Some Links from Down Under

Well here are a couple of useful links, both of which are coincidentally from Australia. The first is an insightful, timely and forthright presentation on Why violence against women is a men's issue, which I encourage all men to read. The most disturbing aspect of this, other than the abuse itself, are the double standards that are so often present when it comes to the treatment of women within some, but certainly not all, Muslim cultures. Sure, a lot of this comes from cultural influences and acute ignorance of Islam, but sometimes even so-called "religious" Muslims (i.e. they have all the external niceties, but not much knowledge and even less compassion) are guilty of this as well. Instances where just the women get punished but not the men, or the rules being enforced on women but not on men, should disgust every Muslim who is familiar with the Sunnah of our Noble Messenger — salla Allahu 'alayhi wa salam.

Personally, I find it ironic that such things go on within so-called "shame cultures" which allegedly place so much emphasis upon personal honor, because from my perspective cowardly actions against women do nothing but dishonor those who carry them out while casting shame upon our Ummah as a whole. Indeed, they seem to be about as contrary to the values of futuwwa (noble chivalry) that the Sunnah exemplifies as anything that I can think of. Not only do shameful actions against women fail to live up to the ideal of always helping the weak and less fortunate (which many women are these days), but it contradicts basic justice as well — another Islamic value that often seems in short supply these days.

I don't plan to speculate on "What went wrong?" or "How did we get this way?", but rather I'll simply encourage all Muslims to keep an eye out for such double standards and to try to do something about them — with patience, humility and hikmah of course. I long for the day that I will no longer see a Muslim woman in full jilbab and niqab walking down the street on a hot and humid summer afternoon accompanied by her clean-shaven husband who is wearing shorts that expose his thighs. Aghghgh!

The other link from (actually to) Australia is for the website of a new traditional Islamic institution which, also rather coincidentally, happens to be named for a Muslim woman — the beloved Mother of the Believers and wife of our Noble Prophet — salla Allahu 'alayhi wa salam, Aisha bint Abu Bakr — radi Allahu anha. The Daar Aisha is "an independent non-profit educational institution run by a group of individuals commited to spreading Islamic knowledge through traditional time-honoured methods". The founder and director of Daar Aisha Shariah College is Sheikh Abdul Moez Nafti, who has studied under a host of eminent scholars including Sheikh ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri, Sheikh Abdul Qadir Arna'ut and Dr. Mohammad Sa`id Ramadan Al-Bouti — may Allah bless them all.

Needless to say, I was very happy to see that traditional Islam is becoming more established in Australia. We have high hopes that Almighty God will bring their efforts to success, so please pray for them. They actually have a rihla planned for next year, so anyone willing to make the trip should check out the details, insha'llah.

Deen On...