It has been said that when a Muslim complains to a fellow Muslim, it is as if he complained to Allah. But when he complains to a non-Muslim, it is as if he complained against Allah.

I was thinking about this today, because I’ve been seeing a doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Now I don’t think it’s wrong to see a non-Muslim doctor, and this was practiced by Muslim rulers for hundreds of years of Muslim history. But I did think it would be optimal if I could find a good practitioner of traditional Islamic medicine, or Tibb. As this system developed out of ancient Greek medicine, and evolved at the hands of great Muslim physicians as well as Sufis, it has alternatively been given names like Greco-Arabic (Unani) or Sufi Humoral medicine. An amazing introduction to this system of Medicine is laid out in Hakim Chishti’s Book of Sufi Healing.

So here I was wondering if I could find a reliable Unani practitioner this afternoon; and then I find myself listening to a talk by one such practitioner tonight! His name is Hakeem Salim Khan, and he came from Leicester to London to give a talk about this tonight. See (www.themohsininstitute.com). This friend of mine had planned to go there, and he was in the area near me, with 30 minutes to kill, so he thought he’d ring me, and it’s the first time he ever called me. So I ask him what’s he’s doing later tonight and.. You know. SubhanAllah. (But I did think about this same matter and the same saying a couple days ago as well so I’m not saying this is miraculous or anything).

After his talk, I asked the hakeem (which is an Arabic word for doctor- except its literal meaning is “wise man” because in Islamic medicine a doctor should be far more than what modern day doctors are) a question. I said how do you compare Islamic medicine to Chinese medicine.

His answer was beautiful. He said that Muslim thinkers have offered two explanations for the ancient medical knowledge in the world. The dominant explanation is that these systems of medicine, all over the world, were revealed by Allah in ancient times, so that people know how to stay healthy.

This is an idea that I had read about before- I think I saw a passing mention of the idea in one of the works of Shaykh Abu Bakr Siraj al-Din or maybe Rene Guenon or both. The argument was that these complete systems of Medicine that dealt with soul, mind, and body, could not have been discovered through study. Things like Meridians and the benefits of particular herbs, etc, and the idea that sticking a needle in one spot of the ear or of the foot can cure a corresponding organ of the body, etc.. all of this is not something you discover. It has to have been revealed through Prophets or inspired to sages.

In fact there are many famous Sufi hakeems in Islamic history who are said to have heard the different plants “tell them” what they can cure, including the personal hakeem of Muhammad al-Fateh, conqueror of Constantinople. And in the case of revelation, we know what the Qur’an says about honey and what the Prophet Muhammad salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam said about certain plants and seeds, etc.

So these ancients systems of Medicine, or parts of them, were revealed along with the ancient religions of the world. I’m gonna stick with my Chinese doctor for now, so as to not cause any mixing of approaches, but maybe one day I’ll take a little trip to Leicester.

Bism Allah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem, revealer of the Qur’an Kareem that says to His noble Messenger: And We have not sent you except as a Mercy to the aalameen: all the worlds.

And as-Salaatu was-Salaamu upon the most noble of the mursaleen (Messengers), our master Muhammad, and upon his family and descendants until the Yawm al-Deen.

I stood this Sunday morning in London’s V&A Museum before three magnificent pieces of silk in the Islamic Arts section. The most wonderful in design and color was a red band from the Honored Kaaba, dating from the 1800s, because for hundreds of years the Kaaba’s covering was green- not black- in color, with a red band instead of the gold of today.

The two others were green pieces of the silk that once covered the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad (salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam). The first from 1517-1600, and the second from 1600 to 1700. For a hundred years each, these pieces of silk were exposed to all the blessings and mercies that were sent down from Allah upon the Noble Messenger, and to the majestic lights that rose up, emanating from the Light of the Worlds himself, Salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam.

