Bismillah, alhamdulillah.

Came across this lovely speech which is attributed to Qus bin Saai’dah ( d. 600 CE) Al-Ayyaadee (قس بن ساعدة الإيادي), known as حكيم العرب (Wisest of the Arabs). He is also the first person to have used the now famous phrase أم بعد (amma ba’d and to proceed) when giving his speech. Hadith attributed to him seem to be weak hence I have avoided quoting this as a hadith. He made this speech in the market of Okaz in Makkah before the Prophet (S) became a prophet. He reportedly died when he fell of his camel on his way to see the Prophet (S) as a prophet. Allah knows best, but the speech reminds people of the inevitability of death and that there is clearly more to life than just being reduced to dust:

O People! Where are your fathers? Where are the tyrant Pharoahs of the past? Were they not richer and lived longer than you? Time ground them in her embrace, as her eternity ground them to dust .

Bismillah, alhamdulillah.

I happened to be reading a hadith which involved a Jewish tribe called Bani Nadeer. The Prophet Muhammad (S) when living in Madeenah had signed a treaty with them and had gone to visit them to request help to pay blood money for two men. While seated with his companions during the negotiations with tribe he was informed by revelation from God that the Jewish tribe were going to assassinate him by throwing a boulder.

The Prophet (S) did not tell anyone and rose to say that he had to go for a call of nature and left his companions behind. The Jewish tribe unaware that he had been informed by God of their plans sat waiting with his companions sure that he would return to meet his end at their hands.

The Prophet (S) did not return and the Companions grew anxious and went out to search for him. They eventually found him in a place of safety and he informed them of what had happened. The Jewish tribe realised that they had broken the treaty and negotiated a surrender to the Muslims. Part of the surrender treaty was that they were banished to a place called  Al-Jalaa.

I wondered where al-Jalaa was when I wished I could just tap into a website that would label all the historical sites in Islamic history with links to Google Earth. It would be a wonderful idea as a means of teaching children Islamic history perhaps even inviting others to Islam. The Google Earth element would allow Muslims to envision the Islamic world as a united body and just begin to imagine what the world would look like if divided by the borders of Islam rather than the artificially imposed political borders that are designed to currently impede, divide and hamper.

Children could undertake the journeys that famous travellers made, relive the Islamic conquests in front of their eyes, see where famous scholars were born and their journeys around the world. Google Earth not only allows points to be added, but also allows you to add information and you can even have tracks that will take you from one place to another. The possibilities are huge.

I pray that God inspires someone to implement the idea.

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, seeking God’s help and mercy.

I can still remember trudging down the wooden staircase inside a lecture theatre to the front to meet the lecturer on anaesthetics. In a brief slide on the history of anaesthesia had begun in Rome and then skipping over the Islamic bit in between he had arrived somewhere in the late 1700s or early 1800s to continue the story of anaesthesia. Those were not the days of Wikipedia which now acknowledges the role of Muslim scientists in its article on anaethesia but I had a pretty good idea that this was not quite an accurate rendition of history. I confronted the lecturer and asked him whether he was aware or not that Muslim scientists in the so called dark middle-ages were performing surgery with anaesthetic equivalents? He was genuinely surprised to hear this and confessed his ignorance. This sufficed as a small yet significant victory and time has rolled on since.

This momentum to set history correct has taken a more concrete shape in the public arena where websites looking at 1001 Muslim inventions in the past have generated Western media articles supportive of recognising the importance of the Muslim heritage to the worlds scientific achievements and progress in the current day. Yet there is a sense that these represent a pyrrhic victory, Muslims now with their past acknowledged are content. They are content to be an object of high value in the distant past, suitably remembered and displayed in the museums of the world. But the emphasis has the potential to lock them into the past. Stuck in a psyche of reminiscence and reliving past glories rather than looking forward to new ones.

What I would like to see is a website talking about Muslim scientists or inventors today, perhaps even called  www.MuslimScientistsToday.com (warning do not click on the link it does not exist). While it is important to point out the historical perspective and the heritage of the world, the Muslim world needs inspiration today to achieve tomorrow. The young can be inspired by history but even more so by the present. Perhaps this will strike a chord with someone out there and start this ball rolling.

O God let this idea bear fruit if it attracts Your pleasure.

Bismillah, alhamdulillah : In the name of God, with gratitude and praise for Him

I have been to one Yusuf Estes lecture, here in Jeddah. This was the first time I have attended or heard his lecture though I had heard his name mentioned by others. He was certainly an entertaining lecturer and the audience warmed to him quite well. During his lecture he reeled out a large number of websites. I had jotted them down and thought I would spend some time just reviewing the ones mentioned. They are listed below:

• www.shareislam.com :

The mother website. The website reveals a domain dominance strategy in which a large number of domains have been registered with catchy dawah titles, these are listed here.

• www.searchforislam.com :

A search page that harnesses Google to search what looks like this group of websites.

