CAIR and Captain James Yee in Orlando

Last night, I attended a CAIR fundraising event, which was attended by former U.S. Army captain and chaplain James Yee and a host of other dignitaries. The CAIR-Florida chapter is trying to open a full-time office in Orlando, so please donate towards their success -- and make du'a for them as well.

Also, I encourage everyone to support brother James Yee, who has a new book coming out later this year, insha'llah. Due to the false charges that he had to defend himself against, he's amassed legal fees of hundreds of thousands of dollars -- so he needs all the financial support that he can get. Last night, they showed a short video about Captain Yee's ordeal and then he gave an excellent motivational speech. This fine brother is just another innocent victim of the so-called "War on Terror" so please visit the JusticeforYee.com website and donate what you can.

Jazakum Allah khayrun!

Promote Traditional Islam - SunniPath.com

The Summer Session courses by SunniPath.com are getting ready to start, so I encourage everyone not only to sign up for a course or two, but to promote this valuable website from your weblogs and websites as well. When you visit the SunniPath Academy site, there is a preview of lessons, a presentation of their methods of learning and another presentation which describes their learning tools.

Also, I've taken the opportunity to convert a rather large (6.6MB) color flyer, which SunniPath distributed last year, into a smaller (600KB) monochrome Adobe Acrobat file which can easily be printed out and posted in local masajid, Muslim-owned businesses, etc. In order to make it a bit more catching to the eye, after I printed some of these out, I highlighted the text of the SunniPath.com URL, which is down near the bottom, before posting them on various masajid bulletin boards, etc...so please make an effort to do the same.

Likewise, since there always seem to be a lot of Hanafis around, I've made an Acrobat file (142KB) for advertising two excellent new books on Hanafi fiqh, so please download this flyer and use it to promote these books -- and traditional Islam -- as well.

SunniPath is one of the best and most important traditional Ahl as-Sunnah Islamic sites on the web, and lots of us have very high hopes for it in the future, so please do what you can to support them financially, promotionally -- and by making du'a...and Allah alone gives succes.

Deen On...

Delusional Claims by White House Press Secretary

This little news item is just too mind-boggling not to post and comment on. Yesterday, a DrudgeReport news flash mentioned that White House spokesman Scott McClellan was taken to task by long-time White House correspondent Helen Thomas for his earlier claim that that the U.S. was in Iraq and Afghanistan "by invitation". McClellan responded by saying that, "There are two democratically-elected governments now in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are there at their invitation. They are sovereign governments...We are there at their invitation. They are sovereign governments" -- and also claimed that he was only "talking about today", "currently" and that his comment was taken "out of context".

The main problem with this claim is the simple fact that neither of these "democratically-elected governments" (as if that's all there is to legitimacy!) existed when the U.S. initially invaded these countries. Therefore, Scott McClellan seemingly wants us to believe that since these governments, which came about due to the efforts and support of a foreign invasion force, later offered an ex post facto "invitation" to this same foreign invasion force, then these same foreign invaders are now there "by invitation". Needless to say, if we adhered to such logic -- and I use the word loosely -- in our personal, family and professional lives then chaos and confusion would quickly ensue. Not only that, but the prohibition of ex post facto rulings is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, so you'd think they'd want to stay away from this type of thinking. Obviously, it's just a desperate attempt to make invasions that were in violation of international law seem legitimate.

All of this makes we wonder whether White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan actually believes this rubbish or if he's just trying to spin things as best he can. In this case, such an "incredible distortion" -- as Helen Thomas called it -- seems to hurt rather than help the credibility of the Bush regime. I don't think any PR person could really be this bungling unless they were suffering from delusions -- by which I mean that they've started to believe their own propaganda. From what I've read, political parties, regimes, juntas and other such entities that are intensely ideological have a tendency to become deluded by their own slanted interpretation of facts, biased worldview and steady stream of propaganda...and the Bush Administration certainly doesn't seem immune to this. Are they starting to unravel before our very eyes? My guess is that there's more of this in store, but Allahu alim.

