Talking to many Muslims, it seems many are saying the same thing: there just aren’t many "normal Muslims."
What they tend to mean by this (if I've gleaned it correctly) is that there's a scarcity of ostensibly committed Muslims who are "socially normal" and worldly-wise. The more seemingly religious, the more they seem to be in want of basic social awareness & if they’re more socially adjusted, it's claimed they’re not seemingly religious enough. For many onlookers, the social awkwardness can suggest that religiosity impedes social integration!

Dear university students,

I write this in the hope that you’ll understand some important points about deen at university. We’ve also been (western) British university students and experienced what it means and life after it. The purpose of elders is to help you understand things, a bit like a cheat sheet, so you can take the most efficient, productive way forward. So the following is important to keep in mind:

A “NEED TO KNOW” FOR MUSLIM, CHRISTIANS AND JEWS. NO NONSENSE.

What is the Arabic (and Hebrew) term “deen”?
*The law and the code you live by.*

🧵 There are two points people must consider:

- Social/Political: Which code do you ascribe yourself to for social/communal belonging?
- Theological: Which code do u live by that God will judge you by? (Ofc, this requires that you know that code and not make assumptions about it.)

I’m contacted very often about the nature of hadith where ppl are either confused or problematise it.
If you have a problem w/ hadith, the following is for you. I don’t mean to be curt or abrasive, just typing for brevity. But I’ll be candid (in good faith): 1. You don’t have problem w/ hadith. Your actual problem is with charlatan religious figures in the realm of theology and law who say silly things or come to counter-intuitive conclusions and then ignorantly *cite* a hadith as justification. If you don’t like what they say…

Thanks for the question ppl!

1. Nearly all commentators agree that his social interaction/engagement was very different to the rest of people around him, including others leaders of his age. Even they found him very different. For example:

@ShahinRahmanUK

https://twitter.com/SusanCarland/status/1423933093187002369

الطبراني: حدثنا المعمري، سمعت خلف بن سالم يقول: كنا في مجلس يزيد بن هارون، فمزح مع مستمليه، فتنحنح أحمد بن حنبل، فقال يزيد: من المتنحنح؟ فقيل له: أحمد بن حنبل، فضرب يزيد على جبينه، وقال: ألا أعلمتموني أن أحمد هاهنا حتى لا أمزح.

I've handled it as it ought to be. I will not bow to faux humility & become a servant to tripe & uncivilised responses. You want us to be slaves to a *few* loudmouth's idiocy? That's why many scholars have become puppets, either to govts or to the masses.

https://twitter.com/IbnMosharraf/status/1334481039754817537

And what's my controversy? "Stop overreacting at silly things and being reactionary." Or did you simply see the response of 10 juh'haal and make them the ppl we should succomb to?! Talk about silo.

Not really. Either you agree or you don't, either it's true or not. *Controversy* is the hysterics of unlearned people. It's what the masses do, and when personalities jump on it they show they're playing up to the hype, they're not leading anything. [Thread]

https://twitter.com/mnizami_uk/status/1333847953971286019

I didn't comment at the time bc the entire debate was FACILE. Bored ppl & just another hype point w/ absolutely NO ramifications. Many Muslims love to debate AIR. God was not worshipped more, no human was practically helped, the hungry weren't fed, nothing was built.

There is nothing on Twitter at the moment more epic than this fail.
🤣🤣🤣 And for the record, if Zulkiful is meant to be Dhu'l-Kifl, then it's a *masculine* noun (the name is usually taken from the Quran with some associating it with the prophet Ezekiel). So basically, John married Ezekiel lol

Clearly @nottinghamislam need some insight into names!

Is it surprising that those who most speak of enlivening the monotheistic spirit that leads to the likes of early medieval Andalusia/Baghdad are foremost in every regressive & reductive way of thinking to impede any path to it? Any appeal to making sense, or a rejection of magical thinking disparaged as Mu'tazili. Reasoning God's law is 'evil modernism'. Making sense of God's will in non-normative contexts is secularism. They simply have an Islam they can't move w/ nor provides anything constructive.

[An important thread]

There are two levels of engagement w/ Islam:

1. General/basic (mujmal)
2. Detailed/sophisticated (mufassal) 1. The mujmal level is an engagement where people tend to know an outline of the 5 pillars & 6 articles, believe Qur'an is from God and willing to obey it (but don't really know its content), and generality of Muhammad's Prophethood. They have commitment to general religiosity.

[Thread]

Why do Muslims find everything controversial? For a long time, everything in the deen has been dumbed down. Most Muslims had v simple education so scholars/teachers quite legitimately didn't get into things that'd cause confusion. If the purpose is to get into heaven, why take up ppls time with things that don't benefit?