• www.watchforislam.com :

Couldn’t access the website

• www.islamswomen.com :

One of the better resources, an interesting article on the niqaab.

• www.islamnewsroom.com

The website keeps you abreast of Yusuf Estes dawah effort and journeys.

• yusuf@shareislam.com

I presume you can email Yusuf Estes on this email.

• www.yusufestes.com

This record his personal story of conversion to Islam.

• www.watchislam.com :

Offers various channels such as Peacetv, Hudatv, IslamChannelUK, ShareIslamTV. wasn’t working very well when I tried it.

• http://www.ipodislam.com/

MP3 audio feeds (podcast feeds) feeds from Yusuf Estes and other callers to Islam. There seem to be 150 podcasts since 2007.

• www.bridgetofaith.com :

Not too sure what this site is attempting to do, though the title seems obvious. It has a typically American exuberant pro-organ transplantation plug. 

• www.chatislam.com :

This offers a text chat window and various rooms. They are supposed to be moderated but this does not seem to be the case around the clock. This sounds like a good idea but needs improvement.

• http://www.allahsquran.com

Some long articles on the authenticity of the Quran. The articles seem to be transcripts of lectures or a re written in a more informal style. You can listen to the Quran as well. The site, which seems to be a section of the mother site www.shareislam.com, follows a fixed proforma in its presentation.

http://www.scienceislam.com/index.php

The site is sparse and not that useful. It seems to have been written hastily but provides some basic scientific arguments. It is written for the lay public.

Overall Yusuf Estes has clearly brought a lot of energy and some of missionary Christian media savvy techniques into the Islamic dawah field. His energy is refreshing and inspiring at the same time. Though the plethora of websites certainly needs pruning and a bit more oversight and structure to enhance their overall usability. With the advent of Google and googling the importance of multiple domain names has probably diminished. The cost of such a large number of domain names is not insignificant and I feel the number of domains should be reduced and quality rather quantity should be the key.

Bismillah, alhamdulillah : In the name of God, with gratitude and praise for Him

There are opportunities to listen to study Islam in Jeddah, but these are not as abundant as in other cities in the country and few well advertised opportunities exist in English. I have tried to list what I am aware of sources and places to learn in English and Arabic primarily. I have briefly touched upon Urdu. Where possible I have tried to clarify the location of places.

English

The Jeddah Dawah Centre runs various basic courses on Islam geared towards beginners or people who have recently entered Islam. Courses are offered in a variety of languages. Contact the centre for further details, but don’t be surprised if you need to make a personal visit to speak to someone. Public events are also organised by the JDC and they invite speakers from around the world. An example of one such lecture was by Yusuf Estes in Jeddah.

There is one regularly held English language Islamic lesson in a mosque that sits within the Saudi Airlines compound. The imam of the mosque is known an Imam Maliki. Access to the mosque requires a good knowledge of where it lies and will require you to submit your id at the entrance to the compound which is very large. The lesson involves the translation of the Friday khutbah (sermon) and then lunch is provided. A number of English speaking Muslims from all over Jeddah tend to gather for this weekly event. There are facilities for ladies at the mosque.

There is a radio programme that comes on in the afternoon and offers an easy paced commentary on various Islamic issues. It happens at around early afternoon on the FM dial.

Study circles behind closed doors are held in English, but it is likely that they do not have strictly official permission hence are not publicly advertised and you will need the word of mouth or a contact to find out what is being held where. It would be reasonable to conclude  it to say the authorities are very well aware of most of these activities and tolerate them as long as they do not cross any political lines and do not attract Saudi nationals.

Islamic books in English are stocked in Jareer and Tihama bookstores. Different stores have a different collection of books some better than others. In general the overall number of books available in Jeddah compared to the West is much lower, a fairly strict censorship limits the number of books available here. Though there is plenty of reading material to keep someone busy for quite a long time. Usually most books published by Dar us-Salaam publishers are available. One other place where you can get books is Aziziyyah, they also have videos and CDs of various lectures. Books in Urdu may be found here as well.

Other languages such as Urdu are catered for in mosques which lie in the South of Jeddah, they offer translations of khutbahs from Arabic into Urdu after Friday prayers. I have managed to locate on such mosque in the Bani Malik area, I think it’s name was Masjid Bilal.

Arabic

If you know Arabic then there is a much greater access to Islamic study opportunities. Lectures are usually held in major mosques on a regular weekly basis. This is more likely to be the case in lower socio-economic southern parts of Jeddah than the more plush northern suburbs but opportunities do occur everywhere.

All large mosque will have a tahfeez (Quran memorisation) programme for students, it usually runs from Asr to Maghrib and children and adults are welcome. Usually they require enrollment at the beginning of the semester or year. Some mosques have got a very good reputation, one such is Masjid Shuaybee.

