There are approximately 1.84 billion Muslims in the world today, making up 24.38% of the world’s population, or just under one-quarter of mankind. As well as being citizens of their respective countries, they also have a sense of belonging to the ‘ummah’, the worldwide Muslim community.

The Muslim500 publication sets out to ascertain the influence some Muslims have on this community, or on behalf of the community. Influence is: any person who has the power (be it cultural, ideological, financial, political or otherwise) to make a change that will have a significant impact on the Muslim world. Note that the impact can be either positive or negative, depending on one’s point of view of course.

14 stages of love according to the Arabic language

By Rayana Khalaf

Arabs are in a league of our own when it comes to romance. I mean, just look at the ways we express love, we're always ready to sacrifice our skin and bones for the people we love.

Over-the-top demonstration of love goes beyond our everyday conversation, as it is rooted deep within our literature. There is no shortage of epic and fiery poems in Arab literature, brought to us by the likes of Abu Nawas and Nizar Qabbani.

In these poems, we see variations of words referring to love, like "'oshk" and "gharam"... but contrary to popular belief, these words are not synonymous. They each refer to a unique degree of love.

Actually, there are 14 degrees of love in Arabic language. Here they are in increasing order of intensity:

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK'S CCN.....

4. Al-Wajd (Preoccupation)
 

TO BE CONTINUED IN NEXT WEEK'S CCN.

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What No One Told You about Spiritual Abuse in Islam
By Janet Kozak

Abuse in relationships is not only black eyes, bruises, and broken bones. With the exception of traumatic brain injury in Muslim victims, it’s often the abuse hidden from plain view – like financial, verbal, and spiritual abuse – that does the most damage to victims long-term.

However, it’s the spiritual abuse we experience in a relationship that can leave us doubting ourselves, our goals, and even our belief systems – changing us for the worse and leaving lingering invisible scars over time.

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Other interpersonal relationships
Ongoing spiritual abuse may affect other relationships as well, including those with family, friends, co-workers, and our greater community.

When victims are manipulated by their abuser using spiritually abusive techniques, they may erroneously believe that they need to cut ties with family and friends. Some victims may also no longer feel comfortable interacting with others at school, work, and in the community due in part to the shame, embarrassment, and self-loathing they’ve been taught to experience.

This pulling away from friends, allies, and the local community can lead to breakdowns in a victim’s support system. It can also prevent these helpers from understanding what’s really going on in the relationship. Victims end up slowly hiding their abuse – retreating into isolation inside their homes and apart from the greater Muslim community.

How to help victims
It’s crucially important that Muslims recognize when spiritual abuse is occurring in their own relationships and in the relationships of those around them. While it may be harder to spot than physical, verbal, or financial abuse, it usually goes hand in hand with the other types of controlling behaviour.

Make yourself available to victims by routinely speaking up about abuse and letting people in your circle know that you are available to listen – you may be surprised who will step forward or reach out.

Read domestic abuse survival stories and learn what it was like for those who have lives through abusive relationships. I also encourage readers to inform themselves on the techniques that abusers use so that we can better identify abusive behaviour and help members of our communities in need of support.

The best way to help abuse victims is to understand what they are going through, and then give them the support they need on their terms in order to make changes in their lives and relationships. There is no quick fix for spiritual abuse in Muslim relationships, but education is the best defence.

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Islam in the Media 2017

By OnePath Network

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK'S CCN.....
 

THE MOST OVERBLOWN EVENTS OF THE YEAR
 

Whilst a general overview clearly shows just how disproportionate the negative coverage of Islam is, it’s only when you zoom in and see the actual issues that the obsessive and unnecessary nature of the coverage becomes clear. And it wasn’t just about terrorism. Many of the most absurd and overblown examples of coverage come from issues that the Murdoch media highlighted by themselves, dragging the rest of Australia into their worldview. Here’s a couple of ridiculous highlights from a year of crazy coverage.

With the number of incendiary front-pages in 2017 about government and police policy regarding terrorism, a casual observer would not be faulted for thinking that Australia was actively engaged in daily combat on its streets. In fact, it would hardly be surprising if that was the perception in the offices of Daily Telegraph and the Australian.

Featuring front-page headlines like “This Means War” (Daily Telegraph, July 17), “Enemy at the Gates” (March 3) and “In the Firing Line” (May 22), the Daily Telegraph took great pains to terrify its audience about the threat of terrorism in Australia. A number of ‘exclusives’ claimed that “there is nothing stopping scores of barbaric homegrown jihadists, including brutes waging war for ISIS, from lawfully returning to the country” (Daily Telegraph, March 3), with “deadly extremists who have fought overseas.. roaming our streets because frustrated authorities don’t have enough evidence to put them behind bars” (Daily Telegraph, May 29), as well as the news that “NSW police will now carry military-style assault rifles on our streets to protect us from deranged terrorist killers” (Daily Telegraph, June 8).