Ever since Abbasid times, the coverings of the Honored Kaaba and the Noble Chamber were made in Egypt; at one point in history the latter was being changed every five years. But after the reign of the Ottomans in the lands, the coverings of the inside of the Kaaba and of the Prophetic Chamber were made in Turkey, while the outer covering of the Kaaba remained the work of Egypt.

But the founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abd al-Aziz bin Abd al-Rahman Aal Saud, ordered that a factory be created in Mecca to manufacture these coverings from his day forward. Journalist Omar al-Midwahy, whose writings focus on the two Holy Sanctuaries and other important Islamic sights, was able to interview in Mecca two of the men who worked on the last covering of the Prophetic Chamber and its installation.

On the occasion of this servant’s viewing of the blessed coverings, and hoping for forgiveness and acceptance from His Lord, he will attempt to translate this interview that reveals some of the secrets of the majestic chamber of Allah’s Beloved, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, hoping to gain the favor of Allah and to one day be counted among the servants (khuddam) of His Messenger, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam.

Omar al-Midwahy says to Alarabiya.net:

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The Conversations of Tears and Reverence

I still remember the conversations with the two old men in Mecca, while looking at their weaving. I was in Mecca, so I headed toward the factory of the covering of the Kaaba, and there I learned that the factory has another honor, for it produces also a covering for the Prophetic Chamber.

I met at that time- several years ago- with men who partook in the production and installation, and I didn’t want to waste that opportunity as their youngest was in his sixties and I feared that they would leave this world before I could document this work.

I recorded with them conversations that were mixed with tears and reverence; sometimes words would betray them, and at others, their emotions would choke them, as they spoke of their unique experience. Their limbs shook from just the memory- as if it happened yesterday- and not a quarter of a century ago.

Shaykh Muhammad Ali Madani, head of the automated weaving division of the factory at that time, was generous with me. I learned from him that he was one of those who took part in weaving and installing the covering of the Prophetic Chamber. I said to him, tell me about the covering and the Prophetic Chamber- describe them to me.

His sight wandered far, as if he was bringing those treasured memories before him. Then he answered: On that day, I felt a state of complete amazement take over me. It is a grand spot- of utmost grandeur. I do not know its exact circumference, but it seemed to me that the Prophetic Chamber was 48 meters in circumference.

The awe of the place was so overbearing that nothing attracted my attention. I was so dazzled that I only saw the lamps hanging from the chamber ceiling, which were old gifts that would be given to the Mosque of the Prophet in ancient times. I was told that there were some Prophetic relics that were kept in another place- I don’t know where- but I do know that some historical items were kept in the chamber of sayyida Fatima al-Zahraa- the same place that she lived in.

He added: the chamber covering is a weave made of pure silk, green in color, padded with a strong cotton cloth, and it is crowned by a belt similar to that of the covering of the Honored Kaaba, except that it is red in color. A quarter of its space is taken up by an embroidery of noble Quranic verses from Surat al-Fath, made of lines of cotton and wires of gold and silver…

The covering of the Prophetic Chamber is not changed every year like the covering of the Honored Kaaba, because it is kept inside the chamber and far from the hands of the people and of the elements, and so it is only changed when needed.

Then I met shaykh Ahmad Sahirty, head of the embroidery division of the factory. It was apparent to me - back then- how old he was, and how weak his vision. He took the initiative, saying: How can I speak to you about my feelings at the moment I entered the Prophetic Chamber… I can’t.. That is a speech above my abilities of speech, and I never thought that I would one day be asked about this experience. And I guarantee you that I will not be able to go through it again.

When the Doors Were Opened

He drew nearer to me and added: Look at the lenses of my spectacles- and he pointed at their thickness- and look at my white hair and the weight of the years that I carry. My age I do not count, but I’ve heard them say that I was born in the year 1333 A.H. (1917 C.E.). And in all those years, I did not know a single hobby other than the love of beautiful scents and perfumes. I’ve spent such a long period of time in those years that I’ve lived, trying to satiate that voracious appetite that is still with me; I traveled much and learned much, but I can tell you this with confidence: that I have my own special blends that you will not find with anyone else, and that no one else could ever make.

