Sunday, January 29, 2012

Islam divided among Organizations.

In the Name of Allah,

All praise is due to Allah, the King of mankind.


"As for those who divide their religion and break up into sects, thou hast no part in them in the least: their affair is with Allah. He will in the end tell them the truth of all that they did."(Quran 6:159)


"And obey Allah and His Messenger. and fall into no disputes, lest ye lose heart and your power depart; and be patient and persevering: For Allah is with those who patiently persevere: "(Quran 8:46)

Alhamdulilah, the finals ended, and my first semester came to an end today. It was an amazing experience studying with teachers learned in Madeena University from around the world. I recommend ISLAMICONLINEUNIVERSITY.COM to anyone who is a believer.

While I still await the public meeting announcement for Islamic Society/Center of Windermere, promised two weeks ago to me, I have been experiencing a unique trend that I did not notice before. I was contacted by Helping Hands to participate in their effort to do a fundraiser event, and came to know about another organization. On the surface, this seems great act of charity and community service, but what struck me was that these are headed by different individuals, and they have very specific agenda. Very sincere people with hard work and vision, and are serving Muslim Ummah, and May Allah reward them for their effort.

However, when I ask the founder of one of these organizations if they will involve their local masjid in the effort, I was stunned with the answer, because he said that No, and he said that the effort will be perceived as unattractive to wide population. Now, Muhammad ibn Abdullah (PBUH) told us that Masajid are the gardens of paradise, and center of community, but they seems to have become toxic for sincere folks who want to make an effort to revive the Ummah. It is very sad to see, and this distrust with Masajid and local Imams have been communicated to me on many occasions.

Now, I see this tug race, where every organization is pulling lay people like me to contribute to their cause, but how much can one person divide themselves? Every organization and every effort is spending time and money organizing their events, and some people are turned off by this. There is no single authority to organize these efforts, and align them appropriately.

It has gotten so absurd that within one of the planning meeting of an organization, a person announced that he would like to form another organization and nominated another person as President. I and another brother looked at each other and smiled about the whole thing. I mean people are falling over each other trying to form organizations.

What is the purpose for building these masajid? What is the purpose of having an Imam? Just to lead the Salah? This has to stop. It stops with me. Any organization that is not tied to a masjid is not an acceptable effort for my attention. I am sure there are other people who will support them, but not me. Sorry.

At this point, I would like to recognize the effort from some young people in Jamah Masjid who are trying to reach out to other groups, and using Masjid as their base. I hope they continue to do that. That is what we need. We need to tie organizations to masajid, and tie the masajid together.

Any one who thinks that Masjid should not be used for any effort due to political problems, they are avoiding the issue, and they should get together and fix the political issue with their Masjid and use it as their base. Islam is not outdated. Masjid is not outdated, and Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) message does not need new branding. I may be missing some details, but building new independent organization is not the solution. We are dividing the resources.

JazakAllah Khairin

A supporter of only one Organization called Al-Islam.
AbuArman Jumani

Saturday, January 21, 2012

A bigger context...

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Most Merciful.

All praise is due to Allah, the lord of the worlds.


Abû Hurayrah relates that Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) said: “Islam began strange, and it will become strange again just like it was at the beginning, so blessed are the strangers.” [Sahîh Muslim (1/130)] 


`Amr b. `Awf relates that Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) said: “The religion will shrink back to the Hijâz like the snake shrinks back into its hole. It will cling to the Hijâz like the mountain goat clings to the mountaintop. The religion began strange, and it will become strange again just like it was at the beginning, so blessed are the strangers who restore what the people corrupt of my Sunnah.” [Sunan al-Tirmidhî (#2630)] Al-Tirmidhî grades it as good and authentic (hasan sahîh). 


My last post drew alot of criticism as expected, and my brothers assumed that I was criticizing the different methods of preaching, and the criticism is based on not understanding their true intentions from outside. I would like to take some time and create a bigger context, which is not easy to realize sometimes.

