Salaam. Where did the tea room go?

[LuisSuarezTeeth]

I miss you all. :(

I agree completely bagofmilk. I've seen so much ridiculous stuff passed off as 'sufism' when in fact it is nothing if the sort. May Allah keep your family safe.

I agree completely bagofmilk. I've seen so much ridiculous stuff passed off as 'sufism' when in fact it is nothing if the sort. May Allah keep your family safe.

metimeisforwimps if there is one good thing about the Salafist movement (not Wahhabis) it is that they have gotten muslims to re-assess and question practices often passes off as "religion" and "tradition".

You now hear the phrase "is that a sahih hadith?" among ordinary muslims now. before that was never really the case. This is as a result of people actually engaging with Qu'ran and Sunnah alot more than before. Before, some traditionalists would frown upon people studying Qu'ran and Sunnah because "only scholars should do that" so you had people recite the Qu'ran in Arabic yet not have a single idea what they were reciting or understand the meanings behind them . No wonder most of the translations of Bukhari and Muslim hadiths come from Salafi publishing houses.

I went on vacation to India a couple of years ago and a guy at the hotel we were staying at was telling us about how a lot of dargahs (Sufi shrines around graves) are really hurting for money because people don't take them seriously anymore. The children of many of these shrine owners are shutting them down because they know it's all a fraud. He was telling us about how one of these shrines in a small village supposedly had a hair of the Prophet. People started asking the owner for a sample of the hair that they could DNA test and compare with other hairs supposedly belonging to the Prophet. For someone to challenge such a deeply held cultural belief 75 even 50 years ago would have been unthinkable.

Also you are seeing within Sufism, Sufis are questioning some of the ridiculous stuff that has sadly become associated with it that are clearly un-Islamic and have no controversy surrounding it. You are now seeing a rise of more text based approach to Sufism (tawassuff) from the likes of Sheikh Muhammad bin Yahya al-Ninowy who is a sufi muslim but uses alot of daleel (scriptual evidence) in his work.

Any religion that does not encourage (or at least engage with) questioning and debate is quite worrying. It opens the door for those loud voices who have their own agenda to reinterpret or downright lie for their own gains or glory.

Look at Saudi - the house of Saud really seem to believe that they are God (or have the hotline to him) - to question them and the state is to question God himself, and we saw the outcome of this over the weekend. Of course it's all politics and trade but still.

always beautiful prayers dear stressed thank you so much for your post here in the muslim thread and i join you in those prayers for peace. i was so sad reading about the shia cleric being executed, i wish i still had shia friends i could call to express my sadness and outrage to.

part of whats killed my great shopaholic tendencies has been alot of fear and anxiety about the future because of the rhetoric of the right wing politicans and rulers across the west and ME. some days i think this is all manufactured hype and fear when i look at the station forecourt prices (oil price just going down and down). other days i think theres no way we can escape backlash and gosh i need to sew gold and valuables into the curtain linings to be able to cut out and run with if a mob comes down the road baying for muslim blood. DH thinks im paranoid but for him wealth has always been about land and property from his parents thinking, whereas for me from my parents its been about having enough liquiefiable assets that if the political situation becomes unbearable one can leave easily and go somewhere far away and safe quickly.

part of what got me interested in learning about the religion bagofmilk was dealing with the troid type salafis at my isoc. i hated their hypocrisy; they would fawn over any non muslims coming into the prayer room with welcoming magnanimous declarations of 'oh we are all people of the book' but that intellectual generosity and adab(good manners) would never extend to fellow muslim sisters who didnt agree with their version of islam. they were ok with the ordinary non practising ones or liberals - they hoped to convert them probably. but any who had an affiliation not with their own scholars they bullied, they ran the shias out of the prayer room,the sufis, madhabis, then they rounded on the salafi-lite isoc committee and declared even they were the ones on the wrong path when between them was like a date skin.

Ah moon we are all fearing the pitchfork wheilding fantics of the daily mail! Some christian, some 'muslim', some only God knows what.

It's not helping matters that the press focus is on the batshit converts that appear to be the most ruthless and sadistic in the wharpification of religion. Not sure if they really are the worst or of its just to whip up fear of 'that could be my brother or neighbour'. That poor little boy. I could cry for him and his life.

My relative are agreed that the weekend murder (for it was really) was a political move to beat down the shia, who are in no doubt that a significant chunk of Saudis would merrily do the same to ever man woman and child of them given the chance. They tell me that the violence against other muslims is far more vicious and awful than of someone of another faith.

Saudi want to make the west choose - and who buys all our lovely weapons and properties?

Religion and politics should never ever be allowed to combine.

Rant over! May our faith keep us strong and on the right path. Help us to treat our fellow wo/man as equals under the same sun.

i think the most unholy alliance is more religion and money originalmavis-because the political goal is usually to attain some level of economic power or advantage anyway.