And I tell you this because I discovered my inability and the meagerness of my knowledge on that blessed night, when the doors were opened to us, and we entered the Prophetic Chamber, and I inhaled perfumes and scents that I have never known before, and have never known since. I still do not know the secret of its composition: it was a scent above scents, an aroma above and beyond aromas- something else that us people of expertise, the people of the trade, have never experienced before.

When I asked him to describe to me the Prophetic Chamber, a slight chill struck him and coursed through his body. And he said in a faint voice: I believe that the chamber is 11 meters in height. Below the green dome is another dome on which is written: “The tomb of the Prophet, the tomb of Abu Bakr al-Siddeeq, and the tomb of Umar ibn al-Khattab”. And I saw also that there was another tomb that was empty, and next to the four tombs was the chamber of sayyida Fatima al-Zahraa, which is the house in which she lived.

From our awe we didn’t know how to remove the special pieces made for the dome- our fingers would shake and our breaths would race. We stayed 14 full nights working from after the Isha prayer until the first adhaan of the Fajr, in order to finish our task. We kept removing the pieces, untying the knots of the old covering, and cleaning all the dust and pigeon feathers that were stuck in that pure place. This scene goes back to the year 1971 C.E., and the covering that we changed was old: it was 75 years old according to the date that was weaved on it, and had never been changed since.

I was the first to enter, with the Sayyid Habib, one of the notables of al-Madina al-Munawwara, As’ad Sheera the director of religious endowments of Madina at the time, and Habib Moghrabi from the factory management, and Abd al-Karim Flomban, Nasir Qari, Abd al-Rahim Bukhari and others. We were 13 men, I don’t remember most of them, for they have left unto the Mercy of Allah.

We were accompanied by the chief of the Aghas who kept the keys to the Prophetic Chamber, and a number of the servants of the Chamber. Whispering was our speech, and that was if signaling was not sufficient. I was, and still am, suffering from weakness of vision and these spectacles have not left my eyes since those days, but in that chamber I was another person… I felt it, and the difference was clear to me.

Strange Happenings

The shaykh Sahirti swore, saying: I used to put the thread into the hole of the needle without my spectacles, despite the dim light in which we worked. How do you explain that? And how do you explain the fact that I didn’t feel the allergy that I suffered - and still suffer- from? Because I cough severely from the slightest bit of dust. But that day, I was not affected by the dust of the chamber, or the sand flying into the air. As if sand was no longer sand, and as if the dust became a medicine for my ailment. I used to feel all during those nights that I was a young man, and that youthfulness had been given back to me.

Another strange thing happened to me whose secret I haven’t understood until today. We had to take out the old covering, and it was carried by whoever carried it. The embroidered band, 36 meters long, remained. I said to them wrap it and leave it. I went up to it, and despite my weakness, carried it over this shoulder. I went out of the Prophetic Chamber with it, without ever feeling its weight. But after that, they came with five young men to carry it from where I had put it down and they couldn’t.

The shaykh began to weep silently and continued, while sighing: Someone asked who carried it and brought it here. I replied saying: me. They didn’t believe me. I said to them: Ask Abd al-Rahim Bukhari, the famous calligrapher of the covering.

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[Source]

And may Allah continuously whelm the Messenger and his family with Salawaats, Peace, Blessings, and Light, until the day in which his brother Messenger, Isa son of Mary, is buried in that fourth empty grave of the Prophetic Chamber, and yet even after that, and forever.

Ya Qiblati

Written by Shaykh Saleh al-Jaafari al-Husayni

Right-Click on the words “Ya Qiblati” and click Save As.. in order to download.

If using a Mac, that would be Ctrl+Click, then Save Link As…

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Translation:

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[Intimate call to Allah:]

You are my obligatory worship, and voluntary devotion

You are the subject of my speech, and my preoccupation

O Qibla of my Prayer, whene’er I stand in worship.

I left behind all uns in others, and came to seek uns in myself.

