Some Brillos have lost their way during the procession and have ended up in the Mushroom Kingdom through one of those green warp pipes in Leicester. The King of the Koopas, Bowser al-Salafi, is angry.

Watched the following podcast last night:

https://youtu.be/16deKfCHs-A?si=yjvRR8wpW82nc6xl.

Dr. Sohail Hanif is the CEO of the National Zakat Foundation (NZF) and a lecturer at Cambridge Muslim College.

He speaks here of the importance of community, especially in light of the failing modern welfare state. Moreover, he proposes 'The Medina Model' which he describes as 'structured leadership', as he argues that our intiatives, in the present moment, are disjointed and there is no overall vision. Thus, in order to bring about an overall vision, structured leadership would be required. Also, he emphasises 'bottom up' approach in order to secure legitimacy of the leadership. However, he says there is 'no meritocracy intrinsically', as leadership has to work, even in the absence of the best people in charge. He uses the analogy of Salah to substantiate his point. Later, he also emphasises the importance of Zakat in building community.

Even though Dr. Sohail is right to emphasise community in the face of failing western states, there are some significant nuances that are absent from his discourse.

Madinah was exceptionally successful, as a community, in light of qualities of leadership and character that the Prophet and his companions demonstrated. However, there is little discussion, in the podcast, about what characteristics are required in order to have a successful community. Therefore, if we look at the Sirah and the lives of the Sahabah, one Ayat of the Qur'an present itself, time and time again: 59:9 (https://quran.com/al-hashr/9). And if we are to capture this quality or characteristic with a word then that would be Ithar or selflessness.

If the leadership does not emobody this key quality of selflessness, then regardless of how many conferences and podcasts we have about leadership, the masses will fall short in developing the desired level of 'Asabiyyah' or fellow feeling, to use an Khaldunian term.

Hence, if we see even the generation of our parents and grandparents who came to Britain, then the reason that they were able to establish the religious infrastructure of our community - one we continue to benefit from - is because they demonstrated greater levels of selflessness than us, overall. And they achieved all of this against all odds and with all the disadvantages that they faced; many of which we are privileged to not experience anymore.

That brings me to the spiritual problem that we are infected with, especially as we gain social mobility and become middle class: hubb al-Dunya or love of the world. Here again we see in the Madinan period the Prophet pre-empting this problem and preventing it amongst the Sahabah early on: https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:456. As we can learn from this Hadith, if we fail to embody selflessness in our lives and have that as the dominant quality, as a community, then the alternative is competing with each other for the Dunya.

Therefore, we see that, increasingly, our institutions and intiatives are lead by middle class Muslims, including NZF and the Thinking Muslim podcast and fail to get the necessary traction to bring about change among the mainstream or in working class communities which continue to make up the bulk of the British Muslim population.

By all means, social mobility is natural phenomenon in the material progress of a community. However, in order to avoid a cleavage between the growing middle class and the working class masses, the former would have to find ways of benefiting the others, materially. And for that purpose, Zakat would be all means play a role. However, Zakat is the Haq of the poor, anyway, as one can derive from this Ayat: https://quran.com/adh-dhariyat/19. Rather, greater wealth will need to be invested by the middle class in working class communities, for the purposes of institution building, in a manner where there are no strings attached and ownership remains with the leadership that the local communities agree upon.

Otherwise, we will see more institutions established by middle class Sidis, like Cambridge Muslim College - an institution I graduated from btw in their first year of operation in 2010 - which have little traction among local communities across the country that hail predominantly from a subcontinent religious tradition and find discourse around British Islam to be alien.

So, whilst appreciating Dr.Sohail's emphasis on building community in our context, I felt it was important to express the above critique of his discourse with a view to develop a more robust future of the Ummah in the west.

Feedback from someone currently at the programme in Turkey, with previous Arabic study experience in the UK:

Really good - The teachers and resources are excellent. Those of us who came from ‘Alimiyyah institutes, the qawa’id side of things feels a little easy across the levels, so not quite as intense as we expected. But we’ve definitely built healthier habits with speaking, thinking in Arabic, writing speed, and general consistency.

Palestine Part 1 – From Ancient Roots to 1948 | Office Hours By Dr. Roy Casagranda (you've probably seen his viral video on Khalid b. al-Walid!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9mLrMSmTKI&ab_channel=Dr.RoyCasagranda

لمن يسأل عن كتاب التاريخ والعلل ، الكتاب متوفر عند متجر نون الإلكتروني:

https://noonpublishers.com/products/tareekh-history-hatem-awni

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOKoBWtCD-9/

What is this idiot chatting

He’s a religious retard

And he’s lying sitting inside the mosque of the Prophet

Nothing a couple of slaps can’t sort out

I think bashing the head is more appropriate

70% of you said no. Bravo

Al-Hidayah:

ولا يحضر أهل الذمة الاستسقاء   لأنه لاستنزال الرحمة، وإنما تنزل عليهم اللعنة

So non-Muslims paying poll tax shouldn’t show up, because it might affect the acceptance of the Dua.

But 30% of you lot think one with a moustache and a shaved beard should come out to declare his undying love for the Prophet on Mawlid. Explain yourselves.

