Prioritization of Knowledge and Individual Responsibility by Shaykh Taha Abdul-Basser from Darul Hikmah on Vimeo.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
NYPD College Student Group Surveillance (UPDATE 1)
The Crimson has an article on the NYPD College Student Group Surveillance story today.
Monday, February 20, 2012
NYPD monitored Muslim students all over Northeast
See the AP story here.
For one of the weekly reports that the NYPD was allegedly compiling regularly on Muslim Student Organizations (MSOs), see here.
For the various Ivy League MSOs that were targeted, see on-campus coverage at Yale University, Columbia University and UPenn.
For background on how this latest set of revelations fits into the larger pattern of local (NYPD) and federal (CIA) surveillance and penetration of domestic civil organizations, see this useful summary of AP coverage.
For one of the weekly reports that the NYPD was allegedly compiling regularly on Muslim Student Organizations (MSOs), see here.
For the various Ivy League MSOs that were targeted, see on-campus coverage at Yale University, Columbia University and UPenn.
For background on how this latest set of revelations fits into the larger pattern of local (NYPD) and federal (CIA) surveillance and penetration of domestic civil organizations, see this useful summary of AP coverage.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Islam at Brown: Dear Adam: In the Name of Allah, The All-Merciful, The Giver of Mercy This is a public appeal to Adam Gadahn, an American citizen who has allied him...
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Great article in the Crimson
As Ramadan Ends, Muslim Students Reflect on Religion
By Nadia L. Farjood, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Published: Monday, August 29, 2011
For the past four weeks, Rashid M. Yasin ’12 has folded back his covers around 4:15 a.m., rising to make a meal comprised of protein, grain and dairy, which he washes down with plenty of water to sustain him throughout the day. He then heads to a faucet to do wudu, the Islamic procedure for purifying oneself in preparation for prayer. Once he has washed his hands, face, mouth, arms and feet, Yasin performs the first of five daily prayers. He praises God and asks for forgiveness, concluding his prayer with personal supplication.
“I tend to pray for guidance and forgiveness and success in this life and the next,” Yasin says. “I pray to be able to incorporate consciousness of God and His will in all I do.”
Yasin’s morning ritual ends when he slips back under his covers again, still in the dark. After suhoor, his early meal, he will not break his fast for approximately 15 hours, going without food or drink from sunrise to sunset.
Yasin, the president of the Harvard Islamic Society (HIS), is observing Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting that ends Monday. This year he is doing so in Cambridge, but this is not the case for many Harvard students. Ramadan’s date is determined by the lunar calendar, and this year, the month does not overlap with the academic year as it has in the past. So Muslim Harvard students are showing their devotion to their faith all over the world, from Minnesota to South Korea, Senegal to Palestine.
ROUTINES AND RITUALS
Although Fatoumata B. Fall ’14 started the summer in her home nation of Senegal, she plunged into Ramadan in Seoul, South Korea, as a student in Harvard’s six-week summer school program at Ewha Womans University. She maintained her fast through studies and a two-week internship with an international development institute.
During what she considers a blessed month, Fall alters her daily schedule to practice her faith. Rising early, she prays five times throughout the day and reads the Quran after work. When dusk descends, she prepares for iftar, the evening meal when Muslims break their fast. Following her fill, she prays, meets with friends, and spends time on the Internet until she sleeps “after the morning.”
“Let’s just say there is lots of sleeping in on the weekend,” quips Nima Y. Hassan ’14, a Somali-American who is observing Ramadan in Ham Lake, Minnesota.
Like Hassan, Lena K. Awwad ’13, who observed Ramadan in Palestine this summer, also awakens to eat and pray before the sun rises.
For each student, pangs of hunger are a reality throughout the day. Awwad combats her cravings by avoiding salty foods and consuming enough water to “keep awake.” She fills her day with prayers until she breaks her fast with dates and cup of milk or water, which, she explains, was “how the Prophet used to do it.”
THE MONTH AND ITS MINDFULNESS
For Hassan, Ramadan is a dedicated time for believers to focus on getting closer to God. With constant demands on her time and the overwhelming presence of the Internet, she says it can be difficult to find the space and time to thank and praise God.