(For) You are the one who’s near to me, without sense and without touch.

I ascended toward the Heavens, I left behind the Earth of the physical.

I called out: O Lord, forgiveness! Forgive my sins and my impurity!

I am the needy one who asks You when alone, O Lord, for uns in the Divine.

Witnessing You is Bliss itself, it is my objective, my wedding celebration

O Him whose door is always open, Whose door I never leave,

Seeking to taste a drink that is most sweet for the people of my kind.

[Advice to the Seeker:]

The nights cry over the loss of men, who stayed up in Dhikr and study.

They were as the moons of the night, they were as the morning, as the sun.

From Allah they gained glory, before entering their graves.

If you want to live a happy life, then let your ship cast anchor,

On the sandhill of Arrival, where the virtuous spend their nights.

There: fulfill your hopes; let not despair lead you astray.

Enter with a heart that’s sound, and look with heart and feeling.

Forbid sleep to your eyes, and in sanctity recite the Book.
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-The first lines (in bold font) were taken from a much celebrated poem by the Sultan of the Lovers, Ibn al-Farid.

One time the young Al-Ghazali was traveling from one city to another when highway robbers stopped the caravan. Al-Ghazali begged them to take everything but his books, and a thief said to him, “How can you claim to know these books when by taking them from you, I deprive you of their contents?” Al-Ghazali saw in that a rebuke from Allah and spent the next three years memorizing the books he studied and his notes on them, in order to really “have knowledge.”

Well, there are so many things I would like to write about here. But for everything I want to write, I then realize that the perfect quote or the needed information is in one of my books in Jordan. And so I end up writing nothing.

That just goes to show (my self) that I have no real knowledge… I only have knowledge of where to find real knowledge. Rabbi zidni ‘ilma!

In my previous post, I argued that Ibn Taymiyyah should be called the Imam of the Modern Age, or the Imam of the Future, because of the freshness of his ideas, and the great insights that he has on so many contentious issues of today.

At the same time, Ibn Arabi, in his famous lines of poetry which appear outside his tomb in Damascus, claims to be the man for every age.

I think it would be great to study the fiqh of these two great men and its importance for the modern world.

Ibn Arabi and Ibn Taymiyyah have a lot in common. They disagree with the majority opinion of scholars on many topics, in which their views in these topics are very similar, if not identical.

In fact, Ibn Taymiyyah said that he benefitted greatly from Ibn Arabi’s Futuhat. It was only his Fusus which he found unacceptable. Now it is a known historical fact that some batini sects inserted their own corrupted beliefs into the Futuhat, forcing Ibn Arabi to come to court with his own original manuscript to prove himself innocent of these passages. So If only Ibn Taymiyyah called the book (or his understanding of it) to be kufr, instead of Ibn Arabi himself… Many other works of Ibn Arabi were greatly misunderstood by Ibn Taymiyyah. I read his great work Risalat al-Furqan, and the only problem in that book is the passage that attacks Ibn Arabi, where Ibn Taymiyyah has clearly misunderstood what Ibn Arabi was saying. I was actually surprised at how such a brilliant mind as Ibn Taymiyya’s couldn’t grasp what Ibn Arabi was trying to say about that particular topic.

So if you put aside the issues on which Ibn Taymiyya attacked Ibn Arabi unfairly, you will find great similarity between them, especially in particular opinions of fiqh.

In the 19th century, the Emir Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza’iri, having become the world’s greatest hero of his time, retired to Syria, and formed around him a circle of scholars. He taught these scholars from the books of his own spiritual guide, Ibn Arabi.

These scholars, the students of Ibn Arabi’s thought via Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza’iri, are actually the founders of the Salafi movement in Syria in the 19th century. They are the ones that rediscovered Ibn Taymiyya’s importance, found all his manuscripts in the libraries of Syria, and published them. They were the ones that preached the gospel of Ibn Taymiyyah, so to speak. For them, Ibn Taymiyyah provided all the necessary answers for the revival of the Ummah. As I said, he was the Imam of the Future.