During the life of the Prophet (PBUH), Islam dripped from his words and actions, and the companions followed to the letter, and rarely diverged from the path. This was the foundation of Islam. However, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was last of the prophets, and had to establish a path that will be valid for times to come. Allah gave him the vision to see the generations to come, and it is clear in his ahadith.

Until the sacking of Baghdad in 1258, Islam had a wild ride between best of the rulers and worst of the rulers. One thing that kept Islam in the forefront was that the scholars adhered to Quran and Sunnah and learned and taught authentic and detailed knowledge. So, after every secular and deviant ruler, a pious and righteous ruler was able to emerge, and revive the Ummah. After the sacking of Baghdad, Mongols burned majority of the books, and killed the scholars. Finally, they entered Islam on the hands of ascetic sufis, and adapted the unauthentic understanding of aqeedah and fiqh.

During this period, the remaining scholars panicked and tried to protect the remaining sources of authenticity of Islam by declaring a global freeze on ijtihad. Ijtihad was limited to within the scope of a madhab like hanafi, or mailki, so masses don't deviate from the path. It worked for a while, but then these factions hardened with generations, and the fanaticism reached its height until 20th century. By this time Ottoman (descendants of mongols) Empire became insignificant.

After the fall of Ottoman Empire, from 1900 - 1925, Muslims became restless, and knowledge was isolated to a few families of Masjid employees ("Imams"). Several movements were initiated by people like Muhammad Ilyas (Tableeghi Jama't), King AbdulAziz Al Saud (strict adherence to Sunnah), and secular minded Muslim leaders like Allama Iqbal. Most of these leaders were not educated in Quran and Sunnah, but they were activist with good intentions. These movements helped setup secular states with Muslim rulers and titles.

From 1960 - 1980, Muslims were divided in two major groups, born Muslims who only knew Islam as a culture that is passed on to them with a minimum belief in it to qualify as a Muslim, and the other group who considered themselves flag bearer of authentic Islam, but were empty of education to apply the Quran and Sunnah to their intentions. I was born in 1977, and was part of the first group until 2006, when I visited Seattle, Washington, and faced some events that opened my eyes to the bigger context, Alhamdulilah. I have never disclosed the nature of these events, and never will, as they are irrelevant.

From 1975 - 1979, the second group of Muslims had a mutiny, and these young ones wanted to revert to the Sunnah and give Muslims the status once held , but they did not have the authentic knowledge to apply to their intentions, and created a country based on deviant beliefs and extremist views. Non-Muslim countries reacted to it very strongly and they focused on the affairs of the Muslim countries. In reaction to that, so called Islamist movement begin, which took a violent turn in 1989, and that continues until today.

Parallel to these events, authentic knowledge of Islam was preserved in the hearts of the scholars who did not implement in the society with the fear of confrontation. These scholar took employment in the masajid and madrassas, but did not participate in dawah. On the other hand, the group from early 1900s focused on dawah, but without proper education. This is how Islam was preserved during the turbulent times.  

Since 1989, an underground movement, separate from the three groups described above, came into existence. It is a generation of young men and women, who are awakening to this bigger context, and engaging in learning Quran and Sunnah, and challenging the other three groups (the sleeping scholars, the vanila Muslims, the well intended ignorant Muslims). This generation is what I refer to as practicing Muslims, who will change the world as we know it. They begin as member of these three groups, but when confronted with authentic Islam, their inner soul shakes, and they turn into peaceful, but determined practicing Muslims.

All the previous movements have served their purpose. Now, what needs to be done to progress Islam is to engage and confront these three groups with wisdom and knowledge to convert them into positive force. We need to get the sleeping scholars to setup classes of tafsir, hadith, and arabic, and we need the well intended activists without knowledge to learn from these classes, and we need these activists to engage the vanila Muslims and non-Muslims to convince the need for progress of Islam in their lives.