*Should you pray Jumu'ah at home?*

Salat al-Jumu'ah is NOT something you do in your house in private - this doesn’t speak to its purpose. It isn’t a purposeless ritual, it is imbued with deep meaning and profound purpose. It's NOT synonymous w/ normal congregational prayer. Ought you do it? No. (But I won’t get condemnatory over it bc it hasn't been explained fully yet) I feel what is expected of believers at home under current circumstances is clear: *Pray dhuhr.*

[Thread]

Some Muslims seem to deem it more important to have a 'relationship' with the noble and final messenger of God, than with God Himself.

From amongst the actions indicative of this: 1. Spending years studying the sirah but not the Quran.
2. Learning about the Prophet's characteristics, but not God's.
3. Focused on meeting the Prophet at 'the hawd' but not on meeting God in paradise.
4. More offended by imbeciles who mock the Prophet than those who mock God.

Thread.

There are a range of moods/anxieties/traumas ppl use Islam to mask. So deen doesn't become uplifting/ emancipating force it is bt an added 'weight'. What should be enlightenment turns into toxic religion. How to undo? Restart w/ a correct understanding of what God wants. 1st step: Acknowledge the problem. Recognise it's all not working properly - most people intuitively feel this but don't actively engage it out of fear (scared what it'll mean or change) or hubris (they 'know' they're right). Decide whether you want to sincerely resolve it.

When it comes to aḥkām & talking about them in the public realm, my intent is to probe deeply & get to their essence, to understand what halal & haram & why, to appreciate parameters God sets & functionalise them in best way possible to achieve the optimum outcomes God wants... & thank Him for true guidance & all that is good. Atomising what God tells us into unrelated & abstract aḥkām not only causes the shari'ah to loose its efficacy, but renders shari'ah into shattered vessel broken in a million pieces & unable to hold that which it was intended to.

[Thread]
*What is halal does not need justification, but the haram does.*

There is a very well known shar'i maxim that goes: "The default in matters is permissibility", with the maxim based on the verse, "It is He who created all that is on the earth for you." (2:29) The basic understanding is that things are to be taken as halal (permitted) unless there is something that compellingly informs us that it is haram (impermissible). The practical points that come out of this:

I'd like to say I'm surprised that @drusamahasan put together such a report, but alas I'm not. Not a balanced analysis nor any specialist insight (but then again it's Quilliam eh? 🙄)
There's so much to critique that a paper might simply be too long...

https://twitter.com/CommissionCE/status/1181202810710499329

It's disingenuous in that I'm sure @drusamahasan knows the context in which many things have been said/done & they're nothing as nefarious as he makes out in the report. Most notably is the misleading way in which he portrays advocacy of *a* caliphate. (Main point of paper)

[Thread]
Over years I & colleagues experienced that vast majority of Muslims do not require scholars (and little do they know scholar & remit actually is). What they’re after: shar’ī trained therapists, counsellors, & murabbis (educator/shar’ī life-coach). Some reasons: 1. We live in a time where technologies and modern ideologies/fads have left people confused, which notably leads to emotional and psychological instability.
2. The economy, social expectations, & contemporary fashion/outlook has left people with feelings of anxiety and despair.

"Is taqlid permissible"

It's common sense.

1.Taqlid is not 'blind following', it's a technical shar'i term that's meant to safeguard against uninformed religion. It means relying on specialists who've done groundwork that u simply don't have the time, aptitude, or energy to do. We do this in most realms of life with doctors, lawyers, even plumbers! So why is faith different? God tells us to identify & rely on the informed (mutafaqih) for the more complicated matters as long as they don't go against the principles of deen (like priests of Bani Isra'il)

My call is VERY simple: The primary reason for reading the Quran ought to be to understand it. I haven’t delegitimised Arabic reading (wouldn’t be sound to do so) bt pointed out those who have (literacy) capability to read a translation alongside it are morally obliged to do so. To suffice w/ ONLY reading God’s message in a language u don’t understand *when you have the ability to do so* contrary to what God wants of you. I’ve always wanted to stay on THAT point - to speak to a widespread culture that prioritises recital for ceremonial value...

[Thread]

The word Islam is a verbal noun, which means it's something you do. This reflects that it doesn't work simply as grand theory. But today that's what Islam largely is. Want to be a good believer? Take some courses in Islamic academic disciplines. Study the science of hadith, or usul. Why? Ajr of course! (As if God put us on earth to study method.) What's happened is that ppl been moved away frm prophetic knowledge to the academisation of ilm. Reading medieval fiqh & aqidah books for most layman doesn't resolve much.