More often than not, social media platforms will leave negative, harmful residues in your heart.

Unless you seriously control your feed & really limit consumption, you will be exposed to nonsense, falsehood, and/or indecency that will distract, annoy, agitate and/or anger you. This creates the very opposite of tranquility (sakina) and calm. It creates unsettledness, and this unsettledness negatively impacts your spiritual life and then extends to your emotions, your relationships, and more.

Anyone who observes themselves after being involved in...

Entering the middle of Ramadan, many people confront what might be called monotonous routinisation.

The early Ramadan "excitement" fades. You are just going through the motions. The mind wanders in prayer. Worship seems dull. You slow down.

Here is some advice: a) Renew your intentions & recognise it is not about "feeling" spiritual: These 'low' states are sent precisely as a test to see whether we try to lift ourselves up, turn to Allah, & continue striving to do our best. Are you after the spiritual feeling or Him?

1. I'm glad Br. Dilly clarified the use of "Sufi traditionalists".

2. Abdal-Hakim Murad has strong critiques of the nation-state, of the 'liberal' state, of state appropriation of religion, of ulama being coopted by the state & the 'caesaropapist clericy', and of Muslim elites.

https://twitter.com/DillyHussain88/status/1731264867854647703

He is neither sponsored by nor in league with rulers. He doesn't spend his days in the halls of power, but in the university around undergrads who refer to him as 'Tim' or in the community where he is 'Sh. Abdal-Hakim'. His thought is essentially Hallaqian & even proto-anarchist.

Several people have cited Mufti Taqi’s letter to the Taliban from last year re: female education.

After mentioning his view that it is “required” to make appropriate arrangements for women’s education “remaining within the bounds of the sharia”, he mentions two reasons why: 1. To have trained women dealing with women’s issues, e.g., female doctors treating women, “so that the fitna of men and women intermixing in society can be eliminated.”

2. To not give people an excuse to spread propaganda against the Taliban using this issue of female education

Among other things, some of the reactions to Andrew Tate’s conversion reveal that a significant number of people in the community require being educated about the reality of iman and why its value trumps pretty much everything else. If Islam is centered purely on Allah, recognizing Him, and submitting to Him, it follows that the greatest act of oppression (zulm) that anyone can engage in is disbelief (kufr), that the greatest act of good is bringing faith, & that the disbeliever can never truly ≠ a believer

“Wifely obedience” (taʿa) is an idea that features regularly in the classical Islamic tradition in discussions on marriage.

Absolutely no scholar presented this as “husbandly control” or being “domineering”.

Telling someone to be “obedient” ≠ telling another to be controlling What is the core idea behind “obedience”? It is not being a robot saying “yes, yes, yes.”

As a respected scholar said, “Obedience is a real thing for anyone in an actual marriage… [it] doesn't entail domination, or the continual exertion of overt authority, etc. [rather] it…

One issue with celebrity preacher Islam in places like the U.S. is not only the placing of young, sometimes unlearned, people on the leadership pedestal but also, and relatedly, in its discourse lacking any reference to the great living scholarly figures of prior generations. Two decades ago, you did find young popular preachers & scholars who connected people to Allah & the Prophet (saw) but also exposed their audiences to people like Murabit al-Hajj, Sh. ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri, Sh. ʿAbd al-Fattah, and others.

The ʿilmi discourse did shift...

One really sad consequence of our hyper-gendered discourse & drawing battle lines between genders is how we receive the words of the Prophet ﷺ.

Instead of seeing his blessed words as directed at us for our good, we read it as directed *against* us or people. When the Prophet ﷺ speaks of wifely obedience (however interpreted), he’s not putting women down. It’s an address to women by the best of guides, not an attack.

And the mangled interpretation by some men that reads this as “control your wife” sprouts from this same…

ʿAli b. al-Fudayl used to buy goods from the [local] neighborhood merchants. Someone told him: “You could buy them cheaper if you shopped at the city market” He answered, "These merchants have settled in our neighborhood in the hope of serving our needs." (al-Risala) One of the great Sufis of the past expressing a sentiment similar to what we hear today: "shop locally even if a little more expensive." More so, ʿAli b. al-Fudayl frames the activity of these merchants not as profit-seeking but as service. True husn al-dhann of fellow humans.

On the topic of Abu Hanifa & hadith, an argument often deployed by many of us from the Hanafi school is that Abu Hanifa was a more prolific narrator than people like al-Shafiʿi as seen in a comparison of the musnad collections ascribed to both figures.

This argument has issues. Christopher Melchert looked at these musnad collections of Abu Hanifa and found a surprisingly large number of unknown narrators. For example, in Abu Nuʿaym's musnad, nearly 1/4th of transmitters from Abu Hanifa are unknowns.

If people knew the effects of doubtful food on the soul, much less haram food, they'd prefer to go hungry for days than risk consuming such food.

Eating halal was treated by our righteous predecessors almost like a pillar of religion.

https://twitter.com/hwmaqbul/status/1235915183857508353

Abu Hafs al-Haddad (d. between 265/874 & 270/879) said, "The best way for the servant to reach Allah is to be in need of Him in all his states, to follow the sunna in all his deeds, and to eat nothing but licit food." (al-Risala)

The maslaha vs mafsada argument used by many to justify certain political approaches/alliances is getting stale & lazy.

Next time a scholar (or someone else) appeals to it, ask him/her to define these concepts clearly & furnish specific, detailed evidence for the short and... ... long term religious/worldly benefits & harms they anticipate in adopting a particular course of political action. They should then show why the course they prefer is optimal for the community.

From among the western elders of Traditionalism, Sh. Hamza Yusuf was the only one who questioned the need & efficacy of formal tariqas in our time, especially for western Muslims.

He recognised tasawwuf as an integral part of our tradition & the legitimacy of turuq generally. However, given the form of taslim many turuq advocated, as well as the presence of charlatans, he favoured a more non-tariqa based form of spiritual cultivation as more appropriate/safe for many in our age.

This was viewed by many of us as an aberrancy.

@likeplastic_ @thussain0 @Evollaqi In reality, these aren't "grades" of kufr. Usually, when a jurist identifies someone as "holding a belief of kufr" without ruling him a kafir, the belief being held is not actually kufr. If it was, one would be a kafir. Rather, it is often the case that the jurist intends... @likeplastic_ @thussain0 @Evollaqi ... that the implication of the view one holds is kufr. Here, we get into the discussion of whether we can ascribe the implication of a view to the one who holds it. The soundest positions seems to be no. "X is kufr b/c its implication is Y." But one might hold X and reject Y.