In my estimation, this process require political stability, and rule of law, which is available in western countries, and will take around 20 more years to complete. However, recent Arab spring has sped up this process a little, there might be some set backs. Unfortunately, violent acts and uninformed recruiting of some Muslims, worshiping madhaib and traditions by other Muslims, and complacency of the third group towards Islamic knowledge is hindering this progress, and my effort has been to point out those hurdles. Sometimes the negative effect of these three groups cause so  much harm that a jolt is needed to revive that area, and the issue should be confronted verbally and peacefully.

It may seems that this movements is creating factions within Islam, which I have wrote against many times. However, if you look close, what I am saying is that if a Muslim pursues authentic knowledge of Quran and Sunnah, and tries to apply it in their life, it will be impossible for them to fall into any group whatsoever.

Bottom line is that any organization lead by people who are not educated enough to extract from the knowledge will harm the Muslim Ummah, although these leaders may have long beards, pray regularly, and well intended. Absence of authentic knowledge and its implementation is a guarantee of deviation. Good news is that I was contacted by two new groups that have been formed in Orlando, which shows the progress of this revival. May Allah help us revive authentic and peaceful Islamic thinking

Sayyidina Abu Umamah Bahili (RA) reported that two men were mentioned before Allah’s Messenger (SAW). One of them was a devout worshipper while the other was a scholar. So Allah’s Messenger (SAW) said, “The excellence of the scholar over the worshipper is like my excellence over the humblest of you.” Then, he said, “Surely, Allah, His angels, the inhabitants of the heavens and the earths, even the ants in their holes and even the fish invoke blessings on the teacher of the people about what is
good.” (Trimidhi #2694)

 JazakAllah Khairin

A student of knowledge
AbuArman Jumani

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Why Ummah Decay?

In the Name of Allah,

All praise is due to Allah, the one who created everything, and then guided it.

Islamic Center of Windermere Update: Strategy of building a Musallah first has become official, and a public meeting will be called very soon to get community consensus. This will be my last update, as it will be redundant after public meeting.

 Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and fair preaching, and argue with them with that which is best. Truly, your Lord best knows who has strayed from His path, and He best knows those who are guided.(Quran: 16:125)

After tafseer class, I got up and walked up to a brother who was standing in the corner, and no one was speaking to him. As I walked closer to him, I recognized him from Kissimmee, Florida area. I have met him in Darul-Uloom masjid in Kissimmee. He seemed pleased to see a familiar face. I asked him how is his community and the masjid, and his skin color changed, and eyes tightened, which told me that something was wrong. He said that he likes the tafseer class in Jamah Masjid, because it is based on knowledge. Furthermore, he said that the leaders in his community are not knowledgeable like this.

When I mentioned to him about my experience that Darul-Uloom doors were closed before Isha, when I visited his area last time, he became sad, and said that there are not a lot of people coming nowadays, and the doors are opened a few minutes before Salah. I asked him what was the cause of this reduction in believers, and he told me that he respected Imam from Masjid Taqwa (I mention this name to warn people), but this movement of Tablighee Jama't seems to be only focused on bringing people to masjid (these are his words), but once they are coming, no one is there to teach them anything. Also, people are scared to come to masjid now, because the Jama't members pressure them to join. Now, he brings his family to tafseer class in Jamah Masjid, so they can gain some knowledge.

In fact, I have witnessed the decay myself, but didn't realize that it was in the final stages. Once, I took a believing man and his to be bride to Darul-Uloom for marriage, and when we told the Imam that the bride is a non-believer and would like to become a believer before Marriage, he flipped. He couldn't get the idea that he was standing in USA, and this is a practical reality. I tried to reason with him, but he would not listen. So, that poor couple left, and Allah knows if this girl became a believer or not.

This has confirmed my fears that Tablighee Jama't is turning believers into dormant cells, which will lead to cancer and decay in the body of the Ummah. It seems that it has taken its first victim, and only Allah can save that community. Unfortunately, Jama't is strong in our masjid too, and I see both Imam supporting it now. I have stayed quite for the sake of the Unity in the community, but this is serious now. We can not allow cancer to spread in the community, and it has to be confronted.

