This piece is written as a contribution to NatGeo’s series, The Story of God ‘Oh wow, this cheesecake is just pure heaven!’, I heard a young lady gush whilst at Starbucks a few years ago. I smiled to myself, noting her interesting phrasing, as I perused my Quran. Reading the Quran in Starbucks is one of my little pleasures in life. That day, I was contemplating the concept of ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ in the Quran. My present conception had come... Read more
I remember wondering, as early as the age of six or seven, who these people were. It was in school, learning Islamic studies, and our very first lesson was about the grandfather of Prophet Muhammad. I could not process it back then. Who was this person and why was I learning about him? We only came to Prophet Muhammad himself a few lessons later (after his father and his mother). By then I was very perplexed. It was only later... Read more
(pic courtesy of: https://uk.pinterest.com/lancerhoades/salem-witch-trials/) When I heard that ITV was planning to air a new documentary on the Ex-Muslim phenomenon called ‘Islam’s Non-Believers’, I was hoping for some unbiased reporting from the producers. While I did detect some nuance in the reporting (like the care taken to say‘Islamic Fundamentalism’ instead of the more generalizing ‘Islam’), I believe that the content of the documentary was biased. I will explain more below. Before I continue, allow me to state that I am... Read more
I was not entirely surprised last week when I faced blowback from the Muslim community on social media regarding my suggestion to have congregational prayers on Saturdays (it is almost universally held on Fridays). Although my suggestion was mainly for Muslims in the West who do not have much time on Fridays, the blowback came from my country of origin, Malaysia where I am known as a ‘liberal thinker’, the honorific ‘thinker’ being considerably diminished by the pejorative ‘liberal’. Some... Read more
pic courtesy of (www.muslimsforallah.com) Almost a week ago, I joined www.meetup.com and started my own group – the Saturday Reform Jumuah. As its name suggests, it plans to have the Traditional congregational prayer on a Saturday. It is almost universally held on a Friday and so I have been mocked and verbally abused for my proposal. My reasons for this proposal though should be obvious for anyone who has attends the prayers on a working day – there simply is... Read more
When Mr Donald Trump first announced his candidacy for the White House, many people including myself found it hard to believe. After all, this was no corporate position he was running for. Some measure of integrity was involved in this race. At least, that was what I believed at the time. During the course of Mr Trump’s campaign, he has made a number of Islamophobic remarks. Please note though, I am not one of those types of Muslims who yell... Read more
Black lives matter and let me tell you why. I’ve lived on both sides of the fence. I am a Malay-Muslim. I was born in Malaysia and lived there up till the age of twenty. In Malaysia, the Malay-Muslims are the dominant demographic. We are the equivalent of White people in the West. Although I have, thus far, lived the following twenty years of my life in the UK (I am forty now), I maintain close ties to Malaysia. I... Read more
Day 30: Al-Fiil This is very short chapter located almost at the end of Quran. I believe that it is the final explanation of the people of luth and what happened to them. The reason I believe this is the exact same punishment (being pelted by ‘stone from sijjil’) is given to the people of the elephant in this chapter and to the people of luth (11/82 and 15/74) and it is a Quranic principle of equivalency to be... Read more
Ash-Shams, Ch 91, is part of a triplet of chapters (91,92,93) which are sandwiched between 2 chapters expounding on self and social philosophy (90 and 94). This is why I believe Ch 91-93 are the links with natural metaphors which aid self and social evolution. Ch 91 stars with 6 verses of natural metaphors. It talks about the sun, the moon, the skies, the earth. These 4 interact to form the day and the night in Vs 5 and... Read more
It has been a long and busy week for Daesh (so-called Islamic State) terrorists. Three terror attacks were organized or at least inspired by them. On June 28th, not even a week ago, there was a deadly shooting and bombing spree at the Ataturk airport in Istanbul leaving forty-five dead and forty-nine injured. Thirteen people have since been charged. Then, another attack came last Friday in Dhaka, a bakery was stormed by terrorists whom ‘Daesh’ claimed were their own. Twenty... Read more
Muslim in the Middle
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