Playing Catch Up - Some Links, Thoughts and Tidbits

Since I've been rather busy lately, I've decided to post the following slough of links in a single blog post. This will save me some time since most of these articles are rather self-explanatory, thus I don't feel the need to offer detailed commentary on each item in a separate posting.

First of all, due to all of the raging comments that have been posted under my Martin Lings...Into the Mercy of His Lord posting, I think some of our readers could use a quick introduction to the Perennialist School. In that regard, I feel that Why I'm Not a Traditionalist, by Muhammad Legenhausen (who's a convert to Shi'ism, by the way), is a good place to start and his Misgivings About the Religious Pluralisms of Seyyed Hossein Nasr and John Hick is a worthy follow-up. Please be aware that the Perennialist school of thought, which has been adhered to by such notables as Martin Lings, Frithjof Schuon, Gai Eaton and Sayyid Hossein Nasr, is often known as the Traditionalist School of thought -- which is why Dr. Legenhausen refers to it as such. Personally, however, I prefer the word perennialist since not only does it avoid confusing this ideology (and that's what it is) with Traditional Islam and Muslim Traditionists (i.e. Ahl al-Hadith), but mainly because this movement -- which is really a European reaction to modernism -- is anything but traditional...and I'll leave it up to the article to astutely demonstrate this point.

Next, here are some nice thoughts on how Zia Sardar has weighed in on the Wadud debate. Sardar had the gall to claim that our 'ulama were “hopping mad” over Amina Wadud's woman-led Friday Prayer. Like most formulations of so-called "Progressive Muslims" this thought has its source in wishful thinking and is simply slanderous. Personally, I just feel sorry for Amina Wadud and those that followed her, since they’re obviously suffering from some sort of delusion and have decided to channel their anger over injustices they've suffered in a very un-Sunnah way. Even though Ziauddin Sardar might get some satisfication in thinking it did, Amina Wadud's recent publicity stunt certainly didn't make me angry and I'm rather confident it didn't anger the 'ulama either. Rather, I'm sure they simply saw it, as most of us did, as just another sign that our Ummah continues to fragment and unravel on this increasingly distressing march towards the Last Day. As I see it, Amina Wadud and her cohorts are traitors, whether witting or unwitting, that are simply playing into the hands of the enemies of Islam -- if not becoming their outright bedfellows. We're already seeing a trend where Muslims who don't adhere to this "liberal" and "enlightened" version of "Islam" (and it ain't really) are labeled as “fanatical” or "extremist" -- and so-called "Progressive Muslims" are only adding fuel to this fire. Seemingly they've never read the Qur'anic ayah which says: "Never will the Jews or the Christians be satisfied with you unless you follow their form of religion. Say: 'The Guidance of Allah -- that is the (only) Guidance.' Were you to follow their desires after the knowledge which has reached you, then you would find neither protector nor helper against Allah" - and the "follow their desires" seems to stand out as rather significant in this context.

Also on the subject of "Progressive Muslims", I came across this brief article in which Shaykh Gibril F. Haddad deconstructs the antics of Khaled Abou El Fadl -- Progressive Muslim Spin Doctor Extraordinaire. I look forward to reading more refutations of KAEF by more of our 'ulama in the future, insha'llah, but this is going to have to do for now. Somehow I also happened to come across another excellent article by Shaykh Gibril in which he responds to Ibn Taymiyya's assertion, in his essay al-Sufiyya wa al-Fuqara' (Majmu` al-Fatawa 11:5-7), that the Companions and Successors were never so affected as the Sufis of his time claimed to be -- in an attempt to correct "what he perceived as wrongful Sufi practices". However, as Shaykh Gibril clearly shows in the Impressibility of the Salaf, the "evidence shows otherwise".

Masud Khan has posted a nice Wahabi anecdote called Where's your evidence ak-ee? on his blog. I plan to add a few of my own anecdotes to this genre of bloggerature in the future, insha'llah -- and may Allah give us patience in our dealings with adherents of the Wahabite rite.