Tablighee Jama't claims that the work of dawah (invitation) that is found in the Quran and Sunnah is what they are preaching, but it can not be further from the truth. Allah does not want us to spend 100% of our effort bringing believers to masjid, rather majority of our effort should be presenting Islam to non-believers, by our looks, our actions, our words, and our manners. There is no need to recruit people to go back and forth on mini vacations, and not gaining any knowledge.

I know that some may still have soft corners for them, but the harms of this group has started to hurt the Ummah, and it is time for us to reject this philosophy, and discourage it. Personally, I will not support this group from this day forward. If any masjid, including the new one in Windermere, fails to discourage this movement, as part of their rules, and enforce it, I may not support that organization. I understand that we tolerate the difference of opinion, but this is a matter of survival for the Ummah.

This is tough for me, and I may suffer the backlash, but that doesn't stop me from telling the truth. I can't stand by and see my Ummah decay like a flesh that has cancer. I still love them as they are my brothers, but they are causing irreparable harm.

If Umar (RA) was alive today, he would have banned this movement, but we suffer due to the absence of leadership today.  However, night is almost over, and the light is on the horizon. I feel the breeze of morning already started to spread, and birds are singing. Just a few more days I think. Revival of Islam, here it comes.

If I am correct, May Allah remove the support from Tablighee Jama't, and unravel their network, so Ummah can recover. Also, May Allah protect us from priesthood in Islam.


JazakAllah Khairin

A Tablighee in the true sense
AbuArman Jumani

Friday, January 6, 2012

Can we have Good Innovation in Islam?


In the name of Allah.

Following is my paper for Tafseer class. Just wanted to share with everyone.


After the war of Al-Yamamah, on the suggestion of Umar, Abu Bakr asked Zaid bin Thaabit to preserve Quran by compiling it in one place, as huffaz were dying fast, and part of Quran could be lost. Zaid said, “How can I do something that messenger of Allah (PBUH) did not do?”. Umar replied “By Allah, this is something good” (Umar pg 151). Some can misinterpret this incident, as Umar supported innovation in deen, as long as it is good, but that is not correct. He was trying to convince Zaid that this is not an innovation which falls into prohibition. If we look at the life of Umar, we can see that he opposed Innovation more than anyone else. When people started praying salah close to the tree of Ar-Ridwan, he ordered it to be cut down, and when grave of Prophet Daniel was found he ordered it to be confused among thirteen graves (Umar pg 296). If he supported good innovations, he could have allowed salah close to Ar-Ridhwan, but he did not support innovating anything in deen, even if it leads to good.
There are two separate questions here. First, was it an innovation in deen? Second, if it was an innovation, does this mean we are allowed to innovate as long as they are good? Recently, people have argued that as long as innovations are good, they are allowed, and they use compilation of Quran by Abu Bakr as evidence. In this article, I would like to prove that compilation of Quran, during the time of Abu Bakr, was not an innovation in deen, and we are not allowed to innovate in deen, even if it is good. Most of the misunderstanding happens when the translation of Arabic words are ill-defined, so let us define these words accurately. Following is the famous hadith that prohibits any innovation in deen.
'A'isha reported Allaah's Messenger (sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam) as saying: He who innovates things in our affairs for which there is no valid (reason) (commits sin) and these are to be rejected. (Sahih Muslim #4266)
In the above hadith, the word innovation (bid’aa) refers to the innovation in beliefs, not innovation in worldly matters?  We know that using motor vehicle to go to Masjid is a new addition, but is it not what meant by the word “Bid’aa” in the hadith, because means of transport is not a matter of belief.  Similarly, storing a written copy of Quran in electronic format is not innovation in deen, because we are not adding a new belief. Moreover, Abu Bakr wanted to preserve the Quran, and he ordered the compilation of Quran into a single source, which is a worldly matters, and not matters of belief, so no innovation in deen was done.
 “Verily, We, it is We Who have sent down the Dhikr (i.e. the Qur’aan) and surely, We will guard it (from corruption)”(Quran 15:9)
Now, some may argue that if Allah has taken upon himself to preserve the Quran, how Abu Bakr can order preservation of it, since that could imply that the above verse was not true. In fact, Prophet (PBUH), himself, had appointed scribe to preserve the Quran, which means that Prophet (PBUH) understood that Allah meant preserving Quran through the means of this world. Hence, Abu Bakr acted according to the Sunnah, and ordered Zaid ibn Thaabit to merely collect already preserved Quran in small chunks with many of the Companions.

