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English

Shafīq Ahmed AKA Javed Ahmed Ghamidi

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The original name of Javed Ahmed Ghamidi is Shafīq Ahmed, other reports say Muhammad Shafīq. He was born in 1951, in a district of Sahiwal, Pakistan. After passing Matric level schooling at his local school, he came to Lahore in 1967. He began to study the traditional sciences under a number of teachers. In 1973, he began to learn under Amīn Ahsan Islāhī. Amīn Ahsan Islāhī had a great impact on his life and thought. From 1979 to 1991, Javed Ghamidi served as an Arabic teacher at the Civil Services Academy in Lahore. After September 11, there seems to be a … Continue reading Shafīq Ahmed AKA Javed Ahmed Ghamidi

Diversity, English

Debunking Some Pakistani Myths

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by Mashhood Alam If you have been to any gathering in Pakistan you can’t help but notice statements like ‘God has bestowed Pakistan with immense talent, more than any other nation in the world’, ‘Pakistan has a huge asset in its 220 million people, 65% of which are youth’, ‘Allah has special favor on Pakistan and Pakistan can never be undone’, ‘Pakistan’s current situation is due to a global conspiracy led by India, America, and, Israel’, and ‘Pakistan must play a leading role in reviving Islam globally’. Here is a perspective that hopefully will quell these myths and help us … Continue reading Debunking Some Pakistani Myths

English, Extremism, Understanding Islam

Javed Ghamidi’s pro-rulers’ stance on early Islamic history

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Author: Aamir Hussaini Can we not establish that who was right while discussing the events occurred after the martyrdom of Usman ibn Affan? Was Caliphate of Ali Ibn Abi Talib a bad design devised by the killers of Usman Ibn Affan? Was the Umayyad rulership a legitimate rule? Ghamidi’s reply to the first question is “No”, “Yes” in reply to the second question and then “yes” in reply to the third question. Can we call Ghamidi a moderate un-biased, non-partisan and non-sectarian scholar? Before considering these issues, we need to understand the process of making meta-narrative on the history of … Continue reading Javed Ghamidi’s pro-rulers’ stance on early Islamic history

Diversity, English, Extremism, Understanding Islam

A comment on radical Islamism

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Shaykh ‘Abd al-Hakim Murad Timothy John Winter wrote, “I used to know, quite well, a leader of the radical ‘Islamic’ group, the Jama’at Islamiyyah, at the Egyptian university of Assiut. His name was Hamdi. He grew a luxuriant beard, was constantly scrubbing his teeth with his miswak, and spent his time preaching hatred of the Coptic Christians, a number of whom were actually attacked and beaten up as a result of his khuthabah. He had hundreds of followers; in fact, Assiut today remains a citadel of hardline, Wahhabi-style activism. The moral of the story is that some five years after … Continue reading A comment on radical Islamism

Diversity, English, Extremism, Understanding Islam

Ibn Abdul Wahhab is not Saudi Arabia, reaffirms Crown Prince

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March 03, 2022 Source: Saudi Gazette Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman emphasized the Kingdom’s position with regard to Wahhabism as well as its tolerant and flexible approach toward both its Sunni and Shiite population.��In his interview with the American magazine “The Atlantic,” he reaffirmed that Ibn Abdul Wahhab is not Saudi Arabia.��“I would say that Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab is not a prophet, he is not an angel. He was just a scholar like many other scholars in who lived during the first Saudi state, among many political leaders and military leaders.”��”The problem at that time in the Arabian Peninsula … Continue reading Ibn Abdul Wahhab is not Saudi Arabia, reaffirms Crown Prince

English, Understanding Islam

Mu’uawiya and Ali

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“One day, Jariya Ibnu Qudama visited Mu’awiya who, at the time, was the head of the Muslim-Arab Empire. Three of the Roman emperor’s ministers happened to be also present. Mu’awiya said to Jariya: Were you not one of Ali’s allies in all of his opinions? Jariya said: Leave Ali (کرم اللٰہ وجہہ الکریم) aside, for we have not despised him since we loved him, nor have we cheated him since we advised him. Upon this Mu’awiya said to him: Woe to you o Jariya! You must have been lowly in your parents’ eyes, for they called you Jariya (meaning slave … Continue reading Mu’uawiya and Ali

Diversity, English, Extremism, Understanding Islam

Javed 𝐆𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐝𝐢 must refrain from 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐟𝐢𝐫ism and Puritanism

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Almost a thousand years ago, the medium of Theology (ilm-i-kalam) came to the fore in the world of Islam to accuse believers as infidels. The pioneer of this art of takfir (excommunication; declaring people guilty of apostasy) was Imam Ghazali. He began the process of interrogating new ideas in light of the Qur’an and Hadith. By declaring Ibn Sina and Al-Farabi etc. as infidels, he endangered the lives and faith of their followers too. Since then, the slogan of “Islam is in Danger” has been echoing against knowledge, reason, and critical thinking. Theologians started to harass and intimidate men of … Continue reading Javed 𝐆𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐝𝐢 must refrain from 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐟𝐢𝐫ism and Puritanism

English, Understanding Islam

The Caliph and the Imam

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The Caliph and the Imam A Shocking Decision Sometime in 816 CE – year 200 in the Hijri calendar of Islam – the seventh Abbasid Caliph al-Mamun made a very strange decision. If near-contemporary historical narratives are to be believed, he offered his throne – and thus power over lands from India to Morocco – to the leader of his fiercest opponents, the Shi’a. It was a breathtakingly audacious decision – so audacious that it failed almost immediately. The eighth infallible Imam of the Shi’a, ‘Ali bin Musa al-Rida, was not interested. Al-Mamun had to recalibrate, and he did so … Continue reading The Caliph and the Imam

English, Understanding Islam

Hazrat Abu Talib

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Ibn Asakir narrated from Jalhama ibn Urfuta that Prophet (صلى الله عليه و آله وسلم) was in Makka when he was a small child and it was drought in Makka for two years. People came to Abu Talib (رضئ الله تعالی عنه) and suggested him that let all of them together go to Ka’aba to pray for rain. Abu Talib (رضئ الله تعالی عنه) did not go with them; he waited for some time then went alone to Ka’aba and took Prophet (صلى الله عليه و آله وسلم) along with him and had him stand with his back against Ka’aba … Continue reading Hazrat Abu Talib

English, Sufism, Understanding Islam

What do you gain from praying to God?

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Rumi was once asked: What do you “gain” from praying to God regularly? He replied: Usually “I don’t earn anything”, but rather “I lose certain things”. And he quoted everything he lost praying to Allah Almighty regularly: 1 – I lost my pride 2 – I lost my arrogance 3 – I lost my anger 4 – I lost stress 5 – I lost greed 6 – I lost the pleasure of lying 7 – I lost the taste of sin 8 – I lost the impatience 9 – I lost despair and discouragement Sometimes we pray, not to gain … Continue reading What do you gain from praying to God?