Yesterday, when checking the day's news at the DrudgeReport, I came across an article about a church in North Carolina which displayed "The Koran Needs to be Flushed!" on its weekly announcement sign. Such disgusting and callous buffoonery makes me wonder what it is about America that makes it spawn such misinformed hate-mongers. Well I guess the good news is that such people serve as more proof that Darwinism simply isn't true, since Neanderthals should have disappeared from the gene pool long ago. At least this helps explain why such conduct is nothing new, since as James Carroll points out in America's Mortal Secret, hate and revenge have been part of America's war-time psychology for quite awhile.

Regarding the descration of the Qur'an and all of the media attention surrounding it, Risama and Umm Zaid have a nice posting entitled The Powder Keg of War, which offers some insights on the (now retracted) Newsweek magazine story. One important point that they make is that the allegations (and does any Muslim out there really doubt that they're not more than that?) of Qur'anic desecration go back to at least 2003. And coincidentally, FBI Records Cite Quran Abuse Allegations, a news report just released today, says that "as early as April 2002, just three months after the first detainees arrived, that military guards abused them and desecrated the Quran, declassified FBI records say" and "that U.S. authorities at Guantanamo Bay were mistreating symbols of the detainees' religious beliefs as a tactic to force them to talk". What surprises me, after the U.S. military's conduct around the world in recent years, is that anyone is surprised at this. Disgusted? Yes. Surprised? No.

While on the subject of religious texts, I'll mention that Textual Reliability / Accuracy Of The New Testament has been updated on the Islamic-Awareness.org site. This article is a critical and detailed look at the claim that the abundance of Greek New Testament manuscripts "inspire confidence in the current New Testament text". It includes an analysis of the numbers of manuscripts, their ages and how they are used to build the eclectic text of the New Testament -- which seems to amount to "scripture by committee".

To the category of articles on America's imperialist misadventures I'll add The Secret Way to War, by Mark Danner, which discusses new evidence that demonstrates that -- and don't hold your breathe, since there are no surprises here -- the Bush Administration first decided to go to war with Iraq and then sought out justification for doing so.

Far from being a quest for freedom and democracy, or even a "War on Terror", America's current foreign policy is simply an attempt at global dominance and a bid to control essential resources that are likely to become critically scarce in our lifetime. If President Bush really wants to support freedom and democracy, then "What drives support for this torturer?" is a question that we should all be asking -- as Craig Murray already has. Indeed, far too many people are apathetic or completely unaware about the Bush Administration's support for the brutal regime of Islam Karimov -- and it's all been documented in Religious Persecution in Uzbekistan. Yes, it's rather ironic that President Karimov justified massacring hundreds of opposition and pro-democracy demonstrators in the name of "fighting terrorism".

And last but not least, the Summer 2005 Session of SunniPath.com courses is scheduled to start in just a few days. Some new courses have been added, and some of the previous core courses are available as well, so check them out and enroll today.

Enjoy and Deen On...

The Fons Vitae Ibn 'Ata' Allah al-Iskandari Series

WARNING: Based on information put forth in a comment below, we no longer recommend this particular translation of Kitab al-Tanwir fi Isqat al-Tadbir by Scott Kugle. This is because the translator has a pro-gay agenda that flies in the face of 1,400 years of God-fearing Islamic scholarship which clearly undermines his acceptability and integrity as a translator from an Islamic point-of-view. Based on this, we certainly question why any Muslim would want to read a book translated by someone who engages in intellectually dishonest conclusion-based hermeneutics that openly clash with the consensus of Sunni Muslim scholarship. Even though so-called gay issues don't seem to be addressed in the work in question, one can't help but wonder how much impact such agenda-driven intellectual dishonesty has on any work that such a translator does. This level of doubt alone should be enough to exclude this translation from the list of books that any God-fearing English-speaking spiritual wayfarer would want to read. We've decided to keep this blog posting in place, rather than deleting it, for information purposes only—especially since it is now complete with this disclaimer. For more details on the antics of Scott Kugle, please read the detailed comment below...and I pray that Almighty God saves us all from self-delusion and following our desires.

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Fons Vitae recently released the latest addition to their Ibn 'Ata' Allah al-Iskandari series of books. The new book is a translation of the noble Shaykh's Kitab al-Tanwir fi Isqat al-Tadbir, and is entitled The Book of Illumination Along with Sign of Success on the Spiritual Path (Paperback, 438 pages and translated from the Arabic by Dr. Scott Kugle).