And yet when their overzealous followers, who were perhaps less intellectually capable, or simply not as well read, attacked Ibn Arabi, they rushed to his defense, even criticizing Ibn Taymiyyah for attacking him.

(See the relevant section in Itzchak Weismann’s Taste of Modernity: Sufism and Salafiyya in Late Ottoman Damascus.)

Another great figure of the 19th century, who had met the great Abd al-Qadir when still young and predicted his future greatness, is Imam Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sanusi. Al-Sanusi spread the Ahmadiyya Muhammadia order in Libya, which would later be known as the Sanusiyya movement.

He wrote a great but little known work in defense of ijtihad, arguing, among other things, that the gate of ijtihad never closed. One of the most interesting things about that work is that it combines extensive quotes of Ibn Arabi and Ibn Taymiyyah, because they both agree on that issue.

So since they also agree on many matters of fiqh, maybe someone should combine the opinions of the Imam of the Future and the Imam of Every Age. That, I think, would be most interesting. Perhaps, following in the footsteps of Imam al-Sanusi, who is one of my spiritual ancestors, I will begin such work, if Allah gives me the power, time, and motivation.

So the more I learn about what traditional scholars had to say about all the contentious topics of today, the more I wonder just how it is that we have so many debates about them. All these issues that people raise about equality of men and women, testimony of women, etc etc… There’s so much debate and argument about them. But you get the feeling that both the modernists/progressives/reformists and the opposing camp, the supposedly orthodox, don’t seem to really know the traditional literature on the subjects.

I read about these ancient opinions on these things, and I wonder why they don’t come up in the discourse, not even on the side of the “orthodox”. If only these opinions were known, there wouldn’t be so much argument. It makes it feel like all the modern debates today are completely unwarranted… Surprisingly enough, Ibn Taymiyyah, rahimahullah, seems to have some of the most enlightening insights on these matters.

They sometimes call Abu Hanifa the Imam of the Age, because many of his ideas of so long ago, having been formulated in a cosmopolitan setting, are far more fitting for the modern age than the opinions of other schools that were formulated in more conservative settings.

I think that Ibn Taymiyyah -properly understood, because he’s been so horribly misunderstood by so many who think they’re his followers- also deserves that title. He has such great insights and explanations of so many of these controversial issues of modern times. Perhaps he can be the Imam of the Modern Age, or the Imam of the Future. But he’s not the only one… We really need to go back to our great scholars of the past, and take a sip from their oceans.

Maybe one day, if I feel that I have the time and resources, I will dedicate a page to Ibn Taymiyya’s opinions on all these issues. I’ll try to write about them, one by one, every once in a while, until I combine them all in one page.

There once was a king who heard about this great shaykh that lived alone in a forest, and many great things were attributed to him. So the king had him brought to his palace, and prepared a great banquet in his honor. But sitting in front of all that food, the shaykh just took a little piece of bread.

“Subhnal-Allah, What a zaahid you are!” Exclaimed the king! Zuhd, usually translated as asceticism, means to want little of something, or to abstain from it.

“But you are more of a zaahid then I am” replied the shaykh to the king.

Astonished, the king asked him how that could possibly be.

“It is because I have zuhd in regards to this world, which is nothing. But you, O king, you have zuhd of the Afterlife, which is everything.”

You see, Zuhd is NOT abstaining from what is good. Zuhd is knowing what has worth, and what doesn’t. The Zahid simply realizes that the more he takes from this worthless and ephemeral world, the less he gets in the everlasting Paradise. If you ask a child below the age of four (I think), whether he prefers a piece of chocolate right now, or three pieces of chocolate at the end of the day, he will ask for the one piece right now. So you see, the Zaahid is simply someone with the mental development of a 4+ yr old: he knows he’s gaining by temporarily abstaining. The trick is to know - and to always keep in mind- that what you’re getting is far greater than what you’re giving up.

