Thursday, April 28, 2005

Tagore

I am (re)discovering Tagore at the moment. Some of my earliest memories are as a little boy hearing my Dad sing ‘Jakhon Porbe Na Mor Paaye’ as he did stuff around the house.

“If thou speakest not I will fill my heart with thy silence and endure it.

I will keep still and wait like the night
with starry vigil and its head bent low with patience.

The morning will surely come, the darkness will vanish, and thy voice pour down in golden streams breaking through the sky.

Then thy words will take wing in songs from every one of my birds’ nests, and thy melodies will break forth in flowers in all my forest groves.”


- Song 14, Gitanjali, Rabindranath Tagore

Posted by Abu Ruqaiiya at 16:48:53 | Permalink | Comments (7)

Friday, April 22, 2005

Duckies

We have some visitors. 3 Ducks have settled in on the green in front of our house. So the whole street (all 12 families) are out regularly giving them bread, and one of them put out a bowl with water! My Dad mentioned something about Crispy Aromatic Duck for Sunday lunch, but somehow I don’t see anyone volunteering to do necessary.

Apologies for the poor quality of the images, they were done on a digital zoom as opposed to an optical.

 

 

Posted by Abu Ruqaiiya at 10:44:29 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

The Fun Guys Strike again

So there were the MCB sitting there about to deliver to the press what they consider to be the key election issues for muslims in Britain today.

And suddenly the doors of London Central Mosque’s library are flung open and some shouty people storm in.

The Saviour Sect say they had nothing to do with it, although the persons attending were, according to the BBC, former member of Al-Muhajiroun, or according to the Guardian, they are the Saviour Sect.

According to the ‘Saviour Sect’, there are no Mosques in Britain, anyone who votes (or I assume has voted in the past) is of the kuffar. Shabina Begum caused a disservice to Islam by going to the courts to fight her battle to wear the jilbab. The disservice being that by going to the courts she accepted their authority.

One thing I find curious, is that by standing outside mosques and handing out pamphlets after praying Juma in those same mosques, they are willing to condemn their Muslim brothers as Apostates and Kaffirs. I’m pretty sure that can’t be a good thing, in that this is not the way to bring people into or even back into the fold of Islam.

“When a person calls his brother (in Islam) a disbeliever, one of them will certainly deserve the title. If the one who was called Kaafir is so, as the one who made Takfeer upon him asserted, the disbelief (of that person) is confirmed, but if it is untrue, then it will revert to him.” (Saheeh Muslim, Book of Eemaan, chapter 26 hadeeth #60)

As the writer of this article on their website states,

“If we look to this hadeeth properly, we can see that the messenger Muhammad (saw) condemned and dispraised takfeer of hawa (calling a person kaafir out of personal desire). But he (saw) affirmed that if the takfeer was valid upon that person, then the kufr of the one who was declared Kaafir is confirmed. In other words, if your takfeer upon an individual is correct, then he will deserve that title. But if the takfeer was wrong, the takfeer would revert back to the one who made takfeer in the first place. So the hadeeth does not condemn takfeer all together, rather it is a warning and indication that when you make takfeer make sure that you are right (and that it is based upon divine evidence) or the takfeer will come back to you!”

So at what point did they confirm that everyone involved with the Muslim Council of Britain, Mosque committee members across the UK and any UK muslim who votes to express their opinion is a Kafir?

What I think that all parties fail to realise is that by dividing the ummah, however disparate its opinions, we are effectively fulfilling the desires of the Kuffar. Divide and Conquer.

 

Posted by Abu Ruqaiiya at 23:22:10 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Wedded Bliss?

I found this little tidbit about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (courtesy of the BBC), which put a smile on my face this morning.

“Grand mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh said forced marriage was against Islamic law and those responsible for it should be jailed. “

Now that is a turn up for the books. I could say that it is a little late and say that they have been forced to do this, but at the end of the day, at least they are now making efforts to acknowledge what Islam is really about. And seemingly KSA has a higher divorce rate than the UK…50% vs 33%!

And just to put a lighten things up a bit….Britney is expecting….

Posted by Abu Ruqaiiya at 11:56:57 | Permalink | Comments (5)

Saturday, April 9, 2005

Love not Money

Love nor money?

Or should I say Love not money. I learnt a very important lesson today.

So the Mrs is annoyed me with because I fell asleep in the middle of a conversation with her yesterday. And then as the baby was ready to go to her weekly Parent’s and Toddlers meeting she realised the pushchair was in the boot of my car. 30 miles away from home!!

So I get an angry phone call and I know I am in serious trouble. I spend the day trying to figure out what to do…and the usual gamut of ideas pops into my head….

“Buy a little present on the way home”

“Buy a box of chocolates”

“Buy something as I’m desperate!”

But getting stuck in traffic I didnt get a chance to get anything. So I walk in the front door in fear of what I have done and the hellfire that will be wrought on me….

Only to be greeted by a hug from the wife with a simple I love you. It was at that moment that I realised that no tangible gift in the world would have brought that reaction from her. The only thing to evoke such a response is love.

Posted by Abu Ruqaiiya at 00:21:23 | Permalink | Comments (7)

Monday, April 4, 2005

Spring’s Springing

Well after what I can say was a glorious weekend (weatherwise)…I can say that Spring has now officially sprung in our garden

 

Posted by Abu Ruqaiiya at 13:18:17 | Permalink | Comments (12)