“We spend a lot of our time wired and moving onto the next activity,” Hassan says. “But in Ramadan, there’s a mindfulness that’s encouraged and expected of you which you don’t really make the time for otherwise. Ramadan is not just quieting the noise, but doing so with a purpose to hear God.”
Aside from being a religious and family-oriented month, Ramadan provides space for people to learn tolerance, Awwad says. She considers prayer on an empty stomach during Ramadan to be more reflective than prayer at any other time throughout the year.
“While fasting from sun-up to sun-down, it is important not to waste the day or the opportunity to get closer to your religion and the people around you,” Awwad says. “You see life as more than just in between the meals.”
Fall says that the most meaningful aspect of Ramadan to her is constantly evolving.
“We are young people and I’m restless. When Ramadan comes around I find a more peaceful side of myself,” Fall says. “As I grow, I enjoy getting more time and opportunity to practice my religion during Ramadan. This year, for instance, I did not devote a lot of time to my religion and spirituality with all the work at Harvard.”
HARVARD'S TRADITIONS
Yasin was raised in Scituate, Mass., 20 miles south of Boston, a community where he knows no other Muslims. Raised by a Bangladeshi father and a white mother who converted to Islam, Yasin attributes his view of his faith as diverse—“not only comprised of Arabs or South Asians”—to his mixed background. While he expected to find diversity in the Harvard Islamic Society, he was unsure of what it would entail with respect to people’s practices.
“When I got to college, I would see the different cultural traditions that Arabs have and Caucasians have. It’s partially religious, partially cultural,” Yasin says. “I was oblivious to different trends and interpretations. I had an individualized non-communal background.”
Yasin says community-building happens most during Ramadan, the biggest event on the HIS calendar. Historically, the organization has celebrated the holy month with catered iftars daily in Ticknor Lounge, drawing more than 80 graduate and undergraduate students.
With fewer people in Cambridge this summer, the group held three iftars per week, but the society continued to draw a consistent group of people Yasin calls his “brothers and sisters.”
“As part of the only Muslim family in my town growing up in suburban Massachusetts, I missed having a strong Muslim community outside of my nuclear family and so I have really embraced HIS since coming to Harvard,” says Yasin.
Awwad fondly recalls Ramadan with HIS as the “perfect introduction” to the College, especially as a first-year international student searching for a niche. As classes began, the society co-sponsored interfaith dinners and dialogues with student groups. Dinners served as a forum to meet Muslims and non-Muslims, while sharing the traditions of Ramadan.
“We even held iftars with faculty and had the chance to meet people from different religions,” Awwad says. “The events helped me connect to home. HIS was helpful in ways I didn’t imagine.”
SPACES AND SPIRITUALITY
Shortly after Hassan was born in Saudi Arabia, her family bounced to the U.S. Midwest, ultimately landing in Minnesota. She moved to Ham Lake, where she practiced Ramadan this summer. While she says there a sizable Muslim community concentrated in the Twin Cities, her town lacks a Muslim presence.
“There are Muslim communities within reach, but where we live there are few Muslims and people of color generally,” Hassan says.
Growing up in Fridley, Minn., in a community of largely first- and second-generation immigrants, Hassan recalls fasting with five other students in her grade. The school provided accommodations for observing students in a separate room.
“We didn't want to go to lunchroom and watch everyone eat. Over 30 days, we grew close,” Hassan says.
Despite appreciating the individual attention accorded to her by the school administration, Hassan says there is a disconnect between the West and Muslim societies where most people fast.
By contrast, Fall has celebrated Ramadan in a Muslim-majority country, Senegal, where she was born. Despite hot and dry temperatures that mark Ramadan, inducing thirst early in the day, she says the Muslim community is strong. Radios announce the time for iftar, community prayers are held drawing hundreds, and skits are performed in honor of Eid, the Muslim holiday following the final day of Ramadan.
“Ninety-four percent of my country is Muslim so Ramadan is not just a small group celebrating their special holiday,” Fall says. “In Cambridge I felt more in an isolated world. In Senegal, after iftar we have community prayer. Everyone, I mean everyone, goes. Houses are empty.”