Seen from that regard, Zuhd isn’t what people think it is. It is actually selfishness, because it is wanting the most for yourself. It’s just selfishness directed in the proper way. It is intelligent selfishness. We are all selfish. We all want as much as possible for ourselves. It’s just that some people don’t see that the more they take from this world, the less they will have in the hereafter.

Why do you think highly religious people are so generous? Why do you think our Messenger salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam was more generous than the swift wind? It is because they don’t see themselves as losing anything when they give away money. They see that what they give away is worthless, and what they’re getting in return is priceless. As was revealed to us in a Hadith Qudsi, the entire world isn’t worth as much as the wing of a fly in the eyes of Allah.

People have to understand this- to put things in perspective. A lot of people think that Zuhd and extreme generosity are these magical ideals that are reserved for the most selfless people. No, it is the work of intelligent people, who are just as concerned with their own wellbeing as anyone else, or even far more. They just have the insight to see what is actually good for you and what isn’t. They know what “goods” they should slavishly work to attain.

I end with the story of Sultan al-Ulamaa Izz al-Din ibn Abd al-Salaam and his wife, may Allah be pleased with them. One time, Damascus was hit with a great increase in prices, and people began selling their estates and gardens for extremely cheap prices, so they can afford to pay for their living expenses. So the wife of al-Izz (as he is known), gave him the gold and jewelery that she had in her possession and said, “go buy us with this gold a garden to serve as our summer resort.” So he took that gold, and sold it, and gave away all the money in charity.

So when he went back home, his wife asked, “did you buy us a garden?”

He said “yes, I have bought you a garden in Paradise.”

And all she said in response was, jazaka Allahu khayran. May Allah reward you well!

SubhanAllah. Look at her contentment with that, even though it’s not what she had intended at all. But she realized that he had gotten her a far greater deal than what she had in mind….

So don’t marvel at the generosity of the super-generous Muslim, or the zuhd of the famous zuhhaad. They’re just good businessmen who simply know a good deal when they see one!

And this should help you understand as well, that Zuhd is not a goal to be attained in and of itself. One shouldn’t say “I want to be a zaahid“. It simply is not a goal or an ideal to want to attain for the sake of attaining it.. It is an outcome. A side-effect of something else: of proper understanding. But proper understanding alone is not enough, because you need with it constant remembrance of Allah and of Paradise. Otherwise it’s very easy to forget the hereafter and to be fooled by the things we see around us.

If you want to strive for anything, strive for constant remembrance of Allah, the Majestic. And if you do, and you think about what He the Most Generous has in store for you in the hereafter, then zuhd and generosity will necessarily follow. But to simply want to live like so-and-so or so-and-so because you read about their zuhd, then there is no merit in that. You’re confusing the goal with its effects.
Now tell me: are you a good businessperson?

Bism Allah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim wa bi-hamdih,

wal salaatu wal salaamu ‘alaa sayyidini Muhammad, whose recitation of the Qur’an has no equal in the world, and upon his family and companions.

I have never really thought about Qur’an reciters until recently. Many people seem to know different reciters and have their favorites, but I couldn’t tell you who’s who from hearing them. In Egypt I did start listening to the Kuwaiti superstar shaykh Mishari Rashid, but I don’t like him as much any more. I seem to be attracted to older voices nowadays.

My interest in reciters was sparked recently in a family dinner when people were discussing my grandfather’s favorite reciter, Mustafa Ismail. It seems he liked him the most, as well as the older Muhammad Ref’at. But the problem with Ref’at is that he lived in an age before good recordings were made, and you can’t really find anything good for him. Mustafa Ismail came after him, and luckily much of his work has survived.

Now shaykh Mustafa Ismail is not your average reciter. He was a genius in the realm of sound, who “understood” music the way Mozart did (have you seen the movie Amadeus?) People who want to learn Arabic music or song have to learn all the different maqamaat, or scales, which are far more numerous and complex than what you would fine in Western music. It seems that shaykh Mustafa Ismail understood these maqamaat without learning them so well, that it was as if he himself invented music theory.

