This writer has never had the privilege of performing Hajj. It may be many years before I am able to do so, although I hope and pray to have the opportunity before the end of my time on this earth, insha’allah.
There are two aspects to every act of ‘ibadah in Islam: its physical (ritualistic) form, and its higher spiritual, communal, social, and moral purpose. The salah, for instance, is performed in a certain way but its true import lies in the fact that it is our direct link (sila) with Allah (swt).
The city of Istanbul is among the world’s most popular destinations among Muslims, largely because of the legacy of the Ottoman period and the numerous mosques and other monuments that survive there, through which Muslims can relate to a golden period of Islamic culture.
Deep down inside the recesses of the Islamic movement there is what one may call a dichotomy — two mutually exclusive subclasses of the worldwide Islamic movement. One of them is centered on Islamic Iran and the other around what is today called “Saudi” Arabia.
Each new session of the United General Assembly in September opens with much fanfare. Not much is achieved at the UN except that leaders of different countries get an opportunity to talk about their pet subject. Few people, whether inside or outside the assembly chambers, pay the slightest attention.
Several articles in this issue of Crescent International discuss the problems faced by Muslims living in western countries, particularly since the launching of the “war on terror” after the attacks on the World Trade Centre
September is the month of 9/11. How can anyone forget 9/11? Dare anyone forget 9/11?! And if it is beginning to slip out of a public’s mind that is really more interested in the New York Yankees than in the World Trade Center, then in comes the “controversy” to rekindle the flames of 9/11
Fear and paranoia have become the new parameters for every policy. While the attacks occurred in the US, other western countries also immediately passed repressive laws that were essentially aimed at targeting Muslims
The holy month of Ramadan, the month of fasting and the most special time of the year for most Muslims, is almost upon us. It is a time that Muslims everywhere look forward to with anticipation, and the passing of which for another year is widely mourned.
If one thinks about it seriously, the world looks like a bizarre place. Scientific strides and technological developments make us think and believe that we are living in the “genteel” and “civilized” 21st century. Few can argue about the scientific and industrial progress in all fields of physical applications and material evolution.
There is a close relationship between the noble Qur’an and Ramadan. It was in this month in the fortieth year of his life in Makkah that Muhammad (pbuh) had a dramatic encounter in the Cave of Hira’ with the archangel, Gabriel (a).
The flotilla of humanitarian aid sponsored by the government of Turkey was attacked in international waters by Israeli pirates equipped with the latest technology Washington can offer to its sea wolf client in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea...
The key objectives of the Islamic movement are the reassertion of Islamic values in Muslim societies, and the establishment of Islamic states in place of the corrupt, self-serving regimes that currently predominate in the Muslim world...
Like so many activists and institutions in the Islamic movement, we at Crescent International take the unity of the Ummah as a basic assumption and premise of everything that we do. As we have so often affirmed, the understanding that we all have in common as Muslims far outweighs our many differences.
You taught us that Muslims are capable of having an imam contrary to the beliefs of the traditional “Shi‘is” who maintain that there can only be one...
Add to this grim picture the lawlessness that has gripped Pakistan from Karachi to the Khyber Pass, thanks to America’s war on terror that will escalate further following the failed Time Square bomb plot in New York...
Britain goes to the polls on May 6, to elect the government that is expected to run the country for the next five years. Unlike most elections in recent years, the contest is genuinely too close for the results to be predicted...
No one really knows the number of pro-Israeli and anti-Islamic forces stationed by the US in and around Arabia
The publicly-stated objective of the Washington conference was to collect all loose nuclear material from around the world, and to prevent such material from falling into the hands of “terrorists”.
Democracy is undoubtedly the most commonplace and widely accepted political concept in the modern world. It is barely an exaggeration to say that it has achieved the status of a universal myth; very few people in the world dare challenge the principles associated with it, and most accept it...