I often think that about the destruction of religious sites all around the two holy cities of Makkah and Madinah - homes of the prophet, the wives of the prophet, the companions etc - that the Wahhabis ostensibly say is to prevent Sufi shrine worship and pilgrims praying to notable personalities. But so many of those sites just so happened to be on prime real estate right around the holy precincts and have now been given over to hotel developers to build hugely expensive five star hotels around the holy mosques. So praying their is wrong but capitalising on their proximity to the Kaaba by building hotels so far out of the ordinary pilgrims reach is not wrong. Their scholars issue fatwas then the Sauds and their cronies move in to take over land and property. The Shias live in a very oil rich part of Saudi so the fear of them rising up is tied very much to holding onto the land, again the Saud and their Wahhabi scholars work hand in hand, tag team.

As for the daily mail et Al, I only really realised how much people's perceptions of muslims are affected by media when Nadia won the great british bake off recently. I had so many people at work and around my local area say to me 'gosh you look like that lady who won bake off'. I look nothing like her features wise but because I had a headscarf on that's what people associated me with. Then I thought gosh what about when these jihadi brides or their ilk are on the front page of the papers I wonder if people associate that with me too? Did any other sister just bask in the warm (short) glow of a muslim in the media and it wasn't for Fgm/honour crime/ ISIS/ Trojan horse/ halal meat in schools/ etc story? It was just so nice to have a muslim woman in a positive news story that had nothing to do with religion or politics and was just about baking cakes. And tea!

It's so sad that people are hoodwinked into believing that they are hearing the word of God when it's the word of mammon.

I don't know people in Saudi but Iranians tend to know how crap their politicians and poltics are, and don't completely swallow everything the mullahs say as gospel. Lots of greefy fat mullah jokes! Maybe they are just a more cynical and questioning lot.

Plus they seperate more the religious and cultural practises - they are proudly 'not arab' and tend not to try emulate them in dress or tradition.

Still, its so sad to see that where people of all races, cultures and religions happily lived side by side pre 1979, religion has put a virtual end to that. Why segregate? Why want to distance? Why cut yourself off? Barriers create nothing but suspicion, fear and misconception.

Heaven only knows what will happen when tbe oil dries up (there will still be all the wealth from property and investment I suppose).

I love Nadia - headscarf be damned, she is so funny and is a fantastic baker.

Moonstruck I felt that about Nadia as well. She is so normal, exactly like the women I know, funny, clever, self deprecating with a husband who loves and supports her and grovel is very funny and cute children.
Just. Totally. Normal. Exactly like the women I meet at the mosque.

And has no idea where grovel came from!

I was very saddened by Sheikh Nimr's execution, now we are seeing this theatrics by Iran & Saudi with the burning of the Saudi embassy in Tehran .Iran piggybacking on Nimr's struggles for political capital and to deflect attention from their backing of the Assad regime and their war crimes in Syria.

Saudi retaliating with cutting ties with Iran. Bahrain, Somalia, Djbouti, UAE following suit. Now Iran is accusing the Saudis of bombing their embassy in Yemen.

Also dont forget the other people executed were Al-Qaeda members (some were the others not sure) who certainly did not recieve a fair trial. It wants to send a message that the monarchy is serious about fighting terrorism. The Saudis fear an internal Wahhabi uprising from the likes of ISIS or AQ as much as Shias

but it added Nimr to show Wahhabis that it is on their side in fighting Shias.t

This really is messed up. I pray to Allah (swt) things will get better in the future.

Let's not forget Nimrs nephew(?) who is just a teenager yet condemned to crucifixion (dear God) and then beheading (yes, mutilation after death). His crime was to have protested against the regime.

fuzzy moonstruck I also was very happy Nadia won. For once muslim women have good press and our hijabs are not an obstacle and I definetly basqued in the glory . I really liked her warm and lively character, she is so normal just like most hijabi muslim women. We don't bite!

If you to any mosque here in the UK or USA you will find many Nadia's.

original Yes, I pray they spare his nephew, he does not deserve this. The kingdom is sending a message that no dissent or criticism even peaceful will be tolerated. Shame!

Salams everyone. Just checking in to keep the thread going.

I'm still here, how is everybody?

Metime I've found this Quran, have a look it shows you what it looks like inside. The Quran is split into thirty small booklets also.

Would it be something like what you are looking for inshallah?

Price is amazing too if it's for the entire set!

I was looking for a Quran to gift to my youngest and came across the above, immediately thought of you.

I would like to say hello. I have been reading the Qu'ran: I have a copy at home and also I read the arabic/english translation version online. I am also reading the islam.net q&a forums, just trying to understand heartbreaking things. I do understand how important it is to have faith as without it people often have no hope.

Salam ladies! Thought I would join this thread. :)

To pp looking for a Qur'an with English translation, I have Muhammad Asad's translation with commentary, it's called The Message of the Qur'an. You can buy it from Amazon (which I know is an awful company but I don't know where else you can get it). It is not cheap, but it is easy to read, very thorough and a lovely big beautiful book.

Salaam,

Where is everyone??

Salaam all! Just came across this thread and thought I would say hello!

Hello I am still here, what is up everyone?

Salaam, long time no see.

If anyone is reading this, I wanna ask which one of you listens to music? And for the sisters that dont listen to music, how did you "get out" of music and how long did it take and do you feel better about it?