Noted music composer Ammar El-Shereii tried to analyze the sheikh’s musical approach by replaying a few short recitations: “His recitation was miraculous, and he was a musical miracle as well. He was unique.”

Analyzing a different verse, the composer says,

“He would go up to the very highest notes of the maqaam and he would do it with ease, enjoying himself. It is enough to drive you crazy. This man must have understood music very well, and must have meant what he was doing. He uses Saba maqaam at first to demonstrate huzn (sadness), then moves to the C, or Agam, and then he takes his voice high up the notes when he says “al-samaa” (the sky). If this were not a musician, then we the musicians know nothing, and must go home. He knew what he was doing and did it depending on his knowledge of the [seven] qira’at [readings] and his very special expressive ability.”

Dr. Ahmed Nuaina, an Egyptian Qur’an reader, said of him,

“Mostafa Ismail is not just one sheikh. He is several methods and sheikhs in one. You can find all musical forms in his recitation. Whenever I hear a sheikh say something, I remember that Sheikh [Ismail] had said it before. Reciters have failed to come up with anything new after him. He moves easily between maqamaat, and never went off tune. The listener’s ear never feels tired of him, because he always intrigues his listeners. He is creative in his qafalat [endings]. I can often predict qafalat, but his are always unexpected.”

He died in 1978, rahimahu Allah. He seems to be really big in Turkey because if you look him up online you find hundreds of Turkish pages dedicated to him.

You can find some of his work on YouTube, including this recitation from Surat Maryam, to which someone made a video from scenes of the famous Iranian TV show about the Virgin Mary. You can hear the audience shouting “Allah!” out of ecstasy and appreciation at the ends of the ayaat.

uk.youtube.com/watch?v=M5gqi0Q3UUE

The other reciter that I have discovered recently and absolutely love is Omar al-Qazabri, the most famous reciter in the lands of the Maghreb today.

If you go here www.mp3quran.net/omar.html

You will find Surat al-Kahf in the Warsh reading, and the rest of the Qur’an in the more famous Hafs reading. I downloaded al-Baqara (in Hafs) and found it stunning. Download it now!!! Al-Kahf in Warsh is also great. I wish I can find more by him in Warsh.

See also this video of him leading 30,000 people in prayer in the Sultan Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, bringing them to tears. Such a moving recitation.

uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TViGaNTUftc

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Sayyidna Abu Hurairah (radi Allahu anhu), narrates that the Messenger of Allah (salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam) said, “Extinguish fire with the Takbeer.”

And sayyidna Ibn Abbas (radi Allahu anhu) has narrated that the Messenger of Allah (salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam) said, “When you see a fire, then recite the Takbeer for it will extinguish the fire.”

 I remembered this two days ago at a restaurant here called Nando’s, where you get to choose the level of spiciness of your meal, and I went for “Very Hot.” After the fiery flames of my veggie pitta had engulfed and burned most of my mouth I remembered the above hadiths and began to repeat Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! (In my mind of course, as to not cause a security alert).

 Now I only remembered to say that when the hotness was beginning to subside, so I can’t tell for sure whether the Allahu Akbar helped with that kind of metaphorical flame, but it did go right away. Again, it was on the way of subsiding anyway, so let me know the next time you eat something spicy and recite the takbir, because I have to stop eating spicy food for (Traditional Chinese) medical reasons, and won’t get to test it.

 On a more serious note, takbir also extinguishes the fire of the nafs if it flares up with bad desires or thoughts, and Shaykh Saleh al-Jaafari has described takbir as a sword in cutting them up.

I and many other Muslims know pathetically little about our history (and I got a BA in it!) I had to find out about a great Muslim ruler and hero, not from proud Muslims who know and teach their history, but from the proud British who display his most intimate belongings in their palaces and castles as trophies. As a hunter would display the skin of a tiger with head and teeth on a wall, the British royalty and military displayed, among other things, his personal body armor, swords and daggers, in glass boxes. And in what I thought was untactful and tasteless, they display a portrait of one of his wives.

