Creating an Islamic Website

My primary website, Islamic Learning Materials, is my pride and joy. I originally started the website to showcase my Muslim children’s books and some of my Islamic History lectures. A lot has changed with the website since I first started it, and it has gone through many ups and downs. Mostly downs.

But now Islamic Learning Materials (ILM) is thriving and doing pretty well. I use it as an outlet to spread some Islamic knowledge and do some dawah. I get a steady stream of visitors, mostly new visitors from organic traffic. However, I also get several repeat visitors who I try to keep in touch with on a regular basis.

Attack in Mumbai

As you all know by now, gunmen launched deadly attacks in Mumbai, a major financial and cultural center in India, and the country’s largest city.

Allah knows best what the terrorists motives were. And Allah knows best who was behind the attacks.

But, assuming the preliminary reports are true, that some group named Deccan Mujahideen is behind the attacks, and assuming this group claims to be Muslim and have Islamic objectives, this madness has got to stop. This mindless, crazed, destruction of life and property is un-Islamic and totally evil.

I understand Muslims have suffered from countless aggressions and attacks from several non-Muslims sources. Muslims are being oppressed the world over by non-Muslim governments and Muslim governments.

But there evil does not justify more evil. And nothing – NOTHING – justifies the deliberate killing of innocent people who had done you no harm. It doesn’t matter if they’re Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, atheist, or whatever.

If this was a Muslim group based in a Muslim country, then I hope that country cooperates with India to find the people behind this, shuts down their entire organization, and executes those responsible.

I hate the occupation of Palestine. I hate the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I hate the very existence of the Guantanamo Bay Prison. But I hate supposed Muslim terrorists just as much.

May Allah expose and destroy those behind this attack.

Muslim Rebuttal

On my last post, I mentioned how some Christian fanatics bring their propaganda to my main website, Islamic Learning Materials. I even posted one of their emails.

Well, here is my response to their email.

Hello XXXX,

I thank you for visiting Islamic Learning Materials and for expressing your views of your religion. I hope we can continue this discourse in a polite and constructive fashion.

First, you should know that I am no stranger to Christianity. My parents were both born Christian and there are several Christians in my extended family. I was born and raised in the United States which has one of the largest Christian populations in the world. I attended a college that is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Also I took Bible classes while in college in an effort to better understand Christianity from a Christian point of view.

There is no need to drill through the numerous historical, factual, and scientific errors of the Bible. There is no need to go through the benefits of Islamic law, culture, and practices. There is no need to point out how the Christian population is decreasing worldwide and in the United States, while the Muslim population is exploding. This is despite several Christian nations waging wars on Muslim lands that have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Muslims.

The only thing I have to point out about Islam is the concept of Tawheed, loosely translated as Islamic Monotheism.

Christians are not true monotheists. Christians have distorted the concept of one, perfect God with the convoluted and incomprehensible concept of the Trinity. This is a strange idea that purports that God is divided, or made up, of three separate yet unified entities.

And one of those entities, as you mentioned, is supposedly Jesus Christ (may Allah be pleased with him).

I agree with you that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. That is a tenet of Islamic faith. Muslims do not believe Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the Messiah. Your expression that that he is proves that you know little about Islam.

Perhaps you should learn more about a faith before you decide to denounce it.

Christians believe that Jesus Christ is at once the son of God and God Himself. Christians also believe that mankind must not only believe that Jesus was crucified, but that he was crucified as expiation of man’s sins.

This strange concept violates the very concept of the First Commandment of the Old Testament “Do not have any gods before Me.”

Yes Jesus performed many miracles. Yes he was born from a miraculous birth from a virgin mother. Yes he is the Messiah and he will come back to destroy the Anti-Christ.

But no, he is not God. He is just a man.

I cannot believe that God came out of a woman’s vagina as Jesus did.
I cannot believe that God suckled at a woman’s breast as Jesus did.
I cannot believe that God urinates, defecates, passes wind, and burps as Jesus did.
I cannot believe that God can die as YOU say Jesus did.

Muslims believe in ONE God, the Arabic word for which is Allah. Allah has no partners. He was not born from anyone. He did not give birth to anyone. He did not come on earth in the form of any man. Allah is the almighty creator of all that exists, all that has existed, and all that will exist.

Allah is the creator. Therefore, He could not be created.

In His mercy, Allah has sent various prophets to guide mankind to worship Him and Him alone. These prophets include, but are not limited to, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, and finally, Prophet Muhammad (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon them all.)

Prophet Muhammad came to us with the final message of Islam. He taught us how to live a righteous life in accordance with time-proven principles of faith, morality, and integrity. He also brought us the Word of Allah, the Book that is known as the Quran (Koran).

I implore you to search further and learn more about Islam. It is ultimately up to you whether you choose the truth of Islam or decide to continue living in falsehood. But at least investigate Islam from Islamic sources, as I investigated Christianity from Christian sources. Be objective in your research and see for yourself which faith is the ultimate truth and provides the answers for mankind in this life.