Currently, Fons Vitae has two other books planned for this series -- and we pray that their publication plans come to fruition, insha'llah. Of these two forthcoming books, the one that is nearest to publication is The Founders of the Shadhili Order -- The Subtle Blessings in the Saintly Lives of Abu l-Abbas al-Mursi and His Master Abul-Hasan, which is a translation of Shaykh Ibn 'Ata' Allah's Kitab al-Lata'if fi Manaqib Abil-Abbas al-Mursi was Shaykhihi Abi l-Hasan (translated from the Arabic by Nancy Roberts). The other selection, insha'llah, will be a translation by Mokrane Guezzou of Al-Qasd al-Mujarrad fi Ma'rifat al-Ism al-Mufrad, which is entitled The Pure Goal Concerning Knowledge of the Unique Name in English.

Insha'llah, these works will be welcomed additions to the already existing translations of some of Shaykh Ibn 'Ata' Allah's extremely valuable works -- which are some of the most profound in Sufi literature. These include The Key to Salvation: A Sufi Manual of Invocation, published by the Islamic Texts Society, and Ibn 'Ata' Illah - The Book of Wisdom (translated from the Arabic by Victor Danner), which is part of the Classics of Western Spirituality series -- and this book still manages to be useful, largely due to the translated material which it contains, in spite of the deeply offensive cover art.

For the benefit of the reader, what follows is a short biography of Ibn 'Ata' Allah al-Iskandari - may God have mercy on him, which I have borrowed and modified slightly from the Fons Vitae website:

Ibn 'Ata' Allah al-Iskandari was born in the middle of the seventh Hijri century (13th century CE) and grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, during the Mamluk era. Although not much is known about his early life, he had the best teachers in all branches of traditional sciences and became known as a great master of Islamic law of the Maliki School. His lifetime witnessed the great flourishing of several Sufi brotherhoods, including the Shadhiliyya, the Mawlawiyya, the Chishtiyya and the Ahmadiyya. His father was a student of Imam al-Shadhili, though it is unlikely he ever met him. Initially Ibn 'Ata' Allah was not so drawn to the Sufi path, preferring to concentrate his energies on jurisprudence. Yet, in spite of his early antipathies, he did become a disciple of Shaykh Abu 'l-Abbas al-Mursi, (d. 686 AH /1288 CE). As his most important and principal work, al-Hikam, attests, he had become a Sufi master in his own right, and was already a shaykh when al-Mursi died. He became the third great master of the Shadhiliyya order, which grew from Morocco and spread throughout North Africa and beyond. With his career as a scholar in Cairo under the Mamluks in full flourish, he died at around sixty years of age in 709 AH / 1309 CE and was buried there in the Qarafa cemetery.

Shaykh Ibn 'Ata' Allah's Book of Aphorisms (Kitab al-Hikam) is available on-line in both English and Arabic, although I'm not certain that either of these is a full translation of the entire text.

Deen On...

Aqsa Publications - Reviving a Tradition

This past Friday, al-hamdu li-Llah, I had the opportunity to meet Shaykh Gibril F. Haddad -- may Allah preserve him -- who is well-known for his prolific writings and translations, much of which can be found on his Living Islam website, in numerous thoughtful responses to questions on SunniPath.com and in several books [1, 2, 3, 4] -- all of which I highly recommend.

Indeed, Shaykh Gibril has produced some of the most incisive, articulate and detailed responses to the deviations of the so-called "Salafis" and Wahabis that are available in the English language, so I encourage the reader to take advantage of the resources mentioned above. Likewise, the detailed exposé of Wahabi crimes and deviations entitled Advice to Our Brothers the Scholars of Najd [Click here for 365K Acrobat .pdf file], by Sayyid Yusuf ibn al-Sayyid Hashim al-Rifa`i of Kuwait, has been translated by Shaykh Gibril and is well worthy of a detailed read.