Observing Ramadan in South Korea this summer proved even more isolating. Instead of praying with a large community and family, she often led prayers alone.
“I can count the Muslims who live here,” Fall says, who noted Seoul has a community of predominantly Buddhists, Christians, and Agnostics. Her friend observed her pray once, she says, and noted it was the first time she had seen a Muslim pray.
REFLECTIONS ON HUNGER
For Hassan, fasting has taken on special significance in light of the drought in the Horn of Africa, which has struck her parents' native Somalia, leaving millions with limited access to food or water.
“Somalia is a place where droughts happen with frequency, but this is unprecedented,” Hassan says. “When there’s so much hunger we need to be even more dedicated to our fast during Ramadan to be even more cognizant of what it’s like for many people around the world and act accordingly.”
But Hassan mentioned that some malnourished may continue to fast. She draws a distinction between her observance, which includes minimal physical activity during the day, and that of people who continue strenuous activity—such as working in the fields—while experiencing hunger.
“Building empathy through actual experience for people who go hungry is a beautiful thing about Ramadan,” Hassan says. “Whether you’re a king or a poor person, you observe the same. Having felt that, it’s a lot easier to imagine what it’s like for someone else to understand hunger and thirst.”
Hassan says that this empathy inspires charitable acts, making Ramadan known as a month of giving. Yasin connects empathy to spirituality, explaining that Ramadan provokes God-consciousness whereby he is reminded of his faith when he feels affected by the fast. He calls fasting “a spiritual refocusing” which facilitates remembrance of the interconnectedness of God in his life.
But hunger is only part of the experience of Ramadan. Iftar—breaking the fast—remains an important element. In Hassan’s family, it includes preparation of almost two hours, after which relatives gather for a countdown as the sun sets.
“We say ‘Three minutes! Two minutes! Time to eat!” she says.
While meals vary, one of Hassan’s favorites includes a rare Somali food, which resembles a donut, accompanied with a mango watermelon salad. The table is set with a cucumber and tomato salad, dates and milk.
“It’s pretty colorful, and I’m pretty thankful,” Hassan says.
FINISHING THE HOLIDAY
For Fall, last year’s Eid—her first in the United States—was strange. In the early morning of the day after Ramadan’s end, she gathered with other students in Roxbury to pray.
“After that I came back and went to class,” Fall says. “This was shocking, because all my life I had Eid as a holiday.”
On Eid this year, Yasin will go to prayers, accompanied with his friends from HIS, but he plans to skip out on the first day of classes. He will visit his family and celebrate in a week or two with HIS members again in the evening for an Eid banquet.
“For Eid, I’ll be home with my family,” says Fall. But after spending half the holiday in her home, she will spend the other half on a plane, coming back to Harvard.
As Ramadan Ends, Muslim Students Reflect on Religion
By Nadia L. Farjood, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Published: Monday, August 29, 2011
For the past four weeks, Rashid M. Yasin ’12 has folded back his covers around 4:15 a.m., rising to make a meal comprised of protein, grain and dairy, which he washes down with plenty of water to sustain him throughout the day. He then heads to a faucet to do wudu, the Islamic procedure for purifying oneself in preparation for prayer. Once he has washed his hands, face, mouth, arms and feet, Yasin performs the first of five daily prayers. He praises God and asks for forgiveness, concluding his prayer with personal supplication.
“I tend to pray for guidance and forgiveness and success in this life and the next,” Yasin says. “I pray to be able to incorporate consciousness of God and His will in all I do.”
Yasin’s morning ritual ends when he slips back under his covers again, still in the dark. After suhoor, his early meal, he will not break his fast for approximately 15 hours, going without food or drink from sunrise to sunset.
Yasin, the president of the Harvard Islamic Society (HIS), is observing Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting that ends Monday. This year he is doing so in Cambridge, but this is not the case for many Harvard students. Ramadan’s date is determined by the lunar calendar, and this year, the month does not overlap with the academic year as it has in the past. So Muslim Harvard students are showing their devotion to their faith all over the world, from Minnesota to South Korea, Senegal to Palestine.
