"Unbeliever is he who follows predestination even if he be Muslim, Faithful is he, if he himself is the Divine Destiny."

Discuss...

Please read the following blog, rate comment & share

http://www.mopundit.blogspot.com/

Subhanallah, May allah open the eyes of the muslim women around the world. Ameen.

True Value of Women

Given my privilege as a woman, I only degrade myself by trying to be something I'm not - and in all honesty - I don' t want to be a man. As women, we will never reach true liberation until we stop trying to mimic men, and value the beauty in our own God-given distinctiveness.

On March 18, 2005 Amina Wadud led the first female-led Jumuah (Friday) prayer. On that day women took a huge step towards being more like men. But, did we come closer to actualizing our God-given liberation?
I don't think so.

What we so often forget is that God has honoured the woman by giving her value in relation to God-not in relation to men. But as western feminism erases God from the scene, there are no standard left-but men. As a result the western feminist is forced to find her value in relation to a man. And in so doing she has accepted a faulty assumption. She has accepted that man is the standard, and thus a woman can never be a full human being until she becomes just like a man-the standard.

When a man cut his hair short, she wanted to cut her hair short. When a man joined the army, she wanted to join the army. She wanted these things for no other reason than because the 'standard' had it.

What she didn't recognize was that God dignifies both men and women in their distinctiveness - not their sameness. And on March 18, Muslim women made the very same mistake.

For 1400 years there has been a consensus of the scholars that men are to lead prayer. As a Muslim woman, why does this matter? The one who leads prayer is not spiritually superior in any way. Something is not better just because a man does it. And leading prayer is not better, just because it's leading. Had it been the role of women or had it been more divine, why wouldn't the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) have asked Ayesha (may Allah be pleased with her) or Khadija (may Allah be pleased with her), or Fatima (may Allah be pleased with her) - the greatest women of all time - to lead? These women were promised heaven-and yet they never lead prayer.

But now for the first time in 1400 years, we look at a man leading prayer and we think, 'That's not fair.' We think so although God has given no special privilege to the one who leads. The imam is no higher in the eyes of God than the one who prays behind.

On the other hand, only a woman can be a mother. And God has given special privilege to a mother. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) taught us that heaven lies at the feet of mothers. But no matter what a man does he can never be a mother. So why is that not unfair?

When asked who is most deserving of our kind treatment? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied 'your mother' three times before saying 'your father' only once. Isn't that sexist? No matter what a man does hewill never be able to have the status of a mother.

And yet even when God honours us with something uniquely feminine, we are too busy trying to find our worth in reference to men, to value it - or even notice. We too have accepted men as the standard; so anything uniquely feminine is, by definition, inferior. Being sensitive is an insult, becoming a mother - a degradation. In the battle between stoic rationality (considered masculine) and self-less compassion (considered feminine), rationality reigns supreme.

As soon as we accept that everything a man has and does is better, all that follows is just a knee jerk reaction: if men have it - we want it too. If men pray in the front rows, we assume this is better, so we want to pray in the front rows too. If men lead prayer, we assume the imam is closer to God, so we want to lead prayer too. Somewhere along the line we've accepted the notion that having a position of worldly leadership is some indication of one's position with God.

A Muslim woman does not need to degrade herself in this way. She has God as a standard. She has God to give her value; she doesn't need a man.

In fact, in our crusade to follow men, we, as women, never even stopped to examine the possibility that what we have is better for us. In some cases we even gave up what was higher only to be like men.

Fifty years ago, society told us that men were superior because they left the home to work in factories. We were mothers. And yet, we were told that it was women's liberation to abandon the raising of another human being in order to work on a machine. We accepted that working in a factory was superior to raising the foundation of society - just because a man did it.

Then after working, we were expected to be superhuman - the perfect mother, the perfect wife, the perfect homemaker - and have the perfect career. And while there is nothing wrong, by definition, with a woman having a career, we soon came to realize what we had sacrificed by blindly mimicking men. We watched as our children became strangers and soon recognized the privilege we'd given up.

And so only now - given the choice - women in the West are choosing to stay home to raise their children. According to the United States of America Department of Agriculture, only 31 percent of mothers with babies, and 18 percent of mothers with two or more children, are working full-time. And of those working mothers, a survey conducted by Parenting Magazine in 2000, found that 93% of them say they would rather be home with their kids, but are compelled to work due to 'financial obligations' . These 'obligations' are imposed on women by the gender sameness of the modern West, and removed from women by the gender distinctiveness of Islam.

It took women in the West almost a century of experimentation to realize a privilege given to Muslim women 1400 years ago.

Given my privilege as a woman, I only degrade myself by trying to be something I'm not - and in all honesty - don' t want to be: a man. As women, we will never reach true liberation until we stop trying to mimic men, and value the beauty in our own God-given distinctiveness.

If given a choice between stoic justice and compassion, I choose compassion. And if given a choice between worldly leadership and heaven at my feet - I choose heaven.

By Yasmin Mogahed

Source: Unknown

The influential governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, Salman Taseer, has died after being shot by one of his bodyguards in the capital, Islamabad.

Mr Taseer, a senior member of the Pakistan People's Party, was shot when getting into his car at a market.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the guard had told police that he killed Mr Taseer because of the governor's opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy law.