Narrated Abu Sa'id Al-Mu'alla,Prophet (PBUH) said, "…Shall I not teach you the most superior Surah in the Qur'an? He said, '(It is), 'Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. ' (i.e., Surat Al-Fatiha) which consists of seven repeatedly recited Verses and the Magnificent Qur'an which was given to me." (Bukhari Book 6 Vol 61 # 528)
Narrated Abu-Huraira, Gabriel used to repeat the recitation of the Qur'an with the Prophet once a year, but he repeated it twice with him in the year he died. (Bukhari Book 6 Vol 61 # 520)
In Addition, some may object that the compilation included innovating order of verses and Surah, but that is not true either. Quran was revealed in pieces, but the sequence of these verses was part of divine instruction. For example, one of the above ahadith tells us that Surah Al-fatiha was known to be an ordered combination of verses, and the verses were organized under Surah, within Prophet (PBUH) lifetime. Also, the order of Surahs was also ordained by Allah, as Jibril used to recite Quran with the Prophet (PBUH) once a year, in one of the above ahadith, so there must had been an order in that recitation. So, Quran was already being compiled into a book, as it was being revealed, because the Surahs were ordered, and verses within them were ordered, but only it was not put together physically in one written medium or storage location. Since none of the scribe had a complete version of Quran, the effort Abu Bakr ordered was to setup a complete non-perishable storage of Quran.
 “This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah“ (Quran 2:1)
Moreover, in the very first verse of second Surah, Allah refers Quran as a book himself, which means Quran is a book that can be written down, compiled, and copied, but it was not revealed to Muhammad (PBUH) as a single book. It was revealed in small pieces out of order to provide guidance and solutions for believers on occasions. There was no need to compile Quran in a single compiled form, when the Prophet (PBUH) was alive, as he and other companions memorized the Quran, and was preserved in their heart. After the death of the Prophet (PBUH), huffaz as the only source of complete Quran was concerning, because huffaz were also dying in large numbers. So, the effort ordered by Abu Bakr was to transfer complete Quran into a source which can be preserved for coming generation.
The Prophet (PBUH) said: “I urge you to adhere to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly-Guided khaleefahs after me.” (Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 2676; Abu Dawood, 4607; Ibn Maajah, 42. This hadeeth was classed as saheeh by al-Tirmidhi, by al-Haakim, 1/177; and by al-Albaani in Sahih al-Jaami’, 2549, from the hadeeth of al-‘Irbaad ibn Saariyah)
As a last argument, if we assume that Abu Bakr ordered an innovation in deen, it is still not evidence that later generation can do the same, because Abu Bakr was one of the rightly guide Khulfah, and his life is part of Sunnah, as the above hadith mentions. So, even if it seems to us that he innovated in deen, we take their actions as the Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH), but cannot innovate ourselves. In fact, anything the rightly guided khulfah did would have been according to the Sunnah, because they were very careful on staying away from bid’aa (innovation in deen).  
Once we have proven that Abu Bakr did not innovated in deen when he ordered compilation of Quran, the claim that a good innovation in deen is allowed, should have no leg to stand upon. Even if Abu Bakr innovated in deen, with compiling Quran into a single tangible location, his actions are part of the Sunnah, and by definition not an innovation in deen. No one, specially the generations after the right guided Khulfah is allowed to innovate in deen of Islam, and every such attempt should be rejected. And Allah knows best

JazakAllah Khairin

AbuArman Jumani

References
1-    Quran
2-    Sahih Al-Bukhari
3-    Sahih Al-Jaami by Shaik Al-Albaani
4-    “Umar ibn Al-Khattab, his life & times” by Dr. Ali Muhammad as-Sallabi