Thoughts - Al Jumuah Magazine

What Converts Wish Raised Muslims Knew: We Want To Be Good Muslims, But …

OUR UMMAH IS seeing a huge surge in newcomers to Islam. It is perhaps a surge in conversion that has not been seen since Islam spread from China to Spain. According to the 2003 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records,…

Passion and Power: The Politics of ‘The Ideal Muslimah’

IT IS HUMAN nature to be hyper aware and critical of those in the public eye, and Muslims are no different. Imams, shuyûkh, and other popular figures in the Muslim public sphere are all subject to scrutiny and fascination. Muslim women who…

The Ethical Monotheism of Islam vs Unethical Monotheism

ISLAM, LIKE CHRISTIANITY and Judaism, is commonly described in Comparative Religion textbooks as an ethical monotheism. That is, it asserts that there is only one God, and that recognition and worship of that one God carries grave ethical implications and imposes profound…

Two Holy Places: Brothers Sharing God’s Blessings

In the Greek and Roman Empires, the Jerusalem Temple (Beit HaMikdosh) and the Ka’bah, the House of God (Baitullah) in Mecca were not as well known as the giant pagan Temples of Greece and Rome. Yet just a few centuries after the…

A Muslim’s Meditation on Modern-Day Marketing | Part 3

Islam’s Market Mandate—Trade Without Exploitation ISLAM PERMITS, EVEN encourages, trade for profit, but with two strict injunctions: Full disclosure in sales and safeguarding modesty. The purpose of both these provisos is to check exploitation, the formula for which is this: D+SI=E. That is,…

The Muslim As A ‘Manchurian Candidate’

Connecting President-elect Donald Trump’s calls to either ban all Muslims from entering the United States, subject them to an ideological litmus test prior to entering, or have them register their whereabouts once in the country is one simple truth: the desire to…

On Muslims, Swimming lessons, and European Secularism

A recent European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling in favor of Switzerland puts to test democratic and secular principles in Europe. In a judgment handed down on Tuesday, the ECHR rejected a claim brought by a Muslim couple in Basel, Switzerland, who…

Do Jews Worship Ezra?

Long before Da’esh (“Islamic State”) began murdering tens of thousands of woman and children in order to establish God’s right order in the world, Pope Gregory VII (r. 1073-1085) got the massacre ball rolling. Upon assuming the papacy in 1073, Pope Gregory…

Death: A Crucial Deadline

EVEN THOUGH A certainty of life and one of its most relevant questions, death is a subject many people do not like to think or talk about—especially in cultures founded on materialism. Usually, it is lack of faith in the Hereafter and…

quranic meditation On Justice Equality Feminism 2

Qur’anic Meditations: On Justice, Equality & Feminism (2)

WE CONTINUE OUR meditations on justice, equality and Feminism. 9 – Of all the modern voices calling for equality, few are as muscular or more strident than feminism. Despite a mixed bag of views and approaches within today’s feminist movement, it does…