Just curious - how many muslims are on mumsnet?

[Galvanise]

Hello/Salaam,

I know mumsnet has a wide and diverse population and I tend to recognise some MN usernames as regulars. Just intrigued to know how big/small a community it may be.

Of course, I respect that there may be those who do not wish to even identify themselves for various reasons - which is fine too.

I am not asking for 'religiousness' levels or any vital stats! Nor is this a muslim-only thread or an 'no non-muslims' thread.
If you really wish to tell me that you are not a muslim, that is fine too :)

:)

wa'alaikum Salaam

great to have 1 here! :)

I have seen you post on many 'muslim' topics crescentmoon - and great posts they are too mashallah. :)

Asalam u alikum, I'm putting my hand in the air!

I am not Muslim but I know there are people here who are . I have spoken to others who are Muslim on some of the spiritual threads. I also belong to a Facebook multi-faith prayer group who pray for peace etc as a group, this includes several people who are Muslim. The group started after a thread on MN so we all came from here.

Wali kum asalam wa rahmatullah wa barakatuhu Crescentmoon, is there anywhere to go after that?
Like your self description, would be quite similar to mine except I would add the word (failing) in front of Sufi at the moment!
I quite enjoy being unidentifiably Muslim on non-religious MN threads (as far as I know the headscarf isn't visible on here!). It makes a nice change and I don't feel I have to prove I'm normal before I start contributing. That said, my first use of MN was specifically to gain advice from Muslim women so I suppose it's the best of both worlds.

Salaam all :)

Thanks for responding people.

I also love mn for some bits of advice and opinions and perspectives too.

You dont necessarily agree with them all but gives you great insight! :)

I am!!!

Just wondering Crescentmoon what is sufism and why are u interested in it?

I find Sufism really interesting. I love Rumi. But do you have to be a Muslim to be a Sufi? It seems from some Muslim forums I've read that you have to?

Dear Muslim ladies,
I recently read an interesting book about women who had converted to Islam but the one question that wasn't answered was how do converts/reverts decide whether to become Sunni or Shia. SOrry I can't remember the name of the book.(It was by someone with a name like N B Roberts?) Look forward to your answers.

Crescent thank you so much for that explanation, it makes total sense.
Yes you're right the book I read was From my sister's lips, I found it really informative and I learned so much - particularly about the role of women in Islam (though at point I got a bit annoyed with her style of writing IYKWIM)

THanks SO much for the pdf Daughters of another path I look forward to reading it. I really do appreciate you taking the trouble to send it to me.
Best wishes

Ooh, I'm looking forward to reading that book Crescentmoon, might be a bit close to the bone, my mum is very supportive but I think it would be very emotional for me to understand the feelings she must have gone through when I converted to Islam (then started wearing a headscarf, then starting wearing 'a lot of clothes' (her words), then married a foreigner with a big beard, etc, etc,etc!).

I really like the idea of sharing quotes etc. I'm currently working my way through 'Gardens of the Righteous' hadith (sayings of the Prophet peace be upon him) collection, which I read when I'm sat next to DS's cot, waiting for him to go to sleep. I love the way that you can be reading something like that and most of it, you expect to read, you've heard it before in some form or another, but just occasionally you come across something totally new. I found a hadith about the 3 people who had spoken in infancy which I had never heard before and inshAllah (God willing) I'll share sometime when I can find it again.

For now, I thought I would share the famous hadith of Gibril (Gabriel) as it links into the posts about tasawwuf (it's so long that I'm providing a link, don't know how to do that conversion thing, sorry):
www.csus.edu/hum/syllabi/s2007/hrs144_hadith_gabriel.pdf

Firefly11 I'd like to respond to your question about whether you have to be Muslim to be Sufi. There are some people who use the name Sufi who are not Muslim, but if you were to ask a Muslim this question I think they would all say yes. Sufism is one aspect of Islam (as it attempts to acheive the 'ihsan' state mentioned in the hadith), so while people may benefit in some ways from taking the Sufi practises without anything else, they will not utlimately be following it in its' true form. It would be like baking bread if all you had was flour, you have one essential ingredient but without the others you would not get very far. Also Sufis like all Muslims operate within the sacred law, so if people were mixing sufi practises with other elements that were not permissible in Islam, it would be entirely meaningless from an Islamic point of view.

Crescent thank you for the link to the programme about Rumi / whirling dervish. (I watched it whilst doing a pile of ironing and found it really interesting.). My knowledge of Rumi is limited to reading "Forty Rules of Love" - great book, v readable.
I"ve started reading the book on American converts - it's interesting.
THANK YOU.

Great link hardly :)

crescent and hardly, thank you both for taking the time to explain. I find Rumi's words very beautiful. I had to Google whirling dervish because I wasn't sure what it was. And when I saw the Youtube video of it in Turkey somewhere, I recognised the attire as that which is rather similar to what Rumi wears in some illustrations of him. They spin round very gracefully and it's a miracle they don't feel dizzy.

I'm at a sort of period now where I am quite into the spiritual side of things. I have met many Muslims in my life and have been struck by many of them for their strong faith. It's something I lacked for most of my life and only recently it has grown stronger. I am not sure about converting though, and my husband would definitely not convert even if I do and my in laws and my parents would be very disappointed if I did. I am reading up on different things and happy to just have a personal relationship with God in my own way for now. I have always been drawn towards monotheistic religions...

Good morning friends,
Please could someone recommend me a book of Rumi's poetry / writings.
Thank you

firefly11, may God be with you in your spiritual journey, and the best advice I could give, having gone through (and am still going through) exploration and change, is to relax and enjoy it, and let your heart guide you. And remember, any decisions you make are between you and God primarily. When I converted to Islam I didn't tell anyone for quite a while, and my parents were the last to know!
I was also drawn to the monotheistic religions, despite having been brought up in an athiest household, and most of my experiences prior to Islam, being a bit of a yoga loving hippy, were more along the Buddhist lines. But I think the purity of the monotheistic religions always appealed, and Islam stood out to me as the purest.

Thanks hardly. I too have been a yoga loving hippie sort, was at one point really into astrology, occultism, etc. Went through a decade-long agnostic atheist rebellious phase since I was a teen... but I think back and realised I have never been a true atheist. I was cynical and disillusioned, having had an unhappy home life growing up. I had therapy in recent years and have only slowly began to find myself again. Along came the realisation that I actually do believe in God, I was just denying God's existence all that time (have to add that none of this God business came up in my therapy in case you wonder if my therapist put these thoughts of God in my head!) I have always been a bit of a spiritual, truth seeker if you wish. I studied philosophy when I was in Uni to try and find answers to the questions I had in my head. I am still finding this recent rediscovery of God quite something to get used to. It's an uplifting feeling. I have no idea where it leads but I will just have to follow my heart and be true to myself.

im muslim too, salam to everyone on the thread :)