In reality though, these ‘exclusives’ referred to the opinions of a small number of politicians and analysts and was in no way proportionate to any actual threat to the Australian people.   

TO BE CONTINUED IN NEXT WEEK'S CCN.

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Hana Assafiri speaks out about her violent past as Muslim child bride
 

Hana Assafiri opened Melbourne's Moroccan Soup Bar 20 years ago this June.

Now the owner of two restaurants, she is also the founder of Speed Date a Muslim, a community event to combat Islamophobia.

Since revelations of sexual abuse and harassment have gone viral with the #MeToo movement, Hana Assafiri believes it's her turn to end the silence. For the first time, she shares her personal story of abuse.

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK'S CCN.....

After the marriage ended you went back to school at 19?

I was 19 and I loved it. I went back to school regardless of the humiliation of being the oldest kid.

It was a walk in the park compared to where I'd been. At school I just sat there absorbing knowledge.

Your sons were living with their father. How did you move forward without them?

It was very difficult living without the boys.

Their father was given sole custody because he had better means of looking after them. With no regard for the violence and the circumstances, I was deemed not to be able to care for the boys.

Then their father moved them to Sydney.

I locked myself in my room and was depressed and getting more depressed and felt longing and grief.

Until one day, I opened the door and decided 'it is what it is'. It's time to get up and get out of that room.

And I did. It was like a metamorphosis. I came out into a world where I moved from being a toddler, to crawling, to walking, to learning how to sit in a cafe for the first time and to explore what it was I liked and to be guided by essentially my barometer, my intuition, which is where I am now.  

TO BE CONTINUED IN NEXT WEEK'S CCN.

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A House Divided: Tablighi Jamaat (TJ)
By Sajid Iqbal

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK'S CCN.....

THE BIG DIVIDE
 

The Tablighi Jamaat presents itself as a selfless, apolitical, multi-ethnic entity — but from behind this reserved organisational character an internal schism is emerging, with two rival camps fighting for spiritual authority.

The conflict came out into the open recently in the United Kingdom, where TJ has a significant base. In December 2017, police had to be called in repeatedly to separate brawling adherents of the two camps, both of which wanted to lay claim to the Masjid-i-Ilyas, the Markaz or central office of TJ. Things got to such a point that the Markaz was shuttered by the authorities for two weeks to allow tempers to calm down. But the schism has only grown and taken on international dimensions.

One side of the conflict originates from Nizamuddin — the oldest Tablighi centre and the de facto headquarters of the movement in the Indian capital Delhi. Here you will find followers of Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, ameer or head of the TJ shura (advisory council). Maulana Saad Kandhalvi is the great-grandson of Maulana Muhammad Ilyas, the founder of the missionary movement and the grandson of its second ameer. Due to his relationship with the TJ founder and the second ameer, Maulana Saad is revered by many in Tablighi circles.

The other camp resides in Raiwind, Pakistan — home of a sprawling complex which hosts an annual conference that attracts tens of thousands of Tablighi missionaries from all over the world. Some might say this is the rebel camp. Here, leaders have set up their 13-member advisory council, with a more international membership. Haji Abdul Wahab, ameer of Raiwind Shura and one of the senior-most members of TJ’s central leadership council, is the key figure in the Aalmi Shura, or the international advisory council. Raiwind used to be the largest gathering of Muslims outside of Haj but was overtaken by the Tongi jalsa in Bangladesh ever since foreigners became reluctant to visit Pakistan because of security reasons.

Differences between the two camps were simmering beneath the surface for a long time but these differences played out in public only recently. Emotions ran high in London, which is home to leaders and supporters of both factions, over what was deemed acceptable and what was deemed modern.

The sources of discontentment are many but going by the charge-sheet issued against him by Darul Uloom Deoband in their fatwa, Maulana Saad is accused of disrespecting the scholars and earlier prophets and putting forward “unacceptable” new interpretations of the concepts of the Quran and Sunnah.

Currently there are two TJs operating in London and in the rest of the UK. One adheres to the instructions from Nizamuddin in Delhi and Maulana Saad Kandhalvi and the other follows instructions from the Aalmi Shura centred in Raiwind. These differences were initially kept under wraps but later both factions launched Facebook pages to keep their supporters informed about the latest developments.