ROUTINES AND RITUALS
Although Fatoumata B. Fall ’14 started the summer in her home nation of Senegal, she plunged into Ramadan in Seoul, South Korea, as a student in Harvard’s six-week summer school program at Ewha Womans University. She maintained her fast through studies and a two-week internship with an international development institute.
During what she considers a blessed month, Fall alters her daily schedule to practice her faith. Rising early, she prays five times throughout the day and reads the Quran after work. When dusk descends, she prepares for iftar, the evening meal when Muslims break their fast. Following her fill, she prays, meets with friends, and spends time on the Internet until she sleeps “after the morning.”
“Let’s just say there is lots of sleeping in on the weekend,” quips Nima Y. Hassan ’14, a Somali-American who is observing Ramadan in Ham Lake, Minnesota.
Like Hassan, Lena K. Awwad ’13, who observed Ramadan in Palestine this summer, also awakens to eat and pray before the sun rises.
For each student, pangs of hunger are a reality throughout the day. Awwad combats her cravings by avoiding salty foods and consuming enough water to “keep awake.” She fills her day with prayers until she breaks her fast with dates and cup of milk or water, which, she explains, was “how the Prophet used to do it.”
THE MONTH AND ITS MINDFULNESS
For Hassan, Ramadan is a dedicated time for believers to focus on getting closer to God. With constant demands on her time and the overwhelming presence of the Internet, she says it can be difficult to find the space and time to thank and praise God.
“We spend a lot of our time wired and moving onto the next activity,” Hassan says. “But in Ramadan, there’s a mindfulness that’s encouraged and expected of you which you don’t really make the time for otherwise. Ramadan is not just quieting the noise, but doing so with a purpose to hear God.”
Aside from being a religious and family-oriented month, Ramadan provides space for people to learn tolerance, Awwad says. She considers prayer on an empty stomach during Ramadan to be more reflective than prayer at any other time throughout the year.
“While fasting from sun-up to sun-down, it is important not to waste the day or the opportunity to get closer to your religion and the people around you,” Awwad says. “You see life as more than just in between the meals.”
Fall says that the most meaningful aspect of Ramadan to her is constantly evolving.
“We are young people and I’m restless. When Ramadan comes around I find a more peaceful side of myself,” Fall says. “As I grow, I enjoy getting more time and opportunity to practice my religion during Ramadan. This year, for instance, I did not devote a lot of time to my religion and spirituality with all the work at Harvard.”
HARVARD'S TRADITIONS
Yasin was raised in Scituate, Mass., 20 miles south of Boston, a community where he knows no other Muslims. Raised by a Bangladeshi father and a white mother who converted to Islam, Yasin attributes his view of his faith as diverse—“not only comprised of Arabs or South Asians”—to his mixed background. While he expected to find diversity in the Harvard Islamic Society, he was unsure of what it would entail with respect to people’s practices.
“When I got to college, I would see the different cultural traditions that Arabs have and Caucasians have. It’s partially religious, partially cultural,” Yasin says. “I was oblivious to different trends and interpretations. I had an individualized non-communal background.”
Yasin says community-building happens most during Ramadan, the biggest event on the HIS calendar. Historically, the organization has celebrated the holy month with catered iftars daily in Ticknor Lounge, drawing more than 80 graduate and undergraduate students.
With fewer people in Cambridge this summer, the group held three iftars per week, but the society continued to draw a consistent group of people Yasin calls his “brothers and sisters.”
“As part of the only Muslim family in my town growing up in suburban Massachusetts, I missed having a strong Muslim community outside of my nuclear family and so I have really embraced HIS since coming to Harvard,” says Yasin.
Awwad fondly recalls Ramadan with HIS as the “perfect introduction” to the College, especially as a first-year international student searching for a niche. As classes began, the society co-sponsored interfaith dinners and dialogues with student groups. Dinners served as a forum to meet Muslims and non-Muslims, while sharing the traditions of Ramadan.
“We even held iftars with faculty and had the chance to meet people from different religions,” Awwad says. “The events helped me connect to home. HIS was helpful in ways I didn’t imagine.”