I wish you all the best. May you be guided to the truth. And please, keep in touch.

Was I too harsh? Was I not stern enough? Leave comments about what you think or if you think there are errors in what I said.

Christian Fanatics

I get a lot of people visiting my main website, Islamic Learning Materials. A lot of the people who visit are Christians and other non-Muslims. Most of them are just curious about Islam and have legitimate questions. I’m more than happy to answer their questions and help them understand Islam a little better, Inshallah.

But every now and then…I get a fanatic or Bible-Thumper and Ahmed Deedat used to call them. Case in point, read this email I recently received.

When are you going to stop denying the precious gift that God sent us, for the redemption of our sins?  I am talking about Jesus Christ, the son of the Living God.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and life, no one comes to the Father but through me” It is not through Muhammad of whom you’ll receive salvation.  Jesus Christ the Lord came here to preach, fulfill and Seal the Holy Word of God. Not Muhammad.  How can you continue on, ignoring this truth and replacing Jesus with Mohammad?  Indeed, Moses was a great prophet and servant of God.  The Lord God used him amazingly, but what shall we do then? Shall we praise Moses or God?
Why then, Islam does not honor the one who deserves all honors and his name is above all names?? Jesus Christ the savior, the healer, the one who came in the flesh from God and resurrected on the third day.  Only through Him is that we shall receive eternal life if we keep the commandments of God through Jesus Christ.  The Holy Scripture says: “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.  Mark 10:45
Therefore, seek repentance and do not fall on God’s wrath.
The Holy Scripture says: “Horrendous thing is to fall on the hands of the living God”
Repent you who believe that Jesus is just a prophet.
The Holy scripture says: “when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God
( Mathew 3:16-17.)

Repent, Wake up! And acquire salvation by confessing your sins and accepting Jesus as your personal savior recognizing and believing in your heart that HE came in flesh from God, resurrected on the third day and ascended to Heaven.
Believing He will return for the second time to give fair judgment to humans.
Don’t be blamed for invalidating his death, blood and resurrection.
By all means,, believe at least, for the great, amazing miracles Jesus did that no one else has done.
No prophet has ever raised anyone from death, forgive sins, and received God’s own words saying, “This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased” Only Jesus did.
(see above)

Jesus also said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Jesus asked. 27Martha then answered to Jesus, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”.  (John 11:25-27).
Jesus is Pure, was Pure, Holy, and never sinned.
Mohammad never has or will ever fulfill, any of this.

Real smooth huh?

Do you know this guy?

He’s Bugs Bunny. One of my favorite cartoon characters, even though his best cartoons were created years before I was born. Even my kids love his cartoons.

Bugs used to have lots of different sayings. His most popular saying was “What’s up Doc?” But he had others like: “Of course you know that this means war,” and “He don’t know me too well, do he?”

Well, this Christian fanatic must not know me too well. They don’t know who they’re messing with. Read my rebuttal in the next post.

Why Riba Sucks and How We Got Into This Mess

This is the companion blog to my main website Islamic Learning Materials. This topic doesn’t really fit on my site, so I’m going to talk about it here. I mentioned it briefly in an earlier post, but I’m going into more detail now.

Okay, here’s how I understand how this financial crisis came upon us.

It started back in the Clinton era. The banks were deregulated, and financiers and wall street magnates were encouraged to do whatever they wanted within the framework of the law to create as much wealth as they want.

This culture is part of the Market Mentality that was incubated in the Reagan Era and brought to full bloom in the 90’s. Alan Greenspan and others believed that it did not matter how greedy people were because the market would always adjust itself to maintain balance. He expected mutual interest would keep people from doing things that would adversely harm the economy.

Near the end of the Clinton era the Tech bubble burst and the stock market declined. In order to control inflation during the 90’s, Greenspan had constantly raised interest rates. Now with the economy sliding, he started cutting interest rates to increase spending and investing.

Well, people did spend and invest. They spent and invested in housing. As more people invested in housing, housing prices continued to rise. As housing prices continued to rise, more people decided to invest into housing. It became self-sustaining monster…like The Blob.

Eventually, investors ran out of regular people to buy houses so they started pushing houses on people who had no business getting home loans. The risk didn’t matter because the prices of houses were high enough to sustain any possible defaults. Also, to accommodate buyers with low income, mortgage companies created crafty, exotic, and downright ridiculous loan agreements.

As you can see Riba (intetest) and greed has been the culprit at every stage thus far. Well, here’s where things go from bad to just plain ugly.

Because of the escalating prices of houses, mortgage companies and banks began to package, combine, and sell their mortgage debt like they were stocks. Foreign countries, investors, companies, pension funds, and individuals all invested in…debt! So long as housing prices remained high, most of the debtors could continue to pay their mortgage. And as long as they paid their mortgages, the investors in debt would continue to earn dividends.

And to make matters even worse…insurance companies like AIG insured these ridiculous investments in case they went south.

