Change

Since reading Muhammad Asad’s “The Road to Makkah”, I have become fascinated to explore the perspectives non-Muslims and converts have on Islam and life generally. Being born Muslim, many of us take for granted the way we think and act, rarely paying attention to the reasons why. We casually assume every person to be the…

Tweets of Truth

The following are some of the posts I’ve been putting up over the last few days on Syria. Please remember them in your prayers: —————————————————————————————————————————————————————– There are no more children in #Homs, #Syria – they are all men and women now! —————————————————————————————————————————————————————– I read on my cousin’s status that our building in Syria has been…

Packages of hope

As-Sallamu Alaykum Aid Convoy to Syria (Please Read) I pray you are all well.  . As we pass the 18 month anniversary of the Daraa protests, an event which sparked the Syrian uprising and the call for liberation, the situation in the country gets more and more desperate. Day by day I see images more…

The flowers of Syria

Its been a while since I last wrote a blog post. Initially I thought of discontinuing the blog after returning from egypt, feeling it had served its purpose in giving people an insight into what life is like for a travelling student of knowledge. However, in many ways the more important part of the journey…

Freedom to criticise religion

I often hear the “right to criticize religion” as the reason for justifying things like the recent film which sparked the riots. The video itself wasn’t an “criticism of religion”, it was insult to an individual. Though we can NEVER justify violence, if we call someone’s mum a prostitute, most of us will expect to…

Death.

Death. Just another word. Devoid of any meaning in my heart. I hear it so often that it’s impact has diminished almost entirely. Child butchered. Man snipered. Wife widowed. All headlines of old stories buried in a fast moving world. In many ways I envy them, they’ve done their bit and paid the ultimate sacrifice…

Dhikr

Do not leave the invocation of Allah (dhikr) because of your lack of presence with Allah therein, for your heedlessness of invocation is worse than your heedlessness in invocation. It may well be that He raises you from invocation with heedlessness to invocation with attentiveness, and from invocation with attentiveness to invocation with presence of…

Wealth

As we finished our Isha prayer (the last prayer of the day), we noticed a group of people gathering besides one of the pillars inside the mosque to recite an ancient poem entitled Dalaa’il Al-Khayraat (دلائل الخيرات). There are few places in Cairo like Sayyidah Zainab mosque. Built in one of the busiest areas of…

Year grant to study Arabic

This is a fantastic opportunity for any non-native speakers keen to learn the arabic language. I recently met some students who came over from Qatar during their winter break to study here in Egypt at the Sibawayh Center for a month. They said it was a great opportunity as they not only pay all your…