Facilities  for ladies are better, and morning schools to learn various Islamic sciences are available. These are run by charitable colleges which run fee paying courses and have a regime of tests to work out whether or not you are promoted to the next level. They tend to have a beginners level but do not offer to teach any Arabic. If you have not learned Arabic you may attend the lessons to try and soak up the atmosphere and the language using an immersion technique. This is known as مستمع mustami’ or listener status.

One such ladies institute is المعهد العلمي العالي لإعداد معلمات القرآن والسنة The Higher Knowledge Preparatory College lady teachers of the Quran and Sunnah. It holds a charitable endowment status for the late mother of Ameer Namir ibn Abdul Aziz. It lies on Aisha Umm Al Muminin Street, this is off Hamad Al Jaser Street which in turn is off Sari Street. The co-co-ordinates are Latitude:  N 21.576652° and Longitude: E 39.156498°. If you enter via Hamad Al Jaser Street, it is a right turn when coming from Sari Street. On the corner is a mosque called Ikhlaas. The college is on the right and not very well marked. Opening times are from early morning and classes start at 8 am till 12.30 pm. Lessons cost 3000 SAR per year. You can register for distance lessons as well at their website. Another link is here. Lessons taught here cover all the basic Islamic sciences: tafseer, hadith, usool al-fiqh and others. The entry requirement is payment of the fee, permission from the ladies guardian (father or husband), valid legal status in the country (i.e. iqamah) and  secondary certificate of education.

Similar institutes exist for men but usually have times that are not convenient to working men. I have not come across any night classes that are conveniently located within main town Jeddah. I have heard of a men’s institute on the way to Makkah.

The radio offers a very useful station called إذاعة القرآن Radio Quran, here is a link on the top right for this station. Here is another link. The station has an almost daily Q&A Fatwa programme via telephone. People phone from all around the country and questions are not censored but are probably pre-filtered and are live. There are also discussion programmes on current affairs and commentaries on classical books and programmes charting the current modern day history of Muslims is various parts of the world. It can be caught easily on FM and AM.

Books in Arabic are widely available in Jareer and Tihama, the more specialist books will have to be hunted for at more specialist outlets. There is a lecture circuit by the more famous scholars in the kingdom and they attend various mosques, but tend not to frequent Jeddah as much as they do other cities. These are advertised on notice boards in most mosques. Some of them have websites and transmit the lectures live and store them for later retrieval on their websites. Following are some commonly found websites on posters:

• www.thnyanmsq.com: website of the Thanyaan Masjid in Jeddah, Google map location of mosque.
• www.jkb-1.com (for the Khadijah Baghlaf Mosque in Jeddah near here)
• www.almoslim.net carries live lectures from around the country
• www.liveislam.net carries live lectures from many cities.

Bismillah, alhamdulillah : In the name of God, with gratitude and praise for Him

Many dawah organisations work on very tight budgets, perhaps even the money that comes from cookie and cake sales! Listening to the BBC I came across this very useful piece of opensource software for organisations who would like to set up an IVR (interactive Voice Response) system on the cheap. The software is being used by humanitarian organisations in Southern Africa. It is called Asterix and is available here.

Bismillah, alhamdulillah

I found this interesting story in the Saudi Gazette about an artistocratic Scottish lady convert in the late 1800’s. She died as a Muslim at the age of 95 in 1963 having performed Hajj at the age of 65. She wrote a book called ‘Pilgrimage to Makkah’ which has been republished with the more attractive title “From Mayfair to Makkah” . She was buried at her Scottish Highlands estate in Wester Ross with an inscription of the Quran on her gravestone. The following quote describes her process of conversion:

Evelyn wrote in “Pilgrimage to Makkah” that she was often asked when and why she became a Muslim, but “I do not know the precise moment when the truth of Islam dawned on me. It seems that I have always been a Muslim.”

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

The young man had been fidgeting quite a lot during the Maghrib prayer. He had managed to remove his watch from his pocket and strapped it on, checked the time and bent down to straighten his socks to mention a few of his movements. As the imam concluded the prayer, I hesitated, should I try and say something? Could I overcome the language barrier? Would a few words put this young man off praying in the masjid again? The questions revolved around in my brain when I extended my hand in salaam.

I first asked if he spoke English. He looked at me blankly the smell of a recently smoked cigarette wafted over me as he exhaled with his face turned towards mine. I paused and then launched into my faltering Arabic, hoping the young man’s classical Arabic was up to scratch.

A man builds a beautiful house. Once it is complete he enters it and begins to destroy it, he wrecks the door then the windows and then the walls. What do you think of this man – sensible or crazy?

He smiled shaking his hand in the air indicating the man had lost his mind.

You are like a man building a house, you came all the way to the masjid, made wadu, stood in front of Allah, then when you entered into your house, the prayer, you began to wreck it by your excessive movements. I stopped.

His teeth broke through his lips as his smile widened, his right hand met mine in a strong handshake, “Jazakallahu khairan (may God reward you)”.