“Prophet Moses left his nation and went in seclusion to engage in munaajaat [conversation with the Almighty], due to which 188,000 individuals went astray,” Maulana Saad was quoted as saying in one of his speeches.

“To teach deen [religion] for a wage is to sell deen,” he is quoted as saying on another occasion. “People who commit zina [adultery] will enter jannah [paradise] before those who teach Quran for a wage.”

An audio clip of a mashwara or consultative meeting at Nizamuddin started doing the rounds among TJ circles where Maulana Saad is heard saying (to protestations): “I am the ameer ... the ameer of all ... if you do not agree, go to hell.”

It was basically due to these utterances that Maulana Saad’s opponents consider him unfit for the office of ameer saying he lacked the requisite ‘tarbiyyah’ (growth, development, loftiness).

Supporters of Maulana Saad say, however, that he wants to modernise the group by getting rid of some of the archaic practices having no roots in the Quran and Sunnah. “The elders are angry with Maulana Saad because he is trying to shake up Nizamuddin, which has been filled with a coterie of maulanas, who have vested interest in following the old path,” one of Maulana Saad’s supporters was quoted as saying at an event in London.

They mention his preference for Muntakhab Ahadith (selected sayings of Prophet Muhammad, PBUH) by Maulana Muhammad Yusuf — his grandfather — against Fazail-e-Amaal by Maulana Zikraya as the core reading material during missionary work. They also mention the new mannerism he introduced to greet the newcomers in the name of daawat, taaleem and istaqbal (preaching, education and welcome).

It was on the basis of these issues that Maulana Saad’s leadership grew ever-more contentious over time. Now TJ is divided into two camps — one supporting Maulana Saad and the other supporting Maulana Mohammad Zuhairul Hasan, son of the late Maulana Zubairul Hasan. Followers, friends and well-wishers of TJ are said to be very anxious over this adverse situation at their world headquarter.

In Nizamuddin, the rift took an extremely serious turn in June 2016, when one group of supporters attacked their opponents with lethal weapons following an argument over a prayer mat. Some 15 people were reportedly injured, and the police had to be brought in to calm things down.

In the face of death threats and vandalism, the senior members of the Shura started leaving Nizamuddin Markaz. There are two centres of activities for TJ volunteers in India — one at Nizamuddin in Delhi and another in Bhopal — and many of the Shura members moved to Bhopal to escape the conflict at Nizamuddin.

Because of the ethnicity of the leadership of the rival factions and their followers, the fracas at Nizamuddin seemed to have become a Gujaratis versus Maharashtris conflict.

The remedy for this situation was proposed from Pakistan. In November 2015, at the Raiwind annual congregation, senior members of the movement from around the world decided to reconstitute the world shura, and named 13 members to the council including Maulana Saad and Haji Abdul Wahab, ameer of the Raiwind Shura. This provided a platform to the opponents of Maulana Saad in Nizamuddin and elsewhere in the world.

Most importantly, the meeting in Raiwind “emphatically resolved to continue its business on the shura [consultative] system only and negated a particular ameer or leader for the future.” Maulana Saad rejected these resolutions and refused to sign the document.

 

TO BE CONTINUED IN NEXT WEEK'S CCN: DUEL IN LONDON
 

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Dear Indian Muslim Men: We Need To Talk...
By Ayesha Fakie

A letter to Indian Muslim men:

Dear Dads, Husbands, Nanas, Dadas, Mamoes, Ghales and our male cousins,

We want to talk to you about male supremacy in our communities. More than certainly some of what we touch on applies to men whether they're Indian Muslim or not. But as they say, speak from your experience. Which is what we're doing. We're women who grew up Indian Muslim who always struggled to reconcile what the faith taught us about women's place in Islam, cultural customs and how we are actually regarded in our homes and community.

Some of you may say that you have no idea what we're talking about. So let us hold up a mirror. Women and girls, and only women and girls, must make you tea and serve it like docile maids to British aristocrats, bending over, tray in hand while you take it and scoop in your sugar.

While we do this, boys are playing outside, or gaming. When we have family functions, women and men are segregated in more than just space. Men hold court, having discussions on "important" matters of the day (often centred on conflicts that affect Muslims). Women are expected to talk about "womanly" things: babies and families and what grade Muzammil is in now, and how he's doing.

There's no consideration given to a man who would prefer to be talking about his kids, or fashion – or a woman who would rather discuss political economics, especially when all the uncles are spouting ignorant nonsense that reveals a basic misunderstanding of economic fundamentals. Teen boys at the edge of adulthood are allowed in, but a woman with a postgrad in finance is in the kitchen somewhere, or running after her toddlers while her husband sits back.

