A spiritual Ishmaelite

Category: Interfaith dialogue

  • Hasan bin Qahtaba: A soldier of conscience or Mouchesias the zealot

    ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·TUESDAY, 17 OCTOBER 2017

    الحسن بن قحطبة جندي الضميراو رجل متعصب
    Assalamu alaykum brother. May God reward you for the article. I would like to point out that historians of Byzantine empire commit the character assassination of Hasan bin Qahtaba as Mouchesias the Zealot which seems very implausible because a God-fearing man who takes the risk of execution to avoid the sin of murder cannot plausibly be guilty of forced conversion of minorities which is forbidden by Quran 2:256.
    His story of conscience:
    Muhammad Pure Soul rebelled against al-Mansur in Madina in 145 AH and was supported by the people of Khorasan and others but he was too far away for them to be able to help him. It is reported that in Madina, Malik issued a fatwa, permitting Muhammad to rebel. At-Tabari and Ibn Kathir state that he gave a fatwa commanding people to pledge allegiance to Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah and that when people said that they had already pledged allegiance to al-Mansur, he said that they had been forced and that a forced allegiance is not binding. So people pledged allegiance. Malik stayed in his house. The affair ended when Muhammad was slain, and the same fate befell his brother Ibrahim after he had rebelled in Iraq, takes several cities and attacked Kufa.
    Some people think that this alleged fatwa by Malik was the reason that he was flogged and injured. Abu Hanifa held an even stronger position about the matter than Malik. He openly supported them in his classes. Things reached the point where one of the generals of al-Mansur refused to go out to fight him. It is reported that al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba, one of al-Mansur’s generals, went to Abu Hanifa and said, “My situation is not hidden from you. Can I repent?”
    The Imam said, “If Allah knows that you regret what you have done. If you can choose between killing a Muslim and being killed yourself, choose your own death before his. Then you will have a contract with Allah if you do not go back on it. If you fulfil that, you have repented.”
    “I have done that,” said Hasan. “I make a contract with Allah that I will never again kill a Muslim.”
    Then Ibrahim ibn ‘Abdullah rebelled and al-Mansur com-manded Hasan to go against him. He went to the Imam and told him what had happened and he said, “The moment of your repentance has come. If you fulfil your promise, you have repented. Otherwise, you will be punished for the first and last.”
    So he was serious about his repentance, prepared himself for execution, and went to al-Mansur and said, “I will not go against this man. Allah is owed obedience in everything you do as far as you are able. I will have a fuller portion with Him. If it is disobedience, I am responsible.”
    Al-Mansur was angry and Hamid ibn Qahtaba, his brother, said, “We have suspected his mind for a year. He seems muddled. I will go. I am more entitled to excellence than him.” So he went. Al-Mansur asked one of his confidants, “Which faqih does he go to?” They said, “He frequents Abu Hanifa.”

  • Liberal Phariseeism: Character assassination of Nouman Ali Khan by liberals like Atif Choudhury

    ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·SUNDAY, 15 OCTOBER 20173 reads
    Message to Atif Choudhary who calls Nouman Ali Khan a Quran scholar an abuser. You sound like a salafi( sola scriptura legalist) against taqlid( hero worship of scholars) but to call sending private marriage proposals abuse is extreme. The sinful aspect is having private conversations. And, liberals are far more guilty of it so they do not have moral credentials of criticism. This phenomenon is called liberal Phariseeism.
    Atif Choudhury‏ @SultanOfSmiles
    Neither. I am just against preachers and religious figures having secret, predatory relationships with their students and employees. Sue me
    @SultanOfSmiles To be consistent you should expose the sexual scandals of secular dictators of the Muslim world too. We prefer forgiveness to lawsuits.

    @SultanOfSmiles

    How is it my job to expose anyone? And who is this “we”? I simply condemn scumbags once they are exposed. All scumbags.

    Replying to 

    We means orthodox Muslim scholars and saints. I am a student of school of Shah Waliullah an Indian scholar of Hadith and mysticism.

     @SultanOfSmiles 

    Also speaking of lawsuits, nobody has been firing off more than Nouman Ali Khan. Maybe stop being an equivocating centrist and call him out

    Replying to 

    I loved your article about counter extremism in Bangladesh.

    Replying to 

    I am not a centrist. I am a moderate right winger.

    Replying to 

    Traditional scholars are not like this.

    Replying to 

    That reflects the Americanism of NAK. His Americanism is what made him have lenient standards regarding segregation.