During our conversation, the Shaykh informed me that his book Albani & his Friends is now available from Aqsa Publications in the U.K. I was happy to find out about this, since even though I had heard of this book, the only publisher that I was able to find carrying it was Wardah Books in Singapore. This book is a detailed refutation of the late Nasr al-Dîn al-Albâni, under whose influence many neo-Pharisee "Salafis" have broken with the rich intellectual tradition of Sunni Islam, slandered the classical 'ulama and are continuing to cause division and confusion within the Ummah. Insha'llah, I expect that this new book will be a worthy partner to Al-Albani Unveiled: An Exposition of His Errors and Other Important Issues. I've made an inquiry about obtaining a bulk order of 100 copies of Albani & his Friends, which I plan to distribute at the upcoming suhba and via this blog to readers in the U.S. and Canada -- so standby for more information on that, insha'llah.

I have added a link to Aqsa Publications to the bottom of my links page below a couple of others that I added a few weeks ago.

Deen On...

Reflections on the Khilâfah...

I'm currently reading, along with several other books, Khalid Blankinship's The End of the Jihad State: The Reign of Hisham Ibn'Abd Al-Malik and the Collapse of the Umayyads which is a truly excellent study not only on the reasons behind the demise of the Umayyads, but on the doctrine of Jihad, the spread of Islam and a myriad of related subjects. It's just so refreshing to read a well-written and well-defended academic thesis on Islamic history written by a Muslim convert that I can't really express how much I'm enjoying it.

In the same vein, awhile back I came across an essay by Khalid Blankinship on Lampost Productions, now my favorite Maliki website, entitled The History of the Caliphate (Word .doc, Acrobat .pdf), in which he answers some key questions about the khilâfah. He points out that after the fall of the Umayyads and with the advent of the 'Abbâsids, the Ummah has never again been united under one khalifa. The article also discusses the fiqh of the khilâfah and the ways that various titles, such as "Amir al-Mu'minin" and "Khalifa'", have been used both legitimately and illegitimately by various Muslim rulers.

The following observation by Khalid Blankinship demonstrates, in a somewhat tongue-in-check way, the problems that restoration of the khilâfah presents when viewing this role form a traditional standpoint: "It would seem to me that any attempt to restore the khilâfah today would have to begin by asking why all Muslims should not swear allegiance to King Muhammad VI of Morocco, who certainly holds this claim and does so through an ancient and venerable lineage that goes back much earlier than the Ottoman claim and is much more authentic. Not that I hold the view that that is what is to be done, but it would seem that classical theory would require allegiance to the existing khalîfah rather than setting up another as rival." Points to ponder, indeed.

Related to this, since it has to do with the early khilâfah, are the questions of how Muslims should view the Sahabah, their various disagreements and the fact that they actually engaged in armed conflict with one another? These questions are treated in great detail in Defence Against Disaster: The Accurate Position of the Companions After the Prophet's Death, which is an English translation of Qadi Abu Bakr Ibn Al-'Arabi's seminal work al-'Awâsim min al-Qawâsim. I highly recommend this book for any Muslim who is confused over the various debates surrounding the Rightly-Guided Caliphs and the early fitnas - and SunniPath.com has some answers to such questions as well (1, 2).

Deen On...

Martin Lings...Into the Mercy of His Lord

Tonight I received a text message that Dr. Martin Lings has passed away and I've since verified this news by visiting DeenPort -- "Truly we are God's and truly unto Him is our return" (Qur'an 2:156).

Dr. Lings, may God have mercy on him, was the author and translator of a number of outstanding books, primary amongst them is his Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources which remains the best work of Prophetic biography - salla Allahu 'alayhi wa salam - in English today. His other books include works on such wide-ranging subjects as eschatology, poetry, sacred history, modernity, Shakespeare and Sufism -- including ones on the life and works of some Sufi masters.

Even though Martin Lings was heavily criticized (and rightfully so, in my view) by various orthodox 'ulama for his perennialist outlook, his presence on this earth will certainly be missed by all those who benefited from his various writings -- writings which were responsible for literally droves of people entering Islam or at least getting a more accurate understanding of it.