As we grow up and start becoming professionals in the world of work, this aspect of us is never really acknowledged – except as bragging rights when someone graduates. We are not doctors, or directors, or actuaries, or business analysts only, of course. But in our family spaces, these sides of ourselves are ignored – even willfully suppressed – so that we don't upset the community hierarchies.

Worse, women who perform most of their labour in the home are erased even further. No one asks them anything beyond family and kids; their opinions on politics or global affairs is assumed to be absent, irrelevant or nonsensical.

In our marriages, it's still expected that women do most of the work inside the home, even if both spouses have full-time jobs. Men either don't know how to do basic kitchen tasks ("What is chopping, and how is it different from dicing and quartering, and how do you even know all this?"), or you feign ignorance, hoping to turn back time to when mom did everything – right down to washing and folding your undies well into adulthood. How often have we heard jokes about wives needing to learn to cook from their mothers-in-law? The way we socialise men has long been noted as problematic.

Yes, #NotAllIndianMen – and you will no doubt have marginalia to present. But the larger trend stands, and you need to address it.

This is especially true for Indian men because in contrast to young Indian girls, Indian boys are raised to believe they can be masters of the world. This creates dysfunctional husbands and fathers. Men still proudly, for some reason, proclaim that you will never change a nappy, or cook for the family, or clean up. Reasons for this vary – "I earn more, so the missus must do it," "It's not even up for debate in the first place," or "No guy wants to 'lower' his standing by taking on women's work."

How do we reconcile this with our faith, when in the history of Islam women have always played key roles in society and the faith? Khadija (RA) was a successful merchant who was the first to accept Islam, and was the first person to stand with the prophet, even when he doubted himself, especially around others who would not believe him.

The prophet Muhammed (PBUH) worked for Khadija (RA) who was 15 years his senior and much wealthier than him. Yet in our modern communities, this is seen as unfathomable; an emasculation. Additionally, Aisha (RA) comes forth in theHadith and was sought after as one of the leading Islamic scholars of her time. Aisha (RA) opened the first ever school of fikh (jurisprudence) in Islam. She had more than 100 students including men, women and children, among them contemporary sahabah of Muhammed (PBUH).

Worst of all, we see how you treat us – which isn't great – but it's better than the way you treat coloured or black domestic workers. Or black staff at a restaurant. Or just a passerby. In a country like SA, where Indian was placed below white and above coloured, you do this because in the grand scheme of things, life didn't shake out so badly for you.

Yes, #NotAllIndianMen – and you will no doubt have marginalia to present. But the larger trend stands, and you need to address it. Indian men randomly and routinely still use racial slurs against coloured and black people – especially in the safe spaces of large family functions.

There is a common misconception that Muslim Indian communities are not affected by gender-based violence, when in reality parties are encouraged to mediate without fully grasping the complexities regarding the issue. From what we have seen, when there is public outrage, it affects the beautiful, fair-skinned Indian woman.

Islamic teachings of feminism, social justice and equality take a back seat, while patriarchy poisons and degrades our values.
You continue to enforce colourism by making it so that dark-skinned women and girls are told in many ways that they're undesirable, and you expect wives and girlfriends to look like someone out of Bollywood – with no mutual expectation that you make an effort to look like Dev Patel. Some of you walk on the beach in shorts and sleeveless tops, while your wife trails along wrangling her purdah and your kids.

Islamic teachings of feminism, social justice and equality take a back seat, while patriarchy poisons and degrades our values. More inclusive aspects of Haadith that promote these teachings are disregarded, because patriarchal men are often the only ones who have access to resources and platforms to speak.

So grown men will have no problem delivering entire lectures policing the dress code of young girls, but are nowhere to be seen when young girls need to figure out or share tactics to deal with that one uncle who doesn't know personal boundaries.

This has got to stop. Islam is as much about social justice as it is submission to Allah. We are not things;
we are not robots at your domestic service.

This may surprise you, but we are people, with feelings, thoughts, ideas, suggestions. At whatever age. Whether we work inside or outside the home.

Huffington Post

ABOUT THE WRITER
Ayesha Fakie is the head of the sustained dialogues programme at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, and Khadija Bawa is an intern in the sustained dialogues programme.
 

KB says: Sharing Raeesa Khatree's recipe from her The Great Australian Bake Off appearance.

 

A vibrant lime and coconut marble cake that pays homage to the stunning plumage of a peacock.

Princess Lakshman

Writer, Clarity Coach, Founder and Facilitator of Healing Words Therapy - Writing for Wellbeing

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