  • Quran, Dunning-Kruger effect and the analogy of a donkey carrying books

    ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·SUNDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2015

    3 reads

    Many uninformed atheists suffer from Dunning-Kruger effect while assessing their religious knowledge about Islam. Also, many knowledgeable atheists suffer from Dunning-Kruger effect, while assessing their moral abilities, because an informed person has more moral duties which many fail to fulfill. That’s why Quran 62:5 calls Jews who believe in their intellectual and religious superiority, as donkeys carrying books because ignorant among them are not much informed about the relationship between Torah and Islam, while the smarter ones fail to fulfill their moral duties of following truth with respect to Islam. The same holds true about Christians and atheists who believe in their religious and intellectual superiority, respectively.

  • Are orthodox Muslims anti-Jewish or anti-Armilus?

    Julie Goren does this mean if i google my name, i will find it?
    Ishmael Abraham Due to my MS studies, it is difficult for me right now to put my notes on wordpress. Torah im Derech Eretz
    Julie Goren i guess i should stop responding to you if you are trolling me.
    Ishmael Abraham Trolls are hired for political reasons. I have no political affiliation. I just want to talk to you about Torah and Quran.
    Julie Goren first of all you are wrong about trolls but whatever. second you dont want to talk you want to convert
    Ishmael Abraham I read that trolls intend to offend others deliberately and I treat you with patience even when you say offensive things. God controls hearts (Muqallib Al Qulub) not me so conversion is beyond my power. May Allah open my eyes and eyes of all humanity for the divine Truth.
    Julie Goren well its true you are patient with me. my only question is: am i a pig or a monkey hiding behind the rocks and the trees? i know you hate me and my people, and would like to see me dead, because you believe your book without questions
    Ishmael Abraham You are not an atheist but a Torah lover so I do not think you will follow the secular false Messiah Armilus. The war will be between true believers and followers of Armilus. It is primarily a spiritual struggle we face each day to resist the temptation of gold and flesh.
    A Jewish Zionist sister Julie Goren unfriends me because she feared converting to Islam. While Islam never expects anyone to stop loving the blessed Torah.

  • Quran 62:10 and Torah im Derech Eretz

    Quran 62:10 Then, when the prayer is finished, scatter in the land and seek God’s bounty, and remember God frequently; haply you will prosper.
    The phrase Torah im Derech Eretz is first found in the Mishna in Tractate Avoth (2:2): “Beautiful is the study of Torah with earning livelihood, as involvement with both makes one forget sin”
    “Such is the way of Torah: Bread with salt you shall eat, water in small measure you shall drink, and upon the ground you shall sleep; live a life of deprivation and toil in Torah. If so you do, “fortunate are you, and good is to you” (Psalms 128:2): fortunate are you in this world, and it is good to you in the World To Come.”

  • The martyr Savonarola, contempt of the world and Ishmaelite theosophy

    The Gothic interior of Florence Cathedral is vast and gives an empty impression. The relative bareness of the church corresponds with the austerity of religious life, as preached by Girolamo Savonarola. In the unfinished treatise he left behind, later called “De contemptu mundi,” or “On Contempt for the World,” he calls upon readers to fly from this world of adultery, sodomy, murder and envy. Savonarola and two of his supporting friars were imprisoned. On 23 May 1498, Church and civil authorities condemned, hanged, and burned the three friars in the main square of Florence. Ishmaelite Prophetic descendant Imam Jafar As-Sadiq(as) interprets Quran 26:89 to mean that the only thing that will benefit in the next life is a clean heart which is not corrupted by love of the world. Most of his biographers reject or ignore the account of his younger brother and follower, Maurelio (later fra Mauro), that in his youth Girolamo had been spurned by a neighbour, Laudomia Strozzi, to whom he proposed marriage.

  • Bridges TV, Ali A. Rizvi, musician Zameer, bullying of American extremists and Islam

    ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·SATURDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2017
    I was introduced to Bridges TV by a Christian extremist who said Islam motivated the murder of wife by the CEO of Bridges TV. He neither prayed nor fasted. Her wife was more conscious about her identity than him because she was the one who insisted to launch the TV so that her children grow up as self-confident Muslims the self-confidence of American Muslims is shattered by perpetual bullying of Christian and secular extremists because Islam causes existential anxiety to both identities. As far as the music is concerned, once a jurist(qadi) of Madina was asked why do you accept the testimony of musicians/music listeners in religious courts? So he said: May God forgive us and you, which one of us does not sing (ayyuna la yataghanna).