SPACES AND SPIRITUALITY
Shortly after Hassan was born in Saudi Arabia, her family bounced to the U.S. Midwest, ultimately landing in Minnesota. She moved to Ham Lake, where she practiced Ramadan this summer. While she says there a sizable Muslim community concentrated in the Twin Cities, her town lacks a Muslim presence.
“There are Muslim communities within reach, but where we live there are few Muslims and people of color generally,” Hassan says.
Growing up in Fridley, Minn., in a community of largely first- and second-generation immigrants, Hassan recalls fasting with five other students in her grade. The school provided accommodations for observing students in a separate room.
“We didn't want to go to lunchroom and watch everyone eat. Over 30 days, we grew close,” Hassan says.
Despite appreciating the individual attention accorded to her by the school administration, Hassan says there is a disconnect between the West and Muslim societies where most people fast.
By contrast, Fall has celebrated Ramadan in a Muslim-majority country, Senegal, where she was born. Despite hot and dry temperatures that mark Ramadan, inducing thirst early in the day, she says the Muslim community is strong. Radios announce the time for iftar, community prayers are held drawing hundreds, and skits are performed in honor of Eid, the Muslim holiday following the final day of Ramadan.
“Ninety-four percent of my country is Muslim so Ramadan is not just a small group celebrating their special holiday,” Fall says. “In Cambridge I felt more in an isolated world. In Senegal, after iftar we have community prayer. Everyone, I mean everyone, goes. Houses are empty.”
Observing Ramadan in South Korea this summer proved even more isolating. Instead of praying with a large community and family, she often led prayers alone.
“I can count the Muslims who live here,” Fall says, who noted Seoul has a community of predominantly Buddhists, Christians, and Agnostics. Her friend observed her pray once, she says, and noted it was the first time she had seen a Muslim pray.
REFLECTIONS ON HUNGER
For Hassan, fasting has taken on special significance in light of the drought in the Horn of Africa, which has struck her parents' native Somalia, leaving millions with limited access to food or water.
“Somalia is a place where droughts happen with frequency, but this is unprecedented,” Hassan says. “When there’s so much hunger we need to be even more dedicated to our fast during Ramadan to be even more cognizant of what it’s like for many people around the world and act accordingly.”
But Hassan mentioned that some malnourished may continue to fast. She draws a distinction between her observance, which includes minimal physical activity during the day, and that of people who continue strenuous activity—such as working in the fields—while experiencing hunger.
“Building empathy through actual experience for people who go hungry is a beautiful thing about Ramadan,” Hassan says. “Whether you’re a king or a poor person, you observe the same. Having felt that, it’s a lot easier to imagine what it’s like for someone else to understand hunger and thirst.”
Hassan says that this empathy inspires charitable acts, making Ramadan known as a month of giving. Yasin connects empathy to spirituality, explaining that Ramadan provokes God-consciousness whereby he is reminded of his faith when he feels affected by the fast. He calls fasting “a spiritual refocusing” which facilitates remembrance of the interconnectedness of God in his life.
But hunger is only part of the experience of Ramadan. Iftar—breaking the fast—remains an important element. In Hassan’s family, it includes preparation of almost two hours, after which relatives gather for a countdown as the sun sets.
“We say ‘Three minutes! Two minutes! Time to eat!” she says.
While meals vary, one of Hassan’s favorites includes a rare Somali food, which resembles a donut, accompanied with a mango watermelon salad. The table is set with a cucumber and tomato salad, dates and milk.
“It’s pretty colorful, and I’m pretty thankful,” Hassan says.
FINISHING THE HOLIDAY
For Fall, last year’s Eid—her first in the United States—was strange. In the early morning of the day after Ramadan’s end, she gathered with other students in Roxbury to pray.
“After that I came back and went to class,” Fall says. “This was shocking, because all my life I had Eid as a holiday.”
On Eid this year, Yasin will go to prayers, accompanied with his friends from HIS, but he plans to skip out on the first day of classes. He will visit his family and celebrate in a week or two with HIS members again in the evening for an Eid banquet.
