological themes an concepts that oftentimes are neglected by Muslims contemporarily but are critically important in defining how we should be leading our every-day lives. Examples would include redemption, justice, fairness, magnanimity, divine grace, divine retribution, thankfulness, human kindness, and human decency.

We will also examine the consequences of an aimless life with special emphasis on the impact of such an approach to life on the contemporary Muslim world.

This examination will be follow, to a certain extent, the noted work of Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, from an Islamic perspective. That being the case, we will endeavor to introduce practical steps that will help in discovering and manifesting purpose in our lives into each lesson.