The first of these belongings I saw displayed in the Castle of Edinburgh, which celebrated Scottish military achievements, and yesterday I saw many more in Windsor Castle, residence to the British monarchy for more than 900 years.

So who was that Tiger? Before we come to that, a few words are necessary about the Mughal Empire and the Muslim rule of India.

In the words of Shaykh Muhammad bin Musa al-Shareef, the Mughal Sultanate:

controlled the entire Indian subcontinent from the Bengal to the Punjab on the borders of Iran, and from Ghazna (Afghanistan) to the Indian Ocean- an enormous and magnificent state. And we have lost this state with our hands- a precious possession, we lost. The Muslims cry over al-Andalus, but al-Andalus would not even make a province, not even 1/100th of the area of India. And if the Muslims cry over Cordoba and Alhambra, then they have lost [in India] colossal palaces with which the castles of Cordoba, Alhambra, and Grenada cannot be even weighed or compared. And if they cried over a few thousands Muslims who died as martyrs in al-Andalus, then in India millions of Muslims have died. There is not even one inch of the Indian lands, almost, except that on it is pure Muslim blood, and upon which the adhaan was heard loud and clear for hundreds of years. Yet we cry over al-Andalus and forget India- thus the Muslims forget their history. They do not know their history in India, and it is a bright and radiant history- great, grand, and beautiful.

Shaykh Muhammad bin Musa al-Shareef said this when talking about one of the great rulers of the Mughal Empire: the pious and just Aurangzeb, a rare jewel adorning the history of Muslim civilization. But Aurangzeb is too grand to speak of as a side-note, so his is another time. We are now concerned with another great Muslim ruler from the Indian subcontinent: Sultan Fateh Ali Tippu (aka Tippu Sultan), ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. As I am completely ignorant about the history of Islam in the Indian subcontinent, I do not know this Kingdom’s relation to the Mughal Sultanate. I need to get a book about that as soon as possible.

But here are some tidbits about him:

Tipu Sultan was a learned man- a good poet too- and an able soldier. He was a devout Muslim. The majority of his subjects were Hindus and they were his staunch loyalists for he was a benevolent ruler. His mission was to liberate his land from the yoke of the colonials, and made an alliance with the French in order to fight the British colonialists. He and his father fought many battles against them, and he helped his father defeat the British in the Second Mysore War.

In the words of a historian of India:

Tipu was an enlightened ruler, the sheet-anchor of whose state-policy was the well-being of all his subjects irrespective of caste, creed or class. He took his stand on the bedrock of humanity, regarding all his subjects as equal citizens to live in peace, harmony and concord.

He died in the year 1799, with sword in hand, defending the capital of his kingdom. The great Scottish author Sir Walter Scott even compared Napoleon to him, saying that while Napoleon might have fallen short of showing the same “liberality of conduct and political views” that were shown by Tippu’s father, Napoleon “might have shown the same resolved and dogged spirit of resolution which induced [Tippu Sultan] to die manfully upon the breach of his capital city with his sabre clenched in his hand.”

It is clear that he lived - and died- by his own words, “It is far better to live like a Tiger for a day than to live like a jackal for a hundred years”. It is said that in recent history, he is the only king to die on the battlefield.

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In the words of distinguished historian of India, Professor Sheik Ali:

Tipu Sultan was a fascinating figure of 18th century, who offered his blood to write the history of free India. He had a vision and a mission in life. The vision was to make his people enlightened and prosperous, and mission was to liberate his land from the yoke of the colonials. His short but stormy rule is significant because of his view that only that life was worth living which would unfold the drama of human freedom, not only political freedom, but also social freedom, economic freedom, cultural freedom, and freedom from want, hunger, apathy, ignorance and superstition. His definition of State itself was organized energy for freedom.

For more information, see this website dedicated to him: www.tipusultan.org/