  • The relationship of Muslim scholars and money

    Ishmael Abraham·Saturday, January 23, 2016

    5 Reads

    Ishmael Abraham
    Muslim scholars do not receive any taxes. In fact they are the poorest and the most altruistic volunteers in the world
    Donna Smith Islam was spread using taxation of non Muslims as a coercion to become Muslim. You did not understand what I said.
    Ishmael Abraham That freedom and protection tax was nominal and it’s purpose was to exempt non-Muslims from military service. Muslims in West pay taxes to Godless government which are even spent on killing Muslims. So, at least try to know what you hate rather than your blind xenophobic ignorance. That’s why Christians of Spain used to say: Thank heaven for 711 when Muslims conquered it and established peace, justice and freedom of religion.

  • Did Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him use to laugh?

     

    Ishmael Abraham·Sunday, January 24, 2016

    4 Reads

    Although Hadith discourages excessive laughing like worldly people, but modest laughing is a blessed Sunnah.
    Ishmael Abraham “The Messenger of Allah said: ‘Allah laughs at the despair of His slaves although He soon changes it.’ I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, does the Lord laugh?’ He said: ‘Yes.’ I said: ‘We shall never be deprived of good by a Lord Who laughs.’”
    http://sunnah.com/urn/1251800
    Ishmael Abraham Narrated Jarir bin ‘Abdullah:
    “The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) never screened me ( meaning forbade my entry in his presence) since I accepted Islam, nor did he look at me except that he laughed.”
    http://sunnah.com/urn/637050
    Ishmael Abraham He was asked: At what did you laugh? He replied: I saw the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) do as I have done, and laugh after that. I asked: Messenger of Allah , at what are you laughing? He replied: Your Lord, Most High, is pleased with His servant when he says: “Forgive me my sins.” He know that no one forgives sins except Him.
    http://sunnah.com/abudawud/15/126
    Ishmael Abraham All of a sudden the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) who had come up behind caught me by the back of the neck, and when I looked at him he was laughing. He said: Go where I ordered you, little Anas. I replied: Yes, I am going, Apostle of Allah! Anas said: I swear by Allah, I served him for seven or nine years, and he never said to me about a thing which I had done: Why did you do such and such? Nor about a thing which I left: why did not do such and such?
    http://sunnah.com/abudawud/43/1
    Ishmael Abraham When all laughed for something, he would laugh too.
     http://sunnah.com/urn/1803330
    So, we should not excessively laugh at pornographic, blasphemous, backbiting and untruthful jokes like worldly people but we should revive the blessed practice of modest laughing.

  • First Muslim in Antarctica and the idolatry of Saint Andrew through saltire

    Ishmael Abraham·Monday, January 25, 2016

    1 Read

    A SCOTTISH adventurer has become the first Muslim to ski to the South Pole after completing a gruelling endurance trek across the frozen wastes of Antarctica.
    Mostafa Salameh spent 38 days crossing the ice-bound continent with two teammates, pulling up to 90 kilos of supplies behind them on sleds.
    He set off in November, but was trapped at the Union Glacier base camp by fierce storms for 13 days before setting off across one of the harshest landscapes on earth.
    Along the way he raised huge sums for charity, and carried a Scottish saltire for good luck which he flew over the Pole after finally reaching his goal earlier this month.
    An Islamic perspective on saltire: I am a practicing orthodox and orthoprax Muslim student of Quran and Hadith. Saltire is a symbol of pagan saint worship which is anti-biblical and anti-Quranic sin of idolatry(shirk) in Islam which God will not forgive. Saint Andrew has no power to bring victory to anyone, he was only a servant of God who was martyred for keeping the first and greatest commandment to love One God the most, called Tawhid in Islam, but humanity has forgotten the Abrahamic message by glorifying the messenger instead of God the Creator. Quran 9:31 Tafsir Jalalayn They have taken their rabbis, the scholars among the Jews, and their monks, the devout among the Christians, as lords beside God and the Messiah, son of Mary, when they were not commanded, in the Torah and the Gospel, except to worship One God: there is no god except Him; glory be to Him, as an affirmation of His transcendence [high], above what they associate [with Him].
    Quran 2:120 Tafsir Jalalayn Never will the Jews be pleased with you, neither the Christians, not until you follow their creed, their religion, Say: ‘God’s guidance, that is, Islam, is the true guidance’, besides which there is only error. And if you were to follow their whims, hypothetically speaking, [whims] to which they are calling you, after the knowledge, the Divine revelation, that has come to you, you shall have against God neither friend, to protect you, nor helper, to defend you against Him.