“For Eid, I’ll be home with my family,” says Fall. But after spending half the holiday in her home, she will spend the other half on a plane, coming back to Harvard.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
A gem from our fellow Chaplain and member of the Harvard Muslim community, Shaykh David Coolidge:
Islam at Brown: How I Understand Islamic Law: I have been studying Islamic law ever since I became Muslim almost 13 years ago. I don't have ijazas or a PhD, just a pile of books and a treasure trove of memories that inform how I make sense out of it all. Because my life experience and way of thinking aren't quite typical, I have often refrained from sharing my views more publicly. However, as a chaplain I get numerous inquiries about Islamic law, and I think it will be helpful to have a document which lays out my basic philosophy. I will try to articulate my views as clearly as possible, for the benefit of those with varying degrees of familiarity with the history and philosophy of Islamic law.
In short, I consider Islamic law to be the sum total of what intelligent, learned, and pious scholars say about Islamic law. They must be intelligent, because the intellect is the basis of understanding the law. They must be learned, because there are plenty of books one must read before one can begin to understand Islamic law. They must be pious, because Islamic law is meant to be practiced, not just understood. In history, those who fulfill these criteria are well known: Malik, al-Shafi'i, al-Ghazzali, Ibn Qudamah, Ibn Taymiyya, al-Marghinani, al-Shawkani, al-Qarafi, and many others. Whatever they said should be considered as part of Islamic law as a whole.
However, the books of the giants of the past don't always help us understand what we should do today. Sometimes they can even lead us astray, if we don't understand the context in which they were writing. So when it comes to contemporary concerns, preference is given to scholars who not only fulfill the 3 conditions already mentioned, but also understand the political, economic and social realities we are living in now. These scholars are capable of interpreting the writings of the Islamic legal heritage in light of our 2011 AD/1432 AH world. Such individuals include Zaid Shakir, Hamza Yusuf, Yasir Qadhi, Muhammad Alshareef, Abdullah Ali, Yahya Rhodus, Intisar Rabb, Ikram ul Haq, Faraz Rabbani, Sherman Jackson, Tahir Anwar, Taha Abdul-Basser, Zaynab Ansari Abdul-Razacq, Suhaib Webb, and many others.
If you ask any of these scholars how to pray, they will be capable of giving you an answer that is valid. If you ask them about zakat, they will be sensitive to what a 401k entails. If you ask them to reflect on what it means to live in a secular, pluralistic democracy, they will have cogent thoughts to share. Each of them has earned the right to share their view, through hard intellectual work and a life of committment to God and God's Messenger (may peace be upon him). Much of what they say will be in agreement with one another, and where they differ, take what you think is best. Only the All-Knowing (al-Aleem) really knows which one of them is right, and only the Truly Just (al-'Adl) will judge between them and between us after all of our deaths.
All of these scholars encourage human beings to pray in more or less the same way. All of them highlight the importance of fasting. All of them can explain why God prohibited alcohol. All of them think it is best for Muslims to marry Muslim spouses with good character. All of them know the centrality of patient perseverance (sabr) when afflicted with trials and tribulations in one's personal, professional, or spiritual life. Similarly, they all understand the need for gratitude (shukr) for all of our myraid blessings. Most everything else is secondary or tertiary. If you want to learn the details, there are many different ways to do so, but never get so wrapped up in the trees that you forget the vast forest all around you.
The Straight Path (sirat al-mustaqim) is not this shaykh or that shaykh, this book or that book, this class or that one, this school of thought or that one. The inheritance of the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) is vast, and reaches into the nooks and crannies of this world. If the teacher in your particular nook doesn't inspire you or make sense, then go looking for better ones, and the Guide (al-Hadi) will guide you to her or him. But as you search, always be aware that your inner self will fight back, because it does not want to submit. It wants to convince you that you are the center of the universe. But the spiritual purpose of Islamic law is to remind you that God has more of a right than anyone else over what you do and say. When Islamic law seems like the interpretations of men and women, go deeper, and find the unchangeable bedrock which is God's clear command and prohibition. When one has found that unshakeable core, then there is nothing left to do but submit to the best of one's ability, and ask God to forgive all the ways in which we fall short, for we all fall short. In these last days of Ramadan, may the Forgiving (al-Ghafur) forgive all of us our shortcomings in sincerity, knowledge, and practice, amen.