When Joshua defeated the Canaanites in Jerusalem, their spoils of war were supposed to be taken by the fire of acceptance, but this didn’t happen initially as the full spoils were not there. Some had stolen from it. One that was resolved, the fire consumed the spoils of war.

Again, this highlights how a good deed should not be accompanied by wanton evil.

Not the mainstream view, but some scholars took the view that a woman in menses should not come near a moribund person.

A cognisant person would be aware that divine mercy doesn’t really mix well with its opposite.

A summary of your average Ifta course ^

Just because your teachers, group, or orientation lends extreme importance to one issue doesn't make it extremely important in the overall scheme of the Shariah.

Yes it might be important, but it might not be as important as you think esp. when other obligations are being neglected as well, which you, your teachers, or your group might not attach extreme importance to.

So how does one identify those issues that have been overblown? Quity frankly, some have it in themselves to detach themselves from their training and are able to figure those out. Others require a diversity in studies to help them snap out of one way of thinking.

Saving for posterity

https://x.com/abaseenpashtun/status/1963543989392453868

The kid should delete his whole account, not just that post

رسالة لكلّ معلمي العلوم الشرعية. الدكتور الشريف حاتم العوني

طلبتُ من فضيلة الشيخ الشريف حاتم العوني أن يوجّه نصائح وإرشادات لأساتذة كلية إبراهيم، فأرسل إليّ رسالةً صوتية وجيزة. ومع وجازتها، فقد تضمّنت رسالةً بالغة الأهمية لكل معلّمي العلوم الشرعية. فأحببت أن أدوّنها لتعمّ الفائدة.
قال الشيخ حفظه الله تعالى:

أولاً بلّغ جميع المشايخ سلامي وجميع الباحثين وطلبة العلم لديكم.
الأمر الثاني، النصيحة الأولى: طبعاً هي الإخلاص لله عز وجل وأن يحرصوا على أداء أمانة التبليغ تبليغ العلم الذي حمّلهم الله إياه

النصيحة الثانية: أن يحرصوا أن يكون تعليمهم تعليماً يكوّن ملكات الفهم لدى الطلاب من خلال الحلقات الحوارية والنقاشية وإثارة الإشكالات البحثية المتعلقة بالمادة التي يدرسونها يجعلون الطلاب أنفسهم يشاركون في استنتاج المعلومة، وأن يعرفوا أن تكوين هذه الملكة أكثر فائدة بكثير من حفظ المعلومات، حفظ المعلومة أو الوقوف على المعلومة الجاهزة هذه يمكن للإنسان من خلال القراءة الذاتية أن يحصل عليها، لكن تكوين الملكة والقدرة على الاستنباط والاستخراج وأيضاً حتى القدرة على الوصول إلى المعلومة بذاته من دون أن يدله أحد هذه كلها ملكات إذا وجدت عند الطالب أصبح عنده ملكة البحث والعلم، ويستطيع أن يكوّن نفسه بعد ذلك، لأنه مهما حرص الشيخ أن يعطيه من المعلومات، فإن المعلومات التي يمكن أن يحصّلها في الدروس لا تساوي شيئاً أمام المعلومات والعلم الحقيقي المكثوث في كتب أهل العلم، فأن يحرصوا على تكوين الملكات وتنمية المواهب أكثر من كثرة المحفوظ. هذه نصيحتي، وأسأل الله عز وجل أن يوفّقكم في عامكم الدراسي الجديد،
وصلى الله وسلم على سيدنا محمد
والله أعلم


A Message to All Teachers of Islamic Sciences, Shaykh Hatim Al-Awni.

I asked Shaykh Dr. Al-Sharif Hatim Al-Awni, to offer some advice and guidance to the teachers at Ebrahim College. In response, he kindly sent me a brief voice message. Though short, it carried a message of great significance for every teacher of Islamic sciences. I felt compelled to write it down so its benefit could reach a wider audience.

The Shaykh said:

First and foremost, kindly extend my greetings to all the teachers, staff, researchers, and students at Ebrahim College.
Secondly, as for advice in this regard, then of course, the first point is to uphold sincerity towards Allah and that they should be keen on fulfilling the trust that Allah has entrusted them with: the responsibility of conveying knowledge.
The second piece of advice is that teachers should ensure their teaching cultivates true understanding in their students.
This can be accomplished through engaging them in discussions, debates, and research-oriented questioning related to the subject at hand with students playing an active role in the in the process of deriving knowledge.
They must realise that developing this ability is far more beneficial and outweighs the benefits of simply memorising information. Memorising or relying on readily available information is something a person can achieve on their own through independent reading. But building the ability to reason, to infer, to extract knowledge, and even to access information independently without direct guidance —these are capacities that, once instilled in a student, equip them with the aptitude for research and scholarship. They will then be able to continue developing themselves further.
No matter how much effort a teacher puts into delivering information, the knowledge gained from lessons cannot compare to the true knowledge found in the works of scholars. Therefore, the focus should be on developing students’ abilities and nurturing their talents, rather than on the sheer quantity of memorized material.
This is my advice, and I ask Allah Almighty to grant you success in your new academic year.
May Allah send His blessings and peace upon our Master, Muhammad ﷺ.
And Allah knows best.”