All the while, thousands of houses were still being built all over America.

And all the while, many people were getting rich off of money that did not really exist.

And then reality struck. The Christmas of 2007 was dismal. Companies stopped investing in themselves. The economy slowed. But most of all, many people just could not pay their mortgages and defaulted. The economy worsened, more people got laid off and more defaults occurred.

And the spiral began.

With more defaults occurring, dividends decreased or disappeared altogether. As the word spread, and because of the glut of houses on the market, more people decided against buying a house. With fewer people buying houses, the prices started to decline.

And when prices started declining, the homeowners who were able to hold on saw themselves in debt for loans that were much more than the houses were actually worth.

And yes…those nasty adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) started kicking in, making it even more difficult for people to pay their mortgages. More defaults. More worthless debt.

And AIG and other insurance companies had to cover these dying investments. The claims rate was so high, even AIG found itself facing bankruptcy.

All of the banks and mortgage companies that had relied on these ridiculous investments started bleeding money like it was going out of style. So they decided to stop lending money to companies, many of whom had already decided to decrease capital investment.

And the spiral continued. Riba was part of the problem. Riba permeates throughout the modern economic system. Without Riba, this economy falters and may even fall apart. That’s because it depends on money and wealth that does not exist. It is literally created out of thin air.

Allah knows best what will happen next. But we already know what He says about those who take part in Riba.

“Take Notice of War From Allah and His Messenger.”

Looks like war has been declared, and one side is definitely winning right now.

Top Ten Things I Love About Islam

People love Top Ten lists. I love them too. I also love Islam. What better way to combine my love for these two things than to create a top ten list describing what I love about Islam.

Here goes.

1. Allah/Tawheed – This is the best thing about Islam. We Muslims worship and praise the Creator of all that exists, and we do it without any contradictions, intermediaries, and ambiguities.
2. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)/The Sunnah – Allah must really love us to bless with so perfect an example and such a great man to emulate. I can’t tell you how many times I wondered why Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) stressed or taught certain things, only to realize the wisdom later in life.
3. The Quran – Non-Muslims will never understand just how beautiful and perfect the Quran is. They read the English, get confused, and think that’s the end of the story. The Quran is so deep and so perfect and so enriching. I know I will never fully understand it, but I hope Allah continues to increase my knowledge of His Book.
4. The Sahabah – Abu Bakr. Umar. Uthman. Ali. Talha. Zubair. Abdur Rahman ibn Awf. Saad Ibn abi Waqqas Bilal. Khalid ibn Walid. The list goes on and on. After the prophet’s death, these men took the reigns and spread Islam to the East and West. Sometimes I wonder what they would think if they could see our condition today.
5. Aishah Bint Abi Bakr – We learned more about Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) from his wife Aishah than we did from all the Sahabah combined. Where would we be without Aishah (RA)? How many aspects of Islam would be missing without the information she shared with the Ummah?
6. The Shariah – Islamic Law is so broad, and so diverse, and so misunderstood. It’s not just about giving lashes and cutting off hands. The Shariah is about creating stable, viable, and righteous communities that are committed to establishing the rule of Allah on this planet.
7. Five Daily Islamic Prayers - Every day we get to worship our Lord and Creator and pray and ask for whatever we need. Once again…no intermediaires. No interecessors.
8. The Night of Power (Lailatul Qadar) - Another example of Allah’s infinite mercy. Here is a night in which we can praise and worship our Lord and get blessings equivalent to 1000 months! I really feel sorry for those folks that miss out on this wonderful opportunity.
9. Ramadan – The best month of the year. No evil devils. Lots of prayer. Lots of Quran. Lots of fasting. I always come out of Ramadan feeling refreshed and cleansed.
10. The Hajj Pilgrimage – I have yet to experience this wonderful act, but Inshallah, I hope to very soon. Please make dua for me! But this event has to be one of the most spectacular sights to behold. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims converging in one city with one purpose to worship One Deity. One. Ahad. Unity.

That’s my list. I might think of some other things later on and add on, but I think this pretty much sums it all up. I’m pretty if you had to create a similar list, it would probably be very similar to mine.

Unbelievable

There’s not much more to say. I only hope President-elect Obama lives up to his promises and that his leadership is beneficial for Muslims, America, and the World.

Inshallah.

Edit: 11/16/2008.

That being said. I don’t trust him. As an African-American, I’m happy to see that America has moved past much of its racist past.

But as a Muslim, this guy worries me a bit. He did not reach out to American Muslims, even though many of us broke our necks to support him. He’s been talking about ending the war in Iraq and extending the one in Afghanistan. I don’t think he’ll do the first quick enough, but I do believe he’ll rush to do the second.

And I’m not too crazy about his ultra-liberal, pro-homo ideas either.

We’ll have to wait and see. In the end, Allah is the only protector.

Like I said. I don’t quite trust him.

And no, I did not vote for him.

Mr. President