Islam at Brown: How I Understand Islamic Law: I have been studying Islamic law ever since I became Muslim almost 13 years ago. I don't have ijazas or a PhD, just a pile of books and a treasure trove of memories that inform how I make sense out of it all. Because my life experience and way of thinking aren't quite typical, I have often refrained from sharing my views more publicly. However, as a chaplain I get numerous inquiries about Islamic law, and I think it will be helpful to have a document which lays out my basic philosophy. I will try to articulate my views as clearly as possible, for the benefit of those with varying degrees of familiarity with the history and philosophy of Islamic law.
In short, I consider Islamic law to be the sum total of what intelligent, learned, and pious scholars say about Islamic law. They must be intelligent, because the intellect is the basis of understanding the law. They must be learned, because there are plenty of books one must read before one can begin to understand Islamic law. They must be pious, because Islamic law is meant to be practiced, not just understood. In history, those who fulfill these criteria are well known: Malik, al-Shafi'i, al-Ghazzali, Ibn Qudamah, Ibn Taymiyya, al-Marghinani, al-Shawkani, al-Qarafi, and many others. Whatever they said should be considered as part of Islamic law as a whole.
However, the books of the giants of the past don't always help us understand what we should do today. Sometimes they can even lead us astray, if we don't understand the context in which they were writing. So when it comes to contemporary concerns, preference is given to scholars who not only fulfill the 3 conditions already mentioned, but also understand the political, economic and social realities we are living in now. These scholars are capable of interpreting the writings of the Islamic legal heritage in light of our 2011 AD/1432 AH world. Such individuals include Zaid Shakir, Hamza Yusuf, Yasir Qadhi, Muhammad Alshareef, Abdullah Ali, Yahya Rhodus, Intisar Rabb, Ikram ul Haq, Faraz Rabbani, Sherman Jackson, Tahir Anwar, Taha Abdul-Basser, Zaynab Ansari Abdul-Razacq, Suhaib Webb, and many others.
If you ask any of these scholars how to pray, they will be capable of giving you an answer that is valid. If you ask them about zakat, they will be sensitive to what a 401k entails. If you ask them to reflect on what it means to live in a secular, pluralistic democracy, they will have cogent thoughts to share. Each of them has earned the right to share their view, through hard intellectual work and a life of committment to God and God's Messenger (may peace be upon him). Much of what they say will be in agreement with one another, and where they differ, take what you think is best. Only the All-Knowing (al-Aleem) really knows which one of them is right, and only the Truly Just (al-'Adl) will judge between them and between us after all of our deaths.
All of these scholars encourage human beings to pray in more or less the same way. All of them highlight the importance of fasting. All of them can explain why God prohibited alcohol. All of them think it is best for Muslims to marry Muslim spouses with good character. All of them know the centrality of patient perseverance (sabr) when afflicted with trials and tribulations in one's personal, professional, or spiritual life. Similarly, they all understand the need for gratitude (shukr) for all of our myraid blessings. Most everything else is secondary or tertiary. If you want to learn the details, there are many different ways to do so, but never get so wrapped up in the trees that you forget the vast forest all around you.
The Straight Path (sirat al-mustaqim) is not this shaykh or that shaykh, this book or that book, this class or that one, this school of thought or that one. The inheritance of the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) is vast, and reaches into the nooks and crannies of this world. If the teacher in your particular nook doesn't inspire you or make sense, then go looking for better ones, and the Guide (al-Hadi) will guide you to her or him. But as you search, always be aware that your inner self will fight back, because it does not want to submit. It wants to convince you that you are the center of the universe. But the spiritual purpose of Islamic law is to remind you that God has more of a right than anyone else over what you do and say. When Islamic law seems like the interpretations of men and women, go deeper, and find the unchangeable bedrock which is God's clear command and prohibition. When one has found that unshakeable core, then there is nothing left to do but submit to the best of one's ability, and ask God to forgive all the ways in which we fall short, for we all fall short. In these last days of Ramadan, may the Forgiving (al-Ghafur) forgive all of us our shortcomings in sincerity, knowledge, and practice, amen.
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