We pray that Allah Most High has mercy on Dr. Martin Lings, overlooks any of his faults, errors, or mistakes -- real or perceived -- and judges him by the best of what he did...Amîn.

A Forthcoming Book on God's Attributes

I was recently checking out the Amal Press website and noticed that they have a forthcoming book, insha'llah, that I'm now very anxious to read. The book is entitled The Attributes of God, and is an translation of Imam 'Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Jawzi al-Hanbali's (born 509/510 AH, died 597 AH) renowned work Daf' Shubah al-Tashbih.

As described by Amal Press, this work is "a critique, censure, and refutation of the historical anthropomorphic leanings of some of the Hanbali scholars and learned. At the same time, it is a vindication of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal from the accusations of the anthropomorphism as well as the claim by some Hanbalis, that he adopted anthropomorphic beliefs, similar to theirs. Unmistakably, this work is a polemical commentary on the problematic Qur'anic verses and hadiths that fall under the mutashabih (allegorical and ambiguous) Qur'anic verses and prophetic traditions."

Insha'llah, this book will be of great benefit to Muslims today who are confused by a certain narrow sectarian group which claims to be following the creedal beliefs (aqidah) of the Salaf, while in reality they're really only following the fallible understanding of a minority group of Hanbali scholars. I strongly recommend that anyone who is confused over this issue immediately read Is it permissible for a Muslim to believe that Allah is in the sky in a literal sense?, since it provides a very articulate, proof-based and concise answer to this question -- the short answer to which is "No". Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller's other article on this subject, Literalism and the Attributes of Allah, is an amazing deconstruction and exposé of the simplistic theology that is being spread today under the guise of "Salafi 'aqîdah". Needless to say, this article is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what's going on in the arena of Islamic theological polemics today. Likewise, there's an excellent lecture available from the IslamicVillage (unfortunately only on audio cassette) entitled The Altitude of Allah in which Shaykh Nuh discusses this same topic in a bit more detail -- thus it's well worth purchasing...wa Allahu 'alim.

Anti-Islamic Books in Public Schools

A couple of weeks ago, I received an informative email from Eric Muller, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, regarding a book called Escape from Egypt, by Stacy Towle Morgan. This book, which is carried in up to 60,000 schools nationwide, presents a very negative and distorted picture of Islam. Professor Muller, as he describes on his Is That Legal? blog, initially became aware that overtly sectarian books which openly proselytize to Christianity are available in public school libraries when his daughter checked out Journey to Japan -- a book which denigrates Buddhism and endorses Christianity -- from her school library. Later, Professor Muller read Escape from Egypt, which is by the same author, and concluded that it "makes Journey to Japan look downright secular" -- and you can read his detailed comments here. Based on excerpts from Escape from Egypt that Professor Muller has posted, it's obvious that this book was written by a narrow-minded Evangelist who is painfully misinformed not only about Islam, but about other religions as well. In typical Evangelical style, Islam is presented as being "strange" and as having nothing in common with Christianity. Muslims are portrayed as lost and misinformed simpletons who worship a remote, angry and somewhat incompetent "god called Allah" -- the fact that Arabic-speaking Christians also use the word "Allah" seemingly being beyond the grasp of the author. Needless to say, such books have no place in American public schools -- and more details about them can be found here.

As described here, both of these books are part of the Accelerated Reader series, which more than 60,000 schools nationwide participate in, which is a reading curriculum produced by Renaissance Learning, Inc. Since these books openly endorse a particular religion at the expense of others, they have no place in public school libraries. Indeed, government schools have no business endorsing any particular religion and they are violating not only their charter, but also the U.S. Constitution, if they do so. Many, if not most, parents send their children to government public schools with the expectation that these schools will be free of religious proselytizing, thus when we become aware that they're not, it's our duty to bring it to the attention of the school administration as quickly as possible. I encourage everyone to take action in this regard by determining whether these books by Stacy Towle Morgan (including Journey to Japan, Escape from Egypt, and New Zealand Shake-Up) are being carried by your local public schools, and then contacting the school administration if they are. Likewise, as Professor Muller suggests, you could let Renaissance Learning, Inc. know what you think of their recommendation of these books by sending an email to Julie Blystone: JDBLYSTO@renlearn.com.