Many were angered by his defence of a Christian woman sentenced to death.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani declared three days of national mourning and ordered flags lowered to half-mast. He also ordered an immediate inquiry into Mr Taseer's killing and appealed for calm.

BBC News

Can you sympathies with the publics anger or do you just think he was murdered in cold blood?

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du7ndBTbvS0]

Shrines are completely Haram (forbidden) in Islam because they are paganistic and polythiestic in nature. Historically, Prophet Muhammad (صلّى الله عليه وآله وسلّم) destroyed all the shrines in Mecca. This point cannot be stressed enough: the Prophet (صلّى الله عليه وآله وسلّم) shed blood of the Sahabah in order that Mecca be cleansed of shrines, and this was one of the Prophet’s first legislative acts after the Muslims conquered Mecca. How is it that the Shia do not realize that what they are doing is completely antithetical to the entire mission of the Prophet (صلّى الله عليه وآله وسلّم) who was sent to guide a shrine-worshipping people?

The Prophet (صلّى الله عليه وآله وسلّم) repeatedly condemned grave-worshipping in the authentic Hadith:

“Beware of those who preceded you and used to take the graves of their prophets and righteous men as places of worship, but you must not take graves as mosques; I forbid you to do that.” (Sahih Muslim)

“May Allah’s curse be on the Jews for they built the places of worship at the graves of their Prophets.” (Sahih Bukhari)

“May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their Prophets.” (Sahih Bukhari)

“If any religious man dies amongst those people they would build a place of worship at his grave and make these pictures in it. They will be the worst creature in the sight of Allah on the Day of Resurrection.” (Sahih Bukhari)

“Do not sit on the graves and do not pray facing towards them.” (Sahih Bukhari)

The first time in human history that people commited the sin of idol-worship was around the time of Prophet Nuh (عليه السلام). A very pious man passed away. Shaytan whispered in the ears of the tonwnspeople: he urged them never to forget this pious man lest the townspeople abandon his example and be lost to sin. Once Shaytan had convinced them of the necessity to revere the memory of this pious dead man, he then then convinced them to erect a shrine over the grave of this man. Eventually, the people started praying in the shrine, and soon thereafter Shaytan convinced them to pray to the deceased man.

It was in this step by step fashion that Shaytan was able to misguide people into Shirk. He convinced them that they were doing a good thing by respecting a pious man, and he allowed them to add one Bidah (evil innovation) after another, infusing polythiestic practise in their belief. Likewise do the Shia believe that they are being pious by visiting shrines but in reality they have been fooled by Shaytan.

Shaykh Muhammad Salih al-Munajjid says:

“Islam forbids erecting structures over graves, and commands that any such structures should be knocked down. But it is permitted to put a marker on the grave so that the family and friends of the deceased will know where it is (and nothing more than this). However, this marker should not be a structure or anything else that is not allowed in sharee’ah.”

With regard to the prohibition on erecting structures over graves, it was narrated that Jabir said: “The Messenger of Allah forbade plastering over graves, sitting on them and erecting structures over them.” (Sahih Muslim, 970)

Al-Shawkani said:

“The phrase ‘erecting structures over them’ indicates that it is Haram to build anything over a grave.”

Al-Shafi’i said:

“I saw the imams in Makkah ordering that what had been built (over graves) was to be knocked down.”

Shaykh Muhammad Salih al-Munajjid says:

“With regard to the command to knock down structures that have been built over graves, that is proven in the Sunnah.”

It was narrated that Abu’l-Hayaaj al-Asadi said: Ali ibn Abi Talib said to me: “Shall I not send you on the same mission as the Messenger of Allah sent me? Do not leave any statue without erasing it, and do not leave any raised grave without leveling it.” (Sahih Muslim, 969).

Al-Shawkani said:

“The words ‘do not leave any raised grave without leveling it’ means that the Sunnah is that a grave should not be made very high, and there should be no differentiation between those who were virtuous and those who were not virtuous.”

Shaykh Muhammad Salih al-Munajjid says:

“Making a grave higher than the amount that is permitted is Haram…The making graves high that is mentioned in the Hadith especially includes the domes and shrines that are built over graves, and the taking of graves as places of worship. The Prophet cursed those who do that (refer to Nayl al-Awtaar, 4/130).”

All of these pagan shrines should be torn down and removed. Instead, all of the dead should have flat and level graves equal to everyone else. This is the faith of Islam. For the one who cannot accept this, he has deviated away from the path of the Hanif (i.e. the monotheists) and inclined himself towards the Mushriks.

Well i just thought of this after replying to Lilio's comment on --> http://www.therevival.co.uk/blogs/thedeensister/its-time-for-muslim-you…

I get a little awkward - do a little smile and nod (Smile and Wave Boys, Smile and Wave! - anyone feel like guessing where that's from?) or if it's someone i know properly, i do an exaggurated I KNOW *GRINNN*.. grin!

I do love giving out compliments to other people though!

What do you do when someone compliments you?

Okay, I've been reading some of the past few comments and i find the discussion really interesting. The rare times actual Islam gets discussed is when someone passionate comes along but fact is, it's confusing and hard to follow when there are MASSIVE chunks and snide remarks to each other snaking between these chunks

SO

In ONE PARAGRAPH of your own words, say what you know about Sufism and why you think it's right or wrong.

And another thing, can we keep this intellectual and not personal? Everyone here is intelligent, there isn't a need to prove it by trying to top-trump each other.

Please&ThankYou