Articles

Contentions 15

34.  A gospeller called Tony Blair
      Destroyed all Iraq from the air,
      And then with decorum
      His Interfaith Forum
      Soon made him a smug millionaire.
35. Modernity offers us everything except pleasure and leisure.
36. Paul laid the cuckoo’s egg.
37. Religion is not difficult; we are difficult.
38. Lie to others, and you will soon lie to yourself.
39.  If you are sceptical about coincidences, God will help you.

America as a Jihad State: Middle Eastern perceptions of modern American theopolitics
By Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad

If there is an interpretation, or an explaining-away, of the embarrassing – to Christian Arab nationalists – fact of American religious violence, then it seems to have been articulated most typically by the Israeli Arab writer and former Knesset member, Azmi Bishara. In a characteristic article in al-Ahram, this left-wing secular Christian interprets the theocon phenomenon by outlining its historic roots in America’s Puritan heritage. For Bishara, the New Testament does not provide guidance, other than ‘a universal message of love and understanding.’ The Puritans, however, ‘stressed the moral code expressed in the Old Testament.’ The violence of so much American religion can be traced back to Puritan holy wars against Native Americans, and thence to Cromwell’s Biblically-preoccupied New Model Army. Apparently revisiting perhaps the oldest trope in Christian anti-Semitism, the law-versus-spirit dichotomy, Bishara concludes that this is a Judaizing Christianity, which turns the Gospels into a simple extension of what he sees as the unpleasant, lawbound violence of the Hebrew Bible. Although Protestantism, for Bishara, is naturally anti-Semitic, he believes that the Jewish lobby, and the power of Hollywood, have ‘managed to twist the US obsession with the Bible into something akin to political Zionism and support for Israel’.

Two excerpts from the NEW BOOK A Return to Purity in Creed:
of Imam al-Ghazali translated by Ustadh Abdullah bin Hamid Ali published by LampPost Productions

PDF Excerpt from Chapter 1:
THE CREED OF THE SALAF REGARDING ALLEGORICAL REPORTS

PDF Excerpt from The Fifth Protocol:
Abstaining From Meddling with the Stated Words (al-Imsak)

The Speech and Word of Allah
by Ustadh Abdullah bin Hamid Ali
The words ‘Kalām’ and ‘Qur’ān’ are very closely related terms. In their original legal applications they are distinct in meaning. But in another way they are synonymous.

In other words, the word ‘Kalām’ is usually applied to the beginningless attribute of Allah present with His being referred to as His ‘Speech.’ But sometimes when it is used, it means the ‘Qur’ān,’ which is the revelation sent to Muhammad who proclaimed it to humanity. [more]

Abu Hanifa, Salafis, Al-Fiqh Al-Akbar, and The Truth
by Ustadh Abdullah bin Hamid Ali
...One must first understand that by virtue of the fact that the book – Al-Fiqh Al-Akbar - is considered to be the first book written in the time of the Taabi’een on the topic of Tawheed in an organized and methodical fashion during an age of great controversy when Sunnis were attempting to codify the orthodox creed of Muslims that there will be statements found in it that may be problematic.

Of course Salafis would find great joy in seeing such statements like the one above, since it apparently gives credence to their arguments about what they refer to as ‘The Attributes of Allah,’ like the hand, face, eyes, foot, side, shin, self, etc. [more]

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