Overall, I feel that the content of such simple-minded and factually inaccurate pro-Christian books, coupled with underhanded attempts by some Evangelists to get them into the hands to unsuspecting children, should serve as a wake up call for those of us who were previously unaware of stealth proselytizing. Please take some action…

An Anti-Crusader Memoir…and More

In light of the fact that the epic film Kingdom of Heaven just opened at the box office, I selected An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades as my Book-of-the-Month selection for May 2005. I first read this unique and exciting autobiography about ten years ago, and some recent reading I've been doing on the Crusades brought it to mind again.

This memorable book, which has been translated from the original Arabic by Philip K. Hitti, consists of the memoirs of Usamah Ibn Munqidh (born 1095, died 1188), a Syrian nobleman who fought in the Crusades and participated in other imporant events of his day. These memoirs, entitled Kitab al-'Itibar in Arabic, are incredibly thoughtful and well-written, offering a true personal glimpse into life in the Middle East during the Crusader period. Since Usamah Ibn Munqidh was a contemporary of Salah al-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub (known as Saladin in the West), it provides some unique information on this great Islamic leader. Additionally, it provides first-hand accounts of everything from encounters with lions to battles with the Franks — which is what the Crusades were generally called.

In short, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about what life was like as a Muslim almost 900 years ago. The only other books that I know of in this genre, both of which I also recommend, are The Travels of Ibn Jubayr (born 1145 in Valencia, and died 1217 in Alexandria, Egypt), which also takes place during the Crusader period, and The Travels of Ibn Battuta (born 1304 in Tangier, Morocco, and died 1369 in Morocco), which takes place a couple of centuries later.

As far as useful and well-written histories of the Crusades that are historical rather than personal narratives, I recommend The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, by Amin Maalouf, and Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today's World, by Karen Armstrong. Even though I'm not a big fan of Karen Armstrong, since I don't see her as being as sympathetic to Islam as some Muslims apparently do, I think that this is a worthwhile book that ranks amongst her better works.

For anyone who just wants to focus in on the period of the Crusades which is covered rather inaccurately (and what else would you expect from Hollywood?) in the recent Kingdom of Heaven film, I recommend Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade, since it's an exciting and balanced read.

Upcoming Weekend Intensive - Healing Psyches, Healing Souls

The Shifa' Foundation is planning to host a two-and-a-half day intensive by three of the nation's top Islamic scholars at the University of Michigan in Dearborn. This exciting event, which will examine the importance of appropriating traditional sprituality in our lives and the challenges involved in doing so, is scheduled for Friday, May 20th, thru Sunday, May 22nd — which is just a couple of weeks away. This weekend intensive, which has been entitled Healing Psyches, Healing Souls: The Challenges of Spirituality for American Islam, will be conducted by Dr. Umar Farooq Abd-Allah (Nawawi Foundation), Dr. Sherman Jackson (ALIM), and Imam Zaid Shakir (Zaytuna Institute), insha'llah.

Mosaics on the Dome of the Rock from 72 A.H.

The Islamic-Awareness.org website has an interesting new update entitled The Arabic Islamic Inscriptions On The Dome Of The Rock In Jerusalem. This article graphically documents the Arabic mosaics that were completed in 72 A.H. — a time in which some Sahabah were still alive — and which still survive to this day on the Dome of the Rock (Arabic: Qubat as-Sakhirah). In the not too distant future, insha'llah, there should be an update showing a verse-by-verse, or phrase-by-phrase, breakdown of these inscriptions and their corresponding texts in the Qur'ân and hadîth.

This is the most recent of several Islamic-Awareness.org articles on The Dome of the Rock, so those who are interested in knowing more about this holy site and some of the polemics surrounding it should certainly read all of them. Likewise, there's an invaluable book entitled The Dome of the Rock, by Said Nuseibah (photographer) and Oleg Grabar (author), that not only gives a detailed history of the site, but provides complete photographic documentation of the entire building — including the mosaics which date back to the first Hijri century.