Articles

Seldom is the political history of a country so closely interwoven with the building a bridge as it is in Bangladesh, a country of 120 million people perched above the stormy Bay of Bengal.

Links between Sudan and Egypt are on the mend, a development Sudanese opposition groups and their western backers are not celebrating. And while US president Bill Clinton’s visit to Uganda, part of a flying tour to five African countries...

The tragic sectarian clashes in Hangu and the surrounding areas in Pakistan’s Frontier Province last month that resulted in scores of deaths were entirely avoidable.

'O people, your blood and your property [and your honour] are sacrosanct, until you meet your Lord, even as this day and this month are sacrosanct. You shall meet your Lord and He shall ask you of your deeds. I have conveyed [the message]. He who has a trust with him, let him return it to the one who has entrusted him with it.

Hajj reflects the state of the Ummah at any particular time in history. If Hajj is performed in a mechanical way by the vast majority of Muslims, it is because its true meaning and import have been deliberately obfuscated from them. Hajj, like all other aspects of Islam, has been largely shorn of its true meaning.

The control and administration of the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah by the Saudi family has long been the subject of debate and criticism. Much is made of the Saudis' mismanagement, and the tragedies which result from them, such as the fire at Mina last year. Their personal immorality is also often noted.

Malaysian pilgrims to the Hajj are often noted by other hujjaj to be among the best organized and most disciplined of the Holy Lands' many annual visitors. It is also often noted that, in contrast to hujjaj from some other countries, they are often young. These simple observations hide a major Muslim achievement which goes far further than simply the successful organization of an annual trip to the Haramain.

In western mythology, Lebanon is generally identified with mayhem, warfare, hostage-takers and hijackers. Similarly, the name Hizbullah conjures up images of gun-toting Muslim zealots out to get ‘peaceful’ westerners.

When Alex Haley asserted in his 1976 novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, that its main character Kunte Kinte was a Muslim, he was dismissed by many American historians.

The scholars of Islam are that assembly of ulama who have internalized the knowledge of Islam and communicate their understanding to the public. It is not enough to know facts, nor even to verbalize them.